80-Proof Diamonds

Time for another filler post while I wait for time to write something good. Ready for some randomness?

Yesterday was International Toilet Day. That's right. It was started in 2001 by the World Toilet Organization. It really exists. They meet and discuss ways to improve sanitation around the world, which is a good goal I guess, but they're a bunch of crazies. They say that "each year lack of toilets causes 200 million tons of human waste to go uncollected and untreated around the world, fouling the environment and exposing millions of people to diseases." Holy crap! They're trying to develop "dry toilets" that you don't have to flush, because apparently any civilization that flushes toilets wastes more water than is sustainable. Stop flushing your toilets, people! If you do, places like this will no longer be necessary.

Scientists have found a way to make a film of synthetic diamonds out of tequila. Apparently they've been doing this for awhile with a solution of 40% ethanol 60% water, but apparently tequila, which is 40% alcohol (that's what 80-proof means), has just the right amount of carbon and other things to make exactly the kind of diamond they need. These diamonds are slightly impure (like the ones in Congo by Michael Crichton), which makes them highly useful in electronics. Read about it here.

Speaking of tequila, this is very informative:

And the effects of tequila on lego figures:

One tequila, two tequila, three tequila, floor.

These are some very cool videos I found of Ken Block driving around in a Subaru, doing some incredible drifting and other stunts:

And William Shatner demonstrating why it's a good idea for civilians to have guns:

That was a clip from Boston Legal, and if that's all you've seen of that show you've seen as much as I have. Pretty cool, though.

That's all for now.

Life Without Walls

I have to rant for a bit.

Microsoft has launched a new ad campaign that I couldn't help but noticing because it's so stupid. I've seen a lot of stupid commercials, but these rank among the worst ever. The campaign is called "Life Without Walls," and I guess is supposed to reject the stereotype of Windows users created by Apple ads depicting Windows users as stuffy businessman-types who follow the crowd and replace it with the idea that every unique person can be a windows user, too. The worst idea about this is that they have PC users upload video of themselves saying "I'm a PC" and giving a statement about themselves, then I'm pretty sure they deliberately chose the worst examples to put in the commercials. Or maybe just the worst of nerds and Deepak Chopra* are likely to upload themselves.

Here's an example of one of the ads; but I have to warn you, there are some creepy people in this video:

First off, do you really want a life without walls? There's no privacy in a life without walls! What you really want is a life without limits, but with plenty of protective boundaries, such as walls. Maybe this is to put a positive spin on Windows' susceptibility to viruses; there are no walls to keep the viruses out. And if you replace "walls" with "limits," then you really do want to go with Apple, since you can run Windows on a Mac (as fast or faster than on an equivalent PC!), but you can't run MacOSX on a PC. Which one has more limits?

Secondly, by starting your ad with the guy from Apple's Mac vs. PC ads, and having everyone say "I'm a PC," Microsoft is unwittingly admitting that Apple controls the board here. They're acknowledging that Apple, with it's small but growing market share, is a threat. Seriously, ever since Steve Jobs went back to Apple and saved their butts, Apple has single-handedly driven the computer market and now the gadget market. If you got a Zune because you refused to buy an iPod, thank Apple for forcing Microsoft to make a product to compete. If you're a Blackberry fan excited for the new version coming out, thank iPhone for turning the smartphone market on its head practically overnight. If you like the colorful George Foreman Grills they had awhile back, thank the original often mocked but often imitated colorful iMac, which saved Apple from extinction. Apple sets not just the trends but the standards, and is driving the entire PC market today, and this awful ad campaign acknowledges that.

Stuff that imitates Apple products:

And finally, if you were Microsoft, would you really want that to be the face you show to the world? Seriously? You couldn't find people who aren't completely socially awkward nerds to show in your ads? This doesn't help the stereotype they're trying to fight, it just replaces it. At least the PC guy in the Apple ads looks like a normal guy; now I'm seeing the "real" PCs, and they're stereotype nerds.

