November 15th, 2008
The Republican War on Science, by Chris Mooney, talks about how politicians(Republicans mainly) have distorted science to advance their agenda. These issues range from the Tobacco industry, Endangered species, global warming and evolution vs creationism. The book doesn’t go into these issues themselves, but how politicians have distorted the science behind these issues.
In each of the sections it goes on about how uncertainty and doubt are used to undermine the actual science when making decisions. Starting with the Reagan era with his “Star Wars” project. Newt Gingrich, with severe budget cuts to OTA)basically wanted everyone to do their own fact checking and peer review, allowing lobbyists to put their own dubious research. And if there was anything that came across as threatening to industry or social conservative issues. By the time Bush came into power everything was ready for him to undermine every bit of scientific research.
It’s not the desicions that were ultimately made, but the degredation science behind the decisions. As an example. Say regulators came in to protect an endangered species that might negatively effect some surrounding businesses. Instead of heeding the reasearch saying that these species will go extinct if industry waste isn’t curtailed, politicians would sow doubt in the reasearch. They would say that the data might be incorrect or the wrong model was used. They would also put forward research from industry scientists that would say that the species will still survive. Cherry picking the research that best coincides with their agenda. In short, it’s Republican politicians trying to change or make their own reality instead of accepting the reality at hand.
All of this undermines the role of science in government, allowing bad decisions. And more dangerously it also causes the public to lose trust in scientific research in the political sector. Because we couldn’t be sure if the government is lying to us or not.
November 10th, 2008
While I would ordinarily celebrate such weather, I’m not ready for it this time. I skipped the first leaf collection, since there were barely any leaves to rake at that time. The second one is coming up and I still have a huge pile of leaves in the backyard. Now when I want to move them they’ll be soggy and heavy with water. A friendly neighbor suggested that I use a blanket or tarp to move the leaves to the curb. It is a good idea that I should of done yesterday. I’m currently debating whether I should try to move the leaves today with the snow or wait 1 or 2 more days to see if everything can dry up.
Next leaf pickup is on the 14th.
October 6th, 2008
If you are thinking of choosing my next vice president, YOU ARE WRONG. I mean the addictions and distractions in our lives.
Folks, Ladies and Gentlemen, I’m finally done with World of Warcraft.
Nothing, I mean NOTHING, is going to bring me back. This biggest time suck, that I spend over a year of my waking life playing, has been the furthest thing in my mind for the past 2 weeks. Not only am I not looking forward to playing the game, I dread spending anymore greymatter thinking about it.
But now, a dreadful thing has happend. I’ve suddenly have all this time to do whatever and now I’m spending more money on playing games. Recently I’ve downloaded on XBL; Bionic Commando, MM9, and Castle Crashers. I feel the Langoliers are upon me as I waste precious time on firvolous things.
But here is my take on those games.
Bionic Commando:Rearmed - plays like the original with some changes, for the better IMO. Hard difficultly is Hard. I’ve died many, many times trying to complete the first level. And the Training missions past mission 9 are even more difficult. There is some 4th wall pounding, but I’ve been enjoying the flavor text a lot.
MM9 - It’s difficult but do able. Gameplay in Megaman has always simply fun. Really the only way to rate this game is by level design. I quickly notice that even if MM9 is reminisent of MM2, the level design philosophies differ by a fair margin. For one, the enemy placement in MM9 is always in the most inconvient places from the get go. In MM2 difficult enemy placements are not consistant, if they exist at all. Some how I feel that the level design in MM2 is more thematic than based on challenge. In MM9, challenge seems to be more of a priority over theme. So MM9 is like MM2, but with a funny taste.
Castle Crashers - Think RiverCity Random meets Golden Axe, and you have Castle Crashers. It’s a really fun game, that I’ve been playing with my sister. I feel there is some inside jokes that only fans of developers or regulars of newgrounds.com would get. The over the top animations and humor really make this game a joy to play and not a chore to grind.
August 31st, 2008
So real life has become a WoW game to me now.
- I did my jogging daily to increase my STA and STR stats.
- I duo’d with my sister various instances for some epic loots, I rolled and got [Stylus 850 SW]
- I did the quest [Fix that drip]
[A vacuum that doesn't suck] and [Porch Painting] are still in my quest log. I’m also getting kinda bored with all this solo content, I’m going spam trade channels, “Skilled electrical engineer LF guild”, so I can get epic lewts.
August 26th, 2008
Yea, I’m always restarting my site, but with the weather getting cooler, I decided to skip jogging today and do some blogging. First off, let me go on about what I’ve done since moving from Seattle. The first month I basically helped pretty up the house. We painted the walls and the cielings, not a top notch professional job, but the defects are hardly noticable, unless you actively look for one. we removed the white carpet from the dining room and replaced it with hardwood flooring. Well not exactly hardwood, we used an engineered particle board that has a layer of real wood, varnished and waxed, on top. Very easy to put together. Lot’s of gardening work, which to this day hasn’t been completely done, well there will be less work next year, hopefully. Still need to do; Paint the front porch, use water saw to install wall tiles in the kitchen.
I’ve also played a lot of World of Warcraft these past months. I’m currently doing 2v2s with my brother and while this season has been brutal (we’ve been hovering at a 1500s rating) we finally reached a 1650. Next goal will be to get that 1700 rating, but not before I get my rings and belt.
As for other games, I’ve played a bit of my RPGs, before getting bored. Since then I’ve mainly played emulated nes/snes games. I’ve also played a bit of MegaMan Powered Up. My favorite feature of that game is making your own levels. Unfortuantely for me, I like to jam pack my levels with stuff that slows down the game to near unplayable levels. Geometry Wars 2 just came out and I’m having a blast with that game, and it makes an awesome party game to boot. Playing 2 players in GW2 is just a blast, I wonder how 4 players would be like. I’ve also tried the demos of Braid and Bionic Commando. I’ll get those games, when I find the time to play them.
No result yet from my job hunting efforts. I’m not too concerned yet, I have enough money saved to last me a year.