Email Leaks

A political leader having their email hacked and leaked is essentially the same as what they've authorized the NSA to do to us. Yet we're supposed to feel safe with the latter and horrified by the former.

We should be grateful to the hackers who have given us the transparency we deserve that the media denies us regularly.

Time Travel Data

How much data is there on time travel?

1.21 gigabytes!

Convention Logistics: GM Badges

Why give GM badges at a con? Man hours.

I typically requires 8 hours of game running for 1 badge (2 four hour sessions). The typical game has an 8 person limit. So 16 people, each getting 4 hours, for 64 man hours of content provided for 1 badge.

A typical panelist will do a 1 hour panel for a badge. They would need 64 people there to do the equivalent of a GM. Some panelists do more (I've run 3 hour workshops for 100+), some do less. A typical range is 50-100 man hours of entertainment for a single panelist badge. However, this ratio decreases when you add co-panelists. If you have 2, then it's 25-50. If you have as many as 4 panelists, then it's 16-25 man hours per badge.

GM'S provide the same average level of man hour entertainment for a con as a panelist. That's why you should always compensate them similarly.

Mulan Live Action

If they do a live action Mulan, I'd love to see Ming-na Wen play Mulan's mother.

I just hope they don't cast Tilda Swinton or Scarlet Johansen as the lead!

9/11 Flashback - 15 Years Later

It was my sophomore year of college at WPI. (The year I had a 4.0 GPA - a good year, all things considered.) I was commuting to school. The car radio wasn't on when I was driving to school that morning, so when I got on campus I hadn't heard anything going in. I was in class, Cell Biology with Professor Adams (awesome guy), from 9 - 10 AM.

I came out and went straight to Olin Hall, 3rd floor, to the Alpha Phi Omega office. We had a meeting of the membership committee then. I waited ~15 minutes before the head of the committee came in and said, "Didn't you hear what happened?"

We turned on the TV in the APO office. It was antenna, so we could only get local stations. On Channel 5 (ABC), I watched the towers fall live on TV. I also heard of the strike on the Pentagon.

We left the office to find a better TV. We went to the lounge in another building (my memory fails me on which) and watched more. This is when I heard about the crash in Pennsylvania. A guy freaked out, "They're coming to get me! They're coming to get me!" A professor asked him to be quiet and he settled down.

I went to the campus center, sat with fellow Wedge Rats in the OctoWedge to watch the big screen. I found out classes were canceled. Called my parents. Went home. I skipped the memorials on campus - I wanted to be with my parents.

Tidbits

Don't you hate it when you're making an argumentative point about US History and you get your Presidents mixed up?

Just a Cog

I am not a free man.

I am a number.

RIP Phyllis Schafly

“My opponent says a woman’s place is in the home. But my husband replies, a woman’s place is in the House — the U.S. House of Representatives.” - Phyllis Schafly, 1970

Phyllis Schafly is where the "A woman's place is in the House" slogan comes from. She used the quip when running as a Republican for Congress against her male Democrat opponent who had told her, essentially, to get back in the kitchen. She passed away Monday 9/5 at the age of 92.

When she began political commentary, there were few if any female voices. Hers would emerge as one of the biggest of the 20th century, including brilliant take downs of Rockefeller Republicans and a wonderful critique of Kissinger's foreign policies. While some debated the merits of lipstick, she wrote of ICBM's and the Cold War. She helped defeat the poorly worded and hastily designed ERA, which, among other flaws, would have ended the female exemption to the draft during Vietnam. Who knows how many mothers, sisters, and daughters would have been lost if that had passed?

She was a powerful female voice of the 60's and 70's that paved the way for later generations of women in political commentary on both sides of the aisle. A brilliant mind and gifted writer, even if you didn't agree with what she said.

Tidbits

On good days, I feel like a character from a Robert Heinlein novel.

Bad days? Kurt Vonnegut.

Tidbits

The DVD of "How to Train Your Dragon" is great quality. No hiccups at all!