"Caturday" Isn't on the List

Recently the DHS (or, Department of Homeland Security to see the list go , to page 20) released it's updated social media monitoring manual.

Now, some of those words are worthy of a looksie just to double check what people are talking about when they're conversing with their friends and acquintances over social media. You know, words like anthrax, pipe-bomb, ebola and car-bomb. But some of the words are just crazy to assume people are secretly talking about performing terrorist acts. You know, words like: interstate, sleet, southwest and smart.

And then there are the rest of them. Does the DHS think everyone is a terrorist? Half of the words on the list are found in nearly every government press release, the other half in most tech blogs or news articles. Not to mention people talking about perfectly benign subjects such as sharing their experience about going to Target to pick up some flu medicine, some pork or because there was a recall on something you already bought. That would warrant an extra look by DHS.

And according to the DHS, you might be a terrorist if you posted to social media:

A complaint about your flight being cancelled due to a blackout. Or, perhaps you're letting everyone know the airline is just experiencing delays.

I mean, is it unreasonable to believe someone was mad at the tsunami warning center that resulted in getting stranded by a flood and posted to Facebook about it?

Or maybe you witnessed a brush fire near Sand Diego and wanted to tell your friends on Twitter.

What about posting about your friend who's a little too metro? Did you know that could make you a terrorist?

Or gods forbid you go to a Pirate themed party and share your pictures!
And as we all know, anyone who complains about the TSA's body scanner is automatically on some watch list.

So yes, according to the DHS, you, me, we're all terrorists!

Yet, I noticed Caturday isn't on the list. Weird. Apparently, anything people post without substance, is fair game. You can post about your kids, as long as your not talking about buying them something at Target. You can post about your dog as long as he's not sick and you can post about re-arranging the furniture in your house until you mention being smart about it.

But if you want to post and discuss politics, religion or some other discussion, you might as well accept the fact that you are allegedly a terrorist waiting for your moment.

Hey, maybe this post will get flagged because I mentioned the Department of Homeland Security.

I mean, it's not like actual terrorists are using code words or anything.

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All Praise Be to Allah!

Did you know, the claim of "my religion made me do it" is now an acceptable defense in the United States of America? Or, at least in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania? That's right: you can now assault people on the street as long as you claim it's your religious right. I mean, the First Amendment does protect your rights to religious freedom, does it not?

Read About It Here

It seems as though, Magistrate Mark W. Martin, of Mechanicsburg, PA has decided that not only is ignorance of the law an excuse under the law, but offensive Hallowe'en costumes are assault worthy and Free Speech is trumped by those who claim the rights of religious freedom.

Why?

Because a man, an atheist, wore a zombie Muhammod costume during a Hallowe'en parade and a Muslim man assaulted him for breaking Islamic law.

Um, where is the law of the United States, here? Heck, even the law of Pennsylvania? I'm sure there's a provision against assault somewhere. However, in Pennsylvania the law is not protecting the assaulted even though the Muslim man told one story to the police on the night of the physical assault and another, less criminalizing one to the magistrate in court.

And who did the court believe? The man with the video evidence (that wasn't allowed to be admitted) and the police officer or the Muslim man? Nope.

The Muslim man.  But wait, you might ask. Isn't this a land of laws and evidence and CSI: and whatnot? Apparently not in Mechanicburg, PA.

What's sad is, we normally hear these kinds of cases from afar, we hear about the woman who was raped or the infidel who was killed or some other similar story about a atrocity performed by a Muslim against someone else and their courts always defend the man who perpetrated the crime, citing Islam-this and Muslim-that. We always hear about these cases and we thank ourselves that we live in a rule of law, of evidence and procedure. We always find solace that religious ideology and belief is not an defense of crimes.

Now, we're not so safe.

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Riddle Me This ...

So, I went to a movie. What movie, you ask? Well, I decided to go see Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance. yes, I'd heard it's a terrible movie and yes I heard most people walk out of it before the end because yes, it is that bad. But, as a B-movie afficionado I decided to give it a try, especially for the measly $4 the local theater charges on Tuesday's for the Tuesday matinee. 

So, I leave the house, my mom (whom I'm visiting) and my aunt busily making sloppy-joe's for lunch.

I get to the theater and request the movie, the guy behind the glass tells me it will be $5.50. I tell him it's not worth $5.50 to me and I came here because it was $4.00 Tuesday, was it not? He says it is, but GR:SoV is in 3D and that means there's a surcharge. Okay, but I'm still not interested in seeing it for that amount, especially in 3D. I explain that I've heard nothing but bad reviews about the movie and I'm interested in seeing how bad it actually is, and that's worth $4.00 to me. Not $5.50.

Oh, I'm sorry, he says. I meant Sony Pictures doesn't allow us to discount their titles so you have to pay the regular matinee price.

Okay, I'm still not interested in seeing it for that price.

So I return to my mom's house.

"Where'd you go," my mom asks.
"I went to go see that movie," I reply.
"Ha ha ha, no you didn't."
"Yes, I did."
Then my aunt chimes in, "No you didn't, jackass."

Neither one of them asks me why I'm not actually watching the movie or why I'd returned to the house so quickly, did I forget something (the theater is only about 1.5 miles away) or any of a variety of other questions to try and understand why I returned so soon if I'd left to see a movie which should have lasted at least 90 minutes.

Finally I just state, "I don't care what the fuck you believe. I went to go see that movie."

And that's it. Nothing from either of them. No questions, comments or concerns other than do I want a sloppy-joe.

I have no idea what they think happened during that exchange, all I know is both of them have a very annoying habit of developing assumptions and when those assumptions are shown to be invalid they drop the subject and move on. My mom has even gone so far as to start crying when her assumptions are proven not to be valid. My aunt just turns away and says she doesn't want to talk about it anymore.

This is one of many reasons I hate coming back here.

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Evolution of a Bible

So, the Bible is the infallible word of (your) god, huh? Seems like an awful lot of room for error to get to the Bible you hold as infallible.

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Dear Pastor Bryan,

So, I read an article on FreeThoughtsBlog and there was link to Pastor Bryan's church website to leave him a comment. I'm assuming this comment system is for his parishioners and not the rest of us, but seeing as I had a couple of minutes I went ahead and sent this message to him:

Pastor Bryan, 

You, sir, are a moron. I read your comments about atheists being evil and have no life purpose other than to disparage your belief system. 

You're wrong. 

Atheists live perfectly normal lives. They go to school, do your taxes, make your coffee, and fix your home when it breaks. They raise families, vote and, yes, spend time in foxholes. 

Speaking of which, I am a veteran. I gave up my rights to free speech to protect yours; I gave up my rights guaranteed to ever American regardless of race, creed, religion, gender or sex so you could keep yours; I gave up my rights to manage my own life so you could continue freely managing yours. 

I'm also an atheist. I was an atheist when I took my oath to defend this nation and the people it's comprised of and I continued to be an atheist while sitting in the proverbial foxhole, serving in a foreign land during a foreign war. 

You see, I don't believe in good an evil like you do and your fellow sky father worshipers believe in them. I believe in benevolence and malevolence -- I believe in the ability of mankind to perform acts of great passion and selflessness as much as I believe in the greed of man and his ability to trample on others to satisfy his self.

I believe historically religions have proven themselves to be the worst of mankind's so-called evil. Wars are fought for and by religions, crimes against humanity are done in the name of religions and prisons are filled with the devout.

I am an atheist and I served my time in a foxhole. I did so for my own reasons and when it came time to pray I didn't. I looked to my left and to my right, to the faces I lived and worked with, and trusted in their training, their skills and their ability just as they trusted in mine.

You say there are no atheists in foxholes? Well, I say there are no christians in foxholes, because we all know your god does not exist. You god gives no proof of his existence and does not interfere with the goals of man. You know this and self-confessed christians know this to be true. Your god does not pick favorites nor are the survivors special or chosen. Surviving war is a result of training, circumstance and luck. 

No gods need apply.

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Free Education!

No one ever lost by having too much education. Thanks to Michelle Marie for this compilation!

Thousands of FREE College Courses Listed By Institute
Yale - 35 FREE Courses http://oyc.yale.edu/coursesEach course includes a full set of class lectures produced in high-quality video accompanied by such other course materials as syllabi, suggested readings, exams, and problem sets. 

Khan Academy - Thousands of FREE Courseshttp://www.khanacademy.org/A free world-class education for anyone anywhere. All of the site's resources are available to anyone. It doesn't matter if you are a student, teacher, home-schooler, principal, adult returning to the classroom after 20 years, or a friendly alien just trying to get a leg up in earthly biology. The Khan Academy's materials and resources are available to you completely free of charge.

Notre Dame - 72 FREE Courseshttp://ocw.nd.edu/courselistNotre Dame joins the OCW Consortium, "a worldwide community of hundreds of universities and associated organizations committed to advancing OpenCourseWare." Notre Dame's participation is consistent with its goal "to provide a forum where through free inquiry and open discussion the various lines of Catholic thought may intersect with all the forms of knowledge found in the arts, sciences, professions, and every other area of human scholarship and creativity."

University of Michigan - 77 FREE Courseshttp://open.umich.edu/education/schools-collegesFind stuff and use it. Freely. Welcome to our collection of openly licensed educational resources (OER) from the University of Michigan. Ranging from course materials to videos to software tools to student work—this content is ready for downloading and remixing.

University of Cape Town - 148 FREE Courseshttp://goo.gl/c68SE
Learning content: syllabi, full courses, modules, learning objects, lecture notes, presentation and data collections. Tools: content development tools, online learning communities, and software to support the creation, delivery, use and improvement of open learning content.

University of California - 247 FREE Courseshttp://ocw.uci.edu/courses/The University launched its OpenCourseWare initiative in November 2006. As the first West Coast university and UC campus to join the OpenCourseWare Consortium (OCWC), our OCW project is growing rapidly with the addition of nearly10 new courses every month.

Tufts University - 49 FREE Courseshttp://ocw.tufts.edu/CourseListTufts University is committed to offering the world's learners free access to its many academic resources. Tufts OpenCourseWare (OCW) seeks to capitalize on the potential of the internet to eliminate borders and geographic distance as obstacles to the instantaneous exchange of knowledge and new ideas. Unlike distance learning programs that charge tuition, provide formal instruction and limit participation, OpenCourseWare offers all course materials free to everyone with online access.

Weber State University - 7 FREE Courseshttp://ocw.weber.edu/courselistFree and open educational resource for faculty, students, and self-learners throughout the world.

Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Healthhttp://ocw.jhsph.edu/The Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health's OPENCOURSEWARE (OCW) project provides access to content of the School's most popular courses.

IE University - 10 FREE Courseshttp://ocw.ie.edu/ocw/index.html?A=1Open collection of educational resources organized by courses. 

Capilano University - 23 FREE Courseshttp://ocw.capilanou.ca/courselistCapilano provides a solid academic foundation and is committed to developing new and innovative programs in response to market demand. It offers a complete range of preparatory courses, university transfer courses, business and management studies, creative and applied arts programs, health and human services programs, plus a range of services in support of student learning and success.

Kaplan University - 11 FREE Courseshttp://ocw.kaplan.edu/courselistKaplan University is a different school of thought.SM One that rewrites the rules of education with innovative technology and new ideas. One that develops talent. Your talent.

Jersey Institute of Technology - 20 FREE Courseshttp://ocw.njit.edu/NJIT is a member of the worldwide OpenCourseWare Consortium. NJIT’s OpenCourseWare (OCW) site offers free and open digital publication of high-quality educational materials, organized as courses. Some courses can be viewed in video, while others are only in audio. Course lecture notes and presentations are also posted for some courses.

Novell, Inc - 20 FREE Courseshttp://ocw.novell.com/Free and open digital publication of high quality educational materials, organized as courses. 

People's Open Access Education Initiative - 16 FREE Courseshttp://www.peoples-uni.org/Courses are based on the concept of open education resources (OER), freely available on the Internet. Peoples-uni develops a standardise educational context around these open resources.

The Open University - 606 FREE Courseshttp://openlearn.open.ac.uk/course/
Try over 600 free online courses from The Open University. Available from introductory to advanced level, each takes between 1 and 50 hours to study. Complete activities to assess your progress and compare your thoughts with sample answers. Sign up for free to track your progress, connect with other learners in our discussion forums and find the tools to help you learn.

MITxhttp://www.mitx.mit.edu 6.002x (Circuits and Electronics) is designed to serve as a first course in an undergraduate electrical engineering (EE), or electrical engineering and computer science (EECS) curriculum. At MIT, 6.002 is in the core of department subjects required for all undergraduates in EECS.
If you successfully complete the course, you will receive an electronic certificate of accomplishment from MITx. This certificate will indicate that you earned it from MITx’s pilot course. In this prototype version, MITx will not require that you be tested in a testing center or otherwise have your identity certified in order to receive this certificate.
Categories For Free Courseshttp://www.ocwconsortium.org/en/courses/catalog

 

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Rant: the G+ Android App

What annoys me was already posted on Google+ but I wanted to park it here, too.

A lot of times I use the App when powering up, or being on, the computer just isn't feasible and while there are some good things about the app, like being able to + a name and Instant Upload (which never seems to work _instantly_ for me), the annoying things are just too annoying to ignore.

My biggest complaint -- a complaint I've sent feedback on about 25 times and that I've told to  in one of his own threads (where he did ask) -- is the app is always resetting the Stream back to the beginning or newest post.

So, for example, if I'm reading along and finally find a post I need to spend some more time on, tap it and open the post up, read/comment and then use the [back] button to return to the stream I'm automatically shot back to the newest post, thus losing my place where I was reading it.

This also happens when:
  1- launching the app. That is when initially launch the app I start reading whatever post is showing then the Stream "updates" and I'm shot to the most recent post with no indication of where the post I was reading is anymore. It could be 5 posts down or 45 posts down. So, gods forbid it was interesting or there was a link attached I wanted to read for more information.

  2- When opening a Youtube video, watch it and use the [back] button to get back to the G+ app and I'm automatically sent to the most recent post.

  3- This also applies to any links in posts. Open the link, read and then go back and I'm sent to the most recent post.

  4- If I open a post by tapping on it to make it stationary while I open a link or a YT video or just spend time reading it since it's a longer post, and I hit the [back] button to go back to the stream I'm (again) sent back to the newest post.

This is very very annoying for a number of reasons. i've been through the settings and can't find anything that allows me to halt, pause or mark my place in the stream so I have to conclude that the feature just isn't there.

Also, when adding the location to the post, the app never seems to be able to find the place I'm actually visiting. It can find everything within a 3 mile radius, but it can't find where I'm actually physically located. This applies whether GPS is on or off. However, if I search for the place the app can usually find it just fine. Sometimes it can't and I accept that, but never being able to find where I'm physically located? Really?

The other issues I've had were resolved, so no complaints there.

I would like to know why, if Picasaweb allows up to 15 minutes of video to be loaded, we can't load video to Picasaweb from the app or from mobile at all. Youtube is great and all, but every video doesn't need to upload to YT.

Oh well, I guess I'm FB from mobile and G+ from the desktop.

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The GOP's War on Women Makes Them More Fundamental Than Ever

Of course, the bill is unconstitutional. The whole point of the new abortion bans is to force the Supreme Court to reverse Roe v. Wade.

While reading the first page of this article, this quote is exactly what I was thinking. Then I got to the second page and the article's logical conclusion and mine are in sync with each other.

This move by the Virginia legislature is a gambit designed to forcing the SCotUS to revisit Roe v. Wade. Since  the Robert's court make-up has already proven previous court rulings no longer apply, the conservatives are hoping for another act of revising American law via (surprise, surprise) activist judges -- which they claim to hold in contempt on the campaign trail, but who they are relying on for a win they think are coming decades too late.

Virginia is now going to be on par with Saudi Arabia, Iran and the Taliban when it comes to women's rights. Sic semper tyrannis -- "thus always to tyrants" is Virginia's official state motto and while it might have once been used to refer to freedom from oppression, the modern GOP will have it mean that only tyrants are righteous and right.

UPDATE

And it seems as though Oklahoma doesn't want Viriginia GOPers to get all the wacky credit today since they just decided life starts at conception. Not when the fetus can presumably survive on it's own, but when the sperm enters the egg. And no, there's no safety net for the raped there either.

Apparently, equal protections under the law, the Fourteenth Amendment and the Civil Rights Act mean absolutely nothing to the modern GOP.

I guess this is why some people think it's a dying breed. One can only hope.

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By the Water

So, I took a random turn today and found this little area without a lot of people and a surprisingly small amount of garbage everywhere. I say that to point out how much garbage I've been seeing everywhere I've been since I arrived here in Florida. It's almost like the locals just don't care about their community and toss garbage everywhere, even going to far as to dumb garbage in empty lots just to be rid of it. Maybe one day I'll take pictures with garbage in the frame instead of trying hard to get pictures without trash and litter's abundance.

But I digress. Here's a small one minute clip of just sitting my the water and listening to it lap at the rocks on the shoreline.

And here is a small video clip of Rufus actually playing in the water. Well, I guess playing isn't the right word since he actually jumped in there to chase a fish he saw, but this is the deepest I've ever seen him get int the water. I mean, aside from the one time I dropped him in a pool and he sank to the bottom.

Normally he will wade into the water until his belly hits the surface and then he stops. As you can see here his feet actually leave the ground for a whole three or four steps until he returns to land he can touch. 

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Peek-a-Boo in the Shell

Here's a gopher tortoise Rufus and I ran across last week. As you can tell, Rufus is very uninterested. The tortoise however was very uninterested. 

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A camera a day

And this is why citizens need to be on patrol with their camera-phones. We can't trust the police to police themselves. That's like trusting congress to give themselves pay cuts. Sgt. Whitcomb says they do have penalties for not having the dash-cams running, but apparently not in this case leads me to wonder, for such a random act, how often are they not running?

Or, and I hate to be the conspiracy theorist, is SPD purposefully losing all those hours of dash-cam that apparently went missing to protect itself from lawsuits and negative PR?

