Famous People Quotes: the Sequel

I found this quote from Frank Zappa in an old German documentary.

I pretty much agree Frank...

"I take a very cynical point of view, I think that being cynical is a positive value, I think that nobody should trust anybody else, I think that all people are assholes until proven different, and I think that if you take that point of view you will be disappointed less in life.

Don't expect friends, don't expect fun, don't expect a good life, don't expect anything, then if you get something it's a bonus."

thoughts on things

This is from a Bob Herbert piece from the NYTimes back in October.


Al Gore is a serious man confronted by a political system that is not open to a serious exploration of important, complex issues. He knows it.

“What politics has become,” he said, with a laugh and a tinge of regret, “requires a level of tolerance for triviality and artifice and nonsense that I have found in short supply.”

There's a lot I can relate to in that statement if you just replace politics with day to day existence, or say, the workplace, or any number of things that involve interacting with other people.

I suppose that's one reason I choose to essentially not participate in what passes for the normal American life.

Jesus Christ that sounds like a gratingly elitist statement but thems the facts.

That energy thing

If you read my post about nuclear stuff earlier you may have seen my suggestion that this country begin an energy production and independence program similar to the race to the moon in the 60s.
You may have thought that was a stupid idea.
I saw a campaign stop today from Senator Clinton where she actually suggested the same thing.
What does that mean?
I don't really know, but I feel a little more confident it's not a bad idea.
And if you're wondering, I think another Clinton presidency would be a Really Bad Idea and essentially subvert the 22nd amendment. That's coming from someone who was pro Bill in 92-96.

A British teacher in Sudan has been sentenced to 15 days in jail for naming a teddy bear Mohamed.

In an unrelated coincidence, this is my Mohamed.

Shalom!

Update: They let this poor woman go home, but I'm still leaving the bear up.

does anyone even care anymore?

He decided to get a closer look and found a grizzly scene.

Stupid ethanol arguments

One of the first things you read about in the arguments about the pros and cons of ethanol as a fuel is the fact that it raises the prices of corn thus raising the prices of food thus ethanol is going to starve poor people etc etc.

Most of the corn that is produced and eaten is so far removed from the yellow kernel on the cob, and so utterly devoid of any nutritional value that it would probably collectively increase the nation's health if it was moved from the human tank to the gas tank.

Think of how much healthier everything would be with just the removal of high fructose corn syrup.

Yes, corn is subsidized by the government. Yes the corporations that produce it are evil.

But how hard is it to see the win win situation if we just shift that plant energy being turned into worthless unhealthy calories for humans and instead make ethanol that's just as good as gasoline.

We eat processed corn, we get fat and sick and die earlier.
We run cars on processed corn, they last just as long as they do running on gas while emitting less pollutants.

I promise I won't complain about the rise in tortilla chip prices either.

I'm not going to be clever with hyperlinks in this post, if you need to, just read The Omnivore's Dilemma.

Things I do at work other than work...

Beards - Wrong then, wrong now.

Areva

This corporation is rolling out ads on CNN, which I'm forced to watch here at work, here's the ad.

It's a crazy mashup of the sims and the simpsons and some sort of cartoon utopia.

I'm sure this isn't the first nuclear greenwashing campaign, just the most recent.
What I love about these sorts of ads is the complete disconnect with their actual industry and instead a focus on how your life will be so much better with reliable nuclear power to fuel your dance parties.
All the petroleum companies are starting to pursue the same strategy (BP is no longer British Petroleum, now it's Beyond Petroleum.)
Oh, and I'm not entirely anti-nuclear either, I think if you eliminated the corrupt contractors and engineers who design and build unsafe reactors and replace all the humans who make all the operational mistakes with robots everything would be fine.

RIP Alex

Yes, this is just an excuse to post a picture of a saucy parrot.

'Didn’t you forget one little thing? An e.'

I know I shouldn't be bothered and that we all do the best we can on this crazy train we call life but does it bother anyone else and make you want to scream and tear your hair out and hunt down and torture with audio transcripts of President Bush every 4th grade teacher who allowed their students to eke out of their English classes not knowing the difference between breath and breathe?

(Yes, I looked it up, it's a 4th grade spelling word.)

