Review

The 300PE is good overall.

Bad:

• Drifting off of desired frequency gets annoying
  
• Must turn off power to see the clock
  

Noted:

• Quickly turning the power on and off reduced adjacent station QRM
  

Good:

• Dropped two (2) feet on to a concrete floor and still works fine
  

Stations logged Thursday, 25 June 2009 (26 June 2009 UTC), using the radio's telescopic antenna:

Station ID
Time (UTC)
Frequency (kHz)
Notes

Radio Serbia
0040
9675
Good signal

?Network Europe?
0051
9585
Sounds like commercial FM programming

China Radio International
?0055-0130?
9575
They must have a lot of transmitters

Voice of Russia
?0055-0130?
9665
I turned it off when Russian children began to sing Russian folk songs

Voice of Justice
0130
9495
Bad QRM from 9500kHz plus reader talks too fast makes hard to copy.
The news music sounds like the Airwolf theme song

Radio Bulgaria
0200
11700
Strong signal, readers read at good speed for copy

Vatican Radio
0250
6040, 7305
Both good signals, better rx and fidelity on 7305
Theocratic broadcast similar to Voice of Justice (mentioned "Holy Spirit")
Talk about environmentalism
Catholic church may be trying to wean civilization off of archaic ideas of gods and religion, but with what will gods be replaced?

Voice of Turkey
0300
7325
Good signal
News by YL, History by OM w/ quiet audio, music, History pgm "From Fortress to ?Buttress?" about "Veener" castle, pgm "This World Is Ours" about environmentalism (UN influence?) (Yes, UN infomercial), "Question of the Month" (Answer: Nuri Bilge Ceylan (99% sure))

Radio Tirana
0330
7425
Fair signal, news by YL

This is a good radio for casual listening of Short Wave radio broadcasts directed toward your location. Reception of the AM and FM broadcast bands is also good.

Why It Rains In NW Europe

What To Do

In this TV age, when your every movement is visually recorded, always look as if you are listening to someone (anyone) when you are not speaking.

---

I was going to type that I felt more than a little dirty for typing this media-defined technique, but I forgot the era.

We are in a new age.

The sins of the past no longer apply.

I Don't Know Who Is to Blame

OR

Why I'm Not Rich Off TV

---

Immortality reigns supreme
In another's dream.

My verses are terse
Because I'm in reverse.

Truth

It turns out that honesty is the best policy.

That is to say that truthfulness is more marketable than anything that is not truthful.

In terms of race, I had to think about my race as interpreted by others.

I'd like to think that I could call down destruction upon all those who utilize race for gain.

Notice that I did not itemize gain.

I didn't hear it, but, from the mentions of it that I did hear, it seems that some black people are against some county government reforms because it will lessen the chances (yeah, chances (or odds, if you gamble (but a good Christian doesn't gamble, right?))) that a black person will be elected to an office of importance.

Here's the thing with elected offices:

Chances are that the person who is most agreeable to the people who matter is the person who will be elected.

It is just a fact regardless the level of government.

If there is some one whining about the skin color of a certain elected individual, I'd group the whiner with any other person who hopes to get rich based on any other sort of ideal.

Cuyahoga county is not [some deeply southern place where it is hot and humid all the time], so don't try to say that white people won't vote for your candidate.

If your candidate is the most qualified, then maybe he will be elected (and then be able to further your economic interests what ever they may be.)

Headhunter(s)

As seems the way of the world, those few who matter seek out lesser entities to do the bidding of those who matter.

What if that could be turned around?

What if the unwashed masses were to choose the lesser entity that was to do the bidding of those few who matter?

Is this the Jesus story all over again?

Jim Jones tried it, but he tried so hard that he died.

Who wants to die?

There are times when I go to bed and hope that I will'nt wake up, but not every time I go to bed.

Just sometimes.

Anyway, it is funny how the brain/mind [works].

I have only one brain/mind working for me, and it is mine.

