Short commentary takes

OK, been a while since my last post so I’m catching up on some events and things I wanted to say.

• Congrats to the Washington Huskies for winning the WCWS Softball championship. Go PAC-10!
• Obama’s latest foreign tour. I don’t care so long as he doesn’t keep weakening US positions by apologizing and kowtowing to our enemies, especially the Islamic nations. The Islamic states want to be treated with respect and fairness, they need to reciprocate and stop oppressing the non-Muslims in their nations. Nothing Obama says will alter the thinking of those who hate America, they’ll simply look for any excuse.
• GM filing for bankruptcy. All I can say was I saw this coming last year when the government was feeding the American public the bullshit about the auto companies being to big to fail and therefor needing a bailout. How is that change working for you all now?
• Continued rising unemployment. Duh. Thank the morons in government and the greedy pigs running the nations financial institutes and corporations sending US jobs overseas.
• California Supreme Court rules on Prop 8. Not unsurprising they wimped out on making the decision. I suspect it’ll go to the US Supreme Court and Prop 8 struck down under the precept of equal treatment under the law. People need to remember why the United States has a Constitution to guide our democracy: to prevent tyranny of both the majority and minority. Just because the majority vote for something, does not mean it holds with the ideals of equality in the eyes of the law and justice in this nation.
• North Korea and it’s fear mongering. I hope people realize that it’s decades of appeasement that have put the world in the position of this rogue state developing nuclear weapons and likely more than willing to share them with other rogue states. Remember, the Korean War never ended. It was only an armistice in place. Perhaps this time around, the DPRK’s backers (China and Russia) will realize the error of their ways and stop supporting Kim Jong Il and his fellow military junta.
• Osama bin Laden blathering like an idiot again. Nothing new there. Probably feeling the heat now that the Paks are smacking around his supporters that were destabilizing Pakistan.
• RIP Koko Taylor, Queen of the Blues. I’ll dust off the sax and play some blues in your memory.
• 20th Anniversary of Tiananmen Square. Wow, has it really been twenty years? It’s good the Chinese government be called to account for their actions, not that they’ve ever cared what the rest of the world thinks.

Rocket Racing League

Rocket Racing League takes off with new engine, DKNY | News – Cutting Edge – CNET News and Rocket racer remade – Cosmic Log – msnbc.com

I’m happy to see that it appears the Rocket Racing League may be on it’s way to being back on track. It’s kind of strange to see a luxury clothes maker sponsoring a racer but it’s also a good idea but breaking from the traditional and expected sponsors for the RRL may spread its appeal to a wider potential audience.

I hope the FAA deems the crafts safe enough for the proposed exhibit at the Reno Air Races.

Minor Olympic Brouhaha

Controversy Brews Over Lip-Synching – AOL Sports

It’s rather disappointing to see some crazy notion of “perfect” being applied to these two little girls. While it is laudable to try to put your best in such events as the Olympics such activities are a disservice to China’s reputation and credibility as many will point to this as another example of the negative side of China. Both the are cute and the fact that some Politburo member pushed some notion of “Chinese perfection” to replace one girl for another is pathetic. I’m not really surprised given that during the opening ceremony I noticed amongst the children representing the many cultures and ethnicities that there was not one Uighur, Mongolian or other Turkic peoples amongst them.

I also found it sad that there is a perfectly clear picture of the girl used in the ceremony to lip-sync but nothing but a grainy one of the actual singer. I guess over emphasis of appearance over ability is a universal bias, even when appearance is equally “cute” but cute for different reasons.

Sad. Not unexpected, but sad.

News round up

Note: Potential spoilers at bottom of page on Olympic results for West Coast and Hawaiian viewers.

Invisibility cloak one step closer, scientists say | U.S. | Reuters Very interesting stuff, in my opinion. But then I’ve been reading about proposed technology like this for about a decade.

NASA abandons plan to fly new spaceships by 2013 | Reuters This is to be expected given the lack of funding available for NASA. Given recent tensions with Russia and potential future unreliability as a result, I think plans to retire the shuttle fleet may need to be reviewed or the government will need to increase funding to NASA to fast track Orion. I doubt either option is palatable in Congress given the current economy and world turmoil. Neither is allowing Russia, with its currently anti-Western leanings, to have sole access to the ISS in the immediate future.

