5 Things I've noticed about... Drunk Driving

This time of year like with every year many people are in a festive and partying mood, and with that mood comes drinking (the alcohol type of drinking I mean).

Now some people are not only going to go to parties and drink, but also drive home after they have done drinking. In other words, drunk driving.

Now there are many things that I have noticed about drunk driving, but I have narrowed it down to five different things.

So here are five things I've noticed about drunk driving:

5. It's costly.

If you get pulled over by the police while you are drunk, it's going to cost you quite a bit.

The fines you can pay for being found guilty of drunk driving can be upwards in the thousands of dollars, not to mention the lawyers fees, court costs, loss of pay from the days you'll miss from work for when you go to court, or if you have to go to jail, loss of income if you get fired your job because of this, increases in insurance rates, having your car taken away by the state... and that's only if you don't hit someone.

If you actually do hit someone then those thousands quickly turn into tens of thousands of dollars, even hundreds of thousands of dollars, because not only do you have to deal with everything I mentioned above (many of which the cost of and time will increase) you'll also have to pay whomever you hit after they sue you (or if their loved ones sue you if you kill that person) and in the end it can end up costing you every penny you have, plus your freedom.

4. There are better alternatives to it.

If you're planning on drinking this holiday season (or any time for that matter) and you need to get home, there are far better alternatives than getting behind the wheel of a vehicle and turning it into a one and a half ton weapon.

You could call a cab. You could call a friend to drive you home. You can have a designated driver at whatever party you go to inorder to drive you home. You could moderate your drinks to one drink an hour, and have water and food along with your drink, and not drink for atleast an hour and a half before you drive home, and not drink anything with a high alcohol content. Or you could just not drink at all.

Regardless of what you do it is far better to do something other than driving home drunk.

3. It's socially unacceptable.

Lets be honest, who wants to be around a person who has been convicted of drunk driving, especially if you killed someone as a result? Not me, and not to many other people do either.

Face it, not to many people want to be around a person who has been convicted of a crime, especially one as reckless and stupid as drunk driving. People do not want to associate with people whom willing put other people's lives at risk, especially when there is no reason to do so.

Besides just ruining your social life by people not wanting to associate with you, it can ruin your social life by leaving you unable to go anywhere. You could lose your license, or your insurance, or your car, or your movements could be restricted by court order. Or you could just be sent to jail, the ultimate social life killer.

2. It's deadly.

Around 40% of all the fatal automobile crashes that occur are the result of alcohol being involved.

Drunk driving kills thousands of people every year, and not just the drunk driver themselves, but passengers being driven home by the driver, and innocent people in other vehicles who are not drunk and are just trying to get from one place to another (or trying to get home).

Not only does drinking increase you likelihood of getting into a deadly automobile crash, the more you drink the odds of getting into a deadly car crash increases even more so.

1. It's stupid.

The fact is that drunk driving is one of the dumbest things a person can do. It can result in a person going to prison, being left broke, losing friends, losing their job, killing themselves, and killing someone else.

What makes drunk driving especially stupid isn't just what I just stated bove, it's also the fact that it's completely preventable. No one has to die because of someone else's selfishness and stupidity. Either have someone drive you home, or don't drink, it's that simple.

If you drink, do not drive!

5 Things I've noticed about... The Illuminati

The Illuminati. That secretive group conspiracy theorists believe have a great amount of power and want to take over the world.

There are a lot of accusations leveled against the Illuminati, and out of all of those accusations I've noticed many things and traits about the group.

Now out of all of the things and traits that I have noticed about the Illuminati I've narrowed it down to five distinct things.

So here are five things that I've noticed about the Illuminati:

5. They are the most patient people in the world.

The Illuminati has to be composed of some of the most patient people in the world. I say this because according to people who "investigate" the Illuminati (i.e. people who spend most of their free time watching or creating Youtube videos about the Illuminati, and listening to Alex Jones) have been doing stuff for years in order to get ready to take over the world, as well as kill 80%-90% of the population, and enslave everyone else.

