Worm Week

Yet another virus.

"When the .pif or .scr attachment is opened, Sobig.F infects the computer and sends itself on to other victims using a random e-mail address from the address book."

It never ceases to amaze me how many people continue to open e-mail attachments without really knowing what they are after all the warnings. Some really good advice to minimize your chance of infection can be found at #!/usr/bin/geek.

My Taskbar

In a previous post I told you my taskbar was too large and wouldn't adjust smaller. The icons were too large and I think that's why. Anyway, I created a new user account and deleted the old one and it solved the problem. Since it was a fresh install I didn't have to fiddle with it too much. That's better.

James used the word awesome correctly in a sentence today, much to my amazement. He must have learned it from Joshua. We went to the pet shop to buy mice and rats for the snakes. I usually buy them at the flea market because they are so cheap but I was too tired to go when they were open last weekend. They cost about 3 times as much, I hate that. James loves to go to the pet shop and he likes to carry the mice too. He got all excited in the store and kept saying he saw a frog so I had to go with him so he could show me. He took me to a pool they had on the floor and the frog turned out to be ceramic. How anticlimactic. We got home just before a major thunderstorm hit and fed the snakes. Awesome.

Bad News For The Diamond Cartel

Gem-quality diamonds are being manufactured right here in Florida.

"The diamonds are flawless and can fool even the most expert of gemologists."

Contrary to popular opinion, diamonds are not rare. While there are about 60 or so companies mining diamonds, De Beers is by far the largest and the only one you've heard of.

Diamond prices are kept elevated by hording the diamond rough and tightly controlling the industry, along with years of very effective advertising. For insight into the diamond industry, read The Diamond Invention by Edward Jay Epstein.

It's hard to say how much these new created diamonds will effect the price of natural diamonds but you can be sure there will be those who will pass them off as high quality natural diamonds.

"The sudden appearance of multi-carat, gem-quality synthetics has sent the DeBeers diamond cartel scrambling. Several years ago, it set up what it calls the Gem Defensive Program – a campaign to warn jewelers and the public about the arrival of manufactured diamonds. At no charge, the company is supplying gem labs with sophisticated machines designed to help distinguish man-made from mined stones."

Created colored stones have been around awhile and are big business these days. They are beautiful and make gorgeous jewelry but high quality natural stones maintain value in spite of this. Natural colored stones have inclusions which can but don't necessarily detract value. These inclusions can have a beauty all their own, they tell a story, like looking back in time to the formation of the stone (even if you can't see them by eye). People are more willing to pay for the natural stone because of this. The beautiful, flawless created stone is too beautiful for it's own good (some manufacturers are creating colored stones with inclusions to further confuse you).

Inclusions in diamonds always detract value and are just plain ugly. Will the diamond industry be able to convince people to pay more for a mined diamond when they can get a more perfect but created diamond for less? Time will tell.

Xp and Verizon DSL

I was searching through some Windows XP tip sites and ran across an article that claims: Win-XP kills Verizon DSL. If I had Verizon DSL (Kat) I would check this setting he talks about to be on the safe side. It may keep it from happening again.

Smiley Face

James was looking out the back door for the moon, but it was cloudy. Suddenly, he shouts, "Hey, a smiley face!" I looked to see what he was talking about and sure enough, there was a cloud in the shape of a smiley face. That took me by surprise, I didn't expect him to recognize shapes in the clouds yet, but what do I know. A little later he said the wind blew it away and he blew with his mouth. He's funny.

Europe Moving Away From It's Christian Roots

The Pope says: Europe Suffering Values Crisis

You can't deny, that in these times of ours, Europe is going through a crisis in values, and it is important that it recovers its true identity,"

You needn't worry, it will.

Don't Leave Your Kids In The Car

How many times do we have to read about children left in a car to die? What is the problem? How do you forget your kid? Why is this happening so often? Anyone who does that needs to be strapped in their car and left to die.

Reinstalled Windows XP

Since my hard drives death was imminent I bought a new one and installed it. The old one was about 10 gigs and the receipt said I bought it in 1999. I had forgotten that I reused the old hard drive when I built my computer. The new one is a Hitachi (IBM) 120 gig drive with 8 meg cache. (Which, BTW, cost less than the 10 gig drive in 1999) I dreaded reinstalling Windows because the first time had been hell. It took a few false starts and finally over 12 hours to install. I just went to bed and let it run to see if it would actually install. It never did work all that well either. Fast user switching would crash it every time and there were other little problems, not enough to say something is wrong with the computer but just enought to say Windows XP is really not that great. I had an early release of it meant for resellers and I just guessed that was the problem.

I installed the new hard drive and put in the Windows cd. It installed in about an hour or less. Amazing. It worked like I had never seen it before. It was unbelievable. Everything works like a charm, including fast user switching. There is only one small thing I want desperately to fix. When I sign in, the taskbar is slightly taller than it normally is, the icons in the taskbar are larger, and instead of just the time on the far right side it shows the time with the day under it. I can make it larger but it won't go any smaller. When Irma signs in the taskbar is completely normal. This is the way it was when first installed, I did not touch any settings. I haven't been able to figure it out but I'll keep looking on the web for an answer. Anyway, the computer is faster and better than ever. It did take a while to download the 40 megs of updates though. And my favorite programs.

I also can't remember how to change the double click to single click. I don't remember it being such a big deal previously, I think it was an easy thing to do, I just can't find the setting. I bought Disk Image 2002 so I can make an image of the drive and not have to go through all this again. It still amazes me that it works so well now after changing only the hard drive. Maybe Windows didn't like my other drive, I don't think it was bad when I first installed it. I installed Linux on it with no problem at all and it worked OK with XP for quite awhile, I just didn't know how much better it could have been.

Janet Reno?

We went to Sams Club today to pick up a few things and over by the meat area Irma pointed out a lady and told me it was Janet Reno. Yes, she was serious. "Irma, that is not Janet Reno!" Yes. "No, it isn't. No way." Two isles over she remembered it was the accountant of a previous employer.

That reminds me of the time (still in high school) I was with a friend (Jim) in his boat on the Tom's River in New Jersey. We were actually very near downtown Tom's River and he yells, all excited, "Look, a gorilla!" He's pointing at the docks. I didn't see a gorilla, but he was dead serious. When we got closer it turned out to be an old black guy fishing off the docks. That was funny.

Jim and I had a lot of laughs in those days. I was riding around with him and we decided to go to the Twin Lights in the Highlands. It was dark and they were closed but we were just driving around. We were in the area but didn't know the exact road. He turned left and we went up this super narrow, winding road way up the mountain. It was like a one way road and it kept going up and twisting and turning and he turned into someones driveway accidently. I couldn't stop laughing, it was so funny. He backed up and started driving again and a police car put it's lights on and stopped us. I was still laughing and the more I tried to be serious the more I would laugh. He got a ticket for making an illegal left turn. You can't make a left in NJ, you have to make three rights.

One time we went into Manhattan and drove around. He made a turn on 6th Ave and all these headlights were coming at us, we were going the wrong way. He backed up and around the corner and backed into a mailbox. That wasn't so funny, but we laughed anyway. We drove into Kearny, NJ and stopped at a Diner (I think it was Arlington actually) and ate and decided what we were going to do. The dent was small but obvious. I'm not going to say what we did, let's just say it wasn't legal. It got the dent fixed though.

It's been a long time since I've seen Jim but he's the kind of friend you just pick up where you left off when you meet again. Just continue the conversation.

Everything Comes and Goes in Cycles

Here's a commentary on the heat wave and related items. Deadly Heat Wave Strikes Europe!

It's Not A Choice

Older women urged to become lesbians. This is wrong on so many levels.

Homeless, Please Help

$750 to 900 a week swinging a sign. Tax free. Nice.

Would Anyone Shoot An Unarmed Man?

