Ignore everything up here: it's just a bunch of ads from Tripod.




PapaVox archive: 2010


December 26, 2010


Wednesday, December 8, 2010

2010 Holiday Gift Guide:
Guy's gadgets:

Science:

Getting the Government to do your dirty work for you: a bunch of websites get confiscated because some industry lawyers want it.
Little Red Riding Hood, only not so little and certainly not for children. Spooky medieval village, werewolves, warriors... good fun.

Ignite: "Enlighten us. But make it fast." (New ideas in snappy, five-minute, illustrated lectures.)

Santa: "Were you good this year?"
Older couple: "Yes."
Santa: "That's too bad."
Macy's: "You're fired."

Just a few TSA madness links:


November 25, 2010

Health:

Science:

Tech / gadgets / things to covet / things to look at and say, "Huh?":
  • Tools for the "maker" in your life.
  • And more tools.
  • Knives aren't very "tech" to the modern eye, but the tech behind them is considerable. Unfortunately, the American consumer is an idiot, generally, and they buy complete garbage that looks fancy. Not so the Finns. They insist on an impeccably tempered blade of excellent steel, with very simple design, called the Puukko.  The prices range from very reasonable to a bit spendy, but the quality is second to none. You can, if you like, get that level of quality and style for a shockingly cheap price, from Cold Steel (of course) in their Japanese-made Finn Wolf  and Finn Bear designs. Their expensive Sissu knife is beautiful. (The Wolf and Sissu models are discontinued and on sale.)
  • The Seven Deadly Wine Glasses Of Sin.
  • Smart Outlets help conserve electricity -- and it's a LOT of electricity: "Plugged in office equipment now makes up 26% of commercial energy use. It's the fastest growing energy load segment and is expected to triple by 2030. These electronic devices are "the great unknowns". Which printer is more efficient than another? How much waste is occurring when employees leave their monitors on when they leave for the night? The coffee maker that keeps the coffee hot for no one who wants coffee, how much waste is happening? No one knows and it's only getting worse."
  • Coffee: pretty machines.
  • Toasters: pretty machines.
  • Kitchen gadgets: odd machines.

"Other":

And finally: 


November 23 update: TSA bumper stickers

While you might be able to talk your way out of it... (this was for getting off an airplane, not boarding, but still an interesting incident.)

People are now being arrested for "refusing to complete the security process."

You can no longer say, "I'm not putting up with this. I'll just not fly today." Once you enter the line, if you refuse both groping and scanning, they will arrest you.

People are getting hopping mad. Is it any wonder? One woman had her blouse pulled down by a TSA agent, exposing her bare breasts to all of the other passengers. (TSA employees thought this was hilarious.)

The "National Opt-Out Day" Protest gains momentum, and nobody knows how this will go if thousands of people are arrested tomorrow for civil disobedience.

TSA chief begs people not to "Opt Out" over the Thanksgiving rush. For one thing, if too many people "Opt-Out", travel will come to a complete halt and the system will utterly collapse. For another, the abuse of power is rapidly starting to crumble around the edges, and one big huge, ugly, media-covered national mess over the Thanksgiving vacation will likely be enough to force massive reform -- and the TSA really doesn't want to reform.

If you "Opt Out," you'll be very aggressively handled by TSA agents. Instead of using the "back of the hand" to pat you down, they are instructed to use the open hands and fingers to really give you a taste of their power. They will do this loudly and publicly, to deliberately shame and humiliate you in front of the other passengers, in order to intimidate them into compliance. This is official policy, by the way.

And, since you'll be seen as a "protester," they'll treat you like a criminal and likely accuse you of (or prosecute you for) terrorism. (Think that's silly? Think again. The equation of "protest = terror" has been used and abused for everything from marchers at a gay pride parade, to a mother mourning the death of her son in Iraq, to a grandmother writing a letter to the editor.) 

Keep in mind the fact that a pissed-off TSA agent can have you detained for hours or days on a whim.

Or, the TSA agents may all suddenly shout "Bravo!" (And here you thought it couldn't get weirder.)

Even if you submit to the scan, if the metal detector goes off -- for ANY reason (say, medical devices or shrapnel) -- then you will also be groped.

