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Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in
Jeff's LiveJournal:
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| Sunday, July 5th, 2009 | | 1:24 pm |
| | Friday, July 3rd, 2009 | | 9:51 am |
| | Tuesday, June 30th, 2009 | | 8:49 pm |
| | 2:24 pm |
Well, this sucks
Looks like the Cap and Trade Bill made it through the House, 219 - 212. Hopefully the Senate will stop it. And maybe I'm a Chinese jet pilot. I'll be over here shopping for a home solar electric system, before the rush starts. Google "cap and trade", any of the links I could post would be considered extremist (they aren't, expect about a $1000 increase in energy cost per family. For a possible 5% reduction in co2. Maybe). Current Mood:  angry | | Monday, June 29th, 2009 | | 3:02 pm |
Supreme Court narrowly decides that discrimination againts whites, hispanics and handicapped is bad.
From the Washington Post:The Supreme Court today narrowly ruled in favor of white firefighters in New Haven, Conn., who said they were denied promotions because of their race, reversing a decision by Judge Sonia Sotomayor and others that had come to play a large role in the consideration of her nomination for the high court. The city had thrown out the results of a promotion test because no African Americans and only two Hispanics would have qualified for promotions. It said it feared a lawsuit from minorities under federal laws that said such "disparate impacts" on test results could be used to show discrimination. In effect, the court was deciding when avoiding potential discrimination against one group amounted to actual discrimination against another. The court's conservative majority said in a 5 to 4 vote that is what happened in New Haven. Ginsberg apparently feels that some discrimination is ok, as long as it is all for the greater good:Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg wrote for the liberals on the court and said the decision knocks the pegs from Title VII of the Civil Rights Act. She read her dissent from the bench for emphasis. "Congress endeavored to promote equal opportunity in fact, and not simply in form," she said. "The damage today's decision does to that objective is untold." Kennedy used some common sense instead:Kennedy said the standard for whether an employer may discard a test is whether there is a strong reason to the employer to believe that the test is flawed in a way that discriminates against minorities, not just by looking at the results. In New Haven's case, "there is no evidence -- let alone the required strong basis in evidence -- that the tests were flawed because they were not job-related or because other, equally valid and less discriminatory tests were available to the city," Kennedy wrote.
And for good measure: The lead plaintiff, Frank Ricci, is a veteran firefighter who said in sworn statements that he spent thousands of dollars in preparation and studied for months for the exam. Ricci said he is dyslexic, so he had tapes made of the test materials and listened to them on his commute to work. My take? This shows how frivolous lawsuits have borked up our legal system. The city was so worried about being sued that they junked the test, even though they could find no flaws in it. I am curious as to what the ethnic breakdown of that fire department is, and what the ratio of the test takers was. Current Mood: annoyed | | Friday, June 26th, 2009 | | 4:19 pm |
James May on the Moon
BBC2 just aired a documentary on the NASA moon flights, starring James May of Top Gear fame. Since it's doubtful it will appear on US tv, you can find it via torrents here. Current Mood: thoughtful | | 8:38 am |
video game meme
Via ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) lotusice 1. What's the first video game you ever played? Standup, pc, or console? Standup was either pac-man or space invaders,PC would have been something uninspiring on a TRS-80, console was probably Combat on the Atari 2600 2. What was the first RPG you ever played? D&D, cause that was all there was! *grin* 3. Vanilla AD&D or did you go off-book eventually? How far off book? Hmm, it got pretty silly IIRC. Which ended up with me walking, cause the DM was more interested in overturning the players plans than putting together a good game. 4. What was the first video RPG you ever played? I think I caught Rogue before it was gone, but mostly I remember Ultima and Might & Magic. 