Internet friendship

I guess this is kind of weblog, and I know I have at least one reader desperate to see my "in the flesh" as much as possible (you know who you are!) so I present my triumphant return to youtube with a mini rant about people adding you to friends when they really aren't your friend!

The same goes for facebook (although I also flat out refuse to use that site) friends are something I really cherish, its not just a word I throw around!

In other news I'm still feeling overweight and heavily body concious, so yeah...

I need an adult!

To be more precise I need a physicist, or maybe an engineer. Perhaps its fitting that I've come up with what might be an incredible idea, after all I lived opposite form the creator of Worms (who invented the game doodling in class in the same school I once went to). So maybe it is the destiny of people from Bournemouth to invent things when they should be paying attention in class!

I don't want to be too detailed in my "invention" as it is just an idea and I really need to spend some time looking up and calculating the formulas needed, the basic premise could result in a way of generating power that requires no energy input bar gravity (not an unheard of idea, see hydroelectric dams). However if the mechanism is efficient enough for it to even support its own running is questionable, let alone to provide power for external devices, especially in the quantity needed for, say, a reactor.

I'm not saying I've come up with something that will stop the worlds dependence on fossil fuels or anything, especially as this is a very very preliminary idea, but if this works then it could be amazing!

Of course I'm 90% sure it doesn't work, its so simple that it must have been tried before, its not like cold fusion or anything, this is such a simple mechanism that a studying biochemist thought of it while daydreaming instead of listening about how to purify protein samples, something that could actually be useful in her career...

Thoughlessness for the day

If you got a million monkeys and put them in a room with a million typewriters then left them for a million years... You'll come back and wish you left them some food.

User generated content vs. the economy & culture

I was watching "Its only a theory" on BBC today, its essentially a panel show where people in academia try to prove that they aren't talking out of their arse. Well today's episode enthralled me because of the second person to bring their theory to test, an author and starter of a now-bankrupt Internet company who was arguing "User-generated media is killing our culture and economy".

Basically his argument was that people can't make money over the Internet very well, which makes me wonder how people like Randy Milholland manage to make a living from giving a free service just by asking for donations and selling a few products on the side? You see it is perfectly possible to make a living on the Internet, but whats a lot harder is making a company on the Internet, companies take certain levels of profit for granted, and if I can be honest the level of profit they expect is obscene.

Also mentioned in the show was the porn industry, apparently its getting harder for the California smut peddlers these days due to amateurs uploading free images and such. Yeah controversial topic time, but from what I understand the porn industry is abusive with a capital A (makes me wonder why I didn't actually put a capital A on it...) the actresses have to have perfect bodies for their particular niche, perfect breasts, perfect hair, perfect flat stomachs. No-one naturally has these kind of bodies, so you need to eat unhealthily, get surgeries such as implants, labiaplasty and other plastic surgeries, just to stay in a job...

Now this industry is apparently being overtaken by amateurs... real people who have the confidence to show their lovemaking to the world. You know what I think? This is wonderful! How empowering to know that people around the world find you attractive! Whats more these images will be of real people! Imperfect breasts, saggy tummies, stretch marks and fuzzy nipples, real women. So instead of impossible aspirations being given to young men across the globe these same young men will be open about finding real women attractive rather than airbrushed surgery-riddled "porn stars"

Of course there's always the matter of quality, after all a home-made set and cheap camera can't be as good as the real thing right? Funny you should ask, because if you look at the set for It's only a theory, all it's really made of is 2 desks, 4 chairs for the guests and space for an audience, the rest is all just painted up to look nice. I'm not trying to have a go at the show, I'm trying to state that it doesn't cost stupid amounts of money to make something that looks good! Also just because something looks good doesn't mean you have to charge for it, for example Black Mesa, its a soon to be released (hopefully) mod for the source engine (half life 2, left 4 dead et all) which entirely recreates the first half-life game. Completely fan-made, completely free and it looks like a million dollars! Sure it might be coming out years later than they originally intended, but what highly anticipated game doesn't?

I wish to make a point about illegal downloads now, you see plastered on the news "Illegal downloading costs the games industry x million each year" "torrenting costs the record industry billions" "Pirating movie is destroying Hollywood, taking away $74 quadrillion every second" and other overblown claims. These claims are ridiculous, just because someone is willing to download something for free does not mean they like it enough to pay for it do you see? If person X wants to download an album she might only like 1 song on it, but she downloaded the album because it was free, companies would then look at their profits and say they lost the cost of the album! If person Y downloaded a HD movie onto his PC then he'll watch said movie then probably delete it, but if it wasn't available to download then there's a good chance person Y would never have watched it, meanwhile the movie industry sees a HD movie downloaded and says "We just lost out on a bluray sale".

