In the Year 2000

Just finished reading an article about a tumor that alters the length of the telomeres in a persons DNA. More specifically the ones that control "whether you live or die".

Unfortunately for people suffering PanNET, the extra long telomeres are what keep cancerous genes alive even when they are malfunctioning horribly. That's why it's probably more appropriate to call these cells undead rather than immortal. Yes, they're alive, but they're shambling along and trying to replicate and replace every other cell with a version of themselves.

http://gizmodo.com/5817507/a-tumor-that-could-provide-the-key-to-making-zombies
http://www.sciencemag.org/content/early/2011/06/29/science.1207313.abstract

There is talk amongst people and scientist about the potential uses of this finding. Some speculate that this could allow scientists to pick which genes to block and thus cease the aging of the cells. This is all pure speculation of course and a therapy that would be applicable in humans would not be around for quite sometime, to say the least.

This raises the question, would you want to live forever, or even to be 200 year old. What if you could afford it but you significant other could not?

Personally not for me.

Considers this though too. The amount of innovation that has happened in the last 100 years alone is astonishing. The early 1900's where home to basic cars, the Model T wasn't invented until 1908 and with that the basis for mass production. The Wright Brothers first powered flight wasn't until 1903. There was no short wave radio. Teabags where invented in 1904. All these things are taken for granted now. Think about how much will change in the next 100 years. Computer technology expands at an exponential rate and medicine will get better. It will be interesting to see what things are taken for granted in the future and what are luxuries.

This all assuming that the Mayan Prophecies don't come true on December 21, 2012.

-Stephen

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Games Away Time to Let Transformers Play

Today is the day that these

go into this

which finally goes up here

and now that, that is finished time to move on to more productive things.

I woke up this morning at around 8:20am and decided that because I am off today, and that because it is Friday, that I should go to a movie. It just so happened that there was a 9:30 showing of Transformers: Dark of the moon.



I can safely say that this is the best Transformers movie thus far. I went to see the IMAX version of the film and did not realize that I would also bear witness to Michael Bay's first foray in the relm of 3D. My god was it a marvelous. The 3D was very well implemented and the effects were nothing short of jaw dropping. The massive wattage of the audio system and Michael Bay's emphasis on action and explosions lend itself to the IMAX experience, not only did it sound marvelous but it felt that way too. I am happy to report that the annoying robots from the second film are gone, but are replaced by two smaller ones who are far less annoying and actually lend a bit of humor and lightheartedness when needed but are still annoying.

There really is not much you can say about the acting from the humans. They are the same as the first two films. Rosie Huntington-Whiteley is just as good eye candy as Megan Fox was, and maybe even better, and she should be, as she was a Victoria Secret model before filming this movie. Shia Labeouf does his usual running, screaming for Bumble Bee, running, yelling for Optimus, running, and being blown up more times than a normal human-being could withstand.

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Busy Bee in FL

I have not posted in a while because I have been a tad but busy consuming the entirety of Game of Thrones in one fell swoop.



Watch it, there are not too many words that can describe what it is other than a bloody political backstabbing epic. I can not wait for season two and there are not too many television shows that I watch.

Beginning tomorrow I will not be playing them for at least the next month. I have other ideas and projects that I would like to work on in this time, and I just would like to see how productive I can be.

I do still have a bone to pick with Activision, the publishers of the Call of Duty franchises. Their newest game, Modern Warfare 3, comes out on November the 8th. That is fine and dandy, however it does annoy me that they are still releasing downloadable content for Black Ops which came out around the same time last year. The most recent expansion is the third thus far with a now rumored fourth expansion to came out even later in the year.

The issues I have with this, and I am sure many other do, is that I have bought the last two expansions and will probably not be buying any more. The reason for this is because I will probably not play Black Ops multi-player again once Modern Warfare 3 releases. This is what happened with Modern Warfare 1 and 2. That is at least $100.00 worth of content that I have paid for that I do not have access to unless I want to play an older game. I would be more inclined to purchase downloadable content in the future if it were possible to make them compatible with future games.

For those people who say just play Modern Warfare if you want those maps. All I ask of you is to tell me how many lobbies you get into that are not hacked to bit and pieces.

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The Scam of the Babysitter's.

I woke up this morning and reviewed dove into the world of Twitter. I must confess that it is not something that I do and it is not how I normally choose to start my day. However this morning one of my favorite children's authors put up something about teachers and their salaries.

omiof5 writes:

I'm fed up with teachers and their hefty salary guides! What we need is a little perspective.

If I had my way, I'd pay these teachers myself -- I'd pay them babysitting wages. That's right -- instead of paying these outrageous taxes, I'd give them $3.00 an hour out of my own pocket. And I'm only going to pay them for 5 hours, not coffee breaks. That would be $15.00 a day -- each parent should pay $15.00 a day for these teachers to babysit a child. (Even if you have more than one child, it's still a lot cheaper than private day care.)

Now, how many children do they teach every day -- maybe twenty? That's $15.00 X 20 = $300 a day. But remember they only work 180 days a year! I'm not going to pay them for all those vacations! That's $300 X 180 =$54,000. (Just a minute -- that can't be right; let me check my calculator.)

