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Saturday, April 20, 2002
Fry Street Fair is today. Bryan Street Fair has been moved, and will be at the house right next to Riprocks this year, starting around 8PM. Brian Smith will be participating in a performance art piece there.
.: posted by Grand Inquisitor Fnord Moco 4/20/2002
Friday, April 19, 2002
For all you high schoolers out there, here's a little ammo to use when arguing with your health teacher.
.: posted by Grand Inquisitor Fnord Moco 4/19/2002
Everyone should get a subscription to New Scientist! It's weekly, so a subscription is 51 issues. Cover price is $3.75, but with this it's $1 an issue. Last time I subscribed, it was a special cut rate deal at $75 a year, and to reup it was like $140 a year. For $51, how can anyone refuse?
.: posted by Grand Inquisitor Fnord Moco 4/19/2002
I always thought the biggest problem with simulators was the lack of inertia. If you do a barrel-roll, the world view isn't just gonna spin, you're gonna fall up. I always thought that this was pretty much an unsolvable problem, the only way to create inertia is to move, and eventually, you'd reach the end of the field of motion of a simulator. This looks like it'd work though.
.: posted by Grand Inquisitor Fnord Moco 4/19/2002
Today I've discovered that I like the Irish Times. It's an English language newspaper, so I can read it, but it carries some items that newspapers within US/UK Axis of Hegemony don't. For instance, it gives more than passing notice that Kofi Anan wants an international peace-keeping force in there, NOW. And it mentions that there are at least 2000 people left homeless in Jenin. I guess maybe that stuff can be found on MSNBC and BBC and CNN, but in the US, at least, Robert Blake is the big news.
Also from the Irish Times, the US military attache is implicated in the Venezuelan pseudo-coup. Here's a quote from the article: "Meanwhile US President George Bush said today that Mr Chavez should learn from the turmoil that led to his brief ouster last week and take steps to address it." Is that spin control? Is that the Administration trying to make the best of a bad situation? It seems like now might not be a good time for Bush to try strongarming the Venezuelans...
.: posted by andy 4/19/2002
Yesterday a train derailed in florida and a plane crashed into the tallest building in Italy. This could have been a coordinated terrorist attack on the west. The top story for most of the day yesterday and still this morning was the arrest of robert blake. it almost makes the 1st amendment seem like a mistake.
.: posted by Jeremy 4/19/2002
I finally saw Hannibal tonight. I'd purchased it at Blockbuster as part of a buy two get one free deal, and had actually been putting off watching it because I'd heard it was so graphic. I don't really see what the big deal is. The brain scene wasn't nearly as intense or vivid as everybody had said, and that was about the only graphic violence. I think it was the thought of what the scene portrayed, not the actual images that were upsetting to most people. A lot of depictions of battle are more lurid and disturbing to me than this was.
This movie lacked the intensity and fear factor of Silence of the Lambs. Silence was a movie to keep you riveted, to instill nightmares. The mood in Hannibal felt very safe to me. It was almost like you were seeing the world through these hardened eyes, Hannibal, Clarisse, the rich man. There wasn't really any fear in any of these characters, just a constant struggle to achieve their own goals. All three of them took their potential doom in stride.
The music was beautiful. Almost every scene with Hannibal in it was beautiful. Characters were well developed, if inherited. Good mood, music, settings. Plot wasn't that great. If they'd changed Hannibal up some, and added some smart quips and a more surprising ending, it could have been like Snatch or Big Trouble, another one of those chaotic crime movies.
And I want a brazier like he had. I love cooking.
.: posted by Grand Inquisitor Fnord Moco 4/19/2002
Thursday, April 18, 2002
By the way, Devin, the real money is in nutrias, not rattlesnakes. If they pass that legislation, we should get funding for a startup. There's over a million dollars to be made in nutria tails. In fact, maybe we should start stocking up on nutria tails now, in case they pass the legislation, we can go cash them in as soon the payouts begin.
.: posted by andy 4/18/2002
A story about some quirky Japanese kids who went to Bethlehem. The Israelis are broadcasting enormously loud shrieking noises, firing flares and fireworks, and denying food or medical supplies to those inside the Church of the Nativity.
Did the Jews really kill Jesus? I'm not quite as up on my Biblical history as I ought to be, but I always thought the New Testament pins Jesus' execution on incitement by the Pharisees, which really doesn't make sense. Maybe, possibly, incitement by the Sadducees, but the Pharisees should have agreed with Jesus' position on the Priests and the Temple.
.: posted by andy 4/18/2002
Foreclosureworld. Where you can turn someone else's personal tragedy into the home of your dreams!
.: posted by andy 4/18/2002
Well, first you need a net, leather pants and a flute...
So you're saying that I lose my temper easily? Yeah, that's accurate.
.: posted by Jeremy 4/18/2002
Four bucks a pound for rattlesnakes! Whoot! I just found a new career! Anyone know how to catch a rattlesnake?
