Friday, December 16, 2005

Why MySpace?! Also Kids dumber than Chimps...

There has been a serious swelling of people involved in the social networking site myspace.com, and I am seriously perplexed as to why. I have been involved in a social networking site for about 2.5 years now (Friendster) but all of a sudden everyone and there mothers are on myspace. I've asked people "but what about Friendster, they were around for awhile before any of these other sites (myspace, facebook) were out and now they get no love". Most answer I see center around myspace more mature themed site, although I don't know how that's possible since the site and service is nothing more than the members that make it up, somehow I guess more "adults" have gotten on myspace making it the more adult networking site. Bah I say, friendster was and is still awesome. At the behest of my friends however I jumped onto myspace and created a profile and have not been back since. To create my profile I simply cut and pasted my friendster profile over to the appropriate myspace categories. I think I am just bitter because it was hard enough wasting time on Friendster but now there is another site that I should, in theory, keep up to date and checking. These sites are great things to fill some dead time at work or at home when one is bored, but my plate is full of such sites and it seems I cannot possibly keep up with all of them. I see why people who just report on goings on in the "blogosphere" even have a job.

In other news, I just finished an article about
Children versus Chimps with regards to learning and imitation. RTA for more details. The short story, Kids imitate to learn while chimps look at the end goal and do what it takes to get to the solution. The article tries to explain why learning by imitation is not only better or at least not worse than the chimp method, but also what makes us uniquely human. I really don't have much background in child psych or psych in general, but at face value I can't see how this experiment demonstrated learning by imitation to be a superior method. After you read the article, leave a comment and tell me what you think. This just seems like humans are hard wired to do what they see all the time and not look at what their actions are actually achieving.

Its funny that I should read this
article only a few days after I saw the movie "S1MONE" which had oodles of potential but ultimately was not that great of a movie (it might have had something to do with the contrast between the idea of a digital actor and 42" LCD screens and the computer the sim was on still having and using a 5 1/4" floppy drive). Apparently we are not so far off of a S1mone-esque reality where digital actors can actually be used. This article is total fiction but it is done well, and with the pace of technology these days, I guess this is not so far off.

Friday, December 09, 2005

Isn't It Random?!

First, check this thing out.

Yes it is for real. It's an RSS (Really Simple Syndication) reader that prints on your toilet paper. I think this is a little much. I mean I love tech, Most things that could be teched out should be, but Toilet paper. The best is apparently you can get a seat cover that can identify you by your weight and ass print and print out your feeds specifically. Out of control. Well now you can wipe your ass with the latest CNN Bush Poll Numbers, literally.

In the latest news about how the Army of Crazed Christians have been offended, they have picked their overlord GW Bush as their next target. Bush in an effort to not offend anyone has been sending out Christmas Cards that use the phrase "Happy Holidays" versus "Merry Christmas". I get what GW is trying to do, its actually pretty noble. It's difficult to keep track of everyone various religious affiliations so he sends out a message that works for all holidays. You would think that the people who are lambasting him for his caving in to liberal notions would applaud him for trying to be so understanding and tolerant of others, as is the Christian way as I understand it. Nope, they are just pissed that they and the holiday that they celebrate is not singled out as better than everyone else's. I mean its not good enough that the entire nation takes off to honor a holiday that is very non-secular and that the entire country goes into a totally different mode to celebrate it, they must have all the cards they get point to it and no other holiday that maybe happening at the same time and that other people might be celebrating. Isn't this just a bit selfish. To take a step back and look at the big picture and realize that some people might be offended by a "Merry Christmas" card is too much for them. Personally I celebrate Christmas and am not Christian and would not be offended by a Merry Christmas card, but some people would and I commend GW (take note, this is one of the few time this is going to happen) for trying to be all inclusive here.

Happy Holidays, Merry Christmas, Feliz Navidad and all the other good stuff out there. And remember folks, Chris died for your sins... (you really have to see that Show "Weeds" to appreciate that one)

Thursday, December 01, 2005

The Teenager Whistle...

Greetings from beyond everyone, it has been a few weeks since my last entry but I have returned. Blogs are really funny things, you can be all about them and write in them all the time, but skip a week and its just as easy to skip four more, I honestly don't know what it is. I also don't get paid for this or anything so the only thing compelling me to write is my willingness to have the public eye on my words, perhaps to get some feedback, mayhaps not. Anyway, on with the show...

I read something today that really shocked me, more because someone actually had the idea rather than it actually working. This article comes from CNet, but takes place in Wales where teenage loitering is SO rampant that this guy has come up with a High Frequency Teenager whistle that emits a high frequency sound people under 20 can here, but people over 30 find inaudible, supposedly. This is not an exact science here, even though its proven that you lose your ability to hear high frequency sounds as you grow older, the change is pretty slow going so its not like one day you wake up and your immune to high frequency sounds. The idea is innovative though and supposedly works. RTFA, there are some pretty choice quotes in there.

And another update in the battle that is Intelligent Design. In this story a couple is suing UC Berkeley because they believe a website that seeks to explain envolutionary theory to students favors one religion (The religion of evolution??) over others (I did not know evolution was a religion). This couples says that the web site which speaks about other religions and there ability to co-exist with the theory of evolution is improperly swaying students to accept evolution as true when it most certainly has many flaws. I love this shit, this has now gotten to a point where a couple is calling evolution itself a sort of religion and bashing it because it is promoting itself over other religions. If you read this I am sure you will be confused because the whole notion makes no sense.

I recently read an article in Harpers magazine that talks about how ID proponents are using persuasive and definitive left wing arguments to support the idea of ID. Using phrases like knowledge and understanding is never ever set or steadfast and that it must always be challenged, they say the argument for ID CANNOT be thrown out because of the necessity to have differing viewpoints in the academic circle. This is a very compelling argument, but it is really knocked on its head when the author of the article points out that when scholars and men made these statements it was implicit that the arguments brought to challenge whatever theory it was going to challenge would have validation from the peers that were in discussion of the theory in question. Basically if you want to refute a theory by putting it up against another one, the theory that you bring with you cannot be seen as ludicrous and a waste of time by the people that are involved in the debate. This would seem obvious to most rational people without an agenda.

I wrote in a post a long time ago that I also had a theory of evolution that involved us coming from a super intelligent race of sea monkeys. If I raised this as a real theory opposing evolution I would be laughed at, things might even be thrown. Before you say that my theory and ID are vastly different, take a close look at both of them. Neither have any substantial proof and are based on speculation and fantasy. I am not trying to knock any religion or its story of creation, but once you put things into the context of scientific theory you open yourself up to a whole lot of examination that many semi valid theories cannot withstand, much less the theory of ID or Seamonkeyism.

Friday, November 11, 2005

I Love This Guy...

Sometime I wish I was a conservative Christian so that I could feel the surge of power through my body when I read a story like this one. Honestly, who else could say things like this and get away with it?? Not to many people in the public eye, so whats the lesson? Establish yourself early as a crazy nutjob and you can basically say what you want, when you want. Pat Robertson, you are one of the last great heroes.

Thursday, November 10, 2005

Kansas to World: "We are Smarter Than You"


This intelligent design debate just won't die, which is good for those that support the theory that life is so complex it must have had an intelligent designer behind it. As long as the debate continues, the theory itself gains validity. To smack it done as ludicrous and incredible would seem to be the obvious thing to do, but everyday there is another story of a group in power either approving the decision to teach it or striking it down as nothing more than "Creationism" with a slightly scientific backing. Recently this debate has been put to the courts to decide, and we are still stuck with a stalemate. In Dover, PA voters recently booted out 8 members of the educational board, all supporters of teaching intelligent design alongside evolution in the public school system. Thank you Dover for restoring my faith in Pennsyltucky. Feeling proud that my fellow Americans were starting to see the light I am smacked with reality as Kansas goes ahead and approves the teaching of intelligent design alongside what they (those that voted this in) call the "flawed theory of evolution". They also went ahead and re-defined the word science while they were at it. Now science is not solely "the search for natural explanations of Phenomena". These people cannot be serious. Here is a quote from Janet Waugh, a Kansas City Board of Ed democrat on the decision, it pretty much sums up what I and most likely many informed Americans are feeling:

This is a sad day. We’re becoming a laughingstock of not only the nation, but of the world, and I hate that..."

I raised a point a few entries ago about why we as a nations were the only ones to be making a big stink about this. If intelligent design is such a rationale and non biased theory, then why are we the only ones to push it so hard? Well I got a comment on that one (Thanks for your thought anonymous) that said that the voices of those scientists elsewhere that supported this theory were being silenced by the majority. A fair but hard claim to prove. Well it looks like the Pro-evolution side has gained some heavenly backing. Recently, the
Vatican came out with a statement denouncing intelligent design. I honestly did not see this one coming, buspokesmanan from this most Holy of institutions said that people were trying to literally interpret the story of creation which should not be done. Well if the Vatican says that they don't support it, then that should really be the end of it, man if it were only so easy. One last article highlights the cross examination oMichaelal Behe, author of "Darwin's Black Box" and a staunch supporter of ID who testified in the Pennsylvania court case last week. He was cross examined by Eric Rothschild, a lawyer opposing the school board in the case. Here is the link to the Slate article comparing this cross examination with a popular Monty Python sketch. Read the article to get a better feel for the comparison, look below for just the stand alone hilarity of it.


Q: Please describe the mechanism that intelligent design proposes for how complex biological structures arose.
A: Well, the word "mechanism" can be used in many ways. Â… When I was referring to intelligent design, I meant that we can perceive that in the process by which a complex biological structure arose, we can infer that intelligence was involved. Â…
Q: What is the mechanism that intelligent design proposes?
A: And I wonder, could—am I permitted to know what I replied to your question the first time?
Q: I don't think I got a reply, so I'm asking you. You've made this claim here (reading): "Intelligent design theory focuses exclusively on the proposed mechanism of how complex biological structures arose." And I want to know, what is the mechanism that intelligent design
proposes for how complex biological structures arose?
A: Again, it does not propose a mechanism in the sense of a step-by-step description of how those structures arose. But it can infer that in the mechanism, in the process by which these structures arose, an intelligent cause was involved.


I can't believe that someone would get on the stand in support of a cause and so miserably fail it. This short amount of questioning (which supposedly continues like this for several pages/minutes) is so absurd I would say that the crew of Monty Python actually came up with it and somehow got Behe to say it on the stand, like a bet or something. Sadly I think that this is really what ID has to offer, nothing but a veiled attempt to include religion in our school curricula.

Tuesday, November 01, 2005

A few More Pix




Halloween 2005

Just like that Halloween came and went. I never used to be a big fan of Halloween, then I dressed up a couple of years ago and had a blast. Yes, its time consuming to come up with a costume and have to wear it all night, and be either hot or cold in October depending on what the temperature outside is. It really is about getting into the spirit of things though and enjoying yourself as is the case with any holiday. This year I was Tyrone Biggums a popular character on Comedy Central's Chappelle Show. Many people knew exactly who I was, those that did not I consider living in a hole. They would ask "Who are you" to which I responded "Homeless" because after trying to explain it once I realized two things. 1) If the person did remember who I was impersonating, they did not find it funny because they only faintly remembered/cared about Tyrone or 2) They would never get it or have never seen the show which would just waste 5 minutes of my time. All the same, I have grabbed a few shots from the weekends festivities. Since I did not go downtown I missed what I can only imagine were the sluttiest and sexiest costumes, but a friend indulged us with a stunning "Emergency Slut" costume, one of the most inventive I have seen in several years, peep it.



Thursday, October 27, 2005

A quick word on Internet Governance

Check out these articles (1 and 2) for some quick reference on internet governance and why it's such a hot topic these days. The short story is that the rest of the world wants the US to free up control over the internet that it maintains through ICANN, and the US does not want to. Now here I see both sides of the argument. The US says that it is not so simple as handing over control of the domain names and day to day operations of the internet, and that giving up control may lead to a fractured and bureaucratic mess of an internet instead of the awesome and clean structure we have today. The other countries say that no government body, US or otherwise should be in power of the internet, and I tend to side with them. The internet might have started here, but it has grown immensely since it's inception and to keep is locked up in the US is something...Actually its something the US would totally do, proudly. My biggest problem with keeping the US in control of the internet can be illustrated using the domain fight over the .xxx domain which would have been reserved for pornography sites. What was previously an approved domain name by ICANN was tabled right before official approval because the dept. of Commerce (A US governing body, the one that oversees ICANN) said they got to much push back and disagreement from conservative Christian groups (what a shocker, yet again they are complaining about something that has little to do with them). This example right here should give considerable weight to any argument a country brings against the US concerning over-reaching rule of the internet by one country. A simple suggestion for the internet which is shared globally is shot down by pressure from a one small segment of a one small country. Does that really make any sense to anyone? It can't even really make sense to the people who told ICANN to table the idea indefinitely. I think someone needs to table these Conservative Christian groups indefinitely.

Tuesday, October 25, 2005

An Actual 419 Email!!

Yeah I knew I would be able to give an example of the 419 Emails that I have been talking about these last few days. I actually have not received one of these in a very long time, I think it's funny that I just received one, this is one of the classics.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: NEWMAN AKUME
To:
Cc:
Bcc:
Subject: DEAR(Aki)GET BACK TO ME ASAP.
Date: Tue, 25 Oct 2005 14:52:04 +0300


FROM MR.NEWMAN AKUME DIRECTOR INCHARGE OF AUDITING AND ACCOUNTING UNIT,CONTINENTAL BANK,COTONOU-BENIN REPUBLIC Dear Friend , Is my Pleasure writing to you at this moment of the day, I am MR NEWMAN AKUME, the director incharge of auditing and accounting Unit of Continental Bank in Cotonou-Benin Republic. I and my colleagues deem it fit to contact you regarding to a transaction that will favour both of us at the end, and i got your contact in my search for a reputable and reliable person to help me claim the fund in question. We discovered the sum of Fifteen million United States Dollars (USD15M) belonging to a deceased customer of this bank. The fund has been lying in a suspence account without anybody coming to put claim over the money since the account owner late Dr. Hamid Ayed from Idaho State, who was involved in the December 25th Benin plane crash. Here is the air crash website on cnn =
http://www.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/africa/12/26/benin.crash/index.html The said fund is now ready for transfer to a foriegn account whose owner will be portrayed as the beneficiary and next of kin to the deceased customer of the bank. The foriegn account owner will impost himself as the next of kin to the deceased and respond positively like a true next of kin who wishes to speed up the release and transfer of his inherited fund. If the over due fund if not claimed by the end of next quarter, the government of the Federal Republic of Benin will take over the ownership of the fund in line with the Federal Edict Act of 1979. We do not want the government to take over the ownership of this money, that is why I contacted you for us to do the deal together, so that we will portray you as the bonafide next of kin to the deceased whose name is Dr. Hamid Ayed. If you accept to carry out this project with us, we will offer you 30% of the total sum, while I and my colleagues involved will take 70% of the total sum. Upon your acceptance to do this deal with us, we will jointly effect the transfer within 10 banking working days. Be rest assured that, this transaction carries no risk and no extra responssibilities on your part, except the above mentioned roles and normally you will be required to maintain absolute information and absolute secrecy throughout the duration of this transaction, because discussing it with a third party might jeopardise the entire transaction. Before we proceed in this great deal,i want you to forward to me ASAP the following information below as to establish a mutual understanding; 1)Your Residential/Office Address. 2)Your Telephone/Fax Number. 3)Your Age/Marital status. I am looking forward to receiving your interesting response on this project as this will greatly enrich both of us at the end. please You may contact me through my private email: or phone+229 97480 932

BEST REGARDS,
Mr NEWMAN AKUME(newman_akume1@chile.com)

Monday, October 24, 2005

An Apple Media Bias, and The inner workings of those pesky Breathalizers...