There are important people who only have to say "yes" or "no" based upon what their staff tell them.

It would be cool to be in such a position, but I could not do it.

Or, maybe I could.

Like the magnified stock market graphs, staffs say stuff at a certain point in time.

Do we elect leaders, or do we elect cliques with a defined [something]?

---

When in negotiations, recall that time is used by lesser beings.

That is to say that there are those who go for dramatic pauses and stuff with the hope that the negotiate-e will somehow "crack" or something.

This is where you will realize that time does not exist (just like gravity, zero, infinity and probably a bunch of other stuff).

---

If there were such a thing as "psychic-energy" (as defined by those I group with any other religious zealots), and were any such thing to be used in any sort of negotiation, I'd be the king of waiting-it-out.

No Comment (At Present)

Crash

I've experienced the first noticeable glitch in XUbuntu just now.

I was playing .mp3s from a CD, and they stopped playing.

I checked the CD, and it was pretty clean, so I don't know what happened.

I had to do a hard reboot to make my computer work again. A hard reboot means that, for all intents and purposes, I flipped the power switch off and then on (even though I did it by way of the keyboard (because, nowadays, computers are advanced enough that they can do stuff like that.))

---

13

I'm reminded, because of an .mp3 that was once on a disc but is now on a disk, of 13 years ago.

It's funny how time doesn't mean all that much to me.

Should time matter to me?

Why?

So what if I have not done this, that or the other in a prescribed period of time?

Is not life, if only for a moment, enough?

[The tedious abortion debate goes here]

I am thinking about the caveman that was not going to sleep at night because he is not tired and because he is feeling the same rhythm that is also used by some songstress.

---

Is v. Was

I was learned in Latin that the suffixes were what mattered, but it seems that the prefixes matter en Ingles.

---

I saw some things today.

I know not what to make of them.

I saw a beautiful woman of (probably) German or Scandinavian descent who was wearing the uniform of the casual-cop (military pants, utility belt with stuff and a badge (but I didn't notice a side-arm) with a t-shirt that had "POLICE" written upon it).

She was smoking a cigarette.

I also noticed a mid to late 1990s Ford ranger pick-up truck that looked like it was owned by someone from Parma, Ohio, United States of America parked the "wrong way" in front of the store in front of which the cop-chick was smoking a cigarette.

I'd like to think that the two were unrelated, but I think that they were.

Anyway, I was wearing my found (at least 15 years ago) General MacArthur Ray-Ban sunglasses (because I lost my $0.88 Save-A-Lot sunglasses), and I thought, for whatever reason, that a cop-chick who was probably from Parma or North Royalton and out of her sorts smoking a cigarette in front of a glorified corner store in the ghetto (any location within the corporate limits of Cleveland, Ohio, U.S.A. is colloquially referred to as "the ghetto") would be impressed by some dude wearing General MacArthur Ray-Bans.

Anyway, I parked my bicycle, locked it and paid her no attention as I entered the store (because I had beer-breath, and she was a cop after all). When I exited the store, I thought that I might at least make eye-contact and say "hi" to her, but she conspicuously avoided my eyes.

It was probably because I was wearing the clothing that would commonly be worn by the male aggressor in a typical "domestic" police-call.

At Least I Looked

Noise Abatement

I've noticed that certain airplanes flying out of Cleveland Hopkins International Airport have distinct sounds.

There is a certain Southwest Airlines 737 that has a very distinct sound, and I have gotten pretty good at recognizing it.

Anyway, noise abatement:

KCLE is not that big of an airport, so I propose getting a "noise profile" of the airplanes (or at least their engines) that fly out of of KCLE (getting a noise-profile means recording the sound of the airplane) and using that noise-profile to mitigate noise.

How?

There has been research at the local NASA place (Glenn Research Center at Lewis Field) that involved using ex-USAF OV-10s (prop-pistons) such that the engines operated 180 degrees out of phase of each other such that the noise from one engine would cancel out the noise from the other engine.

