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World of New Genesis
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- Moloth – The Believer is Happy; the Skeptic is Wise
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What if the secrets of quantum manipulation were actually quite simple? What if hyper-space theory and control were actually Iron Age developments?
I LOVE this short story by Harry Turtledove (“Eric G. Iverson”)*: http://textfiles.tonytee.nl/magazines/TANJ/tanj.070
I’d love to read more about this universe… heck, maybe even run a game based on it (i guess it might be like StarGate) or write my own stories in it. Just think, steam-punk, space travel, pirates and the Age of Exploration, as experienced by a modern-day human. Awesome!
*When Harry Turtledove first began to publish science fiction, his editor at Belmont Towers commented that he needed a more believable name in order to sell books. The editor suggested that the name be Nordic sounding and thus was born Eric Iverson. It should be noted, however that this same editor misspelled the pseudonym on the title page of Turtledove’s second novel, Wereblood.
Twenty publications later, Turtledove retired the Iverson name and began to publish under his own name The first stories published as by Harry Turtledove appeared in January 1986.
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I’ve found that I peruse a large number of websites that rely on User Generated Content, in the form of links, uploaded pics or even text messages.
Here is a list of the sites, in no particular order, of UGC that i find interesting:
http://www.lamebook.com/ – all of the best stuff from FB.
http://www.reddit.com/ – News.
http://www.fark.com/ – Not News.
http://digg.com/ – Something in between News and Not News
http://www.peopleofwalmart.com/ – real people.
http://thereifixedit.com/ – it aint pretty.
http://icanhascheezburger.com/ – kitties can talk!
http://totallylookslike.com/ – totally looks like icanhascheezburger.
http://failblog.org/ – great Fail.
http://graphjam.com/ – nerds will laugh.
http://notalwaysright.com/ – the customer, that is.
http://textsfromlastnight.com/ – you dont have to try to remember.
http://www.fmylife.com/- F it good.
http://mylifeisaverage.com/ – but still occasionally interesting.
http://unrelatedcaptions.com/ – Vaseline sweet tea.
http://bash.org/?latest – who uses IRC anymore??
http://tweetingtoohard.com/ – Damn, I’m so awesome. Everyone should know!
http://antiduckface.com/ – seriously. stop.
http://awkwardfamilyphotos.com/ -beware the handshelf.
and… abandon hope all ye who enter – http://www.4chan.org
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 Suck it, Glenn Beck. |
I try to not talk too much about WoW… yes, i play it, but i committed to NOT being one of those assholes that talks about it in a conversational way, unless every single person within earshot is as engaged with the subject matter as i am.
That said, the new LFG tool that was implemented a few days ago is a phenomenal system. it excels in function, form and utility. From anywhere in the game, i can queue up for a random Heroic dungeon and it will build a functional team (1 tank, 1 healer, 3 DPS) from people on my server AND ON OTHER SERVERS and, within literal SECONDS, teleport you and your group to the dungeon.
The loot is set to Need before Greed, so there is no debate or argument. Once you complete the dungeon, you get EXTRA badges (used to buy much better equipment) and gold, on TOP OF the regular rewards. Once you leave the dungeon, you’re teleported right back to where you were when you teleported to the dungeon. you can then, if you so choose, get right back into queue for another random run! Its extremely efficient to just chain run several random Heroics in a row now.
its incredibly fun, useful, rewarding and easy.
If anyone has a level 80 WoW character collecting dust and you want to jump back in and get some near immediate upgrades to your gear (which also look awesome) in old and new dungeons, i would HIGHLY recommend coming back for a bit and trying it out!
Remember, if you want to game with me, im on US servers:
Alliance: Shadow Council (Quinn, Gearlocke or Snitchy)
Horde: Hyjal (Orketta)
I’m normally on Ally side, so see ya there!
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You guys, T-Rex totally nails my personal philosophy in his very own comic! AGAIN.
Click here for the totally rad comic!
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Just a heads up… The first decade of the 21st century is almost over.
