Referring to the previous entry, good luck with the truth anyway if the internets are against you.
Wow. Bizarre twists on meaning become dominant and obliterate everything else.
(Except for one brilliant article pointed it out, and I’m posting about it, and you’re reading it. Maybe it is always free or bound to be free.)
Ah ha ha!
“The truth will make us strong.”
I’m waiting for more. Please. Feed me another verse. I’ll start compiling it into a Windows Bible. Not that there isn’t at least one already.
I collected this sound a long time ago while looking for rude sounds for work (no, they opted out of using them - I suppose wisely), but ran across it again today.
This has been really cracking me up. The original is at the freesound project, here. Another amusing one by the same user is “nuclear genocide”, here. It’s not done after the first. Wait - there are long pauses.
It was an odd coincidence, after watching so many episodes of the new BattleStar Galactica on DVD, that after I penned that essay yesterday I watched an episode where the abortion debate was raised.
(By the way, I waited five weeks checking three different Blockbuster video stores for the right disc of the right season of BattleStar Galactica to be checked in - there was a conspiracy to keep me from checking out that disc - and then one day my wife brought home the entire season of the show, checked out for far less a price, from the Orem Public Library. Now, as well as for the Monte L. Bean Life Science Museum, I have a testimony that the Orem Public Library is true.)
The premise of the show is that the Cylons, robots created by humanity but which betray humanity, wipe out all the planetary colonies and drive and hunt the very small remainder of humanity into space. The entire show is humanity outsmarting, outmaneuvering, thwarting, and seeking to destroy the malevolent forces which they themselves created - while the evolved Cylons who are indistinguishable from humans fool people into David/Bathseba fiascoes.
In this episode (Season 2.5, “The Captain’s Hand”) President Rosylin is presented with a young pregnant woman who stowed away on the fleet command ship (Galactica), seeking asylum from her evil, fanatic, controlling parents to abort a child she apparently doesn’t want and/or can’t support. Rosylin has begun campaigning for re-election to office (she became President de facto as the highest ranking surviving political officer of the human race), and apparently the majority of the fleet is “pro-choice”, and her whole life Rosylin has fought to support the right, as she puts it, for a woman to control her own body. But General Adama reminds her that after the Cylon struck and nearly destroyed humanity, one of the first things she said to him was that “..if humanity is to survive we need to start having babies now.” Adama points to the number of humans still alive which Rosylin has kept on a whiteboard behind her desk since being sworn into office - around 54,000 - and says “That number hasn’t gone up for a long time.” Despite her position on abortion, Rosylin issues an executive order declaring any interference with the birth of a child as subject to criminal penalty - she makes abortion illegal. At the same time, since the executive order occurred after the young woman’s abortion, and the woman had already claimed asylum, Rosylin does not hold the woman subject to criminal penalty, which outrages the religious, fanatical representative from Gemenon. This principled compromise also outrages the eleven of the twelve colonies who support abortion (uh, how reflective of America or humanity would that be in real life - not very - the issue is very divided, and pretty equally). It also opens the way for a former political ally to come out in opposition and betray her in a factioning bid for the Presidency. Not bending to either extreme, Rosylin outrages everyone. Huh. Sounds like prexy Bush, dudn’t it? 
The episode, in my opinion, underscored what Orson Scott Card said of the Science Fiction genre, in his main address at Life, the Universe, and Everything XVII (which symposium I very much enjoyed attending). Card sought to answer the question of why so many prominent writers of Sci-Fi and Fantasy happen to be Mormon. Apparently Mormons have been heavily dominating winners in the Writers of the Future contest for many years - and the contest is run blind. None of the judges know the names of any of the writers who submit, as the names are stripped from the entries before judging. Card argued that Science Fiction often embodies both the American plain narrative style and the American pragmatic hero - the hero who tests and tries things for himself until he finds the best solution - and, Card argues, Mormonism is also an embodiment of both of those, or more specifically, of the Scientific Method in harmony with religion. Mormonism does not ask its followers to simply blindly accept the religion, but to try it out.
- echoes the Mormon God in the Book of Mormon,
“..if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing that there shall not be room enough to receive it.“
And again in Moroni:
“..And when ye shall receive these things, I would exhort you that ye would ask God, the Eternal Father, in the name of Christ, if these things are not true; and if ye shall ask with a sincere heart, with real intent, having faith in Christ, he will manifest the truth of it unto you, by the power of the Holy Ghost.“
If you are showing faith in Christ, if you are sincerely seeking Him, if you have changed your life already, if you are experimenting on the word (Card didn’t mention the verses that say that), and you have a sincere desire to follow these things if they are true, God Himself will manifest the truth to you by the power of the Holy Ghost. If you sincerely try Mormon principles and doctrine in your life, Mormonism promises, you will know for yourself whether the doctrines are true. That, Card argues, is the Scientific Method - run tests, try things out for yourself, experiment on a hypothesis until you have an idea whether it seems true or false - that is the Scientific Method in complete harmony with the Mormon religion.