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New Employees and Bricks

Found this on Google+ and thought it worth the share. I'm not sure who the original author is, but the original link is HERE.

HOW TO PROPERLY PLACE NEW EMPLOYEES . . .

1. Put 400 bricks in a closed room.

2. Put your new hires in the room and close the door.

3. Leave them alone and come back after 6 hours.

4. Then analyze the situation:

a. If they are counting the bricks, put them in the Accounting Department.

b. If they are recounting them, put them in Auditing.

c. If they have messed up the whole place with the bricks, put them in Engineering.

d. If they are arranging the bricks in some strange order, put them in Planning.

e. If they are throwing the bricks at each other, put them in Operations.

f. If they are sleeping, put them in Security.

g. If they have broken the bricks into pieces, put them in Information Technology.

h. If they are sitting idle, put them in Human Resources.

i. If they say they have tried different combinations, they are looking for more, yet not a brick has been moved, put them in Sales.

j. If they have already left for the day, put them in Management.

k. If they are staring out of the window, put them in Strategic Planning.

l. If they are talking to each other, and not a single brick has been moved, congratulate them and put them in Top Management.

m. Finally, if they have surrounded themselves with bricks in such a way that they can neither be seen nor heard from, put them in Congress.

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Remember the Time

Drove through my old neighborhood today, the one wherein I spent a majority of my childhood. That was surreal. I haven't been back through there since 1992 as far as I can recall.

I saw my old bus stop for elementary school and the one for JR. and high school. Some houses where friends lived and some houses where we just knew the people. 

The first person who ever told me about a BBS, a kid I went to school with lived down the street. I remember a friend of his parents always came over in a '66 Mustang fastback that was sweet. 

This girl whom I can't remember why we made fun of her, but she lived a few doors down. It might have been her name which sounded a lot like CITA (see-tah) a catholic charity here. Her's, I can't remember if I ever knew how to spell it, was pronounced the same way. She wore glasses and liked to play with insects.

There was the neighbor's house (on the west side) whom we found out after years of living there was spying on us for the landlord and reporting every time an argument was had, or we didn't mow the lawn in time.

My brother's and mine friends who lived down the street, Raymond and Ryan's house. Their father bought them a little 50cc scooter. I as riding it, hit a pot hole and flipped it. That hurt. 

The guy across the street who always yelled if we cut through his yard.

And a myriad of other memories I'd forgotten and remembered.

There was the house that had the standard poodle who would always act like Cujo when we passed their house. I still don't like standard poodles. 

This girl who is a year or two older than me, whose brother I played with as a kid, who sent me a Facebook invite. I never hung out with her but I remember she made it about two weeks in Navy boot camp before quitting and returning home. I'd already joined the Army but hadn't left yet for basic.

My friend Phil's father's house -- a house I spent a lot of time in was still sitting there, but it looked smaller and more rundown than I could ever recall. Phil and I are still friends and I know his extremely religious parents split up; his white supremacist father's daughter has two kids by two different black men and his son is on and off drugs. Phil, the high school dropout is married, three children and living the (traditional) American dream in a nice suburban style neighborhood.

I could still show you where my first fight was (can't remember his name), my first kiss (can't remember her name either), where we camped in the back yard and where we watched thunderstorms from the front yard. The house on the corner, the guy had a small dog, a cocker spaniel perhaps, and I would play with it whenever he was outside. 

I remember lighting fireworks in the driveway and shooting my bb gun in the back yard. The neighbor had sugarcane growing in their yard and we would go cut it down and chew on it. Another neighbor, of the east side of the house we were in, hated it when we had to go into his yard to get our ball back.

William (Bill) Cruse lived down the street from us, I mean 7 or 8 houses down. We used to fish in the creek that bordered his yard. I remember when his shooting spree started, even though he was a mile away at KMart my mom freaked out and took us to spend the night at her friend's house. I was late for school the next day and had to explain to my teacher why.

So surreal. I mean, I've come back to this town before, numerous times over the years, but I nearly always stay on the main thoroughfares and just have never gone through my old street. Even the many times I've passed within a block or two of it while going to and fro. 

The neighborhood did look rundown, though. Not just the house I grew up in, which had apparently been painted, but the whole neighborhood. It looked like the entire neighborhood juts gave up caring. Lawns weren't nice, fences were ratty, mailboxes leaned every which way and people had stuff, just stuff, stacked all around their houses. 

But maybe it was like that when I was a kid and I just didn't notice. I remember my mom was a smoker (she quit a few years ago) and she would get out of her car and flick her butts in the yard. It made mowing the lawn a pain in the ass. So, maybe it was a dirtier place than I remember. Our perceptions change as we get older, especially as we learn and change.

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