Mike's Wonderful Rant

I'm off!

2005-10-25T17:09:00.000-04:00

I'll be gone for a bit. I'm off to boot camp, believe it or not. I might stop updating this altogether. Not quite sure yet. To all my friends; see you when I get back.

-Mike

...who would rather remain nameless.

2005-09-22T03:49:00.000-04:00

So I had a conversation with two other guys about the government, and it's failings. We specifically looked at the national deficit. Essentially, the government is borrowing in order to pay off it's debts, never collecting enough in taxes to make up the difference. The reason for this is absurd over-spending by Congressmen on all the special-interest groups that got them in power. See, there's no oversight at this level; the president always tries to convince them to spend less, but they never listen. The people need all this stuff! Don't you know that! And we're not going to vote them out because they're doing it; we want them to! It's the national epidemic on the federal level.
We came to the conclusion that the government operates on the same basis as a living organism, with individuals as cells; each acting in our own interest. Sometimes an organism gets fat, or gets cancer, or whatever. The organism will protect itself from harm, and protect it's habits, even if those habits are harmful in the long run.
Anyway, the solution, as far as we could figure it, was to make it illegal to spend more than is brought in by taxes. For the next 100 years or so, 5% of the income would go to paying off debt. No new Treasury bonds could be issued, ever. If the country needs money for a war, or an emergency, it needs to save up for it, just like a kid with an allowance. 5% for that too. In order to get all this money, projects would have to be cut in a major way. Everything; welfare, healthcare. Get rid of the IRS, do the national sales tax thing. Even defense and education would suffer, people. Our highways would suck for a while, farm subsidies would dissapear. You know what? It's okay. We'll make it through.
Of course, this is all just a ideal case. The Congress is not going to vote limits onto itself, we're not gonna make 'em.

Ehh...

2005-09-10T16:02:00.000-04:00

I don't really have anything to talk about. Well, that's not true. I just finished reading East of Eden, by John Steinbeck. It's a good book. Slightly intimidating; it's really thick, but once you get into it, it's a really easy read. Or at least I thought so. I want to watch the movie now, with James Dean in it. I looked at it briefly on IMDB, and it looks like they substantially changed the plot and even dropped a few characters who I considered integral to the plot. I hate it when movies do that. The Fellowship of the Rings (movie) was completely ruined for me because the entire time I was comparing it to the book. I have come to the conclusion that movies and books are completely different media, and use different means to communicate ideas. Now, if I go to watch a movie that's made out of a book, I try to completely remove any association with the book while I'm watching it. It helps, but never quite works. Why can't Hollywood just produce exactly what's going on in my imagination while I'm reading the book?! (slightly kidding)

Wow. That was all pretty much stream of consciousness. I wonder if it makes any sense. It's not particularly important.

I've decided that if I get inexhaustibly rich someday, I'm gonna give the Howard County library a big donation. I've spent quite a few happy hours there.

Jacob; I hope you're happy. This is the most random I think I've every publicly written. It actually seems to resemble your posts. That's not an insult; I think your posts are probably more honest and interesting to people. You can get editorials anywhere.

The goings on in the South

2005-09-03T16:20:00.000-04:00

I never really anticipated the carnage that's happened in and around New Orleans. I suppose I could've figured it, if I'd thought about it, but it never really occured to me. Citizens of the U.S. are dying, both from the direct assault of hurricane Katrina, and because of their inability to find food, water, or medical care in the aftermath. We have all these resources, all this wealth, and it's not helping a whit, because of the inability of the authorities to coordinate any of it! FEMA has actually told state governments and other organizations not to send help because they'll "confuse the effort"! Meanwhile, everything is confused as heck, and starving people are being ignored by the emergency personnel that are there! This would be a great time for the various mayors offering aid to collectively say "F$&# you, we're gonna go help those people!" Many of them already are looking for "back-door" ways to send help, for which I applaud them. A whole bunch of countries are offering help as well (even Cuba, oddly enough), but the State Department is "being deliberate about how it accepts offers." Now would be a great time to swallow your pride and let the helpful chaos ensue! Organization is great, but it ain't working!

