The W00t Rant

Pale Blue Dot - A Must See for Everyone

The Dumbest Cop Ever

The phone call is real, but the re-enactment is semi-real.

DUMBASS.  DUMB. ASS.

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No, this isn't some hacker hacking my site.  For those who don't know what the above means, please read the following:

In a blog post Tuesday afternoon, Digg CEO Jay Adelson wrote that the company was pulling down a number of news stories pertaining to a cracked HD DVD encryption key that could circumvent the digital rights management (DRM) restrictions on the media discs.

The reason, he said, was a cease-and-desist letter on behalf of the Advanced Access Content System (AACS), the consortium with ownership rights to the key that had been cracked. The organization cited Section 1201 of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, which concerns the spread of information pertaining to DRM breaking. By including stories that linked to the key, the letter argued, Digg was breaking the law.....

In a blog post Tuesday night, Rose bowed to his site's readers. "After seeing hundreds of stories and reading thousands of comments, you've made it clear," he wrote. "You'd rather see Digg go down fighting than bow down to a bigger company...effective immediately we won't delete stories or comments containing the code and will deal with whatever the consequences might be." Rose even stressed his solidarity with the membership by posting the key in the title of his post.

I have to applaud Kevin Rose here, because they are now following the original intent of digg.com: user-defined news and user-defined front page news without *any* editorial staff.  Additionally, I applaud them for essentially telling the AACS, DVD Consortium, and the DMCA a big FUCK you.

Some of you may be wondering: "Why is this important?  What does this have to do with me?"  It has *everything* to do with you.  How you listen to your music; how you view your media; how you read your content; how you as a free individual define "fair use."  Fair use is critical in a free society.  It enables everyday individuals (i.e.  you and me) the ability to use copyrighted material in a free and fair manner.  Whether it is for archival purposes, educational purposes, etc. fair use allows information to flow free.

The DMCA laws, DRM, the horrific behavior of the likes of the MPAA and the RIAA affect everyone of us whether we want to or not.  All of us listen to music, watch movies, watch television, read books, read e-books, etc.  These idiots are destroying are ability to ENJOY, LEARN, and CREATE for the future and the "now."

So, the above is a protest to those FUCKS (I'm a little late - by 1 day), and I encourage EVERYONE to spread this as well.

Parady of David Blaine

Fucking hilarious.  Check it:

I appreciate David Blaine's "contribution" to the art of magic, but at the same time I've always utterly despised his presentation style.  To me, it seems like he's on heroin.  Maybe he is?

Another Amazing Remix of the Doctor Who Theme

Yet another amazing remix of the Doctor Who theme song.

Arranged and performed by Orbital for their last live performance ever.

Making of the Doctor Who Theme Song (80s Version)

Awesome video that gives the arranger's insight and secrets to the making of the Doctor Who Theme song (80s version).  Yes, it's the greatest TV theme song ever.

Beyond being geek love material, it's definitely interesting stuff for any music enthusiast.

Moving Experiences

Everyone knows that moving sucks.  It's stressful, time consuming, and it never seems to end.  However, I don't want to talk about that portion of moving.  Everyone KNOWS that moving sucks.  What I do want to concentrate on is what you FIND during the move.  Boy, did I find some stuff.  First off, I realized that I've lived in the same apartment for five years.  FIVE fucking years.  I found the original lease sitting in the bottom of one of my kitchen drawers.  As I read the lease, it really "hit home" on how much time had passed.  I definitely felt a bit sentimental, felt the occasional remorse, and even regret.

It's just amazing how much stuff you have that you didn't realize that you had.  (Does that make any sense?)  I even found old letters between my old high school girlfriend.  Boy, did THAT bring on some memories.  Most of those memories were happy ones, thinking of a more "innocent" time and also the very slight sadness that it all ended.  Such is the "journey of life."  There were also letters that I found of a high school female friend of mine that I was shocked that I still had.  I had a small secret crush on her, and as I read through her letter again I had the strong feeling that she was interested in me as well.  However, the "timing" was off as I was utterly devoted to my high school girl.  I do wonder what would have happened if I had actually persued my little secret crush.  The best chance of "pursuing" the crush would have been when I went to her winter formal with her.  I had actually kept it a secret from my girlfriend at the time.  It's probably the only secret I ever kept from her, and the irony was that my girlfriend at the time wouldn't have cared a bit.  She probably would have even encouraged me to go.  Such is life.  Eventually, the crush and I went to college.  I, of course, to Emory and she to Miami U of Ohio.  We had kept in contact until sophomore year where we would call each other and write letters to one another.  Eventually, we both went our separate ways.  I've always wondered what happened to her.  I wonder if she's married and has kids.  I do wonder.

