Well tomorrow morning i have to be at ColonialWebb office as i have been transferred out of the Qimonda Fab. I do not know what i will be exactly doing tomorrow or at the new job location, but i am excited about the prospects of what i might be doing. I will tell all more about that as it unfolds...
What is your opinion?
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Sunday, September 30, 2007
Today at Pocahontis Park
Mark and i went for a bike ride today and we go to the park at 9am We started off with the Red trail and then we rode the entire Blue trail. At that point, we had ridden just under 8 miles. We then decided to go ahead and ride the Green trail. It was about 4 miles. We decided to see how fast we could do it in and we rode hard and fast! We did the entire Green trail in about 25 minutes! The whole ride was from start to finish 11.01 miles and we averaged about 7.6 miles per hour. We had a very good ride and it was fun!! I did not go and work out today as that was all that i needed, perhaps i will go tomorrow evening...
What is your opinion?
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What is your opinion?
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Saturday, September 29, 2007
Friday, September 28, 2007
Thursday, September 27, 2007
What is up?
Not much here. I just took care of the yard. We have a small chance of rain today and i will be at work all weekend long so i will not get a chance to do it then. We can use the rain here, it is very dry and we have not received any substantial rain in over a month. The lake is getting very low again. I am sore from working out this week. I got in over 15 miles this weekend on the bike and i was able to work out yesterday at the gym. I might go tonight as i will not make it back until Monday. Well, i need to finish stuff around the house.
Laters for now...
P.S. If you like good Progressive Trance, check out this track by Paul Van Dyk Feat. Wayne Jacks - The Other Side [Original Mix] I do not know how this one got past me as it TOTALY ROCKS OUT!! The male vocals are very good and a nice change from all fo the female vocals that most prog trance has in them. It kind of remindes me of Gordon Lightfoot - The Wreck Of The Edmund Fitzgerald with the guitar and chord progressions; perhaps a distant shadow of that monumental track from the 1970s...
Here are the lyrics:
When this broken through
I will comfort you
When I wake my tongue is tied
Daylight brings the great divide
Weeping like the rain
Whispering your name
Long to be reunified
Believe the sun will rise
When I reach the light
I will see you on the other side
I'm sure the sun will shine
When I reach the light
I will see you on the other side
See you on the other side
When I close my eyes See you on the other side
When I close my eyes See you on the other side
When I close my eyes See you on the other side
When I close my eyes Speeding City lights
Leave me weak tonight
Oh I miss your warmth inside
Stars came out to shine
Across the waterline
I can feel you on the other side
See you on the other side
When I close my eyes and I reach the light
See you on the other side
When I close my eyes
See you on the other side
When I close my eyes and I reach the light
See you on the other side
When I closed my eyes
What is your opinion?
Blogroll Me!
Laters for now...
P.S. If you like good Progressive Trance, check out this track by Paul Van Dyk Feat. Wayne Jacks - The Other Side [Original Mix] I do not know how this one got past me as it TOTALY ROCKS OUT!! The male vocals are very good and a nice change from all fo the female vocals that most prog trance has in them. It kind of remindes me of Gordon Lightfoot - The Wreck Of The Edmund Fitzgerald with the guitar and chord progressions; perhaps a distant shadow of that monumental track from the 1970s...
Here are the lyrics:
When this broken through
I will comfort you
When I wake my tongue is tied
Daylight brings the great divide
Weeping like the rain
Whispering your name
Long to be reunified
Believe the sun will rise
When I reach the light
I will see you on the other side
I'm sure the sun will shine
When I reach the light
I will see you on the other side
See you on the other side
When I close my eyes See you on the other side
When I close my eyes See you on the other side
When I close my eyes See you on the other side
When I close my eyes Speeding City lights
Leave me weak tonight
Oh I miss your warmth inside
Stars came out to shine
Across the waterline
I can feel you on the other side
See you on the other side
When I close my eyes and I reach the light
See you on the other side
When I close my eyes
See you on the other side
When I close my eyes and I reach the light
See you on the other side
When I closed my eyes
What is your opinion?
Blogroll Me!
Tuesday, September 25, 2007
Monday, September 24, 2007
Sun Behind a Cloud...
This was also taken on September 16, 2007 in the same field as the two previous pictures in the last post. I thought that it was neat how the sun was behind the clouds but it was so bright that it nearly washed out the clouds.
What is your opinion?
Blogroll Me!
Virga...
vir·ga (vûr'ge)
n. Wisps of precipitation streaming from a cloud but evaporating before reaching the ground.
[Latin, twig, virga.]
I took this on September 16, 2007 in a vacant field in Sandston Viriginia. The field is located off of Technology Blvd.
[Latin, twig, virga.]
I took this on September 16, 2007 in a vacant field in Sandston Viriginia. The field is located off of Technology Blvd.
I was going to work on that night and I have taken other pics from that field. I saw this cloud and thought that it would make a nice shot. I hope that everyone likes it...
What is your opinion?
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Vista Downgrades...
The XP alternative for Vista PCs
Microsoft is quietly telling PC makers they can offer a Windows XP "downgrade" to customers buying systems preloaded with Vista.
By Ina Fried
The program applies only to Windows Vista Business and Ultimate versions, and it is up to PC makers to decide how, if at all, they want to make XP available. Fujitsu has been among the most aggressive, starting last month to include an XP disc in the box with its laptops and tablets.
"That's going to help out small- and medium-size businesses," Fujitsu marketing manager Brandon Farris told CNET News.com.
Hewlett-Packard also started a program in August for many of its business models. "For business desktops, workstations and select business notebooks and tablet PCs, customers can configure their systems to include the XP Pro restore disc for little or no charge," HP spokeswoman Tiffany Smith said in an e-mail. She said it was too soon to gauge how high customer interest has been. "Since we've only been offering (it) for about a month, we don't really have anything to share on demand."
A Microsoft representative confirmed there were changes made over the summer to make it easier for customers to downgrade to XP. Under Microsoft's licensing terms for Vista, buyers of Vista Business and Vista Ultimate Edition have always had the right to downgrade to XP, but in practice this could be challenging. In June, Microsoft changed its practices to allow computer makers that sell pre-activated Vista machines to order Windows XP discs that could be included inside the box with PCs, or shipped to customers without requiring additional activation. Microsoft noted in a statement that neither it nor the PC makers are "obligated to supply earlier versions to end users under the end user licensing terms."
While there is always resistance by some to move to a new operating system, there appears to be particularly strong demand, especially from businesses, to stick with XP.
One of the challenges, for both businesses and consumers are Vista's hefty graphics and memory needs.
Lenovo, for its part, has details for its downgrade program on its IBM ThinkPad Web site.
Dell spokeswoman Anne Camden said Dell has been offering businesses that have a Premier Page set up the option to order systems with XP, Vista or Vista with XP downgrade rights. There is no extra charge for the downgrade rights. "We've been offering it and we're still offering it," she said.
HP, Gateway and others also still sell machines with XP on them, nearly a year after Microsoft first started offering Vista to businesses. Vista went on sale broadly to consumers in January, at which point XP largely disappeared from retail shelves.
However, demand for XP has remained. In April, Dell brought XP back as an option even on consumer PCs.
There is an issue, though, over how long PC makers can keep selling machines with Windows XP as the preloaded operating system. Microsoft is requiring large PC makers to stop selling XP-based systems as of January 31, though some PC makers would like to sell XP machines for longer.
What is your opinion?
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Shiny Floors...
I understand the necessity of keeping the floors clean and shiny, but putting out warning signs to tell everyone that they are slippery? Why do they have to be so slippery? I understand the ascetics of the clean, fresh appearance for the "Clean Room" effect. In our plant, we have over 2000+ people that work here and lots of them go up the stairs to the Fab area. We have three flights of stairs with about 20 steps in them. They have placed signs out saying to hold onto the rails as they might be slippery. That is CRAZY!! Making the stairs that slippery is just a lawsuit in the making. With as many people that go up and down them, one would think that they would want to keep them clean with enough friction so that people can walk them without the chance of falling.
Now, back to your regularly scheduled program…
--
RMSTringer
+++++++++++++++
Buttermilk Trail System...
Mark and I got in a 7.8 mile ride on the trail system yesterday evening. It was a good ride and i liked the trails better then i had before. I will hope to be able to ride them again soon as they are very challenging and the hardest trails that i have ever ridden on. They are 4 sections and some are harder than others. The first time i rode them i hated them, but my skills have improved more and i was able to ride them better.
What is your opinion?
Blogroll Me!
What is your opinion?
Blogroll Me!