You have heard about the "EVERYBODY FREEZE!!!" incidents, haven't you? How do you feel about standing absolutely still on the concourse for a half hour, with no explanation, and threats of arrest if you don't comply?

But here's the good news: the TSA won't be doing body cavity searches -- yet.

Have a nice trip. 

TSA friskers speak out:  (some paraphrased, with a few direct quotes.)
1:  Passengers disgust me.
2:  Passengers are mean, and "I feel disgusted feeling other peoples private parts."
3:  It doesn't arouse me, and women passengers are dirty.
4:  "One can’t describe me as a Nazi because I am following a security procedure."
5:  Passengers are babies. "I am doing my job. I do not want to be here all day touching penises."
6:  I "go home and cry after a day of honorably serving my country." 
7:  "I felt like vomiting."
8:  "Hateful comments while I perform my job will break me down faster and harder than anything I encountered while in combat in the Army." 
9:  I'm just following orders, and it's their own fault I'm groping them, because they refused the scan.

So the three arguments TSA employees use in favor of continuing the scans and groping are:
1: I'm just following orders.
2: You all disgust me.
3: I'm very upset.

Well, that makes all of us feel much better.

An argument I saw: "I wish people would quit calling these TSA patdowns and searches assault. They aren't. They're demeaning, upsetting, unpleasant and smack of totalitarianism, but assault? No." Really? That argument only applies in one direction. If you, a passenger, just touch a TSA agent -- barely touch them, even by accident -- you'll find yourself charged with "assault."

November 21 update:

And now we know where the TSA really stands:
Anyone refusing the naked radiation scans and the aggressive genital fondling may be arrested, detained and questioned  "until we determine that you are not a threat" and fined $11,000.

Of course, any debate student knows that you can't prove a negative: it's impossible to prove that someone isn't a threat.

That's why the burden of law is supposed to go in the other direction; police have to prove that you are a threat before they arrest, search and imprison you. The new TSA ruling says that they can detain you for as long as they please, question you for as long as they like, until they are satisfied that you have been taught a lesson you'll not forget as long as you live.

The situation is clear: take an airplane in America today, and you will submit to any degradation, any humiliation, any assault, any bullying, any flagrant and capricious abuse of power that they choose to inflict on you, or you'll be very, very sorry.

November 19, 2010
 

TSA weirdness grows:

TSA coerces cancer survivor to go through radiation screening -- and then does an invasive grope session anyway, making her remove her prosthetic breast.

TSA confiscates nail clippers from a bunch of heavily armed US soldiers flying home. After inspecting, reinspecting, quarantining, reinspecting again, and generally hassling them for hours. You can carry that machine gun, but those nail clippers are a dangerous weapon.

TSA "up close and REALLY personal." Submit meekly, or be punished, publicly, loudly, with as much humiliation as possible.

TSA completely ignores cargo shipping, which actually is not at all secure.

Why refuse the naked scanner? Increased cancer risk, that's why.

How to explain to your small child why the TSA is molesting them, and why you allowed a complete stranger to fondle their genitals in public while you stood there doing nothing about it.

You know those naked scan pictures of you that the TSA said are never saved?  They save them. And they are now on the internet.

Submit to a naked scan, get groped anyway (if you set off the metal detector, or look "suspicious.")

Don't like being stripped naked in public? Don't like strangers fondling your genitals or breasts? Tough. Submit, or "you won't fly," says the TSA.

Passenger outrage grows -- but results in zero change.

TSA guys blurt the truth out to Jeffrey Goldberg. On the new TSA testicle fondling: "You're not going to like it." And that's the whole point.

Napolitano meets with industry bigwigs... "TSA workers told him directly that they refer to the new body scanner devices as 'dick measurers,' and that the more aggressive groping measures had nothing to do with security and were in fact instituted solely to force people to choose the scanner over the pat down." 


November 9, 2010

The taste of bitter can open bronchial and lung airways "more extensively than any known drug that we have for treatment of asthma or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease." 

