Friday, July 31, 2009
Reconsidering Star Wars IV in the light of I-III
If we accept all the Star Wars films as the same canon, then a lot that happens in the original films has to be reinterpreted in the light of the prequels. As we now know, the rebel Alliance was founded by Yoda, Obi-Wan Kenobi and Bail Organa. What can readily be deduced is that their first recruit, who soon became their top field agent, was R2-D2.
Consider: at the end of RotS, Bail Organan orders 3PO's memory wiped but not R2's. He wouldn't make the distinction casually. Both droids know that Yoda and Obi-Wan are alive and are plotting sedition with the Senator from Alderaan. They know that Amidala survived long enough to have twins and could easily deduce where they went. However, R2 must make an impassioned speech to the effect that he is far more use to them with his mind intact: he has observed Palpatine and Anakin at close quarters for many years, knows much that is useful and is one of the galaxy's top experts at hacking into other people's systems. Also he can lie through his teeth with a straight face. Organa, in immediate need of espionage resources, agrees.
For the next 20 years, as far as 3PO knows, he is the property of Captain Antilles, doing protocol duties on a diplomatic transport. He is vaguely aware of the existence of the princess but doesn't know much about her. Wherever 3PO goes, being as loud and obvious as he always is, his unobtrusive little counterpart goes with him. 3PO is R2's front man. Wherever they land, R2 is passing messages between rebel sympathisers and sizing up governments as potential rebel recruits - both by personal contact and by hacking into their networks. He passes his recommendations on to Organa.
Yoda is out of the picture by this stage, using the Force-infused swamps of Dagobah to hide himself from Vader and the Emperor. Or something. He is meditating on the future and keeping in touch with Obi-Wan via the ghost of Qui-Gon Jin, which as comm systems go has the virtue of being untappable. Obi-Wan, on Tattoine, keeps in touch with Bail Organa and the other Rebel leaders by courier, of which more later.
As Star Wars opens, R2 is rushing the Death Star plans to the Rebellion. R2, not Leia. The plans are always in R2. What Leia puts into him in the early scene is only her own holographic message to Kenobi. Leia's own mission, as she says in the holographic message, is to pick up Obi-Wan and take him to Alderaan - or so she thinks. Actually, her father just wants her to meet Kenobi, which up to this point she never has. There's a reason for that.
Obi-Wan has spent the last 20 years in the Tattoine desert, keeping watch over Luke Skywalker and trying to decide on one of the three available options:
A) If Luke shows no significant access to the Force, then leave him alone in obscurity
B) If Luke shows real Force ability, then consider recruiting him as a Jedi. The rebellion needs Jedi. Now.
But, if Luke shows any signs of turning out like his father, then C) sneak into his house one fine night and chop his head off. With great regret but it'll save a lot of trouble later on.
Knowing this to be the case, Bail Organa (perhaps at the insistence of his wife) has found excuses not to send Leia to Ben for assessment of Jedi potential, largely for fear of option C.
To be fair to all concerned, Leia has shown no overt signs of a link to the Force. Luke on the other hand has. In his home-built hotrod aircraft, with no formal fighter pilot training and no decent instrumentation, Luke can regularly score centre-hits on 2-metre targets in complicated zero-altitude maneouvres. Until he attends the briefing on Yavin, Luke has no way of knowing that hardened combat pilots would consider that nearly impossible. To him it's easy. Obi-Wan, who saw Anakin's performance in the Pod Race, is nervous.
Much of Obi-Wan's behaviour in this film, and Yoda's in the next, can best be understood if they are frankly scared to death of what Luke might become. (Ben is also scared that he himself will make all the same mistakes he made with Anakin.)
Now, with the existence of the rebellion at stake, Bail Organa has finally told Leia to go see Obi-Wan and has sent her along with R2. The original plan would then be for Obi-Wan (with optional Luke and/or Leia in tow) to leave his exile and take the Death Star plans to Yavin, where they can be put to use. R2 (with Leia if Ben doesn't want to take her) would then carry on to Alderaan to maintain the cover story. The original plan does not survive contact with a large Imperial Star Destroyer.
R2 and 3PO bail out in an escape pod, landing in vaguely the right area of Tattoine, where R2's first priority is transport. He arranges to be captured by a group of Jawas and, once on board their transport, he makes a deal with them (possibly using emergency funds stored about his person) to take him where he wants to go. The Jawas refuse to go directly to Kenobi for fear of marauding Sandpeople but they agree to R2's second request : transport to the Skywalker farm. They even get to keep the purchase price if they can sell R2 and 3PO there. The Jawas shake on it and go through with the plan.
Seeing 3PO fail to recognise the farm where he worked for 10 years gives r2 a moment's amusement but, as soon as possible, he gets away and heads for Kenobi. Luke and 3PO follow, which may or may not have been part of the plan.
On first seeing R2, Obi-Wan has a twinkle in his eye and calls him "my little friend". Well, he is. However, when Luke wakes up and says that R2 claimed to be owned by an Obi-Wan Kenobi, he blandly says "I don't seem to remember ever owning a droid." Ben has in fact owned several but the remark is aimed at R2 and translates as "You keep quiet. I'm not about to tell him everything just yet." Obi-Wan thinks fast and tells Luke a version of his past that does not involve a father who became a dark lord of the Sith. He wants to examine Luke a lot more closely before he risks telling him the real truth.
Although the Death Star plans need to get to Yavin as soon as possible, Obi-Wan needs to make one more diversion first. If the Empire knows that Leia is a Rebel leader, then they also know about her father and the whole Organa family may need immediate evacuation. Fortunately, before coming to Tattoine, R2 had already arranged transport, which is waiting at Mos Eisley, under the command of the Rebellion's other chief field agent and espionage asset. Chewbacca.
20 years earlier, Chewbacca was second in command of the defence of his planet. He's there in the tactical conferences and there on the front lines and is a personal friend of Yoda's. When he needed reliable people to join the embryonic Alliance, who else would Yoda turn to but his old friend from Kashykk? Given his background, there is no way that Chewie would spend the crucial years of the rebellion as the second-in-command to (sorry Han) a low-level smuggler. Unless it's his cover. In fact, Chewie is a top-line spy and flies what is in many ways the Rebellion's best ship.
The Millenium Falcon may look like a beat-up old freighter but it can outrun any Imperial ship in normal space or hyperspace, hang in a firefight with a Star Destroyer or outmaneouvre a dozen top-of-the-line TIE fighters. It's a remarkable feat of engineering and must have cost a colossal fortune to build. How does Han come to own a ship like that? He only thinks he does, actually it's Chewie's. Half-way through RotS, we see the Falcon landing at the Senate building on Coruscant. If it's the same ship (which of course it is) then it was the personal transport of one of the senatorial delegations - a much more likely source to commission its design. That delegatino must have later joined the Rebellion and given it the use of the Falcon. In fact, if the delegation is the one from Kashykk, then the ship may have belonged to Chewbacca as early as RotS.
Han is Chewie's front man. It's much better, and safer for him, if he doesn't know what's really going on. Chewie used to work with Lando Calrissian in a similar way but Lando wanted to settle down, so Chewie arranged for him to lose the Falcon in a card game to Han Solo, an even better choice as partner. Han and Chewie's working method is pretty much what we see in the cantina scene: Chewie make the contacts and sets up the deals, then turns them over to Han who haggles over the price and gives the final yea or nay. This lets Chewie wander the seamy underside of the galaxy pretty much at will, making contacts, gathering and passing information with no-one was the wiser, especially not Han.
Chewie persuaded Han to do business with Jabba the Hutt so he could make regular runs to Tattoine, where Chewie could pass messages between Kenobi and Organa. When R2's urgent message came through only days before, the only way for Chewie to get back to Tattoine in time was to make the "mistake" that forced Han to dump his cargo to avoid capture. As a down side, this led to Solo's getting a death mark out on him from Jabba the Hutt. Chewie was a bit upset about the need for that but figured they weren't going to be dealing with Tattoine for much longer.
En route to Alderaan, R2 and Chewie play stop-motion chess. This is the latest in a series of games they've played over the year in the back rooms of space stations and cantinas across the galaxy, but this is the first time they've done it in front of their respective straight men, so they put on a big show.
Then it all goes wrong again. Alderaan is gone and the Falcon is caught and brought aboard the Death Star. Only Han, Luke and 3PO don't know just how much trouble they're in but Obi-Wan has a plan and seems confident (but Jedi always do). Soon afterwards, R2 finds Leia in the detention cells and shouts that they have to rescue her, to which Chewie can only agree. If Vader learns he has a daughter, then they're all in deep trouble, so Chewie does his bit to persuade Han to go along with Luke's plan.
Then, on the verge of escape, Vader himself turns up only yards from both of his children, one of whom is leaking Force all over the place. Obi-Wan stages a distraction by letting himself die and go into the Force while the others escape. At this point, Chewie suddenly realises that he's been left in charge, not only of the Death Star Plans and the survival of the Rebellion but of the secret son and daughter of Darth Vader. With the Organas and Kenobi all dead, only Chewie, R2 and Yoda know who Luke and Leia are. And only Ob-Wan knew where Yoda has been hiding. Chewie is stressed out by the responsibility and R2 (who keeps making crude jokes about the whole affair) is being no help at all.
Chewie's first problem is what is happening between Luke and Leia. With a psychic link they can feel but don't understand, thrown together in a life-or-death escape, they are looking at each other with a sparky intensity that Chewie gradually recognises as Romantic Tension. He's no expert on human relationships but Chewie is fairly sure that that's Wrong, so he does the only thing he can under the circumstances - he throws Han at her. Han is at first not interested but after a while starts to warm to the idea with an intensity that gives Chewie new worries.
When they reach Yavin, Han decides to take the money and run and Chewie decides to go with him. Looked at in cold light, it's for the good of the Rebellion. Even if Yavin is destroyed, there'll be one agent who knows what's going on who can try and put something back together, but he doesn't feel good about it. When Han decides to turn around and join the attack, Chewie is all for it.
Han and Luke get medals but Chewie doesn't. Actually, Leia offers him one but Chewie turns it down. He got one of those things from Yoda about 20 years ago, but there's no way he can tell her that.
As the film ends, the three founders of the Rebellion are all gone. Bail Organa is dead, Yoda is out of contact and Obi-Wan's ghost can only talk to other Jedi. (So that would be Yoda then.) Thus, the field leadership of the rebellion has just been turned over to the daughter of Darth Vader. Chewie is really hoping that someone with an official rank greater than hers will get here real soon before he has to think really seriously about option C.
© Keith Martin 2005
Thursday, July 30, 2009
trust me.
Monday, July 13, 2009
Today we’re going to take a look at a piece of automotive equipment that most people don’t give much thought to unless you’re blinded by them or forget to turn them on and get a freakin’ ticket. Headlights have been around for longer than automobiles (carriages used lights that were basically lanterns), but the vast increase in speed afforded by the auto meant that old technologies just wouldn’t cut it in the new order of things. Join us to explore how the headlight evolved into the high-tech device we know today.
Carbide (Acetylene) Lamps: 1880s to about 1900
Carbide lamp showing flame and reflector.
The earliest headlight technology was essentially a lantern with a reflecting mirror. This focused the light source though an opening in the lantern, but because there were no effective headlight lenses at this time, the beam was fairly unfocused and there was significant scattering of the light upwards as glare. This, combined with the low-candlepower light sources of the time, meant that they were a weak, low-speed-only means of illumination – unfocused and with poor range. Plus, a good gust of wind or a wayward splash of water could snuff the flame. The fuel was usually oil, or the more weather-resistant acetylene. Acetylene lamps were also known as carbide lamps, and had been developed for mining. Gas was produced by dripping water on calcium carbide, which produced the acetylene gas, which was then burnt in the lamp. However, the flame was sooty and the byproduct was caustic lime, a toxic substance that had to be disposed of. An improvement was badly needed …
Early Electric Lights: 1898
A Columbia Electric.
In the early days, when gasoline-powered cars were loud, dirty, and dangerous to start (before electric starters, the starter crank definitely could break your arm if you did it wrong), electric cars actually outsold them. So it’s probably no surprise that the first electric headlights debuted on an electric car, a Columbia. They weren’t necessarily an improvement right off the bat: they had weak tungsten filaments that often broke on the rough roads of the time. Soon they were adopted by gas vehicles, but at that point all gasoline-powered vehicles used dynamos rather than the alternators we know of today, and basically they produced a lot less electricity. The bottom line is that these headlights were dim and broke easily, and probably most importantly, still didn’t have a lens to focus their light. That innovation would come soon after.
Lens-Focused Headlight: the Corning Conaphore, ~1910s
The Corning glass company of Corning, NY, debuted their revolutionary Conaphore headlight in the 1910s. Borrowing a page from lighthouses and other lens-focused light apparatus, the Conaphore was the first modern headlamp (other than an early attempt by Hella to use a lens technology on an acetylene headlight) because it used the lens to direct light from an electric bulb down and out in front of the car, allowing more of the available candlepower to illuminate the road. It was billed as a major safety innovation, eliminating accident-causing glare and increasing headlight range. How effective was it? It’s hard to say how it would compare to a modern headlight, but it was leaps and bounds above anything at the time. It was also the direct ancestor of all modern automotive lighting.
Hi/Low Beams: 1915-1917
1917 Cadillac.
The next innovation was in the same vein as the Conaphore: a way to better direct light down to the road and away from other drivers’ eyes. The solution this time was a “dipping” light – a headlight that was physically moved to change the angle of the beam downwards. This reduced the range but also lowered the beam enough to not blind oncoming traffic. The first system, developed by the Guide Lamp Company in 1915, required the driver to physically get out of the car to set the lights to “low” beam. Cadillac improved on the system in 1917 with a lever in the car that did the same thing.
Two-Filament Hi/Low Beams: 1924 Bilux
This system represented the hi/low beam setup we know today: two filaments in the same lamp, where the lamp stays in the same position physically and the switch merely affects the light’s output (wattage). This lead to the dimmer switch, initially a foot-operated one, but eventually the stalk-actuated dimmer that we’re most familiar with today.
Sealed Beam: 1940-1983
Chevrolet Impala showing quad sealed beam setup.
Anyone who’s worked on an American-market car from 1940 until the early 1990s knows about these guys. Much like a household flood light bulb, these one-piece lights combined the filament, reflector, housing, and lens, meaning that when it burned out, the whole thing needed replacement. They improved reliability somewhat because there was no way foreign matter could find its way into the lamp, possibly causing hot spots and early burnout, but mostly they were a method for the US government to ensure that all cars were using the same government-approved lights. Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard 108 required that all cars use a system of two 7″ round sealed beam headlight until 1970, when the Feds allowed rectangular headlights to sprout from some lucky vehicle fascias … mostly trucks. The big change happened in 1983, when composite headlights were allowed (but not required) to be utilized. It would be a few years before sealed beams would be phased out in almost all applications.
Composite Headlights: 1983-Present
The famous Taurus composite headlights.
As noted above, headlight options were limited for US-market cars, but in Europe there was all sorts of strangeness abounding. Glass-covered headlights, such as on the Jaguar E-type and the Citroen DS were common across the pond but taboo in the states. Then in 1983, Standard 108 was amended to allow what were called composite headlights. Instead of replacing the whole unit, all you had to do with a composite system was remove the bulb – the housing, lens, and reflectors were all permanent. The first US market car to sport such a headlight assembly was the 1984 Lincoln Continental Mark VII, recently restyled as part of the first wave of “aero-” or “jellybean-designed” cars that you probably can best visualize in the first-generation Ford Taurus. This allowed all sorts of unique front end designs to promulgate, and became the standard headlight type that you’re probably most familiar with.
Pop-Up Headlights: 1936-2004
Mazda Miata showing pop-ups (with 7 inch sealed beam lights)
Starting with the ‘36 Cord and ending only in 2004, when the Corvette was last produced with pop-up lights, this feature allowed for smooth, aerodynamic front ends and kept the lights clean when retracted. Of course, it added complexity and weight, needing motors or linkages to raise and lower the lights. In the 1960s, some cars were “required” to have them in order to meet US minimum-height laws for headlights. A majority of the reason that these lights have become less common is that European pedestrian safety regulations have rightly pegged a popped-up headlight as a hazard, and thus manufacturers have shied away from using them.
Halogen Bulbs
These could be more accurately called tungsten-halogen bulbs. As mentioned above, early electric headlights used tungsten filaments in a vacuum, which due to the properties of tungsten left the inside of the bulb blackened with residue. It was also not very efficient, needing a lot of power for a small amount of light. Enter then halogen lamp. Halogen is not a gas, it’s actually a group of gasses like chlorine and iodine. By combining a bit of one of these gasses with an inert filler gas, you can get a tungsten element to burn brighter with less energy … what’s not to like? Most modern headlights use halogen bulbs.
Projector Lens Headlights
Domed lens of a projector light visible on a Subaru Impreza.
Also known as polyellipsoidal lamps, these lights’ first use as the main standard headlight was on the 1986 BMW 7-Series. It places the bulb in the middle of a wine-glass shaped reflector. The light is focused into a convex lens, which then projects the light out into a very specifically defined pattern. A very sharp cutoff is achieved by blocking part of the light with an opaque shield, focusing more of the light down than in traditional lens lights. Some projector headlights switch between low and high beam by moving the shield, allowing for a higher cutoff. These are generally used in higher-end cars, notably BMW, Acura, and Mercedes-Benz.
High-Intensity Discharge (HID) Lights
A Lincoln showing HID lights.
The most recent revolution in headlight design is the high-intensity discharge, or “xenon,” lights. These are actually metal halide arc lights, which use two tungsten electrodes to arc a powerful electric charge. This charge interacts with the gases inside and vaporizes metal salts present in the bulb, producing a plasma that emits a very intense light. This is in contrast to a normal halogen bulb, which simply uses electricity to heat the filament until it is incandescent, emitting light. Temperatures inside a HID bulb can reach 2000 degrees F. Xenon gas is used the help the lamp warm up quickly and produce light, unlike argon-based arc lamps commonly used as streetlights, which would take far too long to work in an automotive setting. HID lights tend to have a unique color based on the different spectrum of light emitted by this different process; usually, it’s tinged blue. They are used in combination with projector lens headlamp assemblies to produce a very effective light at less power consumption than a normal halogen bulb. However, any contamination like dirt or dead bugs on the lens can cause a great deal of glare to be directed up and towards other motorists, and so care should be taken to keep HID lights clean to avoid blinding other drivers.
The Future: LEDs?
Lexus LS600, first LED headlight car.
Light-emitting diodes are the next big thing in automotive lighting. While currently expensive, LEDs offer several advantages. One of the most important is that they are low-heat producing, as they don’t heat up an element in order to produce light. However, there is heat produced from the back of the lamp, requiring complex and expensive heat sinks. That also means that in cold weather, you can’t count on an LED headlight to thaw ice or snow off of the headlight like you can with typical halogen or HID setups. They’re also temperature sensitive, giving different light levels at different ambient temperatures. Despite these engineering challenges, they give reasonable performance with lower energy consumption. The Lexus LS was the first auto to employ LED headlights beginning in 2008, although they’ve been used as parking lights, taillights, and turn signals for a while. Will they become the premium headlight technology of the future? Only time will tell.
That’s it! Hope you’ve enjoyed this quick look into something that most people don’t pay much attention to … unless they’re burned out, that is.
Thursday, July 09, 2009
The complete Trinbago Alphabet
The Creole dialect spoken by Tobagonians is a wonderful cosmopolitan mixture of words and expressions from many parts of the world, resulting from Trinidad's rich ethnic mix.
A
Ah - Substitute for 'I'
Allyuh - All of you people. A group
Ax (pron.Ask) - To ask a question
Aye-yah-yie - An expression of anticipation or pain, etc.
B
Bacchanal - Scandal, heavy quarrelling, big party, confusion
Back chat - Insolent response, especially from a child to an adult
Bad eye (cut-eye) - A look of anger, especially when looking from the corner of the eye
Ba-John - A bully or a really tough customer
Bamsee - The rear end, what you sit on
Bam-se Lambe - Rather attractive bamsee
Bol'face - A pushy person, unreasonably demanding
Broughtupsy - Showing that a person was properly brought up, decorum
Buh wait nah - But wait a minute, now hold on/it
C
Callaloo - A thick soup made from dasheen leaves, ochroes, coconut milk, seasoned to taste, invariably includes crab
Calypso - A musical and lyrical comment on any subject, usually composed for, but not limited to, the Carnival season
Calypsonian - One who sings calypsos
Cheups (Steups) - A noise made by sucking your teeth
Chinkee - Very tiny portions of anything
Chupid - Stupid
Chupidee - A foolish person
Coki-eye - Cross-eyed
Commesse - Confusion associated with arguments, gossip and slander
Cuff - Hitting someone or something with a clenched fist
Cyah - Can't
D
Da is you? - Is that you?
Dan-dan - Any sharp looking outfit
Dat good for yuh - Serves you right
Dat - That
Doh - Don't
Dotish - Silly, stupid, foolish and dumb
Dougla - Mixture of East Indians and African parentage
Drevait (dree-vay) - Wayward person who likes to 'knock about'
E
Eh - What did you say?
Eh-eh - No, no way, oh no
Eh-heh - Oh really? I understand. Yes
En'less - Plenty, endless
Ent? - Is that not so? That's true, isn't it?
F
Fall out - To stop speaking with someone or to terminate a friendship
Faddah - Father
Fed up - The state of being bored
Fete - A party, loud music, lots to eat and drink, dancing to wee hours of the morning
Fig - Banana (ripe fig and green fig)
Flim - Film
Founkie (foong-key) - Foul-smelling, stink odour
Fuh true/troot? - Yes that is true. Is that really so?
G
Goin'orf - Someone who appears to be going out of their mind, acting strangely
Gun talk - Fighting words, to threaten verbally
Gyul - Girl
H
Harden -Disobedient
Hototo (hotoetoe) - A very large amount of anything
I
I eh payin' tax fuh mih mout' - I could say anything I want
In ting - To be involved in current activity
Is so? - Is that so?
J
Jeez-an-ages - Used for any reason where an outburst is appropriate
Jook - To stab at anything
Jumbie - Spirit, ghost
Jus' now - In a little while
Jus' so? - Just like that?
Jus' so - Out of the blue, totally unexpected
K
Ketch - Catch
Klim - Any brand of powdered milk
L
Lef dat - Leave that
Leh - Let, let's
Leh go - Let go
Leh we - Let us
Lick dong - To accidentally hit someone or something
Licks - A beating, physical punishment
Like t'ing - To be somewhat mischievous
Lil'bit - In small meaningless portions
Lime - When a small group of people engage in a sometimes pre-arranged activity
Long eye - A person who is envious of the possessions of others
Look nuh! - An expression of annoyance
M
Maco - A person who minds other people's business for the purpose of gossip.
Macocious - A person having the trait of a maco
Maga - Very thin, skinny
Mamaguy - To make fun of, to ridicule
Mama Yo! - Expression denoting shock and surprise
Matter Fix - Everything is well organized
Mih han' slip - An expression used when too much of an ingredient is used
Mooma - Mother
Mout'er - A boaster
Much up - To pamper, to butter up
N
Nah - No
Nastiness - An expression of disgust applied to a good-for-nothing person
Never see come see - Someone who has recently been exposed to something new and who overdoes it to ridiculous proportions
Ning ning - Tired eyes
Now fuh now - Instantly
Nowherian - A person who does not have any fixed place of abode
O
Obzokee - Awkward in appearance, anything bent or twisted out of shape
Oh geed! - An expression used when an offensive smell arises
OH gosh! - Expression denoting shock, surprise indignation and admiration
Oh gorm man! - as above
Oh shimps man! - as above
Ol' talk - Idle chatter, social chit-chat
One set ah - A lot of anything
Own-way - Stubborn person
P
Pallet - Frozen lolly
Papa yo! - Exclamation of surprise
Pesh - Money
Pissin' tail - A person of no class or importance
Planasse - To hit someone continuously with the flat part of a cutlass
Playin' social - Someone who pretends to be of a higher social strata than they are
Pong - Pound
Po-po - Very small child, baby
Prim-prim - Disgustingly proper and formal
Q
Quenk - An irritating person
Qualey - Withered, dried up
R
Raff - To grab suddenly
Ragadang - Broken down
Ram-cram - Packed to capacity
Rumfle - Ruffled or wrinkled
S
Saga boy/girl - Flashy dresser, dandy
Shades - Sunglasses
Shif' yuh carcass - Move over, get going
Shub - Shove, move or cast aside
Skinnin' yuh teet' - Grinning
Skin up yuh nose - To turn up one's nose at anything
Sometimeish - Moody
Strims - Shrimps
Sweetie - Any confectionary
Swell up yuh face - To look angry, to pout
T
Tabanca - The forlorn feeling one gets when a love affair is over
Tanty - Aunt
Tight - Intoxicated, drunk, stoned
T'ing - Thing
To besides - Besides which
Too-tool-bay - A confused state, in a daze, also head over heels in love
Tot tots - Female breasts
U
Umpteen - Plenty of anything
V
Vampin' - An offensive smell
Vaps - To suddenly behave excitedly or in a strange manner
W
Wajang - A rowdy, uncouth person
Warap - A very weak mixture
Well yes! - An expression of disbelief
Whappen? - What's the matter with you?
Wha-happenin' dey? - What's happening
Whey - Where
Whey yuh say? - What did you say?
Y
Yampee - Mucus, found in the corner of the eye
You an' all? - You too?
You so - People like you
Yuh faddah head - An expression of annoyance
Yuh faddah is a glassmaker? - You are blocking my view
Yuh look fuh dat - It's your own fault
Yuh makin' joke! - You can't be serious!
Z
Zug-up - A rough and uneven cutting of anything
If more than three of these words are not familiar to you
YOU ARE OBVIOUSLY NOT A TRUE TOBAGONIAN!
Law#1-Pronounce N.O.S. as one word (NAWS).
Law#2-When you are outpowered, call people out with your friends car.
Law#3-Have an aftermarket body kit installed (Lips not included).
Law#4-Use neon or L.E.D to light up your car.
Law#5-Use an aftermarket tachometer...when your car already has a working stock tachometer in it.
Law#6-You must install a non-functional wing/spoiler on the back of your car.
Law#7-Names of performance parts on your car that you dont have.
Law#8-Claim to beat cars that your car is totally uncapable of beating.
Law#9-Magazine race.
Law#10-Install racing seats on a car that runs a 14 second or slower quarter mile.
