Friday, April 30, 2010

Florinda's birthday party



Family news

fiesta parade today...

The Monsoon has started...daily thunderstorms for the last three days.

The good news: fewer brownouts from low hydroelectric dams, no more water rationing for Manila.

The Bad news: brownouts from thunderstorms, Internet on and off, and I hope I don't fry my computer from an electric surge like I did last year...this time I have not one but two surge protectors, just in case...

party here for workers and staff tomorrow.

Thursday, April 29, 2010

Stuff below the fold

Teddy Kennedy's ghost will have to stop locals from benefitting from clean energy:
But does anyone remember Jaws2?

-------------
Supreme court okays 70 year old monuments with crosses on them...

Someone should tell the ideologues that a cross stands for sacrificing one's life so others could have freedom...ever hear of Spartacus?

-------------------------
Robin of Berkeley
learned the power of suffering to lead to wisdom when she became a Buddhist...and has this poem:

So you must not be frightened
if a sadness rises up before you
larger than any you have ever seen;
if an anxiety, like light and cloud-shadows,
passes over your hands and over all you do.
You must remember that something is happening to you,
that life has not forgotten you
that it holds you in its hands,
and will not let you fall.
- Rainer Maria Rilke, Letters to a Young Poet

Yes, pre vatican II catholics knew this too, but the PC prefer to smoulder in anger to the "unfairness" of life's blows.


---------------

Headlines below the fold




actually, I don't support blasphemy against anyone, but if you blaspheme God, why make a fuss about a mild joke against a mere prophet?

Wednesday, April 28, 2010

Stuff below the fold

bookmarked for later reading: EESchumacher.

Is it a choice between globalization/homogenization and being green/poor/primitive?

Ah, but there's a third way, as Joseph Pearce's essay on the "Small is beautiful" author points out.

Mildred, the Surfing Sheep



headsup Notcot.

Craft item of the day


Purlbee has a tutorial on how to make these lovely bird ornaments.

she used them for Christmas ornaments, but I think hanging them as a window decoration or as a mobile above a baby's crib would be wonderful...

Stuff below the fold

The FreeLibrary has a podcast by Kitty Kelly, about her Oprah biography.

Come on, now: just like the National Enquirer you'll read it, you just won't admit you read it...

they also have a podcast by Paul Davies on the search for ET...
------------------------------------

Adopt a child as a green political statement?

Attention CNN: Children are not things or pets. You adopt a child to have a child to raise, not to make a political statement.
------------------------------------------

Catholic church statistics: 1.1 billion Catholics, 400 thousand priests...

--------------------------------------------
The NYTimes lists the bad guys of the financial crisis:

Yet, in the end, it comes down to this: Goldman Sachs, ACA Capital, IKB Deutsche Industriebank and even the rating agencies never had any duty to protect us from their greed. There was one entity that did — our government.

But it was the purported regulators, including the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and the Office of Thrift Supervision, that used their power not to protect, but rather to prevent predatory lending laws. The Federal Reserve, which could have cracked down on lending practices at any time, did next to nothing, thereby putting us at risk as both consumers and taxpayers. All of these regulators, along with the S.E.C., failed to look at the bad loans that were moving through the nation’s banking system, even though there were plentiful warnings about them.

More important, it was Congress that sat by idly as consumer advocates warned that people were getting loans they’d never be able to pay back. It was Congress that refused to regulate derivatives, despite ample evidence dating back to 1994 of the dangers they posed. It was Congress that repealed the Glass-Steagall Act, which separated investment and commercial banking, yet failed to update the fraying regulatory system.

Headlines below the fold

Terrorist plot foiled by...traffic police?
Ecoterrorists were planning to blow up a Nanotechnology center near Zurich...


------------------------------------
That the Chinese take organs from executed prisoners,including political dissadents and those whose only crime is religious belief.
and then there is that mandatory sterilization program.

---------------------------
Noah's Ark has been discovered again.
now if they can only find the boats of Utnapishtim, Zuisundra, and Manu...

