Some people for some unfathomable reason have decided that making a programming language look like LOLcat comments is a great idea. An example:
HAI
CAN HAS STDIO?
I HAS A VAR
IM IN YR LOOP
UP VAR!!1
VISIBLE VAR
IS VAR BIGGER THAN 10? KTHXBYE
IM OUTTA YR LOOP
KTHXBYE
Well, you get the idea… see more here from LOLCode.com.
Monthly Archive for August, 2007
“The Battle Over the Meaning of Everything” is a new book by science writer Gordy Slack (Amazon link here) about the attempt to bring Intelligent Design (ID) into the science curriculum of schools in Dover, Pennsylvania, USA and subsequent court battle between the school board and 11 concerned parents. At the time, the school board wanted to offer ID as a alternative to Evolution as a suitable explanation for the origins of life on Earth. The parents however believed ID was thinly veiled Creationalism renamed and that teaching it in school would violate the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment to the United States Constitution (which reads as “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion…”) if found to be promoting religion or of a non-secular purpose.
The court case (Kitzmiller vs Dover Area School District) ran from late September to early November 2005 before a verdict by Judge John Jones was given on 20/12/2005 ruling that the school board’s efforts were found to be unconstitutional, and that ID has no place in the classrooms of Pennsylvania. It was a huge set back to the involved ID proponents who were hoping to make it part of science curriculums in general as an alternative to Evolution. Most interestingly, Judge Jones found it ironic that several individuals on the school board lied and committed perjury to hide the real purpose of the ID policy, of which they had a very tenuous understanding, at best.
I found Gordy Slack’s book to be a pretty worthwhile read as he was present for the court case and gives in depth recollections of the proceedings. At just over 200 pages it’s an easy, engaging read into one of the more interesting court cases of recent times; well worth having a look into.
I inadvertently ended up watching “The Home Song Stories” which is an autobiographical account of Tony Ayres (the film director/writer) living in Australia after moving from Hong Kong in the late 1960’s with his mother and sister (when Chinese accounted for only 0.4% of the population, unlike today). I’d like to say it’s a happy story but it’s not, and is quite depressing as Rose (the mother) shuffles Tom and Mei from home to home as she meets and exploits different men or leaves for various reasons on a singularly self-destructive course due to her insecurities in life and total lack of real world skills.
Ultimately the film is an effective catharsis for Tony Ayres to shed light on his life and story which as a child he was unable to do so in the final denouement of his relationship with his mother. Rose is played by Joan Chen who is apparently quite popular mainland China (however, I haven’t seen her in anything else) with little known actors/actress Qi Yuwu, Joel Lok and Irene Chen as Joe, Tom and Mei respectively. Kudoes should be given for a pretty accurate portrayal of Australia during those times since they seem to have long passed away now; the small details add quite a lot of interesting touches to the film.
Anyhow, if you like these sorts of films you can catch it on the art house cinema circuits, the main web site is here.
Odex, a Singaporean based anime distributor has decided to target BitTorrent downloaders with $3000+ fines in Singapore for downloading copies of Inu Yasha and Bleach (among other licensed shows) after claiming their sales dropped 60 - 70% in just 2 years. This would be one of the first efforts in clamping down on fansubs outside of Japan, so it brings up the question of where the anime community will be going in the future.
Read about it here.
Inventor Rob Law decided to demo his invention “Trunki” which is a small suitcase with wheels and doubles as a seat and riding toy for children on long journeys (I have a Samsonite that doubles as a seat for me in a similar fashion). Unfortunately (or fortunately) he demoed it on the Dragon’s Den (a UK show for inventors) and was ripped to shreds by famous business people claiming “… you think you have something. I tell you, you don’t.” After the event, interest in the product soared it into being one of the top selling luggage items and Mr. Law’s company is now worth more than £1,000,000.
Read about it from the Daily Mail here.
After what seems to be several years the courts have finally ruled in favour of Novell that they indeed do own Unix. This effectively means that SCO has very little to go on with their claims of Linux infringing their IP now.
Read about it here.
Quite a few LOLcats came out about Oscar such as the below (all found from I Can Has Cheezburger):
And the Hello Kitty Cosplay:
Games:
And something most cats don’t like:
My cat gets freaked out over going anywhere in a car, but once he’s there he’s usually OK.
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