Sunday, January 31, 2010

Aokigahara Jukai

 - a forest at the base of Mt. Fuji in Japan, "the Sea of Trees."


It is one of the top locations in the world for people wishing to end their lives.  Between 50-100 suicide victims are discovered inside Aokigahara each year by local police and volunteers.Official searches have been going on since 1970. So many people choose to die here that signs have been erected by Japanese officials, saying that life is a precious gift and urging those who have come to die to rethink their decision and seek help. Many haunting folk tales and myths of ghosts and spirits swirl around the forest, no doubt aided by old Japanese lore that says that those who die in unnatural manners are doomed to wander the earth as specters, howling and screaming through ought the night when the remains of their earthly bodies are discovered and allowed to remain alone over night.

 

  

 

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Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Product Reviews

Alright humankind, I've a very important message for y'all:

Don't write negative product reviews just because you failed to follow the instructions and install the device/program correctly!

There.

What's with the 1/5 star reviews just because you failed to follow the set-up instructions correctly? Of course it's not going to work if you didn't install it properly! Seriously, come on....and you know what, if you've got a PC but for some reason you bought a program intended for Linux, don't even bother writing a review at all. Just don't.

You didn't use the product, so don't write a review!

Now in some cases I can understand that the instructions might be a bit confusing for inexperienced users, but that is not a flaw in the operation of the program itself. You must understand the distinction, and communicate your difficulties in setup to the appropriate party.

It's like hating a particular flavour of ice cream just because you had trouble getting the lid off or couldn't open it at all. That ice cream could be the best stuff on earth and plunge you into a world of creamy chilly awesomeness; whether or not you could or couldn't get the lid off has nothing to do with that. It is a problem, yeah, and maybe you should write to the company about that.

Try installing it again and follow the instructions if you need to. Then perhaps you will find that it does indeed work, but your first methods were merely faulty. (Much like trying to open the ice cream we talked about from the bottom of the container or something. You're only gonna get it open if you open it from the top.)

(Okay, you could open it other ways too, but that wrecks the philosophical point doesn't it?)

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Joyous News!

Okay, today we got the Wacom (Bamboo) tablets in. Muaha! I was pretty excited for them, though I acted in a pretty subdued manner about it since I'm not always one for extreme reactions. Plus, in New Media it's always the end of the day so I feel real mellow and quiet...and not my usual diabolical self.

I came in late again today, since I had been talking with my history teacher about matters of national security important stuff. Walking in, I found the tablet ready to go at my computer. Michael got to it before I did, and he did some pretty neat stuff with it to be honest. (He should look into that stuff a bit I think.)

It's only the first day, but I'm pretty happy with it so far. I'm likin' the pressure sensitivity and the eraser function. (Yeah, I'm a n00b with tablets so it's kinda cool for me even though I am aware that it's not exactly super new tech.)

The first thing I screwed around with was drawing an eye, which I erased, and then I drew a cartoonish looking evil acorn. It was kinda cool, maybe I'll post it on here.

The last thing I worked on was part of something I'm doing for a movie we're doing in class; a poster of Big Brother. I've got a basic sketch done and the head and face are fine, but I need to work on the suit a bit and the positioning of the arms. He's a late turn-of-the-century Englishman. Inspirations include Lord Kitchener, what I thought the KFC man's uncle would look like, and a picture of some random guys from the 1910 standing around, proudly displaying their mustaches.  

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Monday, January 25, 2010

Finals Week!

So, the week of finals approaches. Slowly it creeps upon us, bathing our lives in darkness and despair as we anticipate the horrors of that fateful week.

I'm not too worried though.

However I'd just like to voice the opinion that our finals should have taken place over 2 weeks instead of one. This way we can focus more on putting quality study time into a smaller range of subjects and devote more time to that. Instead of trying to study for everything at once or putting some things off, we can devote equal amounts of time over a two week period.

Random side note: I like the fact that I have 99 posts for last year. :)

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Friday, January 22, 2010

Pictures: "Energy Oases" to Green the World's Deserts?

Pictures: "Energy Oases" to Green the World's Deserts?

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You can twitter upside down, but what about upside down in SPACE?

Happily, this is now possible! Now everyone up there can twitter and check their Facebooks whilst floating upside down in zero gravity.

The International Space Station is now receiving access to the world wide web via wireless connection, made possible by a very special software upgrade this week. They may now send emails, engage in limited video conferencing, and do whatever else they're allowed by the government to do.

This is not only fun and awesome, but it also will help the astronauts deal with isolation from Earth life and loved ones...ya'know.

To follow the astronauts on twitter, please click this link.

To learn about the history of sugar or Erwin Rommel, please click on their respective names.

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Thursday, January 21, 2010

"Watch it!"

Oh, I watch it? Let's not forget who barreled into me in the lunch line not two seconds ago.

It's always annoying when you're standing or sitting a really unobtrusive place, removed from the general flow of traffic, and then someone walks by you and positions themselves freakishly close to you, so when they make their next movement they bump into you and then glare at you like it's your fault that their elbow came into contact with the side of your coat.

Especially people carrying bags or purses or packs. It's like they don't realize that what their holding protrudes 2 feet off of their back or out of their ams, and that when they suddenly whip around they will ram their heavy backpack (probably full of cement chunks) into you. Why are people not aware of this?

Must you position yourself right next to me at such a close distance that I begin to wonder about your motives? Then do you really feel the need to back into me, slam into me, push me, or jostle me around because of your inability to see what's right in front of your friggin' face?

Stop it. YOU "watch it" once in a while. This will not only improve your chances of not being punched in the face by me on a bad day, but it will also greatly improve your driving skills as well.

Be aware of your surroundings people. It's not that hard. Just stop thinking about how many meat patties you want in your greasy burger for lunch and WATCH WHERE YOU'RE GOING DAMMIT!

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90 Lashes for Bringing a Cellphone to School

A 13 year old Saudi Arabian school girl has been sentenced to 90 lashes in front of her classmates and 2 months in jail...all for bringing a cellphone to school. Cellphones are banned in her school, and apparently bringing one warrants such harsh punishment in this. Her punishment did not originally include the 2 months in jail, and it was only added on because of media attention brought to the case and the court decided to punish her for trying to draw attention to the case 'in revenge.'

Her punishment is harsher than many given to thieves and robbers. 

In more recent Saudi news, courts have refused to annul the marriage of an 8 year old girl to a 47 year old man to settle her father's debt.

All in all, none of this is really any surprise for a country with such a sad human rights record.

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Haiti Destruction

The damage caused to Haiti by the recent earthquakes there is visible from Google Maps. Zoom in on Haiti far enough, and you can see crushed buildings and flattened homes.

The earthquake on the 12th was the most serious the country has had in 200 years. Foreign aid continues to pour in.


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Tuesday, January 19, 2010

China yanks 2D Avatar from theatres


The Chinese government is pulling James Cameron's Avatar, so far the most successful film in the country, from the theatres. They are worried about its theme of rising up against forced evictions and fighting against the establishment. Only the 2D versions are being pulled. The movie that will be shown instead of Avatar is a Chinese one about Confucius, staring the famed actor Chow Yun Fat. There are only 20 foreign films shown in China each year, it's part of their government's policy of protecting domestic films which includes giving them only a 10 day run in theatres.

The trouble with the theme of forced evictions is that it's something that many many Chinese people are very familiar with. People continue to be uprooted to make room for government sponsored infrastructure projects and new high rises. Many were also forced out of their homes to make room for the facilities necessary for China to host the Olympics last year.

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Thursday, January 14, 2010

It's Six Minutes to Midnight!

Today at 10:00, the Doomsday Clock was moved back from 5 minutes to midnight to 6 by the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, who created the clock in 1947. It has moved 18 times since.

Quoth the BAS: "By shifting the hand back from midnight by only one additional minute, we emphasize how much needs to be accomplished, while at the same time recognizing signs of collaboration among the United States, Russia, the European Union, India, China, Brazil, and others on nuclear security and on climate stabilization."

There is still much to be done, as said, but this is "a more hopeful" sign for "world affairs" indeed.

Their official announcement can be read here.

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Wednesday, January 13, 2010

Slaying Sattelites




India has recently announced that they have begun developing a special vehicle to knock enemy satellites out of orbit.

(Okay, it's not exactly "slaying" them, but it got your attention didn't it? Also, I'm admitting this, so that counts for something. Now back the story!)

The vehicle (a missile of some type) will be guided by a laser. The project still has a lot of work to do though, as none of their proposed devices actually exist yet within their program.

China and the US are already capable of this.

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Monday, January 11, 2010

Winter Break

Yesterday was the last day of my 3 week winter break.

I went to sleep last night wishing that when I woke up, I'd find that there was another week to go.

Then I went back to school, and it wasn't that bad.

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