Geeklog Site

Quit whining about gas prices

Sun, 06 Jul 2008 16:14:36 -0400

Seriously they are not high enough... we need to get off this garbage anyway, and truthfully you could adjust your life to afford it if you think a little bit, Europe pays a lot more than we do and they make it work, and there are steps we can take to improve this situation anyway. We cover all of this and more at http://theentropyeffect.mypodcast.com/2008/07/Quit_whining_about_gas_prices-123182.html give it a listen it is worth your time.

It was all worth it

Mon, 23 Jun 2008 18:48:00 -0400

As promised at http://theentropyeffect.mypodcast.com/2008/06/It_was_all_worth_it-119951.html

Our Liberal Media

Mon, 23 Jun 2008 18:40:35 -0400

PODCASTOur media is so liberal... Here are the links that I promised you at http://theentropyeffect.mypodcast.com/2008/06/Our_Liberal_Media-119866.html

Al Gore Invented the internet (3:41 � 4:09) This got mysteriously removed...

Even The National Enquirer

Communist Chris Matthews

Terrorist Fist Jab

Baby Momma

Knock off Osama AND Obama

Thank you for your patronage!

The Entropy Effect Podcast

Sun, 15 Jun 2008 02:07:52 -0400

Everyone (assuming any non spambots ever read this site) please go check out our new podcast at http://theentropyeffect.mypodcast.com hopefully this will become a regular segment, I hope everyone enjoys, and if you don't I hope you keep listening anyway. :)

Elizabeth Kucinich supports Food Not Bombs

Wed, 05 Dec 2007 18:40:35 -0500

If you needed more reason to support Dennis Kucinich then read on... If you needed more of a reason to support Dennis Kucinich (although you shouldn't by this point) read the article linked to below. Dennis' wife Elizabeth (who, while not related to this story, but still worth mentioning, is quite the looker) recently attended a Food Not Bombs event in Fresno, California, is an appearance as useful as useful as donating time and money to the FNB cause? No. But if we can get Dennis elected, see the kind of changes a man like him can make, and get used to electing officials like him, we will eventually have no (or at least a lot less) for wonderful organizations like FNB.

If you do not know what Food Not Bombs is go here and find out http://www.foodnotbombs.net/

If you are unfamiliar with Dennis Kucinich go here http://www.dennis4president.com/

Once you have all of that information go read the article here http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2007/12/03/18464923.php

Thank you,Chris

Why...

Mon, 26 Nov 2007 17:21:13 -0500

Why... is everyone content? Sure you might want to make more money, have a bigger house, nicer car, a different/better woman or man, and other things that most people associate with progress, but none of that stuff matters. What I am talking about is being content with where they are as a person. Is it just an insecurity that makes you have to think you are doing everything right with yourself in order to make it possible to cope? Is it arrogance, or ignorance? If everyone would spend some real time working on themselves (let alone helping others improve) we would be so much better off. I know I am being vague, but it is difficult for me to describe with out a common frame of reference. It is kind of like the movie The Matrix, but much simpler, and more time consuming. With training you can become more aware of circumstances and gradually begin being able to choose instead of just being a total victim of cause and effect, or taking the red pill. There are plenty of tools that mankind has known about since time began (more or less) meditation, martial arts, introspection, study, and even CERTAIN religious practices (again I am being vague, contact me if you want more specifics) will all help us to stop being a victim, and a primitive person whose only concern is survival (food, and shelter). If we spend time working on improving ourselves we can then work together much more effectively to solve the larger problems facing all of us. I hope none of you think I am being pretentious or arrogant as I include myself amongst the described, I just see opportunities that most people are missing and feel obligated to help be part of the solution instead of the problem (to use a clich�). Thank you for reading. Namaste

Rupert Murdoch

Sat, 25 Aug 2007 01:58:37 -0400

I know some of you think I am a liberal nut job, others of you think I am right but pointless, some of you just don't care, and the rest of you are just disappointed that my bulletin's do not just consist of "101 things you didn't know about me!" or whatever, but please take the time to read this article, and do your home work on this man and his company. After this deal he will control a large percentage of the media, Newscorp has more child companies (including this very site) then you can probably imagine, which means a large percentage of what you see, hear, and read is controlled directly by this man and his consigliore. One man having to much power is a bad thing no matter what he believes, but this man is so far off his moral compass that he will not think twice about using his power to twist the facts that you ingest to lead you in whatever direction he desires; he has the potential to have a very negative impact on the population and therefore the world. So I beg everyone to take the time to think about what you are assimilating, consider the source, the implications of all sides (not BOTH sides, as a lot of issues are not just black and white) compile this information, and form correct opinions. Like my favorite T-Shirt says "Think, it's not illegal yet!" it is meant as a joke, but it is imperative that we do it. - End Sermon. :>

From msnbc.com: Aug. 13, 2007 issue - Rupert Murdoch, owner-in-waiting of The Wall Street Journal, is taking the high road. After a bitter three-month battle to win approval from enough bickering Bancrofts to buy their Dow Jones & Co., the mogul struck a gracious tone with the family, whose century of control he was now bringing to an end. "Given the Bancrofts' long and distinguished history as custodians of Dow Jones, we appreciate how difficult this decision was for some family members," Murdoch said in a statement issued in the wee hours of Wednesday morning, after receiving enough votes from family members to ensure his $5.6 billion purchase of the company. "I want to offer the Bancrofts my thanks, and an assurance that our company and my family will be equally strong custodians." With that, the great battle for Dow Jones came to a close.

But the war for the future of journalism is just beginning. When combined with News Corp. properties like Fox News and the soon-to-be-launched Fox Business Network, Murdoch's purchase of the Journal will create a juggernaut whose influence ranges far beyond the world of financial news and information. With plans to expand the Journal's political and international coverage, Murdoch is itching for a fight with the nation's presumed newspaper of record, The New York Times, as well as the Financial Times of London. "I want it to be more competitive with The New York Times," Murdoch told Times columnist Joseph Nocera on Saturday. Last week, after the deal was clinched, the Journal's editorial page, accusing Murdoch's critics of "commercial" and "ideological" motives, blasted the two Timeses for giving credence to concerns that Murdoch will turn the paper into a mouthpiece for his own right-wing political and business interests. The next day, Roger Ailes, Murdoch's TV news czar, quipped to NEWSWEEK that The New York Times "used to be the paper with all the news fit to put in the bottom of your dog kennel." Pause. "Now, when their owners leave, the dogs are calling up and canceling their subscriptions. It's a dying asset." Ouch.

Murdoch's competitors are already girding for the fight. Executives of the New York Times Co. have met at least once in the past month specifically to discuss Murdoch, according to two well-informed Times journalists who asked not to be named because they aren't authorized to discuss corporate matters. Declining a NEWSWEEK request to interview Times CEO Arthur Sulzberger Jr., the company's top spokesperson said only that the Journal "has been a good competitor and we expect it to continue to be." At the same time, with Ailes's Fox Business Network set to launch in October, CNBC is making a not-so-subtle point of reminding viewers and investors that it is No. 1 in cable business news in the United States (for now, of course). Not to be left out, Bloomberg last Friday touted industry research that it says shows Bloomberg Television "as the network of choice for influential viewers internationally." Time Warner has assembled Time Inc. Business and Finance Network. Thomson Corp. has fortified its position in news and data delivery with the $17 billion acquisition of Reuters. But it is Murdoch, a maverick and master of asymmetrical assaults on existing media segments, who has escalated the stakes most dramatically. Murdoch's promised expansion of the Journal will total "hundreds of millions of dollars," a confidant tells NEWSWEEK on condition of remaining nameless because he's unauthorized to speak on the matter.

Murdoch declined to comment. But during his campaign to woo the Bancrofts, he said he would expand the Journal both geographically and in terms of content. He wants to build the paper's presence in Europe, India and other parts of Asia. He's pledged to enlarge the Journal's Washington bureau. He's considering increasing the size of the paper by four pages.

