Just too spiffy

Link

Words, words, words

drumble, v. To move slowly, reluctantly and sluggishly.

beholden \bih-HOHL-dun\ adjective
being under obligation for a favor or gift : indebted

albeit \awl-BEE-it\ conjunction
conceding the fact that : even though : although

Fun'n'Games

Here is a handy little language test.

Plurals

Find the correct plural form for the following words (we've used the Concise Oxford Dictionary

as a reference.

Example: Ox
Answer:Oxen

1. Louse. 2. Mother-in-law. 3. Index. 4. Teaspoonful. 5. Crisis. 6. Phenomenon. 7. Court martial.

8. Incognito. 9. Opus. 10. Manservant. 11. Grant-in-aid. 12. Armful. 13. Addendum. 14. Stigma.

Answers

Excellent material

This is a delightful exposition on the state of things and highly recommended.

The Story of Stuff
Link

Meaty stuff

This appeared in the New York Times Magazine, an analysis of the world's direction by a fellow at the New America Foundation. The points made ring true and should be a catalyst for contemplation. It is eight pages long so it requires some dedication to read.

Waving Goodbye to Hegemony

Turn on the TV today, and you could be forgiven for thinking it’s 1999. Democrats and Republicans are bickering about where and how to intervene, whether to do it alone or with allies and what kind of world America should lead. Democrats believe they can hit a reset button, and Republicans believe muscular moralism is the way to go. It’s as if the first decade of the 21st century didn’t happen — and almost as if history itself doesn’t happen. But the distribution of power in the world has fundamentally altered over the two presidential terms of George W. Bush, both because of his policies and, more significant, despite them. Maybe the best way to understand how quickly history happens is to look just a bit ahead.

It is 2016, and the Hillary Clinton or John McCain or Barack Obama administration is nearing the end of its second term. America has pulled out of Iraq but has about 20,000 troops in the independent state of Kurdistan, as well as warships anchored at Bahrain and an Air Force presence in Qatar. Afghanistan is stable; Iran is nuclear. China has absorbed Taiwan and is steadily increasing its naval presence around the Pacific Rim and, from the Pakistani port of Gwadar, on the Arabian Sea. The European Union has expanded to well over 30 members and has secure oil and gas flows from North Africa, Russia and the Caspian Sea, as well as substantial nuclear energy. America’s standing in the world remains in steady decline.

Link

Words, words, words

univocal, adj.
Having only one meaning; or, said of several people
expressing themselves with one voice

deaskeuast, n.
One who prepares material in detail. A researcher, editor,
et al. Even a lexicographer

foozle \FOO-zul\ verb
to manage or play awkwardly : bungle
* I was pretty darn close with 'finger fuzzle' in describing my typos

Getting spacy

This will hopefully be logged into the 'Gotta Check It Out) file.

Record Fifth Planet Discovered Around Distant Star

Astronomers have spotted a record-setting fifth planet orbiting the sunlike star 55 Cancri, 41 light-years away in the constellation Cancer. Researchers say the planet, a "mini-Saturn" of about 46 Earth masses, lies fourth out from the star in a large gap between the third and fifth planets, placing it squarely in the estimated habitable zone around the star where water might remain liquid, according to the group's report, accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal.

Although the planet's size implies that it is a ball of hydrogen and helium gas incapable of supporting pools of liquid water, the finding raises the possibility that additional, earthlike planets might be discovered around it.

Bad timing

Just as the new super-green Watauga County high school is nearing the start of construction, this happens. The contractors just last week discussed the project with the county commissioners and got approval of a guaranteed maximum price of $47.2 million. It will be interesting to note how close to reality that will be eventually.

Rising building costs deal blow to local budgets
When money from property, sales and income taxes was steady and interest rates low, state and local governments planned long-needed updates to roads, bridges and other building projects. But now, as construction costs rise and budgets shrink thanks to the troubled housing market, officials are struggling to foot the bill.

According to the New York Times, costs have grown for diverse projects, including improvements to roads, airports, schools as well as upgrades to long-neglected water and sewer systems. Levee construction in New Orleans and Everglades restoration in Florida have also stalled. Even officials working on the reconstruction of the Interstate 35W bridge in Minneapolis, which collapsed this past summer, are unsure whether it will come in on budget.

"Everybody's scared," said Uche Udemezue, director of engineering and transportation for San Leandro, Calif., which will soon put out a request for construction bids on a retiree center and a parking garage. "You don't know what you’re going to find when you go out to bid."

Link

Something else I cannot grasp

As our view of the heavens expands we are discovering there are sources of power beyond our comprehension.
LIGO Sheds Light on Cosmic Event
An analysis by the international LIGO (Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory) Scientific Collaboration has excluded one previously leading explanation for the origin of an intense gamma-ray burst that occurred last winter. Gamma-ray bursts are among the most violent and energetic events in the universe, and scientists have only recently begun to understand their origins.

The LIGO project, which is funded by the National Science Foundation, was designed and is operated by the California Institute of Technology and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology for the purpose of detecting cosmic gravitational waves and for the development of gravitational-wave observations as an astronomical tool. Research is carried out by the LIGO Scientific Collaboration, a group of 580 scientists at universities around the United States and in 11 foreign countries. The LIGO Scientific Collaboration interferometer network includes the GEO600 interferometer, located in Hannover, Germany, funded by the Max-Plank-Gesellschaft/Science and Technologies Facilities Council and designed and operated by scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics and partners in the United Kingdom.

