Someone I know owns a big horse, so she needs a big SUV to pull her horse-trailer. However, she isn't pulling her horse trailer at all times - I'm sure she doesn't need to be using all that gasoline to drive to work or the grocery store - a smaller car would do just fine for these jobs. But owning two cars - a big one for the horse trailer and a small one for the everyday - is too costly or inconvenient for households with only one driver.
So what they should invent is a way to make cars switch between a more fuel-efficient but less powerful mode, and a less fuel-efficient but more powerful mode.
I'm really terribly shamefully ignorant about how cars work (I've never owned one), so I don't know how exactly this could be done. Some ideas, with the caveat that they may all be completely incompatible with the basic elements of car construction:
1. Part of the engine could be blocked off when the car is in Efficient mode, and the car can access that part when you switch to Powerful mode. (Like you know how there are V6 and V8 engines? Just turn off two of the V's)
2. Put two engines into the car, but only use one at a time (or use one in Efficient mode and both in Powerful mode)
3. If the efficiency/power of the car is more a function of its size (I know that bigger SUVs and trucks tend to be more powerful, but I don't know what the cause and effect elements of this phenomenon is), make it something that can be physically added on to the vehicle. Picture the ship Obi-Wan uses to go to Kamino in Attack of the Clones - he has a little ship with this big hyperspace engine thing, and when the time came to land on the planet he detached the ship from the big engine and went down to the planet using what the Star Trek universe calls impulse power. (Is this metaphor mixed up enough yet? Or should I add another fandom?) There could be something that hooks up to car in a relatively simple way and provides it with more power, and the user could remove it for their daily commute. Maybe, if you didn't need full engine power very often, you could even rent a power booster thing for when you take your boat up to the cottage once a year or whatever.
Anyway, the point is, even though some people need SUVs for some things they don't necessarily need them all the time, and it would be convenient if you could switch the extra engine power on and off, and save some gas in the process.
Wednesday, May 25, 2005
What the other 90% of the brain does
They say you only use 10% of your brain. I'm pleased to announce that yesterday I located part of the 90% that I don't use. I was playing Jeopardy, and one of the categories was something like "Alphabetically Last" - it gave the name of a set of items, and asked for the thing in that set that was last in alphabetical order. For example, the clue would be "The nine planets in our solar system", and the correct answer would be "Venus". Or the clue would be "South American countries" and the correct answer would be "Venezuela".
As I was trying to mentally list and put in reverse order all the planets or all the south american countries before those super-fast ultimate tournament of champions players answered, I noticed that this was a new part of my brain I was working. I've never used that part of my brain before! It felt exactly like if you learn a new exercise that stretches or exercises a muscle you've never targeted before.
As I was trying to mentally list and put in reverse order all the planets or all the south american countries before those super-fast ultimate tournament of champions players answered, I noticed that this was a new part of my brain I was working. I've never used that part of my brain before! It felt exactly like if you learn a new exercise that stretches or exercises a muscle you've never targeted before.
Sunday, May 22, 2005
Huge Star Wars plot hole! (spoiler-free)
This post mentions things that we know have to happen between Episode 2 and Episode 4, but spoiling details are not given. It also mentions things that should be, but are not, explained in Episode 3, and provides the EU explanation. If this is not spoiler-free enough for you, stop reading.
Episode 2 mentions a Jedi named Sifo-Dyas who ordered the creation of the clone army, but who Sifo-Dyas was and why he ordered the creation of a clone army are not explained in the movies. A bit of googling showed that this comes up in one of the EU books, and that Sifo-Dyas is nobody (the Mark Evans of the Star Wars universe). He's just a random Jedi who randomly ordered the creation of a clone army. The EU book may explain why he chose to do this, but it certainly doesn't come up in the movies. It really should have been in the movies, because after I saw Episode 2 the first time I went into fandom to find out theories about Sifo-Dyas, and I never spend time in Star Wars fandom!