Now as to how long the Illuminati have been plotting to take over the Earth no one (and by "no one" I mean conspiracy theorists) is really sure because no one is really sure how old the Illuminati is. Most conspiracy theorists say they're around two and a half centuries old, although others say they're as old as civilization, or even older, while others say they're only about a century or so old.

Regardless of how old the Illuminati is, the fact that they have been allegedly at this taking over the world thing for a very long time clearly shows that they are composed of the world's most patient individuals... or the world's worst procrastinators.

Now I would think that there would be atleast a few people in the Illuminati who wants to really push forward in taking over the world. I say this because apparently the Illuminati has a huge membership, so I would think that there would be atleast a few ambitious individuals amongst themselves.

Infact when thinking about that huge membership of their's it almost seems like that...

4. Everyone is apart of the Illuminati.

According to conspiracy theorists there are a huge amount people (probably in the tens of millions) who are members, or atleast works for, the Illuminati. This alleged list includes actors, musicians (actually any celebrity really), rich people, politicians, high ranking military officers, anyone in the CIA, or FBI, or NSA, whistleblowers, religious leaders, myself and fellow skeptics, and even other conspiracy theorists. Heck, even Alex Jones whom constantly "speaks out" against the Illuminate has himself been accused of being a member of the Illuminati.

Now taking all of this "information" (a.k.a. accusations) into account by my estimates I believe there are only eight people in the world are not apart of the Illuminati...

I admit I might be a little off on my math there, but still that's an awful lot of people who are apart of this super secret organization (so secret that there is no real proof of it's existence).

Ofcourse when you also consider how many people who are apart of this alleged secret organization it shouldn't also be surprising to know that...

3. They control everything.

According to many conspiracy theorists the Illuminati controls everything from the media, to the military, to the manufacturing industries, the airline industry (because how else are they going to spray chemtrails), the entertainment industry, the UN, the European Union, the Free Masons, the US government, law enforcement, major religions, minor religious, cults, the Democrats, the Republicans, the banks, most other governments, the oil industry, the pharmaceutical industry... the list just keeps going on and on.

I'm not sure what is crazier: the fact that the Illuminati allegedly controls all this and so much more, or the fact that the Illuminati allegedly controls all of this and hasn't even bothered to officially take control of the world and continues to lurk in the shadows while leaving symbols on things that have little to no meaning to most people inorder to show those people that they are incharge despite the fact that most people don't even believe that the Illuminati exists, and with good reason...

2. There's no evidence of their existence.

There is no proof that the Illuminati exists. Despite the amount of people who have been accused of being apart of the Illuminati, and despite the numerous tragic events that the Illuminati are accused of orchestrating, no one has ever brought any proof that they do exist, nor that they were once a member of the Illuminati, nor that they are involved in any events what so ever.

The only thing that conspiracy theorists have that even comes close to being "evidence" (and even that is a stretch) are the numerous "symbols" that the Illuminati allegedly likes to place up on everything. Despite what conspiracy theorists believe these symbols are not evidence of the existence of the Illuminati, and most often times means something else entirely than what a conspiracy theorist (and even non-conspiracy theorists) believes it to mean.

These Illuminati conspiracy theories are just a bunch of blame redirecting by people who believe that all of the world's problems, or their own problems, are being caused by some shadowy group that controls everything. These conspiracy theories are entirely made up... well, maybe not "entirely" made up, because...

1. The Illuminati conspiracy theories sound an awful lot like the old Jewish conspiracy theories.

One of the most common traits that I have noticed amongst the Illuminati conspiracy theories (especially the basic ones) is that they very closely resemble the antisemitic, Jewish conspiracy theories of a few decades ago. Infact if you were to replace the word "Illuminati" with the word "Jewish" or "Jew" it would sound exactly like one of the old Jewish conspiracy theories.

