Keystone Cops are in the Border Patrol?

As seen on the FAIL Blog

My apologies to Jared

I had it in my mind that Jared (The Galleria of Jewelers) was founded by Jared Polis. It was not. Please see the Wikipedia entry. My apologies.

Jared Polis, the first openly homosexual man to be elected to Congress, is rather the founder of bluemountain.com and Proflowers.com. He sold the first for a mint before the DotBomb and the second in 2005.

Not bad... He sold the Proflowers brand (with some other similar things) for $477M when they only had $60M in the bank... (What do you think that he feels guilty for being a capitalist?)

Bah! The research for this post took the wind out of my sails. I had wanted to warn y'all (Bert) that your favorite "conservative" talk shows were promoting a liberal's money maker.

That may still be the case. *sigh* But I don't have the time to look into it.

The new Secretary of Education...

From Chicago...

The guys at Freakonomics like him and have complimentary things to say...

The Economic Downturn?

It's all Microsoft's fault!

Well, at least, it's partly their fault. Vista was such a flop that companies aren't upgrading to it in the rush that computer memory makers were counting on.

Easy lending terms and a bright view of the future prompted them to build too many new DRAM factories. Much of the new output was aimed at Microsoft's Windows Vista OS. The OS requires more memory per PC than older OSs, and DRAM companies hoped Vista would be a blockbuster...

So. Buy more memory now. It's cheap and you'll be helping the "global economy."

I suggest DealRAM. Their site can get you to the right chips at the best prices. :^)

It's a sad state of affairs when...

... Pravda says more about a news story than our MSM will.

"The only thing that matters is that he refuses to produce a valid Birth Certificate and instead spends thousands of dollars on attorneys and defies Federal lawsuits and State lawsuits asking him to produce one single piece of paper that most every citizen of every nation of the world has easy and rapid access to."

H/T to wnd.com

It pays to fight the entropy back!

A study that shows a lot of interesting things.

E.g., a hole in a fence where there were signs stating, essentially, "Don't go through this hole" and "Don't attach bikes to the fence." Where there were bikes attached to the fence, ~80% of pedestrians would cut through the hole. When the bikes were unlocked, something like 25% cut through.

Is there disorder of some sort near a problem area in your life/home/work? Fix it and the problem may diminish.

Hmmm... I'm thinking I need to spend some time fighting back the entropy in my garage.

Video of the lost space tool bag...

A modern day Tragedy of the Common(s) Teaspoon

Interesting research into the lifetime of a teaspoon in an academic setting.

Inspired by desperation and a deep need for understanding of the callousness of fellow men.

Make sure to read into the "Discussion" section.

The upside of Somali piracy

It offers jobs, self-esteem, food, commerce, and schools for the depressed country.

Me? I wanna figure out a way to guard the ships. Shoot back. Make $s.

This is why women shouldn't be allowed to lead space walks.

Quote:

"Despite my little hiccup, or major hiccup [letting a large tool bag drift away], I think we did a good job out there," [Heidemarie] Stefanyshyn-Piper said after returning to the space station.

A co-worker just asked: What ever happened to people just saying, "I screwed up. I'm sorry." ?

So, Al-qaida (sic?) isn't really trying to kiss up...

In a recent video, AQ's #2 guy calls Obama, Powell, and Condi "house slaves."

I guess that they don't respect B. Hussein O. very much... -- or is it just a ruse to throw us off? ;^)

Apple earnings up 124% last quarter

and another $4B in the bank.

the link is to an analysis of Apple's financial position were it to be announced without using GAAP.

In this case, GAAP don't help investors or, apparently, analysts.

The editorial cartoons of Chuck Asay

A Colorado treasure

A Company on the Rise

It's been a while, but I can hardly stand it.

If you're looking for a company with a depressed stock price and large upward potential, read the title-linked article and consider AAPL.

AT&T was a recipient of some coat-tail riding...

:^)

This is my life...

Please click the link for valuable instructions...

So, which Party is better for your stock portfolio?

There seems to be a major kerfuffle in the web about which party being represented in the Oval Office best affects your stock investments...

The germ of it all was a post by the NYT... It seems to fit the definition of propaganda.

It was reworked a bit to make it more reasonable...

Finally, the co-founder of Mathematica makes a demo that allows you to factor several things into the mix: inflation, policy implementation lag, dividends, etc... The bottom line is:

It doesn’t matter who is in charge, the market is saying, in the long run it’s going to be OK.