Northrop contract for U.S. patrol plane upheld | Politics | Reuters
Good to finally have that dispute settled. I, for one, am getting tired of complaints being filed simply because I company lost a contract. Yes, there is a need to ensure fairness but it’s annoying when protests seem to be made more for spite than anything else.

Boeing may not bid on $35 billion tanker deal: report | Politics | Reuters Interesting, if true, though I doubt any aircraft company capable of competing for a contract would simply bypass an opportunity given the current lean times for the aerospace industry.

Half of all Americans have poor eyesight: study | U.S. | Reuters
I believe it.

Bush could weaken Endangered Species Act – CNN.com
*sigh* Bush and his ilk just don’t get it. What good is business and
projects if there is no environment left in which to run their
businesses and projects. I think the little protection and caution the
EPA provides is a good thing. Removing that protection and letting
agencies biased in favor of projects is like putting the fox in charge
of the hen house. The fox and its cubs will be fat and sassy for a short time but
eventually will starve to death. This attitude that business and the
environment cannot coexist needs to be eliminated from political
thought.

Russian-Georgian War

Polish, Ukrainian, Baltic leaders to visit Georgia | Reuters Well they are the ones who face the greatest threat from Russia’s current belligerence given the West’s rather lackluster response to the invasion of Georgia.

Anti-Russia protests over invasion of Georgia:
Anti-Russian protest by pro-Georgians outside London embassy – Telegraph

Georgians hold anti-Russia protest – ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

And Russia’s counter: Russians decry Western “propaganda” over crisis | Reuters My previous posts about the conflict shows the double standard Russia applies when it comes to “propaganda”. The article itself ends with some hilarious propaganda claims. Don’t want to be called an ‘aggressor’ and a ‘militant empire’ then maybe Russia should not have behaved as one by invading Georgia. The U.S. has taken its knocks over the years by the international media over just about everything, including Iraq and Afghanistan. What Russia has done makes the U.S. look positively kittenish.

Olympics

I’m pleased to see the continue success of the U.S. swim team, both men and women. Phelps is one step closer to reaching his goal.

The energy from the crowd at the women’s water polo match between the U.S. and China was pretty amazing, with the crowd being pretty vociferous for both teams. It was almost as interesting to observe as the game itself.

In Women’s Basketball, Team USA defeated China. Russia squeaked by the ROK.

Azerbaijan scored it’s first medal: a gold in men’s judo. I always like seeing the smaller contingents succeed.

Olympics

I thought the opening ceremony was pretty well done. Perhaps a little slow in some areas, but over all a nicely done mix highlighting elements of Chinese culture and accomplishments. my favorite parts were the drums and the actual lighting of the torch.

I think I overdosed on watching the televised events. Heh. Comments:

• Men’s USA basketball seems to have gotten off to the right start. The women’s team certainly did.
• I was surprised with the US sweep of Women’s Individual Sabre.
• Beach Volleyball has been a mixed bag along with the weather.
• Wow. Bush is getting around to a lot events.
• And the gymnasts, American and otherwise. Well, lets just say wow. As usual.

Beijing Olympics Start

Don’t worry. No spoilers from me. My policy for the Games is to make no mention of results until after they’ve aired in here in the States.

Haven’t seen the opening ceremony yet, obviously, but reports I’ve read seem to be mixed. Some loved it, some hated it. Not sure why. Guess I’ll see why on tonight’s broadcast.

Masks Unmasked

Cyclists Apologize for Wearing Masks – AOL Sports

I personally don’t see why the cyclists felt the need to apologize if they were only concerned for their health as they claim. China freely admits the air quality in Beijing is poor at the best of times so what’s with the over the top political correctness? The residents of Beijing wear masks all the time and the Chinese government has done surprisingly (if a little late in their plans) for helping mitigate the city’s pollution problem. This sounds too much like the sycophants to BOCOG, USOC, or the IOC stirring up trouble where there should be none in attempt to make the games and China look “perfect”, an unattainable goal given events. Seems a bit hypocritical to have your own population wearing masks to protect themselves from the pollution (among other things) but somehow it’s disrespectful if a foreign visitor does the same.

