Jericho: Trooper Clerks

Max: Going Green Works

NASA - Ozone Resource Page

"NASA, NOAA Data Indicate Ozone Layer is Recovering

The researchers concluded the Earth's protective ozone layer outside of the polar regions stopped thinning around 1997. Ozone in these areas declined steadily from 1979 to 1997.

The abundance of human-produced ozone-destroying gases such as chlorofluorocarbons peaked at about the same time (1993 in the lowest layer of the atmosphere, 1997 in the stratosphere). Such substances were phased out after the 1987 international Montreal Protocol was enacted."

Max: But What About The Silent "k"?

The Dilbert Blog: Silent H

Max: Woo!

Jericho and I got together this past weekend. As you might imagine, it got pretty wild. Fortunately there were no fatalities that can be tied conclusively to us. The rest is being handled by a special team of "cleaners" who are quite talented in making certain legal inconveniences disappear.

Max: The Decline of Shrub

Max: Still Not Afraid

BBC News| Mother gives rabbit flu warning

"The mother of a man believed to be Britain's first victim of rabbit flu has issued a warning about the potentially fatal disease.

Farmer John Freeman, 29, of Aspall near Stowmarket in Suffolk, became infected with the bacteria pasteurella multocida after picking up a rabbit on his farm."

I am sorry for the guy in the story, but I am not quite ready to panic about bunny pox.

Max: Fear

Terrorists want me to be afraid. In the past decade and a half, there have been three major terrorist attacks in the US, resulting in about 4000 deaths. Each death is a tragedy on a human scale. But on the macro scale, it is a statistical blip. My chances of being injured or killed by a terrorist are about on par with my chances of winning the lottery.

Just as I occasionally buy lottery tickets, I happily support any effort - within the bounds of law and Constitution - to thwart terrorists.

That said, terrorists, I am not afraid of you.

My government wants me to be afraid. It wants me to fear boogie men - terrorists, immigrants, drugs, obscenity - so that I will give up my freedoms in exchange for protection from them. I don't care about obscenity - but I do care about the freedoms censorship destroys. The drug war is the biggest protection racket around. Just give up freedom and we will protect you from the drug crime that didn't exist until we started protecting you from drug crime. I already touched on terrorist. As for immigrants, I say open the doors.

Government, I am not afraid of you.

Cowards want me to be afraid. The braying, bellowing pundits of all political stripes; the Bible, Koran, Veda, Book of the Dead, Midiclorian thumping religious freaks and all others who insist that I keep my heretical mouth shut. You may lack the self confidence and intellectual curiosity needed to truly listen to people who have views different from yours, but I am not. I am willing to talk civilly with anyone about anything

Cowards, I am not afraid of you.

I will not live in fear.

Max: Step # 1

A few months ago I decided to stop drinking.

I started again, though, because I got too thirsty.

Jericho: Water Bomb?

Ummmm ... either the doggy wanted some water (unlikely) or I have been totally wrong and I fully retract my previous rant if I am!

Here's what I'm blathering about ...

Max: Cured By The Devil

Cured By Satan

"Irene Scott, who had cancer of the hip, spine, blood, lymph and marrow, believes a combination of conventional, holistic and alternative medicine helped her combat the symptoms and side effects of the condition.
She claims St Sampson’s Medical Centre practitioner Dr Paul Williams, delivering a talk on The Myth of Homeopathy at La Villiaze Evangelical Church, said any alternative treatment was linked with the occult, spiritualism and satanism.
Mrs Scott challenged Dr Williams during the talk.
‘I said: “Have I misunderstood what you mean about the occult because I was a fortunate recipient of conventional and various other means?”. He promptly said: “Then you have been cured by the devil”."

Jericho: Political Education

Max and I agree on very few things. It's true; we have very different views of the world. For a pair of left wingers, we are pretty different. And, that's just fine. It's made for an engaging friendship.

There is one thing I think we both agree on: voters need to educate themselves. A non-educated vote is a wasted vote. I'd prefer if the voters who don't care just stayed home - it would make my vote hold that much more weight. Max is much better at this than I am. But, I have been making more of an effort the last few years.