We also know that the clones are on the Jedi side in Episode 2, and on the Sith side in Episode 4. In Episode 3 we see this switch happen, but, unless I missed it (I've only seen the movie once), we don't see why and how it happens. We don't learn which Sith or Sith ally is responsible for making the clones switch sides and how this happened. And if Sifo-Dyas is really going to be a nobody, Episode 3 really ought to have explained what when on behind the scenes.
Episode 2 mentions a Jedi named Sifo-Dyas who ordered the creation of the clone army, but who Sifo-Dyas was and why he ordered the creation of a clone army are not explained in the movies. A bit of googling showed that this comes up in one of the EU books, and that Sifo-Dyas is nobody (the Mark Evans of the Star Wars universe). He's just a random Jedi who randomly ordered the creation of a clone army. The EU book may explain why he chose to do this, but it certainly doesn't come up in the movies. It really should have been in the movies, because after I saw Episode 2 the first time I went into fandom to find out theories about Sifo-Dyas, and I never spend time in Star Wars fandom!
We also know that the clones are on the Jedi side in Episode 2, and on the Sith side in Episode 4. In Episode 3 we see this switch happen, but, unless I missed it (I've only seen the movie once), we don't see why and how it happens. We don't learn which Sith or Sith ally is responsible for making the clones switch sides and how this happened. And if Sifo-Dyas is really going to be a nobody, Episode 3 really ought to have explained what when on behind the scenes.
The Nine Planets by Edward Riche
I did not enjoy this book. The main protagonist (who is also the first-person narrator) is a singularly unpleasant person, so I simply did not enjoy spending time in his head. The secondary protagonist is more interesting, but nothing is done with her character. She literally just wanders around. At the end of the book it seemed like the main protagonist was going to get some comeuppance and I was eagerly reading ahead so I could watch it happen, it was all being nicely lined up and I was ready for a glorious burst of schadenfreude, and then the book just petered out in a trickle of sentimental pap.
There must be readers out there who enjoy books with unpleasant, unsympathetic protagonists because I keep stumbling upon these kinds of books, and they're often critically acclaimed. However, I do not enjoy spending time inside the heads of asshole characters unless I get a good, solid, Nelson-style "HA HA!" out of the book (which happens all too rarely), so these books don't work for me. I only wish critics would make it obvious that they are giving certain books good reviews because of the unpleasant, unsympathetic characters, so I would know to avoid those books.
There must be readers out there who enjoy books with unpleasant, unsympathetic protagonists because I keep stumbling upon these kinds of books, and they're often critically acclaimed. However, I do not enjoy spending time inside the heads of asshole characters unless I get a good, solid, Nelson-style "HA HA!" out of the book (which happens all too rarely), so these books don't work for me. I only wish critics would make it obvious that they are giving certain books good reviews because of the unpleasant, unsympathetic characters, so I would know to avoid those books.
Saturday, May 21, 2005
Wherein Dear Abby does a huge disservice to all her readers
A reader writes in to Dear Abby complaining that her fiancé is hiding gay porn around the house and hitting on her male friend. Dear Abby replies:
While I can see that it could be a problem if the fiancé is not capable of being sexually attracted to the woman who wrote in, because most people do want mutually satisfying sex to be part of their marriage. However, if he is capable of being sexually attracted to her, regardless of whom else he may be capable of finding attractive, the crux of the problem seems to be that he's hiding porn in the marital bed and hitting on her friend, no?
It is highly unusual for straight men to keep pictures of naked men under their mattress. You have given me three reasons why you suspect he's gay, which indicates that your alarm bells are sounding. By all means address the subject with your boyfriend.Yeah, good job Dear Abby, go around precipitating the misconception that bisexual equals incapable of monogamy. That is going to do SO much good for all humanity!
Although your boyfriend may not be gay, he may be bisexual -- and that spells trouble ahead if you marry him. If I were you, I'd put the marriage on hold and listen to my intuition.