It’s almost the year 2010. Let that sink in for a moment. Two-thousand and ten. Twenty-ten. We should be diddling with black obelisks in orbit around Jupiter, but instead, we’re stilling trying to figure out if a modern, progressive, technologically advanced nation should be concerned with the health care and well-being of its own citizens.
We’re unlocking new vistas of science and human knowledge, literally blasting apart the very fabric of reality with the Large Hadron Collider. We also still have entire populations living in dirt huts, wasting away on treatable, curable diseases.
The same people voting against the rights of an oppressed minority were once themselves, a mere generation or two ago, oppressed and unable to vote or marry outside their ‘race’.
Obesity is an epidemic on side of the globe and starvation an epidemic on the other.
Does anyone else feel a weird sense of both pride and guilt when looking at the current state of the human condition? I’m incredibly proud of some of humanity’s accomplishments, yet i am still shocked at our failings. The fact that both can be seen right next to each other, in such a stark comparison, leads me to question the true value of all of our bleeding edge advancement. What good is a particle accelerator when there are still people starving in the world?
Yes, we each have our camps, our teams, nations, groups and tribes… and we’re all getting along as best we can with the cards that circumstance has dealt us, but shouldn’t we be more circumspect in our views? Will we ever see the Earth (or, at least our species) as a unique whole?
I mock the “Mega-Churches” in my Southern town… “wow, how many poor people could they have fed with the millions of dollars it took to build that monstrous alter to ego and ignorance?”. Whereas i do not believe the LHC to be an “alter of ego and ignorance” (quite the opposite, actually), i am still forced to apply the same scrutiny and examination. What other (better?) good could have 3 billion Euros done for the world? How many improvements to the infrastructure of our poorest, our most desolate? Before forging ahead, should we stop and help the others that are lagging behind catch up a bit? Which would be the greater good and will have a greater net effect on humanity, as a whole?
I guess i just expected that ALL of humanity could be as impressed with living in 2010 as I am. I understand that i am in a privileged few… barring some catastrophe, i will not starve to death, be killed violently or die due to a common disease. I have my own climate-controlled living space, internet access, video games, all the food i could ever want and unlimited clean water. Fuck, i have an iPhone.
Deep inside, it bothers me that my lifestyle is not really sustainable and that it is built upon the back of the environment and people lower on the socio-economic food chain than me. But what can i do? Play my part, enjoy what circumstance has given me? To deny that is to throw away a good thing, though, right?
I like to think that all of advancement is for the common good, that the end goal is that ALL of humanity can enjoy the cushy lifestyle that i am accustomed to. Maybe by 3010 EVERYONE can be impressed with the arbitrary number of the date as i am now, of 2010.
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“Even without religion, people would still kill each other”.
Well even if we cure cancer people would keep dying but I don’t see anyone using that argument in favor of cancer.
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In my debates and conversations about morality vis-a-vis omnivorism/veganism/carnivorism, it has become my opinion that ‘vat meat’ is the best solution for the dining, moral human being.
In the same way i simply have no issue with ‘genetically modified’ food (fuck, ALL of our food is ‘genetically modified’.. there’s no such thing as a ‘wild’ cow or chicken or corn stalk or wheat plant, etc), i have no problem with vat meat.
eight-ways-vitro-meat-will-change-our-lives
No suffering and its tailored to our specification of flavor, consistency, nutrition and texture. No death of an animal, no suffering. Just the cells of the parts we WANT to eat… and a perfect specimen of it every time. whats not to love? a sirloin would, i would guess, cost more than a filet mignon, if only because its larger. But, then again, if we’re growing it to our specification, why would size be an issue? I’d like a 16 oz Filet, please.
I look forward to a good vat-steak! bring it on, medium-rare and hold the A-1!
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I’ve GOT to stop reading the news… Seeing all of the hatred, violence, injustice and idiocy in the world actually drags me down. It really does destroy my faith in humanity.
But, what am i to do? I like to consider myself an informed individual.. because i really DO care about what is going on beyond my immediate observable universe. I am forced to wonder if that’s healthy, though. Perhaps my psyche is merely too fragile (or too able to more fully comprehend the consequences) to handle this stuff without being effected.
