You are looking at posts that were written in the month of December in the year 2007.
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Perhaps one of the most volatile subjects in the 20th Century, it appears as if Racism is not dead and is making its comeback in the 21st Century: A recent news article noted that a “white man” threatened to “shoot any and all black persons” who attended a meeting at an old church in Bangor, Maine, “the whitest state”.
Let me preface this review with a few statements:
1. I have read the 1954 short story I am Legend by Richard Matheson
2. I have NOT seen The Omega Man or The Last Man On Earth which were both based off of #1.
A Brief synopsis of the 2007 Movie I am Legend:
(From Yahoo Movies)
Robert Neville (Will Smith) is a brilliant scientist, but even he could not contain the terrible virus that was unstoppable, incurable…and manmade. Somehow immune, Neville is now the last human survivor in what is left of New York City…and maybe the world. But he is not alone. He is surrounded by “the Infected”–victims of the plague who have mutated into carnivorous beings who can only exist in the dark and who will devour or infect anyone or anything in their path. For three years, Neville has spent his days scavenging for food and supplies and faithfully sending out radio messages, desperate to find any other survivors who might be out there. All the while, the Infected lurk in the shadows, watching Neville’s every move, waiting for him to make a fatal mistake. Perhaps mankind’s last, best hope, Neville is driven by only one remaining mission: to find a way to reverse the effects of the virus using his own immune blood. But his blood is also what The Infected hunt, and Neville knows he is outnumbered and quickly running out of time.
My Review: (B +)
The Fresh Prince has come a long way in his acting career, and I applaud him for his accomplishments. He does a good job in this film, and the box office revenue seems to agree with me on that point. The visuals in the film are very well done, and the director does a good job of putting you on the edge of your seat.
I have some issues with the plot. There I said it. Directing is great, the acting is great, even the dog is great, but the plot…. the plot has a few problems. From what I understand, this is supposed to be an artistic reinterpretation of the book AND the two movies listed above, with a modern spin.
In this movie, the “vampires” (this is how I will refer to them), are unintelligent. The have basic animal instincts. He has done countless experiments on them, and killed untold numbers of them in the doing. How then do they set the trap with the car and cable that snags his leg? They are not that intelligent. He is military, and has access to a harbor and naval boats… Maps.. GPS equipment.. Jets.. Helicopters..
I guess my point in all this is that since I read the book before the movie, I had certain expectations, I knew Robert Neville, and the guy Will Smith plays in the movie was not him. He hunted the vampires, he was an alcoholic… He was a normal guy who taught himself to be a scientist… and to survive.
This movie was good, but it was not the I Am Legend from the book. He was not the Robert Neville from the book. Aside from that, it was well done, and I enjoyed it.
Disclaimer: The information in this post is meant to be educational only and not to be used to commit a crime, regardless of which country the information is received in.
Many of us code monkeys use excel from time to time to do various tasks, and for me it usually involves thousands of lines of phone calls from our CRM software’s database. So the process for me typically is as follows: go into said CRM software, export to a csv file, import said csv file into excel.
The data source you are using is irrelevant, but this type of thing seems to happen when importing data from an outside source. I will explain why this happens, and tell you how to solve the problem. When you import the data from a csv file, you sometimes have blank columns. When you then click on a column to sort it, and there are blank values or especially when there are entire rows that are blank, excel will only sort the column you have clicked on, without expanding the sort across the entire data set. This is usually bad, as you have now sorted a column but all the other columns don’t match the one you have sorted.
The solution to this is after you import the data, click the top left corner to select the entire sheet, and then click sort. This will effectively filter out all the blank data rows. Now that there are no blank rows, you can click on any column you wish, and click your desired sort method. It will now ask you to expand your sort, which is what you wanted.
First off, a warning: This posting is purely editorial in nature and will not contain any new information and is purely my own opinion based on available facts.
NASA has finally grown a pair! After 50 years of ass-kissing and ground-licking, the administrators and engineers have finally stood up the politicians and said, “Wait a second, this isn’t safe so we’re gonna check things out first, so back off and let us do our job!” And I for one am very proud of them. (more…)
After 13 years and 535 bouts, Big John JcCarthy has retired. To me he was as much an iconic symbol of status in the UFC as the belts were. I will truly miss seeing him in the Octagon, as I know all of you will.
