Something New Today

Goldman Sachs - Occupy Wall St.

2011-10-30T07:53:00.001-07:00

NEW YORK (The Borowitz Report)– The following is a letter released today by Lloyd Blankfein, the chairman of banking giant Goldman Sachs:

Dear Investor:

Up until now, Goldman Sachs has been silent on the subject of the protest movement known as Occupy Wall Street. That does not mean, however, that it has not been very much on our minds. As thousands have gathered in Lower Manhattan, passionately expressing their deep discontent with the status quo, we have taken note of these protests. And we have asked ourselves this question:

How can we make money off them?

The answer is the newly launched Goldman Sachs Global Rage Fund, whose investment objective is to monetize the Occupy Wall Street protests as they spread around the world. At Goldman, we recognize that the capitalist system as we know it is circling the drain – but there’s plenty of money to be made on the way down.

The Rage Fund will seek out opportunities to invest in products that are poised to benefit from the spreading protests, from police batons and barricades to stun guns and forehead bandages. Furthermore, as clashes between police and protesters turn ever more violent, we are making significant bets on companies that manufacture replacements for broken windows and overturned cars, as well as the raw materials necessary for the construction and incineration of effigies.

It would be tempting, at a time like this, to say “Let them eat cake.” But at Goldman, we are actively seeking to corner the market in cake futures. We project that through our aggressive market manipulation, the price of a piece of cake will quadruple by the end of 2011.

Please contact your Goldman representative for a full prospectus. As the world descends into a Darwinian free-for-all, the Goldman Sachs Rage Fund is a great way to tell the protesters, “Occupy this.” We haven’t felt so good about something we’ve sold since our souls.

Sincerely,

Lloyd Blankfein

Chairman, Goldman Sachs This communication may contain privileged and/or confidential information. It is intended solely for the use of the addressee. If you are not the intended recipient, you are strictly prohibited from disclosing, copying, distributing or using any of this information. If you received this communication in error, please contact the sender immediately and destroy the material in its entirety, whether electronic or hard copy. This communication may contain nonpublic personal information about consumers subject to the restrictions of the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act. You may not directly or indirectly reuse or redisclose such information for any purpose other than to provide the services for which you are receiving the information. 127 Public Square, Cleveland, OH 44114

News

2011-10-12T21:36:00.001-07:00

Found in the directions for a Casio palm sized computer:

"Continued use of the unit while it is emitting smoke or strange odor creates the danger of fire and electrical shock."

Warning on a pair of athletic shin guards:

"Shin pads cannot protect any part of the body they do not cover."

Warning on power drill:

"This product not intended for use as a dental drill."

Message on rock garden set:

"Eating rocks may lead to broken teeth."

A Taiwan distributing company began an advertising campaign recently for German-made space heaters, using a smiling Adolf Hitler character to "Declare War on the Cold Front". A company spokesman said it was important to show the product as being German-made and that he didn't think Taiwanese were very sensitive about Hitler.

According to a New York Times story, the textile company Francital has developed a fabric specially treated to absorb perspiration and body odors for people who can't bathe for up to 30 days at a time. The company is headquarterd in France.

Kidney transplants

2011-10-09T04:20:00.000-07:00

Interesting article in the SF Chronicle this week about progress on an experimental procedure that has let some kidney transplant patients stop taking antirejection drugs. The study was limited in scope to 12 patients who got kidneys from relatives who were “perfect matches”. Eight of them have stayed off the antirejection drugs.

The technique involves beating down the immune system with 10 days of radiation and injection of antibodies to suppress some immune systems. Then the patient is injected with stem cells from the donor, which leads to immune cells which do not want to attack the kidney. The balance between those immune cells and the patient’s immune cells is helped along with other so called “peacemaker” cells.

It’s hard to say how this will turn out, but considering that antirejection drugs are expensive, damage the patient’s immune system to leave them vulnerable to infection and disease, and also harm the kidney in the long term, any improvement would be welcome news for the 17,000 patients who get a transplant each year.

Link to article is below:

Kidney article

Navajo Wisdom

2011-10-07T18:18:00.001-07:00

Navajo Wisdom

When NASA was preparing for the Apollo Project, it took the astronauts to a

Navajo reservation in Arizona for training. One day, a Navajo elder and his

son came across the space crew walking among the rocks. The elder, who spoke

only Navajo, asked a question. His son translated for the NASA people: "What

are these guys in the big suits doing?"

One of the astronauts said that they were practicing for a trip to the moon.

When his son relayed this comment the Navajo elder got all excited and asked

if it would be possible to give to the astronauts a message to deliver to the

moon.

Recognizing a promotional opportunity when he saw one, a NASA official

accompanying the astronauts said, "Why certainly!" and told an underling to

get a tape recorder.

The Navajo elder's comments into the microphone were brief. The NASA official

asked the son if he would translate what his father had said. The son,

laughing uproariously, refused to translate.

So the NASA people took the tape to a nearby Navajo village and played it for

other members of the tribe. They too laughed long and loudly but also refused

to translate the elder's message to the moon.

Finally, an official government translator was summoned. After he finally

stopped laughing the translator relayed the message "Watch out for these

assholes - they have come to steal your land."

Only in the South.....

2011-09-24T08:23:00.000-07:00

A mountain farmer got in his pickup and drove

several miles to a neighboring farm and knocked on

the farmhouse door. A young boy, about 12, opened

the door.

"Is yer pa home?" he asked.

"No sir, he sure ain't," the boy replied. "He went

to town."

"Well," said the farmer. "Is yer ma home?"

"No, she ain't here either. She went to town with

pa."

"Well, then, how about yer brother, Joe, is he

here?"

"No sir, he went with pa and ma."

The farmer stood there for a few minutes, shifting

from one foot to the other, and mumbling to himself.

"Is there anything I kin do fer ya'?" inquired the

young boy politely. "I know where all the tools

are, if you want to borry one; or maybe I could

take a message fer pa."

Well," said the farmer uncomfortably, "I really

wanted to talk to yer pa. It's about your brother

Joe getting my daughter, Pearly Mae, pregnant."

The boy considered for a moment. "You would have

to talk to pa about that,"he finally conceded. "I

know that pa charges $50 for the bull and $25 for

the boar, but don't know how much he gets for

Joe."

Physics

2011-09-14T05:10:00.000-07:00

There was an interesting profile in the Christian Science Monitor about Walter Lewin, a physics professor at MIT. In order to teach physics more effectively, he has done things like ride a fire extinguisher propelled tricycle. He definitely is unique and effective. Not your usual physics professor. When I was at Berkeley, physics was one of the most difficult majors, and it seeemed that the professors and especially the students were just a tad different from you and me. The oddballs of science.

Anyway, Walter Lewin has you tube videos as well, so I put links below for both the article and a video.

Article

Some puns

2011-09-08T21:47:00.001-07:00

Puns for Educated Minds

The fattest knight at King Arthur’s round table was Sir Cumference. He acquired his size from too much pi.

I thought I saw an eye doctor on an Alaskan island, but it turned out to be an optical Aleutian.

She was only a whiskey maker, but he loved her still.

No matter how much you push the envelope, it’ll still be stationery.

A dog gave birth to puppies near the road and was cited for littering.

A grenade thrown into a kitchen in France would result in Linoleum Blownapart.

Two silk worms had a race. They ended up in a tie.

A hole has been found in the nudist camp wall. The police are looking into it.

Time flies like an arrow. Fruit flies like a banana.

Atheism is a non-prophet organization.

Two hats were hanging on a hat rack in the hallway. One hat said to the other, “You stay here; I’ll go on a head.”

I wondered why the baseball kept getting bigger. Then it hit me.

A sign on the lawn at a drug rehab center said: “Keep off the Grass.”

The midget fortune-teller who escaped from prison was a small medium at large.

The soldier who survived mustard gas and pepper spray is now a seasoned veteran.

A backward poet writes inverse.

In a democracy it’s your vote that counts… In feudalism it’s your count that votes.

When cannibals ate a missionary, they got a taste of religion.

If you jumped off the bridge in Paris , you’d be in Seine.

A vulture boards an airplane, carrying two dead raccoons. The stewardess looks at him and says, “I’m sorry, sir, only one carrion per passenger.”

Two hydrogen atoms meet. One says, “I’ve lost my electron.” The other says, “Are you sure?” The first replies, “Yes, I’m positive.”

Did you hear about the Buddhist who refused Novocain during a root canal? His goal: transcend dental medication.

Autism

2011-09-04T05:19:00.000-07:00

In my room, a monster is present. It started off innocently enough, a few magazine and newspaper clippings, all ideas and sources for future blog entries. Over time, the beast has steadily grown, usually when I’m not looking. I could swear that it sneaks downstairs in the middle of the night, stealing bits and pieces from my pile of unread newspapers and magazines. Most of the stuff is on the serious side, and takes a few minutes or more to assemble into a blog entry. As the pile grows, it even takes time to sort through a few things to figure out what I would write about. So if I’m busy, which I seem to be latelyl, the pile sits. Since I started getting more into photography in April, it has sat even more.

So last week, I made a New Year’s resolution, just a bit early. I’m going to try and put one or two of these things up on my blog every week. We’ll see how it goes.

First up is autism. I’ve run into a few different articles the last couple of months, all interesting. Autism currently affects 1 in every 110 children, or 1 in every 150 children (I’ve seen different statistics). Previously mainstream science has blamed genetic effects, and many thought 90% of autism cases were genetic. The only problem with this theory is that autism has become six times more common than it was 20 years ago. Yeah, six times. And somehow that’s genetic? I don’t think so.

A far more likely link is to chemical exposure. Women who take antidepressants during their first trimester are three times more likely to have an autistic child. Infections and medications also can cause problems. Given the huge increase in antidepressant drugs the last 20 years or so, it makes sense that these may be related. I ran into several articles that have shown a potential link from autism to chemicals, pesticides, mercury exposure and PCB exposure.

A study at UCSF found high levels of fire retardent chemicals in pregnant women, which affect thyroid operation. California was a leader in pushing fire retardent chemicals, followed by the US. Now Americans have PBDE levels that are 20 times higher than those found in Europeans. Many of these chemicals don’t break down, they hang around for many years in the environment.

Dealing with the aftermath of autism is an expensive, difficult thing to do. It strains marriages, finances, school systems, etc. On positive thing I discovered is the program for autistic kids that the NY Transit agency runs. Turns out autistic kids love the predictabiltiy and details of trains and train schedules.

Stanford doctors have done some brain mapping and found significant differences in the brains of autistic kids. They hope to be able to use this in the future to give parents an earlier indication that their child is autistic, since therapy works best when started early.

Links to some of the articles I mentioned are below:

Link to article about Stanford brain mapping

Link to NY Transit program

Link to LA Times pestism & autism article

Link to LA Times autism and air pollution article

Signs

2011-08-17T22:21:00.000-07:00

Funny link to someone's post about signs with sarcastic remarks. Great stuff, thanks to Andy at gorillasites for sending it to me.
Signs

The phone call

2011-08-01T18:32:00.000-07:00

I was over at my Mom’s yesterday (lunch with a few relatives) when her phone rang. Glancing down at the caller ID, it said “California GOP”, so I had to answer it. I had a long tradition when I was a teenager and in college, of messing with phones and phone callers. Even today, I still enjoy tormenting telemarketers on occasion. (maybe tomorrow I’ll post the hot tub and God conversations)..

