Here it comes

As you've probably heard by now, a cave was found with coffins in it, some of which bore names similar to those known of in history, namely Jesus, Maria and Judah. Hang on a minute... they could be Jesus son of God/part of God, Mary his wife and Judah his son! But that would speak volumes towards actual evidence that Jesus existed! If only there was some way to find out, like...

DNA evidence, that's the way! Although one might wonder what DNA remains still exist after all that time. And who, exactly, are they comparing the DNA evidence against?

But as long as James Cameron can get a documentary out of it, such as, oh, The Burial Cave of Jesus, that's all right.

Despite this exciting new evidence, for some reason the Kiwi Catholics are doubting this. "Not backed by credible research." Unlike all the credible research proving that there was a Jesus who was killed and later resurrected? [As opposed to some chap who might have existed by the name of Jesus... see top paragraph for one example.]

But, to be fair, I don't think this is the tomb of the biblical Jesus either, but maybe not for the same reasons.

Other takes on this topic include the amusing, although nigh-surreal, post by Scott Adams, and the more thoughtful approach about the science used by Skepchick Evelyn.

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Buses on line

You really have to wonder what people are thinking when they set up a situation like this.

Wellington City Council are planning to ensure that every place in Wellington is wired up to broadband. To help with the cabelling issue, they are offering to let the networks use the bus network lines.

What? Can't these people remember that just ten days ago people were complaining about the bus problems? This is immediate joke fodder, and I invite you to join in.

To start you off:
Does this mean that messages will have to stop at points along the network to ask directions?
Will heavy load times mean that some messages will be printed out and carried by hand?
Will we be able to get half-off next month's bill if we present them with this one?

Anyone else?

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Too... much... stuff...

One certainly can't say that there isn't much science fiction around at the moment. Aside from the piles of books to read, the dozens of discs to watch and the thousands of comics to peruse, I am trying to watch (in no particular order) at the moment:
Psych
House
Dresden Files
Charlie Jade
Primeval
Ugly Betty
Mythbusters
Supernatural
Stargate (SG-1 and Atlantis)
Lost
Daybreak
Heroes
Life On Mars

(And this doesn't list the shows that I would be watching but are currently between seasons!)

No... time...

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Change is evil!

As everyone knows, any change is a Bad Thing(tm)! How dare something to which we are used suddenly be different in any way, shape or form?

Given this, I'm sure you can imagine my outrage when I saw that Paul Scoones had changed his blog layout. "Tis an offence before mine eyes!"

Of course, one thing about humans is their extreme adaptability. To the extent that we can get used to anything given enough time, which can range from years to mere minutes.

Which is why I now say: I like it!

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Biblical hilarity!

At the sides of blogs you see tons of links to other blogs, websites, etc. This time around, I want to highlight one of my podcast links.

Logically Critical is a podcast that tries to apply common sense thinking to various topics (such as Gay Marriage, Ghosts, Monsters, Jesus' resurrection), and does so by the Host pointing out ridiculous ideas, putting on funny voices, and focusing on as many points of views as possible.

The latest episode looks at Wacky Bible Stories, picking out stories from the Old Testament. Now you readers know my view of religion and the Bible, but either way the Host enacts these stories in a way that made me collapsing with laughter, and I think this will entertain everyone!

Go give a listen, it's well worth it.

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Choices, choices...

I'm flipping through Stuff, wondering what to blog about day (I don't know why I try to blog once per day, it's just what I do), and see:

Aucklands shaking in their boots: Auckland finally finds out about this mythical creation concept known as an "earthquake".

Wellingtonians like themselves (but are not "in like" with themselves): Yet another example of why no-one should take polls seriously.

Women who shave themselves "there": Baldies and the men who love them... or not.

Hell manages more free publicity: Appearantly calling George W an "evil bastard" is wrong because people shouldn't use the word "bastard" in polite society.

But, nah, instead I think I'll complain about how whenever I try to click on a page on Stuff (so I can then use the scroll button) I keep opening a menu or hitting a link and going off to some other page. It's extremely annoying and just makes me want to close the entire site down. Now that's good business practices!

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Monsters in our time

A lamb. A duck. A cat.

It presages doom, I tells ye! Monsters stalk the land like great big stalking things! Evilution is running out of control! Nature has tampered in God's Domain! Dogs and cats are living together!

