Ancient Aliens Rule the World.

I have recently been watching a show called 'Ancient Aliens' on History channel. More due to lack of anything else to watch. So I have made it to the 4th episode fairly unscathed. But after struggling to the end of the 4th episode I am not convinced that I am going to make it any further.
For those that don't know, 'Ancient Aliens' works on the premise that thousands of years ago human kind was not doing so well until a bunch of Aliens came and helped us out.

Tsunami Time... Its a disaster...

Here in the Pacific we are subject to the possibility many kinds of natural disasters. Volcanic eruptions, tropical cyclones, tornado's, earthquakes and tsunami's. It is a constant threat that cannot be dismissed lightly. Anyone of these could strike at any time.
We all know what destruction a tsunami can cause as illustrated by the Indonesian tsunami of 2003. Hundreds of thousands of people perished. But what would happen if the worlds biggest volcano decided to do the Atkins diet and shed some weight. Check out the video after the jump of what could happen to the near by island of Oahu and the city of Honolulu if such a scenario occurred.

Grasshopper's Can Fly

I caught this video of a grasshopper hitching a ride on a fighter jet on Bad Astronomy this morning and it reminded me of an incident I had. Check out the video after the jump.

I was flying from Wellington to Auckland on a domestic Air New Zealand flight and had an itchy toe, so I took of my shoe to sort out the problem, only to find a Weta hiding in the toe area of my shoe. Needless to say I nearly shat myself and had to compose myself so that I didn't cry like a girl. I dont know what happened to the Weta after I shook it from my shoe but it got a free trip to Auckland. Must still be lost.
I cant imagine how the pilot was able to just laugh it off, I suppose he doesn't mind creepy crawlies. Notice that he doesnt flinch a bit and keeps flying as if nothing is amiss.

LHC will not Destroy the World... But,

If it does it will look like this.


Here is some information about the work that the good folk at CERN will be doing with the LHC.

More plane themed Video's

In keeping with the last post of aircraft and dangerous behaviour, check out the following 2 video's of aircraft doing what they do best.. Woo hoo...

Guns don’t kill people...

I was always fascinated by that saying and how simple it seems. “Guns don’t kill people, people kill people”. In essence, it is compelling because it is true. Guns do not kill people of their own volition, they require a motive force such as a finger pulling the trigger, a hand to aim it and a person to decide what to aim at. But is it oversimplifying things? Do guns in a larger sense actually kill people through actually existing, or am I just talking out my butt?

Recently I had my house broken into, and although nothing much was taken luckily, and no one was home, the sense of some scumbag rifling through my personal effects pissed me off something chronic. I went through the classic stages we experience to cope with things.

DENIAL
“What? Someone broke in? Don’t be ridiculous! They can’t break in when we’ve got things like, doors and windows covering the openings. Well of course they could have just smashed a window, but who in their right mind would do that? That’s crazy talk!”

ANGER
“Fucking pricks! How dare they break into my house! I’m going to....well...I...I’m going to get pretty upset is what I’m going to do!”

BARGINING
“Please please please please please please let my new xbox still be there”

DEPRESSION
“This sucks. How can someone do this to me and my family. What sort of nihilistic a-hole would invade my house and rifle through my shit?”

ACCEPTANCE
“What? Are you joking? Acceptance? Fuck. That. The next time I see someone snooping round the neighbourhood I’m gonna get the rake outta the shed and beat seven kinds of snot out of them!”


It was the last statement (which I actually did think to myself) that I have come back to ponder in the light of a few recent events in New Zealand. In early June an owner of a liquor outlet Navtej Singh in South Auckland was shot dead, even though he had complied totally with the offenders demands. Since then there have been a spate of shootings and assaults (not entirely related to shop owners) that have been highlighted in the media. A majority of these we all shake our heads, do the old “tut tut” thing and continue on with our lives because we are not shocked by this sort of thing – we have been desensitised to it. It is remote. Its happening to someone else we have nothing to do with, so we feel comfortable dismissing it from the worry centre of our brain and concentrating on more personal matters. Which is all perfectly normal – you can’t expect people to live in total fear because of the worry and stress caused by events which have no immediate impact on their lives. Unless you live in the US of course, and then the Government and media make damn sure you worry about every perceived terrorist threat there could possibly be.

But I digress. On Monday night, two machete wielding offenders charged into a Christchurch dairy and attacked the owner and his wife without provocation. The owner Nike said "Usually in the movies they say 'Give me the money' but they tried to kill us from the very start. It happened really fast. They ran in holding the knife out and started trying to chop me." At this point, Nike whipped out his air pistol that was stashed behind the counter, and shot the knife wielding maniacs, wounding one of them in the face. He saved his life, his wife’s life and didn’t kill anyone in the process. Bravo Nike – well done.

This has raised the obvious question however – should people have the right to arm themselves for protection? I saw on the news tonight, several people calling for the ability of shop owners to defend themselves. What would have happened in any of these situations where a small business owner is confronted by an armed nutter, demanding they “gimme the casshhhhh” is armed with a .357 magnum, or a small .22 pistol? It’s obvious really – the outcome would be much worse. As soon as you arm everyone for “personal protection” you increase the death toll at every robbery. The more guns there are, the more people will get shot and it wont be for reasons of “personal protection” either. You then put a gun in the hands of every husband who has an argument with his wife, of every disgruntled employee who has forgotten the TPS reports, and every bored teenager who feels like taking their frustrations with the world out on someone.

