News stories the mainstream media missed : 09/22/12

Posted on September 22, 2012 by admin (Royce)

Here are some news stories from this week that I think the mainstream media completely missed out on. All links are from legitimate news sources and not the fringe / wacko sites.

* Did you hear a giant collective “AAAAAAAAAAA!” from the Haaaaaarvard crowd this last week? It might have been because of a front page story in Bloomberg that said Haaaaaarvard graduates are now “earning less than those from the South Dakota School of Mines & Technology”! The starting pay for a graduate of the South Dakota School of Mines & Technology is $56,700, but the starting graduation-job pay for Haaaaaarvard graduates was $54,100. Considering Haaaaaarvard is four times more expensive than the South Dakota School of Mines & Technology, I think this is a pretty big win (and a great sign) for blue collar workers! Story at [BLOOMBERG]

* Crack open the AH-DERRRR file. Those itty bitty economy cars, despite their super dooper cuteness, don’t take a hit too well! A recent insurance industry study shows that itty bitty cars cause serious “personal injury” to their occupants “28.5 times for every 1,000”. That’s one serious personal injury for every 35 accidents! To add insult to injury, the safest car to drive (out of all cars) is a Porche 911, with just “4.5 injury claims for every 1,000“. Somebody better switch those dancing hamsters for crash test dummies! Story at the [DAILY MAIL]

* Did anybody else notice that one of the Muslim protesters who took over a US foreign embassy last week was wearing a “Let It Be” t-shirt? (Dude with the yellow shirt on the left in the photo below.) Let it be? Seriously?! The Beatles “Let It Be”? After torching a foreign embassy, burning the flag, and taking over the roof to fly your own flag? I’m not sure if that t-shirt is intended as biting sarcasm or if it’s just 24-karat solid gold irony in progress. Photo below…

Let it be, you say?

* Billa, a major european supermarket chain with stores “in nine European countries”, are now selling pre-peeled bananas in plastic trays covered in plastic wrap. Apparently, they’re trying to get Captain Planet to just flat out have a heart attack, because I really can’t think of another reason for this. Did someone in Europe complain to Billa upper management that bananas were just too hard to peel? I mean, once you know which end of the banana is “up”, the rest is pretty straightforward, right? Story at [HUFFINGTON POST]

* This next story has my spider sense going all sorts of bonkers. The CDC issued a press release about “Rabies Immune Globulin”, saying “Sanofi Pasteur is currently directing requests for human rabies immune globulin to Grifols/Talecris Biotherapeutics, supplier of HyperRAB” and that “Sanofi Pasteur will be able to fulfill orders for Imogam (human rabies immune globulin) when additional lots are expected to be released by late November”. Sooooo the “usual” provider of human anti-rabies med is OUT of their flagship product and they’re referring everyone to their competition until November until they can catch up and “additional lots” are made available. Right. Soooo my question is WHAT HAPPENED THAT THEY RAN OUT OF HUMAN ANTI-RABIES MEDS? WHY IS THE CDC MAKING THIS PRESS RELEASE IF IT’S NO BIG DEAL? WHERE IS MY CAPS LOCK… ah, there it is. Maybe it’s nothing, but I got a baaaaad feeling about this. Story at [CDC]

* Since Bill Gates, the former head of Microsoft, has been devoting his time and stupid-amounts of money to charity, not a single citizen in India has contracted polio. Gates also dropped a $750 million dollar bomb of a donation to “fight Aids, malaria and TB” in Africa, and he’s stated that his goal in life is “to see unnecessary deaths drop to zero”. This dude has done more for charity and humanity than anyone else has in this century, but what does this article headline with? How Bill Gates wrote a letter to Steve Jobs. Can I get a “sad trombone” sound, here? Wah-wah-waaaahhhhhh. Story at [TELEGRAPH.CO.UK]

* While everybody is all paranoid out about a computerized military killer like SKYNET coming online, a new “immortal chemist” computer network called “Chematica” has been created, and it is already online and thinking of how to synthesize “drug molecules and other important compounds, combine long (and expensive) syntheses of compounds into shorter and more economical routes and identify suspicious chemical recipes that could lead to chemical weapons” and ways to prevent a “potential terrorist” from making “a nerve gas, an explosive or another toxic agent”. All that, plus its’ main objective to tie all this knowledge into providing “building blocks for nanotechnology”. SKYNET? Pfffft! Five bucks says Chematica takes SKYNET down by the 2nd round. Story at [FORESIGHT]

* Finally, a brilliant video that uses mixing paint colors to explain how computer cryptography works. Highly educational and entertaining at the same time!

