Walt Disney World Haunted Mansion in Counter-Strike: Source

And with combat:


© 2005-2008 Stephen Clarke-Willson, Ph.D. - All Rights Reserved.

Deconstructing the Federation of Star Trek - Giant in the Playground Forums

Deconstructing the Federation of Star Trek - Giant in the Playground Forums

Quite amusing and insightful.

The Federation is a bloated, corrupt communist bureaucracy. The directives are conflicting and often ignored in favor of getting things done or employing the teeming mass of unemployed. Safety regulations are ignored, especially in engineering where jury rigging due to inefficient parts manufactured by hand to give the population a 'job' failing constantly, and 'red shirts' are basically drafted into the service to give them something to do and suffer from a lack of basic weaponry and armor, not to mention the callous treatment at the hand of the 'lifer' officers who honestly couldn't care if they survive.

Technology is advanced but actual understanding of how it functions and efficient use of it is starkly limited due to being manufactured from crap components and restrictive, often times retarded, directives, and a relatively small number of people who know how it works and jealously guard their jobs and knowledge. The poor parts result in infamously lethal working environments - the panels are so under safety regulations that they actually have been known to *explode* during use under stress, killing those nearby. The power transmission systems throughout the ship and its completely unsafe dilithium crystal reactor are known to be death traps to the rest of the galaxy, who stopped using them for safer but less out-put systems that have a smaller chance of randomly killing the users in power surges under duress. The Federation continues to do so due to mining deals worked out with various corporate interests and the fact that the power generated gives their weaponry a distinct edge in combat, as well as powering stronger than usual shields. The equipment is more valuable than the replaceable crew for the most part, and the Star Fleet is fully satisfied with its lethal performance.

War is common despite the proud declaration that the Federation has no warships and is always peaceful in intent. They meddle constantly in affairs to make the outcome in their favor, especially on less advanced worlds, with loose rationals. They get by the 'no warship' clause by having a 'science fleet' that is bizarrely heavily armed for mere exploration vessels.

The corruption of the Star Fleet has resulted in a laissez faire style of captainancy in their ships - a ships captain can get away almost anything short of starting an actual war as long as it looks good and profits the Federation. Acts of piracy, treaty violation, and sexual indecency are fairly common. Bridge crews often conspire to cover up or edit reports to the central command. As a result, Federation ships are infamous for bringing disaster in their wake.

There is more amusement in the entire thread at Giant in the Playground.
© 2005-2008 Stephen Clarke-Willson, Ph.D. - All Rights Reserved.

Two Interactive Video Adventures

YouTube - The Time Machine: START HERE!

-- and --

http://www.survivetheoutbreak.com/

Check them out... if you dare... and you're not too busy since you're pretty much going to endure a lot of disappointment as you make wrong choice after wrong choice...

© 2005-2008 Stephen Clarke-Willson, Ph.D. - All Rights Reserved.

Sling.com | Top 50 Videos

Sling.com | Top 50 Videos

Sling has launched (in beta) it's video portal. Since I'm on vacation, I took time away from being pissed off about the Bailout and checked it out. The link is to the Top 50. Even though I'm on vacation, I didn't actually have time to watch anything except the Hawaii 5-0 opening. The top 50 list is rather eclectic. It ranges from Barack Obama on 60 Minutes to Victoria's Secret to NCIS to Family Guy.

Anyway, when it's obvious that your money is worth half of what it was (and by that I mean actual dollars, vs. your 401(k) which has already been cut in half), you can stream Sling.com video right onto your PC.

© 2005-2008 Stephen Clarke-Willson, Ph.D. - All Rights Reserved.

Peter Schiff predicts our meltdown - with specifics!

Peter Schiff says that the attempt to "get credit markets flowing again" is a huge mistake.

Yup!

This is the famous clip where people are laughing at his position but he just holds his ground ... and of time has proven him correct in every detail.

Which is bad in a way, because he's predicting a very bad depression for the next several years; in fact, he says what the government is doing will prolong the depression.