Law#11-Listing stereo equiptment or any visual mod when listing all your performance mods.
Law#12-Believe that Honda invented VTEC.
Law#13-Putting sub-brand labels on your car...example:Honda emblems on an Acura, Audi on a VW..ect.
Law#14-Install an aftermarket duel-exhaust on a 4-cylinder.
Law#15-Make your exhaust sound like a lawn-mower.
Law#16-Buy a nitrous system just to purge.
Law#17-Using car donughts and calling them "skinnies".
Law#18-Mounting smaller tires to decrease gear ratio.
Law#19-Multi collored body panels.
Law#20-Claiming horse power and quarter mile times with out testing or proof.
Law#21-Talk about how fast your car will be once you buy and install all the parts.
Law#22-performing the ricer flyby
Law#23-fliping your hazard lights,during/after a loss or during a flyby
Law#24-subscribing to super street/sportcompact car
Law#25-boasting about your interior/power windows/sporty looks
Law#26-Say you lost because your car is running on a ****ty tune and needs to be tuned.......... when you're on the stock computer...
Law#27-rev @ every car on the road that will eat you(no matter what direction they are going)
Law#28-if some challenges you 2 a race you have 2 options
a.race and when you lose go to ws and lie your butt off
b.tell em they are a waste of time
Law#29-my clutch is slipping,
Law#30-If lose i missed a gear,
Law#31-or my vtec was set to low,
Law#32-when the vinyl work is worth more than the car,
Law#33-also calling the skinnies here is known as dookies,
Law#34-when someone does a neutral drop in an automatic,
Law#35-bouncing off the revlimiter more than once
Law#36-I started in 2nd intstead of 1st
Law#37-My shift light went off late
Law#38-I didnt catch posi trac on that one
Law#39-My shift nob came off (srt humor)
Law#40-Did you know green meant GO!
Law#41-My vtec juice light was flashing
Law#42-my trunk was weighed down from my 12s
Law#43-my strut bar snapped
Law#44-my neonlight valve stem covers are robbing hp
Law#45-I didnt double clutch like i should have
Law#46-If I didnt blow the welds on the intake i sure poop my pants on that one
Law#47-If the wing is bigger than the blechers at your local high school
Law#48-When the exhaust consist of coat hangers and jb weld
Law#49-Yeah its got about 5000 dollars invested in it ( and it looks like poop)
Law#50-Its a prototype that no one has (built from duct tape and blue glue and pvc piping)
Law#51-driving in and out of traffic with your vtak thinking you have a fast car
Law#52-Getting your #s from a g-tech or some other similar meter.
Law#53-using chicken wire as a mesh grill
Law#54-Remove your hubcaps and paint yer steelies to match the car
Law#55-Account at pepboys
Law#56-own both F+F and have ticket reserved for the third
Law#57-Cutting your factory springs to lower your car
Law#58-Having gauges that do not work
Law#59-When one car in the whole world runs 10s and you think your car is faster.
Law#60-Having a body kit and no plans on painting it
Law#61-When you double side tape parts to the car and expect them to hold up at 100 mph
Law#62-"Yeah its VTEC, but its not hooked up yet"
Law#63-When you consider primer as a color choice
Law#64-When you tell people it has a 9000 rpm redline and can only turn 6700
Law#65-58 if your name is Goki
Law#66-z3 fender flares on an import
Law#67-if you talk about owning a skyline someday and you drive a civic
Law#68-having windshield washer squirters with lights in them
Law#69-Cutting your factory springs to lower your car
Law#70-You refer as everything being JDM
Law#71-someone asks you if you have a turbo and you reply "not YET!"
Law#72-Tell people you are running nitrous,when its really N.O.S. octane booster.
Law#73-when you drive around some highschool parking lot 3 hours after schools out trying to pick up chicks
Law#74-taking your 50whp civic to a dyno when it's stock
Law#75-When you manually shift an automatic
Law#76-Going to the dragstrip with slicks and running a 16.05 in the 1/8
Law#77-When you drive around months at a time with spare tires on the front and custom rims in the back.
Law#78-All you do is brag about how much of a street racer you are
Law#79-Asking about staggared fitment rims on a FWD car.
Law#80-When your car consist of a GTR badge on the car and is not a skyline
Law#81-Its got a rotary motor in it and you drive a mustang
Law#82-you claim your car is fast then get butthurt so you claim your car is an autoX car.
Law#83-you post pics of your parents car and claim it for you own
Law#84-when you compare your $35k car to a $20k car
Law#85-List motor oil as a mod
Law#86-When your car has more torque in the lug nuts than in the motor
Law#87-list winshield wipers as a mod and carbon fiber pedals
Law#88-When your car has more than one squash air freshner in it
Law#89-When you transform your car into something else with a headlight swap and taillight swap
Law#90-When someone ask you if its mandrel bent or crush piping and you have no answer
Law#91-When you stick the rim and tire out further than the fenders and you use curb feelers to keep from messing them up.
Law#92-when your body kit is held on by sheet rock screws and thumb tacks
Law#93-If you "fat arm" out the window with a sideways cap.
Law#94-If you are 5'2 and you drive in the back seat
Law#95-when you have more switches than a hydralic car and have no hydralics
Law#96-If you have to beg your parents to drive the civic
Law#97-when you de-badge your GST ecplise of LX civic because its the suck model
Law#98-windshield sticker saying powered by....(127 @the crank yeah thats power)
Law#99-When one car in the whole world runs 10s and you think your car is fast.
Law#100-when your sn is qwerty
Law#101-You remove every piece of your interior and you still run 15's
Law#102-you have diamond plate floormats
Law#103-you have a racing harness on your stock civic lx seat
Law#104-you make your own intake out of pvc pipe
Law#105-you know what jdm means
Law#106-you have hubcaps that resemble rims
Law#107-you drive any korean car and "mod" it
Law#108-if you have an AEM license plate frame
Law#109-if you put 18, 19, or 20" rims on a sport compact.
Law#110-Japanese writing on a domestic car
Law#111-Put racing gas in ur stock civic lx
Law#112-If you spraypaint your interior
Law#113-if you don't make fun of ricers
Law#114-If you are getting angry while reading this list
Law#115-the local tow truck service is on speed dial
Law#116-the local performance shop is on speed dial
Law#117-someone yells got rice and your mom pulls up in the catering truck
Law#118-your in the performance shop to look @ @!#$ you cant buy untill payday..and it never comes
Law#119-put lambo doors on
Law#120-You join CLUBRSX , not to goof on them, but because you actually think they are fast
Law#121-Calling your flat, bald street tires "Slicks"
Law#123-you drive in 1st gear 90% of the time so you can hear the vtec whine
Law#124-If you buy an srt design
Law#125-you have a bumper sticker that says drive it like you stole it
Law#126-your keychain says aem/tanabe/greddy/typeR/si/mugen/....
Law#127-you play nfsu2 everyday
Law#128-you try to spell as many words linked to honda with your alphabets cereal
Law#129-You treat your nfsu2 car like its a real car
Law#130-Type-R
Law#131-I will own you in the twisties
Law#132-You have a V6 camaro/mustang and spend enough money to buy a V8 just to make people think it's a V8.
Law#133-You've ever swung in behind a car (at 50 mph) in an attempt to draft.
Law#134-When you lose you say "But your car has 4 more cylinders"
Law#135-when you lose you say "Imagine if Honda made an engine as big as yours, because my 4 cylindler has 100 HP/Liter!"
Law#136-You think you stand a chance against all Mustangs and Camaro's because they are heavy
Law#137-You have a Vin Diesel poster
Law#138-You buy a civic, add a cold air intake and cat back exhaust, add 200 lbs of stereo equipment and brag about how much faster it is than when it was stock.
Law#139-You try explaining why vtec is better than a turbo charger
Law#140-You have to let the passengers know when you're flooring it (Thanks, Broken )
Law#141-If you know you can't win, you dump the clutch at 8,000 RPM's and say you couldn't hook up, but at least you looked cool
Law#142-The only 2 exotic cars you can name are Supra and Skyline.
Law#143-You think taking 200 lbs off your car will make up for being 200 HP underpowered in comparison to your opponent.
Law#144-You put slicks on your car and only agree to race in the rain, just so you have an excuse.
Law#145-If you tell the story of how your friend has such a fast car, he put a $10 bill on the dash, floored it, and you couldn't reach it on the dash because you were too pinned in your seat.
Law#146-When you claim to race a stock automatic cobra.
Law#147-When your cardomain site has a 'future mods' list.
Law#148-When you have 12 inch deep dish rims.
Law#149-When you can shoot a grapefruit from your exhaust tip
Law#150-LED exhaust tips.