If the ranks of Journal reporters recoiled at the notion of a meddlesome Murdoch as their owner, the Journal's hierarchy has grown enthusiastic. "Having access to [Murdoch's] satellite, cable, digital and television networks, and especially to his presence overseas, will accelerate getting our journalism distributed more broadly," publisher Gordon Crovitz told NEWSWEEK. If the newspaper had "resources to expand into general news," he said, "our readers would value that."

Because the Journal already has an exclusive deal for its reporters to appear on CNBC until 2012, it's unclear what role, if any, the paper will play in Murdoch's new business channel. CNBC boss Mark Hoffman pointedly tells NEWSWEEK that "he hopes the quality of the material" his channel gets from the Journal "will continue at a high level." While Bloomberg is a key contender in the battle, with 200 million viewers worldwide (including 45 million in the United States), the main event is between CNBC and the Murdoch-Ailes team. There's a tense history here: Ailes was the top exec in CNBC's early years, but then moved to Murdoch. Ailes then wooed NBC employees to Fox News during its start-up years�and NBC, a unit of GE, threatened to sue both Ailes and Fox News.

Now he's at it again. In a NEWSWEEK interview, Ailes declined to disclose any details about the evolving business network, which will reach 30 million homes, about a third the size of CNBC's audience. Ailes intimates that CNBC staffers have been burning up his phone line seeking to jump ship. To keep CNBC guessing about the makeup of Fox Business Network, Ailes says he's been floating "disinformation the last nine months." One result, he claims, is that CNBC changed its slogan to "America's Business Channel" �because, Ailes says, "they thought I might be patriotic" on Fox Business Network. He notes that CNBC's highest-rated program is "a game show" called "Deal or No Deal." And he jokes that most of his rival's revenue comes from weekend infomercials "for nose tweezers and Body by Jake." CNBC's Hoffman says the network has no idea what Ailes and Fox are planning, but he dismisses Ailes's remarks, while a spokesman calls the assertion about the game-show ratings "naive."

With CNBC stronger than it's been in years, its executives are confident. But the rank and file seem more concerned. At a network-wide town-hall meeting last week, most of their questions for Hoff-man and NBC Universal CEO Jeff Zucker were about Murdoch's upstart network. Zucker and Hoffman told them "to be confident but not arrogant." Hoffman says the key is to stay focused on the mission. "CNBC is a network for those who are wealthy and those who want to be wealthy, and that's what we stay focused on every day." We certainly know of one wealthy mogul who's watching very closely.

http://www.msnbc.com/id/20123487/site/newsweek

Consumed by Consumption

Mon, 09 Jul 2007 03:33:18 -0400

July is responsible consumption month... I went to the beach today (a source of energy that I don't take advantage of nearly as often as I should) and through out the portion I walked down, there were lemonade stands, chair rentals, umbrella rentals (done by life guards no less), parasail and jet-ski rental places, and air planes pulling signs for beach wear stores, all of which I found very typical and very frustrating, that even what should be one of the most natural places in the world is still bombarded with by capitalist propaganda (A.K.A. advertisements). Fact: the average American spends $1.22 for every $1 they make, for the math impaired that means they are 22% in debt and in most cases for consumer goods they do not need.

The world is not an endless resource, history teaches us this. We need to stop consuming every little resource the world has to offer and start consuming responsibly. The Interdependence Project has named July responsible consumption month, go here or here and learn more about it. It is imperative to our survival that we stop eating away our resources so we can have an iPhone or a H3, so get educated, get motivated, and get started.

Namaste,
Chris

The Supreme Court Was on Fire Today... (Bong Hits for Jesus)

Mon, 25 Jun 2007 18:20:41 -0400

Apparently the Supreme Court has decided that students don't get free speech, way to make them fall in line before they can use their brains to do any damage (read thinking) to the system. I wonder if it had said "Bong hits for Mohammed" or "Darwin was dumb" if anyone would have cared...From MSNBC.com: WASHINGTON - The Supreme Court tightened limits on student speech Monday, ruling against a high school student and his 14-foot-long "Bong Hits 4 Jesus" banner.

