The Goose Report

eeesh

rich — Sun, 13 May 2012 13:14:01 +0000

ok, it’s not nice to call folks dumb, but…

“I never thought about it. It’s just a soft drink, just like drinking water. I didn’t think a soft drink was going to kill her.”

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Doh!

rich — Mon, 07 May 2012 11:10:45 +0000

He said that although the district spends less than the state requires under its Essential Programs and Services model, it has been able to make up that difference the past few years using federal funds, such and those from the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act. With those funds now gone and a state mandate that says next year the district must pick up 100 percent of the required educational funding under EPS, the towns must now pay a higher share of the costs.

“This is cruel,” Holt said of the formula.

from

Norway manager in ‘shock’ over town’s share of school budget

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Pipes up!

rich — Thu, 12 Apr 2012 00:04:28 +0000

Just finished my first skype piping lesson!

WhooHoo!

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Ships….

rich — Fri, 06 Apr 2012 18:06:32 +0000

I love Maine, and here’s one more reason why.

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Sweet…

rich — Thu, 05 Apr 2012 02:58:30 +0000

I’ve been enjoying some studio time in past months..

I’m continuing to work on my next self-release:

“Songs to Code By”

Tonight I was reminded that I’m sooooo blessed with a space and some gear to be able to work on something I’m passionate about..and as Spring’l tell ya, there’s precious little passion sometimes goin on with me when it comes to working toward something with all my heart.

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wow..

rich — Fri, 30 Mar 2012 20:38:42 +0000

Just when you thought NOONE could ever do Geddy Lee….

http://www.lotuslandband.com/media.html

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Quote of the Day

rich — Wed, 28 Mar 2012 17:50:46 +0000

“It takes a special sort of person to root around inside a dog’s mouth”
Rich

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Glosoli revisited

rich — Thu, 22 Mar 2012 17:33:19 +0000

So, decided to listen again, to a tune my buddy Marty O Brien introduced
me to a few years back.
An Icelandic band named Sigur Ros

I know nothing about Icelandic language..nor really about Icelandic culture,
but this tune has impacted a lot of people.
It hit me hard when first played, and I could listen and watch the video…
It’s one of those songs that seem s to divide folks into two groups:
1) You are moved by it
2) You don’t understand the 1st group

A few comments from utube that bear out it’s impact:

I’m 37. I lived my life so far never seeing anything as beautiful, breathtaking, and poignant as this. That is a damn crime.

i saw this on rage a couple of years ago, fell in love with it, forgot about it and just rediscovered it xx still as amazing as i remember

I was listening to music, having it kind of in the background at work shuffleing 20,000 songs. And suddenly from nowhere when i did random boring paper job i just started crying and didnt know why at first then i looked at the computer and saw winamp playing Sigur Ros – Glósóli and got wiser.

Its so beautiful, and thats coming from a 16 year old male haha

The strangest feeling came to me while I was watching this clip the very first time. It was near the ending, when the kids were ready to jump off the cliff, and it felt as if I was ready to cough, only instead of coughing, I was almost going to cry. I swear to god I haven’t felt anything like this until now.

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Dancing Queen

rich — Fri, 16 Mar 2012 19:30:33 +0000

ok ok I know..it’s mid seventies…and it’s now considered corny and vastly outdated

But when I listen to this song, I just feel ….well, I can’t describe it exactly..

I think perhaps something I heard so often in my youth, rings something up in me..

I just really like it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dancing_Queen

http://youtu.be/XYSSD0SVhN0

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Heat in the studio!

rich — Thu, 15 Mar 2012 02:31:03 +0000

So, we just bought a couple of these little gems:

It’s an electric heater, and has gotten great reviews.

One for the soon to be usable again back porch, and the other for the music studio!

Yaaay!

It was real nice to sit there & compose music and not be chilly..

Funny how much more one can enjoy something without being uncomfortable.

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yeah, there’s no persecution…

rich — Tue, 13 Mar 2012 11:17:29 +0000

“In a highly significant move, ministers will fight a case at the European Court of Human Rights in which two British women will seek to establish their right to display the cross.

It is the first time that the Government has been forced to state whether it backs the right of Christians to wear the symbol at work.”

www.telegraph.co.uk/news/religion/9136191/Christirtns-have-no-right-to-wear-cross-at-work-says-Government.html

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Waffles & Crew cuts

rich — Sun, 11 Mar 2012 02:01:10 +0000

I am shorn…

After wafflin whether or not to cut the mane…I did this am…again

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freedom…

rich — Wed, 07 Mar 2012 01:45:42 +0000

I signed off of facebook this morning…

freedom…

http://hellboundbloggers.com/2011/03/12/why-facebook-is-so-addictive/

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Leaving Facebook

rich — Tue, 06 Mar 2012 12:21:27 +0000

I think it’s time to be done.

It’s causing more negativity in my life than good, so I’m cutting it out.

If anyone wishes to, I’m always available via email:

RICH@GOUETTE.COM…easy to remember!

Peace

ps. I’ll keep up on FB posts via Spring

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Bag O Big Bang

rich — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 23:32:07 +0000

Ok, maybe I missed something..

Did scientists prove that there actually WAS a Big Bang?

Apparently, because they’re using language that would suggest it’s at leasat

a forgone conclusion.

“Two beams of subatomic particles called “hadrons” – either protons or lead ions – travel in opposite directions inside the circular accelerator, gaining energy with every lap. Physicists use the LHC to recreate the conditions just after the Big Bang, by colliding the two beams head-on at very high energy. Teams of physicists from around the world then analyse the particles created in the collisions using special detectors in a number of experiments dedicated to the LHC.”

from: http://public.web.cern.ch/public/en/lhc/lhc-en.html

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on hold…

rich — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 18:43:40 +0000

I think I could “chew my arm off”…as a dear friend puts it..

Ever try & contact a manager at a huge multi-national banking firm?

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a sad day

rich — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 21:03:17 +0000

I had one of these…

It hit the floor last week, and I just now tossed it out…

I’ve used it for a long time, and I’ll miss it.

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There be Honda here!

rich — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 00:19:31 +0000

Glad to say another Honda has entered the fam.

Goodbye Saabstory…hello 2001 HONDA CIVIC EX

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Wisley! (thanks Nancy)

rich — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 02:47:48 +0000

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A new religion?

rich — Sat, 21 Jan 2012 17:43:31 +0000

I find myself unable to adequately put into words what I feel when I read posts like the following.

Contained within the blog posts lines are a myriad of issues.

Economics, religion, faith, Christianity, cultural trends, fads, race, church…the list goes on

I have my own set of conclusions & thoughts but I’d like to know what some of you folk who call yerselves followers of Jesus think…

Blog post here

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Cornball…

rich — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 18:10:11 +0000

Wow, never read lyrics for Billy Ocean “Suddenly”, but gotta say…that’s some serious corn…

I used to think that love was just a fairy tale
Until that first hello until that first smile
But if I had to do it all again I wouldn’t change a thing
Cause this love is everlasting

Suddenly life has new meaning to me
There’s beauty up above and things we never take notice of
You wake up suddenly you’re in love

Girl you’re everything a man could want and more
One thousand words are not enough to say what I feel inside
Holding hands as we walk along the shore
Never felt like this before now you’re all I’m living for

Each day I pray this love affair would last forever

There’s beauty up above and things you never take notice of
You wake and suddenly you’re in love

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Just when did we try “socialism”? and how did it turn out..

rich — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 16:13:13 +0000

I’m not saying I know it all, but this is certainly

1) a story I’ve NEVER heard

and

2) very interesting, in that it underscores what many of us who dislike the notion of mandatory redistribution of wealth have been lamenting for a couple years now…

*disclaimer I haven’t listened to Rush regularly for years & years..

I’m just saying history is history, no matter who it’s recited by.

http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/daily/2011/11/23/the_real_story_of_thanksgiving

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Now time for a tradition, an annual tradition, and that is The Real Story of Thanksgiving from my book that I wrote back in the early nineties. I wrote two of them, actually. In one of the books I wrote, The Real Story of Thanksgiving. And reading from it has become something we do every year on the program because it’s still not taught. The myth of Thanksgiving is still what is taught, and that myth is basically that a bunch of thieves from Europe arrived quite by accident at Plymouth Rock, and if it weren’t for the Indians showing them how to grow corn and slaughter turkeys and how to swallow and stuff, that they would have died of starvation and so forth. The Indians were great — and then, in a total show of appreciation, we totally wiped out the Indians!

We took their country from ‘em. We started racism, sexism, bigotry, homophobia; spread syphilis; and, basically, destroyed the environment. That is the multicultural version of Thanksgiving, and it simply isn’t true. The real version of Thanksgiving is in my second best-seller, 2.5 million copies in hardback: See, I Told You So. “Chapter 6, Dead White Guys, or What the History Books Never Told You: The True Story of Thanksgiving — The story of the Pilgrims begins in the early part of the seventeenth century … The Church of England under King James I was persecuting anyone and everyone who did not recognize its absolute civil and spiritual authority. Those who challenged ecclesiastical authority and those who believed strongly in freedom of worship were hunted down, imprisoned, and sometimes executed for their beliefs.” In England.

So, “A group of separatists first fled to Holland and established a community. After eleven years, about forty of them agreed to make a perilous journey to the New World, where they would certainly face hardships, but could live and worship God according to the dictates of their own consciences. On August 1, 1620, the Mayflower set sail. It carried a total of 102 passengers, including forty Pilgrims led by William Bradford. On the journey, Bradford set up an agreement, a contract, that established just and equal laws for all members of the new community, irrespective of their religious beliefs. Where did the revolutionary ideas expressed in the Mayflower Compact come from? From the Bible. The Pilgrims were a people completely steeped in the lessons of the Old and New Testaments. They looked to the ancient Israelites for their example.

“And, because of the biblical precedents set forth in Scripture, they never doubted that their experiment would work. But this was no pleasure cruise, friends. The journey to the New World was a long and arduous one. And when the Pilgrims landed in New England in November, they found — according to Bradford’s detailed journal — a cold, barren, desolate wilderness.” The New York Jets had just lost to the Patriots. “There were no friends to greet them, he wrote.” I just threw that in about the Jets and Patriots. “There were no houses to shelter them. There were no inns where they could refresh themselves. And the sacrifice they had made for freedom was just beginning. During the first winter, half the Pilgrims — including Bradford’s own wife — died of either starvation, sickness or exposure. When spring finally came, Indians taught the settlers how to plant corn, fish for cod and skin beavers for coats.

“Life improved for the Pilgrims, but they did not yet prosper! This is important to understand because this is where modern American history lessons often end. Thanksgiving is actually explained in some textbooks as a holiday for which the Pilgrims gave thanks to the Indians for saving their lives, rather than as a devout expression of gratitude grounded in the tradition of” the Bible, “both the Old and New Testaments. Here is the part that has been omitted: The original contract the Pilgrims had entered into with their merchant-sponsors in London called for everything they produced to go into a common store, and each member of the community was entitled to one common share. All of the land they cleared and the houses they built belonged to the community as well.” Everything belonged to everybody. “They were going to distribute it equally. All of the land they cleared and the houses they built belonged to the community as well.

“Nobody owned anything.” It was a forerunner of Occupy Wall Street. Seriously. “They just had a share in it,” but nobody owned anything. “It was a commune, folks.” The original pilgrim settlement was a commune. “It was the forerunner to the communes we saw in the ’60s and ’70s out in California,” and Occupy Wall Street, “and it was complete with organic vegetables, by the way.” There’s no question they were organic vegetables. What else could they be? “Bradford, who had become the new governor of the colony, recognized that this form of collectivism was as costly and destructive to the Pilgrims as that first harsh winter, which had taken so many lives. He decided to take bold action. Bradford assigned a plot of land to each family to work and manage,” as they saw fit, and, “thus turning loose the power of the marketplace. That’s right. Long before Karl Marx was even born, the Pilgrims had discovered and experimented with what could only be described as socialism.

“And what happened? It didn’t work!” They nearly starved! “It never has worked! What Bradford and his community found was that the most creative and industrious people had no incentive to work any harder than anyone else, unless they could utilize the power of personal motivation! But while most of the rest of the world has been experimenting with socialism for well over a hundred years — trying to refine it, perfect it, and re-invent it — the Pilgrims decided early on to scrap it permanently. What Bradford wrote about this social experiment should be in every schoolchild’s history lesson. If it were, we might prevent much needless suffering in the future.” If it were, there wouldn’t be any Occupy Wall Street. There wouldn’t be any romance for it.

“The experience that we had in this common course and condition,’” Bradford wrote. “‘The experience that we had in this common course and condition tried sundry years…that by taking away property, and bringing community into a common wealth, would make them happy and flourishing — as if they were wiser than God,’ Bradford wrote.” This was his way of saying, it didn’t work, we thought we were smarter than everybody, everybody was gonna share equally, nobody was gonna have anything more than anything else, it was gonna be hunky-dory, kumbaya. Except it doesn’t work. Because of half of them didn’t work, maybe more. They depended on the others to do all the work. There was no incentive.

“‘For this community [so far as it was] was found to breed much confusion and discontent, and retard much employment that would have been to their benefit and comfort. For young men that were most able and fit for labor and service did repine that they should spend their time and strength to work for other men’s wives and children without any recompense,’” without being paid for it, “‘that was thought injustice.’” They figured it out real quick. Half the community is not working — living off the other half, that is. Resentment built. Why should you work for other people when you can’t work for yourself? that’s what he was saying. So the Pilgrims found that people could not be expected to do their best work without incentive. So what did Bradford’s community try next? They unharnessed the power of good old free enterprise by invoking the under-girding capitalistic principle of private property.

“Every family was assigned its own plot of land to work and permitted to market its own crops and products. And what was the result? ‘This had very good success,’ wrote Bradford, ‘for it made all hands industrious, so as much more corn was planted than otherwise would have been.’ … Is it possible that supply-side economics could have existed before the 1980s? Yes,” it did. “Now, this is where it gets really good, folks, if you’re laboring under the misconception that I was, as I was taught in school. So they set up trading posts and exchanged goods with the Indians.” This is what happened. After everybody had their own plot of land and were allowed to market it and develop it as they saw fit and got to keep what they produced, bounty, plenty resulted.

“And then they set up trading posts, stores. They exchanged goods with and sold the Indians things. Good old-fashioned commerce. They sold stuff. And there were profits because they were screwing the Indians with the price. I’m just throwing that in. No, there were profits, and, “The profits allowed them to pay off their debts to the merchants in London.” The Canarsie tribe showed up and they paid double, which is what made the Canarsie tribe screw us in the “Manna-hatin” deal years later. (I just threw that in.) They paid off the merchant sponsors back in London with their profits, they were selling goods and services to the Indians. “[T]he success and prosperity of the Plymouth settlement attracted more Europeans,” what was barren was now productive, “and began what came to be known as the ‘Great Puritan Migration.’

But this story stops when the Indians taught the newly arrived suffering-in-socialism Pilgrims how to plant corn and fish for cod. That’s where the original Thanksgiving story stops, and the story basically doesn’t even begin there. The real story of Thanksgiving is William Bradford giving thanks to God,” the pilgrims giving thanks to God, “for the guidance and the inspiration to set up a thriving colony,” for surviving the trip, for surviving the experience and prospering in it. “The bounty was shared with the Indians.” That’s the story. “They did sit down” and they did have free-range turkey and organic vegetables. There were no trans fats, “but it was not the Indians who saved the day. It was capitalism and Scripture which saved the day,” as acknowledged by George Washington in his first Thanksgiving Proclamation in 1789, which I also have here.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: I want to quickly tell you about one passenger on the Mayflower, a guy named Francis Eaton. He was a carpenter. He was not one of the Pilgrims. He was another passenger. He was a carpenter. He died in 1633, 13 years after they landed at Plymouth, and here’s what he left in his will: “One cow, one calf, two hogs, 50 bushels of corn, a black suit, a white hat, a black hat, boots, saws, hammers, square augers, a chisel, fishing lead, and some kitchen items” and his season tickets for the Redskins-Cowboys game. No, no, seriously. This is the estate of one of the men who probably built many of the houses for the first settlers. Very modest. But it shows what he saw as wealth back then. By the way, the life expectancy back then was not much. Not compared to today. And just remember, they were not eating trans fats, and they didn’t live as long as we do today.

END TRANSCRIPT

roastin’

rich — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 03:50:54 +0000

Good thing I cut er back a bit…

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Flu, Vaccines, CDC etc

rich — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 16:52:31 +0000

New Study Exposes the “60% Effective” Flu Shot as 98.5% Useless

Posted By Dr. Mercola | December 26 2011 | 24,253 views

Email : 328

A new study revealed that the flu vaccine prevents type A or type B influenza in only 1.5 out of every 100 vaccinated adults … but the media is reporting this to mean “60 percent effective” — the difference is due to a semantic sleight-of-hand: confusing the meaning of relative vs. absolute risk reduction
Media reports that the flu vaccine is 60 percent effective does not mean that 60 out of 100 people who get the flu shot will be protected against influenza; separate research shows 100 people must be vaccinated to prevent one case of type A or type B influenza.
Vaccine-acquired immunity is temporary, which is why even though the influenza viruses included in this season’s flu vaccine are the same viruses that were selected for the 2010-2011 influenza vaccine, the CDC is still recommending you get vaccinated again, even if you got the vaccine last year. The immunity you get by recovering from influenza naturally is qualitatively superior and longer lasting.
Lifestyle changes will generally be far more effective at preventing type A or type B influenza or other types of flu-like respiratory illnesses than the flu vaccine.

By Dr. Mercola

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends a yearly flu vaccine as “the first and most important step in protecting against flu viruses.”

This advice applies to everyone 6 months of age and older, and the CDC stresses that you “should get a flu vaccine as soon as [they] are available.”

With a promotion this strong, you might assume that getting a flu shot is a “sure thing” to protect you from all flu-like illness this year, but actually it’s not.

Not even close.

Most Flu-Like Illness is NOT Influenza

During the “flu season,” doctors and patients alike often attribute respiratory illness to “the flu” or influenza viruses when they most of the time flu-like symtpoms are actually associated with other types of viruses and bacteria.

The only way to know for sure what type of virus or bacteria is causing flu-ike symptoms is to have it lab confirmed.

The seasonal influenza vaccine only contains three strains of type A or type B influenza, which U.S. and WHO health officials select each year as the most likely influenza strains that will circulate around the world.

There are many influenza strains and most cases of flu-like illness that occur in the U.S. during a typical flu season are not associated with type A or type B influenza strains.

So, it is important to remember that, when you feel like you have the “flu,” you can’t automatically assume that your flu symptoms are caused by type A or type B influenza strains included in the seasonal flu vaccine. Also, people who do get a flu shot every year cannot automatically assume they will not get sick with either type A or type B influenza or another respiratory iillness that looks and feels like influenza.

Flu Vaccines Prevent the Flu in Only 1.5% of Adults

A new study in The Lancet Infectious Diseases reveals that the flu vaccine prevents lab confirmed type A or type B influenza in only 1.5 out of every 100 vaccinated adults … but the media is reporting this to mean “60 percent effective.”

It is estimated that, annually, only about 2.7% of adults get type A or type B influenza in the first place. The study showed that the use of flu vaccines appear to drop this down to about 1.2%. This is a roughly 60% drop, but that ignores the fact that the vaccine has no protective health benefit for 97.5% of adults.

The researchers’ own conclusions are also somewhat more lackluster in their tone than the media would have you believe:

“Influenza vaccines can provide moderate protection against virologically confirmed influenza, but such protection is greatly reduced or absent in some seasons. Evidence for protection in adults aged 65 years or older is lacking.”

So where is the 60% effectiveness claim coming from? This number is based on relative risk, and it does not mean that 59 out of 100 people who get the flu shot will be protected against the flu … allow me to explain.

Why You Need to Understand Basic Statistics Before Getting a Flu Shot

Some clinical trials are only able to show a meaningful benefit because they focus on relative risk reduction rather than absolute risk reduction. What’s the difference? You can find a very simple explanation of relative risk vs. absolute risk at the Annie Appleseed Project web site, but let me sum it up here.

Relative risk reduction is calculated by dividing the absolute risk reduction by the control event rate

Absolute risk reduction is the decrease in risk of a treatment in relation to a control treatment

In plain English, here’s what that means: let’s say you have a study of 200 women, half of whom take a drug and half take a placebo, to examine the effect on breast cancer risk. After five years, two women in the drug group develop breast cancer, compared to four who took the placebo. This data could lead to either of the following headlines, and both would be correct:

“New Miracle Drug Cuts Breast Cancer Risk by 50%!”

“New Drug Results in 2% Drop in Breast Cancer Risk!”

How can this be?

The Annie Appleseed Project explains:

“The headlines represent two different ways to express the same data. The first headline expresses the relative risk reduction — the two women who took the drug (subjects) and developed breast cancer equal half the number (50%) of the four women who took the placebo (controls) and developed breast cancer.

The second headline expresses the absolute risk reduction — 2% of the subjects (2 out of 100) who took the drug developed breast cancer and 4% of the controls (4 out of 100) who took the placebo developed breast cancer — an absolute difference of 2% (4% minus 2%).”

