Having read about the elaborate contract worked out between the W and Kerry camps about debate rules and formats, I figured that the upcoming debates would be pretty watered-down affairs with not much constructive back and forth discussion. However, I had no idea of the actual extent to which presidential debates have been corrupted until I came upon the page Top 10 Secrets They Don't Want You to Know About the Debates. I am amazed at the audacity of the CPD presenting itself as an objective moderating organization; the rules and formats dictated by the CPD ensure that we'll never have an actual debate that addresses real issues and allows for unscripted, candid responses from the candidates. I guess I shouldn't be that surprised, but it is a sad commentary on how managed and packaged the candidates' messages have become...

Despite what I've read, I'll at least tune in for tonight's debate, perhaps even participating in Wonkette's debate drinking game. ;-)

Update: For those of you who missed it, the Washington Post has a complete transcript of last night's debate.

As part of its 25th anniversary celebration, ESPN has decided that 1984 was the single greatest year of the ESPN era:

I'm talking about a year that appealed to everybody, one of those years that just had it going -- sports, movies, TV, pop culture, music, comedy, goofy subplots -- and you were never, ever, EVER bored. I'm talking about a groundbreaking year, with innovations just coming into their own, great actors hitting their stride, memorable rookies stepping onto center stage, maybe even some of the all-time legends making The Leap.

1984 is one of my favorite years, although I remember it for a lot more than just sports. I think it's definitely the best year of the '80s as far as pop culture, movies, TV, and music goes, and since I'm pretty much stuck in the '80s it follows that I would remember 1984 as my favorite year. I'm sure I could go on for a while about this, but that'll have to wait for another time. What do you think; what's your favorite year?

Geologists have been monitoring Mount St. Helens closely for the past couple of weeks and have now issued a "volcanic advisory" for the area, "warning of a heightened possibility of a small to moderate eruption." If an eruption does occur, the Mt. St. Helens VolcanoCam will probably have some interesting images. Here's hoping that any potential event is nowhere near as devastating as the eruption in 1980...

33 years to the day since the Washington Senators moved to Texas, baseball commissioner Bud Selig officially announced that the Montreal Expos are moving to Washington, playing their first game at RFK Stadium next April. Here's a FAQ link about the new team and a brief history of the Montreal Expos. I'm not sure what to make of this news yet. I've been a Bawlamer Oryul (check here for a translation) fan for as long as I can remember, so I'm kind of indifferent about baseball coming to Washington. However, if nothing else, the planned new stadium should help revitalize the Anacostia waterfront, which is in dire need of a facelift...

I'm planning on upgrading my web hosting package this weekend to allow me to experiment with some things my current account is not set up for, like PHP programming and MySQL databases. I will have to transfer all of my web files back to the new server once it's been set up, and after that there may still be a 24-72 hour lag as new DNS servers propagate the new setup. That may result in this web page and my driko.org e-mails being inaccessible for up to a day or two, but I'm hoping that if I do this over the weekend the impact will be minimal.

If you enjoyed my post about the alleged synchronicites of The Wizard of Oz with The Dark Side Of The Moon and Willy Wonka with 2112, then you should definitely visit The Synchronicity Arkive, which is chock full of tenuous connections between movies and albums. Some people have way too much time on their hands...

I realize that I've posted way too much about the Star Wars DVD release, but I thought this was interesting enough for one (hopefully) last post about it. DVD Verdict presents its extremely thorough review of the DVD release, but it takes that review a step further, commenting on the films' historical impact and inserting some interesting asides on the Star Wars phenomena.

Check out this video clip of an F-4 Phantom travelling at 500 mph impacting a wall designed to protect a nuclear power station (links to page with embedded QuickTime video). As you'd (hopefully) expect, the wall did its job, basically atomizing the F-4 into dust (!). Pretty wild...

Oh, and ignore the caption above the video; the audio in the report clearly states that the wall is designed to protect nuclear power plants, not withstand a nuclear blast. :-p

Just when I thought I'd seen everything, I came across this: "Vaca Meter Limousines has [taken] an old Boeing 727-100 and converted it into a 50-seat luxury limousine." Too bad it only operates in Mexico... ;-)

The Way Of The Rodent has come up with its list of the 50 Greatest Shooter Games Ever, including arcade, computer, and console games. There are a lot of gems here, and although I disagree with their ranking somewhat, I think they pretty much covered all of my favorites. Now I need to go home and fire up MAME... :-)

Go figure that Richard Branson, the billionaire entrepreneur and adventurer best known for the Virgin brand, has come up with Virgin Galactic, a space tourism company promising to "to make it possible for almost anyone to visit the final frontier at an affordable price" by "the end of the decade." Virgin Galactic is licensing the technology developed by Scaled Composites in the form of SpaceShip One, which is poised to attempt its flight to win the X-Prize in a matter of days.

