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Spring Breaking

Posted on Tuesday January 31, 2006 at 3:09 pm.

I just settled on my Spring Break agenda— I’m going to Auburn, and it looks like Rachel is coming too.

(Of course, this is provided that there is a Boeing plane flying to Atlanta; Delta uses mostly MD-88s for the route, which you would think would be okay, since they’re the same company now. I guess that’s what you get with a Boeing executive parent.)

Anyway, I think I’ll be in town on March 4th or 5th, and maybe leave for a few days to go to the beach or something. At least I have an excuse/incentive to get out of the house now.

When are some other schools’ breaks? Who’s going to be around?

What “ethical lines”?

Posted on Tuesday January 31, 2006 at 1:36 pm.

Wow. It’s good to know where the priorities for (one member of) the Bush family really lie.

I’m excited you’re looking at Florida State. [FSU President] T.K. Wetherell and I are friends. When you come to Tallahassee again, let’s hook up with each other.

—Jeb Bush

Wait— did I say “good”? I mean depressing and scary.

And someone needs to tell Jeb that using “hook up” in a text message to an incoming (male) freshman is a little creepy.

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Priceless… “Bush Wars”

Posted on Monday January 30, 2006 at 11:43 pm.

Hah.

It’s not hard to spot the common theme in three New York theater offerings this season that go by the titles “Bush is Bad,” “Bush Wars: Musical Revenge” and “Laughing Liberally.”

The Web site for “Bush is Bad” features a grand piano falling on the head of President George W. Bush.

“Problematic and chilling”

Posted on Monday January 30, 2006 at 8:10 pm.

Arlen Specter… what the hell? Banning political protest at “special event of national significance”?

Makes me shudder to think that I almost voted for him in 2004. (In my defense, the DP told me to.)

(Of course, only FOX News can make the ACLU seem like the bad guys in an article like this.)

“That’s enough, Mr. Nelson”

Posted on Monday January 30, 2006 at 3:59 pm.

Yikes… On the lighter side of death (or the morbid side of S&M) here’s a new one: Dominatrix Acquitted in Bondage Death.

And the prosecutor’s closing argument sounds like something straight out of Law & Order, doesn’t it?

During his closing argument to the jury, prosecutor Robert Nelson put on a black leather mask with a zippered mouth opening and re-enacted the bondage session. With both hands, he reached back and clutched the top of a blackboard as if strapped to the rack. Then he hung his head as if dead.

Asher’s lawyer objected, and the judge agreed.

“That’s enough Mr. Nelson,” Judge Charles Grabau said. “Thank you for your demonstration.”

Tribulations of a Coke addict

Posted on Monday January 30, 2006 at 1:41 pm.

I can’t remember if I mentioned it or not, but starting this month, I was promoted to director at the Video Vault. Basically, I have to fix all the problems that come up and I have to do all the ordering.

One of the things that the store sells is Coke— 20-oz bottles, all varieties. I ordered for the store about a week and a half ago, and was astonished to learn that Coke — even bottled — is really cheap. The distributor cost is like 63 cents a bottle. That’s about the same cost-per-ounce as a 2-liter on sale.

Why am I telling you this? So that you can fight the machine. Refuse to pay $1.25 (or more!) per bottle. I’m no Whartonite, but one hundred percent profit for convenience stores and vending machines seems a little absurd.

(And I’m half-kidding about “fighting the machine”— don’t beat up the next vending machine you see.)

I could be missing some subtlety of marketing and cost structure; feel free to fill me in.

I just know that from now on, I’m buying this stuff at cost.

I don’t get it.

Posted on Sunday January 29, 2006 at 10:44 pm.

ERROR! DOES NOT COMPUTE!

President Bush’s $15 billion effort to fight AIDS has handed out nearly one-quarter of its grants to religious groups, and officials are aggressively pursuing new church partners that often emphasize disease prevention through abstinence and fidelity over condom use.

Award recipients include a Christian relief organization famous for its televised appeals to feed hungry children, a well-known Catholic charity and a group run by the son of evangelist Billy Graham, according to the State Department.

Rationale, anyone? Do they honestly think that $4 billion worth of missionary work (!) is going to change tens of thousands of years of human habit and human nature?

Oh, and make sure you check out the list of religious groups receiving money. It’s a little disturbing.

fMRI polygraph? Not yet.

Posted on Sunday January 29, 2006 at 12:03 pm.

Oh no— the AP picked up a story about fMRI being used as a lie detector.

I won’t call it complete BS, as I was inclined to do when I first saw the headline on Yahoo, but one thing is for certain— this technology is not ready for primetime, so to speak, and I’m afraid that’s exactly what it’s going to get.

I studied the process and technology behind fMRI in my bioengineering ethics class last semester, and one thing was perfectly clear: for now, the idea of something like this is only an ethical exercise. It ain’t coming any time soon. For more, read this article.

In it, a psychology prof from Penn says:

Even with a “Manhattan Project” type effort, he speculates it would take at least ten years. “There are still essential discoveries to make along the way,” he says, “and there’s a good chance it would end in total failure.” It’s not just a matter of developing the imaging technology, he stresses — “we’ll need fundamental developments in semantics, too.” This is because “a lot still depends on how you ask the question” — the subtlest of differences can dramatically shift which areas of the brain respond.

Beer ‘n’ Britcom

Posted on Saturday January 28, 2006 at 10:54 pm.

“Good news everyone!” (Apologies to Professor Farnsworth.)

In the past couple weeks I’ve discovered two British imports I really like: Bass and Coupling.

The former I had on tap at the Melting Pot on my birthday— I had to confirm that I liked it later to rule out the confounding factor of being draft. The latter I rented from the Video Vault on a whim, and it turned out to be quite good— like a sex-obsessed, funny version of Friends.

Wait… class? What’s that?

“Po… Po— Po!”

Posted on Saturday January 28, 2006 at 4:21 pm.

The video of the Federlimpet* rocking out to his own terrible single has already made the rounds, but I think this is relatively fresh— James Lipton reciting the lyrics on Conan.

Hilarious.

* Is that term humorous enough to lay official claim to? I thought it was pretty good, myself.

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