The Bacon Bill of Rights

[Roll with it here, this is just stream-of-consciousness randomness brought on by DST]

The Bill of Bacon Rights:
1) It is the natural born right of each free individual to have delicious bacon, at whatever time of the day or night, that one feels the desire for that thing.
2) Hipsters are annoying and should be fixed.
3) It is every citizen's right to prepare for the zombie apocalypse.
4) Zombies are great as fuel for the fire that cooks the bacon. Mmm... zombie-mequite. Applewood is better, though.

Okay, so these aren't really "rights".  Pay no attention to the bacon behind the curtain.

A Thought

The Bacon Party: A political platform on the virtues of bacon and world domination.

Human Nature

BoingBoing has a story about fraud and Japan relief.

I wish I could say I'm surprised.

Disgusting assholes like these fraudsters are an abomination to our species. It's doubly-sad, 'cause many people I know anticipated this and have avoided participating in what is likely otherwise-legitimate fundraising endeavors for Japan's troubles.

Personally I find it easiest to donate to Red Cross (Yes, I'm pimping the Red Cross. Get over it). It's hard to go wrong with them.

If ninja clans were real, it would be my fondest hope that they're dispatching shadowy agents to deal with the various fraudsters and that in coming weeks, mysterious funds will go to help those affected in Japan.

And somewhere, in a dark cave, a pile of heads or ears or some other grisly trophies will appear to mark the decrease of opportunistic assholes in this world.

Nuclear Problem

Radiation's spewing out of that Japanese nuclear plant. Insult upon injury as Japan's death toll just keeps going up and up after the quake and tsunami combo.

Meanwhile, folks are apparently using this incident as an excuse to protest in Germany and other places over the use of nuclear power.

I honestly have no idea where I sit on this issue. I mean, how often does one really expect a disaster along the lines of a 9.0 earthquake to hit a nuclear power plant? I expect it to be far more likely I'm going to get squashed crossing the street today.

[Knocks on wood to hope I'm not suddenly prophetic. Moving on.]

A lot of our technology is simply dangerous. The San Bruno explosion reminded us that gas can also be dangerous. Sure, it's looking like PG&E screwed up and that resulted in the obliteration of a neighborhood and many deaths, but it could just have easily been the result of an accident or earthquake.

I'm not a nuclear engineer (or any kind of engineer). For all I know, everything runs on dilithium crystals and spinning things powered by space monkeys. I have no idea if there's ways of making our power sources safer that we're not actually doing.

I'm moderately confident our technology isn't capable of staving off the damage from something truly catastrophic, like a 9.0 quake, a comet or asteroid impact, or human incompetence, stupidity, and evil.

Our world society needs power. It's got to come from somewhere. Hydroelectric works well enough, but dams cause problems with local ecosystems. Solar power is very friendly, but it's not currently up to the challenges posed by demand (and probably not all that useful on a rainy day... just sayin'). Wind power has its own problems with birds getting caught in the rotors and the like. Coal burning is just bad across the board.

So that leaves nuclear power plants, unless I'm missing something. I can't say I'm entirely comfortable with the idea of being anywhere near a nuclear power plant, but the technology has been useful.

Modern life is awfully complicated.

A Few Things

1) I hate Daylight Saving Time with an unholy passion beyond my ability to express in words. I don't care that we "get more sunlight". I want my hour of sleep back, damnit.

2) I'm gratified to know that my friends in Japan are all safe and sound. I'd suspected they were fine, given that they're hundreds of miles to the southwest of the quake zone, but one can never be certain.

I've already donated to Red Cross. If I were the sort who believed prayers made any difference, I'd offer those.

3) For some perspective on the reactor problems in Japan, one might consider the words of someone with some experience in the matter.

---
I want to think of something chirpy to say, but I'm too goddamn tired.

To whomever was responsible for the extension of DST: I hope you suffer chronic insomnia for those two extra weeks every year for the balance of your lives and experience explosive diarrhea every night, just 'cause I'm vindictive.

Japan

In a nutshell, I have no idea what to say about a disaster like this.

I've got friends in Japan. I figured they were okay (they live far from the most affected area) but it's hard not to worry when you see all the news on this. Quake, tsunami, nuclear meltdown... it's pretty terrifying.

I hope they catch a break over there and get a chance to recover.

When Dirt was Young

In ancient times (1975 to 1977) the world was a different place. Hairstyles were disturbing and wrong. Earth tones prevailed in fashion. Pants had bottoms shaped like bells.

Civilization was pretty much a mess.

Out of Japan, a TV show came forth. It was called "Himitsu Sentai Goranger", or "Goranger".

"Go" is the Japanese word for the number five. So "Goranger" translated to "The Five Rangers". This is how the show aired on television in Honolulu back in those days.

And, as luck would have it, this is when I got to watch said show.

It was a new experience for me. I got to see over-done, corny martial arts, colorful costumes, funky gadgets, and rubber-suit monsters all while hearing horrific dubbing.

It set the tone for my later love of Godzilla and the like as well as innumerable martial arts action movies.

Fast forward many years. "Power Rangers" airs in the U.S. I see this advertised with a moderate sort of horror coupled with a disturbing flashback to "Goranger".

Yep. It's essentially the same show with the same five folks vs cartoonish villains.

Rinse and repeat over I-don't-even-want-to-know how many incarnations.

And then the Internet showed me this:



So apparently there's been a lot of incarnations by this point.

And it troubles me that I can pick out the original Goranger outfits among this horde of technicolor craziness.

I think it's time for my meds.