McCain's actions reek of dishonesty

John McCain has released his medical records to a small group of journalists. They'll be given three hours to look at over 400 pages of documents. Then, a separate group will also be given a few meager hours to pour over 1,000 pages of documents.
There are only two reasons to release data like this:
The first and least likely of the two answers is that he has morons for public relations officials. Since he's made it this far, that is highly unlikely.
The second and more likely answer is that there's something in those files that a) has been agreed upon by the journalists not to be disclosed; or b) there's something there, but it would take more than three hours to discover unless someone got really lucky and found the connection.

Mike Rotch and Harry Shaft cause controversy at Lawson High

According to information that I pulled from a Facebook Group protesting the schools decision, students Dave Keyes and Linus Owens of Towson High School, Maryland, have been suspended for the last 4 days of school and barred from the school prom for signing their names on a photo as "Mike Rotch" and "Harry Shaft," which was later transcribed into the yearbook (see the image to the right; Top Row).

While I'm sure that somewhere in the school's code of conduct you can find a rule that would justify punishment, is 4 days and banishment from the senior prom a justifiable punishment for this incident? I've never been to Maryland, but at my high school even a fist fight wouldn't get you 4 days suspension and banishment from the prom unless it was a particularly bad one that had escalated into a multiple person brawl or something.

Are the yearbook staff and the yearbook adviser being punished as well? These are pretty obvious fake names. In a school where the entire enrollment is approximately 1500 (according to Wikipedia) wouldn't the yearbook staff recognize that the caption was wrong, especially since it seems these two students are fairly well known? Did an administrator or faculty member bother to proof the yearbook before it went to print and if so, are they at fault as well?

Do you think the actions warrant the punishment? Should an administrator or faculty member also be held accountable? Voice your opinion in the comments section or call the school at 410-887-3608.

Wigger on the bus gets put in his place

Tonight on the bus there were a bunch of Wiggers (see photos or Wiki) and they were talking all kinds of trash and being real rude even though the bus was crowded and there were a few older folks sitting nearby.
So this one starts talking about how hard he would fuck Jessica Alba... He gets up in the middle of the bus, holding the handrail for support, and starts humping the air and grinding one of the seats, gyrating around for about 2 minutes.
So after he's made a big spectacle of himself on the bus in front of his friends and all these older people, I turn to him and I say, "Dude... Did you know Jessica Alba has the herp?" He went nuts, like Alba was his girlfriend who he'd just found out had cheated on him or something. He just sat there in the back of the bus in disbelief shouting, "No, way!"
His friends all started laughing their asses off and giving him a huge ration of shit. A couple of the older folks that heard what had happened turned to me and gave me nods to show their appreciation for putting the little twit in his place.

The "I'm fucking...(Insert Celebrity)" Meme?

I'm fascinated by these videos, but especially by the fact that the last one was filmed on the set of a Kevin Smith flick with Elizabeth Banks singing "I'm Fucking Seth Rogen." I think it would be really great if this became a meme - different stars and famous people making "I'm fucking..." videos.
It's pretty genius because it mocks the whole tabloid TMZesque papers and sites by shoving it right in their faces. Are these videos serious or is it just another "act"?

I'm fucking Matt Damon:



I'm fucking Ben Affleck:



I'm fucking Seth Rogen:
Sorry, the video is not embeddable...

The people of Seattle

I moved to Seattle about a month ago for an internship. My house is approximately 3 bus transfers away from my job and at one leg of my trip is through the middle of downtown Seattle. I've begun to notice people in the city who are out of the ordinary.
The following people have caught my attention and I would love to do a feature on them if I could only muster the guts to approach them and ask about their peculiarities:

Blind Wolverine: This guy looks exactly like Hugh Jackman's Wolverine before he joined the X-Men, right down to the spiked hair and clothing style... But instead of blades that protrude from his knuckles he carries a white can most commonly used by the blind or visually impaired.

The Walrus: This guy's fashion is straight out of the 80's punk movement except his glaringly huge "Walrus" mustache. It's similar to Nietzsche's Stache (photo below) except that it's bigger. It looks as though the guy combs it down over his lips and then trims the underneath so that the under layer pushes the top out and over his lips.


The Flute Guy: In the building I work in, there's a guy that I've seen a couple times practicing on a cheap recorder in the parking garage. One day in the elevator I mentioned him to a couple guys I was sharing the ride with and one of them said one day he came out of the elevator and the guy was practicing Tai Chi right front of the door.


Those 3 are the only guys I can think of right now, but for your enjoyment, here's the list of my favorite peculiar people in Honolulu:

John "Mango Man" Cruz: He's a homeless vet that's been haunting the town of Kailua since the 70's. A friend of mine used to work at the Safeway that Cruz frequents and made friends with him. He's a very intimidating guy, but very nice. Recently he was hit by a car and there's been huge public support for him to pull through the incident.