Monday, July 06, 2009
Sunday, July 05, 2009
Monday, June 29, 2009
Monday, June 22, 2009
- 11OCTT - 11 O'Clock Tick Tock
- 40
- 4OJ/FOJ - 4th of July
- AC - A Celebration
- ADWM - A Day Without Me
- ADKOB - A Different Kind of Blue
- AMAAW - A Man and a Woman
- ARATHH - A Room at the Heartbreak Hotel
- ASOH - A Sort of Homecoming
- Acrobat
- ADIHFABOM/K1 - Alex Descends Into Hell for a Bottle of Milk/Korova 1
- AATW - All Along the Watchtower
- ABOY - All Because of You
- AIWIY - All I Want Is You
- Always
- AFN - Always Forever Now
- ACD - An Cat Dubh
- AOH - Angel of Harlem
- AD - Another Day
- ATAP - Another Time, Another Place
- AYGWF - Are You Gonna Wait Forever
- AM - Ave Maria
- Babyface
- Bad
- BT - Bass Trap
- BS - Beach Sequence
- BD - Beautiful Day
- BG - Beautiful Ghost
- BGAB - Big Girls Are Best
- BI - Boomerang I
- BII - Boomerang II
- B(WNOY) - Bottoms (Watashitachi No Ookina Yume)
- B/G - Boy/Girl
- Breathe
- BTBS - Bullet the Blue Sky
- CHFIL - Can't Help Falling In Love
- COL - Cedars of Lebanon
- C(BPCH) - Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)
- COBL - City Of Blinding Lights
- C(TCAWTL) - Corpse (These Chains Are Way Too Long)
- CFYT - Crumbs From Your Table
- DGPFYCC - Daddy's Gonna Pay For Your Crashed Car
- DB - Dancing Barefoot
- DS - Dancing Shoes
- DITH - Deep In the Heart
- Desire
- DD - Dirty Day
- Discotheque
- DYFL - Do You Feel Loved
- DTYGTT - Don't Take Your Guns To Town
- DWTIME - Dreaming With Tears In My Eyes
- DM - Drowning Man
- ES - Electrical Storm
- Elevation
- EAA - Elvis Ate America
- EPAA - Elvis Presley and America
- ED - Endless Deep
- EBTTRT - Even Better than the Real Thing
- EL - Everlasting Love
- Exit
- FAYF - Falling at Your Feet
- FC - Fast Cars
- FBB - Fez – Being Born
- Fire
- FC - Flower Child
- FS - Fortunate Son
- Gloria
- GOYB - Get On Your Boots
- GPII - God Part II
- Gone
- Grace
- HHSC - Hallelujah Here She Comes
- HIAWG - Happiness is a Warm Gun
- H269 - Hawkmoon 269
- Heartland
- HS - Helter Skelter
- HMTMKMKM - Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me
- HJ - Holy Joe
- IFD - I Fall Down
- ISHFWILF - I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For
- ITABTAW - I Threw a Brick Through a Window
- TTYW - I Trip Thorugh Your Wires
- IWF - I Will Follow
- IGWSHA - If God Will Send His Angels
- IYWTVD - If You Wear that Velvet Dress
- IGCIIDGCT - I’ll Go Crazy If I Don’t Go Crazy Tonight
- IALW - In a Little While
- IGC - In God's Country
- ISS - Indian Summer Sky
- ITH - Into the Heart
- ITA - Is That All?
- IO - Ito Okashi
- JS - J Swallow
- JITB - Jack in a Box
- JC - Jesus Christ
- Kite
- LWTSH - Lady With The Spinning Head
- LNOE - Last Night On Earth
- Lemon
- Levitate
- LAS - Like a Song...
- LAPOE - Love And Peace Or Else
- LCT - Love Comes Tumbling
- LIB - Love Is Blindness
- LRM - Love Rescue Me
- LYLM - Love You Like Mad
- LT(HOTL) - Luminous Times (Hold On To Love)
- Magnificent
- Mercy
- Miami
- MD - Miracle Drug
- MS - Miss Sarajevo
- MLK
- Mofo
- MOS - Moment of Surrender
- MOTD - Mothers of the Disappeared
- MW - Mysterious Ways
- NS - Native Son
- NL - Neon Lights
- NLMG - Never Let Me Go
- NYD - New Year's Day
- NY - New York
- NAD - Night and Day
- NLOTH - No Line On The Horizon
- Numb
- October
- One
- OMW - One Minute Warning
- OSC - One Step Closer
- OTH - One Tree Hill
- OOTS - Original Of The Species
- OOC - Out of Control
- PIB - Paint it Black
- POE - Peace On Earth
- PTC - Pete the Chop
- Please
- Plot 180
- PM - Pop Muzik
- PITNOL - Pride (In the Name of Love)
- Promenade
- RAT - Race Against Time
- RHMT - Red Hill Mining Town
- RL - Red Light
- Rejoice
- RTSS - Running to Stand Still
- Salome
- SOL - Satellite of Love
- Scarlet
- Seconds
- SATT - Shadows and Tall Trees
- SAMTM - She's a Mystery to Me
- SAG - Silver and Gold
- SSTKC - Sixty Seconds In Kingdom Come
- SD - Slow Dancing
- Slug
- Smile
- SC - So Cruel
- SDABTO - Some Days Are Better Than Others
- SYCMIOYO - Sometimes You Can't Make It On Your Own
- SE - Spanish Eyes
- SUC - Stand Up Comedy
- SATS - Staring at the Sun
- Stateless
- S(FSC) - Stay (Faraway, So Close!)
- SFB - Stories for Boys
- SIASL - Stranger in a Strange Land
- SM - Street Missions
- SIAMYCGOO - Stuck in a Moment You Can't Get Out Of
- SR - Summer Rain
- SBS - Sunday Bloody Sunday
- Surrender
- ST - Sweetest Thing
- TEC - The Electric Co.
- TFT - The First Time
- TF - The Fly
- TF - The Fool
- TGBHF - The Ground Beneath Her Feet
- THTBA - The Hands That Built America
- TO - The Ocean
- TPM - The Playboy Mansion
- TR - The Refugee
- TTS - The Three Sunrises
- TUF - The Unforgettable Fire
- TW - The Wanderer
- TFLGN - Theme from Let's Go Native
- TFTS - Theme from the Swan
- TTMAD - Things to Make and Do
- Tomorrow
- Touch
- TTATPG (PG) - Trash, Trampoline, and the Party Girl
- Trevor
- TTYW - Trip Through Your Wires
- TTTYAATW - Tryin' to Throw Your Arms Around the World
- Twilight
- THBAO - Two Hearts Beat As One
- TSOHOSOS - Two Shots of Happy, One Shot of Sad
- U(LMW) - Ultraviolet (Light My Way)
- UM - Unchained Melody
- UCOP - United Colours Of Plutonium
- UC - Unknown Caller
- UTEOTW - Until the End of the World
- VDL - Van Diemen's Land
- Vertigo
- VD - Viva Davidoff
- WUDM - Wake Up Dead Man
- WO - Walk On
- WTTW - Walk To the Water
- WILATW - When I Look at the World
- WLCTT - When Love Comes To Town
- WDIAGW - Where Did It All Go Wrong
- WTSHNN - Where the Streets Have No Name
- WAS - White As Snow
- WGRYWH - Who's Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses
- WH - Wild Honey
- WIR - Wild Irish Rose
- WITS - Window In The Skies
- Wire
- WAS - With A Shout
- WOWY - With Or Without You
- XAW - Xanax And Wine
- Yahweh
- YBR - Your Blue Room
- ZS - Zoo Station
- Zooropa
Thursday, June 11, 2009
New U2 Album Speaks from Christian Perspective
26 05 2009Recently we asked the Rev. Julie Golding Page if we could re-post her review of u2’s new “No Line on the Horizon” from the Diocese of Saskatchewan’s website. She graciously said yes, and we share it with you below…
by the Rev. Julie Golding Page
Die-hard U2 fans finally have their wish, after waiting five long years since the release of How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb. U2’s new album, No Line on the Horizon, is a carefully crafted series of songs about being lost, finding the self in God, becoming disoriented and lost again, and becoming re-oriented to God and the world. Musically, the album continues the U2 tradition of vigorous rock tunes, complete with the classic guitar riffs, but with the addition of Middle Eastern overtones in several songs, giving homage to the band’s time recording in the unusual location of Fez, Morocco.
As usual, U2’s lyrics give a combination of scathing critique and encouraging hope to the Western world. More particularly, the band’s political and religious exhortations are addressed to the USA and, it could be argued, equally to the Christian church.
The title track and first song, “No Line on the Horizon,” begins the album’s journey with a feeling of disorientation or lostness, with no distinguishing marks to provide perspective in modern life. This track is followed up with “Magnificent,” whose driving beat, proliferation of biblical imagery and confident, soaring expression of purpose under God – the Magnificent – make it the album’s closest facsimile to a gospel song and reminiscent of their 1987 hit “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For.” U2 lead singer Bono sings to God, “I was born to be with you in this space and time.” Yet this song is not a blithely upbeat denial of the very real disorientation we all feel in our personal lives in the modern world. He continues, “After that and ever after I haven’t had a clue.” This combination of honest confusion and hope in God is what attracts many to U2.