-------------------------------

The "memo" ridiculing the Pope by the British Foreign Office was not by a low level twit, but was written by the team supposed to coordinate his visit...

My comment: one of the suggestions is that the Pope support AIDS clinics....hate to tell him, but they run a lot of them, in places like Africa and Asia. There is a large one in the rural Catholic hospital where I used to work in Africa...

---------------------

Stephen Hawkings warns: Don't talk to Aliens. They might not be friendly.
But I found this part interesting:

Alien life, he will suggest, is almost certain to exist in many other parts of the universe: not just in planets, but perhaps in the centre of stars or even floating in interplanetary space.

Hmm...sounds like Eldils.

-------------------

CSLewis and Lost connections?
Yup...the series is full of similar links

Tuesday, April 27, 2010

Family news

I didn't blog yesterday, because rollling blackouts kept interfering with the internet, and it was hot.

Last night, Florinda held a birthday party with family only. Emie is here from the US. Daisy is scheduled for surgery on Friday. Keep her in your prayers.

Lolo is fine.

It's now official

Boobs do cause earthquakes.

OTTAWA — Maybe the Iranian cleric had a point.

As women around the world bared their cleavage Monday in an event dubbed ‘Boobquake,’ a strong earthquake measuring 6.9 struck southeast of Taiwan.

That’s exactly what Iranian cleric Hojatoleslam Kazem Sedighi warned would happen, when he recently blamed earthquakes on immodest female clothing.

Sunday, April 25, 2010

Photo of the day

NASA's recently launched Solar Dynamics Observatory, or SDO, is returning early images that confirm an unprecedented new capability for scientists to better understand our sun’s dynamic processes. These solar activities affect everything on Earth.



A full-disk multiwavelength extreme ultraviolet image of the sun taken by SDO on March 30, 2010. False colors trace different gas temperatures.Reds are relatively cool (about 60,000 Kelvin, or 107,540 F); blues and greens are hotter (greater than 1 million Kelvin, or 1,799,540 F). › Larger image

headsup from
SpacestationShuttleBlog:

Stuff below the fold

How is earth like an apple?
Dr. Ebtekar at Persian Paradox gives a lesson on Earth Day...

---------------------------------
The lady in the attic: BBC4 podcast about literary heroines with mental illnesses...

----------------
Hubble Telescope is 20 years old...Steven Barr at First Things has links to some of the best photos...Nat Geo has photos here...

-------------------
I know nothing about economics. Robert Reich had a citizen's guide to reforming wall street HERE.

The Acidtongued Spengler has a different view HERE

For me they are both "MEGO" essays ("my eyes glaze over"). I can understand the pathophysiology and life cycle of Schistosomiasis, but not high finance...

--------------------------------
The "things that go bump in the night" post of the day:
One seer explains the veil is thinning.

---------------------



Dog story of the day: protective vests for service dogs.

Photo is of Midge, a drug sniffing dog in Ohio...

Saturday, April 24, 2010

Don't forget:


Monday April 26 is also "Hug an Australian Day"

and although you probably heard about the film "Australia", here is the trailer for the "Fair Dinkum" version of the film...

Don't forget: Monday is Boobquake

Show your cleavage, ladies!

Do immodest women cause earthquakes, as one Iranian cleric claims?

Scientific experiment commences Monday:

Jennifer McCreight is determined to prove him wrong.

Since launching the "Boobquake" Facebook page she has enlisted more than 20,000 women promising to show as much cleavage as possible on Monday, April 26.

If the world doesn't then disappear into an apocalyptic fiery chasm, then Sedighi will have no option but to admit he was wrong.

Friday, April 23, 2010

Download of the day

The Railway Children is on youtube for your enjoyment:

Stuff below the fold


according to the UKGuardian, these are "ethical" fashions....ethical here meaning they come from a PC fashion place.
At least they admit:

"Those with an earth-friendly disposition will surely want to buy organic - see the Environmental Justice Foundation on cotton if you want to know more - and luckily everyone and his eco-dog are now producing organic cotton ranges. Probably all made in sweatshops by two-year-olds of course, but hey, it's organic, right? "

---------------------------------------

The Iliad and war...

------------------------------

Troubling story of the day: Framing the wrong man.
and although this story says the next man fingered had access to "purified" anthrax", the anthrax linked to Ivins wasn't weaponized, just an average strain used by many folks to make anthrax vaccine...

--------------------

and the science headline of the day:

Whale poop is vital to ocean's carbon cycle


Medical headline of the day

Nanny state is going to keep salt out of your food...

The FDA plans to work with the food industry and health experts to gradually reduce the salt consumed each day by Americans. The initiative, when launched later this year, would eventually lead to the first legal limits on the amount of salt allowed in food.

Guess they never heard of salt shakers...
or Patis (aka fish sauce or Soy sauce...

Actually, Asian salt consumption is twice that of the US, which is why we have so much high blood pressure...but in Zimbabwe the poor, who had little salt in their diet, rarely had high blood pressure, whereas it was common in the richer who ate a European foods with their diet, and very high in West Africa, where seafood consumption is common.

Jennifer Lockett's podcast notes that the Romans used it too...it was called garum......more here

DOGS CHANGE LIVES

DOGS CHANGE LIVES

Thursday, April 22, 2010

Absurdity of the day

Catch the Unicorn Killer video game...


Step into the shoes of Jennifer Lourdes, a young FBI agent tasked with tracking down hippie-guru turned international fugitive Ira Einhorn. Join veteran agent Alan Michaels on a global search for the infamous Unicorn Killer and hours of eye-opening hidden object fun. Explore crime scenes, collect clues, solve puzzles, and bring this notorious killer to justice before he escapes for good. Based on the tragic murder of Holly Maddux,

Stuff below the fold


Nat Geo reminds us about how Earthday started with this lovely photo, with this caption:
Ira Einhorn—a leader of nonviolence, drug, and free-love movements in the 1960s—speaks at Philadelphia's first Earth Day celebration on April 22, 1970, Across the U.S. the first Earth Day drew an estimated 20 million participants.

, leaving out one small problem: The "leader of non violence, drug, and free love movements" pictures above beat his girlfriend to death, hid her body in a trunk, and then hid out with his rich friends in Europe for twenty years.

but hey, what's a murder or two if you are politically correct (sarcasm).



------------------------------
Arrested for a "Peeps" display: Religious discrimination, or a health hazard?
The Colbert ReportMon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
Easter Under Attack - Peeps Display Update
www.colbertnation.com
Colbert Report Full EpisodesPolitical HumorFox News

It says a lot that the peeps didn't get eaten by rats or ants...must be the chemical preservatives.
-------------------------
Back to neighborhood schools to reinvigorate the neighborhood. PODCAST LINK

-----------------
Newly discovered planets outside our solar system orbit the wrong way.

Since planets form out of the same swirling gas cloud that creates a star, they are expected to orbit in the same direction that the star spins. Graduate students David Anderson, of Keele University, and Amaury Triaud, of Geneva Observatory, were surprised to find that WASP-17 is orbiting the wrong way, making it the first planet known to have a ``retrograde'' orbit. The likely explanation is that WASP-17 was involved in a near collision with another planet early in its history.

more Here.


----------------------
and have you heard about VADER? (Vehicle and Dismount Exploitation Radar)

The Army plans to mount them on the hummingbird helicopter UAVs in Afghanistan...



----------------------------------
The next time you call someone a "Neanderthal", you might be right.


Did Neanderthals have red hair? (Image: Michael Hofreiter/Kurt  Fiusterweier/MPG EVA/Science)



especially if they are a red head....

Wednesday, April 21, 2010

Tuesday, April 20, 2010

Family news

Hot today, so our internet connection goes on and off.

More harvesting this morning;

got the water pump at the house fixed.

Chano, Joy and friends going to a Hillsong concert in Manila this evening.

We found a new kitten crying at our front door (The dog was trying to kill it and it was hiding in the bushes). Lolo is hand feeding it milk with a syringe...don't know if it will live...

Mama cat has four kittens in the guest room, so we have the new one with us in a birdcage in the bathroom to keep her safe from dogs. For a little kitten, she has a loud cry.

Monday, April 19, 2010

Headlines below the fold

Mugabe is spending millions on his "30 year independence celebration.
Mugabe condemns violence (that his thugs are the cause), while the gals from WOZA are back in jail, protesting brownouts and high electric fees.

----------------------------

Here in the Philippines, two Ampatuan leaders are cleared and released...
In exchange for votes?
So says Sen. Francis Pangilinan, Liberal Party campaign manager...and even Bishop Iñiguez said "it was natural to have apprehensions about Agra’s decision".


------------------------
Good news....Saudi Arabian cleric now says Terrorism is anti Islamic.
That should help a little...but not clarified: if killing infidels and heretics is terrorism or not.


-----------------------
If you are reading the geek sites, you know that there is a major cyber war going on...Strategypage says the US Dept of Defense is asking permission to strike back, but no okay so far.
Guess checking IPods in airports and arresting college students for P2P downloads is the government's priorities...


------------------
and finally, Cat vs IPad...

Dog post for today




headsup AceOfSpades

Sunday, April 18, 2010

Cat item of the day

Photo: mascot 'Saipan' of the USS New Mexico tries to get comfortable. The New Mexico provided support during the U.S. Marine invasion of Saipan in 1944, so it it likely the cat was rescued after the battle.

Most people know about Army dogs but do you know that Cats are traditionally part of the US Navy?

"...Sailors and cats have a special relationship that dates back thousands of years. It is likely that the ancient Egyptians were the first seafarers to realize the true value of having cats as shipmates. In addition to offering sailors much needed companionship on long voyages, cats provided protection by ridding ships of vermin. Without the presence of cats, a crew might find their ship overrun with rats and mice that would eat into the provisions, chew through ropes and spread disease. The more superstitious sailors believed that cats protected them by bringing good luck...."

more photos at link.

headsup FR

Family news

Rolling brown outs so posting is difficult ...luckily we have a generator...

The "WAGD" post of the day



more HERE.

Saturday, April 17, 2010

Presumably their bikes have chains

Minneapolis is one of the US' most "bike Friendly" cities...

Uh, fellahs, it snows there six months a year. Do you put chains on your bikes?
Actually, you just have to add studs to your bike tires... and HERE are instructions for making your bike into a snow plow.
HERE is a link on how to make a Ski Bike.

more HERE

The Girls


someone posted this on facebook...

Don't mess with da cat

Insomnia download for todayv

via Librivox:

Elements of Style, by Strunk

or try Aristotle's Rhetoric..

or you can always listen to the "coffee break collection number one": humerous short essays or short stories, including:

Ode to my Clothes by William Schwenck Gilbert (1836–1911) – 00:02:59
Source: E-text
[mp3@64kbps - 1.4MB]

and
When Papa Swore in Hindustani by P.G. Wodehouse (1881-1975) – 00:13:55
Source: E-text
[mp3@64kbps - 6.6MB]

Chicken post of the day

Cute Food Photos - Mini-Mozzarella Chicks & Cherry Tomato Skewers
see more

and no, the chicks aren't "peeps", they are mozzarella balls.

The "duh" headlines of the day

OK Class,which of these statements is true?

A.Volcanoes cause climate change

B.Climate change causes volcanos.

Yup. Now it's official. Scientists say the melting of the glaciers on Mt. Pinatubo caused it to erupt...
What, there are no glaciers on Mt Pinatubo?
---------------------
interesting "side effect": Inability to ship flowers to Europe might decimate the Kenyan economy...

Friday, April 16, 2010

Musical interlude of the day



turn up speakers and listen at your own risk...

Stuff below the fold

The ancient Lukkans later became the country of Lycia...
but today, the area is best known for the rock tombs nearby, dating to 500 BC...


-------------------------

Happy News of the day: King Tut's Daddy's toe is being returned to Egypt...