Link

This is very significant

The airwaves which belong to you and me, like just about everything else of value in this country, is up for sale to the highest bidder. It sure would be nice when benefit, not profit, were our national standard.

Auction of key airwaves begins Thursday
Bidding begins on Thursday in a crucial auction of government-owned airwaves that is expected to help set the future course of the U.S. telecommunications business.

Companies ranging from AT&T Inc and Verizon Wireless, to possible new competitors like Internet company Google Inc, EchoStar Communications Corp and Cablevision Systems Corp will be able to snap up some of the last remaining wireless spectrum and perhaps use it for a new generation of wireless broadband and other advanced services.

"This spectrum is probably the last spectrum (to be offered) for the foreseeable future," said Tole Hart, an analyst with Gartner Group. "So it's kind of the last crack at the apple."

Link

Like we didn't know

A lot of studies do nothing but confirm what most of us already know intuitively. This report from China is a prime example.

Empathy: Who cares most?

A neurological study shows that women have a greater ability to recognize the emotion of other people than men

It has long been suspected that men and women differ in their ability to empathize. Now Shihui Han and co-workers at Peking University in Beijing¹ have gained the first neurological evidence of this gender difference.

Thirteen males and thirteen females were asked to do simple tasks while being shown images — some of which included painful situations, such as hands being trapped in doors or cut by scissors (pictured). The images of painful situations caused both men and women to perform the tasks less accurately.

At the same time, the 'event-related brain potentials' of each subject were monitored using scalp electrodes. These showed that the brain transmits an early signal in the frontal lobe to differentiate between painful and non-painful images. This is followed by a signal response that appears later with longer latency over the central brain that represents controlled evaluation of the pain. The second signal was stronger, and lasted longer, in females than in males.

The results imply that females evaluate painful stimuli more intensively than males — possibly because the care of offspring requires more sensitivity to danger signals. This reinforces the notion that men traditionally function as the liaison between family and society, while women focus on interpersonal harmony in the family unit.

Link

Getting spacey

Thor's Emerald Helmet
This helmet-shaped cosmic cloud with wing-like appendages is popularly called Thor's Helmet. Heroically sized even for a Norse god, Thor's Helmet is about 30 light-years across. In fact, the helmet is actually more like an interstellar bubble, blown as a fast wind from the bright, massive star near the bubble's center sweeps through a surrounding molecular cloud. Known as a Wolf-Rayet star, the central star is an extremely hot giant thought to be in a brief, pre-supernova stage of evolution. Cataloged as NGC 2359, the nebula is located about 15,000 light-years away in the constellation Canis Major. The sharp image captures striking details of the nebula's filamentary structures and also records an almost emerald color from strong emission due to oxygen atoms in the glowing gas.

Getting dirty

There are many reasons to be dismayed about what is happening to our environment. In some cases the concerns are a simple as dirt.

The lowdown on topsoil: It's disappearing

Disappearing dirt rivals global warming as an environmental threat

The planet is getting skinned.

While many worry about the potential consequences of atmospheric warming, a few experts are trying to call attention to another global crisis quietly taking place under our feet.

Call it the thin brown line. Dirt. On average, the planet is covered with little more than 3 feet of topsoil -- the shallow skin of nutrient-rich matter that sustains most of our food and appears to play a critical role in supporting life on Earth.

"We're losing more and more of it every day," said David Montgomery, a geologist at the University of Washington. "The estimate is that we are now losing about 1 percent of our topsoil every year to erosion, most of this caused by agriculture."

"It's just crazy," fumed John Aeschliman, a fifth-generation farmer who grows wheat and other grains on the Palouse near the tiny town of Almota, just west of Pullman.

"We're tearing up the soil and watching tons of it wash away every year," Aeschliman said. He's one of a growing number of farmers trying to persuade others to adopt "no-till" methods, which involve not tilling the land between plantings, leaving crop stubble to reduce erosion and planting new seeds between the stubble rows.

Link

Wonderful Idea

When I first heard of this organization, offering specially written songs to young people with chronic or terminal conditions, I immediately tried to think of a local application. I was frankly amazed at the 'production values' of each song. Granted that could be one of those 'best of...' compilations, but it is a neat idea. I was thinking more in the line of guitar-strumming hippies but that would be too obvious personification. ;-)
Songs of Love
The Medicine of Music
Link

Personal interest

Lupus is an autoimmune disease like Multiple Sclerosis and any advance offers a ray of reflected hope for my condition.

Gene advance on immune disorder

Skin lesions are one of many symptoms of lupus

The genes involved in the devastating immune system disease Lupus, which affects 50,000 people in the UK, have been identified.

A team led by London's Imperial College examined the genetic makeup of 3,000 women, publishing their findings in the journal Nature Genetics.

The suspect genes could open the door to research into new treatments.

Charity Lupus UK said that the find might one day lead to a test to speed up the diagnosis of the condition.