That's a bit harsh, I suppose; surely they're not all that bad. Let's look at another one:

I'm still not being fair, because it's way too easy to make fun of Tron Guy, especially since he's everywhere these days. I should be nice, though (see comments!), since Tron has been a favorite movie of mine since I was little, and the purpose of this post is more to question Microsoft's judgment than mock a super-fan. So how about more of this guy:

They really do have some somewhat normal people, too, though:

Though some of those guys I still wouldn't want in my ad. There are more at Microsoft's website, both normal people and weird ones, like this guy and this guy. I thought about submitting my own "I'm a Mac," just out of spite, but then I decided I don't really feel like it.

Anyway, I get really annoyed by stupid commercials, and I just couldn't let this one escape.

*If you want to see a real idiot who is more than an average guy, watch Deepak Chopra talk about why he is a PC:

In the montage ad they show him saying "I'm a PC, and a human being. Not a human doing, not a human thinking; a human being." Well, how profound, Mr. Philosopher man! Maybe you should do some more thinking and doing, you might be of some value to this world rather than spouting gibberish about quantum healing and other nonsense. Seriously, what is that supposed to mean?

Michael Crichton

With so much of my time spent on homework, I am way behind on posting. This post is a whole week late, but I want to speak on this topic anyway.

Last week, while America was going to the polls, Michael Crichton died of cancer, joining my list of personal heroes who have died this year. He was 66 years old, and had kept his cancer quiet, so his death was very unexpected.

While the quality of his recent work had suffered quite a bit (his last couple books were a bit disappointing), he is still one of the most influential authors of the late 20th century, and played an important role along with Orson Scott Card and William Sleator in shaping my taste in books. Additionally, he was a recent and powerful ally in the fight against global warming alarmism, making some excellent speeches on the topic before congress. He received a degree in anthropology from Harvard, and then went on to medical school, writing books along the way, and became a full-time writer after receiving his M.D. degree after the success of The Andromeda Strain. He will definitely be missed.

I think that the best way to remember an artist is by his work, and so the best I can do for Mr. Crichton is to praise his books. So here are my picks from the works of Michael Crichton:

Sphere: This book is often overlooked, but is by far my favorite; in fact, it is my second favorite sci-fi book after Enders Game. I've read it nearly a dozen times, and it is almost like a first read every time, there's so much in it. The premise is that a team of scientists is brought together to investigate a space ship that has been found on the bottom of the ocean, 1000ft. deep. The strange thing is, the ship is American-built, and it has been there for 300 years. As the team explores the ship and deals with cramped quarters in a deep-sea habitat, all their fears start coming real.

This book has absolutely perfect pacing, alternating between tense scenes as the characters face dangerous sea monsters and worse, and entertaining dialogue as the scientists debate their theories on the space ship, time travel, and other things. The psychological aspect of this book is very well thought out, and this book is full of interesting ideas. Unfortunately it was made into a very poor movie, but the bright side is that the movie has an excellent soundtrack by Elliot Goldenthal that perfectly sets the mood. It won't be a classic - Jurassic Park has secured that place and earned it - but in my opinion this is a better book and a must-read.

Jurassic Park: As I said, this book earns its place as a classic. This book got people excited about science and dinosaurs again, and is a truly original book. Chances are you've already read it, but if you haven't you must and if you have you should again. When he first wrote this it was from the point of view of the children visiting the park, and no one wanted to publish it. He finally realized it was because he adults reading his manuscript weren't identifying with the child characters because they wanted to be the ones having the adventure. He rewrote it from an adult point of view, and it sold immediately. The sequel, The Lost World, is very good, too. Also, this is the only Michael Crichton book to be made into a good movie, which will also be a classic. I still believe that no movie has matched the special effects achievements of Jurassic Park, because no one has cared as much to make things look real. It is 100% convincing.

Congo: If this book doesn't make you afraid of gorillas, it's not possible. This book follows a group of scientists as they take a tame gorilla deep into the jungles of Congo to return her to the wild, and hope to solve a mystery at the same time. A previous expedition to the area in search of special diamonds that have important technology applications was mysteriously attacked by wild gorillas; and they hope the tame gorilla, who can speak sign language, can help to piece together what happened. They face violent natives and rebels on the way, and eventually the ruins of mysterious ancient civilization, and an unusually violent race of gorillas. I couldn't put this book down, and have read it a few times since and it doesn't lose its effect. Unfortunately, the movie barely resembles the book.

