KiwiSlaver

Beware your Employer come bearing gifts...

KiwiSaver, the new government superannuation scheme, is a great a idea. It's not only good for the individual but also good for the New Zealand economy. I'll explain why. If the average kiwi signs up for the default 4% they get a government kick-start of $1040, 1% from their employer from the 1st of April 2008 rising 1% each year to a final amount of 4%, $20 for annual management fees and a $20 a week tax rebate. That tax rebate works out at another $1040 per year which the government gives you as a lump sum at the end of each year your are a KiwiSaver participant.

This saving will give most kiwis a comfortable retirement and also means that money that might have been spent on imports, which affect our balance of trade, or "invested" in the non-productive housing industry will be at worst saved in the local economy and at best invested in local and international equities.In the long run equities provide the best return and if you've got more than say 5 - 10 years to retire then I would recommend it. Also, investing in our local economy gives us back control of our profitable companies, this means more profits are kept in New Zealand raising all out living standards. It also means new companies and IPOs can be financed internally to a larger degree. Take Piker River Coal mine (PRC), this company is mining some of the highest grade coking coal down in the west cost. Now a large part of this company (at least 70%) was bought by overseas investors (India comes to mind) who need access to the coal for steel production. Recent coal prices, like many commodities, are at all time highs. If New Zealand had been more focused on investing in our local infrastructure rather than property we may have been able to maintain more of this company in local hands. It's likely this company will start producing a profit in 2009 and 70% of that will most likely end up overseas. KiwiSaver will give us more of this focus, a focus that's been happening in America, Australia, Canada etc.. for a much longer time. By investing overseas we do one better, we get a slice of foreign profit coming into the New Zealand economy.

So far so good ... you may be wondering why the title then. The reason is because, although KiwiSaver is great in principle, it may not be so in practice. There are couple of issues I see with it and for the ignorant it is possible they may be being swindled by their scheme provider and/or employer. First you have to be careful who you choose to invest with. I don't think there is any regulation on what a scheme provider has to invest in so they could, theoretically, invest your 4% in lotto tickets and hope you strike it big. Okay, this is an extreme example, but how many of you know exactly what your KiwiSaver money is invested in? Maybe you should ask your scheme provider. Second, beware management fees and investment styles (a fees calculator is available here: http://www.sorted.org.nz/calculators/kiwisaver-fees/). There is quite a large difference in fees here and you can expect to pay 3 times as much in fees from the higher end than from the lower end. This can equate to tens if not hundreds of thousands of dollars by the time you retire. Also, beware (most) actively managed funds. Most managers, around 75% don't/can't beat the market (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Index_fund) and if they do it may only be for one year and then they slip back into the pack. I would recommend a passive index fund which just tracks an index e.g. SmartFonz (FNZ) which tracks the performance of New Zealand's top 50 companies. These have the advantage that they are likely to beat 75% of managers year in year out, they have lower management fees, which I've shown before can make a big difference and also active funds have to pay tax every time they buy and sell shares whereas a passive index does not. I personally use SmartKiwi, the NZX's KiwiSaver scheme. They use only index funds and have one of the lowest management fees around.

Now for the employer angle. Some companies are trying to claim that the employer contributions are part of your salary package and will be taken into account in future pay negotiations. One notable example is one of New Zealand's largest Telecommunications and ICT providers ( not naming names ;) ). To me this is unethical in the extreme. I have heard claim that they are only trying to treat all employees fairly i.e. those that haven't opted for KiwiSaver and aren't getting the 1% top up should not be unfairly disadvantaged. Yes, they should!!. If they choose not to sign up to Kiwisaver, it's their own, DAMN, fault. Don't penalize me because they're stupid. They have a choice, the government has set up this scheme and it's their choice not to take advantage of it. And anyway these companies are given a tax rebate to cover their contributions and now their trying to claim more off their employees? (see http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/latest/200804121741/3cbc8ab4) Talk about wanting their cake and eating to too. These companies are trying to use their employees ignorance of the KiwiSaver scheme to rip them off. My fellow kiwi's, why would you want to work for an employer that has such little regard for their own people. If they think we're that stupid why did they hire us in the first place?!?. They can GF!!

I guess what can you expect from companies that are largely overseas owned. They have no love of the Kiwi people, all they see are dollar signs. So for your own good and the good of our country join up, lets take control of our own lives back and the control of our country's future prosperity.

