I was planning on using the 20,000 frequent flyer miles I've saved up to go on vacation with some friends at the beginning of May... then I saw that if I save up just a few more miles, I can catch a flight on a MiG-25 fighter jet instead... well either that or maybe I'll catch that suborbital flight... hey, someone's gotta do it, right?

It might be outlandish, but it does seem like a serious offer, so some entreprenurial miles collector will likely take them up on it. If someone can pile up 7 million Pepsi points for a harrier jet, you know someone will go for this... (as an aside, that case was one of the funniest things I read in law school)

Unless you've been under a rock for the last few months, you're well aware of all the kvetching and hand-wringing that's been done on the issue of whether gay people should be allowed to get married. On an intellectual level, it's an interesting exercise that deals with issues of equal rights, societal change, the role of the judiciary, federalism and a whole host of other topics. From a practical standpoint, however, I don't think it really amounts to a hill of beans.

First and foremost, I don't think that there has been any credible source suggesting that civil unions shouldn't be available to gay people. As I understand it, the legal rights accompanying civil unions are exactly the same as those that come with marriage. Even the proposed constitutional amendment to define marriage as being between a man and a woman left open the possibility of civil unions. Nobody is proposing that the gay folks shouldn't have the same rights, they're just saying that the vehicle for acquiring those rights (and responsibilities) should be different.

The difference then becomes one of semantics. In effect, it boils down to who gets to use the m-word. But that's not entirely accurate either.

"Marriage" is not solely an instrument of the state; the religious aspect of marriage is not exactly trivial. Churches remain free to marry anyone whom they see fit. Gay couples can waltz off to their nearest chapel and be "married" in the religious sense and the state can't do a thing to prevent it. The states don't have to recognize it, but the partners can make a claim to being married that is every bit as legitimate as heterosexual partners. If the objective of the conservative side is to prevent the spread of the notion of homosexuality as a legitimate choice of sexual orientation by preventing gay marriages, it is doomed to fail since gay marriages can look elsewhere for their endorsement.

Beyond that, if the trend towards tolerance that goes back over 100 years continues, the traditionally held beliefs that it is "wrong" to be gay will die out along with those who had been attached to them for a long time. Because of this, some have called the current battle for the right to gay marriage "wrongheaded", as it may result in barriers much greater to overcome than a few court precedents.

From a strategic standpoint, this may have been a mistake on the part of the gay marriage supporters. But is opposing gay marriage a strategic mistake by the other side? After all, if a gay marriage ban does actually cause some people to marry an opposite-sex partner, and if this couple has children, genetics might dictate that they have a bunch of gay kids. Same-sex couples aren't as likely to be having children using their own genetic material, so they'd be less likely to pass along the "gay gene." Think about that...

coming soon: Part II: The Legal Analysis... Is the proposed Constitutional amendment as bad as prohibition? What should we do about "activist judges"? What about equal rights? And might there be a better challenge to regulations prohibiting gay marriage?

8:24 - A little late to the Survivorblogging tonight... but I'm here now! (Apparently, I missed the dissolution of the Saboga tribe...)

8:37 - Why does Richard even bother with putting clothes on?

8:39 - Uncommon displays of brilliance... first with Chapera setting themselves up to have their strongest member (Boston Rob) take an extra turn... then, Kathy's battle strategy against Boston Rob was a great idea... it didn't work, but it threw a new element into the equation to confuse him and give her a better chance... Survivor has always had rules that allow a certain amount of leeway... As the game gets more complex, there are more loopholes that can be exploited... Being able to identify these grey areas of the rules is going to help somebody big time one of these days...

8:43 - heh... I just realized the dissolution put Colby and Jerri together... too funny... and now it might be coming home to roost... I missed the beginning, but I wonder how much of a good idea Colby thought that was...

8:51 - Colby: "ultimately, someone is having the wool pulled over their eyes"... it's amazing how the "obvious" choice to be voted out, based on prior tribal alliances and fortunes the first time they played (Ethan) - the one who wouldn't be "having the wool pulled over their eyes" - wasn't even a consideration tonight...

8:59 - I'm going to miss Richard... he was quite the personality...

9:00 - So who do I think will win? It's not going to be Ethan. Prior winners are right out. I think Alicia and Sue are a little too mouthy to make it all the way... the preview for next week suggests we're going to get another classic Sue rant... That leaves 10 potentials... if we see the survival of the weakest once we get to individual immunities, I think we'll see some of the guys gone... Colby seems to be an upcoming target, especially with Jerri's wrath upon him... random final four prediction: Big Tom, Kathy, Shii Ann, Jenna... I'll update that next week when one of 'em gets kicked off...

USA Today is reporting that gas prices are headed way up... The national average was up about 8 cents last month and the worst may be yet to come, as the driving season increases demand. Cue the consumers complaining about gas prices in 5, 4, 3...

But before anyone gets started with that, let's put things in perspective here. Compared to other countries, gas is actually really cheap in the US, even at $2 per gallon. Furthermore, we've paid more for gas before. In order to set US records, once adjusting for inflation, gas would have to cost nearly $2.90 per gallon.

In the end, what goes up may not have to come down. You see, there is a limited amount of oil on the planet. Yeah, we can explore new techniques for getting oil and squeeze a few more drops out of the planet, but the supply is limited. The demand for oil is also going to grow, as the developing world starts buying more cars (and as urban sprawl makes us spend more time in our cars). Less supply + more demand = higher prices.

This might all happen within our lifetimes. A recent study came to the conclusion that oil production will peak within the next ten years. How much longer until the oil runs out? Who knows... But as prices increase, it is going to be a whole lot harder to depend on oil for things like transportation. Because of this, forward thinking cities should be thinking about rail-based public transit now, so to not make getting around prohibitively expensive.

It's also why you might want to consider this if you're looking for a graduation present for me...

This is cool... I've now learned that there are apparently no ZIP codes beginning with 09 or 00, Iowa necessitates three separate combinations of first two digits (50, 51, and 52) while Utah does just fine with only one (84)... and you're all learning that I love maps...