Sunday, September 23, 2007
The cosmic perspective
You know what is very cool? Mr. Tyson replied to my email that I sent to him on Thursday night. With respect to Mr. Tyson, I left his email out. Here is the email that he responded to about. It, to me, speaks volumes about his character. In the grand scheme of things, I am no one, just a person that aspires to be a blogger and to get my name out. My. Tyson is a world renound PhD in Astrophysics that goes on the lecture circuit and helps humankind. For him to respond to me is just amazing in my book and it is the highest praise that I could receive. He could have been like take down the story that you published of mine, but instead, he thanked me for it. I emailed him to be courteous to let him know that I used his story with the thought that I would not get a response from him. I did and that speaks volumes to me…
From: neiltyson]
Sent: Friday, September 21, 2007 6:53 AM
To: Robert Stringer
Subject: Re: The cosmic perspective
Thank you, Mr. Stringer, for your kind and supportive words below. Best to you, on Earth and in the universe.
NDTyson
Sent from:
Neil deGrasse Tyson's iPhone
On Sep 21, 2007, at 2:32 AM, Robert Stringer <rmstringer@gmail.com> wrote:
I just wanted to say i loved your article and i printed it on my blog with full credit to you. I am going to purchase your new book soon and read it.
My blog is http://renigade.blogspot.com. I saw you on discovery and i find your thoughts very interesting. I also saw you on i guess it was C-Span talking about your book.
Have a good day sir,
--
RMSTringer
+++++++++++++++
Saturday, September 22, 2007
Pocahontas this morning...
We got in a 6.3 mile ride this morning on the Blue trial. We are suppose to go tomorrow and do Buttermilk and Forest Hills. That will be about a 12 mile ride. Not a bad weekend so far…
RMStringer
^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Let teachers and priests and philosophers brood
over questions of reality and illusion.
I know this: if life is an illusion, then I
am no less an illusion, and being thus, the
illusion is real to me. I live, I burn with life, I
love, I slay, and I am content.
(Robert E. Howard, Queen of the Black Coast, Weird Tales, May 1934)
Friday, September 21, 2007
The Pier
I found this on the web. It is amazing! I thought that some of you might aperciate it.
What is your opinion?
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The Cosmic Perspective - By Neil deGrasse Tyson
I recently saw a show on Discovery with Tyson. He interested me and I want to get the book he has written this year called "Death by Black Hole: And Other Cosmic Quandaries (W.W. Norton, 2007)" He interests me and I wanted to post this article written in the Natural History magazine, April 2007 by Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson. This is long read but very well worth it.
Of all the sciences cultivated by mankind, Astronomy is acknowledged to be, and undoubtedly is, the most sublime, the most interesting, and the most useful. For, by knowledge derived from this science, not only the bulk of the Earth is discovered . . . ; but our very faculties are enlarged with the grandeur of the ideas it conveys, our minds exalted above [ their ] low contracted prejudices. —James Ferguson, Astronomy Explained Upon Sir Isaac Newton's Principles, And Made Easy To Those Who Have Not Studied Mathematics (1757)
Long before anyone knew that the universe had a beginning, before we knew that the nearest large galaxy lies two and a half million light-years from Earth, before we knew how stars work or whether atoms exist, James Ferguson's enthusiastic introduction to his favorite science rang true. Yet his words, apart from their eighteenth-century flourish, could have been written yesterday.
But who gets to think that way? Who gets to celebrate this cosmic view of life? Not the migrant farmworker . Not the sweatshop worker. Certainly not the homeless person rummaging through the trash for food. You need the luxury of time not spent on mere survival. You need to live in a nation whose government values the search to understand humanity's place in the universe. You need a society in which intellectual pursuit can take you to the frontiers of discovery, and in which news of your discoveries can be routinely disseminated. By those measures, most citizens of industrialized nations do quite well.
Yet the cosmic view comes with a hidden cost. When I travel thousands of miles to spend a few moments in the fast-moving shadow of the Moon during a total solar eclipse, sometimes I lose sight of Earth.
When I pause and reflect on our expanding universe, with its galaxies hurtling away from one another, embedded within the ever-stretching, four-dimensional fabric of space and time, sometimes I forget that uncounted people walk this Earth without food or shelter, and that children are disproportionately represented among them.
When I pore over the data that establish the mysterious presence of dark matter and dark energy throughout the universe, sometimes I forget that every day—every twenty-four-hour rotation of Earth—people kill and get killed in the name of someone else's conception of God, and that some people who do not kill in the name of God kill in the name of their nation's needs or wants.
When I track the orbits of asteroids, comets, and planets, each one a pirouetting dancer in a cosmic ballet choreographed by the forces of gravity, sometimes I forget that too many people act in wanton disregard for the delicate interplay of Earth's atmosphere, oceans, and land, with consequences that our children and our children's children will witness and pay for with their health and well-being.
And sometimes I forget that powerful people rarely do all they can to help those who cannot help themselves.
I occasionally forget those things because, however big the world is—in our hearts, our minds, and our outsize atlases—the universe is even bigger. A depressing thought to some, but a liberating thought to me.
Consider an adult who tends to the traumas of a child: a broken toy, a scraped knee, a schoolyard bully. Adults know that kids have no clue what constitutes a genuine problem, because inexperience greatly limits their childhood perspective.
As grown-ups, dare we admit to ourselves that we, too, have a collective immaturity of view? Dare we admit that our thoughts and behaviors spring from a belief that the world revolves around us? Apparently not. And the evidence abounds. Part the curtains of society's racial, ethnic, religious, national, and cultural conflicts, and you find the human ego turning the knobs and pulling the levers.
Now imagine a world in which everyone, but especially people with power and influence, holds an expanded view of our place in the cosmos. With that perspective, our problems would shrink—or never arise at all—and we could celebrate our earthly differences while shunning the behavior of our predecessors who slaughtered each other because of them.
* * *
Back in February 2000, the newly rebuilt Hayden Planetarium featured a space show called “Passport to the Universe,” which took visitors on a virtual zoom from New York City to the edge of the cosmos. En route the audience saw Earth, then the solar system, then the 100 billion stars of the Milky Way galaxy shrink to barely visible dots on the planetarium dome.
Within a month of opening day, I received a letter from an Ivy League professor of psychology whose expertise was things that make people feel insignificant. I never knew one could specialize in such a field. The guy wanted to administer a before-and-after questionnaire to visitors, assessing the depth of their depression after viewing the show. “Passport to the Universe,” he wrote, elicited the most dramatic feelings of smallness he had ever experienced.
How could that be? Every time I see the space show (and others we've produced), I feel alive and spirited and connected. I also feel large, knowing that the goings-on within the three-pound human brain are what enabled us to figure out our place in the universe.
Allow me to suggest that it's the professor, not I, who has misread nature. His ego was too big to begin with, inflated by delusions of significance and fed by cultural assumptions that human beings are more important than everything else in the universe.
In all fairness to the fellow, powerful forces in society leave most of us susceptible. As was I . . . until the day I learned in biology class that more bacteria live and work in one centimeter of my colon than the number of people who have ever existed in the world. That kind of information makes you think twice about who—or what—is actually in charge.
From that day on, I began to think of people not as the masters of space and time but as participants in a great cosmic chain of being, with a direct genetic link across species both living and extinct, extending back nearly 4 billion years to the earliest single-celled organisms on Earth.
* * *
I know what you're thinking: we're smarter than bacteria.
No doubt about it, we're smarter than every other living creature that ever walked, crawled, or slithered on Earth. But how smart is that? We cook our food. We compose poetry and music. We do art and science. We're good at math. Even if you're bad at math, you're probably much better at it than the smartest chimpanzee, whose genetic identity varies in only trifling ways from ours. Try as they might, primatologists will never get a chimpanzee to learn the multiplication table or do long division.
If small genetic differences between us and our fellow apes account for our vast difference in intelligence, maybe that difference in intelligence is not so vast after all.
Imagine a life-form whose brainpower is to ours as ours is to a chimpanzee's. To such a species our highest mental achievements would be trivial. Their toddlers, instead of learning their ABCs on Sesame Street, would learn multivariable calculus on Boolean Boulevard. Our most complex theorems, our deepest philosophies, the cherished works of our most creative artists, would be projects their schoolkids bring home for Mom and Dad to display on the refrigerator door. These creatures would study Stephen Hawking (who occupies the same endowed professorship once held by Newton at the University of Cambridge) because he's slightly more clever than other humans, owing to his ability to do theoretical astrophysics and other rudimentary calculations in his head.
If a huge genetic gap separated us from our closest relative in the animal kingdom, we could justifiably celebrate our brilliance. We might be entitled to walk around thinking we're distant and distinct from our fellow creatures. But no such gap exists. Instead, we are one with the rest of nature, fitting neither above nor below, but within.
