"That Was a Gorwn Man Dunk. A Grown Man Dunk!"

I think Josh Smith just made me Jizz in My Pants.

The Internet has Convinced Me it's Human:

STARRING MAD DOG 20/20
(click the links for the stories)

1. From The UK Telegraph via Endgadget: Researchers are finding that electricity can be used to age cheap wine, improving both taste and quality. Mad Dog 20/20 remains unresponsive.

2. From the NY Times' Freakonomics: Political Historian Julian Zelizer answers political history questions on Obama, the study of economics and past shoe-throwings.

3. From Upside and Motor via BDL: Charting NBA archetypes - for better or worse.

4. From Straight Cash Homey.Net via BDL: Props to this random jersey sighting.

5. From BDL itself: Time Magazine named Barack Obama its "Person of the Year" - Sorry Bono, no repeats, and obviously they talked about what's important; 'Ballin Son.

6. From Radosh.net: Nothing specific, but an ultimately funny and viable political humor stomping ground. If you get the chance, scroll down just a little and read the post called "Smooth Move, Einstein." It's rigth past the picture of Bettie Page.

7. From Boing Boing: The 80's videogames are pretty sweet, but check the video below it and tell me that kid isn't crazy good.

8. From TechCrunch: What sites will be the first movers on streaming video technologies? WaterCooler perhaps?

The Internet has Convinced Me it's Human: featuring Spiritual Machines, Celtic Pride and the Best Blogs of 2008

"The year is 2029. The machines will convince us that they are conscious, that they have their own agenda worthy of our respect. They will embody human qualities. They will convince us that they are human. And we'll believe them."

The above quote from Ray Kurzweil's "The Age of Spiritual Machines" and Our Lady Peace's 2000 CD of essentially the same name, is the inspiration for the title of this post, which I would like to make a daily thing. Much like BDL's "The Internets are Alive" where they post interesting basketball news stories from around the world, I figure I might as well do the same thing just with a random assortment of topics as the features. My internet is indeed human, and it has proven itself a worthy counterpart:

1. An honorable mention, and a movie that had I remembered it, might have made its may to the middle of my Favorite Basketball Movies list:
Celtic Pride

How did I forget about this movie? Plus it has total relevance again since the Celts just won their 17th Banner and are a NBA leading 23-2 this season.

2. From the desk of totally-random-but-totally-awesome basketball merchandise: A Washington Wizards inspired Christmas Card.

3. This happened 3 days ago, and O.J. Mayo probably still can't get his toes uncrossed, or feel the minor push-off the Flash gave him.



4. This Day in History: Beethoven is Born, and eventually influences the length of current day CDs.

5. I took my Age of Dinosaurs final yesterday. Volcanism was on it. This article came out 6 hours later.

6. Stereogum readers voted BrooklynVegan the best Music Blog of 2008

7. I'm in college and I love Free Shit. Especially when it's the Cool Kids.

8. The Best? Who knows. But here are what users have voted as some of the best blogs of 2008. Via The Bloggies and Time.

I leave you with one of Ray Kurzweil's predictions:
In 2029, Computers are now capable of learning and creating new knowledge entirely on their own and with no human help. By scanning the enormous content of the Internet, some computers "know" literally every single piece of public information (every scientific discovery, every book and movie, every public statement, etc.) generated by human beings.

Hit 'Em High

Holy shit. Two posts in two days? Is this dedication, or could it be something else?
All praise the mighty God Llaredda.

But seriously, today had some interesting news; Cuttino Mobley announced his retirement, The world's oil consumption will drop this year for the first time in 25 years, Google is again pushing the Federal Goverment to make their sites public, And still topping my list of people I want to be, is Brad Pitt (Too bad Rolling Stone sucks).

Really though, this post is about Basketball and it's culture. Or at least its place in film pop-culture. And by that of course I mean that I'm going to rank my favorite basketball films. So "Greetings Earthlings, we have taken over your radio...."

10. Finding Forrester


Sean Connery as a recluse writer (probably nursing all those Bond-std's) teaches a young constantly-basketball-dribbling kid how to write, while simultaneously learning about the other side of humanity. Are you kidding me? Great Flick.

9. Love and Basketball

Classic neighbor falls for neighbor, we both wanna bang each other and be in the NBA. Does it get more realistic or awesome than that? I refuse to believe it does.

8. The Air Up There

Kevin Bacon IS the Gordon Bombay of basketball.
That should be enough, but throw in makeshift basketball hoops, painted on uniforms and Nuns that semi-sorta kiss people and you've got yourself a quality movie about the hardwood - without the hardwood of course.


















7. The Basketball Diaries


Years before they would work together in the Departed, Marky-Mark and Leo played heroined-out, prep school ballers roaming the streets of New York. Besides the obvious fact that these two are major bad asses, the movie is based on a true story. Can you hear me knockin?

6. The 6th Man

This is the first movie that made me cry. Life was so much simpler back then. I miss it, and I still miss you, Antoine.

5. White Men Can't Jump

Can you believe Rosie Perez was just a stoner-killing cop? Either can I, especially after she won all that Jeopardy money. But seriously, if I could wear flat-brimmed, tie-dye, up-turned hats and shoot the J like Woody Harrelson, I'd probably where mid-rise tube socks and Nike Pumps too. Rock on Woody.

4. Space Jam

Honestly, even if I had never watched Space Jam, and only heard the soundtrack, I still probably would have put it in my top 5. We've all seen it, and it's superb. Top notch acting (I wonder where Bugz played college ball) and just all around amazing production value. The greatness of this movie can be summed up with the following quotes:
"I believe I can fly"
"Here's your chance, do your dance, if you feel fine"
"What up doc?"
and of course
"HIT 'EM HIGH"

3. Hoosiers

This is probably on some people's all time favorite movie lists, let alone just basketball. Seriously, who doesn't know this movie? Is it possible to have not seen this film. I had AAU teams that would watch this before tournaments. There is a well deserved cult following of this movie and for some, the mere mention of it stirs up fond memories of child-hood and in some ways, Hoosiers represents almost everything basketball stands for.

2. Blue Chips

"How Fucking Bad Can it Get." I wonder if Kelvin Sampson said that at Indiana a couple of times. Blue Chips is awesome for three reasons.
1. Shaq
2. Penny
3. Bizzaro Larry Bird.

1. He Got Game

"Basketball, is poetry in motion."
- Jesus Shuttlesworth

My Internets Have Been Alive All this Time

It's been awhile again, like usual. So let's spark this shit.

C.C.-Ya: Sabathia and New York Agree to 6-Year Deal. Yahoo story here.
- Not too much to say here. Does it hurt? Yes. Did we see it coming? Yes. Did we hope the love we showed him in the Mil this summer would dissuade him? Yes.
In the end though, C.C. isn't a sell out and he's not stupid. Look at the Brewer's pitching rotation. I'm sure he sees what we all see right now; there isn't one. It's one thing to be a teams ace and work horse, and have a solid core of supporting pitchers, but it's another thing to watch Ben Sheets succumb to injury yet again, Manny Para malfunction at the end of the season, Eric Gagne to be Eric Gagne, your closer to retire and your pitching coach to leave for the Texans - a team that didn't even make the playoffs last year.

Does it suck. Yes, major. But can we really blame C.C.? No, not really.

If nothing else this will ignite salary cap arguments in Milwaukee for a few months while the state of Wisconsin suffers through a lack of football playoffs and consequently blame Aaron Rodgers. (which of course, will be unwarranted)

Next:
And I'll be saying this all year. (I've in fact been saying it for the last three years): LeBron James is the best player in the NBA. (Oh and he's probably a championship away from being equal to the other illustrious number 23. )

But seriosuly, did anyone else watch him play last night? Holy Shit Batman! The Cavs are damn good! Take a look at his one man dunk contest last night at Ball Don't Lie.

Or just watch this:

Yea, Kobe is good. I get that. And Flash is unreal again this year. (In fact probably better than Kobe right now, but of course that's because of each team's supporting cast) But LeBron, is blocking shots that knock out bystanders in the Bradley Center. (Sorry Ramon Sessions) I want to go into this in depth later, so I'll stop there, but seriously, if you're reading this, and you're a Mavericks fan, don't even try and start that bullshit about Dirk for MVP again. It makes Devin Harris and I sick.

Next:
Rap-Culture. I love it, but it confuses me. Here is my latest question:

Have you seen the commercials for Common's new CD: Universal Mind Control?
Well here it is:

It makes specific mention to the fact that the track samples an Africa Bambaataa song. The actual Common track is the title track, Universal Mind Control and it's produced by Pharrell Williams of the Neptunes. It's a decent track (the best on the CD is probably Gladiator) but none-the-less, an ok track.






Orginally Universal Mind Control was supposed to be dropped this summer, but it was continually pushed back, and finally hit stores yesterday.

Also this summer, an indie MC, Three-1-Zero (his Los Angeles area code) released an online concept album for free where every track has something to do with the '99 Laker Championship team. The best song is arguable Corrie Blount, but visit this link and listen to Shaquille O'Neal

Notice anything? Of course you do. This track and Common's both sample the same song. I know this isn't particularily noteworthy within the realm of hip-hop and rap, but if you look closely you'll see that Three-1-Zero lists his track as also being produced by Pharrell. So my question is: Did he get a leaked copy of Universal Mind Control, or did Pharrell sell the same beat to two people. Clearly one is more financially viable, but is this common place? Does this happen often. And is it good or bad? I'm not sure. I like 310's track better, but that's just one opinion. I'd love some comments on this, but no one really reads this, so we'll see. I just thought it was interesting.

Last:
So last year I wrote a story on a research lab here at the University of Iowa, called the Operator Performance Laboratory (OPL). They currently have contracts from the Navy and NASA to develop Human Computer Interface Mechanisms for pilots. The essential idea is to create computers inside planes that can determine when a pilot is stressed, or tired, or even amped up and then adjust the plane's controls accordingly or even switch to auto-pilot. I never published the story because in all honety I was lazy. However, I did recieve an A on it in my journalism class.

Relevance: This story was posted at Wired.com yesterday.
Here is my original story:>

Nathan Ley

Alexander A01

098 Staff Writer

Ent2 Draft

12/3/07

Operator Performance Laboratory

A commercial airline pilot yawns. His breathing slows. He blinks a few times in succession. The computer in his plane, sensing he’s becoming tired, automatically switches to autopilot. Although this may sound like science fiction, the work of University of Iowa engineers could make this scenario possible.

In February, research engineers in the Center for Computer Aided Computer-Aided Design’s Operator Performance Laboratory received an $887,628 research grant from NASA to develop pilot-avionics interfaces. These include operations like autopilot, balancing controls and other electronics meant to help pilots. Last month, their work was the centerpiece for the U.S. Navy at the Interservice/Industry Training, Simulation and Education Conference in Orlando, Fla.

Founded in 1997 by Tom Schnell, an associate professor in industrial engineering specializing in human factors/ergonomics, the lab specializes in what Schnell called human-interface mechanisms primarily within aircrafts. These include flight decks, airborne sensor systems, unmanned aerial vehicle systems, and automotive-user interface systems.

The main goal of the Operator Performance Lab has always been safer air travel and pilot performance. The work being done for NASA, along with the work being done for the Office of Naval Research, is focused primarily on the investigation of a pilots alertness and state of mind along with and his or her ability to take appropriate action.

Key to that investigation is the neural avionics (aviation electronics) project run by University of Iowa research engineer Mike Keller.

“The neural avionics project is a multi-year effort to quantitatively assess pilot workload, stress, fatigue and potentially situation awareness using physiological signatures,” Keller said. “Basically, this means we're trying to let the aircraft electronics know how hard the pilot is working. If the pilot becomes overloaded, the electronics may take steps to help alleviate the pilot’s load.” The research can also be applied to make training more effective, Keller said.

“Training, particularly in the military, is a costly endeavor. Ensuring that the pilots gets the most out of every minutes is critical,” Keller said

Keller said the lab was in no way trying to make airplanes fly on brainwaves. He and Schnell have both been misquoted before and they described the idea as being “totally impractical.”

