Tidbits From The Web #59

Snow...
Take Santa's advice...
Obama's big sellout...
Amazing sand sculptures...
Asleep at the offensive line wheel...
30 years of handheld games...
Sony goes berserk with new controller...
Did you know?
Controlling the masses via mind control...
The Snowman...
The Dubai financial bubble...
Weird 3-D advertisements...
What was that blue spiral in the sky?
Mmmm...could it be HAARP?
10 best Christmas songs ever...
The Dubai financial bubble part 2...
America...land of the dumb and illiterate...
Face-to-face with one of Antarctica's most vicious predators...
CapnTrade=good luck trying to sell your house...
Fort Hood-winked?
A Christmas Carol...in about 1 minute...
World's fattest countries...
Fort Hood-winked part 2?
Introducing artist Ryan Heshka...
Dead All Along...
The dark truth about fluoride...
Twas the night before Christmas...
Anatomy of a failing presidency...
I've got that tune...


Climate change scam...
On October 14, Lord Christopher Monckton gave a presentation in St. Paul, MN on the subject of global warming. In this 4-minute excerpt from his speech, he issues a dire warning to all Americans regarding the United Nations Climate Change Treaty that is scheduled to be signed in Copenhagen in December 2009. Monckton's entire 95-minute speech can be viewed here. A draft of the treaty can be read here. UPDATE: The Copenhagen Climate Summit is over and thankfully it appears to have been largely a flop, falling fall short of the expectations of most global warmists. Learn more at GlobalClimateScam.com

Today's Message

THE ART OF GIVING

by Chris Widener

In the pursuit of the life we dream of, this journey we are on for successful living, the focus is usually on figuring out what it is exactly that we want and then setting ourselves on course for going and getting it. This is very important: Know what you want to get for your life, and then pursue it.

But there is another aspect of achieving the life you dream of that seems, on the surface, to actually be counterproductive, yet is imperative to the successful life. It is giving.

Giving—of yourself, your time, your money, your energy—is something that takes us from simply being successful people in the traditional sense of the term, to being people who lead successful lives.

Giving is what makes us fully human. It is the essence of what we are, people who are here on earth together, not simply people who hope to clamor to the top of the pile in the survival of the fittest. Yes, pursue your life and your success with wild abandon; be responsible for yourself and take ownership of your life, realizing that you cannot be responsible for others, but also allow yourself to become a giving person.

Giving is also what allows us to accomplish things far beyond ourselves, and that is part of what living the life of our dreams is all about, right? Accomplishing great things through ourselves— and others!

How do we do that? Here are some ideas:

Make your giving purposeful. Give to people and organizations that fulfill purposes you believe in. This way, they feel good, you feel good and the work you believe in gets done. Giving purposefully will give you the ability to know that your giving is doing something great.

Make your giving proactive. Take control of your giving. When we control our giving, it becomes proactive rather than reactive. We know we are doing what we want to do rather than what others may manipulate us to do. We can avoid a lot of the wondering about validity that comes when we give out of reaction. Giving proactively will give you a lot of peace of mind.

Make your giving methodical. Every month, my wife and I write out our charity checks before any other checks. We do that on purpose to keep our hearts in the right place. Every month, month in and month out, year after year, we go about our giving. Our goal is to give away $1 million by the end of our lives (and we may have to even readjust that goal as time goes by, since we set it when we were only 24 years old and we are well on our way to that goal). This isn’t done by giving big chunks from time to time. It is accomplished by checks each and every month, methodically. Giving methodically allows you to build up larger gifts over time.

Make your giving generous. Don’t be a tightwad! Loosen up the purse strings a bit. Think of your giving in regard to how you can be generous, not how you can cover your charitable bases. I have found that it isn’t the extra money given to charity that breaks people. It is usually mismanagement. And at the end of your life, you most likely will not know the difference financially, though you will in your heart. Making your giving generous allows you to give even greater amounts over time.

Make your giving increasing. Don’t just give the same amount from year to year—increase your giving. I think there are two good times to readjust your giving: the first of the year and any time your income goes up. Bump your giving up then, if you can. This will keep you on pace with your giving goals, and you will notice the increase less from your bottom line. Make your giving increasing, and your giving will keep pace with your income.

Make your giving from the heart. Don’t just let your giving be a mind issue. Let it be a heart issue. This is what gives us our humanity. What causes make your eyes tear up? What causes really mean something to your heart when you are honest with yourself? Start giving to these causes! Let your checkbook be a reflection of your heart! Make your giving from the heart, and you will allow your heart to grow.

Make your giving spontaneous—sometimes. Allow yourself to be spontaneous with your giving. Do allow yourself to react sometimes. Will you get taken advantage of? Yes, sometimes. But you will also be doing something within yourself that will keep you from becoming cynical. Sometimes, as life has been good to you and you find yourself blessed, let yourself be the blessing to someone else. Make your giving spontaneous (sometimes), and you will battle the disease of cynicism about charity that can creep in.

These are just a few ideas that you can implement right now to begin the art of giving in your life. The key is to decide that you will become a giver and not merely a taker. You will choose to leave something behind in this world and not merely try to get something out of it.

And as we all commit to that, our world will be a better place and we can all live the lives that we dream of.

The History Of Toys And Games

'Tis the season when toys are on most youngsters' minds and also on those of their parents as they read those Christmas lists. With all this emphasis toys and games, everyone will want to brush up on the history of these playthings. "Discover the origins of your favorite toys and games, from chess and checkers to Barbie and Atari. Find out how many crayons are produced each day, who invented Lincoln Logs (hint: he's the son of a world-famous architect), and which classic toy truck is the brainchild of a group of Minnesota school teachers. Plus: Learn more about the industry's most successful inventors, including Milton Bradley and the Parker brothers. Also, take our special quiz to test your toy smarts!" Here's your opportunity to see that there really is more to toys than just play!

