from the great state of New Mexico

From Americablog.com (a great quote and so true):

Pam Spaulding has a link to an insightful editorial on the GOP's obsession with all things gay. From the Alamogordo (New Mexico) Daily News, the headline reads "Republicans: Stop thinking about gay sex" and the first line is priceless:

It seems to me Republicans spend more time thinking about gay sex than any other group of people in the known world even more so than gay people trying to find other gay people with whom to have sex.

Couldn't have written it better ourselves. The editorial focuses on a gay-obsessed state legislator in New Mexico. But the sentiment can be applied to George Bush, Sam Brownback, Marilyn Musgrave, Mitt Romney...the list goes on and on....

Japan refuses to properly attone for WWI - WWII atrocities

Denial of the Japanese rape of Nanking and related atrocities can no longer go unatoned for in Japan. Their brutal occupation of the Korean peninsula should also be apologized for and marked in their history books, as it is not at the present time.

Bill Richardson for President!

Other than being a New Mexican, which is good enough in my book, Richardson has extensive experience in Washington and is an outsider. Hillary Clinton is too divisive a figure, so please Democrats, please do not elect her in a primary. She is too close to power, being a member of congress. Bill Richardson is an intelligent, strong willed individual with experience. Note that he is governor of New Mexico, and most of the presidents in the last 25 years have come from the governor position. The governorship has proven to be an important proving ground for recent presidents and Richardson has done a spectacular job in that role as the governor of NM over the past several years.

Note that I'm not a Democrat (independent), but it seems only intelligent to focus just on the Democrat candidates in the upcoming election, given the bollix that Republicans have made of everything over the last 6 years. The American public would have to be a bunch of fools to vote for more of the same (though they did vote for this retard W. Bush twice!).

Richardson, 2008!

Firefly

bring it back

Penalty Kicks Should Never Decide a World Cup Final Match

World Cup Final 2006: France v Italy, 1-1 Tie, then Penalty Kicks to decide the ultimate football (soccer) match. Why should the contestants of this match not keep playing and decide the game on the field rather than the clumsy penalty kick shootout. Add another half to the game, golden goal if need be after the second full game. Ice hockey games are settled in this matter, leading to some great contests, why not the World Cup?

Another example is the 1994 Final, Brasil v Italy, 0-0 Tie, then Penalty Kicks. Good matchup but a poor way to decide a game. In fact, I believe no finals match should ever be decided by a shootout. Let the game be decided on the field.

Encrypted Email

Using email? You must assume that every message you send is read, scrutinized. Indications of this level of invasion of your privacy can be found in spam.

Anyone (friends, family, ...) interested in communicating on a permanent basis with me using encrypted email?

John Aravosis may be militant, but he’s cool

Bush's world

by John in DC - 12/01/2006 04:05:00 PM

It's an absolute mess in Lebanon and Iraq. This is the price you pay for electing an idiot as president. The Republicans should be ashamed of themselves.

Zeitgeist

It would seem that an important part of our current culture is fantasy and science fiction material. Possibly brought on by the success of the Lord of the Rings trilogy of movies, there has been a lot of movies coming out recently with similar fantastic themes. Having been reading fantasy books aggressively since I was very young, this is all awesome for me!

Iraq=Vietnam

Let us not march down the path of folly again. I don’t suggest a complete US pullout, but let us end this madness, we look like a bunch of fools right now. Are we not smarter than this?

Time to putting an end to buying the vote

Today’s date is listed above. It has been clear for a good time now that the Republican party is capable of outspending the Democrats for elections. Why can the US Government be bought? The greatest democracy (longest standing) is history should be above selling to the highest bidder. Money should not be a factor in democractic politics.

It is a difficult problem, with many facets, but there is a solution and time needs to be spent to find that solution. Money politics is a contradiction to a true democracy.

Gerhard Schroeder may be the man

"We rightly criticize that in most Islamic states, the role of religion for society and the character of the rule of law are not clearly separated," Schroeder wrote. "But we fail to recognize that in the USA, the Christian fundamentalists and their interpretation of the Bible have similar tendencies."

- Gerhard Schroeder

Seriously, where is that separation of church and state in the good ole US of A?

129 Hamlin Avenue

Various pictures from around the chateau.

Checkout the basement office and the various rooms around the house. Also, far too many pictures of the yard, but all of the gardens are really cool (at least I think so).

The Degree

Three years of schooling and you get another piece of paper to add to the collection!

My daily commute to WHOI

It is rough riding the 5 miles to work every day. Actually, I consider myself very fortunate to be able to do this. I’ll ride as long as the weather permits. It has been mild lately, so I should get at least a month of two more. I’m at WHOI every day except Tuesday when I go up to BU to work in my office there and “fly the flag” as the boss man says. I’m actually a BU employee, it is just that everyone I work with is at WHOI.

The bike path is actually an old rail line that was taken out and converted to a bike path. It goes from right next to our house in Falmouth right into Woods Hole. I hear that during the summer it is packed and somewhat dangerous, but right now there are just random people. The trail goes right next some really nice beaches. My friend Guilherme went windsurfing off one of them this past weekend.

Keep big media out of politics

ABC and parent Disney should not be allowed to put out a blatant political mocudrama as they did this year in an attempt to influence US elections. Keep big media out of politics.

The main disturbing factor in this, is that before they released their mocumentary “The Path to 9/11”, they released it exclusively to conservative bloggers. Why did they do this? Why was there no equal coverage?

May they go down in flames for attempting to influence an election.

Bigelow Lab, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution

These are some of the views in and around my office building, Bigelow Lab. The first is a picture of the outside of the building. Notice the white cupola at the top of the building. Access to the cupola is through a spiral staircase on the fourth floor and it is open for anyone who works there to just go right on up. One can walk out on the deck surrounded by the railing as well.

The next three pictures are from the mens room bathroom. I thought that the plaque was pretty cool showing the flush chain form the old bathroom. Also, the view from the urinals.

The WHOI campus is huge, with some 20-30 buildings spread all over Woods Hole and the surrounding towns. Bigelow Lab was the original building for the Institution in 1930 and now houses the group that I’m in, the Applied Ocean Physics & Engineering (AOP&E) group, one of 6 large groups. Within AOP&E, I’m in the coolest group of them all, the acoustics group. I feel lucky to be able to work in the original building, on the ocean, in downtown Woods Hole. The view is spectacular.

The picture with the rainbow over the window is on the 4th floor and overlooks Woods Hole. The 4th floor is where random people in the dept. are housed. The acoustics group is on the 2nd floor, which is where my office is.

The spiral staircase heads up to the cupola and is right next to the rainbow window.

The rest of the pictures are from outside the cupola on the roof of Bigelow. The first overlooks the Sound by the office, which I think is called Vineyard Sound. You can see Martha’s Vineyard off in the distance. Other pictures are of Water street which is Main street, downtown Woods Hole. The picture of the various moored boats are of Eel Pond in Woods Hole, for which there is a draw bridge this is raised that lets them out. That is on the opposite side of Bigelow from the ocean.

All in all, it is an awesome place to work.

Netflix customer service = Nonexistant

Got a problem with netflix, your screwed. After an extensive internet search I’ve come to the conclusion there there is no such thing as a way to contact Netflix via email. Further, I found their Customer Service phone number on the web, but waited on hold for 1/2 hour and gave up.

Bottom line is that I don’t have time for this. I’ve cancelled my account and filed a complaint with the California Attorney General for this illegal activity. (The illegalness stems for the original problem I needed to discuss with Netflix Customer Service.)

Ghostbusters 3

Give it to me please. Ghostbusters 3, with a great script would bring me back to life, please give it to me. Rumors abound on the Internet about this moving coming about. I can only hope that it is a worthy effort resulting in an awesome movie.

Also, let me take this opportunity to state that Ghostbusters is probably the best movie of all time.

The USA needs a branch of the armed services dedicated to cyberspace.

Information systems in the United States of America (and the rest of the world for that matter) of both the armed forces and civilian networks are wide open to computer attack. Computers located in US army facilities are well known to be lying password unprotected. Sensitive information is open for public viewing. Were an enemy state to make a concerted effort to attack the US via the internet, there would not be much to stop them and the consequences could be dramatic. Even a simple denial of service attack would be enough to cripple the US government. Were a more sophisticated attack brought through the use of a virus or a worm, the damage could be widespread. The simple reliance of so many government agencies on the notoriously insecure Microsoft Windows operating systems is frightening in its own right.

Why can’t existing agencies not take on this task? The mandates for the CIA, FBI, and NSA are not specific to this task and thus their focus cannot be brought fully to the intricacies of this problem. Not only do defensive systems need to be in place, but we also must have to capability of disabling enemy systems via the internet.

Let us not forget the massacre in Uzbekistan

On May 13th, 2005, Uzbekistan authorities opened fired on a peaceful demonstration of 10,000 people. It is not known how many died, but estimates go as high as 2500. What have the United States and the European Union done about this atrocity? Absolutely nothing.

I love my Apple

Not a day goes by that I don’t fully enjoy using my Apple computer. It is a truly amazing experience to be able to use this computer. No confusion, everything really nicely organized, and the built in search rocks.

Anti-gay = evil racist bigotry promoted by hate groups equivalent to the Ku Klux Klan

I won't say too much about this because this should be obvious. Would you discriminate against african-americans? Should african-americans be denied the right to marry and have their partners receive their employment and health benefits? The answers to these questions had better be a resounding NO. Then why would someone endorse this kind of discrimination against gay people? IT IS NOT RIGHT. Make a stand as you obviously should have in the civil-rights era. Make a stand and do the right thing.

Hate groups such as the American Family Association (Owner of Family Life Radio stations) should be outed and boycotted. AFA, the American Family Association was probably founded by members of the Ku Klux Klan and should not be allowed to influence public opinion on this issue. They hate and it is not enough for them to keep their hatred within their households -- they bring it into the public arena by trying to claim a higher ground. In fact, history will reflect on the AFA as it does on the KKK and reveal their evilness. Boycott this hate group organization and others like it (Boyscouts of America). Fight, fight, fight until this issue is settled once and for all.

Walt Disney could care less about your family

Just got back from visiting Walt Disney World in Florida and had a great time. The place is great for kids and families to have a good time. However, there are darker sides to the Magic Kindom. As an example, consider the foods at the various parks. Do you like eating healthy? If so, don't go to WDW --- the only food you can find at any of the many vendors selling food and drink is junk food. Not a healthy menu to be found. It almost seems they would like to encourage obesity in the US just so that people will spend more money at their parks.

Yes, it is a business and their motivation is to make money. In fact, money is their only motivation -- they could care less about you and yours. I can understand paying a somewhat sizeable entrance fee to get into the various parks, given all that one can do there. So, pay a large fee up front and be done with it. Not at Disney -- they will try and suck every last penny from you. Not one thing within the park is priced decently. Some examples of out of control capitalism that I witnessed at the parks are $2.50 for a nonpareil (piece of chocolate about 1 inch diameter, 1/2 inch thick with some sprinkles on it), $4.50 for a run of the mill hot dog!!, $60.00 for a stocking cap at Norway in Epcot, and $8.00 for a pint of beer at a pub in the UK in Epcot. Want to treat your family and show them responsible business practices, don't go to Walt Disney World and support their little empire and its' share holders. It is time for the Mouse to be dethroned.

The major media organizations in the United States of America are nothing more than political propaganda machines

If the war in Iraq isn't enough to prove that the mainstream media no longer has any journalistic credentials, then I'm not sure what would. Perhaps the reporters the White House is paying to report the news for them, their way. = Armstrong Williams. Please listen to the weekly radio broadcast Counterspin (if your local NPR station does not play this show, then the podcast can be downloaded from the iTunes website). Counterspin is produced by the media watchdog group FAIR (fair.org) and provides in-depth criticism of the mainstream media and illustrates what the mainstream journalists have seemingly forgotten since journalism school (if they ever even attended).

Something is rotten with the state of intramural sports at Rennselaer Polytechnic Institute

Sadly, with all the greatness of many, many things on the RPI campus, and all the attention to so many facets of student life, intramural sports is sadly neglected. I give as an example, intramural soccer. There are no referees, which is alright in itself, as most teams can play fair and honor like. However, there is no supervision of any sort for the league and consequently it is a sham. For example, the league is broken into four divisions, A,B,C and D -- A being the hardest and D the easiest. Quite often the D league is loaded by sandbaggers and ever more troubling is that some teams will play in all four leagues to increase their chances of winning. What is the point in league separation if teams are just going to play wherever they wish?

Thank you, brother Steven, for the new blog!

My brother Steven setup this blog for me, and it is quite nice with all the bells and whistles. I owe you big time bro. I will be transferring all of my old posts from the original blog to this one. The originals can still be found here:

http://www.beourguest.net/blog/