Facebook Fun: a bit after Halloween, someone still "in the mood" posted that she was in "Full-On Zombie Mode."
Sam:  Ahh! Zombie!!
Bernadette:  Braaaiins!
Kathy:  Vegetarian Zombie: Graaains!
Rich:  Railroad Zombie: Traaains!
Kathy:  Plumber Zombie: Draaains!
And they were off.

What happens when the oil runs out: it isn't pretty. The name of the site is "Collapsus" and it's intense. But, if you plan ahead, and can be adaptable, you may get by. For example: how to make your own cheap "Rocket Stove." (cooks very fast with very little wood and very little smoke.)

If you are on the trail a great deal, consider a "Kelly Kettle." These have been around for decades, and are basically a "Rocket Stove" with a very fast-boiling water jacket, and an optional cook-top (which is what makes them really efficient.) Available in sturdy stainless steel or lightweight aluminum. Backpackers may complain about the weight of these, but when you use a Kelly Kettle (26 ounces for the durable Stainless Trekker, 20 ounces for the Aluminum Trekker) you leave a lot of gear at home: subtract the weight of your cookstove, FULL fuel bottle, windscreen, cleaning kit, and much of your cookset, and you will likely be a full pound lighter. And, you cook much faster -- and safer, too.

November 10 Update: What's a "Rocket Stove?" you may well ask. It's simply a way of burning wood (or paper, or cardboard, or pine needles, etc) far more efficiently. Basically, it has an updraft flue which contains the flame and adds lots of extra air. This cause far more complete combustion, and funnels the flame into a concentrated area where you place your cook pot or frying pan.

There are two reasons this is important: (1.) If you live in poverty in a third world country, your two biggest problems are getting clean water and a way to cook food. Firewood is so scarce that deforestation is the catastrophic result. A usable "Rocket Stove" can be built basically for "free" out of trash -- discarded tin cans, bits and pieces of masonry, etc -- and it increases the efficiency of your cooking fire by a factor of about ten. So not only can you cook your food, you also (2.) get far less smoke (wasted, unburned combustibles) in your living space, drastically reducing eye problems, asthma, bronchial infections, and you avoid the ingestion of toxic fumes from smoldering waste wood that has been painted or stained, or from waste paper loaded with lots of toxic inks and dyes.

Rocket stoves can be built small, light and portable, or large and as a permanent cooking station for your outdoor kitchen. They can be built -- fast -- for free, out of scrap, or elegantly and beautifully with a little investment of time and materials. It's a technology based on knowledge.

If you are into camping, backpacking, or "living lightly upon the land," then extremely high efficiency is already a virtue unto itself in your mind. A "Rocket Stove" is just a new -- and useful -- tool for that ethic. (Actually, it's also an old tool; look up "Hobo Stove" to see how itinerant agricultural workers cooked on the road back during the Great Depression.)

Simplify; a beautifully remodeled Airstream trailer for the minimalist. (Looks like it's about an 18-footer. They say that the 1980 and earlier models are the best.) Living in 150 square feet would be a great incentive to try the "100 Things Challenge." And you can use this "fake TV" gizmo to convince burglars that you are at home in your tiny castle, so they don't steal all 100 of your things. Here's a couple more cool small houses: the Esclice is only 9' 8" wide. And the Sustain Minihome is also very clean looking, with an efficient floor plan. But the Tumbleweed Tiny House folks have been doing this for years, and they are very good at it, starting at 65 square feet, going up to 837 square feet.  

3M now claims to "own" the color Purple. (I expect a 3M corporate lawyer to send me a threatening "take down notice" any second now.)

Soft drink sizes; my goodness, how times change. 1950s: "Two FULL glasses in each 12-ounce King Size Can!" 2010: "Small" = 16 ounces. Free refills on your 64-ounce "large." (As if we need a half-gallon of Pepsi to wash down those fries.)

Clear scientific evidence for psychic phenomena. But you already knew that. (It's actually quite surprising how they worked this one out.)

Ancient ales: the oldest-known brewed beverage in the world was made from "hawthorn fruit, sake rice, barley, and honey."

Behold the "Celtic Button Knot." Cool and useful.

If "Unicredit" bought your debt, those "Deputies" who hauled you before that "Judge" in that "Courtroom" are all fake.

Cybercrime is bringing down the Internet.

I'm proud to be Scottish, but I ain't reading this book anytime soon.

Christmas lights for backpackers: battery powered, LED. Fun.

The coming chocolate crisis.

Suspicious? Spot the fake smile.

Colorado DA drops felony hit-and-run charges against billion-dollar financier because of "serious job implications." Update: the DA says his "deal" is actually "Far more punitive" than you may think. 

Carbon-fiber Lamborghini. Pricey, but undeniably cool.

People in the UK take their Shortbread recipes very seriously.  


October 30, 2010

Finally, a step toward sanity: Naturally occurring genes can not be patented or owned.  Thank you, Obama Administration DOJ.

And further a step away from sanity: the TSA will now aggressively grope the hell out of you if you refuse the "strip you naked" cancer-causing X-rays.


October 24, 2010

Getting in touch with your inner Neanderthal. Not the club-wielding, grunting brute, but the sensitive, artistic, gentle rugby player.

One pilot decides he's had enough of strip-you-naked scans, pat downs and searches: he was "detained, interrogated by TSA and police, and then suspended from his job." 

Great coffee on the go: most coffee-geek travelers just use an AeroPress, but this guy likes to do things differently.

10,000 year old mammoth found at high elevation near Snowmass, Colorado. For those of you who believe the Earth is only 6,000 years old, skip this article, because it will just get you all confused and upset, and we certainly can't have that.

World's largest home. Needs a staff of 600.

What do you get when you distill water from the San Jose municipal water treatment plant? A delicious "low-dosage cocktail of our most commonly used drugs (including birth control, antibiotics, hallucinogenics, anti-depressants, meth-lab waste, vitamins and minerals) all brought together in one simple salty remedy, naturally."

A cure for autoimmune diseases? Yes, but it's not a pill. 


The joys of privatizing; pay up -- in advance -- or the fire department will just sit around and watch your house burn to the ground. However, they'll keep your neighbor's house safe from the flames; he paid.

Other countries have really comfortable, luxurious bus travel. It's just now starting to come to the US.

The state of publishing today; do you really need a publisher?

Americans are religiously illiterate; take the test (it's quick, only 15 questions) to find out where you stand.

Fancy, high-tech Fiskars push-mower. Very green (and somewhat orange.) 


October 9, 2010

If you use a pencil for professional purposes (drafting, writing at length, sketching designs and projects, music composing and marking, and of course, producing actual artwork) then here is some good news: the famous Palomino Blackwing pencil is back in production, and it's a beauty.

My breathless announcement of this exciting fact left a large room full of workplace colleagues stunned for a moment. Then they recovered and laughed their heads off at me. Hey, my heart was in the right place. I thought that this pencil could change their lives -- to the degree that a pencil is capable of changing one's life, anyway.

Sometimes my geekiness really comes bursting to the surface in a flagrantly humiliating way. This is one of those times, I guess, and I pay the price. No matter that some very famous professionals also waxed geeky over the Blackwing (see below.)

Anyway. The pencil, as a professional tool, is in a pretty dismal state, unless you go to the trouble of ordering special versions. You take, generally, what you can get, and what you usually get is only marginally useful. The Blackwing, however, changes that. It flows across the paper like Sonja Henie on the ice. If you have bad handwriting, it makes it better -- much better. If you have a ton of work to do, it goes faster -- much faster. If you write, your writing will be more inspired (just ask John Steinbeck.) If you draw, you draw prettier, and if you compose music, you'll write tunes that engender wild applause (just ask Stephen Sondheim.)

All that for about $2 per pencil. Not cheap, but any professional knows that cheap tools are the bane of their existence. And yes, if you seek out specialty artist's supply houses, there are many other very good (expensive) pencils out there, with a huge array of hardness levels. What separates the Blackwing from the rest is the way the point moves on the paper. It's a smooth, silky glide, with exactly the right amount of even resistance, all while laying down a layer of tint that is proportionally responsive to pressure.

Hardness on the Blackwing is not listed -- the composite core is kind of hard to pin down in that way -- but it's about an HB in density.

