I would rather have a mind opened by wonder than one closed by belief... ~Gerry Spence
17 August 2007
Written by
Yours Truly (
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Published on August 17th, 2007 @ 03:07:35 am, using 1599 words, 5588 views
This evening I checked out a website (http://planet.intertwingly.net) which had linked to my Acura mobile computing blog and, while there, noticed an interesting article on a recent attempt by site owners to block visitors using the Firefox web browser from accessing their sites. Their protest stems from the fact that one of the many available plugin extensions for Firefox, the AdblockPlus extension, allows internet users to free their web browsing experience of intrusive and often resource exploitative advertisements. These sites have begun to employ various blocking scripts, essentially user-agent sniffers, to detect the Firefox browser and prevent access to the page and its content. The rationale (I apply the term loosely) is that these sites are losing advertising revenue due to the fact that internet users who demand a clean and streamlined internet experience are avoiding the ads displayed on certain web sites.
Being a loyal Firefox user since the initial beta releases many (many) years back, and a naturally inquisitive person, I decided to check out the site which is, apparently, spearheading the effort and serving as a soapbox for all those site owners who feel they are being cheated by internet users who have the AdBlockPlus extension (myself included) installed.
Read the full text of this post...
22 June 2006
Written by
Yours Truly (
)
Published on June 22nd, 2006 @ 11:47:56 pm, using 448 words, 2912 views
Along with several billion other people, I've been following closely the World Cup football tournament being hosted this year in Germany. Since we weren't able to get tickets to see any of the matches, I'm forced to settle on watching them on television, and being subjected to the sheer stupidity of some of the announcers on the ESPN network. The specific idiots to whom I'm referring are Shep Messing and Glenn Davis, but there are some others who may have escaped notice.
So, why do these idiots need a geography lesson? Well, in watching the recent match between Ukraine and Saudi Arabia, their lack of knowledge of geography and grammar, not to mention a limited knowledge of the game of football in general, became glaringly obvious. Let's take a look at a simple map of Europe, taken from the following URL:
http://worldatlas.com/webimage/countrys/eu.htm
Okay, so what's the issue? The issue is that the name of the nation located north of the Black Sea is Ukraine. It is NOT the Ukraine. However, I was forced to listen to 2 hours of inept commentating by Glenn Davis and Shep Messing, wherein they continually referred to Ukraine as the Ukraine. What is that? The name of the nation is Ukraine. There is no 'the' in there. A simple look at an atlas or a world map (yes, it requires opening a book or a website and actually learning something) would help these two idiots immeasurably.
My next point of contention comes from the incorrect usage of simple grammatical structures which, again, could have been avoided by these two guys had they simply been given a brief geography lesson. When implying possession, as in the team from a specific nation, (in this case Ukraine), the proper grammatical construction is "the Ukrainian team" and not "the Ukraine team".
While we're on the topic, let's discuss pronunciation as well. The word Ukraine is pronounced with the emphasis on the second, not the first, syllable. It is correctly pronounced U-kraine. It is not pronounced U-kraine.
I can understand that there is a certain inherent lack of knowledge of other parts of the world among many Americans, but these guys are commentators on a major television network. I'd think that ESPN could afford to buy an Atlas or a map for these two idiots...
So, once again, for the record, the name of the country is Ukraine. It is not, nor has it ever been, the Ukraine.
Contemporaneous Auditory Narcotics:
or, What my speakers are currently pumping...
Thievery Corporation - The Lagos Communique
This post is the creative work of Yours Truly and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License.
28 October 2005
Written by
Yours Truly (
)
Published on October 28th, 2005 @ 01:06:30 am, using 288 words, 397 views
Well, it's that time of year again in which we all ignore obvious math and get caught up in the silly madness of crowds. I'm refering to that display of American arrogance that is the "World" Series. I won't go into my thoughts on how mind-numbingly boring the sport is in general, but simply want to point out a few things:
1. The entire baseball league is comprised of two (2) countries.
2. The "World" Series this year is being played by teams from one (1) country.
3. The world consists of over 260 countries.
Now for some simple math (requires a grade-school education):
2 / 260 = 0.7% (percentage of the world participating in the "World" Series)
Let's look at football for a moment... Not American football. I'm referring to the sport played all over the world where they actually use their feet. (hint: soccer) Here we have something approaching a "world" involvement and, hence, the World Cup. As an aside, it was estimated 10 years ago that soccer is played by over 100,000,000 people around the world. That's one hundred million! So, greater than 100,000,000 participants worldwide... greater than 200 countries participating... World Cup championship... Call me kooky, but that makes more than a little sense.
On the other hand, how is the championship series of a sport played by a maximum of 2 countries (again, 0.7% of the world) in any way accurately called the "World" Series? I just don't get it. Maybe the point is not to think? Maybe enjoyment of the sport is an inverse relationship to the amount of electricity in the braincase? Any thoughts?
Contemporaneous Auditory Narcotics:
or, What my speakers are currently pumping...
DJ Krush - Strictly Turntablized
This post is the creative work of Yours Truly and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License.