Boring + Dare = Something New

2005-08-21T13:30:00.000-04:00

So, if you've been keeping up with the traffic on Jake's site, you'll know that I've incited him to post his every li'l scrap of art on his deviantArt account. As a tradeoff, I agreed to do the same sort of thing; only not as arty. (He argued that my thoughts were just as valuable to posterity as his art was, which I guess is true.) So, as a result of this fateful exchange, this page will hopefully become much more relaxed, spur of the moment, and all that rot. Many fewer editorials (they were getting boring anyway, especially that last one, that was crap.) much more genuine human content. Which kinda stinks; I'm not too great at "genuine human content." I'll give it a shot, though.
So...human content. Let's start with how I'm feeling. That sounds good, right? The content of my body... Well, my throat hurts. I've got some sort of bacterial infection, which I've been fighting off for the past week. Last Sunday I actually had a fever. Now, though, I'm just coughing alot. I feel as if I've got a lump of phlegm stuck in my throat that I can't cough out. So I did a little information gathering; I stuck my finger down my throat last night to try to pull the lump out, really. I figured out after a few tries that the lump was my epiglottis. The infection seems to be holding fort in that area, which is all inflamed. The cough is originating from cold, dry air hitting the part in the breathing tube just below the epiglottis (that's the trapdoor thing that covers the breathing tube when you swallow). That's why cough drops weren't helping; I was swallowing the juice, not breathing it in. Tea helps though, I think it moistens the air I breath in just enough to help it out.
Well, there's human content for ya; bacteria! That'll teach ya to read my blog! That was really gross, I apologise.

More Oil

2005-08-21T12:30:00.000-04:00

Before I get into that, I have some more information about the tenets of Islam. "Make war on them until idolatry is no more and Allah's religion reigns supreme." (Koran 8:37) "When the Sacred Months are over, kill those who ascribe partners to God wheresoever ye find them; seize them, encompass them, and ambush them; then if they repent and observe prayer and pay the alms, let them go their way." (Koran 4:5) And finally, "...kill the disbelievers wherever we find them." (Koran 2:191) I got all these from dianedew.com/islam. They all seem pretty explicit. So that's why all the other Muslims aren't severely offended with those who murder in the name of Islam; that's what they're all supposed to be doing! I'm glad not all of them have the guts. Although it would probably make the "War on Terror" easier; it would become an all out war between the western world and Islam.

Now to our title subject, again. I know I shouldn't let myself get drawn in, but...well, they're so stupid! First of all, in today's (Sunday, August 21 2005) Washington Times, Ariel Cohen and William Schirano wrote an editorial advocating an amendment to the Sherman Antitrust Act that would allow private citizens to sue OPEC. They spend a few paragraphs complaining about "OPEC's resistance to add productive capacity". They blame this "resistance" for the current high price of oil. For pete's sake, OPEC isn't "resisting", they have no way to meaningfully and safely increase production; the fields are over-stressed as it is.
In a similar vein, Senator Lindsey Graham (S.C., Rep.), is "worried about the high price of gas", and he wants Congress to investigate what the heck is going on. Senator; go to www.hubbertpeak.com. That's what's going on. He currently blames "increased Chinese demand, reduced OPEC production, and refining problems." (The article, and those quotes, are courtesy of Metro Networks Communications Inc., via MetroSource News service.)
WAKE UP! WE DON'T HAVE UNLIMITED SUPPLIES OF OIL. If you went to the Washington Times website or anything, take a gander at the book section; they review a book by Matthew Simmons that talks about it in a very intelligent manner.
Okay, I'm not gonna talk about oil for a long time now; I'm not adding any new thoughts.