You can now see why clinical trials, especially those funded by drug companies, will cite relative risk reductions rather than absolute risk reductions, and as a patient you need to be aware that statistics can be easily manipulated.

As STATS at George Mason University explains:

“An important feature of relative risk is that it tells you nothing about the actual risk.”

Flu Shot Protects Against Only Three Flu Viruses …

As stated previsously, each year the flu shot contains three influenza viruses — one influenza A (H3N2) virus, one seasonal influenza A (H1N1) virus, and one influenza B virus. It only has a chance of preventing you from getting a flu-like respiratory illness during the flu season IF you so happen to be infected with one of these three specific influenza viruses.

In the United States, federal health officials at the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) are in charge of selecting which viruses to include in seasonal flu vaccine, a process that is based on international “surveillance-based forecasts about what viruses are most likely to cause illness in the coming season.” U.S. health officials works with World Health Organization (WHO) health officials to come up with projectons about which three type A or type B infuenza viruses should be included in seasonal influenza vaccine each year.

In other words, it’s an educated guess.

As you might suspect, getting a “good match” between the chosen vaccine virus strains and the actual influenza viruses that do end up circulating and causing most of the type A or type B influenza in the U.S. and around the world is challenging.

As the CDC notes:

“There are a number of factors that can make getting a good vaccine virus strain for vaccine production challenging, including both scientific issues and issues of timing. Currently, only viruses grown in eggs can be used as vaccine virus strains. If specimens have been grown in other cell lines, they cannot be used for vaccine strains.

However, more and more laboratories do not use eggs to grow influenza viruses, making it difficult to obtain potential vaccine strains. In addition, some influenza viruses, like H3N2 viruses, grow poorly in eggs, making it even more difficult to obtain possible vaccine strains.

In terms of timing, in some years certain influenza viruses may not circulate until later in the influenza season, or a virus can change late in the season or from one season to the next. This can make it difficult to forecast which viruses will predominate the following season, but it can also make it difficult to identify a vaccine virus strain in time for the production process to begin.”

When you add to this gamble, the little-known fact that, according to the CDC, only about 20 percent of flu-like illnesses are actually caused by influenza type A or B, you realize how limited an effect the flu vaccine has on keeping people well during the flu season. Too many people assume that all flu-like illness is caused by influenza viruses when the truth is that about 80 percent of flu-like illness is NOT caused by type A or type B influenza. Most flu-like symptoms are actually associated with more than 200 other bugs that can make you feel just as sick — respiratory syncytial virus, bocavirus, coronavirus, and rhinovirus, to name a few.

What this means is that if you think you have the flu, odds are five to one that you actually don’t have the flu but a flu-like virus, against which the flu shot is absolutely worthless!

Is the Small Purported Flu Shot Benefit Actually due to the “Healthy User” Effect?

Lisa Jackson, a physician and senior investigator with the Group Health Research Center in Seattle, found that healthy people tend to choose flu vaccination, while the “frail elderly” didn’t or couldn’t. Her research suggested that flu vaccine itself does not reduce mortality at all.

Healthy (and health-conscious) people tend to get the vaccine AND come down with influenza less often, not because of the vaccine itself but because they are healthier to start with.

Jackson concluded:

“The reductions in risk before influenza season indicate preferential receipt of vaccine by relatively healthy seniors… the magnitude of the bias demonstrated by the associations before the influenza season was sufficient to account entirely for the associations observed during influenza season.”

Unfortunately, Jackson’s papers were turned down for publication in the leading medical journals, even though her hypothesis makes perfect sense.

Every day you’re around viruses and bacteria and, when you’re healthy, you usually don’t get sick. But even if you do get sick, most healthy adults and children will not have serious problems moving through and recovering from influenza or other flu-like illnesses. If you do come down with influenza and have a good immune response, you will likely recover quickly without serious complications, as well as obtain natural immunity to that strain of influenza and to similar ones.

As an aside, this is one more health benefit to achieving immunity naturally by experiencing and recovering from normal infectious diseases, such as influenza.

Vaccine-acquired immunity is temporary, which is why even though the viruses in this season’s flu vaccine are the same viruses that were selected for the 2010-2011 influenza vaccine, the CDC is still recommending you get vaccinated again, even if you got the vaccine last year. The immunity that healthy individuals get by recovering from influenza naturally is usually much longer lasting.

Why Are Vaccinated Kids Getting the Measles?

Vaccine effectiveness simply cannot be taken at face value, and this applies not only to the flu vaccine but also to other diseases, like measles. Measles cases have greatly increased in parts of Canada and the United States this year. Although unvaccinated children and teens are often blamed for driving the high numbers, a recent investigation into a measles outbreak in a high school found that about half of the cases were in teens who had received the recommended two doses of vaccine in childhood.

In other words, many of the cases were among those whom health authorities would have expected to have been protected from the measles virus. Conventional medical wisdom states that the measles vaccine should protect against measles infection about 99 percent of the time.

CBC News reported:

“So the discovery that 52 of the 98 teens who caught measles were fully vaccinated came as a shock to the researchers who conducted the investigation … If other groups confirm what the Quebec investigation found, it could mean there is a lot more susceptibility to measles in the vaccinated population than is currently being assumed.”

In the United States, the minimum age for the first dose of measles vaccine is recommended as 12 months, but this may actually render the vaccine ineffective. If a breastfed child is given a measles vaccine too early, their mother’s antibodies transferred to the baby via breast milk (which also protect the baby from measles disease naturally), canl interfere with the baby obtaining measles vaccine strain virus induced antibodies. It was, in fact, due to a high rate of measles vaccine failure that a second dose of MMR (measles, mumps and rubella) vaccine was introduced in the United States in 1991.

As noted by the National Vaccine Information Center (NVIC):

“An MMR vaccine manufacturer states that in a study of 279 children 11 months to 7 years of age, MMR vaccine was shown to be 95 to 99 percent effective. Protection is estimated to persist for up to 11 years. In a measles outbreak in the U.S. in the late 1980′s and early 1990′s, it was found that there were a significant number of vaccine failures in older children, teenagers and adults, when the disease can be more severe. The government proceeded to recommend that a second MMR shot be given to boost immunity either before entrance to kindergarten or before entrance to junior high school.

In the national outbreak of measles during the late 1980′s and early 1990′s, it also became apparent that children who had been vaccinated before 15 months of age were also at risk for vaccine failure, especially if their mothers had recovered naturally from measles disease as children.

An MMR vaccine manufacturer states “Infants who are less than 15 months of age may fail to respond to the measles component of the vaccine due to presence in the circulation of residual measles antibody of maternal origin, the younger the infant, the lower the likelihood of seroconversion.” The manufacturer goes on to advise that infants vaccinated at less than 12 months of age will have to be revaccinated after 15 months of age even though “there is some evidence to suggest that infants immunized at less than one year of age may not develop sustained antibody levels when later immunized.”"

Quite simply, vaccines do not confer the same type of immunity that exposure to the actual disease does …

Why the Herd Immunity Concept is Flawed

Download Interview Transcript

Typically, vaccine promoters will stress the importance of compliance with the vaccine schedule that requires multiple doses of a vaccine in order to create and maintain vaccine induced “herd immunity,” because a vaccine is never 100 percent effective. However, they never quite seem to be able to explain why the majority of outbreaks occur in areas that are thought to HAVE herd immunity status, i.e. where the majority of people are vaccinated and “should” therefore never get the disease.

The problem is that there is, in fact, such a thing as natural herd immunity. But what has happened is that public health officials have taken this natural phenomenon and assumed that vaccine induced herd immunity is the same as disease induced herd immunity and it is not the same. The science clearly shows that there’s a big difference between naturally developed herd immunity and vaccine-induced herd immunity in a population.

To learn more, I urge you to listen to the video above, in which Barbara Loe Fisher and I discuss the concept of herd immunity.

“The original concept of herd immunity is that when a population experiences the natural disease… natural immunity would be achieved – a robust, qualitatively superior natural herd immunity within the population, which would then protect other people from getting the disease in other age groups. It’s the way infectious diseases work…” Barbara explains. “But the vaccinologists have adopted this idea of vaccine induced herd immunity.

The problem with it is that all vaccines only confer temporary protection… Pertussis vaccine is one the best examples… Pertussis vaccines have been used for about 50 to 60 years, and the organism has started to evolve to become vaccine resistant. I think this is not something that’s really understood generally by the public: Vaccines do not confer the same type of immunity that natural exposure to the disease does.”

Vaccine professionals would like you to believe they are the same, but they’re qualitatively two entirely different types of immune responses.

“In most cases natural exposure to disease would give you a longer lasting, more robust, qualitatively superior immunity because it gives you both cell mediated immunity and humoral immunity,” Barbara explains. “Humoral is the antibody production. The way you measure vaccine-induced immunity is by how high the antibody titers are. (How many antibodies you have, basically.)

But the problem is that cell mediated immunity is very important as well. Most vaccines evade cell mediated immunity and go straight for the antibodies, which is only one part of immunity. That’s been the big problem with the production of vaccines.”

Are You Willing to Accept the Risks for a 1.5% Benefit?

The latest study showing the incredibly minimal benefit of the flu vaccine is in line with past research that has also concluded that flu vaccines appear to have very limited measurable benefits for children, adults or seniors.

The Cochrane Database Review—which is the gold standard for assessing the scientific evidence for the effectiveness of commonly used medical interventions — published the following telling statistics:

“Over 200 viruses cause influenza and influenza-like illness, which produce the same symptoms (fever, headache, aches and pains, cough and runny noses). Without laboratory tests, doctors cannot tell the two illnesses apart. Both last for days and rarely lead to death or serious illness. At best, vaccines might be effective against only influenza A and B, which represent about 10 percent of all circulating viruses. Each year, the World Health Organization recommends which viral strains should be included in vaccinations for the forthcoming season.

Authors of this review assessed all trials that compared vaccinated people with unvaccinated people. The combined results of these trials showed that under ideal conditions (vaccine completely matching circulating viral configuration) 33 healthy adults need to be vaccinated to avoid one set of influenza symptoms.

In average conditions (partially matching vaccine) 100 people need to be vaccinated to avoid one set of influenza symptoms.

Vaccine use did not affect the number of people hospitalized or working days lost but caused one case of Guillian-Barré syndrome [GBS] (a major neurological condition leading to paralysis) for every one million vaccinations.”

Is it really worth risking the health and well-being of 100 people in order to prevent ONE case of the flu, which may or may not result in serious illness or death in that one individual to begin with?

While infants and young children are at greatest risk, no one is exempt from the potential serious complications of vaccination, one of which is GBS.