*Sigh*.


© 2005-2008 Stephen Clarke-Willson, Ph.D. - All Rights Reserved.

Outrage over Citigroup Bailout

Economist's View: The Citigroup Bailout

Yay. Someone is mad.

© 2005-2008 Stephen Clarke-Willson, Ph.D. - All Rights Reserved.

Banking Regulator Played Advocate Over Enforcer - washingtonpost.com

Banking Regulator Played Advocate Over Enforcer - washingtonpost.com:

"When Countrywide Financial felt pressured by federal agencies charged with overseeing it, executives at the giant mortgage lender simply switched regulators in the spring of 2007.

The benefits were clear: Countrywide's new regulator, the Office of Thrift Supervision, promised more flexible oversight of issues related to the bank's mortgage lending. For OTS, which depends on fees paid by banks it regulates and competes with other regulators to land the largest financial firms, Countrywide was a lucrative catch."

So much for government regulation.

The idea behind our government is that it represents the people and the rule of law. Instead, we've structured our government so that different agencies can compete for fees from the very industry they are meant to regulate. Hmm. I wonder how that will work out. Oh wait ...
© 2005-2008 Stephen Clarke-Willson, Ph.D. - All Rights Reserved.

We're up to $7.76 trillion

Bloomberg.com: News:

"The U.S. government is prepared to provide more than $7.76 trillion on behalf of American taxpayers after guaranteeing $306 billion of Citigroup Inc. debt yesterday. The pledges, amounting to half the value of everything produced in the nation last year, are intended to rescue the financial system after the credit markets seized up 15 months ago."

Ouch. Plus, the GDP overstates production because it includes services, and our economy has a lot of services. It's more like a calculation of the amount of money that moves around in a year, rather than a measure of production.

The problem with inflation like this is that the companies that are getting the money right away benefit from the inflation - they can pay off whatever in current dollars, because the rest of the economy hasn't had access to that money. Your spending power and mine go down once the money starts flowing around the rest of the economy.

Ugh.
© 2005-2008 Stephen Clarke-Willson, Ph.D. - All Rights Reserved.

Steve Henifin nominated for Hollywood Music Award

Too Human Nominated for Hollywood Music Awards; Soundtrack Now Available - Video Game News, Video Game Coverage, Video Game Updates, PC Game News, PC Game Coverage - GameDaily:

"Too Human's score, composed by Silicon Knights' Steve Henifin and performed by the FILMharmonic Orchestra and Choir Prague, was released today for $15.98 on Amazon.com, Best Buy and the CD's label Sumthing Distribution."

I know this guy! I hired him back in the day at Virgin. I've been wondering what he's been up to. Now I know!

Congrats Steve!

(Steve, if you or someone who knows you comes across this, email me!  My address is everywhere.)
© 2005-2008 Stephen Clarke-Willson, Ph.D. - All Rights Reserved.

Bailout, Version 3 - Floyd Norris Blog - NYTimes.com

The quote below is from the "Bailout, Version 3" comments - which are generally interesting and surprising good - does Floyd Norris moderate them?

"I just finished reading the term sheet — and I don’t get it. How is this not the biggest rip-off in history?

Citibank is getting a $266 billion *non-recourse* loan for its non-performing assets (the $306 billion minus about $40 billion that Citibank has to cover itself). It thus sounds like we’re buying the vast majority of Citibank’s bad paper at face value.

In other words, it sounds like a compulsory gift of $2,600 from each household in America, to Citibank’s shareholders and executives. Will we at least get a thank you note?"

© 2005-2008 Stephen Clarke-Willson, Ph.D. - All Rights Reserved.

Now, Citibank

Government outlines a new plan to rescue Citigroup. - By Daniel Politi - Slate Magazine:

The WP adds a little historical gem by pointing out that Citi's origins can be traced back to a firm called First National City Bank that, in the 1920s, repackaged and sold bad loans from Latin America and billed them as safe securities. After the scheme collapsed, it became Citibank. Decades later, repackaging bad loans as safe securities is at least part of the reason why Citigroup is suffering so much heartache. Curious about how Citigroup got into the predicament it's in today? If so, be sure to read yesterday's detailed NYT piece that explains how the company went from being worth $244 billion two years ago to $20.5 billion today. The story is particularly interesting, considering that Robert Rubin, Treasury secretary under President Clinton and an economic adviser in Obama's transition team, plays a starring role in the saga.

To me, this looks like more accounting fixups have been done, and another turd has been identified. This crisis is all about accounting - bad accounting - including bad risk management. This kind of crazy bad news is going to continue until all of the bad accounting has been updated with good accounting.

The article goes on to say that

Speaking of Rubin, the NYT takes a look at how Obama is creating "a virtual Rubin constellation" in his economic team. Obama's three top economic advisers "are past protégés" of Rubin, who also has ties to other members of the president-elect's transition team. But even though the three advisers once shared Rubin's formula of favoring balanced budgets, free trade, and financial deregulation that was so popular in the 1990s, they all recognize that times have changed. They're now following Obama as he promises to increase regulation and plans to take the country deeper into debt.

It shouldn't surprise anyone that if you give someone - anyone - the power to print money - that eventually they will do so, and now - Surprise! - Obama's team is stepping up to the plate for their swing at printing money.

I don't know of any way to explain to "Joe Sixpack" or even "Smart Republican or Democrat" that printing money is bad. The best I've been able to come up with is that printing extra money is a form of central planning - and we all know that central planning brought down the Soviet Union. There's no point in calling it Socialism or Marxism or Modified Capitalism - these terms don't have any broad meaning anymore.

Every time the Congress passes a tax plan they are participating in the process of central planning. Each line in that bill is either (1) a handout (duh); or (2) an attempt to encourage social behavior along a certain path. In our country, nobody is forced to work at a certain job, as was true in the Soviet Union; but through "tax policy" - which is just central planning - people are encouraged to buy a certain type of car, or work in a certain location, or sign up for a certain kind of insurance, or buy a house, or have kids, and so on.

Successful CEOs delegate - they can't be involved in every decision. And yet the Congress - by definition a committee, so that puts them a step behind a CEO right there - got involved with the price of toy wooden arrows for children.

I don't see how central planning is a good thing for our country. It's beyond my capabilities to explain why a fixed currency is a good thing. The best I can do is point out that without a fixed currency the government - and the government consists of people, so in other words, "certain people" - have the power to print extra money. And they will work hard to convince you that printing extra money is in your best interest even though it is not.

I also don't see (if one has to choose the Central Planners), how choosing the guys that screwed up the economy most recently by advocating for increased and dangerous leverage should be the guys in charge of bailing it out.

*Heavy Sigh*.


© 2005-2008 Stephen Clarke-Willson, Ph.D. - All Rights Reserved.

Paulson is an idiot

NPR: Bailout Costly For Taxpayers

If the goal is to rescue the banks, the Paulson bailout plan is one of the most expensive ways to go about it.
That's the conclusion of a paper titled "Paulson's Gift" by Luigi Zingales and Peitro Veronesi at the University of Chicago.
They do find one option that would be worse than the current Paulson plan. That would be the plan he originally proposed.

Now, the Citibank bailout includes elements of both plans. Will we get the worst of both worlds?

© 2005-2008 Stephen Clarke-Willson, Ph.D. - All Rights Reserved.

Why all those Great Depression analogies are wrong. - By Daniel Gross - Slate Magazine

Why all those Great Depression analogies are wrong. - By Daniel Gross - Slate Magazine: "The specter of the 1930s has also been deployed by political leaders to create a sense of urgency. 'We saw a lot of overblown analogies in the run-up to the passage of the bailout bill,' notes Dean Baker, co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research in Washington, D.C. President Bush's Sept. 24 address to the nation warned that 'the entire economy is in danger,' and that 'without immediate action by Congress, America could slip into a financial panic, and a distressing scenario would unfold.'"