A Post over at UFC.com discusses his career:
There’s only one Big John McCarthy
By Thomas Gerbasi
It was the perfect going away gift for a referee �” Saturday’s lightweight war between Roger Huerta and Clay Guida. But like all great ‘third men’, John McCarthy �” who retired as an active referee following last weekend’s main event - was noticeable by being noly noticeable, making all the right moves and all the right calls, a fitting end to a 13 year journey that saw McCarthy become as much a part of the UFC as the great fighters who have graced its Octagon.
And as I told him Saturday, there will always be just one Big John McCarthy.
A part of the UFC since its second show in 1994, McCarthy, with his trademark ‘Let’s get it on”, was the sole arbiter in the early days of a sport with little in the way of rules or regulation. Yet by UFC 3, McCarthy was given more responsibility in terms of being able to stop fights and protect the fighters, and as the years went on, he was known as not only a stern taskmaster when it came to enforcing the ever increasing list of rules which governed competition, but as a compassionate one who put fighter safety paramount over everything else.
Eventually, McCarthy became more than just a referee, as he was deeply involved with the training of future officials and as an ambassador of the sport to regulators, the media, and the fans.
But when it came down to it for McCarthy, through 535 bouts, it was all about the fights, and for the fighters, having John McCarthy referee your match was a sign that you made it to the big time. As Guida said after his gallant loss to Huerta, “He’s somebody this sport won’t soon forget. It was an honor to have that guy shake my hand and say ‘Let’s get it on’ one last time. You can’t put a price on something like that. It was awesome.”
John McCarthy stayed the course. He survived the sport’s ‘dark ages’ and was able to witness the explosion of the sport in the mainstream. It was something he knew would happen eventually, as he said in a 2005 UFC.com interview.
“I believe the UFC is only going to get bigger and better,” said McCarthy. “The sport of MMA is growing at a phenomenal rate right now and the popularity is only going to grow. Boxing is great, but it is the sport
of our fathers, while mixed martial arts is the sport of the new generation. Kids of today like the extreme sports; anything that goes faster, flies higher, hits harder or has more risks is what ignites the interest of today’s young man or woman. The sport of Mixed Martial Arts delivers those types of things in the fighting arena. It is not just about who punches the hardest, but who has the most overall fighting skill. Fighting is not just about punches. That is only one aspect of fighting and that is not enough. Real fighting encompasses all ranges of fighting. The ability to punch, kick, elbow, throw, take down, control and submit your opponent is what makes MMA so exciting. As a referee in the sport I am lucky to be a part of this evolution. I have been blessed by all of the experiences I have been through because of this sport. I have been there from the beginning; I have taken part in the changes and growth of the sport, being there in the beginning with the good times and then into the bad times and now back. I cannot say that I would not have changed a thing, because that is not true. I would have changed the bad times if I could and trust me I tried. But in the end it has all been an incredible experience and adventure that I will remember forever.”Same here. Good luck Big John, and thanks for the memories.
UPDATE 4/09/08
Fight 9 Dan Simmler Vs. Matther Riddle
Simmler is a jj guy…Riddle gets a nice take down…Simmler gets up…Simmler has no standup….goes for some crazy flying arm bar.. falls down.. gets hit a little.. gets back up… This fight is not very good.. kinda just standing around against the fence…Riddle gets a sloppy take down at 1:10 ish… Round sucks.. Riddle gets the round IMO.
Round 2:
Riddle comes out.. touches gloves.. and knocks Simmler the fuck out. He is like literally crying on the ground. He might have brain damage the way he is moaning. I think his jaw is broken. This was like the knockout of the year. He is getting on the ambulance and he keeps asking where he is and what happened.. I think he got knocked about a week into the future or something.
Fight 10 Luke Zachrich Vs. Patrick Shultz
Patrick has an accent like Matt Serra. Weird kick.. couple punches… Luke falls down.. gets back to the feet.. Luke gets a take down.. he is on top in half guard… a little ground and pound action going on… Patrick scrambles gets on top.. back to feet.. luke gets a reversal and gets another take down.. ground and pound in full guard..Full guard now.. rolls to back.. has both hooks in… working on the rear naked.. and Patrick taps.
