It does however speak to my fascination with gadgets . . . .
http://www.time.com/time/politics/artic
SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic — Dawn brought horrible scenes to light in Haiti’s capital on Wednesday: piles of disintegrated concrete, with limbs sticking out and muffled cries emanating from deep inside; wounded people staggering through the streets; and bodies littering the landscape. Huge swaths of Port-au-Prince lay in ruins, and thousands of people were feared dead in the rubble of government buildings, foreign aid headquarters and shantytowns that collapsed a day earlier in a powerful earthquake. . . .
Read the rest here: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/14/w
look at the pictures.
see for yourself.
. . . its only going to get worse from here on in, folks. As these kinds of natural catastrophes become more common (and believe me, they will) The poorer nations will fall like dominoes and undermine global stability in the long run. The wealthy nations will shore themselves up, but there will be a huge flux of refugees . . . and only 5 months till hurricane season. The real question is this: what do we do about it?
Of course, you may be saying to yourself that earthquakes and the weather have nothing to do with each other. And yeah, you're right, but think about it this way: Haiti was an impoverished country that was brought not just to its knees . .. but all the way to the floor in under a couple minutes by an earthquake that those of us here in California would consider scary, but not deadly. What happens in 5 months time when that little island has to defend itself against the Atlantic Hurricanes, which by most estimations have increased in frequency over the last 100 years?
~J(R)
~J(R)
Article Tools Sponsored By
By ELISABETH ROSENTHAL
Published: December 15, 2009
COPENHAGEN — Negotiators here are closing in on a sweeping deal that would compensate countries for preserving forests and, perhaps ultimately, other natural landscapes like peat soils, swamps and fields that play a crucial role in curbing climate change.
Though smokestacks and tailpipes are the defining symbols of climate change, the most important outcome of the Copenhagen conference may well be a new system to pay for conserving these disappearing natural assets based on their emissions benefits. Rainforest destruction accounts for 20 percent of global emissions, in large part because destroying such nature releases the CO2 stored in trees.
. . . . . .
Also, this program happens to be what the research group I work for has been striving to do. My Boss is in Copenhagen now to assist in the negotiations. To learn more: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/16/scien
Hope it works folks. Keep your fingers crossed.
~J(R)
C.W. Leadbetter Freemasonry and its Ancient Mystic Rites
also, I'm drunk.
~J(R)
Unfortunately, I mostly get these emails from family.
P.S. I apparently just won the Nigerian lottery and can grow my penis up to 8 feet long using a special mail-order formula.
~J(R)
Just goes to show, you can always count on 19th century Germans to come up with some really creepy ass'd shit.
~J(R)
badass wand-hiding-cane: check
black suit: check
pompous villain: check
Lucious Malfoy . . . . . check.
~J(R)
*Note: the author fails to mention all the douches who ride bikes like morrons on campus, nor the rates of bike accidents.
What’s the perfect gift to give to the person who has everything? Sponsored by Best Buy. Find holiday gifts for everyone on your list. |
Theft insurance.
~J(R)
also . . . there are sign ninjas. I knew they existed.
When the manager called to tell us the news, I flipped out. I told him how disappointed we've been and how unacceptable this kind of business is. Finally, I demanded our deposit back and informed the manager that we would no longer be having our wedding there. The manager was more than apologetic, and agreed to give us our money back. But even with this small victory, I can't help but feel depressed about that fact that in just a few moments we went from thinking that the majority of our work had been done for us to having to start from scratch again.
Fuck,
~J(R)
Well, It looks like it's that time again: The flood of yearly top-ten music lists. Of course, I was only reminded to do this by
![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small}
ninjafuzz's post, as per my usual M.O. Anyway, without further ado, here is my top ten, with accompanying links where possible:#1. Green Day: 21st Century Breakdown.
