Night Shot - Vivid mode

30 seconds, ISO3200, F/22 Vivid mode on the setting, Same deck at my home. 8.56pm



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55 seconds and counting...

This is a 55 second exposure off the deck of my home. The time i took the pic was 8.17pm. It is a cloudy night and not as much light as was in the other pic. The ISO speed was 3200 and F/22. I am getting very close to the look i want. It is just hard to hold the button down as this was in the BULB mode.






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New Internet Setup...

We bought a new Router and Wireless card for the home setup this weekend. I have used Linksys routers for over 6 years and have 3 of them now. I have a very old 4-port BEFSR41, and Wireless BEFW11S4 (B Band)and now the Wireless-N Home RouterWRT150N. I disconnected both of the old ones and hooked the new one up. Very easy setup for it.

• Internet-sharing Router and 4-port Switch, with a built in speed and range enhanced Wireless Access Point
• MIMO technology uses multiple radios to create a robust signal that travels up to 3 times farther and reduces dead spots
• Up to 9 times faster than Wireless-G, but also works great with Wireless-G and -B devices
• Wireless signals protected by wireless encryption, and your network protected from

I am very impressed with the ease in which it set up compared to the old B-Band which i had many problems with. We also purchased a new Wireless-N USB Network Adapter.

• High-speed Wireless-N (draft 802.11n) networking for your desktop or notebook computer
• MIMO technology uses multiple radios to create a robust signal that travels up to 4 times farther and reduces dead spots
• Up to 12 times faster than Wireless-G, but can also connect to Wireless-G and -B networks
• Wireless transmissions protected by up to 256-bit encryption

This was a dream to set up!! The security feature on the router and wireless adapter was incredible easy!!

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Japan File Sharing Disconnects...From SlashDot

 

+--------------------------------------------------------------------+

| Japanese ISPs To Cut Net Access For File Sharers                   |

|   from the would-be-nice-to-surf-the-net dept.                     |

|   posted by Zonk on Sunday March 16, @05:28 (Communications)       |

|   http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/03/15/2243235         |

+--------------------------------------------------------------------+

 

[0]modemac writes "Four major Japanese telecom organizations, which represent 'about 1,000 major and smaller' domestic ISPs, have [1]agreed to forcibly cut the Internet connection of filesharers. They're specifically targeting users of the 'Winny' program, trading copied gaming software and music. The article states that a new set of ISP guidelines will be drawn up on how to cut off users who 'leak illegally copied material onto the Net.'"

 

Discuss this story at:

    http://yro.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=08/03/15/2243235

 

Links:

    0. http://www.modemac.com/

    1. http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/20080315TDY01305.htm

 

RMStringer

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

You have no conscience and it seems you never will - Cyberaktif

 

Over Expouser

Over Expouser, originally uploaded by RMStringer.

I set the exposure time to 30 seconds. It is my first attempt. I took it in my back yard. The ISO speed was at 3200.

My New SLR Camera

We just went to Ritz Camera and purchased the Sony A-200 today. It is a 10.2 mega pixel with an 18-70mm zoom lens. It has a 3200ISO speed!! I also got a 2 gig compact flash card for the unit. I hope to during the summer to get a 75-300mm zoom lens.

Here are a few pics of the lake i took today.




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RIAA - SlashDot Story

+--------------------------------------------------------------------+

| RIAA Will Finally Face the Music In Court                                |

|   from the discovery-channel dept.                                           |

|   posted by kdawson on Friday March 14, @12:29 (The Courts)                |

|   http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/03/14/158246|

+--------------------------------------------------------------------+

 

Falstaff writes "[0]Exonerated RIAA defendant Tanya Andersen is expected to [1]refile her malicious prosecution lawsuit against the RIAA today.