Schools may prohibit student expression that can be interpreted as advocating drug use, Chief Justice John Roberts wrote for the court in a 5-4 ruling.

Joseph Frederick unfurled his homemade sign on a winter morning in 2002, as the Olympic torch made its way through Juneau, Alaska, en route to the Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City.

Anti-free speech?

Frederick said the banner was a nonsensical message that he first saw on a snowboard. He intended the banner to proclaim his right to say anything at all.

His principal, Deborah Morse, said the phrase was a pro-drug message that had no place at a school-sanctioned event. Frederick denied that he was advocating for drug use.

"The message on Frederick's banner is cryptic," Roberts said. "But Principal Morse thought the banner would be interpreted by those viewing it as promoting illegal drug use, and that interpretation is plainly a reasonable one."

Morse suspended the student, prompting a federal civil rights lawsuit.

The winning side in the case was quick to assert that the decision was not anti-free speech

In their concurrence, Justices Samuel Alito and Anthony Kennedy specified that the court's opinion provides no support for any restriction on speech that goes to political or social issues.

It's a narrow ruling that "should not be read more broadly," said Kenneth Starr, whose law firm represented the school principal.

Limited student rights

Students in public schools don't have the same rights as adults, but neither do they leave their constitutional protections at the schoolhouse gate, as the court said in a landmark speech-rights ruling from Vietnam era.

The court has limited what students can do in subsequent cases, saying they may not be disruptive or lewd or interfere with a school's basic educational mission.

Frederick, now 23, said he later had to drop out of college after his father lost his job. The elder Frederick, who worked for the company that insures the Juneau schools, was fired in connection with his son's legal fight, the son said. A jury recently awarded Frank Frederick $200,000 in a lawsuit he filed over his firing.

Joseph Frederick, who has been teaching and studying in China, pleaded guilty in 2004 to a misdemeanor charge of selling marijuana at Stephen F. Austin State University in Nacogdoches, Texas, according to court records.

Conservative groups that often are allied with the administration are backing Frederick out of concern that a ruling for Morse would let schools clamp down on religious expression, including speech that might oppose homosexuality or abortion.

The case is Morse v. Frederick, 06-278.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19414576/

The Entropy Effect Relaunch

Sun, 03 Jun 2007 07:53:19 -0400

Welcome to The Entropy Effect... Greetings everyone, thank you for navigating your way here, whether by accident or design. I just want to give everyone a quick history of the site, as well an idea of where the site is going from this point forward.

I started The Entropy Effect in 2003 right as the "blog" craze was beginning to take over. I wanted a place to write and commune with people in a way similar to the blogs I read at the time (this was before sites like Myspace became as popular as they are), as well as a place to keep my web design skills sharp so I created The Entropy Effect.

For a while I it was just me babbling about my life, eventually I had several other people writing about a wide variety of topics, and managed to get a nice little audience built up, but as often happens, life eventually got in the way and all of us began to write less and less, and eventually stopped altogether. This in combination with a security flaw in the design of the site which caused an inundation of comment spam left the site in limbo for almost two years.

Over the course of those two years I began getting more and more involved in issues that affect the world, and more and more concerned with the way things were going in the world. I really wanted to make a difference, but was really unsure how to go about it. I decided the greatest tool at my disposal was communication, so I began writing on various topics in various places (primarily Myspace). I decided I needed to paint with a broader brush, that is to say attract a bigger audience, as well as a more receptive audience, and someone to help assist me. I still had The Entropy Effect, which had basically become my portable hard drive and file dump. So I decided to reliance it with the intent of using it as a medium to convey my message to the world (I really did not intend for that to sound as pretentious as it did). I also figured with the advent of friend sites like Myspace that I could find an audience (though I am still concerned that I will end up preaching to the converted) for the site and help it to be successful.

Well as I often do I have gotten much wordier than I intended to. I just wanted to say that this endeavor will be taking up a lot of my time as I really intend to make it a success, so I appreciate any support anyone can give, don't think of it as helping me, and think of it as helping the world.

Chris - The Entropy Effect