The War

2005-08-13T16:25:00.000-04:00

Well, I've stayed away from it for the most part. I've found it difficult to organize my thoughts on this "War on Terror", but I'm hoping this will help. First of all, going into Iraq wasn't about terrorism, or shouldn't have been. The relationship to the 9/11 attacks was relatively incedental. The real reason was the incredible atrocities commited by Sadaam Hussein against his citizens. Thousands upon thousands were being killed, many times after lengthy torture sessions. The fact that this area seems to breed terrorists is fine. Terroism, however, will not be stamped out through a war, even if the country is converted to a true democracy. These terrorists are bent on the destruction of the West because of the mandates of their religion. Lately many politicians, Tony Blair being one example, have realized that the Muslim community is not really joining in the outcry against terrorist acts, and have confronted that community about it. Now, I don't know very much about the Islam itself, I've been meaning to learn for several months, but I get the feeling that these "normal Muslims" aren't really hopping mad about the way their religion is being made to look because in the back of their minds, they know that Islam really does call for the sort of Jihad that the faithful have actually embarked on. Now, anybody who actually does know anything about the theology of Islam, please correct me on that if it's wrong. But it seems to me that in order to defeat terrorism which is motivated by Islam, we will, ultimately be forced to confront the demands of the religion itself. This is, despite our insistent ignorance of the fact, a fundamentally religious war. Political and economic reforms are all well and good, but will not stop the terrorism.

Good news and... enforced tolerance

2005-07-31T12:24:00.000-04:00

We'll do the good news first because I'm looking forward to really going on about the second part. The Senate passed a bill on Friday (7/29/05) that put severe limits on the ability of private citizens to sue firearm manufacturers for harm caused by those firearms. Which is good, otherwise all our gun companies would go out of business, and a whole bunch of people would lose their jobs. On the other hand, that sure would pave the way for my plan to sue Honda to pay my speeding ticket. They made that car to speed, you know. It wasn't my fault. I'm a victim! Anyway, this is really good. Our senators have some sense! I'm quite excited! Here is the article by the Washington Post. They seem vaguely disgruntled.
Well, I was excited. Then I realized I could get in trouble for talking about my opinions. Big trouble. This guy, Jihad Daniel, works for William Patterson University and attends classes there at the same time. He got an unsolicited e-mail invite to watch a movie about "lesbian relationship[s]" from a professor there. He, being a Muslim, believes that homosexuality is a sin. So he told her, the professor, so. He asked not to be sent "any mail about 'Connie and Sally'...and 'Adam and Steve'. These are perversions. The absence of God in higher education brings on confusion. That is why in these classes the creator of the heavens and the universe is never mentioned." WELL. What a snippity response. This made Professor Arlene Scala quite nervous, as it was obvious that she had stumbled upon a deviant who was sure to come and harass her. Her life was most probably in danger! The incident (meaning the e-mail response) was quickly referred to the Office of Employment Equity and Diversity (the name speaks for itself; next we'll have a Ministry of Truth). They responded with an investigation, culminating in an official letter of reprimand in Mr. Daniels file. Here is the article from Washington Times; they seem to be the only newspaper to pick this one up. Good for them. I really like them; they're sensible.
Anyways. Holy crap. The educational establishments have in recent years been a bastion of liberalism, but they've always paid lip service to freedom of opinion. No more. If your idea threatens their idea, you're in for it. Obviously Mr. Daniel should not have been punished in any way, especially considering the relative docility of his e-mail. His response was quite appropriate, a statement of his beliefs and a request to not be contacted about stuff like that in the future. It was not threatening. I can see no better way for him to have kept his integrity and dignity at the same time.
This instance kinda points at a different, more fundamental malady that our society is suffering from; the insistence that everything should be fair. Life is not easy, it's not fair, and will never be so. And that shouldn't be a goal to strive for. We learn from adversity, from the dice rolling consistently against our interests. It doesn't matter if someone oppresses you, or takes away your rights. Deal with it. Our ancestors spent their lives being oppressed, and they seem to have turned out fine. I'm not talking about the effort to protect other people from oppression, that is one of the more noble activities we can engage in in this life. But this constant whining; "Help! Help! I'm bein' oppressed!" (quote courtesy of Monty Python) is just pitiful. It's like a bunch of two-year olds running around in suits, having an generation-wide tantrum.

Public Education

2005-07-23T14:54:00.000-04:00

We all know it at some level; our current system of public education is dismal, frankly. Kids are coming out with no hope of operating productively in the world. They can't read, multiply, or think critically in any meaningful way. We, being Americans, have a knee-jerk reaction; "More money!" We need better computers, bigger libraries, blah, blah. These aren't bad things, obviously, but they're not the answer. As far as I can tell, teachers hate their jobs. Their pay sucks, they have to deal with the brattiest beings ever produced from a womb, and they get harped on constantly by parents who are just as bratty. We need to return the position of teacher to the top. Make it the premier position in the country. Devote all the educational resources we have to their salaries, and attract the best publishing doctorates in the world to the positions of teaching our children. No more of this random person off the street crap. THE BEST! Obviously these people wouldn't be attracted by money alone; this would take a national shift in attitude; we would all need to give teachers our highest respect, as they deserve now. It would be immensely difficult, but we must motivate these people somehow. Of course, you could also give the job of teaching your kids to the people who are already heavily invested and motivated; yourselves. (Don't tell anybody, but that means homeschooling.) That's what my parents did for much of my life, and it instilled in me a love of learning that remains to this day. Think over it. Make something happen.

