The Olympics Falsified

At ward FHE last night we were watching the Olympics. I began mentioning some of the many things happening that cause a distortion of reality involving the Olympics. One of the girls there was incredulous of my information and as more keeps popping up daily I thought I'd take this chance to inform you, my dear readers, about the lie that is the Olympics.

1. Fake Coverage. NBC's coverage of the opening ceremony was altered so as to show the various nations in a different order than they came out. At least the version they have posted on their website is different than the official order in which the teams were to appear. From the video on the NBC website you can see the US team on the infield waiting before the NBC video shows the US team enter the stadium. There doesn't seem to be any official news coverage of this, but see the slashdot story here: http://news.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/08/09/2231231

2. Fake Fireworks. Apparently the fireworks show that the world saw for the opening ceremony is not the fireworks the people in Beijing saw. The one broadcast to the world was computer generated. The official story is that the they thought it would be too dangerous to film the fireworks live using helicopters, so they faked it. See: http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/World-News/Beijing-Olympics-Opening-Ceremony-Faked-Firework-Footprints-Added-For-TV/Article/200808215075291?lpos=World%2BNews_3&lid=ARTICLE_15075291_Beijing%2BOlympics%2BOpening%2BCeremony%2BFaked%253A%2BFirework%2BFootprints%2BAdded%2BFor%2BTV

3. Fake Singing. The cute, "flawless" (quote from the man in charge) little 9 year old girl singing at the opening ceremony was lip-syncing to the voice of a 7 year old girl. The 7 year old girl does not look good enough to be displayed to the world. See: http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/asiapcf/08/12/oly.kids/index.html

4. Fake Weather. The Chinese government fired 1104 rain dispersal rockets leading up to the opening ceremony to prevent rain from disrupting the festivities. Ok, so this one is actually kind of cool. See: http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-08/09/content_9079637.htm

Dating is Against Church Standards

I just proved that dating is against church standards. I am highly amused by this and thus would like to share.

So, everyone that has ever dated would probably agree that in the process of dating you expend a lot of time, energy, money, and emotions. These all amount to costs, you are "paying" in order to date. But, dating does not guarantee any return on investment. You're "paying" but not for sure going to get anything (except perhaps heartache). You're playing the game in hopes of hitting the jackpot, but most of the time you're simply going to lose your "cash". Sounds a lot like gambling to me. Which the church says is bad. Therefore, dating is like gambling. Gambling is bad, ergo dating is bad. QED.

Why am I up?

At times like right now I wonder what compels me to stay up until after 1:00am writing code. I don't know, and I don't think I ever will. But at least I was finally successful in my endeavors. I guess technically I wasn't writing code, I was trying to craft the perfect SQL statement to get the data I needed without having to scrape through it in PHP. It took a while, but eventually worked, and I now know a fair bit more about mySQL than I did 24 hours ago.

Anyways-- time for sleep.

The Trouble with Context

Sometimes Google doesn't take into account the context of keywords when serving ads. Attending BYU provides a lot of emails with the word 'cougar' in them. However that does not mean I would be interested in ads such as this:

Looking To Meet Cougars? - www.DateACougar.com - Meet Cougars Near You Today. 100% Free. Join Now.

Soap Approval

I was buying various items at Smith's a little bit ago. There was a cashier open, so I went there rather than checking myself out (which is what I usually do). The convenience here is that there was also a bagger. Two, actually. Two girls probably 18-21 or so. Amongst my various purchases was soap. It's nothing too exciting, Tone with Cocoa Butter (it seems to do a decent job of not drying out my skin completely and is fairly cheap), but the girl bagging picks it up and smells it makes an approving nod and then tells the other girl to smell it. I ask, "You approve?" and they respond with, "Yup, smells good." I chuckled. So I now have two solid opinions that my soap smells good, so I guess that's a good thing. Just felt like sharing that random experience with you all.

Ditch iTunes - Use Amazon MP3

So there are a lot of people out there who are simply unfamiliar with their options in online music purchasing. So I thought I'd write this little post to explain why you should stop using iTunes and start using Amazon MP3.

So, I've been a huge detester of iTunes ever since it started. The purchases were heavily DRM encumbered (until recently you can pay more for iTunes plus, non-DRM items), the software was hugely bloated, and Apple makes no attempt to support Linux with iTunes or iPod products. (In fact they have previously gone out of their way to make iPod products more difficult to support in Linux).

So for the longest time I got my music from such sites as mp3.com and all of its later reincarnations, like the current mp3fiesta.com. The three reasons being:

1. The music comes in whatever format I want (including FLAC, which is a lossless format).
2. The music is completely DRM free, I get to decide when, where, how, and what I do with my music, forever.
3. The interface is a simple web interface that does not require I download and use some gigantic bloated piece of software.

Until recently there was no way to get any of those three reasons satisfied by a US company. (I don't want to get into the legality of mp3*.com sites, which the RIAA seems to only dislike because the RIAA doesn't control it. The RIAA argues that mp3*.com doesn't pay royalties to the artists, however mp3*.com has always told the RIAA to simply sign the papers so that mp3*.com would be allowed to send the royalties, and the RIAA refuses to do so. So it's like me complaining that you owe me money, but every time you try to give it to me I say "I don't want it.")

Anyways, as I was saying, there was no US option to get any of those 3 requirements. The Amazon MP3 service, however, at least covers options 2 and 3. They offer all of their music (at often less than iTunes prices) in the simple MP3 format. There is zero, nil, nada, DRM attached to the files. You can do anything you want with them, forever. If you wonder why I add the clause of "forever" you should read up on what happens when a DRM-ed service goes out of business: for example: Yahoo! music.

Amazon also allows you to choose whether you want to download their program which provides a cleaner interface to the music system, but is not required. You can still download songs straight through your browser. Also, Amazon not only "supports Linux" with the downloader program, but they really support Linux. When you go to the download page, and their site identifies your OS as Linux they provide you with options for four different distributions to make sure things go smoothly for you. The four options currently are Ubuntu 7.10, Debian 4, Fedora 8, and OpenSuSe 10.3. Below the download links there are separate instructions for each distribution, and then complete uninstall instructions as well.

I've had mixed feelings about Amazon in general in the past. I still remember the days when they were a bookstore and that was it. However, having learned about their DRM-less MP3 service which gives me 2 out of 3 of my requirements they have jumped a few notches in my book.

Move your purchases to the DRM-free system and use your money to show the companies that you don't like being told what you can or can't do with the things you purchase. I've said it on here before, and I'll say it again. Voting only counts when you do it with your money.

100% Guaranteed Method to Never get a Speeding Ticket

This revolutionary new idea has come straight from the think-tank to you at absolutely no cost! A radical new way of dealing with police officers that will guarantee that you never get another speeding ticket.

If you use our patented technique, described below, and get a ticket we will pay your ticket for you and any increase in your insurance premiums for up to one full year. You read that correctly, we will not only pay your ticket, but also any increase in your insurance premiums.

This method is approved and recommended by not only the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), but also by every single Police Department in the country. We've been testing this incredible new tactic for over 5 years with a 100% success rate. And now we give it to you completely free.

Many people have been skeptical of our claims, as you should be. It sounds too good to be true, and most things that sound too good to be true, are too good to be true. But this is the absolute truth, it's 100% free, so try it out yourself and see that we're not lying. Then tell your friends.

So, are you ready to hear what it is?

This is it, this is our incredible new method: Drive at or below the speed limit. See, it's so simple, don't break the law, follow the posted speed limit and you will never get another speeding ticket again.


Ok, you weren't very excited to hear that were you? Well, that's too bad.

On second thought, I should have told people that they will receive this revolutionary new idea after sending me a small payment of $10 to cover publication and shipping costs... I probably could have made a fortune since people are so stupidly desperate to find ways to break the law and get away with it.