Ignore the mUtterz

Moblogging is a great way to get severe thumb cramps.



Sean

Mobile post sent by whytwolf using Utterz.  Replies.

Priceless...

Some BSG humor for you via Trinity15's sig on the SciFi Forums:



Good times, good times...

Sean

MOSPEADA/Cyclone coming to a curbside near you?

Now anyone who's ever been a fan of Robotech would remember the VR-052 Battler Cyclone ride armour from the Invid War. Anyone who knows Robotech and Anime would now that this same unit was called the M.O.S.P.E.A.D.A from the original anime of the same name.

How many of us have dreamed of having a Cyclone in real life?

If you're like me, then you'd get a kick out of this.

Sure, it's not as elegant, and doesn't carry any cool weapons--but when was the last time the Invid/Inbit invaded Earth?

Baby steps, baby steps.

Sean

Thoughts on the Second Law of Thermodyamics

Theodore Sturgeon, the famous sci-fi author, said in a 1970 interview that "...ninety percent of SF is crud." This was later termed Sturgeon's Revelation (aka Sturgeons's Law), and slightly modified to the axiom "Ninety percent of everything is crap."

I myself have come to the conclusion after many years of dealing with people in general, and with the insight provided by Sturgeon's Revelation that "Ninety percent of people are stupid." I like to call this Campbell's Corollary to Sturgeon's Revelation. Further to that, I've pondered the implications of the corollary. Are individuals 90% stupid? Are people in general 90% stupid? Are 90% of the population simply stupid people? I tend to think it's all of the above, although, I'm also a believer that individuals themselves can be quite intelligent, but once you get past a critical mass of people they become monumentally stupid. Or to quote Agent K from Men In Black: "A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky dangerous animals and you know it."

Now how does this relate to the Second Law of Thermodynamics? I'm glad you asked.

The Second Law states: "The entropy of an isolated system not in equilibrium will tend to increase over time, approaching a maximum value at equilibrium." More simply, entropy--or the state of disorder within an enclosed system--increases over time to the maximum amount possible. This is a natural process, and without adding energy to a system to decrease disorder, it is irreversible.

I think there's a certain implication when you take the Second Law of Thermodynamics and Campbell's Corollary to Sturgeon's Revelation together: "The stupidity of an isolated population not in equilibrium will tend to increase over time, approaching a maximum value at equilibrium". That is, unless effort is put into educating and enlightening a population, that population will continue to grow more and more stupid over time, until it becomes too stupid to live. Call it the "Law of Entropic Intelligence" if you will.

I wonder if that's not just another way at looking at how we as a race are dealing with global warming and climate change.

Cheers,

Sean

More ARC Funnies

Again, from those whacky d00ds at ARC:

A few truths in aviation

The difference between a duck and a co-pilot?
The duck can fly.

A checkride ought to be like a skirt--short enough to be interesting, but long enough to cover everything

Speed is life. Altitude is life insurance.

It only takes two things to fly: airspeed, and money.

The three most dangerous things in aviation:
A doctor in a Bonanza.
Two captains in a DC-9.
A flight attendant with a chipped tooth.

Aircraft Identification:
If it's ugly, it's British.
If it's weird, it's French.
If it's ugly and weird, it's Russian.

Without ammunition, the USAF would be just another very expensive flying club.

The three best things in life are a good landing, a good orgasm, and a good bowel movement. The night carrier landing is one of the few opportunities to experience all three at the same time.

(A DC-9 captain trainee attempting to check out on the 'glass cockpit' of an A-320.) "Now I know what a dog feels like watching TV."

The similarity between air traffic controllers and pilots?
If a pilot screws up, the pilot dies.
If ATC screws up, the pilot dies.

It's better to break ground and head into the wind than to break wind and head into the ground.

The difference between flight attendants and jet engines is that the engines usually quit whining when they get to the gate.

New FAA motto: "We're not happy, til you're not happy."

A copilot is a knothead until he spots opposite direction traffic at 12 o'clock, after which he's a goof-off for not seeing it sooner.

If something hasn't broken on your helicopter--it's about to.

I give that landing a 9 . . . on the Richter scale.

Basic Flying Rules:
1. Try to stay in the middle of the air.
2. Do not go near the edges of it.
3. The edges of the air can be recognized by the appearance of ground, buildings, sea, trees and interstellar space. It is much more difficult to fly there.

Unknown landing signal officer to carrier pilot after his 6th unsuccessful landing attempt: "You've got to land here son. This is where the food is."

