An Eye for Annai

Cute Vid

Little Big Planet for PS3

This is a potential system seller.
Trailer:



Gameplay:

Watched the documentary Iraq for Sale. The approach has politically left leanings though any political bias does not mar the critical information presented.

The film targets private contractors funded by our tax money in a manner of war profiteering that is destroying "the war effort" in Iraq. Haliburton, KBR, Titan, Caci, Blackwater are the guilty parties served contracts without any competitive bidding and allowed unregulated spending and waste. These companies are pepper with ex-high ranking military and governmental types with tentacles apparently penetrating deeply into the federal government.

It portrays an infrastructure set up for American troop support that is essentially crap, has endangered all involved, and is leading to countless, unnecessary deaths. If this is the infrastructure for our troops, what of the infrastructure of the rebuilding effort? I believe it is one reason why the war is going on "for so long."

Private and civilian forces involved in security and interrogation operate apart from the U.S. military's chain of command and oversight, but are in positions to direct soldiers and blur service and profit.

An example of endangerment is Titan provides the bulk of linguists as interpreters for the military. However there is absolutely no grounds to trust the interpreters as these linguists are neither testing nor certified; there is no guarantee they know Farsi or if they are accurately translating versus just saying their opinion.

I do recommend watching it just to be in the know of what has happened and ensure it does not happen again. We need to have better oversight of private contractors, their selection and spending, and perhaps staffing, training and decisions. The last three may not be feasible as that would essentially take on the role of contractors. One unpopular but practical alternative is reinstate the draft, eliminate contracting and place everything under the jurisdiction of the military.

Good Med School Humor

Obama & Faith

I cannot shake the sense that presidential candidate Barak Obama has racist leanings and is, despite the hype, another typical politician.

Why racist?
Perhaps it's only an issue of guilt by association but I fear it to be more. Obama has had the cultivation and nurturing of 20 years at Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago and his mentor Reverend Jeremiah Wright. Obama's concept of American society and God must have been affected, and he must have assented or partook to have latched onto Wright for so long.
Wright preaches messages that:

1. are anti-Caucasians (including Europeans);
2. curse and vilify the United States;
3. honor Louis Farrakhan (leader of the cult Nation of Islam);
4. promote an imaginary black Jesus (not found in the Bible);
5. follow the teachings of James H. Cone (a founding father of black liberation theology and a man who calls white men the devil); and
6. perpetuate a delusion of government conspiracies (i.e. AIDS) against blacks.

In general, Wright stirs his congregation by painting nonblacks as enemies. In this way Trinity United Church is the Nation of Islam in the guise of Christianity. It is a message where the greatest sin is the poverty and oppression of blacks, and heaven is to be had now in the form of black power, influence, and wealth. Obama is a proactive accomplished man so I ask by which factor did Obama choose to follow Wright's message?


The typical politician
Only in the past couple weeks has Obama sloughed off association with Trinity when it threatens his political image. He has played a careful balancing act: defusing speculation of being Muslim (named Hussein, childhood in Indonesia) by claiming Christianity ("I attend a church"), but now distancing himself from church to deflect suspicions of racism. Like the majority U.S. politicians, Obama must reassure the middle America of his Christian "faith"; yet the faith he has followed turns out to be different from Christianity. Either he is misinformed or he tosses faith about as another tool for or obstacle to his rise.

These are days of mourning for China, the 12,000 dead and counting. The student bodies crushed in collapsed schools are made almost entirely of the sole children of family (due to the One Child Policy), the absolute devastation to parents cannot be fathomed.

The U.S. is giving $0.5 million to aid the earthquake effort which I believe is too small for the magnitude. The Yunnan province of China alone is donating $0.25 million in aid to the cyclone destruction in Burma - an even more terrifying death toll of over 30,000. Please pray and if possible offer aid, food, medicine.
(I am selfish to mourn more for the Chinese...need to grow in compassion.)


Suffering is not always the act of justice.

"He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous." -Matthew 5:45b

Quote of the Day

"It's not like I'm a rocket surgeon!"

Prince Creepy

My sentiments exactly:

Beauty and a Beast by *JohnSu on deviantART

Lines of the Day

Carla: Are you familiar with the term "delusions of grandeur"?
Janitor: I believe I coined that term.

From Scrubs Season 7, Episode 9

Tibet as Polarizer

I often criticize the self-serving business practices and dangerous shortcuts that China has allowed or overlooked. This has been not out of malice or scorn, but always in grief towards the Chinese and hope that things will change with exposure to truth. The voice of media is accountability to the people.