Tuxedo Man: He always wears a neatly pressed Tuxedo and can often be seen walking the streets of Manoa. He usually carries a briefcase and a few plastic bags. He's most commonly found in the Hamilton Library at the University of Hawaii although when people start to recognize his routines he changes them up a bit. This person noticed that he was sitting at the same benches every night, and left him dinner but he never came.

The Rhinoceros Man: This guy has a lot of different names, like the Horned Man, etc., but if you describe him to anyone that's seen him, they immediately recognize who you're talking about. He's an older guy with gray hair that is always neatly kept and in the front protruding from the front of hairline is a tubular chunk of hair that about an inch thick that protrudes forward about 6 inches. It looks like he puts something in it and then twists it forward. The most peculiar part is that it is flat on the end as though someone actually sheared it with a razor after it hardened into that shape.

I hope you enjoyed this post. If you have comments, photos, stories, etc. about the people above, or you have your own favorite peculiar person in whatever city, please post them in the comments section and I'll address them in a later blog.

The last laugh?

I USED to be a big Morcheeba fan. Now that the ban is broken up, I'm a Skye Edwards fan.
Dive Deep and The Antidote are Morcheeba's newest albums (both sans Skye Edwards). I don't recommend you buy them however, because now they sound like a cheap, poppy imitation of all the other generic Euro trip-hop/downtempo bands out there.
It's just the Godfrey Brothers trying to ride Morcheeba's fame even though it's not really Morcheeba anymore. I'd heard that Paul Godfrey is particularly a douche bag (Groping former band mates; I also read somewhere that he treated a sound technician with so much arrogance and disrespect that the guy refused to work with him again).

Media only tells one side of "Plagiarism on the Campaign Trail"

Recently Hillary Clinton accused Barack Obama of plagiarism for an ad-lib speech in which he repeated the words of one of his close friends and colleagues. All the media outlets are picking it up and running with it, but did they do any legwork to see if perhaps Hillary is a hypocrite?

Clinton is also guilty of plagiarizing Rudy Giuliani when she said, “I’m tested. I’m ready. Let’s make it happen,” in El Paso and of plagiarizing Obama himself when she said, "We are fired up and we are ready to go because we know America is ready for change and the process starts right here in Iowa.”

Now, instead of repeating Clinton's accusation, a good journalist would do a little bit of fact-checking and take Clinton to task on her own plagiarism.

Last night I began to gather a list of which publications just repeated what the Clinton Camp said and the ones that actually did homework and actually deserve the title of journalist (at least in the context of reporting this story), but there were far too many that fit into the first category and it grew tiresome.

One surprise is that Fox News was actually reporting both sides, which was refreshing... I guess it makes sense that they would report on something that can later be used as fodder for promoting McCain.

On another note, I'm currently talking with an LA Times writer who's column was one of the first to get me upset about this, so maybe I'll talk about that next, when I'm done corresponding with him.

I want a return to honest politics

I recently read an article from The New Yorker titled Sparring Partners and the last paragraph struck a cord for me. It got me thinking about the public discourse offered to us by Presidential candidates.

[Obama] answered, “I think it would be a profound mistake for us to use nuclear weapons in any circumstance”—he paused—“involving civilians.” He paused again. “Let me scratch that,” he added. “There’s been no discussion of nuclear weapons. That’s not on the table.”
Let me scratch that, indeed. The sentence you are reading has been tweaked a half-dozen times. But in an age of omnipresent microphones, instant transcripts, cell-phone videos, and merciless cable-TV hosts, politicians have no such luxury. When they open their mouths, the first draft is the final. Off the cuff is engraved in granite.

Many consider Obama to be naive because he answered a question off-the-cuff instead of using pre-written rhetoric. I appreciate Obama's off-the-cuff remarks though. If he had done his homework and already had a stance on the question, it would have made him look all the more genuine.
I want a candidate that's not afraid to answer any question, say what's on his mind, and have no apologies later. I want a candidate who isn't afraid to walk into a room where the questions are spontaneous. I want a return to the days when, for better or worse, candidates were asked honest questions from normal citizens who hadn't been pre-selected by the candidates campaign committees.
I want a candidate that has done his homework and has a stance on ALL the important issues. Plans for his first few months in office? Aspirations are also important. What kind of goals does the candidate have besides their media-prescribed talking points?
Clinton is casting Obama's response about diplomacy with leaders of hostile countries as a rookie mistake, but I think it was a refreshing answer. But I want a candidate to take the next step and meet with diplomats. If a presidential candidate could secure peace, or even open a dialogue about peace, before he even walked into the Oval Office, he would most likely secure my vote.

What the Dems can learn from Ron Paul

Everywhere are talking about and rallying behind Ron Paul. Do a search for "Ron Paul Democrat" on google and you'll come up with groups across the country called "Democrats for Ron Paul", news reports that Paul is a Dem in GOP clothing, and online news sources (often accussed of being left-leaning) shouting Paul from the rooftops.

