Month: September 2004

Here’s a fun, albeit somewhat morbid, gift for The Godfather fan who has everything: a horse head prop pillow. 🙂

Although the deal isn’t finalized yet, MSNBC reports that Netflix and TiVo are poised to unveil a new paradigm in movie delivery for subscribers to both services: movies rented from Netflix will download directly into the TiVo box via a broadband Internet connection. As a subscriber to both services, which by the way I highly recommend, I’m intrigued by this possible development but wonder whether it will be worth it. To download a DVD-quality movie at present broadband speeds would take hours to say the least, although if done in the background the transfer would be transparent to the end user. I’m wondering whether copyright and/or pirating issues will prevent this from ever happening. If it does happen, the DRM protections that will more than likely be imposed on the movie download may prove to be too cumbersome; I have yet to use any music download service that has DRM that I find acceptable, although iTunes comes close. Still, if done correctly, this partnership could make movie rental a lot more convenient, and I would definitely take advantage of it.

Star Wars vs. Star Trek in Five Minutes is an extremely geeky but strangely compelling summary of an argument that sci-fi geeks have been obsessing over for some time now. If that’s not enough for you, the main page is more info than you’ll ever need, although I’ll admit that I was sucked in ;-). For a laugh, check out the hate mail that the author of the site gets. Some people are way too serious about this…

John Kerry appeared on The Late Show with David Letterman last night. I missed it (and didn’t know ahead of time to TiVo it – d’oh!), but apparently he took the opportunity take a jab at W with humor as well as with serious discussion. The highlight of the show appears to be Kerry’s “Top 10 Bush Tax Proposals:”

10. No estate tax for families with at least two U.S. presidents.

9. W-2 Form is now Dubya-2 Form.

8. Under the simplified tax code, your refund check goes directly to Halliburton.

7. The reduced earned income tax credit is so unfair, it just makes me want to tear out my lustrous, finely groomed hair.

6. Attorney General (John) Ashcroft gets to write off the entire U.S. Constitution.

5. Texas Rangers can take a business loss for trading Sammy Sosa.

4. Eliminate all income taxes; just ask Teresa (Heinz Kerry) to cover the whole damn thing.

3. Cheney can claim Bush as a dependent.

2. Hundred-dollar penalty if you pronounce it “nuclear” instead of “nucular.”

1. George W. Bush gets a deduction for mortgaging our entire future.

I think the funniest one is #3, although they are all pretty good. However, #1 is dead (literally, in some cases) serious and is a point that many W supporters just don’t seem to get, in my opinion.

Well, I’m back, although I’m still fighting off jet lag and am busy catching up with things at work and around the house. We had a great vacation in Ireland, but I’ll hold off on posting about that until I have time to do it justice. Also, pictures (22 rolls of film!) won’t be ready until at least later this week, so it might be cool to post some of them to go along with that.

Thanks again to shaft and czar for holding down the fort while I was gone; it looks as if they did their usual great job. I’m particularly happy to see the post (and great picture!) of Dr. Bunsen Honeydew and Beaker, although White House Joust was fun too.

Even the Buddhist monks are p.o.‘ed at Americans these days. Remember when we were generally respected and welcomed to other nations? Are we a nation of arrogant, insensitive, ignorant people? I like to think that most of us are not, but I definitely think it’s time to change our image. (I hope the pic isn’t too insensitive to chimps…)

Pioneer 10 and 11, the space probes that recently left the solar system on their journey to distant stars, are moving in ways inconsistent with the predictions of physicists. Possible reasons include unseen “dark matter” outside the edge of the solar system, gas leaks from the fuel tanks of both space probes coincidentally happening simultaneously, or the possibility that Newton didn’t get the whole story right about gravity. Funny, nobody mentioned the idea of an Imperial Star Destroyer catching them in a tractor beam.

Man has seven best friends. Decides he has too many, and that he should shoot them all. After shooting three, man loses control of gun. One of remaining best friends uses paw to pull trigger, injuring man. Man charged with cruelty to animals, has no friends left at all.

For those readers with broadband access, you may be interested in a service from NASA, called Earth Observatory. They make available hi-res satellite images of a variety of geologic features, natural disasters, evidence of global climate change, etc. This week they posted a composite image of my town, Denver, CO, showing elevations of the mountains to the west. They have plenty of pictures for anyone interested in maps, Earth sciences, or just generally cool wallpaper images.

Muppet scientist Dr. Bunsen Honeydew and his assistant Beaker were voted best TV scientists in a BBC poll. The stars of Muppet Labs, “where the future is being made today,” were unavailable for comment, but their close friend Kermit The Frog summed up their mass appeal. “They have spread the message that science is not just for short round-headed bald guys and their orange-haired goggle-eyed sidekicks. It’s also for people like you and frogs like me,” said Kermit.