Links for 25 May 2009

Sorry for the lack of link posts the last few days; it's been a busy weekend. Today's post is very short (due to Memorial Day back in the U.S.)

Politics:
Tom Ridge disses Limbaugh as 'too shrill,' says Cheney is out to lunch too (A glimmer of intelligence in the Republican party.)

Colin Powell on the Trouble With The Republican Party Base ("You can only do two things with a base. You can sit on it and watch the world go by, or you can build on it. I believe we should build on it.")

Empire Media ("One issue I have with the U.S. media is its complete inability to reflect on what the U.S. is actually doing when they report on foreign reactions. ... Today the Washington Post's Craig Whitlock is outraged that Spanish prosecutors and judges care about international crimes against humanity. He does not spend a second on thinking about how much of that may be really justified when one takes into account the openly admitted misdeeds of the U.S.")


Miscellaneous:
Carina Nebula Panorama from Hubble (APOD has featured this photograph before, but it's still an awesome pic.)

Salt and Pepper Shakers that look like Batteries (Cool!)

384 – Does My Metro Area Look Big in this Ring Road? (Ring roads of the world.)

Links for 7 May 2009

Politics:
Ed Shultz Show: Michelle Bachmann Earns Another Spot on Psycho Talk (I'm truly amazed this woman won re-election last year. What were her constituents thinking?)

Graham: ‘If we’re going to let the bloggers run the country, then the country’s best days are behind us.’ (“My hope is that our Democratic colleagues — if you start listening to the bloggers — if we’re going to let the bloggers run the country, then the country’s best days are behind us.” Heh!)

Limbaugh Responds To Powell: He Needs To ‘Close The Loop And Become A Democrat’ (Please do!)

Colbert Report: Tip of the Hat, Wag of the Finger to Byron York

Islam/Muslim Blogs:
Muslims, Islam Channel and QF: who represents who?

Miscellaneous:
Crazy mum fills her house with stuff bought from eBay (IZ Reloaded links to a website about a woman who has an obsessive buying compulsion from Ebay. The original webpage can be found here. I actually remember seeing this webpage back in the 90s; it's been around quite a while, and it's just as scary now as it was then. These people do need help but the best thing one can do for them is just to start throwing the $#|+ away!)

ObamaBats

This is amusing. Jeff Domke has created 24 True Type "dingbats" using photos of Barack Obama and other images from his campaign. Go download it!

HT: IZ Reloaded

Death Star Over San Francisco

Awesome!


HT: IZ Reloaded

ManBabies.com

From the "Someone's got too much time on their hands" files, this website is weird! HT: IZ Reloaded

Barack O'Bollywood

This is hysterical. LMAO-funny. You MUST watch this! ;)



HT: IZ Reloaded

Is She Real?

This picture reminds me of Memorex's long-standing question: "Is it live or is it Memorex?" Is this girl real or is she a computer-generated image? She is, in fact, CGI. This picture is one of many created by various illustrators who use 3D and 2D animation software. To be honest, most of these pictures don't really impress, most of the "girls" featured being in various states of undress as you might find in anime/manga and/or male fantasies. However, I did like this particular image, created by Beans Magic, because the face does look extremely lifelike. In fact, one wonders if the image is really CGI or a doctored photograph. If the former, then I really am impressed. (HT: IZ Reloaded)

A Girl's Guide to Geek Guys

IZ Reloaded linked to this webpage: A Girl's Guide to Geek Guys. It's an amusing, albeit fairly accurate description about "geek guys." Being into Star Trek (as I have been since my teenage years), I somewhat fit the guide's description, as Milady would no doubt attest. However, I am not the complete geek as described. (Thank God!) Still, I can relate. :) And girls/women, yes, do date and marry geek guys! They'll thank you for it. Some excerpts:

Why Geek Dudes Rule

They are generally available.
Other women will tend not to steal them.
They can fix things.
Your parents will love them.
They're smart.

...

The Trek factor

If you're not up on your Star Trek, you can forget about getting or keeping a geek dude. And I'm not just talking vintage-era Captain Kirk and Spock either. You've got to be up on your The Next Generation, your Deep Space Nine, your Babylon 5. Armed with your own knowledge of Federation policies, you can better gauge when and how to act. The sexual politics of Star Trek are pretty blunt: the men run the technology and the ship, and the women are caretakers (a doctor and a counselor). Note the sexual tensions on the bridge of the Enterprise: the women, in skin tight uniforms, and with luxuriant, flowing hair. The men, often balding, and sporting some sort of permanently attached computer auxiliary. This world metaphorizes the fantasies of the geek dude, who sees himself in the geeky-but-heroic male officers and who secretly desires a sexy, smart, Deanna or Bev to come along and deferentially accept him for who he is. If you are willing to accept that this is his starting point for reality, you are ready for a geek relationship.

...

Geeks are sensitive and caring lovers and husbands. If you can hang with the techno-lifestyle, they make the best mates. They are the most attractive people, not flashy or hunky, but the kind who get cuter and more alluring over time. ... Definitely give geeks a chance.

...

One Last Thing

Because they have been so abused and ignored by society, many geeks have gone underground. You may actually know some and just haven't noticed them. They often feel resentful, and misunderstood, and it is important to realize this as you grow closer to them. Don't ever try to force the issue, or make crazy demands that he choose between his computer and you. Remember, his computer has been there for him his whole life; you are a new interloper he hasn't quite grasped yet.

Geek dudes thrive on mystery and love challenges and intellectual puzzles. Don't you consider yourself one? Wouldn't you like a little intellectual stimulation or your own? We thought so.

Darth Vader in Love

This is rather funny. Darth Vader, Dark Lord of the Sith, finds his knees turning to jelly when he meets Commander Ada Larkin, who wears a pink near-replica of his outfit (I love the little bangs curve on the front of her helmet, over her forehead).

"I am such an idiot!"

From the Peter Serafinowicz Show, on BBC Two:



(HT: IZ Reloaded)

The "Bad" Old Days

Credit: Vintage Computing and Gaming

This is a fascinating ad when you have the advantage of 26 years' worth of hindsight and technological improvements in computer memory. This company, Morrow Designs, had two hard disk drives available for sale in January 1981 (advertised in BYTE magazine): a 10-megabyte HDD for a mere $3,695, and a 26-megabyte HDD for only $4,995. That's in 1981 dollars. Factor in inflation and, today, the prices of those two hard drives would be equivalent to $8,451.63 and $11,425.14, respectively.

Now, factor in the technological improvements. The older of our two home computers has a 150-gigabyte HDD in it (I've used up about 65-70 gig in the three years or so we've owned it; the newer computer, I have no idea how much memory it has except that it's more). The first thumbdrive I bought, back in late 2003, was 128-meg for S$88 (that number's etched in my brain for some reason). The most recent thumbdrive that I bought was a 4-gig model for S$55.

Now if only cars and homes could have such huge increases in quality and decreases in prices.

(HT: IZ Reloaded)

Demotivators®

IZ Reloaded linked to an old website I remember coming across back when I lived in Korea, Despair, Inc. I haven't looked at this website in a long time, so it's worthwhile to have a laugh at some of this company's products, especially their line of "Demotivators®" posters.

Beauty: If you're attractive enough on the outside, people will forgive you for being irritating to the core.

This sounds like your typical teenage girl!

And this was me as a kid:

Potential: Not everyone gets to be an astronaut when they grow up.

What Americans are very, very slow to realize:

Discovery: A company that will go to the ends of the Earth for its people will find it can hire them for about 10% of the cost of Americans.

And, of course, the brutal truth:

Motivation: If a pretty poster and a cute saying are all it takes to motivate you, you probably have a very easy job. The kind robots will be doing soon.

Electric Chair Barbie

IZ Reloaded has a link to an unusual science project that was done by a teenage girl when she was in middle school. On the webpage, "jessyratfink" wrote:

This is a science fair project that I did in middle school and completely disgusted the entire female staff of Benton Middle. The purpose of this project is to show how the electric chair works and discuss basic electricity - currents and conductivity.

This is perhaps not the most politically correct science fair project, but it definitely gets attention. And although it is more based on presentation than science, most people find it very interesting to learn how an electric chair works. :D

Down in the comments, she gives a little more information on why she chose to put "Barbie" in the hot seat:

I admit that if anything, this was my way (in middle school definitely, and perhaps now just a little) of showing my dislike for Barbie and everything she represents. I always hated Barbie as a child. The stereotypical pretty girl with lots of money and looks a real person could never match.

This is more just a way to knock Barbie down from her pedestal. Nothing involving violence against women, that's for sure. I just think the use of a Barbie is much more shocking due to the fact that less women have sat in the chair than men, and also because she's the last possible person you'd think of ending up in the chair. It was all about the shock factor in middle school!

Thriller

An odd but interesting video over at IZ's. Over 1500 inmates of the Cebu Provincial Detention and Rehabilitation Center (Cebu, Philippines) practicing Michael Jackson's "Thriller." Note: The girl playing the Ola Ray character is not a girl (as is apparent in the closeups). ;) It's a shame they didn't have more than one camera to film this rehearsal with.



Here's the original, with MJ, Ola Ray and the late, great Vincent Price.

"Engage!"

From IZ Reloaded. Now I love Star Trek just as much as the next Trekker, but this is one of those videos where someone has a little too much time on their hands. :) The video is a compilation of the last few seconds from each of the Star Trek: The Next Generation episodes from the first season (plus the ending credits for one episode). For the record, there are 11 "Engage!"'s, one "Make it so!" and one "Sh-tep on it!"

Pathetic Western Education

Another good article I'm stealing from IZ. The following geometry diagram comes from a British exam for college freshmen:


Now, compare that problem with the following problem, from a Chinese college entrance exam:

That's right, the Chinese test is for kids trying to get into a university, the first is for dunces who are already in their university.

BBC, where this article first appeared, says: "A glance at the two questions reveals how much more advanced is the maths teaching in China, where children learn the subject up to the age of 18, the society says.

"It has sounded a warning about Britain's future economic prospects which it claims are threatened by competition from scientists in China."

Gee, ya think? Tom Friedman says the world is flat. No, the world is tilting to the east, to Asia, and at an accelerating pace. The west is quickly becoming a has-been (read my previous post) as educational curricula - especially in the sciences and mathematics - become watered down for students who wouldn't make the grade otherwise. (See below.)

And you know things must be really bad in Britain when the Royal Society of Chemistry has to offer a £500 prize to see if anyone can solve the above Chinese problem.

----------------

So, how pathetic is education in the West? The BBC also reported that British schools are encouraging students not to take A-level mathematics courses: "...as maths was a difficult subject, schools feared examination failures which would threaten their standings.

...

"'Schools and students are reluctant to consider A-level mathematics to age 18, because the subject is regarded as difficult, and with league tables and university entrance governed by A-level points, easier subjects are taken.'

...

"'Increasingly, universities are having to mount remedial sessions for incoming science undergraduates because their maths skills are so limited, with many having stopped formal lessons in mathematics two years earlier at the GCSE level.'"

Also,

"Since 2002, there has been a 15% fall in the numbers taking maths at A-level in England, while those taking physics fell 14% and computer sciences 47%."


At least some people in the UK recognize that the problem needs to be solved, although some of the suggestions are mixed. On a positive note:

"'We are changing the curriculum, creating a new entitlement to give more pupils the chance to study separate physics, chemistry and biology GCSEs and piloting 250 science clubs for 11 to 14-year-olds.'

"Some £30m was being spent over the next two years on recruiting 3,000 extra science teachers and encouraging more students to study sciences..."

However, a third BBC article states that a report by the Council for Industry and Higher Education recommends that "A-level students should be paid for passing exams in science and maths... ...a payment of about £500 might be enough to encourage students to stick with Stem [Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics] subjects."

Wired: The Making of Star Wars

IZ Reloaded brought to my notice a new book coming out for the 30th anniversary of Star Wars. Wired's got a gallery of 20 photos and various snippets of information about the making of the movie. Below are a few of the photos, and some of the more interesting snippets of information:


Storm troopers wore all-in-one black leotards over which the front and back of the body clasped together. The upper and lower parts of the arms were held together with black elastic. The belts had suspenders that attached to the legs. They wore ordinary domestic rubber gloves and black boots painted white with shoe dye.

Mark Hamill says of the storm trooper uniforms, “You couldn’t sit down. They built us some sawhorses to sit on and that’s the most we could rest all day. It was terrible. You got panicky inside those helmets. I only once freaked out and said ‘Get me outta here.’ It really was uncomfortable.”

Harrison Ford clearly enjoyed playing the trigger-happy Han Solo. The earliest incarnations of the character depicted Han as an actual monster. He said of his character, “I always knew that I couldn’t get the girl. Han knows if he gets the girl, it will just be a one-night stand.”

Early character sketches had Han Solo sporting a cape and beard. That’s not all. At one point, in the second draft of the script, Lucas got rid of Princess Leia and turned Luke into a girl. A month later he restored Luke’s gender and decided to make Leia his twin.

The Dark Lord of the Sith was conceived in Lucas’ imagination under the original name Dark Water. He then became Prince Valorum. Similarly, Luke Skywalker started off as Annikin Starkiller.

Day one of principle shooting in the Tunisian desert: robot malfunctions, uncooperative weather, transport trucks catching fire, not to mention concerns by neighboring Libya that the sandcrawler, based on NASA-designed vehicles, was part of a secret military weapons buildup on its border. The crew did manage to leave Tunisia on schedule, after two weeks.

Carrie Fisher tries on John Mollo’s design for Princess Leia for the first time. Original sketches on the left.

Ketchup Art: "AUA"

Another link stolen from IZ Reloaded. Ketchup Art invites people to send in photographs of "art" made with ketchup (and a few other materials). Many of the photos are both interesting in the artwork and amusing. I rather like the picture below.


Careful with that axe, Eugene!

Japanese Flashmob

Those crazy Japanese! ;) Another hilarious video found at I.Z.'s.



(Interesting how much these streets look like those in Korea.)

"Handy" Star Wars Battle Scene

This is soooo stupid, it's hilarious (LOL funny). Some people just have waaaaaaay too much time on their ... uh ... hands.

"Stealing" a Few from IZ Reloaded

I've often thought my own blog was fairly eclectic in its own way, but the S'pore blog IZ Reloaded is quite eclectic (and a pleasure to visit). So I'm going to "steal" a few of his posts, so to speak.

First, we have "Frog," a Bollywood midget who dances pretty well, as this Youtube video (run time: 1:26) attests:



Frog, which is the English equivalent of his stage name, Thavakalai, has his own Myspace page, where there are a few other Youtube clips you can watch.

Second was a post on a guy who transforms regular watches into beautiful, wood-face watches. (Click on the link to see an excellent example.) Cool stuff!

Last, IZ linked to an article about a 5000+ year old grave in Italy of a couple who was buried hugging each other. Eternal love.