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February 29, 2004
Flagrantly Fraudulent
Want to see some fraud? I've got
your fraud right here.
This is one of the more clever frauds I've seen in a while. Uses
Paypal's graphics, actually takes you to Paypal's site (in one of the
spawn windows) -- but it gathers your password and user name in the
process. I'm no programmer, but it's some damn clever programming in the
body of the fraudulent e-mail itself, and in the two resulting windows
that open.
It opens two windows, you see -- one a real, actual link to Paypal,
and the fraudulent one that appears to be hosted on a
hijacked web server belonging to this company through which the
user name and password information is gathered.
On the fake, spawn window the address bar, status bar and navigation
bar are disabled. Easy enough to do in Internet Explorer. Right-click is
also disabled, but that's easy enough to get around -- but not for many
very creduluous people this is designed to fool.
Please note that the very first link in this post is not Paypal, so
if you enter your account information in this "just to see what happens"
some Russian hackers will have all the money in your bank account
lickety-split. Don't do it.
Posted by Mike at 08:52
PM
| Comments (0)
February 27, 2004
Never Buy This Car
The headlong rush to the complete surveillance society continues
apace.
Posted by Mike at 07:26
PM
| Comments (0)
Snow Flag
Taken today, almost two feet of snow on the ground.
Posted by Mike at 11:02
AM
| Comments (2)
Take This Job And Lost It
What annoys me about stories
like this is that the press chooses to report when jobs are lost,
even when the losses are miniscule, while often ignoring large-scale
hiring. It gives the impression, even in boom times, that jobs are being
lost while none are being gained.
Job losses make a better story; but often, it is not a wholly true
story.
Posted by Mike at 09:59
AM
| Comments (0)
February 26, 2004
Snow
Just to give you an idea how much snow has fallen today in Charlotte.
That's the patio table right outside the front door, taken at 11:15 pm.
It's the most snow I've ever seen here.
When the snow stops falling (so I don't damage my camera) and it's
daylight, I will take more photos. Not like I am going anywhere
tomorrow, anyway.
We had thunder snow today -- first time I've ever seen lightning and
snow falling at the same time.
Posted by Mike at 11:28
PM
| Comments (1)
Dean
Why Howard
Dean really lost.
Posted by Mike at 02:05
AM
| Comments (0)
If I Were Jack Bauer....
I would love to shoot that
rifle if for no other reason than it looks totally badass.
Posted by Mike at 02:01
AM
| Comments (1)
February 25, 2004
Culture Can't Be Code For Tyranny
This
jells with an idea I've had about why so few on the Left show any
compassion at all towards the position of women in Islamic society,
which 30 years ago would have been a much different story.
Unlike social issues dominating the political palette as they had in
the past, young people today are almost unconcerned with these issues.
This is because most (though certainly not all) of the great social
issues of the past in America have taken such great strides towards a
solution that there is little left to fight about.
These two points go together. Because the young people of today did
not fight the battles of racism and sexism their parents did, they have
no experience with those great struggles. And no experience of the
oppression involved. It's hard to feel compassion for, and show
understanding of, something you have never experienced yourself. I think
this in large part explains why most on the Left (the traditional
fighter of social battles) feel almost nothing about the status (or lack
thereof) of women in Islamic society, so much so that when one is
killed in an honor killing, the reaction is, "Well, that's just their
culture."
It was "just the culture" of America in the 1950s to not allow blacks
and women to have good jobs, go to good schools, and have a much lower
social status than did white men. So, what's the difference? I don't see
one.
Posted by Mike at 11:54
AM
| Comments (2)
Predator
Build
your own Predator UAV.
Now, where I can get a few Hellfire missiles to go for that totally
realistic look?
(Side note: I've been close enough to a an OH-58D Kiowa Warrior
"Little Bird" helicopter firing Hellfires to get dirt of my face from
the missiles throwing debris high into the air when they hit. For such a
small thing, that weighs about 100 pounds and is five feet long,
damn, they do some massive damage.)
Posted by Mike at 06:38
AM
| Comments (0)
Catnip
No one knows quite why catnip
affects cats as it does, though it is known that it acts as an
aphrodisiac of sorts. My guess is that the active compound,
nepetalactone, is chemically similar to the pheromones cats give off
when in heat.
I've often wondered what effect catnip would have on humans if
consumed (or smoked) in large enough quantities, and it turns out not
much at all.
Humans and cats have extremely similar physiologies, so its widely
varying impact makes catnip a unique compound indeed. For instance, give
a cat some demerol, it will react identically to a human being. Same
with caffeine, alcohol, etc. Nepetalactone can be detected by cats in a
concentration as little as one part per billion.
Posted by Mike at 06:28
AM
| Comments (0)
Nushu
An ancient language called nushu
used only by women.
Nushu in some ways resembles Chinese, if some of the
characters were stretched and altered. But it also differs in many
respects. For example, according to researchers, the letters represent
sound -- the sounds of this region's Cheng Guan Tuhua dialect -- and not
ideas as in the Chinese ideograms that men studied and wrote. Nushu was
written from top to bottom in wispy, elongated letters in columns that
read from right to left.
Much remains unknown about nushu. Its origins, reaching perhaps as
far back as the 3rd century, have been the subject of scholarly
exchanges among a handful of researchers in China and elsewhere. They
know it was used in Hunan's Jiangyong County, in south central China
about 200 miles northwest of Guangzhou, and believe it was limited to
what is now Jiangyong's Shungjian Xu Township, which includes Pumei and
these days has a population of around 19,000 people. But even that is
not certain.
I think they speak nushu on that Oxygen channel, too.
Posted by Mike at 04:49
AM
| Comments (1)
Ran Into AWOL
Technically, Brian Tiemann is
right when he asserts that Bush could not have been AWOL from Guard
drills, because you either show up for the drill or not -- there is no
"AWOL." That's only for regular military personnel.
But, most civilians misuse military terminology, and this is no
exception. By "AWOL," most people mean "He wasn't where he was supposed
to be when he said he was." While the case either way is very uncertain,
the misuse of military terminology, though certainly understandable,
causes me some mental dissonance.
Posted by Mike at 04:39
AM
| Comments (0)
February 24, 2004
Grey Day
I don't particularly like any of the songs below, but I do believe
they represent an original work, and deserve to exist without legal
harassment. Those who would take away your rights of fair use and the
ability of individuals to use their creative freedom as they see fit
believe otherwise. More details here.
