First, let's start with this reviewer's own pride and prejudice. I value small (low MB) and fast for ordinary browsing, but additional capabilities sweeten the deal. I like to search and grab videos and music with a minimum of hassle, if only as a temporary muse.
My test computer is a 400MHz G3 with 1GB memory, running OSX 10.4.11 Tiger.
Some of the technical jargon that you might encounter are:
Megabyte - One million bytes. MB
Kilobyte - 1024 bytes. KB
Byte - According to the Oxford American Dictionary: "a group of binary digits or bits (usually eight) operated on as a unit." In other words, a digital thingamabob.
Intel or PowerPC | The new G6 Mac breed uses an Intel processor, the older machines like my G3 are PPC. They aren't on speaking terms.
Universal Binary | A bundle of recent versions of a program, including both Intel and PPC. It's usually overweight and slower to download, but you're sure to get a usable application. There are programs that strip away versions that you don't need.
Plug-ins or add-ons | A small program designed to run within a browser.
User Agent Name | Some sites load different content depending on your browser. For example, a number of US government websites, like the Employment Office, require Internet Explorer. Rather than put that little worm in your Apple, you can change a preference setting on another browser to mimic IE.
Engines like Webkit, Gecko, Chimera - The cake on which browsers are built. Auxiliary features are added or removed but the engine gives tech geeks like me a feel for how a browser will work.
One media trick that I've learned is to right click (or control+click) and copy a download link of a browser that can grab and download streaming movies is slower than one that can't do it on its own.
Opera 54.4MB | Reputed to be the fastest browser available. Opera has a widget system similar to Firefox's add-ons but lacks a media download option, like DownloadHelper. It's very quick in the beginning but caches (memory) like a starving squirrel, so it tends to lag after a while. In fact, I just had to give it the three fingered salute when it froze solid on me (four pages-- two were Opera's homepage, only one loading). I can only stare at the spinning rainbow bunghole of doom for so long.
One strength is that Opera can restart downloads from where they were dropped (rather than having to restart), but in my experience, Opera also drops downloads more often than other browsers. When first used, a media band takes up the left eighth of the window, but can be pushed back to a minimum. Opera 11 beta is Intel only, but Opera 10 can be found at http://mac.oldapps.com/opera.php
Safari 77.2MB | Apple's native browser, based on Webkit. A meat-and-potatoes-- check your email, peruse the news, upload-download and watch online videos-- browser. 4.1.2 is the first version that I've found remotely useful but for something that weighs in at 77.2MB, you'd think it would have more add-ons and features.
To save streaming videos with Safari, go to Window>Activities (Apple+Option+A) and find the item that says Google Static Cache or Yahoo.com/videoplayback, which will probably be the only item measured in MB rather than KB. The file will show up as a blank icon on your desktop with a name like "videoplayback", so you'll have to rename it .flv or .avi before opening it.
Firefox 53MB Mozilla's best-known product, Firefox has become a cult phenomenon. Based on the now-ubiquitous Gecko engine, it's the Swiss-Army knife of browsing. The core of Firefox is a time-tested browser but part of the success is due to a massive number of add-ons, which can be found on their website. Add-ons, also known as Plug-ins, are small pieces of code that weigh in at a few hundred Kb to add features and abilities that some users may value more than others. Rather than downloading something huge, you can pick and choose what you want.
The Firefox "Add-ons" feature (found in the "Tools" dropdown menu) will show you what's available for your machine, and if you're not impressed by something that you've downloaded, you can simply click "Extensions">"uninstall" or "disable" in the same window to be rid of it.
To give you a taste of what's available, browse this: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/
If you want to download streaming videos from sites like Youtube or Hulu, I would suggest DownloadHelper. DownloadHelper not only grabs videos, it can pick up music and some photos; it can also switch between Flash videos (.flv) and MP4, which work with Quicktime and iTunes. In Firefox or Flock, DLH will put an icon and arrow just to the left of your URL/navigation bar, in Seamonkey, it's in the bottom right corner of the page. When it senses media that it can download it will turn from gray to a swirling-tricolor-balloon-thingy (technical term), click the arrow to get to to the download menu. After you read the home page, DLH will send you to Mozilla's DLH add-on page, here.
I suspect that the negative comments are from viral marketers, since they use the same speech patterns. I've never had a problem with it.
Seamonkey 66.4MB The largest of the Gecko-based open source browsers from Mozilla, Seamonkey began as a more streamlined sibling to Firefox. It's the exception to the rule, sometimes running at the speed of a smaller program, it now supports Firefox add-ons. Seamonkey uses more features of any given site but it doesn't have RSS news, blog and Twitter feeds to tell you what Timmy said about what Sheri did to Diane in realtime.
Flock 60.9MB Flock is Mozilla's real time social media giant, a Gecko-based cousin of Firefox. The interface sports a people sidebar, media bar, feeds bar, webmail button, blog editor, photo uploader etc. in the tool bar alone. When you first start out, two pages load: Flock - Getting Started and My World. I would suggest, however, that you shut off any standard options that you don't need (changed in Preferences) before logging on because the sheer number of streaming feeds will render this smooth, well-crafted interface sluggish beyond belief.
The media bar comes standard with feeds from Bebo, Digg, Facebook, Flicker, Photobucket, Revver, Tinypic, Truveo and Youtube (including Youtube:HowToFlock). My personal favorite is Flicker: Interestingness, an open photo stream from around the world. If you want more abilities, Flock can use nearly any add-on that Firefox does. If you choose to download and use the photo uploader, any photos uploaded to Facebook will bear a Flock stamp in the comment box; easily remedied but annoying nonetheless. I haven't even scratched the surface of Flock's abilities. It's ridiculous overkill but manages to be smaller than Seamonkey.
Camino 46.6MB Originally heir to the Chimera legacy (it's a geek thing), but today they put the Camino name on the skinniest Gecko browser, the greyhound of the bunch. Although old Camino had a reputation for lags or incompatibility with streaming video and chat boxes, the new versions have caught up. I just downloaded 2.0.6 and the Flash 10.1 graphics engine; they are wicked fast. Aesthetics are bare bones: off-white with sparse buttons on a light grey background but it loads and runs everything.