Solar Energy

2005-07-17T16:56:00.000-04:00

Chevron seems to be taking the lead in facing up to reality, at least among the major oil companies. Dave Johnston just showed me this website which takes head-on the issue of peak oil. They're trying to bring the cumbersome bulk of public awareness around to the realization that oil is not a renewable resource. They've set up a forum for discussion which, at my cursory glance, seems to be pretty good. I am now going to rant. It's just a little rant, over nothing of particular importance, but it seems pretty fundamental to me. All energy consumed on this planet is solar. There is one exception, which I will acknowledge in a bit. They speak as if wind energy is one thing, while oil is another. Every single type of these energies came at some point from the sun. Wind is created by the sun heating up one area of the atmosphere, which rises, and more air rushes in to replace it. Oil is ancient bio-mass, which at one point was either vegetable in nature, or gained it's energy from veggies somehow. You get the idea. The exception is nuclear power, either fission, or potentially fusion. Until we get fusion up and running (another few centuries), we'll need to rely mainly on the sun. Quite a bountiful source. But we need to find a slightly more efficient manner of using it's energy than oil. Converting solar energy directly into electricity seems ideal, if we could only resign ourselves to investing money in it. We could convert that directly into hydrogen through electrolysis for cars. I'm on a tangent. I'm sure I've talked about this before. Sorry. I'll shut up now. I'll also try to write something on a more regular basis. Does anybody read this?

The Pirate's Disability

2005-06-08T18:14:00.000-04:00

There was a Pirate, tall and fair
A remarkable feature; long, long hair
His baggy pants, his eye-patch, his scary glare
All came together into a rather rackish air.

His friends came around, saying "What a sight!"
We'll take you out to town for a wonderful night.
They took him bowling, hiking, climbing,
All with the greatest of gusto, and much chuckling.

At the end of the night, tired, dusty
They came to their last pleasure.
A wonderful, cool inviting treasure
He, the Pirate, exclaimed "I'm somewhat rusty!'

But he jumped in with a nervous glance, and grim.
He promptly began to drown.
After rescuing their bedraggled friend, they hollered, with a frown
"Good gravy! Our maritime companion cannot swim!"

They held him down; he was soon shorn of his long hair
His eye-patch was ripped off
His baggy pants, they left there.
They said "You can't be a Pirate, tall and fair!"

He was taken to the pool, pushed in
and taught to swim
He took to it gallantly, working hard
And actually got the hang of it, looking no longer like lard.

He took to the water with his new found grace,
He conquered sailboats from beneath,
And won many a race
His friends allowed him to grow hair back upon his face.

He, now a full-fledged Pirate,
Went to all the fancy Pirate conventions,
Impressing his rivals with his rolling sea-gait.
That is the story of a pirate worth mention.

Consequences!

2005-05-20T19:45:00.000-04:00

Again, I am commenting on news past. Maybe I should be a historian type, not an editor type. Read this:

Taken from MetroSource May 15, 2005 5:00pm

"Newsweek" Admits to Error in Koran Desecration Story

"(Washington D.C.) -- "Newsweek" magazine has admitted it has made a mistake in a report that said american interrogators had desecrated the Koran at Quantanamo Bay. "Newsweek" editor Mark Whitaker said the magazine inaccurately reported that the desecration had been confirmed by personnel at the detention facility. The report sparked angry, violent protests across the Muslim world. Sixteen were killed in a protest in Afghanistan. Today, Afghan clerics threatened to call for holy war against the U.S. over the report. Whitaker wrote that the magazine extended it's sympathies to the victims of the violence."

