"The Spockranos": Star Trek and Sopranos mash-up

Remember the classic episode "A Piece of the Action" from the original Star Trek TV show? That was the one where Kirk and Spock beam down to the alien planet that had its entire culture based on 1920s Chicago mob wars. What happened was another Federation ship had come years earlier and accidentally left a book about the Chicago mobs behind and the aliens on this planet, being curious and innovative, re-engineered their world around what they learned from that book. It was a great episode with a lot of humor (and not entirely unplausible when you think about it).

Anyway, someone has taken the "A Piece of the Action" episode and turned it into a parody of The Sopranos intro! It's also got a "Scientology" spoof commercial at the end. I think it's one of the most hilarious things that I've ever seen on YouTube! Check out "The Spockranos"...

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Spirituality and certainty

My friend Jenna Olwin is part of a collaborative blog called Silhouette: mostly a group of Washington state armchair Christian theologians who put out some pretty deep stuff. Well she's got a new piece called "Spirituality and Certainty". Here's an excerpt:

America, as we all know, has experienced quite a revival in spirituality since atheism wore out of fashion. When Muslim terrorists brought down the Twin Towers and part of the Pentagon in 2001, we reminded each other that not all of Islam deserved censure because of the actions of radicals. Personal website hosts such as Myspace and Blogger automatically post your astrological sign on your profile. Some form of transcendental or New Age meditation was taught my class, at least, when I was in grade school, and megachurches advertise their ‘friendly, welcoming atmosphere’ on television.

The problem with the driving force behind these concepts (regardless of the merit or danger of any particular notion) is that it’s empty; a sheer senseless void that has American culture wandering in its colorless waste. In all the positive energy, the acceptance of all belief systems as equally valuable, the encouragement for each to find his or her own way, the pagan meditation and holistic ideas of therapy and healing, there is hardly a word of actual sterling truth—and truth, of all things, has the ability to provide sanity and healing.

Thought-provoking material, to say the least. Bang on the link above for more amazing insight from Jenna's pretty lil' head.

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Review of SPIDER-MAN 3

I enjoyed Spider-Man 3. There, I said it.

Spider-Man 3 is a good entry into the series and an all-around entertaining superhero "popcorn" flick. And with just a little bit more thought, it could have been an all-time truly classic movie.

There was simply way too much that was shoehorned into this one movie to make it overwhelmingly superb. I worried a year ago that Sam Raimi and gang were trying to put so many elements of the Spider-Man comics into this third film, that it couldn't be anything but unwieldy. Unfortunately, those fears were well-grounded.

But in spite of whatever problems this movie has... and they are myriad... I just can't bring myself to do anything but love Spider-Man 3. I had too good a time watching it. Yes, there are things that could have been better. But those are out-shined by what does work in this movie. And on the way home Lisa posed a really strong argument to me about why Spider-Man 3 has some pretty timely lessons for the day and age that we're living in.

Maybe I'm seeing things through rose-colored glasses. I mean, for as long as I live the original Spider-Man from 2002 will be one of my most favorite movie experiences ever. It was the last movie that Lisa and I saw at the Beechwood in Athens, on the night before she graduated from University of Georgia. We had seen so many great movies at that theater during almost two years of dating and to go out on top with Spider-Man, it was like a peak experience. And then the next day she graduated and that was the last time we've been to Athens after spending most of our dating relationship there and two months later we got married. So seeing a Spider-Man movie isn't something that I want to have a bad memory about, for fear that it'll sully that wonderful last time at the Beechwood. And Spider-Man 2 was one of the very few sequels that I thought was better than the original.

Okay, about the movie...

It picks up a year (maybe not even that long) after Spider-Man 2. Peter Parker (Tobey Maguire) finally has the balance he's sought between being an ace student, a boyfriend to the beautiful Mary Jane Watson (Kirsten Dunst), and a costumed hero that's become a much-beloved New York City icon. Unfortunately there are still some issues (and that's putting it lightly) from the first two movies between Peter and his former best friend Harry Osborne (James Franco). It's not long after the film is rolling that the first action sequence of Spider-Man 3 happens when Harry – as the lamely-named "New Goblin" (is that the best they could come up with?) – attacks Peter, just as Peter is coming home from telling Aunt May (Rosemary Harris, as wonderful as ever) that he's going to ask Mary Jane to marry him.

