I wasn’t able to access SEB or the backend from work since late yesterday afternoon. At first I thought perhaps my job was blocking the site, but I was getting a “No route to host” error which is a tad unusual. Traceroute showed that it wasn’t work blocking the site as it was getting quite far out onto the net, but something between here and there was borked. Oddly enough if I turned off the proxy in the browser and tried again it worked just fine, but I need the proxy on to access company email. Now, just before I’m due to go home, it’s working again.

So thats why I didn’t post anything today. Consider this an open thread on the off-chance that I don’t get around to posting anything else once I get home.

You’d think a guy would have to be pretty smart to get a job running any of the Big Three automotive companies. You’d think they’d realize how awkward it would look to fly down to Washington D.C. in a private jet at a cost of $20,000 paid for by the company they head and then try and claim that their companies are flat out broke and need a government bail out. You’d think that, but you’d be wrong:

All three CEOs - Rick Wagoner of GM, Alan Mulally of Ford, and Robert Nardelli of Chrysler - exercised their perks Tuesday by flying in corporate jets to DC. Wagoner flew in GM’s $36 million luxury aircraft to tell members of Congress that the company is burning through cash, asking for $10-12 billion for GM alone.

“We want to continue the vital role we’ve played for Americans for the past 100 years, but we can’t do it alone,“ Wagoner told the Senate Banking Committee.

While Wagoner testified, his G4 private jet was parked at Dulles airport. It is just one of a fleet of luxury jets owned by GM that continues to ferry executives around the world despite the company’s dire financial straits.

“This is a slap in the face of taxpayers,“ said Tom Schatz, President of Citizens Against Government Waste. “To come to Washington on a corporate jet, and asking for a hand out is outrageous.“

Wagoner’s private jet trip to Washington cost his ailing company an estimated $20,000 roundtrip. In comparison, seats on Northwest Airlines flight 2364 from Detroit to Washington were going online for $288 coach and $837 first class.

After the hearing, Wagoner declined to answer questions about his travel.

I’m seriously torn over this whole situation. There’s a part of me that would love nothing more than to see these clueless pricks crash and burn in a major way. The Big Three created this mess and they should feel the impact of it. The other part of me also realizes that letting these companies crash and burn is going to hurt a lot of people everywhere, but especially here in Michigan. Being a life-long Michigan resident you’ll forgive me if I’m a little concerned about the damage a failure of that magnitude will have on my state. We’ve already suffered through the worst economy of the past eight years even while the rest of the country was doing pretty well, at least until recently. Of course you could argue that it’s our own fault for relying on the automotive industry as a major part of our economy for too long and that’s a valid argument. So I go back and forth between hoping a bailout happens and hoping it doesn’t.

One interesting story I cam across that could throw an interesting twist into how this all unfolds is word that China might buy out one or more of the Big Three:

Chinese carmakers SAIC and Dongfeng have plans to acquire GM and Chrysler, China’s 21st Century Business Herald reports today. [A National Enquirer the paper is not. It is one of China’s leading business newspapers, with a daily readership over three million.] The paper cites a senior official of China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology– the state regulator of China’s auto industry– who dropped the hint that “the auto manufacturing giants in China, such as Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation (SAIC) and Dongfeng Motor Corporation, have the capability and intention to buy some assets of the two crisis-plagued American automakers.” These hints are very often followed with quick action in the Middle Kingdom. The hints were dropped just a few days after the same Chinese government gave its auto makers the go-ahead to invest abroad. And why would they do that?

A take-over of a large overseas auto maker would fit perfectly into China’s plans. As reported before, China has realized that its export chances are slim without unfettered access to foreign technology. The brand cachet of Chinese cars abroad is, shall we say, challenged. The Chinese could easily export Made-in-China VWs, Toyotas, Buicks. If their joint venture partner would let them. The solution: Buy the joint venture partner. Especially, when he’s in deep trouble…

Word has it that China has over $2 trillion in cash reserves that could be used for just such a purchase. It’ll be interesting to see how the Free Market Conservatives react if Chinese companies make a big to buy either Chrysler or GM, or both. Could they handle losing two major automotive companies to a foreign power? What happens if Ford goes belly up after such a sale? I’d bet you’d see a quick change of opinion if China starts waving some cash around.

I’m not a huge Ozzy Osbourne fan, but I thought this WoW commercial featuring him was pretty funny:

According to this Radio Times article at least. The Official Website also contains some info on the new season.

