Phyrfight Intel

Great training tip. from Paul Markel     http://paulmarkel.com/

For something a little more on the lighter side, here is something that is just plain cool.

Via Wired:

One thing environmentalists failed to acknowledge when supporting new CFL light bulbs was the fact that CFLs contain mercury. Mercury is a toxin that has been proven to cause birth defects and is the reason people should not eat certain types of fish. When it comes to the environment I guess the cause is more important than the environment itself. This video shows what the environmentalism mind-set has forced on everyone: Transcript courtesy of TomCat.

From: Uncle Ted

America needs more outsiders in Washington, D.C. now more than ever. We need more tough, standup hockey moms like Governor Sarah Palin. We need more ordinary Americans to springboard from small city councils to the halls of congress and beyond. We need welders, cops, teachers, ditch diggers, business people, construction workers, secretaries, auto mechanics, and guitar slingers to come to Washington, D.C. and replant the good old “We the People” tree.

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It’s September 3, 2008 22:20 CDT.  Moments ago Governor Sarah Palin finished her acceptance speech as the Republican nominee for Vice President of the United States and all across America millions of liberals just shit themselves.

A new study out today states that the sun failed to produce a single sunspot in the past month for the first time in a century. This combined with the fact that the sun is in a hot period right now may have something to do with the warming of the earth. The universe is a vast and complicated system with everything affecting everything else. To say that we know for sure that carbon-dioxide is the only thing responsible for the warming of the earth is hubris. Change is the only constant in the universe.

Mozilla has just released a new application for Firefox called Ubiquity. Its main goal is to make all the stuff on the web easier to use and combine. Check out the video:

Ubiquity for Firefox from Aza Raskin on Vimeo.

The usefulness and power of the web continues to amaze me.

All these people did was “apply” for permission to demonstrate. Now they get to spend a year at a labor camp. I wonder if that “camp” has canoes and sing-a-longs? It’s probably nothing like a prison.

From: Reuters

…petitioners Wu Dianyuan, 79, and Wang Xiuying, 77, were sentenced to one year of “re-education through labor” after repeatedly applying to demonstrate in areas set aside for protests during the Games, Human Rights in China said.

“In China, as in other countries, applications for demonstrations must go through legal procedures,” the Foreign Ministry’s Qin said when asked about the two petitioners.

None of dozens of applications to protest has been approved.

From Yahoo

Attacks by Russian hackers against Georgian Web sites, including one hosted in the United States, continued Tuesday even as Russian President Dmitri Medvedev ordered a halt to hostilities against Georgia.

One of the first things you learn in photo class is to focus on the MOST important feature in the frame. Clearly this photographer skipped that class. Although the guy in the center (also a photographer)  doesn’t have his camera in-hand, he clearly is aware of the real subject in this image. Oh yeah, that’s President Bush with the water bottle.

Random House has decided to forgo publishing a book about Mohamed’s love life for fear that it will spark violence and riots from Muslims. I thought Islam was the religion of peace.

Via Rueters:

“In this instance we decided, after much deliberation, to postpone publication for the safety of the author, employees of Random House, booksellers and anyone else who would be involved in distribution and sale of the novel,” Perry said.

In other words, just like Comedy Central, you have self-censored yourself and proved to everyone just what kind of cowards you are. Reporters in this country will publish the names of undercover agents in the name of the First Amendment but when it comes to Islam no one dares mention anything after the “cartoon controversy”.

It must be nice to have  the likes of Time and CNN running interference for your campaign. Obama doesn’t need to justify his ridiculous statements, that’s the press’s job, the impartial and independent press, isn’t it?

In this story from Time there is not a single quote from the Obama camp. It must save a lot of time when a reporter doesn’t actually have to do any reporting. Just take a position supporting your candidate and write about how his opposition is a bunch of whiners and Oil Company lackeys. No where in that piece is there any mention that it is an editorial or an opinion piece. In fact I linked to it from Yahoo under the US News category and sure enough that’s where it resides on the Time website, US news.

Do they even have editors over at Time? Do you suppose there is any oversight at all?  I kind of expect a “news” story to have “facts” supported by “quotes” from “experts” or “spokesmen” or perhaps even a “candidate” or two. Apparently the Journalisim school this guy went to didn’t teach that part. Or perhaps he didnt even go to journalisim school, maybe all you need to get a job at Time is your voter registration card stamped “Democrat”. That or a letter of recomendation from Dan Rather.

Earlier today the House Democrats adjourned for the day and the Speaker decided to turn the lights, mics and C-SPAN cameras off. The Republicans were not done and decided to continue the debate on the House floor in the dark.

Via The Politico:

“This is the people’s House,” said Rep. Thaddeus McCotter (R-Mich.). “This is not Pelosi’s politiburo.”