The refiling will mark a significant watershed in the RIAA's fight against P2P users because for the first time, the group's tactics, secret agreements, and fee splitting with MediaSentry are likely to come to light, thanks to discovery. Andersen's attorney says he'll be 'digging into agreements between the RIAA, RIAA member companies, MediaSentry, and the Settlement Support Sentry. Part of that will involve looking at compensation, like how much MediaSentry gets from each settlement. "I'd love to know what kind of bounty MediaSentry got paid to supply erroneous identities to the RIAA," Lybeck says.' The judge has barred further motions to dismiss the complaint, which means the RIAA will have to face the music. 'Unlike the thousands of lawsuits filed so far, the RIAA does not have the luxury of walking away from this case if there's a real chance of embarrassing information being released. "Once discovery happens in the cases the RIAA brings, they run," Lybeck says. "This is our case now, and they can't run."'"

 

Discuss this story at:

    http://yro.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=08/03/14/158246

 

Links:

    0. http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/06/05/1233253&tid=123

    1. http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080313-andersen-attorney-on-riaa-suit-they-cant-run-now.html

 

RMStringer

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

You have no conscience and it seems you never will - Cyberaktif

 

Morning clouds...

Taken with my LGVX8600 phone.
From RMStringer

Internet Freedom Preservation Act of 2008 (HR 5353).

I am writing today to urge you to co-sponsor the Internet Freedom Preservation Act of 2008 (HR 5353). This important, bipartisan legislation protects the free-flowing Internet from blocking, censorship and discrimination by powerful phone and cable companies.

 

 

Tens of millions of Americans rely upon an open Internet in their daily lives. Our elected leaders must protect our basic right to communicate from those who want to take it from us. The legislation calls for a nationwide series of public hearings about what the future of the Internet should look like -- an important step to bring these crucial issues into the light of day.

 

 

Please help in this effort by joining Reps. Markey and Pickering in support of the bipartisan Internet Freedom Preservation Act. Thank you.

 

 

RMStringer

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

You have no conscience and it seems you never will - Cyberaktif

 

House Painting...

We had our home painted inside over the last 7 days by a good contractor located here in Midlothian. The contractor is called McNeil-N-Design, LLC

The owner is named Erick McNeil and they did  a very good job given the task at hand.  If you live in the Chesterfield/Midlothian area and you need some house work done, please contact me.

 

RMStringer

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

The significant problems we face

cannot be solved at the same level

of thinking we were at when

we created them: Albert Einstein

 

Big con trial!

Taken with my LGVX8600 phone.
From RMStringer

What Im reading now...

The Travler-John Twelve Hawks I have read this one before and just got the next in the series. I wanted to refresh my memory about the book.
Posted via my LGVX8600 phone. From RMStringer

Mack: The Superior Species

Thanks to Mac for letting me post this.

 

The Superior Species

 

That whacky – of charity, let us call him Stultus Cibus – Stultus Cibus is at it again, swimming naked with the alligators in Florida.  Oh, sure, some writers say he was swimming nude with the alligators, but if you've seen a picture of that ugly ol' boy you will understand that he was nekkid.  Indeed, he looks as if he traded his last few brain cells and his last bar of soap for a marijuana joint back in 1968 or so.

 

The last time Stultus got naked with the alligators back in '06 one of them ate a fair amount of him, including his left arm and part of his sit-upon.  This Circle of Life event would have been completed, and Stultus digested, except for the fact that Polk County deputies were pulling on one end of Stultus while the 'gator was pulling on the other.

 

One would expect a self-respecting alligator who was raised by loving parents to eat a healthier diet than ol' Stultus.

 

Maybe next time the deputies can just sort of, you know, accidentally let go. 

 

One wonders if to alligators humans taste like chicken.

 

Stultus spent months receiving taxpayer-funded care that apparently some of our war wounded are denied, and returned to driving around in his pickup truck and consuming meth and marijuana. 

 

Well, one can't keep a one-armed village idiot down.  Last Friday Stultus was once again swimming naked with the alligators, and once again Polk County deputies saved his life.

