Month: April 2005

Chalk up another win for the RIAA and MPAA, with a corresponding loss for sanity in our legal system.

Congress approved a new bill today that would make the possession of a digital copy of a pre-release movie a federal felony punishable by three years in prison and a fine of up to a quarter-million dollars. The fine would be levied even if no one actually “shared” the file.

Maybe the brain-trust that is Congress was seduced by the warm-and-fuzzy name of the bill (the Family Entertainment and Copyright Act), or maybe they were just paid off by the idiots running the media industry. It’s hard to tell, but the outcome is frightening. It’s just another draconian rule in the ever-expanding circle of ridiculous copyright “protections” that are really only protecting the absurd profits of a few media moguls.

As with the recent nine-year prison term for a guy who was a notorious spammer, this bill levies penalties that are terribly disproportionate to the crime committed. But hey, the entertainment industry seems to enjoy instilling fear and hatred in their consumers. Go figure.

Today was a red-letter day in my life– a real tragedy.

For the first time ever since I’ve owned a car (about twelve years) I paid more than twenty dollars to fill my gas tank.

Shocking, I know… what’s happening to this country? Surely we can start a war with some third-world oil-producing nation or something, and drive (hah!) gas prices back down.

Today’s science question is brought to you by… my freezer.

So we have ice cube trays, which we fill with water (duh) and drop in the freezer. Every now and then, when I take the tray out, I find one or two ice cubes that have a mysterious spike sticking up into the air. Note that nothing is above the trays, so it’s not like there’s dripping water to make this “inverse icicle”.

The question: how and why does this happen? Why only occasionally?

I expect some research and answers from the handful of science geeks who I know read this. (Yes, Tad, this means you.)

Part of the fun of making Rice Krispie Treats is that everything sticks together into a huge mass of marshmallows and krispies… meaning as you stir it you get a gigantic sticky ball. Whee!

As reported by The Register:

“The Bush Administration plans to extend its mighty neural networks to international banking in hopes of discovering terrorist activity. The scheme would allow the US Treasury Department to maintain databases of international money transfers to and from the USA. The result of this additional data mining will be a flood of largely irrelevant data to federal agencies already awash in irrelevant data. But the Administration’s overall approach has been to get all the data it can now, and figure out how it might be used to catch terrorists later.

“Since the Administration’s grand schemes for monitoring the public’s every move, such as the MATRIX and Total Information Awareness (TIA), fell into disrepute, it appears to be taking a piecemeal approach, building its surveillance society one step at a time. The government hopes that the public will perceive them as discrete elements in the so-called war on terror, and not contemplate the eventual, cumulative effect of all this activity.”

Sigh.

So Donald Rumsfeld dropped in on the new Iraqi government today, in a surprise visit where he counseled them about how to run their country. His visit was punctuated with such sage advice as:

“Anything that would delay that or disrupt [the organization of the government] as a result of turbulence or incompetence or corruption in government would be unfortunate.”

Thank you, Rummy! I’m so glad my tax dollars are paying to fly you around the world and offer advice even a ten-year-old could grasp. I’m sure the Iraqi leaders are most grateful too.

Brawny (the paper towel company) has a new line of ads that are pretty funny. Unfortunately they’re all done in Flash (why?) and while you’re waiting for the file to load you’re treated to a nice little animation showing your progress.

Of course, the animation looks pretty much like someone tearing off sheet after sheet of toilet paper…

Saturday, April 9 : wore shorts and t-shirt, went on bike ride.

Sunday, April 10 : wore heavy coat and gloves, shoveled foot-deep heavy wet snow.

Mmm… new speakers…

It’s hard to believe the factory speakers in my Saturn lasted ten full years before one of them finally blew up and started rattling badly enough to wake the dead. Since I listen to music almost every time I’m driving somewhere, it was really hard to hear that rattle, so I decided to (gasp!) get some new speakers installed.

After a rather lengthy and annoying process involving a friend’s car audio shop, I had four new Alpines in place. Wow, the difference is amazing. All those years I was listening to the el cheapo speakers, and now I’ve got high-fidelity sound. My ten-year-old CD changer never sounded so good…

Today’s riotous spam:

“If you wana have the latest disc for computer operation system or functional discs with least expense, this store is your chance! The discs are provided to you at less expense while supplies you with stable performance! Access to the world of discs with office operation, computer diagnostics, graphic design and commerce!”

Umm, what?