Sunday, 22 February 2009

Taking Chance: A movie worth seeing.

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PFC C. Phelps USMC"Taking Chance" aired on HBO this weekend.  This film is one of those that really brings the reality of war home to the watchers heart.  This movie based on real-life events was so well constructed you can feel the poignant moments.  I was especially impressed with Kevin Bacon's portrail of Lt. Col. Michael Strobl (Bacon), a volunteer military escort officer, who accompanies the body of 19-year-old Marine Chance Phelps back to his hometown of Dubois, Wyoming. 


Of interest to my readers will be two sites about this great movie.  The first is the written account by Lt. Col. Strobl of accompanying Chance Phelps home.  The second is the Chance Phelps Foundation, which uses donated funds to buy our military guys much needed items.

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Posted by sentiant at 9:36 PM in Shows I Watch
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All your Ipod are belong to us

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All Your Base Are Belong To UsIt's 4 am, residual pain in the trapezius and infraspinatus muscles is preventing some much needed nocturnal slumber.  So I watched NatGeo's "Super Strength" documentary while listening to Jill Tarter's TED presentation entitled, "Why the search for alien intelligence matters".

After these shows I'm sitting here contemplating what I've just seen and heard and the thought occurs to me that I've just watched two guys barrel head long into several blocks of thick ice with their heads and shoulders smashing them to "Jack Daniel's" size while the lady whose life is the basis for the character Ellie Arroway played by Jodie Foster in the film version of Contact extols the virtues of looking for intelligence among the billions and billions of stars out there.

And I was struck by the epiphany that when ET gets here, it is not really gonna be interested in talking to us, it just wants an Ipod Touch.   I wonder if they will want the Cosmic blue or Aqua green skin?

How scary is that?!

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Posted by sentiant at 4:30 AM in The Amazing Planet Earth and its Unique Inhabitants
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Saturday, 21 February 2009

No U.S. Government Pension for Roland Burris

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If its found that Burris did indeed deceive congress and his constituents by paying for play in what will be known as blagogate, he should not be be eligible for the Congressional pension plan either.  Don't let the door hit ya in the ass on the way out Roland!  And don't stump for the U.S. Retirement check either.

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Posted by sentiant at 4:22 PM in Government in Illinois
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Erik Peters, an Antioch Illinois teen throws his hat in the mayoral race.

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Erik attended his first board meeting two weeks ago and was appalled at the vote against the Antioch Marketplace business district by three trustees, two of whom are mayoral candidates and a third who wanted a $1.3 million contribution from the developers for a community pool.

Wow, imagine that, graft and corruption in northern Illinois local politics.  Who are these curmudgenly bureaucrats from Antioch, Illinois that Erik wants to campaign against? 

"The two mayoral candidates (trustees Bob Caulfield and Larry Hanson) seem one and the same, and I could not believe the pay-for-play proposal by Trustee Dennis Crosby," said Peters.

Within 24 hours he had declared himself a write-in candidate.

"I know I have an uphill battle. I could lose simply because voters don't spell my name correctly on the ballot. My primary reason for running is to motivate voters to attend meetings and find out what is going on before they vote on April 7."

So all ye citizens of Antioch, Illinois; vote for a mayoral candidate that doesn't have unscrupulous agendas, greedy collusions or conflicts of interest.  Cast your vote for the Write-in candidate:  Erik Peters

By the way, Erik is 18 years old. You Go Erik!

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Posted by sentiant at 4:06 PM in Government in Illinois
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Thursday, 19 February 2009

2 fer 1 of 2 weeks in review

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Sorry if the title is a little confusing, its kind of a mashup of 3 thoughts in one condensed sentence.  If ya don't get it thats ok.  No harm, no foul.

Still think evolution is for real? this looks alot like construction to me.For those not in the know, i've contracted this nasty little virus that has waylaid me in a rather painful way.  It started in my right ear and moved to my right neck area then to my right shoulder and then settled in my right shoulder blade toward the middle of my back.  It was so painful at times as to bring a tear to my eye, literally.  I had trouble sitting at my beloved computer and doing the things I love, programming and blogging because the posture required to do this made the pain even worse.  So, finally after almost 9 days of this transient pain, sleeping night chills and sweats, oppressive tiredness and in general a malaise toward anything, Thankfully, its finally working its way out... I'm managing about 3-4 hours at the computer and then it kicks in again with the nagging pain.  So keep me in your thoughts as this is why i've not called, written or otherwise shown signs of life this week.  I'm pretty sure that capsid was poking me in the back muscle the whole time.
On with the show!

Seems you folk down in Florida have some education budgetary problems.  At least you give yours a decent funeral.

When was the last time you read some poetry?  I do enjoy the works of Rudyard Kipling.  The link leads to the excellent poem entitled: "If...".

Remember skin flint larry?  seems even sleazy porn producers are tired of politics!  Larry Flynt has a blog and its all about politics.  Larry Flynt was the owner/publisher of a very popular porno mag back in the 70's and 80's.  After making millions and millions peddling flesh he now peddles tirades against government as a free speech activist.

I wrote about the Mysterious New 'Dark Flow' Discovered in Space a while ago back when I was doing emails instead of blog entries.  (queue the "Night Gallery" music)  As if the mysteries of dark matter and dark energy weren't vexing enough, another baffling cosmic puzzle has been discovered.  Patches of matter in the universe seem to be moving at very high speeds and in a uniform direction that can't be explained by any of the known gravitational forces in the observable universe. Astronomers are calling the phenomenon "dark flow." The stuff that's pulling this matter must be outside the observable universe, researchers conclude. 

Be afraid, be very afraid. God might be done taking a bath!They talk about A theory called inflation which posits that the universe we see is just a small bubble of space-time that got rapidly expanded after the Big Bang. There could be other parts of the cosmos beyond this bubble that we cannot see. I have my own theory about this dark flow... I think we are actually in God's bathtub and he pulled the plug... and so those galaxies we see going away at 2 million mph are actually going down the drain... so the drain is located between the constellations of Centaurus and Vela.  Sigh, how stupid are we humans that we mistook all these constellations for stars when they are actually bubbles in God's bubble bath... (and just to help these dummy scientists, the mysterious pull is gravity emptying the tub.  whew, glad Einstein got that right)   sheesh, do i have to do all the theorizing around here...

If I were a younger man this next topic would sure be on my list of must try once before I die jobs.  These guys are Grabbing 230,000 Volts, some of the vids show transformers and such blowing up, like what happened to our neighborhood last summer when we were without electric for a few days.  Go ahead, grab that live wire... you know you want to... Muwahaha!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9CUz8XNHbiY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2dqRN0Z7-_o
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eYUmdqQ94Ao&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i90gHhXYQBQ&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fRqj374cc2o&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DvQy9VY0s3w&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cOkTrqTd0hw&watch_response
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0h-RhyopUmc

Just in case you can't afford the rocket buy some Kickaroo Anti-Gravity BootsYou know my entry wouldn't be complete without a portion dedicated to being spacey, er... I mean in space... uh..  Oh dang it, you know what I mean just check out the newly proposed 'Antigravity' Propulsion System.
On top of that, they are now saying a New propulsion concept could make 90-day Mars round trip possible.

For those of you who are into blogging as I am you might want to check out the State of the Blogosphere.  Sorta like a State of the Union without all the pomp and circumstance or bad economic forecasts.

I was reading about and looking at the pictures of Amazon tribes gathering at the World Social Forum in Belem, Brazil.  I guess this is an alternative to the world leaders gathering in Davos, Switzerland, for the World Economic Forum.  Maybe they want to figure out how many sea shells and palm fronds equal a dollar.  Probably a good idea since we seem headed back to the stone age and barter will once again rule the bazaar.

