July 27, 2012

When "businessmen" run for the presidency, we should run away from them.

A country is NOT a business.

Successful businessmen are usually comfortable with cutting losses.

They think in terms of quarterly gains, profit-loss accounting.

The common-good is not of much concern to most successful businessmen.

Money,the pursuit of it, and the retention of it, is their goal..Their ONLY goal.

What WOULD Romney do to for the impoverished states?...Sell them?..Lay off the inhabitants? Self-deportation help for them to go back to their ancestral homelands of their great-grandparents?

Do the poor folks in those states really think that a republican businessman will have their best interests at heart.Think back to what the last Republican president did for them.

Successful businessmen do not "throw good money after bad". They cut their losses and let the chips fall where they may, without much (if any) thoughts of the futures of the people who get whacked in the process.

July 21, 2012

Meet the biometric shoe.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/new-lab-working-on-security-shoe-sole-to-id-people-experts-say-it-raises-privacy-questions/2012/07/21/gJQA6ZYO0W_story.html


New lab working on security shoe sole to ID people, experts say it raises privacy questions


By Associated Press, Updated: Saturday, July 21, 10:18 AM

PITTSBURGH — High-tech security? Forget those irksome digital eye scans. Meet the biometric shoe.

A new lab is working to perfect special shoe insoles that can help monitor access to high-security areas, like nuclear power plants or special military bases.


Associated Press JUL 20


The concept is based on research that shows each person has unique feet, and ways of walking. Sensors in the bio-soles check the pressure of feet, monitor gait, and use a microcomputer to compare the patterns to a master file for that person. If the patterns match the bio-soles go to sleep. If they don’t, a wireless alarm message can go out.

“It’s part of a shoe that you don’t have to think about,” said Marios Savvides, head of Carnegie Mellon University’s new Pedo-Biometrics Lab, in Pittsburgh.

The lab, which has $1.5 million in startup funding, is a partnership with Autonomous ID, a Canadian company that is relocating to several U.S. cities. Todd Gray, the company president, said he saw the potential when his daughter was in a maternity ward decorated with representations of different baby feet all along a wall.

Autonomous ID has been working on prototypes since 2009, with the goal of making a relatively low cost ID system. Gray said they’ve already run tests on sample bio-soles, which are no thicker than a common foot pad sold in pharmacies, and achieved an accuracy rate of more than 99 percent. He said Carnegie Mellon will broaden the tests to include “a full spectrum of society: big, tall, thin, heavy, athletic, multicultural, on a diet, twins and so on.”

snip

July 21, 2012

Take a break from evil.. Change your desktop photo

So many glorious ones here

Take a break from ugly..look at the lovely for a while

http://www.theatlantic.com/infocus/2012/07/national-geographic-traveler-photo-contest-2012/100339/

More photo contests from NatGeo
http://photography.nationalgeographic.com/photography/


If ODD is your thing, check out the electron microscope pics..


http://www.theatlantic.com/infocus/2012/07/life-under-the-microscope/100340/

July 21, 2012

Everything Americans Dislike About the Internet, in One Chart*

http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2012/07/everything-americans-dislike-about-the-internet-in-one-chart/260086/

Jul 19 2012, 3:48 PM ET 34

*Charts are not one of the things Americans dislike about the Internet.


There is much to love about the Internet. But there is much, as well, to dislike -- and/or to be annoyed by, and/or to resent, and/or to mistrust. In late June, the Q&A community Mancx decided to put numbers to those Internet-borne vexations. The firm conducted a survey of 1,900 American adults -- adults who self-identified, it's worth noting, as people who specifically search for information on the Internet. A group full of shoppers and cat-picture-seekers might have yielded different results.

Per Mancx's numbers, however, the Internet as an information source leaves a lot to be desired. A whopping 98 percent of respondents don't fully trust the information available on it. Which is a good thing, overall -- skepticism! -- except that 94 percent of respondents also noted the many negative effects that the Internet's bad intel can have. They also noted the potential to get a computer virus from Internet wanderings (63 percent), the multiplicity of ads they were forced to encounter (59 percent), the information that was bad specifically because it was outdated (56 percent), the information that was bad specifically because it was self-promotional (53 percent), the encountering of unfamiliar forums and spaces (45 percent), the potential to damage one's reputation via those forums and spaces (36 percent), the potential to get fired because of Internet-based tools (14 percent), and the compromise the Internet can pose to marriages and other relationships (9 percent).

snip

July 21, 2012

Please send boat to rescue rescue-boat

Bad to worse..

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2176467/Aberdeen-Bay-Double-trouble-sailors-boat-gets-caught-rocks-rescue-vessel-gets-stranded-too.html

Ooops! Double trouble for sailors as their boat gets caught on rocks… then vessel sent to rescue them is stranded too

By David Wilkes

PUBLISHED: 07:42 EST, 20 July 2012 | UPDATED: 08:53 EST, 21 July 2012


ween a rock and a hard place: A North Star Shipping rescue boat, left, went to the rescue of the company's rib Grampian Talisman, right, but both ended up stranded on the rocks in Aberdeen bay


As if one rescue boat running aground wasn't embarrassing enough, this was the moment when a crew sent to its aid ended up on the rocks too.

The first vessel drifted into difficulties after its engine cut out during a training exercise.

But the fast rescue boat that went to help was also left high and dry when stormy seas forced it on to the rocks just feet away.