You can order Palomino Blackwing pencils here.


September 27, 2010

Eudora: the best email program ever made. But, it's been orphaned by the vagaries of ever-evolving computer technology, and someday, it just won't work anymore. I still use it, and still find it to be the best ever, but the clock is ticking.

One option is to consider trying Mailforge, which is an attempt to mimic the old Eudora GUI with full function for the modern OS.

However, as I've written before, starting in 2006, the guys who wrote Eudora started working on an Open Source version, based on the excellent Mozilla mail client, Thunderbird. The codename was Penelope, and now you can get the first release of the stable, ready-for-prime-time version, called:

Eudora OSE 1.0. (It stands for "Open Source Edition.") It's free. And it works.

It improves the functionality of the Thunderbird interface, and it imports all of your old Eudora folders, address books and settings slick as a whistle.

Sign the online petition to stop the Great Firewall of the USA: "This is the kind of heavy-handed censorship you'd expect from a dictatorship, where one man can decide what web sites you're not allowed to visit. But the Senate Judiciary Committee is expected to pass the bill this week -- and Senators say they haven't heard much in the way of objections! "

Watch thousands of CCTV feeds, report on "suspicious activity" and get paid. Do you feel safer yet?

Stop smothering your kids with fear, suspicion, paranoia, and paralyzing over-protectiveness. Let them do a few dangerous things -- with your supervision.

A website following the leading edge of very cool bicycle design.

Fast, cheap, natural flavor infusions; chefs all over the world are playing with the iSi Cream Whipper.

http://foodporn.com/ The name says it all. As does http://foodporndaily.com/. And also, here's some amazing Chocolate food porn.

And also stove porn, UK style.

But "Perfect Brownies," UK style? Do the Brits know ANYTHING about brownies?


Beautiful, unpublished photos of the cave at Lascaux. Primo art, 18,000 years old.

An MRI can show you all sorts of helpful things, but some of the drugs they use to "enhance" the image are turning out to be lethal.

The art ofvintage motorcycle restoration, with the emphasis on art.

“Why were you in China?” asked the passport control officer, a woman with the appearance and disposition of a prison matron.
“None of your business,” I said.
Her eyes widened in disbelief. “Excuse me?” she asked.
“I’m not going to be interrogated as a pre-condition of re-entering my own country,” I said. This did not go over well. 

Winston Churchill ordered an alleged UFO incident in the 1950s be kept secret to prevent "mass panic."



September 8, 2010

RIP, Uncle Will: Maestro, Mentor, Friend, Mensch. The End of an Era.   Memorial concert, September 19, 2010

And now, entertaining links, and several that fall into the "worse than you thought" category.


July 30, 2011
The 100 best magazine articles ever written. Starting in 1945, many hours of fascinating reading.


July 24, 2010


June 7, 2010

BP Deepwater Horizon disaster: who's to blame? A handy and informative pie chart.
(Sara Palin says environmentalists caused the disaster.)

"Enhanced" interrogation techniques (that is to say, techniques that don't leave physical scars as evidence of torture) cause "severe" or "serious" physical and mental harm to detainees. It's torture, folks. Always has been, always will be.

Toxoplasma: induces rats to commit suicide by making them sexually excited by the smell of cat urine. (True.) Turns human men into risk-taking, impulsive motorcycle riders, and human women into affectionate, seductive sex kittens. (Maybe.)

The "Hedge Fund" tax loophole.

OK, so maybe it wasn't a huge asteroid after all: 65 million years ago, continental drift blocked global oceanic circulation. This dramatically cooled the Earth and caused the Cretaceous-Tertiary extinction event.

Cool, manly, leather bags, fit for a globe-trotting archeologist. They are pretty but they ain't cheap.

"Cameras have become the most effective weapon that ordinary people have to protect against and to expose police abuse. And the police want it to stop."

Take a picture of a cop, get busted big time, even if the encounter involves you and recording it may be necessary for your physical safety and legal defense, and even if the recording is on a public street where no expectation of privacy exists. Prove the cops beat you up for no reason, go to jail because you filmed them.

A cave painting of this really large extinct bird may be the oldest piece of art in the world: 40,000 years old.

One milkshake, 2010 calories, 68 grams of saturated fat.  But trust me, you can do even worse.

Sunscreen; good idea, mostly bad execution. Ratings and advice.

Igor Stravinsky got arrested for writing his arrangement of the Star Spangled Banner. How weird is that? (alert reader pointed out that this was a hoax...)

The phenomenon of supremely confident incompetent people. (I won't mention any names.)

I bought a tiffin -- got the bamboo utensil set, too. Love them. Found some great recipes.

Do it right, guys; how to fold a pocket square.


May 3, 2010

Steven Hawking tells us how to build a time machine, but  warns us not to talk to aliens.

Cool stuff: Mighty Bright, one of the more innovative LED light companies, making handy lights for crafts, reading, music stands and laptops.

How to pronounce that dang Icelandic volcano.

Rapid healing of wounds; suction works. You can rent the $100-a-day machine, or you can use this $3 gizmo invented by an MIT student.

From an anonymous blogging executive at one of America's 10 largest banks: "The system is built to be gamed."

Yellowstone Park, before and after the wolves came back.

Glutathione is good for you.

Treating women like second-class citizens; Saudi Arabia and the Vatican.

Bush and Cheney “had absolutely no concern that the vast majority of Guantánamo detainees were innocent."

The "Tweed Run" looks like ripping fun; it's on bicycles, not on foot, and it involves tweed. Organize one in your town.

Somebody really needs to explain this to police nationwide: TASERS are a weapon. TASERS injure. TASERS kill. Using them, for example, on thirty high-school students so they'll know "what it feels like" is idiotic. But the following examples (all true) also apply:
  • Using them on people in a diabetic coma is idiotic.
  • Using them on pregnant women is idiotic.
  • Using them on deaf people because they didn't answer a shouted question is idiotic.
  • Using them on drivers who don't produce their license "fast enough" is idiotic.
  • Using them on someone for refusing to sign a parking ticket is idiotic.
  • Using them on peaceful, compliant protesters is idiotic.
  • Using them on an elderly man in a wheelchair is idiotic.
  • Using them on a frightened retarded man hiding in bathroom is idiotic.
  • Using them on "suspects" who are already handcuffed is idiotic.
  • Using them on a nine-year old handcuffed girl is idiotic.
  • Using them on a mentally disturbed man who has soaked himself in gasoline -- causing him to burst into flames and burn to death -- is idiotic.
Or maybe idiotic isn't the right word...
With over 300 TASER deaths, it's time for reform.


Thursday, April 8, 2010

My old IBM M4 keyboard is still a bit flaky; works pretty well most of the time, but occasionally needs a tap or two over the place where the keyboard circuits connect to the cord. Even so, they remain the best keyboards ever made. Look for one at your local second-hand store. And if you find two, I need a spare..

Beautiful pictures of facial reconstructions; how our hominid ancestors probably looked. Startling and lifelike.

The perfect Martini, at least as London sees it.

How Sony is messing up big time; producing a bewildering array of redundant gadgets with more flash than utility.

Getting the DNA of extinct birds from old eggshells; will we soon say of the Dodo; "tastes like chicken"?

Self-explaining chart; Canadians really like their hockey.

Twitter about the G-20 summit; go to jail.

Fluir; the best hand lotions ever made, by hand, by a really nice lady who knows her stuff.

Gene-expression; why stress changes your offspring's DNA.

Getting your P.S.A. frequently checked is... maybe not such a great idea after all. Mostly it's all about BPE; "benign" being the important word here. And research shows that the frequently prescribed drugs have many troublesome side effects. Herbal remedies can do as well or better, although Saw Palmetto can cause whopping headaches. While mainstream medicine says prostate massage "doesn't work," over a third of men who have tried it say that they got substantial relief from BPA, and half said it helped. 

Fail to "Promptly Obey" a customs officer, go to jail for TWO YEARS.
"This isn't about safety, it isn't about security, it isn't about the rule of law. It's about obedience."


What the health-care reform bill means to Americans: the top 18 changes.

Biketech: say goodbye to the bicycle chain, say hello to the carbon drive belt.