----------------------
Cleopatra had four kids: the three boys were killed or "disappeared"...
But lots of folks forget about the girl, (from Mark Anthony), a twin.
And unlike her brothers, she survived and became a queen of Mauritania...


-----------------------
Shhh....it's not pc to say this, but docs are actually smarter and know more than nurses...

----------------------
and don't forget: April15 is national HIGH FIVE day.

Husband 1.0 Tech support

Dear Tech Support,

Last year I upgraded from Boyfriend5.0 to Husband1.0 and noticed a distinct slow down in overall system performance, particularly in the flower and jewellery applications, which operated flawlessly under Boyfriend5.0.

In addition, Husband1.0 uninstalled many other valuable programs, such as Romance9.5 and Personal Attention 6.5, and then installed undesirable programs such as NBA5.0, NFL3.0 and GolfClubs 4.1.

Conversation8.0 no longer runs, and Housecleaning2.6 simply crashes the system. Please note that I have tried running Nagging5.3 to fix these problems, but to no avail.

What can I do?


Signed,

Desperate.





DEAR DESPERATE,

First, keep in mind, Boyfriend5.0 is an Entertainment Package,while Husband1.0 is an operating system.

Please enter command: ithoughtyoulovedme.html, try to download Tears6.2, and do not forget to install the Guilt3.0 update.

If those applications work as designed, Husband1.0 should then automatically run the applications Jewelry2.0 and Flowers3.5.

However, remember, overuse of the above application can cause Husband1.0 to default to Grumpy Silence 2.5, Happy Hour 7.0, or Beer 6.1.

Please note that Beer6.1 is a very bad program that will download the Farting and Snoring Loudly Beta.

Whatever you do, DO NOT under any circumstances install
Mother-In-Law 1.0 (it runs a virus in the background that will eventually seize control of all your system resources.)

In addition, please do not attempt to reinstall the Boyfriend5.0- program. This is an unsupported application and will crash Husband1.0.

In summary, Husband1.0 is a great program, but it does have limited memory and cannot learn new applications quickly.

You might consider buying additional software to improve memory and performance. We highly recommend Cooking3.0 and Hot Lingerie7.7.

Good Luck!

Tech Support
------------

your email of the day from TiaMaria

Thursday, April 15, 2010

happy story of the day

a little girl with Asperger's syndrome, a mild form of autism wanders away and is lost in the woods...


"...About 150 law-enforcement officers and trained rescuers with dogs, all-terrain vehicles, a helicopter and horses searched for Nadia. Divers explored retention ponds. Finally, King -- whom Tanya Bloom said she didn't know personally -- located her in an area nobody else had searched.

"We are so fortunate that God used him to bring our child back to us," Nadia's mother said...."


more HERE.

Tolkien post

One of Tolkien's grandsons, who is publishing a novel, discusses his grandfather at link...

(Headsup TORN)>

The "WAGD" Post of the day


The "We're all gonna die" headline of the day:

Scientists Explore Origins of 'Supervolcanoes' on the Sea Floor

Ancient goliaths blamed for multiple mass extinctions

A supervolcano on the edge of a tectonic plate off the coast of Japan called the Shatsky Rise is being explored...

and just in case you aren't worried about a supervolcano off Japan, check out this headline:

World's deepest undersea vents discovered in Caribbean
think of them as underwater geysers...

related item.
listen to the podcast here.



headsup via FR, with links in the comments...

Wednesday, April 14, 2010

Family news

my "new" computer dropped on the floor and I'm running programs trying to fix the hard drive, which is damaged.

So I'm back to the older computer, and blogging might be slow.

Lolo is fine. Chano is in bed. Joy is at a meeting, and Ruby is busy with school (it's break time but since she home schools, her teacher is able to come more often during school break).

It's so hot we are staying indoors.

Headlines below the fold

Spiked! notes that Dawkins was sexually abused by teachers at his Anglican boarding school as a youth....he attended an Anglican boarding school...yet he defended his abusive teachers in a 2006 article.

well, that explains why he is an atheist...

------------------------------
another "chemical scare": ignore that many lives were saved and the problems are few...

-----------------
Strategy page also notes most of the media ran with the "killer helicopter" story without bothering to screen it with anyone with expertise to point out that the guys had guns...and the video was edited...

----------------------

Webecoist
writes about ecovacations in treehouse lodges.
Of course, as a doc, I'm a bit sarcastic about the wonderfulness of living in pseudo primative style, recasting the poverty nearby as "sustainable living"... but it's probably a better way to learn about ecology than going to Vegas...

-------------------------------
and taking a clue from the Odessey:

Argentina criminals 'evade capture by dressing up as sheep'

WTF Headline of the day

Lady Gaga: I'm Not Embarrassed to Be "Celibate"



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she's big here in the Philippines....here's an example of her music

Tuesday, April 13, 2010

Science headlines below the fold


Does our universe sit inside a black hole?

Yes, sure. And it's in a capsule on Orien's belt.

-------------------
Experts say "Near Death Experiences" are due to high levels of CO2....

Uh, then why don't my COPD patients with CO2 retention have visions, and why do those in accidents report they had NDE's before the crash, even those who came out unscathed?
My opinion is that it is high cortisol or adrenalin levels
....
---------------------

Doctors call it "applying a green poultice", but now it's official...money lessens pain.

Saturday, April 10, 2010

Kitten photo of the day



one of the 4 kittens here

YUM. Lizard

Scientists have discovered a new giant fruit-eating lizard species -- dubbed Varanus bitatawa -- in the northern Philippines. (Credit: Photo copyright Joseph Brown / Courtesy of University of Kansas Biodiversity Institute)
"Apparently the new species is an important source of protein indigenous peoples groups in Isabella and Aurora Provinces," said Dr. Diesmos. However, it was only last year that a joint University of Kansas-National Museum of the Philippines expedition to Aurora Province yielded a large, adult specimen, and good DNA samples.

Stuff below the fold

Carol Burnett has a new biography out. Review HERE.
--------------

Earth's orbit and climate change...heard something about this on a podcast on evolution (can't remember which one). It's called the "snowball earth" hypothesis...



longer video HERE.

and then there is the problem of plate techtonics...

--------------------
Living in a PC world, satire on how the rules keep you safe. LINK.

-----------------------

One third of a doctor's time is taken up doing paper work.... and often residents spend more time with paper work than patients...

---------------------
Gungywamp.... more HERE...and HERE

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and when you visit us, take a trip down to the Chocolate Hills (Yes, I've been there) "There are approximately 1,268 individual hills, each one, on average, ranging from 100 to 160 feet, though the highest is almost 400 feet high. The hills, which are almost all symmetrical, consist of grass-covered limestone, and turn brown during the dry season. Despite the abundance of hills, it is unclear how they were formed. There are multiple geological explanations ranging from oceanic volcano activity to limestone weathering. A recent theory is that an ancient volcano self-destructed and chunks of it were dispersed over the region. "

Musical interlude for today

Friday, April 09, 2010

Headlines below the fold

Smoking in the restroom has actually killed more folks than "shoebombers", so don't ask me to be sympathetic to that Qatari bozo.

----------------------

Good news of the day: You can skip those tasteless veggies: They don't really protect you against cancer.
Scurvy, pellegra, and night blindness, yes, but not cancer..
.
--------------------------

60 Minutes notes PEPFAR...blames Bush...

--------------------------------
Too much bad news got you down? The anchoress has mp3 of prayers...

------------------
I wrote about the coming elections HERE.
The local bishop is right on it, having candidates sign a pledge for clean, non violent elections...alas, certain candidates didn't sign the pledge...(guess who)...

...Strategy page discusses private armies HERE.


---------------------------
Obama's private army?
Nah, just an update of the USPHS commissioned corps....

I suspect they are recruiting because there are not as many serving now that there is no draft.

Thursday, April 08, 2010

Musical interlude for today



turn up speakers and try not to cry...

and here is a summary of the story for those with ADD:

a long time ago...

what if Luke Skywalker used google? (a take off of the superbowl google commercial)...




(Headsup Instapundit)

Family news

staff is busy with the harvest...we bought a second (smaller) thresher (the old one is constantly breaking)...

Chano is in bed sick.

Lolo is getting stronger...he was having a lot of trouble walking since before Christmas but now is improving.

Very hot out, with brownouts, so blogging is light.

Headlines below the fold

TheOneRingNet has a heads-up on the reason for delays in filming the Hobbit: MGM is bankrupt.
more HERE HERE and especially HERE.
summary: Bad films, bad investments, and incompetence.


--------------------------
Thailand is in the middle of a people power type revolution...

and huge earthquake in Indonesia.

and who needs "Earth Hour"? We have rolling brownouts instead...

-------
-------------
NYTimes explains why denying care is actually "better care" for the patient.

Summary: Yes, Virginia, there will be a "Death panel"...
but we will call it "treatment based on 'Scientific" studies'.
"

-----------------------
Quote of the day from Bill O'Reiley, via the Curt Jestor:
A number of Catholics have left the church because of the priestly sins, but not me. From the beginning, in Sister Claudia’s first grade class, I understood that the Catholic Church was about Jesus, not Father Flannery. Believe me, I saw so many loons in my Catholic school days that I should be a Buddhist. But it is the theology, not church leadership, that keeps me in the fold.


------------------------

In "Raiders of the Lost Ark", Hitler's minions were collecting all sorts of relics to increase his power. What is less known is that he tried to steal the Shroud of Turin...
yes, I know it's a forgery, but so is the spear of Longinus, which Hitler actually managed to steal
...
but is best known for being sought for by the Librarian...

-----------------------

Ten Things you probably don't know about JRR Tolkien.
Although quiet and unassuming in public, Tolkien wasn’t the typical stodgy, reserved stereotype of an Oxford don in the classroom. He was known to begin classes by barging into the lecture hall, sometimes in era-appropriate chain mail armor, and bellowing the opening lines of Beowulf at the top of his lungs.


----------------------
The burning question of the day: Is it Duct tape or Duck Tape? more HERE.
Factoid: "Duck" is an old word for closely woven cloth that was lighter than canvas.

Wednesday, April 07, 2010

Stuff below the fold

bookmarked to read later:

Drudge has a headline about a court nixing the FCC control of the internet, but ZDnet tells you five reasons why this could be bad.

-----------------------
Freakonomics discusses the health care bill...link2

---------------
more on the concept of multiverse.
and you thought Schroedinger's cat was confusing.
-----------------------------

easy explanation of Schroedinger's cat:


-------------------------
of course, in the real world, this is the result:

--------------------

and if you need a gift for your girlfriend who is majoring in physics, buy her one of these...more stuff here.

and then try to figure out if it is on or off.

----------------------

Tuesday, April 06, 2010

headlines below the fold



Strategy Page reports on the use of solar panels by the US to replace gasoline powered generators in isolated areas of Iraq and Afghanistan.
(photo US DoD)

by doing this, they don't have to truck in tons of fuel to run generators, and so it is cost effective.

why is this big? Because when the military uses civilian things, they tend to get into the mainstream quicker, and of course the price goes down....


Treehugger
reports that the stimulus package included $3.6 B to help incorportate green products into the military.

Now, if we only could get low cost solar panels here...



============



Webecoist has an egg theme today: egg art, egg homes, and egg inspired buildings.

----------------------

chicken joke of the day...for all you guys who were dragged to the Twilight films by your significant other:

--------------------

Monday, April 05, 2010

Musical interlude for today



turn up speakers and enjoy

Stuff below the fold

gift idea of the day:

a glass E.Coli....>

------------------------
GOT CHICKENFEATHERS?

use them as fuel...or boil and extract the fat for biodiesel...
and this is a new suggestions:


The excess of chicken feather meal is also being investigated for hydrogen storage for fuel-cell vehicles.... Chicken feathers have very tiny natural sponges and a big weight advantage over metal hydride storage.

they also can be used to clean up oil spills.
----------------------

in the other side of chickens: Make this "tea" to treat your plants, using chicken manure.

but definitely, do not try THIS at home...
---------------

can a magnetic field change your moral judgment?

-------------------------

...YUM UNICORNS...probably made out of Unicornsauri...

Craft item of the day



when I was a kid, my mom had an Alligator bag, with the head of a small alligator as the clasp...

well, unless you are rich, I doubt you can afford one, but you can crochet one....

download the pattern from Ravelry...

for $5 (and it's in Dutch).


(Free Registration required).
*(Headsup Salahin blog)

Hades freezing over post of the day



a nice article about Sarah Palin, and one that praises her new TV show...and thinks her accent is authentic...

from the NYTimes?!

Everyday heroes take two

the "Philippino Mafia" setting up Democratic institutions:

“In the UN community of international workers, Filipino expats are called the ‘Filipino Mafia’—but in a positive way,” Perez told the Inquirer at Villa Caceres Hotel here. “That’s because Filipinos can be relied upon to do the job clean and fast.”

Since 2005, Perez has been in charge of electoral education, logistical administration and operation under the UN Assistance Mission for Afghanistan in her capacity as provincial electoral advisor of Mazar-i-Sharif, a city in northern Afghanistan.

Along with dozens of Afghan volunteers and international workers under her supervision, she helps educate Afghans on electoral principles and democratic processes to pave the way for an electoral system.

Perez has been to other strife-torn countries, such as Somalia, Kenya, East Timor, Eritrea and Nepal, helping the United Nations in its electoral program....

It started during the East Timor crisis when half of the required 450 volunteers deployed there were Filipinos, she said.

Perez was with the group of Filipino volunteers who laid down the democratic system of the presidential and parliamentary elections from 2003-2004....

Everyday heroes take one


The Sniper has the (De)motivational posters...

headsup Blackfive.

Saturday, April 03, 2010

cooking tip for the day

What do you do when you are out hunting and forget the frying pan?

No problem:link

but if you don't belong to the NRA, just use your car...



(Headsup DaveBarry)

Are you sure it's filed in here?

 
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kitties kitties kitties

 
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Mama cat just took the kitties out of their nest and has them wandering around our spare bedroom...

Yu

Easter bunny

cute food photos
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Stuff below the fold

Nano Fullerenes: Magic bullet for disease, or toxic poison?

article points out that interfering with the immune response triggered by viruses is bad, but it could prevent or treat auto immune diseases triggered by viruses too...


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the impending famine in North Korea.
half a million to two million died in the 1990's but cellphones might change the passivity of the population this time, says strategypage.


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how climate change destroyed Angkor Wat...
"...(scientists) found that the mid- to late 1300s experienced persistently dry conditions that were followed by several years of unusually strong monsoons that may have damaged the city's infrastructure. A shorter but more severe drought in the early 1400s may then have provided the city's death knell." (i.e. before the Siamese conquered it in 1431)


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LATimes has an article on those caucasian mummies in China. Caucasian is the right description, as in Caucus mountains..sythians, parthans, turks, and goths...map link

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if you check the sky, you can see Mercury (near Venus) after sunset, Mars high in the sky, and Jupiter as the morning star.
Alas, the city is west of us, so we can't see the sky in that direction...our best view is south or west...


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Should Europe dig up 50 year old scandals and punish the perpetrators, asks Czech radio.

A common pattern emerges throughout the former Eastern Bloc, especially in the first years after World War II, of crimes on a huge scale, whose perpetrators, almost without exception, have never been brought to justice even twenty years after the fall of communism....

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the Legend of the Shoe Tree

Thursday, April 01, 2010

organic veggies

 

one of our minor businesses is a teaching farm to grow organic veggies.

We grow seedlings and use plastic mulch.
I have to laugh, because years ago I used the same technique in my garden because I was too lazy to weed the plants and couldn't afford a rototiller.
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ruby

 
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Lolo's birthday

 


we finally found the camera and this is from Lolo's birthday party
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Enjoy your cappuchino

cute cookie photos
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