Month: November 2002

We knew our geography, dammit! I find results from a recent National Geographic survey very disturbing:

The society survey found that only about one in seven – 13 percent – of Americans between the age of 18 and 24, the prime age for military warriors, could find Iraq. The score was the same for Iran, an Iraqi neighbor.

Although the majority, 58 percent, of the young Americans surveyed knew that the Taliban and al Qaeda were based in Afghanistan, only 17 percent could find that country on a world map…

The survey asked 56 geographic and current events questions of young people in nine countries and scored the results with traditional grades. The surveyed Americans got a “D,” with an average of 23 correct answers…

Thirty-four percent of the young Americans knew that the island used on last season’s “Survivor” show was located in the South Pacific, but only 30 percent could locate the state of New Jersey on a map.

Something has to change, because as John Fahey, president of the National Geographic Society points out, “If our young people can’t find places on a map and lack awareness of current events, how can they understand the world’s cultural, economic and natural resource issues that confront us?” That and we’re just looking pretty stupid here…

The National Council of Churches and the Coalition on the Environment and Jewish Life are teaming up to convince us that Jesus would certainly not drive an SUV, so neither should you. Well, it turns out they are right. Jesus, in fact, drives a Buick LeSabre. I know this because I stayed at the same Holiday Inn Express as Him once in Virginia, where I took a picture of His car. You might think it would be pretty cool to share a hotel with Jesus. Honestly though, the steady stream of monks singing Gregorian Chant in the hallways at all hours got to be pretty tiresome.

retroCRUSH presents the Arcade Game Challenge, in which you need to identify the 27 screenshots of classic arcade games. I’m confident that I know all but one (#2); how about you?

This page compares panoramic images of Seattle’s waterfront taken in 2002 and 1907 from the same vantage point. Some cool transitioning effects are used (only if you’re using IE, though) to highlight the differences between past and present.

Why nobody bid on this rare, exciting item offered on ebay I just don’t know. Maybe it reminds people of Butch’s watch in Pulp Fiction or something…

Actor James Coburn has died of a massive heart attack at the age of 74. 🙁

I’ve made several posts about how great MAME is. For those of you not in the know, it’s a program that emulates over 3,000 arcade games, allowing you to play them on your PC. I just found out that in the latest version (.62), there is support for the Bradley Trainer that was made for the U.S. Army from the game Battlezone. The page has a bunch of screenshots, as well as the ROM binaries that are required for MAME to run the game.

As this article at retroCRUSH points out, the arcade game is much better than the movie, although I happen to like the movie. There was so much to like about the arcade game, and as much as I miss it even my MAME emulator and X-Arcade Controller can’t do the real arcade controls justice, unfortunately.

The EP-3 surveillance aircraft that a Chinese fighter jet collided with 16 months ago made its first test flight since the incident. It will eventually return to duty, and I *so* hope it resumes flights off the coast of China.

Dalton Ghetti’s sculptures are unique, mostly because of the medium he uses. Ghetti sculpts out of the lead at the end of pencils, producing surprisingly intricate, delicate miniature works. I can’t imagine the patience (and broken lead) that it must take to do this…