What you find is probably the only "good" thing about moving.  You rediscover your past.  Your happy moments.  Your sad moments.  Memories of excitement.  Memories of the truly mundane.  Past experiences of friendship.  Past experiences of heartbreak.  There in my small studio apartment, the place where I have lived for five years, I re-experienced all of those moments.  Stuff like this really make you realize how short your life truly is, and how fast like a "blink of an eye" that it all goes away.

YouTube Title Says it Best: Best Dr. Who Line Ever

This is why Tom Baker is the best Doctor ever.  Awesomeness.

Snapalicious.

Lois and Fuckingmachines

Nothing more needs to be said

Georgia Close to OKing Bible Classes

You gotta love the Christian Bible Belt.  So, I was going through my RSS feeds after munchin' on some French toast, when I came across this news article on Yahoo! News:

Georgia is poised to introduce two literature classes on the Bible in public schools next year, a move some critics say would make the state the first to take an explicit stance endorsing — and funding — biblical teachings. Link

Why am I not surprised?  Seriously, I know I should be "surprised" considering there's this whole constitution thing for "Freedom of Religion" that's been in our U.S. Consititution since the beginning.  The lack of surprise comes from living in Georgia for over 15 years (damn, it's been THAT long!?)  We're smack in the middle of the "Bible Belt" where Christian fundamentalists run around like ants coming out of an anthole.  I guess "I've grown accustomed" to it all, but this whole "Bible beating" really gets to me where-ever I am.  I personally have nothing against a person if they are religious.  In fact, my mother is an extremely devout Catholic.  However, I guess the key difference is on HOW you present your beliefs to others and ultimately HOW you treat others who have different beliefs than you do.

The first question I ask when I find out about stuff like "state education teaching the Bible" is: Why?  Why do this?  Is it really because of the so-called "destruction of family values" in America?  Is it because of Islam?  Is it because of terrorism?  Why?  Well, in this case, the immediate answer I came to was because of this:

Georgia county gives up on evolution book stickers.  Abandoning a legal battle that brought national attention, the Cobb County, Ga. school board announced Tuesday it had settled a lawsuit brought by parents outraged at its use of evolution disclaimers. Link

It's gotta be the whole evolution thing which feeble minded fundamentalists just cannot accept or even comprehend.  This is yet another way for the anti-evolution camp to "sneak" in and teach their religious version of it all which they FURTHER try to hide by calling it "Creationism."  They couldn't win the "book sticker" battle, so they're trying another tactic by trying to teach the Bible as if it were a "literature" class:

Senate Majority Leader Tommie Williams, the Republican who sponsored the plan, said the Bible plays a major role in history and is important in understanding many classic literary works.

"It's not just 'The Good Book,'" Williams said. "It's a good book." Link

Right.  Sure, that's the REAL reason.  RIIIGHT.  Give me a fucking break.  How about we propose teaching the pictorial history of Playboy magazine in high school's Modern American history class?  In fact, the final paper will be contrasting and comparing Marilyn Monroe's centerfold to the Cuban Missile Crisis.  I'm sure this will garner increased interest in young males in the study of history.  What does everyone think?

This isn't even a Democrat/Republican thing.  Oh no.  Yes, this Republican bill (which has already passed) also originally had a Democrat version:

During last year's campaign-period legislative session, Democrats surprised majority Republicans by introducing a plan to teach the Bible in public schools.

Fuck Creationism.  Fuck fundamentalism.  Let's call it what it really is: IGNORANCE.  Also, let's stop labeling various forms of fundamentalism: Christian Fundamentalism, Islamic Fundamentalism.  Let's call it what it really is FUNDAMENTALISM.  Because in the end, it's all the same damn thing: repression of society, ignorance to other beliefs, and destruction of scientific theory and thought.

Btw, I'm starting to like that Playboy history class.