Haynes.tv

The town of North Kingstown has entirely too much drama for a suburb of Providence. This applies especially to our school department. By the amount of accusations and unfavorable news reports about the NKSD, you would think that our daily lives are scripted by television writers. However, the biggest character that dominates North Kingstown cooler talk is the Kingpin, Dr. James Halley. He is a public official that answers only to himself, and his public allies answer only to him. He thinks he lives in a special bubble outside of public opinion. In the minds of the parents and students he has been running the North Kingstown School Department like this for the past 12 years.

The drama involving Dr. Halley has recently come to a head over the report concerning $245,000 of misappropriated funds. ABC 6 reporter Jim Hummel has been following (harassing) the story for the past several months. Needless to say, Halley is not a fan. Their confrontation finally became physical at a March 28 school committee meeting in which Hummel followed Halley around the auditorium, smashing him with difficult (for Halley) questions about the report. An obviously distressed Halley puffed out nonsense responses saying that the media has no right to cover the meeting, despite that fact that every meeting is broadcast in North Kingstown on Cox Channel 17. And after the meeting Halley went to the North Kingstown P.D. to file assault and harassment charges.

I believe this whole disastrous meeting demonstrates Halley’s inability to perform his job effectively (as well as ethically) because he cannot handle the pressure, he has made actions detrimental to his image and reputation, as well as that of the town’s school department, and he is being chased like an injured antelope from a lion on the savanna of truth. We let him make his own decisions, but now its time for us to tell him its over. The recent paid suspension should give him time to think about the function of a public official. What the word public means. He should ask himself whether he has any honor and dignity left, or will he continue to rely on political alliances and the threat of lawyers to save his wounded rear end (which we know he will). This claim of assault on Jim Hummel demonstrates no matter how hard he falls, his senses are completely disconnected from the real world.

As a side note, I am a North Kingstown resident and from now on I will follow all the important issues facing north Kingtown in future articles. I read the North East Independent and the South County section of the Providence Journal and I will share my opinions about artices as well as add my own insight. I attend many town meeting and am very involved in the town.

One of the biggest questions currently facing our administration is the level of health care the United States government should provide its citizens. Some call for complete health care, that no one would pay for their health care. This system is already in place in many countries, including England and Canada. Other’s claim that all health care should be done privately, whether through an employer or from one’s own personal funds. This decision needs to be made, as currently the state of American health is steadily declining. The best way to address this problem is to look at Canada, which is following its North American Neighbors by expanding its waisting, sick time, and medical cash flow.

Currently, Ontario is plagued by chronic diseases. The numbers are startling:

One in three Ontario residents is currently fighting a chronic disease. . . at least 60 per cent of health-care costs are already associated with chronic diseases. . . almost four in five Ontario residents over the age of 65 have at least one chronic disease, and of them, 70 per cent suffer from two or more conditions. . . getting people to eat better, stay active and giving them safe and meaningful work would prevent 80 per cent of the cases of coronary heart diseases, Type 2 diabetes, and over 85 per cent of lung cancer cases. . . 50,000 new cases of Type 2 diabetes diagnosed in Ontario every year. . . Preventing these cases alone would free up about 2,900 hospital beds … per year in Ontario.

This situation is similar to the United States. In both countries asthma, arthritis, diabetes and heart failure are on the rise. Obesity is growing at an unimaginable rate with the deterioration of healthy eating habits. Many of these diseases are preventable. There is one difference between the two situations, the provider of health care. In the United States the patients are left to fend for themselves, leaving a large population of people (mostly elderly) that have a chronic disease and are struggling to get treatment. However, In Canada all of these cases are jamming the system, preventing immediate health care from reaching many. The problem with chronic disease is that it lingers and takes up a lot of the doctor’s time and the patent’s money.
Patients with acute sicknesses cannot find immediate care to cure their ailments. They are forced to suffer because of a large group of citizens are too lazy to keep up their own health. I see the same problem to a much larger extent in America. We are just as lazy, and in fact are most likely spreading our lifestyle to Canada. Therefore I have doubt about the effectiveness of a mass health care system. Such a system may not ensure the greatest health of all patients involved. However, a socialistic medical system would be better if the kinks could be fixed. However it is questionable that these problems will ever be fixed. Currently the government should continue Medicare and Medicaid to an extent to prevent one’s class definition by one’s health. America needs to remain free and equal, therefore the government should continue to research answers to this growing problem.

