Rogue Wave

I kinda like these guys!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=86YGj5D6I3k

http://www.roguewavemusic.com/video/

They don't toss out any free stuff, but I ordered their CD. It's all good.

God's Posterchild?

http://www.cnn.com/2008/CRIME/07/31/preacher.freezer/index.html

Um, I wonder why I stay away from all churches?

One Geology?

http://www.onegeology.org/

Hmm, how do you get your rocks off?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7535379.stm

Stay Away From Edmonton

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7535840.stm

Good day eh? What the hell did the guy do to piss off the killer?

http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/world/2008/07/31/natpkg.can.bus.decapitation.ctv

Got A Tranquilizer Dart?

Six days of tracking this beast and no one could put it to sleep so they could save the poor guy? So sad and avoidable...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7534325.stm

Transsexual Toilets?

I would think they could use which ever one they a re "leaning" towards?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7529227.stm

Dusters, THREE

Dinah made design changes in the field, nothing fully tested, but theoretically increasing the power of Welhaven Two, to several times that of the first ship. Aidyn figured if things went as planned, they would be able to charge almost double the amount for each run, because they could clear twice as much space. The money was not her motivation, she just loved to create and improve.

Once Welhaven One checked out and was ready for live tests, a slew of pilots and crew were interviewed. Dinah and Aidyn did what they called “secondary” interviews, after the company had screened out their own least likable candidates. These were done mostly over video conferences, because many applicants were not local to Mars.

Bunny was one of the more memorable interviews. He didn’t like the line of questioning and wound up “mooning” Aidyn and Dinah before leaving the VidConf. He was very rash and wouldn’t have fit in at all, it showed. Aidyn laughed, but Dinah left the room when Bunny dropped trow and shook his ass at them, saying “Here’s your Sun, slingshot across this”.

Elgin was almost albino, dressed very neat and picked his nose. He did have some experience flying, but needed to grow up, which they thought unlikely anytime soon, since it had not happened already.

Handy was an interesting lady, very pretty, but didn’t fit the job description. She paid attention to Aidyn and we will leave it at that. Dinah suspected that he might have met her again after the interview.

They had many more candidates; Capn’ Jack seemed to be preoccupied, Moonshot had way too much attitude and an extra left arm (a plus actually), Erlend was discarded on just a “bad feeling” Dinah had about him, even though he was one of the more “normal” people they had talked to.


“What brings you to this project?” Aidyn asked the fidgeting man in front of him.

“I’m ready for change, I am sick of mining ships an d’ constant crap we go though.” He was referring to the raids and blockades that pop up from time to time, because corporate space travelers are completely greedy and there really is no law out here. They go out of their way to screw each other ever chance they get.

“The project we are starting will probably be boring in comparison.” Dinah chimed in.

“That’s ok, I can handle boring, I just don’t want to get me shit wiped anymore.”

“We understand that, but what makes you qualified for this mission?” Aidyn asked him.

Deogh was as tall as Aidyn but much wider. Not a fat man, but stocky. He was not quick witted, but he turned out to be very composed and had over 1000 day’s piloting between Earth and Mars. He had even made a trip to Saturn on a survey, but that was a onetime deal and his time in suspension, technically made him older than anyone either Aidyn or Dinah knew. He was born 156 years ago and his name was phonetically pronounced “Dough”.

“Qualified?” Deogh pronounced, smiling; “I can fuckin’ fly, and I will leave here before I complain about things. I’ve never broken a contract”

He made the short list along with several others, who were all sent to the simulator for evaluation.

The simulator was rudimentary and considering the depth of qualifications to pilot, it was not too difficult.

Dinah came up with an idea to complicate the tests and started tossing in malfunctions. First was propulsion failure, not a tough one, backup systems are pretty standard as well as the mandatory emergency ejection system to remove the crew from harm’s way.

She next introduced failures in the sweeper fields, which wreaked havoc on the effectiveness of the work and wound up really testing the ability of the pilot to make some hard calls. When to quit or continue, that kind of thing.

US Blacks In An AIDS Epidemic?

http://www.cnn.com/2008/HEALTH/conditions/07/29/black.aids.report/index.html?iref=mpstoryview

Bizarre, really. Um, one word I think, "Condom". Get with it people, AIDS sucks.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/07/29/martin.aids/index.html

Don't mommies and daddies teach the basics any more? I know I did with both my kids!

Ted Stevens Is On The Way Out

Finally! Way back when I worked at the National Science Foundation, this jerk was VERY well know for stopping any Arctic research that was not based in Alaska, even if it wouldn't work to do it there. I think he had a little to do with that famous "Bridge to nowhere"?

http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/07/29/stevens.indictment/index.html

Good riddance, you should have retired 30 years ago, you cheating ass.

How's Your Deficit?

http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/07/28/2009.deficit/index.html

Click image below to enlarge..

These dates are day, month year (I hate Office 2007).

Data courtesy of http://www.ustreas.gov/

Yes, we creep ever closer to 10 Trillion! What an accomplishment G.W. Lets keep lowering taxes and giving rich people the breaks. Pretty soon all we will be paying is the interest alone and not even worry about the debt. What could possibly go wrong??????

I Know Where I Am Retiring

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/from_our_own_correspondent/7525252.stm

Sounds like a great place. I wonder if I can get Cable?

