HAPPY NEW YEAR!

So its almost new year. Maibe your year sucked, maibe it was amazing, or if your like me it was okay so so could have been better. Do you remember your new years resolutions from last year? If you are like me you dont. Or you pretend like you dont so that you arent forced to admit that 9 out of 10 didnt come true, because you didnt follow threw with them. HAHAHAHA last year i actually said id go to the gym 3 hours EVERY single day. So this year my new year resoulutions are going to be a little more real. Now that im a little older i think im mature enough to make all of my new years resolutions come true.
Here are a few of mine:
1. Im going to get my god damn permit. Im going to DRIVE! Ill admit this was on my list last year but after i crashed my moms mercedes and my grandfathers bug all in the same summer during my yearly visit to mexico, i was a little nervous to get behind the wheel, But my confedince has been restored and i no longer think im a vehicular menice.
2.I will PARTY hard and STUDY hard. I get decent grades. I will admit that i party as much as i can but i think i could party more and get better grades. So that is what im going to do.

3.I plan on losing weight but not by exercising. Im pretty sure that never works. ill just sleep more, eat less, dance dance dance.

4. Im going to help people as much as i can. I mean i dont think you can expect to get and never give. Life doesnt work like that unfortunatly, and i want to get a lot. SO in return all give a lot. =)

5. A two month trip to europe seems perfect. I need to practice my french and it wouldnt hurt to speak spanish in barcelona, although i heard they make fun of people with mexican accents. A couple of nights clubbing in camden would be awesome, but my mom wouldnt want to pay for everything so id deffenetly need to get a job. The whole selling shoes to people with foot fetishes isnt going as well as i thought. The resetion is pretty bad i guess.

I hope every one has an amazing new years! Be realistic when making your new years resolutions. ps. I know its tradition to kiss someone on new years, but if u dont know the person you can never be sure if they have herpes of the face. Be safe!

Happy Holidays

Happy holidays everybody.

I found out that a good family friend died Thursday. His name was Victor Carranza. He also happens to be an amazing designer. I'm sad to see such a creative man leave the world. He died in a car accident a long with his mother who was in the car with him. He had just finished working on a project dedicated to the iconic actress, Marilyn Monroe. The line was called House of Monroe.

This came as a shock to both me and my mother, who grew up with him. We were talking about going on a trip to New York city to visit Victor just a few hours before my mother got the devastating call. A few hours can really change a lot. Death has been present in my life so much this year. I have had to overcome some pretty rough times in the past months, but with every tragedy you become more aware of whats important.

You don't realize how much you depend on your family until you are faced with tragedy. Like Marilyn Monroe said, "Things go wrong so that you can appreciate them when they are right".

mamasboy21 (10:07:44 PM): but like today actually i was looking at my phone and my mom thought i was texting. i mean i was i guess
mamasboy21 (10:08:22 PM): but not at that moment
mamasboy21(10:08:34 PM): then my mom was like stop fucking texting
LunaVirgen (10:08:51 PM): and she must hate me cos she thinks i'm a distraction
mamasboy21 (10:09:12 PM): yeah she does
LunaVirgen (10:09:20 PM): :/
mamasboy21 (10:10:08 PM): and then she said something about you that made me wanna break something
LunaVirgen (10:10:14 PM): what'd she say'
mamasboy21 (10:10:35 PM): it was kinda mean
mamasboy21 (10:10:58 PM): she said i wish that Luna girl would drop off the face of the earth...

I wouldn't mind that she disliked me if she had met me first. Because then, at least I would have had a fair chance to prove myself, and if I didn't win her over.. that's just the luck of the game. But I've had no chance to show her who I am, so her opinion of me remains anything but fair or valid. I'm stuck in a uncomfortable limbo where she has a preconceived idea of me that I am powerless to change.

This ones by my friend who would like to remain anonymous, hence the name change.

waiting for the phone to ring

I have been using guys forever. I know it isn't a good thing but that's just how i learned to get what i want. If i need to get alcohol for one of my party's i'll call a "friend" who's twenty one. Maybe i'll go on a date with him and then mention that i have to get something at a liquor store before he drops me of at home. If i need a ride ill call a "friend'. If i feel lonely and want to talk to some one I'll call one of my "friends". I never do anything more then give them a peck on the cheek. I guess i still have some morals. If that's what you want to call it.

I don't know if i just need someone to love me, although i don't care much about them. I feel good when i know someone is thinking about me. But how long will it last, before i cant look at my self in the mirror?

People say there are only two types of love. To love someone and to be loved. I have been thinking about this more and more lately. When i look back every guy I've had an interest in doesn't care much for me, and the guys who like me don't mean much to me at all.

What goes around comes around. I'm a big believer in karma, that's probably why i cant eat, or sleep without thinking about one person, who i know doesn't give a fuck about me. While a different and very nice gentleman always texts me, talks to me, and asks me out. I constantly ask my self why i cant like the nice guys.

I wish things weren't so complicated. I also wish i could eat with out feeling these damn butterfly's. I wish he'd text back. I wish i could stop worrying and get on with my life even if that means being single a while longer. At least im able to digest food without feeling the need to vomit.

five and 10

so Ive been getting into dressing well for really cheep. It just seemed right, with the economy being so wrong. I try to add a vintage feel to everything weather its an old accessory or a coat from the 60s.
I went to see the LA Opera and i wore an adorable cocktail dress from forever 21, vintage heels, vintage scarf, vintage pearl necklace, and a trench coat from forever 21. I don't have pics of the whole outfit but i have a few of the dress although they aren't very clear.

hello kitty makes everything

INSPIRED

BLONDS MUST HAVE MORE FUN!

slumber partys

are definitely not what they once were.
Sure me and my friends watch movies, eat junk, and talk about guys
but we also do other stuff like run threw sprinklers in our underwear, drink wine, and smoke...
in fact now that i think about it those slumber party's in movies don't seam very real. I mean
wheres the substance abuse or the partying till dawn with your home girls?

ghetto fabulous!

i have thought long and hard about what im about to do, and well im going to confess to you all my beauty secrets.
The secret to looking as foxy as me is being ghetto fabulous!!!
I die my hair with koolaid.
I do my make up with crayola markers.
I paint my nails with sharpies.
Instead of going to spray tan i use spray paint.
I enjoy long fake nails with plenty of bling.
BEING FAKE IS KEY

I found this picture on the web randomly and i must say this is my dream guy. no idea who took it or who the guy is...


Ive seen way too many cheesy movies. They all seem to have the same theme. True love. Im guessing true love is when u see someone and instently know that you have to have them. But is that really true love? Every time i feel instant chemistry with some one, it lasts a few weeks and im done. I fall out of love as quick as i fell in love. Maibe true love is when you slowly fall in love with someone because of the things they do. It might take a while longer to feel a spark but it also takes longer for that spark to go away.