With all of this grassroots support and a GOP donations record-breaking 4th quarter, why are the parties so afraid to embrace Paul and his ideas? If Obama, Hillary, or Edwards would sincerely grab ahold of some of Paul's ideas (not just empty rhetoric, but honest adoption of some of his ideas), then they would not only inherit Paul's supporters if/when he is forced to drop out, but they would also demonstrate that they're able to be flexible in their opinions and excercise the will of the people they hope to represent.

Here are the top 3 reasons I believe Ron Paul is so popular among both sides of the political spectrum:

1) Ron Paul says he'll pull troops out of Iraq immediately
Even Jon Edwards' nine month plan is not good enough. Americans ousted the GOP from Congress in favor of the Dems in 2004 because they wanted change in Iraq. The Dems still haven't made good on their promises from 2004, so why should we vote for any Dem candidate that doesn't promise to make it right as soon as they enter office?

2) Civil Rights
Americans want their civil liberties back. They don't want to be spyed on, they don't want to be watched, they don't want to be tasered, they don't want to be kidnapped, they don't want to be tortured and they don't want their government to do it to other country's citizens in the US's name.

3) His stance against corporate subsidies
Most Americans have figured out by now that there is a lot of politicking in DC that either directly or indirectly helps big corporations on the backs of the American People. Whether it be subsidized corn that's helping America get fatter, big pharmaceuticals that keep Americans from the medicine they need, sub-contracting to suspect private corporations like Blackwater, etc., etc., etc., the American people want fair, honest government that doesn't include making big corporations even bigger.

WHAT THE AMERICAN PEOPLE CAN DO TO BRING ABOUT THESE CHANGES
Even if you don't believe in all of Ron Paul's stances, you can still show support for his ideas by supporting him in the primaries. No matter your party affiliation, you can still go to the Republican primaries where you can cast a vote for Paul. He's a longshot for the White House, but if he garners enough support maybe some of the other candidates will start to realize why he's made it this far. You can also write about what you want and what you believe in. Finally, call the candidate's local or national offices and encourage them to pass the word on to the candidate that what they're proposing in the election promises isn't enough.

Solar energy storage unit idea

Every day I remind myself that my inner and outer life are based on the labors of other men, living and dead, and that I must exert myself in order to give in the same measure as I have received and am still receiving - Albert Einstein

The other day an idea popped into my head and I haven't been able to get it out since. I've been very interested in solar energy lately and how nobody has really found an efficient way to store the energy created by it. Then my mind wandered to the simple lessons of potential and kinetic energy that I learned in my college physics class.
My idea involves putting a pump at the bottom of large energy producing dams like Hoover. At night water is released to power the grid. During the daytime solar energy is used to power the grid and any energy not utilized by the grid is used to pump the water back to the top of the dam so that it is turned back into potential energy.
A variation of the idea involves having a field or plant of piston-like weights that are alternately raised by solar energy and then released to power turbines.

-----------UPDATE!-----------
There's actually a remote village on the Donoussa Island in the Aegean Sea, Greece, that is already utilizing solar energy to pump water to an upper reservoir during the day and then running the water through a turbine down to a lower reservoir at night in order to power the village.
You can see the abstract of a paper written about it here.

A solution to California's conflicts with the EPA

The avoidance of taxes is the only intellectual pursuit that carries any reward. -- John Maynard Keynes

California is going about its Greenhouse Gas regulations conundrum all wrong. The Bush Administration and our special-interests controlled Congress will always fight tooth and nail to stop California from enacting harsher rules. So why do we fight for new rules when a few minor adjustments to the existing ones would suffice?

California can "quietly encourage" its citizens to work towards more eco-friendly vehicles by slowly raising the registration fees, excise taxes and gas taxes for gas-guzzling, CO2 producers. D.C. won't be able to argue against the fees because they already levied the same taxes on their citizens in 2004:

Washington Post, December 8, 2004 - The D.C. Council approved legislation yesterday that will require District owners of large, luxury sport-utility vehicles to pay a higher excise tax and registration fee next year, after concluding that the vehicles contribute to air pollution and street damage.

But under the new legislation, residents with clean-air hybrid cars will no longer have to pay an excise tax and will have their vehicle registration fees cut in half. Original Source

Extra revenue produced by those who are penalized could then be filtered back into clean energy research and implementation, Transportation Infrastructure maintenance and construction, etc.

California could start with newer vehicles, while grandfathering in older ones and then each year move the bar a little lower until all vehicles are assessed registration fees based on the amount of pollution they produce. The fees can be based on the standard EPA ratings of each vehicle. Then any vehicle that has been modified to lower its emissions or consumption, such as a converted bio-diesel, can go through an inspection process to lower its rating.