NATO/US moving forces closer to Libya in case they're needed?

I cannot fathom how they've figured out that western forces need to step up pressure on Qaddafi.  One by one, Middle-Eastern nations are falling by popular public overthrow without need of force.  Even though Libya is out of control with violence, there is no need to push Qaddafi by western military threat -- in fact it could be counter-productive.

Let the people do it themselves; there is no need to move US military closer to Libya to engage a no-fly zone.  Every time Qaddafi's supporters kill their own people, they lose support and weaken their grip.  Let's not give Qaddafi and his supporters the room to expand the rhetoric to an anti-US sentiment, because you know he will.

Wisconsin Republicans lock doors of public building during business hours.

Imagine that.  Republicans performing government work without allowing the public access.  Hmm...where did we hear that one before?

How ironic - or coincidental if you're a purist - that Abraham Lincoln's birthday was celebrated just the other week:

"Democracy is the government of the people, by the people, for the people."

I'm sure the meaning of this is lost in the 21st century of winner take all politics.

People donating pizzas to the Wisconsin protesters.

Ian's Pizza in Madison, WI donated pizzas one night last week, and as soon as a blogger posted about it, people all over the world began to donate money to feed the thousands of protesters since.  Apparently, even some Republicans have taken in some of the free food (how charitable of the protesters!)  It has become so popular, they cut off accepting donations one day, after reaching $25,000 (the value of all the inventory they had in stock).  They've even gotten help in collecting donations / ordering pizzas.

"On Tuesday night/Wednesday morning we took a late-night call from folks still over at the Capital; they were wondering if they could have our end-of-night leftovers. Well, of course -- we're always glad to hand out food at 3:30am!"


"The next day we got a handful of calls from folks throughout the country, people who had heard about our late-night donation. Then a few more the next day, and next thing, fast forward to 5pm on Saturday when we were so inundated with calls - - from over half the states in the Union and from international locales ranging from Canada to Denmark -- that our normal business had to essentially be shut down so we could focus on feeding the protestors."

That is pretty amazing, and very encouraging, that as people, we stand together to help each other out.  Not that I'd ever have a reason to visit Madison, Wisconsin, but if I did, Ian's Pizza would be at the top of the agenda.

article via NYT

image via SFstation.com

GOES-15 Solar x-ray satellite images.

Live.  Cool, too. Come back to this post every day and you'll see a different image, since this is linked to their updated image.

Republicans not funding border security. Blatantly disregards hypocrisy.

Quick excerpt from NYT's Gail Collins on the latest Republican temporary funding bill from the House:

"Although the Republicans are obsessed with stopping illegal immigration, they cut billions of dollars out of border security and immigration enforcement. “Even with all the money in the world, the administration would not succeed in securing the border because they are not serious about it,” theorized Lamar Smith, the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee."

I just wanted to point out, Republicans had never, in their 6 years of complete control of the House, Senate and White House, managed to control any border North or South, as shown by the increase of illegal immigrants during that period of time.  But by coincidence of economic malaise in the US, in 2009, the number of illegal immigrants in the US dropped.

Now, it's quite clear to me, Republicans are nothing but a bunch of hypocrites.  The State of Arizona is suing the federal government for lack of border control, never mind that the number of illegal immigrants has decreased, right?  And what do Republicans in the House do in response?  Cut the border patrol budget, of course!  It's a political act towards achieving a self-fulfilling prophesy, if you ask me.

Such a sad state of politics we live in.

What feeling do you get, when you listen to the Twin Peaks Theme (Falling)?

Ignore the video clip excerpts from Twin Peaks, and just listen to the music.  When I listen to the music, I think this quote fits perfectly:

“A feeling of sadness and longing that is not akin to pain, and resembles sorrow only as the mist resembles the rain.” - Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.

I just don't know many theme songs (or any song for that matter) that delivers that odd feeling juxtaposed between sadness, longing, and emptiness and regret, like this one.  When I listen to this song, I can practically recall the same feeling I'd get whenever I came home from a trip away with friends, during grade school years. It's a palpable feeling in your heart, but it is decidedly not the outpouring of bottled up feelings of sadness from when someone close to you passes away -- that's altogether a different song (see Moby's 18 below).

Oh yeah, and it's 4:30 am +/- and it's snowing in downtown Portland; perfect for listening to Falling.

What do you do, when a deputy attorney general advocates violence?

