Galileo and Enlightenment

I moved this post to the sister blog "Fools to the Left, Fools to the Right..." after I added some commentary relating the gist of the story to contemporary politics.

Here is the new permalink to the Galieo post: Galileo and Enlightment

Also, my friend Chris McCarley posted a follow up to my Galileo post on his blog, Reddnight, to which I left comments that I have now worked into a new post.

Impending Immortality?

This CNN story describes a genius inventor who is taking somewhat extreme measures to preserve his longevity in order to wait for when immortality is a reality:

CNN- Inventor preserves self to witness immortality

The article touches on the feasibility of immortality but less so on the social ramifications which would be significant.

Posted by Alan care/of Gene

6 Megapixels is Chump...

This sounds very similar to a guy I read about a while ago, but this guy is much more active with his crazy resolution camera than the other guy if indeed they are different people. But still, this camera is incredible. Be sure to look at the pictures as they show the resolution capabilities.

Check out the Wired article here...

Or better yet, go straight to the Gigapixel site...

Posted by Alan care/of Jason

Super Bowl Anti-Hype

I'm tired of the Super Bowl hype and have been for over a decade. This year I didn't watch any sports related shows or any part of the pre-game, but still the game was unsatisfying.

Here is the problem: All the hype distracts from the game and I think it shows in how sloppy the game can be played. Rare are well contested football battles worthy of the two best teams in the league.

I think the two week delay, while great for giving the teams and their injured players a rest, creates a lack of continuity -- especially when coupled with all the interviews and the overall media circus atmosphere surrounding the build up to the game.

Add to that extra long commercial breaks, extra long halftime shows and the game looses much of its "football-ness". To me its almost as if the actual game becomes secondary; something less than the entire spectacle of Super Bowl parties and million dollar commercials.

Here are my suggestions

• Play the game the week after the championship games (or if two weeks later, then get rid of the media circus, i.e. Media day, NFL experience, etc.)
  
• Get rid of the long commercial breaks (yeah, that will happen) so the game has some flow.
  
• Ditch the halftime show. Its supposed to be about the world championship of football, not some pop-singer floozies.
  
• Hold a lottery where real fans of the two teams get access to at least 80% of the tickets. There is nothing worse than a stadium full of corporate execs, rich and famous people who couldn't name anyone other than the QBs on the team for killing the "football-ness" atmosphere.
  
• How about a cold weather Super Bowl site every so often? Think of all those legendary moments of old championship games "on the Frozen Tundra of Lambeau Field" -- classic battles the way football was meant to be played. As it stands now, we will only get those moments in the conference title round.

Just my 2 cents.