I feel the Tibet-Olympics protests is a completely different issue. I cannot stand the irrationality of so many Chinese mainlanders and the hands-off attitude of the Dalai Lama. By consciously refusing to tell the Tibetan riots to stop or refrain from violence, the Lama effectively approves of violence demonstrated by Buddhists and Buddhist monks. Does anyone see the irony in ignoring their own tenets? I question the Lama's motive here even as he continually grins. And we see also the ugly Chinese (akin to the ugly American); the ugly Chinese now takes the form of rabid reactionary hyperpatriotism. If a Chinese person calls for dialog or rationality, many mainland Chinese turn on him or her, an act that confirms their irrationality by threating the victim's life and family.

The Chinese government and Olympic organizers believe the riots were timed to disrupt the 2008 Olympics and the actions of the world confirm it. If spectators continue to threaten the passage of the Olympic flame the ugliness will only be fed. The whole Tibet issue is out of proportion on both sides. Everyone is missing the point.

Don't destroy this event for which athletes world-over have worked so hard to reach.

Mom-ism

Searchme

Apparently taking cue from Apple's Coverflow interface, a new search engine interface arises in the form of Searchme as featured on Ars Technica.

Bad Dream

Had a nightmare:
I was driving a navy blue Volkswagen Beetle on the highway. My breaks went out and I started gaining speed towards 100 mph--crazy dodging traffic. I drove off a bridge (of course) and fell into a raging river. The car tilted downward and and rapidly started sinking but I had rolled down my window to climb out and leap off the roof of the car. The river tossed me along the current but I eventually made it to a side and pulled myself ashore... which happened to be next to my parents' house.

It was raining now but I didn't want to go inside because I feared that my parents would be angry I had lost the car. But someone with a crane happened to fish the Beetle out of river onto the opposite side. I felt so relieved but now I worried about how to salvage the wet upholstery and offer a solution that would satisfy my parents. I couldn't do anything about it now since the car was across the river so I headed inside and ... I woke up.

It is weird that I did not give a thought to my life but was overly concerned about the car and my parents' opinion. I don't drive a Beetle nor do I particularly like navy blue.

Half Empty

Despair.com has funny & mean Demotivator posters...but that's their point. Read the text for Persistence. Apparently "disaffected college students" are prime for such posters.

Edwards and Organ Transplants - WSJ.com

Edwards and Organ Transplants - WSJ.com

Nanking

Nanking, the movie, brought me to tears. As you may know it is a documentary on the Rape of Nanking (Nanjing). After seeing this, can one foolishly deny the historicity of this event? It was a history that the imperial Japanese military suppressed (even now so many revisionists deny it). Despite that, eyewitness accounts, photographs and videos of the atrocities survived and even reached the U.S. government of the 1930's. Yet the world stood by and watched the mutilation. I recommend this movie as this must be known.

This provided such rich examination into the human nature; a nature capable of unfathomably evil and so twisted as to call evil, "Good." Evil is a word used often these days, but there is such cruelty that sickens you to exhaustion.

The era encompassing WWII may well consist of the Greatest Generation to behold such vibrant heroes and villains. The rawness of existence and struggle of war is a testing ground that tears away any facade to reveal the beauty or ugliness that we are.

The Japanese Tradition

I found the following series called "The Japanese Tradition," a quirky tongue in cheek collection of lessons on Japanese culture. The videos in the series should run one after the other. However there is a part of the series missing: a three part on dating in Japan. There is a version on YouTube with English subtitles. which I cannot find now.

Richard Hitchens, author of god is not Great was recently interviewed at an atheist convention.  He says that Abraham Lincoln & Thomas Jefferson were atheists but I beg to differ as they often quoted God in a manner that accepts His existence.

"In regard to this Great Book, I have but to say, it is the best gift God has given to man. All the good the Savior gave to the world was communicated through this book." The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln edited by Roy P. Basler, Volume VII, "Reply to Loyal Colored People of Baltimore upon Presentation of a Bible" (September 7, 1864), p. 542.

I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just; that his justice cannot sleep forever. Thomas Jefferson

Once again, like his book, Hitchens' makes too many false generalizations.

Quote of the day: "Life's too interesting to be bored."

Surgery & ObGyn have eaten my time.

Quote of the day: "Your cervix is stone-cold closed."