All The Things

One of the things I really love about science is, if I'm being brutally honest, the potential for sheer bloody minded pedantry. Because it's very important to be clear and precise. You can't just assume that everybody knows what you mean when you say something. Everybody may well be working under a different set of knowledge or assumptions regarding whatever it is under discussion. This is perhaps what makes many people regard scientific terminology as often cumbersome. Clarity comes at the expense of brevity.

I bring this up so you may have get a sense of why it is that I sometimes I get all nitpicky over matters of terminology. Terminology is important. It's sets the tone and thus effects out attitudes and expectations. And today I want to talk about one particular bit of terminology that bugs the ever-loving shit out of me. I'm sure you too will have encountered this at some point. Maybe you'll be talking about TV shows with someone, and they will bring up a popular program you've never seen. And you know exactly what it is they will then say.

"Oh, you HAVE TO see that show!"

Do I really? OR WHAT?

S&W Episode 3rd Edition: A New Setting

I've been thinking a bit about RPG stuff lately. Specifically about super hero RPGs. After all, we've been playing quite a bi of Sentinels Of The Multiverse recently. In addition to which the spectre of actually trying to get an RPG going has been mooted, and I've actually had some positive feedback on the notion of running Overpower. Which is gratifying. It's always nice when you manage to do something that people actually enjoy. So, on the way to work one morning I was thinking about setting ideas for games, when I had a REALLY good idea. One of those rare ideas you have where the more you think about it, the more sense it seems to make, and the less you can believe that someone hasn't already thought about doing it.

What if you ran a super hero game set in the Star Wars Universe?

God Trek II - The Wrath Of Fans

Okay, so in my last post I feel I may have perhaps come across as overly critical of religion, but there is a very good reason for this: I AM overly critical of religion. It's just.... kinda dumb and wholely unnecessary. But it would be remiss of me not consider some of the positive aspects of this condition. It always pays to consider both sides of any argument.

However briefly.

The thing is, whilst there undoubtedly are some positive effects, we've actually already developed past the point where we need religion to provide them. This is something I've been meaning to talk about pretty much since I took up blogging as a hobby. Which I suppose should help illustrate to all the young earth creationists that some things really do only happen on geological time scales.

Anyway point is we're going to be discussing SERIOUS BUSINESS topics again this week. So with that in mind, let me introduce you to your all new lord and saviour:

Oh yeah, we're going there.

Yes It's Fucking Paleontological.

So, this morning I was wondering what I should do today. I'd done all the cleaning and stuff, and was trying to decide on what would be a fun and/or constructive way to occupy myself for the rest of the day. I was contemplating firing up the Wii or DS and playing some Yu-Gi-Oh, but this presented something of a dilemma. I've been watching a lot of 5D's recently, so obviously I keep having the urge to put together a Dragon based Synchro deck. But whenever I try I never quite seem to have the cards I want or I run out of brain trying to decide what to use, and invariably fall back on playing one of my Dinosaur decks instead. Hard life, I know. Anyway, it was as I was contemplating this conundrum, Dragons or Dinosaurs that I remembered something else I had to do. A little project that I'd gotten ages ago and never quite managed to get around to:

I KNOW, RIGHT? A christian documentary arguing that Dinosaurs are actually Dragons? That's got to be hilarious. Shooting fish in the proverbial barrel right? Make for a great little blog post.

I would ask how wrong it's possible to be. But now I know. I know EXACTLY how wrong it's possible to be, and it's a lot wronger than I ever would have believed.

One of the things this documentary claims to do is challenge your beliefs. It has actually succeeded in this to a degree I never would have thought possible. Although not, I suspect, in the way the authors intended.