Halfapenguin.com

.....Lover of Jesus, Spit Roaster of Allah, Vexer of Buddha, Executer of Emperors, Silencer of Messangers! I have had it. I am a deeply spiritual person, and i believe that faith is very important to life, but i cannot condone and despise the idea that critisism of any idea religious or otherwise is wrong. Yes i do not like islam as a way of running my life and i think it shouldn't run other peoples lives, i can think of many points of contention with it, however i equally feel that christianity has many of these problems, but has advancecd in its methods in the past 500 years. If you look at Iran it is socially similar to a 15th-16th century renisance level christian country, which to be honest were not centres of what we would call enlightenment in the 21st century. There are right wing christians who would quite happily drag us back to the dark ages in the name of a god, who is drenched in the blood of 6000 years of conflict... I will not try to damage someone's faith provided they do not try to force it on me, but when criticism of a religion is considered illegal or wrong, and people are expected to make an appology i don't react well. The mohamed cartoons for the most part were fairly lacking in decent humor, but they still should have been published, if you can't grow up and accept a joke, then don't demand to be part of a society that considers self relfecting humor funny...maybe islam needs its "Life of Brian"... I should point out that while i consider humor and criticism on the part of religion perfectly acceptible, it is because they are a matter of choice...sexuality, race, birthplace, gender or anything that is not a choice should be protected from critical speech or humor. (also sexuality as a choice should include both pansexuality and bisexuality as valid states of sexuality).

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Okay mildly contentious having never been through 2 weeks of very mild psychological manipulation... But in comparison to many worse things including death and actual torture that we have commited against our own prisoners, i don't think these soldiers have gone through very much. I find it very difficult to believe that something so traumatic as they described could be talked about so openly so soon. Truly traumatic experiences are not something you want to spread across the headlines straight after being released. If you want to sell a story, you are going to sensationalise it so we hear a distorted version which is made out to be the truth rather than the real story.

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While it seems clear that the shows producers mean for Galen Tyrol, Saul Tigh, Tory Foster, Sam Anders, There is also several clear hints that Baltar, Roslin, or Kara Thrace may be the fifth cylon, however this has not been implicitly stated. However the comfirmed four have at least 2 members that doesn't add up.

Sam Anders

Sam Anders was a major sports star during the pre-fall period of colonial history, and if the news media bears any resemblance to our own (which they have done repeatedly), they would have nitpicked over the past of any sports star in a way that would make a military background check look like a walk in the park, so if there was a suspicious lack of childhood friends who remebered, extended family, old girlfriends, or anything that looked out of place it would have been brought up. Of course its possible that the cylons developed the humanoid cylons early on, however this would mean that Anders was actually staying perpetually young back into his past, which would raise questions because at least earth based athletes have a relatively short career when they are at their prime, which Anders apparently was.

Saul Tigh

It has been established that there was no capability in the original cylon arsenal (copied from the Colonial technologies) to produce human cylons, and Saul Tigh was known by Adama for 50 years back to that period so could not have been born a cylon (aging has occured during the flashbacks). Therefore evidence is against Tigh being a humanoid cylon.

Ways round this

It is possible that these 2 humanoid cylons were replacing existing humans, although this suggest biomimacry which has never been shown beyond creating a humanoid form rather than a specific already existing human form. If the general cylon fleet possessed this ability, then why would they limit themselves to inflitrating with a very limited highly recognisable set of troops. Another possibility is that somehow they are human physiologically (Tory Foster seemed not to possess Boomer's lack of sleep tolerance), and the cylon presence has either complemented(symbyotic personality) or replaced the human conciousness that originally existed there. Again this does question how this technology was developed separate from the cylon fleet. It is indeed possible to think out solutions to the problems as i have demostrated, however it does go against everything we know about the cylon humanoid forms ...

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Thinking about my previous entry, i thought i'd muse on who might be the fifth hidden cylon. As far as arguments, since none of the other 4 hidden cylons have done anything anti-fleet we know of, lack of such evidence should not discount them as cylons, it has been indicated that these new cylons are very different and may hold differing viewpoints to the other cylon models.

Kara Thrace

Initially some cylon connection has been applied since the Leoben Conoy interrogation in the first season, she apparently has a destiny to play, which has been somewhat confirmed by her imagination inspired paintings matching the symbols in the Temple of Five. This suggests that she has some forsight which has yet to be proved as a human ability, however the sacred scrolls do seem to accurately predict at least parts of the future, written prior to the cylons so at least someone in the past had the ability to see the future. The biggest chunk of evidence is that Kara managed to survive an apparent explosive destruction of her viper while already under pressure conditions that apparently destroyed the viper. The only known method of surviving such an incident would be to be downloaded into a new body, a technology only available to the cylons at this point. However since she allegedly has been to Earth, and has returned in a non-colonial craft over interstellar distances, the earth based humans are technologically at least on a par with the fleet, possibly far ahead so there may be alternative solutions, although it has yet to be determined if she is flying an earth ship or a ship of another spacefaring power. One note should be that Kara Thrace is deeply religious about certain things, but not others (Marriage unbreakable, but affairs morally allowed), the Final Five are hidden for a reason, whether its related to their beliefs or not would make this fact either a piece of evidence for or against Kara.

