10/31/2006

Eco College Challenge
Filed under: General — nobrainer @ 5:15 pm

MTV is trying to save the world again. Yada yada yada… Universities can win a $25k grant and a rock concert for groundbreaking eco-ideas. The sniff test tells me that this is on par with SinceSlicedBread.

First, let’s think about MTV’s involvement. For a good idea they’ll reward you with a bunch of overpriced, no-talent assclowns who will presumably turn the volume up to 11 and put on a groovy light show. When I think of stewards of global environmental awareness, MTV and all that it stands for are always at the top of my list.

Anyway, my ideas.

1. Don’t allow MTV concerts on campus. That should save plenty of hot air and electron flow.
2. Don’t allow MTV on campus. Take TVs out of dorm rooms. Cut off the cable. Or at least tell students that if they find themselves watching MTV that they should turn the TV off immediately and do something else. Anything else.
3. Make MTV not exist anymore. Have they really contributed anything good to the world?

Those will presumably go over like lead balloons. Here’s a couple with more teeth.
4. Replace all incandescent light bulbs on campus with GE compact fluorescents. Let students trade in burned out bulbs for the fluroescents and even actively replace non-burned out bulbs to be used elsewhere.
5. Reverse the “yield to pedestrians” rule. This is a stupid fucking rule to begin with that leads to kids not even paying attention to traffic. Create a “yield to the two ton death machine” rule. The current rule wastes gasoline because thousands of times a day a car has to come to a stop and then re-accelerate. Of course this might also keep dumbasses out of the hospital, which adds an additional layer of benefit.
6. In each dorm room, put in two outlets and don’t allow power strips. And enforce the rule.

And now for the kind of flowery, optimistic, tree-hugging ideas that will probably win.
7. Go organic and celebrate dandelions! (OK, I stole that one.)
8. Screw this computer stuff! Two words, “slide rule.” (OK, this really belongs in the same category with 4 thru 6.)
9. Outlaw brutal sports like football. The electricity costs, the encouraged violence, and the disrespect towards women — not to mention the need for paving over green space for the sake of parking — make this activity one that must go!
10. Create a culturally diverse commission to study how people of different ethnicities use and value power, green space, and other important resources. Take the results of that commission and present them to the overseer of cultural awareness on campus who will then form a coalition of underrepresented peoples who will confer to consider the study. A separate, multicultural committee will be formed to oversee the commission and the coalition. A straight, white, male student will be chastised for being insensitive because he was found to be a closet Dave Chapelle fan. Then hold an anti-Bush rally. Finally, everyone will hug each other and emphasize how much they value each other as people.

Job hunt update:
Filed under: General — nobrainer @ 2:11 pm

Firm offers: 1
Firm “no-effing-way!”: 1
“We’ll hire anyone with a degree and a pulse”: 1
Post-interview limbo: 1
Didn’t even get an interview: 2
Interviews pending: 2
“we can’t be bothered to meet our own deadlines for informing candidates that they can sign up for an interview”: 2

10/30/2006

Yes. YES!
Filed under: Health, Technology, General — nobrainer @ 9:07 pm

Hooray for scientific breakthroughs!

British scientists grow human liver in a laboratory

Where do I sign up and what’s the down-payment?

And is there some kind of recycling or trade-in program to get rid of the old one?

I think I’ll go for the Antartic Blue Super Sports model with C.B. and optional rally fun pack as opposed to the higher capacity Metallic Pea Family Truckster.*

Nice.

For the UVA football fans
Filed under: Sports, General — nobrainer @ 12:14 am

I was looking over some football stats, trying to determine which ACC school has the greatest home field advantage. Based on my reasoning, UVA enjoys that position.

For ACC teams with their current head coaches, I compared winning percentages at home and on the road both for all games and just for league games. And under Coach Groh, the Cavs are more than twice as likely to win at home as on the road. That means that Scott Stadium is truly one of the underappreciated home fields, or Al Groh is extremely bad at motivating his tropps on the road.

10/29/2006

I’ve seen bad drivers
Filed under: General — nobrainer @ 10:41 pm

I’ve seen plenty of bad drivers, and I’ve seen them do plenty of bad, stupid things.

I’ve never seen this before.

10/28/2006

That figures
Filed under: General — nobrainer @ 5:12 pm

I mentioned before that I was in an ongoing contest to win a 42″ plasma TV. The contest ran for 3 weeks with each week being a round. Each round winner wins an iPod, unless he or she goes on to win the grand prize. At this point last week I learned that I had won an iPod by winning the 2nd round. That put me near the lead for the whole contest. This morning I found that I had also won the 3rd round. Unfortunately I still lost the entire contest by the slimmest of margins. So no new plasma TV for me.

So not winning a plasma TV sucks, because I was so close.

Oh well, I have a nice 31″ TV that does just fine.

And as of 11 AM this morning I have a 31″ TV that has dysfunctioning audio. It plays nothing but static. That hurts.

Fortunately I’ve worked around the problem by cleverly using my VCR. But still, what timing!


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