Category: Random Ramblings

Anything that catches my fancy as a topic I want to cover. Truly random crap.

Idiocy in toys

While catching up on Andrew’s blog (who, thankfully, is done moving and able to update more regularly again), I read this delightful critique of a new Fischer-Price line of dinosaur toys. You can check out his full write-up (and I recommend you do), but I’m going to snag a few lines from it to use here, because I enjoyed it so much.

Gods, where to start. How about with the little man who comes with Razor™ the T-Rex. That’s right — there’s a caveman-like guy who comes with the toy, complete with saddle and… and… clubs. But not any ordinary clubs. One is a skull and backbone of some undefined creature and the other is a lobster.

Yes, caveman guy uses a lobster as a weapon.

I think my son plays a game of imagination in which dinosaurs and cavemen co-exist, but a) he knows that dinosaurs and people are actually from different time periods and b) he never involved the lobster-as-club genre of play in to it. Personally, I suggest Fischer-Price commit fully to their things-aren’t-like-this-but-we-make-shit-up toy building style and give the cavemen frikkin’ sharks with frikkin’ lasers on their frikkin’ heads (speaking of which, I’m long past due a good laser article – I’ll work on that in the coming week). And ninjas. A caveman using a ninja as a club would be awesome, don’t you think?

On the back of the box are pictures of the other toys in the set: the Predators (T-Rex, allosaurus, anklosaurus, etc.) and the “Ecovores” (brontosaurus, triceratops, etc.).

Yup. The herbiivores are now ecovores. This is probably an Al Gore and Sheryl Crow approved renaming. It’s all the fault of those damned meat-eaters that the planet overheated, if I’m to buy in to the implied message there. I just wonder where the omnivores fit in – they want to eat the herbivores, but also fight global warming and genocide. Man, what’s a poor “I-eat-everything-but-am-plushie-and-lovable” dinosaur to do? Other than run for President.

Andrews comments are far more interesting than mine, and the full article is humorous and sad at the same time. So get to Andrew’s site and read about the spiffing up of dinosaur history.

[tags]Andrew, Kantor, Ecovores, Dinosaurs[/tags]

Government entity ratings

Just in case you’d forgotten how much our leaders suck:

I’ve seen breakdowns of the Congressional numbers by satisfaction with the damn liberals and satisfaction with the damn conservatives that are interesting reads, but clearly overall Congress-Critters and Executive-person are pitiful.

[tags]Polling, Approval ratings, President, Congress, Our leaders suck[/tags]

Airport security still sucks and the rules continue to be idiotic

Recently, my wife went on a trip and chose the old standard air-travel for getting where she was going. On the way to her destination, she had to throw away her yogurt she had brought to eat while waiting for the plane. On her way home, she had to throw away her 8-ounce toothpaste that she didn’t realize she’d left in her carry-on bag. Now I understand that she screwed up in both cases because it’s well known by now to any traveler that these things cannot be taken through security.

However, the rules are still idiotic and worthless, and we can do so much better with security by spending money on things that actually help – things like, oh, I don’t know, training screeners better so they don’t miss nearly 100% of all explosives taken through security by people trying to get prohibited items through security.

Government investigators smuggled liquid explosives and detonators past airport security, exposing a dangerous hole in the nation’s ability to keep these forbidden items off of airplanes, according to a report made public Wednesday.

. . .

On March 23, a TSA screener would not let one investigator through a checkpoint with a small, unlabeled bottle of shampoo, even though it was a legitimate carry-on item. But the same investigator was able to bring through a liquid component of bomb that would start a fire.

Thank goodness that investigator wouldn’t be able to terrorize the plane with clean hair and bubbles. That’s a much greater concern than liquid fire. The TSA hand-waves away the problem by emphasizing the multi-layer approach to security in airports and air travel.

“While people think about us in terms of the checkpoints and they see us as the checkpoints, there’s a lot more layers of security,” she [spokeswoman Ellen Howe] said. In addition to the checkpoints, the TSA uses different technologies and has officials who check the validity of documents and observe people’s behaviors throughout the airport. “Just because somebody gets through one layer doesn’t mean they’re going to get through all of the layers.”

And that’s actually damn good to know and comforting. But our money needs pumped into the less visible security measures. Currently, to get through with contraband a determined attacker needs training on not sticking out more than anything else. That alone will make passing through screening nearly guaranteed, yet so much money is going into screening efforts that have repeatedly been proven ineffective (I’ve covered some, but by no means all, such issues in the past, and won’t link them again here).

Here, I’ll throw in a freebie for would-be attackers. If you want to carry in prohibited liquids, buy yourself a beer belly flask to transport your explosives or drinks. As it is right now, screeners are miserable at catching illicit items which someone is trying to take on, but nearly perfect in catching harmless things like the drinks people are consuming as they walk through the screening checkpoints (hint: if they are actively drinking it, it is either harmless to the flight or they already have ingested what they need to use to bring the flight down).

From the screeners link just above, here is what Bruce Schneier has to say.

When I travel in Europe, I never have to take my laptop out of its case or my shoes off my feet. Those governments have had far more experience with terrorism than the U.S. government, and they know when passenger screening has reached the point of diminishing returns. (They also implemented checked-baggage security measures decades before the United States did — again recognizing the real threat.)

