Tonight is Earth Hour

Tonight is Earth Hour, and over a billion people are going to dim their lights tonight. From 8:30 to 9:30 p.m., people are encouraged to turn off all non-essential lights to highlight the threat of climate change. However, here in the middle of Kansas, the climate has already change and an ice storm has knocked out the power to much of the area. We still have lights on here, but an ex-coworker of mine said she isn't going to get her power back on for maybe 3 days. I think I'll keep my lights on out of respect to all those with power. It's only the right thing to do.

— Justin

Making fun of religion is now a crime

According to a Reuters article, the United Nations passed a resolution Thursday condemning "defamation of religion." The resolution was introduced by Pakistan, and is supposed to protect religious minorities from intolerance and discrimination, specifically the Muslim community. I really don't think the resolution is going to affect us much here in the U.S., however, in the Muslim world and possibly Europe, this is a bad thing to any one who speaks out against religion. This could be used a justification for curtailing people's free speech all around the world. Canada's representative to the UN said this:

"It is individuals who have rights, not religions. Canada believes that to extend (the notion of) defamation beyond its proper scope would jeopardize the fundamental right to freedom of expression, which includes freedom of expression on religious subjects."

It's scary to think that I could go to jail for calling a religion retarded.

— Justin

An Annoying in Connecticut

A haunted house in Connecticut is becoming a nightmare for it's owners, and not because of the ghosts. The home, a formal funeral parlor, is the subject of the upcoming movie, "A Haunting in Connecticut" and has curious fans, ghost hunters and other morons coming to look.

The movie is loosely based on events that happened to the Snedeker family in the 1980's, and when I say "loosely based on," what I really mean is totally made up. The Snedekers claimed their son would hear strange noises, see shadows on the wall of people who were not there. A niece visiting the home said she felt hands on her body as she tried to sleep, and her covers levitated. Ed and Lorraine Warren, the paranormal researchers of Amityville Horror fame, visited the home and witnessed the evil presence. Of course, I don't think the Warrens ever visited a house that they weren't convinced wasn't haunted.

Anyway, fans of the movie which they haven't seen yet and people who believe in ghost stories have been visiting the house at all hours, scaring the children of the current residents, and basically being general dickholes. The local police have even had to add extra patrols around the home.

I swear, some people are retarded. Some "haunted houses," such as the Winchester House are worth visiting just for the historical value of the thing. Other homes are worth visiting if you are huge fans of the movie or series in which it was featured. The Brady Bunch home, anyone? But this house has neither. It isn't and never has been haunted. The movie looks pretty crappy and it isn't even out yet. The only reason I can think of that people might want to visit it, is that it seems like it is one of the few homes that hasn't been foreclosed one.

Leave those poor people alone.

— Justin

Here we go again.

Today, right now in fact, the Texas Board of Education is pretty much deciding if creationism will be in the science class room for the next couple of years. If Texas decides to allow certain phrases in textbooks or not pretty much seals the deal for the rest of the U.S. due to is high percentage of book sales.

I think the last time we went round and round about this topic it was in Kansas, and Scott still resided in Kansas at the time. Now Scott lives in Texas and the issue is back again ... Is there a link between Scott's presence and agitated creationists?!

— Tony

Space Station Colbert

The votes are in. And the winner is...Colbert.

NASA's online contest to name the next module for the International Space Station ended Friday with almost 1.2 million votes cast. And Stephen Colbert won. And by a lot. Personally, I think that is funny as hell. You would think that in this day and age, with a bridge in Hungary, a sports team's mascot and an eagle named after Colbert, people would stop allowing write-ins on their naming contests. Stephen will just hijack your contest and get it named after him. You know he will.

Anyway, if NASA allows it, it looks like the internet fanboys have won . If they don't, the internet fanboys still win because the second place winner is Serenity (which of course is the name of the space ship in the cult classic Firefly series and movie).

I really doubt NASA is going to name Node 3, "Colbert," but if they do, whenever I see that bright point of light streaking across the night sky, I won't be able to help but think of this...

— Justin

The entire "Cosmos" Series

I was pleased to locate the complete 13 hours of Carl Sagan's Cosmos series on Hulu. Sagan teaches us about intelligent life, space travel, and urges viewers to contemplate existence. Created and filmed in 1980, the science presented is still informative and contemporary.

— Tony

Rebranding the SciFi Channel

According to a press release from the SciFi Channel, they intend to reinvent themselves into the Syfy Channel. Heh. Siffy Channel.

Please take the time read the fan-boy comments at the bottom and also the ones to the response article for all the fan-boy comments!

Justin and Scott are devoted Battlestar Galactica watchers, and I have never missed an episode of Eureka, but other than those two shows ... seems little left to offer. The SciFi Channel is just playing Star Trek TNG reruns between episodes of Ghost Hunters, add a dash of horrible, in house movies and then sprinkle in a good show for 1 hour of the week.

Speaking of shitty TV channels ... remember when G4 was Tech TV and it didn't suck?

— Tony

Beer Correction

Before we get any emails, I want to point out a mistake that was made. I referred to the 90 Shilling as an English beer, and I was totally wrong. First it is brewed by the Odell Brewing Company in Fort Collins, Colorado. Secondly, it is their version of traditional Scottish ale. My bad.

— Justin

And I said "post-humorously," but what can I say I was a wee bit drunk. I meant to say posthumously meaning after death.

— Tony

Beer Bullshit + Brains Episode #03

Beer and drinking beer seems to be the prevailing topic of the episode but we did get time to argue about vampires!

Episode #03 Show Notes

This episode we discussed beer, beer and more beer, climate change with economic shifts, and vampires!

Here are the links to stories discussed in this week's episode.

Beer Benefits

Italy dig unearths female 'vampire' in Venice

Is the Financial Crisis Saving the Planet?

The Artwork of Brady Scott

Dinosaur Comics, Zombies vs. Vampires

As a footnote to the "Bullshit Question of the Week," I have been doing some research on vampire regeneration. In the classical Nosferatu, Vlad the Impaler & Bram Stoker Dracula stories I could find no mention of regeneration.

Yet in more contemporary stories of vampires, the supernatural powers of these undead keep growing and expanding further in to the realm of super anti-heroism, without any limits. These increased powers also have a relation to age, the older the vampire, the more super powers they seem to acquire.

One prime example if from the Japanese animation series "Hellsing" which tells the tale of Alucard, a ridiculously over powered vampire, that oddly enough works with humans to kill other vampires. Alucard does have the power of unlimited regeneration, which makes him pretty much impossible to kill. At least Superman had Kryptonite.

Justin has a point as do I, but since we did not define the terms of classic vampire mythology or contemporary comic book and manga undead, I will admit defeat.

Comments?

We were hoping to get some listener feedback about a first few casts. No comments posted so far. Lets us know if we suck or what you would like to hear us talk about!

Add a comment below or drop us an e-mail at beerbullbrains@gmail.com