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Saturday,
December 22, 2012
First off, congratulations everyone, on surviving the Mayan Apocalypse. This is the SIXTY-THIRD "End Of The World Prediction" that I have survived. Science:
"The conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits and opinions of the masses is an important element in democratic society. Those who manipulate this unseen mechanism of society constitute an invisible government which is the true ruling power of our country. We are governed, our minds are molded, our tastes formed, our ideas suggested, largely by men we have never heard of. This is a logical result of the way in which our democratic society is organized. Vast numbers of human beings must cooperate in this manner if they are to live together as a smoothly functioning society. In almost every act of our daily lives, whether in the sphere of politics or business, in our social conduct or our ethical thinking, we are dominated by the relatively small number of persons who understand the mental processes and social patterns of the masses. It is they who pull the wires which control the public mind." -- Edward Bernays And how would he know? He invented modern advertizing: Happiness Machines. A couple of new approaches to minimalist foot wear: Barefoot Running Sandals and Leming™ Footwear. Something that I find interesting in current discussion among medical professionals: when someone suffers chronic sports injuries wearing "modern" footwear, it is either their own fault, or it is because they have a faulty body. When someone gets a sports injury wearing minimalist footwear, it is all the fault of the minimalist footwear! Modern Life:
6 Things Money Shouldn’t Be Able to Buy -- but it can:
Politics and law:
Police State:
Tuesday, December 18, 2012 Teacher's local #1727 stood between a mad gunman and our kids. Tis the season for gift guides.
Well-placed and properly set up in a good acoustical environment, any of these recorders can produce a perfectly fine, ready-to-market CD of a good live performance, at a fully professional studio-level sound quality. Every music teacher should own one of these. Mine gets frequent use by students who need to produce recordings for auditions to competitions, college applications, summer music programs and the like. Also, it can be a real ear-opener to record a student's playing. ("You mean I really DO sound like that??") And it is great for recording live concerts of your students. First up are their digital audio recorders:
Friday, December 7, 2012 Remember. And remember why it happened: oil. "The U.S. ceased oil exports to Japan in July 1941, following Japanese expansion into French Indochina after the fall of France... The Japanese were faced with the option of either withdrawing from China and losing face or seizing and securing new sources of raw materials [oil] in the resource-rich, European-controlled colonies of South East Asia... The attack [was] intended to destroy important American fleet units, thereby preventing the Pacific Fleet from interfering with Japanese conquest of the Dutch East Indies and Malaya... it was meant to deliver a severe blow to American morale, one which would discourage Americans from committing to a war extending into the western Pacific Ocean and Dutch East Indies." Speaking of "Fiscal Cliffs," and considering what some people suggest cutting, we may want to remember that HALF of our country's budget goes to the military. To which I offer the following quote: "Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children." - Dwight D. Eisenhower, Republican.Science:
Friday, November 23, 2012 For me, this will be "buy nothing" day. But to be fair, most of my days are "buy nothing" days. How to burn off the calories you consumed during Thanksgiving Dinner yesterday (approximately 3,000 calories, on average.)
