Lighter Fare

One day down and three to go before mini vacation time!

Question for all my fellow bloggers:
What is with all the email requests I get to place ads for payday and short term loans? Don't they know no one that reads this site would ever do that?

My Sunday with Halo Reach and an 8 year old
Yesterday friends of ours scored some tickets to the Patriots/Ravens game (I cannot believe the Pats won that game!) so we offered to watch their sons for them so they could go. One is about 16 and was going to play hockey all day at his friends so that was no big deal. That left the 8 year old boy to entertain for about 9 hours!

We did all kinds of things to keep him interested including carving jack o lanterns, playing with a remote controlled helicopter I had but never used, and playing about 5 games of chess. After a while he finally came to what he wanted:
"Want to play Halo Reach with me?"
Now you have to understand that I cannot play video games to save my life. I said ok, but I knew this was going to go bad.

The kid was obsessed with sneaking up behind my game character and "assassinating" me usually by crazy violent actions. After about the 57th time I was killed I asked him why he found it so hilarious each and every time. He said it was just so much fun! Ok. I got a break to watch the football game, but then is was right back at it. I know Halo is a huge thing, but after getting decapitated for the 1000th time by a kid I had enough! It is my opinion that Halo is evil.

This is YOUR Market
Not much to say about market stuff today, my mind is already running away to the Caribbean. Had to love the SPY issues this afternoon though:
SPY Flash Crashes: NYSE Cancels $500 Million Worth Of Trades
Would you say we are a.) closer to or b.) farther from outright price level setting for stocks? I think we get closer everyday.

After hours AAPL is selling off a little after their basic beat came out less outlandish than usual. I am sure dip buyers will grab it up by the open, unless it flash crashes as well. Great market, great fundamentals and great participation.

Menace of Mechanization
Another entry in my long running series of warnings about the world being taken over by robots.

If robots are not going to try and take over the world, then why is a study like this even needed?:
In New Study, Babies Think a Silvery Robot is human, as Long as it Acts Friendly
Whoa! Opening paragraph:

At 18 months old, babies have begun to make conscious delineations between sentient beings and inanimate objects. But as robots get more and more advanced, those decisions may become harder to make. What causes a baby to decide a robot is more than bits of metal? As it turns out, it takes more than humanoid looks--babies rely on social interaction to make that call.

First they come for the children!

Readers may remember when we discussed the Uncanny Valley here a while back, but a refresher:

The uncanny valley is a hypothesis regarding the field of robotics.[2] The theory holds that when robots and other facsimiles of humans look and act almost like actual humans, it causes a response of revulsion among human observers. The "valley" in question is a dip in a proposed graph of the positivity of human reaction as a function of a robot's lifelikeness.

Here is a chart for those that like data that way:

With this in mind, please play the following video of a Japanese pop singer/dancer robot and tell me you don't want to take a sledge hammer to this creepy thing! (via Geekologie):

This must be stopped and soon!

Benoit Mandelbrot
If you know fractals you know that Benoit Mandelbrot died on October 14th and I wanted to say thanks for the great work!

Uplifting Scenery
A little fun with uplifting film clips to end the night.

Want to get amped? What can be better than the fight in Rocky II?:

Would have loved to be at the theater when this came out, I bet people were throwing punches in the parking lot!

How about King Arthur being reborn in Excalibur? Love the music when the plants are blooming!:

Regular readers know that Ozzy always starts the song "I Don't Know" with this tune (a section of O Fortuna).

For some reason it is embed disabled, but I love the scene when Aragorn is driven to say:
"For Frodo!"

What about the song by Ozzy "Secret Loser" as seen in the film "The Wraith"?:

What, you have not seen the film? You should, and how can Sherilyn Fenn stay so hot for what seems like all time?

Ok, final one, take a ride with the last scene from "Rounders" which is a poker film:

If online poker gets the green light my blogging time will be cut way short!

Have a good night.