cdymek's Blog!

If there is one thing I enjoy, it’s a good night’s rest… and last night, I must have slept about 30 minutes, if I was lucky.

I just have two tidbits to share before I fall happily to bed. First, at approximately 6:00 PM earlier today (yesterday, technically, by the midnight standard), I finished The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker. The ending was a hopeful, optimistic piece, but I was honestly a bit disappointed with the length. It was just too short.

The second item is the thanks I have for a fun Rutgers Reunion weekend. Although I was the only one from the class of 2001 marching in the Alumni parade, it was still a great time. Thanks for buying the beer, Frank.

Just another example of how the Democratic Party has fallen.

Democrats critical of Bush before the war have experienced a radical change of heart, placing them in sync with public opinion. Nancy Pelosi, who accused Bush of exaggerating Iraq’s nuclear capabilities, said, “I salute the president for the goal of removing weapons of mass destruction.” Tom Daschle gave the president “great credit” for winning the war.

I refuse to comprehend how, if the leadership of the party agrees with Bush, why anyone would bother to not re-elect Bush and the Republican leadership. What happened to individual thinking? What happened to the idea of taking a principled stand? I find it disheartening that the most vocal critics of the war were not the politicians, who were waiting to find out which way the wind was blowing, but actors, actresses, and musicians. We need a plurality of opinions in the political arena, but there’s too much fear in the air… No wonder there’s no respect for politicians these days…

It is a sobering thought to try projecting long range forecasts of growth, as they have two tendancies: 1) to be quite fallable, and 2) to demonstrate trends that may be of concern. Yesterday, I wrote about my reaction to intervention attempts in the currency markets. Today, there is a report released by a French thinktank that discussed the trend for econmic decline over the next 50 years.

One of my fears, in part as a result of 9/11, and because of latent xenophobia in general, the US will jeopardize its position as a leading center of invention and innovation in the world. I saw similar reports that education and population declines or stagnation in the US will have a major impact over the next 25 years, if critical skills gaps are not addressed. Just because it appears that there is an overabundance of skilled labor today does not mean that this will always remain true, though policies implemented today will have a major impact on filling the demand in the future.

Oh, I should add, yesterday after work, I was heading home on a relatively empty stretch of 22 East around the Clinton/Readington border, when, unbeknownst to me, a Readington officer tagged me and pulled up behind me as I was stopping for a light. Shortly after the light turned green, he turned on the flashing lights and singalled for me to pull over. Quite nervous and extremely disappointed that I had been stopped, the (quite polite, actually) officer informed me that I had been speeding (67 in a 55).

Thankfully, he let me off with a warning. However, before he had clocked me, I had realized I was actually doing more like 72 or 73, in which case I doubt I would have been quite so lucky.

There are two things I don’t like to do, quote oversized blocks of text and repeat items ad nauseam, but I can’t help myself on this one. The summation (found in an article here) actually sums up well through a set of quotations the current movements in the currency exchange markets.

He also told ABC’s “This Week” show over the weekend that a lower dollar “helps exports, and I think exports are getting stronger as a result.” The United States is leaning toward tolerating a somewhat weaker dollar. But Washington will maintain its strong dollar policy to persuade foreign capital to stay in the United States, said Akihiko Suzuki, economist at UFJ Institute. “(The comments by Shiokawa and Snow) are making the outlook of the dollar/yen a little uncertain for the immediate term. But I don’t think the United States will intentionally drive down the dollar,” Suzuki said.

“Japan is concerned that rising of the yen will hurt exporters while the United States is letting the market make its own decisions,” Hoshina said. French Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin on Friday said he feared European exports would suffer at current euro-dollar rates while European Union Monetary Affairs Commissioner Pedro Solbes told Reuters last week the euro’s rise is a concern.

I can’t adequately express how utterly ridiculous the above mentality strikes me. If the Japanese wanted to actually accomplish anything, they should stop mucking around in the currency markets and try implementing necessary structural reforms. And several European countries, too, have their own long overdue reforms that require implementation. Just look at the GDP numbers! The US is expected to outperform both the EU and Japan, and the Japanese are worried about the “uncertain outlook for the uS economy.”

Personally, I believe that any government has certain obligations to its citizens, such as providing certain necessary services that serve as a social safety net. For the past six years, I have regularly read the news, and stories surrounding the Japanese and European economies have sounded the same themes. Despite the regular intervals of alarm, the political will has been lacking.

While a solid social safety net is admirable, without adequate flexibility, the ability to innovate and create entirely new technologies, industries, products, services and ideas are stymied in red-tape and unnecessary beauracracy. While I fear at times the US leans too far from meeting its obligations, Europe has smothered its ability to innovate in labor and financial regulation that make risk-taking far too costly. Japan, meanwhile, has relied to its detriment on the idea of exports, in place of moving toward a robust economy less dependant on such products. China, after all, has become the de facto master of cheap exports. At the same time, Japan has a systemic economic malaise, where the government finances massive, unnecessary construction projects design to prop up otherwise nonviable corporations while providing kickbacks to former government officials, all using the inexpensive financing courtesy of the postal savings from the citizens. Cleaning up that mess would lift GDP over the long term far more than a few ticks in the yen.