World Wide Words

Michael Quinion, the creator of World Wide Words, is a researcher of words for the Oxford English Dictionary. In his spare time, he runs this interesting site 'about international English from a British viewpoint,' in which he focuses on identifying and defining new and bizarre English words. Mr. Quinion's World Wide Words is fun to explore, allowing one to search for words or phrases, returning the definition and the origin of the word or phrase. Each week, he profiles certain words of particular interest. (Do you have anyone you'd like to 'unfriend;' it's not as antisocial as you might think but, alas, our world might just be becoming too complex!)

ATC5K Waterproof Action Cam

		The ATC5K is the latest self-contained, hands-free digital video cam from Oregon Scientific. One major upgrade from the ATC2K is a built-in 1.5" color LCD to help ensure you get the shots you want. And it's built for abuse: it's waterproof to 10 feet as well as shock resistant. A wide variety of mounting options won't limit your creativity, whether you take it cycling, kayaking, skating, scuba diving -- at the end of the day, upload up to 4GB of video (with an added SD card) to the web and share your adventures.

Insight

LOVE


Love is the final end of the world's history, the Amen of the universe.

Novalis


Truly loving another means letting go of all expectations. It means full acceptance, even celebration of another's personhood.
Karen Casey

Fun

Entrance
Three men die on Christmas Eve and go to heaven, where they're met by Saint Peter. "In order to get in," he tells them, "you must each produce something representative of the holidays."

The first man digs into his pockets and pulls out a match and lights it. "This represents a candle of hope." Impressed, Peter lets him in.

The second man pulls out a tangle of keys and shakes them. "These are bells." He's allowed in too.

"So," Peter says to the third man, "what do you have?"

The third man proudly shows him a pair of red panties.

"What do these have to do with Christmas?" asks Peter.

"They're Carol's."

Today's Quotes

TIME MANAGEMENT

“Time is the coin of your life. It is the only coin you have, and only you can determine how it will be spent. Be careful, lest you let other people spend it for you.” —Carl Sandburg

“Time is a finite resource, and we all place infinite demands on it. I view time as an opportunity, as a chance to make choices about how I spend that resource—because it is our choice. And that’s something people often forget.” —Maggie Wilderotter

“Time never stops to rest, never hesitates, never looks forward or backward. Life’s raw material spends itself now, this moment—which is why how you spend your time is far more important than all the material possessions you may own or positions you may attain.” —Denis Waitley

“Guard well your spare moments. They are like uncut diamonds. Discard them, and their value will never be known. Improve them, and they will become the brightest gems in a useful life.” —Ralph Waldo Emerson

Open your mind Quaid...open your miiiiiiiiiind...

By asking for the impossible we obtain the possible.
-- Italian Proverb

The only way of discovering the limits of the possible is to venture a little way past them into the impossible.
-- Arthur C. Clarke

Peace, love and happiness until next time...

Tidbits From The Web #58

FIRE!
Now that is a big ass hot dog...
Speaking of hot dogs...french fry coated!
So many deaths...so little due to swine flu...
Obviously he didn't pray against being lunch...
Google Earth numbers and punctuation...
Maybe we should read the inserts for the vaccine...
Kite surfing at its finest...
It was a golly good green harvest this year...
One of these guys is not like the others...
Ol dirty beaver...
What happened to the mighty US dollar?
Introducing artist Andrew Brandou...
You say you want a revolution...well you know...
The surgeons of tomorrow...microscopic...
How to open a bottle of wine...
Jobs...we don't need no stinkin' jobs!
The unraveling of US society...
Post-It Note Atari...
Is your cell phone a death trap?
Seducing the youth with vampires...
Keeping the time astronomically...
Game over Mr. Gore...
National Wildlife Federation pics of the year...
WHO are you?
How to eat a chicken wing...no meat spared!


Mind blowing technology...



Pranav Mistry demos several tools that help the physical world interact with the world of data -- including a deep look at his SixthSense device and a new, paradigm-shifting paper "laptop."

Today's Message

LIFE IS A BALANCING ACT

by Mark Victor Hansen

Life on a tightrope
Imagine a tightrope walker in circus. He is on a rope suspended a few feet above the straw covered floor. His purpose is to walk the rope from one end to other. He holds a long bar in his hands to help him maintain his balance. But he must do more than simply walk. On his shoulders he balances a chair. And in that chair sits a young woman who is herself balancing a rod on her forehead, and on top of that rod is a plate.

If at any time one of the items should start to drift off balance, he must stop until he can get all of them in perfect alignment again. For the tightrope artist doesn’t begin until all the elements above him are aligned. Only then does he move forward, carefully, slowly across the rope.

I suggest that life is very much a balancing act and that we are always just a step away from a fall. We are constantly trying to move forward with our purpose, to achieve our goals. All the while trying to keep in balance the various elements of our lives.

Getting out of Balance
Many of us get out of balance with regard to money. If we don’t have sufficient money, then our lives become a money chase. We constantly devote our energies toward improving our finances. In the process we tend to take energy away from our family, our mate, our spiritual and mental needs, even our health. More important, we don’t move forward toward our life purpose. We don’t proceed along the tightrope. Only when we get our finances straightened out can we spread our energies to all the other aspects of our life and proceed with our purpose.

Other areas of our life could be out of harmony. It could be our relationship with our wife or husband. It could be a spiritual emptiness that is gnawing at our insides. It could be lack of appropriate social contract. It could be illness. If any aspect of our life draws a disproportionate amount of energy, we have to shortchange the other aspects. This throws us off and we are unable to move forward on life’s tightrope until a balance can be reestablished.

Getting Balance
Our first priority, therefore, is getting our life in balance. We need to deal with any areas that are taking too much energy and put them in perspective align them so that we have energy available for all areas.

We need to create a balance of winning identities as father or mother, lover, husband, or wife, son or daughter, worker, participant, finisher and so forth. Only when each identity is fulfilled will that area be functioning and not overdrawing our energy.

But it doesn’t happen by itself. Achieving a balanced life is a choice that each of is continually makes second by second, thought by thought, feeling by feeling. On the one hand, we can simply exist. But on the other, we can choose to pack out seconds and create valuable minutes in all aspects of our lives.

It’s important here to understand that others cannot do this for us. I can be me and only you, you. No one can think, breathe, feel, see, experience, love or die for either of us. Inside, we are what we are. We all come into life without a map, an operating manual or a definition of ourselves, other then male or female. It’s up to us to balance all the different aspects of our lives. We can do to by pushing the “decide” buttons in our lives.

Making an Assessment
At first it’s important to stop and assess how we’re doing. We should look at all the various aspects of our life that we are constantly juggling, constantly trying to keep in balance. These include: marriage and family, finances, health, social contact, spiritual development, and mental growth.

Are we able to devote ample energy to all areas? Or are we tipped off to one side, unbalanced in one direction?


STEPS TO ACHIEVING BALANCE IN YOUR LIFE

1. Assess your life as it is now. Looking at ourselves as we really are is the first step in re-creating our lives. Do you feel physically exhausted, mentally stagnant, or find yourself without close relationships? Would you call yourself a workaholic? Do you feel a lack of spiritual alignment? If you answer yes to any of these questions, your life is probably out of balance.

2. Make a conscious decision to become balanced. Choosing reality as our basis of decision, is the second step to becoming balanced. Achieving balance allows us to reach our goals and our purpose in life while creating less stress to do so. A conscious decision to change is now in order.

3. Re-make that decision on a minute-to-minute schedule. We are all instant forgetters. Remember all those New Year resolutions? Renewing our decisions on a daily, minute to minute basis allows us to ease into change, instead of expecting things to change overnight.

4. Set goals in every area of your life. Set realistic goals in all areas of your life to assist yourself in remembering that your ultimate goal is balance. Your goal should cover:

a. Relationships, both at home and in the marketplace
b. Physical beingness
c. Spiritual alignment
d. Mental development
e. Your job
f. Finances

5. Be willing to take the risk. Being willing to assess ourselves and take the risk to change will not only enhance our lives, but you will feel more energy and an expanded awareness of what life is all about. Acknowledging that balance is essential, and recreating your life to encompass your decision is worth all the risk.

6. Make time to re-assess yourself on a daily basis. None of us can really know how well we are doing with change in our lives unless we are willing to re-assess our position. Don’t feel that your decisions are made in concrete, if something feels that it isn’t working, be willing to look at a new decision. Make time for yourself every day, in a quiet meditative state, to relax and “check yourself out”.






Raven Unmanned Aircraft System

AeroVironment’s Raven UAS is a lightweight solution designed for rapid deployment and high mobility for both military and commercial applications requiring low-altitude surveillance and reconnaissance intelligence. With a wingspan of 4.5 feet and a weight of 4.2 pounds, the hand-launched Raven provides aerial observation, day or night, at line-of-sight ranges up to 10 kilometers.

3D bio printer to manufacture human tissue and organs

Invetech, San Diego, CA developer of custom automation solutions for the biomedical market, says it has shipped the world's first production model 3D bio-printer. Organovo, San Diego, Calif., developers of the proprietary NovoGen bioprinting technology says it intends to use the device to provide bio printed units to research institutions investigating human tissue repair and organ replacement. Full Article

Gourmet Library


While specialty food shops offer a wonderland of delicious and unique grub, some of the offerings can be a little over the average eater's head, like that crazy truffle oil, which tastes nothing like candy. Figure food out, then buy it, at Gourmet Library.

The new sibling of already successful WineLibrary, Gourmet's a foodie's wet dream web shop that'll also help guide the culinary-inept with lots of info, reviews, and informative videos on everything from hand-picked snacks to hard-to-find ingredients, which would actually be quite easy to find if you'd just slide the Sunny D to the side of your fridge. The schooling starts with each item's brief descrip, rounded out with straightforward info on its geographic origin, a list of ingredients, and processing methods; each product also gets its own video hosted by the connoisseurs behind the site, during which they taste and comment on everything from "awesome smelling, not hard, not overly salty" fennel salami, to Cerignola olives, which they tout as "sweet, meaty, and not super-briney". Deliciousness spans broad categories from Artisan Cheeses to Sauces & Spreads to Charcuterie, with each broken down into hyperspecific subsections (i.e., goat's milk/soft/sharp cheeses, salsas/jams/BBQ sauces, pate/meats/foie gras), with some of the more interesting finds including Jamaican jerk jack cheese, Corsican beer jelly, smoked alligator sausage, and Russian bologna, which has a first name, and it's Vladimir.

To get an advanced degree in pseudo-yuppiedom check Gourmet's wine-pairing section, which is quite a nice trick, but offers precious little on autumnal orchard fruit.

Impress everyone with the groceries you bag at GourmetLibrary.com





Quote of the Day

When I despair, I remember that all through history the way of truth and love has always won. There have been tyrants, and murderers, and for a time they can seem invincible, but in the end they always fall, always.

- Mahatma Gandhi

Insight

A man was hanged for saying what was true.
-- Italian Proverb

In every generation there has to be some fool who will speak the truth as he sees it.
-- Boris Pasternak






Whiskey & Gunpowder
By Bill Jenkins
December 11, 2009
Pylesville, Maryland, U.S.A.

