CharmingGeek.net Funness

I do not support a policy that uses your and my tax money to fund research that devalues the unborn and the potential for life in order to save or increase the quality of life for others. Life is a gift, and not only to those who have already taken their first breath.
I’m not here to make up your mind about embryonic stem cell research, but I do urge you to get the facts: (I’ll just give you the ones you need.)
Here‘s the text of the embryonic stem cell research bill that was passed in the House today yesterday. (This bill does not lift any ban or legalize any type of research. It says nothing about the types of research that can be performed or the source of the stem cells that can be used. What this bill does do is increase the area of federal funding with regards to embryonic stem cell research.)

“Notwithstanding any other provision of law…the Secretary [of Health and Human Services] shall conduct and support research that utilizes human embryonic stem cells…regardless of the date on which the stem cells were derived from a human embryo.”

Here are the facts on the current policy

“The President?s policy places no obstacles in the path of private or state funding for stem cell research.”

You may want to refresh your memory on why and how Bush became the first President to provide government funding for stem cell research and to draw a line where government support should stop.

“Embryonic stem cell research is at the leading edge of a series of moral hazards.” “And while we must devote enormous energy to conquering disease, it is equally important that we pay attention to the moral concerns raised by the new frontier of human embryo stem cell research. Even the most noble ends do not justify any means.”

And just to clarify when people tell you about Bush’s ban on research here‘s a tirade on that precise subject

“We also don’t provide federal funding for abortion, does that mean we have BANNED ABORTION? We don’t provide federal funding for sex change operations, either. The federal government also refuses to fund decorative lawn gnomes, cross-stitch patterns, or high colonics for people who are full of [PRAISE THE LORD],”

Kelly called this a meme. I still don’t have a clue what that means, but since it’s short (and she badgered me about it), here we go:

Total volume of music on my computer:
9.73 GB

The last CD I bought:
I just bought three albums from Every Day Life:American Standard, Moment of Clarity, and EDL

Song playing right now:
“Shout” from Ian Eskelin

Five songs I listen to a lot, or that mean a lot to me:
Hands in the Air, The Waiting
Cold Feet, SpencerAcuff
Shake What Your Momma Gave Ya – Luke
I Just Know – Disciple
Loser – Switchfoot

Five people to whom I?m passing the baton:
Jesse
Robyn
Margaret
Step
Miss Marf

This article on Slashdot alerted me that you can now personalize your Google homepage.

Do you remember Teeny Little Super Guy? It took me a few days to figure out where I remembered him from and what he was called. This live action/animated short starred a pudgy guy in a yellow shirt and brown hat that was drawn on the front of a what may have been a drinking glass, but I’m pretty sure was a clear plastic cup. It was a regular feature of Sesame Street when I was a kid. I remember this guy moving around as a two-dimensional being in a three-dimensional world, dropping through countertops and passing through walls by just spinning around. A writer at the Sesame Street Workshop said it pretty well:

Teeny Little Super Guy was a cartoon-like fellow who lived on the front of a drinking glass and took part in many a countertop drama. He had a grizzly little voice and sang his own theme song.

Speaking of theme songs, here are the self-affirming lyrics to the Teeny Little Super Guy theme. I don’t remember the story line of any of the shorts, but I’m pretty sure this guy’s super powers did not far exceed anything you would normally expect from a middle-aged man drawn on the side of a disposable cup. If you do remember any of those adventures that TLSG had with his many two-and-a-half dimensional friends, leave me a comment and share. I’m off to find a cup and some markers!

Click here to listen to the TLSG Theme Song. (mp3)

Only in Canada…

Google is taking over the world. I want a pocket Google so I can know everything, all the time. The newest Google feature is Google Print, an archive of books scanned from libraries and publishers. There’s already a large collection and more books will be added. Any book in the archive is searchable, and for those that have entered public domain (essentially anything written over 70 years ago) you may read the entire text! (That’s what I heard, anyway. It doesn’t seem to be very true. You can actually read entire books from Project Gutenberg)
One thing you can find at Google Print, however, is excerpts from a number of books by G.K. Chesterton. I’ve quoted part of this on this domain previously, but I know you guys don’t do research, so I wanted to give you this link to one of my favorite Chesterton essays. Enjoy.
If you’re interested in more, the entire text is available from Project Gutenberg.

I was on the road for about five hours today and listened to a lot of talk radio. I like listening to talk radio while I’m in the car. I am becoming my Dad. I often find myself listening to mostly static on an AM station, very loudly so I can make out most of what is being said. I just can’t stand to do nothing but drive and listen to music for hours on end in the car. So I was listening to NPR, and they covered a lot of interesting stories on “All Things Considered.” I think I just like the overall tone of the show. My favorite, though was a story about Homestar Runner and Strong Bad. You can tap that link to listen to the broadcast.

Here are some links to some blogs I’ve recently discovered and enjoyed.
TooEasilySatisfied.net: This is mostly a photoblog with some great images and interesting commentary.
ISarah.com: The rock and the ruler are so cool. I like reading the words. I am entertained. Just a journal of life and a lot of talk about some cute boy.
Kelly’s Tenth Mile : I generally think you’re wrong, but how can I argue with you when you say it while wearing red sneakers?

This week, I’m reading the second in the Hitchhiker’s trilogy, The Restaurant at the End of the Universe. I’m just going to take a brief moment to say that reading this book is making me dumber. Granted, I have been called a book snob, and a movie snob, and probably other kinds of snobs, but I don’t think it’s too much to ask for a little intelligence in my media. (ie Gwen Stefani’s “Holla Back Girl” should be sent to solitary confinement.)
I just finished G.K. Chesterton’s The Man Who Was Thursday: A Nightmare. Although this book was also a fantasy/adventure novel with less than 150 easy pages. However, I got the impression from the writing that Chesterton had read a book before. In comparison, Douglas Adams’ books are mind-numbing and surprisingly repetitive. (I don’t think I can stand to read the phrase “large, friendly letters on the cover” one more time.) Maybe I’m old-school, but I don’t think that one writing a novel should ever use copy and paste. Additionally, I may be overreacting just a bit to Adams’ attempts to use mathematics and logic within the context of his [science] fiction.
Anyhow, since I don’t like quitting, (and this book is hardly a challenge) I’m going to try to finish this book as quickly as possible so I can move on to something with a little more substance. This is in no way a indictment of the movie. The screen adaptation of the book/series deviates considerable from the original novel and either because of or in spite of this turns out to be mostly enjoyable. It probably helps if you’re a fan of British comedy and/or science fiction, though. Still, I could have done without the theme song: probably worse than Stefani’s song.

Maybe you’ve noticed the Google ads. Yeah, I guess I’ve sold out. It’s really something of an experiment. I’ve been against putting any kinds of commercial ads on this site for quite a long time, but I thought I’d give adsense a try. These ads aren’t too obtrusive, and should be geared toward the content of my site. I’ll be monitoring them to see how much revenue they produce and whether it’s worth keeping them around. Hopefully I can recover enough to cover my domain name registration and hosting within the year. If not, then I don’t think I’m willing to put up with looking at these ads. If you love me, you can click on some of these ads and visit my sponsors. Maybe you’ll earn a penny or two for me.
It’s either unethical or unprofitable for me to click on my own ads, and I see this as a real drawback. The ads Google feeds are specifically geared to the content of the site on which they are displayed. Well, since I provide the content of this site, and the content is dictated by whatever happens to garner my interest at the moment, then it makes sense that the ads would be perfectly geared to me. Besides, I don’t get an awful lot of visitors to my site, and nobody visits it more than me.