Sunday, September 9, 2007
Hillarious Pictures
I was surfing the internet today and my girlfriend sent me a link to a great website. Some funny pictures, great social commentary, and lots of laughs. Check it out!
Saturday, September 1, 2007
So is it acceptable to pray for others to suffer?
"With or without religion, you would have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil things, that takes religion."
- Steven Weinberg
In todays Sacramento Bee, on the front cover of the scene section, was and article that outlined this quote so well that I had to write something about it. When I read the title of the article: "Can Good People Pray for Bad things?", It had Weinberg written all over it. As said by the Bee:
So then I would assume that Pastor Drake, in his alleged plot to cause misfortune to befall those who are upholding the law, is a terrorist who conspires to undermine the constitution and thus the stability United State of America.
- Steven Weinberg
In todays Sacramento Bee, on the front cover of the scene section, was and article that outlined this quote so well that I had to write something about it. When I read the title of the article: "Can Good People Pray for Bad things?", It had Weinberg written all over it. As said by the Bee:
"Two weeks ago, the pastor called for the use of imprecatory prayers -- prayers that ask for misfortune to fall on someone else. Drake asked supporters to "go into action" with these prayers against the "enemies of God," specifically the group Americans United for Separation of Church and State."
Maybe Pastor Drake is slightly uninformed, but the very document that binds our country, the single most important piece of paper to American society, very exactingly says that "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion" an infer that separation of church and state is a mandatory law. It is what makes Amererica America, the land of the free.
So then I would assume that Pastor Drake, in his alleged plot to cause misfortune to befall those who are upholding the law, is a terrorist who conspires to undermine the constitution and thus the stability United State of America.
But don't get me wrong, I love religion. I think it is crucial to our mental well-being to have faith in something, to believe in something. A religious doctrine can help people to be on the same page and to follow the same rules, and a persons own beliefs and experiences can help to strengthen their own personal connection with the world around them.
It's organized religion for profit and power that really has me angry. (The kind that wants to combine church and state). Its the kind of religion that Weinburg is referring to, the kind that makes good people do evil things, the kind that makes the leadership of a religion call upon their followers to do evil in the name of their own temple.
It sickens me to hear of this. Not only is Drake exploiting the faith that his followers have to help his church gain a political advantage (by removing the establishment clause supporters and enforcers), but he is asking them to openly use imprecatory prayers to accomplish this; to wish for evil things to befall the "enemy". This is something the supposed compiler of the Bible (Jesus) did not even do. He did not wish his punishers to suffer, even as they nailed him to the cross, he pitied them and hoped to forgive them. Now this local Sacramento Zealot wants to take things into his own hands for his own means and certainly not forgive his enemies. I ask this: how close is Davis to the teachings of his faith?
I personaly believe that your faith is your's. It is what you make it, and it may not apply in the same way to others, but it certainly is important to you. The supreme idiocy of the organized church system is based on an outdated assumption that people need explanations for the phenomenon of nature (and they still use the same explanations that they originally came up with for the sake of consistency) and that the explanations need to have their roots in the faith in order to preserve tranquility within a population. Whats even worse is church's fear that to admit the credibility of current science will undermine THEIR power. Its insane that it even is a power struggle. (Its because of the evil people that Weinberg speak of).
Well in that case, lets all rush over and join an equally proven, legitimate, and feasible religion that wont cause any harm to anyone at all.
“Religion is the frozen thought of men, out of which they build temples” - Krishnamurti
Its 2007, we have cracked the Genome, created quantum computers, observed dark matter, and are close to a grand unified theory. The greates scientific minds of discovery are very human and very mortal and they give us the hope that we need. Gone are the days of riots over a lunar eclipse and the butchery of millions over dying corn. Gone are the days of cruelty to humanity in the name of supposed religious appeasement.
I am deeply moved by this quite and think that is hold alot of truth. but then again, those who believe in the truth already understand the message.
I shall end my tirade with another equally applicable quote to bridge into my next tirade:
"Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited to all we now know and understand, while imagination embraces the entire world, and all there ever will be to know and understand." -Einstein
hint: education system
CoD4 Beta
The beta is awesome. That being said it was lacking some things that i would like to express here.
First, all the weapon seem (which is much different from the other COD games) small, and taper off towards the front. To be honest, they look like the original MOH weapons and this is a bad thing. they need to be more substantial (check out the weapon scales in rainbow six Vegas). They should also have more unique sounds and feels when shooting, after all they use very different ammunition types, some sub-sonic some super-sonic, etc.
Second, i would like to see more destructible terrain, or at least more particles flying around when im in a dense area of the map and under fire/shooting. Everything seems too much like a set.
The game speed is very fast, this is good, but it for some reason does not feel as solid as COD2 were you can point at shoot and kill, no guessing or compensating for the lack of precision that you have to do in the beta.
The player models seem so similar to the maps that its hard to tell what is what, and it looks pretty homogeneous, that being said, the character animations are awesome when you get over the fact that they look like pieces of paper flying around a cardboard house.
For weapon switching, the controls were lacking very much. I would suggest using the entire D-pad for weapons where you press Y and select weapons/grenade types on the D-pad with just switching between primary and sidearm and holding X will let you modify the current weapons ROF, etc with x alone reloading or priming.
I really like the inclusion of the mele, and crouch needs to be reassigned to the left stick because if you crouch you are most likely going to need all the right stick action for aiming and not crouching.
The HUD could be a little more informative, the small symbols were not super obvious as to what they were and which direction the selection button would take you in your inventory.
More foliage and more open terrain that is not flat would be cool too, but only if the player models were more human like and the terrain was more terrain like.
A marine would most likely carry more than a single frag grenade and would most likely not die from a shot in the leg, which was happening quite alot.
finally, the most important thing, cover. Its unacceptable for a next gen shooter to not incorporate some kind of cover system. Games that shouldn't compare to this one feel much more solid as a shooter because of the cover system. No mistaken cover runs while reloading, just your back against a wall. I beg you to incorporate cover into this game!
RECAP:
Weapons look like MOH weapons and all sound/feel similar
Homogeneous terrain/characters need to be more destructible, more complex
Game speed makes it necessary to compensate for the imprecise controls (not solid)
Controls are not suited to the game (Y and X modifiers for D-pad are a must) and custom sensitivity is needed. Crouch should be on the left stick where you move around because when you crouch you need all the right stick action for aiming.
Hud is not to obvious, seems like little symbols all over the place, check out the HUD in Vegas.
Not very realistic (1 grenade?, leg shots=instant death, no accuracy penalty after sprinting?)
NO COVER? Come on, this is an ultra next gen title!
All in all, I was very impressed with the BETA, but i hope alot of things get fixed in between now and the release date. If not, i think i would still be playing Vegas. If you want a solid 360 shooter, pick up Vegas, and keep your eyes out of COD4.
First, all the weapon seem (which is much different from the other COD games) small, and taper off towards the front. To be honest, they look like the original MOH weapons and this is a bad thing. they need to be more substantial (check out the weapon scales in rainbow six Vegas). They should also have more unique sounds and feels when shooting, after all they use very different ammunition types, some sub-sonic some super-sonic, etc.
Second, i would like to see more destructible terrain, or at least more particles flying around when im in a dense area of the map and under fire/shooting. Everything seems too much like a set.
The game speed is very fast, this is good, but it for some reason does not feel as solid as COD2 were you can point at shoot and kill, no guessing or compensating for the lack of precision that you have to do in the beta.
The player models seem so similar to the maps that its hard to tell what is what, and it looks pretty homogeneous, that being said, the character animations are awesome when you get over the fact that they look like pieces of paper flying around a cardboard house.
For weapon switching, the controls were lacking very much. I would suggest using the entire D-pad for weapons where you press Y and select weapons/grenade types on the D-pad with just switching between primary and sidearm and holding X will let you modify the current weapons ROF, etc with x alone reloading or priming.
I really like the inclusion of the mele, and crouch needs to be reassigned to the left stick because if you crouch you are most likely going to need all the right stick action for aiming and not crouching.
The HUD could be a little more informative, the small symbols were not super obvious as to what they were and which direction the selection button would take you in your inventory.
More foliage and more open terrain that is not flat would be cool too, but only if the player models were more human like and the terrain was more terrain like.
A marine would most likely carry more than a single frag grenade and would most likely not die from a shot in the leg, which was happening quite alot.
finally, the most important thing, cover. Its unacceptable for a next gen shooter to not incorporate some kind of cover system. Games that shouldn't compare to this one feel much more solid as a shooter because of the cover system. No mistaken cover runs while reloading, just your back against a wall. I beg you to incorporate cover into this game!
RECAP:
Weapons look like MOH weapons and all sound/feel similar
Homogeneous terrain/characters need to be more destructible, more complex
Game speed makes it necessary to compensate for the imprecise controls (not solid)
Controls are not suited to the game (Y and X modifiers for D-pad are a must) and custom sensitivity is needed. Crouch should be on the left stick where you move around because when you crouch you need all the right stick action for aiming.
Hud is not to obvious, seems like little symbols all over the place, check out the HUD in Vegas.
Not very realistic (1 grenade?, leg shots=instant death, no accuracy penalty after sprinting?)
NO COVER? Come on, this is an ultra next gen title!
All in all, I was very impressed with the BETA, but i hope alot of things get fixed in between now and the release date. If not, i think i would still be playing Vegas. If you want a solid 360 shooter, pick up Vegas, and keep your eyes out of COD4.
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