I'm a Kiwi and I'm proud to call my self a Kiwi ... Saver.

Here comes a new Boss, almost like the old Boss

Spankermatic has been stupid enough to add me to his blog.

I'll be ranting about my point of view from now on. Although it is similar to his, he knows nothing about good TV shows, ahem FIREFLY ahem.

IronMan, better than the Man of Steel

Generally speaking I am not to bothered about all the super hero films that seem to come out. Some of them are pretty cool, most have an entertainment value of some kind, and some are just plain terrible. In saying that I am actually looking forward to the new IronMan film. It is directed by the star of one of my favourite films 'Swingers', Jon Faverau. Also it has Robert Downey Jr who seems to have come good after all those years of being a druggy loser bum. Don’t get me wrong I like Downey, I think he is a great actor with bucket loads of talent but he nearly threw it all away. Anyway the trailer has been out for a while now and if you want to see it then read on. Also I have listed some of the superhero\comic book films that I like\Hate or what ever.
IronMan trailer

X-Men - I don’t mind this series at all, it's fairly disposable watching with plenty of action. There is not too much to care about in regards to the characters of the danger that the bad guys present. I mean I don’t feel that the World is going to end. I am not rooting for the good guys as much as waiting for the bad guys to do something bad.

Spiderman - This series started so well. The first one looked so good and there was good action, it was a new look at a cool super hero. I am desperate for Sam Raimi to do some new material as I think he got bogged down with this series. I do think that the Spiderman films fell into the same trap as the first series of Batman films, there were to many villains. Spiderman 3 had three bad guys, Venom, that goblin guy and the Sandman. It should have been about Venom only, that would have given chance to create a much better evil for Venom and flesh things out more.

Superman - I really quite liked Superman Returns, I think they paid homage to the original Christopher Reeve films nicely and hopefully the series continues. Christopher Reeve was the reason that the original series worked so well, he was completely believable as Kent and Superman. You got totally taken to that World. The bad chaps in Superman II were nasty too. Wearing black and killing astronauts on the moon.... grizzly. That’s what PG villains should be like.

Daredevil - This was really average. Don’t really know what to say... Bad guys were naff and Affleck was normal. Blagh!

Ultraviolet - Shit! Total garbage.....

Batman - Tim Burton's Batman was fantastic, as was Nolan's Batman Begins. i only hope that The Dark Knight is a better sequel than Batman Returns was for Burton. I think that Burton's Batman is a lot more mysterious than Nolan's and that helps to sell the dark brooding image. In saying that Nolan's version show us exactly what he went through to become the man in the suit and gives us a more detailed motive. I love them both and can't wait to see The Dark Knight.

This is just a short selection of some of the things that I think about the superheroes that have graced our screens recently. I do think that they should slow down on the production of these films as they are becoming more throw away and less eagerly awaited. People have almost had enough. I am sure that IronMan will prove me wrong.

Teaching can be Fun.

Here is a video of a physics lecturer at MIT in the States who uses lots of practicle demonstrations to teach his students. I wish that my teachers had been like this, it actually looks like fun. His name is Walter Lewin and he is becoming rather well known now because of a video blogs and his enthusiasm for physics. This is what teaching should be about. People that have a passion for something and want to share it with others. Not like when I was at school where we were all told to read stuff, we didnt even have internet, or paper, or books. I had to walk twenty miles in the snow just to get to school, and that was without shoes. Then I had to walk twenty miles home just to get a beating before going to work in the mine.... Folks these days have it easy.

The Beauty of Photoshop, Makeup and Time Lapse

I stumbled across this today while surfing the interweb. A neat video of a lady getting made up for a photo shoot and the subsequent photoshop retouching. Kinda cool as it was done in time lapse.
Check it out.

Read more for another video, this is the opposite of the lady. Funny too.

New Royal Mint Coins

It looks like the Royal Mint in the UK has looked toward the future with the issue of the new set of coins, and they are due to go into circulation thoughout the course of the next year.

I have to say that having growing up in the UK I have a real liking for the British Pound and Pence, and in saying that I really like the new designs. They are clean and simple but most of all they look British. Well done to 26 year old Matthew Dent who won the competition to design the new coins. Check out the images and the full article over at the Royal Mint's website.
Another picture after the jump.

2, The Ranting Gryphon on Global Warming

More ranting mirth - check out the vid after the jump. I think the last thing he says covers the topic nicely.

2, The Ranting Gryphon is ranting master.

