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FSogol

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Gender: Male
Hometown: Northern VA
Member since: Fri Oct 29, 2004, 10:34 AM
Number of posts: 40,384

About Me

I've been a member of DU for over 14 years, but now it is time for me to check out. The glee people on this site took over bashing Gov Northam is too much. EW Jackson, VA's version of a RW troll is being respected and his options considered while the Gov who expanded medicare to 800,000 citizens of my state (including an adult son) is bashed over a 35-year old indiscretion. I see DU as being infected by RW trolls and ratfuckers while the admins are largely absent. See 2016 if you don't believe me. While Northam was being bashed, threads appeared bashing Harris (she took a hard stance against Franken) and Booker (he's corporate) and promoted people who will never be elected in America such as Gabbard and Sanders. Their indiscretions are ignored. For what reason? Their unelectability? The members here that aren't RW trolls or ratfuckers are attempting to achieve some type of purity that will never happen due to mankind's flawed nature. People ar human and prone to mistakes. The rhetorical tools that attack people such as HRC, Franken and Northam will be turned on people like Kamala Harris and Justin Fairfax. It is only a matter of time. I refuse to help the RW and the PURE destroy people and our party. DU was a noble idea, but is a tool on the internet being used to ruin the Democratic Party, suppress the vote, and destroy decent candidates. I won't take part in this crap any longer. To my couple of friends here, so long, it was nice chatting with you. You know how to reach me if you want.

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Older Archives

Do you believe in omens? Here's one:

#10 University of Maryland beat #3 Iowa in BB last night.

Posted by FSogol | Fri Jan 29, 2016, 03:05 PM (2 replies)

Why I'm switching my vote from Sanders to O'Malley by Karina Alvarez

When I first heard about the three candidates running for the Democratic nomination, I quickly and without much thought supported Senator Sanders. He is loud, agitates the masses, and wants to lead a revolution. But after doing some research, I found that all of the words from Sanders are not backed up by actions.

Sen. Sanders did two things that stand out: First he voted against comprehensive immigration reform and then went on Lou Dobbs’ show to say immigrants take jobs from Americans; second, he voted to protect the Minutemen on the U.S.-Mexico border.

Our country and the Latino community especially needs a leader with a proven record of looking after our best interests. Of the three Democrats running for president, there is only one with the record that our community needs: Martin O’Malley.

Gov. O’Malley has helped and protected our immigrant community through the course of his career as a public servant. He has the record that proves that he will continue advocating for my family and the undocumented community, which he refers to as "New Americans.”

The entire op-ed in the Des Moines Register:
http://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/opinion/columnists/iowa-view/caucus/2016/01/21/why-m-switching-my-vote-sanders-omalley/79120836/

Awesome op-ed, imho.

Posted by FSogol | Thu Jan 28, 2016, 10:47 PM (11 replies)

Cardboard Energy Harvester, DIY Energy Pulses for Pennies

LAKE WALES, Fla.—A very simple energy harvesting do-it-yourself (DIY) project turned into a major curiosity at the 29th IEEE International Conference on Micro Electro Mechanical Systems. The École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Switzerland (EPFL) showed how to take thick paper (cardboard), a pencil and tape to created an instant-on switch that produced as much energy as a standard AA battery.

Invented by EPFL postdoctoral researcher Xiao-Sheng Zhang, the only oddball component not found around every household is teflon tape used to seal plumbing threads—commonly found in many toolboxes.

"When teflon tape comes into repeated contact it generates two effects--triboelectrification and electrostatic induction,"

The device on display at IEEE MEMS 2016 measured just eight square centimeters and generated about three volts of power at a current level compatible to two AA batteries. Researchers from the University of Tokyo also contributed to the project.

Rest of article here:
http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1328776&_mc=NL_EET_EDT_EET_pcbdesignline_20160127&cid=NL_EET_EDT_EET_pcbdesignline_20160127&elq=b85bbbe012a24e628872bc3a0ada4448&elqCampaignId=26713&elqaid=30557&elqat=1&elqTrackId=6364092526ae435c888782f074789f14#msgs

Posted by FSogol | Thu Jan 28, 2016, 03:57 PM (5 replies)

It’s time to take a serious look at Martin O’Malley

What about the Democrats? Are they ready to face the fact that we have to figure out how to tackle inequality without further feeding the growth of state power? As I’ve watched the campaign unfold, I’ve come to the conclusion that O’Malley is the only voice on the Democratic stage with the potential to resolve the dilemma.

In recent years, economists and political scientists have routinely pointed out how municipal and regional decisions about transportation, mobility, housing, communications infrastructure and finance powerfully affect the distribution of opportunity. We often use zoning regulations, housing and transportation policy, and municipal funding structures in ways that generate socioeconomic and ethnic segregation. These policies reduce the likelihood that “bridging ties” — connections between people across demographic cleavages — form within our population. Significant bodies of research suggest that the more a society is characterized by bridging ties, the more egalitarian will be outcomes across economic, health and educational domains. To maximize these ties, we need policies that push in the opposite direction from those we have now.

The good news is that this doesn’t require adding services and programs, only smarter choices about the things that governments already do and will always need to do. One can have a dramatic impact on the distribution of opportunity without increasing government’s footprint. One just needs to use the existing levers differently.

This, it turns out, is just what O’Malley, the former governor of Maryland, wants to do.

the rest By Danielle Allen at:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/ts-time-to-take-a-serious-look-at-martin-omalley/2016/01/27/1cf1f040-c465-11e5-a4aa-f25866ba0dc6_story.html

Posted by FSogol | Thu Jan 28, 2016, 09:16 AM (0 replies)

Netflix recently added Don Hertzfeldt's animated short, "World of Tommorrow (2015)"

It is only 17 min long, but very powerful. A young girl is visited by a clone of herself from her future.
Highly recommend. It was nominated for an Oscar and won the Short Film Grand Jury Prize at Sundance last year.

PS, Netflix also has his longer work, "It's Such a Beautiful Day (2012)" about dealing with a brain disorder. Also highly recommend.