Should I renounce my atheism?

Make sure you stick around for when they pour concrete in the colony to what it looks like excavated.

Pakistan decides to postpone elections. Like conservatives and liberals tyrants are always trying to find ways to control people. Tyrants distinguish themselves only by magnitude in their desire for control. While Darwin does not want the state to have expanded power to protect against citizen death by terrorism he is more than happy to restrict citizen rights to prevent gun violence. A tyrant wants both and much more.

Check out the image.

By the way, if you don’t, you are a retard.

Old. Very Old. Check out this link to a gallery featuring centenarians. Especially the supercentenarians.

With so many people now living longer, a new demographic label has been created for those who have reached 110: supercentenarian. Within verifiable historical records, as of September 2005, according to the Gerontology Research Group*, fewer than 1,000 people have lived to 110, and only 17 people have reached the age of 115. The lifespan record is held by Madame Jeanne Calment of France, at 122 years 164 days.

Gifts for all you against gitmo detainment. Don’t ever say I never did anything for you.

Not only is the United Nations aware of the potential for torture in Japan’s prisons (more below), but courts here also tend to use different judicial standards when coming to decisions in cases involving non-Japanese.

Consider the Valentine case. On the evening of Dec. 9, 2003, a Nigerian nightclub worker surnamed Valentine was one of many Africans displaying flyers in Tokyo’s Kabukicho nightlife district. Two potential customers asked to see his club. Obliging, here’s what happened next:

On the way, his “customers” were rumbled as plainclothes police, Valentine says, and he panicked and ran away. Valentine was tackled, and a cop named Tanabu kicked him repeatedly below the knee until his leg was badly broken.

The police, on the other hand, claim that guilt gave Valentine wings, and while sprinting down a narrow alleyway, he dodged another policeman, crashed into a sign attached to a building, and thus broke his leg.

Valentine was then arrested under the Entertainment and Amusement Trades Control Act for handing out nightclub pamphlets, a charge he denies. However, whatever he-said she-said, Valentine was denied access to a hospital while in custody.

According to Valentine’s testimony, hospitals and doctors were contingent on him signing a confession, in Japanese (which he could not read), that the police had not hurt him. He refused. The interrogations continued for 10 days.

According to the U.N., this sort of thing is not all that unusual. The U.N. Committee Against Torture recently criticized Japan (CAT/C/JPN/CO/1, May 18, 2007, Sections 15(c) and 17) for “the lack of appropriate and prompt medical care for individuals in police custody,” and for “undue delays in provision.”

Consequently, Valentine’s leg injury worsened. When he ultimately did sign and was released to Immigration, officials saw he wasn’t running anywhere, and immediately sent him to a private hospital for emergency treatment.

Premise #1: Wealth makes men cowards.

Premise #2: When all men are cowards, there will be no war.

Conclusion: When all men are wealthy, there will be no war.

Reasons to Believe Premise #1: Richer countries are much less violent than poor countries; within countries, the rich are much less violent than the poor. Also, in rich countries, small numbers of casualties seem to have large negative effects on public support for war. (My main qualification: It may take a generation or two for the cowardice to kick in. There is probably a gradual social multiplier effect that amplifies the change in individual behavior).

Reasons to Believe Premise #2: This seems obvious enough. However, game theorists will tell you that matters are a little more complicated. When everyone else is a coward, even a coward can safely become a bully. In the real world, though, a small probability that a cowardly victim will defend himself will be enough to deter a cowardly bully.

Upshot: Since there is every reason to expect economic growth to continue throughout the world, world peace is probably only a few generations away.

Do you buy it? Why or why not?

Huh. Well who knew? Link here.

The conclusion of this story is very insightful.

In ancient Greece, Socrates was reputed to hold knowledge in high esteem. One day an acquaintance met the great philosopher and said, “Do you know what I just heard about your friend?”

“Hold on a minute,” Socrates replied. “Before telling me anything I’d like you to pass a little test. It”s called the Three Filters Test.”

“Three Filters?”

“That’s right,” Socrates continued. “Before you talk to me about my friend, it might be a good idea to take a moment and filter what you’re going to say. That’s why I call it the Three Filters Test.

The first filter is Truth. Have you made absolutely sure that what you are about to tell me is true?”

“No,” the man said, “actually I just heard about it and…”

“All right,” said Socrates. “So you don’t really know if it”s true or not. Now let”s try the second filter, the filter of goodness. Is what you are about to tell me about my friend something good?”

“No, on the contrary…”

“So,” Socrates continued, “you want to tell me something bad about him, but you’re not certain it”s true. You may still pass the test though, because there’s one filter left: the filter of usefulness. Is what you want to tell me about my friend going to be useful to me?”

“No, not really.”

“Well,” concluded Socrates, “if what you want to tell me is neither true nor good nor even useful, why tell it to me at all?”

This is why Socrates was a great philosopher & held in such high esteem.

Several years ago, while driving home from my then girlfriends house late at night I would occasionally see another driver on the street. Often times seeing this person would make me think about how there are people in this city awake late at night driving home. The thought occurred to me that I would never know this person’s name. I would never know why they were up so late. I would never know their home. I would never know there family or friends. In short I would never know this person.

There in the car next to me waiting for the green light I would think about the absolute certainty in never knowing anything about this person. But then a more powerful thought would come over me. In Omaha there are at least 400,000 people of which practically all of them I would never know. Taking the realization that I would never know anything of this human next to me and to think there are 400,000 more would cause me to reflect on how many people there are.

Of course at this point my chain of thought would lead me to population of the planet. There are over 6 billion people that I will never ever know. Six billion people with names, families, things, and aspirations and I will never know on any kind of personal level. Six billion people all sitting in cars right next to me, driving home waiting for a green light at some random intersection, in a random city, in a random state, in a random country. It really is a powerful thought.

Six billion