An Arab's View of Iran

A very cogent piece of writing from Sultan Sooud Al-Qassemi of Dubai on the dilemma Iran poses to the rest of the Arab world. http://bit.ly/go2qU

How Cool is This?

A mouse trap that's powered by digesting the mice it catches. http://bit.ly/MMxR3
Seems perfectly symetrical to me.

Courtesy of Doonesbury: http://bit.ly/tScJ

Rest in peace; you've earned it: http://bit.ly/farah

Beginning the fun of getting eeeBuntu on Wife's new eee900a netbook. Had to juggle the boot order to get the thing to boot from a USB dvd drive.

Just added the PingFire plugin so I can post to Ping.FM thru Firefox. No posts coming thru to gTalk, though.

The Great Mashup Continues

Okay... So now I've "wired" together Twitter, Blogger, and gTalk via ping.fm.
This should be interesting.......

Testing... 1...2...3... Is this thing on?

Posting here at ping.fm. Lets see where it comes out ;-)

Book Banner?

Yet another elected official who wants to inject her religious beliefs into the workings of government!

Sarah Palin, would-be banner of books - Boing Boing

Sarah Palin, VP nominee

Books Palin wanted to Ban

Time magazine article about Sarah Palin

And this woman will be a heartbeat away from the presidency

The Mayonnaise Jar

One of my co-workers sent this around and I thought would share the sentiment:

A professor stood before his philosophy class and had some items in front of him. When the class began, he wordlessly picked up a very large and empty mayonnaise jar and proceeded to fill it with golf balls. He then asked the students if the jar was full. They agreed that it was.

The professor then picked up a box of pebbles and poured them into the jar He shook the jar lightly. The pebbles rolled into the open areas between the golf balls. He then asked the students again if the jar was full. They agreed it was.

The professor next picked up a box of sand and poured it into the jar. Of course, the sand filled up everything else. H e asked once more if the jar was full. The students responded with an unanimous 'yes.'

The professor then produced two Beers from under the table and poured the entire contents into the jar effectively filling the empty space between the sand. The students laughed.

'Now,' said the professor as the laughter subsided, 'I want you to recognize that this jar represents your life. The golf balls are the important things---your family, your children, your health, your friends and your favorite passions --- and if everything else was lost and only they remained, your life would still be full. The pebbles are the other things that matter like your job, your house and your car. The sand is everything else---the small stuff. 'If you put the sand into the jar first,' he continued, 'there is no room for the pebbles or the golf balls. The same goes for life. If you spend all your time and energy on the small stuff you will never have room for the things that are important to you. 'Pay attention to the things that are critical to your happiness. Spend time with your children. Spend time with your parents. Visit with grandparents. Take time to get medical checkups. Take your spouse out to dinner. Play another 18. There will always be time to clean the house and fix the disposal. Take care of the golf balls first---the things that really matter. Set your priorities. The rest is just sand.'

One of the students raised her hand and inquired what the beer represented. The professor smiled and said, 'I'm glad you asked.' The beer just shows you that no matter how full your life may seem, there's always room for a couple of beers with a friend.

Iced Coffee

I've been a fan of ice coffee for a long time. When She-Who-Must-Be -Obeyed sent me this article from our local newspaper, I was hooked.

I've purchased a 4-cup coffee press and will be pursuing the production of "coffee syrup" for making ice coffee.

Here's the original link: courier-journal.com | Ron Mikulak - Cooking blog | The Courier-Journal

How to Do an Energy Policy

Just finished reading a column by Thomas Friedman on his visit to Copenhagen. Seems the Danes took the 1977 oil embargo to heart and raised energy taxes to encourage development of energy efficient technologies.

Result: Denmark is completely independent of OPEC oil imports.

Read the whole Friedman piece: Op-Ed Columnist - Flush With Energy - Op-Ed - NYTimes.com

Spotted on EcoWorldly

First Served

We are seeing lots of articles about Ethanol and Bio-diesel as sources of competition for oil-based products. We are all lusting for the day when we can but sub $3 E85 into our cars and trucks and thumb our noses at the "other" fuel. It occurs to me that the bio-fuels industry would be best served if it "ate its own dog food." I don't want to see ethanol or bio-diesel delivered in trucks powered by petroleum products. I want the bio-fuels industry to run as much of their infrastructure on bio-fuels as possible.

Same goes for farmers. Every farmer in America should have easy access to as much bio-diesel and ethanol fuels as they can use to run their day-to-day operations. Every farm town in America should have its own bio-diesel plant to keep the local farmers supplied. If there's enough demand put an ethanol plant there, too. Give the folks that produce the feedstocks for food, feed and fuel access to low cost fuels and we all win.

The bio-fuels industry will be seen as a more serious competitor to oil-based fuels when a significant portion of their production and delivery is "bio-powered."

Cloud Computing... Is Here

If you don't think Cloud Computing is here watch this and then read this and this.

Wild West Weather

Here's a weather alert from the Reno, NV's National Weather Service Office:
DO NOT ATTEMPT TO TRAVEL ACROSS THE SIERRA PASSES. ATTEMPTING TO TRAVEL IN THE SIERRA WILL PUT YOUR LIFE AT RISK! VERY HIGH SNOWFALL RATES WILL MAKE IT IMPOSSIBLE FOR ROAD CREWS AND EMERGENCY PERSONNEL TO KEEP ROADS PASSABLE AND TO ASSIST STRANDED VEHICLES. IF YOU DO ATTEMPT TRAVEL IN THE SIERRA YOUR CHANCES OF BEING STRANDED FOR MORE THAN A FEW HOURS IS VERY HIGH. REMAIN INDOORS DURING THIS BLIZZARD...EVEN A SHORT WALK OUTDOORS COULD BE DEADLY AS YOU WILL BECOME DISORIENTED IN THE WHITEOUT CONDITIONS. EXTREMELY HEAVY SNOW WILL OCCUR THROUGH SATURDAY MORNING WITH SNOWFALL RATES OF UP TO 6 INCHES PER HOUR. TOTAL SNOW ACCUMULATIONS THROUGH SATURDAY MORNING WILL BE 3 TO 5 FEET ABOVE 7000 FEET WITH HIGHER AMOUNTS ALONG THE SIERRA CREST...AND 1 TO 3 FEET BELOW 7000 FEET...INCLUDING THE LAKE TAHOE BASIN. STRONG WINDS WILL CONTINUE THROUGH FRIDAY NIGHT...WITH THE MOST DANGEROUS WINDS FROM LATE TONIGHT THROUGH FRIDAY EVENING. WIND GUSTS UP TO 70 MPH WILL BE COMMON WITH GUSTS NEAR 145 MPH OVER THE SIERRA RIDGES.

Via Belski's Blog

Keith Olbermann Buries Rudy Giuliani With Truth

Keith Olbermann is the new Edward R. Murrow.

Madison on War

Of all the enemies to the public liberty war is, perhaps, the most me be dreaded, because it comprises and develops the germ of every other. War is the parent of armies; from these proceed debts and taxes. And armies, and debt, and taxes are known instruments for bringing the many under the domination of the few.
~ James Madison 1795-04-20

Democracy....

... is the best revenge - Benazir Bhutto

For the Space Geek

NASA's Planet Quest web site has a Widget for your Yahoo Widget desktop to keep count to the extrasolar planet discoveries.

Its on my desktop. Is it on yours?