Ego Vero Seek and you shall find... Ask and the door shall be opened - page 25

…that is, How Do You Get a Train Moving?  Interesting article at wired.com if you need to know the physics involved.  The answer?  Back up first.  Click the link to see why.  Hint: there is a reason why the couplings between cars have some space between them.  I was going to say some “slop” but…wait…I guess I said it anyway.

Of course, this would be an exception

What I’d like to know is: How do you stop a (bullet) train?  Or more precisely, how do you kill a (bullet) train?  Because we got one needs killin’. In My Opinion.

Cross Posted at Men Out Of Work Blog

Obviously, it’s just a bunch of machines, right?  I mean, what else could it be?  Here’s an article at Wired.com with some pictures of the inside of a large data center in Spain and…yep.  A bunch of machines.  I feel kind of ripped off.  Like the feeling I have when I realize the jet packs and flying cars I so looked forward to when I was a child not only don’t exist, but probably won’t in my lifetime.  Rrripped off.

Of course, I suppose a bunch of machines and wires is better than what might be in store for us if the movies are any predictor of the future.  These hollywood machines run the gamut from murder and mayhem to simple senility and incompetence.  Kind of like me on a Monday.  Let’s look at a few shall we? *Mike levels the .38 and pulls the hammer back*

There’s HAL 9000, the red-eyed murdering monster that knows better than you from 2001: A Space Odyssey.  

2001!!  Were they wrong!  In 2001 I had a Packard Bell PC with a 500MB hard drive and a dot matrix printer.  I could easily have kicked it’s ass.  But I digress…In Rollerball we have the less malevolent but rather disorganized and forgetful Computer Zero, where the Corporations that rule the world of the future have hoarded All The Information:

Yeah..try calling Tech Support when that thing springs a leak.  More recently from I, Robot we have VIKI, another violence prone misunderstood do-gooder who (which? that? whom?  Never mind) could be much more efficient if there weren’t so many bothersome humans around:

Probably just angry since she isn’t taken seriously because she’s been given a female name.  *Mike sets the .38 down on the desk*  So I guess we are safe..for now.  But you have been warned!  For in the future…Xbox Kinect plays YOU!

It’s a fact.  The Washington Post says so in the article Female Named Hurricanes Kill More that Male Hurricanes Because People Don’t Respect Them, Study Finds.  A study has found it to be so. Enraged at the disrespect shown them, even in the face of their multitasking superiority over their weaker, less inteligent male counterparts they have launched a campaign of death and destruction unlike any previously experienced by humankind aimed at garnering them the respect they so deserve, the respect they are entitled to.  That’s what the study probably said…I didn’t read it.  I don’t have time, I got a lot on my plate – these cat videos aren’t going to watch themselves.

The deadly practice of naming inanimate things after women has a long and …well a long history, and the results are sometimes beneficial in the long run.  The most recent example was during WWII when the allies came up with a secret plan to increase the effectiveness of bombing raids against the axis powers by naming bombers after women – girlfriends, wives, or just sexy babes in general.  It was believed that the enemy would not take thusly named aircraft seriously, and this disrespect would greatly increase the damage and casualties inflicted.  And as we now know, “Operation Sexism Gambit” helped turn the tide.

As we face greater and greater crises in the world today I look to our leaders to once again harness this awesome power of The Rage Of Disrepected Female Named Inanimate Things (TRODFNIT) and use it unsparingly to rid the globe of the scourges of inequality, perceived inequality, hallucinatory disrespect, and unfairness *sob*.  After all, Hell hath no fury like some inanimate thing named after a woman scorned.

Having been at this for  a few months now, and looking back at the blog as a whole, I am thinking a few things over.  One decision I am grappling with is whether I want to conitnue posting political content here.  I do follow politics and have strong opinions.  And the stronger my opinion, the stronger my impulse to write about it.  Therein lies the rub – I don’t want to chase any potential readers away with stringent political commentary.  It’s not you, it’s me.  While I’m not ashamed of my opinions, I just want people to feel welcome here regardless of politcal stripe, and though I always assumed politics would be one of the subjects written about here, I did not intend this to be an overtly political blog.  I’d really like to keep the atmosphere light around here.  I’m open to hearing about it.

I’ll just quietly make my point and then go away.

When people (I include myself – I am a people too) talk about big government, they are often dismissed as paranoid crackpots.  Well, I may be a paranoid crackpot but that doesn’t mean I’m wrong when I say that the Federal Governmant has just gotten too damn big, and it has insinuated itself into areas of life it has no business in.  In a supposedly free society that is.  If you think freedom is old fashioned then no problem, I guess.

I’m starting to rant…serenity now…serenity now!…better.

When the federal government tells your local school district what they have to put in their school lunches that’s a problem.

That is all.  Thank you for your time.  Good Day.

…but it all comes down to you.

I give you Stevie Nicks – well, Fleetwood Mac really.  But this song is all Stevie.

If you’ve ever seen Stevie Nicks interviewed then you know she is…interesting.  She definitely has the artist vibe going.  Maybe I’ll expand on that one of these music Fridays.

…so we’ll continue our mellow Music Friday with this screeching guitar solo…just kidding!  We’re going MELLOW today.  This next one’s so mellow you may want to get grab a cup of coffee to stay alert.  Hopping off from the last post, I have another Dan Fogelberg song from his Souvenirs album, which you might remember was produced by…hint…it was in one of last Friday’s music posts…give up?  The answer is Joe Walsh produced Souvenirs.  Here is the title track:

Bonus backtrack:  mellow + Eagles + Joe Walsh = Pretty Maids All In a Row

Sometimes when I’m be-boppin’ around on the web I come across something, bookmark it and later forget how I got there.  That is the case here – I forgot how I came across this Judy Collins performance of  her song Since You’ve Asked, but I’m glad I did.  I hadn’t realized that she wrote it, as I was only familiar with the Dan Fogelberg version (2nd video) and assumed he authored it.  You will not recognize this song if you are only familiar with Collins’ commercially successful songs like Both Sides Now or Send In The Clowns.  This is a very moving love song, melodic poetry with a piano accompaniment

Now Dan Fogelberg:

Very Nice!

I guess I’ve been a little bit of a downer today.  Sorry.  Didn’t mean to harsh your mellow.

Here:  Look at 12 minutes of funny cats:

You’re Welcome.

I think it’s tough to be a boy today.  We used to say “boys will be boys”, now they says “boys have ADHD”, and when they say that it is all to often that boys are drugged.  Boys between seven and twelve years old are being given powerful stimulants with worrisome side effects because, in my opinion, they are normal or nearly normal boys under inept supervision or parenting.  Boys are physical and like to roughouse.  They need outlets for their energy – yet what do our educators tell us?  That physical sports are dangerous and not appropriate for the playground.  Someone might get hurt.  At home, parents are either too stupid or too lazy to engage their children in physical activity.  Or worse, they too have bought into the “competitive sports are bad for kids” bull.  Then their kids “won’t sit still” and it’s off to the doctor who, after the alotted 15 minute examination can’t find anything wrong, but just read an article in the Journal Of Medicine about ADHD and it’s “increasing prevalence”.  And how do you treat ADHD?  You guessed it – drugs.  Stimulants that are acknowledged to have great potential for abuse.

In the Drugging of the American Boy  at Esquire.com, Ryan D’Agostino lays out some of the (astonishing) statistics.  Check it out – I’m sure you’ll be shocked.  In the meantime, if your boy won’t sit still, please don’t drug him.  Get him into football, basketball, soccer or baseball.  Let him focus and expend that energy .