Which Kenshin character are you?

Which Rurouni Kenshin character are you? Take the (lame) quiz to find out! I got the following:

You are Shishio Makoto also known as the pyromaniac. You are a megalomaniac without equal and have quite a thing for fire. You are a genius when it comes for evil plans. However, your cockiness tend to get in the way. Somewhat bitter, you tend to take it out on the world. The world owes you a favor and the world will pay... even if that means you have to envelope innocence into your evil plan.

That sounds like me.

Same thing we do every night, Pinky! Try to take over the world!

late but sure

I finally went to see Episode 3. I didn't see it before because I didn't want to be part of the hype this time. The first 2 episodes left me too despondent and I didn't want to suffer all that again. My plan of lowering my expectations enough so that they would forcefully be met worked as I expected. Sadly, after watching Episodes 1 through 3 I feel like I like a little less episodes 4 through 6. I used to be a good Star Wars, that's why I don't like Star Wars anymore. The movie was way too dense, maybe if they had distributed the action better among the first two movies I would be more pleased.
I wonder if Mr. Lucas' ego is completely satisfied now, else my childhood memories will have to wait until Star Wars 1-3 Special Edition to rest in peace.

This is no Cold War

This is no Cold War; this is a Hot one. Without the threat of a counter attack, Bush's government has decided to change its nuclear policy to one of first strike. That means, that if U.S. feels threatened by a country developing nuclear capabilities, such as North Korea or Iran, it will strike first with nuclear weapons. Remembering how the invasion of Iraq was based on those false claims, it troubles me how they could use this to strike anywhere without any reason. Even McNamara is against it now. Many people are arguing that Bush's administration is inventing excuses of threats for this purposes. Historically the rise of an empire and invasion, like The Third Reich, was always backed up with paranoid claims of threats from everywhere. In this hypocrisy, is not unexpected to see North Korea reaffirming that they will not talk to U.S. about nuclear policy.

God Bless America!

The Producers: The Musical

Springtime for Hitler and Germany
Deutschland is happy and gay!

The musical The Producers visited Austin and I went to see it with some friends. A producer and an accountant device a scam to become rich with a Broadway flop, and they decide to produce the worst play ever.
It was a bit different from the movie, and Gene Wilder was missed. But, the songs were brilliant, and in many ways made it much better. Some of the choreographies were particularly funny, but I don't want to give them away. Now I understand what the whole furor around this musical is about.

The Führer is causing a furor!
He's got those Russians on the run
You gotta love that wacky hun!

The Magic of Seedless Fruits

Hi! My name is Troy McClure! You might remember me from science-related blog posts such as: "Fainting Goats are our friends" and "Intelligent Design: Monkeys are too smart to believe in it!".

Have you always wondered how seedless fruits are developed? For example, this delicious green and red watermelon I'm eating right now has only white, soft seeds that can be chewed and swallowed. That sounded really gross. I have found more than one article explaining this mystery of the fruit-farming world.

In a nutshell, the explanation is the following. First, you need two parents with a different number of chromosomes. This is much like a horse and a donkey, or a normal person and a person with Down syndrome (I just learned that mongoloid is considered non-PC). In watermelons this genetic disorder is generated by introducing a chemical called colchicine. Colchicine is a FDA-approved poison that acts very much like arsenic, and has no antidote. In small quantities it inhibits mitosis, and can be used to create a tetraploid seed. These, after been combined with the normal diploid seeds, lead to infertile plants with weak triploid seeds, the seedless-mules of the fruit family!

How do they reproduce if they have subpar seeds? Cutting is the obvious alternative, but it wasn't clear to me how to use that. Recall that many plants are very fragile to cutting, and have trouble developing roots from it. Rooting hormones are used for this purpose, and these plants tend to develop in different, more strict, conditions than their normal-chromosomed ones.

All the DIY genetic monsters fans out there, be warned! This process of cutting and using rooting hormones for asexual reproduction only works for plants, and shouldn't be used with mules as it could lead to mule injury and, possibly, death!

So my friends, I hope you enjoyed our exploration of the mongoloids of the fruit-farming world!

Aniara

The sci fi epic poem Aniara: A Review of Man in Time and Space deserves the Nobel Prize its author got for it. Aniara is the spaceship that was going to save 8000 humans from the polluted, radioactive wasteland Earth became. But shortly after the trip, they lose control and end up headed towards the void that space is.

Gondonder Aniara
has carried on its journey
for twenty years today.
And many stood unspeaking.
But suddenly someone said
a light-year is a grave.