Whew, I need to take a deep breathe...

I've been predicting this for a while now.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/06/25/AR2007062501038.html

If you don't want to log in to WAPO basically it's saying that some are predicting Cheney getting replaced (medical reasons, natch) by what would become the Republican nominee for '08, in this case Fred Thompson.

This would allow the Dark Lord to exit stage left completely unaccountable and allow them to possibly disinfect the rest of the Bush tenure enough to steal another election.

3 Word Movie Review : Pan's Labyrinth

A bloody mess.

The Joey Ramone lookalike contest winner for this week

Prize to first person to correctly identify.

I'm Lazy

Jayzus christ, I haven't been here for like a month and a half, and it's not like I'm busy or anything.
Anyway, for no reason whatsoever here's a list of Bush scandals (so far).

Motive

A few thoughts on motive. When police investigate a murder, one of the key pieces of info they look for is motive.

Unfortunately for 30 people in Virginia last week, that actually led police to a dead end and possibly hindered their response to the real killer.

Anyway, I look at everyday decisions people make much the same way.

Let's look at global warming/climate change.

Why did Al Gore get all crazy about this problem? Only he knows I guess, and as far as rational scientific evidence suggests, I'm on board as thinking it's a significant problem that needs solving.
Motive? Benevolence.

On the other hand, of course you have the folks directly involved, financially in the energy businesses, but these people lie about anything to protect their investments and profits so saying black is white is old hat to them.
Motive? Profits.

Who I can't understand is the on the street blowhard republican cheerleader who really sees no direct profit from denying the overwhelming evidence. I can only guess it's the same blind faith that drives them to support Bush and the entire right's fantasy world.
Motive? I have no idea.

Europe, The United States, and war.

I just started reading The United States Of Europe, which argues that the EU will become a formidable superpower while the US's power will simultaneously decline. And it got me thinking about the EU and their desire to work together towards a combined success, pledging never again to engage in war in Europe. Now, that's easy to say, every country will prance on the international stage preaching peace and love and bunnies, we all know this is utter shite.

So I got to thinking about European war casualties, which might explain things. Just using WWII figures as a guide, maybe we can see a pattern.

US casualties - .32% of the population, none on US soil.
UK casualties - .94% of the population
Germany - 10.77% of the population
Not to mention the countries with holocaust deaths, the worst being Poland, at 16.1%.

The US has been internally stable since the Civil War, but happily starts wars of choice abroad.

I guess what I'm asking is, does it take massive wars with massive casualties at home to get folks to work toward a lasting peace?

And by logical extension, would an all inclusive world war, fought on every continent, finally knock enough sense into enough people to cut this crap out? At least till the aliens come knocking.

Dennis brings articles of impeachment on the dark lord of the sith

You want evidence? Here ya go.

As to the arguments against this I say bullshit.

Argument number 1, this is just revenge for Clinton. Just because the previous President was impeached doesn't mean that the following administration is immune from accountability. I didn't hear any Democrats blame Clinton's impeachment as 'revenge for Nixon'.

Number 2, "Impeachment is off the table". I understand Nancy's call for productive action instead of tying everyone up in hearings, but these are crimes, real crimes. What if you called the police and they told you they had better things to do? This is not something that is negotiable, like pork projects or a bridge to nowhere.

Eat me

I've long been fascinated at Chick-Fil-A's creepy 12 year old marketing campaign using marginally literate activist cows asking us to please, 'eat mor chikin'. Upon gaining sentience and literacy, the first order of business these beeves take is a guerrilla campaign pleading for their lives.

The fact that this has been one of the most successful fast food marketing campaigns in America says so much about this country's attitude towards eating animals.
Ha Ha, the silly cows don't want us to eat them! Luckily it's just a funny ad, cause we know cows love being eaten, who wouldn't?

Until things resemble The Restaurant At The End Of The Universe, I think we can all agree that animals, like humans, have a desire to live.

Anyway I came across this nifty blog that collects images of animals gleefully offering their shanks and chops for your dining pleasure, bon appetit. Now, I don't know that Ben there is as amused as I am by these things, I just flat find this stuff hilarious.