I'm not sure if the people who created these Illuminati conspiracy theories either ripped off the old Jewish conspiracy theories and replaced the words "Jewish" and "Jew" with "Illuminati", or if "Illuminati" is a code word for "Jewish", but the people who created these conspiracy theories sure did get a lot of inspiration from the older Jewish conspiracy theories.

Also it shouldn't be to surprising that many of these Illuminati conspiracy theorists are they themselves antisemitic and often times try to tie in the Jewish people (or to a lesser extent Israel) with the Illuminati.

Anti-Vaccination pics should come with a disclaimer...

This morning while I was going through my Facebook page and looking around at some of the skeptics groups that I belong to I came across this anti-vaccination photo in one of these skeptics groups that was posted there for the sheer means of mocking and criticizing the anti-vaccination movement for their blatant hypocrisy:

Now ofcourse anyone who is either a skeptic or a medical professional can clearly see why this picture is being mocked and criticized, but for those who don't I'll explain why:

It's mocked because of the irony that people in the anti-vaccination movement actually believe that getting "information" off of a website that promotes pseudoscience and alternative medicine rather than a legitimate science and/or medical website or journal apparently makes you well educated, and that those who are in the anti-vaccination movement actually believe that they are well educated about vaccines.

Also, it's criticized because it gives the impression that people who advise against vaccination are themselves well educated, which is often not the truth and that in reality they are actually to dumb to realize that they don't know anything about vaccines other than what they've been told (or scared into) by the anti-vaccination movement. Even those that really are well educated have either just been fooled by the claims of the anti-vaccination movement into believing that vaccines are dangerous, or are just lying about their beliefs for reasons that are their own (usually because they don't want to admit that they are wrong).

If pictures like this were truly honest they would contain a disclaimer at the bottom that says either "all the information about vaccines that we get comes from websites that promote subjects that are considered to be pseudoscience and/or conspiracy theories" or "all information we get about vaccines are from sources that are not considered to be legitimate medical and/or scientific sources" or "it is against professional medical and scientific opinions that a person should not vaccinate their children, as well as may be in violation of the law in some areas" or perhaps even "many scientists consider this picture to be an example of the Dunning-Kruger effect and should be ignored and disregarded".

Regardless of what disclaimer should be placed on an anti-vaccination picture such as this one (or any anti-vaccination picture for that matter) it does show the arrogance within the anti-vaccination movement in that they regard themselves as being intelligent and well educated when it comes to vaccines, when in reality it is often the exact opposite, and that they actually don't know anything about vaccines and simply blindly follow some quack that poses as a doctor or as a medical expert that goes around claiming that vaccines are dangerous and can create all of these health issues in children rather than actually prevent health issues.

Perhaps one more type of disclaimer that should also be included with such a picture should say "all information we have regarding the dangers of vaccines have been discredited by legitimate scientific and medical institutions, or have been shown to be fraudulent."

11 Ways to REALLY destroy the Earth

For years and years everyone from science fiction writers to scientists have been talking about all of these scenarios and what not about how the world will end (be it by our own hands, or a random act of nature).

While I find many of these scenarios interesting, many of them have a common flaw: they don't actually end the Earth, just human civilization, and perhaps the human species.

So, how exactly could the Earth REALLY be destroyed (as in cease to exist)?

Well I've thought about it, and I've come up with about 11 different ways of how it could happen.

So if you don't mind possibly being scared to death, below are those 11 possible scenarios:

Planetary impact

We all know the dangers that a direct impact from either a comet or meteor poses to the Earth as it has been the subject of several movies and books, and is a legitimate threat because it has happened before, and it has wiped out entire species and caused major damage to the Earth throughout our planet's history.

While some people might believe that it would be the end of the world if a large meteor or comet was to hit us today, it wouldn't be. It might be the end of human civilization, maybe even our species, but the world will still exist... unless something really big, or really heavy was to hit us...