So, the Matrix is coming, and with that comes discussion of sex, violence and R-rated movies in Hollywood.

“If ‘Titantic’ had had an R rating, it would have cost them hundreds of millions of dollars,” said Reagen Sulewski, analyst with movie Web site Box Office Prophets, referring to the top-grossing film in history. “When you look at how it made that massive amount of money, it was 12- to 16-year-old girls going back to see it a dozen times. You’re definitely taking a risk with an R rating.”

True, Titantic did have that appeal to the young teen girl crowd. But, it’s important to remember that the 12 year olds of 1997 are now the 18 year olds of 2003. A whole generation of video-game, mall-ratting, movie-going teens has begun moving in to their early- to mid-20s, meaning they’re primed to gorge at the trough of adult-themed material. Just look at the success of the Grand Theft Auto line of video games.

Over the past few weeks, as word of my upcoming visit to Paris has spread, I have encountered two versions of incredulity that I might actually intend to visit France. The first version is related to fear, as if I might somehow be attacked, ambushed, or otherwise assaulted in some way because I hail from the United States and that the country is somehow dangerous as a result. The second aspect is anger that I might be willing to spend time in a place that dared oppose the mighty will of the US. I actually find myself appalled at both reactions.

I have repeatedly searched for any news of a rise in anti-American violence in newspapers, particularly in the city of Paris. Despite my daily monitoring of the news, I haven’t found anything, and certainly nothing with which I find myself alarmed. For the record, many Canadians I met aren’t exactly pleased with the United States either, and I certainly returned from there, twice, without any scratches. While France may be experiencing a bit of an identity crisis as a result of NATO/EU integration and enlargement, I may not sure I have much to fear.

The second complaint I receive is that I should not visit because France dared speak out against America’s foreign policy. That we could not muster a vote in the UN on Iraq as a result of their diplomatic efforts hardly strikes me as a reason to be upset; any support I personally have for the invasion of Iraq remains tepid at best. To penalize any country for failing to agree with us on an issue such as this strikes me as folly (not that that’s stopping the Bush Administration!). That people would find France’s behavior reprehensible strikes me as being hypocritical in some fashion. Wasn’t it the US who was trying to buy off Turkey for $30 billion with the right to invade Iraqi Kurdistan?

France has always been on my A-List of countries to visit, and I’m giddy to finally have an opportunity to make the trip. Truth be told, I’m far more nervous about Costa Rica, since it is less developed, with more diseases (Malaria, yikes!), and a less adequate health care system. But I suppose my approach is too practical for most people.

Last night I met up with my friend Tammy for dinner. I had a great time catching up, since we haven’t been able to keep in touch as month over the past few months. While we were talking, one thing came up that I had been thinking about earlier in the day.

In the X-Men 2 movie, in the scene where “Iceman” and his fellow mutants from the school are at his parents’ house, his mother tells everyone his mutation “is all her fault.” His response was that the determinations was made that the mutation was on the Y-chromosome, so it was actually his father’s. The point of uncertainity was that the statement Iceman made sounded as though it applied to all mutants, not just his specific case. If this is true, there wouldn’t be any female mutants, barring cases of intersexed or androgen insensitivity syndrome. Both of us had made the interpration that it was intended as a blanket statement, but we weren’t 100%. I’ll just have to wait until the DVD, unless someone knows for sure what the statement was.

In other news, if I were elected President of the World, Saturday mornings would be abolished. Everyone should just go straight through to Saturday afternoons. On the plus side, this Saturday morning my car was finally serviced. Apparently, this time I DID get a real appointment. I also stopped off at the mall, where I paid $9.12 for two Mother’s Day cards and had a wonderful whiff of the Hallmark commercialism that permeates the fabric of our society. For the amusement of a few, I did see cards now for your “Other Mother”.

Otherwise, I’ve been enjoying a lazy, overcast Saturday afternoon reading, watching my recorded episodes of MTV’s Undressed (I love my new TIVO-on-the-cheap), and napping. Tonight, I’ll be meeting up with a few of my old residents, which should turn out to be a good time.

I had my doubts about Microsoft’s Passport, but this really sums it up.

The flaw allowed a single Web address–or URL–to be used to request a password reset from the Passport servers. The URL contains the e-mail address of the account to be changed and the address where the attacker would like to have the reset message sent. By entering the single line into a Web browser an attacker can cause the Passport servers to return a link that allows an account’s password to be reset. By following the link returned in the message, the attacker can change the password for the victim’s account.

So, in about 15 seconds, knowing your user account name, I could change your password and, if you saved additional personal details, claim your credit card and other info. Plus, since Passport’s been integrated in to such sites as Citicard and Verizon Wireless’s Mobile Web service, access to these sites would be compromised as well.

Don’t that just make you feel all warm and fuzzy?