Random Access Memories

This is beginning to really annoy me.

More and more the USA is becoming a nation of “if you can’t accom/plish something yourslf, you’re a loser”.

Even here in Seattle people are still judgemental and arrogant with their individualist thinking.

I’ve been waiting for a viable “slate” device for 10 years. Knowing this was going to be a big thing when it hit the public market. Today I got the first hint that the markets are ready for a slate, but it’s not the slate I was expecting. I still think I was right and this is a game changer, but is this going to be the “Next big thing” for Apple? I don’t think so, here is why.

First, the iPad is not the iPhone, even tho they want people to compare the two. The iPad will have an app market, but it’s not an “app” device, it’s a true computer, and people will want to use it as a true computer. They will want to read books and comics and websites on it along with working on their business functions, which is not something the iPad will really allow, you only get one application at a time and you don’t get a true OS you get the iPhone OS.

Secondly it has no camera, stylus or mouse capability. People want all-in-one devices, they want options, they want precision, slates are going to be used for EVERYTHING, finger-touch will not be good enough.

Along with those you cannot make any calls off the device even tho it has the audio capability. A slate needs to be able to make calls over Skype or other providers.

You also cannot use spare batteries to extend your work time, this is something basic to netbooks and most notebook computers.

Lastly it has no expansion capability, no USB ports, no SD or even MicroSD card slots, on a device this big that’s like not including a spare button on a $200 sweater, it’s a silly lack of basic functionality that people are going to want.

In short, it’s not being treated like a computer it’s being treated like a big phone that you cannot make calls off of. Seriously who is going to be open to that type of limited functionality? When the first slates come to market running full OSs they will dominate multiple fields that the iPad will not be useful in, such as medicine, research, college students, anywhere where a full-size computer is useful and needs to be carried around (Think the PADD devices you saw on star-trek) slates are going to be the pocket-calculators of the new techie revolution.

Now, the key is what companies to buy into to ride the wave. Unfortunately I don’t know yet, Asus and Acer will be big players, Dell is sure to make it’s own device, but it’s OS that will determine who succeeds, any of these devices can be made into functional PPCs (I’m thinking this is a good shorthand for “Pad Personal Computer”) by installing Linux, but people are still stuck on Windows, so I think the model with a functional copy of Win7 at a good price will be your first hit.

All hail the beginning of the next technical revolution, in ten years i’m betting PPCs will be replacing netbooks and small notebooks completely. (Well, at least i’m hoping)

Thanks to the Supreme Court corporate money can now flow into political campaigns with reckless abandon.

So much for the average voter actually having a meaningful voice.

It seems Google has raised quite a few of eyebrows with it’s public announcement of attacks from Chinese sources.

I think it’s way past time to hold tongues just because of profits.

Oh i’m very unhappy about this one.

Reports are that gmail accounts have been compromised by Chinese governmental organizations.

Precisely what is out there to stop them from trying to get into mine? Sure, I have nothing on it that China would care about, but that’s not really the point is it. It’s that my data is *MY* data, not China’s data.

I feel if Google wants to live up to their mission of not being evil they have little choice right now but to leave China for the good of all their other users around the globe.

Seems that being the largest private torrent tracker in the world has some downsides.

Especially when music is relatively small and fast to download. If you end up with new invitees just downloading what they want and trying to upload it to have a positive ratio you’re going to have alot of people waiting a very long time.

Their solution? Screen new members in an “interview” process. Make sure they’re capable of uploading something. But how many really ever get anything worth uploading that isn’t already there yet?

“I could upload my parents collection of Korean folk songs, but I doubt anyone would want it. However it’s the only thing I have that they don’t already have on the site.”

Also invites are only now being given out to users that upload, no uploads, no invites.

But thinking about percentages this isn’t really going to help them out. There is only so much music out there that “online downloaders” want in the first place. If you have 99% of it already then anyone you add is going to have a harder and harder time of maintaining a positive ratio. And you’re going to get more people uploading junk because that’s all they can find to upload.

The solution? I suggest converting to a private pay site, no other fix it going to deal with the ratio issues music entails.

Just in case anyone ends up searching for information about them.

My GF and I got 2 Droids from them on the 27th of November at 1:04pm.

Her Droid developed an issue and needed to be replaced. We took it back on December 27th at 5:01pm.

They promptly told us the 30-day warranty had expired 4 hours ago and we would have to get it replaced through the manufacturer, have a nice day.

Needless to say this is not what I consider good customer service. Be warned.

Just a little note for those folks searching out a sweet red wine.

I’m partial to “Sweet Lucy” from Kokopelli Winery.  (http://www.kokopelliwinery.net)

So they are recalling 50 million window blinds due to the deaths of 5 children.

http://www.abcnews.go.com/GMA/ConsumerNews/50-million-blinds-recall-child-deaths/story?id=9336171

Literally because a 1-in-10 million chance of death is too high.

The odds of being struck by lightning each year? 1-in-750,000.

MIT team wins Darpa’s treasure hunt in less than one day

From Bobbie Johnson, San Francisco – guardian.co.uk

A $40,000 online challenge proposed by the US government has been won by a team of researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology – just hours after it was launched.

The Darpa Network Challenge, which took place on Saturday, offered a cash prize for the first group to successfully locate 10 large red weather balloons hidden at a string of secret locations across the US.

Competitors were asked to use the internet and social networking sites to discover the whereabouts of the balloons, in what Darpa – the Pentagon’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency – said was an experiment to discover how the internet could help with rapid problem solving.

More than 4,000 groups eventually registered to take part, but although the organisers had given players up to nine days to track the balloons down, the team from MIT scooped victory within nine hours of the launch.

“Darpa salutes the MIT team for successfully completing this complex task less than nine hours after the balloon launch,” said Regina Dugan, the director of the agency.

The winning team has not explained precisely how they came to discover the location of all 10 balloons, but the process detailed on the team website explains that they created a viral campaign to encourage people to put forward information they gleaned about the locations.

The team offered the first person to spot a balloon a $2,000 share of the prize money, but smaller awards would also be given to those who referred that player to MIT’s website – a scheme of incentives aimed at getting people to urge their friends to take part.

Whatever happened in the end, it appeared to work – and quickly.

“The challenge has captured the imagination of people around the world, is rich with scientific intrigue and, we hope, is part of a growing ‘renaissance of wonder’ throughout the nation,” said Dr Dugan.

In the end the eight-foot balloons were hidden in locations across nine states: Arizona, California, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Oregon, Tennessee, Texas and Virginia.

I’m quite happy with this little gadget (Especially now that there is a browser that uses multitouch and zooms in much farther than the built-in browser)

The fact that it links with all my existing google data, and it gives me realtime bus routing in Seattle it’s perfect for my needs. Audio “phones” are beginning to become archaic, data devices are the future yet they are just barely becoming available.

The New York Yankees have won 27, or 25% of the 105 World Series to date and have 43% of the 61 AL wins.

Go ahead, tell me that it makes things fair and interesting when the richest team wins 1/4 of the time.

From Kitmous:

I came here from the “Stumbling toward Ecstasy” post at Shapely Prose. I was reading about your struggles with diminished smell/taste, and thought I would come offer a suggestion.

I was in a car accident more than a decade ago that resulted in cranial nerve injuries. I have diminished smell and taste, and ’sweet’ (because it’s on the tongue and not reliant on smell for intensity) is also the one that for me is strongest and most reliable. What I’ve taken to doing is pursuing REALLY strong-flavored foods–sharp English cheddar cheese instead of mild American cheddar, dijon mustard instead of yellow mustard, “everything” bagels instead of plain bagels, filet mignon instead of cheaper/less tasty cuts of beef, that sort of thing. Foods (for me, anyway) that actually have flavor. I don’t need to eat as much of them because I can taste them, so my body/brain is satisfied with less.

I’m just some random human on the internet, but I thought I’d pop over and offer a suggestion.

I do tend more towards VERY sweet things (IE. I like a little tea with my sugar in the morning) and I adore extremely sharp cheddar.

Sometimes tho a taste will completely overpower everything (Shitake mushrooms are a good example of this, coffee is another).

If I want a mild flavor I have to eat ONLY that thing (Shrimp, crab legs, steak fit that catagory)

Some flavors are powerful, but fade quickly for me (Mustard, horseradish fall here)

I also like to make a huge pot of soup with lots of veggies and lean meat, I can eat lots of this and it’s both low in calories and very good for me. Compared to snacking on other foods.

I appreciate the info, I never knew that certain tastes were not at all nose-dependent.

To quote Mark Greenbaum of the Christian Science Monitor:

In a nation that is so diverse economically, culturally, and politically, a party that enforces a rigid litmus test for membership will not be able to remain viable.

If Republicans continue to move from the center in areas where adherence to conservative ideology is not palatable to a majority of voters, the GOP will not be able to regain Congress or the presidency anytime soon.

I think they’re dying, they just haven’t been buried yet. The sooner they realize this the sooner we can quit having “us or them” politics.

I’ve thrown my support behind the “New Atheist” movemtn.

“Intolerance of ignorance, myth and superstition; disregard for the tolerance of religion.
Indoctrination of logic, reason and the advancement of a naturalistic worldview.”

Right up my alley.

Republican National Chairman Michael Steele issued a grudging statement this morning in response to the president’s being awarded the Nobel peace prize.

“The real question Americans are asking is, ‘What has President Obama actually accomplished?’ It is unfortunate that the president’s star power has outshined tireless advocates who have made real achievements working towards peace and human rights,” Steele said.

“One thing is certain – President Obama won’t be receiving any awards from Americans for job creation, fiscal responsibility, or backing up rhetoric with concrete action,” added the former Maryland lieutenant governor.

His attitude is a very good example of the sad state of US politics. I think it’s time to come together and be US Citizens instead of making everything a partisan fight.

Whatever happened to being proud to be in the USA?

Heaven is Where:

The Police are British,
The Chefs are Italian,
The Mechanics are German,
The Lovers are French and
It’s all organized by the Swiss.

Hell is Where:

The Police are German,
The Chefs are British,
The Mechanics are French,
The Lovers are Swiss and
It’s all organized by the Italians.

I would say this is a fail.

This place is nice, they give you power plugs next to network jacks with crazy speeds. For free!

This is totally hilarious.

http://www.theonion.com/content/node/39495

So the other week we went to Game Crazy which resides in Hollywood Video to get a used DS Lite.

They were nice enough to give us a sheet of 12 free rental tickets, one per month. As the gentleman said “These are so you have something to play on your new system”

“Oh, you rent DS games?”

“No”

??? right….

I’m having a cruddy week of fighting the “Seattle Freeze” effect. (It’s a Seattle thing, people want you to “Have a nice day, someplace else”).

It’s odd how it seems alot of other people also have this problem, but we can’t network worth a crap.

So most of the globe is shocked and saddened that Michael Jackson is dead.

Personally I feel that it’s hardly a big loss, he had not contributed much to society in quite some time.

Everyone dies, it’s just a matter of when and how.

I noticed this on Zdnet, it’s well worth reading.

Why Raid 5 stops working in 2009
By Robin Harris, July 18th, 2007

The storage version of Y2k? No, it’s a function of capacity growth and RAID 5’s limitations. If you are thinking about SATA RAID for home or business use, or using RAID today, you need to know why.

RAID 5 protects against a single disk failure. You can recover all your data if a single disk breaks. The problem: once a disk breaks, there is another increasingly common failure lurking. And in 2009 it is highly certain it will find you.

Disks fail
While disks are incredibly reliable devices, they do fail. Our best data – from CMU and Google – finds that over 3% of drives fail each year in the first three years of drive life, and then failure rates start rising fast.

With 7 brand new disks, you have ~20% chance of seeing a disk failure each year. Factor in the rising failure rate with age and over 4 years you are almost certain to see a disk failure during the life of those disks.

But you’re protected by RAID 5, right? Not in 2009.

Reads fail
SATA drives are commonly specified with an unrecoverable read error rate (URE) of 10^14. Which means that once every 100,000,000,000,000 bits, the disk will very politely tell you that, so sorry, but I really, truly can’t read that sector back to you.

One hundred trillion bits is about 12 terabytes. Sound like a lot? Not in 2009.

Disk capacities double
Disk drive capacities double every 18-24 months. We have 1 TB drives now, and in 2009 we’ll have 2 TB drives.

With a 7 drive RAID 5 disk failure, you’ll have 6 remaining 2 TB drives. As the RAID controller is busily reading through those 6 disks to reconstruct the data from the failed drive, it is almost certain it will see an URE.

So the read fails. And when that happens, you are one unhappy camper. The message “we can’t read this RAID volume” travels up the chain of command until an error message is presented on the screen. 12 TB of your carefully protected – you thought! – data is gone. Oh, you didn’t back it up to tape? Bummer!