Mental Hadicap Parking

http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/us/2008/07/26/ct.car.in.pool.news12

In her defence, the old gal was very very hot.

My Best Friend Is Missing

She is hurting herself and knows it, but doesn't care. If I didn't think I would go to jail, I would kidnap her and lock her up. At this very second she is out doing something she would normally never be capable of.

An extremist/terrorist has infiltrated her life and he has brainwashed her into being his little obedient slave. I don't even know her anymore.

I need some new friends!

Miranda July

Is an interesting woman, or so I think. Her web site is full of stuff; http://mirandajuly.com/

I found this with a little digging;
http://www.thedirectorsbureau.com/bureau1/mills/BlondeRedhead-TopRanking.mov

I expect she would be fun to chat with....


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_UBtwWYY4uw&feature=related

Switched At Birth

This American Life ran a very interesting piece about two girls who were switched at birth and didn't find out the truth until they were in their 40s. I had never considered the impact of this happening, which is nothing, as long as you never find out.

They have a link to download a MP3.
http://www.thislife.org/Radio_Episode.aspx?episode=360

Handouts For The Stupid

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7527108.stm

Yep, let's prop up all the dumb people who locked into loans they should have known they could not afford. This will wind up in the pockets of the lenders and is funded through taxes the less stupid people (me) pay.

The US Slaps Zimbabwe

We pretty much say here, "All Your Base Are Belong To Us";

http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2008/07/20080725-5.html

About that quote, it started as assignment to a class of graphic art students and turned in to this;

My Winter Vacation Spot...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7523796.stm

I think I will work on my tan first??

Last Time I Go On A Cruise

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7523147.stm

Cheap tricks and cheap ships...

Let's Snap A Photo?

"Ok, back up a bit, I can't fit you all in the shot. A bit more loves, just a bit more... perfect! "SNAP"

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7524436.stm

I wonder what the insurance policy holds?

Bright Eyes

I think I suggested this guy before?
Waste Of Paint..


Lover I Don't Have to Love (I hate the Video, not official I think)

I Hate Bail-Outs

I know it's impacting the "world economy", but why the hell do I have to pay 1/2 my taxes to interest on the US Deficit, to China and the other 1/2 to stupid assholes who bought more home than they could afford. Screw them, go back to renting. It's too late anyway.

I got all these flyer's in the mail, just like these losers who believed the scams. So I (Mr. Lower Middle Class) has to pay off the "wannabe" middle classes mistakes? I hope this is struck down. I would rather see the world economy fail horrendously and mobs of Americans lynching these loan officers who F-ed a lot of people.

That would be "good ol-Americ'n Jusdice". What the hell, Congress stood by and let this happen in the first place, lets nail some of those asses too. Idiots, Washington politics is so removed from reality that I am astounded the US Government has not been overthrown. Maybe next year?

Analog Africa

On a whim (probably an Amazon.com pub banner) I picked up "African Scream Contest". This CD rocks. A review from (shocker) BBC does it justice. You only have to read the last paragraph. http://www.bbc.co.uk/music/release/mf4h/ NOW I have to get the first two!

A Quick Look At Life

Um, where do I start? I feel I should go watch BBC news (because I hate the news here in the US). Screw that, they just recap the stories I was following all day on-line.

My kid plays video games in the basement from 9AM, till 11:30PM every day/night, it has been going on all summer. He goes to the pool some times and treks the mile up to the convenience store for a smoothie and candy. He has (at my insistence) dropped off job applications at every shop/store in the area. I wonder why he can't find work? Any guesses?

The US is over-run with illegal aliens (stuff that "undocumented" and "migrant worker" crap up your....). I have about 1/3 of my neighbors unable to communicate with me. Not a good situation, especially when we have a mosquito outbreak that I want to NIX, just these guys can't read the notices I put up. These people are here illegally and need to be dealt with quickly.

We have people ready to work. I see them on the street corners all over the place, begging for work and hand-outs. There are many "legals" sitting at home, drawing unemployment and often going hungry on that meager handout.

What to do? ICE and INS can step things up, I think. We have to take our country back and let our politicians know we want a better life for Americans. We want some action, now. Don't get me wrong, I don't personally hate these "aliens", I just hate what they caused both of my sons to go through; NO WORK. Putting these kids on welfare or unemployment won't help either, I am sure anyone can understand that.

What a difference, since the time I was 15 in the late 1970's and working as a dishwasher/bus boy at a Chinese restaurant. There are no white kids doing that kind of work anymore. Those jobs are all taken, with the pay undercut by "aliens".

We don't need them to prop up our economy. We have plenty of "home grown" unskilled labor. You just have to get them out of the basements of America and put them to work.

Dusters, TWO (before)

Dinah’s father had been a long haul space mariner, so she didn’t know the man at all. When he died in a freak fuel leak that destroyed his ship and several million tons of cargo, she was 5. Her mother had left shortly after her birth, because she couldn’t cope with her husband’s absence or a baby.

She was left in the care of her Uncle Darrin. Right up until College, he was all she ever knew of “family”. Darrin raised Dinah with all of the hopes, freedoms and dreams a child should have. She grew up in a rural area on Earth; spending many days in the sparsely forested parks nearby. Her knowledge of the physical, natural and the educational world was well rounded. She still writes Darrin when possible and visits him when she can, back on Earth.

