Take 5.0!

Busy busy week, huh? I think most of us have just over a week until we go back to college (if anybody has longer. . .sweet). I don't know about you guys, but I haven't yet even begun to prepare. My stuff is still. . .I don't even know where. Whoops. Oh well. I suppose that's what all day next Friday is for. Huzzah!

There are a lot of things this week, though most of it has just been continuation stuff. Healthcare debate is at the next level, as town hall meetings are being canceled or badly disrupted by people who hate this bill. Granted, some of it is organized by Repubs and lobbyists, but still. I'm of the idea that most Americans don't actually want this bill--even if they want reform, they don't think this bill is the answer. But time will tell, and I have no numbers to back up my opinion, soooo. (Though, two more things--I thought it was hilarious that people who were angry at the RNC's involvement in staging the outbreaks at town hall meetings were directed back at the DNC. . .by the RNC. Hilarious. Also, supposedly, a man stood up during one of those meetings and told the government to keep their hands off his Medicare. Whoops, what?) And now Sotomayor will be the next Supreme Court Justice, being confirmed today. . .never did write on her, like I said I would. But guess what? I still don't like her, but I don't think it'd be worth the trouble to debate heavily over her. I'd call on the Repubs (well, all the conservative ones) to vote no, but quietly, because while they may disagree with her policies, she's just a liberal taking a liberal's spot. And anyway, the standing ground is against healthcare for the Repubs, not this. Also, how about the fall-out from the Beer Summit? That is, not much at all--most people, it seems, have finally shut up about the abundent stupidity surrounding the entire situation. Sure, maybe the cop shouldn't've arrested Gates, but Gates shouldn't've been acting like such a jerk to the cops, and Obama shouldn't've said anything. But I think the best part of the whole affair is Sam Adams Brewing Company's protest--all three beers that were chosen are owned by foreign entities. I laughed.

But enough talking about the things I'm not going to talk about! Let's just go ahead and dive right in.

TOPIC 1: S-A-T-U-R-D-A-Y! 4:00, I'm told, Toni's house. Be there! The address? Erm. . .(psst, Toni, what's your address? Actually, wait, y'know what? Do tell me, but I'm not going to put it up on here because I'd feel like a major creep putting somebody else's address up online). But anyway, yes, be there. It'll be fun and it's been a long time since the CGSers did much of anything together. It's been too long. So, huzzah, party!

TOPIC 2: Augmented reality. . .this article stayed on the CNN Tech front page for over a day. . .(http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/08/05/augmented.reality.phone.apps/index.html). It's a pretty interesting concept. The idea is that you could take a phone like the newest iPhone--it has to have a camera--and operate it like a viewfinder for the world around you. Apparently a company in the Netherlands has developed an application that as you look at the building around you, the apartments that are available for rent pop up with info. How cool is that?

And the possibilities are darn near endless. Imagine a Wikipedia entry for something just touching it on your screen--and apparently they're already working for something like this. Imagine tweets or FaceBook status updates popping up above people's heads. Imagine a detailed 3D map that could point you directly to an apartment or office, not just an address. Imagine all that. . .right all at your fingertips as you walk around downtown. No more having to sit at your computer to find all the information you need. I dont' know about you guys, but that completely excites me. It is so awesome.

There are some drawbacks, of course, that'll make it incredibly difficult to pull off. Firstly, all phones would have to be linked to a particular person (not really hard), have GPS, and then the GPS would have to be far more accurate than the ones currently in phones. Otherwise, that tweet came from that tree, not the girl sitting on the bench over there. Whoops! Secondly, that's an awful awful lot of programming and what not. Whew. Thank goodness I'm not a techie! Lastly, imagine doing all this on an iPhone. Right. Wayyyyyyyyyyy too small. Makes it nearly completely implausible.

Which got me thinking--Apple's supposedly working on a tablet--basically, it seems, an iPod Touch on a much, much larger scale. Like 8x12 big. What app could be more perfect for computers like these than ones that augment reality? The tablet market has chiefly failed over the years because, well, there's not a big market for those computers. Laptops and netbooks are better for processing or just interneting (and PCs typically even better), and phones today have more than just a phone anyway. What's really needed in between? This would be the tablet's best chance for success. I don't know about you guys, but I could see people walking around carrying tablets for various things. Not everybody, but a lot of people. And why not? It could house a lot more, be quite a bit bigger, wield a higher resolution camera, and have things very easily readable. It would be complete genius. I could really see it working. And that really excites me.

Oooh. Imagine being able to copy/paste something right off a billboard? Or the side of a truck? Just, like, save the text (though I guess you could take a picture and copy it. . .). Or at a sporting event, pulling up all the stats for a player for the entire season at a tap? Or have real-time teleconferences while on the go, everyone just armed with a tablet loaded with an app to transcribe notes. Awesome! Man, the possibilities seem endless! This excites me to no end. I really hope it happens.

TOPIC 3: I'm sure some of you have heard by now of the 27-year-old in the Bronx who is suing her college (she graduated in May) for not being able to land a job.

First of all, what? Seriously? How stupid is that? The economy sucks, unemployment is nearing double digits, we have people with Masters flipping burgers, and she's complaining because she can't find a job? Yeah, you and a couple million people. I mean, look at it. She had a 2.7 GPA--not awful, but not great. And the best thing on her record is a 'good attendance' record. She complained that the career center in Monroe College gave preferential treatement to the 4.0 kids, etc. etc. Well, you know who else gives preferential treatment to the 4.0 kids (and all the ones over at least 3.0)? The companies! With an economy this lousy, the companies can very much afford to be picky. They don't have to take but the cream of the crop, and they can start them at a lower salary than before because, well, they aren't going to find a job somewhere else.

Secondly, she's been out of college for three months. Three months! Hint: if you're leaving college during a recession, do not expect to get a job right away. Especially as a 2.7 student. Everybody's having trouble getting a job these days; cool your jets and try to hang on, and keep applying for every job you can. Because, heaven knows, if you decide to sue your old school, nobody will ever want to hire you.

Now, what will the school do? Fight it, I assume. But I think that, if I were them, I might give her back her tuition (and tuition only) in installments, made over the course of four years. And as soon as the first payment is made, she must relinquish her degree. She'd get upwards of $50,000 back, and the school would get to destroy any and all proof that she ever went and graduated from there. And I think it would teach her quite a lesson--you think getting a good job with a college degree is hard? Try doing it with only a high school diploma.

But all this is just a minor part of a much larger American problem--masses of frivolous litigation. Let me show you some examples:

1. We all know the most famous, the woman who spilled McDonald's coffee on her then sued the fast-food bohemoth for her coffee being too hot. . .and won. But did you know the rest of these?
2. A woman was cruising along the highway in her Winnebago. She got hungry, so she put it in cruise control, and got up to make herself a sandwich. Predictably, the Winnebago crashed. She sued Winnebago for not telling her that she'd still have to steer while cruise control was on.
3. A man jumped over his neighbor's fence and started shooting the neighbor's dog (a beagle, I think) with a pellet gun. Pop pop pop. So the dog, understandably agitated, bit him on the butt. The man sued, naturally.
4. A man was stealing hubcaps off a car when the owner of the car got in and drove off, running over the man's hand. The theif sued the driver.
5. A robber broke into a home and somehow managed to get trapped in the garage for over a week (the family was on vacation, I reckon). He sued the homeowners since he'd gone eight days sans food.

I mean, come on! These are ridiculous. Then there's Jonathan Lee Riches who has filed over 4000 suits against companies, people, objects, and concepts. How? I don't even know. Who all has he sued? Well, to give you an idea. . .: George W. Bush, Che Guevara, Perez Hilton, the Eiffel Tower, Britney Spears, Adolf Hitler's Nazi party, Google, the Roman empire, the Queen, the Magna Carta, the Wu-Tang Clan, Plato, Emilio Estevez, and the Nordic Gods. These are the kinds of entities he's filing suit against (and, to my knowledge, he has never won). He's currently serving jail time (release date: 2012) for wire fraud, and is therefore writing all his lawsuits by hand. The Guinness Book of World Records is listing him in the 2010 edition as the World's Most Litigious Man. . .and he's suing them for it. In a lot of places, he's just completely banned from filing suits. . .and rightfully so.

But while that may stop one man, it doesn't stop the problem. These frivolous lawsuits, along with malpractice suits, just clog the nations court rooms, and, often, unjustly so. So many are without merit, and would be completely defunct if there was a law disallowing lawsuits for purely idiotic purposes. A baseline test of some type. You shoot a dog, it'll get pissed off. You try and steal things off a car or break into a house, your break of law should render you to file such stupid lawsuits. It's not fair to the tax dollars that hold up the courts, it's not fair to what we coul dcall, in many cases, the 'victims' (like the family that had to pay for the starving thief). . .it's just not fair. If I was ever a judge, I think I'd just take them into my chambers, slap them, and dismiss them from my court room. It's ridiculous!

BONUS: Are any of you as excited for "Inglorious Basterds" as I am? Brad Pitt and Tarantino and Nazi killing!? YES! Can't wait!

BONUS 2: Brand New's latest album, Daisy, is set to hit store shelves September 22! Woo! For album art and track listing see: http://www.spin.com/articles/exclusive-brand-new-unveil-album-art-tracklisting