Johnny And Faith's Summer Mountain Home

New Video

2010-01-13T08:33:00.000-05:00

New Video

2010-01-13T08:31:00.002-05:00

TAXI

2010-01-07T14:17:00.001-05:00

Just joined and now uploading. YAY!

Requisite Happy Stomper From Our New Album

2010-01-03T11:15:00.001-05:00

Requisite Tearjerker From Our New Album

2009-12-28T17:11:00.001-05:00

First Video from our new album 'Flying On Friday'

2009-12-15T08:49:00.001-05:00

Phillies Yankees Dream Series

2009-10-29T06:00:00.000-04:00

YEAH!

Woodstock Cover Couple

2009-07-21T16:45:00.001-04:00

http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/music/2009/07/07/2009-07-07_woodstocks_undercover_lovers_.html#ixzz0Loo79kGk

2009-07-12T06:41:00.004-04:00

Sad to have neglected this blog for so long. Busy with Facebook and Jeff's NNM site mostly. Ebay auctions as well. Mowing and mowing yards and lawns, chipping wood the electric line guys left. Bummed about Herbert and Arlene. Nursing 'Bo who somehow got a big honkin' hole in her side at last week's farm party. Burning CDs for Amy's wedding and working on the cover. Standing by while Junior DOESN'T make the chase. Diggin' on the Phillies, but not so much acquiring Pedro, I'm still pissed off at him for throwing Don Zimmer to the turf . . . asshole. Fighting the urge to open up Audiomulch and mix sounds like a mad scientist but . . . there's other more pressing business to attend to . . . still . . . stuff to scan, gotta clean off the junk from atop the Ensoniq, send Steve some snare drum sounds, rehearse with Faith for our weekly Happy Hour gig at the Eagle, learn how to play the Telecaster now that the Ibanez needs work . . . still . . .

From Stevie: 100 Year Old Color Photography

2009-06-19T08:24:00.000-04:00

http://www.socyberty.com/History/The-Incredible-Century-Old-Color-Photography-of-Prokudin-Gorsky.797569/1

New Track

2009-06-06T07:44:00.001-04:00

HERE COMES SUMMER!

We like spring because there's fifty shades of green and the geese come back and the damned birds build nests in our roof gutters and little rabbits dart across the trail in front of us\ and the sky is azure w/ no humidity and everywhere you look new life is percolating . . . but upon close inspection there's this urgency to all the doings, like maybe the critters aren't having as good a time as we are . . . anyhoo, we submit this work. It was done in the Ensoniq ASR-10, me and Faith taking turns adding stuff til we lost interest . . . thank God for fade outs lol

From Jill - Morphing Presidents

2009-06-06T07:38:00.001-04:00

http://www.flixxy.com/presidents-morphing-alt.htm

From DB - Kill MORE time

2009-05-19T08:56:00.001-04:00

http://lab.andre-michelle.com/tonematrix

From DB - TED

2009-05-18T07:40:00.001-04:00

www.ted.com

From Stevie B - Cool Idea!

2009-05-18T07:38:00.002-04:00

http://www.inbflat.net/

13 Things That Don't Make Sense

2009-05-12T14:44:00.001-04:00

http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg18524911.600-13-things-that-do-not-make-sense.html

Best 'Stand By Me' ever

2009-05-10T09:54:00.001-04:00

http://gizmodo.com/5231112/best-video-ive-seen-today-will-make-you-smile

From Sean - Top Ten Nature Time Lapses

2009-05-09T12:01:00.001-04:00

http://blog.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/03/tenlapse.html

From Jeannie - Community Garden Startup Guide

2009-04-27T11:44:00.001-04:00

http://standeyo.com/NEWS/09_Food_Water/090417.community.gardens.guide.pdf

From DB - Unreleased Beatles?

