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Archive for August, 2005

The Aftermath of Katrina

Wednesday, August 31st, 2005

A few days has passed since my last post here, and Katrina has come ashore, and devasted the Gulf coast. As of right now, 8/31/05 9:35pm, here is what has happened if you don’t already know:

o 80% of New Orleans submerged under 20+ feet of water.

o Widespread looting

o Recovery still going on 4-days later, helicopters picking people off their roofs.

o Gas soon-to-be over $4/gallon, and expected to peak around $5.

o Bodies floating around the flood-waters because police and rescuers are concentrated on those that remain alive.

o Thousands expected to be dead.

o Costs of recovery estimated in the tens of billions, a decade of time.

o Disease spreading due to stagnant, corpse-infected water.

o 10,000 more National Guard troops being activated, Navy sending ships to the Gulf including a floating military hospital.

What countries have pledged any money yet? None.

Generosity has always been a key trait of the United States, going back many many years. Why is it that the United States is always criticized for not doing enough soon enough for other countries when a disaster strikes, and when we need help, no one even steps up to the plate?

Germany, France, Russia, Australia, Canada? Hello?

However, now is not the time to politicize this. The people in the affected regions need help. Let’s hope they get what they need.

To see a list of fine United States companies that are donating money or equipment, please click here.

Posted in News/Current Events | No Comments »

Hurricane Katrina

Sunday, August 28th, 2005

As of this writing (3pm EST 8/28/05), Hurricane Katrina was churning through the Gulf of Mexico toward the below-sea-level city of New Orleans, LA with expected landfall of the eye at 7AM on 8/29/05. Current sustained winds are 180mph, with gusts about 200mph.

This storm will be devastating. It is a category 5 storm, on the Saffir-Simpson scale which represents the most powerful storm.

Destruction of life and property will be wide-spread, even with the current mandatory evacuation of New Orleans.

FEMA is currently prepared to act, as I’m sure the National Guard is on stand-by as well.

After that, who will help?

For the Tsunami relief effort, the U.S. is #4 on the top list of donators, donating over $350 million dollars to the relief.

For all that the U.S. does for other countries, who will help us? Time will tell, but it’s my guess that no other nation will donate help or money to our time of need.

Someone please prove me wrong.

Posted in News/Current Events | No Comments »

The Dukes of Hazzard Movie – Revisited

Friday, August 26th, 2005

A few people have asked me privately given the review of Dukes of Hazzard, who I would have cast for the 2005 movie. And here are my answers:

“Bo and Luke Duke”; John Schneider and Tom Wopat (original cast)
“Daisy Duke”; Catherine Bach (original cast)
“Uncle Jessie”; Willie Nelson
“Boss Hogg”; Danny Devito
“Rosco P. Coltrane”; James Best (original cast)
“Cooter Davenport”; Ben Jones (original cast)
“Enus Strate”; Sonny Shroyer (original cast)

Notice the only member I replaced was Boss Hogg and Uncle Jessie, and that’s only because Sorrel Brooke and Denver Pyle are both dead.

Why make a Dukes of Hazzard and not have the original cast? If you think about it, it’s pointless to remake this show into a movie and not use the original cast.

They could have made a “reunion” movie; Bo and Luke have been gone from Hazzard since 1985, and Boss Hogg has cooked up a plan to loot Hazzard and all it’s resources. They would come back, fight for Hazzard, and it would have been a great movie.

Someone do it. If no one does it, I will, as soon as I can get around to making a few million.

Posted in Entertainment | No Comments »

The Evolving Google Machine

Thursday, August 25th, 2005

And you thought Google was just a search engine.

Aside from being the best search engine, Google has transformed itself and the way we use the Internet. No no no…Google has evolved. In the late 1990s, Google was a search engine, nothing more, nothing less. Today, they are a media machine, organizing the Internet for the common man and making a user’s computer that much more efficient.

Take this week for example – Google Desktop 2 and Google Talk have been released. Picasa, Google Maps, Google Earth, and Google Toolbar have all been released in previous months.

Of course there is Google Mail, or Gmail it’s called, which offers an ever-increasing amount of personable searchable storage space for your email.

In 2004, they set out on a mission to digitize many (or all) of the print media from famous libraries; Library of Congress, NY Public Library, etc.

Where are they going? Well, the right answer is no one knows for sure because Google is a constantly evolving force. Where do I and others think they are going? They are going to be organizing EVERYTHING. Making it available. Making searching instantaneous.

According to their website, “Google’s mission is to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful”.

I have a good feeling that’s an understatement.

Check out Google for more information on their FREE products, and also Google Labs for the recently released programs still in Beta test.

