Stop Planes from Falling Out of the Sky

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Thinking about the plane bomb situation, I realized that one solution would be to have everyone vet their seatmates in the immediate vicinity. You know, yak it up with them, look them up on the internet via cell phones (change rules and availability here) and just get a sense of who they are. If they raise suspicions, have another do the same. If three people say, "search'em Dano," then they are off the plane for a very thorough examination. This is all done before the plane leaves the terminal, and could begin before the plane even gets to the terminal, in a sealed waiting room.

I called it in to John Rothman's show last night on KGO and learned, "that's how they do it in Israel, but it will never catch on here..." I'll bet it will catch on real fast after another couple of planes come down in pieces over metro areas.

Verizon Users, Your Information IS About to be SHARED!

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That innocuous little "privacy" notice you just got gives Verizon the right to sell everything they know about your account, who you call, etc., for a fee, with whomever they choose, unless YOU OPT OUT, inside of 45 days! They call it CPNI (could stand for Cyber Ninnies, I suppose) Call 800-333-9956 to opt out via phone droid, or 800-922-0204 to opt out via human Or do it online, if you've set up a MyVerizon account.

Oh Joy!

Lowell Newspaper Scammed

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In the Lowell High School newspaper, an Ultra right group manages to place an ad, referencing a website that has content that initially appears innocuous, and which, when the ad is printed, changes to an ultra right site:

http://www.victoryforever.com/

full story at www.sfgate.com

Wonder who inherited Pete Hammer's old job?

Why I Have Issues with FedEX of Oroville

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For some crazy crazy reason, from time to time, FedEx get a wild hare up their pasture, and instead of shipping from Sacto to Grass Valley, 20 minutes from here, they ship the stuff to Oroville. Case in point, an Epson Artsan 810 printed makes it from Indianapolis to Sacto in three days. Instead of shipping it to Grass Valley, they send it off to Oroville, where they make trips every now and then up to North San Juan. Net result, it is now 5 days since the package hit Oroville, and it is still yet to show here.

I hate Fed Ex when they lie about communications with their trucks. I sign for a package and the truck can barely make it to highway 49 before the fact that I just signed for it shows up on my computer. For them to claim it is only one way, and only consisted of drop off information, is a total and complete LIE. Those trucks are linked by private radio networks, and have at a minimum their version of texting, if not full two way voice communication, either via private radio, or more likely now, via cell phone. It is very unproductive for America to have people hanging around home base all day, waiting for stuff with no assurance that it will even show.

I'm also sure the trucks all have GPS units that show where they are. They deny that too.

277FOTO Covers Yuba River Charter School's 2009 Moondance

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I took some great photos at the Moondance, put on by the Yuba River Charter School, last night, November 7th, 2009. The event took place at the Nevada City Miners' Foundry. You can see the entire batch as I put them up, at www.flickr.com/photos/keachie . The images will be in the Set, a Flickr term for Album, Moondance 2009, so do a search within Keachie's photostream. There are 11 photos there now, and there will be at least 100 more added over the next week or two. Redeye removal, cropping, and color adjustments take time.

Douglas Keachie, your friendly village photographer.

PS, I also took some middlin' pictures, which will be posted too, so everyone gets to see themselves. If you'd rather an image not be posted, please let me know. 277FOTO is a local cell, as well as a soon to be active, website.

Microsoft Support is So Bad...You Can't Even Pay for It!

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I was trying to renew a domain name I had through Microsoft Live, which has expired. My Microsoft Live Email was being rejected as non existent, and so I tried calling. One of the the options was "pay for it" support. Rather than waste a lot of time, I thought I would pay for it. So I sat on hold for 15 minutes, no human, just muzak.

It hung up on me.

A chance to hire back the 800 employees they just laid off, and the phone hung up on me.

Here's the response I got after emailing for support, as it was recommended by Microsoft that I do, to: SUPPORT@OfficeLive.com:

Envelope-to: doug207@keachie.com
Delivery-date: Thu, 05 Nov 2009 08:55:05 -0700
Received: from bay0-xmr-012.hotmail.com ([65.54.241.164] helo=BAY0-XMR-012.phx.gbl)
by host133.hostmonster.com with esmtp (Exim 4.69)
(envelope-from )
id 1N64fx-0005Xz-Eo
for doug2009@keachie.com; Thu, 05 Nov 2009 08:55:05 -0700
Received: from mail pickup service by BAY0-XMR-012.phx.gbl with Microsoft SMTPSVC;
Thu, 5 Nov 2009 07:55:04 -0800
To: doug207@keachie.com
From: Microsoft Office Live
Subject: Domain Renewal, Login Issues
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=iso-8859-1
Content-transfer-encoding: 8bit
References:
Message-ID:
X-OriginalArrivalTime: 05 Nov 2009 15:55:04.0384 (UTC) FILETIME=[56F55400:01CA5E30]
Date: 5 Nov 2009 07:55:04 -0800

You have reached an unmonitored e-mail address; we apologize that we cannot directly reply to your message.

For help with Office Live Workspace, please see http://workspace.officelive.com/support

For help with Office Live Small Business, please see http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/officelive/FX101954801033.aspx

"We'd Like to Know a Little About You for Our Files..."

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I pay $588/month for medical through United Health Services, and there is a mental health coverage. Mom died, and I thought it would be good to get some counseling. Made arrangements, followed procedures, and then got this form in the mail. Basically it is a suicide and drug and drinking questionnaire, with the results to be FAXXED to a number where a minimum wage worker will see the last four of my social, my full name, and my accurate birthdate. Do they even bother to shred? I never give out the birthdate accurately, except in absolute need to know situations. Suffice it to say, I'll pay for any therapy out of pocket, and cross this "benefit" off as one that puts you on all kinds of lists, and exposes you to a risk of identity theft, and porbably even asking to exercise this benefit will affect my ability to get other coverages, including life insurance. One good thing, maybe fewer mailers from life insurance companies...