So now what?
The obvious answer, and the one that storage marketers have begun trumpeting, is RAID 6, which protects your data against 2 failures. Which is all well and good, until you consider this: as drives increase in size, any drive failure will always be accompanied by a read error. So RAID 6 will give you no more protection than RAID 5 does now, but you’ll pay more anyway for extra disk capacity and slower write performance.

Gee, paying more for less! I can hardly wait!

The Storage Bits take
Users of enterprise storage arrays have less to worry about: your tiny costly disks have less capacity and thus a smaller chance of encountering an URE. And your spec’d URE rate of 10^15 also helps.

There are some other fixes out there as well, some fairly obvious and some, I’m certain, waiting for someone much brighter than me to invent. But even today a 7 drive RAID 5 with 1 TB disks has a 50% chance of a rebuild failure. RAID 5 is reaching the end of its useful life.

“An American-born journalist imprisoned in Iran for espionage is expected to be freed today after an Iranian appeals court cut her eight-year prison term to a suspended two-year sentence, her father said this morning.

Roxana Saberi, 32, “will be freed today, hopefully,” Reza Saberi, waiting outside the jail in Tehran, told CNN. “The papers are ready … it is just a matter of time, a couple of hours.”

The Iranian court of a appeals “reduced her jail sentence from eight years to two years of suspended sentence … and she will soon be free,” said her lawyer, Abdolsamad Khorramshahi.

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/us_world/2009/05/11/2009-05-11_iran_to_free_jailed_american_journalist_roxana_saberi_after_appeal.html#
”

About time.

Roxanna Saberi was convicted of spying today in Iran following a one-day closed-door trial.

Can you say “sham”? Good, I knew you could.

I hope she realizes that many of us back in the USA are hoping for her safe return. Maybe at least when she gets back and all this is over it might make the memories a little less harsh to know she was not really “alone”.

Iran Convicts U.S. Journalist Of Spying

April 18, 2009

NPR.org, April 18, 2009 · An Iranian court has convicted U.S. Iranian journalist Roxana Saberi of spying and sentenced her to eight years in prison. Saberi, who has reported for NPR, only recently learned of the espionage charge.

Saberi’s lawyer was not allowed to ask the court about bail. She has been jailed at Evin Prison in Iran since Jan. 31.

The deputy director of the Committee to Protect Journalists, Robert Mahoney, says her sentence is too harsh.

“We believe that Roxana Saberi’s trial was not transparent,” he said. “And it does not seem that she has been treated fairly. We would call on the Iranian authorities to release her on bail pending appeal because we believe she should not be confined in Evin prison.”

NPR’s CEO Vivian Schiller says Saberi has already been held in for three months. Schiller has appealed to the Iranian government to show compassion and allow Saberi to return immediately to the United States.

So I stopped by their little shop the other day, and they have a nice selection.

The people however seem to be a little full of themselves. For instance if you are going to argue about technology with your customer it helps to know what you’re talking about. Telling me a USB port could not be put on a detector because it wouldn’t be waterproof when the detector itself is not, and waterproof USB ports do in fact exist does not show much wisdom.

Also one could say it’s not wise to try and argue religion when your customer, especially when they obviously do not see the issue the same way you do.

These are both good reasons why I myself am not in business.

Would this stop me from shopping there? Not likely, but it does make me not want to go ask them for help.

Geez, it feels like a funeral. I’ve been in quieter libraries. It felt “tense” like nobody wanted to say anything for fear of looking silly maybe.

The Linuxchix were MUCH more my speed. I like friendly and fun with lots of talk rather than movies and presentations. I think having it in an office conference room definitely had alot to do with it.

Oh well, I tried.

Reposted here because I don’t see this version on the web anywhere.

The Cartoon Rating Guide for Smart Adults: v3.0 4/24/2008

Why watch cartoons if you’re an adult? Because cartoons often have the best scores, most interesting plots and/or most humorous dialogue, and the most accomplished “cinematography” of any visual media. The best are stunning works of art and imagination with gorgeous matte landscapes.

This is a rating guide, not a review book — its purpose is to quickly alert you to animation you may never have heard of; consult elsewhere for extended analyses. It is skewed from the perspective of an adult animation fan — a lowly-rated show may be immensely enjoyable for children and even well-made, but couldn’t captivate my attention; a highly-rated show will be competently-made, but may or may not be enjoyable for or even marketed to (or even appropriate for) children. If a show has English-language versions, those are the versions I have likely watched. A cartoon with great writing and voice-casting but average animation will score higher on this list than a show with top-notch animation but mediocre scripting and voices, or an extremely well-made show marketed to children.

This list covers mainly animated television series, although some films are included, and one “webtoon”. I have not seen every episode of some shows rated 7 and lower and many episodes of shows rated 5 or lower; indicated ratings may change if I see new episodes of better or worse quality than those previous, or if many better or worse other shows are added to the list which alter the bell-curve landscape. Note: There are literally hundreds of mediocre-to-terrible shows that are not presently on this list, including a lot of uninspired anime and older “dumbed down” cartoons of low or no interest to the smart adult; I haven’t created this list to exhaustively include them all.

Anything rated at least “5″ is in the category of “average show worth watching once for the cartoon buff, provided you have time”; you probably won’t watch re-runs, however, until a decade or three have gone by. A typical “5″ cartoon features arch-type characters and villains, with serviceable if unexceptional dialogue, animation and plots. “4″s and lower feature too much bad animation, one-dimensional characters, lousy voice-acting, plot-holes, dumbed-down or just plain stupid writing and spastic slapstick for this adult reviewer to stomach — although kids will like many of them. “3″s and lower will have the smart adult scrambling for the remote. “6″s and “7″s feature more charismatic characters, more innovative drawing and intelligent scripting than average, and anything rated “8″ or better is likely to pull you in to watching a re-run while you’re channel-flipping, even if it’s well-memorized already. Anything rated “9″ is truly exceptional, and perfect in nearly every way. “10″s are reserved only for those shows which, IMO, will become or already are timeless classics. “11″s are simply phenomenal; you’ll feel empty inside after finishing the last episode and realizing that there aren’t any more. Highly-rated shows generally have unique and memorable musical scores associated with them. Make an effort to see every “9″ and up before you croak, and most 7s and 8s.

Q. Where do I find the latest CRGFSA?
A. It is always posted within a torrent; try searching here: http://tinyurl.com/2oxsn4

- “11″ – a rating which is off the 1-10 scale. Incomparably great.
- “3D” indicates an obvious computer generated style as opposed to a 2D drawn artwork look.
- “adult” indicates overly lewd sexual references and/or repetitive foul language. Some adult-oriented cartoons are witty parodies or taut thrillers, but most are extremely cheaply-made rancid, brain-dead trash.
- “adventure” means the main characters are perpectually on the move.
- “cards” means the show is a marketing vehicle to sell trading cards; most of these involve children with strange monster pets or summoned creatures who fight each other.
- “comedy” describes humorous shows that are neither toons nor spoofs.
- “DCAU” refers to the “DC Animated Universe” created by Bruce Timm and Paul Dini.
- “east” denotes an overtly oriental-themed cartoon, often involving samurai or ninjas, or emphasis upon martial-arts or medieval-period Japanese or Chinese clothing and settings. This guide does not otherwise distinguish between cartoons and “anime”.
- “educational” shows frequently deal with ethical, historical or geographical aspects.
- “family” indicates a show with very broad appeal; it isn’t specifically written for any age group, and is neither “dumbed down” nor “sophisticated humor”.
- “fantasy” indicates the presence of magic or “chi” and/or spirts, gods, ghosts, demons, undead, fantastic animals, etc, but the setting is in an otherwise more or less realistic world.
- “flash” is cheap-looking computer animation of mostly moving cut-outs and vector-scaling.
- “Ghibli” indicates the acclaimed Japanese animation studio, or anything prior involving its founders Hayao Miyazaki and Isao Takahata.
- “girl” indicates the presence of important female protagonists.
- “kids” means the show is appealing to small children (whether or not dialogue is dumbed-down). Virtually all kids shows are also comedies if not toons.
- “Mainframe” refers to Mainframe Entertainment, a pioneering 3D animation company.
- “mecha” indicates giant robots. Most mecha also includes sci-fi elements.
- “movie” means a single, stand-along show, regardless of whether it played in theaters.
- “realistic” indicates real-world physics are observed, nobody has superpowers, and animated characters are essentially like real people and don’t take inordinate risks, speak “one-liner dialogue” or “mug for the camera”.
- “scary” means weird monsters may frighten very small children and give them nightmares, even if it’s a comedy otherwise popular with kids. I afix this term only to shows marketed toward family or children’s audiences (I take it for granted that teen- and adult-oriented shows are filled with imagery guaranteed to frighten toddlers, especially anything rated “violent”).
- “sci-fi” shows are set in the future, or concern exotic technologies such as space-travel.
- “series” means plots span multiple episodes and even seasons (so they are best watched in order); lack of this term doesn’t mean, however, that all of a show’s episodes are “stand-alones”.
- “spoofs” parody cultural or other-show references which younger persons are less likely to be aware of; a kid’s cartoon which is also a spoof is likely to drag up this reviewer’s rating due to intelligent writing. On the other hand, a spoof’s gags tend to be topical in nature, and the humor may fall flat with the passage of time.
- “superhero” means some characters have extraordinary abilities or “mutant” powers which permit them to cheat real-world physics which others have to obey in an otherwise more or less real world. While many cartoons feature characters who trend in this direction, superheroes are invariably costumed protagonists who are famous for their abilities. Superhero shows often include sci-fi elements.
- “toon” means real-world physics are expressly NOT observed, animals talk, characters have “three fingers & thumb” hands, gravity is defied until noticed, etc. Many competently-made toons have lowered ratings in this guide due to emphasis on slapstick antics and marketing toward children.
- “violent” means there’s realistic-consequences combat with injuries and blood, and/or on-screen death, and the show is usually inappropriate for small children (the lack of this term, however, doesn’t mean that a show lacks fighting). A show labelled “violent” does not necessarily contain violence in all or even most of its episodes.
- “ultra-violent” shows so wallow in gore that many would consider them completely depraved.
- “WMT” indicates Japan’s “World Masterpiece Theater”.

(Like the amplifiers in “This is Spinal Tap”, the Cartoon Rating Guide now goes to 11!)

11 – Cowboy Bebop – series, adventure, sci-fi, violent, girl (English language version)
……..The greatest sci-fi cartoon series of all time. Nothing else is even close. Nothing else even tries. More recent shows may have flashier graphics (barely), but none capture the heart, the soul, the soundtrack, the rich variety of settings, and especially the quality of writing and characterization.

11 – Persepolis – movie, girl, adventure, realistic, educational, adult
……..The mesmerizing autobiography of acclaimed author Marjane Satrapi. Banned in Iran.

11 – Romeo’s Blue Skies – series, family, adventure, realistic, WMT, educational
……..Schools should be replaced with vid-screens looping this show. Children (especially boys) will learn about everything important here: Life, death, respect, values, integrity, initiative, creativity, empathy, education, courage and purpose.

11 – Whisper of the Heart – movie, girl, family, realistic, romance, Ghibli
……..While their fantasy advantures are all very good, this is Ghibli’s most satisfying and polished work.

10 – 3000 Leagues in Search of Mother – series, family, adventure, realistic, WMT
10 – Adventures of Prince Achmed, The – movie, family, fantasy, girl, adventure
10 – Avatar: The Last Airbender – series, family, fantasy, adventure, girl, east
10 – Fairly OddParents, The – toon, spoof, kids
10 – Future Boy Conan – series, family, adventure, Ghibli, girl, WMT
10 – Kiki’s Delivery Service – Ghibli, movie, family, girl, fantasy
10 – Laputa (Castle in the Sky) – Ghibli, family, movie, adventure, girl, sci-fi
10 – My Neighbor Totoro – Ghibli, movie, family, kids, girl, fantasy, adventure
10 – Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water – series, family, girl, violent, adventure
10 – Oban Star-Racers – series, adventure, sci-fi, girl
10 – Popeye: Aladdin and His Wonderful Lamp – toon, family, fantasy, movie-short
10 – Samurai Champloo – series, spoof, violent, adventure, adult, girl, east
10 – Venture Bros., The – adult, spoof, violent, sci-fi

9 – Batman, The Animated Series – superhero, DCAU
9 – Batman Beyond – superhero, DCAU, sci-fi
9 – Beauty and the Beast – movie, Disney, fantasy, girl, family, scary
9 – Danny Phantom – comedy, fantasy, girl, superhero
9 – Eureka Seven – series, mecha, violent, sci-fi
9 – FLCL (Fooly Cooly) – series, comedy, girl, sci-fi, fantasy
9 – Grave of the Fireflies – movie, drama, realistic, violent, Ghibli
9 – Invasion America – series, sci-fi, violent, adventure
9 – Kim Possible – comedy, girl, Disney, superhero
9 – Lupin III (or the Third, English version) – comedy, adventure, girl, spoof
9 – Megas XLR – mecha, spoof, girl, fantasy, sci-fi
9 – Mysterious Cities of Gold, The – series, kids, adventure, girl, fantasy, educational
9 – Pom Poko (The Raccoon War) – Ghibli, movie, fantasy
9 – Porko Rosso – Ghibli, movie, adventure, girl, fantasy, family
9 – Prince of Egypt – Disney, fantasy, movie, musical
9 – Princess Mononoke – Ghibli, movie, fantasy, adventure, violent, scary, girl
9 – Sea Prince and the Fire Child – movie, toon, fantasy, girl, romance
9 – Spirited Away – Ghibli, family, movie, fantasy, girl, adventure, scary
9 – Superman, The Animated Series – superhero, DCAU, girl, family
9 – Teen Titans – spoof, superhero, DCAU, girl, family

8 – Akira – movie, sci-fi, violent
8 – American Dragon Jake Long – kids, superhero
8 – Ben 10 – kids, comedy, sci-fi, girl, adventure
8 – Cat Returns, The – movie, Ghibli, fantasy, girl, family
8 – Courage the Cowardly Dog – toon, family, spoof, scary
8 – Full Metal Alchemist – series, fantasy, violent, comedy, east, sci-fi
8 – Futurama – adult, spoof, sci-fi, toon
8 – Gargoyles – fantasy, violent, scary, girl, Disney
8 – Gauche The Cellist (Sero Hiki no Goshu) – movie, Ghibli, family, fantasy
8 – Ghostbusters, Extreme – fantasy, scary, comedy
8 – Ghostbusters, The Real (seasons 1-3 only) – kids, fantasy, scary, comedy
8 – Heavy Metal – movie, fantasy, sci-fi, comedy, violent, adult, girl
8 – Howl’s Moving Castle – Ghibli, movie, girl, fantasy, violent
8 – Iron Giant, The – mecha, comedy, family, movie
8 – Jackie Chan Adventures – family, fantasy, girl, comedy
8 – Justice League / Unlimited – superhero, sci-fi, DCAU
8 – Kamichu: Teenage Goddess – series, fantasy, girl, east
8 – Lilo & Stitch (movie, TV show) – kids, sci-fi, comedy, girl, Disney
8 – Martin Mystery – sci-fi, comedy, scary, girl
8 – Mulan – movie, fantasy, girl, Disney
8 – Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind – Ghibli, movie, girl, fantasy, adventure, sci-fi
8 – ReBoot – toon, fantasy, spoof, 3D, Mainframe
8 – Rocket Power – kids, comedy, girl, educational
8 – Rocky & Bullwinkle Show, The – kids, spoof, toon
8 – Secret of NIMH, The – toon, adventure, violent, movie, Disney
8 – Shadow Raiders / War Planets – series, sci-fi, girl, 3D, violent, Mainframe
8 – Static Shock – kids, superhero, DCAU
8 – Valhalla – movie, kids, fantasy, girl
8 – W.I.T.C.H. – girl, fantasy, comedy

7 – Batman, The – superhero
7 – Beastwars – series, sci-fi, fantasy, mecha, 3D, Mainframe
7 – Big O, The – mecha, sci-fi, violent, girl
7 – Bleach – series, fantasy, violent, comedy, east
7 – Case Closed (Detective Conan) – family, mystery, adventure
7 – Daria – girl, comedy, realistic, adult
7 – Death Note – fantasy, violent, series
7 – Dexter’s Lab – kids, toon, spoof, sci-fi, girl
7 – Ghost in the Shell, Stand Alone Complex, 2nd Gig – series, sci-fi, violent
7 – Infinite Ryvius – series, sci-fi, drama, girl
7 – Invader Zim – toon, kids, spoof, sci-fi
7 – InuYasha – series, east, violent, fantasy, girl
7 – Juniper Lee (The Life and Times of) – spoof, girl, kids, fantasy
7 – Kappa Mikey – spoof, toon, girl, flash
7 – Korgoth of Barbaria – adult, spoof, fantasy, ultra-violent
7 – My Dad the Rock Star – kids, toon, comedy, girl
7 – My Life as a Teenage Robot – kids, toon, sci-fi, spoof, girl, superhero
7 – Naruto – series, east, violent, girl, fantasy, comedy
7 – Outlaw Star – series, sci-fi, comedy, girl, adventure
7 – Pinky and the Brain – kids, toon, spoof
7 – Popeye – toon, family, spoof, girl
7 – Powerpuff Girls, The – kids, toon, spoof, girl, superhero
7 – Robot Chicken – toon, spoof, adult, violent
7 – Rock & Rule – movie, fantasy, sci-fi, girl
7 – Samurai Jack – kids, sci-fi, superhero, adventure, east
7 – Scrapped Princess – series, fantasy, sci-fi, girl, adventure, scary
7 – Shuriken School – kids, toon, spoof, girl, east
7 – Star Wars: Clone Wars – series, sci-fi, fantasy, adventure, violent
7 – Superman Doomsday – movie, superhero, violent, DCAU(?)
7 – Time Warp Trio – kids, fantasy, adventure, educational
7 – Trigun – series, sci-fi, violent, comedy, girl
7 – Tutenstein – kids, toon, adventure, girl

6 – A.T.O.M – kids, superhero, sci-fi
6 – Aeon Flux – series, sci-fi, ultra-violent, girl, adult
6 – Afro-Samurai – series, east, adult, ultra-violent
6 – Aladdin – kids, toon, fantasy, Disney
6 – Blu Gender – series, sci-fi, mecha, ultra-violent, drama, girl
6 – Chip ‘n Dale Rescue Rangers – toon, kids, Disney
6 – Chop Socky Chooks – 3D, toon, spoof, girl, east
6 – Dragon Booster, kids, fantasy, 3D
6 – Duck Dodgers – toon, spoof, sci-fi
6 – Escaflowne – series, fantasy, mecha, violent, sci-fi
6 – Fafner in the Azure (Dead Aggressor) – series, sci-fi, mecha, violent
6 – Get Ed – toon, kids, sci-fi, 3D, girl
6 – Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy, The – kids, toon, spoof, girl
6 – Hercules – kids, fantasy, superhero, comedy, Disney
6 – Hobbit, The – fantasy, adventure, family, movie
6 – Johnny Bravo – toon, spoof
6 – Legion of Superheroes – kids, superhero, sci-fi
6 – Mar – toon, fantasy, comedy, east
6 – Martian Successor Nadesico – series, mecha, girl, comedy, sci-fi
6 – Ninja Scroll – movie, adult, ultra-violent, fantasy, east
6 – One Piece – kids, toon, adventure
6 – Paranoia Agent – drama, violent, comedy
6 – Replacements, The – kids, spoof, girl, Disney
6 – S-CRY-ed – sci-fi, mecha, superhero, east
6 – Silverwing – series, kids, scary, adventure
6 – Skyland – sci-fi, adventure, girl, 3D
5 – Storm Hawks – kids, 3D, adventure, sci-fi
6 – Super Robot Monkey Team Hyperforce Go! – kids, toon, mecha, superhero, scary
6 – Tenchi Muyo! – series, fantasy, girl
6 – Legend of Tarzan – kids, toon, girl, adventure
6 – The Tick – toon, kids, spoof, superhero
6 – Thunderbirds – series, adventure, comedy
6 – Totally Spies – comedy, girl
6 – Winx Club – girl, fantasy, comedy
6 – Witch Hunter Robin – series, fantasy, girl, violent
6 – Wolf’s Rain – series, fantasy, violent, sci-fi
6 – Xiaolin Showdown – kids, toon, fantasy, comedy, east
6 – Zeta Project, The – kids, girl, superhero, sci-fi, DCAU

5 – As Told by Ginger – kids, girl
5 – Beast Machines – series, sci-fi, fantasy, mecha, 3D, Mainframe
5 – Beavis and Butthead – toon, adult, spoof
5 – Berserk – series, adult, ultra-violent, fantasy
5 – Blue Submarine #6 – series, sci-fi, realistic, violent
5 – Buzz Lightyear of Star Command – kids, toon, sci-fi, Disney, 3D
5 – Cartoon Planet / Space Ghost Coast to Coast / Brak Show – spoof, adult, superhero
5 – Digimon – kids, toon, cards, adventure
5 – Dr. Who: Infinite Quest – movie/series, sci-fi, 3D
5 – Dragonball Z – series, east, violent, fantasy, cards, comedy
5 – Duck Tales – toon, Disney, kids
5 – Duel Masters – kids, cards, spoof
5 – Dungeons & Dragons – kids, fantasy, scary
5 – Gigantor – kids, mecha
5 – Gokusen – series, adult, east
5 – Goof Troop – kids, toon, Disney
5 – Gotham Girls – series, girl, superhero, DCAU, flash, webtoon
5 – Gundam Wing – series, sci-fi, mecha, violent
5 – Hey Arnold! – kids, comedy
5 – Horus, Prince of the Sun – movie, Ghibli, fantasy, adventure
5 – Johnny Quest, Real Adventures of – adventure, girl, fantasy
5 – Justice League: The New Frontier – movie, superhero, sci-fi, violent
5 – Metalocalypse – adult, spoof, ultra-violent
5 – Mobile Suit Gundam – series, mecha, sci-fi
5 – Phantom 2040 – series, superhero, sci-fi
5 – Proud Family, The – toon, Disney, spoof, girl
5 – Recess – kids
5 – Record of the Lodoss Wars – series, fantasy, violent
5 – Reign: The Conqueror – series, fantasy, violent, adult
5 – Rocko’s Modern Life – kids, toon
5 – Sailor Moon – series, kids, east, girl, fantasy, cards, comedy, sci-fi
5 – Scooby Do, Where Are You? – kids, toon, comedy
5 – Samurai Deeper Kyo – series, fantasy, violent, east
5 – Sandokan – kids, toon, adventure
5 – Shinzo – series, kids, fantasy, cards, east, sci-fi
5 – Speed Racer – adventure, series
5 – Spongebob Squarepants – kids, toon, spoof
5 – Swat Kats – kids, toon, fantasy
5 – TaleSpin – kids, toon, girl, adventure, Disney
5 – The Future is Wild – kids, adventure, girl, 3D
5 – The Secret Show – kids, spoof, sci-fi, superhero
5 – The X’s – toon, sci-fi, flash
5 – Time Squad – toon, spoof, kids, educational, sci-fi
5 – Timon and Pumba – kids, toon, Disney
5 – Trinity Blood, Blood Plus – series, vampires, ultra-violent
5 – Wild thornberrys, The – comedy, kids, girl
5 – Willy Fog (various shows) – kids, series, toon
5 – Wizards – fantasy, movie, violent
5 – Xyber 9 – mecha, sci-fi, series
5 – Wayside – kids, toon
5 – Yakkity Yak – kids, toon
5 – YuYu Hakusho – series, east, girl, fantasy, comedy
5 – Zatch Bell! – series, kids, cards, comedy

4 – Adventures of Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius, The – kids, toon, 3D
4 – American Dad – spoof, toon
4 – Animaniacs (without Pinky and the Brain) – kids, spoof, toon
4 – Beyblade – kids, east
4 – Bobobo-bo Bo-bobo – toon, kids, spoof
4 – Blue Dragon – kids, series, fantasy, sci-fi, east, cards
4 – Camp Lazlo – kids, toon, girl
4 – ChalkZone – kids, toon, girl, fantasy
4 – Chaotic – kids, toon, fantasy, girl, cards
4 – Chowder – kids, toon
4 – Class of 3000 – kids, comedy, sci-fi, girl
4 – Codename: Kids Next Door – kids, toon, girl
4 – Corneil & Bernie – kids, toon
4 – El Tigre – kids, toon, flash
4 – Emperor’s New School, The – toon, kids, Disney
4 – Family Guy – adult, spoof
4 – Fantastic Four – superhero
4 – Fillmore – kids, toon, comedy
4 – Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends – toon, kids, fantasy, flash
4 – Growing up Creepie – girl, fantasy, comedy, flash
4 – Idaten Jump – kids, toon
4 – Johnny Quest (original) – kids, adventure, violent, sci-fi
4 – Kong: The Animated Series – kids, fantasy,
4 – Legend of the Dragon – toon, superhero, girl, east
4 – Little Einsteins – toon, kids, girl, adventure, educational
4 – Little Mermaid, The – kids, toon, fantasy, Disney, girl
4 – Lord of the Rings (Fellowship, Return of the King) – fantasy, movies, violent
4 – ¡Mucha Lucha! – kids, toon, superhero
4 – Mummy, The – kids, adventure, scary
4 – N.A.S.C.A.R. Racers – kids, 3D
4 – Pepper Ann – girl, Disney
4 – Pokemon – toon, kids, cards
4 – Pucca – kids, toon, girl, east, flash
4 – Rugrats – kids, comedy
4 – Shin Chan – comedy, adult
4 – South Park – toon, adult, spoof
4 – Special Duty Combat Unit: Shinesman – sci-fi, comedy
4 – Super Milk-chan Show, The – toon, kids, spoof
4 – Thundercats – kids, fantasy, girl
4 – Voltron – mecha, sci-fi, kids
4 – Yin Yang Yo! – kids, toon, Disney, spoof, east
4 – Yugi Oh! – kids, toon, cards

3 – Aqua Teen Hunger Force – toon, adult, spoof, flash
3 – Dora the Explorer – kids, toon, educational, girl
3 – CatDog – kids, toon
3 – Dragon Tales – kids, toon, fantasy, girl
3 – Ed, Ed & Eddy – kids, toon
3 – Grossology – kids, toon, flash
3 – Flintstones, The – kids, toon, girl
3 – G.I. Joe – kids, violent
3 – He-Man & Masters of the Universe – kids, fantasy, superhero
3 – Inspector Gadget – kids, toon
3 – Kenny the Shark – toon, kids
3 – Krypto the Superdog – toon, superhero, kids
3 – Lucy, Daughter of the Devil – adult, toon, 3D, flash
3 – Magic School Bus – kids, fantasy
3 – Mike, Lu & Og – kids, toon, girl
3 – Moral Orel – adult, toon, 3D
3 – My Gym Partner is a Monkey – kids, toon
3 – Prince of Tennis, The – series, girl
3 – Spider Riders – fantasy, kids
3 – Spiderman – superhero
3 – Superfriends – kids, superhero, girl
3 – Superman: Brainiac Attacks – kids, movie, superhero
3 – Top Cat – kids, toon
3 – Tracy McBean – kids, toon, girl
3 – Transformers (several shows and movies) – toon, mecha, sci-fi, (some 3D)
3 – Ultimate Avengers – movies, superhero, sci-fi, girl, violent

2 – Amazing Chan Clan – kids, toon
2 – Captain Planet – kids, toon, superhero
2 – Chuck Norris Karate Kommandos – kids
2 – Frisky Dingo – adult, spoof, violent, flash
2 – Home Movies – toon
2 – Jabberjaw – kids, toon
2 – Little Bear – kids, toon
2 – MaggieBeast – kids, toon, girl
2 – Sealab 2021 – adult, spoof, flash
2 – Xavier: Renegade Angel – adult, toon, 3D

1 – Assy McGee – adult, toon, violent, flash
1 – Gary Coleman Show – kids, comedy
1 – Squidbillies – adult, toon, violent

3 12 hour days in a row really suck.

Thankfully one way or another i’m not going to be dealing with this schedule for much longer.

“Dictatorship naturally arises out of democracy, and the most aggravated form of tyranny and slavery out of the most extreme liberty.” -Plato

Well, i’ve made my mind up, i’m moving to Germany ASAP.

I’ve got a few friends lined up that will give me a place to live over there (there is a really nice girl named Lirpa Sloof that has a spare room), and i’ve got enough money in the bank to live off of for quite some time.

I’ve just had with with the USA. The place is too damned individualist for me no matter what I do.

Better to cast the dice someplace else more fitting for me than die slowly here.

I’ve already downloaded the German version of “Rosetta Stone” so i’ll know at least some of the language.

I hope to be packed up and on my way over there by June 1st.

Wish me luck!

Sometimes I wonder why software systems constantly require users to change their passwords.

I suppose they assume we all have an infinite capacity to remember a string of numbers, digits and symbols are repeat that information anytime in the future without ever writing it down anywhere.

But you see, we often do. Most people have written down their passwords until they have memorized them.

I feel this is horribly insecure compared to allowing users to keep their existing passwords until they desire to change them.

So today my bank tells me i’m going to get a new debit card and new debit card number.

Because one of the VISA transaction companies (Heartlland) was broken into and an *unknown* number of card numbers were stolen.

This is not the first time this has happened to me, or the second, or the third, no it’s the fourth time.

The fourth time that i’ve had to go online and change the card number that gets automatically debited for my bills, the fourth time i’ve had to deal with a new PIN number, and the fourth time that i’ve been reminded that even tho banks are piling on more and more complications to your personal login they seem to know nothing about how to protect corporate data.

I love this film, it’s totally cheesy but it makes me laugh.

(Direct Download link: Here)

Men need to change their tune, it’s as simple as that.

In a recent story I read online about women leaving men for women it was remarked:

“Many of the women interviewed said, they are attracted to the person, and not the gender — moved by traits like kindness, intelligence, and humor, which could apply to a man or a woman. Most of all, they long for an emotional connection.”

The “tough guy” image that men present is more a front put on to combat other men. There was a time when it was a good survival trait, when fighting off other humans was a base matter of survival and putting food in your mouth. However we don’t live in caves anymore, we don’t fight off hulking carnivores with clubs. Instead now the overabundance of testosterone causes conflict where there doesn’t need to be any. Along with that fewer women seem attracted to it as time goes by, favoring instead men with emotions and brains.

The issue with this entire situation is simple, “Men don’t listen”, and furthermore society accepts their refusal to consider any changes. It is almost inconceivable to most of them that they should drop the macho attitude so why would they consider it? They wouldn’t, and they don’t. Often as well their entire sense of identity is built around it and when that image is shattered they lash out violently in defense.

I guess unfortunately only time fixes things like this.

We should all be very, very cautious in the near future until something comes along to remove this threat.

“A pair of Argentinean researchers have found a way to perform a BIOS level malware attack capable of surviving even a hard-disk wipe. Alfredo Ortega and Anibal Sacco from Core Security Technologies — used the stage at last week’s CanSecWest conference to demonstrate methods (PDF) for infecting the BIOS with persistent code that will survive reboots and re-flashing attempts. The technique includes patching the BIOS with a small bit of code that gave them complete control of the machine. The demo ran smoothly on a Windows machine, a PC running OpenBSD and another running VMware Player.”

http://i.zdnet.com/blogs/core_bios.pdf
http://threatpost.com/blogs/researchers-unveil-persistent-bios-attack-methods

“I believe that one defines oneself by reinvention. To not be like your parents. To not be like your friends. To be yourself. To cut yourself out of stone.” – Henry Rollins

I just love the way they did this commercial. Took me forever to find a copy of it, it’s around 10 years old.

(Direct Download link: Here)

I noticed this on MSN Money and thought it was worth remembering for later.

The 5 biggest lies on Wall Street

These are the tenets you counted on for years, like ‘buy and hold’ and heed the advice of ‘experts.’ Keep these whoppers in mind as you plan your financial future.

By Michael Brush
MSN Money

If you had any money in stocks in the past few years, you might be feeling pretty dumb right now — since you’re down more than 40% on those “investments.”

But stop being so hard on yourself. Yes, you probably should have pulled more money out in time.

But on the other hand, you were probably suckered by any number of big lies foisted on you by Wall Street and market players who stood to profit.

Here are the five biggest lies that probably hurt you the most and will be worth remembering in the future.

Big Lie No. 1: The market will take care of everything

Remember Ronald Reagan’s line, “Government isn’t the solution to our problems; government is the problem”? The Gipper may have had some great political insights, but the train wreck in the market shows this one wasn’t one of them.

During most of this decade, Wall Street lobbyists persuaded would-be regulators in the Bush administration to lay off. “The markets” would find the best solutions to any problems on their own.

In the free-for-all that ensued, the Wall Street Masters of the Universe made untold millions — and left us with huge problems. The damage caused by all the tricks, scams and skullduggery has cost more than $7 trillion in market losses so far, not to mention millions of jobs and a deep recession.

“We convinced ourselves that the inmates could regulate themselves, and obviously that was wrong,” says Christopher Whalen of Institutional Risk Analytics, a financial consulting firm. “If we are going to let people buy public policy, then we are going to get stupid things.”

Perhaps the biggest gaffe was allowing a multitrillion-dollar market in credit default swaps — a kind of loan insurance — to develop with no oversight or regulation. This was just plain dumb, and we’ll continue to pay the price. Too much CDS exposure helped take down Lehman Bros. (LEHMQ, news, msgs) and American International Group (AIG, news, msgs). They lost big by insuring complex securities backed by bad home mortgage loans.

Of course, none of this could have happened if regulators hadn’t looked the other way as mortgage originators handed home loans to anyone who could fog a mirror. They didn’t care because the loans could be sold to Wall Street banks, repackaged as securities and sold again to investors.

“A shadow banking system developed to originate and sell mortgages outside the regulated banking system, and we ignored it,” says William Isaac, a former chairman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. and now head of the Secura Group, a division of national consulting firm LECG.

Even regulators who were supposed to be policing the market often did a lousy job during this “free market” era.

One example: Early this decade, a statistical wonk named Harry Markopolos had figured out that the investment vehicle that Bernard Madoff was promoting to well-heeled investors was a classic Ponzi scheme. Markopolos alerted the Securities and Exchange Commission, which failed to act until investors had lost billions.

Big Lie No. 2: The ‘experts’ will help you

Many of us rely on the “experts” for guidance in the market, and they failed us miserably.

Most mutual funds are down as much as the market — or worse. The geniuses running hedge funds did little better. A few commentators managed to forecast the market disaster; most missed it.

There’s a simple reason why they missed the coming carnage, says David Loeper, the CEO of Wealthcare Capital Management in Richmond, Va., and author of “Stop the Investing Rip-off: How to Avoid Being a Victim and Make More Money,” due out in June.

The “experts” have conflicts of interest. Mutual funds, hedge funds and brokerages want to keep you at the table so that they can continue to earn fees from your nest egg. “They don’t care if you win or lose, they just want you to keep playing the game,” Loeper says.

They often pitch whatever is hot — commodities and emerging markets come to mind — at exactly the wrong time. “They’ll market it until it falls apart, and then they will find something else,” Loeper says.

At worst, the conflicts of interest seem downright blatant, says investor Jim Rogers. Among the biggest lies, he says, were the high-grade “AAA” stamps of approval put on faulty mortgage-backed securities by the debt ratings agencies — which were paid big fees to rate those securities by the very banks who created them.

The media don’t get a free pass either. Loeper says media outlets such as CNBC, and presumably this Web site, regularly fall short in guiding investors because their real priority is to provide entertainment — and that they have to dumb things down too much to keep content interesting.

Big Lie No. 3: Buy and hold

Anyone who has followed this advice since the late 1990s now feels deceived. “Buy and hold” once seemed so obvious. Over the long haul, stocks advance 10% to 12% a year, goes the mantra. So you can’t ever go wrong adding money to stock funds — as long as you don’t act like a wild day trader.

The problem was that investors and financial advisers use an assessment of risk tolerance to determine exposure to various asset classes like stocks, bonds and cash.

Then the level of risk in the stock market changed violently. But investors — or their financial advisers — didn’t adjust their portfolios away from stocks toward safer assets like cash, says Axel Merk of Merk Mutual Funds in Palo Alto, Calif. “If the risks in the markets change, your investment allocations must also change,” he says.

But how were we supposed to know that the risks of owning stocks had increased?

One early signal began to emerge in 2007, when market volatility started to increase rapidly, Merk says. Another sign was that excessive debt throughout the system had driven corporate profits to abnormally high levels, setting up investors for a big fall, says money manager John Hussman, the president of the Hussman Investment Trust.

Hussman warned investors of this risk early on. But, he says, because of Big Lie No. 2, many experts and Wall Street professionals “were unwilling to entertain any concern that threatened to stop the gravy train.”

Big Lie No. 4: Overpaid CEOs are worth the money

Whenever I write about greedy CEOs who get paid too much, company PR machines trot out the old saw that pay has to be so high “to attract the best talent.”

Oh, really?

Then why are we suffering such a deep recession and huge market losses? After all, the CEOs at the banks that got us into this mess were paid like kings. Let’s take a look at some of the consequences — and predictions — brought to us by the supposed “top” talent purchased with all that money:

An extreme underappreciation of his problems. At Lehman Bros.’ very last annual meeting in April 2008, then-CEO Richard Fuld opined that “the worst of the impact of the financial markets is behind us.”

In June, he told investors the investment bank was “well-positioned” because of efforts to strengthen its balance sheet.

Fuld was supposed to be a “top talent”; Lehman had paid him more than $186.5 million in salary, bonuses and profits from stock options in the prior three years, according to Equilar, an executive compensation research firm.

Yet by autumn, Lehman vanished, setting off the October 2008 market crash. It had been killed by mortgage-backed securities and other investments made on Fuld’s watch.

The cost of moving too fast. On Sept. 15, Bank of America (BAC, news, msgs) CEO Ken Lewis announced that the banking giant was buying Merrill Lynch, saying the deal — cobbled together over a weekend — was “a great opportunity” for shareholders because together the companies would be “more valuable” due to synergies.

Lewis had taken home $98.6 million from 2005 to 2007, so you’d think he would know what he was talking about. So far, he’s been terribly wrong.

Bank of America reported a $21.5 billion fourth-quarter loss. The government responded by injecting $20 billion in new capital Jan. 16 and guaranteeing $118 billion in potential losses from the Merrill Lynch deal.

The stock has been crushed. Bank of America closed at $33.74 the Friday before the deal was struck. It fell to $26.55 on Sept. 15. It dropped to as low as $3.77 on Feb. 5 before recovering to $5.57 on Friday.

What seems clear is that these executives were blissfully ignorant of the growing risks to their businesses or simply chose to ignore them.

And despite all the bad press about CEOs raking in millions for lousy performance, the tricks continue. D.R. Horton (DHI, news, msgs), the nation’s largest homebuilder, lost a whopping $8.34 per share in fiscal 2008, which ended Sept. 30. The stock has fallen 79% since July 2005.

Yet Chairman Donald Horton and CEO Donald Tomnitz collected $5.4 million and $4.4 million, respectively, for the year, including $1.8 million each in performance pay. They were rewarded for hitting benchmarks on cost cutting, pretax income and operating cash flow.

None of this is new. CEOs have been collecting big bucks for lousy performances for years.

Big Lie No. 5: Buy a flat-screen TV, save the economy

Maybe the biggest lie about to be foisted on people is that they should go out and shop to save the economy. Wall Street wants you to spend to pump up the economy. Much of the federal stimulus package enacted this week entails tax breaks and handouts to get people spending.

But it’s really just another big lie to tell people they’ll make a difference if they go out and shop.

The problem is that the economy is going nowhere — no matter how much anyone spends — until someone comes up with a plan to give the banks enough of a capital cushion so they start lending again. So far, we haven’t seen that happen.

So play it safe. Hold on to your money. Most of you need to save more for retirement, anyway.

According to McKinsey Global Institute, two-thirds of baby boomers are unprepared for their golden years. Most of the boomers who are unprepared have a net worth of less than $100,000 even though they are just years away from retirement.

If you are younger, don’t smirk. You need to save, too; otherwise you’ll end up like them.

At the time of publication, Michael Brush owned shares of the Hussman Strategic Growth Fund (HSGFX).

So for years now when women asked me “how do you get your hair so long?” one of my answers has been “Wash it once a week or once every other week”. Of course most women are aghast at this possibility, thinking that i’m an uncouth barbarian for doing such a thing.

Well, today on the radio I heard the following story which made me feel much more secure in my advice.

Morning Edition, March 19, 2009

Americans love to shampoo. We lather up an average of 4.59 times a week, twice as much as Italians and Spaniards, according to shampoo-maker Procter & Gamble.

But that’s way too often, say hair stylists and dermatologists. Daily washing, they say, strips the hair of beneficial oil (called sebum) and can damage our locks.

Shampoo Is Big Business

The current trend of frequent shampoos may have started on May 10, 1908, when the New York Times published a column advising women that it was OK to wash their hair every two weeks. At that time, once a month was the norm.

Decades later, TV marketing campaigns began to convince us that daily washing was the thing to do. A 1970s Faberge ad for Farrah Fawcett shampoo is one example.

“All you have to do is watch her running in slow motion on a beach with her hair flopping gracefully in the wind,” says Steve Meltzer, a former ad executive. The idea was, “Wash your hair with this stuff, and you, too, can be like Farrah Fawcett,” Meltzer says.

Madison Avenue sold people on the idea that they could shampoo their way back to beauty.

Ads also convinced us that daily hair washing is healthy. Remember the Breck girls? Or how about Christie Brinkley’s body-building for hair ad with Prell?

Skipping Shampoos Is, Well, Un-American

Americans took easily to the idea that we should shampoo frequently. And lots of us find it disgusting to shampoo any less than once a day. Take some fitness-conscious college students from Georgetown University, for example. When I told them about the old-time advice to wash once a month, they almost gagged.

“That is way too little hair shampooing,” laughs Jane Caudell-Feagan.

“If I don’t shower every day, my hair gets greasy, so I think it’s completely heinous,” says her friend Ashley Carlini. After a workout, they say, it would be disgusting not to wash your hair.

Eco-Conscious ‘No-’Poo’ Movement

Given our cultural propensity to lather up frequently, it may be shocking that in some eco-conscious circles of society, some people are giving up shampoo.

“There’s a lot of people doing this no-shampoo movement,” says 20-something blogger Jeanne Haegele. She writes a blog called LifeLessPlastic.

In an attempt to buy fewer items with plastic packaging, Haegele recently went three months without using any shampoo. Instead, she washed her hair with baking soda twice a week and conditioned it with a vinegar rinse.

She says her hair didn’t smell, and her friends were very supportive. “Maybe they were secretly wondering why I smelled like a jar of pickles,” she says jokingly.

She ended the no-’poo experiment after developing a bad case of dandruff, but Haegele says she might try it again.

She recalls the biggest surprise was that her hair didn’t get very greasy. For now, she’s using shampoo bars a few times a week.

Dermatologist Recommends Shampooing Less

Experts say Haegele’s observations are not flaky. As she washed less, her sebaceous glands began producing less sebum oil.

“If you wash your hair every day, you’re removing the sebum,” explains Michelle Hanjani, a dermatologist at Columbia University. “Then the oil glands compensate by producing more oil,” she says.

She recommends that patients wash their hair no more than two or three times a week.

There’s also a lot of variation among hair types. African-Americans and people with curly hair can go even longer between washes compared to folks with straight hair.

So, it seems, less is more. And maybe our grandmothers were on to something after all.

Well, Friday I went hiking to Lena Lake to see if it was thawed enough to go fishing.


There was some snow on the trail and quite a bit at the trailhead. The lake itself was 2/3 frozen and the fishing was terrible.




(Click for a handful of photos)

An epic failure indeed.





Frankly I don’t think I ever bought anything there.


If I recall right they had terribly high prices and poor sales staff, they had a habit of firing old higher-paid folks and bringing in cheap staff with zero experience. Let’s all put them in the category of how NOT to run a business.

So i’m sure you have seen a “Picnic Backpack”, a nice backpack with special pockets for plates/napkins/silverware for 4, a corkscrew, salt & pepper shakers, etc. All very overly pretty but not overly functional, not to mention heavy. This set alone is 85$ and 8lbs without a blanket.

While the idea is a good one, notice how the backpack is filling. Every little thing in it’s own little palce nice and pretty and tons of wasted space. But i’m a practical kind of guy, the idea of excess space and weight in something i’m going to carry for miles and miles does not really appeal to me.

So, I set about making my own “functionality-inspired” picnic backpack. (NOTE! This is not a cheap set, it’s a design built for compactness and weight reduction not frugality)




1 backpack (just about anything will do) I went with a black Everest bag with 2 side pockets for water bottles – $19.99

4 lightweight Polypropylene REI plates – $2.75 ea.


4 sets of REI plastic utensils (I took out the big spoons, you can substitute titanium but the cost will go up exponentially) – $2.25ea. set


4 plastic collapsible wine glasses (The bottom unscrews from these and fits upside-down in the top) – $6.95ea.


1 “cork extractor” (I don’t like corkscrews, they mangle a perfectly re-usable cork too much) – $5 on Ebay


1 plastic orange peeler – $1.99


1 combination salt & pepper shaker – $3.95


1 cutting board – $3.00


1 decent quality knife (something that will hold an edge) – $9.99

5 cotton hand towels (4 napkins and one prep towel) – $9.99

1 Platypus bag for leftover wine – $7.95

1 Ikea Cotton Blanket – $29.99


1 sheet heavy dropcloth plastic (For wet or muddy ground) – $2.50

My grand total? $140

Total weight? 7lbs, 1oz (3lbs 12oz without the blanket)

Not too bad I figure, the blanket weighs a considerable amount on it’s own but the cotton doubles as a certain amount of padding. I could have gone with a poly “microfiber” blanket and saved alot of weight (and I still might).

Any ideas on what else I might want to add? I think I might go with a slightly larger backpack for rain gear, hiking goods, etc. The blanket takes up a considerable amount of space in this one (I bought the backpack before the blanket). I think i’ll add a Frisbee, or the Aerobie I have laying around.

The next project is a second backpack cooler that is both light and functional.

I saw this in the restroom on the basement level of Pacific Place in Seattle.

My co-worker recently sent out an email with the following in it:

“Something I have said for many years, if your job seems easy, you aren’t trying hard enough.”

I dispute this. As this comment stands it implies that no matter how hard you work you will never finish your tasks at hand. Furthermore it suggests that there is something wrong with being good at your work so that it is easy to accomplish a days work and that if that work is easy you simply should have been able to accomplish more.

I tend to go by the saying below:

“Work smarter, not harder”

This implies that the goal is to accomplish the work at hand in the most efficient and easiest method possible. Making sure that the attainment of the goal is the first priority, not the increase of the sweat on one’s brow in accomplishing that goal.

I realized something wandering around downtown yesterday that struck me like a brick upside the head.

As I was searching for menswear in Nordstrom and Macy’s I saw that the women’s fashions were of extensive varied colors and patterns, with a myriad of cuts, shapes, florals. etc.

However upon entering the menswear department I was suddenly and completely transported to 1950 or thereabouts. The colors were drab and boring and the cuts of the suits, shirts and shoes were indistiguishable from those being in fashion 60 years ago.

As I stood taking in this realization I was approached by a member of the sales staff who intoned “Is there anything I can help you find sir?”, after a moment to realize it was me he was speaking to I responded “Yes, variety”, his quizical stare and raised eyebrow making it clear he had no idea what I meant I added “This is all very, very old, where is the new men’s fashion?”.

Without any hint of sarcasm or comedy he replied “Men’s fashion does not, and will never change sir”.

Needless to say this was not an answer befitting my state of mind at the time so I took my leave of the place, but the issue still hung in my mind, “Why is men’s fashion so stagnant?”.

When I returned home I started searching for something different or new in men’s fashion trends thinking that the web (which obviously knows everything and has connected several billion people) might show some promise.

I then realized the horror of my situation, that almost all the variety in men’s fashion is lumped into “alternative” fashion. You know this type of fashion, the looks that your parents thought were completely unacceptable and that somewhow 99% of adult men grown out of upon exiting high school or college.

I believe I shall have to find a custom tailor and begin my quest to write this terrible injustice that men now suffer, or (lord forbid) do the unthinkable and learn to sew myself.

This has got to be one of the silliest things I have seen in a long time.

I saw this on the street as I was driving along today.

Seriously who the hell expects to find a girlfriend by advertising your website on a street corner?

Alot has been made lately of the possibly “protectionist” agenda of the Obama administration.

Supposedly if we do not allow completely free trade with countries like China then it will be bad for the USA.

But how exactly? The only people I see losing out are the ones making millions in CEO positions because they choose to ship manufacturing off to where there are no worker rights and where wages are paid in cents not dollars.

I hardly see the current trade situation as “free”, in previous times we called it “exploitation”.

The need to bring jobs back to the USA to make things for US use and export to other nations is a basis of a stable economy.

Now i’m not a big fan of everything the NRA stands for, but I am a believer in the principle behind the Second Amendment.

What I cannot fathom is the NRA “Special Offer” email I got today from their “Wine Club”.

I have to say it isn’t the most brilliant idea to pair a group of gun owners with alcohol (not to mention the fact that i’m sure 99% of them are beer drinkers with no interest in wine).

I stumbled onto this the other day, much of it was completely new information to me.

Johann Hari: You are being lied to about pirates

Some are clearly just gangsters. But others are trying to stop illegal dumping and trawling

Who imagined that in 2009, the world’s governments would be declaring a new War on Pirates? As you read this, the British Royal Navy – backed by the ships of more than two dozen nations, from the US to China – is sailing into Somalian waters to take on men we still picture as parrot-on-the-shoulder pantomime villains. They will soon be fighting Somalian ships and even chasing the pirates onto land, into one of the most broken countries on earth. But behind the arrr-me-hearties oddness of this tale, there is an untold scandal. The people our governments are labelling as “one of the great menaces of our times” have an extraordinary story to tell – and some justice on their side.