Cheers,

Sean

The Islander in me loved this....

see more crazy cat pics

Cheers,

Sean

Embracing your Inner Cylon

I had a heart-to-heart with my inner cylon, and apparently:

Which Battlestar Galactica Cylon Are You?

More on Battlestar Galactica. Created by BuddyTV

Now I don't know if this explains my sudden interest in wearing heels and a red dress, but it could explain how come I keep seeing some weird English dude hanging around these parts....

Sean

More blogging uselessly

Feeling the need to continue blogging uselessly, I present, via ARC, some deep thoughts:







More to come, depending on how useless I feel....

Sean

Life's Little Disappointments

Well, it may not be over yet, but I'm calling tonight's NHL Western Quarterfinal for San Jose's Sharks, since my Flame can't seem to hold it together and going into the 3rd period they've given up 5 goals to scoring 2. What a disappointment. Pathetic. Go play golf.

As for the Democratic Primary, it looks like Clinton took PA, but then again, that was expected. I'm disappointed Obama couldn't pull out a win, but then again Hillary's gotta be disappointed that she's only up by a few delegates--not enough for her to win the nomination.

Disappointment breeds the blues, so here are some for you on a late Tuesday night:



Cheers,

Sean

Happy Earth Day!

Happy Earth Day:

moar funny pictures

Sean

My first LOLDaggit

moar funny pictures

Sean

Oh PETA, you're so Funny

From the New York Times:

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals wants to pay a million dollars for fake meat — even if it has caused a “near civil war” within the organization.

I guess not all meat is unethical, it just depends on if its been vat-grown from a cloned sample of bovine muscle tissue (ethical), or if it was milk-fed prior to having a nail shot through its skull (unethical).

Seriously though, despite being a blood-thirsty carnivore, I would welcome vat-grown steaks, and would even give up 'live' meat for the cloned sort, so long as it's safe and healthy-ish.

Besides, cloned food would solve this particular issue:


see more crazy cat pics

Cheers,

Sean

AHHHH!

So it's bitterly cold here in Calgary, and it's been snowing for two, maybe three days. Sometimes I feel like the weather in this city matches my mood-swings, with all of its ups and downs. On the other hand, cyclical matching or not, the rapid weather cycles aggravate my migraine, so even the ups suck some times :P

Good news though, the Flames won 2-0 versus the Sharks tonight, so we're going to game seven. Mind you, if we win that, it means a series against Detroit that we're very likely to lose.

Nothing seems to be making me happy tonight.

Well, except this:


see more crazy cat pics

Sure Cavan may not think much of the LOLcat phenomena, but II still get a kick out of the occasional LOLnimal. Besides, who listens to their little brother's anyway?

God, I hate winter in April.


Sean

Coming out in the Wash

From this post by Boston to Salem @ DailyKos, how to make your own laundry detergent:

All you need is one bar of soap, 1 cup of washing soda and 1/2 cup of Borax and a 5 gallon bucket.

1. chop up the soap and melt in a quart of water on the stove.

2. Pour soap/water into bucket and add 4.5 gallons of very hot tap water.

3. Stir in Borax until dissolved.

4. Stir in washing soda until dissolved.

This will gel overnight. Use 1 cup per load. We wash 6 loads a week, so one batch of this will last us 2-3 months. The cost is less than 2 cents a load, and you will be able to make dozens of batches from just one box of the Borax and washing soda. Plus you are helping the environment by not purchasing and disoposing of large plastic detergent containers, etc...

Enjoy!

I'm going to try this the next time I get a chance to buy borax and washing soda--my next attemt to go a little more green :)

Cheers,

Sean

Teh Stupid, it Burns!

It's been a week since the Alberta 2008 provincial election, and I'm still shaking my head.

Somehow I think its going to be a looooong four years, waiting for Stelmach's mandate to run out. I fear for the damage to the environment, the social safety net, and frankly the Albertan people considering they gave a mandate for more corporate rape and pillage during the next four years.

But what do I know--I'm 'from away.'

Sean

CW Fails us Again

Well, it seems that the conventional wisdom was wrong--again. Voter turnout for the election was down to an estimated 41%. I don't know what to make of this other than the Conservative GOTV was more successful, and that there are a lot of disengaged and disenfranchised people in this province.

Cheers,

Sean

My comment to CBC on the election

Posted to Alberta Votes 2008:

Sean Campbell (Calgary) wrote:

Tonight I once again experienced the sinking feeling I had in the pit of my stomach on November 11 2004 when George W Bush was re-elected by the American people.

