Vista News & Ramblings

Tutorial: Embeding Video and Audio Files

by Sandi

This is a post that I wanted to put up as a reference for my cobloggers that occasionally need to embed video and audio clips. However I hope it will also be helpful to anyone else who wants to use video/audio clips on their blog or webpage. I've included html code for several formats, with the result of each embed below the code. The examples are from files already stored in my archives.

Depending on what type of multimedia file you embed, you may need to supply a player (i.e. FLV, and MP3 files embeded with a flash player), in these cases the player normally should be uploaded to the same directory as the files you will be playing. To use these examples, just copy/paste and change the file path and filenames as needed for your files. Please do not link to my files or players. If you do I will know. I'll not be happy, and definitely let you know about it after I trace the hot link.

Note I included the <BR /> tags to show where you would normally start a new line, and your html editor usually inserts them automatically, which means that you can ignore them. The reason I included them is because some of the <embed> tags are quite long and won't work with line breaks, even if you break the line at a space.

Now lets look at some examples.

**Microsoft MediaPlayer (I.E. wmv mpg etc)**

Embeding Windows MediaPlayer video is probably about the easiest to do, and you don't need to upload your own player. Here is an example for a wmv video, but it will also work for mpg, avi and most formats you can play in MediaPlayer on your computer.

The Coolest Dog In The World

**Macromedia flash video (flv or swf)**

I use Jeroen Wijering's JW FLV Player to embed my FLV videos. Download the jw_flv_player.zip and unzip. You only need to upload the "flvplayer.swf" file to your blog or webpage server. This is a great player and is similar to what YouTube uses.

If you are having problems with these examples embedding FLV video, please visit Jeroen Wijering's Setup wizard. You supply your URLs to your player, and file to be played. The correct code will be generated for you, and you can even test it right there. However he doesn't include the <object> element which I like to include in case they don't have flash installed for their browser.

If you do not want the full screen button on the player to be active, change the allowfullscreen parameter from "true" to "false". It basically the same player that YouTube uses and works about the same (in fact I am using the YouTube 425X350 size instead of the standard 320X280).

Take A Chance On Me

**Apple QuickTime video (.mov) player**

Very seldom will I embed QuickTime, but I include it here to cover all the bases. Besides I'm sure some of you are fond of QuickTime even if I'm not *grin*.

The QuickTime code works and I assume the examples are properly coded. I'm one of those people who don't put QuickTime very high on my list of players, and I only grudgingly have it installed on my computer. Not that I have anything against Apple, the player just doesn't appeal to me. These are examples that I found on the internet, but as I don't embed QuickTime anytime I can help it, I leave them as examples without further comment.

Like Windows Media Player you don't need to upload a player, but the person viewing your blog or website will need QuickTime installed (The pluginspage in the html will direct them to download if not).

Promo: C'était un Rendezvous

**Apple QuickTime audio (mp3) player**

Old Rivers by Walter Brennan

**Wordpress flash audio plugin for non-Wordpress HTML (mp3)**

First download the file: audio-player.zip from 1pixelout and unzip it.
There are several files, but you only need to upload "player.swf" and "audio-player.js" to the directory on your server where your MP3 files are played from.

Use the html below to play your MP3 audio file(s) with shockwave-flash.

You Raise Me Up (in Spanish)

Note: for a second player on the same page you have to modify the code for the second player slightly. Change two parameters in the second player:

audioplayer1 --> audioplayer2
playerID=1 --> playerID=2

Tips: In my examples I use the entire URL to avoid confusion, however you can often shorten them, as long as the files referenced are are on the same site. For instance in my Windows Media Player example below instead of using:

src="http://vista.powerblogs.com/files/coolestdogintheworld.wmv"

It works just as well to use:

src="/files/coolestdogintheworld.wmv".

This is because the browser is already on http://vista.powerblogs.com, and will look for the "/files" directory from there. Technically with the complete URL, you can also link to players and/or files that are not on your site if that site isn't restricted, but you had best have permission from the owner of the site that you are hot linking to first.

There are many more parameters available than I am using in these examples, but I'm trying to keep it simple. For more information on the parameters for each type of file you want to embed, google embed plus the extension of the particular file type your looking for.

Posted Tuesday July 31, 2007 | Catagory: (Blogging) | Permalink
0 Comments | 0 Trackbacks

Defamation of the Troops or Troops Run Amok?

by Sandi

A couple of weeks ago The New Republic ran a sensational article entitled "Shock Troops" by an author using the pseudonym of Scott Thomas. Although I found the story doubtful, I didn't report on it then because I'm not familiar with firsthand reports of how troops on the ground act under stress. Since then several miliblogs I read have thrown the BS flag up.

TNR claimed the story is written by a soldier who is currently serving in Iraq. Scott Thomas wants you to believe that circumstances of the war have turned our young men and woman into barbarians. That they engaged in insulting a war wounded and disfigured female, intentionally swerved a Bradley Fighting Vehicle to kill dogs on three occasions, and one even parade around with a child's skull dug from a grave on his head all day and night. Apparently he had no fear of getting a bullet to the head. Besides, wouldn't his CO require him to wear a helmet?

Some of Scott Thomas' claims.

[I] saw her nearly every time I went to dinner in the chow hall at my base in Iraq. She wore an unrecognizable tan uniform, so I couldn't really tell whether she was a soldier or a civilian contractor. The thing that stood out about her, though, wasn't her strange uniform but the fact that nearly half her face was severely scarred. Or, rather, it had more or less melted, along with all the hair on that side of her head. She was always alone, and I never saw her talk to anyone. Members of my platoon had seen her before but had never really acknowledged her. Then, on one especially crowded day in the chow hall, she sat down next to us.

We were already halfway through our meals when she arrived. After a minute or two of eating in silence, one of my friends stabbed his spoon violently into his pile of mashed potatoes and left it there.
"Man, I can't eat like this," he said.
"Like what?" I said. "Chow hall food getting to you?"
"No--with that fucking freak behind us!" he exclaimed, loud enough for not only her to hear us, but everyone at the surrounding tables. I looked over at the woman, and she was intently staring into each forkful of food before it entered her half-melted mouth.
"Are you kidding? I think she's fucking hot!" I blurted out.
"What?" said my friend, half-smiling.
"Yeah man," I continued. "I love chicks that have been intimate--with IEDs. It really turns me on--melted skin, missing limbs, plastic noses ... ."
"You're crazy, man!" my friend said, doubling over with laughter. I took it as my cue to continue.
"In fact, I was thinking of getting some girls together and doing a photo shoot. Maybe for a calendar? IED Babes.' We could have them pose in thongs and bikinis on top of the hoods of their blown-up vehicles."
My friend was practically falling out of his chair laughing. The disfigured woman slammed her cup down and ran out of the chow hall, her half-finished tray of food nearly falling to the ground.

Thomas goes on to tell about a lot of digging they had to do at a newly assigned outpost.

And, eventually, we reached the bones. All children's bones: tiny cracked tibias and shoulder blades. We found pieces of hands and fingers. We found skull fragments. No one cared to speculate what, exactly, had happened here, but it was clearly a Saddam-era dumping ground of some sort.

One private, infamous as a joker and troublemaker, found the top part of a human skull, which was almost perfectly preserved. It even had chunks of hair, which were stiff and matted down with dirt. He squealed as he placed it on his head like a crown. It was a perfect fit. As he marched around with the skull on his head, people dropped shovels and sandbags, folding in half with laughter. No one thought to tell him to stop. No one was disgusted. Me included.

The private wore the skull for the rest of the day and night. Even on a mission, he put his helmet over the skull. He observed that he was grateful his hair had just been cut--since it would make it easier to pick out the pieces of rotting flesh that were digging into his head.

Funny? Of course not. But many of my friends were laughing anyway. That is how war works: It degrades every part of you, and your sense of humor is no exception.

I'm not even going to get into the guy driving the Bradley that killed three dogs, I think you get the idea by now.

