I was pretty upset when I started to hear that the battle for Intelligent Design was being waged in my backyard here in PA. But I have to admit, I hadn't been following this issue too closely. So you can imagine my happiness when I read this in a column today on the MSMBC website:
In voting Tuesday, all eight school board members up for re-election in Dover, Pa., lost their seats after trying to introduce "intelligent design" to high-school science students as an alternative to the theory of evolution.
The column is actually pretty interesting. It talks about how Pat Robinson has scolded the entire town for having "just voted God out of your city".
In this case, the voters were lucky that all 8 spots were up at the same time and that the election was so close to the debate. Next time we may not be so lucky. People, do your research and vote against these crazy people before it's too late!
Friday, November 11, 2005
Pro Bowl
Well, TO is probablly not going to be an Eagle much longer, but he does deserve to play this year. If he doesn't get the change in the regular season there's always the pro-bowl. I say we vote him in immediately...
Ikea in Europe has a sense of humor
Saw this post today in SugarBank and thought it made a great point. Why is it in America we have such a shameful view of sex? Do you think maybe this shamefulness contributes to society in a bad way? I do.
Thursday, November 10, 2005
My Religion Quiz
Well, I usually don't put things like this into my blog, but I'm very anti-organized religion and I thought that this quiz was kind of fun.. Although the questions weren't as well written as they should have been (very vague and in some cases I knew what they were trying to get at and answered that way instead) and the results weren't 100% accurate I still came out as an Athiest leaning towards Agnostic..
3 Inventions
Want to get these out there before I forget them. I came up with 2 new ideas today and also want to rehash a 3rd I came up with about 6 years ago.
First up is my concept of the progressive snooze bar. I think that alarm clocks should have a snooze bar that works for less and less time after each push. For example, first off it snoozes for 10 minutes, then 8, then 5, then 3, then 1, then it won't work anymore. This way you can be use the sneooze bar and not feel as guilty and it also protects you from using it so long that you are late.
Second is a simple idea. I think that on the edge of the sleeve in mens suits they should have a word embroidered in that faces out so when you shake hands with someone, they will see the word. It can be anything, perhaps your initials. In my dream state this morning when I thought it up I had the idea that on an honest sales guy the word would be "Honest" but the more I think about it, that is simply a terrible concept. Ok.. forget it..
Third is a good idea that I had a long time ago. I think that Companies should install small 4x6 LCD monitors in their employees cubicals and then sell the space on the screens to advertisers in 5 minute blocks. This way, a company like Coke could come in and put a visual ad on the screen of all the employees in a company at a time of their choosing. The company could charge a ton of money for this service. During a typical 8 hour day, there would be 96 blocks to be sold. That's a lot of eyes and that's a lot of ads.
Hmn.. maybe we could sell the space on our suit sleeves out to advertisers. Hmn.. now theres an idea!
First up is my concept of the progressive snooze bar. I think that alarm clocks should have a snooze bar that works for less and less time after each push. For example, first off it snoozes for 10 minutes, then 8, then 5, then 3, then 1, then it won't work anymore. This way you can be use the sneooze bar and not feel as guilty and it also protects you from using it so long that you are late.
Second is a simple idea. I think that on the edge of the sleeve in mens suits they should have a word embroidered in that faces out so when you shake hands with someone, they will see the word. It can be anything, perhaps your initials. In my dream state this morning when I thought it up I had the idea that on an honest sales guy the word would be "Honest" but the more I think about it, that is simply a terrible concept. Ok.. forget it..
Third is a good idea that I had a long time ago. I think that Companies should install small 4x6 LCD monitors in their employees cubicals and then sell the space on the screens to advertisers in 5 minute blocks. This way, a company like Coke could come in and put a visual ad on the screen of all the employees in a company at a time of their choosing. The company could charge a ton of money for this service. During a typical 8 hour day, there would be 96 blocks to be sold. That's a lot of eyes and that's a lot of ads.
Hmn.. maybe we could sell the space on our suit sleeves out to advertisers. Hmn.. now theres an idea!