*Sigh*. Why do we keep falling for this stuff? "Iraq is going to nuke us." "We're entering another depression." Shoot - why not add: "We're all going to be under 3 feet of water due to Global Warming if we don't start using compact fluorescents."

Everybody calm down! This will automatically get better as businesses deleverage themselves from the crazy 30:1 place they were at. And as a true accounting of all of the bad loans is made.

It just takes time. In the meantime, the Fed has pumped $4 trillion dollars into the economy. The total amount of economic activity is only $13 trillion. I'm not sure if that translates into 25% inflation but it's possible. I think they are just making things worse.

© 2005-2008 Stephen Clarke-Willson, Ph.D. - All Rights Reserved.

Official Google Blog: Lively no more

Official Google Blog: Lively no more

I never could figure out what you were supposed to do in this thing.
© 2005-2008 Stephen Clarke-Willson, Ph.D. - All Rights Reserved.

Azurik Art Lead Opens New Gallery

Clay Corbisier, the Art Lead for Azurik, is opening a new art gallery in Jackson WY.

Clay says:

We are very excited to be opening the doors to Troutwater Gallery and hope that we will see all of you there at some time! Our website, www.troutwatergallery.com is still under construction but will be up in the near future. Our grand opening party will be on Dec. 20th.

© 2005-2008 Stephen Clarke-Willson, Ph.D. - All Rights Reserved.

StockCrashesNov192008.jpg (image)

StockCrashesNov192008.jpg (image)

© 2005-2008 Stephen Clarke-Willson, Ph.D. - All Rights Reserved.

The Wild Wordsmith of Wasilla - Dick Cavett Blog - NYTimes.com

The Wild Wordsmith of Wasilla - Dick Cavett Blog - NYTimes.com

Sarah Palin said:

My concern has been the atrocities there in Darfur and the relevance to me with that issue as we spoke about Africa and some of the countries there that were kind of the people succumbing to the dictators and the corruption of some collapsed governments on the continent, the relevance was Alaska’s investment in Darfur with some of our permanent fund dollars.

and Dick Cavett said:

It’s admittedly a rare gift to produce a paragraph in which whole clumps of words could be removed without noticeably affecting the sense, if any.

______________________________________
Buy Nano-Plasm Soft Cover
© 2005-2008 Stephen Clarke-Willson, Ph.D. - All Rights Reserved.

The secrets of aXXo, BitTorrent's top movie pirate. - By Josh Levin - Slate Magazine

The secrets of aXXo, BitTorrent's top movie pirate. - By Josh Levin - Slate Magazine:

"(You know you're in a universe with a strange moral code when people start complaining that the stolen goods they're in turn stealing weren't stolen properly.)"

© 2005-2008 Stephen Clarke-Willson, Ph.D. - All Rights Reserved.

Tree and Moon

The moon. And a tree. And a 10x zoom. w00t.
© 2005-2008 Stephen Clarke-Willson, Ph.D. - All Rights Reserved.

Feedback

I said:

My feedback is that I bought [a Kindle] with one day shipping yesterday and the site even said "Get it by 10/31 if you choose one day shipping" and it's not coming until next Tuesday.

That's annoying!

They said:

Greetings from Amazon.com.

Thank you for sending us your comments about the delay on the shipping of your Kindle.

It is very important for us to hear about your experience using Kindle and shopping in the Kindle store. Strong customer feedback like yours helps us continue to improve the service we provide, and we appreciate the time you took to write to us. I've passed your feedback along to the Kindle team.

Thank you for your interest in Amazon Kindle.

I wanted to say:

Greetings from me! Thank you for me your comments about the delay in shipping my Kindle!

It is very important for me to get boiler plate responses to issues I post to you. Canned responses like yours help me evaluate vendors, and I appreciate the small amount of time it took you to send me that canned response. There is no one else here to pass your message along to, so I guess that's about it.

Thank you for your minimal interest in me.

© 2005-2008 Stephen Clarke-Willson, Ph.D. - All Rights Reserved.