I can't say with certainty that those tests worked, but, I observe stuff upon happenstance, and I think that those tests did work.

I do know for sure that sounds that are 180 degrees out of phase cancel each other out.

You can know too.

Just make a mono recording of a sound, convert it to stereo, flip one channel 180 degrees and point your speakers at each other.

It's pretty cool.

Anyway, I propose that neighborhoods (or maybe even houses) have loudspeakers installed that will play the sound of a specific airplane 180 degrees out of phase and corrected for the Doppler effect based upon the track of the aircraft in question.

---

Wow.

I've got two recording's of that UPS MD-11 (that is a sight to see when it departs to the north (it reminds me of a killer whale lunging out of the sea to chomp upon a baby seal or something)).

I think I'll digitize them, flip them 180 degrees out of phase, and see if I can't cancel out that noise.

---

Also, this idea is not new.

As a matter of fact, someone has a patent pending for this idea, but I don't know if that person has a public-populace behind him (or her).

Also, I don't know if what that person devised worked.

My idea is to have in-home audio systems connected to something at the airport that will play the appropriate noise profile at the appropriate time.

The Words I Smoke

28 So Samuel said to him, "The LORD has torn the kingdom of Israel from you today, and has given it to a neighbor of yours, who is better than you.
29 "And also the Strength of Israel will not lie nor relent. For He is not a [???] He should relent."

---

The above text of the King James version of the Bible as placed by the Gideons could be the basis for a mass-market-able ministry.

I know the pertinent media outlets (radio, print and even TV) enough to make it work, but, as is the case with all things, it's not what you know so much as who you know.

I Need to Make It so that I Am the One to Know

---

If belief were the only determining factor in any sort of showdown (that ELO song is playing now (and I now know how and why various words of the Gideons' KJV Bible are italicized), I'd win because I'd believe nothing and everything all at once.

---

Van Gogh and Munch v. Bowie and AC/DC

Starry Night and The Scream v. Star and Rock 'N' Roll Singer

---

It's a Funny Song

Crap.

I thought I had a title to this post, but I've already typed in a title.

Now I am stuck with having to type something to make the title work.

I guess it is a funny song in a way.

What is the song?

Well, it's a funny song.

---

Next

I Love Chinks Too

As life-forms increase in complexity, the proliferation of life-forms decrease.

---

The two-party government of the United States of America is not good.

---

The cessation of analog television should result in an increase of television stations because interference will be minimalized.

---

The above text has been sitting in an unsaved text file for three days, five hours and nine minutes, and I am only now getting around to typing it (or about it).

The first one requires a graph, but the graph would be the entirety of the post, and it would a mastery-of-the-obviousness post.

The two-party government being a bad idea is another obvious post, but I did not realize how bad a two-party government was until I had, by chance, viewed on the television a piece of video of Ex-President Clinton (the first one, not Chelsea (oh, wait, it's not the future yet, is it?)) getting ready for some sort of televised presidential address (it had to do with him saying "we made it" [to the White House].)

The third one was not well thought out. While the cleaner (spectrum-speaking) digital signal would allow for more transmitting stations, the successful reception of digital TV signals seems to be a difficult task. In terms of the analog, I have to adjust the "rabbit ear" antennae of my TV to get all of my local TV stations. The lowest VHF station is only watch-able at the expense of the UHF stations, and I don't get channel three if the antenna is adjusted to pick up UHF stations (those stations above either channel 12 or 14).

---

I've decided that I should type the two-party U.S. government post, but I'm going to type about religion because it is fun to do so.

Also, the religion post is going to be related to the two-party government of the United States of America, so that post should come easier to me after typing the religious (sci-fi) post.

---

Also, in case I don't get around to typing about it, The Shield was a pretty good television show.

---


Angels and Demons

According to the Roman-Catholic version of Christianity, the Devil and his minion (demons) want human souls to put in Hell.

Angels want to keep human souls out of Hell.