10 October 2005
Written by
Yours Truly (
)
Published on October 10th, 2005 @ 09:02:53 pm, using 311 words, 334 views
There's a news story that just showed up on Yahoo about an hour ago describing the discovery of a new species of tiny geckolike lizard. This new and apparently endangered species of lizard is about 1.5 inches in length, and was discovered in the Caribbean by Avila University professor Robert Powell.
The Yahoo article states that professor Powell discovered the lizard, "after being tipped off about its existence." The article goes on to say that "The Rev. Bob de Silva, an amateur naturalist from St. Vincent who had visited Union Island, had been the only person to ever report seeing the geckolike lizard, and told Powell about it."
Sooo... umm... didn't the Rev Bob de Silva actually discover it? After all, the university professor didn't seem to know anything about it until he was 'tipped off' by de Silva.
Continuing on, the article reads: "The wonderful thing about Bob Powell is what he does with his research, said Sister Marie Joan Harris, Avila provost." Yes, it sounds like he lets other people do the research for him, and then takes credit for it...
Anyway, read the article for yourself:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20051010/ap_on_sc/nameless_lizard. The prof apparently needs the attention.
Oh, and in case there's any question about the official definition of the word "discover":
dis·cov·er - To be the first, or the first of one's group or kind, to find, learn of, or observe.
The key here is the guy who saw it 'first', not the guy who showed up late and was tipped off by the guy who saw it 'first'. Dig it?
Contemporaneous Auditory Narcotics:
or, What my speakers are currently pumping...
Finn & Aphrodite - G.L.O.B.A.L. Takeover
This post is the creative work of Yours Truly and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License.
02 September 2005
Written by
Yours Truly (
)
Published on September 2nd, 2005 @ 12:13:49 am, using 165 words, 1619 views
Boing Boing is pointing to a few flickr photos depicting flood survivorr. The photos were originally carried by the (AP) Associated Press. Both images depict flood survivors carrying/dragging what appear to be bags of food scavenged from local grocery stores.
One photo depicts a black man dragging a bag of food, with the caption "A young man walks through flood water after looting a grocery store..."
The second photo depicts a white man and woman dragging a similar bag of scavenged foodstuffs, with a caption that reads "Two residents wade through chest-deep water after finding bread and soda from a local grocery store..."
Something seems wrong here, but maybe it's just me...
You can see the original boingboing post here:
http://www.boingboing.net/2005/08/30/black_people_loot_wh.html
Contemporaneous Auditory Narcotics:
or, What my speakers are currently pumping...
Led Zeppelin - Complete Bombay Sessions
This post is the creative work of Yours Truly and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License.
31 August 2005
Written by
Yours Truly (
)
Published on August 31st, 2005 @ 09:58:08 pm, using 327 words, 359 views
Just a quick observation on the extreme saturation of American flags in all aspects of life these days. I've seen them on hot dog vendor carts, on web design company websites, and pasted to the sides of garbage cans. Am I to believe that those hot dogs embody the spirit for what George Washington and Tom Paine fought and bled? Or are they merely an attractively colored shell concealing artificial byproducts and other assorted crap that masks itself as today's American dream? Is that website you design really somehow more American than the next? Come on, people. My eyes are rolling right out of my head. It used to be that the flag was something to be flown in honor and remembrance. Now we decorate our weekly trash with it, and we rest our little heads at night content in the notion that we've truly done our share to be patriotic.
I even see American flags being flown from foreign cars, which suggests the drivers of those foreign cars are either 1) extremely stupid and caught up in a sheep-like madness of crowds, or 2) are so hopelessly believing that a $2 cotton flag is the true arrowhead of their patriotism, and more than makes up for the $20,000 they gave to a foreign nation's economy for that automobile, or 3) those wavers of American flags from their foreign vehicles truly 'grok' the meaning of patriotism. There's always option 4) a little bit of all of the above.
My question is, who is the bigger idiot... the people that wave a flag to sell their dubiously "American" product, or the people that actually buy into that waved flag and buy that dubious product simply because some idiot waves an American flag over it? Hmm...
Contemporaneous Auditory Narcotics:
or, What my speakers are currently pumping...
Sick of it All - Blood, Sweat, and No Tears
This post is the creative work of Yours Truly and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License.
23 August 2005
Written by
Yours Truly (
)
Published on August 23rd, 2005 @ 11:46:16 am, using 118 words, 262 views
Well, the so-called "Special Edition" DVD version of the movie Gladiator has now been released in the US. It apparently contains 17 minutes of extra footage which wasn't seen in the theaters. I'm wondering if it contains any behind-the-scenes footage of the business deal in which the producers purchased 5,000 acres of forest for the sole purpose of burning it down for our viewing pleasure. You know... because 2 hours of blood, dismemberment, murder and incest just isn't enough to get people in the doors these days.
Contemporaneous Auditory Narcotics:
or, What my speakers are currently pumping...
Dead Kennedys - Forest Fire
This post is the creative work of Yours Truly and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License.
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