Posted in PCs & the Internet | No Comments »

The American Terrorist – Pat Robertson

Wednesday, August 24th, 2005

If you haven’t heard it already, conservative religious rightwinger – Pat Robertson – said on his “700 Club” show that we should assassinate Hugo Chavez, President of Venezuela.

Now, minus all of the boring details, this is what Pat Robertson said originally:

“If he thinks we’re trying to assassinate him, I think we really ought to go ahead and do it. It’s a whole lot cheaper than starting a war. We have the ability to take him out, and I think the time has come that we exercise that ability. We don’t need another $200 billion war to get rid of one strong-arm dictator. It’s a whole lot easier to have some of the covert operatives do the job and then get it over with.”

Amid much public backlash here in America, from Venezuela, and from around the world, Robertson apologized today, 48 hours after he made the statement. In the “apology” (which was more of a clarification), he said he was misinterpreted.

“Is it right to call for assassination? No, and I apologize for that statement,” he said in a written statement. I didn’t say ‘assassination.’ I said our special forces should ‘take him out.’ And ‘take him out’ can be a number of things, including kidnapping; there are a number of ways to take out a dictator from power besides killing him. I was misinterpreted by the AP [Associated Press], but that happens all the time,”

Now, “take him out” to me means assassination.

U.S. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said Tuesday that Robertson has the right of any private citizen to say whatever he wants but added that the broadcaster’s remarks “do not represent the views of the United States.”

U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld also dismissed Robertson’s comments Tuesday, saying “our department doesn’t do that kind of thing.”

Alvarez said the Christian Coalition, which Robertson started but no longer leads, claims some 2 million members and helped jump-start President Bush’s 2000 presidential campaign after his New Hampshire primary loss to Sen. John McCain.

He has suggested in the past that a meteor could strike Florida because of unofficial “Gay Days” at Disney World and that feminism caused women to kill their children, practice witchcraft and become lesbians.

And that, my friends, is insanity.

Posted in News/Current Events, Politics | No Comments »

Space Exploration

Saturday, August 20th, 2005

I’m a big proponent of space exploration. I think we’re not devoting enough money to it, even in 2005. Sure, people will disagree with me, and that’s fine. That’s what makes all of this (life) beautiful. However, like with everthing else, there is perspective.

The cost of redesigning the Shuttle fleet to accomidate safety features recommended after the Columbia accident has so far exceeded $1.5 billion dollars, and as of August 2005, the Shuttle foam problem still exists. This being said, I will guestimate the final cost to repair the Shuttle fleet to be $5 billion. I think thats an over-estimated figure by 50%, but it will help to illustrate my point.

The war in Iraq, as of today, has cost over $188 billion. Here’s another tid-bit; the war in Iraq costs about $2,500 per second.

Theres your perspective.

…

I was sitting in the local Nissan dealership today, waiting for my car to be finished with one of its required routine maintenances, and they showed on the news that the cost of bringing Discovery from California (where it landed) back to Florida ontop of a specially designed NASA 747 over the required 2 day flight would cost just over $1 million. The people in the waiting room with me grunted and groaned, and in broken English mixed with Spanish, French, and Russian, I heard the word “why”. People, the $1 million is insignificant. Space travel can get expensive, but it is necessary. Where would we have been if Lewis & Clark, Magellen, Columbus, etc. didn’t spend the money needed to explore. Where would we be?

Rather than butcher the English language, or re-hash someone elses fine work, please click here to read about all of the benefits that space exploration has provided for you, and how it has impacted your daily life.

Posted in Astronomy & Space | No Comments »

Ferries; Saving Time and Aggravation

Friday, August 19th, 2005

I just got back from a lovely 6-day trip to my summer house on Martha’s Vineyard. Being that I live on Long Island, the normal thing I like to do is to hop on the LIE (I-495 East) toward NYC, take the Cross Island Parkway North to the Throggs Neck Bridge, and follow that to I-95 North, which I take to Providence, then veering off to I-195 East toward Cape Cod. Anywho, on a good day, doing a healthy 70-80mph and no traffic, the total trip time from my neck of the woods to Woods Hole Massachusstes, which is where the mandatory ferry to MV is located, takes nearly 5.5 hours.

This most recent time – on August 10th – the trip took closer to 7.5 hours, as there was a 10 mile backup – I mean a DEAD STOP – on I-95 in Connecticut. I sat there, dumbfounded because there is no where else to go. I-95 is the only road. I saw two corpse-carriers roll by me, and 30 mins and a 1/2 mile later I got to the scene of the accident to which there was none. There was a car and two white vans on the shoulder, all damage-free. No bodies, no skidmarks, no carnage. Bummer.

