Psuedohistory and hyperdiffusion

A hyper-diffusionist theory is one that proposes that the greatest cultural achievements of one ancient civilization can be traced to another, higher civilization whose ideas were transmitted as a result of voyages or other forms of "diffusion" not recognized by mainstream scholars (usually because they never happened). . . . . . . This is a medieval way of thinking. Belief in hidden correspondences was almost universal before the Enlightenment, and it went hand in hand with a pre-modern methodology: first you decide what you believe, then you find the evidence, brushing aside anything that doesn't fit. from Damian Thompson's "Counterknowledge"

Don't cry . . .

Don't cry because it's over; smile because it happened.

The importance of sound in a movie

The movie "Deer Hunter" took six months to shoot, and a further five months to mix the soundtrack. Since this was his first Dolby film, Michael Cimino was eager to exploit the technology to its fullest potential. A short battle sequence, for example, (200 feet of film) took five days to dub. For the re-creation of the American evacuation of Saigon, he accompanied composer Stanley Myers to the location and had him listen to the sounds of vehicles, tanks, and jeep horns as the sequence was being filmed. Myers then composed music for the sequence in the same key as the horns, so that it would blend with the images creating one truly bleak experience.

Truly Happy

A truly happy person is one who can enjoy the scenery on a detour.

How a tree is helping to cure AIDS

In September of 1987, Dr. John Burley, research botanist at the Arnold Arboretum, was exploring the tropical rain forests of northern Borneo, searching for new medicines from plants to fight cancer and AIDS. As he collected a sample of an unknown tree species for testing in the laboratories of the National Cancer Institute, he also created a herbarium specimen for the Arnold Arboretum. Four years later an extract from the sample was found to be effective in preventing the growth of the AIDS virus. When researchers returned to Borneo to collect more plant material, the forest had been cut down and the plant was gone.
Dr. Peter Stevens, a botanist at the Arnold Arboretum, studied the herbarium sheet and identified the specimen as the rare species Calophyllum lanigerum. With this identification, botanists have been able to locate trees of the same species growing in a botanical garden in Singapore. In 1993, scientists isolated the compound calanolide A, which inhibits the growth of AIDS virus and has now been synthesized in the laboratory. Consequently, calanolide A is in the preclinical drug development as a promising vaccine to prevent the spread of AIDS.

Your Computer according to Dr. Seuss

If a packet hits a pocket on a socket on a port, and the bus is interrupted at a very last resort, and the access of the memory makes your floppy disk abort, then the socket packet pocket has an error to report.

If your cursor finds a menu item followed by a dash, and the double-clicking icon puts your window in the trash, and your data is corrupted cause the index doesn't hash, then your situation's hopeless and your system's gonna crash!

If the label on the cable on the table at your house says the network is connected to the button on your mouse, but your packets want to tunnel to another protocol, that's repeatedly rejected by the printer down the hall.

And your screen is all distorted by the side effects of gauss, so your icons in the window are as wavy as a souse; then you may as well reboot and go out with a bang, 'cuz sure as I'm a poet, the sucker's gonna hang.

When the copy on your floppy's getting sloppy in the disk, and the macro code instructions is causing unnecessary risk, then you'll have to flash the memory and you'll want to RAM your ROM, and then quickly turn off the computer and be sure to tell your Mom!

Well, that certainly clears things up for me. How about you?

Toni gives away her raffle winnings

Last Saturday, I dusted off my ES 335 to play some rock and roll at a fundraiser for Kathy Phillips at the Oddfellows Hall. During the evening, Toni found a childhood friend and he bought her 10 tickets for the raffle (50% of the money raised went to the Phillips family and the raffle winner gets the rest). A number was picked but no one claimed the prize ($450), so another number was picked and Toni won. She gave the whole amount to the family . . . that's my girl and I was proud of her for doing such a nice thing.

Not a good sign . . . insiders are selling!

Share sales by so-called company insiders are outstripping purchases so far this month by more than 22 times. TrimTabs, the investment research company, said insiders of S&P 500 listed companies have unloaded $2.6bn in shares in June, compared with $120m in purchases.

How precious is a day?

Good reminder of how precious each day is that we take for granted.

There is a bank that credits your account each morning with $86,400. It carries over no balance from day to day. Every evening it deletes whatever part of the balance you failed to use during the day. What would you do? Draw out ALL OF IT, of course!!!!

Each of us has such a bank. Its name is TIME. Every morning, it credits you with 86,400 seconds. Every night it writes off, as lost, whatever of this you have failed to invest to good purpose. It carries over no balance. It allows no overdraft.

Each day it opens a new account for you. Each night it burns the remains of the day. If you fail to use the day's deposits, the loss is yours.

There is no going back.There is no drawing against the "tomorrow." You must live in the present on today's deposits. Invest it so as to get from it the utmost in health, happiness, and success! The clock is running. Make the most of today.

To realize the value of ONE YEAR, ask a student who failed a grade.
To realize the value of ONE MONTH, ask a mother who gave birth to a premature baby.
To realize the value of ONE WEEK, ask the editor of a weekly newspaper.
To realize the value of ONE HOUR, ask the lovers who are waiting to meet.
To realize the value of ONE MINUTE, ask a person who missed the train.
To realize the value of ONE-SECOND, ask a person who just avoided an accident.
To realize the value of ONE MILLISECOND, ask the person who won a silver medal in the Olympics.

