Christian Judges OK Cross on Public Land

Supreme Court overturns objection to cross on public land

Let's examine who voted for the legality of the Mojave cross, obviously a religious symbol, on publicly owned land:

• John Roberts, Catholic, FOR
• John Paul Stevens, Protestant, AGAINST
• Antonin Scalia, Catholic, FOR
• Anthony Kennedy, Catholic, FOR
• Clarence Thomas, Catholic, FOR
• Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Jewish, AGAINST
• Stephen Breyer, Jewish, AGAINST
• Samuel Alito, Catholic, FOR
• Sonia Sotomayor, Catholic, AGAINST

So, wait, a bunch of Christians (Catholics, to be more precise) say it's okay to have a cross on public land? Bullshit.

I think this opinion is spot on:

Dissenting Justice John Paul Stevens said: "The cross is not a universal symbol of sacrifice. It is the symbol of one particular sacrifice, and that sacrifice carries deeply significant meaning for those who adhere to the Christian faith."

Now let's watch the flood of Ten Commandment morons come forth.

Is Nitrogen Larger than Oxygen?

I was reading some gas saving myths/tips on the Consumerist when I came across this:

Fill your tires with Nitrogen. Nitrogen helps tires maintain the right pressure for a longer period of time as opposed to oxygen, this because nitrogen molecules are larger than oxygen molecules. So the next time you need to add air to your tires, add nitrogen.

Immediately I was skeptical. Oxygen is the 8th element on the periodic table, whereas nitrogen is the 7th; oxygen has a higher atomic mass than nitrogen. So can an O₂ molecule really be smaller than an N₂ molecule?

I had Google help me out and I found this paper. If you ask me, this guy is trying too hard to sound smart, like when people say "I" instead of "me." I mean come on, he didn't bother to subscript his 2s when writing O₂! ...Not to mention the paper is hosted on getnitrogen.org, which is the website for the Get Nitrogen Institute. (Institute?! Really??) Their whole idea is to get you to put nitrogen in your tires. I'm sure they're in some way financed by nitrogen people.

I found this on Answers.com (just as dubious as the nitrogen people):

Molecular size a bit tricky. As a quick comparison, we can use the covalent radius defined as 1/2 the distance between to identical covalently bonding nuclei. This is measured in picometers (1 pm= 1x 10^-12 m). Nitrogen's covalent radius is 75pm so the length of a nitrogen (N₂) molecule ought to be 4 X 75pm or 300 pm. A molecule of oxygen (O₂) ought to be just a shade smaller 4 X 73pm or 292pm. So an oxygen molecule is a little less than 3% smaller than a nitrogen molecule.

So, I did some more searching and came across this.

As you can see, covalent radii generally decrease across periods in the Periodic Table. And now all that high school chemistry is coming back to me.

Oh, yeah! Chemistry sucks!

So anyway, with some assumptions, I can agree that yes, N₂ molecules are smaller than O₂ molecules.

But let's back up! The whole point of this was what to fill your tires with! Who is filling their tires with oxygen?! If a tire caught fire in a wreck IT WOULD EXPLODE if it were filled with oxygen! They're filled with AIR, which is 78% nitrogen! I find it extremely hard to believe that using pure nitrogen to get that last 22% of non-nitrogen out of the air in the tires is going to be worth the time, effort, and money. Just check your tire pressure regularly, damnit.

Most of the other tips check out, but some of that original article is crap. For example, "Shopping around for cheaper gas DOES NOT burn more than you’ll end up saving." That depends on how far you need to drive to shop around, doesn't it? "Gas is NOT cheaper mid-week." Depends on the gas station, doesn't it? "Opening the windows instead of using the air conditioner has no measurable effect." No measureable effect?? Then what did the MythBusters measure?! (I'll save you the Google search: It is more fuel efficient to use air conditioning when the car is traveling approximately 50mph or more. Otherwise, windows are more fuel efficient.)

I Saw Gallagher!

I took a red eye through LAX in February and lo and behold, I saw Gallagher!

Yeah!

Industrial Music Makes You a Violent Extremist

I'm sure it's well known that I hate news organizations, particularly Fox News. Here is yet another reason why: Road to Radicalism: The Man Behind the 'South Park' Threats

Basically, some religious nutjob threatened (although it doesn't sound like a threat to me) the creators of South Park for depicting the "prophet" Muhammad... in a bear suit, which (SPOILER ALERT) turns out to actually be Santa.

However, the article repeatedly mentions certain interests of his:

"He was very into violent industrial music, borderline Satanic bands and stuff like that. He had dark undertones in his interests."

...there were "dark overtones in his interests" for years...

Okay were they overtones or undertones, Fox?

Chesser's interests -- hardcore industrial music, Goth and Satanic materials -- appear to have translated "pretty well to violent extremism," the classmate said.

Okay, last time I checked, Muslims hate Satan, too. This article manages to suggest that Muslims are Satanic. Furthermore, it doesn't bother to suggest any sort of reason why he became radical other than suggesting that violent industrial music and Satan are somehow linked to it. How about investigating how exactly it is he became brainwashed by religious extremists? No?

And correct me if I'm wrong here, but he hasn't commited any violence yet. He's not a violent extremist, just an extremist.

I also noticed they spelled Muhammad different ways within the article.

Bonus tidbit:

She said she will maintain more of a distance from the Chessers now, "because we're Christians…. It's kind of sad that American people are falling into this. It's sad that he would be influenced to try to hurt people."

Right, because Christians would never do things like this.

Unit Prices

Remember a couple weeks ago when I mentioned unit prices?

Here's another example of unit prices coming in handy:

At Target, you can either pay $8.59 for 100 of those clear plastic sheet protector things, or you can pay $4.09 for 50 of those clear plastic sheet protector things.

The list prices are right there, clear as day: $8.59 per 100 count or $8.18 per 100 count.

It's like a constant life test that everyone you thought was stupid in high school will repeatedly fail for their whole lives. And that makes me smile.

Tissues and Cars

Jenny once long ago pointed out how amazingly stupid it is for people to have a box of tissues in the back windshield area of their cars. If you're driving and need a tissues, you can't reach them because they're in the back-friggin-window!

Trying to play devil's advocate, I suggested that maybe they are for the children that could hypothetically be in the back seat. But then she pointed out that children are stupid too and wouldn't use tissues; they would just pick their nose and eat it. Of course, she's right, and tissues in the back window are just another Symbol of the Idiot, along with, among other things, the word "whatnot" and watching Fox News.

Anyway, the other day driving around I saw something that further proved that she is right: a box of tissues in the back window that not a single person in the car could possibly reach because the back seat had child seats in it!