Meanwhile a small-time hood named Flint Marko (Thomas Haden Church) is fleeing the cops. Not wanting to be sent back to prison, he runs smack into the middle of a high-energy physics lab that's doing something crazy involving sand. Because this is a Spider-Man movie, you just know that having a criminal running through a physics experiment is going to mean trouble. Marko's body is taken apart by a particle accelerator thingy, but he gains the properties of the sand that he fell in and after he rebuilds himself, starts learning how to use his new powers as the Sandman.

And I'm almost forgetting to mention how, toward the very beginning of the movie, Peter and Mary Jane are in Central Park one night watching a meteor shower when a meteorite crashes just a few dozen yards away from them and brings with it a gooey black living alien substance that hitches a ride on Peter's scooter. Yup, of all the billions of people living on Earth, this thing just happens to land right next to the web-slinging superhero.

So began one of the "bad" things for me about Spider-Man 3: the all-too-numerous coincidences. This was the first and worst of them. Even if you've been in a cave for the past year and haven't seen the trailers, you've probably figured out that the "black goo" is the alien symbiote that attaches to Peter and becomes his black costume. I didn't like the "outer space" origin of the suit at all in Spider-Man 3. That was fine for the original comics line but in the context of a motion picture, it seems way too wacky. It would have been much better, if the symbiote was used at all, to give it the origin from the Ultimate Spider-Man comic series (where the symbiote is a home-grown cancer cure that goes completely awry). Well, the symbiote finds its way into Peter's life just as he and Aunt May are getting news from Police Captain Stacy (played by James Cromwell) that this Flint Marko guy had something to do with Uncle Ben's death in the original Spider-Man. Now Peter wants revenge in the worst way and the symbiote homes in on that desire. One night, it "smothers" Peter as he's asleep on the bed and becomes the black costume.

Now, the ad campaign will have you believe that the black costume somehow makes Peter more powerful. Don't believe it. That black goop does nothing for Peter except give him a honked-off 'tude, a bad haircut, and making him impersonate John Travolta's dancing... badly. That was one part of the movie that was genuinely painful to watch: when it feels like the whole film has jumped the track and has become a horridly bad Seventies movie. It's like Sam Raimi took off that day and let Quentin Tarantino shoot some B-roll for Grindhouse with Tobey Maguire. Come to think of it, there was too much singing and dancing in this movie... except for that very last scene of the movie, which was perfect.

Well, the symbiote starts to bring out the absolute worst in Peter, and he eventually frees himself from it inside a church. Which it just so happens that Eddie Brock (Topher Grace) is inside that same church. He's praying to God to kill Peter Parker ('cuz Parker wrecked Brock's career, among other things). Oh wow... another coincidence! And so the symbiote latches onto Brock and becomes – ta-da! – Venom.

More bad advertising: Venom is barely in this movie. I think he's on-screen for less than five minutes total. There's not even enough time to properly call him "Venom". Yet too much time was spent building up to him. If I had been in charge of the Spider-Man movie franchise, I would have made Sandman the primary villain and have the Harry storyline a very strong "Plot B". I would still give Peter the symbiote/black costume, but tear it off of him before the movie's end and have it waiting out there for a Spider-Man 4, when that entire film could be devoted to Venom. Putting Sandman and Venom in Spider-Man 3 was the most obvious example of too much story.

There were other things too that were crammed-into this movie that didn't need to be there, like Bryce Dallas Howard as Gwen Stacy. Now if you know Spider-Man comics then you know that Gwen Stacy is a huge part of Spidey lore. In Spider-Man 3 she seemed as tacked-on as (Lord forgive me for saying this) Alicia Silverstone was in Batman and Robin. Yes I absolutely hate drawing that analogy, but that's what it felt most like. They could have said that Howard was playing Deb Whitman and it wouldn't have made any more difference to me.

