murdoc online

murdoc online

Everyone is entitled to my opinion

Sunday, December 07, 2003

MO now on MT
I've been threatening for months, and now I've finally done it.

Murdoc Online is now located at WWW.MURDOCONLINE.NET

Please check out the new and improved MO, powered by Movable Type. Update your bookmarks. Tell all your friends.

This Blogger site will remain as it is, so all links will continue to be valid.

- posted by Murdoc @ 12/07/2003 04:59:00 PM ET --

Saturday, December 06, 2003

"Frequent Faller"
'Trampled' Wal-Mart Shopper Has History Of Injury Claims

Donald Sensing points out a story which reveals that the woman trampled by a stampede at Wal-Mart has a long history of, well, that exact sort of thing.

"For several years, every time they do this, people get trampled," she said last week, adding, "I'm panicked. I'm afraid to go into any stores, especially Wal-Mart."

I can see why. Apparently she's like Simba in the middle of a Wildebeest riot every year the day after Thanksgiving.

It's not often I feel anything close to sympathy for Wal-Mart, but if these claims turn out to be accurate, they're not in the wrong this time.

- posted by Murdoc @ 12/06/2003 08:57:00 PM ET --

Kirk vs. Piccard
Trek Wars v1.0

A battle to the death. Worth a minute or two.

- posted by Murdoc @ 12/06/2003 12:30:00 PM ET --

Dewey's Dead!
Errant obit — ‘Gray Lady’ red-faced

The NYT published an obituary for Katharine Sergava, a 94 year-old actor and acting teacher. She performed in the original "Oklahoma", but I don't think we should hold that against her.

There was only one problem with the obituary. When contacted about the piece, the writer, freelance dance writer Jack Anderson, had this to say:

“My bio about Katharine was accurate,” he said. “What (makes the obituary) not accurate is that she is presumably still alive in a nursing home on Riverside Drive.”

(Emphasis mine.) Apparently fans and former students (she taught until a few months ago - wow) of Sergava were flocking to her Greenwich Village home to mourn her passing.

The Times claims that

it had based its account of the passing of Katharine Sergava on an account in the Daily Telegraph of London that ran on Nov. 29, but had neglected to attribute the British paper as the source of the obituary or independently confirm that Sergava had died.

The NYT story ran on Thursday. So they were five days late, didn't attribute the source, didn't fact-check, and were wrong.

But, hey, the Bio is right. And it's only a matter of time before the rest comes to pass, so to speak.

What idiots.

And did you notice that the writer said she's "presumably" still alive? It doesn't sound like he's fact-checked that, either.

- posted by Murdoc @ 12/06/2003 09:09:00 AM ET --

Thursday, December 04, 2003

What is this?
Twisted History for today:

1912: War breaks out between the U.S. & Germany when Germans sink U.S. ships in Hawaii. War will last one week.

Did I miss something? What's up with Twisted History?

- posted by Murdoc @ 12/04/2003 12:32:00 PM ET --

Wednesday, December 03, 2003

Gee, ya think?
Boeing tanker plan requires fair deal

The Seattle P-I thinks that a "fair deal" is required for the lease/purchase of 767s for Air Force tankers.

Good call.

Taking time to re-examine the plan will serve the U.S. military, taxpayers and, ultimately, Boeing. Let's hope this ends up being the pause that informs -- and allows the 767 tankers to be built with confidence that everyone is receiving a fair deal.

Sounds awfully familiar. Hmmm.

Oh, I know. I said let's pause and reconsider. I compared it to an NFL referree looking at slo-mo and reverse-angle replays before making the final call.

In September.

That wasn't because I was a genius, folks. That was becasue IT IS COMMON SENSE.

Regular MO reades will know that the 767 tanker deal is near and dear to my heart. You can read more about it here, here, here, here, and here.

But all of a sudden, let's look at this deal again? Isn't it a little bit too late?

- posted by Murdoc @ 12/03/2003 09:15:00 PM ET --

Tuesday, December 02, 2003

Two "heh"s

This is in response to this. (via userfriendly.org via Musing)

- posted by Murdoc @ 12/02/2003 08:03:00 PM ET --

Stryker with slat armor

It's ugly, but the "cage" is designed to detonate RPG warheads before they reach the hull of the vehicle. We'll see. (via Strategy Page)

- posted by Murdoc @ 12/02/2003 07:59:00 PM ET --

No blood for pipeweed
This from The Scoop on MSNBC.com:

Viggo Mortensen continues his anti-war campaign. The “Lord of the Rings” star, in Brazil to promote “The Return of the King,” wore a “No More Blood for Oil” T-shirt, a source tells The Scoop

It reminds me of this, which included

Thousands of peace activists took to the streets of Minas Tirith and other cities of Middle Earth today to protest what they termed a rush to war with Mordor.

"We need more time for diplomacy," said a key member of the Middle-Earth Security Council, Saruman the White. "I am not convinced by the evidence presented by my esteemed colleague, Gandalf the Grey, or that the Dark Lord Sauron presents an imminent danger to the peoples of the West."

Life imitating satire. Again.

- posted by Murdoc @ 12/02/2003 11:21:00 AM ET --

Sunday, November 30, 2003

Seen while surfing
If you can read this.. Thank a Teacher..If you can read this in English ..Thank a US Soldier

- posted by Murdoc @ 11/30/2003 07:27:00 PM ET --

Lieberman on FoxNews Sunday
At the end of an interview with Tony Snow, Joseph Lieberman said

I'd like to see something that we haven't seen in this country among a lot of people, and that is Economic Patriotism. Let's have some commitment to do what's right for the American economy, for American workers, for American businesses. That's something the law can't require, but any American who cares about our country ought to be supporting.

Lieberman also noted that this is Tony's last show. I don't know what the plan is at FoxNews, but I feel that Mr. Snow will be sorely missed.

- posted by Murdoc @ 11/30/2003 11:54:00 AM ET --

Rolf Longenberger has entered the building
While googling, I came across the Random Name Generator.

The random name generator uses data from the US Census to randomly generate male and female names. Use it for screenplays, fake id's, car rentals, pick-up lines, books, prank calls, movies. Give a random name to that special someone you meet at the bar.

You simply pick how obscure a name you want, choose how many returns you want, and click the button. Helpfully, if you click on the name it googles it for you. That way you don't accidentally give someone the name of the Sausage King of Chicago, I guess. Great fun.

- posted by Murdoc @ 11/30/2003 01:13:00 AM ET --

Battlestar Galactica

I just finished watching Battlestar Galactica: The Lowdown on the SciFi Channel. Not a bad behind-the-scenes show, and the upcoming mini-series doesn't look any more than half bad.

Yes, Starbuck is a girl. And so is Boomer. And so is one of the main Cylon characters. And so is the President of humanity.

Actually, are there any guys in the show? Besides Edward James Olmos as Commander Adama, all of the male characters seem to be at least potentially homosexual. When my wife said they made Starbuck a girl so that she could sleep with Apollo, I said maybe they made Starbuck a girl so Apollo couldn't sleep with her. Not fair to the actors or characters, I know. Sex looks to me a major story element here. We'll see.

From what I saw, the story is fairly dark, the dialogue is mediocre at best, and the special effects might be pretty good. It looks to have been shot in a semi-focused shaky cam manner, which might get annoying pretty fast. The sets look decent, especially for a television show. There seems to be quite a bit of actual stuff for the actors to interact with, like control screens and instrument panels, so hopefully the series won't suffer from blue-screen confusion. I feel that actors not being able to visualize their surroundings and really touch them is one of the biggest problems with CGI effects in movies today.

The Viper fighter, which I've always thought was totally bad-ass, appears mostly unchanged (although it looks a little plastic in this pic.) The way the space battles are fought, however, is quite a bit different. There is a lot more going on, and missiles seem to be a primary weapon, and anti-missile guns similar to the Navy's Phalanx CIWS are there to try and stop them. The laser fire from the Vipers looks like tracered cannon fire from today's aircraft. The Cylon ships all look quite a bit different, as do the Cylons themselves.

Richard Hatch, who played Apollo in the original series, was interviewed extensively during the show. He fought a long legal battle in an attempt to stop others from making a Battlestar Galactica while he tried to produce his own. He isn't very happy with the direction that the new series takes, but he's big enough to admit his personal bias and he claims that hopes to be able to get past his own disappointment and enjoy the new shows.

As a kid, I loved the original series. I was not really looking forward to this remake. But after watching this show on SciFi, I'm at least going to check out a few episodes of and give the mini-series a chance.

- posted by Murdoc @ 11/30/2003 12:17:00 AM ET --

Friday, November 28, 2003

You say "Nev-a-dah", I say "Nev-ah-dah""
Bush mispronounces Nevada in first presidential visit

This is absolutely awful. First "nuke-you-lur" and now this.

Nevada memo to George Bush: When making a first presidential visit to a state, use the right pronunciation of its name.

and, of course,

State Senate Minority Leader Dina Titus, D-Las Vegas, said the mispronunciation shows Bush, who won the state in the 2000 election, doesn't care much about the state.

I started this post with the intention of simply mocking the politicians who jump on this, mocking the people who think it really matter, and mocking the President for not watching his step since he knows folks are ready to point these missteps out and include them in next year's calanders.

But I was nearly finished when, on a whim, I looked up "Nevada" at m-w.com. What do you know...

Main Entry: Ne·va·da
Pronunciation: n&-'va-d&, -'vä-
Usage: geographical name
state W U.S. capital Carson City area 110,561 square miles (286,353 square kilometers), population 1,201,833
- Ne·va·dan /-'va-d&n, -'vä-/ or Ne·va·di·an /-'va-dE-&n, -'vä-/ adjective or noun

Notice the bold 'vä given as an alternate pronunciation. M-W notes

\ä\ as o in mop

For readers not sure how to pronounce "mop," you can also listen to the secondary pronunciation here.

What does this prove? Not much, really. The pronunciation the President used isn't "wrong," but it certainly is not the most common. (In fact, "nuke-you-lur" is given as the third of three accepted pronunciations for nuclear at m-w.com.)

Although I guess this sort of thing does kind of prove that the Dems are running out of stones to throw at Bush. They're probably keeping their fingers crossed on the economy, hoping it goes in the tank before next fall.

- posted by Murdoc @ 11/28/2003 12:43:00 PM ET --

Clang!
Junk Causes Noise at Space Station

Something apparently collided with the International Space Station yesterday. Space junk in orbit is a growing concern to manned and unmanned spacecraft. Let's hope the station really is as okay as they think it is.

- posted by Murdoc @ 11/28/2003 12:10:00 PM ET --