5. First FPS? (Arcade games count for all of these.) Wolfenstein 3D! 6. MUDD, or are you too young? If not MUDD, what was your first chat RPG experience? Do you still do it? Oh yeah. Dial up FTW! 8. Top, all time ever video game. (Other than WOW for those of us currently addicted.) Well, since I am mostly into shooters and sims, and I am pretty much console only now. . Bioshock set a new standard for video game production and storytelling, was a great game, but had no real replay value. Call of Duty 4 is right up there too with great immersion, and fun multiplayer for replay, but the co-op is lacking. For me, a great game is one that I can play with friends both online or in my house, and for that it's a close call between Halo 3 and Gears of War 2. Both have co-op available for the entire game, and Halo allows 4 player co-op as well. GOW has a more interesting story and better graphics, Halo has better multiplayer. So those two are usually what I pick up and play. Gah, and I didn't even get into my picks for RTS and sims. . . 9. What do you hate most in a video game? Anything that takes me out of the game. Environmental draw distances are one of my favorite pet peeves, as well as goofy physics models and clipping. 10. What do you love best in a video game? A good story, new twists in gameplay, and a polished gameplay experience. I can deal with ok graphics if the story is good. And I love it when you have freedom in gameplay, like vehicle use in a FPS or RPG's that have multiple methods to accomplish goals. But the biggest thing is smooth gameplay, I want the game to work the first time and every time. That's a big reason I moved to consoles, I got tired of upgrading hardware and software patches and graphics drivers. And this game plays for crap on this card, and you cant play at full resolution on this one. Current Mood:  chipper | | Thursday, June 25th, 2009 | | 9:56 am |
Music remix
Most of the time, remakes of songs fail to work as well as the original. But every once and a while, you get some that work either from superior vocal or musical skill. Here are a few that I can think of off hand, what are yours? Corey Taylor (of Slipknot!!!!) - Wicked Game When he's not screaming about blood, death and destruction, Corey has a damn good voice Robbie Williams - Wonderwall Robbie is almost unknown in the US, but overseas he is huge and deservedly so. The version I have of this is live at a concert, and he just stomps the Live version. Honorable mentions: Alien Ant Farm - Smooth Criminal Honestly, all they really did was mix the music louder so it's not as overshadowed by the vocals, but I dig it. This is a great song to see live. Disturbed - Land of Confusion This would be in the great category if David Draimen could avoid doing that "awwwck awwwck" thing all the time. Infectious Grooves - The Immigrant song Mostly due to Robert Trujillo's awesome bass work.
Current Mood:  bouncy | | Wednesday, June 24th, 2009 | | 8:47 pm |
| | 8:21 pm |
Remote control, or sex toy? I'm not sure. . .
Strange Gel Remote Control concept by Panasonic
This may be the strangest remote control we’ve ever seen. With the push of a button, this remote becomes rigid and ready for use.
When it’s not in use, this concept remote just sort of lays there limp, pulsating with light. But when you touch it, the remote gets excited and becomes rigid. 
Constructed of a soft, flesh-like gel, the remote appears cold when off. Once turned on, however, it seems to come to life. A soft light emanates somewhere from within as the center of the device begins to slowly rise and fall, mimicking the tranquil motions of breath. Left undisturbed, the remote will slumber peacefully. Buth should a human hand approach, sensors inside alert it to the imminent touch. It stops breathing, grows rigid – the light from within is extinguished.
Current Mood: amused | | 4:26 pm |
More Star Wars Old Republic stuff
Some in-game alpha test footage There were a couple spots where the draw distance is closer than it should be, but other than that it looks pretty good so far. Current Mood: awake | | 7:53 am |
The sleep, it comes soon, yes?
Blargh. I haven't slept much the last week or so. Not from anything in particular, just too many shiny things and not enough time for them all. But yesterday was supposed to be the time for reclaiming those lost shut eyes. And I did get a brief nap in. But then I had to go help out the spouse unit at work, and we didn't get home until a bit after midnight. And since we were up that late, the cats decided to put on an exhibition wrestling match on the bed for us after we tried to go to sleep. Blargh again. Current Mood:  sleepyCurrent Music: Yes - On the silent wing of freedom | | Friday, June 19th, 2009 | | 10:52 am |
| | 9:45 am |
On electric cars
On one of the automotive forums I hang out at the subject of the Tesla electric roadster was brought up. During the discusion, I made a post comparing co2 emissions based on various figures that I found. Well, lets see.
It has a 53 kwh Battery
Coal produces roughly 1.9 lbs of co2 per kwh.
Tesla roadster testing indicates about 31 kwh per 100 miles, so that's 58.9 lbs of co2.
Now, the average car emits co2 at about 19.4lbs per gallon of fuel. So at 18mpg in the Xterra, you get around 107.7 lbs. Ouch right? Well, that's apples and oranges, lets go with a sedan, around 30mpg. In 100 miles, you will emit about 64.6 lbs.
So without trying too hard, we are already almost equal in co2 emitted from a 2 seat electric roadster to a 4 door gas sedan. Put in a fuel sipper like a miata or mrS and it would be even less. Also, the coal emissions figures are just that, for the coal being burnt. Add in the emissions from digging. refining and transporting coal and it gets worse. Plus the environmental damage. Take a look at the underground coal fires on the east coast that will be burning for years, and have cause the evacuation of several towns. Or the effects of the different methods of mining coal.
Now, don't get me wrong here. Vehicles like this are a worthy endeavor. But it's like building a new roof on a house with a rotten foundation. We need better ways to generate electrical power first.
The rebuttle came in the form of "we need to reduce our relience on middle east oil, OPEC, ect. To which my reply was: Less than 50% percent of our oil comes from OPEC. Check out the graphs here.
Not only that, less than 1/4 comes from the persian gulf. Our biggest oil supplier is Canada, which provides about double the oil that the largest OPEC provider (Saudi Arabia) does. We get almost as much oil from Mexico as we do the Saudis.
OPEC does have influence, true. But we do as well. Look into why the dollar is the only currency used for oil purchases with OPEC, and what happened to the one oil producing country that switched over to the Euro from the dollar.
What my arguement comes down to is this: Instead of fiddling about with cars and lightbulbs, we need to hit the big ticket items. Coal power is absolutely nasty stuff, there is nothing good about it, and no clean way to produce it. We need more nuclear, geothermal, solar and hydroelectric power plants. Instead of cars, we need to clean up air and sea transportation. Air traffic is a horrendous polluter, and sea transport isn't far behind. Many countries have no regulation on ship fuels, so the smaller ships will burn any oil based fuel they can get their hands on. But if we are preoccupied with hybrid cars and CFC lightbulbs, King Coal will continue to blow smoke in our faces. Current Mood: awake | | Tuesday, June 16th, 2009 | | 4:31 pm |
| | Monday, June 15th, 2009 | | 3:35 pm |
| | Friday, June 12th, 2009 | | 1:07 pm |
I'm waiting to see what his mutant powers will be.
Via elusivetiger  The meteorite struck Gerrit on the hand, and buried itself in the road Gerrit Blank was on his way to school when he saw a massive fireball heading straight towards him from the sky. The white-hot meteorite bounced off the schoolboy's hand and hit the ground so hard it left a foot-long crater in the tarmac - as well as a three-inch scar on his hand. Gerrit, 14, said: "At first I just saw a large ball of light and then I suddenly felt a pain in my hand. "Then, a split second after that, there was an enormous bang like a crash of thunder." "The noise that came after the flash of light was so loud that my ears were ringing for hours afterwards. "When it hit me it knocked me flying and then was still going fast enough to bury itself in the road." Scientists are now studying the pea-sized meteorite, which crashed to Earth in Essen in Germany. Chemical tests on the rock have now proved it is from outer space. Ansgar Korte, director of Germany's Walter Hohmann Observatory, said: "It's a real meteorite, therefore it is very valuable to collectors and scientists." Chances of being struck by a meteorite are around one in 100 million. Mr Korte said: "Most meteorites don't actually make it to ground level because they evaporate in the atmosphere. "Of those that do get through, about six out of every seven of them land in water." There is only one other known case of a human being surviving a direct hit from a meteor. A grapefruit-sized meteor crashed through the roof of a house in Alabama, in the USA, in 1954. After smashing through the top of the building, it bounced off furniture and then hit a woman who was asleep at the time. Current Mood: impressed | | Thursday, June 11th, 2009 | | 8:33 pm |
| | 4:26 pm |
| | 9:18 am |
Stupid supply and demand
So there I was at Home Despot. . . window shopping hardware for my patio cover. Can someone explain why the brackets that I need for the 4x4 posts cost more than double the posts themselves? $20 fraking dollars each? If they cost over $2 each to stamp, I would be surprised.  Edit: Huh. Online they are $16, not the $19 they were in store. Weird. Still overpriced tho. Current Mood: annoyedCurrent Music: none, my batteries are low |
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