50 Cent vs. Kanye West

On our way to Williamsburg, I listened to the new 50 Cent and Kanye West CD's, "Curtis" and "Graduation", respectively.

Curtis is the typical 50 "I think I'm John Gotti AKA Teflon Don" Cent rap album. Why do I draw the conclusion that he thinks he is the Teflon Don? Maybe because he (or his associates) say it at least once a song. Perhaps because "Don" is an easy word to think of rhymes for....john, megatron, ron, con, Ghost Recon, don (rappers love to two end lines with the same word).
Maybe it was because I had a negative attitude going into my first listen with this CD or maybe it was because I listened to it second, but I didn't care for many of the songs. In true 50 Cent fashion, there are several titles having to do with guns and killing: "My Gun Go Off", "I'll Still Kill", "Fully Loaded Clip", "Curtis 187", and possibly "Fire". In his defense, I typically don't like a rap CD in its entirety.
The one thing 50 has going for him is choosing to feature Justin Timberlake on the song "Ayo Technology". If you listen to pop/hip-hop radio, you have probably heard this song and you may also know it is about pornography. Besides that last point, it has a good beat and features JT, all qualities of a great song. (I also liked the song, "Follow My Lead" featuring Robin Thicke)

Graduation is a typical Kanye CD full of good beats, making fun of college, and relevant and irrelevant samples. Like I previously implied, I listened to this CD first. Songs that weren't the best:
Barry Bonds - featuring Lil Wayne - maybe its because I'm just not a fan of many of the Lil folks.
Drunk and Hot Girls - featuring Mos Def - I like Mos Def, but this song is terrible...
Then there are the songs you might recognize from the radio: "Stronger" and "Can't Tell Me Nothing". I enjoyed them.

Did anyone notice both CD's have hits with what I will call electronica in the background? "Stronger" on Graduation and "Ayo Technology" on Curtis (although in Ayo Technology, it sounds more like he sampled background music from a nintendo game)

Kanye makes a reference to not winning some awards, but winning the award for having the most "Chedda" (please see definition #1).

As a side note, what the media hyped record sale contests doesn't report is the rest of what 50 Cent said. According to an article by the LA Times, 50 Cent already has 12 songs recorded for his next album (which he is still under contract to Interscope Records to release), "Before I Self Destruct". He also predicted that Kanye's CD will have a sharp decline in sales in the second week. I assume 50 thinks he will surpass Kanye's sales in the second week.

We shall see what happens...

Prince = RIAA

According to Ars Technica, Prince is suing YouTube, eBay, and The Pirate Bay.

The article goes on to highlight how a few months ago, Prince actually gave his latest CD away for FREE (in the UK), which then boosted his ticket sales for a 21 night tour in London. What costs more, a ticket to a Prince concert or a Prince CD?

I'm sure that Prince fans would much rather watch low quality video of Prince on YouTube than see him in concert. Not to mention the fact that he probably doesn't have much of a case against YouTube. As long as they comply with take down notices, they are in the clear.

And he seriously thinks he's going to sue The Pirate Bay? Not only have they basically said every four letter word to governments that try to shut them down, they have been trying to buy an island (their first attempt failed) and create their own country, just to get around copyright laws. Somehow, I doubt they care what Prince thinks and probably have a few choice words for him.

Good luck, Prince. I'm sure its worth all the hassle and I'm sure you don't already have enough money.

The Birthday Paradox

Suppose you are sitting in a classroom with 40 people (including yourself). Now suppose a gunman held a .45 caliber to your head and asked you this question: What are the chances two people in this room have their birthdays on the same day? If you answered 11% which would probably be the safest guess, you would get your head blown off. The actual answer is closer to 90%. In a room of 30 students that probability is still 71%. This chart breaks down the group size to get an approximate probability.



This mathmatical probability problem was proposed in 1939 by Richard von Mises. The implications of this problem are far reaching. You and your friends can systematically take hundreds of dollars off of pre-schoolers to college students by posing this question and then taking the appropriate position. Math is on your side.

Update from (hopefully) a future Olympic Torch Bearer...

As it turns out, there are two glitches in the system:

1) Voting only works with Internet Explorer. Firefox, Safari, I'm sorry. The Beijing Olympics don't like you.

