slapdummy

"Warriors...come out and play"

While looking at sites in my recently updated blog list, I came across this entry in "Game Memes". Basically, Rockstar Games, the makers of the notorious and incredibly fun to play "Grand Theft Auto" series, are going to make a game from the very memorable 1979 movie "The Warriors". I really liked that movie, even though the cheese factor was off the charts, because it was just fun to watch.  If the game is made with even half the effort of the GTA series, it should be a blast.

However, I'm less enthused about Tony Scott doing a remake. My reluctance is less to do with Scott at the helm than just a general anxiety anytime Hollywood makes another lame ass attempt to recreate a perfectly good movie. I mean come on, are there really no new ideas left?

Geek Fantasies

A friend sent out a link to "Geek Fantasies" last week in preparation for a game night. I really wish I had thought of this first. Let me rephrase that, I wish I had thought of it as a business idea.  There are only a couple of teaser videos on the site right now, but damn are they funny. My favorite is #2.

God bless the Internet.

Main characters are no longer bulletproof

I took a break from grading papers tonight to watch some television (my hand was cramping up from correcting the same mistakes, again and again).  Anyway, while watching the season finale of CBS's crime show NCIS, they killed off a primary character. And I don't mean they left it open for a mysterious season opener resurrection, I mean they put a high-caliber rifle round through her head and sprayed some gray. I was actually a bit surprised and incredibly pleased.  I had nothing against her character, I actually found her entertaining, but it was nice to get a little something from left field.

The first time I ever remember seeing a primary character die was in what became one of my favorite films - To Live and Die in L.A.. William Petersen (of C.S.I. fame) plays a secret service agent tracking a counterfeiter.  In a pivotal moment of the film when he is literally within arms reach of capturing his suspect, Petersen takes a shotgun blast to the face.  When I first saw that I was actually stunned and to this day I still have not seen another movie with that level of surprising intensity.

It used to be not only taboo to kill off a main character but a huge media event.  Hell, in the 80's the mere thought of killing a main TV character was enough to create a media frenzy (think J.R. Ewing).  But maybe now it's just another aspect of keeping the drama level high. Just earlier this month in the popular ABC show Lost, another high profile character died unexpectedly (they even removed the navigation to his bio from the show's site).

As with anything, if it becomes the norm, it will lose its shock appeal and become as interesting as watching paint dry. Which would be a shame, since I actually enjoy a good surprise death on TV/movies as much as the next person.

Time to grade papers

I help out a local high school by being a reader/grader for their history program.  I originally started to do it to get a glimpse of being a high school teacher. I graded a bunch of papers, went in front of a class to give them some writing tips, etc.  But have found that being a high school teacher is not for me.

I get paid a couple of bucks on the side to do it, nothing much, but I still always look forward to and dread the work.  I'm hoping to read those few papers that have been done well and with care, but by far I find most of them are having problems with basic sentence structure and grammar. Even a spell checker seems beyond their grasp.

It's also interesting that the teachers who I do this for are an odd bunch.  They want the papers as fast as possible, but complain if there aren't enough comments on the papers. They also complain if the comments are similar across most of the papers, as though it is my fault that the majority make the same basic mistakes.

And, sadly, I usually catch at least a couple of cheaters.  If you are gong to cheat, at least do it well. Copying the paper of a friend in another class and hoping the same reader doesn't see it (unlikely) is a lame effort.  Doing a cut-and-paste routine on an article you found online is equally cheap.  Put some effort into it people, have some style and flair.  If you are going to go down cheating, go down screaming.

In short, I don't think I want to do this anymore.  After this session's batch is over, I think I'm going to retire from the grader profession. Besides, I have my own papers to write and that is where I get to the opportunity to look like a rube to my own instructors.

Replicating Robots

Researchers at Cornell University have been investigating the process of self-replication. They have come up with a design where a physical robot system can replicate itself. First, I would like to welcome our coming mechanical leaders. Second, if Skynet ever happens, somebody should find these guys and give them a swift kick in the nuts.

Barksdale "bribes" Mississippi

Jim Barksdale, the former CEO of Netscape, made an interesting proposition to his home state of Mississippi recently.  He offered $50 million dollars in student grants as an incentive to Mississippi lawmakers if they would only do one thing: fully fund primary and secondary education.  This would partially mean students would receive $5,000 for graduating high school and another $5,000 for graduating from a public university in Mississippi.

Of course, this would be a great story of personal philanthropy, except for one small item - Mississippi can't get their act together.  Not only have they been unable to agree on a budget, but they even seem reluctant to consider the offer. National Public Radio's "Marketplace" did a short bit on it tonight and to hear some of the reactions from the legislature they are probably going to avoid doing the right thing. 

This not only seems to be brain-dead simple, but what is the friggin' debate here?  Somebody is providing a significant financial incentive to individual students and to the education system. It's not like he is asking to sleep with each of their wives. From a state that is ranked 49th in spending per child (missing 50th by a mere $94), I would figure the state legislature would get naked and streak their capitol for a mere chance to offer their citizens a better future.

Public servants my ass...

History of the Universe in 60 seconds

This quick video is pretty nifty (yeah I said nifty, what are you going to do about it) and was done by astronomer Dr. Eric Schulman.  He did this after writing "History of the Universe in 200 Words or Less".  But even cooler, he wrote "A Briefer History of Time" and made it available for download here (pdf).

I stole this from the "Annals of Improbable Research" which is always good for an interesting tidbit or six. 

International Garment Finish

Fashion has always been a mystery to me.  I wouldn't know something fashionable if it came up and slapped me on the ass. However, one thing I have noticed in my limited fashion knowledge is a systemic division between a culture of uselessness and practicality.  Not an especially insightful observation, but as I said, I'm a fashion rube. 

Every time I've been unfortunate enough to see a quick segment that shows some runway in Italy or Paris, my only reaction is complete disbelief that anyone would actually wear these clothes. As a quick side note, somebody please explain why a significant portion of these models look like zombies? Also, somebody give these women a sandwich or three.

Anyway, with my shiny new copy of the latest Time magazine, I also received a copy of Time's "Style & Design". At the end of the magazine is an article titled "Getting That Vintage Look", devoted to the creative application of wear to denim jeans by the International Garment Finish factory.This company specializes in creating specific washes and destructive patterns to denim jeans that then increase their value significantly. This company is seriously focused on their task:

International Garment Finish in Long Beach, Calif., is one of the few factories in the world whose sole purpose is to destroy things. DKNY, Armani Exchange, Abercrombie & Fitch, Habitual, Yanuk, Tag and Taverniti all send their jeans here for what is called "denim washing." And there is some actual washing done (though it's in giant, $80,000 Italian washing machines filled with stones that pound the bejeezus out of the jeans). But there are also lasers burning away paint, tools grinding holes, brushes dipped in potassium permanganate replicating dirt stains, plastic staplers making wrinkles, 290?F ovens for baking in creases and a belt sander for fraying hems and pockets and ripping big holes in knees. It looks like a shop class taken over by David Letterman. (Time)

I read the article a couple of times because I wanted to make sure it wasn't some elegant fashion joke. Once I got past that I have to admit to being intrigued at the process of producing artificial age in clothing.  They use sophisticated techniques to achieve varying levels of destruction in a fairly precise manner.

But...to steal a line from Fark - Still no cure for cancer.

Silicon Zoo

In a past issue of Maximum PC there was a small article on a research engineer named Michael Davidson who stumbled on artwork etched into a CPU a while ago.  Since then he has been collecting similar images and created a website to display them.

He receives images from other people, but also magnifies chips he finds at 1000x to examine and capture images. Although Davidson has noted that in recent years there has been a significant decline in this silicon chip artwork, which he attributes to smaller chip fabrication and "stuffier attitudes" at chip design and manufacturing firms.

He has dozen of images on display including nature scenes, pop culture and animals.  This is fairly interesting in a "too much time on your hands" kind of way.

Beating up five-year-olds

Came across this a couple of minutes ago on Embrace the Dull and couldn't stop laughing: How many 5 year-olds can you beat-up?

Not only is it the best laugh I've had in a while, but I know I could take quite a few of the little bastards out in the first couple of minutes before succumbing to sheer exhaustion. Hey, I never said I had any degree of endurance.