Been to a Library recently?

Today I found myself waiting out a squall in the Jax public library...which is one of the fanciest buildings I've been in since the Alhambra palace in Spain or maybe the Scottsdale Hilton. 4 stories of polished marble, reflecting pools and vaulted ceiling been primarily used by homeless people to watch porn on the internet. Oh and you can rent movies there for free instead of paying 1 dollar at a Red Box. The internet now serves the role the public library system did and there are much more efficient ways of providing free internet access to the pubic. Yes..I get that government buildings are suppose to inspire a sense of grandiose majesty..but we cant afford majesty when schools are reducing the school year and the section 8 public housing waiting list has a 2 month waiting list of its own for homeless families.

Captain Planet Movie trailer?

Bringing back all the old cartoons I guess..

R.I.P. Harry Harrison

Harry Harrison's book The Stainless Steel Rat was one of the books that got me into reading. My favorite quote from that book has graced the bottom of this blog since its inception. RIP Harry Harrison.

Kathi Goertzen passes

Sad. What a dignified death though.<

Excellent view of Perseid meteor shower Sat and Sun!

Look to the skies!

Wa. health inspector fine 11yo for unlicensed charity stand

What kind of person writes an 11yo a ticket for fundraising for veterans ? The "government" kind; getting a large government salary and pension and medical benefits.

Administrator Dave Windom added, “You don’t want someone in the field making judgment calls on what they consider a worthy cause and cutting people slack. It opens the door for accusations of favoritism.

So..you dont want your employees to use common sense? Or you dont feel they have any? Oh and by the way how is it not favoritism for you personally to then pay the fine for them "because its a good cause".  Gunna pay my fines too?

Japan builds robot mech

Its like that borg from Robocop. Dont they have better things to be spending money on..like Nuclear waste cleanup? Hopefully Skynet wont get control of it!

Computer aristocracy

One of the benefits of buying video games on a PC is modability - the ability to go into your copy of the game and change stuff, add stuff etc.  OR at least it use to be. The online sales market has grown to the point where gaming companies now sell small changes in the game for 1-2$ a shot and thus have very little motivation to leave the game open to modification by the user. When it once was just a matter of changing a few numbers around in a simple spreadsheet, these days you need to learn the companies private programing language in order to make changes. This severly limits the number of people who can actually make modifications and eliminates the not for profit competition to modification/downloadable content sales.

I came upon a interesting article about how BASIC, one of the computer languages I learned to use as a kid, is no longer included on the PC. I wonder if this is another effort to limit the population of people with the power to aguement computers. 'Cause if we cant make changes ourselves we'll have to buy it from Them.

News Posts!

Man jailed for for praying at home
Jacksonville may have dustedTB outbreak under rug
Aurora Co. shooting is the "liberals" fault
The Great One selling arena plan to Bellevue
Online poker cashes out
Rescue worker billed for ambulance ride
St Pete council denies voter petition to have vote on horrible pier plan
Reporter charged with video taping police

DSHS being sued over Leader's history

Anne Bremmer has a history of taking case for the publicity, but with this one she has a point. Why would WA gov hire someone with a track record of dead kids on her watch? Maybe because they prefer loyalty over competence?

Gary Johnson - on the pres ballot in 50 States

There is an alternative to Obama and Romney. Gary Johnson is on the ballot in all 50 States. Check out his website here. A 3rd party candidate is not a waste of your vote. It a statement of disgust in the status quo. We are never going to change the system if folks are cowered into not taking that first step. While your at it demand your news networks cover this guy as much as they cover the other candidates.

Soldier joins the Jedi for reunion with son

Elderly protesters break into Y-12 nuke arsenal

Nothing is impregnable but one hopes the billions of dollars we give to military subcontractors at least protects our nuclear weapons from old people. Guess not :(