Golden-ratio calipers; useful for... I don't know. But they sure are pretty, and I want one. Or rather, 1.618.

Teens need sleep. Let them start school later in the day, and everyone wins. So why don't schools and school boards make the change?

What hard-core Republicans believe is... just silly.

And if you though the "Catch Me if you Can" kid was a young criminal mastermind, you should see THIS kid.

The cycling universe: bang, crunch, repeat.

X-Woman; neanderthal plus homo sapiens.

Some reasons why the i-Pad may suck.

The collapse of complex business models: "When the value of complexity turns negative, a society plagued by an inability to react remains as complex as ever, right up to the moment where it becomes suddenly and dramatically simpler, which is to say right up to the moment of collapse. Collapse is simply the last remaining method of simplification."

One ugly bug.


Monday, March 8, 2010

OK, I've been bad. An "alert reader" finally noticed that nothing's been posted here for three months, and complained in a pathetic email. So here's some stuff.

Picture of the day: we just got another two feet of snow.

Science
History
Health
Law and politics
The Arts


Saturday, January 16, 2010

Books:
Science:
Law and Disorder:
Gadgets:
General weirdness:


 (See the "Archives" for previous posts -- here's the most recent)


Proud to be a "True Blue" American.
Hacking yourself:

An experiment in the supposition that shoes are bad for you with reviews of various "nearly barefoot" alternatives to the evil shoe.

An experiment in lowering the set-point as a means of safe, rapid, nearly-effortless weight loss.

The miracle of medical massage.

Where do your tax dollars go?

Want your vote to count?
 

 

 

 


Cool links:
 
Your daily Peanuts ®
Astronomy Picture of the Day
   BoingBoing

Investigate:
 
Don't be suckered by a dubious email that smells like an urban myth. Look it up and find out:
 
snopes.com
breakthechain.org
truthorfiction.com


Recommended:
 
 David Brin's Blog
One of today's greatest SciFi authors. A rational, scientific approach to modern life and governmental policy -- what a radical concept!


Websites worth visiting:
AMERICAblog
Big Brass Blog
Black Box
BRAD BLOG
Center for American Progress
Crooks and Liars
Daily Kos
Dem Underground
Economist
Greenwald-Salon
Groupnews Blog
Huffington Post
Left in the West
Media Matters
MM News
MotherJones
Nation
NO QUARTER
Susie Bright's Journal
ThinkProgress
TPMmuckraker
TruthOut

Papa's Reading list:
  Good books. 


Contact your members of Congress:
Sourcewatch.org


 Educate yourself:

WebMD.com
The US Cabinet
Your State Government
Executive Orders
Amnesty International


Recommended
Software:

Free Anti-Virus programs.

I currently use:
 
avast!  anti-virus   download
Ad-Aware  anti-adware  download
Spybot   anti-spyware  download
CCleaner  system & registry cleanup  download
 
All are free, all work great. They all update themselves when you ask them to -- which you should do once a week before you run the cleanup program. I've never had a single problem with any of them.

Firefox
is the browser recommended by computer security experts -- it's fast, safe, powerful, and free.

links to Mozilla

Thunderbird
is a free email program with superior security and great features.




"Eudora OSE" Eudora-style
version of  Thunderbird -- free
Stable release 1.0

Miro
is a free open-source media player. Secure, private -- and it plays just about everything.

Miro media player

LINUX


Ubuntu

 


READ CAREFULLY.
By reading this notice
[ accepting this material / accepting this payment / accepting this business-card / viewing this t-shirt / reading this sticker ]
you agree, on behalf of your employer, to release me from all obligations and waivers arising from any and all NON- NEGOTIATED agreements, licenses, terms-of-service, shrinkwrap, clickwrap, browsewrap, confidentiality, non- disclosure, non- compete and acceptable use policies ("BOGUS AGREEMENTS") that I have entered into with your employer, its partners, licensors, agents and assigns, in perpetuity, without prejudice to my ongoing rights and privileges. You further represent that you have the authority to release me from any BOGUS AGREEMENTS on behalf of your employer.



The contents of this web page are merely opinion.  Harmless words.  Nothing more.