* * *
Need more ego softeners? Simple comparisons of quantity, size, and scale do the job well.
Take water. It's simple, common, and vital. There are more molecules of water in an eight-ounce cup of the stuff than there are cups of water in all the world's oceans. Every cup that passes through a single person and eventually rejoins the world's water supply holds enough molecules to mix 1,500 of them into every other cup of water in the world. No way around it: some of the water you just drank passed through the kidneys of Socrates, Genghis Khan, and Joan of Arc.
How about air? Also vital. A single breathful draws in more air molecules than there are breathfuls of air in Earth's entire atmosphere. That means some of the air you just breathed passed through the lungs of Napoleon, Beethoven, Lincoln, and Billy the Kid.
Time to get cosmic. There are more stars in the universe than grains of sand on any beach, more stars than seconds have passed since Earth formed, more stars than words and sounds ever uttered by all the humans who ever lived.
Want a sweeping view of the past? Our unfolding cosmic perspective takes you there. Light takes time to reach Earth's observatories from the depths of space, and so you see objects and phenomena not as they are but as they once were. That means the universe acts like a giant time machine: the farther away you look, the further back in time you see—back almost to the beginning of time itself. Within that horizon of reckoning, cosmic evolution unfolds continuously, in full view.
Want to know what we're made of? Again, the cosmic perspective offers a bigger answer than you might expect. The chemical elements of the universe are forged in the fires of high-mass stars that end their lives in stupendous explosions, enriching their host galaxies with the chemical arsenal of life as we know it. The result? The four most common chemically active elements in the universe—hydrogen, oxygen, carbon, and nitrogen—are the four most common elements of life on Earth. We are not simply in the universe. The universe is in us.
* * *
Yes, we are stardust. But we may not be of this Earth. Several separate lines of research, when considered together, have forced investigators to reassess who we think we are and where we think we came from.
First, computer simulations show that when a large asteroid strikes a planet, the surrounding areas can recoil from the impact energy, catapulting rocks into space. From there, they can travel to—and land on—other planetary surfaces. Second, microorganisms can be hardy. Some survive the extremes of temperature, pressure, and radiation inherent in space travel. If the rocky flotsam from an impact hails from a planet with life, microscopic fauna could have stowed away in the rocks' nooks and crannies. Third, recent evidence suggests that shortly after the formation of our solar system, Mars was wet, and perhaps fertile, even before Earth was.
Those findings mean it's conceivable that life began on Mars and later seeded life on Earth, a process known as panspermia . So all earthlings might—just might—be descendants of Martians.
Again and again across the centuries, cosmic discoveries have demoted our self-image. Earth was once assumed to be astronomically unique, until astronomers learned that Earth is just another planet orbiting the Sun. Then we presumed the Sun was unique, until we learned that the countless stars of the night sky are suns themselves. Then we presumed our galaxy, the Milky Way, was the entire known universe, until we established that the countless fuzzy things in the sky are other galaxies, dotting the landscape of our known universe.
Today, how easy it is to presume that one universe is all there is. Yet emerging theories of modern cosmology, as well as the continually reaffirmed improbability that anything is unique, require that we remain open to the latest assault on our plea for distinctiveness: multiple universes, otherwise known as the “ multiverse ,” in which ours is just one of countless bubbles bursting forth from the fabric of the cosmos.
* * *
The cosmic perspective flows from fundamental knowledge. But it's more than just what you know. It's also about having the wisdom and insight to apply that knowledge to assessing our place in the universe. And its attributes are clear:
The cosmic perspective comes from the frontiers of science, yet it is not solely the provenance of the scientist. It belongs to everyone.
The cosmic perspective is humble.
The cosmic perspective is spiritual — even redemptive — but not religious.
The cosmic perspective enables us to grasp, in the same thought, the large and the small.
The cosmic perspective opens our minds to extraordinary ideas but does not leave them so open that our brains spill out, making us susceptible to believing anything we're told.
The cosmic perspective opens our eyes to the universe, not as a benevolent cradle designed to nurture life but as a cold, lonely, hazardous place.
The cosmic perspective shows Earth to be a mote, but a precious mote and, for the moment, the only home we have.
The cosmic perspective finds beauty in the images of planets, moons, stars, and nebulae but also celebrates the laws of physics that shape them.
The cosmic perspective enables us to see beyond our circumstances, allowing us to transcend the primal search for food, shelter, and sex.
The cosmic perspective reminds us that in space, where there is no air, a flag will not wave—an indication that perhaps flag waving and space exploration do not mix.
The cosmic perspective not only embraces our genetic kinship with all life on Earth but also values our chemical kinship with any yet-to-be discovered life in the universe, as well as our atomic kinship with the universe itself.
* * *
At least once a week, if not once a day, we might each ponder what cosmic truths lie undiscovered before us, perhaps awaiting the arrival of a clever thinker, an ingenious experiment, or an innovative space mission to reveal them. We might further ponder how those discoveries may one day transform life on Earth.
Absent such curiosity, we are no different from the provincial farmer who expresses no need to venture beyond the county line, because his forty acres meet all his needs. Yet if all our predecessors had felt that way, the farmer would instead be a cave dweller, chasing down his dinner with a stick and a rock.
During our brief stay on planet Earth, we owe ourselves and our descendants the opportunity to explore—in part because it's fun to do. But there's a far nobler reason. The day our knowledge of the cosmos ceases to expand, we risk regressing to the childish view that the universe figuratively and literally revolves around us. In that bleak world, arms-bearing, resource-hungry people and nations would be prone to act on their “low contracted prejudices.” And that would be the last gasp of human enlightenment—until the rise of a visionary new culture that could once again embrace the cosmic perspective.
What is your opinion?
Blogroll Me!
Of all the sciences cultivated by mankind, Astronomy is acknowledged to be, and undoubtedly is, the most sublime, the most interesting, and the most useful. For, by knowledge derived from this science, not only the bulk of the Earth is discovered . . . ; but our very faculties are enlarged with the grandeur of the ideas it conveys, our minds exalted above [ their ] low contracted prejudices. —James Ferguson, Astronomy Explained Upon Sir Isaac Newton's Principles, And Made Easy To Those Who Have Not Studied Mathematics (1757)
Long before anyone knew that the universe had a beginning, before we knew that the nearest large galaxy lies two and a half million light-years from Earth, before we knew how stars work or whether atoms exist, James Ferguson's enthusiastic introduction to his favorite science rang true. Yet his words, apart from their eighteenth-century flourish, could have been written yesterday.
But who gets to think that way? Who gets to celebrate this cosmic view of life? Not the migrant farmworker . Not the sweatshop worker. Certainly not the homeless person rummaging through the trash for food. You need the luxury of time not spent on mere survival. You need to live in a nation whose government values the search to understand humanity's place in the universe. You need a society in which intellectual pursuit can take you to the frontiers of discovery, and in which news of your discoveries can be routinely disseminated. By those measures, most citizens of industrialized nations do quite well.
Yet the cosmic view comes with a hidden cost. When I travel thousands of miles to spend a few moments in the fast-moving shadow of the Moon during a total solar eclipse, sometimes I lose sight of Earth.
When I pause and reflect on our expanding universe, with its galaxies hurtling away from one another, embedded within the ever-stretching, four-dimensional fabric of space and time, sometimes I forget that uncounted people walk this Earth without food or shelter, and that children are disproportionately represented among them.
When I pore over the data that establish the mysterious presence of dark matter and dark energy throughout the universe, sometimes I forget that every day—every twenty-four-hour rotation of Earth—people kill and get killed in the name of someone else's conception of God, and that some people who do not kill in the name of God kill in the name of their nation's needs or wants.
When I track the orbits of asteroids, comets, and planets, each one a pirouetting dancer in a cosmic ballet choreographed by the forces of gravity, sometimes I forget that too many people act in wanton disregard for the delicate interplay of Earth's atmosphere, oceans, and land, with consequences that our children and our children's children will witness and pay for with their health and well-being.
And sometimes I forget that powerful people rarely do all they can to help those who cannot help themselves.
I occasionally forget those things because, however big the world is—in our hearts, our minds, and our outsize atlases—the universe is even bigger. A depressing thought to some, but a liberating thought to me.
Consider an adult who tends to the traumas of a child: a broken toy, a scraped knee, a schoolyard bully. Adults know that kids have no clue what constitutes a genuine problem, because inexperience greatly limits their childhood perspective.
As grown-ups, dare we admit to ourselves that we, too, have a collective immaturity of view? Dare we admit that our thoughts and behaviors spring from a belief that the world revolves around us? Apparently not. And the evidence abounds. Part the curtains of society's racial, ethnic, religious, national, and cultural conflicts, and you find the human ego turning the knobs and pulling the levers.
