All the talk lately is about Swine Flu. I'm not worried about it. It would have to reach pandemic proportions (let's say 100,000 dead world wide) before I'd give it much merit.
About 36,000 Americans die from influenza complications every year. That's just the regular run-of-the mill flu. It's not really anything unusual. So far this Swine Flu is not much.
That isn't to say that the medical personnel shouldn't be paying attention to Swine Flu. But it's over-hyped in the general population. All that does is cause general panic. Think back to SARS. That never really did become much, all that hype over nothing.
Also remember, it's just a flu. Most people that have been infected have made a full recovery without any medical intervention.
Thursday, April 30, 2009
«Swine Flu»
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
«World's Most Influential Person»
According to a poll by Time, Moot is the World's Most Influential Person. Not Barack Obama, or any world or religious leader for that matter. Nope, it's Moot.
Moot is the online alias of Christopher Poole, the creator of 4chan. 4chan is an imageboard, and the spawning ground of many of the internet's memes. Lolcats? They started at 4chan. Rick rolling1? That came from 4chan. In a way, Moot is indeed the world's most influential person; on the internet anyway. "4chan really does own the internet."
With 16,794,368 votes and a rating of 90/100, I call foul play. There were a few reported attempts at directly hacking the poll, although none were successful. What happened was a more direct approach at manipulating the results: someone wrote programs to repeatedly vote "Moot" on the poll, then ran it on multiple computers (this is known as a botnet).
The entire poll was "rigged" in this manner. The first letters of the top 21 results spells out "MARBLECAKE ALSO THE GAME". Marblecake is the irc channel where the Message to Scientology video originated.
I found a page that details exactly how it was pulled off: Inside the precision hack. As for why they did it? Why else: for the lulz.
1 A "Rick Roll" is when someone is intentionally mislead to the music video "Never Gonna Give You Up" by Rick Astley. Example: Check out this cool website!
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
«Air Force One Stunt»
Yesterday Air Force One (the US President's jet) was seen flying low over the New York skyline. The intent was to get photos of it passing over the skyline and Statue of Liberty for postcards and such. Similar photos have been taken at other national landmarks such as Mount Rushmore.
Photo by Jim Brown
For whatever reason, they kept the planning of the event on a "need-to-know" basis. It went on to prove one thing: terrorism works. Everyone panicked when they saw it. They all ran out of the buildings and into the streets, thinking it was a repeat of 9/11. Obama was not on the jet, and was "furious" when he found out about the stunt.
They should have informed the public before they did it. Not only to avoid the panic, but also to allow other photographers a chance to prepare for it.
See the rest of “Air Force One Stunt”»
Monday, April 27, 2009
«Motivational Monday: Combat Beard»
It's all in the beard... Why do you think Osama Bin Laden is still alive?
Sunday, April 26, 2009
«Ebon Dragon Shoop Da Whoop (500th Post)»
Half a thousand posts... Who would of ever thought I'd make it this far?
This is why we can't have nice things...
Click image to view full.
Yeah, I did that to the image in photoshop. The art was originally used on the Magic: the gathering card Ebon Dragon.
See the rest of “Ebon Dragon Shoop Da Whoop (500th Post)”»
Saturday, April 25, 2009
«Caturday: Why Concentration Ears»
For some reason, I like this one. You always see people dress their dogs, but you don't see it very often with cats.
Friday, April 24, 2009
«Suggest and Vote for Blogger»
Have a suggestion for Blogger? They currently have a Suggest and Vote page open. Better hurry though, I think it's only open for a week.
Thursday, April 23, 2009
«Cruise Ships Are In Again»
Yesterday marked the beginning of the 2009 cruise ship season here in Ketchikan, Alaska. There was 1 ship in.
I've decided this year not to do a Cruise Ship Watch series. I'm going to be going on vacation after the first week of May, so I'd miss a bunch of ships anyway.
I'll say more about my upcoming vacation in a later post.
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
«Tweaked Ads' Color Pallet»
I changed the colors slightly on the ads in the sidebar and the footer. The one in the sidebar won't show in an item page; it'll only display on the main page or an archive page (or on a blog supplement page).
Instead of blending the ads in, I'm trying a complement-style color pallet. They stand out more, but I don't think they're distracting. They had the same color background as the rest of the page: hexadecimal color code #191919. Now I've changed them to have a background color the same as the header: hexadecimal color code #4F4C48.
I've also added little 14x14 pixel icons in a few places. I've removed the directional arrows that corresponded to the dates in favor of little calendar icons. Also, down at the bottom of each post where it says the time it was posted there's now a little clock icon.
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
«Unusual Ads: Braille Superstore»
"many of which you've never seen before."
What an ironic statement.
Monday, April 20, 2009
«Motivational Monday: Cat Hitler»
Adolf Hitler's birthday today. Hitler may be long dead, but another self-superior race is at hand.
Sunday, April 19, 2009
Saturday, April 18, 2009
Friday, April 17, 2009
«NASA Fails Colbert»
What's the point of NASA even having a vote to name Node 3 for the ISS? They chose "Tranquility", despite the name being in 8th place. They didn't even chose the most voted-for official option of "Serenity".
The write-in "Colbert" took first place. As a consolation prize to all the now-disgruntled majority voters, they named the treadmill COLBERT (Combined Operational Load Bearing External Resistance Treadmill). In my opinion, as long as the write-in wasn't vulgar they should have gone with it. Node 3 should have been named Colbert (despite my vote of Xenu).
If you don't want a write-in name to win, don't give the option of a write-in. If you don't want the most popular choice to win, don't have a vote on it. Simple. It just pisses people off when you have a vote on something, then disregard the result.
I mean, they chose the 8th place name. The vote was pointless. Way to go, NASA.
FAIL
Thursday, April 16, 2009
«Leftover Snow Still Around»
There's still snow in places around here left over from December! (Here being Ketchikan, Alaska) It's just been a cold spring. We usually have weather more like Seattle than what you'd traditionally associate with Alaska (just a little colder and wetter than Seattle).
This photo was taken April 14th, 2009... At sea-level no less.
Click image to view full
See the rest of “Leftover Snow Still Around”»
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
«Sim City Microwave Power Plant»
For those of us that played Sim City 2000 or 3000, this will sound familiar.
Holy crap, that's exactly what the microwave power plants in Sim City do! It's expected to begin beaming down 200 megawatts of power by 2016 (a full 4 years ahead of the 2020 date the power plant becomes available in Sim City!)Solaren would generate the power using solar panels in Earth orbit and convert it to radio-frequency transmissions that would be beamed down to a receiving station
If that one is successful, larger-scale ones could be built that produce up to 4.8 gigawatts. (Remember, took only 1.21 gigawatts to travel through time in the movie Back to the Future.)
I love it when the fictional technology of the future becomes a reality.
See the rest of “Sim City Microwave Power Plant”»
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
«Google is God»
...Or at least the closest thing we have to a God. There's even a Church of Google.
I, being an atheist, require extraordinary evidence for extraordinary claims. However, the Church of Google website backs up their claim with 9 proofs:
- Omniscience (all-knowing)
- Omnipresence (everywhere at once)
- Answers Prayers (searches)
- Immortality (potentially, anyway)
- Infinite (theoretically no limits)
- Offer of an Afterlife (Google's cache)
- Omnibenevolence ("don't be evil" motto)
- Fulfillment (turn to when in a time of need)
- Existence (Google exists)
That last one is where Google trumps all other gods. Google actually exists. While I will admit Google is the closest thing we know of to a god, it is still not a god. Google is missing omnipotence (all-powerful). There is no extraordinary evidence to prove Google is all-powerful. In fact, I'd say true omnipotence is an impossibility (due to various logical paradoxes).
I also question the validity of Google's omnibenevolence claim. Just because their company motto is "don't be evil" it doesn't mean they follow it all the time. However, omnibenevolence is not a prerequisite in my mind for a god. Just look at the God of the Christian Bible... That vengeful bastard is anything but omnibenevolent.
So, I will still remain an Atheist. Google does exist, but it is not a god.
See the rest of “Google is God”»
Monday, April 13, 2009
Sunday, April 12, 2009
«Yak and the Story Of Easter»
Seriously, when you think about it... A giant bunny hiding eggs makes more sense for Easter. Perhaps that's why Easter is the way it is today.
Yak and the Story Of Easter
Saturday, April 11, 2009
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