Wednesday, November 21, 2012 The Fixer's Manifesto Tuesday, November 20, 2012 Breaking news: The Mars Rover may (or may not) have found something "Earthshaking." SAM, a module that does chemical analysis of rocks and soil, just returned results that has NASA buzzing -- but they don't want to make an announcement until they can double-check it to be sure. (An ill-considered premature announcement can lead to mistakes like the "Faster-than light-neutrons" kerfuffle -- caused by a loose connection -- that had everyone all aflutter last year.) Well. As mentioned below, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie enjoys a huge "early lead" in polling for the Republican nomination for the 2016 presidential election. And the GOP simply won't have it: they are absolutely furious at Christie for "pandering" to Obama after Hurricane Sandy pounded the Northeast coast. Christie performed acts of Party Betrayal such as: boarding Marine One. And: accepting aid from FEMA. And so, the GOP wants to quash any possible Christie candidacy. Instead, they'd rather have Jeb Bush or Mike Huckabee. Meanwhile, the Tea Party is firmly convinced that the whole reason Romney lost is because he wasn't conservative enough. Does this make sense to you? Public polling show a strong lead -- indicating support from actual human beings that vote, mind you -- and the GOP would rather lose on principal. Thursday, November 15, 2012 You heard it here first. The candidates (according to The Daily Beast) for the 2016 presidential election:
On the other hand, the Beast is also claiming
that Reaganomics
was finally killed forever by Romney --
and I don't buy it for a minute. It will
simply be repackaged in different terms, and
pitched as a glowing, patriotic example of
what's great about America. But the core plan
will remain the same: "give the rich
everything they want, and maybe they'll let
you keep what you currently have." Wikipedia already has an excellent
article about the impending 2016
festivities. Wednesday, November 14, 2012 Let's get this election stuff out of the way first:
 Tuesday, October 30, 2012  Monday, October 15, 2012 The explosive Rolling Stone article that points out the real agenda of the GOP: Greed and Debt: The True Story of Mitt Romney and Bain Capital  Science:
 Living
Well:
Saturday, September 22, 2012 Science:
Saturday, September 1, 2012 You should go to a good gear-head store when you are shopping for stuff: they know what they are doing and they will help you out. I have been considering a new pack for some time -- several years actually. I already own a few old packs from years (er, decades) gone by, and while they do still work, the state of the art in backpacking gear has come a long way in the last ten (or thirty) years. Talking to the good folks in my local shop, and drooling over their current stock of fancy new packs, I was very impressed by the Osprey line. They have an impeccable reputation, and a warranty that is famous in the industry for being generous and customer-friendly. Now for the part about why you should go to a good backpacking store: Osprey packs are very, very fit-specific. The pack I was looking at comes in five torso lengths, five harness sizes, five waist belt sizes, and three different capacities. And, different Osprey packs have different designs, and a different fit. One may be a great match for your body, and another may be simply "not quite right." The upshot is this: if an Osprey pack fits you well, it's a joy. If it fits you wrong, it's awful. People who work in a good shop will know how to fit you. I looked at all of the Osprey packs, and tried them on, and eventually decided that I was interested in the Argon and the Aether packs. The Argon is Osprey's "top-of-the-line" pack, designed to carry the heaviest loads in amazing comfort -- it's actually rated up to 80 pounds. The Argon uses their "BioForm" belt and harness, deeply padded and renowned for being supportive and comfortable.  The
Aether is a considerably lighter weight pack,
more streamlined and designed to carry somewhat
less weight, but still in great comfort,
provided you don't exceed the pack's
capabilities. The Aether uses their "IsoForm"
belt and harness, very comfortable, but somewhat
lighter weight and intended for loads of up to a
"mere" 65 pounds.So I tried them both. The shop guy measured me, told me I need a size "large" torso length and harness, and a size "extra-large" waistbelt. Fine. We got out an Aether, loaded it up with 35 pounds of bean bags (correctly distributed along the length of the pack,) put the loaded pack on my back, and walked around the shop for a while. And then I did that again with the Argon. What emerged was interesting: the Argon "BioForm" harness and belt was more comfortable, but the pack didn't balance well for me, and it felt like it was standing too far off my back. It was just a bit "off" for my body. The Aether carried much better, and balanced very well, but the "IsoForm" belt and harness was less comfortable. The Aether felt "good" but not quite as "secure" on my back as the Argon. "No problem," said the store guy. "The BioForm and IsoForm harness and belts are interchangeable." I had read about this, and so-called "informed" opinions on the Internet are divided on this subject. Some sources go so far as to claim that "Osprey says they are not interchangeable" -- but that's simply not the case. They are COMPLETELY interchangeable. The result was magic. The Aether with the "BioForm" belt and harness was a revelation, a joy, a