Laura Roslin

Given that Laura Roslin has managed to enter a dreamworld inhabited by 2 cylons (Six and Athena), and potentially a Cylon/Human hybrid (Hera), it implies she may be a cylon, however there are several explainations, Firstly the Kamala extract has mind altering abilities which may allow connection to the dreamstate generated by the other three. Secondly the presence of cylon hybrid blood may produce a mental link they ...

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I've made several changes and one bug fix to the halfapenguin code

Changes

• Images can now be added to entries, with the option of being at the top of the entry, the bottom or inline. This works by replacing a tag.
• hCalendar entries can be put into the entry with several display options.
• Files can now be included for download on entries
• Bug Fixing
• Turns off setting the publication date automatically. Previously rather than getting the date/time of creation of entry it would take the time at which the apache server started up
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What? Changes went live When? 12 April 07 23:30

According to Think Secret, the iPhone is diverting resources from Leopard, meaning that it will probably be October when Leopard is finally released. LINK I'm expecting this isn't the real reason, and in fact its either that there are some bugs they want to work out before release, or they are planning something new and shiny that they don't want to tell us about yet. One thing that is slightly annoying was i was planning to get a macbook (pro) in the next couple of months and was slightly waiting for Leopard. Given that many people may be in the same situation, Apple might be wise to offer free/discounted upgrades to any mac bought after May (implied/speculated release date). However of course this was speculation so Apple doesn't really need to do anything. Either way, hope Leopard has something good. Its strange i thought dashboard was neat, and spotlight was a bit meh when i bought it, but now i rarely use dashboard, but couldn't live without spotlight.

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I was just checking on the radio times website what time Doctor Who is on, only to see a warning that due to the football match beforehand there is a distinct possibility that Doctor Who may be delayed to next saturday. HOW DARE THEY!!! I was brought up in an age when i had to put up with Star Trek and Buffy being cancelled continually for wimbledon and other such other crap... I can somewhat accept that, these werent the most popular shows, but when Doctor Who has taken the country by storm, to the point that its a major event on the past 2 christmas days... How dare they delay my viewing because a bunch of overpaid morons cannot outplay another group of overpaid morons by a significant enough margin inside 90 minutes?

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Update

No cancellations were needed, Doctor Who was typically good, actually better than good, but i don't think in hindsight it excuses my anger before. I remeber back to my childhood feeling wronged, and in a lot of ways i was wronged, i felt out of place in a world that reviled stargazing, dreaming, and hoping, now i live in a world where all these things are not just accepted they are admired. Doctor Who is my kind of escapism, i am inspired by the ethos of an enlightened being with no guns, just intellect and compassion fighting the demons and the monsters, but its not for everyone. For some people football gives them something to believe in. I might not approve of their heroes, and it is true that i look down on those heroes. I suppose what i'm trying to say is that i'm suprised that the BBC would consider cancelling Doctor Who for a football match, but at the moment its not the worst crime they are commiting, but mostly admiting i shouldn't get so worked up about a little thing like that in the face of everything else in the world.

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Found via Film School Rejects, apparently 34% of people who watch 24 believe Jack Bauer is real.... ...i'm just speechless But then again they probably think Wayne Palmer is president...since they don't realise the monkey in a suit is the president. 2 of my favorite lines from the comedy section of that article...

• If Jack Bauer was in a room with Hitler, Stalin, and Nina Meyers, and he had a gun with 2 bullets, he’d shoot Nina twice.
• Jack Bauer once forgot where he put his keys. He then spent the next half-hour torturing himself until he gave up the location of the keys.

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The sun seems to be having kittens over the fact that its been revealed that Prince Harry will probably unable to go to iraq to serve with his unit. I have mixed feelings about this, because i do find it strange that anyone would want to go to risk their lives in iraq for this government...but i imagine that many in the military training apparatus are conditioned to want to go to war. However i do feel sorry for Harry, he is a victim of his birth, he may be fabulously wealthy, but he isn't allowed to have the right to prove himself. The reasoning is sound, he would be a significant target, that would be both effective in morale building for the Iraqis, and damaging for British morale. Also his unit would be under additional threat because they will be effectively acting as his bodyguards. William gets compensation, one day he will probably get the chance to be King, Harry gets a few priviliges as befits his station and inheritance, but he gets the same restrictions on his life. Who knows, maybe he'll find a better way to serve his fellow human beings rather than fighting in a war.

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I'm watching allo allo returns on BBC 2. For those who don't know its a 80s and 90s sitcom set in a french town during the german occupation of World War 2. On a level with the great british comedies, and miles above the office.

The documentary side is rather fun, but the stage side is a little bit rehashed, and out of sequence with the final episode that tied up the plotlines.... its sad really because the show itself wasn't forced, this feels very forced. If this is the first exposure people get to the show then they would probably get put off finding the real show.

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I was watching Gridlock again, and the Doctor talked about that burnt orange sky, before the shot panned up to the sky of New Earth and it was orange sunset, while its unlikely the Doctor actually lost the location of Gallifrey (Although its never been implicitly specified when gallifrey current timeline is) I'm wondering whether this was a reference to either the "you are not alone" or perhaps something for the new season.

Having spent 2 seasons watching this recreated show, hints are generally placed, and sometimes they are fairly subtle, other times they are rather blunt, "Mr Saxon" seems to be this seasons watchword, but you never know, maybe we'll get to see the silver leaves on trees, under twin suns. I'm clutching at straws here, but Gallifrey was a very special world, and even if the timelords are gone, there maybe still significance to it.

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