Fight 11 Tim Credeun Vs. Erik Charles
I think tim will win.. Erik sounds bad. Tim gets a take down early.. works into side control.. rolls into an arm bar… gets the tap. Dominated. Tim Wins.
Fight 12 Brandon Sene Vs. Aaron Meisner
Mesner gets early.. then Brandon gets take down… Brandon wins by RNC. Shows good heart.
Fight 13 Mike Marrello Vs. Gerald Harris
Gerald gets big take down.. ground and pound.. nice punches.. seems to dominate the fight.. wins by decision.
Fight 14 Daniel Cramer Vs. Jermiah Riggs
These guys are doing some weird techniques.. dude upkicks other guy in the face about 4 times.. illegal.. and Dana and forest are talking about it.. and Rampage is like.. “thats illegal”.. and Dana says..”What the fuck have you been doing .. fighting in pride?”.. i’m LMAO…This is just a weird ass fight… Cramer wins.. but.. they really both lost.
Fight 15 Nick Rossborough Vs. Jesse Taylor
Jesse gets take down.. full mount.. rolls.. stands up.. take back down… Jesse on top… pure domination.. Nick looks like he wants to quit… Wins by RNC… Nick didn’t do anything. Rampage isn’t impressed.
Fight 16 Josh Hall Vs. Matt Brown
Clench early.. punches back and forth in clench.. almost gets a triangle but he rolls out of it…Matt brown wins.. it looks like he just gets pissed and starts pounding that guys face. I like this guy a lot.
UPDATE 4/02/08
Dana is going to make them all fight right off the bat. They thought they were already in the top 16, but they find out that they are in the top 32 and have to fight to make the top 16. So your on the show, but if you lose this fight tomorrow, your going home. I like this idea in the since that it allows Quinton and Forest a good chance to evaluate the fighters.
Fight 1 McLean Vs. Dolce
Dolce lands a nice punch early.. some scrambling, he gets on top.. they struggle, it goes back to their feet, and Dolce lands a huge knockout. Nice display of punching power.
Fight 2 Cale Yarbrough Vs. John Clarke
Cale is a friend of Forrest. They kind of fall down.. Cale is on bottom… John keeps punching to the back of the head.. there is another take down… Cale ends up on top. Armbar attemp by John.. Cale pops out. Cale gets on top, and winds by ground and pound. I would like to note that John had to cut 17 pounds, and was like 10 years older. He lost.
Fight 3 Steve Brynes Vs. Amir Sadollah
First round.. a lot of back and forth on the ground, there is a weak triangle attempt at the end of the round.. nothing really exciting for me.
Second round. Both these guys are so tired that they are barely doing anything. One if these guys is a Marine as well, so I would expect him to have a little more endurance. Amir wins by arm bar.
Fight 4 David Baggett Vs. CB Dollaway
DB Dollaway completely dominates, gets stopped early from ground and pound.
Fight 5 Dante Rivera Vs. John Wood
Dante wins early by an against the cage Kamora (sp?). This is a new one for me.
Fight 6 Nick Klein Vs. David Mewborn
Mewborn gets beat like he stole something by a side arm choke.
FIght 7 Paul Bradley Vs. Reggie Orr
Wins by a drawn out wrestling bs. He wins.. but he just lays on the guy.. and draws it out for the entire 10 minutes.
Fight 8 Jeremy May Vs. Dave Roberts
Roberts is a friend of Rampage, they were in high school together. Dave gets dominated early, Falls down into an arm bar. Jeremy May wins.
More to come next week.
UPDATE! 3/18/08
The show will premier on Wednesday April 2, at 10PM following UFC fight night live on Spike baby! I can’t Wait!
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Last night at Spike’s video game awards show Dana announced the coaches for season 7 of The Ultimate Fighter. Forest Griffin and Quinton Rampage Jackson. This season will be all about the middleweights, and Griffin and Jackson will fight in the finale for the title. This should be a great fight. Here is a little background on each fighter, in case you have been living in a box, or like Shane you don’t get Spike.