As Rick Wright, my old Radio Station Operations professor might say, Outside the Beltway's James Joyner got the zig this morning. Plenty of others have commented on how this might actually work out in his favor. Given the fine work he does with OTB, I wouldn't be surprised if he were back on his feet very soon. If you're not familiar with OTB, go check it out.

I had a dream the other night... not a great dream, like when I'm flying or swimming (neither of which I can do in real life), but a dream that made me feel very content... It was really late at night/early morning... it had a 4 AM vibe to it... and I was in a restaurant... not any real restaurant, but one that was a crazy mix of three or four other restaurants, one of which I've never been to... like so many of my dreams, the world had an Escher-esque geography to it - I could walk around in a circle and not end up where I started...

While I was there, I figured I might as well have some eggs, while the world got ready for another day... but I walked around the restaurant for awhile, just soaking up the ethereal atmosphere... then I woke up. And I wanted to go out for breakfast. So I did.

It's amazing how real dreams can be... when I was a kid, I dreamed that I had an Imperial Walker, only to be disappointed when I woke up and mom told me that I didn't... Those Imperial Walkers were cool!

There are a lot of people out there looking into and studying dream control. For the most part, they're focused simply on controlling the behavior of the dreamer within the context of the dream. Being able to look in a mirror or turn on a lightswitch, for instance. They all believe that exerting this type of control over dreams is a skill that can be learned, as opposed to a power granted at birth.

But what about controlling the subject matter of a dream? Certainly there is some physiological basis for why people dream about certain subjects. Even if there's a layer of abstraction between the stimulus for a dream and the manifestations encountered in the dream, there's probably some type of connection...

If anyone could ever figure this out so that people could choose what they dream about before they go to sleep, wouldn't that be about the most lucrative piece of knowledge ever? I mean, video rentals are one thing, but being able to experience a movie (or whatever you want)? Every night? Booo-yaaa money!

Of course, the technology would have a few problems... It would start developing, like any other medium of communication, through porn... Then, there would be some other entertainment, some fun stuff, some good stuff... and then the spam and advertising would take over. Pamela's got $7 from me because I wanted an omlette the other morning... wouldn't it be awful to wake up every morning as a zombie looking for this product or that product? Oh, and getting it to work would be a doozy too, after all you'd need to get past human testing at some point... and I certainly wouldn't want to be the one waking up with my internal VCR blinking "12:00"...

Interesting notion, but probably the stuff of sci-fi... I guess it'll just have to stay a dream...

I hate it when the airlines get my bags lost or mixed up... So do these people... At least the officials think the person in the hospital will be OK...

Results are posted from a nifty little survey about the way people talk in various parts of the country... things we can learn from this:

• People have a tendency to confuse specific terms and generic ones... or at least to appropriate the specifc term for the general one. For instance, someone please inform the good people of central New York that all large roadways are not Thruways - it's only your beloved I-90 (the New York State Thruway toll road)... Likewise, rail transit systems, generally, are not BART, T's or L's... and Brew Thru is an Outer Banks phenomenon...
  
• What the hell is up with the south? The devil beating his wife? (The devil makes it cloudy?) Neutral ground? (Driving: is it really a war?)
  
• And what's with those New Englanders with their grinders and tonic?
  
• And then there's one of my favorites: the graphic display of the yinzer nation... looks like they're spreading to Greater SoMoNoAr (Southern Missouri, Northern Arkansas)... eek...
  

Go take a look at the whole thing... and thanks to Is That Legal? for the pointer...

Since I was asked, and since it's a frequently made error, I just thought I'd remind everybody about the answer to the question... When Should Punctuation Go Inside or Outside a Closing Quotation Mark?... Note that the author says nothing of my favorite all-purpose punctuation mark, the ellipsis...

Rob Hammer has been inspired by my musings to return to the world of blogging... His first entry is all about free underwear... Go check it out...

Thanks to Michelle Boardman over at Volokh Conspiracy, I now know that I am Federal Rule 8(a) of Civil Procedure...

You are Rule 8, the most laid back of all the
Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. While your
forefather in the Federal Rules may have been a
stickler for details and particularity, you
have clearly rebelled by being pleasant and
easy-going. Rule 8 only requires that a
plaintiff provide a short and plain statement
of a claim on which a court can grant relief.
While there is much to be lauded in your
approach, your good nature sometimes gets you
in trouble, and you often have to rely on your
good friend, Rule 56, to bail you out.

I suppose I can sorta see how some of the quiz questions are relevant to finding the answer, although I'd be real curious to see the methodology or flow chart behind the scenes...

UPDATE: duh... forgot to include a link to the quiz... now go take it yourself...

Multifunction devices: good for saving space, bad for actually doing the things that they're meant to do. We all know that futons make lousy couches and lousy beds. Now if you only have space for one or the other, maybe it's a good choice... but why the heck would anyone else buy one? Swiss Army knives: yeah, they're handy and they make it easy to carry a lot of tools in a small space... but have you ever tried to use them for anything practical? Half of the tools aren't so useful, most of the time...

But there's just something about gizmos that can do it all... they suck us in, and we don't even realize it! It's an especially relevant topic to me, since I recently picked up a 5 disc CD/DVD player at Best Buy. I needed a new CD player, and since I didn't have a DVD player, I figured I'd get a nifty combo unit... good idea? Well, in theory yes. But in practice, the remote is oriented almost entirely to the DVD function and the console is oriented almost entirely to the CD function (except for the LED display). Functionally, it works nicely. But practically, it makes me want to tear my hair out half the time. No shuffle play (who shuffles DVDs?), stop means pause (what?)... Both my previous CD carousel (which was great) and the current unit are Sonys. So why did their product design deteriorate?

Now the only question is whether I should go back to Best Buy and buy that CD player along with a separate DVD player. (Magic 8 ball says yes....)

February is winding down and spring is upon us... There's a lot of great things about spring - daylight savings time comes back, there's leaves on the trees and birds in them, it's not winter... But there might be nothing better about spring than the return of baseball! Yes, I'm counting down the days until the first spring training games. Highlights of a guy who'll likely start the year in AA against a guy who'll start the year in AAA? I'm all over it.

Part of all this wonderment is fantasy baseball. Fantasy baseball is the best of all worlds for me. Baseball... it's dreamy... Managing a baseball team? Bliss. One of the only things better than baseball is drafting... Put these together, and you've got something.

I'm already in a few fantasy/roto leagues, but I can't get enough... I'm a total addict... so I'm opening up a Yahoo! fantasy baseball league for any other bloggers up for the challenge... If you'd like to join up, just drop me an email (aljohnst AT city-net DOT com) and I'll pass along the details...

The management of a local watering hole recently wrote a letter to a professor at the law school...

That assignment you gave your students is rediculous. [sic] They have spent long hours doing reseach [sic] and trying to organize a very complex matter into a simple framework. Then there is the writing. They had to prepare several drafts which prevented them from doing other work. It also has had a very negative effect on the community. We who depend on them to work normal hours have missed them very much. Please consider our plight the next time you hand out an assignment.

Let's see here: research... writing... for the love of God, have these professors have lost it? Somebody bring them back to reality! Think of the community! Next thing you know, maybe the students will learn how to spell!

Of course, more likely than not, the management has been duped by an employee who just didn't feel like coming in to work... you see, the professor to whom this message was addressed only teaches classes taken by second and third-years... and upper class law school students just don't care enough to do work anymore!

George White is a thinking man. Mostly, he thinks about transportation... mostly... And when one of the foremost local experts on transportation speaks, you'd think people would listen. Too bad that the people at Pulp, a local alternative tabloid, are about the only ones paying attention. In a recent issue, White assesses the Port Authority's plan to extend the light rail service to the North Shorte sporting venues as well as to the Convention Cetner. He concludes that the planned extensions are poorly located in relation to the venues they serve and that for the same price, the T could be extended to serve a greater portion of the Northside.

I'm all about making public transportation ubiquitous, and White's proposal would do just that for the additional Northside territory served by his proposal. White has previously advocated other transporation solutions that make sense, such as simplifying PAT's bus lines to save time and money.

His ideas may not be so radical as to be classified as "progressive", but they make a hell of a lot of sense, and it kinda makes me wonder about the folks running the show when they nearly go out of their way to avoid common sense. Then again, they're not the only ones in Pittsburgh whose management has to make you shake your head in disbelief...

Ralph Nader is going to announce his presidential aspirations (or lack thereof) on tomorrow's Meet the Press. I'm pretty sure he'll say he's in, and not just because FOX says so. Who would go to the trouble of being on a talk show to announce they aren't running for office? And if they did so, what would the host talk to them about?

So assuming Nader's in, then what? Some Democrats are quick to blame him (after the Supreme Court) for their loss in 2000. Of course, if the Democrats could have put out a more inspriational candidate, maybe they would have earned the votes that Nader got. Could Nader have the same effect in 2004? Certainly. Anyone who really sees the election as a choice between the lesser of two evils might vote for Nader as a "protest" anti-establishment-candidate vote or as a deferrment to the rest of America that still fulfills a moral obligation to vote.

Howard Dean also looms out there on the political landscape. Dean has said that Democrats "are all going to need each other by the end of the day." However, he prefaced that comment by saying that he was trying "keep some semblance of unity in this party." If Dean doesn't feel like the Democrats shared his vision of unity - and it's no secret that Dean and many of his supporters are a little unhappy with the party right now - then I can see him jumping ship. With Nader being an "outsider" much like Dean, it wouldn't be surprising if some Deaniacs were to be receptive to a Nader vote. A Dean endorsement of Nader could very well turn out to be damning to John Kerry or John Edwards.

However, the Dean bandwagon got rolling behind anti-Bush sentiment, and if that remains the predominant force among Dean supporters, they would be foolish not to line up behind the most popular candidate not named "Bush." That candidate will not be Ralph Nader.

Nader might also get votes from anyone unsatisfied with the limits of the two-party system. The argument here is that framing people as either Democratic or Republican, either liberal or conservative is far too simplistic. What do you do with someone who supports gay marriage, drug legalization, and legal abortion... but also supports the war in Iraq? Apparently, you call them conservative.

Obviously these people who have priorities that are neither exclusively "conservative" nor "liberal" have no clear choice of which candidate to support. Their views may be better represented by a third party candidate... perhaps someone from the Green Party, the Libertarians, or some other Independent. Restricting the choice to two alternatives isn't a good way to find good answers to hard questions.

I'm all in favor of a political process that's reasonably open to more than two viable parties. But the US election system isn't set up to handle more than two candidates. In order to prevent leaders from being elected with 40% or so of the vote, a system of runoff elections would be necessary. To some extent, primaries are good for this. But they're called "beauty contests" for a reason: they tend to measure one party's evaluation of itself. And if a candidates' views differ from all the core ideals of their party, Howard Dean calls them a Republican.

And if, as the conventional wisdom might have it, a Dean endorsement of Nader is the key to victory for George Bush, we'll see who's calling whom the Republican then.

OK, so I'm trying to come up with a few regular features to mix in with my regular ramblings on... whatever... anyhow, one of those features is a weekly top ten list... after all, top tens have worked well for David Letterman all these years, and the Travel Channel has made an excellent show - World's Best - that is based on top ten lists...

This week's list was supposed to be the top ten foods that are better when not accompanied by any cheese. Minor problem: I'm not sure there ARE ten foods that are better without cheese. Sure, there are plenty of foods that would be worse with a particular cheese, but the right cheese can work quite nicely with just about any food.

Pretty much all I could come up with were some sweets (ice cream, Twizzlers... not pastries) and some meats (beef tenderloin, other steaks... not sausage)... cheese is just too damned good!

My friend Rachel (who in an unrelated development, just won a free pair of underwear) once wrote a poem about how great cheese is. At the time, she intended for it to be an over-the-top glorification of cheese. Only now does she realize that cheese might just be one of the best things out there... Hooray for cheese!

When you tune in to the evening news, pick up the newspaper or read news online, how often do you take for granted that what you're reading is actually an accurate reflection on the world? Jason Blairs aside, there are a lot of stories out there masquerading as "news" that are so heavily skewed that they would be best classified otherwise.

In some cases, the guise is thin - for instance the website MichNews.com. At first glance, you might suspect that the site contains news... about Michigan. And maybe if you just saw a headline and the MichNews source, you'd be interested, intrigued, or (more likely) appalled. If you were to actually go to the site and read a few articles - or maybe it would only take one - you'd find that it isn't a "news" site at all, and the content bears little relation to Michigan. Instead, you'd find a virulently racist, xenophobic, hateful mound of slop that many Republicans might even consider damaging to the "conservative" label. They hook you with the deceptive label... but it doesn't take much to see through their front.

Much more disturbing are the biases that show up in the major media. As I've been reporting on immigration law news for JURIST's Paper Chase, I've found this to be especially prevalent in the realm of reporting on immigration.

Today's Washington Times carried this story about illegal immigration. The story is based on a report from the National Border Patrol Council... they sound official, right? Well take a look at their website. Not so professional, huh? And for that matter, not so objective either. After all, this is a group that by nature is trained to be anti-immigrant... and do you suppose if they raise enough of a fuss, they might get more funding? This isn't the first time the WT has posted a blatantly anti-immigrant piece either. They're off my "reputable list."

Now most media outlets have some type of slant, and I don't really know the WT's politics... but even a relatively liberal network like CNN engages in immigrant-bashing on a regular basis. Lou Dobbs has made immigrants such a target that Fairness and Accuracy In Reporting published this article extensively chronicling Dobbs' all-too-frequent rants fueled by data coming from organizations founded by white supremacists. (no, that's not hyperbole... check the link to the report)...

In the end, it's best to remember that wherever you get your news is not "the source" of the news - it's the filter. The source may just be someone with an agenda that dovetails with the filter's point of view.

8:11 - Jerri really needs to stop crying about everything... I just hope that if Saboga loses the immunity challenge that they don't boot Rupert out of spite... Yeah, he screwed up with the shelter, but he also took the blame for it, acknowledged that he had to build a new shelter the next day and focused primarily on what had to be done next... In complete contrast to Jerri, he didn't cry about all his problems, he went about solving them... The contrast between the two is stark and Rupert is clearly the better player...

8:17 - Thank god the reward challenge isn't a bug-eating challege... they're so boring... nothing but shock value... and wasn't the little go-fish game they played so much more fun? Nothing quite like all-star survivors talking smack on one another...

8:30 - How big is a pace? Unlike Big Tom, I don't think Mark Burnett hauled a midget out there to bury a key... now that Chapera has found the key, and got sanitary supplies, and got some alcohol... how long will it be until we see the first Survivor-lovin'? The countdown begins...

8:38 - It's amazing how tribes bounce back from adversity so well on a regular basis in this game... One day, Saboga is in horrible shape... the next day, they've got a nice little shelter, some good food and their spirits are high... So many times in past seasons, a team down early has come back to have the sole survivor... will it happen this year? We'll see...

8:43 - Well, I think Sue's going.. but Alicia's so bossy, it's a tough call. Guess the rice didn't do that much good for their puzzling skills after all. My esteemed friend Rachel Borchardt (she likes to Google herself) says that she could have done a much better job with the cubes...

8:49 - Thanks for guest-posting that last entry, Rachel... anyway, I agree that Sue would be the obvious choice to go, and intially she's who I'd think they'd vote out... she's annoying and she contribues... well... nothing... But now that I look at things, I'd think that everyone in the tribe should get together to vote out Boston Rob... His "alliance" with Amber really isn't a secret to anyone... nobody would have reason to think they're not a voting block... the other four should want to get rid of one of them, just to divest the two of them of that power...

8:53 - Jeff Probst just coined the term "Survival Cuddling"... hilarious...

8:58 - I'm a little disappointed Rob C. got the boot... he might be the best at detaching himself from the game and looking at it from a 3rd party/neutral perspective... he's so philosophical about everything, and he's also the most up front about his strategy... almost like we could get insights from him that we'd miss from the other players... one of the smartest people out there, and one of the only men to ever do well based more on brains than on brawn...

9:00 - At least it was a great episode for survivors talking smack on each other... too many good quotes to list... but Josh highlights one of the best: "I'm 48 and just watching was funny..." classic stuff...

Two weeks ago, Pittsburgh lost another great place to see live music, as Rosebud closed its doors. Rosebud follows in a long line of local concert venues that no longer exist... the Syria Mosque, Graffiti, Metropol, Laga (which has stopped booking shows after April 1), and now Rosebud. Shows previously scheduled for Rosebud have been shuttled off to the Rex Theater. Now I don't want to knock the effort those guys running the Rex have put into reinvigorating the old theater, but it just isn't a good place to see a concert. It's a long, narrow movie theater, not a concert hall. The acoustics are mediocre and there isn't a substantial dance floor, like there was at some of the now-closed venues. It just wasn't designed to be a concert hall.

The continuing loss of medium-sized concert venues is a huge problem for Pittsburgh. Without venues to support and give exposure to the mid-level acts, bands that are up-and-coming or established outside the mainstream (Ozomatli, Medeski, Martin and Wood, Blackalicious, Paul Oakenfold, etc.) will stop coming to Pittsburgh. Without a healthy concert scene, Pittsburgh will lose the interesting and intelligent folks who demand more from their music than what the major labels push on them. Pittsburgh's much-maligned arts scene doesn't need any extra reason for people to complain about it...

But all hope is not lost. I saw a Deltron 3030 bumper sticker on a street sign the other day. There is still some good taste in the 'burgh. Now we just need more supply to meet the demand for music before the demand goes elsewhere.

If there are hearts on my Google toolbar search box (and there are), it can only mean one thing: Valentine's Day has arrived... and once again, there's nobody I have to buy dinner for! OK, so let's calm down and rein in that enthusiasm. I'm sure the tradeoff would be worth it in some cases, but somehow those cases don't seem to arise... at least not for me...

