Party pills make you stupid, but only if you don't take them

A BBC documentary about the Bangkwang Prison in Thailand.



Most of the inmates are there for drug dealing. Thailand has very harsh penalties for drug dealing: death. Yes, for voluntarily selling a product to someone who voluntarily buys the product, you can be executed.

The resident Buddhist monk at the prison sums it up nicely:

Drug dealing is a type of mass murder. It can destroy whole families. If a child becomes addicted to drugs, he drags down his whole family with him. The child starts to steal everything, which ruins the family's reputation in society. A murder typically kills just one person. Drug dealers don't kill just one person; they ruin everyone's lives.

Say what!? Drug dealing is a type of mass murder? How the hell is "ruin[ing] a family's reputation" the same thing as murder, you dumbass monk? If ruining people's lives is what you're worried about, dear monk, how about the Thailand government imprisoning more people for drugs than for actual violent crimes? The reason drugs are so expensive, dear monk, is because they are illegal.



The documentary goes on to state how Yaba, a meth-based party drug, is cheaper and more prevalent now than ever before, addicting children at an alarming rate. Which means, dear monk, that your beloved death penalty for dealing is not having any fucking effect!

Be warned, Americans who think the reason the War on some Drugs is not going well is just because we don't have tough enough penalties. It's not the toughness of the penalties that is destroying America; it's the existence of the penalties.

Dear monk, what about Sila, morality? To refrain from taking a life? Remember this from Buddha school? What about Prajna, wisdom? To understand truth, not propaganda? What about Samadhi, mastery over one's own mind. Who owns your mind when you parrot the party line? Especially when the party line is evil. I thought Buddhism was a religion of peace, forgiveness, and tranquility. How's this for peace, forgiveness, and tranquility:

George Carlin died yesterday

George Carlin, an American comedian, died yesterday, Sunday, June 22, 2008, from heart failure at the age of 71.

World's Ugliest Dog

At the Sonoma-Marin Fair in Petaluma, CA, they named Gus, a one-eyed, three-legged Chinese Crested as the World's Ugliest Dog.

Gus, the World's Ugliest Dog

I believe it. But I still can't help but notice that the world's ugliest dog is still magnitudes cuter than even above average humans.

The economics of the Mushroom Kingdom

Super Mario Brothers was first published in 1985. It's a simple but well-designed video game for the Nintendo console. In the game, Mario, while attempting to rescue Princess Toadstool, needs to collect 100 coins to gain an extra life.

Hate the game, not the playa!

Estimating the rate of inflation in America based on the CPI, it would cost Mario 582.72 coins to get a new life in 2008 coins. But that is in American coins. I'm sure the Mushroom Kingdom uses its own currency that is not dollar denominated. In fact, I'm pretty sure the coins are gold coins. So we know that Princess Toadstool's father, King Toadstool, has much better economic sense than whichever stools are running America.

On the flip side, however, Mushroomland Security is a bit lacking. Princess Toadstool is constantly being kidnapped by a giant, anthropomorphic, turtleoid creature named Bowser. This kind of thing never happens in America (largely because we don't have any princesses here). The whole of Mushroom Kingdom seems to be infested with active cells of terrorist turtleoids and roving death goombas.

He hates you for your freedom. And arms.

Despite the upsides of the Mushroom Kingdom monetary policies, there does seem to be a disparity between the rich and the poor. The Toadstool Family has a castle, as seen in Mario 64, which seems to need fewer paintings, more furniture, and a bit of plumbing work. And Bowser has at least eight castles. But all the rest of the Kingdom's denizens are relegated to wandering the streets naked. That seldom happens in America. Except in Vermont. But we expect that there.

But it's a dry heat

Weather for Manchester, NH
107°F
Clear
Wind: SW at 3 mph
Humidity: 15%

It's a dry heat.

Still sucks.

Free audiobook: Planet of the Damned

Mr. Harrison,

LibriVox has released a public domain audiobook of Planet of the Damned. Your favorite blogger read chapters 13-16 and 19. All in all, I think it's a very well done audiobook.

Movie Review: Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

I saw Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull on Sunday. It was excellent. It was quirky, corny, hokey, retro, well-paced, funny, exciting. I love Harrison Ford. I don't think there is a movie that I don't like him in. I don't like many of his movies---The Star Warses and Hollywood Homicide being four examples---but Ford always steals the show and rescues the movie.

But Indiana Jones needed no rescuing. The cinematography had a very retro, comic book-ish feel to it, as a proper Indiana Jones movie ought. It was fast paced and kept my attention throughout.

Kate Blanchet did an superlative job as the villain. She had a very believable motivation, and a delightfully corny Russian-oid accent, though Indy suggested it was Eastern Ukraine. I especially enjoyed her comments about how her plot was to turn America into a communist country, and "you won't even know it". This is especially interesting because that's exactly what has happened, considering the United States governments have implemented all ten planks of the Communist Manifesto. America is a communist nation. (Well, strictly, according to Marx's definitions, America is a "socialist" nation, which Marx used to mean precocious communism.)

