Tuesday, November 30, 2010

Gizmodo

My readers in my last post will have seen my inner contempt for Gizmodo, a technology "Journalist" website.

Here's my problem with them. They're complete dicks.

Gizmodo has done a lot of things that have angered many a people.

In 2008, Gizmodo used a TV-B-Gone, a universal remote designed to shut off any television on a certain Infrared wavelength during presentations at the Consumer Electronics show. Essentally ruining everyone's presentation. Gizmodo was banned from the CES for life following this event.

Almost everyone can remember the iPhone 4 debacle. In which an apple employee had an iPhone 4 prototype stolen from him at a bar, the theif sold the prototype to Gizmodo, who promptly disasembled it, and posted it on their website. A apple promptly sued Gizmodo for damages and were charged with theft, which as a device valued at 500 dollars, is considered a felony. The case is still on-going.

Before that. In 2007, Gizmodo perchased a Halo 3 Legendary edition. And threw it off a balcony in order to scorn the hardcore Halo fans. Claming that "Master Chief died at the end." something that wasn't true.

In any case. Gizmodo are douchebags. Don't support them.

Thursday, November 18, 2010

LHC creates and contains Antimatter!

As it turns out, the Article I was originally going to cite was written by someone from Gizmodo. Now I have a big problem with Gizmodo that I will express later.

Anyway, CERN (That's the European Organisation for Nuclear Research) has used it's Large Hadron Collider has created antimatter! more specifically, Anti-hydrogen.

CERN has done this before, but this is the first time that they've been able to contain it long enough for study.

when antimatter collides with regular matter, it annihilates, releasing a lot of clean energy. What does this mean for the common man? Right now, nothing. They are not able to create antimatter in sufficient amounts for reactors. Not that we would want to right now. Best to study it before going there.

This isn't so much stupid, more like awesomeness for the future.

GO FUTURE!!!!

Now, when can I get my hover-board?

Monday, November 15, 2010

California

Oh California, what little we have positive to say about you today.

I don't know what happened, but for some reason, California is a big source of stupid this day and age. "The California Supreme Court says illegal immigrants are entitled to the same in-state tuition breaks that are offered to citizens who attend public colleges and universities." (MSNBC)

What. The. Hell?

Tell me, does anyone else see something wrong with this? Worse part is, this isn't the only stupid thing to come out of California recently. And this is twice as stupid.

"Cody Alicea, a 13-year-old boy in California, was told not to fly the American flag on his bike to avoid “racial tensions.” Alicea put up the flag to honor the veterans in his family – including his grandfather. But Superintendent Edward Parraz said racial tensions had erupted around Cinco de Mayor[sic] this year, when Hispanic students flew Mexican flags.
Parraz claimed flying the American flag following that controversy would lead to more tensions the school would like to avoid. Other students at the school had already been complaining about the flag as well." (MSNBC)

Seems Superintendent Edward Parraz, who we are now going to refer to sarcastically as "monsieur genius," has obviously forgotten which country his school district is in.

Todays lesson? Illegal immigrants should not and do not deserve to be given rights. And americans should not be told to not fly the star spangled banner.

Sunday, November 14, 2010

Video Games

I've been meaning to talk about this for a while. But there are some really stupid things said about the Video Game industry.

Let us take the example of former lawyer, Jack Thompson. Or as I like to call him, "an idiot who doesn't have a clue what he's talking about."

While few people took this guy seriously because he's an idiot who doesn't have a clue what he's talking about. People listen to him less because of his disbarment. While this is certainly not new news, it brings my point home.

For those who don't know, Jack Thompson is a extremely conservative, middle aged, white male, ex-lawyer, who was disbarred in 2007 due to "professional misconduct."Or as I prefer to say, "because he did stupid things." Like attempt to have Florida's Bar deemed unconstitutional for having a "pro-gay, humanist, liberal agenda." to which he also stated that "[the] wedding of all three functions of government into The Florida Bar, the 'official arm' of the Florida Supreme Court, is violative of the bedrock constitutional requirement of the separation powers and the 'checks and balances' which the separation guarantees."