While I can see that it could be a problem if the fiancé is not capable of being sexually attracted to the woman who wrote in, because most people do want mutually satisfying sex to be part of their marriage. However, if he is capable of being sexually attracted to her, regardless of whom else he may be capable of finding attractive, the crux of the problem seems to be that he's hiding porn in the marital bed and hitting on her friend, no?
Thursday, May 19, 2005
More Star Wars ponderings (completely spoiler-free!)
I wonder what Lucas's intentions gave Padmé and Anakin a five-year age difference?
It's a hurdle to their relationship that was never addressed. Five years isn't that much for adults, but when Padmé and Anakin first me, she was functionally an adult and he was a child, so they would both be quite aware of the age difference. When they are reunited at the beginning of AotC, Padmé clearly still thinks of Anakin as something of a child, but that just vanishes, it's never addressed.
If Lucas didn't intend their age difference to serve any purpose, he could quite easily have made them closer in age (Padmé was already extremly young to be a queen and Anakin was already too old for Jedi training, so they could have made them both 12 without changing a thing), or he could have quite easily not had them meet until AotC, where they both appear to be grown adults and have plenty of time alone together. That might even have made their falling in love more believable, because the audience wouldn't be sitting there going "What about the age difference?" They're both young attractive people and spend a lot of time romping around on Naboo, that would be enough to convince the audience. But with the age difference, I found myself feeling unsatisfied that nothing in particular happened to make her think of him as a grownup. So what was its purpose?
It's a hurdle to their relationship that was never addressed. Five years isn't that much for adults, but when Padmé and Anakin first me, she was functionally an adult and he was a child, so they would both be quite aware of the age difference. When they are reunited at the beginning of AotC, Padmé clearly still thinks of Anakin as something of a child, but that just vanishes, it's never addressed.
If Lucas didn't intend their age difference to serve any purpose, he could quite easily have made them closer in age (Padmé was already extremly young to be a queen and Anakin was already too old for Jedi training, so they could have made them both 12 without changing a thing), or he could have quite easily not had them meet until AotC, where they both appear to be grown adults and have plenty of time alone together. That might even have made their falling in love more believable, because the audience wouldn't be sitting there going "What about the age difference?" They're both young attractive people and spend a lot of time romping around on Naboo, that would be enough to convince the audience. But with the age difference, I found myself feeling unsatisfied that nothing in particular happened to make her think of him as a grownup. So what was its purpose?
Budget passed
Budget passed, no election, pass it on!
I've never watched the H of C on TV before - it's really interesting!
I've never watched the H of C on TV before - it's really interesting!
Wednesday, May 18, 2005
What if...
Suppose the opposition defeats the budget tomorrow, calls for a vote of non-confidence, and triggers an election.
Then suppose the election results in a Liberal minority with a precarious balance of power, much like we have right now.
Then what would happen?
Then suppose the election results in a Liberal minority with a precarious balance of power, much like we have right now.
Then what would happen?
Tuesday, May 17, 2005
Mmmm....politics....
Thoughts about today's political events:
The bad:
- I disapprove of MPs changing parties without the consent of their constituents. I vote for the party, not the individual, and it makes me very grumpy indeed that that can be changed on a whim.
- The Liberals seem to have a whole "Defect from the Conservative Party and get a free cabinet position!" offer going on. This is rather ill-advised on their part, as it doesn't do anything to make them look less corrupt.
- I also think it's inappropriate for media outlets to be speculating/reporting on Belinda Stronach's and Peter Mackay's relationship, whatever form that relationship may take.
The good:
- I rather like the idea of a millionaire making political decisions based on social as opposed to economic principles.
- But the main reason I was moderately asquee today is because this makes politics SO much more exciting! The score is tied one all and we're into sudden-death overtime!
Other:
Apparently the Conservatives are running an ad campaign trying to convince people of the necessity of an early election. Shouldn't they be responding to the will of the people rather than trying to change it?
