Monday, December 31, 2007

Treadmill

1.46 miles.


Sunday, December 30, 2007





Lunch

Left over Pot Roast, Green Tea and vitamins.


Vista Crash

Windows Explorer crashed.


Treadmill

Walked 1.1 miles on the treadmill.


Breakfast

Eggs con guiso, came out good. Dee liked it to.


Vista Defender

I just finished a full system scan using Windows Defender, it found nothing. The scan took over 12 hours.


Diabetes

My blood sugar was at 115 this morning. Not to bad considering how much I ate yesterday, and that I woke up so late.


Saturday, December 29, 2007

Energizer

I just used up the last two of my Energizer coupons, I got two flashlights at Target. I tried to get something at Costco but they do not accept manufacturers coupons.


Tired

I just walked 3.85 miles on the treadmill.


Thursday, December 27, 2007

The BEAST 50 Most Loathsome People in America, 2007

1. George W. Bush
Charges: Is it a civil rights milestone to have a retarded president? Maybe it would be, if he were ever legitimately elected. You can practically hear the whole nation holding its breath, hoping this guy will just fucking leave come January '09 and not declare martial law. Only supporters left are the ones who would worship a fucking turnip if it promised to kill foreigners. Is so clearly not in charge of his own White House that his feeble attempts to define himself as "decider" or "commander guy" are the equivalent of a five-year-old kid sitting on his dad's Harley and saying "vroom vroom!" Has lost so many disgusted staffers that all he's left with are the kids from Jesus Camp. The first president who is so visibly stupid he can say "I didn't know what was in the National Intelligence Estimate until last week" and sound plausible. Inarguably a major criminal and a much greater threat to the future of America than any Muslim terrorist.

Exhibit A: "And there is distrust in Washington. I am surprised, frankly, at the amount of distrust that exists in this town. And I'm sorry it's the case, and I'll work hard to try to elevate it."

Sentence: Dismembered, limbs donated to injured veterans.

Wednesday, December 26, 2007

Vista Crash

Well this one is a little different, I did not have Windows Explorer open, all I did was empty the recycle bin and I got a message that Windows Explorer had crashed. Could it be it crashed just because I was thinking of opening it up?


Monday, December 24, 2007

Vista Crash

Windows Explorer crashed.


Sunday, December 23, 2007

Vista Crash

Windows Explorer crashed.


Friday, December 21, 2007

New Lithium Battery

Nanowire battery holds 10 times the charge of existing ones

Stanford researchers have found a way to use silicon nanowires to reinvent the rechargeable lithium-ion batteries that power laptops, iPods, video cameras, cell phones, and countless other devices.

The new version, developed through research led by Yi Cui, assistant professor of materials science and engineering, produces 10 times the amount of electricity of existing lithium-ion, known as Li-ion, batteries. A laptop that now runs on battery for two hours could operate for 20 hours, a boon to ocean-hopping business travelers.

Another Response to TEA's Forced Resignation of Christien Comer

Letter from Texas University Biology Professors
Defending Biological Evolution as a Central Pillar of Modern Science Education

Vista is Slow

Back to this system after working on an XP system, it just emphasizes how slow Vista is. That system is years older than this one and should be much slower, but it's not; perceptually it's as fast or faster than this one. Certainly it's much more responsive to mouse inputs. Here I click then wait for something to happen there I click and it happens right then.


Wednesday, December 19, 2007

Bamboo road bridge can support 16-tonne trucks

A novel type of bridge with horizontal beams made from a bamboo composite proved strong enough to support even heavy trucks in tests.
The bamboo beams are cheaper and more environmentally friendly to make than steel or concrete, yet offer comparable structural strength. Xiao says the strips are cut from large stalks of bamboo, arranged in multiple layers, and bonded together with glue.
Pound-for-pound, bamboo is stronger than steel when stretched and more robust than concrete when compressed. It is an environmentally friendly building option because stalks several meters tall mature in just a few years, rather than a few decades.

Also since it is a grass, rather than a tree, it can be harvested like mowing a lawn – leaving the root system intact so that the plant can regrow.

Tuesday, December 18, 2007

Monday, December 17, 2007

Vista Weirdness

Vista reported that Miro had stopped working, and wanted to close it. Miro is working just fine. So what gives with Vista?


Thursday, December 13, 2007

Vista Crash

Yes it crashed again. This time it crashed within 20 seconds of opening.


Vista Crash

Vista crashes yet again. Windows explorer went down.


Solar Slow Cooker




Wednesday, December 12, 2007

full spectrum solar cell

The serendipitous discovery means that a single system of alloys incorporating indium, gallium, and nitrogen can convert virtually the full spectrum of sunlight -- from the near infrared to the far ultraviolet -- to electrical current."It's as if nature designed this material on purpose to match the solar spectrum," says MSD's Wladek Walukiewicz, who led the collaborators in making the discovery.

A newly established low band gap for indium nitride means that the indium gallium nitride system of alloys (In1-xGaxN) covers the full solar spectrum.

I will never buy another Western Digital hard drive.


Tuesday, December 11, 2007

Monday, December 10, 2007

Vista Crash

Windows Explorer crashed again.


Vista File Corruption

I have run into yet another problem with Vista. I've noticed a problem on a number of files now, at first the files are OK, I can open them and view them, but later when I try to open them I get an error message that just says can't open file. This is happening often. This happens to the file even if I make no changes to it. At first they are OK, then later they are not.
Although I get the same error message sometimes the file size stays the same, this time it changed to zero bytes.


Sunday, December 09, 2007

John F. Kennedy Speech

Compare this speech by Kennedy to any speech of any current politician; this is a speech that makes you feel good, an intelligent straight forward speech free of the infuriating political double talk of most current politicians.

John F. Kennedy


Greater Houston Ministerial Association Q & A


delivered 12 September 1960


Vista Crash

Windows Explorer stopped working again, this time it seemed to take longer to recover.


Friday, December 07, 2007

Kelso at Statesman.com on Comer

Speaking of evolution, the TEA should stop monkeying around

John Kelso
Comer, who taught science for 27 years, recently was given the boot by the agency for forwarding an e-mail that her bosses thought dumped on the theory of "intelligent design," which as best as I can figure is creationism with a fancier name. Creationism is the theory that God created the world in six days and then took Sunday off.

Thursday, December 06, 2007

Reaction to TEA Firing of Chris Comer

Why science needs history

By RICK CASEY

Copyright 2007 Houston Chronicle

A recent flap at the Texas Education Agency demonstrates why we need to teach history better so we can teach science better.


After nine years as the Texas Education Agency's science director, Chris Comer resigned after being suspended for appearing to oppose the "intelligent design" theory of the origins of the universe.
TEA officials say other factors were involved in her firing, but e-mails obtained by the Austin American-Statesman make clear that Comer's scientific orthodoxy and apparent political heresy were a major factor.
Her mortal sin was that in October she sent an e-mail to an Austin online community announcing an upcoming lecture by Barbara Forrest, a Southeast Louisiana University philosophy professor and co-author of Inside Creationism's Trojan Horse.

