The Silicon Mind

Closed!

2006-02-03T16:29:00.000-05:00

This blog has been discontinued until further notice. Either no one has time to post, or no one cares enough to post. If this project gets revitalized, we'll let you know.For a completely different experience, one of us has started a blog about coding in general currently focusing on the Ruby language and the Rails web framework.

John Bolton

2005-04-14T15:26:00.000-04:00

(also found in: The Dartmouth)"Sending [John Bolton] to New York would be like sending Nixon to China … it will be more like sending the bull into a China shop," Senator Joseph Biden, D-Del., said at the hearings of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations regarding George Bush's nomination of Bolton to be the U.S. representative to the United Nations.John Bolton is the worst possible candidate

Concerning Content

2005-04-10T01:32:00.000-04:00

For those who read this, I have to apologize for the dearth of content over the past few months. The three of us have been very busy with work, college, and other such things, so we haven't really gotten a chance to write anything for this. Hopefully as the workload lightens up a little bit (which it will be for me in the relatively near future), we'll be doing a lot more with this. Sorry again.

2005-03-30T21:30:00.000-05:00

"Diplomacy is the art of saying "nice doggie" until you can find a rock."

New Articles

2005-02-02T18:34:00.000-05:00

Just to inform our readers, we have published two new articles: "This column sponsored in part by..." by Michael Maio "Still Separate But Equal" by Michael Belinsky

Tracking Small Arms, An Overview

2005-01-31T20:42:00.000-05:00

The nuisance of containing and tracking illicit small arms transfers has become a pertinent and dire problem in the 21st century. Political and social conflicts constantly escalate to military confrontations involving small arms and light weapons throughout our world. These weapons are responsible for most of the deaths in the conflicts in Asia, Africa, Europe, and Latin America. According to the

Religion and Exclusivity

2005-01-31T18:03:00.000-05:00

It's interesting,they say love overcomes all. In real life, this is obviously not the case, regardless of how many feel-good movies à-la-The Prince and Me or whatever the most recent film is along those lines. But I want to address a particular aspect of love not overcoming all, and that is the point of religion. What a sticking point that one is, eh? Eddie Izzard jokes, in Dress to Kill, about

What Model UN Does Wrong

2005-01-24T10:19:00.000-05:00

Model United Nations is a powerful institution designed to educate young men and women in several critical areas. It teaches them about negotiation, the difficulty of working in an international body, and, most importantly, how to see the world through the eyes of another country and often another culture. These are skills that, especially in the United States, are lacking. But, like any system,

Now They're Picking on Spongebob

2005-01-23T23:57:00.000-05:00

I read a few days ago about how the head (his name is Dobson or something) of the conservative organization Focus on the Family denounced Spongebob Squarepants for promoting tolerance of sexual diversity. In other words, he criticizes Spongebob for acting in a homosexual manner. Dobson's assault on an animated, assexual sea sponge is unworthy of comment, but I checked out his organization's

And another...

2005-01-16T18:56:00.000-05:00

Here is another interesting quote, by Arthur C. Clarke (from the preface to 2001: A Space Odyssey) "Behind every man now alive stand thirty ghosts, for that is the ratio by which the dead outnumber the living. Since the dawn of time, roughly a hundred billion human beings have walked the planet Earth. -- Now this is an interesting number, for by a curious coincidence there are approximately a

Great Quote

2005-01-16T16:03:00.000-05:00

I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones. - Albert Einstein

A glimpse into the tower

2005-01-14T18:33:00.000-05:00

Well, here's something I didn't know about: "...the Academic Index is computed for every Ivy League applicant. It is derived from a composite of SAT I and II scores and high school rank. No one can be admitted whose score is below a cecrtain base level, which is set relative to the quality of each school's overall admissions. The League instituted the index as a way to prevent an

A Sex Bomb?

2005-01-13T23:49:00.000-05:00

US military wanted 'sex bomb' By Milanda Rout January 14, 2005 A "SEX bomb" that would make enemy soldiers irresistible to each other was considered by the US military. Declassified documents reveal the Pentagon toyed with the idea of an aphrodisiac chemical weapon in 1994. The gas would have made enemy soldiers sexually

Apple Changing Directions?