Dinah had excited her teachers and professors all through school. She was cute, perky and quirky. Insanely smart. One fellow student took to her in College, that was Chuck. He was not into her sexually; he already had several trophy bimbo girlfriends.

She came on the idea of cleaning up the debris in orbit around the Earth, completely out of the blue. It was sprung from a night time beach party in San Diego. The smog of the earlier centuries had been cleared and there were no fires that winter yet, so the sky was crystal clear. She traced dozens of near earth satellites that criss-crossed the sky above her. These were no longer allowed or needed, and they were all dead satellites. Just sitting there waiting to get sucked into the atmosphere and burn into nothing.

Later, after many hours of discussion with Chuck and others, Dinah was discouraged because of the interference with existing higher satellite networks that would inevitably occur during a cleanup. The magnetic field she proposed to make the cleanup viable didn’t exist. That mess would have to be left to a manual effort, nothing like what she had hoped. This very cleanup has not yet happened, to this day.

Her attention turned to the larger space used to travel between the worlds and her “Sweeper” concept was born.

In a nutshell, Dinah proposed to collect the remnants of space travel that litter our space with a giant magnet and then, as the “trash truck” slingshot around the Sun, drop the trash into the heart of the Solar System. No harm done and a free disposal service on the tail end. After reading her preliminary proposal, several Astronomy students took up the argument of this causing harm to the Sun, but after being escalated to senior Professors (and a few other schools), the arguments died. “No problem” the NSF said in the end, and NASA.

Dinah became obsessed with the concept and began thinking of every obstacle the plan might face technically. She considered Comets, Asteroids/Meteors and the 11 year Solar Wind cycle. She had options for each, but never considered the human obstacles; funding, marketing and sales.

Chuck left school and wound up marrying the daughter of a huge corporate CEO. He moved into a comfy life and disappeared from Dinah’s. She missed his companionship and friendship and endured several bad relationships without him.

Aidyn wandered into Dinah’s life, already established as a grad student and engaged to be married. He met Dinah though a Physics Professor they shared. The woman thought Aidyn’s business degree would mesh with Dinah’s dream, and it did beautifully. Only a bit of coaxing later, Dinah and Aidyn were out together marketing her concept to major space transport companies.

Aero-Gen bit first and provided funding for “exclusive” conceptual research, which was great. Working under a grant was way better than floating loans. The company lost interest after a year and the funding dried up, but not before Dinah had completed a simulation of how long it would take to clean the old lanes between the Earth and the Moon. She had made some friends in the super computer department who helped her out on the side.

The Moon cleanup would involve many sweeps, because the propulsion residue was not all in one place; it was always in orbit. The most productive way to clean things up was establishing a device in Earth orbit that continually faced the Moon and capturing the remnants that the sphere’s own gravitational pull didn’t already take care of. It was just short of the la-grange point between the two spheres that would best suit Dinah’s desires.

Even though the Moon doesn’t rotate because of the “tidal locking” effect, the debris and residue continue a bizarre dance in orbit around it, a strong enough magnet should be able to draw in the debris.

Aidyn made a few connections and hammered out a sales pitch for Dinah’s concept. He went into Welhaven, well recommended and supported by some friends of his family inside the company.

The pitch was hit out of the park and they had Welhaven on the hook. The company was well known for being on the leading edge of technology, leading them into huge financial success. This project was right up their alley and they pounced.

The design was all hers, but tweaked and approved by other Aerospace engineers at the Company. She couldn’t argue with them and actually learned a lot from their interactions that she had not considered before.

Since no one was going to the moon anymore, the moon orbit cleanup never happened. Welhaven had bigger ideas with bigger returns on their investment in mind for this concept, which they were now fully funding.

Exercise in Korea

http://www.kcna.co.jp/index-e.htm

Hmm, I looked all over for the news release from a US site, but found nothing. I have to assume the comment about 10 thousand US troops being involved in this as true. Um, when the US is involved in 2 active on-going wars, why the HELL do we have more than 10 observers in Korea now?

I am not stupid with this thought, am I? Lets get off Guam and all of the Mediterranean bases too. Consolidate and win guys.

Moon Shot, 16 July 1969

A day to remember? Of course it is. I was 7 years old and watched the whole thing live in grainy black and white video.

http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/imagegallery/image_feature_1134.html

If you think the US trips to the moon were a fake, PLEASE stop reading my Blog. These guys are all heroes to the entire world. Can't wait to get back.

2008 Olympic Boycott

I rarely watch the Olympics except Hockey anyway, but I implore anyone reading this to boycott the NBC presentation of the Olympics this August. I know it is a little drain on a US company, but they are covering a very disturbing event being put on in a very disturbing country. If you don't know why I would want this to happen, then you don't read the news. An archived Time article from 20 years ago; http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,988627,00.html

In short, today China supports violent regimes like Zimbabwe and some questionable ones in South America. Their view is they are just "trading", which comes down to weapons for Oil. Nice trade, when the weapons are used to seize power and control from their own citizens.

So don't watch the damn show, let NBC and China know you disapprove of the murders inside China and in the countries China supports.