This site is grey today in solidarity and protest of the diminishment
of traditional rights and priviliges, and all the songs are available
for download below.
Public
Service Announcement.
What
More Can I Say.
Encore.
December
4th.
99
Problems.
Dirt
Off Your Shoulder.
Moment
of Clarity.
Change
Clothes.
Allure.
Justify
My Thug.
Lucifer.
My
1st Song.
Cease and desist letters? Bring 'em on.
Posted by Mike at 12:55
AM
| Comments (3)
February 23, 2004
Favorite Image From Iraq
Wednesday April 9,
10:14 AM
Samantha Sheppard, 28, from
Plymouth, a soldier with the 2nd Light Tank Regiment, smiles as she
receives a flower from an Iraqi man during a patrol on the streets of
east Basra, southern Iraq, April 2003. (AP Photo/Jon Mills/Pool)
That says so much about the differences in cultures. Perfect photo.
Posted by Mike at 12:48
PM
| Comments (0)
Thunder
One of my favorite
short stories.
Posted by Mike at 12:56
AM
| Comments (2)
February 22, 2004
Words, Letters, Colors
Glenn Reynolds writes here
about synesthesia, a topic in which I have long been interested.
A while ago, I knew a girl who saw every letter as a different color,
and every word as a different shade of the colors that comprised the
letters. I didn't believe her at first, because I have no experience
with anything like that. Reality is essentially flat and even for me.
But then again, no one believed her, because it is so strange a thing.
They thought she just wanted attention or to be different.
She knew I finally believed when I asked her to talk to me in colors,
to spell her words out in the colors of the letters. She cried that
night, because I was the first person who actually accepted her strange
ability.
I haven't talked to her in years; my life was in chaos, and so was
hers. I hope her colors have not faded.
Posted by Mike at 03:22
AM
| Comments (2)
February 21, 2004
Safety
Good article
about the SUV craze, and how they peddle the illusion of safety rather
than the actuality.
The truth, underneath all the rationalizations, seemed
to be that S.U.V. buyers thought of big, heavy vehicles as safe: they
found comfort in being surrounded by so much rubber and steel. To the
engineers, of course, that didn't make any sense, either: if consumers
really wanted something that was big and heavy and comforting, they
ought to buy minivans, since minivans, with their unit-body
construction, do much better in accidents than S.U.V.s. (In a
thirty-five-m.p.h. crash test, for instance, the driver of a Cadillac
Escalade--the G.M. counterpart to the Lincoln Navigator--has a
sixteen-per-cent chance of a life-threatening head injury, a
twenty-per-cent chance of a life-threatening chest injury, and a
thirty-five-per-cent chance of a leg injury. The same numbers in a Ford
Windstar minivan--a vehicle engineered from the ground up, as opposed to
simply being bolted onto a pickup-truck frame--are, respectively, two
per cent, four per cent, and one per cent.)"
I think people should be able to buy what they want, safe or not, but
I also believe they should be held accountable for their actions. Those
two concepts seem to be worlds apart in a large portion of those who
drive SUVs.
Another thing that article pointed out that I also noticed in my
personal driving experience is that, in an SUV (or any other large
vehicle), you are safer in a certain sense, say, if you happen to hit a
tractor-trailer head-on. But, if you drive a quick, responsive, car that
doesn't weigh 5,000 pounds, it's a great deal easier to extricate
yourself from such dangerous scenarios than with any SUV.
I drive a very fast, very responsive car, and it's gotten me out
situations almost guaranteed to have been accidents had I been in a
heavier, less responsive vehicle.
Posted by Mike at 10:20
AM
| Comments (0)
Fired Me Up
My piece below reminded me of something I hadn't thought of in a
while.
During an Army training exercise about six years ago, my job was to
play a civilian reporter on the battlefield. Because I'd escorted so
many of them, I had a pretty good idea how they acted in (and reacted
to) military situations.
So, essentially, I was there to act as clueless and uncooperative as
possible, and to complicate operations as much as real reporters do when
they impose themselves on a battlefield.
So, I wandered in off the road into the training area, cameras
everywhere, notebooks falling out of my bag, in clothing bright enough
that a sniper could spot me from two miles away, and tried to find the
blue (friendly) forces.
I didn't find them, but they did find me. A recon patrol came driving
through the woods, so I stood up when they paused to report something
back to the main force on the radio.
They saw me approaching their Humvees, and ordered me to stop. I
didn't stop. I just kept saying, "I'm an American just like you! I just
want to talk to you! I'm working on a story! I am lost and am so glad
you guys came along!"
They ordered me to stop several more times and, befitting my job, I
did not. So, the .50 gunner swung his weapon toward me, and ordered me
to stop again. Since my job was to push things as far as I could, I
didn't stop.
Two seconds later, he opened up on me.
They were only blanks, and I was still at least 50 feet away from the
first Humvee, but I could feel the heat of that massive weaopn firing,
and even though I knew every round used in the training was a blank, it
was still pretty damn startling to have that enormously loud and
intimidating weapon firing right at me.
The gunner did the right thing -- in an environment like that (just
like in Iraq right now), I could have been carrying anything in my bag
or on my person.
But, what they got for "shooting" me was they had to deal with my
body until that part of training was over. Had it been a real .50 cal,
though, firing at that close range, there wouldn't have been much of my
body left.
Posted by Mike at 09:47
AM
| Comments (0)
Firing Blanks
Utah is banning the use of firing
squads as a mean of execution, not because they are barbaric, but
because they bestow too much presumed honor on the death row inmates
killed that way.
I have been attempting to tease out the psychic thread in my mind of
exactly what makes a firing squad more honorable than, say, lethal
injection. There are two major aspects, I think. Because the military
has traditionally used firing squads in the past to execute soldiers,
this method of execution has received a sort of "honor transfer" from
the military.
And there is also the matter of it taking a good deal more grit to
face a firing squad than to be strapped to some gurney and die
anonymously and painlessly in the middle of the night.
Strangely, one member of a firing squad traditionally receives a
rifle loaded with blanks so that no one knows for sure who fired the
fatal shot. Even when others are firing around you at the same time,
though, you can tell by the recoil and the sound of your own rifle
whether you are firing blanks or not.
But, I guess, if the prospective executioner chooses to assuage his
conscience, he can convince himself otherwise.
