Chuck Norris Approved

Chuch Norris recently endorsed Mike Huckabee for the Republican nomination. To celebrate this most highly regarded endorsement, Huckabee and Chuck-a-bee (as he now prefers to be called) put together this somber campaign ad:

http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/11/19/thank-you-chuck-norris/index.html?hp

Buddy Rich

The Beastie Boys song "Sabotage" has a strange line in it: "I'm Buddy RIch when I fly off the handle." Who is Buddy Rich, I wondered to myself.

According to Wikipedia, Buddy Rich was a 70s drummer, and a quite good one. Some regard him as the greatest drummer ever. Current popular drum techniques are largely attributed to his innovations.

The Beastie Boys may be referring to Buddy Rich's drumming, but they may also be referring his temper. Buddy Rich - a Brooklyn native like the Beasties - had a legendary temper and would occasionally berade his bandmates. Many of these tirades were captured during recording sessions, others by bandmates who secretly taped his tantrums while on the road.

Apparently these tapes eventually became a popular bootleg. According to Wikipedia, several Seinfeld lines are taken verbatim from the tapes. New Yorkers Jerry Seinfeld and Larry David were big fans of the bootlegs and included several of the lines in the show. One example: when Jerry throws his comedy act to trip up a fellow comedian following his act, he remarks: "Let's see how he does without all the assistance". This is straight from one of Buddy's rants.

erotic corn dog

I've spent the past three years googling for "erotic corn dogs" everyday and never found anything. Finally, today I got a hit. Check out this erotic corn dog eating contest, held annually at the Iowa State Fair. It may not be there next year, based on recent complaints:

http://deadspin.com/sports/erotic-corndogs/competitive-eating-anyone-can-love-306685.php

When Monkeys Attack

This is what happens when you feed the monkeys

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071021/ap_on_re_as/india_monkey_attack

Boston College: Number 1 in Football?

BC football may be getting attention for its recent climb into the top 5 of all national football polls, but the team has long been scoring in the top 5 for its graduation rate. Check out this great article from Yahoo Sports:

http://sports.yahoo.com/ncaaf/news;_ylt=AlxNp14iPm93DApMez91CoYcvrYF?slug=dw-bostoncollege101007&prov=yhoo&type=lgns

Bc's football graduation rate is 93% - 25% higher than any other team in the top 10. The article describes how BC's athletic programs should be the national model, given their success on the field and in the classroom. Doing so has required the program to make tough and controversial decisions. During the 1990s, the basketball team got rid of Coach Dan Henning after he insisted that the school accept basketball recruits that couldn't meet the school's academic standards. Henning and his star recruits moved to Ohio State and quickly reached the Final Four. Several years later, the Ohio State found itself mired in recruiting scandals and fired Henning. Last year, BC's basketball team expelled Sean Williams and one other team member. Sean Williams was averaging over 5 blocks per game and was considered one of the best defensive players in a decade. He couldn't follow team rules, so he was forced off the team, a move that probably cost BC a shot at the Final Four. While there have been scandals related to the school's sports programs, these have been dealt with swiftly and openly.

Its nice to know that atleast one school is classy enough to put academics and fairness ahead of greed and winning.

Good ol' Rock

The Rock, Paper, Scissors Champship is happening this weekend. If you're a serious enthusiast, you must already be in Toronto, waiting for the games to begin. The rest of you can read about it here:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071009/ap_en_ot/on_the_net

tree protesters get national press

A couple weeks back there was an article in the NY Times about the tree protesters near the football stadium at UC-Berkeley. Here's a like to the article (or click on the title of this post):

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/13/education/13trees.html

I bought it

I bought the radiohead album today. They really let you name your own price! I initially offered 3.5 pounds. But before I finalized the purchase, I changed it to 2 pounds. Thats about 2 and a half bucks in USD. There is a surcharge, and I was worried it might be of TicketMaster proportions. Instead, it was only .45 pounds. So the total price of the album was only about $3.60 USD. Not bad. I haven't heard the album yet, so I'm happy to only pay this amount for it.

The download will be available on Oct. 10th. Look for a review here next week. If you're interested in buying your own copy at your own price, click on the title of this post to go to Radiohead's site.

New Radiohead album next week

Radiohead will release its latest album, titled "On Rainbows," next week. The release is not through a major label and will only be available through the band's website: www.radiohead.com. How much does it cost? You decide! The band says that it will let fans name their own price for the album - you can even pay nothing if you wish! Check the band's website on Oct. 10th to download it. Read more here:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20071001/wr_nm/radiohead_dc

Not sure what I think about the name-your-own-price idea. Why would anyone pay anything? Perhaps guilt will induce people to pay something. I think I'll download it as soon as its out and I plan to pay a little bit, but not as much as a normal album. $10 sounds good to me, but I might pay just $5.

