Wednesday, July 28, 2004

For everybody who has ever gone to school and eaten at a cafeteria I present to you an article:

Beyond Mystery Meat

I end this post with thoughts of many expletives of incredulity.

Thursday, July 22, 2004

Thinking of the ranting chemist

So this morning I noticed, when reading some news from my hometown, this article about a chemical spill on the highway. Here is a different article with many more details.






Obviously the truck was hauling waste for some industrial manufacturing (either metal or glassworks), but the thing that gets to me is the fact that pretty much all states are running out of highway funds. In fact in the state I'm currently residing in (Indiana) the situation is so dire the federal government is getting notified of the impending disaster that could eventually be the transportation industry.

From one area I understand the industry concerns of traffic congestion and bad roads, but what about that traffic congestion and bad roads coupled to possible disasters like the one I started this post discussing?

The Ming Fleet

So I was watching PBS last night, yah I know scary huh? And on there was a documentary about a guy's (a former British submarine by the name of Gavin Menzies) new theory about Zheng He and his fleet of treasure ships circumnavigating the world. What I can find on it is definitely very interesting reading. And if you catch the special again on PBS, I'd recommend watching it.

So here is a detailed explanation of the theory of Gavin Menzies.

Artists recreation of Zheng He's largest ships from the descriptions and fragments of ships found




And here are a couple more articles:
NYTimes article only slightly related.
Sort of a biography of Zheng He and his fleet.

Ad campaigns

So I was watching TV last night (PBS actually...but that's the next post I'm going to make since it was very interesting) and an ad (or as they say public service announcement) from Philip Morris. I've seen a lot of ads to help the public image of companies but this one took the cake.

Philip Morris TV Ads

I saw the last one on the list. The following statements are made in this ad:

A) cigarette Smoking and disease
B) There is no Safe cigarette
C) cigarette smoking is addictive
D) ...smoking cause lung cancer, heart disease, emphysema...
E) To reduce the health effects of smoking, the best thing to do is quit

So at first glance I was actually surprised to see a former tobacco company giant paying money to air a public service message telling people not to buy their product.

Then I realized something, the whole thing is about cigarette smoking. They never said tobacco. They never mentioned the tongue, throat, and stomach cancers that tobacco chewers are almost certain to get at some time.

Clever.

Wednesday, July 21, 2004

Now for something new

So time for something new. A new article about a monkey in Israel that is walking exclusively upright. The part of the article is that some experts think it is brain damage that has caused this behaviour.

But needless to say it is unusual.


Tuesday, July 20, 2004

Dance Remixed

So what happens when you take a fast paced dance song and remix into a trance song?

Something really freaky.

The song in question was Laura Brangian's Self Control. The remix was on Digital Importated - Vocal Trance 3:40pm EST July 20th 2004 by Vengeance featuring E-LA.

Monday, July 19, 2004

Of cookies and ads

So I was visiting IMDB and happened to stumble onto Ice-T's biography page when I notice on the side there is an ad for AOL. Such an occurrence is not particularly unusual of course but the random picture of some photogenic subject was none other than Mariska Hargitay who happens to co-star with Ice-T in Law and Order: Special Victims Unit.

So was the ad a coincidence or another form of targeted marketing?

By the way I took a screenshot to prove this.

Thoughts on the Matrix

Okay so not much on the Matrix but more on the main character as he was cast. If you could replace Keanu with anybody who would he be?

Background information regarding this question: This afternoon a co-worker and I were discussing the possibility of displaying information directly in the eyeball or on the optic nerve. And of course I thought about "information overload" from Johnny Mnemonic. And of course saying "you know one of those bad Keanu Reeves movies" didn't help remind anybody of the movie I was thinking of. Thus given the "only" (in quotes as that is the best consensus here at the moment) movie he has played in was the Matrix, thus the question of a replacement was born.

And I am thinking Ed Norton. I know at first it is kind of hard to wrap your brain around but think about movies like American History X or Fight Club.

Thoughts anyone?

Friday, July 16, 2004

Snowcrash

Anybody read the book Snowcrash? Personally I'm not a fan of cyberpunk and honestly wouldn't read the book again but this news article I did find amusing.
 
So if you have then check out this Article.

Sinuses

So some of you probably will not understand this...but right now I have so much sinus pressure in my head I can hear the difference in my monitor when it is displaying disproportionately large amounts of one color, for instance blue vs say white.

Then again earlier this afternoon I was suffering from light and shiny/sharp object sensitivity (I lump them together cause I haven't figured out if they are related to other things).
 
All of this simply from gas pressing outward, trying to escape its confinement in little tiny cavities in my head.

In the News

So one of the news sources back home has run a few articles about a man who has just been released from prison after 7 years for a crime he didn't commit. One thing that really stuck me in this particular article is that while parolees have access to state services such as job placement, training, and counseling, a person wrongly convicted and exonerated does not.
 
While this guy received payment from the state of approximately 40000 a year he lost, that came after a great fight. Given how few people are ever proven innocent of a crime later I don't really understand the justification of denying those services to someone, whom now likely has a good reason to become a criminal except for it not being in his personality to commit crimes.
 
Note: I have no interest in getting into an argument about the existence of services to criminals, everybody should easily know what my opinions regarding that issue.

Monday, July 12, 2004

Thoughts while driving

So I was driving along and listening to XM8 (the 80s station) when "White Lines" by Duran Duran came on. Of course it was an unusual mix and it was being played as part of a DJ set, but during the song I couldn't help thinking that whoever wrote it must have been under the influence of soemthing so I decided to look up the lyrics. And here they are.



    White! Ooh-white! White! Ooh-white!
    White! Ooh-white! White! Ooh-white!
    (White Lines)
    Vision dreams of passion
    (Going through my mind)
    And all the while I think of you
    (Pipeline)
    A very strange reaction
    (Yours to unwind)
    The more I see, the more I do

    Something of a phenomenon,
    Telling your body to come along
    Cause White Lines blow away
    Blow! Rock! Blow!

    Ticket to ride a white-line highway
    tell all your friends they can go my way
    Pay your toll, sell your soul
    pound for pound it costs more than gold
    The longer you stay, the more you pay
    my white lines go a long way
    Either up your nose or through your vein
    with nothing to gain except killing your brain

    (chorus)

    Pipeline (pure as the driven snow)
    connected to my mind
    (and now I'm having fun, baby!)
    Highrise (it's getting kind of low)
    'cause it makes you feel so nice
    (I need some one on one, baby!)

    Tell me it'll blow your mind away (baby)
    going to your little hideaway
    'Cause white lines (what do white lines do?)
    blow away
    Blow! - Rock! - Blow!

    A million magic crystals painted pure and white
    A multi-million dollars almost overnight
    Twice as sweet as sugar, twice as bitter as salt
    And if you get hooked baby,
    it's nobody else's fault - so don't do it!

    (chorus)

    (Don't you get too high)
    Don't you get too high, baby
    (It turns you on)
    You really turn me on and on
    (Can't you ever come down)
    My temperature is rising
    ('Til the thrill is gone)
    No, I don't want you to go

    A street kid gets arrested, gonna do some time
    He got out three years from now
    just to commit more crime

    A businessman is caught with twenty four kilos
    He's out on bail, and out of jail,
    and that's the way it goes!

    Cane! Sugar! Cane! Sugar! Cane!

    Athletes reject it - governors correct it
    Gangsters, punks, and smugglers are
    thoroughly respected
    The money gets divided - the women get excited
    Now I'm broke and it's no joke
    it's hard as hell to fight it - don't buy it!

    (chorus)
    Freeze! (say rock, come on y'all)
    Rock (say freeze, come on!)
    Freeze! (say rock, come on y'all)
    Rock (say freeze, come on!)
    Freeze! (say rock, come on y'all)
    Rock (say freeze, come on!)
    Freeze! (say rock, come on y'all)
    Rock (say freeze, come on!)
    Aaaaah...
    Higher baby, get higher baby, get higher baby
    and don't ever come down... Free base!



About the time the line up your nose or through your veins comes along its pretty clear its a drug song. Considering stations have taken to bleeping words like 45 (as in colt 45), green, and stacks from "What it's like" by Everlast I wonder how this song made it to the air intact.

Of course if you want to hear some really weird music, radio stations still play "I am the walrus" by the Beatles. Now that song is really messed up.