Omniweb 27.9 If you liked OmniOutliner, OmniGraffle or other, newer projects from the Omni group, you may find this browser interesting. It's free, as in free beer; lawyer-speak for demo. There's a timer waiting to greet you with cutesy nagware. Omniweb is based on Webkit, like Safari and Shiira. It has an attractive, ergonomic interface and average feature set but seems deathly allergic to the internet. Images don't load, videos stream badly, it's apt to freeze up and everything lags. Even Google ends up jumbled, with frames running into one another. It does show aesthetic promise. Omniweb has... a lot of potential for future improvement.
Shiira 26.9MB Is a baby compared to the others. It runs on Webkit, the same engine that Safari uses but it's sooo much faster. In my opinion, it's the most aesthetically pleasing browser. The download window is semi-translucent; an optional tab dock sits at the bottom of the page to show you an image of each tab as they're loading; you can choose regular or gallery view and it has one of the most useful preference menus yet. This is what Omniweb and Safari should have been. Shiira is very straightforward, runs every media that every other browser mentioned above runs (except multi-streaming a la Flock), with a simple grey window and zero add-ons to speak of. The site ( http://shiira.jp/blog/ ) is in Japanese, but the browser is in English. http://jaist.dl.sourceforge.jp/shiira/43075/Shiira2.3.dmg
iCab 27.4 I don't think iCab's sparse interface has changed since the first version was released. What has? Stability. The first iCab had the distinction of crashing three times in a row while trying to load its own homepage. Now it's solid as a rock and as surfable as Safari, Opera and Camino combined but takes up half the space. Click on the Preferences menu and iCab comes alive. It's possibly one of the most adaptable small-footprint browsers available. The only options outside of the common Back, Forward. Stop/Start and Bookmarks are a Print button and Font Size adjust ment, which show a lot of ergonomic thought.
There's one little quirk that threatens to ruin iCab though, the inability to shut off the autocomplete feature. If you visit apps.facebook.com after the main page, you'll forever go to apps.facebook.com if you type "facebook.com" in the nav bar, unless you clear the history first. Version 4.2 of iCab Mobile is out as of December 2010. It's also available in Spanish and Dutch.
For Fun-------- Browsers that aren't at the top of the game, but may be of interest.
Demeter 11.7MB Based on Webkit, Demeter is otherwise known as "Super Shiira" by a few hardcore fans. It's a small-time build that hasn't been updated recently. Unlike Shiira, it crashes if you load too many large pages at once. It's a roadster, quick but doesn't carry much.
http://www.ping.be/~ping0172/products/ICEBrowserForMac/ICEBrowserForMac.sit.hqx
ICE Browser for Mac 132KB Just to give you a taste of how far the internet has come, here's the Java-hased, Classic-Mac Great Granpappy from Norway and Belgiam. From a day when Balloon Help had to be explained. ICE's navigation (address) bar opens in a separate window. It's amazing where ICE can still take you while using less space than some Firefox Add-ons. If you're a (nerd, geek, dork, dweeb) techie like me, you might like a look at what ICE can do. The link is to a download address (http://www.ping.be/~ping0172/products/ICEBrowserForMac/ICEBrowserForMac.sit.hqx), since the homepage doesn't exist anymore.
NCSA Mosaic 828KB - Copyright 1994 by the University of Illinois. One of the first image browsers. Once the cross-platform champ, Mosaic requires Classic and makes ICE look like a whiz-bang machine. Frankly, it doesn't load modern web pages well. I'm just adding it to the list so you can see the contrast between corporation-powered machines and .org power-to-the-people software.
Mozilla 40.2 - The grandfather of the modern internet browser still lives. Sure, he can't remember to wear pants and occasionally makes catfood sandwiches but it's MOZILLA! The original Mosaic™-killa. Just take the ol' Model T out for a spin and see what it can and can't do. The graphics look as sharp as any other browser. I can't speak for Intel but Mozilla works on OS 10.4.11 PPC beautifully. I used Mozilla to download Mosaic, ironically.
Mozilla Firebird 27MB - The missing link between the original Mozilla browser and Firefox, abandoned because of legal issues with the name. I just discovered and downloaded it (I collect strange things) 12-21-10. Firebird had a rocky start, like throwing up error messages when I tried to log out of Facebook, but after a few hours, they simply went away. Healed. Curious. Now it's just another Gecko browser, but it's the smallest (Camino is 46.6MB) and has a thinner task bar at the top of the page, so you can see slightly more internet. If that's what you want to do with a browser. It's not quite Zynga or streaming vid friendly, but still practical.
http://www.acm.uiuc.edu/macwarriors/projects/trailblazer/
http://www.acm.uiuc.edu/macwarriors/projects/trailblazer/TrailBlazer_0.52.dmg
Trailblazer 1.2MB | It goes like this: Back, Forward, Reload, History, Bookmarks, [Address bar ] (Search Bar)
The rest is a blank page. There are no tabs, tweaks, feeds, bars or add-ons, but the history links are shown graphically, unlike most browsers, which show a list. Preferences entail "Appearance," "Security" and "History," including the ability to view and erase cookies. More than four pages being loaded at a time tends to crash it, especially if one is Zynga and the others are photo galleries. The TrailBlazer introduction video is 16.3MB, but the compressed TrailBlazer_0.52.dmg program weighs in at 520Kb. I can't believe the little bugger functions so well. It's almost as notable as...
Lightbrowser 760KB | I was glad to see that even though the developer's site isn't up anymore, Lighbrowser works with the new Flash 10.1 plugin. It loads Myspace (better than most), it loads Facebook and Zynga games. I used it to download Trailblazer. What it doesn't do is tab, or remember bookmarks or history. Even Mozilla tabs.
Netscape Navigator 50.1MB A throwback to 1998, built for Netscape on the Gecko engine. My brother swears by it. Maybe it's just my perception but I think that ICE is faster.
Internet Explorer 19.9MB If you absolutely, positively must put this little worm in your Apple, you'll have to settle for an older version, since IE is Microsoft and therefore, no longer supports Mac. IE is based on NCSA Mosaic™ and the WASTE text engine. No kidding. Use at your own risk.
Short version---
Flock: Pet lion. There's an unmistakable cool factor, but if you're not paying attention, it will eat you.