Online Consumers vs MegaCorps, Score, 0 to 99

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After a couple of years, I've had a new occasion file a major complaint about a product. Last time I did this there were many sites for consumers to blow off steam, and educate one another. Made the Mega Corps mad, and what they couldn't stop legally, they bought out, by grabbing the websites. Many of them were on the order of www.megaCorpsoandsosucks.com. The one from Home Depot was particularly choice, with hundreds of pages of horror stories, both from employess and customers. Today the site is still up, and at first glance it looks like they are going strong. Look closely, nothing newer than 2005, none of the disgruntled employees, etc. It's a camouflaged buyout.

Epson makes no bones about it. www.epsonsucks.com goes directly to a site that directs you to all the normal Epson sites. So here I am, the only place to post about an Epson Artisan 810 that just won't go after printing 10 pages total since new is here. Technorati will index it so other consumers can find it? Used to, not any more. Not unless you have established a following of at least several hundred. Less than that, and they don't even index your site any more. The promise of the Internet to help consumers is being destroyed, quietly, so as to not disturb the buying public.

The Consumerist www.consumerist.com , used to be great. Now you can't comment unless you are witty and creative and approved by their "board." Their content is now all largely coupons, and stories that have already hit the newswires. You want to post something new about a problem with a printer, FAT CHANCE! Now it is one big ad for Consumers reports. Those that started these sites are probably living well on their buyouts....the American Way strikes again.

Tractors 4 Poppies will Beat the Taliban

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Let's face it, Obama has an awful lot on his plate, but yes, even the Left expects action. As for me, take the dollars spent in Afghanistan, and send them seeds, fertilizers, tractors, PVC solar panels and pumps in exchange for the opium poppies. Suspend trade with any country that buys these tractors etc from the Taliban. Oh, don't forget sat receivers, production equipment, and tv's.

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This is just too funny not to republish, from the BBc, thanks!

US paper seeks pot correspondent

The medical marijuana business is booming in California and Colorado

A US newspaper says it has received well over 100 applicants for the post of marijuana critic - many of whom have offered to work for free.

The alternative Denver newspaper, Westword, is seeking a writer for its weekly review of Colorado's booming medical marijuana dispensaries.

But there is a catch - candidates must have a medical ailment allowing them to enter a dispensary and use marijuana.

Fourteen US states now allow the sale of some sort of medical cannabis.

'Stoned'

Compensation will be meagre - and no, we can't expense your purchases Westword job posting

"Keep in mind this isn't about assessing the quality of the medicine on site; it's about evaluating the quality of the establishment," says the Westword job posting.

"After all, we can't have our reviewer be stoned all the time."

States like Colorado and California, where medical use is legal, have seen an explosion in the number of pot shops - ranging from upmarket clinics to dingy drugs dens.

The dispensaries sell more than a dozen varieties, from White Widow to the less expensive Afghan Gold Seal. Some cost up to $130 (£78) an ounce.

But the writer of Westword's Mile Highs and Lows column is expected to focus on the dispensaries, not the drugs.

"Compensation will be meagre," says the posting. It says the paper can't pay for marijuana purchases, "although that would be pretty cool."

Microsoft Trashes Firefox, Moving to Opera, Linux?

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Microsoft moved an addin into Firefox which has left in vulnerable, and in my case, unfixable. History no longer works. Eudora has also just been kicked out of being my primary email, in favor of Outlook, and Eudora can't change the registry back. Thank you, Microsoft!

just like the good old days when Windows first came out, with a deliberate timed cripple against WordPerfect which got progressively worse until it was unusable. Linux is looking better again, and with swappable drives so easy to arrange these days, I may go there. One to boot to Windows for the apps that use it, another to boot to Linux for all communications with the Internet, Email and Web, and possibly two different machines, the laptop for web, the desktop for heavy duty graphics, and a network storage device, accessable from both.


And to think Microsoft want us to pay for System 7?

Serious Problems with Yahoo Flickr Today

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Could not even get to the website for a couple of hours this morning. Finally I got through and logged in under my new paid for Flickr account, the search engine wouldn't function right. Then I logged out and went to log into the other account, also paid for, and that one wouldn't let me in, supposedly because I hadn't been on line for a while. Heck, I've left it alone for weeks in the past and have always gotten back in instantly. They mush have had a major attack on their servers or something. I am in the process of moving my photos to a site that I can completely control, and it looks like I am none too soon in doing so. I knew this kind of thing would happen when Flickr sold out to yahoo. Now when things go south.....blame it on the paying customer! Yahoo Offline, and now limping back online, trying to pretend nothing happened!

Adobe Serial Numbers Hacked, Good Disks on EBAY, BAD DEAL!

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Some ring somewhere appears to have cracked the algorithm that Adobe installs on its CDs to check a serial number at the time of the install.

By purchasing software that has already been installed, good disks and boxing materials, and then providing a counterfeit serial number that passes the algorithm, the software installs and runs fine until you are connected to the internet. Then the product crashes and demands a new serial number purchase.

Adobe could give legitimate sellers of their software on eBay a special seal of approval, or EBay could ban the sale of any of the current CS3 and CS4 products on eBay, but they don't.

They could also replace their Indian tech support workers with real American English speaking Americans, but they don't. Spent three days with them trying to get my legitmate copy of CS3 Master Collection to reinstall, major, major hassle.