16 people died! Good gravy! Do people have no concept of the consequences of their actions? These knuckleheads essentially got a story (or made it up, but let's give them the benefit of the doubt) and did not check their sources at all. Now I'm sure this happens all the time, but couldn't this reporter just think a little bit about what was gonna happen when this went into world wide publication? Of course the Muslims would be pissed off, and rightly so! Newsweek came quite close to a inciting a world-wide Jihad against the U.S. Gahhh! I don't think I have anything more to say. I'm just pissed off.

A Belated Rant

2005-05-07T15:14:00.000-04:00

I just remembered a rant that was popping around in my head a few weeks ago, but that I forgot to actually rant about. So I'm gonna write about it now. (Tangent: The reason I was reminded about this was because I went to this blog, I Love Howdy, as a result of his comment on one of Martianbuddy's posts. This guy apparently has quite a readership, and his views seem to be relatively lined up with my own. He posted a complaint about this subject.)

Terry Schiavo. Yes, I know it's old news, been over a few thousand times. This will seem quite callous. She's only one woman. Yes, she's a human being, but she whether or not she was brain-dead, she certainly wasn't making a contribution to society. I'm not saying it was okay to kill her; it certainly wasn't. But if we, the American community, made this much fuss about any other issue, we'd certainly bring a lot of attention to it. We have power, and we're squandering it. Nepal, Iran, Cote d'Ivoire (bet you haven't even heard of that one), Liberia. Thousands upon thousands of people are dying! Kids being forced to fight in wars! But who cares? It's not America, so it doesn't matter. But one drooling woman gets starved within the US, and everyone goes ballistic! (I'm trying to offend you. Think about all this. Really think about it.) My point is, our priorities are in the completely wrong place. Look outside what's happining next to you. Expand your minds. I feel like cussing...

Eugenics...revisited

2005-04-24T14:09:00.000-04:00

So... I talked to Gina about eugenics. (She's the girlfriend I spoke of earlier; the one I persuaded to like debate.) She accosted me about how heartless I was, and using well placed comments, got me "chasing my own tail," and eventually got me to dissuade myself. I still think eugenics would be a good idea from an entirely utilitarian point of view, but I'm a Christian, so that's not the only thing I have to consider.
Our calling while here is to glorify God with everything possible. And that includes zygotes. Raising a family in a godly manner is a very important way of glorifying Him. If that was regulated, I think Christians who weren't allowed to have children would be called to disobey that law. In addition, and at a more fundamental level, a major point of Christianity is the fact that we are all impossibly weak and imperfect, and will never be up to the task of fulfilling God's standards. (That is, the law; the Ten Commandments and all the other commands in the Bible.) With that in mind, we are forced to rely entirely on Jesus' sacrifice. He did everything. So our weakness, in this case, is an obvious and unavoidable fact, and it's somewhat presumptuous for some of us to choose who to let continue in a genetic sense when God is going to make all Christians perfectly glorifying to Him, at the end (all non-Christians too...). So; go forth and multiply!

**Note: Here's a pet peeve of mine about post-Modernism; the apparent need to prelude all opinions with "It is my opinion...." or some other equivilant phrase. You know that all of what I just said was my opinion because I said it. I didn't quote it, I didn't cite it. So if it offends you that I didn't explain that it was my opinion, get over it.

Republicans can be really dumb.

2005-04-24T13:32:00.000-04:00

I'm a devoted Republican. I can liberal-bash with the best of 'em. But sometimes we can be really stupid. Read these two articles:

Aljazeera.net -This one is about over-production in Saudi Arabia. Apparently pumping oil too quickly actually damages the geological structures of the oil fields.
CNN.com -Bush, and America in general, is actually putting pressure on OPEC to increase oil production! This is what happens when you don't get spanked as a child; no concept of the consequences of our actions! (I'm not completely serious; I have no idea wether or not Bush was spanked as a kid.)
We're having a bloody temper-tantrum as a nation! Waah! We have to pay $2.25 for a gallon of lifeblood! It's ruining our economy! For pete's sake. I don't think they realize that at some point, we're actually going to have to deal with a severe lack of oil worldwide. Let's hear 'em worry about high energy costs dragging down the economy then. (This has made me particularly grumpy.)