 

Like the ever-optimistic Charlie Brown, the alligators were hoping Lucy wouldn't yank the human away this time.

 

Or perhaps the alligators were reluctant to take a bite out of Stultus because they were afraid he was processed in China and might contain bacteria or sewerage or weird chemicals.

 

And aren't there laws against feeding alligators unsanitary food?

 

This last encounter was on a Friday, and as we all know from the respected theologian Jack Chick the Pope mandated that alligators eat humans on Fridays for the sake of the Italian alligator-shoe industry.

 

Stultus' next career may be as an announcer for National Public Radio, another taxpayer-funded and brain-dead entity.  Barring that, he could stumble around the mall with a tin cricket in his ear and barking obscenities to himself.

 

Let's see if Stultus really has guts – let's see if he'll swim naked with Rosie O'Donnell next go-'round.

 

-30-

 

Mack Hall -- one of the few healthy men in Jasper County not displaying a parking tag meant for the handicapped.

--
RMSTringer
+++++++++++++++

Cheer Finals...

Champion Cheer&Dance-The Champion Cup Nationals.
From RMStringer

Personal Best...

I went to the gym last night and was working on legs.  I worked into a set with a guy on the Hack-Sled. That is an inverted leg press.  I normally work out with about 230lbs not counting the weight of the machine.  Well, we started out with 270lbs, i did my normal set reps with that, then we went to 360lbs, normal set reps with that as well.  He then placed 6 pairs of 45lb weights; 1 set =90lbs, totaling 540lbs.  I did 10 reps at that weight! i have never tried that weight before and i was very impressed with myself.  He proceeded to go to about 620lbs and i said that 540lbs was enough.  In actuality, it was 585lbs due to the weight of the sled. I only count the weight  that i place on the machine.

--
RMSTringer
+++++++++++++++

Busy Life...

Sorry for not posting much this week to the Blog. it has been a crazy week and lots of stuff is going on. I will try to post a few items over the next few days.  I saw this website while I was reading a magazine during a break today.  It is called Road Id.  www.roadid.com and I am going to get me one as it is a good idea if you like the outdoors and are active in it.  Go and check it out.

 

More later…

 

RMStringer

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

You have no conscience and it seems you never will - Cyberaktif

Trading Drugs?

While i am on the road going to work, i listen to the local radio station. They always play commercials to pay for their air time and i keep hearing one for substance abuse. A person will come on and say do you or someone you know use meth, or cocaine, or alcohol? IF you, you might qualify for a study to take a pill to see if it stops the cravings of the substance(s) you take. you will be compensated with money and travel time. Please call...

This just pisses me off to know ends. On May 5, 2008; i will be 5 years clean and sober and no, i repeat no PILL helped me stop! I was in rehab for 28 days straight and worked a good program for many years afterwards to stop. I did not and do not take a pill to stay off drugs and alcohol. No one paid me to stop, i did it on my own.

My compensation for doing so is a clean, sober life. I do not have to get up and take my "no drugs" pill to stave off the cravings and insanity. But let me digress, without a spiritual awakening and the power of God; it would not have happened and or continue to happen. That is not to say i have to live my life "one day at a time;" i make future plans and i try to be the best person i can be and lead a clean healthy life.

So, i guess my point is, they might come up with a pill to make you not want to use anymore but who wants to be bound with a pill to stop taking drugs? SO you put down the crack pipe for a pill to stop; get the picture? If you want to get sober and clean it can be done. Ask for help and get into a 12-Step program that best suits you habit. AA, CA, NA, they are all good if worked correctly and with divine guidance and prayer they will and can work everyday. You can try the "pill" but you will only trade one substance for another, it might not be as bad; it might cost the same or more; you might fill the craving void, but it is not the correct way...



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Saturday Northwest sky...

More con trails. Look at the formations...
Taken with my LGVX8600 phone. From RMStringer

A Handy Utility...

FLV to MP3 Online Converter.