I mustered up my very best faint falsetto old lady voice, and said “Hello?”

The caller asked, “Is this Mrs. Smith?”. (I changed the name, as you can guess).

Naturally I said, “Yes”.

“Good evening Mrs. Smith, I’m John Watson of the California GOP, and we’re doing a little survey about presidential candidates. Of the candidates you’ve heard about, which candidate do you think you’d vote for next year?”

“President Reagan”.

Short silence at the other end of the line.

“Uh, Mrs. Smith, he isn’t President any more.”

I waited a few seconds. I was trying to be close enough to the dining room so that everyone else could hear, but a little bit into the kitchen so he couldn’t hear the laughter people were trying to muffle.

“Oh”, I said.

“So Mrs. Smith, who do you think would be a good candidate to run against Obama?”

“Obama........Kenyan..........African......”, I answered.

Another short silence on the other end.

“Yes, Mrs. Smith......So who do you think would be good to run against him?”

Knowing he was a pollster, and not supposed to give his own thoughts, I decided I’d have some more fun. “Who do you recommend?” I asked.

Another short silence.

“Well, Mrs. Smith, we have some fine candidates running. Milt Romney, Sarah Palin, Michelle Bachmann. Have you heard of Michelle Bachmann?”.

“Sarah”, I answered. “Sarah Palin”.

“That’s a fine choice, Mrs. Smith. We have some excellent women running right now.

So you think you’d vote for Sarah Palin for President?”

I hesitated a few seconds. “President?.......I don’t know. A woman should be in the kitchen.”

Longer silence on his end.

I think he was either trying to figure out if I was for real, or trying not to make a rude comment to a confused old lady.

“Yes, well some people feel that way.”

Another short silence.

“Mrs. Smith, I want to thank you for your time, you’ve been very helpful”.......

And that was that. I’m sure he is gonna tell someone about that crazy lady up in Northern California.

Hopefully they’ll remove her from their list.

Neflix

2011-07-31T06:21:00.001-07:00

A few weeks ago, Netflix raised their prices. Too busy or lazy at the time to blog it, so thought I'd blog it now. For those wanting both the streaming and DVD's by mail, the price went up a fair amount, something like 60% to $17 or $18 or so. All of the sudden I read in the paper about the "uproar", with users castigating Netflix and vowing to immediately cancel their subscriptions. Some outraged users set up web pages and others bombarded the company with emails and phone calls. From the sound and the fury, you'd think Netflix just announced they were sending videos out featuring the killing of puppy dogs and children.

Seems to be a lot more fuss than it should be. They pretty much left the streaming only price about the same, and have actually dropped the price for DVD's only. For those screaming about the price, it still is a pretty good bargain. If you went to cable or satellite, you pay $30, $40, $50 or more for your couple of hundred channels, of which approximately 14 may have something you actually want to watch.

In the end, Neflix probably realized they should have done a better job announcing the changes. The outraged users, who seem to come across as spoiled children having their dessert taken away, will eventually split into those that calm down and stay with Netflix and those that find other entertainment options. Maybe I should tell them Blogger is free.....

Some history

2011-07-25T21:55:00.001-07:00

I was cleaning up some old magazines this weekend, when I ran into an interesting story. Back in 1951, Bette Nesmith Graham was working as a secretary for the Texas Bank & Trust. Her typing skills weren’t very good, so she made a lot of mistakes. She had an art background, and knew painters never corrected by erasing. So she started using water based tempera paint to cover her mistakes. Other secretaries eventually noticed, so in 1956 she started bringing small bottles labelled “Mistake Out” to work for them. In her spare time, she experimented with chemicals to make the flud dry faster, and got imput from her son’s chemistry teacher and paint store employees. She founded the Mistake Out company in 1956.

Fired from her next job at IBM for mistakenly typing “The Mistake Out Company” on a letter, she focused full time on her company, still running it out of her home. She hired her son Michael and his friends for $1 per hour to fill bottles in the kitchen. In 1958, the trade magazine Office included her product (renamed Liquid Paper) in a list of new products. She moved production into a shed in the backyard as the company grew.

In 1968, the company built its first automated plant, and the rest is history. A huge company and famous product all started by one lady in her kitchen.

One last tidbit. Her son, Michael, who helped fill bottles at $1/hr, later became more famous as Michael Nesmith, in the pop group The Monkees.

Californians

2011-07-19T20:19:00.000-07:00

Saturday’s SF Chronicle, continuing its fine tradition of educational stories, had one about Annie Sprinkle and Elizabeth Stephens, “who have married the moon, the sky, the ocean, the Appalachian Mountains, and the snow in a series of color-coordinated, nudist-friendly weddings.....” That got my attention. It’s an interesting article, something a little different than the usual.

Reading through it, one part that caught my eye and ire was when they told of an Ohio fundamentalist minister who had “lambasted us as witches and Californians and communists”.... I couldn’t believe it! You want to insult someone and the best you can do is to call them a Californian? Has he never seen a Thesaurus, or taken a class in creative writing? (maybe not, creative writing could be sinful). This guy must have his bunker loaded with plain vanilla ice cream and banned all spices from the kitchen.

At the least, I would have thought he’d call them Californicators. Where are the standards? He should have the decency to deliver a suitable insult. I think if I were God I would strike this minister down for being bland. The anti homosexual crowd came up with the “Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve” slogan, which I thought was funny and very clever. Even if I don’t agree with them, I have to tip my hat for a writing job well done. Maybe we should send some of them to Ohio to help this poor minister out.

Link to article is below:

Ecosex

Garden of Innocence

2011-07-17T04:47:00.000-07:00

A little bit of hope and inspiration are on the menu this Sunday. CW Nevius had a great column in yesterday’s SF Chronicle that dealt with Garden of Innocence. Started in 1998 by a San Diego real estate agent, it provides free funeral services and burial for children who die alone and often unknown. A few branches have started in other cities. In San Francisco, the remains are cremated, while in San Diego they are buried in a coffin. In all cases, the organization depends on volunteer support.

It’s an interesting and honorable idea, and is one more example of what good can come of one person wanting to do something to make the world a better place. Link is below:

Garden of Innocence

Tiago Hoisel

2011-07-02T23:06:00.000-07:00

For those who want to check out some funny and very cool artwork, the link below is to Tiago Hoisel's blog. He has some great stuff.

Tiago Hoisel

Friday Funny

2011-07-01T17:42:00.000-07:00

Kylie Minogue -

Make-up and Hair style.............$500
New Dress for the show............$3000
Giant Stuffed Bear......................$400Not knowing how to hold the bear with a microphone in your hand..........Priceless!

Shopping

2011-06-30T18:37:00.001-07:00

Last Saturday, my wife was looking for a new dress for an upcoming wedding we were invited to. I had to work for part of the morning so I escaped the morning visit to the department stores. Alas, no such reprieve was granted to the condemned man in the afternoon, especially since the wedding was for the daughter of some friends of mine. So, like a dog avoiding the trip to the vet, I was gently but purposefully dragged into the car and away we went.

First stop was Macys and then JC Penney. In both stores, there were a few people at the cashier stations, and almost no other sales clerks around. So we wandered a bit like lost souls in the desert, trying to figure where things were.

In Macys, they had a seating area just outside the women’s changing rooms, where a few other bleary eyed, exhausted husbands shifted slightly so that I might collapse on the bench and share in our common misery. Shopping bags in hand, we stared blankly out into space as we silently pondered our fate this bleak and desolate afternoon. No TV with a sports channel, no beer cocktails, no brass pole, no replicas of monster trucks, no Death Race 3000 video game, no power drills or hand tools.

While I still had some energy left, I was gently led next to Nordstrom’s. I was surprised that some of their stuff was actually cheaper than the department stores. There were definitely more clerks. Or as far as I guessed there were more clerks. I have read much about Nordstrom’s in the past, touting their attention to the customer and great shopping experience. I was more than a bit bewildered to find that NONE of the sales clerks had any sort of company uniform or common dress. One lady had a professional dress, blouse and jacket on, while her coworker had a pair of faded jeans and a ratty looking shirt. As you went around the store, it was an effort to figure out who worked there and who was just shopping there. Strangest experience I’ve had. It was almost as if they had resolved to cut their store shoplifting losses and ordered all clerks to go undercover.

Horses

2011-06-28T20:24:00.000-07:00

There was a nice story in the Christian Science Monitor about a guy who helps veterans by having them work with horses. So thought I'd put a link here:

Horses

Squirrels

2011-06-27T06:38:00.001-07:00

Yesterday was an interesting day. With shouts of “where is it”, and items strewn upon the floor, you would have thought we were the victims of a home invasion robbery. Instead, my wife was looking for something. Naturally, she couldn’t remember where she had put it. It was only hours later that a triumphant “I found it” echoed through the wasteland. In the meantime, I kept thinking how we were so much like squirrels, burying their nuts and then forgetting where they buried them.

When I picked the squirrel to be my icon, I thought it was a good match for skinny. Little did I realize that maybe the forgottten nuts link was more appropriate. While I’ve been able to put some stuff on the computer and find it for the most part, my desks at home and especially at work are a different story. At work, I often do either a patdown of the papers on the desk, looking for a pencil or pen, or I do a “lift up every rock” searching for them. Passers by might wonder “is that man playing peek a boo with the stuff on his desk?”

Searching for a file or paper that you misplaced is sometimes an involved job. You first look through all the stuff on your desk and around your desk. Not finding anything, you proceed to research the same area, feeling a little stupid that you are wasting your time, and hearing the faint echoes of “moron!” float around in your head. Then after that, you forcefully utter a few words that aren’t in any G rated movie, and proceed to search a third time, feeling really stupid. At this point, or often shortly after, a co-worker will say “is this what you’re looking for”, or you’ll suddenly get a flash of inspiration that tells you where you put it.

Your feelings of relief and victory are usually short-lived, lasting only until the next instance of “now where did I put that?”

Stockholm subway pics

2011-06-26T06:45:00.000-07:00

Link below is to Anna Likes post about Stockholm subway.
Absolutely stunning photos!

http://www.anna-likes.net/2011/06/below-stockholm.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Annalikes+%28AnnaLikes%29

Friday Funny

2011-06-24T17:45:00.001-07:00

An American, an Irishman and a Frenchman are in Saudi Arabia,

sharing a smuggled crate of booze when Saudi police rush in and

arrest them. The mere possession of alcohol is a severe offense in

Saudi Arabia, so for the terrible crime of actually being caught

consuming the booze, they are all sentenced to death!

However, after many months and with the help of very good lawyers,

they are able to successfully appeal their sentences down to life

imprisonment. By a stroke of luck, it was a Saudi national holiday

the day their trial finished, and the extremely benevolent Sheik

decided they could be released after receiving just 20 lashes each

of the whip.