This out of Indiana, former state prosecutor and deputy attorney general Jeffrey Cox was fired after comments he made over protesters opposed to the attempts to eliminate collective bargaining rights of state employees in Indiana.

"You're damned right I advocate deadly force."

"Use Live Ammunition."

Seems to me, he clearly exceeded the protections of the First Amendment, as his speech was unequivocal about his intentions against peaceful protesters.  What would have happened if Hosni Mubarak had publicly said that he was going to use deadly force with live ammunition to quell peaceful demonstrators?  Would our government sit by and let things fall where they may?

via CNN

A visualization of Android activations around the world.

Pretty cool.  You can see the effect the Droid launch on Verizon had, in reaching a critical mass of Android devices.  No doubt, one of the best decisions Motorola's Sanjay Jha made.

via Engadget

H&R Block @ Home Deluxe at Amazon...

Been watching it in my basket for some time now.  The low price so far, has been $24.99, while the high is $39.99.  It's the specific one I always get (four years straight), but you get charged extra if you e-file your state, so just print it out and mail it. :D

NCAA sanctions, USC, and the rest of college sports.

Just some brief thoughts:

1. "The head coach should be aware but can't be aware of everything." -- NCAA on Jim Calhoun, in handing out penalties that included suspension and recruiting limitations on a case that involved a booster and improper recruiting.


2. "[McNair] knew or should have known that [Bush] and [New Era Sports marketing agents] were engaged in violations that negatively affected [Bush’s] amateurism status." -- NCAA report on violations at USC, 2010.


3. "We do not have sufficient evidence that Cam Newton or anyone from Auburn was aware of [Cecil Newton's attempts of shopping Cam's services around]."  -- NCAA's report on its investigation and clearance of Cam Newton's eligibility to play.


4. "The time this occurred with these young men was a very tough time in our society. It's one of the toughest economic environments in our history.  The decisions that they made they made to help their families." -- Gene Smith, athletic director at Ohio State University, regarding sanctions that were deferred to next season, instead of actively being applied to five players who violated NCAA rules and lost their eligibility (until reinstated).


5. "[The deferment of penalties indicates] the acknowledgment the student-athletes did not receive adequate rules education during the time period the violations occurred." -- NCAA on report regarding the five Ohio State players whose suspensions were deferred to next season.


As you can see, USC got royally fucked.  Apparently everyone else got away with "I didn't know", except Todd McNair and USC.

Personal mini-sub / boat?

Not sure what to make of this personal sub...genius or waste of money?  I can think of a lot of bad scenarios using this bugger.  After the 3rd shark goes full force into the glass, what happens?

Moammar Gadhafi admits to being a witch...sorta.

By now, everyone's heard that Moammar Gadhafi has said on television that, contrary to rumors, he's not in Venezuela, and that he was going to address the crowd at the Green Square in Tripoli, but the rain stopped him. To which I say, proof that the dictator is a witch.

Now, I know some might suggest that he'd actually be considered a warlock, but have you looked at him? He looks so ragged, I can't even tell his gender anymore.  He's just scary looking these days.

I still haven't forgiven him over the Lockerbie incident, nor can I forget the hero's welcome that Abdelbaset al-Megrahi, the convicted plotter of the Lockerbie incident, received when he stepped out onto Tripoli Airport's tarmac, upon being released from prison in England upon grounds of compassion for cancer.

The whole region is fairly rotten, in no small part because industrialized nations needed oil and for the sake of stability, western nations were willing to support any regime, including dictators. Now that the area is destabilizing, all I see are positive reasons: a push towards democracies and incentives to wean ourselves off of oil if such democracies are not friendly towards western nations -- hedge your bets, so to speak.  We should have been off oil a decade ago, but thanks to former Halliburton CEO Dick Cheney and his secretive energy policy meeting group, we were set back decades in moving towards energy independence.  The joke is, that (the Republican argument of) increasing domestic oil production would wean us off foreign oil -- as if domestic oil was set aside for America? -- when in fact oil is publicly traded and subject to growing consumption by China.

Oh well.  At least we'll get to see Moammar Gadhafi get purged from the region.

Many Republican and Democratic officials conned.

