About two weeks ago I posted a link to a disturbing article talking about a teen that killed his parents, buried them in the back yard, then had a party... Well here's the wonderful teen of the day link:

Teen Tries to Poison Mom.

Whats wrong with these folks....

Well here's a summary of how last night's attempt at a little more difficult game.

1. Using the same strategy as the last time around to start it off I became one of the top two largest contiguous countries.
   
2. Lived in peace and harmony many many years gradually absorbing the cities that in my expansion I had surounded. Build the UN headquarters and get myself elected world leader, game ends prematurely in my victory. I thought this sucked so I went back made sure that didn't happen.
   
3. Go many more years and accidently finish my space ship. Oops reload imediately prior and make sure cities don't automatically build SS parts.
   
4. Start a world war, I (playing as chinese) attack India, their ally, Russia, attacks me. Me being the biggest and badest won out when the other mutual defense treaties go into affect so the following occured: Japan attacks India, Americans attack Russia, India attacks Rome.
   
5. I get the resources I wanted on the map and declare peace with all the parties involved, but of course since they were my allies at the time I didn't think much of it. They stayed at war so then it became: Rome still at peace with me, Russia now at peace, India as well, and Japan and America at war with me.
   
6. After the generous use of modern armor (which I didn't even have around, but it takes between 1 and 3 turns to build in about 20 of my cities) my world domination looked like it would have been very possible, then I made the mistake of declaring peace with Japan and America.
   
7. I win the cultural victory. I get annoyed by winning when I don't want to and go to bed (somewhere around 1970AD I think).
   

I have a feeling that if I want the games to last more than 5 hours I'll need to seriously crank up the difficulty level. But I already know the computer cheats.

Okay so last night after several hours of play (significantly less this time around) I was able to reach the two ultimate endings, world domination and space race, by 2004 AD. Was set for a small pangea with three computer AIs. And here are the secrets I learned:

1. Expand as fast as possible, if you have a city larger than 5 and you have fewer than 20 cities (on a small continent) you better be building a settler unit.
   
2. Suround your enemys and try to keep them from getting land to build on, build on it first.
   
3. Don't go to war till you have signficantly better tech so as to not waste units. You can expand or you can build military, the former seems far more effective in the long run.
   
4. Don't waste your production on dead end units, in other words don't build warriors, swordsmen, or horsebound units in any quanity. Build spearmen, they can be upgraded all the way to mech. infantry (the cost of an upgrade is very affordable in comparison to the production costs).
   
5. City improvements are well worth the amount they cost (marketplaces, banks, and courthouses make you much more money than they cost).
   
6. Wonders are priceless, build as many as you can as fast as you can, but make sure it doesn't slow down your expansion.
   
7. Change to a high production government as fast as possible, republic or democracy.
   
8. Increase science funding to 60 or 70%.
   

And thats all I can think of at the moment. Its a fun game. Now I can go back to a higher difficulty and see if it kicks my ass again.

Well British scientists may have just proved that we might be able to hit a target that is 2/3 of a mile in diameter moving at 53 thousand miles per hour at a distance of approximately 34 million miles with a 70 lb ball tethered to two parachutes. Talk about a hole in one.

Of course nobody knew that there was a crater there when they were planning the mission, they only found it after trying to look for the rover. So Beagle 2 may be a gonner proving once again that just because the first mission went off without a hitch doesn't mean everybody can replicate that success.

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Okay so here's what I did over my break:
A) Work on projects
B) Play computer games (30 hours straight saturday-sunday)
C) Eat chocolate
D) Sleep occasionally

I'll update MildlyRetarded sometime soon with the status of the projects, but anyways for a break from that I went to office depot to pick up a game, I was thinking homeworld 2 but they didn't have it so I went ahead and grabbed CIV III on the order of about $15. And got so engrossed that some 30 hours later I realized I hadn't slept in a long time.

So my review of CIV III. Its a good game, very pretty, fun to play, but many times harder than the previous two. I think to make it that way they gave the computer cheats, because I don't know how many units of armor, modern armor, and mech. infantry that I lost to guys with swords on horseback.

I feel lazy and am not going to continue the review right now. Maybe later.

You know I've decided that for the most part I detest this time of year, people just go so nuts over it all and forget what its all supposed to be about. Also I find the radio really annoying about this time of year too, the first few hundred times Christmas music is okay but eventually you realize that there is no new Christmas music whatsoever.

Also today I remembered why I try to get time alone, I truly am more relaxed when I don't have to deal with other people constantly. I enjoy the time spent with my own thoughts, working a project in either the quiet or the sounds of the music of my choice.

On a side note the google ads at the top of this blog have been getting progressively less and less related to anything I write here. Which is somewhat amusing because from what I understand the more textual data there is the more it should be able to select advertisements somewhat related to the material. However, in my case it would appear that I am random enough that the matching process is utterly borked.

Well today they have agreed upon what the replacement for the world trade center will look like. The following links are a fairly interesting read. I think this building complex will definitely be a worthy replacement.

• Description is Brief.
  
• The Architect's Commentary.
  
• Conceptual Drawings and Models.
  

First off heres the news article: Bias Keeps Internet From Global Expansion.

I have a significant problem with the premise of this article. The UN has decided that it is important globalize the internet, bringing it to all peoples of the world, including the poor and illiterate. In fact many countries have gone so far as to demand the 1st world nations of the UN to supply the internet to them (hardware, software, and expertise).

I will ignore the first part of this article because it misrepresents India and its role in the global economy for the purpose of making the article seem justified. The quote: "Getting technology into people's hands is one thing. Getting people to use it is key," said Daniel Wagner, director of the International Literacy Institute at the University of Pennsylvania, illustrates precisely the problem with the whole endeavor, a problem that has forever plagued 1st and 3rd world relations. Assuming that the internet will increase literacy is fallacy that nobody seems to want to admit to. Historically, let’s think about farming technology. We thought that providing 3rd world countries with western farming equipment, hybrids, etc would increase the quality of life for the whole population and enable progress towards higher literacy because you could justify sending children to schools instead of working them in the fields.

The result of this miscalculation? The worst famines the world has seen. See the problem that nobody saw then was when you provide the illiterate and barbaric peoples with technology what happens is you increase the class distinctions that were already present. Thus those whom are a little more ruthless will assume control of the resources, using it to make themselves richer and more powerful, while those in the slightly lower class will end up breeding more since there is "plenty in the land". Then you are where you started, except now you have a people that are heavily armed with a grudge towards the west for promising to make life better, when by their own hand, it has got worse.

I think I will have to go back and defend my use of the term barbaric. I'm using this to describe a significant problem with human rights in the world. Most will try to reject differences in the value of human life between 1st and 3rd world countries as cultural differences, and that we as 1st world countries are obligated to improve the quality of life to our standards without regard to also increasing the value of life in that country to ours as well. Barbarism in this case is used to describe the lack of a government that will protect the natural rights of its citizens.

A government like that is not born of wealth and plenty, but is based on the fundamental view people have of themselves and their fellows. I do not view myself as an elitist or racially superior to the rest of the world. But I believe that we can not make the world a better place by giving the rest of it the technology we have developed for ourselves, with our history from which we have already learned the dangers.

I'll have to make a slight aside here for the moment because the article refers to "western" languages when in fact we should really be talking about the languages of the 1st world countries because Japanese is a huge presence on the web as well, which is definitely not "western". However this also does bring up something important, the difference between languages of 1st and 3rd world countries reflects the depth of thought and understanding its people. When a language does not have a distinction between enemy and stranger, how do you explain the concept of trade?

So is the lack of certain language groups on the web a problem or a symptom? We can not solve the problem by patching the symptom, fixing the problem would in fact still leave the symptom there. If you increase the literacy rate, change the government systems, improve the quality of life, the languages that don't provide the base for the complex understand required for joining the 1st world countries will be discarded for those that do.

I appolgize for the unrevised nature of thought train, perhaps in the future I will revisit it and complete it.

I love feats of amazing extrapolation. Including personality quizes such as this one: Brain Persuasion Test

The results:

Your Brain Usage Profile

Auditory : 35%
Visual : 64%
Left : 50%
Right : 50%

The summary they gave at the end to explain the numbers:

Bryan, you exhibit an even balance between left- and right- hemisphere dominance and a slight preference for visual over auditory processing. With a score this balanced, it is likely that you would have slightly different results each time you complete this self-assessment quiz.

You are a well-rounded person, distinctly individualistic and artistic, an active and multidimensional learner. At the same time, you are logical and disciplined, can operate well within an organization, and are sensitive towards others without losing objectivity. You are organized and goal-directed. Although a "thinking" individual, you "take in" entire situations readily and can act on intuition.

You sometimes tend to vacillate in your learning styles. Learning might take you longer than someone of equal intellect, but you will tend to be more thorough and retain the material longer than those other individuals. You will alternate between logic and impulse. This vacillation will not normally be intentional or deliberate, so you may experience anxiety in situations where you are not certain which aspect of yourself will be called on.

With a slight preference for visual processing, you tend to be encompassing in your perceptions, process along multidimensional paths and be active in your attacking of situations or learning.

Overall, you should feel content with your life and yourself. You are, perhaps, a little too critical of yourself -- and of others -- while maintaining an "openness" which tempers that tendency. Indecisiveness is a problem and your creativity may not be in keeping with your potential. Being a pragmatist, you downplay this aspect of yourself and focus on the more immediate, obvious and the more functional

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Wild and crazy, but exactly how true is this thing? I'll leave the world to be the judge of that.

Ever have those days where you wake up and think that you got trasported to an alternate universe? Well this morning was kind of interesting that way. The primary thing of interest was the fact that The Onion staff were on cspan. Okay so call me a computer geek but I remember the early issues of the onion, and to think that all of sudden they would become "reputable" polical commentary is actually somewhat interesting (okay granted its been in print like 11 years but the early days of its web presence was not all that spectacular). Also Saddam was captured. Though honestly after like 3 horus of news coverage you would think that nobody wants to hear about it anymore (no music on any radio stations while I was driving to home depot).

And for some added crazyness check out this: Teen Kills Parents, Buries Them In Back Yard, Throws Party.

Well since everybody is doing it....

Sam Adams. Brewer, patriot. You come from the
greatest city in America and are damn proud of
your heritage. You are well respected and
deservedly so. Rock on.


Which Beer are you?
brought to you by Quizilla


Well I guess that ain't surprising, since I have been known to consume Sam Adams Cherry Wheat from time to time....

Well according to this article soon you won't be able to take fruitcake on an airplane, at least if you're in canada that is. According to the article security screeners feel that x-ray doesn't do an adiquate job of seeing through fruitcakes.

So a few things for today. The first is this article: Space without NASA. You know it sounds like some things I was talking about a while ago, so I'm glad there are some people that are thinking logically out there.

The next issue is the stink France, Germany, and Russia are raising over contracts in Iraq. This in my book definately classifies a WTF moment. The money for the contracts is coming out of the United States Taxpayers. So fuck off, if your youngsters aren't there dying, if you don't have any investments there, then you don't get any rewards, especially when it comes from the citizens of the US. So by whining about it, I would say these countries believe they are no better than dogs begging for scraps off the master's table. Its sick. If I lived in one of those countries I'd protest the governments stance, simply for destroying what national pride I could claim.

Turns out there is a LJ user with the username mildlyretarded. I wonder how long it will be until I hear from them at some point.

Well Mildlyretarded.com is online. Beware though, there isn't much there.

Well I missed Mondays retarded news day because that day happened to be very busy, in fact every day since the beginning of this week has been busybusyhecktic. So right now I'm suffering from a case of hicups, which is not fun at all I must say. So lets see yesterday I caught a little bit of a new reality show on fox calledThe Simple Life which is so utterly hard to watch I had to flip channels which lands me on Spike TV's Most Extreme Elimination Challenge. The latter show is amazingly addictive, and if your favorite pasttime as a kid was to watch people from the top floor of the mall and make up funny conversations between the folks you were watching with your friends then this show is for you.

Now that I think about it every day this week has been a monday. Which is not a whole lot of fun, its crunch time and we haven't been able to do an adequate amount of testing prior to having to "release" to production I have to cobble stuff together to make it work. I think if I can find some time tomorrow morning or else Saturday maybe I can actually sit down and do some real design. Anyhow enough of the lamenting about work thing.

I HATE HICCUPS!

I've decided that by far the hottest muscians I can think of right now is currently tied between Sara Evans and Terri Clark. I have no idea what brought that to mind.

So anyways I waiting for it decide if it just wants to continue the freezing rain crap or if snow is going to decide to come on down. Since I currently nearly freeze at night where my bed is currently situated, I am very tempted to take the saw to the banister so I can get my box springs upstairs into the real bedroom. Of course the banister was made out of pine so it has really huge grain and looks kind of cheap anyway...but finding an alternative that actually looks good might be a little bit of a challenge, and perhaps I would want to remodel some of the stuff upsairs....Like getting rid of the huge claw-foot steel tub. Well I guess thats why they invented weekends.

I guess I'll just have to stop working Saturdays.

I have too many projects both at work and in my personal life that are not finished. I need to sell a couple trucks, simply to get them out of my hair (which seems to be growing back at an insanely fast rate in fact). I need to organize all my papers scattered over the kitchen counter and my pseudo desk so that way taxes will be easier. Personally I think its better to get taxes done early that way if you are entitled to a refund you don't give the US government an interest free loan longer than necessary.

BTW whats the point in working two two-day weeks in a row? Yay for Christmas and New years.

Well this morning I found out that nearly frozen pop-tarts aren't all that bad. Well at least if they are of the Brown Sugar Cinnamon variety. Why do I know this? Lets just say that, yes I left them in the car over night.