Shia LeBouf played Mutt, a greaser and son of a kidnapped main character. He goes to Indy for help finding her or something. And at the risk of becoming that guy who points out the blindingly obvious, clearly they're grooming LeBouf to be the new Indy. I think he'll be good at it.

The Crystal Skull played an interesting role as the token deus ex machina. It filled the role, actually, almost perfectly (well, except for the "machina" part, but I don't know what the ablative case of "skull" is).

I recommend this movie. Go see it in theaters if you can. That's how this movie is meant to be enjoyed.

Meet a black guy

From the Corvallis Gazette-Times: ‘Black Guy’ booth livens up Corvallis Saturday market.

“It’s a statement about diversity in Corvallis. It’s not a very diverse place,” said Oliver, a lifelong Oregonian. He hoped to promote understanding, break stereotypes and perhaps even provide a comedic moment for hundreds of people strolling along the riverfront.

What do you suppose the statement is? "Hey, we need to kidnap some black folk and bring them to the northern corners of America"? I guess he's saying that Oregonian laws are anti-black. I'm fairly certain that the State of Oregon issues marriage licenses. That's a horribly racist law. Government-sanctioned marriage was instituted after the Civil War to prevent black people from marrying white people ('cause that would have just been gross). (For more information, read about the US Supreme Court case Loving v. Virginia.)

Those who participated in the free service could chat with 21-year-old Corvallis resident Jeff Oliver, and get pictures taken with him.

He totally should have charged for this service. That would have been the black-guy thing to do.

I love the reactions by the white folk:

Sherry Littlefield of Corvallis said the booth was unnecessary. She and friend Ron Naasko said they have black friends, and would be voting for Barack Obama for president.

“I guess I don’t care what color people are. Either you’re a jerk or you’re not,” Littlefield said.

Can you get a more stereotypical quote to put in your newspaper? So much for Oliver's attempt to break stereotypes.

I hope Oliver decides to franchise. We could use some of his booths in New Hampshire. We have plenty of Mexicans and Russians, and at least one Swedish/Finnish guy (I'm looking at you Lasse). I live with a store manager, an economist, a mechanical engineer, a movie production person, a drifter, a stoner, an Iraq war vet, and a freelance political agent. But unfortunately, we're all white, and however different we are on the inside, true diversity is only skin deep.

Gimme the Power!

A few new revolutionary breakthroughs coming at you now:

First up, new batteries. Nanowire battery can hold 10 times the charge of existing lithium-ion battery

The new technology, developed through research led by Yi Cui, assistant professor of materials science and engineering, produces 10 times the amount of electricity of existing lithium-ion, known as Li-ion, batteries. A laptop that now runs on battery for two hours could operate for 20 hours, a boon to ocean-hopping business travelers.

Nanowires!

Of course, it would be nice to have a laptop with a battery life of more than 12 minutes. But I think the real use would be in electric cars. Modern electric cars can travel a few hundred miles per charge. With a 10x increase, that's a few thousand miles per charge. Why aren't electric cars popular yet? Is it the cost? Are there further technological restrictions? A coworker of mine suggested that cold weather probably destroys the efficiency of the batteries to the point that an electric car might become nearly useless (e.g. 2 miles / charge).

There are other options, like nano-solar cells. That may be a few years off yet.

But on the more traditional fuel source front: Researchers make breakthrough in creating gasoline from plant matter, with almost no carbon footprint

Stock photo only peripherally related to the subject matter.

Gasoline is a renewable resource. Granted, a lot of things have to die and be compressed for a few million years before the resource is renewed. But I can wait. (I love science!)

Actually, I guess I can't. Though the sun still has a few billion good years to burn, it's heating up and in a few million years, the Earth will be rendered barren by the UV radiation. There is not enough time to make new fossil fuels. This is it, folks. Humanity is the last chance for civilized life on Earth, and maybe in the universe. Is that a scary thought? I can't tell.

While it may be five to 10 years before green gasoline arrives at the pump or finds its way into a fighter jet, these breakthroughs have bypassed significant hurdles to bringing green gasoline biofuels to market.

Ten years? That's better than waiting a few million.

But we need to look at the source of our energy crisis. Is the source the increasing population of Earth? I doubt it. People = demand = profit = competition = innovation = increased supply = decreased price. So, it seems that the problem is government regulation. As a former Oregon resident, I remember the nightmares of California's energy problems.

But fear not. Bureaucrats created the problem. Bureaucrats can fix the problem.

I have a solution. We can probably create a lot of energy by burning bureaucrats. I don't advocate violence, so we'll have to wait until they turn into a dessicated soulless abomination. Luckily, judging by my latest visit to the DMV, only dessicated soulless abominations actually become bureaucrats, so we don't have to wait long. The downside of this plan is the pollution.

Another satisfied customer of your friendly neighborhood Government!

And as always, remember: there is a difference between a power source and a power storage mechanism. I forget what, though.