In the video profile of vaccine injury above, Barbara Loe Fisher, co-founder and president of NVIC, interviews a Connecticut artist and her mother, a former professor of nursing, who developed Guillaine-Barre syndrome after getting a seasonal flu shot in 2008 and today is permanently disabled with total body paralysis. This family has chosen to share their heartbreaking story to help those who have had the same experience feel less alone, and to educate others about what it means to be vaccine injured.

What happened to this family is a potent reminder of just how important it is to make well-informed decisions about vaccinations.

The Best Way to Prevent the Flu Has Little to do With a Vaccine

Avoiding influenza and flu-like illness during the flu season or any season doesn’t require a flu vaccine. By following the simple guidelines below, you can help keep your immune system in optimal working order so that you’re far less likely to get sick or, if you do get sick, you are better prepared to move through it without complications and soon return to good health.

Optimize your vitamin D levels. As I’ve previously reported, optimizing your vitamin D levels is one of the absolute best strategies for avoiding infections of ALL kinds, and vitamin D deficiency is likely the TRUE culprit behind the seasonality of the flu — not the flu virus itself. This is probably the single most important and least expensive action you can take. Regularly monitor your vitamin D levels to confirm your levels are within the therapeutic range of 50-70 ng/ml.

Ideally, you’ll want to get all your vitamin D from sun exposure or a safe tanning bed, but as a last resort you can take an oral vitamin D3 supplement. According to the latest review by Carole Baggerly (Grassrootshealth.org), adults need about 8,000 IU’s a day.

Avoid Sugar, Fructose and Processed Foods. Sugar impairs the function of your immune system almost immediately, and as you likely know, a healthy immune system is one of the most important keys to fighting off viruses and other illness. Be aware that sugar is present in foods you may not suspect, like ketchup and fruit juice.

Get Enough Rest. Just like it becomes harder for you to get your daily tasks done if you’re tired, if your body is overly fatigued it will be harder for it to fight the flu. Be sure to check out my article Guide to a Good Night’s Sleep for some great tips to help you get quality rest.

Have Effective Tools to Address Stress . We all face some stress every day, but if stress becomes overwhelming then your body will be less able to fight off the flu and other illness. If you feel that stress is taking a toll on your health, consider using an energy psychology tool such as the Emotional Freedom Technique, which is remarkably effective in relieving stress associated with all kinds of events, from work to family to trauma.

Exercise. When you exercise, you increase your circulation and your blood flow throughout your body. The components of your immune system are also better circulated, which means your immune system has a better chance of finding an illness before it spreads.

Take a Good Source of Animal-Based Omega-3 Fats. Increase your intake of healthy and essential fats like the omega-3 found in krill oil, which is crucial for maintaining health. It is also crucial to avoid excessive and/or oxidized omega-6 fatty acids, as well as trans fatty acids commonly found in processed foods, as they will seriously damage your immune response.

Wash Your Hands. Washing your hands will decrease your likelihood of spreading a virus to your nose, mouth or other people. Be sure you don’t use antibacterial soap for this — antibacterial soaps are completely unnecessary, and they cause far more harm than good. Instead, identify a simple chemical-free soap that you can switch your family to.

Use Natural Antibiotics. Examples include colloidal silver, oil of oregano, and garlic. These work like broad-spectrum antibiotics against bacteria, viruses, and protozoa in your body. And unlike pharmaceutical antibiotics, they do not appear to lead to resistance.

Avoid Hospitals. I’d recommend you stay away from hospitals unless you’re having an emergency and need expert medical care, as hospitals are prime breeding grounds for infectious microorganisms of all kinds. The best place to get plenty of rest and recover from illness that is not life-threatening is usually in the comfort of your own home.

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The culprit

rich — Tue, 27 Dec 2011 20:28:43 +0000

So, today’s Saab story: after getting stranded with Levi at a gas station with the
contents of my cooling system on the ground, today I’m actually pleased
to have found the problem.
Could have been waaay more expensive a part.

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Community college to offer training for gambling jobs

rich — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 12:49:00 +0000

Good heavens…

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Finally!

rich — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 16:07:07 +0000

This gem reminds me of the old days when we’d try & catch a wink with our
heads stuck in the B/N hood on the A6..

http://www.gadgetizer.com/2011/07/28/you-can-finally-sleep-at-your-desk-with-the-ostrich-pillow/

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hmmm

rich — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 18:25:28 +0000

It’s a good thing this gem was edited , cause let me tell ya, he peels the paint off the walls with his…colorful metaphors.

And that’s coming from a Navy guy..

However…I dare say, this is likely what many people in this great nation think & feel, who consider themselves rational, thinking, traditionally-minded folk.

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Infant Vaccines…a treatise

rich — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 17:30:05 +0000

I found this slightly dated article, but it bears out in full what I’ve

developed an amateur interest in..

————————————————————————————–

Most parents dutifully take their infants to the doctor or clinic at the prescribed times to be vaccinated. Generally, it doesn’t occur to them to question this public health institution. However, growing numbers of doctors, scientists and parents have become suspicious about the long-term implications of what some consider a national experiment posturing as solid science. It could be said that the development of immunization theory has been compromised by the theory’s very successes.

The history of vaccines does indeed have some glorious chapters. In 1796, British country doctor Edward Jenner formulated a vaccine that led to the global eradication in our time of the deadly smallpox virus. A century later, French chemist Louis Pasteur formulated a vaccine against rabies and even foresaw serums made from nonliving substances that would one day materialize as synthetic, chemical vaccines.¹

Please see the full text here

redirected with permission

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Chemicals Chemicals Chemicals

rich — Sat, 12 Nov 2011 13:32:55 +0000

Every time I see a piece on the danger of everyday household chemicals that we ingest, apply, breathe etc I want to cringe.

Why? Because-

a. I believe there IS a very present and credible silent health epidemic going on that most folks aren’t even aware of.

b. I myself, continue day after day for the most part, doing the same thing..applying chemicals on, in my body that I at the VERY least, question if they’re cancer causing.

Here’s a perfect example of what I’m talking about:

…..For example, take Aluminum. To reach the brain, aluminum must pass the blood-brain barrier, an elaborate structure that filters the blood to prevent toxic elements from entering the brain. This filtration system developed over a long period of time for our protection. Elemental aluminum doesn’t easily pass this barrier, but aluminum compounds found in many consumable products do.

Aspirin is commonly buffered with aluminum hydroxide or glycinate. If you drink some orange juice, the citric acid in it transforms these compounds into aluminum citrate – 5 times better able to find its way to the brain. And many consumable products besides Aspirin contain citric acid.

Now, if the aluminum in food combines with maltol, a sugar-like additive used in many baked goods, its capacity to pass the blood-brain barrier increases by as much as 90 times! How can you possibly know when you might use a product that will react negatively with another you just used?

The Dangers of DEA

One of the most common-and potentially toxic-compounds commonly found in personal care products is DEA (diethanolomine). Formulated into soaps, detergents and surfactants, it is found in over 600 home and personal care products. The shampoo and soap you use probably includes it.

Belonging to a class of chemicals known as alkanolamines (which includes monoethanolamine and triethanolamine or TEA), DEA has been linked with kidney, liver, and other organ damage according to several government-funded research studies, and has been proven to cause cancer in rats when applied to the skin.

According to a 1995 study funded by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, DEA has low acute toxicity but significant cumulative toxicity. This is because it cannot be easily excreted from the body but instead builds up in the fatty tissues of the liver, brain, kidneys, and spleen with repeated oral and dermal exposure. As DEA collects in the tissues, it spurs an accumulation of abnormal phospholipids that can lead to mounting tissue and nerve damage and premature death (Matthew et al., 1995).

Another study found that oral and topical application of DEA in rodents resulted in anemia, kidney degeneration, and nerve damage to the brain and spinal cord (Melnick et al., 1994). Even more disturbing was that several animals died before the study ended. The authors concluded, “DEA is toxic at multiple organ sites in rats, either by oral exposure in the drinking water or by topical application.”

In 1995, Steinman and Epstein stated,

“The FDA accepts that the presence of DEA and TEA in cosmetics can pose a significant consumer health threat. In the 1970s it published a notice in the Federal Register in which it urged the industry to remove these products from cosmetics.”

In spite of this, DEA is still one of the most common cosmetic and hair care ingredients. Approximately 200 million pounds of DEA are produced annually in the U.S., most of which goes into personal care products as emulsifiers, thickeners, and wetting agents (USITC, 1990). Despite its heavy use, however, research indicates that this compound may be highly toxic.

Are You Washing Your Hair and Brushing Your Teeth With
Anti-Freeze, Engine Degreasers, and Chemical Solvents?

Many other potentially toxic petrochemicals are found in commercial personal care products. Some quarternium compounds, like behentrimonium chloride, can be fatal if ingested and can cause necrosis (tissue death) of the mucus membranes in concentrations as low as one percent. Moreover, some synthetic colors, such as FD & C Blue No. 1, are suspected carcinogens (cancer causing agents). Other studies have shown that the popular food additive, Yellow Dye #5, can instigate asthmatic breathing.

Here are a few other ingredients commonly found in shampoo, conditioner, and soap:

Propylene Glycol (also called Propanediol) – A colorless, viscous, hygroscopic liquid used in anti-freeze solutions, in brake and hydraulic fluids, as a de-icer, and as a solvent. It’s even found in some pet foods, processed foods and cosmetics, toothpastes, shampoos, deodorants and lotions.It is implicated in contact dermatitis, kidney damage and liver abnormalities. It can inhibit skin cell growth in human tests, can cause gastro-intestinal disturbances, nausea, headache and vomiting, central nervous system depression and can damage cell membranes causing rashes, dry skin and surface damage (according to the Material Safety Data Sheet).

Sodium Lauryl Sulfate (SLS) or Sodium Laureth Sulfate (SLES)-Used as a surfactant to break down the surface tension of water. It is used in concrete floor cleaners, engine degreasers, car wash detergents, and just about every soap and shampoo on the market. And yet, according to the Journal of the American College of Toxicology; Vol. 2, No. 7, l983, SLS is a mutagen. In sufficient amounts, it is capable of changing the information in genetic material found in cells! It has been used in studies to induce mutations in bacteria.SLS actually corrodes hair follicles and impairs ability to grow hair! It denatures protein, impairs proper structural formation of young eyes, creating permanent damage. SLS can damage the immune system. It can cause separation of skin layers and cause inflammation to the skin. If it interacts with other nitrogen bearing ingredients, Carcinogenic Nitrates can form as a result.

Behentrimonium Chloride, Guar Hydrosypropyltrimonium Chloride, Linoleamidepropyl PG-Dimonium Chloride Phosphate – These are toxic ammonium compounds. Ingestion can be fatal. Concentrations as low as 0.1% can be irritating to eyes and cause necrosis (tissue death) of mucus membranes.

Stearamidopropyl Dimethylamine – Synthetic surfactant; can cause eye irritation and dermatitis.

And these are just the tip of the iceberg! We expose ourselves day after day, many times hour after hour (through cosmetics and lotions), to these toxic ingredients – and then we wonder why cancer rates are soaring!

Way back in 1938, when the FDA published guidelines regarding suitable levels of ingredients in products for human use, little was known about long-term exposure. Quite possibly the absorption of these toxins through the skin was not even considered. Substances believed safe for human use then are now being proven otherwise.

And what has been the cosmetic industry’s response? It typically sounds something like this, “…has not been proven…in humans” or “our products are formulated within strict FDA guidelines” or “more studies are needed.”

I’m certain there will be more studies – but many years will pass. We all know debate and legislation progresses at a snail’s pace. And the health consequences associated with continued use will escalate.

Even when the FDA has all the scientifically valid, conclusive proof they need, they may only be able to require warning labels.

As a matter of fact, warning labels have been getting stronger and more visible lately. Have you noticed the warning on your toothpaste? Here’s one straight off a popular brand…

“Keep out of the reach of children under 6 years of age. If you accidentally swallow more than used for brushing, seek professional help or contact a poison control center immediately.”

I don’t know about you, but I find this very alarming. The very fact that such a strong warning is printed on toothpaste tells me there is a good reason for it! Yet, most children in America are taught to brush their teeth after every meal, using just this kind of toothpaste. Have you ever considered that if it’s not good for a child under 6, it couldn’t be good for adults either!

But I know that already. Other unsuspecting consumers may not. And the FDA is slow to let people know the dangers or to make changes.

While bureaucracy moves along at a snail’s pace, personal decisions about your health don’t have to. It is ultimately up to you, the consumer, to make changes for the better in your own life. It’s up to you to choose products that will truly enhance your life and your health rather than destroy it.

Source found here

and

“Sodium Laurel Sulfate and Eye Damage in Young Children The greatest concern of many scientists is sodium lauryl sulfate (SLS), a detergent found in about 90 percent of commercial shampoos. Also known as sodium dodecyl, sodium laureth sulfate (SLFS) this chemical has been shown to damage protein formation in eye tissue in young animals, raising serious concerns about the possibility of ocular tissue malformation, blindness in infants and young children. In animal studies, Sodium Laurel Sulfate penetration and uptake is much greater in neonatal and young animal eye tissue, compared to adult animals, showing “penetration into the eye, as well as systemic tissues (brain, heart, liver, etc.)” SLS also showed long-term retention in tissues, up to 5 days after a single drop.1

Researcher Keith Green, Ph.D., D. Sc., of the Medical College of Georgia, also reports that Sodium Laurel Sulfate extends the healing of corneal tissue by a factor of 5, from 2 days (normal) to more than 10 days. He also has concerns about cataract formation from Sodium Laurel Sulfate. Writing for Research to Prevent Blindness, Inc., Dr. Green states in part: There is an immediate concern relating to the penetration of these chemicals into the eye and other tissues. This is especially important in infants…exposure to SLS results in accumulation in eye tissues, a process that could retard healing and possibly have long-term effects. Dr. Green concludes that exposure to Sodium Laurel Sulfate sulfate causes improper eye development in children and that since Sodium Laurel Sulfate is absorbed systemically through the skin, it doesn’t have to enter the eye directly.”

Source here

And as always, the operative question is:

“what am I now going to do with this information?”

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Rick Perry

rich — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 15:04:15 +0000

I haven’t really been following the various debates, or even who’s who for GOP potentials.

But this recent fopah by Perry bothers me, or rather the reactions to it, bother me.

People on the webOsphere seem to think that a memory lapse, a mis-spoken word, phrase or a hair out of place is just cause to write folks off as intelligent, and viable leaders.

We have virtually replaced human, rational and earthy debate with some shell of a scripted, well rehearsed set of banter that frankly nauseates me in recent years.

ugh

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at the VERY least, this is Interesting

rich — Thu, 03 Nov 2011 23:54:53 +0000

Amazing..

What else will I witness in my lifetime?

Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace on the Global Economy

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Just great!

rich — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 14:02:29 +0000

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fishin..

rich — Tue, 11 Oct 2011 01:44:07 +0000

Levi and I had a blast at Moose pond.

Nice one bud!

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the sound guy

rich — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 02:03:48 +0000

I just came back from a run-through of a play that Levi is doing sound for.
He’s responsible for all sound effects.
I’m so proud!

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Amazing video: must watch

rich — Sat, 08 Oct 2011 16:45:53 +0000

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Classic..

rich — Fri, 30 Sep 2011 16:30:32 +0000

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Would you look at that!

rich — Tue, 27 Sep 2011 18:45:02 +0000

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D.A.D.T.

rich — Tue, 20 Sep 2011 11:45:29 +0000

This isn’t just a matter of disagreement with the activity. I personally have to shower in an open shower with other males every morning after PT. To say that it’s absurd that gay men won’t gawk at other naked men is saying that they aren’t normal. In “normal” sexual attractions, the sight of a naked body belonging to someone of the opposite sex is a natural thing to stare at. Are gays more capable of handling themselves than straights? I don’t think so. According to those trying to repeal this policy, gay behavior is just as “normal” as straight behavior. So, why can’t straight men and women shower together? Why can’t straight men and women dorm together the way gay and straight men will be forced? If it’s so natural and the “truth” being reported by proponents of repeal is that there is no way gays will care that they are surrounded with naked bodies of the sex to which they are attracted, then why are heterosexuals separated? Is it because heterosexuals aren’t normal? The argument is absurd in its contex

From: http://militarygear.com/asp/2010/12/18/dadt-repeal/

Hard to argue with the logic though, isn’t it?

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Battleship Cove Video

rich — Tue, 13 Sep 2011 00:46:33 +0000

http://www.battleshipcove.com

Firing of the 5 Incher for 9.11

Inside the 5 Inch Gun Turret

“Big Mammie”

Lionfish

USS Lionfish more…

Torpedo Room

Where we spent a lot of time..inside the Aft 16 inch Turret…amazing

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Battleship Cove

rich — Mon, 12 Sep 2011 00:08:51 +0000

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Two Faces?

rich — Wed, 31 Aug 2011 16:10:28 +0000

The U.S. Department of Justice filed an antitrust lawsuit on Wednesday seeking to block AT&T’s $39 billion merger with T-Mobile.

The merged companies would be the largest wireless company in the United States, combining AT&T’s 95 million customers with T-Mobile’s 34 million users. Along with Verizon Wireless, the merged companies would combine for more than two-thirds of the wireless market and account for 78% of the wireless industry’s revenue.

“The combination of AT&T and T-Mobile would result in tens of millions of consumers all across the United States facing higher prices, fewer choices and lower quality products for mobile wireless services,” the Justice Department said in its announcement.

Wow, and Nationalized Healthcare wouldn’t offer …fewer choices, lower quality…

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iPads & Apes…I knew it!

rich — Wed, 17 Aug 2011 19:32:02 +0000

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/44162183/ns/technology_and_science-wireless/

Orangutans, it turns out, love the iPad and its games just as much as some humans do.

A budding program at the Milwaukee County Zoo is working to place iPads into the giant, gentle palms of their orangutans. Two of the zoo’s orangutans already look forward to weekly sessions with an iPad. They even have favorite apps, shows and games, but they haven’t yet been given free rein with the Apple device because keepers worry they might get frustrated and simply snap one in half.

“One of the biggest hurdles we face is that an orangutan can snap an iPad like you or I could rip cardboard,” said Richard Zimmerman, executive director of Orangutan Outreach, which hopes to extend Milwaukee’s iPad enrichment program to zoos around the country. “Even the little guys like Mahal are incredibly strong. A big male could take it apart in about five seconds.”

Before extending the program, allowing the orangutan’s to have personal iPads, Zimmerman and his group needs to find an orangutan-proof case. But the program is still making strides in its infancy in Milwaukee.

It started as an April Fools’ joke, Scott Engel, the iPad Enrichment Coordinator at the zoo, tells me.

“A friend of a friend who is a gorilla keeper at the zoo was half-joking about getting an iPad to use with gorillas after seeing a story in the UK Sun,” he said.

While the Sun’s story was an April Fools’ Day joke, Engel thought, “Why not?” So he contacted Milwaukee County Zoo to float the idea of using his old iPad to work with orangutans. Now Engel spends 20 minutes three-to-four days a week working with MJ and Mahal.

Engel started by showing the two the device through the glass where visitors usually stand. The first thing he did was turn on his iPad 2′s camera and let the two use the device as a sort of mirror.

“It was amazing to see how they welcomed this strange device into their area,” he said.

Scott Engel / Courtesy of Kotaku

The notion of enrichment at zoos is important, especially with orangutans, which are highly intelligent creatures that require mental stimulation to keep from growing bored or depressed.

Once they were used to the iPad, the keepers started using the device in a back area where the orangutans could reach through a cage door and touch it. Last week, the two had their first chance to go completely hands and feet on with the device, though it still isn’t allowed in the enclosure with them.

The orangutans both have their favorite apps, often spending quite a bit of time finger-painting with DrawFree, watching television shows and even playing games. They’ve tried iFishPond, Flick Kick Football and seem to really love the interactive book The Fantastic Flying Books of Morris Lessmore.

“I’ll show (Morris Lessmore) to them through the glass and they love the combination of movement, sound and color,” Engel said. “They will sit for about 20 minutes, listening to the story . In fact, MJ and I finished the book in one session.”

The orangutans also seem particularly enchanted with videos.

“We’ll show the orangutans videos of themselves, videos of wild orangutans, and other animals that reside at the zoo,” Engel said. “This has been very successful and really seems to hold their interest. In fact I think orangutan MJ has a crush on David Attenborough. Whenever he comes on to narrate a scene, her eyes light up and she just stares.”

The notion of enrichment at zoos is important, especially with orangutans, which are highly intelligent creatures that require mental stimulation to keep from growing bored or depressed, Zimmerman said.

“Orangutans are very tactile and their natural curiosity is perfect for a device like an iPad,” he said. “They are open to all types of enrichment and we think that the touchscreen ‘games’ will be really good for them — especially during the winter months in northern climates when they spend long periods of time indoors. Orangutans love painting with their fingers as well as brushes, and they seem to take quickly to using their fingers to paint on the touchscreen. We have a lot of different ideas we want to try with them and a lot of interest in the zoo community around the country.”

Zimmerman hopes to extend the iPad program to Zoo Atlanta next, where they already have touchscreens built into an “enrichment tree” in the orangutan enclosure. Keepers there are ready to kick off the program, he said. Zoos in Toronto, Phoenix, Honolulu, Memphis and Florida are also on board with the idea.

“As long as the orangutans are the decision-makers, the enrichment can be great for them,” Zimmerman said. “If the iPad games can help alleviate any boredom they might otherwise feel, we are all for it! And if zoo visitors can see this in practice and then go home with a better appreciation for the orangutans as sentient, intelligent beings who need to be protected in the wild, then everybody wins!”

Once the program is more established, and once the have a solution for protecting iPads from the incredible strength of an orangutan, Zimmerman hopes to kick off a second phase of the program.

“One of our goals is to be able to have the orangutans interact and communicate amongst themselves … essentially being able to go online and see who else is online … and contacting them to be able to ‘play,’” he said. “We’ve been calling it ‘Primate Playdate.’”

And the hope isn’t just that orangutans will go online to play video games with each other, from zoo to zoo, Zimmerman thinks it’s possible that zoo visitors could download the same apps and play with and against the primates with their own iPhones and iPads.

“Play is a huge component of this type of enrichment and I’ve found that a simple app like the camera app on the iPad is wonderful,” Engel said. “The awesome thing is that when I arrive at the orangutan area, Mj and Mahal come over to see me and they seem to look forward to our enrichment sessions. The super amazing thing about the whole experience is that they don’t get any reward for this — no food or treats, they just get to play. They chose to greet me and let me hang out with them. That is the best thing about it. They get to decide something. I’m just along for the ride.”

Well Playedis an internationally syndicated weekly news and opinion column about the big stories of the week in the gaming industry and its bigger impact on things to come. Feel free to join in the discussion.

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Stay at home moms

rich — Wed, 17 Aug 2011 11:45:38 +0000

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/facts-and-arguments/i-dont-want-to-be-a-stay-at-home-mom/article1134244/comments/

There’s so much going on here…

and I think I’m becoming “old fashioned” in my thinking…

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UNICEF/Adoption etc

rich — Wed, 17 Aug 2011 02:54:23 +0000

http://communities.washingtontimes.com/neighborhood/red-thread-adoptive-family-forum/2011/aug/3/united-states-unicef-war-international-adoptions/#.Tjy-zWLaMid.facebook

—————————————————————–

EASTON, Md, August 2, 2011—When I speak to people outside the adoption community, many are incredulous that UNICEF, the very organization that provides so much aid to children worldwide,is behind restricting inter-country adoption. On the surface it just doesn’t make sense.

To fully understand what is happening, why countries around the world – from Guatemala to Vietnam to Kyrgyzstan – are under enormous pressure to reinvent, reduce and, in some cases, end their inter-country adoption programs, you must understand the “why” behind the “what.”

When pressed for reasons why the U.S. Department of State (DoS) and UNICEF they actively engage in closing inter-country adoption programs, the very first response from both entities is that they are protecting children. They say they are working towards an adoption system that works against child trafficking. That goal is laudable.

The safety of children, of course, is paramount and must be the cornerstone of any adoption program. I have yet to meet an adoptive family that believes otherwise. The good news is we all agree. So where’s the problem?

Ultimately UNICEF, and to a lesser extent the Department of State, are opposed to inter-country adoption, calling it a “last resort” for children. Just what is the first resort? UNICEF offers what appears to be a vague notion of social and economic justice in the world. I share their enthusiasm for creating a more just world, and, in my experience, American families who adopt from overseas tend to be more engaged in the issues of economic justice in their children’s birth countries than others. We are natural allies of UNICEF, so what’s going so wrong in relations between many adoptive parents and the organization?

The stumbling block is that unlike UNICEF adoptive parents do not believe that even a single child should be subjected to life as an orphan, serving in effect as collateral damage, as geopolitical solutions to world poverty are played out. To us, it is patently unfair for children to be held hostage, condemned to life without a family, as the world works towards peace and justice.

One would think that the primary goal of UNICEF and the U.S. would be to ensure that orphans who can be adopted are immediately adopted. The longer children stay in orphanages, the greater the damage. Tthe effects of long-term institutionalization are dire both physically and psychologically.

Elizabeth Bartholet of Harvard Law School’s Child Advocacy Program explains it this way:

“Largely deprived of the human touch as they grow up, those who survive physically are unlikely to develop emotionally and mentally in ways that will make it possible for them to relate meaningfully and happily to either human beings, or to learn or work in meaningful ways. The longer they spent in such orphanages, the less chance they will have are anything resembling normal development.”

UNICEF has been extremely effective in convincing western nations to limit inter-country adoptions. The results have been catastrophic. As a result, the number of inter-country adoptions precipitously fell and the number of orphans worldwide spiked. Recent stats put the number of orphans around 132,200,000.

Most of these orphans are institutionalized, homeless, malnourished and uneducated. They are seeking permanent, loving families –- adoptive families– what Dr. Jane Aronson, a leader in the field of adoption medicine, calls the “gold standard” for care. Yet, UNICEF continues to assert that inter-country adoption should be a last resort, an option only when no alternative care can be found for orphans, a position that flies in the face of all we know about child welfare.

As Bartholet writes: “[T]hose placed in international adoption flourish. Those placed in infancy will do essentially as well as other children in their new country. Those placed later will do far better than they would in the absence of placement —international adoption has been shown to overcome even very significant deficits caused by early deprivation, with the age of placement overwhelmingly predictive of the chance for a normal life.”

This isn’t just what a Harvard professor says. This position also has the advantage of being common sense. But not to UNICEF, which continues to argue that children should remain in their country of origin, at almost all costs, regardless of the type of care or the quality of that care.

The U.S. has not publicly taken as direct and hard of a line as UNICEF on this particular point. However, the actions of the DoS, with its years of inter-country discussions, calls for additional moratoriums, insistence on the blanket passage of the Hague requirements even in countries where Hague requirements would all but nullify the eligibility of most orphans (such as the case in Haiti where most birth records were destroyed in the earthquake), and its refusal to assist pipeline orphans (children already matched with American families and living now for years in orphanages) has resulted in the near paralysis of international adoption.

Every child has a right to a family. That powerful statement is made by Paulo Barrozo, a professor of international law at Boston College Law School, who authored an important paper on international adoption called “The Child as a Person: A Response to ‘International Adoption, a Human Rights Approach. He argues that children have individual rights as sovereign beings entitled to become fully human within a family structure. No government or institution should, therefore, be permitted to take away this fundamental right.

But that is precisely the effect of the current stance taken by UNICEF in deciding that unparented children should not be paired with prospective parents from different backgrounds, be that country, race or culture.

Ultimately, we all agree the world should work on the very real issues of global poverty, social injustice, and infectious diseases, which are largely contributing to the number of orphans worldwide. If we don’t address these macro issues we will never reduce the numbers of orphans or their suffering. But while we are doing that, we should also be promoting micro solutions. And, yes, I know, the simple act of bringing one child into one family is far less sexy to discuss at international conferences and in geopolitical policy journals, but its every bit as important.

Somehow in the process of developing a system to eradicate child suffering the very people that system is designed to help—orphaned children—have been forgotten. It’s time for UNICEF and the U.S. Department of State to bring back a sense of moral urgency and put children ahead of politics.

Andrea is an adoptive mother and a journalist. She is at work on a book, “The Red Thread,” a collection of stories told by families united through adoption. She is also the travel and food editor for the Communities at The Washington Times. She is also owner of Media Branding International, a public relations/media consulting firm.

Read more The Red Thread: An Adoptive Family Forum in The Communities at The Washington Times. Follow Andrea at Twitter @ANDPOE and @WTCLifesOnline. She can also be found on LinkedIn.

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Minimalism…

rich — Thu, 11 Aug 2011 01:53:40 +0000

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in all “fairness”

rich — Mon, 08 Aug 2011 23:47:39 +0000

The Fairness Doctrine was a policy of the United States Federal Communications Commission (FCC), introduced in 1949, that required the holders of broadcast licenses to both present controversial issues of public importance and to do so in a manner that was, in the Commission’s view, honest, equitable and balanced. The doctrine was abolished by President Reagan in 1987.

I’ve said it before , and I’ll say it again: Ronnie…we need you!

oh, and there’s this

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Whistles and Pipes

rich — Mon, 08 Aug 2011 02:49:41 +0000

a little tune I’m working on

Compiling

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I told you master was tricksey….

rich — Thu, 21 Jul 2011 11:22:03 +0000

EXCLUSIVE: Four of the United Nations ’ biggest development and aid agencies quietly piled up at least $12.2 billion in unspent cash by the end of 2009, according to…

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Save the Marshies!

rich — Thu, 07 Jul 2011 02:27:29 +0000

My gracious and wonderful Mother in Law has this strange ritual with marshmallows..

Marshmallows were most seriously hurt in the filing of this unfortunate, and un-tasty incident..

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Bathrooms, caulking, and nails oh boy!

rich — Mon, 04 Jul 2011 02:21:59 +0000

Basically, taking care of an aging wall. Not even sure what exactly this stuff is/was that was the shower wall, but is was unsightly..and…well old.

Lath…plaster…sheetrock..ugh The mess it created was tremendous.

I can’t imagine replacing a house full of horsehair plaster.

Man, someone at Lowes is retiring just off me.

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Thank you Lord..

rich — Fri, 01 Jul 2011 11:47:00 +0000

that I’m alive, and have another day..

that I have a wonderful family..

and that I don’t live in California

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Lawns and babes

rich — Thu, 16 Jun 2011 22:40:44 +0000

I always knew this day would come…

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Hillary World Bank

rich — Sat, 11 Jun 2011 13:56:48 +0000

“[Hillary]Clinton in talks about possible move to World Bank”.
If that ends up being true, her experience as a global financial expert is….what now?

Kinda of par for the course these days it seems.

People are gravitating toward leaders who can titillate the part of our being that makes us feel like we’re solving the world’s problems though whatever means.

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Ten reasons why people get out of IT

rich — Tue, 07 Jun 2011 07:30:13 +0000

>Disclaimer: I’m not indicting anyone at MY place of work!<

1. Stress
Anyone who describes IT as an easy career is deeply misguided. In fact, IT jobs that don’t involve stress are rare. Remember, IT is disaster management. When a client or user calls you, it’s almost always because of an emergency that must be dealt with immediately. And when you are working on those tasks, you have to get everything right, since failure could cost you a contract or a job. What’s worse is that the stress rarely lets up.

2. Hours
If you want a Monday-to-Friday, nine-to-five job, look elsewhere. IT seems to be a job you carry around with you permanently. Not only do you put in more hours in the office or in the field than your average professional, you also have to work outside the office to keep your skills up and ensure you’re better than the person sitting next to you. The people who aren’t your clients or users — friends and family, for example — will want to take advantage of your knowledge and keep their computers running smoothly for free.

3. Getting paid
If you’re an independent contractor, one of the most stressful issues you face is obtaining your money. I can’t tell you how many consultants I know who have had to make threats or use a lawyer to get paid. When you’re freelancing, if they don’t pay you, you don’t eat. That is unhealthy and stressful.

If you’re contracting, you don’t necessarily have the advantage of a regular cheque. Honing interpersonal skills is key to maintaining good relationships. Good relationships — even with not-so-good people — will do much to make sure you eventually get your just rewards.

4. People in general
I hate to mention this issue. A long time ago, I was a positive, upbeat, people-loving person. But I have changed. In my time in consulting, I’ve been used, abused, unpaid, underpaid and unappreciated. That is not to say that people in general are bad. It’s just that when you have your IT hat on, they seem to look at you in a different light. You are both saviour and sinner in one stressed-out package.

5. The chain of command
Few of your superiors understand your job. They think you should be able to get everything done on a shoestring, with no help, and you should treat end users as if they were better humans than yourself. To make matters worse, bosses want you — magically — to make those PCs last for more than a decade.

This misunderstanding of both duty and technology does one thing. It makes your job impossible. When the powers that be begin to micromanage your department for you, every single bad element is exacerbated. You know your job and you know you know your job. Management does not know your job, but they don’t know they don’t know your job. It’s all a Möbius strip of stress.

6. Technology
Have you ever had one of those days when it seems the whole of technology has rebelled against you and the singularity might well be on the horizon? Those days make you long to be walking out of the building with your belongings in a cardboard box. This failure of technology has been one of the issues I have had to deal with since working with a consultancy that deals primarily with Windows clients.

It seems that entropy has a strong hold on the Windows operating system, and every day is a battle to keep PCs and systems working. Some days you win that battle, some days you lose it. The days you win are always lost in a pile of days lost.

7. Competition
There’s always someone better than you. But in the IT industry, it isn’t a 1:1 ratio. Instead, it seems that for every one of you there are 100 IT pros who are smarter, faster and better equipped. Remember, the IT landscape is constantly changing, and if you can’t keep up, you may not be hired or remain employed.

The longer I am in this business, the more I realise it’s a young person’s game. Being as agile as necessary, being able to work the necessary hours, it all adds up. I’m not saying us older workers can’t run with the pack. But every day we work is another day that adds yet more competition to the field — and the competition is fierce.

8. The cloud
Every time I hear someone mention the cloud, I want to pull out my hair. What exactly is the cloud? Should I be using it? Is the cloud safe? How much does the cloud cost? I get these questions all the time. Generally, I just ask the clients if they’ve used Google Docs before. If they say yes, I tell them they are already using the cloud. But that never satisfies them. Clients and end users want the cloud to be something magical that will make their work easier, better and faster. If only they knew the truth.

9. Lack of standards
Our lives would be infinitely better if standards could be applied across the board in IT. Many open-source projects have done everything they can to achieve a set of standards, only to be knocked down by proprietary software. Those proprietary software vendors want to keep their code closed and not compliant with standards so they can keep their bottom line as padded as possible. I understand that, I really do.

But as long as they refuse to conform to any sort of standard, they will continue to give end users and IT pros problems every day. There is no reason why standards can’t be followed without preventing proprietary software vendors from making a killing.

10: Respect
The general public has a poor view of IT professionals. Why? There are many reasons. Perhaps they’ve been ripped off or dealt with consultants who only seemed to want to sell them bigger and better things. Whatever the causes, the public has become jaded. When they see you walk in the door, you are their best friend. But the minute the issue is resolved, they revert to their old attitudes.

link

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Tornadoes…and the President

rich — Sun, 29 May 2011 18:36:51 +0000

“President Obama is pivoting from diplomacy on the world stage to the intimate and delicate domestic task of acting as healer-in-chief to a devastated community”

Good heavens, is our president really JUST NOW visiting this area?
wow…
I’ll refrain from the political banter that would normally ensue..and just offer that it’s sad that our own president has such “pressing matters” that he could not have shown sympathy and cleared his schedule earlier for these folks…

un -#$ – believable

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Good heavens

rich — Thu, 26 May 2011 20:28:15 +0000

Guys, I don’t even know what to say..

As in, when you get to around 1:05….

All I can think of to add, is “why”

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“How did it come to this…”

rich — Thu, 26 May 2011 11:32:54 +0000

King Theoden hit it on the head when he asked that question about the war from Sauramon…

I ask the same question about this…

Transgender Clownfish? Gender Diversity….

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2011/05/25/gender-diversity-lesson-california-school-riles-critics/

2 things:

1) The God of the bible gets really upset when folks do bad things to kids(I make no apology for holding that view)

2) Reason#2(maybe 1) why we school our youngins at home

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#42

rich — Fri, 20 May 2011 23:09:43 +0000

Cottage#42…and I’m 42

Amazing…

mm Belfast…

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“Obama to detail Mideast policy”

rich — Thu, 19 May 2011 13:57:58 +0000

Every time I see a headline that contains something about the US outlining our vision for the

Middle East, I cringe.

We are so far from being able to share a worldview with those people it’s maddening.

Our increasingly secularist policies/practices are in direct conflict with much that part of the world

, who are governed and motivated by something higher than themselves.

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Doooh Doooh Butter!

rich — Thu, 19 May 2011 13:22:42 +0000

Ok, so out in the hallway this morning is a box of munchkins, and muffins are on the left.

Right in between is a unwrapped stick of butter…

?!?!?

I’m suspecting this King of Town isn’t as ‘fictional’ as first thought…

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LePage and MPBN: we want everything

rich — Tue, 17 May 2011 10:18:52 +0000

Ok, I admit maybe I don’t know all the facts…

But, I do know that:

1) Maine’s economy has been steadily going down the crapper for years due to poor oversight/management.

2) In order to right this economical ship, as in any other business, you have to make tough decisions regarding income vs spending.

3) You CANNOT have your debt-ridden cake and eat it too.

So, for the folks who cannot abide the thought of losing some funding for MPBN, I ask the honest question: “ok then..what/where/when?”

And don’t get me wrong, I fully understand MPNS ‘s contribution to the educational landscape. But let’s not also kid ourselves: there are many other outlets for education in this great state.

Oh, and BTW that gal Olenka Folda, also happens to be among a group of folks who saw fit to break the law and get arrested back in 05′ ish for demonstrating against the IRAQ war. I just found that interesting.

I just don’t get folks sometimes.

Again, if not MPBN, who, what and when??

We finally get someone in Blaine house who IS making tough decisions to better Maine’s economic future, and he gets nothing for it but nasty articles from our left-leaning papers decrying his inability to think and act clearly.

Just kills me…

I should steer clear of political posts, but …well I just had to.

Peace

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I hate Windows7

rich — Fri, 13 May 2011 17:25:15 +0000

Another frustrated guy:

“I’m getting the same errors without sharing. My Win7 Ultimate 64 cannot even delete an AVI file without hanging. I’m so mad at myself for installing Window 7. This OS is so bad it cannot even perform the basic file functions (moving, deleting, renaming) without hanging. Now I understand why Vista had such a bad reputation. Guess I’ll go back to XP.

MS you should be embarassed“

Response:

I’m not agree with you, Windows 7 is the best OS till now, and it’s a new OS and it’s normal to find some issues, Microsoft will release hotfix soon, but we need it as soon as possible.

Some times I have this issue if I copy files or folders to my local disk, but if you wait for some time you can do what ever you want but this is not a solution.

Regards

Best Regards — Abduljalil Abolzahab Technical Specialist – Microsoft Technical Forum: http://Forum.fourtyfivecorp.net

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Ahh so THAT explains it…

rich — Wed, 11 May 2011 17:39:09 +0000

Draught Guinness®

Newly improved Guinness Draught in a Bottle. Enhances the drinking experience when drunk from the bottle. Through innovation and dedication to delivering the best drinking experience, the gas mix has been adjusted so no need for the widget. Same great liquid brewed in St James’ Gate Dublin, using the same great ingredients.

The signature Guinness Draught experience is activated every time you tilt the bottle to drink; the nitrogen contained in the new gas mix is released by the tilting action – that’s why it’s best consumed straight from the bottle. For those who prefer Guinness Draught in a glass, try Guinness Draught in a can, which is the same liquid with the widget containing the nitrogen inside, and features a new wide mouth to enable a smoother pour.

For those who like to pour GDIB into a glass, pour it faster and from a more vertical angle for a better head. Pure beauty. Pure GUINNESS®.

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Mother’s Day

rich — Mon, 09 May 2011 11:35:51 +0000

So, since we celebrated Mother’s Day on Sat, I figured I would further honor Spring by a post on this monday.

She’s the bomb…why?

She loves me for me, not for who I could be

She mothers our kids well

She watches out for us

She prods me on to greater things

She has chosen to be at home to teach, and love on our kids rather than

choose a higher income level, or feel like she is “missing out” on something else.

She is a follower after God’s heart

She is a worshiper par excellence

She’s cute

She shares a love of the ocean

She is willing to be adventurous

She is always learning new ways to feed us healthy stuff

She has grace for folks

She has more self-discipline in her pinky than I possess

She likes Celtic music

She writes songs

She is capable of so much

She is ok with my riding a motorcycle

She likes old farmhouses

She draws others into worship whenever she leads it

She has a cool name

She is British

She is beautiful

She married me, out of all the other better fellows out there

xoxo

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Defunding Planned Parenthood?

rich — Fri, 29 Apr 2011 11:10:54 +0000

I don’t even have to read the article.

It makes me glad just to read the headline.

Several States Take Up Fight Over Defunding Planned Parenthood

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I finally saw xmen (2000)

rich — Wed, 20 Apr 2011 13:49:58 +0000

ok, I’m little slow…

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Meat..& stuff

rich — Fri, 15 Apr 2011 16:41:12 +0000

http://www.tgen.org/news/index.cfm?newsid=1948

Nationwide study finds U.S. meat and poultry is widely contaminated
Multi-drug-resistant Staph found in nearly 1 in 4 samples, review shows

FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. — April 15, 2011 — Drug-resistant strains of Staphylococcus aureus, a bacteria linked to a wide range of human diseases, are present in meat and poultry from U.S. grocery stores at unexpectedly high rates, according to a nationwide study by the Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen).

….

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First ride

rich — Sat, 19 Mar 2011 19:46:07 +0000

Took the Nighthawk out today, after an oil change, and getting the right side cover on.

Lovely…

She went very well.

Found the idle high, and so when I got back, adjusted and she purred like a kitten…

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1986 700S

rich — Sat, 12 Mar 2011 19:03:18 +0000

Began disassembly a few nights ago: pulled the tank, battery, seat in preparation for carb work.

Did a petcock rebuild.

Nice brand new rear tire

Removed carbs: found a main jet floating in the bowl body.

Was pleased to find this, because the bike came to me with an over-fueling issue.

Started it up today, after putting carb rack back in and giving the battery a charge.

With a little choke, she fired right up and seemed to purr nicely after getting warm.

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A Nighthawk 700 at last…

rich — Thu, 10 Mar 2011 01:02:36 +0000

So, here’s my newest: a 1986 Honda CB700SC

Here’s where she lived before I took posession, two nights ago.

Currently replacing the guts of the petcock.

I’ve had my eye on these beasties for years.

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FirePit Feedback….wow

rich — Wed, 02 Mar 2011 03:02:14 +0000

Found this gem of a feedback post whilst searching for a fire pit:

NOT ABLE TO USE IT,

01/06/2010

It was easy to assemble, it is pretty, but I was not able to lit fire on it yet. I bought some logs and tried to place newspaper underneath as instructed by pamphlet, but it did nothing… have to find out what kind of log, wood, or whatever need to lit fire there…

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Happy Valentines Day love!

rich — Mon, 14 Feb 2011 15:44:35 +0000

I want to wish you happy Valentines day love, and say that you ARE without a doubt the most treasured thing I know on earth.

I love you so much, and am so happy to be sharing life with you.

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The World is Changing…

rich — Tue, 01 Feb 2011 14:53:00 +0000

“The World is changing.

Who now has the strength to stand against the armies of Winbatch and .NET?

To stand against the might of Richbo and Bobsan … and the union of the two technologies?

Together, my Lord Bobsan … we shall rule this IT realm.”

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There be Zoom here!

rich — Wed, 19 Jan 2011 02:38:33 +0000

Out with the BOSS GT-8, in with the vintage Zoom

Yessss

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hmm

rich — Fri, 14 Jan 2011 23:35:59 +0000

“We encourage inquiries from candidates who will enrich and contribute to the cultural and ethnic diversity of our College. Bowdoin College does not discriminate on the basis of age, race, creed, color, religion, marital status, gender, sexual orientation, veteran status, national origin, or disability status in employment, or in our education programs.”

I.O.W. White males…keep lookin…

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Just Beautiful….

rich — Fri, 14 Jan 2011 18:35:06 +0000

All three movements of course should be heard, but the 2nd has always moved me tremendously: and this fellow just nails it.

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EET

rich — Thu, 06 Jan 2011 00:46:24 +0000

Well it happened again.

1. My awesome and much smarter wife finds an artist.
2. She really likes the stuff:
3. I really dislike it for whatever reason.
4. Then, something happens and I have a change of heart & mind, er..something.

5. She exercises grace upon me

Here’s the latest in a string of I told you so’s

Also, here’s the Official cool video.

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Here’s to 2011

rich — Sat, 01 Jan 2011 04:02:01 +0000

I hope to do greater things this coming year!

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What the!?

rich — Fri, 24 Dec 2010 03:25:22 +0000

So, I’m listening to a sermon, which features some Q & A at the end.

This gal gets the mic & states that she’s a secular Humanist believer who follows Jesus.

What the bleep is that?

I don’t get it.

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Any Anne of Green Gables fans out there?

rich — Tue, 21 Dec 2010 17:57:45 +0000

If so…

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Sir Levi

rich — Sat, 18 Dec 2010 04:26:03 +0000

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Princess#1

rich — Sat, 18 Dec 2010 04:23:27 +0000

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Princess#2

rich — Sat, 18 Dec 2010 04:20:48 +0000

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mm pipes..(and castle)

rich — Mon, 29 Nov 2010 02:50:51 +0000

profile.php?id=531312097

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Is this a major double standard?

rich — Sun, 28 Nov 2010 02:07:53 +0000

Concerning the recent new that the Islamic folks who want to build that center in NY.

My understanding is that they have applied for Federal grant money.

Is my understanding correct that at least a PART of this centers function(s) will be for religious activities?

If this is so, then I ask you(with strong emphasis):
WHERE IS THE *%^$&^%$ ACLU, AND ALL THE OTHER GOD HATERS, TO DENY THIS PETITION FOR FEDERAL DOLLARS SINCE THERE’S THIS SUPPOSED SEPARATION OF CHURCH AND STATE!!

ok, end of caps-rant.

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I am fatige anpil!

rich — Sun, 21 Nov 2010 04:16:55 +0000

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Not sure what to think aboot this one..

rich — Fri, 19 Nov 2010 16:37:38 +0000

watch?v=0xFv8CQiE-k

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Ya can’t make this stuff up folks..

rich — Thu, 18 Nov 2010 01:52:43 +0000

“Cops: ‘Clown’ robs woman on toilet“

hmm

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HUZZAH!

rich — Wed, 03 Nov 2010 13:21:13 +0000

We’re a Red State!

Whoda Thought…

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Go LePage!

rich — Tue, 02 Nov 2010 13:31:24 +0000

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Are they related!?

rich — Thu, 28 Oct 2010 15:54:00 +0000

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hmm

rich — Wed, 27 Oct 2010 00:52:48 +0000

I wonder what he’s thinking when he gestures in such a way…
Is there a name for this particular…hand thing?
Does it stand for horizontal peace?

Boy I’m so white…

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Man, what are we becoming?

rich — Mon, 25 Oct 2010 14:04:57 +0000

http://interact.stltoday.com/blogzone/civil-religion/general/2010/10/michigan-woman-faces-civil-rights-complaint-for-seeking-a-christian-roommate/

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That’s my hunny!

rich — Wed, 20 Oct 2010 19:55:39 +0000

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pipin

rich — Sat, 16 Oct 2010 21:35:25 +0000

jus felt like trying a pass at my own version of Caoineadh Cú Chulainn

not pretty, but it is what it is for now..

Rich- Caoineadh Cú Chulainn

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Recognition

rich — Thu, 14 Oct 2010 13:28:36 +0000

Well, it finally happened.

After almost a year in my new position across town, the dude at D&D knew how I take my coffee.

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Tonights effort

rich — Wed, 29 Sep 2010 00:33:03 +0000

Levi wanted to draw…
So, here it is!

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Man this is huge now..

rich — Tue, 28 Sep 2010 20:26:11 +0000

Oracle runtime has grown to like 500MB!

Man..no wonder the admins make so much…

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Legos!

rich — Sun, 26 Sep 2010 22:39:41 +0000

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The Goose Report

eeesh

Doh!

Norway manager in ‘shock’ over town’s share of school budget

Pipes up!

Ships….

Sweet…

wow..

Quote of the Day

Glosoli revisited

Dancing Queen

Heat in the studio!

yeah, there’s no persecution…

Waffles & Crew cuts

freedom…

Leaving Facebook

Bag O Big Bang

on hold…

a sad day

There be Honda here!

Wisley! (thanks Nancy)

A new religion?

Blog post here

Cornball…

Just when did we try “socialism”? and how did it turn out..

Related Links

roastin’

Flu, Vaccines, CDC etc

New Study Exposes the “60% Effective” Flu Shot as 98.5% Useless

Posted By Dr. Mercola | December 26 2011 | 24,253 views

Story at-a-glance

Most Flu-Like Illness is NOT Influenza

Flu Vaccines Prevent the Flu in Only 1.5% of Adults

Why You Need to Understand Basic Statistics Before Getting a Flu Shot

Flu Shot Protects Against Only Three Flu Viruses …

Is the Small Purported Flu Shot Benefit Actually due to the “Healthy User” Effect?

Why Are Vaccinated Kids Getting the Measles?

Why the Herd Immunity Concept is Flawed

Are You Willing to Accept the Risks for a 1.5% Benefit?

The Best Way to Prevent the Flu Has Little to do With a Vaccine

The culprit

Community college to offer training for gambling jobs

Finally!

hmmm

Infant Vaccines…a treatise

Please see the full text here

redirected with permission

Chemicals Chemicals Chemicals

Aspirin is commonly buffered with aluminum hydroxide or glycinate. If you drink some orange juice, the citric acid in it transforms these compounds into aluminum citrate – 5 times better able to find its way to the brain. And many consumable products besides Aspirin contain citric acid.

Now, if the aluminum in food combines with maltol, a sugar-like additive used in many baked goods, its capacity to pass the blood-brain barrier increases by as much as 90 times! How can you possibly know when you might use a product that will react negatively with another you just used?

The Dangers of DEA

One of the most common-and potentially toxic-compounds commonly found in personal care products is DEA (diethanolomine). Formulated into soaps, detergents and surfactants, it is found in over 600 home and personal care products. The shampoo and soap you use probably includes it.

In 1995, Steinman and Epstein stated,

“The FDA accepts that the presence of DEA and TEA in cosmetics can pose a significant consumer health threat. In the 1970s it published a notice in the Federal Register in which it urged the industry to remove these products from cosmetics.”

Are You Washing Your Hair and Brushing Your Teeth With Anti-Freeze, Engine Degreasers, and Chemical Solvents?

Here are a few other ingredients commonly found in shampoo, conditioner, and soap:

Behentrimonium Chloride, Guar Hydrosypropyltrimonium Chloride, Linoleamidepropyl PG-Dimonium Chloride Phosphate – These are toxic ammonium compounds. Ingestion can be fatal. Concentrations as low as 0.1% can be irritating to eyes and cause necrosis (tissue death) of mucus membranes.

Stearamidopropyl Dimethylamine – Synthetic surfactant; can cause eye irritation and dermatitis.

And these are just the tip of the iceberg! We expose ourselves day after day, many times hour after hour (through cosmetics and lotions), to these toxic ingredients – and then we wonder why cancer rates are soaring!

And what has been the cosmetic industry’s response? It typically sounds something like this, “…has not been proven…in humans” or “our products are formulated within strict FDA guidelines” or “more studies are needed.”

I’m certain there will be more studies – but many years will pass. We all know debate and legislation progresses at a snail’s pace. And the health consequences associated with continued use will escalate.

Even when the FDA has all the scientifically valid, conclusive proof they need, they may only be able to require warning labels.

As a matter of fact, warning labels have been getting stronger and more visible lately. Have you noticed the warning on your toothpaste? Here’s one straight off a popular brand…

“Keep out of the reach of children under 6 years of age. If you accidentally swallow more than used for brushing, seek professional help or contact a poison control center immediately.”

But I know that already. Other unsuspecting consumers may not. And the FDA is slow to let people know the dangers or to make changes.

Rick Perry

at the VERY least, this is Interesting

Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace on the Global Economy

Just great!

fishin..

the sound guy

Amazing video: must watch

Classic..

Would you look at that!

D.A.D.T.

Battleship Cove Video

http://www.battleshipcove.com

Battleship Cove

Two Faces?

iPads & Apes…I knew it!

Are You Washing Your Hair and Brushing Your Teeth With
Anti-Freeze, Engine Degreasers, and Chemical Solvents?