If you want to read about government waste, look no further than during the Bush Administration, and the people who were conned up and down the ladder into spending tens of millions of dollars on bogus intelligence software from Dennis Montgomery:

Jim Gibbons (NV Rep - R, NV Governor);
Dick Cheney (R);
Donald Kerr;
George Tenet (D);
Jack Kemp (NY Rep - R);
Conrad Burns (MT Sen - R);
Joseph Liberatore.

But according to the NYT, this was not an isolated incident: " A Pentagon study in January found that it had paid $285 billion in three years to more than 120 contractors accused of fraud or wrongdoing."

So there's your problem Tea Party folks -- you're looking in the wrong place for waste.  It's not in the EPA or the  Department of Energy, but in defense / security / intelligence spending at the CIA and the military.

Wall Street, 1987.

The movie that is. Was watching it last night. Though it has been 24 years, the movie seems to presage this week's headlines of a Republican governor (Wisconsin) attempting to kill unions, and companies (Nokia this week and Yahoo two weeks ago) growing profits by cutting workers.

Somehow, for some reason, Americans have bought into greed as the ultimate virtue, and that cutting workers is a virtuous, if not moral obligation of corporations and governments. God's people have turned on God, and compassion is the new vice in America.

"Then they crucified him and divided his garments by casting lots for them to see what each should take." - Mark 15:24.

Public WiFi dangerous?

Sigh. This day came way too soon, IMO.

NYT has published a story on firesheep, an extremely user-friendly piece of software that allows anyone to easily collect wireless data on an open WiFi channel, in order to pretend to be any person that the software can follow and collect data from. In order to have a secure connection via WiFi, you need to use either a virtual private network (VPN) use only sites that have complete HTTPS, or HTTPS Everywhere in conjunction with Firefox.

Now, I'm sure most people probably already suspected that a free (or any) WiFi without passwords or one with the same password for every person, means that the communication between your computer and the internet is not very safe, but Firesheep makes it easy for any novice to gain access to other people's identities online.

That free WiFi at the coffee shop is no longer free.

:P

I think I may have accidentally killed Tinker Bell. :O

There was, what I thought to be a small moth flying around, and so I grabbed it and mushed it, and washed it off my hand.  Or so I thought.  When I came back to the kitchen sink, I looked in horror, as I realized I may have killed Tinker Bell!

My goodness, what have I done?

Motorola Xoom tablet w/ WiFi only = $600

Sanjay Jha - Motorola's CEO - delivered the news at MWC that the Xoom tablet running Android Honeycomb, would be priced at $799 w/ 3G on Verizon, while the WiFi-only unit would be available at $600.

Not bad for a tablet with front/rear (w/LED flash) cameras, a dual core processor, 10.1" screen and 32GB of RAM.  Not a bargain either, but I bet prices start to drop across the board as more tablets come on line.

On WP7, Nokia, Palm, iOS, RIM and Android.

In 2008 I said Android was going to be huge, though that was probably more wishful thinking than anything else.  I did put my money where my mouth was however, and bought the first generation G1 Android phone.  Still running, by the way, though on a second battery.

In early 2009 when Palm intro'd WebOS and the Pre at the 2009 CES, I said even before sales began, that it was a mistake for Palm with so little cash, to embrace development of its own OS and hardware.  At the same time, I said it was a brilliant move by Motorola to embrace Android, for exactly the same reasons why I thought Palm was making a mistake.

And by the way, I've never been a fan of RIM.  Anyone who followed tech knew that email was going mobile, so what place does RIM have, in a mobile email world?  RIM service is an early 21st century idea whose time has come and gone, much like how the Danger Sidekick's advantage (texting) has been turned obsolete with the range of smartphones.  Its tablet does seem interesting, though.

Then last November, WP7 came out, and the day I saw the screen, I knew it was a failure, and here's why: it's just another niche product, and one that will be at least partially displaced by the Facebook Android phone.  Heck, people with Androids running Moto Blur are already enjoying the functionality (and then some) of WP7's social networking push notification GUI. 

This is how I describe desperation: a willingness to buy into (Nokia's) market share, without having to prove one's virtues.  Out in countries all around the world, WP7 has lost Microsoft mobile OS market share since its introduction.  Either consumers are unaware of WP7 or they're simply disinterested, but either way, the outlook is not very bright for WP7.  It's almost a rerun of Palm's WebOS Pre...lots of ads, but disappointing growth.

And well, Microsoft's tablet strategy is nothing more than to have manufacturers install Windows7 Starter onto tablets.  It'll be another year or two, before Microsoft has a tablet OS strategy in place for OEMs, and by that time, it'll be too late -- trust me.

Why is Nokia doomed?  Because it abandoned its own open source engineers for a closed system.  Nokia's shortcoming is due to a lack of ability to focus on one OS.  Think about it: Nokia's got Symbian, Maemo and MeeGo, the last two of which are partially based on Linux.  So to focus its energy on one OS, it's decided to abandon all three, and go with WP7.  Mistake.  MeeGo's got Myriad's Alien Dalvik - a JavaVM emulator, that would allow MeeGo products to run Android apps.  Nokia's Elop is so antagonistic against Google (Microsoft's lead competitor) that it appears there is intransigence against anything Android-related.  Elop even said so the other day, when he commented that Nokia's goal is to beat Android (never mind that there's also RIM and iOS).

And when I say that Nokia is doomed, what I really mean is that Elop will be gone in less than two years, though it might occur as early as calendar Q1-2012, and that Nokia might end up selling itself to a Chinese competitor or to Google.  Lord knows, Google has longed for the ability to make its own mobile phones, if only to push other manufacturers to incorporate new technologies at a much faster pace.  But if tossed out early enough, Nokia might be able to salvage MeeGo.

I'm calling it: Ballmer is out as CEO at Microsoft, by 2013, when investors realize that Ballmer and company completely missed out on the tablets and smart phone markets.

Higher resolution screen, or faster frame rates?

This quick diagram and post from Anandtech via Engadget caught my eye. IPhone4 has a higher resolution screen, but an extremely low video frame rate. Personally, I know that when I use my netbook to watch videos, I have the jaggies to look forward to. And my 720p plasma at 600hz looks far better than my friend's 1080p at 60hz, of course there's a lot more to why plasma looks better than LCD, than refresh rates.

Point is, I don't like the jaggies, so I'd go with the higher frame rates than higher resolution, especially if I'm wanting to watch video.

Multnomah County Library allows for free, legal download of Sony music?!?

Normally I don't pay that much attention to the front page of the library's website, but this morning I noticed this thing called "Freegalmusic", saying that you can download free music.  Most of the time when someone is offering you free music, it's because the music isn't so good, or they're trying to promote an artist's album.  In this case, it's different.

Apparently the county library has signed some sort of agreement to purchase download rights (fixed number of songs) for their entire user base to download music.  In the fine print, it basically says that you can download music - capped at 3 per week - every week, as long as the county's user base hasn't used them up, or of course, the county purchased more.

From some browsing, there appears to be a huge portion (if not all) of Sony Music's entire catalog from classical to R&B.  I'm able to find Usher, Aretha Franklin, Alicia Keys, John Lee Hooker, Christina Aguilera, Michael Tilson Thomas, Harry Belafonte, UNKLE...etc.  Yes, even Michael Jackson's entire catalog and the posthumous album, Michael.

Just 3 songs a week isn't much, but then again that's a heck of a lot better than nothing.  I wonder how much the county library is actually paying per song?  Git yer MP3s while you can, folks.

Correction: Turns out, Multnomah County Library is not restricted to download quotas, so an unlimited number of library users can download 3 songs / week, instead of first-come first served. So the bottom line is, spread the word: Free music via Multnomah County Library!

Caffeine - a comparison between coffee, espresso and Red Bull.

IDK, I really like coffee myself.  I probably consume close to 1000mg of caffeine a day with the amount of coffee I drink.  Seems cost-effective, too, if you're looking to get your caffeine on:

385~410 mg -- 16.0 oz. Starbucks "Red Eye" = 15 oz drip + 1 shot espresso
330 mg -- 16.0 oz. Grande Starbucks drip
260 mg -- 12.0 oz. Tall Starbucks drip
180 mg  -- 8.0 oz. Short Starbucks drip
80 mg -- 8.46 oz. Red Bull
75 mg -- 1 oz. 1 shot of Starbucks espresso

Of course, with Starbucks (or any coffee) the beans vary dramatically in caffeine content, so it could be a lot higher than stated.  But more or less, you get the picture.  Just get a Grande Red Eye when you're very tired...it's like taking two maximum strength No-Doz pills.

Source for Starbucks and Red Bull caffeine content.

Google Androidify!!!

Via Engadget, Google brings forth Androidify!  Of course, things may have gotten out of hand, as access to Android Market on the WWW is difficult right now.  But wow, is that awesome or what?

Twin Peaks Season One on Netflix.

It's been sitting at the very top of my queue for more than a year now, and disc one has been tagged as a "long wait" -- in this case a VERY LONG WAIT.

So it turns out, I finally got the discs this week, and they're brand new discs, part of the Gold Box Edition, barely touched.  Very nice, and worth the wait, compared to having to deal with scratched up discs.

Now if only they'd buy some of the other content that is currently unavailable: Rawhide Season Two and practically every other anime or Japan TV series like Kikaider, Space Battleship Yamato, and most of the Gundam series shows.

Egypt - The next chapter.

Well, it didn't take 24 hours, and Mubarak is gone -- handing all power to the military's Supreme Council.  Jubilation in Cairo and other parts of Egypt.  And now the really hard work starts, to bring a functional democracy to Egypt.

Egypt.

I suspect change is going to happen a lot sooner than Hosni Mubarak wishes for.  English Al Jazeera has live streaming coverage - has had it for the past few weeks now - and it's obvious the crowd of protesters has grown quite a bit today, since last night's address by President Mubarak.  You can see for yourself, the protesters undoubtedly number in the millions all across Egypt.

I think most people are just watching at this point, for the moment that a popular, bloodless coup d'etat has been completed, live on TV.

NYT's Tom Friedman is in Egypt to witness history, and has written about how diverse the crowd of protesters is.

Is incest unethical or immoral, or both?

Was reading about how medical ethicists are considering what to do when DNA tests show that an individual is the result of incest.  Apparently Baylor has been using new DNA testing diagnostically for the past six months, and have so far come across "under 10" cases of DNA evidence pointing to incest.

That's pretty shocking in itself, but what stood out for me, is that while having sex between first-relatives is illegal, in Texas it is a misdemeanor and is often ignored if both people are adults. This is to say that incest is okay in Texas, if it involves two consenting adults.

And therefore, the question is, should sex between first-relatives be unethical, or is it merely immoral?

Darrell Issa believes job creation is slow because of.....regulation?

Yes, another Republican is speaking out, suggesting that rather than basic demand and supply issues, of course, it must be regulation that is preventing companies from creating new jobs.

And so I have to ask the rhetorical question: What NEW regulations since the mid-2000s have been passed to make job creation in 2011 so much more difficult?

I specify NEW regulations, because for Republicans to argue that regulations have constricted job growth, is to say that the job growth under Republican leadership from Congress to the White House in the mid-2000s, was NOT restricted by regulations.  Or else Darrell Issa is just as guilty when he was in charge from 2002 through 2006, don't ya think?

What if they got rid of Fannie/Freddie?

Here's one thought: Concurrent housing price deflation and CPI increase -- a result of workers demanding higher wages to qualify for fully conforming mortgages, and that cost added to products -- until equilibrium is reached.

By the way, you can search at Fannie / Freddie to see if your mortgage is held by them.

Republicans simply want you to die already.

Well, that's an exaggeration, but it might as well end up that way.  Their area of focus of their budget cuts: NIH (CDC and the NCI), EPA, FDA, USDA, the IRS and health services for the poor and children of the poor.  You can see a summary here and here.  Some other cuts include NASA and the elimination of the Departments of Energy and Education, proposed by Rand Paul. Wow -- are we sliding back to 19th century government?

In essence, Republicans propose cutting funding of cancer research, cutting food safety programs, cutting pollution protections, cutting drug safety and product safety programs, and of course, cutting funding of coordination and management of viral epidemics.

Or in the words of Commodus to Maximus:

"What am I going to do with you? You simply won't...die."

Which is better: Living Social vs. Groupon, Feb. 9, 2011.

Living Social (Portland): $75 for $225 worth of boudoir photography session.

GroupOn (Portland):

• $20 for $40 worth of flowers from FTD;
• $15 for a $30 ticket to the Portland Columbia Symphony Orchestra feat. Grainger, Bruch and Mendelssohn;
• $49 for up to $250 worth of chiropractic exam, x-rays if necessary, and treatment;
• $20 for $50 organic bronzing session (aka the John Boehner look);
• $445 for a $905 rafting and camping on the Rogue River for 4 days / 3 nights.

Winner: GroupOn.