Posted by Mike at 09:26
AM
| Comments (0)
February 19, 2004
Length Is Important
I don't like reading long articles with a lot of short words, like
the last
paragraph of this. It takes me longer to read. My random complaint
of the day.
Posted by Mike at 01:21
AM
| Comments (7)
February 18, 2004
Wireless
Wow. An article about wardriving on the local news tonight. Never
thought I'd see that in such a forum.
For those who don't know, wardriving is the practice of driving
around and looking for unsecured wireless networks. It doesn't sound
like much of a problem to most people, but if anyone can access your
wireless network, they can access your machines, and use your connection
for most anything they please.
In the old building where I worked, there was an unsecured wireless
network that belonged to another company I used when I brought my laptop
to work. But my uses were benign -- I was just using some bandwidth.
When I went to Columbia, SC, I found eight totally unsecure wireless
networks belonging to companies within a 1/4 mile when I was working on
someone's laptop with 802.11b.
One of the points the reporter obviously did not understand about
wireless networks is that a potential attacker can break into your
machines, but they do not even have to go that far. Anything you access
over your wireless network can be picked up by a packet sniffer. You say
all your files are password-protected? Doesn't matter. The minute you
request one over the wireless, passwords become irrelevant.
A packet sniffer grabs the actual packets out of the air and
re-assembles them into a coherent form. No password needed.
Posted by Mike at 06:23
PM
| Comments (2)
Bang-Up
It's no surprise that older
drivers and car accidents go together like Michael Jackson and the
Vienna Boys Choir.
That reminded of another thought I had about cars. If cars had been
invented today, they'd be banned immediately. Much too dangerous to
actually use -- I mean, come on, allowing an individual to control
several tons of rolling, unrestrained metal. How unlikely! It's only
because cars were invented when society was much less risk-averse, and
they became embedded in the society as a necessity (both physically and
psychologically), that no one actually seriously calls for the ban of
all cars today.
Cars are far more dangerous than guns, drugs, random violence, or any
of the other societal bugaboos that so many people spend so much time
worrying about. If you're between the ages of 24-50, your chances of
dying by car are greater by far than dying any other way. 112 people a
day die of car accidents in this nation alone.
I just find it a bit funny that some people will no doubt rail
against guns and crime and drugs and the military (insert pet cause
here), and then go out and drive their SUVs, a guided missile if there
ever was one, as if they were the only one on the road.
Posted by Mike at 05:57
PM
| Comments (0)
Bamboozapalooza
Migraine today, but here are some thoughts from Carl Sagan:
"One of the saddest lessons of history is this: If we've been
bamboozled long enough, we tend to reject any evidence of the bamboozle.
We're no longer interested in finding out the truth. The bamboozle has
captured us. It is simply too painful to acknowledge - even to ourselves
- that we've been so credulous."
Posted by Mike at 01:30
PM
| Comments (1)
February 17, 2004
Back Scratching
Interview
with Robert Trivers, who codified the theory of reciprocal
altruism.
Posted by Mike at 02:05
AM
| Comments (2)
February 16, 2004
What Compromises May Come
Insightful
article in the Jerusalem Post that contemplates the
difference between fanatics, the Left and the Right.
"Israel is a dream come true, and as such it is
compromised," Oz tells us. "So what? The word 'compromise' has a
dreadful reputation in the minds of many idealists in many countries,
who equate it with opportunism or capitulation. Not in my vocabulary."
That dreams cannot come true without being compromised is a powerful
insight, both for daily life and for extremists on both sides of the
spectrum."
Some conflicts cannot be settled in a way amenable to both parties.
Such is the case in Israel. In the minds of many people on both sides,
the solutions offered are untenable to the other party under any
circumstances. As each side becomes more polarized, the fanatics come to
the fore, and any real debate and compromise becomes yet more
improbable.
If the Palestinians had done any number of relatively easy things,
they would have had their own state 15 year ago. But there is an
enormous culture disconnect going on; in the Arab mind, negotiation is a
sign that the other side is weak, and that any attack should be
pressed, while in the Western mind, the ability to negotiate is seen as a
strength.
This one difference is sufficient to explain almost all that has
occurred in and around Israel in the past 15 years or so.
Posted by Mike at 03:40
PM
| Comments (0)
Pow! To The Moon!
China just allocated $170
million more for their lunar program, according to China Daily.
What's even more interesting than that is the comments of posters here
in the forum associated with the paper's site.
I BELIEVE that before the year 2015 China will reunify
with Taiwan; by 2020 China will be the world's another super economic
power. By 2050 or so, the United States will realise that it is fast
losing its status to China as the world's greatest military power; the
U.S. will do anything to stop China from assuming that No.1 status.
Japan will be re-armed and U.S. will try to cultivate India to fight
China but it will not succeed. India will shift closer to China for
greater economic and military co-operation.
I agree with some of this. As Napoleon pointed out (and as another
poster further down notes), "China is a sickly, sleeping giant. But when
she awakes the world will tremble."
The United States has no natural right to preeminence -- it has
achieved its status by hard work and coincidence. (Much of the rest of
the world was devastated after WWII. The U.S. was largely untouched
physically.) If we do not fall into the traps of protectionism and
dereliction of education, both China and the U.S. can prosper together.
However, if we try to legislate job retention, and we allow the nimrods
who believe the earth is 6,000 years old and that evolution is some
farfetched fantasy to dominate, the U.S. will not prosper.
There are two paths before us now. We are choosing, and not wisely,
it seems.
Posted by Mike at 12:06
AM
| Comments (0)
February 15, 2004
Chaos Is The Place With The Friendly Hardware
Warhammer
Check out Chaos
Faction, one of the few blogs I read every day. Chris has been kind
enough to link to me several times, and I've yet to return the favor.
Go. Read it.
Posted by Mike at 01:05
PM
| Comments (2)
This Is Not The Year 2000
I can't believe so many people are still whinging about Bush taking
Florida in 2000. Come on, people, that was almost four years ago. It was
such a close race that statistically speaking, the outcome was a dead
tie. In a race with four million ballots cast, anything within 2,000 or
so ballots is undeclarable. If you don't understand this, please study
some small amount of math before carping to me about Bush "stole the
election."
There is no provision -- none -- in the Constitution for such
an eventuality as what happened in Florida. Well, at least not one that
people who think the Electoral College is just ornamental understand.
(Hint: The Electoral College was formed just for such situations.) Also,
the President, as many choose to ignore, is not decided in this country
by the majority vote. Once again, it is decided by the Electoral
College.
In the end, a decision was forced. It went one way, not the other.
This is what happens in ties. Get over it. It seems that instead of
making dunderheaded statements about Bush being an "illegitimate
President," the people who seem to spend about 80% of their waking time
talking about something that happened almost four years ago, would
instead be working to do something about this election in less than a
year that they currently look poised to lose.
Note: I am not a Bush supporter, and I do not want him re-elected.
But I object to idiocy and hypocrisy wherever I notice it.
Posted by Mike at 03:06
AM
| Comments (1)
Not Gonna Happen
Best line I've heard recently: "I'll try being nicer if you try being
smarter."
Posted by Mike at 01:57
AM
| Comments (0)
February 14, 2004
DRM Won't Work
This
article discusses the moribund business practices of the media and
entertainment industries, and their belief in DRM as some sort of savior
from this -- even though it really is just another nail in the coffin.
Media companies face a tough climate. Their existing
business model is disappearing. The existing business model depended on
reproduction and distribution of products being somewhat expensive. It
cost a significant amount of money to print up a book or CD and get it
to stores, or to ship movies nationwide and play them in a theater.
Now, that's changing. Reproduction and distributions costs are nearly
free for music, the same thing is happening for movies and I expect it
will happen for books. Media companies are reacting by trying to use
laws and police to change public opinion, and DRM to shackle technology.
They're trying to get water to run uphill.
A talented person can now make with less than $5,000, in their own
home, a movie or recording of the same fidelity and quality that only 10
years ago, would take a full-featured studio $5 million to make.
This is a sea change. The old business models will no longer work in
such a world -- and the world is better for that, or could be if several
industries do not smother the baby in its crib.
What the entertainment cartels are attempting, if they are allowed to
succeed, will essentially destroy the American economy, as it will take
the computer and technology businesses down with them. If you want to
see all good jobs offshored to India, allow them to get their
way.
What they are attempting now is one of the more crass things ever
attempted in American business. Imagine if the publishing and printing
industry during the desktop publishing explosion in the mid-80s had
lobbied Congress to legally mandate licensing fees on all devices that
acted as, or took the place of, a printing press, or had just banned
such devices outright. This is analogous to what the entertainment
industry is attempting right now with legislatively-mandated copy
"protection" and computer killswitches on machines found to be
"infringing."
Unfortunately, what I foresee happening is the hellhounds
will in fact get their way, and a large part of the American computer
industry will just pick up and move to Asia -- and I will go with them.
Posted by Mike at 08:58
AM
| Comments (0)
It's A Ruff Life
Turns out that dogs
were domesticated much earlier than previously thought, around
100,000 years ago. Though I had suspected this was so, due to the
strangely natural fit of humans and dogs, this is the first
substantiated evidence of it.
What's particularly amusing is that dogs were domesticated about
94,000 years before a large percentage of the benighted American
population believes the world was even created.
Posted by Mike at 08:07
AM
| Comments (0)
February 13, 2004
Positions
I said a very similar thing during the Clinton brouhaha with
Lewinsky, as I am asserting now with Kerry's infelicitous situation: I
believe that the adult sexual activity of a person, even a married
person, has little to no bearing on their leadership qualities. Kerry's
"affair" means nothing to me.
What I objected to most stringently with Clinton was his lying under
oath, and lying directly to the American people on numerous occasions,
and his general weaseling and lawyering during the whole imbroglio.
Also, this may seem silly in this era of enligthened postmodernism, but I
believe that certain places are sacred; not in the religious sense, but
in the sense that so many people have placed their trust in them, and
those who occupy those places, that the usual, baser activities of
humans should be refrained from in them.
In other words hummers are great, but not in the Oval Office.
But, just as people made too much of Clinton's indiscretions, and
ignored his perjuring, Republicans will make too much of Kerry's
supposed infidelity, and bring it to the fore of a debate that should be
more about positions in the government, instead of in the bedroom.
Posted by Mike at 08:19
PM
| Comments (0)
The Most Unkindest Cut
How the poodle got
its do.
But most observers trace the poodle's unique haircut to
late 16th- and early 17th-century Central Europe (particularly in the
region that's now Germany) where poodles were bred for use as water
retrievers. (The word "poodle" is derived from the German pudel,
short for pudelhund, which means "water dog." Pudeln in German
means "splash," and is also the root of the English word "puddle.")
I love etymology. And who knew that poodles actually served some real
purpose at one time, rather than their recreational use today as field
goal practice?
Posted by Mike at 04:42
AM
| Comments (1)
Ready Steady
Posted by Mike at 04:25
AM
| Comments (1)
Ohi-No
Even Ohio has jumped aboard the first train bound for Braindead,
and given tacit consent to teaching Intelligent Design in the
classroom, a group of ideas so stupid they are not even wrong. Just
means if I ever decide to return to university, I won't be competing
with anyone from Ohio.
Posted by Mike at 02:37
AM
| Comments (0)
Firefox Is Not Just A Bad Clint Eastwood Movie
13
reasons to use Firefox over Internet Explorer on Friday the 13th.
To those of you who read my site and aren't tech-geeks, Firefox is a
browser (formerly called Firebird), available for free, that far exceeds
Internet Explorer in speed and capabilities. For instance, I haven't
seen an unwanted pop-up in the entire four months I have been using it
full-time.
Posted by Mike at 02:32
AM
| Comments (1)
Part My Hair
I am sick of this "debate" about Moses parting
the Red Sea.
First of all, it probably didn't happen at all. Second, as with many
things in the Bible, the modern understanding results from a
mistranslation. Just as the "Virgin Mary" is a mistranslation (the
actual words meant "young woman Mary"), Moses "parted" the Red Sea the
same way you'd part the Atlantic if you crossed it by boat.
The only miracle to be found is that these easily-correctable
mistranslations have stood so long.
Posted by Mike at 02:04
AM
| Comments (0)
February 12, 2004
Read Dead
The apparent
winner of some unannounced Worst Writing of the Decade contest.
Gordon Yarnof stood in the center of a horde of wraiths,
slicing them apart with his magical sword. Excelsior was singing like a
choir. Gordon himself, however, was looking for one being in
particular.
Onestar's katana was stained with the sour blood of undead only
seconds after they arrived. Combining the powers of the Bracers of
Wildspace with the magic in his blade, he smote every undead warrior who
got within range.
"Samurai! Duck!" Darlena called. Onestar looked behind to see a
skeletal warrior on an undead horse charging him. Onestar dropped to the
floor as Darlena ran a flame strike into the horse. As the horse
crumbled to the ground, Onestar killed the rider with one swipe.
"They just keep coming!" Karl called, pointing to the door. More
undead were pouring in by the score.
A strange looking war machine, made from animated bones of all types,
appeared in the door, working its way through the chaos of fallen
corpses.
"What the hell is that?!?" Onestar called.
"Whatever it is, it doesn't look friendly," Gordon called back.
I want to believe it satire, but alas, it is not.
Posted by Mike at 11:59
PM
| Comments (0)
I Do Make Passes, At Girls Who Wear Glasses
I see I am not the only one who thinks that naked girls wearing
glasses is
incredibly sexy.
Posted by Mike at 11:51
PM
| Comments (1)
Junk Government
Even though it's largely irrelevant now, one
of the many reasons I could never support Joe Lieberman for
President.
Warning: Jelly doughnuts may be hazardous to your
child's health. That's what Democratic presidential candidate Joe
Lieberman is telling America's parents as he seeks a federal
investigation into the marketing practices of junk food companies.
The Connecticut senator, who led the fight to put parental warnings
on movie, video game and music advertising, wants the Federal Trade
Commission to determine whether there is a connection between junk food
advertising and the rise in obesity among youngsters.
Blaming advertising for kids getting fat is like blaming a television
for Fox showing My Big Fat Obnoxious Fiance. Once again, it's
the parents who should shoulder the blame, not advertising, and not
corporations. Allowing Americans to believe that the government is the
protector and parent of their health and well-being in toto, while they
bear no responsibility for same, is a sure path to tyranny.
Posted by Mike at 12:53
PM
| Comments (0)
Records And Wireless
Good article here
that takes a bit more lighthearted (and sometimes factually inaccurate)
look at the wars. My favorite quote is below. (Hehe.)
"When I was 14, I told girls I loved them to sleep with
them too. It was a fiction. Steve Jobs just leaves a little money on the
table," he [Griffin] says. "These theoretical notions of control run
headlong into the real historical experience."
Almost made me fall out of my chair.
Posted by Mike at 08:37
AM
| Comments (2)
Iraqed Your World
An unlikely
love story.
Posted by Mike at 08:31
AM
| Comments (0)
February 11, 2004
Ch-Ch-Chechnya
Chechnya has simmered with conflict for the past thousand years, but
lately Islamic fundamentalism has cast a crescent-shaped shadow over one
side of combat, and has given it new life, and is one more hot spot in
the global
low-intensity war of Islam against the West.
A Saudi-born warrior so zealously Muslim that he is
traumatised just by touching non-believers has risen to the top echelon
of rebels in Chechnya, according to both Russian officials and rebel
sources.
What many people in the West do not understand because they have
absolutely no life experience with it, is that it is not possible to
negotiate with someone like that; not possible to placate them or
assuage them. There are only a few possibilities in a fight with such a
person -- the eternal vigilance of cold steel and bright light, or the
yet-colder sleep of death delivered quickly, but delivered nonetheless.
Anyone who thinks that civilization is not in a fight for its life only
believes that because they've not yet seen blood spilled on their
doorstep, not yet had their own Twin Towers of ignorance and naivete
crash to the ground.
Posted by Mike at 04:47
PM
| Comments (1)
Medici Is Peachy
This
mini-review from TVGuide.com is funny.
If anyone can be said to have kick-started the
Renaissance it was the Medici, the Florentine banking family who
bankrolled the likes of Michelangelo, Leonardo and Botticelli in the
15th and 16th centuries. Had they been around in the 21st, they no doubt
would have found better filmmakers to chronicle them than the bunch who
produced this two-part combination of melodramatic re-creations and
turgid narration.
Hahaha.
Posted by Mike at 02:09
PM
| Comments (0)
How Quickly Things Change
"(John) Kerry's freefall is so pronounced ... that even Dana
Milbank, the Washington Post nudnik who specializes in needling
President Bush on the most picayune details, has tossed Kerry
overboard."
--Russ Smith; Kerry's Last Stand; New York Press; Dec 9, 2003.
Posted by Mike at 12:50
PM
| Comments (1)
Hark!
Ouch.
Posted by Mike at 10:14
AM
| Comments (1)
Oily Residue
What happens after
we run out of oil?
It's not a question of if it will happen, it's more a question
of how soon.
Posted by Mike at 03:15
AM
| Comments (3)
Openness
What this
is talking about, is better expressed by a Feynman
quote found here.
To decide upon the answer is not scientific. In order to
make progress, one must leave the door to the unknown ajar. Ajar only.
We are only at the beginning of the development of the human race, of
the development of the human mind, of intelligent life. We have years
and years in the future.
It's our responsibility not to give the answer today as to what it is
all about, to drive everybody down in that direction and to say, 'This
is the solution to it all,' because we will be chained, then, to the
limits of our present imagination. We will only be able to do those
things that we think today are the things to do. Whereas, if we leave
always some room for doubt, some room for discussion and proceed in a
way analogous to the sciences, then this difficulty will not arise.
Leaving possibilities open -- on the Internet, in science -- is
almost always preferable to deciding on one single path and striding
confidently to a dead end.
Posted by Mike at 02:41
AM
| Comments (1)
February 10, 2004
Learn Me Good
Nothing really that new here,
but this report by the American Diploma Project concludes that a high
school diploma is worthless. Well, of course it is -- schools have no
impetus to change, and as long as teachers think of the state and
federal government as the goose who laid the golden paycheck, American
education will continue to decline.
Good teachers do not get paid enough. But most teachers are not good.
Most are very near incompetent. I think most teachers get paid too much
for their skill level, and would be better suited sweeping out a
McDonald's at 3 a.m. It's well know that education is the major of those
who couldn't get accepted into anything else, or the major of those who
remained undeclared for too long, and find that education has the least
requirements, so they go into that field by default to graduate.
There is no one fix to the education problem. The solution involves
making the parents give a damn again, instead of seeing schools as
"free" babysiting. It involves removing obstacles to vouchers, and
forcing competition.
But a large part of the problem springs from "educators" who get
where they are by default, by process of elimination rather than process
of selection.
Posted by Mike at 04:40
PM
| Comments (0)
February 09, 2004
Yeah
I have no idea who created this, but I shamelessly stole it from here.
Posted by Mike at 09:30
PM
| Comments (0)
I Need A New Drug
Insightsful essay here
by someone who left a comment in my previous post. It covers the
considerable difficulty and expense of bringing a new drug to market.
In other words, coming up with new drugs costs tons of
money. We ask drugs to do remarkable things, letting us live more
recklessly and longer than ever before - it's no wonder they cost a
fortune. I'm always amused when I read news of the government importing
drugs from Canada, as if that will solve the problem. The fact is,
Canadians don't pay their fair share for drug development costs, which
is why it's cheaper there. If they can negotiate that, I say good for
them. But, if Americans make it a habit to reimport drugs from Canada,
the pharmaceutical companies will simply stop giving Canada a good deal
and charge them full market value. Americans will be back where they
started, and our friendly neighbors up north will be pissed.
Some money can be saved in medicine. Greater use of generics, for
instance, or greater preventative care. In general, though, there is a
limit to how far this can be taken, and in the end you wind up with
managed care. Almost every single American doctor I know tells me that
managed care has both reduced quality of care and taken the fun out of
practicing medicine.
Those who advocate the socialization of all drug companies simply do
not understand that vast amount of capital that is expended in finding
new drugs -- most of which spend 10 years in testing, and then never
make it to market, anyway.
Without the profit motive, without competition, very few new drugs
would be found. Sure, we could strip the current drug companies of all
their patents, and begin handing out Paxil for free, and that'd be great
for a few years. But...not new drugs would get created. Ever. No reason
to create them.
So, if you think diabetes is just peachy, and Alzheimer's serves old
people right, and heart disease adds a little spice to life, or that
cancer is just nature's way of saying "I love you," then socialization
of drug companies and their products is perfect for you -- for those
ills will never be cured.
As it stands now, we are close to cures for all of these (more so for
some than others), and the longer we let those "evil" drug companies
fight it out in the marketplace unfettered, the better chance we all
have of seeing those scourges eliminated in our lifetime.
Posted by Mike at 10:34
AM
| Comments (0)
February 08, 2004
Antonymous
"Hew" and "cleave" are the only two words I am aware of that are
antonyms of themselves. Does anyone else know more such words?
Posted by Mike at 05:55
PM
| Comments (9)
More Thoughts On LOTR
The
Nitpicker's Guide to the Lord of the Rings.
I agree with most of what this guy says. The real problem with the
movies is that they were made with too many of the tropes of modern
action-adventure movies, and ignored the possible, and more insightful,
glory that could've come from fully exploring Tolkien's ideas and
conceptions. To state it another way, they were made with the average
fourteen-year-old Fast and Furious-loving boy in mind, while the
books were written (and intended for) an adult audience
Once again, I am not discussing necessary changes made in the
conversion of a thousand-page work into 10 hours of screen time. I am
discussing deviations made to make the films "more appealing" to moden
audiences -- most of which changes, I believe, actually reduced the
power of the films for all the audience, not just the die-hard Tolkien
fans.
The below is culled from one of the letters on the site, and I agree
fully with it, and it is in fact illustrative of many of the complaints I
had with most of the scenes in the movies.
The second instance was in Lothlorien when Frodo was
before the Mirror of Galadriel. In the book, when Galadriel delivers her
speech (page 473 - "And now at last it comes. You will give me the ring
freely! In place of the Dark Lord you will set up a Queen..."), "there
issued a great light that illuminated her alone and left all else dark.
She stood before Frodo seeming now tall beyond measurement, and
beautiful beyond enduring, terrible and worshipful." At no point does
the book say, as happened in the movie, that she turned into some kind
of strange, horrible monster, screaming her words at Frodo in an
Exorcist-inspired rage. For me, this was one of the most beautifully
crafted moments of the book. It was a wonderful speech and Jackson
should have trusted his audience and just allowed the actress to deliver
it. Say what else you will about Bakshi's rendition (and there was
plenty to say), he nailed that scene. Bakshi also nailed Boromir's death
scene - a moment in the book and in Bakshi's film that nearly stopped
my heart. Jackson did not handle it so well.
If Jackson would have trusted his audience a bit more, the movies
would have been more emotionally compelling (and made even more money
than they did).
It's worth noting that the films did not well and truly go off the
rails until The Two Towers -- that's where Jackson really goes
nuts, and I can't blame him. I think he just lost his grip on the
project, and was overwhelmed by his writers and time.
As the site points out, the set, costume, and weapons designers were
dead-on in their respective fields. Everything (save perhaps the Balrog)
looked exactly as I had imagined it from the books. There is no
possible way any of that could have been done any better.
If only Mr. Jackson had been so dead-on in his fealty to the
much-more-powerful story and characters that existed in the books. The
films would've been many times better had Jackson hewn to the books more
closely -- and not just for Tolkien fans. By adulterating the
characters, Jackson made them less interesting. Don't get me wrong -- I
think the movies (save The Two Towers) were very good. On a
five-star rating scale, I give The Fellowship of the Ring 4.5
stars, The Two Towers, 2.5 stars, and The Return of the King 3.5
stars.
However, if Jackson had kept the same costumery, weapons, characters,
and left the storyline (minus the changes necessary for time) in its
original form, all the movies would've been at least worthy of four
stars (And, as already pointed out, made more money, which is all the
studio cares about).
I don't foresee anyone in my life ever re-making these movies. But if
they do, what needs improving is obvious.
Posted by Mike at 02:21
AM
| Comments (1)
February 06, 2004
A Smidgen Of Pigeon Sense
This
is fascinating. Turns out that carrier pigeons navigate just like human
pilots do -- take the hard way the first time, and then, once they know
how to get there, navigate with familiar landmarks such as roads. Very
cool.
Posted by Mike at 06:08
PM
| Comments (1)
Paper Launch
In the technology industry, you will often hear the term "paper
launch." This is where a company will launch a product line that is
actually not available for sale anywhere, at any price.
This seems rather counterproductive, doesn't it, as if people hear
that a product is launched, and then cannot find it, they will be less
likely to patronize the company guilty of this practice. Though I've
never seen (and I doubt there are any) comprehensive studies of the
effect of paper launches, I wouldn't be so sure.
The purpose of a paper launch is to delay the buying of a presumably
inferior product until the product being launched only on paper is
available. This includes products that the company doing the paper
launch is itself selling, and not just the wares of a competitior, in
many cases. This approach can be profitable even when a company is
causing falling sales of its own current products because newer products
often have much fatter margins, and it's better to have $500 two months
from now, rather than $150 today.
Of course, companies guilty of too many paper launches do often
acquire a bad reputation, but oftentimes paper launches seem to work.
Frequently, I've had people tell me, I am getting "X product" that was
just launched. When I tell them they are about as likely to find said
product as they are to find water lilies in the Sahara, they say, "Well,
it was launched two weeks ago." Never mind that it won't be
available in any quantity for six months.
A common practice of many manufacturers to avoid a true paper launch
(though the difference is small), is for several months before the
release of a product, to horde many as they can make on immature and
low-yield processes, and then sell them all at once. Though there are
only a few thousand available, perhaps one or two sent to each retailer,
they can avoid the charge of "paper launch" and increase the cache of
the product. Intel has done this of late with the Prescott chip, being
sold in very limited quantities right now.
It's in this way that many tech companies manipulate the market, and
quite successfully in my opinion. The moral of the story, though, is not
to wait for something in the tech world. Things change so fast, if you
are waiting for the next great thing to be released, you will ever be
waiting, as there is always something better right around the corner --
even if it's only available on paper.
Posted by Mike at 07:10
AM
| Comments (0)
February 05, 2004
Learn Or Leave
The majority of the destructive viruses of the past five years have
been due to misuse of e-mail -- meaning that someone actually has to
knowingly click on an attachment and open it, despite all the gazillions
of times they have been warned not to, to launch the destructive
payload. This NY
Times piece explores that level of cluelessness.
The virus spreads when Internet users ignore a basic
rule of Internet life: never click on an unknown e-mail attachment. Once
someone does, MyDoom begins to send itself to the names in that
person's e-mail address book. If no one opened the attachment, the
virus's destructive power would never be unleashed.
"It takes affirmative action on the part of the clueless user to
become infected," wrote Scott Bowling, president of the World Wide Web
Artists Consortium, expressing frustration on the group's discussion
forum. "How to beat this into these people's heads?"
Many of the million or so people who have so far infected their
computers with MyDoom say it is not their fault. The virus often comes
in a message that appears to be from someone they know, with an
innocuous subject line like "test" or "error." It is human nature, they
say, to open the mail and attachments.
But computer sophisticates say it reflects a willful ignorance of
basic computer skills that goes well beyond virus etiquette. At a time
when more than two-thirds of American adults use the Internet, they say,
such carelessness is no longer excusable, particularly when it messes
things up for everyone else.
Just like you have to learn to drive a car, and obey the rules of the
road, you have to learn to use a computer. Come on, we aren't asking
you to do assembly programming here. Just be conscientious, and
conscious. And quit sending me viruses.
I don't agree that people should be licensed to use the Internet. But
we do need to inject some measure of common sense into it.
Posted by Mike at 01:50
PM
| Comments (1)
February 04, 2004
Deserved
As predicted, and as they should be, Europe
is making fun of America's reaction to the bare breast on
television.
In England, on many TV stations after 9pm, it's quite common to see
full nudity. I bet most Americans couldn't say who won the majority of
the primaries on Tuesday, but they know all about Janet Jackson's ugly
boob on TV.
Disgraceful.
Posted by Mike at 11:15
PM
| Comments (4)
Art
Computer-generated art, like most art in general, is horrid. However,
this
is some pretty good stuff.
Computer-generated art is pleasing to me only when the artist takes
it a step more than reality. Mimicking reality on the computer is a
recipe for art that looks like a dull imitation of something that could
be more movingly depicted by just going outside and snapping a few
pictures. Which is why I do not like this
piece, but I do like this
one. The first feels like a fraud, both less and more than a
painting. It feels like a painting trying to convince you that it is a
photograph, and succeeds in being neither. The second is an exercise in
concepts, thoughts and images that would never be encountered visually
in the world we know.
Abiding by the conventions of an old art form while working in a new,
totally different one, especially one with so much possibility (and
strange limitations) as that of a computer, is sure to make any art
produced thereon with such conventions intact look stilted and
artificial in a sense-grating way. However, realizing the possibilities
and limitations, and dwelling within the world of both, can produce
something new and interesting, that is no longer contrained mentally by
the artifice of pretending, say, that a computer-generated bit of art is
a painting, or a photograph.
Naively pretending that computer art is but an extension of previous
arts, or more accurately, attempting to get the viewer to make that
leap, is a sure way to produce art that leaves the audience thinking,
Yes, that image would have been really good if it were only real;
whereas, with images that defy and expand reality, the viewer is left
with the thought, Were that only real, it would be wonderful.
Posted by Mike at 05:02
AM
| Comments (1)
Europe Is Right
What kind of fucking puritanical, religious backwater of a country do
we live in to make such a big deal about some plastic surgery victim's
ugly boob being shown on TV?
When Europe calls we Americans "simpletons" and "religious nuts,"
this is exactly what they mean, and they have good reason to make fun of
us for this. If only people would make such a big deal out of things
like the public school curriculum going Medieval in Georgia, or who will
be the next President, as they do about something every single person
has seen in their life, a naked breast.
I am deeply offended and saddened not in the least by the actions
during the halftime show -- which were boring and staged -- but my
fellow Americans' reaction to it.
Posted by Mike at 02:42
AM
| Comments (0)
February 03, 2004
Agreed
"Give me a 300ZX Twinturbo and a three-day weekend in the Sierra
Nevadas, and I'll come back with the meaning of life."
--Richard Homan, Car and Driver
Posted by Mike at 04:15
PM
| Comments (0)
Dean
Ding-dong, the Dean is dead.
Posted by Mike at 10:49
AM
| Comments (0)
Megafauna
Anyone who has known me for very long knows I am virtually obsessed
with the enormous dragonflies that existed roughly 300 million years ago
in the Carboniferous period, some of which had wingspans of nearly a
meter. Here
is a good New York Times article about the subject.
Ah, to have a fleet of those enormous dragonflies to harass and
subjugate my enemies, or to be a scouting party for my pterodactyls.
On a serious note, and as the article discusses, I've often wondered
why the fauna in ancient times was so much larger than what is typically
seen in the recent past. The greater amount of oxygen present in the
atmosphere seems a likely explanation, but even as recently as 500,000
years ago, a great number of very large (and pretty damn scary)
creatures existed, that are now nowhere to be found.
I am interested to know why no such megafauna exists today.
Posted by Mike at 02:05
AM
| Comments (1)
Still The Wild West
Because there are so many naive people on the Internet, theft there
is as
easy as setting up a fake website and trolling for credit card numbers.
One way to trace just how bad the situation has gotten:
track the price for a million credit card numbers. Just a few years ago,
Dave saw prices of $100 or more for a million stolen credit card
numbers. Now? Pennies. Stealing credit cards is so easy, and so rampant,
that prices have dropped precipitously, in a grotesque parody of
capitalist supply and demand.
If I lived in Eastern Europe, I'd see if I could buy a Gulfstream V
with 100,000 $50 charges to various credit cards.
Posted by Mike at 12:45
AM
| Comments (0)
February 02, 2004
Make A Distinction
Some people's hatred of Microsoft is nearly religious. I myself
despise many of the things they do, and plan to switch to Linux as soon
as it just gets a few more things I need working reliably. But the inability
of otherwise intelligent people to get Windows XP to work properly
is flummoxing to me, as it has easily been the most stable and most
responsive Microsoft OS I have ever used.
First, their products suck. C'mon, you know it. Windows
XP sucks. Hard. During a period of deluded optimism this summer, I
splashed out the cash to buy two copies of WinXp for my laptop and my
desktop. I was robbed. On both computers I get the blue screen of death
(BSOD) about once a week. On both computers programs crash with an
alarming frequency (especially Explorer). If I had a nickel for every
one of those "send a report of this failure" messages that have popped
up on my computers since letting them be taken over by this hell-forged
piece of software I'd be a moderately rich man. Remember, this is
Windows XP we're talking about here. This is the OS that was supposed to
fix everything; it was the OS that jettisoned the 'legacy' baggage from
DOS that was supposedly the problem with all the other versions of
Windows. The response from Microsoft? Sorry! Maybe next time!
And if their programs don't crash, they just bog everything down. I
can imagine a motivational sign that probably decorates the walls of
many Redmond cubicle farms: "Think Bloat! Do less with more!" It's the
only way to explain the sluggishness that seems to plague
Microsoft-infected computers. A few months ago I installed Microsoft
Messenger because some friends were using it. I noticed a three minute
increase in my boot-up time. Three minutes! What the hell is this
program doing?!? It's a chat program! For that reason I rarely shut down
anymore; I've had too many mornings when I found myself with my eyes
popping out, shouting at the computer at it continues to grind away,
seemingly doing nothing. Then, when I'm at my most furious, it would pop
up a window that would give me the latest Britney or JLo news. It's as
if they want me to go absolutely bonkers. Despite my decision not to
log-off each night, eventually the computer does crash and I'm forced to
reboot. XP's creeping memory leaks assure this.
I use Windows XP for very intensive things. I rip DVDs. I do batch
photo conversions in Photoshop, some of which take hours and use 100%
CPU time while I am doing them. I often have 40 different windows open
at once. I have two monitors, two network cards, three hard drives (two
in RAID 0), and my processor is overclocked by a full gigahertz (on my
watercooled rig).
Yet, my computer, and Windows XP, is insanely stable. I cannot recall
a single crash that did not result from me trying to overclock my
processor more than it would go. (Hey, most people would happy with a
one Ghz overclock. I am not most people.) I have never had an
explorer.exe error or crash on my system, and I have never -- not even
once -- had a BSOD. My computer stays on 24 hours, seven days a week,
and is often on for months at a time with no reboot, and without even
logging off.
Also, memory leaks are rarely caused by the OS itself -- most often
these are caused by errant programs, none of which Microsoft has any
control over.
But, I'd be glad to give this fellow some troubleshooting tips:
1) Explorer.exe and similar errors are likely to be caused by bad or
low-quality memory. Since basically all OEMs (I am assuming the computer
isn't home-built.) use the crappiest memory that will actually work in
both their laptops and desktops, these errors are no great surprise.
Check your memory. Run Memtest86, which can be found here.
One of the best diagnostic apps ever written. 60% chance this is the
cause of the problems on one or both machines.
2) Inadequate power supplies are the often the cause of these and
other, similar problems. OEMs also equip their machines with the barest
minimum power supplies, and as they age, they experience reduced power
output. A machine with a PSU that works fine for six months may not work
fine after the PSU gets older. Also, laptops often have inadequate
cooling, which, because I feel like it, I'll group together with
inadequate power supplies. 15% combined chance this is the problem,
respectively, with each machine.
3) Spyward/Adware/Malware, and other rogue programs can be the cause
of crashes. These poorly coded apps infest many systems like ticks on a
deer, and I've cleaned them off many people's machines who "know a lot
about computers." They can cause the strangest problems. 10% chance this
is the problem on one or both machines.
4) Cable flaws, EM interference, poorly-written program, device
driver, etc. This is a catch-all category, that's really on a
per-machine basis of things that could be wrong. Possible frayed or bad
cables, interference from a malfunctioning monitor, a badly-coded device
driver or program -- all these things can cause crashes. I've seen them
all. 5% chance this is the culprit.
Makes me want to see how long I can leave XP up, and do all the
things I normally do. I'd guess six months before I experienced any sort
of unrecoverable crash, and this would likely be due to a poorly-coded
device driver.
My point, which I came to in a roundabout way, is that in almost
every case where someone blamed XP or Windows 2000 for a problem, it was
either user error, hardware failure, or a poorly-coded thirdy-party
driver or application. I've worked on quite literally hundreds of
machines alone in the past year, and I have many machines here I've
built myself that are as rock-stable even under the heaviest loads, and I
can say with some experience that Windows XP is the most stable thing
out of Redmond.
Hate Microsoft -- that's fine. I don't plan on using their OSes for
much longer, either. But that has to do with trusted computing and their
sheer arrogance, not because XP is a poor OS. It's actually pretty damn
good.
It just annoys me when people allow their hatred of Microsoft to
justify their inability to adequately troubleshoot a machine that is
probably failing because it has parts and software I wouldn't curse a
dog to use.
Posted by Mike at 01:15
AM
| Comments (1)
February 01, 2004
My Brain Is Jelly
More nonsense
against science.
As the article partially points out, and something which has always
been terribly amusing to me, is that so many anti-science folks get
their so-called science from science fiction novels and the bible,
probably the two worst places in the world from which to glean any valid
science knowledge.
Posted by Mike at 12:15
PM
| Comments (0)