July 21, 2012

"Surprise" landing...large plane..small airport

Cause of surprise landing at Davis Islands airport unclear



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Cause of surprise landing at Davis Islands airport unclear
Video Photos

Air Force jet lands at wrong airport - Fri, 07/20

http://www2.tbo.com/news/news/2012/jul/20/18/huge-air-force-cargo-plane-lands-at-davis-islands--ar-437276/

By HOWARD ALTMAN | The Tampa Tribune
Published: July 20, 2012
Updated: July 20, 2012 - 8:49 PM
» Comments | Post a Comment
TAMPA --

Update: The plane took off from Peter O. Knight Airport about 8:30 p.m. Stay with TBO.com for updates.

***

Air Force officials are trying to figure out why an Air Force C-17 Globemaster III cargo jet heading to MacDill Air Force Base instead landed at Peter O. Knight Airport this afternoon. The plane, flown by a crew from the 305th Air Mobility Wing at McGuire Air Force Basee in New Jersey, was arriving from Southwest Asia carrying 23 passengers and 19 crew when it made an "unscheduled landing," according to Sgt David Carbajal, a McGuire spokesman. There appears to have been no damage to the aircraft or the airport, said Carbajal. Air Force officials still do not know why the plane landed at the small civilian airfield on Davis Islands. The incident, said Carbajal, is under investigation.
snip


The main runway at Peter O. Knight is 3,580 feet long and 100 feet wide, aligned in the same direction as MacDill's runway that is 11,421 feet long and 151 feet wide.

snip

Ryan Gucwa, a pilot, was getting ready to get in his Piper Navajo and take off from the airport when he looked up and saw "this huge C-17 coming in over the top of the shipping port." Seeing military airplanes over Peter O. Knight was not unusual, Gucwa said, but "this was only 100 feet off the ground and that is bizarre. Once the wheels touched the ground, I was terrified that there was no way to stop in time."

The nose landing gear of the cargo jet stopped about six to 10 feet from the end of the runway, said Gucwa, who took cell phone video of the landing.

snip

July 21, 2012

Vast aquifer found in Namibia could last for centuries

20 July 2012 Last updated at 05:15 ET
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-18875385?splash
Vast aquifer found in Namibia could last for centuries
By Matt McGrath Science reporter, BBC World

Pressure from the aquifer means the water is cheap to extract

A newly discovered water source in Namibia could have a major impact on development in the driest country in sub-Saharan Africa. Estimates suggest the aquifer could supply the north of the country for 400 years at current rates of consumption.

Scientists say the water is up to 10,000 years old but is cleaner to drink than many modern sources. However, there are concerns that unauthorised drilling could threaten the new supply.
For the people of northern Namibia water is something that they either have too much of or too little. The 800,000 people who live in the area depend for their drinking water on a 40-year-old canal that brings the scarce resource across the border from Angola.

snip

July 21, 2012

The Information Skills for the 24/7 News Cycle Age: An Analysis of the Reporting of #theatershooting

good article written by a teacher

http://geekreflection.blogspot.com/2012/07/the-information-skills-for-247-news.html?spref=fb
Friday, July 20, 2012

The Information Skills for the 24/7 News Cycle Age: An Analysis of the Reporting of #theatershooting
Abstract: an analysis of high-impact news stories and the 24 hour analysis-reporting cycle as it impacts the teaching of communications and information literacy.

I think the best description of the news-commentary-begets-more-news cycle I have heard came from Jon Stewart on the daily show. I looked (lightly) for the specific clip, but could not find it. If I do, I will be sure to link to it. Essentially: News Channel Reports factual data During the commentary/analysis period, the data is interpreted to draw a more meaningful/slanted conclusion to the benefit of the station, political bias, commentator, ratings, etc. During the next NEWS period, the conclusion is reported as breaking news about the original story citing experts, sources, etc.

This is one of the examples that we use in #digcit to discuss PLN bias and the need to be more savvy about news in the modern era than ever before.

Tragic News Reporting in a 24/7 World
When I woke up this morning, I had every intention of working on a blog post ranting on the House committee hearings to give "Highly Qualified" designation to Teach-for-America graduates or finish up my #bbw12 posts with thoughts on the last keynote...


but, when it rains, it pours.

The first item on my news-reader described the tragedy of the Colorado shooting at the premiere of "Dark Knight Rises" midnight showing -- details are still coming in about this awful event (which is part of the point) and I will leave it to others to assign blame and find meaning...that is for another day and more ambitious people than me.

snip

July 20, 2012

For all the people offering help to the victims in Aurora.

How about a special fund set up for the many injured who may have no health care to cover the cost?..ans for direct donations to the families of the ones who perished. Unexpected funerals are very expensive, and many people let insurance go when times get tough.

July 20, 2012

The Most Orwellian Voter ID Ad You've Ever Seen

http://www.slate.com/blogs/weigel/2012/07/10/the_most_orwellian_voter_id_ad_you_ve_ever_seen.html?wpisrc=obnetwork

By David Weigel

|

Posted Tuesday, July 10, 2012, at 10:07 AM ET

&feature=player_embedded

On Sunday, Daniel Denvir broke the news that a Mitt Romney bundler, Chris Bravacos, had secured a contract to promote Pennsylvania's new Voter ID law. On Monday, the bundler's company, the Bravo Group, pulled its demo ads off of Vimeo. You should go and read the rest of Denvir's story for the details, and to understand the crooked veins of connections between donors and third-party groups and legislators. In the meantime, you can watch the first ad, rescued by a local Occupy group.

A law that builds a new hurdle for 9.2 percent of Pennsylvania voters is just like the Voting Rights Act that allowed disenfranchised blacks to go to the polls. It makes so much sense now!