The new Conservative attack: birth of a moniker, "Fascialism"

I'm behind the times. Libertarians have seized upon this made up word that merges Fascism with Socialism, to attack health care reform.

It is difficult to understand how Fascism and Socialism can co-exist under the same body.  Fascialism presupposes the co-existence and competition of Government-owned systems and Government-controlled systems within the same market.  If that were true, the Government-controlled systems would have failed a long time ago, as it could not compete on price and value with the Government-owned systems.  That is often the contention of those who argue against Socialism in health care, after all.

But let's take a look at what socialized health care entails:

Whereas the poor and disabled receive medical help via Medicaid programs, they would otherwise not participate in private health care, simply because they do not have the money to afford it.  Government-owned system does not compete with private health care.

Whereas the elderly who have reached retirement age now qualify for Medicare, their cost to the private system and the cost to the individual is so great, that one cannot purchase individual coverage on the open market, and is simply passed off to Medicare.  Look at your employer-sponsored health care terms and cost, and then look at what an individual at age 40  and age 64 pay.  Do you know many people nearing retirement age that could afford $800+ a month, just for health care?  Government-owned system does not compete with private health care.

Of course, there is always Ron Paul and his theories.  If Ron Paul is to be believed, Corporatists are to blame for the woes of the health care system, not Socialists.  Of course, there is disingenuity in his assertion, aside from his twist of Corporatism.  Were it not for such (true) corporatist requirements that all hospitals treat people regardless of ability to pay, would we prefer to have millions of dead people on our hands?

I am increasingly disillusioned by the lack of honesty in such political (and economic) debates.

Toyotas cleared?

NYT reports that the Transportation Department has concluded its safety investigation into runaway Toyotas:

"The Transportation Department, which was assisted by engineers with NASA, said its 10-month study of Toyota vehicles concluded there was no electronic cause of unintended high-speed acceleration in Toyotas."

Not just a simple investigation either:

"NASA reviewed 280,000 lines of software code to look for flaws that could cause the acceleration. Investigators tested mechanical components in Toyotas that could lead to the problem and bombarded vehicles with electro-magnetic radiation to see whether it could make the electronics cause the cars to speed up."

But didn't everyone already suspect this? The sudden jump in claims after the media fed the fire with sensational stories of runaway Toyotas was suspect. The ABC News investigation was revealed as exaggerated and partially faked. The whole 95 MPH Prius being chased down by CHP was likely a complete hoax.

So what happens with all the fines that Toyota paid, if the only real flaw other than sticky pedals, was what people did with their own vehicles?  (How sticky were those pedals, that people didn't notice it a long time before it triggered any accident?)  Does the Transportation Department return some or all of it back, or does Ray LaHood get to pretend that it doesn't matter?

Health Care Reform: The shortened, abridged, cut, fitted into two paragraphs version of the past 40 years.

Taken from a really great commentary in Washington Post:

"The Democrats have a deep and longtime commitment to health-care reform, one they've proven by moving continually right on the issue in a fruitless search for bipartisan support. They've given up on single-payer, on an employer mandate, on a public option. And they adopted the same structure that Mitt Romney signed in Massachusetts and that Republicans called for in 1994.


Republicans, meanwhile, have proven deeply and continually committed to opposing health-care reform bills pushed by Democrats. They abandoned Richard Nixon's idea when Bill Clinton adopted it and Romney's idea when President Obama endorsed it. In the most recent election, they ran on "repeal and replace," but when they got to Congress, they voted on a bill that included the "repeal" but was silent on the "replace." Even now, they've done nothing more than vaguely direct some committees to come up with some unspecified ideas at some unnamed date in the future."

Darn accurate and funny, but also sad.

G-Slate (LG) / T-Mobile

Was looking over the specs for the upcoming G-Slate on T-Mobile, and it's kinda nice:

• 4G and Wi-Fi capable
• Brilliant 8.9" HD screen
• Dual rear-facing 5MP cameras for 3D video capture, HD video capture, and photo capture
• Front facing camera for video chat
• 32GB internal memory
• Adobe^® Flash^® Player 10.1 support
• NVIDIA^® Tegra^™ 2 Dual-Core Mobile Processor 1GHz

Has most of what I'd want, except I don't really want a tablet running wireless networks...I just want it to run WiFi.  After all, it'll just supplement (not supplant) my smart phone and my desktop computer.

