Wednesday 29 November 2006 at 2:52 pm
One of the last panels my brother and I went to at Orycon was developing a constitution for a fictional state. We had the war, its over, we won, and now it is time to compose the bloody thing. Those in the session didn't get into every aspect of a constitution, such as commerce clauses, but we got off to a good and interesting start.
The very first thing brought up was establishing the clause that the government can only have the powers granted in the constitution, no more. This does a good job keeping the government power in check without making a big ol list of no-nos. Still, I find it interesting that this came first.
In general the government has powers to levy a tax, it is the single point for foreign contact, and defence. Everyone in the room was a fan of separating the powers like that in the United States. There is a separation of church, press, schools, and art from the state and vice versa. The state wouln't directly fund education through taxes but would instead finance schools though other methods, such as vouchers, moving money to schools without having to be corrupted in the government tax bureaucracy.
Part of the "Bill of Rights" declare that anything that makes a person what they are, such as their name and biometric data belong to that person and can not be collected or used by anyone without explicit permission granted by the individual. These items can't be used to par trade either (such as a hospital refusing treatment unless a person will give them a genetic sample).
Legislation would have two chambers. One is geographically based like the United State's Senate. The other is self appointed proxy lobbies independent of geography. Every election cycle a citizen can select up to two people in this chamber to represent them based on ideologies. The amount of votes these representatives get is based on the proportion of the population that selected them.
One big issue all the people had in the room was with riding clauses in bills and laws. Items unrelated to the main bill being passed are snuck in. This problem not only creates large documents that many in the legislature don't even fully read, and puts in some awkward situations. A senator could put in something to give his state several million dollars for a bridge that connects an island of only 50 people to another island with an airport in a bill that mostly about allocating funds to give troops better armor. A legislator may vote no because of the bridge clause but then be accused of being against the troops. To prevent that our little constitution has it so that all bills up in legislation will be publicly posted both in paper and online for a number of days proportional to the word count of the bill. If they want a bill to pass quickly, they better keep it short and simple.
Another major element is the sunset clause. All legislation will expire after N years (something between 2-6 was considered reasonable). Outdated laws will be cleansed from the system without effort and the legislators would spend most of their time just keeping needed laws updated and not spend as much time doing frivolous laws. On this same line the government can not delegate powers to non-elected powers. If the FCC wants something to be done, they would have to get the legislators to do it.
Here is my favorite. One thing seriously joked about was an idea suggested by the moderator. Every country has basic and foundational principles that are the core of the nations beliefs. In the United States it could be argued that these are the Bill of Rights. These would be explicitly defined in our constitution. Anyone who puts forth legislation that would hinder, diminish, hamper, or remove these principles would be charged with capital treason and can be shot on sight in the chamber or by a citizen.
Saturday 25 November 2006 at 8:35 pm
A woman was near death from a special kind of
cancer. There was one drug that the doctors thought might save her. It was a form of
radium
that a druggist in the same town had recently discovered. The drug was
expensive to make, but the druggist was charging ten times what the
drug cost him to produce. He paid $200 for the radium and charged
$2,000 for a small dose of the drug. The sick woman's husband, Heinz,
went to everyone he knew to borrow the money, but he could only get
together about $ 1,000 which is half of what it cost. He told the
druggist that his wife was dying and asked him to sell it cheaper or
let him pay later. But the druggist said: "No, I discovered the drug
and I'm going to make money from it." So Heinz got desperate and broke
into the man's store to steal the drug-for his wife.
Should Heinz have broken into the laboratory to steal the drug for his wife? Why or why not?
Sunday 19 November 2006 at 10:46 am
I have Wii, and it is good.
OMG IT IS FUCKING AMAZING!!!!!!!!!
This fanboy is very, very happy.
Saturday 18 November 2006 at 11:34 pm
Every year at Orycon there is a panel ran by a reviewer and industry insider in which he talks about the current going ons in cinema and television. (There is also an assistant producer there who worked on every season of Star Trek Voyager and Enterprise who has shed some very interesting light on the subject, alas this is a tangent). Here are the notes I have taken. Now I checked my notes from the past two years and it seems this guy has a good track record for this industry, about 60-85% successful prediction. Now mind you many of these are just being looked at or are in pre prodution. Never assume anything is certain until the cameras start rolling.
- The Dungeon Siege movie will be out soon. Reviews of the rough cuts say it is may actually be a bit of fun.
- Indiana Jones 4 is dead in the water. The script is being considered the best since the first movie but Lucas is still vetoing it. This is probably from his stance that the era of the hundred million dollar blockbuster is over and that TV and indi film is where the action will be at. That can be considered the case for this year -- most of the successful things of this season are found on the networks. There are TWO Star Wars tv series in the works. One is a 3D animated series that takes place during the Clone Wars. This has the most progress to date and should be on the air at the end of 2008. The other is live action but progress on that has been slower. Also expect yet another rerelease of the movies in 3D format. Yes, thats right, with the glasses. I can tell you the big light saber fight in Episode 3 was directed by Spielberg which explains why it was so good.
- Alien Vs Predator 2 is in filming. The lead actress was on 24. Expect December 21, 2008. Advanced word is that this is very good and is on par with the first couple of Alien movies. The rating for this will be a very hard R. No more PG-13 crap.
- Star Trek 11: JJ Abrams is producing and some writing, and may or may not direct the movie. Despite being this rumor being dispelled it seems that the young Kirk/Spock at the academy thing is still going on. I am happy to say that Rick Berman and Brannon Braga are gone and out of the picture for good. What killed Voyager and Enterprise are the committee writers that tear apart the original author's beat sheet (they don't even get to write full scripts anymore before the committees get to them). The networks get so involved that they worry what Janeway's hair looks like. It is no wonder why Enterprise was planned to be canned during season two. An interesting side story: William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy have the power in their contracts to veto any recast of their characters. When asked if Nimoy would use such power in an interview, he simply smiled.
- Spiderman 3 will be much darker and important people will die. There are winks and nods about Spiderman 4.
- In pre planning: Ironman, Thor, and Capt America. Jack Black as the Green Latern was seriously considered but shot down. Speedracer, Smirfs (yes, those blue guys), Nancy Drew, Jurassic Park 4, Sin City 2 nd 3, Reno 911.
- Batman: The Dark Knight may have Two Face as a side villain.
- Brad Pitt is being offered $34.5 million to continue Mission Impossible seeing as Tom Cruise is, well Tom Cruise.
- The Series 24 is committed to 3 more seasons, the end of one will have a movie to set up the next season.
- Abrams, the creator of Lost, said this: "Lost is not the kind of show that will go seven years."
- Saw 4, Hostel 2, and Hannibal 4 are in the works.
- Oceans 13 is on the drawing board.
- Shrek 3 out next year.
- Keith Richards is Jack Sparrow's father in Pirates of the Caribbean 3. He was so drunk that they had to prop him up for some scenes.
- Heaven Almighty, the sequel to Bruce Almighty, is now running as the most expensive comedy to produce ever.
- New Babylon 5 is in production. Head over to Firstones.com to keep tabs of the updates.
- A sequel to Battlestar Galactica, called Caprica, is in pre production. It is about the Cylon revolution.
- Next year a movie called "Blades of Glory" will star Will Farrel and Napoleon Dynamite about two figure skaters.
- Resident Evil 3 and 4 are in the works.
- Stargate is not canceled, but no new shows are being ordered. DVD movies is a possible outcome of this.
- Another movie called "Dream Girls" may have Eddie Murphy make a major comeback.
- Futurama will have NEW episodes on Comedy Central in 2008. The whole cast is back.
- The guy who did Kill Bill is making another movie in the same style. Just more bloody.
- Ruh Hour 3 is in post production.
- The Halloween series is being redone by Rob Zomby.
- Terminator 4 script is done.
- Now that the Halo movie is axed and MGM now has the rights to the Hobbit, there is now talks in the works to get Peter Jackson to make said movie.
- Steve Jobs is now the majority stock holder for Disney.
- Firefly and Serenity is dead.
- Wonder Woman is being worked on. The studios want a big name, but so far none are interested.
- Mortal Combat 3, Punisher 2, The Ring 3, Rambo 4 and another Rocky film are bing worked on. However the latter two are supposedly excellent scripts. People are studios are suing trying to gain the rights to Rambo 4.
- Tomb Raider 3 with our favorite big lipped woman is expected 2008.
- Voltron and Transformers are still moving forward.
- The second Fantastic 4 is looking better than the first one.
One last Star Wars thing. Lucas has said that he is done with large budget movies. When asked if he would ever return to the big screen he wistfully looked away and said [paraphrasing], "I wonder what got the Sith so angry and why they were thought they were destroyed, what young Yoda was like 800 years ago, and what other people can do with my universe,' and ended it with a very sly smile.
Saturday 18 November 2006 at 10:32 pm
As I was entering the
Orycon convention today one of the (very cute) hotel valet parking attendants opened the door for me [Derek, take note ;)]. There was a door much closer to me that I was fully capable of opening myself, but I thought it would be rude of me to do it myself. So I said thank you and accepted the offer.
Wednesday 15 November 2006 at 2:05 pm
I have played the new Nintendo Wii with the game Excite Truck.
And it was good.
I am slightly disappointed with the speaker in the control. Being small the sound quality is poor for any complex sounds. My other complaint is that the cursor for the Wii OS is too persice causing the subtle and natural shake of a person's hand to be magnified.
For my 5 minutes of fun these are my only complaints. I will be there Sunday morning buying the system. Oh yes. The Revolution has begun.
Wednesday 15 November 2006 at 10:00 am
Part of my first class as a graduate student, Research Based Learning 1, involves doing research to get a taste on how research is actually done. Not the silly kind of research papers done in high school and undergraduate work where a student only compile work that has already been done. This time we actually have to discover something that was previously unknown. My team got together and ultimately decided to measure the air quality of various classrooms. Our Air Advice sensors measure Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs), Particulates, Carbon Dioxide, Carbon Monoxide, Temperature, and Relative Humidity.
VOCs is a broad category that includes the aldehydes and are attributed to increasing risk of cancer and asthma. Particulates are commonly associated with allergies. CO2 is often a measure of ventilation. Poor ventilation equates to high CO2 concentrations. Detrimental health effects from CO2 requite extremely high concentrations starting at 5,000 parts per million (ppm) which is almost never seen. As a comparison the ambient outdoor CO2 levels usually range between 400 and 600. The metric for poor ventilation is 1,000 ppm indoors. The rest of the items measured are self explanatory.
Needless to say our initial findings showed poor air quality in the classrooms in terms of CO2, VOCs, and Particulates. So poor that at times these sensors became saturated and wouldn't report higher values, creating a flatline on our graphs. Initially we wanted to compare different classrooms, such as science vs english or distance from the boiler room, but there are too many variables to manage. Instead we decided to see the effects of low-cost mitigation strategies on the air quality of three classrooms.
In one class we used two peace lilies as they were reported to reduce VOCs and Particulates. Another classroom with a heating problem we installed a box fan in attempt to reduce temperature. In the third classroom we installed an air filter to see if there was an effect on Particulates and VOCs. The results were definitely interesting.
Initially I used two different methods to compare days. The first is a graph showing the levels during the school day as the sensors log data per minute. The other is a bar graph comparing the daily means and standard deviation. We only looked at the data when students were in the classroom. Teacher prep periods and lunches were dropped. So far I only worked with the data from the plant classroom. There seems to be no significant pattern in the days with plants and the days without in terms of VOCs and Particulates. However there is a substantial drop in CO2 levels between the two days.
As a suggestion during a check-in presentation, one of the Environmental Graduate Students suggested that we use a process that is often applied when studying the effectiveness of mitigation on quality. This process looks at the percent of time the air quality is above (or below) a certain level during the day. We then compare the percentages and determine the effectiveness of the mitigation. So far this is a far more easy and effective method, but if anyone has more suggestions on how to process the data it would be welcome!
Tuesday 14 November 2006 at 11:59 am
I GOT IN TO GRAD SCHOOL!!!!!!!! WITH A TA POSITION TO HELP PAY MONIES!!!!!!!!!!! I GOT IN!!!!!!!!!!!!11111111!!!ONE111!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! AND BEST OF ALL I GET AN OFFICE WITH A COMPUTER!!!!! (probbaly a shitty compute that is so locked down I could cry, but it would be a computer. Now if it ends up being better than what I have at home [while it was impressive at the time it is a 5 year old rig] and not too locked down I may be playing a bit >
)
Friday 10 November 2006 at 11:41 am
Source
John Adams signed the Treaty of Tripoli which states, "As the Government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion; as it has in itself no character of enmity against the laws, religion, or tranquillity, of Mussulmen (Muslims); and, as the said States never entered into any war, or act of hostility against any Mahometan (Mohammedan) nation, it is declared by the parties, that no pretext arising from religious opinions, shall ever produce an interruption of the harmony existing between the two countries."
Friday 10 November 2006 at 11:36 am
A new tagling. 50 points to anyone who knows what it means AND the historical history of the phrase (
firstones people you are excused =P)
Wednesday 08 November 2006 at 8:29 pm
Rumsfeld "resigned" and Democrats are now in control of Congress.
Tuesday 07 November 2006 at 08:31 am
People. If you live in the US and are over 18, then VOTE. Don't just vote though. Look up the issues, look up the candidates, see what both sides are saying and why. Then vote.
If you don't then you have no right to complain if things don't go your way.
Tuesday 07 November 2006 at 12:29 am
Today was an unusual weather day for Portland. It POURED today, we usually get drizzle. On top of that it was quite warm today, I heard to got up into the 70s so it was rather humid. Traffic was hell as it usually is with the first of some change. The first sunshine, the first rain, the first snow, the first volcanic eruption... you get the idea. Nothing really out of the ordinary. Tonight my mother made the claim that it was all the charged particles in the air. I said probably not as this is how drivers usually react to major changes and I remember hearing in my climatology class that temperature and humidity have a much stronger effect on behavior than ionized air. People don't act like this when there is about to be a lighting storm. Mom suddenly became very defensive. It surprised me really. Like a properly trained public relation science debater I transitioned and asked why she was upset about it (I blame menopause personally). She gave some empty reply and I just shrugged my shoulders and went back to my room. Pick and choose my battles. I'd rather save it for having Derek over for the night or something.
A while later Mom came to my door and said something to the effect of how people just have these extra senses about things that science can't explain. I turned around in my chair and said, "You're talking about ions. That is VERY scientific." My dad, bearing witness to this whole ordeal, busted up laughing. Mom responded with, "Ok. You win," and walked off. What interests, and concerns, me is not causality of changes of human driving behavior from atmospheric changes, it is not that I was trying to make it an argument to be won (because it wasn't), it was the blatant disregard to critical thinking and reason and instant mistrust to science.
Saturday 04 November 2006 at 2:52 pm
I am a romantic sucker. Give me roses and I will swoon. But these are obvious acts and often expected at certain times of the year. What really do me in are the small random things. The fact that I drive/bus it out here almost every weekend bothers Derek to an unknown degree. This is because I regrettably still live with my parents and my mother... well this isn't a tangent I wish to go down right now. Derek bought and gave me a pack of ten bus tickets. Most people probably wouldn't regard this as sweet or romantic, but my thought and emotional processes aren't exactly standard either.
Saturday 04 November 2006 at 2:29 pm
I am now ecstatic to say that I managed to get my front page XHTML 1.0 and CSS validated!
Wednesday 01 November 2006 at 09:28 am
Every now and then I ride Portland's public bus system. Usually to Derek's university or on cold days from the light rail to PSU. It is a regular event that people thank the bus driver as they get off the bus. Is this common in other cities or is this just one of the quirks about Portland?
