Two stories I saw next to each other in the new yesterday:
Michael Crichton dies.
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5hwqg5YsJqDBamy8X_c4f2AdN1FkgD94904FG0
Japanese scientists trying to clone extinct animals.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/the-big-question-will-scientists-ever-be-able-to-resurrect-longextinct-animals-by-cloning-992019.html
Good science fiction often becomes science fact.
Requiescat in pace, Mr. Crichton. You stirred my imagination more than once.
Thursday, November 6, 2008
Wednesday, November 5, 2008
Election Wrap up
Edit: Daily status: the DJI has dropped 1,664 points since the bailout passed on October 3rd. Your Federal tax dollars at work!
Well, as near as I can tell, no one I voted for who was actually opposed managed to win this time around.
OK, I'm going to vent. Democrats and liberals, don't bother reading this. You won, be happy. You're not likely to be unconstitutionally arrested sometime in the next few years (unlike, arguably, the last few years when we were both likely to get arrested).
Well, I'd like to congratulate Obama on beating Bush and Palin in the presidential race. I'm sure that was very hard to do, especially since neither of them were running for president. Of course, Palin doesn't have the experience to be president, but if she winds up with Steven's Senate seat in four years she will since four years in the senate is plenty of experience.
I'd also like to congratulate Joe Biden, but I'm not sure who he is since he got less press attention than Joe the Plumber. Apparently scrutinizing the Democrat VP candidate isn't newsworthy.
I will sleep more soundly at night once we swear in as commander in chief someone who's never served in the military in any capacity and has a whopping four year's experience in the federal government. He opposes defending ourselves against nuclear missiles and developing FCS for the army, which includes active defense systems for vehicles and numerous other technologies aimed at saving the lives of US soldiers. We'll have plenty of opportunity to see him as CinC; he already wants to get us into stopping genocide in Darfur and elsewhere as soon as he pulls us out of fighting terrorism in Iraq. Hey, the last non-military CinC we had worked out great, right? So he killed a few of my friends for nothing, no biggie.
However, this only begins our president-elect's qualifications. He's not only used marijuana (OK, let's be fair, he might be in the majority there), but also cocaine. Luckily he's also for universal healthcare, because that's worked out well for every country that has tried it, so someday all the country's cocaine users (who will also be helped by improved "social safety nets") can hope to be president.
Obama's opening speech tells us of a long, hard road ahead. Right, it will take years to escape the legacy of Bush, but 9/11 which happened less than a year after Bush was sworn in was all Bush's fault and not Clinton's at all.
Children have already been taught to sing the praises of our great leader, bringing to my mind the fictional Nehemiah Scudder, elected president 2012 (though he got 81% of the electoral vote and Obama is somewhere around 68%).
I welcome as the next leader of the free world Barack Hussein Obama II.
"Is anybody there? Does anybody care? Does anybody see what I see?" - "John Adams", 1776
Well, as near as I can tell, no one I voted for who was actually opposed managed to win this time around.
OK, I'm going to vent. Democrats and liberals, don't bother reading this. You won, be happy. You're not likely to be unconstitutionally arrested sometime in the next few years (unlike, arguably, the last few years when we were both likely to get arrested).
Well, I'd like to congratulate Obama on beating Bush and Palin in the presidential race. I'm sure that was very hard to do, especially since neither of them were running for president. Of course, Palin doesn't have the experience to be president, but if she winds up with Steven's Senate seat in four years she will since four years in the senate is plenty of experience.
I'd also like to congratulate Joe Biden, but I'm not sure who he is since he got less press attention than Joe the Plumber. Apparently scrutinizing the Democrat VP candidate isn't newsworthy.
I will sleep more soundly at night once we swear in as commander in chief someone who's never served in the military in any capacity and has a whopping four year's experience in the federal government. He opposes defending ourselves against nuclear missiles and developing FCS for the army, which includes active defense systems for vehicles and numerous other technologies aimed at saving the lives of US soldiers. We'll have plenty of opportunity to see him as CinC; he already wants to get us into stopping genocide in Darfur and elsewhere as soon as he pulls us out of fighting terrorism in Iraq. Hey, the last non-military CinC we had worked out great, right? So he killed a few of my friends for nothing, no biggie.
However, this only begins our president-elect's qualifications. He's not only used marijuana (OK, let's be fair, he might be in the majority there), but also cocaine. Luckily he's also for universal healthcare, because that's worked out well for every country that has tried it, so someday all the country's cocaine users (who will also be helped by improved "social safety nets") can hope to be president.
Obama's opening speech tells us of a long, hard road ahead. Right, it will take years to escape the legacy of Bush, but 9/11 which happened less than a year after Bush was sworn in was all Bush's fault and not Clinton's at all.
Children have already been taught to sing the praises of our great leader, bringing to my mind the fictional Nehemiah Scudder, elected president 2012 (though he got 81% of the electoral vote and Obama is somewhere around 68%).
I welcome as the next leader of the free world Barack Hussein Obama II.
"Is anybody there? Does anybody care? Does anybody see what I see?" - "John Adams", 1776
Tuesday, November 4, 2008
Sic Transit Gloria Res Publica?
Looks like I was right.
Zarth.
I pray to whatever gods may be paying attention that I was wrong about him.
Zarth.
I pray to whatever gods may be paying attention that I was wrong about him.
Silver Lining
Daily status: the DJI has dropped 1,171 points since the bailout passed on October 3rd. Your Federal tax dollars at work!
Silver linings for tonight:
I'll stop getting bot-calls.
I'll stop seeing annoying political adds.
I'll stop getting political spam mail.
At least Hilary can't be elected.
In four years it is very likely I'll get to say "I told you so."
Silver linings for tonight:
I'll stop getting bot-calls.
I'll stop seeing annoying political adds.
I'll stop getting political spam mail.
At least Hilary can't be elected.
In four years it is very likely I'll get to say "I told you so."
Monday, November 3, 2008
Sleepy Weekend
Edit: Daily status: the DJI has dropped 1,476 points since the bailout passed on October 3rd. Your Federal tax dollars at work!
Well, I slept most of the day Friday and Saturday, and I'm still tired today.
In between all that sleeping, my massive energy led me to watch movies and TV on my computer.
The movie "Saints and Soldiers" is a waste of time, IMO. Despite starting out with the claim that it is "based on a true story" as near as I can tell the true story is that WWII happened. Our main characters include a crack rifle shot who spent the pre-war years as a missionary in Germany and a hunter in the American southwest. Despite this he is placed as a line trooper in the 101st Airborne rather than any sort of intel billet or even (based on shown equipment) being his platoon sniper. He also somehow winds up at the Malmedy Massacre (which occurred days before the 101st was in the area), which is portrayed from a very German-apologist viewpoint BTW, and winds up meeting up an old friend who is now a German soldier. Twice. Riiigghht. Other protagonists include an obnoxious Brit photo-recon pilot who... takes extensive notes in code while he's flying. No wonder this guy gets show down. The only redeeming feature of this movie is that at least SOME of the soldiers seem to use bolt-action and semi-auto rifles. This doesn't really make up for the internal GPS units all our protagonists appear to be equipped with (lip service is paid to a map and compass, but it doesn't really hold up), nor the shot of a pair of US soldiers shooting a bazooka at a tree.
Switching over to the positive, ABC's Life on Mars looks like it might be interesting. The show appears to be a police procedural with sci-fi/fantasy elements (the main character is a detective in New York City in 2008 until he gets hit by a car and wakes up in 1973 - still as a police detective). I'm not sure how rooted in reality this show is either (I'm nowhere near an expert on police methods and roles in 1973 New York), but given the possibility that most of the show is a hallucination by the main character, any breaches with reality are easily explainable. I really like the conflict and slowly developing respect between the good cop main character and his bad cop boss. One nit, and it is entirely directed at ABC's on-line full episode viewer: I have no problem watching the show with limited commercial interruption, but can you for the love of all that is holy, clean, and sane in the world not show the exact same commercial in every slot?
Well, I slept most of the day Friday and Saturday, and I'm still tired today.
In between all that sleeping, my massive energy led me to watch movies and TV on my computer.
The movie "Saints and Soldiers" is a waste of time, IMO. Despite starting out with the claim that it is "based on a true story" as near as I can tell the true story is that WWII happened. Our main characters include a crack rifle shot who spent the pre-war years as a missionary in Germany and a hunter in the American southwest. Despite this he is placed as a line trooper in the 101st Airborne rather than any sort of intel billet or even (based on shown equipment) being his platoon sniper. He also somehow winds up at the Malmedy Massacre (which occurred days before the 101st was in the area), which is portrayed from a very German-apologist viewpoint BTW, and winds up meeting up an old friend who is now a German soldier. Twice. Riiigghht. Other protagonists include an obnoxious Brit photo-recon pilot who... takes extensive notes in code while he's flying. No wonder this guy gets show down. The only redeeming feature of this movie is that at least SOME of the soldiers seem to use bolt-action and semi-auto rifles. This doesn't really make up for the internal GPS units all our protagonists appear to be equipped with (lip service is paid to a map and compass, but it doesn't really hold up), nor the shot of a pair of US soldiers shooting a bazooka at a tree.
Switching over to the positive, ABC's Life on Mars looks like it might be interesting. The show appears to be a police procedural with sci-fi/fantasy elements (the main character is a detective in New York City in 2008 until he gets hit by a car and wakes up in 1973 - still as a police detective). I'm not sure how rooted in reality this show is either (I'm nowhere near an expert on police methods and roles in 1973 New York), but given the possibility that most of the show is a hallucination by the main character, any breaches with reality are easily explainable. I really like the conflict and slowly developing respect between the good cop main character and his bad cop boss. One nit, and it is entirely directed at ABC's on-line full episode viewer: I have no problem watching the show with limited commercial interruption, but can you for the love of all that is holy, clean, and sane in the world not show the exact same commercial in every slot?
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