Some Ichthyosaurs with a Human to Scale

More images of prehistoric animals with a human to scale I made for Wikipedia. These three are ichthyosaurs. Click the pictures for more information on the animals they represent.

Plesiosaurs with a Human to Scale

I’ve made a bunch of images depicting prehistoric animals and their size compared to a modern human for Wikipedia. Although I intended on posting them here, I was never blessed with the opportunity.

Actually, I just completely forgot to. Funny how the human mind works sometimes, eh? Well, I created three more “to scale” images today, and since I had the good sense enough to think of it, I decided to post them. I’ll get around to posting the old ones once I find them, I promise.

Click the picture for more information on the plesiosaur depicted.

AIG and ICR

Answers in Genesis
A site full to the brim with Young Earth propaganda and scientific blunders. Check your brain on the way in. That being said, AiG is of pretty good “quality” compared to most creationist websites. It really “sets the bar.” There’s too much content to sum up in a paragraph

Institute for Creation Research
Would an AIG by any other name smell as rank? Yes, the Institute for Creation Research is proof that it would. ICR has the same basic premise as AIG, large amounts of YEC content with a fancy layout to give it a thin veneer of professionalism. Nothing worthwhile to be found, though.

Wikicritic Logic

First the critics said…
“Wikipedia’s stupid ‘anyone can edit’ anti-elitism leaves it vulnerable to swarms of idiots and vandals. So why the hell would I want to contribute when anything I write will be replaced with jibberish or garbage?”

Then Wikipedia institutes the semi-protection feature to protect a small number vandalism-prone articles by limiting contributions to registered members that have been on the site more than four days, a tiny fraction of the site’s editors.

Then the critics said…
“By excluding the contributions from a small fraction of contributors from a miniscule percentage of articles Wikipedia has abandoned its democratic ideals! It’s no longer the encyclopedia anyone can edit! It’s practically a fascist regime!!!”

I guess the lesson we can take away from this is that the wikicritics wanna bitch and no amount of actually complying with their wishes is going to stop them.

Slacktivist’s Left Behind Commentary

Slacktivist has written an insightful critical commentary on the first book of the popular apocalyptic “Left Behind” series written by far-right looney Tim Lahaye and Christian author Jerry B. Jenkins.

He really dissects the theological, ethical and literary flaws that seem to just drip from the page. I’ve read everything that’s been written so far, and I loved it. I give this my fullest recommendation. You are hereby very strongly urged to check it out. Even the discussions in the comments on the posts are fascinating. Read this now.

RPG Maker Wiki

RMwiki was my attempt to start a comprehensive storehouse of information relating to the RPG Maker series of games, along with the community that built itself around them. Sadly I was mostly unable to arouse much interest in it from fellow RMers, even though some had voiced enthusiastic support for the project.

Very few people were willing to contribute info and most additions were mere advertisements. What made this even more frustrating was that people didn’t even seem to want to do a good job on their own ads! Basically, I was stuck with only a few, low quality additions. The site went stagnant very quickly.

Several other attempts at creating RPG Maker wikis have been undertaken by various other websites and individuals after mine began, but none were very successful. I think it was this division into competing wikis that ensured that none of them would end up very succesful.

Each group would wear themselves out starting the basic framework on their wiki after its foundation. The basics of RPG Maker and its community was represented by nearly identical content across sites. Now if all these disparate groups would have built off of eachothers’ work, one of these wikis could have been successful in making progress towards a substantial information source.

But every individual wanted the glory. I started one, then some RPG Maker site started their own, then another and another. No one wanted to contribute to making a Wiki succesful, they wanted people to contribute to theirs to make them succesful in the eyes of the community.

It was mere ambition, with no spirit of cooperation. In that respect the fall of RMwiki is representative of the dying RPG Maker community as a whole. RMers have ambition, but no spirit of cooperation. People are stingy with their resources so that they get the glory, they never end up releasing games because they’re so desperate for approval that they spend more time revamping, changing and redoing than they do making progress.

And without more games and resources, how can the community thrive?

Anyway, I apologize for rambling. Please check out the wiki, there is some content there, despite how I’ve been sounding, and feel free to make some contributions, they’d be really appreciated.

Creation on the Web

Creation on the Web is the online home of Creation Ministries International and something of a sister site to AiG. Originally the two creationist giants were one organization, but eventually split ways. Part of the reason being to avoid peer review, even from fellow creationists. That’s really sad, but not a big surprise.

