Spelunking the Universe
Posts tagged Debate and Discourse
Time to Decide: Do you love America?
1 year ago
by Rico Penguin
in General
Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both.
- Thomas Jefferson (Source)
I’ve gotten tired recently of something that has been out of hand since 2001. A small contingency of men set out to terrify an entire nation, and do you know what happened? They did it.
This is bat-shit retarded, there is no reason that we should be changing the way we live for a group of people so separated from us that they are nearly inconsequential. What they did required a very important fact to be true it had to have never been done before. That’s it! They weren’t masterminds, they don’t have any other amazing schemes in the plan for the future, they just got lucky. No jackass before them had ever thought to try it before them and so when they hijacked those planes nobody stood up and beat the ever living crap out of them. Had those people realized that they were going to die none of these planes would have got to their destination, they’d have all ended up either landing or-tragic still-ending up like Pennsylvania.
Would I ever want anyone dying for any reason? No. Ideally there is no reason anyone should have to die, life should be a matter of choice. If you don’t want to live anymore you just flip the switch. But that’s a talk for another day.
What should have happened after the attack on the US is a full scale attack on Afghanistan and the very second that we knew he had crossed borders we should have demanded entrance to catch him. He was likely present during the Battle of Tora Bora in 2001 and we failed to capture him. I don’t blame a single US soldier for that, the fact that they fight for this country is a huge deal. They are all deeply respected by me (and I’m sure most of the country). However the fact remains that he got away.
He should have been captured, tried in court, just as every terrorist or extremist that has been caught. They should be shown that our systems work and that justice will be served. The entire nonsense of holding people eternally without ever trying them is a black stain on this nation and an example of what happens when people don’t really care about the values of their nation.
After, or rather during, this series of events we should have rebuilt the world trade center. We should have shown the entire world that the US does not fear anyone. That we are a people united, our dreams are endless and we will overcome every challenge, that is what should have happened. Those that died would receive a wall with their names and any other symbolic memorial that we can surmise at the base and I feel the top as well. There names could then glow beneath the warmth of the sun for centuries to come.
What we should have never done was increase security in airports like a bunch of terrified children. The people of the US are informed, diligent, and when the time demands it Heroic, the one aircraft that knew the danger they were facing confronted it like heroes. The next time some idiot would have stood up and tried to hijack a plane he would have likely been beat to death before the plane even landed. Think that is farfetched? It’s happened already (though not killed). That’s just one incident, there has been at least one other where the man was beaten by the passengers.
People know what is going on, this sort of bullshit will never occur again without some serious armament on the aircraft. The truth of the matter is, if someone really wants to use a plane as a weapon, they will…period. But that’s not really what happened, they are opportunists, they saw a tactic that hadn’t been utilized and was thus available. They knew that the largest boundary between them and using those planes was the belief of the passengers that they would live. That was it. That’s the only way any criminal gets away with a victim, when a person knows they could die the situation rarely pans out favorably for the criminal.
Worse still, we’ve had these nonsensical color coded terror guides that have been used for no other reason than to keep people in an endless state of terror and paranoia. They are useless. As I said, we are American’s, much more we are human beings, we should be above this. We don’t need a color code, screw these idiots, if they try anything in the US the 2nd Amendment crowd will blow them to hell and back. People are always diligent, there are areas with bad crime yes, but generally when crimes go down folks report it. If a crime looks like it might go down people report it. We don’t need a rainbow to show us how we should be feeling (though I do like rainbows…refracted light for the win).
We should also not have been targeting Muslim’s in the US. Does nobody remember World War II? What the hell happened. So we see how foolish we were treating the Japanese American’s like shit and so how do we respond the next time a similar situation arises? We do the same damn thing. Telling Muslims or Middle Eastern People that they cannot walk somewhere? That they cannot worship in a country that was founded on the idea of Freedom, of Speech, of Belief, or Dream. We are a nation of Equals, regardless of what Capitalistic inequalities may be scarring us we are an idealistic nation of equals and should be acting like it. Every single American who treats another Law Abiding American like shit hates America.
That’s what it comes down to. Do you love America? Do you believe in the values that this nation was founded on? Regardless of them being hypocritical at the time of there founding, we have moved forward, we have evolved and moved closer to the dreams that we all deserve. This Ground Zero Mosque Propaganda, the Mosques all over the US that are being protested, that’s all bullshit. These protestors hate America, period. If they loved America they would be welcoming other American’s to pray to whatever god they feel is their own. We should be showing the rest of the world that no shit stain extremist can turn us against each other. Not running around swinging signs and harassing other people because of the color of there skin or the faith they follow.
And no, Muslims are not Terrorists, Terrorists are terrorists, If we are going to start judging entire religions by the actions of there worst then we’ve just entered a very slippery slope where every faith is evil. So either drop your faith before you bash there’s or start supporting them because this bullshit is entirely un-American and everyone involved should feel like a complete and utter disappointment.
Terror Babies and Anchor babies are just another flavor of Racism and Bigotry, congratulations to everyone who believes in any of this nonsense, you are De facto assholes who wish your asshole bigotry was Law.
To everyone else, the vast majority of American’s who actually love America and humanity as a whole, you all are awesome. Thanks for visiting and I hope that you at can do the right thing and make sure that all these hate mongers are ignored and treated like the complete jokes they are.
Nothing like ranting at 12:39 in the morning
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Rico the Grumpguin: Weddings and Noses.
1 year ago
by Rico Penguin
in General
I think from time to time, when I’m feeling extra grumpy, feeling a few decades older than I actually am that I’ll post what I like to call a “Rico the Grumpguin” talking about what makes or is making me grumpy. These are basically “rants”. These are extremely loosely written, they’ll likely be written when I’m tired, sick, or sick and tired. So feel free to skip any of these when you see them.
Firstly I’ve had a sore throat for days now. Why? Well quite simply I fell asleep on my back a few nights back and my nose leaked into my throat. My nose is basically a bastard, an added change to my face that does little more than break out and clog. It does these things in no particular order and sometimes likes to do them at the same time en masse. It’s existence is little more than to a blight in my life and I have never had a moment where I thought “Oh thank the heavens…I can breath through my nose.” It is such an unlikely scenario that I feel I merely gave up on the hopes of such a thing long long ago.
So with throat raw, swallowing endless, and head aching I start thinking about part two of what makes me grumpy. Now honestly, Marriage for me will be extremely easy. I have been with the same person, if you can call her such and not be downplaying the awesome that is she, because I can be upset with a person, I can indeed hate a person, I can go so far as to not care if a person ceases to exist. But she is something of wonder and her very existence in my life makes it all survivable and complete. Marrying her is merely putting a legal stamp upon something that I had known from the second I was afraid to say “I love you.” Why afraid you might ask? Every single person I was not related to that I told those simple 3 words left me almost immediately (There is 0 hyperbole in that). The fear of losing her gripped my heart tightly and threatened to kill me outright.
New Website Layout, New Advertising Options, and Writing Update.
1 year ago
by Rico Penguin
in General
Update: Deleted the 2,000 Spam Accounts made recently and have re-instituted commenting! If your account was lost and you weren’t a spammer I apologize, the deleter was a little free spirited >_>.
As you most likely can tell, the website has gotten an overhaul. I found this exquisitely simple layout that still featured the color schemes that I enjoy, snapped it up right quick and put it to immediate work! Likewise in an almost clairvoyant manner I predicted with my last article that you’d see some sort of advertising here at some point and that laughs would ensue! Well indeed I remembered the name of a project I applied for ages ago, sure enough I found it through the help of a website Dawn Chapel which if you haven’t been there yet you really should, go do that now, I’ll wait.
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Well I hope you feel enriched. His artwork is varied and wonderful and captures a wide array of topics, certainly save that alongside your other favorite webcomics for the future. If you don’t I’ll be sure to visit your PC as you sleep and add it myself to your RSS feed.
Writing is coming along well, I’ve had more breakthroughs as I map out the first book and I feel that in the next month I should be prepared to officially write, from beginning to end, the first book that I wish to publish. This has got me genuinely excited and I hope that readers will be as excited and pleased with my story as I already am.
