Science continues its decline in the Western world.
Consider that once - science was core to the Muslim world. Today and for a couple of centuries this has not been the case.
It should be noted that an increase in religosity is what killed of science and philosophical thought in Muslim society.
This is what is happening here in the Western World.
There aren't enough physics teachers in the UK.
Entropy in UK
Top biologists abandon the best colleges in the United States because they are not free here to do the research necessary.
Stem Cell Scientists
Genetically modified food is feared in Europe and in the United States it is prevalent but society in general is blithely unaware that it is happening. It is uncontrolled. Either policy is dangerous.
And now we have problems getting corporate America to supply funding for a Darwin exhibition at a major museum.
We are turning our backs on science - science which is literally the hand the feeds us, earns our great incomes and makes our countries flourish.
Seems there is no way to stop history from repeating itself. I suspect though - that this time through the cycle there will not be so much time in the Interregnum, and the state of science will overall be higher throughout this Interregnum.
Alex
Tuesday, November 22, 2005
Monday, November 21, 2005
Today Monday 20051121 in the News
GM reports that they will be cutting 30,000 jobs over the next 3 years. This will result in a 1,000,000 car drop in production capacity.
Does it matter that GM is going to lose 1,000,000 car capacity? Not really. They fell in love with the American ideal of bigger is better and made lots of profit. Now they laughably have commercials about the great mileage they get in their cars. Talking about the remade Cavalier/Cobalt getting 34 mpg.
I have two very important points on this...No, three
1) When my wife owned a Chevy Corsice (1989) hatchback - she loved the power in the car. It had a nice six cylinder engine. But the brakes were constantly not quite right, I changed the battery in the car - and we had to take it to the dealer so they could reset the computer (apparently you can't do something as simple as change the battery yourself) and the electrical system was beginning to act - well weird.
2) Every American car has left me stranded on the road and helpless. It is not a good feeling - and living in New Jersey not every area is a place where you can walk to a house and ask for help.
3) My Honda Civic - 1992 - which I have since donated had 222,222 miles over 9 years. Its sticker (stick shift/manual trans) had 36/40 MPG. Sometimes you get better and sometimes you get worse mileage than the sticker. That car for the life of the car when I owned it - got 40MPG. The car broke down once - because the distributer finally crapped out at 160,000 miles. And Chevy wants to laud the Cobalt (similar car) getting 34 MPG! What a bunch of idiots - is the kindest way I can put it. And you know what - my parents had a 1986 Cavalier - and it was a piece of crap. In fact, it was the car that turned my family from American Manufacturers to - well Honda.
I could really go on a lot about this stuff. Really this is a case of macroeconomics and microeconomics.
On the Microeconomic side you have comfort, reliability and fuel-efficiency. This are all factors in favor of Honda vs GM.
On the Macroeconomics side you have jobs, GNP and global perception of Americans. These are things that if you lose the Microeconomics side - guess what you lose the Macroeconomic side.
Guess what, people in general are what you might call selfish. We don't want to be victims of being left on the side of the road. We don't want to be victimized by garages that charge lots of money to do repairs or dealers that charge even more to do repairs. We like it even if there is just a perception that by the things we do on a daily basis we are saving money.
So, people buy what is best for them - meaning foreign cars in general and my family - Honda in specific. My wife's Honda CR-V has 202,000 miles on it. Never broke down. Although once it wouldn't start because the 6-year old battery finally died. My newer Honda Accord Coupe that I replaced my Honda Civic with has 37,000 miles on it (my driving habits have changed a lot) and it needed the transmission replaced. It was on warranty and the new warranty on the new transmission is 10 years. So, I am relatively unconcerned about that.
So, nearly 500,000 miles in cars my wife have owned and one break-down. And I'm not even including the hundreds of thousands of miles my parents have put on their three Hondas that they have owned over time. A Honda Wagovan (great car, but butt ugly), their newer Honda CR-V and their 1996 Honda Accord which has 137,000 miles on it.
Sp, anyway, read this article for more information - including a little note from an analyst saying 'Clearly, they eventually need to make better products that are more competitive with their foreign competitors, but that's a long-term proposition'. The main problem is that GM does not have a long term proposition anymore. They need to make better cars, more fuel efficient cars - now, not next year and certainly not three years from now.
http://www.thestreet.com/_googlen/markets/natworden/10253826.html?cm_ven=GOOGLEN&cm_cat=FREE&cm_ite=NA
Sorry folks. I went on a rand there. Nothing upsets me more than blatant stupidity. Yeah yeah - buy American and get stranded on the road. You know what - I'm in to limiting my risks. When you break down you could get in to a car accident, you could have a bad element come and rob or worse you and your car, and you could be trying to fix it on the side of the road and get hit by a drunk driver.
