Alden Bates' Weblog

Mr. Rogers' Ghost Terrorizing Children, courtesy the Weekly World News.

"His ghost is the same as he was in life -- sweet, friendly, soft-spoken -- but when you're a floating, transparent wraith, the effect is totally different. Saying 'Howdy, neighbor' and 'Can you say "death"? ' to a five-year-old when you're a spirit is terrifying to them. Children have been freaking out," says Specter.

A workmate 'o mine stumbled on this software called SBaGen which uses your computer's soundcard to generate Sequenced Binaural Beats. From one of the accompanying text files:

The basic idea of binaural beats is that by applying slightly different frequency sine waves to the two ears, a beating affect is created in the brain itself, due to the internal wiring of the brain. If, in the presence of these tones, you relax and let your mind go, your mind will naturally synchronize with the beat frequency. In this way it is possible to accurately lead the brain to various states, according to the frequencies that you apply.

Groovy.

The radio at work keeps playing the Maroon 5 song "She Will Be Loved". Apparently they find it necessary to play this song at least once an hour, as it seems every time I finish listening to one of my own CDs, the radio is playing the same damn song.

Is there a dearth of songs, perhaps? Decades of pop music, millions of songs to choose from, and the radio is stuck playing the same group of songs hour after hour?

This is why I stopped listening to the radio. That and the fact that all the advertising and DJ chatter meant that you got maybe three songs in a given half-hour period.

Sony abandons copy-protected CDs

Sony Music Entertainment said it would stop producing the CDs because its message against illegal duplication has widely sunk in.

I am happy I'll be able to buy Sony CDs online without the fear it'll turn up and be unplayable. Hopefully the other music companies will do likewise.

Having finally gotten LJ's feed showing full posts, I'm promptly going to post something under a cut, mainly because it has spoilers in it, but also because it's long. Hopefully I'm doing this right...

This here post is a long ramble I just wrote about Alien versus Predator and it contains spoilers. You'll probably want to skip it if you haven't seen the movie yet and want to, or if you don't really care.

Continue reading "Thoughts on Alien versus Predator"

The Sunday Star Times reported this morning on how they had reporters sneak box cutters onto domestic flights. The result: an indication of a worrying lack of security.

I wish I was surprised, but I've noticed before that there is very little security on domestic flights.

Take Wellington airport. Last time I took a flight to Rotorua, the routine was as follows: Check main baggage during check in (cabin baggage wasn't inspected), wait at gate for boarding call, let staff check ticket, proceed through door directly onto the taxiing area, board plane from ground. Pretty much the same level of security was in force at Rotorua when I took the plane back (i.e. none whatsoever).

That there hasn't been a terrorist attack here involving an aeroplane is nothing short of a miracle.

Because I can't think of anything interesting to say...

Popular DiscContinuity Guide entries

1. The Natural History of Fear
2. Creed of the Kromon
3. Land of the Dead (No, I don't know why)
4. Davros
5. Zagreus

Popular musicians

1. Enigma
2. Enya
3. Mike Oldfield
4. Dead Can Dance
5. Era

Top archived TSV artwork

1. Davros (TSV 19 cover)
2. Daleks playing computer games (cartoon)
3. Sixth Doctor and Peri cartoon
4. Peanuts cartoon
5. Cyberman cartoon

I went to see Alien versus Predator today with Trevor and Morgan. It was a pretty good action/horror flick with nifty special effects. I saw the ending coming a mile away though.

I was interested to see the movie had one plot element in common with a Dark Horse AVP script I downloaded off the net years and years ago.

I have a bit of a problem with Paradise.net's transparent proxy server. Sometimes when I go to look at my web page, I don't get the current version. The reason is because the transparent proxy server is caching the page and not bothering to check if it has changed or not.

Grrr, say I.

I've been watching an anime series recently that my brother, Morgan, bought the box set of called "Chobits". Very very odd series.