A student in the classical sense

David Cameron: Tomb Raider

2008-07-20T04:02:30Z

David Cameron, whilst making a rather stupid metaphor, compared politics to Tomb Raider, a game series which hasn't had a decent release in about a decade. Fantastic. I wonder if he'll start telling us that he roller-blades to work, or can't get enough of his Walkman. It's a little sad when politicians try so desperately to pander to voters, and yet fail so dismally. Then again, it wouldn't have been much better had he called himself the Master Chief of politics, or explained how drafting legislation is actually a quite lot like GTA IV. Oh well, at least it's not as bad as John McCain, who doesn't quite grasp computing.

A few links

2008-07-18T15:09:35Z

First, more Iranian photoshopping fun in this gallery.

Second, check out this bad-ass new(ish) CT scanner. Better images and up to 80% reduction of radiation exposure- impressive.

And third, if you're looking forward to Fallout 3, I strongly recommend both this 20-minute gameplay video and this preview. It looks like it might actually live up to the awesomeness of the first two. I can only hope. Other shortly-arriving games I'm excited about include Far Cry 2, Mercenaries 2, C&C Red Alert 3 and, of course, Spore. It's shaping up to be a very good year for gaming.

Diamond Age

2008-07-13T23:37:44Z

Diamonds are in this season, and it looks like they won't be going out of fashion for quite some time. Of course, diamond tools and electronics are very cool, but personally I'm looking forward to house bricks and windows are solid diamond. I have to wonder what's going through the minds of De Beers executives at the moment- Chemical vapor deposition diamonds have the potential to completely obliterate their market, and unless they're able to get on the bandwagon soon, they'll be left with warehouses full of worthless stones.

On a related note, I recently finished reading Neal Stephenson's Diamond Age, the sorta-sequel to Snow Crash. It was absolutely fantastic (both were), and I'd highly recommend it for anyone interested in a post-cyberpunk thriller dealing with artificial intelligence, education, hive-minds, Chinese culture and tons of other captivating themes. As in Snow Crash, Stephenson repeatedly throws off superb technological concepts, only this time the world is covered in full blown nanotechnology, allowing for some truly awesome ideas.

The reflections are all wrong

2008-07-12T02:11:28Z

It seems that photoshopping* is rather popular in the media lately. Iran's been shamed with the revelation that they edited an image of a recent missile test, and done so fairly obviously. It seems that pictures of smoke are quite tricky to photoshop convincingly, as the 2006 Adnan Hajj controversy showed. As weak a job as the Iranian government did, it doesn't even compare to the piss-poor effort on FOX news' part in editing photographs of two NY Times reporters. At least with the missile shot it takes a couple of seconds to see the cloning; the FOX pics are just laughably bad. Steinberg's nose is ludicrously enlarged, and Reddicliffe's forehead is blurred beyond recognition. If you're going to run moronic attack segments on what is (in theory) a news channel, at least have the decency to do a good job on your propaganda photos.

_{*Sorry, I meant "enhancing using Adobe® Photoshop® software."}

Philosophy in school

2008-07-07T01:28:09Z

The Guardian, which I'm normally not a huge fan of, had an interesting article on the teaching of philosophy to younger children in school. I think it's a great proposal, and would hopefully give people more reasoned and logical mindset for the rest of their lives. One part of the article I have to disagree with is the quote "Because philosophical questions cannot be settled by factual evidence, discussion doesn't get derailed by missing knowledge or closed down by the introduction of new information." While factual evidence may not be relevant to many philosophical discussions, there are certainly some where it plays a big part, such as many areas of medical ethics. Let's take the Terri Schiavo case as an example.

On the left is a CT scan of a healthy brain, and on the right is Terri Schivo's brain as of 2002, showing massive loss of brain tissue and a buildup of fluid (hydrocephalus). In addition, an EEG showed no measurable brain activity. These facts demonstrated that Schiavo was essentially brain-dead, which had an extremely significant impact on whether or not it was ethical to pull the plug- a philosophical argument.

Also, check out this Vanity Fair article in which Christopher Hitchens talks about undergoing water-boarding in the name of journalism. I'll take his word for it being torture, as I certainly wouldn't want to have any "enhanced interrogation techniques" used on me.

Implanted heart monitor under development

2008-07-06T00:14:15Z

Researchers from Imperial College are developing a heart monitoring implant in order to allow doctors to keep watch on the condition of people who have had previous cardiac problems. It's a simple idea, but a great one, and will hopefully provide early warning for many people, plus it brings us one step closer to human augmentation being common. The project is going ahead thanks to £760,000 from the Wellcome Trust.

Also, this analogy about tax reduction amused me.

Sharia law in Britain?

2008-07-05T22:35:09Z

According to the Lord Chief Justice, Sharia law "could have UK role" in some areas such as family disputes. Know what? It's fine by me. People should be able to use whatever method they like for mediation, provided all parties consent. If they wish to live under a legal system which, say, punishes swearing with execution, I'm fine with it. They can enter into whatever contract they want, but if Muslims are allowed to go before Sharia-based courts, then I should also be allowed to choose the legal system I'm tried under, based on whatever criteria I want. Problem is, that's unlikely to happen, but why not? If some people can decide to live under a different legal system because of their beliefs, why not everyone else? Either everyone abides by the same laws, or everyone gets to choose the system they want. I prefer the latter, but the former is at least preferable to giving whoever makes the most noise special treatment.

Good news, everybody

2008-07-03T00:23:30Z

A few interesting pieces of news-

A very rare blue lobster has been caught.

California may be voting on fully legalising cannabis for private, non-medical consumption. Colorado and Nevada came pretty close at the last mid-term elections, so perhaps it'll actually get through.

And ice has been confirmed on Mars. Awesome.

Fanboyism

2008-06-24T01:18:08Z

I don't tend towards fanboyish behaviour too much, but there are three games which I'll make an exception for- Theme Hospital, Fallout 2 and Deus Ex. Of them, Deus Ex is my favourite, and I won't hear a word said against it. I've played it through on at least thirteen separate occasions, and I loved it every time. I even completed it once without killing a single NPC (except for Anna Navarre, who it's almost impossible to avoid killing). Invisible War was a pretty good game, but it just wasn't up to the same standard as the original, so I'm a little wary of the news that Deus Ex 3 is in development. I suppose I'll just have to wait and see. In the meantime, I'll just fret over Fallout 3. Please do a good job, Bethesda. Please?

New Bullshit!

2008-06-23T11:21:27Z

Penn and Teller's Bullshit! has started its sixth season with an episode entitled "War on Porn", and it's a good 'un. I'm a huge fan of Bullshit!, and I agree with Penn and Teller on pretty much every issue they've covered (cryonics being the only major exception*). Sure, they can be a little sensationalist and showy at times, but at least they fully admit where they're being unscientific, and their fundamental message of reason is great.

On the subject of porn, the BBC has a reasonably interesting article about obscenity and censorship in the UK. It's rather peculiar that Weeds (a Showtime production, like Bullshit!) was completely censored, as it hardly makes drugs out as entirely wonderful, and has very little in the way of objectionable content other than the drug references. Luckily, thanks to the power of the Internet, the BBFC can do bugger all to prevent people from watching the show. Or any other show. Or hardcore midget bestiality scat porn. We may not be rid of censorship, but at least it's laughably ineffectual these days.

*To be fair, the episode where they covered cryonics was made in 2004, and there have been quite a few advances in the area since then. Whilst it's still a bit dodgy, I reckon it'll be worth investing in fairly soon.

Couple of links

2008-06-22T07:14:20Z

I've been out of the house a fair bit lately, so haven't gotten around to updating much, but here are a few amusing things to view while I come up with something insightful.

Check out this badass new engine which basically works by creating a series of controlled explosions inside, and funneling the blast out the back.

Ever wanted to watch very, very weird TV with no channels? Now you can.

For your (relatively) complete guide to internet memes, see here.

