atheistthoughts's Xanga

Saturday, July 19, 2008

Sat, 19 Jul 2008 13:49:37 GMT

There's an idea that's starting to spread of the atheists on Xanga having their own version of revelife. For those who don't know, revelife is a blog that several different Christians contribute to. Looking ahead, I think that atheists who are discussing this will have problems with the discussion being on several different Xanga sites. So I created theatheistrevelife for those who are interesting in being a part of this can discuss it in one place. If you want to log on and make a post the password is qwerty.

Saturday, July 19, 2008

Sat, 19 Jul 2008 00:57:23 GMT

Two events combined to make this post. First of all, I discovered that a digital camera that was sitting in my room actually worked. Second, I was really bored. They make a post about my room, which may lead to better understanding of my psyche for those of you who want to learn more about my psyche for some reason. Hopefully you who are interested in my psyche aren't stalkers, unless you happen to be an attractive teenage female, in which case I do hope you're a stalker. Anyway, to the tour.

This is my bedroom from the entrance. Already there are several clues to what makes me tick. Notice all the shit on the floor, which we will come to later. Also notice how my bed is not made. The Missouri poster on the right indicates which college sports team I support, and the other posters I will get to later.

Here's a look at the entrance from the top of my bed. The floor in the hallway leading to my room is relatively neat, since I actually have to walk there. My nightstand is actually fairly clean too, which surprised me.

Here's a picture from the same point, but turned about 60 degrees. The clutter is more clear here, and you are getting the firt hint of my book collection. That door is a door to my closet. Funny thing is, My family considers that closet a family closet, since I don't have that many clothes. The clothes I do have fit in my dresser (at left). The clothes I do keep in my closet are my nice clothes, which I usually avoid wearing at all costs.

Here's a view from the end of my hallway. The bag hanging on the end of my bed is for trash from any snacks I'm eating while I'm at my computer that I'm too lazy to throw away in my usual trash can. You can see under my bed there are a couple books, although they are mostly high school yearbooks. You can also see my desk and computer. Notice that my computer screen is tilted down so that I can lay down while on my computer.Also notice the chair that is supposed to be for sitting iin while working on my computer is covered in crap.

This is a picture from my closet door. Notice three Missouri things in this picture. One is the thing on the wall on the left. The second is the thing on the wall on the right. This is a picture of the fans at a Mizzouri game tearing down the goal posts. This happened in 2003 in the game against Nebraska, which signaled Missouri Football's turn from midiocrity to dominance. The third is harder to see; my bed cover. It also has the MU logo on it, although it's in a lump right now.

This is a picture from the same point, turned to the left. The poster on the right is a Queen poster. For those of you who don't know, Queen is my favorite band. The poster and calendar are from Missouri Scholars Academy, which is Missouri's Govenor School.

I think this is enough of my room in general, I will now go to my collection of books.

Here is the top right of my bookshelf. This is reserve for my favorite books. Notice a large section in the middle is a collection of Carl Sagan books. The book on the top of the pile on the right is David Buss' "The Evolution of Desire".

Here is a stack of books on top of my TV. Usually this is reserved for books that I fund really boring and didn't finish (the books under "Happily Godless". I read "Happily Godless" already.). The books on the right are ones I either got as presents and don't have the time to read yet or books I bought a long time ago that I haven't had the time to read (In the latter category is Behe's "Darwin's Black Box").

Here are a variety of books. The book at the bottom is a book that was pretty boring so I stopped reading it. Normally I could have fought through it, but I had a new Steven Pinker book that looked (and is) far better. The Carl Sagan book I'll tackle after I finish the Steven Pinker book. Below it is an ACT study book (which didn't really help), a Washington University thing, and study books for the Math 2 and Physics SAT Subject Tests.

Here are some more books that are on my floor. At the bottom is the "Blank Slate", the Steven Pinker book I'm reading. I already read "Under the Banner of Heaven" (twice), and just moved it to the top right of my bookcase where it belongs. The other Joseph Stiglitz book I haven't read yet, and will whenever I can. I will probably put it off in favor of studying the SAT books.

Here is a photo of the middle right of my bookcase. The books on the left are "Harry Potter", then two Michael Crichton books, and the blue one is a large book containing a ton of alien abduction stories. The stack of books on the right is the "Seventh Tower" series. Behind that is "Animorphs", which I was interested in when I was little.

Here is the bottom left of my bookcase. That yellow one standing up is "Philsophy for Dummies" written by a Christian philosopher.Those sticky notes are each place I disagreed with the author. There's a lot of sticky notes there. On the left is a bunch of yearbooks, and the right is a random assortment of books.