Its relatively hard in New Zealand to get a gun, and although we are seeing an increase of crimes linked with guns, I wouldn’t want to change that. If you see someone with a gun, it stands out – they look out of place and you can identify them as a possible offender because they are armed. If you arm everyone, they blend into the crowd and make them impossible to find. Increasing the number of weapons owned legitimately will make it harder to trace the ones that are not, making it incredibly hard to capture and prosecute successfully people who commit armed offences.

“Guns don’t kill people, people kill people, but if you give everyone a gun, more people will be killed” – proliferation of weapons has never helped solve anything. All it does is give people who are pissed off, down on their luck or just bored something to play with.

Do we turn left or right after the complete and utter darkness?

Ever wondered what its like to drive into a dust storm in the outback in Australia? Well wonder no more - check the video after the jump for a lovely ride with techno accompaniment into the heart of darkness. Coooool.













Via Gizmodo

F.E.A.R. Sequel - Game Trailer

The original FEAR game came out when the likes of DOOM, FarCry and Half-life 2 were splashed across our computer screens and filled the gap left by the uselessness of Doom which was garbage. FEAR was all about being a scary game with some good gun play which exactly what it delivered. Close Quarter combat with a ghostly story as a backdrop, creepy. FEAR then expanded with a 'Expansion pack' which basically delivered more levels and the same gun play and the same scary stuff, which by now was not so scary.

Then came a full stand alone game, 'great', I said 'new stuff...' Not so. If it wasn't for that fact that I liked the original I probably would not have played the stand alone addition. I enjoyed it because I really have nothing else to play at the time, but essentially it was not any different from the original game or the expansion. No new guns, no new bad guys, no new graphics, it was literally new maps to run around in, a little disappointing to say the least. In fact all three episodes should now be bundled into one game.

But now we have a proper sequel coming and it looks great. Below is the new trailer for FEAR2, I have to admit that the story does not look to have progressed to far but the update to the gameplay and graphics is long overdue. Some nice combat visuals, new badguys and new weapons might just revitalise this game franchise. Have a looksie.

New Zealand not Epically Doomed, unlike Louisiana.

Phil Plait over at BadAstronomy.com has been banging the drum about creationism and evolution for a long time now and I wholeheartedly agree with everything he has to say. If schools want to teach Intelligent Design or Creationism then it should be done in the correct forum, which is not the science class. Anyway, where am I going with this? Phil Plait has done a pretty good job on this argument so I am not going to go into the specifics here.
The governor of Louisiana Bobby Jindahl, has just signed has signed a new state bill called the academic freedom bill which will allow creationism to be taught alongside evolution. Evolution of course being a Theory that can be proved by scientific means and principles, creationism cannot. And now the whackjobs in NZ are having a go as well.

The floodgates have opened. www.Stuff.co.nz in New Zealand reports that, “A Christian group promoting intelligent design over evolution has sent teaching material to schools that critics say is religious propaganda and sloppy pseudoscience.”
At least the critics have a voice. The NZ Education Ministry says:
“The unsanctioned material does not breach the Education Act and there are no plans to ban its distribution. But officials stress the theory of evolution underpins the science curriculum and schools have a responsibility to teach theories that are subject to accepted scientific scrutiny.”

A groups calling themselves “Focus on the Family” (meaning of course THEIR focus on YOUR family) sent Material to 400 high schools trying to get them to teach the hack pseudo-science in class.
Waikato University sciences senior lecturer Alison Campbell said:
“The material champions creationism - the belief that God created the world as described in the Book of Genesis - claiming the universe is too perfect to have been produced by chance so must be the work of an intelligent designer.
It represented a religious viewpoint, she said, not a scientific one, and had no place in science classrooms.”

Focus on the Family's executive director Tim Sisarich said the material was intended to expose pupils to an alterative theory of cosmology.
"We're a Christian organisation so we believe that God made the planet and God made the cosmos ... Science takes a theory and tries to establish it as the truth, and that's all this is."
Education Ministry senior manager Mary Chamberlain said parents had a right to withdraw children from religious instruction.

This is amazing. I knew that NZ had a large religious community and that is totally fine, I have no problem with that. I did not think we had the same type of minds here as in the US. I suppose we are lucky that we don't as yet seem to have those types of people in power that can make the crazy mistakes as Louisiana.

If you check the article on Stuff, you will see the standard religious morons coming out of the woodwork, making the same inane arguments. "Its just a theory", "we didn't evolve from monkeys", "teach the controversy", and "why is there no half monkey/ half human" is just a random sample of the horse shit the Committee for Lying for Jesus is posting. Always with the same crap that shows more about their lack of understanding, than their intelligence. I don't think it will ever get to the same level of stupidity that it does in America, with 40% of NZ subscribing to no religion, and another 30% subscribing to religions other than christian based ones, but its still worrying to see these knobs waving their flags every now and then.

Also interesting to see this kind of crap start surfacing just before the election, with Tim Sisarich and his cronies at the Destiny Church trying to get a seat in parliament to push their evangelical nonsense. Here's hoping come election time the same thing happens as every year, and they get laughed out of the polling booth.

Theres also a poll on the Stuff hompage about teaching ID in school. Go over there right now and give them the good news!

Is it a Bird - Is it a Plane

One of the worst things about flying is that little something, no matter how remote might happen to your plane. That slight niggle in the back of your mind that is inescapable. Everyone has it. Imagine being on a plane that sucks a bird into the engine on take off. What a mess. I wonder what that would look like.
Check out the video after the jump of a Boeing 757 taking off.

Lots of seats would need cleaning after this.. Scary.