Some industry types have criticized radiohead for this approach, saying it will undermine the general value of recorded music. I don't agree with this. I'm not sure music is easily "substitutable," to borrow (invent?) a term from the economists. Radiohead music is particularly unique and I'm not sure it will diminish/reduce people's consumption for other recorded music. I would argue that recorded music is not a normal good, with a limited annual consumption level. Well, people have only so much time to listen to music and their demand for new music is limited by this time. Maybe the music execs should be more concerned about the length of Radiohead's album than its price.

Vote on Bonds

Now's your chance to pass judgment on Barry Bonds. Bonds' record-setting homerun ball was recently auctioned off and purchased by Marc Echo, a fashion designer. He's now giving the public a chance to decide what to do with it. People can vote on one of three options - sending the ball to the Hall of Fame, putting an asterisks on the ball and then sending it to the Hall, or blasting it into outerspace. You be the judge - go to www.vote756.com. Voting ends on Sept. 25th and results will be posted next week.

Humans vs. Monkeys

You're not the only one with Olympic Fever. Researchers recently staged a human vs. monkey mental olympics competition. To spice things up a bit, they used only babies! Who did Michael Vick bet on? Find out here:

http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/09/07/babies-and-chimps-compete-in-mental-olympics/index.html?hp

Had this been a feces-throwing competition, surely the monkeys would have won.

Tree Battle

It wasn't long ago that Berkeley was home to near continuous protests again the Vietnam war, racial discrimination and human rights abuse. Today, the hot topic seems to be trees. Check out this local news article about protesters who have taken to the trees in hopes of preventing the University of California, Berkeley from expanding its athletic facilities, eliminating some rare Live Oaks in the process. The video on the same link is worth watching as well.

The gold medal for the city with the highest pollution goes to...

Athletes hoping to compete in next summer's Olympic Games in Beijing are already starting to strategerizer about how to deal with the tremendous pollution in Beijing. Read about it here:

http://sports.yahoo.com/olympics/news?slug=ap-beijing-pollution&prov=ap&type=lgns

Adventures in Grape Stomping

Maybe you've already seen this video, but I just dicovered it yesterday. Its about a reporter who attempts to stomp grapes, an accident occurs and hilarity ensues.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HyFapbZuMGU

My favorite part is the female newcaster in the studio - she's doing everything she can to not laugh. Supposedly SNl did a pardoy of this video, so I'm guessing I was the last one to see it.

yummy bottled water

Bottled water - tastes good right? Better than tap water? It must be the plastice residue from the bottle, 'cause it turns out its just tap water, atleast in the case of Aquafina. Last week, reports revealed that Aquafina gets its water from the Missouri River after its treated by local municipal treatment plants near St. Louis. Read about it here:

http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/columnists.nsf/savvyconsumer/story/B39978ADB45713A58625732C001175E7?OpenDocument

St. Louis has always had good tap water - some believe that Anheuser-Busch heavily lobbies the city to maintain good water so it doesn't have to pay separate treatment costs. Still, tap water in most communities is probably close enough in quality. The Aquafina folks don't make much of an effort to defend their product.

The Simpsons Movie

I saw the Simpsons Movie this week. Its been a long time coming - I remember people talking about them doing a movie over ten years ago. Maybe its best that they waited, since animation has improved dramatically since the mid-90s. Overall, I thought the movie was really funny and definitely worth seeing in the theaters. They really took advantage of CGI and other technical animation programs, as well as the big screen, to make a really slick animated movie. Its still the simpsons animation, but being on the big screen allowed the animators to do a lot that they could not have done on the show - huge crowd shots and wide angles that were used to make scenes more dramatic and interesting.

The movie was really funny, though it can't compete with an episode of the simpsons from the golden age (mid-1990s). The shows been on for almost 20 years, so may its remarkable that they can still do anything with it! The humour wasmore slap-sticky than the show usually is. Thats fine because it allowed the animators to take advantage of the production techniques available in the movies. Still, I was hoping for a little more of the satirical humour that's made the Simpsons so popular over the years. There were the usual satirical themes in the movie, but a little less of the really biting, intellectual humour that hard-core fans really like. More political humour would have been interesting, though it might have quickly dated the movie.

The movie feels like a long episode. Thats good and bad. Good that they stuck with a formula that works. Bad because it would have been interesting to see a more complicated plot than the one they came up with.

