The funniest part of all is that this email account has not been used for anything. It has sent a grand total of one email, to another one of my email accounts, and that was today. It has never been posted on a website or entered in an online form.

From: cara
Subject: hello from cara

Hi,
i am here sitting in the internet caffe. Found your email and
decided to write. I am 25 y.o.girl.
I have a picture if you want. No need to reply here as
this is not may email. Write me at [address removed]

Sorry cara, you’ll just have to be bored there in the “caffe.” Why would you be emailing from someone else’s email anyway?

From: robyn
Subject: hello from robyn

Do not ignore me please,
I found your email somewhere and now decided to write you.
Let me know if you do not mind. If you want I can send you some pictures of me.
I am a nice pretty girl. Don’t reply to this email.
Email me direclty at [address removed]

I was excited there until that spelling error. Big turn-off, sorry.

From: jamie
Subject: is it you? jamie here

Do not ignore me please,
I found your email somewhere and now decided to write you.
Let me know if you do not mind. If you want I can send you some pictures of me.
I am a nice pretty girl. Don’t reply to this email.
Email me direclty at [address removed]

Yes, it’s me, but robyn, is it you?

From: ashlee
Subject: is it you? ashlee here

hello, I am pretty russian girl, bored tonight.
would you like to chat with me and see my pics?
if so then email me at [address removed]

It must be my new cologne, I never get this many girls trying to show off for me.

From: natasha
Subject: it`s natasha

Hi
It`s natasha again. Will you ever contact me?
I made those nude pictures especially for you and I wont write to you again!
If you wanna see them just drop me a line at: [address removed]

I don’t remember any nude pictures, maybe you can refresh my memory?

Mexican anger over US ‘trespass’

Mexican legislators said they had photographs and video, taken on Monday, of the workers and heavy-duty construction equipment that showed them about 10 metres inside Mexico near the border city of Agua Prieta and the town of Douglas, Arizona.

The Mexican Foreign Minister Patricia Espinosa said she had complained to the US authorities and that the men and equipment had been withdrawn.

Unless the BBC has switched to comedy, this isn’t a joke.

Note to Mexico: Worry about keeping YOUR citizens in YOUR country. We all know you don’t give half a rat’s ass about our sovereignty or border, so why should we care about yours? I know we try, and if we slip up, we fix it, as in this instance. What’s your excuse?

Antarctic temperatures disagree with climate model predictions

“The best we can say right now is that the climate models are somewhat inconsistent with the evidence that we have for the last 50 years from continental Antarctica. We’re looking for a small signal that represents the impact of human activity and it is hard to find it at the moment.”

I thought everybody agreed that global warming was not only real, but most definitely caused by humans. I thought all scientists had attained omnipresent supergalactic one-ness on the subject. That’s certainly what the media has been saying. Instead of spouting more baseless nonsense, maybe they should think about this:

If human-caused global warming is so obvious and fully backed up by irrefutable data and the entire scientific community, why do people have to dig so hard and stretch so far to come up with such flimsy “evidence” that barely stands up under even the lightest scrutiny?

Apple claims they don’t want DRM

Imagine a world where every online store sells DRM-free music encoded in open licensable formats. In such a world, any player can play music purchased from any store, and any store can sell music which is playable on all players. This is clearly the best alternative for consumers, and Apple would embrace it in a heartbeat.

I have to call shenanigans on that one, sorry. To think, even for a moment, that Apple would relinquish their firm grip on the online music industry is silly. If we’re supposed to think Apple’s only reason for implementing DRM was to comply with the RIAA, they must think we are a country of ignorant fools (which may be true in many cases, but I digress).

(more…)

A Radical Intellectual

“I was accused by Canadian environmentalist David Suzuki of being paid by oil companies. That is a lie. Apparently he thinks if the fossil fuel companies pay you have an agenda. So if Greenpeace, Sierra Club or governments pay there is no agenda and only truth and enlightenment?”

This is a great article, not because it stands in opposition to the groupthink I’ve mentioned before, but because it emphasizes that “consensus is not a scientific fact.” Far too many scientists today seem to base their findings on what they hope to be their next grant. Will they bite the hand that feeds? Probably not, and so we end up here, with millions of dollars spent on buzzwords and hype. Politics have infected enough of our lives already, they shouldn’t be allowed in science; however, until people realize that it has already happened, it is bound to continue.

ZunePhone?

A perfect example of Microsoft’s “me too” syndrome. Apparently the guys in Redmond are obsessed with having their fingers in everything. Google gives people 2GB email boxes? We’d better make hotmail 2GB! Apple has the #1 music player? We want some of that! What? They’re also coming out with a phone? Well, we’d better make one of those too!

This shouldn’t be a war. You don’t have to be the #1 search engine, email provider, music player, operating system, office suite, and everything else. Let some others get a piece of the pie. If you spent as much time and money on improving Windows instead of this “me too” crap, Apple would have to change their name to iPod, Inc., and Linux wouldn’t have a leg to stand on. Do a few things and do them well, don’t do many things and be mediocre at all of them.

“He who defends everything defends nothing.” -Fredrick II

A lone reed.

This article is a perfect example of the bias inherent in the media. Skepticism of global warming comes from the Bush administration and the industry. The skeptical scientist speaks at conservative gatherings and is cited by conservative think tanks. Meanwhile, the ideas he’s skeptical of are described as now widely accepted. Does the media denounce Dr. Legates for any valid reason, or is it solely due to the fact that the only people who will listen to him or publish his opinions happen to be conservative?

Global warming and climate change have so much science (good and bad) surrounding them that it’s nearly impossible to find untainted information. “State of Fear” by Michael Crichton is a novel everyone should read. It provides fantastic, cited information, but more importantly, it shows the value of coming to your own conclusions.