Not a recommended usage for your katana. However very interesting to watch. I believe that’s an M2HB .50 cal machine gun they are shooting at it. The super high speed camera they use at the end is just awesome. You get the sense of just how fast those bullets move as the sword flying away looks like it is just floating in the air.
Also it has awesome over the top music, with the sad music at the appropriate moments.
As some of you may know, Bono was asked to come give a speech at the national prayer breakfast. I hadn’t actually seen the speech, but Ellen forwarded it to me, and I have to say I am pretty impressed. It is a bit on the long side, but an excellent speech. Oddly it reads better than the video, but I think the message is important.
And it is fun to watch Bono be unimpressed by self-congratulatory applause, as he goes straight into the difficult questions. And _then_ leave a gap for the applause.
(The above link has text, audio and a video of the speech.)
There have been a lot of articles about the cartoons from Denmark out there. I honestly haven’t found many of them that revealing beyond the basic facts. You get the knee-jerks on both sides yelling and screaming. Well I finally found an article that I really agree with about the whole cartoon issue. It comes from the Lebanon Daily Star and points out some real truths.
First, that the people taking to the streets really has more to do with current politics and dysfunctional governments in the Muslim world needing something to distract the world with, or the people acting out against their governments. Second, that the insensitivity in western countries is real, but they have internal ways of being dealt with, and generally are. For example, last year a radio station was inciting real violence at Muslims and was censured by the Danish government. And finally, if they really want to be upset about something it should be the Muslims who show disrespect to the Muslim community by using the Koran to incite violence, etc.
Woot! Sounds like CA is taking the first steps towards dealing with the problem of electronics waste. Currently it is quite difficult to properly dispose of electronics. Most electronics have tons of heavy metals and other hazardous materials that pollute landfills. Recycling them can be fairly expensive and difficult. Some companies offer recycling services, but they often cost money or are difficult to use. I like Dell’s more than Apple’s computer program because it is free and gets rid of existing waste rather than trying to think about future waste. (Though apple’s iPod program is great.) The steps CA is taking might put more emphasis on this and help more companies do it.
Apparently South Dakota has decided that they like the new look of the Supreme Court and have written a law to ban all abortions except to “save the lives” of the pregnant women. Not even in cases of rape or incest. There is only one clinic in SD that provides abortions anyway, so its not like it is really available in most cases, but still. If this one passes it is so extreme that I would be amazed if the supremes let it go through. It really is just to see if they will overturn Roe v. Wade, and I don’t see what the legal standing would be to just say “that law is no good anymore” but I am not a lawyer.
Of particular sadness to me is that SD is the state with the third largest percentage of ELCA members at 16% of the state. This pretty much goes directly against the social statement on abortion, in particular the part that says the church opposes “laws that deny access to safe and affordable services for morally justifiable abortions;”. But I am also reading that there are a number of member churches in SD that are thinking about leaving the ELCA anyway.
*sigh* And all that work to keep everyone in the big tent. They should have just passed all those rules about gays, and it all would have shaken out much quicker. This is going to be a long and painful ride.
Use a mac? Follow the instructions in the last paragraph.
You probably think that you are safe from viruses etc. because you see how many your Windows friends get. Well the only reason you are “safe” is because there are fewer for the Mac. That is not to say that there are none. In particular Macs are just as vulnerable to “trojans” which are files that the user must activate. If you run a program on your computer, it can do just about anything. Make sure that you know that you really want to run a program you download.
By default the mac automatically runs a number of different types of files that are downloaded. These files are not normally application, but it has recently been discovered how to hide applications in them. This means that trojans can be run on your computer without you having to run them yourself. Automatically running applications is disaster, and was one of the major problems with MS products for years. There is an immediate solution however:
1) Open preferences in safari.
2) Click on general tab.
3) Uncheck “Open ’safe’ files after downloading”
And of course never open files that you don’t know what they are, and that you don’t trust where you got them from.
I don’t understand how a Dubai company running the ports in NYC can be a security risk, but when there is bipartisan concern over the deal and bush threatens to veto any bill to hold up the deal, HIS FIRST VETO EVER, I really have to wonder what is going on? Is a family friend going to lose a lot of money if this deal doesn’t go through? The entire congress doesn’t like something and Bush pulls out with the veto for the first time ever? Perhaps sitting down with the leaders of this concern and talking about why they are worried might be a better tactic. This is so bizarre. It really does seem like the sort of thing where a little discussion could go a long way.
I meant to post this one a while back, but one of my favorite ads from the superbowl was a MacGyver send-up. Mastercard has a whole site on the ad, including an interview with RDA where he complains about his lack of a mullet. Oh yeah. The cheese factor is critical.
