Controlled Chaos

The Onion is known for faux news, but other than the title and nut graph, this is all true!

“I always had this perverted sense of pride because I was managing to scrape by here,” said Brooklyn resident Andrew McQuade, who, after watching two subway rats gnawing on a third bloody rat carcass, finally determined that New York City was a giant sprawling cancer.

Other incidents that prompted citizens to pick up and leave included the sight of garbage bags stacked 5 feet high on the sidewalk; the realization that being alone among millions of anonymous people is actually quite horrifying; a blaring siren that droned on and fucking on; muddy, refuse-filled puddles that have inexplicably not dried in three years; the thought of growing into a person whose meanness and cynicism is cloaked in a kind of holier-than-thou brand of sarcasm that the rest of the world finds nauseating; and all the goddamn people.

In addition, 3 million New Yorkers reportedly left the city because they realized the phrase “Only in New York” is actually just a defense mechanism used to convince themselves that seeing a naked man take a shit on a park bench is somehow endearing, or part of some shared cultural experience.

Before departing by private helicopter, Mayor Michael Bloomberg spoke with members of the media to address the situation.

“…This place is fucking insane. And by the way, that’s not a reason to like it. Anyone who says that is a delusional dirtbag.”

via 8.4 Million New Yorkers Suddenly Realize New York City A Horrible Place To Live | The Onion – America’s Finest News Source.

//I will post, below, the email from my friend Cory that warranted this response, which hints at my beliefs on God.\\

Let me first remark that pitting science against religion is a dangerous and folly thing to do.  Some of the most world-changing scientists were devout Christians, Muslims, and nativists; they conducted research on the heavens and Earth using the scientific method, and looked upon replicability as powerful because of its predictive value.  They never assumed to have thwarted the concept of God; indeed, they questioned his existence, and in the miracles of life and predictability of our world, their faith was strengthened.  And while some radicalized Christians (or religious people) may wish to depose the theories of evolution and the big bang, one would be hard-pressed to find Christians (or religious people) who might argue the validity of other empirical theories such as gravity and thermodynamics.  All children should be taught the scientific method; it has served to reduce poverty, create infrastructure and opportunity, and better the quality of life of the vast majority of the people on this planet.

Now, when Mr. Slick discusses logical fallability and the existence of God, it must first be noted that he is doing so through the frame of philosophy, of which both logic and ethics are both branches; I remember taking “Philosophy 51: Logic” at the University of Missouri in 2002, and learning many of the logical precepts that he cites in his article.  Having read his article, I feel no need to disagree with his reasoning – but I would encourage all readers to look at his conclusion, and then acknowledge his editorialization of its meaning.  Slick’s *logical conclusion* (and I quote) is as follows:

I conclude that there is an absolute and transcendent mind that, for a lack of a better term, has authored the logical absolutes. I call this absolute and transcendent mind, God.

The first sentence has been derived from logical constructs.  The second is a simple, unfounded opinion, an expression of the first law of logic: the law of identity.  What Slick calls God, Muslims call Allah, Hindus call Brahma, and scientists refuse to ascribe a name to because, and here I am again quoting Slick:

“[The law of identity] states that something is what it is and is not what it is not. For example, an egg is an egg and not a flashlight.”

I’m just going to take a shot in the dark and say that I doubt Mr. Slick would concede that God, Allah and Brahma are one and the same – and if he is not willing to do so, his premise and its logical underpinnings fall apart completely.  Thus, the question I pose to those who agree with Mr. Slick is: Do you believe in Allah?  If an egg is an egg, and not a flashlight, then either Allah and God are both names of eggs, or your entire viewpoint of the world can only account for about 25% of it.  The replicability of your worldview is basically unfounded.

But turning the coin, I would then pose to Mr. Kagin’s followers: we cannot prove the existence of gravity, and yet most of us accept its existence.  Nor can we prove the existence of God, yet the vast majority of the world’s people believe in some concept or another of that entity.  The question I pose is: why try to use logic and science to denounce God?  You sit on the shoulder of giants, and as I mentioned earlier, most of those giants were men of cloth.  It seems to me that a more solid logical argument would be to denounce the mythology surrounding God, and to argue simply that the Christian concept of God, the Muslim concept of Allah, the Hindu concept of Brahma, and the scientific concept of truth are all, at their base, one and the same.

It is my belief that science can tell us how, and that religion can never be in contrast with measurable reality.  It is also my belief that religion allows us to ask why, and that it serves a purpose for believers and non-believers alike.

(more…)

How bathroom posture affects your health. – By Daniel Lametti – Slate Magazine.

I don’t really squat, even in Indo.  I am always on the lookout for squatters, so I can keep my distance.  But after reading this article, maybe my opinion should change…

After reading the results of the facebook profile content analysis, “The REAL ‘Stuff White People Like’ « OkTrends,” I can only presume that I am not a real white man.  Why:

-The only thing from the white man list that resonated with me with Queens of the Stone Age, which I turned on immediately after reading the list (I’d tried to listen to it the other day, actually, but had forgotten the bands name.)  The paragraph subsequent to the infographic listed this as the sole “vaguely feminine” entry in the list.

Maybe I am a white female, because I do enjoy the following entries from that list:

-bonfires
-boating
-historical fiction
-Eat Pray Love (the book, but maybe because I’ve been to India and Indonesia and love good writing – the plot didn’t appeal to me, so I doubt the movie will please)

But actually, it’s perhaps more rational to come to the conclusion that I am a black man, because from that list, I like the following entries:

-Mos Def
-The Roots
-Kanye West
-Boondocks
-Ladies
-Jay-Z
-Outkast
-Talib Kweli
-2Pac

I can, at least, safely say I am not a black woman, as the only resonating entries there were:

-Coming to America
-Hip Hop (and probably only because of my black man-ness)

And while hip-hop would also make me a Latino man, the only other things from that list that I identify with are Full Metal Jacket and Mars Volta – although I identify with both of these strongly.  I am in no way an Asian female.

Malcolm Gladwell is as close as I get to being an Asian man.  This detail, interestingly enough, also makes me an Asian woman, and since I also like Slumdog Millionaire, I am actually more Asian woman than I am Asian man.  Which was also the case, if you’ll recall, with my whiteness.  Interesting…

My Indian man-ness is pretty strong – I like India (but probably not as much as them), Indian food, “veg,” Gandhi, slumdog millionaire, red hot chili peppers, the namesake, and r.e.m.  Almost all of the details that made me an Indian man also make me an Indian woman, interestingly enough.

A love of Richard Dawkins and the Sopranos is all the Arab man I can muster up.  And Eat Pray Love and Persepolis make me an Arab woman.

Now since I live in Indonesia and am actually typing this from there, I was very interested to discover how Pacific Islander I am.  These details tie me to the word cloud-produced image of a male Pacific Islander:

-2Pac
-Science
-Dr. Dre
-The Roots

Trader Joe’s is the only thing that makes me an Pacific Islander woman.  Good thing they have that floral print on everything..!

What do I draw from this?  That the user base of OKCupid may not have the most representative sample of any ethnic groups – not even white.  Nonetheless, it is compelling, and worth some time to analyze!

The MacBook. All USB Ports Are Not Equal | Gadget Lab | Wired.com.

Maybe this is why?  But its not just for big things.  It won’t even power a jump drive now.  I think when I plugged in that flash modem that temporarily killed my computer, it may have pummeled my logic board a bit. =/

The True Price of SMS Messages | A GThing Science Project

Wireless Service providers are petty thieves.  This article makes that abundantly clear.

Alumni of the Month

Congrats to Citra, who was Indonesia’s Fulbrighter of the month!  Her involvement in Indonesian Journalism, her against-all-odds life story, and her internationalism, among other things, are quite impressive!

The Associated Press: Japanese eating champ in hot water in NY

Wow, I definitely saw Kobayashi being carried around by people during the contest…but he got arrested afterward?  I take his side – he shouldn’t have to sign a contract for the American eating league – first, because that’s a joke, right, and second, because HE IS A SIX-TIME CHAMPION OF THE EVENT!

Let him eat!  Let him eat!

Rape-aXe: A Female Condom With Teeth

A novel approach to protecting oneself against rapists.  He does have to insert for this device to be deployed.  See the pictures…

The Glenn Beck Haiku Project

you are a mormon
social justice pioneer
that’s only half-right