And if I were investing in security, I would invest in intelligence and investigation. The best time to combat terrorism is before the terrorist tries to get on an airplane. The best countermeasures have value regardless of the nature of the terrorist plot or the particular terrorist target.

In some ways, if we’re relying on airport screeners to prevent terrorism, it’s already too late. After all, we can’t keep weapons out of prisons. How can we ever hope to keep them out of airports?

Far more insightful and accurate than all the words I’ve thrown out arguing against the money-drain our government has in place now.

EDIT: Accidentally left out part of the Schneier quote.

[tags]Airport stupidity, Air travel, Getting explosives on planes[/tags]

Evel estate still owes millions to Saltman

With Evel Knieval’s body barely cooled to ground temperature, we now get news that Sally Saltman, the writer Evel beat with a baseball bat roughly 30 years ago, is trying to collect money owed him.  Saltman sued Knieval after Evel broke his arm with a baseball bat in retaliation for a book Evel thought was unflattering.  He won $12.5 million but (for reasons I haven’t found yet) never collected.  He figures that with interest, the Knieval estate now owes him roughly $100 million.

But we should also note the incident that led to the decline of Knievel’s career: In 1977, Knievel attacked a man who had written an unflattering book about him, swinging a baseball bat at his head and shattering the man’s arm, which he used to protect himself.

Knievel spent six months in jail, and and his reputation never completely recovered. The victim, Shelly Saltman, sued and won $12.75 million in damages.

Sounds like he is due the money.  The timing just makes him sound like a real prick, doesn’t it?

[tags]Evel, Knieval, Lawsuit[/tags]

Moebius transformations revealed

Today, the Blahg will help smartify you.  You may be a part of the large group of people who consider themselves non-mathified and non-mathy capable.  But with the help of the YouTube experts (and honestly, that’s two words you will rarely see together in a legitimate context), you can learn how Moebius transformations work.

So simple to understand visually, but probably still ass-kicking hard for most of us to do numerically.  Still, I just thought it looked so cool that I needed to share.

[tags]Moebius, Transformations, Mathified, Mathy, Moebius Transformations, YouTube, experts, Mind blowing[/tags]

The Irish prostitute

This joke snagged from the local radio station I listen to most mornings.

An Irish daughter had not been home for over 5 years. Upon her return, her father cussed her. “Where have ye been all this time? Why did ye not write to us, not even a line? Why didn’t ye call? Can ye not understand what ye put yer old mum thru?”

The girl, crying, replied, “Sniff, sniff….dad….I became a prostitute….” Ye what!!? Out of here, ye shameless harlot! Sinner! You’re a disgrace to this family”

“OK, dad– as ye wish. I just came back to give mum this luxurious …fur coat, title deed to a ten bedroom mansion plus a savings certificate for $5 million.”

Continue reading “The Irish prostitute”

A watch I want

Those who know me already recognize my high-level of geekiness. Those that don’t know me figure out how much of a proud dork I am pretty quickly. I’m hoping to combine my lack of time-keeping device with my poor fashion sense to go to the next level and let people who see me but don’t meet me understand how non-functional I am in proper society. The solution to the needs-fix I have is this morse-code based watch.

If you want to deter that pesky friend who’s always peeking over you shoulder to check the time, then put a stop to it with the Morse Code watch from Tokyo Flash. This first ever design has three modes for telling time. Using a built in speaker that refracts sound off your wrist through the solid stainless steel case it sounds out the time in Morse code! But if that’s too hard to follow, you can easily press a button to see the time in Morse Code on the LED.

There are other cool watches that speak to my geekiness. But few combine the dorkiness I need with my desire to have something that keeps other people away while fulfilling a utilitarian function for me.

North Korea does not play around with rule breakers

I’m all for the tough-on-crime stance.  I feel we in America are too soft on many criminals.  A company my mother used to work for had an employee killed while on travel to China by someone who broke in to his hotel room with intent to steal stuff.  When the criminal was caught, he was executed the day after his trial where he was found guilty.  Swift, direct, and sure to cut down on repeat offenses.

All that said, I think the North Korean version of “justice” might be a little beyond acceptable.

A North Korean factory boss accused of making international phone calls was executed by a firing squad in front of 150,000 people, it emerged today.

. . .

The factory chief’s death last month came as executions in the communist dictatorship began increasing after a seven-year decline in the number of people publicly killed.

Of course, this is the country where the leader has changed the “educational” system to indicate that everything useful was invented by previous dictator, the so-called “Great Leader” who is also revered as deific.

This execution was carried out because the person supposedly installed equipment which allowed him to make phone calls outside of North Korea, but North Koreans are prohibited from communicating outside the country.  Except, of course, the current leader, who considers him an internet expert (note: I don’t think hours of pr0n surfing every day qualify one to be an internet expert – otherwise I would be a highly skilled, high-level internet expert).

And the execution alone clearly was not enough loss of life, as more people died as they left the stadium in which the execution took place:

And six people were also crushed to death and 34 others injured in an apparent stampede as they left after the execution, it was claimed.

That is just so sad.  I feel sorry for the citizens of the country, really.

[tags]North Korea, execution, Human rights’ abuse[/tags]