Firefox: Hot Rod/tuner. A customizable, people's browser.
Camino: Quick. No frills.
Omniweb: Shamwow. The demo hasn't convinced me that it's worth the money.
If you want to skip Universal Binary bloat-ware, you can go to http://www.rpm-mozilla.org.uk/, where the blessed saint of simplicity has pared Mozilla versions into individual downloads. You'll have to jump through hoops with their host, though. As with any Mozilla product, try typing "about:mozilla" or "about:robots" into the URL bar to find a nice goose egg. Every release has a different "about:mozilla" goose egg.
Unfortunately, there's no single browser for everyone. I haven't even mentioned all of the browsers in my dock. I collect them and use them as needed.
Tuesday, December 21, 2010
Wednesday, June 2, 2010
Gubernare Mente
Straw man [noun] "A person compared to a straw image. A sham argument set up to be defeated." -Oxford American Dictionary.
So this is what's been on my mind, Social Assassination and shock politics. Again.
The strongest recent example might be Republican Sarah Palin's positive remarks about Rand Paul, Ron Paul's Libertarian son. It's like the movie The Cooler, in which the casino puts a guaranteed jinx beside a player that's starting to win.
On a larger but more insidious scale, we have the oil spill. The big one. The greatest straw man of them all.
We shall call this sham argument Commentator Rush Limbaugh and President Barack Obama.
"...It's as natural as the ocean water is." -Rush Limbaugh referring to crude oil in the gulf. Shallow thought process: 'right wing = idiots.'
Obama's visible response to the oil spill is largely limited to a 'listen guys, we need to do something' conference almost a month later. Shallow thought process: 'left wing = idiots.' But what if they're not idiots? What if it's just business?
This is Obama's 9/11 and Katrina rolled into one. Yet another disaster site that's being closed to the media, civilians and investigators, guaranteeing that disinformation and guesswork rules. Both sides are doing what they do best, watching the catastrophe build in hopes that it will flatten the other guy.
Here's my problem with the situation: BP's Deepwater Horizon drilling platform exploded on April 20 because of a valve failure. BP allegedly had a newer, better valve ready but weren't allowed to use it. Naturally, there were no survivors.
On May 26th, the BP/Alyeska Pipeline shut down Prudhoe Bay's Fort Greely pump station 9 because of a valve failure and simultaneously, the Associated Press linked BP to the Exxon Valdez tanker spill in 1989. There was another spill in Singapore after a tanker collision but it disappeared in the media blitz. It's not the bottomless artesian in Louisiana. The spills came like a rash of school shootings or snipers. (Where are they now? What, did kids quit wishing for the murder-suicide because they equate it to terrorism?)
This on the heels of George W. Bush, the little horn of the oil industry. When W was running for office, he was a slick, nearly bulletproof lawyer with Cheney as an unsinkable battleship. Then 9/11 happened and Bush's IQ dropped faster than Clinton's pants. He went after Iraqi oil with Clinton's 1998 WMD modus, which left a perfectly ugly image for anyone anywhere in the oil industry. It's awfully convenient timing, isn't it? There is such a thing as a social assassination. People have appeared at a peaceful protest with bandannas on their face to throw rocks at cops and then disappeared before everyone was arrested. BP was the most successful at promoting a green image and now, it's toast. I'm not saying that BP is clean, far from it, but this smells like a social assassination.
On the upside, green companies can expect a banner year. Windbaby stocks were sold out at their alt. energy premier. The Nissan Leaf is sold out even though it hasn't hit production yet. Mercedes, Toyota and Tesla are joining forces to produce serious electric cars for the average consumer, as opposed to Tesla's current luxury electric bracket. Hopefully it won't be a dork-mobile. Maybe biodiesel markets will do something interesting, since it doesn't require fermentation (time) like ethanol. Who knows, maybe a freak occurrence of social awareness, corporate opportunism and scientific labor can stem the destruction. Green is the new black.
...Or, y'know, the escaping gasses and crude oil will cause geological instability, earthquakes will weaken Louisiana dikes just as hurricane season sets in and FEMA will find another way to take rights away.
The festering corporate corruption is ruining the name of our "democracy experiment," but maybe that's the point. In any case, please suspend final opinion until you have the whole story. Don't surrender to blind fear or rage yet lest you miss something important. Watch them carefully.
Oh yeah, gubernare mente is Latin for mind control.
So this is what's been on my mind, Social Assassination and shock politics. Again.
The strongest recent example might be Republican Sarah Palin's positive remarks about Rand Paul, Ron Paul's Libertarian son. It's like the movie The Cooler, in which the casino puts a guaranteed jinx beside a player that's starting to win.
On a larger but more insidious scale, we have the oil spill. The big one. The greatest straw man of them all.
We shall call this sham argument Commentator Rush Limbaugh and President Barack Obama.
"...It's as natural as the ocean water is." -Rush Limbaugh referring to crude oil in the gulf. Shallow thought process: 'right wing = idiots.'
Obama's visible response to the oil spill is largely limited to a 'listen guys, we need to do something' conference almost a month later. Shallow thought process: 'left wing = idiots.' But what if they're not idiots? What if it's just business?
This is Obama's 9/11 and Katrina rolled into one. Yet another disaster site that's being closed to the media, civilians and investigators, guaranteeing that disinformation and guesswork rules. Both sides are doing what they do best, watching the catastrophe build in hopes that it will flatten the other guy.
Here's my problem with the situation: BP's Deepwater Horizon drilling platform exploded on April 20 because of a valve failure. BP allegedly had a newer, better valve ready but weren't allowed to use it. Naturally, there were no survivors.
On May 26th, the BP/Alyeska Pipeline shut down Prudhoe Bay's Fort Greely pump station 9 because of a valve failure and simultaneously, the Associated Press linked BP to the Exxon Valdez tanker spill in 1989. There was another spill in Singapore after a tanker collision but it disappeared in the media blitz. It's not the bottomless artesian in Louisiana. The spills came like a rash of school shootings or snipers. (Where are they now? What, did kids quit wishing for the murder-suicide because they equate it to terrorism?)
