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NSA has a 50-page catalog of exploits for software, hardware, and firmware
I don't get it. Is it an outrage that spooks have tools? Or that they put them into a catalog? After the huge things Snowden has already revealed, it's kind of bathetic.
Did you mean pathetic or do you think the spies are sentimental about the tools? If the latter, that is obscene.
So I have a new word, thanks.
It was pretty obvious that something along those lines existed, but it is nice to have specific names. At least now there is hope that some of those who supported the American security apparatus or made only lackluster efforts to resist it will pay for that.
I wonder if the Chinese government bakes any exploits into the electronic products that are assembled in China and shipped to the rest of the world, like laptops and hard drives. Or maybe the NSA is just making me paranoid.
Actually, that's been suspected, one of the major manufacturers, Huawei, is entirely owned by the People's Liberation Army.
Heck, they've even BRAGGED about it. . .
Dang, they found my secret ANT group. Yes, I am a NSAgent. All your data is belong to me. [grin]
And in other news, the sun comes up in the East.
Interestingly the San Antonio NSA facility they show an image of in the article gallery is located at Sony Place which was a full CMOS fabrication facility for Sony consumer devices. Obviously those lines were liquidated before the building was put up for lease, but the article is talking about exploiting firmware and bios -- and that building is designed for production of the sort of "chips" (bipolar CMOS manufacturing) that could be supplied to (and im just using this as an example from the article) Western Digital as an NSA-compromised drive controller chip of some kind.
Does re-flashing a bios wipe out the infection?
Does the catalog mean that they mostly employ script-kiddies to conduct exploits?
It certainly doesn't match the magnitude of the information concerning what they use those tools for; but it's an area of concern(and interest, if one is even peripherally involved or interested in the business or implementation of computer security) because this isn't the old days where 'military' or 'foreign' systems are some special category of bespoke hardware, almost totally separate from stuff everybody else uses and built to order:
Thanks to globalization and economies of scale, if you want to crack a switch, or a server, or some other widget, odds are very good that the toolkit you'd use (and the device you'd use it against) in the far corners of the earth will be virtually identical to the ones in homes, offices, and equipment racks right here.
BIOS/UEFI malware? Cross-platform compatibility in that sector is pretty dreadful, even between assorted x86 boards; but the entire world is basically covered by AMI, Phoenix, Insyde, and Intel, with AMD and various OEM-specific BIOS customizations licensed from the big players making up the difference.
HDD firmware attacks? There are basically three extant manufacturers, worldwide, with some oddities left over from comparatively recent deaths and mergers.
OS and application attacks aren't likely to be all that much more diverse.
Punchline is, if the NSA has something neat in the toolbox, it almost certainly works equally well on you, our good buddies, our less good buddies, and people we are currently shooting at. There is effectively zero diversity or political/cultural targeting with many core IT components.
Further, if the NSA has something neat in the toolbox, that means that one or more vulnerabilities that make that attack work are being deliberately hidden, possibly even deliberately encouraged, by the entity ostensibly responsible for American electronic security. Even if Uncle Sam doesn't come for you, pretty much every attack in the box represents one or more vulnerabilities that you and yours continue to suffer from because the NSA wants them to work more than it wants US vendors and users to be secure against any attacker who figures them out.
Even if you are 100% confident in the NSA's Good, Upstanding, Totally Patriotic, choice of targets, that's a pretty serious issue: the NSA is smarter than average; but the world is rife with other intelligence outfits(and merely economic malware and bot-herders), about whom you definitely should not be comfortable. Are you confident that the NSA's ability to read everybody's email is doing you enough good to counterbalance the fact that they are (deliberately) ignoring vulnerabilities in the products you use that they could be helping to fix?
It's that bit that is really where the second issue opens up.
Most of the Snowden leaks, as documented in the press so far, have been about 'Apparently the NSA considers the 4th amendment to cover thoughts that you don't think too loudly, and not much else.' and 'We in the US keep our enemies close and our friends closer still'.
These reports concerning technical capabilities and approaches emphasize that (far from being a general friend of security, as it turns out to have been in the 3DES days), the NSA is now actively unhelpful to the cause of system security worldwide, in the service of being able to crack more stuff. Even if you 100% trust their motives, and the goodness of their direct actions, that's still a pretty risky stance for them to be taking. Even if I think that what they do is great, and that privacy and diplomacy-related criticisms are nonsense, am I comfortable with the thesis that their ability to crack additional targets benefits me more than their assistance in making my systems less crackable would? Is America enough better off for being able to read foreign email to make up for being seen as a purveyor of deliberately toxic products?
Depends: a BIOS is a physical block of flash ROM somewhere, and it isn't magic, if you wipe that block and replace it with a clean image, it's good.
However most hardware sold to consumers, or businesses, or outside of electrical engineers and hobbyists, tends to handle the flashing process for you. You basically get to watch the little progress bar advance across the screen, and the version number change on next boot. You certainly wouldn't doubt that your possibly-compromised system quietly compromised and/or ignored your instructions to flash a clean ROM while agreeably announcing a successful reflash, would you? That seems sort of paranoid, doesn't it? Your tinfoil a little too tight? (Yes, yes you should be concerned about this).
Flash ROMs are moderately well standardized(in terms of form factors and interface protocols), so any device that allows you to get access to the raw flash chip and pop it into your own reader/writer can be rendered more trustworthy at the cost of some inconvenience; but flash embedded in the same package as other components is messier to get access to.
There are, presumably, a variaty of 'anti-virus' like indirect attacks (whatever function the code on the flash chip serves, there will be at least a few ways of poking at it and getting responses, the paranoid user would be motivated to take a 'good' sample(for each available firmware version), probe it as exhaustively as possible, and develop a 'fingerprint' of the code's behavior. Then, when faced with a 'doubtful' device, you could force the potential malware to not only function; but to exactly match the 'fingerprint' of the un-bugged firmware (not necessarily impossible; but more challenging, possibly substantially so) and force any 'fake-update' persistence mechanisms to deal with the fact that firmware updates are made in order to fix some issue or other, so the 'fingerprint' of one version should differ from that of another. Not 100% foolproof; but it would raise the bar against the attacker.
(If you were attracting special attention, of course, you should probably make friends with someone like Chipworks, who can do X-ray analysis, decapping, die-level analysis, and other messy teardown stuff. Because some of the common flash ROM package types, are somewhat historical, and very much oversized for today's silicon, it would be doable to cram substantially more into, say, a PLCC32 package than just a few MB of flash. It wouldn't be a cheap part, especially on a short run; but building something that looks and acts exactly like a normal PLCC32 BIOS/UEFI flash chip but actually contains enough flash to store a bunch of BIOSes, plus a microcontroller doing who-knows-what , would be very doable indeed. Put one of those puppies in a motherboard in place of the expected BIOS ROM chip, and nothing short of some X ray imaging and a physical teardown will reveal what you are up to...)
(Oh, look what just came up... SD cards are more sophisticated beasts than the flash ROMs usually used on motherboards; but just look at what you can do: full, persistent, subversion of the card's behavior without any physical modification. Definitely nothing wicked to be done with that...)
And here's a nice source of insomnia, even for the most knee-jerk DOJ apologists: have our weapons ever been turned against us? How's it going to work out when it's Mastercard v. the Russian Mafia, and the Russians have all the NSA toys? I know, I know, Bruce Sterling already wrote it, probably back in the 70s.
You boil it down a lot better than I did; but that's basically my "Why stories about the toolbox are legitimate alongside stories about what they do with it" point in a nutshell. If the NSA wants sweet offensive toys, they are knowingly leaving all sorts of nasty vulnerabilities on the table(as well as deploying cool weaponized exploits, some of which will eventually be found and passed on).
A government department has come up with a computer project that does not waste tens of billions of dollars delivering something that does not work ten years late, when three people in a garage could have done better? Having done the development, they then share the results and the costs with other departments in an intelligent manner?
Is it just me, or has the world gone particularly topsy-turvy lately?
gimmicked monitor cables that leak video-signals
So that's why HDMI cables and connectors are so bulky and unwieldy.
Well said, ff, well said.
And that quandary has now placed us in the unenviable position of having business, the military, politicians, and foreign governments, and the general public all at one another's throats. In this country? Capitalism ordinarily triumphs, so the odds favor business getting its way as usual. But which side will it be? Those raking it in from government contracts, with all the political pals they have courted and won along the way? Or those objecting to its effects on the broader business picture and the bigger bucks they represent? This isn't Kansas - perhaps principled citizens play clean, but business is typically much less concerned with that and will fight dirty if necessary.
I also have to wonder about what happens when those current employees with access to all those tools leave the NSA? That's a gold mine, to some. Whether they use it to steal and/or sell information, is less a question of whether and more just a question of when and how much.
The Fourth Amendment says, " The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized."
I note that the amendment does not capitalize, as in 'The People' to designate the collective. It uses small case 'the people' - which any ordinary parse would render as referring to individuals. Meaning you and I should each be secure in a our persons, etc. - rather than that anything and everything promising to keep the whole country 'secure' gets a pass.
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I Moved, Sort Of
I started (like minutes ago) writing over at Functional Entropy instead of here. I needed a fresh start so I just made something new instead of dealing with this mess. It will all remain here because I don't feel like tearing it down. Come visit. I've missed you. Sort of.
The Future Is Huh
I'll admit it (even though I'm easily twenty years older than most people who identify as millenials) -- I've become increasingly apt to just do things that aren't particularly well suited for a four inch screen on my phone. Why? Because doing something on an actual luxury sized laptop would mean waking that machine up, waiting for it to ponderously reconnected to wireless, open the appropriate applications, and then try to remember what I was thinking about when I first touched my laptop. This seems like a lot of steps to employ for a single operation. Ugh.