I know what you teachers will say -- What about those who have ten years experience and a Master's degree? Well, maybe (to be fair) they could get the minimum wage -- instead of just babysitting, they could read the kids a story.

We can round that off to about $5.00 an hour, times five hours, times twenty children. That's $500 a day times 180 days. That's $90,000 ..... HUH??

Wait a minute; let's get a little perspective here! Babysitting wages are too good for these teachers. Does anyone see a salary guide around here?

(http://forums.atozteacherstuff.com/showthread.php?t=7299)

This is a travesty. Teachers are one of the most important people in a child's life. As the pay of teachers drops the desire for people to want to teach also drops. Some people that would be the best teachers will not do it because they will make barely enough money to support themselves.

In Florida our esteemed governor is cutting teachers pay to make a balance the budget. The amount of money that Florida puts into its education is below the national average of $10,500 per student. (http://tinyurl.com/3za6gyb) As a comparison New York spends $18,000(http://tinyurl.com/6b8a5k5) a year per student. Florida on the other hand spends about $9,000 a year per student.(http://tinyurl.com/6gky56b) Teachers are leaving Florida for other states that will actually fund education and pay them more than that of a baby sitter.

And people wonder why the education system in Florida is terrible.

Could you hand me that shotgun buddy, Also that chair?

During my time in high school. Acquiring friends, or at least people that I enjoyed being around and that I presume enjoyed my company, was not very difficult. I don't mean for this to sound pretentious or conceded in any way. I think that because I was in Band in high school I automatically had a group that I could identify with and they with me. We were all outsiders, but, we where all outsiders together. Over time we became more accepted among out peers, and the relationships between band members and other cliques began to spread. By my senior year, members of the band were being elected to the student offices and were in some of the most popular clubs in the school. Some of these friendships would end after high school.

When I talk about friends I do not mean some one that will just call to go to a movie or go out for a night on the town. The people that I truly consider friends are the ones that will call to see if you are home and then show up and little while later, they are the ones that just come over with no expectation of going and and doing anything except sit on the couch.

After high school comes what many people call "the real world". After a few years of living at home and going to college everything was still really nice because my core group of friends all still lived in the same city. However after college everyone has moved away from home and we have all separated.

I say all this because today I suddenly had and awakening. I had those friends. I no longer do. I have now lived away from my group of friends for five years, and have done nothing in that time to find other friends where I live now. This saddens me. I blame it on myself and my personality.

I have an addictive personality, and that mainly shows itself in video games. I can routinely come home after work and play games for five hours a day. I have realized that my desire to speak to the people that I have met on there and consider friends can not replace the presence of an actual person. My desire to play games has caused some of the largest failures in my life thus far. Part of me feels that it is slowly destroying other aspects of my life, and I will not let that happen.

On July 1st, I will not play any games for at least a month. After that who knows, I just need to stop wasting my time on things that, in the long run, do more damage than good.

What kind of Muppets are we?

A number of my friends and co-workers are either pregnant or have children.  This has caused an interesting development in my life and many questions have arisen that must be addressed.  This all began with a simple conversation on Facebook at 3am with the father of a now 3month old boy.  He dropped a truth bomb on me.  He asked me, in all seriousness, what Muppet I most closely identified with.  I was not prepared for this question and did not know how to respond.  The conversation that followed was an analysis of the various personality traits of the Muppet by two full grown men at 3am.

It was established that I share many physical and personality characteristics with Dr. Teeth.  With the large bushy beard and the odd quirks that I do have.  I however do not have the red hair or the gold tooth.  Or the awesome hat...yet.  He on the other hand was more akin to a Fozzy Bear or maybe the Angry Eagle, I think it depends on the day of the week.



But the conversion also brings up the question of children and at what point is someone ready to raise a child?  How financial secure should they be?  Should they be married or does it matter so long as it is a loving home that supports the child for who they are and not what the parents want them to be?

I am very fortunate that my parents let me do discover things for myself ,the good and the bad, and I am forever grateful of that.

Happy Fathers Day.

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New Things and Old Things

As of a few days ago my fiance got me watching Parks and Recreation.  I am hooked and have been watching a few episodes a day for the last few days. Parks and Recreation is The Office without the painful awkwardness of Michael Scott.



Aziz Ansari is probably one of the best characters on the show, and I am really excited to see him in his new movie 30 Minutes or Less.

Jurassic Park, the best movie of all time, is being released on Blu-Ray by the end of the year.  I have been waiting for this for this to come out since Blu-Ray really won the format war.

http://www.blu-ray.com/news/?id=5739

I was born in '84.  When Jurassic Park came out I was 9 years old.  I managed to get my parents to take me to see it three times.  I don't know how I managed to convince them to do it but that one movie sealed my love of movies forever.  I remember the scene with Dennis Nedrey and the Dilophosaurus in the Jeep scared me so bad that the first two times that I saw the movie I could not bare to watch it.  The third time through I forced myself to watch it.  As it would turn out, it was not that bad, and it turned out to be pretty awesome.