Month: October 2009

How to find a new favourite band

I really like Muse. I have for years. They’re at that stage though where so many people like them that it’s not cutting edge any more. And if there’s one thing I like being it’s cutting edge… Even my sisters like them now. Despite years of complaining when I played them back when I was living at home… it happened with Powderfinger too. And I probably would have liked U2 once… while it’s sad that my musical taste is so dependent on the taste of others, that’s not the point of this post.

How do you find a new favourite band? I found this post via some bookmarking service (Digg, or Reddit, or What’s hot in Google Reader – I can’t remember which). You can use mathematics to find a new band. And the results look promising.

“Now let’s see. I take a sample of 215 bands including those on top of the Billboard 200 (who are these people?) and calculate an average number of plays per each listener (via last.fm data). All things equal, the higher the average, the the more devoted the band’s fans are.”

Then you graph it…

“Each red dot is a band. Y-axis represents the total number of the band’s listeners, the x-axis represents the average number of listens per each band’s fan, the blue line is the “alien average”. The swarm in the left bottom corner is the “moshpit of doom” – your band is nothing special in the public’s eyes if you are there.”

If a band has a huge amount of listeners then it probably appeals to some common human emotion and everybody can enjoy their songs. If a band has little listeners, but plays per listener (PPL) rate is high, it must mean the band was able to appeal to some sort of less common emotion and the higher the PPL the harder it is to substitute the band by some other band.

This is a graph using Coldplay as the base…

And here’s how you find the music you should try out…

The things you can do with technology…

October 18, 2009

Going shooting

I spent most of last week accompanying a photographer around North Queensland to update our work image library…

Here are some of my photos…

Here are some more…

October 18, 2009

How to fit in at a pentecostal church

Everyone knows, that apart from my wife, all the really good looking Christian girls go to pentecostal churches.

If you’re a young man hoping to lure a princess away from the Pentecostal Castle to a more moderately expressive church then you need to know how to fit in on your covert visits.

This video will help…

Via David Ould.

October 18, 2009

For the sophisticated traveller

Traveller is an odd word. I’m firmly in the two “l” camp, but spell check is not… Irregardless, if you are a sophisticated traveller – be you the one “l” version or the two – you no doubt have found yourself in want of a classic bidet experience when visiting less than salubrious digs (not by choice obviously, given your level of sophistication).

This will no longer be a concern. You can even go camping. Safe in the knowledge that your bidet can come with you.

October 16, 2009

Linked in

LinkedIn is a pretty dumb professional networking tool that takes all the fun out of Facebook. I’m on it somewhere. If you find me I might accept your invitation, but I probably won’t.

I haven’t written a link post for a while. But it’s time. I just discovered that a heap of people I know have blogs that I didn’t know about. And it was pretty much by accident. People should be like me and post links to their blogs on Facebook more…

Anyway, here goes, a list of friends or casual acquaintances, mostly from Brisbane, who have blogs that are pretty amusing. Some I’ve been following for a while, others not so much… I might do it in order of the length of time I’ve been following…

SDAL – Scott’s blog has been on my radar for a while, though I’ve been pretty much a serial lurker. He posted a link on my Facebook status once when I asked if anyone had blogs that I didn’t know about. He blogs about fun stuff like comic books, art, movies and obscure stuff. I think Ben would like him.

Phil Richo is Andrew’s brother and thus Simone’s brother-in-law. He blogs mostly about politics. Which I like. But you might not. If you do. Check him out…

I followed Phil’s blog to Brad’s blog. Brad officially falls into the casual acquaintance category because although he linked to one of my posts recently he refused my Facebook advances some time ago. And I hold a grudge. It’s a shame. Because his blog is pretty funny.

The other link on Phil’s blogroll was to Josh Mansfield‘s blog, it was intersting, though I’m not sure why he thinks you shouldn’t say the word crap.

Brad’s blog was a veritable treasure trove of links to others.

Nick Gauci for example has a blog called a wealth of riches, I had a look, it lives up to it’s name.

Richard W has set his sights on having the eighth worst blog ever. Which, given he currently has a few intriguing posts about chemical elements, is unlikely.

Is anybody else out there in lurker land in possession of a blog that should be plugged?

October 16, 2009

On the stupidity of pluralism

There’s an evangelical Christian quarterback in the NFL who paints bible verses in his eye paint. The stuff they put on their faces to avoid glare.

An American sportswriter can’t handle the idea that this quarterback believes that Jesus is the only way to avoid hell. So he wrote a feature on it. This is a triumph of pluralistic dumbness. The writer asserts that the player’s view that his way is the only right way is wrong – thus placing his own “enlightened” views over the players – and being the intolerant fool he is accusing the player of being.

If there’s one thing that annoys me more than the new atheists and their anti-dogma dogma it’s the pluralists and their confusing inconsistencies.

“But should we be pleased that the civic resource known as “our team” — a resource supported by the diverse whole through our ticket-buying, game-watching and tax-paying — is being leveraged by a one-truth evangelical campaign that has little appreciation for the beliefs of the rest of us?”

But wait, there’s more dumbness…

“But there’s a shadow side to this. If their take on God and truth and life is the only right one — which their creed boldly states — everyone else is wrong.

Really? You’re only just figuring that out. It’s pretty much what Jesus says. You know, the “I am the way” bit, where he says “no one comes to the father except through me”…

Not a mere abstraction, this exclusiveness sometimes morphs into a form of chauvinism and mistreatment of non-Christians. Witness the incident with the Washington Nationals baseball team in 2005, when the Christian chaplain was exposed as teaching that Jews go to hell.”

How dare the church teach that anyone go to hell… oh, but wait, that’s what the Bible says… you know, that those who aren’t Christians (which is their choice) go to Hell.