The bad:
- I disapprove of MPs changing parties without the consent of their constituents. I vote for the party, not the individual, and it makes me very grumpy indeed that that can be changed on a whim.
- The Liberals seem to have a whole "Defect from the Conservative Party and get a free cabinet position!" offer going on. This is rather ill-advised on their part, as it doesn't do anything to make them look less corrupt.
- I also think it's inappropriate for media outlets to be speculating/reporting on Belinda Stronach's and Peter Mackay's relationship, whatever form that relationship may take.
The good:
- I rather like the idea of a millionaire making political decisions based on social as opposed to economic principles.
- But the main reason I was moderately asquee today is because this makes politics SO much more exciting! The score is tied one all and we're into sudden-death overtime!
Other:
Apparently the Conservatives are running an ad campaign trying to convince people of the necessity of an early election. Shouldn't they be responding to the will of the people rather than trying to change it?
Quibbling over semantics
The Crown is appealing the sentence of a mother whose toddler died of dehydration after she left her home alone overnight.
Crown prosecutor David Wright had asked for an eight- to 12-year sentence for what he called her "unspeakably evil" crime.Call me callous, but I don't think that's unspeakably evil. I think you could get a lot more evil than that. Basically she killed her daughter through neglect. It would have been a lot more evil to kill her through a deliberate action, or to torture her, or killed more people, or something else that I'm sure people who are more evil than me could think of. I think it's maybe right on the borderline between evil and horribly selfish/stupid. Maybe I've been having too much RotS lately, but I think you've got to do a lot worse to be unspeakably evil.
Monday, May 16, 2005
Characterization of Padmé (SPOILERS for Ep. 3)
Upon rewatching Phantom Menace yesterday, I realized why Padmé's characterization in Ep. 3 bugs me. There are ten years between Ep. 1 and Ep. 2, but the character of Padmé doesn't mature significantly during this time.
Not that she's IMmature - she never was immature, she was Queen of a whole planet at 14! In Ep. 1 she showed that she was capable of being tough and making difficult decisions and holding her own with a blaster. However, she was still vulnerable and inexperienced, as demonstrated in the scene where Palpatine manipulated her into calling for a vote of no confidence in Chancellor Valorem.
Fast forward 10 years to Ep. 2, and she's still essentially the same person. There's
nothing that shows she's grown, matured, gained more political savvy, or improved herself in any way. To be sure she was sufficiently grown, mature, and savvy in Ep. 1, but 10 years a huge amount of time when you're only 24, and some personal growth and self-improvement should have happened during that time. But we didn't see it. She was exactly the same person, and her relationship with Anakin changed only because puberty was extremely kind to him
One might even argue that she grows more and more vulnerable as the trilogy progresses. I'm not entirely sure this is true, because as the trilogy progresses we also see her in increasingly intimate contexts. Our first view of her is in all her Queen regalia; our last view of her (which I'm going to rot13 because it's a major spoiler) is qlvat va puvyqovegu, univat orra orgenlrq naq zheqrerq ol gur ybir bs ure yvsr. You simply cannot compare a person's vulnerability in these two contexts.
However, we also see enough of her external self, the self she shows to the outside world, that we should have been able to perceive some significant growth, experience and maturity as compared with the first episode. There simply was not enough of this growth in the movies to do justice to the character.
Not that she's IMmature - she never was immature, she was Queen of a whole planet at 14! In Ep. 1 she showed that she was capable of being tough and making difficult decisions and holding her own with a blaster. However, she was still vulnerable and inexperienced, as demonstrated in the scene where Palpatine manipulated her into calling for a vote of no confidence in Chancellor Valorem.