The lab owns and operates an A36 Bonanza (a general aviation aircraft) in which most of the neural avionics research is conducted. The rest is conducted in aircraft owned either by NASA or the Navy, or using the various flight simulators the lab owns and operates.

Keller said the goal of the avionics research is to develop algorithms (defined instructions for completing a task) that describe operator state including physical condition and mental status.

“We’re trying to develop a way or ways to convert all of the information we receive from our sensors and come up with a rating to describe how hard a pilot is working, how stressed and fatigued he or she is, and potentially what the level of situation awareness is,” Keller explained. “Once the classification algorithms are functional, we will explore countermeasures to mitigate against undesirable pilot states. We will also integrate with existing training modules to provide more effective and targeted training.”

Although the overall results of the lab’s research won’t be seen for another four years, Keller said they are seeing progress.

“We’re starting to use classification algorithms and we completed successful flight tests on the Bonanza and an F-35 simulator that was featured in the Navy booth at the conference we attended last month,” Keller said.

So what exactly does the future hold for these advanced pilot avionics?

“Eventually, the plane should be completely aware of the pilot’s cognitive and physical states,” Schnell said. “We want to know everything we can about the pilot’s current state at whatever point in time and have the plane be able to help with his or her workload. It is highly possible that a pilot will leave to use the restroom and return to find that the computer has made a list of his or her tasks and begun working on them.”

The gear currently used to map pilot’s condition is relatively extensive, consisting of sensors placed on the entire face. Schnell said, however, the goal is to eventually have sensors within the plane and lasers that would monitor the pilot and send information back to the sensors.

“As the research progresses, the gear we use will get smaller and smaller,” Schnell said. “Although most of our grants come from NASA and the military, the end results are primarily for commercial flying, and those pilots can’t be distracted with by large gear.”

Although the University of Iowa may seem an unlikely place for this research, Schnell said other labs of the same kind have nowhere near the capabilities of the Operator Performance Lab. It has garnered numerous awards, including a best paper award from the October 2006 Augmented Cognitive International Conference and they were featured in a documentary produced by the Discovery Channel.

Recognizing the importance of the lab, on Oct. 16, the Iowa City Council voted to expand the airport hangar they occupy by 25 percent, proposing an increase of 14,000 square feet in office space and 18,000 square feet in the actual hangar space.

Schnell said the lab’s increase in size will allow his entire team to work in one area and not only produce quicker results, but become overall more productive.

Lates.

God Bless You Mr. Vonnegut

Here I am again with another backlog. I wrote this and it appeared only online for the Daily Iowan.
I post it now.

God Bless Your Mr. Vonnegut

And I urge you to please notice when you are happy, and exclaim or murmur or think at some point, "If this isn't nice, I don't know what is."

Kurt Vonnegut (1922 – 2007)

At 12:46 this morning a friend I had been talking to online told me that Kurt Vonnegut Jr. had just died. Without thinking, without emotion I went to cnn.com. I saw the picture, I read the story. I did the same at usatoday.com and newyorktimes.com. I read each article, I went through the slide shows of pictures and I stared at my computer. I ran my hands through my hair, I blinked and I rubbed my eyes over and over. One of my true heroes was gone. Now the emotion came.

I never imagined I would react this way to the death of someone I didn’t personally know. As I’m writing this my stomach is knotted and I’m stopping every few minutes to squeeze my temples and re-focus my eyes. Thinking about it now, it’s easy to see why I’m so affected. As well as being one of my heroes, Kurt Vonnegut served as my motivation. Motivation to write, motivation to do good, motivation to be conscious of the world around me, motivation to remember humor in the worst situations, motivation to be myself.