When I say "educated" - I don't mean the education you get in school. I mean you need to look into the people and the legislation that are being voted on. If you were in charge of the tax money that's about to be spent (or just lost) would you want it spent that way? Maybe they are doing a project you would like to see done, but are they doing it well? Or are they just lining a lot of people's pockets with your hard earned taxes? Is the person going for office a worthy person? Do they speak for you? Does their past freak you out?

There's a lot of questions you need to ask yourself before you get in the booth. Is it possible to ask yourself every question or know everything or even just enough about every issue and every candidate? Probably not. But, you can always choose to only vote about the things you do know or care about, thus making the vote of others who care more or know more that much more valuable. I have no idea who any of the judges are in my area, so I don't vote for them.

Where do you educate yourself? Newspapers are a place to start. Either hard copy or virtual, they carry the same news stories. Print media, while trying to be objective, is often accused of leaning to the left. Google up the candidates or issues that concern you.

Google will bring you to many of the political blogs out there, and those are tilted right, left and just plain sideways. I find that reading other's opinions gives me new questions to ask and research. Leaving comments and debating with others also gives me access to new ways of looking at an issue. I just found a blog that's striking my fancy:

http://www.livereal.org

It's just a very clean blog-space and opinion page. Lots of topics and they hope to be more than just liberal leaning. We'll see where they go. They have an interesting entry on Fake Meat that I wish I had blogged about first!

The best answer, the best place to find answers about who to vote for is to listen to and be guided by your own conscience. If you find you don't have an opinion about something, maybe you need to educate yourself or not vote on that issue. If you don't feel your opinion is informed enough, well, same thing. Voting on party lines? Our fore-fathers are rolling in their graves over that one!

Why do I bring this up now? Well, I guess you could say I'm tired. I'm tired of what I have seen in the last six years. I'm tired of a rubber stamp Congress for the Little Emperor's every whim. I'm tired of the fact that we are in our current mess because people were scared, not because they were informed. If they wanted a warrior with a level head, there were several liberal choices. The last two Democratic presidential candidates were Viet-Nam vets! With great power comes great responsibility - this is a lesson a vet learns. I think our cocaine imbibing, AWOL Air National Guardsman might have missed that lesson. Shrub should have never gotten this far.

So, this November, we have an opportunity to shake up Congress. In November of 2008, we have a chance to make the Whitehouse accountable once again to the American people.

Jericho: Glitch

This page you are now reading was not availible until 12:45 PM Pacific time. It simply disappeared from the site along with the last post Max created.

Why? Your guess is as good as mine.

It's enough to make a guy paranoid!

That is, if he wasn't already petrified by his own paranoia ....

Max: Land Of The Free

Keene Free Press - Homeland Security nabs Free Stater from home

"For the third time in the last four days, Keene resident Russell Kanning finds himself in Federal custody. The 36-year-old libertarian activist isn't in trouble for selling drugs, threatening officials or endangering anyone. Instead, he's the target of Federal wrath because he attempted to enter the Keene IRS office with…a piece of paper."

The Free State Project, which I find out about in the above linked article, looks interesting.

Jericho: Hey, TSA! Where does it end?

By now all of you have heard about the terrorist plot that was foiled in England. The plot to blow up planes headed to the U.S. with some form of liquid explosives. Bad stuff. Pointless. Gutless. Cowardly. I say we make the bastards eat pickled pigs feet until they starve themselves to death and head off to embarrass themselves in front of Allah in total failure. But that's just me.

In reaction to this, U.K. and U.S. airport security was stepped up. Once again, the barn door gets closed after the horse has headed for the horizon. Just in case the TSA and its British counterpart missed the coverage on CNN, these terrorists never made it to the airport. But, okay, I'm a big fan of paranoia. I'll allow a little over reaction. Maybe most Americans feel better seeing M16 toting soldiers at their airports, all I see is an innocent bystander - probably me - getting shot. But, we'll allow it for the moment.

They announce that no liquid or gel like substances will be allowed on board a plane. Really? Did I fall asleep and wake up in a bad sitcom? Seriously? No gel like substance? I guess the TSA must fly first class. I personally would rather they passed out gels as people got on the plane. Gels like toothpaste and deodorant! Taking those items away from people before they board the plane makes it even less likely that the smelly masses in coach will use them. Thanks!

What's the point of doing this? First, the terrorists never got to the plane with their liquid explosive. Second - I'M NOT A FREEKIN' TERORIST! Neither are any of the rest of the people boarding planes with shampoo in their carry on luggage. Those people just want to make sure they can wash their hair when the airlines lose their luggage! Third, I don't think the liquid explosives would work. Why? Take the way-back machine for a minute ...

Remember, what, a year ago? There were some terrorists that blew themselves up in London. They loaded explosives into backpacks and blew up some buses. (BTW, if any terrorists are reading this - not very effective, fellas. Most people don't even remember this shit. Morons!) A week or so later, a bunch more terrorists tried the same trick. "Tried" is the key word. Almost all of the terrorists lived, only a few immolated themselves. No one else was killed and short of some smoke damage, nothing else happened. Instead of waking up in Paradise to their 16 virgins, they woke to find a bobby escorting them off to prison, where they would be the virgins!

At the time, one speculation on why the second round of back packs failed was that the explosives expert went up with the first round of attacks. No expert, no boom. So, I wonder if these twonks, without an explosives expert, were trying some concoction they found. Would it actually work? Maybe it would have, I dunno.

Either way, what is the point of making innocent travelers lives more complex? I'm going on a trip in just over a week. I'm heading back to STL for a few days. When I travel, I wear nearly nothing (tee-shirt, shorts, undies - that's all), I wear sandals so they are easy to remove and xray and I always arrive 2 hours ahead, just like I'm told to. Now, they want me to arrive three hours ahead! My flight is at 6 AM! They want me at the airport at 3 AM!! Normally, I'd bring a sack breakfast just to pass the time before the flight. I can bring the breakfast, just as long as there are no gel like condiments or a drink! Get something from a vendor by the gate, you say? At 3 AM?? Not happening. Be my luck one of the security people would see the sandwich and I'd get an M16 enema for too much mayo! Guess I'll starve.

The point is that the average citizen is being punished for no good reason. But, it's not over. I've seen talk on CNN and other sources that maybe we won't be allowed ANY carry on luggage. Brilliant! So now I have to trust my laptop to baggage handlers when I travel for business? They can't handle my bags of clothes without ripping up the bags or worse! My plastic bottles of shampoo and toothpaste explode due to changes in air pressure - thus they are carried in plastic bags. But, what if I'm the only employing this trick? But, I'm supposed to trust my laptop will be secure under there?

The Brits have already outlawed iPods - there's a stroke of brilliance! They think the terrorists were going to use an iPod to make a spark to ignite their explosives. So, now I must be forced to listen to the plane of screaming babies I always seem to get placed on. (Why is it that parents can't hear their kid screaming at the top of its lungs yet, ten rows away, I can hear it?) Plus, Steph is buying me a sweet iPod for our anniversary (my first real iPod!) and I'll have it before my trip. I have spent hours and hours already making iPodible copies of our DVDs that I can carry with me. If they decide to not allow iPods - I'll be forced to watch whatever crap they have on the (sometimes working) inflight system!

They keep guns off the planes, much to the chagrin of many a rock-star, and so the terroists use box cutters - I'd be laughing if it wasn't so tragic! They take away the box cutters and fingernail clippers - don't get me started - and so the terrorists try liquid explosives. Everytime we come up with some ridiculous over reaction, they terrorists go one step further. All the while, the average traveler is living a nightmare just trying to get from point A to point B. Hey, TSA! The terrorists are causing terror and you are helping them!

This is all so pointless. If terrorists want to blow up a plane, it won't matter if you keep all the Snapple off or not. Think I'm kidding? Pals, I read far too much Tom Clancy and watch too much CSI! I see the future coming ...

The other night I watched an episode of CSI. Someone was smuggling drugs. They tied up little balloons of heroin, put them in jello and swallowed them. Get to the destination, take a laxative, and instant wealth comes pouring quite literally out of your ass. This is an old and well known trick. Take the same approach to explosives. Swallow the explosives. Heck, you could even swallow a trigger. Blasting caps aren't that large. A blasting cap, a few inches of det cord and a AAA battery could easily be swallowed. I defy any drug sniffing dog to find explosives inside a person! The terrorist passes security, then he has three hours to pass the explosives with the aid of laxatives (bought at the news-stand near the gate!) or he can wait until he gets on the plane before passing his cargo.

