Month: July 2003

I posted about the upcoming Sci-Fi Channel remake of Battlestar Galactica a couple of weeks ago, lamenting the fact that it will no doubt suck big time. Well, even the actors agree with me. Edward James Olmos is playing Commander Adama, and let me just point out that he is no Lorne Greene. Anyway, the Contra Costa Times reports that during the Television Critics Association summer tour that Olmos said that “he would not advise them to watch this program. It will hurt them…” He immediately tried to qualify this statement, adding that “The intent and the way we’ve built the reality is very different from the reality of the original,” but I think the message is clear. My already low expectations for this series have just sunk even further. Not that I was actually going to watch it…

As if we needed another reason to hate Deion Sanders, he is being sued by a mechanic whom Jesus told him not to pay.

Track hurricanes from 2003 and 2002 as well as many “historical” storms in this JavaScript Hurricane Tracker.

In case you’re wondering, this is going to be a Bad Thing, although most of you probably realize this. According to the Washington Post, “AOL Journals” is AOL’s answer to the weblog and will be available to users this summer. So be prepared for an onslaught of clueless newbies’ attempts at communicating through this medium, instantly destroying the credibility that this medium has slowly but inexorably attained.

Some may protest at this stereotypical characterization of AOL users, but here’s one point that I find telling: “AOL has dubbed its service ‘AOL Journals’ because its surveys showed that members found the word ‘blogs’ confusing, said Rick Robinson, AOL’s vice president for community products.” I think one of the first (satirical) comments in the Slashdot thread on this story is pretty damn funny, depicting the (well-deserved) reputation of most AOL users: “The average AOL user also found the words ‘unlimited,’ ‘free,’ and ‘useful’ to be confusing.” “Web” + “log” = “weblog.” This isn’t rocket science, people.

For those of you who didn’t get the Big Crunch reference, here’s a link. Hopefully things won’t be as bad as I’m predicting, but I don’t think I’m exaggerating too much here…

What a weird game…

If you’re a bit bored, hit “reload” a couple of times here.

The Pacific Princess, the original Love Boat, is supposed to be scrapped soon, although I don’t know where Greenpeace got this information from. Apparently their main interest is to ensure that ships are properly decontaminated before they are dismantled on the coast of Asia.

Bridge Basics is a very thorough page that depicts different types of bridge designs and briefly explains advantages and disadvantages of each type. Just the thing for an engineering geek like myself…

And on the other hand, The Flat Earth Society “asserts that the Earth is flat and has five sides, that all places in the Universe named Springfield are merely links in higher-dimensional space to one place,” and that “Gravity is a lie invented by the [Globularist] purveyors of the inherently false spherical Earth theory.” Their FAQ is quite thorough, as well as very entertaining.