.: posted by Grand Inquisitor Fnord Moco 4/18/2002
No, I mean the two main characters do things that I could see you doing, or coming close to doing.
.: posted by Grand Inquisitor Fnord Moco 4/18/2002
I don't understand. Do I give the impression of being a tense person?
.: posted by Jeremy 4/18/2002
.: posted by Grand Inquisitor Fnord Moco 4/18/2002
Changing Lanes wasn't bad. A very high tension movie. Reminds me of Jeremy and Jeremy. I keep reading that the end of a movie is very important, coz if it's a great movie with a poor ending, people walk out remembering the ending, and if it's a poor movie with a great ending, people walk out remembering the ending. The ending was better than the middle, that's for sure.
Frailty was pretty good. Kind of a different role for Matt McConaughey, though still playing a Texan. This would be the type of movie I like the least, kind of a psuedo-horror thriller, you know some big twist is coming, and you can't quite see it; but it was well done. Steven King wrote it, of course.
We Were Soldiers was a decent war movie, and supposedly accurate. The movie has a lead in, then tells the story of a single battle.
.: posted by Grand Inquisitor Fnord Moco 4/18/2002
Wednesday, April 17, 2002
Has anyone heard anything about Zach Vonler recently? I heard from one person that he was trying to get into the Navy Seals or something.
.: posted by andy 4/17/2002
Given the conflict in Afghanistan and the suspicions in Venezuela, is it true that the United States is locked in a bitter struggle to control the world's oil supply? This guy has already written one essay that seems to suggest that our motives in Afghanistan are hardly limited to physical self-defense.
.: posted by andy 4/17/2002
Yesterday I saw footage from inside the Jenin Refugee Camp. They said that approximately 3000 homes have been destroyed, and there is no credible body count at this point--the Israelis claim 50 Palestinians killed, but the Palestinians claim that it is closer to 400. If that's self-defense, I'd hate to see the Israelis start a war. I wonder if this will go down in history as a sort of inverted Krystal Nacht, or if history books will just skim over the surface of the Middle East conflict.
In other news, Hugo Chavez reports that there was a plane with American markings on the island where he was detained after his "resignation". Ari Fleischer pretty consistently claims that the Administration's attitude toward Chavez and statements during his ouster have not affected United States credibility in Latin America, but I just got an email from Ellen, who says that the people in Bolivia, at least, are pretty sure the US had a hand in the coup. Obviously that's just man in the street sentiment, and isn't based on anything more than distrust of Americans, but it still gives the lie to statements that our credibility hasn't been damaged.
.: posted by andy 4/17/2002
Tuesday, April 16, 2002
Devin, I guess you think it never occurred to me to buy a Big Game ticket, eh? I wanted tickets as soon as the jackpot topped 200 million. My in-laws live in Virginia, and they came to visit on Saturday. I asked them to buy us some tickets when they came down. But then when they got here they said that they'd give us some of their money if they win. So I don't have any tickets. To me, it's not really worth a drive to Virginia to shell out 5 bucks for tickets, especially since I have to drive 45 minutes into Virginia before I'll come to a gas station that sells tickets. North of Greensboro things get a little...rural.
Then again, Beth and I drove to West Virginia to buy Powerball tickets when that jackpot was up to 296 million...
.: posted by andy 4/16/2002
I take issue with the odds listed in this article. Especially the odds 'the Earth will be destroyed by a meteor'. Someone is going to win. Maybe not Tuesday, but very soon. Maybe it's just my dauntless optimism, but I doubt the same timeline applies for the Earth being destroyed. I also say that Andy should drive to Virginia in the morning and buy a few dozen tickets. It's less than an hour away; and if he wins, I only expect half of it, for the insipration.
.: posted by Grand Inquisitor Fnord Moco 4/16/2002
Monday, April 15, 2002
I was gonna say something about Palestine or the world or politics, but I figured I'd better file for my tax extension first, seeing as it's tax day and all, and I'm gonna go drink beer soon. I'd been dreading this, coz half of my income last year was 1099's, so no taxes whatsoever were withheld. I had also misplaced my only W-2, telling me how much I'd already paid. I found it and did some calculations, and this was my conclusion:
I worked just over 6 months last year, and made just over $40,000. I paid just over $5,000 in taxes on that income, and Uncle Sam owes me money.
Normally, I'd be railing about our government, or the fact that my truck hasn't been repaired yet, even tho I took it in on Tuesday and they said it'd be done by last Thurday, or how stupid Bush's tax cut was, or some other such thing. But I think I'm going to do something more American. I'm gonna ignore the rest of the world and go drink beer.
.: posted by Grand Inquisitor Fnord Moco 4/15/2002
Administration official gets booed for mentioning that Palestinians are also victims of violence. I guess I'm not going to be upset at the Palestinians anymore for handing out candy and dancing on 9/11.