Blogging Towards the Presidency

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This is a quick test to see what happens with a straight cut and paste from The Union, and a darned good batch of ideas, if I do say so for myself.

	Keachie, Release 4.0 wrote: "This is not equatable but a point to make: Churchill and FDR were downright underhanded in WWII. Sometimes you have to compromise purity to defeat evil." Clinton understood this very well. Check out the new book by his friend who at Bill's demand, recorded many, many tapes during Clinton's adminstration, of the two of them talking together. Fascinating history, on NPR yesterday. Clinton kept the tapes in his sock drawer. 10/8/2009 7:59:07 AM on theunion.com Recommend Report abuse
	Keachie, Release 4.0 wrote: The top winners also go on the ballot, and are allowed to run as a troika or duo for the office, if they so desire, and can write up a responsibilities contract, who votes on what issues. Such a system allows for more specialization at the top, just as industry uses CEO's and CIO's, etc. Keachie, who thinks outside the box in parallel universes. 10/8/2009 7:54:18 AM on theunion.com Recommend Report abuse
	Keachie, Release 4.0 wrote: The run for office of President should be anonymous, and based on ideas in blogs, written by the potential candidates. Only in the last months, do the cream of the crop of the potential winners, voted on by the readers, become known publicly. No references to dwelling location, beyond maybe 12 major zones for the entire USA is allowed. The incumbent would obviously have a public blog, if desired. Two way, negative as well as positive voting, allowed, for informational purposes. Only the positive votes count. Initially quarterly votes during first two years of re-election cycle, monthly in the third year, and first six of the fourth, then weekly till 3 months to election. Top three winners go head to head in all national debates with any candidates supported by national parties. The top winners also go on the ballot, and are allowed to run as a troika or duo for the office, if they so desire, and can write up a responsibilities 10/8/2009 7:51:32 AM on theunion.com

Making Conservatives' Skins Crawl, Obama's Got them Quirming

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I don't know what upsets conservies more:

The fact that Obama as a person is obviously smarter and richer and more talented than they are,

OR

the fact that his election means that the conservies are very definitely now a MINORITY in this country themselves?

Which is it, conservies?


Our military, roads, postal service, K12 schools, are all socialistic.

The transcontinental railroad was built with funding from the government.

We didn't buy our first nukes from GE.

Most police forces are socialistic.

Even within socialism their is still room for fedEx UPS and others.

There is still room for private schools.

You can still wire up and arm your residence like Fort Knox.

The term "socialism" is just used as short hand for "I hate the fact that Obama is President."

Get used to it. We'll elect him again in 2012.

Civil War Reenactment Pioneer Park Nevada City 2009

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For you Civil War buffs, I posted a whole slew of pictures from the September 2009 Pioneer Park event at:

www.flickr.com/photos/keachie

Saving American Lives in Afghanistan Via Automation

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The other day, my mind strung together several pieces of existing technology, cheap technology, to create a new defense system for use in places like Afghanistan. I first spoke of this last night on Dr Bill Wattenburg's show on KGO, 810 on the AM dial out of San Francisco. We are currently using unmanned drones to track and attack, with pretty good results. The enemy, with its willingness to hide behind skirts and children, does bring about some tragedies.

I have always been fond of the pop on lights which use PIR sensors (passive infrared radiation) to sense motion, and then activate the lights for a set period of time. I've marveled at the Game Spy cameras which for $200 will illuminate and area with invisible to the human eye infrared, and then, using PIR to detect once again, take 6 megabyte photographs or short videos, over a period of days.

I was in Radio Shack Saturday and noticed a lighting system for a Halloween pumpkin that included a PIR, and a voice/sound chip, like the greeting cards, that was full of scary noises to amuse anyone who walked close enough to it. The cost, retail? $10.00.

Now let's go to Redwood City, which some time back was having a prolem with people firing guns into the air for New Years Eve, Fourth of July, Cinco De Mayo, etc. People were being hurt in the resulting slugfall, so, being an area full of computer scientists, they developed a network of listening posts throughout the city, which fed to a software program, which quickly identified the sector where the gun fire was occuring.

If you mount sensors (microphones) in inconspiuous and movable towers, I believe Redwood City used the telephone poles, and you sow the surroundling fields or roadside with PIR equipped noise makers, possible emitting coded sounds to help pin point their location, the codes changing each day, and then use a local flying drone to check out the disturbances, you might be able to slow down the enemy substantially. In a way, it is a minefield without explosives.

My wife points out that the Taliban and Al Qaeda would use children to attempt to clear an area, in which case you might include anti Taliban slogans emitting from the devices, and candy attached to them, to avoid premature destruction, and slow down those efforts.

You might also want to make every 1,000th Sound Thumper (Dune derived name) a very sophisticated detector, with a video feed, and its own ability to sense approaching targets from the cheap thumpers around it. Outwardly identical, this one could be detonated, with most of the deadly force going to just one side, after a remote human had determined a real target within range.

Where the others have short spikes to secure themselves, this one would secure itself deep into the ground. Should a motorcycle be used to cause havoc in a sensing field, one of these would eventually put an end to the practice. A simple reversable command, "blowup at will," would turn these babies into real land mines, lost in a forest of identical Sound Thumpers. Another command would make it easy to remove just these when the need for them had passed.

Boffo PooPoos Cultural Change Via Technology

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And so I responded with:

Oh Boffo!

Let's compare phones of 1970 vs those of today. Today's kindergartner can out call and out text President Nixon with ease.

Are you still lugging that room full of key punching equipment to make cards for your mainframe?