Also since the TNR article Scott Thomas has decided to let us know who he really is. Scott Thomas is now known as Private Scott Thomas Beauchamp and writes:

That being said, my character, my experiences, and those of my comrades in arms have been called into question, and I believe that it is important to stand by my writing under my real name.

Whoa up a minute while I look for my BS repellent! After writing that his fellow soldiers slaughter dogs, mocked disfigured women, and wore baby skulls for hats, he is now upset that others have called into question the character of him and those he wrote about? If you can't see the irony there please explain to me why you don't.

Several milibloggers and others have put the story to the smell test and believe it comes up short of reality.

A trusted source to BlackFive writes: the driver in the article would have been beaten by his own troops for putting them in danger of IEDs.

A soldier that uses the same mess hall that the female contractor was insulted writes to BlackFive: In the 11 months I've been here I've never once seen a female contractor with a burned face.

Greyhawk writes: If you believe leadership in his unit is perfectly willing to allow soldiers to run amok in this fashion then you are ignorant of the US military today.

Anyway a formal military investigation has been launched into the incidents described in the "Shock Troops" article. Hopefully we should have solid answers soon.

Other critique of the Shock Troops article.
Greyhawk
Blackfive
Ace of Spades
PowerLine

Posted Friday July 27, 2007 | Catagory: (War) | Permalink
0 Comments | 0 Trackbacks

Paul Potts: Hatred of the Good for being Good!

by Galt

A friend recently described what she considered an odd but common experience at work. She found that her bosses and peers resented her for being productive and increasing the firm’s revenue. Then we got into the discussion of another individual being damned, for his ability. The winner of a nationally televised talent contest in Britain by an Opera Singer named Paul Potts’s, with the same kind of resentment by critics raising its ugly head.
In an article published by Daniel J. Watkin titled “The People’s Tenor Pits the Sniffles Against the Sniffs:” He references several comments on Paul’s performance by less than elated Opera critics’, and this just a sample from many of them:

“Mr. Potts is the sort of bog-standard tenor to be found in any amateur opera company in any corner of the country,” wrote Philip Hensher in The Independent of London. “His tuning was all over the place; his voice sounded strained and uncontrolled; his phrasing was stubby and lumpy; he made a constipated approximation only of the fluid sound of the Italianate tenor.”

I’m not an Opera critic, nor am I well versed on Opera singers in general, but I know what I like when it comes to singing, as I was a ballad singer in some less than savory places in my younger days. The question then with Paul Potts’s, is why millions loved what he accomplished, and heaped loving praise, on this cellphone salesman, who won with his rendition of “Nessun dorma?” Then why is Paul Potts being damned by the elite Opera critics, the answer is below.

It is called the hatred of the good for being good. Ayn Rand described it as follows:

Today, we live in the Age of Envy.

Envy is not the emotion I have in mind, but it is the clearest manifestation of an emotion that had remained nameless; it is the only element of a complete emotional sum that men have permitted themselves to identify.
Envy is regarded by most people as a petty, superficial emotion and, therefore, it serves as a semi human cover for so inhuman an emotion that those who feel it seldom dare admit it even to themselves. Mankind has lived with it, has observed its manifestations and, to various extents, has been ravaged by it for countless centuries, yet has failed to grasp its meaning and to rebel against its exponents.
Today, that emotion is the leitmotif, the sense of life of our culture. It is all around us, we are drowning in it, it is almost explicitly confessed by its more brazen exponents–yet men continue to evade its existence and are peculiarly afraid to name it, as primitive people were once afraid to pronounce the name of the devil.

That emotion is: hatred of the good for being the good.

This hatred is not resentment against some prescribed view of the good with which one does not agree. For instance, if a child resents some conventional type of obedient boy who is constantly held up to him as an ideal to emulate, this is not hatred of the good: the child does not regard that boy as good, and his resentment is the product of a clash between his values and those of his elders (though he is too young to grasp the issue in such terms). Similarly, if an adult does not regard altruism as good and resents the adulation bestowed upon some humanitarian, this is clash between his values and those of others, not hatred of the good.

Hatred of the good for being the good means hatred of that which one regards as good by ones own (conscious or subconscious) judgment. It means hatred of a person for possessing a value or virtue one regards as desirable.

If a child wants to get good grades in school, but is unable or unwilling to achieve them and begins to hate the children who do, that is hatred of the good. If a man regards intelligence as a value, but is troubled by self-doubt and begins to hate the men he judges to be intelligent, that is hatred of the good. (A. Rand, The Age of Envy, The New Left: The Anti-Industrial Revolution, p. 152-3).

In contrast to the hatred of the good, in his book _Prime Movers: Traits of the Great Wealth Creators_, Edwin Locke makes the case that virtue is the key to success. Further, the Prime Movers he examines are lovers of ability in others.
In the close of her essay, Rand provides guidance on the appropriate response to those that hate the good for being good:

What is the weapon one needs to fight such an enemy? For once, it is I who will say that love is the answer–love in the actual meaning of the word, which is the opposite of the meaning they give it–love as a response to value, love of the good for being the good. If you hold on to the vision of any value you love–your mind, your work, your wife or husband, or your child–and remember that that is what the enemy is after, your shudder of rebellion will give you the moral fire, the courage and the intransigence needed in this battle. What fuel can support ones fire? Love for man at his highest potential. (Ibid., p 186)

Paul Potts' reached that level, and I’ll offer you a version of (Por Ti Sere) in Spanish, also called “You raise me up” from his first CD called “One Chance” that is now the number one top selling Album in the UK, and you be the judge, as you listen to the voice, in another language you may not know.

Update: For those that hate and refuse to install Quicktime, I've added a flash MP3 player.

Related Posts (on one page):

Paul Potts: Hatred of the Good for being Good!
Sometimes one discovers a Gem.

Posted Wednesday July 25, 2007 | Catagory: (Music) | Permalink
7 Comments | 0 Trackbacks

Wisconsin Attempts to Socialize Health Care

by Sandi

Source The Wall Street Journal

Based on information compiled by the federal Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, Wisconsin ranks number one in the nation. As I reported early in July, the Wisconsin Democrats want to change that. Wisconsin's Democrat controlled Senate wants to raise our taxes by $15 billion (more than we raise from corporate income taxes, sales taxes and income taxes combined) to pay for this experiment of a totally government-run health care system.

When Louis Brandeis praised the 50 states as "laboratories of democracy," he didn't claim that every policy experiment would work. So we hope the eyes of America will turn to Wisconsin, and the effort by Madison Democrats to make that "progressive" state a petri dish for government-run health care.

This exercise is especially instructive, because it reveals where the "single-payer," universal coverage folks end up. Democrats who run the Wisconsin Senate have dropped the Washington pretense of incremental health-care reform and moved directly to passing a plan to insure every resident under the age of 65 in the state. And, wow, is "free" health care expensive. The plan would cost an estimated $15.2 billion, or $3 billion more than the state currently collects in all income, sales and corporate income taxes. It represents an average of $510 a month in higher taxes for every Wisconsin worker.

Employees and businesses would pay for the plan by sharing the cost of a new 14.5% employment tax on wages. Wisconsin businesses would have to compete with out-of-state businesses and foreign rivals while shouldering a 29.8% combined federal-state payroll tax, nearly double the 15.3% payroll tax paid by non-Wisconsin firms for Social Security and Medicare combined.

This employment tax is on top of the $1 billion grab bag of other levies that Democratic Governor Jim Doyle proposed and the tax-happy Senate has also approved, including a $1.25 a pack increase in the cigarette tax, a 10% hike in the corporate tax, and new fees on cars, trucks, hospitals, real estate transactions, oil companies and dry cleaners. In all, the tax burden in the Badger state could rise to 20% of family income, which is slightly more than the average federal tax burden. "At least federal taxes pay for an Army and Navy," quips R.J. Pirlot of the Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce business lobby.