It's the end of the world as we know it! (ObAdd: And I feel fine.)

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The New Zealand Coin Change

In the middle of 2006, the Reserve Bank changed all of New Zealand's coins under a dollar. WHY? Before we had four coins: 5c, 10c, 20 and 50c. Now, we only have 10c, 20 and 50c. BUT WHY? There is one reason and one reason only for this supposedly "necessary change" and it speaks to the insidious government plot that runs behind all new policies.

Before I unveil this shocking truth, I want to put to rest some of the lies and myths that have been spread by the propaganda machine. You can see the deceits for yourselves at their website, but be warned! They can and will track your "computer address", SO CLEAN OUT YOUR HISTORY! They can already plant graphic images on to your hard-drive from a distance, so don't think they can't frame you!

On that site you'll read about how carrying around coins are "inconvenient" and don't have the same "buying power". Yeah, well, if THE GOVERNMENT managed the economy properly, they would! THE GOVERNMENT just want us spending more money so their cashbanks and their treasury will be able to afford all the kickbacks and slushfunds all their politicians need. You remember how Labour had to give back some election money? You also remember the PAYRISE they also gave Labour members at the same time? Where do you think that came from??

And those five cent pieces! Before, if you brought just three items priced at something and 99 cents, you would be rounded down to 95 cents. But no, not now. Even at four items, you're still rounding up. You need to buy five before the rounding works in your favour, and even then that rounding is only the "suggested" rounding scheme. ONCE AGAIN Big Business is sticking it to the little guy.

(And don't believe that "rubbish" about how they can track you from the DNA residue left on the coins. To full count everyone they would need a way to pull in every coin people have...)

No, there is one reason and one reason only for this change:
GOVERNMENT FOREIGN POLICY
There is a very interesting line on the website above:
"By international standards, our old 20 and 50 cent coins were extremely large."
Really? So by changing the sizes of our coins, we are currying favour with other international countries? Is that important? And yet... why are we screwing over Australia?
Remember in the good old days of proper coins, you could use Australian 20c pieces over here, in our "vending machines", in our "shops", and no-one would blink an eye. But now, you can tell the difference immediately! Just think of all those Australian tourists who might otherwise have gotten that last ice cream cone, or that "Conspiracy II" t-shirt and would have paid for it with those 20 cent coins, but are now rejected because THE NEW ZEALAND GOVERNMENT has decided that we don't need their trade! Well, mister, you can bet your bottom dollar that we won't be getting that repeat business!

And that's what it comes down to. Screwing Over Australia so THE GOVERNMENT can Screw Over The Economy. Do your bit to stop the "tourist drain" and buy a "Conspiracy II" t-shirt for an Aussie mate...

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The 80's...

Thanks to Mr. Bates, I now have a copy of Electric Dreams(*). But now I do have to ask... what were we thinking back then??

(*)Because he inspired me to go an get a copy. Not because he copied it for me, which I'm sure a lot of you are suspecting right now. Shame on you...

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Now that's a sale!

On at Whitcoulls at moment is a fantastic DVD Box set sale. Each season box set of the following series is available for $30 each!
M*A*S*H
Sopranos
Scrubs
Family Guy
Grey's Anatomy
Battlestar Galatica (the new series)

Considering some of these are $100, that's a heck of a discount!

I'm not saying what I picked up, but as there are only six shows it wouldn't take long to guess. :)

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Not safe for work 2

If you haven't already, get a copy of The Completely Unofficial Encyclopedia. Not only hilarious(*), but also spot on with its criticisms:

SIXTY-TWO SECONDS: Length of time it now takes - thanks to the BBC logo, the 2 Entertain logo, the copyright notice and the endlessly fascinating menu animation - from putting a Doctor Who DVD in your player and being able to play the damn thing. What's that you say, you can skip past all that stuff on the R1 discs? No way! And if you want to watch a new-series episode, that'll be seventy-six seconds out of your life, thank you very much. zwe could rewind our old VHS tapes faster!

Although they did leave out Kroton from the Eighth Doctor companion list... which sort of proves their point...

(*)This is the "not work safe" part. Reading this can earn you strange looks from your work colleagues. And askings to borrow it, but I suspect only us true DW geeks will really see the funny side in this (at the very least, it helps to have seen the episodes!) so won't quite be putting this on the "for everyone to read" bookshelf...

