Dec 11, 2009 Posted by VC on Dec 11, 2009 in Uncategorized | 0 comments

On the 11th hour of the 11th day

I share with you my final multimedia project. (Complete coincidence, I swear.)

For more stories about silicon valley by Stanford journalism students, check out svalleypulse.com.

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Oct 23, 2009 Posted by VC on Oct 23, 2009 in Uncategorized | 2 comments

Nudity should not be a crime

It’s a standard morning routine. Get out of bed, brew a cup of joe. And if the house mates aren’t around, why bother putting clothes on? Eric Williamson knows what I’m talking about. The Springfield, Virgina resident was going about his business in the buff when a lady walked by his house with her kid. She looked in his window, saw his birthday suit and called the cops.

Creating laws to protect people from people who revel in imposing their bodies upon others is understandable. I certainly don’t want to sit in a puddle of potentially infected spooge left on a bench by some random naked person. That’s something easily prevented by wearing clothes.

However, when a person is arrested for being naked in their own kitchen, a line has been crossed. Not only does this violate a primal urge to roam free unrestricted by fashion, public dollars and man hours were spent on sending officers out to the residence. What a waste.

What irks me further is that the woman was walking through Williamson’s yard with her son. What’s the big deal if he sees an adult penis? The mother has obviously been exposed to penis in the past. Why was she so upset at the sight of a naked man that she called the cops?

I wouldn’t mind a naked man in my kitchen making coffee. One more attractive than Williamson, naturally.

In related news, the very chiseled swim team was running around campus earlier today, wearing only sneakers and fire engine red speedos. Ahh, life is good.

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Mar 26, 2009 Posted by VC on Mar 26, 2009 in In The Know, Uncategorized | 0 comments

The Devolution of the Texan mind

My walls rumble ominously in the wake of the sonic shock wave produced by the lightning, rattling the framed art on my walls.  I’m siting in my bedroom with my laptop on my thighs, reading an article on wsj.com about how Texas School Boards are deciding whether to buy books that challenge evolution. Frankensteinian Coincidence?

If Texas School Board chairman, Republican Dr. Don McLeroy, has his way, the science books in Texas must include the notion that the complexity of cells cannot be attributed to evolution.  It could also be the product of intelligent design, aka thinly-veiled creationism.  I don’t understand why a man who is supposed to foster policy which increases ways to explore and understand the world in the classroom, would shut down the discussion about the origins and progression of life on Earth.  I was under the impression that an education involved scrutinizing the unknown, not stamping it with a catch all, discourse terminating concept.

I don’t think a dentist is really qualified to be on the State Board of Education.  Especially one who teaches Sunday school.   Isn’t that a conflict of interest?  Oh, wait…This is Texas.  No need to separate church preachings and state funded things here.  No need to pretend like he isn’t a creationist.  He readily admitted to the Austin American Statesman that he is.

What’s really scary, is that the Board has the purchasing power to influence the textbooks adopted not only in this state, but also nationwide.

“Together the Board, the commissioner, and the Agency facilitate the operation of a vast public school system consisting of 1,227 school districts and charter schools, more than 7,900 campuses, more than 590,000 educators and other employees, and more than 4.5 million schoolchildren. The Board establishes goals for the public school system and adopts and promotes four-year plans for meeting those goals.”-TEA website.

Add the fact that many public schools usually cannot afford to purchase new textbooks every year; these books could be in use for a decade.   For the next two days, the Texas School Board will attempt to handicap the intelligence of students in the public school system.   They’re supposed to be taking public testimony on the issue before voting and making the curriculum addition official.  But the link for the registration form for public testimony at State Board of Education meetings is broken.

My walls are rumbling again.

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Feb 17, 2009 Posted by VC on Feb 17, 2009 in In The Know, Uncategorized | 0 comments

A universal cell phone charger?

Cell phone manufacturers have agreed to consider a universal phone charger. The GSM Association and the Open Mobile Terminal Platform agreed that Micro-USB should emerge from the cord monster growing out of my surge protector and rise as the standard connection for charging and syncing cell phones.

Not only would it be a lot easier to find the charger that goes with your phone, but it would also mean less chargers in landfills. No word on whether it’s actually going to happen by the recommended adoption date of January 2012.

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Feb 17, 2009 Posted by VC on Feb 17, 2009 in Uncategorized | 0 comments

Yosano to replace Nakagawa

Japanese Finance Minister Shoichi Nakagawa resigned today after accusations of being drunk at a G7 conference. Some say they saw him drinking a glass of wine before the Rome G7 summit. Nakagawa says it was cold medicine and jet lag.

He looks shmammered to me. Why am I not surprised that it was the finance minister?

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