Everything2 New Writeups

The Terrorists (idea)

2009-12-31T15:45:30Z

I'm sure you've been just as saturated as anyone else with the media repeatedly blowing up (no pun intended) coverage of the recent attempt by a crazy person to ignite an incendiary device attached to his leg on NW Flight 253 this Christmas. Having just been through airport security at Amsterdam (through which Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab passed with his explosives), I can tell you that there's really not a whole lot to it.

Unlike virtually all American airports, Amsterdam's does not feature a few centralized security checkpoints, but instead performs security screenings right at each flight's departure gate. A staff of three Aviation Security officials run your coat, shoes, and carry-on baggage through an X-ray, while two other officials monitor you as you pass through the metal detector. I noticed that the girl in front of me passed through the metal detector wearing her shoes, which were neither X-rayed, swabbed, or otherwise inspected. The Aviation Security officials did…

G.I. Joe (thing)

2009-12-31T15:29:00Z

G.I. Joe! G.I. Joe!
The fighting man from head to toe!
On the land, in the sea, in the air!
--G.I. Joe commercial, 1960s.

Before he was "a Real American Hero" taking down the Evil Threat of COBRA and delivering Public Service Announcements, before television cartoons and live-action movies and comic books and instant collectibles, he was a simple soldier, reenacting warfare in your basement and back yard, launching the term "Action Figure" along the way.

G.I. Joe entered the language during World War II. Soldiers used to seeing "G.I." stamped on everything saw themselves as another Government Issue. The name caught on, and in 1945, Robert Mitchum and Burgess Meredith starred in Hollywood's tribute to the average guy in uniform, The Story of G.I. Joe.

The war ended. Johnny and Joe came marching home. North Americans had lots of kids and lived…

shadows of comfort (poetry)

2009-12-31T13:56:23Z

They absorb the light that they see,
they enfold they who hide within their murky and misty depths.
They shelter,
they comfort,
they enfold and they protect.
They are shadows, deep and unyielding.

The night greys to dawn,
the world still unconscious in slumber deep,
her fingers of light do grace minds of worldly men,
whilst we dance among the shadows deep.

They mingle in amisdt the light,
early morning light now absorbed.

I am the shadow and the shadow is me,
we are the shadows and in them we dance,
Dance, dance, fly freer than a song,
until morning light greys to dawn.

When dawn doeth breaketh early morning's dark,
and Her fingers of light betray those of us who still dance,
we slip in amongst where they still do hide,
to dance forever in silence and song.
Among early morning shadow,
when dew turns leaves to clusters of crystaline emerald…

TV pop up ad blocker (thing)

2009-12-31T12:30:48Z

DSP (digital signal processing) can remove TV pop up ads and logos

The presence of annoying TV pop up ads and logos has increased to the level of intolerable. Hence the need for the TV pop up ad blocker device.

The device connects between the TV set and the video signal, and uses DSP to remove TV "pop up" ads. The signal is analyzed for the presence of advertising text, and logos, added to the signal by upstream DSP.

TV pop up ads are detected by heuristic programming that analyzes relative brightness, contrast, color, image movement, and the presence of text.

Once TV pop up ads are identified, the signal processor box determines background brightness, color and contrast around the pop up ad, which is then replaced with averages of the background areas on which the pop up was sitting. This effectively blurs away the ad so its presence becomes…

Copyright (essay)

2009-12-31T12:27:19Z

Capitalism is based upon the principle of moving physical objects that, by their nature, cannot be copied.

The hacker spirit is based upon the principal of sharing information that, by its nature, cannot be restrained.

The problem, if you can call it that, is that products are being digitised. This process transforms them from objects into information. Despite this, they retain their legal status as products.

Property is any object that someone has claimed as their own. As absurd as it may seem to an outsider that people may claim ownership of land that was there billions of years before they were, that's the system we use. It makes more sense to demand monetary compensation for the effort you put into making something, of course. There's a big difference between finding edible fruit, actively toiling a field in order to harvest crops, and preparing a sandwich using a loaf of bread you've bought down the market.

At every…

Earthly Powers (review)

2009-12-31T12:21:53Z

"It was the afternoon of my eighty-first birthday, and I was in bed with my catamite when Ali announced that the archbishop had come to see me."

So begins "Earthly Powers", a novel by Anthony Burgess. It is partly a historical novel of the 20th century, but also a masterly examination of the nature of good and evil, and of human nature. It is also a critique of the ways in which formalised moralities, such as organised religion, tend to stumble against their own limitations.

Burgess speaks in the first person through the character of a homosexual novelist who was raised a Catholic in England in the years before World War One, but later ostracised from the church because of his sexuality. Now very old, and with a successful writing career behind him, he is asked by the visiting archbishop to write the biography of a recently departed Pope. This Pope was known to him as Carlo, and was a friend for most of his life. He accepts the task, and much of the book is…

We all float down here (place)

2009-12-31T08:02:37Z

where when below the surface can be seen traces
spiralling above across the chaos and focus

(i.e.toSay at the surface spray fills y/our lungs
gasp+directed /i.e.toSayGoalOriented.
to avoid drowning.YOU JUMPED IN IT WAS YOUR DECISION

We all glow down here in a land
populated with reference) the self and the endless are the one and all
(am i words? am i language?) is this node about ... me ?

What is the gap between semantics and syntax?
does it look like the boundary of the Mandelbrot set?
is it stored within pi? am i dead?

We all hear the music in The Movies
—real ? real trigger dru(e)m(otion) horn /beat
+ strings Can we have a moving scene without music Please

I am sorry we can never…

Ghosts 'n' Goblins: Pretty Much the same Thing as Sex (thing)

2009-12-31T07:55:00Z

Years ago, a noted video game scholar, delving deep into the deeply encoded psychosexual messages inherit in the 8-bit era, tried to find what video game was The Opposite of Sex. To anyone who was not an ignoramus on the golden era of our culture, the answer was obvious. However, the video game industry has not become the multi-gajillion, Columbian trade unionist murdering behemoth it is by handing people sugar coated lesses on celibacy. It has done so by channeling the fears and aspirations of millions of young men who live in a culture where they are bombarded with pornographic dreams of Euphoria yet are economically unable to compete in a world where the Doritoes, ratty couches and suburban basements they surround themselves with are all made by slave labor in Mexico. In other words, the video game is just dripping with subliminated fantasies. But of all games churned out by non-unionized Guatemalan bit jockeys, which one has best…

December 31, 2009 (personal)

2009-12-31T04:22:39Z

"i've read some vonnegut, and i think that i'm past his philosophy at this stage. i read his last book (i think it was his last book, it was basically his memoir), and it had a sense of despair, a hopelessness, a feeling of man being overcome in his old age by all of the doubts that nagged him throughout his life. the dream was over, and all he had left was cold, sober reality. what i noticed particularly in this book was that the effects of modern technology on society are what really made him come to his grim realizations. and it's true. in the age of cell phones, myspace, cars, fast food restaurants, corporate logos, where every part of our lives is either man-made or controlled by man, it's not small wonder that the scrupulous eye can more easily see our flaws. we flaunt them like a peacock flaunts its feathers, on billboards, storefronts, our shirts, everywhere.
…

Neapolitan ice cream (thing)

2009-12-31T03:42:52Z

Neapolitan ice cream is literally 'ice cream from Naples'. Back in the late 1800s Italy was known, among other things, for its frozen desserts. One popular preparation of ice cream was to layer various types of ice cream together, as in spumoni. Ice cream served in this manner came to be known as 'Neapolitan'. Over time it came to be most common to layer three types of ice cream together (in America, even spumoni is sold with only three layers), and then, to serve only three specific flavors. These flavors are now always chocolate, vanilla, and strawberry. In that order. Despite the fact that these are somewhat boring flavors, and despite the fact that generally the chocolate and the vanilla get finished off long before the vanilla, Neapolitan ice cream is still a staple in the freezer section of grocery stores around the world.

knickerbocker glory (recipe)

2009-12-31T03:29:01Z

A Knickerbocker Glory is an ice cream-based dessert common in England. In America it would be considered a type of parfait or ice cream sundae. They are created by layering ice cream, fruit, flavored syrup, custard, jell-O, nuts, sprinkles, whipped cream, or pretty much anything else you can think of. They should traditionally be served in a tall, stemmed, clear glass, to show off the layers to good effect. There are, as you might imagine, hundreds of different recipes, and the original Knickerbocker Glory has been lost in the mists of time. The original probably appeared in the 1930s, and quickly spread through the ice cream shops of England. Those of us who are not fortunate enough to live in the British Isles can still make our own, however.

Tem42's Knickerbocker Glory

Place, in this order, in a tall glass:

1 small scoop of vanilla ice cream('cus your last bite needs to include ice cream!)

…

Blue Moon (person)

2009-12-31T00:45:49Z

When a month has two full moons, the second one is called a blue moon.

This blue moon cycle is 2.72 years, or roughly every third year. This is not at all unusual, but when it happens on New Year's Eve, as it will on December 31, 2009 in the Western Hemisphere, this is a bit rarer as it is a 19-year occurrence. The last such one occurred in 1990, the next one will not be until 2028.

Australia and Asia, being in the Eastern Hemisphere, will not experience it until January 1. On New Year's Eve, with a new decade being introduced, there will also be a partial lunar eclipse. This not be visible in the Western Hemisphere but will be viewed by people in the Eastern Hemisphere.

Chances are the moon viewed on the night of December 31, 2009/January 1, 2010 will not be blue in the meterology sense, but it will qualify for the "Once in a blue moon" title.

www.huffingtonpost.com/wires/2009/12/29/rare
http://en/wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_moon

Music is not a universal language (idea)

2009-12-31T00:13:18Z

Don Burrows plays clarinet. He once told a story of being in Germany, of walking through a square and hearing a violinist busking. He listened for a while and then took out his clarinet and played with him. They jammed together for two hours, despite having no common spoken language. For Don it was an unforgettable experience.

Patterns of music, perhaps, are learned, or unlearned may not be universal, but music can connect across language barriers. Dance might also be learned, but can be…

He was like the bottle of Champagne Krug (person)

2009-12-31T00:07:04Z

He was like the bottle of Champagne Krug.
Created and bottled with old-world style
Aged to a distinctive, nutty finish.

One hand pulled the bottle close, slid up its slender neck
His other loosed the wire cage, slowly freed the swollen cork.
Waiting.

Waiting for the pop of release.
Release of icy, rising steam.

Waiting for her hand to pour, his turn to watch
Watch the tilted flute, the bottle twisting with her wrist.

How far she filled the glasses would tell him
How long he would have to wait
As the bubbles danced on their tongues.

A couple somebodies had a very lovely evening.

500 Days Of Summer (review)

2009-12-30T22:14:48Z

I really wish someone had already written a staid, by-the-numbers-style review of 500 Days of Summer, because my review will be totally subjective, based on a prior viewing of the movie, and assumes that everyone has seen it, knows the outcome, and was thoroughly bored to death. I guess there will be spoilers, but come on, the title itself is a spoiler.

So vonCube, does the needy, nice guy win over the self-absorbed ice queen?

No, son, he does not. Snap! SPOILED IT!

Moving on. Released in September 2009, it stars Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Tom Hansen, a nice, trendy, somewhat needy twentysomething working as a writer for a greeting card company. Zooey Deschanel plays Michiganite Summer Finn, whom the movie is named for, who starts employment at said greeting-card company as, what else, the big boss' executive assistant. She is the child of a broken family, and so trusts no deep relationship. On her first day, he sees her, and…

Ayn Rand on Native Americans (essay)

2009-12-30T22:07:21Z

One of the most obvious ripostes to the doctrines of unfettered capitalism is that all private property was at one time granted to people by some type of governing entity. Depending on where you live, this was probably done either informally and long before records of such a transaction exist (if you are living in Scotland, for example), or relatively recently, and in an organized manner (in America, many people still live on property homesteaded by their grandparents). Even people who think that their current system of politics and society are fair and beneficial may come up with some qualms or confusion when confronting this issue. This is especially a question in the United States, where the removal of the native peoples was done almost within some people's living memory. This is tremendously complicated issue, both from the theoretical point of government legitimacy and property rights, and because of the emotional and moral issues of the forced removal of peoples. This question of conquest…

Music is not a universal language (idea)

2009-12-30T21:59:36Z

It's clear that music is not a language at all, at least not in the way that the things we normally call languages are.

There is no way to say "pass the salt, please", or "That will be fourteen pounds eight shillings and sixpence, but I will accept your finest camel instead" in music. You can set the words to music, of course, but that is cheating.

This is kind of self-evident, but I think that it is necessary to point it out in this context.

Music is, however, a medium of communication, and as such it is capable of saying things which are difficult or impossible to say with words. I can try to describe the feeling I had listening to the opening of Beethoven's C# minor quartet one night several years ago, lying drunk on the carpet, but any combination of words I might come up with will be trite by comparison. You just have to have been there, and what's more you have to have been me. That's just how it is. I'm sure some others have had such moments too.

Perhaps it…

Killing in the Name (event)

2009-12-30T20:32:03Z

My friend Hazelnut has made a compelling case and puts it most persuasively, however, in the spirit of fairness I feel compelled to defend the alternative position, that held by those who bought the Killing in the Name Of track and those like myself who did not, but nonetheless were amused and excited by the success of the campaign. I do not intend to put a price on the head of anyone who legitimately holds contrary views - however, I do disagree with them.

In the United Kingdom, 'Christmas Number One" chart position has for decades been the most sought after position of the year. Christmas sales are naturally higher than at any other time and consequently the media attention on who will sell the most is higher. The person who achieves the Christmas Number One may not be guaranteed a long lasting career, but the feat itself guarantees a certain immortality.

Since 2005, the winning single has been that released by the champion of…

running from a blind person's perspective (idea)

2009-12-30T19:33:27Z

The therapeutic attributes to running or walking are not new. This I know. However, I'd like to share this from a different perspective. I do not mean to capitalize on the fact that I'm visually impaired, but it's essential to what I'm about to relate. For the record, I have sight in neither eye. I have some usable vision in my right eye, but its usefulness in navigation is dependant on the amount of sunlight and the environment I'm travelling in. I can see contrast in color and that should be enough to get me through. So, let's let you, the reader shadow me as I go.

I'm probably wearing an ankle-length skirt and sturdy shoes, and am carrying my long cane. Just like any other person my mp3 player is around my neck but there are no earbuds in my ears. I have to hear what's going on, you see. I walk along, using the wooden edging of what I guess to be a flowerbed as my guide, then turn left and begin cautiously travel along a street. It's fairly quiet,…

Nez Percé Trail (place)

2009-12-30T15:25:59Z

In 1877, a group of Nez Percé Indians, under the leadership of Chief Joseph, fled out of the Wallowa Valley of Oregon, hoping to make it either to their Crow Indian allies in Eastern Montana, or else to Canada. The Indians were living on a reservation that they had been confined to in Oregon after an earlier treaty, but because of gold prospectors, the government wished to move them to another part of their reservation, a high plateau in Idaho that was on the fringe of their traditional homeland, and could not easily support their way of life. Although many of the tribe moved to the reservation, many refused to accept it, and the United States military quickly took objection to this. Although Chief Joseph refused to either fight or move, some in his band started the war on their own by attacking and killing white settlers, and he knew he had to flee. A somewhat contradictory series of events, since the Nez Percé, refusing to move to Idaho, were ready to flee further.

What…

Killing in the Name (review)

2009-12-30T10:39:55Z

1992 single by professional pseudo-revolutionaries Rage Against The Machine. Became Christmas Number One in Britain in 2009. Total heap of rancid, worm-infested shyte - and the Rancid, Worm-Infested Shyte Liberation Front have probably just put a price on my head for that grave insult to their cause as a result of this writeup.