And, finally, last but not least, the bottom right of my bookcase. This is mostly Michael Crichton books (middle) and books that contain a collection of stories about stupid things people have done (right). On the left is is "Fahrenheit 451", a book I thoroughly hated. It's anti-technology themes are just disgusting. A book that is to the left of that, but is hidden, is "1984", which deserves to be on the top, but is disqualified because it's fiction (only Carl Sagan managed to get a fiction book in the prestigous Top Right Shelf). To the right of it is another book that deserves to be on the top right, but is disqualified; "Slaughterhouse-five".

These are four textbooks that are lying in a stack on my floor, but I layed out on my bed so you can see. I actually own three of them. The Biology book is for my Ap Biology class next year. It takes a special kind of nerd to not only take Calculus classes in high school, but own two calculus textbooks.

This is the end of the tour. Hopefully you had some fun. I also hope that this page will actually load, since these pictures are kind of big (information wise)

Thursday, July 17, 2008

Thu, 17 Jul 2008 18:38:31 GMT

The 2008 presidential election is starting to look non-competitive. Obama currently has the lead, and it will be easier for him to gain ground than it will be for McCain. Obama's supporters are more committed than McCain's, making it less likely that McCain will convert Obama supporters. Obama is able to raise a lot more money than McCain and has a lot more volunteers working on the ground in important states, again tilting it in his favor. The only place McCain really has to look for additional support is from the religious right, but they are unlikely to make much of a difference in most of the swing states (except maybe Missouri and Virginia). It will also be hard for McCain to have them support him without nominating a VP candidate like Huckabee. And if he did that it would compromise his ability to win states like Ohio and Michigan that will be convinced more by economics than social issues. Obama also has a large part of the population that he can get to support him; Hillary supporters. It's pretty reasonable to expect that the ones who are refusing to vote for Obama will slowly but surely start to support him after getting over Hillary's loss. Obama doesn't even have to do anything special to convince them, since they will realize on their own that Obama is really similar to Clinton. So it seems that this election is Obama's to win.

On another note, I mention in one of my last posts that I would like going to downtown Kansas City more since I live in a suburb, but I always get lost. Well, I wasn't doing anything today, so I drove over there and, sure enough, got lost. Actually, I didn't really get lost, it was more of not knowing were to get back on I-70. At one point I saw an entrance to the highway, turned on the street that connected to that entrance, and then discovered that the road was one-way when a truck came at me. But it was well worth it. Kansas City has a way better skyline than St. Louis.

Tuesday, July 15, 2008

Tue, 15 Jul 2008 18:41:31 GMT

I took three AP tests at the end of the school year, and I got the scores back today. I got a 4 in US History and in Chemistry, and a 5 in Statistics. A 4 in US History isn't too bad since that really isn't my area, and the Statistics was, in my opinion, extremely easy. Chemistry is the one I'm worried about most, since, as I alluded to in my last post, I want to go to a really good university. Chemistry will likely be more important than history because I plan to major in physics, and chemistry is way closer to that than history. I don't like to make excuses for doing bad, but I think I have a legit claim that my teacher sucks. He had taught chemistry for 14 years I think and had never had a student get a 5. On one of the free response questions I basically just made stuff up because I had no idea.

On an unrelated note:

"I want to get down on my knees and start pleasing jesus; I want to feel his salvation all over my face"

Monday, July 14, 2008

Mon, 14 Jul 2008 23:20:20 GMT

That is where I was at the past two days, and I must say I'm a fan. Their campus was amazing, and all the people there were really nice. Not only are they an Ivy League-caliber school, they also have great sports programs (although they are D-III). Last year they won national championships in men's tennis, volleyball, and men's basketball. They are really flexible with their classes, so basically every student we talked to there is double majoring in two completely unrelated topics. My family was so impressed that both my mom and I bought shirts, despite the fact that nobody in our family has ever gone there and I haven't even been accepted yet. Besides the fact that it's amazing, it's in Missouri, which means I'll be fairly close to the rest of my family in Kansas City and a lot of my friends who will likely go to The University of Missouri. This is only the third university I've ever been to (I've been to MU and KU, the latter being a piece of crap), and I wonder if other good private schools are as amazing.

Friday, July 11, 2008

Fri, 11 Jul 2008 23:55:51 GMT

[Note: None of the pictures in this post are mine. If for some reason anybody has a copyright complaint or something, I guess I'll remove the picture, but seriously; who cares?]