No thanks. I prefer to not break down in the first place.
RIAA Backs Rootkits
People are auctioning your privacy all the time. Apparently this guy thinks that anything on your computer is something that he has the right to take a look and see if everything is working just the way he wants it.
Everyone needs to send letters to these people and tell them they are allowed to make fair profit - but charging $15 an Audio CD, when everyone knows they can go to a store and buy CDs for less than 30 cents a pop, 50 cents a pop if you want a case just isn't going to float.
We just don't care enough about their profit margin. They should replace all these record stores with little machines that let you preview music and say 'burn it' and burns a quality CD. There would be no over supply or under supply of disks. People could conceivably know every track that they are purchasing and the entire disk should cost no more than $2.
Apparently stupidity is not exclusively an American trait:
http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/asiapcf/11/21/australia.tourist.ap/index.html
From the 'I want to torture people and my government won't let me. Waaaa' group:
http://www.cnn.com/2005/POLITICS/11/21/cia.prisoners.ap/index.html
Something nice to see - but maybe not so nice to smell.
http://www.cnn.com/2005/TECH/science/11/21/stinky.plant.ap/index.html
I have to say - if there was one that was 11 feet tall (or so) it would be neat to see in person. Hard to imagine a 11 foot tall dandelion...
So, if you have been up on the headlines lately - you may understand that there is a Darwin exhibit in a New York area museum. Due to the recent ID/Evolution debate - it attacted - $0 in businesses to fund the exhibit. Incredible. Stupidity spreads from individuals to large identities. It will be remarkable indeed if the United States will be able to keep up with other countries in science when we are apparently averse to what the science actually means and impacts life.
You know... Mazda went for a few years without the RX7 - its hot car. They noticed something - their sales slumped. Part of the reason they brought the car back as the RX8 - is that they needed something to attract people to the showroom.
Well, the United States of America's business is much like a car manufacturer. We have in the past had a lot to offer other countries. Our technical abilities attract people to do business here.
But, in this rapidly changing world - the United States of America in general is rejecting science. And our rate of scientific progress is slowing while places like South Korea are outstripping us in biology - once one of our main points of scientific progress. Science is no longer respected in the United States and we will not be attracting employers. Large companies like Intel are actually shipping high-technology jobs out of the country. Will India be the next powerhouse economy, South Korea or maybe perhaps China? It could well be.
Anyway, more than enough typing for now.
Alex
Does it matter that GM is going to lose 1,000,000 car capacity? Not really. They fell in love with the American ideal of bigger is better and made lots of profit. Now they laughably have commercials about the great mileage they get in their cars. Talking about the remade Cavalier/Cobalt getting 34 mpg.
I have two very important points on this...No, three
1) When my wife owned a Chevy Corsice (1989) hatchback - she loved the power in the car. It had a nice six cylinder engine. But the brakes were constantly not quite right, I changed the battery in the car - and we had to take it to the dealer so they could reset the computer (apparently you can't do something as simple as change the battery yourself) and the electrical system was beginning to act - well weird.
2) Every American car has left me stranded on the road and helpless. It is not a good feeling - and living in New Jersey not every area is a place where you can walk to a house and ask for help.
3) My Honda Civic - 1992 - which I have since donated had 222,222 miles over 9 years. Its sticker (stick shift/manual trans) had 36/40 MPG. Sometimes you get better and sometimes you get worse mileage than the sticker. That car for the life of the car when I owned it - got 40MPG. The car broke down once - because the distributer finally crapped out at 160,000 miles. And Chevy wants to laud the Cobalt (similar car) getting 34 MPG! What a bunch of idiots - is the kindest way I can put it. And you know what - my parents had a 1986 Cavalier - and it was a piece of crap. In fact, it was the car that turned my family from American Manufacturers to - well Honda.
I could really go on a lot about this stuff. Really this is a case of macroeconomics and microeconomics.
On the Microeconomic side you have comfort, reliability and fuel-efficiency. This are all factors in favor of Honda vs GM.
On the Macroeconomics side you have jobs, GNP and global perception of Americans. These are things that if you lose the Microeconomics side - guess what you lose the Macroeconomic side.
