[Colorado] Power Failure This Morning

I lost power this morning at about 09:32. All my uninterpretable power supplies started howling. Sheesh!

[Blog] This Blog Moving to Bllogspot

Blogger is shutting down this Blog by May 1, 2010, since I currently publish this Blog using FTP to my Comcast web storage space. I am reading and learning about the automated transition process now. When I figure out where the new Blog will be I will post that information here (probably as the final post on this Blog at this location).

I suspect that I will lose all previously posted pictures in the migration process.

[Book of the Day] Spent: Sex, Evolution, and Consumer Behavior: Geoffrey Miller: Books

Amazon.com: Spent: Sex, Evolution, and Consumer Behavior: Geoffrey Miller: Books

[Census] Received Form, Filled Out, Mailed

My Census form arrived in the mail today.  On the envelope in large capital letters were instructions to fill it out and mail it back TODAY!  So I did.  Oh, virtuous me.  :-0

[Book of the Day] The Eagle Has Flown - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Eagle Has Flown - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Marc Says: I visited the used book store and bought most of the Sean Dillon stories by Jack Higgins. I had read the original book in the series, "The Eagle Has Landed", many years ago. Now I am working my way through the entire series if I can find them all.

[Security Theater] Slashdot Your Rights Online Story | School Spying Scandal Gets Even More Bizarre

Slashdot Your Rights Online Story | School Spying Scandal Gets Even More Bizarre: "Posted by ScuttleMonkey on Monday February 22, @01:52PM
from the lesson-learned-junkfood-is-bad dept.

Several sources following the recent school webcam spying debacle are reporting that an even stranger twist has surfaced. The student in question that was disciplined for an 'improper act' was apparently accused of either drug use or drug selling. Turns out he was eating Mike & Ike candy, not popping pills. While there is probably more to this story than has made it to the general public the officials involved have done a particularly bad job of actually managing the events."

Marc Says: the kiddie porn implications are mind-boggling. If the school officials have been monitoring students in their bedrooms, then I deduce that the school officials have been viewing and recording the under-age students in various stages of undress (or less). I predict a bunch of people from the school are going to do jail time on kiddie-porn charges.

[Colorado] Really Treacherous Driving This Evening

The roads this afternoon and early evening are about the worst I have seen in several decades here in northern Colorado. We had freezing rain falling for several hours while the thermometer hovered just above freezing. The thermometer then dipped below freezing and the freezing rain turned to snow. This has left a layer of ice underneath a layer of slush underneath a layer of snow on all the roads. Even though the surface layer of snow looks the same everywhere, the traction varies from OK all the way down to zero in the distance of a hundred feet.

Tonight would be a great night to stay home and sit by the fire.

[Security Theater] Pennsylvania schools spying on students using laptop Webcams, claims lawsuit

Pennsylvania schools spying on students using laptop Webcams, claims lawsuit: "An assistant principal at Harriton later confirmed that the district could remotely activate the Webcam in students' laptops. 'Michael Robbins thereafter verified, through [Assistant Principal] Ms. Matsko, that the school district in fact has the ability to remotely activate the Webcam contained in a student's personal laptop computer issued by the school district at any time it chose and to view and capture whatever images were in front of the Webcam, all without the knowledge, permission or authorization of any persons then and there using the laptop computer,' the lawsuit stated."

Climategate U-turn: Astonishment as scientist at centre of global warming email row admits data not well organised | Mail Online

Climategate U-turn: Astonishment as scientist at centre of global warming email row admits data not well organised | Mail Online: "By Jonathan Petre
Last updated at 5:12 PM on 14th February 2010

* Data for vital 'hockey stick graph' has gone missing
* There has been no global warming since 1995
* Warming periods have happened before - but NOT due to man-made changes"

Marc Says: Wow!

[Tea] Tea of the Day: Mango Indica from Upton Tea

Yum! Wonderful tea for a chilly (just below freezing) winter day.