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On the buses

Bus fun in the capital as we don't have enough drivers for the routes the city promises. And yes, this affects me as well.

That said, I am o na very popular route, with three main bus routes going up the street next to where I am. Still, there are some buses I like to catch that haven't been running to time, or at all, recently. Of course, it would help if we had less people, and it would be nice if, as in my day (ha!), snot-nosed brat kids stood for the adults to take a seat (oh, the number of kids that suddenly vacate seats when we get to the Wellington High School stop...).

That all said, I am reminded of a wee story back many a year when I was but... actually, when I was going to university. Caught the number 18, which goes down Taranaki Street, then turns up Vivian Street and onto the university. Only, one time... it didn't. Kept on going down Taranaki.

Fortunately, the traffic was such that we didn't go to far, and while I might have been interested to see where we did end up, I had to get to the campus, so I went forward and had a few words with the driver. Also fortunately, Taranaki is a nice wide two-way street, but it was still an experience seeing a bus try to u-turn...

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Some computer thingy = Bad

Remember kids, in this age of technology, everything related to computers is EVIL! Today's case in point: sending e-mail. Is that really what your email meant to say?

Although emails are quick and easy to send, their lack of facial cues, body language and emotional feedback mean they can be easily misinterpreted.

Well....DUH!

Oh, e-mails, everyone's sending them, but they aren't understood! Perhaps we should try a different attempt at communication, something from the good old days before we had modern science of the interweb, or cars, or electricity. Namely... letter writing!

Yes, letter writing will solve all our woes. So many people moan today that no-one sends letters any more! And what a personal touch! After all, you can know so much more about a person when you read something they have written... hang on... letter... only get what is written down... emotion isn't conveyed... people don't even use smiley faces... how is this better than e-mail again?

The only real personal touch is if someone writes out a letter by hand (which means, then, that presumably only people that can actually write are capable of proper communication?) as printing out something and signing it, or just typing it out on a typewriter would be different, again, to e-mail... how?

But then you have to actually be able to decipher people's handwriting. I can barely read my own! (And often can't.) Still, this must obviously be better than EVIL e-mail because it would allow for communication we can't do any more...

So, everyone, pull up for pitchforks, put down that keyboard, take ten times as long to write out something by hand and then spend money for it to take several days to reach anyone else around the world... because communication these days suck!

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How to be annoyed

First, get the Torchwood novels (and Inside Story) through Amazon. Then have the surreal Amazon shipping policies send some of the Torchwood books (but not the first!) because they split up deliveries in odd ways and are unable to not put "available right now" when they really mean "we'll think about maybe getting this in a few months" on items that are readily available...

Then find out, months later (when said package still hasn't even been sent!) that the items are available for a cheap price due to a currency unit screw up through Fishpond!

AARRRGGGGHHHHH!!!!!!

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Not work safe

BWAHAHAHAHAHA!!!

The only reason I'm not on the floor, rolling about in laughter, tears streaming out of my eyes is because I'm at work!

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Go, go, net-power!

Ah, the power of the net, huge amounts of information available at the mere stroke of a key. And some of it not even about porn! And, even more incrediable, some of the information may even be believable!!

But onto today's topic: body vibration. Yesterday I came across an ad for a new exercise store/method: Vibra-Train. Vibrate your body while exercising for increased performance! (LOZE F@ST!!)

Hmm... skeptic alert! Most of what you hear by doctors etc is that, basically, there is no easy answer to weight loss other than proper diet management and exercise. So, I unleashed the power of THE NET!!!

And, on the first google page, I came across this critique of "whole body vibration". Now, I'm not going to say that the entire system is bunk. Indeed, it looks like there is research enough to validate its use for certain disabilities. But for general exercise and weight loss? I'm going to stick with knowing I should get myself an exercycle and use it in the comfort of my own home.

(I have had two of them, but keep breaking them. As I've said, you have to be fit to get fit. In my case, I need to loose weight so I can use the machines to loose weight. I've been told about recumbent bikes, but, wouldn't you know, their max weight range is just below mine... Not to mention the cost of the damn things!)

Anyway, the point it is: I doubted, and so I looked. And found. Net, ho!