Anyway, I’m sitting in traffic at about exit 75 on I-95 North, realizing that if I took the Orient Point, NY / New London, CT Ferry (aka the Cross Sound Ferry), I would have been “on-time”, as the accident occurred before the ferry port in Connecticut. Taking the ferry would have required more “preparation time”, but I wouldn’t have sat in traffic for 3 hours and the possibility of missing the MV ferry wouldn’t have been an issue.

I didn’t miss the MV ferry, but it was close. Driving to the Orient Point side to pick the ferry up, taking it, and arriving in New London Connecticut would have saved me tons of time and aggravation.

It is for this reason, that unless I leave in the middle of the night, I am now forever taking the Cross Sound Ferry to CT if I need to go to New England, and I highly suggest that you all should think about it to.

Cross Sound Ferry

Posted in Social Theme | No Comments »

The Dukes of Hazzard Movie

Monday, August 8th, 2005

Well, Mr. Ben Jones (Cooter) was right. (See my blog entry below “Ruining the Dukes.” I had normal expectations before seeing this movie, but I was eager to see it none the less.

I finally did get to see it this past Sunday, and while it wasn’t a total letdown, I was disappointed. I’ll try and explain what I mean, and #1 is the “most important”.

No Cameos. Before going into the movie, I knew that none of the surviving members of the original series were not asked to be a part of the new film. I don’t know any self-respecting fan of the show – especially when you are creating a movie about it – can came to the decision not to have the original cast members come back for even one scene. Sure, the original cast for Boss Hogg and Uncle Jessie have passed on, but the others still remain.
Improper Casting of the Duke Boys; Remember that season of the Dukes where John Schneider and Tom Wopat had contract disputes, and “cousins” of Bo and Luke were brought in to fill their roles? Remember how you felt, and how you feel after watching reruns on cable? That’s what it felt like when I got to the movies and saw Johnny Knoxville and Sean William Scott as the Duke boys. Don’t get me wrong – I like both of those guys in other films/tv they have been in, but as the Duke boys, it was disheartening to see something as fake as their acting. As for Uncle Jessie’s character, Willie Nelson played a fine role. He was cast properly.
Improper Casting of Boss Hogg and Roscoe P. Coletrain: If you think for a minute Burt Reynolds was a good choice for Boss Hogg, you’re sorely mistaken. Boss (J.D.) Hogg and Roscoe were a comedy team – it was almost like Laurel and Hardy, and I’m sure I’m not the first person to make that comparison. Those two characters from the original show were a comedy show within themselves. How one could cast Burt Reynolds and M.C. Gainey as Roscoe needs to have their head examined. Again, great actors – loved Gainey in “Breakdown” w/ Kurt Russell and also loved nearly every movie Burt Reynolds did, but their performance in the Dukes of Hazzard was poor. The original comedy duo of Boss and Roscoe were not evident and sorely missed.
Great casting of Jessica Simpson for Daisy!
Sex, Drugs, and the Confederate Flag; Boy did the producer/director miss the boat here. First of all, there was sex (not shown) and implied drug use in the movie, neither of which I disagree with, but it didn’t fit the show. It’s just simply factually incorrect. In addition, the rebel flag on the roof of the General Lee in this movie was a focal point for racism. There was a scene in the movie where Bo and Luke drove the General to present-day Atlanta and wound up in the ghetto someplace, and 20 black guys surrounded the car and had something to say about the flag. The directors played the racism card. And, if you know anything about U.S. History, the Confederate Flag (Southern Cross / The Confederate Battle Flag / the Navy Jack / etc – whatever you want to call it), has nothing to do with racism. That flag is/was a symbol of regional pride and heritage. That flag traditionally represented the South’s resistance to Northern political dominance, and only did it become racially charged during the Civil Rights Movement.
Enus. Close, but no cigar. Again, missing the comedy trio of Boss Hogg, Enus, and Roscoe.
Flash was there, but it isn’t too hard to get a basset-hound to show up at the set and say nothing, is it?

Those are the things I found generally wrong with the movie. Now, what did I find that I really loved?…The car chase/stunt scenes. There was plenty of great action involving the General Lee, a modified 1969 (and 1970 in the original series depending upon the episode) Dodge Charger. This car, by far, was then and is still the star of the show. In the previews I watched late this past Spring, I assumed a few stunts I saw were computer generated. I was happily mistaken, as in the ending credits they showed a “bloopers” scene, and the jumps they did were in fact real, and done with real cars. It is for this reason, and this reason alone that I could recommend this movie to you. If you’re sa long-time Dukes hardcore fan, you’ll be disappointed in the movie in the grand scheme of things. Seeing Jessica Simpson and the General Lee made this movie a lot more watchable.

I beg someone — in a few years, please make a sequel. This time, please do it right and get a better cast, and get some of the original people back to do this movie justice.