In summary then, Mormons who are raised with these values of pragmatic experimentation find themselves very easily at home in a body of literature where pragmatic experimentation is the norm.
And what pragmatic truth does this episode of BattleStar Galactica unfold to our view? (By the way - I heard asides from Card that he doesn’t like the overt references to Mormonism made in BattleStar Galactica - because the leaders of the 12 colonies are more like the 12 idiots.) When the human race is driven to near extinction by evil robots, abortion is not a good idea
I’m the #1 google result (at the moment) for “richard dutcher nudity“!
Well.. I guess I’m honored, but insofar as I am aware, Richard hasn’t dropped his trousers for any photographer. Sorry guys. (Or should that be gals?) Try some other name searches with that word. You have a virtual world of options!
In this chat with a coworker I comment on the current revision of this Wikipedia article on the Laffer Curve - involving economics (this was an offshoot of discussion about game theory, which is work-related 
- I find, two paragraphs into the article:
(12:27:18 PM) Alex Hall: “..Critiques commonly point out that socialist states, such as the U.S.S.R., have been able to derive revenues at a 100% tax rate, though they would have derived more if tax rates had been lower.”
(12:27:35 PM) Alex Hall: Oh, good. I’m glad communists can get higher taxes from rates lower than one hundred percent.
(12:27:42 PM) Alex Hall: !
(12:27:45 PM) MoD: hehe
(12:27:49 PM) Alex Hall: Can you believe that?
(12:27:53 PM) Alex Hall: Ah, Wikipedia.
(12:28:18 PM) MoD: Probably has something to do with people earning more or something
(12:28:47 PM) Alex Hall: Maybe. I haven’t investigated that. I think I’ll go home and see if MY LIFE produces any MOTIVATION which might produce any TAXES.
(12:29:01 PM) MoD: hehe
(12:29:11 PM) Alex Hall: LOL what a joke.
My sister made this LOLCat, I believe inspired by this oddball video of mine and/or my related t-shirt for it.
Yyech! Furball! It tastes like you got mixed up with another traveler! Dial again!
Okay, it seems like “NASA scientists” is the ultimate weasel phrase (or pair of weasel words). This phrase was used twice by commenters at this College Republican’s blog at Western Michigan University (I joined the fray). (no Firefox, “commenters” is a word, and in my book it’s better than “commentators”, which just feels.. too inflated.)
Now this report comes to my attention about newspapers in the UK wielding the phrase also without any attribution. By the way, that report is fairly funny. And cool - the image is pretty dang cool. And so is the entire panorama. And eerie. That’s an alien world! The surface of another planet!
The next time I find myself in any argument about anything, I’m going to begin a rebuttal by citing “NASA scientists”. NASA scientists say it’s possible golden plates could have resided anywhere in North America in the Nineteenth Century. According to NASA scientists, recycling your own poop in your vegetable garden is bad for you. NASA scientists say South Park is often hilarious..
This is factoring that they are five year olds and deserve a bit of mercy. If they were all zombie or vampire five year olds, forget it, no mercy - they’re goners in their state - I could take on 40 or 50. If it happened. Okay, I don’t have any proof, and it’s all theoretical anyway.
But I could take ‘em on. Yeah. I’m tough. I have this badge here to prove it.
[UPDATE: the original of this post suggested using the “Dean Scream” in entertainment projects, and failed also to credit and link to a fellow from whose page I obtained a copy of the “Wilhelm Scream”. I’ve learned that the “Dean Scream” most probably is not necessarily in the clear for use in entertainment projects - which is too bad ]
(Close your eyes when it turns black and white with Uma Thurman slashing a sword, and when someone pulls out a knife. Unless you aren’t squeamish or don’t hate gratuitous violence.)
This is another of at least a few videos posted at YouTube showcasing the myriad uses in films of a stock sound originating at Warner Bros. in 1951, eventually dubbed by Ben Burtt the “Wilhelm Scream”.
Yes, it is actually used in all those shows and films. This isn’t some weird dub-over of them (I was really surprised and amused to learn it was used in THE LORD OF THE RINGS films two and three).
I found a wave file of the “classic” Wilhelm Scream apparently directly copied from the original take Here it is. Click. Click. Click.
(That’s an mp3 burn of the sound)
You can also hear the sound at sound designer Steve Lee’s web site, hollywoodlostandfound.net (this is where I grabbed the sound from), and read a detailed history of it there.