Thomas Hayden Church as Flint Marko/Sandman was one of the real surprises of Spider-Man 3. Church's Sandman is a criminal, but I don't know if it's fair to call him a "bad" guy. He's a man who's made some mistakes and he's got a crisis that he's trying to deal with as best he can... and then he gains and struggles to deal with his new super-abilities. The more time that passes since yesterday afternoon (we saw the movie at the Grande in Greensboro), the more I'm wishing that Sandman had been the only major villain of the film. Church was a pleasure to watch in the role and I really wanted to see a lot more of him in this movie. And I wanted to see more of the plot involving his daughter, which also seemed a little "rushed".

Sandman worked for me. So did the story between Peter and Harry, and its eventual resolution (which I will not spoil for you here). J.K. Simmons as J. Jonah Jameson has been a sheer hoot to watch since the original Spider-Man and he was just as much fun to watch this time (but again, if some fat had been trimmed off of this film then I would have loved to have seen him get more screen time). There is a lot of nice consistency between this and the previous movies, like the return of Dr. Connors (Dylan Baker, who still hasn't gotten his turn at bat as The Lizard!) and even Peter's landlord Mr. Ditkovitch ("Rent?!") and his daughter Ursula. And it being a Sam Raimi movie, it wouldn't be complete without a cameo appearance by Bruce Campbell. Look for him playing a hilarious French waiter at a restaurant that Peter is meeting Mary Jane at. I even liked Harry's butler a lot, including the scene where he comes in and explains something to Harry. I'm hearing some refer to that bit as a deus ex machina, but it made sense to me... and again, it was a nice touch of consistency.

This movie isn't entirely good. But it's definitely not the "bad" movie that a lot of critics are making it out to be, at least in my book. It's certainly not like Batman and Robin (can you believe it's almost ten years since that cinematic travesty? I still cringe whenever I think back on the night that "Weird" Ed and I saw that turkey). But I can't see comparing it to X-Men: The Last Stand either. I do think that Sam Raimi should have been trusted more to make the Spider-Man movie he wanted to see made, instead of the suits at Sony or wherever making production decisions from the board room. Instead... and this is much the same problem that X-Men: The Last Stand had last year... executive producer Avi Arad was too insistent about sticking Venom in this movie. Venom in Spider-Man 3 feels more like a professional obligation than a work of creative passion. Raimi didn't want Venom in this at all... heck he didn't even like the character.

Where Raimi really shines for me and why I believe he really has been the best director for this series is that for all of its problems, Spider-Man 3 is a much-needed parable in the series about revenge and forgiveness. If this entire series is about "with great power comes great responsibility" as has always been part of the Spider-Man saga, then Spider-Man 3 is about learning how to have discipline over that power, lest it take control of you. Lisa and I were talking about this on the way home from the theater and I think she's right about this: that with the whole world around us so obsessed with hurting others and having control over them and being unwilling to forgive, Spider-Man 3 really is a refreshing breeze from the opposite direction. On those grounds, Spider-Man 3 stands tall indeed because of those morals...

...and because, in spite of being too burdened with too many story elements this time out, this is still the same core group of wonderful characters that we've come to know and love over the course of two movies, and it's great to see them again, and how they come to grow and develop even further.

I would probably see Spider-Man 3 again in the theater. I definitely will add it to my personal library when it comes out on DVD (something that cannot be said about X-Men: The Last Stand).

On a scale of 1 to 10, I'll give Spider-Man 3 a strong 7. Wish it could have been at least an 8, but in my mind it's quite a rare movie that is laden with flaws but still merits recommending to people.

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Where crime involving political signs is taken seriously ...

Opponents of a school bond referendum in Davie County have vandalized thousands of dollars worth of signs supporting to measure and it's being treated as an actual crime there. I'm going to do some more looking into this come early next week. Funny how a few counties over it's treated as a serious criminal matter (as it should be) but here in Rockingham County it's almost as if it's no big deal when other people's political signs are messed with.

Speaking of Ron Price, there's one more thing - at least - that is in the works. You'll know it when you see it.

Thanks to Penny Owens for forwarding along this news video from WGHP Fox 8.

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Song parody: "MacArthur Park 2007" (illegal aliens rioting)

With apologies to Jimmy Webb and the late Richard Harris, but I just couldn't resist writing this one. Inspired by events of the past few days...