Guess what, people in general are what you might call selfish. We don't want to be victims of being left on the side of the road. We don't want to be victimized by garages that charge lots of money to do repairs or dealers that charge even more to do repairs. We like it even if there is just a perception that by the things we do on a daily basis we are saving money.
So, people buy what is best for them - meaning foreign cars in general and my family - Honda in specific. My wife's Honda CR-V has 202,000 miles on it. Never broke down. Although once it wouldn't start because the 6-year old battery finally died. My newer Honda Accord Coupe that I replaced my Honda Civic with has 37,000 miles on it (my driving habits have changed a lot) and it needed the transmission replaced. It was on warranty and the new warranty on the new transmission is 10 years. So, I am relatively unconcerned about that.
So, nearly 500,000 miles in cars my wife have owned and one break-down. And I'm not even including the hundreds of thousands of miles my parents have put on their three Hondas that they have owned over time. A Honda Wagovan (great car, but butt ugly), their newer Honda CR-V and their 1996 Honda Accord which has 137,000 miles on it.
Sp, anyway, read this article for more information - including a little note from an analyst saying 'Clearly, they eventually need to make better products that are more competitive with their foreign competitors, but that's a long-term proposition'. The main problem is that GM does not have a long term proposition anymore. They need to make better cars, more fuel efficient cars - now, not next year and certainly not three years from now.
http://www.thestreet.com/_googlen/markets/natworden/10253826.html?cm_ven=GOOGLEN&cm_cat=FREE&cm_ite=NA
Sorry folks. I went on a rand there. Nothing upsets me more than blatant stupidity. Yeah yeah - buy American and get stranded on the road. You know what - I'm in to limiting my risks. When you break down you could get in to a car accident, you could have a bad element come and rob or worse you and your car, and you could be trying to fix it on the side of the road and get hit by a drunk driver.
No thanks. I prefer to not break down in the first place.
RIAA Backs Rootkits
People are auctioning your privacy all the time. Apparently this guy thinks that anything on your computer is something that he has the right to take a look and see if everything is working just the way he wants it.
Everyone needs to send letters to these people and tell them they are allowed to make fair profit - but charging $15 an Audio CD, when everyone knows they can go to a store and buy CDs for less than 30 cents a pop, 50 cents a pop if you want a case just isn't going to float.
We just don't care enough about their profit margin. They should replace all these record stores with little machines that let you preview music and say 'burn it' and burns a quality CD. There would be no over supply or under supply of disks. People could conceivably know every track that they are purchasing and the entire disk should cost no more than $2.
Apparently stupidity is not exclusively an American trait:
http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/asiapcf/11/21/australia.tourist.ap/index.html
From the 'I want to torture people and my government won't let me. Waaaa' group:
http://www.cnn.com/2005/POLITICS/11/21/cia.prisoners.ap/index.html
Something nice to see - but maybe not so nice to smell.
http://www.cnn.com/2005/TECH/science/11/21/stinky.plant.ap/index.html
I have to say - if there was one that was 11 feet tall (or so) it would be neat to see in person. Hard to imagine a 11 foot tall dandelion...
So, if you have been up on the headlines lately - you may understand that there is a Darwin exhibit in a New York area museum. Due to the recent ID/Evolution debate - it attacted - $0 in businesses to fund the exhibit. Incredible. Stupidity spreads from individuals to large identities. It will be remarkable indeed if the United States will be able to keep up with other countries in science when we are apparently averse to what the science actually means and impacts life.
You know... Mazda went for a few years without the RX7 - its hot car. They noticed something - their sales slumped. Part of the reason they brought the car back as the RX8 - is that they needed something to attract people to the showroom.
Well, the United States of America's business is much like a car manufacturer. We have in the past had a lot to offer other countries. Our technical abilities attract people to do business here.
But, in this rapidly changing world - the United States of America in general is rejecting science. And our rate of scientific progress is slowing while places like South Korea are outstripping us in biology - once one of our main points of scientific progress. Science is no longer respected in the United States and we will not be attracting employers. Large companies like Intel are actually shipping high-technology jobs out of the country. Will India be the next powerhouse economy, South Korea or maybe perhaps China? It could well be.
Anyway, more than enough typing for now.
Alex
Friday, November 18, 2005
Torture
Torture - is not allowable under any circumstance. It is a violation of the rights of man.
It is not a violation of anything in the bible or Christian religious documentation.
This is expressed by the actions of our currently very Christian government.
