Order of the Science Scouts of Exemplary Repute And Above Average Physique

Thanks Mojo for finding this!!!

not opposed to alcohol.
- fond of IPCC reports (especially the pictures).
- mostly in agreement with the "truth."
- into badges.
- grieving for the slow and miserable death of the Hubble Space Telescope.
- possibly possessed of supernatural powers.
- not in the business of total world domination
- committed to the constant and diligent presentation of science stories, be it to editors, producers, directors, educators, relatives and/or friends of various ilk, in an effort to lessen the gap that is this thing we call public scientific literacy.


and they have badges!



The "MacGyver" badge.
In which the recipient has demonstrated that his/her science communciation prowess was handy in simplifying a potentially challenging scenario. For example, was able to escape from unjustified prison term, with the clever use of a paper clip and WD-40. You know, that kind of thing. (Note that display of badge must be accompanied by explanation).



The "arts and crafts" badge.
Because you can't have a bunch of badges without an arts and crafts badge. This one assumes the recipient has all manner of "craftiness" with a sciencegeek twist.



The "I'm pretty confident around an open flame" badge.
Recipients have demonstrated proficiency around open flames in laboratory settings.



The "totally digs highly exothermic reactions" badge.
Might be best to keep an eye on such recipients.



The "I work with way too much radioactivity, and yet still no discernable superpowers yet" badge.
...Although not for lack of trying...

RELATED?

This is a brief blub for a new show on adult swim:

• Lucy, the Daughter of the Devil: Lucy is living in San Francisco and dating a great new guy, who might just be the Second Coming. The only problem is that her dad always meddles in her life. And, since he’s Satan, he is using her relationship as an excuse to hasten the apocalypse. This previously announced series, created by Loren Bouchard, is set to debut this summer.

This almost sounds like something out of the chronicles. It's even set in San Fransisco, a city dear to the Cheese's heart.

My Personal Daemons

Seriously?

Damn, exsulis are you ever bored! It took the cheese like 20 minutes to find his log-on for that damn thing...should probably just delete it anyway.

Syndication Biatch!

Click on the link and get all your updated cheeselandia news and happenings as them...um...happen.

Because Swearing Kids are Funny

What do you get if you cross Will Ferrell and a swearing toddler? Well this.

As an addendum to the previous post...

possibly the funniest thing to ever use both words and images...

And now for something a little lighter.

Oh the cheese dreams of the day he can write even 1/8 as well as PA!

Imus fired, but Rosie still on the air

With Imus being fired for an off the cuff, racially insensitive remark I once again get alarmed at the continued death of free speech. If you've listened to the transcripts of his show that morning concerning the Rutger's women team, he just made a poor mistake in words. Now, I'm no fan of Don Imus but hasn't Howard Stern or for that matter other radio celebrities said worse things with malicious intention? Also, how does Al Sharpton get to call himself a "Reverend"? Shouldn't that imply some form of forgiveness and willingness to accept a way to seek redemption? Yet, he goes on a holier than thou crusade to influence the firing of Imus from not only his televised MSNBC show, but from radio via CBS. Apparently, the good "reverend" has forgotten that Imus has a ranch for terminally ill children with his wife. Finally, why does Imus get fired, yet Rosie can continue on air even after this?

And yet the world continues on...

The cheese admits that even though he has not read everything written by Kurt Vonnegut, the man still held a special place in the cheese' heart for being simultaneously funny, serious, fantastical, and utterly cynical in everything he did.

So, it would figure that, after a day in which the cheese was forced into a psuedo-confrontation with his stubborn ass of a father in law, he would then come home and in an attempt to wind down before bed spend a few minutes on the internet only to find that Kurt Vonnegut has died.

Honestly, there really aren't words.

This isn't nearly as shocking as when Douglas Adams (a notorious fitness freak who died of a heart attack at the age 49) passed. After all, Vonnegut did make it to the age of 84, and he even (half-heartedly) attempted suicide once.