A Christian nation

Reynolds e-mailed Comer's bosses, saying Comer's apparent recommendation of the lecture "is an offense that calls for termination or, at the very least, reassignment of responsibilities."
So a science educator should be fired for promoting a lecture by a supporter of science? What kinds of "statewide initiatives" does this senior adviser promote? One possibility: The State Board of Education soon will review our schools' science curriculum.
Promoters of creationism and intelligent design sometimes suggest that the biblical account deserves a special place in our schools (as opposed to, say, Hindu or Hopi creation stories) because the U.S. was founded as a Christian nation.
Here are some historical incidents that prove that we were, indeed, founded as a Christian nation:
•In the early 17th century, Sam Maverick, an English immigrant to Boston and an ancestor of the famous Texas Mavericks, was jailed for repeatedly missing church.
•About the same time, Baptist preacher Roger Williams came to
Massachusetts to escape religious persecution in England. After being quoted as saying local Puritan authorities "cannot without a spiritual rape force the consciences of all to one worship," he was secretly warned by Gov. John Winthrop that he was in peril.
He fled to live with a group of Native Americans, then purchased what is now Rhode Island from them, setting it up as a colony that honored religious freedom.
•In 1844, a Jesuit priest in Maine advised Catholic families to go to court to block a school board order that required their children to read the Protestant King James version of the Bible in school. The priest was grabbed by a mob while hearing confessions on a Saturday evening, stripped of his clothes, tarred and feathered.
•In 1859, 11-year-old Tom Wall refused to recite the Protestant version of the Ten Commandments in his Boston public school. After consulting with his principal, Tom's teacher hit the boy across the knuckles with a 3-foot rattan stick.
The boy again refused. The punishment was repeated. The boy still refused. After half an hour of the painful punishment, he relented despite fearing that he was betraying his God. His father filed assault charges and went to court to challenge the reading requirement. He lost.
In 1869, the Cincinnati school board voted 22-15 to honor the
request of Catholic parents to end the reading of the Bible in school.
Protestant parents filed suit.
A three-judge panel ruled 2-1 for the Protestants, saying the reading of the Bible was necessary for good government.


The doctrine of separation of church and state is not found in the Constitution. It evolved through the courts and through public consensus based on painful experience.
It was not a sop to Jews or Muslims or ACLU atheists. It was
developed to keep some Christians from ruling the consciences of other Christians, just as for centuries they had attempted to do in Europe.
Its logic was most forcefully stated by the Christian judges of the Ohio Supreme Court, who overturned the above ruling with these words:
"When Christianity asks the aid of government beyond mere impartial protection, it denies itself. Its laws are divine and not human. Its essential interests lie beyond the reach and range of human governments. United with government, religion never rises above the merest superstition; united with religion, government never rises above the merest despotism; and all history shows us that the more widely and
completely they are separated, the better it is for both."

Wednesday, December 05, 2007

Bike Trails

Six Great Long-Distance Bike Trails Without Cars
Roads without cars

Sunday, December 02, 2007

educational injustice

By James K. Willmot
Special to The Courier-Journal

The obstruction of scientific information is nothing new in the history of fundamentalist theology. What is new is the way this organization is using the power of radio (AIG is broadcast over 850 radio stations), the Internet and, now, a pseudo-natural history museum to convince well-meaning, hard-working people that science is not to be trusted, that the theory of evolution is evil and that belief in scientific theories of our creation leads to barbaric behaviors. As Mark Twain once said, "A lie can travel half way around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes."

Last month in England, I toured the Natural History Museum in London. (It's free by the way.) They too have animatronic dinosaurs. However, that's where the similarity between this "real" museum and the AIG's creation museum ends. The NHM of London has 55 million preserved animal specimens, nine million fossils, six million plant specimens and more than 500,000 rocks and minerals.

They have a staff of over 300 scientists working on various projects to gain a better understanding of the Earth and the creatures that inhabit (or did inhabit) our planet. Is there not something wrong when thousands of people are flocking to Northern Kentucky and paying $20 a pop to see a Flintstones-like interpretation of pre-history, and yet anyone who lives in or visits London can see one of the world's greatest real science centers for free?

TEA Director of Science Forced to Resign

A Report of Texas Citizens for Science
by Steven Schafersman

November 29, 2007


True Reason for the Forced Resignation
Thus, it is easy to conclude that Chris was forced to resign because someone wanted her out of the TEA--not because she violated a formal written policy, but because she DID violate the preposterous and unethical verbal policy of neutrality to Creationism. I doubt that this policy is written anywhere, but I hope another FOIA request will reveal its official existence. Reporters should interview Associate Commissioner Susan Barnes about her September address to TEA staff. She may still have her notes available (unless she has shredded them, which has been the official TEA policy since...September). A reporter should read back to her what Monica Martinez wrote, and ask Associate Commissioner Barnes to explain why violating a policy that the TEA "must remain neutral" on--not publicizing or seeming to "endorse" a group that "opposes teaching creationism"--is the same as "you are not to communicate in writing or otherwise with anyone outside the agency in any way that might compromise the transparency and/or integrity of the upcoming TEKS development and revision process." I, for one, can't see that these are the same thing, but apparently Monica Martinez and Susan Barnes think they are.

Friday, November 30, 2007

Nasa Stupidity

NASA Requires JPL Scientists To Give Up Right To Privacy

"Wired is reporting that all NASA JPL scientists must 'voluntarily' (or be fired) sign a document giving the government the right to investigate their personal lives and history
'without limit'. According to the Union of Concerned Scientists this
includes snooping into sexual orientation, mental & physical health
as well as credit history and 'personality conflict'. 28 senior NASA
scientists and engineers, including Mars Rover team members, refused to
sign by the deadline and are now subject to being fired despite a
decade or more of exemplary service. None of them even work on anything
classified or defense related. They are suing the government and documenting their fight for their jobs and right to personal privacy."

Opening Brief and Responses filed


Below are the briefs filed thus far in the matter that will be argued
at the ninth circuit of appeals court in Pasadena at 9:30 on Dec. 5.


Injunction Extended!



The Universal Digital Library

Million Book Collection

Gamespot Editor Fired Over Kane & Lynch Review?

Editor Fired Over Game Review?

Jeff Gerstmann from Gamespot has been let go. That wouldn't necessarily be newsworthy, but the conditions under which he was allegedly dismissed were. According to the source, Gerstmann was fired "on the spot" due to advertiser pressure for his review of Eidos' Kane & Lynch: Dead Men.

Penny Arcade

Rumor: Gamespot's editorial director fired over Kane & Lynch review


Gamespot Editor Fired Over Kane & Lynch Review?

Editor Fired Over Game Review?

Jeff Gerstmann from Gamespot has been let go. That wouldn't necessarily be newsworthy, but the conditions under which he was allegedly dismissed were. According to the source, Gerstmann was fired "on the spot" due to advertiser pressure for his review of Eidos' Kane & Lynch: Dead Men.

Penny Arcade

Rumor: Gamespot's editorial director fired over Kane & Lynch review


Thursday, November 29, 2007

Texas Education Agency Fires Chris Comer for Announcing Talk by Barbara Forrest

See Austin American Statesman article State science curriculum director resigns, for details. I feel she should sue; Comer should be paid damages, reinstated, and Reynolds should be fired.

Wednesday, November 28, 2007

Food in Austin


Mi Tierra off Rutland and Parkfield
Hog island deli
16th/lavaca) - the best sandwiches and cheesesteaks in town.
Belladonna (burleson/ben white) - breakfast/lunch, muffalettas
Rosie's al pastor (parker/riverside) - theyre open until 3:30 every night
Taqueria El Risconsito (manor/airport)- breakfast/lunch, tacos
reggies (12th/chicon) - catfish
galloways (12th/chicon)
springhill catfish - Catfish buffet.
seis mesas (springdale/airport) - breakfast/lunch, great cheap food
burgertex - some of the best burgers around
el regio - best drivethru in austin
willies bbq (mlk/airport) - bbq
sams bbq (12th/pleasant valley) - bbq, open late
asia cafe (spicewood springs/183) - chinese
t&s chinese (lamar/rundberg) - the salt&pepper dishes are great open late
eastside cafe (manor/chestnut) - fresh
stallion cafe (51st/airport) - breakfast/lunch
madam mams - an austin institution
al jons pizza (burton/oltorf) - pizza
yaghis - also very good pizza
jo's - burgers


Tuesday, November 27, 2007

Internet Explorer

I was working in a document and Windows opened IE, and was just opening one tab after another, why I don't know. I am tempted to say hundreds of tabs but I did not count them.


