What Rug Thinks

What is a good reason for going to war? Does war solve problems? When one country takes over another but most of the people die, is it still a victory? Why do we still embrace this barbaric practice? Is there a better way? There are terabytes worth of data out there from philosophers about how great war is and how much war sucks. However, I have not looked at any of it. None of it is relevant to the wars of today. Since I live in today’s world this is where I focus. First of all, let me say I support our troops. I might not agree with what they are told to do, but anyone willing to put their life on the line to protect my country has my respect and support. That does bring up a good question though. What is a good reason to send people to kill and be killed? I don’t think there is one, at least not anymore. We live in a world today were we could send a missile half way across the world and hit a target the size of a quarter. Why are we killing armies of innocent people ju...

What is the meaning of life? There are all kinds of answers to this question depending on who you ask. Some people can narrow it down to one thing family, friends, love, or money. Personally, I think they are all wrong. Family is one of the most important things for me but it’s not top of the list. Friends, come and go so they can’t really be that important. Love, while ranking high not quite there. The meaning of life is knowledge the way I see it. In very basic terms we are born, learn, pass on what we learned, and we die. All the while not realizing what we were really doing. Maybe not even realizing what has happened to them. You go through your life leaning from everything and everyone around you. You pick and choose what you learn, how you learn it, and who makes the most sense to you. Everyone figures out that if you fall it hurts. I’m sure most people have fallen and have learned this lesson. When you get older, you tell your kids to be careful. Hoping they wi...

I'm sorry everyone. Looks like I'm a day late and a dollar short. Today's topic is one that has become rather dear to my heart lately. Irrational, illogical, dumbass people and what we can do about them. We all know someone that fits this bill, but just so there is no confusion I would like to explain who these kind of people are. An irrational person leaps to conclusions with little or no supporting evidence for this conclusion. While, an illogical person will stick with their irrational conclusion even when faced with clear evidence they are wrong. Someone that is both irrational and illogical is a dumbass. Dumbasses are unable to truly think for themselves and will preach their conclusions as fact. They seem to feel a need to let everyone know they alone hold the "truth". Yet, this "truth" is a conclusion based on little to no evidence in support while there is evidence against. I don't care what anyone believes. If someone wants to hold irrat...

When I tell people I'm an Open Source enthusiast I get the same basic questions every time. This past week I went through this with someone and thought, hey that would be a good blog post. Since, I have already done one post on Linux and Android . The following is nothing more then the questions I always get and my answers to them. What is Open Source? Anyone that is from the US or familiar with our laws should be able to understand this by equating Open Source with the 1st Amendment. Let me clarify. The First Amendment is what gives US citizens freedom of speech. Open Source software is freedom to use and modify with no charge or penalties. Without infringing on patents or any other intellectual property rights. Let me use Linux as an example. Linus Torvalds wanted a version of UNIX for his home computer. Since he didn't have the money at the time he made his own using none of the original code in UNIX. Shared it free of charge to some people on the Internet basically with...

There has been a lot of debate, objections, and misconceptions of global warming also known as climate change. There seems to be a political divide on the issue as well. I don't claim to understand what the debate is really about. I don't even claim I understand everything that could happen. Though I do have some simple observations that makes the out come disturb me. Before anyone gets all bent out of shape. If you want to believe climate change is not happening and the Earth is not getting warmer. I suggest you stop reading now so you can stay in your world of makebelieve. I'll provide a few links to information I have found and even toss in a few anecdotal observations. Yes, I know anecdotal evidence doesn't mean anything to science. I don't claim it as such. It's simply what I have seen change with in my lifetime. From the data I've seen it's rather clear the Earth is warming up. Nasa has a few pages on their website  about it. They also have an ...

I grew up very poor. There were times when we had to choose between electricity and food, of course we chose food every time. Sometimes there wasn't even enough for the choice. I've worked some very low end jobs back in the day. Most of them were normal jobs you would think that someone with no education would get or someone still in school. Jobs like fast food, dinners, grocery stores, car washes, lawn care, farm work, and even had a paper route when I was very young. Since then I've gotten a Bachelors degree and a real career. I've worked from the bottom up and everywhere in between. I tell you this so you can see I'm not just some over paid jerk trying to make life hard for people that don't make a lot of money. I can remember back when minimum wage was $3 and some odd change per hour. Since then, where I live, it's almost $9. I have seen gas go from $1 something to about $4 per gallon on average. The price of everything has went up accordingly as well....

One of my favorite things in the world is open source software. That's why I use an open source desktop called Linux. All of you purist out there, calm down. I know Linux is just the kernel, but lets face it. Most people see the whole desktop environment as Linux so get over it. Here is one of the most common questions I get asked about Linux when people find out I use it. "Is Linux ready for the desktop for the average user?" The answer is a resounding YES! I have been using this Android phone for some time and I gotta say. I love it! With all the apps out there for it there is no limit to what you can do with it. It's user friendly interface and multi-touch capabilities it's seems it's the perfect blend for geeks like me and the average user. What most people may not realize it Android is using a special version of the Linux kernel. The same kernel that is running my computer and many other desktops out there. Most of the websites you go to, like anything ...

I frequent a few science news websites. I love to learn new things and keep up on the new finding of the day. My main interest is space and the next frontier but I often read at the new studies for global warming and many other things. Many of the commenter's seem to think science is a religion. I figured for my first post I might as well cover this topic. I have seen recently an increase in people commenting on science articles that are doing nothing but trying to spread their beliefs. Such as the Electric Universe  theory, Intelligent Design , and even the  Aether Theory . I link to these so you can do your own research. I have done such research and have found them to be pseudoscience . However, you can make up your own mind. All of the supports of these theories I have came across seem to think science is more of a religion then real science. They all claim there is some kind of conspiracy preventing these theories from reaching mainstream. The funny thing is the wa...