New Computer

11-29-2012 ~ Blog #487

(David)

I built my last computer in 2007.  It still runs but is too weak to edit HD movies and has trouble doing all kinds of things.  My new computer has a four core i5-3570K processor, GeForce GTX 560 Ti video card, 16 GB of RAM, a 256 GB solid-state drive hard drive and 2 TB data drive.  It was a pretty easy build and pretty much everything works well together. I'm especially happy with the SSD hard drive; with no moving or sleeping parts it opens programs almost instantly.  I took a few macro shots of the processor and motherboard, just because.

The Best Christmas Pageant Ever » Dynamics Theater

We are not quite as involved with the latest Dynamics theater play as we were this summer, although Joan has been working on the set and I took some photos during the last two rehearsals.  View 100 plus rehearsal photos on this page.

Thanksgiving

I really wasn't up to taking photos this Thanksgiving. It was a beautiful warm day. 

I rode my bike 25 miles, in shorts, and began running wires to the addition.

Amherst Rocket Launch

11-17-2012 ~ Blog #486

(David)

Today Svea and I drove up to Amherst to meet most of the rest of the IHM Rocket Teams for our first launch of the year.  We are months ahead of where we were last year, but not really close to having rockets perform where we want them.  We had bad luck with fuses and had quite a few no-fires.  Thanks to our government overreacting to presumed terrorist everywhere, model rocket motors can only be sold with one fuse per motor.  I am baffled that the idiots at the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives have such little understanding bombs, weapons, explosives, etc. that think that making model rocket fuse harder to get will stop or even deter a terrorist.  There are hundreds of way to make fuses for bombs.  Model rocket fuses, however, are relatively weak, very unreliable, and are really only good at igniting model rocket motors.  Our motors cost $20 each.  I believe we had five defective fuses today which means that we are sitting on about $100 worth of motors that can't be used because we can't buy spare fuses.  This is just one more way that the Patriot Act and Homeland Security are trampling the rights of Americans, in this case law abiding hobbyists and students, while doing nothing to deter terrorists.

The Team America Rocketry Challenges rules for 2013 include: a target altitude of 750 feet, flight duration between 48-50 seconds, one egg laying sideways, a 15 inch diameter parachute and a weight limit of 650 grams.  Today's flights were hitting 840-980 feet, so we need to bring them down with: smaller motors, more weight or air brakes/drag.

In the photos below, our rockets are short and white with unpainted wood fins.  The other rockets pictured belong to NAR members who also attended the meet.

This NAR member rocket was just full of bad news.  I'm guessing a bad O ring allowed the propellant gasses past the ejection delay.

This is my experimental finless rocket.  It flew straight, but was very underpowered.

Silver Creek Metro Park

11-11-2012 ~ Blog #485

(David)

We hiked there.

Gary Johnson Rally

11-3-2012 ~ Blog #484

(David)

I met Governor Gary Johnson at a rally last night; it was my first political event ever. We talked bicycling and I learned that he also is a cross country skate skier.  My good friend Dr. Richard Reikowski accompanied me and we met some friends from the German Family Society at the event.  I've studied Johnson quite a bit online so there was very little said that I hadn't heard before, but it was very inspiring to hear an audience of hundreds' applause and roar in response to issues like ending our wars, the NDAA indefinite detention law and the TSA.  I find it appalling that the vast majority of Americans are willing to waste their votes on candidates who will continue our wars and drone attacks, killing and maiming thousands, and terrorizing and occupying millions all to increase the profits of the American Industrial Military Complex corporations and executives.  I know many Obama supporters have already stopped reading because "Obama ended the war in Iraq and brought the troops home just like he promised".  Well the truth is that the contract that George Bush made with Iraq ran out in 2012; Obama tried to negotiate an extension.  Iraq rejected the proposal because Obama's contract demanded that US troops could not be held accountable for war crimes.  Obama likes to take credit for ending the war in Iraq, but that has never been his intent.  Our "embassy" in Iraq is the size of a small city and employs 15,000, yet, "we are out of Iraq".  Obama promises to pull our troops out of Afghanistan just like he promised four years ago.  If he hasn't done it yet, why should we believe him now?  Have we already forgotten that Obama increased the number of troops in Afghanistan?