2. The Ranting Gryphon has a number of good rants on YouTube. Check out the one after the jump for an amusing rant about America. Favourite comment? Has to be the one about "going to a best western and shagging a large hairy Samoan woman, dressed in a clown suit with a stuffed badger". Oh yeah - comedy gold.

Meet the Whaka's

Ok, most of the time I understand the PC nature our society has taken - to a certain degree. We live in a time when now, more than ever, its important to be aware of other people and their cultures. More importantly, we need to make sure when we do or say things, we don't run rough shod over things that others may consider important. Racism, intolerance and bigotry are unnecessary societal evils that we can do well without. Then there are times, like today, when you just roll your eyes and say "Oh for fucks sake! Get over it!"

In Auckland there has been a billboard up in Parnell for Ace Rentals, that had four sections. The first 3 showed the highway road signs pointing to Whakatane, Whakamaru and Whakamoa. For those of you who dont live in New Zealand, or are unfamiliar with Maori pronunciation the first part of those place names is pronounced with the Wh making a "fa" sound and the k is hard - phonetically its "faka" or Fucka. You can see where this is going right?

The final panel had the phrase "Rent a car from only $25.00 a day so you can visit any whaka." Now, when I first saw it on a news article tonight I thought it was quite witty. But it looks like the PC Police are out in force, batons at the ready, loud hailers declaiming racial hatred blaring. The Maori Language Commission has complained that the advert "demeans Maori, it demeans New Zealanders". The Maori Party also got in on the act, using it as a chance to pimp themselves on National TV just before an election. Maori Party co-leader Pita Sharples said the billboard was an inappropriate use of Maori language. "It is an abuse of a people, our history and our culture"

I don't get it. Its a word - its a tongue in cheek representation of a word that some people find a bit ribald. Its like the label FCUK - theres people walking round with it on their T-shirts, jeans or whatever. We all know what it says - I know it, you know it, the PC Police know it. This is just the same - what if it had said Phuket? Would the Phuketians be up in arms claiming racial abuse? I doubt it.

What about Meet the Fockers? Its a pun on a dutch family name, and do we see them up in arms about it? Nooo mish moneypenny.

And its not the funniest place names I've heard of either - Intercourse, Pennsylvania is pretty amusing. So's Beaver, Dikshit and Tittybong. Maybe we could use those? My point is, that its just a pun - its not racial insensitivity, its not the end of the world, and its not something people sould be wasting their valuable time on this earth reporting on or writing in blogs. Oh - snap.

Anyhoo - thats my 5 cents worth. I'll close out with some more examples of places with weird names just to show that no one really gives a whaka.

Arsoli (Lazio, Italy)
Bastard (Norway)
Beaver (Oklahoma, USA)
Beaver Head (Idaho, USA)
Brown Willy (Cornwall,UK)
Chinaman's Knob (Australia)
Climax (Colorado, USA)
Cunt (Spain)
Cunter (Switzerland)
Dikshit (India)
Dildo (Newfoundland, Canada)
Dong Rack (Thailand-Cambodia border)
Dongo (Congo - Democratic Republic)
Effin (Limerick, Ireland)
Fuku (Shensi, China)
Fukue (Honshu, Japan)
Fukui (Honshu, Japan)
Fukum (Yemen)
Hold With Hope (Greenland)
Intercourse (Pennsylvania, USA)
Lickey End (West Midlands, UK)
Little Dix Village (West Indies)
Lord Berkeley's Knob (Sutherland, Scotland)
Middle Intercourse Island (Australia)
Muff (Northern Ireland)
Nobber (Donegal, Ireland)
Pis Pis River (Nicaragua)
Sexmoan (Luzon, Philippines)
Seymen (Turkey)
Shafter (California, USA)
Shag Island (Indian Ocean)
Shitlingthorpe (Yorkshire, UK)
Tittybong (Australia)
Tong Fuk (Japan)
Turdo (Romania)
Twatt (Orkney, UK)
Wank (Germany)
Wankendorf (Schleswig-Holstein, Germany)
Wankener (India)
Wankie (Zimbabwe)
Wankie Colliery (Zimbabwe)
Wanks River (Nicaragua)
Wankum (Germany)
Wet Beaver Creek (Australia)

Thanks to 3 News and Stuff

Monkey News

This has come directly from the Ricky Gervais website and is an animation that someone has put together of one of the podcasts features called Monkey News. For those that don't know Monkey news is news that has been found by Karl Pilkington that involves chimps and monkey's. usually the news is based on facts of some description but twisted and warped by Karl's own perception of how animals behave. I like this one because Ricky is obviously getting wound up by the story and can't believe what he is hearing. Follow the link for the video.