Here is the deal with that:

Angels and Demons are warring species that exist in dimensions that are not fully utilized by humanity.

Humanity just happens to exist in dimensions that are tangent to and can affect the dimensions in which Demons exist, and Humanity's existence hinders the existence of the Demons.

What did that dead China-man (or is the nomenclature Asian-American?) say about enemy's enemies?

So God (the president) and the Angels (the subjects) support Humanity (us) in the aggression we are suffering from Mephistopheles (the president) and the Demons (the subjects).

---

The problem with the two-party government of the United States of America is that undefined parties form within the two defined parties.

In my opinion, it would be better for those undefined parties to be defined as parties separate from the currently defined Democrat and Republican parties.

For example, take Dennis.

I'm not a Democrat, but I voted for Dennis Kucinich for Congress because of reasons I have previously typed in this blog, but I don't think that Dennis is a Democrat except in name.

He's no more a (defined) Democrat than Ron Paul is a (defined) Republican.

The reason these parties do not form is that members of those potential parties know that they would not exist politically without the "papers" (Achtung! You have zee papaahs to pass ziss checkpoint, jaah?) of the two big parties.

What can be done about this?

[The answer goes here]

Speaking of Dennis, I watched a television program produced by the local public-television station that had Dennis as a guest, and, in text-book political form, Mr. Kucinich twice politically-answered the "money-question" asked of him (I've got a shortwave radio, so I knew the answer (sort of)).

The question was something like the question I've posted upon this blog at least twice before (who profits from dead soldiers?), and the interviewer was looking (as was I) for a name, or a consortium at least, but, were Dennis to answer blatantly, what would become of his political career?

If you are wondering what would happen to his political career, it would cease.

Here's the thing though:

Much like a forking-knight, there will come a time when your political career must come to an abrupt end.

Sure, you'll be captured (maybe even by a mere pawn), but to put the king in check to trade a knight for a queen is a pretty good move.

The Timing Has to Be Right

---

Have you noticed that I have not yet posted the two-party-post?

I'm the one typing all this stuff, and I didn't notice the withholding of words until I proof read this post.

I kind of want to play a game of chess on Yahoo!Games.

The simple answer is that conflict can not exist without two conflicting parties, and every party has a host.

The names of the two hosts of humanity are unknown to me, but, thanks to the idea of infinity, I know that the two hosts of humanity are define-able entities.

Intellectual Property Does Not Exist

On the Tangibility of Intellectual Property

Intellectual property is not tangible.

---

How is intellectual property transferred from one party to another?

Here's how it works with books:

• Author thinks and writes or types on paper, disk, disc or some medium that allows for the storage of text
  
• Readers read or listen to the text
  

That seems simple enough, but someone invented calculus, so now it's easy to make simple things more complex.

I'll stay clear of arguments for the genesis of ideas, but I will type that for words to get from one person to another, microscopic particles or visible waves must be used.

If you are reading these words, you are using photons.

If you are hearing these words, you are using microscopic particles.

---

Humanity is approaching that fictional Mars of "Total Recall" wherein breathe-able air is a commodity.

Potable water is, in some places, a commodity, and it will be a commodity in many more places in the future (because humanity's population is increasing.)

Can you imagine a universe in which photons are a commodity? (Can you imagine having to pay money to see?)

Can you imagine a universe in which you had to get permission to disturb the atmosphere such that you could hear music? (Can you imagine having to pay to hear?)

---

If human beings had neither ears nor eyes, would there exist intellectual property?

(If money existed, then, yes, there sure as heck would be intellectual property.)

Probably Because She's Hot

I watched portions of a TV "news-magazine-type-thing" last night, but I'm not sure why.

It could have been that there is nothing worth watching on over-the-air-TV at 10pm EDT on a Friday in May.

Anyway, the, um, program, was about kids with Tourette's syndrome.

When I think about Tourette's syndrome, I think about the movie entitled What About Bob, because it was funny, and because it depicted (inaccurately) Tourette's syndrome.