Most of the story focused on the Simpsons family. It would have been great to see more from the supporting characters like Professor Frink, Moe, Milhouse, and Groundskeeper Willie (perhaps these folks can be the focus of the next simpsons movie...). There were a lot of subtle references to past episodes (like when Moe calls Marge "midge" and other small things) that reward hard-core fans.

So it was great. See it on the big screen to get the full effect.

game time: 7-Eleven

If you're going to a White Sox game in Chicago, chances are it will start at 7:11pm. Apparently the White Sox got a load of cash from the convienence store 7-Eleven to change the start time for all night games to 7:11pm. Read about this and other moves by "financially strapped" baseball fanchises in the NY Times:

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/11/sports/11pressbox.html

I understand that baseball teams have a right to get whatever money they can get, but a lot of these corporate sponsership things seem to demean the game. Its much less tolerable when we have to watch teams give ridiculous contracts to average and mediocre players. The leaders in this category are the Yankees and the Red Sox.

poison oak

I got Poison Oak over Memorial Day weekend. I was hiking in Big Sur and we when through what I now believe was a posion oak bramble in our quest to get back on the trail. Never again will I be so eager to venture off the marked trail.

My rashed didn't appear until several days after returning from the trip. They first appeared to be bug bites, but after several days they grew into itchy, red, swollen rashes. I thought posion oak (and poison ivy) would appear within a few hours of contact, but I was wrong. The rash can sometimes take 7-10 days to appear, based on my experience and several authoritative websites. The oil from the plant often lingers on clothing and other objects for days and requires a solvent to fully remove it from these surfaces. I'm reasonably certain I didn't have any direction contact with the plants, since I wore long pants and long sleeves. However, my clothing was probably covered in the oil and transmitted it to my skin after these items came in contact with my car seat, desk chair and bed.

After experiencing posion oak, I can say its no fun. I got rashes on my waist, ankles, calves and forearms. The one on my waist was the most severe - it went halfway around my body and several inches up my stomach. I'm better now, though rashes remain. Obviously avoiding the plant is the easiest way to avoid getting poison oak or posion ivy. If you do come in contact with the plant, my advice would be to do the follwing three steps to minimize its impact:

1. Isolate all items that came in contact with the plant. This includes clothing and shoes. If you bag these after a hike, they won't spread to other clothing items, your car or your home. Once they do spread, you've got hell to pay!! To get the resin out of your clothing, wash with rubbing alcohol, vinegar or TechNu (more on Technu later...)

2. Avoid scratching the rash. Never have I experienced a rash as itchy as poison oak. Not scratching is nearly impossible. I'm scratching my arms as I write this, despite all my best efforts... Try hot showers as a temporary relief from the itching

3. Treat the rash. You can use Calamine lotion, antihistimines or a prescription. I recommend Calagel, from the makers of TechNu. Technu helps get the resin off your skin or clothes, Calagel gets the itch to stop. TechNu is powerful stuff. According to the box, its used to treat "Poison Oak, Ivy and Nuclear Fallout." Yes, Nuclear Fallout. Apparently, TechNu was created in the 1960s as an "effective waterless cleanser capable of removing radioactive dust from skin and clothing." The wife of the inventor accidently found out it was useful at removing poison oak resin (I'm curious as to how this accident happened..).

I was pretty naive about poison oak, but now I think I can avoid it. Or atleast rinse it any radioacive dust away in minutes!

Bias is Forever

Below is a link to the movie, Bias Is Forever. Get settled in - its 15 minutes long. The link is for a Quicktime version, there's also a version on YouTube, but its in two parts. Apparently, YouTube doesn't allow movies that exceed 10 minutes in length. Post a comment if you'd like to have the YouTube link (you can probably find it by searching YouTube, but I'll provide it here if there's interest).

http://www.keithvlucas.com/gspp/biasisforever.html

trees in New York

New York City wants to plant a million new trees. (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070422/ap_on_re_us/green_nyc)

They say it will reduce air pollution, cool temperatures and promote "long-term sustainability." All of these things are true, as least in terms of its local impacts. Will it reduce global warming? This is something that people might assume, especially since the article mentions the new trees will reduce pollution. One million trees in NYC may not reduce global warming, they may even increase temperatures on Earth. How can that be?

Trees have two impacts on global warming - they store carbon when they grow and they absorb/reflect sunlight. All trees absorb carbon as they grow, which reduces atmospheric carbon and reduces the impact of the greenhouse effect. However, trees reflect and absorb different amounts of sunlight. Light colored trees refelct a lot of light - sending it back to the sky and out of the atmosphere (some of it atleast). Dark trees absorb sunlight, capturing its heat and energy near the Earth's surface. Most of the trees planted in the US are dark, which means they absorb a lot of heat. The impact of this heat absorption may balance out the impact of soaking up carbon (trees are only a temperary carbon store, since they will slowly release all the carbon when they die). The net impact is unclear - it may increase global warming or may decrease it. If NYC decides to plant tropical trees in the Amazon, the trees will clearly reduce global warming. Tropical trees are lighter in color than US trees, meaning they reflect more sunlight. They also grow more densely, so they absorb more carbon per square meter.