There are all kinds of things about presidents and presidential candidates that are subjective and dependent on a persons political perspective/identification/philosophy. Reasonable people can have very different believes about the appropriate size of the government, policy effects on the economy, etc. Reasonable people do not justify war crimes, however. If someone's beliefs lean, D, R, L, G or whatever, they will not approve of war crimes unless they are psychopaths/sociopaths. I harp on war and especially the drone wars because there is clear/solid evidence that Obama is knowingly committing war crimes. The drone war is a good litmus test; anyone who does not acknowledge that Obama is wrong on this issue is either uninformed or an Obama fanatic.  A very thorough and convincing study about the horrible crimes we are committing in the Middle East was made by the Stanford Law School and the Global Justice Clinic at New York University School of Law; I highly recommend reading: "Living Under Drones" (PDF).  If you think our wars are justified, please listen to what Glenn Greenwald has to say in: The Fraud of "Humanitarian Wars". 
 

The "Wasted Vote"

http://www.isidewith.com/

As a third party and former Ron Paul supporter I am often confronted by people who tell me that I am wasting my vote.  These people don't get it.  They have no idea how disgusted I (and other third party supporters) are with the corrupt, war-mongering Republican and Democratic parties.  I personally have vowed to NEVER vote Republican or Democrat again when a third party is also in the running.  I get the concept of voting for a candidate who is not your favorite, but stands a better chance to win and I think it sometimes is a viable option.  In this election, however, both Obama and Romney are 100% unacceptable.  They both are willing to kill innocent people, start and continue wars, indefinitely detain Americans without trial, ignore the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, etc.  It DOES NOT MATTER that one may be better for the economy or even more of a "hawk" than the other; I find both men evil and as a voter I cannot give either one my consent and my vote.  In my mind over 90% of voters will be wasting their vote on a candidate that they also should rule out as unacceptable if they only knew what their candidates had in store and weighed the gravity of their actual policies (and not just their words).  The Democratic Party, Republican Party and Corporate America are all about pushing the status quo and if you haven't noticed the status quo is full of corruption and evil.  Voting for the lesser of two evils only leads to more evil.

The media and corporate America have most voters convinced that there are only two options and they do everything possible to downplay, hide and dismiss the third parties and their candidates.  Clearly the media is the mouthpiece of corporate America and our government.  The six major media corporations that control over 90% of the broadcast news and newspapers are first and foremost corporations and their primary mission is to make money.  They will not damage their parent corporations and sponsor corporations.  Corporate America also finances the lion's share of Republican and Democratic congressional and presidential candidates in America.  Washington DC and our elected officials are owned by corporate America and provide a huge return on investment; once in office our lawmakers ensure that laws are written to the advantage of corporate America.  The ties between corporate America, politicians and the media is way too strong; I don't trust any of them.  I encourage my fellow Americans to view foreign news sources like Russia Today http://rt.com/ and Aljazeera http://www.aljazeera.com/.  So much happens in our country and worldwide that is not reported by the US mainstream media. 

Who do the people really agree with?  The website http://www.isidewith.com/ surveys users on how they feel about many major issues and then shows them how their opinions align with the candidates.  Gary Johnson (Libertarian) and Jill Stein (Green) are very formidable when you look at what American's believe and where candidates stand on the Issues.  When the number of people who had taken the survey hit four million on October 14th, I tallied the results state by state.  Obama had the clear lead and Johnson managed to win or tie 13 states.  The real eye opener to me was that Stein pulled more 2nd and 3rd place positions than Romney.  Romney, the man who may be elected president in less than a week, has a set of policies that are less popular than the Libertarian or Green Party candidates' policies.  The media and Corporate America's advertising have nearly half of American voters convinced that it is Romney who should be in the White House.  Another huge issue is that with Johnson and Stein out of the media/corporation controlled debates many very serious issues are not being brought to the public's attention. If the people knew Johnson and Stein would end: the War on Drugs, US wars, our military base empire, corporate welfare, the police state, government lies/corruption (at least somewhat) and how bad off we really are, they would put even more weight on them. Most people don't give much thought on how stupid, ineffective, wasteful, and unconstitutional the War on Drugs has become. If Johnson and Stein had been included in the Presidential Debates and were hammering away about War on Drugs, people would take notice. Instead the media had the public focused on PBS and Big Bird. 

The trump card should be that Obama and Romney are proven liars which means what they say on the issues is NOT what they would actually do.  Even if you agree with one of them 75% you are only going to get a 40% to 65% return.

Here are the state by state results from http://www.isidewith.com/ when it hit the four million mark: