To help out with the current situation in Japan, our unbeloved Princess Märtha Louise has done the following to help (quotes from the facebook page of her “angel school”).
“Send the angels to the disaster area to give their light, their frequency, their tone so that mother earth can come to balance as quick as possible”.
WOW.. I frequently get pissed off at her for being a credulous half wit spreading utter bullshit, but this latest crap.. Is she’s deliberately trying to make me puke in my mouth!?
For years she has been spewing out moronic crap about the angels she can see (and for a hefty sum, she’ll teach you to contact your angles). She can also talk to the dead of course, and no crank would be complete without claiming to be able to do healing.
I’ve always despised monarchism, it’s archaic, useless and wastes huge piles of taxpayer money on those <censored>.. Suffice it to say, the Princess of woo does not improve that image one bit.
At least I’m delighted to see the facebook page for that asinine angel school of hers is getting flooded with trolling and negative comments which seems to come from 4chan and lots of Norwegian facebook users who think their actions are distasteful, maybe there is still hope for this country.
On behalf of Norwegians who are not severely delusional, we’re sorry (and embarrassed as hell), some people are just beyond help
Again, I tried to get my tickets for SDCC, but the server was taken down after 2 hours of fail (much like on November 1st.)
This is because the people responsible for this are a bunch of morons who are unable to handle a simple problem.
The problem:
you have tens of thousands of people trying to use a web server at a single moment.
This is not really a new problem, and unless your web application is utterly retarded, getting a webserver to handle 5000+ requests per second is no problem even on a single quad-core server. Getting a virtual server (cloud computing) that could take tons more would be dirt cheap since it would only be needed for a short while (1 day).
The solution: It would be relatively simple to fix this, Just open the site to registrations. Let users enter Name and email address. Then send them a confirmation. Don’t do any of the “heavy” back-end stuff like charging credit cards which can take some time. Then when everyone have registered, just e-mail them (in the order in which they registered) a link to a page where they can pay for the ticket and enter all the details (address, etc..). That way the initial flood of requests can be dealt with very efficiently and the stuff that takes longer time can be spread out over several days/weeks.
Now maybe the existing registration software they chose this time does not support this, but jeez.. Letting people enter their info and connect this to a payment is not fraking brain surgery. Any programmer could do this in 1-3 days without a problem.
Or if you insist upon using a heavier system, at least use some sort of load balancing.. Let the main server accept connections, organize them in a queue and then gradually transfer the users to the server that actually handles registrations. I’m completely baffled that a huge event like SDCC is unable to find someone who is able to do such a simple task in this day and age.
The conclusion:
Someone stupid took on the job of handling the registrations (epicreg.com) when they clearly had no way of handling that many requests, and there is no excuse cause they know what happened on November 1st. What does it all mean in the end, nothing. What are we going to do? boycott Comic Con? yeah right… I’m pretty sure SDCC could get away with literally crapping on the visitors, without having problems selling all the tickets.
The purpose of “Earth hour” is to raise awareness of global warming, a subject that really needs more exposure and media coverage (this is irony, in case you’re a moron).
There are several things about the concept that pisses me off:
As mentioned it is part of the media hype that is global warming, lots of talk and no action.
The decrease in electricity usage is statistically insignificant, and just underlines the uselessness of the whole thing.
The cost of all those people going around turning on / off lights, planning, etc.. Those money would be better used as paperweight for other money that you are planning to flush down the toilet at at later occasion.
With the relatively clean hydro plants in Norway, burning a paraffin candle probably releases more CO2 than a light bulb.
Because it’s a stupid symbolic action that is totally unproductive, a quick fix for millions of people who wants to get in on environmentalism but only have an hour to spare.
Like everything else, the large masses will have forgotten about earth hour in a couple of days (or sooner), and won’t remember it until they read it in the paper or get a facebook invite next year. It will in no statistical significant way mean anything to our energy habits.
They say this is to just to focus people’s attention towards global warming, but nothing is done with that attention (see below)
The goal of earth hour
What is Earth hour, this is from the “official” site, earthhour.org: “This year, Earth Hour has been transformed into the world’s first global election, between Earth and global warming.” What is the point of voting when nobody counts the votes, people don’t know what or understand the implications of what they are voting over, and the result (if any) are not even considered by anyone?
“Switching off your lights is a vote for Earth, or leaving them on is a vote for global warming” Global warming won by a landslide.
“We all have a vote, and every single vote counts” No, none of the “votes” count, turning off the lights for 0.012 % of the year does nothing except providing what a sad bunch of drones you all are.
“WHAT CAN YOU DO?”
The most useless and disturbing part of the shitty earthhour.org site unveils itself when you click “Take action”, this part of the site shows you what wonderful things you can do to save the planet:
“Turning your lights off for an hour is a great start”
“Tell A Friend. Better still – tell them, your family and even your work mates. Encourage them to sign up. Email them a link to this website and mobilise even more people!”
“Run your own Earth Hour. Download our quick guide for how to run Earth Hour in your city or town. It’s easy!”
“Your Earth Hour. What will you be doing at 8.30pm on Saturday March 28? We’re keen to know what you have planned for Earth Hour 2009. If you’d like to share your plans with Earth Hour and the media, then please send us an email describing with as much detail as you can what you have planned to myearthhour@earthhour.org. Don’t forget to include your name, where you live (City and Country), and your contact telephone number including your country code.”
“Blogger Tool Kit: Create a blog post about the importance of global action on climate change and how participation in Earth Hour can make a difference.”
“Update your Twitter status on the night and tag it #earthhour or #voteearth”
“Now you can get latest news, sign up your support and spread the Vote Earth message from your mobile. Simply use your phone to log on to http://m.earthhour.org”
“Tell the world: Get the Earth Hour GiverSign and make your e-mails, blog posts, Facebook feeds and MySpace pages advocate the Earth Hour message”
Unless you are a complete tool, by looking at the ways to “Take action”, you see that every fucking thing you can do is to promote Earth Hour, but if that is the only thing you can do, WHY BOTHER? it’s like some kind of twisted pyramid scheme, where there is no real value or action taking place, except requiting and talking about it. There are no real solutions to climate problems, and no fake solutions either for that matter. It’s just a mindless urge to spread earth hour on facebook, blogs (I guess I’m doing my part right now), youtube, twitter, flicker, etc..
Earth hour is one big sick joke, and it’s on YOU..
I recently saw a video debate between David Robertson and Alistair McBay
The only entertaining part of the debate are the numerous occasions where Robertson talks about all the great evidence for god’s existence, without ever mentioning the actual evidence itself. His crappy book lists the following 10 pieces of “evidence”: (source: http://bethinking.org/)
1. The Creation. By that I mean the heavens and the earth, from the smallest atom to the vastest galaxy. It all shouts to me of the glory of God. As I write I am sitting in my parent’s home in the Scottish Highlands overlooking the Dornoch Firth. The night is still and clear and in a moment I will go and clear my head and gaze up at the stars.
This it not proof, it is merely stating the obvious.. The universe and everything was created at some point, it does not prove that someone did it.. And if for some reason the creation of the universe required a creator, it would not favor the christian God any more than it favored Ymir, Nyx, Unkulunkulu or Xenu.
2. The Human mind and spirit. Why are we conscious? Why are we special? And life. Where does it come from? How can we get life from non-life?
I hardly expect Christians to be good judges of what constitutes evidence, it is after all not often evidence appear as a series of questions.. I’m almost disappointed. We are conscious because our brains have evolved (at least for some of us) that way. Who said we are special? How life can be created from inorganic and inanimate matter is a own field called abiogenesis.
3. The Moral Law. How do we know what good and evil is? Why do we have a sense of that at all?
Good and evil are subjective terms, that is different from person to person, culture to culture, religion to religion and changes with time. Most humans have a set of common morality like “dont kill people”, this nice deal probably started thousands of years ago when cavemen formed together to make small communities to improve the chances of survival.. These communities would be less efficient if people randomly killed eachother.
If we where to get our moral sense from the bible, then killing homosexuals, people who works on sundays, men who sleep with their stepmoms would all be morally good calls.
4. Evil. Unlike Dawkins I cannot believe in the innate goodness of human beings. I see too much evil and no explanation fits what I observe as neatly and realistically as the teaching of the Bible. More than that I find that the Bible also brings us the answer to evil – and I have never yet come across any philosophy which does so.
Wow.. Evil can be motivated by greed, jealousy, hatred, chemical imbalances in the brain, and is a interesting field for social anthropologists everywhere.. The fact that Robertson think the most realistic and “neat” explanation is that it’s all Satan’s fault and a bad choice of fruit really blows my mind. Still the existence of evil does not disprove or prove the existence of God.. It proves the existence of whatever it is YOU perceive as good or evil and the fact that you can label stuff.
5. Religion. Yes there is so much in religion that is wrong and in many ways I hate religion. Generally I think it is a human imitation that more often than not blocks the way to God rather than opens it. And yet it is an imitation of something that is real. As Augustine said, ‘Our hearts were made for you, O God, and they are restless until they find their rest in you.’
Finally, we have something in common.. I too hate religion but now to the WONDERFUL argument.. God is real BECAUSE “(religion) is an imitation of something that is real”. Wow.. Why did he not just make “it is real” his ONLY argument? it would have been a sure winner..
6. Experience. I believe because I have tasted that God is good. Of course we can be deluded in our experience (that is why we need to reflect). And we can be wrong in our knowledge. But it would be a strange kind of person who did not take into account their experiences as part of the whole package. Not long after I became a Christian I was visiting a ‘hippy’ home where amidst all the music and drugs paraphernalia there was a poster stuck on the wall. Its words have remained with me ever since: ‘All I have seen teaches me to trust the Creator for all that I have not seen’. Sure – answered prayer, that sense of God’s presence and that joy in worship may all have been illusory. But then again it may all have been real.