You see, even though I will hold doors for women, I do have something in common with Slithery D. He says that "[g]enerally I give up on any and all romantic interests after any imperfections that appear in the first couple of dates." Now this may be a little harsh, especially to a nit-picker like myself who'll pick out ten imperfections within a minute of meeting someone. Anyone this discriminating has to seek the positives instead of finding disdain wherever possible. But applied on Slithery D's broader view, where being "absolutely wonderful but not very attractive" isn't sufficient for dating purposes, his plan is eminently reasonable. If the one girl can't provide him with everything he's looking for, then he'll inevitably look somewhere else for what's missing.

Will Baude points out that Slithery can have his cake and eat it too, as there are other choices beyond cheating and resentment. Of course, there are other options out there, but isn't the quick date 'n' dump more or less the serial monogamy that Will suggests? Dragging the dating out over a longer term runs the risk of the resentment that concerns Slithery D.

On the first day of classes this semester, I opened the front door and found something I'd been waiting for: the old school NES I had bought on eBay. With add/drop going on all week, and only having one class that I might take this semester that day, I was awfully tempted to just skip the class and play with my new toy. Maturity, however, won out, and I went to class... a class I would drop less than a week later... but when I got home, I found sheer delight in a virtual 8 bit world created by my "new" Nintendo.

I got the NES because there were so many great games for it... as game consoles became more capable of creating pretty video effects, I think that many game companies have become more worried about using the new technology for effects instead of improving gaming... all sizzle, no steak... and there really are so many great NES games... so in my first weekly top ten list, I present my top 10 Nintendo games:

10. Baseball Simulator 1.000 - Part of the holy trinity of NES baseball games, along with RBI and Bases Loaded (somehow, I never thought of Baseball Stars as being a great game, and the original Baseball wasn't quite there either). What separates Baseball Simulator 1.000 from the rest is the wacky special pitches and hits that are available to each team in the game. The stop ball was always a favorite of mine. You pitch, you stop the pitch, the batter swings, you start the pitch, the batter has sadness. Each pitcher and hitter has special attributes and abilities, but because they're limited in number, you can't use them every pitch. Also one of the first games where you could customize players or play in outer space.

9. Contra / Life Force - Up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, B, A, B, A, (select), start... everyone knows it, everyone loves it. If you're puzzled by this nonsense and you own either Contra or Life Force, please crawl out from under your rock... Most people know Contra... they've played it, they've heard the theme song covered by the Minibosses, etc... but Life Force? It's also a Konami game, and the game is extremely similar to Contra... you go through horizontally and vertically scrolling levels killing bad guys, beating minibosses and powering up until you save the universe... and the code works on both...

8. Spy vs. Spy - Another highly underrated game, this one is a hoot in two player mode, as you blow up or electrocute your fellow players... even getting zapped by the computer can be entertaining. If you've never played, Spy vs. Spy pits MAD magazine's black spy vs. its white spy. The spies rush through a level seeking to escape with treasure. However, the entire level is booby trapped, and if you get killed, treasure is not yours... basic puzzlery needs no more than 8 bits to be entertaining...

7. Super Mario 3 - The most popular video game of the NES era, and with good reason. Early levels are easy and you can rack up a lot of stuff to help you along your way... if you're anything like me, "your way" is not to the end of the game, or even other assorted higher heights, but rather to a quick and embarrasing death. You see, I might be the worst Super Mario player in the world. I never finished the original Super Mario Bros... and any foray I've taken into the advanced worlds of Super Mario 3 has simply resulted in much Mario death... and it's really frustrating... but there's just so much in this game that I like it anyway (unlike the original, which I really don't like at all)... At the other end of the Mario skills spectrum, check out this guy who finished SMB 3 in 11 minutes... it's quite amazing, and something I could never do, even in my dreams...

6. Bubble Bobble - A highly underrated game, especially in two player mode. The only thing that Bubble Bobble is missing is a secret code to give you unlimited or a large amount of lives that makes it feasible to come close to finishing the game without continuing. The goodies you can get are practically endless, and there's so much to shoot for as far as items, points and abilities...

5. Rygar - Another game I never really played that much, but I watched friends play it a lot and it looked cool... plus it has a good reputation... I'm looking to pick it up right now... it's basically just like Metal Gear in these respects, so they get ranked together...

4. Metal Gear - I never played Metal Gear a whole lot, but it seemed to share a lot of the characteristics that made Zelda great. The overhead perspective, the items to be gathered... I watched other people play it a fair amount, and always wanted to get the game... I never did, but it's very high on the list of games I'm looking for now that I have a NES again.

3. RC Pro-Am - Car racing games are almost always fun. They usually have a lot of replay value because although they're easy enough to be beaten, they're also hard enough to make the player do most everything right to advance. RC Pro-Am does a good job of this, but what really sets it apart are two forward-looking capacities that were built in in a very basic fashion: the ability to upgrade your car and weaponry for shooting down others. Everyone gets a kick out of blasting the guy ahead of you with a missle and winning a big trophy for crossing the finish line first, and with RC Pro-Am, you can do it over and over again.

2. Super Tecmo Bowl - There were a lot of very good (or at least very memorable) sports games made for the NES, but this is the one that takes the cake. At the time, it was a revolutionary game. It had all the NFL teams, it had real player names... it was the first sports game to have a "season" that mirrored the seasons of the sport it simulated and it was the first to tally cumulative stats for your simulated season. Oh, and the gameplay was easy too.

1. The Legend of Zelda - Where it all begins. In the pantheon of great video games, this one is right up there with the best, and the folks at Nintendo must have known they had something special on their hands when they gave it its distinctive gold cartridge. It has a great litany of items, special powers, secrets and enemies (although an original miniboss or two in levels 7 and 8 would have been welcomed). When I got my NES recently, the first thing I did was pop Zelda in there and play for a few hours.


So that's the list... but rest assured, it was tough, and there are a lot of great games that didn't make the cut... the Mega Man series, the Castlevania series, Blades of Steel, Super Mario 2, Ghengis Khan, Super Dodge Ball, Bionic Commando, Super Sprint, Kung Fu, Excitebike, Double Dribble, Tetris and Metroid (just to name a few)...

With so many great games out there, how could a gaming fan not want an NES, especially since games are still really cheap? I'm betting that as systems and games get snapped up, the prices are going to appreciate and my system will double as a classy investment... but for now, I'm just enjoying the games...

8:07 - As if mogo mogo needed another reason to vote Jenna out... she can't be telling people that she wants to leave... as a former winner, she has to know that she has to play harder than any of the non-winners...

8:11 - Rupert is still the man... he's one of the few people whose charisma or personality or whatever can really captivate the game, unite his tribe, make everyone take notice and follow...

8:14 - Half an hour with a shark biting on your arm?? and then you bit it back? That's both awesome and insane... and that kind of extreme behavior is what it takes to win at Survivor... Richard Hatch, like Rupert, is one of the few people who can drive the game the way he wants to... I couldn't help but notice Richard acknowledging Rupert when they first met at the first challenge... it was like one championship-calibre player acknowledging another... can't wait to see the two of them together in the same tribe, if Richard lasts that long...

"he may not be impressive downstairs... but he's impressive other ways" -Shii Ann, on Richard

8:20 - Home Depot! Hooray for product placement! Now where's Bob Vila as a special guest?

8:21 - "How I ever made it to age 48 without Sue Hawk is a mystery to me..." - Tom
...and then she sits out... classic...

8:23 - "It's getting easier and easier to flirt with Boston Rob, that's for sure" - Amber... way to represent the 'Burgh, Amber

8:28 - Shii Ann's building ideas may be crazy and a lot of work, but you've gotta give her style points... but it's funny how every group has two different schools of thought on how to build this structure... and it's a little curious how the different schools of thought didn't quite come together in any one tribe...

8:30 - Jenna: if you're so concerned about your family, WHY ARE YOU PLAYING SURVIVOR? GO HOME!

8:35 - HA! the guy brought a clipboard with him... like he has some type of checklist or something?

8:38 - Saboga... what the heck? Were they so far behind the other two or what? I thought they'd be the second strongest tribe coming in... but they keep shooting themselves in the foot...

8:40 - On the other hand, Chapera has been extremely impressive... I didn't have much hope for them coming in, but every challenge they do so well... they're playing smarter than anyone else...

8:42 - I wonder what influences these players the most... how many of them have changed their approaches or strategies for this season of Survivor? How many of them are making choices based on what they saw of their teammates in other seasons? How many of them are excelling now that they've learned from their mistakes and how many are excelling (or failing) because of who is in their tribe now? I can't help but think that two of the people who were eliminated early (Boston Rob, Shii Ann) are playing much better now...

8:50 - I was really unimpressed with Kathy the first time she was on... at least for most of the game... but she has a lot more going for her than she lets on... she might just have the best personality and approach of any of the players...

8:52 - Jenna has a vibe? And naturally everyone else wants her to leave, so they won't have to... and what a touching scene with the two Pittsburgh girls...

8:54 - Jeff seemed a lot less upset with Jenna quitting than he did with Osten quitting last season... Of course, Jenna had different motives, but she also had plenty of time to think about what she was getting into... and I think that Mark Burnett is going to do something to seriously discourage people from quitting next season... at least formally quitting...

8:56 - eek... Jenna's mom died 8 days after Jenna got back... now that's eerie and a bit haunting... in the end, Jenna made the absolutely right choice (albeit for extremely suspect reasons).... for that I suppose we can all be happy... a lot of people die after something they might be waiting for... hanging on for... Warren Zevon died right after his last album came out, Harry Carey died on his wife's birthday... I wonder if Jenna's mom was waiting for Jenna to come back...

The ensuing fallout from the Janet Jackson incident highlights so many things that are wrong with the world today. A quick survey of the issues:

• The righteous naysayers criticizing CBS for airing something that they claim is offensive. Michael Powell, the FCC Chairman testified today that many young television viewers were offended by the Super Bowl halftime show. Oh really? What did Powell do... take a survey? I'll bet that the great majority of viewers (young and old) were not offended... Sure, they might not have been titilated by the experience (so to speak), but that doesn't mean they can't occupy a moderate, neutral ground...
  
  Besides, you don't have to take Marketing 101 to know that sex sells. You don't see attractive people in commercials, TV shows and movies just by accident. If CBS would have announced that Janet Jackson was going to bare her breast at halftime, the halftime ratings would have skyrocketed. Guaranteed. And would all those people turn in to be offended?
  
  
• Secondly, people are so incredibly easily misled by statistics. Sure, 200,000 people called the FCC to complain about the halftime show... and how many people were watching? 200,000,000? All of a sudden, 200,000 doesn't sound like that many, does it? Abusing statistics like that is simply irresponsible and being misled that easily is shameful...
  
  
• That elected representatives are devoting serious time and energy to overcoming this "problem" is crazy. If they seriously want to crack down on "indecent" broadcasts based on this incident... if they want to legislate morality on to all of us, we would be catering to the least tolerant tenth of a percent. Please... some of the solutions I've heard bandied about (heavier regulation of cable, for instance) are nothing but First Amendment violations... Other solutions, such as a la carte cable packages just aren't feasible. Would you pay $100 or more per month to get fewer channels? I don't think so...
  
  
• Of course, the politicians up in arms about this also likely see some value simply in making lots of noise and having a quote or two played back on the nightly news. They want to be on camera, and they want to be there saying the "right" thing... how hard is it to say "being naked on TV is bad?" Instead of doing what's right (nothing) or concentrating on more important issues (healthcare), they're essentially campaigning on the taxpayer's dime... not so good...
  
  
• Ultimately nothing will be done, for one reason: politicians need television to get their message out and they need the dollars of support from the media companies. They're not going to do anything to upset the media, like significantly raising fines for indecency or regulating it any more strictly.

Half of what I've eaten today has been jambalaya... another third has been cheese...

and then Glenn Reynolds hits us with this:

Frankly, I'd like MTV better if it showed actual people enjoying actual sex, rather than the winking, leering pseudo-sex that is its stock in trade.

Fantastic.

Oh, and if you're wondering whatever happened to my immigration reform plan, I'm still working on it... I've had some pretty severe headaches the last few days... whine, whine, whine... I've still got the cheese (and about 10 other backlogged topics I've been meaning to write about)...

It's really a shame that it isn't until the Pentagon is investigating global warming and the influence that climate change could have on national security that anyone takes the environment seriously. Isn't the prospect of living in a world where the air and water are clean enough of a motivating factor? I suppose it would be if the decisionmakers were personally impacted by environmental problems. Certainly we've seen how personal experience has changed minds on other issues... and only now that certain people might not be able to get away from problems associated with the environment are they coming around to address the problems that have affected others for awhile now.

I think this also hits on a big difference between Republicans and Democrats. The Republicans tend to take more of a holier-than-thou approach to a lot of issues, condemning attitudes and behavior from which they might personally prefer to distance themselves. I suspect that most of them don't worry about something like having their privacy invaded by the Patriot Act, simply because they figure that they aren't the ones doing the bad stuff, so they don't have anything to worry about. It's always the stuff that the other people are doing that is the problem.

Democrats seem to put themselves in the shoes of the "bad" guy, understand his plight and counteract the Republican's Chicken Little notions of how the world will devolve into chaos if we let cancer patients smoke pot, have naked breasts on television or let gay people get married.

Sooner or later, I was going to take my chance to write something about immigration reform... now that Tyler Cowen has made his argument for how immigration reform should be handled, I feel compelled to respond, although preferably not at 2 AM after I've just written an epic email about the Pirates and their repetitive foot-shooting management... So go read Professor Cowen's series of posts about it, and come back tomorrow evening for my response...
(sneak preview: he's generally right in that we should let more people in - and there is precedent for doing so; basically the fundamental underpinning of our immigration policy would be in line with increased admissions)

Janet Jackson has rocketed to the top of the Internet search listings... searches for her flashing the world during the Super Bowl are allegedly 60 times more numerous than paris hilton searches! naturally, when news breaks, yours truly is the man on the scene... and the world is taking notice!
right now, I'm the #2 hit on MSN searches for "janet jackson wardrobe malfunction"... how about that!

So I think Survivor is cool... yeah, it might be nerdy or lame or whatever, but that's someone else's problem... Since I'm watching Survivor right now, and I don't know of any other Survivor blogs, I figured I'd indulge myself in a little Survivorblogging... updates to come throughout the hour...

8:07 - This seems to be the most dangerous season of Survivor yet - even moreso than Africa... the whole no clean drinking water vs. deadly parasites thing puts the contestants in a position where they're likely to eschew water as much as possible, and that's dangerous... but this season, it really seems to be about survival as much as anything else... a nice change, if you ask me...

8:10 - Richard's whole naked strategy amuses the hell out of me... as Colby said, they're getting used to it... I can't imagine people from other tribes are... and if that gets Richard's tribe an advantage in the challenges, it's brilliant... as far as him not starting the fire, now that I don't understand... unless that's his ace in the hole...

8:17 - wow... what a fascinating choice at the end of the reward challenge... help yourself and not the other tribes or help yourself more and help the others too... fwiw, I think tonight's winners made the right choice... but what's to stop these tribes from just busting their boxes open?

8:22 - these guys are good... everyone figured out that she was gone simply because she was a prior winner... it's not really that hard to figure, and I'm sure most of the survivors were thinking about getting rid of prior winners coming in, but there could have been all sorts of things that would have caused tina to get booted... I can't really see a past winner winning this time... (my choices, fwiw, are colby and lex)

8:35 - sitting out alicia? does that even make sense? time will tell if it was an unwise choice (says here it was... but what do I know?)

8:40 - guess not... but did saboga collapse or what? how could they not think to flip the boat? pouring water out all at once is a lot faster than bucket by bucket... did rupert totally lose it from pearl islands to all-stars? between him and ethan, I'd have thought they would have been much stronger in the challenges than this... rudy and jerri look like really weak links right now... I mean... did you see jerri trying to kick water out of the boat? and then how she ran over ethan? what was she doing?

8:44 - oh, and it's amazing how even all-star survivors look up to richard hatch as the king... given his reaction to finding the stuff, I can almost see how he's playing a totally different game from everyone else... he is the king...

8:46 - there's no one in this game with more security than rupert right now... of the three guys in his tribe, one is a former winner (a one-way ticket home) and the other is an old guy who can't really contribute much... he's stronger than all the women, and they seem to gravitate to him because he's not a target and he's a useful guy...

8:55 - I'm not terribly surprised by the vote... rudy was clearly a weak link, and if this tribe wants to win any more challenges that have any physical demands, they could not afford to lose ethan... rupert could afford to keep his word to rudy (and maybe look compassionate and/or honest to the rest of the tribe) because he knew rudy already had three other votes, and his vote didn't much matter... I don't think it'll make him an outsider, but if that tribe loses immunity next week... I'd get rid of jerri in that case, but if it comes about, they'll be in some trouble...

My #1 result for the SelectSmart.com selector, Favorite Baseball Primate, is John Brattain

hey... he's a funny guy... (albeit perhaps not the person I would have chosen)... I think it's appropriate that both tangotiger and Piazza ended up pretty far down on my list... tango does a lot of work and research that looks pretty great, but I generally don't have the time to work my way through it... Piazza is usually just annoying, much moreso than other recurring characters... use of Piazza just isn't usually very clever...

The Democrats have made much of each others' record with "special interests" lately, and what may have started as a serious issue has quickly degenerated to the point where it is nothing but smearing and nit-picking. To some degree, anytime you lend encouragement, financial support or your duck hunting time to someone else, there's an increased likelihood that they will be willing to be more receptive to your point of view.

That's just as true in the international political arena as it is here in the USA. The kickbacks that France got from Iraq... special interest? I wonder if the Democrats will call them out for pandering to Saddam Hussein... In fact, the whole of international law seems to revolve around nations looking out for their own interests; if you don't like what the report says, dissolve the commission - international security be damned...

The more that popular sentiment (and certainly Democratic sentiment) moves toward the idea that we should spend more time working with international organizations and operating within their limitations, the more frightened I get... The interests of other Security Council nations - Syria, France, China, Russia... they just don't often match up with our own... they're saddled by "special interests" (not the least of which might be a United States that isn't quite as strong)...