Would one be a coward or weak to ‘get away from it all’ by avoiding the horrors of the world (that dont effect one directly anyways)? I suppose its one thing if you’re an individual who can or does make a difference in the world. No one would miss a fry cook, but a scientist working on a cure for cancer or a philanthropist who organizes aid for African refugees might get a backlash if they suddenly abandoned their life and went to go while away the hours in a cabin in the Blue Ridge.
What does it matter if a low-level programmer were to stop caring about the world at large? What would the overall effect BE? There wouldn’t be much of one, i suppose. Perhaps my lack of FOX News would lower my blood pressure. Perhaps not ruminating on the selfishness and lack of respect for human life of corporations and governments would help me sleep better at night. Perhaps NOT getting Jon Stewart’s jokes, and the uncomfortable, dark-humored chuckle they elicit form me, would be something i could get used to.
After all, ignorance is bliss… right?
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The difference between the two is something i’ve dealt with since i was a teenager. Even then, seeing how ‘men’ acted, i decided that i never really wanted to become one. Too unthinking. Too sure. Too closed off to the world and what COULD be. The problem was, i never knew there was an alternative… until now.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/20/fashion/20love.html
Of course, no one totally fulfills a stereotype. Even my Dad, the man that he is, has his guy-ness. Its that guy-ness that i latch onto, that i connect with him with. His love of music, video games and sometimes gross, sometimes dark, always hilarious, sense of humor. Like my Dad, I ‘man-up’ when its needed. There are hard edifices to my personality and actions at times. I’ll guy-talk all day about philosophy, but i’ll grab a heavy, blunt object and go after some loser who has hurt someone i care for. Its what a man would (should?) do. Its in the job description of my chromosomal makeup and genitalia.
I’m concerned about not being enough of a man. Of course, thats a very guy thing to worry about, isnt it? Maybe if i didnt worry about that, i’d be more of a man and the problem would solve itself. Constant self-examination and self-awareness are key components to my personality, though. A lot of ‘me’ would go away if I were to stop being a ‘guy’.
I need to come to peace with being a mannish guy. Apparently, there are some women that want that.
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yeah, i know most of you may have already seen this, but i still get a kick out of it:
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I am a conservative.
This morning I was awoken by my alarm clock powered by electricity generated by the public power monopoly regulated by the U.S. Department of Energy.
I then took a shower in the clean water provided by a municipal water utility.
After that, I turned on the TV to one of the FCC-regulated channels to see what the National Weather Service of the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration determined the weather was going to be like, using satellites designed, built, and launched by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
I watched this while eating my breakfast of U.S. Department of Agriculture-inspected food and taking the drugs which have been determined as safe by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
At the appropriate time, as regulated by the U.S. Congress and kept accurate by the National Institute of Standards and Technology and the U.S. Naval Observatory, I get into my National Highway Traffic Safety Administration-approved automobile and set out to work on the roads build by the local, state, and federal Departments of Transportation, possibly stopping to purchase additional fuel of a quality level
determined by the Environmental Protection Agency, using legal tender issued by the Federal Reserve Bank.
On the way out the door I deposit any mail I have to be sent out via the U.S. Postal Service and drop the kids off at the public school.
After spending another day not being maimed or killed at work thanks to the workplace regulations imposed by the Department of Labor and the Occupational Safety and Health administration, enjoying another two meals which again do not kill me because of the USDA, I drive my NHTSA car back home on the DOT roads, to my house which has not burned down in my absence because of the state and local building codes and Fire Marshal’s inspection, and which has not been plundered of all its
valuables thanks to the local police department.
And then I log on to the internet — which was developed by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Administration — and post on Freerepublic.com and Fox News forums about how SOCIALISM in medicine is BAD because the government can’t do anything right.
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This precisely described my own feelings on the nature of the cosmos and our place in it. No Gods, no magic, no objective morals, meanings or destiny. Nothing is ‘meant to be’. There is no divine plan.
We are, indeed, the crafters of our own fates.
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