2009-04-25T09:56:00.003-04:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VBjj3pkw_nY&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HMdH32mbVrs&NR=1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wKkF81d8ks0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d57dLA-cUig&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mW7kAOi_Dp8&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N3NXlgeaIlo&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xlLfxeCLWcs&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D2s98LQA-vU&feature=PlayList&p=195C4F07F85F589B&playnext=1&index=32

From Sean - The World Digital Library

2009-04-25T09:55:00.001-04:00

http://www.wdl.org/en/

How To Create A Star Trek Monster

2009-04-23T09:22:00.001-04:00

How To Create A Star Trek Monster
http://www.wired.com/entertainment/hollywood/multimedia/2009/04/pl_screen

From Jill - Venus Disappears During Meteor Shower

2009-04-20T12:34:00.000-04:00

http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2009/17apr_lyrids.htm?list1021922

We Didn't Start The Flame War

2009-04-15T16:22:00.000-04:00

lmao
http://www.collegehumor.com/video:1907543

From Sean - Levitating Micro Robot

2009-04-14T08:53:00.001-04:00

http://www.canadianmanufacturing.com/designengineering/news/headlinenews/article.jsp?content=20090413_092316_10180

From Dave M.

2009-04-05T10:05:00.001-04:00

http://www.youtube.com/mutlunatic

Shyamalan At The Pagoda!

2009-04-02T10:08:00.001-04:00

M. Night Shyamalan begins filming his new flick today. In Reading. At the Pagoda. The Pagoda's gonna be an ancient temple!

Play Quake Online For Free!

2009-03-02T09:00:00.005-05:00

http://www.quakelive.com/

* * *
SIFTABLES!
http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/david_merrill_demos_siftables_the_smart_blocks.html

Mary Louise's Blog

2009-02-19T15:03:00.001-05:00

http://www.roadtripjournal.com/virginia/blue-ridge-trip

From Gary - A Proper Geegaw

2009-02-05T10:19:00.001-05:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yiyzj80bPEY&NR=1

From Sean: Color Test

2009-01-19T16:55:00.000-05:00

http://www.humorsphere.com/fun/8787/colortest.swf

From Gary: Steampunk Ringbom Hot Air Engine

2009-01-19T09:16:00.001-05:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cnx_1qFA7OE&feature=related

From Sean: Our World Might Be A Hologram

2009-01-19T09:14:00.000-05:00

http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20126911.300-our-world-may-be-a-giant-hologram.html?full=true&print=true

The David Lynch Mashup Album

2009-01-10T19:19:00.000-05:00

Free Download!
http://www.mashedinplastic.co.uk/index.html

Eighteen Dalmation Puppies!

2009-01-10T16:25:00.002-05:00

http://news.aol.com/article/dalmatian-has-18-pups-in-one-litter/300272?icid=200100397x1217007259x1201084489

Sunset On Mars

2009-01-10T16:25:00.001-05:00

http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA07997

From Steve: Designing The Future

2008-12-30T06:27:00.001-05:00

Free eBook

From Sean: 84 Graphic Novels Being Made Into Films

2008-12-08T07:45:00.004-05:00

http://denofgeek.com/movies/147293/75_comics_being_made_into_films.html

Brandon's Blog

2008-11-17T08:07:00.001-05:00

http://smokeyhollowoutdoors.blogspot.com/

From Gideon: 25 Free Digital Audio Editors

2008-11-11T08:49:00.000-05:00

http://www.hongkiat.com/blog/25-free-digital-audio-editors/

From Jeannie - Helmet To Convey Messages By Thought

2008-10-17T15:27:00.002-04:00

Known as synthetic telepathy, the technology is based on reading electrical activity in the brain using an electroencephalograph, or EEG. Similar technology is being marketed as a way to control video games by thought.

http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2008/10/13/thought-helmet.html

From Jimmy - A Lifetime Of Camping

2008-10-17T15:24:00.000-04:00

Some food for thought for this upcoming week. This is from George Ures site
....http://www.peoplenomics.com/

A Lifetime of Camping

Imagine for a moment that we're back in mid-summer of 1929 and we had foreknowledge of the Crash of 1929 and were tasked with giving people generally as much forewarning as possible in order that they might be able to prepare for it and help both themselves and fellow countrymen through it with the least amount of hassle/trouble/worry/stress possible, given the epic nature of the changes ahead. Oh, and just to make it a little more challenging, assume the words "Great Depression" had not been coined - as they hadn't. Our modern analog to this is the present day, a limited vocabulary (as labels come after the fact), we think we've got some insight into what's ahead, but the description is limited. There are a few words that have come through the predictive linguistics which can help one prepare for whatever-it-is coming. One of these is Diaspora - essentially the 'scattering of people to the winds' kind of thing. So as a planning construct, how would you plan for it?

Consumption's Collapse

It has been my contention since the early 1990's that at some point in what was then the future, the current global economic system would 'melt down' and something akin to global chaos would result. Unfortunately, it more of less has to work out that way because our current economic models are all based on continuous expansion of the economy. Obviously, in a world which requires growth, any contraction in the economic engine can set up dire consequences.

Think of a model airplane engine. I don't know how much time you've spent playing with them, but some of them can be started and run backwards. The economy operates much the same way. Once started in a particular direction, things keep going that way as long as there is fuel. The fuel for the economy being increasing consumption and new business niches to fill. Hence, the explosion over the past 25-years of the consumer services sector. Things like video stores, instant pizzas, and so forth.

But once the fuel is starved - and the engine quits, as it has now, being starved for 'easy money' which used to come from granting access to people's home equity so it could be squandered on items like full-sized SUV's and so on, there's a very good chance that once started again that the engine will start in reverse which will eat through whole segments of the society as a reciprocal of the earlier expansion.

---

This doesn't just apply to 'consumer goods' although that has been a large driver of things, to be sure. There's also been a cooperative finance system which has not only unlocked housing equity to spur what should have been future consumption, but along with that new forms of financial instruments have been invented which allowed big corporations to make money on making money - the 'money for nothing' addiction that's playing out in the banking system right now.

Although a deal to provision $700 billion to shore up the banking system seems like a done deal, at least according to reports this weekend, there is, nevertheless, the broader problem of people realizing the limitations of 'money' is fundamentally unchanged, hence my expectation that the long-term outcome will be unpleasant.

For those of us who are average investors, one of the central tenets of building personal wealth has been shot to hell over the past couple of years, namely that 'house/land prices always go up.' Certainly, recent events argue this is not the case. And there goes the average family's best inflation hedge.

At the core of the problems I spend my time researching is one simple question: "What should I (any average investor) be investing in today in order to preserve the value of our work over time?"

In periods when inflation was obvious, buying a house with as little money down as possible made sense. Been there, done that, with a huge home in 1973 - four bedrooms, shake roof, two fireplaces, three bathrooms, and plenty large enough for the amazingly low price of $43,950 with a 7½ note.

In a deflationary period, which means when housing prices are falling to put a simple indicator on it, the 'right' action is to rent and collect cash because in a deflationary period, 'Cash is King'.

But the problem which has then arisen most recently is this: How safe is the cash? With banks gong out of business at rates not seen since the Great Depression, how safe is the cash in a bank? Not only has it historically not kept up with inflation, but a major failure at a large institution like WAMU would have exhausted money available from FDIC. Oh sure, the government would give them more, but that in turn is inflationary.

Enduring Values - The Biggest Game

The only course of action I've been able to noodle out - and the one I am on today - is to extract one's self from the financial 'wrapper' that banks and money-promoters have flung about society. In other words, go through life living in such a way as to deliberately live under your lifestyle potential and take the difference between this voluntary restriction of consumption and what you really could afford and put it into things of enduring value.

What has enduring value? We return to the basics of being a human: Water, Food, Shelter, and some other basics like that.

Remember that a person who owns a home outright doesn't have to worry about what 'the market' assigns for a price to it. Price doesn't matter if you are not buying and not selling. It becomes an abstraction.

