And don’t forget it’s the end of the decade as well!

That’s not something that ever hit my radar at the end of the 80′s or 90′s, but I feel hyper-aware of it now.

Part of getting old, I guess!

Crank your volume and enjoy the Ramones rockin’ out the old year and bringing in the new!

Really. Religious nutjobness seems to be spreading to every member with an ‘R’ after their name.

Read about it here and prepare to throw up.

Boggles the god damn mind.

My favorite quote from the article:

This kind of stupidity should not only be painful, it should invite some particularly painful kind of testicular cancer as a karmic reward for polluting the world with such irrelevant bullshit.

Bravo, I say!

Let’s not forget the standard hypocrisy that the ‘R’s like to throw into their mental tantrums. Think Progress adds this to the mix of the story:

However, Brown’s 2008 December newsletter wished a “happy holiday” to his constituents for the “holiday season.” Although the newsletter had a link to the White House Christmas tree website, it made no other mention of Christ or Christmas. (Clickhere for a screenshot) And as Slate’s Chris Beam has observed, Brown didn’t introduce his resolution last year, even though President Bush’s 2008 holiday card didn’t mention Christmas either.

South Carolina just has some amazing winners for legislators, given it’s the home state of another sanctimonious fucktard, Mark Sanford. Make sure you pay attention to the last paragraph in that article about Sanford. Depressing and disgusting at the same time. Somehow I never heard any outrage from the talking heads on the radio. Hmmm.

XKCD never fails to amaze me. In addition to being one of the funnier web comics I find on the internet (and having spawned numerous internet memes itself), I have yet to find one that is smarter. The author has an almost Sagan-like ability to take complex science and make it understandable to the layman. In other words, awesome. So here we have a fundamental part of astronomy and the key to how we not only get objects off the planet, but to other planets and beyond.

Make sure you click on the image to get the super-large version so you can read the text and really understand how gravity wells work.

The best one I can think of that puts it all into perspective:

Here’s to hoping you have a peaceful and relaxing weekend.

(This starts off odd, but stick with me, it ends well)

When I embarked on rebooting my career I knew I’d be leaving behind over 15 years of experience. That’s a lot of information and knowledge to leave behind as a frightening chunk just wasn’t relevant to being a programmer. I had to come up with a way to recapture a huge reservoir of knowledge so I’d be worth something more than a shiny, new college degree. I began listening to tech podcasts. What started out as a few hours here and there grew to 11 podcasts consisting of over 20 hours of audio a week (hurray for a long commute). Into that mix I tossed a dozen or so tech/science websites I read per day and three tech/science magazines.

That’s what it takes to stay informed in an incredibly fast-paced industry – and I say its been worth the effort.

One thing I’ve noticed over the past three years is the quickening convergence of tech into everyday life. It’s radically altering how people interact, more so now than ever before. For example, most everyone I know is on Facebook. A large chunk of those people are checking it and updating it not only several times a day – but several times an hour. That’s a radical change in social behavior, especially when you frame it against those same people basically going from a ‘null’ interaction before to what now amounts to a constant awareness of what their connections are up to. Twitter, which was once the playground of only the techiest of geeks is now a major communication device for everyone from movie stars to protesters in Iran.

One of the podcasts I listen to, This Week In Google (TWIG) went on a bit of a tangent this week. Instead of burrowing down into the detail of cloud computing and the latest Google services, they took a top-down look at where things like social networking, information, privacy, and tech was headed. In all, it was a little bit shocking and exciting, even for someone who listens to this stuff on a daily basis.

The short take on it is we are at a major turning point in how society make use of technology – a radical departure from even a year ago. Moreover this isn’t the technophiles and geeks of society – this is the everyday Joe being able to access and process information at a level unknown to them previously.

The podcast was an interesting game of connect-the-dots of things Google has been up to that, if left unfettered by government action, could crush existing paradigms like Telcos (AT&T, Verizon), Cable (Comcast), and even print media.

This possibility puts the actions of the Swedish government, recently saying that broadband access was now a basic human right, into a new light. Think about it like this: with internet access you can make free phone calls, post job resumes to thousands of employers at once, access information about anything and everything including strangers you see on the street, at a party, or at work, start a company and make a living, store your own data, access entertainment, socially connect and interact with family and friends.

Without internet access – and without the outmoded business models of the existing telcos, cable companies, printing industry, and even the United States Postal Service you are cut-off. Now you might be saying to yourself, “But that can’t happen,” but it can, and it could happen in the span of a few months.

The concept stands to send a few people into panic. It’s certainly a lot of rapid change – and that is inherently scary to many people.

That’s why it’s worth your time to check out this episode of TWIG. As G.I. Joe would say, “Knowing is half the battle!” Understanding just how on the cusp we are of a techno-revolution, of the massive lobbying battle that will no doubt take place by the telcos, cable companies and others to stop it (because they want to keep making money at the expense of progress) – knowing how to land on both feet and take advantage of the resources that are getting ready to be tossed our way is a good thing.

You can download TWIG episode  21  for your mp3 player or listen to it here. There will be a full video of it on YouTube in a few more days, I suspect (only episode 20 is up right now) Video now linked below.

This is some seriously wild shit and you owe it to yourself to check it out! We’re not talking about Disney’s vision of the future 50 years from now. This is awesomeness happening now.

My all-time favorite Xmas album. If you don’t have a copy, shame on you! It’s worth it for the Ramones’ Merry Christmas (I Don’t Want To Fight Tonight).

I find it to be as classic as the Pogues’ Fairytale of New York.

Jon Lajoie is a Canadian comedian. He has a lot of videos up on YouTube and recently landed a role on a show on FX called The League (about fantasty football of all things).

He amuses me, and thus I must share.

Somewhere, someone is waving this in the air and screaming about a war on Christmas or something…

Insert obligatory comment about Winter Solstice being hijacked. I mean, where are those outraged folks? (thanks to PZ for finding this and turning me onto another web comic).

Finally a decent snowstorm in Maryland.

Husky weather, at last!

Playtime!

The short: saw it today at the local IMAX theater. I’d give it a B (for comparison, I’d give District 9 an A.)

The long: the story was OK. Nothing revolutionary. Visually, it was from another time and place. Cameron said his goal was to revoltionize film making. I think he accomplished his goal.

Never have I seem such smooth, seamless 3-D nor have I ever whitnessed such stunning CGI. So good that you didn’t see it. You forget that 8-plus foot tall blue humanoids aren’t card carting Actors Guild members.

The stills and trailer do not do the visuals any justice. (pic via USA Today)

The vistas were stunning, and you believe that the planet Pandora is a real place.

The only spot where Cameron didn’t succeed was opening the imagination to a whole galaxy. The planet and aliens were good but it doesn’t set the imagination on fire like Lucas’ galaxy did back in1977.

In all, it redefines what a movie can do and that gets me excited for what can now be made. I can already think of some movies I’d now like to see done in this format. Certain power armored guys with bolt guns come to mind. It could be most spectacular.