Dawn of the Geeks

This picture was taken from Level 5 of Angel Stadium using a pair of 10x binoculars and a Fuji FinePix 3.1mp digital camera. Once I get my teaching degree the plan is to attend film school at Scottsdale Community College. Or, as my cousin who works for the industry says, a “film program” as it’s not a real film school. They just offer a 2 year program to get you sufficiently qualified to work a camera somewhere. Which is fine for me. What I’d like to do is work as a photographer for a newspaper. That however, requires a degree and a portfolio. The portfolio I’m starting to work on. Currently I just do vacations, weddings and general parties. All friend and family events so I’m not making any money.

On the front page a simple script is being used to pull in the latest 10 entries from the blog to display. I’ve decided to go ahead and link to the blog from the front page so that visitors can post comments and whatnot. As long as allowing comments doesn’t cause problems it will be allowed for registered users. If it becomes a problem commenting will be disallowed.

I’ve been subscribed to the free version of This Is True since about 1998. It’s a collection of interesting/funny/bizarre news stories from around the globe. The May 22nd edition’s top story is huge. Apparently Fark has already covered it, it’s all over various message boards. The story? Saaya Irie

The Chinese are upset by a new Japanese school history textbook which, they say, whitewashes Japanese crimes during WWII. But photos of a little Japanese girl are helping to melt Chinese hearts. Saaya Irie is “pacifying a certain segment of China’s population” with her photos, especially those showing her in a bikini. The 11-year-old budding actress fills an F-cup bra, and her photos have swept Chinese web sites. A message with the photos, surely not written by the girl, begs the Chinese to “stop these anti-Japanese hijinks” since “if you don’t, I won’t like you anymore.” But if people “unite for the sake of China’s democracy,” the message says, her breasts will “rise up.”

Considering the nature of Anime, it’s not surprising this girl is a pop icon now. BTW, an F-cup in Japan is about a C-cup in the US. It’s also becoming a trend in the US for girls to mature biologically faster these days.

Many people know that the diamond trade is tainted with blood. Even John Stossel covered that story. But this is news to me.

Knockoff Dealers Could Have Designs on Terror

WASHINGTON — When Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Lt. John Stedman was booking a clothing store owner last year on charges of selling counterfeit high-fashion merchandise, his attention was drawn to the large and colorful tattoo on the man’s arm.

The tattoo included Arabic writing, suggesting it wasn’t a gang symbol or the mark of one of the many organized crime syndicates that have helped make dealing in knockoff goods — like Gucci handbags, Prada shoes and Louis Vuitton watches — a multibillion-dollar industry in the United States.

It turned out to be a symbol of allegiance to Hezbollah, the Islamic militant organization that the U.S. government has designated as a terrorist group.

Why Hezbollah is considered a terrorist organization

More about the group

Yala Recieves Honorable Mention as City of Peace in 2002-2003

Rebel attacks wreak havoc in district of Yala

Yala _ Bannang Sata district was thrown into turmoil after gun and arson attacks took place at 11 spots within less than three hours on Thursday night.

The first attack came at 7.20 pm when a heavily armed group opened fire on a peace strategy station at Ban Bacho School. However, no one was killed or injured in the ensuing gunfight.

Shortly afterwards, there was an arson attack on a child care centre in Ban Ba-ngoy Jaekor village. The centre was partly damaged by the fire before the blaze was brought under control.

…

Another arson attack occurred at Ban Bang Lan School in tambon Bajor. Local people helped put out the blaze before it could destroy school buildings.

Who was behind these attacks?

Militant messages were spray-painted on the surface of a road in Ban Pawang village saying, “We will not get your things, but will take back what once belonged to us.” The words “Independent Pattani State” and “Free Pattani” were also found spray-painted on a signboard in front of Ban Taophun School and on Bannang Sata-Patae road.

Hmmmm…Who wants the Pattani State?

Patani United Liberation Organisation (PULO) is the most well-known Pattani resistance group in southern Thailand. Its platform is highlighted by its Islamic nationalist goals, calling the Thai presence in Pattani as a colonisation and an illegal occupation. Its stated aims are to secede from the Bangkok administration through military and political means and create a state named Patani Darussalam (Patani, Land of Peace). Their zeal is further enflamed when petroleum is found off-shore of Pattani’s coast.

I wonder if they’ll ever stop firebombing schools and join the rest of civilized society.