But it's still one of those things that hits hard. Mostly because Vonnegut was one of the few writers the cheese ever felt a real kinship with. That's not the same as merely admiring or respecting someone. No, the cheese felt that he and Vonnegut were, basically (and this isn't an ego thing, really) of the same lineage, writing wise; skeptical comic fantasy (or sci-fi in Vonnegut's case) with just a hint of optimism. It's not like everyone writes that kind of thing, or, more importantly, are drawn to write that kind of thing.

So, here's to you Mr. Vonnegut (and Kilgore Trout, Billy Pilgrim, and all the rest). Hopefully you'll end up somewhere that doesn't let you down as often as this place did.

More thoughts on the racist sci-fi writer.

The more the cheese thinks about it, the more he realizes that the whole "I hate black people" stuff isn't actually what bothers him. It's speech, and regardless of its contents, speech is free. In fact, the cheese has long advocated the creation a federally funded Television network called BBS, the Bigot Broadcasting System. Basically, the BBS is only allowed to broadcast bigoted themed shows of all kinds, racist, homophobic, misogynist, etc. The point is that, with so much air time, it will become absolutely clear how hugely ridiculous every kind of hate monger truly is.

But back to the matter at hand, this Ken Eng. As the cheese said, the actual hate speech doesn't bother him. In fact, it appears that the said "I hate black people" article was actually an editorial, which is supposed to be(in some grand, theoretical universe) a singular person's opinion. Not the opinion of a paper, or it's staff, janitors, what have you. And the paper in question openly decided to run a piece it clearly knew would cause an uproar, then went on to fire the writer once the backlash got too big. Hey, Asian Week, grow some balls and stick behind your racist or don't run his crap in the first place. In some ways, you gotta respect the KKK cause they always say what they believe, no matter how fucking stupid those beliefs may be.

And that, the cheese thinks, is the real problem. Speech isn't really free in this country. If the cheese threatened the president, for instance, he could be jailed. But even more disheartening is the fact that only the oddballs on the fringes of society can really say what they want anymore because they know they’re pissing people off anyway. The rest of us have watch what we say, tone down our words, water down our thoughts, so that we stay in the boundaries that keep us all “content” and “happy.”

Say what you will, but it’s the first slow plodding step on the road to fascism. So to combat this the cheese suggests all loyal citizens of cheeselandia post in the comments something you truly believe. If your belief happens to offend someone, so be it. We’re all adults here, the cheese thinks we can all take it. The cheese will start...

There isn't a single elected official in Washington (or Sacramento, or any state capital for that matter) that actually cares about you, the voter. They might claim high minded ideals, but every single one of them (liberal, conservative, "independent") are addicted to wielding power and influence, money, and status. They do what they do for personal reasons and would shit on your face if it were part of the gig.

Don't we all want to know

how the "philosophy of Dragons: Lexicon Triumvirate" relates to being a racist? Although, after watching the video the cheese wonders if

A)Everything this guy wrote was total bullshit/sarcasm

or

B)He tried to create a controversy to drum up book sales.

Hey stranger things have happened than either of those two scenarios, and it seems odd that someone as seemingly insane as he is in the video could get a job at a reputable news outlet without there being something running in the subtext....the paper even let his by-line read "God of the Universe" for christ's sake!








Thanks to ever vigilant guys at Poor Mojo's Newswire for the vid!

MLB Part II

And now for the cheese' AL predictions...


AL East
1. New York Yankees (ARod hit .290/35/121 in a "bad season," add to that greater pitching depth and a somewhat younger, and probably healthier, lineup and the Yanks will win their 10th! division crown in a row)
2. Boston Red Sox - Wild Card Berth (better rotation, upgraded lineup [though one can pray JD Drew goes down with a season ending injury] and Papelbon back in the bullpen will see the Bo'Sox back to the playoffs)
3. Toronto Blue Jays (poor Jay's fans, no matter how much money you spend you can't catch the behemoths on top, at least Halliday might win another Cy Young)
4. Tampa Bay Devil Rays (look at that, the D-Rays have some nice young talent, and Scott Kazmir could have a break out year, so a non-last place finish is entirely possible)
5. Baltimore Orioles (its a sad state of affairs when the O's look worse than the Devil Rays, if Cal Ripken were dead he'd be rolling in his grave, Eric Bedard and Miguel Tejada should both demand trades so they don't waste any more productive years in Angelos' cursed shadow)
Overall Breakdown - Comes down to NY and Beantown, as everyone assumed it would. The Yanks lost some bat in trading Sheffield, but they don't hurt for firepower, and the improved rotation and bench depth make them the team to beat. For the other non-NY and Boston teams, they should simply be moved to other divisions so that they might make the post season more than once every lunar eclipse. Of course, not into the AL Central cause, god is that a scary division.


