Epic Guide|Mostly Harmless

I have decided that most of this Middle East trouble is based in the fact that the Arabic tribes for millennium have been isolated and nomadic. I the last hundred years we have created cars and TVs. So all of a sudden, great wealth and world knowledge have been thrown at them. They have shown that they can’t handle either very well. They have created an extremely wealthy elite class while the masses are poor and with out help. And on the knowledge side, they take mass media as some sort of one way pulpit to preach from. The Middle East media bashes the world, while the world media gets bashed by the Middle East. So when you have a small insignificant European county post some cartoons of Muhammad, the whole Middle East riots (in there own countries)? What’s that all about? How many times have the Muslims threatened to kill all Jews and crush Israel, wiping them from the face of the earth? And they riot over some cartoons? I’m just tired of all of this chaos; I really think the Bible is right about the whole area being the end this world.

Hall of Famer John Madden. That has a nice ring to it. The guy deserves to be in the hall as much or more than the other 5 guys who made it in. He has the best winning percentage of all time, he is a Hall of Fame broadcaster (especially good with the X’s and O’s TV drawer thing), his football game rocks, and he drives around the country in a bus sponsored by a steakhouse. He also has been in a plane crash and survived (referring to Al Davis as his owner). Plus he popularized words like Turducken and “Boom! Tuff actin’ Tinactin!!!”

Troy Aikman - deserves to get in, he was a great leader and his stats could have been better if he could have keep from hitting his head to many times.

Reggie White - is a shoe-in, and a great guy. I think the modern day game owes him some props - especially since he was the first big-time free agent.

I’m not to sure about Warren Moon except he has the yards and only managed to beat his wife. I’m also not to sure about Harry Carson, I like the guy, he played on a great team, but he wasn’t all that good. Rayfield Wright - more linemen like him need to get credit.

Ever wonder when we were gonna have Mechwarriors? Well I personally never cared, but some guys are trying to make “Mechas” a reality. I came across this while trying to find this week’s freak. It is an 18-foot tall mech warrior being built by some dude in Alaska. His web site is neogentronyx.com. Now, at first I was reminded of the forklift in the movie Aliens, but then I thought, “Doesn’t Japan love making Robots?” So I searched for more Mech Warriors and found even sweeter ones than this.

Toyota, the masterminds behind the Camry, have turned their skills toward the robotics world. First I found a walking chair, that was cool but then I dug deeper. They created some freaking sweat wheel chair called the i-Unit, along with a walking mech called the i-foot.

Beyond Toyota, other institutions have been working hard at mechanized exoskeletons. UC Berkeley has created “Bleex,” an exoskeleton that helps you carry heavy backpacks. The University of Tsukuba has created a device called “HAL” intended to help people to walk if they suffer from paralysis or something. HAL also gives the wearer “super human strength,” which is nice.

However, of all the mechs I found online, the coolest was definitely the “Land Walker” made by sakakibara-kikai; another company in Japan. The Land Walker is huge, can walk, and has guns. There is even a video showing the guy shooting the guns at a space invader. This thing may not be able to take on a tank yet, but America clearly needs to start making mech warriors for world war III, cause I don’t want the USA being the nation with the lamest weapons in that war.

I’m watching Dateline “Predators III”, and I can’t believe what scum and idiots live in our area. 50 people where arrested in Riverside, only miles from my house. This is pathetic! This is ridiculous! I really don’t know what to say about the pathetic men who where trying to have sex with children. We as a society need to protect our children. We need to make sure that adults can’t talk to our kids online. In the following weeks I’m going to do some research on protecting our kids, check back.

• Dateline Story
• Security Ideas
• Online Safety Kit
• Perverted Justice
• Crime & Corruption - Internet Child-Molesting Sting

Here’s the deal, the super bowl will come down to each teams strengths. The Pittsburgh Steelers need to execute on their blitzes. If they can effectively blitz on both running and passing downs, they will win the game. On the other side of the coin, if the  offensive line of the Seahawks is able to pick up the blitzes, or if Shaun Alexander can find lanes where the Steelers blitzed, the Seahawks will win. The Steelers ability to blitz and the Seahawks offensive lines are two of the biggest reasons either team is in the super bowl. It will be exciting to see which teams strength will be able to prevail.

http://www.epicguide.com/2006/01/28/ladies-super-bowl-talking-points/

http://www.epicguide.com/2006/01/29/steeler-baby/

The word cult is nothing but a term used by the media to create fear around, and isolate religious minorities. New Religions suffer a lot of persecution simply because they are new. The fact of the matter is that they have a right to believe whatever they want to believe regardless of how old it is. Jesus had a new message, and he was persecuted just like new religions are today (Branch Davidians). Let’s start to progress and stop oppressing religious minorities. If a group does something that infringes on the rights of others, then they should be stopped from doing whatever is illegal. Some Catholic priests molest little boys, no one questions the faith - let’s have the same respect for new religions that we do for Catholicism. No one calls Catholicism a cult. If they meet in a secret room of a locked building and only come out to get food, and if they live isolated from the rest of America…let them do it, it’s their right to practice freely. So what if you don’t understand it? Repetitive use of the word cult regarding a specific group does more to brainwash society than any religious leader has ever been capable of. The word cult makes me cringe; it’s so full of hatred and isolation that it’s like calling someone a n*****.

