WikiSky.org: Your Roadmap to the Stars

Eat your heart out Google Maps. Astronomy buffs rejoice! Alleluia!!

Rock Band Takes the Cake

Complete with a licorice mic. Suh-weet!

Dojo Info 1/29/08

1. Everything You Need to Know About the Madness of Nikola Tesla
   I always thought Tesla must have been a bit of a madman. This photo confirms it.
2. Rock Band Standalone Drums, Guitars Get Prices, Dates
   The strat controller is certainly cool, but until they beef up the strum internals, no way ppl are gonna fork out $60 for one.
3. Move To Japan So You Can Eat Strawberry Cheetos
   Sounds reasonable.
4. New Chinese Islands Made From Scratch
   That’s gotta be expensive… wow!
5. Rock Band DLC: Pumpkins, Rush, Coheed
   Not my favorite Rush song plus they’re still covers. Might DL Siva though.

Not So Fast Apple, Your iPhone Can’t Do This!

How crazy-cool is this funkalicious phone?!? Does the touch screen interface disappear when you’re not using it? I must have one.

Another Clinton Scandal, This Time Hillary in Front

Yep. They’re at it again. Watch this 13 minute clip that documents Hillary’s fund-raising tactics using then betraying donor Peter Paul.

Of course, the most practically all of the media is covering up for the Clintons.

Roe v Wade IQ Test

Have you taken the Roe IQ test? I did. They said:

You got 9 out of the 12 questions correct for a 75%.

That result puts you in the 78th percentile when compared to everyone who has taken the test.

One I missed, where I over-estimated the total numbers. It’s only 40-49 million babies since 1973, or 1.28 million a year. I also guessed that abortions due to rape or incest was 2%-5% but the answer was under 1%. I also guessed the wrong Supreme Court justice naming Scalia instead of Ginsburg.

I haven’t posted about this in some time, so it’s likely a good idea for my newer readers to see the most compelling argument supporting life that I’ve ever heard. Spread the word.

Unborn vs. Newborn: Which is Human?

[Adapted from Reaching Hearts and Minds on Abortion by Scott Klusendorf a professor of Bioethics. The SLED acronym was developed by Stephen Schwarz in The Moral Question of Abortion (Chicago: Loyola University Press, 1990) pp. 17-18.]

After some preliminary discussions…

Pro-Life: “Do you think that newborns are persons?”

Pro-Choice: “Yes, of course. Everyone does.”

Pro-Life: “What are the differences between fetuses and newborns?”

Pro-Choice: “There are many, important differences.”

Pro-Life: “If we look at those differences to see if they are morally relevant then we can answer the question if it’s morally permissible to kill fetuses and not kill newborns.”

Pro-Choice: “Sounds reasonable.”

Pro-Life: “As it turns out, unborns differ from the newborns in just four ways which I pose are not relevant to its status as a human being. Those four ways are Size, Level of Development, Environment, and Degree of Dependency. The acronym SLED is a helpful reminder of those differences.”

• Size: “The unborn are smaller than the newly born. But does size have a correlation to human rights? Men are generally larger than women, does that mean they deserve more rights? Is Shaquel O’Neal more of a person than Hillary Clinton simply because he is larger? Clearly size is not an criteria for determining whether something is a person.”
• Level of development: “True, the unborn are less developed than newborns, but this too is morally irrelevant when it comes to assessing humanhood. A newborn is less developed than a toddler. A toddler is less developed than an adolescent. An adolescent is less developed than an adult. But all are considered equally human.”

  Is a child of four, for example, less of a person because she has not yet developed her sexual organs? Is a retarded child whose brain function is less than his classmate still not equally human? These absurd conclusions follow from defining persons based on what they can do rather than what they are.

  If you follow that line of thinking, we’re creating newer robots that can behave like people. Are they considered persons? If personhood is only a developing, gradual thing, then we are never fully human because we continue to grow intellectually and emotionally. As Albert Schweitzer said at age 70, ‘I still don’t know what I want to do when I grow up.’