Vista is Slow

Vista is just so slow, I can't stand it. I wanted to use media player to play one of my videos, (its a video that I took and have on my hard drive) so I click and drag it from widows explorer to the already open Media Player, and it just sits there changing between saying Media Player is not responding and the hour glass spinning.


Tuesday, November 20, 2007

Galveston Independent School District wants to Sue Blogger

This just makes them seem guilty, public officials should not sue citizens. Lets hope there actions are fully exposed and that they not be reelected.

The Galveston Independent School District (GISD) is attempting to sue
Sandra Tetley, the mother of a student in the district, for defamation.
Tetley runs the blog GISDWatch.com, which tracks and comments on the activities of the local school board.

Monday, November 19, 2007

Vista Crash

System completely locked up, no response at all. Had to do a hard reset. I lost everything I was working on. You know if its going to crash this often I wish it did not take so long to reboot. Maybe I need to try Ubuntu?


Thursday, November 15, 2007

Abba Take a Chance

I've always liked Abba, from 1997.

Dancing Queen


Waist Deep In The Big Muddy - Pete Seeger

I know I am not the only one who sees this as an allegory of Bush's war in Iraq.



Bush War on Science Continues

GW Bush has vetoed a bill that would give NIH an additional $1 billion per year, raising the budget from $29 billion to $30 billion; saying that Congress is on a "spending spree." Yet he continues to fund a war of idiocy to the tune a over a billion a week.

The bill, which was passed by Congress last week, sought to increase NIH funding by about $1 billion from a 2007 budget of about $29 billion to a 2008 budget of about $30 billion.
In a statement released by the White House after Bush vetoed the bill, the president decried the Democrat-led Congress for engaging in what he called a "spending spree," and said that the legislative majority was "acting like a teenager with a new credit card."
The bill, H.R.3043, also sought to bolster the budgets of the departments of Labor and Education, and carried a request for a total of $150.7 billion. Since its introduction in July, Bush has said he would veto the bill because it overshot his own budget recommendations.
"We were hoping that [Bush's veto] wouldn't be the case," Carrie Wolinetz, Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology (FASEB) spokesperson, told The Scientist. "But the threat had been there."
The NIH budget has been stagnant over the past few years, with government funding increasing by only about $1.4 billion between 2003 and 2006.
The vetoed bill also included a provision requiring
NIH-funded researchers to post the full text of their research papers on the National Library of Medicine's publicly accessible PubMed Central website within a year of publication. This provision survived an attack by Republican Senator James Inhofe in October to remain intact in the final version of the bill sent to the president.
The bill cleared the House of Representatives only three votes shy of the two-thirds majority it would have needed to avoid Bush's veto. As H.R.3043 returns to Capitol Hill, where legislators will hold a veto override vote, Wolinetz said that FASEB will continue encouraging its 80,000-strong membership to urge their legislators to support the bill and overturn the presidential veto.

Wednesday, November 14, 2007

Windows Explorer Crash

Windows Explorer crashed, closing the two windows I was working in.


Tuesday, November 13, 2007


Technical Information
An update is available that improves the compatibility, reliability, and stability of Windows Vista
Download updates for Windows Vista

This problem was caused by Windows Vista, which was created by Microsoft Corporation.
Solution
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
To solve this problem, go online to download and install an update from the Microsoft Download Center website.
Update for Windows Vista, 32-bit versions (KB941649)
Update for Windows Vista, 64-bit versions (KB941649)
How can I find out if my system type is 32-bit or 64-bit?
Open System by clicking the Start button , clicking Control Panel, clicking System and Maintenance, and then clicking System.
Under System, you can view the system type.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Rate this response:Provide Feedback

Vista Crash

Yet another Vista crash, this time it was a blue screen and the system rebooted. When it came back up my keyboard and mouse did not connect, so I had to do a hard reboot. When windows loaded it would not connect to my wireless network. I had to reset the wireless adapter. The downward spiral of reliability
continues.


Vista Problem

I was working, when Vista closed the two Firefox windows I was working in, costing me all the work I had done. It then restarted my system. Got message that it was installing updates.


Wednesday, November 07, 2007

From Penthouse to RV

One day earlier I was idly browsing eBay, as I’m known to do. I had this fantasy that I would give up all of my stuff and move into a smaller place.
This notion was born when I moved from a larger house into the condo and was made acutely aware by the moving process of just how much junk I had.


Always one to take things to extremes, I searched for an RV. I wanted one that had a shower, toilet, and kitchen, so that I could actually live in it. At the same time it had to be small enough that I could park it in any regular parking spot. The V12 engine of my car afforded me the same miles per gallon as an RV, so I figured I may as well let it replace my car as well.
The first RV in my search was exactly the one I wanted. At 21 feet long it could fit into a standard 19 foot parking space with minor overhang. It was a 2002 model, which meant that it looked good enough to be presentable. Paying for a spot in a trailer park seemed like it defeated the purpose of the experiment, so I planned on parking downtown across from my favorite restaurant. The best part was the price. It was only $14,000, barely more than 1% of the value of my current home. Similar RVs sold for $20,000.

Political Ad



Saturday, October 27, 2007

Vista Problem

Vista, opened the CD tray, when all I did was click an image on the CD. It takes so long for Vista to see the CD after you load it.


Vista Crash

Windows Explorer crashed, locked up system for four minutes, this just on viewing a cd of jpeg images.


Friday, October 26, 2007

Thursday, October 25, 2007

I Hate Vista

It's now official, I hate Vista, there have been just too many problems, and it's just too slow.

Wednesday, October 17, 2007

Vista Lockup

Vista just locked up completely. No response from any program I had running, this was Task Manager, Firefox, and Windows Explorer. Thats it, task manager, showed about a 6% processor load, but I could not switch tabs in task manager when I tried it grayed out. It seems that the longer Vista has been installed the more problems it has.

I had to do a hard boot to restart.


Monday, October 15, 2007

Vista Problems

Well something else is happing in Vista, not sure just what, the first system I noticed is that when I click on the Computer shortcut that should open windows explorer, the control panel opens instead. It also opens the control panel when I right click on the icon and try to open properties. When I click on the shortcut for the control panel I get and error message saying "The properties for this item are not available."

Verification of Bush State Stereotypes

What characterizes states that vote for George W. Bush?

An analysis of voting patterns reveals that their populations tend to:

  1. Lack a college education
  2. Be White
  3. Be obese
  4. Shop at Walmart

frequently asked questions, including what does all this mean? and you're an asshole, aren't you?

Sketch & Share on Pixelsumo

SS_boy4.jpg
The Sketch & Share prototype is now built, tested and reprogrammed with better light control and fun sounds.

Sunday, October 14, 2007

Nicole's Wedding

It was a really nice wedding. I for one had a great time.


Friday, October 12, 2007

Want Antioxidants? Have You Eaten Micro-algae Lately?

Science Daily
Some consumers want more than just their traditional nourishment requirements met. Micro-algae (eaten by humans in pre-Columbian America) are more than just nutritive. Spirulina microalgae could be a good source of antioxidants due to the presence of carotenoids deriving from chlorophyll, and provide bacterial growth inhibiting action because of certain fatty acids. Microalgae have turned out to be a potential alternative to the use of synthetic sources for these
ingredients.

Spirulina is a type of microalgae that naturally
produces antioxidants (like carotenoids and Xanthophylls), and
antimicrobial compounds like polysaccharides or fatty acids among other beneficial substances.

Sprinter




Thursday, October 11, 2007

Leak Severed a Link to Al-Qaeda's Secrets

You would almost think that Bush is working for the Terrorists, or is he really this stupid?

By Joby Warrick
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, October 9, 2007; Page A01

A small private intelligence company that monitors Islamic terrorist groups obtained a new Osama bin Laden video ahead of its official release last month, and around 10 a.m. on Sept. 7, it notified the Bush administration of its secret acquisition. It gave two senior officials access on the condition that the officials not reveal they had it until the al-Qaeda release.