2) It seems that you can vote ONCE EVERY DAY. This may be a glitch, or they may have just not listed that you can do it. Either way, this means you can vote a lot more times.

THANK YOU for those who have voted already. And a BIG thank you if you vote again, and again, and again...

Here's the webpage again:
Link

Thanks,
Matt Scranton

JewTube?

Did anyone know that a site called JewTube even exists?
Well, according to Download Squad, Google does and is suing the Jewish version of YouTube to protect their trademark.

Here is a link to a sample video on JewTube:
Nation's Biggest Jewish Singles Event - 3,000 Jewish Singles

Money quote from the video:
"Jews gone wild." (as said by a middle aged Jewish man who is clearly NOT going wild...)

Conspiracy Theories...

Seeing as how this week had the 6th anniversary of 9/11, I think we would be remiss if we didn't mention it. I was also prompted by a friend (who's blog we link to), who IMed me this link earlier today:
9/11 Mystery Plane

For those of you who don't want to watch the video (3 minutes), CNN highlights the presence of a plane that looks very similar to an E4 flying over the White House right after AA 77 hit the Pentagon. E4's are "specially built to serve as a survivable mobile command post" for people like say, the President. This plane prompted conspiracy theorists to propose that the attack was orchestrated by the senior leadership of this country. I know Bush went to Yale and got a C average, but there is no way he would be smart enough to pull that off. Condoleezza or others are another story...

I'm not saying I agree with the theory or any of the other conspiracy theories, but I did watch Loose Change, which is about 90 minutes long and highlights the main arguments for the 9/11 conspiracy theories. If you are looking for something to do on a Saturday morning and have an open mind, it brings up some interesting points. Without the open mind, you will probably just be angry.

Once again, I'm not saying I agree with the theories, but for once I figured I would try to have all the links in a post relate to the same topic.....

Coming in From the Cold

It's been years since I've had a professional sports team. In fact, 19 years. Settling down to watch my beloved Broncos, an excited (and only slightly balding) 7-year old Zach thrilled as Elway & Co. went up 10 nothing. I think we all know what happened then.

In the years that followed, like a girl with a gropey step-father, I had a series of torrid flings with whatever team seemed coolest at the time. My time with Young's 49ers and Brady's Patriots was fun while it lasted, but ultimately unrewarding.

However, despite my troubled youth there are things I just won't do. Watching the 2007 season opener, I found myself thinking, "Maybe Peyton Manning isn't so bad. The Colts look awesome this year." Then, like a drunk girl watching the second (and third, and fourth) frat guy enter the darkened room, I asked myself "What am I doing with my life?" I had my bandwagoneer moment of clarity, put back on my metaphoric shirt, and stepped back from the brink. This isn't how I want to live my life.

And so, it is with great pleasure that I re-dedicate myself to the Denver Broncos. To cut-blocking, thin air, and the fantasy football chaos of platooned running backs. To the inevitable shakiness of Jay Cutler, the dreaded corny commentator banter about the altitude, and, just as surely, occasional dissappointment.

I just wish John could have seen this.

-Comments as to what replica jersey I should order are welcome.

The Mystery War

Taking a break from Olympic torches, Football and Tor, the most interesting thing that has happened in the last few days is the mysterious war between Israel and Syria. These two countries hate each other, yet Syria has responded meekly at best to their mortal enemy bombing them. (Is it bad that I wanted to type frenemy just then? I don't think I've ever used that word before.) Anyway, back on track, guesses abound as to what Israel just destroyed.
North Korean nuclear technology?
Hizbollah arms destined for Lebanon?
Baby seals?

Maybe they were just pissed because Bill Belichick was stealing their defensive signals.....

Implications of Patriots cheating on Fantasy Football results in Week 1

L.T. may have a good point when asked about the Patriots cheating scandal. He reiterated the often used phrase: If you ain't cheating, you ain't trying. There may be some merit to this phrase but lets be serious for one moment, the Pats didn't need to cheat against the Jets. They could have spotted them 10 points and put their mothers in for the o and d-line and still won by a healthy margin. Thats not even the point of my rambling. What everyone really wants to know are the implications this has for the Fantasy Football squad in Week 1.


Lets assume that Belichick doesn't get suspended and the Pats don't lose any picks. Instead they have to forfeit that game. Does this mean that all Patriot stats are now voided and they receive no points. I sure hope so. I lost my big Fantasy league at the hands of Tom Brady. I would like nothing more than to see 0 pts by his name instead of 30 and a 'W' next to my team name for week 1 instead of a 'L'.