AL Central
1. Minnesota Twins (yes they have rotation concerns past a certain left-handed wizard named Santana, but they have a ton of hitters, a great manager and GM, and they played absolutely hellish in the second half last year, plus 4 division titles in 6 years ain't nothin' to scoff at)
2. Detroit Tigers (last years pennant winners should have walked away with the division, but were overtaken by the Twins on the final day of the season, no reason to think they can't win the division other than the Twins being so good and so experienced in pennant drives)
3. Cleveland Indians (their run differential from a year ago points to them having some tough breaks in 06, if Sabathia has a solid season this is a team poised for a break...or would be in they didn't play in this division)
4. Chicago White Sox (two years ago they won a WS title, this offseason they made moves that might turn out to be genius in a year or two but weakened their pitching in the short term, would probably run away with a division crown in just about any other division, but...)
5. Kansas City Royals (poor Royals fans, nearly 20 years of suckage, at least that profit sharing has allowed them to spend some money, although poorly [Gil Meche, really?], but maybe they can hold on to some of that talent starting to crop up out of their farm system
Overall Breakdown - This is a division that could produce a 90 win team in 4th place, and send only one team into the playoffs, it's just that scary good. In fact, any of the top four are interchangeable in some regards. Bit like the NL Central, actually, but here it's because everyone's so talented, as opposed to the mediocrity that reigns in the NL counterpart.

AL West
1. Oakland Athletics (no concrete reason to pick them, other than the fact that Billy Beane's still GM over in Oaktown)
2. Anaheim Angels of Anaheim CA in Orange County where Anaheim is (more talent, on paper, than the A's, but the cheese thinks Gary Matthews Jr. is going to be a bust, Garrett Anderson is in decline, and there's no real protection for Vlad, plus Colon's 350 lbs. is going to wear on him more than people think taxing an already overrated starting rotation, still they have former Dodger All-Star Mike Sciosscia so that's a bonus)
3. Seattle Mariners (won't finish in last, won't finish in first but the kid Hernandez will make strides toward becoming the next Pedro, so if the M's play their cards right they might contend next year and for a while to come)
4. Texas Rangers (man can they hit, too bad they have almost no one to pitch and they play in a veritable band box, Gagne won't be nearly as helpful to a team not built around pitching and defense and once the temp starts spiking in Arlington watch how the Rangers fade)
Overall Breakdown - Actually most of these teams are fairly close, a few breaks and the M's and Rangers could push for the division. Mostly the benefit of the doubt has to go to Beane and Co in green for their stellar regular season record over the last decade+.

Well, there you have it. The cheese' 2007 regular season predictions. Only 6 months to see how close he got it...

Against his better judgement, the cheese will not throw in the towel, yet.

If you were paying attention, then you know that the 2007 baseball season officially opened yesterday. The Dodgers were in Milwaukee to open up against the Brewers. Now, the fact that the Dodgers garnered all of 2 hits, scored one run (on a Kent solo shot), and lost 7-1 might, in years passed, alarmed the cheese. But Ben Sheets, the oft-injured defacto ace in the land of beer, is actually healthy right now, and was at his absolute best yesterday. Plus, the Brewers are the cheese pick to win the NL Central (see below). And even though he wasn't exactly in top form, Lowe wasn't getting any close calls, so hey, there's still 161 games to play.

