...and it's not even 6 a.m. yet.
Sunday, August 30, 2009
Saturday, August 29, 2009
Bev Perdue giving lottery money back to North Carolina schools
Bev Perdue - who for as long as she is Governor of North Carolina will be referred to on this blog as "WORST GOVERNOR EVER!" - is returning $38 million to the school construction proceeds from the North Carolina Education Lottery, which she raided back in February
(However there's still $50 million from the lottery's reserve funds that Perdue isn't paying back yet).
Does Bev Perdue have any clue at all about the mess she has caused for this state's public schools? Probably not. Here in Rockingham County plans to build four much-needed new schools were thrown into turmoil because the construction funds earmarked from the lottery were swiped by Perdue so that she could play games with the state's budget problems. Many other school systems across North Carolina were also hit by Perdue's monetary mayhem.
I would imagine that in the greater scheme of things, Perdue's unwise fiscal planning has cost the state more than whatever financial pain North Carolina may have eluded in the short term. And it will likely as not fall to the local governments and school systems to deal with the ramifications of the fault of state officials in Raleigh.
Damon Lindelof Twitter-ed me about LOST!
We're about four and a half months away from the return of Lost. What many have called the best scripted television drama ever is heading into its sixth and final season, with plenty of mysteries still abounding. Like, f'rinstance, the statue of the Egyptian goddess Taweret that we saw in last season's finale.Well, this might or might not mean anything but hey, it's my own lil' claim to having what might be a viable theory of Lost, so... why not share it with everyone? :-)
Damon Lindelof, one of the Lost showrunners, asked this via his Twitter account on August 13th...
"QUESTION: What is the significance of the statue of Taweret? (Creativity + ingenuity will win over ridiculous humor or familiar theories.)"I'm sure that Lindelof got hit with a slew of responses. So I figured I'd posit my own rumination on the subject. Here's my tweet to Lindelof...
"@DamonLindelof Re: Tawaret statue: because giant alligator-headed women are a honkin' lot scarier than a "Beware of Dog" sign?"And then like a lot of things on Twitter I completely forgot about it. Until a week later when Lindelof Twitter-ed my answer for all the world to see...
"@theknightshift Because giant alligator-headed women are much scarier than a "Beware Of Dog" sign?"Whoa! Did I inadvertently stumble on something here? That was the only response that Lindelof conveyed via his own Twitter. Could it be that this really is the purpose of the Tawaret statue (which is estimated to be as tall as a 30-story office building)? Kinda would make sense, given that it looks out toward the sea. In times of yore that would certainly be quite a visual deterrent against approaching the Island.
Guess we'll just have to find out together in a few months' time!
Been playing BATMAN: ARKHAM ASYLUM
It came out this past Tuesday and I bought it then from the nearby Gamestop. I'll post a full review when I finish the game.
But until then, believe the hype: Batman: Arkham Asylum is very, very, VERY good. I'll even say that without completing it yet, it's already my personal choice for best video game of 2009.
Don't even think about whether you want this game. Because you do. You really do. The inmates are running the asylum... and you're trapped with them. And when said inmates include the Joker, Riddler and Killer Croc among many others, there can be no doubt that you are in for a hella scary (and thrilling fun) stay.
Friday, August 28, 2009
Obama to control the Internet? Not likely...
The Intertubes are burning out today with reaction to news of a bill introduced into the United States Senate by Senator Jay Rockefeller of West Virginia that would give the President the power "to seize temporary control of private-sector networks during a so-called cybersecurity emergency."
In other words: Obama would take over the Internet. That's the chatter about it anyway.
Is such a thing even possible? Plausible? I'll suggest that it's more than okay to raise hell about the civil liberties aspect of such a notion, but in terms of technical capability I don't see how we should be anything more than cautiously alarmed about this. For one thing, the Internet was designed from the getgo to take a lickin' and keep on tickin' in the event of a catastrophic systemwide loss of communication (namely, nuclear war). It's too decentralized, far too distributed a network. I'm not saying that there wouldn't be a loss of some data traffic in the event that the occupant of the White House (whoever that might be) goes mad with power, but more likely than not, to paraphrase Princess Leia "the more they tighten their grip, the more systems will slip through their fingers."
Then there is what we have just seen happen in Iran: one of the most tightly-controlled regimes in the world. Even when that country's government tried to shut down all Internet traffic, people on the outside were busy setting up proxy servers and the like to keep the news, e-mails, photos and Twitter tweets of the post-election violence coming out to the rest of us. I'm apt to think that those of us in the United States would enjoy similar assistance should our own government try to put up the twenty-first century's version of the Berlin Wall.
Might anyone dare to purposefully halt the United States' Internet traffic and somehow manage to pull it off, they would subsequently be bringing down a huge chunk of the world's commercial economy in one fell swoop. Which I'm all too aware that some will claim that this would be one of the primary motives of such an act anyway...
But the biggest reason why I doubt Obama or any other President would seize overwhelming and absolute control of the Internet: it would most likely be the one thing that stirs the vast majority of Americans to storm Washington D.C. with torches, pitchforks, ropes and blistering-hot tar and proceed to break bad on damn near every elected official and bureaucrat in town. Threaten to take away people's Facebook and YouTube and Twitter and blogging and iTunes and online video gaming (the Gears of War players alone would raze D.C. into the ground) and porn and pirated music and movies and sports coverage and news and porn and political discussion and porn and everything else...
Who doesn't think that this would be the most politically suicidal act of modern American history?
If you wanna call your Congress-critter and tell him/her/it "hell no!" on this, then definitely do it. In fact, a call or written letter would be much better than an overly-convenient e-mail (trust me on this). Barrage the Capitol switchboard with angry but polite phone calls.
But in the meantime, be of good cheer: the Internet shouldn't be going away anytime soon :-)
YouTube video: Police officer says "It ain't (America) no more"
From August 25th, 2009 at a public meeting between Rep. Jim Moran and his constituents at South Lakes High School in Reston, Virginia. As is happening a lot lately, the meeting was to discuss President Obama's health care "reform".
And outside the school, this exchange was taking place between a private citizen and polie officer Wesley Cheeks, Jr. During which Officer Cheeks is told that this is America and replies "It ain't no more"...
The only comment I'll make is that I've seen this sort of thing happening for a long time already. It certainly didn't start with Barack Obama (I saw much of the same happening on George W. Bush's watch). And I like to think that now that the shoe's on the other foot, that some Americans who had been too dense before will start paying attention.
I like to think that, anyway.
It's a pentacene molecule
Pentacene, chemical formula C22H14 and the above image is such a big deal because it's the first time ever that photographs of actual molecules have been obtained.
Mash here for the story on how IBM's scientists conquered a decades-long technical challenge.
Thursday, August 27, 2009
Elon dorms plagued by bats!
I just had to post about this 'cuz I'm an Elon alum and have friends from there who read this blog: Virginia, West and Sloan dormitories at Elon University have been invaded by bats.Fourteen students already moved in but had to evacuate for two days while the bats (mostly in Virginia) were removed. Elon's fine maintenance crew (you know, the ones who have to paint the grass green whenever the school's honchos come to visit) installed a gadget that emitted sonic frequencies which drove the chiropterae to flee the premises. Then various holes in the dorms were patched up with caulking so that the bats couldn't get back in.
If Virginia has problems with bats, then Lord only knows what is lurking inside Smith...
Yes Johnny Robertson, by all means let's talk about "honesty"
Say what one might about Bob Lawson, to the very best of my knowledge there was only one person in that "debate" on WGSR this past Tuesday night who has lied boldly and publicly when he accused not one but two churches, with no evidence whatsoever, of what can only be called child pornography.
And Bob Lawson wasn't that person.
More than a few people have told me that Johnny Robertson is "scum", "a dirty-minded individual", "a sick man", "a complete bastard", and numerous other epithets that I won't share here for sake of polity, for making those unfounded accusations against First Christian Church in Kernersville and Osborne Baptist Church in Danville. Interestingly, Robertson hasn't dared bring those accusations up any more since they have been chronicled by this and other bloggers in the area.
Based on the footage I have seen from Tuesday night's "debate" and now tonight, Robertson is certainly becoming increasingly unhinged from reality. Already tonight he has said that he has "loathing" for Baptists, that a full-blown war is going to be needed to get rid of "denominationalism", has called Bob Lawson a "whoremonger" because Lawson is divorced, has claimed that he is the only defender and upholder of "the truth in this area", has declared himself superior to everyone else in this area, and that the First Amendment somehow gives him the right to harass whoever he wants to.
(Robertson must have missed civics during what was likely his two or three trips through ninth grade: the First Amendment of the Constitution only guarantees that the government cannot stifle free speech. It says nothing about churches exercising their right to protect themselves against disrupters like Johnny Robertson and his cult.)