Forrest Griffin - He was the winner of the first season of The Ultimate Fighter, and has had great success (borat) since the culmination of his win. He has established himself as the #1 contender for the title. How did he do this you might ask? Well, After winning the show, he went on to fight Tito Ortiz, and he lost the fight, but he lost in style by a split decision. This fight was close, and he did well. His next fight was a rematch against Stepphan Bonnar, which he dominated, winning all three rounds. He then lost to Keith Jardine by way of knockout at the end of the first. He then defeated Hector Ramirez in UFC 72 by unanimous decision. His latest fight was at UFC 76 against PRIDE’s 2005 Middleweight Grand Prix champion Mauricio “Shogun” Rua[2]. Griffin won by rear naked choke at 4:45 of round three. It has since been reported that Griffin required surgery after the fight due to a serious shoulder injury that was sustained in the bout. It seems this has been a reoccurring problem for him.
Quinton Jackson - He started his UFC career with a fight against Marvin Eastman in UFC 67, which he won by knockout. At UFC 71 as anyone who follows the UFC should know, he beat Chuck Liddell 1:53 into the first round. Jackson then defeated PRIDE middleweight champion Dan Henderson at UFC 75, which effectively combined the pride and UFC titles.
Both fighters have come a long way, and Griffin’s win against Shogun shows he his no pushover, if you ever thought he was, but Jackson is one mean looking guy. This should be a good stand up fight.
Okay, I could go ahead and write what would possibly be the 4,732nd article about The Big Blue Teddy Bear’s supercomputing “breakthrough” that seems to be making the rounds, or I could just poke fun at the blogging and newsmaking community as a whole… Let me think about that one for just a minute…
(more…)
I will update this post later tonight as each fight takes place, but I just want everyone to be aware that the ultimate fighter finale will be on spike tonight. Matt Hughes and Mat Serra will not be fighting for the belt, as Serra has back problems. So in the next UFC pay per view, GSP and Matt Hughes will fight for the interim belt, and the winner of that will fight Matt Serra at some point in the future.
More to come later tonight, My prediction: Mac Danzig will win hands down.
Update: First 30 minutes of the fight is sponsored commercial free by World Of Warcraft. How awesome , two of my favorite things, wow and MMA, together. Its almost enough to get me excited (sexually :P).
Fight 1: Dan Barrera vs Ben Saunders : This is a re-fight from episode six of this season of the ultimate fighter, barrera is from team Hughes, and Saunders from Serra’s team. Saunders won that fight, by majority decision.
1. Saunders lands a kick.. Barrera gets clench against the fence…good knee by saunders…still in clench…good knee to the head again by saunders.. on the ground.. Saunders has both hooks in on top but is up against the cage….rolls to armbar.. now ben is on his back in full guard.. using rubber guard… Round Ends.. I give this round to Dan Barerra.
2.Comes out fast , dan clenches, gets on top, saunders rolls into full guard, Dan still on top but saunders guard is good.. .. not a lot going on.. ref stands them up saunders tries flying knee, barerra ducks, saunders has dan’s back..on top with over under, rolls misses, dan gets on top in saunders full guard again….ref stands them up again…saunders lands huge head kick.. dan on knees.. saunders on top…end of round. I give this round to saunders for landing the only significant strike thus far.
3.Ariani is hot!… round starts.. saunders lands big body kick, dan goes for take down.. on knees in clench, Saunders has back with hooks in… body triangle.. strikes..two on one hand…trying to sink choke in.. dan rolls.. saunders on his back still…saunders looses it and dan gets on top.. ref stands up again.. big body kick again by saunders.. clench again… knees to body by saunders… dan still clenching.. fight over.. I give the fight to saunders hands down, dan was on top a lot.. but he was unable to do anything from the position.
Fight 2: George Sotiropoulos vs Billy Miles (billy from hughes, george from serra).
Round 1: Billy throws punches, clenches, has one of georges legs, George on top, on billy’s back, landing punches, george has hooks in, flattening out, softening up with punches, body triangle now, gets choke in.. billy taps. George wins by rear naked choke. Textbook.
Fight 3: Richie Hightower vs Troy Mandaloniz, I hope troy wins… Richie is a punk. Wear your hat strait.. thats all i’m saying.
Round 1: Troy throwing punches.. riche throwing bombs.. fast pace… hightower takes down.. side control.. half guard now… elbow by hightower.. both fighters really punching fast.. troy lands nice right, back in clench, hightower looks good… pace is slow now.. in clench against fence.. hightower landing nice short elbows, nice left by troy, big knee to the chin by troy, back in clench, hightower looking gassed, troy lands huge left.. fight is over.. troy wins by tko.
