Sure, it’s just a cool feat of programming, but guessthename.com is really neat little toy. It sometimes works better than others. I don’t where people get the free time do do something like this, or even why they would do this, but I know I like it.
How many chances should a person get? One? Two? Three strikes, you’re out? That’s obviously not the case when it comes to underachieving basketball players.
NBA player Isaiah Rider has been in the league for nine years and is now with his fifth team. During that time in the NBA, he’s averaged a respectable 16.8 points per game, and yet this season he was almost unable to land a contract for the league minimum salary (which, by the way, is $840,000).
Why? Because everywhere he’s gone, his impish presence has cast a demonic shadow over the team and all of its personnel. And while one would think the specter of unemployment that loomed over Rider’s head for three or four months might make the guy change his ways, one would be wrong. On Tuesday, Rider failed to join his newest team—the Denver (Chicken) Nuggets—for the season’s first workout. The 30-year-old veteran with a reputation for tardiness, legal trouble, and multitudinous tomfoolery, was the lone no-show at the team’s first two practices. Even a guy who traveled from China made it to camp before the immature, ungrateful Rider!
When interviewed by ESPN.com, Nuggets Head Coach Dan Issel intimated that Rider might be running out of chances. “We hope the kid can make it, but we can’t give him one chance after another after another.” Issel said. “If he shows up and he plays hard he will be here. If he doesn’t, he won’t. It’s that simple.”
But we’ve heard such claims before. Like before he joined the Atlanta Hawks, and the Blazers, and the World Champion Lakers just last season. Not that he offered much help with winning the 2001 title. Rider played in only 12 of 18 games during March and April and averaged just over 3 points. He didn’t even make the playoff roster. (Can you say, “Loser”?)
I suggest Issel exorcise the demon now. Before it’s too late. Don’t let this virus infect a good team with his idiocy and infantile, lackadaisical nature. No good can come of it. It’s not like the (Creamy) Nuggets can’t find another guy with just as much talent. You give me $840,000, and I’ll scour playgrounds across the nation to find five guys that’ll twist Rider’s dome so far around, he’ll emit visions of Regan MacNeil. Act now, Issel. Otherwise, Rider will soon have you pulling a Father Karras out the bedroom window. And that, gentle citizen, is downright scary.
I mentioned it in my last post and you can check CNN’s coverage here. It seems that an explosion caused the plane to plunge into the Black Sea. All of this is from the eyewitness of some pilots flying near the doomed plane at the time of the incident. It is yet to be seen if it was a result of a terrorist act or not. Please click more if you would like to read a copy of the CNN article mirrored here for your convenience.
Update: Now “U.S. sources” are saying that a Ukrainian missile fired during military exercises may be to blame for the explosion that caused the plane to crash. MOSCOW, Russia (CNN) — A Russian plane flying 77 people from Israel to Russia exploded before crashing into the Black Sea, Russian officials have said.
Russian President Vladimir Putin told a meeting of European Union Justice ministers the incident was possibly the result of terrorism.
Israel, which operates some of the most stringent aviation safety measures, has cancelled all take-offs from Ben-Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv as a result.
U.S. officials say an unconfirmed factor in the crash could have been missiles fired during a Ukrainian military exercise.
Israel’s Transport Ministry said it would be investigating all theories. It said there was no evidence yet pointing to an act of terror but it had not been ruled out.
The Sibir Airlines Tu-154 nose-dived into the Black Sea at about midday on Thursday during a flight from Tel Aviv to the Siberian city of Novosibirsk.
CNN’s Jill Dougherty in Moscow said early reports showed the Sibir pilot had given air traffic controllers “no indication” of any problems. “Whatever happened, happened quickly,” she added.
Both the Russian Transport Ministry and domestic security service said the pilot of an Armenian An-24 plane flying near the Tu-154 had reported to Russian air traffic controllers in Rostov-on-Don, southern Russia, that he had seen an explosion aboard the plane.
“The Armenians informed us that they saw the plane exploding in mid-air,” FSB chief Nikolai Patrushev said during a meeting with President Vladimir Putin shown on television, Reuters reported.
Garik Ovanisian, the pilot of the Armenian plane, was quoted by The Associated Press as saying: “I saw the explosion on the plane, which was above me at an altitude of 11,000 metres (36,790 feet) above the Black Sea.
“The plane fell into the sea, and there was another explosion in the sea. After that I saw a big white spot on the sea and I had the impression that oil was burning.”
It is feared 66 passenger and 11 crew members were on board the regular weekly charter flight 1812 when it crashed.
Most, if not all the passengers, were reported to be Israelis.
An investigation will be held, led by Vladimir Rushailo, head of the presidential security council, and attempts to retrieve the flight’s data recorders will be made.
Putin immediately called a meeting of security advisers after being alerted to the crash, and sent a search and rescue team to the site to look for any survivors as well as divers to find any possible evidence.
Putin was shown on Russian television saying “every shred of evidence” had to be retrieved from the crash site as “quickly as possible.”
“We need to collect everything there — get the experts examining everything,” he added.
“If the depth allows, we need to get divers searching for the flight data recorder. We need it badly.”
Every plane arriving and departing Ben-Gurion airport undergoes strict security measures and all planes are guarded on the tarmac. Passengers boarding planes also undergo exhaustive security checks.
Dougherty said: “There is huge concern in Russia in an atmosphere of terrorism.
“There is a fear that Russia could be targeted for some sort of retribution for its support of a global crackdown on international terrorism.”
