You know what really grinds my gears?

The way people exaggerate science.  Especially the media.


But this time, I was on Memebase, and there's all these posts about how "they" have discovered that neutrinos travel faster than the speed of light.  I called bullshit.  They had a link to the news article, which I read, and yes, it was bullshit.


Read it.


They stated the uncertainty in the time, but not the uncertainty in the distance, which would have been helpful.  Also, it even says that they're not saying that they've "proved" or "discovered" this phenomenon... they're "simply presenting a curious result that they cannot explain and asking the community to scrutinize it".  As they should, obviously.  It even says in the article that it'd be dishonest not to.


I'm confident that it'll be tracked down that this is from some systematic error.  Probably something really bizzare.

9/11 Jokes

Yesterday, as I’m sure you know, was the 10^th anniversary of the attacks on the World Trade Centre.  As an Englishman, and at the risk of sounding callous, the day has little significant meaning for me.  Of course I spare a thought for the victims of the tragedy, but it is not a day where I am to be found mourning the event, as I know many Americans do.

                I wanted to touch on the subject of jokes about tragedies such as this.  Many find such jokes offensive, and yesterday on a certain facebook fan page there was a great banning spree of those who were telling them, or just generally being insensitive about the whole thing.  I found this to be a bit heavy-handed, to be honest.  Of course such jokes are tasteless, but… that’s the point, isn’t it?  They’re funny not because the idea of death and destruction is funny, but because they are shocking and outrageous.  You laugh because you can’t believe that anyone would say that.

                Take, for example, a flash animation called 9/11 Marketing.  Be warned because it is extremely irreverent and, in fact, just plain offensive when you think objectively about some of the things they say.  Certainly if I’d lost someone in the attacks, I’d be sickened.  But rather, I just find myself laughing at the sheer boldness of it all.

                Anyway, tasteless jokes exist about everything under the sun, from racism to child-rape, and I’m pretty sure that they exist simply to break taboos.  Not because the subject matter is funny, because clearly, it isn’t.  It’s just a form of humour that breaks barriers for the sake of breaking them.

                So, in closing, 9/11 jokes are not funny because 9/11 was funny (it wasn’t).  They’re funny because they’re just plane wrong.

Lucid Dreaming

I've been wanting to have a lucid dream for ages, and this morning it finally happened.  It was short, but still a pretty cool experience.  If you don't know, a lucid dream is where you become aware that you're dreaming, and can then control your dreams.

It just sort of happened.  I was in the middle of a fairly standard dream, and then I suddenly realised I was dreaming.  Of course at first I tried to turn everything into ponies, but that didn't work so I did some... other things, including trying to fly.  I didn't, but in trying I did manage to no-clip through a glass window and then stand on fresh air while I tried to climb up onto the roof so I could jump off.  Eventually I just jumped down from where I was, and while I didn't manage to actually fly, I did make myself float gently to the ground.

The weird thing is, that although there were other people around, they didn't actually do anything unless I was paying attention to them.  And my brain didn't render much of the environment, just my immediate surroundings and a sort of static background.  I woke up after about 15 minutes or so, I think when I properly realised that I was the only sentient being in the entire universe... that sort of freedom from responsibility is why I wanted to lucid dream in the first place.  But the other people you dream of are very strange, almost creepy, actually.  Like puppets.  You can almost control them with your thoughts.

I want to do it again, so I'm going to find some books about it.  Hopefully I'll become a regular lucid dreamer.

Flutterwonder Remix

I had 1 (one)  proper lesson today.  I spent the rest of the day, including lunch and break, and then for an hour after school (I'd like to call it a college, because 'school' sounds so... juvenile, but technically it isn't), working on my song for the Brony Remix War.  I got a helluva lot done, and it's going very well.  I seriously think this may be the greatest personal project I've ever done... of course, I think that about pretty much every new song I make, but you sort of have to, really.  If I didn't, I'd pretty much abandon everything half way through.
The deadline for the remix war is the 17th, so after then I can put it up here, and everywhere else.

Here's the original:

Pretty swanky, is it not?

Ahem.

This is going to be my blog thing, where I, like, post about stuff, and things.  Yeah...
OK.  I'm going to philosophise a bit, post about things that are on my mind, and also my music, and maybe even my Friendship is Magic fanfic that I'm writing.  Oh, wait, you didn't know I was a brony? Then how did you get here?