Within 20 minutes, a range of intelligence agencies had begun
downloading it from the company's Web site. By midafternoon that day, the video and a transcript of its audio track had been leaked from within the Bush administration to cable television news and broadcast worldwide.

Wednesday, October 10, 2007

Vista Updates

I woke up this morning to find Vista had updates to install. It messed with my desktop but I have not noticed any other changes yet.


Monday, October 08, 2007

Musicians Don't Need Record Labels Any More

Online distribution costs almost nothing, promotion can be done
at very low cost using a variety of online tools, and even recording has gotten a lot cheaper thanks to digital technology. As a result, there's little or no up-front cost to releasing an album. (Beyond the costs of writing songs and practicing them, which most bands do long before they get their first contract) That means there's no longer any reason to have record label executives picking and choosing music on behalf of fans. Instead, every band's music can be made available to everyone, and the fans themselves can "discover" the bands they like.

Ending the War on Science

This is enough for me to vote for Hillary.

Hillary Clinton’s Agenda to Reclaim Scientific Innovation

Hillary will restore the federal government’s commitment to science by:
  • Rescinding the ban on ethical embryonic stem cell research
  • Banning political appointees from unduly interfering with scientific conclusions and publications
  • Directing department and agency heads to safeguard against political pressure that threatens scientific integrity and to promote transparency in decision-making
  • Appointing an Assistant to the President for Science and Technology Policy and strengthening the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy
  • Reviving and enhancing the national assessment on climate change
  • Enhancing American leadership in space through investments in exploration, earth sciences, and aeronautics research
  • Pursuing a comprehensive innovation agenda, including establishing a $50 billion Strategic Energy Fund

The Republican War on Science

Science has never been more crucial to deciding the political issues facing the country. Yet science and scientists have less influence with the federal government than at any time since the Eisenhower administration.
In the White House and Congress today, findings are reported in a politicized manner; spun or distorted to fit the speaker’s agenda; or, when they’re too inconvenient, ignored entirely. On a broad array of issues—stem cell research, climate change, abstinence education, mercury pollution, and many others—the Bush administration’s positions fly in the face of overwhelming scientific consensus.

Saturday, October 06, 2007

Vista

I am not liking Vista at all, its just so slow. My current system should be more than five times faster than my old one, yet I spend more time just waiting for something to happen than I ever did with XP on my old system. Sucks so much.


Friday, October 05, 2007

Scandal Brewing at Oral Roberts U.

Richard Roberts is accused of illegal involvement in a local political campaign and lavish spending at donors' expense, including numerous home remodeling projects, use of the university jet for his daughter's senior trip to the Bahamas, and a red Mercedes convertible and a Lexus SUV for his wife, Lindsay.
She is accused of dropping tens of thousands of dollars on clothes, awarding nonacademic scholarships to friends of her children and sending scores of text messages on university-issued cell phones to people described in the lawsuit as "underage males."
...Richard Roberts, according to the suit, asked a professor in 2005 to use his students and university resources to aid a county commissioner's bid for Tulsa mayor. Such involvement would violate state and federal law because of the university's nonprofit status. Up to 50 students are alleged to have worked on the campaign.

Thursday, October 04, 2007

TRC Retires Meet for Lunch




What kind of scientist is Michael Behe?

Certain people seem attracted to "intelligent design" creationism because some (actually, very few) people with real Ph.D.'s advocate it. One of these is Michael Behe, a biochemist from Lehigh University. I have heard him described as “a scientist of the first rank.” People can argue over “rankings”, but there exist some objective measures as to how influential a scientist is and how good their ideas actually are. These measurements are generally of two kinds:

  • Number and kind of publications of the scientist;
  • Citations of these works (which show that the scientist's ideas are being used to do productive work).

Wednesday, October 03, 2007

Knight High School Security Breaks Female Students Wrist

This is just so bad.

Steve Watson
Infowars.net
Friday, Sept 28, 2007

UPDATE: High School Secuity Guards Attack Teen With Camera Then Frame Him

School security guards in Palmdale, CA have been caught on camera assaulting a 16-year-old girl and breaking her arm after she spilled some cake during lunch and left some crumbs on the floor after cleaning it up.

The incident occurred last week at Knight High School in Palmdale and was caught on a cell phone camera by another pupil who was then also assaulted by the security guards.


Pleajhai Search

Tuesday, October 02, 2007

Cutting the copper on Fios

Verizon cuts Copper-line when Installing Fiber

When Verizon installs the fiber-optic connection to your home, the technicians cut down the old, copper-line connection to the telephone network and will not replace it if you later decide to cancel.

Monday, October 01, 2007

White Spaces Coalition

The White Spaces Coalition consists of eight large technology companies that plan on delivering high speed (broadband) internet access to consumers via existing 'white space' in unused analog television frequencies. The coalition claims that broadband access is expected to be available at speeds of 10 Mbyte/s and above, and for white space short-range networking to reach 50 to 100 Mbyte/s.[1] The group includes Microsoft, Google, Dell, HP, Intel, Philips, Earthlink, and Samsung Electro-Mechanics.

Sunday, September 30, 2007

EFF sues the DOJ for withholding records of telecom surveillance immunity lobbying

By Ryan Paul
Published: September 28, 2007 - 09:43AM CT

The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has filed a lawsuit against the US Department of Justice (DOJ) in an effort to obtain records that could shed light on telecommunication industry lobbying activities. The EFF suspects that major telecommunications companies like AT&T have attempted to use political leverage to compel lawmakers to support legislation that would grant the companies legal immunity for their involvement in the federal government's extralegal electronic surveillance program.

The EFF requested records under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) last month from the Department of Justice and Office of Legislative Affairs. The records sought by the EFF include documentation of interaction pertaining to FISA amendments and surveillance immunity between Department of Justice officials, representatives of the telecommunications companies, and members of the Senate or House of representatives. The government has failed to process the FOIA request within the 20-day maximum waiting period stipulated by law, so the EFF has followed up its request with a lawsuit (PDF) demanding swift compliance.

Recent reports have revealed evidence that the telecommunications companies have been heavily lobbying for immunity in order to avoid potentially costly and embarrassing litigation.

Related Stories

Bush administration proposes retroactive immunity for phone companies

Friday, September 28, 2007

Satellites capture evidence of Burma crackdown

High-resolution satellites images may provide valuable evidence of the
violent methods used by Burma's ruling junta to crack down on
pro-democracy demonstration in recent days.
...Evidence has been requested from satellite imaging companies, including GeoEye and Digital Globe, which provide pictures with a resolutions down to about 1 pixel per metre.
...The US Campaign for Burma
plans to take all the evidence to the UN to support their plea for
invention by the Security Council. "Even China and Russia can no longer
argue that nothing is happening in Burma," says Aung Din, policy
director for the US Campaign for Burma.
...The work is part of the AAAS Geospatial Technologies Program,
set up by the MacArthur Foundation to help human rights organisations
gain access to new technology. "Claims made by human rights
organisations can be difficult to verify and quantify," Bromley says.

Thursday, September 27, 2007

Vista Error

Display driver has stopped working and has recovered. Interesting the music never stopped playing, while the screen went blank.


Genomic Research

DNA Extracted From Woolly Mammoth Hair

Science Daily

Stephan C. Schuster and Webb Miller of Penn State, working with Thomas
Gilbert from Copenhagen and a large international consortium,
discovered that hair shafts provide an ideal source of ancient DNA -- a
better source than bones and muscle for studying the genome sequences
of extinct animals. Their research achievement, described in a paper to
be published in the journal Science on Sept. 28, includes the
sequencing of entire mitochondrial genomes from 10 individual woolly
mammoths.


Drawing of a woolly mammoth. (Credit: Penn State University)

Vista Crash

Windows Explorer crash.