The results show a failure both in the opposition parties in Alberta, and a failure of vision in the Albertan people--who seem more interested in pulling the ladder up behind them as they find their own personal success.

What of the working poor in the province? What of the missing royalties, and arrogance of the governing Conservatives?

Apparently being able to say 'We're Number 1' and rub the rest of the country's face in our wealth is more important--and the order of the day.

I had hoped for better from the people of this province.

Sean

Voting Rights, Responsibilities and the Bitter Taste of Victory

Would this count as live-blogging? Considering it's been 45 minutes since the polls closed here in Alberta and every major news outlet has called the election for Ed Stelmach's Conservatives, I have a hard time considering what I'm doing now as anything more than a post-mortem.

Twenty-eight days have passed since the writ was dropped here in Alberta. Twenty-eight days of campaigning, and of talk of change. The Conservatives spoke of 'Change that Works'--not sure how 30+ years of single party rule can be considered 'Change that Works', but then again, no one ever said Alberta politics wasn't whack-a-doodle at times.

Over the last four weeks the Liberals have put on a strong show of the sort of change and government they would provide Alberta--the change that I truly believe works. Kevin Taft, the Liberal leader actually seemed like Premier material at times in this campaign. Compared to Steady-Eddie Stelmach--who's only hope in front of a camera is to continue to parrot his talking points--Brian Mason of the NDP looks Premier-like. Mason however, was like his mirror-image of the right--Paul Hinman of the Wild Rose Alliance, the Mitt Romney of Alberta--nothing but a spoiler, more apt to split votes than gain any traction.

Yet for all the platform and policy, and yes, even charisma of Taft and the Liberals, they had one fatal flaw--they were Liberals. Here in Alberta you'd make more political hay calling yourself the Sheep-Shagging Party--you might get a small sympathy vote from sheep-shaggers. Liberals? Aren't they the high-falutin' fellers from Toronto trying to steal our oil?

Sadly, the only hope Taft ever really had was to have a vast swath of Conservative voters stay home tonight. It's sad and ironic to think that to finally get a sane and just government in Alberta, you have to root for voter apathy, or voter suppression.

In my case, I rather ignored the rooting and got more to the thinking--which is something I'm better at anyway (every time I cheer for the Flames they loose, so rooting just doesn't seem to work for me).

Last election in Alberta (2004) voter turnout was 44% (or there-abouts). I'm a strong believer that democracy requires participation (and education) and I began wondering how could you increase voter turnout in general? Australia fines people $20 if they fail to vote--but as a single Dad my philosophy is more carrot than stick, and I figured maybe if you provide an incentive to get people out to vote, they might actually take their responsibilities seriously.

Now buying votes is bad (and quite illegal in most civilized jurisdictions), but I thought that maybe if government provided a tax rebate--and a significant one--to people if they voted, it might actually work (and not count as vote buying any more than Stelmach throwing money at the electorate prior to the election). Sure if you gave everyone who votes a 5% rebate on their income tax, the more people vote the more it costs the taxman (receipts go down)--but isn't that a small price to pay? Besides, in Alberta, it may just cause the governing Conservatives some grief--they'd be torn between collecting more money to pad their salaries, versus getting their supporters out to elect them so as to allow them to collect said salary in the first place.

Heck, if this idea ever got off the ground, I say let the rebate count for every year in between elections--you vote in 2008, then you get a rebate in 2008, 2009, 2010 and 2011. You'd have to vote again in 2012 to keep getting your rebate cheque. Lets even name it after Stelmach--we had Ralph Bucks, why not Eddie Pennies?

Sadly though, it seems that the Conservatives got their supporters out--the Liberals are in retreat from 16 seats to a projected 8. The victory of voter participation has ensured another four years of Conservative stupidity--no affordable housing, skyrocketing prices, and oil patch royalty rip-offs.

Aye, that's democracy. Don't you just love it?

Cheers,

Sean

Groundhog Day

Thanks to not a cent @ Daily Kos:

This year, both Groundhog Day and the State of the Union Address fall on the same day.

It is an interesting juxtaposition: one involves a meaningless ritual in which we look to a creature of little intelligence for prognostication, and the other involves a Groundhog

Cheers,

Sean

My New Business Plan...

I've been thinking of how to make it ahead in this dog-eat-dog world, and my advisors and I have developed a new business plan:

1. Drink Beer


2. ???


3. Profit

The money should start rolling in...

Cheers,

Sean