I wonder if the individuals suffering from Tourette's syndrome in that TV show I watched were to not know that their errant movements were abnormal, would their movements in everyday life be considered abnormal.

That is to ask, what is the determining factor in what is acceptable in terms of a grade-school-student's errant movements?

I guess that depends on whether the school is public or parochial.

Sure, the subjects in question vociferously mentioned the inability to concentrate, but how much concentration is required in grade school, public or other-wise?

Were it not 3:30 in the morning, and had I had more beer, I'd probably get around to the point that I tend to watch 20/20 because Beth Vargas is hot.

Redemption

This is totally (probably) not related to my latest vomitious-volume, but my current cigarette has "redemption" printed upon it.

For What It's Worth

---

Jesus-Lights, or Full-Flavor-Allahs or He-Who-Is-Menthols

Cigarettes made with paper that has sacred scriptures printed upon it!

Are these not a goldmine?

Free Will

When it comes to your writers of Scripture, keep in mind that your god(s) gave the writer(s) of your sacred text(s) free-will.

I hereby proclaim to be the end-all of all religions.

Did your god prognosticate a messiah?

I am it.

Do you, at present, have a better messiah?

That's what I thought.

---

Boaz

Boaz is telling some dudes to sit down and relax on my current cigarette.

I first read the name Boaz in Vonnegut's Sirens of Titan, and that Boaz was left, stranded, on Mercury with some primitive life forms and a life-times supply of "goof-balls."

So, to me, this dead Vonnegut dude wrote some crap that was biblically based, right? And, so, I'm reading this biblical crap that is soon for the inferno of my nicotine-consumption, and I'm typing these words that are not words so much as they are electricity, and so what?

I don't know either.

However; (semicolon), if you don't mind eating more pasta and less beef, I might be able to save your soul from eternal bad-ness.

That's how the religical types do it, right?

I think this is the part where I am to say that if you send money to this ministry (oops, I mean blog), God will bless you and reward your material losses in the afterlife for my material gains in real life.

[if a recording of me "speaking in tongues" is required, it goes here (and I can speak in tongues better than Bobby Tilton)]

---

Did you ever notice that most big-jackpot lottery winners opt for the lump-sum payment as opposed to the annuitized pay-out?

---

Back To Boaz

Who else tells people to sit down and relax?

Hopped up cocaine dealers are known to tell people to sit down and relax.

Sister Christian Revisited

Princess Iman bint Al Hussein

Is she not totally cute?

Or maybe I'm seeing pictures of her mom?

Regardless, as far as royalty goes (because they tend toward inbreeding (seriously, they do)), Pib-Ah (my acronym for the cute Jordanian princess with man-hands) is awfully cute and normal looking, don't you think?

Unoriginal

There was once a time wherein I'd search phrases I'd typed on this blog on the Google search engine, and I'd be the only result.

My text is becoming less original.

At least I'm still number one when it comes to "common refrigerator dimensions."

Lowes Oughta Send Me a Check

Anachronism (Not (Well, Sort Of))

Anachronism: Among other definitions, a Man Out of Time (Elvis Costello (not so much an anachronism in popular culture due to TV (Two and One Half Men and 30 Rock (even though I don't get that show at all.))))

Crap. I went back to make sure my parenthesis were all closed, and I forgot what I wanted to type.

So I will just type stuff and see what happens.

Since I've learned myself to roll the cigarettes so that the sentences go long-ways, "your sister-in-law...but Ruth...to leave you...following...you go...lodge, I will...be my people.

I think that is what religion is: random crap made up by some idiot that makes some sort of sense.

Why can't I be that idiot?

Just stream me some lines of random text and I'll make myself a trillionaire on the hopes and wishes of the lottery-playing masses. Is that so wrong?

I'm just doing it in real time, and, in this day and age, I can and still stay true to the ideals of those who wrote what some peoples consider to be sacred texts.

An internet-age (who was that guy again?).

