Welcome to 2010

Happy New Year, and welcome to the Teens, or whatever we're going to call them. (Wikipedia says "Tens"?) I'd like to call 2010 "twenty ten," but I'll probably be inconsistent, at least until next year, when "twenty eleven" beats "two thousand eleven" in the syllable department.

Last night I had dinner at Olive Garden with Nick, Mike, TJ, and some of their other friends, and then I went to my friend Michelle's new apartment to ring in the new decade. I had hardly seen her since our high school days, so it was nice to catch up a little bit. There were only a few other people there, most of them also from high school, so that was nice too.

You know how you always count down to the new year, and then it doesn't feel any different? Well, this time, it did feel a little different for me. I felt a little older, a little more mature. Even though I'm twenty years old, this is the fourth decade I've lived in. How curious. I was going to say the fourth consecutive decade, but that's implied. Hopefully.

Speaking of which, some radio stations are finally going to have to make a tough decision that they've been putting off for a while. I'm talking about the ones that play your favorite hits from the '80s, '90s, and today. I remember hearing that phrase during the '90s and wondering what they would do in the 2000s. Turns out that they decided to keep the phrase, repurposing "today" to mean the 2000s. But now that we're in the Te(e)ns, are they going to say that "today" encompasses more than ten years?

I haven't really done anything today. I'll probably just chill at home and watch the Sugar Bowl.

January 1 is a day when important things happen, including new laws going into effect. Starting today, blasphemy is illegal in Ireland. Yes, blasphemy, a victimless "crime" for which people are increasingly rarely prosecuted in most industrialized nations.

In protest against this senseless law that fortunately doesn't apply to me, I was going to add some arguably blasphemous images to this post. I've decided not to because (a) I don't want to make it seem like I'm picking only on some religions, and (b) I would fear for my and my family's safety due to the past actions of idiot extremists of a certain religion. I feel like a coward. Hopefully someday I will have more courage.

Props, then, to the much braver folks behind blasphemy.ie, an Irish web site that has illegally posted some arguably blasphemous quotations, including this one from George Carlin:

Religion easily has the greatest bullshit story ever told. Think about it.

Religion has actually convinced people that there’s an invisible man living in the sky who watches everything you do, every minute of every day. And the invisible man has a special list of ten things he does not want you to do. And if you do any of these ten things, he has a special place, full of fire and smoke and burning and torture and anguish, where he will send you to live and suffer and burn and choke and scream and cry forever and ever 'til the end of time! But He loves you.

He loves you, and He needs money! He always needs money! He’s all-powerful, all-perfect, all-knowing, and all-wise, somehow just can’t handle money! Religion takes in billions of dollars, they pay no taxes, and they always need a little more. Now, talk about a good bullshit story. Holy Shit!

Here are all 25 blasphemous quotes. (Via Pharyngula)

Speaking of dangerous laws, many great works of literature and film should have entered the public domain in the United States today. Under the copyright law that existed in 1953, all works published during that year—including The Crucible, Fahrenheit 451, Disney's Peter Pan, the first issue of Playboy, and the first James Bond book—should have entered the public domain by January 1, 2010. Instead, newer laws have locked them up until 2049.

Duke Law's Center for the Study of the Public Domain has more info: What Could Have Been Entering the Public Domain on January 1, 2010? You may also be interested in reading about Why the Public Domain Matters.

Interestingly, Wikipedia says that the first issue of Playboy was undated, so it may already be in the public domain. That's currently the case for works that were published in the US without a copyright notice between 1923 and 1977. Does anyone want to look into the matter further?