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!

Thursday, June 09, 2005

First Post

Yay! I finally quit just talking about my blog I have actually created one which was rather simple since I already had an account on blogger.com. The title of this blog might seem very strange to some of my newer friends (late and post college) and very familiar to others (HS and early college). When I was High school before blogging was totally in, I had a short lived news letter which had the same exact title as this blog here. It followed a commentary format and every piece in it started out with the phrase "Adeola On:". In it, I spoke of things a horny sexually frustrated high school boy would talk about: girls, breasts, asses, and more girls. It was only two and a half issues long (Using only the aforementioned subjects had the obvious effect of me running out of material) but I like to think that it brought a little joy to the lives of the privileged few who got it. At the time I had a lot of things on my mind that I thought everyone should know about, so I told them. I did try and re-start this newsletter while in college but quickly realized I was too lazy and that my subject matter had not changed significantly enough to warrant a whole fresh newsletter.

Since then I would like to think that I have grown up a little, and while the previous topics are still on my mind (let's hope they always are), I would like to think I have a little bit more to say than "What's the deal with all the hair on girls arms" (seriously, I wrote a whole article on this topic). So welcome to my new blog, hope you enjoy it. Unlike my AOL webpage (http://members.aol.com/makinola, IF YOU DARE) this will be constantly updated.