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Yes, we did see this coming

One thing you can be sure about humans is that they like their Tall Poppy syndrome. And making nasty comments about celebrities. Okay, two things... [etc., etc...]

As soon as you heard about Anna Nicole Smith's death, you could easily predict the next step. And, yep, vicious slagging started almost immediately.

Fine, she got by on her looks. A lot of people do. (I, unfortunately, will never be in this category.) But we hated her for it. (Strong wording? Well, maybe...) And so, we must cut her off at the knees, or body part of your choice. Because of, in no small part, jealousy. A lot of people would see her as taking the easy route, some might say she was only ever treated superficially, and others might even say she betrayed the "strong woman" image by selling herself like that...

Me? She played the system we set up. Deal with it.

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The probability of ads

So I'm watching my Jimmy Carr DVD, occasionally switching over to see where they are up to with the latest Trek episodes.

Given the length of the Trek episode, what's the probability that when I look at the TV at any random moment I'll see ads?

100%, right? Seems so from the samples I took...

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Dalek en Francais

Since I know some people like this sort of thing, allow me to link to the original footage before they had Nicholas Briggs overdub the lines:



(Tip of the hat to the Bad Astronomer.)

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A convenient Inconvenient

I see that schools might be getting a copy of Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth to help teach about the global climate crisis following a similar British programme. I saw this a few months ago, and it is an interesting lesson in how to teach statistics.

But what is really interesting is when they tried doing something like this in the United States of America, the offer was turned down. Supposedly because the NTSA do not send out third party DVDs, but when one notices that they have major oil companies as sponsers who might not look too kindly on this idea... well, I am pro-Conspiracy of course. :)

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Summer?

If it's not one extreme, it's the other.

Balmy weather or barmy weather? You decide...

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Yet another archival post

So in TSV #43, what did I do? Yep, reviews.

St Anthony's Fire. This is the most forgettable book I have ever read. When I tried to re-read it I had forgotten one chapter by the time I read the next one! So what did I think of it at the time? "This is the second New Adventure from Gatiss and it is just as brilliant." Um... really?

Venusian Lullaby. This book could do with a re-read. I remember some bits (probably cited often by others) that makes me think this is possibly decent, but then there's that voice telling me that it is very long and drawn out and then quickly goes to pants. "the story comes over more as a list of what happens rather than as an actual novel." Yeah.

(Ha! I wrote this a while ago, and put in the temporary date of 7th of Feb... Ha!)

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Nathon Fillion - Drive!

Because I'm really slack today (slept away the morning...), I'm just going to link to this and say... cool!

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-1986464859034011785

(And I might even edit this to make that link an actual link!)

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Taking the fifth...

That's such a great title... It's worth taking the day off, just so I can use that title...

Frankly, I suspect most people are taking today off. With a holiday tomorrow who wants to go to work for just one day? (Or any day, but we'll leave that alone...)

But if you are going to work today... enjoy the quiet! (Unless you work in a retail store, in which case, enjoy the extra patronage!)

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The Other Casino Royale

One of the worst Star Trek: The Next Generation episodes is "The Royale". It has an intriging set up, but then completely widdles it away.

So, you might say "what would you do then?" Funny you should ask. This episode, despite the opening quote I use, inspired me (if that is the right word) to write my own version, Doctor Who style. Thus, The Eternal Casino. I sure showed someone something!

That said, I'm not that happy with the ending. I wrote another version, but that got lost in the mail. Not that that ending was that much better. There's some third theoretical ending, maybe a combination of the two, maybe entirely new, that should make me happy, but, meh, that was so long ago now...

Still, if nothing else, it proves that the Star Trek universe can't happen. "Haven't solved Fermat's Last Theorem." Hah!

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R2 Too Cool

I can't remember what I was going to blog about today, but who cares because this is too cool.

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Just Look Around You!

Look Around You is a series from the BBC that spoofs the typical 70s and 80s children science tv, series 1 being more educational lessons, series 2 the more magazine style. Really brilliantly done.

Who know what you'll find if you Look Around You?

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Foaming at the mouth

So I got me two packages in the mail. Serenity money and Dork Tower Comics! Huzzah!

But I got something else. Lots and lots of packaging foam.

I'm floating in this stuff now!

Too... much... foam...

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