Time Warner Reduces Number of Showtime Channels by Seven.

This message is what shows up when you tune to the channel.

The west coast channels of Showtime have been discontinued. YHoju will continue to receive the primary channels of Showtime. Showtime on Demand (ch 1113) gives you access to yo0ur favorite Showtime programming at your convenience.
I wonder is the rate is to be reduced?

Japanese photographer killed

BURMA
27 September 2007

Japanese photographer killed, another foreign journalist injured Reporters Without Borders is appalled by the death of a Japanese news photographer on the streets of Rangoon this morning. Kenji Nagai, fifty years old, worked for the photoagency APF.
He has been in Burma for two days. Another foreign journalist was reportedly injured. The press casualties came after the security forces opened fire on demonstrators near the Tarder Hotel in the centre of Rangoon.

Art or Bioterrorism:

By RU Sirius
September 26th, 2007

Strange Culture filmA federal grand jury rejected the charges, but instead handed down
indictments with two counts each for "mail fraud" and "wire fraud." According to the CAE, the charges "concern technicalities" about how Kurtz obtained "$256 worth of harmless bacteria for one of CAE's art projects." (Robert Ferrell, former head of the Department of Genetics at the University of Pittsburgh's School of Public Health, and a collaborator on several of CAE’s projects, now facing charges along with Kurtz) In this interview, Kurtz characterizes the charges even more bluntly. "The Department of Justice can drop a major felony on someone for filling out a warranty card incorrectly and mailing it."

Wednesday, September 26, 2007

Vista

Well yet another crash in Vista. Windows Explorer again.


OTEC

ECONOMICS OF OCEAN THERMAL ENERGY
CONVERSION
by
Luis A. Vega
PICHTR U.S.A.
The cost of producing electricity with OTEC plants is compared to the cost of electricity produced with fossil-fueled plants.
In the case of OTEC, when appropriate, the cost of electricity is estimated with credit for the desalinated water produced. The production cost of OTEC products are levelized over the life of the plant (nominal value: 30 years). Two generalized
markets are considered: industrialized nations and smaller, less developed island nations with modest needs. Scenarios under which OTEC could be competitive are established.
The scenarios are defined by two parameters: fuel cost, and the cost of fresh water production. In the absence of natural sources of fresh water, it is postulated that the cost of producing desalinated water from seawater via reverse osmosis (RO) be considered as the conventional technique. This approach yields a direct relationship between desalinated water production and fuel cost; and therefore, a scenario
defined with one aprameter.
It is postulated that OTEC should only be considered as a system to produce electricity and desalinated water, because OTEC-based, mariculture operations and air conditioning systems can only make use of a small amount of the seawater available, and therefore, could only impact small plants. The use of energy carriers (e.g.:Hydrogen) to transport OTEC energy generated in floating plants, drifting in tropical waters away from land, is determined to be technically feasible but requires increases in the cost of fossil fuels of at least an order of magnitude to be cost effective.
It is determined that plants of at least 50 MWe capacity would be required for the industrialized nations; and, that if desalinated water is required to reach wider scenarios, it is proposed that a hybrid plant be used, based on the closed cycle for the electricity production and a second-stage, for
desalinated water production, consisting of a flash (vacuum) evaporator and surface condenser. Closed cycle plants, without second-stage desalinated water production,
are found to be cost effective if housed in floating vessels, moored or dynamically positioned a few kilometers from land, transmitting the electricity to shore via submarine
power cables. The moored vessel could also house a hybrid OTEC plant and transport the desalinated water produced via flexible pipes. It is recommended that a floating 5 MWe and
7,500 cu m/day demonstration plant be designed, installed and operated prior to the commercialization of plants of at least 50 MWe capacity.

Censorship

[Editor's Note: Craig Murray, former United Kingdom Ambassador to Uzbekistan, author of the book, Murder in Samarkand: A British Ambassador's Controversial Defiance of Tyranny in the War on Terror, and contributor to Atlantic Free Press
has recently had his personal blogging site - as well as a number of sites not owned by him and on the same server, taken down by his U.K. hosting company due to pressure from Schillings, a high-powered London Law firm, on behalf of Uzbeki Alisher Usmanov
- the latest Russian billionaire to move to the United Kingdom.
Usmanov's lawyers have gone after the host of Murray's site rather than Craig Murray himself. It seems they would prefer not to have Murray on the stand in a courtroom. Usmanov is allegedly livid - as it has been leaked that he was not a political prisoner at all, but rather a hard-nosed criminal.

Other Links:

Tuesday, September 25, 2007

AMD's Open Source Video Drivers

AMD will be establishing a viable open source
Linux driver for their X1K and HD2K series video cards, and will be continuing to provide their binary drivers simultaneously. AMD will not be providing any of their current driver code for use in the open source driver - this would break licensing agreements and reveal trade secrets - rather they want their open source driver built from the ground-up. Furthermore they will not be directly working on the driver themselves (we assume all of their on-staff programmers are
"contaminated" from a legal point of view) and instead will be having the open source community build the drivers, with Novell's SuSE Linux division leading the effort.

Microsofts Lobbyists against Google

Microsoft... is trying to stop Google from being able to acquire DoubleClick. In order to get support in blocking the deal, Microsoft apparently had a big PR firm try to put together one of these fake "coalitions" using the name "Initiative for Competitive Online Marketplaces"... which
appears to be designed solely to release reports critical of Google practices. The problem, though, is that the email the PR firm used to "recruit" members to join this group has leaked out and is getting press attention.
Again, there's nothing particularly new in all of this. There are countless such organizations, but it's rare to get the details on how one was brought together. In this case, the email being sent to potential participants urges them to complain about Google's practices to politicians, regulators and the media. Even though Microsoft put the group together, apparently the PR firm did not reveal that.

Monday, September 24, 2007

Seagate 750 gig External Drive

First thing to note, its way to bright, what is it with computer related manufacturers don't they know we like to sleep sometimes. Man I mean its bright. I did not care for the included software and I am in the process of removing it. Its been 10 min. now. The problem with the software is that it is inflexible, it expects you to work the way it wants you to. My system is not setup that way.
Good news, the drives light is only on when the drive is active.


I am going to try and make Japanese Pancakes. I need to find the mix.




US Government is Threatening to shut Down Arecibo Observatory

I just can't belive how bad our government is; From Pharyngula:

Where could we possibly find $4 million?

Category: PoliticsScience

Posted on: September 23, 2007 4:00 AM, by PZ Myers

Hmmm. Estimates of the cost of the war in Iraq range from $4.4 to 7.1 billion per month. If I assume about $5 billion, it looks like we're throwing away about $7 million per hour in that effort; so it looks like a little bit more than a half-hours worth of bloody war costs us $4 million. So let's just stop for about 40 minutes, OK?

What was the point of that calculation? The government is threatening to shut down the Arecibo Observatory unless they can cough up $4 million dollars for its operating budget for the next three years. Wow.

The National Science Foundation, which has long funded the dish, has told the Cornell University-operated facility that it will have to close if it cannot find outside sources for half of its already reduced $8 million budget in the next three years — an ultimatum that has sent ripples of despair through the scientific community.
Shall we trade three years of science for less than an hour's worth of war? That sounds like a no-brainer to me. The observatory doesn't even kill anybody in normal operation. Or is that considered a strike against it?

Sunday, September 23, 2007

Atheist Experience #519: Logical Fallacies

Atheist Community of Austin
1 hr 25 min 7 sec - Sep 23, 2007
www.atheist-experience.com



Friday, September 21, 2007

Professor Chemerinsky

According to Leiter’s report, about a week ago Chemerinsky signed a contract to be the dean of Irvine’s Donald Bren School of Law. But Yesterday, Irvine’s chancellor, Michael V. Drake, flew to Duke and fired Chemerinsky, “saying that he had not been aware of how Chemerinsky’s political views would make him a target for criticism from conservatives,” according to the report.
Chemerinsky said, “Obviously I’m sad because it’s something I was exciting about. I’m angry because I don’t believe anyone liberal or conservative should be denied a position like this because of political views.”

