Not Serious

This is a really entertaining account of a woman who was excommunicated from the Mormon church. This excommunication was at her request, er, demand, and it sounds like it was really a nice carthartic experience for her. I almost want to go join the Mormons, just so I can have the standing to tell off one of their officials like that. It's a little known fact that when Maggie and I were living with Christi my sophomore year in college, I used to have running debates with Jehovah's witnesses and Mormons that would come by. I think both the women hated those times, because I would usually invite them up to the balcony and sit out there matching verses. I never understood why Jehovah's witnesses even bothered coming by, because they have a very literal interpretation of the passage in Revelation that says only 144,000 will be saved at the end. Surely there are more than 144,000 Jehovah's witnesses out there, right? If so, why are they recruiting me to compete for one of their slots? I like the Mormon's brand of craziness better. They will even go back and baptize dead people by proxy. Oh, that works. Do absolutely nothing for the religion and it still aims to get you into heaven. What's the point of skipping the booze, tobacco, and premarital sex if you can just get a free pass in anyway? All you get if you're a Mormon is magic underwear, so I don't see what the big attraction is. This whole practice got them in trouble for posthumously baptizing Jewish concentration camp victims. While I'm on the subject of religion, someone is going straight to hell for this one, the "pope and his lava lamp." From Blue Ruin.

Site News and random links

So, as is my usual wont, I have used the weekend to alter the site further. The bio page was coded entirely manually, which marks my first page from scratch ever. Have fun. I've obviously been too focused on serious subjects recently, so it's time to revert to web surfing fun. The popularity contest known as the Bloggies has entered the "voting" stage, now that nominees are selected. I could ridicule the concept, but the page also serves as a nice link collection to some very good and some very overrated blogs out there. On the other hand, the Anti-bloggies are still accepting nominations.

Did you know that it was possible to get breast implants put in through your navel? I didn't until I saw the article in the EM2K blog. On a slightly more serious note, I've been reading the esteemed scientist Hans Moravec for quite a while, and he's been warning us about the dangers of computer intelligence. This last year seems to have been a sort of convergence among respected thinkers out there, and now Bill Joy (founder of Sun) and Ray Kurzweil (an inventer and pioneer in computer and musical technologies) think we may be in trouble. A fascinating read, from Q8, from Kuwait. Cool title, but try closing your italics tags. Oh, and your bold tags, too!! On the other hand, if the robots take away our toothpaste, we can apparently brush with horseradish (why am I thinking of that stupid Budweiser commercial. . . Wasabi!?).