Reagan had little to do with the downfall of Russia. The personal computer, the xerox machine, and most importantly the wide spread use of black market videos which showed a warped but enticing view of the West did far more to demoralize the USSR than anything Reagan did or said. He may have cut the ribbon, but that dam was ready to blow regardless.

How many snail mail missives did you send each day in 1970? How much stuff did you buy from points 3,000 miles away from total strangers? How many trips to the library did you make to check out what your doctor was telling you? How many elections were funded and won on-line?

How many cold cases were solved using fingerprints, as compared to DNA?

Grow Up

Tea Party is Screaming Tidal Wave When When faced with Forest Fire

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Nobody in this country is going to win until we squarely face the Big Three:

Container Ships

747's

Modern Internet Communications


These three have driven capitalistic organized jobs off shore. The rest of the world is now discovering that what the Americans can't buy (Tap City), the rest of the rest of the world CAN buy, at somewhat reduced prices. The party has gone away, and it is not coming back, except in the form of rich capitalists from abroad buying up cheap real estate in the USA.

Welcome to the 21st Century, and for God's sake and your own, stop bickering over obvious necessities like health care for all, and biometric national ID's, plus jail for employers who hire non citizens, to stop the flood of illegals.. Put a firm and solar powered foundation under the country and maybe, just maybe, if we all pull together, we can bounce upwards, instead of being blasted downwards.

Rebane Would Like to TAX Everyone's Pensions?

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Keachie, Release 4.0 wrote:

Just got a mailing from my retiree's Union.

I guess Rebane is just one more Richie out to kill off the middle class any way he can. Apparently there is an initiative circulating that would create an annual tax on retiree "pension income" (pensions, health benefits, and social security) ranging from 20% on $40,000 to 60% on $150,000 or more. It would apply to EVERYONE with a pension, not just public service employees. So far no additional initiatives attacking our pensions have been registered with the Secretary of State, but that could change tomorrow.

Remember:

Don't sign ANY petition that has ANYTHING to do with anyone's pension.

I'm guessing the Richies have enough dough stored up so that this would cost them very little, and would refill the coffers of the state at the expense of the middle class.

Well George, isn't that what would happen?

I double post everything permanently to farstars.blogspot.com, with good tags.

Where's the Flaw, George Rebane?

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Keachie, Release 4.0 wrote:

If conservatives wanted to do away with paying for aliens, they could pass laws jailing any employer who hired one.

Oh horrors! National ID cards!

I'm sorry, but the private sector has beat the government to this sort of thing. In resetting my password with Chase Mortgage, in addition to my social and Mortgage #, they verified who I was by asking me which age range my daughter was in, and gave me several choices. They knew her name, and apparently her actual birthdate. I had NEVER given them any information about her. So how did they know? They have access to public records they said. I guess that means they scanned DMV for others living at our address.

As Bill Joy said some years back, "Privacy, forget it! You don't have any."

National biometric ID's won't be any worse than where we are now. And it would, with jail terms for employers, wipe out the money the illegals come here for. Where's the flaw, George?

Town Hall Rt Wingnuts Have No Evidence of "Rationing, etc."

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The truth is, anyone smart enough to have an opinion that should be respected is also smart enough to dig up the health care bill, and do a search for "euthanasia," "rationing," and "death panel" so as to make cogent arguments with references.

Likewise, anyone smart enough to reference implied items above, should be capable of searching the documents for the words they claim lead to such implications. If you can't Google well enough to do these kinds of searches, and the radio hosts and their researchers can't Google well enough to find the passages that reference such implied activities (and then post the notes on their pages for easy use by their toadies) then such passages most likely DO NOT EXIST, and those HOLDING OPINIONS about NON-EXISTENT PASSAGES can be completely ignored, and town hall meeting can be held on-line, and the ranters comments can be moved around like demonstrators at a Bush appearance.

Elders Running for Jails for Medical Care

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So let's house these two awful threats to society in jail for a couple of years at a cost of what? Just the thing we need to help our economy. More jails to build, more guards, and apparently a lot of medical care, which is what, 40% of the cost housing a prisoner? It does keep a lot of people employed, taking care of them, but you know, I don't see any net gain here, just more taxes, from the few remaining citizens who actually produce stuff that can be sold and used to reduce our trade deficit.

Pretty soon, given the medical needs of our aging population, and the insistence by Repubbys on keeping the insurance companies at the hog trough, elders will get themselves busted to take care of their medical needs and to avoid being homeless and sick. Put those 80 million numbers in your economic pipes and smoke it, conservy Republicans!

Rich Owe Society Taxes, You Betcha!

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They get the most out of society, so paying back in is only fair.

Very few rich people get that way without making use of the people society supports as employees, yet very few rich people seem to appreciate the fact that those employees have more costs involved than salaries and benefits, and they are resentful about paying their fair share of maintaining the resources they use (their employees) that society provides.

Rich folks love well educated and talented people, and hate paying for the schools that produce them. They're rather short sighted in that regard.

Use of the term "rich people" in this little broadside only refers to some of the rich people, not all. Easy to tell which ones, by listening for their distinct warning call:

"Taxes, too many Taxes, taxes, too many taxes, Taxes, too many Taxes, taxes, too many taxes, Taxes, too many Taxes, taxes, too many taxes, Taxes, too many Taxes, taxes, too many taxes, Taxes, too many Taxes, taxes, too many taxes,"

Memorial for Darrell "Shifty" Powers

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This came to me via my daughter from another relative, ex Marine:

Subject: Memorial Service:

you're invited

We're hearing a lot today about big splashy memorial services. I want a nationwide memorial service for Darrell "Shifty" Powers. Shifty volunteered for the airrborne in WWII and served with Easy Company of the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, part of the 101st Airborne Infantry. If you've seen Band of Brothers on HBO or the History Channel, you know Shifty. His character appears in all 10 episodes, and Shifty himself is interviewed in several of them.

