IT: Do you use firefox?
Me: Yes
IT: Why?
Me: Why not?
IT: It’s not supported in firm web apps
Me: I know, and i don’t use it for firm web apps
IT: You shouldn’t have it
Me: Why not?
IT: Errr…
Me: ?
IT: Well, don’t encourage others to use it
Me: I don’t
IT: Well, you did to Gary
Me: i did??
IT: That’s what he said
Me: mm k? i’ll stop doing that
IT: Ok. [walks away]

People look at me funny when I tell them I use a mac (oh you use a Mac, are you like, not smart enough to use Windows? cuz you know, it’s so simple). Now with Firefox?

I can feel how the early Christians must have felt when they were being proscuted for what they believe.

So Taiwanese policy blows, but recent events with internet search engine companies are no better. First Yahoo! sold out one of their users to the Communist Chinese government, so somebody is now jailed for 10 years just by writing emails to others expressing his point-of-view. is Yahoo! Chinese owned or US owned?

On the other hand, Google has decided to kiss Communist Chinese’ Red ass by labeling “Taiwan, a province of China” on Google Map. This is my theory for the world in the next few years: The avian flu will outbreak in Asia, kill millions of people. Just when they are trying to contain the virus, Taiwan will be left alone because: 1. They are not part of UN, 2. They are not part of WHO, 3. China will threaten other countries from helping Taiwan (as they have done for SARS), simply because they think Taiwan is a province of China. Taiwan is just an international orphan, pay them no attention.
[further reading]

Looking back to the US, things aren’t any better. First Bush nominated his personal lawyer for many years to become the next Justice. A person who has been a corporate lawyer for many years, who have never been a judge before, but is: 1. A woman, 2. Extremely loyal to Bush. On to other people in the administration, Majority Leader DeLay (R, TX) was indicted for something I don’t care but is apparently badly enough that even a Texan would indict him.

Bennett (Former Republican Education Secretary) is under under attack for the statement he made:

I do know that it’s true that if you wanted to reduce crime, you could — if that were your sole purpose, you could abort every black baby in this country, and your crime rate would go down. That would be an impossible, ridiculous, and morally reprehensible thing to do, but your crime rate would go down.

He later defended himself by saying, “I’m not racist, and I’ll put my record up against theirs.” I am sorry mister, doesn’t matter how “impossible, ridiculous, and morally reprehensible” it is, you still are stating every black kid will grow up to be criminals. This is what you should’ve said, “you could abort every baby in this country, and your crime rate would go down.”

Oh, so back to President Bush, apparently this is what he said:

God would tell me, George, go and fight those terrorists in Afghanistan. And I did, and then God would tell me, George, go and end the tyranny in Iraq… And I did.

And now, again, I feel God’s words coming to me, Go get the Palestinians their state and get the Israelis their security, and get peace in the Middle East. And by God I’m gonna do it.

Get peace in the Middle East? Have you heard of Make Love, not War? Send some love over there, not troops. Save the money for the needies in the US, not over there. Save the money for education, employeement, disaster relief. Build stronger levies, build bigger bridges, build some alternative source of energies. And oh, in case you haven’t heard, the US employeement rate is slipping – again.

Einstein’s life and writings are often cited as examples of the of the harmony of science and religion, but he was not a religious man in the traditional sense. He rejected the idea of a personal God, believing that the notion was for weak-minded individuals.

“In their struggle for the ethical good, teachers of religion must have the stature to give up the doctrine of a personal God, that is, give up that source of fear and hope which in the past placed such vast power in the hands of priests. In their labors they will have to avail themselves of those forces which are capable of cultivating the Good, the True, and the Beautiful in humanity itself. This is, to be sure, a more difficult but an incomparably more worthy task…” (1)

What is interesting to me about Einstein’s faith is that he doesn’t simply reject the idea of a personal God, but the damage on the nobility of humanity when the idea of God becomes too narrowly defined. Humanity earns it’s freedom when it testifies that God is an unknowable essence.

“I cannot conceive of a God who rewards and punishes his creatures, or has a will of the type of which we are conscious in ourselves. An individual who should survive his physical death is also beyond my comprehension, nor do I wish it otherwise; such notions are for the fears or absurd egoism of feeble souls. Enough for me the mystery of the eternity of life, and the inkling of the marvellous structure of reality, together with the single-hearted endeavour to comprehend a portion, be it never so tiny, of the reason that manifests itself in nature.” (2)

“You will hardly find one among the profounder sort of scientific minds without a peculiar religious feeling of his own. But it is different from the religion of the naive man. For the latter God is a being from whose care one hopes to benefit and whose punishment one fears; a sublimation of a feeling similar to that of a child for its father, a being to whom one stands to some extent in a personal relation, however deeply it may be tinged with awe. But
the scientist is possessed by the sense of universal causation. The future, to him, is every whit as necessary and determined as the past. There is nothing divine about morality, it is a purely human affair. His religious feeling takes the form of a rapturous amazement at the harmony of natural law, which reveals an intelligence of such superiority that, compared with it, all the systematic thinking and acting of human beings is an utterly insignificant reflection. This feeling is the guiding principle of his life and work, in so far as he succeeds in keeping himself from the shackles of selfish desire. It is beyond question closely akin to that which has
possessed the religious geniuses of all ages.” (3)

“‘Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind.’ So Einstein once wrote to explain his personal creed: ‘A religious person is devout in the sense that he has no doubt of the significance of those super-personal objects and goals which neither require nor are capable of rational foundation.’

His was not a life of prayer and worship. Yet he lived by a deep faith–a faith not capable of rational foundation–that there are laws of Nature to be discovered. His lifelong pursuit was to discover them. His realism and his optimism are illuminated by his remark: ‘Subtle is the Lord, but malicious He is not’ (‘Raffiniert ist der Herrgott aber boshaft ist er nicht.’.'). When
asked by a colleague what he meant by that, he replied: ‘Nature hides her secret because of her essential loftiness, but not by means of ruse’ (‘Die Natur verbirgt ihr Geheimnis durch die Erhabenheit ihres Wesens, aber nicht durch List.’).” (4)

If you would like to brush up on your physics to start off this new year, you might like to check out “The Fabric of the Cosmos: Space, Time, and the Texture of Reality” by Brian Greene.

I hope you have found this thought-provoking I’m interested in knowing what you think.

citations:

1. “Science, Philosophy, and Religion, A Symposium”,published by the Conference on Science, Philosophy and Religion in Their Relation to the Democratic Way of Life, Inc., New York, 1941
2. “The World as I See It,” taken from the abridged edition of Einstein’s book bearing the same title. (Philosophical Library, New York, 1949)
3. ibid.
4. “Subtle is the Lord– ” : the science and the life of Albert Einstein by Abraham Pais, Oxford University Press, Oxford & New York, 1982.