Behold the wonderful mind of Karl Pilkington.

Retro Movie Graffiti

Check out the following link to see more of this cool retro science fiction graffiti.

Thanks to Nera Studios for sending the link.

R.I.P. Arthur C Clarke - 1917 - 2008

Today see's the passing of a man that changed the World. Arthur C Clarke has been influential in the world of science fiction, science space advocacy and and many of his ideas and predictions came true during his lifetime. One of his unaccomplished goals mentioned in a recording made to family and friends, said that he 'would have liked to see evidence of extraterrestrial life during his lifetime'. Part of the legacy he leaves behind includes predicting that man would land on the moon by 2000, communication satellites would live in geosynchronous orbits and probably most famously is his story, 'The Sentinel' which was turned into the science fiction epic 2001: A Space Odyssey. Watch Arthur's last comments after the Jump.

AT-AT prototype - Big Dog rocks.

Boston Dynamics in the US has developed what can only be described as the prototype for the AT-AT from The Empire Strikes Back. Although I suspect that the AT-AT could not do the things that 'Big Dog' can. This new robot is far more weird than watching the ASIMO robot trying to run, if anything it looks a bit creepy, almost like a 4 legged spider. Look at the way that the 'Big Dog' manages to keep on it's 'feet' while on ice. Video after the jump.



The potential for this kind of robot is amazing. Imagine how it could be helpful in rescue situations. Give it some coordinates and send it on its way with first aid kits and supplies.
Then there is the military use. Again send it into where troops are pinned down with fresh food and ammo. Or send it behind enemy lines with tactical bombs or claymores. Not that we advocate the use of technology in that way here at RD. Needless to say that this project is partly financed by DARPA.
This could also be utilised in planetary exploration. It would be able to get to places that the likes of rovers could not get to. Down into Valley's and craters, jump crevices and travel faster. Someone email NASA.

Here are some specs right from the Boston Dynamics website:
Speed = 3.3mph
Ascent angle = 35 degree
Load weight = 120lbs

Regardless of the end outcome and final use this is a pretty cool new robot and is right up there with the ASIMO from Honda, and Dextre the new robot arm on the International Space Station.
This technology has a bright future, here's hoping they don't take over the World and make us all in to batteries.

George Carlin - Laughomatic Mirth Machine

George Carlin is pretty old now. Over the hill and gathering speed. In fact, some would say he's well down the hill, approaching warp factor nine. Be this as it may, he is still one funny bastard. Check him out waxing forth on our favourite topic - religion.

Are we nearing scientific Utopia, or Dystopian William Gibson style society?

I have been amazed at the gadgets and scientific advances made in the recent future. We have had any number of gadgets that let us expand our senses, and advances in science that enhance our abilities to repair and rebuild. This is just the beginning. If you combine this with advances in nano technology, we can soon expect many things we do now like cell phone use, computer interaction and interaction with one another to be at light speed (compared to today) and internalised wherever possible. (Picture left from NotCot)






Yes, I foresee hundreds of dudes wandering round with wireless aerials sticking up out of their heads. Much like that dude off star wars who is Lando Calrissian’s office manager - Lobot. Actually, I figure it will all be internal, much like everything else. They will be small clusters of nano sized machines, that collect around specific nerve centres and lobes of the brain depending on their function. For interaction, we’d either find some way of using out central nervous system as an aerial (ala Iain M Banks – Against a Dark Background), or implant long metal coils that run down from our medulla oblongata to our heel on one foot. Maybe we’ll be able to pick up AM radio and tune into the cricket at work!

I don’t think a day goes by that I don’t read of some advance in tech or medicine or science that could be the spark to the next stage of our evolution. And that’s what we need too. I reckon because we have removed most of environmental problems and pressures, we have stagnated our own evolution. We are stuck arguing with morons who cling to outmoded ideas about religion, and held back by greed merchants more concerned with making a buck than furthering their own species. If we took half of what we spend on making war, or half of the amount collected by big financial institutions as interest, and pumped it into biotech and medical research I reckon we could eliminate a lot of the world medical issues. I know – there’s no such thing as a Utopia, and eliminating all the worlds medical issues would only introduce other ones (like population pressure), but a geek can dream drok it! And surely if we didn’t have to worry about our own mortality we could focus a lot of our time on invading, er I mean, exploring neighbouring planets and even solar systems.