"MacArthur Park 2007"

Originally written by Jimmy Webb and performed by Richard Harris

New words by Christopher Knight

Border is wide open for them girl
They're starting to get bold
As they scream their Spanish chants
Now they incite a riot as they press
The government to bow down
To La Raza's mad demands

MacArthur Park is burning in the dark
All those rubber bullets flying 'round
Gonzo's hot to find someone to blame
This country just can't take it
Illegals are going to break it
And we'll never have America again
Oh noooooooo!

I can see unlawful immigrants
Fighting with the cops
Of Los Angeles P-D
Better put a stop to this right now or
They'll be spreading from sea to shining sea

MacArthur Park is burning in the dark
While the country goes on crumbling down
Lawless immigration is insane
Taxpayers can't afford it
But elitists just adore it
'Cuz they'll never pay high salary again
Oh noooooooo!

There will be no other job for me
For I have lost it
American dream is dead to me
Illegal took it
And still they come like an angry swarm
While they threaten us with drunk driving and their guns
And of all the bad things in my life
And the things causing so much strife
This is the worst one

MacArthur Park is burning in the dark
All those aliens are running 'round
What the hell is wrong with Bush's brain?
No other way to say it
Real Americans will hate it
If politicians give amnesty again
Oh noooooooo!
Oh noooooo-oooooooooooo!

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Wally Schirra has passed away

Walter M. Schirra Jr., better known as "Wally" Schirra, has passed away at the age of 84.

Schirra was one of the original seven NASA astronauts, tapped from hundreds of candidates to be part of the Mercury program. He flew the Sigma 7 craft in 1962 and then a few years later commanded Gemini 6 as it rendezvoused with Gemini 7: the first such encounter between two spacecraft and a technical test for what would later be required during the Apollo series. The third and final time Schirra went into space was in 1968 with Apollo 7, the first manned launch of the Apollo vehicle.

Of the original seven Mercury astronauts, only John Glenn and Scott Carpenter are still with us.

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Bush: "I'm the Commander Guy!"

Remember that old TV commercial that had Mrs. Fletcher shouting "I've fallen and I can't get up!"? That's what America has become, my friends. It's fallen and it's so lame, there's no standing back straight and tall ever again. The timbers in the ship of state are just too rotted.

Witness the latest sign of the decadence: President Bush has a new name for himself. Yesterday he said this:

"The question is, 'Who ought to make that decision, the Congress or the commanders?,'" Mr. Bush said. "As you know, my position is clear – I'm the commander guy."

"I'm the commander guy"?

Two things that are so tragic about this: first, is that it has come to the point where we have gone from the eloquence that was once found in leaders like Thomas Jefferson and Teddy Roosevelt, and come to where the height of presidential rhetoric is "I'm the commander guy". I mean, heck compared to George W. Bush, even Andrew Jackson was a classical orator.

The second thing that's so sad about this, is that there are poor fools that are going to be found who will absolutely lap stuff like this up.

"I'm the commander guy"... who possibly takes this president seriously anymore?

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Tonight's LOST: musings about "The Brig"

Lisa usually turns in before Lost starts at 10 p.m., meaning that I watch it and then we see it together the following afternoon from the DVR. But tonight she got drawn in by the first few minutes of "The Brig" and couldn't let go. So we got to see it first-run together. It just finished a short while ago...

John Locke may be the greatest tragic figure to come out of television of the past twenty years. You know what I keep thinking about, after watching this episode? It's that as much as Locke has wanted to be unlike his father, he has now become too much like his father.

Sawyer has lately been turning into one of my favorite characters, because of how he has been changing and growing. We've been seeing a real seeking of redemption and want of a new life out of Sawyer. He's had that new life. And then Locke has to destroy that life, just as the original Sawyer (I'm trying hard not to spoil anything here) ruined young James Ford's life.

That scene where it all comes crashing down together... you know what I mean if you watched it... that was genuinely painful to watch. I sure didn't feel any satisfaction out of that scene. I felt like a very horrible thing had been made to happen and I really can't say that I blame either Locke or Sawyer for it.

If nobody had a good enough reason to hate Ben before tonight, there sure is now.