Even though everyone and his brother has made their predictions, the cheese will take a crack at it beginning with the National League...

NL East
1. NY Mets (even with a bunch of 80 year olds as a starting rotation this team will be hard to beat)
2. Atlanta Braves - Wild Card Berth (Bobby Cox doesn't have enough to overtake the Mets, but he'll see his team back to the post-season
3. Philadelphia Phillies - (Great offense, questionable defense, shoddy manager, near inept GM, and did you know Ryan Howard is actually OLDER than Albert Pujols?)
4. Florida Marlins (Mets, Braves and Phils will all be close, the Marlins won't, but their kids will make strides)
5. Washington Nationals (why did MLB even move them from Montreal? Now the fans in DC have to put up with this perennially lost franchise)
Overall Breakdown - the top three will make this division fairly competitive (i.e., difficult for the other two teams), and while the Phils have more talent than Atlanta, they're also saddled with Charlie Manual leading the team. Expect another year of under performance from the team from cheese steak land.


NL Central
1. Milwaukee Brewers (bit of a dark horse, maybe, but a healthy Sheets, Fielder and Co means this team can flat out play, and they're lucky enough to be in the weakest division in baseball)
2. St. Louis Cardinals (WS winners notwithstanding, last year was a huge fluke. Even with Pujols and Carpenter this is a .500 team)
3. Houston Astros (the offense will be better with a healthy Ensberg and Carlos Lee around to bolster/protect Berkman, but much of that will be negated by the 700+ errors Lee will commit in left field. After Oswalt they have no one to pitch)
4. Chicago Cubs (so much money spent for so little, Soriano can't play adequate defense anywhere, and why bring Ted Lilly to a hitter's park? Maybe they will 80 games, or maybe they'll win only 60)
5. Cincinnati Reds (had a decent run in 06 until the stretch, probably happen again since this team isn't particularly deep in any area, and their best hitter might strike out 200 times)
6. Pittsburgh Pirates (some decent guys on the roster, but a complete lack of vision from the top down means that the once proud franchise can expect another losing season)
Overall Breakdown - A defensable case could be made for any of these teams winning the division (though the Pirates would be a stretch, it COULD be possible). Really, it's going to be exactly like last year with the team reaching the 84 win mark (granted that's only three games over .500, and last year the Cards only won 82) taking the division crown. Really, you could just pull names out of a hat and have as good a chance of picking the winner.


NL West
1. Los Angeles Dodgers (upgraded rotation, strong bullpen, solid lineup. No real "homerun" threat, but they didn't have one last year and still led the league in hitting and finished third in runs scored).
2. San Diego Padres (having Greg Maddux and David Wells at the back of the rotation will tax the bullpen all season, and the bullpen is what really saved the Pads last year. Peavy will try and compensate and pitch deeper into games, he's not known for great durability, so expect a small/lingering to medium injury to hamper him, thus deflating the Pads chances at the post season)
3. Arizona Diamondbacks (next year they might be really tough, but this year they might be a bit too young, don't expect much from Randy Johnson even though he is back in the NL)
4. San Francisco Giants (why the hell would anyone sign Barry Bonds, even the Giro's, is still a mystery, add to that fact that there isn't a starter is SF under the age of 31, they're now saddled with Zito's ridiculous contract, and they have exactly one guy, a pitcher, who might get better in the future and the Giants fans are looking at a miserable time over the next several years)
5. Colorado Rockies (they've got a decent core of young talent, but without the humodor this year pitching a mile above sea level will be terrible yet again)
Overall Breakdown - It'll come down to LA and SD, again, but this time both teams won't make it to the playoffs with the East being so strong. All in all, there isn't a great team here, but the top three should all be close, and SF might hang around for most of the way if Bonds is reasonably healthy. LA gets the nod for its pitching depth and lineup depth. Hell, they had to send a guy (Loney) who hit .380 in AAA last season (and .440 in the spring this year) back to Las Vegas because there's no room for him on the 25 man roster. Maybe this year the Dodgers might win A playoff game, but the cheese isn't getting his hopes up.