Yooo-genics

2005-04-21T11:57:00.000-04:00

I was going to post this as a comment on Jacob's site, but it started getting really long. I think I'm a eugenicist too (hee hee; I just lumped you in with me. We're goin' down together!). We should just mock up a standard for humans taking into account intelligence, skills ('cus girls only like guys with cool skills), and what Dan and I call "competence", that is, the ability to move through life with... well, competence. It's pretty difficult to describe, unless you're a fellow competent person. There seem to be very few of us. I know of maybe a dozen. I barely make it into the category, by my own measure. Anyway; anyone who doesn't make the cut doesn't get a baby license.
We have to take into account what this would do to the global population. They keep complaining about over-population, but it seems that with the advent of space exploration, and the inevitable colonization, we'll need all the extra people we can get. Today's modern family cannot be bothered with more than 2 children per family. Europe isn't even replacing it's population! It's actually shrinking! I'm thinking that there's a chance that "baby-licenses" would put a new premium on children that has not been present lately. Alternatively, it could discourage baby production among the poorer populations even more. Regardless, I think you've figured out that I'm a heartless bastard. "Baby production" indeed! What nerve!

Death

2005-04-11T19:42:00.000-04:00

We have not adjusted to death. After millenia of our loved ones dying, we still are taken off guard by it, hurt. Why? We've got our entire lives to prepare for it. We just don't. I'll tell you why. We, as a world, are not meant for death. We are meant to live forever. I know you'll think I'm insane, unless you're a Christian. I believe that our souls are eternal, and that our bodies were originally meant to live forever, and later corrupted. That's why we've never become used to it.

It's about my Mac...

2005-04-10T23:17:00.000-04:00

I'll start with an introduction. My car is a '90 Honda Accord, and I like it alot, but everyone else seems to think it's a piece of junk. I couldn't understand the disconnect until I stepped back and objectively looked at my car, realizing just how unreliable it is and how many little "tweaks" are necessary to keep it going.
The exact same thing has happened to the rest of the world, or most of it at least. You are probably reading this on a Windows based computer. I used to use one, until I -again- stepped back and realized how many little "tweaks" are necessary! It's as bad as my car! All the little tricks you learn to get out of a frozen window without crashing the system; all the options you might need to switch to get it to actually see the network that is plugged into it. And then, in XP, they have that little bubble that comes up, "Help us make Windows better!" This chunk of ones and zeroes costs two hundred dollars! You're supposed to make it better for me! That's what I just payed for! For pity's sake.
As I'm sure you could surmise from the title, I have a Mac. It's a Powerbook, 12 inch. I turned it on, and it worked. That's it. I plugged in the network cable, and it asked me if I wanted to connect to this new network; I said yes. It has a built in firewall; Windows actually used to tout all those open ports as a feature! Can you believe that? (A port is one common way for hackers to get into your computer, a firewall masks those ports from the outside world.)
Well, now I get grumpy whenever I'm forced to use a PC. It just doesn't work. Once you get used to the way the Mac OS does things, it's much easier to use. Ok. I'm done now. Go buy a Mac.

Oil!

2005-04-09T17:48:00.000-04:00

The earth has a limited supply of oil, right? We don't know how much, but we're certainly not producing more in any sort of meaningful way. So eventually, we'll run out. There just won't be any more to suck out of the earth. Well, part and parcel with that is "peak oil", which is the point at which we've reached peak production; we've got the more wells running faster than ever before. Supply and demand seems to hold true in this area, (that was a wee bit o' sarcasm) so that would create lower prices, all other things being equal. Well, if you haven't noticed, gas is $2.30 per gallon! #$%@! The media is treating this like it's just a temporary flit into the stratosphere. Every once in a while, you see a headline that says "High gas prices here to stay" citing some expert. Have you ever wondered about the market mechanics behind this? Perhaps could there be just the slightest chance that oil is becoming harder to find, and the current oil fields are slowing down?

One particular problem concerns me. We are continually growing in worldwide demand. The US certainly isn't slowing down, or buying smaller cars even. China's economy is growing at a huge rate; 10% compared to something like 6% here in America (that's what you get when you economically confine a quarter of the world's population, and then all of a sudden say "Hey, if you work harder, you'll get richer.") All this demand is creating pressure for more oil. So, OPEC is pushing way over their published quotas on some of their richest, most productive fields. So what? Get this; the increased production is actually damaging the geological structure of the oil fields, and in the long run will make it impossible to extract crude from them. Not only irresponsible, just plain stupid in an economic sense. "Let's see, should we feed this demand now? Or should we force the world to cut back a little, and make a much larger profit in the future when we've got the only oil in the world?"