Ex-CIA chief: Cheney 'VP for torture'
Even the appearance of impropriety is damaging to the person who claims to be the good guy. I would advocate total video observation of any prisoners recorded to hard drives and not alterable except by Congress and the Supreme Court. It should not be viewed except for the time periods any prisoner or person brings up that improprietary conduct happened.
Who watches the watcher?
All I can really say is that I cannot believe much of anything a person says once they say they are in favor of torture - except that person is capable of anything.
Alex
It is not a violation of anything in the bible or Christian religious documentation.
This is expressed by the actions of our currently very Christian government.
Ex-CIA chief: Cheney 'VP for torture'
Even the appearance of impropriety is damaging to the person who claims to be the good guy. I would advocate total video observation of any prisoners recorded to hard drives and not alterable except by Congress and the Supreme Court. It should not be viewed except for the time periods any prisoner or person brings up that improprietary conduct happened.
Who watches the watcher?
All I can really say is that I cannot believe much of anything a person says once they say they are in favor of torture - except that person is capable of anything.
Alex
Today in the News So Far
Well, I'm going to start writing a little free form about the news I see on a daily basis. I might mine this later for article topics for the things that really cause me concern.
CNN:
Suicide bombers kill dozens in 2 Iraqi cities
People appear to die every day in Iraq. The decision is made at some point that killing will acheive your goals or if your goals can be acheived through peaceful initiative. There is little excitement in solving issues through politics... The HERO wants the war - so they can be proclaimed a HERO by all and remembered. In the end, all wars end with politicians and agreements - the Hero's actions a turn in to just a political necessity.
This CNN article is ok - until there is a non sequitur in the middle of the article when they start talking about a democratic Hawk that is now requesting our withdrawal from Iraq. The placement of this paragraph makes the implication that somehow this democrats actions resulted in the attacks and deaths in Iraq.
The next paragraph repeats a White House official calling the democrat - a coward.
A former Vietname Vet - being called a coward - by people that never served.
It is not cowardice to want to back out of an unjust war. Cheney was noted in an article yesterday: Cheney: War critics are opportunists He says senators of both parties saw Hussein as a threat that he considered Democrats opportunists and that they were attempting to revise history.
This is patently untrue. Let's break it down shall we.
Truth - Everyone backed the war at the time we started it. At least in terms of congress and in terms of having enough votes to say - let's go kill some people for the just cause.
Implication that is False - that Democrats are changing their mind on the basis of no new information.
Listen folks, I don't know how to say this any clearer. If we entered the war under false pretenses, we need to apologize to the Iraqi people, today and not 150 years after the fact like we did to the native americans.
No, leaving Iraq immediately is not probably on the list of the top 10 best things to do. Neither, apparently was starting the war in the first place. Suddenly, people are soooo concerned about the USA doing the absolute best possible action when they weren't all that concerned when they started the war in the first place.
Personally, I don't think we should pull out. But, I don't think we should stay there either.
We should pull out because we look a lot like a invader at present.
We should not pull out because Iraq may well fall in to total civil war if we just leave.
There is a solution to this problem, I think. But we need to find a neutral party that is trusted by everyone willing to send their troops in to replace ours.
Problem is, the only neutral parties I can think of don't really maintain much of a military and at this point in time must view sending troops to Iraq like we should have when we started sending troops to Vietnam after the French were getting the snot kicked out of them there. Basically 'no way are we sending our folks there to die'.
Anyway, enough about the war. Just consider that we have a whole appeals process before we can execute a person, but to start a war we just need a bunch of a$$hole politicians who may or may not have military experience to say 'hey that sounds like a great idea'.
Technology saves the day - again - no supernatural beings necessary:
Sons save mom overseas with webcam.
Cheap laptops for everyone?
Windup laptops aim to bridge digital divide
Well, I suppose it isn't quite for everyone. Personally, they should charge $150 per laptop in the United States and make it a big seller this year. Take the extra $50 (assuming these folks are smart enough to be flush with money from $100) and give out free laptops instead of $100 laptops.
The wind-up laptop looks pretty neat to me - and if it is basically an internet only type of machine with basic functionality - I think it would be great as a second or third machine. It would also be a great advertising opportunity for Linux - the operating system I think will be on these laptops.
But you know, they'll probably only make them available in 3rd world countries and ignore the possibilities. Hell people in the US pay four times as much for a cell phone sometimes, people.
News in General
Sony's DRM woes expand to include copyright infringement
Now, Sony is a big company and they have a really big screw-up on their hands with their RootKit using DRM software.
