here is an example of the unnecessary complexity of modern life. recently i've started looking for a new tv. since flat-screens are everywhere my choices were limited, so i thought. LCD or Plasma? lcd used to be better in bright rooms and plasmas used to have glare but produce better darker colors. both have made steps to correct that. LCD's blur motion in sports. Plasma's have a burn-in problem and use alot more energy. both have made steps to correct that. wait.
what size screen should i get? how far away from the screen? 6.5 feet or less and it's 42" or less. more than that and it's 46" and up. i am in the 46"-50" range. any bigger and i'd have to sit 12 or more feet away.
what resolution? 720p or 1080p. this was easy. 1080p is the best they make and true Hi-Def if using a blu-ray, which I plan to get one day.
back to LCD or plasma. plasma offers better dynamic contrast by a long shot and truer colors. both aid in producing a better picture. i will mostly be watching tv in the dark so glare is not an issue, so plasma seems the way to go. except a 46" plasma is hard to find because of how manufacturers cut the glass to make the tv's! a little research online tells me that Panasonic and Samsung basically make the best tv's out there for the price. Samsung doesn't make a 46" plasma, but they do a 50". Panasonic makes both.
Here is how I watch TV: I rent last season's DVD's of TV shows I like from Netflix. Entourage, Rescue Me,Californication, Dexter, The Wire, Arrested Development, The Office, It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Nip/Tuck. etc. I then convert them to a DivX movie file which I can store on my little flash thumb drive. I have a special DVD player that lets me watch those files on my TV. Why do I go through this trouble? I can watch different shows anytime, because they are stored on my drive. if i keep the DVD itself i can't watch anything else until i'm finished with it. each DVD usually contains 4 or so episodes. this way i can mix and match and create my own show lineup. it also only costs me $18 a month and i have way more tv than i have time to watch. i don't get cable.
so here is the twist. Samsung has a model tv where i can plug my little USB flash drive directly into it and play my movies. i'd love that! panasonic does not. BUT panosonics model is cheaper by $200. and they make a 46" plasma. as of this writing i am still torn between the 50" Samsung and the 46" Panasonic. both plasma.
let's say I choose one. now how do I pay for it? cash, credit card? you'd think it would be simple, but it's not. cash is easiest. it's paid for and done. but most credit cards give you an extra YEAR of the manufacturers warranty. which is significant on a tv like these. Best Buy will give me 36 months no interest. my credit card will give me 4 times my frequent flyer miles for anything at Best Buy. If the tv costs $1000 that is 4000 F.F. miles. which is worth about $80-$120 dollars depending on flight prices at the time. not bad. but if i take that $1000 and earn only 5% on it during those 3 years of interest free living, that is about $150. no extended warranty with the Best Buy card though. see what I mean?
i've decided to forgo the extra year warranty and put it on the best buy card. rolling the dice in two ways. 1. that the tv won't break. and 2. that i can earn better than 5% during those three years netting me even more off the bottomline price of the tv.
it is exhausting to me to have to make these kinds of decisions. now you may ask why don't i just pick one and be happy with it? i could try but i don't think i would be satisfied unless i try to make the best decision i can.
and it doesn't end there. next i have to find a blu-ray player!
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
Monday, September 21, 2009
Organized Religion--Here we go again.....
If there really is an intelligent and purposeful creator, then it would have to be he who constructed the fossil record revealing evolutionary history, and he has to be the one who conceived the genetic patterns which also trace that same course, and it must have been he who added the other lines of evidence which point to the evolutionary conclusion exclusively and in brilliant detail. Why else would all these things exist? Its as if he were trying to tell us something! Men couldn’t create any of those things.
If there really was one true god, it should be a singular composite of every religion’s gods, an uber-galactic super-genius, and the ultimate entity of the entire cosmos. If a being of that magnitude ever wrote a book, then there would only be one such document; one book of God. It would be dominant everywhere in the world with no predecessors or parallels or alternatives in any language, because mere human authors couldn’t possibly compete with it. And you wouldn’t need faith to believe it, because it would be consistent with all evidence and demonstrably true, revealing profound morality and wisdom far beyond contemporary human capacity. It would invariably inspire a unity of common belief for every reader. If God wrote it, we could expect no less. But what we see instead is the very opposite of that.