---

I remember when I was a subscriber to some BBS that was near West 98th and Madison, and I proposed upon the message board the idea of starting a religion (before I had heard of the Sub-Genius Movement), but I lost my account because I had a crappy telephone line that would cut my connection to the BBS and make the Sysop have to manually reset the line I had called in on.

They Weren't In To the Idea

Words

The thing with using pages of the King James version of the Bible from the Gideons as rolling papers is that one tends to read certain words from the paper when the rolled cigarette is raised to one's lips.

I can infer stuff, and I do infer stuff, but even if one who is not learned in inferring stuff were to smoke one of my cigarettes, he may think human-religion to be very violent.

Are We the Romulans?

OR

I'll Need a Torah and Qur'an Eventually

Internet Censorship

The world is still here, and, were there ever a tool to demolish civilization as we know it, the internet would be it.

Don't Bother Censoring the Internet (That Means You Australia (I Won't Bother Mentioning those Middle East Kingdoms (Even though I just Did)))

Motoring

OR

Songs in Movies

Sister Christian and Atlantis Are Good Songs

Christianity is great when rolling papers are a luxury, but there's no glue and the paper is still a bit too thick to my liking.

I'm Up To Ruth Now

---

I was listening to the radio the other day, and this song by (my grammar reference is in storage, so underlines and italics may be incorrect) Night Ranger came on.

I felt compelled to sing along with the song because it always seemed, to me, to be such a corny song.

After the song was (mostly) over, the DJ said some stuff about the song. He said something about a movie titled Boogie Nights and the scene in which that song played a role.

I'd not seen the film, so I went and saw the movie, and that movie's choice of using that song in that particular scene was [long pause] good.

Also, I think Atlantis by Donovan was used in a similar scene in the movie entitled Goodfellas, but I think the Goodfellas scene was a bit more violent.

Don't Go There (From One Once On the Cusp)

---

On Observation

So, like, my observation of the Night Ranger song was that it was a corny song, but the makers of the film referenced above observed it differently.

Upon further introspection, I think the makers of the film were going for the juxtaposition performed in the aforementioned mob movie (it's easier for me to not type HTML-markup-stuff and type in lawyer-speak).

That is to say that the songs in question do not, to the layman, "jive" with the movie scenes with which they are joined.

Were I to be all artsy and stuff, I'd say, like, "yeah, man, far out" and stuff.

I Guess I'll Be Artsy

---

As far as songs in movies go, I think Space Oddity by David Bowie would make a great song for some scene.

So Would The Man Who Sold the World

---

Advertising

When the beer you buy advertises its alcohol content on its packaging, and if you are not a regular consumer of the product, the product in question will taste awful and provide an unexpectedly potent punch.

There's No Legal Definition that I Can Find

---

Also, is it just me, or was the final fighting scene in the third Matrix movie a total rip-off of ELO's Showdown?

Caesar Söze

OR

Theists Who Play State Lotteries

Good luck with that.

---

So, like, human civilization, right?

How do you view human civilization?

Do you look at it like the investor-types look at the stock market what with charts and graphs and all?

Check out the scales on those charts and graphs: I usually notice the most dramatic graphs indicate the smallest of changes.

Looking out the window, I see, in the branches of a tree, an "x." Who wouldn't think of The X Files, right? Well, I see the branch making the upper-right to lower-left line of the x as a branch that needs to be removed.

The Leaves Are Brown and Wilted

---

Non Sequitur

I've noticed that Airbus airplanes flying out of KCLE produce a distinctive tone of about 410 Hz after they have flown over of my point of observation.

The planes in question were an A300-600, an A320 and an A319.

I have recordings of the A300 and A320, but I was in bed when the A319 flew away (back to Orlando (in shame (gratuitous local sports team reference))), but I made a point to listen for the tone, and it was there.