Personal experience and anecdotal evidence are always great ways of winning an argument, they are also great ways of selling alternative medicine.
All persons take into account their experiences, but not all people automatically assumes a deity is at work every time something statistically interesting happens.
“it may all have been real”.. Or maybe he was getting high from second hand marijuana smoking?
7. History. Again as I have continued to read and study history it has broadened my horizons and enables me to see in the words of the old cliché that it is ‘His Story’. The history of mankind makes a whole lot more sense when it is set in the context of the history of God.
The fact that mankind’s history makes much more sense to him, if there existed a God, does nothing more than prove that he is a poor historian who is unable to deal with the cause and effect, randomness, chaos and human unpredictability that makes up our rather interesting history.
8. The Church. I mentioned earlier that there are things in the Church that more than anything else have caused me to doubt. When you see Christians behaving in a way which would shame Satanists, when you see preachers being pompous, hypocritical, money and glory-grabbers, then it is enough to put you off Christianity for life. But I have also seen the other side. I have seen the most beautiful people (some of whom had been quite frankly ugly before their conversion) behave in the most wonderful, inexplicable ways. Inexplicable that is except for the grace and love of God. The Church at its best is glorious, beautiful and one of the best reasons to believe.
Yes, the church may have good and bad sides, and Robertson have apparently seen both sides.. This proves that Robertson can observe the world around him.. great job proving stuff..
And the fact that you don’t understand how people can change personality except for God’s love.. Each time an idiot gets a question that there is no apparent answer to, this is more than enough evidence that some god did it.
The Church at its worst is murderous, authoritarian, credulous, ugly and one of the best reasons to stick with reality.
9. The Bible. Again I mentioned problems that I have had and occasionally still have. But I can truthfully say this – that every year I read the Bible through at least once, that every day I try to read it and every week I study it in order to proclaim it. It has been a source of challenge, comfort, truth and renewal. I have no doubt that God speaks to me through it (and I don’t mean the kind of loopy ignoring of context or more esoteric interpretations). In fact, I am so assured of this, experiencing it continually, that I have very little time for Christians who are always looking for ‘extra words’ – as though the Bible were not enough. For me the thrill is still there.
Thank you for proving that you love the bible. That is really really interesting.
10. Jesus. I guess that any one of the above nine reasons would not be enough on their own – although I think their cumulative effect is overwhelming. But this is the icing on the cake. Actually no … this is the cake. Jesus is the reason I believe and will continue to believe:
Yes, the cumulative effect of the reasons above are not only overwhelming, they are STAGGERING, I can barely hold myself from screaming out in joy, accepting Jesus Christ as my personal lord and savior..
‘In the past God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things..(lots of crappy bible quotes)…..Would I really want to trade Jesus Christ for the Selfish Gene? No thanks. ‘For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form, and you have been given fullness in Christ.’ Why would I swap the fullness of Jesus Christ for the emptiness of a universe and life without God?
Why would you swap the fullness of magical pony’s shooting rainbows of love at you from puffy clouds, with a sporadically hateful god who kills infants and tells you lots of things you can’t do, but most of his followers do anyway?
And why should you? The wonderful thing about Jesus Christ is that you cannot inherit him, he cannot be bought and you cannot earn him. He simply comes as a free gift to all who would receive him. I leave you with some words from another man who had his life changed by Jesus and I pray that you too will see, believe and be changed.
Why should you live in the real world? A good psychosis will get you anywhere. The magic pony’s also comes as a free gift, and they won’t judge you or send you to hell even if you DON’T believe in them.
I leave you with some words from one of the greatest thinkers of our time (who is also very handsome).
“David Robertson is a complete tool, he think he is so smart when bringing up his crappy half-baked arguments which are nothing more than a bunch of empty statements and his own personal opinions. He should be forbidden to ever use the word “Evidence” as he clearly has no idea of the meaning of the word. His statements about us atheists defining evidence in such a way that he can never prove something is bullshit. We don’t define evidence, you present the evidence which is either good evidence (makes sense, can be tested, can be falsified, etc.) or it is SHIT (old writings by unknown authors, vague metaphysical statements that you pull out of your ass, pseudo scientific nonsense).
What did this moron expect? that we would say ‘we will accept ANYTHING as evidence’, again Robertson obviously needs a goddamn dictionary. What if I where to complain that the criteria for evidence where unfair when trying to prove my magical rainbow pony theory? That people where narrow and closed minded because they did not take my buckets full of invisible magic pony hair as evidence?
If I did that, I would have to be a complete idiot.. Like Robertson”
but now to the WONDERFUL argument.. God is real BECAUSE “(religion) is an imitation of something that is real”. Wow.. Why did he not just make “it is real” his ONLY argument? it would have been a sure winner..