Instead of only one religion leading to one ultimate truth, we have many different religions with no common origin, all constantly sharding into ever more deeply-divided denominations, seeking conflicting truths, and each somehow claiming divine guidance despite their ongoing divergence in every direction.
The bible was written by men. This is why so much of it can be shown to be historically and scientifically dead wrong about damned-near everything back-to-front. We’re talking about people who believe snakes and donkeys can talk(Genesis 3, Numbers 22: 1-35), who believe in incantations (Genesis 1,36,9,11,1420,24,29), blood sacrifice(Leviticus 1:9, Ezekiel 39:17), ritual spells (Leviticus 14), pyrotechnic potions (Number 5:20-26), astrology(Job38:32, Luke 21:25,Mathew 12:32 & 28:20), and the five elements of witchcraft(Lev 14). They thought that if you use a magic wand to sprinkle blood all over someone, it will cure them of leprosy (Leviticus 11:6). We’re talking about people who think that rabbits chew cud, and that bats are birds, and whales are fish (Deuteronomy 14:11-18), and that Pi is a round number (1st Kings 7:23). These folks believed that if you display striped patterns to a pregnant cow, it would bare striped calves (Genesis 30:37-43). How could anyone say that who knows anything about genetics? Obviously the authors of this book didn’t.
As a moral guide, it utterly fails, because much of it promotes animal cruelty, incest, slavery, abuse of slaves, spousal abuse, child abuse, child molestation, abortion, pillage, murder, cannibalism, genocide, and prejudice against race, nationality, religion, sex, and sexual orientation.
But creationists still continue to ignore all of that. Some of their sites even admit that wherever reality conflicts with the Bible, then reality must be ignored! And why is that? Creationist Christians think that if the Bible is wrong, then God lied. But the Bible has been conceived, composed, compiled, translated, interpreted, edited, and often deliberately altered by men for political and selfish reasons.
Why oh Why do I waste my time with this?
If there really was one true god, it should be a singular composite of every religion’s gods, an uber-galactic super-genius, and the ultimate entity of the entire cosmos. If a being of that magnitude ever wrote a book, then there would only be one such document; one book of God. It would be dominant everywhere in the world with no predecessors or parallels or alternatives in any language, because mere human authors couldn’t possibly compete with it. And you wouldn’t need faith to believe it, because it would be consistent with all evidence and demonstrably true, revealing profound morality and wisdom far beyond contemporary human capacity. It would invariably inspire a unity of common belief for every reader. If God wrote it, we could expect no less. But what we see instead is the very opposite of that.
Instead of only one religion leading to one ultimate truth, we have many different religions with no common origin, all constantly sharding into ever more deeply-divided denominations, seeking conflicting truths, and each somehow claiming divine guidance despite their ongoing divergence in every direction.
The bible was written by men. This is why so much of it can be shown to be historically and scientifically dead wrong about damned-near everything back-to-front. We’re talking about people who believe snakes and donkeys can talk(Genesis 3, Numbers 22: 1-35), who believe in incantations (Genesis 1,36,9,11,1420,24,29), blood sacrifice(Leviticus 1:9, Ezekiel 39:17), ritual spells (Leviticus 14), pyrotechnic potions (Number 5:20-26), astrology(Job38:32, Luke 21:25,Mathew 12:32 & 28:20), and the five elements of witchcraft(Lev 14). They thought that if you use a magic wand to sprinkle blood all over someone, it will cure them of leprosy (Leviticus 11:6). We’re talking about people who think that rabbits chew cud, and that bats are birds, and whales are fish (Deuteronomy 14:11-18), and that Pi is a round number (1st Kings 7:23). These folks believed that if you display striped patterns to a pregnant cow, it would bare striped calves (Genesis 30:37-43). How could anyone say that who knows anything about genetics? Obviously the authors of this book didn’t.
As a moral guide, it utterly fails, because much of it promotes animal cruelty, incest, slavery, abuse of slaves, spousal abuse, child abuse, child molestation, abortion, pillage, murder, cannibalism, genocide, and prejudice against race, nationality, religion, sex, and sexual orientation.
But creationists still continue to ignore all of that. Some of their sites even admit that wherever reality conflicts with the Bible, then reality must be ignored! And why is that? Creationist Christians think that if the Bible is wrong, then God lied. But the Bible has been conceived, composed, compiled, translated, interpreted, edited, and often deliberately altered by men for political and selfish reasons.
Why oh Why do I waste my time with this?
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