Fight 4: Jon Koppenhaver vs Jared Rollins
Round 1: take down by jrock, back on feet, war machine gets take down, jon still on top in jrocks full guard, both guys are cut, jrock opens up a nasty cut on Jon from the bottom.. round ends. Give this round to Jon for staying in a dominant position.
Round 2: Jon throwing punches, jrock punching, big knee, in clench, Jon on topin jrocks guard, more elbows from bottom by jrock, ref stands them up, good exchange, jrock tries flying knee, jrock gets takedown, jrock on top in jon’s full guard, throwing nice punches, war machie gives up his back, back into war machines half guard, big punches from the top by jrock, give this round to jrock.
Round 3: jrock goes for takedown, in clench, war machine on top in jrocks full guard, dropping big bombs, ref stands them up, war machine goes for takedown, jrock lands big knee, on top landing big bombs, jrock in war machines full guard, jrock referses.. in full mount, ref stoppage, war machine wins.
next fight: Mac Danzig vs Tommy Speer, this is for the winner of the ultimate fighter.
Round 1: tommy looks kinda stiff, not much head movement, tommy in clench against fence, knees by both, danzig gets takedown, gets in full mount, landing bombs, gives up his back, danzig gets hooks in, flattens him out, fight over at around 3 min in the first round by rear naked choke.
In a move reminiscent of France’s opposition to the Iraqi invasion, and then their subsequent request to help with the rebuilding once all the hard work was pretty much over, Microsoft has attacked the OLPC (One Laptop Per Child) Organization and demanded that they upgrade their hardware in order to better fit their bloated, memory sucking and overly proprietary operating system XP onto the benevolent laptops. (more…)
I am sure many of our citizens and military personnel are confused and upset over the recent “misunderstanding” that occurred with the Kitty Hawk. For those of you living in a vacuum, an American battle group lead by the USS Kitty Hawk was recently turned away from a long-scheduled Thanksgiving R&R break in Hong Kong by Chinese officials who gave no explanation. This may not sound like much of a problem, however many of the sailors and soldiers on board had “hundreds” of family members who had flown in from all around the world to Hong Kong to meet them.
As many of you in the SEO world already know, the infamous G has been on a crusade against paid links lately. Matt (the google guy) had this to say in a Q & A.
Q: Is Google trying to tell webmasters how to run their own site?
A: No. We’re giving advice to webmasters who want to do well in Google. As I said in this video from my keynote discussion in June 2007, webmasters are welcome to make their sites however they like, but Google in turn reserves the right to protect the quality and relevance of our index. To the best of our knowledge, all the major search engines have adopted similar positions.
Q: Is Google trying to crack down on other forms of advertisements used to drive traffic?
A: No, not at all. Our webmaster guidelines clearly state that you can use links as means to get targeted traffic. In fact, in the presentation I did in August 2007, I specifically called out several examples of non-Google advertising that are completely within our guidelines. We just want disclosure to search engines of paid links so that the paid links won’t affect search engines.
What the average computer user may not realize is that Google is a company. If you don’t believe me just look at their stock prices. As a company, Google exists to make money. So it seems to me that Google is trying to pound people into using their flavor of paid links ‘AdWords’, instead of using some alternate method.
Do you ever stop and think about what a ‘Paid Link’ really is? Google has ways for people to report (tattle-tale) on other websites for selling paid links. But how in the world can Google really tell the difference between a paid link and a non-paid link. If I submit my website to a directory for free that also accepts paid links, how can they tell which one I am? If I write an article, and someone likes it and links to it on their website, but they also sell paid links, how does Google know which one my link is? If I link to my friends blog, will Google consider that a ‘Paid Link’, since some blogs are selling links? So I wonder, is this just a scare tactic to force more people into using AdWords?
Is it Google’s Earth, and we are just tiny insects trying to scrape by on their scraps? In any other medium, you can buy advertising, and If you have more money to invest than everyone else, you will be exposed to the most number of people. This same rule applies to Google AdWords, BUT if you use a different form of advertising (Paid Links), well then Google will penalize you for it.
I have been a fan of Google and I like many of the things they have done, the way they have handled the company up to now. But things like this make me wonder if they are getting off track, if all they see now is money, even if they won’t admit it. What do you think?
