EllenWhite.org is Ellenwhiteexposed.com

I really don't pay attention to the SDA question anymore, as should be obvious by my silence. I just finally got tired of the ranting and endless debate on unsolvable questions. It's like arguing about what color Unicorns are, or what their favorite foods are.

It seems that the site "Ellen White Exposed" has changed its domain name from ellenwhite.org to ellenwhiteexposed.com. I'm sure the Ellen White foundation badgered them until they simply decided to change the name.

I'm going through the site and auditing the links. If there is a dead link or an incorrect one, drop me a note or simply comment on the blog posting and I'll fix it. Also, if I've made any factual errors - or if you simply disagree with my conclusions :) let me know too. If you post with your true identity I'll probably publish the comment; if anonymous I'll just fix the error.

OMG - H1N1 Flu just a state of mind?

So I was over at The Loom catching up on my blogs after an exhausting week. Carl freaked out over this article. Thought I (naively) - "How bad could it be?" After all, often peeps tend to hyperventilate over stuff they simply don't agree with. This is no such case.

There are, occasionally, articles that border on the criminal. This is such a case. That there could be a person who reads that article and decides not to take any precaution other than filling her mind with positive thoughts just seems inconceivable (to borrow from Princess Bride). Fortunately there is little danger, at least at this point, of wide-spread exposure to a dangerous flu strain. It appears currently to be a somewhat annoying but fairly harmless strain of flu - at least when compared to other flu strains. Yet, this could change. And this [censored myself] person is spreading lies.

Lies. Then there is the kooky. Drug cartels? We're talking about flu here, Marianne. Yes, the cartels are dangerous too but their airborne virus's usually come out of the point of a gun and are generally aimed at specific hosts. ...oh my...

Can we try to "pray" people like this away? Or may I modify her #2 point? Can we just send her to Mexico?

NEAP Testing and states

Having a son in 4th grade I think a bit about the quality of education. Blake just had the standardized testing that all 4th graders must endure. The "No Child Left Behind" law has had an impact, but the jury is still out as to whether or not it's going to be a positive one.

This chart shows some interesting results comparing between the NEAP and states ranking of students. Not a good omen for Georgia. The article it was linked from is a bit dated but also not encouraging. I'm hoping not to discover how badly my son was educated 10 years from now.

Banned from Facebook? aka, New Virtual World Order

Gosh! Who'd have ever thought that Libby would be the sort that Facebook would determine was worthy of banishment. In fact, however, this is exactly what has happened. A simple Google search will turn up a number of such events - many of whom had no idea that they were even under a "terms of service" (Like Libby) let alone what those terms actually are.

This brings a thought to my mind. We live in a very very different world. Most of us are used to living in a country where we have rights, legal recourse, and the ability to protest something. Be it ever so minuscule, we have power. On the web, however, this is not the case. We now live in a virtual world where the rules and actions are governed by corporate self-interest, and where you - that single person among millions of other "users" - is of little value to the corporation. They do as they wish to protect whatever they wish to protect.

Less you think I'm whining about some corporate conspiracy think again. I've almost always come down on the side of a business to create a product and attach whatever strings to its use they'd like. Even in situations like this I still tend to lean toward that position. Yet we as people need to understand how tentative our situation is. Should Google decide, your blog will disappear forever and there is nothing that you can do to recover it or your good name. Google/YouTube have banned even the Marvelous James Randi's account with no warning. Fortunately he has the power of his stature in the Skeptical community and resources beyond you and I as individuals. RIAA, YouTube, Google, Yahoo, Microsoft. These are the new House of Representatives and Senate in the new virtual country that we live in. User be warned: The technology and communication channel that you have come to depend on and even earn your living with can disappear in an instant, and there is very little you can do beyond sending an email petitioning the decision...and waiting....and waiting.........and waiting.

You are the gentleman sitting in the lobby with hat in hand nervously waiting to find out if you will be seen today, or need to come back tomorrow and wait...and wait...

Video on "Open Mindedness"

This video is very well put together and very clearly articulates the difference between truly being open minded (but sentient) and having a mind into which just any idea can fall and sprout into idiocy.



(Via PZ/JREF)
Update: Link to the video producer on YouTube

Laws of physics

Laws of physics in action outside my office. It's not a great picture - iPhone drive by, but it looks like yet again two cars decided to test the laws of physics and enjoyed the resulting collision. On the far side there were two cars, one onto the curb. Not sure if the two collided or if one ran the other out, but it looked like someone got hurt. People are 'tards at this intersection. First they get desperate to get thru it at any cost, and second they always assume that a person is turning if they are coming from one of the sides. Whenever I go straight I simply drive through the intersection laying on my horn.

Update: There seems to be a bad accident at that intersection every couple of weeks. Peeps are retarded there. Just this week there was a 3-car physics experiment with one up in a flower bed and another in the center median (I guess that's a redundancy...).

Wall Street Journal 50% increase in rates

It took a crazy "ninja" increase in their online subscription to motivate me to post a blog entry (after being lazy for some time), but when I saw a charge for $150 on my online bank statement from the Wall Street Journal online subscription I was seriously miffed. It was bad enough that a year or so ago they raised it to $99/year without telling us [though it could be that a letter - that looked like junk mail - did arrive]. This ninja increase of 50% is crazy. I could understand if I had the print version. This involves hard costs of print and distribution. And I understand that there are real costs associated with producing an online journal. But when the online is almost the same price as the print? Crazy.

The economy is in seriously bad shape, and companies are watching their bottom line fade like so much disappearing ink. They are looking for more sources of revenue and finding none, so they are simply raising rates. Our local country water just did this. There is a bad drought here in Georgia and we are all under severe water restrictions. Add to that the fact that many of us are really working hard to be good citizens and are doing a variety of things to reduce our water consumption. This translates into a dramatic reduction in revenue. The solution? Dramatically raise the cost of water. Crazy.

I can't cancel my subscription to the county water supply. I can, however, cancel my subscription to WSJ.com, which is exactly what I did. I'm sure I can find something better to do with that $150.