This seems a bit harsh. Its not the Fantasy owners fault or even Tom Brady's fault. However there are inherent risks to everything. As far as Fant. Football is concerned, there are injury risks, starting-role risks, natural disaster risks among others. This cheating was simply another form of risk that is caught after the fact and must be retroactively corrected. When Oklahoma was found in violation of rules during their 2005 8-4 season, they were stripped of all 8 wins (they have since appealed this). The same should happen for the Patriots' first game.

Big Ern's Psychic Visions

After channeling Muad'dib this morning, I have pierced the veils of time and seen President Bush's speech tonight. You heard it hear first:

• The surge is working! Woot! Progress is being made on most many some three two of the 18 benchmarks for success set by Congress in the spring.



• 9/11, Saddam Hussein. 9/11, Saddam Hussein.



• Even though I've constantly lied to you been honestly wrong about everything mistakes have been made, the totally independent General Petraus reported to Congress this week that everything I've been telling you is correct.



• Success is being acheived as such a dizzying rate we would be irresponsible to pull out before planting the seed of success deep within Iraq's fertile crescent. To do otherwise would be to waste it on the stomach of cowardly defeat.



• We may reduce troop levels in the Spring of 2008. This has nothing to do with completely running out of troops.



• These successes are comprable to past, glorious victories over the Nazis Viet-Cong the aliens from Independence Day very poor, angry people with guns.



• There are only two alternatives: leaving troops there forever, or fitting your wife and daughter for a burka.



• I look forward to reporting even more good news sometime after November 2008.

New idea on voting for Matt for torch bearer....

I give all credit on this idea to Electronic Vagrant.
He proposed using Tor (download page) to vote for Matt to be torch bearer. Now, yes, this takes a bit of effort. But, if you were thinking about using Tor to do some simple anonymous browsing, then download it anyway and vote for Matt.
Since Matt said it logs IP addresses, this would be a way to get around that.

Two other options:
1) You can download Tor and then use a Firefox extension called Tor button to turn Tor off and on in Firefox. Although more people have viewed this page with IE 6 or 7, I know that many of you use Firefox (and I highly encourage it).
2) You can download a portable (you can run it off a USB key) version of Firefox that is integrated with Tor, called TorPark. Just download, extract and run it. This also means you can put it on your work computer because you don't have to install anything (in case you don't have the permissions).

And don't forget to vote for Matt.

P.S. Remember to use Tor wisely, aka, don't start logging into websites with all of your personal info. I'll be monitoring your traffic on my Tor node.

50 Cent on his way to retirement...

According to an article just to me e-mailed by Electronic Vagrant, looks like Kanye West has outsold 50 Cent by over 100,000 CD's. Great news for those of us who want 50 Cent to retire.
In 50's defense, he does want to go by Curtis Jackson now and get into movies. And as my future wife pointed out, he did have such cult classics as "In Da Club" and "Candy Shop".
And don't feel sorry for 50. If you haven't heard, he made a cool $400 million thanks to Coke buying Glaceau.

But, I'm glad to see all of you listened and went out and bought Kanye's CD. My new marching orders are to keep hiding 50's CD in other places in stores. I don't expect you to buy more than one Kanye CD...that's just asking too much....

Google Reader shared comments...

If you don't use Google Reader or RSS feeds to have news/info delivered to you, you should start.

One of the many features I love is the ability to share things that you read. You can actually have multiple shared feeds, but otherwise your shared feed can be view by anyone. For example, the link to my shared feed. You can also subscribe to someone's personal feed in an RSS Reader.

Apparently, Google Reader is thinking about adding the ability to make comments on shared posts. I think this is a great idea. TechCrunch does not. I know that the only people who actually read my feed, mainly because few people have it, are my mother and sometimes my future wife. My mother subscribes to it in her RSS reader (she prefers Thunderbird). I would love to be able to add stupid or insightful comments to things that I share. I might even just have a shared feed directed right to the blog, make comments on the shared posts and eliminate the use of the blogger interface. Only if Google makes it happen...

As a side note, you can subscribe to this blog by clicking on the subscribe to at the bottom of the page, or if copied it correctly, by clicking here.