As they were preparing for their punishment, the Sheik announced:

"It's my first wife's birthday today, and she has asked me to allow

each of f you one wish before your whipping."

The Irishman was first in line, he thought for a while and then

said: "Please tie a pillow to my back." This was done, but the

pillow only lasted 10 lashes before the whip went through. When the

punishment was done he had to be carried away bleeding and crying

with pain.

The Frenchman was next up. After watching the Irishman in horror he

said smugly: "Please fix two pillows to my back." But even two

pillows could only take 15 lashes before the whip went through again

and the Frenchman was soon led away whimpering loudly (as they do).

The American was the last one up, but before he could say anything,

the Sheik turned to him and said: "You are from a most beautiful

part of the world and your culture is one of the finest in the

world. For this, you may have two wishes!"

"Thank you, your Most Royal and Merciful highness," the American

replied. "In recognition of your kindness, my first wish is that you

give me not 20, but 100 lashes."

"Not only are you an honorable, handsome and powerful man, you are

also very brave." The Sheik said with an admiring look on his face.

If 100 lashes is what you desire, then so be it. And your second

wish, what is it to be?" the Sheik asked.

The American replied: "Tie the Frenchman to my back."

US Air

2011-06-23T20:09:00.000-07:00

Just when you thought you'd seen everything.....

Last week, a black college kid was kicked off a US Airways for refusing to hike up his pants. He was accosted when he was sitting down, and sounds like the airline overreacted. Especially when we find out that the same airline let a 65 year old white guy fly while dressed in women's underwear. Maybe a little racism, maybe different flight crews. Hard to say for sure.

The weird bit is the 65 year old guy from Phoenix. He says he's a business consultant and runs the risk of loss of business if word gets out. Well, duh!. In the meantime, he's parading around the country in women's underwear, not exactly a low profile travel plan. I can see cross dressing like this in your home, but when he's wearing underwear in public, I would support the airline when they ask him to cover up (which he does if asked).

The ugly details are here:
Cross dresser

Bugs

2011-06-22T19:02:00.003-07:00

I was in an equipment room in a building yesterday, valiantly working in the face of an enemy attack. The building bordered on some open fields, and had not been maintained. There were quite a few small pellets around, not sure if rats or what. Also quite a few spiders. As we were finishing up, the parade began. First to charge into the room were some greyish spiders, moving at the rate of about a foot every second. Fast buggers. I saw one, then moved my toolchest and found another one underneath. Then I look toward the door and see another hurrying in to join the party. I guess the room was cooler than the fields.

The second wave were some small black spiders, lightning fast as well. Coming up at the rear were one or two bugs I didn’t recognize. I ended up taking my toolbox and some papers outside. It was an amazingly relentless parade of wildlife that I hadn’t seen before. I remember thinking “Thank God I live in the city”. Bugs and I don’t get along real well, and I’m not sure I could handle living out in the country. In some areas of California they have black widow spiders, which I’m definitely not too fond of.

Wherever I’ve lived in the past, I’m always partial to white walls to better see intruders. I’m pretty vigilant about ants, spiders, and any other crawling bugs. Even when I’m out backpacking with my wife, I’m sleeping in a tent and checking for ants before I sit on any rock or patch of ground. If I see any ants, it’s full on Alarm Code Red, with head swiveling back and forth, eyes scanning everywhere, mind screaming “Intruder Alert, Intruder Alert”. I believe I need to plead guilty to being a Weenie with a capital W.

In our current place, we seem to have a surprising number of visitors. I ended up placing those glue box traps near the front and back door, and I am just amazed at what we collect. I don’t know if there’s signs in the bug kingdom advertising a party at our house or what, but we seem to be a popular destination. I guess my next step is to figure out how to encourage them to visit the neighbors instead.

Some Boston pics

2011-06-20T20:48:00.000-07:00

A little tired, and no great words of wisdom tonight. So I thought I'd be lazy and put up a few pics from my Boston trip.

Boston pic

2011-06-15T20:34:00.000-07:00

Took this in Copley Square.

Boston

2011-06-14T19:52:00.000-07:00

Went back to Boston this past weekend for a quick business / pleasure trip. Hadn’t been since 1985, so I was looking forward to it. Made my plane reservations first, and decided I’d try Virgin America, as the website showed cool purple interiors, video at each seat, and I figured it might have a little panache and glamour, given the Richard Branson flair. Arriving at San Francisco’s newly renovated Terminal 2, all looked well. They made a special effort to upgrade shops and food, and I was impressed. Even the bottled water was in biodegradeable containers.

Then I got on the plane. Expected Neiman Marcus and I got Walmart. Apparently Virgin’s motto is “We’ll charge you extra for that!”

You want any checked baggage? That’s extra.

You want any peanuts or pretzels? That’s extra.

You want a headset? That’s extra.

You want to watch any movies on your screen? That’s extra.

You want any food on your 5 to 6 hour flight? That’s extra.

You want to sit in an exit row or bulkhead row with a little extra legroom? That’s extra.

They did give me water or juice, and let me use the bathroom. Probably cause they just haven’t had time to install the pay mechanism on the restroom doors. The crew on the flight wasn’t much better. Reminded me of a British Midlands crew I had on one flight. You had the impression they grabbed a few people off the street, dressed them up, and told them “Hey, you’re flight attendants now!” And as for that purple cabin shown in the ads? We got one thin purple pinstripe on the white interior, and purple partitions to separate the first class from the riff raff like me. Made me wonder if I should have gone Jet Blue instead.

The only saving grace was Mah Jong on the video screen (free, believe it or not). I’m sort of addicted to that if I get going, so that was helpful to stay occupied.

Boston was delightfully cool and overcast, fantastic weather. Sort of like San Francisco, so I loved it. Did a tour of Boston Sunday morning and walked around town after that. Really liked everything, and will put up some pictures as the days go by. How could you not like an city that has area names like Alewife, Braintree, and Wonderland?

Nuclear photos

2011-06-11T06:28:00.001-07:00

The Atlantic had some great photos from old nuclear tests.
Link is below:

Atlantic

Friday Music

2011-06-10T21:06:00.000-07:00

Neil Schon's up for today's Friday Music Video. Thought I'd put up "Bandalero" from his Beyond The Thunder album.

Anna

2011-06-05T08:33:00.000-07:00

After Sherry recommended checking out the Blogs of Note tab, I poked around a month or two ago to see what I could find. While it points you to some very popular blogs and not so much to the smaller guys, I still found some good blogs. One of those was Anna Likes, where an art director named Anna highlights some blogs from around the world. Some are photographic, some are more artwork, and some are just different. Anyway, I recommend checking out her blog.

Anna Likes

While I was sleeping

2011-06-04T05:12:00.001-07:00

As I come back into the land of the living, some messages to note and to leave:

WHILE I WAS OUT:

Going to the doctor’s office yesterday, I was greeted mulitple times with “So what brings you here today?”. I wasn’t sure if I should reply:

a) I heard you were serving coffee and muffins.
b) Oh, nothing much on TV today so thought I’d come to doctor’s office.
c) Well, whatever I have isn’t so exciting, so I was hoping to pick up another disease from one of the
other patients.
d) Wanted to try the new enema application routine I heard you do.
e) I’ve been having this nurse - doctor threesome fantasy dream, so I’m hoping to make it reality.

Sometimes it seems they focus too much on stupid stuff like that instead of efficiently and promptly treating you for your problem. Finally got my antibiotic prescription and diagnosis of sinusitus, but a little frustrating.

On the plus side, I did get a sinus rinse yesterday (home style). You basically mix up a water saline solution, lean your head forward over sink, push the solution into one nostril until it flows out the other. Sort of gross if you’re reading this over breakfast, but I’m sure and endless source of fun if you’re a kid. Seemed to help clear up things a little, I’m going to do it again today. My wife wants to see it this time. No word as to whether the neighbors have requested viewing privileges, or whether she’ll stick me out front as the new yard fountain or not.

I will also be saying goodbye to the various products on TV that are “a $60 value, and now can be yours for $19.99. But wait, if you act now we’ll double our gift to you....” And of course my favorite, the unforgettable pajama jeans, which sound like both the stupidest idea and the most brilliant idea all at the same time.

The End of Innocence

2011-06-03T21:04:00.000-07:00

Watching all the memorial day related things on TV last weekend, I was struck by how military our society has gotten, and how many lives are lost with all these wars. So in keeping with that loss of innocence theme, tonight's Friday Music Video is Don Henley's "The End of the Innocence". Based on a wonderful piano score by Bruce Hornsby, this song moved me when I first heard it, and I still love listening to it.

Bad Reporter

2011-06-01T11:31:00.000-07:00

After 5 days on the couch fighting a bug, it appears my body has won the war, although I'm still a bit groggy. This cartoon in todays SF Chronicle made me laugh, and thus is part of the recovery. I'm not sure how the image will come out, so if there's a problem, here's the link to the website page:
Cartoon

And here's the cartoon as a picture:

Where's the Beef?

2011-05-29T09:11:00.000-07:00

Ran across an interesting article in the SF Chronicle Friday, about how they are now beginning to use DNA and tracking systems to keep track of where beef came from as it moves through the food distribution network. The technology is currently more widely used in Europe than in the US, but that appears to be changing. Originally touted as a means to cut recall times down to hours instead of weeks, it is also going to be used for marketing purposes. So here’s a peek at what future menus will have:

RALPH’S STEAKHOUSE IS PLEASED TO PROVIDE THE FOLLOWING BEEF OPTIONS FOR YOUR ENJOYMENT:

TEXAS TENDERLOIN:

A monstrous cut of beef, since it’s a fact that EVERYTHING is bigger in Texas. Our cattle are raised on individual farmer owned land, no government handouts, no government regulations, no big corporations with a lot of hairballs in suits. Our beef is tough, raised out on the open range with no fancy pants barns, and kept lean with our unique Friday Night Football games with the local schools. Sure, a player may get gored occasionally, but that’s life, and that’s Texas.

When it comes time to slaughter the beast, Joe Bob gets in his 73 Chevy pickup and hit the open range. The kill shots are delivered by Joe Bob at 200 yards, with one arm tied behind his back and with a blindfold on. From there it may be the chain saw and Bowie knife, or in extreme cases a stick of dynamite for a really tender burger.

CALIFORNIA CUTLET:

From the moment a new calf arrives in our low light birthing room, surrounded by running waterfalls, aromatic candles, and indigineous rain forest music, it is wrapped in a loving, caring process that will help it achieve its full potential. All young cattle are closely monitored for any signs of aggressive behavior, bullying, or unresolved emotional issues with their parents. We have trained counselors available at all times. As the calf develops, we surround it with love no matter what gender, faith, color, body shape, or heritage it has. Transgender surgery is available if needed.

When it comes time to say goodbye to our dear, loving friends, all staff members gather in the Farewell Room, to view a slide show celebrating our guest’s life, deliver the final goodbye hugs and kisses, and achieve closure to this very painful, emotional moment. Then our guests are given a final meal with a strong sedative that lets them achieve that final sleep that they so rightly deserve.

KANSAS KETCHUP BEEF:

You may be asking “why ketchup?”. Well, here in Kansas, we consider ourselves a Red state through and through. We don’t go for any of that Sodom and Gomorrah Blue state stuff. Our cattle are bred from our “Certified Heterosexual Cattle” parents, and raised on Good Christian Ranches. We prohibit our cattle from accessing the internet, as there’s only filth and porn and the Devil’s Handiwork in those nasty computers. Each Sunday, all ranches are visited by a Church van with loudspeakers, to deliver that day’s sermon to these fine upstanding animals.

On the day of their Dispatch to Heaven, the animals arrive at our House of Worship, where they are given a chance to confess any sins, re-affirm their faith in the Lord, or testify that they have indeed led a holy life. Then they are dispatched to the World Beyond, unless we have any heathens or homosexuals to dispatch first.

Link to the article is below:

Beef article

Baths & Milk

2011-05-28T08:00:00.000-07:00

Thursday’s blog about baths reminded me about another incident from the past. I don’t remember my exact age because I was only 1 or 2 or 3 at the time. My aunt was giving my brother and I a bath in the bathtub. Everything was very peaceful, and I remember being pretty relaxed. Then I look down, and floating through my legs and toward the front of the bathtub was a log from the forest. It was moving pretty slowly, just moseying down the river. Maybe that’s why I was so relaxed all of the sudden. I remember staring at in fascination, thinking, “Wow, would you look at that!” Don’t think my aunt had quite the same thought in mind, as that’s all I remember, and assume we were pulled out of the bath right about then. It was my most memorable bathing experience, and probably hers too, unfortunately. Can’t remember if she offered to give us any more baths after that.

Speaking of crappy behavior, the latest nominee to the Wall of Shame is the FDA. They are continuing their war on raw milk, now going to war with an Amish farmer in Pennsylvania. Sort of like the playground bully beating up on the little kid. It will only get worse, as after July 3 the FDA will have the power to confiscate any food it deems unsafe or mislabeled. This is a recipe for disaster, as the FDA already is involved with numerous cases of abuses of power. They raid locations in California, even there are no recorded instances of anyone ever dying from raw milk from California. They apparently are unfamiliar with the continent of Europe, where raw milk is the norm.

In the meantime, you never quite hear about any raids taking place at the big factory farms, like the egg place in Iowa. The message appears to be that if you’re big enough, you don’t have to worry about those irritating safety and hygiene issues. You simply have to remember to mail that check full of money to your local Congressman. Contribute early and contribute often, and you’ll be amazed how smoothly government works. You might even get them to start going after your competitors.

Link to article that was in the SF Chronicle recently:

Raw milk

On The Ride

2011-05-27T17:30:00.000-07:00

As a cold morphed into a 102 deg fever last night, this week turned into a little wilder ride. Kicked the fever down with Tylenol today, and finally felt like getting out of bed tonight. So for today’s Friday Music Video it’s “On the Ride” by Aly and AJ Michalka. First heard this song when I watched Cow Belles (Disney Channel movie) a few years ago.

Bath Salts

2011-05-26T17:51:00.000-07:00

Apparently my cold has tired of limiting itself to some congestion, and is now exploring additional playgrounds like my throat and muscles. At least tomorrow I have a very light day and intend to take it easy. I thought maybe a bath with some soothing music and bath salts might do the trick to make me better. That is, until Andy with gorillasites sent me the following story. The headline says it all:

Lingerie-Clad Man High On "Bath Salts" Kills Pygmy Goat (w/ Fantastic Mugshot)

Just when you thought life couldn’t get any weirder, here we go. Link to the article is below, I think you’ll find it worth your while:

Lingerie Man High on Bath Salts

Ah Choo

2011-05-25T17:47:00.000-07:00

There are times when I wish I was a teenager again. No job or money worries, no lingering aches and pains, a full head of hair, braces, acne.......uh oh, let me rethink that a minute.....lol..... One advantage was that when you were sick, you could almost alway stay home and enjoy a relaxing stress free day. I thought about that today as I was enjoying my cold.

Back then, mom would always ask “how do you feel?” If there was any doubt, you would stay home. Even if you didn’t feel horrible, you made sure to phrase it so you’d sound sick enough, maybe adding a “I’m sick and may die in 30 seconds” look on your face for good measure. No sense in wasting an opportunity like this. So once everyone left, you had the whole house to yourself. A bit of TV, lunch, and then curled up on the couch or in bed with a good book or two. By late afternoon, you made sure you were back in bed when brother and sister came home, and later when mom and dad came home. If you displayed the proper lethargy and blew into a kleenex a few times, you could count on your chores being given to others, and maybe even dinner in bed.

As an adult, it seems like it’s a 50/50 chance whether I’ll get sick when I can take time off or when I’m overloaded. This week is pretty hectic, and when I came down with this thing Monday it was like “Oh S***”, as there’s no goofing off time till Friday. Trying to get some work done when your nose is doing its damndest impression of a dripping faucet, racing to see if it can hit that paper on your desk before you can reach the kleenex, is a pain in the butt. My only consolation is that this cold seems a little mild, so I guess I should be thankful for the little things. At least it’s not one of those “sneeze every 30 seconds, put on 35 pieces of clothing and still shiver with cold” bugs.

Kind of wish life had one of those Staples “Easy” buttons, except this one would be “Hold”. If you were sick or way, way behind on getting stuff done, you could hit “Hold” and put the rest of the World on hold for a few hours.

I'm pooped

2011-05-24T17:53:00.000-07:00

Fighting a cold today, I'm going to sit a spell and let the rest of you mosey on by.

Midwest Meanderings

2011-05-23T11:27:00.000-07:00

Today's potpouri from the Midwest:

On person was killed in Minneapolis from the tornado system Sunday. No word if God hit the wrong button by accident when he attempted to send down a new Rapture from his Living Earth computer program. It could also be a signal that he's not too happy with the Minnesota legislature, who instead of focusing on economic issues, are passing gay marriage bans.

I was concerned at first, until I read these reassuring words from the bill's sponsor, Rep. Steve Gottwalt. "This is not about hatred. It is not about discrimination or intolerance". Whew, that's good to hear, I was worried for a moment. I'm sure this is Gottwalt's second choice, since burning crosses on black people's lawns is no longer allowed. I am not overlooking the possibility that this is a humanitarian gesture, to make sure gays don't have to go through the indignity of having spouses cheat on them like the IMF, Schwarzeneger, Edwards affairs.

In other non related news from Ohio, a couple found themselves up to their ankles in trouble for rafting on a flood swollen river without life preservers and lying about it afterwards. A judge sentenced Grace Nash, 20, and Bruce Crawford, 22, to stand in a tiny swimming pool while wearing life jackets and handing out water safety brochures at a festival in Painesville, Ohio. Now that is proper justice, with the punishment fitting the crime and a sense of humor in the background. Hats off to the judge in that one.

Sierra Leone

2011-05-22T07:56:00.000-07:00

Now that most of you sinners have been left here after the Rapture, you may be wondering what you can do to improve your chances for next time. So I thought I'd post an article that tells what one woman is doing to help female prisoners in Sierra Leone. A positive difference. Link is below:

Sierra Leone

Raise Your Glass

2011-05-20T18:40:00.000-07:00

Long, long week comes to an end. To celebrate the end of it, thought I'd post Pink's "Raise Your Glass" for today's Friday Music Video. Really wild and cool video.

Satan's work

2011-05-16T21:19:00.000-07:00

Was on a jobsite today in Fresno, and the electrician was talking about world conspiracies. He told me all my tax dollars went to the IMF, that the government is poisoning its citizens and also caused the Japanese earthquake, that the Bohemian club member are all homosexuals, and that there was definitely something Satanic in homosexuality itself. When I mentioned that scientists have found scientific evidence that homosexuality is biological, he stated, "Well, I still think there's something Satanic in there".

Apparently all the little children did not pay attention in the Science class when they were growing up, nor did they pay attention to developments when they were grown up. It was a little funny, but also a little bizarre.

Blogster

2011-05-15T12:40:00.000-07:00

I poked my nose back over at blogster this morning, and ended up setting up a blog there. This seems to be one of the few places with a blogstream feel. The main page shows you who recently updated their blogs, shows you some new users, who’s online, who just commented, etc. I thought you couldn’t post external content, but you can post youtube videos and links to stuff, so apparently I was wrong.

When I was signing up, I had a glitch not filling all the info in. When tried again, I got a message saying "that email is already in use", so either it was cause of my goof, or they may be tied into google or blogspot somehow. So I used another email. I just mention this in case it happens to someone else.

They don’t allow pornography, so Sarge wouldn’t be able to post his pictures of the day. However, I was able to easily post text, text with a link, pictures, and a youtube video. The tagging part was a little more difficult but had a few new choices, so probably okay (and it’s optional for posts anyway). You can subscribe to people (like Follow) and I believe you get email notification that their blog is updated. The commenting works well. I know you get email when people comment on your blog, I don’t know if you get email once someone replies to a comment you left on another blog.

They don’t appear to have Themes, so all blogs look similar. And they don’t have a Dashboard. You do have the ability to “Friend” someone (which is separate from Subscribe) and you do see which blogster people visited your blog. Overall I kinda like it. So I think that’ll be my duplicate blog to the blogspot one, at least for now.
Link to new blog:
Skinny Blogster

I will still be doing the blog here on blogspot. I just mention this for those that are unhappy with blogspot and want to try something else.

Ritalin

2011-05-15T06:44:00.000-07:00

Lawrence Diller, a Bay Area doctor, is out with his second book about Ritalin, entitled “Remembering Ritalin”. In it he follows up on 10 patients of his who took Ritalin in their adolescence. While some other studies have concluded that ADHD is a lifelong disease that needs lifelong medication, he found that wasn’t the case in the 10 patients he followed up with. The difference, not surprisingly, is that his patients tended to be middle or upper class, with better education, better family support, and had access to counseling. To his credit, he supports drugs as a last resort rather than his first choice.

Some of the eye popping statistics in the article were:

1) With 4% of the world’s population, the US uses 80% of the world’s stimulants.

2) The US produced 1 pound of legal speed in 2010 for every US citizen.

3) One in 10 eleven year old boys take some form of Ritalin or similar drug.

4) Between 1996 and 22010, methylphenidate use is up 424,000 percent, and amphetamine use is up 745,600 percent.

5) Italy uses 10% of what the US uses, and Japan uses 2% of what the US uses.

Based on the above, I think it’s obvious we are over medicating kids. Even though I suspect that some of the increase in ADHD is due to environmental pollution or chemical exposure, there’s a good chunk that is lumped into the category and medicated away.

It’s an interesting article. The link is here:

Ritalin

No Sweat

2011-05-13T17:01:00.000-07:00

For today's Friday Music Video, I'm gonna dial up the volume a bit from the last couple of weeks and put up "Heart and Soul" from the Irish rock band No Sweat. They had some success in 1989 and released their one and only album in 1990. Joe Elliott from Def Leppard produced the title track "Heart and Soul". While it was a pretty good album, they then disintegrated, partially due to grunge's entrance on the scene and mostly from from a bunch of egos in the band (so I've heard).

The Magic Elevator

2011-05-11T17:06:00.000-07:00

A fifteen-year-old Amish boy and his father were in a mall. They were amazed by almost everything they saw, but especially by two shiny, silver walls that could move apart and then slide back together again.

The boy asked, “What is this, Father?”

The father (never having seen an elevator) responded, “Son, I have never seen anything like this in my life, I don't know what it is.”

While the boy and his father were watching with amazement, a heavy-set old woman in a wheel chair moved up to the moving walls and pressed a button. The walls opened, and the lady rolled between them into a small room. The walls closed and the boy and his father watched the small numbers above the walls light up sequentially.

They continued to watch until it reached the last number… and then the numbers began to light in the reverse order.

Finally the walls opened up again and a gorgeous 24-year-old blonde stepped out.

The father, not taking his eyes off the young woman, said quietly to his son...

“Go get your mother.”

ebooks

2011-05-08T07:03:00.000-07:00

Reading an article in the SF Chronicle about the digital book publishing company Byliner and "Three Cups of Deceipt", a takedown of Greg Mortenson, I was struck by a few things. It appears the future is here now for digital publishing, and it is changing the world of books.

Krakauer's mini book was 20,000 words, and Byliner is targeting works of 10 to 30,000 words, saying they can be read in 2 hours or so. Krakauer's $2.99 tablet version was a best seller on Kindle and Apple sites.

While there are still going to be a lot of books published on paper (just as there are still newspapers around), I think the digital market may come to surpass the paper one. One of the biggest benefits of digital is price. A digital book can be distributed for a minimal cost. No production, shipping, or bookstore costs needed. The low cost lets you distribute almost any length of work, which opens the market up to a lot more people.

Just as blogs have created a whole other arena for the written world, I think digital books and especially self published digital books will do the same thing. Everyone will be able to publish, and with the low prices, it will be easier to sell them. The one drawback may be that with more authors hitting the marketplace, it may be harder for an author to get noticed in the crowd. Hence more authors may use blogs or literature sites to try to promote their book, or use their Facebook or other sites.

Link to the Chronicle article is here:
Article

Two digital self publishing sites:
Smashwords

Scribd

Link is here

2011-05-07T07:00:00.000-07:00

Having trouble redoing post to add the link I forgot.
Link is here:
Marijuana article

Spanking Obama

2011-05-07T06:56:00.000-07:00

While the flowers, candy, and praise have been showered on Obama the last week or so, it's time to let a few May showers dampen the parade. Not to mention it lets me get rid of two items out of my future blog pile.

Last month, during a fundraising breakfast in San Francisco, protestors serenaded the President a cappella "We paid our dues,.... where's our change?" Obama handled it well, smiling and letting the protestors finish most or all of the song. One of the pool reporters there, Carla Marinucci of the SF Chronicle, shot a video and posted it on her blog. Well, Team Obama later threatened to banish her from any future pool reporting opportunities. This from the President who ran on a platform of change and open government. Another example of Do As I Say, Not As I Do.

The other disturbing article I ran across talked about the increase in Federal prosecutions of pot growers. In October 2009, Obama's administration declared they would stop arresting people who complied with their states' medical marijuana laws. Now, 18 months later, it appears they were actually saying, "Ha ha, just kidding".

Obama's people have raided 87 growers and dispensaries in medical marijuana states in 18 months, or 4.83 a month. Under big bad Bush, the government raided 200 places in 8 years, or 2.08 a month. The latest case highlighted was the prosecution of an attorney and doctor (husband and wife) who were guilty of raising at least 100 plants "over several years". They say it was never over 44 plants in a year.

So a 56 year old with back pain and hemophilia, and his wife who had effects from chemotherapy for breast cancer, are now headed to jail. It is heartwarming to see Obama crack down on sincere menaces to society like these two. Heaven forbid they should be allowed to be on the streets wreaking havoc on our communities. In jail they can join the thousands of BP executives Obama jailed for the Gulf Spill and Wall St financiers Obama jailed for their shenanigans.......right?

Link to the article is below:

Temptation eyes

2011-05-06T17:16:00.000-07:00

For today's Friday Music Video, it's back a bit to 1971 or so, with "Temptation Eyes" by The Grass Roots. I liked the chorus as a kid, still like it today.

Dear Abby

2011-05-05T19:35:00.000-07:00

This one is a little old, as you'll be able to tell, but it was pretty good at the time.

Dear Abby:

My husband is a liar and a cheat. He has cheated on me from the

beginning. When I confront him, he denies everything. What's worse is

everyone knows he cheats on me. It is so humiliating! Also, since he

lost his job two years ago he hasn't even looked for a new one. All he

does is sit around the living room in his underwear and watch TV while I

work to pay the bills. And since our daughter went away to college he

doesn't even pretend to like me. He keeps calling me a lesbian. What

should I do?

Signed Clueless

Dear Clueless:

Dump him. You're a New York senator now. You don't need him!

News Flash!

2011-05-04T18:32:00.000-07:00

This just in:

"The Obama and PETA jointly announced today that no animals were harmed in the killing of Osama bin Laden....."

I thought of the above fantasy headline when I read headlines today and yesterday proclaiming that "no torture was used in getting the information to hunt down Bin Laden". I couldn't see the point in even announcing that fact, as I doubt if anyone cares. It may be a case where Obama wants to point this out to infer that the info needed was obtained by HIS administration and not Bush's.

While US and Pakistan claim Pakistan didn't know, I kinda wonder about that. It's a little strange that in a military town like that (2 divisions or brigades are there, don't know exact size or description, and a military academy and police as well), no one showed up during the 40 minute or so firefight. Even if it was a 30 min battle, it's odd that the Pakistanis arrived only after the US departed. Someone had to know.

Harvard vs "The Yard"

2011-05-03T17:29:00.000-07:00

Interesting article comparing the financial costs and rewards of a Harvard eductation vs. going to work as a prison guard in California. The better plan may be to avoid those nasty Northeast winters, those stuffy society types, and all that mind-numbing homework.

Article

Osama

2011-05-02T06:38:00.000-07:00

Watching the news reports last night on Osama's death, I wasn't jumping up and down for joy. Having taken 10 years, it's not so exciting (if that's even the right word) as it would have been in October 2001. I don't know if it will make a huge difference anyway. I assume there will be other members who will rise up, and given the number of followers, I don't expect the group to go away for a long time. The threats will still be coming, as we've removed its President but have another one taking office soon.

The other thing that I think is important is that it appears that one of the main reasons we were able to get him now is that elements in Pakistan gave us information and joined in the hunt. Prior to this there was active resistance in Pakistan (and there still is a lot of anti Americanism there) that effectively shut us out. One of the turning points appears to be Al Qeada's targeting of multiple groups and areas in Pakistan, which wore out his welcome there with some key players. Our enemy became their enemy.

This ties in to something I read a few years ago, that talked about Al Qaeda's diminishing popularity in the Muslim world, due to its relentless killing and violence. Many members I think seem to kill for the sake of killing, and are outside the mainstream.

Going forward, I think the US would be far better served getting out of a whole lot of areas, including Libya, Afghanistan, and Iraq. Cutting the military in half would be a good start. Cutting it 75% would be even better. As the Pakistan episode shows, people will cooperate if you are either or friend or if their interests match yours. If we focused our efforts on feeding, educating, supporting people both abroad and in the US, we'd be a far more effective country and far more popular. Changing the "military first" mindset would be a major step in the right direction.

Some might claim that Osama's death means we are winning this war on terrorism. Given that one of Osama's goals was to drag us into war and bleed us dry, I think he may be closer to winning than we are. This war on terrorism seems to be paralleling the war on drugs, as both suck vast amounts of money from this country and have neglible results to show for the effort.

Browsers

2011-05-01T11:55:00.000-07:00

I got popup on Firefox today urging me to update from 3.6.xx to 4.0. I had heard 4 was out and was thinking of trying it. However, in travels today around internet, sounds like blogger/blogspot has some issues with both Firefox 4 and Internet Explorer 9, and Firefox 4 also does not play nice with some web sites. So for those of you thinking to upgrade, I'd suggest holding off for a bit, as I'm going to do.

Dogs

2011-04-30T18:59:00.000-07:00

While the world may be going to the dogs, the dogs are going to the bathroom. Only their bathroom is your street, your park, or your yard. In America alone, dogs deposit one to two billion (yes, billion) pounds of doo doo every year. Each gram of doo may contain up to 23 million fecal coli from bacteria, along with along with camplobacter, leptospira and a boxcar load of zoonotic diseases easily transmitted to humans.

Riding to the rescue in the near future may be a French company, Agronutrition SAS. They are developing a system that uses dog feces, urine, sex pheromones, and a secret meat protein, to encourage the dogs to dump in a specific spot. Trial test runs have supposedly had a high degree of success. The company then collects the waste, decontaminates it, and sells it as organic fertilizer.

Very interesting story. Link is below:

Dog Doo

Walking in Memphis

2011-04-29T03:24:00.000-07:00

For today's Friday Music video, it's Marc Cohn's "Walking in Memphis". The video is a fan's photo tribute tied to the live version of the song. Although I like the studio version of the song better, I liked this video. They did a nice job with the pictures, and in the spirit of blogging I thought it was only right to share this with others. I also thought that given the recent death and destruction from tornados in the south, it was also appropriate to post something a little inspirational.

Test for Men

2011-04-27T20:24:00.000-07:00

A test for Men:
Men - you should understand this. Women - some insight.
Note: Although this is a test for men only and all "real men" answer "C" to all of these questions, women will also benefit by reviewing them so they get to understand men and thereby enrich their own lives.

1. Alien beings from a highly advanced society visit the Earth, and you are the
first human they encounter. As a token of intergalactic friendship, they
present you with a small but incredibly sophisticated device capable of curing
all disease, providing an infinite supply of clean energy, wiping out hunger
and poverty, and permanently eliminating oppression and violence all over the
entire Earth. You decide to:
A. Present it to the President of the United States
B. Present it to the Secretary General of the United Nations
C. Take it apart

2. As you grow older, what lost quality of your youthful life do you miss the most?
A. Innocence
B. Idealism
C. Cherry bombs

3. When is it okay to kiss another male?
A. When you wish to display simple and pure affection without regard for social
conventions.
B. When he is the Pope (Not on the lips)
C. When he is your brother and you are Al Pacino and this is the only really
sportsman-like way to let him know that, for business reasons, you have to have
him killed.

4. In your opinion, the ideal pet is:
A. A cat
B. A dog
C. A dog that eats cats

5. You have been dating a woman for several years. She's attractive and
intelligent, and you always enjoy being with her. One leisurely Sunday
afternoon the two of you are taking it easy. You're watching a football game.
She's reading the papers and suddenly, out of the clear blue sky, tells you
she thinks she really loves you, but she can no longer bear the uncertainty of
not knowing where your relationship is going. She says she's not asking
whether you want to get married; only whether you believe you have some kind of
future together.
What do you say?
A. You sincerely believe the two of you do have a future, but you don't want to
rush it.
B. Although you also have strong feelings for her, you cannot honestly say you'll
be ready anytime soon to make a lasting commitment, and you don't want to hurt
her by holding out false hope.
C. You cannot believe the Broncos called a draw play on
third and seventeen.

