Ted Stevens: Down The Tubes?

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Sen. Ted Stevens, the longest-serving Republican senator in Alaska, who became an internet legend by calling the internet a “series of tubes”, has been indicted on seven counts related to falsely reporting hundreds of thousands of dollars in services he received from a company that helped renovate his home.

Becoming famous for obviously over-simplifying what the internet is in trying to make his case for Net Neutrality, I am certain people all across the tubes today are rejoicing this moment.
Here is a partial quote and to read more on the issue, visit the Wikipedia page: “Series of Tubes” 

Ten movies streaming across that, that Internet, and what happens to your own personal Internet? I just the other day got… an Internet was sent by my staff at 10 o’clock in the morning on Friday, I got it yesterday [Tuesday]. Why? Because it got tangled up with all these things going on the Internet commercially.

I Got It Yesterday – Sen. Ted Stevens (AUDIO)

[…] They want to deliver vast amounts of information over the Internet. And again, the Internet is not something that you just dump something on. It’s not a big truck. It’s a series of tubes. And if you don’t understand, those tubes can be filled and if they are filled, when you put your message in, it gets in line and it’s going to be delayed by anyone that puts into that tube enormous amounts of material, enormous amounts of material.

Series Of Tubes – Sen. Ted Stevens (AUDIO)

Last Lecture Professor Dies At 47 From Cancer

Randy Pausch, a Carnegie Mellon University computer scientist whose “last lecture” about facing terminal cancer became an Internet sensation and a best-selling book, has died. He was 47.

I remember watching the lecture shortly after it became available online and I don’t think there has been another time where I sat in front of a computer for well over an hour just listening to a lecture. His popular last lecture at Carnegie Mellon in September 2007 instantly became an international sensation and was viewed by millions of people all around the globe.

He really speaks from the heart when he gives this lecture saying he doesn’t want pity and at the time he was speaking, he was probably healthier than most of the people in the audience. He said some very true things and here are a couple of my favorite quotes:

– When you see yourself doing something badly and nobody’s bothering to tell you anymore, that’s a very bad place to be. Your critics are your ones telling you they still love you and care.

– The brick walls are not there to keep us out. The brick walls are there to give us a chance to show how badly we want something. Because the brick walls are there to stop the people who don’t want it badly enough.

– Don’t complain. Just work harder. That’s a picture of Jackie Robinson. It was in his contract not to complain, even when the fans spit on him.

– Find the best in everybody. Just keep waiting no matter how long it takes. No one is all evil. Everybody has a good side, just keep waiting, it will come out.

I think this is the lecture he gave… (I can’t view the video because I am at work). I will confirm it when I get home in a few hours.

Proud To Be An American Looks Like This…

This is what it means to be a Proud American in the 21st Century… from Berlin, Germany no less.

I haven’t read any early estimates on the number of people that showed up but it certainly looks like one of the better speeches any Presidential nominee or Senator has ever given abroad. (How many have actually given one abroad? I don’t have an answer for that.)

“He is one of those politicians who reaches parts other politicians don’t reach,” Oakley said. “After the unpopularity of George W. Bush, the world is waiting to love America again, and many see in Obama, with his youth and his optimism, somebody who can bring that about.” – Robin Oakley, CNN’s European political editor on Obama enjoying his popularity overseas.

The CNN quote in this post can be referred back to here: Obama uses Berlin symbolism to reunite ‘old allies’

Do You Believe in Alien Life?

Well this is a fantastic story coming out of The Daily Telegraph in Australia, where an astronaut by the name of Dr. Edgar Mitchell has claimed that aliens exist and on several occasions have already visited this lovely planet of ours.

Where he might sound a little loony is that he says they are quite similar to the folklore description of these alien creature with small frame, large eyes and head that would look quite strange to the humans.

What is a little nerve racking to say the least, he said that our technology is “not nearly as sophisticated” as those of our foreign visitors and “had they been hostile… we would be been gone by now”.

“I happen to have been privileged enough to be in on the fact that we’ve been visited on this planet and the UFO phenomena is real,” Dr Mitchell said. “It’s been well covered up by all our governments for the last 60 years or so, but slowly it’s leaked out and some of us have been privileged to have been briefed on some of it. I’ve been in military and intelligence circles, who know that beneath the surface of what has been public knowledge, yes – we have been visited. Reading the papers recently, it’s been happening quite a bit.”

NASA on the other hand were very quick to distance themselves from any statements he made by releasing a statement in which a spokesman said: “NASA does not track UFOs. NASA is not involved in any sort of cover up about alien life on this planet or anywhere in the universe. Dr Mitchell is a great American, but we do not share his opinions on this issue.”

I have long believed that it would be very naive for us to think that we are long in this large and very expansive universe. Certainly it would be remarkable the day that we do make contact with a specie from outside of Earth – or the day that it is made publicly known regarding the matter.

I am not certain how a majority of our population would take to such news and maybe it is for the better that the information be suppressed some what but by no means am I advocating that information be hidden from the public for nearly 60 years as has been alleged by Dr. Mitchell.

I think it is bound to cause some chaos with those who are always unafraid about things they do not know very well (whether it be other races, ideas or in this case aliens) but I think for the sake of humanity and our essential survival probably depends on maintaining contact with these creatures and ultimately leading to maybe colonizing and expanding outside of the realms of the Earth.

The original story can be found here: Moon-Walker Claims Alien Contact Cover-Up