  It follows, then, that the ability to perform human functions is not a necessary condition for human personhood. People who are unconscious do not have the present capacity to perform personal acts. We don’t kill them because of it. Nor should we kill the unborn.

• Environment: “True, the unborn is located in a different place, but how does a change in location suddenly change a non-human entity into a human one? Did you stop being human when you walked from your house to the car? From the kitchen to the den? Clearly, where one is has no bearing on who one is.”

  A child in the incubator of her mother’s womb is no less a child than the one being sustained by neonatal technology. I know, for example, of a baby girl named Rachel who was born at 24 weeks gestation. At the time of her birth, she weighed less than a pound and could fit into the palm of your hand. The hospital staff worked heroically to save her life and now she is a healthy toddler.

  But let’s assume that instead of saving baby Rachel’s life at 24 weeks, the doctor came into her room and killed her while she was resting in her father’s hand. We would consider that an outrage, wouldn’t we? But do you know that the same baby can be killed through legalized abortion through all nine months of pregnancy simply because she is located six inches away in her mother’s womb?

  Ladies and gentlemen, you do not stop being human simply because you have a different address.

• Degree of dependency: “If viability is what makes one human, then all those dependent on kidney machines, heart pace-makers, and insulin would have to be declared non-persons. There is no ethical difference between an unborn child who is plugged into and dependent upon its mother and a kidney patient who is plugged into and dependent upon a kidney machine.”

  Siamese twins do not forfeit their right to live simply because they depend on each others’ circulatory systems.

  We can take this a step further. Imagine that you are stranded in the woods one freezing night in January, but you have plenty of warm clothing. While searching for help, you encounter a lost toddler wearing shorts and a t-shirt.

  Scantily dressed, he will freeze to death within the hour if no one helps him. Realizing this child depends totally on you for his survival, you promptly excuse yourself from having any moral obligation to him. In fact, you go one step further. You feed him to the wolves because, after all, he cannot survive without you. Obviously, you wouldn’t do that. Neither would any abortion advocate I know.

  In fact, the most strident defender of abortion would do exactly as you or I would do in that situation: She would pick the child up and wrap him inside her own jacket, using her own body to sustain him. She would remain with him all night if need be, despite inconvenience or hardship until he was delivered safely to his parents. She would protect the child precisely because he depends solely on her for survival. It would not matter that he was an unwanted intruder or an uninvited guest.

  And yet when it comes to the woman’s own unborn offspring, the moral logic of abortion advocates is that she has no responsibility to the child precisely because it depends on her for protection. In other words, he can be legally killed because of his need. This is absurd.

Pro-Life: “We can see, then, that the unborn child differs from a newborn child in only four ways—size, level of development, environment, and degree of dependency—and none of those differences are good reasons for disqualifying it as fully human.”

Pro-Choice: “You know, I’ve been listening to you pro-lifers for 30 years. I’ve had people shove rosary beads at me, tell me I was going to burn in hell, and even had evangelicals praying for my soul. But this is the first time I have ever heard one of you right-to-lifers explain why you believe what you believe. I guess I will have to give it some thought.”

RU-486 Abortions Up

Even though the overall number of abortions are down, this particular trend isn’t good.

According to an article in today’s Washington Post, abortions by RU-486, the chemical alternative to surgical abortion, have risen 22 percent a year and are now responsible for 14 percent of the total abortions performed in the first nine weeks of pregnancy. For nearly eight years, FRC has documented the health risks surrounding the abortion drug–and the list continues to grow.

Still pro-choice groups are promoting the drug, even while concerns about the health of the mothers.

In spite of the outcry from both medical and conservative groups, all of which caution that the drug seriously endangers women’s health, more than 840,000 U.S. women have been persuaded to use RU-486 as part of a broader political agenda that is claiming women and children as its victims. There are at least 1,000 documented reports of side-effects from taking RU-486, ranging from infection and hemorrhaging to ectopic pregnancies and even death, yet more than half of abortion traders are now offering RU-486 as an option. [link]

Very scary stuff. Expectant mothers can’t trust the information they are getting from some organizations. They know who they are.

Investigating the Madden Curse

Kotaku does a great job looking at the so-called Madden Curse. Being on the cover of Madden is a big deal. Bigger than you think.

“Shaun Alexander told us, after he got hurt [he was injured during the 2006 season, after appearing on the cover of Madden 07], that he’d rather be on the cover and injured than not be on the cover and stay healthy all year.”

Wow. So is it real? Kinda but not really. Read the whole piece, it’s well done.

Dojo Info 1/21/08

1. America shuns Hollywood’s take on Iraq
   Most Americans can spot a Hollywood agenda film a mile away. Of those, the majority run the other way.
2. 8 Lessons I Learned From The Cheapest Family In The Nation
   It takes an amazing amount of discipline but it’s possible. The question is, “Is it worth it?”
3. “Rock Band,” “Guitar Hero” drive digital song sales
   Makes common sense to me. I wonder why so many people are surprised by this?
4. Rumor: Rock Band DLC Song Prices To Increase By End Of Month
   Downloaders! Commence massive downloads now!!
5. Rock Band Drum Mods: Felt vs. Rubber
   Now you can mod your RB drums two ways. Which is better? Remo says “Gum!”

Half-Life Caller Fools ‘Coast to Coast AM’

The caller did a wonderful job with it. Very funny… that is, if you’ve played the games. [via kotaku]

Justin Johnson Drills 6 Treys In Final 1:56

Iowa’s Justin Johnson hit 6 three pointers in the last 1:56 of the game vs. Indiana. Unfortunately, they still lost. Even still, the man’s a dangerous shooter.

Dojo Info 1/19/08

1. Hackers Cut Cities’ Power
   Time to send in The Jack Bauer.
2. America’s Army Player Saves Real Life
   “I have received no prior medical training and can honestly say that because of the training and presentations within America’s Army, I was able to help and possibly save the injured men.” In case you didn’t know, “America’s Army” is a video game; first-person shooter, to be exact. How ya like me now?
3. Bionic Eyes Could Change The Face Of Gaming
   The game’s HUD is a contact lens? How is that better?!?
4. More than 200 new Rock Band tracks in 2008
   Oh yeah baby. Hopefully, at least 25% will be songs worth buying! (Why am I such a pessimist?)
5. What’s Inside: PowerBar Protein Plus (Laxatives, of Course)
   The message, as always, is read the package.

PC Software Allows Rock Band Kit to Modify Sounds, Record Songs

That’s one ugly headline, eh? Gotta get those keywords in I guess. But really… we’re all a video generation anyway. Who reads anymore?

Election 2008 Voter Guide from the Family Research Center

Not all candidates are created equal. Since we can’t immediately remove them from office (or kill them) when they go back on their campaign promises, we’re left to consider their stated positions prior to the election.

I have little problem with those who sincerely believe their views line up with a candidate whom I personally dislike. On the other hand, it’s enormously naive and stated frankly, lazy, to strickly vote the party line or worse even still, to vote from someone because you like the way they speak or their appearance.

Americans are fighting and dying abroad on our behalf, so that we have the freedom to vote for our government. The least we could do is spend some time investigating the candidates.

Dojo Info 1/18/08

1. 1930s aircraft an inspiration for 100 mpg cars
   Any company that can deliver a reasonably priced, 60+ m.p.g. car will make huge money in the years to come. That comes from the Compendium of Very Obvious Comments.
2. Automakers Roll Out Plug-In Concepts
   Continuing on the energy-efficient auto theme, it looks like most automakers are still looking at electric cars as their primary “green” focus.
3. ‘Speed Racer’ Car Coming to Auto Show
   I can sing the theme song. Can you?
4. Harmonix Talks Custom Rock Band Tracks, Future “Crazy Stuff”
   That’s the future! The possibilities are truly endless.
5. Rock Band songs in sequel: “We totally hear you on that.”
   Doesn’t sound like being able to play downloaded Rock Band songs on future versions of the game is a sure thing, but hopefully they’ll make it happen.