Blog Flume

I am a multimedia designer and aspiring writer from Central Illinois who dreams of bigger things. You are entering the hub of my online world. Welcome. Make yourself at home, read some stuff, click a few things, maybe check out my online portfolio. And of course, if you enjoy your stay, please subscribe.

*NOTE* This blog occasionally contains coarse language. Please use discretion when viewing.

Friday, March 14, 2008

Happy Pi Day!

What better day to celebrate that most elusive and mysterious of irrational numbers than on 3/14? Sure, you could think of Pi as simply a circle’s circumference divided by its diameter, but it’s so much more than that. That alone is crazy enough, since in a "perfect" circle, circ/diam will NEVER be anything other than 3.14yadayada..... Pi wouldn’t be as amazing if it were a whole number. We wouldn’t be nearly as amazed to see it recurring in nature if it were simply "3." Big deal.

Okay, I realize most folks don’t share my enthusiasm for mathematical wonders, so I’ll move on, but let me suggest some reading first. To learn a BIT more about Pi and Pi Day, see this
article. Or, to be amazed on a deeper level about not just Pi, but the equally if not more amazing Phi, or the "Golden Ratio," check out this book. I own it and love it.

Alright, enough of that for the day. But I would like to know why the blog categories in the drop-down menu during blog creation lack something like "Science and Nature." I’m sure I’m not the first geek to write about something other than "Parties and Nightlife." Get on that, Tom! Someboody send him an email, because Tom is not my friend.

Monday, March 10, 2008

Re: Vatican releases new list of sins

Those crazy fuckers at the Vatican are at it again:
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Monday, Mar. 10, 2008 By AP

(VATICAN CITY) — A Vatican official has listed drugs, pollution, genetic manipulation and social and economic injustices as new areas of sinful behavior.

Sins increasingly manifest themselves as behavior that damages society as a whole, Monsignor Gianfranco Girotti said in an interview published Sunday by the Vatican's daily newspaper, L'Osservatore Romano.

"While sin used to concern mostly the individual, today it has mainly a social resonance, due to the phenomenon of globalization," said Girotti, who heads the Apostolic Penitentiary, a Vatican body that issues decisions on matters of conscience and grants absolutions.

Catholic teaching distinguishes between lesser venial sins and mortal sins.

Listing the new areas of sinful behavior, Girotti denounced "certain violations of the fundamental rights of human nature through experiments, genetic manipulations."

He also mentioned drugs — which "weaken the mind and obscure intelligence" — pollution, and the widening social and economic differences between the rich and the poor.

Girotti said the Catholic Church continued to be concerned by other sinful acts, including abortion and pedophilia.

He said Church authorities had reacted with "rigorous measures" to child abuse scandals within the clergy, but he also claimed that the issue had been excessively emphasized by the media. 
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What? Drugs? Like... wine? Doesn't it "weaken the mind and obscure intelligence"? Yeah, right, I really believe the Cathoholic Church is going to admit that alcohol is a drug--the most widely used psychoactive drug in the world, in fact. That'll be the day. Yet again, the church shows us its hypocrisy and knack for inconsistency.

And, "thy shall not POLLUTE THY ATMOSPHERE???" What the hell?! These guys just keep on making shit up, don't they? If their book is so damned holy and perfect, why do they have to keep issuing addenda to it? They've even redefined the meaning of "sin." Here I always thought it meant "to fall short of the mark; miss; err." Now they tell me it has to do with global-social responsibilities. I'm sorry, was that the King James or NIV that says we need to reduce our carbon footprint to get into heaven?