2005-01-12T10:19:00.000-05:00

Yesterday, at about 12 PM Eastern Standard Time (9 AM Pacific), in San Francisco's Moscone Center, Steve Jobs began his Macworld Expo keynote. This event has marked, every year for the past six or seven years since Jobs returned to Apple, the revelation of another fascinating creation of the trademark stylish, high-tech type that the company has now become famous for. Even though it is the most

Liberal take on Rathergate

2005-01-10T17:27:00.000-05:00

Today, an independent panel released a report analyzing a case of public misinformation. According to the panel, a certain entity “presented half truths as facts” and “ignored facts that cast doubts on the story.” This entity claimed to have received this misinformation from another source. Unfortunately, the source of this misinformation goes unpunished. The entity in the above

Appearances and Perceptions

2005-01-10T10:49:00.000-05:00

I was going to make my first post a really long article on language and the brain, but I realized when I was almost done that I'd made a fundamental mistake in my descriptions, so I have to rewrite that. So I'll start off with something a bit shorter. I never wanted this blog to be only about politics or current events, so this is going to stray a little from what Michael's been writing on. ----

Peace reached. Genocide continues.

2005-01-09T11:48:00.000-05:00

About a year ago, Sudanese rebels realized that the tiny region of Darfur is the perfect place to get away with genocide. And so, the murder of countless Africans in Sudan ensued. Today 50,000 civilians are dead and 1.4 million are displaced. But the Sudanese rebels do not deserve all the credit – the government also took part. They hired thugs and mercenaries that go by the name of the

In my reading...

2005-01-08T16:37:00.000-05:00

I just to want to share with you John Mearsheimer's view of realism: "After all, for every neck, there are two hands to choke it." (from The Tragedy of Great Power Politics)

2005-01-08T16:34:00.000-05:00

So according to an article on the front page of today's NYT, the conservative pundit Armstrong Williams received $240K from the Dept. of Education to promote the No Child Left Behind Act on his show. That many segments of the media have graciously served as the Bush administration's propaganda arm is nothing new or revelatory. But now tax dollars have been used to fund the dubious and somewhat

Et tu, Chomsky?

2005-01-06T21:53:00.000-05:00

I might be losing faith in Chomsky. The man is a "leading intellectual of our times" (NYT), but his intense dislike for Israel is..well..see for yourself: Chomsky is author of the preface to a book by the notorious French Holocaust denier Robert Faurisson, one of several in which Faurisson claims that Jewish organizations fabricated the Holocaust in order to extort war reparations from Germany

The Republican Reaction

2005-01-04T19:53:00.000-05:00

Here is what Andrew Sullivan has to say about the Hill's removal of 'protection rules' for DeLay: DeLay is ruthless. But he's not dumb. The Republicans know that their public support is tenuous; that their increased numbers were primarily a function of gerrymandering. Bending ethics rules for their own purposes was never going to fly. As one of them noted, "Constituents reacted. We're blessed

Reflecting on the holiday season

2005-01-04T19:37:00.000-05:00

I've discovered a new word this break. It's Chriswanzukahh. Everyone celebrates it, really! I think it means "trying too hard," but I'm not sure. So instead of a Christmas Tree, or a Hanukkah shrub, I brought home a Chriswanzukahh tree and waited for the Politically-Correct-claus to bring me every American's wish list: cheap gas, happiness, and homeland security. Your thoughts on the holiday

Abortion and Morals

2005-01-02T14:19:00.000-05:00

John has the following interesting view on abortion: Taking a comparative approach to abortion, I think it becomes obvious that the view that abortion is murder has implications that hardly any Pro-Lifer would be willing to accept. Millions of fetuses are aborted every year. If fetuses have a right to life, this would be a greater tragedy than the Holocaust. If they were consistent, Pro-Lifers

Tsunami update

2005-01-02T13:35:00.000-05:00

For those of you wondering how tsunamis occur, go here for a quick explanation. [EDIT]Or, as usual, you can go to the wikipedia article on tsunamis.[/EDIT] Also, UN Sec. Gen. Kofi Annan says it may take up to 10 years for the areas hit by the tsunami to fully recover (more here).

Another take on the Tsunami Relief Effort

2005-01-01T21:07:00.000-05:00

David Holcberg over at the Ayn Rand Institute does not think that the United States government should give any aid whatsoever to the tsunami victims. Here is his reasoning: The reason politicians can get away with doling out money that they have no right to and that does not belong to them is that they have the morality of altruism on their side. According to altruism--the morality that most

Microsoft slow to compete

2005-01-01T17:08:00.000-05:00

Bill Gates loves competition, but it looks like he's lagging behind when it comes to the newly re-invigorated browser wars. Firefox has been downloaded 12 million times and is stealing more and more of the IE users. According to this story, however, Microsoft doesn't plan any major updates to IE until Longhorn comes out in 2006.