6. Okay, so you have decided you truly love a woman and you want to spend the rest
of your life with her, sharing the joys and the sorrows the world has to offer,
come what may. How do you tell her?
A. You take her to a nice restaurant and tell her after dinner.
B. You take her for a walk on a moonlit beach, and you say her name, and when she
turns to you, with the sea breeze blowing through her hair and the stars in her
eyes you tell her.
C. Tell her what?

7. One weekday morning your wife wakes up feeling ill and asks you to get your
three children ready for school.
Your first question to her is:
A. "Do they need to eat or anything?"
B. "They're in school already?"
C. "There are three of them?"

8. When is it okay to throw away a set of veteran underwear?
A. When it has turned the color of a dead whale and developed new holes so large
you're not sure which ones were originally intended for your legs.
B. When it is down to eight loosely connected underwear molecules and has to be
handled with tweezers.
C. It is never okay to throw away veteran underwear. A real guy checks the
garbage regularly in case somebody, and we are not naming names, but this would
be his wife, is quietly trying to discard his underwear.

9. What, in your opinion, is the most reasonable explanation for the fact that
Moses led the Israelites all over the place for forty years before they finally
got to the Promised Land?
A. He was being tested
B. He wanted them to really appreciate the Promised Land when they finally got
there.
C. He refused to ask for directions

10. What is the human race's single greatest achievement?
A. Democracy
B. Religion
C. Remote control

Blocking Users

2011-04-25T10:14:00.000-07:00

I noticed a follower pop up on my blog this past week. Looks like something from Malaysia. A bit weird. When I poked into it a little more, I see it/they joined a ton of sites. The alphabetical list is staggering. Either a lot of people spent a lot of time, or it's a bot or program.

Anyway, I blocked the user today, and I noticed it is on some but not all sites I follow. I see it on Bella's, Sarge's, Joram's, NAC's, HD Nelson's, Mr.O's, Polar B, Kimba, TAB, and Bohemian.

If any of you want to block it, I thought I'd put instructions below. You'll know who I'm referring to, the user sounds like a chemistry experiment.

To block:
1) Go to Dashboard.
2) Go to window where you can click to do New Post, and instead go to the right to click on "Followers".

3) When the screen of followers pops up, click on the picture icon of the person you want.
4) Then on the next screen, next to their picture, you'll see "block this user", which you can click on.

It may just be someone testing to see if they have a way to popularize their blog, but in any case I don't want that garbage on my site.

Corning Video

2011-04-25T05:53:00.000-07:00

Corning had an interesting commercial on youtube, showing a glimpse of a possible future. Don't know how feasible it is for bus shelters, as I'm sure they'd be busted shortly after installation, but it's still interesting to watch.

What Would Jesus Do?

2011-04-24T06:16:00.000-07:00

Well, if Jesus visited New York City, he probably wouldn't ride his bike on the sidewalk, or walk by a police van and mouth off. Apparently in NYC you must dismount your bike in the street, and then walk it to your door. If you ride directly to your door and are on the sidewalk, you can get a ticket. Also in NYC, you apparently get arrested by six cops if you make any smart aleck remarks. It's an interesting story about abuse of power.

Link to story is below, and as you read, be sure to watch the youtube video "An afternoon with the NYPD" that is on the same page.

Link:
NYPD

Jesus Soars

2011-04-23T15:39:00.000-07:00

There was a nice positive story in the SF Chronicle a few weeks ago about Jesus El, who is on the Slam Dunk Team for the Warriors basketball team here. With a "local kid makes good" theme, it's a nice read. I thought I'd post it today to continue the alternative Jesus theme.

Link is below:
Jesus El

Friday Music Video

2011-04-22T02:59:00.000-07:00

For today's Friday Music Video, I was thinking what to do to link it to Easter or Good Friday. Looked up Good Friday and found out it was to remember the crucifixion of Christ (yeah, I know, my religious knowledge is lacking, to say the least). So for crucifixion, what else could I put up besides the crucifixion song from Monty Python's "Life of Brian" movie?

Although "The Meaning of Life" was my favorite Python movie, Brian was pretty good. One of the bettter lines was "He's not the messiah, he's just a very naughty boy".

The Bright Side

2011-04-22T02:56:00.000-07:00

Currency

2011-04-20T19:11:00.000-07:00

A Chinese tourist in America went into a bank to exchange currency. The number of dollars received disappointed the lady so she complained that a few days earlier she had gotten much more money. Short on common language skills, she made her point very loudly.

The flustered clerk struggled to communicate, trying to simplify the discussion and explain currency fluctuations. He settled in to make his point repeating, loudly and firmly, "fluctuations", “fluctuations”..

After a few minutes, finally the Chinese tourist understood, and replied, "fluc you white guys too"

3 Cups of Flim Flam

2011-04-19T18:31:00.000-07:00

Watched 60 Minutes this past Sunday. They had a segment on Greg Mortenson, who wrote the book “3 Cups of Tea”, has helped build schools in Pakistan and Afghanistan, and speaks extensively around the country. He was just here in the Bay Area a week or so ago. I first heard about him through AZRON, who mentioned him in a blog. I got the book, and was really impressed with the story and what Greg and his group had done. I blogged about it then, and I think I blogged about it again more recently after his second book came out “Stones into Schools”.

Well, on Sunday night, I went through the equivalent of finding out your spouse has been cheating on you. Turns out that several events in the book were either exaggerated or outright lies. The number of schools built is not what he says, and some are not even being used for schools. His institute spends more money promoting his book (of which proceeds go to him personally and not the institute) than it does building schools. The foundation has only had one audit, and several board members resigned in 2003 or so because of their concerns.

He refused any interviews with 60 Minutes, and the one time they caught up to him he fled the scene. Really disappointing behavior, as he comes across as a snake oil salesman. I feel sort of like a schmuck for promoting his stuff and buying the book.

Link below to 60 Minutes:

60 Minutes

Earthquakes

2011-04-18T06:42:00.000-07:00

Although it doesn’t seem that long ago, it was 22 years ago that I was in my old office in San Francisco, 4th floor of an older building, talking to an engineer on the phone. The building started to shake and I said to him, “Hold on, we’re having an earthquake”. It was very casual, as we’d been through small ones before. When it continued for more than a few seconds, intensified, and I had a potted plant slide off a shelf and crash to the floor, I got a little more concerned and headed for the doorway.

When it was done, I was thinking “Wow, that was pretty cool”. I went back to the phone but the phone line was dead, as was the power. Looking outside, I saw traffic mostly stopped, with people getting out of their cars, stoplights not working. I headed down to the street and joined a lot of other people milling about, either talking to listening to the news from cars or portable radios. Our office was just south of Market Street, and there wasn’t a ton of damage. A few spots were damaged, but as we learned, the worst was in the Marina District, where landfill and soil issues resulted in a lot of movement and collapsed buildings.

After an hour or so, upon hearing that the SF to Oakland Bay Bridge had collapsed in one section and was closed, I made my way down to the waterfront, and joined a lot of other people taking a ferry east across the bay. I asked one of the deckhands how much the ride was going to be, as I figured in a case like this, they could charge $25, $50, or even $100 and people would probably pay. His reply was “It’s free, we we can’t charge for something like this”. As typical in many disasters, the good of the people rises to the surface. As we moved away from the dock and got out into the bay, we looked back onto a mostly darkened city, with a reddish glow from the Marina district where fires still burned. The boat was a little quiet, as all of us took it in.

Arriving at Oakland, the lights were on and it seemed to be a different world, as no damage was really evident. It was only when I got home that I saw pictures and film of the Bay Bridge collapse, the Oakland Cypress freeway collapse, the damage in the Marina district, as well as damage in Santa Cruz and elsewhere. It was an incredible experience.

Today is the 105th anniversary of the San Francisco quake of 1906. The SF Chronicle ran an account of the earthquake yesterday, written by Leonie von Zesch. It was interesting to see the parallels of people milling around, fires, damage, etc, even if theirs was a lot worse than mine. I also looked at wikipedia for some other interesting facts. Turns out the dynamiting that was done to supposedly save buildings resulted in the destruction of 50% of the buildings that might have actually survived. Also, since insurance paid for fire damage but not earthquake damage, many people burned their houses and buildings in the immediate aftermath, in order to get some money and avoid a complete loss. Some of the tent cities that sprung up were still functioning two years after the quake. All interesting stuff.

The von Zesch article was two parts. Links are below:

Link to part 1 of von Zesch:

von Zesch part 1

Link to part 2 of von Zesch:

von Zesch part 2

Link to wikipedia:

Wikipedia

Rocket Singh

2011-04-17T06:23:00.000-07:00

With my wife off backpacking the Grand Canyon this weekend, I thought it’d be a good time to watch a foreign film or two. She can’t follow the subtitles too well since English is her 2nd language, so we normally stick to English language movies. Having just joined Netflix a few months ago, I ordered up two movies. First up was an Indian comedy called Rocket Singh: Salesman of the Year. I was psyched up as I popped in the DVD Thursday night.

After a few pleasantries, a preview or two, and a heartwarming message that mentioned the FBI, I was ready for the main menu. “Watch Movie” was one selection, and “Subtitles” was another. I figured I’d better check on subtitles so I scurried off to that department. Was able to select English out of four choices, but had an endless loop of a short clip and nothing seemed to register. I found myself in the B phase - bemused, bewitched, and finally befuddled.

I finally gave up and went back to the Menu, stripped of any pretensions that I had any worthwhile technical knowledge. I clicked on Watch Movie, and the show began. After a few minutes, I was trying to figure out why anyone would recommend this thing. The subtitles consisted of a few words for every couple of sentences. It was as if the translator was doing this in shorthand, and it was up to the viewer to guess what the entire phrase was. I almost expected Vanna White to appear and ask me if I wanted to buy a vowel.

I thought I would stick it through, and after five or ten minutes, I noticed some white mark at the bottom of the screen. So I changed the TV view from Wide Zoom to regular Wide. Lo and behold, there appeared the missing subtitles! All made sense after all.

At this point, I was forced to put the movie in pause, head over to the kitchen, and firmly affix a MORON sticker to my forehead. Now properly tagged and identified, I was free to enjoy and actually understand the rest of the movie. It was a pretty good movie, and I would definitely recommend it to anyone that has Netflix.

Pigs

2011-04-16T06:04:00.000-07:00

Kateoplis at tumblr had a good post about hog farming and efforts by the big farms to prevent people from finding out what goes on there. I reblogged it on my tumblr blog.
Link to the NY Times article she referred to:
NY Times

Link to Kateoplis blog entry:
Kateoplis

Friday Music Video

2011-04-15T18:37:00.000-07:00

Today's Friday Music Video is Point of Grace and the song "How You Live". I can't remember if I first heard them on KLOVE or if it was surfing around youtube one night. In any case, they have great vocals and some nice songs. The youtube videos have embedding disabled so I can only put the link here:
Point of Grace

Satirical video

2011-04-13T18:07:00.001-07:00

Harry & Paul on BBC2 did a funny video on the Italian prime minister’s problems. PrimeMinister Silvio Berlusconi has been accused of having sex with underage girls among other things. The video is below, great stuff.