A very different book from what I'm used to read. A short but emotional read. Now space feels very lonely, cold and sad.

When someone you had loved has reached death's door
space stands harder and more brutal than before.

Expsychogirlfriend's voicemails

This site has a series of voicemails from some dude's ex-psycho-girlfriend. Really freaky stuff. Listen to them in order, they get crazier and crazier.

Slacker

Slacker is about weird people that I have met. For the movie, most of the actors didn't have any previous acting experience, they were just honestly weird people. Check out the cast interviews in the DVD, very interesting too. It is really cool to to recognize many of the places that they visit.
If you are slightly interested in the "Keep Austin Weird" movement, and want to know what it is all about (and how it was even crazier in the 90s), check this movie out. Slacker: a series of interconnected weird characters breathing Austin.

A Big Old Nerd

I just reread my last post. I was talking about how that was an awesome history book, and how I want to read more about history.

My mom says I'm cool.
-Milhouse

A lil bit of atlas, a lil bit of history, and BAM!

A Short History of the World by the Sci Fi author H.G. Wells (The Invisible Man, The Time Machine, War of the Worlds and many others) is an incredible piece of nonfiction. It paints with broad but interesting strokes the history of the world from 2 Billion years ago to the 1930s. His observations allowed me to see overall patterns in history, and to put all this fragmented concepts into a coherent frame. Super readable, super interesting, super informative, this 300 pages book should be required reading!

Why don't they include books like this into the high school curriculum? This one is much better than any history textbook I have ever seen! It focuses mostly on western history, and has a heavy focus on wars, which I loved, but has enough suggestions on other books to read if you are interested in a subject that you can easily keep reading more and more about anything.

If you consider yourself a human, or even if you live on the third planet away from a star called Sol and are literate, go read this very readable masterpiece.

Now! Seriously! It is a must read.

The maps in my edition of the books weren't very good or clear, so I complimented the book with Hammond Atlas of World History. The beautiful reference book has awesome maps and is very well written, but a bit on the pricey side (I bought it used).

It has been a lot of fun for the past days reading both books, putting all the little pieces of history that I knew together, and writing down a list of history books (so many!) that I would have to read. I've learned quite a bit.

The Revenge of the Sith

Star Wars Episode III The Revenge of the Sith did not suck.
Star Wars Episode III The Revenge of the Sith did not suck.
Star Wars Episode III The Revenge of the Sith did not suck.
The fights were pretty good, but some characters died way too easy. The plot was satisfying, giving a good sense of closure. The rise of the empire and the destruction of the Jedi were believable! The way Anakin turns to the dark side was also appropriate. Every question was answered. The dialogues sucked as expected, but there was enough action in between to prevent me from barfing.

I'm glad Star Wars is over, finally.

May the force be with you.

And here is how to make your own Jedi robe.

Clone Wars V2

I just finished watching the Cartoon Network's Clone Wars Volume 2 online. Yes, just like with Volume 1, every episode is online, for free. The whole microseries takes us from the end of the attack of the clones, as still unidentified phantom menace pushes its grips to take over the republic. It starts with a Padawan Anakin with a golden robotic hand, fighting as the republic strikes back. Not only Anakin grows in strength, but also faces his greatest challenge so far that leaves him as a Jedi Knight with a black robotic arm. Yoda and Mace Windu kick some serious ass. Force pushing a whole robot army is a feat to be seen. Griveous is a scary, deathly, light saber collecting, Jedi killing machine that begs to be seen. Finally, the Clone Wars sets the story to Episode 3 by closing as the audience sees the return of the Jedi Anakin skywalker to Coruscant. This experimental series is much better than Episode 1 or Episode 2. Awesome. Watch it if you haven't. It will give you a new hope.
Now I'm ready to go see The Revenge of the Sith.

Rum Tasting

10 dollars gave me access to a Rum Tasting event. I tried every rum I was slightly curious about (14) and the rest were just generic girly rums. They had some expensive rums, such as Pyrat Cask 23, that goes for 200$ a bottle and 50$ a shot. Nevertheless I can say that, although the didn't have it there, yes, my bottleDon Q Gran Añejo is the best rum in the world by far.

Metal Gear Solid 4 Promo Poster

Metal Gear Solid 4 will be directed by Hideo Kojima.

I think I can identify in the promo poster Vamp, Revolver, Solid, Otacon. Do you recognize anyone else? Is that Meryl?

Advent Children Trailer

The new trailer for Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children is out. Here is the torrent for it. It hits the main plot, shows some old characters (Barret!), new characters and features the One Winged Angel score. I can't forget to mention the Bahamut summon.