I'm figuring the average terrorist could swallow 4 to 6 ounces of explosive plus detonator. Not a gun, but it will leave a large enough hole in a plane to take it out of the sky, not to mention giving a whole lot of passengers their first sky diving lessons. Two or more terrorists on the same flight and it just makes the process more dramatic.

Obviously, I'm no terrorist nor am I an explosives expert. But, if I can concoct something this simple, what's the good of keeping Joe Average from bringing his Leatherman or a Gator-Aide on board?

Of course, now that I think about it - this really is too easy. Why hasn't this been tried? Must be something wrong with my plan. Maybe I need to watch more CSI!

Either way, this all seems really pointless! The terrorists will figure out how to do their business one way or the other, leaving one's Chapstick behind will not stop this. Don't believe? I'm currently reading Tom Clancy's "The Teeth of the Tiger" - chillingly possible. I realize the TSA has to justify their jobs, but inconveniencing passengers will not do it in the long run.

Max: I Gotta Get Me One Of These!

Max: Claire McCaskill for US Senate

Max: The Latest

Laura turned out to have a blighted ovum, meaning that her body thought she was pregnant but there was no baby in the sac. She just had surgery to remove the sac, etc. to make sure it didn't go septic before her body figured everything out.

She is likely going to need another surgery, depending on the outcome of a biopsy next week.

So, yeah. Life's a million laughs right now.

Jericho: Green Capitalism

Recently Max and I have both been out here beating the Green Energy drum. And, in my opinion, with due cause. The energy crisis in the 1970s should have taught the United States the lessons we are learning only now. It took two wars in the oil rich Middle East, marshaled by two oil men in the White House to finally strike the chord that we are all now listening to.

One of the problems with the green-revolution-that-didn't-happen is that people could never get their ducks in a row. Sure, we all want a cheap alternative to gas. Sure, we don't want to pollute if we don't have to. Of course we would like to produce energy domestically - keep the jobs and money here. We certainly don't want to prop up violent governments with the money from our transportation needs. But, just because these would all be "nice to haves" - none of these address the fact that cities are growing and pushing further out, commutes have gotten longer and people want more safety and comfort in their cars. People have moved into more marginal environments where they need air conditioning just to survive the summer months.

So, when green thinking companies introduced electric cars that you have to plug in, people hated them. They were expensive, they had short battery lives. They always needed to be plugged in and there were not enough plugs. You couldn't pull into just any gas station and fill the batts. Even if you could, recharging took too long. They were tiny and uncomfortable cars and you could forget about that all-too-American of pass times: the road trip. Solar or wind power for the home never caught on because it, too, was expensive and difficult to use. People want green, just not the hassle.

Why didn't the Government step in and make things better? Well, first you have to look at that phrase, examine it. When has the Government ever been able to make something better? They make things work when no one else can, but making things work better is beyond most governments. Besides, governments work on tax dollars. Who's going to pay to have greener cars or cleaner electricity infrastructure when gas is $.69 a gallon and electricity is cheaper than ever?

Now that we are diving into the energy mud pit we built for ourselves, people are searching for alternatives. In a Capitalist Environment, where there is a market, someone will build a product to fulfill the needs of that market. Toyota built the Prius, a not terribly small and highly successful electric car that also runs on gas, so it will never need to be plugged in - we call this a "hybrid". Companies are making smaller, cheaper solar panels for the home, even ones that look and act like roofing shingles. And, check out OurEnergy.us! This one forces the Greens to put their electronic money where their mouth is. If you already shop online, now you can shop through OurEnergy and a portion of the purchase price goes to fund green energy projects around the country. It costs the consumer nothing more and makes them feel like they've done something for the planet. If you have never shopped online and are concerned about the environment, now you have no excuse! Your Xmas shopping could save the world! How perfectly capitalistic is that?

It's taken us long enough, but it's nice to know that people are finally getting their ducks in a row. Sure, the ice caps might still melt and flood 20% of the country, but the rest of us will be able to drive our hybrids and flex fuels with the knowledge that our shopping will change the world!

Max: Mental Hygiene

Free Movies & Documentaries - Perversion for Profit (1965)

update

The power of editting.