Now imagine a world in which everyone, but especially people with power and influence, holds an expanded view of our place in the cosmos. With that perspective, our problems would shrink—or never arise at all—and we could celebrate our earthly differences while shunning the behavior of our predecessors who slaughtered each other because of them.
* * *
Back in February 2000, the newly rebuilt Hayden Planetarium featured a space show called “Passport to the Universe,” which took visitors on a virtual zoom from New York City to the edge of the cosmos. En route the audience saw Earth, then the solar system, then the 100 billion stars of the Milky Way galaxy shrink to barely visible dots on the planetarium dome.
Within a month of opening day, I received a letter from an Ivy League professor of psychology whose expertise was things that make people feel insignificant. I never knew one could specialize in such a field. The guy wanted to administer a before-and-after questionnaire to visitors, assessing the depth of their depression after viewing the show. “Passport to the Universe,” he wrote, elicited the most dramatic feelings of smallness he had ever experienced.
How could that be? Every time I see the space show (and others we've produced), I feel alive and spirited and connected. I also feel large, knowing that the goings-on within the three-pound human brain are what enabled us to figure out our place in the universe.
Allow me to suggest that it's the professor, not I, who has misread nature. His ego was too big to begin with, inflated by delusions of significance and fed by cultural assumptions that human beings are more important than everything else in the universe.
In all fairness to the fellow, powerful forces in society leave most of us susceptible. As was I . . . until the day I learned in biology class that more bacteria live and work in one centimeter of my colon than the number of people who have ever existed in the world. That kind of information makes you think twice about who—or what—is actually in charge.
From that day on, I began to think of people not as the masters of space and time but as participants in a great cosmic chain of being, with a direct genetic link across species both living and extinct, extending back nearly 4 billion years to the earliest single-celled organisms on Earth.
* * *
I know what you're thinking: we're smarter than bacteria.
No doubt about it, we're smarter than every other living creature that ever walked, crawled, or slithered on Earth. But how smart is that? We cook our food. We compose poetry and music. We do art and science. We're good at math. Even if you're bad at math, you're probably much better at it than the smartest chimpanzee, whose genetic identity varies in only trifling ways from ours. Try as they might, primatologists will never get a chimpanzee to learn the multiplication table or do long division.
If small genetic differences between us and our fellow apes account for our vast difference in intelligence, maybe that difference in intelligence is not so vast after all.
Imagine a life-form whose brainpower is to ours as ours is to a chimpanzee's. To such a species our highest mental achievements would be trivial. Their toddlers, instead of learning their ABCs on Sesame Street, would learn multivariable calculus on Boolean Boulevard. Our most complex theorems, our deepest philosophies, the cherished works of our most creative artists, would be projects their schoolkids bring home for Mom and Dad to display on the refrigerator door. These creatures would study Stephen Hawking (who occupies the same endowed professorship once held by Newton at the University of Cambridge) because he's slightly more clever than other humans, owing to his ability to do theoretical astrophysics and other rudimentary calculations in his head.
If a huge genetic gap separated us from our closest relative in the animal kingdom, we could justifiably celebrate our brilliance. We might be entitled to walk around thinking we're distant and distinct from our fellow creatures. But no such gap exists. Instead, we are one with the rest of nature, fitting neither above nor below, but within.
* * *
Need more ego softeners? Simple comparisons of quantity, size, and scale do the job well.
Take water. It's simple, common, and vital. There are more molecules of water in an eight-ounce cup of the stuff than there are cups of water in all the world's oceans. Every cup that passes through a single person and eventually rejoins the world's water supply holds enough molecules to mix 1,500 of them into every other cup of water in the world. No way around it: some of the water you just drank passed through the kidneys of Socrates, Genghis Khan, and Joan of Arc.
How about air? Also vital. A single breathful draws in more air molecules than there are breathfuls of air in Earth's entire atmosphere. That means some of the air you just breathed passed through the lungs of Napoleon, Beethoven, Lincoln, and Billy the Kid.
Time to get cosmic. There are more stars in the universe than grains of sand on any beach, more stars than seconds have passed since Earth formed, more stars than words and sounds ever uttered by all the humans who ever lived.
Want a sweeping view of the past? Our unfolding cosmic perspective takes you there. Light takes time to reach Earth's observatories from the depths of space, and so you see objects and phenomena not as they are but as they once were. That means the universe acts like a giant time machine: the farther away you look, the further back in time you see—back almost to the beginning of time itself. Within that horizon of reckoning, cosmic evolution unfolds continuously, in full view.
Want to know what we're made of? Again, the cosmic perspective offers a bigger answer than you might expect. The chemical elements of the universe are forged in the fires of high-mass stars that end their lives in stupendous explosions, enriching their host galaxies with the chemical arsenal of life as we know it. The result? The four most common chemically active elements in the universe—hydrogen, oxygen, carbon, and nitrogen—are the four most common elements of life on Earth. We are not simply in the universe. The universe is in us.
* * *
Yes, we are stardust. But we may not be of this Earth. Several separate lines of research, when considered together, have forced investigators to reassess who we think we are and where we think we came from.
First, computer simulations show that when a large asteroid strikes a planet, the surrounding areas can recoil from the impact energy, catapulting rocks into space. From there, they can travel to—and land on—other planetary surfaces. Second, microorganisms can be hardy. Some survive the extremes of temperature, pressure, and radiation inherent in space travel. If the rocky flotsam from an impact hails from a planet with life, microscopic fauna could have stowed away in the rocks' nooks and crannies. Third, recent evidence suggests that shortly after the formation of our solar system, Mars was wet, and perhaps fertile, even before Earth was.
Those findings mean it's conceivable that life began on Mars and later seeded life on Earth, a process known as panspermia . So all earthlings might—just might—be descendants of Martians.
Again and again across the centuries, cosmic discoveries have demoted our self-image. Earth was once assumed to be astronomically unique, until astronomers learned that Earth is just another planet orbiting the Sun. Then we presumed the Sun was unique, until we learned that the countless stars of the night sky are suns themselves. Then we presumed our galaxy, the Milky Way, was the entire known universe, until we established that the countless fuzzy things in the sky are other galaxies, dotting the landscape of our known universe.
Today, how easy it is to presume that one universe is all there is. Yet emerging theories of modern cosmology, as well as the continually reaffirmed improbability that anything is unique, require that we remain open to the latest assault on our plea for distinctiveness: multiple universes, otherwise known as the “ multiverse ,” in which ours is just one of countless bubbles bursting forth from the fabric of the cosmos.
* * *
The cosmic perspective flows from fundamental knowledge. But it's more than just what you know. It's also about having the wisdom and insight to apply that knowledge to assessing our place in the universe. And its attributes are clear:
The cosmic perspective comes from the frontiers of science, yet it is not solely the provenance of the scientist. It belongs to everyone.
The cosmic perspective is humble.
The cosmic perspective is spiritual — even redemptive — but not religious.
The cosmic perspective enables us to grasp, in the same thought, the large and the small.
The cosmic perspective opens our minds to extraordinary ideas but does not leave them so open that our brains spill out, making us susceptible to believing anything we're told.
The cosmic perspective opens our eyes to the universe, not as a benevolent cradle designed to nurture life but as a cold, lonely, hazardous place.
The cosmic perspective shows Earth to be a mote, but a precious mote and, for the moment, the only home we have.
The cosmic perspective finds beauty in the images of planets, moons, stars, and nebulae but also celebrates the laws of physics that shape them.
The cosmic perspective enables us to see beyond our circumstances, allowing us to transcend the primal search for food, shelter, and sex.
The cosmic perspective reminds us that in space, where there is no air, a flag will not wave—an indication that perhaps flag waving and space exploration do not mix.
The cosmic perspective not only embraces our genetic kinship with all life on Earth but also values our chemical kinship with any yet-to-be discovered life in the universe, as well as our atomic kinship with the universe itself.
* * *
At least once a week, if not once a day, we might each ponder what cosmic truths lie undiscovered before us, perhaps awaiting the arrival of a clever thinker, an ingenious experiment, or an innovative space mission to reveal them. We might further ponder how those discoveries may one day transform life on Earth.
Absent such curiosity, we are no different from the provincial farmer who expresses no need to venture beyond the county line, because his forty acres meet all his needs. Yet if all our predecessors had felt that way, the farmer would instead be a cave dweller, chasing down his dinner with a stick and a rock.
During our brief stay on planet Earth, we owe ourselves and our descendants the opportunity to explore—in part because it's fun to do. But there's a far nobler reason. The day our knowledge of the cosmos ceases to expand, we risk regressing to the childish view that the universe figuratively and literally revolves around us. In that bleak world, arms-bearing, resource-hungry people and nations would be prone to act on their “low contracted prejudices.” And that would be the last gasp of human enlightenment—until the rise of a visionary new culture that could once again embrace the cosmic perspective.