TO
In Philly this is a huge story. I'm a Hockey fan, but I have been a football guy for a long time as well and here's my take on TO. I post this only becasue someone just asked me in an email and I formed a worded response that makes sense to me so here it is :
I think that football is about winning and TO makes us better so we should suck it up and put the guy back on the team. I also think it's sad that great talents in some cases (Tyson, Iverson, Moss, etc.) are recognized more for the social skills they lack than for the incredible achievements they make in their fields. I also think that the fans are a bunch of sheep being herded by the media. This is the same guy that played in the SB after an incredible heroic rehab and now we all hate him? I don't get it. We should be hating McJackass since he clearly is a detriment to our team (and lost us the SB) for whatever reasons. But we love him because socially he more of a better communicator. This is a sport about precision and performance and the players should not be judged on any other level than how good they play on the field. These people are not normal humans and they shouldn't be treated as such. They are not role models and heroes, they are robots that play a game for millions of dollars. Who cares what they say off the field? It's painfully sad to see this circus go the way it's going.
I think that football is about winning and TO makes us better so we should suck it up and put the guy back on the team. I also think it's sad that great talents in some cases (Tyson, Iverson, Moss, etc.) are recognized more for the social skills they lack than for the incredible achievements they make in their fields. I also think that the fans are a bunch of sheep being herded by the media. This is the same guy that played in the SB after an incredible heroic rehab and now we all hate him? I don't get it. We should be hating McJackass since he clearly is a detriment to our team (and lost us the SB) for whatever reasons. But we love him because socially he more of a better communicator. This is a sport about precision and performance and the players should not be judged on any other level than how good they play on the field. These people are not normal humans and they shouldn't be treated as such. They are not role models and heroes, they are robots that play a game for millions of dollars. Who cares what they say off the field? It's painfully sad to see this circus go the way it's going.
Wednesday, November 09, 2005
Hung Up
I've always had a crush on Madonna and I haven't seen her too much lately. But a friend told me to go find and check out her new video for "Hung Up" and I have to say I'm quite impressed. For a 40+ woman, she looks fantastic. She's obviously quite proud of her ass and I for one can say that she has nothing to complain about.
A good thing
Here in Pennsylvania a bunch of folks have been angry about a pay raise that the state judges and legislators got a few months ago. There has been this crazy, grass roots effort to repeal the bill that enabled it. Personally I was for the bill since judges hadn't had a pay raise in like 12 years but whatever, who cares, I abstained from the argument.
The interesting thing is that the electorite here in PA actually directed their anger appropriately and voted out a sitting supreme court judge! This is actually quite amazing because of the way these elections are staged. For judges in PA, the incumbants go up for retension which means that they are unopposed and the voters give them a yes or no vote. It's pretty much unheard of for someone to get more no's than yes's becasue usually nobody votes either way and the small group that is the judges support group generally votes yes.
In this case, the people actually spoke. From the John Baer colum I linked above:
This is not good news for incumbent politicians who face the same electorate in 2006.
"Apathy is beginning to melt," says former central Pennsylvania state Rep. John Kennedy, a maverick and long-time advocate of legislative reforms.
He's right.
It is absolutely un-Pennsylvanian for anything like this to happen. It could well mean a new era of voter awareness and participation in a state where government has run amok unnoticed for at least a generation.
"This is the worst of all fears for incumbents," says Matt Brouillette, president of the conservative think tank Commonwealth Foundation. "I think this says that despite legislative efforts to repeal the pay raise voters are saying, 'we might forgive but we won't forget.'"
He's right, too.
The fact that so many folks said "no" indicates a willingness to say "no" to many more.
Lets keep it up!
The interesting thing is that the electorite here in PA actually directed their anger appropriately and voted out a sitting supreme court judge! This is actually quite amazing because of the way these elections are staged. For judges in PA, the incumbants go up for retension which means that they are unopposed and the voters give them a yes or no vote. It's pretty much unheard of for someone to get more no's than yes's becasue usually nobody votes either way and the small group that is the judges support group generally votes yes.
In this case, the people actually spoke. From the John Baer colum I linked above:
This is not good news for incumbent politicians who face the same electorate in 2006.
"Apathy is beginning to melt," says former central Pennsylvania state Rep. John Kennedy, a maverick and long-time advocate of legislative reforms.
He's right.
It is absolutely un-Pennsylvanian for anything like this to happen. It could well mean a new era of voter awareness and participation in a state where government has run amok unnoticed for at least a generation.
"This is the worst of all fears for incumbents," says Matt Brouillette, president of the conservative think tank Commonwealth Foundation. "I think this says that despite legislative efforts to repeal the pay raise voters are saying, 'we might forgive but we won't forget.'"
He's right, too.
The fact that so many folks said "no" indicates a willingness to say "no" to many more.
Lets keep it up!
Tuesday, November 08, 2005
Sadly I know they are serious
I saw this in Playboy and had to see it for myself.. it's a form used by the Parents Against Bad Books in School group to determine if books should be banned. Anyway, the funny part is how they suggest one classify the level of "graphicness" of a books sexual content. (I hope kids aren't reading the site) :
For each type checked above also indicate level of vividness/graphicness using the following as a general guide:
Basic (B): large breasts
Graphic (G): large, voluptuous bouncing breasts
Very graphic (VG): large, voluptuous bouncing breasts with hard nipples
Extremely graphic (EG): large, voluptuous bouncing breasts with hard nipples covered with glistening sweat and bite marks
For each type checked above also indicate level of vividness/graphicness using the following as a general guide:
Basic (B): large breasts
Graphic (G): large, voluptuous bouncing breasts
Very graphic (VG): large, voluptuous bouncing breasts with hard nipples
Extremely graphic (EG): large, voluptuous bouncing breasts with hard nipples covered with glistening sweat and bite marks
Amazon Mechanical Turk
How cool is this idea? Ok.. let me explain. There are problems that are extremely difficult for computers and software to solve, yet are almost effortless for humans to do. This fact makes building software quite difficult at times. Amazon has facilated a service called the Amazon Mechanical Turk that connects regular people like you and I to software systems.
So as an example say I'm building a piece of software that for some reason sorts photos into two sets, the first is photos with cars in them and the other is for photos with no cars in them. Determining if there is a car in a photo is pretty easy for you and I but crazy hard for a computer. So the software sends out the photo to the amazon service where some person somewhere determines if there is a car in it. This piece of data "Is there a car in the photo? Yes/No" is sent back to the software automaically and the problem is solved.
The human brains on the Amazon side of the equation are all compensated and eventually will be rated for the quality of their work, etc.
Essentially the service enables humans to become part of active working software. If this becomes big enough and commoditized enough I can see a piece of software being 50%-80% run by human brains instead of CPU's. How cool would that be?
At the moment, this is cool for you and I since we can apply to the service and get paid to solve simple problems in our spare time.
One final note, if you comment on this blog you will see the word jumble thing at the bottom to validate yourself. This is an example of a problem that is easy for a human but really hard for a computer. That's precicely why it exists. The interesing thing is that a spammer could concievably use Amazons service to counter this security measure. And so the loop is connected yet again.
So as an example say I'm building a piece of software that for some reason sorts photos into two sets, the first is photos with cars in them and the other is for photos with no cars in them. Determining if there is a car in a photo is pretty easy for you and I but crazy hard for a computer. So the software sends out the photo to the amazon service where some person somewhere determines if there is a car in it. This piece of data "Is there a car in the photo? Yes/No" is sent back to the software automaically and the problem is solved.
The human brains on the Amazon side of the equation are all compensated and eventually will be rated for the quality of their work, etc.
Essentially the service enables humans to become part of active working software. If this becomes big enough and commoditized enough I can see a piece of software being 50%-80% run by human brains instead of CPU's. How cool would that be?
At the moment, this is cool for you and I since we can apply to the service and get paid to solve simple problems in our spare time.
One final note, if you comment on this blog you will see the word jumble thing at the bottom to validate yourself. This is an example of a problem that is easy for a human but really hard for a computer. That's precicely why it exists. The interesing thing is that a spammer could concievably use Amazons service to counter this security measure. And so the loop is connected yet again.
Stupid, stupid people
Yea.. There was a post on C-Net about a bill in front of the Westchester City Council (outside of NYC) that would require by law that anyone with a wireless access point would need to rout its Internet connection through a firewall server of some kind (hardware or software).
This is just silly on any number of levels. First off is the obvious one: Who are they to tell me that I need to protect my network? Are they going to then require that I secure my house with an armed guard 24 hours a day? This has to be some kind of infringement on my rights.
Secondly, how are they going to enforce this law? Are they going to psysically come into my house and inspect my network? What's to stop me from installing a Firewall, but turning it off or making it do no filtering? Are they going to then decide what ports and types of data I need to filter?
This bill will be struck down by the courts in about 2 seconds. Or maybe it won't be. Yet another reason our govenment is simply fucked.
This is just silly on any number of levels. First off is the obvious one: Who are they to tell me that I need to protect my network? Are they going to then require that I secure my house with an armed guard 24 hours a day? This has to be some kind of infringement on my rights.
Secondly, how are they going to enforce this law? Are they going to psysically come into my house and inspect my network? What's to stop me from installing a Firewall, but turning it off or making it do no filtering? Are they going to then decide what ports and types of data I need to filter?
This bill will be struck down by the courts in about 2 seconds. Or maybe it won't be. Yet another reason our govenment is simply fucked.
