Revenge of the Sith

If you haven't seen this movie yet, then don't read this. But the only people who read this are dorks, so you've probably already seen it.

Finally got around to watching Episode III the other day. It was not that great a movie. Seriously, it sucked. The wife fell asleep for about 20 minutes of it. The only non-sucky thing about it was that it was kinda cool to see the stories behind the original 3 episodes - such as Luke's and Leia's birth, and how Darth Vader got all jacked up. Oh, and the huge barking lizard that Obi-Wan rides was pretty cool. Plus, Yoda fights some more.

Sorry, I can't get into the story behind Star Wars the way I can get into Lord of the Rings, or the Chronicles of Narnia. There's too much mushy pseudo-pantheistic religiosity in the stories of Star Wars that turns me off. I was particularly repelled by these lines:

Anakin: You're either with me, or you're my enemy.

Obi-Wan: Only a Sith speaks in absolutes.

What the heck? Not only is Kenobe's statement in itself an absolute, the whole smarmy Star Wars series is nothing but absolute after friggin' absolute. Isn't an overarching theme of this whole stupid series the idea of good vs. evil? Clearly, this was just a cheap jab at W. (The Christian blogosphere has picked up on this also, saying that using this standard Jesus was a Sith lord - since the "absolutist" statement was actually his.) I couldn't believe the tripe that was in this movie - even the little green wise man was spouting idiotic sentiments. "You must learn to let go....Death is a natural part of life." Easy for the little green immortal to say. I don't enjoy these movies primarily because of this wayward moralism - there is no fixed moral compass like there is in LOTR or Narnia. The "wisest" characters in this story are constantly contradicting themselves by going from one squishy moral principle to another, evidently culled from various religions.

The only other beef I have with this movie was how all of a sudden Anakin went from becoming a Sith for "good" reasons (to save his wife) and then all of a sudden became evil, slaying younglings and all. Of course Anakin was corrupted by the Dark Side, but I don't think Lucas portrayed this decay of Anakin's character well enough. It seemed to me to be too sudden a change. I dunno; maybe that's how the Dark Side works. Don't listen to me, since I'm just a consumer and this movie exploded from the wellspring of Lucas' fertile imagination.

At any rate, it was worth the $6.50 I paid for it, primarily for the imaginative creatures and places that Lucas can come up with, as well as it being the final nail in the coffin of this franchise. But I'm not buying the DVD of this or any other Star Wars flick.

Update: Check this Mark Steyn review. He's a master with language and he rips into Lucas for this stinker, which is good, because I didn't rip into the terrible acting at all. And it was terrible - especially Hayden Christensen, who plays pathetic fake newsreporters much better than dark Sith lords.

Attaching amino acids to electronic device materials

Researchers at Lucent Technologies’ Bell Laboratories in the US have tested the adhesion of amino acids to semiconductors, metals and insulators used in electronic devices. The team used their results to design an inorganic nanostructure that selectively bound to a particular primary peptide sequence.
via SciTech Daily
I find it interesting that we can still do such basic research. How well does amino acid x stick to gold? Of course, I'm far more interested in how sticking amino acids to electronic device materials can help us to make time traveling cyborgs...

Public Education Spirals Further Down the Toilet

via Instapundit
It seems that the correct "disposition" is a growing requirement to become a teacher. The article deals mostly with CUNY Brookly School of Education. Though the idea of evaluating prospective teachers' disposition is from a national education consortium; "Driving the new policies at the college and similar ones at other education schools is a mandate set forth by the largest accrediting agency of teacher education programs in America, the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education. That 51-year-old agency, composed of 33 professional associations, says it accredits 600 colleges of education - about half the country's total. Thirty-nine states have adopted or adapted the council's standards as their own, according to the agency."
In 2000 the council introduced new standards for accrediting education schools. Those standards incorporated the concept of dispositions, which the agency maintains ought to be measured, to sort out teachers who are likeliest to be successful. In a glossary, the council says dispositions "are guided by beliefs and attitudes related to values such as caring, fairness, honesty, responsibility, and social justice."
Some choice quotes:
"All of these buzz words don't seem to mean anything until you look and see how they're being implemented," a prominent history professor at Brooklyn College, Robert David Johnson, said. "Dispositions is an empty vessel that could be filled with any agenda you want," he said.
Critics such as Mr. Johnson say the dangers of the assessment policy became immediately apparent in the fall semester when several students filed complaints against an instructor who they said discriminated against them because of their political beliefs and "denounced white people as the oppressors."
The report to the council stated that teacher candidates will "self-evaluate and faculty will evaluate the candidates on 8 dispositions at mid-semester and at the end of the semester." Those who perform poorly in the assessment are given "counseling."
"Candidates who do not meet academic standards and candidates who do not demonstrate acceptable performance after such counseling will be counseled out of programs," the report stated.
A professor emerita at California State University Monterey Bay, Christine Sleeter, suggested in a March 2001 essay in the Journal of Teacher Education titled "Preparing Teachers for Culturally Diverse Schools: Research and the Overwhelming Presence of Whiteness" that education schools could "alter the mix of who becomes teachers" by recruiting and selecting "only those who bring experiences, knowledge, and dispositions that will enable them to teach well in culturally diverse urban schools."

