Recently, all they’ve been talking about on NPR is the Intelligent Design debate. Basically, some people say that when students are taught evolution during biology, they should be informed that not everyone believes in evolution. Opponents say that religion has no place in a biology class. I agree; religion should be taught in a religious studies class. But what is so hard about saying the following:

Today we will learn about evolution. There are some people, including scientists, out there who do not believe in evolution and these are their reasons. Instead they believe that because of all above reasons, that the complexity of life must have been designed or aided by an intelligent super-being. However, the majority of scientists DO believe that evolution is a fact and here are their reasons for believing that evolution is true. In the end, there is no way to prove which is right so it is up to you to decide what you believe in. For the purposes of this biology class, we shall assume evolution to be true.

Although Sony still claims the right to use copy protections in their CDs, this BBC News story reported that they have abandoned the software I’ve been blogging about due to the fact that virus writers have written exploits for the software. And, in a one-two punch, Microsoft announced in THIS BBC News story that they have told their spyware program to treat Sony’s software as spyware! They will be removing it from their users’ computers. Again, this could all have been avoided if Sony had just let people copy their CDs to their computers. They bought it LEGALLY dagnabbit and if they want to put it on their computer or combine it with music from others CDs and create a custom mix CD then they should be able to do that.

To sum up the opinion my wife and I have of the current cartoons out there for kids: they stink! The animation style is very strange and certain shows like Ed, Edd, and Eddy have a really strange palette. We pine for the cartoons of our youth. So we were very happy today to find out that, after three years of searching the web constantly, we found Duck Tales and Rescue Rangers Season 1 on sale at Best Buy. Part of the Disney Afternoon, Duck Tales was one of our favorite cartoons and represents the first time cartoons were taken seriously by studios. It kept me entertained for many a day as I sat and watched the degenerates of Duckburg try and bilk Scrooge McDuck out of his money. We’ve been watching the videos recently and the nostalgia is great! These DVDs are a must for anyone who grew up on the Disney Afternoon.

My second civ4 game is over and I did MUCH better this time! I won a Space Race instead of just having the highest score upon end of turns like last game. This earned me a score of # - Neville Chamberlain!

Here is my save file if you wish to add it to your Hall of Fame.

I’ve got a little more than 100 turns left in my second game ofciv4. As my first game served to teach me many new concepts in the civ series, I have fared much better. One of the key concepts I’ve learned is that barbarians are everywhere, even in Settler mode. Previously, in the easiest difficulty level the barbarians did not attack too much. In fact, I remember being shocked about how often they came when I went up one difficulty level in civ3. So, until barbarians stop appearing on the world map, it is extremely dangerous to send settlers to build new cities without first protecting the cities. Take the extra few turns to send at least a warrior (preferably a bowman of some sort) to protect the newly founded city. Also, if you are building near the edges of your boundaries, be sure to send the unit along with the settler to ensure its safety as it makes its way to the new city site.

An update to the story I talked about on 8 Nov - BBC News has revealed that at least three viruses have emerged that take advantage of the malware Sony has installed on user’s machines without their permission. Sony says its sorry, but sorry doesn’t bring back the bits! This is exactly why music CDs should do only one thing - play music! If they want, they can include some music videos, but that should be the extent of the software on the CDs. They don’t need all this Macromedia crap on them that loads when I pop in the CD. That’s part of the reason why I just rip the music to my computer instead of popping in a CD each time. I hope this REALLY backfires on them!

To all those who have had to fight in wars justified and unjustified; To all who have left their families, uncertain if they would ever return; To all who may have lost everything from limbs to families:

Thank you for fighting and keeping us safe. Without you, we wouldn’t have the great country we have - one where we even have the freedom to protest against the wars it rages.

A BBC News story has pointed out that my prior post (which I can’t find on my first blog) in which I called this guy a moron for spending $17 thousand to buy land in a virtual world. Afterall, it’s only an investment if you can sell if for a higher price. However, according to the story, there is a strong chance this guy and others will be making money! Should we all rush in and do this? Nah! I think it’s probably like most investments, if you’re not the first one in, you’re not going to make as much money. Afterall, you have to pay more and then hope the price goes up even more. This may end up making a lot of money for the first batch and be a bust for everyone else. Time will tell and I’ll keep a close eye on this story.

BBC News has reported today that Sony BMG implanted malware into one of their country music CDs to prevent it from playing in certain Windows Media players. Not only that, but the software installs itself into the dark recesses of the computer where only the most technologically savy can find it. This is the kind of crap I expect when installing Kazaa, not when LEGALLY using a STORE BOUGHT CD. I don’t want anything installed on my computer unless I installed it myself purposefully. That’s why I use Mozilla Firefox instead of Internet Explorer and limit my usage of shady Internet-downloaded software. And, if I decide to do one of these things, I take a calculated risk. How badly do I want a program to, for example, remove region restrictions on dvds? Is it worth possible spyware and malware? But NO ONE thinks of those things when they put a musical CD into their computer. This is a blatant faus pax and Sony is extremely lucky that this story doesn’t seem to have made news in the United States. Again, people escape media wrath because American news organizations are relatively lazy. I advocate making this a huge deal and I hope more bloggers help push this story to the mainstream.

Today I read something that delighted me! On the back of the volume 2 DVD of Tom and Jerry it read “this dvd is intended for adult collectors and may contain material unsuitable for small children.” Why did it make me happy? Because it’s finally an admission that cartoons were not created originally created for children. Most of the cartoons played prior to movies with adult and/or family audiences. So I hate this sanitizing of cartoons that has been occuring on some of the box sets lately. Also, there were some cartoons which would never have been made into today’s PC world. But they WERE made and I think it is an important cultural history that we preserve these cartoons instead of putting them in the closet. We need to see these cartoons and understand why they are wrong and why they were ok back then. I think it’s important and the past can’t be changed, so don’t try to change the record! So I will enjoy this DVD more than I have enjoyed most recently.