There's way more that I could comment about the extraordinary nuttiness that Robertson is descending into, but for now I'll just note that tonight I took a look for the first time at WGSR's streaming video feed. There's been one for the Reidsville station and from what I understand the one for the Martinsville station went live Tuesday night (just for the "debate" apparently). Bear in mind then that the Reidsville one has been established the longer of the two.
So how big an Internet audience does Johnny Robertson and his so-called "Church of Christ" cult have?
Eleven viewers. Only ELEVEN! So that's me, and at least three other friends of mine who are watching Robertson and his cult from across the country just to laugh at him.
How many "serious" viewers does Robertson have then?
I'll wager an RC Cola and a Moon Pie that this blog gets many more regular readers than Robertson does.
And I don't think any less of you, Dear Readers, either. Hell, I know that y'all - well most of you anyway - are smart enough to think for yourselves. And I will be the first to admit that I don't understand enough about God than to harass people with it.
I sure as frak won't ever accuse a church of pornography like Johnny Robertson has done.
(And Charles Roark raised eyebrows in some places with his comment that said church is filled with "perverts", but that's all I'll say about that.)
A Transformers costume that REALLY transforms!
What happens when some double-jointed guy with a knack for engineering decides to draw inspiration from the Transformers franchise and make a Bumblebee costume? EPIC AWESOMENESS!
I bet if Hasbro gave him a license to do it, this dude would make a fortune mass-producing this getup.
1,000 banks to fail across America?
That's what John Kanas of BankUnited is now saying. Kanas believes that a thousand banks - mostly small, privately-run institutions - will go belly-up during the next two years.
Ordinarily I'm automatically inclined to disregard this kind of statement as extreme alarmism (like how I never take any "climate experts" from the United Nations seriously). But given the number of banks and more than a few of those being larger ones that have gone down in just the past year, I do have to think this is something that merits serious credence.
But hey: if worse comes to worst, I guess the Federal Reserve only has to inject another five trillion dollars or so into the economy and thinks will be fixed. Right? Right?!?
THE HOBBIT will be THREE movies... and in 3-D!?
Is it 1998 again? 'Cuz I'm getting the same feeling now that I did when word first broke all those many moons ago that Peter Jackson would be making a film trilogy of J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings.
Well, ever since the third and final installment The Return of the King came out more than a half-decade ago, there've been whispers on the wind about Jackson adapting The Hobbit as well, as a prequel film. And for those of us who've been paying attention, it's been a very crazy ride toward no assurance that this would be happening at all (conflicts with the Tolkien estate, Jackson's dispute with New Line, etc.)... which makes me hope all the more that it's gonna go down this way.
GeekTyrant reported last week that The Hobbit will be THREE movies, with Guillermo del Toro directing the first two chapters and Peter Jackson helming the third. In and of itself that's hella kewl... though I have to wonder how there could possibly be enough material from The Hobbit novel to justify three films (and it might be stretching it too much across two, but in Jackson and del Toro will I trust).
And now GeekTyrant is also passing along word that all three movies will be shot in stereoscopic 3-D.
Whoa.
Smaug the Dragon. In 3-D.
That fries my retinas just thinking about how utterly insanely overwhelmingly spectacular that might be.If the report is true, dare we also hope for IMAX?
(Nah, that would be way too much more crazy eye candy than we possibly deserve.)
Throw in Howard Shore returning to score this, and this might be the definitive movie trilogy of the next decade, just as The Lord of the Rings has been for this one. Now all we need is for Peter Jackson to do a six-film movie adaptation of The Silmarillion and the trifecta will be complete! :-)
Man tricks Apple into giving him 9,000 new iPods
As you can guess however, he didn't get away with it. Nicholas Woodhams of Kalamazoo, Michigan has pleaded guilty to mail fraud and money laundering and has been sentenced to a year in prison and made to pay $650,000 restitution for his scheme that tricked Apple into sending him nearly ten thousand brand new iPods...
Prosecutors say he took advantage of a warranty program by guessing the serial numbers of iPods still under warranty and claiming they were broken.Actually rather clever. I have to admire him for coming up with such a plan, even though it was obviously the wrong direction to direct such creativity toward.The company sent him 9,000 new ones over a year and a half.
Investigators say he turned around and sold those on the Internet.