Non

French reject EU constitution. One of the more interesting analyses is at PowerLine - I'm particularly interested in the red/blue state France map. It looks like a coalition of the extreme right and left defeated it, each with its own reasons - the right wanting to protect national sovereignty and the left wanting to protect "worker's rights". I don't really know if the urban/rural dichotomy exists in France like it does here, but it certainly looks that way.

I don't really know what to make of it - I despise the French, both the right and left wingers. It seems in continental Europe the right wingers ARE actually racists and bigots, and tend to be statist anyway. Going on principles, though, I'd say the best thing that could possibly emerge would be a European free trade zone, but one in which each state maintains its national identity. Chirac wanted a united Europe to counter U.S. might, however, so I'd say he wasn't shooting for that as his primary goal. Besides, there are too many loony left-wingers in France (read the PowerLine post - they name an elementary school for Karl Marx!) to allow a true free trade zone to reign. About the only real conclusion I can come up with is that Europe is in disarray. So what else is new?

Knife Control?

This was something we 2nd Amendmenters would joke about, but it looks like it's on the radar screen in Britain.

O How the Mighty Have Fallen

I'm a Jeopardy! addict, so I watched the fascinating slaughter of Ken Jennings over the past three days by Brad Rutter. It wasn't even close. It seems to me that Ken was a little rusty, which may have had something to do with it, but Brad was just quicker on the button in general. Ken's strategy was (and is) extremely conservative so he'd never go out on a limb unless it was a low dollar question. Brad seemed to take advantage of this, something that none of the contestants that Ken mowed down during his run seemed to do. Kudos to Brad, who by the way is from Lancaster, PA so he's somewhat of an area celeb now.

Re: Compromise?

It looks like someone beat me to the "it might not be that bad sentiment" via instapundit

As to McCain running for president, i hope not as I'm pretty sure he'd loose (you never know who the dems will field though, imagine McCain vs. Clinton). During the talk I saw McCain give on the "compromise," he was asked what counted as extraordinary circumstances. McCain volunteered that an extraordinary circumstance is like child porn, you know it when you see it. Bringing up a generally super offensive topic when it has nothing to do with what's being discussed isn't really the mark of a charismatic leader.

Amazing Game

Just finished watching an amazing Champions League final. Liverpool came back from a 3-0 deficit to defeat a dominating AC Milan side in penalty kicks. They did in dramatic fashion too - they were down at halftime and came back to score 3 goals within the space of 7 minutes when the second half started. Brilliant goalkeeping by Jerzy Dudek kept Liverpool in the game until time ran out, and can be credited (along with crappy Milan penalties) for the final win. Some of the best soccer I've seen in club play.

Compromise?

I can't even begin to put it in any type of clarity my disappointment and my disbelief over the so-called compromise in regards to the judicial filibuster issue. I knew when I went to a news website and on display was a giant photo of McCain that the Republicans had caved and were screwed over once again. Perhaps a qoute or too from writers better at describing the events of the past week will help;

Nor is the worst aspect of the compromise the embarrassment the GOP brought upon itself with its inept rhetoric. Ever since they moronically coined and popularized the phrase “nuclear option,” the Republicans were destined to look bad. Implicit in the phrase is the notion that the Republicans were the ones determined to do something radical and dangerous, even though it was the Democrats who were actually promising to “blow up” the Senate.

First, there’s the abiding faith — eternally celebrated by the press — that compromise is always and everywhere a good thing. If I say two plus two equals four, and you say two plus two equals one billion, is it really such a great advance to split the difference and agree that it’s somewhere near 500 million?

The Senate Democrats hung tough and the Republicans wimped out. The Republicans had the votes but they didn't have the guts.

Unity often beats disunity, even when the side that is unified is smaller.

Every time we lose when we should win it is more difficult to even pretend that anything can ever get done.

My thoughts

exactly. I gotta say, he's a real piece of work, or a piece of something.

Nuclear Venezuela?