This has been easily the top played album on my ipod since I downloaded it, especially the song "Peacemaker". It reminds me a lot of American Idiot, which I also loved, and honestly I don't care if Green Day 'isn't punk anymore', because folks . . . hate to break it to you, they never really were. In any case, if you're looking for musical crack . . . you've found it. I can't get enough.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vY3M6Sed
#2. Janelle Monae: Metropolis
This album was a surprise for sure. I was pointed to it by my very own [Bad username: incorporeal girl] almost by accident. The whole album is fashioned by a storyline set in the futuristic era of 'Metropolis', a land where androids are essentially slaves of the human race, but are beginning to become self aware. I love the sci-fi overtones, Janelle Monae is beautiful, and the energy is through the roof. I love the Many Moons video too . . . check out that hair!!!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LHgbzNHV
#3. Muse: The Resistance
This is probably the most expected entry into the top ten list of all. I love Muse, and in my opinion they've become one of the best bands of the 2000's decade. Black Holes and Revelations still makes a prominent showing in my music rotation, and I think that The Resistance will probable share some of that space. I particularly enjoy the classical music influences that you can quickly identify in any of the tracks on this album. Overall, its like Queen went on an epic journey into space and came back to fight the establishment with rayguns.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ioG2jR-o
#4. The Living End: White Noise
I've been a fan of The Living End ever since discovering them thanks in large part to Guitar Hero 3. Their Australian Punkabilly styling appeals to me on some more primitive level. Its fun and gritty, and honestly these guys just rock their fucking asses off.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9t9YhqAT
#5. Mos Def: The Ecstatic
Its not often, unfortunately, that hip hop albums appear on my top tens, but Mos Def deserves a place here this year, for certain. This album is an intelligent observation of middle eastern themes in hip-hop. Which to be fair, I've not really ever heard yet. The album isn't perfect, but it is good. I think [Bad username: incorporeal_girl] is probably tired of hearing it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RNGpuZkd
#6. Flogging Molly: Swagger
Would you believe that even though Flogging Molly has made an appearance on all of my music ton tens that I had not yet bought their break-out album 'Swagger'? Well, believe it. Its amazing, and you should go out and get it right now if you don't already own it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=att42wPH
#7. Incubus: Light Grenades
I came to know Incubus in High School right around 1998 when the song Pardon Me first became popular. When their album "Morning View" came out, I quite enjoyed the more haunting lyrics and general feel. "Light Grenades" isn't their best, but it is good, and reminds me of that feeling I had in High School, when science and magic still held equal footing in my imagination.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s2kOB6Gf
#8. Me First and the Gimme Gimmes: What A Drag AND Take a Break
Ok, ok, I know . . . technically it's two albums, but really, I downloaded them both at the same time, and I love them equally. Punk covers of ridiculous songs, what could be better?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=koxmm-xF
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ymx8bHBi
#9. Kings of Leon: Only by the Night
Ok, so, admittedly, this isn't the best album ever, I bought it as an impulse after listening to live 105.3 after work for too long. It does have a couple good tracks, but overall I think I wouldn't recommend it. It made the list because I didn't listen to too many new albums this year. However, one kind of cool song to come from this: Closer. See the link below.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lkGhDHP0
#10. Pitbull: I know you want me, Calle Ocho
Not even a whole album for my number ten spot, just this song. Its an awesome club-tune, and it followed me back from Peru.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E2tMV96x
Cooties
Cooties is a non-scientific term in North American English used by children for an imaginary "disease" or condition said to infect through contact, often with someone being accused of being dirty or a child of a different gender. The term may have originated with references to lice, fleas and other pests. A child is said to "catch" cooties through any form of bodily contact, proximity, or touching of an "infected" person. The phrase is used by children aged 5-10.[1]
Etymology
The word may be derived from the Filipino kuto, literally head lice.[2]
The earliest known recorded uses date back to memoirs from the First World War. Albert N. Depew's World War I memoir, Gunner Depew (1918), includes: "Of course you know what the word "cooties" means....When you get near the trenches you get a course in the natural history of bugs, lice, rats and every kind of pest that had ever been invented."[3] Similarly, Lieut. Pat O'Brien's 1918 memoir "Outwitting the Hun -- My Escape from a German Prison Camp" refers to "cooties," meaning body lice, which in his case had been caught in the prison camp in Courtrai. Lice were of course rife in the trenches on both sides of the conflict, and highly contagious.
From its original meaning of head or body lice, the term seems to have evolved into a purely imaginary stand-in for anything repulsive.
[edit] Other terms for the condition
For ages 5 onwards, Cooties are known in Denmark as "pigelus" (literally "girl lice") or "jenkem" and "drengelus" ("boy lice"), and in Norway "jentelus" ("girl lice) and "guttelus" ("boy lice"). In Sweden and Finland it usually refers to girls, where they are known as tjejbaciller"[4] (literally "girl bacillus") and "tyttöbakteeri" ("girl bacteria") respectively.
In the United Kingdom the phrase "the lurgi", applicable to either sex, is commonly used by children.[citation needed] In south Wales the form is "scabs", and in Scotland "feechs".[citation needed]
Children sometimes "immunize" each other from cooties by administering a "cootie shot". One child typically administers the "shot" by reciting the rhyme "circle, circle / dot, dot / now you've got the cootie shot" while using an index finger to trace the circles and dots on another child's forearm. Continuing, a child may then say "circle, circle / square, square / now you have it everywhere", in which case the child receives an immunization throughout his or her body. A final shot is said "circle, circle / knife, knife / now you've got it all your life" or "circle, circle / fire, fire / now your shot will never expire", or "nickel, nickel / dime, dime / now you've got it all the time" while using their index finger to draw vertical lines on the other child's forearm. Sometimes a "cooties shot" is actually just a punch to the upper arm which simply "cures" the punched one from the "disease".
Obama health reform critics face inconvenient truth
By Cade Metz in San Francisco • Get more from this author
Posted in Odds and Sods, 12th August 2009 21:13 GMT
Free whitepaper – Power and Cooling Capacity Management for Data Centers
In perhaps the most amusing effort to discredit US President Barack Obama's plan for nationalized health care - if not the most ridiculous - US financial newspaper Investor's Business Daily has said that if Stephen Hawking were British, he would be dead.
"The controlling of medical costs in countries such as Britain through rationing, and the health consequences thereof, are legendary," read a recent editorial from the paper. "The stories of people dying on a waiting list or being denied altogether read like a horror script...
Click here to find out more!
"People such as scientist Stephen Hawking wouldn't have a chance in the UK, where the National Health Service would say the life of this brilliant man, because of his physical handicaps, is essentially worthless."
The paper has since been notified that Hawking is both British and still among the living. And it has edited the editorial, acknowledging that the original version incorrectly represented the whereabouts of perhaps the world's most famous scientific mind. But it has not acknowledged that its mention of Hawking misrepresented the NHS as well.
"I wouldn’t be here today if it were not for the NHS," Hawking told The Guardian. "I have received a large amount of high-quality treatment without which I would not have survived."
The best you can say about Investor's Business Daily is that unlike US radio talk host Rush Limbaugh, it has not compared Obama's health care logo to a swastika. ®
The above link will take you to the story written by Jeff Tolofson in Nature about the Asner-lab during my work in Peru.
If you haven't been paying attention, yeah; We're kind of a big deal.
~J(R)
No Children - Mountain Goats
I hope that our few remaining friends
Give up on trying to save us
I hope we come up with a failsafe plot
To piss off the dumb few that forgave us
I hope the fences we mended
Fall down beneath their own weight
And I hope we hang on past the last exit
I hope it's already too late
And I hope the junkyard a few blocks from here
Someday burns down
And I hope the rising black smoke carries me far away
And I never come back to this town
Again in my life
I hope I lie
And tell everyone you were a good wife
And I hope you die
I hope we both die
I hope I cut myself shaving tomorrow
I hope it bleeds all day long
Our friends say it's darkest before the sun rises
We're pretty sure they're all wrong
I hope it stays dark forever
I hope the worst isn't over
And I hope you blink before I do
Yeah I hope I never get sober
And I hope when you think of me years down the line
You can't find one good thing to say
And I'd hope that if I found the strength to walk out
You'd stay the hell out of my way
I am drowning
There is no sign of land
You are coming down with me
Hand in unlovable hand
And I hope you die
I hope we both die
~J(R)
~J(R)
Day 47 (as transcribed from the field notes of J. Jacobson)
Currently, at least as of this morning, we have completed about 6 of our planned 12 flight hours here in Panama. Right now, we are grounded due to weather, but my god what amazing weather it is. I’m not sure I’ve ever heard thunder this loud before in my life.
I’m making the most of it to be sure. I used some of my more nefarious skills to pick the lock on my window here on the fifth floor of the hotel to better hear the thunder and rain while I drink coffee and listen to what I lovingly refer to as “Quest Metal”, while stairing out the open expanse between myself and the Panamanian rainforest.
Displays of nature like this make it easy to see how ancient man could believe in the fury of the Gods from the heavens. I can barely see 300 yards from my window. There is a white flash in the clouds every minute or so, with an utterly colossal sound always soon to follow. The sense in the air is electric. You can feel it on your skin and in your hair, an ancient instinct telling you to simultaneously bask in awe of what you are about to witness, and to seek shelter.
“I roamed the countryside searching for answers to things I did not understand. Why thunder lasts longer than that which causes it, and why immediately on its creation the lightning becomes visible to the eye while thunder requires time to travel. How?”~Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519)
~J.Jacobson
Day 42: (as transcribed from the field notes of J.Jacobson)
Three days ago I arrived in Panama City after a few days of respite at home in California. I got in late and pretty much just checked into the hotel and went straight to bed. The next day, however, I got word that Geoff, our pilot, wasn’t getting in until 2-3pm and that Ty had missed his connecting flight from Atlanta due to weather, and so wouldn’t be getting in till the late evening. Until then, I would just have to entertain myself. Unfortunately, our hotel is a bit out of the way of pretty much everything, so it’s not like I could just go walk downtown.
So, after a couple hours watching some of the DVDs I brought with me (I love Chapelle’s Show), I got fed up and decided to take a taxi to a place called “The Causeway” for a little sight-seeing and hopefully some adventure. The Causeway is a small chain of three islands on the boarder of the Panama Canal joined by a single road. The Causeway is home to an assortment of restaurants, bars, and shops.
By the time I got there it was raining, and a lightening storm had just started, but I still decided to walk the road across the islands at the very least to watch nature’s little show. It was particularly beautiful with the huge shipping freighters passing by, and then being periodically light up by a flash of lightening. Eventually I found myself in a small market where I bought booze and some snacks that I brought back to the hotel with me. Back at the hotel I found Geoff waiting for me, and eventually that night Ty met up with us and he and I had a drink before heading to bed.
~J.Jacobson
Day 46: (as transcribed from the field notes of J.Jacobson)
We’ve been sitting on our asses for days now waiting for a part to come so our engineer can fix yet another problem with the plane. Stir-crazy doesn’t even begin to cover it. We’ve had to reschedule our return home yet again.
Fortunately, none of us are prone to sitting still for long. The day before yesterday our pilot decided to rent a car and we all made a road trip to one of the many resort beaches on the southern coast of Panama. It was awesome. It literally looked like we were living in a Corona beer commercial. It was great fun and just the thing to get our minds off of our crappy situation. The next day the part arrived and we were able to install it by late afternoon.
This morning . . . we flew.
Panama really is a beautiful country, and even more amazing is that it is home to such a great technological achievement. From less than 10,000 ft up you can see the whole country from coast to coast. I never thought in my entire life I would get to see two great oceans at the same time.
~J.Jacobson
Day 29: (as transcribed from the field notes of J.Jacobson)
(9/15/09)Things are coming to a head, and the end is finally in sight for our time here in Puerto Maldonado. We are on schedule with the project which means that we’ll be leaving here in five days to head for Panama for another 2 day project before heading home. This realization has both helped us to make the final push, and equally made every moment here just a little bit longer. What were once conversations about movies and people are now reflections on our time here, our favorite things about home, and thoughts of the first things we plan to do when we get back. The last week or so has gone exceptionally well, as with GP and GA gone on other business we’ve found ourselves unhindered by the seemingly constant conflicts that appear when the bosses are around. The weather has also been on our side, which is a major bonus.
Yesterday the flight crew was invited to the home of our driver, William, for dinner with his family. Of course, we could hardly refuse the invitation with the promise of a home-cooked meal involved. Also, this provided us with the opportunity to sample real Peruvian food and to see how the people here really live, rather than the comfortable lie provided to us by our hotel.
William picked us all up and took us to the house where he, his parents, and his Aunt and Uncle live near town. It was a ramshackle building that, like everything else here, seemed thrown together with whatever materials could be found over the skeleton of what was surely once a legitimate attempt at affordable housing. We were shown to their modest kitchen/dining room to sit at a large and well used hardwood table. Seeing the construction of the room we were in, it was difficult to discern if the kitchen had always been attached to the main house, or if the roof had been added as an afterthought. The walls of our dining room were a salmon pink color that looked like they may have actually been painted with the guts of a fish.