I'm also reminded of this t-shirt I have from the Chicken Shack, which I'm told was in Baton Rouge, of a rooster in a full tuxedo tipping his top hat, gesturing us to please dine at the Chicken Shack, of course this confident cock has no worries, since all the fryers are hens.

Bake my wife, please!

paleo future blog

I don't want to get in the habit of just posting cool links to other blogs but I came across another good one tonight.

This one focuses on people's concepts of the future and how it has grown, evolved and some might say died or at least faded.

Most of the concepts focus on how technology will allow people to live easier lives, I guess no one thought those innovative corporations would turn against the consumer and more sinister, at least in this country, it's own citizens with such indifference and insatiable appetite for profits.

Sure, playing the 'we'll feed the world and eliminate hunger' PR card, has always been a big hit at the chemical and agriculture companies, but I think in the past they might have actually meant it.

And I swear I had this book as a kid.

neat cultural anthropology blog

I like this blog.

I should probably steer more towards a visual blog since I seem to be terrible at producing text.

One question some of his observations brought up (he does work for Nokia), regarding the constant presence of cell phones (which he finds to be one of three essential objects always carried worldwide, no matter what culture), is this; are they somehow, by their perception of security and constant connectivity to information and services, making everyone so lazy that personal resourcefulness will eventually get outsourced like everything else.

Will the cell phone become everyone's personal concierge? You see it in cars with the onstar system which can unlock your doors should you lock your precious child in there, saving you the personal embarrassment of calling a locksmith (who will certainly judge your parenting negatively); don't worry, onstar won't tell!

Ultimately these sorts of things are all positive, we don't want any more kids baking in the sun and how cool is it that you can use that camera phone to get the license plate of that sicko that tried to lure your daughter in his car.

Yes, I realize I still don't have one of the infernal things.

Anyway, I think this guy has my dream job, except that part about working for Nokia.

incredibly addictive game

http://www.k2xl.com/games/boomshine/

Fast Food Nation

Watched Linklater's latest and I'm at a loss to say whether it really is just a complete mess or am I just angry that he didn't make the movie I wanted to see? My first reaction is that yes, it really is a mess and they should have either stuck with just one aspect of the book rather than trying to weave the multiple stories together. I realize that it is a faithful adaptation of the reporting in the book but what you don't get with the movie is the depth of each of those stories and you just end up confused and frustrated. Any one of the intersecting lines could have made an interesting movie in it's own right, but unfortunately giving each so little time doesn't allow any involvement. It seems just as you are staring to sink into one story, it has to cut away to catch up with the next one. Granted, that web of connections is the entire basis for the movie's concept, the hidden stories of how fast food gets from the farm to the consumer. Upon watching the making of extra, you really get a sense of what they were trying to accomplish and just wish that they could have pulled it off. I might come back to it and see if I have a different opinion later, but so far Linklater is not happening for me. I thought Scanner Darkly was, if not as much a failure, equally frustrating.

If water didn't exist...

Would we invent it?

There's certainly a market for it.

3 months

I don't hate my job anymore, it's going to be OK.

02/27/07

not so fast there feynman

More ugly evidence.

Finally, a cure for my DSACDAD

Havidol

Check out the commercial too.

Human Cruelty

As you know we have a TV in the breakroom here at Initech, the thing is constantly on and the volume is constantly up. (I realize that some people live like this, I used to, I changed.)
Tonight I was trying to read during an episode of Trading Spouses, where, if you don't know the premise, two incredibly different wives are swapped between families. I know this template has been the cornerstone of reality TV since The Real World.
But it finally dawned on me.
Reality TV is Human Cruelty for profit.
Dog fighting is illegal in all 50 states, but millions of people tune in every night to gawk at human fighting.
The dogs don't know any better, they're just following their instinct (or more likely have been abused and trained to kill). The humans should know better.

WANT

The ultimate touchscreen.

White men loves them the blues

I have a real problem with old white men.
Now, that's not surprising given old white men cause most of the problems in the world but I'm speaking specifically of the old white man's love for the genre of music known as Blues.
Blues music evolved in the south, from the poorest people in the poorest areas of the country, who also happened to be black. The stories they tell are of poverty, oppression, and are the logical evolution of spirituals, which slaves used to carry their traditions without their owners knowledge. Characteristic of both genres is the theme of hope, that things will get better.
Blues records began coming out in the 20s and never achieved any real success outside of regional or ethnographic interests until the 60s when collectors in the UK began seeing them as important artifacts of a unique musical movement. This eventually led to folks such as Eric Clapton and Jimmy Page discovering, imitating and ultimately creating a significant slice of Rock and Roll.
Obviously the success of this blues based white music led to the success of the blues artists themselves, and while there is no black blues artist that can claim the successes that his white imitators can, there is a significant healthy market for these guys(and gals). Austin is home to one of the most successful blues clubs in the country, Antone's, opened by a rabid blues fan which supported and grew the careers of countless so called authentic blues artists.
Now, where is the problem here you ask?
My problem with this whole thing is the fact that damn near every face in these clubs is white, coming to witness the authentic black musician sing about authentic black problems.
Which begs the next obvious question...why don't black folks like the blues anymore?
I think I can sum it up with a paraphrase from Bill Hicks regarding crucifixes. "Do you think if Jesus returned he'd want to see any more crosses?"
That is why I think the blues is a dead genre which was abandoned by the black community and has been successfully supplanted by Rap etc. Blues doesn't deal with the problems of today, it's a romantic sclerotic relic of what was once a vital outlet of suffering and sorrow.
At the end of it all I guess I should laugh at all these 'cats' shifting their hardly earned dollars to those black artists, perhaps they are getting the last laugh after all.

Bizarre cooking show

I was flipping through the channels in our break room here and came across the most bizarre show, checking the listings I find that ACC has a feed on Time Warner but no program listings, I guess they just get a raw feed from ACC? So this woman is hosting a small cooking show but something is very wrong, it looks like it's about 1985, intrigued, I continue to watch. As I tune in she's working with a vintage Cuisinart filled with what looks like white beans to which she adds a ridiculous list of ingredients including Marmite and I'm pretty sure every single spice in the typical American cupboard. To the right she is sauteeing some onions in a tiny nonstick pan on what looks to be a portable camp burner, these get added to the Cuisinart and pureed. The mixture is then spooned into a metal cake pan (sprayed with non-stick spray, natch) which she puts into the toaster oven on the left. Toaster oven? I'm watching a cooking show and she's using a toaster oven. The instructions are to cook for an hour, no temperature is given. Cut to an hour later, the bean cake ready she explains that she likes to arrange this creation in an attractive mound over lettuce, which she then does, with her bare hands sort of like an insane ape sculpting it's own dung. It was at this point I started to wonder what alternate universe I had accidentally stumbled upon. Finally she garnishes this culinary nightmare with green olives and pimentoes. That last act really put it over the top. I still have no idea what the hell it was she made but I'm determined to find out what this show is, I must see more of this domestic goddess. I wonder if the theme of the show specifically requires the camp stove and toaster oven (dormroom delights? divorcee dining?), or did the budget not allow them to use an actual oven...you know...on a cooking show.

Life resembles The Island

Indian women have started outsourcing their wombs.

I'm speechless.

if you missed the latest Tek Jansen - Operation: Dragontongue Chocolate Blades of Thunder, watch it here. Best one yet.
Check out the interview with Debra Dickerson while you're at it, it's great.

crazy little bug

check out this bug at our front door. I've seen some strange creatures living here.

The tragedy of the commons (link fixed)

I came across this wonderful essay recently that perfectly explains one of my most frustrating observations about people, and this cuts across all economies, classes, you name it. Basically, why are people driven to exploit and ultimately ruin anything of common good?
Whether it's the degradation of the Internet into a commercial nightmare or that asshole speeding through that red light because, well he doesn't have to obey traffic laws. I'm being rather simplistic but sometimes I need to read the thoughts of others who share my views so I can at least tell myself 'you're not crazy'.

blech

I've been really really sick since thursday, still not back together, I don't think it's the flu and I don't really care.

Slow news day?

Map: Thief took towels

The television channel is dead

This is hardly new, and I don't really watch TV, even when we did have directv I hardly used it. But what I have seen developing is kind of sad.