And just like that my Rugby season has come to end with a crushing defeat at the hands of The Pittsburgh RFC, 17-10. It was a nasty game played in terrible conditions (if you were anywhere on the east coast this weekend you know what I'm talking about). Reasons for the loss? Short Prep/warm up time, not having the regular starting 15 all there and good to go at the same time, rainy cold conditions, and a general lack of preparedness. This is a team we spanked at the beginning of the season, and while we have gotten better, I would say they stayed the same. We simply did not bring our A game. Too bad, its over now with nothing but free time and the gym to look forward to in the upcoming death season some like to call Winter. We did not get home until around 12:45am, but that did not stop us from going out. Everyone on the team was generally disappointed so the night could have been better, but it was still a fun time. Because the weather was crappy I chose to leave my camera in the bag, so no good pictures this weekend, save for the late night video I like to keep to myself.

In the LA Times there is
another article about those awful 419 scams, named after the Nigerian law that prohibits them. This article is a lot better than the one I posted about Microsoft helping Nigeria's cyber crime department in cracking down on these scams. This article deals more with the culture of the scammers and one man's adventure in the game, and why he chose to leave it. I am gonna have to say that the best part of the article is the few lyrics to the theme song of the 419 scammers called "I Go Chop Your Dollar". This whole concept seems absurd, but at least they can make a cool song/video out of it.

Here is something you don't read every day. Tech writer John C. Dvorak is complaining about the Apple media bias in newspapers and tech stories. Dvorak's main hypothesis is that because the people who write tech columns and stories are mostly 1)unknowledgeable about technology and 2) Mac users there is a bias in the media about Apple announcements while Microsoft gets the shaft even if they release a slew of good products. The theory behind this media bias thinking is good, but I don't agree. I think that media bias exists for certain topics and groups, but just not for Apple. If people keep on reporting things from the Apple camp, it could simply mean that Apple announcements and release of products is what is interesting people more, it's what's selling papers and getting readers to come to the site. Apple has been releasing a lot of consumer products lately which might make it look like there is a serious media bias, but I can't remember the last consumer product that Microsoft came out with. I mean besides Anti-spyware beta, the revamping of the MSN franchise, and the continuing updates to vista that your average user has no interest in, I don't really think Microsoft has done anything of real note that would compare to a story about Apple's Nano music player. I am not trying to knock Microsoft (which Dvorak also says is a bi-product of this media bias), I'm just saying that what he sees as a media bias may just be everything coming up Apple.

A reprieve for those that have been caught for driving under the influence in Florida. A law in Florida guarantees the right of those accused of a DUI to get all the details of the technology used to convict them. This gives them the right to get the hardware specs, manuals for use and related documents to the device and any changes to the device not contained on those documents. Well now the defense wants a little more,
they are asking for the Source Code of the breathalizer itself. This does seem a little ridiculous, but the breathalizer in question was once recalled for a software bug so its not impossible that problems with the device could be found by inspecting the source code, but I doubt it. The company refuses to give up the source code because they claim its a trade secret. I am interested to see how this plays out, the company will most likely be forced to give up the code. Who is going inspect it? The company and lawyers will probably have to agree on a neutral party or something. I wonder if they are going find anything?

Wednesday, October 19, 2005

Internet Addicts?! No Way!



Yes Way, at least according to China. This article is about China's internet addiction among young males and the steps they are taking to stop it. As I read this I was thinking "These fuckers are crazy. I cannot believe they are putting these people in clinics and making them wear these ridiculous helmet/mask things". Then I really started thinking about it. We have internet addicts here, admittedly I use the internet for a lot of things. We have little kids who don't do anything besides email and play video games right after school, but all we do is bitch about it. Well your not going to do anything about the situation by just talking about it folks, and apparently the Chinese are starting to take some action. I like how the last and most important magical step to the rehab is to exercise (read:do something else besides be on a computer for hours). That is pure genius! No wonder they are taking all of our jobs, this is the very reason. Seriously, this is not such a ridiculous idea, mostly just funny because the clinic is located in the same place as the rehab for drugs and alcohol. I can't even imagine the mixing of those three groups of people. Hilarious.

Just in case anyone hasn't been paying attention there has been some serious hoopla recently over videogame violence and its effect on children (Will someone please think of the children...). I swear this crap comes up like every 8 years or so. As the evolution of videogame realism and graphics goes on, people find something new to be offended by. The last huge one I remember clearly was the Mortal Kombat blood in/blood out craze on Genesis and Super Nintendo (Genesis had blood in, Super Nintendo had blood out). For pete's sake, that was a battle that just should have not happened. This time the sparkplug was none other than the new quintessential game of violence: Grand Theft Auto: San Adreas, or more specifically, the
Hot Coffee Mod. This one was a doozy. Here you could bang a girl (which you could do before) but this time it was explicitly graphic. Although this was not originally available in the game, performing a few steps would unlock it. Now I agree this is a bit much to be in a videogame, and Rockstar, the maker of the game, apologized/blamed hackers for the whole thing. Unfortunately this has now sparked such a huge nerve in America's golden society that along with public outcry, California has recently passed a law banning the sale of mature games to minors. There is already a videogame ruling board by the way that rates games and puts the warning right on the box (ESRB), but this is different. Furious about this move ESA (entertainment software association) is suing California over the law. I am actually pretty happy about this. There is no need for this banning, mostly because as the law is written it is totally ambiguous. It leaves a lot to interpretation and personal preference of what you think constitutes certain acts. Sounds a lot like what parents should be doing naturally when it comes to their kids, but then people not taking responsibility for themselves is nothing new here. Good luck to ESA.

Last but not least, this is a story that hits close to home. If your reading this that means you most likely have email which surely means you have seen the infamous "Nigerian Money Scam" email or some other variation. This thing has been giving us a black eye for more than enough time. I mean it really sux that a country with as much potential as Nigeria has just as much corruption fighting against that potential. I mean, computer usage is not very high there, but what is there are scams and phishing attempts. Well I guess you gotta start somewhere. Oddly enough, Microsoft has decided to help out Nigeria by teaming up with there Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to stop the so called "419" scams. Good for Microsoft, I like to hear stories about how the evil giant has learned the good lessons of help and sharing, warms my heart.