Those are my absolute favorites that everyone must read. Runners-up include The Lost World (an excellent sequel to Jurassic Park that still hasn't been made into a movie whatever people say), The Andromeda Strain (scientists investigate a mysterious microorganism spreading from a crashed satellite, and was Crichton's first bestseller), Terminal Man (a violent man is given an experimental treatment similar to a pacemaker to calm his mind, and it goes horribly wrong), Eaters of the Dead (renamed 13th Warrior, an attempt to finish a scrap of manuscript about a Middle-Eastern man going on a quest with some Vikings, and is inspired by Beowulf), and State of Fear (not a great book in and of itself, but makes an excellent case against global warming alarmism while remaining entertaining). The rest of his books are entertaining, but not at all masterpieces. Read Sphere, Jurassic Park and Congo, and if you like those go on to the runners-up and then on from there.

In addition to his books, he made some great speeches on global warming and environmentalism in general. These are must-reads for anyone interested in the issue, especially since Crichton was a convert to the skeptic side of the debate. He did some research hoping to incorporate it into a book, and found that there's not much real science to support the idea that Man is causing global warming (surprise surprise!). The speeches are all on his website, and I encourage you to read them at least once. They are as entertaining as some of his books, so don't worry that they're dry and boring. I will link to the best ones here:

Environmentalism as Religion (this one is my favorite)

Testimony before the United States Senate

The Case for Skepticism on Global Warming

Complexity Theory and Environmental Management

Science Policy in the 21st Century

Aliens Cause Global Warming

You will be missed, Mr. Crichton; thank you for giving us so much to remember you by.

Boston Brass

I have quite a lot I'd like to write about in this blog, but haven't in awhile because I've just been so busy. The worst thing is, the more I do, the more there is to do, and I honestly don't think I can get caught up in all three of my difficult classes this semester. I'm to the point where I think I might have to choose which one I'm going to have to take over again. There was one highlight to the weekend, though, and that is that I took a break from my unproductive weekend to be unproductive at a very good concert by the Boston Brass.

The Boston Brass are a brass quintet from.... Boston. Not all the members are from Boston, but the quintet is. Even cooler than going to the concert was that I got to hang out with them and get to know them a bit before hand, so it was like going to a concert put on by a bunch of friends.

Bryce Mecham, who teaches Trombone at BYU-Idaho, has been keeping me involved in music events at the school even though I'm not a music major and I'm not officially taking music courses this semester, since they don't fit my schedule. I took lessons from him last semester, which was the first time I'd ever actually taken real Trombone lessons. Anyway, each of the brass faculty was allowed to invite two students to have lunch with the Boston Brass and BYU-Idaho brass faculty last Friday, and I was invited as one of Bryce Mecham's guests even though I'm not officially a student of his, which is extra cool. I sat near Jeff Conner, one of the trumpet players, and had casual conversation about music in general, and he asked questions about missions, since most of us there were returned missionaries. I also was invited to attend a master class taught by Andrew Hitz, the tuba player for Boston Brass (Lance LaDuke couldn't make it to teach the Trombones), and even though I was just there to listen and not play, I learned new things.

Then there was the concert. Actually, it was half concert, half comedy show. There was almost too much comedy; there was about 50/50 music and talking, and I think I'd have preferred more music. I'm not complaining, though, because these guys are hilarious. One of the trumpet players, Jose Sibaja, is from Costa Rica, so he introduced a couple Latin jazz songs. At one point, he claimed he could only do a set of songs justice by announcing it in Spanish, and had Lance translate, and of course the translation was deliberately botched. Later they invited to the stage a couple girls who had been cheering louder than the rest, and had them play a Hollywood Squares type game. One of the questions was about sports, and when Lance (who was "hosting" the show) asked if they knew anything about sports, one of the girls said "not the kind with balls," which made Kate and me laugh extra hard. As soon as she realized she'd said something that could be taken the wrong way, she was very embarrassed. They won free CDs, which was cool; I had to buy mine.