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Thursday, September 20, 2007
A Funny Joke!!
This is one of the best clean jokes I've seen in a while!
Jesus and Satan were having an on-going argument about who was better on the computer. They had been going at it for days, and frankly God was tired of hearing all the bickering.
Finally fed up, God said, "THAT'S IT! I have had enough. I am going to set up a test that will run for two hours, and from those results, I will judge who does the better job."
So Satan and Jesus sat down at the keyboards and typed away.
They moused.
They faxed.
They e-mailed.
They e-mailed with attachments.
They downloaded.
They did spreadsheets!
They wrote reports.
They created labels and cards.
They created charts and graphs.
They did some genealogy reports
They did every job known to man.
Jesus worked with heavenly efficiency and Satan was faster than hell.
Then, ten minutes before their time was up, lightning suddenly flashed across the sky, thunder rolled, rain poured, and, of course, the power went off..
Satan stared at his blank screen and screamed every curse word known in the underworld.
Jesus just sighed.
Finally the electricity came back on, and each of them restarted their computers. Satan started searching frantically, screaming:
"It's gone! It's all GONE! "I lost everything when the power went out!"
Meanwhile, Jesus quietly started printing out all of his files from the past two hours of work.
Satan observed this and became irate.
"Wait!" he screamed. "That's not fair! He cheated! How come he has all his work and I don't have any?"
God just shrugged and said,
JESUS SAVES
--
RMSTringer
+++++++++++++++
Ozone hole is supposed to close by December...
Background Information about the "Ozone Hole"
Every year for the past several decades the return of sunlight to the high latitudes of the Southern Hemisphere has produced massive depletion of ozone over Antarctica. Observations in Antarctica initiated in the 1950's document this progressive loss of ozone during the Southern Hemisphere spring. Satellite data from the NASA/TOMS showed that the affected area was not just limited to over the observation stations, but over most of Antarctica. This area of 50-75% depletion of total ozone has been labeled as the "ozone hole". The ozone hole is defined geographicaly as the area wherein the total ozone amount is less than 220 Dobson Units. The ozone hole has steadily grown in size(up to 27 million sq. km.) and length of existence(from August through early December) over the past two decades. This is graphically illustrated in ozone hole area versus Julian day plots for the years: 1979-80, 1981, 1982, 1983, 1984, 1985, 1986, 1987, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007.
The cause and effects of the ozone hole are explained in depth by the linked sites. Areas of countries and continents are listed in the table below for reference in comparison to the size of the ozone hole.
NOAA monitors the progression of the ozone hole from space and on the ground in Antarctica. Summaries of previous years' ozone holes are available at the NOAA/CPC Stratospheric Winter Summary site.
What's Happening Currently
The current year's ozone hole plot shows the progression of this year's ozone hole (red line) and is placed in reference with last year's ozone hole conditions (blue line) and conditions over the previous ten years. The maximum ozone hole area for each day over the ten year period is shown as the upper black line. The minimum ozone hole area for each day of this same period is shown as the lower black line. The mean ozone hole area for each day over this period is shown as the green line. The gray shaded area in August depicts the decreasing degree of uncertainty in the ozone hole size estimate as more of the polar region becomes sunlit. The figure will be updated twice weekly from September through December to show the progress of the current year's ozone hole.
Note that data in August is not as reliable as succeeding months due to limited observation coverage by the ozone monitoring instrument.
The area ploted is in Million Square Kilometers.
What is your opinion?
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Fall Series, Signs Of The Seasonal Change...
This was an experiment that i did last week to try to use different focal lenghts to make different objects be in and out of focus. I hope that you all like them. I think several of them are very good.
Wednesday, September 19, 2007
Cobalt Gum...
I have seen all the hype about this gum so I decided to try it. I purchased for $1.50 the other night the blue gum, "Cobalt...A Cooling Peppermint".
Wrigley Announces Launch Plans for 5(TM) - New Stick Gum To Stimulate the Senses
"5 appeals to the senses and is the most exciting development in sugar- free stick gum since the launch of Extra(R) more than 20 years ago," said Bill Perez, Wrigley's President and CEO, while speaking to attendees at Wrigley's Annual Stockholders' Meeting Wednesday in Chicago.
Available in Rain(TM) (a tingling spearmint flavor), Cobalt(TM) (a cooling peppermint flavor), and Flare(TM) (warming cinnamon flavor), 5 debuts in a 15- stick envelope package, a first for the gum category.
Wrigley Announces Launch Plans for 5(TM) - New Stick Gum To Stimulate the Senses
"5 appeals to the senses and is the most exciting development in sugar- free stick gum since the launch of Extra(R) more than 20 years ago," said Bill Perez, Wrigley's President and CEO, while speaking to attendees at Wrigley's Annual Stockholders' Meeting Wednesday in Chicago.
Available in Rain(TM) (a tingling spearmint flavor), Cobalt(TM) (a cooling peppermint flavor), and Flare(TM) (warming cinnamon flavor), 5 debuts in a 15- stick envelope package, a first for the gum category.
"Teens, who are constantly seeking opportunities to experience something out of the ordinary, are also the most frequent gum chewers of any age group and account for one-third of all gum chewed in the U.S.," said Martin Schlatter, Wrigley's Chief Marketing Officer. "In our testing, teens and young adults have told us they love everything about 5 - from the unique tingling, cooling or warming sensations that accompany its delicious and especially long-lasting flavors to its bold graphics to its sleek, revolutionary packaging. 5 delivers an amazing new gum experience."
It came with 15 pieces of gum all nicely wrapped in pretty blue foil. It was good tasting and it did last for a long time but when I spit it out, it left a very bad aftertaste in my mouth. I did not live up to the hype that Wrigley’s has made with all the advertising that is on TV. The brand is called “5” and I chose Cobalt, I guess that I will try the other flavors to see if they give a bad aftertaste like Cobalt did. The gum I like the best is the Wrigley’s Extra Polar Ice.
What is your opinion?
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Coincidence Is All?
This is actually really freaky!!
(mainly the end part, but read it all first)
1)
2)
3) Ramsin Yuseb has 11 letters .
(The terrorist who threatened to destroy
the Twin Towers in 1993)
4) George W Bush has 11 letters.
This could be a mere coincidence, but this
gets more interesting:
1)
2) The first plane crashing against the
3) Flight 11 was carrying 92 passengers.
9 + 2 = 11) Flight 77 which also hit
Twin Towers , was carrying 65 passengers. 6+5 = 11
5) The tragedy was on September 11, or 9/11 as it is now known. 9 + 1+ 1 =11
6) The date is equal to the
9 + 1 + 1 = 11
Sheer coincidence..?! Read on and make
up your own mind:
1) The total number of victims inside all
the hi-jacked planes was 254.
2 + 5 + 4 = 11.
2) September 11 is day number 254 of
the calendar year.
Again 2 + 5 + 4 = 11.
3) The
4) The tragedy of
Now this is where things get totally eerie:
The most recognized symbol for the
Eagle. The following verse is taken
from the Quran, the Islamic holy book:
"For it is written that a son of Arabia
would awaken a fearsome Eagle. The
wrath of the Eagle would be felt
throughout the lands of Allah while
some of the people trembled in despair
still more rejoiced: for the wrath of the
Eagle cleansed the lands of Allah and
there was peace."
That verse is number 9.11 of the Quran.
Still unconvinced about all of this?!
Try this and see how you feel afterwards,
it made my hair stand on end:
Open Microsoft Word and do the following:
1. Type in capitals Q33 NY. This is the flight number of the first plane to hit one of the
2. Highlight the Q33 NY.
3. Change the font size to 48.
4. Change the actual font to the WINGDINGS 1 (I've done it for you.)
What do you think now?!!
Q33 NY
Q33 NY
Tuesday, September 18, 2007
ITs always funny until someone gets hurt...
In my opinion, they were WAY the HELL off base!! I am just glad that i did not and do not ever want to go to jail there!! Here is 2 different views from 2 people. TheUniversity of Florida will have a big lawsuit on their hands...
What is your opinion?
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Monday, September 17, 2007
Soundside Sunset Duck NC, OBX
http://www.fishbonessunsetgrille.com/
That is the link to the resturant where the picture was taken. OBX, Duck NC
Bright drive!
As clear as mud...
According to a recent post on GameDaily BIZ, Comcast had said what excessive is. Here is the article. There have been several posts about this on Slashdot and other sites. So even if I were the biggest spammer in the world, I might not get banned by Comcast as long as I do not reach the 13 million Email mark!! So, we are looking at somewhere in the 500+gig a month area. Not too shabby if you ask me. It looks like they are the most lenient out of all of the major carriers.
