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Going Home

After much discussion, Ben and I have decided to move back to Phoenix later this year.

We had originally planned on staying in Denver another two years (to pad his retirement account a bit more to use for a down payment on a condo when we moved back to Phoenix), but for many reasons the Universe seems to be telling us to go sooner rather than later.

I can’t say I’m at all upset by this decision. It’s no secret that I have been—to put it mildly—dissatisfied—with my employment situation since arriving in Denver, and both us are done with the cold weather, the snow, the ice, and the level of abject stupidity we seem to encounter at every turn on a daily basis in this city. When we were back in Phoenix for our belated wedding reception last September I think it was painfully obvious to both of us how much we missed it. As I Instagrammed at the time:

We always viewed moving to Denver as an adventure, but we’ve had our fill of adventure and it’s time to go home.

 

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I Am Incorrigible

This guy reminded me so much of a boy I dated shortly after I moved to San Francisco in 1987, I couldn’t help but snap a dozen or so photos of him. Sadly, Kevin is no longer with us; a victim of the horrible early 90s when the plague seemed to be ripping people from our lives on a daily basis, but seeing this guy brought back so many good memories I can’t help smiling.

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Gigapixels of Andromeda

On January 5, NASA released an image of the Andromeda galaxy, our closest galactic neighbour, captured by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. The full image is made up of 411 Hubble images, takes you through a 100 million stars and travels over more than 40,000 light years. Well, a section of it anyway.

Prepare to feel extremely tiny and insignificant (or just the opposite!) as you marvel at this fly-through video created by YouTuber daveachuk and make sure you stick around till the end. Seriously.

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Just a Few Questions…

Disclaimer: I am not Catholic, have never been Catholic, and quite frankly couldn’t give a rat’s ass what the guy in Rome wearing the fancy smock and the pointy hat has to say, but I ran across this today and felt it worthy of passing on.

“If my good friend Dr Gasparri says a curse word against my mother, he can expect a punch. It’s normal. You cannot provoke. You cannot insult the faith of others. You cannot make fun of the faith of others.” ~Pope Francis

From Rosa Rubiconidior:

Dear Pope Francis

I saw your recent statement in Manilla in response the the Charlie Hebdo atrocities in Paris, that people who insult religion can expect to be punched. I am surprised that you seem to be excusing Islamic violence, presumably because you feel solidarity with other religions in the face of growing secularism in Europe, and find it confusing in view of official Christian teaching.

I acknowledge your right to determine Catholic Church policy and dogma in this issue, and I am aware that you have been trying to present the Catholic Church in a more liberal, more tolerant and less bigoted light and that you may even have been trying to instigate some actual reforms yet to manifest themselves, but this statement raises a number of questions which I would like you to answer please:

1. In view of what the Bible says Jesus said should be the right response to insults – to forgive and turn the other cheek (Matthew 5:38-39, Luke 6:27-29) – how does this new, violent response to insulting religion fit in with Jesus’ teaching? Do you think Jesus was wrong or just that he made a mistake in not explicitly stating this exceptions to this rule? Or does this apparent abandonment of the ‘turn the other cheek’ principle mark a change in God’s thinking on this matter and a repudiation of Jesus’ teaching?

2. Does this violent response to insults to religion apply in principle to other insults to individuals or organizations? If so, which, please?

3. Some people might interpret a resort to violence as a tacit admission that there areno reasonable arguments which can be used and an awareness of that deficiency, and that it betrays an insecurity which translates as a perceived threat, hence the ‘retaliation’. This in turn might imply a personal commitment to an idea which is known to be defective or even a lifestyle which is known to be fraudulent and disingenuous with religion being used merely as an excuse. What would you say to these people?

4. If this permitted violent response applies only to religions, does this apply to all religions or just to major ones such as Islam, Christianity and Judaism? If all religions, how are you defining the term ‘religion’ in this context? Does it require a belief in one or more invisible deities or would you include Buddhism and neo-Paganism or religion as understood by people such as Baruch Spinoza and Albert Einstein, which would include very many openly Atheist/Agnostic scientists? For example, as someone who is in total awe at the Universe and the natural forces that have shaped it and which have given rise to life on Earth with it’s amazingly rich diversity, would I be justified in punching anyone who disagrees with Big Bang Cosmology or Evolution by Natural Selection rather than bothering to explain the science?

5. Can I define my own religion and then punch anyone who insults it or does it need to be an organized religion complete with priesthood, buildings, creed, etc?

6. How should we define an ‘insult’ in this context, please? Is it an insult to question religious dogma or to disagree with it and put forward an opposing point of view? For example, if I question the historical existence of Jesus or the validity of the claim that the Qur’an was dictated by Allah to Muhammad, or even the historical accuracy of the Bible, would this justify someone punching me? How about if I question your authority or the dogma that on ecumentical matters and matters of morality you are infallible? What if I advocate contraception, same-sex marriages or strict secularism in government, health-care and education?

7. As an Atheist, I believe that all religions are delusional in nature and have many of the characteristics of a memetic virus living parasitically on human cultures. Do I deserve to be punched by religious people who might be insulted by these views or by religious people who find the idea that they are evolved apes who share a common ancestor with the other apes offensive and insulting?

8. The other day in Oxford, UK a man was telling passers by that they were all sinners and his god would hurt us if we didn’t agree and do what he said. As a secular Humanist and Atheist I found this insulting. Would I have been justified in punching him for that insult and would he have been justified in punching me for telling him he was probably suffering from paranoid theophobia and needed psychiatric help and counselling?

9. Is it permitted for any Muslim to punch Christians who deny the divinely inspired nature of the Qur’an or the claim that Muhammad was Allah’s prophet, or for a Christian to punch a Muslim who claims Jesus was not an Earthly manifestation of God and that the only way to salvation is through strict adherence to Islam not Jesus? If not, why not? If so, to where do you see this leading humanity?

10. Is the violent response restricted to a single punch or is a slap, a push, a knee in the groin or a headbut permitted? Can it involve more than one of these and can it result in actual bodily harm? What if the punched person retaliates? Can the response include a weapon or is it always to be unarmed violence?

11. May a man punch a woman who insults his religion, or an able-bodied person punch a disabled person, or a large person a smaller one? At what age are children eligible to be punched by adults and can children punch one another?

12. What advice would you give to people living in countries where punching someone is a crime and who finds themselves in court charged with assault, affray or causing actual or grievous bodily harm? Would you support a plea of innocent or mitigation on the grounds of religious conscience or that you said it was permitted?

I would be grateful for a reasoned and prompt response to these questions, please as I feel the future of European civilisation in particular and human society in general may be enormously affected by a careless and confused attempt to implement what looks like a new, less tolerant and more violent Catholic dogma which can only be expected to result in retaliation and an escalation in communal and inter-faith violence.

Yours,

Rosa Rubicondior

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Me Likey

I got a new case for my MacBook.

Okay, I actually bought three: orange, black, and turquoise.

I like this style because the Apple logo is actually cut out. It’s also got very grippy rubber feet on the bottom, something the MacBooks are not especially known for.

The orange practically glows in daylight.

You can find them (for all styles and sizes of MacBook) here. They ship from China so it takes a couple weeks for them to arrive, but it’s well worth the wait.

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Black Mirror

It’s been called The Twilight Zone or The Outer Limits for our age, and after watching the incredibly short first and second seasons on Netflix, I have to agree.

Black Mirror creeps the adult me out the way TZ and OL did when I was a kid. It hooks into our subconscious fears about the reach of technology in our lives in the same way the threat of nuclear annihilation and space exploration did in the 1960s.

Probably the most disturbing episode for me has been Fifteen Million Merits.

From Wikipedia:

A satire on entertainment shows and our insatiable thirst for distraction set in a sarcastic version of a future reality. In this world, everyone must cycle on exercise bikes in order to power their surroundings and generate currency called Merits. Everyday activities are constantly interrupted by advertisements that cannot be skipped or ignored without financial penalty. Obese people are considered to be second-class citizens, and either work as cleaners around the machines (where they receive verbal abuse) or are humiliated on game shows.

Bingham “Bing” Madsen (Daniel Kaluuya) has inherited 12,000,000 merits from his dead brother and has the luxury of skipping advertisements. In the toilet he overhears Abi (Jessica Brown Findlay) singing; he encourages her to enter into the X-Factor style game show Hot Shots, which offers a chance for people to get out of the slave-like world around them. Bing persuades her and, feeling there is nothing “real” worth buying, purchases the ticket for her. The judges (Rupert Everett, Julia Davis, Ashley Thomas) and the crowd enjoy her singing, but they state there is no room for an ‘Above Average Singer’ and instead give her the chance to become an adult actress on a pornographic TV station. After goading from the judges and the crowd, and drugged on a substance called “Cuppliance” (compliance in a cup), Abi reluctantly agrees.

Bing returns to his cell without Abi and any merits. When an advert showing Abi performing a sexual act appears on the screen, he can’t skip it (as he doesn’t have enough merits) and desperately tries to escape his cell, ramming the door until the glass breaks. He hides a shard of glass under his bed and earns another 15,000,000 merits to enter the competition. He stops buying food and pedals for months until he has enough to buy another ticket. He stands in the Hot Shots waiting room every day without expression until called to compete.

On stage he interrupts his performance, draws the shard of glass and threatens to kill himself live on the show. He tearfully rants about how unfair the system is and expresses his anger for how the judges took away the only thing he found that felt real. The judges, instead of taking his words into consideration, are impressed by his ‘performance’ and offer him his own show, where he can rant about the system all he likes.

Bing accepts and is shown finishing one of his streams in his penthouse. He stands staring out over a view of a vast green forest stretching to the horizon. It is unclear whether this is real or just another screen, and it is up to the viewer to decide if all Bing did is find himself in a larger cell.

It disturbs me because I can easily see this happening…

Anyhow, if you have Netflix, check it out.

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Quote of the Day

“We don’t need major OS releases every year. We don’t need each OS release to have a huge list of new features. We need our computers, phones, and tablets to work well first so we can enjoy new features released at a healthy, gradual, sustainable pace.

“I fear that Apple’s leadership doesn’t realize quite how badly and deeply their software flaws have damaged their reputation, because if they realized it, they’d make serious changes that don’t appear to be happening. Instead, the opposite appears to be happening: the pace of rapid updates on multiple product lines seems to be expanding and accelerating.” ~ Marco Arment

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