It's shark week on the Discovery channel (as if you didn't know). There was a guy on tonight who feeds sharks by hand while snorkeling, no cage. They showed him get bit twice, once on the leg by a black tip and he got his finger nipped by a mako because he held on to the fish too long. The mako is one of the most dangerous sharks and shows no fear of man. This guy (I don't know his name) took a couple of people along to film his encounter with the mako. It was huge, he said about 500 pounds, and they got into trouble when they were down to the last fish to feed it. The shark started going after them, they had to control their fear and fend off the shark to make it back to the boat. It kept going for their legs, to incapacitate them, like they would bite the tail off a swordfish or tuna. He said the shark was just behaving naturally, turned on by the food, and wasn't looking for a fight. They eat whatever swims in the ocean and can't defend itself. If it thinks it will get hurt it will back off. (Shark week gets crazier every year, makes you wonder what they will show next year.)

Japan is debating going nuclear. This was previously unheard of.

"People are clearly waking up to the idea," lawmaker Shingo Nishimura says of the new willingness to debate the issue. "They feel something is wrong with Japan."

It would be so wonderful if not taking up arms were the answer. I understand why the people of Japan are so against nuclear weapons. I've been to Hiroshima and I've seen what they preserved of that day and I've admired the beautiful city it is now.

Predators look for easy prey. They attack the weak, the unaware, the naive, the old, and the young. It doesn't matter if the predator is an animal or human, they go for the easy targets and they don't want to get hurt in the process. If you are strong and able to defend youself they tend to leave you alone, although misjudgements have been known to occur.

Japan will end up having to defend itself, it can no longer rely solely on the United States for protection. It's not in their best interest. North Korea is too close, too unpredictable, and has been a long time enemy. An unarmed, peace loving Japan is not safe from attack by North Korea. Unfortunately.

Lightning Does Kill Cows

There is so much lightning in Florida and I never hear about cattle being hit by it. (It hits people often enough though.) This happened in Virginia: Nine cows killed by lightning strike

I Wish I were There To See It

Her dog died and she wanted to send it back home by plane for burial. The airline workers at the receiving end thought the dog died in transit so they replaced it with an exact duplicate, hoping no one would notice. When she went to pick it up ... Woof!

"An airport spokesman told the paper: "No-one would have noticed the difference, except that her dog was dead and the new one was alive. I don't think she would ever have noticed. It was quite a surprise for her. When she spoke she didn't make any sense."

I almost don't believe this story. How could anyone think the dogs owner wouldn't notice just because it looked the same, what about the dogs personality? Maybe the Three Stooges are still alive.

Crazy Kid Drivers

First it's senior citizens, now this.

Two-year-old toy car driver kills pensioner. Toy car?

Boy, 3, crashes car twice in a week.

Children found riding tricycle on motorway.

Man's Best Friend

I like to hear good stories about dogs.

Dog rescues abandoned baby.

This Is Sick

In the September 2003 issue of Mens Health magazine, on page 38, there is a list of contaminants that the FDA allows in packaged foods. I looked on the FDA website but could not find a similar list, instead the information looks like it is located here and there in the myriad of documents they have.

• Canned Corn ..... 2 corn worms or larvae per case of 24 cans.
  
• Canned Mushrooms ..... 20 maggots or 75 mites per 3.5 oz can.
  
• Canned Pineapple ..... 20% rotten fruit per can.
  
• Cinnamon ..... 400 insect fragments or 11 rodent hairs per half c.
  
• Fig Bars ..... 5 insect heads per box.
  
• Ground Black Pepper ..... 475 insect fragments or 2 rodent hairs per 1/2 c.
  
• Macaroni Pasta .... 225 insect fragments or 4.5 rodent hairs per 7.5 oz uncooked.
  
• Peanut Butter ..... 30 insect fragments or 1 rodent hair per 3.5 oz.
  
• Popcorn ..... 1 pellet rodent excreta or 2 rodent hairs per lb.
  
• Potato Chips ..... 6% rotten potatoes per bag.
  
• Raisins ..... 40 mg sand or grit per 3.5 oz.
  
• Tomato Juice ..... 5 fly eggs and 1 maggot per 3.5 oz.
  

How do they figure this stuff out. Fig bars can have 5 insect heads per box? What about the rest of the insect, where did it go? What kind of insect? How do they know what's in there? Do they average the samples?

Tomato juice can have 5 fly eggs and 1 maggot per 3.5 oz? You can't strain out a maggot?

20 maggots or 75 mites in 3.5 ounces of mushrooms? There can be 20 maggots in that little can? Are they talking about the same maggots I think they are? What if there is a mix of maggots and mites? That seems like alot for 3.5 oz.

475 insect fragments or 2 rodent hairs in pepper, but 400 insect fragments or 11 rodent hairs in cinnamon? Why not make them the same? 400 is OK but 401 and you're shut down. It's someones job to count this stuff, too. I wonder how often? Only the government can make rules like these.

Totaled

Here's a good little article to read if you ever wreck your car. What to do if your car is unfairly totaled.

Needs To Be Read

I found this link at Gut Rumbles. It was so good I wanted to post it here too. It needs to be said.

Failure Immenent

My windows computer has been acting up. Sometimes it doesn't recognize the hard drive at start up. When it does it gives this message: Failure predicted on primary master. Immediately back-up your data and replace your hard drive. A failure may be imminent.

At least it's warning me first. The thing is, it's really not that old, not more than two years.

Blogger Problems

I tried to blog yesterday and kept getting errors. That happened once before, I sure wish they'd fix that.

All Wet

It rained almost all day today. Hard. I drove to Melbourne and for about 20 miles could only go 35 mph because it was raining so hard. I could hardly see the road. I only saw one car driving with their flashers on but a few had no lights on at all. That's crazy. The thought of the day is: Get Rain-X.

All In

The other day on the Discovery channel they had a show about the moon. It was fascinating. They have different theories on how the moon came to be but they tend to think it was a part of the Earth that was broken off in a collision with another planet that no longer exists or another large chunk of space rock that hit the Earth. Over and over they said if this or that were only slightly different, the Earth would not be able to support life. If the collision wasn't just right, if the moon was larger or smaller, further away or closer, if the density were different, if it revolved around the Earth faster or slower ... any changes to any of these variables (and more) would mean life could not exist on Earth. There is life on this planet only by the slimmest of margins. It gets mind boggling to hear the scientists talk about this. They know how miraculous it is, they brag about it, they're amazed themselves at each step along the way where something happening differently would mean no life on this planet.

It all reminds me of poker. It's as if the Earth is playing poker with the universe. And since the beginning, billions of years ago, the Earth has been winning hand after hand after hand and each hand is played "all in." If it loses a hand - no life. So each hand, it bets it all, and it all rides on lady luck. ... It could happen. Yeah right.

Hiroshima

I took these quotes from this article.

"Tadatoshi Akiba said Washington's apparent worship of "nuclear weapons as God" was threatening world peace."

Nuclear weapons keep America free, that's the bottom line. Nuclear weapons keep other countries from attacking us. If we destroyed all of our nuclear weapons today we would be attacked tomorrow, by the truly evil countries with nuclear weapons. Our might coupled with our good nature has kept the relative peace in the world for many years. Now that nuclear technology is becoming available to less "good natured" countries the world is becoming a more dangerous place again. The difference is, they want to use them, we don't.

Notwithstanding what our money says, America does not trust God. We trust more in our own might and our (so-called) allies. But the U.S. is not willing to keep God's commandments and doesn't want God telling us what to do, we do it our way. That requires nuclear weapons. We don't worship nuclear weapons, we just trust them more to keep us safe.


"During Wednesday's ceremony, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi reaffirmed Japan's policy banning the production, possession and transport of nuclear weapons within its borders. "Our country's stance on this will not change," Koizumi said"

After North Korea lobs a few more missles over Japan, the countries stance on nuclear weapons will change. Watch it happen. Neither the Japanese nor the Koreans have forgotten their history together, and a horrifying history it has been. On both sides.

I've been to Hiroshima and I've tolled the peace bell they have there, but all the good intentions in the world will not protect us from the very real evil that is out there. There is some more interesting discussion of Hiroshima here.

I saw a documentary last night on Korea and it said the goal of North Korea has always been and still is to reunite the north with the South. The Korean war was an attempt by Kim Jung Il's father to do just that. Now Kim Jung Il's number one goal is the same. That's funny, because all he has to do is stand down his army and welcome his southern brothers and the prosperity that will follow. The documentary was on the Discovery channel and it wasn't very good really. It made Carter and Clinton out as saviors and said Bush came along and ruined the U.S./North korean relations.

Buried MIGs

You've probably heard this already but this article has some great pictures. Check them out.

Total Recall

The California recall election is turning into a circus. Now Gary Coleman is running. And Arnold Schwarzenegger, Arianna Huffington and Gallagher (the comedian) have all announced they will seek to replace Gov. Davis. Oh, don't forget Larry Flynt.

Race?

"Veteran black activist Al Sharpton contended Wednesday that the news media are dismissive of his presidential campaign because newsrooms are overwhelmingly white."

Oh really! There are alot of reasons not to take Al Sharpton seriously. Alot of reasons, but none of them have anything to do with the color of his skin. Why not Don King for President?

Really, Do Not Call

Telemarketers are already trying to trick you to get around the Do Not Call list. What does that tell you about telemarketers? So ... If you signed up for the National Do Not Call list you should read this.

Strange Brew

US troops and Iraqis Share Taste for Israeli Beer

"A close inspection of photos from inside the Mosul villa where Qusay and Uday were shot dead by American troops last month reveals beer bottles and a candy wrapper with what looks suspiciously like Hebrew lettering. Ironically, Saddam Hussein’s sons and grandson may have spent their last hours consuming the products of the hated Zionist state. In another odd twist, the troops of the US 101st airborne division may have cracked open beer of the same Macabbee brand while laying Saddam’s heirs to siege."

I have a hard time believing American troops were drinking beer while laying siege to the house. Afterwards sure, but not on duty.

Peer Pressure

Thomas Sowell peruses the price we pay when those in power are too concerned with what their peers think.

"Some things are believed, without evidence, because such beliefs are a mark of belonging."

"Many parents wonder why they lose their children to a whole new value system," a parent once said plaintively. It is not accidental. There are not only individual pied pipers in the schools but whole nationwide educational efforts to detach children from their parents, as a way of promoting "social change."

"That the pathetically under-educated people who staff our public schools should take upon themselves the task of shaping a whole society is staggering. What is even more staggering is that the rest of us let them get away with it -- for the most part, because so few even know that it is happening."

Liberia

Going to Liberia is a big mistake. Clue: The UN wants the U.S. to go to Liberia. If the UN is so concerned with Liberia why don't they go in and do it themselves. They were itching to lead the way with Iraq. Here's their chance to show the world their leadership abilities. Let Germany and France send their troops in. How many other countries make up the UN? Send them. The UN can't do it without the U.S. leading the way? B.S. It's a trap.

Set Them Free

Proposition 54. The new law would bar the government from inquiring into a citizen's racial identity. It's about time and should be nationwide.

The United States of Iraq?

Won't It Be Wonderful, When Iraq Becomes Just like America?

Water Works

The kids and I had a water fight yesterday. I just finished mowing the lawn and the kids had been playing out in the heat. We were ready. James loved it and put his bathing suit on later to go out and do it again. Afternoon thunderstorms put a stop to that idea. The kids played together nicely today, I was impressed.

Joshua is Back!

Joshua got back last night from his month long visit with his father. James was really excited to see him. They played nicely together for a while before I left for work. Tomorrow the fighting begins. I sure hope not but those two can fight like cats and dogs.

They finally picked up the Eurovan Sunday. That was a love/hate relationship. It was a great van, room for everyone plus, easy to drive, and comfortable but expensive to fix and often required special tools. Farewell.

NASCAR Revisited

I found this on the Neal Boortz website (Nealz Nuze, July 31), no link to back it up though.

No more money for Jackson’s Rainbow-Push coalition from NASCAR.  It seems that NASCAR is fed up with Jackson’s assertions that NASCAR is the “last bastion of white supremacy.”  Good news.  The better news is that Jackson’s star is falling.  More and more people and businesses are recognizing this race warlord as the shakedown artist he is.  As Jesse’s flame glows dim look for him to be more and more desperate to regain some semblance of credibility and power.  His time is over … let’s hope it stays over.

If it's true, all I can say is: good for them.