I met Shifty in the Philadelphia airport several years ago. I didn't know who he was at the time. I just saw an elderly gentleman having trouble reading his ticket. I offered to help, assured him that he was at the right gate, and noticed the "Screaming Eagle," the symbol of the 101st Airborne, on his hat. Making conversation, I asked him if he'd been in the 101st Airborne or if his son was serving. He said quietly that he had been in the 101st. I thanked him for his service, then asked him when he served, and how many jumps he made. Quietly and humbly, he said "Well, I guess I signed up in 1941 or so, and was in until sometime in 1945 ... "
at which point my heart

skipped.

At that point, again, very humbly, he said "I made the 5 training jumps at Toccoa, and then jumped into Normandy . . . . do you know where Normandy is?" At this point my heart stopped. I told him "yes, I know exactly where Normandy is, and I know what D-Day was." At that point he said "I also made a second jump into Holland, into Arnhem."


I was standing with a genuine war hero . . . . and then I realized that it was June, just after the anniversary of D-Day..

I asked Shifty if he was on his way back from France, and he said "Yes. And it's real sad because, these days, so few of the guys are left, and those that are, lots of them can't make the trip." My heart was in my throat and I didn't know what to say. I helped Shifty get onto the plane and then realized he was back in
coach while I was in First Class. I sent the flight attendant back to get him and said that I wanted to switch seats. When Shifty came forward, I got up out of the seat and told him I wanted him to have it, that I'd take his in coach. He said "No, son, you enjoy that seat. Just knowing that there are still some who remember what we did and who still care is enough to make an old man very happy." His eyes were filling up as he said it.

And mine are brimming up now as I write this.

Shifty died on June 17 after fighting cancer.


There was no parade. No big event in Staples Center. No wall to wall back to back 24x7 news coverage. No weeping fans on television. And that's not right.

Let's give Shifty his own Memorial Service, online, in our own quiet way. Please forward this email to everyone you know. Especially to the veterans.

Rest in peace, Shifty.

Chuck Yeager, MajGen. [ret.]

Tyranny and Buying Legislation

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Tyranny is being able to buy the laws you want.

Global MegaCorps, many USA based, have been doing just that for a century and a half. "Too Big to Fail" is this generation's version of a vertical monopoly. Corporations are NOT people, and should not have ANY access to members of Congress. Access to members of Congress should be lotto-ed off to random voters, who can then sell their hours to the highest bidder, on an open exchange. That way we would know who paying to get what laws passed, and there would be a real incentive to vote. I would guess that 1 hour of a Congressperson's time would bring in at least $5,000 to $25,000 to some lucky voting citizen.

Promoting Nevada County

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Have a TV crew explore the Empire, IM, and other mines with scuba, looking for gold. Let them foot the cost, and recover same from a Discovery like channel. Make it a series, and explore the lives of panners and dredgers as well. Work in local events.

Suggested title:

"Gold is Where You Find It"

Easy to include the general lifestyle up here and the hi tech companies.

Another Keachie Koncept.

Save Your House From Embers, Shields Up!

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After watching a multi-million dollar palace in Santa Barbara with a Spanish tile roof burn, I realized a weakness in modern structures which does not seem to be addressed anywhere. This home was not grazed by nearby flames. Apparently, based on the video of the burn, sparks/embers/whatever, got inside the attic area, where it is totally dry and probably at 130 degrees to begin with.

I seems to me that metal shutters should be at the ready for every entrance into the roof areas. There are of course big vents, usually 2 feet square or bigger, but there are also all those little vents under the eves. All need to be metal shuttered and secured. The differences in air pressure can be quite strong during a forest fire, even just from one side of a house to the other, and this can literally suck in the tiny burning particles that doom a house.

Sadly, this house had a giant pool, but no auto pumping devices, which would also have helped douse the tiny embers of doom.

Comment Killers Loose at The Union

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Your use of the bully pulpit of the delete comment (at those speeds of deletion, not much doubt about who is doing it) is no different than a Ryghty Radio Queen using the slider to douse the volume of a caller with cogent arguments, making such a caller sound like they have no response, or that they agree with the host.

Dirk Steele and Charly Wigglesworth turn out to be the Wizard and the Man Behind the Curtain, one and the same. As soon as number one computer is up with Photoshop, I'll post the proof. I had a comment that revealed the workings of the report abuse button disappear in less than two minutes. I had other comments, totally harmless, not violating any rules, disappear. I am screen capturing to jpegs images as evidence, but need to receive the parts I've ordered for my main machine, in order to do neat posts.

Rush, Savage, Hannity, Known by Their Advertisers

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As for all the Ryghty Radio Queens, to me they and their listeners are known by their advertisers.

“Having trouble with the IRS?”

“Get out of credit card debt!

“Are you so worn out from working you can’t sleep?”

Yup, this certainly tells of a clientele that drives Lexus and vacations on the Riviera. In reality those folks do cheer on Rush and the like, for keeping the working poor in the place and unaware of the daily built-in the system, ripoffs, engineered by the Lexus class.

Tax Lawyers for Using Court System to pay for Court System

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You can pay for the Superior Court system the same way we pay for highways. A tax on those who get the most benefits from them, i.e., the lawyers.

It works like this.

If, you act as an agent for anyone, and make use of the court system, and gain cash from such usage, you will pay 10% off the gross income from that transaction. It does not matter that the issue was settled in or out of court. The fact that any filing was made will indicate a willingness to use the bully pulpit of the court system for personal gain. For that usage, you shall pay. No if's, and's, but's, or whatever. The money collected goes to the court for their expenses.