I'm a programmer, and I've got to believe that Sony can at least afford to pay top-notch programmers. But apparently, they have a buch of coders that steal open-source code for commercial purposes! I mean, these guys didn't even bother to write their own software for playing MP3s.
This is nuts. I'm tempted to never by Sony stuff again after noting the things they are willing to try to protect themselves and the well poor quality in their ethics practices in using GPU license code and hiring people that can't code for crap when obviously they have money for coding.
Well, maybe after all the lawsuits settle they won't have so much money and they'll have to hire good people for more money instead of morons for $1.50 an hour.
Standard war for next DVD discs.
Blu-Ray snubs HP
Well, I hate to say this, but this whole argument about the next DVD standard is really moot. Yeah yeah yeah - higher quality DVD content for HDTV. You know - that's just not that important to me. New DRM built-in to the disks - either by Blu-Ray or HD-DVD - well, folks its hard for me to get exciting about something that is a benefit to the producers of content and not to me.
Its like getting excited about PMI on my house. Ooooh exciting I'm paying insurance so that when I go under financially the banks will have my mortgage fully paid off - but does this help me in any way - no - mortgage gets paid off and I'm still out of a house and probably a job.
Real nice. I can't wait for the cracks to come out for the new DRM these guys dream up. I think people copy DVD's now just because they can and because they are thumbing their nose at the 'man' than for any other reason. Commercial pirates - you know those folks should fry. But if I want to make a laugh/funny group of cuts from movies - how come its friggin impossible? If I want to do anything just for fun using these folks content - I'd have to spend thousands of dollars - probably more.
If I was selling that stuff, it'd be different, but you know these people are morons. They have no marketing sense. If I did make a funny movie composed of the actual funny bits of so-called funny movies and people saw it and laughed - that would generate interest and possible sales of those movies.
Review: New 'Potter' tries to do too much
I'll be going to see Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire today. I'll report what I can about the movie. I'm a big fan of the series, but the last movie was a bit too short given the actual content of the book. I do wish people had the attention spans they used to have during President Lincoln's time. They would go to a debate that lasted 8 hours long. Now its a struggle to get people to sit down for 2.5 hours to watch a movie. Hell, I'd love to see Sci-Fi channel pull off their magic and do a paragraph by paragraph Harry Potter... Oh, it'd be ages long (not the first movie so much, they didn't cut as much from that as the others), but it would be very enjoyable.
Probably have to wait 20 years for them to do something like that - because the people who have the current license for Harry Potter wouldn't let anyone else edge in for that long.
And to point - its probably a few years before the series wraps up in the movies.
By then, who knows - home movie makers may have enough technology to do it justice by themselves.
ok, well I guess that's enough headlines for today. Time to do some real work.
One more thing - anyone that has advice on how to draw anime/manga - feel free to drop me a comment or e-mail message. RhagamYgg@hotmail.com . I have a few story lines I want to write - and I was going to do them as books, but I suspect that the proper medium for them is Manga/Anime.
Alex
CNN:
Suicide bombers kill dozens in 2 Iraqi cities
People appear to die every day in Iraq. The decision is made at some point that killing will acheive your goals or if your goals can be acheived through peaceful initiative. There is little excitement in solving issues through politics... The HERO wants the war - so they can be proclaimed a HERO by all and remembered. In the end, all wars end with politicians and agreements - the Hero's actions a turn in to just a political necessity.
This CNN article is ok - until there is a non sequitur in the middle of the article when they start talking about a democratic Hawk that is now requesting our withdrawal from Iraq. The placement of this paragraph makes the implication that somehow this democrats actions resulted in the attacks and deaths in Iraq.
The next paragraph repeats a White House official calling the democrat - a coward.
A former Vietname Vet - being called a coward - by people that never served.
It is not cowardice to want to back out of an unjust war. Cheney was noted in an article yesterday: Cheney: War critics are opportunists He says senators of both parties saw Hussein as a threat that he considered Democrats opportunists and that they were attempting to revise history.
This is patently untrue. Let's break it down shall we.
Truth - Everyone backed the war at the time we started it. At least in terms of congress and in terms of having enough votes to say - let's go kill some people for the just cause.
Implication that is False - that Democrats are changing their mind on the basis of no new information.
Listen folks, I don't know how to say this any clearer. If we entered the war under false pretenses, we need to apologize to the Iraqi people, today and not 150 years after the fact like we did to the native americans.
No, leaving Iraq immediately is not probably on the list of the top 10 best things to do. Neither, apparently was starting the war in the first place. Suddenly, people are soooo concerned about the USA doing the absolute best possible action when they weren't all that concerned when they started the war in the first place.
Personally, I don't think we should pull out. But, I don't think we should stay there either.
We should pull out because we look a lot like a invader at present.
We should not pull out because Iraq may well fall in to total civil war if we just leave.
There is a solution to this problem, I think. But we need to find a neutral party that is trusted by everyone willing to send their troops in to replace ours.
Problem is, the only neutral parties I can think of don't really maintain much of a military and at this point in time must view sending troops to Iraq like we should have when we started sending troops to Vietnam after the French were getting the snot kicked out of them there. Basically 'no way are we sending our folks there to die'.
Anyway, enough about the war. Just consider that we have a whole appeals process before we can execute a person, but to start a war we just need a bunch of a$$hole politicians who may or may not have military experience to say 'hey that sounds like a great idea'.
Technology saves the day - again - no supernatural beings necessary:
Sons save mom overseas with webcam.
Cheap laptops for everyone?
Windup laptops aim to bridge digital divide
Well, I suppose it isn't quite for everyone. Personally, they should charge $150 per laptop in the United States and make it a big seller this year. Take the extra $50 (assuming these folks are smart enough to be flush with money from $100) and give out free laptops instead of $100 laptops.
The wind-up laptop looks pretty neat to me - and if it is basically an internet only type of machine with basic functionality - I think it would be great as a second or third machine. It would also be a great advertising opportunity for Linux - the operating system I think will be on these laptops.
But you know, they'll probably only make them available in 3rd world countries and ignore the possibilities. Hell people in the US pay four times as much for a cell phone sometimes, people.
News in General
Sony's DRM woes expand to include copyright infringement
Now, Sony is a big company and they have a really big screw-up on their hands with their RootKit using DRM software.
I'm a programmer, and I've got to believe that Sony can at least afford to pay top-notch programmers. But apparently, they have a buch of coders that steal open-source code for commercial purposes! I mean, these guys didn't even bother to write their own software for playing MP3s.
This is nuts. I'm tempted to never by Sony stuff again after noting the things they are willing to try to protect themselves and the well poor quality in their ethics practices in using GPU license code and hiring people that can't code for crap when obviously they have money for coding.
Well, maybe after all the lawsuits settle they won't have so much money and they'll have to hire good people for more money instead of morons for $1.50 an hour.
Standard war for next DVD discs.
Blu-Ray snubs HP
Well, I hate to say this, but this whole argument about the next DVD standard is really moot. Yeah yeah yeah - higher quality DVD content for HDTV. You know - that's just not that important to me. New DRM built-in to the disks - either by Blu-Ray or HD-DVD - well, folks its hard for me to get exciting about something that is a benefit to the producers of content and not to me.
Its like getting excited about PMI on my house. Ooooh exciting I'm paying insurance so that when I go under financially the banks will have my mortgage fully paid off - but does this help me in any way - no - mortgage gets paid off and I'm still out of a house and probably a job.
Real nice. I can't wait for the cracks to come out for the new DRM these guys dream up. I think people copy DVD's now just because they can and because they are thumbing their nose at the 'man' than for any other reason. Commercial pirates - you know those folks should fry. But if I want to make a laugh/funny group of cuts from movies - how come its friggin impossible? If I want to do anything just for fun using these folks content - I'd have to spend thousands of dollars - probably more.
If I was selling that stuff, it'd be different, but you know these people are morons. They have no marketing sense. If I did make a funny movie composed of the actual funny bits of so-called funny movies and people saw it and laughed - that would generate interest and possible sales of those movies.
Review: New 'Potter' tries to do too much
I'll be going to see Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire today. I'll report what I can about the movie. I'm a big fan of the series, but the last movie was a bit too short given the actual content of the book. I do wish people had the attention spans they used to have during President Lincoln's time. They would go to a debate that lasted 8 hours long. Now its a struggle to get people to sit down for 2.5 hours to watch a movie. Hell, I'd love to see Sci-Fi channel pull off their magic and do a paragraph by paragraph Harry Potter... Oh, it'd be ages long (not the first movie so much, they didn't cut as much from that as the others), but it would be very enjoyable.
Probably have to wait 20 years for them to do something like that - because the people who have the current license for Harry Potter wouldn't let anyone else edge in for that long.
And to point - its probably a few years before the series wraps up in the movies.
By then, who knows - home movie makers may have enough technology to do it justice by themselves.
ok, well I guess that's enough headlines for today. Time to do some real work.
