Links of the Week

Christine O'Donnell: Constitution Moron
There is something very amusing about watching a Tea Party candidate make such a clear fool of themselves (all of them are, with various degrees of ability to hide it). Like all Tea Partiers, her claim is to be one of the few that understand the Constitution (essentially treating it as the Bible) that must be given office to protect it. And like all Tea Partiers, it turns out their study and understanding of the Constitution apparently doesn't actually involve reading it, understanding it, or even being vaguely aware of its history beyond the random pop culture maybe facts that you collect over a lifetime. In a debate with her opponent, Chris Coons, while at a law school no less, O'Donnell was flabbergasted that the separation of Church and State was enshrined in the first amendment. She, of course, only new the random factoid that the phrase was not in the document, I guess it never occurred to her that there might be a different phrasing for the same concept. On top of that she didn't even know the 14th, 16th, and 17th amendments even though she is a member of a political class that has indicated they want them repealed. Now to be fair, I don't have the amendments memorized either. Then again I am not running for Congress on the platform of being the great protector and arbiter of the wishes of the founding fathers like she has been. As usual, hypocrite and a republican are one and the same.

Stewart Disagrees with Sanchez Firing
Once again showing that he is more on the ball than most of his peers, Jon Stewart told Larry King that he thought CNN should not have fired Rick Sanchez for his stupid comments about Stewart and those that run CNN. He had the same problem I did with it, which was penalizing their hired commentators for expressing an opinion that management doesn't necessarily like on their own time. Sanchez is just the latest is a now regular revolving door of CNN reporters who get fired for expressing any opinion that is corporate approved. Reporters have bias. It is hiding that bias, pretending it doesn't exist, or allowing it to dictate what does or does not get covered as news that is a problem. In other words don't behave like Fox News. Past that, the only thing firing people for expressing an opinion does is allow stupid arguments to be given "equal" attention whether they deserve it or not resulting in the mess that is now CNN.

Links of the Week

Sorry for lack of updates, frankly just been busy with posting on the other blogs. Here you go though, a little bit longer than normal link list.

Largest Lego Ship Ever
Hit the link for images and video that shows off a 23 foot Lego recreation of the aircraft carrier USS Intrepid. The ship was constructed to mini-fig (1/40) scale with Wildcat and corsair airplanes to give it the 1945 look from when it was built. A truly awesome creation.

No Bank Accounts Costs Money
A reporter learned the hard way that not having a bank account can be expensive. After around 30 days of not using a bank, the various fees resulting fees cost $93 or possibly at least $1100. The lesson seems to be that even though banks no longer really function as lenders but more as fee machines, it is still cheaper to have an account then not have one since they will find a way to get their pound of flesh one way or the other.

Zack Snyder Directing Superman
After many false starts with the commercial failure of Superman Returns (good ideas but homage taken too far), WB finally seems ready to move on. Watchmen, 300 director Zack Snyder will helm the film. He also hinted, but has not officially confirmed, that Zod will be the film's big bad. It seems likely this will be a reboot of the franchise rather than continuation of the story where Returns left off.

Lego Space Habitat
A gallery that shows off a huge habitat complete with commercial areas, living space, space port, and more. It makes heavy use of a modular design so it’s actually like a lot of identical living spaces with slight changes to each to give it the cohesive but unique look.

Chasing Fox
An interesting article from New York Times about MSNBC's growing pains as it attempts to catch up to the ratings of Fox News now that the network has surpassed CNN. It gives a peek behind the scenes at some of the egos and infighting that flares up occasional, especially between management and the on air talent.

Donald Duck vs. Glenn Beck
An inspired mash-up that combines the many cartoons of Donald Duck with the equally hate filled crazy talk of Glenn Beck.


Portable XBox 360 Slim
Ben Heck is back with a new completed project. For all intents, he crammed an XBox 360 into a kind of briefcase with a 17 inch LCD screen. The result is a fully functional XBox that you can take with you wherever you want. He probably needs to add a handle.


Scream Awards Back to the Future Recreation
In homage to the 25th anniversary (and help sale the impending Blu-Ray edition), Spike TV put together a shot for shot recreation of the teaser trailer from 1985, complete with appearance by Michael J. Fox.

Destroyed and Rebuilt in 3 Minutes
A pretty sweet video that combined 45,000 photos to show the deconstruction and reconstruction of an office building in Paris.

Links of the Week

Starcraft II Lego Thor
Click the link for a sweet gallery of the new Thor Starcraft unit being Lego-ized. Not sure the specifics on how it was created but worth checking out. Hit the link above for the full gallery of images and Sven Junga's other Lego projects.

The Secrets of Scientology - Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4
Check out this BBC episode that gets into Scientology and their practices uses new interviews with ex-members who became disenchanted with the cult after years of their rather crappy and abusive tactics. At the heart of Scientology is a desire for power, greed and control with those at the top treating everyone else as slaves complete with a spy unit, threats, breaking of families, recording of secrets for future threats and so much more. The show does a good job of showing some of those tactics like obsessively following critics around, treating people as sub-human, and recording things with not one camera but many. It is overkill at its finest. You may be tempted to defend the cult, but apply even standards. If Christianity, Judaism, etc use these exact same tactics people would hit the roof. Scientology, if it really wants to be religion like it claims, should not get a free pass. What I find really ironic is the cult hates Psychiatry with a passion but at its core is the basic application of Psychiatric science. The short of it is avoiding this cult at all costs, it is truly dangerous. Unless you are filthy rich and then you will be treated like kings and queens.