A Humanitarian State?

2004-12-31T18:34:00.000-05:00

The NYT released an editorial bashing the United States' commitment to aiding the tsunami relief and reconstruction efforts. While the NYT Editorial Board was very critical of US's commitment to humanitarian relief, it neglected to mention the corporate contributions, listed below (source): Pfizer Inc. - $10m and $25 worth of drugs Coca-Cola Co. - $10m ExxonMobil Corp. - $5m Citigroup Inc. - $3m

Feel the Winds of Change

2004-12-31T17:58:00.000-05:00

Okay, so now that I've started using Xanga again, it's time to switch the use of this blog. Michael Belinsky and I will be using this for serious stuff from now on, the occasional essay or article or whatever, as opposed to emotional comments or whatever it is that I've been posting now. For that, my Xanga site (http://www.xanga.com/home.aspx?user=savedfastcool) will be providing me with a

How Friends (Don't) Change

2004-12-29T13:47:00.000-05:00

It's funny, lately I've been reading all about how people's friends have changed in ways they never expected in college, or how college has changed them so much that they see old friends in a completely different light, or other similar statements. I'm happy to say that no one has changed unexpectedly in my life. Friends and acquaintances are still as they were before, even if some superficial

On Ideology and Implementation

2004-12-28T19:50:00.000-05:00

Okay, so I should probably expand on a comment I posted to another xanga (comment which was already rather lengthy, I daresay) in response to this essay (which is rather lengthy, as well, but very interesting): http://www.tnr.com/doc.mhtml?pt=whKP5U%2BbbaxbirV9FQhQuh%3D%3D The essay essentially parallels the current Democratic aversion to the war on terror and the war in Iraq and (to a much

Ironic Ending to Christmas Eve

2004-12-25T01:42:00.000-05:00

So I think watching The Mission to wrap up Christmas Eve is sort of ironic. Another one of those 'yes, the church really really really sucks' movies. Those that talk about way back two and three hundred years ago (and more) when whites thought they were superior to everyone because they had guns. And the Church, for political expediency, went along with murdering who knows how many (Christian!)

Chronicle of a Wonderful Night

2004-12-24T23:16:00.000-05:00

When you're a kid, you yearn for Christmas to get your presents. Presents light up your life because they're more of something. And more of anything is good. Preferably toys. Books are sometimes nice, but other times scorned, depending on the person. Boys especially tend to dislike clothes as Christmas presents due to the illusion that they replace something that had the potential to be a GI Joe

AAARGHH IE!!!!

2004-12-22T14:07:00.000-05:00

I've read about IE's shitty lack of support for Alpha transparency in PNGs on Windows, but you know what, I haven't needed alpha transparency in PNGs on Windows. Until now. Someone should line up the people who made this development decision and shoot them, one after another. They could sell seats for it, I'm sure plenty of people would be willing to pay money to see them dead. Jesus FLIPPING

Cool Stories

2004-12-22T11:40:00.000-05:00

http://www.pacifict.com/Story/ This is a neat story. It's about how the Graphing Calculator software for Mac OS was written. Namely, after the project was cancelled, the programmer started sneaking into Apple to get it done. See, *that* is cool. That is dedication. And that's loving what you do. He wasn't getting paid or anything, he was living off of savings and doing this full-time. How cool

Bring On the Next HP!!

2004-12-21T11:03:00.000-05:00

Harry Potter 5 comes out the 16th of July... Yay!! The summer is now guaranteed to have at least one bright day in it, even if the rest of it sucks (which it probably won't). And yes, it will only take me a day to rip through it. I haven't taken more for any of the others, and I don't plan on taking longer for this one. Now, on to the anxious wait.

To the Creators of CSS - < Bow >

2004-12-21T01:04:00.000-05:00

Okay, so I just sat down to *finally* try and figure out what the whole hubbub about floats and relative positioning and stuff with CSS is about. Oh my flippin' god CSS rocks soo much more in my book now. I mean, it was already awesome, but this... *dance*. I can still think of a few instances where tables might still be necessary, but seriously... this rocks beyond belief. So, to the creators of

Yep, My Prediction Was Confirmed

2004-12-18T23:08:00.000-05:00

Definitely going to be a boring break. This must mark the first night I'm going to go to bed before midnight because of how utterly, unbelievably bored I am. Disgusting...