Convert your FLV files (YouTube's videos) to MP3 fast. It's 100% free.

This is not a bad little site. It really works...



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Peter Murphy - A Strange Kind of Love ( Trent Reznor, Jeordie White)

His voice is still as good as it ever was. This track brings chills to me...

Peter Murphy - Strange Kind of Love

This is a good version of this track. He looks like he has been in the deep desert mining Spice...Blue Eyes are a sure sign of Fremen. This is from the "Deep" album as well.

Peter Murphy - Cuts You Up

1991. What a great album this came from "Deep" Was the title. Great quality for this vid as well. He is the Godfather of Goth...

Warm Leatherette - Trent Reznor, Jeordie White, Peter Murphy

What a great version of this track!!! I always loved the original version when i went to Starz.

Northwest Con Trail...

Half-circle
From RMStringer

[Flickr] Schmap Richmond Fourth Edition: Photo Inclusion

My Photo was chosen for the Guide!!! 

--
Subject: [Flickr] Schmap Richmond Fourth Edition: Photo Inclusion



You've been sent a Flickr Mail from Emma J. Williams:

------------------------------------------------------------

:: Schmap Richmond Fourth Edition: Photo Inclusion


Hi Robert,

I am delighted to let you know that your submitted photo
has been selected for inclusion in the newly released
fourth edition of our Schmap Richmond Guide:

Tobacco Company Club
http://www.schmap.com/richmond/nightlife_nightclubs/p=265136/i=265136.jpg

If you like the guide and have a website, blog or personal
page, then please also check out the customizable
widgetized versions of our Schmap Richmond Guide, complete
with your published photo:

http://www.schmap.com/guidewidgets/p=73048694N00/c=SF20622622

Thanks so much for letting us include your photo - please
enjoy the guide!

Best regards,

Emma Williams,
Managing Editor, Schmap Guides

------------------------------------------------------------


The Flickr Team

www.flickr.com

--
RMSTringer
+++++++++++++++

Thought for today...

We live our lives in relation to what Thomas Keating calls 'the false self,' the self created and conferred by culture. pg116 'The Heart of Christianity' 2003 Marcus J. Borg Posted via my LGVX8600 phone.

Congress's Business?

Roger Clemens? Gas? War?  Steroids?  What the hell are we electing our Congressmen for?  Who really gives a big rat’s ass about him using or not using “enhancement drugs” while playing baseball. I mean come the hell on!!  We are at WAR for God’s sake and they are worrying about steroid use.  Gas is spiraling out of control with the big gas companies turning the biggest profits with analysts predicting $4 a gallon this summer ever and Congress is worried about baseball? How will we ever get to the game?  Why are they so concerned? They are a bunch of crooks and liars themselves yet we re-elect them every 4 years.  Clemens is a professional athlete and he gave a good show for the fans. They paid him millions of dollars to do it.  Just because someone got pissed and “blew the whistle” on the practice that has gone on for numerous years, doesn't facilitate the need for Congress to get involved. If the Baseball Commissioner, Bud Selig, cant police his men how do we expect Congress to?  Get a new commissioner that can do the job. What a huge pile of shit if you ask me.

 

 Let the congressmen and women get back to things that really matter and get the hell out of baseball.  This nation has so lost its way in the governmental department it is just amazing.  Baseball? For all of the waste of public money this had cost the public; what good can come out of it. People go to watch a live game for the thrill and to root for their team and see a good show! What is next? Congress regulating how loud Rock Concerts should be and how long they can play? IT just amazes me about how misguided The USA has become. “Playing tonight, The National Congressional Baseball Team, Steroid Free as House Bill BR549 Mandates.”

