New "Incredible Hulk" Trailer

The new trailer is up and available in HD. What do our readers think? Will this "reimagining" of the Hulk be better than Ang Lee's version? Or will every version of a film about the Green Behemoth be relegated to Wards "Worst Ever" list?

I will try to see it. But then I am a sucker for films like this one.

McCain on Disability

One of the downsides of being the oldest man ever to seek a first term in the Presidency is that people are always wondering if you are up to the job. Rumors that Ronald Reagan was already succumbing to Alzheimer's-related dementia only make things worse for John McCain. But he has steadily proclaimed his good health and vital nature. But this may have been undermined by a new report that he is receiving Disability benefits from the Navy because of significant impairment.

On Monday, McCain's staff identified the retirement benefit as a "disability pension" and said that McCain "was retired as disabled because of his limited body movements due to injuries as a POW."

McCain campaign strategist Mark Salter said Monday night that McCain was technically disabled. "Tortured for his country -- that is how he acquired his disability," Salter said.

Certain types of military and veterans pensions are either partially or completely tax-exempt, depending on the seriousness of the disability. In McCain's case, the exemption is 100%.

Now, FDR served ably without the use of his legs and JFK served while suffering from crippling back pain. So, this is not to say that a person can not be a good president while having disabilities. But I think it is fair to ask in this case whether John McCain would truly be able to serve out his term if elected. It makes his choice of VP all the more important to his viability in the general election.

Bathroom finder

There are few of us who have not at least once been out and about and suddenly had a critical need for a bathroom. With most places having an "employees only" policy, it can be hard to know where to turn when the moment strikes. Now, Immodium - the makers of the popular anti-diarrhea medication - have posted an online bathroom finder which works by zip code. I can't help thinking this is the kind of thing which REALLY should be a mobile site for quick searching on your cell phone. But it is a start!

Interest Rate Cuts Cause Inflation

I finally have found an article that states what I have been saying to Nomad for a few months now. When The Fed lowers interest rates, it weakens the dollar which is contributing to the rise in cost of oil/gasoline. I asked an economic professor who I know and he confirmed that this made sense to him, but economic policy wasn't his specialty. To put it simply, the by product of lower interest rates is that there are more dollars in the economy. When there are more dollars, the value of each one goes down. As the value of the dollar goes down, prices go up. So, each dollar buys less or any given commodity. (Like Oil) I'm not sure The Fed shouldn't have lowered interest rates, but we need to be honest with the American people that there is no magic fix to our current situation. Now that things have stabilized some, the best policy is probably to do what we can to strengthen the dollar. This is the only way to really lower the cost of oil, gasoline and food.

Randomness: Bated Breath

I was talking with a friend today about the phrase "bated breath" (often spelled "baited breath") and looked up the etymology at...

http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-bai1.htm

...and for those too lazy to click thru, here is the short version: Bated here is a contraction of abated through loss of the unstressed first vowel (a process called aphesis); it means ?reduced, lessened, lowered in force?. So bated breath refers to a state in which you almost stop breathing as a result of some strong emotion, such as terror or awe.

After yesterday's work experience, I could use a dog fix

Batman vs The Dark Knight

This is an interesting comparison of the original Batman movie trailer with the current DARK NIGHT trailer, showing how amazing similar they are in terms of editting and shot choice. Was it on purpose, or did someone use a standard trailer template for both?

See more funny videos at CollegeHumor

Russia tries to turn back the clock on the Reformation

In this day and age, it is uncommon to hear about Christians persecuting other Christians. The Popes tend to talk about reconciliation rather than confrontation, ecumenical movements seek to minimize even honest doctrinal differences, and the major clash of religions discussed in most places is between Islam and Christianity.

But in Russia, it appears the prosecution of Christians by Christians is going strong, as Vladamir Putin's government looks to use the power of religion to strengthen the power of the state.

There was a time after the fall of Communism when small Protestant congregations blossomed here in southwestern Russia, when a church was almost as easy to set up as a general store. Today, this industrial region has become emblematic of the suppression of religious freedom under President Vladimir V. Putin.

Just as the government has tightened control over political life, so, too, has it intruded in matters of faith. The Kremlin’s surrogates in many areas have turned the Russian Orthodox Church into a de facto official religion, warding off other Christian denominations that seem to offer the most significant competition for worshipers. They have all but banned proselytizing by Protestants and discouraged Protestant worship through a variety of harassing measures, according to dozens of interviews with government officials and religious leaders across Russia.