Dark Tower Comic Book
For those of you who have taken my advice and read Steven King's amazing Dark Tower series, here is something that should be interesting to you. It seems that SK is teaming up with Marvel to make a Dark Tower Comic Book. How cool is that?
Election Day
Today in America it is election day. I would imagine that this knowledge puts me in the minority. Sure there has been a huge increase in lawn posters and negative attack ads on tv, but I would bet that most people have no idea that the election is actually today. Of those who know, I would bet that only about 50% are actually planning on voting. This is the sad, but true fact of the American electoral process.
I want to address each of these points. Instead of separately talking about them, I'll do it at the same time since they are totally intertwined. They are tied quite obviously in the fact that most people don't care about voting (or the government) so they don't know (or care) when election day is.
Why don’t people care? That’s a huge question, but it’s easy to see the answer in broad strokes: people feel like no matter what they do they can’t change anything, people don’t care about the day to day of government and only the big ticket issues that they are fed by the media (I’m including church and friends as media messengers here), people like to complain because it’s easier than actually working for change, etc.
I believe that the real reason people don’t care is that they don’t understand how important their vote is. I don’t think they get that government will keep running the way it is if the people in it have no fear of retribution. We voters are the check against government that doesn’t go the way we want it to. When we see congress interfering with things and we complain, it’s too late. We put these people in office.
If you don’t vote you can’t complain. I vote so I can. In fact, every election I do something some would find quite odd. With a few small exceptions I vote out every incumbent and my vote goes to the least publicized and financed opponent. I do this because I’m sick of the everyday politician (democrat and republican). I do this in hopes that someone who isn’t a politician will get elected. My ultimate dream is that we as a people will elect a group of these idealist candidates into office and they will be able to make some changes in the way things work in our capitals.
Anyway, we need to instill upon the people in this country that their vote really counts. We need to educate them. This is our central problem: People just don’t know.
I suggest we do something that hasn’t been done in quite some time (if ever).
First we need to teach our children how the government works. We need to make sure that every child by the time they get to high school knows the following facts:
1) The 3 branches of government and how they check and balance each other
2) The fact that we live in a Republic and what that means in terms of representation
3) That as a citizen there is only a few ways that you can interact in the governing process and the most direct is by voting.
4) That you are part of a group, a community, a society and that if everyone were to vote, your vote would count (even though you may believe otherwise) since you would be representing your group and you will help them realize their voice.
Secondly, we need to educate the public on the same facts as Election Day nears. We need to make the poor and the disenfranchised see that they will always remain where they are if they don’t vote. We need to make the complaining middle class understand the same thing. The system can work if we all participate.
I would propose an FCC regulation that TV networks need to spend an equal amount of time promoting civics and the election as they spend airing political ads. Think how amazing an hour of election education on each network would be for our process. Think how many more activists we would generate. Think how much more power the people would have in deciding who governs them.
I do my part in trying to change the world. I am active as a citizen, as an educator and as someone who hopefully fosters debate on issues (both from this tiny blog). I urge you to do the same if you care about our country. I urge you to take some of what I’ve tried to say here and pass it on to others. We as a people need to improve our country and our American society and the only way to do it is by doing something yourself instead of just saying "yup, I agree".
I want to address each of these points. Instead of separately talking about them, I'll do it at the same time since they are totally intertwined. They are tied quite obviously in the fact that most people don't care about voting (or the government) so they don't know (or care) when election day is.
Why don’t people care? That’s a huge question, but it’s easy to see the answer in broad strokes: people feel like no matter what they do they can’t change anything, people don’t care about the day to day of government and only the big ticket issues that they are fed by the media (I’m including church and friends as media messengers here), people like to complain because it’s easier than actually working for change, etc.
I believe that the real reason people don’t care is that they don’t understand how important their vote is. I don’t think they get that government will keep running the way it is if the people in it have no fear of retribution. We voters are the check against government that doesn’t go the way we want it to. When we see congress interfering with things and we complain, it’s too late. We put these people in office.
If you don’t vote you can’t complain. I vote so I can. In fact, every election I do something some would find quite odd. With a few small exceptions I vote out every incumbent and my vote goes to the least publicized and financed opponent. I do this because I’m sick of the everyday politician (democrat and republican). I do this in hopes that someone who isn’t a politician will get elected. My ultimate dream is that we as a people will elect a group of these idealist candidates into office and they will be able to make some changes in the way things work in our capitals.
Anyway, we need to instill upon the people in this country that their vote really counts. We need to educate them. This is our central problem: People just don’t know.
I suggest we do something that hasn’t been done in quite some time (if ever).
First we need to teach our children how the government works. We need to make sure that every child by the time they get to high school knows the following facts:
1) The 3 branches of government and how they check and balance each other
2) The fact that we live in a Republic and what that means in terms of representation
3) That as a citizen there is only a few ways that you can interact in the governing process and the most direct is by voting.
4) That you are part of a group, a community, a society and that if everyone were to vote, your vote would count (even though you may believe otherwise) since you would be representing your group and you will help them realize their voice.
Secondly, we need to educate the public on the same facts as Election Day nears. We need to make the poor and the disenfranchised see that they will always remain where they are if they don’t vote. We need to make the complaining middle class understand the same thing. The system can work if we all participate.
I would propose an FCC regulation that TV networks need to spend an equal amount of time promoting civics and the election as they spend airing political ads. Think how amazing an hour of election education on each network would be for our process. Think how many more activists we would generate. Think how much more power the people would have in deciding who governs them.
I do my part in trying to change the world. I am active as a citizen, as an educator and as someone who hopefully fosters debate on issues (both from this tiny blog). I urge you to do the same if you care about our country. I urge you to take some of what I’ve tried to say here and pass it on to others. We as a people need to improve our country and our American society and the only way to do it is by doing something yourself instead of just saying "yup, I agree".
Friday, November 04, 2005
Peter Gabriel Be Dammed
My favorite video from back in the 80's was Peter Gabriel's "Sledgehammer". At the time it was just amazing that they had gone through all that work to make it. Who would have thought of a stop motion video? Well, Daniel Levi has topped "Sledgehammer" with his awesome video for Plan B: "No Good" . I think you should check it out.. It's way cool.
Thursday, November 03, 2005
Uh Sorry
.. At what point are the voters going to complain about the infringement on the rights of these rehabilitated ex-convicts? First it's limiting where they live, next it's banning them from leaving their houses on Halloween, and now it's GPS Tracking.. I am horrified that nobody is coming to the defense of these people.
Ultralights
As someone who has taken quite a few hours of instruction in flying (40+, did solo flight but I never got the chance to finish) I think I'm qualified to say that flying is really hard and really dangerous if you aren't properly instructed. Having said that, I have to now tell you that the current regulations by the FAA reguarding ultralight flying are simply insane.
The regulations are simple, there is no regulation for ultralights. No licence needed to fly them at all. Amazing no?
I've personally heard of 4 fatal (or almost fatal) crashes by ultralights (most reciently here) and I can't figure out why the FAA allows people to buy, assemble and fly these crafts without any licence. It's simply insane to me. How is it that our government doesn't belive that these planes are as dangerous (if not more dangerous) than flying a regular small plane?
The regulations are simple, there is no regulation for ultralights. No licence needed to fly them at all. Amazing no?
I've personally heard of 4 fatal (or almost fatal) crashes by ultralights (most reciently here) and I can't figure out why the FAA allows people to buy, assemble and fly these crafts without any licence. It's simply insane to me. How is it that our government doesn't belive that these planes are as dangerous (if not more dangerous) than flying a regular small plane?
Tuesday, November 01, 2005
Punkin Chunkin
Dammit! I totally forgot about my favorite outdoor event that I've never actually made it to.. Punkin Chunkin. I was reminded by Ryan in a comment that it's going to be on tonight at 6pm on the Discovery Channel.
It's an even that is near here and I really want to do since I'm a gun, catapult, trebuchet fan and well, how cool of an event is this to go to? Huge guns and contraptions built specificaly to heave pumpkins far distances..
Next year I'm going.. promise!
It's an even that is near here and I really want to do since I'm a gun, catapult, trebuchet fan and well, how cool of an event is this to go to? Huge guns and contraptions built specificaly to heave pumpkins far distances..
Next year I'm going.. promise!
Civ 4
Ok.. like I said, I have Civ 4 sitting in front of me. I am having trouble installing it since I know, I know it will envelop me and I'm not sure I want to be obsessed right now.. I'm not sure I want this game ruling my free time.. I know I have no will power.. Hmn.. what to do...
Music
Bought the new Depeche Mode CD.. not very impressed..
Bought the new Fiona Applie CD.. not impressed at all
Bought the new Sigor Ros CD... yea.. not too good
Bought the new Coltrane CD.. half - note.. yea.. this is good..
Bought the new Fiona Applie CD.. not impressed at all
Bought the new Sigor Ros CD... yea.. not too good
Bought the new Coltrane CD.. half - note.. yea.. this is good..
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