Tuesday, October 18, 2005

The Weekend In Review

This weekend marked the first time I went to a bachelor party. I know you are all thinking "How is that possible, such a cool guy like yourself must have been to several bachelor parties in your short but exciting lifetime". While I have been invited to a few, this is the first one I actually went to and now I am asking myself why it took so long for me to go. It was freakin' hot. It was me and my boys from the Rugby team at a fellow teammates party, needless to say we got a little out of control. Coming off the extreme high of crushing the Flint Team 27-3 (thanks guys for a good game, but we really needed a win), we went to the aftergame in an extremely good mood that carried itself all the way to 7am when I finally went to sleep. The strippers were top-notch (Good job S'wich) and I finally saw in real life stuff I really thought I would only see in porn. No details, but it was freakin' hot. "Who wants a mustache ride" was actually an applicable question. After the aftergame and the bachelor party we hit the bars with a fever that was a few hours too early. We had been partying for so long that by the time we got out it was still really early, but we were really wasted. Getting to bars and finding them sort of dead was a big blow that you think might have slowed us down, but in retrospect it was only a short time until the rest of downtown Rochester was on the same page we were. It was what I would call an extremely relaxing weekend. I woke up at around 11:30am with little hangover, decent fatigue, and a sore body from the game the day before. Pretty good I would say.

Here I will state that I did do some things I am not particularly proud of this weekend, and this being my own little soapbox let me throw my apologies out to anyone I offended, more specifically during the debaucherous night that was Saturday. I was wasted, but that is still not a great excuse, so sorry.

As for stories of tech news and politics, I got some serious humdingers including Microsoft finally helping to put a stop to the infamous "Nigerian Money Scam". What they are going to do to ease this internet menace is still left to be seen, but this and other stories will have to wait to the next hot issue of BB&S, work and the pressing need to leave it are calling my attention away for now...

Thursday, October 13, 2005

I'm Back!

After a long long hiatus, I am back in the saddle. My fall rugby season will soon be over and with it the constant pain my body is in will vanish, or at least subside. It has been a sweet run, and there is a possibility we might make the playoffs. If that happens I will probably be playing until sometime in November, but only time will tell if that will happen. Along with my rugby commitment, work has also been really stressful and busy. Not productive and fun busy, but stupid busy. It's difficult to describe the difference between the two, but essentially I am not developing some phat new project or testing some hot new camera, just fixing messes and rushing to get things done that shouldn't really be completed in the time frame given. I guess that's why they pay me the big bucks, c'est la vie...

A lot of things have happened since I last wrote. I have moved around the corner from my old house and not only inherited and upstairs and 30" widescreen TV (thanks Herbert) but a much cooler landlord and cool roommates who live in the other half of our house (they also happen to be my rugby teammates as well, so you can imagine how that is going). It has really been a blast living there so far. I am even closer to my favorite bar now (Prepps, they just got Wi-Fi. Yes a bar with wi-fi), and am still living around the yuppie but cool park ave area. And while I just move around in Rochester, a really good friend and long time lover (just kidding C-Dawg) is moving away. She thinks that if she leaves here her life will be better what with the nice Florida weather. Hurricanes and storms are much worse than a lot of snow in my opinion, so I will take what I know. I wish her the best the luck in her new life, and expect to see her back here within a few months, another victim of the curse of Rochester. Many people try to leave this place only to realize it was pretty nice when they were here. I will point you to this article in USA Today (a.k.a "McNews") about a random trip to Rochester that a travel reporter took. Shining reviews are the best and this one is pretty bright. If anyone wants to come and visit and have me prove to them the good times that can be had here, please be my guest.

I recently secured a new Camera, the Kodak V550. I have wanted this camera since the day I saw it. After being involved in a 2 week camera study using the thing, I realized I had to have it, and after a $90 Kodak discount realized that it should already be in my pocket, so expect more shots of my antics while I am out painting the town red now that my camera fits comfortably in my pocket. If I could post video here I would, but maybe in the future. For those expecting some news stories, you will have to wait till my next entry. I just decided to leave this one as a re-intro to my blog since I have been reading a lot of stories about other peoples blogs and did not want this to turn into my much loved AOL webpage, (see first entry) I decided I better keep up with this thing. See ya...

Friday, August 26, 2005

It's Google's World, We are just Living in it...

The article (registration required) I just finished reading is a bit ridiculous, but expected. I mean you could have seen the writing in the code. As google comes out with more web applications and services (Picasa, Google Earth to name a few) their dominance as general internet giant is being felt hard in Silicon Valley. This is a classic story of rebel turned corporate snob, or that is what some would have you believe. I think the battle against google was over when you could use the company's name as a verb. Once you could start "googling" things we should have all thrown in the towel and bowed down to the overlords Sergey and Larry. In all honesty this article sounds like the call of the hater. When a company becomes successful and tries to dip it's hand into everything it can they are seen as "drying up the talent pool" and "making it hard for start-ups" , to well, start up. This is because investors always believe that whatever the start up is trying to sell them on will just come out from google tomorrow, and google will do it better. I don't see this company as doing anything more than trying to make money in a culture where the norm is sink or swim and the changeover to drowning can happen in less than a week. Google has even been compared to Microsoft with Bill Gates touting that "they are the most similar company we have ever had as a competitor". Well good, finally you guys have to do something and be innovative, but be quick about it. If there were a true competing operating system to windows out there you think Windows Vista (Longhorn) would be this delayed? I doubt it. Kudos to google, their software is easy to use, has incredible functionality and beautiful user interfaces, and most importantly, is free. Good enough for me, F the haters in Silicon Valley.

I know I talked about intelligent design a few entries ago, but I saw this comic and had to put it in. Check out this article from the BBC about America's new "War on Science". Most people in this country are not really paying attention to the erosion of scientific consideration that is happening with this current administration, with little surprise I might add. I mean, our President is known to be a faux pas factory and with his latest statement of "I think it ought to be taught" with respect to intelligent design he is only perpetuating this image. Whatever you believe about the objectivity of scientists and how to interpret and weigh their respective findings you cannot deny that this country as a whole is falling into a pit of darkness where information and outside viewpoints are rarely heard or seen and where money and religion (seemingly very separate but very much intertwined) are guiding everything from our lesson plans to our interpretation of the constitution. It will be a awesome day when the monkey known and GW leaves office. It may not change everything, but at least I won't have to look at his smirking face everyday or hear his idiotic laugh as he speaks lightheartedly about foreign relations or our supposed energy policy.

Friday, August 12, 2005

Pop The Top!

Hey All, welcome to another rousing edition of beep boppin' and scattin'! I am your host Adeola the magnificent. Today we discuss the phenomenon that is putting your collar up, Nigerian debt Collectors, and The Man imposing his rule outside of the workplace.

First off, T.G.I wish I was dead, or at least sleeping. What kind of sick joke is a Friday anyway? So close to the weekend you can taste it, but having to work an extremely long work day just to get to it, one made even longer by the thoughts of the coming weekend. This will actually be the first Friday I have worked a full day in about 2 weeks. That is also not helping, but at least I have a job to go to and an income, can't say the same for many.

Now for the topics. I would like to point your attention to an article at the Village Voice. It's a very in depth and reasonable article about that ubiquitous fashion, guys (and I guess girls) putting their collars up on a polo shirt although it can really be on any shirt. I really don't know how I feel about this whole collar thing. Actually, the article does a good job of pointing out the good and the bad points of the style. What does it mean? Why do people do it? Why do people hate it? If you do it, will guys want to be you and girls want to try and change you? I am not really sure, but I don't have a very long neck and my collar down is usually at the level of most people who put their collars up, I just don't have the real estate to pull this thing off, or up as the case may be. What do you guys think of this. Is it interesting, or just dumb? The article raises a good point about the people that hate it and why, because it looks like the person is trying to hard. That is, when they see someone with a collar up they picture the person getting dressed and finally popping the top with this feeling that they are now cool, and it just infuriates them. That is pretty true, that is what I think sometimes, but who am I to judge someone for being fashionable. I wear those stupid Euro shoes (if you don't know what those are look down, you are probably wearing them right now), wear button down shirt out with jeans, and usually have some type of funky watch on. Am I trying to hard, or am I just trying to look good? That I guess is for the masses to decide.