As anybody who has read my blog for any significant amount of time probably knows, my main interests are philosophy and biology. There are several other topics I am mildly interested in, but for most of them have little or no reason to post on here about them. These include skepticism in general (i.e. debunking ghosts, aliens, big foot, etc.), politics (which I actually do blog on), Physics (which I plan to major in in college), and skyscrapers and skylines of major cities. The latter of these is one that almost nobody who knows me would guess I have any interest in. It's just not a topic that comes up often in conversation, no matter what clique you're in. I went to New York a couple months ago, and by far my favorite part of the trip was seeing the skyline from the plane.

Most pictures of New York show the "front" of it (where the twin towers were), and admittedly it has the tallest buildings. In my view, however, is just the sheer number of tall skyscrapers and not necessarily the height of any individual one. From the plane it looked almost like a solid block of concrete.

A year ago my high school marching band went to Honolulu for the Kamehameha parade. My biggest memeory was probably of the parade itself, which was hot as hell and made worse by our uniforms and 4-mile parade route. However, I was struck by the skyline. When thinking about a city like Honolulu, it doesn't seem like they would have much of a skyline, but theirs rivals some of those from the biggest cities in the US. I came to the conclusion that the skyscrapers were mostly hotels, since Honolulu is such a tourist hotspot. The hotel I stayed in was one such skyscraper.

Since I live in a suburb of Kansas City (Independence to be precise, which touches KC), it's skyline is the one I'm most familiar with. While driving around my hometown at certain spots you can get a really nice view of it. I have a constant desire to just drive to downtown KC and look at the skyscrapers. Unfortunately the only two times I have driven there have resulted in my getting lost (both times) and getting a speeding ticket (once, because I had no idea what the speed limit was). In researching skylines, I have discovered that KC has a good skyline considering it's population. I'm proud to say that it's better than the one St. Louis, our cross-state rival, has, despite the fact that the St. Louis area is much bigger than KC's.

Those were both KC. I guess to be fair I'll put one of St. Louis up. Notice that, without the Arch, KC is way more impressive.

I have discovered some other interesting tid-bits in my research. The three biggest cities in the US are New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago, respectively. Out of these three, Chicago and New York are known for their architecture, while Los Angeles severely underachieves in this area. Considering that it's metropolitan area is bigger than the entire states of Kansas and Missouri combined, it's skyline is not much more spectacular than KC's.

While I usually admire California for being progressive and having a lot of major cities, Los Angeles hurts the state's reputation in my eyes. Not only is it's skyline comparable to KC's while it's population is comparable to New York's, it is also the capitol of the group of people I hate the most; actors. To see what a skyline of such a large city should look like, consider Chicago, which is smaller than Los Angeles.

I've been to Chicago before too, but I was really young, so I don't remember it that well.

The most alarming fact I have come across in my research is the city of Dubai, UAE. The fact that I, a radical liberal, am scared solely because this city is in a middle-eastern Islamic country should indicate how insane this city is. It is by far the fastest growing city in the world. It has an indoor ski park. I am willing to bet that in the next decade it's skyline will make New York seem like San Jose.

That really tall building in the middle is called the Burj Dubai. It's under construction and will be completed in 2009. When it's finished it will be the tallest building in the world by far. Here's a diagram showing the tallest buildings in the world in 2010. If you scroll to the right a little you will find the Sears Tower, which is the tallest skyscraper in the US. Also check out this diagram, which is all the buildings that are planned to be built in Dubai. When looking at it keep in mind that the Sears Tower is about 450 meters tall. This one city will have four buildings taller than the tallest building in the US by 2011, with a fifth one planned. Remember the KC skyline that is great for a city of it's size? Take another look at that second diagram, and consider that the tallest building in KC is 200m tall. Dubai will be scary.

-edit-

I'm in St. Louis now, and I may know why it has a weak skyline compared to Kansas City. In Kansas City, the entire urban part of the city is located in one place. So you would have a few really big buildings in a small area, but a lot of nothing in the area around it. If you want to see what this looks like, look on Google Earth at KC's dopwntown, and then go East on I-70 a mile or so until you reach the stadiums and look at that area. The tallest buildings (besides the stadiums) is only three or four stories tall. In St. Louis, however, there are ten to twelve story buildings twenty miles out of downtown. So, while it's biggest buildings aren't very tall (except the Arch, which is pretty fucking tall), it has a lot more medium sized buildings.