Check out this time-lapse video of a car trip from Los Angeles to New York (links directly to page with embedded QuickTime video).

Since it appears that there will not be a 2004-2005 NHL season anytime soon due to the ongoing disputes over the Collective Bargaining Agreement, G4TechTV will play all 1,230 NHL games virtually, airing highlights every night on the program "Sweat." I'm not sure which game will be played on what platform yet, although the picture on the site shows ESPN 2K5. Comcast SportsNet has also decided to air these highlights, saying that "We'd rather be televising the live games, but until the real games resume, this presents a fun opportunity to maintain the fans' interest." I agree, but I'll have to wait and see how well they present this before I decide whether it's more than just a geeky fad.

Yahoo reports that the 1984 movie The Last Starfighter is to be made into a "science fiction musical." Wow, this sucks on so many levels. I remember seeing this movie in the theaters 20 years ago (now that's scary!), and as '80s sci-fi/action flicks go it's better than most. I didn't realize until today that the movie featured the first fully-CGI spaceship, the Gunstar (at right). I can't see any musical version doing anything but sullying the memory of this movie... :-(

Check out this Rand Corporation prediction from 1954 of what a "home computer" will look like in 2004. It appears that they are quite prescient... ;-)

In a stunning development, Borowitz Report reveals that W, frustrated with the current situation in Iraq, has "constructed a mock-up of the 'Jeopardy!' set in the basement of the White House" in order to obtain answers from Ken Jennings, the record-winning champion of the game show 'Jeopardy.' Topics include "Angry Shiites," "Ruptured Oil Pipelines," and "Massive Power Outages," but according to White House sources one topic was particularly troublesome for the champ:

According to those who saw Mr. Jennings play the special Iraqi version, the champ breezed through most of the questions but was stumped when he got to "EXIT STRATEGIES" for $100.

"The most likely outcome of the war in Iraq, this should happen by the end of 2005," Mr. Trebek read.

"What is civil war and total chaos?" Mr. Jennings guessed.

"No, I’m sorry," Mr. Trebek replied. "The correct question is, 'What is a thriving Middle Eastern democracy and a beacon of hope for the entire region?'"

How fitting that the end of Jennings' reign should come at the hands of W, arguably the polar intellectual opposite of the Jeopardy champ... ;-p

For those of you that aren't regular visitors, I've been obsessively bitching over the changes in the Star Wars DVD release (CNN lists some of the major ones here) ever since I first heard about them. PvPonline.com's latest comic puts a perspective on things that I'd probably be well-advised to heed... ;-)

While I was away on vacation Mozilla Firefox Preview Release 1 was released. This is the last incremental release before the milestone release of Firefox 1.0 (due in the last quarter of 2004), and I must say that some of the new features are pretty cool. Three major new features are:

1. Live Bookmarks: "a new technology in Firefox that lets you view RSS news and blog headlines in the bookmarks toolbar or bookmarks menu." Although I use a separate RSS reader (Awasu), this is a pretty cool addition. Any site that has an RSS feed (and the appropriate <link> code in the header) displays an orange RSS button in the bottom status bar that allows you to add it as a live bookmark; you'll see it on this site once you've upgraded. I need to explore this more to see how I like it...
   
2. Find Bar: The new find bar that pops up in the bottom status bar when you hit "Control-F" is very useful. I found out that type-ahead search is not gone with this addition, just disabled unless you enable it under advanced options.
   
3. Plugin Installer and Updater: The new plugin installer is initially annoying in the way it stops you from installing extensions (likely to prevent unintentional installation), but once you add the domain in question (mozdev.org and update.mozilla.org are two good sources) to the "allowed" list via the convenient menu that pops up, you're back in business. Not all extensions have been ported to this new version, although when you first install PR1 it will search for updates and install them as necessary. This updater is much improved, and is a godsend for keeping the latest extensions (as well as the current Firefox version) up to date. I think I eventually found newer versions (or replacements) for all of my favorite extensions.

Speaking of extensions, Flexbeta has a nice series of pages summarizing some essential extensions, supplementing the ones I recommended in several posts.

Accompanying this release of Mozilla Firefox PR1 are the new releases of Thunderbird 0.8 and Mozilla Suite 1.7.3. I don't use the suite anymore, but the new version of Thunderbird has some nice new features, including RSS support (which I'm not sure I like), better handling of POP accounts, and better search features.

