Thursday, March 30, 2006

Thermodynamics

A professor of mine, Dr. Cimbala, has an interesting essay on his webpage about the existence of God and thermodynamics. Although a thermodynamics and fluid mechanics professor at Penn State, he's a fundamentalist Christian who believes that Genesis is the literal truth. Funny thing is that in college, he was an atheist. Well here's the essay:
Does the Second Law of Thermodynamics Prove the Existence of God?

John M. Cimbala
Professor of Mechanical Engineering
The Pennsylvania State University


In this short article, I summarize my ideas about the second law of thermodynamics, and why I believe it points to a creator God.

This article also appears in the book In Six Days - Why Fifty Scientists Choose to Believe in Creation, edited by John F. Ashton, and published by Master Books, Green Forest, AR. Copyright 2000 by John F. Ashton. It is available on-line from Answers in Genesis.

A formal definition of the second law of thermodynamics is "In any closed system, a process proceeds in a direction such that the unavailable energy (the entropy) increases." In other words, in any closed system, the amount of disorder always increases with time. Things progress naturally from order to disorder, or from an available energy state to one where energy is more unavailable. A good example: a hot cup of coffee cools off in an insulated room. The total amount energy in the room remains the same (which satisfies the first law of thermodynamics). Energy is not lost, it is simply transferred (in the form of heat) from the hot coffee to the cool air, warming up the air slightly. When the coffee is hot, there is available energy because of the temperature difference between the coffee and the air. As the coffee cools down, the available energy is slowly turned to unavailable energy. At last, when the coffee is room temperature, there is no temperature difference between the coffee and the air, i.e. the energy is all in an unavailable state. The closed system (consisting of the room and the coffee) has suffered what is technically called a "heat death." The system is "dead" because no further work can be done since there is no more available energy. The second law says that the reverse cannot happen! Room temperature coffee will not get hot all by itself, because this would require turning unavailable energy into available energy.

Now consider the entire universe as one giant closed system. Stars are hot, just like the cup of coffee, and are cooling down, losing energy into space. The hot stars in cooler space represent a state of available energy, just like the hot coffee in the room. However, the second law of thermodynamics requires that this available energy is constantly changing to unavailable energy. In another analogy, the entire universe is winding down like a giant wind-up clock, ticking down and losing available energy. Since energy is continually changing from available to unavailable energy, someone had to give it available energy in the beginning! (I.e. someone had to wind up the clock of the universe at the beginning.) Who or what could have produced energy in an available state in the first place? Only someone or something not bound by the second law of thermodynamics. Only the creator of the second law of thermodynamics could violate the second law of thermodynamics, and create energy in a state of availability in the first place.

As time goes forward (assuming things continue as they are), the available energy in the universe will eventually turn into unavailable energy. At this point, the universe will be said to have suffered a heat death, just like the coffee in the room. The present universe, as we know it, cannot last forever. Furthermore, imagine going backwards in time. Since the energy of the universe is constantly changing from a state of availability to one of less availability, the further back in time one goes, the more available the energy of the universe. Using the clock analogy again, the further back in time, the more wound up the clock. Far enough back in time, the clock was completely wound up. The universe therefore cannot be infinitely old. One can only conclude that the universe had a beginning, and that beginning had to have been caused by someone or something operating outside of the known laws of thermodynamics.

Is this scientific proof for the existence of a Creator God? I think so. Evolutionary theories of the universe cannot counteract the above arguments for the existence of God. Evidence such as this helped to convince me to believe in God, and to accept His plan of salvation through His son Jesus Christ. For further detailes about my conversion to Christianity, I have written a short testimony.
That's an interesting take even though I don't support it. But dammit Dr. Cimbala, you are one of the elite science based professors in the country with numerous papers and books out on the topic of fluid flow and thermodynamics. How can you abandon the science based sect that defends the big bang theory?

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Wednesday, March 29, 2006

WHAT THE FUCK!!!!!

from cnn.com:

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) -- For spring break, some college students set out for sun-drenched beaches or cheap European cities. Skyler Bartels headed for the local Wal-Mart.

Bartels, 20, an aspiring writer and Drake University sophomore, thought he'd spend a week in a Wal-Mart as a test of endurance, using it as the premise for a magazine article. His college adviser liked the idea.

"I just intuitively thought, 'This is brilliant!"' said Carol Spaulding-Kruse, an associate professor of English. "I wasn't quite sure why, but it just sounded like a really good idea."

For 41 hours, Bartels wandered the aisles of a Wal-Mart Supercenter in Windsor Heights that's open 24 hours a day. He checked out shoppers, read magazines, watched movies on the DVD display and played video games.

He bought meals at the in-store Subway sandwich shop, but was able to catch only brief naps in a restroom stall or on lawn chairs in the garden department.

Tiring to the point of hallucinating, Bartels said he decided to go home before he was thrown out.

He considered the project a failure.

Then, The Des Moines Register, which had been contacted by Spaulding-Kruse, called to ask him about the experience. Once the story ran, TV networks began calling.

He also talked with a book agent, has been contacted by New Line Cinema about a movie concept and did a radio interview with National Public Radio.

Bartels told The Associated Press he has decided the stunt wasn't such a failure after all.

"I'm incredibly happy with the press coverage," he said. "It would be kind of silly not to accept it with open arms."


WHAT THE FUCK!!! Some hippie wannabe writer comes up with a stupid idea, follows through with said stupid idea, and he gets a book deal and a movie deal!!!! He didn't do anything worthy of all this. If he went in there with the express purpose of writing a piece of journalism on America's rampant consumerism or maybe an anti-Walmart piece or even just to chronicle his story, then at least I could give him some credit, but he didn't do anything. He wanted to write a magazine article about a "test of endurance"? Go run a fucking marathon then. He just walked around and played video games. He didn't interview anybody. He didn't take notes. There is not one iota of journalistic purpose or literary merit to his actions, all he did was try to get a quirky news story written about him and in our stupid culture, he knew he would get his fifteen minutes out of it and it turned into a possible career THAT I WANT!!!!! Now this no-talent ass-clown is being asked by New Line cinema to come up with a movie concept?! I have movie concepts and show ideas and book ideas coming out of my ass on a daily basis which I guarantee have a lot more substance than this jackass!! Am I bitter? You bet your ass I am. This guy could be a genius or a fraud, but I'm putting my money on the lattter.



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Tuesday, March 28, 2006

TV Themes

I'm a big fan of the show "The Shield" on FX which is basically a show about a group of cops that steal from criminals and occassionally commit crimes themselves to cover their ass or close a case. This show has been on for 5 whole seasons now and not until the 5th season did they start to pay morally and criminally for their actions. Should I feel bad that this is, in my opinion, my least favorite of all the seasons?

Our culture now loves games like GTA 1 through GTA Cleveland (or whatever they have out now). We watch movies that glorify violence and crime. The Sopranos has been one of the most popular non-network shows. Our culture glorifies crime and illegality plain and simple. My point is, in stories like The Shield, Sopranos, or the upcoming Theif (on FX tonight) why is it that the "good guy" always has to win? People watch hours of these shows and become connected to the characters only to see them ultimately lose in the end. I'll continue with the Shield since it just rapped it's 5th season. Basically, IAD brought a huge case against the main characters in the show led by actor Forrest Whittaker (IAD prick) who I now vehemently hate. The whole season involved the protagonists being hounded by IAD and totally ruined the feel of the show for me. So, I go on message boards and see opinions split 50/50. Some people can't believe they have a show where cops murder people and steal etc; whereas, other people are upset like me that the good guy motif always wins in the end. If they all get arrested and thrown in jail at the end, what was the point of the show? If I want to watch that moral shit I'll just go out and buy a freaking Care Bear movie. I am an adult and I can decide if I want to rob a drug dealer or not, and I don't think it makes me any less a moral person to enjoy watching other FICTIONAL people do that.

Look at movies. Ocean's 11 was amazing because the "bad guys" got away with it by just being plain smarter than their opponent. Hollywood can't have this so they make that trash rag that was Ocean's 12 to make the thieves at least give back what they owed so everything is fair and square. Why make me empathize with a character if you are constantly going to make them lose in the end. I watched the movie "The Jackle" with Bruce Willis and Richard Gere and I felt like we were suppossed to root for Bruce Willis only to have that pussy Richard Gere win out in the end.

The show Thief starts tonight staring Andre Braugher (the black guy from Law and Order) and I'm debating watching that. I'll find the show ultimately entertaining while they are robbing banks etc. but if I wanted to watch what will happen in the latter seasons, I can just go buy the god damn OZ dvd's.

Friday, March 24, 2006

Not a car or computer entry

When did this blog become PC magazine meets Motortrend? Time for someone to sass this thing up with some good old sarcastic suicide diatribes, and who better to do that then your favorite Depressed Writer (TM). Here are some ramblings:

FUCK YOU JJ clap, clap, clap clap clap......FUCK YOU JJ clap, clap, clap clap clap
Cry JJ Redick! Can I taste your tears? The tears of infinite sadness! I was in heaven watching Duke choke on a Louisiana sized cock last night. JJ Redick will NOT be a good NBA player. See what happened when he faced a stiff defense? Imagine Tayshaun Prince or Ron Artest or Ben Wallace D-ing up on him. JJ still can't create his own shot and relies on screens and picks and when was the last time you ever saw an effective screen or pick in the NBA outside of the Detroit Pistons? The NBA is nothing but one-on-one with eight other guys standing around. Even if the college game translated into the NBA, he wouldn't thrive. Fuck you JJ and don't let the door hit your ass on the way out!

So I was at the Crowbar last night and the scariest thing I've ever seen was a balding 50 year old man dancing and grabbing the ass of a 21 year old girl. It was just freaky. I was weirded out completely. The worst thing was that this is a girl I was kinda interested in and she'd rather dance with a man who probably uses Depends and reminds me of Costanza. Enough of this topic before I decide to take my temperature rectally with a 12 gauge.

There's a new late night eating option here in State College. Above the Brewery is a burger joint called the Shack. The burgers are REALLY good, but they are the size of White Castle burgers and cost $1 for a hamburger and $1.50 for a cheesburger. It's a nice change from pizza, but unless they bring prices down, it won't last, which is a shame because those burgers are pretty good.

Howard Stern claimed on his inferior radio show earlier this week that he invented MTV Unplugged. He says when he worked at DC101 in Washington in the early 80's that he was the FIRST person to invite people into a studio with only an acoustic guitar and let them play. He claimed that MTV took his idea and created a show out of it. EXCUSE ME?!?! Radio stations have been doing that since the 60's!!! WNEW, the oldest and most famous rock station of the 60's and 70's has a vault of thousands of old reels and records of acts coming in to play acoustic such as John Lennon, Led Zeppelin, and Bruce Springsteen. Howie is losing his goddamn mind and he's surrounded by a bunch of yes men who are too scared to call him out on it because Sirius needs to justify giving him a $500 million contract.

So after a student was stabbed at Club Love several weeks ago, some bars are talking about metal detectors. I was initially against it because it would cause lines to grow out of control. Now I'm for it after the Daily Collegian's lead story yesterday saying that a metal detector installed in Players confiscated 17 knives form patrons. 17!!!!!! Are we going to school in Compton? Are the Bloods and Crips gonna shoot it out on College ave? Are the Greasers and the Socias gonna rumble on the Old Main lawn? My one friend says they were most likely redneck hunters who bring pocket knives everywhere they go because after all, you never know when you're gonna have to gut a deer. But realistically....rednecks at Players? I don't think so. I'll give you guys two guesses as to what kind of patrons brought these weapons with them, but you guys will need only one.

Not much else to say. Later my followers.



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Thursday, March 23, 2006

Floppy

Gateway has released a brand new all-in-one computer that has expansion bays which is an interesting feature typically not found on all-in-ones. Aside from it being just plain ugly, I have a question.


Who the hell still uses floppy drives and why do PC companies still include these horrifically obselete and crappy devices? Get a goddamn usb stick. They have 500 times the capacity and don't break when bended slightly. Come on PC companies, its your chance to save $6 on every computer you sell. Idiots.

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Bridge

This is the craziest feat of engineering that I've seen in quite awhile. Just simply amazing. Sadly, its only 14 feet deep so its highly unlikely that any supertankers will be cruising by.

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Wireless

A blog entry from Justin, an old roommate of mine, about his company's recent collaboration with GM at its Tech Center to incorporate wireless technology and sensors into cars to make them safer.

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Rebranding

General Motors has too many brands selling too many similar models. Allow me to list them all: What's worse is that all these brands, with so many brand engineered models, have destroyed almost all of what initially made them distinct. Secondly, the stereotypical image of some brands due to demographics has severely affected their marketability. What 18-25 year old male wants to buy a Buick? None, well except for Mark who wants a LaCrosse cause he thinks he'll be taken seriously in the corporate world. Sorry Mark, you'll never be taken seriously, so the Buick isn't going to help. Lastly, the diverse and numbered amount of brands has led to consumer confusion and frustration.

Brand loyalty is established at an early but is hard to retain with GM's current portfolio. As people age, loyal owners are expected to stay within the GM family but switch to different divisions. Chevrolet is the economic choice and was designed to be the starting point for car owners. Pontiac, although initially different, has become the "excitement" division. Oldsmobile was a step up from Chevrolet and Buick was the cushy "doctor's car." Cadillac, of course was the "Cadillac of cars" and has remained as the top nameplate within the family for decades.

The problem, in my opinion, is this process no longer works. People want to remain loyal to their brand and when their brand doesn't offer the vehicle they want, even if another division does, there's a huge chance of jumping ship. A prime example is the loyalty and rivalry of Chevrolet and GMC truck owners. GMC owners would never buy a Chevy Truck and vice versa. Even in the engineering centers, this competition and rivalry still carries over from when the brands were developed independently. When I interned at GM's Truck Center in Pontiac, some people scoffed at the "Heartbeat of America" license plate I had hung up in my cubicle. It was retarded, I know.

One thing General Motors needs is a clear brand identity and more importantly brand singularity. The top three growing automotive manufacturers in the US are Toyota, Honda, and Nissan (Update -- it might actually be Kia and Hyundai but let me make my point). Look at their brands. Until recently they each had only two: the normal brand and the luxury brand. Consumers knowing if they want a luxury model or not, have a one stop shopping centers for all their needs. Now look at GM. For consumers who want to remain loyal to the General, they have to cross shop for ordinary vehicles at Saturn, Chevrolet, Saab, Buick, Oldsmobile (ok, its dead now I know), & Pontiac. It's especially confusing when the only differences between many of the cars are body-cladding and badges.

From an engineering standpoint, keeping all these brands is a money pit. Although each division now shares most of the chassis and underlying parts, all their exteriors and interiors are independently produced at five times the cost. This isn't economically viable. Exteriors and interior designs need to be standard across the board with a set design. Differences should be decor details and trim not different instrument panels for each division, although more luxurious models should be made of higher quality and luxurious materials (Buick) but the design should be fluid thus reducing engineering costs. Differing the materials on an instrument panel costs a fraction of what engineering a entire new panel would be.

Another problem of their massive branding is vehicle dilution and the marketability of sales numbers. Quickly, what is the number one selling full size pickup in the United States? It's been the Ford F-150 for over a decade by a large margin (200,000 units in the lead). But if you look closer it's not so clear cut. If you were to combine the Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra sales together, the numbers would come out about equal with the F-150. By the way, these two vehicles are identical and for the most part only have differing labels. This best-selling distinction is a marketing goldmine and GM could obtain it. Every year Ford is able to advertise that it has the best selling truck in America. GM needs and could have this publicity.

Want another example? How about GM's Epsilon platform. This platform and its variants produces the Opel Vectra, Saab 9-3, Chevrolet Malibu, Opel Signum, Chevrolet Malibu Maxx, Pontiac G6, Fiat Croma and the upcoming Saturn Aura. Now here's the disadvantage once again. Toyota claims to have the best selling car in America with its Camry selling over 400,000 a year. If GM were to combine all the US models into one brand, the total would come to 340,000 cars (180,000 Malibus, 125,000 G6s, & roughly 35,000 9-3s). This wouldn't take the lead from the Camry but would put it in third place just behind the Honda Accord, ahead of the Honda Civic but most importantly on the list of best-selling vehicles in the US and I think that's a very important status symbol. People pay attention to the best-selling list just like some blindly follow the lame evaluations of Consumer Reports. The mindset is "hey, everyone is buying a Camry, so should I." Simply being on the list could boost sales in the next year. Everyone wants to buy a winner.

So what can be done? Simply, GM needs to combine and rebrand its entire line of cars and trucks to streamline their portfolio, revamp their business model and once again regain profitability. Critics have long discussed how GM needs to kill off some of its brands like Buick and Oldsmobile, which it did. But its not that simple. You can't just kill off brands because you want to, at least not without severe repercussions. If you were to get rid of Pontiac, Buick, and GMC Truck, that would mean the elimination of thousands of dealers across the nation (I'll be ignoring the issue that GM has way too many dealers during this post). The uproar and public relations fiasco would be attrocious.

Therefore, I have put together a plan that would create a better brand singularity without putting half of GM's dealers out of business (even though they should be -- Toyota has roughly half the amount that GM does).

Step Number One
Chevrolet remains as Chevrolet but stops selling the top trim levels and becomes the economic brand with its stereotype of cheap plastic interiors. It will retain nearly all of its current models.

Step Number Two
Pontiac is scraped but the dealers get the Chevrolet Sport trim level to sell. This is effectively all of Chevrolet's SS models. SS is scraped in my opinion because it makes me think of guys with mullets who drive 89' IROC Camaros and chew Skoal. The dealers retain their sporty image and Pontiac dealers thank me for not putting them out of business. The interiors will remain nearly identical to the Chevrolet with the same overall design and materials except for maybe white faced gauges and other items commonly found in Type R cars. Chevrolet Sport will roll out an entire line of upgradable performance parts to get the car enthusiast crowd interested, but most importantly manual transmissions will be available on every car (automatics will be an option too). You can't sell sport edition cars without a manual transmissions. Period. This Chevrolet Sport division will also have upgraded engines over the normal Chevrolet. They'll use the same block but will have turbochargers or superchargers to increase power. Enthusiasts love turbochargers. Its a great way to gain interest and boost power cheaply without designing a new engine. An example of this plan is that while Chevrolet will sell the Corvette, Chevrolet Sport will sell the Corvette Sport, which will be the renamed Covette Z06.

Step Number Three
Buick is scraped because well its image sucks but the dealers will get the Chevrolet Special trim level or something that sounds better. This is effectively a smoother riding mid-luxury Chevrolet. It will have the same interior design except with softer to touch materials and lots of detailed accents. Upgraded sound deadening the doors, better stereo system and things like aluminum trim and higher quality leather seating. The exterior will of course have small changes too. The trim level retains its focus of being the "doctor's car." Think of Chevrolet Special to be like a Chevrolet in LT trim but better. Once again, Buick dealers will thank me for not putting them in the poor house.

Step Number Four
Saturn is scraped but the dealers get the Chevrolet Eco trim level to sell. It will finish what their upcoming Green Line of vehicles will start. Chevrolet Eco will exclusively sell all the hybrid Chevrolet models. They could also sell fuel efficient direct injection diesel engine cars because well, I want one. Yuppie hybrid cars are a perfect fit for the Saturn brand because their dealerships have the best overall feeling inside. Saturn dealerships are actually a nice experience, much unlike most other dealerships including all brands. This "feeling" is suited perfectly to the hippie liberal douche yuppies that currently buy Priuses and think they're saving the planet. Just in case you're wondering --- they're not. Regardless of what they do, oil will continue to be burned until it runs out. In fact if we all drove Prius' and decreased our dependence on oil, it would only plummet the price of oil and people would start buying Hummers again in mass quantities. Oh well, what can you do about hippies? Of course, don't get me wrong, I prefer a fuel efficient vehicle. I want a 50 mpg sedan but I'm not doing it to "save the world" and hurt the evil oil companies. I doing it because I don't want to buy $40 of gas each week. I'll take pragmatism over idealism anyday.

Step Number Five
Goodbye Saab. You'll be sold. You're a money pit and the idea of the key in a place that a cupholder should be is retarded. Adios.

Step Number Six
Cadillac will remain Cadillac.

Step Number Seven
Hummer, probably GM's strongest brand, will remain as it is.

Step Number Eight
GMC Truck will get out of the consumer business and will only focus on the commercial truck business and can continue to use its "Professional Grade Engineering" slogan ad nauseum.

Step Number Nine
Opel, Vauxhall, and Holden ... I'm not sure. In my mind they should become Chevrolet but that probably wouldn't work since some of their markets don't have Chevrolets right now. So I'm skipping over this part.

Now, in case you're wondering what would happen to a lot of the models, here's a spreadsheet of my proposed solution. I'm probably missing some vehicles but you get the point.

Now we have four brands instead of eleven. It still doesn't address the massive dealer problem but it helps. It helps because now the brands have distinct identities. Someone shopping for a sport sedan with lots of power isn't going to shop at Chevrolet Eco -- they're going to go to Chevrolet Sport. This will virtually eliminate the need for consumer cross shopping the numerous GM brands.

What do you think?

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Controller

Well the Playstation controller that we've all grown to love or hate is being shelved for the release of Sony's new PS3. The new controller will be included when the device is released this past Christmas, this spring, I mean maybe this summer.

I actually like the new design. It keeps all the button locations in roughly the same spots and the new boomerang design should make it easier to hold. Personally, I always found the old controller a little strange to grasp. Hopefully, this will make it easier.

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Wednesday, March 22, 2006

Chef

If you didn't catch South Park tonight, you missed out. After the recent media events where Tom Cruise supposedly got Viacom to shelve the Scientology episode, Isaac Hayes quit the show because he's a hypocrite and all the hype of the season premiere -- tonight's episode lived up to the speculation.

The analogy of the Super Adventure Club, a club dedicated to hiking and molesting little boys, to Scientology was absolutely hilarious and Darth Chef? comic genius.