That’s all I got this week. Off to find a cigar to light up!

Success according to Orison Swett Marden [PHOTO]

Posted on September 21, 2012 by admin (Royce)

An inspirational quote for Friday morning…

Success is…

For those with image blockers…

“Success is not measured by what you accomplish, but by the opposition you have encountered, and by the courage with which you have maintained the struggle against overwhelming odds.” – Orison Swett Marden

The big difference between cigar.com and cigarsinternational.com [PHOTO]

Posted on September 17, 2012 by admin (Royce)

Saying I have a “thing” for cigars is like saying Cookie Monster has a “slight predisposition” to cookies. I love cigars. Loooove cigars. To paraphrase Will Rogers, I never met a cigar I didn’t like.

Unfortunately, the local specialty “cigar shop” is full of overpriced, mold covered, dried out, busted drek. Literally. Check out these photos…

Local Cigar Shop 01

Local Cigar Shop 02

Blasphemy! Sacrilege! It should be illegal to beat down cigars like this, I tell you.

Since I have no local shop to rely on, I’ve been buying everything online at either at cigar.com or cigarsinternational.com.

I haven’t had any kind of problem whatsoever with either website. Both have outstanding customer service, both have great everyday and sale prices, and both deliver their shipments a day or two earlier than promised. Both have great weekly deals, and between the two of them, I can get just about any cigar I’m craving.

I will always go with cigar.com first, though. No contest.

With absolutely everything else being identical, here’s why cigar.com is the king…

Cigar.Com Shipping

Every shipment from cigar.com, regardless of the cigar’s retail price, has a HumiCare pillow in every thick-walled heavy-duty ziploc.

A HumiCare pillow is like a mini-humidifier. It has hundreds of little beads inside that absorb distilled water and regulate the humidity in small enclosures for a brief time. You can reuse those little pouches as many times as you want by just opening the HumiCare pouch, dipping the inner “pillow” in distilled water for a few seconds, letting any extra water drip off, and putting it back inside the HumiCare pouch again and again and again.

A little portable pouch is no replacement for a real humidor, but when I open that outer ziploc from a new cigar.com shipment, the cigars smell fresh with a capital F. The temptation to not smoke one right there and then? Almost impossible to deny.

All because of that little well saturated HumiCare pillow.

Cigarsinternational.com shipping?

CigarsInternational.Com Shipping

A wafer thin plastic baggie with no HumiCare or humidification packet at all.

If UPS or FedEx delivers a cigarsinternational.com shipment at the end of a typical south Texas summer day, I usually smell cardboard packaging looooong before I smell the cigars. Sometimes the ziplocs pop open inside the UPS box, too, and I find loose cigars all over the shipping box.

Don’t get me wrong. The quality of the cigars from both companies are outstanding. Give a Liga, Ave Maria or a Cohiba from either company after a weeklong dip in my humidor, and I couldn’t tell you which one came from where.

Can cigar.com save some time and money by not including a “prepped” HumiCare packet with every shipment? Definitely. But knowing my cigars, regardless of price range, will always arrive fresh and in good condition? That’s worth the “first view” when I go shopping every single time.

Suddenly I have a craving for a cigar…

Monday Morning Music : 09/17/12 **

Posted on September 17, 2012 by admin (Royce)

Every Monday I like to post some music to start the week off on the right foot. (**Unless it’s one of those kind of Mondays that jumps you from behind, flings everything it can find from the local zoo’s dumpster at you, and leaves you stranded at 4 PM wondering what the heck happened to the whole day.)

This week…

The Gaslight Anthem – “45”

Alabama Shakes – Hold On

… and finally

Delta Rae – Morning Comes

Weekend skies in South Texas [PHOTO]

Posted on September 17, 2012 by Royce-iphone

Just a pic of the South Texas skies this last weekend.

How software was registered “back in the day” [PHOTO]

Posted on September 11, 2012 by admin (Royce)

I was re-installing an old piece of software and ran across this gem after the install…

Old School Electronic Registration

Print for Mailing! Print for Faxing! Send Via MODEM! And most amazing of all, Send Via Internet!

But wait… Send Via Internet would only work if there was a modem connection! A modem connection that would first dial out to a service portal, and then “bridge” you to the internet!

A direct connection to the internet? Back in those days? Preposterous!

Why, back in the day, we had to use home-phone landlines, find a local access number for the service portal, disable call waiting on the landline, warn everyone in the home NOT TO PICK UP THE @#*$ PHONE, use a picky-and-screechy-as-hell 9,600 (or 28,800!) baud MODEM to connect, and we …. liked it? Well, no. In retrospect, it really sucked. But at the time, that was the thing!

I better quit before I pull out my e*World CDs.

NASA has a free photo-rich ebook : “Dressing for Altitude”

Posted on September 11, 2012 by admin (Royce)

It has been a busy few days for me, but I’m finally back. Hoo-ah!

While I was out, NASA announced they were giving away a free digital book that “details the development and use of the protective clothing worn by test pilots, astronauts and others as they soar high above Earth.”

It’s pretty hefty book at 526 pages, but it’s very well put together, and is filled with great photos like this one…

Dressing for Altitude 01

Is it me, or does that look a little like Big Daddy from the Bioshock games?

“Dressing for Altitude” has plenty of photos of pressure suits in various stages of development, and also gets into the science and technology of the suit designs themselves.

The book is available for free on NASA’s site in PDF, EPUB or MOBI format, but you can also order a “real” copy of the book from NASA’s information center if you like.

Here’s the official press release about “Dressing for Altitude”…
RELEASE: 12-308

NEW NASA BOOK REVEALS PRESSURE SUITS ARE HEIGHT OF FASHION

WASHINGTON — NASA has published a colorful, picture-filled book that details the development and use of the protective clothing worn by test pilots, astronauts and others as they soar high above Earth.

“Dressing for Altitude: U.S. Aviation Pressure Suits — Wiley Post to Space Shuttle” provides a 526-page survey of the partial- and full-pressure suits designed to keep humans alive at the edge of space since their first use during the years before World War II. Pressure suits are not the spacesuits worn by spacewalking astronauts.

The book explores the challenges the clothiers-turned-engineers faced in designing a garment that could be relatively lightweight, flexible, inflatable, and still keep an ejecting pilot safe at high altitude and in the water.

“This work is designed to provide the history of the technology and explore the lessons learned through the years of research in creating, testing, and utilizing today’s high-altitude suits,” said Tony Springer of NASA’s Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate at the agency’s headquarters in Washington.

Dennis R. Jenkins, a writer, engineer and manager with 30 years of experience working on NASA programs, including the space shuttle, wrote the book and assembled its photographs and illustrations.

Jenkins said he became interested in the topic especially after studying the work and dedication of Goodrich and David Clark Company, the two major companies responsible for most of the pressure suit’s development through the years.

“I knew little about pressure suits going into the book, so the entire process was a learning exercise to me,” Jenkins said.

To order printed copies of the coffee-table-style book from NASA’s Information Center, visit:

http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/hqlibrary/ic/ic2.htm

To download an e-book version of the book in PDF format at no charge, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/connect/ebooks/

For more information about aeronautics research at NASA, visit:

http://www.aeronautics.nasa.gov

Vista not updating in Windows Update? Check the version of IE.

Posted on September 5, 2012 by admin (Royce)

Here’s a tip in case you ever run across a old PC with Vista that isn’t installing windows updates: check the version of internet explorer.

If version 7 is still installed (which you can see under HELP – ABOUT), that’s the main problem.