[Science] Large Hadron Collider Finally Creates Subatomic Particles – Sorry, No Black Holes

Large Hadron Collider Finally Creates Subatomic Particles – Sorry, No Black Holes

Marc Says: I am heart-broken. I was so looking foward to having the Earth eaten by mini-black holes created in the collider. Darn. :-( Science is just no fun any more. :-)

[Entertainment] DVD of the Day: Porco Rosso - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Porco Rosso - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Many thanks to friend Patti S for introducing me to the wonderful anime of director Hayao Miyazaki.

British Journal Retracts Paper Linking Autism and Vaccines - NYTimes.com

British Journal Retracts Paper Linking Autism and Vaccines - NYTimes.com: "By GARDINER HARRIS
Published: February 2, 2010

A prominent British medical journal on Tuesday retracted a 1998 research paper that set off a sharp decline in vaccinations in Britain after the paper’s lead author suggested that vaccines could cause autism.

The retraction by The Lancet is part of a reassessment that has lasted for years of the scientific methods and financial conflicts of Dr. Andrew Wakefield, who contended that his research showed that the combined measles, mumps and rubella vaccine may be unsafe.

But the retraction may do little to tarnish Dr. Wakefield’s reputation among parents’ groups in the United States. Despite a wealth of scientific studies that have failed to find any link between vaccines and autism, the parents fervently believe that their children’s mental problems resulted from vaccinations."

[Tea] Tea of the Day: Rooibos from TeaSource

Wonderful decaf red tea for a rainy/snowy/gray day. Aromatic, cheery, and tasty. Thumbs up.

[Medical] Mumps Vaccine Questions and Answers

Mumps Vaccine Questions and Answers: "When did mumps vaccine become available in the U.S.?
The currently used mumps vaccine was licensed in 1967."

[Book of the Day] Spent: Sex, Evolution, and Consumer Behavior: Geoffrey Miller: Books

Amazon.com: Spent: Sex, Evolution, and Consumer Behavior: Geoffrey Miller: Books

[Medical/Herd Immunity] 303 Diagnosed With Mumps In NYC Suburbs - wcbstv.com

303 Diagnosed With Mumps In NYC Suburbs - wcbstv.com: "Feb 6, 2010 8:29 pm US/Eastern
303 Diagnosed With Mumps In NYC Suburbs
United States' Largest Outbreak In Years Ransacks Hasidic Jewish Communities In Rockland County
NEW YORK (CBS) ?

More than 300 people have been diagnosed with the mumps in suburban New York as the nation's largest outbreak of the disease in years continues to spread.

A health official says a total of 303 people in the Rockland County towns of Monsey and New Square have been diagnosed with the highly infectious disease. Almost all the cases are among Orthodox or Hasidic Jews.

Investigators say the outbreak started in August 2009 at a Jewish summer camp in Sullivan County with an 11-year-old boy who brought the disease from England.

It has since spread to Jewish communities in Brooklyn, New Jersey and Orange county.

Mumps spreads through saliva, coughing and sneezing. Common symptoms are flu-like and include swelling of the salivary glands."

Marc Says: This is what happens when you don't vaccinate your kids and freeload on everyone else who does.

Herd immunity - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Herd immunity - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

My read-about-it and understand-it topic for the day.

[Blog] This Blog Will Be Moving

Blogger (Google) just sent me e-mail telling me that Blogger will stop supporting publishing a Blog via FTP on March 26, 2010. Since I publish this Blog using Blogger’s FTP publishing, I will have to move the Blog to a Blogger URL (I think). I’ll post more when I learn more.

Comcast ISP Back Up 07:49 Tuesday, January 26, 2009

I don’t know precisely when they came back up, I just now checked.

 

Comcast ISP Is Down (02:00 Tuesday January 26, 2010)

I reset my modem and did all that good stuff.  The evil little green light on my cable modem just blinks at me, indicating no Internet is to be found.  This sucks.

 

Happy Winter Solstice!

Today is (was) the shortest day of the year. The sun has halted its northerly motion and is beginning to head back toward the equator.