Chef is dead, long live Chef.

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Tuesday, March 21, 2006

Bias

I brought up in my last post the bias found in Consumer Reports. Their recent evaluation granting all ten categories with Japanese vehicles has raised a lot of questions within the industry. Consumer Reports recently posted a rebuttal to the criticism here. Althought its a rebuttal, one point clearly outlined the bias I was talking about.
Of the domestic manufacturers, Ford has the strongest position in the heart of the sedan market. Even though the Focus’ design is six years old, it was just edged out by the redesigned 2006 Honda Civic as our top-rated small car. We still think the Focus is more enjoyable to drive, with an excellent balance of nimble handling and a comfortable ride, but the Civic is more refined, fuel efficient, and has better crash protection. The Five Hundred is an extremely accommodating, if highly understated, car. The Ford Fusion/Mercury Milan did very well in our tests, but since they are new designs, we can not predict reliability yet. The Fusion/Milan’s decidedly lackluster IIHS crash test results give pause, as well. Likewise, the Ford Freestyle--with impressive interior packaging that offers good room for seven passengers--would have made this list, but our tested AWD model has below average first-year reliability.
That's funny. The Fusion was pretty much eliminated because it was new and reliability could not be predicted -- so it wasn't able to prove itself. But, this wasn't a problem for the new Honda Civic. It was presumed to automatically have superb reliaibility. Just as I have said earlier, Consumer Reports assumes American cars are crap and foreign cars are amazing. I'm not saying that the Fusion should have won, I wasn't involved in the testing and can't produce an objective conclusion. What am I saying is why did the Civic get a pass on reliability? This is the bias.

UPDATE: Here's an image of JD Power's brand dependability study. So, keep on buying your cheap Kia's and Hyundai's and trendy VW's cause you think GM vehicles are unreliable -- and I'll continue to laugh at you.

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Monday, March 20, 2006

Coward

From a Detroit News article:
Lori Queen, a GM executive for small cars, couldn't take it anymore. In an e-mail exchange with Automotive News, she wrote that the editors and reporters who put together the Consumer Reports auto issue are "the most unprofessional group of people I have ever worked with."

She added: "They are totally nonobjective and go to great extremes to paint a picture for their paid subscription readers, who primarily buy Japanese cars.

"They don't consider price or price differences, they don't consider model mix or consumer preferences, they buy the cheapest car they can find (generally), and then base all their opinions on a limited sample."
This brutal exchange has most likely come as a result of Consumer Reports naming a Japanese vehicle in all ten of their categories and its brutal review of the Cobalt.

The reason I bring this up is because GM's CEO, Rick Wagoner, immediately telephoned the head of Consumer Reports to apologize for the comments because Wagoner, or Captain "No Balls" Douchebag, didn't have the cajones to admit that this is, in my opinion, GM's true internal opinion of Consumer Reports.

Message to Rick: Grow a set of balls and admit the truth -- you hate Consumer Reports for their biased subjective opinions. Stop taking cues from the Democratic Party with your spineless public relations and actually voice your opinion.

As a side note, I agree with a lot of what Lori Queen has said. J.D. Power has consistently ranked the Malibu above Japanese products like the Accord and Camry in terms of customer satisfaction, reliability, and quality. It also boasts better performance, power, and fuel economy yet somehow never stacks up well in Consumer Reports. A little too ironic, don't ya think?

An AutoBlog comment sums up perfectly the bias of Consumer Reports:
CR offers another source of information that one can review before purchasing a car. However, their reviews should not be considered the final word on a product. I remember reviews on the GEO Prism/Toyota Corolla twins and the Toyota would score higher on reliability than the Prism, even though the cars were built on the same assembly line.
The most likely reason has to do with the perception the owner has of the car and it could be argued that someone who has Toyota is more likely to keep up with maintenance than someone who owns a GEO (different demographics).
The cars were mirror images of themselves. The only difference was the badge on the front of the car.

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Reform

Finally, Congress is considering a reformation of the Digital Millenium Copyright Act which has illegalized technology and methods to circumvent mechanisms that protect copyrighted material. In short, it makes it illegal to rip or backup DVDs just as you would music CDs.

This bill has reduced our rights with regards to the Fair Use copyright precedent that allows non-commerical copying of copyrighted material. In essence, fair use legalized the copying of cassette tapes. Because of the DMCA, that right was eliminated for DVDs because of the fear of internet piracy, which in my opinion has had no effect.

As I said, Congress has considered reforming the policy with HR 1201. If you would like to contact your reprsentative, use this website. It takes about thirty seconds to complete.

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Loyalty

Andrew Sullivan debates with a reader on people's loyalty to Bush and his lack thereof to them unless they're obsequious.

He's a Republican too, just not part of the neo-conservative fundamentalist faction. He's the traditional, old school type of Republican who favors limited government, empirical debate, and fiscal responsibility. I miss his kind.

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Friday, March 17, 2006

Syracuse

I hate you. You were supposed to beat Duke for me. My bracket is now completely screwed up. I hope you're happy, you assholes.

UPDATE: This applies to Michigan State too. You suck Paul Davis.

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Wednesday, March 15, 2006

Howard Stern is a hypocrite

Howard Stern was on Sean Hannity's radio show and FINALLY admitted to censorship. The self proclaimed "king of all media" who touts free speech admitted that he forced WNEW to enforce a gag order on Opie and Anthony years ago prohibiting them from mentioning his name, his radio station, or any of his co-workers (robin) on the air during their show while Opie and Anthony were New York's number 1 radio show and also number 1 in Philly and Boston. This comes as no surprise to me since Opie and Anthony have been saying this since their return on XM satellite radio.
If Howard Stern had any balls, he would admit that he is not as funny as he was in 1989. Hell, his show has sucked since 1992 and he is way past his prime. He's like a professional athlete who doesn't know when to hang them up.

Chain

I was checking my account of MySpace today and saw that there were new posts on the bulletin board, which is a place that you can post messages to your friends all at once.

There was an announcement from Risky Business about his band, numerous lame surveys but the one that got my attention was a stupid chain letter from my friend Tiffany. Here's what it said:
Everyone needs to take the time and read this. Just take a break from all your other stupid bulletins about who is gonna die or if your love life will suck for 7 years and be serious and do the right thing. Repost this or you have no soul seriously. A kid needs our help so do the right thing guys and gals.

Hi, my name is Chad Briody. I am 7 years old, and I have a large tumor on my brain and severe lung cancer. The doctors say I will die soon if this isn't fixed, and my family can't pay the bills. "The Make A Wish Foundation" has agreed to donate 7 cents for every time this message is reposted. For those of you who repost, I thank you so much. But for those who don't repost it, I will still pray for you. Please, if you are a kind person, have a heart. Please, please, PLEASE REPOST THIS MESSAGE!

Chad Briody
For Christ's sake, how are people so ridiculously stupid? Seriously, who actually thinks that the Make A Wish Foundation will actually donate money for each time it's posted on MySpace? --- the answer? --- people with the equivalent brain capacity of a retarded armadillo.

Bill Gates is not going to pay you for forwarding emails with his "email tracking program." Foundations will not donate if you post bulletins online. You will not get rich by mailing $5 to the sender of the letter. You will not have eleventy billion years of good luck for mailing letters to fifty of your closest friends within the next twenty-five seconds and you will not have fantastic, mind-blowing sex within four days of forwarding a letter to people.

I like to believe that people are intelligent so why are, well mainly girls, falling for this? I don't know the answer. Also, why is it mainly girls? Are girls just less intelligent? Probably not. They must just be more prone to have a bleeding heart that wants to believe in the ridiculous fallacy that good things will happen without any hard work. Here's a tip, if you want to help out poor Chad, Billy or Sally, donate some time or money to a charity and stop wasting my time with your stupid chain letters.

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Definition of a sore loser

from cnn.com:

LOS ANGELES, California (AP) -- Annie Proulx, whose 1997 short story inspired the film "Brokeback Mountain," has penned a scattershot blast in a British newspaper unleashing her anger over the film's best-picture Oscar loss.

Proulx criticizes Oscar voters and the Academy Awards ceremony in the 1,094-word rant, which appeared in Saturday's issue of The Guardian, a liberal paper boasting 1.2 million readers daily.

Academy members who vote for the year's best film are "out of touch not only with the shifting larger culture and the yeasty ferment that is America these days, but also out of touch with their own segregated city," Proulx writes

"If you are looking for smart judging based on merit, skip the Academy Awards next year and pay attention to the Independent Spirit choices," Proulx advises.

She even lashes out at Lionsgate, the distribution company behind "Crash."

"Rumour has it that Lionsgate inundated the academy voters with DVD copies of Trash -- excuse me -- Crash a few weeks before the ballot deadline," Proulx writes.


Oh now where do I begin with this slice of heaven? I've seen all the best picture nominees and I have news for this lady: CRASH WAS THE BEST FILM OF 2005! Brokeback Mountain is indeed a good film and might even be a great film, but it's not worthy of licking Crash's taint. The beauty of Crash as opposed to Brokeback is that in Crash, the movie presents a problem to the audience (racism) and just tells a story and doesn't preach. There is not one good character in the lovie, but they all think they are good. The movie doesn't offer solutions to racism, juat shows us the problem and lets the audience come to its own conclusions. Some of you may not think this makes a good movie, but I believe it does. Brokeback preaches that homosexuality is a-ok and that everyone should not only accept homosexuality, but learn to love it. I am personally morally opposed to homosexuality (not for religious reasons, but I'm not about to get into that discussion), but believe that if two people want to pound each other in the ass, then they should do it, but shouldn't have to go out of their way to let me know they do it. The film tries to preach a message and while preaching a message of tolerance is a good thing to do, it is pretty standard and not original. Annie Proulx likes to think that Brokeback is the most original thing ever written, well I have news for you....IT'S NOT!!!. Take away the homosexuality and the cowboys and all you have is a story of forbidden love, which Shakespeare had been writing about centuries earlier. Crash is original because it portrays the racism we all have in our hearts and doesn't apologize for it. It only displays what we all think and feel, but never admit. For her to call Crash, "Trash", shows her immaturity. True, the Academy screws up more often than not (remember Forrest Gump over Pulp Fiction? Titanic over LA Confidential? Marissa Tomei?) but the actual awards don't really count, the nomination is what really matters. Martin Scorcese hase been nominated for 6 Best Director Oscars and has won none. Kevin fucking Costner has been nominated once and won once for Dances with Wolves (beating out Scorcese and Goodfellas). Tell me who's the better director!!! Annie Proulx tries to blast LA for not being accepting of a gay movie....HELLO!!!! There is no more liberal place in the world than Hoillywood!!!!! Just face it.....Brokeback Mountain is good, Crash is great!!



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Libertarians?!

I notice a link to the Libertarian (or as I like to call them, people who can't make up their goddamn mind) party. I demand a Socialist party link!!! Or a link to the NFL.....same thing.

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Tuesday, March 14, 2006

Isacc Hayes is a hypocrite

From the Times Online:
The soul singer Isaac Hayes has resigned from his job as the voice of Chef on the satirical cartoon South Park after taking exception to its “inappropriate ridicule” of religion.

The singer is a follower of the Church of Scientology, which, with some of its adherents such as Tom Cruise, was the butt of jokes in a recent episode of the latest series.

During Hayes’s ten-year run in the part, other episodes have made jokes at the expense of Christians, Muslims, Mormons and Jews.

In a statement explaining his sudden departure from the Comedy Central show, Hayes, 63, did not mention the Scientology episode but condemned its general attitude towards religion as part of what he regarded as “growing insensitivity toward personal spiritual beliefs” in the mass media, including the recent controversy over the Danish cartoons depicting the Prophet Mu hammad.
Now, what the hell is his problem?! The very first episode of South PArk was the spirit of Christmas featuring Santa vs. Jesus in a deathmatch. There have been maybe 4 episodes total where Kyle isn't ridiculed for being Jewish. How about "The Passion of the Jew", the most offensive South Park episode ever where Cartman dresses as Hitler and rallies the town to exterminate the Jews and recreate the holocaust?! Hayes is ok lambasting these religions, but not his own? It called satire you fuck!!!!

Satire is the best form of social criticism ever created. Most of the great literature in this world is in the form of satire. It's a device to point out problems in the world, it is not mean-spirited. One of the funniest sitcoms ever was All In The Family and it was a brilliant satire on racism and intelligent people knew that, just like intelligent people know South Park isn't mean-spirited, btu a satire. These scientologists are out of control and must be stopped.

I hope that their next episode is titled "The Death of Chef" and it better be the most outrageous episode ever. They should just splice the voice of chef from the previous 10 years for his dialogue and kill him off in the worst way possible. That would be must-see-TV!!!

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Sunday, March 12, 2006

Pepsi

Well, the Jimmy Fallon/Parker Posey Pepsi commercial has resurfaced. I remember seeing like a year ago or so, and now Pepsi seems to have pulled it out from the storage bin. Its been everywhere lately.

I love this ad. Anything that has absurd quirky public dancing and outrageous face gestures seem to work for me but its the ending that makes me love it so much. Anytime you throw someone up in the air not to come down, and you don't care... ahh, that's comedy gold!

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Soul

Hemant Mehta, a DePaul University student, recently sold his soul on eBay for $504. The winning bidder, Jim Henderson, is a former evangelical minister. Supposedly he hopes to save the soul and has asked Mehta to attend fifteen church services and write about his experiences.

Beyond my belief, Mehta, a proclaimed atheist, has actually agreed. Unfortunately, no published reports have explained how the deal went from a payment of $504 to attending church services. Wow.

Of course this isn't the first time this has happened. From what I found, another guy sold his soul on eBay back in 2002 for $16.95.

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Saturday, March 11, 2006

MySpace

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart's take on MySpace.
    "On the downside, they're loaded with sexual predators. On the plus side, they're also loaded with sexual prey."
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Facebook

Since Depressed Writer is a decroded piece of crap and too lazy to join this blog and post it himself, here's a hilarious video clip on how Facebook has affected college student's lives. For those of you who aren't into Facebook, just replace the word with MySpace. Actually I don't think that works. You can't stalk on MySpace like you can on Facebook so nevermind, you people won't get it.

By the way, I love the use of Electric Light Orchestra's song, Mr. Blue Sky. I've been obsessed with this song ever since it was featured in a VW Beetle commercial a few years ago.

Here's the creator's website in case anyone cares, which none of you do.

UPDATE: People are having problems with the video clip, so here's one from College Humor.

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Forza

A friend of mine has the sickest XBOX setup I've ever seen. He and his roommates are rabid fans of the game, Forza, which is like Gran Turismo for XBOX except that you can damage your car. Unhappy with using controllers, they built a racing setup that mimicked an Indy car.


This setup was better than anything I've ever used in an arcade. They have the F1 style chair, pedals, force-feedback wheel and paddle shifters. I've never had so much fun with my clothes on, save Penn State games and drinking and well lots of stuff. Regardless, this setup is the shit.

Gotta love engineering students with too much time on their hands.

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Flash

With Intel's announcement and Samsung's latest product concept at CeBIT, it seems that solid-state hard drive laptops are on the horizon.

In the announcement, Intel has made it clear that NAND flash hard drives will be debuting in laptops within a year. To summarize what this is, NAND flash drives are memory units very similar to ram and usb key chain drives. They have an array of advantages over traditional spinning disc hard drives that we're used to.

The first is that they're non-volatile -- meaning they don't need power to maintain the information, unlike DRAM (the RAM on your motherboard) which purges information in the absence of electricity.

Second, they have much better shock resistance which is a great advantage for laptops. With NAND flash, premium features such as head locking isn't needed.

Third, the amount of energy required to power these devices is an order of magnitude less than traditional hard drives. This means that batteries in laptops will last a lot longer.

Fourth, the reduced energy requirement and the elimination of mechanical friction heat greatly reduces the heat output of laptops, meaning you won't be burning your legs.

Fifth, these flash chips are similar to DRAM in that information is instantly available. With traditional hard drives, information is seeked -- rather the head has to move back and forth across the disc to access the information "sector" before transferring it to the DRAM and CPU. This means a significant increase in hard drive speeds, and the overall experience should feel "snappier." The time required to open applications and locate and save files should take much less time too.

Ok, so what are the disadvantages? Well, there are two main ones. First, these chips are expensive. Second, they have less capacity than traditional drives. Current 32 gigabyte drives are running at $900 a piece, which well sucks. But over the past fews years, flash drives prices have dropped significantly and will continue to do so.