reason to jump up and down and actually run up the shop stairs with a 35 pound pack on my back. The pack felt literally 15 pounds lighter, carried like a dream, and was amazingly comfortable. Ladies and gents, we have a winner. Granted, the "BioForm" parts cost a little more, but the shop took the other parts in trade for their full value (they were brand-new, after all) and the cost difference was negligible. And that's why you should go to a good shop with real pros to get your new pack, because none of that could have happened in an on-line "e-tailer" store. “Nobody tells this to people who are beginners, I wish someone told me. All of us who do creative work, we get into it because we have good taste. But there is this gap. For the first couple years you make stuff, it’s just not that good. It’s trying to be good, it has potential, but it’s not. But your taste, the thing that got you into the game, is still killer. And your taste is why your work disappoints you. A lot of people never get past this phase, they quit. Most people I know who do interesting, creative work went through years of this. We know our work doesn’t have this special thing that we want it to have. We all go through this. And if you are just starting out or you are still in this phase, you gotta know its normal and the most important thing you can do is do a lot of work. Put yourself on a deadline so that every week you will finish one story. It is only by going through a volume of work that you will close that gap, and your work will be as good as your ambitions. And I took longer to figure out how to do this than anyone I’ve ever met. It’s gonna take awhile. It’s normal to take awhile. You’ve just gotta fight your way through.” - Ira Glass  “Religious apologists complain bitterly that atheists and secularists are aggressive and hostile in their criticism of them. I always say: look, when you guys were in charge, you didn’t argue with us, you just burnt us at the stake. Now what we’re doing is presenting you with some arguments and some challenging questions, and you complain.” - Anthony Grayling  Don't be afraid, Science is your friend:
Monday, July 30, 2012 Latest news, updated frequently: The Torch: London 2012 Summer Olympics If you have FireFox, you'll love this little app, which shows you sunrise, sunset, moonrise, moon phase, moonset, and several other things if you like, all in a handy little "hover" icon in your status bar: Sun Cult :: Add-ons for Firefox Science Education: If I were home schooling a kid today, I'd have the kid watching these guys. Fast, solid science and history, no "dumbing down" at all, and very entertaining. It's so much fun that I am hooked and going through their entire back log:
Surviving the Zombie Apocalypse, in a game: Paging Dr. Wasteland: One man’s crusade to heal DayZ’s zombie victims. I'd never even heard of Day Z, and it's catching on big, and very fast: DayZ Mod Nobody ever sends me stuff like this: The Mystery and Joys of Strange Crates in the Mail The Law in America:
Tuesday, July 17, 2012 All of the genuine experts I know -- the professionals -- say that firearms are a lousy way to deal with an animal attack. Use pepper spray. It works better, it works faster, and you won't accidentally kill your friend when you are trying to save him from a bear attack: In Bear Attack, Hunter Killed Hunter What drought conditions look like today: 12.gif What drought conditions looked like in the Dust Bowl: phd193407_pg.gif What the Great Plains looked like during the Dust Bowl: Dallas, South Dakota 1936.jpg What book about the Dust Bowl you need to read: The Worst Hard Time
Tuesday, July 10, 2012 Science:
Saturday, July 7, 2012 PSA: If your computer happens to be infected with the "Operation Ghost Click" DNS Changer malware, you'll be disconnected from the internet on Monday. By the FBI. And no, it's not a hoax. Some 68,000 people will be disconnected. Here's a quick way to check if your computer is infected: http://www.dcwg.org/detect/  Sunday, July 1, 2012Hey America: you know those men and women who are out there busting their butts and risking their lives to help save you and your homes? The people who fight wildfires? You remember them? They don't have any health insurance. Wednesday, June 27, 2012: The West is on fire. Stay updated: www.inciweb.org Here's a description of "Incident Management Teams" -- the people fighting fires to keep you and your homes safe. The firefighting teams are looking for a few good people: And to all of you local volunteer firefighters, God Bless you. Monday, June 25, 2012 Science:
 Whatever
happened to the good old rucksack? I'm not talking about a voluminous internal-frame backpack for extended wilderness travel, an ascent pack for ice climbing and alpine peak-bagging, a super-streamlined hydration pack for adventure mountain-biking, or a padded-sleeve laptop-carrying complete-office-in-a-messenger-bag for urban techno-warriors. I'm talking about a good old rucksack, designed for hauling your daily essentials around town, campus or village, for rambling walks here and there, and daily life. The kind we all used to live out of while we were students, back in the day when you could afford to go to college without bankrupting yourself into permanent debt-slavery (but that's another rant.) Something you stuff with a lunch, a Swiss Army Knife, sunglasses, binoculars, maybe a map and compass -- and go. Something that is comfortable dangling off one shoulder, tough as nails, easy to get into, plain enough to avoid attracting