As if that's not enough, the health plan includes a tax escalator clause allowing an additional 1.5 percentage point payroll tax to finance higher outlays in the future. This could bring the payroll tax to 16%. One reason to expect costs to soar is that the state may become a mecca for the unemployed, uninsured and sick from all over North America. The legislation doesn't require that you have a job in Wisconsin to qualify, merely that you live in the state for at least 12 months. Cheesehead nation could expect to attract health-care free-riders while losing productive workers who leave for less-taxing climes.

This is giving to you with one hand, while taking much more from you with the other hand. Also Wisconsin Senate Democrats want to:

Create the first child care tax deduction in state history, but increase birth certificates fees; double fees to pay child support; create a new fee for those receiving child support.

End the tax on job creation in this state, but make it more expensive to drive to work with a $270 million tax on oil companies that you pay at the pump.

Increase the tax deduction for higher education, but while increasing tuition.

Make all social security 100-percent tax free, while raising property taxes. The median home will be up $400 in this budget cycle, due to a governor Doyle veto.

Related Posts (on one page):

Wisconsin Attempts to Socialize Health Care
Will Wisconsin Stay On Top of the Healthcare Heap?

Posted Tuesday July 24, 2007 | Catagory: (Health/Medicine, Taxes) | Permalink
0 Comments | 0 Trackbacks

Data Mining for War Games

by Sandi

Source The Register

I'm not real happy with this at all. You just know that down the line "alternate reality," and "reality" are either going to cross, or become confused to sophisticated software.

The DOD is developing a parallel to Planet Earth, with billions of individual "nodes" to reflect every man, woman, and child this side of the dividing line between reality and AR.

Called the Sentient World Simulation (SWS), it will be a "synthetic mirror of the real world with automated continuous calibration with respect to current real-world information", according to a concept paper for the project.

"SWS provides an environment for testing Psychological Operations (PSYOP)," the paper reads, so that military leaders can "develop and test multiple courses of action to anticipate and shape behaviors of adversaries, neutrals, and partners".

SWS also replicates financial institutions, utilities, media outlets, and street corner shops. By applying theories of economics and human psychology, its developers believe they can predict how individuals and mobs will respond to various stressors.

SEAS can display regional results for public opinion polls, distribution of retail outlets in urban areas, and the level of unorganization of local economies, which may point to potential areas of civil unrest

Yank a country's water supply. Stage a military coup. SWS will tell you what happens next.

"The idea is to generate alternative futures with outcomes based on interactions between multiple sides," said Purdue University professor Alok Chaturvedi, co-author of the SWS concept paper.

Then again I thiink half the people I know are already living in an alternate reality.

Via Kurzweil.AI

Posted Monday July 23, 2007 | Catagory: (Big Brother) | Permalink
0 Comments | 0 Trackbacks

Compromising Liberty For Equality

by Sandi

Neo-Neocon in a post called: "Apologists for terror: liberty vs. social equality," compares the motivation behind todays Leftist thought process, with apologists for excesses of the French Revolution.

The italics are a summary by Martin Greenberg discussing the French Revolution (pages 148-170 in The Survival of Culture).

How did intelligent, cultivated people, then and later, come to excuse these abominations which ordinary simplicity sees for what they are? One answer, of course partial, seems to be the deep shift, anticipated by Rousseau, of moral feeling away from concern for liberty to concern for social justice.

For “social justice” please substitute any of the following: social equality, racial equality (or “justice”), ethnic equality (or “justice”), cultural equality (or “justice”), and economic equality (or “justice”) and you have the motivation behind much of Leftist thought and action. The fact that such equality is a fake “justice,” the fact that it cannot actually be attained by human society, and the fact that all efforts towards achieving it end up profoundly compromising liberty are ignored by its champions, who have as much difficulty now giving up their Utopian dream as they did then.

Perhaps more.

As Steven Malcolm Anderson (now deceased), a former commenter at Deans World so eloquently put it: Liberty without inequality, or liberty with equality, is an oxymoron. Liberty, or freedom, and equality, are opposites. Liberty, by definition, means individuality, diversity, difference, inequality. Equality means sameness, uniformity, conformity. Free men and women are not equal, and equal men and women are not free.

Posted Sunday July 22, 2007 | Catagory: (Terrorism) | Permalink
1 Comments | 0 Trackbacks

The Invisible Jump Rope

by Sandi

While this is sort of humorous I suppose it could cause an accident of someone panicked and put on the binders. These guys are playing tug of war across the street with a pretend rope.

Udate: Clip changed because the previous video has been removed due to terms of use violation.

Posted Friday July 20, 2007 | Catagory: (Humor, Video blogging) | Permalink
1 Comments | 0 Trackbacks

Sometimes one discovers a Gem.

by Galt

I just recently discovered a very shy, insecure Welsh tenor who appeared out of nowhere and has set the opera world, and perhaps the pop music world on fire. He lives in Port Talbot in South Wales. His name is Paul Potts, and even if you don’t care for Opera, or understand it, his is a name with a voice that is going to set your mind to love, your heart to sing, and your eyes to tears.

Paul's opera singing style - bel canto - is definitely my favorite style that...quite simply...unabashedly moves me to tears.

"Nessun dorma" is an aria from the final act of Puccini’s opera Turandot. The aria, whose title translates from Italian as "Let no one sleep", follows the proclamation by the Princess Turandot that no one shall sleep: they shall all spend the night attempting to find out the name of the unknown prince, Calaf, who has set the challenge. Calaf sings, indicating his certainty that their effort will be in vain

The aria achieved pop status after it was adopted as the official theme song of the 1990 Football World Cup. Prior to the World Cup it was the signature song of the famous Italian tenor Luciano Pavarotte, and has been associated with him ever since. Now that Pavarotte is seriously ill, the song Paul performed for the first time on ITV’s Britain’s Got Talent is even more poignant, and his final winning song of the competition was Con Ti Partiro or Time to Say Goodbye.

Time to Say Goodbye

The libretto of Turandot doesn't translate easily because it's so heavily poetic. Not just the lyrics, but the entire plot, and doesn't make much sense if taken too literally. Forgive me if I recap most of the plot, but the poetry of the aria is too tied up in the story not to discuss it....

As you probably know, Turandot is the beautiful cold-hearted femme fatale princess who lures love-struck princes to their death. Anyone who wants to marry her is asked three riddles: If he answers them right he gets to marry her, but if he doesn't he is beheaded. This is stated at the very beginning of the opera as "the law" ("La legge è questa:"). It is not so much a government decree as a mythopoetic law, almost like a magic spell, which no one in the kingdom — not the emperor, not Turandot, not the ministers — can go against.

In the first act Calaf, the "Unknown Prince", rings the gong, signifying his declaration as a suitor to Turandot. In the second act he correctly answers the three riddles. According to the law, Turandot now has to marry him, even though she doesn't want to. But instead of claiming his prize, Calaf now poses a riddle of his own, saying to her: Tell me my name before morning, and at dawn I shall die

Take this literally and it's a bad move on his part — he's already won, why should he give her another chance to get away? — of course nothing in this opera makes sense if taken literally. Naturally, the Prince's statement is poetic. Furthermore he WANTS to "lose" the game; he wants her to tell him his name and he wants to "die." Besides being another instance of the Lohengrin/Rumpelstiltskin guess-my-name game the Prince is telling Turandot of his true goal. (Notice that he does not say "IF you guess my name....")

He doesn't want her to marry him reluctantly; he wants to defeat her cold-hearted defensiveness and have her fall in love with him. This is, in fact, exactly what happens at the end of the opera, and the metaphors are quite explicit. The veil which Turandot wears (and which Calaf rips) is described as "cold" ("fredda"), for instance.

So when the Prince poses the riddle, the name he refers to is not "Calaf", but rather the name she will ultimately give him: "Amor" ("Love"). That is, he wants her to love him. of course he does know; but poetically, Liù's statement is correct, because she's the only one who is in love with the Prince.