I received these pictures(to the right) in a random email from a buddy of mine. The forward had a message in it that talked about how these guys were probably from a Nigerian gang. I, wanting to defend my country men as not, immediately defended them and said that I have never seen this in my very limited time in Nigeria, and my parents had never mentioned any fucking hyenas anywhere. Well apparently my parents just have not been in a while and I was just not there for long enough because these people are surely from Nigeria. They are apparently debt collectors. Yo, if some dude shows up to my house with a giant chain, a stick and a hyena, you better believe I will pay him some way. Thank God all we have to worry about here are the relentless phone calls, and possible legal action of various insitutions. All of a sudden court looks like an excellent idea. By the way, the monkey also belongs to one of the people in the group. I think he is there just to mix things up by throwing feces around your house and causing you to become generally more agitated as he leaps around your home screeching and breaking things. Probably doesn't keep the hyenas that calm either.

Last but not least, a quick word regarding an article about how companies now have the power over our freetime. Its not bad enough that they have us for 8 hours a day and 5 days a week, but now if I want to hang out with a co-worker after work and grab a beer or a bite to eat, my boss can tell me I can't. I doubt this is really going to be practiced, but then why is the power there in the first place? I would use the phrase "mad sketchy" to describe this policy.

Thursday, August 04, 2005

Intelligent Design?! Are you Kidding Me!

When I first started this blog I had a few articles in mind that I would talk about to get my creative writing juices flowing. I never did write anything about those articles and just figured I would let it go thinking I would find other interesting things to write about in the future. Well it seems that one of those topics has re-surfaced and I can't pass up the chance this time. The title should give you an idea of what it is, but just in case, the issue is about teaching intelligent design in our public high schools alongside evolution as a competing theory of how man as we know him came to live on this earth as we do today. I pride myself on my ability to hear both sides of an arguement and give everyone a fair chance to make a point, in this case however I am going to have to agree with most of the scientific community that this should not even be a debate, much less a real issue to weigh in on.

Intelligent Design is not a scientific theory no matter how many people say it is. For those of you that don't know, intelligent design (better known as creationism) is the simple notion (and it really is one of the more simplistic ideas around) that we as human beings are SO complex biologically and in our current state of being that it is simply impossible for a guiding force to not have had some type of involvement in it. Basically we are too advanced to have gotten to this point of our existence with such a simple and misguided idea as evolution. Natural selection is hooey apparently. Most rational thinking people see this as a way for religion, notably Christianity, to find it's way into a public school system that has separated itself from the faith ages ago (technically). The proponents of this "Theory" say that it's valid and to not allow it is to willingly leave out of the public forum a whole chunk of educational goodness. These people are very serious and are trying very hard to get this piece of trash they like to call scientific thinking into the public high school curriculum, maybe even down to the elementary and middle school curriculum.

As if it was not hard enough to get youngsters to understand the mystery that is long division, we are going to teach them two separate theories of how humans came to be on this earth, and we expect this to be better for them. Our educational system is already lacking behind most of the modern world, now the hard christian right has figured out another way for use to fall behind. If this is such a valid theory then how come it is only being pushed in the US? Are we really that advanced that we know something the other 5 billion people in the world don't know. My idea is we don't, we just have more idiots and self righteous monkeys in this country who are actually willing to argue for the inclusion of such a ridiculous idea into minds of growing adults. I'm looking at you, Mr.Bush. The President recently said that he believes intelligent design should be taught in schools in order to address all the possibilities that could be when speaking about human developement. Ok I have a theory that I would like to include as well. We actually came from a super intelligent race of sea monkeys that lived on this world in the oceans before the break up of the continents. Where are these sea monkeys now? Obviously they have migrated to the new 10th planet found beyond the reaches of Pluto.

Saturday, July 30, 2005

The Past Couple of Weeks

It's been a long time, I have been needless to say kind of busy, also extremely lazy. Nothing particularly interesting has happened in these past two weeks. Rugby practice with my team The Rochester Aardvarks continues with the season to start September 10th (if anyone is interested in watching me and my buddies run all over some older men your more than welcome, schedule is on the website). We apparently will be featured in The Rochester Business Journal, to be published sometime this week We are in a story that talks about what working types do for fun in Rochester, should be some really good exposure for the team, and I'll take my 15 minutes wherever I can get it. The women who took the picture was pretty zany but nice, even though she was going to a party and was has a pretty nice dress on she was definitely laying in the dirt taking some weird angled shots, you kinda had to be there. Anyway, I will post the pictures from it when I get them.

Yesterday I went to a party at my buddies house where I ran into some old friends from HS, it was very unexpected. Met some cute girls, got crunked and chilled on a rooftop till early in the morning, totally worth the airplane ride home this weekend (where I am currently writing from). Got some pretty good pictures of everyone, but they have not been edited yet and are not ready for internet viewing, but I'll find some definitive picture and post it at a later date.

Nothing too great to report in the tech and politics department. I have read some ridiculous stores about the tragedy in Niger as well the on-going saga that is "Plamegate". I really cannot believe that since Watergate we have not come up with a better name to describe white house affiliated scandals. Are reporters just lazy or are we just comfortable with the naming scheme? Whatever it is, it should stop immediately. Finally I would like to announce that I have found a new favorite magazine. It's called Radar, and it's a general pop, politics and Humor magazine. I have just begun to read it and have fallen in love. Witty and very intelligent articles are what it has to offer with the first cover proclaiming to give you the secrets you'll need to be famous without actually possessing any talent. On the cover President Bush putting a medal around Paris Hilton's neck, you really should just read it. I will attempt to blog about things I see in the media before they get to it, but frankly I just don't have the resources they do.

Friday, July 15, 2005

The CIA as kidnappers, and the hub-bub over Supreme Court Justices

Read a few f'ed up articles today, mostly on the Voice website. Someone is finally is doing something about the outsourcing of torture in this country (to use an over-used term). For those that don't know what I'm talking about, for the past couple of years during America's war on Terror, Gitmo and Abu Ghraib have not been the only places where questionable acts on prisoners have taken place. The US has been engaging in a practice known as Extraordinary Rendition. This practice just reaks of immaturity. Since we can't legally torture people here for info (which does not mean it does not happen) we send them to other countries where we know there are no limits on torture, to have them interrogated there. The administration says that they don't condone torture then turn their faces the other way as the countries we should be labasting for their terrible treatment of humans get us our much needed information. Finally a country has refused to let this type of thing happen under their noses. The Country of Italy was location of one of the CIA's covert missions to kidnap a suspect, take him back to his own country (Egypt) and have him tortured. The Italian Governement has long been after this guy, he was already under surveillance so it's not like everyone necessarily thought he was innocent. The Italians did NOT know that the CIA was going to pull a move like they did. So the Italians traced the CIA agents responsibe for the kidnapping and issued arrest warrants for them. Classic. I wonder how this is going to play out on the US media. There have been many references to this practice of rendition in various stories, but I have yet to really see it on news magazines or local news channels. I wonder how they are gonna explain this one? Pobably with the lame "They would do worse to you and your family if they captured you!". Yeah, it's real likely that Mr. and Mrs. podunk living in the middle of no where are gonna get captured and totured. For the full story, check out the voice article here.

Tom Tomorrow graces us with another awesome
cartoon. This one is particularly good because Supreme Court fights like this don't happen that often. My favorite part is when they nominate Cthulu: Destroyer of Worlds as Supreme Court Justice, freaking hilarious. I had no idea who Cthulu was at the time so I looked it up, here's a picture for your pleasure.

In all honesty though, this fight over supreme court justices is getting pretty heated. After O'Connor's surprise that she was stepping down, Rehnquist (who in my opinion is so old he should not even be allowed to drive) made a surprise announcement that he won't be stepping down despite his many health problems and frequent hospital visits. Honestly, there should be some type of governing body that can decide when a justice should step down. This man is not fit for any other job in the world besides listening to cases of great importance and speaking his opinion about them. When is his horrendous age (and by association his connection with the current state of American Culture) going to outweigh his supposed knowledge in legal matters. I think Supreme Court Justiceship should have a statute of limitations. For some telling info on the way the Justices come to power, please read this article from the voice. Apparently these days you can buy youself a supreme court judge.

Wednesday, July 13, 2005

A Tourney in Canda


This past weekend I went to Ottawa, Canada for a weekend long rugby tournament. It was just as good as everyone who had ever gone to it told me it would be. There were no hotels since these fields were in the middle of nowhere, so everyone camped on the sidelines of the 4 practice/tournament fields that they had (there was also a main field that was beautiful and lush and had stands for it). There were about 200-300 people there, men's and women's teams, from all over the place. We entered the social division (there was a competitive division as well, but no one really wanted to prepare for that) and we took third out of eight teams. Not likes that is too bad or anything, but we probably should have taken first. I arrived Friday night and after helping to set up the tent went straight to boozing. When I awoke on Saturday morning I could not believe I was sleeping in a tent. I barely even knew where I was and I needed to get up and play a 30 minute game of rugby (usually a rugby game is 80 minutes, but in tournaments the halves are reduced because of the number of games). After the first 15 minutes of play I was all set and the feeling of nausea I had been sporting for several hours was gone. All our games were done by about 1pm so we just spent the rest of the day eating and relaxing in the sun. It was an incredibely stress free and fun time, definitely needed.


At night everyone headed over to the bar that was above the field house (I know, it was hot shite) and proceeded to get into a heated dance party which was seriously one of the highlights of the night. Mad old music was played (I heard rumpshaker and the first song on the jock jams cd just to name a few) and everyone had a good time. The other huge event of the weekend happened at around 12 midnight that night. It was a co-ed naked rugby game, seriously. 15 girls and 15 dudes (mixed teams) stripped down to their birthday suits and started a midnight game of rugby and it was as hot as it sounds. Now you have to understand there are a lot of bigger girls who play rugby so not all the girls out there made it worth watching, but my hat goes off to the 5 or so that did. It was truly awesome. A buddy of mine who was not playing in the game went out and shot some pictures before he was tackled by one of the naked players (a guy) that also happened to be one of our teammates. It was the highlight of a game that lasted only 5 minutes because the cops showed up, don't ask me who the party pooper was that did that.

Sunday morning was much better for me, much worse for others. Apparently a bunch of guys stayed out at night and spent bucket loads of cash on shots of Yukon Jack. While this is not the only reason we lost our game at 9am in the morning, I am sure it had something to do with it. Then that was the end of that, we watched the finals and some of us subbed for one of the teams (it was a weird situation, another team in our division were full of guys we knew so a lot of that team acted as subs for our team, and we did the same for them, needless to say the semi-finals where we had to play and eventually lose to them was a weird one) then we all took off. We watched Starsky and hutch on my laptop which is a hilarious movie. See that and Envy if you ever get a chance, Ben Stiller is hilarious.



I bet you thought I would dissapoint and not put any "proof" of the naked rugby game didn't ya? Well I am not going to put anything that bad here, but trust me this was the only girl wearing her skivies. ZOOM ZOOM ZOOM!!!

Friday, July 08, 2005

The G8 Summit and the Live 8 concert

During the pst couple weeks the number 8 has been used so much in the news that I think we should just lay off of it for the rest of the year. If you have not heard of the Live 8 concert series yet, maybe you were in one of the poor countries that this concert was meant to highlight. It starred such rockers as Madonna, Jay Z, Def Leoppard, and Destiny's Child in a union meant to address continuing African poverty and the means by which these nations are kept in the state that they are in. I saw some clips of the concerts and it looked like a lot of fun, that is until they spotlighted the very reason for the concerts existence by showing horrendous pictures of real African poverty. Come on now, I came to see Beyonce not starving children and their malnourished bodies. I guess that was one of the few ways that the concert could keep focus on its real purpose although I am sure most of the audience just went and enjoyed the acts then went home to continue their daily lives. In all honesty if I was there in Philly, I would have done the same. I will hand it to Bono and Bob Geldorf though, for what its worth they got a lot of airtime and were able to at least bring the message of African poverty to many people who might never have taken note of the G8 summit going on this week in Scotland.

The
G8 Summit this year focused on the continuing problem of African poverty along with addressing such concerns as the Kyoto protocols and agricultural subsidies. For some more details on these problems check out this article from the Village Voice. There was a big call to forgive the large debts of many African nations in order to allow them to progress to a modern industrial era that the member countries of the G8 council enjoy. I've read a few articles on this summit and one thing I have gotten out of them is that George W. never lets the chance for being a royal ass pass him by. Here are some choice quotes from an article I read in the new York Times. The full text can be found here.

"The reason it (Kyoto protocol) didn't work for the world is many developing nations weren't included in Kyoto," Mr. Bush said. "I've also told our friends in Europe that Kyoto would have wrecked our economy. I don't see how you can be president of the United States and agree to an agreement that would have put a lot of people out of work."

The basis of the protocol by the way is to have industrial nations curb there emissions of greenhouse gases through technological innovation and alternative fuel and energy systems, while developing nations that don't have access to current industrial methods, much less alternative methods of prodution and manufacturing to develop to a level of modernity. Why they would be included here I am not quite sure. As for agreements that would put people out of work, I think the POTUS and his administration have made enough concessions to their corporate play pals that have cost the American public many jobs, maybe they can pass on the protocol. By the way, all member states of the G8 council have ratified this protocol except for the US. We are apparently so advanced in our ways of thinking that we can tell the rest of the world to shut the hell up and let us do the driving.

Here's another one of my favorite quotes:

Acknowledging that anti-war feeling is "current wisdom these days," the president added that "following public polls is like chasing your tail" and that in Iraq and elsewhere, "I truly believe we're laying the foundation for peace."

Why would you follow what the public, the people who put you in power, want you to do? That would be like a total democracy, or at the very least a republic which is not what we have going on here. We the people of the US don't really know whats going on, the 55% or so of the public that now disagrees with the war just don't understand the kind of work that it takes to spread peace throughout the world. It's a bloody and murderous process, get over it.

Sometimes I really feel like I'm living in a dream world where a madman has taken office and there is no way to get him out of there, a feeling I am sure many can echo.

Tuesday, July 05, 2005

July 4th is the Shiznito!


... Posted by Picasa

And I'm back. I have not written here in a bit, many might have been worried that this would turn out like my early webpage (see first post for more on this), but I have just been a bit busy and have not had anything really urgent to write about. But I'm back now, still with nothing that interesting but maybe it'll be good anyway.

I'm coming off of an incredible 5 day vacation from work that has been everything it sounds like. From Friday till today I have been living a life without the daily grind. Life, by my own rules, and it has been great. Almost what a good vacation should be but I was still in Rochester instead of some resort like my roommate in Jamaica, but you gotta take what you can get. I did lot of cool things like watch tv and visit friends with large houses in the country to watch their much bigger tv's.