Freedom of religion does not make a value judgment on the religions people adhere to – all religions are not equal. All people have equal rights to choose what religion they adhere to. And the state shouldn’t make quality judgments on these religions (unless they’re pursuing them for tax fraud).

Our pluralism is a defining and positive reality of American life — but not one that is much valued by those who define the faith coursing through the veins of sports culture.

If America’s lifestyle is defined by pluralism and not freedom then they’re getting a lot of things wrong.

I don’t know why I read that article. I knew it was going to be stupid.

October 16, 2009

Driscoll’s apologetic

Mark Driscoll has been invited to write occasional columns for the Washington Post. In his first he was asked how to best present the gospel to atheists and skeptics.

His answer, as his answers always are, was beautifully Christocentric.

Q: What makes the best ‘case for God’ to a skeptic or non-believer, an open-minded seeker, and to a person of faith and Why?

Answer
Jesus.

Christianity is not first and foremost about a sacred place to pilgrimage to, a philosophical system to ponder, a moral code to live, a religious tradition to honor, or an impersonal god to experience. Rather, Christianity is about a person who claimed to be the only God and said he would prove his unprecedented claim by living without sin, dying for sinners, and conquering death through resurrection.

It’s a nice opener. The gospel in a nutshell. And he doesn’t shy away from addressing other areas, but he starts with Jesus. And that’s worthy of respect. More respect than others who like to sit on their blogs and throw stones because they don’t like his sense of humour…

His conclusion is helpful too…

“And so while there is no “best case” for presenting God, there are false ways of presenting God: as anyone in addition to or other than Jesus Christ. As Christians, our goal is never to lie to people by only telling them what they want to hear, or manipulating them to feel what they want to feel. Instead, we want to respect them enough to tell them the truth, and love them enough to do so in a way that is compassionate. We care more about the truth and the love than having the “best case.”

I’ve been wondering, given recent experiences with atheists right here, how to move the debate away from discussing theism/atheism towards Christianity/atheism. It’s a great tactic the atheists have adopted to avoid dealing with Christianity specifically. It’s much easier to dismiss a non-specific deity on the basis of dismissing all deities (Christians do something similar all the time, by rejecting all other Gods) than it is to actually dismiss the specifics of the deity people are actually putting faith in. But it’s a case of moving the goal posts to suit the game you want to win.

The temptation, when discussing the existence of God in the theism/atheism paradigm is to throw our lot in with other theists (Muslims, Hindus, Mormons etc) and see them as allies – when a better, more Biblically consistent model is the one Driscoll advocates. Using an apologetic based on Jesus.

That’s why I’m a Driscoll fanboy. That, and the description he gives himself in his byline on the article.

“A nobody trying to tell everybody about Somebody.”

October 16, 2009

How to host a book burning

I have a new ambition in life… I want to write a book and have it burnt by the Amazing Grace Baptist church. You do too. You may not know it yet, but you’d be in great company. And if you go along you get BBQ or fried chicken – because they’re not works of Satan.

This video has been doing the rounds. It’s a news report on the Amazing Grace Baptist book burning – their list includes books by Billy Graham (a heretic), Mark Driskol (sic) (probably a heretic), and any version of the Bible that is not a King James. Because it, and only it, is the inspired, infallible, and inerrant word of God. I’ve always wondered what research the KJV only mob do to come to the conclusion that it was produced by better translators than our modern translators. I think I’ll try to contact this pastor guy and ask him. He has a church of 15, so he’ll have time. After the book burning of course…

October 16, 2009

How to write a book

One day I’d like to write a book. With the help of the character guide I posted a while back, and this helpful plot flow chart, my dream is a step closer to reality…

October 15, 2009

More games in real life

October 15, 2009

Raving: all about Pacman

Who says people aren’t influenced by the games they play…

From here.

October 15, 2009

YouTube Tuesday: the Auto Tune edition

Better late than never…

Some science… with Stephen Hawking and Carl Sagan

Some news…

Some advertising…

And finally, a joke you can play on your minister…

October 15, 2009

Terminated science

There's stupid research with no grounding in the real world and there's stupid research that gives credence to conspiracy theorists everywhere.

This particular research takes the cake…

In layman's terms the Large Hadron Collider's frequent misadventures (it's still not working) are being attributed to possible sabotage. From time travelers. Sent back in time to prevent it firing up and destroying our future…

Some scientists have produced papers outlining possible tests to make the process of sabotage easier – involving drawing randomly selected cards that say either "close the collider" or "keep running it"…

I'm not joking. Here are links… to the first study, and the second.

October 15, 2009

Grammar tips from Strongbad

I must confess that I haven’t watched a StrongBad email in a long time (possibly three years) I look forward to a day or two spent catching up on the archives. But StrongBad has been indelibly itched into my psyche whenever I’m trying to decide where to use apostrophes… particularly in the case of its v it’s.

Here’s a little song that will help you remember that when its is possessive it’s just i-t-s and when it’s a contraction it’s “i-t apostrophe s”.

That’s from this little collection of grammar songs.

I think I’ve posted this before (some time ago) – but it continues to be useful.

October 15, 2009

MasterCh(i)ef

I made that little picture myself. I thought it would’ve been done to death, but I found no evidence of that online…

Did everyone catch Anna Bligh on celebrity Master Chef last night. What a laff. Queensland produce was centre stage… right up until the second ad break. When the Queensland LNP took out a sixty second (I think) ad calling the Labor Party a pack of liars – with a nice, intense close up of a nice, intense looking Anna Bligh.

Unfortunately they couldn’t really capitalise on their ad. The call to action was the LNP website – sadly it seems to have been hacked. If you google LNP google gives you all sorts of warnings about the site not being safe. And you eventually get to an LNP holding page announcing maintenance.

Here is the graphical evidence…

October 15, 2009