More Energy Discussion

Energy Discussion

This is a novel idea advocated by those wacky Euros. You'll have to read through the discussion, but essentially they're using excess power from wind farms to store water in Norwegian reservoirs. Then, when they need power, they drain the water from the reservoirs and get the hydroelectric power. Can't get much cleaner than that (other than the whole building dams thing).

The Economist has been doing a lot of articles on energy lately. I think we're going to see a lot of new nuclear plants built in the next 10 or 20 years. If we could only get Keanu Reeves to tell us how he mastered cold fusion in the movie Chain Reaction.....

Help Matt Scranton become an Olympic Torchbearer

Friends,

I've applied to become a torchbearer for the upcoming 2008 Olympics. Part of the initial decision is based on how many votes you get online, which means, I NEED YOUR HELP!!

You can vote one time per ISP number, which means go to the university library and vote on different computers. Go to Internet cafes and vote. Vote on your home computer, work computer. Leave comments too to get more attention!

100 people make it to the final round, so this is a goal within reach. That is a lot of people and you can help me be one of them!

Facebook Group Link:
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=11778765028

Here is the website to vote for me:
http://pub1.chinadaily.com.cn/olympics/torch/members.shtml?mid=36

The main website with all the other applicants is here:
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/olympics/torch_page.html

I would really love your help, it will only take 30 seconds.

Thanks,
Matt Scranton

Nate = Buffoon, Al Gore = Sex Bomb

Re: the earlier post about stupid burning oil and replanting trees article I have two things to say:

1. Al Gore's position has never been that biofuels, electric cars, or hydrogen fuel cell powered sex toys are the one and complete answer to Global Warming. His position is that we need to shift our energy consumption to renewable fuel sources and begin an earnest, culture- and world-wide discussion about the cataclysmic wall we're probably accelerating towards.
2. Ethanol is stupid. It is the strange love-child of the corn industry (the nice people who ensure high fructose corn syrup is in everything) and environmentalists desperate to do something productive during this 8-year clusterfark (clusterbomb if you live in Basra).

Anyways, Gore is awesome. I would have his baby if it were biologically feasible (and if he would just answer one of my letters).

why.i.hate.dc

Those aren't my words!
Its another blog.
Since I live outside of D.C., I can appreciate this type of commentary, even though I don't often ride the bus.

Also, I like this person's blog theme...hating on D.C. Reminds me of a Craigslist Rant and Rave.

We need a theme....

WARNING: Inappropriate language for small children and the elderly.

Al Gore can shove it...

According to this report, burning oil and replanting trees is better than using biofuels.
According to Electronic Vagrant's favorite website, biofuel is defined as "liquid or gas transportation fuel derived from biomass". Like E85 that GM advertises? As of 2006, more than half of the E85 pumps are in Minnesota. Helpful for the little over 5.1 million people who live there. Not so helpful for the rest of the 297 million people....(A little math thanks to the U.S. Census website)

So, I assume this doesn't include electricity? I don't know how it all works. But, concerning low-emission vehicles, it is actually illegal to buy "Partial Zero Emissions Vehicle" in all but eight states. Is this type of car better than biofuel? Is this considered biofuel? Should we use oil to run these cars?

In summary, the government doesn't want you to buy better than hybrid vehicles. Some scientists don't want you to use biofuels.
I wonder what Al Gore's tree hugging position is....


UPDATE: Read the comments for intelligent discussion from others and more stupidity/ignorance from me.

Ice cave photography...

For those of you into photography or appreciate ice:
Here are some pictures of ice caves...

This link was taken from a mental_floss blog post.

Tor and other such "anonymous" networks...

Depending on your level of computer/internet savvy (and/or corporate firewall), you may or may not know about (or use) Tor (The Onion Router) or other such "anonymous" networks (I2P is another). It is one way to surf anonymously and usually bypass corporate firewalls. Unfortunately, the basis of the Tor network is other Tor users who host Tor nodes (how many times can I use Tor in one sentence?).

In simple terms, although your internet traffic may be anonymous to the web sites you are visiting, anything you transmit to those sites (logins/passwords/personal info) can be captured by the computers that are making you anonymous.
The reason I highlight this is because recently, a security expert captured lots of usernames and passwords by operating tor nodes. Here's the link to the article from Ars Technica:
Link

The security expert released the info he captured to the public and of course his site was immediately taken down. But, it's back up and here's the link to his recent blog post about the incident:
Link

So, the point is, always be careful of such "anonymous" networks and proxies. If you don't know what I'm talking about, then read at least the first article and learn something.