Jericho: Backup Drive

Where was this Portable Hard Drive when I thought I lost everything on my G4?

Ya know, with the amount of time I spent putting music back on the iMac after we bought it, this thing could have saved me days of time. I'm not kidding. I bet I spent at least 48 hours, sitting in front of the iMac, loading CD after CD.

Steph is buying me an iPod for our anniversary - a video iPod (more details on that later). With the amount of time it takes for me to make an iPod capable copy of one of our DVDs - this thing might just become essential! At about 400MB per movie, this could store our entire DVD collection and then some!

That's just the music and movies. Steph wanted to kill me over one file we nearly lost. She has built and rebuilt and rebuilt and maintained her Christmas card list for several years now. It not only allows her to print out labels, but it's also a handy address list. When the G4 went bye-bye, she thought she lost that list. Luckily, I had made a (laborious!) back up to the (very slow) G3 when we upgraded the OS. I was able to recover the file. This drive would have let me do in minutes what took hours.

I think this might just make it to my Amazon list for Christmas this year!

Max: The Amazing Screw-On Head

View a well made steampunk pilot at SciFi.com then take the survey and tell them to pick up the series.

Max: Star Trek XI

Star Trek XI (2008):

"Credited cast: Matt Damon - Captain James T. Kirk"

Max: Strange 'twin' new worlds found

BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | Strange 'twin' new worlds found

"A pair of strange new worlds that blur the boundaries between planets and stars have been discovered beyond our Solar System."

Max: Darth Vader being a smartass

YouTube - Darth Vader being a smartass

Max: Employment! Sweet, Sweet Employment!

Unfortunately, I am still jobless. But my sugar-mommy wife is now officially winning bread. I just hope some of her job winning ways rubs off on me.

Max: Who Killed the Electric Car trailer

YouTube - Who Killed the Electric Car trailer

Jericho: Spammers

I know, we all get plenty of spam. At this point, calling unwanted, junk email "Spam" is an insult to the canned, pork product. I like Spam a hell of a lot more than I like spam.

I have a fascination with the garbage email that collects in my various accounts. I used to get all kinds of great XXX spam, with pics and everything. Now, I mostly get stuff for watch replicas and penis enlargement. I read far too many of these things.

The other day I got one that just left me giggling. This one is a variation on the classic Nigerian Finance Minister scam, but it may actually be worse. At the very least, it's worse in concept.

I won't print out the full email here, but the thing starts off as follows:

From The Desk Of
Mr Teo Ming Kian Chairman,
Matsushita Semiconductor

We here in the States probably haven't heard of Matsushita, we do know their brands: Panasonic, Quasar and Technics. Mr. Kian is indeed a chairman - of the Economic Development Board of Singapore. As far as I can tell, he has nothing to do with Matsushita. The email is also from a terra.es address, not matsushita.com, or even matsushita.sg - nope, some portal in Spain.

The email goes on to say:

Matsushita is a Global manufactural of Gray market goods,and this are items manufactured abroad and imported into the US without the consent of the trademark holder. Examples of such goods are REFRIGERATORS of all kinds,Electronics and Home Appliances.

It's about here I totally lost it! Gray market goods? So you want me to help you import Gray market goods, past my own government? I just don't think the profit margin on microwave ovens would be high enough for me to risk my neck! After I investigated a little and found out Matsushita was Panasonic, this was even funnier! Are they telling me they are stealing the trademarks for some other Asian made product and selling it here illegally? Why not just mark it Panasonic and sell it legally?

I scanned the rest of the email to see if there was any more hilarity. They essentially wanted me to put together an "outlet" for their wares. Even if I wanted to go into the small electronics biz, competing with the local big box stores, there is no way I would want to sell "gray market" goods, when I could get legal goods for half the trouble! Maybe if they were giving them to me free ...

They wanted my info, like name and contact info. I'm sure if I responded, they would then try to get me to pay for a shipment of goods that would never arrive, or some other similar scam. I'm not too smart, but I am too smart for all that jazz.

The really SCARY thing is that this type of scam has been around since at least the 1920s! Apparently it's quite successful or people would stop trying it. If you want a laugh at the expense of the scammers, check out Scam-O-Rama ...