About this site -- This site is a place to keep and share
the somewhat random musings, rants, and observations which otherwise clutter my brain. I hate clutter.
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We are not alone. Two people have begun the Rational Response Squad movement to raise awareness about atheism. There are elements of this which are long overdue. They are right, that atheists are currently fair game. They do not garner the respect afforded gays, Hispanics, or even Muslims. Hell, Bush Sr. stated that he didn't believe atheists should be citizens and certainly weren't patriots. After all, this is one nation under God. You have to go aways to find a group so irrelevant that a campaigning politician will openly strafe them. However, in fairness, we are hardly the last minority.
I think the education of the American people that atheists are just normal people who have a different (in this case absent) view of religion is a useful step. We are not immoral anarchists. Although, I'm not sure I can really get behind The Blasphemy Challenge. It is getting attention (and that seems to be 80% of its goal), but if we are going to get respect for our view, it will not be achieved by disrespecting other religions. This is not about de-godding the theists. It's about acceptance and respect. Or at least it should be.
Of 1,200 adults interviewed between Jan. 24 and Jan. 26, 31.9% rated a mate met online as the worst outcome for a daughter, followed closely by someone met in a bar (22.3%) and then a Trekkie (16.1%).
Now this could be interpreted as a bit of misguided fear. Clearly most people online are as harmless as most people in bars. However, a few in both locations are dangerous enough that caution is warranted. But that aside, the good news is that Trekkies rated as the best among the worst. While hardly high praise, it means that Mom & Dad may be on your side Ensign Skippy. Now, if only their daughter would give you the time of day. Too bad she's online with all the drunk bikers.
For any of you Daily Show fans out there, you may want to get a nap in tomorrow afternoon and plan to catch Monday's show. The guest is Bill Gates, which could be interesting, but is not really the compelling reason. The interesting part could be (or damn well should be) the use of Daily Show Correspondent John Hodgeman.
If you haven't made the connection yet, Hodgeman plays the hapless "PC" on those Apple commercials next to the hip and happening Mac. The possibilities here just boggle the mind. Now I realize that Daily Show guests don't usually interact with anyone other than Jon Stewart. But they gotta make an exception this time. They just gotta!
The news is rife lately with talk of the non-binding resolution passed by Congress against Bush's Iraq "Surge". Right behind it is talk that the only other option Congress has is to curtail military funding - not incidentally, the path taken by Congress 35 years ago to get us out of Vietnam. But while 2/3 of us now oppose a troop surge, a vast percentage of us (me included) oppose having Iraq end like Vietnam did. And this is what Congress rightfully fears if they play the budget card.
So what's a poor Congress to do? The Constitution doesn't provide them any direct control over the military, and Bush has been pretty adamant that he is the decider and he doesn't give a flea's left testicle what Congress or the American people think about Iraq. He has a plan, and dammit we're gonna follow it.
But there is a lever left unpulled. The Constitution says, "The President, Vice President, and all civil Officers of the United States, shall be removed from Office on Impeachment for, and Conviction of, Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors." Now back on December 8th, I advocated for using this lever against President Bush as a threat to get him to accede to reasonableness. I now think I was wrong. At least wrong about the target. And I also fear that the nation isn't really ready to be quagmired by another Presidential impeachment. Whether or not it is deserved, it probably isn't healthy.
So let's consider recent events. To Bush's marginal credit, he has begun to at least acknowledge that mistakes were made (not that he made any, but let's not dwell on semantics). He has at least shown that he has a wee little bit of capacity for change. But I suspect he still suffers from the blindness of his inner circle. The fact that he only listens to this small gaggle, means that he is still subject to manipulation by them. Add in that Cheney's remarks since the State of the Union address minimally indicate that he is not acknowledging any missteps, and depending on your interpretation, sound like they might be an outright rebuttal to the President's own speech. There is also pretty much universal agreement that Cheney has immense (if not paramount) influence over Bush.
Maybe, instead of going after the puppet, we go after the puppet master. I am proposing that Congress impeach Cheney. There are ample targets ranging from Iraq evidence tampering, the Plame debacle, or even Cheney's conflict of interest in Haliburton and the fact that he lied about no longer having one. Further, getting a majority of the house to sign off on this would be a slam dunk. Getting 2/3 of the Senate would be a stretch, but a more realistic one than getting that 2/3 to vote against the President. Further, I think the public would rally behind such an impeachment. Even if this effort fails to get Cheney removed from office, it may create the impetus for the President to distance himself from Cheney. If for no other reason than the fear that he would be next. Either way, lessening Cheney's influence would go a long way toward getting Bush to listen. And it stikes me that there is very little downside to trying. I don't think you could field a football team of people who would claim that Cheney's a valuable national asset at this point. So this is clearly worth a try.
