The Exact Words of God

The exact words of God are contained only in The King James Bible. That is what this essay in one of my favorite websites claims.

Instead of trusting in man and his whim-of-the-day Bible version, trust only what God's people gave their lives to preserve: God's words in English, the King James Bible.

Explanations of the different currently used versions of the bible in English can be found here. My favorite version of the bible must be the one that Jules quotes as Ezekiel 25:17 in Pulp Fiction:

The path of the righteous man is beset on all sides by the inequities of the selfish and the tyranny of evil men. Blessed is he, who in the name of charity and good will, shepherds the weak through the valley of darkness, for he is truly his brother's keeper and the finder of lost children. And I will strike down upon thee with great vengeance and furious anger those who would attempt to poison and destroy my brothers. And you will know my name is the Lord when I lay my vengeance upon thee.

Where KJV reads:

And I will execute great vengeance upon them with furious rebukes; and they shall know that I am the LORD, when I shall lay my vengeance upon them.

KJV has so much to learn from Samuel L. Jackson.

don raton y don ratero.

The other day I arrived to my house and found the door unlocked. Someone broke into my house and stole the following:
My old Alienware laptop
My rent check
Some underwear
A can of fruits
My perfume
my watch
my pokemon cards

Luckily he didn't take anything else, but I am so angry. I just don't know what he is going to do with such random things, maybe he's constructing a robot to take over the world. I just wish that he gets hemorroids or something.

Philosophers and Crackpots

Physicists believe that we and only we can figure out the universe.
That, and our arrogance about it, is why we are the main target of many philosophers and crackpots (note that there is a distinction).
Yes, modern physics has some deep philosophical implications. The sad part is that they seem to escape the philosophers, as most tend to have a very narrow and inaccurate picture of what it represents. If I ever hear another person claiming that relativity and quantum mechanics say that everything is relative and that we are uncertain about everything and use this to start some deep philosofical discussion, I think I'm going to cry.
But also we have the crackpots. What is a crackpot? Well, this articles summarizes very well the set of rules to detect them. A perfect example of one is this one. Note how it starts with a vague idea of what quantum mechanics, electromagnetism and relativity are. Then, writes one equation, and points out that since part of the equation is less than one, it therefore must be a probability. And then claims that with good expensive equipment it could be tested out. Tested out what? No predictions are given, no logical argument, nothing. Go back to the set of rules to detect crackpots, and you will see the article follows most of them.
Why are there so man crackpots, and in particular, why are there so many with a technical background? This very interesting post proposes an explanation.

This can't be happening

I have been trying to accept the fact that reggaeton is here to stay, and that Salsa music is being forgotten. I have tried very hard.
What I will never accept is El Gran Combo remixed to reggaeton rhythms!

The latest release from one of the most popular salsa bands of all times, like the title, implies a retrospective of El Gran Combo's music and sounds of yesterday, today and tomorrow. Original tracks from many of its mega hits are remixed and edited in the hands of several leading DJs in the business, rejuvenating and updating the well-known classics to the dancehall sounds of today's turntable masters. Salsa purists may find many of these transformations hard to swallow at first but the truth is that they still swing and rock. [...] The classic Brujerí­a is featured [...] in a reggeton mix by DJ Kazzanova and DJ Créme with added raps by Yaga & Mackie. The selection Y No Hago Mas Na' also bares the same fate [...]

This can't be happening. This can't be happening. This can't be happening. This can't be happening. This can't be happening. This can't be happening. This can't be happening. This can't be happening. This can't be happening. This can't be happening. This can't be happening. This can't be happening. This can't be happening. This can't be happening. This can't be happening. This can't be happening.

Carcinazation

Watch out, there are many crab-looking things that aren't really crabs!

There is a process knows as carcinazation, where convergent evolution makes crustaceans take forms very similar to crabs. The best studied example is the King Crab. Also known as Stone Crab, this delicious creature it is not a real crab at all! Just count its legs, it isn't even a decapod! Unbelievable!
Actually, it is closely related to the Hermit Crab (Cobito), which in turn isn't a real crab either! Both the King Crab and the Hermit Crab are asymmetric, while real crabs are symmetric.

Amazing!

My Juey or the Highway

My mom sent me some salmorejo de jueyes (crab meat) from Puerto Rico. She even added some claws and legs too, so I've had a lot of fun cracking those open to eat them. What a feast! Gourmet!
Jueyes live in the swampy areas around mangroves. To catch them, traps are placed with food (they are particularly attracted to corn). Sometimes they can be farmed too.
I found this excellent website that doesn't talk about Jueyes, but of Cocolias, their water cousins. Cocolias (blue crab) can be fished in waist-deep water using chicken guts as bait. Tie the guts to a piece of string, walk into the water, and wait. When you feel them nibbling the chicken, just pull them out, they won't let go of the food! I prefer Jueyes, but they aren't bad.
Another variety of edible crabs from Puerto Rico are Buruquenas. They live in creeks and rivers, hiding under rocks. To catch them it is necessary to lift the rock, or just stick your hand in their caves. These bite really hard, so don't try this unless you wear proper gloves. They can make grown-up men cry if they grab onto a finger, even with proper gloves been worn. During their mating season, they go crazy and try to cross streets near the creeks to reproduce. Their smashed carcasses can be seen all over the pavement. They aren't as tasty as their mangrove or salt water relatives.

Crabs can be fun as well as tasty, so please consult your local library to learn more about them!

bull vs pit bull

Seems like the story behind those pictures is really interesting.
Here's Babelfish's opinion:
First picture:

15 September, Phoenix, the state of Alabama. Two pitbulya, which were remained after hurricane without the masters, obtain to themselves food independently.

Last Picture:

Finale histories - dog are shot down.

Wikipedia's opinion on pit bulls (pitbulya??):

Specifically, these dogs accompanied farmers into the fields to assist with bringing dangerous bulls in for breeding, castration, or slaughter.

No wonder the bull was so scared.

Cow vs Dogs

Pictures of a cow fighting two dogs.

"You son a bitch!"
"Your momma is a cow!"

The Skatalites

After grabbing the best burger in town at a punk bar, I went to the bar next door to see The Skatalites. Many of the band members were from the original band back in the day when they invented Ska.

Their sound was impeccable, and their music fun, even for my friends that have never heard them before. Some stupid people decided to Mosh Pit in a Ska concert and ruined the mood for some time, but at least it didn't last for too long.

how the emoticon killed the internet.

Emoticons were the best method to give personality to conversations and help the other person understand when you were being sarcastic or serious. However, now they are too popular. I am tired of those stupid Smiley Central banners.
I've turned off all of the custom emoticons from all of my messenger services, they are just too annoying. I know people that use a custom emoticon for most letters, each message is just a bouncing mass of unreadable images. This makes it too difficult to have a conversation. Many times I've talked with people whose messages get changed automatically. "suboblique" gets transformed into "suSPONGEBOBSQUAREPANTSWAVINGHISHANDSlique".
The problem now is that people have custom emoticons for random strings. Now when I receive messages like "good bybbbbb!!!!" I automatically assume that I should be seeing some annoying thing in there. I don't even ask, because I will expect to get a reply like: "can'tttttt uuuu ccccc my :))))))???????".
The custom emoticons are one step away from facilitating communication between thinking beings.
I will start to use text custom emoticons to confuse the people that use custom emoticons.
"LITTLEDEVILDANCINGAROUNDFIREo. SMILEYHOLDINGQUESTIONMARK are SMILEYPOINTINGATYOU QUESTIONMARKQUESTIONMARKQUESTIONMARK11"

Even more on the Medal

The New York Times has a piece on the nobel prize, they also mention ECG Sudarshan's contribution. This one pretty readable, unlike my previous links.

More on the Medal

The Advanced Information given by the Nobel committee refers to Sudarshan's work (Ref 11 in it). Here is his earlier paper on the subject, published almost at the same time that Glauber published his. I will not dwell into the controversy around this, but if you are into this kind of things, enjoy this very beautiful paper.

The Medal

The Nobel Prize in Physics has been awarded. Roy J. Glauber got his "for his contribution to the quantum theory of optical coherence". In other words, he got 1/2 for the theory of the laser.

E.C.G. Sudarshan has also made very significant contributions in this field. Check out this paper, and the references in it.

Euthanizing a Virtual Pet

I found this short post that describes what made a Computer Scientist euthanize a Tamagotchi.

Scarface vs Teletubbies

This is paradise, I'm tellin' ya. This town like a great big pussy just waiting to get fucked.
-Tony Montana

The FBI found a cocaine shipment labeled with pictures of the Teletubbies.