Honoring a Friend

It is with my deepest regret that a friend of mine has passed away.
Steven Zeluff has passed away at the young age of 47.

The article regarding his passing can be found at this link.

I knew him only online, but we had some great discussions on milforum (under the nickname Rock45) about aircraft. He knew a lot about airplanes and was an authoritative reference for many of us. Many of us there are or were military, he did not have a chance to serve but he was still a good friend to us. I found out that he passed away hours earlier and just now I found out that he was the only person who had listed himself as a follower of my blog. It had not been long since he had done that since even as recent as two or three weeks ago I think I didn't have any. I was really shocked and surprised at not only his passing but at finding out that he had subscribed just days earlier.
I remember when I first talked to him on milforum's chat channel and was surprised that he was in his forties.

Rest well my friend, it's really sad to see you go.



I was going to post something about Michael Jackson's passing (actually something in defense of his reputation) but it doesn't seem to be the appropriate time...

Iran IS a democracy

There's been a lot of talk about how Iran's not really a democracy but really it is a democracy. A troubled democracy since the latest results were almost certainly fabricated, but until that happened, their democracy was quite legitimate.

Bullshit: Iran is a dictatorship since the ultimate authority belongs to the Ayatollah.
The Truth: Iran is a democracy, the Ayatollah acts as a part of their version of the checks and balances.

Some comparisons have been drawn between the Iranian political system of electing officials and that of Kuwait. The difference is that in Iran, the President actually does the governing while the Ayatollah rarely intervenes and does so only if he believes the actions are unIslamic and is at odds with the spirit of their revolution. In Kuwait, although authorities may be elected and do have some function, the Emir does the majority of the governing, a vast difference to that of Iran.
Kuwait's system could be roughly compared to that of Singapore under Lee Kwan Yew where there would be a President and a Prime Minister but Lee Kwan Yew did the actual governing as Senior Minister.


I'm not a fan either but he was legitimate the first time around.

The current results in Iran's polls have actually reflected that Iran was a democracy and now that it is under threat, the people are extremely upset. It's not quite the picture that our leaders try to paint to us and sort of reminds me of what I asked a few years ago: we could democratize a country, but what if they vote in the terrorists? I was called a lot of bad things at the time, but knowing what happened in the Gaza strip, I wasn't wrong at all and although Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is not a terrorist per se, Iran does support various terrorist groups operating in Iraq and against Israel.
But that's besides the point, they are/were a democracy.

Picking Candidates
Yes, Iran's Ayatollah has to approve who can run for election but that isn't too alien if you remember that in the United States, the very rich elite decides who can run for election as well. Without their money, you can't even pretend to be running for President. Maybe it's why regardless of who is elected, the outcome seems just about the same.

What lies in the future for Iranian democracy is to be seen. Will this be a once off, will the Ayatollah be forced to call for another election or is it a dangerous precedence for the future?

Video of Protests May 29th 2009

I've talked about it, and here's the video of it. All original. I went to take photos and videos of the demonstrations. It's a pretty long video so I had to cut the quality to make it an acceptable size.



A lot of the chanting has to do with stuff like:
"Down with Lee Myung-bak."
"Down with dictatorship."
etc etc. All of it bullshit.

Metrosexual

I've heard this word before but never knew what it meant. I dropped by this excellent page which everyone should read. It's an old site but I kinda had a thought for it and went back for the first time in a very long time. There, I found it again:


Metrosexual: A gay guy still in the closet. This word is so contemptible that even the man who coined it has since apologized for being such a douche. I cringe every time I hear this word.
(from that awesome website)


Bullshit: It's a new term that accurately describes people who have not made a decision as to what their sexuality is.
The Truth: It's a fucking conspiracy to make everyone think that people living in the city (therefore civilized) are naturally kinda gay and have to decide which way to go.

Also on that site was the word "Retrosexual" which is supposed to mean "straight." Hell I didn't even know this one existed but here in lies another conspiracy: makes straight people sound like something obsolete. Something to refer back to, for the fond memories (of plowing women) in contrast with the current generation which has a choice between which type of ass to tap.


If you're straight, you're a Nazi!!!
That guy is probably gay though.

The key behind "metrosexual" is the word metro. I know it's not what it really means but the way it sounds does the trick. "Metro." "Metropolis." "Either you're a small town red neck or you're a flaming faggot unsure of whether or not to come out of the closet or not."
We used to have a word for this. "Pervert."

MIcroshaft Fucks the Wii Wii

Microsoft has done it again: ripped off a product invented by someone else.
You'd think with the sort of numbers that Microsoft employs, they'd have a little more creativity, but no, after they figured that ripping off Mac OS in every possible way wasn't good enough, they've gone after the Wii.

Bullshit: Microsoft is serious about intellectual property. When you pirate our stuff, you're stealing from our children! (Actually that's what Bungie wrote somewhere in the packaging for the game Marathon)
The Truth: Microsoft steals from the children of many creative folks anyway.


Nintendo Wii? More like Microshaft ass fuck

Seriously, can you look at that picture above and tell me that is NOT a Wii rip off?

Check this video out.

It's basically sound from a Windows Vista presentation but the video is from Mac OS X.
Wow, how are these Microsoft guys not in jail?
So what's more illegal? Getting something for free and not making a penny off of it or getting something for free and then packaging it as your own and then making billions off the stuff?

But that's not all. If the NXE (New XBox Experience) wasn't enough, they've come up with something else: Project Natal.



Even the opening sequence of that video is like some kind of Sims 2 rip off.
Some things on that look original (especially the no controller thing that I'm sure is bound to have many glitches and provide hours of frustration) but I've got to hold my judgement on that. It's possible that they were leaked by Microshaft employees working as spies in other companies.

Intellectual property laws: so only the rich with lots of lawyers can rip people's ideas off.