There’s a place in Hell reserved for women who don’t support other women

October 5, 2008 by dinofond.

I can’t believe the RNC found a female equivalent in stupidity to W. in whom they could put on this years ticket. Americans are dumb…..

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No Sunspots for over 200 Days

October 5, 2008 by dinofond.

By KENNETH CHANG NY Times

The Sun has been strangely unblemished this year. On more than 200 days so far this year, no sunspots were spotted. That makes the Sun blanker this year than in any year since 1954, when it was spotless for 241 days. The Sun goes through a regular 11-year cycle, and it is now emerging from the quietest part of the cycle, or solar minimum. But even for this phase it has been unusually quiet, with little roiling of the magnetic fields that induce sunspots.

“It’s starting with a murmur,” said David H. Hathaway, a solar physicist at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala.

As of Thursday, the 276th day of the year, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Space Weather Prediction Center in Boulder, Colo., had counted 205 days without a sunspot.

In another sign of solar quiescence, scientists reported last month that the solar wind, a rush of charged particles continually spewed from the Sun at a million miles an hour, had diminished to its lowest level in 50 years.

Scientists are not sure why this minimum has been especially minimal, and the episode is even playing into the global warming debate. Some wonder if this could be the start of an extended period of solar indolence that would more than offset the warming effect of human-made carbon dioxide emissions. From the middle of the 17th century to the early 18th, a period known as the Maunder Minimum, sunspots were extremely rare, and the reduced activity coincided with lower temperatures in what is known as the Little Ice Age.

Compared to the Maunder Minimum, the current pace of sunspots “makes it look like we’re having a feast, not a famine,” Dr. Hathaway said.

Scientists expect that sunspot activity will pick up in the coming months, but exactly what will happen next is open to debate. Dr. Hathaway had predicted two years ago, based on the Sun’s behavior near the end of the last cycle, that the maximum this time would be ferocious.

“I’m getting worried about that prediction now,” he said. “Normally, big cycles start early, and by doing that, they cut short the previous cycle. This one hasn’t done that.”

But many of the other competing predictions — more than 50 over all — pointed to a quieter-than-average cycle. “They do kind of go all over the map,” said Douglas Biesecker, a physicist at the Space Weather Prediction Center who led an international panel that reviewed predictions.

The solar wind is another piece of the puzzle. David J. McComas of the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio and one of the researchers who analyzed data from the Ulysses Sun-watching spacecraft, said that the strength of the solar wind seemed to be in a long-term decline. The pressure exerted by the solar wind particles during the current minimum is about a quarter weaker than during the last solar minimum, Dr. McComas said.

Dr. McComas said scientists were still trying to figure out how all the data fits together.

“There are a number of researchers who predict the next solar cycle,” he said. “There are also a number of investment counselors who predict the future of the stock market.”

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Quote of the Day

October 3, 2008 by dinofond.

Teaching music is not my main purpose. I want to make good citizens. If children hear fine music from the day of their birth and learn to play it, they develop sensitivity, discipline and endurance. They get a beautiful heart.
~ Shinichi Suzuki

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Wurd

October 3, 2008 by dinofond.

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It’s gotta be all about job creation for Fanny and Freddie

October 2, 2008 by dinofond.

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Mac Keyboard on a pee see Ur doin it rong

October 2, 2008 by dinofond.

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Apple Asks Court To Dismiss Psystar Antitrust Claim

October 2, 2008 by dinofond.

By Paul McDougall
InformationWeek

As part of its ongoing copyright lawsuit against clone manufacturer Psystar, Apple has asked the court hearing the case to dismiss Pystar’s counterclaim that Apple’s dominance of the Mac market constitutes a violation of federal antitrust laws.

Apple, in court papers filed earlier this week in U.S. District Court in San Francisco, notes that Psystar’s counterclaim is based on the notion that Macs represent a market that is separate and apart from the rest of the PC industry, and that Apple uses unfair tactics to dominate that market. The notion is fundamentally flawed, according to Apple’s dismissal motion.

