Halo Over Our Demise

As 9/11 approached this year, there seemed to be more prick-waving than usual between Muslims and Christians. This happens every year around 9/11, but everything seemed greatly exacerbated this year. On Sunday night, I had my iTunes on shuffle, and the song Halo by Machine Head came on. The chorus of this song is as follows:


Halo over our demise
Following a god so blind
Sallow in their sickening
Swallow not, the shit they feed


Basically, the message here is that we're driving ourselves into oblivion with a halo above (Halo over our demise). Religious leaders do nothing but entice war by spreading their propaganda, saying their religion is the only true religion, and that all other religions should be destroyed, because that is what the book of their faith says (Following a god so blind). Of course, many other people blindly follow these messages relentlessly, so the hate further spreads (Sallow in their sickening). Generally speaking, the world would probably be a better place if we learned to accept other people's ideals and treat each other with respect, instead of immediately dismissing them based on their religion (Swallow not, the shit they feed).


This song is one of the many great examples where some of the stereotypical metal themes (murder, rape, etc) are thrown aside to convey a great message. It also goes to show that not all metal musicians are stoned alcoholics with guitars!


The song and music video can be found here: Machine Head - Halo

One Small Step for a Man

(This was originally posted on boilercamp.us on 7/20/10)

On this day 41 years ago, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin set foot on the moon, an engineering feat that has yet to be topped. A giant leap for mankind at the time, indeed, but I'm really disappointed we haven't gone back.

However, it really upsets me that a large portion of this planet truly believes that mankind has never been to the moon. As an aerospace engineer, frankly, this really pisses me off. I know the science behind it. Is it difficult? Of course it is. But we have definitely done it, in 1969 with the computing power of a modern microwave, if that.

I'd like to take this time to try and debunk the conspiracy theory, explain why space exploration is a good thing, and link the conspiracy theories to an interesting conclusion I made.

First, on debunking the conspiracy theory, I have three main arguments. First, the Russians' hubris is ridiculous, i.e., they strapped TWELVE engines to the main stage of a rocket fueled by inferior kerosene as compared to liquid hydrogen, and wonder why they couldn't get all that weight off the ground. This hubris SURELY led the Russians to be tracking the mission the ENTIRE time, and if there was any indication whatsoever that the mission was faked, the Russians would have come forward with that data.

Next, Armstrong and Aldrin placed a laser reflector on the moon in the Apollo 11 mission. Observatories all over the world (particularly American observatories in the mountains in California) frequently fire lasers at this reflector to measure the distance between the moon and the earth (speed of light x time taken for signal to return/2 gives this distance). Just go to one of those observatories, I'm sure they'd love to demonstrate for you.

Finally, with all the work that would have gone into faking the mission and making it look real, it would have been easier to send three men to the moon. And if you STILL don't believe it, well, then I triple-dog-dare you to walk up into Armstrong's or Aldrin's face (probably Aldrin, he's feisty, Armstrong is too calm to care) and tell them they didn't walk on the moon.

We haven't been back since the Apollo missions because the general public feels its a waste of money, so the government obliges and spends less money on the space program. Many great technologies were developed for space use, and then were given back to us on the surface. One such example: the ball point pen. There already were ball-point pens, but they were greatly improved after research for space missions so astronauts could write in zero-g. Ingenious, yes, but possibly unnecessary (the Russians used a pencil). Tons of fuel-saving measures on engines wind up coming back to automobiles. Rocket engines see temperatures of greater than 5000 K and all kinds of innovative technologies are implemented to keep them cool, and that technology comes back to the surface as well. The possibilities are limitless.

Alas, the government has all but quit funding NASA. Obama's new NASA budget was a huge slap in the face. However, the private space sector is booming, and I suspect we'll be back on the moon no later than 2030, and I doubt it will be government funded.

Finally, a lot of the reasons I get from people for not believing we went to the moon spark an interesting comparison in religion. People don't think we've been to the moon because there isn't enough proof or that there are tons of scenarios in which the moon landings could have been staged. I'll preface this by saying that I am NOT an atheist, but many atheists don't believe in God for exactly the same reasons. And the percentage of people on this planet who don't believe we've been to the moon is far greater than the percentage of people on this planet who are atheist (at least it seems that way to me. I don't have any exact stats). The comparison is staggering, and frankly, a little shocking.

Spirituality and Religion in Metal

(This was originally posted on boilercamp.us on 4/28/10)

One counterargument I frequently get against metal music is that it is all "devil music." I would hope that by now we had learned to not generalize things into one statement, but alas, here is my rebuttal.

With anything, there are going to be statistical outliers. Are there some metal bands exclusively about Satan or devil worshiping? Yes, there are, I don't deny that. I think you'd also be surprised to find that for every Satanic band out there, you would find a band that worships whichever God they choose to worship. One such band is The Devil Wears Prada. The song linked there is called "Dogs Can Grow Beards All Over" (they are a band whose song titles have nothing to do with the material of the song), and, believe it or not, there are a couple of particular lines in there I'd like to point out:

Don't be ashamed of your faith

And

Dear Lord - deliver me from hypocrisy and surcease

But, both Satanic bands and deity-worshiping bands (I don't want to use the term Christian, because that would exclude other religions) are special cases. They are a very small sliver of metal. I'd say they only make up 5% of the metal scene.

More often, you will find that bands that do address religion and spirituality promote self-thinking, rather than blindly accepting what is written in various books of faith. I am not here to preach religion or anything like that, but I feel the world would be a better place if people thought for themselves rather than accepting what the Bible, Old Testament, Qur'an, or any other religious text has to say without thinking about the message that is being conveyed and making a decision for themselves.