Rumors that Hugo Chavez wishes to go nuclear. A nuclear rogue state in our hemisphere? Pretty scary. I wonder what Castro's ambitions are in this regard, also. I guess he knows if he had any nuclear ambitions his little tinpot dictatorship would soon be swamped by Marines, so he's a little more discreet.

Interesting

Intel may provide chips for Apple computers. This guy thinks the technical hurdles are too high for Apple to justify jumping ship just yet. I hope that Intel can get a bit more business to help out my former colleagues though, they really need that stock price to go up.

I was a bit perturbed that I wasn't aware that Motorola's chip unit had separated, and while I was still working in the chip industry. I guess my nose was pressed so hard to the grindstone that even important business news was flying past me.

Evil Empire

Some freakin' sweet photoshops of Star Wars. My personal favorite is "Damn it feels good to be a Jedi". Although I really would like to see who Darth Vader is strangling in "Vader press conference".

Imperial Judiciary

Vetes' post (see below) reminded me of another argument I had with a liberal (this one was from Maryland). When I brought up my loathing of the current liberal-law-by-judicial-fiat system we've got going (in place since the great *spit* FDR) he said (to this effect), "well, I trust judges more than the rabble. All great advances in human rights have come from judges." To which I would reply "Haven't you heard of the 13th, 14th, 15th, and 19th amendments? Last I checked, amendments were DEMOCRATICALLY enacted changes (read: human rights advances)." I'm surprised by the level of civics and Constitutional ignorance that exists on the left. It's like they don't even read the Constitution; they just "feel" something should be right and then search the Constitution for the right string of words they can twist to get the desired result.

My Favorite Subject?

Or just the thing that's been bugging me the most lately? Often, there's nothing better than the apt words of a fine writer bothered by the same. The latest from WFB (isn't NRO great for their collection of legendary initials?) starts with this gem;

Really, you would think the Republicans had proposed to rape the Statue of Liberty. The brummagem moral fanfare imposed on the controversy reminds one of the desperation with which losers will attempt to cope with disappointment at the polls.

It's amazing how long this has gone on and I'm sure that most who punish themselves by giving time to my thoughts have heard enough of my fears regarding weak knees on the side that needs to get something done, it feels good to not be alone;

...the Republican senators tend to dissipate their authority by hesitating to use it. That hesitation, after a while, comes over not as deliberation, but as irresolution.

To say that these words from a master make me giddy is more than an understatement. If only I had the eloquence and clarity to organize my thoughts in the same manner.

Money quote

From VDH's current article on NRO:
So just as al Qaeda will always find an enabling Westerner to say, "You lashed out at us in frustration for your unfair treatment," so too a guilty Westerner will always find a compliant terrorist to boast, "Yes, we kill you for your sins."

So Right...

is Thomas Sowell in his latest column;

Again and again, the left has claimed rights for itself that it denies to others.

How many times must obvious facts like this be brought up before it garners appropriate attention? Cynics and the failure of some to even pay attention only embolden poor behaviour.

The New Republic

rips into Newsweek. Ouch, especially coming from a magazine that brought us Stephen Glass.

Garden State Republicans

There's been one debate between the GOP primary candidates for governor here, but I didn't watch it. I will probably vote for Schundler, because he seems less "establishment" than Forrester, but I really need to sit down and evaluate each candidate seriously before deciding for sure. Right now, Forrester holds a narrow lead over Schundler. We'll see what happens, but I really don't think anybody's going to beat Corzine in this worthless state.

Anti-Military Libs

Hugh Hewitt references a good post on BOTW regarding the anti-military bias on the left. I was so sick of hearing "I support the troops, just not the war" BS that many liberals were spouting, that at least it's refreshing that they are being honest with their anti-military bias now.

Rants of a Sore Loser

Some days, it's just to easy. Sometimes when I read something I have to look it over twice simply to verify that my eyes don't deceive me. For instance, take this quote from senate minority "leader" Harry Reid defending judicial filibusters;

Right now, the only check on President Bush is the Democrats' ability to voice their concern in the Senate, If Republicans roll back our rights in this chamber, there will be no check on their power. The radical, right wing will be free to pursue any agenda they want.

From this statement I get 3 things:

1. All Republicans are radical right wingers
2. Despite our elections, apparently we live in a dictatorship
3. democrat filibusters are brave, the stuff of hero's even

While I'm sure that this type of dribble is popular at Cannes or at a Hillary Clinton fundraiser in reality it's just silly. Perhaps I'm wrong (I'm not) but I thought that the purpose of an election was to create a government representative of the people, for the people and by the people (that election part). And once those elections are over with then those elected enact their agenda because they won, you know like the President and congress. Then, if the people don't like what's happening they elect people with different agendas next time. Now, I know this is hard to follow for the democrats whom maniacally seek scandals to conceal the fact that they are losers but a freaking reality check is in order. There is nothing worse than a self righteous blowhard who claims to be the voice of the people, of reason when describing actions that actually circumvent that voice. My only hope is that the Republicans won't fold and go through with what must be done.