To continue the Star Wars theme in honor of today's DVD release, I came across a very cool piece of art by Jason Salavon entitled The Grand Unification Theory (Part One: Every Second of Star Wars). Although it initially looks like your typical photomosaic, this work is unique in that it supposedly incorporates every frame in the entire Star Wars movie. The Metafilter thread where I found this also mentions some of Salavon's other works.

For those of you who haven't watched it yet, The Ali G Show on HBO is hilarious. The creative genius behind the show is Sacha Baron Cohen, a British actor who "traveled across America as the 'hip-hop journalist' Ali G and interviewed some of the most important figures in politics, business, sports and the arts." Besides the Ali G persona, Cohen also plays the "Borat, the easily confused TV reporter from Kazakhstan [my personal favorite], and the supercilious Austrian fashion reporter Bruno." The things Cohen's characters get away with are hilarious, albeit a bit unsettling at times. Their exploits are especially funny considering how easily he gets some people to accommodate and agree with him.

Slate has a great article delving into how the show continues to dupe people into interviews, although some people refused to comment because they didn't want to publicly admit that they were fooled. The show actually started on British television, where it only lasted two seasons before Ali G became too well-known to continue his antics. As the show continues its second season on HBO, I hope it manages to last, because I would definitely miss it if too many people caught on... ;-)

Here's a fun, albeit somewhat morbid, gift for The Godfather fan who has everything: a horse head prop pillow. :-)

Although the deal isn't finalized yet, MSNBC reports that Netflix and TiVo are poised to unveil a new paradigm in movie delivery for subscribers to both services: movies rented from Netflix will download directly into the TiVo box via a broadband Internet connection. As a subscriber to both services, which by the way I highly recommend, I'm intrigued by this possible development but wonder whether it will be worth it. To download a DVD-quality movie at present broadband speeds would take hours to say the least, although if done in the background the transfer would be transparent to the end user. I'm wondering whether copyright and/or pirating issues will prevent this from ever happening. If it does happen, the DRM protections that will more than likely be imposed on the movie download may prove to be too cumbersome; I have yet to use any music download service that has DRM that I find acceptable, although iTunes comes close. Still, if done correctly, this partnership could make movie rental a lot more convenient, and I would definitely take advantage of it.

Star Wars vs. Star Trek in Five Minutes is an extremely geeky but strangely compelling summary of an argument that sci-fi geeks have been obsessing over for some time now. If that's not enough for you, the main page is more info than you'll ever need, although I'll admit that I was sucked in ;-). For a laugh, check out the hate mail that the author of the site gets. Some people are way too serious about this...

John Kerry appeared on The Late Show with David Letterman last night. I missed it (and didn't know ahead of time to TiVo it - d'oh!), but apparently he took the opportunity take a jab at W with humor as well as with serious discussion. The highlight of the show appears to be Kerry's "Top 10 Bush Tax Proposals:"

10. No estate tax for families with at least two U.S. presidents.
9. W-2 Form is now Dubya-2 Form.
8. Under the simplified tax code, your refund check goes directly to Halliburton.
7. The reduced earned income tax credit is so unfair, it just makes me want to tear out my lustrous, finely groomed hair.
6. Attorney General (John) Ashcroft gets to write off the entire U.S. Constitution.
5. Texas Rangers can take a business loss for trading Sammy Sosa.
4. Eliminate all income taxes; just ask Teresa (Heinz Kerry) to cover the whole damn thing.
3. Cheney can claim Bush as a dependent.
2. Hundred-dollar penalty if you pronounce it "nuclear" instead of "nucular."
1. George W. Bush gets a deduction for mortgaging our entire future.

I think the funniest one is #3, although they are all pretty good. However, #1 is dead (literally, in some cases) serious and is a point that many W supporters just don't seem to get, in my opinion.

Well, I'm back, although I'm still fighting off jet lag and am busy catching up with things at work and around the house. We had a great vacation in Ireland, but I'll hold off on posting about that until I have time to do it justice. Also, pictures (22 rolls of film!) won't be ready until at least later this week, so it might be cool to post some of them to go along with that.

Thanks again to shaft and czar for holding down the fort while I was gone; it looks as if they did their usual great job. I'm particularly happy to see the post (and great picture!) of Dr. Bunsen Honeydew and Beaker, although White House Joust was fun too.

Even the Buddhist monks are p.o.'ed at Americans these days. Remember when we were generally respected and welcomed to other nations? Are we a nation of arrogant, insensitive, ignorant people? I like to think that most of us are not, but I definitely think it's time to change our image. (I hope the pic isn't too insensitive to chimps...)

