• Electric Shaver of Peace,  Islam,  Religion

    Things that annoy me about our modern world

    At the moment, it’s the politically correct West, and their treatment of Islam. I recently came across an ad for the movie Islam: What the West Needs to Know.

    I read the site and found it irritating. The phrase “religion of peace” has been repeated often enough to be ridiculous, and it is a patently ludicrous assumption. But the opposite of a falsehood is not necessarily the truth, it’s usually another falsehood, as it is in this case.

    Plainly put, saying a religion is a religion of peace is about as meaningful as saying the Norelco Bodygroom is an electric shaver of peace; it’s a term that doesn’t apply. Religions aren’t inherently anything, it’s all in the practice, and that varies with people location and time. If the practice at a given point in time and place is warlike or placid, then so be it. It’s a meaningless statement. It’s like imputing anti-semitism to vegetarians due to Hitler’s aversion to meat.

  • Microsoft,  Robots

    Robots!

    Sweet!

    Microsoft Unveils Robotics Studio

    The early release targets academic, hobbyist and commercial developers with a toolset for building applications that can run on a variety of robotics computing platforms.
    Microsoft Corp. on Tuesday launched a technology preview of Robotics Studio, a Windows-based development environment for creating robotic applications.

    The early release targets academic, hobbyist and commercial developers with a toolset for building applications that can run on a variety of robotics computing platforms, the company said. Early partners include the LEGO Group.

    “We’ve reached out to a broad range of leading robotics companies and academics early on in the development process and are thrilled with the positive response from the community,” Tandy Trower, general manager of the Microsoft Robotics Group, said in a statement.

    The Microsoft site is located here.

    On the other hand, some people are concerned with Robot Sex.

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  • Art,  BigThink

    Soon you shall all see….

    This week I’m going to post short summaries of all my book ideas and hold a vote for which one I should actually start, should anyone care. I have about five fleshed out ideas I’ve accumulated over the past ten years or so.

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  • Atlanta,  Islam,  Photography,  Weirdness

    Quick Sunday night round up

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  • Hoffer,  John Robb,  Middle East,  Tribes

    Interesting thought of the day

    This post from Global Guerrillas leads to much thought. To wit:

    As people connect outward onto this platform, they see both threat or promise. In response, they look inward for sources of strength to support them going forward, and in most cases find it wanting. Their states (and corporations) can’t or will not provide them that strength.

    The result is an almost pandemic drive towards ethnic/religious identity — and — the increasingly muscular granular forces of clan, sect, gang, and tribe.

    That leads to his linked articles of The Melted Map (a thought experiment about how a properly separated Middle East, while The Coming Anarchy chips in with The Real Central Asia.

    Like most things, I’m reminded of Eric Hoffer. To paraphrase, changing times make misfits of us all, and those unable to adapt to new times will dream of a glorious past or a glorious future, but will forever resent the present.

    All the articles are well worth reading.

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