There is nothing revolutionary or subversive about this song - or indeed about RATM - in any way whatsoever, unless you're a 15-year-old who can't be arsed to tidy your room, get to bed at a reasonable hour, or do your homework. Which, incidentally, is what that chorus line, "fuck you, I won't do what you tell me" sounds like. The song is a ham-fisted attempt at sounding rebellious and socially aware - much like everything else by RATM, actually - with its generic railing against the government and identikit pretend socialism.

A delicious irony is that those who pushed the Facebook campaign to get RATM to number one to keep the X Factor off…

too little too late (personal)

2009-12-30T09:54:04Z

When an empathic person says listen, please, listen. My grandmother didn't, and she knows now this silliness. She didn't get hurt as a result, but she realised that when I say "something bad is going to happen and many people are going to die," she really ought to listen.

The event to which I'm referring is September 11, 2001. I woke up that morning with a low-grade fever, hence I would've stayed home from school. I was only 10 at the time. My birthday was in October, so this gives you some perspective of my age. Now, please note that I wouldn't mind putting this in the daylog for that day, but it's been too long, and besides, I doubt many noders would believe me.

When my grandmother woke me up that morning, I started shivering the second I opened my eyes. She felt my forehead and told me to go back to sleep, that I wasn't going to school. Then I uttered the immortal words.
"Something terrible is going to happen. Many will die." Nine simple words.…

Le Voyage Extraordinaire (fiction)

2009-12-30T05:41:45Z

The park was always a prime hangout for us. The trees provided ample entertainment, as well as shade from the afternoon sun. We would often walk there, as a group, or sometimes alone, but we would always leave being picked up, sometimes by Jack's mum, or Sylvia's dad, or either of my parents, because it was always too late to walk back.

But today there would be no one picking us up. We had ditched school, none of us particularly enjoying the prospect of last period Sport, what with it being such a lovely day and all.

Wherever we went, Sylvia was always the first to talk. She'd say something like:

- Hey guys, what's happening?

if she'd just…

Reverse Psychology (idea)

2009-12-30T04:07:28Z

Reverse psychology is based on the simple idea that sometimes when you tell people to do one thing, they will choose to do some other thing. As you may have guessed, this is not actually a sub-branch of psychology; the phrase was apparently coined by a professor at Harvard Business School in the 1920s to make his marketing lectures sound more interesting. While it is still largely a marketing term, it has leaked into common usage, and has been used by the masses since at least the 1950s.

The classic example of reverse psychology is the salesman telling his mark "well, that model is probably a little too expensive/refined for you; let's look at something a little cheaper/simpler". The idea is that by putting the customer on the defensive from the start, they will try to prove that they aren't cheap, stupid, or tasteless by spending more. The term is used in many different contexts, and it is unsafe to assume that an author or speaker is using it in any particular sense. Stores…

Them Crooked Vultures (thing)

2009-12-30T03:19:10Z

Them Crooked Vultures

Them Crooked Vultures are a "supergroup" composed of John Paul Jones, Josh Homme, and Dave Grohl.

That aside, I believe it to be probably the best album released this year (2009), and certainly the most refreshing. The tracks are eclectic whilst always being based in hard rock, featuring Josh Homme's excellent guitar-playing and lyricism, and Dave Grohl's extremely solid drumming, with Jonesy offering some fantastically sexy basslines (as well as some brilliant piano and keyboards).

Anyhow, enough of my gushing, here's the track listing for the first, self-titled, album:

1. No One Loves Me & Neither Do I
2. Mind Eraser, No Chaser
3. New Fang
4. Dead End Friends
5. Elephants
6. Scumbag Blues
7. Bandoliers
8. Reptiles
9. Interludes With Ludes
10 Warsaw Or The First Breath You Take After You Give Up
11. Caligulove
12. Gunman
13. Spinning In Daffodils