So, what advances have I seen that have sparked the old brain juices flowing? Well shitloads really, but just point to a couple, here’s a list (not definitive) of the ones I’ve seen recently :

BIOTECH IS GODZILLA!
A good one I’ve seen recently is the six fingered banjo addon for weirdos. Researchers have figured out how digits are formed during the early stages of foetal development and are working on replicating the process. This can lead us to all sorts of Deliverance jokes, but even better than that is the ability to count to 42 on one hand.

BRAINS! BRAINS!
Scientists have also figured out another wee bit about brain development with regard certain stimulus. Researchers have empirically shown that parts of your brain are changed at a neurological level by whatever you see. This has good implications for people who may have partial brain dysfunction with regards their sight, being able to have their brains reprogrammed to allow them to see once more. Or reprogrammed into human automatons who could come wash the car and vacuum the house.

MORE BRAINS!
Neuroscientists in Florida announced that they had been injecting blood into rat brains. Not exactly a good lead in I know, but when you say its blood of newborn infants umbilical cords, what say you now savage! Ok, still no good. Well the outcome of this gory experiment was rejuvenation of the rats aging brains, restoring neurogenesis (growing new neurons) and reducing the effects of brain aging. Once refined, this sort of technology may help with life longevity and reversing the effects of brain trauma. Like Monty Burns using Bart’s blood in the Simpsons. Ah –the Simpsons. Is there anything they can’t teach us?

SHINY SHIT!
And the gadgets – automated voice boxes, bionic limbs and robotic eyes. Soon, Cyberdyne will be online and we will assimilate everyone. Or turn this planet into a post apocalyptic hell. Whatever - better clear the calender for that one.

Its all good. I reckon, 15 years or so from now, we will be all queuing up for longevity treatments and anal probes. Err I mean, implants, to enhance our bodies natural abilities. How long before the anti doping agencies for sports become anti-enhancement bodies? Would you allow someone with enhanced sight, reflexes and arms in the baseball leagues? Would you allow someone with enhanced legs and arms into the Super 14 Rugby teams? I hope these are questions we are considering in the near future.

Movie Review - Rambo 4

Directed by: Sylvester Stallone
Starring: Sylvester Stallone, Paul Schulze, Julie Benz

So I sat down and watched the latest Rambo film the other day. That’s right folks, I watched Sylvester Stallone grunt and shoot his was through nearly a hundred minutes of river, forest and blood. Yes, lots of blood. Why review this you might say? It’s going to be predictable and formulaic. Well yes it is, read more to see why it works.

My Rating: 4/5

Rambo 4 has come out at a time where it is morally wrong to upset your enemy’s and their culture. If we still had the mindset of the 80’s then I am sure that Rambo would be killing the Iraqi’s or even the Afgans that he saved in part 3. But as it happens he is now not fighting the enemy of the US, he is fighting the oppressive and demented regime of the Myanmar military, and boy are they demented.
Synopsis: (minor spoilers, sort of)

Without getting into to much detail the film plot is fairly simple. Rambo lives a simple life in Thailand when some church\redcross do gooders want to go up river to the bad area to help people. Rambo says “No, bad idea” they say “we don’t care” he takes them anyway.
The red cross\God people get caught by the bad guys and some get made dead. A bloke then comes to Rambo and asks for his help, he helps.
Rambo and a bunch of mercenaries go to the bad area and fight lot of the bad people. Rambo saves some of them. Some of them die, except the girl who lives. He kills about 9 million people with 50.cal machine gun which is cool.
Rambo goes back to the US to hang with his family. The End.

(End of minor spoilers)

So that’s the plot. What about the rest? Rambo part 4 is actually very well shot, some of the scenes at night and in the rain really set an uneasy mood. Stallone has done well with this. I actually think that it is his best directed film along with Rocky Balboa. I don’t know if it’s because of age or the team of people he has around him but he has managed to turn what was an 80’s commercial vehicle into gritty and oppressive view of the problems in Burma. It is obvious that Stallone has his own views on the political injustice and this is his way of publicising this.
To say that this film is ultra violent is a major understatement. According to Wiki there are 236 kills which averages out at 2.59 kills a minute, that’s not bad for a 93 minute film. Most of the deaths occur by towards the end of the film by Rambo and his 50.cal machine gun and it is a mighty impressive spectacle. Bodies are literally torn apart and there is so much blood. Probably one of the most harrowing parts of the film is not the blatant disregard for the lives of the military but the way the village invasion is depicted. No-one is spared, men, woman and children are slaughtered by the Burmese army and it is incredibly explicit. This was almost hard to watch, it is hard to think that these atrocities might actually be happening somewhere in the world.