Berlusconi video

2011-04-13T18:06:00.000-07:00

K9 detectives

2011-04-12T06:25:00.000-07:00

I guess it's a sign of the times, but it still surprised me to see an ad for a new detective agency - K9 detectives. They use dogs to sniff out bedbugs. Might have been a weird idea a number of years ago, but obviously now there is a demand for this sort of thing. I know SF has a problem in areas, and NYC has a big problem.

Link to one company:
K9 detectives

B-17

2011-04-10T08:15:00.000-07:00

I think that song “One Thing Leads to Another” is a perfect theme song for the internet. I saw an ad last week for the Liberty Foundation, a non profit group that has a restored B-17 bomber and P-40E fighter from WWII, and do visits around the country. They were doing a show here in the Bay Area this weekend. I was kind of interested, as you can fly up in the B-17. However, the $430 price tag dampened my enthusiasm a little.

However, it’s an interesting story they have, as they did an incredible restoration job on an old broken up B-17G. Like many restoration projects, it was a labor of love. I poked around their site for a little bit, and it got me curious as to the crew member duties, etc. So I poked around further and found the Arizona Wing of the Commemorative Air Force. They have a website with a page detailing various crew duties. I thought it was really interesting. Those guys had it tough, up on oxygen in freezing planes, etc. So I thought I’d pop it on the blog.

Link to Liberty Foundation:

Liberty

Link to crew description:

Crew

Politics & Problems

2011-04-09T06:21:00.000-07:00

Like a shop a holic who just got their credit line increased, the nation breathes a sigh of relief today as lawmakers agree on 78 billion of additional cuts yesterday and pledge to pass legislation to keep the government running through this year. Shouldn’t we be out in the streets celebrating?

I’m keeping the champagne in the fridge a bit longer. Given the trillion dollar deficits and accumulated debt, this deal looks more like window dressing for the soundbytes on the six o’clock news, rather than any serious budget deficit reduction. We’re just kicking the can down the road, as the politicians continue to hand out candy to the overweight diabetic patient.

I see the Republicans crowing about cutting funding for planned parenthood, and Congressman Ryan making noise about balancing a budget while he conveniently ignores entitlements and military spending, two huge contributors to the debt. On the Democrat side, I don’t see things much better. I don’t see much intent on cutting the deficit either, and an absolutely awful failure to communicate clear goals.

I’m still waiting for the press conference where Congress announces that they are going to do their part by slashing their salaries and benefits, reducing Congress’ budget by over 50%, and requiring that all laws and regulations be applied to the Congress and not just to the rest of the country. In addition, they agree that on each bill, they will publish which Senators and Representatives voted for it, the dollar amounts of any contributions received by the beneficiaries of that bill, and the names of those beneficiaries.

That would be followed by the Republicans announcing they support cutting miltary spending over 50%, announcing daily which large corporations are paying minimal or no taxes, and supporting a graduated increase in capital gains taxes. Next would be the Democrats announcing that they will remove exemptions in Obama care for corporations and unions, support school vouchers, and begin cutting government bureacracies.

While I wait, I have other things to think about. One is our new adventure in Libya. Like the excitement of a first date, we had endless reports about the valiant rebels and evil Khadafy, followed by video of our military might spanking ol Libya. The public stood and cheered, which reminded me a bit of another adventure in Iraq that started in 2003. Now the morning after the date is dawning, and we have NATO forces hitting rebels by mistake, stalemates developing, and talk of the need to send in American forces. Not to mention blowing over 200 million on those Tomahawks (althought it was one hell of a party).

I wondered why France was so eager to jump in, hitting Libya even before the UN proclamation. After reading an article mentioned on Tumblr, I understood a little more. France likes to intervene in Africa like we like to intervene in the Middle East and South & Central America.

Link to Africa article:
France in Africa

Orig blogged on tumblr by azspot:

AZSPOT

I found out about it on a reblog by mohandasgandhi:

MohandasGandhi

Friday Music Video

2011-04-08T17:47:00.000-07:00

For today's Friday Music Video, it's Bruce Springsteen's "One Step Up". Sort of melancholy song, but it popped into my head yesterday, and it seems to fit the cold gray weather we've had the last week or two.

I first heard of Springsteen in mid 70's I think. He was on the cover of TIME, and seemed to be touted as the next great star. I didn't think he was all that great, okay I guess. I sort of got the feeling that he was the "in" thing at the moment. I'm sure others will beg to differ, and that's ok.

Of his songs, this is the one that I like the best, so here it is.

One Step Up

2011-04-08T17:43:00.001-07:00

Putzmeister

2011-04-07T18:02:00.000-07:00

Thanks to Andy at gorillasites.com for sending me the link to the article about some very large pumping trucks being sent to Japan from the US, in Russian heavy cargo planes. Very cool stuff, sort of like Tonka trucks for grownups.

Link is here:
Putzmeister

Taxes

2011-04-06T03:51:00.000-07:00

In honor of the upcoming April 15:

A partial collection of requests, excuses, etc received by the IRS in 2000:

One woman wrote:

"My husband and my tax forms have been misplaced. Can you please send me replacements?"

One man wrote:

"Enclosed please find my estimated taxes. Please note that I didn't sign the return. If I have to guess how much I made, you can guess who sent it in."

One man asked for a filing extension:

"As I was getting my tax forms out of the mailbox, I was bit by a black widow spider and I've been laid up since then. Now, I'm not saying you folks put that black widow spider in my mailbox, but let's face it: I sure didn't put it in there!"

One woman asked if she could take a deduction for being married.

"It all depends," said the IRS clerk. "Were you married on Dec. 31?"

"Heavens no!" said the woman. "I'm a June bride!"

One man enclosed a fistful of discount store coupons with his 1040 form. "I'm a little short of cash these days," he explained. "I was hoping you could cash these coupons and give me credit on my return."

One woman asked:

"Can you look on your computer and tell me if my husband is dead?"

One man indignantly objected to an IRS audit:

"I told the truth! I'll even take a polypropylene test to prove it!"

One woman, whose dog was in a TV commercial, asked:

"How can I get a Social Security number for my dog?"

One man asked:

"Didn't you get my death certificate? I mailed it to you."

One woman wrote:

"My daughter just married a man I can't stand. Can I deduct the wedding costs as a casualty loss?"

One man couldn't understand why he kept coming up with a negative number for his total income:

"The form says, 'Subtract line 8 from line 7,'" he said, "and 8 from 7 is a negative number."

One man kept faxing his return, over and over and over. "I don't know what's wrong," he said, "I keep feeding the sheet into the fax machine, but it keeps coming out the other end."

Lastly, one of the IRS workers heard a harried IRS clerk say into the phone:

"Sir, please watch your language. ..Sir, I don't have to take that kind of abuse!...Reverend, I'm ashamed of you."

Sunday

2011-04-05T05:24:00.001-07:00

This past Sunday, my wife and I joined some friends for a hike in a park / regional open space area east of San Francisco. After all the rain we’ve had lately, the hills were incredibly green. It was like someone had taken green felt and laid it over the hills. Looked more like Ireland than California. On top of that you had these beautiful oak trees, with their gnarly branches, as well as some rock outcroppings in a few places. It was really beautiful.

I thought it’d be a great chance to take a few photos for my photography blog. Driving to the park, I noted I had remembered my hiking boots, water, food, daypack, and hat. Everything I needed.........except for the camera. I should have guessed. I think this was practice for Monday, when I got to a jobsite and realized I had forgotten something at the office.

First stop after parking near the gated community (complete with guard booth) was to walk in toward the park. As we walked by some incredibly huge and expensive houses, I was thinking about the people in the houses. I’m sure they look out the window and think, “What a gorgeous view, all these beautiful homes right against these beautiful hills. If it only weren’t for those damn hikers walking by......”

Next up, negotiating the cows gathered at spots along the trail. Most of them were young and pretty skittish around people. My wife got distracted by a dog at one point, and ended up decorating part of her hiking boot with a cowpie. So when we got to a stream later, she dipped in a foot to wash the boot. One of the friends and I immediately started singing “You put your left foot in, you take your left foot out, you put your left foot in and you shake it all about”... the song Hokey Pokey.

It got me thinking how amazing it is that even after all these years that song still sticks in our minds. I’m sure the person who wrote it had no idea they would be creating something that would become so famous. I remember hearing it at the roller rink when I was in growing up. This was in the late 60’s and the 70’s. (By the late 70’s, the rink was gradually declining in popularity, and I think it closed in the late 80’s.)

Anyway, we would go on occasion, strap on our skates, and do our best to negotiate the rink. There’s be a few really good skaters, who could skate forward, backward, on one leg and probably on their hands. They would cruise here and there, so much at ease. The upper bodies relaxed, the legs working smoothly.

Then there were the rest of us. Legs popping out from under us, arms flailing madly, scating like mad while traveling a few feet. The railing was our friend, and we stayed close as much as we could. When your butt was killing you from two many encounters with the hard wood floor, or you were getting exhausted, you’d grab the rail of life for a little while, remembering what it felt like to be upright and in control.

Most of the time would be free skate, with everyone invited. For a few minutes an hour they had an adult skate or a couples skate, as well as the hokey pokey. We’d gather in the center, follow the song, hoping that when we stuck the feet out we wouldn’t lose balance and fall. Some feet were stuck out about 1/4”, as we figured that was enough, no sense in being reckless and meeting Mr. Floor again. The fun part was at the end of the chorus, where everyone pounded their foot twice on the floor. As kids, that was something we looked forward to.

When it was done, you carefully skated from the edge of the rink to the benches to sit down. Sometimes this was done gracefully and efficiently. Other times there were hints of “mass injuries and mayhem at local roller rink as skater takes out 37 other skaters in spectacular crash. Details at 11.”

So “do the hokey pokey and you turn yourself around, and that’s what it’s all about.”...............

Cardboard Bottles

2011-04-04T06:21:00.000-07:00

Interesting article about an Oakland lady developing a bottle made from cardboard and recycled paper. When I first saw the headline, I thought "What the heck?", as I was sure it would leak. Turns out that yes, it does have a thin plastic pouch, an idea borrowed from her childhood in Canada. End result with this new product, however, is a container that does the job and uses considerably less plastic. So while it's not the ecology major's wet dream, it still is a significant improvement.

Link is below:
New bottle

Word Verification

2011-04-03T06:25:00.000-07:00

If anyone else wants to turn off word verification for the comments on their blog, I'm posting instructions here. As Bella and Sherry have mentioned, the risk of spam is almost non existent, and you can always turn it back on.

1) From Dashboard screen, click on "Settings" just to the right of the "New Post" blue button.
2) Then click on the blue "Comments" word at top. Do not click on the black "Comments" word above that.
3) On the screen that appears, scroll down to "Show Word Verification for comments", and click on "No".
4) Then click on the orange "Save Settings" button at the bottom of that screen.

