Eco-Tourism

Or, Irrational Exuberance

Apparently the state of Florida is considering opening up some offshore oil and natural gas fields in the Gulf of Mexico. Historically, exploitation of these fields has been prohibited, for fear that an oil spill would mar Floridian beaches and harm Florida's valuable tourism industry.

Whatever. But it did get me thinking: Disasters require relief, right? I mean, this news article about Florida oil vs. Florida beaches? It made a big deal about the size and duration of the cleanup efforts after the last big oil spill on the Florida coast.

So I'm thinking, a big oil spill like that, you're gonna need a lot of volunteers. Sure, you're gonna need some trained professionals, too. But sooner or later, you're gonna need to bus in a couple hundred enthusiastic amateurs, give them a half-day seminar on entry-level oil cleanup operations, and put them to work.

So why not make it a tourist attraction? There's gotta be plenty of people out there who wouldn't mind paying a little money to Save the Planet. You set up a trailer park campsite, cater three hot meals a day, and charge a reasonable fee to house eco-tourists for the duration of the cleanup efforts.

I know what you're thinking. You're thinking, "two weeks cleaning up an oil spill doesn't sound like much of a vacation to me". But I'm telling you, that's where you're wrong.

In other news
While I'm on such an awsome roll of awsome ideas, how about this? Instead of canceling Civilization every time it endangers some species or other (Sacramento Delta Smelt, I'm looking at you), why not just make a genetic record and move on?

Then, in a hundred years or so, when it turns out we really did need that species after all, we can clone it from our genetic library, and restore it in all its original humanity-serving glory. What do you think?

I Know What You're Thinking

Spoiler Alert!


You're thinking, "Under Siege is a Steven Seagal movie, so it can't be all that good."

And you're right: Steven Seagal cannot really act. It's just not his thing. I mean, I give him mad respect for showing up, hitting his mark, delivering his lines and getting paid. That kind of professionalism means a lot to me. It's not easy to pay the bills, and anybody who can pay the bills with an acting career? Right on, I say. Right on.

But back to the movie. What if I told you "Tommy Lee Jones and Gary Busey steal a battleship"?

Admit it: You'd be all like, "I must watch this movie STAT!" And you'd be right to do so.

HasturCom Patent of the Week

Introduction
Deep in the bowels of HasturCom's R'lyeh campus, the Elder Things have tiled a twisty passage with myterious signs and sigils. Each tile commemorates one of HasturCom's many original patents. Whenever the terms of my servitude bend my path towards that eldritch citadel, I always take a minute to walk that brazen corridor, and attempt to grok the fullness of one such patent.

A Method For Reducing Latency in Voice Communications Over Data Networks
The beauty of transmitting analog information over digital media is that you don't always need all the information.

There's often a delay--"latency"--between when you speak into your mouthpiece and your interlocutor hears your words in their earpiece. This patent describes one solution to this problem:

First, it is understood that the analog information--your spoken voice--is converted into digital information. This digital information is organized into "frames", and each frame is transmitted across the network to whoever it is you're talking to. At the far end, the frames of digital information are converted back into an analog stream, which that person hears as a reasonable facsimile of your original speech.

If, however, the network detects latency, it reduces this delay by periodically "dropping" a frame. This results in less data for the network to transmit, and thus speeds up the process. The person listening to your speech doesn't notice the missing frames, because the conversion from digital to analog masks the gaps in the stream (which are individually so brief that they fall below the human threshold for detection).

I know what you're thinking. You're thinking, somebody needed to patent that? Apparently so.