How many times will Russia repeat the totalitarian cycle? America looks to "export freedom" to the Middle East, we need to remember that even in Europe freedom is not an irresistible march toward victory.

Test Your Reflexes

In lieu of posting real news, I figured I'd give everyone yet another way to waste time... Test your reflexes with a sheep game.

This is why those Spring allergies are worth it

Greener Grass is Everywhere But Here

"Not My Ministry" Syndrome

Back in the 80s and 90s, there was a lot of talk in business about NIH Syndrome: Not Invented Here. Among companies, there was an unwillingness to accept change that came from the outside. Any approach or new idea that did not come from within the company was rejected out of hand, and often a perfectly good solution to a problem would be abandoned because it was not an in-house solution. Apple was particularly guilty of this, and got a lot of bad press for it. But as the decades waned, the companies willing to adopt outside ideas and acquire other companies grew and strengthened, and those who did not failed. Apple was the rare exception to survive, but that did so by overcoming "Not Invented Here" by embracing outside ideas like Intel Chips, a UNIX core, the Webkit engine, etc.

I have been observing over the last decade that evangelical churches have begun their own version of this that I call "NMM Syndome" -- Not My Ministry. Churches which have maintained successful ministries for decades are abandoning them because they were not the idea of any of the current pastoral staff. Current ministries which are successful - but done by the laity - are ignored and starved for funds and attention. And any ministry which has existed for more than 10 years is actively discouraged, unless it happens to be the baby of one of the current pastors, elders, or deacons. If it is "Not My Ministy" then it is inherently a bad thing. Even trends embraced by churches from the outside are no longer "Helping Women in Need", but now has to be branded as "Mary Smith's Outreach to Redeemed Women". Everything is about whose fingerprints are on a ministry, and not about the fruit it is brearing

I guess this is part of human nature. But why does the church embrace a way of thinking which has already been shown to be a failure in business? Are you seeing a similar trend at your church? Am I wrong and this is nothing new? Let me know in the comments below.

iPhone Gotcha - Can't Turn Off Shuffle

One of the nice features of the iPhone is that as you open each playlist, or album, or artist there is a "Shuffle" option at the top, automatically. Click it and it plays shuffled. Click elsewhere and it plays in line. So imagine my surprise when suddenly no matter what I did, every playlist, artist, etc. was shuffling! Not a big deal when playing the latest musical album, but quite a problem when trying to listen thru an audiobook or other arrangement with sequential sections. Luckily, the answer was online...

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20071115065453AAFqgKd

...basically, when you play a track, you have the option to "tap" the album art. If you do so, additional controls will appear. Among them are repeat, the time line of the song, and a shuffle control. Apparently, if the shuffle is set here IT STAYS HERE until you unset it in this same place. Since these controls only appear if tapped for, this is not obvious later.

A good tip for the iPhone users out there. And a reminder that even Apple sometimes makes a boneheaded move in UI design.

I like to do this to our dog

Goodbye, SPOT Watch. We'll miss thee... uh, not much.

Apparently, Microsoft's attempt to replace the wristwatch with a web-aware information appliance is now officially ended. The SPOT Watch, which promised a Dick Tracy-esque future, is being discontinued. I used to think it was a great idea. But I began an experiment in 2007 with not wearing a watch and using my iPhone and other nearby clocks on Macs, PCs, and VCRs instead. I have not missed my wristwatch at all, and I enjoy the lack of a tan line. Who needs a watch on your wrist when clocks are ubiquitous around us? And if we don't need a clock on the wrist, why enhance the wristwatch at all?

The cell phone is the future of connected time pieces.

http://www.engadget.com/2008/04/23/spot-watches-r-i-p-2004-2008/

Tax rebate checks start arriving Monday

Yes, believe it or now, the stimulus checks will enter the economy in only a few days. Will they lift us out of the recession? Will they lead to rampant inflation? We'll have to wait and see. Either way, I suspect very few Americans will mind having a little extra cash, even if all they do is pay down some of their debt.

Of course, the President is still hoping you'll spend these things... but not on anything made in China.