On some unrelated notes:

I'm in St. Louis because I'm doing a campus tour of Washington University tomorrow. For those of you who don't know, Wash U. is an Ivy League-type private school in St. Louis that is my number one choice right now. I'm also doing an interview, which I've never done before, so I hope I do okay. We're staying in this hotel on campus that is run by students at the university, and it is probably the nicest hotel I've ever stayed in and is the cheapest hotel in the area. On every floor there is a room full of snacks and drinks that are free. There's a small gym, that I was working out in until it closed. And now I'm in this meeting room with a computer, printer, and white board. But besides this hotel the campus is really nice.
The Arch was pretty interesting. It's way shinier than what you'd expect. To get to the top you have to ride in these capsols that feel like an escape pod from a spacecraft. They're really tiny and have really small doors.

Monday, July 07, 2008

Mon, 07 Jul 2008 21:11:51 GMT

When a Christian claims that there are no atheists in foxholes, most atheists are offended and try to prove it wrong (usually successfully). But I think that this claim is, in a way, pro-atheism. The sentiment behind this is "When the times get rough, you atheists will turn to God for comfort." This would include not only times when your life is in danger, but when you are down for other reasons, such as being in bad health or being fired. Even if this claim is just probabilistically true (i.e. most atheists will turn to religion in hard times), you could see this in national surveys. When a country goes into a bad recession, the stress will cause people to become more religious. This means that, when religious charities are helping spread atheism by reducing stress on the poor. This also means that, if you had no other indicators, you could use religion to determine whether or not your country is doing bad, with more religion meaning that your country is doing worse. Of course, the rise in religion may not be due to hard times, but a country with a more religious population would be more likely to have bad living and economic conditions.

Sunday, July 06, 2008

Sun, 06 Jul 2008 00:05:14 GMT

Although I have spent the past couple of posts ripping Obama in favor of Nader and Gravel, I have come to two conclusions that would seem to disagree with that. First of all, I would support Obama over Nader if McCain chooses Mitt Romney as VP. I am almost as anti-Romney as I am pro-Gravel. Even at a relatively insignificant position like VP would still worry me. Also, Nader is not a whole lot better than Obama. Secondly, I am happy about this election and the direction our country is going. The nomination of a political party represents where the majority of that party lies, and Obama and McCain are both pretty liberal compared to the usual center of their respective parties. That's the main complaint from Republicans about McCain. This current Hilary v. Obama thing (which I think is dumb, they are extremely similar) shows that Democrats are even complaining that their nominee is too liberal, since Clinton is slightly to the right of Obama. So, in both cases it is the traditional people in the party (i.e. the conservative Republicans and the Hilary supporters) that are left sitting to the right of where their party is moving. The only thing I have to fear about this trend is that Obama will be elected and then be a horrible president, making liberals seem worse. I personally doubt this will happen; I'm betting Obama will just be an okay president.

Thursday, July 03, 2008

Thu, 03 Jul 2008 16:34:41 GMT

I was talking to GodlessLiberal in the comments of my last post and Al Franken came up. So I just googled him and some youtube videos came up. After surfing youtube for a little bit there I saw a video of Al Franken and Ann Coulter. So, I said to myself "HELL YEAH!!!" and watched it. It didn't disappoint. Here's the video, and please watch it before reading my commentary, because it would just ruin the surprise and make it slightly less awesome. Two things before the video. First, Minnesotans are so fucking lucky to be able to vote for Al Franken. I sincerely hope he will eventually become president. Secondly, thanks to Jessy for telling me how to put youtube videos on here.

So, apparently Ann Coulter thinks that looking up facts and quoting your opponents correctly is just boring Liberal spin. It is little wonder that she has no credibility outside extreme conservative circles.

-edit-

I thought about it, and I decided to post just a picture of the final equation for my Pythagorean Triple thing. You can test it yourself, it works as long as two conditions are met:

m and n are both integers with m being greater than 0 and n being greater than 1.
m is not odd while n is even.

It is possible to get every single Pythagorean Triple by using this equation. mn will always be either a or b in the Pythagorean Triple. Again, if you want to look at how I found this equation, just give your e-mail.

Tuesday, July 01, 2008

Tue, 01 Jul 2008 22:15:04 GMT

I was going to post today with some more anti-Obama rants that include more pro-Gravel statements, but I found a video that I think sums up my point very well on why we shouldn't vote in any way based on who "has a chance". but before the video, I'd like to say that my Pythagorean Triple paper is done, but I can't figure out how to post it anywhere, so if you want to read it (especially you Mr. Donovan) then you must give me you're e-mail so I can send it. If anybody has suggestions on how I can post it publicly please tell me. Anyway, here's the video. I don't know how to put the video on this site.

-edit-

I found a way that might allow me to post my paper on here. It'll take a little work, but I think it'll be worth it. Even though the equations I found are useless for any sort of practical application, I think the logic of finding it is pretty cool.