Monthly Archives: March 2010

News stories the mainstream media missed : 03/13/10

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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.

* I would like to start off with a news story that I bet will never, ever re-appear in the mainstream media again. Regular use of pain-relief medicine appears to increase men’s risk of hearing loss, especially among middle-aged men, according to an American Journal of Medicine study. I can hear the deafening silence from CNN, MSNBC and FOX now! [WSJ]

* Euro1 and Euro2 are on the way. “”Euro 1” [would be] for mercantilist Germany, France, the Netherlands, and so on and “euro 2″ [would be] for the highly indebted, debt-and-asset-bubble-dependent consumer nations: Portugal, Ireland, Italy, Greece, Spain, and so on.” Some currencies are more equal than others, bro! And why does Euro1 and Euro2 sound like something from The Cat In The Hat? [MORNINGSTAR]

* Speaking of the Euro and the overseas money situation… “European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso claimed that financial stability was so critical that sweeping new powers were needed for Eurocrats in Brussels to meddle in the economies of all EU members.” A giant overreaching European power grab by the financial elite? Now what can possibly go wrong with that? Was? Hat jemand etwas sagen? [EXPRESS.UK]

* A doctor develops a test with COMIC BOOK INK that accurately diagnoses HIV, tuberculosis, and malaria among many others. The cost is about 2 cents each. Give this man some money and a printing press right now! Sheets of these should be free and available at all grocery and drug stores! [GIZMODO]

* In 2008 there were 1,125 billionaires. In 2009 there were just 793. Now there are 1,011. Oh my breaking heart! So many poor souls had to suffer with being just multi-millionaires, and only a precious few struggled back from that abyss to be billionaires again? Sorry. No sympathy from me. For 2009 there’s an article at [FORBES] and for 2010 there’s an article at [CBC]

* The LHC (Large Hadron Collider) will be down until 2012 for repairs. But in 2012, it will reboot to full power! 2012… why does that year sound so familiar? [BBC]

* Speaking of scientific stuff, an official scientific study has laboratory evidence that cooperative behavior is contagious and spreads from person to person. I don’t think these scientists have been Christmas shopping on December 22nd and 23rd  at a major mall lately. [SCIENCEDAILY]

* So aside from figuring out kindness is contagious, scientists also figured out this week that launching into warp speed would instantly create a black hole, and stray hydrogen atoms would shred us to pieces along the way. I still say it’s progress! At least they’re thinking of what happens after we pass warp speed instead of not even considering it at all! [GEARLOG]

* Speaking of black holes, a giant mega black hole has been discovered in a nearby galaxy. It’s stupid big. Scientists are calling it a… “destroyer of stars, ripping the center of the galaxy to shreds.” OK. Revised To Do List: #1 Laundry. #2 Hack nanomachines to gene-splice humanity into perpetual immortality. #3 Design FTL warp drive that doesn’t generate remnant black holes (Note to self: Gravity-Well Catalytic Converter?) #4 Stop pesky galaxy-sized “destroyer of stars”. Right. Lemme go get the soap. [DISCOVERY]

* Real working jetpacks for $75,000? 30 minutes of flight on a 5 gallon tank of gas? Dammit! I need to win that lottery now! [PHYSORG]

* 1024 bit RSA encryption was hacked by choking the electric supply to the computer! The article is moderately heavy in geektech, but very good to know in case you ever have to… uh… recover some passwords you forgot. Yeah. That’s the ticket. [ENGADGET]

* The headline says it all… A French village went insane after the CIA spiked all of its’ bread with LSD. Who needs movies when you’ve got things like this happening in real life? [BOING BOING]

*People Who Donate a Kidney Live Just as Long as Those Who Don’t! That’s great news! Science (and modern medicine) rocks! [SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN]

* OK, dammit. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again… if I wanted a Republican to implement BS totalitarian laws, I would have voted for one. But Obama seems hell bent on continuing the things I didn’t vote for him to continue. “The nation’s chief executive extols the virtues of mandatory DNA testing of Americans upon arrest, even absent charges or a conviction. Obama said, “It’s the right thing to do” to “tighten the grip around folks” who commit crime.” Wow. Convictions be damned, huh? If the government even suspects you’re guilty, they get your DNA for all time. I am very quickly turning back to the dark side with all these missteps and broken promises. [WIRED] Oh, and in related news, Obama’s ex-advisor says the democrats will get “slaughtered” in the fall if they don’t start making those changes they promised. [CNN]

* Another week, another wave of financial shockwaves coming our way. Nothing to see here. Move along, people. [BLOOMBERG]

* The underwear bomber’s underwear bomb would not have done enough damage to the plane to bring it down. Despite this, I bet the asshats at the TSA won’t take this into consideration at all. The article is at the [HUFFINGTON POST] and the official video of the recreation of the explosion is below…

Have a great weekend everyone! And don’t forget to push those clocks forward an hour!