I'd also like to take issue with Netanyahu's statements to American media that "as a percentage of population," israel has suffered far more deaths in the intafada than the US suffered on 9/11. I'm not sure exactly who he's trying to appeal to with that statement. Maybe he thinks that most Americans believe, as he does, that a single Israeli is 47 times more valuable than a single American. I guess that, as a percentage of population, the 1200-2000 palestinians that have been killed could be considered attempted genocide, as a percentage of population.
.: posted by Jeremy 4/15/2002
Jeremy, it worries me that you have important engineering questions to ask the French, a country whose most important contribution to civilization is more than 250 different ways to spoil milk. (as I'm writing this, I'm considering that 3% of our readers are Julien, who seems pretty clean and all around agreeable, for a Frenchman)
.: posted by andy 4/15/2002
An Australian Journalist's opinion of the so-called War on Terrorism. It's obviously going to be a biased article, but it does make some good points about America's use of unfair tactics. It also mentions that the United States is the only nation ever condemned by the World Court for perpetrating international terrorism--a fact you're not likely to learn if you rely on American media outlets.
.: posted by andy 4/15/2002
I know it isn't news that the French take lots of holidays, but it's really annoying when you have important engineering questions and you get automated out-of-office emails 50% of the time. I guess it's charels-de-gaul-returns-from-exile-day, again.
.: posted by Jeremy 4/15/2002
The Israeli Army will be allowed to bury the Palestinians it kills. Officially, Palestinian family members will be allowed to claim and bury dead relatives, as long as they do so without delay. I imagine this will be difficult, considering the 23 hour curfew in Jenin. Witnesses claim the IDF has been burying dead Palestinians in mass graves. The IDF is also claiming only to have killed "dozens" of Palestinians in Jenin. This claim runs contrary to everything I've been able to find out up until now. Our government knows exactly what's happening (satellites and whatnot, you know?), I'm sure, but if we find out from anywhere, it certainly won't be from our elected representatives.
.: posted by andy 4/15/2002
More about the Venezuelan coup, also alleging US involvement. Is the Bush administration too secretive?
.: posted by andy 4/15/2002
6 Common Israeli Myths: Adresses common misconceptions propagated by the Israeli and American governments.
.: posted by andy 4/15/2002
Here's an article saying that US government might be fomenting a coup in Venezuela. The article came out in December. Maybe it will shed some light on why the White House endorsed that coup so quickly. Something to do with oil, if you can imagine...
.: posted by andy 4/15/2002
In the book I just started reading, the future ruler of earth(called the Hegemon in the book) is starting out as a student at UNCG. I don't think he's majoring in Architecture, though.
.: posted by Jeremy 4/15/2002
Sunday, April 14, 2002
At a simple level, it seems wrong for our government to be supportive of military coups like the ones in Pakistan and Venezuela, since we are trained in the US that any time a military gets involved in politics, it's bad. But saying that all military run governments are bad, to me, is equivalent to saying that all democratically elected governments are good. It's simple and wrong.
On that note, Hugo Chavez returns to power from a brief detainment. I guess if things don't work out this time, the next step is the Isle of Elba.
.: posted by Jeremy 4/14/2002
Mary Schuneman is engaged to her boyfriend in pennsylvania. They are to be married next spring. Thought some of you might like to know.
.: posted by Jeremy 4/14/2002
Poor research propagates urban legends. 94.5 TheBuzz's morning show reported as true this little bit of urban legend last week. They mentioned that it was difficult to dig up the facts on the story. 2 extra clicks could have gottem them to the fact that the source of their story is a satirical news site.
.: posted by Jeremy 4/14/2002
Big Trouble rocks. The only problem with this movie is that it's rated PG-13, so on this Saturday night the theater was full of middle schoolers. Like Snatch or Pulp Fiction, only more overtly comedy.
Saw High Crimes a few days ago. Eh. Not bad for what it is, kind of a conspiracy movie with a triple twist ending. The biggest problem was that it didn't have a clean resolution.
I say post antigovernment rants here, coz it'll all blow over in a few weeks and you'll have yet another dead blog if you do it somewhere else. I'll start you out:
Every country in the Western Hemisphere has denounced the junta in Venezuela except the US of A. This is of course because Venezuela is a major source of oil for us, and they aren't Arab. Hell, we even condoned it. The military removes the president and disbands congress, then installs a businessman as president. Talk about a military-industrial complex.
Leaking plans to nuke China and NK, possibly pre-emptively.
Let's not forget sending troops all over to support our puppet governments,and to make a few more.
America's foriegn policy hasn't been this interesting since Ronnie. I'm just waiting for G.W. accidentally say that we've just outlawed Islam and the B-2's are on their way. For those unfamiliar with that reference, click here then do a find for the word "trumped".
.: posted by Grand Inquisitor Fnord Moco 4/14/2002
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