Pioneer 10 and 11, the space probes that recently left the solar system on their journey to distant stars, are moving in ways inconsistent with the predictions of physicists. Possible reasons include unseen "dark matter" outside the edge of the solar system, gas leaks from the fuel tanks of both space probes coincidentally happening simultaneously, or the possibility that Newton didn't get the whole story right about gravity. Funny, nobody mentioned the idea of an Imperial Star Destroyer catching them in a tractor beam.

Man has seven best friends. Decides he has too many, and that he should shoot them all. After shooting three, man loses control of gun. One of remaining best friends uses paw to pull trigger, injuring man. Man charged with cruelty to animals, has no friends left at all.

For those readers with broadband access, you may be interested in a service from NASA, called Earth Observatory. They make available hi-res satellite images of a variety of geologic features, natural disasters, evidence of global climate change, etc. This week they posted a composite image of my town, Denver, CO, showing elevations of the mountains to the west. They have plenty of pictures for anyone interested in maps, Earth sciences, or just generally cool wallpaper images.

Muppet scientist Dr. Bunsen Honeydew and his assistant Beaker were voted best TV scientists in a BBC poll. The stars of Muppet Labs, "where the future is being made today," were unavailable for comment, but their close friend Kermit The Frog summed up their mass appeal. "They have spread the message that science is not just for short round-headed bald guys and their orange-haired goggle-eyed sidekicks. It's also for people like you and frogs like me," said Kermit.

One thing I know about Driko is that he is a huge fan of the 80's arcade game Joust. So when I stumbled across White House Joust I knew that I had share the link. Left wing or Right wing, this Shockwave based game has something for everyone.

I won't be posting for about two weeks, as we are going on vacation to Ireland. We're very excited about the trip; we'll be driving around the entire coast, staying in ten different B&Bs around the country and spending an extra day in Dublin. It would be cool if I found a way to post some of our digital pictures while traveling, but I can't make any guarantees. In the meantime, I leave you in the capable hands of shaft and czar, who I will again call upon to keep DrikoLand going in my absence. Have a good Labor Day holiday, and I'll be sure to update you once we're back!

James Doohan, best known as Scotty from Star Trek, received a star on the Hollywood Walk Of Fame last week. Joined by shipmates Sulu, Chekhov, and Uhura (I mean castmates George Takei, Walter Koenig, and Nichelle Nichols), "it was expected to be the last public appearance of the 84-year-old performer, who was recently diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease and also suffers from Parkinson's disease, diabetes and lung fibrosis." I'm glad to see him get some recognition, but I'm sad to hear that he's not doing so well.

I saw this link a while ago, but I forgot to check it out. But having seen Jaws In 30 Seconds (and re-enacted by bunnies), I now see that I've missed out. Pretty damn funny...

The London News Review contends that Zell Miller is going to Hell, and although I wouldn't quite put it that way, I must say that the article makes many good points. For those of you who don't know who Zell Miller is, he is a Democratic senator from "rural Georgia" who supports W and who made the keynote address yesterday at the Republican National Convention. This stands in stark contrast to Miller's last appearance at the 1992 Democratic National Convention, in which he asserted that George Senior was "out of touch." The article does a better job skewering Miller than I ever could (although I'm tempted to try), so I'll just refer you to it. Oh, and W sucks. :-p

Although a lot of the NY Press article 1001 Things To Hate About The Republican National Convention (RNC) might not make sense to non-New Yorkers, the list is still pretty damn funny. I think #984 is one of my favorites... :-)

Kevin Smith revealed last week that he plans on revisiting Clerks with a sequel entitled The Passion Of The Clerks. The interview reveals that the sequel will pick up 10 years later and will be "about what happens when that lazy, 20-something malaise lasts into your 30s. Those dudes are kind of still mired, not in that same exact situation, but in a place where it's time to actually grow up and do something more than just sit around and dissect pop culture and talk about sex." Shooting may start as early as January of next year. I'm still a little surprised to realize that the original has been out for ten years, but I'm not sure that Smith will be able to pull this one off. The low budget of Clerks was part of its charm, and trying to reproduce that will be impossible. Only an awesome script could possibly make the sequel any good, but I will admit that I'd like to see it...

Check out the latest installment of the continuing series of games starring our Yeti and penguin friends: Yeti Sports 6: Big Wave.

A couple of weeks ago I posted about PhotoStamps, a new product offered by the United States Postal Service that lets you send submit photos in order to create custom stamps. Although there were some restrictions as to which photos would be deemed acceptable, I was wondering who would be the first to push the envelope. The Smoking Gun does not disappoint, detailing some of the designs it submitted and showcasing images that managed to make their way onto some actual, albeit subversive, PhotoStamps.

The Register reports that "it was 35 years ago today that ARPANET, the military network widely regarded as the progenitor of the internet, was switched on."