In totally related news to the Belem forum, some lady brought her kid to the meet.  Am I the only one that finds this picture astoundingly funny?  The little kid has his eyes on everything going on at the forum but he just can't stop suckling at his moms breast... haha.  Priceless!  He will probably be the next mayor of Belem!

Our CIA enabled friends at Google came out with a new beta tool.  Its called "Knol".  A knol is an authoritative article about a specific topic.  Yeah, like I want to contribute anything authoritative to our men in black at google.  I remember when they were small and had the motto, "Don't be evil".  I'm sure they stopped using that motto in china after they turned over all the authoritative info that got those chinese dissidents in trouble or censored.
Look for Part 2 this weekend.

Until then I would leave you with this thought:  "Never try to tell everything you know. It may take too short a time." ~ Norman Ford

 

 

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Posted by sentiant at 11:59 PM in Mike's Weekly In-Digest-Ion
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Walter Bishop is not William Bell

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I keep seeing this as a common thread of discussion on the tubes.  I don't believe that to be the case.  The series makes it clear that both Bishop and Bell worked together and that Bishop was a Professor at the college and Bell was a student.  For the writers to pull a sham like that would be dishonest to the series.  I'm not certain who Bell is but I do believe he will make a showing this season.

For pure speculation, I think perhaps Nina is the assistant that was supposed to have died and Bell saved her but did not tell Bishop instead letting him go into the asylum so that he, Bell, could use Bishop's work to further his career and create Massive Dynamics.

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Posted by sentiant at 2:57 AM in Shows I Watch
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Thursday, 12 February 2009

Possible source documents for the ZFT manuscript from Fringe season 1 episode 14

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I'm making a list of existing documents that might be precursors or source material for the ZFT manuscript also known as the "Zerstorung durch Fortschritte der Technologie" manuscript translated as "Destruction by Advancement of Technology".  Entries as follows:

http://www.sacred-texts.com/nam/zuni/zft/index.htm

 

Will add more as I find them.

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Posted by sentiant at 3:49 AM in Shows I Watch
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Thoughts on Fringe season 1 episode 14 and the ZFT manuscript.

Share Walter did not write the ZFT manuscript.  Walter realized after reading the ZFT that the labs typewriter had been used to type the manuscript.  William Bell wrote the manuscript, consider 2 known facts about Bell.

1.  He was Walter's partner in the 60's and 70's.
2.  He is now the CEO of Massive Dynamics.

I think perhaps some of MD's inventions are from these alternate universes.  The extremely advanced prosthetic used by Nina Sharp would be one example.  The bald man is from an alternate universe, Walter knows this because when he and Bell were testing the teleportation device it probably opened a tunnel to the alternate universe, perhaps
causing a rift in the space-time continuum thru which the bald man came.

It certainly will be interesting to see where the writers take this thread.

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Posted by sentiant at 3:37 AM in Shows I Watch
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Saturday, 7 February 2009

I survived the blizzard of 2009! Which means more fun internet things to check out.

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"Let us waste no time in sterile litanies and nauseating mimicry. [Let us] Leave this Europe where they are never done talking of Man, yet murder men everywhere they find them, at the corner of every one of their own streets, in all the corners of the globe. For centuries they have stifled almost the whole of humanity in the name of a so-called spiritual experience. Look at them today swaying between atomic and spiritual disintegration…" Franz Fanon ~ 'The Wretched of the Earth’
 
snow sculpture of mobius strip.
Yes, I survived the winter snow blizzard of 2009 and here are the pictures to prove it.  Amazing that something so simple and beautiful as frozen water can do all this, heh?
 
And while I was snow bound I had time to watch that bumbling detective from the 70's starring "Peter Falk" as Columbo.  This was a very funny and well written detective series from the 70's, which I'm sure the oldsters among my readers will remember.  "One more thing...!"
 
This is a video of a lady lying in bed going for a walk while in bed.  How in the world does she keep her hair so good looking the next morning?  Man, when I wake up my hair is horrifying... haha... just ask any neighbor who was brave enough to wake me for a medical delivery... ahem!
 
National Motor Vehicle Title System.  The Anti-Car Theft Act (the Act) of 1992 directed the U.S. Department of Transportation to establish a national information system enabling states and others to access automobile titling information.  Be afraid, very afraid.

There is a funny story that goes with this next entry.  When my daughter was around 10 years old I had rented a movie called "Dusk to Dawn".  For those of you who don't know about this movie its one of the signature films of George Clooney, written by Quentin Tarantino, and directed by Robert Rodriguez.  The title song for the show was by a mexican band called "Tito & Tarantula", the song is "After Dark".  Anyway, I had rented this for me and my girlfriend to watch during the week and we kept it thru the weekend.  Well my daughter came for a visit and I expressly told her that she could not watch this movie because it had scary vampires, nudity and adult themes.  No, I didn't tell her like that...haha.  Suffice it to say I told her she could watch any of the other rentals, just not that one.  Well the little stinker always got up earlier than dad and so taking advantage of my sleep of the dead, she proceeded to watch the entire movie, but then forgot to take it out of the player... haha.  Be sure good daughter, your sins found you out!  Anyway, she proceeded to tell me that the movie didn't scare her and that she likes scary movies... I laughed, and told her that scary wasn't the only reason I didn't want her watching this very provocative film.  Anyway, here is the infamous snake dance made famous by the lovely Salma Hayek in "Dusk to Dawn" that was one of the reasons I didn't want my little one watching the show.
 
Another funny tidbit from my past.  When I was in college I really wanted to learn to play piano.  I did, but my instructor helped me realize that I would never be more than a social player because my short fingers just can't reach all the notes in some songs.  For Instance, Lionel Ritchie's "Hello", was one song I very much wanted to play.. but could not because Lionel has fingers longer than a measuring stick!  So that was the end of my piano career, but Lionel went on to greatness with this followup of "Hello" set to Helium.
 The future of McDonalds? McWeed!
What's up with all the media going after Michael Phelps
over getting a little bud (marijuana for those who don't know.)?  Honestly, who cares, he is a young man, we smoke weed, get drunk, study rocket science and go fishing on the weekends.  I personally won't be supporting any sponsors that drop him just because he smoked a little marijuana.  You hear me Kellogg?  Mota anyone?
 
I'm really geeked about a new movie coming out called, "2012".  Check out the movie trailer here and here.  If you have followed any of my past emails, I've discussed 2012 and what people are saying is supposed to be the end of mankind because the Mayan's ended their calendar at the year 2012.  You can search cuil for Mayan prophecy and wonder like everyone else, "Is doomsday coming?"
 
"Blaming guns for murder, is like blaming your keyboard for spelling mistakes".
 
"Pick battles big enough to matter and small enough to win!"

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Posted by sentiant at 10:21 PM in Mike's Weekly In-Digest-Ion
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Sunday, 1 February 2009

Laconism

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Laconic.
Sentiant?
BlogACause.
Knee-Jerk politics.
Less is More.
Reality Tunnel.
G-man-oogle.
Fount of Youth!
ideologue?
exploding bacon!
I, Jellyfish.
Mission Accomplished!
Zombies Ahead.
Blackholes.
Hive Mind.
The Matrix.
Tell-me-vision.
Orwellian.
The Good, The Bad and The Ugly.  The Movie.


Mike's Quotes, Satire, and pictures of all Genre:

The next step in human genetic diversity."If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the animated contest of freedom, go home from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or your arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains set lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that ye were our countrymen." - Patrick Henry

"How strangely will the Tools of a Tyrant pervert the plain Meaning of Words!" - Samuel Adams

It does not require a majority to prevail, but rather an irate, tireless minority keen to set brush fires in people's minds. - Samuel Adams

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Posted by sentiant at 12:01 AM in Mike's Weekly In-Digest-Ion
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