Update IE to version 8 for Vista first, then reboot and try running windows update again.

From there, you should be able to get the service packs and IE 9.

Do you know anyone under 18 who wants to name an asteroid for NASA?

Posted on September 4, 2012 by admin (Royce)

NASA has opened a website where they will be accepting ideas for renaming asteroid (101955) 1999 RQ36.

Anything goes, so long as the name is no longer than 16 characters, and every entry must also “include a short explanation and rationale for the name”.

I have a feeling there’s going to be a lot of “Jacques Strap”, “Mike Rotch” and “Hugh Jass” submissions from the junior high crowd.

OK, seriously, it’s a very cool contest for science geeks, and if you know someone under 18 that’s into astronomy, send them to the website at the end of the press release for their shot at fame.

Here’s the official press release…

RELEASE: 12-302

NASA ANNOUNCES ASTEROID NAMING CONTEST FOR STUDENTS

WASHINGTON — Students worldwide have an opportunity to name an asteroid from which an upcoming NASA mission will return the first samples to Earth.

Scheduled to launch in 2016, the mission is called the Origins-Spectral Interpretation-Resource Identification-Security-Regolith Explorer (OSIRIS-REx). Samples returned from the primitive surface of the near-Earth asteroid currently called (101955) 1999 RQ36 could hold clues to the origin of the solar system and organic molecules that may have seeded life on
Earth. NASA also is planning a crewed mission to an asteroid by 2025. A closer scientific study of asteroids will provide context and help inform this mission.

“Because the samples returned by the mission will be available for study for future generations, it is possible the person who names the asteroid will grow up to study the regolith [sic] we return to Earth,” said Jason Dworkin, OSIRIS-REx project scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md.

The competition is open to students under age 18 from anywhere in the world. Each contestant can submit one name, up to 16 characters long. Entries must include a short explanation and rationale for the name. Submissions must be made by an adult on behalf of the student. The contest deadline is Sunday, Dec. 2, 2012.

The contest is a partnership with The Planetary Society in Pasadena, Calif.; the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s (MIT) Lincoln Laboratory in Lexington; and the University of Arizona in Tucson.

A panel will review proposed asteroid names. First prize will be awarded to the student who recommends a name that is approved by the International Astronomical Union Committee for Small-Body Nomenclature.

“Our mission will be focused on this asteroid for more than a decade,” said Dante Lauretta, principal investigator for the mission at the University of Arizona. “We look forward to having a name that is easier to say than (101955) 1999 RQ36.”

The asteroid was discovered in 1999 by the Lincoln Near Earth Asteroid Research (LINEAR) survey at MIT’s Lincoln Laboratory. LINEAR is part of NASA’s Near Earth Observation Program in Washington, which detects and catalogs near-Earth asteroids and comets. The asteroid has an average diameter of approximately one-third of a mile (500 meters).

“We are excited to have discovered the minor planet that will be visited by the OSIRIS-REx mission and to be able to engage students around the world to suggest a name for 1999 RQ36,” said Grant Stokes, head of the Aerospace Division at MIT Lincoln Laboratory and principal investigator for the LINEAR program.

The asteroid received its designation of (101955) 1999 RQ36 from the Minor Planet Center, operated by the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory in Cambridge, Mass. The center assigns an initial alphanumeric designation to any newly discovered asteroid once certain criteria are met to determine its orbit.

“Asteroids are just cool and 1999 RQ36 deserves a cool name!” said Bill Nye, chief executive officer for The Planetary Society.
“Engaging kids around the world in a naming contest will get them tuned in to asteroids and asteroid science.”

NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center will provide overall mission management, systems engineering and safety and mission assurance. Lockheed Martin Space Systems of Denver will build the spacecraft. OSIRIS-REx is the third mission in NASA’s New Frontiers Program. NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., manages New Frontiers for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington.

To review contest rules and guidelines, visit:

http://planetary.org/name

To see a video explanation about the contest, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/topics/solarsystem/features/name-asteroid.html

For information about the OSIRIS-REx mission, visit:

http://osiris-rex.lpl.arizona.edu