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After remembering how funny this commercial was, I decided to seek it out. Luckily I was able to find it to share it with you (my two or three readers). I remember it airing as the SUV craze began. I think it got pulled because Miller didn't want to alienate its customers.
http://www.errolmorris.com/commercials/miller/miller_suv.html
(As a bonus, a link to 66 of Bud Light's "Real Men of Genius" radio commercials:
http://thefuntimesguide.com/2004/10/bud_light_real.php ) |
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The Terror Alert is just silly fear-mongering. The Terror Alert has three levels:
(Red) Severe Risk of Terrorist Attacks
(Orange) High Risk of Terrorist Attacks
(Yellow/Elevated) Significant Risk of Terrorist Attacks
(Blue/Guarded) General Risk of Terrorist Attacks
(Green) Low Risk of Terrorist Attacks
Since 2002, when it was instituted, the terror threat level has never been blue or green. Wouldn't the U.S. look stupid if they were hit with a terrorist attack when the level was blue or green? Instead, we just keep the threat level at yellow rendering blue and green useless. Guess what, there's always a significant risk of terrorist attacks! Of course these risks upon your life are somewhere between getting struck by lightning, eaten by a shark, and winning the lottery. Why exactly is yellow "elevated"? Shouldn't the middle choice be in the middle, not "elevated?"
The Terror Alert level is very good at pointing out one thing. Terror is not an act. It's emotional fear and it has been elevated by terrorists and the government alike. It rings hollow for the government to tell us to be more afraid than usual every day. What is a "significant risk" of terrorist attacks? .000002%? Why is the terror level "elevated" every day?
Which brings us to the "war on terror" which seems much like another purely ideological, if not similarly nebulous, "war on drugs." How does one win the war on terror? Is there a point to declaring a war on an ideological idea that can't be won? It's similar to declaring a "war on evil" or a "war on law-breaking." We get it. You want to stop terrorism. Calling it a war is just silly. Using an inane terror alert system does not stop terror. It creates terror.
Then apathy. Sweet sweet apathy. |
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...Under Michigan's "Fraudulent access to computers, computer systems, and computer networks" law, Peterson's actions could result in a five-year felony and a $10,000 fine. However, prosecutors do not plan to throw the book at him, as they don't believe that Peterson was aware he was even breaking the law. Instead, he will pay a $400 fine and do 40 hours of community service, and the arrest will not go on his record.
Coincidentally, the cafe owner that Peterson was leeching WiFi off of didn't even realize that what Peterson was doing was a crime at the time. Neither did the police officer. "I had a feeling a law was being broken, but I didn't know exactly what," Sparta police chief Andrew Milanowski told the TV station...
Full Article... |
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Ron Paul Places Second in Fox News Debate Poll
Ron Paul is a big favorite in the digg community and it appears that his rhetoric is ringing true for a great deal of Americans. He seems like the most frank politician of the bunch, but I'm not sure how I feel about his Libertarian-leaning stance on education. For now, I think he is a breath of fresh air for the republicans reminding some of the people on the stage what republican values are. The republican party has had a falling out with the public due to the war, the bush administration, and a number of scandals. Paul seems like the only candidate honestly addressing things rather than toeing the party line. Frankly, I think the elections would be better if there weren't any parties at all. Parties just encourage people to vote blindly. I don't care if you're a democrat or a republican. If you tell it like it is, then you've got my vote. |
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No taxes on $4M parsonage
NORTHVILLE TOWNSHIP -- A Redford Township church that believes wealth is God's reward is raising eyebrows for buying its pastor a $3.65 million mansion and taking it off the tax rolls.
This month, township officials grudgingly conceded they had no choice but to remove the 11,000-square-foot home overlooking Maybury State Park from its assessment rolls, losing $40,000 annually in taxes.... |
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Improv Everywhere is a funny public improv outfit in NYC. They do funny public improv stuff like "No Pants" day on the subway. On this "mission," they teamed up with Ben Folds to create an imposter Ben Folds. Check it out here (there's text, pictures, and video of the prank):
http://www.improveverywhere.com/2006/11/19/ben-folds-fake/ |
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It makes me sad that one our country's most brilliant writers would be smeared in his own obituary. Would it have been too much to give the guy a dignified obituary without making snide political comments? Just tell me the news, save the agenda.
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/04/16/kurt-vonneguts-lifefox-news-style/ |
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Zwok
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Apr. 14th, 2007 @ 11:53 pm
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Do not touch this unless you have nothing to do for the next 3 hours.
http://zwok-game.com/en_GB/ |
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With any luck, I will do the graduation walk on Thursday May 10 at 4 pm. I am inviting anyone that can make it and would like to come. There are no tickets to the event. If you want to make the trip, I should be able to find somewhere for you to crash for the day or two.
-Nathan |
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What if a world-reknowned violin virtuoso stopped in a metro stop to play on a multi-million dollar Stradivarius? Would you stop to listen?
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/04/AR2007040401721.html
This is one of the better articles I've read in awhile. It's not the typical internet article fare. It's amazing what writing can be like when it is not designed for people that are too lazy to read at length or think philosophically.
The title, "Pearls before breakfast" is a play on a famous confrontation between Dorothy Parker and Clare Booth Luce. Both came to a doorway at the same moment. Luce stepped aside, saying, "Age before beauty". Parker walked through the door, saying, "...and pearls before swine." There's also a comic strip, which is pretty funny, named "Pearls Before Swine."
Enjoy the article. |
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I've never been really into the GTA series, but the trailer for GTA IV looks amazing. You can check it out here:
http://www.rockstargames.com/IV/trailer_splash.html |
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Cheating has come a long way since the Game Genie. The WiigoBot is a lego-based robot that bowls perfect games in Wii bowling. (Reading Rainbow reference in 3-2-1) But you don't have to take my word for it:
http://www.battlebricks.com/wiigobot/index.html |
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Citing National Security as reason. This court case suggests that "national security" is more important than justice. If by national security one means secret prison torturing programs.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070302/pl_afp/usattacksgermanycia_070302235752;_ylt=Ahx1aLKmIGibSI9T4zP9w3rMWM0F |
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The U.S. continues to use secret prisons in order to operate outside U.S. law. 38 People are still missing. It is one thing to imprison someone, it is another to erase them from humanity. After the president has assured us that these prisons were closed, there are no signs of people that were held within them.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6405089.stm |
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Here's a humorous anecdote. For the record, I don't watch either of these people, but I find it funny that they argue about this stuff. Anyways, Gibson shoots off that Cooper is a snob for not covering the Anna Nicole Smith trial. He's got a point that the news should be covered, but I don't think any of us are hurting for not having more Anna Nicole Smith coverage.
Anyways, you can catch the clip below:
http://thinkprogress.org/2007/02/26/gibson-iraq-media/ |
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The local store by me in Chicago is closing. Then I read this story:
http://consumerist.com/consumer/compusa/exclusive-compusa-closing-100-stores-239260.php
100 of 229 stores to close. Sweet deals ahead! Unfortunately, that leaves only Best Buy to buy a quick computer part from. My experience has been that Officemax is more likely to have the part I need than Best Buy. Yeah, that's pathetic. Say goodbye to the ability to buy a computer case, fan, heatsink, processor, or anything of that nature except by mail. Not to mention Best Buy's selection of keyboards, mice is tiny. Their drives are overpriced... etc... oh well.. big box eats big box and we all suffer. I didn't like CompUSA, but they did have a good deal once in awhile. Shanell got an awesome deal on a laptop there. |
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Wow. This was a good way for Jobs to look like an ass in my book. Remember when schools wanted to use Macintoshes? What happened to that? I guess there isn't enough money anymore. Anyways, Jobs insults California teachers and spews his opinion on something he knows nothing about. Look, we know Apple makes great products and you have lots of fanboys, but don't tell us that you know how to "fix" education because you own a giant corporation. A school is not a business and people that have the idiotic notion that they can be run in the same way do not understand how it works. Mr. Jobs: If you're trying to look like a visionary, you're just looking like an ass.
http://www.macnn.com/articles/07/02/23/teachers.demand.apology/ |
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XBench
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Feb. 16th, 2007 @ 03:04 pm
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Results 94.05
System Info
Xbench Version 1.3
System Version 10.4.8 (8L2127)
Physical RAM 1024 MB
Model ADP2,1
Drive Type WDC WD1200JS-00MHB0
CPU Test 62.02
GCD Loop 81.74 4.31 Mops/sec
Floating Point Basic 70.31 1.67 Gflop/sec
vecLib FFT 46.57 1.54 Gflop/sec
Floating Point Library 60.36 10.51 Mops/sec
Thread Test 149.34
Computation 134.51 2.72 Mops/sec, 4 threads
Lock Contention 167.85 7.22 Mlocks/sec, 4 threads
Memory Test 87.14
System 75.02
Allocate 60.79 223.25 Kalloc/sec
Fill 97.09 4720.71 MB/sec
Copy 75.53 1560.09 MB/sec
Stream 103.92
Copy 97.49 2013.71 MB/sec
Scale 97.86 2021.84 MB/sec
Add 111.47 2374.58 MB/sec
Triad 110.58 2365.57 MB/sec
Quartz Graphics Test 99.64
Line 92.01 6.13 Klines/sec [50% alpha]
Rectangle 99.14 29.60 Krects/sec [50% alpha]
Circle 98.17 8.00 Kcircles/sec [50% alpha]
Bezier 94.77 2.39 Kbeziers/sec [50% alpha]
Text 117.79 7.37 Kchars/sec
OpenGL Graphics Test 107.13
Spinning Squares 107.13 135.90 frames/sec
User Interface Test 189.34
Elements 189.34 868.97 refresh/sec
Disk Test 64.59
Sequential 82.57
Uncached Write 79.29 48.68 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Write 94.98 53.74 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Uncached Read 70.39 20.60 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Read 90.13 45.30 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Random 53.04
Uncached Write 20.53 2.17 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Write 121.42 38.87 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Uncached Read 92.06 0.65 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Read 131.51 24.40 MB/sec [256K blocks] |
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