Thoughts on Defending Your Faith
A couple of weeks ago a coworker of mine sent me a link to something he knew would get me all riled up. And boy oh boy, does he love getting me all riled up. The article was filled with tips for teenagers who want to defend their faith against attacks from heathen non-believers. (That's me.) In my analysis of the article, I give them something to defend against.

Thoughts on Atheism and Agnosticism
Many people are unaware of the history and differences of atheistic and agnostic ideologies. Indeed, atheism has become a dirty word, while agnostic has become viewed as wishy washy. I figured I'd do my best to clear up the confusion surrounding these two simple words.

Thoughts on Sun vs Microsoft
Sun Microsystems has decided that Microsoft has used their monopoly to damage Sun's Java platform, and that Microsoft should be both forced to include Java in every copy of Windows, and that they should pay Sun 1 billion dollars in damages. I say baloney.

Thoughts on Biodiversity and Extinction
Many scientists and environmentalists are in a panic over what they see as the 6th great extinction; a tremendous loss of biological diversity, and the loss is occurring at an alarming rate. This is a short introduction to what threatens biological diversity, how this is causing the 6th great extinction, and why you should care.

Thoughts on Human Freedom, Consensual Crimes, and the U.S.
Laws against activities in which all participants are consensual step well beyond the legitimate powers of government, and often result in very bad things. Examples of these bad things include nearly 1 million people imprisoned for crimes in which nobody was hurt, a loss of nearly 200 billion dollars a year for our economy, the trashing of the Constitution, the corruption of our government and justice systems, and the destruction of countless people's lives.

Kissing Hank's Ass
As much as I'd like to take credit for this one, I cannot. This is a wonderful tale that highlights how one can get into a bit of trouble if one's beliefs aren't grounded in logic, reason, and evidence. If somebody knows where this originated from, let me know because I want to both give credit where credit is due, and thank the insightful individual who wrote it.

Thoughts on Carl Sagan: Visionary, Humanist, Educator
Carl Sagan is one of the few people I consider a personal hero. He exemplifies what I consider to be a human ideal, and yes, I include his flaws in my assessment. Sagan made a difference. It's as simple as that. He left the world a far better place than when he entered it, and that can't be said of most 'heroes' these days. This is my small, inadequate, but heart felt tribute to Carl. I miss ya.

Thoughts on Fusion Power and Politics
A pipe dream. Something out of science fiction. A waste of money. Impossible. Fusion power has been called many things, but few of the people doing the name calling really understand what fusion is all about. Fusion power has the potential to dramatically change the world economy, and make the current worries about global warming, poverty, fuel shortages, and many other issues a thing of the past.

Thoughts on Yucca Mountain Waste Storage Viability
It has become clear that we need a place to put the millions of tons of waste that the United States' fission reactors have produced, and it seems to make sense that putting it all in one location (instead of spread out over hundreds of sites across the United States) is safer and more easily controlled option. In this essay, I examine the controversy around Yucca Mountain, and express my view that it is a good place to put all the waste, despite the questionable selection process used.

Thoughts on United States Nuclear Policy
United States energy policy is a big issue, and involves many complicated issues which couldn't possibly be explored in anything less than a book or two. So instead I wrote a bit about US Nuclear Policy. In short, the United States has let politics, not science, decide how nuclear energy policy has been formed. As one might expect, this irresponsibility on the part of the American people has been a disaster.

Believe in God? Then You Should Believe in My Dragon.
No, this isn't a repeat of "An Argument Over God, Religion, Science, and Evolution," but it's close. It just so happens that I recently had a long argument over Windows Messenger with a good friend of mine regarding God. I think I managed to force him agree that if he insists in believing in God, he must also believe that there is a Dragon in my garage. Yes, I borrowed that one from Carl Sagan. Thanks Carl.

An Argument Over God, Religion, Science, and Evolution
This set of thoughts will almost certainly offend most people who read it. I put forth an argument against believing in God, and explain why having "faith" is, in my opinion, one of the worst things a person could possibly choose to do with their brain. Keep an open mind while reading this one, or you will get nothing from it.