Ophicus: This week, you're going to need to bring a paper and pen to the nearest cemetary. (or you can bring one of those new iPads with you. Those things are freaking cool.) You will meet a spirit -- a shadow of a soul that once was. He will lead you to the nearest convenience store where you will buy him a can of malt-liquor. He will then belch out the enunciation of the ancient runes, which you are to copy down and recite at the next full moon. This act will allow you to find inner peace on a level which you may have been previously unable to reach.
Make sure it's not old-english. That stuff is disgusting.
Posted by nickswift498 on April 27, 2011 at 6:46 p.m.
Ophicus: you will meet a tall, dark stranger. He will tear the astrology section out of the Weekly and start force-feeding it to you. The paper will be dry, and it won't go down easily. Make sure you bring a water bottle (aluminum, please!) to ease your dry throat, as the newsprint and ink detailing the music of the spheres in this week's issue of our fine local publication will have coated it liberally.
Also; avoid Tauruses.
Posted by nickswift498 on April 27, 2011 at 6:40 p.m.
What about the evils of Christianity, Judaism, Hinduism and any other religion? Not to be a nasty atheist or anything, but history is rife with examples of the sort of atrocities of which humans are capable when they take any philosophy to its extremes. The inquisition is responsible for the gruesome deaths of thousands of people (including one particularly cruel punishment that involved the sitting of the victim upon a sharp pyramid-shaped chair), and witch-hunts have plagued European society periodically for thousands of years. The sort of thing people are willing to do for Jesus can be just as terrible as the sort of things they're willing to do for muhammad.
Sharia law is indeed a threat to the safety, and religious/political freedom of people around the world -- but the wrong thing for us to do is to conflate the extremists in any religion with the secular moderates that make up the bulk of our modern society, including muslims, and then use the fear of islam to enforce the marginalization of a religious minority.
In order to combat Sharia law, we need to show that we're on a higher moral ground than its practitioners.
Posted by nickswift498 on April 27, 2011 at 6:31 p.m.
I don't understand what the big, screaming deal about the smart-meters is. They put out the same kind of radio signals that your wifi router does. They don't put out alpha, beta, OR gamma radiation.
The backlash against this technology is motivated by the same incorrect presumptions about wireless technology as the idea that cell-phones can give you brain cancer. (they can't, by the way.) The waves are radiologially incapable of causing cancer. Even assuming that your cell phone, or smart meter, or radio set, for that matter, can put out any amount of radiation (which, I'll say again, THEY CAN'T); the amount of radiation that you would be exposed to would be smaller than the amount of radiation that you accumulate as a result of UV radiation, or receiving a chest X-ray, or flying in an airplane (each flight would most likely equal a couple thousand times the amount of imaginary radiation that a smart meter could be capable of generating).
People still have the right to act on their irrational presumptions, but as someone who studies this sort of thing, it sort of annoys me when people draw conclusions about technology without doing the proper research first.
Posted by nickswift498 on April 27, 2011 at 6:19 p.m.
I'm staunchly against soda taxes on the grounds that they'll do little to improve obesity levels, and also because they're an encroachment on people being able to eat whatever junky food they want to.
However, It's really too bad that our county, and indeed our state, doesn't grow a significant portion of the nation's corn. I keep telling everyone that the best way we can combat the rise in obesity is to cut the massive subsidies that the government gives to corn production, which allows food companies to produce high-fructose corn syrup, which in turn ends up being used by soda companies to make their drinks cheaper, sweeter, and in larger portions. Punishing consumers isn't a very good way to change things -- especially when we're all just following basic economics.
Maybe we could write some letters to Sam Farr...
Posted by nickswift498 on April 27, 2011 at 6:06 p.m.
Even assuming that these people deserve raises, they still shouldn't be giving themselves raises. At a time when everyone in the school system should be exercising financial restraint -- and most people are -- these people are instead paying themselves more so that they can maintain some sort of status quo.
Again, if you want to think of yourself as being some kind of great leader who is charged with improving the school district, you can start by forgoing a bonus so that a few teachers can keep their jobs.
Posted by nickswift498 on April 27, 2011 at 5:56 p.m.
Brezsny's Astrology April 21-27, 2011
Ophicus: This week, you're going to need to bring a paper and pen to the nearest cemetary. (or you can bring one of those new iPads with you. Those things are freaking cool.) You will meet a spirit -- a shadow of a soul that once was. He will lead you to the nearest convenience store where you will buy him a can of malt-liquor. He will then belch out the enunciation of the ancient runes, which you are to copy down and recite at the next full moon. This act will allow you to find inner peace on a level which you may have been previously unable to reach.
Make sure it's not old-english. That stuff is disgusting.
Brezsny's Astrology April 7-13, 2011
Ophicus: you will meet a tall, dark stranger. He will tear the astrology section out of the Weekly and start force-feeding it to you. The paper will be dry, and it won't go down easily. Make sure you bring a water bottle (aluminum, please!) to ease your dry throat, as the newsprint and ink detailing the music of the spheres in this week's issue of our fine local publication will have coated it liberally.
Also; avoid Tauruses.
The Muslim Storm
What about the evils of Christianity, Judaism, Hinduism and any other religion? Not to be a nasty atheist or anything, but history is rife with examples of the sort of atrocities of which humans are capable when they take any philosophy to its extremes. The inquisition is responsible for the gruesome deaths of thousands of people (including one particularly cruel punishment that involved the sitting of the victim upon a sharp pyramid-shaped chair), and witch-hunts have plagued European society periodically for thousands of years. The sort of thing people are willing to do for Jesus can be just as terrible as the sort of things they're willing to do for muhammad.
Sharia law is indeed a threat to the safety, and religious/political freedom of people around the world -- but the wrong thing for us to do is to conflate the extremists in any religion with the secular moderates that make up the bulk of our modern society, including muslims, and then use the fear of islam to enforce the marginalization of a religious minority.
In order to combat Sharia law, we need to show that we're on a higher moral ground than its practitioners.
PG&E to Roll Out Carmel's SmartMeter Opt-Out Policy Statewide
I don't understand what the big, screaming deal about the smart-meters is. They put out the same kind of radio signals that your wifi router does. They don't put out alpha, beta, OR gamma radiation.
The backlash against this technology is motivated by the same incorrect presumptions about wireless technology as the idea that cell-phones can give you brain cancer. (they can't, by the way.) The waves are radiologially incapable of causing cancer. Even assuming that your cell phone, or smart meter, or radio set, for that matter, can put out any amount of radiation (which, I'll say again, THEY CAN'T); the amount of radiation that you would be exposed to would be smaller than the amount of radiation that you accumulate as a result of UV radiation, or receiving a chest X-ray, or flying in an airplane (each flight would most likely equal a couple thousand times the amount of imaginary radiation that a smart meter could be capable of generating).
People still have the right to act on their irrational presumptions, but as someone who studies this sort of thing, it sort of annoys me when people draw conclusions about technology without doing the proper research first.
Monning's Soda Tax Bill Dies in Committee
I'm staunchly against soda taxes on the grounds that they'll do little to improve obesity levels, and also because they're an encroachment on people being able to eat whatever junky food they want to.
However, It's really too bad that our county, and indeed our state, doesn't grow a significant portion of the nation's corn. I keep telling everyone that the best way we can combat the rise in obesity is to cut the massive subsidies that the government gives to corn production, which allows food companies to produce high-fructose corn syrup, which in turn ends up being used by soda companies to make their drinks cheaper, sweeter, and in larger portions. Punishing consumers isn't a very good way to change things -- especially when we're all just following basic economics.
Maybe we could write some letters to Sam Farr...
Monterey Bay Teachers Union Protests Administrative Raises
Even assuming that these people deserve raises, they still shouldn't be giving themselves raises. At a time when everyone in the school system should be exercising financial restraint -- and most people are -- these people are instead paying themselves more so that they can maintain some sort of status quo.
Again, if you want to think of yourself as being some kind of great leader who is charged with improving the school district, you can start by forgoing a bonus so that a few teachers can keep their jobs.