Is this blog and “the blogosphere” dead?
Nick (Is Google making us Stupid) Carr certainly asserts that it has and if you consider that the last post before this one was in September’08 - he may be right.
Nick (Is Google making us Stupid) Carr certainly asserts that it has and if you consider that the last post before this one was in September’08 - he may be right.
Last night I attended a book signing by former Minnesota governor, actor, wrestler, and Navy SEAL Jesse Ventura. He gave a good talk on various topics he’s concerned about, such as how the federal government has been increasing in size/spending while decreasing individuals’ freedoms, and his view that the Commission on Presidential Debates intentionally obstructs independent candidates’ participation. He’d like to abolish federal income taxes, and rely instead on a national sales tax for revenue (i.e. frugal people shouldn’t be taxed the same as extravagant people with the same income). Instead of auditing citizens, the IRS could then audit the government and businesses to make sure they’re accountable. This is only a brief smattering of the topics he discussed. I don’t agree with all of his views, but I find a lot to like about this guy (just as there’s a lot I like and dislike about both McCain and Obama).
The best part? If he *did* have time to bleed, he’d bleed solar: his second home (located in Mexico) is not only off-grid, but 100% solar!
Earlier this week, a Maryland beauty queen was arrested for breaking into a home and assaulting a woman there. What makes this newsworthy is the luscious irony that her pageant platform was to prevent bullying. Last year an Arizona beauty queen was charged with kidnapping and aggravated assault, among other things. The irony there was that she was a second-year law school student at the time. Similarly, I recall a news story a few years ago (but can’t find a link), about a beauty queen who was an advocate against drunk driving, getting arrested for - you guessed it - drunk driving.
Far be it from me to overgeneralize against all beauty pageant contestants, but I think it might be fun to predict what sort of future irony-laced news stories some of them might generate. For example, one whose platform includes protection of third-world children, but whose designer clothing line is made in sweatshops exploiting such children. Or one who took up preventing animal cruelty as her pet passion (pardon the pun) but is later found to be running a puppy mill supplying illegal dog fighting rings (or simply running a puppy mill, period).
Any other suggestions? 
Saw this story related to one of our own today. Some bloggers were surprised to see their content ripped off and posted on another site without their permission. When confronted about it, the site - which claims to be THE premier destination for Kerala tourism online - responded in true Mal (now there’s an appropriate bi-lingual pun) fashion with a torrent of misogynistic abuse. Read on and weep.
http://myinjimanga.blogspot.com/2008/06/stealing-threat-cyber-stalking-abuse.html
The funniest thing is that these same buffoons run a matrimonial site. With such a criminal mindset among its highest executives (the Shiva guy quoted extensively in the link above is their director of operations), who can bet against matrimonial pictures being used on their porn sites? I’m sure these guys have some director of Photoshop operations as well. Methinks this is a promotion just waiting for some sharp cyber-crime sleuth. Tourism, misogyny, matrimony, and porn - all in a day’s work for the fine people at Kerals.com. Buyer beware.
If my wife and I ever have any children, they would be neither “brown” nor “yellow” but something else entirely (I am South Asian and my wife is Taiwanese). So, why do people perceive Barack Obama as black? His mother is fully white as far as I know and he’s biracial and both white and black. Why is everyone referring to him as the first black person to have a real chance at winning the presidency?
As the furor over the racial remarks by a pastor associated with Obama rages on, I am really curious about this. Obama is definitely the first half-black person to have a chance at becoming president but he’s not fully black. Maybe the Obamans in the audience can shed some light to this mystery.
Have you ever looked at a Jackson Pollock masterpiece and thought to yourself “I could do better than that”? No, you can’t, but now you can at least pretend, and that too without all the mess and bother of real drip painting. Digital art saves the day, yet again.
Move the cursor over the blank page to start your drip painting. Clicking changes the color of your paint.
I always thought all cubicles in the cube farm are bad for humans. But, some cubicles are really really bad. Here’s Wired magazine’s sad cubicle list.
![[Print This Post]](http://www.rantlust.com/wp-content/plugins/wp-print/images/print.gif "[Print This Post]")
[Print This Post]
Historically scientists applied very rigorous standards to what they called science. Many things in science are known as theories even though there is hardly anything to dispute their validity. In fact there is very little difference between what is called a law, as in Newton’s laws of motion; law of gravity etc and what are referred to as theories.
However lot of people think of the word theory as in “I have a theory”. Or the way economists use the word theory. For an illustration, I live a few miles away from the Creation Museum which was established to showcase evidence that the theory of evolution is wrong. The folks behind the museum say evolution is just a theory and it is wrong. Opened this year, the 60,000-square-foot museum is so successful they are trying to expand the parking lot.
However the theory of evolution is established science. The annual flu shots are nothing but evolved flu virus. Without doubt scientist knows that the microbes evolve. We also know from documented history that the silk worm used to fly. We know that silk worm or perhaps even cows cannot live without human anymore. We also know that the digestive mechanism of a pig is not very different from humans and that is why insulin made from pigs was used to treat humans.
However now we have people who challenge the theory of evolution. The museum, few miles away from my home, is a case in point. In this environment; it is anybody’s guess what will be the fate of the theory of global warming which is far from maturity. No one knows enough to accept or reject that theory entirely. However that does not mean, the global warming will wait for the mankind to understand the phenomena. The planet might be in peril.
It was not a physicist’s decision to nuke Hiroshima. It would not be and it should not be. The people through their elected representatives make that kind of decisions. Similarly global warming, while being a scientific question, will be decided and acted upon by the political process. Another case, the thing that pops up on your screen, is it a adware or spyware? Who gets to decide that? Engineers?
We can wait until the scientists conclude the science of global warming. But there are two problems with that approach. One, do we have time? Two, without activists, would there be vigorous research to conclude that issue any time in near future?
The (often) sarcastic comment on Al Gore inventing the internet and the current Al Gore bashing for his environmental activism have common lessons. The internet as a technology existed from the 60s. A few computers connected together is not the biggest deal on the world. Be it the defense network or the Stanford to UC network, the stuff was there. However until 90s it never even came close to what is referred as internet today. Far from being just interconnected computers, internet is a way of life today. There is a political, social legal environment that nurtured and brought it to its current form. While no stretch of imagination would conclude it is all Al Gore’s work, the guy’s role is not to be disputed. Not as the engineer or scientist who invented the internet, but as the politician who ‘invented’ the social political framework for internet without which internet is perhaps no internet, just the 60’s internet. Oh’ I exaggerated a bit, so note just the narrow point.
Similarly if the planet were truly in peril, though the science is far from concluding either way, may he will be the person who ‘invented’ global warming.
Comments(7)