Vasily Yurchuk, Spokesman for the Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations, said the plane went down 185 kilometres (114 miles) off the Russian coastal city of Adler, near the Georgian border, The Associated Press reported.
Of course, we are all worried and contemplative over recent events in NY, DC, and PA. Add to that the possible terrorist attack on a Russian jet leaving Israel, and my mind is absolutely swimming in confusion. I don’t what to do. Just sit here and keep working or go home and curl up in my bed.
Well, to keep myself sane in this insane times, I have turned to a little sub-hobby that Jetteva and I share, Astronomy. Jetteva shared with me this neat program, XPlanet, that loads an image of whatever planet you want to your background based on its true rotation and axis tilt. The program is amazingly configurable and surprisingly easy on your PC’s resources.
Earlier this morning, I was pointed to OpenUniverse which is a full-featured Astronomy program that can be had for free. The adjustments and views in this program are limitless and help me, a lowly earth-bound meatbag, visualize the beauty and majesty of the universe. It is an awe-inspiring concept to behold.
Of course, I don’t mention terrorism and the beauty of the universe without making some connection. I think that programs like these and any activity that helps us to realize how small we are in the grand scheme of things make us realize that as humans we have so much in common. What we think of as our greatest differences: race, religion, creed, economic or social standing are absolutely insignificant. The stress on the word insignificant can’t be enough. We are nearly a blight on the great mystical creation that is our planet. Perhaps, if more of us realized that our time here on Earth and our sheer existence is a gift that has no equal, we could start to put aside our differences and reach out to our universe and try to find some other life. I can imagine that would make us honestly realign ourselves and begin to describe ourselves as humans and not Christians or Muslims or Jews or Black or White or Arab or Chinese. Just humans. Such is the power of nature’s majesty.
I just finished watching The West Wing’s Isaac and Ishmael. Penned by creator Alan Sorkin, this show attempts to deal with some of the questions and issues currently facing the world in the wake of the recent terrorist attacks on the United States. As the president of NBC Entertainment said, “Alan has something to say, and he’s saying it.”
Building up to the show, I was very curious about how the show would be handled. Would the show start with an image of a car bomb? A hijacking? Or the President at an event somewhere with an aid rushing up to inform him of a terrorist act? No, neither of these options took place or were even near to how it was handled. Instead, Josh Lyman (Bradley Whitford) is speaking with a group of high school students when a Secret Service agent comes in the room to lock down the area. And thus we start. The show makes a subtle shift. You realize that some terrorist act has taken place, but not right then, but rather weeks ago. The incident actually taking place is minor to the details. But the high school students and the White House staff are reacting more to an event that happened before, but is still fresh in their memories.
“Why do they hate us?” a student asks. That is when the lesson begins. I say lesson because the show does not unfold like any other West Wing episode. Rather, this is an open forum. The only difference is it was a scripted one. The students ask questions with the White House staff answering and moderating the discussion. Nearly the whole show takes place in the White House cafeteria with the student gathered around in chairs.
“Why do they hate us?” a student asks. The lessons begin. They are not a “they” but rather Islamic extremist. This group can’t be lumped into such a pronoun as loose as “they.” Quickly followed by Josh Lyman writing “Islamic extremist is to Islam what the KKK is to Christianity” on a white board.
Question after question is asked, and point after point is made. To be honest, it was more educational than the average documentary and even more entertaining than the average show. The most moving part was when Charlie Young (Dule Hill) expresses empathy for gangs in the United States. He explains how a young kid, growing up in poverty, can find acceptance and even pride amongst the gang. But they way he says it, for just an instant, you can relate and feel what it must be like.
There were a few segments that took place away from the cafeteria and its educational narrative. As part of the show the Secret Service discover that an alias of one of the known terrorist is also the name of a White House employee. Upon learning this, Leo McGarry (John Spencer) says, “It was just a matter of time.” It’s is an interesting dichotomy that while high school students were learning to look deeper into the issue, the Chief-of-Staff automatically assumes an Arab employee is a terrorist based only on his name.
As the interrogation ensues, another form of education takes place. Not only on the show, but in the living room. The manner in which the interrogation unfolds, the viewer makes the easy assumption that the Arab staffer is a terrorist, or at least has terrorist ties. As more and more information is learned, it becomes evident that the staffer is just a staffer. Sure, he has been to a demonstration and he believes that US troops should leave Saudi Arabia, but those beliefs do not make someone a terrorist. In fact, we learn more about ourselves from the young staffer than we learn about him. He forces you to analyze what it is you really believe and think. And he’s asking you to be smarter than that. Smarter than people who will hate, or at least suspect, because someone is a different race.
The questions asked by the high school students should be familiar. They are the questions everyone has been hearing from coworkers, fellow students, family members and friends. I sense that what we are being told, albeit subtly, is that the general knowledge of the issues is akin to what a high school student knows in comparison to what a college educated adult knows. Not that high school educated kids don’t know anything, or that college educated adults know everything, but there is a different level of perspective that skews toward a different maturity and life experience. Essentially, we are being asked to be smarter, think, and don’t be scared to ask questions to be sure that we understand all the aspects of the issue.
NBC took a risk in making this show. In a period of time when nearly all movies and TV shows are erasing all references to the World Trade Center, the West Wing deals with the issues surrounding the event with elegance and authority. NBC could have taken a black eye over facing the issue head on while others are distinctively not, or they could be lauded for their frankness. I hope they are lauded and I hope America tuned in.