This is the first post I’m making to my blog via the Blogger for Word plugin for Microsoft Word. If you’re running Windows XP or 2000 and have Word 2000 or newer, you can install the plugin and compose your stuff in Word, then publish directly to your blog! So this is really a test to see how well it works. This is going to come in handy for the occasional longer article that I write.
Thursday, January 12, 2006
The Internet: Broken?
"Weird" Ed sends along the following article from Technology Review: one of the Internet's initial architects now believes that "the Internet is broken". It should be completely re-worked from the ground-up, argues David D. Clark. At the present time the 'net is rife with security flaws and an inability to readily adapt to newer technologies. Interesting read, to say the least.
Wednesday, January 11, 2006
Tonight's Lost, and a theory about that "black thing"
So earlier today I aired some speculation about tonight's new episode of Lost...
"My theory is that Eko is some kind of Christian mystic, like Emanuel Swedenborg (that may be stretching it though)."Boy, did I ever get that one wrong.
So... is that the "monster" that we saw Eko stare down?
Only one thing pops into mind as to what that black cloud might be: go read Prey by Michael Crichton. And try to convince yourself that the black cloud-creature on the island doesn't seem an awful lot like the nanomachines that Crichton wrote about.
Very good episode tonight. And a pretty shocking backstory for Eko. A show like this makes me wish I had a DVR to go back and watch it all over again. Ahh well, maybe next Christmas :-)
"Echo? Eko!" New episode of Lost airs tonight
I didn't realize until a little while ago that tonight brings us the first Lost episode since November. The last time we looked in on the Oceanic Flight 815 survivors, Adebisi from HBO's Oz was down in the hatch recounting Hebrew history while giving Locke a new portion of the "orientation" film, before the episode ended with Michael getting AOL instant messages from his kid.
Okay, so he's not really playing Adebisi anymore, but word is that tonight is when we get the episode focusing on Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje's character Eko. We're supposed to find out a lot more about him... maybe even the reason for his 40 days of silence and why he's carrying that big stick around. My theory is that Eko is some kind of Christian mystic, like Emanuel Swedenborg (that may be stretching it though). I mean 40 days is the period of testing and purification in the Bible, so it makes sense that there's some religious significance at play here. I'll be watching it tonight... and maybe this weekend I can finally start watching that Lost Season 1 DVD set that I got for Christmas!
Beverage of astronauts brews homemade booze
Last night I got Chad on the horn to congratulate him on his "going the distance" at the Walt Disney World Marathon this past weekend. It's the first time he's done a full marathon after a few years worth of training and running half-marathons, so he's definitely in Chariots of Fire mode right now. I'm seriously considering starting a training regimen and joining him sometime.
Chad told me that the day before the race on Saturday, he and some friends visited the Kennedy Space Center. And on a dare he asked one of the tour guides "do the astronauts still drink Tang?" The kid replied that they still bring Tang along on spaceflights. I haven't seen Tang advertised in maybe ten years or so (if it still is) and we were wondering if they even still made it for public consumption anymore: I can't even remember the last time I saw it in a grocery store. Do today's kids even know what this stuff is? I mean back in the day there were so many commercials for Tang, a lot of 'em having to do with how REAL astronauts REALLY drank it in orbit! Those ads quickly vanished after the Challenger disaster though, but I digress...
So after we hung up I did some quick research. Sure enough, Tang is still being sold in stores. But it might be a regionally-distributed thing these days, hence why we've never seem to see it around here anymore. I remember the thing about how supposedly Tang could be put in dishwashers to clean dirty dishes...
...But did you know that you can brew an alcoholic beverage with Tang? I didn't either until I saw instructions posted at "Blog on the rocks" showing you how to take Tang powdered drink mix, yeast, and water along with a few other materials (like a sturdy bottle) and in a few hours time make the Tang ferment into "Tangpagne". The taste of which is said to be "quite nice". I'm not the drinking type, but for some reason I'm inclined to attempt this bit of kitchen chemistry sometime. If so I'll report back here on what it's like. Maybe after that I'll gather up some hops and barley and make my own beer too :-)
Tuesday, January 10, 2006
Bush sez: Disagree with me and you're a traitor
So now President Bush is suggesting that those who believe this war is wrong are bringing "comfort to our adversaries". Among those he's now practically branding as traitors are those "who claim that we acted in Iraq because of oil or because of Israel or because we misled the American people".
Well, can it be said with any credulity whatsoever that Bush was honest about how he pitched this war to the American people?
That question will sail past most Bush supporters. You know the ones I'm talking about: the ones who get that glazed look in their eyes whenever you speak nothing but the truth about what Bush is doing, as if you don't know what you're talking about. They're the ones who aren't "taking the red pill" if you know what I mean: living in a fantasy world that they don't want to wake up from. They're the ones who will nod their heads and agree with what Bush is saying now, and will tell you that you are betraying your country and your President by believing that this war has been based on falsehoods from the very beginning.
But I prefer what another - and far greater - President had to say about Americans and their right to dissent:
"Dear God, please send us another great man like Teddy Roosevelt to take the place of the imposters that your adversary has raised up.""The President is merely the most important among a large number of public servants. He should be supported or opposed exactly to the degree which is warranted by his good conduct or bad conduct, his efficiency or inefficiency in rendering loyal, able, and disinterested service to the nation as a whole. Therefore it is absolutely necessary that there should be full liberty to tell the truth about his acts, and this means that it is exactly as necessary to blame him when he does wrong as to praise him when he does right.
"Any other attitude in an American citizen is both base and servile. To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public. Nothing but the truth should be spoken about him or any one else. But it is even more important to tell the truth, pleasant or unpleasant, about him than about any one else."
-- Theodore Roosevelt, 1912
"The President is merely the most important among a large number of public servants. He should be supported or opposed exactly to the degree which is warranted by his good conduct or bad conduct, his efficiency or inefficiency in rendering loyal, able, and disinterested service to the nation as a whole. Therefore it is absolutely necessary that there should be full liberty to tell the truth about his acts, and this means that it is exactly as necessary to blame him when he does wrong as to praise him when he does right.Peretti and Dekker enter House of horror
Chaplain Gentry - a really good fella through and through - notes on his blog that Frank Peretti and Ted Dekker are conspiring together on a new book... which is enough to give you pause if you know anything about either of these guys. Peretti is still best known for his book This Present Darkness, first published in 1986... can't believe it's been that long. Dekker rose to fame in the past couple of years with his "Circle Trilogy", of which I've only tried reading the first book Black and that went WAY over my head: think The Matrix meets The Chronicle of Narnia... but I'm gonna pick it up again soon. These two masters of the supernatural thriller are coming out with House later this spring. The plot of it sounds like, I told Geoff, "that movie Saw as conceived by Ned Flanders". It seems pretty interesting, and I have enough faith in both these writers that I may have to pick up a copy when it comes out.