I’ve raved previously over my love for this series and I was both relieved and bummed that the American adaptation never took off. If you want an idea of why I love this show so much you can check out a lot of clips of it on YouTube. I’d embed one, but it appears embedding is disabled on all of the clips.

Alas the show itself still isn’t available in the U.S. so I’ll have to resort to downloading it off the BitTorrent networks. I really wish they’d at least release the DVDs here so I could buy the damned things.

Just because I’m egotistical enough to think you folks give a shit what I think, here’s another entry on new video games that I’m really looking forward to owning some day. Today’s game is the next in one of my favorite franchises: Call of Duty: World at War.

Not sure why they went with the hard rock guitar soundtrack for the launch trailer as it seems… out of place… but the game looks pretty solid and it’s averaging a healthy 88/100 score on Metacritic.

I know a lot of folks are sick to death of first person shooters set in World War II, but I’m not one of them. I was initially very skeptical of Call of Duty 4: Modern Combat because it was abandoning the WWII setting, but I ended up loving the hell out of it. That hasn’t stopped me from playing the occasional multiplayer session on Call of Duty 2 though.  I’ve been waiting a long time for CoD to take on the Pacific theater as by the time Medal of Honor—which is the other WWII FPS I’ve enjoyed immensely—got around to doing that setting it wasn’t very good. I never played CoD3 because it was a console only title so I’m pleased that this latest version is available for the PC.

The single player looks great. The multiplayer borrows some of the best ideas from CoD4. Flamethrowers, ‘nuff said! And it has a Nazi Zombie(!!!) Co-Op mode (see trailer after the jump). Alas it’s too close to Krismas for me to pick the game up anytime soon, but with a little luck I’ll get as a gift.

You’d think that after two years of being the majority in both houses of Congress and making gains in the recent election, not to mention winning the Presidency, that the Democrats would have grown some balls, but you’d be wrong:

Today in a closed-door meeting, Senate Democrats voted 42-13 to allow Joe Lieberman (I-CT) to keep his chairmanship of the Senate Homeland Security Committee, despite his attacks on Barack Obama during the campaign season. Shortly afterward, Senate Democrats held a press conference during which they stood by Lieberman and surrounded him with their support. Some highlights of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s (D-NV) remarks:

– “We’re looking forward, we’re not looking back.”

- “I understand anger. … I would defy anyone to be angrier than I was. But is this a time when we walk out of here and say, ‘Boy, did we get even?’”

– “I am satisfied with what we did today. I feel good about what we did today. I don’t apologize to anyone for what we did today.”

– “The question is, do I trust Senator Lieberman? The answer is yes, I trust Senator Lieberman.”

Lieberman apparently threatened to take up with the Republicans if the Democrats punished him. When you consider that he all but did just that during the election anyway I don’t see how that was much of a threat, but apparently enough Democrats felt it was enough of a problem that they voted to let him stay. Word has it that Obama himself was in favor of not punishing Lieberman and I’m not sure I understand why, but hopefully he’s planning on holding it over his head when push comes to shove otherwise it’ll make no sense.

I still think it’s a mistake to let Lieberman get away with it and it’s a bad sign for how the next four years is going to go if the Democrats can’t grow a pair after all the gains they’ve made.

In fact, it made my symptoms worse…

Found over at What Would Jack Do?.

It took a bit longer than I expected, but the Chinese are ripping Blu-ray movies, cracking the DRM, and burning them to disc so they can sell them for next to nothing. The quality drops, but is still technically High Def and the movie industry is not happy:

Law enforcement in Shenzhen, China, raided a warehouse last month that contained HD copies of a number of popular movies. There were over 800 discs (so, what is that, like eight spindles?) that were packaged in faux Blu-ray boxes, complete with holograms to make them appear legitimate. According to the Motion Picture Association International, this is the “first ever” seizure of these types of discs in China.

The pirates are apparently ripping high-def movies (cracking Blu-ray’s AACS and BD+ encryption in the process) and re-encoding them using AVCHD, which offers a 720p picture. Because of the reduction in resolution, file sizes are smaller and can be burned to regular DVDs instead of the more costly Blu-ray discs, netting a tidy profit. Needless to say, the film industry isn’t thrilled by the news. “We are concerned and are assigning priority to this issue,“ the MPA’s Asia-Pacific managing director Mike Ellis told the Wall Street Journal.