This I Can Deal With

2004-12-18T21:41:00.000-05:00

I like Kanye West's "Jesus Walks". First of all, it's got a good beat and all, but this chunk I really liked: I ain't here to argue about his facial features Or here to convert atheists into believers I'm just trying to say the way school need teachers The way Kathy Lee needed Regis That's the way I need Jesus Nice. See, that, I can handle. I may not agree with it, but that's never a

Oh Ya Gotta Love This...

2004-12-18T21:29:00.000-05:00

Diebold to Pay $2.6M Due to Insecure Voting Machines Wow. How wonderful. The election may have been compromised and they pay a whole 2.6 MILLION dollars!! How fucked up is that? What's next? Auctions for who the election goes to?

On Trust and Similarity Around Others

2004-12-18T13:10:00.000-05:00

So trust comes first. Interesting thing about trust, it's a decision you make yourself. Do you trust someone? You have to decide. But really, the most important thing is to trust yourself. Trust yourself to make decisions. Sure, sometimes you make mistakes. But that doesn't mean you shouldn't trust yourself. If you don't trust your own decisions, how can you really trust someone else's? After all

Taken

2004-12-16T17:32:00.000-05:00

Okay, there was something here that shouldn't have been. My older brother is right. It wasn't really something I should have put in a public forum such as this one. But I do refuse to pretend that it didn't happen, because there was something here. I just thought better of showing it to everyone.

Life of the Party

2004-12-16T01:19:00.000-05:00

It's interesting, really, how one is expected to have fun at a party. People think its all about drinking and talking. No one sits down to watch and listen. Maybe because I'm such a quiet person, that's what I do at a party. Watch and listen and think. Yeah, sure, it's loud. Okay, fine, it's weird. But it's plenty of fun. You find out so many things you didn't know. Today I was at a party. The

On Youth

2004-12-14T08:37:00.000-05:00

Youth is not a time of life, it is a state of mind; it is a temper of the will, a quality of the imagination, a vigor of the emotions, a predominance of courage over timidity, of the appetite for adventure over love of ease. Nobody grows old by merely living a number of years; people grow old only by deserting their ideals. Years wrinkle the skin, but to give up enthusiasm wrinkles the soul.

Random Thought

2004-12-12T15:25:00.000-05:00

Some people are simply worth meeting, no matter what may happen afterward. I'm just glad I've met so many of them, and become good friends with even some.

FINISHED!!

2004-12-10T10:29:00.000-05:00

I'm done! So done! Which is good. Except I have no idea how I did on my calc exam. As in, I simply cannot gauge how I did. Which is generally a bad thing. < sigh >. Oh well. I've decided not to worry about it anymore. What happens will happen. I have until Monday before my grades show up and my parents let me know that I'm living at home next semester... But regardless, I've learned my lesson. No

Engrish?

2004-12-08T23:52:00.000-05:00

Lol: http://store1.yimg.com/I/engrish-store_1817_790477

< chuckle >

2004-12-06T16:10:00.000-05:00

That computing for engineers exam was a joke. SO easy. Hehehehe. I just hope I did as well as I think I probably did on it. Otherwise I'll be disappointed. Bah. still, so easy. So so easy. Now, time to study ad infinitum for the chemistry and calculus exams, which I will do poorly on anyway. Ah well. I'll survive. I... think...

Time to Reflect

2004-12-06T01:02:00.000-05:00

I was running through some Xangas today. Just random ones, crazy link-follower that I am. Xanga-to-xanga until I decided to stop. All people I knew, though none of which I knew any better than could be described as compañeros - people I spoke to on occasion but didn't really know. Regardless, I saw some connections, some friendships... The kinds of things I rarely had, I suppose. I wonder if I'm

And So Ends a Day of Complete Ughness...