What are they going to do if that group of British runners show up at the track with oxygen masks as some of them claim they will do?

News commentary…

IOC admits Internet censorship deal with China | Reuters
And the IOC wonders why people continue to criticize their activities with regards to how they run the Olympics, especially these Olympics and their double standards between nations on Olympic related issues.

Nano-foods: The next consumer scare? | U.S. | Reuters While I am not overly concerned about the safety of nano-foods the engineering side of me wants testing to be done to ensure such food is safe. It’s the lack of proper testing (or none at all in some cases) that has lead to catastrophic degradation of health to millions of people in the past. It is precisely because of this lack of long term testing I avoid GM foods and now will likely try to avoid these so called nano-foods as well. At the very least the FDA should require labels identifying GM, nano- and irradiated food if nothing more than to let the consumers make an informed choice.

House approves benefits for military ’sole survivors’ – CNN.com Sometimes the House does the right thing, even if some penny pinching geek in the Defense Department could not.

Analysis: Obama, McCain both have lobbyist ties – CNN.com Something for everyone to keep in mind this Presidential campaign.

KNXV-TV Always off

Hey KNXV-TV ABC 15 in Phoenix…

You motto claims you’re “always on”. Yeah right.

ABC15’s standard-definition and high-definition broadcast signals will be temporarily off the air on Sunday 6/29/08 from 10am to around 4pm for required transmitter maintenance. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause. ABC15’s broadcast signal is still available on Cox Cable, DirecTV, and Qwest Cable.

Lies. I have DirecTV and the station is not airing. No one’s buying your bullshit excuses for being off air anymore, especially since other stations using the same transmitter are on the air and working fine. Hope you like the complaints I and others will be filing against you with the Arizona BBB and the FCC over your illegally taking advertising from local businesses and national companies for special events like today’s MLS and EUFA cup games knowing you weren’t going to be able to show them on any channel: local, cable or satellite.

So fuck off.

No wonder ABC is a shit company. I certainly will never watch these asshats ever again. This type of bullshit has been going on for months and I, for one, will no longer tolerate it.

News Commentary 09/04/2008

American Cancels More Flights Of course people get whiny about the cancellations and blame the airlines. Perhaps they should keep in mind that the FAA demands certain requirements in order to keep the airlines safe. Yes it is an inconvenience, but these things happens.

Dreamliner Delayed More bad news for Boeing. Or good news depending on how you look at it. Certainly fixing the problems before going into full production is the best course of action and the one Boeing has opted to go for. The 787 will be far more efficient that current airliners, so in the long run could actually help airlines and air travelers.

White House hopefuls call on China to Do More Surprisingly, all three candidates get it, though Obama’s a bit naive about the Olympic being used for political hash. This gives me some hope that the next president may actually hold China to account for it’s activities in Tibet and elsewhere.

Egypt Braces For Strike I’ve been following this on Sandmonkey’s blog. I suggest taking a look there for a general feel of what’s happening instead of following the milquetoast version presented by CNN.

Spiegel has several interesting pieces on China and the Olympics.

Tensions Mount In Zimbabwe Over Delayed Election Results I’m hoping Mugabe won’t try to hold on to power should the results show him losing, but unfortunately the man has a history of only giving lip service to democracy when it suits his purpose. Already Mugabe and the Z-PF is ordering police, security forces, and his party’s thugs to target white Zimbabweans, the opposition MDC, and journalists. Even African nations in the region are rapidly becoming suspicious at the delay.

High-tech Swimsuit Causes Controversy I have no problem with the suit so long as it is available for all to use in competition. After all, competitive sport is supposed to be about the athletes, not who has the better technology.

Astronauts Test New Repair Substance Hopefully the new tile repair ablator dispenser and it’s material will prove successful.

Florida Airports Test Hydrogen Buses Good to see someone taking a real look at alternative fuel sources.

ETA: Weird. Whenever I put China as a tag, it’s changed to china. Yet this doesn’t happen with other nations. How odd. I never noticed that before.