Today I went to the KAUST beach. I went into the water wearing my shoes to protect my feet from the sharp coral reef I was walking on. The water is crazy salty, actually the saltiest place in the global ocean system. You can float with your shoulders exposed. I also flew a kite and got a bit sunburned. I would have taken pictures, but no cameras allowed, so there is a hand drawing below that I hope doesn’t offend anybody.
The question you should be asking yourself about the picture: am I naked, in a head-to-toe wool bathing suit, or somewhere inbetween. Doesn’t this apply to all stick figures?
The 200th South Park was so classy, although I think next week might be Terrance and Philip (in keeping with this episode’s theme of repeating themes) instead of a picture of the prophet Muhammad, blessings and peace be upon him. My favorite line was Jesus saying “Buddha, stop doing coke when the kids are around.” The episode is about how modern censorship will allow any religious figure to do any outrageously non-moral action except the prophet Muhammad, blessings and peace be upon him, only because people are afraid of being blown up. The episode featured a stick-figure drawing of the prophet Muhammad, blessings and peace be upon him, in addition to him mumbling from the back of a U-Haul truck (a compromise reached by the characters).
Things were different before 2005. The Danish embassy in Damascus was burned when cartoon images of the prophet Muhammad, blessings and peace be upon him, appeared in the Danish paper Jyllands-Posten in 2005. Yes, a nation allowed its citizens to destroy an embassy over a cartoon. South Park actually did have the prophet Muhammad, blessings and peace be upon him, in an episode before (s05e04) as part of the “Super Best Friends”, a team of the founders of all religions that fight evil together. It turns out that a Frevert (not related to me) was involved in the story. Louise Frevert was a conservative member of Danish Parliment in addition to a lesbian porn star that defended the cartoons. This is a hugely contentious issue between an society of intolerance and one that values free speech.
A recent poll found that Ron Paul is the best Republican to go up against Obama in 2012 (if the election were held today). This seems as crazy as Dennis Kucinich being the president, but it’s understandable because somebody like me could, in theory, vote for Paul. I feel that it will be Pawlenty and Romney. Paul will never have the support of the money of the party. The modern Tea Party is not the colonial Tea Party.
This was the introduction to a speech given in the film Up In The Air before someone was fired. Technically it’s more like I was never hired. It feels strange that I am kinda okay with it. This video has helped me get through it.
Denial – Early March was filled with the notion that hopefully somebody they accepted turns them down so I could take their place (kinda spiteful). I held onto hope until the very end with the map of Boulder’s pearl street placed prominently in my living room. Semper Fi Anger – around the 20th I started to question the system. Who are they to deny me? My application does not reflect my true abilities. Society is a sham. Why did other people apply for my future. If (when) I am a billionaire I will donate to them on the condition they name the building Turd Blossom Hall. Bargaining - around the 24th I started to regret that I had aimed for PhD when I could have just tried for a Masters. Maybe I could plead with them just to give me a foothold. Do they need a janitor? Depression – the week afterwards I chilled out with cats debating how much of a sham my life was. Didn’t feel like going on spring break. Squandered gifts and what not. This description may be a bit melodramatic. Acceptance - Boulder thankfully informed me quickly once they knew. Afterwards it was relieving. Not knowing is far worse. It sucked to watch an alternative future fade away like Marty McFly from his family photo in Back to the Future. I got into a better mood and spent a day cleaning my apartment, but next day a pipe burst in the ceiling in a okay metaphor that caused me to laugh uncontrollably. Thankfully I get out of this Kingdom by June 1st for an internship in Minneapolis for the summer that will hopefully recharge my batteries!
I finally found out that the University of Colorado at Boulder “didn’t recommend” me. Arizona told me a few days ago. I don’t hold out hope for Florida, nor did I want to live in Orlando. At least it took them three months to say no.
ASUS is a brand you may never have heard of, but they are a manufacturers manufacturer. Dell, Sony, and HP will subcontract them to build computers because thats what they do – so you easily could already have one. They also have the best hardware reliability of any maker. They have horrible advertising and a naming scheme almost as bad as Sony – which is good because it means engineers run the company. Thankfully they are not Engineers Gone Wild like at Sony because ASUS understands customers like when they invented the netbook. Netbooks are tiny laptops that use Intel’s low-end Atom processors that were originally designed for 3rd world laptops. I love these things, I own three atom processors (two netbooks one nettop) and bought my mom a netbook for Christmas. But they only go so far, and aren’t a great only computer. ASUS’s pronounciation is like Dr. Seuss.
This is the computer for everybody which comes in two flavors: UL30A ($600) and UL30Vt ($750). The “Vt” has better graphics that are switchable. It looks like a macbook, but is not overpriced like a MacBook. Apple doesn’t sell anything they don’t make a 30% markup on. Apple is the best designed and uses the best components, but you pay a hefty premium for its diminishing returns.
They have the same keyboard, screen size and resolution, similar multi-touch track pads, same wifi, bluetooth, USB, webcam, ethernet, and a relatively same look. The MacBook Pro does have a better screen as far as the reviews I have read. The UL30 comes with a 500 GB hard drive (add $200 to MacBook price), 4 GB of RAM (add $100 to MacBook), and can have much better graphics for $150 (the UL30Vt option). The UL30 line does not come with a CD/DVD drive. I find them useless today as floppy drives, slim external CD/DVD drives cost under $30, and it saves extra space/weight. If you want a CD/DVD drive, buy from the UL80 line that is the same as the UL30, but has drives onboard. The MacBook Pro has Firewire 800 port – which almost nobody uses. The MacBook Pro uses display port (you buy adapters to use VGA, DVI, HDMI video outs) versus the UL30 which has VGA and HDMI on the side.
To me the choice is simple. When I go back to the US this summer I plan on picking up an ASUS UL30Vt in silver (also comes in black). I am willing to live with a slightly lesser screen and processor to save half the cost. The bonus battery life and lower weight is worth it. With the switchable graphics I can use the simple Intel X4500MHD for daily tasks and switch over to the Nvidia G 210M to play the lastest games. The improvements that came with Windows 7 makes the OS wars a trivial battle. MacBooks do have the magnetic power jack, but the UL30 doesn’t need to be plugged in as often. The MacBook Pro has a slightly smaller maximum thickness, but the UL30 has a tapered edge. It comes down to preference between these two great machines. We should spend more using technology than obsessing over tiny differences. The ASUS UL series also comes in 12-inch and 15-inch laptops, but I think 13-inch is the ideal size. What a time to be alive!
In neighboring Yemen a 13-year-old girl was married to a 23-year-old man (source). She was raped to death by him. Her mother had tried to persuade the girl to have sex with her elderly husband so as not to shame the family. The doctors refused to give her a tranquilizer to prevent her from resisting, but he did acquire viagra-like pills. In Yemen a quarter of all girls are married by the age of 15.
Haraam (Islamic NON-kosher) has some bad news as revealed through the prophet Colbert on The Colbert Report. Cigarettes use swine blood in the filters and soda pop has alcohol in it. I don’t know where the law comes down on smoking pork or trace amounts of alcohol (0.1-0.5%). We just need to do what Colbert did: have Jeff Goldblum go around circumcising cigarettes by cutting off the filter. You need to drink at least a 2-liter to get the equivalent of one beer. Thanks to a commenter who noted I misused Haraam(forbidden) as Halaal (like Kosher)!
The University of Minnesota’s new football stadium, the TCF Bank Stadium, is again debating offering alcohol for sale in the stadium. The problem is they only want to sell it to the premium boxes and not to the masses in the stands. It is elitist. Currently there is an all-or-nothing law that it either be sold to everyone or nobody. The comments on this story are great: “can’t you go three hours without a drink”, “great message we are sending to our kids”, and “booze = money”.
Three hours without a drink is nothing at 10am on a Tuesday at work, during a game it is such a different situation. I can easily go three hours without fireworks, but not at dusk on the 4th of July. This is a matter of rich potential donors wanting to do what almost everybody else at the game wants to do. To overcome this students will solve the problem by drinking enough just before the game to cover themselves for three hours if they are too incompetent to sneak something into the game – both safe choices. Can the state in this budget situation really deny a source of income?
My modest proposal is to have the U provide 2% beer on campus (5% is normal). If anything, they should stick with all-or-nothing because anything else is unfair.
Humanity when viewed a few steps back is shaping up to be the latest mass extinction. From the mammoths of North America that happened to disappear the same time Native Americans showed up to the dodos that didn’t flinch one bit as they were slaughtered by humans and their nests preyed on by dogs, rats, and pigs. It is a tragedy because of all the millions of years of painstaking genetic research that is being thrown away as these unique genetic branches are burned for the firewood of convenience.
How is it that tiny scraps of cobbled together DNA can cause diseases that can bring down otherwise healthy people? It is the same reason why people don’t live forever and why we get cancer. It is the best strategy to be naturally selected. A species will go extinct from stagnation if there isn’t an age limit. Cancer can be thought of as attempted evolution. Viruses are like peddler of genes that travel around offering passively to exchange genes between species as a way of cheating the process of having to come up with genes on your own. So if cats evolve a new protein that carries oxygen through the blood better some virus may come along and pick up the gene and transfer it to dogs who get the gene in exchange for being sick. So it can be a huge advantage to be a little susceptible to the occasional virus. Undoubtedly bacteria do this too and both charge a hefty cost for the transactions.
At least 25 coal miner are dead in an accident in a West Virginia coal mine. Most people don’t care because they are not coal miners. What people do care about is building nuclear power plants. Heaven forbid they be exposed to radiation from something other than granite counter tops. Granite’s origin in the kitchen come from some slabs being so radioactive that they can keep food warm. The important thing is that people would rather hear about a few coal miners dying than use something that could potentially harm them. Energy is not free – one of the few things that is absolutely conserved.
The United States of America has 27% of the world’s coal reserves. We are the Saudi Arabia of coal. We could use electric cars and live off coal at current energy rates for a few hundred years. We also have 200 years of thorium nuclear fuel sitting in drums in the desert already processed if we ever wanted to use it. It comes down to a matter of choice:
Status quo: spend tons of money to maintain relatively unsafe nuclear reactors that use old technology and pollute a ton with coal
spend tons of money to replace current energy grid with modern nuclear reactors and pollute a lot less
My theory on why we don’t switch over more is that it would destroy most energy sector jobs, we might need to invade Bolivia for the lithium to make batteries, we don’t want the rest of the world use (have) nuclear technology, and it would require work. Hopefully Obama can stand up to tree-hugger and cut the cord on coal. West Virginia is too beautiful to mine.
The last century was a great success for egalitarianism. Since the 1920 selection of soon-to-be president Warren G. Harding in a smoke filled room based largely on a picture of him the world has moved strongly towards a society where everybody has a chance to make whatever life they choose. Modern progressive (liberal) philosophy has banned smoking in these once powerful smoke-filled rooms. Family connections no longer completely run how business is done. Individual merit has never had such importance. Nurture over nature. Everything has unintended consequences. Now that the boss no longer hires his son-in-law to trade Credit Default Swaps (a cause of the current recession) he hires some random guy with a great resume. The problem is that this new guy doesn’t care about the company, he cares about his paycheck and bonus based on how much he earned on paper that quarter – not long-term viability. Everybody was in it for a quick buck. We had no interest in ensuring slow and sustainable growth of a company we probably wouldn’t be working for in five years. It is a gap in morality that I hope spans between the greatest generation (World War II) to people like me in what I guess could be the Internet generation. The change I believe in encapsulates the revolutionary attitude of Obamanians and Ron Paulites that strive for iPhone elegance in the society around us. We embody the same impetus for meanings and 1968 hippies, we just want things to be more practical than the replace money with hugs hippies of parents/grandparents generation. We wonder why our 1040 tax form doesn’t have a Web 2.0 interface and why cabinet secretaries aren’t picked on American Idol, for better or worse.
The exponential rate of change in humanity is causing our lives to change faster than it ever has before. The news stories of the last decade that will be remembered best in the future: water found on Mars and the Moon.
Everything has unintended consequences. Now that the boss no longer hires his son-in-law to trade Credit Default Swaps (a cause of the current recession) he hires some random guy with a great resume. The problem is that this new guy doesn’t care about the company, he cares about his paycheck and bonus based on how much he earned on paper that quarter – not long-term viability. Everybody was in it for a quick buck. We had no interest in ensuring slow and sustainable growth of a company we probably wouldn’t be working for in five years. It is a gap in morality that I hope spans between the greatest generation (World War II) to people like me in what I guess could be the Internet generation. The change I believe in encapsulates the revolutionary attitude of Obamanians and Ron Paulites that strive for iPhone elegance in the society around us. We embody the same impetus for meanings and 1968 hippies, we just want things to be more practical than the replace money with hugs hippies of parents/grandparents generation. We wonder why our 1040 tax form doesn’t have a Web 2.0 interface and why cabinet secretaries aren’t picked on American Idol, for better or worse.