Matharu's Rants and Raves

Google returns to its evil ways

Kulvinder Matharu — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 19:41:57 +0000

Just when I thought that those annoying Google popups telling me to install Google Chrome had gone way, those evil things made their return yesterday to IE7, IE9, Firefox 9 and 10, and Safari. Strangely that damn popup did not appear in Opera.

What does it take to destroy that annoying Google popup? Clearly Google are in-you-face about getting you to switch to their browser. Seems to be an abuse of their dominate position.

Dye Google Chrome popup, die!

Article by Kulvinder Singh Matharu – 2012

LSE and UCL – mistaken, misguided and mismanaged

Kulvinder Matharu — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 20:14:54 +0000

I’ve been watching with increasing bewilderment and concern over the reaction of two London universities (London School of Economics and University College London) to the “Jesus and Mo” pictures. Coyne of “Why Evolution Is True” has a couple of posts on this today:

Pharyngula also has a piece on the LSE:

For shame, London School of Economics
http://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2012/01/24/for-shame-london-school-of-economics/

To this eclectic mix I would add the brilliant piece by Eric MacDonald:

Religions are totalitarian. If we cannot criticise religion, we cannot be free.
http://choiceindying.com/2012/01/25/religions-are-totalitarian-if-we-cannot-criticise-religion-we-cannot-be-free/

It’s clear that the LSE and UCL have made a mistake. Religion is NOT protected from criticism and does NOT deserve any special privileges. Those who call themselves “devout” need not fear criticism as they’ve already closed their minds and can continue to live in the happiness of their delusions. Certainly the “devout” have no legitimate mechanism to feel “hurt” or “offended”, and any claims for such feelings are mock by definition.

Equating criticism of religion to racism as these universities are doing is mistaken and beyond rationality. In the short time that I’ve looked at bogus degrees at British universities it has become evident that universities are more interested in generating revenue than in instilling knowledge. By capitulating to the religious, by appeasement to the irrational, these two universities have shown that they will do anything to acquire as much money as possible by stamping on rationality, by censuring and silencing the minority.

LSE, UCL, shame on you.

Article by Kulvinder Singh Matharu – 2012

Steven Novella on Traditional Chinese Medicine

Kulvinder Matharu — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 20:14:36 +0000

Great article by Steven Novella on the weaknesses and misunderstandings of “Traditional Chinese Medicine”:

What Is Traditional Chinese Medicine?
http://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/index.php/what-is-traditional-chinese-medicine/

Article by Kulvinder Singh Matharu – 2012

The increase in junk programmes

Kulvinder Matharu — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 20:14:19 +0000

Donald Prothero has got this spot on regarding the increase in junk programmes on supposedly science/factual TV channels.

Science TV “network decay”
http://www.skepticblog.org/2012/01/25/science-tv-sell-out/

Subjectively I did notice this trend but wondered if I was misperceiving. I gave up on the History Channel years ago (I don’t even know if the word “History” has any meaning to them), but recently I felt pain with junk appearing on the Discovery Channel and the National geographic Channel. Prothero does a stand up job in putting some objective data around this.

Article by Kulvinder Singh Matharu – 2012

Burzynski and Yes to Life charity in trouble

Kulvinder Matharu — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 20:13:39 +0000

All this recent exposure of the controversy surrounding the Burzynski Clinic has exposed the Yes to Life charity to scrutiny and, especially, the charity’s funding from benefit concerts.

As always, Quackometer has a blog on this:

Burzynski Supporting Charity Loses Funding
http://www.quackometer.net/blog/2012/01/burzynski-supporting-charity-loses-funding.html

Article by Kulvinder Singh Matharu – 2012

The Ten Commandments- the basis of our laws and morals

Kulvinder Matharu — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 19:56:20 +0000

Another great video from NonStampCollector:

Article by Kulvinder Singh Matharu – 2012

Google now less annoying and less abusive; kind off

Kulvinder Matharu — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 12:46:00 +0000

Further to what I think of as Google abusing its dominant position in constantly targeting Microsoft’s Internet Explorer browsers and asking the user to switch to Google’s Chrome browser, there appears to be a change now. My previous rants on this:

Well, today I noticed that the annoying “Install Google Chrome” popup message appeared in Firefox 9 for the first time:

This popup also appeared in Microsoft’s Internet Explorer 9 (as expected) and also in Apple’s Safari 5 but, strangely, not in Opera 11. I was able to close these Google popups in each of the affected browsers without the popups returning when I revisited Google’s search homepage. I have not checked any other browsers yet.

So, let’s just hope that those annoying Google popups don’t come back again. Although I’m not sure how Mozilla and Apple feel that Google are trying to be a bit more aggressive in trying to wean users onto Google Chrome!

Article by Kulvinder Singh Matharu – 2012

The evils of religion

Kulvinder Matharu — Sat, 21 Jan 2012 08:15:38 +0000

Here’s a typical example of the violent and evil behaviours of the religious:

Why Is an Atheist High School Student Getting Vicious Death Threats?
http://www.alternet.org/belief/153803/why_is_an_atheist_high_school_student_getting_vicious_death_threats/?page=entire

It’s quite simple. The religious are not at all comfortable in their delusions and instinctively lash out at those that expose the irrationality and fragility of the religious mind. So much for turning the other cheek!

Jessica Ahlquist has been exemplary in protecting her rights in the face of the vicious onslaught launched by the religious:

Article by Kulvinder Singh Matharu – 2012

Burzynski in Court for negligence, negligent misrepresentation, fraud, deceptive trade and conspiracy

Kulvinder Matharu — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 16:39:37 +0000

Need to keep an eye on this, Burzynski is being sued by en elderly patient:

Burzynski in Court: Patient treated like a ‘Cash Machine’
http://www.quackometer.net/blog/2012/01/burzynski-in-court-patient-treated-like-a-cash-machine.html

Article by Kulvinder Singh Matharu – 2012

Adobe’s revised new upgrade policy for Photoshop

Kulvinder Matharu — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 18:43:11 +0000

I had previously expressed my disappointment of Adobe’s Photoshop upgrade policy announced late last year; it now seems that Adobe have reconsidered that policy following extensive criticism. Further details here:

Adobe has change of heart for CS6 upgrade pricing
http://news.cnet.com/8301-30685_3-57357753-264/adobe-has-change-of-heart-for-cs6-upgrade-pricing/

I guess we need to find out a little bit more on the features and pricing options for Photoshop CS6. I haven’t quite yet decided on the suitability of the subscription model.

Article by Kulvinder Singh Matharu – 2012