Where the Prince says "then I shall die", he really means "die" in the sense of lose himself completely to true love. Yes, I know, death-equals-love sounds like a pretty perverse metaphor, but it's a persistent one (and more common in Romance languages than it is in English). For an example in English (albeit written by an Italian), when Laetitia in The Old Maid and the Thief sings, "O sweet thief, I pray, make me die," she isn't hoping that he'll murder her.

The aria "Nessun dorma" is near the beginning of Act 3. At the end of Act 2 Turandot hasn't yet figured out all this love poetry business, and still thinks that she just has to get someone to reveal the Prince's name and then she can chop off his head. So she puts out a decree that no one in Peking is allowed to sleep until the name is revealed.

Act 3 opens in gloomy night with lugubrious chords in the orchestra (technically, minor chords with augmented 7ths and 11ths). Some heralds are announcing Turandot's decree, "Tonight no one in Peking sleeps, and the chorus gloomily repeats the words "no one sleeps. In the first words of his aria, the Prince is repeating the words of the chorus. The G major chord that opens the aria is the first optimistic-sounding chord we've heard since intermission and it breaks through the gloom like the light of dawn.

Hopefully now you have some idea, of the Opera’s story, the song, and the rendition given by Paul Potts, and did I mention that Paul’s winning prize, is to perform for the Queen herself. Get a hanky dear lady, you will need it.

For a Music Critics perspectives go to:

BC

I’ve also included the full “Nessun dorma" from three other tenors, as Paul only performed a small section (the end of the aria) for comparison. While you may find, more power and technique with the professionals, I believe you will find what I did in Paul Potts performance…. more heart and soul.
As J.S. Reidhead, said in his blog, “Oh, the voice? Move over Andrea Bocelli with Paul Potts in town, no one is going to remember your name. Potts has the potential to be one of the great tenors.”

Now watch the judges, from the beginning, as there ho-hum expresions turn to wonder!

I've decided to include the links only, and if you want to compare, as I did click on them, and come back one last time to Paul, and if he doesn't blow you away, get rid of your MP3's.

Pavarotti-Nessun Dorma
Well done by Pavarotti, but not the heart I looked for.

Andrea Bocelli Live
Bocelli is of course more a pop singer, as he is blind, and stage work in Opera, would be out of the general question, however there is more heart than Pavarotti.

Now badly done by Mark Janicello
I can't say enough about how poorly this was done, especially the last note, and no heart, just bad!

Mario Del Monaco
This version, was always my favorite, and done by an old school Opera Master, however Paul Potts, is going to be eventually counted among the greats.

Paul Potts very first Album, including Nessun Dorma, can be found at Amazon, the link provided above. He is so good, they sent him to a recording studio, right after his ITV win, and the purchase is worth the price.

As a final note, Paul sang for LUCIANO PAVAROTTE, as you will find in Reidhead's Blog, and one day may replace him, as one of the greatest tenors in our time. Paul was going to give up if he could not at least get in the finals, of course he did, and his struggle reminds me of this poem.

How dull it is to pause, to make an end,
To rust unburnished, not to shine in use!
As tho' to breathe, were life.
'Tis not too late to seek a newer world,
To sail beyond the sunset, and the baths
Of all the western stars.
And tho' we are not now the strength which in old days
Moved earth and heaven; that which we are, we are;
One equal temper of heroic hearts,
Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will,
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.

Related Posts (on one page):

Paul Potts: Hatred of the Good for being Good!
Sometimes one discovers a Gem.

Posted Thursday July 19, 2007 | Catagory: (Music) | Permalink
25 Comments | 0 Trackbacks

House Takes Sharper Knife to Earmarks

by Sandi

Source The New Your Times

The Senate is supposed to have the power to perform "house of review," over the House, yet the earmarks are worse in the Senate than they are in the House.

If the House is taking a sharper knife to earmarks than the Senate, the intended Constitutional process of house-review is hamstrung, because Senate politicians cannot abstain from pork.

Perhaps the old Constitutional process of Senators being appointed instead of elected should never have been changed, in spite of the corruption in the appointment process that brought the change about.

As Democrats attempt to curb criticism of the earmarking process, the House is leading in one area: reducing the cost of lawmakers’ pet projects in the annual appropriations bills.

But the House’s reduction in spending on earmarking by at least 50 percent from fiscal 2006 levels has some members worried. They are concerned that they will head into conference negotiations with the Senate at a disadvantage because that chamber’s spending bills will contain many more earmarks from the start.

Posted Wednesday July 18, 2007 | Catagory: (Politics) | Permalink
0 Comments | 0 Trackbacks

Campaign Promises and Fairy Dust

by Sandi

Source The Onion

I'm not a reader of The Onion, and never though I would be linking them, but I will make an exception in this case just for the humor involved (even though Edwards is apparently serious). A democrats campaign has to be pretty bad when even the Onion makes fun of you.

"Other candidates have plans that would reduce some of the bad things, but I want all of them gone completely."

"Many bad things are not just bad—they're terrible," said a beaming Edwards, whose "Only the Good Things" proposal builds upon previous efforts to end poverty, outlaw startlingly loud noises, and offer tax breaks to those who smile frequently. "Other candidates have plans that would reduce some of the bad things, but I want all of them gone completely."

According to Edwards, his plan is composed of three steps. Everyday bad things, such as curse words and splinters, would be eradicated during his first six months in office. Next, very bad things, including child abduction, soil erosion, and resurgent diseases such as malaria and tuberculosis, would be ended by the the end of 2009. Finally, extremely bad things—plights such as genocide, species extinction, and virtually every form of cancer—would take a full two years to wipe out.

"Racism will soon be a thing of the past," Edwards said. "Same goes for being picked last for playground athletics, AIDS, robbery, not having enough spending money, and murder. Because these things are bad and not good, I promise they will be eliminated."

Other bad things the 2004 vice-presidential nominee vowed to end include the housing crisis, skinned knees, frowns, steep staircases, jailbreaks, water that is too cold to swim in, pain, traffic, being tired in the morning, sprained ankles, hunger, not having enough energy at night, teen pregnancy, cases of the blahs, thunder, the high cost of admission to events, type 2 diabetes, games of tic-tac-toe with no clear winner, the lack of parking in urban areas, forgetting birthdays, child prostitution, and confusion.

"Imagine a world free of procrastination, class disparity, and itchiness," Edwards said. "It will only be possible if we try."

Edwards vow isn't ambitious vow like Herbert Hoover "a chicken in every pot and a car in every garage," it's a crock of cockamamy bull shit.

Via Glenn Reynolds

Posted Tuesday July 17, 2007 | Catagory: (Politics) | Permalink
0 Comments | 0 Trackbacks

Rescue Mission Sparked by Scary Cows

by Sandi

Source Sky News

Kids these days are getting too soft and wimpy. Of course thats easy for me to say, being raised around farm animals.

The terrified pupils, aged 14 and 15, were on a geography field trip in Swanage, Dorset, when they sent out an SOS.

They were dropped off three miles from their outdoor centre and told to find their way back using a map.

But the teenagers, from St Albans in Hertfordshire, got stuck on a hill when they came across a herd of cows in a field blocking their way.

A coastguard rescue team, police and an ambulance were scrambled to rescue them after one of the girls called for help on her mobile phone.

A Hertfordshire County Council spokeswoman said: "The children were concerned because they realised they were going to have to walk through a field with cows in it.

I don't know what to say, except WTF? Even city kids were not scared of cows when I was growing up.

H/T Owen at Boots & Sabers, via The Other Side of Kim du Toit.

Posted Monday July 16, 2007 | Catagory: (Stupid Should Hurt) | Permalink
0 Comments | 0 Trackbacks

The Boy Who Sees Without Eyes

by Sandi

Last Thursday I posted a clip "The Boy Who Sees Through Sound." It's a CBS clip I found on YouTube after watching a documentary on the cable TLC channel called "the boy who sees without eyes."