All up this film works for me. Its violent, full on and dramatic and has made me (if only for a minute) think about the world. I recommend this to anyone that grew up with the old school action films. It will also suit anyone that enjoys the new brand of gorefest film. Nice one Sly.

Seven Deadly Sins gets its Sequel.

I am sure that my fellow writer Spankermatic will have something to say about this but I felt I had to add my 2 cents worth also. The Vatican has announced 7 new deadly sins; they are Polluting, Genetic Engineering, Obscene Riches, Taking Drugs, Abortion, Paedophilia and Causing Social Injustice. Read more of the diatribe after the jump.

[edited by Spankermatic who most certainly wanted to have wee tirade about the $$Catholic Church$$]

Does this mean we will get a new directors cut of the film Se7en starring Morgan Freeman and Brad Pitt called 7+7 or 14 or 7-2:Return of the Sins? Imagine trying to make the new sins into a movie. The murderer would have a difficult time finding someone who fit the bill wouldn’t he – no actually, he could probably find every single one of them in the Vatican.

1 - Creating Social Injustice : Look no further than the Catholic Church's track record on using its religion to oppress the masses in whatever century you like. The Crusades ("God Wills it!" said Pope Urban II), the Inquisition (burn the heathens!), the Salem Witch trials (more burning!), exploitation of ethnic populations by missionaries, Anti Semitism, oppression of women, and the big tick for Slavery and stoning disobedient children by the bible. "The pattern is a clear and documented fact: whenever religion has become powerful (Christianity or otherwise) oppression and tyranny has quickly followed." (Kyle J Gerkin)

2 - Genetic Engineering : wasn’t it the monk Gregor Mendel who first proved that specific genetic traits could be selected using breeding patterns in snow peas? He was a pioneer in understanding how evolution using a model of inheritance works, and has contributed significantly to the way we understand genetic selection today. I note from his Wiki page that " After his death, the next abbot burned all his papers he had in his possession." Surprise - not.

3 - Obscene Riches : why is it there are people starving all over the world, and the Pope and his lackeys cover themselves in jewels and velvet robes? What about the whole 'giving your money every Sunday at the meet-n-greet (Mass or whatever its called now)'? The Catholic church is one of the richest organizations on the planet - just check this quote from The Vatican Billions by Avro Manhattan, or this article in Time magazine. "Bankers' best guesses about the Vatican's wealth put it at $10 billion to $15 billion" - obscene? Naw - just play money eh. And here's how this sin and the next one tie in nicely together.

WASHINGTON (AFP) (march 7 2008) - The Roman Catholic church in the United States paid out 615 million dollars (400 million euros) last year for child sex abuse cases involving members of the clergy, or 54 percent more than the previous year, an official report showed Friday.

4 - Paedophilia : One would assume that the Catholic Church could have better spent that money teaching its moronic monks NOT TO ABUSE CHILDREN!! Man, this one of all is the most ironic.

5 - Taking Drugs : with some of the crap that the old Pope spouts he has to be on something. But this one highlights a major flaw with the new deadly sins. They are vague and contrary to accepted wisdom. What Drugs? Alcohol is a drug, but you have wine with the communion. If a person is in pain, would not morphine help ease that pain? If a child who has severe psychological problems because he was abused by the local priest takes drugs to ease the mental anguish, he becomes a sinner? That's fucked up. I personally don't think the taking of many drugs will take you anywhere good, but I am not going to enforce my opinion on someone else. If they want to smoke - go for it. Its their lungs and their body to defile. Good on em. Wanna mainline heroin? Go to it man - just remember that you will get no help from me when your body falls apart from the abuse. Each person should be responsible for their own choices.