Frankly if I can pay off my college debt through my stories that’ll be enough to keep me solidly happy with life. I could probably manage that just selling on copy to each member of my family, we are quite a prolific bunch .
That’s all for now, I need to get back to work on this. I’m hoping to start commissioning concept art for various characters and scenes from a few folks once I’m not in a mysteriously large credit card debt. Well ok, smaller than usual, but I don’t recall spending that much (protip: I did).
Advertising: I don’t want to know.
1 year ago
by Rico Penguin
in General
I’ve been thinking as of recent about the concept of advertising. Goods and services detailing to me what the benefits of their existence are. Be it flat rock-hard abs, high protein diets, organic foods, or fuel with some fantasy ingredient. These things are touted in every magazine, television show, billboard, internet page, and bus stop seemingly in existence.
But perhaps I’m alone in the sentiment of “I don’t want to know.” I am a huge fan of knowledge but I quite honestly don’t have any interest in your new movie, new game, new purse, new perfume, new makeup, new hamburger, or any other product you have to sell when I am not explicitly shopping. You know the only time I learn about new McDonalds products? When I pass their business or enter it, it isn’t that they don’t spend millions on advertising (I’m sure they do) but that’s the only time I care. If I see a product of theirs outside of that avenue I go out of my way not to buy it (for that my heart thanks me).
I’m sure eventually this article will be read with advertisements on either side of it which will make it exceptionally funny if not blatantly hypocritical (which I could probably argue it isn’t). However that doesn’t change my personal feelings. I like DVD releases of shows because I don’t have to see commercials, I’m never swayed by them (or at least very rarely) and my personal choice to boycott anything I see in an ad for as long as I can makes them negative advertising for their business.
If I’m in Target and you want to wash over me with advertisements, I wouldn’t hold it against you in the least, but outside of Target I would rather be convinced you and everything you make didn’t exist. I have more important things to do with my eyes, ears, and brain. You know where I want to hear music advertised? On the radio, where one would expect to hear about it. Movies? I’m a fan of the previews before movies (that are about movies and not Pepsi) because it targets the audience that pays for movies. It’s eloquent and accurate and I support that.
Television shows advertised on the station they’ll be airing on (or on TV in general) makes a ton of sense to me. But everything else just doesn’t.
I don’t want to know, I actively don’t purchase things that are advertised, and I hope that someday in the future instead of advertisements becoming more and more entangled in information (so far as to have fake news websites to market crap) we will instead see less (and more efficient) advertising.
But that’s like hoping for world peace, because unfortunately advertising apparently works. The numbers don’t like, I just wish folks wouldn’t buy every stupid ab lounger they see on television, maybe then I wouldn’t need to see the same commercial for it every 5 minutes.
If books ever start having magazine style advertising pages in them I think I might snap.
Also yes, I am fervently against the internet personalizing itself for me. It takes 12 minutes and an IQ of 50 to get the internet personalized manually without losing my privacy, so we should investigate why the majority of the world is apparently dangerously stupid or dangerously lazy to warrant this new integration of sites between one another.
Rico Examines “BP Oil Spill”
1 year ago
by Rico Penguin
in General
So the estimate I’ve heard is that it will take 90 days to repair the BP Oil Spill, that is to say, it will take them 90 full days to drill a relief valve and stop the spill from pouring an unfathomable amount of oil (you honestly can’t fathom it legitimately) into the Gulf of Mexico.
I have to raise the flag on what appears to be BS from BP. I’m not here to strike a flint in hopes of lighting the company aflame but there is no way it actually takes 90 days. It takes 15 hours to fly from the US to Japan and drop a warhead that wipes an entire city off the face of the map, and the bomb itself would only take 4 times as long as the estimate for this drilling to be made (assuming you have the fissile material which is a fair exception considering BP already has the materials necessary to repair the problem). Now those might seem like loose comparisons, and quite frankly they are, but I’m just trying to give a judgment of time here. BP is saying that it will take one fourth the time it takes to wipe an entire city off the face of the map, from the entire distance of the Pacific Ocean, as it would to locate and repair a situation using far less elaborate materials in a location you can sail to (with nice winds) in 1 to 2 hours. That’s just assuming that nobody in this year has a boat with an engine…
I wouldn’t be so quick to judge, as I rarely critique the work of a surgeon, but their fixes are what lay the groundwork for my judgment. They attempt first to cap it off like a gushing fire hydrant, then they decide to try a smaller cap, next they’ll try to just re-route the flow with a tap system (from what I understand), and finally…they’ll try just stuffing a bunch of random stuff into it and hope it clogs. This last one is what got me. If it is that easy why don’t they just take a thick fabric like emergency raft material, coat it in something that is very resistant to moisture and oil and stuff it into the pipe then inflate it? If golf balls and tire shreds are enough to clog it then surely a tough hide inflatable material can do it.
That should take all of a weekend to pull off. It might sound like a lot of work but when you have the kind of money oil companies have you could pull of something like this for a party in a day easy. Secondly I move on to the idea that it will take them 90 days to produce a new functional hole to stop the problem. There is absolutely no way this can possibly be true-90 days is a really long time. You know what you can do in 90 days? You could fly from the Earth to the Moon and back nearly 18 times, with 2-3 people you could build a 2,800 square foot home, you could get 18 E60 BMW’s custom ordered and shipped to you.
Want 18 of these? Not my thing but you’d have them in custom order before BP finishes repairing the oil spill. Course then you’d have to fill them all up with gas…oh dear.
BP has over 80 thousand employees, or enough people to build between 26,000 and 40,000 houses in the time it is quoted to take them to repair a single blown pipe. It isn’t fair of me to assume all those people are skilled in this kind of repair work but I’m more trying to stress the fact they have an enormous staff and lest we forget the 239 billion dollars they brought in according to their website in 2009, they aren’t exactly hurting for cash to invest in a quick repair.
Had they been honest about the situation or even cared in the slightest this would have been taken care of at most two weeks after the situation occurred. It would have taken that long only because they’d have invested dubious amounts of time to assure that they won’t screw up and cause a bigger problem. The actual work would have taken 3 days of straight work with revolving crews and we’d be looking back on this as a really bad but at least expertly resolved incident.
The biggest humor in this sluggish and unenthusiastic repair is the this is the company who has one of the most “nature friendly” looking logos of any company in existence today.
“Look at our earthy green, sunny yellow, and life white all meshed into a hybrid flower-sun. We love nature that’s why we drill for Oil <3”
I don’t necessarily begrudge them for drilling for oil, but their logo annoys me. They are quite intentionally trying to grasp the shapes and colors that make the brain view them as a nature conscious company whose main goal is to circumvent natural catastrophes. But instead a multi-billion dollar mega company is just dragging its feet with merry disregard as a completely manageable situation unfolds without halt.
It took the US less than a year to invade a country on the other side of the planet and locate a single human being who was hiding in a hole. A hole that was amidst an area of land that measured a full 169,234 square miles. The average person is something like 3 feet across, and something like 5 square feet total space taken, which means (with my shoddy math) there were 178,711,104 unique spaces in Iraq that Saddamn could have been standing (assuming a flat landmass and people standing one by one beside one another…there are far more places in actuality). We found him…we found that 1 in 178 million in less than a year.
How on Earth can that happen so quickly and yet this repair work is going to take 90 days? I don’t see it, both the US and BP have a stake in this incident, how neither could at least stop the leak on a weekend is beyond me. Just a matter of spending too much time pointing fingers and not long enough time putting a finger in the leak.
The Macabre
2 years ago
by Rico Penguin
in General
I’m a fairly young man, most of the time I don’t even think about it, but then there are those days. I in part blame the recent healthcare battles between the two unusually short sighted parties that make up this adorably dysfunctional American political system.
I find that it is only exacerbated by me currently watching a marathon of House M.D.. Now I understand to a small degree some of the intricate ways that our minds try to correlate everything we experience to ourselves and to other things we know. As it stands I’m fairly certain I’ll actually make it to at least my 50th birthday. Now I’m hoping for at least triple digits but I tend to be a realist. Perhaps a naive realist (in other words not one).
But I was thinking about the Macabre (Macab?) and how much we are infatuated with death. It is the greatest of ends (dare I say the ultimate one), it is something so powerful in our psyche’s that we create entire stories around just what happens instead of death. I even wonder just how much of our infatuation with death ties in with the nearly violent battle against national healthcare.
Imagine if you will the concept at its rawest. There are quite literally people who find problems in the idea of preventing disease, pain, or death. There are literally people who see life-health-as a business. This is, to me, the ultimate erotic obsession with the macabre. I can in no way describe how disgusting this view is. There are no amount of words, no amount of gestures, no amount of violent acts, no amount of hypocrisy, I can think of no level of anything that would describe or display just how much I detest these people.
Is it extreme? Oh yes. Is it short sighted? I’m sure. However this is true. Because at the end of the day, I feel nauseous to the point of nearly vomiting just by discussing death. When I feel minor discomfort I immediately assume it is something that is cutting off years from my life. All of these feelings, each of them compounded a trillion times over would not nearly be as bad as any of them actually being true. I cannot even truly grasp the terror of finding out that your life is about to end, even if that about is 20 years from now. The ultimate macabre is that all these fears, all these pains, and indeed millions of lives could all be spared, but they are not because of a bottom line.
Personally, and again I’m sure this is part of my own hypocritical naivety, there is no amount of money that is too much to stop these fears and these realities. Mainly because there is no amount of money that has value when everyone is gone.
Why “Anti” is the ignorant approach to Abortion and the proper approach.
2 years ago
by Rico Penguin
in General
Now I’ll admit that I’m not a fan of killing anyone. I find it highly unfortunate that we at times place ourselves in situations where people are killed or where it becomes difficult to support the sustained life of a certain person. It’s a shame and indeed is a global problem.
However on that note of killing there is another major problem with (at the very least) the US’s general take on problems. Militant cures to social problems has been an issue that has unfortunately reared its ugly head many times in the short History of the US. We often have situations that require a small amount of regulation and instead assault them with a violent fervor that is unnecessary and in the end entirely destructive and unhelpful.
While this might look like its obviously leading to any of our various failed “wars on X” I’m actually looking more so at Abortion. Abortion is an issue that we are told is very much on the forefront of people’s minds, I disagree, I do think though that it is largely blown out of proportion and discussion on it are wrought with misinformation and deception.
When looking at a problem that you see the first response should not be to outlaw it. Outlawing something does nothing to lessen the issue. The people who would have done it will still do it, the people who were unlikely to do it will not do it, and the people who would have never done it are still never going to have done it. What you do do however is create criminals for no better reason than to justify a crusade against differing life views or styles.
Abortion really should just be a last response to medical problems with mothers and the birth of their children. I recognize that it isn’t and that is what we’ll look at. First the answer to nearly all problems is education. Believe it or not if you educate people honestly and openly about a situation they will inevitably come to an educated conclusion about it. I’ll admit that doesn’t happen 100% of the time but nothing ever does that humans can verify.
So first you educate people fully about what? Well sexual education, abstinence education is an entirely unscientific system presented to kids for no better reason than to push religious beliefs on them. This is a terrible idea and it has been proven that it doesn’t work, how is it proven? Well unwanted pregnancies are a good example. I can educate people not to breath because it makes me feel better but it is their biological need to breath that will override my personal views.
Once you have educated people and they know of all the highly effective methods (as opposed to ones that only work in theory) to prevent pregnancy until they are prepared. After this we move onto the next issue. What if people take all the proper precautions and are still finding themselves in the situation of an unplanned pregnancy? Well we take after various wonderful places (such as Sweden) and we make it feasible for them to still be able to raise the child or at the very least we make the time between conception and birth as non traumatizing as it can be. Strong support for the expected mother and all the information necessary to be a strong parent. Or even explaining the possibility of Adoption (albeit that is for many just as tough a question as abortion, its not easy for the mother at all).
So we’ve accomplished two fold a fix. First we educate people openly and honestly treating them as they should be treated. Then for the people who may still get pregnant (a very small percentage assuming the first step) we treat them with respect and help give them all the available options. You will find that the amount of abortions in the country would indeed drop dramatically.
The stories about fun time weekend abortions are likely as strongly based in factual events as reefer madness. Don’t allow people to take extreme militant approaches to problems because it will never do anything but make it worse. Historically this has and likely will always be the case. I just hope that with my generation growing, more intelligent and grounded people will take control of governing bodies. Who knows.
Thought Experiment: Bilateral Cloning
2 years ago
by Rico Penguin
in General
When discussing cloning there is a general question of whether or not the new clone would retain the memories of its parent organism. Generally speaking I can think of absolutely no reason why this would be the case however it got me thinking.
I believe I’ve discussed before the fact that the right side of the brain and the left side of the brain can function while entirely separated from their sister lobe assuming they still have all the connections to the body that keep them alive. While these are both in the same body it appears that the person still is a single person.
What would happen though if we split a person bilaterally from top to bottom and connected each side to the required machinery to keep them alive. Perhaps in a future with advanced cybernetics we could give them half mechanical and half organic. At any rate, my point is this, would each function as the original did? We have created two people out of one person and not only that but each has the ability to function just as the originally did, however half as fast (well not literally but a separated brain does not function as well as a full brain…which isn’t a shock).
Would each side make the same choices when presented with the same stimuli? How evenly split would the memories of the person be? How well would they function as a team? Do we consider this as two individual people or one person? That final question is the one that is blowing my mind a bit.
Is a person split in half and still alive a single person or two people? It seems to break the black and white view of a person or an organism in general. It is another case of something seemingly obvious that is in no way obvious. It also is an important question when looking at a mother and the child within her. At what point do we consider them as two individual people, is it because they have each a set of organs? If so would that mean that a person split bilaterally would now no longer be a person at all?
The things that keep my brain moving are so odd sometimes…
A little homophobia kills a long way.
2 years ago
by Rico Penguin
in General
While I imagine absolutely anyone reading this already knows I thought it was a fascinating tidbit to point out just how destructive petty prejudices can be. Case in point with the ever vocal homophobes in our country (which is beyond me, I don’t see what homosexuality has to do with anyone outside of those who are homosexual).
For whatever reason a vast amount of the Arabic translators in the US military are (or I suppose I should say were) homosexual. Prior to the 9/11 attack the US intelligence agencies had received plenty of non translated material that all told could have quite easily raised our chances of preventing the attack to levels that are almost disgusting. Indeed even now the US has mounds of Arabic material that has either been poorly translated or not translated at all because they got rid of all the men and women who were willing to put their lives on the line for a military so prejudice that it would kick them out for something as unrelated as their sexuality.
So what is the cost of Homophobia? 2,740. That’s how many people that died in the 9/11 terrorist attack, that’s almost three thousand people who likely all would have much as many talented people working in the military and intelligence agencies as possible. Not only this but the aftermath of the event has cost the lives of thousands more US soldiers, I’m pretty sure a few dozen reporters, and that doesn’t even count all the people who have died in Afghanistan and Iraq that aren’t related to these organizations that have died in the cross fire or shrapnel. Likewise the war itself could have been avoided (since its very hard to invade a nation if you aren’t already at war or have good reason to get going there).
So the next time you see two men holding hands, or two women hugging and kissing before going about their day, and you feel a sickness in your stomach try to remember that that feeling cost the lives of thousands of people and for what? Because of some dark disgusting misinformed preconceptions you have about homosexuals? I hate to sound overly passionate about the topic because it might take away from my point but I am hard pressed to understand.
People might think that prejudices are harmless when not directly hurting people, but in the end they cost the lives of far more people. It only takes a little nationally supported prejudice to cost the lives of tens of millions of people. Few people deserve to die and even that is questionable, in the end it is never the fault of one person for the actions of that one person, there are many variables that come into a strong collaborative image to make each and every one of us. However you can be certain in a country of dissension and judgmentalism, you will generate many many people who are destined for an early death.
Notes:
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C0DE1DD1038F933A15752C0A9639C8B63 – 2005 Article on the topic, there are literally 10’s of thousands of them on the internet. Have an adventure and go google surfing, it’s an enlightening endeavor sometimes.