• Atheists and Catholics Unite in Denunciation of Gutless Movie
  More discussion of the Golden Compass movie.
• One Week Job
  Sean is working a different job each week for a whole year.

This was one of the more interesting questions from the Republican debate last night. The question was whether or not the candidates believe the literal truth of every word of the Bible.

Another high point was John McCain dismantling Mitt Romney over the torture “issue”. Look at him grinding his teeth! He looks like he wants to waterboard ol’ Mitt right up there on stage.

The question about gay people serving in the military was also worth watching, if only because the responses are shockingly honest. Duncan Hunter’s response, in particular, could be summed up as “The military is mostly conservative Christians, therefore people who conservative Christians might disagree with should be banned from serving.” I imagine if Duncan Hunter was born a few decades earlier he would have been making the same argument about minorities serving in the military. “How could all these honorable white soldiers be expected to serve in the same unit as black soldiers,” he might say, “that would be bad for unit cohesion!”

If we are to extend Mr. Hunter’s logic, we should enact a don’t ask don’t tell policy for anything to which a conservative Christian military service member might object. Islamic: you’re out. Liberal: right out. Atheist: gone. Mormon: sorry Mitt; but then your boys have already found an alternative to military service. It must be noted that this line of argument is based on the premise that Duncan Hunter’s reasoning is in any way logical which, of course, it is not. So I suppose the point is moot.

Mitt Romney needs to answer questions about his Mormon faith. - By Christopher Hitchens

It ought to be borne in mind that Romney is not a mere rank-and-file Mormon. His family is, and has been for generations, part of the dynastic leadership of the mad cult invented by the convicted fraud Joseph Smith. It is not just legitimate that he be asked about the beliefs that he has not just held, but has caused to be spread and caused to be inculcated into children. It is essential. Here is the most salient reason: Until 1978, the so-called Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was an officially racist organization. Mitt Romney was an adult in 1978. We need to know how he justified this to himself, and we need to hear his self-criticism, if he should chance to have one.

Americans should treat the campaign cycle as what it is: a job interview. If someone can demonstrate that they are competent at doing the job at hand it really shouldn’t matter whether they are superstitious about black cats, magic words, or magic underwear.

That said, I think there are several valid reasons why a candidate’s faith is relevant to their ability to do the job. Science funding, rational decision making ability, religious sensitivity in foreign affairs, etc.

When will we have a secular humanist presidential candidate?

In other Romney-related news:

I asked Mr. Romney whether he would consider including qualified Americans of the Islamic faith in his cabinet as advisers on national security matters, given his position that “jihadism” is the principal foreign policy threat facing America today. He answered, “…based on the numbers of American Muslims [as a percentage] in our population, I cannot see that a cabinet position would be justified. But of course, I would imagine that Muslims could serve at lower levels of my administration.”

Romney, whose Mormon faith has become the subject of heated debate in Republican caucuses, wants America to be blind to his religious beliefs and judge him on merit instead. Yet he seems to accept excluding Muslims because of their religion, claiming they’re too much of a minority for a post in high-level policymaking.

100 Notable Books of the Year - 2007 - New York Times

Evidently there were no notable science fiction books released this year and only one notable fantasy book: Harry Potter 7. Also, as Pharyngula points out, there were no notable science books. And as a comment on that post points out the so-called “new atheists” are conspicuously absent. Perhaps this should be relabeled as a genre list and not purport to be a list of notable books.

• Indefinite Articles » The Fourteen Types of Programmers
• Boy on a Stick and Slither
  Software Engineer?

All software companies over a certain size seem to fall into three categories based on which personalities are dominant within the company. The characteristics of the software they produce also reflect these categories.

The first are the producer-centric companies. Microsoft, for example, is a company that is driven by producers. (Or managers.) In a producer driven company the products are often large and there is significant infrastructure. These companies can often deliver the largest software products, built by huge teams. They aim for mass market appeal. Producer-driven companies care about their bottom line before anything else and their corporate culture discourages risk-taking.

Second are the designer-centric companies. Designer-centric companies produce software that is incredible to use. Everything about the design of their products is impeccable. Apple is the perfect example. These companies are run by perfectionists and quality is their first concern. They often serve a niche or hardcore audience with their products, but that audience doesn’t just use the products—they love the products.

Third: engineer-centric companies. These companies are built on a bedrock of technology that none of their competitors can match. They produce high-quality products, but usually only for themselves and other engineers. Occasionally they get lucky with a technology that is mass-market and when they do they are phenomenally successful. These companies’ great strength is their ability to innovate. Only engineer-centric companies can create the Next Big Thing. Microsoft used to be an engineer-centric company; Google is still in this stage of its development, though it will probably start becoming producer-centric soon.

These categorizations can also be applied to the game industry:
Producer-centric: EA (Though certain EA studios might be classified otherwise.)
Designer-centric: Blizzard, Firaxis
Engineer-centric: Epic, id, Valve

It seems like there also should be a category for the other major role in these studios: artists. But I can’t think of a single artist-centric company. My explanation for this omission is that either the personality of most artists just isn’t conducive to running a company or, more likely, I’m an idiot and I’m overlooking all the wonderful artist-centric game studios and software companies out there.

• An Entirely Other Day - I’ll See You, Pascal, and Raise You My Immortal Soul
  On Pascal’s Wager.

“The economy, stupid!”

“The economy, stupid!” (in short TES) is a name of a new online game, that puts you in the role of a prime minister of a moderate size European country. Your task is to survive in office for the whole four-year term and win the next elections. You loose (sic) if your party loses the elections, or if you are removed from office before elections. The game is turn-based with each turn representing two months of game time.

Games are complex systems and much of the “fun factor” derived from playing games comes from learning the underlying hidden rules of the system. (See Theory of Fun.) This is why some of the best games (chess, Diplomacy, Go) have a simple surface rule set, but complex interactions that are hard to get the hang of under the surface. I think any complex system (government, economics, medicine, etc.) thus lends itself well to teaching through games. The tricky part then becomes presenting the rules in a way that is simple on the surface, for example by introducing a minimal subset and then expanding on it as the game progresses, without dumbing down the underlying structure.

Walk Score - Helping homebuyers, renters, and real estate agents find houses and apartments in great neighborhoods.

We help homebuyers, renters, and real estate agents find houses and apartments in great neighborhoods. Walk Score shows you a map of what’s nearby and calculates a Walk Score for any property. Buying a house in a walkable neighborhood is good for your health and good for the environment.

Pretty neat tool. Discovered via Joel on Software.

Ryan Shwayder’s Nerfbat » Beowulf Sucks

I’m probably one of few fantasy fans who thinks Beowulf is a crappy movie. It’s a movie that believes it is out of the uncanny valley, but it’s firmly on the upward slope about half way. The characters were straight out of a wax museum, and the animation wrenched me out of the movie constantly along the ride. I was completely unable to suspend my disbelief enough to enjoy the movie. And, literary fallacies aside, it was pretty boring with rare interruptions of good action, and the “plot” jumped around every time there almost was one.

Clearly, this person did not see Beowulf in Imax 3D. The 3D version of it is really impressive.