Product placement is pretty big business. One would like to think that all those annoying commercial breaks could go away if shows would just use product placement instead. But in actuality the marketing droids are really thinking “hey, instead of only the stations paying us millions for this crappy show, we could charge advertisers as well to have our characters use their crap! Done!” So now, not only do you have commericals between scenes, now you’ve got ads during them as well. I’ll tell you why product placement and no 30 second ads is never going to happen.

1. Why give up a proven fountain of cash when you can have that fountain of cash and another river feeding into it?
2. Competing companies advertise multiple times per show. I’m pretty sure the audience will be bored out of their skulls if every episode characters go eat at McDonald’s and Burger King and Subway and wherever else would have been advertised in 30 second spots that episode.
3. There are just some products that actors are not going to talk about much less demonstrate in the episode. Every show would need a manic depressive or five to keep up with all the happy pills being sold these days.

The simple fact is, not all ads make sense in all shows. The 30 second spot allows for any product to be advertised. Product placement has to work within the show or whatever and that’s just not practical. Which is unfortunate. I’d be nice to watch shows uninterrupted.

One also has to consider that cable used to be ad free. Then companies realized that people would still subscribe even if ads were being shown. When it comes to marketing it’s all about generating additional revenue streams. It’s never about replacing one revenue stream for another. Most shows now have web-sites as well that have ads and possibly even require a subscription to view “premium” content. To the consumer it can be a little much but to the marketing drones all they hear is the sweet sweet sound of “cha ching!”

Roger L Simon asks “What is Fair and Balanced?”

Fair and Balanced is asking open questions and then finding and accepting the facts. CBS news and now Newsweek assumed conclusions and then went looking for and ended up inventing “facts” to support their already preconcieved conclusion. That’s not fair or balanced.

Considering all sides of the issue has nothing to do with balance. Balance requires finding all the facts. Facts don’t have a side. “All sides of the issue” is just a bunch of people spouting off their opinions, their conclusions based on their interpretation of the facts, which is wholely irrelavent. Fair is reporting all the facts even if you don’t like them.

Fair and Balanced is simply seeing the entire elephant and accuratly describing what it looks like regardless if you like it or not. Often times the Main Stream Media just wants to talk about the trunk of the elephant or the leg. They don’t like seeing the whole picture because it doesn’t support their agenda.

This is why most news outlets can’t get enough dead bodies in Iraq as long as they’re dead Americans but they clam up pretty quick when it comes to our success both in Afganistan and Iraq and how it’s having a positive impact on the rest of the region as well.

I can understand why the elite hate what Bush is doing though and would like to pretend it’s all going horribly wrong and blah blah blah

From Kill Bill Volume 2

Now in these last agonizing minutes of life you have left, let me answer the question you asked earlier, more thoroughly. When it comes to that bitch, I gotta lotta “R’s” in me. Revenge is one. Retribution is another. Rivalry is definitely one. But I got another “R” for that bitch you might be surprised to find out. Respect. But
right at this moment, the biggest “R” I feel, is Regret. Regret that maybe the greatest warrior I have ever met, met her end at the hands of a bushwhackin, scrub, alacky piece of shit like you. The woman deserved better.

It’s because the greatest terrorist threat the world has ever known is being destroyed under the leadership of an “uneducated redneck.” The elite are feeling a lot of “R” right now. And it’s leading to their own destruction.

I go to the movies quite a bit especially during the summer where there are plenty of good ones comming out. Generally before the movies there’s random trivia and whatnot. A while back “Beyond the Sea” was being advertised through a little triva. There was a picture of a bee, someone yawning and some waves. I knew there was a name for these types of puzzles but I couldn’t remember it. This desire to figure out what those things were called has been simmering within me for months now. Today I got an e-mail from a friend telling me what they are; “Rebus Puzzles”

Tonight I shall sleep like a little baby for my mind has been freed.

Sharia is the code of law based on the Koran. Muslims are trying to get it enforced everywhere they can. It’s the law system that currently rules much of the Middle East resulting in needless arrests and murders simply because people chose to reject Islam or practice another religion. The other thing that will get you in deep trouble is speaking bad of the “prophet” Mohammed. See, like putting quotes around “prophet” implying that he was actually a false prophet at best, could get you arrested in the Middle East. That’s a little more than rediculous and why the first right in the Bill of Rights is freedom of religion. The establishment clause is second and freedom of speech is third. The favorite thing for tyrants to oppress is religion which obviously results in the oppression of the people who practice the forbidden religion(s) who are then forced to fight and voila, war.

Italy has similar laws and recently ruled that it was not okay to have harsher sentences for those who slander the Catholic church than other religions. The only reason Artical 403 of Italian law isn’t as rediculous as the Sharia law is that Italy’s law covers defamation of all religions where as Sharia law is only concerned with defamation of Islam. Both laws fly in the face of our First Amendment Rights of freedom of religion and freedom of speech.

But apparently Democratic State Representative John Conyers doesn’t see it that way. He wants to enact a law that prohibits the criticism of religions. Especially Islam as though it needs some kind of special protection.

Resolved, That the House of Representatives–

(1) condemns bigotry, acts of violence, and intolerance against any religious group, including our friends, neighbors, and citizens of the Islamic faith;

(2) declares that the civil rights and civil liberties of all individuals, including those of the Islamic faith, should be protected;

(3) recognizes that the Quran, the holy book of Islam, as any other holy book of any religion, should be treated with dignity and respect; and

(4) calls upon local, State, and Federal authorities to work to prevent bias-motivated crimes and acts against all individuals, including those of the Islamic faith.

I would hope that this guy is voted out of office when his term ends. Apparently even as a State Representative he’s oblivious to all the hate crime laws this country already has thanks to groups like the KKK.

It’s not a hate crime or bigotry to say that Mohammed was not a prophet and that the Koran is just a book. A State Representative living and working in the United States should know better. We as a free nation are allowed to have and express negative views of whatever and whoever we want. The only time this is a problem is when your views lead to violence. And we’ve already made plenty of laws against that.

Congress has no more right to enact a legal objection to flushing a Koran down the toilet than to burning a flag. We as a free nation can burn all the flags we want and all the Korans we want or any other religious text. And thanks to the Constitution, even though most would never consider doing such things, it’s well within their right to do so and will always be even if silly people like Conyer want to try to deny those rights.

The KKK has a legal right to exist under the constitution even if everyone else in the United States hates everything they stand for. That’s a consequence of freedom.

Back in the day the main stream news would report and people would discuss amongst themselves. If there were glaring errors in the reporting or some kind of blatent bias, pockets of people would know about it. Now with blogs, when the MSM screws up, millions of people know about it and sometimes it gets back to the more mainstream news outlets such as Investor’s Business Daily.

I first saw Newsweek’s “US Flag in the Trash” cover on Little Green Footballs. Most Americans have never seen it because the cover was for the Japanese version of the magazine. Well IBD picked up the story and added additional insight to the blatent bias of the MSM that Liberals like to pretend doesn’t exist:

Stories that make our enemies look bad are treated differently. Witness the brouhaha over photos of Saddam Hussein in his undies. NBC’s “Today” show led off one morning with an interview with one of the tyrant’s lawyers and later had host Matt Laurer probing if the Pentagon thought this was a violation of the Geneva Convention. Yet when in mid-April new Saddam-era mass graves were discovered in southern Iraq, including one believed to hold as many as 5,000 corpses, NBC didn’t cover that story.

Liberals like to think that bias is injecting one’s opinion into the story. Anderson Cooper flat out stated that on the Daily Show and I’ve had zero interest to watch CNN since. He implied that CNN isn’t biased like Fox News because CNN doesn’t have anchors that state their opinion about things they report. What AC is being intellectually dishonest about is that bias is also what you choose to report and what you choose not to report. NBC and most mainstream outlets choose not to report anything that might look the Bush administration look good and focus on finding or even inventing stories that make it look bad. That’s bias.

The net result of all this rampant story invention and blatent bias is the reduction of the relavency of the MSM. Power Line is keeping on top of the latest developments that seem to suggest that Saddam did indeed have strong ties to al-Queda. Documents are comming out of Iraq supporting Bush’s assertion at the start of the war.

The number two of the al-Qaeda network, Ayman al-Zawahiri, visited Iraq under a false name in September 1999 to take part in the ninth Popular Islamic Congress, former Iraqi premier Iyad Allawi has revealed to pan-Arab daily al-Hayat. In an interview, Allawi made public information discovered by the Iraqi secret service in the archives of the Saddam Hussein regime, which sheds light on the relationship between Saddam Hussein and the Islamic terrorist network. He also said that both al-Zawahiri and Jordanian militant al-Zarqawi probably entered Iraq in the same period.

You won’t find these stories on the MSM, and that’s exactly why you won’t find many TVs turned on to the MSM either.