Currently lawyers have passed laws that give them the exclusive rights to act as agents and to make use of the court system for personal gain. For this they shall pay. This is completely separate from any "filing fees" etc., and cannot be offset by them.

The current system has the general public footing the bill for the personal gains of the few that go into law. It's as if the taxi drivers got exclusive rights to drive the city streets and highways, and then got total exemption from paying any gasoline taxes.

UNFAIR!

Will such laws ever come into being? FAT CHANCE! The legis's are loaded with lawyers, who have carefully tailored the process so that only lawyers can afford to take the break in their careers to go into the legis's. Were other occupations offered guaranteed rights of return, you'd see a far more equitable distribution of occupations in the legis's.

This is a country of lawyers, by lawyers, and for lawyers, when it comes to looking at favored professions. Lawyers decided that corporations should be able to bully lobby, regardless of how massive they are. What a symbiotic relationship!

Oh, they'll pass it on to their clients? Well, they already are in a supposedly competitive market, so I think they will eat most of it.

Who's Responsible for Hard-to-Teach Kids?

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"Hold them accountable to the same standards we all have to live by. And when you get cut, complain to within where the waste is, not us who are already giving you billions."

Fine, and if you'll stop giving us kids from overstressed homes and 50% divorce rate homes caused by overstressed underpaid workers, maybe we educators can give you back better educated kids to compete in the global economy for fewer dollars. Every screwed up, time wasting, chewing up the clock kid that shows up on the doorsteps of our schools is the responsibility of the public and the employers who pay too little, and religions that say baby, baby, baby, because the bigger the congregation, the more lavish the lifestyle of the church leaders.

Teachers do not produce hard to teach kids. The American public does. Quit scapegoating, and look in the mirror. Boy am I in a good mood this morning!

Dividing a Cat Between 2 Households

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In Yuba, California, two people are fighting over who gets custody of a cat. My comment in The Union newspaper follows:

User Image
Keachie, Release 4.0 wrote:
In a world where making a good income and raising a family (the middle class lifestyle of the 1950's) has become impossible for many, a dog or cat offers companionship. In the absence of family humans, the bonds with family felines and canines can become very strong. I would recommend that this particular cat be put in foster care for 90 days, and each "parent" be put in charge of a kitten of intelligence, each one from the same litter, and picked out by the human who gets it. During the ninety days, have the cat checkers (these folks who check out homes before adoption) drop in from time to time.

At the end of ninety days, she or he who scores highest, gets the older cat as well. The loser now has a consolation kitten, and the pain of loss is eased.

Solomon couldn't have done it better, if I may say so for myself. (doubt many posts this thread, we shall see)

Douglas Keachie

Build a Better Ghetto School

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You need to build a school that is equipped like a mini country club, has holding cells with full av links back to the classroom the kid just got thrown out of, a couple of burley guards to hustle the misbehaving to the holding cells, and a teacher with FINAL and unquestionable authority to send the offending kids out. No amount of keveching by the parents accomplishes anything. Teachers are reviewed by peers from other school districts, so no favoritism can be involved.

As a final punishment, for kid, if you get sent out, you get standard school cafeteria food, instead of the dynamite custom prepared yummy lunches.

Full after school supervision and rides home to the doorstep, so that homework can be accomplished free of environmental hassles.

School would be shaped as a three story plus building with a large central protected courtyard with swimming pool/basketball courts. Track on roof of building. Underground protected parking for teachers, full shower facilities for all teachers, par course.

Pullup enclosed docking areas for 18 wheeler based special unit labs in many subject areas, rotated in from other schools. This would accommodate special labs for the sciences, and a full sweep of voc ed.

Many field trips.

The cycle of poverty could be broken. Yes, by all means, build these using local labor and contractors.

Modifying Affirmative Action for 21st Century

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Affirmative Action can be changed two ways, one very,very simple, one rather complicated, to make the process more just.

Simple, simple,

If the first candidate selected turns down the position for any reason, the second candidate becomes the most qualified, regardless of socio/economic/racial background.

More complicated:

All jobs, scholarships, contracts, whatever, that fall under the heading affirmative action, are referred to a state commission which in secret spins a wheel. The results remain secret, until the final five for the slot are selected, in both affirmative action and non affirmative action mode. Then the commission is contacted for the results. If affirmative action, they go with that list. If not, they go with the no bias list. The odds of being one or the other on the wheel are set every gubernatorial election, by the voters. When Hispanics outnumber whites, they are no longer minorities.

Keachie, building new boxes from pieces of old ones.

Am I a Prophet or What?

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I wrote this as a letter to the editor in The Union newspaper back on July 7th, 2006. Somewhere out there poor people are kicking themselves for not accepting low wages as security guards and saving the global economy.

I read another crybaby story about not being able to find help for cheap in "Security Guards in Demand."

When it comes to CEOs and the like, it is a given that we must pay more to get quality. This same logic is never applied to teachers, police officers, farm workers, and well, yes, security guards.

It's almost as if the rich feel the poor are obligated to work for the lowest possible wages, or else the economy will fail, and everyone will suffer. Why is it that the "invisible hand of the market" works just fine for hiring Rush Limbaugh, but is considered "inappropriate" for hiring the common man? Ganders and Gooses, what's happening here?

Learn English, Double Your Lottery Winnings

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We want Mexicans living here to learn English. Many of them love the lotto. Set up bio-identificated on-line English courses and tests. Anyone who passes level 1, wins 1.1 time the face amount, and so on, all the way up to level 100. Tests are open to everybody, and this of course builds up a very complete ID database based on biometrics, a deterrent to crime. If not, good for one way passage on slow tramp steamer to Southern Mexico, little, then no, air-conditioning.