The NanoDot idea seems like a good answer to the additional problem that plagues what I mentioned above. Despite the fact that you've got an extremely powerful machine albeit in sometimes dauntingly miniature dimensions, if you're not spending the majority of your time at a desk or something you're going to suffer from abyssmal battery life. I slap my Nexus 5 on the wireless charger at least twice during a workday and will see it hit the fifty percent mark by end of day if I haven't. The ability to take a phone from a low charge state to full in a few minutes seems like an exciting alternative and beats the hell out of dragging around (and probably losing) a charger all the time. The only problem: I'd like this in my current phone today, please.
A Week and a Half Into the Nexus 5
Somehow I managed to skip the Nexus 4 entirely (contracts, fuck them) so I've been waiting around for my current contract with Sprint to expire so I could latch my proverbial wagon to a phone that wasn't languishing at its end of life. When the pre-launch rumors were circulating about which carriers would actually support this model, the big panic among the pre-availability speculators was whether there would be native support for LTE networks. Well, despite the teeth gnashing on every Android rumors/"news" site, it does and doesn't seem to suffer a significant impact on battery life as the forum trolls insisted that it would. After logging into the Sprint website for the first time in forever (the last time was to chuckle about my absurd mobile data usage due to Netflix and MLB At Bat), I discovered that my upgrade eligibility date magically migrated an entire month sooner — you know, like, that day. I ordered the phone (16 GB only from Sprint at least for now) and bailed from work to go pick it up at a Sprint store a couple miles from the office.
I'm not a box opening video kind of guy, so I didn't bother with that or even taking any pictures. The box is pretty fruity looking with the same color scheme as the promo crap The dude who helped me at the Sprint store (who was as condescending and incompetent as you would expect) was trying to give me a hard time about it and I told him I would likely recycle all of the packaging 20 minutes after I left. I asked him if he saved boxes for his phones and got no answer. I assume that he lives a in an underground bunker filled with phone boxes. Transferring my contacts took like 25 minutes which amazed me because I have less than 20 contacts. Not sure what the time sink was there because the fella took off with both my old phone and the new one to copy them over. I like to think that he ended up hand copying them which may well have been the case as the images associated with contacts didn't appear until I synched the phone with a Gmail account. Whatever, dudes. The only thing found in the actual box was the space where the phone used to live, a bunch of crappy paper I wished was never included, and a charger.
The Nexus 5 doesn't necessarily feel much heavier than my old Galaxy Nexus, but it feels much more dense and is way thinner and more slippery. I'm wondering when a phone people actually want will add less glassy smooth materials to the outside edges of smart phones. I didn't have a case for the first 2 days and it felt like that phone was ready to slide out of my hand like a wet bar of soap any time I used it as a phone. I dislike the fact that phones are intended for immediate encasement because the Nexus 5 looks pretty fucking cool outside of a case. The new toggle buttons on the sides for power and volume feel a lot more substantial than the ones on my Galaxy Nexus and so far that additional beefiness also keeps my phone from toggling my volume all the way up or down so I'm either missing calls or blasting the unfortunate and innocent souls trapped in meetings with me with Bobby Hill at far too many decibels. Despite the reported issues with the cameras included in this guy I've found the rear camera pretty damn impressive when compared to the elder hardware/software of the Galaxy Nexus. I haven't played much with the front camera because I'm not 17 and the panorama software seems to work about as well as other external panorama-making software I've seen. The rotating view of the panoramic end product is pretty cool, though, if a bit vertigo inducing. The first time I ever used that particular function I was bit hung over so include that in the grains of salt you would normally use for anything that I've written under the patently false aegis of 'factual.'
Kit Kat is a substantial upgrade in terms of polishing and refining earlier versions of the OS. I suppose I felt about the same way when Jelly Bean was released, but with an uncluttered phone with week old specs Kit Kat hauls ass comparatively. Again, it's hard for me to discreetly separate hardware from software in this upgrade, but most of the applications (excepting the Facebook app which is still a balky, battery hogging, and crashy piece of shit) were magnitudes more responsive and seemed less intent on using as much battery power as possible. Battery life, so far, has been stellar after the first overnight charge cycle. The first charge worried me half to death as software was reporting my percentage charged dropping by the second. This might have been initialization happening in the background or the early stages of calibration or something, but it cleared up after that first empty-to-full charge. This version of the Nexus doesn't have a removal battery (which I kind of like since I won't meet the challenge of every OS glitch by popping my phone out of the case and immediately lobotomizing it instead of being a patient grown up [note: the being a grown up part doesn't actually happen] about it) which means you can't swap it out for a get-really-hot-and-catch-on-fire variety of after market extended life batteries. I tried this with my Galaxy Nexus because its battery life was slim after using an iPhone 4 for a few months, but the perpetual 'phone is so hot right now that it is uncomfortable to hold in a bare hand' feeling freaked me out and got that battery recycled pretty quickly. The apparent difference between me and people who review technology shit for a check is that I'm pretty okay with the idea of device's battery using more of its stored charge when it is in active use. I likely should read more science fiction or something because I have semi-reasonable expectations of a battery powered device that uses various types of wireless to connect to the 'Webs. When you're using your phone all day you should not expect crazy battery life unless it's one of those Motorola phones that was developed to have extended battery life with a kind of crappy screen and is awkwardly heavy — I have a friend who is complete freak about not wanting to ever charge his phone and bought one and the first time I tried his phone I nearly dropped it because its weight was so weirdly awkward. I bought a wireless charger that I can dump my phone on top of while I'm sitting in front of my computer at work and just kind of ignore until I need it again. Given that newish ability to wireless charge and my own willingness to drop $35 on a charger that works that way I have no concerns about battery life.
To summarize or TL;DR: This phone + new OS is ridiculously fast and inexpensive. Other folks have taken issue with battery life and the quality of photos taken with the camera, but neither of these alleged shortcomings effected my use too much. My battery life got better with each recharge and the camera is a phone camera and I never assume that my phone camera is going to perform like a SLR or something. It's a perfect device for me and really highlights the refinements of Kit Kat over previous versions of Android. I'm hoping this will keep me happy for most of the next two years of contract.
The Glacier Moves (A Little)
The Grey Lady has finally updated her stylebook to something that doesn't seem like a 1997 Wired style book and only a dozen or so years later. The MLA guides still seems to favor the stupid hyphen, but the APA is apparently all over this shit like only a couple of years ago. Despite these radical changes geared towards an indifferent audience, the Internet is still a country. Simply amazing.
That Way No One (In Management) Gets Their Feeling Hurt
Man. As much as I've disliked some of the jobs I've struggled with over the years, all of those places sound head and shoulders above the average employee's experience at Amazon which sounds like an unrepentant shitshow unless you're just grinding your way through a year or two of resume fodder. The OLR thing sounds like a project devised in a Management 101 class to illustrate how dystopian the workplace can get when your plan to defuse office politics actually codifies it formally into a steel cage match that pits you against your manager, other managers, and upper management (carefully distanced via plans, of course) in any hope for promotion. Chew on this craziness:
With everyone reading printouts of a six-page "narrative" detailing the meeting's agenda. After your boss's fellow VPs quietly sit and read the pros and cons of your promotion, a debate follows, with various execs weighing in with their own experiences working with you.
The discussions can get heated. Only a limited number of promotions are handed out every year, so if you get bumped up, someone else's favorite subordinate might have to stand still. Anyone in the room can sink a promotion. Thankfully, you are not present for the showdown.
More than a little Kafka-esque? Does your cheese feel like it's being moved so constantly that now it's just a greasy blur in your peripheral vision? Ugh.
This Hooved Thing, It Ushers In The End Of All Of Everything Else
This gives me the fear:
OpenSUSE and Btrfs?
I can't say that I'm floored by the news/rumor that OpenSUSE is weighing Btrfs as the default filesystem as SUSE has often leaned towards the experimental even when they were selling boxed sets for use on the desktop.
I personally haven't had great experiences with btrfs on desktop machines, but that was mainly due to the lack of tools included in distributions to deal with things like hard freezes and the like. It sounds like OpenSUSE users have already run into this issue in the recent past regarding the lack of file system utilities as dependencies for using the file system. My phobias regarding file systems that aren't JFS aside, I'm glad to see btrfs getting more coverage (and hopefully more help in development and testing) and perhaps is eyeballed by more distributions for potential inclusion. I'm glad that it's happening and hopeful that other distributions that I'd install for purposes other than 'wonder what this looks like these days' will eventually include it in their repositories with a full set of tools behind it.
I Like This
Since I only seem to visit this place on a semi-annual basis, most of the feeds in my reader are largely skimmed over or just plain left unread. I've grown increasingly platform agnostic and although I still love and use Linux I'm not prone to deep reflection on much related to either its use or development. I'm not a Microsoft fan and never have been despite far too many years supporting their products on the desktop and swearing through gritted teeth at the sloppy incompleteness of their server products. The Microsoft wailing wall isn't the panacea for all that currently ails me in the technology sphere, but this Register article about MSFT's board plotting to push out Bill Gates makes me smile.
Clipped And Forgotten
I have too many goddamned machines these days and start writing local drafts in MarsEdit only to forget and abandon them minutes later. This is my nature. My WPD (that's words per day for you folks that haven't used one of those horrible pieces of writing software) would be stellar if my computer use wasn't so fragmented and terrible. Plus, Angry Birds in Chrome isn't fucking helping.
Some Things
Oscar turned three. That is pretty weird. He's not even a baby anymore. The thought it makes me have a low key mid-life crisis. We have miniature conversations about super heroes. Weird.