This study represents a milestone in progress towards unravelling the secrets of the disease Professor Timothy Vyse Imperial College London

Lupus is a complex condition, mostly affecting women, which frequently causes skin rash, joint pains and fatigue, and which can also lead to inflammation of the kidneys and other internal organs.

It happens when the person's own immune system starts launching attacks on healthy tissue, and the only current treatments aim to suppress the immune system to reduce this.

The study looked at 720 women with the illness, and compared their genes with those of 2,337 who are free of the disease.

This revealed three candidate genes with strong links to Lupus, and a few others with weaker links to the disease.

One of the strong candidates, the ITGAM gene, is known to play a role in the immune system.

The other genes identified were more surprising to the experts, but could, they say, hold the key to developing more effective therapies.

Link

Getting spacy

No gossamer wisps of space dust, intersecting galaxies or planetary rings; this shot shows the stark reality of the hardships of close proximity to the sun. There may be 'colorized' views offered once the mission assumes orbit and begins it scientific survey.

Mercury's Horizon from MESSENGER

What would it look like to fly past Mercury? Just such an adventure was experienced last week by the MESSENGER spacecraft during its first flyby of the strange moon-like world nearest the Sun. Pictured above is the limb of Mercury seen by MESSENGER upon approach, from about 1 1/2 Earth diameters away. Visible on the hot and barren planet are many craters, many appeared to be less shallow than similarly sized craters on the Moon. The comparatively high gravity of Mercury helps flatten tall structures like high crater walls. MESSENGER was able to take over 1,000 images of Mercury which will be beamed back to Earth for planetary geologists to study. The robotic MESSENGER spacecraft is scheduled to fly past Mercury twice more before firing its thrusters to enter orbit in 2011.

Green thumb

This is one of the showiest of the plants appearing over the holidays but is a bit 'touchy' in terms of getting it to bloom (or even survive) a second time. That could be because people are hesitant to perform the required major surgery.

Tip: Winter Amaryllis Care

Once your amaryllis have finished blooming cut the bloom stalk off and place the plant in a bright window. Feed the bulb with a time-release fertilizer such as Osmocote, keep the bulb well watered and pest free.

Words, words, words

This is a unique collection in that I have used each word in conversation.

invidious \in-VID-ee-us\ adjective
1 : tending to cause discontent, animosity, or envy
2 : envious
3 a : of an unpleasant or objectionable nature : obnoxious *b : of a kind to cause harm or resentment

kerfuffle (kuhr-FUHF-uhl) noun
a commotion.

weasel word \WEE-zul-WURD\ noun
a word used in order to mislead a person or to avoid a straight answer

I was one of the first call-in contestants in Al Franken's 'Wait, Wait, Don't Lie to Me' contest when he had a show on Air America Radio where you had to determine if the person in a sound bite was telling the truth, lying or giving an response that was essentially correct but an attempt to decieve. I injected 'weasel words' which elicited a gleeful and positive response from Franken. The term was henceforth used to describe that third option.

Figure this one out...

There are many things in this world which defy explanation. Just imagine what we will discover once we leave the bounds of earth.

The Sliding Rocks of Racetrack Playa

One of the most interesting mysteries of Death Valley National Park is the sliding rocks at Racetrack Playa (a playa is a dry lake bed). These rocks can be found on the floor of the playa with long trails behind them. Somehow these rocks slide across the playa, cutting a furrow in the sediment as they move.

Some of these rocks weigh several hundred pounds. That makes the question: "How do they move?" a very challenging one.

The truth: No one knows for sure exactly how these rocks move - although a few people have come up with some pretty good explanations. The reason why their movement remains a mystery: No one has ever seen them in motion!

Linque

A room with a view

Another goodie from net friend doctdore.

Jessica Lynch, Pat Tillman and the Filipino Monkey

I find this interesting. I can just imagine an E-5 working in intelligence seeing this stuff move across his desk all the time and finally figuring out what it takes to make the Daily Summary.

POLITICS-US:
How the Pentagon Planted a False Hormuz Story
Analysis by Gareth Porter

WASHINGTON, Jan 15 (IPS) - Senior Pentagon officials, evidently reflecting a broader administration policy decision, used an off-the-record Pentagon briefing to turn the Jan. 6 U.S.-Iranian incident in the Strait of Hormuz into a sensational story demonstrating Iran's military aggressiveness, a reconstruction of the events following the incident shows.

The initial press stories on the incident, all of which can be traced to a briefing by deputy assistant secretary of defence for public affairs in charge of media operations Bryan Whitman, contained similar information that has since been repudiated by the Navy itself.

Then the Navy disseminated a short video into which was spliced the audio of a phone call warning that U.S. warships would "explode" in "a few seconds". Although it was ostensibly a Navy production, IPS has learned that the ultimate decision on its content was made by top officials of the Defence Department.

The encounter between five small and apparently unarmed speedboats, each carrying a crew of two to four men, and the three U.S. warships occurred very early on Saturday Jan. 6, Washington time. But no information was released to the public about the incident for more than 24 hours, indicating that it was not viewed initially as being very urgent.

