Inconvenient to the Truth

A coworker turned me on to this website. It's an article written by Christopher Monckton, a former British advisor to Margaret Thatcher. The article is a refute to An Inconvenient Truth,
Al Gore's self-fellating movie about the global warming "problem".

When the movie came out, my first reaction was, "What the frell does Gore know about global warming?" and "This is a great publicity stunt for him." To which the answers are, "Jack-scheisse" and "Ayup".

I'll admit, I had no desire to see this film, and never have. I don't need a hypocritical ass telling me how I should change my everyday habits. After reading the above article though, I'll probably watch it now, with this article as a reference.

Anyway, Lord Monckton's article takes Gore's movie point by point. While I'm sure that this paper is just as right-wing as Gore's movie is left, the points it raises are good ones. As always I'm sure the truth is somewhere in the middle.

I don't mean it to sound like I don't believe in global warming, I simply don't know. As with all major controversies the facts get buried in political ideals and emotions. I can say that despite the claim of "undisputed facts" of global warning, there are a lot of disputed facts. By no means do all scientists believe global warming is an issue.

I still say it was a great move of Gore's to advance his career, no one can convince me he knows jack or shit about global warming, but suddenly he finds himself with a position in the British government.

And to everyone that argues "He must be right, he won a Nobel Peace Prize." I say, so did Arafat, and Hitler was a nominee. The Nobel Peace Prize is hardly more meaningful than winning an Oscar. Remember, the commitee that selects the winner is a whopping 5 people, hardly a fair and impartial group. Hell, President Bush received a nomination, as did Stanley Williams (founder of the Crips street gang) and singer Bob Geldof. For God's sake Bono got a damned nomination. Plus, let's look at who didn't win, Ghandi, Martin Luther King, Pope John Paul II and The International Solidarity Movement.

Bottom line? Gore's a self-motivated, publicity seeking asshat. Someone whom I'm apparently supposed to change my life for? Suck it Gore...

Best Costume Ever

I went to a costume party last night and this costume was the show winner (in my mind). Of course he didn't wear it long, since it was slightly cumbersome.

For those that haven't played Bioshock, it's a Big Daddy, the protectors of the little girls in the game (thus the doll on his shoulder).

For comparison, here's a pic from the game. Impressive, most impressive.

A friend tried to get me to see how many hits with a wrench it would take to bring him down, but I thought that may be a bad idea. He was a nice guy...

Overkill

I can only assume this is to prevent skate punks from grinding on the rail.


But it seems the silver nubs along the rail would have doen fine for that - the big loop seems unnecessary...

It's Grrrrreat!

The most awesome web comic strip ever!

Even if it is a bit twisted, but that's just part of the awesomeness!

I challenge everyone to name the cereals that are represented. Where the hell's the Elephant from?

Cashless? Shenanigans!!

The Visa commercials that show stores selling things in a smooth, choreographed motion make me laugh.

Not because they're amusing, in any way really, but because it's blatant crap. Next time you're at a store, watch and pay attention to how long it takes someone to pay with cash and use a credit/debit card. More often than not the approval, signing and completing the sale takes about twice as long as simply handing cash to the teller.

Maybe it's just me though...

Brokeback Dumbledore

To add to the controversy of the Harry Potter books, J.K. Rowling announced that Proffesor Dumbledore is gay last friday. This adds a lot of meaning to the parts of Deathly Hallows when dumbledore talks about Grindelwald.

While I applaud her for mixing it up with her critics, I have to wonder if there aren't ulterior motives.

Why didn't she out Dumbledore in Hallows? My guess is that it would have effected (affected?) the sales of her final book. Or is it her final book? Could she intentionally be causing more controversy to help her out down the road?

Hmmmmm....

Dropping the Ball

After all the hype of the Rockies going to the World Series, tickets went on sale this morning at 10am.

At least they were supposed to. Tickets were only available online, not at Coors Field, or anywhere else. Myself and a few coworkers decided to try and get tickets. With no luck after an hour or so, we assumed that tickets were sold out. After 2 and a half hours, the Rockies finally announced that their servers had crashed and only a few people actually were able to buy tickets.

I understand that the load on the servers had to be phenomonal (doo-dooo-do-do-do), but how can the Rockies IT department not expect that? The minute they announced this weekend that tickets would only be available online, didn't they do the math?

Colorado's population is about 4.7 million people. Since baseball is "America's favorite sport", let's say that most are Rockies fans (a big assumption, but fair when planning for a big sale like this). Even if half the people want to go, we're still talking over 2 million people. All trying to log onto their site at once. In terms of web traffic, that's nothing (Youtube.com claims to have 100 million videos viewed a day). Does anyone remember the election fiasco in Denver last November? Shouldn't a lesson have been learned there?

After a little further research. It looks like the MLB contracted a company called Paciolan to handle online ticket sales. Paciolan "experienced a system wide outage that is impacting all of their North American customers."

Hopefully Paciolan isn't head quartered in Denver. Sucks to be them right now. I have to wonder how many people took the day off to get tickets today and probably won't get any. I sense a large number of sick people tomorrow...

Eat this

Only in America.

I knew that eating competitions were getting more popular, but this is ridiculous. Who watches this crap? Is there really enough interest to create a League?

Those that participate are called "Gastric Athletes." Doesn't an athlete need to actually be relatively athletic? Even Baseball players need to be somewhat athletic.

Are we this hard-up for entertainment that we'll watch people stuff their faces as quickly as possible? Apparently so, considering all the reality TV crap that gets green-lit these days.

Though if I had to choose, reality wins every time. Does anyone want to watch the guy above "compete"?

Military Stupidity

I know it's old news, but I just heard about it. A year ago, the announcement was made to move Norad from Cheyenne mountain to a bunker at Peterson AFB, about 12 miles away.



The reason? According to this article, the commute was too long for the commander. Apparently the geniuses in charge feel that it's more important to have the convenience of a single location than to be pretoected from attack.



Anyone remember Oklahoma City? That was one crazy bastard, just think what an organized attack might cause. But wait, the command center is protected because it's - wait for it, in the basement. Whew, and here I was worried.



According to the announcement, Cheyenne Mountain will be kept in a stand-by mode. It should only take an hour to bring it back online. Yep, that's right, if anyone succeeds in an attack, we'll only be blind and completely defenseless for a gorram hour. Nothing could possibly happen in an hour right?



I need get my disaster plan ready...

When I wish upon a....Ew

I'll never look at shooting stars the same again...

Cashless

I know that our society is moving to a cashless one. Hell, I rarely have any cash, everything goes on my debit card.

However, I find it odd that even Monopoly is going "cashless". (link)

Any time companies screw with childhood memories I get automatically offended. Have we become so lazy as a society that we can't even count out change with fake money?

Probably...

Entrepreneurial Philatelists

With the last increase in postal stamps, the Post Office created the "Forever Stamp". Supposedly this stamp will be honored for any letter under an ounce forever, regardless of any future increases.

Makes me wonder if anyone has made an effort to buy thousands of these and hold on to them for a few years, thinking to make money reselling them for less than the USPS charges for future stamps.
After a little Googling, I found that a few people have had the same thought. Some guy bought $8000 in Forever Stamps the day they went on sale.

At first this seemed like a good idea to me. Postal prices have risen roughly 10 cents every ten years (9 cents 1997-2007, 10 cents 1985-1995, and 12 cents 1975-1985). Theoretically, the rate will stay about the same, so in ten years stamps will be about $.51. So $8000 of stamps nets almost $2K - about a 24% profit (I'll rely on Captain Math, AKA Snarky Old Guy to correct me if I'm wrong). Then I looked at what simply investing $8000 will get you in a basic savings account (at 3%) - about $2800 (again relying on C.M, AKA SOG).

Not a sound investment, and to further prove that I found this article. The article basically states that when inflation is taken into account, stamps are actually getting cheaper, because the rise in the cost of stamps is actually below that of inflation. So that shoots that get-rich-scheme right in the buttocks.

Can you tell it's a slow day at work???

Rockies del Fuego

They did it! The Rockies made it to the World Series for the first time ever!

Even more surprising is that I care about a baseball game! Call it jumping on the bandwagon, but I was excited last night. While I've never been a baseball fan (and never will be a true fan) I think it's pretty cool to see any Colorado team do well (I'd even cheer the Nuggets, albeit very, very grudgingly).

Especially a team that has won 21 of the last 22 games they've played. You could say that it's destiny. Though it is a Colorado team, so here's hoping they don't choke now.

I'm even tempted to look into tickets for the World Series. Then I remember that tickets will probably be thousands of dollars, and that it's still baseball, at which point I come to my senses.

On a side note, there are a surprising number of people that can't let the results of the Wildcard Playoff game against the Padres go. Matt Holliday may not have actually touched home plate for the winning run (a claim I happen to agree with). There's even a guy that created a website, www.hollidaynevertouchedtheplate.com (no link, no need to give this guy more hits). It's an entire site about how he didn't touch the plate, with video "proof" and discussions of the call. Talk about too much time on your hands.

Anyway, way to go Rockies. However, I refuse to add a "baseball" label to the blog. Plus, I'll still be cheering louder for the Avs tonight (and with that I can now use the hockey label)...

GABF

Last Thursday some friends and I went to the 26th Annual Great American Beer Fest. This is the biggest beer tasting competition in the country, with 1500 beers available to sample. Some were great, and some were less so.

This is the fourth or fifth time I've gone, and each year it's more of a disappointment. Don't get me wrong, we had a lot of fun, but it's simply not worth the cost to be there.

Tickets cost $45 each (for the cheap night), plus StickittoyaMaster's fee of $6 per ticket. I said it last year, and I'll say it again, (this time in writing):

This was the last time I'm going. $51 can buy a lot of beer and food at any bar or restaurant. In past years there was even a little bit of nudity, something that was missing this year (or at least I missed). Still the $300 that we paid to get in can buy a lot of beer at a strip club.

I do enjoy potentially trying thousands of beers, but the problem is that I can never remember which ones I liked, and which ones I couldn't spit out fast enough. Unfortunately the latter tend to stick in by brain, so when I'm at the liquor store I see the name and think, "I think that was a good one." Only to have a six pack of crap in the fridge for months.

Like I said, we had a good time, so I suppose it was mostly worth it, mostly....

Mixed Bag

For those not in the know, the Colorado Rockies are in the running for the World Series, and have been kicking boot-ay. Friday night the game went until 1 am or so, but they pulled it out in the 11th inning.

On a not-so-good note, the Avs made a poor showing. They lost 1-4 to the Blues. The reason they lost IMHO?

The frelling coaching staff keeps giving Theodore chances, and the results are always pretty clear, as we saw Friday night. Less than 2 minutes into the game, the Blues scored and set the tone for the night. What I don't understand was why "Three-or-more" (to quote Snarky Smurf), wasn't pulled, they didn't hesitate to pull Budaj after three goals. Yet they gave Jose the chance to give away more goals?

I know that the Colorado Staff feels the need to justify Theodore's huge contract, put it seems to me that if they keep putting him in, we'll keep losing. Wouldn't it be better to leave him on the bench and wait out his remaining contract (I guarantee no one will trade us for him), then drop his worthless ass.

On a better note, Saturday the Avs played again. This time they put Budaj in and, wait for it, we won! I suppose you could say that we were coming off a bad loss and were fired up. That may be partially true, but Budaj had a save % of .96, compared to Theodore's .826 (with almost identical shots against). Joe Sakic's hat trick may have had something to do with it too.

Bottom line, Yay Rockies, Boo Theodore, Yay Budaj, Yay Sakic...

Bless you Mars

Chocolate manufacturers are pushing to change the change federal standards of what chocolate is. Currently, any substitution of cocoa butter results in a product that cannot be called chocolate.

The industry wants to change this to allow up to 5% of vegetable fat to save money. Apparently this is already the limit in Europe, which makes me wonder about "Real Swiss Chocolate."

Anyway, Mars Inc. has stated they refuse to change the amount of cocoa butter in their chocolate. Yep those M&Ms will still have actual chocolate in them!!

Um, EW...

Those wacky Japanese scientists did it again. Introducing the next big thing in Biology 101:


Yep, a transparent frog. The point is to have a frog that doesn't need to be dissected to learn from. Of course that just shows the outer goodies, still can't see the deeper stuff. Nice thought, but the frog is still a lab project. Besides, according to the article, only 1 in 16 frogs end up with the transparency, plus it doesn't seem to be an inherent trait either. I don't see public schools fronting the high bill these would cost, not when regular frogs work just fine.

Genetics is a scary science...

Oil Spill Hilarity

Those wacky British:


Australian Senator Discusses Oil Spill - Watch more free videos

Congrats Joe

With the first goal of the game and assisting with the second, Joe Sakic became the 8th highest scorer of ALL TIME!!

The goal happened at, about 15 minutes into the 1st, allowing Joe to pass Bobby Hull with all time goals scored (making him 14th of all time).

The assist at about 19 minutes of the first period he passed Phill Esposito for all time scoring!

Keep it up Super Joe! Only 164 points to 7th place (11 more goals to get to 13th place of All time goals)! Piece of cake...

BTW, the Avs went on to win 6 to 1. Woot!!!

Halo More Underwhelming

So my friend and I finished Halo 3 a few days ago and I have a few things to add to my previous comments.

First, I second everything that Yahtzee has to say about it, with a few extra things.

Halo 3 is the same game as Halo. Sure there are new weapons and a couple of new (worthless) vehicles, but the game follows the same frakking plotlines!

Game begins with the station/ship that you're on being attacked - and you have to escape?

Your first goal after crashing (can you actually land a Pelican?) is to find other survivors

Sergeant Major Johnson gets kidnapped and you have to save him?

You have to find the "Cartographer" - a big map room?

You have to work with the "Monitor" -the master computer running the show, and pretend to be surprised when he betrays you?

You enter an area that, SURPRISE, the Flood shows up?

Your AI construct, Cortana, is taken from you and you have to rescue her?

You need to destroy the Halo device?

After causing the Halo to self-destruct you escape the station/ship on a Warthog, all while the place is blowing up and enemies are trying to stop you?

Did I miss anything?

How about lagging issues? I fully understand a PC game lagging - the developers have no idea what hardware I'm running. However, what justifies game lag in a console? The hardware specs are always the same, if something is too much for the system to handle it, TAKE IT OUT, or at least change something?

One other question, How can Master Chief fall from orbit and survive, but falling off a gorram bridge is deadly?

I understand that this game is mainly for the preteen multiplayers out there, but then don't market it as the "Next Great Campaign Game That Will Totally Make You Wet Your Pants and Forget About Your Life, Job and Girlfriend"*. As far as the multiplayer, there are much better multiplayer games out there - 2142 anyone?

Bottom line? Suck it Bungee...

* Paraphrased.

I don't remember taking any LSD

Tonight a friend (SOG) called to tell me to check out channel 12 (a local non-profit channel). They were running their "Please give us money" telethon.

What made this blog worthy is that the show they were airing was a concert. The concert was Gregorian Live, a group of men that wear dark cloaks and sing Gregorian chants. They were kind of like Enigma, with one major exception:

They chant pop songs. Yep, imagine Enigma-like chanting the lyrics to Dire Straits: "A Brother in Arms" or David Bowie's "Heroes". The best one? Gergorian chanting of Ozzy Osbourne's "If I close my Eyes Forever."

I shot you not. Don't believe me? Check out this (U2 "With or Without You").

Enjoy the freakiness. I'm hoping for a little Winger, or maybe some ZZ Top...

That's the way to start

Finally hockey season has started! Last night the Avs started their season at home versus Dallas. I knew things were looking up when they inroduced the team as they came on the ice. Theodore wasn't even suited up! Budaj started and newcomer Tyler Weiman ready to play backup.

It was a great game. The first period we looked a little out of wack, but things started to come together after about 10 minutes. about 18 minutes in, Stastny scored the first goal of what would become his first NHL hat trick.

Staz went on to score two more in the second period. With a goal from Wolski and one from Stars player Halpern the period ended 4-1. Things were looking good, until the third period.

Dallas came back and scored 2 unanswered goals. Fortunately, Budaj was on his game and denied Dallas anymore. Dallas out shot us 34 to 23, and every Dallas goal was due to our penalties (some pretty lame).

All in all the team looked pretty good, we had a few issues of course, but I'm optimistic for this year. that's assuming we leave Theodore on the bench!

A reason for tardiness.

Leave it to the folks in Tokyo to make something unnecessarily complicated. Here are two very Star Trekkian new wrist watches that will make people have to learn how to tell time all over again.

For example, what time is the watch to the left showing? Give up? It's 9:29, duh (OK I read the article that explains it, although knowing the time will help a few of you get it without the explanation here).

Then there's this little beauty (right). I think I have figured this one out (with the help of the diagrams), but I'm not entirely sure. Even the site I found it on wasn't sure (here). I believe the bigger watch is showing 11:11, and the one below it 11:14, but I won't be hurt if I'm proven wrong.

Don't we have enough of a problem with kids not being able to read frakking analog watches? Of course that's American kids, something tells me Japanese kids have no problem - thus the more challenging watches.

At least I can rely on Verizon to always tell me what time it is, if not to complete my calls...

¿Dónde están los productos de pelo?

So, is there a reason these wouldn't be with the other hair products?

As a Guatemalan/Mexican/Inuit/Asian immigrant I'm offended...

Customer Quote of the Month - October 2007

Customer looking at a underwater film camera, "Can you reload the film underwater?"

Me, "......um.......No."