Of course, it isn’t as funny as Sprint’s “crime deterrent” ad.
Alain sent a site that generates a music signature from your iTunes to me a while ago, but I haven’t had any time to play with it. Also I wanted to make sure that I had enough of my songs rated that it would get a good feeling for what music I actually listen to. I have to say, it did a pretty amazing job. It is kind of funny because since it used my ratings it takes little snippets of only my favorite songs, which drives me crazy because I want to hear more of the song! Probably if I ran it again, I would have the lengths of the snippets be longer and have it overlay fewer songs. That said, it does pack 40 songs into 40 seconds, and when I am sitting there listening to it I can hazzard a pretty good guess as to what most of them are. It also starts with a-ha and ends with zevon which I find extremely humorous given the fact that the rest of it is certainly not alphabetical.
I would like to mention that in the past few years gays have made strides into the mainstream that they could only dream of before. What has caused this wave of acceptance? Personally I think it is just time and exposure. How do I know that it has happened? Well Brokeback Mountain is part of it, the true measure is this Willie Nelson song I just got from the iTunes music store. “Cowboys are frequently, secretly (fond of each other)”. This song is awesome, and hilarious. But as funny as it is, it really has something to say about emerging gender roles, and even the fact that people might not know what it is they are feeling and aren’t that different from you and you should probably treat them better. Some lyrics:
“There’s always somebody who says what the other’s just whisper,
and mostly that someone’s the first one to get shot down dead.
So when you talk to a cowboy, don’t treat him like he was a sister,
you can’t fuck with the lady that’s sleeping in each cowboy’s head.
Cowboys are frequently secretly fond of each other.
What did you think all them saddles and boots was about?
And there’s many a cowboy who don’t understand the way that he feels for his brother.
And inside every lady there’s a cowboy who wants to come out.
And inside every cowboy there’s a lady who’d love to slip out.”
One additional item worth noting, apparently Willie Nelson has been sitting on this song since the 80’s waiting for the “mood to change”. So, is the mood really changing, or is he just making more money off of Brokeback Mountain?
Edit: Oh, and it appears that CNN has noticed it too.
I’m afraid that I may be spreading some viral marketing, but what is a blog for if not for letting everyone know what foolishnees you are seeing on the web. In any case, I was forwarded a brilliant TV ad from, I believe, Germany. If you don’t understand German, don’t worry… all will become clear.
Want to get really depressed? Watch this slide show on the most corrupt countries in the world.
This lets you see in stark contrast where the problems of power and corruption lead. This is the real problem with the Abramaoff scandal. And it does not touch only republicans or democrats. They are both beholden. I only hope that Obama, McCain and the others can work something out. Though given McCain’s very public outburst I fear that he may not be the one who is up for the job. They did make up, but still, that is the sort of thing that should be done in private. Airing it publicly is just grandstanding that he said he didn’t like. I think that Obama’s response really showed the kind of person he is, but with his junior status he may not be up to the task either.
Term limits. It might be time for them.
Dude, I’m thinking that the current director of NASA, Dr. Michael D. Griffin, is forgetting which side his bread is buttered on. Apparently there have been a number of cases in the past few years where presidential appointees have been telling scientists how to present their work. Things like having them stick the word theory every place “the big band” appears in NASA’s web site, and to stop saying that global warming exists. Well this came to the attention of the NYT, and they forwarded the complaints to Dr. Griffin. He responded by blasting the PAO for interfering with the scientific mission of NASA.
I think my favorite part is this:
On Friday evening, repeated queries were made to the White House about how a [24 year old] presidential appointee with no science background came to be supervising Web presentations on cosmology and interview requests to senior NASA scientists. The only response came from Donald Tighe of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. “Science is respected and protected and highly valued by the administration,” he said.
This is what happens when you leave astronauts and cosmonauts in a space station for too long. They rig up a spacesuit from the garbage store with transmitters and toss it out the airlock as a cheap satellite.
Another of the worst offenders in abusive patents is getting a second look from the US patent office. Ever since they overturned Lemelson I have been having more and more respect for the US patent office. Now if only they could figure these things out before the companies made millions off of it and put research back years and threatened to destroy international standards.
*sigh*
Between being working and being sick and all, I haven’t had a lot of time lately. But one thing has happened that was of utmost coolness that I need to let people know about. Desdenova bought some minis for the game and painted them all! Now normally this wouldn’t be such a big deal, you know, just another geek fest, but that would only be because you haven’t need the minis. These things are works of art. As such, I decided that they needed to be seen, and present, for your enjoyment, the heroes of Steinhall. (Well, someday… right now, they are more like the lackeys of the university, but there you go.)
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