Movie piracy in China is by no means a new trend, but the proliferation of Blu-ray fakes out of Asia is being viewed as a serious threat that could make its way to other countries quickly. Ellis pointed out that pirates in China can be very enterprising and have exported their wares all over the globe in the past, so there’s nothing stopping them from doing so with this new format. “These syndicates are very quick to spot market opportunities,“ he said.

Considering that standard Blu-ray carries an average price of $30 (which is why I only have a few movies on Blu-ray at the moment) the $7 the pirates are asking will probably more than make up for the content “only” being 720P. It won’t be long before those techniques are widespread. Another proof of the adage that if you can make it, they can break it.

People are so much easier to control when they’re dumb and illiterate. The heyday of the Catholic church, after all, was the middle ages. While still more influential and powerful than they probably should be, the Catholic church has had a harder time of it lately and it’s all the fault of those educated parishioners:

Bishop O’Donoghue, who has recently published a report on how to renew Catholicism in Britain, argued that mass education has led to “sickness in the Church and wider society”.

“What we have witnessed in Western societies since the end of the Second World War is the development of mass education on a scale unprecedented in human history - resulting in economic growth, scientific and technological advances, and the cultural and social enrichment of billions of people’s lives,“ he said.

“However, every human endeavor has a dark side, due to original sin and concupiscence. In the case of education, we can see its distortion through the widespread dissemination of radical scepticism, positivism, utilitarianism and relativism.

“Taken together, these intellectual trends have resulted in a fragmented society that marginalizes God, with many people mistakenly thinking they can live happy and productive lives without him.

Awwwww. I feel so bad for the Bishop. All those damnable educated people and their stupid questions about Catholic dogma. I’ve always said that the cure for religion is more education. It doesn’t work in every case, but it works more often than not. Where it doesn’t eliminate belief in sky faeries it at least makes the believers much more moderate and reasonable. It’s interesting to hear a Catholic bitch about education for a change, though, as usually that’s the domain of Evangelicals.

I can remember all the way back to 1975 and seeing Disney’s Escape to Witch Mountain in the theater. I was seven years old at the time it came out in March of that year. I don’t remember a whole lot from that age, but I definitely remember that movie because I thought it was the coolest thing I’d ever seen. I so wanted to be like the kids in that movie that I had dreams about it for weeks to come. I can also vividly remember the sequel, Return from Witch Mountain, which came out three years later. The fact that I loved both movies as a kid shows that my critical thinking skills still had a ways to go as watching the films today I can see a lot of flaws in them, but they still hold a special place in my memories of childhood.

So it goes without saying that I was intrigued to find a trailer for the remake titled Race to Witch Mountain:

I know you can’t judge a movie by its trailer, but I’d be lying if I didn’t mention that my inner-7 and 10 year-olds are totally geeking out over that trailer.

They showed a small clip from the upcoming Krismas episode The Next Doctor on the Children In Need special:

This gets me worked up on two levels: First it gets the whole Krismas vibe going and then it gets me all excited about new Who. This just makes Krismas day that much more wonderful.

It’s déjà vu all over again as I may soon find myself unemployed once more. Word came down at work that they are redefining my job from being a contracted position to an internal position. The job itself will be the same, but who I directly work for won’t be. As a result I need to apply for consideration to be hired for the job I am already doing. Like most companies these days, they’re very big on their employees having some form of degree, preferably a bachelors. Doesn’t matter what area the degree is in, so long as you have one, your chances of being hired are greatly improved.

Which, of course, I don’t have. I am working on one at the moment, but it’s still some distance in the future. I wasn’t expecting to have it done before my contract expired as it was and I definitely won’t have it within the next few weeks. The good news is that I’m at least being allowed to apply for the job which is a step up from when this happened to me at Ford Motor Company where they wouldn’t even entertain the idea of considering possibly hiring me without a degree. The bad news is my boss doesn’t get to put in a good word for me until after the recruiter determines whether or not I should even get an interview.

Needless to say I’m updating my resume and will be submitting it, but I’m not particularly optimistic that I’ll retain my job. Assuming I don’t my boss has said that he expects the transition to take at least a few months to unfold so I should be OK until at least January at the earliest and possibly as late as March. There’s no guarantee of that, but you take your silver linings where you can find them. In addition to applying for the job I currently have I’ll be hitting the job boards with a bit more vigor to see what other opportunities there might be. The fun never ends.