Don’t expect much in the way of quality content, it’s at the same level of vapidity as AiG itself. I get a chuckle every time I click a link with a “(Technical)” warning and find middle-school level content when the page loads.

I find that quite telling about their readership’s level of scientific competence. I should see this as more sad than humorous, creationists are victims of groups like CMI more than anything, but it’s still kinda funny anyway. If you’re scientifically illiterate while having internet access it’s your own damn fault, so while I kinda feel bad for those deceived by the creationis enterprise, I don’t really have a lot of pity for them.

Also, check out their affiliates for a bit of hilarity. One of them, “Alien Intrusion” is owned by one of CMI’s major contributors, a looney out to convince the world that UFOs and aliens are actually demons. The demons, apparently, have conspired in a heinous plot to, get this, convince people that aliens are real! How insidious!

Apparently they got tired of inducing mental illness and drowning pigs. Demonic possession is so first century. The latest craze sweeping the infernal hoardes is… harmless aerial antics! That’ll make those wretched redeemable humans abandon Christ! Mwahahaha!

As sweet as that sounds, the site’s not that great despite the definitely hilarious premise. The whole get-up is basically a glorified ad for the dude’s book, which is almost certainly stupid in and of itself. Best perhaps to laugh at a distance.

Fundies Say the Darndest Things

Fundies Say the Darnedest Things

A website that collects user submitted quotes from religious whackjobs, mostly fundamentalist Christians. Many of these quotes show a level of ignorance and/or hatred beyond my comprehension.

Some of them, however, are fairly tame statements of Christian belief and/or political conservativism. Which make it obvious it’s obvious that most of the contributors are bitter atheist liberals. Still, it’s quote collection is good for a laugh or two if you’re bored.

I’d reccommend avoiding it if you’re afraid of the movement to turn this country into a militant right-wing Christian theocracy, though. Sometimes hiding from the truth makes life more bearable.

Also, I’d avoid the forums as well, unless you’re a foaming-at-the-mouth militant atheist. I tried to be an active poster there for a while, but some of the members are so vitriolically anti-religious that it was hard for even a rather liberal Christian like myself to do something so simple as have a conversation with these people.

The sane members get lost amongst the din of the whackjobs, IMHO. I had joined FSTDT to get away from fundies, not to swap one flavor for another. Still, the site itself is worth checking out.

Perspectives on Theistic Evolution

Perspectives on Theistic Evolution. This is another website about theistic evolution. I haven’t read very far into it, although it looks like there isn’t a whole lot of content there.

That’s too bad, the theistic evolutionist perspective is sadly underrepresented in discussions on origins. Oh well, here’s to hoping it gains some ground in the future.

Theistic Evolution - One Christian’s Perspective

Theistic Evolution - One Christian’s Perspective. A personal website by a guy named Carl Drews who adheres to theistic evolutionism. I’ll warn you in advance that he’s not an inerrantist, though.

Not a whole lot of content, but what’s there is good. His essay on what constitutes a biblical kind is an interesting Christian take on the stupidity that is baraminology.

Tom Tomorrow Archive

Tom Tomorrow Archive, a storehouse of hilarious comics penned by the finest liberal cartoonist around. It’s moved since the last time I’ve been there, and I haven’t taken the time to see if any content has been lost, but regardless, it’s worth a look.

Online KJV

KJV and Apocrypha. An online KJV and the Apocrypha that were originally included with it. It’s searchable and everything! Useful for anyone with any sort of interest in Christianity. Hosted by the University of Virginia.

Arin i Asolde- Limyaael’s Fantasy Rants

Arin i Asolde is the home of Limyaael’s Fantasy Rants, wherein Limyaael rants about her fantasy novel pet peeves and gives suggestions to would-be authors. This site should be of interest to anyone that writes or uses RPG Maker regardless of their preferred genre.

Needless to say, though, fantasy writers will get the most out of it. In addition to ranting, she also reviews plenty of fantasy novels. There may be spoilers too, but since I don’t really read any fantasy books, that doesn’t bother me. Check her out.

See also:

An archive of old rants.
Limyaael’s old Live Journal.
Limyaael’s Fanfiction.net page.
Limyaael’s Fictionpress.com page.

Deletionist Wikipedians

They are douchebags.

Something Crucial I Forgot

Something crucial I forgot: People on the internet can be assholes.