There's hope

for fighting back the appalling lack of intellectual diversity on our university's faculties, as long as there are professors like this one. Much respect for a professor who's willing to acknowledge this problem.

Too bad he's a professor of CS, it seems only those based in the hard sciences and mathematics have any hope of reversing this trend. It seems engineers and scientists are the only intellectuals who are are capable of the logic that is anathema to liberal orthodoxy.

Yay work

My new boss (for the summer) has this list posted at the entrance to his cubicle. I won't copy the whole list here, but some examples:
I believe the government that governs least governs best, which is the foundation of conservative adherents.
I believe the words in the constitution mean what they say. I can read.
I believe individual liberty must be respected in order for this experiment in self-government to continue.
I believe the toll of freedom is responsibility. Those who fail to act responsibly are not deserving of freedom.

He also has John 3:16 taped to his monitor. These things are very cool. I have a cubicle, this is not so cool. I think the thing I miss most about having an office is the window, I had a nice view of the mountain.

Star Wars

I heard mention that some people think the new Star Wars is anti-Bush. I went looking for some moonbat madness and found someone starting to make my point for me, "And Bush and his crew fit the prottypical image of evil perfectly, so yes and no."
If you think Bush is an evil wantabe dictator then sure you can convince yourself that Star Wars is anti Bush (especially if it makes you feel closer to Hollywood stars, oooh, ahhhh, I bask in my sameness of thought...). By the same ticket, Braveheart is anti Bush because of those evil empire building oppressors of the Scottish. The point is that Star Wars probably isn't anti Bush, Christensen et. al. are.

We're not alone

The rest of Europe hates the French, too.

I wasn't really interested in this article

but I love the headline Matt Drudge gave it: Would you pay $49.95 to read Frank Rich? Uhhhh...I don't even care to read him now, and it's free.

Filibuster history

The AP gives a little filibuster history. They conveniently ignore the 14 hour filibuster of "Sheets" for the Civil Rights Act of 1964. I guess they just don't want to embarrass the Senate's "elder statesman". Somehow, though, I find it hard to believe they'd neglect to mention this filibuster if "Sheets" were a Republican at the time or eventually became one.

Newsweek lied, people died

That's the phrase that's tearing up the right wing blogosphere now. This episode confirms that the liberal elites despise our military - they're willing to print anything that makes the military look bad. I get that attitude from many left-leaners in this place too - they act as if people who join the military have a screw loose.

We'll see if the story is really true. For now, Newsweek has joined CBS and the NYT in the ranks of discredited MSM outlets, only read by those who will believe all the self-serving propaganda that's fit to print. Thank God for the internet.

Update: I removed the part where I said "And it's true." Because, well, it isn't necessarily true - Newsweek probably did not intentionally lie to defame our military, rather, it seems they rushed to print something they couldn't verify because it fit squarely with their prejudice. This means they did the same thing as CBS with the Bush Guard docs. So, not outright malice, but evidence of an underlying prejudice. Hopefully everybody realizes that.

If you want a good laugh

listen to this hilarious speech on the Senate floor by Robert Byrd (D-WV) aka "Sheets" or Robert "KKK" Byrd. Found via Hugh Hewitt. Choice quotes:

"We were both put under the water.......we went under the water....."

"HEAR ME all you evangelicals out there! HEAR ME!"

"Estherrrrrr....was a Jeewwwwwwwwwwwwww........."

Hey Sheets, was she also a "white nigger"?

Random Useless Fact

My textbook on heat, mass, and momentum transfer, Transport Phenomena by Bird, Stewart, and Lightfoot, contains 25 statistically improbable phrases - like "inertial sublayer" and "molecular momentum flux tensor". Whoever dreamed up this function at Amazon.com just wasted a couple hours of my life.

Read This

it's good. Although, if you want a better explanation of the delineations between conservatives and liberals, read A Conflict of Visions or The Vision of the Anointed.

Arizona Republic needs a geography lesson

Hey Vetes, what's up with the Arizona Republic? Seems they're pointing out that Tbilisi, the capital of former Soviet republic Georgia, is somewhere in the American southeast. Which begs the question: if Jimmah Carter is such a staunch supporter of democracy, why is Bush upstaging him in his own backyard?

Great moments in public education

This chick can't graduate because PE is more important than AP biology, at least to the public school bureaucrats. What kind of a class would BEST be, anyway (Building Essential Skills for Tomorrow)? If it's some sort of PE class, what essential skills are they learning, how to climb a rope?

Blair Wins

The third leg of the Anglospheric triumvirate that toppled Saddam has been re-elected - thus proving that the Anglosphere is made of tougher stuff. I've grown a new appreciation for the common heritage we share, one that began and flourished in the British Isles.

Powerline has an analysis that I agree with. This election was really a win-win for us, since the Tories are also pro-U.S. I'm actually happy Blair won over the Tories, because I was sick of hearing Michael Howard engaging in some last second "Blair lied" rhetoric. Eventually, I hope the Tories regain power, but not until they have a leader that is worthy of the party's storied heritage (someone Thatcheresque).

I'm also somewhat heartened by the last part of the analysis. It stands to reason that if the Brits were flogging Blair over the Iraq war, then the Liberal Democrats (the only consistently anti-war party) would have won more than a measly two seats. Instead, the Tories were the big gainers.

Evangelical Reporter

A former NY Times reporter tells his former colleagues to quit freaking out. It's a good piece, but I doubt it will be read by any leftists I know (they get their news from The Daily Show). And not that it will generate any responses, being on page A19 of the Post.

You'd be surprised (well, maybe not) at the folks who actually believe that once W gives the signal, his storm troops will pour into the streets, thumping Bibles across the heads of all who are not sanctified. Right now, the Left is motivated by a fear of a nebulously defined group that lives out somewhere in middle America called the "Religious Right". The Left will then periodically set up events in which they can unleash their hatred (remember the 2 minutes hate from 1984?) - if you watch the aforementioned Daily Show, Jon Stewart gets a dig that is the equivalent of this at least once a show. Really, take any left-leaning columnist's article on the "Religious Right", replace "Religious Right" with "Jews", and you have an anti-Semitic piece. Rush mentioned on his show yesterday that now all the conspiracy kooks are on the left now, and I agree.

Good thing he doesn't live in Florida

This dude spoke after a decade of no communication!

Refusing to bow to the god of "diversity"

I was rejected for the NSF fellowship for postgraduate studies, and the rating sheets telling me why are made available to me now. They rate you based on "Intellectual Merit" (it seems to be based on test scores and other "hard" measures of intellect) and "Broader Impacts" (which seems to be ranked on "soft" things such as "vision" and whatnot). I was rated "very good" (one below "excellent") for intellectual merit in both reviewers minds, but one reviewer ranked me as in between "very good" and "good" for "Broader Impacts" - the other reviewer gave me "very good". The comments from this reviewer were that I "deliberately downplayed diversity, in the sense that NSF means diversity, perhaps to the applicant's disadvantage."
Here my actual paragraph on diversity from my application:

Another issue that deserves addressing is the issue of diversity, or lack thereof, in the sciences and engineering. I refer not to the lack of diversity in the superficial sense that is being constantly being broadcast nowadays, but a more insidious lack of intellectual diversity that seems to be creeping into the academic world. Basic intellectual exercises such as questioning and testing assumptions are sometimes being cast aside in favor of an intellectual homogeneity that I believe is terrible for academia. This sort of problem is most noticeable in the social sciences and liberal arts, but this mindset is creeping into science and engineering as well. Having witnessed many bad situations prolonged by groupthink during my years at Intel, this same groupthink is toxic in academia as well. During my career I hope to teach students that the best way to avoid this mindset is to work and think independently to ensure the most diversity in the points-of-view in the analysis of a problem. The greatest advancements tend to be made by the most nonlinear thinkers.

You be the judge (echoes of Larry Summers, no?). Evidently, NSF (at least this particular reviewer) values diversity based on outward appearance rather than diversity of intellect. How does this make sense? Einstein was a genius because of his inventive thinking, not because of some pseudo-concept of "accumulation of life experiences" or whatever they use to justify their idiotic notion of diversity.

I don't know if I will be able to stand academia post grad school, much less while I'm here.

Update: I just realized reading this post that I made it sound like I was rejected because of this. This is not the case. Only 2 Princeton ChE's got the fellowship, and they were both second time applicants. I don't even know what the criteria was for honorable mention (which I didn't get, but 3 of my classmates did - probably you have to be rated "excellent" in at least one category, or your actual research proposal needs to be good, which mine wasn't). I just wanted to point out that my refusal to adhere to this unstated leftist code of conduct docked me some points.

Hometown makes national news

My humble hometown of Clovis, NM made the national news for a "burrito lockdown". Matt Drudge linked to it, so it must be special. Hometown news here and here.