Paper Addicts

The world is not yet ready to give up its addiction to paper currency. Actually, the world may be getting a snoot-full of it, but governments are not. You see, paper currency has an unbelievably strong attraction for governments. Do you know what it is? Do you wanna know?

It’s elastic. And, boy, oh boy, can it stretch. You see, if governments cannot operate under paper money, they can’t inflate the currency. If they can’t inflate the currency, then they can’t spend with reckless abandon. Perhaps you’re asking yourself what rising prices have to do with government spending. And if you haven’t been around this bar much… that’s a very good question. So let me sum it up quickly.

The basic theory of government operation as it is taught in school and propounded by the media is that the government spends money to provide us services that we would be unable to provide ourselves. To pay for those services, they extract from us, you guessed it, TAXES.

STOP! Wait! Don’t you believe it!

The amount of taxes collected here in the United States last year would not have been enough to fund Social Security and Medicare. It’s hard to believe, but true. So where does all the money come from to pay for the infinite number of other expenditures of the federal government?

How do they pay for schools? Not just the aging and dilapidating buildings, but the books, supplies, teachers and the massive bureaucracy? How do they pay for the military… guns, tanks, soldiers, computers, jets, ships, submarines and planes? How do they pay for the Senate, House, Supreme Court, president, Secret Service, CIA, FBI, NSA, NASA, DOJ, DHA, HUD, DHS, ATF, IRS? Not to mention welfare programs of multitudinous varieties, college grants and national parks. How do they pay for all this? By means of two devices about which the man on the street knows little.

The first is through bond and Treasury auctions. We — as in “we the people’ — sell these instruments to people who believe that we are a good risk. Then we pay them to let us borrow their money. Of course, borrowing money costs money… it’s never free. But when a country borrows more than it takes in by taxation, because it is spending more than it takes in by taxation, the result is a growing debt problem, which never gets paid down. So how can the United States, or any country, continue on this cycle of never-ending borrowing? Not to worry, my friend. Because here is where the second device comes into play.

Countries begin paying off their debt with money that they “print.” It is commonly called monetizing the debt. It’s not hard to understand, but they try to make it hard. When you’re stealing from your citizens, it is better if they don’t know it. If you make the example and the problem personal, it all falls into place.

If I had a nearly endless source from which to borrow, some deep-pocketed uncle for instance, I could borrow from him indefinitely, as long as I could pay him back in money that I printed myself. If he did not know the money I gave him was fake, or if he just didn’t care, I could continue that scam in perpetuity. I could borrow millions… billions… TRILLIONS! But let’s not get ahead of ourselves.

Technically, I could only borrow from him until he was out of money. Right? Well, no… not exactly. If he had creditors who would take my fake money as real money, he would never have to stop lending. Until someone held his “wallet to the fire.” That is essentially what is happening. Only it is our Uncle Sam who is doing the borrowing. Then he prints his own money and uses it to pay his bills to his creditors around the world. Up until recently, our creditors had to take it. Because we had the bully power to force it on them. Plus since all the countries in the world were doing the same thing, our funny money was considered the best. That gave it some sort of intrinsic value.

But now there are currencies more valuable than ours. And now we do not have the military firepower to force it on others. Some feel that means that the whole jig is up. If our paper money is refused, then everyone’s paper money will be refused. But just because our government has spent us into trouble and is trying to make it worse with bigger and bigger spending projects from stimulus to healthcare doesn’t mean that the other major economies of the world are ready to throw in the towel. Indeed, if they can hang on, they will, because perhaps they will move into the position of world’s reserve currency and can produce prosperity out of nothing, all while impoverishing their citizens and neighbors.

Thus this will be but another round in dumping the dollar. The other currencies will look out for themselves. And playing those currencies could mean more currency option opportunities for us.

Regards,
Bill Jenkins



Peace, love and happiness...until next time...

Tidbits From The Web #57

Best girl fights ever...

The great OJ scam...
Land of Talk...It's OK...
It's OK...you can laugh...they aren't your kids...
Which states will take longest to rebound with jobs?
Sesame Street turns 40...some interesting trivia and videos...
Google Earth shows you the ABCs...
Human enhancement...
Sony 360...
Holy barnacles!
The great milk scam...
Can you trust your eyes?
Introducing artist Tim Biskup...

If you ever wanted to know some of those additives in the flu vaccine...
Speaking of the flu vaccine...another conspiracy theory...
Snow makes Russian kids crazy...
When your job is lemons...make lemonade!
Street Fighter squared...
People of public transit...
The birth of an elephant...
The great artificial sweetener scam...
What is martial law and how does it apply to you?
Interesting take on little red riding hood music video...
The perilous path of home ownership...
Where is Tommy Lee Jones and Will Smith when you need 'em?
What a douche... (*WARNING EXPLICIT LANGUAGE*)
One Eskimo...
Bringing down the (ware)house...

Americans generally like to hear good news. They like to believe that a new President will right old wrongs, that clean energy will replace dirty oil, and that fresh thinking will set the economy straight. American pundits tend to restrain their pessimism and to hope for the best. But is anyone prepared for the worst? Michael Ruppert is a different kind of American. He predicted the current financial crisis in his self-published newsletter "From the Wilderness" at a time when most Wall Street and Washington analysts were still in denial.

Sitting in a room that looks like a bunker, Ruppert recounts his career as a radical thinker and spells out the crises he sees ahead. He draws upon the same news reports and data available to any Internet user, but he applies a unique interpretation. He is especially passionate over the issue of "peak oil," the concern raised by scientists since the 1970s that the world will eventually run out of fossil fuel. While other experts debate this issue in measured tones, Ruppert doesn't hold back at sounding an alarm. He portrays a future that resembles apocalyptic science fiction. Listening to his rapid flow of opinions, the viewer is likely to question some of the rhetoric as paranoid or deluded; and to sway back and forth on what to make of the extremism. Smith lets viewers form their own judgments.

Today's Message

CHANGE BEGINS WITH CHOICE

by Jim Rohn

Any day we wish; we can discipline ourselves to change it all. Any day we wish; we can open the book that will open our mind to new knowledge. Any day we wish; we can start a new activity. Any day we wish; we can start the process of life change. We can do it immediately, or next week, or next month, or next year.

We can also do nothing. We can pretend rather than perform. And if the idea of having to change ourselves makes us uncomfortable, we can remain as we are. We can choose rest over labor, entertainment over education, delusion over truth, and doubt over confidence. The choices are ours to make. But while we curse the effect, we continue to nourish the cause. As Shakespeare uniquely observed, "The fault is not in the stars, but in ourselves." We created our circumstances by our past choices. We have both the ability and the responsibility to make better choices beginning today. Those who are in search of the good life do not need more answers or more time to think things over to reach better conclusions. They need the truth. They need the whole truth. And they need nothing but the truth.

We cannot allow our errors in judgment, repeated every day, to lead us down the wrong path. We must keep coming back to those basics that make the biggest difference in how our life works out. And then we must make the very choices that will bring life, happiness and joy into our daily lives.

And if I may be so bold to offer my last piece of advice for someone seeking and needing to make changes in their life - If you don't like how things are, change it! You're not a tree. You have the ability to totally transform every area in your life - and it all begins with your very own power of choice.

Dr. Goodword's Office The Alpha Dictionary

Today's feature, the Alpha Dictionary, is a site developed by the former 'word of the day' author and Bucknell professor, Dr. Robert Beard, affectionately know as Dr. Goodword. The subscriber who submitted the site describes it as 'humourous, educational and well designed, a site that 'lexophiles' will love (and should be required reading for all English teachers and other lovers of our native? tongue).' In addition to the daily 'Goodwords' posted and the language resources, there are fun quizzes for adults and children, plenty to maintain the interest of the whole family. Take the 'Rebel- Yankee Test' to see where your roots really are. Hope ya'll enjoy (no mystery about my roots!).

Listening to your Brain

Part of the 8-channel Wireless EEG Monitoring Platform developed by IMEC and the Holst Centre is a steel drum ceiling design to provide a responsive environment to confront visitors with an acoustic representation of their electrical brain activity. Wolfgang Eberle, Senior Scientist/Project Manager Bioelectric Systems and Lindsay Brown Researcher, Body Area Network introduce Joe Desposito of Electronic Design Magazine to the Steel Sky, a work of art by Christoph De Boeck.

CrimeReports Maps Out Local Crimes

If you want to check out a neighborhood you're planning on moving to or just want to see how things are looking in your corner of Sunnyvale, CrimeReports mashes up local police reports with a map of the area.

CrimeReports will display, when data is available, a variety of crimes including homicide, breaking and entering, robbery, theft, theft of/from a vehicle, assault, and sexual offenses by default. You can also add in other crimes like kidnapping, arson, alarm responses, and proactive police activity like community policing and vehicles stops.

All of the above have color coded flags that can be easily read on the map. The flags are identified in the left hand column or by mouse click—both give you the type of crime and the location. You can also adjust the range of dates displayed to the last few days, last week, two weeks, month, or a custom date range via calendar. CrimeReports is a free service and requires no login.

CrimeReports



The Batteryless Remote Control

Arveni is a European company that has developed a system remote that is powered by the ambient energy the user applies to the buttons on the remote control. While the technology is still being proto-typed, we got an exclusive look at the worlds only batteryless remote control.

Insight

MAKE THE WORLD A BETTER PLACE


Shall we have the temerity to declare that we are not responsible for the sores of the present-day world?

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn


I think what needs to happen for real social change to occur is to have two generations in a row that share a desire to change society.

Judy Wicks

Today's Quotes

LEARNING/EDUCATION

“Your mind will answer most questions if you learn to relax and wait for the answer.” -- William S. Burroughs

"Learn to...be what you are, and learn to resign with good grace all that you are not." -- Henri Frederic Amiel

"If money is your hope for independence, you will never have it. The only real security that a man can have in this world is a reserve of knowledge, experience and ability." -- Henry Ford

"The primary success factor is knowing how to learn from others and rely on yourself." -- Denis Waitley

All My Sons...

Four friends, who hadn't seen each other in 30 years, reunited at a party. After several drinks, one of the men had to use the rest room.

Those who remained talked about their kids.

The first guy said, "My son is my pride and joy. He started working at a successful company at the bottom of the barrel. He studied Economics and Business Administration and soon began to climb the corporate ladder and now he's the president of the company. He became so rich that he gave his best friend a top of the line Mercedes for his birthday."

The second guy said, "Darn, that's terrific! My son is also my pride and joy. He started working for a big airline company, then went to flight school to become a pilot. Eventually he became a partner in the company, where he owns the majority of its assets. He's so rich that he gave his best friend a brand new jet for his birthday."

The third man said: "Well, that's terrific! My son studied in the best Universities and became an engineer. Then he started his own construction company and is now a multimillionaire. He also gave away something very nice and expensive to his best friend for his birthday: A 30,000 square foot mansion."

The three friends congratulated each other just as the fourth returned from the restroom and asked: "What are all the congratulations for?"

One of the three said: "We were talking about the pride we feel for the Successes of our sons. ..What about your son?"

The fourth man replied: "My son is gay and makes a living dancing as a stripper at a nightclub."

The three friends said: "What a shame...What a disappointment."

The fourth man replied: "No, I'm not ashamed. He's my son and I love him. And he hasn't done too bad either. His birthday was two weeks ago, and he received a beautiful 30,000 square foot mansion, a brand new jet and a top of the line Mercedes from his three boyfriends."

Whiskey & Gunpowder
By Wayne Allyn Root
November 23, 2009
Las Vegas, Nevada, U.S.A.


Why Haste in Healthcare But Not in War?

I’ll keep this short and simple. Our soldiers are dying in Afghanistan every day. Yet, Obama appears in no hurry to decide how best to support and protect them. To the contrary, Obama stalls and procrastinates claiming he’d rather do it right, than fast. Meanwhile our sons and daughters die…and the morale of troops disintegrates.

Yet, when it comes to reforming healthcare OBAMA DEMANDS WE RUSH. Instead of doing it right, he demands we do it fast. Even if it means an incompetent, bumbling, hapless, and corrupt federal government might take over 17% of the U.S. economy. Even though government-run Medicare and Medicaid already threaten to bankrupt America with waste, incompetence, theft and corruption. Even though the federal government has never before run anything successfully, efficiently and profitably. What kind of madman would rush this decision on adding trillions in new spending on a risky unproven scheme in the midst of the worst depression since 1929 (and in my opinion it is getting worse)? If there was ever a decision needed to be made right, rather than fast, this is it.

So why the rush? Obama knows anyone with common sense that has time to think about this plan (let alone read the actual bill), would never support it. Certainly not now in the midst of economic Armageddon. That is why Obama, Pelosi, and Reid are demanding Congressmen and Senators vote on it before they read it...and before we (the voters) hear about the details — the massive new taxes, the onerous new mandates, the rationing, the criminal penalties, he dramatic expansion of Big Brother in our lives.

The vote must happen before the average distracted American voter realizes they will be forced to buy health insurance or be fined $15,000 or sent to prison; before Americans realize 50 million patients will be added to an already overloaded, overburdened healthcare system — while adding no new doctors, or worse yet, causing tens of thousands of doctors to retire rather than work for lower wages, higher taxes, and heavier workloads; before anyone realizes that you don’t save money by spending an extra trillion dollars; before anyone realizes that government “experts” have always far underestimated the cost of every new proposed government program — in order to sell it — often by 10 times or more.

Do you need to know anymore about the reason Obama is rushing this pig of a bill through Congress? But there is more. Obama is afraid that Americans will realize the Senators and Congressmen, who are being threatened and bribed to vote for universal healthcare, know it is so bad that they themselves REFUSE to live by it. They have their own healthcare plan — no rationing or higher taxes (or both) for them.

Obama must rush the vote before anyone realizes he will not dare tax the top-of-the-line private health plans that could actually pay for this big government boondoggle — because those plans belong to the union members that supported Obama for President. Obama is owned lock, stock and barrel by the government employee unions, teachers unions, and auto unions.

And finally, Obama wants to rush through universal healthcare before anyone realizes that the taxes and surcharges to pay for it will cost millions of jobs and huge tax increases on EVERYONE!

The definition of a Ponzi scheme is to steal from one group of suckers to pay another. Eventually all Ponzi schemes fail — when you run out of suckers. In this case, the suckers are American taxpayers. Obama says only the rich will pay — don’t believe it. A program this big and corrupt will hit everyone, regardless of income in their pocketbook. The rich will certainly be hit. Some will retire; some will move offshore; some will go underground; some will cut back on hours because the reward is no longer worth the risk; and many will go out of business under the new burdens. Obama will learn that you CAN kill the goose that laid the golden egg.

The damage done to the rich will reverberate in deadly fashion to the middle class. First, jobs will be lost by the millions. Yes, millions MORE jobs than we’ve already lost. As my father used to say, “I’d love to hate the rich, but I’ve never gotten a job from a poor person.” And, when the tax revenues necessary to fund universal government-run healthcare fail to appear (because the rich have gone out of business, or refuse to work), Obama will turn to the middle class to pay the bill. It may take 5 years of massive, unimaginable budget deficits, but soon enough the middle class will be asked to pay dearly.

Disaster looms. Don’t say you weren’t warned. The only bright lining is that the end of Obama and Pelosi’s reign looms too. From now on, let’s call a vote for universal healthcare “Nancy Pelosi’s Congressional Death Panels.” Political suicide awaits the Democrats foolish and arrogant enough to pass this bill.

So, now you can clearly see why Obama can wait with a decision regarding Afghanistan (while our sons and daughters are fighting and dying), but he has no choice but to rush a vote on universal health care. Many of you may think it’s because Obama and his minions are inept. Well, they may be, but they are also disastrously devious and know the way to get “the worst bill in the history of America” passed is by rush, rush, rush, and what better time than when Americans are distracted by the Christmas holidays.

Regards,
Wayne Allyn Root


Peace, love and happiness...until next time...

Tidbits From The Web #56

Mad skills on the tramp...
Obama makes a cameo...
Insane in the membrane...4 herbs for the brain...
Public breastfeeding...
In memory of Halloween...
If you ever wanted to know more about iPhones...
Astronomy pic of the day...
Oh by the way...the dollar is doomed...
Top 100 villains in comics...
Big Brother is watching soon...
A cool animated music video...
Why you should be upset...
God is watching...
Top 10 MLB offensive seasons...
The dollar is doomed part II...
Bloody charades...
Bailout lies threaten you savings...
5 year old gymnast...
Reclaiming our Central Bank and monetary policy...
30 little known facts about the United States...
Keep drinking that Kool-aid...or maybe not...
Brace yourself for higher for grocery inflation...
Flu vaccine exposed...
FAT kids falling...
Top 25 hardest video games of all time...
GTA vs Frogger...
Flu vaccine exposed part II...
We don't need no stinkin' fingerprints!
Circle the cat...if you can...


"What is Money?"

"FEELING GREAT"

John is the kind of guy you love to hate. He is always in a good mood and always has something positive to say. When someone would ask him how he was doing, he would reply, "If I were any better, I would be twins!" He was a natural motivator. If an employee was having a bad day, John was there telling the employee how to look on the positive side of the situation.

Seeing this style really made me curious, so one day I went up and asked him, "I don't get it! You can't be a positive person all of the time. How do you do it?"

He replied, "Each morning I wake up and say to myself, you have two choices today. You can choose to be in a good mood or you can choose to be in a bad mood. I choose to be in a good mood. Each time something bad happens, I can choose to be a victim or...I can choose to learn from it. I choose to learn from it. Every time someone comes to me complaining, I can choose to accept their complaining or... I can point out the positive side of life. I choose the positive side of life.”

"Yeah, right, it's not that easy," I protested.

"Yes, it is," he said. "Life is all about choices. When you cut away all the junk, every situation is a choice. You choose how you react to situations. You choose how people affect your mood. You choose to be in a good mood or bad mood. The bottom line: It's your choice how you live your life."

I reflected on what he said. Soon thereafter I left to start my own business. We lost touch, but I often thought about him when I made a choice about life instead of reacting to it. Several years later, I heard that he was involved in a serious accident, falling some 60 feet from a communications tower. After 18 hours of surgery and weeks of intensive care, he was released from the hospital with rods placed in his back. I saw him about six months after the accident. When I asked him how he was, he replied, "If I were any better, I'd be twins...Wanna see my scars?"

I declined to see his wounds, but I did ask him what had gone through his mind as the accident took place. "The first thing that went through my mind was the well-being of my soon-to-be born daughter," he replied. "Then, as I lay on the ground, I remembered that I had two choices: I could choose to live or...I could choose to die. I chose to live."

"Weren't you scared? Did you lose consciousness?" I asked. He continued, "..the paramedics were great. They kept telling me I was going to be fine. But when they wheeled me into the ER and I saw the expressions on the faces of the doctors and nurses I got really scared. In their eyes, I read he's a dead man. I knew I needed to take action."

"What did you do?" I asked.

"Well, there was a big burly nurse shouting questions at me," said John. “She asked if I was allergic to anything ' Yes, I replied.' The doctors and nurses stopped working as they waited for my reply. I took a deep breath and yelled, Gravity." Over their laughter, I told them, "I am choosing to live. Operate on me as if I am alive, not dead."

He lived, thanks to the skill of his doctors, but also because of his amazing attitude... I learned from him that every day we have the choice to live fully. Attitude, after all, is everything. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself.

This is Kristos, reminding you that to a large degree, happiness depends on your own perspective.

DRX9000 Spinal Decompression System

The DRX9000 True Non-Surgical Spinal Decompression System is designed to provide pain relief for compressive and degenerative injuries of the spine. As it relates to Axiom Worldwide's DRX technology, the theory behind non-surgical spinal decompression is a process whereby forces are applied to the spine in a manner that maximizes spinal elongation. Since its inception, the DRX9000 has shown promising anecdotal results in treating back pain caused by herniated discs, degenerative disc disease, sciatica, and facet syndrome

MegaConverter2

Today's feature is a site that will convert just about anything from one unit to a different unit, from angles, area to wire density and wire resistance with lots of units in between. There are links listed in the 'Other Sites' on the conversion 'that have applicability to the category chosen.' Ladies, don't despair. There's a kitchen measure converter that goes beyond the ordinary cookbook - how about 16 dashes equivalent to one teaspoon. MegaCinverter2 is a site to bookmark. You never know when you might need this type of tool!

NWUAV MEMS Fuel Injection System

The NWUAV MEMS Fuel Injection System uses Hewlett Packard Ink Jet technology to atomize a variety of fuels including JP5, JP8 and logistical fuels used in internal combustion engines. The system will allow longer duration flight times and reduced (green house gas) emissions as a result of the ability to digitally control the fuel delivery and droplet size to a level much smaller than is conventionally possible using carburetors and COTS (Commercial Off The Shelf) fuel injectors.

Today's Quotes

OVERCOMING THE NEGATIVE

“Man's greatest actions are performed in minor struggles. Life, misfortune, isolation, abandonment and poverty are battlefields which have their heroes - obscure heroes who are at times greater than illustrious heroes.” -- Victor Hugo

"People become attached to their burdens sometimes more than the burdens are attached to them." -- George Bernard Shaw

"We were not created to be eaten by anxiety, but to walk erect, free, unafraid in a world where there is work to do, truth to seek, love to give and win." -- Joseph Ford Newton

"One of the things I learned the hard way was that it doesn't pay to get discouraged. Keeping busy and making optimism a way of life can restore your faith in yourself." -- Lucille Ball

In the long run men hit only what they aim at. Therefore, though they should fail immediately, they had better aim at something high.

- Henry David Thoreau

Speak when you're angry, and you'll make the best speech you'll ever regret.

- Lawrence J. Peter

Imagination was given to us to compensate for what we are not; a sense of humor was given to us to console us for what we are.

- Mark McGinnis

Insight

STAY GROUNDED


The best years of your life are the ones in which you decide your problems are your own. You do not blame them on your mother, the ecology, or the president. You realize that you control your own destiny.

Albert Ellis


Don't get too big for your britches. It's easy to get all caught up in the hype and start believing it.

Maxie Baughan

A Summer Skirt Situation...

As the bus stopped and it was her turn to get on, a lovely looking woman became aware that her skirt was too tight to allow her leg to come up to the height of the first step of the bus.

Slightly embarrassed and with a quick smile to the bus driver, she reached behind her to unzip her skirt a little, thinking that this would give her enough slack to raise her leg. She tried to take the step, only to discover that she couldn't.

So, a little more embarrassed, she once again reached behind her to unzip her skirt a little more, and for the second time attempted the step

Once again, much to her chagrin, she could not raise her leg.

With a little smile to the driver, she again reached behind to unzip a little more and again was unable to take the step.

About this time, a large Texan who was standing behind her picked her up easily by the waist and placed her gently on the step of the bus.

She went ballistic and turned to the would-be Samaritan and yelled, "How dare you touch my body! I don't even know who you are!"

The Texan smiled and drawled, "Well, ma'am, normally I would agree with you, but after you unzipped my fly three times, I kinda figured we was friends."

Whiskey & Gunpowder
By David Calderwood
October 29, 2009
Revolutionary Language


Will You Be Middle Class Much Longer?

Many people write of the imminent destruction of the U.S. middle class (of which I consider myself a member) but few have explained specifically how this occurs. Understanding the mechanism seems important if I hope to avoid the fate of most of my peers.

An insight on this question came from an unexpected quarter.


A gentleman by the name of Fernando Aguirre, who posts on Internet forums and his blog as FerFAL, has written voluminously about his experiences as an Argentine citizen during and after the economic cataclysm that wracked his country in 2001. I first found a long forum post, and then a Google search of “FerFAL” revealed a larger web presence, including a recently published book.

Mr. Aguierre shares his thoughts on all sorts of related subjects, from food storage to guns to politics (he appears to really like Rep. Ron Paul). I personally found a great deal of value among what I’ve seen so far.

One brief passage struck me, however, because it related to the mechanism by which middle-class people become poor during an economic meltdown. The mechanism may be obvious, but it is important to see how theory actually worked in the real world.

Mr. Aguierre shares (in “Part IV”) how, while studying architecture following the 2001 crisis, a social studies teacher illustrated Argentina’s middle class’ slide into poverty. Quoting the teacher from memory, Mr. Aguierre writes,

“[Those in the] middle class suddenly discover that they are overqualified for the jobs they can find and have to settle for anything they can obtain, therefore unemployment sky rockets: too much to offer, too little demand. You see they prepare, study for a job they are not going to get. You kids, you are studying Architecture because you simply wish to do so. Only 3 or 4 percent of you will actually find a job related to architecture.”

We all sat there, letting it all sink in. After a few months, it all proved to be true. Even the amount of students that dropped out of college increased to at least 50%. They either [saw] no point in studying something that would not make much of a difference in their future salaries, had no money to keep themselves in college, or simply had to drop college to work and support their families.

This reads like a premonition.

The USA’s middle-class includes lots of people whose careers rest on higher education and specialized certification. While plumbers, electricians, factory employees and truck drivers typically are among the middle-class, most of those populating suburbia are accountants, middle managers, sales people, financial consultants, teachers, nurses, writers, etc. In other words, as manufacturing and now building activity contract, more of the middle class is made up of the college-educated in white-collar careers.

Factor in our current economic pickle and it’s easy to see the most likely path ahead.


With the economic expansion built on mass optimism and debt rolling over, conditions are now fertile for questioning the college degree system as jobs for the college-educated evaporate en masse. The ability of technology to replace white-collar jobs is widespread, and an increasing need to cut costs is finally driving its use, just as changing economic (and regulatory) conditions also drive the replacement of manpower with robotics in the factory.

Across the economy, the need to cut employment costs (not just payroll, but payroll taxes and benefits) is resulting in mass layoffs of sales people and white-collar office staff. When one considers how much work can be replaced now by accounting software, electronic sales presentations, flatter organizational structures, and “news persons” filing reports for free on the Internet via blogs, it is obvious that vast numbers of middle-class Americans teeter on the precipice of unemployability, not just unemployment.

When the “unique” skill sets that commanded $50,000 to $100,000 (or more) annual salaries turn out to be in vast oversupply, the only course left is to compete with those with neither a college degree nor technical education for jobs that can’t support a middle-class lifestyle.

Hands-on service occupations like nursing and medicine are also far from safe. At the end of the day, it is productivity that pays for such work to be done, and when vast numbers of people cannot find economically productive work, economic reality will land on these occupations, too.

When the economic tide goes out, all boats sink into the mud.

Too many people were goaded into illusory occupations by tax subsidies for higher education, government (rather than market) demand, and other distortions like the credit-without-prior-production of the central bank. Political pandering and central planning replaced the natural balance of an economy growing organically through the honest signals of the price system.

As long as there was enough optimism and ignorance to sustain the illusion, the distortions only grew larger.

Though the ignorance largely remains, there’s no more blind denial left to sustain the burden of all that wasted effort. If your job disappears, it may not come back.

This time it really is different. The final stages of that blind denial included fiscal imprudence that bordered on insanity. The mirage economy can’t return until after the pendulum has swung its full travel to the other side of the arc. That path leads through the valley of a crushing economic depression, one that will radically and permanently alter the lives of middle-class Americans who are almost universally unaccustomed to hardship.

Regards,
David Calderwood



I’m sure it was an honest mistake.

Seems the effects of the stimulus have been overstated.

“My bad,” says the White House…

“An early progress report on President Barack Obama’s economic recovery plan overstates by thousands the number of jobs created or saved through the stimulus program, a mistake that White House officials promise will be corrected in future reports.”

In a couple of cases a lot of very temporary call center jobs were created, sometimes counted twice, and then almost immediately destroyed. Other times workers merely got raises, which were counted as newly created jobs.

But honestly, why would we expect anything different? This is what happens when easy money flows out of from the feds. Misallocations, theft and lies…surprise!

Peace, love and happiness...until next time...