One more thing - anyone that has advice on how to draw anime/manga - feel free to drop me a comment or e-mail message. RhagamYgg@hotmail.com . I have a few story lines I want to write - and I was going to do them as books, but I suspect that the proper medium for them is Manga/Anime.
Alex
Thursday, November 17, 2005
Google Adsense and this Blog
Well, I decided to add Google's Adsense to this Blog. It was not all that hard to do, and it wasn't even something I really did intentionally.
I just logged in to the blog and saw the ad for adsense. Followed it down the path.
Supposedly, adsense searches the blog and only puts ads on it that are related to the content. If it does a good job, please visit the linked ads at the top of this blog.
It could mean money for me - but you know, I'm not going to get my hopes up.
Anyway, the click of the ad on a page does not trigger any monetary gain. It is what you do when you get to the destination web page. If you click a few links on the destination web page it generates some numbers which in turn will generate a few pennies on my side.
So, if the links at the top of the screen look like they are something worth it for you, please by all means click on through and look around on those web sites.
The links there presently are of interest to the programmer in me - the IT business and things like that.
But as I have said in many articles - you need to be as aware as you can of how computers work so that you will not be a victim in a computer run society, but someone that understands what is going on around them.
Alex
I just logged in to the blog and saw the ad for adsense. Followed it down the path.
Supposedly, adsense searches the blog and only puts ads on it that are related to the content. If it does a good job, please visit the linked ads at the top of this blog.
It could mean money for me - but you know, I'm not going to get my hopes up.
Anyway, the click of the ad on a page does not trigger any monetary gain. It is what you do when you get to the destination web page. If you click a few links on the destination web page it generates some numbers which in turn will generate a few pennies on my side.
So, if the links at the top of the screen look like they are something worth it for you, please by all means click on through and look around on those web sites.
The links there presently are of interest to the programmer in me - the IT business and things like that.
But as I have said in many articles - you need to be as aware as you can of how computers work so that you will not be a victim in a computer run society, but someone that understands what is going on around them.
Alex
Recent Articles
Well, two of my most recent articles have been posted on Useless-Knowledge.
Here they are:
This article is about how the idea of Conception being the beginning of life and the rights associated with life would have severe consequences to a great many people.
Considering Life to Begin at Conception
This article was written at the request of another writer - it details the various things people need to do to protect their computer (and themselves) on the web - and the things that can threaten you on the web.
Things You Should Understand About Your Computer and People
Alex
Here they are:
This article is about how the idea of Conception being the beginning of life and the rights associated with life would have severe consequences to a great many people.
Considering Life to Begin at Conception
This article was written at the request of another writer - it details the various things people need to do to protect their computer (and themselves) on the web - and the things that can threaten you on the web.
Things You Should Understand About Your Computer and People
Alex
Wednesday, November 16, 2005
Urusei Yatsura - Those Obnoxious Aliens
I have a new favorite show - and it is Urusei Yatsura.
I first discovered it on OnDemand on HBO - the movie "Beautiful Dreamer".
Excellent movie in the Urusei Yatsura universe - but the wrong place to start watching the show - as it appears to be after the TV series.
So, now I am renting through NetFlix - the TV Show DVDs.
Urusei Yatsura is written/drawn by the same person that wrote Inuyasha - another of my favorite shows. Rumiko Takahashi .
Inuyasha a dark and has its own flavor - one so completely different that Urusei Yatsura that it is astonishing that kind of breadth is contained in a single person.
Urusei Yatsura - of all things is a comedy. I suppose it would be considered an 'R' rated comedy by the sad state of United States of America standards. I believe it was originally designed for Japanese Teens and pre-teens.
It is excellent in the incredible amount of humor in the show - and the humor works so well it works even though I've got to read the subtitles.
So, if you are afraid of a little nudity - or teenagers behaving well like teenagers - specifically boys, but a little bit of the girls as well... I'd stay away from this one.
If you have a tolerance for nudity and don't believe it will burn your eyes out and that seeing what people really are like when they are teenages isn't going to degrade your moral values or the future moral values of your current teenager - I highly recommend this series.
And for everyone that is against this sort of thing because it degrades women etc (with the nudity) I remind you very strongly - this story is written by a woman.
Alex
I first discovered it on OnDemand on HBO - the movie "Beautiful Dreamer".
Excellent movie in the Urusei Yatsura universe - but the wrong place to start watching the show - as it appears to be after the TV series.
So, now I am renting through NetFlix - the TV Show DVDs.
