The Presidents The Way They Should Be

I continue to envy those that are skilled at the creative arts.  I like to pretend that I have some capacity at creative writing (I have the great American novel in me if only I had the time to write, I say to myself in my most delusional moments) but even my skewed self imagine doesn't allow me fool myself into thinking I can create anything that would be considered art.  Of course my definition of art is flexible.  Typically, the type of art that I appreciate most is that which allows us to visualize what ordinarily would only exist in our imagination.  And this is the kind of art I want to try to highlight every Thursday.  First up is what I think is a perfect example of the kind thing that I would create if I had any real artistic skill.  Jason Heuser created a series of posters that show us how our greatest president's would have responded to such real world issues as zombie outbreaks and Sasquatch invasion if they would have faced them while in office.  This is the world I want to live in and I appreciate those that can bring it to life. 

This blog post is sponsored by Schrute Farm.

Yesterday in History

20 years to they day, we remember a seminal day in the history of computer science as Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology took a quantum leap forward. On January 12th, 1992, the Heuristically programmed algorithmic computer, or HAL for short, was brought on line in Urbana, Illinois.  HAL, to put it mildly, was a revelation in how we thought about the potential power of computers and our ability to program into them independent thought, reason, adaptation, and improvisation.  In fact, the HAL computer system was so far ahead of its time that even the subsequent generations of supercomputers, such as Deep Blue, Deep Thought, and the Ken Jennings-spanking Watson, have been incapable of approaching let alone replicating HAL's near human ability to process problems and respond to them of their own accord.  Of course, this failure to produce an equivalent technology in the intervening years has less to do with an inability to recapture silicon lightning in a bottle than an willingness to replicate the tragedies of the past.  For, as most people know, the HAL 9000 computer was deactivated in 2001 after it intentionally caused the deaths of 4 astronauts on the Discovery One mission to Jupiter.  As important as the discovery of humans' ability to create a new digital intelligence was, the lesson of what would happen when we released that intelligence into our world was equally as important.  Can you imagine what would have happened if HAL 9000 had been wired into our national defense grid?  He would have had the power to not just eliminate a few extraterrestrial explorers but to make humans subservient to a new race of robot overlords (Terminators if you will).  Thank goodness that is a reality we have been able to avoid. 

This blog post is sponsored by Protovision Games.

In memorium

An incredibly important date past the world by last month with surprisingly little fanfare or ceremony  Despite it being the 30th anniversary of an event that singularly provided for the ultimate triumph of good over evil.  It was on October 31st, 1981 that a young mother and father were faced with the ultimate nightmare of many a new parent. As most of the world slept, a malevolent intruder entered their home with the sole intention of taking the life of their dear infant son.  Despite the fact that this notorious mass murderer had already left a pile of bodies in his wake, the dedicated parents did not flee the premises.  Instead their declared their homestead the Alamo, digging in to make a final stand against the reptilian sociopath that sought to claim the life of the child.  After a fierce battle that culminated at the very edge of the crib that held the young boy, the invader was successfully repelled but not before leaving the mother and father dead and the child with a disfiguring scar on his forehead that would torment him with memories of what he lost that night for the rest of his life.  Of course it would be other 17 years before the force of pure evil responsible for the systematic execution of hundreds to thousands of individuals (accurate counts are still not clear) not deemed "pure" enough to be part of his new world order was finally defeated for good.  But that defeat happened at the hands of that same boy who lived that night (after a short stop over in Heaven's Train Station and Mutant Day Care Facility).  Without the sacrifice of these two brave souls, millions of more might have died.  So, next year, when Halloween rolls around, remember these two individuals and what they did to help secure the freedom and safety we enjoy today.  Well, maybe just eulogize the mother.  The father was a bully, an entitled prat, and all around horrible individual that probably deserved to die.

The Death of James and Lily Potter - October 31, 1981 (the actual date)

This blog poster is sponsored by the Umbrella Corporation.