Our meal that evening was an herb rice with roasted duck, and though tough to eat (the duck skin being incredibly resilient to our attempts to break/cut/bite our way to the meat) it was a wonderful meal and very much enjoyed by all. Clearly these people are poor, but not poor of character, nor of heart. The family interaction was very happy, and we were all very glad to eat and take pictures with them. The sheer amount of food they made for us was titanic. Even if there had been twice as many of us there I don’t see how we could have eaten it all.
We ended up taking leftovers with us and had the same meal for lunch the next day, and it was arguably better the second time around, especially without William’s family hovering around us while we ate, serving us like we were royalty.
Jump ahead to last night (9/16/09). With the schedule being what it is both Ty and I have been neglecting the data-backup procedures. This has now unfortunately come to bite us in the ass because we’ve discovered that one of the main drives may have been corrupted. We’re still trying to sort it out, and we’re not completely freaked out yet, but trying any recovery measures in the field is frustrating due to the internet situation here. Along those same lines, I find it absurdly amusing how people back at the California lab send us email with huge attachments and expect us to keep up with them, after multiple warnings from us on how bad the internet is here. Last night it took almost three hours for me to download a 1.08 Mb file that Aravindh wanted me to look at with some urgency. Most of that time was spent in just attempting to log on to my email, which constantly fails because it is so slow.
On a different note, the other day I had a good, solid, block of time to myself, so I thought I might read for a bit, if only to get my mind off the bad thoughts that creep into your brain when you’re lonely and in a strange place. I came across the following passage in the book I’m reading, and for some reason I found it to resonate with me at the time in both a sad and beautiful way: “One day I realized that I no longer dreamed of what I would do when I was whole again. My will burned to reach that point, and then suddenly was nothing. I had become nothing more than my desire to fly. I had adjusted, somehow. I had evolved in that unfamiliar region, plodding my stolid way to where the scientists and remakers of the world congregated. The means had become the end. If I regained my wings, I would become someone new, without the desire that defined me.” (China Meiville, Peridio Street Station)
~J.Jacobson
Day 24: (as transcribed from the field notes of J.Jacobson)
I have a little time now to update on how things have been going. For
the most part we’ve all been working hard and getting lots of great
data from all over Madre de Dios. We continue to run +8 hour days in
the plane and then processing our data in the evening. The schedule is
starting to take its toll however. Moral isn’t very high, and our
pilot is burning out quickly.
Thankfully (or not?) yesterday we were grounded in the morning due to
an issue with the fuel pump in the port engine, and then later the
weather prevented us from launching, so effectively we all got an
impromptu day off. Today I awoke to the sound of heavy rain on our
thin tin roof, so we are on standby until things clear up, but no one
is really holding out hope that we are flying today.
I find myself thinking a lot about what it is we are really doing
here. Up in the plane, out on the edge of Man’s influence where we
can’t send or receive radio signal, there is just the three of us in
an overloaded 50 year old plane, hovering precariously over the Amazon
rainforest. As you look out, you can see nothing but trees for miles
in every direction all the way to the horizon. I keep thinking about
it as if it were a green mossy blanket covering the earth. From that
perspective it is easy to see how people can believe that this is an
unlimited natural resource. You also realize how special this place
is, and you almost immediately get this surreal feeling that brings to
mind words like “beauty”, “history”, and “life” in it’s most pure and
savage sense. The reality, however, is very harsh.
In Peru alone they are clearing away nearly 3% of their rainforest per
year. This means that at this rate, all of what I can see from up at
10,000 feet will be gone in my lifetime. Even more tragic is the
glaring fact that this is one of the most bio-diverse places in the
whole world. The loss of such a thing would mean the destruction of a
treasure that could never be recovered – literally millions of years
of life through evolution that could never be remade, not even the
trees. The soils here are so nutrient depleted from such a long
residence of forest that when the trees are felled it takes decades to
re-estabilish species, not to mention the fact that many species
cannot exist without a host of symbiotic trees and shrubs already
present. The systems here are so complex and interwoven that their
loss can only mean that they would be gone forever.
What we are really doing here is trying to ensure that these losses
never happen. The monitoring methods we are using are the first step
towards establishing an economic incentive for keeping forests intact.
If we can do that, then we have made the forests economically valuable
to landowners other than their timber value, meaning ultimately that
people will protect them as property. It is a sad state to admit that
this is one of the few strategies that might actually preserve these
forests, but if that is what it takes then it will be worth it.
Maybe if everyone could see this place from where I have seen it now
things would be different.
~J.Jacobson
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