Earlier this week, we heard a radio report that talked about a few people who were losing their high-speed Internet access through Comcast. The company cited that these users went above and beyond the average use of most users and branded the former customers as "excessive users." In what appeared fishy, the report said that Comcast would not define how the company defined the term.
Now that the three current next gen consoles offer online connectivity for downloads, competition and system updates, we were worried that our own personal "download every demo that will fit on the Xbox 360 hard drive" might get us banned too.
Charlie Douglas, a spokesperson for Comcast Corporation, called back to clarify what "excessive usage" means and why the company's actions to end its relationship with these customers is good for gamers. First, Douglas defines Comcast's "excessive use" as any customer who downloads the equivalent of 30,000 songs, 250,000 pictures or 13 million emails in a month.
In short, even if you played a marathon World of Warcraft session for weeks while downloading the massive amount of demos on Xbox 360 and sprinkled with the not so massive amount of demos on the PlayStation Network, you are still not close to getting banned.
Douglas said that Comcast's actions to cut ties with excessive users is a "great benefit to games and helps protect gamers and their game experience" due to their overuse of the network and thus "degrading the experience."
Comcast has been a big supporter of gaming for years with its Game Invasion news, information and game purchasing web site and its well-known G4 TV network, which televises some of gaming's biggest events.
by Micheal Mullen
What is your opinion?
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Earlier this week, we heard a radio report that talked about a few people who were losing their high-speed Internet access through Comcast. The company cited that these users went above and beyond the average use of most users and branded the former customers as "excessive users." In what appeared fishy, the report said that Comcast would not define how the company defined the term.
Now that the three current next gen consoles offer online connectivity for downloads, competition and system updates, we were worried that our own personal "download every demo that will fit on the Xbox 360 hard drive" might get us banned too.
Charlie Douglas, a spokesperson for Comcast Corporation, called back to clarify what "excessive usage" means and why the company's actions to end its relationship with these customers is good for gamers. First, Douglas defines Comcast's "excessive use" as any customer who downloads the equivalent of 30,000 songs, 250,000 pictures or 13 million emails in a month.
In short, even if you played a marathon World of Warcraft session for weeks while downloading the massive amount of demos on Xbox 360 and sprinkled with the not so massive amount of demos on the PlayStation Network, you are still not close to getting banned.
Douglas said that Comcast's actions to cut ties with excessive users is a "great benefit to games and helps protect gamers and their game experience" due to their overuse of the network and thus "degrading the experience."
Comcast has been a big supporter of gaming for years with its Game Invasion news, information and game purchasing web site and its well-known G4 TV network, which televises some of gaming's biggest events.
by Micheal Mullen
What is your opinion?
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Sunday, September 16, 2007
Are they related?
Those people look a lot alike. Is Love their long lost mother? Look at the pics and I will let you decide. Their looks are very unsetteling if you ask me.
What is your opinion?
The "Juice" will not get loose on this one...
O.J. Simpson's bail has been set at $78,000.
The breakdown is as follows:a) $10,000 for each count of assault with a deadly weaponb
) $20,000 for each count of robbery with a deadly weaponc
) $15,000 for the one count of burglary with the use of a deadly weapond
) $3,000 for the conspiracy to commit robbery with a deadly weapon count
We're told O.J. is quiet and calm. A source at the jail tells us Simpson will have limited interaction with jail personnel. He'll be held, by himself, in a booking cell, and only necessary law enforcement staff will have contact with him.The jail holds roughly 4,000 inmates in two buildings. We're told he will go through the search process like everyone else.Our sources say the Juice has been very cooperative with authorities.
What a TOTAL AND COMPLETE IDIOT!! He was scott-free with the murders and now he is resorting to being a total common criminal with breaking and entering and robbery. Way to go "Juice" I guess that Nicole Brown's parents will be happy! Justice is served one way or another and Karma is a BITCH!! Yea Vegas!! They have way too many cameras to even try to do something as stupid as he did.
Madonna, the Yenta Ouijazilla
Thanks to Mac Hall for letting me publish this.
Poor Israel – surrounded by genocidal neighbors who stay up late polishing their North Korean nukes and listening to The Voices. And now, perhaps a worse threat, a Kabbalah convention in Tel Aviv featuring Madonna.
Greek Orthodox everywhere breathe a grateful sigh of relief that Madonna’s parents did not name her Theotokos.
Whatever the Kabbalah is – and to ask for a definition is to suffer a smothering tribble-drop of New Age cliches’ – it has become the newest fashion among rich people without underwear. Scientology is, like, soooo last week.
And, really, one can understand – wearing a red string on one’s wrist is so much more understated than lugging an e-meter around.
And what’s with the red string, named Red String? Well, you buy it for some twenty-six dollars or so, and it has, like, y’know, seven knots in it, and, like, stuff, and it wards off the Evil Eye.
Whew! Gotta get me one! I don’t know of a day in my life when I haven’t been menaced by evil eyes glaring at me from my toothbrush and my toaster, and now my salvation is here, in a red string! You can buy your own Red String at Kabbalah.com, along with incense, candles, posters – golly, the sixties are back!
Other followers of Kabbalism are said to include Britney Spears, David and Victoria Beckham, Roseanne Barr, Donna Karan, Lindsey Lohan, Sandra Bernhard, Demi Moore, and Ashton Kutcher, all the greats.
Last week Madonna, who has taken the name of Esther, was a guest of Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres, who, according to the Associated Press, gave her a copy of the Old Testament. Note to AP: That’s not what they call it in Israel. In return, Madonna gave Mr. Peres a copy of a Kabbalist text, The Book of Splendor, inscribed "To Shimon Peres, the man I admire and love, Madonna." Now that, not dictators with nuclear weapons, will have the man waking up at 0200 dripping sweat and screaming in fear.
Why is it that the rich and famous seem genetically unable to sit modestly and humbly in a pew, donate to the soup kitchen, help serve coffee after divine services, and just shut up?
Because duty is not nearly as thrilling as being part of an in-group: all the corpse-littered films and the secret -– so secret that they have their own web sites – societies puttering about with secret Egyptian / Babylonian / Chaldean / Crusader books, candles, magic healing water, sacred vessels (stamped “Made in Taiwan” on the bottom), codes (Da Vinci and otherwise), arcane ceremonies featuring robes and wands and stuff, Grail legends, Templar legends, crystals, rocks, ouija boards, seances, tarot cards – it’s all old news. Have we learned nothing from Chaucer’s Pardoner with his pig bones and handkerchiefs? Or from pompously sad Yeats with his table-thumping seances and his orange magic robes?
Poor Madonna. If she really wants to encounter Jewish mysticism she could not do better than to visit an ordinary synagogue on a Friday evening. She could sit next to a woman whose husband has died and whose children are grown and gone. She could ask this woman, a real Esther, “What is the meaning of life?” And perhaps Esther would smile with the wisdom of genuine suffering, and whisper “Shhhhh,” and point to the Torah.
-30-
What is your opinion?
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Poor Israel – surrounded by genocidal neighbors who stay up late polishing their North Korean nukes and listening to The Voices. And now, perhaps a worse threat, a Kabbalah convention in Tel Aviv featuring Madonna.
Greek Orthodox everywhere breathe a grateful sigh of relief that Madonna’s parents did not name her Theotokos.
Whatever the Kabbalah is – and to ask for a definition is to suffer a smothering tribble-drop of New Age cliches’ – it has become the newest fashion among rich people without underwear. Scientology is, like, soooo last week.
And, really, one can understand – wearing a red string on one’s wrist is so much more understated than lugging an e-meter around.
And what’s with the red string, named Red String? Well, you buy it for some twenty-six dollars or so, and it has, like, y’know, seven knots in it, and, like, stuff, and it wards off the Evil Eye.
Whew! Gotta get me one! I don’t know of a day in my life when I haven’t been menaced by evil eyes glaring at me from my toothbrush and my toaster, and now my salvation is here, in a red string! You can buy your own Red String at Kabbalah.com, along with incense, candles, posters – golly, the sixties are back!
Other followers of Kabbalism are said to include Britney Spears, David and Victoria Beckham, Roseanne Barr, Donna Karan, Lindsey Lohan, Sandra Bernhard, Demi Moore, and Ashton Kutcher, all the greats.
Last week Madonna, who has taken the name of Esther, was a guest of Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres, who, according to the Associated Press, gave her a copy of the Old Testament. Note to AP: That’s not what they call it in Israel. In return, Madonna gave Mr. Peres a copy of a Kabbalist text, The Book of Splendor, inscribed "To Shimon Peres, the man I admire and love, Madonna." Now that, not dictators with nuclear weapons, will have the man waking up at 0200 dripping sweat and screaming in fear.