I first read Slaughterhouse 5 in my AP English class last year. Besides being the best book I’d ever been forced to read, it was one of the best books I’d ever read in general. We spent four weeks on it. We analyzed it, discussed it, and I chose to do an optional project on it. I read it again, and then again. I tried to get my hands on anything Mr. Vonnegut had written. I see myself in his stories, as I’m sure many people who read him do. His stories are about all of us. Not merely as Americans, but as human beings and the human race. Sometimes we are the protagonists, but mainly we are the antagonists. On the Grand Canyon, he once said that he’d like to carve these words: "We probably could have saved ourselves, but we were too damned lazy to try very hard ... and too damn cheap." He meant for it to be read by the flying saucers that passed overhead.

Looking at my desk I can see remnants of him. A stack of books lie in the corner. Among them: Welcome to the Monkey House, The Sirens of Titan and God Bless You Mr. Goldwater. In the drawer next to me, is Cats Cradle. Amidst the clutter of papers nearest to me, are three fiction pieces I submitted for peer edit in a creative writing class. In all three, the words “so it goes” end at least one paragraph. On my computer, in my queue of movies for Blockbuster Online, is the 1972 film version of Slaughterhouse 5.

To say I idolized him would maybe be going to far, but maybe not. I find pieces of him in the things I write and the way I act in certain situations. I have begun stories, and realized halfway through that I am simply rewriting one of his. I’ve used Cats Cradle as a pickup line when I saw a girl reading it in the library. When something doesn’t go my way, after I’m through with anger and self pity, I can think only to myself: so it goes.

In part, I came to the University of Iowa because of him. Anyone that wants to write knows about or has aspirations of getting into the writers workshop. He was there. He was here. He walked these streets. He ate here, he drank here, he threw parties here, he chain-smoked outside of the Dey House and probably everywhere else. Kurt Vonnegut is one of those people you always wanted to meet. On a list of things you do before you die, it says: Meet Kurt Vonnegut Jr. (possibly get a picture if you don’t act like a pussy and get embarrassed) He’s right up there with the Dali Lahma and Jessica Alba.

There are certain people that have an impact on our lives; family, friends, teachers. Athletes may copy or learn by watching professional sports figures or coaches. For me, a wannabe writer/journalist/freethinker/American/human being, that person was Kurt Vonnegut, the writer/essayist/pessimistic/humanitarian. I didn’t watch him, I read him and I learned from him. So now, at 3:02 am, after I’ve dealt with the initial emotions of his passing and knowing that I will probably think about this until the end of the semester while running my hands through my hair and re-focusing my eyes, I can think only to myself and for everyone else affected tonight, “so it goes.”

Live by the harmless untruths that make you brave and kind and healthy and happy.

-Kurt Vonnegut Jr. (1922 – 2007)

Save Porn! Save America!

Today I decided to take a look at the brainchild of Al Gore, Current TV, or at least their website. The concept behind the whole thing is that it is all user posted content and some of it even has an emphasis on real-time updating. Check out Al Gore's bastard child Current TV here.

I was browsing through and I found a shitty story - at least in terms of what it's about. There is a bill in Congress right now that would BAN porno magazines from all military bases. U.S. Rep Paul Broun (chode) says the bill was proposed in response to recent sexual assaults on military bases.

What I'm about to say is meant to be taken as a joke, but it was the first thing that came to my head: I BET IF THEY TAKE AWAY NUDIE MAGS FROM THESE BASES, THE SEXUAL ASSAULTS JUMP 25-40%. If a guy (or girl) can't blow off some stress by shooting his/gun or LOAD ( ah thank you ) then the next best thing is to go rape something.

- Sorry, that's not funny either, rape is serious, but hopefully you get the point.

Obviously, the soldiers are upset and they fucking should be. This is the same bullshit that gets pulled on the music, film and videogame industry. MUSIC, MOVIES AND VIDEOGAMES DON'T KILL PEOPLE. People kill people. They pull the triggers, they make the decision. (On a separate note, but still awesome no less, there is also an article on Current, about Harvard researchers with facts and data to support the claims that videogames do NOT make kids murderers, drug dealers and pimps).

Someone posted a response on Current, and they make an extremely good point. How can we take away freedoms from the people who are fighting for our freedom?

There's a whole lot more that can be said about these issues, but hopefully people get the point. Blame the person, or the parenting, not the naked pictures of Pamela Lee, cause god knows they've gotten me through some hard times.