I'm So Stoned

So are these guys in Iran;
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7516238.stm

If we had this law in the US, I would buy stock in a quarry, because we would need a whole lot of throwin' stones.

Take Me Out The The Ball Game..

You know the words, right?

My son and I went to see Detroit play Baltimore today. Detroit won! Good game, several home runs and a few balls came real close to us in our seats 6 back from the Left Field wall.

The only real problem was the heat. 96 degrees at game time and probably hotter when we left. I should sleep well tonight.

Camden Yards is a beautiful venue. Very well kept and clean. Not overblown with the advertising, like the Washington Redskin's stadium/bill board.

Just When I Thought Humans Couldn't Be More Insane

http://www.cnn.com/2008/CRIME/07/19/baby.mystery/index.html

I have to go throw up now. I may kill myself later, because I can't stand being of the same species.

Happy Birthday Jenny!

I wrote you a poem, called Ed.

Ed’s an Ass, Ed’s a Jerk
I can’t believe that he finds work.

I wish he’d leave, and go away
But full of head games, he will stay.

He don’t care about STDs
Line up the girls, he will please.

Someday soon, Ed will fail
And die alone, feeble frail.

All will know, upon his end
No Hearts nor Lives...will need to mend.

I hate having to write that obvious truth...

Cocaine Is Not Allowed On US Subs

But it's fine in Mexico;
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7515056.stm
That had to be a fun Sub to be on?

Cern Is Chilly

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7512586.stm

Some have warned that this device will create a Black Hole on earth and suck us all in. It might be an improvement?

Of course it won't and you guys need to chill out (he he). The science we get from this will propel man to new heights and just maybe solve our energy problems. Fusion is around the corner and then, national wars will cease to exist or happen. I expect civil wars will roar through many nations as their economies crumble, as a result. Think about it...

Exciting days for my sons, I expect.

Music You Haven't Heard, T to the end..

Testbild are funny, and I know I was way late to this party. It was a 2002 release.


Alpha Bitch, cool tune.


Tilly And The Wall are fresh and inspiring. Ignore the scream at the start of Sing Songs Along, it's a great song.


Here they cover Kiss Off by the Fem's and explain that they don't usually use a drummer. I love it.


Vampire Weekend will have you taping your toes and humming their tunes for a month.
A lot of Peter Gabriel in there and they know it. This is A-Punk.


Vamps, Oxford Comma, cool tune.


That's it for this summer. I will post them as I find them and send me anything you think I am missing. I know there is a ton of music I haven't heard too!

Music You Haven't Heard, O to S

Orbital came out with a live CD, but at $50, um, well, thanks, but no. I like their music though..


Box above and Illuminate below.



Porcupine Tree used to be good, then they came out with In Absentia.
From their good album Deadwing, this is Lazarus.

From In Absentia, Blackest Eyes. A little too money metal for me...


She And Him are cute as hell, though this Video is a little morbid, called Why Do You Let Me Stay Here.


St. Vincent is different. Her debut album will leave a few tunes sticking in your head like peanut butter. This is her in a Black Cab Session covering I Dig A Pony. Nice guitar, considering she is in the back of a moving Cab.
http://www.blackcabsessions.com/sessions.php?id=1191421071&sort=chronological
Yeah, she can play and is cute. This site is full of other artists you should be checking out too.

St. V. doing Jesus Saves.

McCain On Iran

According to this, "Senator Obama has been persistently week [meant "weak", you dummy?] on the issue of Iran". http://www.johnmccain.com/Informing/News/PressReleases/D0BDAB58-658D-49B3-B3F6-3A041FF07487.htm

So now that Bush has sent a senior State Department official to deal with Iran, not a peep. Um, John, um, what do you want to do? Talk, shut up, hand notes under the table?? Get with it. Bush has obviously opened his eyes. Stop squinting and do the same.

Iran will deal with us if we deal with them. The people are suffering and WE CAN END THAT! Do it if you win. God's speed if you don't win.

Dusters, ONE

Aidyn stepped out of his office and called for Dinah, then went back to his deak. She had been working on the second prototype sweeper in the large hall next door, but was already heading to Aidyn’s office because several custom hydraulic parts were not to spec and weren’t fitting right. The robo-assemblers (RAs) were baffled, so she shut them down with a slap, on the way out.

Dinah opened the office door unannounced and tried to start churning out the current problems she was dealing with.

“We have the go.” Aidyn said loudly, cutting her off before she even started.

“What go?” she asked and pushed the door closed behind her.

“The go to begin operations, immediately.” He was beaming, standing next to his desk, leaning, propped up with one hand flat on the shiny finish.

His big, now slightly balding head gleaned in the overhead lights. Dinah had known Aidyn for over fifteen years and he had helped her get to her current position, overseeing engineering and construction.

“Immediately?” she said, with a wince.

Dinah knew full well that the first sweeper was barely operational and the second was nowhere near ready.

“Yes, immediately, as..in..now!” he said and slapped the desk top.

“No, impossible. We are no..” she was almost yelling now when she was distracted by the office door opening behind her. As she turned, she noted Aidyn’s eyes widening.

There stood Geoff Welhaven, a broad smile on his face. “How ssoon Aidyn?” the fat squat man spewed as he entered the room and took off his coat. Geoff sank into a chair near the door and looked down at his COM, reading something probably much more important than this conversation.

COM’s were the standard for “Communications Over all Media”. They proactively tie into any communications channel they possibly can; and keep the owner updated on any information they choose and some they don’t. COMs are outlawed on Earth, because of the viral nature of their operation. Developed in Unified Korea, they made life easier off world, by taking advantage of any nearby satellite or telescope that sends or receives any data. The COM piggybacks on data transfers by infusing its garbage information into the data stream.

Before Aidyn could speak, Dinah said “Four months.” Geoff looked up with a grimace.

“Whay?” he said, and then he looked past Dinah, leaning to his left and smirked. “How soon Aidyn??”

Aidyn stepped forward past her and went towards the chair Geoff slumped in. “We have Welhaven One ready now and Welhaven Two is well on its way.” he lied.

As Dinah stepped up to retort, Aidyn waved his hand behind his back signaling her to shut up. She stopped for a moment and thought about it.

“Pick your fights, but in this case I can let Aidyn make himself a liar to his new boss.” she thought. She mumbled the words “new boss” out loud in the process. “Those COM units are illegal, you know?” she said.

Geoff replied, “There iss no fuckn’ law out here sweetie.” with the hiss of a snake.

She stomped past Aidyn and the mass in the chair as she left the room, fighting the urge to say more. She didn't shut the door and ignored the voices trailing off behind her.


Their construction rig “Chaffee” was in orbit around Mars and trailing the Martian moon Phobos. This allowed them to get towed along with the moon and not have to worry about a sustained orbital system, just some basic stabilization systems. The Chaffee had been used for the deep space communications beacon network construction five years earlier.

Chafee was one of three construction rigs established by the US with names to commemorate the Astronauts of the Apollo 1 launch-pad fire that took the lives of Gus Grissom, Roger Chaffee, and Ed White in January 1967. Rigs Grissom and White had already been decommissioned and recycled.

A very large derrick for ship building, the Chaffee was a one of a kind. It had a force field system that held the atmosphere in place and allowed a much smaller habitable area to be required during the process of construction. It saved a ton of money because a whole hanger didn’t have to be pressurized with life support.

Much of the work on Welhaven One was actually complete and it was moored alongside the Chaffee, but Two was having major problems. They hadn’t even pressure tested it, even though the hull was complete.

The original ship design was completed three years earlier, back on earth. Dinah had been the lead engineer on the conceptual designs, but was now only one of two original teammates on site to see the construction through. She and Aidyn had been close on the project, but never more than co-workers. He was married and surprisingly honest to his wife.

Dinah was an average height, slender woman and had shiny dark brown tresses that reached just past her shoulders. She was nearly unremarkable to look at, cute, but completely remarkable to talk to. Her work in superconductivity had made the entire project viable, if not probable. Aidyn owed her a whole lot and he knew it.

He was her assistant back when the design was first coming together and had stuck to her side as much as possible, but when the investors came calling, they didn’t want to talk to Dinah; they wanted a man to deal with. Aidyn fit the bill as the tall handsome “talking head”, and she let him be that. He knew the project well enough to cope and she would rather spend the time on the work anyway.

Music You Haven't Heard, K to M

Kaiser Chiefs! Rock solid stuff. The album that came out in 2007 was called Yours Truly, Angry Mob.
This song was number 1 in the UK and had a little airplay in the US, Ruby.


The Angry Mob


Little Champions. Their album transactions + replications came out in 2001, but I didn't run into it until this year, 2008.

They have a MySpace page here where you can hear a few tunes; http://www.myspace.com/littlechampions . They have a new CD out, but I haven't heard it yet. It's on order, called fire let me in, lava let me out. You can hear tracks from both albums here; http://www.barsuk.com/spweb.cgi

Metric kicks ass. This isn't a real music video. They don't do those, that I can find. The song is Raw Sugar.

Music You Haven't Heard F-H and a C That I skipped.

Cut Copy (if you like electronica) are pretty good. Hailing from Melbourne.


Go Team, doing exactly what they did in their last CD. They need a producer.




Herb Alpert & The Tijuana Brass came out with a new album in 2005 which I didn't discover till this year. If you like these clips, this CD is for you, called Lost Treasures.


(what moves!)

Music You Haven’t Heard C- E

I haven’t heard it anyway…

Clearlake

It's Getting Light Outside
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ntA7NdgB4qA

Lipstick


CSS
>http://www.csshurts.com/_download/ratisdead.mp3

Let’s Make Love


Alala


Deep Zone, A Eurovision winner.
A great tune.


Eisley

The New Java JRE 7

To follow-up on the problem I reported a few days ago (Vista prompts to allow the application), a reboot took care of it. It might be something to mention when a software update finishes?

Why Is GM Failing?

I can answer this. They are greedy.

I have my car in the shop and my nearly 4 year old car has to have all four of the Rotors replaced. $800 later, I am more than a bit pissed, because the part is obviously defective and they will not throw me a bone.

If GM builds crappy piece of shit cars like my Malibu, then they can screw off. I told the service representative that I wasn't mad at him, but at GM; and to let his manager know that this would be the last car I buy from that dealership or GM. I have been buying there for 20 years, 5 cars. I was literally in tears after the call, because America is failing.

If Honda or Toyota are listening, let me know what you have to offer. I will need a new car next year and saying that make me sick. I grew up in Detroit.

California Real Estate Getting Cheap

http://www.nasa.gov/topics/earth/features/fire_and_smoke.html

Plenty of places to build now and there is a low risk of other fires in these areas any time soon. I am thinking we need some Agent Orange to just clear all of the vegetation in California that is not in a planter or pot.

Charles Schumer Is An Ass

After single handily causing the IndyMAC failure with a leak, he punches back the day of the bail out; saying the government is failing. Um, Ass, you need to shut the fuck up, you caused this!!
Charles Schumer, dickhead...
http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/07/13/indymac.schumer/index.html
I never liked this conniving little shit.
http://www.istockanalyst.com/article/viewarticle+articleid_2390814&title=Senator_Schumers.html
I can only hope the fine people of New York State prop up a person who is not such an ass. So much money was lost in this fiasco, you can not imagine (poof, all gone, do not pass Go). All investors, large and small will lose all of their investments, because of Schumer. I don't care if they are all rich (which I doubt), it hurts the country overall if this stuff happens.

More Banksy

http://www.banksy.co.uk/menu.html I love this guy, or gal.
Click Outdoors first and scroll to the right. Click Next at the end. Fantastic and sometimes hilarious stuff.

A UK rag is trying to "out" the artist.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/7504132.stm
Great pub.

Music You Haven't Heard, The A-B's

I figured I should post my Summer update to my series that started last year; http://bozthx.blogspot.com/2007/07/music-you-havent-heardthe-as.html

There may be some repeats as all I did was look at all the crap I bought last year and made a list. Musicians have a habit of putting out new albums, so they will crop up again sometimes.

Apollo Sunshine have "wowed" me. http://www.apollosunshine.com/
Click on Listen for tunes (mostly live) and Watch for Video.


Arcade Fire are what I consider a low key band. Nothing really flashy, but solid good music.
This is an exceptionally cool site that takes a bit to load (be patient), you can control what tracks you hear by hitting keys 1 through 6. Very neat and original. http://www.rorrimkcalb.com/arcadefire.html

Form their album Funeral, the song Rebellion;

Strong stuff, good CD.

Built To Spill are a cheery group. Not up-tight. I like that.

Wanted

I got to see the movie Wanted today and I have to say it's very good, as far as action movies go. The stunts (heavy with CGI) were spectacular and of course beyond possible. Nothing different than a Bond movie really. Not for kids though, there's lots of violence and blood.

At the end of the movie, the man character looks at the camera and pretty much insults the audience. I felt offended for a second but thought about it and I do have some control over my life, more than most people I think. So the feeling passed.

Side note; Angelina is racing towards "the wall". The splat will be scary and I predict a lot of plastic is in her future.

The Trailer; http://www.apple.com/trailers/universal/wanted/

I noticed they are remaking The Day The Earth Stood Still. I hope they don't botch that!

Obama Swerved?

I don't think so.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/07/11/obama.netroots/index.html

The fact that these telecom companies had already been told by the Bush Administration (in writing) that what they were doing was "legal", puts this on Bush, not Obama. The companies should not be punished after they got a promise from the US Government that they would not.

It doesn't make what they did right, but the anger should be focused on Bush/Cheney, not on Obama. Going forward, this won't happen again and Obama sees this truth. He can't fix what Carl Rove did in 2001/02, can he? Should he be expected to do that? Where's his red cape?

China and Russia Give Zimbabwe A Break

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/7502965.stm

I think that's great. We need more regimes in Africa that kill their own population because they support change; when their own inflation rate is the worst in the world and they live in poverty. Good going guys!

Recycle This...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/7502071.stm

It's interesting though. My neighbor is from Burma and she burys all of her leavin's in the garden. The Ants love it. I think it should be a bit deeper, as Ants are a problem here where I live.

Freddie And Fannie Are F-ed.

When these two US Government backed agencies are tanking, people should be worried.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7502184.stm

I am personally looking forward to my property values dropping even more, I pay less taxes that way. Once the recovery starts (two years I guess) I can sell my house and move somewhere, where I don't have to be woken up by gunfire every night at 1:30 AM.

The New Java JRE 7

So I just installed this update and now every time I open a tab in IE7, or an allowed popup spawns, I get a warning about ssvagent.exe wanting to run. Why does Java need to reload this every time I open a browser window? Crappy update I think.

Metric, Raw Sugar

Love this tune...



And the band.

Dusters…

Mankind has moved quickly and recklessly into space. As with everything man has ever done, it has brought forth both the terrible, and the fantastic. JVB June 2008

I will preface this post by saying this story will be spread out over a long time. It is in "the works" and as I don't have an editor, please feel free to leave comments as the glaring errors become apparent to any regular reader. I will try to post sections of the story weekly, I am trying to make this worth reading and I love sharing my scribbling here on the blog.

Having outgrown the Earth and its natural resources, we are left with no choice but to go through space to neighboring planets, to reap whatever bounties they possess. It has been a multi national effort.
It began with the Moon and the limited mining there, which wound up not being profitable. It did provide the lessons of off world mining and the many problems this entails, most of which were manmade. Even when the US, China and Russia jointly gave over rights to mine the Moon to the private sector, the field of probable takers were not enthusiastic. That was only until one company, Welhaven, seized an opportunity to dispose of Earth’s nuclear waste there, for a fee.

Everyone jumped on board with this concept and the Moon was trashed. The Welhaven Company made billions of dollars for their efforts, shooting thousands of containers of trash at the moon with a magneto- accelerator. Today, no living thing can walk on most of the Moon’s surface safely. The spotty red and blue piles of containers are visible from Earth with the naked eye, the areas look like purple spots.

Large corporations lead the way into space and spawned new commercial enterprises all over the nearer solar system. One of the largest operations is the harvesting of liquid methane from Saturn’s moon, Titan. This “product” provides the energy needed by many other mining operations across the Solar System. Welhaven lavishes in the profits. They all but own shipping and regulate/tax traffic too.

There are no “claims” to sites filed or honored anywhere off Earth, it all comes down to who gets there first. This leads to corporate security force clashes, when one company tries to get into a business that another has already dug into. The Governments of Earth wanted to litigate and manage the off Earth operations, but without a unified voice in the matter, chaos has ruled.

Any “off world” law passed by one nation is ignored by the others. The race to space, to plunder and to profit, overwhelms all common sense and all laws. The United Nations has been unable to reach beyond the very air they breathe and is considered a joke by many.

The problems of off Earth travel became obvious early on. The space routes used by corporate transports quickly became polluted with their ship’s exhaust; to the point that their use was in jeopardy. The pollution lingered and moved along with the orbit of the planets.

Welhaven Industries, again, stepped up and offered a possible travel lane “cleaning service”, but would not go forward with the offering, until all of the larger off Earth companies signed onto their contracts. The argument was; if we clean a lane, it will benefit everyone who uses it, so everyone out there has to pay for the service. It was business brilliance and blackmail at the same time. Welhaven was ready to start operations and no one else wanted to invest in their own solution alone.

The largest companies pressured the smaller ones to sign on, and Welhaven developed and deployed their fleet of shipping lane cleaners. Using the latest super conductor technology, these ships are able to sweep clean huge commercial space traffic lanes.

These ships and their crews were soon known only as Dusters. No one had an idea of what lay ahead of them…

Dodged An I-Bullet

http://securosis.com/2008/07/08/dan-kaminsky-discovers-fundamental-issue-in-dns-massive-multivendor-patch-released/

It amazes me that they all kept this quiet, so major attack occured. It could have been very messy.

Iran Missile Test

So Iran had a Missile test today in response to rumors Israel might bomb their nuclear enrichment sites. Now everyone is barring their teeth and making fists, ready for a fight. This whole thing is the US trying to justify the missile defence network in Europe. Pretty god damn bad way to get Russia off our backs about it. It all smells of Dick(head) Cheney.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7498214.stm

What's one more war? The others are going so well, lets pile on. Maybe invade Canada too, just because.

If You Like Chess

http://gameknot.com/analyze-board.pl?bd=9799645&rnd=0.6829324771188453

He he...

The US Has Forgotten Diplomacy II

As much as I distrust Iran, I see no effort by the US to even try to negotiate like they did in North Korea. I think the US is still pissed about the hostage thing in the late 1970's?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7496281.stm

Iran did tell the EU that they discuss all matters including a peaceful Nuclear program. Lets talk people. The US already has 2 wars going and numbers 3 and 4 will destroy us.

The US Has Forgotten Diplomacy

http://cnnwire.blogs.cnn.com/2008/07/08/russia-threatens-military-technological-response-to-us-missile-defense-system/

This has been brewing for a few years and we reached out to Russia to resolve the matter, but we would not negotiate. Now we sit in a stand-off with the one other country that could easily obliterate us. Nice job George. I think he wants to go out with a "bang", a big one.

Why can't we build this in Iraq or Saudi Arabia? Even Britain! I don't get why we are perpetually fanning the fires instead of putting them out.

The Cribs

Funny Video (not for kids)


The band's site; http://thecribs.com/ Click Music and Video for more.

Justin King, Knock On Wood

Different, pretty good...

Text To Voice Fun

I check this site a few times a year and create/download embarrassing audio files that I then email to co-workers. Great fun, have a go.

http://www.research.att.com/~ttsweb/tts/demo.php

Click the down-arrow to pick different voices. Some are better than others.

Teddy Thompson

Pretty good, I am not big on country music, but Teddy rides the zone betweem that and Pop.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=92197930

I expect he will do well, if he can get some air time.

My Independence

It almost sounds like a joke to think I am “independent” in the US these days. I will return to that thought at the end.

July 4th is the day that the USA celebrates it’s independence from Britain. You should know this. We light off fireworks by the ton, and too many people don't realize (in and outside the USA) that these symbolize the bombs and explosions of the Revolutionary War.

So many millions of men and women have died or been maimed in the defense of democracy around the world, that I doubt it could be tallied. You would have to count deaths of many nations’ freedom fighters. For the USA, the Civil War was the worst, over 600,000 died fighting ourselves. A real weakness, but a onetime thing, I hope.

Respecting those that fought before, to give us this "Freedom" is lost on so many. It saddens me that it is taken for granted. All those millions of lives, just so I can write here that I hate my President and don't have worry one bit that I will be executed for it. Think about that? In how many Countries would I be thrown in Jail or worse? I will take freedom and fight for it to my end, heat that Iran, Burma and China?

The soldiers who opposed democracy deserve a nod of appreciation too. They made us stronger and more brazen for the next time an attack came. From the Brit’s to Al-Qaida, you have only exposed the weakness, so we can adapt. I personally do understand your fight and respect it.

Democracy is really tough to swallow sometimes, like the last 8 years for me. It sorts itself out though, always does. And “change” is in the wind here in the USA.

I know the economy of the world is on edge over what is happening here, and I flatly blame EVERY politician in office today, for turning a blind eye to all of the Mortgage scams that they ALL knew were happening and just ignored. This goes for the US and Britain, but will right itself in time.

A changing of the guard is on now, just like we did in 1776. Gain your Independence again!

No Positive News From Zimbabwe

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/7489472.stm

This guy should retire. Only tyrants stay in power till they die. How does he have any support, when the inflation rate in Zimbabwe is out of control?? I don't get it.

Some Positive Iran News

http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/meast/07/04/iran.threat/index.html

At least someone is talking to them.

He Had A Baby Girl

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7488894.stm

Um, ok. Whatever. Lets all throw nature out the window. Call me Loretta!

Chato's Land

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0066907/

I treated myself to this FREE movie on Comcast OnDemand tonight. I love Charles Bronson and who in the world can denounce Jack Palance's one handed push-ups at 70? Great movie, great cast. Growing up, I saw so many movies in this genre, it is amazing to me that I missed this one. Maybe too bloody for TV?

If you at all like Predator, check this out. It gets bloodier right till the end and the last brutal scene has to be one of a kind.

James Whitmore and Ralph Waite (AKA Waltons) are not the nicest people you would want to run into. Great story of the hunters becoming the hunted. Well worth the time.

YouTube Is Dead

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7488009.stm

The companies are going to come after us for posting and watching videos that are copyrighted. I am not sure how viable it is to actually do that.

Some Good News

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7486552.stm

After 6 years as a Hostage and rumors of being seriously ill, it's good they let her and others go. Maybe we will let up killing the Farc at will now. Wonder why we are suddenly negotiating trade deals with Columbia? There is so much back room dealing going on in South America nowadays, that I am scared.

The US has a totally different slant (no offence to any orientals there) on what went down.
http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/americas/07/02/betancourt.colombia/index.html?iref=mpstoryview

HMM, the truth is probably somewhere in the middle?

No One Is Ever Allowed To Call Me F-ed Up Again

This is truely fucked up.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7484535.stm

Rules For Implementing ITIL V3

The Brits came up with this; http://www.itil-officialsite.com/home/home.asp
Sorry, IT nerd alert here. Those Brit bastards....

Rule 1, Fund it. If you don’t have the manpower dedicated to do this, everyone will be too busy. Hire some temps for 6 months to carry the load and have other staff in your different company areas nearly dedicated to the effort. If you don’t, it will take years to get this done and the effort will be half-assed. Senior management buy-in goes unsaid, it’s a must.

Rule 2, Train your people before you start. If you don’t no one will understand what the people that actually went through training are talking about. The effort winds up being ineffective.

Rule 3, Buy a tool. ITIL says to not do this, which I think is a huge mistake. There are enough credible products out on the market that will meet your needs. If you don’t get a tool, you will wind up needing one as things progress and then building something from scratch, that won’t ultimately meet your needs and be abandoned. A huge waste of time and money.

Rule 4, Keep your teams small. You will have teams for Service Level Management, Service Level Agreements, Service Catalog and Service Desk (to name a few). The more people you have on these teams, the harder it will be to get anything done. Try 10 people, maximum. Use even smaller groups when you are doing final document/template reviews. Designate a few people to participate in all of the groups so you make sure no one is stepping on the other’s toes (very important).

Rule 5, Make a Project Plan. I saw my organization waste 4 months having meetings that were utterly useless and just wasted everyone’s time. I had to step up and publicly complain about the situation before we made any real progress. It could have cost me my job, but it was appreciated by management later.

Rule 6, Involve your end users/customers early. If they can front the time, you will come out with a much better product in the end. You need their input so ask them to take some time and support you, so you can support them.

Rule 7, Lighten up. This isn’t really an ITIL rule, just one I have in general. Crack a joke sometimes and lighten the mood. People will have more fun when they are smiling. Try not to go overboard, which I do almost daily.

Rule 8, Don’t start from scratch. If you sit down in a room with a bunch of service providers and say “What would you like on the SLA template”? , you are screwed. It will take months to get everyone in agreement. There are so many samples available out there you are insane if you don’t use them. Contact me if you want ours, your US tax dollars paid for them. Give people something to comment on and you will find things move faster and smoother. Don’t make too many sections on your SLAs mandatory.

Rule 9, Dumb it down. Your end users don’t know what Active Directory or Exchange 2003 are. Keep it generic in your Service Catalog. Try “Network Account” and “Email service”. You get this, right?

Rule 10, There is no rule 10, just try to use some common sense and get people to take off their blinders; especially after ages of providing a single service, and really see what a customer wants and understands. If you don’t have people with a common sense understanding of your own customers involved, you will fail.