Lets say something nearly the size of the Earth, or bigger, was to hit us, or something very heavy like a neutron star. The fact is that there would be no way for the Earth to survive an impact by something close to, or larger, or heavier than the Earth. Our world would be broken apart and probably turned into an asteroid field by such an impact.

High speed impact

The amount of damage a object can do not only depends on how large an object is, but also by how fast said object is going.

A one mile wide meteor hitting the Earth would be devastating. If that one mile wide meteor was to hit the Earth while traveling nearly the speed of light, the amount of kinetic energy released from such an impact would rip the Earth apart, and we wouldn't even know it until it actually happened (assuming we survived long enough) because such an object would most likely be impossible to find, let alone track.

von Neumann machine

A von Neumann machine is a type of robot first conceived of by John von Neumann (hence the name) that can basically self replicate, and could even manufacture materials on it's own inother to do so. It would even be possible for it to seek out the resources it needs to manufacture those materials.

While such a machine would be an extraordinary leap forward in terms of robotics and manufacturing, some people fear that one day one of those robots could go haywire (or someone could build one for the purpose of unregulated self replicating) and continue to self replicate without knowing when to shut off, and ultimately end up destroying the Earth a small part at a time until there is nothing left.

While a larger machine might not actually be able to do this before we stopped it, a small machine like a nano-probe might just be able to do this.

Knocked into the sun

Lets say a very large object (like a star) was to pass through our solar system, what do you think would happen?

The answer is that the Earth would be knocked out of orbit.

After that one of two things would then happen: The Earth would be knocked away from the sun and become a rogue planet (as well as a giant ball of ice), or we would get knocked into the sun and be burnt into nothing.

Super Laser

If you've ever seen Star Wars then you probably know what I'm talking about, if you don't then I'll explain (although I do still recommend seeing Star Wars).

A laser is a device that creates a focused beam of light that can actually be quiet destructive, and depending on how much energy you put into the laser, it's destructive power can range from being harmless (unless you look directly into the beam) to being used to take out a vehicle. Taking this in mind it is theoretically possible to build a laser powerful to destroy the Earth.

Fortunately we don't have to worry about this one right now due to the fact that the total amount of energy produced world wide is no where near enough to power a laser that would be capable of doing so.

A bomb

A bomb is the most powerful weapon that has ever been invented. We have bombs that are so powerful and destructive that they can wipe a large city off the face of the Earth in an instant, and also leave the area surrounding it uninhabitable for years, so it shouldn't be to surprising that a bomb could be used to destroy the Earth.

The only real problem with this would be finding either a material that could produce a explosive force powerful enough to actually destroy the Earth, or enough explosive material to destroy the Earth.

The Earth stops

If the Earth was to suddenly stop rotating on it's axis or revolving around the Sun the results would be catastrophic.

It might not seem like it to some people, but the speed at which the Earth is both rotating on it's axis and going around the Sun is pretty high, and with that speed brings with it a lot kinetic energy. If the Earth was to suddenly stop rotating or revolving around the Sun... well that kinetic energy has to go somewhere.

Suffice to say that the end result would be the Earth ripping itself apart.

Black Hole

A black hole is one of the most destructive forces in the universe. It's gravity is so strong that nothing can escape it, not even light, so if one was to fly by us, or to hit us, or if we accidentally created one that we couldn't control, the planet wouldn't just be ripped apart, it would be sucked in and cease to exist.

The Sun expands into a red giant.

In about 4 to 5 billion years or so the Sun is going to expand into a red giant, beginning it's final stages before it's own death.

While no one is really sure how far out the Sun will expand, it is possible that the Sun will expand enough that it will either expand into the Earth's orbit and incinerate the Earth, or cause the Earth to fall into the Sun.

The Sun goes nova

Even if the Earth does survive the expansion of the Sun, it is very unlikely that the planet would survive the Sun blowing it's outer layers of gas off before it finally became a white dwarf.

The destructive force would be so huge that not only would the Earth not survive, nothing in the solar system would survive.

The Universe ends

Even if by some miracle the Earth managed to survive the end of the Sun, ultimately the Universe itself will end, and so will it the Earth as well.

No one is sure when or really even how the Universe will end, but some day it will end, and if somehow the Earth is still around, it will go along with it.

Is that a FEMA... truck?

Reposted from my other blog site Is that a FEMA Camp?

Recently on a Facebook skeptics group that I belong to someone posted a very "curious" looking photo, along with the commentary by the person whom posted photo the somewhere else on Facebook:

Now the first thing that came to my mind when I saw that photo was, "Wow... that trailer needs a good wash."

All joking aside ofcourse what really came to my mind was that the words on the truck looked like it was put on there via digital photo manipulation (i.e. photoshopped) and even if it wasn't, then so what?

Now my first argument for why it is photoshopped is because of another photo that looks almost exactly like the first one provided to me via Illuminutti.com:

Now clearly the second picture is photoshopped, and to be all honest it's not even that good of a photoshop job either.

Ofcourse just because the second photo has clearly been digitally manipulated, I have to admit that it does not mean that the first photo has been digitally manipulated as well. If you look closely at the bottom words "FEMA DISASTER RELIEF" that while the font style used for the letters are similar to the ones on the top, they are infact different.

If the first photo was photoshopped, the second photoshopped photo was probably done by someone else whom used the closest font style that they could find to the original words... unless the person whom created the original photo forgot the original font style that they used.

Now another reason why I think the photo has been digitally manipulated is because of the trailer itself.

Besides just being in need of a good wash, it is clearly a used trailer due to the fact that there is a company logo right next to "FEMA DISASTER RELIEF", as well as a logo on the truck that is pulling the trailer.

So if this photo was real, what it would tell me isn't that FEMA is planning on "something" evil, it's that they're moving a trailer from one location to another to another, probably for some bureaucratic reasons, or it's being driven around just to make sure that everything is okay with it and the truck that's pulling it (and before you point out that the person claims that it's coming from a FBI building in Virginia I should like to point out that I don't take such claims seriously unless I have more proof that it really did come from a FBI building in Virginia).

Also, if the photo is real then it tells me is that FEMA is pretty underfunded if the only big rigs they can afford to buy are used and can't be washed every so often due to funding...

Now this brings me to another reason why I'm pretty sure the photo was photoshopped, that being that the government does not buy used stuff (with the exception of law enforcement buying used vehicles for undercover purposes). Even if the government did infact buy used vehicles, they would have atleast have given it a new paint job, and have put FEMA's actual logo on it rather than in big red words "FEMA DISASTER RELIEF".

Also, there is one more thing about the photo that has lead me to believe that it is fake, and that being the comment of the person themselves.

The comment made on the photo says that it's heading north after "leaving" the FBI building in Virginia. My question which one?

The obvious answer would ofcourse be Quantico, which is the location of both the FBI Academy and the FBI Laboratory. But thing about all of this (besides the fact that the person making the comment might have been mislead about where the truck is coming from and going to, or is just outright lying) is why would the FBI employ FEMA to do something that it itself could do? More importantly if the FBI was trying to do something secretive then why wouldn't it use either a blank vehicle, or a vehicle that has a name on it other than the name of another government agency on it in such clear, bold letters?

All the evidence put together has lead me to concluded that the photo is fake, and that either it was created for the purpose of fooling conspiracy theorists and having a good laugh at their gullibility, or by a conspiracy theorist whom wished to make his or her claims about police state conspiracy theories seem more legit.

5 Thing's I've noticed about... 12/21/2012

It's been almost a year since 12/21/2012, the day that the world was suppose to end... or change (depends on who you asked).