The sad thing is, was that the example given was settled out of court. Having taken place in 1993, it would take many other such incidents in order for his disbarment to occur.

Now, rather than banter on, I shall try to get closer to the point. Many people have argued that violent video games should not be sold to minors, and that violent video games make violent children.

This argument is completely ridiculous.

Now, Video Games in every country are rated before they can be sold, by organisations like the United States Entertainment Software Rating Board, the British Board of Film Classification, and the Pan European Game Information. Each rate video games, and are usually on the same page with each other, A game with a ESRB rating "M" will almost always get an "18" from the BBFC, and an "18+" from the PEGI. Ratings on the same level.

Now, at least in the United States, it is illegal to sell M rated games to people under the age of 17. Every time I've gone to buy an M rated game, (which for some reason, are the most numerous.) I get my ID checked. So obviously, minors are not getting the games on their own. Rather their parents buy it for them.

I don't know how many times I've played an M rated game, only to have an eight year old in the same match. And you can very easily tell how old some people are. People say that Video Games breed violence. They are wrong. Irresponsible parents breed violence.

Do you blame a gun for killing someone? No. You blame the person behind the gun. A gun is a tool, it does not make people kill others. Like wise, Video Games on there own do not breed violence.

Thursday, November 11, 2010

Driving

Driving. It's something we all take for granted. Easily one of the most dangerous and routine tasks people do in a day? So why is it that people insist on doing it improperly?

Let us take the Stop sign. It's pretty easy to know what your supposed to do at that big Red Octagon.

STOP.

So why is it so hard for people to do this? Now, when I come home from class, I take a road that isn't used very often. it has a stop sign at a four way intersection. I don't care that I can see that nobody is coming. I stop. Because that's what the sign is there for! Almost everyone else plows through that right turn at a good 35 km/h, and there have been a few times where I've almost been hit by some idiot who decided that he was going to ignore the stop sign (the North-South part of the intersection has it, while the East-West does not.)

If someone were to hit another car while failing to stop at a stop sign. that's there fault. Thus they are paying to fix my car should they hit me. Risky driving behaviour will eventually result in an accident. So please! Don't drive like an idiot.

Wednesday, November 10, 2010

Help stop the stupid!

Do you know what the problem with the world is?

Stupid people doing stupid things, and making stupid choices.

You know what's worse?

Stupid people being ignorant.

The problem is that the majority of people, at least in the United States, are stupid, ignorant people. Yes, these are the people who go about saying "Muslims are terrorists! let's lock them up!" and "Let's protest outside a soldier's funeral because they're bad people for fighting and dying in Afghanistan and Iraq."

Ok, so maybe nobody says this out loud. But there are a lot of people who think this.

Yesterday, while driving to class, what do I see? a pro-life bumper sticker that says: "I survived the American holocaust." Really? I'm not even Jewish, and I think that's offensive on a number of levels.

"Oh yeah? Well freedom of speech!" says the ignorant person stereotype. Yeah, Freedom of speech to make you sound like an offensive dick.

Now, the Pro-life supporters do have the right to express their opinion. But they do it in such a cruel way. Now, I don't care if your pro-life, or pro-choice, it doesn't matter, But when was the last time you, you personally, saw a pro-choice protest? Probably never.

I don't like the negative imagery that pro-life protesters use on their bumper stickers, or there protests outside an abortion clinic. Because they don't know why people are there. Maybe there's a good reason for it huh? Fatal birth defects, where the child would not survive and possibly put the mother's life in danger, what's more cruel? Delivering that baby to die? Or abortion?

My name is Joel Caserta, I am a Freshman at Ohio State University. And I want to stop the stupid. Bring common sense back into the world. Because, hey, we need it.