2004-12-04T22:42:00.000-05:00

Yep, the day is over. I'm about to go for a shower and then νανάκια. Whew. About time, too. Emptied the living room, covered everything but the areas to be painted, but together the thing to paint the ceiling a couple of floors up, painted and painted and painted, ate lunch, and then went through allll of our Chem homework for this semester to determine what I needed to focus on. So now I've got

Painting on the Weekend Before Finals

2004-12-04T13:04:00.000-05:00

What a dumb idea. I've just spent the last couple of hours doing various things, including moving shit out of the living room, putting up and cutting plastic to cover the wooden parts of the wall, and now using one of the painting rollers covered in a cloth to 'dust' the wall. Why me..? Oh, and did I mention that I fear for two of my finals? So obviously I should be wasting my time doing this

Perfect Score, Indeed

2004-12-04T01:05:00.000-05:00

I just saw the movie The Perfect Score... The movie wasn't bad at all - I certainly enjoyed it. But jesus... Scarlett Johansson is just...Wow. That's all, then :). Just wow. Not to mention the fact that the character she played was great in this movie. Of course, there is the whole she-doesn't-see-herself-dating-anyone-under-thirty thing, but hey. All stars have their quirks. Doesn't mean you

Repeat After Me...

2004-12-03T15:16:00.000-05:00

CHEM1310 *IS NOT ORGANIC CHEMISTRY*. I cannot BELIEVE that we're having the shit he taught us about organic chem on our final. It's not even in the curriculum. Sure, it was mildly interesting, but if I want to learn organic chem, I WILL TAKE THE ORGANIC CHEM COURSE. Jesus... Now I have to study that on top of everything else, as if there wasn't enough I didn't understand. Not to mention the fact

Citizenship Ceremonies Are... Good?

2004-12-03T15:14:00.000-05:00

It's funny, I went to see my mother's citizenship ceremony thingie today. These things are supposed to make you feel good about becoming a US citizen and stuff. Instead it just made me more apprehensive and uneasy about it. I need to see if I can just hang on to my green card and hold off on the US passport for now... If I ever become a US Citizen, I'd like it to be of my own volition and after

Sinfest!!

2004-12-02T01:41:00.000-05:00

Awesome Sinfest

Stitches!

2004-11-30T19:27:00.000-05:00

"Well... well, I don't know whether you know what -- what stitches are?" "It sounds as though you've been trying to sew your skin back together," said Mrs. Weasley with a snort of mirthless laughter, "but even you, Arthur, wouldn't be that stupid --" "I fancy a cup of tea too," said Harry, jumping to his feet. Hermione, Ron, and Ginny almost sprinted to the door with him. As it swung closed

Sixth Circle It Is

2004-11-30T18:46:00.000-05:00

I saw this elsewhere and figured, what the hell: The Dante's Inferno Test has banished you to the Sixth Level of Hell - The City of Dis!Here is how you matched up against all the levels:LevelScorePurgatory (Repenting Believers)Very LowLevel 1 - Limbo (Virtuous Non-Believers)HighLevel 2 (Lustful)HighLevel 3 (Gluttonous)LowLevel 4 (Prodigal and Avaricious)LowLevel 5 (Wrathful and Gloomy)

The Week of Hell? So It Seems...

2004-11-30T15:14:00.000-05:00

This officially marks the second shitty day of this week. But this isn't a 'I'm feeling like crap. Aww.' shitty. Yesterday was nice. Calculus we did eigenvalues and eigenvectors, and I pretty much got it. Then Chemistry we did review, which is always good and reasonably effortless. Then CS David Smith told us about some really cool stuff he did back twenty years ago with programming and some

Friends... Not Relationships...

2004-11-28T18:48:00.000-05:00

It's funny, it finally came to me a few days ago. Earlier I thought what I was really missing was a relationship. But that's really not it. What I'm missing is friends. I have three good friends that I can think of. Really good friends, to whom I can talk about just about anything. And that's fine. But how many friends do I have overall? Four? Five? Not enough, that's for certain. The downside of

Eddie Izzard Rocks SOOOOO Much!!!

2004-11-26T01:19:00.000-05:00

I just finished watching Definite Article, and I have confirmed that Eddie Izzard is abso-fucking-lutely amazing. So funny... I laughed myself hoarse. I've laughed myself hoarse with two things before this, pretty much - The Dinner Game (Le Dinner des Cons, for those who saw it in French) and Dress to Kill (again, courtesy of Eddie Izzard). The man can do comedy. So well. Yay :). Great end to an

Thanks Giving!

2004-11-25T09:16:00.000-05:00

So this is the day we're supposed to give thanks for stuff. So I need to thank my friends for being my friends, and my new friends for becoming my friends. One can never have enough friends. Or food. But that's beside the point. As for who this applies to - you should know. If you don't, I've done something horribly wrong, and I'm sorry.

Clinton Leads the New Wave of Socialism

2004-11-24T15:48:00.000-05:00

Oh, I just read the funniest sentence in my life: "The international socialist movement, led by Bill Clinton, British Prime Minister Tony Blair, and German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, is attempting to revive the disastrous policy of war socialism with which the current century began." My, I needed that laugh. People who think Clinton was socialist are so cute and funny (and supremely idiotic,

Fortune Time!!

2004-11-24T11:05:00.000-05:00

And today's round of fortune quotes: Love is an ideal thing, marriage a real thing; a confusion of the real with the ideal never goes unpunished. -- Goethe There are more dead people than living, and their numbers are increasing. -- Eugene Ionesco Q: What's the difference between the 1950's and the 1980's? A: In the 80's, a man walks into a drugstore and states

I Wuv My Babylon 5

2004-11-23T22:24:00.000-05:00

Jeesus... As I watch more and more Babylon 5, it just gets BETTER!! It's truly impressive how this series just keeps building and building and building... and I'm not even through the first half of the second season yet!!

Hate from Baby Jesus?

2004-11-23T17:01:00.000-05:00

Assuming rain is baby Jesus's tears, I think I make baby Jesus cry. I haven't been able to have a walk under no rain since yesterday morning... I guess I've done something recently that makes it so baby Jesus cries every time His Holiness sees me. Sucky, I think. Oh, also, I forgot. OMGWTFIHATERAINSOMUCH!!!!!

JFK Reloaded

2004-11-23T15:14:00.000-05:00

Yeah, so some company in the UK made a game where you play Lee Harvey Oswald and attempt to assassinate JFK in a fashion as close as possible to actual events. Needless to say, US reaciton has been less than kind. I found a neat little comment on that reaction: "And it’s quite funny what winds them up. You’d think that starving half the planet to death and destabilising much of the world in

Aaahhhh.......

2004-11-23T13:24:00.000-05:00

Finally, I have Internet back! The symptoms of withdrawal are quickly disappearing as the drug returns :p. Okay, I'm kidding, I wasn't *actually* addicted. Umm... right. Hi. Can I help you?

The Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy

2004-11-20T16:25:00.000-05:00

Trailer is absolutely amazing. So I went to see National Treasure today. It was a fun movie, with a reasonably well-done DaVinci Code-esque flair for clues leading to something. But you know what, what really paid the fee happened ten minutes before the movie even came on. It was the trailer for The Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy. I wasn't expecting the trailer for that to be even remotely

US Citizenship... wtf?????

2004-11-18T10:56:00.000-05:00

So I'm a US citizen as of this morning. Wtf? Apparently, my dad took the oath this morning. I knew nothing of this until today. Yes, I knew nothing of this yearlong process until today. And today I find out I'm a US citizen. This is really weird... A couple of weeks ago, my parents sat down and asked me whether I would ever become a US citizen. I commented that, at least in the near future, I

Process for Escaping Smoking

2004-11-17T11:38:00.000-05:00

Don't smoke the next cigarette. Repeat.

Life's Problems

2004-11-17T11:37:00.000-05:00

Do not try to solve all life's problems at once -- learn to dread each day as it comes. -- Donald Kaul As usual, fortune can be thanked for this spectacular quote...

MathType Upgrade? Fuck no...

2004-11-16T18:01:00.000-05:00

The idiotic equation editor in Microsoft's Office offers to tell you more about MathType, a powerful upgrade to Equation Editor. It bothers you with this every session the second time you run the editor. It has a 'Yes' button, a 'No' button, and a 'Don't remind me again' (or something like that) checkbox. Instead, I believe that, from a usability perspective, there should be a 'Yes' button, a '

Ok, So Don't Die

2004-11-16T13:29:00.000-05:00

I posted and two minutes later, lo and behold, the guy shows up... Complain to blogger and everything gets fixed..? :D

Die Sears...

2004-11-16T13:18:00.000-05:00

So I got up at 8 this morning to wait for some guy from Sears to come and finally fix our fscking washing machine. The time slot they gave us was very precise - 8 through fucking 12. So the overall result is, I've been sitting here all morning, not taking a shower so that I don't miss the door, and NOBODY SHOWED UP. Needless to say, I'm rather upset. Either the guy shows up in the next half hour

Sorry Everybody and Apologies Accepted

2004-11-16T13:16:00.000-05:00

This is the funniest pair of sites I've seen in a while: Sorry Everybody Apologies Accepted Hehehe. That, along with the T-Shirts from Hell, makes my week.

Wikipedia

2004-11-16T11:37:00.000-05:00

A former editor of Encyclopedia Britannica did an article on wikipedia (Slashdot Article). The problem is, he missed the *point* of wikipedia entirely. His argument is that Wikipedia cannot be good enough, namely because both people who are not knowledgeable and those who are can edit the entries. The result, as exemplified by the entry for Alexander Hamilton, was that the entry had gone from

Middle East Again

2004-11-15T01:29:00.000-05:00

My dad told a fascinating story today. Apparently, several years back, he saw a TV show where they were interviewing both Arafat and Rabin. And apparently, the question came up about what to do with Jerusalem. Arafat and Rabin basically said that they would be willing to share Jerusalem, but neither wanted it to be split in half or go completely to the other side. What a solution. Did it ever

At A Loss for Words

2004-11-14T02:00:00.000-05:00

Or at a loss for a voice, anyway. One thing you don't want to do at a party is lose your voice. As I found out today. Because it happened to me. You see, I went, with my older brother, of course, to the closing night party for Picasso. Problem is, about a fifth of the way through, I for some reason randomly lost my voice. There's a problem with parties when you can't talk - that parties are all

The Religion Virus?

2004-11-13T13:41:00.000-05:00

I saw an amusing article on kuro5hin comparing religion to a virus (and explaining the analogy, of course). It's quite an interesting article, rather well-written, and certainly has the funny factor. Kind of reminds me of Smith's speech in The Matrix (then again, that was probably my least favorite part of the movie :p). Coding Viruses for the Mind

Babylon 5 Rocks!

2004-11-13T01:01:00.000-05:00

So much!! I just finished seeing Babylon 5 - In the Beginning, which basically explains what happened when the humans and Minbari first met. So wonderful.... Babylon 5 is by far the best series that I have ever seen (not the best sci-fi series, note carefully, the best series, period). This is probably because of the fact that the story of Babylon 5 was written before the series even started.

Ouch

2004-11-12T23:14:00.000-05:00

Today really sucked... Classes weren't bad (except for the fact that my chem teacher decided that since we'd finished earlier than planned, instead of reviewing we would keep going), but then after classes... First of all, I came home, ate some dinner, and then went out and walked for an hour. Then I got home again, watched the tail end of Angel and all of Charmed. And then got smacked with this

Today's LOL Factor

2004-11-12T01:52:00.000-05:00

http://www.tshirthell.com/hell.shtml Yay :) Particularly amusing: http://www.tshirthell.com/store/product.php?productid=318 http://www.tshirthell.com/store/product.php?productid=112 http://www.tshirthell.com/store/product.php?productid=335

Arafat Dies

2004-11-11T01:14:00.000-05:00

ABC News: Palestinian Leader Arafat Dies at 75 Well, Arafat is dead. He has been leading the Palestinians for a very long time. Now we'll see whether all that bullshit about his being an obstacle to peace was true (you can tell what I think). He was responsible, in part, for the Oslo Peace Accords. I doubt I need to remind everyone that the person who was assassinated for that achievement in

< sigh >

2004-11-10T15:25:00.000-05:00

Well, it is over now. The chemistry exam has come and gone. And I'm happy to say that this time, I have no illusions - I am 100% sure I failed. Certainly an improvement. At least I won't be disappointed :). Now, to hope I can recover by the time finals come around... (doubtful)

Republicans Are Funny, Daddy

2004-11-09T20:42:00.000-05:00

http://www.humaneventsonline.com/article.php?id=5652 Where do I even start? This is too priceless to comprehend. This is a conservative nutso ranting about how the blue states (the ones who consistently go Democrat) should be kicked out of the Union! That's right, *kicked out* by the mighty, self-righteous conservatives. But hold on, it gets better. Due to the criteria, the list of states to

Firefox 1.0 is out!!!

2004-11-09T10:11:00.000-05:00

This is it!! Finally, Mozilla Firefox has hit 1.0!! Let the browser wars begin once more. Firefox is a free replacement for Internet Exploder, with such built-in features as popup blocking, tabbed browsing (opening multiple pages in a single window), and Find-As-You-Type (hit ' to search for links in a page as you type, hit / to search for any text in a page as you type). Go download it, I

Foxtrot and the Linux Kernel

2004-11-08T15:37:00.000-05:00

Foxtrot and the Linux Kernel Lol.

Already?

2004-11-08T14:24:00.000-05:00

Already the Bush administration is on their way to pulling out of another treaty. http://www.guardian.co.uk/space/article/0,14493,1345460,00.html Yes, militariization of space, how wonderful. Not to mention the fact that the US is offering its allies the protection of the weapons they are planning on putting up in exchange for help. What a wonderful idea - lock them in and, if they ever decide

Why Do People Like This Exist?

2004-11-08T10:48:00.000-05:00

"If your gay, you are seriously missing out on the love of a life time partner that will complete you and change you for the better. I know there are bad relationships and horrible things that happen to people that sometimes make you want to abandon the other sex completely but I also know that somewhere there is someone that would complete you in a way that can't happen with someone that is

British Newspapers

2004-11-08T10:25:00.000-05:00

So It Begins?

2004-11-08T01:41:00.000-05:00

http://the.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/2004/Nov/06/ln/ln10p.html Someone is getting recalled to the Army who has already fulfilled his contractual obligation. The sound of an impending draft is growing ever more worrisome....

Open Source Politics

2004-11-07T22:35:00.000-05:00

Fascinating article I caught off of slashdot. http://www.thenation.com/docprint.mhtml?i=20041122&s=sifry Very very interesting, highly recommended. It is a bit long, however, so make sure you have about ten minutes when you sit down to read it. This is also an excellent site: http://www.dailykos.com/ It's a blog, essentially, where a lot of really good political discussion happens. Interesting

Wow, GA

2004-11-07T20:08:00.000-05:00

Obviously, there are not only a few sane liberals in Georgia, but also a few insane ones. http://washingtontimes.com/upi-breaking/20041107-054014-5053r.htm Also amusing on that page was something I noticed:

Lincoln...

2004-11-07T11:14:00.000-05:00

Nov. 6, 1860 - U.S. presidential election, 1860: Abraham Lincoln is elected as the 16th President of the United States, the first Republican to hold that office. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/November_6 Lincoln couldn't possibly have predicted the shit that's happening now....

Oh No 2

2004-11-07T02:51:00.000-05:00

http://observer.guardian.co.uk/focus/story/0,6903,1345402,00.html This is looking worse by the day. A person who voted Republican because he's an evangelical Christian, even while he's been fucked over by the economy during Bush's presidency. Now there's a problem. And part of the problem is that there isn't a solution to the problem aside from appealing to religious voters. We need a Deus Ex

Campanitas - Mis Llamitas

2004-11-07T02:11:00.000-05:00

I finally managed to get ahold of one of the most spectacular guitar-like instrument pieces I've ever heard. This is, I believe, a Charango and a Tiple, but I can't say for sure. http://theoldquarter.dyndns.org/files/campanitas.mp3 If you like it, you should buy the whole Inti Illimani album because it's awesome. It's called Imaginacion. But yeah, that is one great piece. The other amazing piece

Odd Meetings, Relay Races, and Quotes

2004-11-07T01:49:00.000-05:00

Wow, so John and I ran into some kid who was high. We were just talking and this kid randomly walks up to us and starts talking. I'm pretty sure my 'wtf?' face was on quite firmly, but he definitely wasn't seeing it. He informed us that he was intoxicated (I was tempted to go 'really? no shit! I couldn't tell...'). Then he talked to us for a few minutes (didn't really actually convey much of

More?!?!?

2004-11-05T15:52:00.000-05:00

It appears that the Texans are trying to make up for not being the dumbest in the country anymore, and are now changing Health book wording to specify marriage as between a man and a woman. http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=229925 Nice.

The Perfect Concession Speech

2004-11-04T21:13:00.000-05:00

Read it, folks. Pretty amazing. 'What must I do?' http://www.felbers.net/mt/archives/000945.html

Anonymous Comments

2004-11-04T20:05:00.000-05:00

Oh, by the way, I enabled anonymous comments a few weeks back, so you don't need a Blogger account to comment. So.. yeah, go for it or whatever.

Why?

2004-11-04T13:44:00.000-05:00

Why is it that all the crap has to be concentrated in this week? Long (and unfinished) lab report, crap lab, bush wins the election, I find out I failed my calculus exam, I do badly on this week's quiz... It just can't get any < rain starts pouring on my head > Worse. You were about to say worse, weren't you? The worst part is that it's not even over this week - next week is the next chemistry