Judged solely based on local impacts, the claims in the article are pretty accurate. Local city temps should drop (will this have an impact on reducing evaporation? This might increase global warming by decreasing cloud cover... ) and non-greenhouse gas pollutants (sulfur, etc) should be absorbed, as well as some GHG pollutants, like carbon and NOx. Horray for NYC!

The Landlord

Think your landlord is bad? Think again...

http://youtube.com/watch?v=Xl5mvgsdK20

Free Cone Day!

April 17th is Free Cone Day at Ben and Jerry's! So go to your nearest Ben and Jerry's and get there early, because its usually pretty popular.

Bias is Fovever

I just completed work on a new movie. My classmate Keith did most of the work, but I played a role in helping to produce, film, and edit it. I even make a brief appearance toward the end.

Here's the trailor. A link to the entire 15-minute film, which debuted to critical acclaim on Saturday night, will be posted later this week.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lwfcz6vH-Ek

plastic versus paper

The city of San Francisco recently banned the use of plastic bags in grocery and convenience stores. Here's the story:

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/01/weekinreview/01basics.html

Is this a good thing? Maybe, although paper bags are not necessarily more environmentally-friendly than plastic. Paper bags take more energy and resources to produce than plastic bags. Plastic bags, however, last forever in landfills. There's not really a landfill shortage in the US and there never was, despite the worried cry of environmentalists during the 1980s. If we do a good job of recycling plastic bags (which we don't), are they really a problem?

American Idol: Victim of Democracy?

Howard Stern is trying to undermine American Idol by encouraging people to vote for the worst performer. Here's the story in the NY Times:

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/31/arts/television/31idol.html

Evidently, the favorite performer among those seeking to support the worst is a guy from Federal Way, WA. In the past I would have made a joke about this town's name, but now I fear it will only lead to more sexual harassment...

sustainable paper products

If you're a panda owner, you've probably been wondering what to do with all the panda excrement that's building up on your property. Researchers in China just came up with a great idea: make it into paper. Check it:

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/world/AP-ODD-Panda-Poop.html

When a gift needs givin'....

St. Patrick's Day is right around the corner: so guys, what are you going to get that special someone? This pop duo from SNL has an idea:

http://www.nbc.com/Saturday_Night_Live/uncensored.shtml

Dice-K versus.... Boston College?

This biggest sports event this week involved, oddly enough, the Boston College baseball team. Every spring, the Boston College baseball team plays an exhibition game against the Boston Red Sox. The game is ususally the first formal exhibition game the Red Sox play. In the past, this game has generated a lot of media attention because its usually the first time fans get to see new Red Sox in action. A few years back, '04 I think, sports media from around the country ascended on the game to see the first pitches from newly-acquired pitcher Curt Shilling. This weekend, the buzz surrounded Boston's latest pitching sensation, Daisaka Matsuzaka, who made his first appearance. Perhaps "contract sensation" would be a better description than "pitching sensation" because of all the hype around the prolonged negotiations of his $250+ million contract.

In any case, here's an article about it:

http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/news?slug=ti-mlb_07_matsuzaka030207&prov=yhoo&type=lgns

zumaya-nasana

Think yoga is only for mature, sexy men? Think again friend: today's baseball pitchers are getting in on the action, according to this New York Times article:

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/12/sports/baseball/12pitcher.html?_r=1&adxnnl=1&oref=slogin&adxnnlx=1171342965-XTNOOAiVGh/mpYKcHIbmVQ

I hear Kevin Garnett also practices, as does the entire Lakers team. More on those stories if I find anything.

48 Hours Now

Perhaps you're familiar with the 48 Hour Film project. Each year, filmmakers partipicate in a contest to produce a film of a randomaly selected genre. Teams are given 48 hours to produce a film, which is judged by a panel of experts and prizes are awarded to the most creative works.

Below is a link to a different kind of 48 Hour project. Graduate students at UC-Berkeley are asked to complete a policy memo on randomly selected policy topic. Students are given 48 hours to produce a paper, which is judged by panel of professors. No prizes are awarded, (especially not to creative works).

The following film captures the essence of the 48 hour project. Its 6 mins. long, not as good as Door Store, but worth watching:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1i3KMuTIP-c