Papa John's founder reunited with cherished Camaro
In 1983, John Schnatter had a gold and black 1971 Chevrolet Camaro Z28. It was one of his most beloved possessions. And then he had to sell it to help pay the bills for his father's tavern. The Camaro was bought for $2,800 and there was some money left over after his dad's business got out of hock.
Schnatter used the leftover dough to start up Papa John's Pizza. Everyone knows how huge a success that turned out to be, how John Schnatter has become a multi-millionaire from that initial investment.
And yet, John Schnatter still needed something to be happy. He wanted to be reunited with his favorite muscle car. So Schnatter went on a nationwide quest to hunt it down.
Last week, with some help from car enthusiast website Jalopnik.com, Schnatter's dream came true. The Camaro was in the ownership of Jeff Robinson of Flatwoods, Kentucky (not far from the headquarters of Papa John's in Louisville). And Robinson is now $250,000 richer after transferring the title of the car over to Schnatter.
Here's John Schnatter with the Camaro in 1983, and Schnatter with it today...
After getting his Camaro back, Schnatter said...
"The Camaro represents what I gave up to start Papa John's. Words cannot capture the emotions I am feeling in getting back that part of my history. I didn't have much back then, but for my business dreams to come true, I had to part with the one true asset I had to my name, and even then, there were no promises of success. I never gave up hope that someday I would get that car back. The foundation of Papa John's was built on my decision to sell the Camaro, and while it may not appear to be a huge sacrifice to some, it represents my roots in this business. And, perhaps it can serve as proof to others that hard decisions today can pay off for you later, if you're willing to believe in what you are doing. I'm extremely grateful for the success of Papa John's, and really wanted this critical piece of our history back."What an awesome story! And methinks there's a lot of good lesson here about success, having faith in one's self and having hope that no matter how hard the sacrifice, it will be worth it in the end. It certainly did for John Schnatter. So it can be for anybody.
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
I'm FINALLY watching STAR WARS: THE CLONE WARS
I'm either losing my interest in Star Wars (probably not) or just incredibly lazy when it comes to checking out new television (more likely). Whatever it is, at long last I'm getting to see Star Wars: The Clone Wars, the CGI-animated series on Cartoon Network set between Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith.And against what I assumed would be my reaction, I must profess that I am very pleasantly surprised and delighted at this show. Star Wars: The Clone Wars is some of the saga's finest storytelling. The action and dialogue is vintage classic Star Wars, and in many ways hearkens back to the tone of the original trilogy. I've only watched a few episodes so far, and I'm told that what I've seen isn't even the best of the series: that better yet is still coming for me to behold.
So if you're a Star Wars fan too and have been wondering about The Clone Wars series: I'll stake my reputation as a true fan (maybe too true, LOL!) on telling y'all that this is something that you should look into. And I'll definitely be buying the complete Season 1 DVD set when it comes out soon.
Thoughts on Ted Kennedy
I try not to speak ill of the dearly departed. Regardless of that, some things demand saying...
If it were not for his last name and his family, Ted Kennedy would have gone nowhere. The choices that he made as a person and that he continued to make would have been too grave a taint.
And then, to have held the same elected position since 1962 is way too much. I've known of some people who had been in office for just as long and even longer, but I'm hard pressed to think of any that came to think of their post as something they were entitled to. Ted Kennedy did however, and it thoroughly corrupted his character as a supposed public servant.
The only other thing that I can add is that I sincerely hope he made peace with God before passing away. I don't think that's impossible for anyone.
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
"Weird Al" Yankovic imitates the inimitable Queen with "Ringtone"!
Yes, I'm up way early (or is that way late?) awaiting a new song by "Weird Al" Yankovic. But can ya blame me? Especially since Weird Al has bestowed upon us a better summer than we deserve with his "Internet Leaks" collection. A short while ago the fourth and final song from the set was released: "Ringtone". It's a Queen-style anthem celebrating/condemning cellular phone ringtones (duh!). And as always, it's uproariously funny! Can this Al guy make a song about anything or what?Here's the video for "Ringtone" on YouTube, directed by Josh Faure-Brac and Dustin McLean of Current TV's SuperNews. And on the video's page you can find links where you can purchase the "Ringtone" song or the "Ringtone" video from various online outlets like iTunes. Or you can purchase both and put more coin in Al's pocket (as sound an investment as anything these days).
And if you haven't purchased any of the "Internet Leaks" collection yet (though Lord only knows why) you can buy the whole shebang at iTunes with one lump sum. Or, perish in flames.
It's your choice. But not really.