The MPAA is making absurd claims again; this time they're arguing that they shouldn't have to actually prove that copyright infringement has taken place in order to fine people for it. Apparently, it's too hard these days, and therefore should be optional. Seems to me that when a law becomes impossible to apply, perhaps we should start considering whether or not it's a good law.

And there's more fuss over Pluto- is it a planet, a planetoid, a dwarf planet or a plutoid? Does it really matter?

Singularity and seasteading

2008-06-05T15:00:24Z

The IEEE has an excellent special report on the technological singularity including comments from intellectual heavy-weights such as Ray Kurzweil, Steven Pinker and Gordon Moore. Well worth a read.

Also, check out the Seasteading Institute's new site. Peter Thiel, who has invested in the Methuselah Mouse Prize project, Facebook and the Singularity Institute, has recently pledged $500,000 to the Seasteading Institute- the brainchild of Patri Friedman (patrissimo- personal blog), son of Anarcho-Capitalist David Friedman, and grandson of Nobel prize-winning economist Milton Friedman. Reason explains more.

Angry ranting

2008-05-30T18:02:49Z

Two things have really annoyed me today, which I shall now rant about, as that's kinda what I do.

First, the government is planning to ban drawn/CGI images of child pornography. Maria Eagle, spokesperson of MiniJust said that the plans are "not about criminalising art or pornographic cartoons more generally, but about targeting obscene, and often very realistic, images of child sexual abuse which have no place in our society". Fuck you. Fuck you, fuck you, fuck you. Why the shit do you get to decide what has a place in "our society". Why the fuck is it "our" society? It's an arbitrary grouping of millions of disparate individuals, and just shouting about society does not give you the right to tell anyone what they can and can't see.

In any case, banning these images is an actively bad idea from the point of view of "the children", for whose protection new legislation always seems to be passed. As I've previously explained, access to the object of one's paraphilia/fetish allows a release of sexual tension, making one less likely to actually act it out in real life (i.e abuse a child). Whilst I do not believe that child pornography, in any form, should be in and of itself illegal, the production of anything which directly involves the abuse of kids certainly should be. Luckily, with CGI or drawn kiddy porn, there's no abuse whatsoever. Nobody is harmed in the process of making and then consuming it. So why the hell are they banning it? Won't somebody please think of our freedom?

The other thing that pissed me off was the fact that Fermilab has been rescued from complete funding oblivion by a $5 million donation from an anonymous philanthropist. Whilst it's great that someone has stepped in to stop it going under, it annoys me greatly that the US government- the pricks who should have been funding it in the first place- wasn't able to keep the cash flow up. They're fine blowing $1 trillion on a stupid war that ended up making things worse, or billions a year on violating people's cognitive liberties, but a little $5 million on Physics research? No chance. The same thing goes for the UK, which is currently in a Physics funding crisis. I don't think that governments should be in charge of scientific funding, for precisely this reason (and the fact that funding often tends towards weapons tech, and the fact that governments have no goddamn clue what they're doing), but if they're going to claim that they'll fund it, the least they could do is actually put some cash in.

In more pleasant news, as reported in the Pro-Test blog, a Macaque has been trained to control a robotic arm directly linked to its brain in order to feed itself. The entry (written by Prof. John Stein) is well worth a read and, if you can be bothered, the abstract from nature is very interesting too.

Also, there's some new evidence for selfish gene theory.

Tough lesson

2008-05-25T20:39:09Z

A 5 year old kid from Florida with Asperger's* syndrome received a rather harsh lesson in democracy recently, when his class-mates voted 14 to 2 in favour of removing him from the classroom.

"Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch. Liberty is a well-armed lamb contesting the vote"
-Benjamin Franklin

*Not "Aspberger's" as stated by the article.

Independent, my arse

2008-05-25T15:26:51Z

If you come here regularly, you'll no doubt be well aware of my views regarding "TalkToFrank" the UK government's drug "information" campaign, which describes itself as an "independent government funded web site". For those of you who are new, here's a spoiler: it's bullshit.