By the way, I didn't think of any of this myself. My good friend David Johnston spent a day just explaining it to me, and we figured out our options. As far as I can see, oil is pretty much the least efficient way of converting energy to a usable form. Think about it; all of our energy comes from the sun one way or the other. That's why the Wachowski Bros. had to throw in that little thing about combining fusion with the human body for energy; it doesn't work in a closed loop like that, or it would be a perpetual motion machine. Anyway, our current system involves the sun being converted into carbohydrates by plants. The plants are then converted to proteins by humongous reptiles. The reptiles die, get compressed in the earth for a few thousand years (unless you believe in evolution, then it would be a few million years). Then we pump out the result, spend quite a lot of resources and man-hours to refine it. Then all you have to do is pump it into your freaking monstrous SUV that you need because you have two kids now. (Believe it or not, I'm a Republican, I'm just kind of grumpy.) We have an alternative. It involves putting a solar power panel on your roof, and do whatever you want with the electricity. We have everything we need; reliable batteries, powerful electric motors. Or you could go the route of hydrogen, and use the electricity to convert water to hydrogen and oxygen.

Did you know that the power company will pay you if you put more power into the grid than you take out? Imagine, a negative electricity bill. What would happen if we started roofing with photo-voltaic cells? We could abandon power plants, and have a distributed power production system, with the extra electricity making hydrogen at gas stations, which you could then buy. Wow.

p.s. Another Wow. This time I'm referring to the length of this thing. If you read this, you must be really interested. I congratulate you. Go here. It's HubbertPeak.com. Hubbert was the guy who predicted in the '70s that this would happen.

Rants with Friends

2005-03-19T20:19:00.000-05:00

I just had a rousing debate with a friend of mine (Martianbuddy). It was an extension of the comment I made on his post about toenails (and evolution). I argued against evolution, and that life was essentially meaningless for a non-Christian, all from a Christian perspective. He held his own, arguing that life should be enjoyed for it's own sake, and that it is an end in itself (that's a paraphrase) We didn't actually spend that much time on evolution, we rather quickly reverted to the meaning of life. If anybody besides me and him actually read this thing, please chime in with your view; What the heck does it all mean? Why are we here?
See, I really like debating, even if nothing comes of it, as in this case. Most of my friends, however don't have either the disposition or the intellect for it, so when I find one who seems to fit, I capitalize on them (yes, Martianbuddy; you're in for it). I actually found a girl in 11th grade who I liked to argue with; later, I asked her to prom, and got turned down. I recently learned that she thought that we didn't like each other, as demonstrated by our heated debates! ("But we argued all the time!") For pity's sake, why do people these days think that a friendly relationship somehow hinges on whether or not you argue?! It took a year to get my girl-friend to seperate her emotions from arguments; now she really likes to debate. Anyway, that's my second rant for today, one directed at, and orchestrated with Martianbuddy; the second directed at America's emotionally inappropriate responses.

Go debate! It's good for you!

-Mike

Stupid pre-formatted thing

2005-03-08T00:12:00.000-05:00

Okay, so I answered the questions to the "My Profile" thing, and it chopped up my answers into hyperlinks. So, I'm gonna post 'em here. That way they'll actually make sense to a few more people:

Interests:
Reading, rock climbing, going to space (not my idea), I like to write a little.

About Me:
I am able to be quite diplomatic, unless I'm grumpy, or I don't like you, in which case, I'm a jerk.

Favorite Movies:
Ooh, now c'mon, that's not fair; narrow it down. Oh well; Fight Club is up there. Matrix, Snatch (it's not a porno, watch it). I liked Enemy of the State, even though everyone thought it was dumb.

Favorite Music:
I like everything from Metallica, to DMB, to Vivaldi. There are a few Christian bands that are actually original, who I like; Indelible Grace...(okay, that's one).