Here's the crux of the argument "Just because someone downloaded something doesn't mean they would have otherwise bought it" is that clear enough? Sure illegal downloads cost a lot of money to the companies affected, but no-where near what they claim, and besides the lifestyles lived by the people at the top of these industries is so ridiculously opulent it a wonder they can sleep at night knowing that people are suffering in the world due to being poor, but hey that probably just makes them giggle.

Is user generated content and the Internet in general destroying our economy and our culture? Perhaps, in a similar way that the knights of old slew a dragon. Our economy is a mess where the very rich are far too rich and the very poor are far too poor, our culture is divided across the globe across national borders and filled with oh so many hate-filed cesspools. Perhaps its a good thing the Internet is killing these beasts and giving us a stage where everyone is equal, people can talk freely and spread ideas, where anyone with talent is able to show the world what they can do, and all for free, taking money away from those fat-cats at the top of industry. Oh what a shame Jive records can no-longer afford to give its executives private helicopters, consider that revenge for bringing us Britney!

I'm going to stop rambling here because this is enough as an essay already, thanks for reading this free user generated content, I hope you enjoyed it as it is, free to make, free to use and free from adverts. No profit was made in the production of this post.

One in twenty

Did you know one in twenty British schoolchildren believe that Hitler was the German football coach?

Scandalous right, a disgusting lack of respect.

Not to those who died in the war, well to be fair that also, but its a gigantic lack of respect for truth everywhere, and I don't say that just because this report was in the daily mail...

Reading through the daily mails online article I find some things slightly suspicious...

"A study of 2,000 children which tested them on their knowledge of facts of both world wars found"

2000 children, aged 9-15. Okay but where were these kids sampled from, all we know is that they were "British" that covers a huge area, turns out a little look around online will reveal that this research was done by a Scottish charity on Scottish children, while I have no knowledge about the comparison between Scottish and English/Irish/Welsh schools I do find it unfair that 2000 Scottish kids are apparently representative for around 5 million children between 9 and 15 in the UK (complete estimate, slightly under 20% are under 16, so slightly under half of those would be between 9 and 15).

Can I ask something else too? At what age is World War 2 taught to schoolchildren? I do somewhat remember my history lessons from when I was younger and I'm pretty sure that most of what we were taught was Romans, Tudors and 4 years on the battle of 1066, I do remember being taught World war 2 before GCSEs, but I remember being taught it in senior school so I would have been at least 12, that's slap in the middle of our selective range, so its fair to say that around half the people questioned might've never studied world war 2!

So can I use my own statistic now: "~ 9/10 schoolchildren knew who Hitler was before having studied him at school"

You know what that's a slightly less alarming fact to me, I think its easy to forget when you read "1 in 20 do x" that this also means that "19 in 20 do y"!

Also were talking about children ages 9-15, sometimes children at that age aren't concerned about being serious, and when some person comes up and asks "Is Hitler a) The German football coach or b) the leader of Germany during the second world war" a noticeable number will say "a" because its funny, even more will say "a" because its the first answer and they don't want to be questioned so they just answer as quick as possible to get rid of this nuisance in their life.

I'm not going to say never trust statistics, just be aware that the person who made the survey usually wanted a certain answer and use baited questions, hand-picked bias participants and mathematical abuse to get the answer they want.

Imagine the person on the street who stops people to ask them a short questionnaire, a perfectly legitimate way of getting someone to fill in a survey right? Well sure, but you have to remember that your one in twenty is "one in twenty people who are the kind of people who stop and answer questionnaires" a good 90% of people aren't that kind of people, so your numbers aren't accurate, through no fault of your own but they are still flawed!

Nine times out of ten statistics are abused to say what the company wants them to!

pun intended

Science "Versus" Religion

This should be fun...

Firstly I'd like to give a message to the so-called "atheist buses" and it is as follows: You seem to have mistaken "atheist" with "arsehole" you see having a sign saying there is no god on the side of a bus parading around town, particularly outside a church during memorial Sunday, that's not spreading a message, that's being a dick! Some people believe there is a god who loves them unconditionally, so perhaps the same thing should be done on other buses for atheists, a personalised message saying that your wife doesn't really love you perhaps?

Can I just say something? Science will never disprove religion this is for a very simple reason; religion couldn't give a care to proof, you can't fight a belief with proof, it doesn't work like that, if it was proof based then it wouldn't be a belief it would be a fact.

Perhaps I can use a easy to understand simile of fire fighting. If you want to put out a small fire then reaching for the kettle and emptying it over the fire will usually give good results, the water will put out the fire and everyone will be happy. However if you do that to a burning chip pan then the oil will float over the water and use it to spread over the kitchen then burn down your house.

So science is a normal fire, if you use the water of proof against a scientific theory then you can put it out, indeed a good scientist will be happy that you disproved their theory, as it means humanity is that little bit more knowledgeable. However if you try and put out the fire of religion with the water of proof then your just going to be stirring up the flames and risking getting burnt and for what reason? Religious people are happy with their religion and most are moderate and considered people sure there are the extremists, but its not as if there are no atheists who go around murdering, regardless of their beliefs some people are simply dangerous.

In some ways I wish I had faith, I love science, I find it fascinating to work out how the universe works, what makes a person a person rather than just a pile of atoms and molecules, how you can tell the difference between a pool of randomised chemical reactions and a pool filled with simple lifeforms. But I can only imagine how much more fascinating I would find it if I had a belief in an all knowing god who created everything, I wouldn't just be studying how the universe works, I'd be studying how god works! I'd be gaining knowledge in how an immortal and incorporeal entity creates an infinite universe of such great variety from just 94 minuscule building blocks (the naturally occurring elements).

I'm going to keep studying science and I'll continue being an atheist, because I don't believe in god and there isn't proof to force me to acknowledge that there is a god. But for those who do believe, know that I have the utmost respect of your beliefs and I will never be using my knowledge of the intimate workings of the universe in an attempt to undermine your belief system

We live in a wonderful and incredible world, the very fact that we are alive and able to communicate between continents just by me pressing a few buttons on an electronic device the size of a large book is surreal. Why does there have to be this fight between people on how we came to be here, instead lets simply enjoy being here, right now, in this moment. Free and happy, by gods hands or not, it's a beautiful world, now go out and enjoy it!

An evening's entertainment

First off: Yay for 2am posting!

I figure I should now explain what happened tonight, after my lab practical (identifying amino acids on a dipeptide, for those who care) I was chatting to woman A (not sure if I should be sharing names) while waiting for the slower students to finish in the lab. She invited me to her friends house watch some films perfectly normal one would think, however then the sly woman asked about if anyone had a better laptop or a TV as her's is awful.

I appear to be the only student in my uni who has brought her own TV, thus I am now responsible for hosting cinematic experiences, some of which may include film collectives...

Perhaps I should explain the lesbian film collective bit, but it would just be easier to link to youtube (link isn't work safe, unless your work wants you watching comedies with some adult themes). Now woman A had managed to be inviting her friends around my room, rather than me around theirs, which isn't really a problem, but she also decided to mention that her friends were lesbians. Not that I have a problem with lesbians, if I was any more open minded I'd have a sunroof, but I've never really been part of a group which is half-formed by gay people. You see despite being technically part of that whole "LGBT" thing I don't really surround myself with gay people, or Trans people for that matter.

Anyway they were lovely, perhaps a little erratic in the fashion department, and one was so shy she made me look extroverted but we did watch "naked gun 33 1/3" and that makes any evening wonderful! We also watched "Wallace and Gromit, a matter of loaf and death", and "The grudge" which could have been scarier, but was pretty much an excuse to cuddle up under the bedsheets and make the one guy we'd invited feel extremely left out!

One final thing I'd like to mention since its 2:30 am and that's the perfect time for ranting about bullshit that floats into my brain. I am a fan of comedies, particularly romantic comedies, but any will do. I have a request to any filmmakers reading this (be they part of a lesbian film collective or not) but can you please, please, please stop taking such cheap shots at trans people! "Oh ha ha that woman has a penis and it disgusts the male lead in a humorous way, lets all giggle at this". I can take a joke, but when a good 50% of films I've watched lately have taken on this "joke" in one way or another it does start to get tedious, especially when 99% of people at uni don't know about my background so I can't explain why I'm not laughing my head of.

Seriously its an epidemic, American pie (sigma house?), Naked gun 33 1/3, Shallow Hal, 50 first dates (though a transguy in this case, and its much more tasteful), dude wheres my car. That's just the list off the top of my head. What I don't get is how there is an annoyingly huge porn industry around transwomen (yay more negative stereotyping for us) and yet its ok to joke about how men find us disgusting. Something doesn't add up here and it all leads to the inevitable body image problem I have which leaves me as my own worst critic, causing negative behaviour where I assume no men are interested in me, and those that are interested are naturally porn-watching serial masturbating perverts who only want me for the bits of me I don't want.

Maybe I should consider joining a film collective...