The asian religious undertones of ABC’s Lost are undeniable. The way everyone is connected before the flight, and how for everything there is an antithesis seem to be heavily influenced by either/both Hinduism and Buddhism. Here are some examples of balance on the island: In the same episode Boone died, Aaron was born. Jack is a man of science, Locke a man of faith. Hugo won the lottery, then bad things happened to him. Saeed tortured people in Iraq, He was tortured on the island. The tail party seems to have had similar struggles as there’s a leader (Michelle Rodriguez) who worked for a parent, comparable to Jack who worked for his father, struggling with people of faith, (Locke and Mr. Eko). The fact that many of the castaways “coincidentally” ran into each other before the flight also points to the idea of the interconnectedness of life. Not only this, but the term ”Dharma” (Dharma Initiative) is an obvious clue that the island’s significance has something to do with either Buddhism or Hinduism. In Buddhism the term refers to the teachings of the Buddha, in Hinduism it means one’s duty or place in the caste system. 

The idea of the “Dharma Wheel” is particularly interesting, since it is a theological idea of the teaching of the Buddha traveling from place to place and establishing its ideas. The fact that in the middle of the Ba Gua octagon is a yin yang symbol I think is another clue of the theme of balance taking place on the island. It may be that somehow the “Dharma Initiative” was an attempt to somehow ”trap” the dharma wheel in one place, if somehow the numbers 4, 8, 15, 16, 23, and 42 could be linked to the dharma wheel it would be good clue as to their meaning, and why they need to be repeatedly entered into the computer. Also the fact that the “monster” is nothing but black smoke leads me to think that it is somehow linked to the religious undertones of the show. 

Lost, unofficial website: http://www.lost-tv.com/

The oil companies think that we should pay more at the pump because we’re at war and barrels of oil are hard to come by. So it is great to hear that Exxon-Mobil reported the most profitable year in the history of all American companies! Wow does something stink?

HOUSTON, Jan. 30 — Exxon Mobil, the nation’s largest energy company, today reported a 27 percent surge in profits for the fourth quarter as elevated fuel prices gave rise to the most lucrative year ever for an American company, with profits in 2005 reaching $36.13 billion and revenue $371 billion. - N.Y. Times

The State of the Union address was last night and while it covered many points that I would love to comment on, onething stood out.  Iran.  Bush said, ”We cannot afford to have Iran with a nuclear weapon.”  Guess what, that is an understatement.  Lets think about this.  Iran claims they want nuclear capabilities in order to produce energy through nuclear power plants.  Now while it would be nice for Iran to have power, you must aks yourself, “why do they need nuclear power?”  Think about it, Iran has a very large quantity of oil.  Furthermore, I don’t recall Iran ever giving a crap about the environment.  So why don’t they convert their oil into electric power?

I am reminded of North Korea, the other remaining member of the “Axis of Evil“.  Fun loving Bill Clinton thought it would be a great idea to give North Korea nuclear power plants.  Can you guess what Commie Korea did with their nuclear capabilities?  They made nuclear missiles and proceeded to threaten us with them.

So What do you think Iran will do with nuclear capabilities?  I’m pretty sure they can’t make missiles, but they do know a thing or two about making bombs.  Now people may say ask: “what right does America have to deny nuclear weapons to other nations when America was the only nation to actually use a nuclear weapon against another nation?”  Well, that would take another blog in itself to explain, but I can offer you one reason why Iran shouldn’t have nuclear weapons:  I don’t trust them; they hate us, they are an unstable government and they are in the anti-American terrorist hot bed of the world.

     I don’t understand what’s so bad about suicide. If someone doesn’t want to live anymore, why make them? If anyone should be responsible for their life it should be that person. It doesn’t hurt anyone else, and in some cases I can imagine suicide being a very viable option. People say, oh but it hurts their loved ones. And maybe it does, but I am not responsible for the feelings that someone has towards me. Just because someone loves me, doesn’t mean that I’m obligated to do what they want. Maybe instead of chalking suicide up to the emotionally unstable, we should take a look at their lives and see if we can figure out how it came to be that dying was better than living.