Who's Making a Monkey of Whom?

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Scientific American discusses the not so very scientific Americans, as Don Pelton has noted in his blog. I chimed in with:

Among other things, we do not come from monkeys, but rather, monkeys and us have a far distant common ancestor, neither human nor monkey.


I find it fascinating that a number of daytime talk shows have adopted DNA paternity tests (valid and very reliable) and lie detector tests (nowhere near as valid and reliable) has the key elements of tragic/comic "whose baby is this anyway?" shows.

Which Mr. Monkey and Ms Monkey are so crazy as to go on air to untangle situations that are really odd to begin with? Of course there are no shows featuring the offspring of such unions five years and ten down the pike, and showing those consequences.

Unfortunately, a sizable portion of the population gets themselves in these situations, they never seem to run out of applicants to be on air. This fact alone tells us the quantity of mentalities out there that can go around proudly proclaiming, "they didn't come from no monkey." Their behavior and awareness of science seems to suggest de-evolution is taking place too.

Growing a Financial Genius Crop of School Children

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We need a strong grass roots movement to pass a Constitutional amendment for a national usury rate of 18% max. I've been calling for this for years.

Financial math should be taught hard starting just after the big four of addition/subtraction/multiplication/division.

In 5th grade, every kid should get $50 to invest in any of 50 different areas. They should have the right to move the current value of their holdings to any other area, once a month. With computers, this is very doable. They get to cash out 50% of their holdings at 10th grade. If they graduate HS, the government has a lottery at every high school, and the winner gets a bonus of 1 dollar for each graduating senior in the school + $1 for each dollar invested successfully, with a $500 minimum.

I'd love to see the banks try to scam the resulting population.

One Million Pennies for Your Thoughts

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Most old timers and youngsters with old timer mindsets live for a day when you can pack your wagon, go someplace new, and have at least a 50-50 chance of doing better and a real possibility of doing a whole lot better.

Corporate America and MegaCorporate World have had enough time to scope the whole planet out, and those odds cited above are fantasy, when you think of physical moves. You can mentally move yourself with education, and think up stuff that hasn't been done before, and still strike it rich. This concept too, is moving very slowly into the General American Consciousness, GAC.

Basic through advanced ed is where the riches of the future are found.

Try this quick test:

Which would you rather have deposited electronically into your bank account?

seven thousand, seven hundred and seventy seven dollars and seventy seven cents?

OR

one million pennies?

If you or your kids can't do this in under ten seconds, invest in books and tutoring.

Too Big, Too Wierd, Too Scary.

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"I want to remove from office judges who approve "sexting" for minors as young as 13."

I responded in The Union newspaper in Grass valley as follows:

Geez, I just learned of sexting from the sheriff's letter this week. Where is there such a judge?

I fear MegaCorps the way you fear centralized government, for much the same reasons,

Too Big, too weird, too scary. And too powerful. But, look abroad, and see the same thing, in China, and it is pointed at us. If we can't figure out how to hold our own on the world stage, we are screwed, and MegaCorps don't care. Re-read Catch 22 by Joesph Heller, paying especial attention to Milo MinderBinder. Shipping all our jobs overseas, shortchanging our education systems, letting the rich rot in gated communities, is not going to work, no matter how much you pray.

Night Truck on 20 at 49 turnoff to North San Juan

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Monsanto, Shell, Think Americans STUPID!

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Monsanto tries to kill home gardens:

I’ve been noticing an increasing uproar in the blogosphere and the agricultural news community about H.R. 875, the Food Safety Modernization Act of 2009. Introduced by Democratic Representative Rosa DeLauro, a Congresswoman with indirect family ties to agricultural giant Monsanto, the bill drastically revamps and overhauls the food safety mechanisms by which the Federal government attempts to guarantee the purity and safety of the food Americans consume.

Although my default position is to be somewhat skeptical of these mass semi-panics, in this case there seems to be some meat to the complaints. Many of the elements of the bill as it stands seem to put the Federal government in a position of tremendous power over even the smallest of agricultural producers – literally, the gentleman next door growing a row of organic tomatoes – and requiring them to do business pretty much the way that the giant agricultural companies do business.

Shell oil is claiming their fuel has, tada, "Nitrogen!" Whoopido. In fourth grade you supposedly learn that 80% of the atmosphere is nitrogen. How about an explanation of just how an inert gas is used to improve performance? What compound are they adding to gasoline that wasn't already there in the first place, and exactly what is is doing, and does Shell have a patent? Or is just more marketing hype, like "our vacumn cleaner comes with a new invention, a "HOSE!" tada...

If "El Rushbo" Has a Heart Attack, the Repubbys will be

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rudderless. There's no "there" there.

Commentary by Margaret Carlson

March 5 (Bloomberg) -- Rush is wrong.

There, I said it. It wasn’t so hard.

Not for me, anyway. If I were Katie Couric I wouldn’t be so foolish. Rush Limbaugh could feast for a week on a big network anchor like her. And if I were a Republican officeholder, forget it. Anyone who dares to quibble with Rush’s wish that President Barack Obama should fail has to publicly grovel, as did the new chairman of the Republican National Committee, Michael Steele.

After remarking on CNN last weekend that Rush can be “ugly” and “incendiary,” Steele contritely said he didn’t mean to question the “leadership” of Rush, for whom he has “enormous respect.” He had just been a “bit inarticulate.”

Inarticulate is one thing El Rushbo isn’t. He fills the air for three hours a day, attracts more than 20 million listeners a week, by his count, and was a headliner at a convention of conservatives in Washington last weekend.

Dressed like Johnny Cash and bouncing up and down as he gave his “first ever address to the nation,” he generated excitement bordering on adoration. He certainly got more juice than Mitt Romney, who has tried hard to woo Rush’s audience and won the convention’s straw vote with 20 percent.

That doesn’t make Limbaugh king of his party, but it does make him a kingmaker, as former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and President George W. Bush, who celebrated Rush’s birthday at the White House with a chocolate cake decorated with a microphone, would attest.

Verizon Wireless Internet Runs Poorly

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I am dependent on one tower. The tower located on Oregon House peak. It is less than 3.8 miles away, and it is a completely unobstructed line of sight. I can literally see the tower on a clear day without binoculars.

About once a week, often for hours at a time, the darn thing goes way, way slow, like between 20 and 30 when the minimum is supposed to be around 160, the average is around 300 to 500, and sometimes it really cranks at 1200. It never runs this slowly when I am in an urban area, same computer, same card, same Verizon. Out here, as DSL is becoming available, I've noticed that the top speeds have been improving, substantially.

But it is really annoying to write something like this post, never knowing if the connection will be fast enough when I'm done writing to actually deliver the post to the blogspot server.

Consistency does not seem to be a value held by Verizon, certainly not on the Oregon House Peak tower in California.

Sitting on a Cornflake.....

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Apparently Kellog's doesn't like Michael Phelps "sitting on their cornflakes" anymore.

An excellent Piece on Abortion from The Union Newspaper

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Tracy

A couple of other things you might want to contemplate. Mother Nature performs a thousand times as many abortions (miscarriages) as humans do. Most of the time the female is completely unaware of this. Is this some kind of murderous genocide going on?

Second, your statement:

�sex is made to have children�

Is rather odd. Ninety-nine percent of sexual acts are entered into for pleasure and intimacy with the hope of NOT getting pregnant. Women past menopause lead active sex lives. A woman can get pregnant easier with timed, impersonal artificial insemination than engaging in sex. Sometimes I wonder if that is the way the Catholic Church would like it. They have for generations been against anything but missionary style intercourse and found sex for pleasure sinful. You are too young to fully understand all this. Remain a virgin until you marry and stop judging everybody else. Open your mind and write back 10 years from now.

"None Dare Call It Treason"

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Jeff,

Great to see your blog here. I've just joined you in being excommunicated from our local paper. Hurwitz was/is the precursor, along with Milken, to our current crop of greedies. I think I got dumped because I mentioned the treason connection.

Al Qaeda wants to destroy the USA.
Taking down the economy would be a good 2nd act.
The brokers and folks like the former Secretary of Treasury aided and abetted Osama's cause, with the invention of 4th order derivatives.

"How could have we have known?" is their version of Bart Simpson's, "I didn't do it."

It is a bald faced, in-your-face, lie.

Anyone who got paid $200,000/year and up plus bonuses into the millions had a brain very capable of working through the scenarios and the consequences.

They should be tried, convicted, thrown in jail, and all their assets seized.

This line of thought is what I think got me ousted from the comment boards. Plus, I got it out in its entirety on Joanne Green's KGO talk show the other night, 50,000 plus listeners. At the Union, he who has the sharpest pitchfork and brightest torch is removed, ASAP

My final insult was to use the line, "None Dare Call It Treason." I guess they considered that copyright infringment.

Americans Are All of Us ?

Should everyone (all ethnicities and melanin contents) refer to themselves as Americans? This question was posed in The Union newspaper today.

The problem is that "America" is itself a European derived named:

Amerigo Vespucci (March 9, 1454 February 22, 1512) was an Italian explorer and cartographer. The continents of America are popularly understood to derive their name from the feminized Latin version of his first name (see Naming of America).[1]

Vespucci played a senior role in two voyages which explored the east coast of South America between 1499 to 1502. On the first of these voyages he discovered that South America extended much further (the Indies). Vespucci's voyages became widely known in Europe after two accounts attributed to him were published between 1502 and 1504. In 1507, Martin Waldseemller produced a world map on which he named the new continent America after Vespucci's first name, Amerigo. In an accompanying book, Waldseemller published one of the Vespucci accounts, which led to criticism that Vespucci was trying to usurp Christopher Columbus' glory.

If there had been a Pan AmerIndian (there it is again!) Culture, and the name had been derived from that one culture, then maybe E. German would have a case. But alack and alas, the waves of immigration that make up the existing "native" "Americans" apparently came from everywhere, at differing times, and the is no universal AmerIndian culture. Even the AmerIndians have a problem ---> they're named generically after a group on a continent clear on the other side of the planet! Stupid Europeans that the AmerIndians discovered on their beach didn't have a clue as to where they were!

Let's move on folks, the governor is short changing the poor and helpless, and we haven't charged anyone yet with treason for trashing the "American" and the world's economy. Chase the Nicolsons, boy did they do big damage! Leave those Wall Street brojokers alone! How could have they known???!!! Give me a break!

Haiku for a Bad Economy

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Or maybe,
We should stop having,
So many babies....

I'm not sure if this is really a Haiku, but it feels like one.

Looks like Obama Reads my Blog

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"We will build the roads and bridges, the electric grids and digital lines that feed our commerce and bind us together. We will restore science to its rightful place, and wield technology’s wonders to raise health care’s quality and lower its cost. We will harness the sun and the winds and the soil to fuel our cars and run our factories. And we will transform our schools and colleges and universities to meet the demands of a new age. All this we can do. And all this we will do."