Hopefully by next year, the disadvantages will have been eliminated and I can get my eight hour MacBook laptop that doesn't keep me awake at night because its hard drive loves to "seek" every thirty seconds (it makes noise).

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Welcome to Jamrock

NOTE: I have taken the liberty to translate this quote from Jamaican English to American English. The original would read much, much differently. Also, anything parenthetically notated has been added by myself.


"Welcome to Jamrock."

"The camp where, the thugs, they camp at...
(With) Two pounds of weed in a van bag.
It's in your hand bag, your knapsack, and in your back-pack,
The smell will give your girlfriend a contact (high).
Some guys don't notice, they only come around like a tourist,
On the beach with a few club sodas,
(And) Bedtime stories, and pose like their name is Chuck Norris,
And don't know the real hardcore.
And, watch your back too. These thugs, they will do what they have to,
And won't think twice to shoot you.
Don't make them spot you. Unless you carry guns with you,
And bare them whenever someone steps at you.
When a trenchtown man stops and laughs and blocks off traffic,
And, your wheels pop off and they cock it back,
With the pin file back and in a beat drop it,
(The) Police show up and they can't even stop it.
Some say that they're a "player" or a "pimp" and all of this...
(But those) "Funny-men" get dropped like a bad habit.
So you better not pose tough if you don't have it..
('Cause)Rastafari stands alone.

Out in the streets, they call it "MURDER."


Welcome to Jamdom.
(Where) Poor people are dead at random.
Political violence is done.
(Like)Pure ghost and phantom, the youths, they get blinded by what they think is "stardom."
Now the King Of Kings will come.
Old man to pickney, wave all your hands if you're with me.
To see this suffering, it sickens me.
Their suits don't "fit" me. To win elections, they trick me.
Then, they don't do a thing at all.
Come on, let's face it, a ghetto education is basic.
As most of the youths, they waste it.
And when they waste it, they pick up guns to replace it.
Then they don't stand a chance at all...
And, that's why so many little youths have up some fat (auto)-matics.
With an extra magazine in their back pocket.
And, have leisure night-time under the "black jacket."
All of them who "lock glocks" are like a lock rocket.
And we piss them off like a current in a short circuit.
They run roadblocks and the cops don't do a thing.
And from dusk until the morning, no one stops to clock them speeding.
In case they run out of rounds, they have a "back ratchet."

Out in the streets, they call it "MURDER."

"Welcome to Jamrock."

-Damian "Jr. Gong" Marley




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ANWR

Gale Norton, Secretary of the Interior and one of the main proponents of drilling in ANWR retired this week. She plans to retire in the mountains of the west but has said that she's glad she is rich enough to be able to live far away from the annoying oil derricks. Ain't that some shit?

I've always been perplexed by supporters of drilling in ANWR. It's not that I'm a true bleeding heart environmentalist but rather that the benefits, by far, do not outweigh the negatives.

Mean value estimates of the amount of oil are 10.4 billion barrels. The US burns 20 million barrels a day. So, drilling in ANWR would only give us 520 days of oil. To me, thats not enough oil to warrant drilling in a national refuge area.

But then again, my campaign contributers aren't the oil industry.

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HTTP

I was updating the sidebar to include three new blogs today and I screwed up the address.
    Instead of putting:
    http://thenewconstilibertarionist.blogspot.com/

    I put:
    http://http//thenewconstilibertarionist.blogspot.com/
Luckily, I checked the links to make sure they worked, which this one didn't. The point of this entry isn't the mistake I made but rather what happened when I clicked on the incorrect link. The incorrect link automatically forwarded to Microsoft's website. What the hell is this bullshit? First, why do they get to receive all the screwed up links. Secondly, how did they set this up?

I can understand if I was using Internet Explorer. They could write the code to set this up but I wasn't using it. I was using Firefox. So, if anyone knows, please fill me in. Fuck you Microsoft.

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Friday, March 10, 2006

Round Two...

A Day in the Life


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That's Gangsta

Lazy Sunday


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Whats Really in Your Beer?

All natural, great taste, finest hops........ rice. Thats right, rice is used more often than not in "cheaper" beers in place of barely. You can assure yourself that such "cult classics" as Natural Light, Milwakee's "Best", and American Ale are made with rice but what you may not know is more "socially acceptable" beers are made from rice. Budweiser and Miller use rice in place of barely in most of their beers. The main reason for this switch as you may have guessed is, rice is ultimatley cheaper. The commercials will say "brewed from Bavarian hops," but what it doesn't say is ... oh and mediocre Mexican rice.

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Thursday, March 09, 2006

Technorati

I've included some preset text for each new post. It's for Technorati, which is like a search engine for Blogs. According to my site stats, it has actually driven a lot of traffic to my blog. So, I encourage the rest of you to use it.

In order to use the service, you have to add Tags that correspond to the topic of the entry. Its not very hard. Here is what the preset text looks like (As a warning, for the text to appear, I had to change the angle brackets into regular brackets):
    [a href="http://technorati.com/tag/CHANGE+TOPIC" rel="tag"]CHANGE TOPIC[/a]
So you see that "CHANGE+TOPIC" is different than "CHANGE TOPIC". The left is the hyperlink and right is what you want to appear. In the hyperlinks, multiple words have to be connected by a "+". Here are two examples:
    Penn State
    [a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Penn+State" rel="tag"]Penn State[/a]

    PSU
    [a href="http://technorati.com/tag/PSU" rel="tag"]PSU[/a]
Let me know if you have any questions.

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Think about how much B plays world of warcraft

just think about it

Welcome

Welcome to the Club 309 Blog. It's a collective blog from from the various people who used to make up Club 309. Enjoy bitches.