This on the heels of George W. Bush, the little horn of the oil industry. When W was running for office, he was a slick, nearly bulletproof lawyer with Cheney as an unsinkable battleship. Then 9/11 happened and Bush's IQ dropped faster than Clinton's pants. He went after Iraqi oil with Clinton's 1998 WMD modus, which left a perfectly ugly image for anyone anywhere in the oil industry. It's awfully convenient timing, isn't it? There is such a thing as a social assassination. People have appeared at a peaceful protest with bandannas on their face to throw rocks at cops and then disappeared before everyone was arrested. BP was the most successful at promoting a green image and now, it's toast. I'm not saying that BP is clean, far from it, but this smells like a social assassination.
On the upside, green companies can expect a banner year. Windbaby stocks were sold out at their alt. energy premier. The Nissan Leaf is sold out even though it hasn't hit production yet. Mercedes, Toyota and Tesla are joining forces to produce serious electric cars for the average consumer, as opposed to Tesla's current luxury electric bracket. Hopefully it won't be a dork-mobile. Maybe biodiesel markets will do something interesting, since it doesn't require fermentation (time) like ethanol. Who knows, maybe a freak occurrence of social awareness, corporate opportunism and scientific labor can stem the destruction. Green is the new black.
...Or, y'know, the escaping gasses and crude oil will cause geological instability, earthquakes will weaken Louisiana dikes just as hurricane season sets in and FEMA will find another way to take rights away.
The festering corporate corruption is ruining the name of our "democracy experiment," but maybe that's the point. In any case, please suspend final opinion until you have the whole story. Don't surrender to blind fear or rage yet lest you miss something important. Watch them carefully.
Oh yeah, gubernare mente is Latin for mind control.
Sunday, May 9, 2010
Thought Bombs
"We have met the enemy and he is us." The iconic, oft remembered line from a Pogo comic book title sums up my sentiments exactly.
A good deal of the misery in the world comes from greed, which is why socialism is becoming a dominant faith. Look nearly anywhere that it's been implemented and you'll find that money isn't required for corruption.
China, for all her natural beauty, had one of the dirtiest skies until the Beijing Olympics. What changed? The people willed it. They shut down factories, brought in consultants and set up monitors everywhere. ....And when all else failed, they manipulated the numbers like any government.
Kyoto, on the other hand, is an industrial city, very famous for the Kyoto accord. Allegedly (if you can prove or disprove this, I'd like to hear from you) one of Japan's environmental "fixes" is to mandate that engines must be replaced after a certain number of miles. What do they do with those waste engines? They ship them overseas and drive down prices in countries like the USA, which is much appreciated, unless you're a "tree-hugger." It's a very Utopian philosophy, making examples of societies that still run the old machines.
One of the tenets of classical Utopianism is to hire non-Utopian countries as mercenaries, thereby making warlike cultures kill one another off. If I were a paranoid person, I might venture that that's exactly what's happening to the USA and her allies right now, since the Federal Reserve isn't domestically owned. I'd say that that's what is happening in Africa, the Middle East and other parts of the world. There are visible outsiders pulling the strings and causing the bloodshed. Apparently, that's the price of Utopia.
If you doubt that, consider the last U.S. presidential elections. If you were one of the infamous conservative puppeteers ("vast right wing conspiracy"), would you bet on McCain and Palin as the strongest ponies in the race? If you analyzed and invested in rising companies for a living, would you pick that team as the winners? I wouldn't bet on them in a high school debate. These are either two of the dimmest stars in the Republican party or pretty decent actors. Which means that someone paid for the Republican party to lose.
Naturally, they lost to a relatively unknown black male from Illinois, who quickly put Hillary and Joe into position, two of the worst diplomats in the Western world.
...Until you remember that they're continuing the Bush-Clinton-Bush course to the letter.
Bush Sr., who worked for the CIA when Zapata-bought warships Barbara J and Houston hovered off the coast of Cuba and waited for US military backup until JFK shut the Bay of Pigs operation down. Clinton, who claimed that Iraq was hiding WMDs and proceeded to bomb them in 1998 (and Gore, who scalded Bush junior for ignoring Saddam's alleged WMD program in his campaign promise to scale down and consolidate the US military) and Bush de deuce, whose reign was somewhat akin to a loose fire hose, incurring the wrath of nearly everyone without really solving anything. Did Obama shut down Gitmo? Has he scaled back anything, or changed any of the policies? Not noticeably.
Would the Iraqi WMDs have done more or less damage than the current state of unrest? Anthrax? VX? Not even an atomic bomb could have done as much damage to US interests as this war has, much less the rest of the world.
If you've ever seen a group of children riding their bicycles with bricks, baseball bats and metal pipes to go splatter somebody's brains out on the side of the road, you'd know that "weapons" aren't the problem. Guess what? The kids in West Tulsa, OK have succeeded quite a few times. Unfortunately, bricks don't have serial numbers on them. Then again, my brother got a call from a former neighbor asking if we'd gone back to "have some fun" because a couple of rednecks peppered them with paint balls in a drive by. (No, we didn't.)
Sure, you can pass gun laws. You can even enforce them. Then again, my neighbor was found across town in a ditch, nearly cut in half by machine gun fire a week before the US ban on automatic weapons was lifted. You can imagine that the gangster whose girlfriend my reckless, cancer-ridden neighbor was openly involved with had a beet red face afterward, "Oh, was that next week?" What a faux pas.
Blaming weapons for international genocide is like blaming cars for road rage. It's a shadow game. A distraction. Whether world leaders wield Zionism, Christianity, Islam or Democracy; the power of belief follows the power of emotion every time. Sure, Iran has weapons of mass destruction. They numbered 71 million people in 2008 and the population was on an upswing, but a combination of international politicians will activate them into fanatical nationalist pawns just like the US of A.
WMDs are small potatoes when it comes to the hate stirred up right now because angry people will always find a way to kill. It's the anger and division that needs to be dealt with. I dare you to take a person whose ideology you despise and find something that you like about them. Get to know them. Try to understand why they believe the way that they do. You don't have to agree with them. Just live and let live.
Otherwise we're all screwed and it's your fault.
Totally you. Couldn't be me.
A good deal of the misery in the world comes from greed, which is why socialism is becoming a dominant faith. Look nearly anywhere that it's been implemented and you'll find that money isn't required for corruption.
China, for all her natural beauty, had one of the dirtiest skies until the Beijing Olympics. What changed? The people willed it. They shut down factories, brought in consultants and set up monitors everywhere. ....And when all else failed, they manipulated the numbers like any government.
Kyoto, on the other hand, is an industrial city, very famous for the Kyoto accord. Allegedly (if you can prove or disprove this, I'd like to hear from you) one of Japan's environmental "fixes" is to mandate that engines must be replaced after a certain number of miles. What do they do with those waste engines? They ship them overseas and drive down prices in countries like the USA, which is much appreciated, unless you're a "tree-hugger." It's a very Utopian philosophy, making examples of societies that still run the old machines.
One of the tenets of classical Utopianism is to hire non-Utopian countries as mercenaries, thereby making warlike cultures kill one another off. If I were a paranoid person, I might venture that that's exactly what's happening to the USA and her allies right now, since the Federal Reserve isn't domestically owned. I'd say that that's what is happening in Africa, the Middle East and other parts of the world. There are visible outsiders pulling the strings and causing the bloodshed. Apparently, that's the price of Utopia.
If you doubt that, consider the last U.S. presidential elections. If you were one of the infamous conservative puppeteers ("vast right wing conspiracy"), would you bet on McCain and Palin as the strongest ponies in the race? If you analyzed and invested in rising companies for a living, would you pick that team as the winners? I wouldn't bet on them in a high school debate. These are either two of the dimmest stars in the Republican party or pretty decent actors. Which means that someone paid for the Republican party to lose.
Naturally, they lost to a relatively unknown black male from Illinois, who quickly put Hillary and Joe into position, two of the worst diplomats in the Western world.
...Until you remember that they're continuing the Bush-Clinton-Bush course to the letter.
Bush Sr., who worked for the CIA when Zapata-bought warships Barbara J and Houston hovered off the coast of Cuba and waited for US military backup until JFK shut the Bay of Pigs operation down. Clinton, who claimed that Iraq was hiding WMDs and proceeded to bomb them in 1998 (and Gore, who scalded Bush junior for ignoring Saddam's alleged WMD program in his campaign promise to scale down and consolidate the US military) and Bush de deuce, whose reign was somewhat akin to a loose fire hose, incurring the wrath of nearly everyone without really solving anything. Did Obama shut down Gitmo? Has he scaled back anything, or changed any of the policies? Not noticeably.
Would the Iraqi WMDs have done more or less damage than the current state of unrest? Anthrax? VX? Not even an atomic bomb could have done as much damage to US interests as this war has, much less the rest of the world.
If you've ever seen a group of children riding their bicycles with bricks, baseball bats and metal pipes to go splatter somebody's brains out on the side of the road, you'd know that "weapons" aren't the problem. Guess what? The kids in West Tulsa, OK have succeeded quite a few times. Unfortunately, bricks don't have serial numbers on them. Then again, my brother got a call from a former neighbor asking if we'd gone back to "have some fun" because a couple of rednecks peppered them with paint balls in a drive by. (No, we didn't.)
Sure, you can pass gun laws. You can even enforce them. Then again, my neighbor was found across town in a ditch, nearly cut in half by machine gun fire a week before the US ban on automatic weapons was lifted. You can imagine that the gangster whose girlfriend my reckless, cancer-ridden neighbor was openly involved with had a beet red face afterward, "Oh, was that next week?" What a faux pas.
Blaming weapons for international genocide is like blaming cars for road rage. It's a shadow game. A distraction. Whether world leaders wield Zionism, Christianity, Islam or Democracy; the power of belief follows the power of emotion every time. Sure, Iran has weapons of mass destruction. They numbered 71 million people in 2008 and the population was on an upswing, but a combination of international politicians will activate them into fanatical nationalist pawns just like the US of A.
WMDs are small potatoes when it comes to the hate stirred up right now because angry people will always find a way to kill. It's the anger and division that needs to be dealt with. I dare you to take a person whose ideology you despise and find something that you like about them. Get to know them. Try to understand why they believe the way that they do. You don't have to agree with them. Just live and let live.
Otherwise we're all screwed and it's your fault.
Totally you. Couldn't be me.
Thursday, May 6, 2010
Imagine
I was home schooled for all but one year. My mother collected a truly strange array of textbooks, hoping to widen my scope beyond the norm. She gave me everything from U.S. Mennonite Bible-study books to Yemeni secularist-socialist social studies, trusting that I'd make up my own mind. School is the single most important advertising ground in the world. The greatest lesson that I learned was how to recognize marketing and that anyone who is absolutely certain of the facts in an event that they didn’t personally witness is either naïve or trying to sell you something.
So it is with Davey Crockett's, "Not yours to give" speech. One side says that it was a congressional address, another says that congressional addresses weren’t recorded in that era and that the speech originated in an 1884 dime novel. The sacred debunker, Snopes.com, is mum on the matter thus far. In any case, it makes a decent fable.
The story goes that Crockett voted against giving a heroic Navy-man’s widow a pension on the grounds that the founding fathers wanted their new government to be a minimalist protectorate and challenged his fellow congressmen to support her out of their own pockets.
In my mind, that is the essence of what the United States of America SHOULD be, unencumbered benevolence. According to legend, the founding fathers tried to cut away the bureaucracy that they were under. That's why they were willing to fight and die. Personal freedom.
Granted, the majority came from the racist caste system found in European Christendom, but most of their writings speak of wanting to create something better. The problem is that sweeping social change rarely comes all at once. In their embryonic democracy, they couldn't even decide whether they should levy taxes or not. Nathan Hale felt betrayed that they’d even consider it. George Washington had to decline kingship. There was a lot of confusion.
Remember that in the battle of the Barbary Coast, the US first tangle with jihadists that turned to piracy, the founding fathers added and signed an article that isn't in the Middle Eastern version of their treaty. Article 11, declaring the US a secular, minimal Union of individual, free states. They wanted the world to know that, so that the reputation would hold their successors accountable.
Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. It doesn't matter what your neighbor is smoking and imbibing, who they're sleeping with or what weapons they have, as long as they're not hurting anyone. Those were the original, rebellious US values, no matter what any revisionist says. A house was to be a near-sovereign state in and of itself. The Confederates added something similar to their own constitution. It wasn’t an original thought.