 

What a monumental waste of my money…

 

RMStringer

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

You have no conscience and it seems you never will - Cyberaktif

 

Turning Ten - Billy Collins

If you are like me, you can relate to this poem. I saw it in a book by Marcus Borg "The Heart of Christianity"

Here it is:

 

On Turning Ten

The whole idea of it makes me feel like I'm coming down with something, something worse than any stomach ache or the headaches I get from reading in bad light-- a kind of measles of the spirit, a mumps of the psyche, a disfiguring chicken pox of the soul. You tell me it is too early to be looking back, but that is because you have forgotten the perfect simplicity of being one and the beautiful complexity introduced by two. But I can lie on my bed and remember every digit. At four I was an Arabian wizard. I could make myself invisible by drinking a glass of milk a certain way. At seven I was a soldier, at nine a prince. But now I am mostly at the window watching the late afternoon light. Back then it never fell so solemnly against the side of my tree house, and my bicycle never leaned against the garage as it does today, all the dark blue speed drained out of it. This is the beginning of sadness, I say to myself, as I walk through the universe in my sneakers. It is time to say good-bye to my imaginary friends, time to turn the first big number. It seems only yesterday I used to believe there was nothing under my skin but light. If you cut me I could shine. But now when I fall upon the sidewalks of life, I skin my knees. I bleed.

--
RMSTringer
+++++++++++++++

Weekend Bike Ride...

Yesterday we rode Lakeview 1&2 again and ended up with 12.45 miles total. After the ride, my legs were destroyed!  My calf muscles and quads are sore as well as my knees.  It was the perfect temp for a ride as it was about 45 degrees.

Have a good evening…

 

RMStringer

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

You have no conscience and it seems you never will - Cyberaktif

 

Humans – Chock Full of Vitamins and Other Essential Nutrients

Thanks to Mac for letting me post this!

Humans – Chock Full of Vitamins and Other Essential Nutrients

In Hawaii a tiger took a walk on the mild side last week, escaping its catdominium and strolling around the human parts of the zoo, checking out the sights, maybe taking a few snapshots, and looking for a snack.

This follows another escape by a tiger in a San Francisco zoo on Christmas Day, a back-to-nature event in which one man was killed near a snack bar. One imagines the survivors running and screaming in fear while text-messaging on their cell 'phones and chugging bottled water.

And then the souvenirs: "I Survived the San Francisco Tiger Massacre" and "My Parents Watched a Guy Get Eaten by a Tiger and All I Got Was This Lousy tee-shirt."

Many people question how big cats can escape their enclosure, but the real question should be why cats bother to do so. In the zoo tigers spend their days lying around in the sun while being given free medical care, free housing, and free food according to their dietary wants and needs, and occasionally eating some of their benefactors. Give them a holy book they can't even read and their lives would be pretty much complete. The reader may now deconstruct the metaphor for himself.

Hundreds of television viewers hundred of miles from any zoo are probably filing disability claims, suffering from post traumatic stress syndrome involving nightcats, and thus unable to work. O Lord, send Thy grief counselors among us.

What, exactly, is a grief counselor? Is that what we used to call a busy-body?

The smart tiger will lurk at the updated watering hole, the bottled-water machine, waiting for its thirsty prey.

Unfortunately, PETA members are out of their cages too, terribly concerned lest Fluffy suffer from a human femur caught in his throat.

A house-cat is a tiger writ small, insolent and carnivorous, lounging on the windowsill and dreaming of killing mice and birds, and through its heavy-lidded eyes perhaps measuring its human companion and pondering the nutritive possibilities. To a pussycat the living room is the African veldt, and the cat's pet human little more than a large, munchable monkey with opposable thumbs.

Sure your kitty purrs when you stroke his chin; he's fantasizing about eating you.

Human – it's what's for dinner.

Even harmless-looking animals on the loose are dangerous; an innocent zoo visitor could be trampled to death by sheep stampeding to some presidential candidate's rally.

And then the snakes – they might escape to become editors at The New York Times, swallowing whole the few remaining specimens of another endangered species, real reporters.

-30-

Let's see -- our electoral choices are:

1. Mrs. Macbeth and her geezer-thug-lecher baggage.
2. The Messiah-Fuhrer and his Fuhrer-ess.
3. Another middle-aged guy from Hope, Arkansas who waves a big ol' Bible around, thinks he's a musician, and eats squirrels.
4. The war hero who in his old age is one medication error away from screaming obscenities at the furniture, said furniture including his embalmed wife.

Um...no.

---

Delicious ideas to please the pickiest eaters. Watch the video on AOL Living.

A Good Blog: Fauni Gena

If you are a lover of Ambient Music like I am, this is a good Blog to go and read reviews about different artists that are in that genre. 

With artist like Vidna Obmana & Asmus Tietchens, Steve Reich, Brian Eno, just to name a few!  Go and look at the Blog.

 

 

RMStringer

+++++++++++++++++++++++

"We are all geniuses when we dream"

- E.M. Cioran

 

Metallica - Fade to Black

It is my favorite track from them and perhaps one of the best songs that Metallica ever wrote. It shoes what diverse musicians and how skillfully they are. They were good on this track.

Time - Pink Floyd

This came from the Delicate Sound Of Thunder album. It was a live 2 disc set that came after A Momentary Lapse Of Reason album.

Pink Floyd - Comfortably Numb (The Wall)

Just am incredible song to be seen live! I saw them preform it in 1994 at Houston Texas, Rice University. I used to watch The Wall all the time at college.

[Flickr] Schmap: Richmond Photo Short-list

One of my pics from Christmas was chosen as a finalist pic for the Schmap Richmond Guide. I hope that they use it!!  Wish me luck!!

You've been sent a Flickr Mail from Emma J. Williams:

------------------------------------------------------------

:: Schmap: Richmond Photo Short-list


Hi Robert,

I am writing to let you know that one of your photos has
been short-listed for inclusion in the fourth edition of
our Schmap Richmond Guide, to be published at the end of
this month.

--
RMSTringer
+++++++++++++++

Don't Let Congress Ruin the Internet

Dear Friend,

The Internet Freedom Preservation Act of 2008 (HR 5353). This important, bipartisan legislation protects the free-flowing Internet from blocking, censorship and discrimination by powerful phone and cable companies.

Big phone and cable companies are trying to get rid of Net Neutrality, the fundamental principle that prevents them from discriminating against your favorite Web sites and services.

Unless we speak out to our members of Congress, they could move to allow large telephone and cable companies to control what you do, where you go and what you watch online.

Visit the URL below to learn more about what's at stake and send a loud message directly to Congress:

https://secure2.convio.net/free/site/Advocacy?id=241
To take action on this issue, click on the link below:
https://secure2.convio.net/free/site/Advocacy?s_oo=NmNaeAcP-ZOpkKpP_YlcKQ..&id=241
If the text above does not appear as a link or it wraps across multiple lines, then copy and paste it into the address area of your browser.

A recap of the last few weeks...

It has been a long week here for us. Wife has been away for business and i have been minding the house. Chel and I have gone to the gym several time and have had a good time. We are now eagerly awaiting her return. We were worried that she would not be able to fly home tonight due to the bad weather but she had no problems!

I have taken a part-time job at the place where i work. I am doing data cabling for a company called Archura. The do most of the fiber and Cat6 at the server farm. They have been great in working with my schedule.

It has been really nasty weather here the last few days and Chel hoped for a 2-hour delay in school but did not get it. We just have not been hit with an great amount of snow or ice this year. The weather man said that we will be in a very cold pattern till the end of the month, perhaps there is still time for a Winter Storm!

I have been reading lots of book this year. I finished a book called Blackwater and then i started a book called Blasphemy which i finished it Wednesday. Several years ago, i read a book by an author named John Twelve Hawks. The book was called The Traveler. I was in my "library" the other night and i saw the book and wondered if he had a new novel. I looked it up and found his newest one which i went and purchased yesterday. It is called The Dark River, the second of three novels in the Fourth Realm Trilogy I have not started it yet and perhaps i will read it next week.

I am going to ride sometime this weekend, just not sure when it will happen...

What is your opinion?
Blogroll Me!

Thought for today...

Faith is what you turn to when knowledge runs out. Even more strongly, faith is what you need when beliefs and knowledge conflict.
pg29 'The Heart of Christianity' 2003 Marcus J. Borg

Posted via my LGVX8600 phone.

The Heads feat. Johnette Napolitano - Damage Ive Done

The lead singer of Concret Blond with the talking heads without David Byrne back in 1996.

Talking Heads - Burning Down the House

One of my favorite old skool videos. I remember watching this on TBS Night Tracks way back in the 1980s...

Tom Tom Club - Suboceana

Talking Heads Without the mouth. I always thought that this song was talking about a Micronaut Comicbook. There was a world called Oceania in that comic. The lyrics remind me of their search for the 3 keys...

Jasper High School Band 1991

This was my high school. I graduated in 1989 so i am not in this video, but you get the gist of it. I played drums, bass drum to be exact.

FLIR Fart - FLIR GasFindIR camera

Please be careful when you expel gas. You never know who or what is watching you when you do it.

Total Lunar Eclipse

As reported by NASA:

The Sun goes down. The Moon comes up. You go out and look at the sky. Observing the eclipse is that easy. Maximum eclipse, and maximum beauty, occurs at 10:26 pm EST (7:26 pm PST).

Above: A preview of the Feb. 20th lunar eclipse created by graphic artist Larry Koehn. Click on the links to view labels for other time zones: GMT, AST, EST, CST, MST, PST, Alaska, Hawaii.

A lunar eclipse happens when the Moon passes through the shadow of Earth. You might expect the Moon to grow even more ashen than usual, but in fact it transforms into an orb of vivid red.

What is your opinion?
Blogroll Me!

HD-DVD and Blu-Ray DVD

We all knew knew that this was going to happen and Sony won the format war. Toshiba threw in the towel and took HD-DVD off the market today as reported by most major news.

The format war, often compared to the Betamax-VHS battle in the 1980s and then Sony's venture into the Mini-Disc products. I found them to be excellent but the support for them did not happen when the MP3 revolution took the public by storm.

Hollywood studios had initially split their alliances between the two camps, meaning only certain films would play on any one DVD machine and that hurt both of the companies in the beginning.

In addition to Wal-Mart, consumer electronics chain Best Buy and online video rental company Netflix Inc also recently signed up to the Blu-ray camp.


What is your opinion?
Blogroll Me!

My new book!

I started it today... Taken with my LGVX8600 phone.
From RMStringer

Thought for the day...

'The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true science' Albert Einstein Posted via my LGVX8600 phone.
From RMStringer

House, Nursing Assistant!

Thanks to Mac for letting me publish this article. 

House, Nursing Assistant

 

House is a reasonably intelligent television show featuring the eponymous lead as a Byronic hero who is never sacked despite his drug abuse, ill manners, television watching, and video gaming, all on the job, because he develops brilliant solutions to apparently impossible medical problems. 

 

Where House breaks down is its unreality, which is not a criticism because this is a television show.  In House the few nurses do things on computer screens and are never seen giving patient care.  Patients suffer seizures or coronary occlusions only when a team of physicians happens to be in the room.  The hospital in which House works has no admissions staff, nursing assistants, cleaner-uppers, security guards, or bulletin boards.  Each fictional doctor enjoys a spacious, glass-walled office which any real-life physician can only envy, and when said physician needs a crash cart, a suture tray, or a specific medicine it is immediately available.

 

What if House were more like a real hospital?

 

House, Nursing Assistant.  House is fired for having a drug problem, even though he saves lives.

 

House, Pharmacist.  House is fired for being rude, although he saves lives.

 

House, Cleaning Staff.  House is fired for pausing thirty seconds to watch a bit of soap opera on a patient's television while tidying his fiftieth or so room of his shift, even though skilled and science-based hygiene and maintenance save lives.

 

House, Hospital Security.  House, after wrestling with drunks most of his shift, is fired for playing a video game on his watch at four in the morning although his presence in a creepy world saves lives.

 

House, R.N.  House, after helping deliver a baby in E.R., giving resuscitation to a heart-attack victim, getting coughed on by 'flu patients, barfed on by someone with food poisoning, and supervising the care of dozens of other patients, all without lunch or even a potty break, is fired for telling an career FEMA recipient complaining about the formaldehyde in his free trailer that he doesn't even know what formaldehyde is and why doesn't he just open the windows if he doesn't like the new-car smell?

 

House, Admissions Clerk.  House, after years of loyal service to the same hospital doing his part to help save lives, is fired for not learning Spanish rapidly enough.

 

Short season, huh?  And now, back to Flipping Homezillas Off the Island.

 

-30-

 

Religous Choices...

We went to a Bar Mitzvah on Saturday and it was interesting. The ceremony and tradition in the service was just amazing and rightly so after over 2000+ years to perfect it. I have never been a Jewish Temple nor have I seen any of the accouterments that it has. The service was about 2.5 hours long with many of the prayers sang and spoken in Hebrew. I was very impressed by the Scripture leader and how fluently he spoke from the Torah. This stirred some questions in me.

It got me to thinking that I, being a Christian, believe that in order for em to go to Heaven, i have to believe in Jesus and accept him as my personal savior, thus enabling me to go to Heaven when i die. The Jewish people do not believe that Jesus was the embodiment of God and thus from a Christian point of view, will not go to Heaven even though one was started from the other.

Christians worship Jesus and pray to Him of God. Jews pray to God only. Now this thought may go against Christianity, but we both worship the same deity God, only in a different aspect. So they do not believe in Jesus, that is not their religion. The believe in God and that is their way to Heaven. Ok. No Problem for me. I just wonder if me believing in Jesus and them believing in God; do we not all go to the same Heaven? Is their religion any better than Christianity. Or is it worse. If that is what they believe and that is their faith, then is it not correct? Our Faith is correct for our belief. Why are we so judgmental of their religion if it initially spawned ours? Was Jesus not a Jew? I guess that it all goes back to the Christian Bible, not the Torah.

I hope that someone out will enter into my discussion on this. I am very interested in their subject and welcome all comments from Christian and Jew alike. It just all made me wonder about the differentiation on this subject and why it is the way it is.

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This is for a good cause...

Many years ago i participated in SETI@Home. I just found out about a project called Folding@Home. Here is a description from their website:

What is protein folding and how is folding linked to disease?
Proteins are biology's workhorses -- its "nanomachines." Before proteins can carry out these important functions, they assemble themselves, or "fold." The process of protein folding, while critical and fundamental to virtually all of biology, in many ways remains a mystery.

Moreover, when proteins do not fold correctly (i.e. "misfold"), there can be serious consequences, including many well known diseases, such as Alzheimer's, Mad Cow (BSE), CJD, ALS, Huntington's, Parkinson's disease, and many Cancers and cancer-related syndromes.

You can help by simply running a piece of software.
Folding@home is a distributed computing project -- people from throughout the world download and run software to band together to make one of the largest supercomputers in the world. Every computer takes the project closer to our goals. Folding@home uses novel computational methods coupled to distributed computing, to simulate problems millions of times more challenging than previously achieved.

What have we done so far?

We have had several successes. You can read about them on our Science page, on our Awards page, or go directly to our Results page.

Want to learn more?

Click on the links on the left for downloads or more information. You can also download our Executive Summary, which is a PDF suitable for distribution. Also, you can learn more by watching recent seminars (Stanford BMI ; Xerox PARC). One can also help by donating funds to the project, via Stanford University.

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