Just a friendly reminder on Super Bowl Sunday...

The top two defensive players in the league - as voted in the defensive player of the year - are playing against each other, and they're...

are you ready for it?...

both USC Trojans!

Oregon Duck fans, remember...

In 2004, Patrick Chung was a 2-star rated athlete and Max Unger was a 3-star athlete; in 2005 Jarius Byrd was a 2-star athlete and Ed Dickson was a 3-star athlete.  All are starters in the NFL (Unger was on injured reserve in 2010, but had started every game since he was drafted, up to his injury).

Having top-rated athletes does not always result in great players -- USC fans can attest to this.

In 2004, USC had seven 5-star athletes: Jeff Byers; Fred Davis; Thomas Herring; Taitusi Lutui; Keith Rivers; Jeff Schweiger Jr.; Scott Ware.  Of those, two are starting (Lutui and Rivers), one is second string (Davis), and one is on a practice squad (Byers).

What makes a good paint?

Was considering buying a Groupon for paints, and was running through the scope of paints that the company reps -- Benjamin Moore.  Now, anyone that's ever bought BM paints, knows they're expensive, but there's a very good reason why: percentage of titanium dioxide.  Really good hiding paints have a higher percentage of titanium dioxide, in the case of interior, light tints.  Behr may seem good, but they're cheap paints, even the so-called primer-plus.  Some paints are so bad, I can't even mention their names on here.

So how do you find out what's inside the paint?  Get the Materials Safety Data Sheet (MSDS), and on it, you will see the list of ingredients, as required by law.  Most of the time, you'll see it 10~20% titanium dioxide by volume; nearly all of Benjamin Moore paints have at least 20%, but most have 25% titanium dioxide.  Again, there is a manufacturer whose interior paint has 5%, and that's bad.

Low VOC - being the most expensive but the lowest odor - is the most expensive, and if you live in California, you have no choice.  But in most other places, you'll be able to get higher VOC content paint for half the price of BM's no-VOC or low-VOC paints.  To me, the only time high VOCs are a problem, are when oil-based paints are being used.  Acrylic-based paints aren't that much of a problem, but oh boy can you smell oil-based paints from hundreds of feet away!  There was this renovation job several years ago in my neighborhood, and for several weeks, every time I walked past the open windows from across the street, I could smell the paint.  I chalked that one up to a probable case of an architectural office full of inexperienced interns and licensed architects not paying attention.

Tuesday in Downtown Portland - Photo

Blue skies in Winter, glass tower, bricks, and former beer building (Henry Weinhard) seemed like just the right shot to describe Portland in the Winter.

If you are sick, such that you require oxygen...

STOP SMOKING!

Yesterday in Yakima, a woman started a fire when she tried to smoke too close to her oxygen tank; two days ago a man's oxygen tank exploded when he did the same thing in Fort Lauderdale; one month ago, a woman in Las Vegas "forgot" she was on oxygen and tried to light up before going to sleep, but her oxygen tank sparked a fire instead.

I could go on.

But really, if you're so sick that you require oxygen to breath normally, why oh why would you continue to smoke?  And hey, doesn't anyone read warning labels anymore?  Apparently they need to change the label to make things clearer.

Oxygen Warning Label 2.0

So De'Anthony Thomas chose Oregon?

Sounds like he didn't want to leave his friends who were all going to USC, but that he liked it up in Eugene.  Let me say, it is very nice up there, especially if all you've grown up around, is a concrete world with gangs and smog.  It's a nice college town with an awesome atmosphere during Fall.

There is one glaring drawback: no direct flights in/out of Eugene to Los Angeles.  And that drive between Portland and Eugene...I don't know why people do it, but I'm way too lazy to drive 4 hours round trip -- it's even worse on Saturdays after the game.  Takes nearly 3 hours to get back from Eugene.

But if he's planning on playing RB, he's now stuck behind some really great players in front of him: Lache Seastrunk (redshirt), Kenjon Barner, and of course LaMichael James.  I'm guessing Thomas will redshirt 2011, then possibly form a 1-2 combo with Seastrunk.  But that means he's already one year behind his close friends at USC, where he would have played immediately on defense.

Sure, questions remain if he would have been on the field at the same time, opposite 5'-8" Nickell Robey, but without a doubt he would have seen playing action at USC this year, and he's really talented as a corner.