Urusei Yatsura is written/drawn by the same person that wrote Inuyasha - another of my favorite shows. Rumiko Takahashi .
Inuyasha a dark and has its own flavor - one so completely different that Urusei Yatsura that it is astonishing that kind of breadth is contained in a single person.
Urusei Yatsura - of all things is a comedy. I suppose it would be considered an 'R' rated comedy by the sad state of United States of America standards. I believe it was originally designed for Japanese Teens and pre-teens.
It is excellent in the incredible amount of humor in the show - and the humor works so well it works even though I've got to read the subtitles.
So, if you are afraid of a little nudity - or teenagers behaving well like teenagers - specifically boys, but a little bit of the girls as well... I'd stay away from this one.
If you have a tolerance for nudity and don't believe it will burn your eyes out and that seeing what people really are like when they are teenages isn't going to degrade your moral values or the future moral values of your current teenager - I highly recommend this series.
And for everyone that is against this sort of thing because it degrades women etc (with the nudity) I remind you very strongly - this story is written by a woman.
Alex
Sunday, November 13, 2005
Recent Articles and Thoughts of More Topics to Write Aboue
Hi Everyone,
It has been a little while since I have written. When life - or work anyway - become more active it is hard to keep up writing on the blog.
Anyway, I have written a few more articles on Useless-Knowledge.
I wrote an article about the need for everyone to have a basic understanding of computer programming.
http://www.useless-knowledge.com/1234/oct/article387.html
This is the first article that I have written showing people how to write a simple article:
http://www.useless-knowledge.com/1234/nov/article090.html
I wrote an article opposing the idea that these are the 'end-times'. I could probably write more on this topic.
http://www.useless-knowledge.com/1234/oct/article317.html
Here is an article about George Bush - regarding the idea that he is basically a paradox... How can he believe that all life began in the basic form that it is now - if he also believes that a bird flu can mutate in to a human variant and kill people? There is of course a lot more detail in the article.
http://www.useless-knowledge.com/1234/nov/article074.html
This is an article about the foolishness of authors and publishers in thinking that somehow Googles efforts to make all books searchable will harm them. It will by far make the money and increase the ability for people at home to start the research using books - legitimate resources - instead of just the web - where there are a lot of unverified resources out there behaving like factual resources.
http://www.useless-knowledge.com/1234/nov/article051.html
This is an article discussing the inability for there to be a common ground in terms of ideas in the discussion of Evolution and Intelligent Design. It is similar to comparing a drawing of a car on paper and a car that has been through the design process and completely built and is functioning.
http://www.useless-knowledge.com/1234/nov/article042.html
I want to write a series of articles on actions that would result in a better election process. Anyone that has thoughts on this - please make a response to this blog entry.
Also, I want to write about the legality of statements made by a certain Fundamentalist Christian Leader - threatening a Pennsylvanian town.
Abwägen
It has been a little while since I have written. When life - or work anyway - become more active it is hard to keep up writing on the blog.
Anyway, I have written a few more articles on Useless-Knowledge.
I wrote an article about the need for everyone to have a basic understanding of computer programming.
http://www.useless-knowledge.com/1234/oct/article387.html
This is the first article that I have written showing people how to write a simple article:
http://www.useless-knowledge.com/1234/nov/article090.html
I wrote an article opposing the idea that these are the 'end-times'. I could probably write more on this topic.
http://www.useless-knowledge.com/1234/oct/article317.html
Here is an article about George Bush - regarding the idea that he is basically a paradox... How can he believe that all life began in the basic form that it is now - if he also believes that a bird flu can mutate in to a human variant and kill people? There is of course a lot more detail in the article.
http://www.useless-knowledge.com/1234/nov/article074.html
This is an article about the foolishness of authors and publishers in thinking that somehow Googles efforts to make all books searchable will harm them. It will by far make the money and increase the ability for people at home to start the research using books - legitimate resources - instead of just the web - where there are a lot of unverified resources out there behaving like factual resources.
http://www.useless-knowledge.com/1234/nov/article051.html
This is an article discussing the inability for there to be a common ground in terms of ideas in the discussion of Evolution and Intelligent Design. It is similar to comparing a drawing of a car on paper and a car that has been through the design process and completely built and is functioning.
http://www.useless-knowledge.com/1234/nov/article042.html
I want to write a series of articles on actions that would result in a better election process. Anyone that has thoughts on this - please make a response to this blog entry.
Also, I want to write about the legality of statements made by a certain Fundamentalist Christian Leader - threatening a Pennsylvanian town.
Abwägen
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