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Spider-Man 70% Superman 65% Green Lantern 65% Catwoman 65% The Flash 60% Supergirl 58% Robin 55% Hulk 50% Iron Man 40% Wonder Woman 28% Batman 25%

You are intelligent, witty, a bit geeky and have great power and responsibility.

Although, I do like to wear a push-up bra, which explains why I’m more Wonder Woman-ish then Batman-ish.

Click here to take the Superhero Personality Test

Ah, DNA testing. The confusion it will bring. Bring up a persons DNA and you can tell a lot about them. For instance, what makes a woman a “female” is the presence of two X chromosomes (XX), where as a man is a male when he has an XY chromosomal set. It’s suppose to be simple, but nature likes to through us a loop now and again. Occasionally, a child is born with 3 or more chromosomes, producing combinations such as XXY, XYY, and XXX. Further, there are other types of chromosomal mutations that lead to a whole host of interesting genetic results. None of these are “bad”, but when you add them to sports, competition is taken to a new level. Imagine a boxer incapable of feeling pain or a “woman” who wins a metal but has too many Y chromosomes. There are children born with genetic mutation that make them predisposed to build muscles. What chromosomal testing does is say “this is a base line, everything else is a mutation”.

Sports are rocked with hormone stories every other week. Imagine what would happen if routine genetic testing started taking place. What do you suppose made Micheal Jordon such a great basketball player? It might have been a genetic quirk or it might have been “practice, practice, practice”. If it were the former, should he be disqualified from playing sports? The same applies to Lance Armstrong. Maybe he had a particular set of genetic mutations that made him a great bicycle rider.

Sports are based on the concept of a level playing field, where everyone on the court is basically the same. But with testing, people will realize that the traditional definitions of normal may not apply. Ultimately, sports will have to realize that that guy or gal that can run the two minute mile is doing so not just because they practiced hard, but also because a particular combination of genes gives them a competitive advantage.

Ah, yes, tolerance.  You have to love the tolerance of the American people and the representatives.  Just for the record, the “terrorists” did the following:

1. Spoke in Arabic (sounded a lot like praying)
2. Weren’t seated together
3. Talked to each other

Because, you know, when you are a Muslim Cleric, you should talk in English, ensure that the airline books you all in the same row (they are accommodating that way), and not talk to you friend while you fly.

The following statements are taken out of context, giving reader a misleading view of the intention:

1. We will not have an all-volunteer army – George Bush, October 16, 2004
2. I think all of us have a sense if we imagine the kind of world we would face if the people … shot down the plane over Pennsylvania – Donald Rumsfeld, December 24, 2004
3. Ladies and gentlemen, I am a desperate housewife. – Laura Bush, April 30, 2005

Each of these are quotes taken out of the context of their surrounding speech. They give the reader a misleading view of the speakers intention.  It’s also how I should have written up my comment at Redstate.com.

Apparently I’m blocked from commenting at Redstate anymore. Not that I couldn’t get around it, but they apparently they didn’t like my first, and only, comment post. I did go a bit link crazy, but I felt that it was important that I back up my “out-of-context” examples with more then just “I heard from a friend…”. But it’s their site and their right, so I can’t fault them.

Unfortunately the comment is getting some responses (mostly negative, some neutral, none positive , so I won’t be able to respond to any of them. Here’s a copy of my comment:

“So everything a politician says should be taken at face value regardless of the context? The statement was a continuation of the series of attacks on Bush that preceded the 13 seconds that have been played over and over again. If we wanted to get “down and dirty”, we could accuse Bush of wanting a draft (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6rWYeyxEkwo), of the Iraq war being over (http://www.commondreams.org/headlines03/1030-06.htm) of Rumsfeld inditing that Flight 93 was shot down (http://www.freewilliamsburg.com/archives/2004/12/rumsfeld_misspe.html), or George being sexually unsatisfying according to Laura (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4503609.stm). The statement was taken out of context and used to the Republicans agenda just like the Democrats do when this administration refers to “tar babies” (http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132×2630040) It was a joke where the punchline got botched. Kerry apologized for the botching. Why is this still a story to you?”

In hind site, I should have done two things differently. First I should have use examples of lines taken out of context instead of links. I also should have re-written the last line to be a bit better phrased or taken out completely.