Lots of answers in this one. In true Lost style, almost as many new mysteries in "The Brig". And there's a real sense that everything is converging hard and fast and when they meet... it's not going to be pretty.

Three more episodes left in Season 3. Next week: Ben's flashback episode. The early days of the DHARMA Initiative. And at long last... Jacob. "The Man Behind the Curtain" airs in exactly 166.5 hours!

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Comments temporarily for registered users only

Because of some apparent abuse on the part of a suspected individual on the "The Ronfather" post, I am temporarily turning off anonymous comments. You must be registered with Blogger in order to leave comments at the present time. I'm hoping to lift this and return to normal commenting - which you can choose to be anonymous or not - as soon as possible.

EDIT 5-03-2007 1:03 a.m. EST: Normal commenting has been restored.

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Student disciplined for making video game map of his high school

The Fort Bend Independent School District (in Texas) is upholding the suspension and subsequent placing in an "alternative education center" of a Clements High School student whose only crime was... get this... building a video game map from his high school!

Here's more of the story:

...on April 17, the day after the Virginia Tech massacre that left 33 dead, Clements High School officials learned a student had been playing Counterstrike, an Internet-based shooting game. The locale of the shootings depicted on this student's game were the hallways of Clements High School.

School district police investigated the report and questioned the student at school and then visited his home. The student's parents gave police permission to search the 12th-grader's room and computer. Simpson said police determined no criminal charges were warranted but that disciplinary action was.

Simpson said because of the violent nature of the game and because the actions had taken place in a computer-generated rendition of the high school, official consider the matter to be very serious.

"This was nothing to kid around about," she said.

Simpson said the student was transferred to an alternative school for the remainder of the school term.

The teen's parents appealed the decision. The school district has a four-step appeal process at the end of which a student can make a final appeal directly to the board of trustees...

Magee said he thinks the district probably reacted too strongly to the situation.

"He did it at his house. Never took anything to school. Never wrote an ugly letter, never said anything strange to a student or a teacher, nothing," Magee said.

Bryant said police need to take situations like this seriously.

If we have come to the point where we are threatened by a video game... then I'm sorry, but America has completely lost it. These school officials are blithering idiots and the people who started this mess against this student don't possess nearly enough spine.

Look, this is something of a tradition. Making video game maps based on real-life locales is nothing new. It started over ten years ago with Doom, and people hacking that game so that they could run around Notre Dame or their office or some other place they were familiar with. To the best of my knowledge, I don't know of anyone who used those home-brewed maps to practice a real-life killing spree. It's just natural that if you have the time and talent to do this sort of thing, that you would use a place you know like the back of your hand.

And notice that this student did this at home, on his own time, without using any school time or resources. So I have to wonder: what the hell gives these damned busybodies in the school system the right to intrude on his domicile?

Oh yeah: based on what they're saying in this story "Virginia Tech changed everything!" is what they'll probably say.

More reason why our children's education should not be trusted to those who are riding mental tricycles.

I still remember quite a lot of detail about my old high school. I wonder if I would get in trouble for making a Doom or Quake or Counter Strike map based on it?

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Fox News handling of Republican debate shows how screwed-up this country is

Let me see if I've got this right...

Fox News may exclude SEVEN candidates from its Republican presidential debate - including Internet favorites Ron Paul and Duncan Hunter - because they and others are hovering around 1% support in national polls. Fox News doesn't want to give airtime to anyone who is showing just that 1%.

If they had live and unfettered airtime during the debate, they more than likely stand a good chance of seeing their percentage of support skyrocket across the country.

But in order to have that airtime, they have to be well-known enough to the public now, from a considerable amount of news coverage, which Fox News, CNN, CBS, and the rest of the mainstream media will absolutely not afford them. Why? Because candidates like Ron Paul are not the "favored elite" among either party. They're not the ones "picked to win" by their parties' bigwigs and the controllers of corporate media. On a level playing field, someone as intelligent and as articulate as Ron Paul would wipe the floor with George W. Bush or Hillary Clinton.

But we aren't allowed to have sincere brilliance rise into leadership roles anymore. They would upset the apple cart too much in this country. The leaders of both major parties have too much to lose than to let "loose cannons" take away from their power. The mainstream press... well, it wants power too, but it's also terminally lazy and doesn't want to go through the hassle of reporting on people with real ideas. The corporate media only wants people from whom it knows what to expect.

I've very little doubt that we are going to see Hillary or Guiliani or Obama or McCain or someone else among "the anointed" sworn in as President come January '09. And when they do, I'll only be able to close my eyes and shake my head in disgust, just as I have done when George W. Bush was inaugurated and Bill Clinton before him. There are no more adults to lead this country: we are now, and will for the foreseeable future, being led by the delinquent and the insane. All cheerfully brought to you by the network of Fair and Balanced reporting and others of its ilk.

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Ron Price: He'll make you an offer you oughta refuse

If this is The Ronfather, does that mean its central character is "Ron" Corleone?

Someone called here yesterday to ask me about the Ron Price situation and I told this person that at no time have I "hated" the guy. Been disgusted with him? Certainly. But that's a far cry from outright loathing his guts. At the same time, he's doing wrong: both by staying on the Rockingham County Board of Education (in spite of being an admitted thief) and by this lawsuit against the Moores... which many here believe will be only the first in a series of retaliatory strikes against those on Price's "enemies list".

Bear in mind that at one point I was one of Price's strongest supporters. I even offered to make a TV commercial for his campaign back during the election season... for free. You don't do that for someone unless they've won your trust. That, Price did. I told this person yesterday that I'm going to be a lot more careful about being eager to support someone so readily from now on.

Anyway, one of the things Price has said in his lawsuit against Richard Moore is that he's been caused "embarrassment". I don't see anything wrong with that. Embarrassment and shame can be a good thing... especially when the person in question is an elected official in charge of a multi-million dollar budget and moral decisions affecting thousands of people. Why shouldn't Ron Price feel embarrassed and ridiculed, in light of what we now know of him?

So I've got no problem in making these parody images, because Ron Price only has himself to blame for all of this. If he would do the right thing and step aside, I wouldn't have to be making these. But this is how I fight the bad guys, with whatever creativity and talent that God has given me.

It's what we all should have been doing, every one of us, no matter where in this country or this world that we've been put or what we've been given to work with. This is where America is going to either live or die: at the local level, fighting the crooks off in your own backyard.

I wonder if MAD Magazine would hire me...

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Tonight's LOST goes out of "the box" and into "The Brig"

A few weeks ago in the episode "The Man from Tallahassee", Ben told Locke (Terry O'Quinn) that on the island there was "a box" that would produce anything you wanted. Locke laughed at the idea. And then at the end of the episode Ben told Locke that "I'm going to show you what came out of it."

What Locke saw when he opened the door and looked inside the room was probably the biggest shocker of the show's entire run.

We've only seen Locke very briefly after that, when he told Kate that he was leaving with the Others for... wherever it was that they were headed for. On tonight's Lost - titled "The Brig" - Locke returns and based on what little I'm hearing, this is going to be an episode as fine as any that we've seen lately... and those have been some of the best television ever produced in the past decade. Word on the street is that tonight's flashbacks show what Locke has been doing with the Others for the past several days. More intriguing still, "The Brig" might finally resolve a longstanding mystery from the first season involving Sawyer (if you watch the show then you know what I'm talking about).

Enjoy every minute of this while you can. After tonight there are only three more episodes and then Lost goes away until next January :-(

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Tom Poston - aka George Utley on NEWHART - passes away

When I was growing up, Newhart was one of the few television shows that I really liked to watch. Guess it was all those weird characters living together in that tiny Vermont town. One of the quirkiet was Tom Poston's George Utley. I think it was in his very first appearance on the show that he gave Bob Newhart's character Dick Loudon his business card and all it says on it is "GEORGE UTLEY", no phone or address: people have to shout for him if they wanted him. The look on Dick's face after that is what set the tone for all the years of the show that followed.

Well, news is coming out tonight that Tom Poston passed away Monday night at the age of 85. In addition to a life of great acting and comedy roles, he was also a pilot during World War II who flew soldiers in and out of a lot of dangerous areas. I think I remember reading that at one time he was a boxer, too.

Sad to see him go. We are steadily losing an entire generation of performing giants, and there really isn't anyone with their kind of caliber to fill in for them. But I couldn't wind down this post without sharing my all-time favorite George Utley scene from Newhart. It was from that episode that was made up entirely of dream sequences (I think this was like two years before the show ended with perhaps the most famous dream sequence in television history). Anyway in the first act we see George's dream and in it Dick is showing George all the crazy thing that can happen while dreaming, and at the end of it George lifts up his arms and goes flying off like Superman. It was hilarious!

Thanks for the years of good laughs, Mr. Poston.

EDIT 12:57 a.m. EST: Hey, here's a clip of that scene on YouTube! Enjoy!

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Happy anniversary Ed and Olivia!

It was a year ago today down at Cypress Gardens in Charleston, South Carolina that my longtime collaborator "Weird" Ed Woody was united in holy matrimony to his lovely bride Olivia. Here's a pic of the happy couple...What Ed, ya think I would let this day go by without remembering that? :-)

Happy anniversary you two!

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It's illegal to have this number on your blog

Hexadecimal 09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0

This is the decryption key for most of the HD-DVD titles that have been released. Apparently the bigwigs in the entertainment industry are going after websites and blogs that host it. This is similar to what happened a few years ago when DeCSS was discovered. Some people were arrested for spreading the code for that one around (in quite a few creative ways). Just for the heck of it, here's one of DeCSS's smaller C implementations:

/*     efdtt.c     Author:  Charles M. Hannum              */
/*                                                                         */
/*     Thanks to Phil Carmody  for additional tweaks.    */
/*                                                                         */
/*     Length:  434 bytes (excluding unnecessary newlines)                 */
/*                                                                         */
/*     Usage is:  cat title-key scrambled.vob | efdtt >clear.vob           */

#define m(i)(x[i]^s[i+84])<<
unsigned char x[5],y,s[2048];main(n){for(read(0,x,5);read(0,s,n=2048);write(1,s
,n))if(s[y=s[13]%8+20]/16%4==1){int i=m(1)17^256+m(0)8,k=m(2)0,j=m(4)17^m(3)9^k
*2-k%8^8,a=0,c=26;for(s[y]-=16;--c;j*=2)a=a*2^i&1,i=i/2^j&1<<24;for(j=127;++j;c=c>y)c+=y=i^i/8^i>>4^i>>12,i=i>>8^y<<17,a^=a>>14,y=a^a*8^a<<6,a=a>>8^y<<9,k=s
[j],k="7Wo~'G_\216"[k&7]+2^"cr3sfw6v;*k+>/n."[k>>4]*2^k*257/8,s[j]=k^(k&k*2&34)
*6^c+~y;}}

But what would have happened if DVD encryption hadn't been cracked? It had mostly been an effort so that Linux users could use DVDs on their systems, because the industry had up to that point refused to support DVD on Linux. Would there have been the boom in do-it-yourself DVD recording that we now enjoy had the algorithm not been broken? Probably not.

Let's face it: for whatever intent they have, hackers do almost invariably do a great long-term service for us. They open up new technology, and they challenge hardware and software producers to constantly improve the products they pitch to us. Same thing is going to happen with high-def DVD content getting cracked: my bet is that it'll eventually make self-production of 1080p discs at home that much more viable.

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RONBO: Lawsuit story hits the News & Record

Gerald Witt has a write-up in today's News & Record about the lawsuit that Ron Price has filed against Richard Moore (click here for more info on that). At the beginning of his story Witt makes mention of something that's currently on Moore's website and I couldn't resist posting it here either for sake of posterity...

Political sniping going to court

By Gerald Witt
Staff Writer

WENTWORTH — Ronbo — a mash-up of Rambo and Rockingham County school board member Ron Price — greets visitors to Richard Moore's Web site.

Moore, a local political pot-stirrer, independent publisher and unsuccessful 2006 school board candidate, doesn't seem rattled by a slander and libel lawsuit Price filed against him last month claiming $140,000 in damages.

A copy of the complaint is on Moore's site, next to the Ronbo photo: Price's face on the body of John Rambo , a long-haired, tank-topped Vietnam vet played by actor Sylvester Stallone.

"Ronbo"... heh-heh :-)

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