Favorite Books:
AAH! That's even worse! Man and Superman by GB Shaw, or anything else he wrote. The obligatory Tolkien (before the movies, thank you very much). Dante, Star Wars. The Hannibal Lecter series was quite good.

Okay, that's it. I did think that this particular formatting was confining, although I realized that without the pre-formatting, I'd have no idea how to do this. I'd have to learn HTML...

Supersize Me

2005-03-07T22:56:00.000-05:00

So, right now I'm watching "Supersize Me". It's quite well made, although we're just now getting to the depressing part, where the poor guy starts having really serious health problems. If you don't know the premise, it's a low budget documentary in which a guy resolves to eat McDonald's for one month straight. It'll discourage you from eating fast food, that's for sure. See, the thing is, I subsist on Chick-fil-a. I literally eat at least once a day (except Sudays; they're closed). Now, Chick-fil-a cannot possibly be compared to McDonald's, for one thing, the food is far better quality; I have consistently eaten it for over a year now, and I've never found anything horridly wrong with the food. But...it's still fast food. I'm somewhat frightened.

My latest expression of American Consumerism

2005-03-06T16:47:00.000-05:00

So...I did it. I ordered a Powerbook. I need one for school. I really do... It's not here yet, but it'll be sooo nice. The other day I realized that of the three relatively good guy friends that I have, all three have a Powerbook. An effect of that is that I became quite familiar with the OS, and discovered that I really did like it much better than Windows. (I'm not an Apple freak, I promise; I started out biased towards Windows.) That's that, I really just want to tell everyone I meet about it; I'm pretty excited.
Alright, that's out of my system. So what do you think about this whole Social Security thing? I don't really care very much; I'm not planning on relying on the government to take care of me in my old age. What does concern me, however, is the income tax revisions that Greenspan is talking about. Did you read about it? He wants to convert over to a consumption tax; like our state sales tax only national. I think it's a great idea; the idea is to encourage saving and investing money, as opposed to (you guessed it) spending it on things like laptops. It'll also negate tax evasion; it's not like you can refuse to pay the 5% on a CD or something. I also have a personal revulsion for bureaucratic forms, which will be taken care of handily. The problem is, they're afraid that the tax burden will fall disproportionatly on poorer people, because they have to spend a greater proportion of their income, while white middle class Protestants, aka Republicans, like myself, have the option of investing more of their income. Also, there's the inevitable argument, "what's money there for except to spend it?" Ah well, we'll see how it turns out; it seems Greenspan has something of a Divine Appointment when it comes to the economy, so I'm sure something will happen. Maybe it'll get combined with Social Security reform, who knows?

Wow, my own editorial!

2005-03-04T09:28:00.000-05:00

Well, I set up a blog! My goodness, what a huge responsibility, a chance to influence minds for the sake of all that is good and right in the world! Of course, there are 20 thousand other blogs out there, and this one isn't all that interesting. For that matter, how am I supposed to be expected to influence a whole bunch of people for good and right, when I am completely incapable of doing it within the bounds of my consciousness! Actually, I'll tell you the reason I set this thing up. I was looking at my friends blog, and it wouldn't let me comment unless I had a blogspot ID. So I set one up, and look where I am.
Actually, once I had started thinking about it, I realized that it would be a very nice opportunity to set down everything that I believe, on topics from religion to green olives. Finally, a chance to let everyone else know the right way to live, and how to think! (That was a joke...kind of.)
So that's what I'm gonna do. Set down in writing the stuff I'm thinking about. I already kind of do this; I have a...okay, how the heck do you insert hyperlinks?....ah. http://www.moleskine.com/... Well that's dumb... how do you make it say something else? Like just moleskine? Oh well, off to a rocky start. Moleskines are extremely nice, like a blog, only more like a journal.
Earlier I referenced my friend's blog. He's here: http://www.martianbuddy.blogspot.com. I showed him my Moleskine, and he liked it enough to write about it, so that's what made me want to comment in the first place. AH! I found it! You have to edit the blasted thing in HTML! But there are two addresses shown in HTML. one for the actual text shown, and one for the destination of the hyperlink. Okay, let's mess around a little. Hang on. Moleskine AH! It's the second one that controls the text shown... assuming that the link still works.
Anyway, this has been very wonderfully experimental, but it's time for chemistry, a much more interesting type of experiment. See ya.