Since I can’t reply there, I’ll do it here. One of the commenters responded that I didn’t understand “out-of-context”. Actually I do, and I stand by the fact that the 13 seconds of Kerry’s speech that are being replayed over and over again are being taken out-of-context. The lead up to Kerry’s botched joke was a series of attacks on Bush, but taking that out of the story, it looks like Kerry is attacking the troops intelligence. Putting it back in lends credence to the idea that Kerry was trying (and failed) to attack Bush. It would be the equivalent of using Laura Bush’s line “I am a desperate housewife. I mean if those women on that show think they’re desperate, they ought to be with George” to indicate that George Bush is a neglectful husband. It’s taken out of context, just like Kerry’s 13 seconds. But that’s not the eye grabber, so the news stations and pundints aren’t including that as part, hence it is “out-of-context”.

Ah well, I’ll probably keep reading Redstate columns because I find it interesting to read pundents (check out the Huffington Post for some serious pundintry).

Watch this video. It’s the full lead up to John Kerry’s “Troops” joke. The pundits are making it out to be an attack on the troops in Iraq, but it’s really an continuation of an attack on Bush. The problem is that John Kerry botched the punchline. He insulted the troops, albeit unintentionally. As a result, he may have given the Republican leadership the fire they need to get their constituents out to vote. And that’s what they are doing by only showing the last 13 seconds of the above clip. .

I never understood the problem with Gay Marriage.  Nor did I understand the difference between a civil union and a marriage (a rose by any other name…).  Either way, New Jersey’s Supreme Court has ruled that the legislation must either create a civil union for homosexuals or modify the existing laws to allow for gay marriage.  I agree with the ruling and wish it would happen more often.  To quote Justice Albin “the unequal dispensation of rights and benefits to committed same-sex partners can no longer be tolerated”.

But the timing may be horrible.  The Democrats have a real chance at controlling both houses of Congress after the midterm elections.  For the first time in the Bush administration, they could wield power to stop the erosion of civil rights experienced during this “War on Terror”.  This ruling may prove to be the rallying point for disenfranchised Republican voters.  Because some many races are within the margin of error, it means that either side will have to convince their voters to show up on election day.  Till now it looked like the Republicans might not this year.  With this ruling, who knows.

Again, I believe in this ruling and what it stands for, but it may be the wall that stymies the Democrat wave to power.

I’ve taken out the Google bomb that was in this post before. I realized it represented what I feel is most wrong with American politics: win by any means necessary. As a result, I apologize for participating in such a childish maneuver to put Republicans candidates at a disadvantage.

Podcasts in iTunes and on the iPod are horribly designed. The design feels like it was shoved in without much planning. Let’s take a look at some of the problems I have.

1. There is no delete option on the iPod. When I finish a podcast, the iPod goes back to the main menu. There’s no way to indicate that I’m done with the podcast prior to completing it and when I’m done, there’s no indication on the iPod to tell iTunes to delete it. The “Delete Played Episodes” option only works some of the time and it doesn’t allow me to save an podcast episode that I found interesting and wanted to keep long term.
2. In iTunes, there’s no way to see which podcasts have been played. I can create a Smart Playlist that shows for all Podcasts with counts greater then 0, but that only catches some and missing others. Internal to iTunes/iPod, there is a difference between being marked as played and actually having played the episode to completion. Marking a podcast as played will not cause it to show up on the above playlist.
3. Podcasts can be episodic or serial. In the former, a single episode is contained, without dependence on other episodes. An example of this would be MacBreak Weekly. For the latter, episodes are linked together. They represent a whole story. The afore mentioned “return to main menu” when a podcast is finished interrupts the flow of these podcasts. Further, resume is done on a per episode basis instead of the podcast, so if I want to resume a serial podcast, I have to remember where I’m at among the episodes. And because podcasts are sorted by date, you normally have the latest episode at the top and the oldest at the bottom. This is the wrong approach for serial podcasts.

So I offer the following suggestions for each critique.

1. At the end of the podcast, give the user the option to delete a podcast. It would give the user to decide if they want to keep or remove a podcast. You can even make the choice an optional prompt.
2. Make “Mark as Played” and actually playing a podcast to completion the same and give the user a playlist parameter of “Played”.
3. Allow the podcast producer mark a podcast as serial or not. This allows the user to experience the serial podcast in the order the producer intended. If it’s serial, treat the podcast as a whole. If it’s episodic, play the latest.

I watched the South Park/World of Warcraft (WoW) episode and it piqued my curiosity about WoW, so I dropped by the local GameStop and picked up a 2 week trial for $1.99. After I installed it and then taking forever to download the updates, I created a human paladin. After about an hour I was bored. It wasn’t that the game was difficult (in fact it was easy), it was just that all I did was get a quest, run out and kill something, repeat. Been there, done that and it just doesn’t interest me anymore. I’m sure the social aspects are part of the draw, but, honestly, I just never enjoyed “gaming” with someone, even back in the day when I gamed on a regular basis. Ah, well, to each their own.