The next two tracks address God’s call to us but in modern idiom, using technological metaphors. “Moment of Surrender” speaks of a moment of clarity and surrender when one goes down on one’s knees and recognizes “vision over visibility” or, in other words, invisible faith over what is physically seen. Love, often used as a placeholder for God, appears in this song and throughout the album. “Unknown Caller” uses the metaphors of computer and telephone to instruct hearers who are “lost” to listen to God: “cease to speak that I may speak. Shush now.” Both songs employ organ music interludes to allow hearers time to ponder, as if in church after an altar call.
Now that the listener has been called by God and had the chance to be made right with him, the album invites participation in the political and religious realities of the world. “Get on Your Boots” and “Stand Up Comedy” are particularly pointed injunctions for Westerners, Americans and the Church to get ready and begin engaging in the world. If there was any doubt about equating the oft-mentioned “love” with God, it is made explicit in “Stand Up Comedy,” which says baldly, “God is love.”
Those who remain unsure of U2’s Christian content will appreciate “White as Snow.” Sharing its melody with “O Come, O Come Emmanuel,” the song is a haunting retelling of the Advent hymn in U2’s vernacular. Bono sings of the great longing for the lamb as white as snow, who brings forgiveness to all – both Westerners and their current arch-enemies, the people of the Middle East, from places like Fez.
These “enemies” are considered thoughtfully in many tracks. The album leaves the listener with this poignant thought: “Choose your enemies carefully…Gonna last with you longer than your friend.”
No Line on the Horizon is satisfying musically for its fusion of rock and Middle Eastern melodies, and lyrically for its astute observations and insistence that political and religious inertia can be overcome. U2’s answer is God. May listeners come to the same conclusion.
Thursday, June 04, 2009
Is there a way to tell you I love you,
Is there a way to tell you I care,
Is there a way to show you I miss you,
Is what I think in despair,
But soon the day shall grace our hearts,
When I’ll hold you in my arms,
After we’ve spent these days apart,
And my eyes will spin yarns,
I had dreamt of the unknown,
Feared being alone and lost,
But now I know my stars have shone,
When I have you to call my own ….
Your presence means the world to me,
Your laughter brings a smile to my face,
Your words turn around my tears to glee,
Your love from heart can never erase ….
Tuesday, June 02, 2009
If you work, you eat.
If you don't, you lose weight, then maybe you'll be thin enough to work.
Too many people feel the government owes them. No one owes you anything.
Work for it.
I have been very poor and very well off at different times in my life. When I was poor, I didn't go out, drink, party, buy things, I worked 2 full time jobs and painted houses on the side, repaired peoples' cars, and helped another guy who was a handyman when I was free.
Too many people sit on their ass and cry how bad they have it.
if those people got off their asses, went to work, and took a burden off of the economy, then we could get rid of our crooked politicians and have a better run country.
It's lipstick girl
lipstick time
and that bitch Blossom
stole her line
Ever since
she was a little girl,
she had this dream
that meant the world
She wanted to know
if she ever met Robert Smith,
if she could ask him
if she could use his lipstick
so she (in a way)
could be closer to him
as she put it on
her lips
And now, twenty years later,
she's in a chain reaction
it's as if her vision
has a strange attraction
So put it on
my dear Cure sis
put it on
and let it blossom on your lips
And maybe one day,
Robert will come to
and realize that Blossom
was you.
Friday, May 22, 2009
Wednesday, May 20, 2009
Dear wife:
I'm writing you this letter to tell you that I'm leaving you forever. I've been a good man to you for 7 years & I have nothing to show for it.
These last 2 weeks have been hell.
Your boss called to tell me that you quit your job today & that was the last straw. Last week, you came home & didn't even notice I had a new haircut, had cooked your favorite meal & even wore a brand new pair of silk boxers. You ate in 2 minutes, & went straight to sleep after watching all of your soaps. You don't tell me you love me anymore; you don't want sex or anything that connects us as husband & wife. Either you're cheating on me or you don't love me anymore; whatever the case, I'm gone.
Your EX-Husband
P.S. don't try to find me. Your SISTER & I are moving away to West Virginia together! Have a great life!
_________________________ _________________________ ____________
Dear Ex-Husband
Nothing has made my day more than receiving your letter.
It's true you & I have been married for 7 years, although a good man is a far cry from what you've been. I watch my soaps so much because they drown out your constant whining & griping Too bad that doesn't work. I DID notice when you got a hair cut last week, but the 1st thing that came to mind was 'You look just like a girl!' Since my mother raised me not to say anything if you can't say something nice, I didn't comment. And when you cooked my favorite meal, you must have gotten me confused with MY SISTER, because I stopped eating pork 7 years ago. About those new silk boxers: I turned away from you because the $49.99 price tag was still on them, & I prayed it was a coincidence that my sister had just borrowed $50 from me that morning.
After all of this, I still loved you & felt we could work it out. So when I hit the lotto for 10 million dollars, I quit my job & bought us 2 tickets to Jamaica But when I got home you were gone.. Everything happens for a reason, I guess.
I hope you have the fulfilling life you always wanted. My lawyer said that the letter you wrote ensures you won't get a dime from me.
So take care.
Signed,
Your Ex-Wife, Rich As Hell & Free!
P.S. I don't know if I ever told you this, but my sister Carla was born Carl.
I hope that's not a problem.
Monday, May 18, 2009
Saturday, May 16, 2009
Don't take it to seriouslly either, it's just something I felt wasn't right - nothing more.
What they teach us:
multiplying any number by 0, you get 0
dividing any number by 0, is forbidden - or in floating point numbers is indicated as not a number
In my optics this is totally wrong, why? Because IMHO it's against natural laws. let's make a little example:
Imagine your walking a street somewhere in the far future. Suddenlly you come across something called 'The multiplicator'! Like you can imagine and thanks to quantum physics this 'thing' can take any opject and multiplicate (replicate) it.
So you grab a apple from out of your pocket and put it into the machine, you want to press the '2' on the keypad but you slip and press the '0' followed by 'enter'. The machine start making all those strange noises and funny lights and then suddenlly: ... the apple is gone!!!
My point is, you then would have been scammed - because we all know that you cannot make things 'disappear'.
20 years ago it once again hit my attention when I had my first c64 computer. Back then you turned on a computer and the only thing you had was a blinking cursor behind the word 'ready'.
The first thing you can do is use it as a calculator, and that's what I did. Finally I could have the answer to my problem! So I typed my pseudo mythical combination 2000 x 0= and pressed 'enter'...
Guess what? I never got my answer because it looked like the computer was gone with vacation. The blinking cursor was gone!
And up to the present day they have problems with computers performing a division by zero and crashing.
In floating point they call it 'not a number' and blame it on quantum physics - computers are then programmed to ignore any division by zero in calculations in order to prevent the computer from crashing.
And I can believe they will do the same for the multiplication by zero (for even my c64 couldn't take it).
What does it all boils down to?
Well, first it's easy to see that some mathematical property are giving a hard time to computer programmers. While meanwhile 'mathematicians' are keeping their head stiff, pretending there's no problem at all.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Well, there is a bit of a problem, I think. The problem with division or multiplication by zero.
Dividing by any number, x, means that there exists an inverse 1/x so that for any number, x (1/x) =1. Dividing by 0 would mean that we would have to work with 1/0.
We know that 0(x) = 0 for any x, so: 0 (1/0) = 0. However, at the same time ... 0 (1/0) = 1, because x (1/x) = 1.
Therefore, 0 = 1.
A world in which multiplication and division by 0 could be admitted would then become a world in which 0 took the place of all numbers, and therefore would cease to exist. Nothing only equals nothing; nothing cannot equal something.*
*Except within the walls of the United States Congress, where any number can equal any other number, and nothing can and usually does equal something. This is known as the Washington Anomaly.
The key to resolving this apparent paradox is to understand that x = any number, but zero is not a number, but simply an indicator of an order of magnitude--a numerical 'punctuation mark.' It is no more a number than a period (.) is a letter. The human brain, with its capacity for lateral thinking, can distinguish the contradiction, because it is intelligent. It can understand the concept of nothingness. However, a computer cannot because computers are programmed to work only with things--with numbers. Zero is not a number. It is the absence of number.
In the case of your 'Multiplicator,' if you put the apple in and accidentally pressed zero, the apple wouldn't disappear. The machine would register an error because it can only provide quantity, and zero is not quanity. It would be like asking it to multiply blueness, or a lawyer's sense of ethics.
That is my take on it.

The Kiss: "is about... me. One of the very few mornings of the year when I've woken up and I don't remember exactly what I've done the night before."
Catch: "... is a very winsome, mystical love song. That's something that happens to me all the time, when I see people I haven't seen for a year."
Torture: "Is about bondage. It's best left untouched"
If Only Tonight We Could Sleep...: "it's about my preoccupation with the romantic idea of Angels. It exists all through history, the idea of an angel: a guardian angel, an avenging angel, or a dark angel. I've met some people who are "angelic", and I didn't think you could meet someone who is an angel. It's funny how it's turned into a slang word: "Oh you angel!". It's really a gorgeous idea, someone or something being angelic. I cherish the idea of Angels. It's like poetry."
