The brainfart factory

I have a beef with the notion of ownership. To put it bluntly, organised religions each own a carefully segmented brand of god, and I think this is the very definition of evil. Their practitioners treat the one god worthy of the capital letter like a brand of beer. And if he is not good enough for the market, they spin a new image. They even have the audacity to attach gender to this entity. Can any notion of god really have cojones? Dare we even use a capital G? Then they scare six kinds of shit out of you with the bad guy. Who is by definition, anything that does not fit their brand. And worst of all, to own it is to be owned by it. Slaves to a brand. Prisoners….. (more…)

I don’t eat the stuff. And for the record, chickens and fish are made of meat. This is not a choice because of personal health either. It is a choice as part of a survival plan for the planet. If you think I am full of bovine excreta, read this report commissioned for the UN and released in 2006. Our livestock are responsible for 18% of greenhouse gas emissions (CO2 equivalents), more than the emissions from transport! The list goes on and on. Water contamination, drug resistant bacteria, pesticides, antibiotic and hormones in the food chain. That cow on the griddle is a major cause of the environmental pickle humanity finds itself in. Let me not get started on what our fish habit is doing to the oceans. So how much difference can a handful of tree hugging vegetarians make?

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In my position at my company, I have to sell our services. We ain’t cheap, so it has to be a good pitch. You are not going to sell a pricey service if you do not look the part. Web site design, business cards, product brochures and even the lowly CD cover are all manifestations of looking the part. This is a particularly good time for technical and financial people to get a simple fact: as hot as you may be at engineering or finances or whatever, you are most likely to be a terrible designer. Get over it. (more…)

I keep on being confronted with the argument that my expectation that a scientific theory will work on any given day is actually an act of faith. Equivalent to the faith that keeps religion on the go. So, for all those that do see a similarity, read on. (more…)