At that page and in an interview with a director (in addition to Steve Lee) in this YouTube video, I’ve learned that the man who popularized the sound, Designer Ben Burtt, will no longer be using the sound (he used it in all six Star Wars films). My blunt take: the public has caught on to the “secret” of its use - previously, mostly an in-joke between many sound designers - so now, it’s, like, popular. And the first rule of hard-core Nerddom is that if it’s popular, it isn’t “cool” anymore.
I think that’s a silly decision on Ben Burtt’s part (I only speculate, perhaps unfairly, on his reasons).
I emailed Steve Lee about the legality of using the Wilhelm Scream - in a nutshell no one knows for sure who the original artist is, and while technically it is owned by Warner Bros., it has been used very abundantly (by people from all kinds of other studios and networks, etc.), and no known squabbles or legal issues have been raised over it.
Lee also added:
By the way, Ben is indeed working on “Indy 4″ and I
would be very surprised if there isn’t a Wilhelm in it.
An interesting aside - I’ve noticed a certain recording of a hawk cry appears almost pedantically in many desert and wilderness scenes in films, and it turns out it is in fact an often used recording - it’s mentioned in this Wikipedia page as “..a certain recording of the cry of the Red-tailed Hawk.”
A tradition of people who know the in-joke of the Wilhelm Scream is to shout “Wilhelm!” whenever they hear the sound effect in a movie. But if it isn’t cool to use the Wilhelm Scream anymore, how about something else?
This scream of Howard Dean, the “Dean Scream”, famously baffled and alienated the public to Howard Dean (arguably in part because the press replayed the “Scream” a lot - which.. I dunno.. it’s pretty funny and may deserve press).
I pulled that flash video out of YouTube, dumped its audio to a .wav file, made a sample of the audience cheering noise in the background of it, and then used that noise in a noise removal tool to isolate a very good approximation of Dean’s Scream without the audience cheering in the background.
(There are technical reasons this sound may not be “perfect”, but I doubt I’d hear much or any difference without those factors - also that’s an mp3 burn of the .wav file).
I wish, oh how I wish, that the “Dean Scream” was legally a for-sure “in the clear” sound to use in any entertainment project. For informational / educational / news use (such as this post), it’s in the clear under “Fair Use” - but it isn’t necessarily in the clear for use in entertainment media.
If another actor imitated the Dean Scream however, and released it to the Public Domain - hey, we could have us the basis of something new.
Wait a bit - I think I’ll do just that.
I am grateful that, as I learned at a display of horrible spiders at the Monte L. Bean Life Science Museum (on Brigham Young University campus), there are not any spiders, or creatures in their broader species branch, that have wings. It’s horrible enough that they scamper around on eight hairy legs, trap and impale their victims and live on their blood. If they could do all that and fly, which I’d never have thought of were it not for this display - that would be so many times worse. But if, as my religion states, God will mute the wicked and send flies to cause flesh to fall off their bones and their eyes out of their sockets, I’m sure a God capable of inflicting such horrible vengeance (indeed to match the greatness of His mercy) would have had the idea cross His mind. Of course He’s had every idea. If He has some terrible tricks up His sleeve for the apocalypse, I hope if this is one of them I’ll find myself on the side of His mercy - away from the flying spiders. Away from the flying giant spiders.
Okay, I had to look around - and now I have a testimony that the Monte L. Bean Museum is true. There is a “flying” spider - but it doesn’t fly, it has attributes that allow it to jump very far (yoink!), and no spider can fly, they say. ..but are they right? I’m doubting my testimony of the Monte L. Bean Museum.
Boo!
In regards to Oscar the Cat several folks of my acquaintance made LOLcats. Two of these (the one on a limb and the one at a stack of books) are Pilcrow’s, the ones that say DED and cheezy are Rhapsidiom’s, DED PPLZ is from another fellow, “good gift” from my dad, and the black one is my responsibility Also here is an LOLrus from my unwitting prior such creation.
Castanza. 
Cheney. 
Cacheny. 
You may have missed it, but a while back the center-left tried this one (fooling Floridians). They didn’t push strong enough, and now regret it, because the right replied with Fred Thompson.
And in related news (ha ha! I just wandered over there to let them know about this, and behold) ..
New blog design (for this and the past three new posts in a row) in progress here. Here’s a page about it.
Just so’s if I’m right I can say I said so, before the final Harry Potter book is out this weekend I’d like to make some predictions. I arrived at these on my own and then discovered that big networks of Harry Potter fans have speculated the same. By the way, this portrayal or illustration of Severus Snape, which I love, is taken from Leaky Fan Art, a huge art forum full of Harry Potter fan art, much of it excellent (and much of it not).
These are spoilers for anyone who hasn’t read up to book 6, The Half-Blood Prince.
Oh, I just noticed that with the spoilers in this entry hidden there is a delightfully odd visual juxtaposition between this entry and the last. Click the psychedelic image in the banner to see that layout
On with the predictions.
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