Let's take a look at their new page explaining all this crazy stuff we've been hearing in the news about that dreaded marihuana. Luckily, FRANK is here to give us "the facts behind the headlines":

"Last year the government asked the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD) to review the classification of cannabis to recommend whether it should stay as a Class C drug or be moved to a Class B.

The ACMD’s report confirms that cannabis poses a real threat to the health of those who use it since:

Most of the cannabis around today is much stronger than it used to be

Some young people may ‘binge smoke’ to try and get as stoned as possible which could have a very serious effect on their mental health

Cannabis can worsen the symptoms of schizophrenia and lead to relapse

And they found that there is a probable, though weak, link between cannabis use and onset of psychotic illness

After considering the evidence in this latest report, the government have said that they intend to reclassify cannabis as a Class B drug and are looking to do this by the end of the year."

Wow, thanks, FRANK. I'll be sure not to touch that reefer now. Just one small thing- what about the fact that the ACMD report advised the government to keep cannabis as a class C, and noted that it is less harmful than alcohol and tobacco? Did that not seem in any way relevant? Of course not, because it turns out that FRANK is merely a mouthpiece for government policy (big shock). The government didn't consider the evidence for a second, as it didn't fit into their pre-conceived picture of the world. Some might call that sort of thing "principled". I call it bloody stupid.

The UK Cannabis Internet Activists explains more about FRANK's lies.

Scientology is, still, a cult

2008-05-24T21:27:07Z

The Crown Prosecution Service have made the obvious decision that protesters have the right to call Scientology "a cult". Whilst that's clearly a good thing, the part about this ruling (and similar ones) that worries me is that it leaves open the room for similar prosecutions to be made for "threatening, abusive or insulting" speech. Barring direct physical threats, the police have no business telling anyone what to do or say, whether it's calling Scientology "a cult", or making and showing in public "extreme pornography" wherein Scientologists are whipped and called "cunts" (provided no rights are infringed during the making of the film). I'm certainly not saying that should be the standard of debate, but what I am saying is that neither the police nor the courts have any business deciding the minimum standard of debate. If one is offended by something that takes place in a public area, one can either ignore it or make clear one's opposition, even though one's doing so may in fact offend more people. The third option, which really shouldn't be there, is to bitch about it and claim it offends you and, if you happen to be in one of the officially designated "offendable" groups, then the whole weight of Her Majesty's government will come crashing down upon those who would dare to insult you.

There's a series of similarly idiotic cases going on in Canada at the moment over the whole Muhammad cartoons affair, which is rather sad, as I'd always pegged Canada as one of the best countries on free speech. Perhaps the sad thing is that, despite these trials, it still is one of the best.

Scientology is a cult

2008-05-20T23:58:43Z

Apparently, it's now a crime to call the "church" of Scientology a cult, which is ludicrous not only because it's an obvious breach of freedom of speech, but also because Scientology most definitely is a cult. I attended two of the London demos, and I heard about 500 people chanting "this is a church, this is a cult", alternating pointing between a church and the Scientology building next door. Are the City of London police going to track down and prosecute each one of them? It does amuse me that the thought criminal was able to quote a High Court ruling in which a judge described Scientology as a "cult" which was "corrupt, sinister and dangerous". Are the cops going to bust Mr Justice Latey? That would be amusing.

EDIT: Youtuber captured the event on camera.

Shut up

2008-05-16T16:28:51Z

Seriously. If I hear one more thing about 2012, I'm reasonably certain I'm going to go insane. The Mayans were primitive folk who didn't know what a star was, and it's absurd to think that they had any kind of special knowledge. I'm sure lots of interesting and impressive things are going to happen in 2012, but the end of the world is not one of them and, if you think it is, you're an idiot.

Cybergear

2008-05-16T08:07:41Z

Now, thanks to a Japanese company called Cyberdyne, you can rent your very own powered exoskeleton from as little as $1,000 a month. The company will be producing up to 500 of the things before the year's out, so don't be surprised if you start seeing people leaping from building to building and chucking cars around. Okay, so it probably won't be quite that cool, but a 2-10 times increase in strength is still pretty damn cool. Personally, though, I'm waiting until they can graft some kind of synthetic muscle tissue straight onto my skeleton (which will be made of Titanium and carbon nanotubes).

EDIT: More info available here.

Messing up science

2008-05-11T23:46:22Z

The government and various MPs have been making quite a hash of a number issues recently, not that one should expect anything else.

First, there have been calls to force parents to allow MMR vaccination of their children by refusing them education. Whilst this measure might increase vaccination rates, it would be absolutely morally bankrupt and would end up causing a huge amount of resentment in the (sadly quite large) minority of people who bought into the scaremongering bullshit over MMR. If a parent really doesn't want their child to be vaccinated, then refusing the child an education isn't going to help much. They should certainly be told that they're wrong, encouraged to vaccinate their child as much as possible, and if necessary be called idiots and bad parents; but these aren't jobs for the government. Doctors, scientists and the press should be extolling the virtues of vaccination at every opportunity, and explaining why the jab is safe and effective. Bullying people into having their kids vaccinated goes past even the normal British nanny-statism, and gets into a pretty scary place.

Next up, the Medical Research Council is opposing scientists' plans to march on the house of commons in order to support stem-cell research, describing them as "counter-productive". What a ludicrous statement. There's a large number of people who don't properly understand stem-cell research or are opposed to it for (usually rather incoherent) philosophical reasons, including some MPs, and it seems to me the best way to remedy that is through public action, such as media appearances, letter writing, websites and demonstrations. It seems that the best people to explain scientific issues are usually scientists. As such, a demonstration by scientists is a pretty damn good idea. Luckily, it seems that the scientists are undeterred, and Evan Harris MP (who recently managed to repeal the UK's blasphemy laws, and is one of very few politicians I wouldn't feel dirty voting for) is supporting them.

In case you hadn't heard, "extreme" pornography is now illegal. Liz Longhurst, the woman who campaigned for this law, says "Sometimes the freedoms of like-minded, decent people have to be curtailed because of a few others". I find myself completely unable to sympathise about the death of her daughter after reading that. Yes, it's very sad when an insane person decides to live out their fantasies, but that doesn't give anyone a right to decide what is and isn't okay for other people to view. She's gone on an absurd moral crusade (although she rejects the term), because she believes her daughter would still be alive today if it weren't for violent pornography, instead of blaming the actions of a dangerous nutjob (who is now in jail). Even if you're willing to sacrifice freedom for perceived security (and if you are, to paraphrase Ben Franklin, you're a moron), banning violent pornography isn't going to make the situation worse, if everything. Studies suggest that access to pornographic material decreases the incidence of sex crimes by providing a release for urges. One of the main problems with this bill is the rather loose wording when it comes to exactly what constitutes "extreme". Who gets to choose where exactly comparatively mainstream bondage porn "appears to threaten a person's life". Does "appearing to perform an act of intercourse or oral sex with an animal" include furry porn? Of course, most people are willing to bleet along about how repulsive it all is, and how those perverts should be hanged, and most of those who actually realise that their liberties are being encroached upon are doubtless scared of being labeled a pervert. Ever been on 4chan or gotten a pop-up you really didn't want to see? Better delete your browser cache now, or else the police might come knocking. Spiked has more on the issue.

Jacqui Smith is a goddamn hypocrite

2008-05-07T21:45:17Z

Jacqui Smith, the home secretary who admitted to smoking cannabis a number of times during the '80s whilst attending Oxford, has decided to change cannabis back to a class B drug. Apparently, cannabis smoking has "given her the experiences to understand that she wants crime tackled". Well, I'm glad that you had that opportunity, Ms Smith. Aren't you lucky? Now, how about leaving that opportunity open to others so they can have the set of experiences in life that they desire, rather than threatening to kidnap (arrest) them? If you're willing to break the law in order to try something new, why the fuck do you expect anyone else to pay attention to it, you nanny-statist bitch? Are you the only one who gets to break the law in order to have a good time?

There's a quote from one of the Drugs Council's members (the drug council that advised keeping it class C) saying "The government may want to take other matters into account. That's their right. They are the government." NO. You don't get to make random, staggering, idiotic decisions completely unfounded in evidence simply because you're the government. That's complete bollocks, and it really worries me that anyone on a supposedly independent council would say anything like that.

It seems that Gordon Brown is at least as retarded as Jacqui Smith. Either he's a liar or a moron as, in a recent interview, he described cannabis as "lethal". Mr Brown, if you can point to a single case in the world's medical literature in which anyone died as a direct result of cannabis consumption, then I'll take all this back, but I suspect you don't know what you're talking about. Perhaps you'd like to take it up with Dr Lester Grinspoon, Associate Professor Emeritus of Psychiatry at Harvard Med School, who doesn't seem to share your opinion. Or you could take a look at your own government's death statistics. Perhaps you don't want to, because you know you're a goddamn liar and you don't care as long as you can get some votes from people who also have no idea what they're talking about. Either way, you're not qualified to be making this decision, which compounds with the fact that nobody in this country has voted for you to be in power. The one thing you've managed throughout your pathetic stint in office is to make me long for the at least mildly endearing lies and spin of Blair. Reason explains more.

Gordon Brown- class A moron

2008-05-02T23:16:40Z

What do you do when you're prime minister and every single one of your advisers and scientific committees suggest that you don't reverse a decision? Of course, you ignore all of them and do your own thing. That seems like the best course of action- fuck evidence, and do whatever the hell you like. That's how real leaders do things.

In case you haven't guessed, I'm talking about old Gordo's decision to switch cannabis back to a class B drug. Not that this actually means anything useful, as many very dangerous chemicals aren't even classified, and some class As have effectively no risk of death or serious damage to the user*. Cannabis is a drug that has never killed anyone. Ever. Its thought to cause any kind of long term damage only in extremely chronic users, and at least 30% of the adult population, most likely more and including many members of the current government, have used it at some point. Raising it to a class B will mean that the police "should" be arresting anyone they find with it on their person, with a maximum jailtime of five years for mere possession (14 for supply).

Luckily, many police officers realise that arresting teenagers smoking joints in car-parks and down alleys really isn't the best use of their time, and the Association of Chief Police Officers seems reluctant to have their officers do so. As I said in a previous post, police are just normal people, and sometimes there's an upside to this, such as when an idiot who wasn't even voted into power starts telling them to arrest people they know don't deserve it. The problem comes, of course, when the officers do decide to follow the law, perhaps to bump up their arrest statistics or simply because they buy into all the Daily Mail's bullshit about cannabis. The situation you're then in is having a force of entirely unpredictable police who are able to essentially judge whether to ruin someone's life or not on a complete whim. Perhaps the cop is having a bad day and decides to arrest a stoner because he was being a bit mouthy? Fine for the officer, but there's still the little issue that, if the stoner gets convicted (which is hit-and-miss thanks to our erratic legal system), his life will be ruined. Police should be restricted by their power, not given more than they need, and locking people up for something which harms nobody but themselves is not a power that the police need.

On a related note, the war on drugs has claimed one more victim.

*I'm presuming that the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971 is based on the concept of minimising harm to users rather than purely political pressure from the US and "Reefer Madness"-style hysteria induced by yellow journalism of the type so often employed by the Daily Mail et al.

AHAHAHAHAH

2008-05-02T21:21:54Z

One of the funniest things I've ever seen on the BBC website can be found here. As a bonus, it's pretty interesting too.

Also, check out this ace article on future materials. In case you've never seen it before, I suggest checking out Aerogel's Wiki page. It has to be the most awesome material ever.
Check out this video about it, too:

Fuck you, Ben Stein

2008-05-02T16:14:29Z

You've probably heard about the documentary "Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed" by Ben Stein which purports to decimate the weedy and slanderous arguments of the evil, materialist minority of scientists out there who actually believe in that silly little ("only a") theory of evolution. I wish I was using hyperbole here, as this seems to be what Stein actually believes.