I did find a twilight zone marathon but skipped most of it for a kick ass bbq at my place where the theme were a concotion called the
mojito. If you have never heard of this drink you should ask somebody. They are the shiznite. If the the concentration of the ingredients is a little off the drink will still be a refreshing summer time creation. Nobody that had it yesterday asked for less that two, those that did drink less that two were just late to the bbq and we had run out of ingredients.

I even got to light some fireworks during this 4th of July vacation. I have a buddy who had enough fireworks for his own show, and it would have definitely been an hour long, if not longer. There really is nothing better than blowing something up, it ranks right up there with something on fire. The kind of things you can come up will just amaze you. The last creation we had was to tie a
roman candle to a large bottle rocket and try and time the candle to shoot shot out before the bottle rocket exploded. There are so many things wrong with this idea now that I think about it I can't believe I even conceived it. At first we though of putting the roman candle downwards so as the rocket went up it would have a booster firing look to it. The downside to this (which we did not immediately realize) was that then the shiny exploding balls of fire would be shooting back at us. Yes, there was beer there. After we scrapped that idea, we put them both facing the same way taped them together and put them on what we thought was a sturdy wasps nest in the pipe. That gave way and our creation fell down the pipe and it was pretty impossible to retrieve it. Many methods were used to try and light it while it was in the pipe: throwing flaming paper balls down it, shooting a roman can straight into it, firing another bottle rocket into it. The last attempt involved pouring kerosene down the pipe. See what I mean? Mad things wrong with this picture, but the thing never went off, no one was injured and we had an awesome time.

As a sidenote, I was watching Fox News (briefly) when they were doing a special report on fireworks safety. They were using little plastic dolls to illustrate the damage that these fireworks could do. My question is, Why would you show a kid with little exposure to fireworks how cool it is to blow stuff up with them? I watched the report, they had little fireworks next to these 10" plastic figures, and they would just blow the hell out of them. It was mad cool and not at all scary. Maybe some kids were deterred, but most that knew little of the subject were now hardcore fans. Those that already knew how cool fireworks were (like myself) just watched because it was cool.

As my vacation comes to a sad sad end, I would to like to leave a few reminders/tips for life in general because you never know where it might take you:

1) If a girl calls you because you met her some random weekend and you don't remember her, don't tell her that. Look for a way out of it and pray to not get caught. This might seem obvious, but it wasn't to me. I played the honest card and it turned out to be a joker, right in my face.

2) Trees are like magnets to little balsa wood model planes bought from corner drugstores. The trees swallow them whole and force you to do ridiculous things if you want to get them back. Funny to watch though, as the intended flight path just gets interrupted with leaves and branches. It never really gets old.

3) No matter what, as soon as you pull out a wrist rocket (a glorified slingshot with a extra part acting as a brace against your forearm) everyone sits down to think of what would be awesome ammo. A few ideas are said and shotdown for various reasons,some objects are to light, some not a good shape for the sling. Then someone will eventually name rocks as the perfect ammo. Now, we all know that a slingshots and rocks make an awesome and horrendously destructive combination. The reason everyone is thinking about what would be great ammo is because you all know you shouldn't use rocks. It's just unsaid until someone says it, and as you run out of ideas, rocks start to make a lot of sense. About 5 minutes after that the sling shot is put away and the conversation switches topics. That's as long as it took to finally decide to use rocks, shoot off a few and having an undoubtedly awesome time before finally shooting something and either causing serious property damage or getting mad close to doing so.

4) The chick above this post is a good friend. She was only in Rochester for the night, but we still got a chance to hang out. She's mad cool and gorgeous and everyone should have a friend like her. It was a good end to my vacation.

Thursday, June 23, 2005

I'm Afraid of Americans


The Cartoons Say It All... Posted by Hello

Two cartoons above touch on some of the more ridiculous (IMHO) things going on in Washington these Days. (Both Cartoons pulled from one my Favorite Weekly Newspapers, The Village Voice)

The first cartoon refers to the Downing Street Memo and the hoopla associated with it. I am one of those people that thinks this a fairly big deal. If you have not heard about this little document, or don't really feel like reading the linked text here is a rundown ( See this article also, from the Village Voice. Something tells me the professionals may write a better article than I). In 2002 while the American Administration tried to convince everyone and their mothers that we needed to strike hard and fast at Iraq because they had WMD's, they were at the same time trying to find international support for the war. Tony Blair, the British PM came to the aid of the President. After having a multi-day conference with the President and the current administration and after a meeting with his own advisors he said that he would lend any support necessary in this war on terror (the memo is really about what was said in this conference).

Many Americans (including myself) bought into the reasons for the war. We were scared after 9/11 and left with a feeling of vulnerability. This war seemed like a good way to gain our footing back and let people know we were still America and we could still kick ass (not like that was even in question, but that is another discussion). However, while we were all chanting "Get Saddam outta there" many Americans were on the other side of the coin and saw all this talk against Iraq as nothing more than a smoke screen by the government. They suspected that the whole reasoning for the war was pretty much made up and that the POTUS had decided to attack Iraq right after the 9/11 attacks and was looking for reasoning to back up this attack as he presented his case for war to the American public as well as the rest of the world.

Until now that last argument has been mostly speculative, what right wingers were calling left wing conspiracy theories. As much as people were willing to believe this "shoot first then make up a story explaining why we shot later" theory, it was nothing more than that, as far as the general public was concerned. That is until this little memo was released. The thing is that these documents came into the public light approximately 4 weeks ago in Britain, it was covered by the British Press extensively. Another story that was covered by the international press was the absolute non-coverage that the memo's received by the big American Press corps. It took about 2-3 weeks after the memo was in the British Press for any real word of it to make it to the states (The number of newspapers carrying the story initially could be counted on one hand).

Now that it (the memo) is pretty much public knowledge, many are not outraged as so many British citizens were. In fact, most people are asking the question "What's the big deal?". Some of the American press is even stating "Oh, well we already knew that, this isn't news". This is absolutely ridiculous reasoning. What's the big deal?! Only that we now know that the President lied to us. This was not faulty intelligence or faulty collaboration between intelligence agencies. This was straight up lying, there is now shroud to put over this to make it better. The down playing and control of news dissemination in America has become so abysmal that when something actually does break, such as this story, excuses like "We Knew that already" are used to explain it away. If you knew the President was lying and made up reasons to go to war, why wasn't it covered when this knowledge was first given to you. Why didn't the American people know that they were being hoodwinked when it was actually happening? More importantly, Why isn't anyone taking this more seriously?

When was the last time a President lied and was caught in it, and what was the lie about? It was Billy Clinton and the lies surrounding the bj from Monica. He was impeached because he lied about a sexual act he committed in Private (albeit in the Oval office) that really had no effect on his ability to do his job or his day to day decisions, and most certainly did not involve foreign sovereign powers. In fact most of the world laughed off the incident, calling the American public uptight and illogical (paraphrased international opinion). So the current President lies to the American public and the world and plunges us into an unjust war that has cost hundreds of thousands of lives and does not really have an end in sight. What happens to him? His approval rating, which was already low for any incumbent President to begin with, gets a little lower. He still has a lot of support from his Right wing, conservative Christian base. He still operates this country with all the finesse of a retarded monkey, and has really done nothing notable in his time of presidency besides taking the most vacation days in the first quarter of a Presidential term than any president before him. This country is made up of Fat idiots, and you have to look no further than this story to see it.