What I'd really like to see is some sharper rhetoric from the Democrats on international affairs... If there's credible evidence that the Iraqi WMDs ended up in Syria, by gosh, we should be banging on their door to retrieve them... Showing the world that we're serious about cracking down on bad people (mostly terrorists) has had plenty of pleasant side effects (like this and this). I'm not suggesting we ignore international opinion or don't seek out allies, but we shouldn't need to have everybody, or even all the other biggest countries on board with all of our plans because they too may have "special interests."

If the election is going to be won or lost on domestic issues, as the Democrats might hope, a more centrist - or even right of centrist foreign policy wouldn't hurt them. After all, core Democrats like the peaceniks aren't going to have any better choices in the election. In fact, it might help attract some of the "undecided" 10% for whom the Democrats could represent the best of both worlds... or at least the lesser of two evils.

A little more ammunition for the kids on the playground... thanks Rachel! (and yes, the picture of the key in the brain is neat too...)

All this sound and fury about Janet Jackson's "wardobe malfunction" during the Super Bowl halftime show really makes me wonder about a lot of things. First off, was this really that bad? Based on the FCC regulations for broadcasting obscenity and indecency, I'm not sure that anything illegal happened. And I have to wonder whether people themselves have a problem with the exhibition of the breast or whether the people condemning the broadcast are "concerned parents," worried about what their children might think. The former is just silly, and the latter might be a bit out of line with the actual situation. With the camera so far from stage and the shot lasting such a brief time (and my lack of focused attention on the halftime show), a lot of people - especially kids - might not even have realized what was going on. I hardly even noticed what happened myself, and a whole bunch of other people needed to take a second look to see what exactly happened.

Beyond that, where do parents who rail on about all these types of things being excessively offensive come from? I know that they didn't all think like that when they were younger. Most young folks aren't really offended by stuff like a naked breast, even if they don't think it is necessarily appropriate for prime-time broadcast television. Plenty of kids go out of their way to get explicit materials that their parents wouldn't let them have. Certainly, when these kids grow up to be parents (who probably believe themselves to be "responsible parents"), they must realize that their kids are doing the same things and going down the same path that the parents themselves once did. If the parents turned out OK, why would they think their kids won't?

And isn't the NFL being a little hypocritical here? Nearly every team in football trots out a squad of scantily-clad cheerleaders each game. NFL telecasts cut to commercials and come back from them with shots of these cheerleaders playing to the camera. Basically, the NFL is selling the sex appeal of their cheerleaders, who are wearing considerably less than Janet Jackson wore Sunday night. The cheerleaders are just part of football while they show off the majority of their body on television every week and also in calendars and whatnot... Jackson, on the other hand, is a novelty during one game who bares one breast for a few moments, and she's the one who league officials say is the problem? Check yo' self, NFL!

There are a lot of things that really bug me about primaries. One of those is that early returns dictate how the race will be run. After John Kerry won Iowa and New Hampshire, he had momentum... he became unstoppable... why? The pundits pointed to the fact that only 1.5% of the delegates to be awarded were determined... yet those 1.5% are apparently the key to being in the race or not. Here in Pennsylvania, our primary isn't until April... APRIL! My vote will influence the race... not at all; by that time, I suspect the Democratic nomination will be wrapped up...

The early wins gave Kerry momentum... but what does that mean? Because some corn farmer in Iowa or some lumberjack in New Hampshire voted for John Kerry, that I should too? Or that other people do vote for the frontrunner, simply because he is a frontrunner? I don't buy it... Nothing against the Iowan or the New Hampshirite, but my circumstances are decidedly different, and I'd like to be able to (and in fact, I will) make up my own mind about which candidate will best be able to fulfill my objectives in the election...

I think having a 'primary season' is a good thing... it allows candidates to refine their messages and get in touch with voters in each state in some particular type of consistent order... it lets the citizens compare and contrast the candidates quite nicely... but the season needs to have the primaries packed closer together, such that my vote might actually count...

Another weak link in our security. And this might be the worst part:

"But so many of his fellow hackers also accessed the system at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory in Illinois that it began to slow down."

Quite frankly, I think the kid got off easy...

I have to say that I cannot comprehend people's need to act violently and destructive when "their team" wins a championship... I mean, I can at least understand it a little when fans of losing teams riot... maybe they were angry with a call or a coaching decision, and this is the only way they can adequately express their feelings. Of course, it's totally inappropriate and it speaks volumes about the need for the introduction of the phrase "only a game", but at least those fans are lashing out at something because they have a need to channel their (inappropriate and misguided) feelings of rage.

But the fans of the winners? Do they feel that because their football/basketball/baseball/hockey/soccer team has vanquished all, that they are now not answerable to any higher power? Does their affiliation - no matter how voluntary and unilateral it may be - give them additional rights or importance? And what's wrong with the alternatives? Would revelry without destruction be insufficient? Can't they just go out and spend money irresponsibly or something?

The average, run of the mill football game is already too long... so why on earth must the SUPER BOWL be a four hour event? Naturally, the answer is commercials. 30 seconds here, 30 seconds there... nobody will ever notice, and CBS will make millions of dollars. Given that the game will take that long, why start it at 6:30? Why not start it earlier, especially when the network airing the game has a big ratings draw on after the Super Bowl?

I didn't really care much about the game, being neither from New England nor Carolina. In fact, I was much more interested in the premiere of Survivor All-Stars after the game. But I can't imagine CBS picking up much of an audience bump - even after the Super Bowl - when the show doesn't start until 11 PM on a Sunday night.

I know, not wanting to stay up 'til midnight to see Survivor makes me sound old and cranky again... and actually that in and of itself isn't the problem... I'm usually up that late. But I didn't manage to get much sleep last night, so I'm dragging today...

I'd like to provide some insightful commentary and/or analysis on this one (OK, on every one), but I'll probably put it off 'til later and then not get around to it because I'm finishing up my other insightful commentaries/analyses from the last few days... so I'll just say that this guy is the weak link in the world's security that we need to be afraid of...