Curious Medical Conditions, Mainly Psychological
Ξ December 30th, 2008 | → 0 Comments | ∇ Odd |
Including “Alien Hand Syndrome”
http://sec.online.wsj.com/article/SB123058075741640277.html?mod=article-outset-box
Watergate, an alternative narrative.
Ξ December 22nd, 2008 | → 0 Comments | ∇ Interesting, Politics |
Now, given the title, you might expect me to write something about how Nixon was actually the good guy or some such nonesense in the Watergate scandal, but that’s not the case. An article by StratFor explorers a darker narrative to the Watergate story – there were no good guys. George Friedman tells the story of the Hoover’s FBI, an institutional power onto itself, operating independently from the Presidency, fighting a nasty shadow war with the President, who sought to reign it in following the death of it’s powerful leader.
Consider this: Mark Felt was a career FBI man – a career in J. Edgar Hoover’s FBI. Given the history of that organization, does it make sense that a man who rose through the ranks to be the number three man in that organization would have his civic virtue so offended by Nixon’s men (and they most likely were Nixon’s men) breaking into the Watergate to feel the need to tell a couple young, unknown reporters at an old, well known newspaper about it?
Perhaps something else drove him. Perhaps he was offended – offended that an outsider had been appointed over him to run Hoover’s FBI. Perhaps he chose a couple young reporters that were hungry to be part of a big story but worked at an established paper that once they started reporting, it would get noticed.
Very interesting read.
Code Geass vs. Codex Gigas
Ξ December 21st, 2008 | → 0 Comments | ∇ Intellectual, Interesting |
I was flipping through some TV channels today, and came across a National Geogrpahic show called “The Devil Bible”, about a medieval text called the Codex Gigas. A couple days ago, I had a casual conversation about Code Geass, and I though the similarities in the names were too close to be coincidental. Even if there’s no actual connection to the story of Code Geass (and it doesn’t appear to have any), anime does have a tradition of taking random western cultural references and using them completely out of context in their storylines (witness Evangelion), so I’m willing to bet that’s what happened here.
Still, the Codex Gigas is an interesting bit of trivia I hadn’t heard about before.
Really, you don’t say?
Ξ December 11th, 2008 | → 0 Comments | ∇ Humor, Odd |
Headline from the BBC:
Man’s genes ‘key to baby’s sex’
You’ll never guess what today is.
Ξ December 9th, 2008 | → 0 Comments | ∇ Interesting, Odd |
Jonah Goldberg points out it’s International Anti-Corruption Day. Oh, the irony.
I’m not entirely sure Obama knows what he (and the rest of us) are doing.
Ξ December 7th, 2008 | → 0 Comments | ∇ Politics |
One of my main complaints about Obama is that while he might be eloquent, he’s no smarter or well informed than Bush was when he took office, and he is learning all the wrong lessons from history. Obama’s recently announced economic plan is full of misconceptions and bad policy. The basic premise is that the government can spend itself out of recession is fundamentally flawed. The government takes money from the citizens then hands it back out in an attempt to trigger economic activity. This is dumb regardless of who does it, Obama or Bush (in fact, it’s his penchant for doing just that has resulted in debate as to whether or not Bush is actually a conservative). It ties up money in red tape, and bureaucratic entropy dictates that the government outlays are less than the intake. Additionally, it’s not like the US government has exactly been stingy with money.
But it was his 5-point specific proposal that staggers belief.
(more…)
Black Mesa: Half Life Reborn
Ξ December 2nd, 2008 | → 0 Comments | ∇ Games |
A group of modders have been working hard to create a Half-Life mod that remakes the original Half Life game using the Source engine and all new textures. If you want to play the original Half Life, but feel that the game is simply too dated, I *strongly* suggest you take a look at the trailer for the mod. I recognize the scenes, but the graphics updates make it look like they’re for a brand new game coming out. Especially look at the scene in the missile silo. When the scientist gets killed, the animations in the original game always looked a little clunky, but the required animations were so complex you simple accepted it as the best that could be done. In the trailer, the scientist actually grasps the computer console as he’s being dragged out the window.
Simply amazing.