Why is it that the rich and famous seem genetically unable to sit modestly and humbly in a pew, donate to the soup kitchen, help serve coffee after divine services, and just shut up?
Because duty is not nearly as thrilling as being part of an in-group: all the corpse-littered films and the secret -– so secret that they have their own web sites – societies puttering about with secret Egyptian / Babylonian / Chaldean / Crusader books, candles, magic healing water, sacred vessels (stamped “Made in Taiwan” on the bottom), codes (Da Vinci and otherwise), arcane ceremonies featuring robes and wands and stuff, Grail legends, Templar legends, crystals, rocks, ouija boards, seances, tarot cards – it’s all old news. Have we learned nothing from Chaucer’s Pardoner with his pig bones and handkerchiefs? Or from pompously sad Yeats with his table-thumping seances and his orange magic robes?
Poor Madonna. If she really wants to encounter Jewish mysticism she could not do better than to visit an ordinary synagogue on a Friday evening. She could sit next to a woman whose husband has died and whose children are grown and gone. She could ask this woman, a real Esther, “What is the meaning of life?” And perhaps Esther would smile with the wisdom of genuine suffering, and whisper “Shhhhh,” and point to the Torah.
-30-
What is your opinion?
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Saturday, September 15, 2007
Unsuspecting couple slept entire night with wasp nest under pillow
They must have been really drunk not to want to investigate what was going on in the room. I HATE WASPS AND BEEs!! I rather fight a snake than to have to fight a wasp. Now being too drunk to want to investigate what all the buzzing was about is just beyond me. I just cant believe that the wasps did not sting them during the night with them moving about. I know that i move about when i sleep and also put my hands under the pillows. IF you ask me, they were very lucky!
A more unpleasant collection of bedfellows would be hard to imagine.
As Vicki and Clive Hames settled down for the night, they couldn't fail to notice the strange buzzing in the bedroom - but chose not to investigate.
On reflection, it's probably a good job that they didn't.
The wasp nest stretched from the pillow all the way down the back of the bed
Unbeknown to the couple, a swarm of wasps had built a nest beneath the pillows of their bed.
And, remarkably, they both slept the entire night without realising.
It was not until the morning, when 57-year- old Mrs Hames pulled back her pillow to reveal the angry swarm that she was stung once on the back.
Her 60-year-old husband, meanwhile, escaped unharmed.
Mr and Mrs Hames, from Northampton, heard the "low buzzing sound" as they tried to drop off in the spare room of her stepfather's house.
If that was me, i would have the the hell stung out of me!! I do not have that kind of luck. Here is the link for the rest of the story: Wasps are MAD!
What is your opinion?
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Microsoft updates Windows without users' consent
I think that this has been going on for a while now. I think that this could get Microsoft is a heap of trouble. I for one, do not run every patch that they put out for their operating systems because in my experiance, so patches cause more problems then they fix. I remember getting up in the morning and my computer has a box open that says "Windows needed to reboot your computer due to a patch that was insatlled" I did not install the patch and it was done during the night without me doing anything.
Windows Secrets
By Scott Dunn
Microsoft has begun patching files on Windows XP and Vista without users' knowledge, even when the users have turned off auto-updates. Many companies require testing of patches before they are widely installed, and businesses in this situation are objecting to the stealth patching.
Files changed with no notice to users In recent days, Windows Update (WU) started altering files on users' systems without displaying any dialog box to request permission. The only files that have been reportedly altered to date are nine small executables on XP and nine on Vista that are used by WU itself. Microsoft is patching these files silently, even if auto-updates have been disabled on a particular PC.It's surprising that these files can be changed without the user's knowledge.
The Automatic Updates dialog box in the Control Panel can be set to prevent updates from being installed automatically. However, with Microsoft's latest stealth move, updates to the WU executables seem to be installed regardless of the settings — without notifying users.When users launch Windows Update, Microsoft's online service can check the version of its executables on the PC and update them if necessary. What's unusual is that people are reporting changes in these files although WU wasn't authorized to install anything.This isn't the first time Microsoft has pushed updates out to users who prefer to test and install their updates manually.
Not long ago, another Windows component, svchost.exe, was causing problems with Windows Update, as last reported on June 21 in the Windows Secrets Newsletter. In that case, however, the Windows Update site notified users that updated software had to be installed before the patching process could proceed. This time, such a notice never appears.
For users who elect not to have updates installed automatically, the issue of consent is crucial. Microsoft has apparently decided, however, that it doesn't need permission to patch Windows Updates files, even if you've set your preferences to require it.
Microsoft provides no tech information — yet
To make matters even stranger, a search on Microsoft's Web site reveals no information at all on the stealth updates. Let's say you wished to voluntarily download and install the new WU executable files when you were, for example, reinstalling a system. You'd be hard-pressed to find the updated files in order to download them. At this writing, you either get a stealth install or nothing.A few Web forums have already started to discuss the updated files, which bear the version number 7.0.6000.381. The only explanation found at Microsoft's site comes from a user identified as Dean-Dean on a Microsoft Communities forum. In reply to a question, he states:
"Windows Update Software 7.0.6000.381 is an update to Windows Update itself. It is an update for both Windows XP and Windows Vista. Unless the update is installed, Windows Update won't work, at least in terms of searching for further updates. Normal use of Windows Update, in other words, is blocked until this update is installed."
Windows Secrets contributing editor Susan Bradley contacted Microsoft Partner Support about the update and received this short reply:
"7.0.6000.381 is a consumer only release that addresses some specific issues found after .374 was released. It will not be available via WSUS [Windows Server Update Services]. A standalone installer and the redist will be available soon, I will keep an eye on it and notify you when it is available."Unfortunately, this reply does not explain why the stealth patching began with so little information provided to customers. Nor does it provide any details on the "specific issues" that the update supposedly addresses.
System logs confirm stealth installs
In his forum post, Dean-Dean names several files that are changed on XP and Vista. The patching process updates several Windows\System32 executables (with the extensions .exe, .dll, and .cpl) to version 7.0.6000.381, according to the post.
In Vista, the following files are updated:
1. wuapi.dll
2. wuapp.exe
3. wuauclt.exe
4. wuaueng.dll
5. wucltux.dll
6. wudriver.dll
7. wups.dll
8. wups2.dll
9. wuwebv.dll
In XP, the following files are updated:
1. cdm.dll
2. wuapi.dl
l3. wuauclt.exe
4. wuaucpl.cpl
5. wuaueng.dll
6. wucltui.dll
7. wups.dll
8. wups2.dll
9. wuweb.dll
These files are by no means viruses, and Microsoft appears to have no malicious intent in patching them. However, writing files to a user's PC without notice (when auto-updating has been turned off) is behavior that's usually associated with hacker Web sites. The question being raised in discussion forums is, "Why is Microsoft operating in this way?"
How to check which version your PC has
If a system has been patched in the past few months, the nine executables in Windows\System32 will either show an earlier version number, 7.0.6000.374, or the stealth patch: 7.0.6000.381. (The version numbers can be seen by right-clicking a file and choosing Properties. In XP, click the Version tab and then select File Version. In Vista, click the Details tab.)
In addition, PCs that received the update will have new executables in subfolders named 7.0.6000.381 under the following folders:c:\Windows\System32\SoftwareDistribution\Setup\ServiceStartup\wups.dllc:\Windows\System32\SoftwareDistribution\Setup\ServiceStartup\wups2.dllUsers can also verify whether patching occurred by checking Windows' Event Log:
Step 1. In XP, click Start, Run.
Step 2. Type eventvwr.msc and press Enter.
Step 3. In the tree pane on the left, select System.
Step 4. The right pane displays events and several details about them.
Event types such as "Installation" are labeled in the Category column. "Windows Update Agent" is the event typically listed in the Source column for system patches.On systems that were checked recently by Windows Secrets readers, the Event Log shows two installation events on Aug. 24. The files were stealth-updated in the early morning hours. (The time stamp will vary, of course, on machines that received the patch on other dates.)
To investigate further, you can open the Event Log's properties for each event. Normally, when a Windows update event occurs, the properties dialog box shows an associated KB number, enabling you to find more information at Microsoft's Web site. Mysteriously, no KB number is given for the WU updates that began in August. The description merely reads, "Installation Successful: Windows successfully installed the following update: Automatic Updates."
No need to roll back the updated files
Again, it's important to note that there's nothing harmful about the updated files themselves. There are no reports of software conflicts and no reason to remove the files (which WU apparently needs in order to access the latest patches). The only concern is the mechanism Microsoft is using to perform its patching, and how this mechanism might be used by the software giant in the future.
I'd like to thank reader Angus Scott-Fleming for his help in researching this topic. He recommends that advanced Windows users monitor changes to their systems' Registry settings via a free program by Olivier Lombart called Tiny Watcher. Scott-Fleming will receive a gift certificate for a book, CD, or DVD of his choice for sending in a comment we printed.
I'll report further on this story when I'm able to find more information on the policies and techniques behind Windows Update's silent patches. Send me your tips on this subject via the Windows Secrets contact page.Scott Dunn is associate editor of the Windows Secrets Newsletter. He is also a contributing editor of PC World Magazine, where he has written a monthly column since 1992, and co-author of 101 Windows Tips & Tricks (Peachpit) with Jesse Berst and Charles Bermant.
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Windows Secrets
By Scott Dunn
Microsoft has begun patching files on Windows XP and Vista without users' knowledge, even when the users have turned off auto-updates. Many companies require testing of patches before they are widely installed, and businesses in this situation are objecting to the stealth patching.
Files changed with no notice to users In recent days, Windows Update (WU) started altering files on users' systems without displaying any dialog box to request permission. The only files that have been reportedly altered to date are nine small executables on XP and nine on Vista that are used by WU itself. Microsoft is patching these files silently, even if auto-updates have been disabled on a particular PC.It's surprising that these files can be changed without the user's knowledge.
The Automatic Updates dialog box in the Control Panel can be set to prevent updates from being installed automatically. However, with Microsoft's latest stealth move, updates to the WU executables seem to be installed regardless of the settings — without notifying users.When users launch Windows Update, Microsoft's online service can check the version of its executables on the PC and update them if necessary. What's unusual is that people are reporting changes in these files although WU wasn't authorized to install anything.This isn't the first time Microsoft has pushed updates out to users who prefer to test and install their updates manually.
Not long ago, another Windows component, svchost.exe, was causing problems with Windows Update, as last reported on June 21 in the Windows Secrets Newsletter. In that case, however, the Windows Update site notified users that updated software had to be installed before the patching process could proceed. This time, such a notice never appears.
For users who elect not to have updates installed automatically, the issue of consent is crucial. Microsoft has apparently decided, however, that it doesn't need permission to patch Windows Updates files, even if you've set your preferences to require it.
Microsoft provides no tech information — yet
To make matters even stranger, a search on Microsoft's Web site reveals no information at all on the stealth updates. Let's say you wished to voluntarily download and install the new WU executable files when you were, for example, reinstalling a system. You'd be hard-pressed to find the updated files in order to download them. At this writing, you either get a stealth install or nothing.A few Web forums have already started to discuss the updated files, which bear the version number 7.0.6000.381. The only explanation found at Microsoft's site comes from a user identified as Dean-Dean on a Microsoft Communities forum. In reply to a question, he states:
"Windows Update Software 7.0.6000.381 is an update to Windows Update itself. It is an update for both Windows XP and Windows Vista. Unless the update is installed, Windows Update won't work, at least in terms of searching for further updates. Normal use of Windows Update, in other words, is blocked until this update is installed."
Windows Secrets contributing editor Susan Bradley contacted Microsoft Partner Support about the update and received this short reply:
"7.0.6000.381 is a consumer only release that addresses some specific issues found after .374 was released. It will not be available via WSUS [Windows Server Update Services]. A standalone installer and the redist will be available soon, I will keep an eye on it and notify you when it is available."Unfortunately, this reply does not explain why the stealth patching began with so little information provided to customers. Nor does it provide any details on the "specific issues" that the update supposedly addresses.
System logs confirm stealth installs
In his forum post, Dean-Dean names several files that are changed on XP and Vista. The patching process updates several Windows\System32 executables (with the extensions .exe, .dll, and .cpl) to version 7.0.6000.381, according to the post.
In Vista, the following files are updated:
1. wuapi.dll
2. wuapp.exe
3. wuauclt.exe
4. wuaueng.dll
5. wucltux.dll
6. wudriver.dll
7. wups.dll
8. wups2.dll
9. wuwebv.dll
In XP, the following files are updated:
1. cdm.dll
2. wuapi.dl
l3. wuauclt.exe
4. wuaucpl.cpl
5. wuaueng.dll
6. wucltui.dll
7. wups.dll
8. wups2.dll
9. wuweb.dll
These files are by no means viruses, and Microsoft appears to have no malicious intent in patching them. However, writing files to a user's PC without notice (when auto-updating has been turned off) is behavior that's usually associated with hacker Web sites. The question being raised in discussion forums is, "Why is Microsoft operating in this way?"
How to check which version your PC has
If a system has been patched in the past few months, the nine executables in Windows\System32 will either show an earlier version number, 7.0.6000.374, or the stealth patch: 7.0.6000.381. (The version numbers can be seen by right-clicking a file and choosing Properties. In XP, click the Version tab and then select File Version. In Vista, click the Details tab.)
In addition, PCs that received the update will have new executables in subfolders named 7.0.6000.381 under the following folders:c:\Windows\System32\SoftwareDistribution\Setup\ServiceStartup\wups.dllc:\Windows\System32\SoftwareDistribution\Setup\ServiceStartup\wups2.dllUsers can also verify whether patching occurred by checking Windows' Event Log:
Step 1. In XP, click Start, Run.
Step 2. Type eventvwr.msc and press Enter.
Step 3. In the tree pane on the left, select System.
Step 4. The right pane displays events and several details about them.
Event types such as "Installation" are labeled in the Category column. "Windows Update Agent" is the event typically listed in the Source column for system patches.On systems that were checked recently by Windows Secrets readers, the Event Log shows two installation events on Aug. 24. The files were stealth-updated in the early morning hours. (The time stamp will vary, of course, on machines that received the patch on other dates.)
To investigate further, you can open the Event Log's properties for each event. Normally, when a Windows update event occurs, the properties dialog box shows an associated KB number, enabling you to find more information at Microsoft's Web site. Mysteriously, no KB number is given for the WU updates that began in August. The description merely reads, "Installation Successful: Windows successfully installed the following update: Automatic Updates."
No need to roll back the updated files
Again, it's important to note that there's nothing harmful about the updated files themselves. There are no reports of software conflicts and no reason to remove the files (which WU apparently needs in order to access the latest patches). The only concern is the mechanism Microsoft is using to perform its patching, and how this mechanism might be used by the software giant in the future.
I'd like to thank reader Angus Scott-Fleming for his help in researching this topic. He recommends that advanced Windows users monitor changes to their systems' Registry settings via a free program by Olivier Lombart called Tiny Watcher. Scott-Fleming will receive a gift certificate for a book, CD, or DVD of his choice for sending in a comment we printed.
I'll report further on this story when I'm able to find more information on the policies and techniques behind Windows Update's silent patches. Send me your tips on this subject via the Windows Secrets contact page.Scott Dunn is associate editor of the Windows Secrets Newsletter. He is also a contributing editor of PC World Magazine, where he has written a monthly column since 1992, and co-author of 101 Windows Tips & Tricks (Peachpit) with Jesse Berst and Charles Bermant.
What is your opinion?
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Friday, September 14, 2007
Wednesday, September 12, 2007
A Map of "The Island"
I have never reall followed this show. A friend sent me this link and i will post the pic for you. I am sure that some of you watch it.
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Free War of the Worlds E-comic by Darkhorse
Free War of the Worlds E-comic by Darkhorse
Here is a link to get the whole thing converted into a PDF file. Get it while the getting is good!
The files will be available for 7 days or 100 downloads! Here is the link:
http://download.yousendit.com/3E515E8720D2BA22
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Here is a link to get the whole thing converted into a PDF file. Get it while the getting is good!
The files will be available for 7 days or 100 downloads! Here is the link:
http://download.yousendit.com/3E515E8720D2BA22
What is your opinion?
Blogroll Me!
How many of you have seen this picture?
I have never seen this picture before. I wanted to pass this on to you all. Thanks to Axinar for this article.
According to The New York Times it was taken by Valencia M. McClatchey and is the only known surviving photograph of the United Flight 93 crash in Pennsylvania on September 11, 2001.
She gave the FBI a copy of the photo to help in the investigation. She also apparently let newspapers and television stations use the photograph - perhaps to give some visual aid to the horror that took place that morning - not at the financial or military capital of the greatest power on Earth, but someplace, up until then, of no IMPORT at all - the middle of a field.
Related:
A Sept. 11 Photo Brings Out the Conspiracy Theorists - The New York Times
Picture Made on 9/11 Takes a Toll on Photographer - Flight 93 Photo Fraud
Just how nutty are 9/11 conspiracy nuts, you ask? - JBlog Central
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