I didn’t mention it previously, but I did dash off a reply to Mr. William Michael’s email which I posted earlier. Here’s what I said:

William,

That’s some impressively tortured logic you’ve got going there. Doesn’t tend to lend well to your claim that you can answer any argument I might be able to put forth. Atheism is simply the lack of theistic belief. It has no bearing on politics, marriage, or holidays. How you figure those three things imply an “end to human life higher than survival” is beyond me. I bow to your superior, if somewhat spurious, logic.

I do appreciate the email, though. It’s sure to amuse the folks who drop by my blog. Thanks for sending it along!

Les

I figured that would be enough to piss him off and he’d wander back into whatever dark recess he had scurried out from as most of the Catholics I’ve gotten email from tend to do. Usually it’s the Evangelicals that are persistent, but it appears Mr. Michael is of sterner stuff as he replied back:

Les,

As I expected, you suggest that my logic is flawed, but provide no reason for your criticism other than your opinion.  That kind of dumb response is what I meant when I said you should leave the little pond of idiots and put up some real reasons for your views—-which you obviously think are important enough to post on a website.  Your too acustomed to picking on the little girls, like Georgie Porgie…”when the boys came out to play, Georgie Porgie ran away.”

Having opinions without demonstrable reasons is called “prejudice” and suggests a lack of proof rather than any real thought.  Every fool has an opinion.  Rhetorically, if you had reasons you were ready to stand behind you’d be able to let them speak for you, rather than suggesting that the support of your blog viewers is proof.  If numbers of supporters is proof, then I think Catholicism would win on a worldwide contest.  Knowing you don’t think that, what are your reasons?

Here are some questions I bet you will struggle to answer in a positive way. 

1. What is the purpose of human life?  You obviously cannot have an opinion about what a government should do before you can state what the purpose of life even is.  I would love to read your answer to a question like this.  Again, not you picking on other people’s answers, but something of your own for consideration.
2. What makes a day or event greater than any other?  After all, to set a holiday as a day of rest from other activities, or to recognize one event over another, implies that one is more significant than the other.  What exactly is this system of ranking events in the mind of an atheist?  Also, if holidays are intended to be celebrated in common, what would be the link that bound these groups together?  Or would there be as many holidays as individuals?
3. What is the starting principle from which you define human rights?  I’d like to understand how an atheist concludes that humans have any “rights”.  The idea of a human right assumes that (a) there is a law higher than that of the individual and (b) that right is evident to humans in general, not in particular.  What exactly do you believe those rights are and what is your justification for them?

Again, refutations are a dime a dozen, demonstrations are the proof of reason and truth.  State your ideas positively, and we’ll know whether you really have anything to say.  Maybe you can post your answers to my questions on your blog and let people offer criticism of them.  After all, you’re a free thinker and no prejudiced or narrow-minded individual, right?

Bill Michael

***

William Michael, Director
Classical Liberal Arts Academy
Phone: (704)764-8641
E-Mail:

I’ve not replied yet as I thought I’d take some time and consider my answers, but I will get to it eventually. I thought you folks would be interested in seeing his latest missive, though, so here you go.

I’m a long time fan of the Prince of Persia series of games having played the original on my Commodore 64 back in 1989. I thought the reboot they did on the PS2—Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time—was excellent, but the next two games suffered a bit from sequelitis. They weren’t bad, but not as awe inspiring as the first. When I first saw screenshots from the latest PoP game designed specifically for the Next Gen consoles I was skeptical at first, but after seeing it in motion I’m excited once again:

Of particular note is the young woman, Elika, who fights alongside the prince against the forces of darkness. The first game also featured a female companion, Farah, who was mainly there to help with some of the puzzles in the game. While Farah was armed with a bow and arrow her contribution to fighting off the monsters was… pathetic. She was only able to shoot one arrow every thirty seconds or so and ends up being more of a problem than a help as you’re continually saving her from the monster she annoys.

In contrast Elika is an amazing partner that will be integral not only in solving the puzzles, but in successfully defeating the monsters you have to fight. Check out the following footage showing off some of the first level and see just how much Elika contributes to the fight. She’s not just a companion, she’s a necessity:

That’s some wicked cool game play there and I can’t wait to get my hands on it. It’ll hit store shelves on December 2nd so I’m going to have to hope I get it for Krismas.

Another song to get stuck in your head. Plus the guy who made it reminds me of my buddy Hairboy.

Found over at Neatorama.