Apathy Sketchpad

Here’s a few quick things too big for Google Reader; too small for their own blog posts. (Not really sure why they’re too small; I’ve done two-line posts before now, but it’s my blog and I’ll do what I like.)

Fist, this fantastically silly story from the Telegraph:

Satanist father and Christian mother fight for Sunday morning custody rights

Kristie Meyer has cited the religious beliefs of her former husband, Jamie, as the main reason why an Indiana judge should restrict his visitation rights. … However, legal experts have warned that the American Constitution prevents judges from showing a religious preference. …Mr Meyer may now be asked to prove that Satanism, which he says is about celebrating man’s desires rather than worshipping the devil, is a real faith.

Sounds to me like an eminently sensible faith, compared at least to Christianity.

Meanwhile, legal observers say his former wife may have to show that Satanism - which is recognised as a religion by the US Internal Revenue Service - is harmful to their daughters’ upbringing. Mrs Meyer has argued that her ex-husband’s public expression of satanic beliefs has embarrassed their children.

Can you really legislate on the basis that parents mustn’t embarrass their children?

Pat Roberts, her lawyer, has asked the judge to order Mr Meyer to drop off the children at his ex-wife’s church so they can attend with her during his visitation time. “Frankly, (it) can be emotionally damaging or confusing to children when they’re faced with these two different forms of worship,” Mr Roberts told the Chicago Tribune.

Yes, if you go around exposing children to alternative viewpoints, the indoctrination might not work. Honestly, I can’t see any other way of reading this.

… “Allowing them to go to church for a couple of hours on a Sunday morning is… not unreasonable.”

I think it is, but probably for a different reason. I hope that reason prevails in this case, and honestly I think it will.

Also, in case you missed it, here’s a comic I drew at Ghost Hamster.

Now, below the fold, some replies I sent to 419-scammers which the scammers did not respond to.

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My diary at work is, perhaps predictably, full of little doodles and cartoons. Here are four in no particular order from the first quarter of this year. They’re my favourite four that I think people outside my office will understand. Well, some people outside my office.

I can’t help shake the feeling this would make a great T-shirt. (Or at least my hi-res version would.)

I looked up the lyrics on a website just to be sure. And it had Google ads, which offered to sell me almost all the items I’d lost. How lovely, in a misguided kind of a way.

A while ago I was bullied into joining Facebook. And I’m glad I did, because it’s fantastic.

Facebook, for those who aren’t members, is a “social networking” site. You make a page for yourself, then you add friends to your list. In that sense, it’s just like MySpace, but the difference is that MySpace is shit and Facebook is fantastic. MySpace gives you a little page to write on and a way to send messages, and a contact list, and that really is it. That’s just called “the Internet”. Google give me all that, with nicer layouts, and don’t try to play Slipknot at me every time I visit a page.

Facebook is more for Real Life Friends. If you tell Facebook you’ve got a new girlfriend then it’ll tell all your friends for you. And you can put your address and phone number on it and be sure only your friends can see them. It’s very useful, and it’s been great for my social life because I get invited to more things through Facebook. Mostly I think this is because it gives you a list of all your friends when you make an event and lets you choose who to invite. My last party I invited people I’d never have thought (or been able) to invite without it, and consequently had a fantastic time.

Some people say Facebook is a privacy concern. Some people are idiots. They’re mostly the same people who say Google are a privacy concern. (Not really sure why I’m hyperlinking Google, but it seems polite since I did MySpace and I hate them.)

I can see why people might be concerned about Google. They have all my emails, via Google Mail. Doubtless these contain my address, bank details and so forth somewhere. (They know my bank details anyway because I use AdWords, but let’s pretend I don’t.) They also know what things I’ve been searching for, my favourite websites (via Google Reader), my web history (if not by Google Web History then by AdWords tracking cookies), and so forth. And that concerns people.

I’ve never understood the problem with tracking cookies. They don’t know who you are; they just know that this particular computer has visited website A and website B, and if that lets them know that the person sat in front of it is more likely to want product A than product X then that’s good, surely? It means I’m more likely to see adverts for things I want, which is good for me as it lets me know about awesome things I might want to buy, and it’s good for the advertisers as it means they get more clicks, and it’s good for me as it means I have to see fewer adverts to keep my favourite sites in profit. Everyone wins, and nobody has any significant privacy concerns.

And sure, Google index all my emails, but all email providers do that. And sure, a computer scans them for advert-inspiring words, but it’s a computer. It can’t read; it just executes its little programme. The only valid concerns with any of Google’s services are what happens if they get hacked, and that they have the capability, just like all search engines, browser plugins, ISPs and email providers, to monitor your Internet use. But really, don’t you think they have better things to do than spy on strangers?

Much the same is true of Facebook. People say it’s creepy having all that information about yourself on the Internet, but it’s not really “on the Internet”, is it? It’s on one server, which nobody can access without your express permission. And Facebook only knows what you tell it, and only shares what you let it. If you know what you’re doing with Facebook then it’s of no concern, and if you don’t know what you’re doing with something, learn before you use it.