Some sense from Ann Coulter...

Regarding Senator Joe Biden's misstatements during his debate with Gov. Sarah Palin.

I think that she's right. Gov. Palin would be out in a heartbeat if she were as dense and wrong as he is.

For example, Biden said about Hezbollah: "When we kicked – along with France – we kicked Hezbollah out of Lebanon." Hezbollah was never kicked out of Lebanon.

He continued: "I said and Barack said, 'Move NATO forces in there. Fill the vacuum, because if you don't, Hezbollah will control it.'" This is madness – Lebanon is not a NATO country, nor had any NATO country been attacked by Lebanon.

...

In one especially hallucinatory answer, Biden authoritatively stated: "With Afghanistan, facts matter, Gwen. ... We spend more money in three weeks on combat in Iraq than we spent on the entirety of the last seven years that we have been in Afghanistan building that country."

According to the Congressional Research Service, since 9/11, we've spent $172 billion in Afghanistan and $653 billion in Iraq. The most money spent in Iraq came in 2008, when we have been spending less than $3 billion a week. So by Biden's calculations, we've spent only about $9 billion "on the entirety of the last seven years that we have been in Afghanistan building that country." There isn't even a "9" in $172 billion.

'Nuf said?

Alec Baldwin gets one right

It's an 11 minute clip, but his germane comments are only 2 minutes into it.

Logos Bible software for the Mac

Now in Beta 2!

If you have a current PC license for it, you can transfer your files and license to your Mac to try it out.

Mac version to be sold when beta testing is done.

Rumors of my demise...

are greatly exaggerated.

Here's an interesting story for those of us who dream of flying.

I've been working a lot of long days.

You pretty much knew...

...that it would happen eventually:

Vista security gutted by new web exploit

The malicious code not only negates the effectiveness of Vista's Address Space Layout Randomization and Data Execution Prevention technologies, which respectively randomize the location of some code in memory and prevent executing code from outside a certain memory space, but specifically abuses their behavior to ensure an attack gets through.

Update: A rebuttal (basically "Well, sure, but Vista's still better than XP.")

Persuasion

An interesting interview from Freakonomics of a couple of authors. They wrote Yes! 50 Scientifically Proven Ways to Be Persuasive.

Some of the comments:

When haggling is possible, I decide the price I want to pay for an item and then place that amount of money in the seller’s hand. If they do not agree to the price I ask for my money back. They almost always would rather keep the money in their hand then the item.

— Posted by Valpey

One technique I saw demonstrated lately was to repeatedly gesture with one hand while talking about unquestionably negative things, and the other hand for clearly positive things. ‘Weighting’ the hands in this way allows you to influence further conversation by simply moving one hand or the other. It’s a neat trick.

— Posted by LL

I prefer to wave my hand by someone’s face once and say: “These are not the droids you are looking for.” It doesn’t always work but I often at least get a chuckle.

— Posted by JC

It's all a matter of perspective...

And this guy seems to have a good amount of it.

Click the article link first, though.

An interesting Dictionary

Whilst I was learning how to make splices and eyelets in ropes, I came across

AN UNIVERSAL DICTIONARY OF THE MARINE: OR, A COPIOUS EXPLANATION OF THE TECHNICAL TERMS and PHRASES EMPLOYED IN THE CONSTRUCTION, EQUIPMENT, FURNITURE, MACHINERY, MOVEMENTS, AND MILITARY OPERATIONS OF A SHIP

by one William Falconer, early 1800s British.

Ode to Joy!

One of 40 bits of advice...

from people who have money or make money or invest it...

Borrowing money is like wetting your bed in the middle of the night. At first all you feel is warmth and release. But very, very quickly comes the awful, cold discomfort of reality. --
Elizabeth Gilbert

Two more years?

We might have commercial LED-based lights in 2 years! So, quit buying CFLs and be patient! :^)

(Okay, maybe it will be 3 years... Or maybe WalMart will kill the researchers and buy the technology and put it on a shelf... There are, after all, 100mpg carburetors rusting away in warehouses in Detroit... *sigh* ;^)

An Economist goes to Iceland

Observations into culture and economics in (at least) two parts.

What whale tastes like

Blood feuds and bathing

Update:

Greenland

What's that in the background?

No, not the Space Shuttle! The little plume of flame farther back.

What is it?

Are child safety seats really effective?

A "lightning talk" by Steven Levitt of Freakonomics fame given at the 2005 TED Conference in (at?) Oxford

This is something we all should try!

I mean it's just gotta be a hoot!

At least as long as you don't end up like this guy... :^(

Still don't want MS's Vista?

follow the link for info on how to get a copy.

How to See 93 Million Miles...

An almost poetic description of solar eclipses, what they are, and how to participate in them.

The power of One

One lone, delusional man...

Can do a lot. Of good and bad...

What have you done lately?

Algal BioFuel

An interesting bit of number-crunching on gasoline from algae.

In a nutshell: It's going to be an intensive process.

High Oil Prices? Good NEWS!!

It seems that sending parts to cheap labor sources isn't economical anymore.

Look for more things being made here in the US of A! :^)

If you've ever had a problem with Windows...

don't worry! It happens to the "best" of them:

Gates smiled and said,

There's not a day that I don't send a piece of e-mail ... like that piece of e-mail. That's my job.

Sometimes the apples fall from the trees...

and then, learning from them, roll away.

Some famous fathers and what their sons learned:

?? Carcaterra
Hunter S. Thompson
Frank Sinatra
Gerald Ford
Billy Graham
Johnny Cash

Ham in space!!

New Launch: 2008 May 31, 2102 UTC
Site: Air Force Eastern Test Range, Florida, USA
Launcher: Space Shuttle (Discovery)
International Designators(s): 2008-027A

SSC Name Owner
32960 STS 124 US


"Right on time, the shuttle Discovery blasted into orbit Saturday, kicking off a two-week, three-spacewalk mission to attach Japan's huge Kibo laboratory module to the international space station and deliver a fresh flight engineer—Gregory Chamitoff—to replace outgoing station astronaut Garrett Reisman."

"Liftoff occurred on time at 5:02:12 p.m. [EDT] after a virtually problem-free countdown. Joining Kelly and Chamitoff aboard the orbiter were pilot Kenneth Ham, flight engineer Ronald Garan, Karen Nyberg, Michael Fossum and Japanese astronaut Akihiko Hoshide."

Yes, Ken Ham is/was in space. I guess that we shouldn't have hoped to see him at the AiG Creation Museum. ;^)

This news courtesy of AGI.com, purveyors of state-of-the-art simulation tools. If you're interested in getting updates, click here.

Good news!!

:^)!

Human Life Amendment Signatures Certified –
Historic Amendment Officially on November's Ballot

Denver, Colorado – May 29, 2008 – For the first time in US history, the issue of personhood will be decided in the public forum by a constitutional amendment. Colorado for Equal Rights has been notified by the Colorado Secretary of State's Office that enough valid signatures were submitted to put the Every Human is a Person amendment on the November 2008 ballot. The Secretary of State's Office's random sampling indicated that there were 103,377 valid signatures, surpassing the 76,047 valid signatures that were required.
...
Colorado for Equal Rights is a statewide grassroots organization of concerned citizens who value human life. Colorado for Equal Rights is sponsoring the Human Life Amendment to the Colorado constitution, stating "(t)he term 'Person' or 'Persons' shall include any human from the time of fertilization."

Now it's just up to a little vote in November.

Interesting times...

Bad Dell!

Bad Dell!! Bad...

Normally, I just put up pro-Apple or anti-MS stuff, so, for a change, here's an article about Dell.

Apparently some of their customers, the State of New York, and many of the commenters think Dell's not a good, customer service-oriented company.

Funniest comment:

If I were the CEO of Dell, I'd sell the company and give the money back to the shareholders.

:^)

Richard Feynman & The Connection Machine

A longish, but funny, informative and touching, article about a phenomenal mind and teacher.

After a hurried private discussion ("I don't know, you hired him..."), we informed Richard that his assignment would be to advise on the application of parallel processing to scientific problems.

"That sounds like a bunch of baloney," he said. "Give me something real to do."

So we sent him out to buy some office supplies.

HR Troubles?

Normally, I wouldn't put up posts from The Daily WTF, but this one isn't about a silly/stupid programming technique.

It's about a stupid HR response to a poignant question from someone who isn't part of the problem being addressed in a small meeting.

Insights into piracy and democracy...

Not that I'm a great fan of democracy... I like the rule of law that Federalism purports to maintain.

The article sort of puts the Pirates of the Carribean a little bit harsh on pirates and easy on normal and Navy ships.

There's something wrong with the Army's chaplain corps

... at least around here.

The story link is about a chaplain who, with his family, attend my church.

He's had a bit of trouble since getting back from Iraq, but that hasn't gotten any press yet.

It's always a hassle when you have to sue your boss to do your job. :^p

ENCYCLOPÆDIA Brittanica WebShare

If you have a need for informational or technical references and, possibly, a disdain for Encyclopædia Brittanica's best-known online competitor, Wikipedia, you can now join their WebShare program.

Seems like a good deal to me. (Free!) And good for them.

Bert? You up for this? :^)

Message to the World

BikeBubba tagged me. I'm supposed to generate a message to the world in less than 150 characters.

Inspired by his message, I give you mine:

1 Timothy 1:17

If you're reading this (as unlikely as that may be ;^), consider yourself tagged. :^)

And, now for some good news!

Colorado, the first State in the Union to legalize abortion, is set to put an amendment to our (State) constitution regarding the personhood of the unborn. It required ~76,000 signatures. ~130,000 signatures were gathered. :^)

"This proposed constitutional amendment will define a person in Colorado as a human being from the moment of fertilization, the moment when life begins," according to a statement at the sponsoring group, Colorado for Equal Rights.

The Five Circles of Hell...

... or why do I hate my phone company, but love my iPhone/Mac?

An inciteful analysis as to why Apple's marketshare and share price will keep going up. :^)

What to do when you have $Bs in the bank?

Buy up a rival (P.A. Semi) to your current best chip supplier (Intel).

Seems Intel might not be able to get the power needs of their low power chips low enough. Intel was looking to buy PA, but Apple got there first.

On the plus side, Apple won't have to share the chips with anyone else like they would have if they'd just let Intel make the deal.

Encouraging Bikini News!

And it's not quite what you were thinking of.

Check out the comment section for more levity. :^)

It worked for Apple, so...

why shouldn't you be able to go the the mall and have "a Microsoft experience?"

(possibly) Coming to a mall near you: The Microsoft Store!

Can I just shoot myself before I go in? Thanks.

Real life versus the Ideal

A renowned playwright comes over to the right.

(Note: This article is in the Village Voice, so: Don't click on the other articles, pictures or links next to the story. I won't be responsible for what you find!)

Going to the doctor makes you better in half the time!

My daughter had a sore throat. After a day or two, we noticed that it had white spots in it.

We took her to the doctor and he said it wasn't anything treatable, but she's better in a day or so.

Considering that sore throats run their course in 3-4 days, shouldn't we have taken her to the doctor sooner -- or even before she got sick? ;^)

It's seems somewhat like this: Take the medicine and be better in a week or let the malady run its course over 7 days...

Cellular Details

TMobile's coverage for prepaid plans. These plans cost at least $0.10/minute (1000 minutes), but are great for people luck me who don't use 'em much. And with the bulk rate, you can roll unused minutes into the next year for as little as $10. Nice!

AT&T's coverage There is a choice for their "GoPhone" which is a pay-as-you go plan, but has significantly less coverage. Though this isn't a problem if you stay in populated areas.

I'm currently in possession of a MacBook

I bought it for a deacon of my church. He needs a laptop for school and was interested in one that didn't have to deal with viruses & other malware.

He neglected to tell me that he also needed Microsoft Access for his database needs. There are other solutions for such things on the Mac, but not that he or his professors understand, so he asked to return it (after one day).

I'd like to save us the 10% re-stock fee, so will be willing to sell it for the $903 that it cost. It's a white 2GHz model with 1GB of RAM, 80GH hard drive, 13.3" screen.

Questions? Drop me a comment.

Thanks for your time.

iPhone deal!

AT&T is selling refurbished 8GB iPhones for only $249!

Follow the title link or got to att.com and search for "iphone refurb"

If you don't like AT&T's phone service, TMobile has a great per minute plan. I'll update you on how to use it, 'cause mine's on its way! (It requires modifying the phone somewhat... ;^)

UPDATE: 3/19/08 -- sold out. Probably temporarily, but nonetheless...

So, I got tagged...

by Bert to cough up 6 random things that you all probably don't know about me...

1. I'm a Mac guy.

2. Pizza is Nature's most perfect food.

3. Unless we're having lasagna.

4. I program on a PC because it pays the bills.

5. Our pets are fish.

6. I want a Big Ford Truck.


If you'd like to be tagged for your turn, let me know in comments. (I'm not a great chain-letter forwarder, either. ;^)

An Ounce of Pleasure, a Gallon of Pain

If you happen to see the movie Juno (spoiler alert - don't finish reading this sentence if you care), you'll realize that you don't want to be the adoptive father. It's also disturbing in that there is a very cavalier attitude in the girl, Juno, in question.

Anyway, the idea of hyperbolic discounting... Is what feels good today worth more than the consequences tomorrow, next month, in 10-20 years?

Sex, drugs, food, slothfulness...

A pilot crashes into the jungle, ...

prays and repays.

If this doesn't bring a tear to your eye...

Another reason not to like dogs:

They don't do your health a bit of good.

Cats, on the other hand, are good for reducing incidence of heart attack.

Don't believe me, check the link! ;^)

(Okay, so there weren't enough dogs for a link to be established... Don't shoot me! I'm just the messenger!! ;^)

Perhaps they have reason to, though...

When crocodiles attack...

'Nuf said.

(Isn't there someone we know who blogs animal versus human aggression?)

Gaffes Keeping Geeks Out of the Board Room

-- a followup on BikeBubba's links describing how we should all dress better.

In my business life, I now have a dress code. It doesn't apply to my footware, yet, but I should probably upgrade... :^/

Bah.

They'll let anyone in these days...

Or... "The Trouble With Kimchi!"

Koreans, the Southern kind, want to go to space, but!

They like their kimchi more than they like their wives and, thus, can't go to space without it.

Millions of dollars and years of research and they are ready to go!

The S. Koreans hope to use the research to sell kimchi to the world! *shudder*

A Brazilian's take on...

the 1986 Space Shuttle Challenger Disaster Investigation -

and how it relates to quality, management, and software.

Also included are snippets of physicist Richard Feynman's report on the same and a link to a copy of it.

The words on the picture of a blackboard at the end are very challenging.

NERF

The National Energy Rebate Fund - as described and discussed at The Consumerist.



The guy being interviewed above (the one with his hand in front of the camera) went to high school with me. It seems that he's still pretty much a jerk...

The man on the Left...

refuses to honor our flag or profess allegiance to it.

Senator Barack Hussein Obama, Governor Bill Richardson, Senator Hillary Clinton and Ruth Harkin stand during the national anthem.

Update: It seems that there is evidence...

The future of the Hard Disk Drive...

may be in doubt.

The MacBook Air (the thin one that fits in an inter-office envelope) is available with either a Hard Disk Drive (HDD) or a Solid State Drive (SSD) - all other things being equal.

The SSD blows the socks off the HDD.

Check it out.

Having a baby could save your life!

And for the trouble, the doctor might encourage you to have an abortion...

The nut of the article is:

pregnant woman has an emergency - it's not a still-birth, but a tumor that her active twin girls have dislodged. Doctor says abort. She could hardly consider it. Waited, gave birth, had surgery and chemo. All are well!

Something I never thought I'd say...

Help "Save XP!"

Fear the NAU?

If you aren't looking forward to the North American Union, here's an explanation of why Canada, yes CANADA, might be a problem.

You see, their rights come from the government. All things not expressly granted to the subjects are reserved for the Canadian government(s).

Yes, subjects. They never obtained their freedom from the British Empire...

If you've ever talked with a fan of their medical system and its fairness, you know what I mean.

Would any of it make a good 51st or 52nd State? I'm not sure!

Scary!!

Solar Power... Maybe the next entry...

This one is about Vitamin D, cancer, tanning, and being too white!

Short: sun good, Vitamin D good, cancer bad. Vitamin D fight cancer. Sun cause body to produce Vitamin D. Good!

UV-A bad. UV-B good. Sunblock stop both! Bad.

So, there's a way about how to protect yourself whilst you're getting that exposure and Vitamin D, fighting cancer...

Good.

More bad news from a different place that I used to live...

In this case, reported in WND, an ex-military medic wished to treat his own child. Some paramedics convinced "Child Protective Services" (or somesuch) that he was in danger. Many phone calls were made and, the next day, a SWAT team delivered the child to the hospital where he was examined and promptly released.

The sheriff says he used SWAT because the father is a "self-professed Constitutionalist."

Bah. I'm pretty sure that the SWAT team is lucky that the lawsuit won't be for something deadly -- 'cause the father's lawyering up!

Are you encouraging your children?

Subsequent studies revealed that the most persistent students do not ruminate about their own failure much at all but instead think of mistakes as problems to be solved.

I mean: Properly encouraging them?