Thoughts, Predictions, Revelations, and more!

Time Capsule! Just a reminder: Palin is Dumb

2011-11-06T03:00:00.000-08:00

I heard in late 2008 - post election - that she's looking to be a contender in the 2012 election. This is just a reminder about how unqualified she is to lead.

Palin doesn't read.

Palin didn't know that Africa is a continent and not a country.

RESIST PALIN!

New blog on its way

2009-04-11T12:47:00.000-07:00

I'm configuring and setting up a new blog that I think I'll have more content for. Keep your browsers tuned to Telepinion.com. I'm planning on making this new site a source for TV and movie news, reviews, and my views.

Outage Outrage

2009-04-09T19:29:00.000-07:00

In the early morning, a saboteur cut a number of fiber optic lines essentially disabling all telecommunication in the area south of San Jose. The towns of Gilroy, Santa Cruz and Morgan Hill were without wired and mobile phones, internet, and ATMs for much of the day. It's as if southern Santa Clara county went through a 25 year time warp.

No Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, Livejournal, email, voicemail, credit cards, debit cards, texts, or blogs. This reminds me that we shouldn't take these things for granted. So many people depend on email for important information, the internet for news and entertainment, and our mobile phones for keeping in touch. We don't really think about how vulnerable the network is that these services depend on.

For that natter, most people make the assumption that mobile phones and the 911 service will be there for us when we need them most. In this case, the towns announced that residents with emergencies should go to a nearby fire station, police station, or flag down an emergency vehicle.

The situation kind of reminds me of the scene in WALL-E when the trash compacting star robot comes to the late realization, "We have a pool!?" Sometimes I feel like society is headed in that direction. We can't keep from having some kind of computer display in our faces all the time, whether it be a mobile phone, computer, or television.

Sometimes I worry for humanity. The rest of the time, I'm busy checking my email and tweeting.

Literally

2009-03-12T13:46:00.001-07:00

A little while ago, I hear Arnold Schwarzenegger talking about the economic crisis and California's budgetary problems. He said...

"People were caught literally with their pants down"

Literally?! I want to know who had their pants down!

Good Eats

2009-02-23T21:12:00.000-08:00

For some reason, I find the show very addictive. It's got recipes, science, and corniness in a spectacularly blended. My DVR's set to record all Good Eats episodes and somehow I can't stop watching them. I think part of the appeal is that Alton Brown comes up with creative solutions to various culinary problems. For example, he thinks that the best popcorn popper is a large stainless steel mixing bowl covered in perforated aluminum foil. And he had very good reasons for why.

Blog double-post bonus!

2009-02-18T13:15:00.000-08:00

This was too funny to keep to myself:

Need further reason for why I hate Comcast?

2009-02-17T23:24:00.000-08:00

Here it is... it's the cable junction box for my building. What a mess of cables! At least most of the wires are tagged to help technicians understand what's what. It's left completely unlocked in the building's underground garage that's open to the public and though it's not evident in this photo, when the lid is closed (read mostly closed) half the cables hang out anyway.

I suspect most of Comcast's cable boxes look like this. In my last apartment, we had a cable outage that lasted 3 days. When the technician finally got around to coming by, which required someone to stay home from work, he said that the junction box's lid had cut our cable.

Get your act together, Comcast! During the writing of this post, we lost our TV and internet. Ridiculous.

A few things I hate about TV:

2009-02-10T03:00:00.000-08:00

When you're watching an awesome show at a reasonable level of loudness and then it's time for a commercial and ALL OF A SUDDEN THE VOLUME IS LIKE THIS! What the hell, guys. It's almost 2010 and TV stations don't have automatic gain control? If you're thinking that the excessive volume makes the commercial stick out more to your audience, you're wrong. These days people just mute the TV during commercials or just skip them all together, thanks to DVR technology.

I equally hate it when during the same commercial break they air the same commercial twice. I just saw that one! How irritating!

And that damn Enzyte song with the whistling!!! GAH!!

Oh no!!

2009-02-06T17:01:00.000-08:00

Miniature scene at an art show

Stuff you can buy with $500,000

2009-01-31T03:00:00.000-08:00

1,136,363,636 Universal smooth silver paper clips @ 44 thousandths of a cent each
4,166,666 Nabisco Oreo cookies @ 12 cents each
120,048 cups of Edible brand weasel puke coffee @ 4.17 per cup
100,000 footlong Subway sandwiches @ 5.00 each
40,849 shares of Yahoo stock @ 12.48 each
25,062 Wham-O Splash Factor Slip'n'Slides @ 19.95 each
1,434 shares of Google stock @ 348.67 each
1,010 hours of flight time in an airship @ 495 per hour
500 Golden Opulence sundaes @ 1,000 each
256 72" Samsung rear projection HD TVs @ 1,949 each
20 33' 2008 Alerion-Express sailing yacht @ 25,000 each
6 2 bedroom 1 bathroom 804 sq ft houses in Topeka, KS @ 76,000 each
2.7 2009 Aston Martin DB9 @ 182,450 each
about 1/3 2 bedroom 1 bathroom 800 sq ft houses in Santa Cruz, CA @ 1,475,000 each

A giant asteroid is on its way!

2009-01-28T23:27:00.000-08:00

I just heard today that in 2029 there will be a very close pass of a large asteroid. Also, depending on the orbit the asteroid takes, we will then know if it will impact Earth in 2036, according to Neil DeGrasse Tyson while on the Daily Show. Neil is an astrophysicist and the author of The Pluto Files.

The Job-hunting blues

2009-01-28T18:46:00.000-08:00

Man is it ever hard to find a job these days, huh? I know someone who's been looking for months. Applying to new job postings daily, going to interviews, applying with temp agencies, but there is so much competition it's ridiculous. If you have a job right now, feel lucky. Feel really lucky because if you were looking for employment, you could be in a tough spot today.

Not even grocery stores are hiring! I thought that they were always looking for stock people and baggers and cashiers. Hm. Leave me a comment if you have any advice I pass along to my job-hunting friend.

Devaluation of the handshake

2009-01-09T03:00:00.000-08:00

Around 15-20 years ago in Silicon Valley, the word of an engineer was worth something in the business world. With simply a handshake, two companies could make simple deals without incident. There was no need to write a contract in legalese, just giving your word that you'd fulfill your part of the deal was good enough for all involved. Unfortunately, today an engineer's word is only as good as the contract that goes with it. What happened?

LOL! Obama shirtless...

2008-12-23T19:14:00.000-08:00

Someone in the parazzi got a picture of him in Hawaii and it's become a big deal. Well for fun, let's see how he stacks up in a google battle against some other people...

The results:
1. "Barack Obama shirtless" 2,620 results

2. "Pamela Anderson shirtless" 1,340 results

3. "George Clooney shirtless" 1,020 results

4. "Britney Spears shirtless" 466 results

5. "David Hasselhoff shirtless" 118 results

6. "George W Bush shirtless" 7 results

7. "Sarah Palin shirtless" 5 results

8. "Heidi Klum shirtless" 3 results

9. "Hilary Clinton shirtless" 2 results

10. "Larry King shirtless" 2 results

999."Newt Gingrich shirtless" 0 results

What I find surprising is the fact that there are 7 websites with the words "George W Bush shirtless" and 2 with "Larry King shirtless"! Who are these people!?

How To Bake an Apple Pie

2008-12-23T12:15:00.000-08:00

It's pretty easy. Just follow the recipes below:
The Best Ever Pie Crust - Use this if you're going to make our crust from scratch. It makes the top and bottom crusts for a 9-1/2" pie.

Grandma Ople's Apple Pie - This is the filling for a 9-1/2" pie. It's a unique recipe where the filling is poured on top of- instead of inside- the pie. It makes a delicious pie, but I usually add some nutmeg, cardamon, and cinnamon to the filling for more flavor.

If you need help on making the crust, follow these guides:
How To Make a Pie Crust

How To Make a Lattice Top Pie

If you want some more pie-baking tips, check this out
Pie Troubleshooting Guide

Comcast, you suck.

2008-12-23T12:10:00.000-08:00

Dear Comcast,

I expect very little from my internet and television provider. In short, I expect a dependable internet connection at the speed advertised and a high quality HDTV signal. In both respects, you fail. Why does our internet connection run slowly sometimes and why does it completely stop from time to time? I wouldn't mind it if you told me to expect connection problems due to maintenance, but you don't. And what's worse is that when I call you to find out if there's a reason why our connection is broken, your customer service representatives are clueless. I have to ask them to check some sort of list of known connection problems in my area.

Am I expecting too much from you, Comcast? When I had DSL, there were only 4 or so outages in as many years. In only a few months, you've managed to have 3. And that's not even counting the days when our connection is slow. Okay. So it's clear you suck at providing internet connectivity, let's move on.

There are a few problems with your television services. First, the equipment you have provided is awful. Our HD DVR forgets its settings, does not have 1080P output, and can be slow responding to user input. It also messes up if you fast forward a recording too much. I was also noticing during the Olympics that you compress HD video with some crappy compression scheme that results in blocky artifacts during fast motions. I remember earlier this year, this was not the case. What gives?

Furthermore, there has been that whole deal about you reducing the connection speeds of BitTorrent users and for a time denied it. Since then you've come clean and changed your policies, but sometimes I still wonder if you'll try pulling that crap again.

Comcast, pull it together. With a little work, you could suck a whole lot less.

Sincerely,
jjfs85

More Free-Time

2008-12-19T20:57:00.000-08:00

Now that I'm finished with the fall semester, I think I'll have a lot more free time available to me. This does NOT necessarily mean I'll be updating my blog more frequently, but it's possible. Who knows?

I intend to split up this extra available time somewhat proportionally between relaxing with video games, playing musical instruments, browsing the web, and finally blogging. So expect maybe an additional blog post per month.

Cell Phone Etiquette

2008-12-19T20:18:00.000-08:00

Do you know anyone who doesn't have a cell phone? Have you ever asked them why? Some people wouldn't know how to use one if they had one, and others don't want one because they loathe how people around them use cell phones. Even I'm disgusted by the inconsiderate usage of cell phones by society, and I always have mine with me (yes even in movie theaters, and no I never turn it off even when asked to. More on this later!).

Therefore, may I present to you the following rules of cell phone etiquette:

1. In public, if you don't have a good connection you're best just hanging up and calling back. Nobody wants to hear you say "What? No, I said 2% milk. No, 2%! What? No, not skim..." This leads me to the next rule...

2. Talking loudly on a cell phone does not make you any more easily understood to the person on the other end. It just annoys everyone else nearby.

3. Personally, I hate cell phone ringers. Wether your cell phone uses music, beeps or sound for its ringer, it doesn't matter. I don't like hearing it. I always keep my cell phone on vibrate unless I'm expecting an important call that I can't miss or if I'm planning to use the phone as an alarm clock.

4. In meetings, classes, movies, librarys, and other places where you're expected to keep quiet, you have three options. If you follow rule nomber 3, you've already used one option: putting the phone on vibrate. This allows you to know when you receive a call or text message without bothering anyone. The second option is to put the phone into silent mode. The advantage of this over just turning the phone off, is that the phone records who has called you whether or not they leave a message, just don't forget to take the phone out of silent mode afterwards. The final option, of course, is to just turn the thing off. I find it difficult to remember to change the ringer setting when I go into a quiet space, so this is another reason why I keep my phone on vibrate.

5. Don't talk on the phone while driving unless you have a handsfree device. I know that in several states, it's now illegal, but I still see people doing it all the time. It's dangerous. Don't do it.

6. I can't believe I have to say this, but I've seen people doing it AND it's a big enough problem that it has been explicitly outlawed in California. DON'T TEXT AND DRIVE! Good god, why would anyone do this? Just put your friend on that handsfree device from number 5 and keep your hands on the wheel! How stupid can you be?

7. Can you at least wait until you're off the plane before you get on your cell phone and try to talk over everyone else in coach? Thanks. I mean, I know you have to tell people you've arrived, but is that 5 minutes going to kill you? I don't think so.

8. That bluetooth headset you're wearing does not make you look important or cool. At best, it makes you look insane when it seems like you're talking to yourself. Please get that stupid thing off your face when you're not using it.

9. Don't complain to me about your cell phone reception. I know what it's like to drop a call and unless you're in an emergency situation, I don't care. In fact, the only person that cares is you.

10. Recently, I've been noticing that people are getting addicted to their phones. I first noticed it with Blackberries, but since the iPhone and all those other smart phones have come out, it seems people can't pull themselves away from the things. Updating your Facebook status every two minutes, texting friends about every little thing, blogging (I know, but I only blog from computers); it seems that you get accustomed to that constant stream of info from friends, coworkers, and others. What people need to do is put the damn thing down, open their eyes, and realize there's a world outside of that little 1.5" screen.

In conlusion, the end.

Keep your mouth shut!

2008-12-08T20:45:00.000-08:00

As a grad student, there's one thing that, to steal a line from "Family Guy", grinds my gears. I absolutely hate it when I'm in a lecture trying to understand complex subject material when students nearby start talking. Now generally, I don't mind if it's a simple "What's that letter he just wrote, a gamma or a psi," or if someone's quietly explaining how the professor jumped to a conclusion without explaining the middle steps. I know that I'd like the help in an instance like that. But when they just keep talking and talking and talking... I just want to strangle one of them! Sometimes the professor even interrupts his lecture to tell them to be quiet, but then they just start talking again when he goes back to his lecture.

Why do they even go to class? They can't possibly be paying attention to what's being said; they're too busy conversing about god knows what to be listening to the lecture. I would even think that a conversation like that would be better sustained outside of a lecture environment where you keep getting interrupted by the professor's frustrated glare. I don't get it.

Today, I even saw a guy make a call on his cell phone while in class. ON HIS CELL PHONE! Wow. But to his credit, he was pretty darn quiet. I didn't even he was on a cell phone until I glanced over and saw it at his ear - and I was next to him!

Old games are better.

2008-12-06T02:19:00.000-08:00

Recently, I've been revisiting some old DOS-based computer games. I remembered having fun with them back in the 90's, but I was afraid that the magic would be gone. Surprisingly not! I replayed the Police Quest series and loved it all, I had fun with the original Civilization, and I played an old game called Fallout that I never had the chance to play when it was new.

The best part about replaying these old games is that they can all be found on the internet for immediate free download. No, I can't tell you where or how, but it's pretty easy if you know how to google.

What I've noticed is that while new games use good graphics, many of them are shallow in storyline or short because all the development time is spent on making it look pretty. As a result, a lot of those old games are significantly more immersive even though your character is a collection of 8 colored blocks.

Another observation I've made is that only modern games MUST fit into one of the following categories: massively multiplayer online role playing game, rhythm game, or first-person shooter. Apparently, back in the 90's there was another popular style of games called adventure games. In these adventure games, you'd be thrust into a world of near impossible-to-figure-out puzzles where you collect random objects in your inventory and then combine them in pointless combinations to achieve your goals. It's a shame this kind of game has gone extinct. Does anyone remember Maniac Mansion? How about Sam and Max? King's Quest?

Game companies, if you're reading, take my advice: 3D graphics are wonderful, but I think most gamers would prefer improved gameplay and a longer storyline over prettiness. Right?

Higher education bailout? Why it's a good idea.

2008-12-02T18:00:00.000-08:00

Who knows how much money the government has spent by now to bailout just about every industry in the US and so far, it doesn't look like ANY of the money spent will ever been seen again. Well I hope they don't make this same mistake with the auto industry, but that remains to be seen.

I heard on KCBS newsradio the other day that higher education could be the next addition on the list of bailout seekers. They said that if they could get 10% of the bank bailout that it would allow two million more students to attend college. As much as I'd love for colleges to get a bailout while they're being handed out, I don't think it'll happen. I think that the government is more focused on getting money out to the banks and struggling industries first and that it'll be that way for a while longer.

California public education is going to be losing 330 million dollars next year due to the state's ongoing budget crisis. I think that is an apalling number, but in California's current fiscal situation, I can't blame 'em. Nonetheless, something needs to be done to replace this money and allow more people to obtain a college education. Right now, America is lagging decently far behind the rest of the world in the area of education and if we want to catch up, we can't cut money from our educational system. The federal government needs to help more students get into college and that means more money to the system.

What do you guys think?

My Top Five Favorite Podcasts

2008-11-25T03:00:00.000-08:00

What follows is a list of my favorite podcasts. If you've not heard of these, you should give them a download and see if you like them.

1. WNYC Radiolab - My favorite podcast, it's produced by New York public radio. Every week, Jad Abumrad and Robert Krulwich take a topic of curiosity and thoroughly dissect it by talking about science, philosophy, and culture. From the Radiolab website,

Radiolab believes your ears are a portal to another world. Where sound illuminates ideas, and the boundaries blur between science, philosophy, and human experience. Big questions are investigated, tinkered with, and encouraged to grow. Bring your curiosity, and we'll feed it with possibility.

2. MAKE Magazine: MAKE podcast - every Friday, the MAKE podcast releases a "weekend project" which is usually a simple DIY project with a really neat result. This is a video podcast. In addition, the MAKE podcast seems to be releasing content more often these days and MAKE TV will be debuting soon.

3. SDR News - A daily recap of the previous days' most popular tech news articles on Slashdot, Digg, and Reddit. Andy McCaskey does a great job of picking out the most interesting news highlights from these three sites and explaining things clearly in 12 minutes. Also check out the daily video picks they're usually pretty interesting.

4. Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me! Podcast - I never seem to be near a radio at the right time to hear the weekly scheduled broadcast of Wait Wait, so every week I download the podcast and listen to it in my leisure time. For those people who don't typically listen to Wait Wait, you should! It's a good recap of the week's news highlights with a hilarious spin. And aside from that, it's fun to play along and try to guess the right answers.

5. Car Talk Podcast - These guys just crack me up. Like the Wait Wait broadcast, I'm just never near the radio when they're on. I'm not a gearhead or a car fanatic, but Tom and Ray always keep me interested and more often than not, they really get me laughing. I think that this podcast is worth the download because, as they've said: On the radio, you only have the satisfaction of not listening to Car Talk one hour per week, but if you download the podcast, you can have the satisfaction of not listening to them all the time!

The Big 3: Bailout or Bankrupt?

2008-11-19T03:00:00.000-08:00

The Big 3 auto makers have so far failed to get congress to give them financial assistance. It seems that there are very mixed feelings on the subject of an auto industry bailout. On one side, you have the auto workers in Detroit, the dealerships all over the country, and the auto-part suppliers who would all be affected by a bankruptcy of Ford, GM, or Chrysler. On the other hand, you have wasteful CEOs, big pension payments, and behind-the-times technology all making the American auto-makers uncompetitive with foreign car companies. So what do you do? Do you give the auto industry tens of billions of dollars to delay the inevitable bankruptcy due to falling market-shares or do you do nothing and let thousands of people lose their jobs?

It's a tough choice, but I think that congress should not help them financially. At least not with a $25 billion loan. If it were up to me, I'd offer help, but with significant conditions to make the companies competetive. I'm sure you've heard how the three CEOs flew into Washington on their own separate corporate jets. That shows an utter lack of common sense. If you're asking the government to loan your company money, at least show that you're trying to save money! But I do have to hand it to Chrysler's CEO, Robert Nardelli. He was the only one to agree to reduce his own annual salary down to $1. Nonetheless, I say oust all three CEOs. They're wasteful and have not gotten out of the habit of big spending.

The second condition would be that the companies WOULD be required to declare bankruptcy in order to free themselves from any unwanted contracts that require the company to spend more per car than their overseas competitors. I know that this is probably the most controversial idea because some of those contracts are people's pensions, but in order to rehabilitate the American automotive industry, costs have to be slashed. Perhaps some of the money saved by firing the current CEOs could help cover the pensions.

The third condition would be that the government holds a significant amount of stock in the company to allow government oversight of big expenditures. This keeps whoever the new CEOs are from going back to Detroit's old habit of excessive spending.

I guess the bottom line here is that I think bankruptcy would be a good thing for the American car companies because it allows them to restructure and become a more efficient machine producing more efficient machines.

This gives new meaning to "playing with your food"!

2008-11-18T03:00:00.000-08:00

Why buy a clarinet when you can carve one from a carrot? Just combine a carved carrot with a funnel and a reed mouthpiece and voila!

Crazy, man. Crazy.

From neatorama!

Gas under $2 per gallon!? This sucks!

2008-11-15T03:00:00.000-08:00

Well okay, maybe it's good that during this economic crisis the price of oil is dropping. I know that I won't be asking to pay more as I fill up my tank, but I wonder how this will affect alternative energy research and development in the long term.

I think most people right now (and especially economists!) would say that this drop in gasoline prices is temporary. How temporary? We don't really know and I doubt most people are looking forward to when gas is again at $3.95 per gallonor higher!

I'm concerned that this cheaper petroleum is going to discourage people to invest in new fuel-efficient modes of transit. I work with a several people who switched from driving to biking because of the cost of commuting by car, from personal experience I can attest to the Caltrain being used by more people than ever, there was the ever-increasing number of hybrid vehicles on the road, and the end of the Hummer brandname. Environmentally, we were headed in the right direction. But now with gas prices once again under $2.00 per gallon, I'm concerned that people will get back in their SUVs and gas guzzling cars leaving their bikes and walking shoes to gather dust.

I heard an interview the other day on KCBS of a woman refilling her tank at one of the under $2.00 stations. She said, to paraphrase, that she was thinking about trading in her old SUV for a prius or hybrid, but now that gas is cheap again, she's reconsidering. I just hope that the general public isn't fooled by the recent turnaround in fuel costs and continues to migrate slowly to more efficient and healthier forms of transportation.

We've been making progress. Slow progress, but progress nonetheless. Let's not go back.

I'm a Fan of Tilt-Shift Photography

2008-11-06T22:17:00.001-08:00

I just learned today that I love tilt-shift miniature faking in photography. It's essentially when the lens of the camera is angled slightly and shifted with relation to the image plane to create a shallow depth of field, creating the illusion that the photo is of a small-scale model. This effect can also be achieved in post-processing using blur filters. Here are some great examples of tilt-shift photography creating the illusion of small-scale subjects.

Is that not really cool?

Here's a time-lapse video using tilt-shift by Keith Loutit. View it in HD on Vimeo

Bathtub III from Keith Loutit on Vimeo.

Government Has No Place in Defining Marriage

2008-11-06T03:00:00.000-08:00

Well it's November 5th and Barack Obama is our new president-elect as expected (thanks, www.fivethirtyeight.com! Right on the money!), but what caught me by surprise was how Proposition 8 is still passing with 500,000 more votes in favor of the initiative than against. This goes against CNN's early exit poll numbers and my observations, having seen the number of supporters and opponents to the initiative (they were both very vocal groups).

I voted against Prop 8 along with the majority of Santa Clara county. I didn't do it because I feel like it's closed-minded to deny people the right of marriage based on the genders of the couple(though I do). I voted this way because I think it's a violation of church-state separation to have the California constitution explicitly define the term 'marriage'. The whole reason why a large group of people have voted for Prop 8 is because their religion does not recognize same-sex unions as marriages. Many of these people, however, are willing to tolerate same-sex civil unions granting the same privileges as marriage from the viewpoint of the government. Their reasoning is that 'marriage' is a religious term for a union between a man and a woman. Whatever.

My solution: The government needs to stop using the word 'marriage' all together. Remove it from all government documents. From here on out, the state is only aware of civil unions. This goes for a man and woman, man and man, woman and woman, or some permutation there-of. This solves a few problems. Firstly, the people who want to hold the term 'marriage' to its strict traditional closed-minded definition can do so. The people who want the same rights and privileges for all can have it their way too. Everyone can call it whatever they like, but the government will use this secular term to allow all couples to be recognized by the government as united in love. Additionally, the state is removed from defining 'marriage', which resolves this whole separation of church and state problem I have with Prop 8.

Prop 8 opponents have already filed three lawsuits in California accusing the proposition of being an illegal constitutional revision. In California, only the legislature is allowed to revise the state constitution, though amendments are allowed by ballot initiatives. According to the LA Times,

Jennifer Pizer, a staff lawyer for Lambda Legal, said the initiative met the test of a revision because it had far-reaching magnitude.

"The magnitude here is that you are effectively rendering equal protection a nullity if a simple majority can so easily carve an exception into it," she said. "Equal protection is supposed to prevent the targeting and subjugation of a minority group by a simple majority vote."

Finally back

2008-11-05T18:00:00.000-08:00

So finally, after all the election nonsense is over, I've returned to blogging. No, no, it's not because I had better things to do, but my desktop computer fried itself on Monday and I just managed to get the thing fixed. I think the power supply took out the motherboard or vice-versa. But no matter. After replacing the power supply, motherboard, and processor with shiny new stuff (and $300 later) I'm back! So much to talk about, but so little people care...

YOU can vote for the mayor of Rabbit Hash, KY

2008-10-31T17:00:00.000-07:00

The small town of Rabbit Hash, Kentucky is holding mayoral elections this year and they're allowing anyone anywhere to vote. The town has been mayor-less since Mayor Junior Cochran died on May 17th of this year. As of now, there are 15 candidates striving to get as many votes as possible. Online voting is available from now to Nov. 3rd at 6PM. In-person voting continues through election day.

As previously mentioned, anyone can vote from anywhere any number of times. The catch is that each vote costs $1 which goes to benefit the Rabbit Hash historical society. And oh yeah, all the candidates but one are animals. In fact, Rabbit Hash, KY has had 2 dogs as mayor starting with Goofy in 1998.

Pretty amazing, if you ask me.

Can we lose?

2008-10-30T18:30:00.000-07:00

I'm pretty clearly someone who's voting democrat this year, but I tend to be more moderate than anything. That being said, I'm optimistic about this year's presidential election. Not only because I think Obama's going to win, but because I think either one of the candidates is a huge step up from who's in office now.

Unlike Bush, I think that both candidates think clearly enough to help America regain its international respect. I think they'll both heed the wisdom of economists to get us out of this recession. McCain, before battling for his party's nomination had a respectable amount of maverickyness, but since 2004 he has compromised his positions on several issues and fallen right in-line with the rest of the Republicans. I hope that in the off-chance that he gets elected he reverts back to his old ways. I liked him better then.

Obama has demonstrated his intelligence throughout the campaign, not only while debating and speaking publicly, but in the way that he ran his campaign from the beginning. He engaged volunteers and community organizers to lead a grass-roots campaign and that's what ultimately conquered the Clinton political machine for the nomination and will probably triumph over McPalin in much the same way.

More cats

2008-10-29T17:00:00.000-07:00

more animals

more animals

more animals

more animals

more animals

more animals

more animals

more animals

Oldies but goodies

2008-10-27T03:00:00.000-07:00

It Rubs the Lotion on its Skin NSFW:

Senator Ted Stevens: Series of Tubes Speech:

Curiosity Killed the Water Bill:

Daft Hands - Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger:

Daft Bodies - Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger:

Lip Dubbed Flagpole Sitta by Harvey Danger:

Lip Dub - Flagpole Sitta by Harvey Danger from amandalynferri on Vimeo.

Can you think of any other quality videos that I may have missed?

Obama tax cut calculator?

2008-10-24T17:14:00.001-07:00

I just got this in my email and so I wanted to post it for you. Aparently, I could save $500 per year in taxes if Obama is elected, which is looking likely. Of course, that wouldn't make me change my mind if I were a supporter of McCain, so it doesn't really matter. Oh, and we can't hold him to this because he's not obligated to give tax cuts or fulfil any campaign promises as shown by our fearless leader.

And the Republicans also want me to tell you that changing tax policy to benefit the middle-class is socialism. And Obama is an Arab.

fivethirtyeight.com

2008-10-24T17:03:00.000-07:00

I know that a lot of people already know about fivethirtyeight.com, but I just wanted to post about it here quickly, because as an engineer (and one who likes numbers), I admire the site.

It's run by an expert baseball statistician, Nate Silver, who saw the opportunity to apply his knowledge and tools to the election. He uses a huge amount of polls to create simulations. He uses the results to project the likelihood of either candidate winning the presidential election.

His whole method of crunching numbers is intended to be very transparent and objective as spelled out in the FAQs. I think his data is going to accurately predict the outcome of the election.

Oh! He also has congressional election data.

Optical Illusions

2008-10-24T03:00:00.000-07:00

I love optical illusions and I've found an excellent website with an interesting collection of interactive optical illusions along with scientific explanations of why they occur.
http://www.michaelbach.de/ot/
The illusions are shown on the right of the page; just click on one. Adobe Flash REQUIRED!!

These pages demonstrate visual phenomena, and »optical« or »visual illusions«. The latter is more appropriate, because most effects have their basis in the visual pathway, not in the optics of the eye. When I find the time I will expand the explanations, to the degree that these phenomena are really understood; any nice and thoughtful comment welcome.

Economic crisis? Global warming? High unemployment rate? Expensive gas? There just may be a simple solution...

2008-10-23T03:00:00.001-07:00

Ben Bernanke, Federal Reserve Chairman and huge economic know-it-all, encouraged congress to pass a second stimulus package a few days ago. Many economists are encouraging this next potential stimulus package with the caveat that it should go to fund infrastructure improvements to create jobs causing a long-term boost to the economy.

I agree that the stimulus package needs to do something to create jobs to make a long-term difference, but I think this stimulus package could also serve other purposes. Why not use this money to cut down on our reliance on foreign oil, create a new industry, and reduce greenhouse emissions all while bolstering the economy.

About a year ago, the Office of the Governor of Michigan cited a NextEnergy study concluding that government investment in alternative energy research and development would encourage economic growth. In fact, this is exactly what Michigan is considering doing right now. They just spent $1 million on a feasibility study of installing the world's first fresh-water off-shore wind farm. If there are positive results, the first turbines could be installed in just two years.

I think the federal government should do the same thing, but on a much larger scale. They need to massively fund not just alternative energy research, but also development to get the technology into mass production and make it cheap enough for the general public to afford and adopt. Furthermore, this would create jobs in research and production, it would reduce our reliance on foreign oil, it could reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and it could save everyone money on electricity, oil, and gasoline.

So why not invest in green tech and alternative energy when it could be just what we all need?

Things I've overheard...

2008-10-21T03:00:00.000-07:00

I live in Silicon Valley and I went to an engineering college, so I don't imagine many people who have lives would have the opportunity to overhear some of the stuff I have while walking by a group of people conversing. I've always thought it'd be a good idea to write this stuff down and maybe if I overhear enough stupid crap, I could put it all in a book and sell it and get rich. Here are two little snippets of coversation I've overheard and still remember.

While walking through a dorm hallway at Worcester Polytechnic Institute, student on the phone:

"..but androids can't learn philosophy..."

Walking down Castro St. in Mountain View CA, two men outside book store talking or arguing:

"I can reincarnate at will!"

There you go. You life is now complete.

Terry Tate on CBS Evening News with Palin

2008-10-19T11:21:00.001-07:00

Do you remember Terry Tate: Office Linebacker? No? Well let me refresh your memory.

Well he appeared on CBS Evening News with Sarah Palin. Here are the clips in case you missed it.

Powell voting for Obama

2008-10-19T11:01:00.000-07:00

Colin Powell gives very sound, well thought-out reasoning behind why he will be voting for Barack Obama on November 4th. I can't disagree with any of his reasons and in fact, I share almost all of them. The difference is that I had been a proponent of Obama for president since long before he even had an exploratory committee look into the idea. My reasoning? I saw a senator who was making good sound judgments and seemed to think carefully about how he stands on the issues. And of course he's a great public speaker, but I was mainly comparing his qualities to our current "Fearless Leader" and I thought to myself, "I wish he were the president". I'm thrilled that he decided to run, won the nomination, and is now leading in the polls. I just hope that the Bradley Effect isn't skewing the numbers.

And thanks, Petra for the link to the video.

Facebook motive for murder

2008-10-17T23:17:00.001-07:00

BBC: Man Kills Wife Over a Post She Made on Facebook

A man has been jailed for life for stabbing his wife to death over a posting she made on the social networking site Facebook. Wayne Forrester, 34, told police he was devastated that his wife Emma, also 34, had changed her online profile to...(more)

Wow. I can't believe I live in the same COUNTRY as these nutballs.

2008-10-17T10:35:00.000-07:00

These people amaze me with the misconceptions and racism. And another thing - America is not and never has been (except maybe prior to the first amendment of the constitution in 1791 which established the division between religion and government) a "Christian nation". I know that it's true that the majority of citizens here enjoy the freedom to choose a Christian faith, but since there is no central religion why are so many people afraid to elect a (falsely) rumored "closet Muslim"? What difference will it make to anyone?

Oh man. Not only are the people in the video ridiculous and paranoid, but the people who've commented on the Youtube video (ok, maybe this isn't a surprise) are also fearful racist bigots. Take, for example, OhioGuy19:

and this is only one of his many ignorant anti-black - and later anti-non-white - comments. Let's hope this guy isn't REALLY in Ohio or that he'll be watching Youtube videos all day on election day instead of voting.

I'm surprised, though, that I agree with something said in the video above. I'm afraid that some fearful whackjob will try to hurt Obama if he wins the presidency.

Palin As President

2008-10-17T09:39:00.000-07:00

Here's a fun thing I came across ysterday. It's a point-and-click picture of Sarah Palin in the Oval Office. The authors say that they'll update it with new stuff daily until the November 4th presidential election.

www.palinaspresident.us

First post

2008-10-16T23:45:00.000-07:00

Hello and welcome! This is the beginning of what I hope will be something I'll contribute to regularly. I've noticed some things lately in the news that I wanted to record for the future almost like a time capsule or spread the word about, so this is what I intend to use this blog for. And - let's face it - the internet's full of fun and crazy things that I'll throw on here too, so keep current!