The reason for that absence of public information on the incident for more than a full day is that it was not that different from many others in the Gulf over more than a decade. A Pentagon consultant who asked not to be identified told IPS that he had spoken with officers who had experienced similar encounters with small Iranian boats throughout the 1990s, and that such incidents are "just not a major threat to the U.S. Navy by any stretch of the imagination".
//snip//

As an official at 5th Fleet headquarters in Bahrain told IPS, it is common knowledge among officers there that hecklers -- often referred to as "Filipino Monkey" -- frequently intervene on the VHF ship-to-ship channel to make threats or rude comments.

Linque

Getting spacy

This is usually some amazingly colorful or striking photo or painting/drawing of some astro-object. Today I am offering meat for the intellect rather than the eye.

Great Debate Series

Many of the questions posed by astrobiology are the subjects of intense debate within the scientific community. How did life originate? What kind of life forms should we expect to find on other worlds? Is there life on Mars, or on Jupiter's moon Europa? How will we know for certain when we've found evidence of life on other worlds?

Our Great Debates series will show you the process of scientific debate in progress, as prominent scientists sift through the available evidence to reach what are sometimes directly opposing conclusions.

Great Alien Debate (Part 1 - 7)

Terraforming Debates (Part 1 - 7)

Great Impact Debates (Part 1 - 5)

Rare Earth Debates (Part 1 - 6)

Link

Words, words, words

sillabub, n. A dessert made mostly out of cream. A pleasing,
eighteenth-centuryish term for the jar of creamed rice that you are
obliged to open for your unexpected dinner guest. Metaphorically, sillabub
is inane, inconsequential, or frothy speech

rounceval, n. Three quite different meanings for this one: a giant; a
marrowfat pea; and a virago

grobianism, n. Rudeness, boorishness.

Getting colorful

I have had two jobs involved with the fashion industry and that taught the importance of the colors which dominate each season. As an aside, my first exposure to this phenomenom came when my high school sweetie introduced me to teal as THE color of that particular season.

Designers Dive into Color for Spring 2008

The report features the top 10 colors for women's fashion for spring '08, designer sketches, quotes and headshots. The availability of the PANTONE Fashion Color Report coincides with the beginning of New York Fashion Week and is available free-of-charge from the Pantone Website at:

www.pantone.com/spring2008

According to the report, the spring '08 palette is defined by classic, versatile neutrals punctuated by splashes of invigorating brights, empowering consumers to explore new and creative ways to combine colors.

Variations on popular colors such as energizing red, cool, waterborne blue and eco-friendly green also play a key role this season.

"The spring '08 color palette perfectly reflects the cheerfulness of the season," said Leatrice Eiseman, executive director of the Pantone Color Institute. "Stabilizing neutrals combined with pops of brighter colors to create unique, distinctive looks are the basis for a great spring and summer wardrobe."

Link

* Note: the Pantone link above leads to a .pdf which is a detailed review of the designers' view of the season's color array, well worth the effort if this truly interests you.

Our legacy

Perhaps one day this nation will appreciate what it has done and what it has become. It is easy to imagine that one day the Iraqis will celebrate, but not as Liberation Day.

Panama marks '89 invasion as day of 'national mourning'

The anniversary of the 1989 U.S. invasion was declared a day of "national mourning" by Panama's legislature, and it established a commission to determine how many people were killed when U.S. troops stormed the capital.

The measure was unanimously approved Thursday as Panama commemorated the 18th anniversary of the day thousands of troops landed to arrest dictator Manuel Noriega on drug charges.

"This is a recognition of those who fell on December 20 as a result of the cruel and unjust invasion by the most powerful army in the world," said Rep. Cesar Pardo of the governing Democratic Revolutionary Party, which holds a majority in the legislature.

The measure, which requires the approval of President Martin Torrijos, also calls for a monument to honor the dead, most likely in El Chorrillo neighborhood that was destroyed by bombs during the attack.

Link

A start

My solution to the country's fixation with automobiles and the dependence on gasoline is to encourage everyone to work within walking distance of home. Less gas, less flab.

Hip to be green at Detroit auto show

Environmentally friendly concept cars are the major theme this year

It's green here in January. Very green.

Fresh grass has replaced snow outside the North American International Auto Show and spiffy small models with the latest environmentally friendly technology are gaining ground on the usual pollution-emitting horsepower inside.

"It has moved from a trickle to a flood," Richard Cooper, executive director of J.D. Power and Associates in Canada, said yesterday after seeing some of the new metal on the show floor.

Link

From a friend

doctdore shares my passion for puns.

There was once a snail who was sick and tired of his reputation for being so slow. He decided to get some fast wheels to make up the difference. After shopping around a while, he decided that the Datsun 240-Z was the car to get. So the snail goes to the nearest Datsun dealer and says he wants to buy the 240-Z, but he wants it repainted "240-S."

The dealer asks, "Why 'S'?"

The snail replies, "'S' stands for snail. I want everybody who sees me roaring past to know who's driving."

Well, the dealer doesn't want to lose the unique opportunity to sell a car to a snail, so he agrees to have the car repainted for a small fee.

The snail gets his new car and spent the rest of his days roaring happily down the highway at top speed. And whenever anyone would see him zooming by, they'd say "Wow! Look at that S-car go!"

Putting it in perspective

'You know that something's happening but you don't know what it is, Mr. Jones' --B. Dylan
Most of us are aware that something is amiss but it is sure hard to place in context, let alone achieve understanding.

Losing Winter

As Climate Change Takes Hold, Our Coldest Season is the First Casualty

Marshall Heaven of Greenwich, Connecticut got tired of waiting for the snow to fall, so he bought two Backyard Blizzard snowmakers and can now promise 15-foot drifts as early as late November….Even though it’s late January in Mason Township, Maine, Steve Crone of New England Dogsledding tethers his eager canines to a golf cart. “We’d rather have snow,” he says with some embarrassment…Fifteen-year-old Cameron Sonley of Peterborough, Ontario, where the winter was two degrees warmer than usual in the 2006-2007 season, complained last March that because of high temperatures he was only able to go snowboarding four or five times, instead of his usual dozen….In Staten Island, New York, skaters have been thwarted for three straight years as pond ice failed to thicken…Janisse Ray, an outdoor recreation enthusiast in Danville, Vermont, got so frustrated whenthe West River hadn’t frozen by last January that she donned a wetsuit and floated downstream in an inner tube, holding aloft a sign that said “Where’s winter?”

Where indeed? Since 1970, average winter temperatures in New England have increased 4.4 degrees Fahrenheit. In the U.S., 2006 was the warmest year on record, and 1998 is number two. The last eight five-year periods were the warmest since we began taking national records 112 years ago. During the past 25 to 30 years, says the National Climatic Data Center, the warming trend has accelerated, from just over a tenth of one degree Fahrenheit per decade to almost a third of a degree.

Link

Resource

I ran across this gem of a site, if you happen to be interested in this sort of thing. Personally, I found it difficult to find the appropriate place to save it.

About Oyez

The Oyez Project is a multimedia archive devoted to the Supreme Court of the United States and its work. It aims to be a complete and authoritative source for all audio recorded in the Court since the installation of a recording system in October 1955. The Project also provides authoritative information on all justices and offers a virtual reality 'tour' of portions of the Supreme Court building, including the chambers of some of the justices.

Answers to many questions can be found in our list of Frequently Asked Questions.

If you have any questions that are not answered in the FAQ, or you have ideas to share, problems to report, etc, please contact the Project through our Comment Form.

Link

Now entering the game...

Americans are now aware of China's booming economy but are generally ignorant as to how they are using their new-found wealth. Here we see how China has joined the community of nations maintaining off-shore listening posts.

Coco Islands

The maritime reconnaissance and electronic intelligence station on Great Coco Island in the Bay of Bengal, some 300 kms south of the Burmese mainland, is the most important Chinese electronic intelligence installation in Myanmar [Burma]. The Chinese Army is also building a base on Small Coco Island in the Alexandra Channel between the Indian Ocean and the Andaman Sea north of India's Andaman Islands. These two islands, which have been leased to China since 1994, are located at a crucial point in traffic routes between the Bay of Bengal and the Strait of Malacca. The Coco Islands are thus an ideal location for for monitoring Indian naval and missile launch facilities in Andaman and Nicobar Islands to the south and movements of the Indian Navy and other navies throughout the eastern Indian Ocean.

Construction of the Great Coco Island station began in late 1992 with the emplacement of a 45-50m antenna tower, radar sites and other electronic facilities forming a comprehensive SIGINT collection facility. In mid-1993, some of the 70 Chinese naval personnel began operating the new radar equipment, and by the summer of 1994 the the PLA the radar and SIGINT facilities were complete and ready for use.

Link

From wikipedia:

Chinese signal intelligence gathering station and maritime army base

China established a SIGINT intelligence gathering station on Great Coco Island in 1992 to monitor Indian naval activity in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.^[1] The station also allows China to monitor the movement of other navies and ships throughout the eastern Indian Ocean, especially in the crucial point in shipping routes between the Bay of Bengal and the Strait of Malacca.^[1] It may also be used to monitor activities at the launch site of the Indian Space Research Organization at Sriharikota and the Defence Research and Development Organization at Chandipur-on-sea. The Chinese Army is also building a maritime base on Little Coco Island.^[1]

Existence of the Chinese base has been questioned.^[5] India’s chief of naval staff is quoted as saying in October 2005 that India had “firm information that there is no listening post, radar or surveillance station belonging to the Chinese on Coco Islands.”

Link

For your toolbox

This is a handy site and a recommended bookmark (I filed it under 'Quick Search'), especially when you are being assaulted by all of that military stuff like MANPADS.

The Acronyms section of this website is powered by the Acronym Finder, the web's most comprehensive dictionary of acronyms, abbreviations and initialisms.

The Acronym Finder allows users to decipher acronyms from a database of over 500,000 entries covering computers, technology, telecommunications, and the military. Unlike online glossaries, search engines, encyclopedias, or thesauruses, Acronym Finder exists purely to unravel the bewildering range of acronyms that impact daily life.

Link

A quiz

I did not do very well on this but I got at least some of them right.

Find out what you know about global warming, deep impact, Captain Kidd and NASA delays when you test your science and space smarts.

Link

FYI

Pakistan is suddenly a major subject in our evolving news and we really should understand much more about the nation.

Pakistan, By the Numbers

Few countries in the world embrace more people than Pakistan. Few have more powerful weapons on the shelf. No wonder the troubled nation makes such world news. So, before you see another ominous headline about "the instability in Pakistan," review these key stats--and put Pakistan squarely on your mental map.

Indus River Valley

310,403 – Pakistan's total area, in square miles (803,940 sq km). That makes it a little larger than Turkey and around twice the size of Iraq--or, about the size of California, Oregon, and Washington combined. Map it.

2,000 – Length of the Indus River, in miles (3,200 km). From its source on the Tibetan Plateau, the Indus fed the original Indus River Valley civilization of ancient India and still waters most of Pakistan's crops. It nearly runs the length of Pakistan before emptying into the Arabian Sea.

Very Crowded Country

165 million – Pakistan's total population. That makes it the world's sixth most populous nation, after China, India, the United States, Indonesia, and Brazil. Pakistan has more people than Germany, France, and the Netherlands combined. But its people are more a patchwork of different ethnic groups than a unified nation. Map these ethnic groups.

97 – Percentage of Pakistan's people who are Muslims. Around 77 percent are Sunni; around 20 percent are Shi'ite. The three largest ethnic groups are Punjabis (44 percent of the population), Pashtuns (15 percent), and Sindhis (14 percent). The different ethnic groups speak their own languages at home. Lawyers and government officials--along with many businesses--use English as a common language.

Home of the "Islamic Bomb"

59 – Number of years since UN peacekeepers first began patrolling the disputed Kashmir region. Before that, Pakistan and India had already fought one war over Kashmir (from 1947 to 1949). They have since fought two more (in 1965 and 1971), along with intermittent skirmishes. Map Kashmir.

30 – Minimum number of nuclear weapons in Pakistan's arsenal. Pakistani sources say the nation was nuclear-capable by the late 1980s, thanks in large part to German-trained nuclear scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan. A.Q. Khan has since become an international pariah by passing nuclear secrets to the likes of North Korea.

Link

Another good source of information on Pakistan is the CIA's Fact Book.

Link

Harsh truth

Defenders of the American health care system rely on unproven generalities couched in terms like 'best in the world' while the truth is denied. 'I don't want government controlling my health care' is simply allowing corporations that same control. I know who I would trust more.

France best, U.S. worst in preventable death ranking

France, Japan and Australia rated best and the United States worst in new rankings focusing on preventable deaths due to treatable conditions in 19 leading industrialized nations, researchers said on Tuesday.

If the U.S. health care system performed as well as those of those top three countries, there would be 101,000 fewer deaths in the United States per year, according to researchers writing in the journal Health Affairs.

Researchers Ellen Nolte and Martin McKee of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine tracked deaths that they deemed could have been prevented by access to timely and effective health care, and ranked nations on how they did.

They called such deaths an important way to gauge the performance of a country's health care system.

Link

Food for thought

Some people see a problem and are doing something about it.

China bans plastic shopping bags

BEIJING – China launched a surprise crackdown on plastic bags on Tuesday, banning production of ultra-thin bags and forbidding its supermarkets and shops from handing out free carriers from June 1.

China uses too many of the bags and fails to dispose of them properly, wasting valuable oil and littering the country, China's cabinet, the State Council, said in a notice posted on the central government Web site (www.gov.cn).

"Our country consumes huge amounts of plastic bags every year. While providing convenience to consumers, they have also caused serious pollution, and waste of energy and resources, because of excessive use and inadequate recycling," it said.

Worries about pollution are growing among ordinary citizens, as years of breakneck growth take their toll on the country's air and water, but the new ban may not be universally welcomed.

Late last year the southern boom town of Shenzhen sparked a public controversy by unveiling draft regulations to ban free plastic bags in its shops.

Shopkeepers fretted that customers might be turned away and some people accused the government of making residents shoulder the costs of environmental protection.

Part of the new rules seem similar to the Shenzhen plan, stating that from June shops, supermarkets and sales outlets would be forbidden to offer free plastic bags and all carriers must be clearly marked with their prices.

"We should encourage people to return to carrying cloth bags, using baskets for their vegetables," the notice said.

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Words, words, words

cliometrics \klye-uh-MET-riks\ noun plural but singular in construction

: the application of methods developed in other fields (as economics, statistics, and data processing) to the study of history

chthonic \THAH-nik\ adjective

: of or relating to the underworld : infernal

syllabub \SILL-uh-bub\ noun

: milk or cream that is curdled with an acid beverage (as wine or cider) and often sweetened and served as a drink or topping or thickened with gelatin and served as a dessert

A better idea

The solutions to our problems are out there. We have only to embrace them.

Welcome to the future!

After fourteen years of research and development, Guy Negre has developed an engine that could become one of the biggest technological advances of this century. Its application to Compressed Air Technology(CAT) vehicles gives them significant economical and environmental advantages. With the incorporation of bi-energy (compressed air + fuel) the CAT Vehicles have increased their driving range to close to 2000 km with zero pollution in cities and considerably reduced pollution outside urban areas.
The application of the MDI engine in other areas, outside the automotive sector, opens a multitude of possibilities in nautical fields, co-generation, auxiliary engines, electric generators groups, etc. Compressed air is a new viable form of power that allows the accumulation and transport of energy. MDI is very close to initiating the production of a series of engines and vehicles. The company is financed by the sale of manufacturing licenses and patents all over the world.

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Oil hell, give me water!

This should be something of concern to all of us.

States eye stricter curbs on Great Lakes water
Lake levels reached record lows last year, and the region worries that fast-growing states and communities will try to grab its water.
New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson created a stir in October when, campaigning for president in water-hungry Las Vegas, he called for a national water policy and remarked that states like Wisconsin were "awash in water."

No one has seriously proposed that parched western states sip from the Midwest. And Mr. Richardson's office swiftly declared he had no such intention. But his remark tapped a growing sensitivity here over the Great Lakes and has given new urgency to a regional initiative to protect them from outsiders.

"There's a tremendous economic impact here," says Ohio state Rep. Matthew Dolan. "We want companies to come where the water is. We don't want the water to go where they are."

Several recent trends have heightened the concern of those in the Great Lakes Basin: Lake levels fell to near record lows last year, drought struck the Southeast, and climate-change studies have cast new uncertainty over water supplies in the Great Lakes region. Meanwhile, population shifts are slowly draining the region of its political power. Great Lakes states lost congressional seats after the 2000 census and expect to lose more after 2010.

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A word from a friend

Friend Kevin relays to me a classic line which comes from his brother who has considerable time in neighboring Maine. It reveals their perspective on the coming primary election.

"Iowa picks corn; New Hampshire picks presidents."

Going solar Pt 2

The same goal is the subject of a different sort of dream.

The Perfect PV: Home Power's 2007 Solar-Electric Module Guide
Pick the perfect PVs with our comprehensive solar-electric module buyer’s guide.

WARNING... Link is to a .pdf file
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Going solar Pt 1

Scientific American has dreams on an appropriately grand scale.

A Solar Grand Plan

By 2050 solar power could end U.S. dependence on foreign oil and slash greenhouse gas emissions

High prices for gasoline and home heating oil are here to stay. The U.S. is at war in the Middle East at least in part to protect its foreign oil interests. And as China, India and other nations rapidly increase their demand for fossil fuels, future fighting over energy looms large. In the meantime, power plants that burn coal, oil and natural gas, as well as vehicles everywhere, continue to pour millions of tons of pollutants and greenhouse gases into the atmosphere annually, threatening the planet.

Well-meaning scientists, engineers, economists and politicians have proposed various steps that could slightly reduce fossil-fuel use and emissions. These steps are not enough. The U.S. needs a bold plan to free itself from fossil fuels. Our analysis convinces us that a massive switch to solar power is the logical answer.

Solar energy’s potential is off the chart. The energy in sunlight striking the earth for 40 minutes is equivalent to global energy consumption for a year. The U.S. is lucky to be endowed with a vast resource; at least 250,000 square miles of land in the Southwest alone are suitable for constructing solar power plants, and that land receives more than 4,500 quadrillion British thermal units (Btu) of solar radiation a year. Converting only 2.5 percent of that radiation into electricity would match the nation’s total energy consumption in 2006.

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Wise words

The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, but wiser people so full of doubts.
Bertrand Russel 1872-1970 British philosopher, historian

A bit of Disney

One of these days I will figure out how to embed Flash stuff.

Walt's Last Film

This 24 minute film was recorded just before Walt's death. It was presented to the media and government officials in February of 1967. It highlights thier "Florida Project" a Disney World in Florida. These plans include a theme park, industrial center, transportation center and "the heart of everything" the Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow - EPCOT. You will see the original plans for a true, planned city.

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A fun quiz

We all have our own coping strategies when it comes to computers. Take this test to see how well yours stack up.

How well do you know PC security?

Is your PC well protected or is it the plaything of malicious hackers the world over?

To find out if you are security savvy or simply a sucker, answer the questions in our quiz and find out how much you know about staying safe when using the web.

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Neo-art

This offers perhaps the counter-point to the classic still life.

Fractal Geometry of the Natural World

Fractals are geometric patterns whose parts resemble the whole, no matter how small they are or how closely you view them. Because they appear the same at all levels of magnification, these rough shapes are considered to be infinitely complex. They are often used to help model chaotic systems and irregular structures in nature, such as weather patterns, coastlines, plant growth, and snowflakes.

These works experiment with fractal structures and dissipated shapes to evoke the infinite possibilities of order within chaos. For Theo, this series reunites culture with nature, forging “a harmonic relationship, an ever-changing world, where both energy and matter flow, fluctuate, and advance.”

Theo has shown widely within Spain, including exhibitions in Valencia and Madrid.

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Words, words, words

adultescent (uh-duhl-TES-uhnt) noun

An adult whose activities and interests are typically associated with
youth culture.
* I will claim this one.

commentariat (kom-uhn-TAR-ee-uht) noun

The group of people who provide opinion and analysis of events in the news.

chav (chav) noun

A youth whose behavior is marked by ignorance, aggression, and a fondness
for jewelry and clothing.

A timely tip

I imagine there are a lot of these sitting and waiting for the proper care.

Tip: Winter Poinsettia Care

To keep your poinsettia healthy, place the plant in the sunniest window in a cool (65F) spot in the house, but don't let it touch the cold glass. Water when the soil is absolutely dry.

Something for the New Year

If you are like me, you can use all the help you can get. This helps move your aspirations to reality.

Free Tools to Manage New Year's Resolutions

Happy New Year, lifehackers! Lots of you are kicking off 2008 with New Year's resolutions, but they won't keep themselves. To reach the goals you've set out for yourself in '08, follow through each and every one of the next 365 days—several free tools can help you with just that. Track your progress and help motivate yourself to stick to your New Year's resolutions with our favorite goal tracking webapps and tools.

Choose Your Resolutions

Before we dive into goal trackers and resolution reminder systems, first make sure you've nailed down exactly what you want to achieve. Management expert Peter Drucker recommended that teams use the S.M.A.R.T. acronym as a guideline for setting objectives, and it works for personal goals, too. Your SMART New Year's resolutions should be:

• Specific. Don't just say "Lose weight." Decide to "Lose 12 pounds."
• Measurable. Instead of "Be better about corresponding with old friends," decide to "Send out birthday and holiday cards to my high school friends."
• Achievable. "Be the perfect employee/mom/sister/spouse" is an admirable goal, but nobody's perfect, no matter how resolved they are. Make your resolution something that's possible—like, "Improve next year's performance review by at least one grade."
• Realistic. You've only got so many hours in the day, so make your goals realistic based on what resources and tools you've got on hand. Learning how to milk a cow, for example, is less realistic for someone who lives in the middle of Manhattan.
• Timely. Since these are New Year's resolutions, set goals you can reach at most within the next 12 months. Giving yourself a "deadline" of sorts will help you figure out where you should be when while tracking your progress.

To read more about Drucker's S.M.A.R.T. objective system, seem this helpful TechRepublic article, Use S.M.A.R.T. goals to launch management by objectives plan.

More goodies

More space

Yeah, I'm fixated.



The Rosette Nebula

The Rosette Nebula. Hot, bright stars recently formed from the surrounding clouds of gas and dust are radiating huge amounts of ultraviolet radiation (as well as visible light, seen here), which is absorbed by the surrounding hydrogen and helium gas, heating it from 100 Kelvins to 10000 Kelvins. This increases the pressure of the gas by more then a hundred times, and it pushes outwards against the surrounding clouds of gas, eating away at them, and simultaneously compressing them. The small, dark compact regions that are produced in this way will become the next generation of stars. (MegaPrime Camera, Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope, apod030429)

One picture is worth...

Here is a link to all sorts of images. You have to love the 'Internets'.

100 (Legal) Sources for Free Stock Images

By Laura Milligan

If you’ve ever tried to design a website or blog, you’ve probably felt the need to add images to your creation. It can be easy to see the Internet as a free-for-all, but images belong to the people who created them. Staying legal means you’ll have to either create your own images or buy them from stock sites. Fortunately, there are a number of sources for free images, and we’ve collected them here. So read on for 100 sources where you can find free stock images: and don’t worry — they’re all legal!

Most Popular

These resources are some of the most popular free stock image sites on the Web and with good reason. If you’re looking for some mainstream images, these are the first place to try.
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Our place in things

This site, at least in my case, creates a sense of humility. I entered my zip code and saw a clear picture of our isolation. That said, I realize there are zip codes from western states which would be alone is you hit the 'zoom'.

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Getting spacy

Stories like this are delightful in that they expand the possibilities of our imaginations.

Local Color: Plants under Alien Suns Could Come in a Variety of Hues

Assessing how photosynthesis works on Earth helps scientists predict black plants and other exotic flora on alien worlds

Plants do not have to be green. To be sure, the vast majority of vascular plants on Earth are green because during photosynthesis (the conversion of photons of light into stored chemical energy) they absorb more of the red and blue wavelength light emitted by the sun. But in the murky depths of Earth's waters lurk photosynthetic bacteria that appear purple to the human eye, employing light in the infrared spectrum to store energy; more archaic plants—such as lichens and moss—utilize more of the blue spectrum in visible light. There are even red, shade-dwelling vascular plants. "We did a broad survey of organisms that perform photosynthesis in order to understand how light selects for photosynthesis pigments given different types of environments," says biometeorologist Nancy Kiang of NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies at Columbia University. "The photon flux spectrum peaks in the red, which is where chlorophyll has peak absorption."
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A fun quiz

I like getting challenged, especially in unexpected ways.

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* Truth in Surfing Statement: I ran across this while searching for the source of a video clip I saw on another site.

A peek at another world

I am fighting to hold my head above the rising cyber waters and I know at the same time others are snorkeling or playing water pool or lap swimming. This is a look at that 'deep end' of the pool.

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More than words

This comes from one of my word sources, just stumbling across it as I cleaned out the old year to make room for the new. You have to love the message.

the gift of time (n.)

Whenever I have to tell my daughter I'm too busy to play, she runs to her room and whips out her drawing paper and crayons. A few minutes later she has a gift ready for me. It reads:

Gift Certifikit
No Work. A whole day of play with me.

If I begin redeeming my gift certificates, I wouldn't need to work for the next week and a half. But that shows the best gifts often don't cost a thing, except time.

kith \KITH\ noun

: familiar friends, neighbors, or relatives

* I have heard 'kith' used before but only in the context of 'kith and kin', which seems to beg for classification as a redundancy.

afflatus \uh-FLAY-tus\ noun

: a divine imparting of knowledge or power : inspiration