Passing March Skies [PHOTOS]

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Just two miscellaneous photos I took this week.

This first one was from early in the afternoon. The wind had just come from the beach, and properly tussled your hair as it raced on by.

March Passing Skies

March Passing Skies

This second one was from late in the afternoon the same day. Although the skies were tinted a flush autumn red, the breeze was teasing my nose with slight floral scents of the oncoming spring.

March Skies At Dusk

March Skies At Dusk

One possible way to keep photos on your camera from being confiscated

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Let’s say, hypothetically of course, you’re the kind of person who takes photos of foreign Law Enforcement Officers and their activities.

And let’s say, again hypothetically, those foreign LEOs in the country you are visiting just don’t feel all that pretty at that particular moment, and if they realize you have taken a photo of them, they decide to move toward you asking (very nicely, of course!) to see all the photos you just took.

I think I found a way out of a situation like this.

Hypothetically, of course.

First off, if you know you’re going to be in a foreign country, you really need to bring a new blank memory card for your camera. The risk of losing a special photograph just because it’s on the same memory stick you’re currently traveling with just isn’t worth it. Spend the $10 to $20 and have a new, blank memory card in your camera when you travel.

Second, you will need to take a series of this next image as the initial photos on your camera’s new memory card (click to enlarge)….

NO IMAGES ON CAMERA

NO IMAGES ON CAMERA

You will have to set your digital camera to capture “low light” or manually change the settings so you don’t get the “waves” on your monitor coming out on the photo. Plus you might need a tripod (or a stack of books) to make sure the image is in the same position in every photo.

When you have 7 (or more!) photos of that image, click to review it on your camera. If it looks centered and passable, you’re all set.

Here’s what hypothetically happens. As some foreign LEOs are heading toward you, press PLAY (or REVIEW) on your camera to get to the photos you have already taken. Hide every menu option that shows up on the LCD (that usually means pressing the DISPLAY button to cycle through the display options). When the camera’s LCD display is showing the photos you have already taken in full screen, press FORWARD on the review buttons to jump back to these first photos you took.

Photos that appear to say the camera’s memory card is empty.

Jump ahead 3 or 4 photos so you can cycle back and fourth.

Now here’s the moment you want to go for the academy award for best acting in a foreign film… act very apologetic. Very contrite. Right before the foreign Law Enforcement Officers get to you, say you’re very, very sorry, you didn’t know there was a problem taking photos in that area, and you have already erased the whole memory card. That’s why you were pushing all those buttons on your camera as they got closer! Show them the camera display, and press forward twice and back twice.

It really is better if your performance lets you keep the camera in hand, but if the foreign Law Enforcement Officers do grab your camera from you, and if you’re lucky, they will also press FORWARD and BACK to see if there are any images on the camera.

Nope. None at all officer!

And then, when you’re far, far away, you should immediately email those photos to get them out of your possession!

Of course, this is all just a silly hypothetical situation, and I have no idea if it will work at all in the real world. No idea whatsoever!

Best of luck, everyone!

Free iPhone app to write your senators : through March 16th only

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There’s a free iPhone app called “Hello Washington” that lets you look up who your representative is, write them directly from your iPhone (or iPodTouch), call their office, read current bills, and much more.

When you install the application on your iPhone, you will need to provide a valid email address. Once you do, a activation code will be sent to that email account. Once you type in that activation code on the iPhone, “Hello Washington” will be unlocked. From there, you can write everyone! The President, Vice President, Representatives, or Senators. Not bad!

The only thing I would add is a county lookup for the representatives in the main listing. But aside from that, I think it’s a great application as is!

As a side effect of getting older, I’ve become a big fan of writing my representative on matters that concern me. This app should help speed things along quite a bit!

The author’s website is here and the link to the info page (and where you can launch iTunes) is here.

BONUS: Here’s their demo video from YouTube…

Highway 281 Bypass through Falfurrias [PHOTOS]

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Highway 281 is on it’s way to bypassing the town of Falfurrias, Texas.

Back on the 4th of this month, I took these photos as I was driving through the middle of Falfurrias. I’ve been through Falfurrias many times as part of my business trips in the Texas valley, and for the longest time, only the basic groundwork was evident for what would eventually be state highway 281. But now mounds of earth have been piled much higher than the cars passing by, and you can’t miss the concrete pillars thick with wire mesh reaching skyward. Now you can actually see highway 281 coming closer.

Falfurrias Bypass 7

Falfurrias Bypass 7

Falfurrias Bypass 2

Falfurrias Bypass 2

Falfurrias Bypass 1

Falfurrias Bypass 1

Falfurrias is not a large town by any means, but it has a decent enough selection of fast food places to stop at and an “original late 1980s size” Wal-Mart that does not have a grocery store. There are the scattering of hotels, small ramshackle garage repair shops, and the occasional business that looks like it has been around since the last century.

Falfurrias Bypass 5

Falfurrias Bypass 5

There’s nothing in Falfurrias for me, but still, this highway bypass construction is a bit sad to see. On the one hand, it will save wear on the town’s roads and drastically cut down on the local traffic. On the other hand, any income that came from traffic stops and people stopping for a quick break before getting to the town of Alice going North (or McAllen going South) will be severely reduced, if not completely eliminated.

And then what?

Falfurrias Bypass 3

Falfurrias Bypass 3

Falfurrias Bypass 4

Falfurrias Bypass 4

This whole setup reminds me of that town in that movie Cars called “Radiator Springs”. I do sincerely hope Falfurrias winds up better than that fictional town, but from what I’ve seen, I’m honestly not so sure.

Betty White to Host Saturday Night Live May 8!

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Betty White is going to host Saturday Night Live May 8!

So now I’m actually going to watch SNL for the first time in… 8 years? 10? Do I need to go to confession for this before or after the show airs?

Tina Fey, Amy Poehler, Molly Shannon, Maya Rudolph, Ana Gasteyer and Rachel Dratch are also going to be on the show, but I bet Betty’s 10 minute skit will kick everyone else’s butts.

Here’s the announcement from PEOPLE magazine.

A heavily armed Mexican Navy helicopter was spotted doing surveillance in the Texas Valley

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I just saw this on the local news.

“A Mexican Navy helicopter was seen doing surveillance in Starr County. Residents of Falcon Heights… noticed a Mexican helicopter hovering over a home shortly after six o’clock last night. Witnesses say the helicopter hovered for about 15 minutes over a house where a known criminal used to live. Zapata County Sheriff Sigifredo Gonzalez Jr. says, “They had armored individuals in the chopper, open ramp, very military looking, in style and preparation.””

Um… and this was OK? The Mexican Navy is free and clear to send a heavily armed excursion into the United States?

Link to the story on KRGV.com.

Recall : Pringles Restaurant Cravers Cheeseburger and Pringles Taco Night Chips

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Salmonella is makin’ the rounds this week!

Proctor and Gamble just announced that are… “voluntarily recalling Pringles Restaurant Cravers Cheeseburger potato crisps and Pringles Family Faves Taco Night potato crisps as part of an industry ingredient recall to protect consumers from potential Salmonella  exposure.”

Fortunately, it only concerns those chips with the following codes…

Product Name UPC Code “Best by” date
Pringles Restaurant Cravers Cheeseburger, Super Stack Canister, 181 grams 37000 26936 02/2011
04/2011
Pringles Family Faves Taco Night, Super Stack Canister,
181 grams		 37000 26773 03/2011
04/2011
05/2011

Toss ’em if you have them!

Wait… the same guys that make Charmin, Mr. Clean, Downy and Pampers also make Pringles? Those same Pringles that come in pizza, cheeseburger, jalapeno, and loaded baked potato?

Dude. That’s it. Kettle chips from here on out.

Here’s the link to the FDA recall.

UPDATE: And apparently this recall is about to snowball, but not just on Pringles. A company that makes hydrolyzed vegetable protein (HVP) that’s used in a ton of foodstuff looks like the culprit. Click HERE to read more.