---=== Random Identifying Bits ===---
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Version: 3.12 (http://www.geekcode.com/geek.html)
Extension: Weapons (http://kuoi.asui.uidaho.edu/~kamikaze/documents/geekWeapons.html) [1]
GCS/S/M dpu- s+:++ a16 C++++>$ UL+++>++++ P+>++ L+++>++++$ E- W++ N- !o
K !w--- O- M-- V? PS+(+++) PE-(--) Y+ PGP++ t+@ 5? X- R++ tv+ b DI++++ D+
G e*- h! !r-- !y--(-)
[1] ma-- k F2- !X--
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---=== New Stuff ===---
Finally bothered to remove all the useless stuff from this .plan, so it should
load faster. I'd personally recommend hendersa's plan if you've got some time
to kill, but you're probably here for a reason.
---=== 02/26/2002, 22:15 PST ===---
I've been doing some thinking about the world and humankind recently, as
pondering is one of the things that I'm apt to do given adequate free time.
So, here goes...
We are a race of 6 billion people living on a planet that, on the scale of
space, is a mere fleck of dust. As rational beings, we like to think that we,
as instances of the human class, if you will, are right, and that everyone
opposing us is wrong. But are we, really?
The way things are "meant to be" are based upon (depending upon what you
believe in) the ramblings of someone you believe to be your messiah, a mythical
force behind the Universe, or your own personal prerogative. Needless to say,
groups of people believing in these different things don't get along very well,
and most of them are at odds with one another for most of the time. People are
born, they live (and toil away for some little multicolored pieces of paper),
and they die (and go to nobody-knows-where) believing that they, themselves, are
the lone voice of reason in a dizzying mess of stimuli that we call the
Universe.
There's a real problem with this situation, and that is this:
What is morally right is decided by the viewpoint of the majority of the
people, as rational beings (which humans are, most of the time) see that where
n > m, n people must be more right than m people.
Now, majority rule is somewhat fair, and the majority (depending on just how
major it is) is statistically less likely to be wrong, but the majority has
been wrong before (think geocentrism), so what if?
This whole War on Terrorism (tm) is awful. We're going out, actively
recruiting nations, asking them to put their hindquarters on the line, and for
what? To get back at a group of people who happen to think that they're right,
and that we *shouldn't* be throwing our collective mass around like the
proverbial <integer>-pound gorilla we are? Sounds a lot like we could be
wrong, doesn't it?
What if we're meant to fly aircraft into our enemies' buildings? What if
we're meant to go out and kill all those who stand in our way? Sounds like
a pretty dreadful existence, I admit, not knowing if you're going to be here
one instant and ablaze in smoldering jet fuel the next, but what if?
On the other hand, we could be meant to act peacefully to everyone, no matter
what they believe, who they worship, who they love, where they live, or whether
one of their chromosomes is mutated or not. Together, the human race could do
great things, but we're too busy killing each other to just swallow our pride
and pitch in for the common good. So why don't we do just that, give each
other a chance, and see what transpires?
Imagine if George W. Bush and friends, instead of having a big fit about the
"evildoers", just came out and said, "OK, guys, we get the message; we'll try
not to boss you around, and we're sorry for any injustice we may have wrought
in the past?" Everyone would think that he was crazy, but if he had done it,
perhaps Osama bin Laden and the Taliban would have dropped the whole "Great
Satan" thing, or at least rethought it a bit, and the world would've been that
much better. Instead, we're caught in a war against an abstract concept, one
that we can never win, and should never have fought in the first place. Our
fellow human beings are dropping like flies, and yet we're not going to stop,
because we think we're Fighting For Truth, Justice, and the American Way (tm).
Do we really want to do this? Wouldn't it really be better to act nice to our
fellow carbon-based lifeforms now, instead of fighting horrible wars and
waking up one day to realize that there's nobody left to be nice to anymore?
In short, (yes, this is horribly cliched) can't we all just get along?
---=== 02/25/2002, 21:51 PST ===---
Got into a new hobby today: Googlewhacking. The premise is essentially to
search for two-word phrases that, when entered into the search engine Google,
give one result back. The official homepage is at http://www.googlewhack.com.
I've already found 3 so far: "zymurgy diphthong", "entropic zymurgy", and
"necrotizing telekinesis."
-- Late Breaking Update --
Well, not so much "late breaking" as "crap I forgot to put in the main thing
because I'm bad at remembering things like that"...
I went over to Spacefem's site (http://www.spacefem.com) and took the Militant
Feminist Quiz (yeah, I'm a guy, but I figured it would be good for a larf),
and ended up getting 80% somehow. Spacefem, if you'd like to explain this to
me, I'd be much obliged. :)
---=== Old Stuff ===---
A few Websites you may be interested in if you're bored enough to be reading this:
Bring back the Classic Subway Cut! ( http://spine.cx/subway )
The Museum of Broken Packets ( http://lcamtuf.coredump.cx/mobp )
Fun With Jet Engines ( http://www.asciimation.co.nz/beer )
A Blast from the Linux Past ( http://www.mentalhygiene.com/kernelnotes.html )
The True Story of the Rocket Car ( http://www.geocities.com/Baja/Canyon/7665/ROCKIT.HTML )
The Bastard Operator From Hell Do-It-Yourself Excuse Board ( http://bofh.ntk.net/ExcuseBoard.html )