The music half was excellent. They played a wide variety of songs, from the famous bit of Dvorak's New World Symphony to two of my favorite jazz pieces: Manteca and Caravan. Manteca is still stuck in my head, and I don't mind. All the music was arranged by J.D. Shaw, who plays the french horn. I'd never thought of the french horn as a jazz instrument before, in fact, I'd never been a huge fan of it; but Shaw was no question the best of the five. I've never heard that instrument played so well. Andrew Hitz was awesome on the tuba as well; they played a funk piece, and he did an incredible bassline. I was only a bit disappointed, because Lance, the Trombone player, wasn't featured as much as I would have liked. I like to see my instrument dominate, but since the music was so good, it was alright.

Unfortunately, there's not much to offer on YouTube for Boston Brass, but I found a few decent videos. They don't come close to doing the band justice, but I'll share them anyway. If you only listen to one, make it Caravan by Duke Ellington.

Danza Final:

Largo from New World Symphony:

Caravan:

Comrades, Welcome to the Socialist State of America

I'm very proud to be an American today, a citizen of the SSA. You made the right decision, America!

Obama's Plan for America

Because Barack Obama has been elected President, we now have hope for the future. Together we can change this great (but not so great as it used to be) nation. Let's look together at some of this change we can hope for in the next four to eight years:

The U.S. will no longer be a threat to the world with our undeserved prosperity, which was achieved at the expense of less fortunate peoples.

Terrorism will no longer be an issue in the world, since we will talk through our problems rather than carrying out unprovoked attacks on foreign dictatorships, just because they felt it necessary to preemptively defend themselves.

We will no longer have to worry about violent crime. Since guns are bad we can make them illegal, so naturally criminals won't have them and we can rest easy.

Women who make a mistake will not have to worry about the consequences, because now they don't have to be punished with a baby.

On the other hand, we won't have to send our children overseas to die fighting for American Imperialism, because the failed Bush foreign policy will end as our troops are brought home. Better late than never!

Babies who would have been aborted no longer have to live lives full of misery, knowing they didn't have to live this life, because now we will be able to safely dispose of them even after they're born.

We no longer need to fear predatory lenders, because under Obama the government will guarantee affordable loans to everyone regardless of their situation. Everyone will be able to afford a home; if they can't work for it, someone else can.

We don't have to be embarrassed by a president who misspeaks all the time, since Obama never misspeaks, he's just taken out of context.

Conservative commentators such as Rush Limbaugh won't be a problem anymore, since Obama will be sure to push Congress to pass the Fairness Doctrine.

And the Earth is already breathing a sigh of relief as McCain concedes to Obama; the more polls closed reporting Obama as the winner, the colder and snowier it got here in Rexburg. I expect temperatures will continue to drop as we approach Obama's historic inauguration.

And there's more, of course! Let's make this interactive; anyone who reads this is welcome to post any awesome cool thing they think of that we can look forward to with hope and change in an Obama presidency, and anything really good in the comments I'll add to this post! This is your historic chance to contribute to this amazingly popular blog.

Sarcasm aside, this is a historic election in more ways than one, since it is only the second time since 1904 that Missouri didn't vote for the winner. Technically Missouri hasn't been called, but McCain is ahead by .21% (49.46% vs. 49.25%). At one point, when almost all precincts had reported, McCain led by only 398 votes. I'm glad my home state (I call it that, I've lived in a few states) made the right choice, and especially that both counties I lived in for significant time went strongly for McCain. But this map here is kind of scary:

The darkest blue in the east there is the city of St. Louis, which went 84% Obama. Even though all the blue counties are near major cities, the race was within about 10 to 15 points in each of them but St. Louis. The city of St. Louis by itself brought the race to a statistical dead heat. That's because it is in big cities that all the people live who are dependent (or believe they are) on the government, and respond the best to Democrat promises. The national map is similar; major population centers always vote Democrat, while sparser populations vote Republican.

We've lost this major battle, so now it's time to make these next four years an example of what happens when socialists have control of government. If we don't do what we can to fight it, we are partially responsible for what happens. I'm frustrated with the Republican party for nominating someone unelectable, who no true conservative could be comfortable supporting, and therefore relying on votes against Obama to get him elected. Choosing Sarah Palin as a running mate was brilliant, and made the race as close as it was popularly, but it wasn't enough even though Palin was literally the life of McCain's campaign.

We have nearly four years now, and we don't have to worry about Hillary anymore since Obama will run as an incumbent in 2012. In that time we need to find a true conservative, and purge the party of compromising moderates and RINOs (Republicans in Name Only) such as John McCain. We need a candidate that conservatives can rally behind, because conservatism wins elections. Had McCain been a true conservative, Obama would have had no chance. Now we have the most socialist, least competent person ever to hold the office of President, all because we threw our lot in with a "maverick," which really means "unprincipled, will do anything to make the liberal media happy" candidate.

Go Palin 2012!

Hwacha on Mythbusters

As I worked on rewriting some stuff for my Stratigraphy/Sedimentology class and ate dinner, I flipped to MythBusters and saw this awesome test of an ancient Korean rocket-launcher called a Hwacha:

Wasn't that super cool? Okay, don't forget I did a quick post on the election, and now get back to whatever it was you were doing.

The Election 2008 Post

The election is two days away, and I have been silent on this blog about political issues for awhile. This is partly because the whole political debate is really frustrating this time around, since Obama is not competent and McCain is not a real Republican; but mostly I just haven't had time to give any political issue the attention I would like. I've found some good stuff to share, though, put much better than I ever could.

First, I'd like everyone to go to this post on my friend's blog, and at least watch the video about Barack Obama from a Christian perspective. If you want just the video, here it is, but I recommend reading her entire post whether you're LDS or not. My favorite quote from the video there is one on socialism (paraphrased): "When a people depends on the State more than they depend on God, the State becomes their God."

This installment of Orson Scott Card's weekly column makes the case for McCain and against Obama from an old-school Democrat's point of view.

This one from Card makes the case for Proposition 8. While I can't vote on 8 since I don't live in California, I support it, but not entirely for the same reason as all my LDS friends. To me, I don't care what gay people do in private or what they call it, because it doesn't affect me personally and is a personal choice issue; however, the more we accept unviable relationships such as this, the closer our society is to collapsing, which is what makes this such a difficult issue to me. Do we let society implode and protect individual freedom, or do we protect society and legislate morality? Of course, if gay marriage is legal in one state, those marriages should be honored by all states, which is why I think it should be a national rather than state issue. Plus, what happens when an LDS bishop is asked to perform a gay marriage, and can't legally say no? That causes huge problems. What Card points out in his essay is what I've always considered to be the biggest issue here: Proposition 8 is not about gay marriage, it is a matter of upholding the constitution.

And this one is my favorite, totally ripping apart the media for being in the tank for Obama.

On the other side, apparently Apple is getting more political lately. I support them because they make awesome products, not for their political stance, but if Algore is on the board of directors it's to be expected that they will make a big deal about their products being environmentally friendly. But they just released this statement that made me laugh:

"Apple is publicly opposing Proposition 8 and making a donation of $100,000 to the campaign. Apple was among the first California companies to offer equal rights and benefits to our employees’ same-sex partners, and we strongly believe that a person’s fundamental rights — including the right to marry — should not be affected by their sexual orientation. Apple views this as a civil rights issue, rather than just a political issue, and is therefore speaking out publicly against Proposition 8."

In the big scheme of things, this makes absolutely no difference. $100,000 is nothing, and Apple's statement won't swing any votes. Whatever.

I've tried several times to write something up about Obama and McCain, but I just get too frustrated every time, so I won't say anything. Instead, I'll just say I'm voting for Sarah Palin, and if Maverick (i.e. untrustworthy, not really a Republican) McCain is the baggage that comes with her, so be it. Although, this is encouraging: