Some of you may remember an earlier entry I made regarding our online lives and the friends we make (what happens when a forum dies?). I am now faced with making a related post that I really don't want to make, and coincidentally it is tied to the same forum that prompted the last one.

Some time in early February, a post was made on the forum of our local newspaper that asked what we should "do" with sexual predators and the like. Most people with children, like myself, extolled the virtues of dismemberment with a toenail clipper, or some other form of slow, agonizing death. All agreed that these are the lowest forms of humanoid life on the planet. The thread continued for days and stretched out to five or six pages.

None of us, at the time, realized that one of our most vocal friends on this forum was strangely silent. There was an arrest here in Salt Lake City. A teacher, first grade. Parents of more than 10 children have now come forth. As more details of the monster came out, more and more of them lined up perfectly with our absent friend (who, like most, used a "handle" or nickname), including his last posts (and last time online) being shortly before the arrest. Additionally, there was the first-grade teacher thing, where he was from, where he served his Mormon "mission." The fact that he had no children. Many more. Everything lined up, and as more facts about this animal came out, not one of them could exonerate our anonymous associate. One of the friendliest, most straightforward and trustworthy people on the forum appeared most undeniably to be a child molester.

It has been several weeks. He has not returned to the forum. The person we believe him to be sits in jail, unable to post the half million dollar bond. The one pervading thought in my mind is that if we, as adults, were duped for two years, how do our children stand a chance?

On the other hand, the timing may not be coincidental. Shortly before he was caught, he made cryptic reference to some "big changes" coming in his life, and that everything was going to change forever. Did we guilt him into getting caught on purpose? We may never know, but I take some small comfort in the possibility that our discussion may have spared some precious innocents the lifetime of agony.

According to their website the Congressional Research Service (CRS), a legislative agency of the Library of Congress, is "the public policy research arm of the United States Congress." It's mission is so Congress can "have its own source of nonpartisan, objective analysis and research on all legislative issues."

According to John Fund, my favorite Congressional watchdog, it looks like CRS's non-biased objective intent has flown out the window. In flight along with it the democrats "moratorium on all earmarks."


So much for the CRS mission statement to have "nonpartisan, objective analysis and research on all legislative issues." Wasn't Senator Coburn's and Senator DeMint's inquiries "legislative issues"?

Talk about fancy smancy smoke and mirrors, just this past January the House passed a rule making all earmarks public, but unfortunately for Mr Coburn, the rule doesn't apply to the fiscal year 2007, and the list being prepared by the OMB is only for the year 2005.

Just this past December democrats David Obey and Robert Byrd said in a joint statement: "We will place a moratorium on all earmarks until a reformed process is put into place." Apparently like beauty, pork is in the eye of the beholder.


Republican senator Coburn isn't going along quietly and plans to attach an amendment to every appropriations bill demanding a full reports of earmarks, forcing a vote for either secrecy or transparency. In the mean time, the House and Senate are both laying down their own definitions of earmarks.

Business as usual in Washington. Same game, different bosses.

Next month the Grand Canyon Skywalk is scheduled to open. A couple years ago there was some discussion on Dean's World about if it was really going to be built, or whether it was a scam. The Skywalk is almost finished and is scheduled to open in April.



HT/Dean's World for the update.

Update: Hot damn, I didn't think this video would be so popular on YouTube. It has only been up for two days, yet has made the #5 YouTube spot for Travel and Places (15,525 views), not to mention today I have received 29 emails on it. Now if only they would visit my blog in half that number.

...According to Scott Adams' bullshit filter.

Since last September I have been using Windows Vista (beta version) in a dual boot with Windows XP. Vista has a lot of eye candy over XP but leaves a lot to be desired. To name a few, third party hardware drivers are slow to catch up. There are several program compatibiltiy problems with many good programs I like to use with XP. And although my system is well above Microsoft's recommended requirements, it runs a tad slower than my XP.

But if eye candy is what you want, never doubt the power of open source. Here is a demonstration video of Vista vs Ubuntu, a Linux based OS running a window manager called Beryl.

(Note: 1st 1:30 is Vista. The rest after blue ring appears is Ubuntu beryl)

WINDOWS VISTA AERO VS LINUX UBUNTU BERYL

I also run Sun's Solaris 10 operating system (certified UNIX not UNIX-like as all Linux distros) and I'm hoping the Beryl that is in the works for it will soon be out.

If not I may have to give Ubuntu a go... hmm I might try it anyway.

A boy and a girl the children of Palestinian suicide bomber Rim Al-Riyashi, both in kindergarten are exploited in an interview on Al-Aqsa TV to glorify their mama's death along with the death of innocent people. The all consuming wisted logic of hate adults harbor is instilled in children's minds not unlike teaching them nursery rimes.

Here is the three minute video.

Or read the transcript.

It ties my stomach into a knot and tightens my jaw like granite to see children abused by such deception. Nor can I understand how any woman could leave two beautiful kids like these without a mother.

Oh, how I remember Walter Brennan. This guy was in more than 220 films, was painted by Rockwell, and once had damned near every tooth in his head kicked out by a horse.

He sounded like a redneck, and for that I adore him. Best known as Grandpa Amos McCoy from The Real McCoys, Brennan had some of the most hilarious character names ever.

Lanky Smith, Cappy Ricks, Pa Danby, Old Atrocity, Cornelius Burden, Jeff Slocum, Cap MacKellar, Old Man Clanton, Blackie Fletcher, Tammy’s Grandpa, Swan Bostrom, D.J. Mulrooney, Knobby, Rimrock, Stumpy, Uncle Jesse Jackson, J. F. “Thunder” Bolt, Brimstone “Pop” Courteen, Sam “Gus” Barton, “Legs” Garnett, Prof. Stephen Novotny, Hector Titus, Muff Potter, Chief Yeoman Henry Johnson, and Secretary to Sylvester J. Sutton Sr. There’s more. Pop Gruber, Col. Jeb Hawkins, “Doc” Butcher, Featherhead, Gramp Flynn, and Karp. And there’re still some other funny ones, too, but that’s what the Internet is good for.
Oh, and this song’s about a farmer and an Ole Mule.




OLD RIVERS
Walter Brennan
Words and music by Cliff Crofford

How old was I when I first seen old Rivers?
I can't remember when he weren't around
Well, that old fellow did a heap of work
Spent his whole life walking plowed ground.

He had a one-room shack not far from us
And well, we was about as poor as him
He had one old mule he called Midnight
And I'd trailed along after them.

He used to plow them rows straight and deep
And I'd come along near behind
A-bustin' up clods with my own bare feet
Old Rivers was a friend of mine.

That sun'd get high and that mule would work
Till old Rivers'd say, ''Whoa!''
He'd wipe his brow, lean back on the reins
And talk about a place he was gonna go.

Chorus:
He'd say, one of these days
I'm gonna climb that mountain
Walk up there amoung the clouds
Where the cotton's high
And the corn's a-growin'
And there ain't no fields to plow.

--- Instrumental ---

I got a letter today from the folks back home and
They're all fine and crops is dry
Down at the end my mama said, ''Son
You know old Rivers died.''

Just sittin' here now on this new-plowed earth
Trying to find me a little shade
With the sun beating down 'cross the field I see
That mule, old Rivers and me.

Chorus:
Now, one of these days
I'm gonna climb that mountain
Walk up there amoung the clouds
Where the cotton's high
And the corn's a-growin'
And there ain't no fields to plow.

With the sun beating down 'cross the field I see
That mule, old Rivers and me...

In case you are too young and never heard the words of Life gets Teejus Don't it, here they are. Carson Robison wrote it and it was recorded by Peter Lind Hayes and a few others.

Life Gets Tejus, Don't It?
(Carson Robison)

The sun comes up and the sun goes down
And the hands on the clock go round and roumd
I just wake up and it's time to lay down,
Life gets tejus, don't it.

My shoe's untied, but, shucks, I don't care
Cuz I recon I ain't a-goin' nowhere,
I'd brush my teeth and comb my hair
Just too much wasted effort.

The water in the well get lower and lower,
Ain't had a bath in a month or more
I've heard it said and I'm sure it's true
That too much bathing will weaken you.

Danged ol' mule, he must be sick.
I jabbed him in the rump with a pin on a stick
He hunched his back, but he wouldn't kick
Something cock-eyed somewhere.

Hound dog's howling so forlorn
Laziest dawg that ever was born
He's howlin' 'cause he's settin' on a thorn
Just too tired to move over.

Well, the cow's gone dry and the hens won't lay
And my well dried up last Saturday
My troubles keep pilin' up day by day
And now I'm gettin' dandruff.

Roof's a-leakin' and the chimney leans,
An' there's a hole in the seat of my old blue jeans
Now I've et the last of the pork an' beans,
Just can't depend on nothin'

Mouse is gnawin' at the pantry door
He's been at it now for a month or more
When he gets through he'll sure be sore
Cause there ain't a dang thing in there.

Well, it's debts and taxes and pains and woes
Aches and miseries and that's how it goes
And now I'm getting a cold in my nose,
Life gets tasteless, don't it.

Nope. I'm not advocating pirating software at all. That is what Microsoft business group president Jeff Raikes is advocating.

This weekend put the crimp in my great spirits. Business has been good and the hole in my bank account was slowly filling back up. Until Friday night that is.
Our water bill has been triple and quadruple the last few months. I got my main fix it guy over to see if he could determine where exactly the leak was so I could plan on a fix a little later when the money is flowing.
He came over late afternoon and crawled under the house looking at the copper and galvanized pipes. We put in copper in 1983 but didn't replace the galvanized that year. It had probably been in the ground for up to 100 years. I don't know when they started to use that metal but I am sure my house had it when it was a new product.
He found some wetness under the house but it was not coming from the copper. He said "Lets go out to the meter and take a look". I nervously made some joke about taking a leak.
He took a probe and hit rock the first poke, the second he came up with wet mud, the third poke it was dripping almost clear water and the previous wet mud had been washed clean from the probe.
He then said "I think we have found the leak". He moved a foot and probed again for confirmation. In a matter of a second our house had a high volume fountain in the front yard and the neighbors were beginning to get a free pond from us. We shut her down in a second by turning off the meter. Not wanting to be without water, I wanted to see if it was an easy fix.
You know that the word "easy" should never be one of my descriptives.
I went and bought a few shovels and a sharpshooter shovel. We dug down to the offending pipe and saw that the galvanized pipe was paper thin.
Along comes a City Water water man who promptly gets out of the truck and berates my fix it guy for shutting off the City's water meter and is going to report me.
After he calmed down, he said he could give me a cheap fix for the problem. You know the word "cheap" should never be heard in my lifetime.
This man, I have to give him credit was a work horse of a young man who just got out of the Army from Iraq. He jumped into the muddy crevasse with a shovel. He finished digging out the trench that we started on the street side of the sidewalk. He sent me to go buy copper pipe and compression fittings which I did just as the hardware store was closing. He shoved the copper pipe into the thin galvanized to sleeve it on the inside and attached the compression fittings. New leaks developed further down the line. We restarted and used a longer piece of copper and then did it again until I ran out of 3/4" copper pipe. I determined that the only reason we had any water in the past was that good old Kansas clay was swelling up around the galvanized pipe and holding it together and when we would move something, the old pipe couldn't stand any new movement.
I pulled the crew up at 10 PM and scheduled them to come back Saturday and I would rent a trencher or back hoe and we would proceed.
Saturday AM, the rental company told me they wanted an arm and leg with a four hour minimum. My fix-it guy called and said his buddy Jodie would bring his back hoe and do the work for the price of the rental. Jodie a large hulk of a man who works reasonably, couldn't be there until 1:00 PM. Then it was 2 and 3 and be there by 4. He has an incredibly busy schedule and jobs take longer than estimated in his line of work. He showed up at 6:00 PM. He said "Ya know?, I forgot to tell you to call the dig people for underground services. I can't dig without them. Ya know?
The "locate" people were called and promised to show up in 30 minutes in an emergency which this was. 6:15 to 6:45 is 30 minutes right? By 7:15 no one has showed and we recalled. They wanted my ticket number which I didn't have so we started a long question and answer period. By 9:00 we had all utilities show up and tell us to go ahead. The only line in front of us was my underground phone service line which was shown us by the phone people.
We couldn't drill under the sidewalk as the pool of water wasn't condusive to electric drills in your hand. At midnight I went into a parking lot 3 miles south where a friend had dropped off 3 thirty foot oil well pipes. He said I could take what ever I wanted. Having no electricity way out there, I took my work van which has 110 volt electricity and a power tool called a sawz-alland cut off a 10 foot section. We went back to the house, opened up a can of my wife's canned corn, put the can over the pipe end and the back hoe pushed the darn thing right through the soil under the sidewalk. This left a hole to put the new pipe through. Pretty slick I thought.
The fix-it guy hand dug in the crawl space (under the house) to run the new line. He had to go underneath the foundation. What a worker he is also.
We ended up working until 2AM and I only fell into the trench once. Only head first at that.
I now have showered twice and all faucets are working again. My back from the fall into the hole is not.
I haven't gotten the bill as yet from the fixit guy who paid all the laborers and digger guy. I am sure that it will be "easy" and "cheap".

Captain America represented the pinnacle of human physical perfection. While not superhuman, he was as strong as a human being can be mentality and physically.

Captain America had agility, strength, speed, endurance, and reaction time superior to any Olympic athlete who ever competed. The Super-Soldier formula (Steroids today) that he had metabolized has enhanced all of his bodily functions to the peak of human efficiency. Notably, his body eliminates the excessive build-up of fatigue-producing poisons in his muscles, granting him phenomenal endurance.

Captain America had mastered the martial art of American-style boxing and judo, and has combined these disciplines with his own unique hand-to-hand style of combat. He engaged in a daily regimen of rigorous exercise (including aerobics, weight lifting, gymnastics, and simulated combat) to keep himself in peek condition.
Captain America's only weapon is his shield, a concave disk 2.5 feet in diameter, weighing 12 pounds. It is made of a unique alloy that has never been duplicated.

Captain Americas name was Steve Rogers, born during the Depression and grew up a frail youth in a poor family. His father died when he was a child, his mother when he was in his late teens. Horrified by newsreel footage of the Nazis in Europe, Rogers was inspired to try to enlist in the Army in 1941. However, because of his frailty and sickness, he was rejected. Overhearing the boy's earnest plea to be accepted, A General of the U.S. Army offered Rogers the opportunity to take part in a special experiment called Operation: Rebirth. Rogers agreed and was taken to a secret laboratory in Washington, D.C. where he was introduced to the creator of the Super-Soldier formula.

During the war, he served as both a symbol of freedom and America's most effective special operative. Then, during the final days of the war, he was trying to stop a bomb-loaded drone-plane that was launched when the plane exploded, and threw him unhurt into icy Arctic waters. The Super-Soldier formula prevented crystallization of Captain America's bodily fluid, allowing him to enter a state of suspended animation.

Decades later, he was rescued by newly-formed superheroes and became a cornerstone of the team. His might un-diminished. Captain America remained a The Sentinel of Liberty and justice.

He was revered by other crime-fighters worldwide. But the beloved, shield-carrying superhero, Captain America, one of the finest human combatants Earth has ever known has been assassinated in the aftermath of a civil war, which divided superheroes as the government ordered them to reveal their true identities and register with authorities.

This caused a major rift between superheroes and the Government and resulted in Captain America going underground and forming a resistance movement.

In the end, however, Captain America was forced to surrender to the Government pro-registration forces – but was shot dead by a sniper, on the steps of New York's Federal Courthouse on his way to face charges.

But of course Captain America is a costume, just a Comic Book Character, and his death similar to the death of Superman in 1993, when the leading superhero of Marvel rival D.C. Comics was killed off after about 55 years.

Captain America's assassination secret comes in the aftermath of a seven-issue mini-series. Gerry Gladston, co-owner of Midtown Comics in Manhattan, said Captain America's assassination – and the fact it had remained such a secret, even to some Marvel staff – was "pretty Earth-shattering" and had sent sales soaring already.
The sad fact, was the fans of Captain America, found out about it before the publication ever hit the newsstands as the “spoiler’ was revealed on Yahoo some two weeks prior.

His demise is a blow to one of the men who created him; Joe Simon. "We really need him now." said Simon, 93, who worked with artist Jack Kirby to devise Captain America as a foe for Adolf Hitler. When a country chooses the wrong philosophical guide, you get the spectacle of it going all the way back to 1941 up to the present.

In 2002, Marvel responded to the horrors of 9/11 with Captain America: The New Deal, a series featuring a Islamic Terrorist named Al-Tariq who’s determined to punish the U.S. for its reckless misdeeds. After taking hostages in a small town with a defense plant, the militant addresses Captain America through loudspeakers, demanding: “Tell our children then, American — Who sowed death in their field — and left it for the innocent to harvest?
No one in this comic, neither Captain America nor any of the hostages, ever offers a word of rebuttal to the pro-Islamic terrorist tirade.

In the next installment Al-Tariq insists: “I am not a Islamic terrorist. I am a messenger-here to show you the truth of war. YOU ARE THE TERRORISTS!” Later, Captain America seizes an ID device from around his enemy’s neck — a “CATtag” used by U.S. intelligence. He later confronts the secretary of defense by declaring: “You tried to hang one of these around my neck...The Islamic terrorists I fought in Centerville all wore them — these CATtags.” In other words, Marvel Comics recycled a notion that’s been lovingly nurtured by anti-American conspiracy theorists of all stripes: that our own intelligence establishment somehow orchestrated bloody terrorist attacks against U.S. civilians.

This idea of America the Guilty permeates other additions to the series in which Captain America visits Dresden to receive a history lesson on American war guilt — for World War II! The broad-shouldered hero goes through a searing reverie about America’s controversial fire-bombing of the city in 1945: “You didn’t understand what we’d done here — until September the 11th,” he tells himself. “These people weren’t soldiers. They huddled in the dark. Trapped...And while there was nothing left to breathe there in the dark, they died... History repeats itself like a machine gun.”

Captain America’s post-9/11 understanding of the destruction of Dresden suggested a moral equivalence between the Allied forces in World War II (in the midst of a bloody, all-out global war) and the Islamic terrorists who randomly attacked unsuspecting office workers. Especially in a comic book aimed largely at children and teenagers the comparison (in the hero’s own voice) is both irrational and obscene.

The indictment of the United States becomes even more explicit in a later issue in which Captain America listens to yet another sympathetic rant from a Islamic terrorist mastermind. “Guerrillas gunned my father down while he was at work in the fields — With American bullets,” the militant helpfully explains. “You know your history, Captain America...You played that game in too many places... The sun never set on your political chessboard- your empire of blood.”

To this verbal assault, The Sentinel of Liberty responded meekly, “We’ve changed. We’ve learned...My people never knew. We know now. And those days are over.”

We might expect such blame-America logic from Hollywood activists, academic apologists, or the angry protesters who regularly fill the streets of European capitals (and many major American cities). When such sentiments turned up, however, hidden within star-spangled, comic books aimed at kids, it's more than irrational and obscene.

Now of course The Sentinel of Liberty Captain America is dead. Is there any hope that he might still be alive, perhaps whisked off to some secret location, and nurtured back to health both mentally and physically, with a revival of his original philosophy of reason, truth, freedom, and justice?

I’ve watched the demise of the country through the minds of the writers of Captain America, over the years, and I don’t know…. I hope it…but I doubt it. Like a few lines from Shelleys poem Ozymandias perhaps the country will inevitably share his fate of oblivion in the sands of time.

Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed.
And on the pedestal these words appear —
"My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!"
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.

As Joe Simon his creator said, "We really need him now." Not what the writers later created, but what he once was.

A web-based 'Expert System' found practicing law without a license.


The question begging to be asked: Is there any legal impediments to keep this "Ziinet Bankruptcy Engine" from taking the bar exam?

Via Kurzweil

A while ago I got into a discussion with a friend about the United States the roots of our governance and our Constitution. Without going into the details of the discussion, my friend was of the belief that the Constitution grew out of biblical principles. My friend was hard pressed for an answer to my query, as to why the lack of those principles being stated as such in the US Constitution. Not that I don't believe in God I do, and consider myself a Christian.

However I don't believe that the lack of references to God was an over site on the part of our forefathers, nor a lack of appreciation of faith, although many concepts of the Constitution are also biblical in nature. And yes, the Declaration of Independence mentions both "God" and "Creator." So with the lack of biblical reference what is it that influenced the founders of American's great Constitution? Well many historians either through ignorance or bias don't write much about some of the great, and important influences of the time that shaped the founders thinking.

Many of you will probably be surprised to know that a constitution of sorts called the "Great Law of Peace," essentially the Iroquois Constitution was already here. Here in America for hundreds and maybe thousands of years before Philadelphia, before the Mayflower, and before our great Constitution. It was the pact of the "Haudenosaunee" (People of the Longhouse) also known as the Iroquois Confederacy, or the League of Peace and Power, and made up of the Mohawk, the Oneida, the Onondaga, the Cayuga, and the Seneca, and later the Tuscarora tribes. The Haudenosaunee's Great Law of Peace brought to a halt decades of warfare between the the tribes and probably created the world's first democratic government.

Under the Great Law of Peace the Iroquois enjoyed peace, freedom, woman's rights and suffrage under a representative government known as the Grand Council. Each tribe sends chiefs to act as representatives and make decisions for the whole nation. The number of chiefs to this day has never changed.

Lets take a look at how the precepts of the Great Law of Peace became influential in shaping the thinking of many of our country's forefathers.


An article in Indian Country Today by Tom Wanamaker talks about Oren Lyons the Faithkeeper of the Turtle Clan, Onondaga Council of Chiefs of the Haudenosaunee. Lyons spoke in the fall of 2005 at McNaughton Hall on the Syracuse University campus. His topic was how the founding fathers were influenced by the traditional Haudenosaunee methods of governing, and recommendations to frame a new form of government for the American colonies.


By the way, after the unfruitful "Albany Plan of Union" meeting in 1754, there was a meeting with the governor in front of the governor's residence. There was a handful of colonial delegates in just one row of benches, facing about 200 Indians in attendance that sat on ten rows of benches. A speech approved by the delegates paragraph by paragraph was read by the governor and translated to the Indians. Some of the Indians spoke, and ceremonial presentations of wampum belts to the Indians was made.

Among my favorite authors Kathleen O'Neal and W. Michael Gear, in the afterword of one of their books:

People today tend to speak in terms of dispossession and "Americanization" of the Indian, but the reverse is equally, if not more powerfully, true....

From the first moment that reports reached Europe describing the lifeways of the aboriginal peoples, Europeans were intoxicated.

In fact, it became a real problem for European governments. To battle this fascination with the "Nobel Savage," the European elite proposed the "theory of degeneration." According to which, the American climate debased all life on the continent, animals, plants, the aboriginal peoples, and, of course, any European who set foot there.

This only seemed to inflame the interests of the common people, and gifted writers like Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson made sure that interest did not wane. They genuinely believed that the Iroquoian form of government was superior to that of the monarchy, and encouraged all colonists to listen carefully to what the Iroquois had to say.

For further reading:
The Six Nations: Oldest Living Participatory Democracy on Earth.
Oren Lyons - The Faithkeeper, an Interview with Bill Moyers Public Television.

It belies my age to enjoy this kind of music, and hope there are a few others besides me who enjoy it as well.


I can listen to good beats all day, and the violin isn't half bad either. Thanks to my friend Andy for the link.

On August 2, 3 months to the day he had arrived in the city, Vincent and his female translator were abducted off the streets of Basra in broad daylight by men in police uniforms driving a white police vehicle; then they were bound, gagged, beaten, driven to the outskirts of town, and shot in the back at close range. The translator, Nour al-Khal, survived; Vincent died.

Six weeks later his friend and fellow journalist, Fakher Haider, a Basra stringer for the New York Times, wrote an article that built upon Steven's final op-ed piece. Several days after its publication, men in police uniforms and driving police vehicles went to his house; with his wife and three children watching they bound him, took him away, drove him to the outskirts of town, and shot him in the head. His murder was the galvanizing event that brought the Foundation into being.

Thanks to Exit Zero
and Mary Madigan for the heads up and Blog.

If you think you can help or even just spread the word, then read the foundations Mission Report as the best of this country's heroes are not just the military, but the journalists that get the word out to the rest of us.

Who uses the seven words you cannot use on television more on the internet, the left or the right?

As dirty talkers go it looks like the left beats the right like a rented mule.

While the survey is probably flawed, it is still an interesting phenomenon.

Via The Queen

AI pioneer and MIT professor Marvin Minsky examines the failures of AI research and lays out directions for future developments in the field.

If this is available in text form I can't find it online and I wish I could. Listening is harder for me because my mind tends to wander away even more so than when reading. Usually it is triggered by something just read, or heard. I can't even have little distractions like music playing and comprehend well what I'm reading.

At any rate if AI fascinates you as it does me it is worth a listen. Below is Marvin Minsky's podcast on the future of Artificial Intelligence.

A Dr. Dobbs 3 part podcast:

Podcast(Part 1 of 3) @21 minutes
Podcast(Part 2 of 3) @25 minutes
Podcast(Part 3 of 3) @12 minutes

Update: Galt found a link to the text of Professor Marvin Minsky's lecture. (Scroll down past the Video/Audio links)

Of sorts, this post is a review of Michael Crichton's latest novel, "Next." I say "of sorts" because I'm not going to run down the character development or plot or anything like that. Part of that may be because the author didn't bother to, either, but that's part of the "review."

Like most of Crichton's books, Next is a story with its fundamental grounding in present or near future technology. In this case, Crichton is revisiting a scientific discipline he first explored in 1990 with Jurassic Park: genetics. Comparisons to Jurassic Park end here, however, and not in a good way.

I enjoy Crichton's writing style. I respect the (literally) years of painstaking research he does prior to tackling a subject in fiction. As a way to learn the basics of current ethical, political, and scientific concerns with genetics, Next is a great read. "I, Robot" (Asimov) was a great read, too, though it was much less a novel and much more an exploration of case studies in computer logic. This is the best comparison to make.

Crichton has loosely crafted a barely engaging story with cardboard characters, and has done so in hopes of raising public awareness for some crises and issues he sees with the current state of genetics, most specifically the legal issues surrounding ownership and patent of genetic materials and findings.

In this respect, it is very similar to "State of Fear," Crichton's last novel, which examined global warming. Fear, at least, had some character development and a decent McGuffin. Next does not. It was a novel that I personally found an interesting and engaging read, but I doubt most people would, and I would certainly not expect this to be the beachside page-turner that many of his previous novels were. I read "Disclosure" cover to cover in about 9 hours. Crichton needs to return to form, spending as much time on character and plot as he does on his scientific crusade. Until then, he will steadily lose readership.

In 1952 a science fiction writer named Phillip St. John wrote a novel titled Rocket Jockey. It was an award winning novel in it's day. It became popular in the child's science fiction arena.
My then brother-in-law to be was given this book by his mother in 1953 and inscribed and signed it.
The book was read a bit by him but in the mid sixties it became a favorite of his daughter, my niece Victoria. She would read it regularly and when there wasn't time she would look at the pictures.
I guess she would fantasize about being an inter galactic explorer or becoming a famous scientist.
Brother-in-law Paul was a policeman in Madison Wisconsin. Having a roving eye and a job that attracted young women, his marriage to my sister was eventually in shambles. They divorced in 1967.
He retired from the police department, remarried, and moved to the Los Angeles area taking the book with him. He died a few years later from cancer.
There was always a rift between wife number two and my sister. My niece and nephews never got any keepsakes relating to their Father.
Victoria wanted a copy of the old Rocket Jockey book as an aid to remember some good times.
She had moved to Colorado and her Mom moved to Overland Park, Kansas.
In the following years she had come across several copies in old book stores and flea markets but were way too expensive. One store was asking for $100 for the ”rare” book. Most were in the $40 plus range.
She was either in nursing school, a new job but always on a very tight budget. She couldn't pay that much.
None the less she was always on the hunt.
She ended up in Reno Nevada working for an oncology department.
My sister had remarried and moved to the West Coast. Her second husband of 18 years passed away. His body was shipped back to his hometown area and was to be buried in Kansas City Missouri.
Victoria took time off and flew in to console her Mom. They laughed, cried, went to lunches and slummed in antique shops.
A neighboring community on the Kansas side of the metro area is called Olathe. There were some good little second hand and antique malls to visit.
They ended up at the Sentimental Journey Antique store. This was a large mall type store with many booths to look at.
Victoria still hunting, went to the book shelves. They were having a half price sale on the old books.
There it was! Rocket Jockey by Phillip St. John on the bottom row. She saw the $8.00 price tag and snatched it up and held it to herself. She was gloating about the bargain she had gotten.
She opened up this copy in good condition. Her eyes glazed over and then welled up with tears and emotion.
On the first page, written in familiar cursive was the inscription “To my son Paul on your birthday in 1953" and was signed by her Grandmother.
The store was in tears that day. I almost am five years later as I write this for you.