It’s up on Hulu for now, but I figured if I could embed and make it easy for you, why not?

Thoughts welcome.

Behold, the power of the Internet! Two-hundred thousand years of human evolution and technological revolution, all so we can laugh at a kitten going buck-wild on a laptop.

Probably the most studied war today, World War II still holds us in fascination over the immensity of the odds at stake, the fairy tale like themes of good versus evil, and as an example of the lengths we will go to in order to win at war, or the depths to which humans will sink to in torturing or killing one another. The war saw the rise of a tyrant bent on world domination, the extermination of millions through genocide, and the birth of the nuclear age.

The first ever use of nuclear weaponry in war occurred on August 6, 1949, in the town of Hiroshima, Japan. The following video chronicles a bit of that history, including eye witness accounts from the crew who unleashed Little Boy, and from victims who endured its wrath.

Ever heard the saying “good things and bad things all come in threes”? I honestly pray the saying holds true. Yesterday, three bad things happened, all of which made the prison of my mind into a very uncomfortable place to spend what has seemed since to be like a lifetime. Three more negative wrinkles were added to my brain.

I pray that today my luck does a 180^o, especially since I have to be at the dentists at noon.

Anyway, to make me feel better I usually take refuge in funny things, simply because it’s easy to push pain (like embarrassment, anger, and disappointment) from your mind when you’re laughing. I feel even better when people are laughing with me, so help me feel better by laughing at this video of cats in funny pictures captioned to be saying funny things. Srsly, ur gonna LOL.

This aside, i’m a big believer in balance. I believe this because I’ve observed that often, things in life take the pendelum approach: nothing can swing too far one way without eventually correcting itself, and eventually swinging too far to the other side (and then correcting itself again). Today I was reminded of this by a friend who told me that whenever things like that happened to her, she found eventually good would come of it. She’s probably right.

In retrospect, it’s good to have found some negative, because it means I’m growing. Experience may not be the best teacher (I contend that other people’s experience makes for a better teacher, since it saves you time and effort), but it is certainly the most memorable one, and the most useful when its lessons have been evaluated.

I still feel crappy, though. I guess that’s part of flying attitude up.

The God Delusion

In any case what follows is a BBC profile of Dr. Dawkins and an interview by Stephen Colbert. Enjoy.

BBC Profile: Richard Dawkins, parts 1, 2, and 3

Stephen Colbert Interviews Dawkins

This is a trailer for the Dixie Chicks’ new documentary, Shut Up & Sing, which chronicles the hostile and sometimes threatening conduct directed towards the Dixie Chicks after one of the group’s members criticized President Bush during a 2003 concert. It even features John McCain at his best. (You know, when he still had a backbone and still fought against torture instead of condoning the administration use of it in interrogations.)

Still the biggest problem with the Chicks was that their statement came out at a time when the people in the US were still buying the WMD line with Iraq (you know, at about the time it became popular to hate the French for disagreeing with us) after they had just taken the bait for invading in Iraq, hook, line, and sinker. The strongest support for this, of course, came from the same crowd that made up most of their fan-base. Needless to say, it offended more than a few people, so while the freedom of speech which they were exercising — as is their fundamental right to do so — is fine and dandy, that freedom of speech doesn’t also entail freedom from consequence (so long as it’s not the government doing it). If your fans love Bush and his war and you go speak against him, then you better be ready for the fallout.

This whole thing reminds me of the saying “I don’t agree with a word you say, but I’ll defend to the death your right to say it.” I wonder if any of the people who protested against them ever uttered those words. Probably not. It also reminds me of the quote by Hermann Goerig, Hitler’s Reich-Marshall at the Nuremberg Trials after WWII:

Naturally the common people don’t want war; neither in Russia, nor in England, nor in America, nor in Germany. That is understood. But after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine policy, and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is to tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in every country.

(Emphasis added to specify which parts I was reminded of the most.)

Let freedom ring, indeed. Personally, what I’d like to know is how you reading this felt at the time this was said versus how you feel now. As for me, while I didn’t agree with the reasons for the invasion — I always felt them to be circumstantial at best — I believed that we wouldn’t go out and invade a country, risking American lives, unless it was absolutely necessary. (For example, Afghanistan was, I still feel, a necessary war.) In other words, I believed in Bush, Powell, Rice, and even the ever-so-creepy Cheney. I didn’t agree at the time with what the Dixie Chicks said — I thought they said it for the wrong reasons, out of trying to be Hollywood-chic without going over there and becoming human shields for Sadam — but I knew they had a right to say whatever they wanted to, just as I had a right to not like them for it. I can’t really say anything here other than I was on the wrong side, fooled like every other American and willing to allow things I wouldn’t in the specter of 9/11. (This is why I now fight so hard against the fear-mongering the Republicans are doing and the ignorance it preys upon.) While I didn’t think we were being told everything, the fact that Colin Powell was in front of the United Nations making the case for this was enough for me to think “Well, I guess if Powell says it, there must be a real threat.” Fool me once, shame on — shame on you. Fool me — you can’t get fooled again.

(Props to CrooksAndLiars.com.)

By the way, this documentary is only being shown (as far as I know) in New York and L.A. Too bad I only live close to this backwards little podunk town, Miami. I wish we gots them big city girl documentaries here once in a while, instead of the incredibly crappy What the Bleep Do We Know About Quantum Physics which qualifies as quite possibly the Worst. Propaganda-posing-as-a-Documentary. Ever. I would’ve liked to have gone see it.

Of course, finding that had me looking for my favorite Futurama song, which comes from the episode When Hermes Requisitioned His Groove Back.

(By the way, the reason this isn’t in the “Asides” section — in which it normally would be — is because I’m thinking about tossing that section. Does anyone even read it? Sure it’s a nice “bait” to get people to come to the site, but does it really? Probably not.)

If you haven’t seen the video, you can catch it over at Weird Al’s MySpace page. (If you haven’t been to a MySpace page, you’ll want to stop the player which automatically starts up. Scroll down a bit on the page, just past the Straight Outta Lynwood picture, and click the Play button on the first video player.) It’s hands down one of his best songs ever, since it’s not just funny, but actually really good. If you liked Amish Paradise you’ll definitely love this, which all by itself pretty much pwns anything in his previous CD, Poodle Hat.

Anyway, go and watch it, then vote for him, capiche?

By the way, if you like the video, and you support artists who arent self righteous and pompass about their celebrity status, grab yourself a copy of the Straight Outta Lynwood CD. After all there aren’t too many artists that will go as far out of their way for their audience as this guy will. Might as well vote with your dollars, right?

Finally, I’ve decided to put this video up for all of you thinking of not buying this CD, instead choosing to go the LimeWire or Gnutella route. Enjoy.

Edit: I didn’t know this before, but MySpace gives you the code to put the video on a Web page (like, say, this one). Here’s the White and Nerdy video. Still, head over to Weird Al’s MySpace site to listen to a few more of his songs. And remember, BUY THIS CD (using this link, please).

Frankly, I think the perfect ending would have had aspects of the Normal and the Good, instead of what it ended up being. That’s just me, though.

I just finished watching (amazingly, for the first time) Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children (AC).** Great movie, especially if you like CGI and action scenes. Much better than Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within (TSW), but only if you know the Final Fantasy VII (FF7) storyline. (Otherwise, stick with TSW, where Sandra Bullock and Alec Baldwin lookalikes save the world from… itself. And ghosts.) Of course, like any other addiction, this one little taste of the amazing addicting FF7 storyline has spurred within me a hunger for more knowledge about the ever-expanding world of Cloud, Tifa, Aerith and the rest.

** Note: Since I wrote that I’ve seen the movie four more times, all within the span of about a week. It would’ve been more, but I’ve also spent time seeing all the extras, comentaries, and deleted footage. What can I say? I’m an extras junkie.