Why Can't I Be You?: "That was written, actually, about what someone else said to me. I was having a conversation with somebody who was very over-awed at meeting me and they said they wanted to be me. I spent the whole afternoon pointing out why I was no different from him. And if I wasn't comfortable I might wish the same thing, to be him. So it's very ironic, that song.
How Beautiful You Are...: "That was the one term that was nicked from a true reference, a Beaudelaire short story. I wrote it a long time ago when I read the story. Someone gave me a book of Beaudelaire, Rembeau, and Delaney. So I re-read it and dug it out. I think that's my favorite set of lyrics.
the Snakepit: "is just taken from something that happened to me in America last year. The words are pretty clear. I was out in the car with a stupid girl."
Hey You!!!: "It's the sort of thing you'd see if you were to get up now and you'd had one drink too many. You just sort of stand up and go "EEEEUUUUUUuuuuhhhhh!"
Just Like Heaven: "it's like the link beetween this record and the Head on the Door. It sounds a bit like In Between Days, but it's supposed to, 'cause it's like that sort of pop side of The Cure that I really like. It's supposed to be like a love song, but i lose the girl at the end of it (shrugs) I always do."
All I Want: "actually started out "all i want is to hold you like a doll", but something happened and it turned into "dog". That's about as pure sexist as you're ever gonna get."
Hot Hot Hot!!!: "It's about drugs."
One More Time: "is about- my fear of dying. Which everyone has."
Like Cockatoos: "you know when you're little and it's summer and you're out on the roadside and you sit there and there's a storm where it's just rain. And you go out and it's like, bubbles at your feet. And the next time you see it when you're old, it's like a dream and something upsets you and you look down and you see the bubbles in the road and you sort of cry.That's what the songs about."
Icing Sugar: "it's about drugs as well, I suppose in a funny way. Hot Hot Hot!!! is very trite, Icing Sugar is more like "your delicious drink slapped your green eyes.""
the Perfect Girl: "It's just pure love."
A Thousand Hours: "It's, um, pure frustration. It's like when you see something and you feel really angry about it and you just can't do anything about it."
Shiver and Shake: "it's about all the people that I hate! One person in particular will know who it is!"
Fight: "I thought, having got such a good group and having grown up with people I really admire made me go and do something. And I thought "we've never done a song that encouraged people to do something." It's about time we did something that was a bit anthemic. I was really proud of what we'd done up to that point, and I thought it would be nice of us to do something that would encourage people. Something positive. It's the weirdest Cure song we've ever done."
Monday, May 11, 2009
Dear Craig,
Thank you for submitting nin: access to the App Store. We’ve reviewed nin: access and determined that we cannot post this version of your iPhone application to the App Store at this time because it contains objectionable content which is in violation of Section 3.3.12 from the iPhone SDK Agreement which states:
“Applications must not contain any obscene, pornographic, offensive or defamatory content or materials of any kind (text, graphics, images, photographs, etc.), or other content or materials that in Apple’s reasonable judgement may be found objectionable by iPhone or iPod touch users.”
The objectionable content referenced in this email is “The Downward Spiral”. Since the app is live on the App store, please make the necessary changes to the application as soon as possible, and resubmit your binary to iTunes Connect. Thank you
Regards,
iPhone Developer Program
Trent retorts:
Now, “The Downward Spiral” the album is not available anywhere in the iPhone app. The song “The Downward Spiral” I believe is in a podcast that can be streamed to the app.
Thanks Apple for the clear description of the problem – as in, what do you want us to change to get past your stupid fucking standards?
And while we’re at it, I’ll voice the same issue I had with Wal-Mart years ago, which is a matter of consistency and hypocrisy. Wal-Mart went on a rampage years ago insisting all music they carry be censored of all profanity and “clean” versions be made for them to carry. Bands (including Nirvana) tripped over themselves editing out words, changing album art, etc to meet Wal-Mart’s standards of decency – because Wal-Mart sells a lot of records. NIN refused, and you’ll notice a pretty empty NIN section at any Wal-Mart. My reasoning was this: I can understand if you want the moral posturing of not having any “indecent” material for sale – but you could literally turn around 180 degrees from where the NIN record would be and purchase the film “Scarface” completely uncensored, or buy a copy of Grand Theft Auto where you can be rewarded for beating up prostitutes. How does that make sense?
You can buy The Downward Fucking Spiral on iTunes, but you can’t allow an iPhone app that may have a song with a bad word somewhere in it. Geez, what if someone in the forum in our app says FUCK or CUNT? I suppose that also falls into indecent material. Hey Apple, I just got some SPAM about fucking hot asian teens THROUGH YOUR MAIL PROGRAM. I just saw two guys having explicit anal sex right there in Safari! On my iPhone!
Come on Apple, think your policies through and for fuck’s sake get your app approval scenario together.
Monday, May 04, 2009
2. Heterosexual marriages are valid because they produce children. Infertile couples and old people cannot get legally married because the world needs more children.
3. Obviously gay parents will raise gay children because straight parents only raise straight children.
4. Straight marriage will be less meaningful, since Britney Spears’s 55-hour just-for-fun marriage was meaningful.
5. Heterosexual marriage has been around for a long time, and it hasn’t changed at all: women are property, Blacks can’t marry Whites, and divorce is illegal.
6. Gay marriage should be decided by the people, not the courts, because the majority-elected legislatures, not courts, have historically protected the rights of minorities.
7. Gay marriage is not supported by religion. In a theocracy like ours, the values of one religion are always imposed on the entire country. That’s why we only have one religion in America.
8. Gay marriage will encourage people to be gay, in the same way that hanging around tall people makes you tall.
9. Legalizing gay marriage will open the door to all kinds of crazy behavior. People may even wish to marry their pets because a dog has legal standing and can sign a marriage license.
10. Children can never succeed without both male and female role models at home. That’s why single parents are forbidden to raise children.
11. Gay marriage will change the foundation of society. Heterosexual marriage has been around for a long time, and we could never adapt to new social norms because we haven’t adapted to cars or longer lifespans.
12. Civil unions, providing most of the same benefits as marriage with a different name are better, because a “separate but equal” institution is always constitutional. Separate schools for African-Americans worked just as well as separate marriages will for gays & lesbians.
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
Computers will never take the place of books. You can’t stand on a floppy disk to reach a high shelf.
– Sam Ewing
A man’s got to believe in something. I believe I’ll have another drink.
– W.C. Fields
Also from the interview done with Utada Hikari by Mike Parker from the Entertainment Examiner
7. When you get to heaven, what is the first thing you want to hear God say to you?
Utada – ‘Oh, you again.’
Monday, April 27, 2009
What's the difference between a stock airbox, a short ram system (open intake filter), or a CAI (Cold Air Intake)? Isn't the CAI the best since it draws cold air? Won't the short ram system just draw hot air and cause my engine to lose power?
Answer:
A short ram system usually refers to a open filter (cylindrical or conical shaped) attached directly to the mass air flow meter, or attached via a short velocity tube. In some applications, a heat shield surrounds the filter to reduce the effects of radiant heat coming from the engine. A cold air intake usually refers to either a heat shield that seals to the hood and surrounds the sides and bottom of the filter, or a long extension tube that relocates the filter in the front fenderwell.
The Science Behind an Air Intake
You've probably heard this before on the internet, "...colder air is denser air, and that means more horsepower." In fact, you've probably heard this enough times that you're convinced it's true, right? Well this might throw you for a loop then: It's entirely possible to gain horsepower with just an open element intake. Drawing in air that is warmer than the outside air does not automatically equate to a horsepower loss when the stock airbox has been removed. Now here is the science behind that statement.
When looking at the properties of gases (and air is a gas) the actual scientific equation for density is:
Density = mass / volume
A quick review of our science book tells us to increase air density you could increase the mass, or reduce the volume. To increase mass, you could increase pressure or reduce temperature. To reduce volume you could increase pressure or reduce temperature. So air pressure and temperature are the two common variables that we have to work with. Everyone likes to talk about temperature, but very few people ever address pressure. Pressure and temperature are equally important.
Pressure, Temperature, and SAE J1349
The Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) has established a test standard that helps standardized engine horsepower testing and results so that the variable effects of barometric pressure, altitude, and intake air temperatures do not bias the test results. The SAE J1349 test procedure includes an engine horsepower correction factor so that, for example, dyno readings taken at 3500 feet on a 40 degree day can be compared with dyno readings taken at sea level on a 77 degree day.
This correction factor is used for Normally Aspirated Engines, not forced induction engines. Once the correction factor is determined, it can be applied to the actual dyno readings so they can be adjusted back to simulate a test conducted at sea level, on a 77 degree day, with 1% humidity.