I upgraded a bunch of machines to Lion today. I have a few complaints (now there's a surprise), but they're mainly confined to things like the default scrolling schema (which, by the way, totally blows for the several minutes it took for me to figure out how to stop it and turn my machines back into computers and not iPhones) and the utter inability to properly configure Spaces anymore. I imagine that future updates will address the concerns of folks who depend on some kind of workflow on their computers once the oohs and ahhs have subsided a bit and people return to using computers to get things done and stop spending time thinking about how different the scrollbars look or whatever. I route around brain damage by default so I just adapt however sullenly. I also really hate downloading multiple gigabytes as the default installation method. Even on my stupid fast work connection that amounts to a fair amount of time spent having a staring contest with a progress bar. Fuck that. I don't have a formal opinion on the system wide spell checking quite yet. It's annoying as fuck and I really want to stab my finger at the screen a la iOS, but at the same time it's pretty effective. I'm easily annoyed so my opinion about that particular feature/bug is disposable.
Total Terminal is my new home as it's predecessor Visor no longer works. Strange that it takes an OS upgrade for me to notice that there are new versions of software I use all day on every day. I've never had a complaint with it until it didn't work for me today. Drop one tool and pick up another, I guess. They're from the same developer(s) so that may be a moot statement.
Liturgy is rapidly becoming one of my favorite bands. I'm unsure about transcendental black metal as a genre that I can utilize without cracking up, but their musical output is fucking amazing. The accelerating/decelerating drumming takes a bit of getting used to and is really stunning (in the literal sense and not the 'america's next top model' set sense) live. I talked to a couple of 'em after they played here recently and walked away feeling like they were people I'd like to talk to more. That's the highest recommendation of any band I can come up with.
New job is still awesome and I really dig using AgileZen on a day to day basis. I've tinkered with a huge pile of project management software in the past and always felt like the tool necessitated way too much learning specific to that tool before it was of any use. I had AZ figured out in a few minutes without knowing anything about kanban beforehand. AZ isn't the main product my employer sells, but they're part of the company. I should probably mention that even though I have next to zero stake in selling anything to anyone. I guess mentioning it has more to do with the kanban methodology making sense to me than as a software recommendation. Take as you will with as many grains of salt or cyanide capsules you deem necessary.
Because It's Like A Piggy Bank Waiting To Be Smashed Open
The Globe and Mail has a simple but very telling article that questions Pixar's motivation for producing a Cars sequel. Why? Because they sold a fuckton of merchandise and look forward to doing it again. Surprised? Me either. Here's hoping that it isn't an epic piece of shit because I'm fairly certain that I will have to see it more than once.
Go Wyoming, I Guess
It looks like Wyoming is the first state to standardize on Google apps for government which is super duper cool because most government organizations are pretty closed systems in terms of circulating documents and whatnot and GA also allows for access restrictions that are simple to control.
The problem, of course, is that like twelve people live in the state of Wyoming so the dollar amount of savings is less dramatic than other states where population density is anything more than a Babbit-esque dream of roping more people in. Petty jabs at places where tumbleweeds outnumber people aside, this is a pretty smart move.
Make Way For The King
When It's Time To Steal From Better Thieves
I read this this article about Kaiser Permanente's 'Thrive' advertising campaign earlier today and have intended to come back to it since then as I've had my fair share of interactions with KP with some mixed results including Oscar's birth which wasn't handled by a Kaiser facility directly, but covered under its plan.
The funny and timely part for me is that I'll be signing up for KP again in a few days despite being offered something like eight other health care options with my new employer. As an aside, my new employer is pretty badass when it comes to benefits, but I'm not talking about that directly here. The reason that I'm choosing that plan instead of the others is simply cost and convenience. This becomes especially important since the entire family is going to be on my plan which gets prohibitively expensive when you start looking at the smaller deductible plans that aren't quite as HMO-ish. I'm not 100% stoked on the plan, but with its smallish cost I can afford to go wherever I want if KP's typically conservative recommendations don't tug cherubically at my heart strings and I can still get the drugs I need to take daily in order to avoid dying mailorder.
Now, to the article above: I agree with the author that KP isn't exactly the source of all evil that it is often characterized as. It also is not the all smiling and huggy organization that the ad campaign suggests. The one smidge of truth about the entire campaign is that (and this carries over into even the el cheapo plans I think) is that preventative care costs nothing. This makes perfect sense because, after all, "KP is a business above all and is much happier when you're covering the costs of routine exams with office visit payments. This makes you feel better about paying them money and makes KP more profitable at the same time. It's almost like we're working together towards a common goal. Just like the voice over said, man!
The larger point that is being made by Clayton Lord is that KP is winning the public relations war by using the PR methodology that organizations that perform functions that are genuinely and only in the interest of the public good should be using. They're successfully feeding us our own dog food and actually influencing educated (well, sorta) opinion in their favor and not resorting to outright information to make these points. Another thing that Lord nails that hadn't really occurred to me before reading his article was the capitalization on the idea that KP is a non-profit organization (it isn't; not-for-profit is another ball of wax entirely). I really like the way he summarizes his feelings about it:
Where this gets me in terms of New Beans is more abstract, maybe. There's something vaguely aggravating to me about these organizations, which, while technically nonprofits, are hugely successful business enterprises without a true social welfare mission, co-opting public value arguments that we should be making. And at the same time, given that we don't really spend a lot of time making them, maybe having someone else do it isn't the worst thing. And, at least in terms of Kaiser, it's not just smoke—they also have a thriving theatre program that takes health-themed short plays into local schools to teach kids about being healthy through art.
So, sadly, folks who do work in genuinely non-profit arenas have something to learn from KP (or at least their agency) about projecting that good outward. How frustrating.
CloudFlare (For The Hell Of It)
I decided to give CloudFlare a whirl as I've heard only good things about their service, it costs nothing to use the basic service, and I was curious how it would interact with my convoluted DNS setup. Page load speed seems to be the principal reason that most folks are using CloudFlare. I'm as interested in the built in threat protection as I am anything else if only because I like having as close to a zero maintenance site as humanly possible.
A bunch of time goes by as I watch most of a baseball game
Now I've had time for the DNS changes to propagate out and I'm really impressed by how much faster everything seems to load. I don't have a reasonable way to test out the security features, but a quick look at the dashboard for threat protection already had a few spammers and a botnet zombie. Oooh. Exotic. After poking at it for an hour or so I'm going to keep it up and running for the time being.
A Project Proposal For All Of My Masochistic Friends.
An idea occurred to me the other day that sounded fun but next to impossible when I initially mulled it over. I've been super excited about recent articles like this one from Smashing about building media sites using WordPress and other how-to-ish stuff like it that explores the topic in some depth and doesn't drop the subject with a bullet pointed list of features and hints at possible uses for the default features. That stuff gets linked and twittered endlessly, but at the end of the day, it isn't useful other than as device to hype a given CMS or an attempt to hitch your wagon to $stuff.
I had a different idea and, as always, to do anything remotely like this it would require more than just me driving and a fair amount of scheming on infrastructure, etc. Here's what I would like to do: A website (weblog variant would be fine for the sake of presentation) about doing real world projects in different CMS's. An errant thought occurred to me regarding doing this work for non-profits and organizations in need, but I think I'd like to keep the focus of this unimplemented and poorly considered idea on doing medium complexity website projects involving different CMS's, sharing what we learn along the way, and generally being truthful about how the process worked or didn't. This theoretically would include sharing code customization, plugins or external resources used, and the whole shebang. I realize this is beyond ambitious and staggers right into the realm of biting off more than a person or two could possibly or responsibly chew.
The killer for me about the traditional 'Make x CMS into z really cool and useful thing is that the process of adaptation is almost never covered in any depth by folks who present the aforementioned types of articles. I'd always stumble on them and wonder while reading through the write up why the folks playing with it made their decisions or how you might make slight changes to achieve something completely different while using most of the same steps. Why? I dunno, but I know this would require a fair amount of commitment from its participants and wouldn't be easy by any means.
Anyone interested? Let me know either in the comments or by sending me some mail goneaway at this domain here. If you've got a better or less sprawling idea or alternative I'd be interested in hearing about that as well. If something like this already exists I would love to help out.
I'm Seriously Not Watching Any More Fucking PowerPoint Slides.
I'm awash in a ton of sit there and listen and then sign things not-so-busy work so I've been doing a lot of reading that has nothing to do with intellectual property. I guess that is sort of guaranteed given the utter lack of giving-of-shit on either side of the equation. I'm ready for this week to be done and to get started for reals.
Glenn Beck is sharpening up his repertoire as our country's leading satirist and is expanding to new markets. He is founding a publishing company which is allegedly going to publish real books that aren't the religious themed picture menus I'd assume his target demographic is more comfortable with. I suppose I should be pleased that at least he's attempting to create something that has tangible value instead of scams that prey on paranoia and ignorance. I suggest doing some stretching to accommodate the coming deep belly laughs that are no doubt forthcoming.
So, here's a good example of being completely crazy and daring to be very public about it. After you've finished being completely horrified be sure to read the comments because they're not only hilarious, but a bracing affirmation that you, as the reader, are not the fucking crazy one. To be fair, there is a vividly embarrassed follow up that addresses both the comments and attempts some light hearted self-diagnosis.
Tennessee's governor made 'broad' sharing of Netflix (and other premium streaming content) a crime in his state. Christ. Fuck the South again and again.
Shit. Nine Years.
I just realized while looking at the calendar that the ninth year has passed since I started up this infernal machine. Looking back at some of my older and oldest posts I realize that the last few years have been close to non-years in terms of anything other than posting random 'oh shit. it's been a long time' posts that only serve to keep the sidebar from outpacing the content. Still, nine years is a long fucking time. That's a quarter of a lifetime spent puttering around with words here.
The Hush That Falls Over The Conversation In The Room When We Mention Your Shitty Politics
There are a sparse number of people I number among friends who watch Fox News as an actual source of information and legitimate political analysis. I have no idea where to place blame for this or how to reconcile the fact that the aforementioned handful of folks and I cannot venture anywhere near certain topics without the stress of it on the surface tension of civil conversation being threatened by pogo sticks on thin, Spring ice. I'm hoping that one person might read this Rolling Stone article about Roger Ailes, the man behind the curtain at Fox News. Give it a thoughtful read, please.
Confirmed Monkeys
After wondering about the choice of Xamarin for a few minutes, I read this interview with Miguel de Icaza and discover:
"We've used monkey themes for many years," de Icaza said. "Ximian was a play on simian. Mono is Spanish for monkey. Xamarin comes from the tamarin monkey. And we kept the X, though to tell you the truth, I can't remember why we used it in the first place."
That is exactly what I suspected.
Listen To Raymond Scott
I cannot remember where I bookmarked this article from exactly, but this is an article from West 86th about a 1967 film collaboration between Jim Henson and Raymond Scott which kind of blew my mind.
I'm a big fan of Raymond Scott and have always felt like the larger music community outside of archivist-minded record collectors and purveyors of the oddball should really be more acquainted with him as he invented a good amount of the technology and methodology that pre-date electronic music. Most of the modern interest hasn't ventured beyond Reckless Nights and Turkish Twilights. All that said, that compilation was my introduction as well and most of my ventures beyond that have been motivated more by the ubiquity of file sharing than earnest effort. Still, go read Scott's impressive Wikipedia page and dig in a little further if his name rings no bells for you.
Another X Company, Eh?
I'm actually pretty excited about Miguel de Icaza's announcement of the birth of Xamarin and the departure of Mono from Novell. I'm not an enemy of Novell per se, but it is good to see a stack with a bright future expand beyond its initial reason for existence (to compete against MSFT) and concentrate on being an awesome set of tools for the people actually writing code.
The Xamarin site is active and is currently hosting a survey about which features users would like to see prioritized. I'm guessing that expansion of Android efforts is under heavy consideration if only judging by the number of Android-related questions on the survey. I guess there are a fair amount referencing iOS as well. This is very cool to hear.
A Short Experiment From Which Absolutely No Conclusions Should Be Drawn. Ever.
I've never liked any of the tracking devices that most laptops are equipped with. Even with an inordinate amount of tweaking through whatever utilities are available, I've always resisted using them whenever possible. The mouse has undoubtedly done its fair share of cumulative damage to my wrists over the course of too many years spent entirely at keyboards and spending at least some of that time standing at workstations and typing around people while they refuse to move.
An Aside: Speaking of which, if you work for a company that I also work for and need my assistance with your machine and then suffer under the delusion that I'm going to dictate instructions to you while you putter around and click pointlessly be prepared to have your stupid ass shoved aside
Aside aside, I've often embarrassed myself by being a fumbling moron when forced to use a trackpad in front of people who spend less time in front of a machine and consequently much more comfortable using the trackpad (don't ask for evidence of correlation here because I have none other than violent and irrational dislike). In the interest of proactivity, I've decided to try working exclusively with the trackpad on a couple of my laptops for a few days. Hopefully I will learn something from the experience and won't just fire up Ion to avoid using a pointing device entirely.
One immediate and happy discovery is that Chromium is a more mouse-optional browser than I imagined. The point wasn't to abandon mouse use entirely, but I feel like I'm already moving towards a less mouse driven use of the browser. I don't know if this is a good thing necessarily (less wrist fatigue! yay!) or moving towards terrible-ness (I can only browse the web using vi keybindings. Also, get off my lawn!). We'll see if I don't abandon this experiment altogether.
Getting Out Slightly Ahead Of The Wrecking Ball
For those (none) playing along at home, I ended up getting the job I was sweating over. This is good news because not only is the new company one with a great reputation, but I'm seriously losing my shit at my present job. I look forward to a future that involves neither Exchange nor Outlook. How it all actually works out is best left until I've actually begun working there, but I'm already a whole lot less stressed out and a lot more hopeful.
What I Do Instead Of Ditching Out Of Work Early
So, I'm still at this job that I despise and I seriously don't want to be here anymore. So much so, that I feel as if being fired would be a sort of relief. I'm waiting to hear back on a job that sounds like they're pretty much ready to offer contingent on my flakey-ish former managers returning phone calls. This is a terrible posture to assume because it nearly always ends in crushing defeat and the despair that inevitably follows. Sometimes, for the sake of maintaining sanity, it's almost beneficial to have a deep pessimism and distrust for all deus ex machina routes out of what seem like unbearable situations.
So, venting accomplished, go read Merlin Mann's Cranking is it is the best thing I've read all week and addresses many of the mental traps I've set for myself as a parent who also moves some of the gears of technology for a living. Reading things that involve children and hardship, no matter how relative that hardship might be, is a lot more difficult for me these days.
Another thing: The Cone mail client is rapidly climbing the list of things that I didn't think I needed much before and now I feel like I couldn't live without. Mail can be fast and your interactions with it don't necessarily have to be cryptic or involve key bindings you've either forgotten or never wanted to know. I'd nearly forgotten that. I especially like freeing up one of my virtual desktops and just sticking Cone in a Guake until I'm ready to look at my mail or need to. The psychological benefits of removing a mail client with its notifications and other visual hey! I'm here! features is oddly liberating.
Write Some Bullshit Because I Cannot Sleep Yet
I'm not going to explain why I haven't posted anything for months because that shit is frankly more boring than a nine year old weblog that never receives new posts. That, at best, is completely tedious.
So far I am not a fan of Gnome 3 . I've worked with it a bit on both Arch and Ubuntu and have found myself regretting either enabling the PPA to install gnome-shell or being stupid enough to allow it to upgrade. I've long since adopted Gnome as my default desktop on pretty much every platform, so having that stripped down, but oh-so-functional work flow completely disassembled has been nothing short of disastrous for me. Only one of the machines is actually a 'real' machine (it was a test beta install of Natty that flipped over to a release while I was messing with something else for a couple of weeks) and I've been able to route around the damage by just installing Xfce4 and pretending that it is a functional Gnome. Close enough for hackery, I guess. I am annoyed at having an old, reliable friend relegated to the dustbin for a gimmicky, phone-like interface. Sorry, but I need virtual desktops that work around applications not more context menus. Maybe next release or maybe I'll just switch permanently to Xfce on all distributions. I don't take useless stabs at usability for thumb typers at the expense of people who've used the environment for years as lightly as I probably should.
Baseball has also been a pretty huge distraction for me, at least since opening day this year. I signed up for the MLB.tv deal instead of the cable package ($100 less for a lot more flexibility) only to discover that the only real time streaming works (and god help you if you're interested in local teams - ie. the Colorado Rockies in my case) is during the week as MLB fucks its users over with blackouts for most weekend game times. I may just do the stupid cable package next year despite the $200 price tag and the additional $15 a month just to watch Rockies games. I am, on the other hand, watching a fuckton of Rangers, Athletics, and Giants games.
In theory, I should hear about a job I really want either tomorrow or the next day. This waiting is more or less the impetus for the spastic need to write something here. I'm really hoping for some good news although the potential commute is going to be terrible (Boulder is not close) and I'll be accepting a informal demotion from a system administrator who spends all of his time working on desktop support issues to a desktop support admin who crosses over into server-side problems whenever times allows and coincidentally is paid more money and has access to better coffee. I'm sure someone would tell me that this is career suicide, but my present job is already doing a fine job of making technology tedious and panic attack inducing so I think it's kind of a wash. Look for utter silence here for a while if I do get the job or bitter whining if I don't.
Things I Read
I just added my very first static page to Team Murder. It's a list of the books I've recently read or am currently reading. The differentiation I'm trying to make here is that I am basically endorsing these books. I've read probably four books in the last couple of months that I've despised. I'm not going to bother listing those. If you're short on things to read check it out. I didn't bother putting Amazon links because it makes me feel like kind of a dick.
I just ran screaming from my previous hosting provider after a bunch of service interruptions (only one of which was my fault) so I'm in the process of migrating everything over. DNS being DNS, this is taking longer than I'd actually like it to.
If you've got something hosted here, it should be up this afternoon. If you need me, I'll be in the coffee maker.
Flagrant Attempt At Getting More DropBox Space
I'm going to post my Dropbox referral link here in hopes that you'll sign up and we can both suck up some more space. I keep an unholy amount of crap there. Help me keep more crap around!