The second cartoon deals with the government funding of the public broadcast networks PBS and NPR (television and radio respectively). I am not quite sure about all the facts that surround this issue, whether the Government is cutting funding because it believes the station may be taking on too much of a right wing agenda or whether the right wing government is cutting funding because they believe the networks have a liberal bias. Whatever it is, the cartoon is funny (It suggests the first of the two arguments is the correct one). More info on it can be found at the New York Times online (among other news sources). Follow this link (free registration required) for a pretty decent story on this. Enjoy your weekend.

Monday, June 20, 2005

The Myth of The Metrosexual

I have heard too much about this stupid concept to not touch on it briefly.

I first heard about the concept of the "Metrosexual" from a friend of mine like last year, so I was a little late to the slang party. When she explained to me what a metrosexual was I was instantly appalled that a word had been made up to describe a man who did not some classic picture of what a man should be and cared a little bit about the way he looked in public. What was going on in this society where new groups of people were being randomly named and created based on a few factors of their lives. I thought the entire idea was stupid and I just shrugged it off at the time.

About a day or two later I watched this episode of South Park (one of the funniest I have seen to date). In it they mock the idea of metrosexuals (like the way they treat most topics in South Park Land) and envision the metrosexual movement taking over the humble town. Apparently Matt and Trey thought the way I did, or at least they saw the idea as being one that was easily mockable. Check out the episode if you can find it somewhere, it is truly funny.

Today at lunch, while my roommate, my buddy, and I were talking about the goings on of the past weekend, my roommate mentioned that he met a girl who said that she was "looking to date a metrosexual". Damnit, there's that word again! What the F! What does this mean?! What was she describing when she said Metrosexual? What does she really have in mind? The term I believe is inherently ambiguous and should be abolished from our language. Does she mean she wants some guy who is going to shower and perhaps manicure his toenails? A guy who puts fine china on the walls as decorative pieces? Someone who is into candles and bubble baths? What does it mean? I don't think that she really knows, nor do I think people who use the word really know what they are describing. In their heads I am sure metrosexual could equal many things. a guy who acts gay, but isn't. A guy who is sensitive and likes things that guys commonly don't like. But those two explanations have flaws in them themselves. What does "act gay" mean, and if a lot of guys are starting to like the things that guys usually don't like, doesn't that mean that guys now like these things, who are we differentiating from here?

In general this discussion leaves me confused. I should add that when I brought up the term with my sister her words were "You're kinda metrosexual aren't you" at which point I almost lost it. Now I will be the first person to tell you I'm into a lot of stuff. But to be placed in some made up category because I like to smell good and light a candle here and there is preposterous in my eyes. If a guy has feminine qualities, he is effeminate. He may still be straight or gay, but he is effeminate nonetheless. And by qualities I don't mean that he likes things guys are not commonly into, I mean mannerisms, way of using language and speaking, even some forms of dress. The word effeminate has been around for a while now and has established itself in our lexicon, let's not add another word to describe a varied set of characteristics that change per person and have no real basis to begin with.

One last link here to a Levi's Ad. It does not really support or deny any of my arguments, but it is freakin hilarious and does depict how I believe a lot of guys might feel these days.

Wednesday, June 15, 2005

Robots, Eddie Bauer's Nanotech, and a Essay on Free Society



Whatever you can do we can do better... Posted by Hello

By now you must understand I have a love of technology in most of it's incarnations, most specifically in Robot technology. When I was in H.S. I read a book called Caliban written by Roger MacBride Allen set in Isaac Asimov's robot universe. It started an obsession with robot science fiction that is still going strong. I found Asimov's stories to be incredibly easy to read, while retaining a strong connection of social issues between our world and the one he was creating. His Robot series novels are a must read for any science fiction fan with an affection for cyborgs, robots, or thinking machines in our society. The picture above is from the Prototype Robot Exhibition in
Japan. Besides these two jazz playing bots, there is a ballroom dancing bot that should inspire any person with two left feet to go out a better themselves, lest they be replaced by an inhuman companion.

On to Eddie Bauer and their battle with those that like to protest everything. Last month a few protesters trying to make a valid point about nano technology and its use without understanding got semi-nude and proudly displayed their feelings about Bauer's move. Wired has the story here. I just find this a little funny. I am all for understanding tech before we use it, but all they did was make better stain proof pants, hardly something to cause some type of grey goo meltdown which most of those against nano tech fear. At least there were boobies on display in addition to super teched out pants. I will ask this question though: How come no one ever hot or really beautiful makes it to these "nude" protests. Is there a pre-requisite that says if your delicious body detracts from the cause/point you are trying to promote then stay at home and keep your clothes on? I think maybe...

Last but not least an essay by Lawrence Lessig on Free software and Free Society in Brazil. Long known for it's incredible Carnivale celebration and horrendous crime, Brazil was recently host to a forum that proposed to take ownership of ideas and give them back to the people towards a better end then sheer profit. It's a little lengthy, but very insightful and refreshing. If you have confusion about free software and what it is, this article is not the best read. It is pretty relevant if you want to know why people are making such a fuss over the use of these programs. Hope you enjoy it.

Monday, June 13, 2005

It's Monday...All Day

Whew! What a weekend. It was incredibely and unseasonably hot and humid in Rochester. Fans were sold out at three different stores I went to, and everyone was sporting a sweat mark/ring somewhere on their clothing. In Rochester we are so used to bitchin' about the cold and miserable weather, it was a treat to get to bitch about the hot and miserable weather. As bad as it was though, I still enjoyed the feeling of just being uncomfortable in the heat, your body just sweating because you are not right in front of a fan or A/C. Fun times at the bars this weekend as well. Saturday my friends and I took a "No holds barred" approach to the pre-game and nighttime festivities. From what I remember it was an excellent time.

On to some interesting if not disturbing news today. I came across this on
Slashdot. Reporting on something we all knew happened but never had any real quantitative data against, apparently scientists do actually massage their data for one reason or another. Fudging data because of pressure from the sponsoring body or just so they don't make themselves look like jackasses is not uncommon. The graph below actually gives a percentage of scientists who use 'questionable' research methods. It's interesting table, percentages are pretty tiny so I wouldn't start crying "conspiracy!" just yet.



Scientists are mad sketchy too... Posted by Hello

Friday, June 10, 2005

Those Wacky Japanese


Exoskeletons are Here!! Posted by Hello

They're at it again. The Japanese long known for their inventive prowess have developed a 33lb battery powered exoskeleton, powerful enough to allow this tiny Japanese man to pick up this even tinier Japanese woman. Their working towards a way to get it to help open those tough pickle and jelly jars.

Seriously though, the Japanese are always ahead of the curve with respect to Robotech (pun totally intended). Toyota has Asimo and it seems they add functionality to that thing all the time (last time I checked it was walking up stairs and getting up from a lying face down position). There are robots to help disabled people achieve everyday tasks and even robots to watch your kids. Now the Japanese have taken it to the next level and integrated the robot right into the human frame. This suit takes impulses of your muscles, through your skin, and "enhances" them whatever that means. Leaving it at that would have been way to easy so they made it autonomous as well. This means as a paraplegic you would be able to walk with the use of this exo-skeleton. The idea seems pretty awesome, although I see myself jumping into one of these things to do some heavy lifting then suddenly taking off in an unknown direction against my will. Probably to have some hot robot sex with some type of curvy construction vehicle. Scary.
I was always wandering when we could categorically say we have crossed over into the realm of the true cyborg, no matter what you define cyborg as. This suit brings things pretty close if you ask me. Congrats to those wacky Japanese!