Treasure every moment that you have! And treasure it more because you shared it with someone special, special enough to spend your time. And remember that time waits for no one. Yesterday is history. Tomorrow is a mystery. Today is a gift. That's why it's called the present!!! Friends are a very rare jewel, indeed. They make you smile and encourage you to succeed. They lend an ear, they share a word of praise, and they always want to open their heart to us.

Send this to everyone you consider a FRIEND. If it comes back to you, then you'll know you have a circle of friends

Tiger Woods and Luck

Farmingdale, N.Y. – Tiger Woods, the player of this era who best knows how to control his own destiny, has often spoken of the importance of luck in many outcomes. Whether Woods and his fellow competitors in the 109th U.S. Open at Bethpage State Park feel lucky when the championship resumes at 7:30 a.m. Saturday is definitely out of their control. It’s all up to Mother Nature, really.

Inside the employment numbers

"What really struck us in the employment report of a few weeks ago was the fact that the only segment of the population that is gaining jobs is the 55+ age category. This group gained 224,000 net new jobs in May while the rest of the population lost 661,000. In fact, over the last year, those folks 55 and up garnered 630,000 jobs whereas the other age categories collectively lost over six million positions. This is epic. Moreover, the number of 55 year olds and up who have two jobs or more has risen 1.1% in the last year, the only age cohort to have managed to gain any multiple jobs at all. Remarkable. These folks have seen their wealth get destroyed by two bubble-busts less than seven years apart — the Nasdaq nest egg back in 2001 and the 5,000 square foot McMansion in 2007. Both bubbles ended in tears ... and so close together."

David Rosenberg, now with Gluskin Sheff

How important is spelling?

Aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoetnt tihng is that the frist and lsat ltteer be at the rghit pclae. The rset can be a total mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the human mind deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe.

Flame of Love Martini

Back in the day (before it closed in April, 1995) Chasen's was THE hip restaurant for the entertainment crowd. It was located on Beverly Blvd in Beverly Hills. They served the Flame of Love Martini :

Pepe Ruiz, Chasen's in Hollywood, created for Dean Martin who was a drinker among drinkers.

1/4 oz. Fino sherry
2 oz. vodka
Several peels of orange

Coat the inside of chilled martini glass with Fino sherry and toss out the excess. Flame several orange peels into glass. Chill Vodka and strain into seasoned glass. Garnish with orange peel.

Video - Year of Living Dangerously

A breakout role for Mel Gibson and an academy award performance by Linda Hunt. The movie tells the story about the uprising and overthrow of Sukarno in 1967.

Who's on the Euro and Who's not

There are 27 countries in the EU . . . guess which of the European Union countries haven't switched to the Euro : England, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania and Sweden. Now, the real question is why?

What's the difference between a home owners, your auto policy and . . .

the airline's policy of insuring you against loss in the event of an accident??

When a homeowner has a burglary or a driver has a crash, all it normally takes is a call to the insurance company and a description of the loss to activate the policy. But aviation liability insurance is different. It is activated by a finding of negligence on the part of an airline. If there is no negligence, then arguably there is no liability, and no obligation to pay claims. Aviation insurance specialists said that an airline's liability insurer is not normally there for medical bills after a plane crash. Passengers' health insurance may indeed pay first -- for passengers who have it -- or workers' compensation for passengers traveling on business. Later, if liability is established, those insurers circle back and try to get reimbursed from the airline's liability insurer.

Surfin' Safari unmasked

Surfin' Safari, one of the best Beachboy's hit songs was contested by Chuck Berry, who claimed he wrote the music and won a lawsuit against Brian Wilson . . . . but read on about this great song

click here

Video - Vertigo

Great scene from the master, Alfred Hitchcock.

Funny profits in banking

Citigroup’s $1.6 billion in first-quarter profit would vanish if accounting were more stringent, says Martin Weiss of Weiss Research Inc. in Jupiter, Florida. “The big banks’ profits were totally bogus,” says Weiss, whose 38-year-old firm rates financial companies. “The new accounting rules, the stress tests: They’re all part of a major effort to put lipstick on a pig.”

$2.7 billion before taxes came from an accounting rule that lets a company record income when the value of its own debt falls. That reflects the possibility a company could buy back bonds at a discount, generating a profit. In reality, when a bank can’t fund such a transaction, the gain is an accounting quirk, Weiss says.

Citigroup also increased its loan loss reserves more slowly in the first quarter, adding $10 billion compared with $12 billion in the fourth quarter, even as more loans were going bad. Provisions for loan losses cut profits, so adding more to this reserve could have wiped out the quarterly earnings.

Happy Anniversary to us . . .

Yep, it was 33 years ago today that Toni and I were married on a cliff in Palos Verdes, CA.

Natural gas powered vehicles

Why is so much money and effort being spent to develop an electrical vehicle when we have abundant natural gas in this USA? Vehicles powered by natural gas are far more efficient and less expensive than electrical vehicles. Read more here

Sun protection - is spf 50 better than spf 30

Yes SPF 50 is better than SPF 30 because SPF 50 increases the time you can spend out in the sun without sun cream. SPF 50 increases the amount of time you can spend out in the sun by 50 i.e the amount of time you can spend in the sun normally x 50 = n

but 50 doesn't block out more UV than 30

read more here

Taxing health care benefits?

The democratic Congress is talking of adopting John McCain's plan to tax health-care benefits. While this would be a tax on the middle class (on everyone) that Obama said he would not do, he is clearly willing to sign a bill that has such a tax.