Anyway, I won’t get into explaining everything about the FF7 story world here, but if you (like me) neglected the world for almost a decade, here’s what’s been going on: a number of follow up backstories and after-the-event stories have been and will be released over the next couple of years. In fact, if you go to the FF7 Wikipedia page (which I recommend doing if you need a refresher), there are links there to all kinds of information about the new Compilation of Final Fantasy VII storilines:

Games: Before Crisis: Final Fantasy VII, Final Fantasy VII Snowboarding***, Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII, Dirge of Cerberus: Final Fantasy VII, and Dirge of Cerberus: Lost Episode – Final Fantasy VII

***Note: The snowboarding game is based on the little snowboarding minigame within the game. It’s a simple game, so it’s been only released for mobile phones. Makes me wish they’d also release the Chocobo races (and raising) for mobile phones, as well as Final Fantasy X’s Blitzball game as a standalone.

Movies: Last Order: Final Fantasy VII, and Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children (Uhm… duh?)

Not Fan-Fiction Stories: On the Way to a Smile, and Maiden Who Travels the Planet.

Lots of stuff, I know. The cool thing about these is that you get to find out stuff like what happened between Cloud and Tifa in the years between FF7 and Advent Children (The Case of Denzel and The Case of Tifa, both of which make up On the Way to a Smile), and what Aerith found after she died (Maiden Who Travels the Planet). The downside is that it seems the FF7 writers couldn’t quite keep from altering their own histories a bit. (Nothing of massive significance, but enough to cheese more than a few diehards off.) Of course, after reading all of that, you may want to head to IGN and read the translation of the Final Fantasy VII Ultimania Omega. Heck, you should probably head on out to the AdventChildren.net forums to read a full episode summary of Before Crisis, which has not yet been translated and may never be.

As I read all this, here are a couple of striking (at least to me) observations I made while reading all of this:

• When people die in this world, they go to the Lifestream, which is a bit like the Hades of Greek mythology. If you had a lot of regrets, then you were there in a prision of your own mind. If you lived a good, regret-free life, then you had a good afterlife. Eventually you sunk down into the lifestream and became one with the planet. Reminds me of the words of Milton: The human mind is a wonderful thing, for it can make a hell out of heaven and a heaven out of hell.
• What the heck is with the Zack guy?! He’s got to be the coolest character EVER! The dude gets his groove on with both Tifa and Aerith! Amazing. Even more amazing is that he’s such a frigg’n huge part of the story even though he’s a minor character (until Last Order, where he becomes a major character). Seriously, minor characters shouldn’t be allowed to be this cool.
  
• Turns out that Final Fantasy X and Final Fantasy VII are related. Look to the Lifestream for answers on that one.

Anyway, what’s a bunch of info and spoilers without some video goodness, eh?

The following video is from FF7, and shows the last fight between Cloud and Sephiroth. (Features the Omnislash.)

By the way, to find out more about what exactly is going on, and why Cloud had to descend into the Lifestream to fight Sephiroth at the end of the game, you’ll have to read The Maiden Who Walks the Planet, which also explains why Aerith seems to keep popping up whenever Cloud’s in trouble or the plotline conveniently needs a loophole. Also explains more completely the backstory of Advent Children, and why it’s such a great story about forgiveness.

The following videos are from Kingdom Hearts, with Cloud and Sephiroth fighting, and a guest appearance by Tifa.

Of course, if you haven’t seen the movie, you can munch on this little bit, which, if nothing else, gives you a taste of the amazing (and fantastically unrealistic) fight scenes in through the movie. (Sorry, it’s in Japanese.) By the way, don’t miss the limit break at the end of the scene, a new version of the Omnislash.

Finally, what sudden fancy (and relapse into addiction) is complete without the “Which character are you?” quiz? According to Quizilla, turns out I’m one of the following, with only a one-answer difference:

Vincent was my first result. Do I agree with it? Actually… yes. But explaining that is another story entirely. (Read a few of my older articles, especially those on theology and philosophy, and you’ll begin to see why I say that.)

And that, as they say, is that.

By the way, note that no “Tribute” videos were included here, other than the Jay Leno, CNN, and Chanel 7 ones.

“God put me on this planet with a mission. And my mission, is to educate people about conservation.” – Steve Irwin

Mission accomplished. I just hope heaven has a wild life area where he can hang out for the rest of eternity.

Thanks to Digg for this painfully funny post. That’s gonna cost him. (Did you notice the back tire in the end?) I don’t know whether to say “wow, that sucks,” or “ha ha! Dummy!” It’s more like a little of both, I think.