“In direct contradiction to Psystar’s claimed Mac-only market, Psystar admits that ‘a seemingly infinite list of manufacturers may be found in the computer hardware system marketplace,’” includingDell ( Dell), Acer, HP (NYSE: HPQ), and Sony (NYSE: SNE), Apple states.

“Psystar’s very business model is premised on the fact that Apple’s computers compete directly with personal computers using different operating systems,” Apple further states. Apple has asked the court to dismiss all of Psystar’s counterclaims. The court has yet to rule on the request.

Psystar, in a countersuit filed in August, claimed that Apple’s dominance of the market for its own products violates Sherman antitrust rules and other U.S. laws.

The countersuit was in response to a copyright lawsuit that Apple filed against Psystar in July. Psystar sells low-cost knock offs of Apple’s pricey Macs—including models that run the glitzy new OS X 10.5 “Leopard” operating system. Apple, in its original complaint, claimed that the clones violate its copyrights over the Mac OS and asked the court to order Psystar to discontinue sales.

For its defense and countersuit, Psystar has retained high-profile Silicon Valley law firm Carr & Ferrell. The firm has previously tangled with Apple and won. Partner Robert Yorio in 2007 extracted a $10 million settlement from Apple for Burst.com, which claimed Apple violated its streaming media patents.

Apple versus Psystar is a high stakes case–and not just for the parties involved. If Psystar prevails, it could open the door for other PC makers to offer Mac clones. Such a development would undermine Apple’s main business model–which relies on Apple’s perceived right to dictate which hardware products can run its software. It could also hurtMicrosoft (NSDQ: MSFT)’s sales, given that vendors like Dell and HP currently have no alternative to Windows, other than the open source Linux OS, to offer their customers.

A trial date for the case has not been set.

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I can’t help it I <3 I lol catz

September 29, 2008 by dinofond.

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Grid of 100,000 computers heralds new internet dawn

September 29, 2008 by dinofond.

Times Online UK

A network of 100,000 computers providing the greatest data processing capacity yet unleashed has been created to cope with information pouring from the world’s largest machine.

The Grid is the latest evolution of the internet and the world wide web and computer scientists will announce on Friday that it is ready to be connected to the Large Hadron Collider (LHC).

It is designed for schemes where huge quantities of data need crunching, such as large research and engineering projects. The Grid has the kind of power required to download movies in seconds, and the ability to make high-definition video phone calls for the same price as a local call. More importantly, it should help to narrow the search for cures for diseases. However, it is unlikely to be directly available to most internet users until telecoms providers build the fibre-optic network required to use it.

The Grid allows scientists at CERN, the European Organisation for Nuclear Research, to get access to the unemployed processing power of thousands of computers in 33 countries to deal with the data created by the LHC.

Scientists at CERN, where the world wide web was invented, created the €500 million Grid because they realised that a single computer would not be able to cope with the amount of data the LHC is expected to produce each year – 15 petabytes, or 15 million gigabytes, which would fill 20 million CDs.

They said that it was an extra facility laid on top of the internet, which originally linked computers around the world in the Seventies.

Dr Bob Jones, a CERN scientist, said: “The [world wide] web allows you to access information on other computers. What the Grid allows you to do is not only access the information, but make use of their computing resources and power.”

He likened it to the National Grid. Users would be able to tap into massive amounts of processing power, but the source of the power would change, depending on availability.

Processing tasks will be distributed between 11 gateway computer centres in ten countries, including Britain, which will share them out between more than 140 sites.

One of the first jobs the Grid will tackle is handling the raw data for CERN’s experiments into finding proof of the Higgs boson, the so-called God particle.

Its uses, however, extend well beyond particle physics and it has already been used on a smaller scale in research into diseases such as malaria and bird flu. “The Grid cannot find a cure for cancer, but what it can do is make it quicker,” said Dr Jones, explaining that what might have taken a decade could now be done in weeks.

David Britton, Professor of Physics at Glasgow University and a leading figure in the Grid project, said: “The old traditional way to find cures for diseases is that you would go to the lab and try mixing various drugs and see how they work.”

With the Grid, he said, scientists could run hundreds of thousands of simulations to create a shortlist of the drugs that are most likely to offer the potential for a cure. Researchers can then get to work testing the drugs singled out as promising.

The Grid has also already been used to save lives in the immediate aftermath of earthquakes. Using the seismic data, scientists can use the Grid for simulations that pinpoint which areas are most affected, allowing rescue teams to direct their efforts where they are most needed.

Many believe the world wide web and the internet are the same thing, but the internet is actually a massive network of networks, which connects millions of computers together globally, and the web is an information-sharing model built on top of the internet, which allows information to be accessed over the medium of the internet.

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Man Arrested For Hugging Police Officer

September 29, 2008 by dinofond.

KCCI News Channel 8 Des Moines

IOWA CITY, Iowa — A hug has landed an Iowa City man in hot water with police. An Iowa City man who thought a police officer just “needed a hug” faces several charges, including assault on a peace officer and public intoxication.Police said Luke Schreder, 21, was arrested on Saturday.

According to police records, Schreder ran up to the officer and stuck out his arms. The officer told him to “get away,” but Schreder didn’t take the hint and embraced the officer. When the officer told Schreder to put his hands behind his head, he refused. He was then handcuffed.

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Private company blasts first rocket into orbit

September 29, 2008 by dinofond.

AFP

A US space company founded by an Internet multi-millionaire has become the first private venture to successfully blast a rocket into Earth’s orbit.

Falcon 1, a liquid fuel rocket built by Space Exploration Technologies, or SpaceX, took off from a remote island in the Pacific Ocean on Sunday and entered orbit carrying a dummy payload, SpaceX said.

“This is a great day for SpaceX and the culmination of an enormous amount of work by a great team,” said Elon Musk, the chief executive of SpaceX who made a fortune as the founder of PayPal, an online payment system.

“With this key milestone, Falcon 1 becomes the first privately developed liquid fuel rocket to orbit the Earth,” SpaceX added in a statement from its Hawthorne, California, headquarters.

It was fourth time lucky for SpaceX, whose three previous attempts had met with failure including the launch of a rocket carrying the ashes of Star Trek actor James Doohan and US astronaut Gordon Cooper.

The payload, a 364-pound (165-kilogram) aluminium chamber, remains attached to the second stage of the 21-meter (70-foot) two-stage rocket as it orbits the Earth, SpaceX said.

Falcon 1 was launched at 4:15 pm California time on Sunday (2315 GMT) from a US military facility on Omelek Island in the Kwajalein Atoll in the central Pacific, SpaceX said.

SpaceX, founded in 2002, is seeking to usher in an era of low-cost space flight and is developing a variety of launch vehicles to deliver satellites into orbit but also cargo and crew to the International Space Station.

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Bill O’Reilly Hacked

September 27, 2008 by dinofond.

HA! It couldn’t happen to a more perfict asshole. Wikileaks.org has posted images of Bill O’Reilly’s hacked website with subscribers names, addresses etc. With Billdo’s whining about Sarah Palin’s email being hacked he has never ever once mentioned that Sarah Palin broke Federal law doing government business on a non government server. Is she going to be prosecuted? Of course not, neo-cons don’t get prosecuted when they break the law. Sarah Palin should be behind bars along with the rest of these criminals.

Wikileaks has been informed the hack was a response to the pundit’s recent scurrilous attacks over the Sarah Palin’s email story–including those on Wikileaks and other members of the press. Hacktivists, thumbing their noses at the pundit, took control of O’Reilly’s main site, BillOReilly.com. According to our source, the security protecting O’Reilly’s site and subscribers was “non-existent”.

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SOAPBOX | It’s the Economy That’s Stupid?

September 26, 2008 by dinofond.

By Don Mayer Owner of Small Dog Electronics.com

ike you, I am watching the drama unfold about the biggest bail-out in the history of the world. We are gonna print up a bunch of money and buy up all those bad mortgages so the guys that made those bad mortgages don’t go out of business and drag down the entire economy. The theory is that unless we do this, the credit markets will dry up, businesses and individuals will not be able to borrow money, your credit card line of credit will disappear, your home equity loan will disappear, businesses will be forced to cut back or close, unemployment will rise and we will find ourselves in a downward spiral that will cause a lot of pain.

The problem is that no one knows whether this particular bailout will work and the same guys that got us into this mess want to preserve their golden parachutes, obscene salaries and equity in these companies. The thing of it is that the plan calls for you and I to foot the bill. Throwing around numbers of $700 Billion or a Trillion like it was spare change hides the fact that this bailout amounts to about $10,000 for each family in the USA. If you stacked a Trillion in $20 bills, it would be about 150 miles high!

They’re saying, “hurry up—we gotta do this right now or something is going to hit the fan!” The last time I heard this from the Bush Administration it was “hurry up—we have to invade Iraq.” I find it strangely comforting that both the conservative Republicans and some Democrats are asking serious questions about this plan. It used to be that a conservative was someone who balanced the budget and was careful with spending. What we have seen for the last decade is decreased regulation of banks and wall street financial firms, bizarre financial instruments, nutty mortgages and huge corporate profits and executive compensation while we ship most of our wealth overseas to people who don’t particularly like us to buy their oil.

Frankly, I think that Al Gore has the right answer for the environment and for the economy. Instead of shipping our wealth out of the country, we need to launch the kind of ambitious and outrageous plan that only Americans can do to eliminate our dependence upon foreign oil, to create thousands of good paying jobs creating power from renewable energy sources and from a massive energy conservation and efficiency operation. If we do this, we create real wealth in our economy, real growth and solve environmental and economic problems simultaneously.

I have a lot of trouble mortgaging our economic future to provide more benefits for the top and none for the basis of our economy, the working people in our country. It is clearly time for new economic leadership, but it is also time for leadership that doesn’t rely upon the false promise of trickle-down economics and tax breaks for the wealthy.

END SOAPBOX

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=D

September 25, 2008 by dinofond.

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Agent Smith and Cypher

September 23, 2008 by dinofond.

The next 1:11 minutes brought to you by…… Me

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September 23, 2008 by dinofond.

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Veterans Climb Government Building, Call for Arrest of Bush and Cheney

September 23, 2008 by dinofond.

Right now, five military veterans — from Veterans for Peace — are occupying a 35-foot high ledge at the National Archive Building and have raised a 22×8-foot banner reading, “DEFEND OUR CONSTITUTION. ARREST BUSH AND CHENEY: WAR CRIMINALS!” The veterans currently risking arrest have declared their intention to stay on the ledge, fasting for 24 hours “in remembrance of those who have perished and those still suffering from the crimes of the Bush administration,” according to a written statement. 

On the ledge, the veterans have brought with them a portable PA system, and they are broadcasting recorded statements from prominent Americans for the impeachment and/or arrest of George W. Bush and Richard Cheney. Other impeachment activists are at the entrance of the National Archives distributing “Citizens Arrest Warrants” to those waiting in line. 

This is the type of boldness that activists have displayed across the country to bring much-needed attention to this movement.


UPDATE! The main stream corporate press has completely ignored this story. Here’s some further youtube video

It appears the some *cough* random *cough* hackers from somewhere *cough* have already infiltraited you tube and are changing the dates on the Videos, I’m sure this is so Rush lipbalm can say somthing nasty about it on his POS radio show. This is happening now it is happening today you can see more on the Veterans for Peace website by clicking here

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RIP Hiram Bullock 1955 - 2008

September 23, 2008 by dinofond.

I was surprised (and a little late) to hear of the passing of Hiram Bullock one of my all time favorite guitar players. Hiram was very well known as the “original” guitarist in the David Letterman show band who was fired because he refused to wear shoes while playing. Hiram Bullock had a blooming funk career (to us funkadellics) long before David Letterman playing with such greats as David Sanborn, Billy Joel, James Brown, Steely Dan, miles Davis and the Great Bootsy Collins. Hiram was 10 years older then me which hits home, I have been a student of his playing since I was a kid listening. Hiram developed a throat tumor that should have been easily treatable but radically took over his glands in his body within just a few months. He passed away just months after his diagnosis. Hiram’s is survived by his partner of 16 years Jennifer Armstrong, two stepsons, known as Sansho and Niko; and four sisters, Jackie Lewis, Carmen Bean, Brenda Canterbury and Margene Williams. R.I.P My Man.

Here’s Hiram just absolutely Smoking with the Poogie Bell Band at the blue note in NY last year.

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September 22, 2008 by dinofond.

Today, daylight and nightdark are equal.

From tomorrow on, the nights will be longer than the days.
The cool winds of fall have chased summer’s heat.

The leafs die in gold and fire.

May the journey to begin,
the journey into dark and foggy nights,
be the a journey on your paths within,
which lead to your inner light.

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UK experts say Stonehenge was place of healing

September 22, 2008 by dinofond.

By RAPHAEL G. SATTER the associated press

LONDON (AP) — The first excavation of Stonehenge in more than 40 years has uncovered evidence that the stone circle drew ailing pilgrims from around Europe for what they believed to be its healing properties, archaeologists said Monday.

Archaeologists Geoffrey Wainwright and Timothy Darvill said the content of graves scattered around the monument and the ancient chipping of its rocks to produce amulets indicated that Stonehenge was the primeval equivalent of Lourdes, the French shrine venerated for its supposed ability to cure the sick.

An unusual number of skeletons recovered from the area showed signs of serious disease or injury. Analysis of their teeth showed that about half were from outside the Stonehenge area.

“People were in a state of distress, if I can put it as politely as that, when they came to the Stonehenge monument,” Darvill told journalists assembled at London’s Society of Antiquaries.

He pointed out that experts near Stonehenge have found two skulls that showed evidence of primitive surgery, some of just a few known cases of operations in prehistoric Britain.

“Even today, that’s the pretty serious end of medicine,” he said. Also found near Stonehenge was the body of a man known as the Amesbury Archer, who had a damaged skull and badly hurt knee and died around the time the stones were being installed. Analysis of the Archer’s bones showed he was from the Alps.

Darvill cautioned, however, that the new evidence did not rule out other uses for Stonehenge.

“It could have been a temple, even as it was a healing center,” Darvill said. “Just as Lourdes, for example, is still a religious center.”

The archaeologists managed to date the construction of the stone monument to about 2,300 B.C., a couple of centuries younger than was previously thought. It was at that time that bluestones — a rare rock known to geologists as spotted dolomite — were shipped by hand or by raft from Pembrokeshire in Wales to Salisbury Plain in southern England, to create the inner circle of Stonehenge.

The outer circle, composed of much larger sandstone slabs, is what most people associate with the monument today, particularly since only about a third of the 80 or so bluestones remain. The scientists argued that they were once at the heart of Stonehenge, and closely associated with its healing properties.

As evidence, Darvill said his dig had uncovered masses of fragments carved out of the bluestones by people to create amulets. Any rock carried around in such a way would have had some sort of protective or healing property, he said. He said that theory was backed by burials in southwest England where the stones were interred with their owners.

Today the bluestones are now largely invisible, dwarfed by the huge sandstone monoliths — or “hanging stones” — that were erected later and still make up Stonehenge’s iconic profile.

“They are of course quite impressive when you see them,” Darvill said. “But in a sense they are the elaboration of a structure which kicked off with the bluestones.”

Both archaeologists quoted the 12th-century monk Geoffrey of Monmouth as saying the stones were thought to have medicinal properties. They also said that evidence uncovered by their dig showed that people were moving and chipping off pieces of the bluestones through the Roman period and even into the Middle Ages.

Darvill said he felt the “folklore interest” in the bluestones into modern times suggested some sort of lingering memory of their supposed healing powers.

“That would be for me the single strongest piece of evidence,” he said.

Andrew Fitzpatrick, from British heritage group Wessex Archaeology, said Darvill and Wainwright’s discovery was “very important” but that the healing theory, while plausible, was not the only one.

“I don’t think we can rule out the other main competing theory — that the temple was a meeting point between the land of the living and the dead,” he told the British Broadcasting Corp.

The scientists announced their findings Monday, ahead of a documentary due to air on the BBC and the Smithsonian Channel on Saturday, Sept. 27.

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