You can not make this shit up

We're all familiar with the grilled cheese toast Mary, the Mary tree stump, and the oh so delicious Mary on a pizza tray, but times are changing. Mary is getting some competition from none other than recently deceased Michael Jackson. Yes, Michael Jackson has turned up on a tree in Stockton. Despite the tree having been there for 22 years, the face has apparently just appeared. Or so claim the family whose property the tree is on. Personally, I don't see it.

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Writing time: 10 minutes (I had to search for some Mary links)
Time since last post: three days I think
Current media: none (cable tv runs the same episodes around noon and 10 pm ish so I've already seen tonights Stargate SG-1)

PETA does something not quite evil

Generally I think PETA are an example of the nuttier and extreme end of the hippy spectrum, what with throwing paint at people for wearing fur, protesting pounds putting down unwanted animals (if you don't want the animal to be killed, why don't you look after it yourself?), and being against the eating of meat, farming, circuses, fishing, the keeping of pets, the use of animals in medical testing, and aiding the legal defense of arsonists.

Today I heard something that while doesn't really change my opinion of the organization, I don't outright disagree with, and kind of support. PETA is offering a million dollar prize to the "first person to come up with a method to produce commercially viable quantities of in vitro meat at competitive prices by 2012."

I'm generally for pretty much anything that encourages research and development in pretty much any area, and so long as the sponsor is fair in how they administer it, I don't really mind who ponies up the cash (obviously if the prize is blatantly biased to a result that's no good, but that's not a problem for purely technological type prizes).

However, this is the start of a process that I think will split the hippy community (this is noted in the article). There are many different types of hippies. Some are all about loving the animals and not harming their fellow creatures. Others are all about the organic food and that anything purely natural is best (not considering that all of the plants grown as crops are the result of nearly 6000 years of selective breeding). These forces are going to come to a head over this. This is a great way of reducing the number of actual animals needed to feed the world. Thus the animal lovers should be all for this. However the purity squad are going to see this as an abomination that must be stopped. And thus the hippies will be divided.

As to whether or not I'd eat this stuff, I think I'd be willing to give it a go once it is sufficiently developed. Say to the point where it looks, feels and tastes like the real thing.

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Writing time: 29 minutes (I keep getting distracted while I write these things. Computers make it too easy to get distracted.)
Time since last post: 24 hours 46 minutes
Current media: The Office

Once again, I despair for humanity

When I saw a headline reading "Uncle Beheads Toddler in Supermarket" my mind conjured ideas of horrendous accidents involving shopping trolleys or checkout conveyor belts. And so it was with a sense of morbid curiosity that I clicked and read on.

I was somewhat shocked by what I read. This was no accident. No, the uncle picked up a knife and cut off the boy's head in front of his mother because he was having a fight with her and her husband.

This guy is scum. I mean really, if you're having a fight with someone, you don't bring others into it. You settle things civilly. You don't hurt someone else. You don't hurt the bloody person you're fighting with. You don't bloody well cut off their kid's head in front of them out of spite.

Jesus Christ, mother of god.

Naturally, since this reprehensible act was performed in a public space, police were rapidly notified and the man has been arrested. And there is a sense of poetic justice when I note that the penalty for murder in his country is death by beheading.

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Writing time: 13 minutes
Time since last post: 3 days
Current media: Season one of Star Trek Voyager

The End is Nigh

Don't go making any plans for beyond two weeks from now. Apparently the Rapture is imminent.

The Rapture is of course that event in Christian Armageddon where all the virtuous and pious individuals are physically taken up into heaven leaving all the unbelievers here on Earth to deal with the forces of Satan. Of course the people preaching about the Rapture all say that it will be the true believers who are taken up into Heaven to be with God. And they always include themselves in the group who will be Raptured away.

Actually, this could be a good deal for us. All the die hard fundamentalist Christians go away, leaving the rest of the world a better place.

In fact, it looks like God might be jumping the gun a little on his rapture plans. The head of the Greek Orthodox and Mormon churches died today, and Heath Ledger predeceased them by less than a week.

February 11. Keep the calendar clear. Or not.

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Writing time: 12 minutes
Time since last post: 1 day
Current media: None

Rational Thought Expelled

I found out about a rather disturbing film the other day. The movie is called Expelled, and is about the whole creationism in schools and science controversy. The reason I don't like this movie is that it is presenting the creationism side of the story. Unfortunately, going by the trailer it is an extremist piece that misrepresents both sides in an attempt to make their side seem more valid.

Others have already pontificated at length on this topic, and I don't really have much to add except to warn people about this piece of dren, and to say that I'm rather disappointed in Ben Stein (the narrator/host guy) for being associated with this.

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Writing time: 11 minutes
Time since last post: a little bit
Current media: Still Firefly

Japan isn't the only crazy country

From the good old US of A I give you Threat Alert Jesus. To those who don't want to follow the link, this is a Jesus figurine whose halo lights up in the color of the current terror alert level. Tacky, paranoid, bible-thumping, and more in one convenient package for only $19.95 plus tax and shipping.

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Writing time: 2 minutes
Time since last post: an hour or so
Current media: iTunes shuffle - currently America - Fuck Yeah from the Team America soundtrack (there is a certain synchronicity in that song playing now)