First there was the television, then there was the television channel, like ABC or CBS, then there was cable, then there was the premium channel, like HBO and Showtime, and as TV began to cough it's last feeble breaths there came the niche channels, catering to wafer thin segments of the population. Some of the programming on these channels was was good, some of it was very good. Wow, TV was good? Tell me more gramps.

Then something awful happened, driven by filthy lucre as many awful things are, these niche channels started slipping in programming completely unrelated to their niche.

What used to be a few fine alternatives to PBS has devolved into a knuckledragging race to the bottom, line. No surprise that the ad dollars orbit these shows like flies on sherbert, but there seems to be no limits to what these channels will lay claim to.

Let's see, what does poker have to do with travelling? My first thought, nothing. Don't tell that to the suits at the Travel Channel though.
Silly me, I guess you could play poker on vacation or perhaps engage in a quick 5 card draw with the kids on the way home from the mall. Oh I see, it's a poker tour.

What about the austere gentleman in the room, the History Channel? Every time I ever flipped through this channel they always seemed to be showing Modern Marvels. Wait, I thought this was sposed to be history...like, the past? Or maybe I need to think outside the box, yeah.

The biggest offender in my opinion is The Learning Channel, oh wait now it's just TLC, lovely re-branding there. You may not know it, but there used to be serious educational programming on this channel, I know, I'm showing my age here, trust me. Now you can tune in to such enlightening fare as I Eat 33,000 Calories a Day or Joined at the Head (I didn't just make that up either), or that show with the macho dickhead motorcycle builders. Jesus Christ TLC, you make the Weekly World News look like Harper's.

Admittedly, I almost feel for these guys. What would you do if you were tasked with trying to siphon away viewers from Dog the Bounty Hunter?

Children of Men

One easy way to judge a film is to see if you want to see it again shortly thereafter. That's how I feel about Children of Men. Now, I do have some gripes, the end comes much too suddenly, so much so that I wondered if the file was somehow corrupted (yes, I downloaded it). The cinematography is at times stunning, especially the single extended takes, which have the effect of drawing you into the action, almost as if you are holding your breath waiting for the camera to cut away. I also thought it also had just enough social commentary without being too heavy or preachy or absurd (see Idiocracy) i.e. the ruling police state is called Homeland Security, one detainee is briefly shown in the infamous hooded Abu Ghraib pose. Also it's a movie that demands you pay attention from the first frame cause it's not going to spell anything out for you. Not like Dune or anything (I recall they handed out dictionaries at screenings). Obviously this is one reason I'd like to watch it again...or maybe I'm just slow that way.

Wait, what?

My brother, Jeremy, gave me his old camera a few years back for Christmas. Very generous of him, I think we can all agree.

I'd recently noticed some problems with it and snooping around the web, I found out that Canon issued a sort of silent recall, not calling it a recall, but agreeing to accept these defective cameras for repair.

Pleasant surprise number 1, after all this is a 4 or 5 year old camera.

They even paid for shipping to the repair facility. Pleasant surprise number 2. So I ship in just the camera itself, no batteries or cards.

After about a month of waiting I received an email yesterday stating it was shipped out and I should look for a package. I was surprised to find FedEx at my door around noon with said package. Well, that was fast.

Well what they did was send me a brand new (refurbished) camera package, plus a memory card. Pleasant surprise? Hardly.

Frankly, I was stunned. I have never been treated this generously by any company regarding their products, and I didn't have to even speak to anyone, I just shot off an email. Hopefully this little blog will show up on someone else's google search for defective Canon s230.

Sure, I understand it costs them less to give me a new one than to actually repair my old one, but they didn't even try to weasel out of it!

I have some hope for us humans, we might be able to work it all out.

Random thoughts Jan 24th edition

Praying man 'tis














I thought that a fine name for a Journey tribute band would be Smellawine.

Even better if that was the singer's name and the band went by the moniker Cheap Perfume.





I was at a thrift store today, Salvation Army if you must ask, and the checkout gal's name was Sarah, I like to check these things, I appreciate that everyone is an individual and I want to acknowledge that they aren't faceless automatons. Nice enough name that, Sarah. Most unfortunate convention at the Salvation Army though, your last name appears above your first name, so Joe Smith reads as

Smith
Joe

Poor girl, her last name is Hefty.

Neil Hefti is well known for composing the theme to the TV show Batman.

Biplane much older than previously thought.

This is really amazing, considering the development of airplane technology and ways in which scientific progress and development mimics Darwinian evolution. I'm sure this has been covered before but I'm a bear of very little brain.

Don't' you ever, EVER make fun of my driving again

Now I have a damn good reason to drive as I do. I wonder if it only applies to Canadians?

We are Canada's Mexicans

Sometimes Ted can get on my nerves but I thought this was accurate.

Idiocracy

Overall a great social spoof of the logical extension of America's slide towards junk culture and corporate influence in culture and government. Probably would have made a much better short film as the plot only exists to foist scene after scene of absurd cultural mostrosities. i.e. the number one movie attraction is called Ass, which is a closeup of, yeah, an human male ass, which occasionally farts. Or this memorable line, where a character is trying to pronounce rehabilitation..."What are you trying to read that word for? Are you a fag?" I don't think Mike Judge, for all his talents, should have gone the writing alone but it still stands up as a sharp, but not vicious attack on our consumerist culture.

Bathrooms and You

Just an observation, and I've not been in many female bathrooms but I can read building schematics. Females always get one stall per pot with a door, correct me if I'm wrong. Males get stalls too but also get urinals. Personally I find these things foul and perhaps this has something to do with my point here. The thing is, these urinals can be augmented with a wide array of accessories to avoid the inconvenient truth that you are standing mere inches from another man with your twig in the wind. Some of these barriers are more generous then others, some seem merely a hint, providing some of us wired that way the opportunity for cruising. The question I have ultimately is why no stalls for the urinals? What makes standing exempt from the barest common decency of privacy during elimination? I guess you can blame some of it on a sort of overtly masculine homophobic reaction, like sports players slapping each other on the ass. "We are so not gay, let me prove it to the world with a firm open palm slap on the ass!" Alternatively why arent't we all sitting there cheek to cheek...ahem.
I mean if I'm forced to stand next to some stranger why not just dispense with the whole charade. Imagine the quality conversations you could have with complete strangers between grunts, pants around your ankles.

Oh, Stephen...

“You know I play a complete idiot?”

good little movie

I just finished a good movie that came out a few years ago, and I'm not talking about the day after tomorrow which I plowed through this afternoon, That was a ragged piece of rat dung. I can't explain it but sometimes I make myself watch movies I hope will be good. Anyway, I'd been wanting to catch this movie, which I had forgotten the title to, but found it recently, it's called Primer. It was made in Dallas a few years ago for a pittance, and it's a damn fine movie, or story rather. It's a typical time travel mind fuck sort of flick but I think their creativity is worth mentioning. I wish someone would make a 50 million dollar 2 hour version.

Also I watched Word Play this morning (can you tell how I spend my days off?), and it was very well done, nothing too surprising about people that do crosswords, made me think that I should be much better than I am at crosswords and that Bill Clinton is possibly the most maligned person on the planet.

Quiet since I'm not at work today.

If you're wondering where I had coffee today, well it was here. Lovely to have 2 new coffee shops so close to home.

Hey, you vegetarians?

Suck it

The price of freedom is eternal vigilance

Never Surrender

And the cost of terrorism is breathless news coverage of anything remotely, possibly, maybe an attack?

please?

433 articles and counting, from as far away as the UK and South Africa, and even ESPN

oh, here's
a good one, remember this was just 10 blocks on congress ave, ONE street.

And you thought those veggieburgers were made by liberals...

Morningstar, owned by kellogg. Boca owned by Kraft aka Altria group.


update:
So it looks like Gardenburger is independent.

Blessed art thou

where's brad?

Never, ever trust an orange cat.

chomp

post toasties

http://indexed.blogspot.com/




hmmmm errrrrr

"You know what? There's just something inescapably bland about Hummer's slogan: 'Like Nothing Else.' It doesn't really capture the macho essence of the company's singular vehicles. If you ask me, they'd have been better to go with something more to the point like, 'See, You *Can* Be More of an Asshole.'"

--Scott Feschuk, NATIONAL POST, September 2, 2003


tip to william gibson