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So that was that. - 13 April 2007
Apr. 14th, 2007 02:39 amYes, yes, today had a similarity with a date mentioned in a horror movie. Relax, really. It's not that bad . There are already enough triskaidekaphobes. Besides, conspiracies against squirrels deserve your fear more than this. There are a lot more things we should be afraid of... if we could just get the time to do it properly.
In video game console news - the 20 GB PS3 is being discontinued. I suspect most people will say that the 20 GB model never should have been, and resume complaining that the 60GB model is still too expensive for the average person. Wii could very well be the winner of this generation because so far, it’s been inexpensive.
Running in the same realm, IBM is announcing that it's found a way of stacking memory and processor chips on top of each other, rather than the current design of keeping them apart (even if by inches) and running wires between the two. They’ve also apparently worked out issues with heat from the processor and the technical requirements of drilling and making chips like this. We’ll see if they can make it work, and then make it work well enough to be part of computers.
Something worth reading, for those of us planning on exiting the country, or wondering just how much tracking tech and other stuff has been implemented in ID documents - a FAQ about the new State Department's "electronic" chip-enhanced passport. Biometrics, digital images of the photos, what looks to be some sort of RFID, and it’s not amendable - any changes must produce a new passport. Oh, and there will be no passports issued that don’t have the chip. If you’d like to have a look at what the object itself will look like, here's some screenshots of the pages and covers. Welcome to the future, or something. MonkeyFilter offers some inspirational quotes for your new passport.
Lee Iacocca, whom you may remember as a past CEO of Chrysler, is hopping mad. He wants to know Where Have All The Leaders Gone? In this excerpt, Iacocca outlines his C’s of leadership, and demonstrates where the current leadership lacks. Would that this was about three years earlier.
Nestle is buying Gerber, giving them baby foods in addition to several other brands. Conglomeration is definitely the order of the day. I assume we’re supposed to trust that if things get too big, there will be actions to ensure that competition is enforced. Actually, is there anything other than regulating bodies that would prevent a corporation from growing and acquiring whomever it likes?
The Buddhist Geeks aren’t worried about getting long in the tooth, but The Gen Xers: A New Breed of Dharma Teachers? takes a look at the changing face of instruction in the dharma. It’s a new mindset, and a second generation, so there are more teachers, and more formal relationships, but there’s also the new technology and the fact that some of the teachers have been in America for much of their practice, rather than in Asia.
Men may wince upon reading this story. A gentleman has been awarded almost $787,000 U.S. after a weight machine bar struck him in the left testicle. Apparently, the pain is so great that the gentleman walks bowlegged. Hopefully this story will be the only one of its kind in the history of men. (Not likely, but we can hope.)
Trying to be totally non-phallic about this, pencil art. Beautiful works make entirely out of pencils. Much like the can project of earlier. Making big art out of little things makes for fantastic results.
Global warming might make for disputes over fresh water sources in North America. Repeated heat waves or stronger ones could make for higher demands in irrigation or other industries. And if they’re pumping out something like the Great Lakes, those states and provinces around might have a thing or two to say about it. In other environmental pieces, the Governator says that the environment movement has to become hip and positive to succeed. By making saving the planet sexy (which, depending on your views, Al Gore may or may not have started to do), more people will go for it and press lawmakers to do the same.
Having serious family discord? The Government of the United Kingdom may have you sit five for fighting in special monitored housing. These particular blocks are monitored round the clock by social work staff, with interventions and assistance available. It’s an alternative to prosecution or having the kids taken away. I wonder whether it works, and if there are any plans to sell the footage to reality television shows...
Speaking of trashed houses, a social networking party that used MySpace to advertise brought more guests than expected, to the tune of more than 20,000 pounds of damage. Grounded for life and then some. Plus, if the traces go back through, I wonder if there won’t be criminal charges pressed for some of the revelers for destruction of property or some other thing.
The last bit for tonight is something that Buffy would definitely want - a vampire hunting kit, sold at auction for $12,000. Just in case we’re wrong and it’s not zombies trying to overrun us.
Okay, that’s all that. Tomorrow, we get up, we go to the post office, we head out for the Jackson Anime and Manga Society meeting. We’ll probably get back late. But that’s okay, because we’ll have had a grand time in the meantime.
In video game console news - the 20 GB PS3 is being discontinued. I suspect most people will say that the 20 GB model never should have been, and resume complaining that the 60GB model is still too expensive for the average person. Wii could very well be the winner of this generation because so far, it’s been inexpensive.
Running in the same realm, IBM is announcing that it's found a way of stacking memory and processor chips on top of each other, rather than the current design of keeping them apart (even if by inches) and running wires between the two. They’ve also apparently worked out issues with heat from the processor and the technical requirements of drilling and making chips like this. We’ll see if they can make it work, and then make it work well enough to be part of computers.
Something worth reading, for those of us planning on exiting the country, or wondering just how much tracking tech and other stuff has been implemented in ID documents - a FAQ about the new State Department's "electronic" chip-enhanced passport. Biometrics, digital images of the photos, what looks to be some sort of RFID, and it’s not amendable - any changes must produce a new passport. Oh, and there will be no passports issued that don’t have the chip. If you’d like to have a look at what the object itself will look like, here's some screenshots of the pages and covers. Welcome to the future, or something. MonkeyFilter offers some inspirational quotes for your new passport.
Lee Iacocca, whom you may remember as a past CEO of Chrysler, is hopping mad. He wants to know Where Have All The Leaders Gone? In this excerpt, Iacocca outlines his C’s of leadership, and demonstrates where the current leadership lacks. Would that this was about three years earlier.
Nestle is buying Gerber, giving them baby foods in addition to several other brands. Conglomeration is definitely the order of the day. I assume we’re supposed to trust that if things get too big, there will be actions to ensure that competition is enforced. Actually, is there anything other than regulating bodies that would prevent a corporation from growing and acquiring whomever it likes?
The Buddhist Geeks aren’t worried about getting long in the tooth, but The Gen Xers: A New Breed of Dharma Teachers? takes a look at the changing face of instruction in the dharma. It’s a new mindset, and a second generation, so there are more teachers, and more formal relationships, but there’s also the new technology and the fact that some of the teachers have been in America for much of their practice, rather than in Asia.
Men may wince upon reading this story. A gentleman has been awarded almost $787,000 U.S. after a weight machine bar struck him in the left testicle. Apparently, the pain is so great that the gentleman walks bowlegged. Hopefully this story will be the only one of its kind in the history of men. (Not likely, but we can hope.)
Trying to be totally non-phallic about this, pencil art. Beautiful works make entirely out of pencils. Much like the can project of earlier. Making big art out of little things makes for fantastic results.
Global warming might make for disputes over fresh water sources in North America. Repeated heat waves or stronger ones could make for higher demands in irrigation or other industries. And if they’re pumping out something like the Great Lakes, those states and provinces around might have a thing or two to say about it. In other environmental pieces, the Governator says that the environment movement has to become hip and positive to succeed. By making saving the planet sexy (which, depending on your views, Al Gore may or may not have started to do), more people will go for it and press lawmakers to do the same.
Having serious family discord? The Government of the United Kingdom may have you sit five for fighting in special monitored housing. These particular blocks are monitored round the clock by social work staff, with interventions and assistance available. It’s an alternative to prosecution or having the kids taken away. I wonder whether it works, and if there are any plans to sell the footage to reality television shows...
Speaking of trashed houses, a social networking party that used MySpace to advertise brought more guests than expected, to the tune of more than 20,000 pounds of damage. Grounded for life and then some. Plus, if the traces go back through, I wonder if there won’t be criminal charges pressed for some of the revelers for destruction of property or some other thing.
The last bit for tonight is something that Buffy would definitely want - a vampire hunting kit, sold at auction for $12,000. Just in case we’re wrong and it’s not zombies trying to overrun us.
Okay, that’s all that. Tomorrow, we get up, we go to the post office, we head out for the Jackson Anime and Manga Society meeting. We’ll probably get back late. But that’s okay, because we’ll have had a grand time in the meantime.