Nonetheless, without Thomas, USC still got a huge surge today with previously uncommitted guys: Junior Pome'e, Ryan Henderson, Christian Heyward, Lamar Dawson, Javorious Allen, Aundrey Walker and Marqise Lee.  I don't recall ever seeing so many guys pick USC on LOI day.  (And what in the world happened with Torian White -- one moment he was decommitting from UCLA and announcing on TV he was signing with USC, the next moment he sends in his LOI to UCLA?)

Google Fractals and Android Market on the internet.

Android Market has now moved to the internet, which means that all those tablets without 3G/4G built in, now have access to the Android Market.  Suddenly, those inexpensive WiFi-only tablets that are starting to make their way into online and brick and mortar stores, are now useful.

Also, on Monday Google intro'd a Google Labs experiment: online fractals.  Well, online fractals isn't exactly cutting edge, except that in this case, it's all encoded in HTML5.

Smart phone penetration by race...

According to Nielsen via Apple Insider, Asians and Hispanics have really taken to smart phones in the US. White people and African Americans, not so much.  Fascinating demographics.

Bing copying Google results.

Stephen Shankland's got a great rundown of a sting that Google performed, that ended up showing that Microsoft's Bing was copying the results from Google's auto-correct search.

Ouch!

Microsoft is trying desperately to equivocate on answering the charges: "[Google's experiment] seems like a hack to confuse and manipulate [tools that Bing uses to rank sites]."

I hate that stupid falsetto "bing" voice-over in their ads, anyway.

Google Art Project.

Come now, you didn't expect Google to sit on its laurels like other companies, did you? They've just intro'd Google Art Project, allowing people to browse participating museums, and their art work up close. The navigation should be fairly familiar, too (think Google Maps Street View). Unfortunately, not all artwork is available for close up viewing, but still, this is very cool!

Walk around as you do in Street View.

Some artwork can be selected for closer viewing.

And you can zoom into details.

Can't resist posting a Van Gogh detail.

Killing dogs because a business didn't need them anymore?

Very disturbing story via Huffington Post and CBC, on the slaughter of 100 sled dogs.  A company called Outdoor Adventures Whistler, felt that they had an excess amount of dogs exceeding their business activity.  The owners left it to an employee to figure out what to do with the 100 dogs, and apparently few - if any - were adopted out.

The disturbing part however, is that the employee chose to shoot the dogs in the head, then slit their throats and buried them in a mass grave.  At least some of the dogs required multiple gun shots, one tried to climb out of the grave while dying, another ran around trying to escape while its eye was dangling.

Amazingly, the company had no euthanasia policy, nor did it have a neutering program, until after the bad press.  Sixty years ago, Old Yeller being shot in the head seemed compassionate for a family on the farm with a rabid dog, but WTF is wrong with people in this millennium, who think it's okay to shoot nearly 100 dogs in the head, in the middle of Whistler?

Now, it's not entirely Outdoor Adventures Whistler's fault;  Robert Fawcett bought out Howling Dog Tours Ltd., from Howling Dog Tours Whistler, Inc., in 2004.  He in turn, sold the company to Outdoor Adventures Whistler, but he's the one who carried out the killings, as an employee of Outdoor Adventures.  And it was Robert Fawcett who had filed for Canada's version of worker's comp for PTSD - if you can believe it - for carrying out the killings of those dogs.  If you're claiming PTSD and it's because of actions you had total control over, why would you lift a finger to pull the trigger to begin with?

Worse, according to this blog - which I suggest you read - Robert Fawcett, "was listed as a vice-president of the Kenai, Alaska-based organization Providing Responsible Information on a Dog’s Environment."

Ironically, PRIDE's website states one if its intents: "Help to educate the general public as well as new mushers, veterinarians, and other people with dog care interests on the proper care of sled dogs and responsible kennel husbandry."

It makes one wonder, is this an isolated problem, or an industry problem?

Generational gap in Republicans.

Turns out, Barbara Bush - the other twin daughter of George Bush - supports gay marriage, just as Meghan McCain, the daughter of John McCain.  Seems like there's a generational gap on some moral issues.

Why, it was just 25 years ago, Edwin Meese had the US Justice Department on an anti-pornography war.  Getting arrested on pornography charges was the equivalent to earning one's wings in many circles.

Times have changed.  The FCC still thinks boobs are bad, though.  Butts are fine, just not boobs.