Now there was a lot that didn't happen that day that was suppose to, and there were certain things that day that did happen, just not what some people were expecting.

I've looked back upon what did happen that day, and I've come up with the five different things that I've noticed about that day and the whole doomsday prediction itself.

So here are five things I've noticed about 12/21/2012:

5. Nothing really important happen that day.

Well... not necessarily nothing per say, but in terms of the world shattering event that was suppose to occur (at least according to some people who mistook the ending of the Mayan calendar as being a Mayan prophecy foretelling the end of the world) nothing happened that day that was even worth bothering to remember.

The only thing that I really remember from that day is that me and several fellow skeptics laughed at all of those people who seriously thought the world was going to end that day, and the History Channel showing a bunch of programs about doomsday (because that is what the History Channel does).

Basically that's all that happened that day. Skeptics had a good laugh, the History Channel showed a bunch of BS (well a little bit more BS than usual) and that's it... well, that and fact that...

4. Millions of Doomers realized how stupid they were.

The amount of people who thought the world was going to end that day (or atleast something big was going to happen that day) was probably in the millions, most of which I'm pretty sure were relived that nothing happen (although I'm sure a few were disappointed, especially those who thought it would bring about some kind of human "transformation").

I say again that while I am pretty sure that most people who believed that the world would end that day were relived that it didn't happen, I'm also pretty sure that a lot of those people felt stupid for trusting some non-prophesy that a few people who were allegedly smarter than them completely mis-interpreted and got it into the public mindset in such a way that it ended up taking off like wildfire...

Ofcourse what probably made a lot of people feel stupid for believing in the 12/21/2012 end of the world prediction is the realization that...

3. It's not the first time a major doomsday prediction has fail.

The 12/21/2012 was not the first major doomsday prediction to fail, nor was it the first major one to create a kind of mass hysteria that caused people to waste their time and money on to prepare for, as well as possibly ruin relationships with the people in their lives. The 12/21/2012 prediction wasn't even the first major doomsday prediction of the century that failed. Infact it was the third major doomsday prediction of the 21st century that failed (the first one was the Y2K prediction, and the second one was Harold Camping's Rapture prediction of 2011).

Now I went to the Wikipedia page listing doomsday predictions (and these are just some of the more famous ones) and there were huge amount of them, and obviously they've all failed to come true. Infact I actually counted the number of doomsday predictions between the time I was born and the 12/21/2012 prediction, and according to the list the world should have ended atleast 47 times since my birth...

Now in my opinion the whole 12/21/2012 should never have been taken seriously in the first place. This is not only due to the sheer fact that doomsday predictions always fail, it's also due to the fact that...

2. It was pretty vague.

The people who believed in the 12/21/2012 prediction all agreed that "something" major was going to happen that day. It's just what that something was is where people who believed in that prediction disagreed with one another.

According to all of those who believed in the 12/21/2012 prediction that what was going to happen that day ranged from that we were suppose to enter a higher stage of consciousness, to that the world was suppose to be reduced to asteroids... and everything else you can possibly think of.

The main reason why so many people were claiming so many different things was that the Mayans themselves never said what was suppose to happen that day. Ofcourse the Mayans never actually said that anything was suppose to happen that day really.

The fact that nothing happened that day, combined with the vagueness of the "prediction" should have ended all of this doomsday stuff on 12/21/2012, but unfortunately...

1. The 12/21/2012 doomsday predictions didn't end on 12/21/2012.

While most people who believed that something was going to happen on 12/21/2012 have accepted the fact that this prediction was BS and that the world was never going to end, some people haven't.

There are actually a few people out there on Youtube and blogging sites who are claiming that the 12/21/2012 doomsday prediction was actually just the beginning of a process that was going to end several months later either with our transformation into higher beings, or destruction (depends on the person who is making the claims).

It shouldn't surprise anyone however that none of predictions came true either. Infact really the only thing about doomsday predictions that can be predicted is that they will fail.