6 - Abortion : there’s bound to be quite a few priests who have knocked up the odd nun or two and hushed it up using the convenient Family Planning clinic down the road. But that's not what this ones about. By making abortion a mortal sin, they try to remove choice from people, and removal of choice is a form of control. If you are told by the ones in charge that you don't even have the right to decide what happens to your own body and a small clump of cells nesting within, you are no longer in control of anything.
And this does not even get into the issue that the Catholic Church said, up until as late as 1869 (Pope Pious Prick), that "the fetus did not become a person until late in the course of gestation". This completely contradicts the current position of the Church which says its from the moment of conception. Now since their entire repertoire of jokes is based on one book, how is it that the words in the book changed? They didn't - just like every other time in history, its nothing to do with the teachings of God, Jebus or the FSM - its about small minded bigots in a big building in the middle of bumfuck Italy trying to impose their will on everyone else.

7 - Polluting : every time the pope dies, they burn a fire to create smoke that has no other relevance than to send a signal. Wave a flag? Fire a flare? Open the fricking window and yell "Thar's a new pope in town - better scram you varmints!" Or in this digital age, crack out the PC or Blackberry and send an email or a txt? Nu pope pikd. Gt out glad rags and gitar.

The big problem with new bunch of sins is they lack context and can largely be argued against using any number of historical facts about the Catholic Church. The original seven sins pretty much speak for themselves, and also seem to cover all the new ones as well. Its all about control - do this, don't do that.
And just who decides how people are judged? That’s right it’s the Church. That’s where this whole thing falls over. It seems that by adding things such as abortion, genetic engineering, obscene riches and to a certain degree even taking drugs is in itself social injustice. Yes, abortion is a morally tricky area. Yes, taking drugs can be socially destructive and yes, it sucks that I'M not obscenely rich but all these things need to be put into context. What if a woman is raped and falls pregnant, is abortion acceptable? YES. What if taking drugs helps relieve pain of arthritis, are drugs acceptable? YES. And what if you had built a company from nothing and turned it into a million dollar industry does that mean that you have sinned? NO I think not. Bill Gates is far too shrewd not to have a first class ticket to the big computer shop in the sky.

Not only that but by adding these new sins hasn’t the church just condemned itself to an eternity in Hell? Taking out the one about genetic engineering I think that they have partaken in all of the new entries. That is your social injustice.

Check this - if god created everything then he created our ability to do everything we can. That includes engineering at a genetic level. If God did not want this to be possible then it would not be. It is something that mankind has developed the ability to do, just like being able to fly in a plane and build computers and invent the telephone. All these things were not possible before hand but we made it happen. Woo hoo… Go the human race.

This new list from the Vatican is just another way that the Church is using to control its followers and spread fear. I am sure if Jesus is watching from up high on his cloud he is probably pissing his pants with laughter. I can see it now - "Oh what have those wacky Catholics done this time".



Thanks Jesus and Mo.

Space Shuttle blasts off for ISS

The Space Shuttle Endeavour blasted of last night on another construction mission to the International Space Station (ISS). It is the second mission of six this year and one of the fastest turn arounds in Space Shuttle History. Atlantis returned less than a month ago after delivering the European Labratory "Columbus". STS-123 is a 16day mission and involves installation of the new Japanese module called Kibo and the new Canadian arm. Video of the launch after the jump.


Good luck and Godspeed

I Am Legend is a bit better now - or is it?

As we discussed in an earlier post (on our old blogarooney), the Fresh Prince's latest movie I Am Legend was sub par. It left a bit to be desired throughout, and the ending sucked serious balls. And now we know why - there was an alternate ending. The producers, after listening to clearly moronic test audiences, decided to go with the fluffy bunnies, religo and ultimately shit house ending we saw with the movie. Well, screw that - it downed the whole flick I reckon. Fortunately, someone has saved us by posting the entire alternate ending on Gametrailers. Check it out after the jump.




Well after watching that, I cant say I like either ending really - they both suck. My better ending would have been the infected corner Will Smith, use cohesive arguments to make him understand that Scientology is a bunch of crap, and they all run off to Tom Cruise's house to do an intervention. Theeeeeetaaaaaannnnssss!

Michael Shermer is the Skeptic King

Here are a couple of video's of a guy called Michael Shermer. He is the founder of The Skeptics Society and Editor of Skeptic magazine. He has written a bunch of books and often does talks. He hangs in the same circles as Richard Dawkins and James Randi which makes hime a stand up guy in my book. This is a somewhat witty look at who he is and what the Skeptic Society is all about. This may be a funny but a lot of his points are very serious and well made. Video's after the jump.

Part 1

Part 2