I thought the tone may have been specific to the engines used in the aircraft, but my research says that the A300 and 320 don't use the same engines, so the sound must be specific to the design of twin-engine Airbus turbo-jet aircraft.

airbus.com Doesn't Have a Contact Page (That I Can Find with Javascript Disabled)

---

Publicity

I've heard that there is no such thing as negative-publicity, but such a thing relates only to those who seek publicity.

I've often thought that I'd like to be famous, but I wouldn't want anyone to know who I am.

I'd Try To Be Big in Japan

---

This Post

When did life become so precious?

I recall watching that move Schindler's List, and I was struck by the depiction of the German soldier shooting and killing so casually the kid who was hiding under the bed. I was also struck by how casually the kid who was hiding under the bed realized that he was about to be shot to death.

It's Biblical (From Judges) and Double-Edged

If Wishes Were Trees

I wish I could be more offensive, but that's all I've got.

Sure, I know of offensive terminology, but I find words themselves to be either non-offensive or laziness, and, when it comes to offending large segments of Earth's population, I'd like to be non-lazy.

Sure, I could type some letters in a certain configuration and get a rally at my front door ((with a TV news station or two too), (btw, the rally-ers would be black, Christian and/or (yes, really and/or) Muslim, and the TV stations would be channels 19 and 5)), but that's not what I'm looking for here.

I think I might be looking for all the governments of the world to which I am not subject to be looking to pass judgment upon me and failing only to show the rest of the nobodies of the world that they can express themselves and not break the law.

Like, say, you are ruled by a king. Wouldn't it be cool if you could put up a sign in your front yard (wouldn't it be cool if you could have a front yard?) that says "the king sucks?"

But, if wishes were trees, well, I guess there would not be any trees.

While there have been some trees removed from where I reside, there are still a lot of trees around, so I guess wishes are not trees.

Offend: Wiccans

Ha ha ha ha.

Again.

Offend: Jews

There should be a Palestinian state.

Again, What More Does It Take?

Offend: Muslims

Muslims suck.

What More Does It Take?

Offend: Buddhists

Buddhists totally suck.

Ohh Whaa Taah Foo Lyam.

From the Odd Couple TV Show

Offend: Russia

They're a bunch of commies who couldn't manage being commies.

How do you not manage being a commie?

Got Nothing More

Offend: Las Vegas

Las Vegas is a crap-hole in the crap-hole of the nation.

It's hot, everything is cheaply built, and it's hot.

Don't Go There

Offend: China

China totally sucks.

They are a bunch of commies who kill college students who protest the government.

Two Birds With One Stone (I Live in Ohio)

Offend: Cuba

Fidel Castro is a pompous twit.

His brother is a twit too.

Oh! He fought in a revolution and didn't die.

I could fight in a revolution and not die too.

Big whoop.

Of course I could fight in a revolution and die, but, then, like, so what?

I'm sure there'd be someone to offend my memory.

I'm OK With That

Yeah, Canada

I don't think that it is any big secret, in this day and age, that American people with enough money (elected officials (because, like transistors, they's little but they control a lot of power)), are allowed unhindered access to remote areas of foreign lands.

The cigarette smoking man in The X-Files had a sanctuary in Canada.

Do you really think that anyone who matters in the United States of America has only one place in the United States of America upon which to lay his head?

I know that if I mattered in the United States of America, I'd go out of my way to make sure that I had at least one secure homestead on every continent in addition to other such pieces of property that I'd not mention here (like other celestial bodies).

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Speaking of America and the rest of the world, I read, with [a not so good feeling], a news story the other day about some judge who had to recuse herself from some court cases because they were cases upon which her father had either ruled or had some influence.

WTF?

Is this the rest of the world, or is this the United States of America?

How the heck are judgeships passed down by way of lineage?

I recall some senator who died, and that senator-ship went to the deceased's wife. That was a few years ago before I cared about things, but the idea is just as pertinent.

Is this not contrary to the founding principles of this nation?

DNA does not denote anything.

There Ought-A Be a Law

Atmosphere

As far as technology goes, atmospheric (ionospheric) reflection of electromagnetic waves (radio, TV, whatever) is pretty important.

Did you know that people who once mattered decided that it was a good idea that certain AM-broadcast radio stations could be heard nation-wide?

How far has technology come?

Just how far has technology come?

Nowadays, the only thing the AM-broadcast band has going for it is its night-time propagation characteristics.

This digital Am (sic) radio stuff is bad.

That is to say that it is bad (not bad as good, but bad in that it is so bad that it is beyond suck.)

We do not yet live on a planet upon which terrible things of human origin can not be, and when (yeah, not if) such terribleness occurs, where will we turn?

Where is some dude in Lincoln, NE going to turn to for news and information when there is no power within 500 miles?

AM radio.

When is that dude in Lincoln, NE going to tune in to his AM radio?

At night.

What is that dude in Lincoln, NE going to hear at night on his AM radio?

If you guessed "un-decodable on a typical radio HD radio signals," you'd be correct! Now get out there and do something about it.

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AM radio does not serve a "market" or whatever.

Those who possess the license to broadcast on the AM radio band possess a whole heck of a lot more than the right to play some syndicated shouty on "their" radio station.

Just how hard is it to shoot down a satellite?

Just how hard is it to screw up the orbit of a satellite to make it unusable to John Q. Public?

It's not that hard.

Allowing the AM-broadcast band to be cluttered by digital signals intended only for those within close proximity of the originating station is tantamount to shutting down all interstate freeways that are not within the city limits of a major metropolitan area.

Imagine if some important person in New York, NY was free to roam around NYC, but he was unable to go to his home in Connecticut.

Imagine if some important person in Washington, DC was free to roam around DC, but he was unable to go to his secret, underground bunker in Manitoba.

Keep In Mind Propagation Idiots

Commas Are Not for Looks

I could offend Americans who don't speak English too.

I could offend Americans who don't speak English also.

I could offend Americans who don't speak English in addition to the aforementioned peoples.

America

Peoples I plan to offend and still not break any of the laws of the United States of America, the Great State of Ohio, the (corrupted?) County of Cuyahoga and the City of Cleveland:

Christians, Muslims, Jews, Hindus, Taoists, Buddhists, Sikhs, various animists, Atheists, Humanists, Europeans, Asians, Africans,

It kind of sucks that the above are all that I can think of.

Oh, hey! I can totally offend Americans too.

I've been learned that I ought to put a comma and a space before the above "too," but I'm pretty sure I should not do so.

Now if the "too" were to lead the sentence, then, sure, I'd comma-ize it, but I think a comma for a trailing-too is unnecessary.

I could offend Americans who don't speak English too.

Whom else could I offend?

I could offend movies stars.

I could offend media moguls.

I could offend musicians (popular or otherwise).

I could offend royalty (and I probably have).

Long contemplative something-or-another goes here.

I can offend anyone I want and not have to worry about state punishment.

Personal Retribution Is Another Thing

Impressions

Type O Positive

While building a second pair of speaker cabinets, I was listening to the local public radio station, and there was an interview program on.

I've heard the program before, and it's pretty good. It must be popular because The Simpsons parodied it.

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Anyway, I looked in to donating my brain to the Harvard Brain Bank, but that seems awfully complicated.

That means that it is too simple.

In order to donate one's brain to the Harvard Brain Bank (do I really need to link-ify things anymore when one can simply use Firefox, highlight some text, "right-click" and choose "search?"), one needs only to fill out a form and inform one's next-of-kin of one's intentions.

That's cool and all, but I was hoping there was some field to input some terms and conditions.

For example, say I donate my brain and, some where down the line, Harvard (or any of its subsidiaries) decides to "re-animate" my brain. I'd like Harvard (et al.) to terminate the re-animation if the brain says so, you know?

Conversely, I'd like Harvard (et al.) to maintain the re-animation such that the re-animated brain could exist in an environment to which it was accustomed prior to extrication from my cranium should the re-animated brain request so.

Anyway, it was a pretty good interview.