Now let's play a little game. Suppose I gave you $100 cash and said "Go make an investment that would be able to provide as near $100 worth of food in a year, how would you spend it in order to have the highest certainty of having $100 worth of food a year from now?

One choice would be to run to the store this very instant, buy7 $100 worth of food and just sit on it. Come a year from now, you'd pop open the cans of Dinty Moore Beef Stew (and whatever else you bought) and you'd be able to eat. If you had a freezer, you might have pizza, or you could just buy some make-it-yourself pizza - whatever the decision, you'd at least have food.

Amazingly, there are people who given the $100 will not buy food with it at all. Instead, they will take the $100 and invest it in stocks or mutual funds and expect that the stock fund will give them back more money a year from now, so that they might actually come out ahead. Of course, once the 'hidden fees' come through, the odds drop a bit, and the stock market on a purchasing power adjusted basis is actually down since early 2000, but you see the point I hope: People have been programmed to be compulsive gamblers, but they don't understand the risks - they mistakenly call their approach 'investing'.

Actually, they might be right some of the time. But what happens when this kind of investment goes terribly wrong? Say you put all your money into Lehman stock a year ago and you were depending on it to be your only way to buy food for the next month. How hungry would you be?

If you had a keen insight into government policy - and you could discern whether we are in an inflationary or deflationary period, another approach would be to invest in gold, silver, or even oil - any commodity out there should do fine over time - if we're in an inflation period.

Flipping that around to the deflationary side, you could simply hold cash, such that with 25% deflation, you'd be able to take your $100 and buy the same amount of groceries in the future for just $75.

However, there's a catch to that one: You have to worry about the fundamental acceptance of "Dollars" - folks may want something other than a debt-backed currency.

There is, as you might expect, a trick to the question, that most people don't catch: If the task is to have $100 worth of food in a year, you could simply buy about $6.00 worth of seeds and grow your own food. It's not that hard to do. Takes work, sure, but the question was how do you get $100 worth of food in the most certain possible way?

Given a good mix of heritage seeds (e.g. the kind that can reproduce), A 10-pound sack of whole wheat, a pile of fishing hooks and some basic gear and directions to a nearby lake, a person with even a modest plot of land can not only have $100 worth of food, but more'n likely they'd be able to buy a decent $20 bottle of wine to accompany their harvest.

At the end of a year -especially if youi didn't have much else to do but read, study, and tend your garden - you'd not only have $100 worth of food, with some diligence, you would have a thriving little farm. Perhaps hundreds of dollars worth of food and certainly enough to barter for this or that. And, you'd be able to go on to the next year with no further 'money' investment.

That's the point here: learning to live in a non-dollarized world.

No, you can't eat dollars. No, you can't eat gold. Or silver. What you eat is food and the best way I can think of to lower individual reliance on the financial system is to ask "Can I get to what I want without money? If not, what's the least expensive way to do it?"

Not of my kids owns a car (and they are approaching age 30). My son had a car for a while, but decided that he didn't want to work to support a car. So he has a bike, walks a prodigious amount, and when he really needs to drive, someone is paying him to do so.

Daughter Denise has a small ($1,500 class) motor scooter. Daughter Allison is a bus and bike person. They have avoided one of the big spending traps of life - auto's which come with companions insurance, maintenance, licensing, and traffic jams.

Having demonstrated how the "I own the outcome, and who needs money?" works, I'm the first to admit that it's not that way for everything. There are things that no, you can't do yourself. Eye surgery or a hernia repair, come to mind. But in the main, people really can do a lot more than they give themselves credit for.

I'd wager dollars to doughnuts that people displaced from Houston who had camping gear fared way more comfortably and with much less stress than people who had never stepped out of a condo before. And that gets us to the crux of this week's report:

Time's Nearly Up?

If the predictive linguistics are right about October 7th, then we might see something like this weekend's proclamations of a breakthrough/solution to the banking crisis is at hand and then right around the hot date, a series of cascading global bank failures.

At some level, there will be nothing for most people to do stand by to activate their personal survival plan, which when I think about it is like planning to go camping. