Teens and the First Amendment

There's no exceptionally great story today so I thought I'd make this interesting study the cover story of today's post. It turns out that 17% of high school students are really stupid because that's how many think that expressing unpopular views is illegal. Even more surprising is that only a fourth of the students knew that flag burning is legal and half are on the verge of communism because they think the government should have to approve press stories. I hate to be another whiner about education, but I really have to be here. My government teacher was very clear about the bill of rights and their philosophical basis and I can't imagine that so many kids in the rest of the country don't learn this stuff. Though it was kind of redundant for me I realize how important it is because these people may neglect their rights or may someday fight against them because they don't understand why they're so important. I can't wait until Bush is gone so we can get someone in office who actually cares about education.

Not a whole lot of movie news today I'm afraid. There's a new trailer up for Mirror Mask, which I cited a review for last week, and it actually looks much better than the old one. Just go to the site and navigate to 'Previews'. It would appear that the role of Jimmy Olsen in the upcoming Superman movie will be played by Sam Huntington. This comes as a shock to fans who expected the role to have been taken by X-man Shawn Ashmore, but don't cry too hard for him though because he's in a movie opposite Elisha Cuthbert anyway. Anyway, I have high hopes for this movie (gotta love Kevin Spacey and Kate Bosworth).

The strange few of you who have been waiting for the Doom board game need wait no longer, it has arrived!



If you're as curious as I am about the inspiration for this board game with so many swallowable plastic pieces you may find this interview of use. It sounds way too nerdy for my taste. Speaking of nerdy though, ATI was the top producer of graphics chips last year barely edging ahead of Nvidia according to one research firm. Both of them rock regardless though in my opinion.

Google has been having a pretty good day today. They've officially become a seller of domains and their brand was number two in 2004 according to a Reader's Choice Award. The number one title belongs to Apple because of its plethora of new products last year, but it lagged behind IBM, Intel, and HP in market share. It's interesting what brands made that list, including Bimbo, so take a look.

It is probably no surprise to many of you that the Fed is expected to raise rates this Wednesday at its FOMC meeting. If the economy doesn't look so hot, why do they want to raise the federal funds rate to 2.5% at a "measured" pace? Because money is too cheap and the economy is still going through expansion. With energy prices on the rise we don't want to get into an inflation spiral, which we haven't had in quite a long time thanks to the Fed and veterans like Paul Volkner. And we're finally approaching what is known as a neutral interest rate (we're too low right now because of the recession from a couple of years ago), which is definitely a good thing.

Lastly, I wanted to plug this blog post about how to blog. It's a really good read for all of you who feel unsure about your blog. I found it from the 2005 Bloggie nominees, which you should vote on because there's some great blogs on there including the sleek and humorous Defamer.

It's now time for some Monday Madness:

1. Are you more likely to rent or buy DVD's (VHS's)? Why?
I'm more likely to rent because I only buy DVDs of movies I really love and can watch many times. I actually have few more than ten DVDs myself.

2. If you rent DVD's, do you bother viewing the 'Behind the Scenes' or watching the entire movie again with commentary on?
If I liked the movie I'll usually check out the Behind the Scenes stuff and/or deleted scenes, but not commentary. I may watch commentary for select scenes, but usually not.

3. Do you think these features warrant the extra cost for DVD?
Given that it's only a few more bucks, sure. You get a higher quality movie in a pretty package with great extras for the real fans.

4. What's your favorite DVD (or VHS) in:
*Drama I consider Pulp Fiction to be drama, despite its official genre of action), and it's a spectacular movie with deserving extras
*Comedy Monty Python and the Holy Grail of course!
*Action Probably The Matrix because that movie just has classic scenes
*Suspense/Thriller I think the Sixth Sense one has great stuff, plus the movie rocks
*Horror I'm not a big fan of horror movies so I'll just say The Ring out of lack of a better title, but I did like that movie despite popular opinion

I just wanted to conclude with this: