Blog Jones

Adrienne over at the Liberty Belles posted an interesting statistic this morning, quoting from Vanity Fair:

With its highly figurative language, Revelation is subject to profoundly differing interpretations. Nevertheless, LaHaye’s followers insist on its literal truth and accuracy, and they have gone to great lengths to calculate exactly what this passage of Revelation means.

As we walk down from the top of the hill of Megiddo, one of them looks out over the Jezreel Valley. “Can you imagine this entire valley filled with blood?” he asks. “That would be a 200-mile-long river of blood, four and a half feet deep. We’ve done the math. That’s the blood of as many as two and a half billion people.”

She then responds:

But wait, if there are about 2 billion Christians worldwide, that means that that river will contain only slightly more than half the blood of the unsaved. Where’s the rest of that plasma going to go?

It gets worse: As of that time, (1) the Rapture will have happened, so those 2 billion are out of the picture, leaving some 4 billion unsaved to populate the earth and (2) A good deal more than half of those remaining people have been wiped out due to wars, plagues, “natural” disasters, and supernatural beings. And then don’t forget that the one-world government would be persecuting and killing the post-trib Christians (and people of other faiths unwilling to yield to the one world government).

The world population will probably have to double before the rapture can occur, just on the basis of the amount of blood needed to fill the Megiddo valley.

That sound? That was me. Gasping for air.

All of my major projects are due tomorrow. I just finished editing a ~40 page document for Management Policies. I started at 9 this morning. Except for an hour or so for lunch and other such necessities, that’s what I’ve been working on all day.

I hate group writing assignments. Hate, hate, hate them.

Anyways, after dinner, I’ll be finishing my Technical Writing assignment, which is a guide on how to install and use FeedDemon, my favorite RSS reader. I’ll have to post it after I’m done.

I guess I’ll study for my Legal Environment test tomorrow at breakfast. ::smile::

TTYL.

Scott Adams, the creator of Dilbert, has started a blog, which I think is funnier than the comic strip. Today, however, he posted something about the Intelligent Design vs. Darwinism debate. Here are the first two paragraphs:

To me, the most fascinating aspect of the debate over Darwinism versus Intelligent Design is that neither side understands the other side’s argument. Better yet, no one seems to understand their own side’s argument. But that doesn’t stop anyone from having a passionate opinion.

I’ve been doing lots of reading on the subject, trying to gather comic fodder. I fully expected to validate my preconceived notion that the Darwinists had a mountain of credible evidence and the Intelligent Design folks were creationist kooks disguising themselves as scientists. That’s the way the media paints it. I had no reason to believe otherwise. The truth is a lot more interesting. Allow me to set you straight. (Note: I’m not a believer in Intelligent Design, Creationism, Darwinism, free will, non-monetary compensation, or anything else I can’t eat if I try hard enough.)

Read the whole thing.

Science is based on freedom of inquiry; if you start suppressing your opponents, you’re almost certainly going to be leading the way into error.

It’s classic groupthink. Everyone is so convinced that Darwinism must be true, that they’re unwilling to examine the possiblity of other explanations.

That’s not good science.

The people of Dover, Pennsylvania recently had an election for their local schoolboard. In a fairly close election, every member of the school board that supported the addition of intelligent design to their school curriculum was voted out, all eight of them. What did Pat Robertson have to say about the free exercise of people’s rights to hold elections?

I’d like to say to the good citizens of Dover. If there is a disaster in your area, don’t turn to God, you just rejected Him from your city. And don’t wonder why He hasn’t helped you when problems begin, if they begin. I’m not saying they will, but if they do, just remember, you just voted God out of your city. And if that’s the case, don’t ask for His help because he might not be there.”

That’s every bit as bad as what the Darwinists are doing.

James Lileks, author of a new book called Mommy Knows Worst: Highlights from the Golden Age of Bad Parenting Advice, wrote the following in his daily column The Bleat:

Drove home; talk radio was bothersome. Repetitious contention without conclusion; verbal whack-a-mole.

Yeah. That about sums it up.

My laptop was having problems.

The right hinge on the screen was broken, and so the lid to my laptop would either fall onto my hands while I was typing, or else experience a fainting spell and fall backwards.

It was well-nigh unusable. So, my Dad ordered a replacement case off of eBay, but the repair looked more challenging than we expected, and I had planned to take it to a repair shop.

But then I found out that a guy who lives across the hall from my brother in the dorms repairs laptops. I mentioned my laptop problems to him, and he offered to repair it. So, tonight I took the laptop to his room.

The process actually took a couple of hours. To fix the laptop, he essentially had to completely disassemble it, move the motherboard into the new case, and reassemble it. I felt bad, because I know he hadn’t planned to burn his whole evening on this thing.

But now my computer works perfectly. Drew knows what he’s doing with laptops, and I’m very, very happy. I can actually use my computer in class again!

So, that’s my shout-out to Drew. If he ever opens a laptop repair business, I’ll refer you, my loyal readership, to him. For now, he’s got my gratitude.

I feel drunk.

Actually, I feel sleep deprived; I’ve never been drunk, but this is about how I think being drunk would feel.

I can’t think or speak clearly. I had a piece of paper on my desk, and I literally could not comprehend what I had written on it. Fortunately, I was tired enough not to care.

This isn’t good. I have to give a short presentation for my Technical Writing class in a few hours.

::whimper::

Update: The presentation actually went pretty well. I was almost completely unprepared, but I was able to stumble my way through it. It was supposed to be a conference about the major writing project for the class. I’m doing a web-based tutorial on how to install and use FeedDemon, my favorite RSS reader. I got a lot of good feedback, and it was a tremendous relief to have it over with.

From The Devil’s Dictionary:

IDIOT, n.
A member of a large and powerful tribe whose influence in human affairs has always been dominant and controlling. The Idiot’s activity is not confined to any special field of thought or action, but “pervades and regulates the whole.” He has the last word in everything; his decision is unappealable. He sets the fashions and opinion of taste, dictates the limitations of speech and circumscribes conduct with a dead-line.

And, because I want to, I’ll add a few more Words of the Day (or “WotDs”):

INFIDEL, n.
In New York, one who does not believe in the Christian religion; in Constantinople, one who does.

IMPENITENCE,n.
A state of mind intermediate in point of time between sin and punishment.

IMPIETY, n.
Your irreverence toward my deity.

IN’ARDS, n.
The stomach, heart, soul and other bowels. Many eminent investigators do not class the soul as an in’ard, but that acute observer and renowned authority, Dr. Gunsaulus, is persuaded that the mysterious organ known as the spleen is nothing less than our important part. To the contrary, Professor Garrett P. Servis holds that man’s soul is that prolongation of his spinal marrow which forms the pith of his no tail; and for demonstration of his faith points confidently to the fact that no tailed animals have no souls. Concerning these two theories, it is best to suspend judgment by believing both.

Fun!

Stay far away from SuDoku. It’s a Japanese number puzzle. You’re given a board like this one:

And you have to fill in the blanks. Each row, column, and marked 3×3 square must contain the numbers 1-9 exactly once.

It sounds really simple. And it is, for the first few squares.

It’s the last few squares that bite you, and then you have to go back and change things, or start over.

Why should you stay away? Because this will eat your time. I picked up one of these today, and it took me over two hours to finish.

Actually, if I had to do another one, it’d probably be a lot easier. The trick to this game comes in the extended entry.

According to a site called the “Center for Defense Information,” during the Cold War, the secret code that would have been used to launch nuclear missiles at Russia was:

00000000

*cough*

Well.

Apparently, the Strategic Air Command “remained far less concerned about unauthorized launches than about the potential of these safeguards to interfere with the implementation of wartime launch orders.” So they made sure that all the missiles used an easy to remember code.

That’s a little scary.

(Via Digg)

This is cool:

This is the world’s awesomest shower head. I’d tell you how much it costs, but Dornbracht’s incompetently designed product website doesn’t say.

But still! A fun shower head. I want one….

(Via Spare Change)