The documentary tells a more complete story than the CBS clip, including Ben's refusal to use a cane because he doesn't want pity, or to appear handicapped. Ben learns the value of the cane at the end when Dan Kish—another who is blind from birth—takes Ben and others on a mountain hike.

After more searching I found the entire documentary broken up into the 5 segments below. This is a must watch.

The boy who sees without eyes [1/5]

The boy who sees without eyes [2/5]

The boy who sees without eyes [3/5]

The boy who sees without eyes [4/5]

The boy who sees without eyes [5/5]

Dan Kish, who helped Ben Underwood in the last couple clips runs a website called World Access for the Blind, with methodology, instructions, workshops and videos.

Related Posts (on one page):

The Boy Who Sees Without Eyes
The Boy Who Sees Through Sound

Posted Monday July 16, 2007 | Catagory: (General) | Permalink
13 Comments | 0 Trackbacks

Iranian's Smash Squirrel Spy Ring!

by Sandi

Source Sky News

So spying is plain nuts... well anyway it's probably worth lots of nuts to the Squirrels. But as hilarious as this is, it's clever, and not the first time animals have been used in warfare.

The rodents were found near the Iranian border allegedly equipped with eavesdropping devices.

The reports have come from the official Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA).

When asked about the confiscation of the spy squirrels, the national police chief said: "I have heard about it, but I do not have precise information."

The IRNA said that the squirrels were kitted out by foreign intelligence services - but they were captured two weeks ago by police officers.

          

Britain's latest secret weapon?

H/T Mike in the comments at Dean's World

Posted Saturday July 14, 2007 | Catagory: (War) | Permalink
0 Comments | 0 Trackbacks

Electronic Dispenser for Toilet Paper

by Sandi

Remember a while back when Sheryl Crow proposed limiting toilet paper to just one square per visit to the restroom? Well except, of course, on those messy occasions where 2 or 3 might be required. Well let me tell you something, no one who only uses one square, need ever get near me.

But now Kimberly-Clark rolls out an electronic toilet paper dispenser.

A year in the works, the electronic tissue dispenser is being rolled out to the masses by Kimberly-Clark Professional as it seeks to capture more of the $1 billion away-from-home toilet paper market. The company believes most people will be satisfied with five sheets - and use 20% less toilet paper.

"Most people will take the amount given," says Thorne. Waxing philosophical, he adds, "People generally in life will take what you give them."

Via Owen at Boots & Sabers who says about taking what you are given: "But isn’t that a very true, if sad, human trait? It is on this truism of human nature that socialism is built."

Posted Thursday July 12, 2007 | Catagory: (Stupid Should Hurt) | Permalink
1 Comments | 0 Trackbacks

When is Penny Pinching Pork?

by Sandi

Source Journal Sentinel Online

Apparently when it's in the form of tax breaks.

Democrats said the Republican plan was awash in pork-barrel projects - such as a $2.9 million property tax break for restaurant kitchen equipment - and would cripple the University of Wisconsin System.

"This is Edward Scissorhands on meth - it's cut, cut, cut, cut, cut," Rep. Jennifer Shilling (D-La Crosse) said of the UW plan.

If it becomes law, the GOP budget by mid-2009 would force the layoff of more than 1,700 teachers statewide, including 199 in Milwaukee Public Schools, Democrats said.

I wouldn't recommend holding your breath waiting for teacher layoffs because of insufficient taxes.

Via The World According to Nick.

Posted Thursday July 12, 2007 | Catagory: (Taxes) | Permalink
0 Comments | 0 Trackbacks

The Boy Who Sees Through Sound

by Sandi

Yesterday I watched an amazing documentary on the cable TLC channel, of a boy who had his eyes removed at age 2 because of cancer. Soon after Ben learned to see using sound instead of light. He makes clicking noises, and uses echo location like a dolphin or bat. This may be old news to some of you because he has been on Opera, CBS and other shows. However I'm not a fan of either.

Ben can shoot hops (and he's good), skate in the street seeing and avoiding traffic, rides a bike, plays video games, and trounces people with sight at foosball.

Or read the CBS article about how Ben conquered the darkness with echolocation.

Related Posts (on one page):

The Boy Who Sees Without Eyes
The Boy Who Sees Through Sound

Posted Thursday July 12, 2007 | Catagory: (General) | Permalink
0 Comments | 0 Trackbacks

Liberal Trash Writer Threatens Assassination and Civil War

by Craig

Hart Williams who wrote and was an editor for the widely respected (cough, cough) Hustler Magazine has threatened to kill Rush Limbaugh, He went on to say that Ted Nugent should be a target too. If that wasn't enough Williams alluded to the possibility of civil war in America.
He could get some assistance from radical muslims who have just declared sovereignty over the USA and Britain.
I have written much about the dangers of islam in America. It has slowly changed to the wahhabi sect as far as our stateside clerics are concerned.
It is time now for Democrats to rear up and take command of the once great party. A party that no longer resembles a remedy to return to good and peaceful times.
My grandparents and my parents were once proud Democrats. Luckily for their sakes they didn't get to see the demise of civility and the following of rules that made our country stand far above all others in history.
I personally know formerly main stream Democrats who now spout this hateful mantra. It is the same infection that prevailed in the 1930-1940's Germany.
My upbringing tells me to have compassion and forgiveness for these individuals. It is getting so hard to do that.
Sharia courts presently exists in Michigan in muslim controlled areas. Their prayer loudly blared over P.A. systems five times a day.
Be careful Mr Williams for what you wish. A sharia court would torch you first. And regarding you wanting to start a civil war to annihilate conservative America....An old saying fits here...Sometimes the cow gets the butcher.

Posted Monday July 9, 2007 | Catagory: | Permalink
2 Comments | 0 Trackbacks

Ethanol in Outer Space

by Craig

Alcohol has always been considered a part of any American university.
You will be happy to know that researchers at Ohio State have discovered a cloud of pure alcohol located near the constellation Aquila. The cloud contains enough alcohol to make 400 trillion trillion pints of beer.
This appears to be enough to keep the taps flowing at the University of Wisconsin and Ohio State for several semesters.
The only problem is that it is 10,000 light years from Earth.

Posted Monday July 9, 2007 | Catagory: | Permalink
0 Comments | 0 Trackbacks

Why Has AIDS Research Failed?

by Sandi

HIV is a retro-virus that replicates by using reverse transcriptase with an RNA genome to make new copies of itself via a DNA intermediate. HIV is said to suppress the immune system by destroying more CD4-T cells than the body can replace. "But, even in patients dying from AIDS less than 1 in 500 of the T-cells 'that become depleted' are ever infected by HIV" Source: Page-8 (The chemical bases of the various AIDS epidemics: [pdf] Peter Duesberg, Claus Koehnlein and David Rasnick) Yet T cells reproduce at around 5 percent a day, so HIV cannot kill enough T cells to suppress the immune system. It is one of the hardest things for HIV=AIDS proponents to try to explain; why AIDS patients lack so many T cells if HIV isn't killing that many.

In a normal, healthy body, there are about 1,000 T4, or infection locator cells per microliter of blood, and about half that many T8 killer cells, that go after infections. Millions of these T cells circulate in an inactive state in our bodies. During an immune response stimulated by a virus, for example, T cells reproduce until there are billions of them; they destroy the virus-infected cell, and then they start dying themselves until a baseline level of inactive cells is reached, and the immune system goes back to a resting stage.

So if even in a patient dying from AIDS, only 1 in 500 of the T-cells 'that become depleted' are infected with HIV, it seems very possible that something else may be suppressing the immune system. On HIV=AIDS there are over 100,000 research papers published, yet not one, not a single one, has any direct proof that HIV causes immune deficiency. Their entire theory is based on correlation. This correlation started to fall apart in the early years of AIDS research.

Peter Duesberg, Professor of Molecular and Cell Biology at Berkley University Cal easily found over 4600 AIDS patients who were HIV negative. That caused adjustments to be made to the official AIDS definition to eliminate most cases of HIV negative AIDS. Doctors were pressured not to publish them, or publish them, but not in AIDS journals, and not as AIDS listings. Also unlike other microbes that cause specific diseases, HIV causes no specific disease disease at all. Not a single one. It supposedly suppresses the immune system so that one or more opportunistic diseases from a list of 33 can flourish. (note the list started at 14 diseases, but 19 were added) Therefore with the AID definition:

Kaposi's Sarcoma + HIV=AIDS
Kaposi's Sarcoma - HIV=Kaposi's Sarcoma

Cytomegalovirus + HIV=AIDS
Cytomegalovirus - HIV=Cytomegalovirus

Wasting Syndrome + HIV=AIDS
Wasting Syndrome - HIV=Wasting Syndrome

Tuberculosis + HIV=AIDS
Tuberculosis - HIV=Tuberculosis

And so on with the rest of the 33 diseases listed as opportunistic to AIDS. This makes it easy to correlate near 100 percent, but it's not objective, it's deceptive, and it isn't scientific. Science is designed to get around such deception. Yet the official definition was changed, based on a predetermined outcome. It is a self fulfilling prophecy, by simply removing what doesn't correlate.

Worldwide, the World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that 28.1 million are HIV positive. The total officially reported AIDS cases is 1.4 million, or only 5 percent of those that have the HIV virus. In the US according to the CDC, 1 to 1.5 million have been infected with HIV since 1984. Approximately a half a million US AIDS cases have been reported after a latency period of over 20 years, and 62,000 of those were never tested for HIV. In Africa 14 million have HIV, but 97 percent do not have AIDS. There are 442,735 African cases of AIDS, or about 3 percent of those HIV positive. But yet those in the US infected with aids is 90/10 percent, men/women. In Africa although 97 percent are HIV+, AIDS is distributed 50/50 percent between men and women, with only 3 percent of them HIV+. How can this be explained to affect so differently by country and gender, or is there another cause?

By now I hope it is starting to raise some red flags in your mind that say, that maybe AIDS research foundations should begin to look in other areas for the cause of AIDS. While there is no proof of other causes either, there are other correlations that are much better than the HIV=AIDS correlation. Not that we should ever accept correlation as science, but it certainly is a good basis to do research, to confirm or eliminate the suggestions correlation makes. Little of that was done with HIV=AIDS.

Early on there was research being done in another area of correlation, "behavioral research," such as drug use. However that model was abandoned for the infectious HIV=AIDS model. Ever since, AIDS research has had all of it's eggs in one basket.

Lets start with some statistics other than HIV, and see if HIV as the cause should be reappraised, and hopefully stop giving millions of people a misdiagnoses of death, using toxic drugs that are known to suppress the immune system, and can do what HIV hasn't been shown to do. That is that these toxic drugs can cause AIDS itself. How many more have to die?

First, I apologize for some sources below being aged. They are from a DVD, that this post is based on. Newer CDC figures are here and are close. Lets look at who gets AIDS, source CDC 1992:

Homosexual males	62%

IV drug users		32

Hemophiliacs		1%

Transfusion		2%

			——

Total			97%

Don't jump to the conclusion that if one is homosexuals they are more likely to get AIDS yet just because 62 percent of those with AIDS are homosexual, it is still a small percentage of the gay community. And believe it or not, all homosexuals do not appear to be at risk. Further statistics show that almost all AIDS patients, are or were, drug users, and the homosexual community is a very substantial user of recreational drugs. So at the risk of being accused of gay bashing, when I hope to show that the underlying drug use (94% of cases overall, IV and recreational w/out regard to sexual preference) is the real risk, lets continue.

Drugs used by homosexuals with AIDS.

96%		Nitrite Inhalents (poppers)

35-50%		Ethylchloride Inhalents

50-60%		Cocaine

50-70%		Amphetamines

40%		Phenylcyclidine

40-60%		LSD

40-60%		Metaqualone

25%		Barbituates

90%		Marijuana

10%		Herone

So if this correlation means anything, being homosexual shouldn't put one at risk, but drug use should. However recreational drugs are used substantially, especially as an aphrodisiac in the gay community. The other major group is IV drug users, and we have knows for decades that heavy drug use suppresses the immune system. Since 1909 we have observed the horrendous effects of heroine, morphine, speed, cocaine and other injected drugs. Even antibiotics taken in large doses over time can suppress the immune system. Yet no government study has ever been done on the long term effect of hard drugs on the immune system, at least not with regard to AIDS.

Outside of the gay community thousands of HIV negative drug junkies are loosing the same CD4 T cells as AIDS patients, but they are not counted as such as long as they are HIV negative. How does the War on Drugs address this? They hand out clean needles and tell them to avoid HIV. If the focus were on extended use of harsh drugs, could thousands of lives be saved? I think it is a very good possibility.

Please watch this Google video (1HR 13MIN) with an open mind. Yes it is long, but this is a important issue. If you want you can download or buy an inexpensive copy of it here.

Posted Monday July 9, 2007 | Catagory: (HIV/AIDS) | Permalink
0 Comments | 0 Trackbacks

The Swarm Intelligence of Insects

by Sandi

Source National Geographic

Ants, bees and other insects that seem pretty industrious to us, are, individually by themselves, pretty dumb creatures that only follow a few very basic rules of thumb. It is the interaction and cumulative result of these simple rules that gives swarm insects their seemingly collective intelligence.

"Ants aren't smart," Gordon says. "Ant colonies are." A colony can solve problems unthinkable for individual ants, such as finding the shortest path to the best food source, allocating workers to different tasks, or defending a territory from neighbors. As individuals, ants might be tiny dummies, but as colonies they respond quickly and effectively to their environment. They do it with something called swarm intelligence.

Where this intelligence comes from raises a fundamental question in nature: How do the simple actions of individuals add up to the complex behavior of a group? How do hundreds of honeybees make a critical decision about their hive if many of them disagree? What enables a school of herring to coordinate its movements so precisely it can change direction in a flash, like a single, silvery organism? The collective abilities of such animals—none of which grasps the big picture, but each of which contributes to the group's success—seem miraculous even to the biologists who know them best. Yet during the past few decades, researchers have come up with intriguing insights. ....

Consider the problem of job allocation. In the Arizona desert where Deborah Gordon studies red harvester ants (Pogonomyrmex barbatus), a colony calculates each morning how many workers to send out foraging for food. The number can change, depending on conditions. Have foragers recently discovered a bonanza of tasty seeds? More ants may be needed to haul the bounty home. Was the nest damaged by a storm last night? Additional maintenance workers may be held back to make repairs. An ant might be a nest worker one day, a trash collector the next. But how does a colony make such adjustments if no one's in charge? Gordon has a theory.

Ants communicate by touch and smell. When one ant bumps into another, it sniffs with its antennae to find out if the other belongs to the same nest and where it has been working. (Ants that work outside the nest smell different from those that stay inside.) Before they leave the nest each day, foragers normally wait for early morning patrollers to return. As patrollers enter the nest, they touch antennae briefly with foragers.

"When a forager has contact with a patroller, it's a stimulus for the forager to go out," Gordon says. "But the forager needs several contacts no more than ten seconds apart before it will go out."

To see how this works, Gordon and her collaborator Michael Greene of the University of Colorado at Denver captured patroller ants as they left a nest one morning. After waiting half an hour, they simulated the ants' return by dropping glass beads into the nest entrance at regular intervals—some coated with patroller scent, some with maintenance worker scent, some with no scent. Only the beads coated with patroller scent stimulated foragers to leave the nest. Their conclusion: Foragers use the rate of their encounters with patrollers to tell if it's safe to go out. (If you bump into patrollers at the right rate, it's time to go foraging. If not, better wait. It might be too windy, or there might be a hungry lizard waiting out there.) Once the ants start foraging and bringing back food, other ants join the effort, depending on the rate at which they encounter returning foragers.

"A forager won't come back until it finds something," Gordon says. "The less food there is, the longer it takes the forager to find it and get back. The more food there is, the faster it comes back. So nobody's deciding whether it's a good day to forage. The collective is, but no particular ant is."

Much more, read the rest here, to see how software with ant-based strategy is being used to solve, and manage complex business problems.

Posted Saturday July 7, 2007 | Catagory: (Science & Technology) | Permalink
0 Comments | 0 Trackbacks

Space Based Solar Power for India

by Sandi

Solar power from space sounds great, however I think there are going to be a lot of snags and setback before this becomes a reality. Still I wish them success.

HYDERABAD, June 28: India is working intensely on having a solar power generation station in space to meet the nation’s ever growing energy requirements. The “hyperplane,” which needs to transport the infrastructure into space, will make a demonstrative flight at the 2008 end. ...

Former chairman of Bharat Dynamic Ltd Mr Gopalaswamy, who made pioneering work in this field, is widely regarded as a “missionary” for solar energy. “The era of conventional fuels is ending. The sun’s intensity in space is nearly twice what we feel here on the Earth’s surface. On Earth, there is sunlight fit for power generation for six to eight hours a day. In space, it’s 24 hours. We need to have our own solar power station in orbit,” he said.

Via KurzweilAI.net.

Posted Saturday July 7, 2007 | Catagory: (Energy) | Permalink
0 Comments | 0 Trackbacks

Happy Independence Day

by Sandi

A fitting day to take this test. Have at it.

Do you have what it takes to become a citizen?

My score was 100 percent. However I took a wild guess on:

19. What INS form is used to apply to become a naturalized citizen?

Posted Wednesday July 4, 2007 | Catagory: (General) | Permalink
0 Comments | 0 Trackbacks

Then and Now

by Sandi

Representative John Conyers Jr., Democrat of Michigan, and now chairman of the House Judiciary Committee said in 1999...

"Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong opposition to what is clearly a politically motivated and totally senseless resolution. We are a Nation of laws, and if any matter is abundantly clear by our Constitution, it is that the President has the sole and unitary power to grant clemency. Is there any Member that does not understand that? Every President has the sole and unitary power to grant clemency…Now the reason that he has the power to grant clemency is that it is that the President is uniquely positioned to consider the law and the facts that apply in each request for clemency."

However John Conyers announced yesterday that next week he would hold a hearing, to examine "the use and misuse of presidential clemency power" for executive branch officials.

Ah consistency.

Posted Wednesday July 4, 2007 | Catagory: (Politics) | Permalink
0 Comments | 0 Trackbacks

I'm Sick Of It!

by Sandi

The back and forth on the commuting of Libby's sentence vs Clinton's pardons and lying under oath. STFU already!

Posted Tuesday July 3, 2007 | Catagory: (Stupid Should Hurt) | Permalink
0 Comments | 0 Trackbacks

Amorous Couple fall 50 feet - Saved by Fig Tree

by Sandi

Is there something erotic I'm missing about having sex at great heights? About a week and a half ago, I posted on a naked couple in South Carolina that fell 50 feet to their deaths from of a downtown office building rooftop (see chained post below).

Now a British couple on the island of Majorca, in the Mediterranean Sea fall 50 feet from a view point next to their holiday apartment. Fortunately a fig tree broke their fall, so this couple lives to play amorous games another day.

I suppose it is fitting though that throughout the Bible, the fig tree symbolizes prosperity and peace. Then OTOH reading some background on the fig tree, for this post, I find it more fitting that in Gnostic Teachings, "The fig tree symbolizes the feminine sexual forces that we must learn how to control." But if you can't control them, hope that a fig tree is nearby?

A young British courting couple had a miraculous escape when they plunged nearly 50 feet from a wall in Majorca because their fall was broken by a tree. ...

Leanne is recovering in hospital at nearby Palma, the island's capital, with two broken ankles, while Nicholas was not even hurt.

Said one police officer: "These young people were extremely lucky. They fell 15 meters - the equivalent of six storeys.

I'm guessing that maybe the adrenalin from the danger heightens the fireworks in the release. However I'll stick to a 50 centimeter or so high bed.

Related Posts (on one page):

Amorous Couple fall 50 feet - Saved by Fig Tree
Up On The Roof (no not the Drifters)

Posted Tuesday July 3, 2007 | Catagory: (General) | Permalink
0 Comments | 0 Trackbacks

Wind Power - The Good, The Bad, The Ugly

by Sandi

From the people who live with giant wind generators

We all want cheap renewable energy like wind power, and it's good for the environment. Yet it should be accomplished in an honest way with as little impact on the community as possible.

If you own property with a half a dozen of them you are probably happy with the $6000 windfall per unit (pun intended). If not and your property value plummets because of the noise and constant blade shadow flicker, you will be among those grumbling.

Below is a three part video showing the reactions of the residents in and around Tug Hill, New York. The three segments run a total of about 20 minutes.

The Voices of Tug Hill, Part 1 of 3

The Voices of Tug Hill, Part 2 of 3

The Voices of Tug Hill, Part 3 of 3

For more reading: U.S. Boosts Wind Power Output As Politics, Costs Favor Its Use

And in my own state of Wisconsin: Wind power on hold: Trempealeau County extends moratorium. The holdup seems to be putting up with the noise, and shadow flicker.

Posted Tuesday July 3, 2007 | Catagory: (Energy) | Permalink
2 Comments | 0 Trackbacks

Will Wisconsin Stay On Top of the Healthcare Heap?

by Sandi

The federal Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality has ranked Wisconsin number one in the nation for health care quality. The rankings are based on 129 measurements of quality in 4 different care areas.

The state's hospitals also were given the highest score in the country.

The information released Monday marked the first year that the agency compiled and released an overall score for each state. The agency has been releasing state information on health care quality for four years.

Wisconsin historically has ranked high in surveys on health care quality.

"Pretty consistently, we are sitting in the top-performing states," said Dana Richardson, vice president of quality for the Wisconsin Hospital Association.

Wisconsin also was among the five best-performing states in ambulatory care and ranked in the top 25% for nursing home care.

But the Democrats controlling the Wisconsin legislature want to change that.

On June 22, 2007, Governor Doyle said: "Wisconsin hospitals provide the highest quality health care in the nation. Wisconsin’s health care providers (give) high quality care to patients presenting with a wide range of medical needs and conditions. Through their efforts, Wisconsin leads the nation in many important indicators of patient health."

The Democrat controlled Senate wants to raise taxes by $15 billion to pay for this scheme—that’s more than we raise from corporate income taxes, sales taxes and income taxes combined. Those Democrats just can’t stand the fact we might get out of the top ten highest taxed states in the nation. Why would we want to have the government take over one of the best health care delivery systems in the world? What will we gain?

In this global economy, people and businesses have a choice. Businesses can leave. Manufacturers can leave. I bet the sick nationwide will flock to Wisconsin to receive guaranteed health care for a small fee, provided they can get jobs. (Well there is always our generous welfare system with free health care if they can’t.)

If you think health care is expensive now, wait ‘til it is free. What if we had food insurance and food was free after you met your deductible?

This legislation is similar to the failing Canadian system. Canadians often wait more than 16 weeks to see a doctor. They wait nearly six months for treatment after breast cancer diagnosis (after waiting to get into their doctor). They waited five years for the best cancer drugs. Canadians die waiting for services. Let me say that again. Canadians die waiting for medical services.

If this goes through as planned, those in Wisconsin that can afford it, will be driving to Minnesota or Illinois rather than wait in line for healthcare like Canadians. Canadian healthcare is very good if it wasn't for the wait. It's probably true that those in the US without insurance, get substantially worse care than most Canadians. However the way to fix that isn't by making healthcare service equally poor for everyone.

Update: With the recent Senate passage of the state budget, a proposal to extend health benefits to the domestic partners of all state employees has gone further than it ever has before.

It's also the most comprehensive proposal to date, covering all state employees — not just University of Wisconsin System staff — and municipal employees.

This has passed in the Senate budget, but thankfully it is unlikely in the Republican controlled assembly.

Related Posts (on one page):

Wisconsin Attempts to Socialize Health Care
Will Wisconsin Stay On Top of the Healthcare Heap?

Posted Monday July 2, 2007 | Catagory: (Health/Medicine) | Permalink
1 Comments | 0 Trackbacks

Voter Disfranchise in Mississippi

by Sandi

Sometimes the left will try to stay in power by any means necessary. That includes illegally mark their absentee ballots, manipulating registration rolls, brining illegal candidates in to run for county offices, and publicating lists of voters classified by race for ballots challenge.

Among the abuses catalogued by Judge Tom Lee were the paying of notaries public to visit voters and illegally mark their absentee ballots, manipulation of the registration rolls, importation of illegal candidates to run for county office, and publication of a list of voters, classified by race, who might have their ballots challenged. The judge criticized state political officials for being "remiss" in addressing the abuses. The U.S. Justice Department, which sued Noxubee officials under the Voting Rights Act, has called conditions there "the most extreme case of racial exclusion seen by the [department's] Voting Section in decades."

Explosive stuff, so why haven't you heard about it? Because the Noxubee case doesn't fit the media stereotype for voting rights abuses. The local political machine is run by Ike Brown, a twice-convicted felon. Mr. Brown is black, and the voters who were discriminated against were white.

Judge Lee concluded that Mr. Brown retained his power "by whatever means were necessary." According to the judge, Mr. Brown believed that "blacks, being the majority race in Noxubee County, should hold all elected offices, to the exclusion of whites." (Whites are 30% of the county's 12,500 people, but only two of the 26 elected county officials.) Judge Lee also criticized top officials of the state Democratic Party for "failing to take action to rectify [Mr. Brown's] abuses."

Read the rest by John Fund.

Posted Monday July 2, 2007 | Catagory: (Voting Fraud) | Permalink
1 Comments | 0 Trackbacks

Nothing to fear....but...

by Galt

Forget about the WGA! 20+ Windows Vista Features and Services Harvest User Data for Microsoft - From your machine!
By: Marius Oiaga

Which can be found here:

“Are you using Windows Vista? Then you might as well know that the licensed operating system installed on your machine is harvesting a healthy volume of information for Microsoft. In this context, a program such as the Windows Genuine Advantage is the last of your concerns. In fact, in excess of 20 Windows Vista features and services are hard at work collecting and transmitting your personal data to the Redmond company.”

Had Enough? I Didn't Think So!

“Microsoft has an additional collection of 47 Windows Vista features and services that collect user data. However, not all phone home and report to Microsoft. Although the data collection process is generalized across the list, user information is also processed and kept on the local machine, leaving just approximately 50% of the items to both harvest data and contact Microsoft. Still, Microsoft underlined the fact that the list provided under the Windows Vista Privacy Statement is by no means exhaustive, nor does it apply to all the company's websites, services and products.”

“Activation, Customer Experience Improvement Program (CEIP), Device Manager, Driver Protection, Dynamic Update, Event Viewer, File Association Web Service, Games Folder, Error Reporting for Handwriting Recognition, Input Method Editor (IME), Installation Improvement Program, Internet Printing, Internet Protocol version 6 Network Address Translation Traversal, Network Awareness (somewhat), Parental Controls, Peer Name Resolution Service, Plug and Play, Plug and Play Extensions, Program Compatibility Assistant, Program Properties—Compatibility Tab, Program Compatibility Wizard, Properties, Registration, Rights Management Services (RMS) Client, Update Root Certificates, Windows Control Panel, Windows Help, Windows Mail (only with Windows Live Mail, Hotmail, or MSN Mail) and Windows Problem Reporting are the main features and services in Windows Vista that collect and transmit user data to Microsoft.”

“This extensive enumeration is not a complete illustration of all the sources in Windows Vista that Microsoft uses to gather end user data. However, it is more than sufficient to raise serious issues regarding user privacy. The Redmond company has adopted a very transparent position when it comes to the information being collected from its users. But privacy, much in the same manner as virtualization, is not mature enough and not sufficiently enforced through legislation. Microsoft itself is one of the principal contributors to the creation of a universal user privacy model.”

Nothing to fear....unless you are a kiddies predator, or just the plain vanilla variety, or a thief who loves those cracked software programs, and the yummy free music tracks of the latest wacko artist and not to mention those hot movies.

Then again perhaps you had a flair for math at an early age, and discovered what you could do with good algorithm's, a hex editor, C++ and some re-engineering software and decided that someone’s privacy and self respect was some Liberal or Conservative plot to thwart your F...U mentality. So you wander at night poking your tool into anyone’s business you can crack for amusement, happy feet (Pun intended) destruction, email confetti delivery, or those great "others" accounts or CC numbers.

Besides you need a new an bigger HD...or that ultimate game machine.

Of course you could also be a plotting terrorist and you watched too many Pinky and the Brain cartoons, learned all there mistakes, and think you're smarter than a cartoon. Besides there is always someone nifty and current you can hate to justify your plot of taking over the world at any given time. Of course, maybe all you want is to nibble on it a bit.

OK, so maybe your a good guy doll, and not into any of those fun things, but you're not real bright either, so you save your backups, and data on some server run by some company on the net so you don't lose all that precious material besides you have to trust someone else's mind sometime...don't you?? Your own is just not up to the task!!

9/11 and previous attacks elsewhere not on American soil changed the world, and most especially the world of the Internet and it's access. Pinky and the Brain became less of a cartoon, and more a reality, and there was a good reason Microsoft was not dismantled, and Vista (WOW) was born (how long was it under development...think back...think towers..) and that article only covers a small percent of what it's capable of. But your a good guy doll, and you play it straight, and have nothing to fear and 1984 was just a good read!!

Oh...don't forget your tinfoil hat...I think the pyramid style is back in vogue.

Posted Sunday July 1, 2007 | Catagory: (Big Brother) | Permalink
1 Comments | 0 Trackbacks

Reviews

MSM News

Categories

Archives

Old Archives

Subscribe

Affiliates

Translate

Scroogle

Ecosystem

Categories

Trivial Stuff

Connected

Counter

"Other candidates have plans that would reduce some of the bad things, but I want all of them gone completely."

The boy who sees without eyes [1/5]

The boy who sees without eyes [2/5]

The boy who sees without eyes [3/5]

The boy who sees without eyes [4/5]

The boy who sees without eyes [5/5]

From the people who live with giant wind generators

The Voices of Tug Hill, Part 1 of 3

The Voices of Tug Hill, Part 2 of 3

The Voices of Tug Hill, Part 3 of 3

Reviews

MSM News

Categories

Archives

Old Archives

Subscribe

Affiliates

Translate

Scroogle

Ecosystem

Categories

Trivial Stuff

Connected

Counter

"Other candidates have plans that would reduce some of the bad things, but I want all of them gone completely."

The boy who sees without eyes [1/5] The boy who sees without eyes [2/5] The boy who sees without eyes [3/5] The boy who sees without eyes [4/5] The boy who sees without eyes [5/5]

From the people who live with giant wind generators

The Voices of Tug Hill, Part 1 of 3 The Voices of Tug Hill, Part 2 of 3

The Voices of Tug Hill, Part 3 of 3

The boy who sees without eyes [1/5]

The boy who sees without eyes [2/5]

The boy who sees without eyes [3/5]

The boy who sees without eyes [4/5]

The boy who sees without eyes [5/5]

The Voices of Tug Hill, Part 1 of 3

The Voices of Tug Hill, Part 2 of 3