And as a bonus feature, here are a few tips on how to bypass corporate firewalls (there are many posts on the net about this, but I will summarize a few):
1. Use Google Translator (translate a page from english to english)
2. Use a site like anonymouse.org (not secure)
3. Run your own SSH server (if I know you, you can use mine)

Daily T-shirts...

I'm still struggling to catch up with my feeds, but I just read that Woot! has a spin-off site dedicated to T-shirts. Apparently, some T-shirts are designed by the folks at American Apparel, but some are designed by Woot! staff. Also, each week the Woot! community can submit designs which are then voted on by people who have previously purchase something at Woot!. The top three designs are sold on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. Kinda a cool idea....

I like the original Woot!, although I don't always follow, because they sell random stuff on the cheap. Looking at the T-shirt blog, I'm bummed I missed out on buying this T-shirt:



Here's a little summary blurb from the website:
"America’s most sensational fashion sensation! Oh, wait, we were thinking of those rubber wiffle-slippers everybody wears now. Shirt.Woot, on the other hand, is a web site that applies the Woot model to selling t-shirts: a new one every day at midnight Central time, sold cheap. The difference is, these aren’t somebody else’s leftovers. Woot tees feature exclusive, original designs that you can’t get anywhere else (hence the terms “exclusive” and “original”)."

Japanese Pee-Powered Batteries

A Japanese company, Aqua Power Systems, is now offering batteries that can be recharged by... wait for it... peeing on them.

Insert joke here...

My big question: what is the best way to do this? Clearly you need to remove them from your remote control first, but where do you place the batteries while you, ahem, recharge them? The sink?

Link

The New England Patriots are cheaters...

They are considered by man NFL analysts as the dynasty of the early 00's. They consistently make the playoffs. Do they really have to cheat?

Tom Brady was already named the world's best dressed man in early August by Esquire magazine. Isn't that enough to win?

Or is his coach's terrible cut off inside out sweatshirt style cancel out his wonderful dressing skills?

Either way, Patriots are cheaters.

Or this could be the problem with hip-hop today...

Kanye West had an outburst backstage at the VMA's.

I like Kanye. He's from the Chi...(that would be Chicago for all of you who are unawares)

But, doesn't he make enough money? I know he is a male and males typically need encouragement/vindication that what they are doing is the right thing. But, does he really need an award from the same network (Viacom) that produces such shows as "The Hills" and 3 different types of shows based on Flavor Flav?
Yes, I realize a lot of his fan base probably watches those shows, but it doesn't mean he has to acknowledge that.

I know, its all for the hype. Tomorrow is the big day. I still expect everyone to buy Kanye's CD and hide 50 Cent's CDs in different parts of the store so other people can't find it to buy...

Twitter comic...

Ok, so I haven't posted on Twitter yet, but if you went to the website, you may find this amusing:

The problem with music today...

Is apparently being solved by Rick Rubin. If you've never heard of Rick Rubin, you've probably never listened to music.

Anyway, I was trying to catch up on some of my feeds and came across this post from the blog
A VC. It highlights an article recently written about Rick Rubin being made the co-President of Columbia Records.

Points I liked from the article:
Kids mostly steal music but don't consider it stealing.
MySpace is over.
Facebook is cool now but probably over soon.

I think it all leads the way to Twitter, Pownce, and similar social networking sites. If you aren't aware of these sites, I have a post in the works that I will hopefully complete soon.

Here's a link to the original article:
Link

The problem with hip-hop music today...

Clearly, there is a problem with rap/hip-hop today. Mainly, it sucks.
As a side note, Tuesday could mark a big day in hip-hop history. If you haven't heard, 50 Cent will retire if Kanye West sells more CD's than he does. Both CD's come out on Tuesday, so buy Kanye West's CD....
Personally, I doubt 50 Cent will actually retire or retire for that long (ala Jay-Z).

But, regardless, hip-hop would be much better if artists followed this simple formula.

I'd also like to direct you to figure 4-A on that same page and also comment #7 for a thorough analysis of figure 4-A.