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Justin said: I don't think that the 2 paragraphs for about WAI are really going to benefit the newbie. I think they would be great to be the first two paragraphs for the About WAI page. If they have to stay on the homepage a suggestion would be to find a way to change it into bullets so that it would more easily facilitate scanning. I think that by having the About WAI paragraphs on the home page it's just going to cause more people to think that the page is about WAI and not about accessibility. Shawn replies: humm, we should have talked more about that in EOWG last week, as I thought there was consensus at that meeting on this wording on the home page. 1. "The Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) advances Web accessibility by providing an international forum for collaboration. WAI guidelines are widely regarded as the international standards for Web accessibility." I think it is important to establish up front that WAI it international and that the WAI guidelines are the standard. I am continually surprised at home any people don't know about WAI, and many who do know have serious misunderstandings about WAI. One of the misunderstandings that is important to dispel is that WAI is a US or US & European organization only. Those who think they know WAI are unlikely to go to About WAI, so we might want to include a few of the important points on the home page. I think having international & standard on the home page this helps supports the following from the vision: ...is seen as the definitive (re)source, authoritative, credible... 2. "_WAI guidelines_ are widely regarded as the international standards for Web accessibility. WAI also develops _resources_ to help implement Web accessibility." These 2 sentences serve to let people know what they will find on this site, and links to the major areas. I think we need to have something like that somewhere prominently on the home page. Perhaps we should add ", and help people just _getting started_." at the end and bold the links. The attached HTML pages shows this. See Misc comments below about re-wording. 3. "WAI welcomes participation from individuals and organizations around the world. Participation opportunities range from reviewing, implementing, and promoting guidelines, to participating in an interest group or working group." We are also continually coming across they myth that WAI is a closed organization. It is extremely important to dispel this myth. So we might want to do that with a blurb on the home page. I think have a blurb on participation helps supports the following from the vision: ... draws people into WAI process... I started to say we could take out the second sentence; however, we are using that to link to _interest group or working group_. Anyway, we could look at shortening the first part of the second sentence if there is consensus to. 4. conclusion Also note the WAI Home Page, Design Notes at: http://www.w3.org/WAI/EO/Drafts/UCD/design-sum.html#homehome (which is on the agenda to review today) say: "Focus: We want people who are new to the page to easily see "About WAI" and repeat visitors to be able to easily "mask it out"." So, I think much of the content probably should stay on the home page; however, I think we could *consider* re-working it so it is less About WAI, including changing the heading. (Although that will mean taking it back to EO and delaying things more - sigh.) Justin, any chance you could take quick pass at that (including other heading ideas and possibly bullets) before the meeting - to help see if there is interest in pursuing this change or not? Best, ~ Shawn -----Original Message----- From: email@example.com [mailto:firstname.lastname@example.com] On Behalf Of Justin Thorp Sent: Monday, June 28, 2004 11:22 AM To: email@example.com Subject: RE: WSTF - home page thoughts I agree with Carol. We need to make the getting started really stand out. We made it a goal for the newbie to be a primary user. It just needs to be a lot more visible and readily identifiable otherwise it's going to get lost. I don't think that the 2 paragraphs for about WAI are really going to benefit the newbie. I think they would be great to be the first two paragraphs for the About WAI page. If they have to stay on the homepage a suggestion would be to find a way to change it into bullets so that it would more easily facilitate scanning. I think that by having the About WAI paragraphs on the home page it's just going to cause more people to think that the page is about WAI and not about accessibility. Sincerely, Justin Thorp ******************************************************** Justin Zachary Thorp Partner & Web Developer - MyCapitalWeb.com E-Mail - <mailto:email@example.com> email@example.com Cell - (517) 974-5021Received on Monday, 28 June 2004 13:58:29 UTC
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.3.1 : Tuesday, 6 January 2015 19:56:53 UTC


text:
It was in Bill McKibben's first, and arguably best, book, The End of Nature, that I first came across the challenge posed by fugitive emissions. Back then — just 20-some years ago — natural gas was touted as a cleaner alternative to coal and oil because the combustion of its primary constituent, methane, results in markedly fewer CO2 emissions than other fossil fuels.
That argument is being made even more forcefully now. Everyone and his or her dog is touting the advantage of converting coal mines and car engines to natural gas as a way to mitigate global warming, as well as reduce oil imports and bolster domestic industry. But McKibben's caveat has stuck in my head ever since. He wrote that you have to also take into account the greenhouse-warming potential of methane that escapes during the extraction and transmission of natural gas. Getting a grip on how much of these fugutive emissions amount to isn't easy — I tried unsuccessfully despite much effort to get one of Canada's largest natural-gas pipeline operators to provide numbers a few years back — but McKibben provided estimates of 2 to 3 percent, citing a study from the University of Minnesota.
If you do the math, you find that it doesn't take much escaping methane to cancel out the benefits of burning natural gas compared with coal or oil. Burning natural gas produces half the CO2 as burning coal, but methane has 20-25 times the warming potential as CO2. To take the most conservative case: 50% + (2% x 20)=90%. Tinker a little with the numbers and it doesn't take much to conclude, as McKibben did that:
Switching to natural gas may have no effect. It might even make things worse.
That was in 1989. Now read this, from a draft of an April 2010 analysis by Robert W. Howarth of Cornell University:
A complete consideration of all emissions from using natural gas seems likely to make natural gas far less attractive than oil and not significantly better than coal in terms of the consequences for global warming.
Things are actually worse than McKibben thought. Calculating the warming potential of methane isn't all that straightforward. It's not just a matter of molecule-for-molecule. One has to take into account atmospheric residence time. This explains why estimates you come across tend to vary, usually from 20 to 25. According to Howarth, the figure of 25 refers to the total effect over 100 years, which seems like a fair enough period. But in the short term, say 20 years, the effect rises to 72 times. And two decades is actually a more useful time frame to consider, because we have to try to keep the Earth's climate in check to avoid setting off positive feedback loops that let the warming runaway with itself, and render the longer-term effects less relevant.
So if, as the lowest reasonably possible rate of fugitive emissions is 1.5%, then the total greenhouse effect of natural gas use is probably more than 158% that of coal and closer to 180% that of oil.
The actual rate of fugutive emissions could be, and likely are, a lot higher. A rate of 1.5% assumes industry is doing a good job fixing leaks in pipelines and capturing all the gas from fracking operations. They may be closer to the range of 3.6 to 7.9 for the shale gas industry, making the real warming potential several hundred percent that of coal.
Industry, of course, dismisses these calculations. At least they do when talking with the New York Times. But other studies also suggest that, at best, natural gas isn't a significant improvement on coal or oil when it comes to mitigating greenhouse gas warming. MIT's Technology Review sums it up this way:
… there is a benefit from switching to natural gas, all told, but it might not be worth the cost or the hassle. Making more efficient gasoline and diesel vehicles might work better, and be a faster way to reduce greenhouse emissions, it suggests.
We'll have to wait for more peer-reviewed papers to settle the question of just how poor natural gas really is as a climate-change mitigating option. [Update: here's Howarth's new paper in Climatic Change.] But it seems clear that even in the best-case fantasy scenario, the advantages are marginal. And we can't afford marginal. Howarth concludes that:
… until better estimates are generated and rigorously reviewed, society should be wary of claims that natural gas is a desirable fuel in terms of the consequences on global warming. Far better would be to rapidly move towards an economy based on renewable fuels. Recent studies indicate the U.S. and the world could rely 100% on such green energy sources within 20 years if we dedicate ourselves to that course.
(Among those recent studies are a couple by Jacobson and Delucchi, about which I have written more than once. So let's not dive into the old "but renewables aren't up to the task" argument.)


text:
About Hire a Man and Van
Welcome to Hire a Man and Van, your one stop shop for reliable and economical moving solutions.
Hiring a local man with a van to help you move is the easiest way to move anything that won't fit into your car or something you can't manage by yourself. This site offers details of various man and van services throughout the UK.
Things we move
Contents of homes, big or small – from 5 bedroom houses to bedsits
Office funiture
Garden furniture
Garden Sheds
Tables, chairs, cupbprds and cabinets
Kitchen Units (most vans should be high enough to keep your fridge upright – check before booking)
Flat Pack furniture (ask about flatpack furniture assembly – an optional extra)
Animal and pets
Does the route of your move pass the junction of M25 and M1?
IfI If the route of your move crosses the junction of the M1 and M25 we may save you money. Man and Van Watford offers a Nationwide service moving anything that won't fit into your car.
Call For a Quote. 0797 131 6550
Self Storage Units Recently Visited (Click to Open)
Man and Van Services
Hiring a man and van means you get more for your money.
The right size van for the job.
A local driver with local knowledge (sat nav assisted when needed)
Help with loading and unloading
Additional help with heavy items (2 men and van)
Help with packing if required (Buy your own packing material from Amazon)
House clearance and disposal
Waste and garden clearance and disposal
Flatpack assembly (including collection from store)
Vans equipped with racks, straps, protective blankets (designed to keep your goods and possessions safe in transit)
Goods in transit insurance
Every job and client is individual and as such each job will be priced accordingly.
Prices are normally based on the time the driver (and porters) spend helping you move. The distance between the collection and delivery addresses will also have a bearing on the price.
Ask for a free detailed quote without obligation and get to know the driver. If possible let the driver know of anything out of the ordinary, such as narrow stairways or difficult parking etc.
Be Prepared
To help us give you a quote it helps if you have the postcode and you can find postcodes by visiting the Royal Mail postcode finder.
Preparing for your move well in advance can save you money, for example rather than leaving packing until the last moment and using many plastic super store bags to pack clothes, books and odds and ends in, you should buy a few good size packing boxes. This means far few trips from your door to the van and both loading and unloading will be quicker as a result, keeping time to a minimum and your costs down.
By asking for a quote well in advance gives your "man and van" a chance to combine your move with another customers job and reducing t you and the other customer.


text:
Share your LEGO creations, free!
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This ain't your daddy's hoverscooter -- give in to the Impulse!
About this creation
Yes, it's the Impulse, hoverscooter of choice for spoiled rich kids and wealthy eco-freaks everywhere. Never needs fuel, and emissions consist of oxygen and water vapor. The same technology used by the ancients to levitate 70 ton granite blocks into position during construction of the pyramids has been rediscovered and channeled into a healthy quarterly profit for The Skunk Works transportation division. Unfortunately I cannot explain the technology further, it being a trade secret.
The Impulse was created on an impulse, late one night when I should have been asleep.
Ah, insomnia... where would my creative endeavors be without you?
It has been posited that a major function of the brain is to act as a filter limiting the sensory input. If it didn't, we'd be overwhelmed and unable to function -- we'd all be autistic.
So when we alter our consciousness -- whether through drugs, meditation, being in great pain or stress, or through sleep deprivation -- we open up that filter.
As my man William Blake said, "If the doors of perception were cleansed every thing would appear to man as it is, infinite."
Think of your head as a radio, tuned to a particular frequency. Ideas are out there floating around, and if they match your frequency, they pop into your head.
So when you weaken, widen, or bypass (choose your favorite term) that filter, you can pick up additional frequencies and get more ideas.
More ideas occur to you, yes. Capturing them and putting them into action is another matter.
Right now the sensitive receiver in my head tells me you're wondering whether it's drugs or insomnia or what making me babble on like this.
You're thinking, "What the hell is this? I come to your site for your trademark brand of glib irreverent humor and semi-talented MOCs, not some half-baked treatise on speculative metaphysics."
Indeed... So smoke some opium, practice self-flagellation, start sleeping two hours a night, and you'll be amazed at the wondrous creativity suddenly percolating in your brain... better?
Add a comment
I like it
Makuta Bane .
October 8, 2008
Okay, so I still love the car, but I am wondering. On the sig-ocean page, it mentioned these. Did you make these first? Somebody else takes credit for the original idea, so, what's going on?
I like it
ElNickre .
September 7, 2008
You've gotta love a MOC like this.
I like it
Makuta Bane .
June 8, 2008
WOW! I LOVE IT! Seriously.... It is very clean, but well built, and simple. Great job!
I like it
puwit neangongoy butt monkey
April 22, 2008
lol. that would be funny to see.
I like it
Sean Gentile
December 28, 2007
Interesting form and great amount of detail in a small MOC. At first glance, I thought that was the hot, new girl from the Sector 4 Tribunal. Keep up the coolness!
I like it
Matthew Baker
November 13, 2007
Nice hoverscooter, looks fast.....and dangerous. Great work. Like the minifig.
I like it
Stephen Abbott
November 2, 2007
Though you may see me someday with a hoverscooter, you'll never see me with that hair-do. Wonderful MOCs.
I like it
B1U3 DR4g0n B14ck Ph30n1x
July 26, 2007
its.....weird ...cool
I like it
DARKspawn .
July 26, 2007
Awesome, I love small greebly creations. The Goldman-esque narrative is great too, I can't beleive people are actually taking you seriously... >.<
I like it
Marcus Smith
July 26, 2007
wonderful scooter! very creative and good use of pieces.
I like it
Jordan Beasley
July 26, 2007
This is pretty awesome, but the metaphysics stuff made my brain hurt, alot...... P.S.: i haven't slept in 4 days wooooohooooo!
I like it
Tris B
July 26, 2007
The drugs, I presume, are perscription?
I like it
White Skull
July 26, 2007
I like it
Nate Bush
July 26, 2007
Nice little scooter. Those octagon pieces are so useful! As for the commentary, are you saying that sleep deprivation and certain drugs are good because they can damage the "filters" that allow you not to pay attention to unimportant stimuli? I don't think ideas are "out there" waiting to be captured. It makes more sense to think of them as being the result of many thought processes which disregard useless information and focus on something. That's part of the reason why I think it's bad not to be able to think clearly.
I like it
Thomas Mearns
July 26, 2007
That is really cool. I�d build one of my own but I don�t have the right Lego piece.
I like it
Lee Jones
July 26, 2007
Is it creativity, or just the perception of creativity on the part of the writer? Sleep deprivation in of itself could be considered an altered state of consciousness. Maybe this altered consciousness leads you to believe this is more creative/profound than it actually is? Unfortunately, I also being in a state of sleep deprivation, find this creative as well. Which means I cannot confirm or refute the creativity of your comments. Alas, I shall have to head off to the 'Hotel' for the midnight shift trying to treat the ailments of those that frequent a inner-city ER in the middle of the night. This should give me time to ponder this question, but do nothing for my altered LOC. Lee.
Shannon Young
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City of Shannonia Visitors Center
Space Ninjas!
Spaceships - Minifig scale
Castle, or some approximation thereof
Psycho-Social Freudian Constructs
The Blockheads Complete DVD Box Set
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Occasional Emergences From My Hermit Cave
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Sartorius Quintix65-1S laboratory balance offers 60 grams weighing capacity with readability to 0.01mg. This 5 decimal place semi microbalance features a 3.1 inch round weighing platform, 3 door draft shield glass chamber providing 8.2 inches height from pan to top of glass door. Sartorius Quintix laboratory balances come standard with fully automatic, temperature and time controlled internal calibration. The die-cast base housing ensures stable and repeatable weighing. The housing has a chemically resistant finish for the easiest cleaning ever.
The Quintix65-1S is brand new for February of 2015. As an Authorized Distributor of Sartorius scientific laboratory balances we are unable to advertise a price below $4815.00 for the Quintix65-1S, but when you click the buy icon your cost will be LOWER. If you see anyone displaying a price lower than $4815.00 be very leery since chances are you are not purchasing from an Authorized Sartorius Dealer and you could be purchasing a semi microbalance with absolutely no warranty. You could even be buying a refurbished, demo or broken unit. If someone tells you they are a reseller, sub-dealer or agent they are NOT an Authorized Sartorius Dealer and your warranty could be in jeopardy. Why take chances when buying the world's best scientific lab balance when you can purchase from Precision Weighing Balances an Authorized Dealer.
The new Sartorius Quintix sets new benchmarks in every aspect for standard lab balances: features, technology, ergonomic style, and, above all, the entirely new, user-friendly operating design of the Quintix that helps make work flows much more efficient. What it boils down to is the Quintix is fail-safe: it rules out weighing errors due to incorrect operation and eliminates the time-consuming chore of fine-tuning the settings. Fractions of a second are all it takes for any user to adapt the Quintix to specific requirements and obtain traceable results much faster than ever.
Sartorius teamed up with experienced lab users to develop the user interface of the new Quintix. Lab users' number 1 priority was to ensure easy, intuitive operation without having read the manual first. They did it! The self-explanatory icons and plain-text prompts on the large touch screen show you all the information you need to know for the procedure - no more, no less.
For example, the touch-activated print key will appear only when Quintix has detected that a Sartorius printer is connected. The Quintix also excels in compliance with workplace safety requirements: Even if you are wearing several pairs of lab gloves, you can still correctly use all the functions of the balance.
Quintix comes standard with convenient, built-in applications. These, along with the extensive accessories Sartorius offers, enable you to customize Quintix to a variety of weight measurement tasks.
The Quintix balances come standard with a variety of application programs built in, helping to simplify routine tasks:
- Toggling between weight units
- Density
- Percent weighing
- Checkweighing
- Peak hold
- Parts counting
- Mixing enables you to weigh in various components of a formula quickly with 100% traceability.
- Components conveniently lets you weigh components of a formula into separate containers and retrieve the total amount weighed-in at any time.
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- Conversion takes care of the math when you need to convert a weight using a factor, say, to calculate the weight per unit area.
Most semi micro gram weighing applications the Sartorius Quintix 65-1S has the features you need, but if you are not sure call the experts at Precision Weighing Balances to review your weighing application. If you need greater weighing capacity then review the Quintx125D-1S. We also offer the Secura125-1S, Secura225D-1S and Cubis Series from Sartorius with even more features than the Quintx.
See the entire Sartorius Quintix Series of laboratory balances offering with 3 models offering 0.01 milligram readability and many other Quintix models HERE.
Free shipping UPS Ground in the lower 48 states for the Quintix65-1S semi microbalance.
Sartorius Quintix65-1S five decimal place
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HISD Board President Television Show Takes an "Up Close"
look at Bond Construction Program
Board President Michael Lunceford's new television show HISD Up Close
showcases district and school-based initiatives
Who: The first edition of HISD Up Close hosted by HISD Board of Education President Michael Lunceford features a tour of Horn Elementary, a replacement school built as a result of the $805 bond referendum passed by voters in 2007. The show also features an interview with fellow board trustee Larry Marshall who shares some of the great things happening at schools in District IX, as well as interviews with Westside High School students who recently competed in the district's annual PetroChallenge.
What: Monthly HISD UP Close television show hosted by Board President Michael Lunceford
When: Throughout the month of February at www.houstonisd.org and on HISD-TV (Comcast channel 18 and AT&T U-verse channel 99) on Sundays and Wednesdays at 8:30 p.m.
Why: HISD Board President Michael Lunceford is committed to showcasing some of the amazing things happening at HISD schools across the district, in addition to highlighting district initiatives and accomplishments. His monthly show will regularly feature a tour of a bond construction school, an interview with one of his colleagues on the HISD Board of Education, and a segment showcasing the academic accomplishments of HISD students and the dedication of HISD staff.


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Christi - posted on 08/02/2010 ( 38 moms have responded )
i was just wondering what other married women felt about their husbands watching porn. for me, i don't like to watch porn, but i will if my husband wants to watch it with me. i don't like it because i think it is degrading and trashy and do not find it the least bit arousing. we don't have sex very often and he blames it on being tired and me not being spontaneous enough. he works two jobs and i understand he gets tired, but it creates alot of tension. i am a stay at home mom and frankly i am exhausted as well, but the want is still there. he will watch it twice a day and if he has enough energy to do that, then why can't he be with me? it really hurts and upsets me. i have gained some weight after having our son and it has been hard to get it off since my insurance won't cover the surgery i need to repair my lap band. it makes me feel like i am not good enough for him. am i overreacting? i have told him how i feel and now he tries to hide it, which hurts even more. please give me your opinion.
read feedback from me further down for more details.
my husband just informed that he wants a divorce so all this was for not. thank you for all of the advice and support mamas. maybe it'll help if i ever end up in another relationship. thank you again.


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Bethany Lutheran College winter sports
Think about what career is best suited for you, and where you want to study. Request more information now.
Think about what career is best suited for you, and where you want to study. Request more information now.
Think about what career is best suited for you, and where you want to study. Request more information now.
Get the facts about Bethany Lutheran College winter sports, and registering for discussion sections and departmental seminars. Not all recruiting is done like NCAA Division I teams. It's practically impossible for college coaches to watch every player who has expressed interest in their program, so if you get the chance, make a memorable first impression by visiting the campus in person. Finally, check with your major department for assistance with prerequisites, tuition payment deadlines, and Bethany Lutheran College Sports information. Please use the form above to request admissions info for Bethany Lutheran College.
Track stars have revealed the secret to developing running speed. Most athletes simply run out of breath long before they need to stop running, because they aren't able to get the oxygen into their muscles fast enough. By taking deep breaths, and building up the supply of oxygen in your blood, you can prevent muscle cramps. As lactic acid builds up, and muscle fatigue sets in, untrained players think they've reached their limit.
Track teams, and well-coached basketball and football teams for that matter, train by sprinting short distances, over and over. It's not fun, but it works. After a few months of training, the lungs begin to process oxygen more efficiently, and players find that they can run long distances non-stop, or sprint for a longer period of time. Babson College track meet may encourage student-athletes to apply via early decision. Students who are considering applying via early decision should be aware of the rules and obligations that this commitment entails. Beyond consideration for Bethany Lutheran College winter sports, you may think about Georgetown University online courses 2017 for complementary electives to your primary course of study.
Physical Therapist
Vanderbilt University Medical Center
May supervise and direct certified athletic trainers (PT only), physical therapist / occupational therapist assistants, technicians and volunteers and students.
7 days ago Personal Fitness Trainer
Anytime Fitness - Soldotna
The PFT provides guidance, education, and encouragement and most importantly, develops relationships with all members to improve retention.
1 day ago Athletic Trainer
Noor Associates, INC
The School District of Philadelphia, Division of Athletics is looking for Certified Athletic Trainers.
2 days ago Head Boys Basketball Coach - BVSW
Blue Valley School District
Position Type: Athletics/Activities/ Coaching Date Posted: 2/15/2017 Location: Blue Valley Southwest High School Description: Head Boys Basketball..
1 day ago Personal Trainer @Anytime Fitness Corona!
Anytime Fitness Corona, CA
Beyond the traditional roles described, the PFT provides guidance, education, and encouragement and most importantly, develops relationships with all members.
1 day ago


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On the Scene at the 2012 'American Idol' Finale
Phillip Phillips, Jessica Sanchez, Jimmy Iovine, Aerosmith and More Reflect on the Show's 11th Season
More News
Jimmy Iovine
Why do you think Phillip won over Jessica?
They're both great, but they both do two very different things and appeal to completely different audiences. There were more [Phillip fans] than there were Jessica fans at this point, and that's probably what happened. He worked really hard and won a lot of people's hearts this year.
What was the highlight performance for you this season?
I think it was Jessica's "I Will Always Love You," probably. And there was one of Phillips that I really liked but my brain is gone again and I'm going to call him Jessica in about a minute [Laughs].
Did anyone else stand out for you this season?
You know Joshua [Ledet] is very talented, Skylar [Laine] is really talented. There are a bunch of kids; they just need work. This is the crazy thing – you go to a stadium, you audition and then you'll turn into this. And the hard part right now for Jessica and Phillip and Joshua is to leave this behind you. You have to leave this behind you and make your first album.
Have you talked about who is going to work on Phillip's album with him?
I will meet with Phillip when I have some time and pick a producer. It will probably be the one producer. He wants to do a singer-songwriter album, so we got to find the right producer that's the best for him for that.
Phillip has always been a little stubborn throughout the competition. Is that a good or bad thing when it comes to recording an album?
I've never met a musician who is not stubborn. It's a good thing. But you got to have a bit of give-and-take in the studio. This is a show and it's different to making a record.
If you auditioned for Idol what would you sing?
"Happy Birthday."


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A business is a constantly moving entity and it rarely involves just one person. For the most part it takes a group effort in order to reach greater heights, which is why motivation is so crucial. All it takes is one weak link to break the complete chain and this is the type of …[Read More...] about Top 5 Reasons Why Companies Are Hiring Motivational Speakers
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7 Simple Steps For Planning Effective Business Meetings and Events
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A successful and meaningful business meeting or event is made possible with extensive preparation. The location, equipment to be used, availability of your motivational speaker and number of attendees are only some of the aspects you should consider as you organize the event. …[Read More...] about 7 Simple Steps For Planning Effective Business Meetings and Events
7 Top Venues For Your Meeting Or Convention
By John Pullum
After choosing the best motivational speaker for your business meeting such as John Pullum, the next thing you need to do is book the perfect venue for this event. After all, your choice of venue will have a direct impact on the success of your meeting. With the right ambiance, …[Read More...] about 7 Top Venues For Your Meeting Or Convention


text: According to email@example.com: > > Why does the current source for rmail queue everything it sends through > sendmail? i.e. it's passing -odq to sendmail which makes it queue > incoming mail automatically. > > This has been around for a while (I can find it in original net2 source). > but I finally got tired out of it and went looking. Is there any real > reason to do this? > ... > Just looking for other people's thoughts on this. > > James I can think of one. A non-queueing sendmail will attempt delivery itself. This can hang if DNS will hang (for instance you dial up part time to the net only, and other times, there is no root DNS server reachable). This can be bad for something running out of uucp. Also, on larger systems, an rmail to many recipients can take time, esp. if the host is forwarding to others, and what if one of those is down, etc, etc. I ran into this, I just had my cron job run sendmail -q after UUCP was finished (I ran uucico in the foreground, then ran sendmail -q). -- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Mark P. Gooderum USSnail: Good Creations Senior Consultant - Operating Systems Group 3029 Blackstone Ave. So. "Working hard to be hardly working..." St. Louis Park, MN 55416 EMail: email@example.com Voice: (612) 922-3953 Interactive: email@example.com Fax: (612) 922-2676 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


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Canadian Association for Rainwater Management
About CANARM
To bring awareness, educate, and conduct research in best practices for rainwater and stormwater management across Canada.
With increasing environmental awareness and concerns, addressing the issues of rainwater management has become paramount to the success and longevity of many residences and business operations. CANARM has been established to deal with the vast array of very positive actions undertaken by entrepreneurs, homeowners, and designers, and to help consolidate and focus jurisdictional governances across Canada.
CANARM is a national organization of individuals, businesses, and consultants with a keen interest in the future of rain and storm water management practices. We are closely linked to ARCSA (American Rainwater Catchment Systems Association) and many other related groups.
To contact us: email@example.com
Board of Directors
Benjamin Morrison, Vice President
Benjamin is a Partner at Cleanflo Water Technologies which focuses on Rainwater Harvesting Design and Supply. Located in Regina, Saskatchewan with projects across Canada. He graduated from Saskatchewan Institute of Applied Science and Technology (SIAST) as a Water Resources Engineering Technologist.
Dean Barrett, Director
Dean Barrett is a partner In BARR Plastics Inc. a family run business since 1968. Dean joined the business in 1982. The company started supplying plastic tanks to the BC market in 1985. Plastic tanks have become the most commonly used tank for Rainwater Harvesting.Jamie Wallace, Director
Landscape designer, Project Manager, Site Supervisor, Permaculture Designer, Landscape Contractor, Rainwater harvesting designer and installer
Anthony Oosterveld, DirectorAnthony Oosterveld is currently the Business Development Manager, Regulators markets for VIQUA a Trojan Technologies Company. Anthony's responsibilities are focused to working closely with engineering firms, provincial, state and federal regulators in the adoption of Ultraviolet Light as a primary means of public water disinfection compliance. He brings over 13 years of experience in small water treatments systems design for residential, commercial and reuse. He studied business at Conestoga College and Harvard Business School and was previously a Certified Water Specialist with the Water Quality Association.
Whalen Bishop, Director
Whalen Bishop has been with University Sprinklers since 2008. Whalen is an honours graduate from Thompson Rivers University and is a certified Residential Turf Irrigation Designer through the IABC, Cross Connection Control Specialist, Low Voltage Technicion and is a Professional Accredited Rainwater Harvester through ARCSA.
CANARM's structure is setup to coordinate a national association while embracing regional differences in construction practices, building, plumbing and health codes, etc. Our Board of Directors coordinates CANARM's efforts nationally, while our regional governance structure is split into five jurisdictions with Governors as listed below. Each regional Governor is responsible for coordinating efforts within their region and engaging local regulatory bodies. The five regions and their Governor's are as follows:
British Columbia, Yukon and the Northwest Territories
Governor: Ken Nentwig
Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba
Governor: Rene Michalak
Ontario and Nunavut
Governor: Jeff Thompson
Governor: Alain Trahan
Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador, and Prince Edward Island
Governor: Bren VanderZwaag


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The Consulate General of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago in New York will resume operations from Thursday.
The Consulate has been closed since October 29, after Hurricane Sandy battered the east coast of the United States, causing severe damage to the offices of the consulate.
In a statement issued by the Consulate yesterday, members of the public are advised that the offices at 125 Maiden Lane will resume full consular services during its normal working hours from Thursday.
However, persons who had appointments scheduled from October 29 to December 5 should not visit the Consulate until contacted. "All persons who have appointments scheduled from Thursday, December 6, 2012, and onwards should visit the Consulate General as scheduled. All persons who had appointments scheduled during the period Monday, October 29, 2012, to Wednesday, December 5, 2012, will be contacted by the Consulate General staff to arrange a new appointment date. Such persons should not visit the Consulate General until a new appointment date is arranged.
"Consul General Rudrawatee Nan Ramgoolam takes take this opportunity to thank all nationals and other visitors to the Consulate General for their patience in these trying times, and asks for continued support as the staff moves swiftly to restore full services to all."
The release also advised the Consulate is open for service from 7 a.m., and not before, and sought to assure persons there is no need to line up in front of the building before 7 a.m. in the cold, as they would be served.
"During the period that the Consulate General is closed, enquiries may be directed to email@example.com. Follow us on Facebook, and www.ttcgny.com at Consulate General of public of Trinidad and Tobago.
"Anyone needing to contact the Consulate General should use the following contact information until further notice: 1-917-703-8454; 1-917-703-8463; 1-917-703-8497; or e-mail firstname.lastname@example.com.
Should there be any change to this arrangement, the public will be informed through the Consulate's General website, Facebook page and other media.
The Consulate General in New York is responsible for providing consular services to persons residing in Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and Vermont, and is focused on promoting Trinidad and Tobago and providing services for its diaspora, the release added.


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Kristina Fender
Madrid-based photographer Kristina Fender documents the spirit of the custom motorcycle scene and its riders. After studying photography and video technique at Bellas Artes of Barcelona, Fender worked in advertising. But when she realized it was not for her, she packed a bag and took the first flight to New York where she became assistant to David Lachapelle and Patrick Damachelier amongst others. Now Kristina is a freelance fashion photographer, specializing in motors.
A selection of 20 photographs by Fender, many of which are featured in The Ride: Custom Motorcycles and Their Builders, are now exclusively available through Gestalten as fine art prints.


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Every day there comes the point when I can not stomach any more news. That's when I turn to Beauty.
A newly-discovered, but now essential blog for me is Colossal. Christopher Jobson, creator and editor says,
I often describe Colossal as a blog that explores the intersection of art, design, and physical craft. I enjoy artwork that is tactile, physical and non-digital in nature, especially sculptural work and installations that use impossible numbers of components, or sequences in a process. During the course of a week you'll find roughly 15-20 posts on photography, design, animation, painting, installation art, architecture, drawing and street art. I share things that I feel are accessible to everyone, requiring little explanation or theory, so in that sense, I hope people not involved directly in the arts can also find it interesting.
Some examples:
Gravity-Defying Land Art by Cornelis Konrads
Gorgeous Macro Photographs of Dew-Soaked Dandelions by Sharon Johnstone
24 Hours of Photographs Merged into a Single Panoramic Image
Italy can still teach our Congressmen a thing or two.
The Italians despise the politicians they elect because they are hugely paid, hugely corrupt, and hugely useless. They can blame no one but themselves, because each nation gets the politicians it deserves. Once upon a time before I knew better I used to think there was a solution: Catch the Italians young before it is too late and force them to spend an entire day each week at school learning the difference between right and wrong and why this matters. But then I remembered that they are all Catholics and the Catholic Church does all that anyway. And look where that has got the Italians! So then it dawned on me: It's gotta be in their DNA.
There are 435 Congressmen in America (population 311 million) and 100 Senators; their gross basic salary is $174,000. There are 630 Deputati, as members of the Lower House are called in Italy (population 60 million) and 315 Senatori. Average salary is around 200,000 euro ($261,000) according to a recent survey of European politicians' incomes.
Italy's politicians the highest-paid in Europe.
Italian politicians usually have second jobs, because let's face it: They have a lot of time on their hands. I know one of them: He is a newspaper columnist with whom I am coauthoring a book on Benito Mussolini. My coauthor declared earnings for 2011, I noted recently with a great deal of irritation, of 340,000 euro ($444,000).
after three years on the job, for example, they are entitled to a fat inflation-proof pension when they reach 60 (which most of them already are). Planes, trains, stamps, gym, cinema, theater, life and personal-injury insurance, hairdresser, tennis, and English lessons—you name it, they get it free.
Obviously, they also get free private health and dental care for themselves and their families.
Recommended by the Scrapbook. here are a couple of very good articles to read over the weekend
The most intelligent article I've read about How to Replace Obamacare by James Capretta and Robert Moffit in National Affairs .
The Handwriting on the Wall by George Weigel
the words on the wall at this moment in history speak of the results of a negation — a deconstruction — of the deep truths on which the civilization of the West has been built. And one of the main things that the "handwriting on the wall" in the early 21st century is telling us is that the secular project is over.
By "secular project," I mean the effort, extending over the past two centuries or more, to erect an empty shrine at the heart of political modernity.
In both its hard and soft forms, the secular project was wrong. Above all, it ignored the deep truth that it takes a certain kind of people, living certain virtues, to make democracy and the free economy work properly. People of that kind do not just happen. They must be formed in the habits of heart and mind, the virtues that enable them to guide the machinery of free politics and free economics so that the net outcome is human flourishing and the promotion of the common good. There is no such formation in the virtues of freedom available at the empty shrine.
A glimpse of what the empty shrine does produce was on offer late last summer in Great Britain, when packs of feral young people rampaged through city after city in an orgy of self-indulgence, theft, and destruction. The truth of what all that was about was most powerfully articulated by Lord Jonathan Sacks, the chief rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of the Commonwealth, writing in the Wall Street Journal:
This was the bursting of a dam of potential trouble that had been building for years. The collapse of families and communities leaves in its wake unsocialized young people…[who are the products of] a tsunami of wishful thinking that washed across the West, saying that you can have sex without the responsibility of marriage, children without the responsibility of parenthood, social order without the responsibility of citizenship, liberty without the responsibility of morality, and self-esteem without the responsibility of work and earned achievement.
That false worship of the Self — the worship of that which is not worthy of worship — has led to a severe attenuation of the moral sinews of democratic culture: the commitment to reason and truth-telling in debate; the courage to face hard facts squarely; the willingness to concede that others may have something to teach us; the ability to distinguish between prudent compromise and the abandonment of principle; the very idea of the common good, which may demand personal sacrifice.
Taking a cue from that great philosophical celebrant of irony, Richard Rorty, Colgate University's Robert Kraynak has neatly described the net result of all this as "freeloading atheism": Like Belshazzar's lords, wives, and concubines, those formed by the empty shrine and the worship of the imperial, autonomous Self have been drinking profligately out of sacred vessels, freeloading on moral truths that they do not acknowledge (and in many cases hold in contempt), but which are essential for sustaining democracy and the free economy, which the freeloaders claim to honor. But as Lord Sacks pointed out last summer, that jig is up.
What I have called the "empty shrine" at the center of political modernity was, for Leo XIII, the result of a dramatic revolution in European intellectual life in which metaphysics had been displaced from the center of reflection, thinking-about-thinking had replaced thinking-about-truth, and governance had therefore come unstuck from the first principles of justice. Science, which had replaced metaphysics as the most consequential of intellectual disciplines, could provide no answer to the moral question with which all politics, in the Western tradition, begins: How ought we to live together? Worse, when science stepped outside its disciplinary boundaries and tried its hand at social and political prescription, it let loose new demons, such as Social Darwinism, that would prove astonishingly lethal when they shaped the national tempers that made possible the great slaughters of the First World War.
Leo XIII insisted that freedom is not sheer willfulness. Rather, as Leo's successor John Paul II would later put it, freedom is the human capacity to know what is truly good, to choose it freely, and to do so as a matter of habit, or virtue. According to this line of argument, a talent for freedom grows in us; we cut short that learning process if we insist, with the culture of the imperial autonomous Self, that my freedom consists in doing what I want to do, now.
"The handwriting on the wall" at this moment in history is telling us that a political culture detached from the deep truths embedded in the human condition eventually yields traits of selfishness and irresponsibility that ill befit citizens of a democracy. "The handwriting on the wall" is telling us that a democratic politics that ignores those deep truths eventually dissolves into thinly disguised dictatorship — the dictatorship of relativism. And if that is the message, then our duty comes into clearer focus, too.
God, being a fine artist does not repeat himself, but he does rhyme.
See it in hi-res and read the text.
From sea shells to spiral galaxies, repeating patterns are the law of nature and the cosmos. There's a long article at the Journal of Cosmology by Rhawn Joseph that teases out the mathematical implications with some beautiful examples
The symmetry and patterns exhibited by elementary particles, atoms, snail shells, sea shells, whirlpools, cyclones, solar systems, and spiral galaxies, should be applied to all galaxies, collectively, and to the cosmos. What these patterns have in common is they can be predicted from formulations first proposed by Pythagoras, and secondly, all orbit an eye or hole at their center.
They work fewer hours for pay
Kay Hymowitz: Why Women Make Less Than Men
In studies from the U.S. to Sweden, pay discrimination can't explain the disparity. Women earn less because they work fewer hours.
The main reason that women spend less time at work than men—and that women are unlikely to be the richer sex—is obvious: children. Today, childless 20-something women do earn more than their male peers. But most are likely to cut back their hours after they have kids, giving men the hours, and income, advantage.
Women, in fact, make up two-thirds of America's part-time workforce
A 2007 Pew Research survey came up with similar results for American women: Among working mothers with minor children, 60% said they would prefer to work part-time, while only 21% wanted to be in the office full-time (and 19% said they'd like to give up their job altogether). How about working fathers? Only 12% would choose part-time and 70% wanted to be full-time.