Democratic aides were furious at the GOP stunt, and reporters were kicked out of the Speaker’s Lobby, the space next to the House floor where they normally interview lawmakers.

“You’re not covering this, are you?” complained one senior Democratic aide. Another called the Republicans “morons” for staying on the floor.

Update: This video was posted by Congressman John Culberson to his Qik profile:

This video may change as the Congressman adds more videos.

In 2003 the nonprofit organization Child’s Play was created by gamers in response to wild accusations that video games only hurt children. The organization is dedicated to making a child’s visit the the hospital more comfortable by donating money and games to hospitals around the world. Many other examples of charitable organizations formed around video games include: Get Well Gamers and Fun for our Troops.

Here is an example of what can happen when games are introduced into what would otherwise be a somber situation, from ArsTechnica:

Ryan related a story about how he witnessed two young amputees—one missing the left hand, the other missing their right—joining forces to master the guitar in Rock Band. “One child strums with their one hand, and the other child frets with their one hand. It’s truly an amazing act, and they’ve gotten through songs on the Hard difficulty together! I can’t even finish most songs on hard!”

The IOC has capitulated to the Chinese government over the censorship of the Internet for foreign reporters:

Jonathan Watts, president of The Foreign Correspondents Club of China, said he was disappointed that Beijing had failed to honor its agreement to temporarily remove the elaborate firewall that prevents ordinary Chinese from fully using the Internet. “Obviously if reporters can’t access all the sites they want to see, they can’t do their jobs,” he said. “Unfortunately, such restrictions are normal for reporters in China, but the Olympics were supposed to be different.”

This is why the IOC should have never agreed to let a country that is so obviously on the wrong side of human rights host the games. Although, maybe this will put the spotlight on China and the people of the world will realize that “free” citizens in China have access to less internet sites than do prisoners in the United States of America.

What will”Economic Justice” mean for you?

During his NAACP speech earlier this month, Sen. Obama repeated the term at least four times. “I’ve been working my entire adult life to help build an America where economic justice is being served,” he said at the group’s 99th annual convention in Cincinnati.

And as president, “we’ll ensure that economic justice is served,” he asserted. “That’s what this election is about.” Obama never spelled out the meaning of the term, but he didn’t have to. His audience knew what he meant, judging from its thumping approval.

It’s the rest of the public that remains in the dark, which is why we’re launching this special educational series.

“Economic justice” simply means punishing the successful and redistributing their wealth by government fiat. It’s a euphemism for socialism.

More from: INVESTOR’S BUSINESS DAILY

Video From: dotSub

The Saudi Arabian Human Rights Commission, now there’s a collection of words to boggle the mind, but apparently this organization does actually exist, and they intend to complain
later this month at an event in Copenhagen that Muslims living in Europe are denied human rights and are not allowed to freely practice their faith. How about that?

From: Wired

If the most dire climate predictions come to pass, the Arctic ice cap will melt entirely, and polar bears could face extinction.

So why not pack a few off to Antarctica, where the sea ice will never run out?

Why not? Ask the fu**ing penguins why not!  Do you suppose it’s just a coincidence that there are no penguins in the Arctic and there are no Polar Bears in the Antarctic. Or have these rocket scientists learned everything they know about biology from Disney movies and Coke commercials? WTF?

From: BBC

“Tackling knife culture, especially among young people, is paramount to the safety of our communities, and I am determined to reduce the devastation caused by knife crime,” then Home Secretary Charles Clarke said in the spring of 2006.

Since then there has been a knife amnesty, numerous government initiatives and photo opportunities, with ministers slamming home the same message – that knives will not be tolerated.

But still the deaths caused by knives go on.

“Knife culture”, really? Great Britain has banned almost all forms of firearms and yet violent crime continues to rise. How can that be? I’ll tell you how, they haven’t banned enough classes of inanimate tools  to make the country truly safe. Next on the list, kitchen knives. This quote is from 2005 but typifies that bizarre mindset.

As knives are so readily available, does a culinary reason exist for so many domestic knives…

In the same article the author says that other weapons of choice include bats, chains, and screw drivers.  OK, why do baseball (or I suppose in this case Cricket) teams need so many bats? Can’t the whole team or even both teams all use the same bat? One that can be carried to and from the field in an armored car (when its not locked in its government regulated bat vault). Why can’t bicycles use rubber bands to rotate the wheels instead of chains? And don’t get me started on screwdrivers, why in the world do mechanics and handymen need so many of them? We could have them all serial numbered and chained to 500lb concrete blocks. Then anyone found with an unregistered, untethered screw fastening tool could be put behind bars where they belong.

What about illegal aliens, foreign terrorists, and domestic paranoid types living in shacks in Montana?

From: Apple

To purchase and activate iPhone 3G, you need the following:*

* Credit card
* Social security number
* Valid, government-issued photo ID
* Your current wireless account number and password or PIN (if you’re new to AT&T)