Im crushing

on them

I'm in shock. I took the wrong train and ended up completely lost. I had no money and my phone was dead. Everything was dark and i had to look for a phone booth to call someone. Any one who could come and get me. Of course i called my mother and started sobbing. The only thing i knew about my location was the train stations name and that it wasn't a very good neighborhood. I haven't been that scared in a while. So i sat down and cried in a corner. I know, its very pathetic.

A concerned Asian lady came up to me. Her accent was thick so it was hard to understand what she was saying, but i made out a few things. "you okay?" i looked up at her a little alarmed with my cheeks still wet. "I'm fine now. thank you" i replied in a half sob half whisper. "no i overhear. You say you have no money and no phone. please take this" she hands me a $20. I couldn't believe that a complete stranger would help me. I couldn't take her money. I insisted i wouldnt, but she left it on my lap. Before i could say anything she said "please keep. I don't want anything bad to happen to u. i really do care." Then she gave me a hug and walked away.

I couldn't believe that a complete stranger would help me in a time of need. Living in a big city a lot of people go about their day without noticing the people around them. I confess to doing this sometimes too.

I looked for her to say thank you but i couldnt find her. I didnt even get her name or a chance to return the money. Im so thankful for this ladys help. Situations like these always make me more posotive and thankfull for all the love i get from people around me.

not this bitch!

I absolutely adore Cosmo. Its like my bible. Everything i want to know is in it. Even things i didnt think i wanted to know.
although thats ultra emberassing to admit. I buy every issue every month, but something was different this month. When i went to my local news stand i found that the new cosmo had Kim Kardashian on the cover. I looked at it and thought to my self "what the fuck is this bullshit?'. There was no way in hell i was buying that. So i settled for cosmos ugly duckling of a cousine; Glamour. Dont get me wrong i love trashy. I can watch jerry springer all day because i find it oh so funny. But this? I couldnt even see what the cover said because her large ass was covering all the words. What is it that Kim Kardashian does? Shes not pretty, or funny, or even smart....
but id deffenetly pay to see her and Paris Hilton get in a fight....

yes im risking getting an STD, and for some guy...

I had a crazy dream last night. I had a dream that i went on a date with a guy who took me out to dinner and actually payed for me. Not only was he funny but he was polite and opened doors for me as well. He didn't have a voice that was too high or too low, and his laugh wasn't obnoxious, on the contrary it was very pleasing. He looked like Justin Long, drove a motorcycle, and was in a band. The best part is that i didn't have to wait by the phone for days or refresh my facebook page so many times my computer froze. He was the type of guy that didn't make you regret putting the time and effort into getting a bikini wax. Oh lets not forget that he likes bands like Joy Division, The Clash, New Order, and The Smiths.
Then i woke up and hit my head on the bead post...
Well a girl can dream.
By Luna Virgen

Who tells you how to act? who tells you how to act!? Boys don't know how to , and I ask you who tells you how to act?

No seriously am sick of guessing what you mean , what you feel. I hate how you stare at me and then act like a jerk. Yeah Ive seen your eyes light up when you see me, still you do nothing. I don't mind because I really don't know you, and I can forget you, but you ll regret it for sure.

Baby you can drive around, baby you can look around, and baby then just ask me out...

If I could make a little film to show you all of me, happy, sad, playful, angry, and in love... I would send it to you by dawn , and you would watch it till twilight , hopefully dream about my smile, and would you want to provoke it with your very own laughter?

By Deer Onmoon

the crazies come out on halloween

HAPPY HALLOWEEN EVERY ONE!!!

I might be a little bit old for this but i have been waiting all week for this day! I absolutely adore stuffing my face with ice cream, and candy, and anything sweet. The same thing has happened since i was a little kid; I eat and eat and eat while every one around me is trying to tell me to slow down. Of course i dont listen, until the next day when im sitting infront of the toilet throwing up the pounds of candy i somehow forced down my throat.

Every one has seen that scream costume. The one that every single latino kid has worn once in his life. Well i cant stand those. They really truly scare me. THEY ARE UNESCAPABLE!!!!

mariachi funky disco

I like electronic music, but i adore mariachi even more. I guess its just the latin part of me that gets all worm inside. I would have never thought of mixing the two together, until i heard Nortec Collective play at the sunset junction. I fell in love! I was recently listening to them and i couldnt help but want to dance while juggling a burrito in one hand and dancing quebraditas.

Hot Chicks Who Play Synths

Everyone loves hot chicks. Even other chicks love hot chicks, regardless of sexual preference. But what’s better than hot chicks? Hot chicks who play hot fuckin synths. Nothing gets me goin’ like a total babe laying down some fat synth bass that just destroys. That’s why I salute these two ladies in the first edition of this series of blogs: Hot Chicks Who Play Synths.

First up: Emily Haines of synth-pop-rock band Metric. Not only is she a total blonde babe that is reminiscent of Blondie herself, but she plays a fucking SCI PRO ONE!!! One of the fattest analog bass synths ever made, this monster of a synth is a toal classic and it does my heart good to see some analog synthesis going on during the show.

Next: Nancy Whang of LCD Soundsystem and The Juan Maclean! This babe is for you if you dig the Asian persuasion but she also rocks three synths AND an MPC during LCD shows! She really knows her way around the knobs and those babies. If she weren’t laying down hot synth lines for LCD, their shows would sound empty without her, and for that, we honor you through this post!

By Evan Gall

Die reinste freude ist die schadenfreude

This is one of my favorte german frazes. It means "our purest joy comes from seeing people we envy get hurt".

We all know that we feel some sort of satisfaction when someone we envy tripps and falls. No matter how nice you are, you are familiar with this feeling.

I remember being in elementery school, and seeing this girl with the new my little pony. She was brushing its pink tail. At that very moment she got up, she tripped and fell on a banana peel. I was concerned and helped her up but i know that deep down inside i was smiling.

"another one of those days"

Many things are terrible, two of those include Uggs and crocks.

I'm not sure which is worse, but they both seem equally bad.

Ive been looking for a part time job every where. You know the kind that pays next to nothing, and is all together boring. I haven't found a single thing!

A few days ago i stumbled on to a shoe fetish add. People will pay you a lot of $$$ if u send them your old dirty shoes and a pic of your feet. It seems like a quick way to make cash, but totally degrading. I don't know if i should do the shoe thing or get a respectable job that pays horribly.

(I love you emma)

The hour of chaos

Today, I'm going to prison for refusing to complete my military service. My reasons are in my previous post. I'll be gone for some four months, so I'll be back in February. In the meantime, my co-bloggers will be looking after this blag.

Anyone who wants to get in touch with me during my jail time will have to use good, old-fashioned snail mail. The address is Jokelan vankila, PL 20, 05401 Jokela. Other information on the Jokela prison web page, such as it is.

See you all in February.

"nobody in this shit hole gets me because i don't put out"

"We don't put out!"
My favorite character in my absolute favorite movie is Chorinne Burns, who lives by this quote, and many others including; don't get screwed. Although her band, the stains sucked, her crazy outfits and skunk like hair was awesome. If i could be like any one i would want to be like her. Shes one girl you wouldn't want to fuck with. Lady's and gentleman the fabulous stains also stars Steve Jones and Paul Cook (of the sex pistols), Paul Simonon (of the clash), Vince Welnick (of the tubes), and Barry Ford.

A parting hockey thought

So, this is the new-look Maple Leafs team. Like The Star told us way back in November 2008:

Brian Burke, after being introduced as the 13th general manager of the Maple Leafs, promised that his team – and it is very much that now – will evolve into a pull-no-punches, in-your-face squad, an approach reflective of the guy now calling the shots.

"We require, as a team, proper levels of pugnacity, testosterone, truculence and belligerence. That's how our teams play," said Burke.

That's a funny word, truculence. Let's see what the dictionary says:

truculent (comparative more truculent, superlative most truculent)
1. Of things or persons that are cruel or savage
2. Deadly or destructive.
3. Defiant or uncompromising.
4. (hockey) 0-5-1.

The new Leafs? Same as the old Leafs.

What should i wear???

A friend invited me to an anarchists meeting. Im really curious what they are like but i have no idea what to wear. Im pretty sure they just bitch about everything. im pretty good at that.

I think full on leather is the way to go. Probably with some t shirt that sais Fuck the government. Leather over the knee boots are super in and i bet my pair would be perfect for this event.

im blowin ur mind like a poisonus mushroom

Vanilla ice would kick Lil Wayne's ass in a rap battle no matter how much he looks like a predator.

What the fuck happened to rap? It use to be about surviving in the hood, respect, and what not.

Now all you hear on the radio is douche bags talking about Ferrari's, gold chains, big houses, and girls with big asses. If these guys where so "hood" i doubt they'd let some record company scam them out of half of their own income. Rappers should stick to what they know best, instead of singing in annoying robot like voices.

A more conservative Bible

To start off, an unrelated trivia question: which single disease costs Western society the most to treat?

Tooth decay. From the Cambridge journal Public Health Nutrition:

Dental diseases, particularly dental caries, are the most expensive part of the body to treat. Caries is indeed the most expensive human disease in terms of direct costs. For example, the direct costs of caries treatment in Germany was 20.2 billion, CVD 15.4 billion DM, diabetes 2.3 billion DM.4. In West Germany, the cost of dental care was 10.3% of the health budget in 19945.

**

And if that didn't blow your mind, this will.

Globe and Mail: Group of U.S. conservatives rewrite the Bible

After all these years, one could assume the Bible has held up pretty well, but a group of conservatives in the United States thinks it needs a rewrite.

The folks behind Conservapedia, a right-leaning version of Wikipedia, have launched the Conservative Bible Project, aimed at getting rid of what they call liberal bias, wordiness, emasculation and a general dumbing down of the Old and New Testaments.

A dozen or so users, led by Conservapedia founder Andy Schlafly – the son of conservative political activist Phyllis Schlafly – are tackling the 27 books of the New Testament and 39 books of the Old Testament. Anyone can offer suggested changes.

Just read the article. I could quote all of it.

Poe's Law: "Without a winking smiley or other blatant display of humor, it is impossible to create a parody of Fundamentalism that SOMEONE won't mistake for the real thing." [1]

That article is PROOF.

**

Conservapedia's own project page is, if possible, even more hilarious. Here's some excerpts, retrieved 20091012. All boldface in the original.

Liberal bias has become the single biggest distortion in modern Bible translations. There are three sources of errors in conveying biblical meaning are, in increasing amount:
* lack of precision in the original language, such as terms underdeveloped to convey new concepts introduced by Christ
* lack of precision in modern language
* translation bias in converting the original language to the modern one.

Experts in ancient languages are helpful in reducing the first type of error above, which is a vanishing source of error as scholarship advances understanding. English language linguists are helpful in reducing the second type of error, which also decreases due to an increasing vocabulary. But the third -- and largest -- source of translation error requires conservative principles to reduce and eliminate.

So there you have it. According to Conservapedia, not only is the media biased toward liberals, and Wikipedia, but even the Bible is contaminated by liberal bias. Here's some of the "ten commandments" they suggest for rescuing the Word of God from liberals:

Utilize Powerful Conservative Terms: using powerful new conservative terms as they develop; defective translations use the word "comrade" three times as often as "volunteer"; similarly, updating words which have a change in meaning, such as "word", "peace", and "miracle".

Express Free Market Parables; explaining the numerous economic parables with their full free-market meaning

Prefer Conciseness over Liberal Wordiness: preferring conciseness to the liberal style of high word-to-substance ratio; avoid compound negatives and unnecessary ambiguities; prefer concise, consistent use of the word "Lord" rather than "Jehovah" or "Yahweh" or "Lord God."

There you go! The Bible isn't conservative and free market oriented enough. This must change.

Also, "liberal wordiness"?

Here's one of their own examples:

Third Example - Socialism

Socialistic terminology permeates English translations of the Bible, without justification. This improperly encourages the "social justice" movement among Christians.

For example, the conservative word "volunteer" is mentioned only once in the ESV, yet the socialistic word "comrade" is used three times, "laborer(s)" is used 13 times, "labored" 15 times, and "fellow" (as in "fellow worker") is used 55 times.

As a translator myself, I don't know how to start explaining how wrong this is. Their problem isn't how a given Greek or Hebrew word is translated, but whether the word it is translated into is "liberal" or "conservative". Astonishing.

Father
Yes, you can't beat wood ... Gorn!
Mother
What's gorn dear?
Father
Nothing, nothing, I just like the word. It gives me confidence. Gorn ... gorn. It's got a sort of conservative quality about it. Gorn. Gorn. Much better than `newspaper' or `litterbin'.
Daughter
Frightful words.
Mother
Perfectly dreadful.
Father
Ugh! Newspaper! ... litterbin ... dreadful liberal sort of words. Lib, lib, lib.

The daughter bursts into tears.

Mother
Oh, dear, don't say `lib' to Rebecca, you know how it upsets her.
Father
(to the daughter) Sorry old horse.
Mother
Sausage!
Father
Sausage ... there's a good conservative sort of word, `sausage' ... gorn.
Daughter
Antelope.
Father
Where? On the lawn? (he picks up a rifle)
Daughter
No, no, daddy ... just the word.
Father
Don't want an antelope nibbling the hoops.
Daughter
No, antelope ... sort of nice and conservative type of thing.
Mother
Don't think so, Becky old chap.
Father
No, no, `antelope', `antelope' -- liberal sort of word (the daughter bursts into tears) Oh! Sorry old man ...

"We'll have him in our Bible."

[2]

**

The staggering fact is that Poe's Law works here. I know this is an actual Conservapedia page, and I've read the article in the Globe and Mail where they actually interview Schlafly about the project. So I know this isn't a parody.

But still, when I read the actual project page, the whole thing is so incredibly preposterous that I can't quite convince myself it isn't a parody. They're really proposing creating a "new translation" of the Bible, not by retranslating it, but by rewriting the English text to conform to their ideology.

You really can't make fun of these people at all.

Interview with Ben and Evan. A real mans perspective.

I wanted to start my first blog by digging deep into the complicated minds of my two good friends, Evan and Ben. They are both very attractive and intelligent guys who spend all there time beating the ladies off with a stick. They wear leather and DJ. What could be better. I interviewed them about love and girls.

Q: Hi guys! So I have been wondering this for a while. You guys have all the girls on your nuts, Do you prefer playing the field or going out with one person seriously?

Ben: It all depends, if its a special person like evan, then I want him for the long run. (he thinks for a couple of seconds) Never mind id rather play the field.

Q: Haha! Thats quite interesting. Would you prefer getting baked goods, flowers, or or underwear from a girl?

Evan: Baked goods! My grandmothers an insane baker. Cookies are pretty bomb.

Ben: If it looks like shit, i dont want it. If it doesnt then ill eat it. Im talking about baked goods. Theres nothing you can really do with underwear. Im not one of those creeps.

Q:Would you find it hot if megan fox was laying down naked on top of a synth?

Evan: That would be interesting. Yes, i would. Im not sure shed fit.

Q:Blond or Brunette?

Evan: brunette.

Ben: It all depends on ethnicity. I like the chick on modern family. (he points down) It doesnt discriminte....

Q: Beyonce or Rhianna?

Evan: Beyonce. Rhiannas a skinny bitch.

Ben: Beyonce! Have you seen her legs? Oh my God! shes like a godess! And that ass...

Q: Wow you really like Beyonce. If you had to go out with a man who would it be and why?

Ben: I dont want to sound cliche, but Brad Pitt. Although i didnt like his long blond hair in troy. He has nice pecks. Actually Tom Cruise because HE KNOWS HOW TO SUCK. I could be the man in that relationship.

You what?

It's starting to feel like bemused incredulity should be the name of this blog.

BBC: Obama wins 2009 Nobel Peace Prize

US President Barack Obama has won the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize.

The Nobel Committee said he was awarded it for "his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and co-operation between peoples".

I saw the headline and I thought this has to be a joke.

What efforts? Pretty speeches? Idealistic statements? What, exactly, has Barack Obama actually done to advance world peace? Nothing. Nada. Zilch.

I thought it was ridiculous when Al Gore won the Peace Prize for doing a shoddy mockumentary on climate change, but this is even worse. The Nobel Peace Prize is now officially a complete joke.

You have got to be kidding me

This is unreal.

Guardian: Treasury plan to force banks to lend in poorer communities

Plans to force Britain's banks to pump money into poor communities in exchange for their massive taxpayer bailouts are being drawn up by the Treasury, a senior minister has revealed.

Liam Byrne, chief secretary to the Treasury, said last week that the time was ripe to consider a UK version of America's Community Reinvestment Act, introduced in the 1970s to prevent banks abandoning deprived areas.

The CRA has resulted in American banks lending billions of dollars in rundown inner-city districts, and, with public anger at the activities of financial institutions running high, Byrne said he was actively considering a similar scheme for Britain.

"It is an interesting idea, which we are exploring earnestly at the Treasury," he told a fringe meeting at last week's Labour conference in Brighton.

The chief secretary added that there were two issues that worried him and his Treasury team – the lack of any hard evidence that particular communities were being frozen out by the British banking industry, and concerns that CRA-induced lending to poor households in the US had triggered the sub-prime crisis.

"These are serious questions for us to explore," Byrne said. "But we wouldn't be looking at it if we didn't think it would be a good idea."

You. Have. Got. To. Be. Kidding.

For those of you not keeping score, the financial crisis was, in my opinion at least, primarily caused by two things: reckless mortgages that led to the housing bubble, and reckless financing. The first was based, at least in part, on the CRA; the second was based, at least in part, on the fact that all major Western banks know their governments won't let them go bankrupt, so they can basically do what they like.

So, in order to avoid another crisis like this, what are we doing?

- the Obama administration wants to label certain companies "systemically important", and extend a guarantee that they are never going to go bankrupt (Bloomberg.com)

- the British Labour Party wants to bring subprime mortgages to Europe

Are they even trying to fix anything?

Going to jail in October

After a month of waiting I finally know: I'm going to start serving my prison sentence on October 15, at Jokela prison.

To give you an idea of how long this process takes, I refused my service in February. The court decision came in late June, and I had to wait for three months to find out when I'm going to prison. Ever since June, I've been unable to plan my life ahead for more than a few weeks as I've never known when I'm going away. So yeah, not feeling so good this fall. But at least now I know.

Porn makes you gay

I could never make this stuff up.

Gene Expression: Straight porn makes you gay

Seriously. The original news item is here. In brief, Republican senator Tom Coburn had this to say last Saturday:

“Pornography is a blight,” Schwartz told an audience in a crowded room of the Omni Shoreham hotel. “It is a disaster. It is one of those silent diseases in our society that we haven’t been able to overcome very well. Now, I may be getting politically incorrect here. And it’s been a few years, but not that many, since I was closely associated with pre-adolescent boys, boys around 10 years of age. But it is my observation that boys of that age have less tolerance for homosexuality than just about any other class of people. They speak badly about homosexuality. And that’s because they don’t want to be that way. They don’t want to fall into it.”


Schwartz told the crowd about Jim Johnson, a friend of his who turned an old hotel into a hospice for gay men dying of AIDS. “One of the things he said to me,” said Schwartz, “that I think is an astonishingly insightful remark… he said ‘All pornography is homosexual pornography, because all pornography turns your sexual drive inwards.”

There were murmurs and gasps from the crowd. “Now, think about that,” said Schwartz. “And if you tell an 11-year-old boy about that, do you think he’s going to want to get a copy of Playboy? I’m pretty sure he’ll lose interest. That’s the last thing he wants! You know, that’s a good comment, it’s a good point, and it’s a good thing to teach young people.”

As the blogger at Gene Expression points out:

Since the 1970s the Religious Right and Feminist Left have oddly paralleled each other, asserting strange ideas about the nature of heterosexual males and their susceptibility to sexual visual stimulus, without bothering much to consult a wide range of men who engage in the behavior in consideration.

As some shameless self-promotion, I'd like to refer anyone interested in this topic to my text on pornography, and on the very topic of the religious right and radical feminism making highly similar, equally ridiculous, judgements on porn that are based on absolutely nothing.

It's frightening that the religious right continues to make these ridiculous arguments that are based on pure nonsense. It's beyond sad that radical feminists fall into the same trap.

(thanks to Kaj Sotala for the link)

Different gender, same brain

With the coming of new advances in biology and especially genetics, conservatives of all stripes have latched on to biology as a way to prove their deeply held beliefs. We've already seen the return of "scientific" racism with people claiming that differences between "races" have a biological origin; similarly, the last few years have seen an unprecedented, at least in my time, backlash against feminism, with conservatives blithely asserting that men and women are irrevocably different and grasping at science to prove it.

I've had quite enough of the race debate, but here's a link on the gender one.

Newsweek: Pink Brain, Blue Brain: Claims of sex differences fall apart

For her new book, Pink Brain, Blue Brain: How Small Differences Grow Into Troublesome Gaps—And What We Can Do About It, Eliot immersed herself in hundreds of scientific papers (her bibliography runs 46 pages). Marching through the claims like Sherman through Georgia, she explains that assertions of innate sex differences in the brain are either "blatantly false," "cherry-picked from single studies," or "extrapolated from rodent research" without being confirmed in people.

Go read the article. Then we can stop this idiocy about men and women being so fundamentally different that they need to be treated differently. They will be if their parents make them.

In short, gender is a social construct. It comes about not because it's there to begin with, but because of how we bring up our children. Just like feminists have been saying all along. Funny, huh?

Crashgate

Well, Crashgate is mostly over with Renault receiving a suspended ban and Briatore & Symonds banned from F1.

And, as expected, Alonso gets away with nothing. Obviously he, the number one driver of his team, had no idea what was going on. Obviously he went into last year's Singapore GP with a completely uncompetitive strategy for no reason. Obviously.

Former F1 world champion Keke Rosberg put it very nicely in an interview with Finland's MTV3: "Apparently Alonso's a lot stupider than any of us thought. He's a world champion, and he has no idea what's going on in his team."

As of today, Fernando has won 21 F1 races. Of these, one was won due to his teammate crashing on purpose, and shouldn't count toward the results, but does. Of course, four of them were won with the tactical advantage based on stolen Ferrari data that McLaren was fined and disqualified from the constructors championship for, and shouldn't count, but do. So he's won 21 races, 15 of them fairly. Probably.

On the other hand, Hamilton has won ten races; four with the car that was disqualified from the constructors' championship. He's also world champion, on points from a race that was fixed by Renault. If the results from last year's Singapore GP were disqualified, as they should be, Felipe Massa would be world champion.

So, Fernando has 21 wins*, and Hamilton is a former world champion**. Felipe Massa has zero world titles***.

How many more footnotes do we have to add before someone at the FIA or elsewhere decides that F1 is going to be a sport, not sports entertainment?

Game Genesis 1

Designer 1: Well, the engine basically works now. But what about the setting? Those underground bunkers are really a bit boring.

Designer 2: We definitely need to stick with the idea that it's about technology gone bad, you know, like in Terminator 2, but yeah, the setting should be more... wacky.

D1: You know what's wacky? Libertarians!

D2: Ha ha ha! Libertarians sure are crazy!

D1: Ha ha! We could make the game about libertarians, because they're crazy!

D2: A great idea! Hey, wasn't Ayn Rand a libertarian? The one who wrote Atlas Shrugged?

D1: Ha ha ha! Ayn Rand sure was crazy!

D2: Ha ha! She sure was! You know, Atlas always reminds me of Atlantis, and I did some googling, and some libertarians have this crazy thing about living out at sea, so we could set our dystopic game in an underwater city, with libertarians in it!

D1: Ha ha ha! That's really wacky!

D2: Ha ha ha!

Ye be banning Alonso from F1

So, Renault finally came clean on Crashgate. They've now admitted Nelson Piquet were ordered to crash just after Fernando Alonso's pit stop in last year's Singapore Grand Prix, securing a win for Alonso. Ahoy! Team principal Flavio Briatore and head engineer Pat Symonds have both resigned, and on Monday, ye FIA will be doling out penalties. Yarr!

To start with, Flavio Briatore needs nothing less than a lifetime ban from ye sport. Yarr! Not only be this far from ye first time he's been on ye shadier side of things, but his behaviour when ye allegations came to light were appalling. Which he denies everything and basically calls his driver a queer in ye world media, only to admit everything and resign a week later. I'm sorry, what? Last week they were all lies, and besides, that guy with ye long hair be a faggot.

My two cents' worth: ban Alonso from F1 for good. As far as Crashgate be concerned, there be no way Alonso didn't know exactly what were being planned. Avast, ye scurvy dog! He not only went along with it, but kept his mouth shut and celebrated his win. He's Renault's anointed number one driver; it would be beyond ridiculous to suggest that he had no idea what were being planned, and happily went into ye race with a deliberately weak strategy without so much as a nudge and a wink from someone.

Remember, this be ye same guy who were proven to have cheerfully collaborated in Spygate. He and Pedro de la Rosa quite happily trafficked in information stolen from Ferrari, and Alonso only came forward with it to get back at Ron Dennis. Dennis has since left F1, at least in an active role; now it looks like Alonso's sunk Briatore as well.

Okay, maybe it be a coincidence that one driwer benefited from and were deeply personally involved in two of ye biggest F1 scandals of ye past decade. Or maybe it be not.

In my humble opinion, Alonso has demonstrated a continuing total disregard for rules, sportsmanship and basic honesty. It were scandalous enough that he, de la Rosa and Hamilton got away scot free from Spygate, despite overwhelming evidence that ye lot of them were involved with ye stolen Ferrari data at every stage, ye first two especially so. It beggars belief to imagine him getting away with Crashgate. Howewer, if there be something ye FIA be capable of, it be a monstrous travesty of justice.

In entertainment news, ye head of ye Spanish wing of FIA said Alonso be innocent and his win at Singapore be beyond dispute. He has a seat on ye world council. In related news, he's insane.

I just hope Alonso don't end up with Ferrari. Ye way things have been going so far, whoever Alonso signs with next be in for a session with ye FIA World Motorsport Council. Which I don't know what it'll be for, but his last two team chiefs have ended up in front of ye World Council and retired in disgrace. Why would ye next one be any different?

**

In other F1 news, it be been downright bizarre to follow our Finnish drivers' contract situations. In my opinion, no driver could have scored more points with a Ferrari car this season than Kimi Räikkönen, especially over ye last few races. His driving has been phenomenal. After last year's no-show, he's reminded us all of why he won ye world title.

On ye other hand, Heikki Kovalainen be making a very strong case for being ye complete logical opposite of former Finnish F1 driver Jyrki Järvilehto. Yar! JJ were always rubbish at qualifying, but drove well in ye race. Yarr! This year, Heikki seems to be settling into a comfortable method of surpassing himself in qualifying and then throwing it all away by being completely rubbish in ye race. Monza were a perfect example of Kovalainen in action. He had a brilliant qualifying: his car weighed some 20 tons more than Hamilton's, but he were still ridiculously close to Hamilton's time throughout qualifying. Then ye wrong tire strategy, combined with an unbelievably bad first lap, destroyed his race.

Given all this, it were stupefying to hear ye news from Monza. Yar! McLaren's Martin Whitmarsh assured Finnish telewision that Heikki were very close to a contract extension with McLaren, while Ferrari point-blank refused to confirm that Räikkönen would be driving for Ferrari next year. I'm sorry, ye seem to have gotten them mixed up.

For what it be worth, I consider ye rumors that Räikkönen won't drive for Ferrari next year ludicrous. Yarr! Ye amount of money it would take to buy out his contract be just silly, and I don't see any way it could be worth it. Of course, that don't mean they won't do it, but it still don't make any sense. If anyone really thinks that Alonso, or Massa for that matter, would have had a stronger season than Räikkönen did this year in ye same car, they're grossly underestimating Kimi and overestimating Alonso.

Still, who knows? If there be one thing I know about F1 it be that anything can happen, whether it makes sense or not. So never say never.

Ban Alonso from F1

So, Renault finally came clean on Crashgate. They've now admitted Nelson Piquet was ordered to crash just after Fernando Alonso's pit stop in last year's Singapore Grand Prix, securing a win for Alonso. Team principal Flavio Briatore and head engineer Pat Symonds have both resigned, and on Monday, the FIA will be doling out penalties.

To start with, Flavio Briatore needs nothing less than a lifetime ban from the sport. Not only is this far from the first time he's been on the shadier side of things, but his behaviour when the allegations came to light was appalling. He denies everything and basically calls his driver a queer in the world media, only to admit everything and resign a week later. I'm sorry, what? Last week they were all lies, and besides, that guy with the long hair is a faggot.

My two cents' worth: ban Alonso from F1 for good. As far as Crashgate is concerned, there's no way Alonso didn't know exactly what was being planned. He not only went along with it, but kept his mouth shut and celebrated his win. He's Renault's anointed number one driver; it would be beyond ridiculous to suggest that he had no idea what was being planned, and happily went into the race with a deliberately weak strategy without so much as a nudge and a wink from someone.

Remember, this is the same guy who was proven to have cheerfully collaborated in Spygate. He and Pedro de la Rosa quite happily trafficked in information stolen from Ferrari, and Alonso only came forward with it to get back at Ron Dennis. Dennis has since left F1, at least in an active role; now it looks like Alonso's sunk Briatore as well.

Okay, maybe it's a coincidence that one driver benefited from and was deeply personally involved in two of the biggest F1 scandals of the past decade. Or maybe it isn't.

In my humble opinion, Alonso has demonstrated a continuing total disregard for rules, sportsmanship and basic honesty. It was scandalous enough that he, de la Rosa and Hamilton got away scot free from Spygate, despite overwhelming evidence that the lot of them were involved with the stolen Ferrari data at every stage, the first two especially so. It beggars belief to imagine him getting away with Crashgate. However, if there's something the FIA is capable of, it's a monstrous travesty of justice.

In entertainment news, the head of the Spanish wing of FIA said Alonso is innocent and his win at Singapore is beyond dispute. He has a seat on the world council. In related news, he's insane.

I just hope Alonso doesn't end up with Ferrari. The way things have been going so far, whoever Alonso signs with next is in for a session with the FIA World Motorsport Council. I don't know what it'll be for, but his last two team chiefs have ended up in front of the World Council and retired in disgrace. Why would the next one be any different?

**

In other F1 news, it's been downright bizarre to follow our Finnish drivers' contract situations. In my opinion, no driver could have scored more points with a Ferrari car this season than Kimi Räikkönen, especially over the last few races. His driving has been phenomenal. After last year's no-show, he's reminded us all of why he won the world title.

On the other hand, Heikki Kovalainen is making a very strong case for being the complete logical opposite of former Finnish F1 driver Jyrki Järvilehto. JJ was always rubbish at qualifying, but drove well in the race. This year, Heikki seems to be settling into a comfortable method of surpassing himself in qualifying and then throwing it all away by being completely rubbish in the race. Monza was a perfect example of Kovalainen in action. He had a brilliant qualifying: his car weighed some 20 tons more than Hamilton's, but he was still ridiculously close to Hamilton's time throughout qualifying. Then the wrong tire strategy, combined with an unbelievably bad first lap, destroyed his race.

Given all this, it was stupefying to hear the news from Monza. McLaren's Martin Whitmarsh assured Finnish television that Heikki was very close to a contract extension with McLaren, while Ferrari point-blank refused to confirm that Räikkönen would be driving for Ferrari next year. I'm sorry, you seem to have gotten them mixed up.

For what it's worth, I consider the rumors that Räikkönen won't drive for Ferrari next year ludicrous. The amount of money it would take to buy out his contract is just silly, and I don't see any way it could be worth it. Of course, that doesn't mean they won't do it, but it still doesn't make any sense. If anyone really thinks that Alonso, or Massa for that matter, would have had a stronger season than Räikkönen did this year in the same car, they're grossly underestimating Kimi and overestimating Alonso.

Still, who knows? If there's one thing I know about F1 it's that anything can happen, whether it makes sense or not. So never say never.

Book review: Legacy of Ashes

This time, a book recommendation! Tim Weiner's Legacy of Ashes, the 2007 National Book Award winner for non-fiction.

The book is exactly that, a history of the CIA from its founding to 9/11 and beyond. In my opinion, this is one of those books that anyone really interested in the way the world works today, or in global history from 1950 onward, needs to read this.

Weiner draws together a narrative of the CIA's history, and highlights the one fact that has very often been its most conspicuous trait: sheer incompetence. As Weiner explains, the agency's covert operations have been at best questionable and at worst downright amateurish.

A far more serious failure has been the CIA's failing as an organization providing intelligence to the President. Over the years, the CIA's analysts and intelligence gatherers have consistently been neglected in favor of covert operations, sabotage, election-rigging and assassination. Having read Weiner's book, it's fair to ask what, exactly, a succession of American presidents and intelligence decision-makers imagined the job of an intelligence agency to be? It certainly doesn't seem to have been gathering intelligence.

How good is the book? So good, in fact, that the CIA has issued a rather sniffy rebuttal. This prompted my co-blogger Juho, currently reading the book, to wonder how long it took them to realize it had been published.

There's also a longer review of the book on the CIA website, where they lambast it for some factual errors. I'm in no position to disagree with them, but as something of a historian, in my opinion the most signal merit of Weiner's book is that it has such explanatory power. This account of America's consistent failure to supply its decisionmakers with good intelligence goes a long way toward expaining some of that nation's greatest failures in the 20th century.

A significant trend that develops very early in the book is the distortion on intelligence to fit either the White House's or the CIA's political agenda. As this book makes manifestly clear, the Iraqi WMD episode was not the first time intelligence data was manipulated to serve political ends. As it stands, it won't be the last.

This book will expand your understanding of the political history of our world immensely. A must-read.

Brief book review: The Middle Sea

Here's another review of a disappointing popular history book, this time by the Viscount Norwich! I mean, of course, John Julius Norwich's The Middle Sea: A History of the Mediterranean (Vintage 2007).

In brief, it's a popular history book on the Mediterranean. And it's that one little word, "history", that gets it in trouble. Here's some examples.

First, in Chapter I: Beginnings, he tells us all about the Hebrews, the Exodus, King David and the kingdoms of Israel and Judaea, basically recounting the biblical narrative. As it happens, there are a few problems with that. The simple fact is that the archeological record just does not support the historicity of any of the events he recounts. For at least a good part of his first chapter, Norwich has seen fit to completely abandon sources and simply recount the Bible as fact. Now, if this was a book on the Bible, why not, but this is presented as a history book.

Another tidbit from the first chapters: in Chapter III, titled "Rome: The Republic":

The rise of Rome was due, more than anything else, to the character and qualities of the Romans themselves. They were a simple, straightforward, law-abiding people with a strong sense of family values, willing to accept discipline when required to do so (...)

It feels like the entire passage was lifted from a Victorian schoolbook. The national characteristics of the Romans were the reason for their success. Obviously, that implies that the national character of other Mediterranean peoples must have been inferior, because the Romans were able to subjugate them. See where we end up? He is basically reiterating the classic, racist paradigm of history where "superior" nations triumph over "inferior" ones because of their "racial characteristics".

**

After a beginning like this, I didn't hold out much hope that the book was going to be worth reading, and it isn't.

In a book that purports to be a history of the Mediterranean, there is a surprising lack of attention given to, well, the Mediterranean. The sea itself is barely present in the narrative. Instead, Norwich is content to recount the basic political history of nations on the Mediterranean coast at a high school level, albeit at some length.

The simple problem of the book is exactly this. If you have any knowledge of the history he writes about, you will find this book largely trite and uninformative. I would advise you to not read it. If, on the other hand, the subject is fairly new to you, I strongly caution you to not read it, because you won't be able to tell which parts are actual history and which are pure hogwash. So in a very real sense, this is a book no-one should read.

Axis powers celebrate F1 win

(with apologies to the Runoff Area)

The Axis powers scored a potentially decisive victory over the Allies in Belgium last weekend, as Finland, Italy and Germany took the podium at the Belgian Grand Prix at Spa. The highest-placing Allied driver, Mark Webber of the Australian Imperial Force, only came in ninth.

The F1 series, a global conflict being stage-managed by a diminutive man with dictatorial powers and funny hair, will next break out in Italy one week from now. Britain's Jenson Button leads the championship, with the Pact of Steel of Rubens Barrichello and Sebastian Vettel not far behind.

Despite near-universal agreement that Kimi Räikkönen won the race, the Finnish government has strongly denied participating in F1. "Mr. Räikkönen was not driving in the Belgian Grand Prix," Finnish foreign ministry spokesman Dr. Korhonen insisted. "He was driving a separate Grand Prix series and merely happened to find himself on the same track as the other drivers. This was pure coincidence. Any suggestion that Finnish drivers are participating in Formula One are false, and stem from an inability to understand Finland's unique strategic position." McLaren's PR department supported the Finnish government, openly scoffing at reports of a second Finnish driver in the race.

This year, the constructors' championship is firmly in Allied hands, although their lead in the drivers' series is not secure. French team Renault won two consecutive drivers' championships before surrendering, leaving the series a free-for-all with consecutive Axis and Allied victories in the drivers' series and an Axis-dominated constructors' series.

The strategic landscape of F1 is set to change next year with the United States entering the conflict, but hopes for a strong initial showing are not high. The United States team is widely considered to be inexperienced, and is expected to take time to fully mobilize their potential. Until USF1's application to join the F1 series, US motorsport had been governed by the Monroe Doctrine, limiting F1 to a maximum of two races in North America and restricting American drivers to the isolationist Champ Car imitation series and that thing where they drive around ovals.

Also in the wake of the Belgian GP, Pakistan's Minister of Defence (below) has accused India of destabilizing the region after Force India took their first podium. Minister Turgidson claims that the success of the Indian team has led to the creation of a dangerous "motorsports gap".

Pakistan is responding to what the Minister of Defence called "irresponsible Indian escalation" by founding several kart racing series, but UN officials are trying to broker a strategic racing limitation treaty to stop a "motorsports race" between the two countries.

Meanwhile, reports that South Korea has secured funding for its 2010 Grand Prix did not seem to concern North Korean representatives. They scoffed at the decadent practice of driving cars, pointing out that North Korea has no cars, or indeed anything motorized whatsoever, and is still the world's third-largest economy, with a higher standard of living than Japan. A reporter who questioned their figures was shot. Also, North Korean representatives pointed out that the Great Leader, Kim Jong-il, had previously set a lap time of 1:44.82 around the Spa-Francorchamps circuit, a full two seconds faster than Sebastian Vettel's fastest lap in this year's Grand Prix, and furthermore, the Great Leader set his time on foot.

The next race is set for Sunday, September 13th, pending an FIA investigation into possible French use of Brazilian kamikaze pilots in last year's series. By international accord, the practice of fielding a completely inept second driver for the sole purpose of causing destruction on the track is permitted only for the now defunct Super Aguri team.

The Ukraine bans all pornography

The Register: Ukraine slaps ban on all porn

Porn is now illegal in the Ukraine, unless used for medicinal purposes. Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko last week signed off on new legislation joining the Ukraine to an ever-lengthening list of countries that have decided to move the censorship goalposts over the last few years, from publication of porn on to simple possession of it.

(...)

On June 11, the Verkhovna Rada (the Ukrainian parliament) made possession of pornography – not extreme porn, but ANY porn – a criminal offence. It will be punishable by a fine of 850 hryvnia - which our currency converter helpfully reveals is approximately 69 British pounds - or up to three years in prison.

Finnish readers may want to read Sofi Oksanen's column on the topic.

Meanwhile, New Zealand is looking to implement an Internet censorship scheme that sounds suspiciously familiar:

The Register: New Zealand set to join internet blocking club

Once blocking goes live, the DIA claim that the block list will focus exclusively on the first of these categories: it is reported that the DIA’s Censorship Compliance Unit has developed a list of over 7000 sites containing child pornography. If true, this is an interestingly large figure, being about five times the size of the block list maintained by the UK’s Internet Watch Foundation, and significantly larger than the lists put in place over the last year or so by other European nations.

(...)

To date, the DIA has refused to publish their list, claiming, via the Official Information Act, that to do so would be "likely to prejudice the maintenance of the law, including the prevention, investigation, and detection of offences, and the right to a fair trial".

Initially, the block list will be voluntary: ISP’s may choose whether or not to take it.

Sound familiar?

Also in the Antipodes, Australia is to begin blocking access to websites that host or sell computer games that are not suitable for children. The block, of course, will affect all Australian internet users, not just children. Other topics to be blocked by the Great Australian Firewall include websites about euthanasia.

I hope you enjoyed the Internet while it was still free.

Luca Badoer

(with apologies to Hugh Laurie)

History
My name will go down in F1 history
For qualifying in last place twice consecutively
I am worse than any Ferrari driver in
History

1863
I last drove an F1 car in 1863
By Monza I will be history
Why did they let me drive at all? Well, I guess it's just a
Mystery

Hello world

Hi.

Since I'll be taking over the management of this blag during Michael's absence, I thought I'd do a little introductary post.

So: hi.

That should cover it. Now, some substance.

Lately there's been quite a bit of discussion about Pirate Party in Finnish media. I'd like to present an example of one of the things Pirate Party supports and copyright holder organizations absolutely oppose: free noncommercial use of protected content.

!WARNING! The creation and publishing of the following video was a crime. It was made by a thief illegally using content protected by copyright. By viewing this video you are supporting criminal activity.

If you do choose to view it, why don't you think about that while you watch?

The wheels turn, if ever so slowly

As the next step in the process leading to my eventual imprisonment, I now know when I'll get to know when I'm going to prison. Hooray! Today, I received a letter recommending (fin. kehottaa) that I arrive at the Espoo courthouse on September 1st to find out where I'm going, and when I'm going. So basically, I'll be here until some point in September. That means I'll get to spend the holidays in prison.

I like how they're recommending I show up. As if I have a choice.

Finnish recording industry: Pirate Party can't be allowed

AFP: Pirate Party swashbuckles into Finnish politics

Copyright holder organisations in Finland were outraged at the news of the group's formation.

"We are absolutely against the idea that any political party can give their support to the idea of free use of protected content," said Arto Alaspaeae[sic], the director of IFPI Finland (International Federation of the Phonographic Industry).

There you go: if the record companies called the shots, Finnish political parties wouldn't be allowed to have "wrong" opinions on copyright. Read it closely. They're against the idea that any political party can give their support to cutting down copyright.

I wonder if anyone has told them this is at least supposed to be a democracy.

For more on the topic, here's Cory Doctorow: Economists call for patent and copyright abolition.

Mary had a little room

I've been reading too many Dinosaur Comics, so I'm now going to make like T-Rex.

**

The Mary's room thought experiment was proposed by Frank Jackson in 1982 as a counterargument to physicalism, physicalism being the belief that the universe consists of nothing more than its physical characteristics. In other words, physicalism is what used to be called materialism: the denial of any kind of mind/body or matter/spirit dualism.

To quote from Wikipedia:

Mary is a brilliant scientist who is, for whatever reason, forced to investigate the world from a black and white room via a black and white television monitor. She specializes in the neurophysiology of vision and acquires, let us suppose, all the physical information there is to obtain about what goes on when we see ripe tomatoes, or the sky, and use terms like ‘red’, ‘blue’, and so on. She discovers, for example, just which wavelength combinations from the sky stimulate the retina, and exactly how this produces via the central nervous system the contraction of the vocal cords and expulsion of air from the lungs that results in the uttering of the sentence ‘The sky is blue’. [...] What will happen when Mary is released from her black and white room or is given a color television monitor? Will she learn anything or not?

In other words, we are to imagine a scientist who knows everything there is to know about the science of color, but has never experienced color. The interesting question that Jackson raises is: Once she experiences color, does she learn anything new?

Fair enough. Here's my problem:

[...] if Mary does learn something new upon experiencing color, physicalism is false. Specifically, the Knowledge Argument is an attack on the physicalist claim about the completeness of physical explanations of mental states. Mary may know everything about the science of color perception, but can she know what the experience of red is like if she has never seen red? Jackson contends that, yes, she has learned something new, via experience, and hence, physicalism is false. Jackson states:

It seems just obvious that she will learn something about the world and our visual experience of it. But then it is inescapable that her previous knowledge was incomplete. But she had all the physical information. Ergo there is more to have than that, and Physicalism is false.

I have a very real problem with that, as I don't believe it follows at all. I'll set it out, as the Wikipedia page didn't address this particular problem with the main argument, and I consider it decisive.

The philosopher Daniel Dennett, a capital man who writes about zombies, has objected. According to Dennett, if Mary really knew everything about color, she would learn nothing upon first experiencing color. I tend to agree with him: if, by definition, Mary really had all possible physical knowledge of color, then presumably that would include knowledge of the experience of seeing color.

In my opinion, the whole Mary's room argument is nothing but what Dennett calls an intuition pump: a thought experiment designed to evoke an intuitive response by misleading us.

Specifically, I believe the Mary's room scenario makes use of an intuitive division between theoretical knowledge and experience. On reading it, most of us assume that Mary has all the theoretical knowledge of color, but has no practical experience of it. The difference is similar to knowing how to drive a car but never having driven one. From a common sense standpoint, we will automatically assume that when a person who has been taught all about cars but has never driven one actually does, they will, indeed, learn something.

Notice, though, that that isn't what Jackson said. He said Mary has all the physical information. Isn't the experience of seeing a color also physical information? Basically, in claiming that Mary's knowledge does not include the experience of color, Jackson is claiming that experience, in this case experience of a qualia, is not physical information.

The entire thought experiment is set up to justify the existence of qualia as non-physical information. In my opinion, it does this by simply assuming the existence of qualia as non-physical information. If we assume that the experience of seeing a color is physical information, then by the premise of the experiment, Mary doesn't learn anything new on stepping out of the room.

Dennett's further objection is very relevant here. He says we can't imagine such a comprehensive amount of knowledge: Mary would really need to know literally everything about color before stepping out of the room for the experiment to make any sense. We find that difficult to imagine, so we transpose "all theoretical knowledge of color" for "all possible knowledge".

Basically, the way I see it, the whole thought experiment doesn't prove anything. It only begs the question. If, if, you assume that the experience of seeing a color is not physical knowledge, then Mary will learn something new the first time she sees a color, and then physicalism is false. If, however, we assume that the experience of seeing a color is physical knowledge, then Mary possesses a practically supernatural level of knowledge while still in the room, and will, in fact, learn nothing.

The question that any solution to the thought experiment boils down to is very simple: do you believe that the experience of seeing a color is physical knowledge? In other words, when you see the color blue, what happens? Physicalism asserts that something happens in your brain: at the end of the day, a physical process. This physical process could, theoretically, be recreated, so it would be possible for someone to upload the experience of having seen all the colors into Mary's brain. Therefore she, already possessing this superhuman knowledge of things she has never seen, would indeed learn nothing upon leaving the room.

On the other hand, if one chooses to believe in the transcendent existence of qualia, and the existence of a transcendent mind above and beyond the brain, then it is possible to postulate that something transcendent happens to the mind when it sees a color for the first time. I, as a physicalist, would kindly suggest applying Occam's razor to all these assumptions.

So, in short, my opinion of the Mary's room thought experiment is that it only proves the existence of qualia and the falsity of physicality if one presupposes qualia to exist outside physical knowledge. Therefore, it proves nothing: it only begs the question that it supposedly answers.