Other Links:
Brian Leiter’s Law School Reports, a blog on comings-and-goings in legal academia

Erwin Chemerinsky (pictured), a prominent constitutional law scholar
Times story on Chemerinsky
Irvine’s Donald Bren School of Law
Donald Bren, a billionaire real estate developer and big Republican donor, click here
Read more: Law School

More related content

What ever happened to the right to dissent?

Thu Sep 20, 2007 at 11:04:32 AM PDT

Are we at that stage where the cancer of extremism within our country,
the lack of an open, free and independent press has extinguished an
honest and open debate on the issues, where our President believes he
is king and not subject to the checks and balances of the co-equal
branch of government we call Congress? Is democracy being threatened
from within?

The fall of the Godmongers

I highly recommend reading this article.

Praise Jesus, it's the collapse of evangelical Christian rule in America. Rejoice!

By Mark Morford, SF Gate Columnist
Friday, September 21, 2007
...Because right now, there is perhaps no greater item we as a struggling human ant farm can be grateful for, no single social emetic we can look to for inspiration or hope or a happy tingly sensation in our collective groinal region indicating a possible move away from our long-standing Dick-Cheney-in-hell attitude of shrill bleakness, alarmism and religious righteousness than the simply wonderful implosion of the evangelical Christian right that's happening right now in America.
...They're the throngs of megachurch lemmings Karl Rove masterfully manipulated and rallied and whored to Bush's very narrow advantage in two elections.

They're the ones who've made all the headlines and influenced all sorts of laws and national policy changes lo, this past half-decade concerning everything from stem cell research to gay marriage to evolution, sanitized school textbooks to failed abstinence programs to RU-486 restrictions to silly anti-science rhetoric, the ones who gasped in horror at a woman's bare nipple and made a disgusting mockery of Terri Schiavo and actually applauded when John Ashcroft spent $8,000 of taxpayer money to throw some heavy drapery over the shamefully exposed breasts of the bronze (female) Spirit of Justice statue in the Hall of Justice. And so on.

They are, in short, responsible for a great many of the most notable social and intellectual embarrassments in America since the new millennium took hold, and rest assured, we and the rest of the civilized world shall recall their bleak accomplishments for much of our natural born lives, and shudder.
...Because this is the delightful thing about the fundamentalist worldview (and, for that matter just about any strict religious worldview you can name), the thing that absolutely and forever guarantees its frequent and eventual downfall: It can never be sated.

It's true. No matter how clamped down we as a culture become, no matter how much misinterpreted Biblical dogma we're forced to swallow, no matter how many insidious laws are passed limiting behaviors and restricting independent thought and repressing sexuality and banning dildos in Texas, it will never be enough.

And why? Because the fundamentalist mind-set is not so much a firm and rational set of beliefs based on thoughtful interpretation of strict Biblical screed as it is, well, a paranoid wallowing in fear. Fear of the Other, fear of change, of progress, of the new and different and young and the sexual and the truly spiritual.

Aging

Researchers report in the journal Cell that
the phenom is likely linked to two enzymes—SIRT3 and SIRT4—in
mitochondria (the cell's powerhouse that, among other tasks, converts nutrients to energy). They found that a cascade of reactions triggered by lower caloric intake raises the levels of these enzymes, leading to an increase in the strength and efficiency of the cellular batteries.
By invigorating the mitochondria, SIRT3 and SIRT4 extend the life of cells, by preventing flagging mitochondria from developing tiny holes (or pores) in their membranes that allow proteins that trigger apoptosis, or cell death, to seep out into the rest of the cell.
"We didn't expect that the most important part of this pathway was in the mitochondria," says David Sinclair, an assistant professor of pathology at Harvard Medical School and a study co-author. "We think that we've possibly found regulators of aging."

Homemade mayonnaise

21 Feb 2006 by maki

If there is one food that has defeated me over the years, it's
mayonnaise. For the longest time I couldn't figure out how to make a good mayonnaise. I read the instructions in numerous cookbooks. I watched the Good Eats episode about it. I tried using a food processor, a stick blender, whipping by hand.



Every time, I'd end up with a mess -

Mini-Mag Orion

The original Orion project was headed by Ted Taylor from General Atomics, who together with the famous physicist Freeman Dyson suggested ejecting nuclear explosives behind a spacecraft in order to propel it forward. The Mini-Mag system uses a magnetic field in order to trigger an explosion of compressed material in the form of small pellets weighing several grams. This explosion, although being significantly weaker than a nuclear explosion, creates plasma that is directed through a magnetic nozzle to generate vehicle thrust. The proposed technology enables the production of thrust at high efficiency, hopefully allowing drastic reduction of interplanetary travel time. According to calculations performed by AS&T, this type of propulsion system can produce the same thrust as the Space Shuttle Main Engine, with 50 times more efficiency.
Due to the magnetic compression thrust technology, spacecrafts could be smaller and less heavy. The spacecraft itself will only have to carry a relatively small amount of fissionable material as fuel and will be able to reach speeds of approximately 10% of the speed of light. Dr. Dana Andrews, AS&T Chief Technology Officer and Mini-Mag Orion inventor, and Roger Lenard from the Sandia National Laboratories, have published a paper describing their research into the Mini-Mag Orion concept in the Acta Astronautica – Journal of the International Academy of Astronautics.

Thursday, September 20, 2007

Okonomiyaki Recipies\Austin Japanese Restaurants

Google search for "okonomiyaki Austin"

  1. ...I don't know of any restaurants that serve Okonomiyaki in the Austin area. But it is very easy to make.

    Go to Asahi Imports (6105 Burnet Road) and ask for Okonomiyaki flour. The recipe is on the package. The store also has all of the other ingredients (except for meat, fish) and will cheerfully help you identify and locate them. Then go to Whole Foods downtown and ask for the pork and/or beef sliced "shabu shabu" sytle. Mix up the batter and cook it on whatever you use to make pancakes. thebodytx Jul 30, 2007 08:41AM

    ...As far as okonomiyaki is concerend, it's the SAUCE that makes or breaks it! I'd recommend Otafuku Sauce, but our family tradition is to mix tonkatsu sauce with ketchup and worcestershire sauce. And of course, you have to have kewpie mayonnaise! (American and Ajinomoto mayonnaise are too sweet for okonomiyaki). You also have to have all other little ingredients (and you have to have the right grill)--too much work if you're making it just for yourself and especially if you've never made one.
    kuidaore Jul 31, 2007 06:01PM

  2. ...For dinner we went to Okonomi-mura (Okonomiyaki village). Hiroshima is known for their okonomiyaki (Japanese pancake and literally, "grill/cook what you want"), and boy do they know how to do it right! Okonomimura is just a building with 4 floors of nothing but back to back okonomiyaki shops. It's kinda ridiculous to have so many of the same thing in one place, but that's what makes it fun!

    H7
    I'm pretty sure that I came to this shop...or one very close to it, when I was here last.

    H5
    This is what the okonomiyaki looks like when it's first getting started.

    H6
    And then it turns into this delicious goodness. And Hiroshima doesn't ruin it with mayo, woohoo!

    Note: Love there website glad I found it.

  3. Musashi no Sushidokoro
    3407 Greystone Drive
    Austin, Texas 78731
    512-795-8593
    North of intersection of Mopac and Farwest on the West access road
    (beneath "China Town")
    The best sushi in Austin, Texas.
  4. Okonomiyaki (Japanese Omelette)

    Ingredients:
    1/2 cup of
    rice or other flour
    1/3 cup of water
    1 large
    egg
    1 square of cotton (firm)
    tofu cubed
    or 1 boneless
    chicken breast
    a handful of various greens
    1/4 of a medium onion
    1 tablespoon of grapeseed oil

    Sauce:
    shoyu soy sauce
    thinly sliced
    ginger
    thinly torn shiso leaf or green
    basil

    What to do:
    Add seasonings to shoyu
    to taste. Start with just a pinch of each. Perhaps add some saké. Yay!
    In a bowl, mix flour, water, and egg. Chop all vegetables and meat. Sauté the tofu or the chicken pieces in 1 tablespoon of hot grapeseed oil. Then mix the vegetables and tofu into the mixing bowl batter. Reheat the pan and cook small amounts about the size of pancakes until golden brown on each side.

    Plate the okonomiyaki by divided into slices, drizzle sauce on top and serve.
  5. Easy, Basic Okonomiyaki Batter
    Ingredients:
    2 eggs
    2.5 Cups water
    2 Cups rice flour
    1 Cup shredded cabbage
    1/2 Tbsp dashi soup stock
    1/2 Cup yam flour

    {Dashi, Rice Flour and Yam Flour (preferably yamatoimo, if you can find it) are available at most Asian groceries.}

    In a bowl, beat the eggs lightly with a whisk or spoon.
    Whisk in the dashi, water, and yamatoimo. Gradually add the flour, whisking until smooth. Then add the cabbage.

    (you can remove the eggs and dashi to make it vegetarian-safe, but it doesn't taste as good, IMHO)

    Toppings (optional):
    Thinly sliced beef, pork, chicken, shrimp, scallops, etc.
    Ground beef works in a pinch too.

    Cooking:
    Oil up a griddle, skillet or hot-plate. Pour on some batter in a roughly round shape. If you have toppings, add them now, then pour some more batter over it.
    Wait until it hardens, then flip it like a pancake.

    Easy, Basic Okonomiyaki Sauce:
    1 Cup mayonaisse
    1/4 Cup Mr. Yoshida's Original Sauce
    1 Tbsp Wasabi (paste, not powder!)

    Mix it all together until it's smooth.
    Alter amounts to taste, if you like.

    Hints:
    Some people add catsup and/or brown sugar.
    Use spicy Japanese mayo if you can find it.
    You can also use teriyaki sauce instead of Mr. Yoshida's.

    Serving:
    Spread the sauce on top of the okonomiyaki and serve it.
    I like to eat it with yakisoba, but that's preference.

    Keep in mind that this is not, by any stretch of the imagination, an authentic recipe, just an easy one.

  6. This is how to cook Hiroshima's okonomi-yaki using hot plate at home.

    1. Spread base(A mixture of flours, water, and etc.,) .
      Hot plate's temperature is medium position. When you spread base you make a circle quickly from core to out avoiding run through same place. Diameter is about 20cm.
    2. Put grained fish and tang on the base.
    3. Hot plate's temperature is high position(over 200$B!n(J).
      Put a full bowl of cabbage.
    4. Place fried flours on the cabbage.
      $B"((JIt is delicious to put teared fried dry squid.

    5. Put sliced stone leek.

    6. Put bean sprouts on the stone leek.

    7. Put sliced porks on the whole.
      Place three sliced porks avoiding overlapping each other.
    8. Pour base mixture on top.

    9. Lift carefully and turn okonomi-yaki bottoms up.

    10. Separate noodles. (Use salad oil for separating
      steamed noodles. Use water for separating boiled noodles.)
      Put contents such as vegetables into base.
    11. Fry noodles with yakisoba sauce beside okonomi-yaki.

    12. Make noodles roundly.
      During those process, vegetables are steamed.

    13. Put okonomi-yaki on spreaded noodles.

    14. Hot plate's temperature is medium position.
      Press okomoni-yaki lightly.
    15. Break an egg beside okonomi-yaki.
    16. Spread the egg same side of okonomi-yaki.
    17. Put okonomi-yaki on the egg.
    18. Turn it again, and face egg side up.
      It is easy to turn if you separate okonomi-yaki from the hot plate before you turn okonomi-yaki.
    19. Spread fully okonomi-yaki sauce on the egg surface.
    20. Put grained seaweed. It is done.

Dan Rather Makes Questionable Case Against Science Behind Boeing Dreamliner

By Aaron Rowe EmailSeptember 19, 2007 | 7:39:52 PM Categories: Materials Science, Pretty Dumb
Aeroflot By taking a cheap shot at Boeing, Dan Rather may be headed for a comeback less graceful than Britney Spears' performance at the MTV Music Awards.
On the most recent edition of his new show, he reported on Tuesday that the new 787 Dreamliner aircraft may be unsafe. Since then, dozens of news agencies have jumped on the bandwagon. Most of them are reporting that the carbon fiber frame may not be as safe as aluminum. Few have bothered to question Rather's claims that the composite materials are brittle, more likely to shatter on impact, and prone to emit poisonous chemicals when ignited

High School HARLANDALE Volleyball

I just came across this, this was my high school, I remember our volleyball team, they were exceptional.

High Schools: A look back at S.A.'s seven state volleyball champions
Web Posted: 08/11/2007 09:33 PM CDT
Terrence Thomas
San Antonio Express-News

HARLANDALE
Year: 1968
Record: 19-0
Coach: Hattie Mae Kerbel
Team roster: Shirley Amons, Olivia Cantu, Sylvia Castillo, Karen Davies, Marie Garcia, Gladys Heinsohn, Norma Patterson, Diane Rodriguez, Mary Louise Ruiz, Loretta Tuck, Estela Vela, Lucy Yelland.

Rundown: With just one player taller than 5-foot-7, the Indians establish themselves as the city's first powerhouse, going unbeaten and defeating Houston Spring Woods to capture the Class 4A state championship. The Indians would advance to the state tournament in five of the next six seasons.

Richard Dawkins Video





Kent Hovind Creation Science Evangelism Ministries Videos

Submitted by RationalRespons... on Mon, 2007-09-17 15:57. Kent Hovind has stated many times that "our material is not copyrighted." In September 2007, about the same time that "Creation Science Evangelism Ministries" sent DMCA take down notices, their website was changed to reflect a new copyright rule for their website. On their website in September of 2007 they in fact present their copyright on material effective as of January 2005. This new change to their website can be documented here. As you can see, they did not have the "clickable" copyright notice on any page of their site as of any other date!
Keywords: Operation Spread Eagle, Kent Hovind, Creation Science, Evangelism Ministries, Eric Hovind, Jo Hovind, Liar, Evolution, Copyright, Fraud, Youtube, Fair Use Law, EFF.

A Little Scoop on Bush, Chirac, God, Gog and Magog

By Jacques Sterchi

Rue89 in partnership with La Liberté, Fribourg

Monday 17 September 2007


In 2003, University of Lausanne theology professor Thomas Römer received
a telephone call from the Elysée. Jacques Chirac's advisers wanted to
know more about Gog and Magog ... two mysterious names pronounced by George
W. Bush while he was attempting to convince France to enter the war in Iraq
at his side. In its September edition, the University of Lausanne's review,
Allez savoir, reveals this story that could seem fantastic did it not, as Allez
savoir's Editor-in-Chief Jocelyn Rochat emphasizes, reveal the religious underpinnings
of Bush's policy.


Apocalyptic prophecy: Bush would have declared to Chirac that Gog and Magog
were at work in the Middle East and that the Biblical prophecies were in the
process of being fulfilled. That was several weeks before the intervention in
Iraq. The French president, to whom the names of Gog and Magog meant nothing,
was stupefied.


In Allez savoir, Thomas Römer details: Gog and Magog are two creatures
who appear in Genesis, and especially in the most arcane chapters of the Old
Testament Book of Ezekiel. An apocalyptic prophecy of a global army giving final
battle in Israel.

...

