June 25, 2013

quote of the moment

"I begin to feel like my whole life has been one of self-absorbed elitism, living and working in the provincial bubble of the NYC new-music scene and its international tendrils, in an abstract self-congratulatory liberalism that actually doesn't do much to improve the world or give hope to those without it."

-- eve belgarian

June 22, 2013

quote of the moment

"American made cars and American women have a few things in common. They don't last very long and are very noisy. Separation with either causes loss of income."

-- "slayer" on a Y! article comment

June 21, 2013

the greatest haiku ever written

Six dark silhouettes
Long bills, all pointing skyward
Goddamn cormorants


(this poem isn't mine ... it was written by AMAMB, in reference to an old family joke.  i modified it slightly, the word "dark" above was originally "brown."  although i like the change better than the original, there's still a part of me that wants to use a slight shuffle of wording ... something like "six silhouettes - black."  i'm not sure.  it's funny how when you stop writing poetry, the chops fall away a little bit.  nevertheless, this prose is a tremendous gift.)

June 20, 2013

caveats about using republic wireless

the super-cheapie in me occasionally looks at switching from my super-low end android phone with $35/month on boost to republic wireless ... i ran across this list of caveats today and wanted to hold it here for future reference.  (not my words ... this taken from the republic wireless website via mr. money mustache.)

***

1. MMS is not supported – this means no sending pictures/videos/audio clips by text.

 2. Short codes are not supported – those are the interactive texts to 5- and 6-digit numbers, like for paypal/facebook/netflix confirmation, “Voting” for your favorite reality tv show contestant, promos from your local coffee shop.

 3. No Text-to-Email gateway – these are often used by alert systems to send a text to your_phone_number@your_provider.com.

 4. No account suspension – other services offer a vacation hold. Nothing like that exists here.

 5. Your number cannot be changed – if you move to a new area, RW does not change your phone number.

 6. No tethering – the phone cannot be used as a Wi-Fi hotspot.

 7. If you “root” your phone it will void your warranty and RW will not support it any longer. You cannot return a rooted phone under the 30 Day Guarantee.

 8. Dialer cannot be programmed to accept a “pause” or “wait.”

 9. Cannot change the amount of ring-time before the call goes to voicemail:

 10. No international dialing. Calls may only be made to the US and Canada

 11. No porting of a Google Voice number to Republic.

 12. Republic is a VOIP provider, not cellular. When attempting to port out from RW, it is considered a landline, which may limit options.

 13. No transferring of phones to new users or splitting/combining of accounts. No sales of service, though selling phone hardware is OK

 14. No BYOD.

 15. No services in Hawaii, Alaska, or New Hampshire. (Phones will work there, but no local numbers, and you can’t register order a phone to be shipped to those states)

 16. Voicemail has no “envelope” information and very few features.

 17. Voicemail notification is not delivered if phone does not have cellular service.

 18. 911′s caller id will be the underlying Sprint number unless the call is over wifi

 19. No X11 number can be dialed, other than 911

June 12, 2013

carbon emissions produce global warming?

cap'n happy tracks the science (and pseudoscience) of global warming judy more closely than I do...when an article came out about it recently, I asked his opinion...i wanted to save his answer here for future reference.

***

>> more carbon emissions gives more warming)?
>
>

Over the past 16-22 years CO2 emissions have continued to rise and yet global temperatures have held steady (and even dropped, depending on how you calculate the trend line).

Yes – there's been no "global warming" in two decades.

The entire theory is based on "evidence" created by computer models. And these models have well known problems, like the inability to model clouds. We don't even understand the interaction of water vapor and climate, so we cannot model it properly.

Most importantly, water vapor is the real greenhouse gas. The entire AGW hypothesis is based on a runaway feedback loop that causes water vapor to heat up the atmosphere.

The AGW hypothesis fundamentally depends on an increase of water vapor (which the computer models cannot actually model). Yet the empirical evidence of global water vapor, as recorded in the real atmosphere, is showing a decrease in global humidity. This is just one of many true facts that contradicts the AGW hypothesis.

I'm certain they've got it wrong. I'm certain the world is not heating up due to CO2. If carbon has anything to due with the climate it's insignificant. Everything we see happening in our climate can be explained by natural phenomena – but we don't understand how it really works, and I doubt we will within our lifetime.

It's not valid science. Real science starts with a hypothesis, and then must rule out the null-hypothesis. That is natural phenomena. Scientist must first refute all possible natural causes. Then, and only then, can one claim the phenomena (global warming) is due to a man-made cause.

We have not ruled out natural causes. They've got an idea and show correlations, but have not proven CO2 is the cause. And, as I've said, there are many contradictions in the empirical evidence.

Real science will have a theory that makes predictions, and then the real evidence never contradicts those predictions. If the data doesn't completely support the theory – the theory is wrong!

The AGW hypothesis comes from people that are "begging the question." They assume CO2 is the cause, and look for the evidence to prove it. That's exactly not how real science works.

June 10, 2013

quote of the moment

"Intolerance is so hard to get right."

-- cap'n happy