Procrastic Fantastic

Yeah, I sometimes go off the deep end and a quick comment on a facebook note turns into a diatribe about embryos and ethics. The comment didn’t fit on facebook (literally) and didn’t fit here (metaphorically) so I posted it over on a buddy’s blog, the ever interesting Zoological Ontological (catchy name!).

An extract:

So what happens if we begin manipulating genes and gene instructions to benefit mankind? If we can stop muscular distrophy, why can’t we stop genetic obesity? If we can stop genetic obesity, why not genetic susceptibility to depression? Or maybe some day, predisposition to sub par intellegence? In my opinion, these ‘ifs’ are simply a matter of time; They depend on scientific advancements to make them possible, not upon whether or not they would be used. Like drug abuse, prostituton or abortion, they will happen regardless of their legal status, and much more benefit would be had to control their usage rather than essentially assigning them to the kind of people willing to break the rules.

Heavy stuff given that I usually struggle to add a witty comment to the end of the webcomic I’m linking to on any given day.

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Right, some may blame simply the infrequency of my updates for the coincidence of what seems to be a running theme, others won’t.

From Digg:
“We just received word from a reliable source that Rick Astley, the absolute god of the Internet, will be performing at this years MTV European Music Awards being held on November 6th.”

Hurray! It’ll be the first time I watch Music Television since they stopped playing music.

read more | digg story

Football Manager is fantastic, in part for the ‘open’ nature of its graphics in that real or imagined images can be substituted or introduced into the game to give it that more authentic and engaging feel. The good lads responsible for the SS kits have set a standard with their designs; I’ve been a bit creative today so here’s my take on a few plausible-but-unlikely kits for the 2010 season for Cork City FC.

Click to Enlarge

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Will Wright’s burgeoning masterpiece Spore may have been in development for what feels like an eternity, but we finally got to mess with the toys he had teased us with all those years ago, today. The Spore Creature Creator is available to download as a trial or buy with a full set of creature features (the price is refundable against the full game, due in September… around my birthday… *cough*). You take an amorphous blob, fiddle with the spine, add a mouth (or two), a few legs (or a dozen) and virtually anything else you can think of, then watch as your Noodley Appendage sculpts a brand new creature. I tried to run it on Ubuntu with Wine, but there were some graphical glitches. Oh well, on to Trina’s Vista laptop, at least the Creature Creator gives the awesome guys at Wine 3 months to get everything running smooth!

Of course, as a dino-geek (you know you’re one, when your daily reading includes Darren Naish’s Tetrapod Zoology) most of my creations have been of a decidedly ancient variety.

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Myself and herself have taken a (ever so slightly) scary step in our relationship and got our own place! We’ve moved into a small-but-perfectly-formed 1 bedroom apartment in Blackpool. It was all a bit sudden but the offer was too good to miss. Here are some photos of our new place, as you can see, we’re settling in pretty well!

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You might remember a recent controversy in Cork (and indeed, nationwide) when an elected representative of the Labour Party found herself at the centre of a scandal because of her apparent support for a convicted paedophile, Trevor Casey, in a case involving her own constituents. This letter was sent at the time and used by radio and newspapers, but I present it here for posterity. Deputy Lynch went on to defend her stance, before issuing an apology, albeit at the behest of Labour leader Eamon Gilmore. The incident served to illustrate the ignorance and insensitivity that rape cases are treated with in Ireland, but I hope that victims everywhere take heart from the public uproar that followed; for once, the silent majority in support of the victims was not silent. If the result of the trial or this show of support encourages victims to come forward and not be afraid to seek a prosecution, it can only be a good thing.

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Forgive me if I begin to sound loquacious, but, brothers, this is a monumental day in our history. Today, it will all change. Apparently we men are doomed to slightly lower grades on average than women, and there doesn’t appear to be any slowing of this trend. Hark, for I bring you knowledge of the threat, and the steps we must take to extinguish it.

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Facebook is great fun, its everything MySpace and Bebo promised to be but never quite made it. Right now, everyone’s (lazily) remaking profiles and migrating to Facebook, and messing with some of the fun applications that Facebook allows 3rd Parties to create. I myself am working on on of these, but more on that later. My favourite application so far is Scrabulous, a turn-based implementation of scrabble that you can pick up and start and leave off at will. However, one of the dictionaries appears a little too lenient….

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Thanks to the guys from Cyanide & Happiness @ Explosm.net!

The following is the full text of a complaint I have made, addressed to the Cork City FC Club, regarding the behaviour of security and Gardaí at last night’s (24th August, 2007) fixture between Waterford United FC and Cork City FC in Waterford.

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