Translation: Truthout French language editor Leslie Thatcher.Go to Original

Worm Poop Threatens Corporate Profits

Well I have just bought the last thing I will ever get from Scotts Miracle-Gro. Its TerraCycle from now on.

Some of the nation's biggest corporations have found that baseless lawsuits are often a useful tool for squashing upstart competition. The latest example of this kind of noxious behavior comes from Scotts Miracle-Gro, a $2 billion company that claims 60 percent of the nation's garden-care market. Earlier this year, Scotts sued the tiny New Jersey start-up TerraCycle, which sells fertilizer made from all-natural worm poop, packaged in recycled soda bottles. Scotts alleges that TerraCycle has copied its packaging design and engaged in false advertising.
TerraCycle was started by college students and has never made a profit, but has made in-roads into some of the bigger retail outlets.
Apparently Scotts sees the worm poop as a threat. TerraCycle has fought back mainly with PR. They've put up a cheeky website that notes that the Scotts CEO gets a half-million dollars worth of "personal aircraft use" each year, while TerraCycle's CEO's biggest perk is unlimited free worm poop. The website also has some funny photos comparing the two companies' headquarters.

120 other lawn and garden products with yellow and green labels


81 lawn and garden products with yellow and green labels

39 additional lawn and garden products with yellow and green labels

Group Sues Pentagon Over First Amendment Religion Issue

Yesterday, the Military Religious Freedom Foundation
filed a lawsuit against the Pentagon, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates and U.S. Army Major Paul Welborne. The suit, filed in U.S. District Court in Kansas City, alleges that Army specialist Jeremy Hall, who is currently serving in Iraq, had his First Amendment rights violated last Thanksgiving when he was threatened and otherwise harrassed because he declined to participate in a Thanksgiving prayer ceremony.

According to Hall, who is an atheist, when he refused to join hands with other soldiers and pray, he was told by a staff sergeant (who first had to ask someone what an atheist was) that he could not eat Thanksgiving dinner with his peers. Hall, however, continued to eat his dinner at the table.

According to the complaint, in August, Hall received permission from a military chaplain to organize a group for atheist soldiers, but when the group met, Major Welborne broke it up, and also threatened to charge Hall with violating the Uniform Code of Military Justice.
Hall says that Welborne further threatened him that he would block Hall's re-enlistment in the Army if the atheist group continued to meet. Hall alleges that Welborne disrupted the meeting and confronted those in attendance.

Hall's complaint is not unique. Just last month, the Pentagon's Inspector General responded to a complaint by an MRFF that Defense Department officials violated their own regulations by appearing in a video to promote a fundamentalist Christian organization.

Wednesday, September 19, 2007

Bush's Holy War on Nature


By Chip Ward

September 16, 2005
...This much is clear: The Bush administration does not respect a broad American consensus that the quality of our lives is directly linked to the integrity and health of the environment. Differences in philosophy about property rights, the role of government, and the best means to change self-destructive behaviors will translate into different approaches to environmental policy -- for example, whether to curb pollution by creating market incentives or by passing tough laws. But until now Republicans did not reject the need for environmental policy altogether. What happened?
The answer is a familiar one: Bush's righteous base, the rightwing fundamentalist Christians, are having their way -- the zealots who think Revelations is the only guide to foreign policy and that Nature is a mere stage for their personal salvation drama -- men like Majority Leader Tom DeLay who have publicly proclaimed that they do not believe in evolution, or other Republican congressional leaders who got 100% ratings from the powerful Christian Coalition, including House Speaker Dennis Hastert, presidential hopeful Bill Frist, Policy Chair Christopher Cox, National Leadership Chair Rob Portman, powerful senators like Mitch McConnell, Kay Hutchinson, Rick Santorum, George Allen, and many more who are, environmentally speaking, the American Taliban.

Our President himself recently declared "the jury is still out" on evolution. The administration's push to satisfy its base by devaluing and discrediting evolutionary theory has profound implications for environmental policy and law. If you don't believe in the evolutionary sciences, chances are you also don't heed or trust the ecological sciences that underlie environmental law and policy. When conservation biologists talk about keystone (or endangered) species, fundamentalists are far more likely than most Americans to listen skeptically. The value of biodiversity as a measure of ecosystem health is going to be of little concern to those who do not understand or accept the critical role that species interaction plays in keeping ecosystems resilient in the face of disturbance and stress.
In fact, fundamentalist Christians often have only contempt for ecological science, which they view as nothing more than the cover Pagans use to push a godless, nature-worshiping agenda. To many fundamentalists, enviros are the new commies. Utah's righteous patriarchal politicians cannot even utter the term "environmentalist" (usually pronounced environ-MENTAL-ist, as if it were a psychological disorder) without attaching the adjective "extreme" to the term.
If you believe that God made the world for you and instructed you to dominate it and be fruitful, then you are likely to see yourself as above and beyond the natural world. If you are God's chosen, then how can you fear that he will not provide for you no matter how large your numbers grow or what you do to your surroundings? God, after all, can change nature's laws, which are part of his "intelligent design" in the first place. So you are unlikely to fret about practicing environmental restraint or worry about environmental toxins -- righteousness being the best prophylactic against disease in a world where God's will is done.
If you believe that the world's end is imminent, then why not use it before you lose it? If you believe that when the world-ending moment arrives, you will be "raptured" away and Christ will return to rule at last, then, hey, bring it on! Those who are "left behind," as fundamentalist Tim Lehaye describes it in his bestselling novels, deserve to suffer because they failed to accept Christ as their personal savior. So the President's fundamentalist base favors the present over a future they disown.
Perhaps the greatest gap between the belief systems of fundamentalists and environmentalists is the difference between hubris and humility. Fundamentalists have a death grip on truth and do not entertain doubt; while one of the key insights of the ecological sciences is that nature may not only be more complex than we thought, but more complex than we can think. Conservation biologists respect the intricate and reciprocal nature of living systems and realize that even the most seemingly insignificant species may turn out to play an unexpected and important role in them. Such insights underlie
precautionary approaches.
According to Bush's political base, the future is theirs; nature was put here for us to use as we please; God will provide; and foolish unbelievers will be abandoned, like those desperate refugees at the New Orleans Super Dome, in a trashed and shredded world. We had our chance, but decided to listen to scientists, believe in dinosaurs, hug trees, and wring our hands over pupfish, spotted owls, and the odd centipede or two. While our jaws drop at their arrogant and reckless behaviors, they just shake their heads and chuckle condescendingly at all of our "liberal whining." It's a holy war, after all, and they are most righteous.
Bush's assault on the environment makes perfect sense once you see the bargains that drive it. The fundamentalists give Bush political power; his corporate cronies get free reign to plunder the land for their profit; and the fundamentalists get the heads of nature-worshipping enviros on an arsenic platter. The rest of us, of course, get left behind.

Chip Ward, assistant director of the Salt Lake City Public Library System, is a political activist and leader in the struggle to keep the Great Basin Desert from becoming a nuclear waste dumping ground. He is the author of Hope's Horizon: Three Visions for Healing the American Land (Island Press).

Copyright 2005 Chip Ward

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This piece first appeared at Tomdispatch.com.

...connected so many things (including what was happening in Iraq and here ...

...New Orleans is now a vast toxic dump (and, as at Ground Zero in New York after 9/11, a toxic cover-up is sure to follow
the city's embattled wetlands are in dismal shape; a superfund toxic waste site remains underwater; the whole area may prove an "underwater Love Canal"; parts of the Gulf of Mexico are now covered with huge, if unacknowledged, oil slicks;...

...As relief expert David Langness wrote at Juan Cole's Informed Comment website on his return from New Orleans, the city is

"under a toxic brew of foul water,...

...Cases of silenced government scientists and experts, censored reports, disbanded scientific advisory panels, and withheld evidence abound. (The National Resources Defense Council has listed dozens of examples on its website.)...

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