We all know of the world’s greatest source of information, Wikipedia. Students begin (and sometimes end) all research on Wikipedia. Any one with a medical disorder goes to the site to get their prognoses. If you want to know what a Billiken is you go to Wikipedia. (Go search what a Billiken is anyway, it will blow your mind. I am planning on starting a Billiken fan club. Tell me if you want to join. Maybe I should change my name to Billiken S-R) If you want to learn the science from apples to zip ties, you can find a comprehensive 97% accurate article on the subject. In fact, a good amount (more like 99%) of my Haynes.TV research is done on Wikipedia. However with such an extensive library of random information and a cult following of confused individuals, can anyone possibly challenge the dominance of Wikipedia?

Citizendium (Citizens’ Compendium) began testing in November 2006. It already has over 1000 articles in its possession. It was created by Larry Sanger, co-founder of Wikipedia. Sanger’s goal is to inject some intelligent expert advice into the wiki encyclopedia. He will do this through a hierarchy of expertise and responsibility. Authors must submit their full name. They will then be subject to constables that can ban irresponsible or “stupid” authors from contributing. Constables must be at least 25 and hold a bachelors degree. The authors will then be supervised by editors. Editors choose which material makes it to the site. Editors require an academic background in a specific area of expertise. The system of authors and constables should prevent the free roam of false information that plagues Wikipedia. Wikipedia has seen complaints for Internet “vandalism” from subjects that have had articles falsely written about them. Also, an interesting fact, Stephen Colbert has been banned from Wikipedia for his abuse of the site, having his viewers alter comments in an immature (0r hilarious) way.

However, I don’t see Citizendium making it too far. While the stages of revision will prevent inappropriate and inaccurate information from reaching the site, it will restrict the sites growth. The appeal of Wikipedia is that there are so many articles, one can find almost any tidbit of information on their site. They can change with popular culture, politics, and the economy. Citizendium will be restricted by a limited pool of authors. Wikipedia seems to grow exponentially, while I see Citizendium growing in a line at best, most likely plateauing in a few years. Maybe Citizendium’s 820 authors and 126 editors should spend their time making Wikipedia a better site. At least 5 of them should contribute Billiken articles any. Wikipedia is too large and powerful to mess with. They almost define popular knowledge. Any other wiki encyclopedia is just wasting its time.

Many concerns have been raised pertaining to the free flowing nature of information and content in the modern industrial age. Besides the burgeoning identity theft industry, major questions have been raised over the legality of copyrighted content on the Internet. Specifically, the media giant YouTube has been targeted for its blind spot towards copyrighted shows. All major “traditional” media corporations, such as CBS, NBC, BBC, and Viacom have cried bloody murder over the so-called piracy of their popular programs. YouTube has worked with these companies by deleting the content specified as content, although only after the corporations raise the issue, as well as work to make deals with these companies over the extent of profit sharing. Viacom has responded to Google’s (Google bought YouTube in 2006 for $1.6 billion) lack of interest by initiating a one billion dollar lawsuit accusing YouTube of major international copyright infringement.

YouTube is claiming that all its actions were perfectly legal as described by the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. This act, the constitution of Internet copyright laws states that if a website deletes copyright protected materiel upon being notified by the copyright holder, than they are not liable for copyright infringement. However, Viacom contends that Google is aware of content and waits as long as possible to delete material, as evidenced by their attempt to broker a deal with major media conglomerates. However, the biggest legal issue at hand in this case is the precedent it will set for the emerging Internet media empire’s ability to show media created by traditional networks.

I see this case as only delaying a major media shift to the Internet. The advancement computer video technology and monitors combined with the shift to make the computer the center system in the household makes it apparent that traditional television as we know it is an endangered animal. We can all ready see with the introduction of Tivo and the DVR that television viewers want to see their own shows at their own times. We no longer want to be restrained by commercials, show times, and reruns. Major media networks are starting to recognize this shift, including Viacom. With new polls showing that teenager aged 13 to 21 spend as much time on the Internet as watching TV, MTV, a viacom owned network, is launching a new website aiming at capturing young web surfers. They offer such applications as actual music (if you can believe that) and personal remixes of popular shows. Viacom recognizes that it needs to extend its empire to the Internet. However they want to do it in their own way and they are willing to wait in order the achieve the biggest success and profit. They do not want to see other websites such as YouTube creating a steady audience of their programs, unless they could broker a deal that gave them a substantial proportion of the profits. With YouTube’s inability to cooperate, Viacom has decided to take it under their belt to stop any copyright infringement and start work on the Viacom death-staresque Internet empire. I can guarantee that if Viacom loses this law suit they will immediately go into stiff competition with YouTube, intending to cripple the site in any way possible.

I believe flip flopping is just a natural result of the passage of time and the maturing of a candidate. Everyone makes mistakes, and as people mature it is reasonable that they may change their mind. For example, all those that voted for the war prior on the basis of WMD’s could claim that by learning the fact that there was no serious fact they may now feel opposed to this war. This is a flip-flop, but not an opportunistic flip-flop. opportunistic flip flops do exist, and they are a problem. However I don’t believe a voter should get too mad over opportunistic flip-floppers. There is no evidence that modern politicians are more prone to make a flip flop than in past years. In fact, since the beginning of politics, politicians have been parts to large organizations, whether religions, industrial, or social, very seldom was a politician truly independent, a large percent of the time his actions are representative the organization the politician stands for. Voters need to accept that politicians will flip flop, however it is no reason to lose faith in a candidate or become a political hermit. It is necessary to look at the backing of the candidate and decide where their interests lie and where your interests lie, by doing this you can choose the right candidate. A voter can look at the unions, businesses, and other major social/cultural institutions that support and more importantly, fund the candidate. The heart lies within the wallet. If your interests overlap with those of several organizations supporting the candidate than that may be a good vote for you. For instance, if you are against the war, a politician funded by businesses that want an end to war, or social organization seeking the end to war, than it is relatively safe to assume the candidate will end the war as soon as logistically possible.

The biggest problem with flip-floppers is the adverse effect they have on the psyche of the modern voters. Voters, especially new voters become overwhelmed by the politicians and their ideologies. They come to distrust the process because they feel betrayed by the actions of politicians. Upon this happening, undeserved pressure is placed on the candidate to remain steady, or else suffer the consequences. A politician at that point is dominated by his contingency in a bad way. The voters should control their candidates, but they should not prevent the politician from following his/her natural course. Because once a politician become an artificial puppet of fear, we can no longer trust his/her future action and when he/she may change. The population could consistently reelect a politician only to learn that he may not side with their majority opinions. It is necessary to learn when a politician has done this so the population can elect a new representative. However the pressure they place on the system to follow certain taboo rules prevents the population from knowing has the politicians views change and develop. For as stated in the beginning, a person matures and his opinions will change. Therefore it is necessary to know those changes and how frequently the politician may change, so we can better make our choices. By putting this pressure to remain behind one position we cannot know the true character of the politician.

This post is about flip-flopping in general and does not specifically relate to any one person or situation. The example about the Iraq war is just an example and does not represent any specific opinion. Leave a comment with your opinion, and I shall present mine to the extent required to answer.

I have no problem with governmental intervention in the health of its citizens. A government should try its best to give its citizens the tools to live long, productive, and healthy lives. Programs such as Medicare and Medicaid are vital to the overall health of our citizens. However, intervention must be kept below a certain level. There is a line that separates private actions and governmental guidance. It is an established fact that the modern world faces an unprecedented obesity problem, and it is a long tradition that new strains of viruses constantly threaten the global population. I appreciate a government’s proactive thoughts and actions to help its citizens alleviate their health needs. However, the a nation’s government does not have the right to go into some one’s home to enforce their “suggestions.” A government cannot force a family to follow the food pyramid. A government cannot force a person to wash their hands. Even if it is in the best interest of the person, the government does not have complete control of its citizen’s life. However, a situation similar to this is happening in Great Britain.

British authorities may take custody of 8-year-old Connor McCreaddie, who weighs 218 lbs. Although the child is under good care, Social Services may take him from his parents because of their neglect to take him to government sanctioned doctors, nutritionists, and social workers to help him with his obesity. Both the parents and the child recognize the problem and are trying to find a lifestyle that can work. The mother does not force feed her son. His weight results largely from his own actions. I do not understand how the government feels it can intervene in this child’s life because the right things are not being done in their mind. The child has his own unique problems and his family has the right to solve this problem in their own privacy. If the parents are not breaking any laws, how can he be taken on extreme liberal ideals?

What concerns me most about this whole predicament would be the precedent set by such action. I wonder if we are entering into a world where the government knows best, and we are forced to follow all suggestions that cover every aspect of our private life. And, if such a situation were to exist at what point would the government have complete control of our mind and what we believe to be correct. Citizens need to realize that there is a limit to government interaction and they must step up in the family’s defense.

We have all heard of the Giant Squid, Architeuthis dux,. A marine creature of near mythical proportions. Now imagine a squid that is on average, at least as large as the largest Giant Squid. That is the Colossal Squid, Mesonychoteuthis hamiltoni. Colossal Squid grow to a maximum of 46 feet compared to the 39 feet for the giant squid. They are aggressive predators known to attack Sperm Whales. They have been described as not only larger, but a magnitude meaner than Giant Squid. Colossal Squid have the largest eyes in the animal kingdom. Calamari made from their tentacles would be the size of tractor tires. They weigh half a ton. Their beak and claws rival those of the fiercest land predator.

Recently, New Zealand fisherman led by Jim Anderton fishing off the coast of Antarctica caught an adult male Colossal Squid weighing 990 lbs, and measuring an amazing 39 feet long. The species was discovered in 1925 when two arms were found inside the stomach of a sperm whale. The only other specimen found was a 13 foot long immature female discovered in 1981. The squid was caught while feasting on 8 ft long Chilean Sea Bass.

The Colossal Squid has a gruesome reputation. Giant squid are believed to be the basis of ancient sea myths, such as the Kracken of Norwegian lore. A giant squid attack on a French naval vessel inspired Jules Verne’s novel Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea. A World War II naval vessel has even reported being attacked by a giant squid while sinking, claiming one of their own was eaten in the attack. Colossal Squid also have a mean reputation with marine scientists. Colossal Squid have been known to have been known to attack the massive Sperm Whale. Sperm Whale’s have often been found with huge scars from Colossal Squid hooks and beaks on their backs, as well as Colossal Squid parts in their stomachs. Although this aggression may be nothing compared to what may happen in the future.

Research has shown a recent trend of Squid growing bigger quicker as the water temperature increases. A correlation has shown that for every 1 degree Celsius increase in water temperature, the average juvenile squid doubles in size. This has only been proven in more manageable sizes of normal squid, but the trend may apply to Giant and Colossal Squid. If this is true, the next Colossal Squid found may take a coupe fishermen down with it. This could be the next danger of global warming. Watch out!

Modern technology appears to have no limits. Microsoft comes out with a new version of Windows every year. Monitors are as thick as a piece of paper. Hard drives double their memory every day. However, there are a few drawbacks. Computers take up a noticeable amount of space, and as our bodies expand, we will need that extra space. Although the greatest drawback to modern computers is the fact they are simple pieces of metal; they are not living organisms. After all, we could use the extra food and oxygen living computers would produce. But don’t worry, modern science has found the answers to these all problems, plus our radioactive waste disposal needs.

Researchers headed by Derek Lovley at the University of Massachusetts Amherst have discovered a microorganism that is highly electrically conductive. The organism named Geobacter was discovered on the bottom of the Potomac in 1987 by Lovely. Geobacter has already lived a career as a garbage disposal. Since its discovery Geobacter has been used to eliminate petroleum spills, landfill pollution of groundwater, and uranium waste. However, Geobacter is destined for more roles and greater importance in future technology. Geobacter can grow tails called pili, which can be used as a nanowires 3-5 nanometers in length. The nanowires are essential to creating nanodevices. Furthermore, by altering the genes of the organism many different tails can be created with different qualities and functions. However, the organism itself may be very useful. Geobacter can eat pollutants and convert human and animal waste as well as bio fuel into electricity. This electricity can be manipulated to make the organism itself a switch, creating the basis for a bionanocomputer. With the aid of these nanowires and Geobacter’s electrical capabilities, we may finally be able to create computers smaller than their mice, and cellphones we can lose in our ears. Thank you Mr. Scientist.

Father’s get your kid out kicking some balls, soccer balls. Yes, that European sport that 90% of Americans play until the age of seven, before calling the sport “gay” and picking up a football (American style with hands). Yes the only sport which can make a drunk college student turn off ESPN. So why should your kid take up this most unpopular of American sports? Well, they could be the highest paid athlete on the planet. As of January 11th 2007, David Beckham signed a 5 year, $250 million contract with the L.A. Galaxy of America’s Major Leage Soccer. This made him the highest paid athlete in American sports. Beckam’s contract trounces the contracts of better known athletes such as Alex Rodriguez, Kevin Garnett, Carson Palmer, and some guy from the NHL. The point is this, if your son is a SWB(suburban white boy) who is not twice the size of his peers, or just naturally gifted, such as people from Canada (NHL, Steve Nash, etc.) then get him into the every scwrawny man’s league of soccer. He might lose a few pounds, and learn that if a small weak guy is mad enough he can beat anyone. Therefore, Dad, if you’re stuck watching only a 32″ plasma, enroll your son now.

Modern video games have come under tremendous critisism over the past few years for promoting violence, immoral conduct, and degenerate children. Games like Grand Theft Auto and Halo on the PS2 and X-Box feature fictonal characters murdering and dismembering their enemies with an evil passion. However all of this violence and dangerous behavior stays on the screen, and any crossover to the real world has yet to be proven. However, when one talks about the new Nintendo Wii, real world effects can be seen and measured.

In the video games that set the precident for artificail violence preceding the Wii, homicidal acts were carried out by the simple task of pressing a button. The Wii on the other hand tried to appeal to today’s Red Bull drunk adolescents by allowing gamers to control their caracters by moving the controller through free space. Now instead of pushing the “B” button to cut off the head of an alien leader, players make a thrashing motion towards the enemy’s throat. I don’t know about June Cleaver, but I consider this a lot more threatening than using the old “R” button to pop a cap in a drug dealer’s proverbial buttocks. Now we are actually giving our children the muscle memory and physical, not just mental and emotional, mindset to create violence.

In fact, the results of this violent physical state have already come out only a couple of weeks after the Nindendo Wii’s release to the public. Gamers are now going into a hypnotised state in which they are only aware of the screen and the controller in their hands, disregarding their confined enviornment in a living room or basements. Gamers have gone into a state in which they give all physical effort to achieve their goal. And now it has come out that the strap that is intended to attach the controller to the gamer’s wrist is defective. This design flaw combined with the hyper energized teens combine to create chaos. Teens go to punch a nazi, the strap breaks, and bam, right through the screen. In addition to the screens, this semi-lethal device has caused lacerations and contusions on counless foreheads, cheeks, shoulders, knees, and arms, as well as thousands of dollars worth of damaged property in urban, suburban, and rural homes. Moms are running in terror. No one knows when little joey will strike again.