Pirates have never been quite who we think they are. In the “golden age of piracy” – from 1650 to 1730 – the idea of the pirate as the senseless, savage Bluebeard that lingers today was created by the British government in a great propaganda heave. Many ordinary people believed it was false: pirates were often saved from the gallows by supportive crowds. Why? What did they see that we can’t? In his book Villains Of All Nations, the historian Marcus Rediker pores through the evidence.

If you became a merchant or navy sailor then – plucked from the docks of London’s East End, young and hungry – you ended up in a floating wooden Hell. You worked all hours on a cramped, half-starved ship, and if you slacked off, the all-powerful captain would whip you with the Cat O’ Nine Tails. If you slacked often, you could be thrown overboard. And at the end of months or years of this, you were often cheated of your wages.

Pirates were the first people to rebel against this world. They mutinied – and created a different way of working on the seas. Once they had a ship, the pirates elected their captains, and made all their decisions collectively, without torture. They shared their bounty out in what Rediker calls “one of the most egalitarian plans for the disposition of resources to be found anywhere in the eighteenth century”.

They even took in escaped African slaves and lived with them as equals. The pirates showed “quite clearly – and subversively – that ships did not have to be run in the brutal and oppressive ways of the merchant service and the Royal Navy.” This is why they were romantic heroes, despite being unproductive thieves.

The words of one pirate from that lost age, a young British man called William Scott, should echo into this new age of piracy. Just before he was hanged in Charleston, South Carolina, he said: “What I did was to keep me from perishing. I was forced to go a-pirateing to live.” In 1991, the government of Somalia collapsed. Its nine million people have been teetering on starvation ever since – and the ugliest forces in the Western world have seen this as a great opportunity to steal the country’s food supply and dump our nuclear waste in their seas.

Yes: nuclear waste. As soon as the government was gone, mysterious European ships started appearing off the coast of Somalia, dumping vast barrels into the ocean. The coastal population began to sicken. At first they suffered strange rashes, nausea and malformed babies. Then, after the 2005 tsunami, hundreds of the dumped and leaking barrels washed up on shore. People began to suffer from radiation sickness, and more than 300 died.

Ahmedou Ould-Abdallah, the UN envoy to Somalia, tells me: “Somebody is dumping nuclear material here. There is also lead, and heavy metals such as cadmium and mercury – you name it.” Much of it can be traced back to European hospitals and factories, who seem to be passing it on to the Italian mafia to “dispose” of cheaply. When I asked Mr Ould-Abdallah what European governments were doing about it, he said with a sigh: “Nothing. There has been no clean-up, no compensation, and no prevention.”

At the same time, other European ships have been looting Somalia’s seas of their greatest resource: seafood. We have destroyed our own fish stocks by overexploitation – and now we have moved on to theirs. More than $300m-worth of tuna, shrimp, and lobster are being stolen every year by illegal trawlers. The local fishermen are now starving. Mohammed Hussein, a fisherman in the town of Marka 100km south of Mogadishu, told Reuters: “If nothing is done, there soon won’t be much fish left in our coastal waters.”

This is the context in which the “pirates” have emerged. Somalian fishermen took speedboats to try to dissuade the dumpers and trawlers, or at least levy a “tax” on them. They call themselves the Volunteer Coastguard of Somalia – and ordinary Somalis agree. The independent Somalian news site WardheerNews found 70 per cent “strongly supported the piracy as a form of national defence”.

No, this doesn’t make hostage-taking justifiable, and yes, some are clearly just gangsters – especially those who have held up World Food Programme supplies. But in a telephone interview, one of the pirate leaders, Sugule Ali: “We don’t consider ourselves sea bandits. We consider sea bandits [to be] those who illegally fish and dump in our seas.” William Scott would understand.

Did we expect starving Somalians to stand passively on their beaches, paddling in our toxic waste, and watch us snatch their fish to eat in restaurants in London and Paris and Rome? We won’t act on those crimes – the only sane solution to this problem – but when some of the fishermen responded by disrupting the transit-corridor for 20 per cent of the world’s oil supply, we swiftly send in the gunboats.

The story of the 2009 war on piracy was best summarised by another pirate, who lived and died in the fourth century BC. He was captured and brought to Alexander the Great, who demanded to know “what he meant by keeping possession of the sea.” The pirate smiled, and responded: “What you mean by seizing the whole earth; but because I do it with a petty ship, I am called a robber, while you, who do it with a great fleet, are called emperor.” Once again, our great imperial fleets sail – but who is the robber?

j.hari@independent.co.uk

Well, I played hooky from work for 2 hours to go listen to Les Stroud speak today at REI.

He was gracious enough to sign his book for me as well.



He also gave a long rambling talk that was pretty good.

He made sure to mention that he did not “quit” survivorman like it has been reported. (I’m not sure why the show is canceled, probably just wanted to go on to other things).

He mentioned how in the episode “Temagami Hunting (Deep Woods)” he and Bob Wilson were actually running from the rescuers to try and get more filming in. Unfortunately for them the rescue teams were police officers. Once the rescuers realized the rescuees were actively attempting to ditch them they dumped their heavier gear and turned it into a manhunt. At the end where Les and Bob are standing by the lake and eventually “found” he said they were covered in sweat from running.

When asked what the scariest moment he had was he related a story about a solo survival trip in Canada before Survivorman. It was September and he was out without any survival gear (yeah, what was he thinking) on a canoe that he had stashed in the woods and then wandered off. He saw a female moose and tried to call it to get it’s attention. Instead he got a very angry bull moose that chased him around and up a tree. He eventually jumped out of the tree and managed to outrun it back to the area where his canoe was, but he was on the wrong side on an inlet so he had to sneak in the water to the mouth of the inlet. After loosing the moose he got lucky and flagged down a couple in a caloe and spent half an hour convincing them he wasn’t crazy. They gave him a lift back to his canoe and was very exhausted, cold and wet. But alive at least.

One interesting question that had been nagging at me was “What happened to the dogs that were released in the episode “Labrador”. He said they made it back to their owner without any trouble.

He also spent a bunch of time talking about the Spot GPS locator. “The manufacturers came to me and said they had 2 choices for spokesman really, one was the real deal and one wasn’t”. (Yeah, easy to tell who he meant there)

So Jennifer (still in Phoenix, AZ) and I were talking.

She said her boyfriend tried to buy some handgun ammo the other day, but couldn’t. Wal-mart, Big-5, Sports Authority were all completely sold out.

It’s obvious why, but what is interesting is it has not been mentioned in any news source anywhere.

Well, to be precise I want “a” rock.

I noticed this cut crystal at a local rock shop the other day.


(Click it for a larger image)

For those 2 of you that are curious it’s a Stellated Dodecahedron.

They want 90$ for it, I think i’m going to snag it next month.

Unless you’ve been living in a cave you know that flight 1549 recently “crashed” into the Hudson River in New York.

The plane is reported to have suffered a loss of two engines due to a double bird strike, nobody died, and the worst injury was 2 broken legs.

People have been calling this a “miracle”.

Websters defines a miracle as:

“an extraordinary event manifesting divine intervention in human affairs”

While I agree this was an excellent feat of piloting, and a great deal of luck was involved, I do not believe there was any divine intervention to be mentioned.

Perhaps if the NTSB report says “God assisted in the landing” i’ll change my tune, until then i’ll just acknowledge the heroic efforts of the crew.

Chesley B. Sullenberger III
Jeffrey Skiles
Donna Dent
Doreen Welsh
Sheila Dail

Thank you.

Got this at fifty cents a stick (half off) just because it was a few months out of date.

For those not familiar with HI-Chew it’s kind of like Laffy Taffy or Starburst.

(But of course far superior, heh)

Seems that the giant “software as service” system Salesforce.com was completely down for around 45 minutes today.

What do you when you’re entire business had moved into the cloud, and then the cloud crashes?

Let’s take a moment to remember Charles Singleton.

He was convicted of murder by Arkansas in 1979 for stabbing store clerk Mary Lou York twice in the neck. He was executed by the state on January 6th, 2004.

While that was a terrible crime and he should have definitely been punished for it the part of this I want people to remember is how the state managed to kill him.

In 1986 the Supreme Court proclaimed it illegal to execute people unless they understood that they were being put to death and why.

An appeals court based in St Louis ruled in February 2003 that the constitution’s prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment would not be violated if the authorities forcibly gave antipsychotic medication to the inmate, Charles Laverne Singleton. It was this decision that was upheld by the Supreme Court later that year.

So in short if you’re crazy we can still execute you by making you take medication so that we think you’re sane enough to execute, regardless of your mental state when you commited your crime.

If you don’t think this is a gross violation of people’s civil rights then you should not be reading this website.

I have no disagreement, the idea of training children in only abstinence is silly at best.

Abstinence-only sex education has totally failed the nation’s teens

Programs mandated to teach only “the social, psychological and health gains (of) abstaining from sexual activity” have been awarded failing grades for truth and effectiveness. The programs that work best combine honest information about sexuality, including contraception.

By Ellen Goodman

Syndicated Columnist

BOSTON — I hate to bring this up right now when the ink is barely dry on your New Year’s resolution. But if history is any guide, you are likely to fall off the assorted wagons to which you are currently lashed.

I don’t say this to disparage your willpower. Hang onto that celery stick for dear life. And even if you stop doing those stomach crunches and start sneaking out for a smoke, at least you can comfort yourself with fond memories of your moment of resolution.

Compare that to the statistic in the newest research about teens who pledge abstinence. The majority not only break the pledge, they forget they ever made it.

This study of teens and pledges comes from Johns Hopkins researcher Janet Rosenbaum, who took a rigorous look at nearly 1,000 students. She compared teens who took a pledge of abstinence with teens of similar backgrounds and beliefs who didn’t. She found absolutely no difference in their sexual behavior, or the age at which they began having sex, or the number of their partners.

In fact, the only difference was that the group that promised to remain abstinent was significantly less likely to use birth control, especially condoms, when they did have sex. The lesson many students seemed to retain from their abstinence-only program was a negative and inaccurate view of contraception.

This is not just a primer on the capacity for teenage denial or the inner workings of adolescent neurobiology. What makes this study important is simply this: “virginity pledges” are one of the ways that the government measures whether abstinence-only education is “working.” They count the pledges as proof that teens will abstain. It turns out that this is like counting New Year’s resolutions as proof that you lost 10 pounds.

We have been here before. And before that. And before that.

When he was running for president, George W. Bush promised, “My administration will elevate abstinence education from an afterthought to an urgent goal.” Over the past eight years, a cottage industry of “abstinence-only-until-marriage” purveyors became a McMansion industry. Funding increased from $73 million a year in 2001 to $204 million in 2008. That’s a grand total of $1.5 billion in federal money for an ideology in search of a methodology. And half the states refused funds to pay for sex mis-education.

By now, there’s an archive of research showing that the binge was a bust. Programs mandated to teach only “the social, psychological and health gains (of) abstaining from sexual activity” and to warn of the dangers of having sex have been awarded failing grades for truth and effectiveness. As Rosenbaum says, “Abstinence-only education is required to give inaccurate information. Teens are savvy consumers of information and know what they are getting.”

Our national investment in abstinence-only may not be a scam on the scale of Bernie Madoff. But this industry has had standards for truth as loose as some mortgage lenders. It manufactures a product as ill-suited to the environment as the SUV. All in all, abstinence-only education has become emblematic of the rule of ideology over science.

The sorry part is that sex education got caught in the culture wars. It has been framed, says Bill Albert of The National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy, as a battle between “those who wanted virginity pledges and those who wanted to hand out condoms to 14-year-olds.”

Meanwhile, six in 10 teens have sex before they leave high school and 730,000 teenage girls will get pregnant this year. We see them everywhere from “Juno” to Juneau — or to be more accurate, Anchorage, where Sarah Palin, advocate of abstinence-only education, just became an unplanned grandparent.

The overwhelming majority of protective parents don’t want a political battle. They want teens to delay sex and to have honest information about sexuality, including contraception. The programs that work best combine those lessons.

Soon Congress and the new administration will be asked to ante up again for abstinence-only programs. As Cecile Richards of Planned Parenthood says, abstinence-only education was “an experiment gone awry. We spent $1.5 billion and can’t point to a single study that says this helps. If it doesn’t help, why fund it?”

Teens are not the only masters of denial. But we are finally stepping back from the culture wars. We are, with luck, returning to something that used to be redundant — evidence-based science. That’s a pledge worth signing … and remembering.

Ellen Goodman’s column appears Friday on editorial pages of The Times. Her e-mail address is ellengoodman@globe.com

I’m tired of tit-for-tat violence, anywhere, by anyone.

Everyone loses, especially the innocent.

Well, I finally got tethering to work between my Moto Q9m phone and my Ubuntu 8.10 Aspire One.

(For you non-techs that means I can get to the internet from my notebook computer using my wireless phone’s internet connection)

Speed isn’t awesome, but it’s not dialup:

Do enjoy the holiday, brought to you by capitalism and the hyped need for massive materialism.

Don’t forget, spend, spend, spend if you want to be a good little American.

(Click it for a larger image)

I keep hearing how Bush’s policies have saved the USA from terrorism. But when anyone asks how we have been saved we get something akin to “We can’t tell you, then the terrorists would know we know”.

To me this sounds like the old joke:

A: Why are you blowing that whistle?
B: To keep away elephants.
A: There are no elephants around here.
B: See, it’s working.

If we don’t have any evidence of how a policy is working we cannot just take no information as proof that a policy is required.

The road was blocked this morning by a bus that slid sideways into a parked car. Thankfully not my car.

So today I got a letter in the mail from one of the banks I have a credit card with.

This letter is in reference to your credit card issued by Barclay’s Bank Delaware.

In a recent review of your account, we noticed that you have not used your Mastercard account for a long time. To help you better manage your credit accounts, we have closed your account.

Please destroy any credit card(s) associated with this account as well as any convenience checks you may have in your possession, as they are no longer valid.

Sincerely,

Barclays

Now I have *perfect* credit. I had not used the card in about 6 months, which does not seem like an overly long time to me.

They are owned by the Barclay Group out of London, so they were not part of the TARP program at all, but cutting off lines of credit to people that are extremely low risk does not seem like what any market needs right now.

A picture of what was falling from the sky outside my office this morning.

Well, all the gifts I need to buy have been bought, packed and mailed off.

Now I get to sit back and wait another year before I have to go through that again. (Can you tell I just LOVE christmas, heh.

I need to plan ahead better.

For those of you unaware earlier my website looked like this:

The reason for this was an exploit that a spambot used in the TinyMCE editor on my site. (Which has since been fixed).

But what is more interesting is what it did. It wrote a huge string to every single php file in my website.

Getting it out proved a royal pain in the butt, but I finally came up with the following command (Had to do it twice because the string was so long).

perl -p -i -e ’s/oldstring/newstring/g’ $(find . -name \*.php)

If you use this remember to use \ before any characters that aren’t numbers or letters, and use \x27 for the ‘ character.

Unless you’ve been living under a rock for 24 hours you know that Barack Obama is now the President-elect of the USA, and will be our 44th President

As a staunch liberal it’s thrilling that we’ve cast off any vestige of the last 8 years of incompetence and stupidity. (Except perhaps for Alaska, which seems set to re-elect a convicted felon to the Senate)

Hopefully we can move forward from here and be part of the global dialog, rather than trying to control that dialog.

I feel that Madelyn Dunham is one of the most important names in current US politics.

I know, I can hear the responses now, “Who?”, “She’s not even running”, “She’s just an old woman”, etc.

But what is truly amazing and different, is that this woman who turns 86 tomorrow has for two days become the single most important thing in the mind of Barack Obama.

2 weeks before election day, in the middle of a close presidential race, Obama is dropping out of his campaign and flying home to be with his sick grandmother that raised him.

Show me something that shows more “Family Values” than that.

It’s uncertain if it will cost him the election (some polls show the race extremely tight, some show it 10 points in Obama’s favor) and i’m sure some will say it’s a calculated ploy, but we have to stand and appreciate the fact that he’s doing it.

If I had to make a choice between a ploy to get votes of smearing my opponent or visiting a sick family member there would be no debate, i’d go do the visit. I feel people have a responsibility to live the values they try and tell others about, not just talk the talk.

I hope at some later day a politician looks back on this move by Obama and says, “Let’s be more friendly, more positive”, because our country badly needs that restraint.

I ran across this in a recent article:

Dr. Barbara Yawn, director of research at the Olmsted Medical Center, University of Minnesota said: “Visits are now so short and for primary care … that there is not time to spend the five, 10, 15 or 20 minutes that are required to explain why an antibiotic is not a good treatment for a viral respiratory infection”

I find this highly disturbing.

If I see a doctor i’m paying for time. The idea that I cannot get a doctor to explain something to me for 10-20 minutes means that I am overpaying for my doctors time.

I think Healthcare has turned completely to maximizing profits, rather than quality of care and educating the patient on what is good for them.

Online murder, well it was bound to happen sometime.

Online divorcee jailed after killing virtual hubby

By MARI YAMAGUCHI, Associated Press Writer Mari Yamaguchi, Associated Press Writer – Thu Oct 23, 3:48 pm ET

TOKYO – A 43-year-old Japanese woman whose sudden divorce in a virtual game world made her so angry that she killed her online husband’s digital persona has been arrested on suspicion of hacking, police said Thursday.

The woman, who is jailed on suspicion of illegally accessing a computer and manipulating electronic data, used his identification and password to log onto popular interactive game “Maple Story” to carry out the virtual murder in mid-May, a police official in northern Sapporo said on condition of anonymity, citing department policy.

“I was suddenly divorced, without a word of warning. That made me so angry,” the official quoted her as telling investigators and admitting the allegations.

The woman had not plotted any revenge in the real world, the official said.

She has not yet been formally charged, but if convicted could face a prison term of up to five years or a fine up to $5,000.

Players in “Maple Story” raise and manipulate digital images called “avatars” that represent themselves, while engaging in relationships, social activities and fighting against monsters and other obstacles.

The woman used login information she got from the 33-year-old office worker when their characters were happily married, and killed the character. The man complained to police when he discovered that his beloved online avatar was dead.

The woman was arrested Wednesday and was taken across the country, traveling 620 miles from her home in southern Miyazaki to be detained in Sappporo, where the man lives, the official said.

The police official said he did not know if she was married in the real world.

In recent years, virtual lives have had consequences in the real world. In August, a woman was charged in Delaware with plotting the real-life abduction of a boyfriend she met through “Second Life,” another virtual interactive world.

In Tokyo, police arrested a 16-year-old boy on charges of swindling virtual currency worth $360,000 in an interactive role playing game by manipulating another player’s portfolio using a stolen ID and password.

Virtual games are popular in Japan, and “Second Life” has drawn a fair number of Japanese participants. They rank third by nationality among users, after Americans and Brazilians.

What does the future of politics (the next 40 years) hold? Let’s look into the magical crystal ball of current events and history and see if we can pull out any tidbits.

#1 The debate over gay marriage will die. Just like segregation died out as younger people grow up without considering that it’s a big deal it stops being a big deal. Many young people view this as silly as if you are saying a black man and a white woman have no right to marry.

#2 Religion will eventually move out of politics. As above young people are not turning to religion like previous generations. http://www.usatoday.com/news/religion/2007-08-06-church-dropouts_N.htm (One story of hundreds)

#3 Abortion will stop being a major issue. Once again, younger people do not consider this to be such a black/white moral topic the way older generations do. Hence it will stop being a divisive issue in politics as time goes on.

#4 The USA will have socialized medicine. The number of younger workers (18-35) in the US without healthcare keeps steadily growing, employers are not offering it like in the old days, and employment is not as stable as it has been in the past. Eventually as this issue grows it will reach a head and something will be done about it.

#5 Islam and Muslims will not be considered “evil”. Just like the Japanese were hated during WWII and the Soviets during the cold war this too shall pass. They are not the inherently evil group that current thinking has painted them out to be.

#6 Gasoline will be 5$ or more per gallon. Don’t expect OPEC to play nicely now that it’s seen demand stays high with 100$ per barrel oil. Even if we start drilling everywhere in the USA younger folks are more willing to look for alternatives, they are also more willing to accept taxes in order to help the environment.

I do not see any reason at this time to predict that people born in the next 20 years will be any more conservative than the current 18-35 year old age group. Some massive world event might change this, but I can’t see what it could be. Along with the recent finding that people get more liberal as they age: http://www.livescience.com/health/080310-liberal-seniors.html

That’s as much as I can be certain of anyway (IE. *I* feel confident enough in the above to put money on it.)

So, I was going to add another disk into the raid-5 I run off of a Highpoint 2224 card.

No biggie I figured, just run the expansion tool.

But I goofed, and instead of expanding to raid-5 and just adding a disk I ended up adding a disk AND migrating to a raid-0. I then noticed there was no way to cancel the operation once started.

Bummer, but the drives were new, it should survive the migration and then i’ll go from there.

But I was wrong. The new drive failed during the migration.

So now i’m running on borrowed time with the migration on hold trying to backup all the data to the old disks and misc places in the rest of my network.

I’ve been doing this, for the last 3 days.

No, it has not been fun.

Once stuff is backed up i’ll try the raid tool that Highpoint sent me, and if that fails i’ll erase the entire array and build a new one (Not what I really want to do that)

We shall see how things go.

So, who else is tired of having to deal with crappy tech support on the phone, in chat or via email?

You know, where they make you go over stupid things that you’ve already tried. “Please power-cycle the machine again sir, even tho we know you already did”.

Now i’m all in favor of going down the list of things to try since nobody is perfect, but it would be nice if support asked “So what have you already tried sir?” once in while.

Or perhaps when companies pay for support contracts they can have “levels” to them. “Oh, Hello Mr. Smith, I see your company paid for our “Guru-level” support contract, please let me know what you need. I see, you need a replacement power supply, we’ll send one out to you immediately.” rather than “Would you please try this, and this, and that”.

Admittedly sometimes the knowledgeable user is wrong about what is broken, but the extra cost of the contract could easily offset those costs.

The reason this comes to mind is because today we’re being told we have to wait 2 days to have someone in the data center call support for a product we know via remote monitor is dead and we cannot test because there is nobody at the data center where it failed. Not the best of situations.

I know this is a tad old, but I wanted to to make mention of it nonetheless. So much for a free market spurring competition.

Congress questions high cost of texting

By Stephanie Condon
September 9, 2008 4:25 PM PDT

The price of text messaging has doubled industry-wide in the last three years, and Congress wants to know why.

Sen Herb Kohl, chair of the Antitrust Subcommittee in the Senate Judiciary Committee, sent a letter Tuesday to the four major wireless carriers–AT&T, Verizon Wireless, Sprint, and T-Mobile–asking them to explain the dramatic price increases for text messaging services.

“Some industry experts contend that these increased rates do not appear to be justified by any increases in the costs associated with text messaging services, but may instead be a reflection of a decrease in competition, and an increase in market power, among your four companies,” Kohl said in the letter.

The cost of text messaging since 2005 has increased 100 percent from 10 cents to 20 cents for all four providers. Mobile operators have reaped huge profits from the increased prices, CNET reported in July.

Also, the number of major carriers in the United States has shrunk from six to four in recent years, while the remaining carriers continue to acquire their regionally based competitors, Kohl said in the letter. He noted that the four carriers combined currently serve more than 90 percent of wireless subscribers in the U.S.

“I am concerned with whether this market consolidation, and increased market power by the major carriers, has contributed to this doubling of text messaging rates over the last three years,” Kohl said.

The senator from Wisconsin asked the companies to provide evidence of how their respective text messaging pricing structures differs from those of their competitors, along with evidence of what factors led to price increases. He also asked the wireless carriers to provide data on the utilization of text messaging from 2005 to 2008 and a price comparison of text messaging services to other services such as Internet access over wireless devices. Kohl asked for a response by October 6.

The similar price increases, coming at similar times, Kohl said, “is hardly consistent with the vigorous price competition we hope to see in a competitive marketplace.”

So the place I work has alot of odd toys laying around, skateboards, scooters, etc. (Yes, it’s a small tech startup)

But one of them is truly sadistic.

This is a version of the classic “board on the cylinder” balance item, and I fell on my ass trying to stand on it today.

It belongs in the category of dangerous toys with lawn darts and chemistry sets.

Some of you will know what i’m talking about.

(The Ribbon as it appears in MS Word 2007)

In the newest versions of MS Office there is the new “Ribbon”, rather than the normal toolbars.

For those of us familiar with the old style of such things we’re screwed:

“There is no way to delete or replace the Ribbon with the toolbars and menus from the earlier versions of Microsoft Office.”

And of course there is no way to complain to MS about it either. Figures eh?

I just love it when we get force-fed a new standard.

Bleah, I had a nice trip to AZ, except for the fact that i’m quite sick.

The flight back combined with a sinus headache was NOT fun.

If only eh?

Che had balls our recent politicians can only dream of.

EDIT: Yes, I know he had his dark side, and some view him with animosity as “the butcher of La Caba�a.” but he didn’t just sit back in Cuba after they won the revolution, he went off to find another revolution to lead. That is why I like him, he didn’t just talk the talk, he walked the walk.

As I have said before, only socialism for the rich.

The government only steps in and takes control of things when it benefits rich people.

If you have not read this essay by Neal Stephenson regarding Operating Systems, or have only read the 1999 original version, I suggest you read this 2004 version, annotated by Garrett Birkel.

It brings the original more up to date.

One interesting thing about Seattle is how few of my pastimes are possible anywhere nearby.

I managed to find a few decent lakes to fish in, but the nearest airsoft field is an hour drive from me, good metal detecting spots are almost twice that far, anywhere to hunt game is a two-day trip.

I’m going to have to figure out how to marry my hobbies with my desire to live in the city.

Several weeks ago I bought an Airsoft version of a Steyr AUG, it finally arrived today.

I was shocked at how heavy the thing was, it’s mostly metal just like a real version of the rifle.

Now to get the rest of my airsoft outfit.

When Sarah came to visit me I got her a monthly bus card thinking we would use the bus a lot.
This did not come to pass and I ended up carrying the pass around using it for people who I saw paying with cash since nobody on Craigslist wanted to but it at more than 1/20th of it’s face value.
Today a gentleman at the bus stop was getting out cash and happened to mutter, “gotta save to get a pass”. So I gave him that spare one, much to his shock.
That action felt much nicer than letting someone haggle it out of me for a pittance online.
Hopefully he’ll pay it forward.

So, I headed to the lake this evening with my little boat. The weather was partly cloudy, with a light wind.

Didn’t get any bites at all until about 6pm, then anything I threw into the water caught a perch near the Meridian entrance (there is a tree fall blocking this entrance now BTW) the largest one was about 12″. I got one rock bass as well.

They were still biting when I got bored at about 8pm and headed home.

This is the only way to spend a friday.

What is up with the price of gas?



By C. Marcus Parr



Who’s responsible for rising gas prices?



Asking this question makes sense when we’re paying so much to fill the tank. Seven years ago, the price for a barrel of crude oil was $30. It recently reached a high of $137. Oil not merely doubled or tripled in price during President Bush’s administration, but more than quintupled.



In all fairness, the staggering cost of gasoline cannot be laid solely at the feet of George W. Bush. Several factors are at play the falling value of the U.S. dollar, a diminishing supply (or scarcity) of oil versus rising demand, and speculators in the futures market.



The dollar has lost about 60 percent of its value against the euro over the last seven years. It has lost even more value against gold and petroleum. When the dollar drops in value against foreign currency, Americans pay more for a barrel of oil on the international market.



Alternatively, when speculators set oil futures at $130 a barrel, we pay more at the pump and the United States trade deficit increases. Our annual oil import bill has risen from $106 billion in 2006 to approximately $500 billion today.



Are speculators at the root of this problem? According to T. Boone Pickens, legendary Texas oilman, the futures market is not a ‘bubble’ about to burst. Oil futures are rising because of scarcity and high demand, not speculation. George Soros, the hedge fund billionaire, counters Pickens’ argument by saying the global oil price explosion is caused by commodity futures speculation. He believes that speculation is exaggerating the true price of oil.



Are we running out of oil? Some say we’ve already passed Peak Oil. Finding and extracting crude has become difficult for oil companies. Today, worldwide demand for oil is outpacing production.



No matter which view is right or who is at fault, the world economy runs on gasoline and we’re burning it faster than we can pump it out of the ground.



We need to reduce our energy consumption through conservation. This is a good policy for our pocketbooks and the environment. Commute with others. Use mass transit. We have a marvelous bus system in Sandy: Fareless SAM. It’s clean, it’s safe and it’s free!



Save energy by making your home more energy-efficient: insulate, put in new windows or passive solar systems and buy energy-friendly appliances. We need to buy local produce and goods rather than imported goods. Many of us already have vegetable gardens or shop at local farmers’ markets. Yes, it’s true that conservation will take a major change in the way we live, but these habits will pump money into our local economy, help conserve energy and help build a sustainable community.

The other day the New Yorker magazine published it’s July 21, 2008 issue, with cover art by artist Barry Blitt. (Shown below)



It shows Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama dressed as a Muslim and his wife as a terrorist.


The magazine says “the cover is meant to satirize the use of scare tactics and misinformation in the presidential election to derail Obamas campaign”.



But with how stupid the US populace is, do you seriously think they will realize it’s a joke? Especially when there is nothing printed in the magazine that explains or relates to the cover art. The comments from the publisher above came out only after they were questioned regarding the image.

So I try talking to one of my co-workers about the new TSA regulations. And no matter how bad a theoretical situation I bring up he says:


“I don’t care, they can do whatever they want for my safety”


Why oh why are people so willing to give up their freedoms for thinking they are safer?

So I’ve been noticing more and more the rift widening.


And I’ve really been wondering, why?


I’m going to list it as I see it.



#1 Conservatives believe they have a god-given right to anything and everything.


Think about it, they want to anything no matter how bad it is, they want to drive huge cars that get bad gas mileage, they don’t care about the environment, they want to keep every cent of every dollar they ever make for themselves.


In short, they don’t like anyone telling them they have to do ANYTHING.


Why? The USA has become the land of absolute individualism, “Do what you want as long as it directly doesn’t hurt anyone else”, but what about indirectly hurting others? When did that stop mattering? We just think “Gee, that’s not my concern” and go on with our wasteful consumer culture figuring it’ll all work itself out, and we don;t have to be part of the solution.



#2 Liberals see a moral reason to be concerned about indirect hurts.


My car hurts the environment, my choice of hiring illegals or not hurts them and the economy, my bad business tactics are morally hurtful.


Many people seem to think this is somehow weakness, “They just feel guilty for everything”, but in reality it’s an enlightened view that we cannot just care about ourselves.



#3 Money


The USA teaches you that money is hard to get, it’s rare, and you’ll have to work your ass off for it. Along with that you have to pay a ton of money to go to school, so once you have paid for your school you have no desire to make less than possible.


Is this the only way? In Denmark for example school is free.


Yep, it costs nothing to go to school.


If I went to school to learn how to do what I really wanted to do, would there be a learned behavior to somehow feel I needed to earn a ton of money? Highly doubtful.



#4 Welfare


Conservatives do not believe in “Externalities”. They like to believe that all the people that are poor, homeless, on welfare, etc. want to be there. “If they don’t want to be poor they would just work harder”. In truth why should they have to? So long as they are contributing members of society in some way why shouldn’t we help them to have at least a basic level of comfort?




#5 Taxes


It’s an evil word, I know. The forced redistribution of wealth.


But how is it that we still love Robin Hood?


He stole from the rich and gave to the poor, that’s exactly what taxes do, why? Because the rich don’t want to give up their money to help anyone else. Is it wrong for the state to force them to?


Liberals say morally it is our obligation to help others.


Conservatives see it as wage slavery, that they shouldn’t have to give anyone anything or have morals forced on them.



When are we going to start accepting that there is more to life than trying to get ahead for just ourselves and start living in the “United” States of America rather than the divided states of individualism?


Sooner than later I hope.

Your papers please…

TSA Announces Enhancements to Airport ID Requirements to Increase Safety


June 23, 2008


Beginning Saturday, June 21, 2008 passengers that willfully refuse to provide identification at security checkpoint will be denied access to the secure area of airports. This change will apply exclusively to individuals that simply refuse to provide any identification or assist transportation security officers in ascertaining their identity.


This new procedure will not affect passengers that may have misplaced, lost or otherwise do not have ID but are cooperative with officers. Cooperative passengers without ID may be subjected to additional screening protocols, including enhanced physical screening, enhanced carry-on and/or checked baggage screening, interviews with behavior detection or law enforcement officers and other measures.


Under the law that created TSA, the Aviation and Transportation Security Act, the TSA administrator is responsible for overseeing aviation security (P.L. 107-71) and has the authority to establish security procedures at airports (49 C.F.R. – 1540.107). Passengers that fail to comply with security procedures may be prohibited from entering the secure area of airports to catch their flight (49 C.F.R. – 1540.105(a)(2).


This initiative is the latest in a series designed to facilitate travel for legitimate passengers while enhancing the agency’s risk-based focus – on people, not things. Positively identifying passengers is an important tool in our multi-layered approach to security and one that we have significantly bolstered during the past 18 months.

In short if you refuse to show ID as is your constitutional right you will not be allowed to fly, if you have lost it, or forgot it you will.


Why? We don’t know, since the Bush administration has made all TSA documents “Secret”. Nothing like being forced to follow secret laws.


Fascism anyone?

Body of “flying priest” balloon adventurer recovered off Brazil


July 5th, 2008 by Mohit Joshi


BrazilRio de Janeiro – The body of “flying priest” balloon adventurer Adelir de Carli has been recovered some 100 kilometres off the Brazilian coast, local media reports said Saturday.


Father de Carli went missing in April while attempting to fly with 1,000 helium-filled party balloons tied to a chair. The body was recovered by a tugboat crew off Rio de Janeiro state, reports said.


Police said clothing, a rucksack and shoes left little doubt that the body was that of the priest. DNA tests would be conducted to provide final proof.


Father de Carli, 42, had set out on April 20 on what was planned to be a 20-hour flight from the town of Paranagua, in the state of Parana, to Dourados, in neighbouring Mato Grosso do Sul, to break a 19-hour world record and “to promote religion,” as he put it.


He had also been seeking to raise money to build a chapel and to contribute to the cause of long-distance lorry drivers demanding longer breaks.


He went missing eight hours into the flight attempt as the wind blew him off course towards the sea. Rescue teams at sea later found the balloons the Roman Catholic priest had been using and fragments of what may have been his chair some 50 kilometres from the seaside resort of Florianopolis, in the state of Santa Catarina.


Authorities feared at the time he had fallen into the sea and been dragged south. They broadened the scope of the search, hoping to find De Carli at sea or on an island in the states of Santa Catarina and Rio Grande do Sul.


On January 13, the priest made a successful attempt to fly supported by balloons, travelling 110 kilometres from Ampere, in Parana, to the Argentine town of San Antonio, in a four-hour flight. He used 500 balloons and reached an altitude of 5,300 metres


Friends did not regard de Carli as a “crazy priest” but as an experienced flier and parachutist, who completed several survival courses.

Recently, the list of world’s happiest countries was out.




The winner? Denmark!




The survey for happiest nations was conducted by University of Leicester,and what exactly was asked isn’t revealed. But,what’s striking is that the list which is here, is appearing to be more or less the same in any survey conducted across the globe.
The 20 happiest nations in the World are:




1. Denmark
2. Switzerland
3. Austria
4. Iceland
5. The Bahamas
6. Finland
7. Sweden
8. Bhutan
9. Brunei
10. Canada
11. Ireland
12. Luxembourg
13. Costa Rica
14. Malta
15. The Netherlands
16. Antigua and Barbuda
17. Malaysia
18. New Zealand
19. Norway
20. The Seychelles




Other notable results include:




23. USA
35. Germany
41. UK
62. France
82. China
90. Japan
125. India
167. Russia




The three least happy countries were:




176. Democratic Republic of the Congo
177. Zimbabwe
178. Burundi




What do I personally find striking about this list? That most of the happiest nations tend to be welfare states, have extremely high tax rates, or general socialistic tendencies.




It’s also worth noting that another survey by livescience.com showed: “Americans are no happier today than they were 50 years ago despite significant increases in prosperity, decreases in crime, cleaner air, larger living quarters and a better overall quality of life.”




So, exactly what gives?




My opinion? The USA will never be happy with “what it haves”. It’s far too busy trying to get more and more and more that people cannot stop and enjoy what they have currently.




Maybe in a few decades that’ll change, but either way we have to drop pure individu

At 71 George Carlin left the stage for the last time the other day.

Vulgar as he was few can argue he spoke volumes about modern life worth listening to.

He’ll be missed.

So, my mother flew me out here from Seattle this weekend to meet the family, for the first time since I was 8 years old my uncles and aunts on my mother’s side of the family are together in the same place.

It’s been a very interesting day to say the least.

So while browsing http://www.thislife.org/ looking for a show I missed recently that I wanted to listen to I noticed a constant request for money.

Not just the general NPR begging but directly to pay for the roughly 15 Terabytes of bandwidth per month that was eaten up by people downloading their podcast.

Immediately a fix sprang to mind, use BitTorrent. People that have no money to donate or don;t want to donate will probably be willing to cough up a little bandwidth.

So I posed the idea to them.

Their response? They said they’d think about it, but I realized they are probably not thrilled about the idea of having their radio shows strewn across the public ether free, since once those shows are archived after 30 days they are no longer free.

So, which is it? Are they offering it up free and asking for donations to cover your bandwidth, or are they using the free shows as a teaser to get people to snag the archived non-free shows?

I’m afraid they can’t have it both ways.