Fast forward 10 years to Ep. 2, and she's still essentially the same person. There's
nothing that shows she's grown, matured, gained more political savvy, or improved herself in any way. To be sure she was sufficiently grown, mature, and savvy in Ep. 1, but 10 years a huge amount of time when you're only 24, and some personal growth and self-improvement should have happened during that time. But we didn't see it. She was exactly the same person, and her relationship with Anakin changed only because puberty was extremely kind to him
One might even argue that she grows more and more vulnerable as the trilogy progresses. I'm not entirely sure this is true, because as the trilogy progresses we also see her in increasingly intimate contexts. Our first view of her is in all her Queen regalia; our last view of her (which I'm going to rot13 because it's a major spoiler) is qlvat va puvyqovegu, univat orra orgenlrq naq zheqrerq ol gur ybir bs ure yvsr. You simply cannot compare a person's vulnerability in these two contexts.
However, we also see enough of her external self, the self she shows to the outside world, that we should have been able to perceive some significant growth, experience and maturity as compared with the first episode. There simply was not enough of this growth in the movies to do justice to the character.
St00pid consumer products!
Dear Revlon,
How DARE you cancel my powder without telling me? What am I supposed to do now? There simply is no comparable product on the market! Fuck you!
Sincerely,
Blotchy
Dear La Senza,
Why the hell don't you have any bras in black or nude? And if you're going to change the colours of your bras every season, you could at least design the bras so that they can easily be sewn back up when the wire starts poking out. What am I supposed to do now? Neon colours are fine for the bedroom, but some of us work outside the bedroom and need more subtle undergarments that won't be glaringly noticeable through our blouses.
Sincerely,
Unsupported
How DARE you cancel my powder without telling me? What am I supposed to do now? There simply is no comparable product on the market! Fuck you!
Sincerely,
Blotchy
Dear La Senza,
Why the hell don't you have any bras in black or nude? And if you're going to change the colours of your bras every season, you could at least design the bras so that they can easily be sewn back up when the wire starts poking out. What am I supposed to do now? Neon colours are fine for the bedroom, but some of us work outside the bedroom and need more subtle undergarments that won't be glaringly noticeable through our blouses.
Sincerely,
Unsupported
Sunday, May 15, 2005
I am very happy with my Polish mark
It's not polite to gloat, (and my classmates wouldn't agree that my mark is gloat-worthy), but I'd just like to quietly say "I win!"
That is all :)
That is all :)
Family Guy
This season's Family Guy is not nearly as good as previous seasons. It's so not living up to its potential, and that makes me v. v. grumpy.
Phantom Menace redux
I just watched Phantom Menace because it was on TV, and I wanted to see how felt knowing the exact plot of the entire trilogy. It's a better movie when you know what's going to happen in the following two, because you know what's important and why. It doesn't work nearly as well when you have to wait three years to see why various things are important. Jar-Jar is more tolerable when you know he has a purpose, although there's still no good reason for him to be characterized so stupidly. The other problem (stop reading this entry here if you don't want a minor spoiler for ep. 3) is that they didn't show Qui-Gon passing into the force, and they really should have for the purpose of continuity of the next five movies.
But other than that, it's better as part of a trilogy than as a standalone movie.
But other than that, it's better as part of a trilogy than as a standalone movie.
Strange ways to train your dog
Seen in front of the post office at Yonge & Eg: a big fat bald man with a little tiny chihuahua dog sitting on his shoulder like a parrot.
Saturday, May 14, 2005
Wherein road rage is transformed into a serendipitous burst of music
Two cars are honking at each other outside. Their horns harmonize quite nicely - the harmony is a bit dark, but definitely not dissonant. Unfortunately I've never developed the skill of aurally identifying harmonic intervals, but if I had to guess I'd say it's a minor third.
How to find homes for all the orphans in Kenya
A few days ago there was this adorable news story about a dog who had rescued an abandoned newborn and taken it home to her puppies. Apparently hundreds of people all around the world offered to adopt this baby. So here's the plan: contact every one of these people privately. Tell them that they can adopt the miracle baby, but they have to keep it secret so she can grow up without media attention. Then send them some random Kenyan orphanage baby who needs a home. Repeat this process every time there's a miracle baby somewhere that a bunch of people want to adopt.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)