Accretion Disc

Consider the following analogy: you show up to a friends party early,
see that no one is there and there is no indication anyone is going to
show. Naturally, you leave the party and rule out the party’s lack of
success as being an idea-bigger-than-reality. However, once you come
back to the party you realize it has blown up to a larger proportion.
A mega party even. Are you late to the party you were once the early
bird?

I have owned an iPhone since December of 2007. When Apple announced
it’s plans for a new firmware with app-support, I was intrigued. This
was especially true when they showcased different game developers
abilities when writing for the iPhone. A couple of months later when
the iPhone 3G was announced and the App store was live, I became even
more excited. It didn’t take long to realize I had just bought into
some form of hype. The gaming experience on the iPhone felt like just
another neat gimmick the smartphone had up it’s sleeve but definitely
not anything noteworthy. This isn’t to say that I gave up after being
disappointed, I didn’t. For months, years even, I attempted to
download new games and try them. None of them met the mark.
Framerates, controls, shallowness, and price for mediocrity were all
contributing factors to this iLetdown.

I even ran my 2G iPhone jailbroken for a year, negating the price
factor in trying a game before buying. Still no dice.

It wasn’t until my iPhone broke and had to be replaced for about the
fourth time did all this change. I was able to replace the original
iPhone with a 3GS. Curiosity got the better of me and I downloaded
some games. Oh my has the climate changed for gaming on the iOS.  Now,
the games have depth, great visuals, affordable and reasonable price
tags, and functionality that really suggests that the iPhone doesn’t
replace a console video game system… it expands the market.

During the 2007-now stretch of time, many of my favorite video game
rags started covering iPhone releases and I could never figure out
why. Now, of course, I know why and I am
proud the industry is encouraging the mobile
gaming industry to blossom further, even when it is not a replacement
for say, the 3DS or even Gameboy for that matter.

What the iPhone is able to do is offer a turn based multiplayer that
can be followed by its players anytime any where. This became apparent
when I have been playing one game of Scrabble with someone for over a
week. The lack of time commitment to enjoy a multiplayer game is
unbelievable.

Dr. DelSordi,

I watched the documentary you recommended last night. I must admit that the film was quite compelling and had me  think about the idea of chemtrails under a new light. However, after only spending a few hours online researching some of what was pointed out in the documentary, I still side with my original opinion of the matter. There are two things I wish to enlighten about my experience with the film and I ask that you consider both of my angles before making a conclusion of my intention.

The first angle is just my commentary on the facts presented in the film: 

The clips of David Keith talking at the AAAS is interesting, as is the inclusion of Ed Griffin and the interview with the garden owner in Oregon. There is a scene when the film makers are talking to the garden owner (retired lifelong forestry/soil scientist) running tests on his pond to prove that there is excess aluminum in the water of the blocked off pond. From what I can gather, and after having seen the test results presented in the film (available here: http://tinyurl.com/3toovu5) show that what they tested in his pond was the sludge, not the water. The aluminum levels found in the sludge is well within what would be expected to be found in sludge, in fact it’s a little low. Considering that aluminum is abundantly found in the Earth’s outer crust.

I found the filmmaker’s trip to Maui to be the most captivating sequence of the film. I value the freedom those farmers have to live off the organic land in such a beautiful place. I really paid attention to this segment. Watching the tree’s bark being torn off the trunk was pretty shocking as was the details about how the sky is now a ‘blue-silver’ as opposed to the rich blue that I would expect it to be. Also, the test on the little girls hair showing that even living her organic lifestyle that she was being contaminated with aluminum. It’s quite alarming. But I have to ask one question:  where is the science here? Since when is it acceptable to take the hair sample of one girl and make a causality case such as the one presented in the film? Her mother mentions she never had immunization and lives a non-consumerist lifestyle. I can believe that, in fact I support that. However, I type this e-mail to you on an aluminum shelled MacBook with my A/C blowing air that’s been cycled through a dirty filter—as in:  I am breathing in aluminum right now. I found out last night that antacids are a large source of aluminum oxides (alumina as it’s called in the film). I suffer from acid reflux, I got a EDG done earlier in this semester because of it. They told me I may have the beginnings of “plaque in [my] veins” (read:  cholesterol). I am starting to suspect its from eating antacids like candy when I am having a really bad attack of reflux. I plan on mentioning it to my doctor (in this view, I really appreciate the film getting me thinking about my own health). Perhaps this Maui family is overlooking things they don’t believe to be contributors to the increase of aluminum in their child’s hair? Again, it seems a little odd to take one single case and make a claim that it is coming from the skies. It sounds like that same way we conceived of getting disease before Germ Disease Theory was invented. Science would say that the whole village should be tested and then maybe some produce relative data to compare their results to rather than just saying, “it’s really high.”

The last point I want to highlight from my first angle is simple:  if there is a “mountain of evidence” that they claim to have and are offering the congressmen/women at the capitol—why isn’t this made available to the viewers of the film? I went to the film’s website and there is only a link to buy the movie, no surrounding documentation to help support a documentary. Which leads me to my second angle…

This isn’t really a documentary. There are too many instances of scripted acting done for the sake of cohesive storytelling in the film. Even Michael Moore doesn’t do this. There may scripted narration, that’s a given, but scripted dialogue amongst key members of the production? That pisses me off more than anything. It’s like watching a reality TV show. I can literally feel when the change happens. When it’s gone from candid experience to a pseudo-improvisation by amateurs. I find it insulting. If there really is a case to whiste blow some outlandish conspiracy as the one detailed in the film, why do it in the formulaic fashion of creepy musical score, scripted dialogue, and missing supportive documentation? I don’t know how many images there were of interviewees holding documents and talking about their content as if that was a clever, sensible way to present “hard evidence.”

There is more than enough data supporting the idea of pollution occurring all over the planet from industrialization. Including desolate areas like Maui. Why when we have this kind of data is there still an intent few who always want to blame some fantastical entity for our hardship? It doesn’t make sense. We know corporations, government, and the general elite don’t have our interest in mind, but we also know that, as individuals, we contribute to the overall decline of our health and global prosperity. It seems like a an age-old tradition to always point at that which cannot be seen or proven as the causality for ailments the we suffer from. Maybe people need to wake up not the hidden agenda of a hidden organization but to our hidden (unconscious) desires to destroy that which is around us. Maybe we aren’t as life-loving as we’d like to think we are. I can’t explain away my addiction to cigarettes or fast food in any other fashion. I am not, however, the person to say that the two mentioned addictions are ENTIRELY my own doing. I support the gradation that states its partially my choice and its majorly the corporate agenda and the funding resources they harbor that contribute to my bad choices.

Thanks for the opportunity to watch the film and for giving me the space to pull these ideas together and hopefully start a dialogue with you about them. As far as conspiracy theories go, this one is entertaining but it also disappointing. I prefer the theories that don’t try to proclaim any scientific know-how, especially when they can’t support their claims. The real unsettling topics are things like Bohemian Grove, the Illuminati, and even certain aspects of 9/11. What this documentary (and many more like it) have done is created the “science aura” to drive home their viewpoints that are profit driven within themselves. If the filmmakers of this production were really intent on making a difference why are they whistle blowing in the nation’s capitol saying nonproductive things like “they are spraying DC right now!” as congresspeople are going into closed elevators? It makes good dramatization for film, is why. Who would buy a film that simply has images of the e-mail correspondences and/or videos of photocopying the “mountain of evidence” at Kinko’s? You know what? I would—because I like to be treated like an educated adult who can handle the monotony of real progressive action.

Thanks again,

Frank

Back during Spring break I decided to invest the rest of my college career in becoming a high school math teacher. It was an easy decision. I just got word from the advisers at ASU that I have eleven more math classes to take before I graduate. Eleven. But you know what?  I can, and will do it.