The Collapse of the OLPC

As Mod-bloggers are aware, I have been a fan of the OLPC concept and was a buyer into their Get-One-Give-One program. I also posted a scathing review of the actual laptop I received. The hardware was good, but the software was almost unusable. Since then, I have tried out the laptop several other times for "productive" uses and have found the software that ships with the unit to be buggy, slow, and hard-to-use even for simple tasks. The best software has been software I loaded outside the Sugar interface and ran from the command-line. I am now officially an OLPC skeptic. But I kept hope alive in that I am not the target audience - third-world children are - so it is possible I simply am trying to use a screw driver to hammer in a nail.

But it appears I am not alone. There have been a myriad of defections from the project, most governments are going with competitors like the Asus EeePC and Intel ClassmatePC, and Nicolas Negroponte is now pushing the OLPC toward a slimmed-down version of Windows XP... this after rejecting an offer of a free MacOS X because it was "not open enough."

The OLPC was a noble undertaking and has spawned a whole new ecosystem of "lightweight laptops", but it is time to face reality: the OLPC is dying and will not rise from its ashes.

New Prince Caspian Trailer Debuts

Water banned from MLB dugouts

We have posted plenty of criticism here of the bottled water craze: it is too expensive, it creates waste, etc. But it seems strange to ban bottled water from baseball dugouts at Major League Baseball games!

White Sox clubhouse personnel said if players take bottled water onto the bench, all the bottled water will be removed from the clubhouse as punishment.

So remember, the biggest threat to baseball isn't steroids or HGH or amphetamines or runaway ticket prices or four-hour games.

It's water.

Hopefully, they allow the water if it is delivered in gatorade-logoed cups instead. {{Roll eyes.}

Even Wookies need a breathalyzer

Hillary Clinton wins PA by 10 points

You couldn't tell it by the signage we saw down in Hershey, PA last week - Obama had over twice as many signs up, although Ron Paul beat them all - but apparently the former First Lady had a huge upswell of support. CNN is calling her the winner in the Pennsylvania Democratic Primary by 10 points.

I still say the Dems are crazy if they do not nominate Barack Obama. But no one ever accused the Democratic (or Republican) party of an overabundance of logic or intelligence. Politics is politics.

Happy Birthday Ward

Tony Snow jumps to CNN

CRChair and I were discussing this weekend he increasing irrelevance of FoxNews, and traced back its fall from the departure of Tony Snow from the news team. Prior to that - at leas in my own view - they were usually fairly balanced in their coverage and were taken about as seriously as CNN or ABCNews or the other major players. Since then, they have embraced their critics charged and become largely a hit-squad for the Right and a purveyor or celebrity scandal. Not something I am eager to watch or visit on the web.

Now, apparently, Tony Snow is back... but at CNN! Perhaps he has the same view I do of his former news network home? Too bad. We could have used the old FoxNews in this cycle.

I see this sign a lot

SUPERdelegates?

I ask our faithful Mod-Blog readers to forgive us as we take some time to come back up to ranting speed after a weekend away.

The perils of the Claw Machine

Not likely an issue for me, but CRChair and I do love the claw machines.

Apologies for the shaky cam, but its worth it!

Gas prices

Gas prices
Originally uploaded by nomad7674.

Did ABCNews lose the Democratic Debate?

I missed last night's debate because of two things: (1) I had a church activity which demanded my time and (2) I simply don't think the candidates have anything new to say to each other at this point. How many more times can Hillary Clinton insinuate but not outright say that Obama is too young and inexperienced to win, and how many more times can Obama remind us all that Hillary Clinton voted for the Iraq War when he did not? That is really what both of them keep bringing it back to at this point.

But it appears a lot of people ARE still watching, and the consensus seems to be that the big lose of the debate was ABCNews for allowing themselves to appear biased toward Clinton and away from Obama. And if any new organization could not afford to appear biased in such a way, it has to be the one with a former Clinton staffer working as anchorman.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/17/AR2008041700013_pf.html

Painful truths

Proof that there is NOTHING more powerful than a man with too much time on his hands

Mario Theme Played with RC Car and Bottles - Watch more free videos

New Phone Phishing Scam

Most of us probably bring he same skepticism to our home phone that we do to our e-mail inboxes. But some do not, and scammers are taking advantage of it.

"We know as a general public that there's a lot of fraudulent activity on credit cards and debit cards, so when we start hearing ... your financial institution calling you ask you for specific information and providing information that nobody else should know, it brings down our wariness," said McCormick, who is with the organized fraud section.

He said investigators are seeing a steep increase in reports of a scam in which a caller names an unusual big-ticket item and asks if the customer has recently purchased it.

When the customer says no, the caller says the company involved has been cropping up in a lot of suspicious transactions.

The caller provides a reference number for the customer's file and give the customer a 1-800 number to call.

He or she also asks the customer to confirm that they still have the card by providing the three-digit security code marked on the back.

Remember, if your bank or credit card company EVER asks for your card number when THEY call YOU, then chances are it is fraud.

Construction Worker Tries To Curse Yankees

Perhaps it's because I have no love for the Yankees, but I find this story funny. A construction worker buried a Red Sox jersey in the concrete of the new Yankees stadium being built. The funniest part is the reaction... the Yankees spent 5 hours drilling it out of the concrete and have discussed criminal charges with the DA. Should he have buried the jersey? No, but the way they are going on about it, you'd almost think that he buried somebody and not something.

Some interesting Trek movie details

Details for the new Star Trek movie are coming out slowly, but surely. I'm excited to see what they do with the franchise, especially since this movie is supposed to be a re-invention of it. I actually haven't seen the last couple films because I'm sort of tired of the Next Generation story lines. Hopefully this will reinvigorate the franchise, otherwise I think it'll be time to hang up the communicators and phasers.

For those needing a smile on Tax Day

Do the "Men as Buffoons" ads really sell anything?

I posted a commentary late last year about how sick I am of seeing only ads that portray men as idiots and bad fathers. Inevitably, over and over, advertisers show men as the buffoon of the family, requiring the mother or child to come to his rescue when he partakes in some idiocy of the masculine kind. Every once in a while would not be a problem - we men certainly have our foibles - but it is by far the dominant paradigm in advertising nowadays.

But now, it appears advertisers are finally taking notice. Ad Age has up this article which calls for more positive portrayals of men in advertising.

While the advertising industry's negative depiction of fathers certainly isn't the cause of fatherlessness, it is part of the problem. In a TV culture like ours, the fact that the only fathers one can see on TV are buffoonish (at best) does influence young people's perceptions of fathers.

For young men, it makes it less likely they'll aspire to be fathers, see their own value as fathers or, as Mr. Pitts explains, want to do the "hard but crucial work of being Dad." For young women, it means they'll be more likely to be misled into thinking that their children's fathers aren't important, that divorce or separation from them is no big deal, or that they should, as is the increasing trend, simply dispense with dad altogether and have children on their own.

Here is hoping that this gains some momentum and we see more ads showing men as engaged, competent fathers. It can only help our society remember that fathers are important, and men should strive to be the best men and fathers they can be.

I have entered the age of High Definition...

...with a new HD TV (got a GREAT deal on Woot) and a Playstation 3 as a BluRay player. I also christened it with GATACCA on BluRay - the same movie I christened my original DVD player with (though it was one of the only DVDs available at the time). The image and sound quality were excellent!

And I was reminded what a GREAT movie GATACCA is. If you've never seen it, go out and get a copy on VHS, DVD, BluRay, or digital doanload!

Gas prices

Gas prices
Originally uploaded by nomad7674.

New Star Wars: Clone Wars Trailer

This is the first SURVIVING link I have found to a copy of the new trailer to the new CGI animated Star Wars: Clone Wars movie coming in August. (Yes, I know the image is from the OLDER trailer. It was the best I could find.)

The Future

Time to go, or time to surge again?

If John McCain's view of the Iraq War is to prevail, he needs many articles like this one. From an embedded reporter, it calls upon Congress to learn the lessons of the war and send MORE troops not less.

This leads us to the most out-of-date aspect of the Senate debate: the argument about the pace of troop withdrawals. Precisely because we have made so much political progress in the past year, rather than talking about force reduction, Congress should be figuring ways and means to increase troop levels. For all our successes, we still do not have enough troops. This makes the fight longer and more lethal for the troops who are fighting. To give one example, I just returned this week from Nineveh province, where I have spent probably eight months between 2005 to 2008, and it is clear that we remain stretched very thin from the Syrian border and through Mosul. Vast swaths of Nineveh are patrolled mostly by occasional overflights.

The problem, of course, is that American patience for the war is almost spent. Fighting any war is always a balance between the needs of the war and the resources of the people. A war between "good enough", and the perfect solution. Some charge the reason we're here now, is an unwillingness to accept "good enough" and an attempt to impose American Ideals on an Iraq without an American history to build upon.

I am not sure which is right, but I think now is the time for McCain and Obama/Clinton to truly have the debate. Otherewise, it will be more politics where neither side can compromise with the other. And compromise in Iraq is a good part of what has turned this War around.

Not ready for Tax Time?

I plan to break out the trusty TurboTax later today, but if you are stuck without the ability to complete your taxes by Tuesday, don't forget the option of an automatic extension to October 15. You are still required to PAY by April 15, but if you are someone who was only expecting a refund, that is not a problem. Also be aware that an extension will delay your stimulus check.

Review: Mozy Home Backup

I first heard about Mozy on Facebook. They created a group and said that if you joined it, you'd be entered into a drawing for a free iPod or something else. Being a sucker for free stuff, I joined. While I didn't get a free iPod, I did decide to check them out because they offered 2 free GB of backup.

Pros: It's 2 free GB of online backup. For every person you refer, they get and you get an extra 256 MB of online backup. They also have an unlimited plan for $5 per month per computer. Both the free and unlimited support Windows XP and Vista and they have a beta version of the Mac backup. Not only are the files transferred securely, they are first encrypted on your computer and stored encrypted on their servers. For more on the Mac version, see the Mac FAQ.

Cons: 2 GB runs out quickly and at $5 / month, Carbonite is slightly cheaper (though it is only for Windows). Mozy Home does not support versioning meaning that if you made a mistake yesterday, you probably can't get the previously saved copy. Also, if you delete a file from your system, it will be deleted from Mozy in 30 days. There is no other way to delete a file. That being said, the 2 GB limit is based on what you are currently backing up. If I back up one 2 GB folder and then change to back up a different 2 GB folder, that is fine, but the first 2 GB folder will be deleted in 30 days. The way you select which files to back up in Mozy Home is not the most intuitive opting to view the backup as a "set" instead of working like a home user would think. Carbonite, on the other hand, allows you to right-click and say "Back this up". It also puts a green colored dot in the corner of the icon to show a file that has backed up and a yellow colored dot in the corner of the icon to show a file that is set to be backed up.

If you've got a Windows computer and are looking to go with the unlimited plan, Carbonite is probably the better bet (though I didn't test the restore capability). If you use a Macintosh or you just want 2 GB to have an off site backup of your most important files, Mozy Home is a good fit.

Carbonite can be found here. The free version of Mozy Home can be found here. For anyone signing up for Mozy Home that wants to get an extra 256 MB and give me an extra 256 MB, you can enter referral code 7AF8UK.

Irony, thy name is "Internet"

Hypocrisy right under our noses

The complex morality of a sub-prime mortgage world

I have really been enjoying the reading over at The Consumerist over the last few weeks. It is a blog dedicated to consumer issues like bad customer service, extended warranties, and the like. Today, it has up an interesting article on the complex decisions facing a sub-prime mortgage home-owner as they face the choice of paying the mortgage and seeing the money lost as the house value drops, or not paying the mortgage and saving the money for themselves (knowing foreclosure is inevitable).

Sinclair: We went through months of being skinflints, because we knew that we were going into the red, so we didn't buy anything. All the sudden, we had a bank full of money and we're living rent-free, but we know that's not really our money.

Vigeland: How does that feel?

Esmeralda Sinclair: Great! Like he said, we were so tight with money...

Dan: It does feel great, because all the sudden, we feel like we have a little margin now where we can go out to dinner, get a babysitter...

Vigeland: But you're not paying your mortgage. You're not paying the biggest obligation you have. How does that feel good?

Esmeralda: We already went through the guilt. This is really what we need to do, not what we wanted to do, but what we need to do.

These are the situations where morality and law are more interesting. Are these people better off paying their mortgage in order to honor their contract, or NOT paying in order to have equity for their lives and children when their time runs out? Or is their bank better off declaring some kind of "mortgage payment holiday" in hopes that eventually they will come around and start paying again? Or at this point, have things gone too far to come back?

We could use a few patch days

I love parody

It forces us to see ourselves in a new light. For example, this is for NCAA fans and Democrats everywhere.

Ms. Clinton stated that Memphis, while losing the game, had actually shown more ability to act like a National Champion on Day One. She argued that Memphis had passed every test during the game, including scoring more points than Kansas for 38 minutes. For 38 minutes they had shown the experience necessary to be National Champion. "Just because some team comes along in the last minute and scores more points than the other guy doesn't mean they're necessarily able to be National Champion on Day One."

Hillary Clinton: A Long Pattern of Deciet

Here is an interesting story that I have not heard mentioned even in the Conservative side of the media about Hillary Rodham's (before she married Bill) service during Watergate.

When the investigation was over, Zeifman fired Hillary from the committee staff and refused to give her a letter of recommendation – one of only three people who earned that dubious distinction in Zeifman’s 17-year career.

Why?

“Because she was a liar,” Zeifman said in an interview last week. “She was an unethical, dishonest lawyer. She conspired to violate the Constitution, the rules of the House, the rules of the committee and the rules of confidentiality.”

It appears the Clintonian pattern of deceit and doing anything to win did not begin on the road to the White House or even in Arkansas. I truly hope we are not in for 4 more years of this.

Apparently, Flickr Video has launched

So says TechCrunch. Allegedly, it will put videos alongside your photos and allow common sorting and organization.

Even Andriods hate the BSOD

This was a found image. I did NOT make it.

Global Warming To Turn Us Into Cannibals...

or so says Ted Turner. About halfway through the article, Turner states, "I've gotten a lot better, though. It's been a long time since anybody caught me saying something stupid." Most of the rest of the article has Turner saying stupid things. According to him, if we don't stop global warming by all voluntarily only having a maximum of 1 to 2 children, by the middle of this century all of our crops will die and we'll resort to eating each other... if we're alive at all. Should we be concerned about the environment? Certainly. Should we allow a fear of what could happen to the environment rule the way we live? Certainly not.

You're Never Too Old To Learn

Congratulations to Alferd Williams, a 70 year old man who has joined a first grade class to fulfill his promise to his mother that one day he would learn to read. Alferd is an example of just how valuable an education is and that you are never too old to learn.

I Guess Large Dogs Do Have Some Advantages

From Red & Rover

Let us not forget about EVIL

There are many differences between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. But one of the main reasons that I hope Obama wins the Democratic nomination - even if I am a bit nervous about his policies should he win the presidency - is that unlike the Clintons, he has a real idea of "Evil." To the Clintons, "Evil" is "those who oppose us." To many in America (not just "liberals") "evil" is "misunderstood people" or "victims of abuse, reacting." But scripture teaches, and experience bears out, Evil is a very real thing and it is embraced by many in our world. This commentary reminds us that even in a week without many headlines about atrocities, Evil is alive and strong in our world.

"A suicide bomber killed 14 people at an opening ceremony for a Sri Lankan marathon. More than 90 others were wounded."

In Israel, Haaretz reported that an Arab woman has been shot in an attempted honor killing. She was to be the ninth female member of her family to be killed. "Eight women from this family were murdered in the past six years, all in connection with 'family honor.'" Male relatives had murdered them all because they brought shame on their Muslim family by not marrying the men picked for them or otherwise disobeying family religious dictates.

These are only the news items of the last seven days. I purposely chose a period without dramatic headlines. And, of course, no news came out of North Korea, which continues to be the world's largest concentration camp.

One of the bright points of the Bush presidency has been his ability to talk about Evil and the urgency of confronting it. I don't cotton to the idea of preemptive war, but we need to stay ahead of the curve and not allow Evil a foothold in our nation or our hearts.

You know that right against self incrimination? Yeah, forget about that.

One of the fundamental rights is the right against self incrimination. One of the ways that we ensure this right is by making it illegal for the government to seize your DNA without a court order - essentially a warrant. And a warrant can only be granted if there is some reasonable cause that a judge accepts as valid. The exception to this rule is if your DNA is already in a public database for any reason (for example, if offered as a condition of employment for a Federal job). Now, it appears Minnesota is ready to ensure all citizens surrender this right at birth.

According to the Citizens Council on Health care the state of Minnesota has illegally collected and claims ownership to the DNA of 780,000 children and has provided the DNA of over 42,000 children to genetic researchers without parental consent. Their report goes on to say that approximately 73,000 children are born each year in the state of Minnesota and about 4,200,000 are born in the United States of America and all of them will loose their genetic privacy and DNA ownership rights if this trend in public policy is allowed to continue.

Minnesota treats this procedure as an opt out program where parents of the newborn infant do not specifically opt out of the process, the state presumes it has informed consent and the parents have elected to allow this to happen.

This amounts to at least two seizures by the State: (1) Right against search and seizure/self incrimination by making this DNA automatically available to authorities without a warrant, and (2) Seizure of property by eminent domain since in the future, your DNA may be valuable for research or commercial use. Isn't our Constitution supposed to LIMIT government? Maybe not in the age of DNA science. Gattacca, anyone?

Animals don't experience Time like we do

Our mother's dog has long considered my brother and I "part of the pack." She is happy at our house, and knows she is safe. But Mom is still the Alpha of her pack, and when Mom is away, she is unhappy and eager to get her back. It doesn't seem to matter if Mom is away for 5 minutes, 5 hours, or 5 days. Scientists are now saying this may be a constant in the animal experience, as they may have no sense of duration of time. They know past, present, and future. But unlike humans, it appears other animals can't tell the difference between seconds, minutes, hours, or days in their memories.

Does analyzing poverty require a new economics?

I hate economics. I did very well in it in high school, and when forced to deal with it in college. But I simply hate dealing with it. Mostly because economists want us to treat it like a science - on the order of physics or chemistry - when in actuality it is an extension of psychology. Economists hate it when I say it, but they know it is true.

One problem which has defied classical economic analysis is poverty. Why do people who are poor tend to stay poor and have children who stay poor? This despite the many counterexamples from American society where people have "pulled themselves up by their bootstraps." Now, one economist claims to have the answer. For the rich, economics is all about managing scarcity. For the poor, it is all about dealing with the most urgent problem first, which may or may have anything to do with scarcity.

If, for example, our car has several dents on it, and then we get one more, we're far less likely to get that one fixed than if the car was pristine before. If we have a sink full of dishes, the prospect of washing a few of them is much more daunting than if there are only a few in the sink to begin with. Karelis's name for goods that reduce or salve these sort of burdens is "relievers."

Karelis argues that being poor is defined by having to deal with a multitude of problems: One doesn't have enough money to pay rent or car insurance or credit card bills or day care or sometimes even food. Even if one works hard enough to pay off half of those costs, some fairly imposing ones still remain, which creates a large disincentive to bestir oneself to work at all.

I am not sure I buy the argument exactly, but it certainly forces us to take a new look at poverty.

Philosophy on the rise in Colleges

I don't know how many Mod-Blog readers know that I was a philosophy major in college. I started out in Physics and learned in my Sophomore year that I did not want to spend the rest of my life eating, breathing, and thinking Mathematics 24/7. Philosophy - augmented by mathematics and computer science - turned into a major for learning LOGIC, which has been invaluable to my career in Information Technology.

In an age where NONE of my friends got a job in the area they majored in, doesn't it make sense to choose a major which prepares you for LIFE rather than for a particular field? Apparently, many, many college students are thinking the same way as philosophy departments across the country are seeing a huge boom in enrollment.

This one is for Bowhunter

Hillary speechifies another Falsehood

How long can it be until EVERY story told by Hillary Clinton is scrutinized? This time a health care story that Clinton has used several times as evidence of an insurance crisis is shown to be false. The case cited as proof of the foolishness of the insurance system in treating the uninsured, turned out on later scrutiny to be about a woman who WAS insured and who was never refused treatment.

One has to wonder if the Democrats are really ready for four more years of this kind of thing?

R.I.P Charleton Heston

May the star of both The Ten Commandments and Planet of the Apes rest in peace. He was a great talent, and from the little I know of him, a good man.

Mythbusting Common Health Worries

Most people I know fall into one of two categories: (1) they panic over every new study which tells you that your favorite food causes cancer, or (2) they are so overwhelmed by the serial health panics that they simply have stopped listening. Well, Health Magazine is mythbusting today.

Myth #5: Feed a cold, starve a fever
The old wives' tale has been a staple since the 1500s when a dictionary master wrote, "Fasting is a great remedie of feuer."

The truth: "Colds and fevers are generally caused by viruses that tend to last 7 to 10 days, no matter what you do," Vreeman says. "And there is no good evidence that diet has any effect on a cold or fever. Even if you don't feel like eating, you still need fluids, so put a priority on those." If you're congested, the fluids will keep mucus thinner and help loosen chest and nasal congestion. A little chicken soup spoons in some nutrients, as well.

Let the relaxation and sanity commence... until the next health panic.

If antibiotic resistant was not bad enough...

...now some bacteria has developed the ability to live off of nothing BUT antibiotics. No, I am not kidding. For now, this is just soil bacteria, but it is common for different kinds of bacteria to exchange genetic material.

"Many bacteria in many different soil isolates can not only tolerate antibiotics, they can actually live on them as their sole source of nutrition," Church said in an audio interview on the journal's Web site.
Other researchers have found antibiotic-eating strains of bacteria, but Church's study is among the most systematic. It offers more clues about why bacteria quickly develop resistance to antibiotics, and why drug companies must constantly develop new antibiotics to defeat them.

This is why doctors try to AVOID prescribing antibiotics for illnesses that do not require it. If you are someone who asks for them for every sniffle, you may be creating a world where antibiotics are of no help to your children or grandchildren.

Windows 7 in 2009?

So says Bill Gates. Since I know my employer has no plans to upgrade to Vista - and everyone I know who has upgraded to Vista has regretted it, bar none - this is probably Microsoft's attempt to wipe it off the map as another Windows ME-style debacle.

I believe the phrase is "Penny wise, pound foolish"

One wonders if some politicians have any memory for history. Apparently, they have no memory of the troubles Michael Dukakis had, or else some ideas would never return from the dead.

At least eight states are considering freeing inmates or sending some convicts to rehabilitation programs instead of prison, according to an Associated Press analysis of legislative proposals. If adopted, the early release programs could save an estimated $450 million in California and Kentucky alone.

A Rhode Island proposal would allow inmates to deduct up to 12 days from their sentence for every month they follow rules and work in prison. Even some violent offenders would be eligible but not those serving life sentences.

"Magic Hour"

I am still single, but as more and more of my friends have children, I see the truth of this comic more and more.

Oil or Congress on Trial?

The question is can McCain, Obama, or Clinton change this dynamic? Somehow I am doubtful.

Is the gas/oil shortage a myth?

So says Ed Wallace of Business Week. If he is right, then Congress should be grilling oil executives over a high heat until they are deeply cooked.

Gasoline reserves on hand are at the highest levels since the early 1990s, which is remarkable considering the nation's refineries have been cutting back on the production of gasoline because their margins have declined. In fact, average gasoline reserves on hand have risen since this past October, while oil reserves in this country have gone up virtually every week this year—and only fog in the Houston Ship Channel that kept oil tankers from unloading their crude one week kept it from being every week.

I have to admit, the more I learn about the oil industry, the more disgusted I become. There is so much work to manipulate prices on what is essentially a fungible resource. If this article is right, then the Republicans do deserve to lose the presidency.

Apparently, I need to move

It is common sense to move when one can't find a job where you live. My forefathers moved up here to the northeast from North Carolina, because there were so many jobs. One could even argue that American expansion was driven by the desire of men and women to find gainful employment.

But somehow, it never occurred to me that my location might be a problem in finding a mate. (In her defense, it DID occur to Shadowmom.) This "Singles Map" shows that CT is not a place with a surplus of marriageable women. But the good news is that I don't have to go too far to find a place where single women outnumber single men by 40,0000.

Anyone up for a long vacation in northern New Jersey?

McCain vs Letterman

Is it just me, or does John McCain look older in this clip than in any other recent appearance? I think it shows both what people love about the Senator AND what they hate.

Pay What You Like

How much is a burger worth? How about a cup of coffee? New restaurants are popping up where you decide what a meal is worth. The basic set up is that restaurant will have a "donation" box near either the counter or the door where you pay what you can afford or what you think the meal was worth. So far most of the restaurants have had success and say it is more likely that people will pay more than their meal is worth than less. I can see this working. One of the conveniences is also that some people pay for a weeks worth of coffee at a time or if they forget to go to the ATM before the restaurant, then they just pay more next time they come in.

Part 2 of the Star Wars Video Game Retrospective

Most of these games were in the time of the SNES which was mostly a black hole for my video game career. I came back into it with the original Playstation. But now I am itching to dig out an SNES to play some of these!

April Fools Update

I know that Nomad is not a fan of April Fools jokes on the web, but I find them entertaining. Here is a list of some of the best jokes from this year. So far my favorite is Gmail Custom Time. If you have seen any others that are worth noting, please post them in the comments.