"Love of God and compassion and empathy leads you to a very glorious place, and science leads you to killing people."

Stein seems a little mixed up there. Now, of course, I'm not claiming that atheists are universally great people or that all religious people are hell-bent on murder, but let's take a few seconds to consider how many conflicts based either directly or indirectly on religion or the collectivism it inspires- Israel Vs. Palestine, troubles in Ireland, the crusades, 9/11 and the ensuing American jingoism, etc. Compare that to the number actually based on any kind of scientific agenda- none. Sure, Hitler used his own distorted brand of eugenics and communist regimes are non- or anti-religious, but atheism has nothing to do with that. It's all down to people abusing power and encouraging collectivist mindsets. Fundamentally, though, even if every single war ever started could be directly linked to "Darwinism", it would say nothing about the theory's truth. The truth can be determined by careful consideration of the evidence, and when it comes to that, Stein just doesn't have a clue:

I can't be arsed to debunk the movie (which seems to be a 2-hour extended reductio-ad-hitlerum) point-by-point but, luckily, Richard Dawkins has saved me the job. Another good anti-Stein site is situated here.

EDIT: Also, take a look at Wikipedia's section on people presented in the film. It's amusing to see the comparison between what Stein purports, and what really happened.

In local election news, I went out and voted yesterday but, seeing how all of the candidates in my area are either morons, in complete disagreement with me, or both, I spoiled my ballot.

Oh, and the NYTimes has a good article on PETA's in-vitro meat prize. It seems that there's a bit of a schism in their offices due to the fact that, apparently, they're massively retarded. Obviously, I despise their methods and dislike their goals, philosophy and pretty much everything else about them, but disagreeing over this seems ludicrous. Beyond a "yuck" factor (which, admittedly, many PETA-types seem to base their entire world-view on), there isn't a single negative aspect to the vat grown meat, from either my or PETA's perspective. It'll be safe, clean, produce practically no pollution and be free of any animal suffering. Any self-professed environmentalist who opposes this technology's development is an idiot. It really is that simple.

20% of parents hate their daughters

2008-05-01T17:19:52Z

Cervarix, the new HPV vaccination, is being rolled out later this year. Great news, right? Well, not quite so great. It seems that 20% of parents involved in the preliminary trials aren't happy with the fact that, in their warped world-view, their girls are being "encouraged" to engage in sexual behaviour. Sure, I can understand wanting to be protective of one's kids, but this is anything but. I could understand maybe 5% or so of parents declining on misunderstood health grounds or whatnot, but a whole one-fifth of parents is just insane. The regrettable thing is that it isn't just the kids who suffer (which is bad enough), but it's people who they haven't even met who're also taking a hit, as herd immunity suffers when a large enough proportion of the population isn't vaccinated.

In other sad news, Albert Hofmann, the Swiss scientist who discovered LSD-25, died on Tuesday after a heart attack.

In awesome news (for those lucky bastards with Xbox 360s, and the rich idiots with PS3s), GTA IV is finally out, and unsurprisingly causing a controversy. Jack Thompson is flapping his mouth about it being "the gravest assault upon children in this country since polio", Feministing is bitching about it being degrading to womenfolks, and the MADD (Mothers Against Drink Driving) are worked up about the fact that one can drink and drive in the game.

The sad thing is that this parade of moralist morons seems to completely miss the fundamental purpose of the game- to give the player a huge variety of choices and allow them to have fun their own way. Yes, you can run down prostitutes and shoot corpses lying on the floor, but you don't have to. If you wanted, you can spend hours making money from ferrying people around in a taxi, or getting in a police car and hunting down bad guys. You can't choose not to kill random civilians unless you have the option of doing so- otherwise there's no choice at all. GTA is a wry, exaggerated look at life in a city, and it works wonderfully as a social commentary. Yes, it's not meant for kids, but GTA proves that gaming is a very valid (albeit not fully matured) art-form, and anyone who disagrees is a goddamn philistine.