February 11, 2014

So off on a distant planet -

http://www.theonion.com/articles/distant-planet-terrified-it-might-be-able-to-somed,35179/

So off on a distant planet, "WR 67c, a terrestrial planet from the distant Gamma Velorum star system, has expressed its profound terror Wednesday at the possibility of one day gaining the capacity to sustain human life.

"The 5.2-billion-year-old celestial body, which is located roughly 1,100 light years from Earth, said that for both its own sake and that of its entire solar system, it can only hope to never possess the necessary planetary characteristics and chemical elements needed to support either a deep-space human outpost or, more gravely, an entire human colony."

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Now some of you science folks might say a planet can't express feelings, but this report is right there on an internet website!

(Besides, Tuesdays can be as amazingly dreary as Hump Days, and I thought a lil cheer up might be nice.)

February 8, 2014

There you go again!

You glibly state:

The Herbal Pharmacopeia isn't going to change the reality that botanicals are not going to be accepted as medicine under the terms exacted by the FDA, etc.


If we continually set the bar so as to not expect reality to be different than the awful crap now so firmly being dictated to us, we will never succeed.

So there are indeed many of us who refuse to set that bar so low. No matter how many times we may be besieged by others who say that setting the bar low is what is expected of us, or it is logical, etc.

The right of every person on the planet to grow for themselves, and for small time growers to grow as well are indeed rights that many of us will insist upon. Many of us will not rest until these rights are realized, no matter what nonsense you or Nadelman continually tell us we have to accept!

By the way, the Corporate-owned FDA also tells us that we have to accept that Gm foods are "the wave of the future" but most people I hang out with are not about to accept that either.

February 6, 2014

Will The Needs of the Nation Affect the Internet -

Or will business interests motivated by profit keep us from success.

http://www.the-american-interest.com/articles/2014/01/23/how-slow-expensive-internet-is-holding-our-economy-back/

This article argues that the internet is not moving along fast enough and certainly not cheaply enough. It also argues that the recent ruling by the court that will allow the the FCC to destroy net neutrality will make the problems worse. In fact, the ruling will set our nation on an even more backwards course rather than twoards rather success.

What is exactly is the problem? This is it, says the article: "The problem? We already have the technology to vastly improve internet costs and capabilities; providers just aren’t taking advantage of it.

"There are few exceptions, of course. Verizon launched its FiOS Internet, a fiber-optic internet service with speeds up to 500 Mbps, in 2005—well ahead of the curve. It remains the nation’s largest fiber internet provider, with availability in 16 states and more than 18 million homes, and a current customer base of five million.

"But the fastest FiOS plans are expensive, ringing in at $299.99/month. Even though 18 million homes could get access to 500 Mbps internet, it’s unlikely that the majority of those homes are willing to spend upwards of $300 for it. And if FiOS isn’t already available in your town, don’t expect it anytime soon. In 2012 the company announced an end to FiOS expansion, and it hasn’t budged since.

"Google is trying to pick up some of the slack, proving that it’s possible to provide faster internet for a lower price (and still make a profit). Google Fiber currently provides gigabit internet for $70/month—that’s a few hundred times faster than average broadband speeds, for nearly the same price. They also provide basic internet service (up to five Mbps) for free."

Full article at link at top of this post.

February 5, 2014

H.R. 20, or The Money Out of Politics Bill

Several days ago, a DU'er was saying that the system is broken.

It is.

Russ Feingold has a righteous Progressive Organization that is up and running.

If you want to join them or contact them, here's the skinny on that:

Progressives United / About / Russ Feingold
www.progressivesunited.org/
or www.progressivesunited.org/about/russ-feingold?
Russ Feingold founded Progressives United in February of 2011 to combat ...
Phone: 608/831-7877 · Fax: 608/831-3192 · Email: info@progressivesunited.org.

Recently they sent me an email about H.R. 20, which has a shot at getting passed this year.

H.R. 20 would take the money out of politics.

But to get it passed, Congress has to hear from us.

http://campaigns.dailykos.com/p/dia/action3/common/public/?action_KEY=749&tag=20140205ProgressivesUnited

Above link is so you can go and add your name to the petition to offer Congress encouragement to get this done.

February 4, 2014

A friend of mine accidentally installed an update & her operating system is now different

Here is her email to me: I added a file from my camera to my computer which told me it couldn't open it because of the file type and also said I had updates.

So, I clicked on the button and 20 updates proceeded to take a while to download and install at the end of which my computer rebooted and things haven't been the same since including that now, instead of Windows 8, I have 8.1 and I don't want it. How do I go back a couple of days in Windows 8? Or last best, or whatever. I don't want these idiotic updates if they're wreaking havoc with how I want things set up. THX
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Now normally a System Restore would help her out a whole lot, except I don't think System Restore will affect a computer if the unwanted operation is related to "updating" the entire system.

Please advise.

February 4, 2014

Does anyone here have any decent connections to PETA?

A local politician here in Lake County Calif. has killed the dog of one of his former tenants.

This man is usually above the law, including the fact that several years back, some 300 pot plants were found on his property. Unlike almost any other citizen in this county, he was able to say that he "knew nothing at all about this illegal grow" and go on about his business without any sort of indictment or even any questioning by the police. His not being even questioned about the pot grow might be tolerated, if this same person was not the harshest critic in the world in terms of legit medical marijuana users.

I have yet to meet a single individual who believes this story that he knew "nothing" about the grow. Most people who talk about it give the re-telling of the story that "Wink Wink Uh Huh" and "Yeah ain't it sad there is one set of laws for the Political Class and another set for us commoners."

Anyway there is plenty of weird stuff that has gone on. the statute of limitation has not run out on the dog killing incident, but anyone local who tries to do anything would probably be in trouble with the police or worse. Now again, if a common citizen had done what this politician did, they would be looking at a significant fine, and perhaps up to one year in jail.

PETA might, however, have the resources to make this individual's life unbearable.

February 2, 2014

And two other things - one is that

The NSA is not legal. Period.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10024388396
And it’s not illegal just because it violates the Constitution – although it does (the Fourth Amendment, specifically). The illegality of the NSA’s telephone metadata program is much clearer and even more disturbing than that. The program is illegal because no law authorizes bulk collection of phone record data. To the contrary, several laws forbid it. Understanding that the program is illegal doesn’t require fancy lawyer arguments about the frustratingly terse and vague provisions of the U.S. Constitution. It requires only that you read section 215 of the Patriot Act, which is the statute identified by the NSA as providing congressional authorization for its programs. We read it. It is surprisingly clear. And it does not authorize the NSA to do what it’s doing.

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And two is that the money that is being handed over, right now, by Criminal Conspiracists like Di Feinstein, so they can enrich enriching themselves by leaking "secret classified information" to family members so contracts can go out and secure the Blum Feinstein household a gazillion dollars for the Surveillance Contracts that NSA provides.

Meanwhile that surveillance money should be going into infra-structure, and into police agencies that supervise the Big Polluters, like the people at "Freedom Energy" responsible for polluting the West Virgina river and drinking water for 2300,000 people.