a grab-and-run thief, just respectable enough to (barely) pass in a restaurant or on a city bus, something that says for all the world to see, "Inside me you'll find an apple, two granola bars, a water bottle, a ten year old windbreaker, a beat-up paperback book, and a pair of flip flops for when I get to the water's edge." My old favorite rucksacks all had one thing in common: exterior pockets. Preferably four of them: one on each side, one on the front, and one in the top flap (if your rucksack has a top flap, that is.) I had two such "perfect" packs in my youth; the first was a fire-engine red one by Hine Snowbridge, a now-defunct company from Boulder Colorado. It served me through most of my college and grad school years, and was as comfortable and useful a personal item as I have ever owned. It was in my hands and over one shoulder -- or two shoulders -- literally every day of my life for many years. It had leather shoulder straps with thick felt padding, all four of those wonderful pockets, was lightweight, waterproof, never busted or ripped, never a zipper failure, and it had class. In a fit of stupid, I sold it at a garage sale.  The replacement was
also a great bag, in navy blue nylon packcloth,
but just a little bit too big, so it
got left home far more than it got used. But it
still had all four pockets (with the additional
bonus of ski-slots behind the side pockets) was
lightweight, wonderfully useful, capable of
carrying quite a large amount of gear, and it
also had class. Extra (and very tough)
lash-slots on the outside made it even more of a
pack mule. It was made by "Wilderness
Experience," a now-defunct company from
California. They were the first company to start
using the modern plastic buckles, and they
did very good work. The company got sold,
resold, acquired, merged and shuffled out of
existence. A vintage forest green version is
pictured to the left. There were the rucksacks that got away: the old North Face rucksack was a dandy. Leather bottom, felt-padded shoulder straps, all four of those coveted external pockets, lots of lash patches, and the great design and construction you'd expect from North Face. It turns out that this basic design, once very popular and widely produced, has become very, very hard to find these days. Even back when the design was popular, the majority of rucksacks had either a front pocket or two side pockets, but not both. (I have no idea why. Probably cheaper that way.) Top pockets were almost universal on top-loading packs, and non-existent on zipper-panel loaded packs. So my perfect rucksack was actually a bit rare to begin with, even before the species went extinct. Even the " perfect specimen" classic Sierra Designs rucksack pictured above only has three pockets, as well as being in that appalling "international-panic-inducing" orange, which was the predominant color of backpacking gear for a good decade. Today there are only a few examples made by old-line companies that maximize the "vintage" nature of them by making them out of heavy cotton canvas and using leather straps and buckles:  They are admittedly nice-looking, all renowned for being as tough as a paratrooper's boot, and all about the right size, just big enough for a day's essentials plus a light jacket. But they are all heavy, and they all use straps and buckles for the most part -- which, while pretty to look at, are a pain to use, which is exactly why EVERYBODY in the world switched to zippers in the 60s, and Fastex buckles as soon as they reached the market in the late 70s. And not a single one of them has the four pockets I want. Some only have two, but three is the most I can find these days. So what's a guy to do? Granted, the recycled polyester version of the LL Bean: Classic Continental Rucksack is not bad... but only three pockets, and in really ugly colors. The classic old JanSport Westbridge pack is back in production, and it's useful but only has TWO of those coveted pockets. Still, it's less clunky and much lighter than the canvas versions. So I'll keep looking. Everybody needs a hobby. (Update: Take a look at the new North Face RUCKSACK -- photo to the right.) Friday, June 15, 2012 Science:
"People are taking the piss out
of you everyday. They butt
into your life, take a cheap shot at you
and then disappear. They leer at you from
tall buildings and make you feel small.
They make flippant comments from buses
that imply you’re not sexy enough and that
all the fun is happening somewhere else.
They are on TV making your girlfriend feel
inadequate. They have access to the most
sophisticated technology the world has
ever seen and they bully you with it. They
are The Advertisers and they are laughing
at you.
You, however, are forbidden to touch them. Trademarks, intellectual property rights and copyright law mean advertisers can say what they like wherever they like with total impunity. Fuck that. Any advert in a public space that gives you no choice whether you see it or not is yours. It’s yours to take, re-arrange and re-use. You can do whatever you like with it. Asking for permission is like asking to keep a rock someone just threw at your head. You owe the companies nothing. Less than nothing, you especially don’t owe them any courtesy. They owe you. They have re-arranged the world to put themselves in front of you. They never asked for your permission, don’t even start asking for theirs." Law and politics:
Tuesday, June 12, 2012 Overheard on the Internet: Exactly
one year ago, I ran into a restaurant and
asked, "What
year is it?"
When they said '2011' I replied "Damn it!!" and ran out. Today I am going to dress in exactly the same clothes, run in again, and ask "What year is it?" When they answer '2012,' I'm going to jump up and down, and yell, "It worked! It worked!!" and then run out again. Monday, May 28, 2012 Science:
The odd things people do:
The trend is not about public safety, it's not about law and order, it's not about security. It's about who has power, and what they will do to keep or increase it. It's about the exercise of that power, and the widespread demand for instant, unquestioning obedience, enforced by taser-happy thugs. Disturbing, to say the least. Backpacking gear: Just in case you are in the market for a new sleeping bag, check out this excellent sale from Wiggy's: Ultra Light Camo - SALE. Why get a Wiggy's sleeping bag? Because they are very lightweight, very warm, impervious to water, nearly indestructible, machine washable and dryable, and proven for decades by the US military. Good stuff, and this sale is a screaming deal. I recently became enamored of the Trangia backpacking cooksets. It's a bit odd, since they are decidedly "old" technology (updated with new lighter-weight materials) but there's a reason why they are still being made after over 50 years; they work. There is only one stove with a "zero-failure" rate for through-hikers on the Appalachian Trail: Trangia. They don't break. Here's why Trangia stoves are so great:
Modern Life:
Sunday, May 20, 2012 Science:
Wednesday, May 9, 2012 "I believe that same-sex couples should be allowed to marry." -- President Barak Obama It's time. Right here, Right now, Today. Stand up and be counted. Join the President in support of marriage equality: http://www.barackobama.com/splash/stand-with-the-president?source=action-bar and http://dccc.org/pages/marriage-equality Tuesday, May 8, 2012 Years ago, I read an article about a woman who was driving the "established" scientific community nuts, by coming up with brilliant ideas that happened to be right, without being an "established" scientist. At the time, I thought, "what a totally cool lady!" Her name was Margie Profet and a few years ago, she went missing. Nobody knows if she is dead or alive. The Mysterious Case of the Vanishing Genius. Science / the horse:
My prediction regarding FRACKING: we are just now witnessing the first shots fired in the Fracking War. We already have all the information we need to make an informed decision, and it's already perfectly clear that the Fracking methods currently employed cause massive environmental damage, permanent and horrific toxic contamination of groundwater, loss of human life, loss of animal life both domestic and wild, loss of habitat, destruction of vital farmland, and "Boom & Bust" destruction of communities. But it's profitable, so Big Oil is Fracking as much as possible, as fast as possible, in as many places as possible, for as long as possible -- before responsible regulation slowly and ineffectually starts to rein in the catastrophe.
The war between cars and humans (hint: the cars are winning)
Modern Life:
Politics and law:
Wednesday, April 25, 2012 PSA: check your computer for the "DNS Changer" Trojan. Technology and Modern Design: I noticed a FaceBook post by a friend about a KickStarter project she was involved in (It Takes a Village to Raise an Oven - We Knead You!) and ended up spending a while browsing through the kickstarter.com site. It was inspiring. The current "state of the art" in modern design innovation is a joy to behold, and it makes me hopeful for the future. Not only do cool new products become available through innovation, but also problems get solved through functional effective innovation. It can be everything from the whimsical Grilled Cheesus sandwich maker to the cool Stainless Steel iPod Nano Watch Kit to the bomb-proof cellhelmet iPhone case (they'll buy you a new iPhone if yours breaks while inside the case) to the beautiful retro V-luxe iPad entertainment center. Some projects have gone on to become very successful businesses, like the must-have camping accessory the KAMMOK - ROO. "Use the Right Tool for the Job," my Dad always said, and literally every single person I know has ruined something by trying to use it as a small pry-bar. So instead of busting off a key, a fingernail, a nail file, a ballpoint pen, a pocket knife or an irreplaceable tool on your $60 Leatherman or Victorinox, all while simply trying to pry open something stubborn, why don't you use (*radical concept alert*) an actual pry bar? But no, you ruin something else because you don't have a small, lightweight, strong, and fantastically handy mini-pry bar with you. Well, buster, prepare to have your "EDC" (Every Day Carry) tool world rocked by the CountyComm - EOD Bar Family. The "Living Small" movement, for example shown here in Tiny SMART House, continues to flourish with this beautiful gem: Malissa Tack's Perfect Retreat. For living both small and Green, consider the humble, yet impossible to ignore mater of human waste: More Hot Poop on Composting and Alternative Toilets. The headline says it all: Insanely Expensive Gadgets for the Elite 1 Percent. This would be nice on the tiny counter top of your tiny kitchen, making top-quality shots without the huge space footprint (and $1k+ wallet-print) of a "normal" espresso machine: Presso - Espresso Coffee Maker. It's Your Money:
Wednesday, April 11, 2012 Site of the day: a beautiful way of showing what the winds across the US are doing, right now: Wind Map  The
use of "Smartphones" to gather invaluable data:
iPhone Geiger Counter Module. But
Smartphone data collection can also be used for
ubiquitous Big Brother surveillance: New
Microchip Knows Your Location To Within
Centimeters. How to strike a balance? Go
ahead and make smart phones able to collect all
sorts of helpful data, but make the data
submission anonymous. Why we should collect the data: for dramatically improved public safety without the loss of personal rights or freedoms. For example, with current technology, police could know instantly that a gun has been fired, and exactly where it happened. In high-crime areas, this would be very helpful, and if you just happened to be the one who got shot, help would be on its way in seconds. Ditto with severe car accidents, chemical spills, industrial accidents, deliberate illegal industrial waste dumping, nuclear power plant leaks, military weapons production "spills" and leaks, gas explosions, fires, earthquakes, widespread electrical outages, biological or nuclear weapons testing by rogue nations, severe weather, floods, bridge collapses, building damage, crowd-panic, the oft-touted (but highly unlikely) event of a genuine terrorist attack using biological or radiological weapons, the illegal manufacture of said weapons, and many other genuine public dangers. How would it work? The little microphone on a smartphone can pick up the very distinctive (and identifiable) sound of a gunshot, an explosion, a high-energy impact, or people screaming. The GPS can locate the disaster. A simple sensor chip added to the phone can detect radiation, act as a smoke alarm, and a chemical sensor. An accelerometer can detect earthquakes, life-threatening kinetic events like a car accident, an airplane crash or a train derailment. All of this can save lives and make people safer, without compromising privacy -- because nobody knows the identity of the "owner" of a particular data point. Even the most simplistic filtering methods would prevent "false alarms." Additionally, disclosing identity by choice
or by legitimate
judicial mandate can also be a godsend, with
for example, an elderly relative with
Alzheimer's, a juvenile just learning to
drive, someone on parole, a non-violent
"offender" on "early release" (which, by the
way, could save taxpayers hundreds of millions
of dollars a month) or someone with a dicey
medical condition. But simply handing over massive reams of identifying personal data on every aspect of our lives, to not just the police, but to the data-mining Corporate "Mothership" -- this is not a great idea. Science:
Three cool campers, two with aerodynamic low
profiles, one with DIY appeal:
Monday, April 2, 2012 The only Bible verse that Republicans truly believe in: "To everyone who has, more will be given, but for those who have nothing, even what they have will be taken." Science:
Health:
Living well:
Culture:
Politics:
Police State:
Monday, March 19, 2012 Science:
Living Well:
Culture:
Politics and Law:
Wednesday, March 7, 2012 At least for a while, you may wish to avoid visiting "WordPress" blog sites. The "WordPress" domain -- over 30,000 blogs -- has been infected with a redirect virus that sends you to bogus "antivirus scan" sites (over 200,000 of them and counting) that will install malicious software on your system, convincing you that you have a pile of terrible viruses, which can only be fixed by paying an "anti-virus" company (them) to fix the virus (theirs.) I was duped into this scam -- once -- and spent days trying (unsuccessfully) to remove the virus. I eventually resorted to a complete hard-disk wipe (reformat AND repartition) and reinstall. By the way, my current method of upgrading / fixing / "sprucing up" a computer is this: 1. Go buy a new hard disk. They are cheap, huge, and fast. Install it as "Master" (c:) 2. Do a new-from-scratch OS install (I highly recommend Ubuntu.) 3. Install your old hard disk as a "slave." That way, ALL of your old files are still there, and you need not do any "backup" at all. 4. Run a "deep scan" of your old drive with anti-virus, anti-adware, and anti spy-ware software to make sure it is clean. Sunday, March 4, 2012 Science:
Law and Politics:
Monday, February 20, 2012 Science:
Monday, February 6, 2012 Science:
Saturday, January 21, 2012  Monday, January 16, 2012 I find it interesting how much I missed over a year, especially those "big" news stories that just whizzed right past me. Looking over the "year in review" style articles is a way to find out if I was paying attention:
Monday, January 2, 2012 Happy New Year, everyone. Let's start off with good news: finally, after some years of waiting, the Volkswagen 282 MPG car will be produced -- in limited edition, for somewhere between $31k and $47k. Pro: it gets 282 mpg. Con: it's small. They call it the "One Liter" car because it burns one liter of diesel it its little 2-cylinder engine per 100 kilometers. On the other end of the spectrum, VW makes a 4.7 Liter behemoth that is actually an armored car, if you'd like to safely cruise the streets of the Top 100 most dangerous places to live in the USA in German uber-techno style. If your a 1%-er who'd like to cruise around in anonymous excessive luxury, you could buy one of the new stealth Ultra-posh Sprinter vans so you can sip Dom Perignon and eat caviar while looking like a delivery van. (Note to the 1%; the super-gleaming black versions with tinted windows and liveried chauffeur are a dead giveaway.) Personally, I'd choose the "One Liter Car" and move to one of The Healthiest Places to Live, and eat lots of Fish to Keep Your Brain Working, and cook perfect blinis and possibly Turkey on the barbecue. Hopefully, no matter where you live, you don't have Mysterious 13-pound metal spheres 3.6 feet in diameter falling on you from space, as they do Namibia. (And "commonly throughout the southern hemisphere" ?!?) Not as radical as it sounds: We need to design a new economic order. And it's true: our current economic environment rewards the rape of the environment, heavily-polluting industries, the destruction of communities, unconscionably bad treatment of working citizens, outrageous profiteering from the pain and suffering of Americans, and general Bad Behavior. And it also, by the way, richly rewards Going To War. It's not like we need to invent a whole new economic model: the "Economic Climate" is the result of very specific regulations, rules and policies, put into place over decades of tinkering, steered with absolute deliberation by the people who have the most influence over regulators and policy-makers. We could have an "Economic Climate" that favors peace over war, small business over large, working class Americans over Corporate Boards, clean industry over dirty, land stewardship over environmental rape, long-term prosperity over boom-and-bust, living wages over slave wages, and humane treatment of citizens over brutality. This is very, very simple, folks. It's all in the rules, regulations and policies. It doesn't take a re-write of the constitution, a "new world order," an overthrow of the government or an invasion of Space Aliens. It's very, very simple: just comb through the massive, crushing weight of rules, regulations and policies, review every single damn one of them, and rewrite them to favor the health and well-being of the people and the planet, instead of favoring the Profit and Power of the VERY FEW. History:
(See
the "Archives" for previous posts -- here's
the most recent)
Proud to be
a "True Blue" American.
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Papa Vox Archives: September through December, 2011 April through Aug, 2011 Sept through March 2011 July through Oct, 2010 Jan through June, 2010 Oct, Nov, Dec, 2009 July, Aug, Sept, 2009 April, May, June, 2009 Jan, Feb, March, 2009 Oct, Nov, Dec, 2008 July, Aug, Sept, 2008 April, May, June, 2008 Jan, Feb, Mar, 2008 Old and somewhat interesting posts, stripped of their former political grousing: 2007 2006 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?    Take Action: 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 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 Huffington Post Left in the West Media Matters MM News MotherJones Susie Bright's Journal ThinkProgress TPMmuckraker TruthOut Papa's Reading list: Good books. Educate yourself: WebMD.com The US Cabinet Your State Government Executive Orders Amnesty International Recommended Software: Free Anti-Virus programs. I currently use: avast!
Ad-Aware Spybot CCleaner 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.  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.  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. |
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The contents of this web page are merely opinion. Harmless words. Nothing more. |
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An interesting question: 