The SAE correction factor can be approximated using this equation:
CF = 1.18 * (29.235 / Bdo) * ((square root (To + 460) / 537) - 0.153)
where CF = the correction factor, Bdo = the dry ambient barometric pressure in inches of mercury (in/Hg), and To = the intake air temperature in degrees Fahrenheit.
Test 1: The Baseline Test
Let's test this equation with a hypothetical engine that dynos at 100HP. We test this engine on a 77 degree day, at sea level. So, we set Bdo = to 29.235 in/Hg and To = to 77F. When we solve the equation for CF, the correction factor equals 1. That means according to SAE, our dyno reading does not require a correction factor for temperature or barometric pressure. It is a true 100HP engine.
Test 2: Temperature = 87 degrees F, Pressure = 29.235 in/Hg
What happens when the temperature climbs by 10 degrees, but pressure stays constant? Plugging in 87 for To and 29.235 for Bdo, we can calculate the value of CF. CF = 1.0104. Working our correction factor equation backwards, we take:
100hp / 1.0104 = 98.97hp.
So, according to the SAE correction factor, a 10 degree increase in temp should result in a loss of 1.03% of rated horsepower, or 1hp on our engine.
Test 3: Temperature = 77 degrees F, Pressure = 28.235 in/Hg
What happens when the pressure drops by 1.0 in/Hg, but temperature stays constant? Plugging in 77 for To and 28.235 for Bdo, we calculate CF and find it equals 1.042.
100hp / 1.042 = 95.96hp.
So, according to the SAE correction factor, a 1 in/Hg drop in air pressure should result in a loss of 4.04% of rated horsepower, or 4hp on our engine.
Wow! A drop of 1.0 in/Hg in air pressure is roughly equivalent to climbing approximately 1,000 feet in altitude. That's not very high. The Sear's Tower in Chicago is 1353 feet tall. So, if we put our car in the Sear's Tower freight elevator and take it to the roof, now we have an SAE correction factor of approximately 1.060. We lost almost 6hp just going from the ground floor to the roof level !!
What Does It All Mean?
When designing a P-Flo intake, it means we are concerned about how much pressure loss is caused by the stock airbox. For example, barometric pressure at sea level may be 29.235 in/Hg, but air pressure drops as air enters the factory airbox and passes through the filter. So the pressure below the air filter element (on engine side of the intake system) is going to be less than 29.235. How do we know this? There is another SAE test, J726, that is used to calculate the efficiency of air filters. One of the variables measured in this test is the air pressure drop caused by the factory airbox and filter element. We call this pressure drop "Delta P" or differential pressure.
Would you be surprised to find that during the SAE J726 test, the stock airbox can cause a Delta P of anywhere from 15-20psi, depending on the CFM moving through the intake tract? And that just changing the filter element material can result in a 1-5 psi difference? Want to test this in real life? Take a normally aspirated car like the Golf VR6 or the Acura RSX and run two back-to-back dyno tests: One test with the airbox on, one with the airbox totally removed. Did you find a horsepower gain at the higher RPMs without the airbox? You gained HP, and yet the intake air temperature stayed the same or maybe even went higher. So part of the Delta P is caused by restrictions in your factory air box.
However, during the SAE J726 tests we conducted, we found the Delta P to be lowest when an oiled cotton gauze filter material (K&N style) is used. Synthetic foam filters have the highest Delta P due to the lubricating polymer they are typically coated with. So the other component to lowering Delta P is choosing the air filter element that flows without much restriction, yet still traps dirt.
So, in summary it is entirely possible to gain horsepower just by moving to a short ram intake. Reducing the Delta P will be an improvement on its own. Of course, if you can reduce intake air temperatures AND reduce Delta P, then you have the best of both worlds. But given a choice between the two, Delta P is more important for most vehicles. NEUSPEED makes short ram systems (with and without heat shields) and "CAI" cold air intakes. So the type of filter kit offered for your car is based on what worked the best during our design and testing.
Be advised that CAI systems that place the air filter down into the front fenderwell should not be used in wet, rainy conditions, especially in areas that experience excessive puddling or patches of standing water. If you operate your car frequently in these conditions, we recommend that you use our short ram systems instead to avoid ingesting water into your engine. Water ingestion is a very serious problem and can lead to extensive engine damage."
Friday, April 17, 2009
Two mirrors faced each other
With a sound they reflected the other
When I meet someone who looks just like me
I think I’ll make that sound
Both children and adults
Like seeing themselves in the mirror
Entranced by one’s own reflection
If you forget that it’s a mirror
The silent space will overwhelm you
And you’ll remember the emptiness
I am a mirror
I will not stretch out my hand to those who are stuck
In the places where the light never shines
Instead I’ll try to stay with them
Then we’ll see the same view
I know that if you can empathize with someone’s pain
Then the pain can turn into something good
the sadness doesn’t go away nor does the world change
But seeing the world within me turned upside down
Was most certainly a new sight
Everyone is looking for someone who looks like them
No matter how much you hate yourself
You can love someone who looks like you
There is no love in admiration or adoration
However
The thing people will love the most in their life
Is the person who resembles them most in the world
Their child
I am a child
I believe I am on the right path
So anything I cast aside or abandoned on the way
I don’t think of as sacrifices
The sky closes its eyes
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
had I know that this was what was going to be
and the mere fact that I know this is so very wrong;
Why did you even have to tell me?
How am I supposed to possibly accept
that my existence is going to be denied?
and despite all the honesty, or pseudo truths
I can assure you, this time, you should have lied.
It's going to be hard not to resent this fact
as the hours and days pile on
but I can only hope that this feeling wouldn't project onto you
until the memory that feeds it is gone...
Saturday, April 11, 2009
Once again, art is not oxygen, you do not have a right to it
Wednesday, April 08, 2009
Kanashimi no mukou kishi ni
Hohoemi ga aru to iu yo…
Kanashimi no mukou kishi ni
Hohoemi ga aru to iu yo…
Tadoritsuku sono saki ni wa
Nani ga bokura wo matteru
Nigeru tame ja naku
Yume ou tame ni
Tabi ni deta hazusa
Tooi natsu no ano hi…
Ashita sae mieta nara
Tame iki mo nai kedo
Nagare ni sakarau fune no you ni
Ima wa mae e susume
Kurushimi no tsukita basho ni
Shiawase ga matsu to iu yo
Boku wa mada sagashite iru
Kisetsu hazure no himawari
Kobushi nigirishime
Asahi wo mateba
Akai tsume ato ni
Namida kirari ochiru…
Kodoku ni mo nareta nara
Tsukiakari tayori ni
Hane naki tsubasa de tobidatou
Motto mae e susume
Amagumo ga kireta nara
Nureta michi kagayaku
Yami dake ga oshiete kureru
Tsuyoi, tsuyoi hikari
Tsuyoku mae e susume
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
On the opposite coast of sadness
is there something called a smile?
On the opposite coast of sadness
is there something called a smile?
But before we can go there,
is there something we’re waiting for?
In order to chase our dreams, we can’t have a reason to runaway
We’ve got to go, to that far away summer day
If we find it that tomorrow, we can’t sigh
Like a boat struggling against the flow
We have to keep on going
In a place worn down by sadness
something called a miracle, is waiting
Yet we are still searching
for that sunflower that grows at the end of spring
With my hands balled into fists, I wait for the dawn
With red fingernail marks and shining tears falling
Even if we’ve grown used to loneliness
only relying on the moonlight
We have to fly away with featherless wing
just go foward, just a little further
As the rainclouds break
the wet roads will shine
Only the darkness can teach us
About the strong, strong light
I’ve got to keep going stronger
Friday, April 03, 2009
Not really knowing what an Obama fan is, but wanting to be liked by the teacher, all the kids raised their hands except for Little Johnny .
The teacher asked Little Johnny why he has decided to be different...again.
Little Johnny said, 'Because I'm not an Obama fan.'
The teacher asked, 'Why aren't you an Obama fan?'
Johnny said, 'Because I'm a Republican.'
The teacher asked him why he's a Republican.
Little Johnny answered, 'Well, my Mom's a Republican and my Dad's a Republican, so I'm a Republican.'
Annoyed by this answer, the teacher asked, 'If your mom was a moron and your dad was an idiot, what would that make you?'
With a big smile, Little Johnny replied, 'That would make me an Obama fan.
Thursday, April 02, 2009
You are in my mind
I think about the days that we had
And I dream that these would all come back to me
If only you knew every moment in time
Nothing goes on in my heart
Just like your memories
How I want here to be with you
Once more
You will always gonna be the one
And you should know
How I wish I could have never let you go
Come into my life again
Oh, don’t say no
You will always gonna be the one in my life
So true, I believe I can never find
Somebody like you
My first love
Once in a while
Your are in my dreams
I can feel the warmth of your embrace
And I pray that it will all come back to me
If only you knew every moment in time
Nothing goes on in my heart
Just like your memories
And how I want here to be with you
Once more
Yah yah yah
And you should know
How I wish I could have never let you go
Come into my life again
Please don’t say no
Now and forever you are still the one
In my heart
So true, I believe I could never find
Somebody like you
My first love