If Ben Franklin really said that “beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy,” I doubt that he'd approve of any form of prohibition. He's the same guy that designed, drafted and submitted a plan for a British parliament building with a chimney under each seat because he thought they were full of it. He invented the term "battery" because he used his array of Leyden jar capacitors to throw lightning across the room and liven up parties (hence the key & kite and invention of the lightning rod). He reputedly had a special room built in his house so that he could practice “air-bathing,” or nudism without anyone seeing him. Does that sound like an uptight Puritan to you?
At the first opportunity, Washington issued a statement of neutrality concerning wars in Europe, which mirror Jefferson's public statements. These people weren't out to police and control the world, they rebelled against that very mindset. It was supposed to be a peaceful, ever-improving state.
I said the words "tea party" before Obama was in office, and I stand behind that (not with any organization using that name, mind you).
Bullets or pills, these hucksters have made a business of taking your money and as they do it, they’re ripping any remnant of a benevolent heart out of this country.
Imagine if people set up legal social constructs that were free of both B.o.B/Fed and Wall Street greed.
Imagine "farm-bureau" medical insurance, where the board of investors are the consumers. Imagine if every vote counted. Imagine if every law was put to a public vote. Imagine if lawmakers weren't full time employees. Imagine if your leaders weren't sponsored by corporations and special interests. Then the economic bullies that are untouchable today might be prosecuted.
Imagine anything but what your big-business political heroes are selling you and you'll be their worst nightmare: a free thinker.
So it is with Davey Crockett's, "Not yours to give" speech. One side says that it was a congressional address, another says that congressional addresses weren’t recorded in that era and that the speech originated in an 1884 dime novel. The sacred debunker, Snopes.com, is mum on the matter thus far. In any case, it makes a decent fable.
The story goes that Crockett voted against giving a heroic Navy-man’s widow a pension on the grounds that the founding fathers wanted their new government to be a minimalist protectorate and challenged his fellow congressmen to support her out of their own pockets.
In my mind, that is the essence of what the United States of America SHOULD be, unencumbered benevolence. According to legend, the founding fathers tried to cut away the bureaucracy that they were under. That's why they were willing to fight and die. Personal freedom.
Granted, the majority came from the racist caste system found in European Christendom, but most of their writings speak of wanting to create something better. The problem is that sweeping social change rarely comes all at once. In their embryonic democracy, they couldn't even decide whether they should levy taxes or not. Nathan Hale felt betrayed that they’d even consider it. George Washington had to decline kingship. There was a lot of confusion.
Remember that in the battle of the Barbary Coast, the US first tangle with jihadists that turned to piracy, the founding fathers added and signed an article that isn't in the Middle Eastern version of their treaty. Article 11, declaring the US a secular, minimal Union of individual, free states. They wanted the world to know that, so that the reputation would hold their successors accountable.
Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. It doesn't matter what your neighbor is smoking and imbibing, who they're sleeping with or what weapons they have, as long as they're not hurting anyone. Those were the original, rebellious US values, no matter what any revisionist says. A house was to be a near-sovereign state in and of itself. The Confederates added something similar to their own constitution. It wasn’t an original thought.
If Ben Franklin really said that “beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy,” I doubt that he'd approve of any form of prohibition. He's the same guy that designed, drafted and submitted a plan for a British parliament building with a chimney under each seat because he thought they were full of it. He invented the term "battery" because he used his array of Leyden jar capacitors to throw lightning across the room and liven up parties (hence the key & kite and invention of the lightning rod). He reputedly had a special room built in his house so that he could practice “air-bathing,” or nudism without anyone seeing him. Does that sound like an uptight Puritan to you?
At the first opportunity, Washington issued a statement of neutrality concerning wars in Europe, which mirror Jefferson's public statements. These people weren't out to police and control the world, they rebelled against that very mindset. It was supposed to be a peaceful, ever-improving state.
I said the words "tea party" before Obama was in office, and I stand behind that (not with any organization using that name, mind you).
Bullets or pills, these hucksters have made a business of taking your money and as they do it, they’re ripping any remnant of a benevolent heart out of this country.
Imagine if people set up legal social constructs that were free of both B.o.B/Fed and Wall Street greed.
Imagine "farm-bureau" medical insurance, where the board of investors are the consumers. Imagine if every vote counted. Imagine if every law was put to a public vote. Imagine if lawmakers weren't full time employees. Imagine if your leaders weren't sponsored by corporations and special interests. Then the economic bullies that are untouchable today might be prosecuted.
Imagine anything but what your big-business political heroes are selling you and you'll be their worst nightmare: a free thinker.
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
Rant
I think that it's time that we owned up to our part in this pile of mess:
-Confusing capitalism with consumerism, then flirting with communism.
-Buying volume products rather than "heirloom."
-Getting stuck with grid electricity and oil.
The Model T was made to run on homemade ethanol, the original diesel
motor (patented by Mr. Diesel) was biodiesel, it ran on vegetable oil... also to be made at home. We used to be self-sufficient.
-Living on credit. Period.
-Knowing that what we eat is junk, but doing it anyway.
-Sending kids to a stupid school, where stupid politicians run stupid curriculums so
that kids that they've made stupid- won't fail.
-Arguing and voting along party lines for any reason, seriously, grow up and get your own opinion.
-Butting in to anything anywhere without getting our own stuff straight first. That applies to moral dictation, political finger-pointing etc.
-Blaming everything on everyone else.
It's a mess that we all made, not the Taliban, not the Mexicans, the welfare queens, not American pigs or Euro-trash, the gay people, the religious right, the black people, white people, rich people, Chinese or Russians; not even the tax-raising, pork-barreling, buttinski law-making, weaselly politicians.
We f*cked up.
{/rant}
-Confusing capitalism with consumerism, then flirting with communism.
-Buying volume products rather than "heirloom."
-Getting stuck with grid electricity and oil.
The Model T was made to run on homemade ethanol, the original diesel
motor (patented by Mr. Diesel) was biodiesel, it ran on vegetable oil... also to be made at home. We used to be self-sufficient.
-Living on credit. Period.
-Knowing that what we eat is junk, but doing it anyway.
-Sending kids to a stupid school, where stupid politicians run stupid curriculums so
that kids that they've made stupid- won't fail.
-Arguing and voting along party lines for any reason, seriously, grow up and get your own opinion.
-Butting in to anything anywhere without getting our own stuff straight first. That applies to moral dictation, political finger-pointing etc.
-Blaming everything on everyone else.
It's a mess that we all made, not the Taliban, not the Mexicans, the welfare queens, not American pigs or Euro-trash, the gay people, the religious right, the black people, white people, rich people, Chinese or Russians; not even the tax-raising, pork-barreling, buttinski law-making, weaselly politicians.
We f*cked up.
{/rant}
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
What is the RDA of ant poison?
I learned a new word yesterday. Azodicarbonamide*.
Let's start from the beginning and sound it out, Azo-di-carbon-amide.
Azocarbonamide is banned in the UK and Australia, in Singapore you can get 15 years in prison and a fine of $450,000†. EU classification: harmful.
According to chemindustry.ru, "Generally azodicarbonamide is prepared in industry by condensation of hydrazine sulfate with urea under high temperature and pressure. This reaction results in hydrazoformamide which is oxidized with sodium hypochlorite and centrifuged to yield a slurry containing end product. The slurry is washed to remove impurities and dried to obtain the azodicarbonamide powder." Urea** is food now?
Azodicarbonimide is a foaming agent used in plastic blow-molding and according to mbm.net.au†, "Flour treatment and bleaching agent in baked goods, breads, rice, chewing gum, flour, grains. The US FDA require further testing. Banned in Australia. Avoid it." (I added spaces to most of the mbm.net.au quotes, so it's not a strictly verbatim.) From the NOAA.gov website, "Reacts with hot water to give nitrogen, carbon monoxide, and ammonia." Thanks to its nitrogen-ammonia pedigree, it's used as a component in explosives•••.
Some recognizable names are Panera bagels, Wal-Mart Bakery (where my brother spotted it and got me interested) breads and Subway sandwiches. The last one irritates the heck out of me, I love Subway. Ironically, I also found it listed in the ingredients for Nature's Own, 100% Whole Wheat (bread).
It brings on asthma if ingested or inhaled. It's one of the few things that can kill the AIDs virus, if used correctly††, if not, it could kill you. The safety warnings tell workers not to inhale it, get it in their eyes or touch it with their skin, if they do, they're supposed to wash vigorously.
Some other favorites from the mbm.net.au list are:
Shellac, used as a glazing agent, chocolate, confectionary, in "orange fizzy drinks," orange skin(s), medications... Derived from the (East) Indian Lac insect. "Vegans generally avoid the product as there are still lice in the raw product..." In the first cleaning process, after the second, I suppose it's reduced to "trace protein."
Montanic acidesters - A wax obtained by solvent extraction of lignite (brown coal), used as a coating for citrus fruits. So discard that orange peel or lemon rind, don't use it for flavoring. Irony of timing, I was eating an orange last night when my Dad started reading this list.
Cystein monohydrochloride and L-cysteine hydrochloridemonohydrate are flour treatment agents derived from animal hair, chicken feathers, and if from China, human hair. A known neurotoxin.
Potassium bromate - "Large quantities can cause nausea, vomiting, diarrhoea, abdominal pain, kidney damage and failure. The WHO in 1993 said that this ingredient is no longer acceptable for use as it is a possible carcinogen. Typically used in flour products."
Aspartame - "an artificial sweetener found in most diet soft drinks, diet foods, etc. originally developed as ant poison. 92 known side effects including migraine headaches, allergy and brain tumors."
Sacchrine - An artificial sweetener derived from toluene (a known carcinogen). You've heard of its cousin, tri-nitro-toluene or TNT. Interferes with normal blood coagulation (scabbing over), blood sugar levels and digestive function. Was once banned in the US in 1977 but is now back with a warning label. Banned in France, Germany, Hungary, Portugal, Spain, Malaysia, Zimbabwe, Fiji, Israel, Peru and Taiwan, depending on the usage. Upon reading this, my Dad informed me that toluene is classically the harmful/solvent/narcotic ingredient in modeling glue.
Sucralose aka trichlorogalactosucrose - You'll find it branded under the name, "Splenda." "In animal test before being accepted in Australia, they showed detrimental effects to the thalamus glands, liver and kidney enlargement, and renal mineralisation."
Renal mineralization (U.S.A. spelling), otherwise known as kidney stones. I think I'll just use honey.
Triethylacetate or citrate - Commercially produced from citric acid. Used in whipping cream, as a thickener, vegetable gum for flavoring and sports drinks and in (packaged) egg white liquid or dried. "Part becomes alcohol in the body."
The rather important list goes on and covers a variety of chemical additives found in processed foods.
Maybe it's time we scrutinized food additives with the same careful lens that herbs are receiving. I mean, how many of these everyday additives have "adverse effects" (see: bullets, snakebites and high voltage power lines) when used alone, much less when combined with common medications? Do these additives cause the rash of allergies (esp. wheat) that we've been seeing?
* http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Azodicarbonamide
† http://www.mbm.net.au/health/900-1520.htm
†† http://gateway.nlm.nih.gov/MeetingAbstracts/ma?f=102223560.html
** http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urea
††† http://cameochemicals.noaa.gov/chemical/19157
The fact that this stuff (Azodicarbonamide) has its own explosives profile should tell you something.
***http://oai.dtic.mil/oai/oai?verb=getRecord&metadataPrefix=html&identifier=ADD019191
One gram of azodicarbonamide being decomposed releases about 230 mL of gaseous products.
http://chemindustry.ru/Azodicarbonamide.php
The famous 599 ingredients found in cigarettes.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_additives_in_cigarettes
The quotes are for review purposes only but the opinion? Get your own. Read the information in context for yourself. It's important to be an educated consumer and know what you're eating. It's those little compromises that'll come back us in ways we never expected.
Let's start from the beginning and sound it out, Azo-di-carbon-amide.
Azocarbonamide is banned in the UK and Australia, in Singapore you can get 15 years in prison and a fine of $450,000†. EU classification: harmful.
According to chemindustry.ru, "Generally azodicarbonamide is prepared in industry by condensation of hydrazine sulfate with urea under high temperature and pressure. This reaction results in hydrazoformamide which is oxidized with sodium hypochlorite and centrifuged to yield a slurry containing end product. The slurry is washed to remove impurities and dried to obtain the azodicarbonamide powder." Urea** is food now?
Azodicarbonimide is a foaming agent used in plastic blow-molding and according to mbm.net.au†, "Flour treatment and bleaching agent in baked goods, breads, rice, chewing gum, flour, grains. The US FDA require further testing. Banned in Australia. Avoid it." (I added spaces to most of the mbm.net.au quotes, so it's not a strictly verbatim.) From the NOAA.gov website, "Reacts with hot water to give nitrogen, carbon monoxide, and ammonia." Thanks to its nitrogen-ammonia pedigree, it's used as a component in explosives•••.
Some recognizable names are Panera bagels, Wal-Mart Bakery (where my brother spotted it and got me interested) breads and Subway sandwiches. The last one irritates the heck out of me, I love Subway. Ironically, I also found it listed in the ingredients for Nature's Own, 100% Whole Wheat (bread).
It brings on asthma if ingested or inhaled. It's one of the few things that can kill the AIDs virus, if used correctly††, if not, it could kill you. The safety warnings tell workers not to inhale it, get it in their eyes or touch it with their skin, if they do, they're supposed to wash vigorously.
Some other favorites from the mbm.net.au list are:
Shellac, used as a glazing agent, chocolate, confectionary, in "orange fizzy drinks," orange skin(s), medications... Derived from the (East) Indian Lac insect. "Vegans generally avoid the product as there are still lice in the raw product..." In the first cleaning process, after the second, I suppose it's reduced to "trace protein."
Montanic acidesters - A wax obtained by solvent extraction of lignite (brown coal), used as a coating for citrus fruits. So discard that orange peel or lemon rind, don't use it for flavoring. Irony of timing, I was eating an orange last night when my Dad started reading this list.
Cystein monohydrochloride and L-cysteine hydrochloridemonohydrate are flour treatment agents derived from animal hair, chicken feathers, and if from China, human hair. A known neurotoxin.
Potassium bromate - "Large quantities can cause nausea, vomiting, diarrhoea, abdominal pain, kidney damage and failure. The WHO in 1993 said that this ingredient is no longer acceptable for use as it is a possible carcinogen. Typically used in flour products."
Aspartame - "an artificial sweetener found in most diet soft drinks, diet foods, etc. originally developed as ant poison. 92 known side effects including migraine headaches, allergy and brain tumors."
Sacchrine - An artificial sweetener derived from toluene (a known carcinogen). You've heard of its cousin, tri-nitro-toluene or TNT. Interferes with normal blood coagulation (scabbing over), blood sugar levels and digestive function. Was once banned in the US in 1977 but is now back with a warning label. Banned in France, Germany, Hungary, Portugal, Spain, Malaysia, Zimbabwe, Fiji, Israel, Peru and Taiwan, depending on the usage. Upon reading this, my Dad informed me that toluene is classically the harmful/solvent/narcotic ingredient in modeling glue.
Sucralose aka trichlorogalactosucrose - You'll find it branded under the name, "Splenda." "In animal test before being accepted in Australia, they showed detrimental effects to the thalamus glands, liver and kidney enlargement, and renal mineralisation."
Renal mineralization (U.S.A. spelling), otherwise known as kidney stones. I think I'll just use honey.
Triethylacetate or citrate - Commercially produced from citric acid. Used in whipping cream, as a thickener, vegetable gum for flavoring and sports drinks and in (packaged) egg white liquid or dried. "Part becomes alcohol in the body."
The rather important list goes on and covers a variety of chemical additives found in processed foods.
Maybe it's time we scrutinized food additives with the same careful lens that herbs are receiving. I mean, how many of these everyday additives have "adverse effects" (see: bullets, snakebites and high voltage power lines) when used alone, much less when combined with common medications? Do these additives cause the rash of allergies (esp. wheat) that we've been seeing?
* http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Azodicarbonamide
† http://www.mbm.net.au/health/900-1520.htm
†† http://gateway.nlm.nih.gov/MeetingAbstracts/ma?f=102223560.html
** http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urea
††† http://cameochemicals.noaa.gov/chemical/19157
The fact that this stuff (Azodicarbonamide) has its own explosives profile should tell you something.
***http://oai.dtic.mil/oai/oai?verb=getRecord&metadataPrefix=html&identifier=ADD019191
One gram of azodicarbonamide being decomposed releases about 230 mL of gaseous products.
http://chemindustry.ru/Azodicarbonamide.php
The famous 599 ingredients found in cigarettes.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_additives_in_cigarettes
The quotes are for review purposes only but the opinion? Get your own. Read the information in context for yourself. It's important to be an educated consumer and know what you're eating. It's those little compromises that'll come back us in ways we never expected.
Saturday, January 10, 2009
The Machine.
The fuel cell craze seems to have run out of air sooner than the Y2K scare. GM went from leading an oddball charge into the unknown to carping for handouts. So what are the average citizens of the world doing to help?
This guy created a wicked little HHO (hydrogen+oxygen) torch, then he applied it to his car, which now gets great mileage.
This company retrofits diesel trucks to run on propane, getting an average of 40-60 mpg and running more smoothly than OEM.
This Japanese company makes a strictly HHO car that promises fantastic numbers.
Here's another one, in Japanese.
Here's a feisty lil Camaro in Bahrain.
Okay, it doesn't have anything to do with the others but it's pretty cool.
This is a more environmentally responsible machining tool from KMT, a 90,000 PSI Waterjet that's outshining plasma lasers and it's made in America. My brother helped to design it.
This guy created a wicked little HHO (hydrogen+oxygen) torch, then he applied it to his car, which now gets great mileage.
This company retrofits diesel trucks to run on propane, getting an average of 40-60 mpg and running more smoothly than OEM.
This Japanese company makes a strictly HHO car that promises fantastic numbers.
Here's another one, in Japanese.
Here's a feisty lil Camaro in Bahrain.
Okay, it doesn't have anything to do with the others but it's pretty cool.
This is a more environmentally responsible machining tool from KMT, a 90,000 PSI Waterjet that's outshining plasma lasers and it's made in America. My brother helped to design it.
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