April Fools

2011-04-03T06:08:00.000-07:00

Have two April Fools items to post. Google Mobile did a Meow Me Now press release that was pretty good, including the comments below it. Link is here:
Meow Me Now

The other one was a clever one by Live Drive. I put the video screen link up in the post below.

Backing Up the Cloud

2011-04-03T06:05:00.000-07:00

New blog

2011-04-02T11:35:00.000-07:00

While I am nowhere near the professional level that Bella and Scratch have achieved with their multiple and complex blogs, I decided to start a photography blog on the side. The intent is to mostly put up my stuff, although I will be doing some reblogging on it as well. I was thinking of doing it all here, but my dashboard is getting kind of cluttered and I think it’s going to be easier to have all the photo stuff in a separate place.

We’ll see how this all shakes out. Hopefully I don’t run out of pictures, given the limited quantity and quality of my collection. If all else fails, I’ll be on the corner with a sign “Will work for good pictures”.

I'll put a link to the new blog onto my regular blogspot blog. The link is below as well:
Skinny's Photos

More Bad Reporter

2011-04-02T04:21:00.000-07:00

Don Asmussen had another good cartoon yesterday, so I'm posting it. The Bonds saga and the Sea World news are both skewered, and rightly so. Click on the cartoon to enlarge it.

Friday Music Video

2011-04-01T15:58:00.000-07:00

Came home this week to a power outage in the neighborhood. On the plus side, it’s not the dead of winter. On the negative side, “I Want My Computer!”. Definite withdrawal feelings, as I was dying to check out news and blogs, etc. I plead guilty. When I stayed home today (slight food poisoning), ended up playing with the look of the Tumblr blog. So for today’s music video I almost put up LeRoux’s “Addicted”. However, the song is not one of my great favorites, so I changed directions.

Instead, I thought I’d put up Jordin Sparks’ song “Tattoo”. Love her voice, and this song really grabbed me when I heard it on the radio. Kept thinking, “I gotta remember that song, wonder who it is”. Embedding disabled on the better quality youtube clips, so all I have is the link below:
Tattoo

Cartoon

2011-03-30T20:48:00.000-07:00

Nice cartoon from Bad Reporter, by Don Asmussen on sfgate.com

Hope it is big enough.

If not, the link to the page is here:
Bad reporter

Icon links

2011-03-29T20:03:00.000-07:00

Whit complained about icon lacking links to my blog, so I did some digging. What a pain in the ass!!!!
(Blogger, not Whit)

One link below for explanations:
Robert's blog help

Basically here is what I did.
1) I signed in to blogger like normal.
2) I went to Whit's blog. It appears that the same stuff won't show up if you do this on your own blog, so you have to go to someone else's blog.
3) Go to where they have pictures of all their followers. Just underneath this are the words "Already a member? Sign in".
4) Click on the "sign in" part.
5) Then the screen gives you options of how to sign in. I picked Google button.
6) Then sign in on the screen that pops up.
7) Then you'll find yourself back at that person's blog you started at. The difference is now that your icon is duplicated above all the icon pictures, and next to your icon is "Options".
8) Click on "options".
9) On the choices that pop up, click on "site settings".
10) Then the "basic" area should be shaded, and on the right of my icon was "Add links" in blue letters.
11) I clicked on "add links", and entered my blogspot URL and my site name, then clicked on "add".

That seemed to work. I went to a site or two, clicked on my icon, and my profile box appears. There is no link on my picture, but underneath there is Links part that has a link to my site if you click. I assume that is what Whit and others were looking to get.

Flying Boat

2011-03-29T19:05:00.000-07:00

If you love to fly cramped planes, eating peanuts, with the chair in front dangerously close to your face, and kids kicking the back of your seat, then you probably won’t want to read any further. For the rest of us, I ran across a post about the Boeing 314 flying boat. I had never heard of this thing, but it was huge, and the height of luxury in its day. It flew in the 30’s and 40’s. It had a real dining room, sleeper areas, etc. The post has some great info and pictures to check out.

Link is here:

Flying Boat blog

There is also a museum in Ireland with a replica of the B314:

Link is here:

Ireland museum

Empty Apts

2011-03-28T18:07:00.000-07:00

Back in September, article came out about the Chinese housing bubble. At that time there were 64 million vacant apartments in China. Yeah, that’s right, 64 MILLION. That’s enough to house almost half the US population. And you thought the US real estate bubble was bad. Anyway, I was thinking about Japan when I read this note again today. If I was China I'd be tempted to rent a city out to the Japanese, as China has a few completely empty towns. Maybe a 1 year lease, no security deposit required.

Anyway, it's an interesting, short article. Link is here:
China Apartments

Money Money

2011-03-27T08:21:00.000-07:00

For today’s blog, will throw on a few financial system related articles with the usual suspects.

Article about ex Goldman Sachs employee now at Wall St Journal, doing hit pieces on Elizabeth Warren.
Ironically they call her new agency an “immensely powerful, unaccountable organization”, which is a description that also applies to the Fed, where her agency will be based. Yet for some unknown reason, they aren’t pushing anywhere nearly as strong for accountability for the Fed. (Could it be money?....Naw...).
Link is here:
Elizabeth Warren

In more Goldman Sachs news, the Russian programmer who stole Goldman’s front-running software that helped rig markets, was sentenced to 8 years in jail. If you want swift justice, and six (yes, SIX!) FBI agents to arrest your thief, your name just needs to be Goldman Sachs. Given the governments swift action on this, it makes me wonder if it’s payback for Goldman collaborating with the government or if the government was using the software as well.

Link is here:

Goldman program

And lastly, in a blow for freedom and a move to pull back the sheets on Ben Bernanke’s bed to see what’s inside, the Supreme Court ruled that Fed must release info on 2008 loans.

Link is here:

The Fed

Friday Music video

2011-03-25T18:15:00.001-07:00

Last week, Bella did not like my David Foster “Walkaway” video, complaining it was “soft pop 80’s”. Needless to say, I was devastated. I thought about retreating to the Green Room, the Red Room, or maybe the Blue Room. I decided instead on the Purple Room, where I had a long chat with Barney as to how to deal with the slings and arrows of public opinion.

I emerged a day later refreshed, and committed to modernizing my music. I embarked on an exhausting search for something that was more modern, more hip, more classy, and more sophisticated than the drivel I had been uploading. A few days later, I found it. So for today’s Friday Music Video it’s Sir Mix-a-Lot and “Baby Got Back”. Hope I have redeemed myself in the public’s eye…..
:-)

Baby Got Back

2011-03-25T18:14:00.000-07:00

Wrong Side of Bed

2011-03-24T18:03:00.001-07:00

Reading in Whit's and Scratch's blogs about getting up on the wrong side of bed reminded me of this:

Sister Ann is rushing to vespers and as she turns a corner she runs smack into one of the novices and they both fall. The novice looks at her and says "Ah, Sister Ann, I see we got up on the wrong side of the bed this morning!" Well, she continues to rush towards the chapel and runs smack into one of the other nuns coming out of a doorway. This nun as well looks at her and says "Ah, Sister Ann, I see we got up on the wrong side of the bed this morning!"

Well, by this time Sister Ann is pissed off and really really late for vespers she she is flat-out running. And just as she gets to the chapel she runs into the Mother Superior and they both fall in a heap. As they start to get up the Mother Superior says "Ah, Sister Ann ------"

And Sister Ann says, “I know, I know, you were going to tell me I got up on the wrong side of bed this morning.”

And the Mother Superior says "No, Sister Ann ------- I just wondered why you were wearing the Bishop's shoes."

Jason Becker

2011-03-23T19:19:00.000-07:00

Driving over the Bay Bridge today, heard a bit on KCBS about an upcoming benefit at Slim’s, a nightclub in San Francisco. It’s for Jason Becker, a guitarist suffering from ALS (Lou Gehrig’s Disease). They interviewed Joe Satriani, who’s among those playing the sold out gig. Here’s what Joe said:

“Shredding is almost a nasty word to guitar players, but we’ve learned to love it,” said Joe Satriani, another Bay Area guitar giant who’ll play this weekend’s benefit. “It just means that you put all that you’ve got into your playing and try to push the electric guitar into undiscovered territories of playing.”

He first heard Becker’s name when he was trying to get a record deal. The label head told Satriani he didn’t shred enough, and that he should listen to Becker.

“The first time I heard him I was pretty humbled because I was in my late 20s and here was a kid in his teens playing leaps and bounds around me with his technical ability,” said Satriani.

The list of guitarists so far:

Joe Satriani
Richie Kotzen
Steve Lukather
Kehoe Nation
Flametal
Vinnie Moore
Michael Lee Firkins
Greg Howe, Jeff Watson, Hot for Teacher

The story is an amazing one. A teen guitar prodigy rises to stardom and at age 19 develops ALS. Despite the illness, he continued to play until he couldn’t, and kept composing even when he was reduced to eye movement and chin twitches. The link below is off the website for a documentary being made on him, and it has a lot of info on his background.

Jason Becker

Also here’s a video of a KGO TV news story about him:

Pepsi

2011-03-22T19:33:00.000-07:00

Pepsi last week unveiled a new plastic bottle made entirely of plant based materials. They will do some testing in 2011 and 2012, then if all looks good go into mass production. Good news on the eco front, unless we find out something negative in the future. The bottle will be a type of PET bottle (that's Polyethylene terephthalate, not a bottle for Rover). Link to story is below:
Pepsi

Japan reactors

2011-03-21T18:08:00.000-07:00

If you’re wondering why Japan’s earthquake triggered such a major catastrophe, you may be wondering no more. There’s an article on Bloomberg that details the decades of coverups and instances of falsifying records at Japan’s nuclear power plants. It’s a real eye opener, including one account by a worker involved in construction one of the containment vessels that currently is in part of the problem.

Link is here:

Japan Cover Up

Other article is about known defect in GE reactors. Not as dramatic as the previous article, but I include it here for those who might be interested.

Link is here:

GE defect

Big Brother Mouse

2011-03-20T11:45:00.000-07:00

For something uplifting today, you could peruse the recent article about Big Brother Mouse, a publishing company in Laos that was founded in 2006 by Sasha Alyson, an American ex patriate. The company puts out about 30 children's books a year, employs a local staff, and delivers the books to remote villages by foot, boat, and sometimes elephant. It's a great read.

Link is below:
Laos

Stormy Sundays

2011-03-19T16:20:00.000-07:00

Controversy is apparently brewing again at the Crystal Cathedral church in Garden Grove (Orange County, near Los Angeles). This is the church Robert Schuller founded. The current pastor, Sheila Schuller Coleman, (I assume a daughter?) is asking choir members to sign a covenant stating sex is only to be between heterosexuals. The founder and some other members are, to their credit, fighting this.

This church, by the way, is the same church that declared bankruptcy last fall, and has issues with financial management, as well as family members and insiders who were taking a lot of money.

It seems that this story could be an excellent example of what went wrong in this country the last 10 or 20 years. While the public focus is put on the social issues (gay marriage, abortions, drugs, etc) a blind eye is turned to the financial issues. The end result is attention diverted while thieves run off with their loot.

Link to story is below:
Church Choir