This is one of the great all-time condom ads. (Spoken like that's an actual category somewhere.) And don't worry, this is safe to open at work or in front of the kids.
The CES (Consumer Electronics show) in Las Vegas is the place to be after Christmas. Everyone who's anyone is there. Except for Steve Jobs who stole the show from San Francisco by announcing the iPhone. And me of course. and probably you. But based on all the people at work who went, it was a pantheon of plasmas and a load of LCDs, mixed with lots of shiny things to warm the heart of any geek.
But not everyone scores big there, and to salute them, there are the Woots. The awards for the worst in show. Think of it as the Razzies for nerds.
This story from our British allies doesn't seem to be getting much play in the U.S. It would seem we (and by "we", I mean Cheney) blew yet another critical opportunity in Iraq. Spilled milk to be sure. But yet more evidence of the pathological stupidity of our black & white approach to foreign policy.
I had to do it. As part of investigating current trends of what people are doing with photos and videos it was only appropriate that I visit MySpace. I'm sorry. I regret it immensely. I'm trying to purge the experience from my mind.
On the plus side, there are lots and lots of images and videos there. Although, as near as I can figure, this is where cell phone images go to die. It would appear that people feel too attached to mis-focused over exposed accidental images of their left foot in a flip-flop to delete them. So they upload them to their MySpace page instead. Maybe I'm just too old for this, but wouldn't the reportedly overly image conscious youth of today want to upload flattering photos of themselves?? Just an observation from an aging Boomer, but maybe a pix of you sloshing down a beer the size of a Big Gulp at the last kegger doesn't put you in your best light.
And if the pictures aren't bad enough, you should subject yourself to some of the text. I'm seriously considering a run for Congress just so I can introduce legislation to make it illegal for teenagers to blog. Most of the blogs read like transcripts of drunken phone conversations you missed the beginning of. And yes, I ended that last sentence in a preposition, but on MySpace that sentence would warrant a literary award. It's all relative.
I also viewed a few of the most popular new videos to see what people were uploading. #1 on the list was of a teenager who threw a hot dog at his grandmother. She got annoyed, especially since she had just told him not to throw it. Apparently this is funny. Guess what Skippy? Grandma thought it was cute when you tossed strained peas at her from your highchair. Hurling hot dogs from behind a camera as a teenager... not so much. I hope she's rich and writes him out of the will.
On the other hand, suddenly my kids seem creative, literate, and well behaved. See, it is all relative. Now if you'll excuse me, I need to go wash my brain out with soap.
I'm driving into the parking lot at work today and I need to put the window down to swipe my pass for entry. However, the window is still icy around the edges. Consequently, when I push the "down" button, it lurches a bit, but stays fully closed. Feeling particularly blonde, under-caffeinated, or something, I find that I am now pressing harder on the button and even rocking slightly in my seat as if I can urge the window down. After a few seconds, the window breaks free and I pass through the gate with all the delightful but unwarranted satisfaction of a native tribesman smiling in the rain following a particularly vigorous dance.
However, reflecting on it now, I may have to turn in my engineering degree.
This is a test. This is only a test. And I need some help. Go to http://stationerymovies.com/ and see how many movie titles you can guess from the scenes depicted with the creative use of office supplies. I was able to get 14/20. However, I'm stumped on 8-11, 14, and 16. However, I know there are lots of movie buffs in the readership, and I'm sure we can figure this out. And no cheating!! While there are no answers on the site itself, I'm sure someone has posted them somewhere. But that would be cheating!!
One hint though: you need to use the complete title. Leaving out a word like "the" will cause your answer to be wrong.
Please post your answers in the comments. That way people can choose to look or not. I'll post the ones I've figured out in a bit.
Introducing Under Ease. Or maybe someone else you know needs it. Wait, can you give this as a gift? Is there a model with noise baffles? I suspect if you put a Depends liner in here, you'd never have to get up again. Hmmmm.
Just 18 months ago, President Bush had this to say:
"Some Americans ask me, if completing the mission is so important, why don’t you send more troops? If our commanders on the ground say we need more troops, I will send them. But our commanders tell me they have the number of troops they need to do their job. Sending more Americans would undermine our strategy of encouraging Iraqis to take the lead in this fight. And sending more Americans would suggest that we intend to stay forever, when we are, in fact, working for the day when Iraq can defend itself and we can leave. As we determine the right force level, our troops can know that I will continue to be guided by the advice that matters: the sober judgment of our military leaders."
Curiously, just last month Generals Abizaid and Casey, the "commanders on the ground" in Iraq, both said that additional troops would not be useful. They have since both been replaced/removed. Hmmmmm.
Retired General Wesley Clark, former Supreme Commander of NATO, and a senior fellow at UCLA's Burkle Center for International Relations has a rational comment or two on the likely upcoming announcement of a troop surge in Iraq. He's hardly the only one expressing these views, nor are these views emanating from fringe elements of the populace. On the contrary, they seem to be mostly proffered by the leaders of the military, past and present. Somehow, you'd think their opinions would carry some weight with the Decider-in-Chief. But that seems increasingly unlikely. It's looking more and more as if the showdown is ultimately going to be between Congress and the President. While the Democrats have their 100 days of fury momentum, it would be a stretch for that deliberative body to take a potent stand against the Executive branch. Doubtless encouraging if they do, but I won't be holding my breath.
One of the recent entries into the Metaverse space typified by Second Life is Habbo Hotel. Habbo's niche is the teen market. It's arguably a sort of MySpace alternative. It started in Finland, but is rapidly spreading to China, Brazil, Russia, and of course, the US. You can read more about the success of Habbo here.
Well, given that I'm supposed to be researching these things, I figured I'd better go see what it's all about. It requires a minimal registration and no installation of client software. The whole thing runs as a Shockwave movie. That's simple on the one hand, but I think imposes some serious limitations on the environment. More on that later. You also have to create an avatar, but the options are extremely simple. And all the avatars look 8-years old.
This was maybe the first reality disconnect for me. The market demographic is the late elementary to middle school crowd. The Habbo home page looks like it could be a Tiger Beat magazine cover. But these kids are desperate to be "big kids". That's the whole Teen magazine appeal, right? Makeup, 17-year old heartthrobs, things that make you feel as cool as you think your big brother or sister is. But the graphics in this space are reminiscent of old Windows 95 Magic School Bus games I used to play with my toddlers. And the avatars all look like little kids.
However, the in-world chat is totally teen. Chaotic, heavily lingo'd, trite, and even what might be described as giggly. Boy did I feel like a fish out of water in this place. And what's more, despite only being an observer, I couldn't shake the feeling that my in-world little-boy persona made me some sort of child predator. I kept expecting the FBI to show up at my door. This feeling was exacerbated by the receipt of two unsolicited offers of friendship in the first few minutes I was there. I rejected both as a matter of conscience, but then worried that I had wounded some poor kid's fragile ego. But maybe the offers were just from real predators, or maybe FBI agents. Somehow that rationalization was comforting.
Anyway, the ability to move and interact in this space is extremely limited. I think a lot of this is a result of the choice to make all of this Shockwave based. You are stuck with a single camera angle. There's no 1st person type experience. You are a scene observer, but you happen to be one of the characters you can see. This makes it very difficult to project yourself into the space. This is more video-game than metaverse.
There is real commerce. You can buy currency and use it to buy toys, clothes, and activities. You can get a room at the hotel which you can decorate as you would your bedroom at home. But the commerce is unidirectional. You buy stuff. But there's no opportunity to sell, have a job, or otherwise accumulate wealth. There are also a lot of in-world links that open up browser windows to other sites soliciting teen dollars for different activities or goods. The links were innocent enough, but I think are intrusive to the desired in-world immersion experience.
I think that the appeal of this sort of environment is probably limited. The concept of age-specific metaverses is doubtless marketable. But in my opinion, the specific instance of Habbo is not viable once the novelty factor wears off. It's ultimately too primitive and "uncool" for the older kids. And probably too mature to appeal to the younger kids who are not yet ready to make these sorts of social connections. But if nothing else, it may be an ideal place for predators to meet nice FBI agents.
Or something to that effect. It might be that he has admitted in his 11-year old autobiography that he used cocaine as a teenager. But you need to pass that through the Fox News filter for maximum effect. News Hounds (who maybe have the greatest tag line on the web - "We Watch Fox So You Don't Have To") has the whole story. Watch the video. It's funny to see the female host mention Bush's admitted alcoholism and alleged cocaine use only to be pretty much shut down by the two guys.
This was originally produced by Kodak to get the employees motivated, but has now been released to the public. The attitude of this clip is what could truly enable them to "turn the corner" on digital. But ultimately, success takes more than an edgy commercial. Still, it's a promising development that they even made this.
For those of you with extensive music collections, I'll bet there's a few gems missing from your library. You can check yourself by comparing against the Worst Album Covers, Ever.
Note that the Orleans album features lead singer John Hall, whom the enlightened citizens of New York's 19th district just elected to Congress.
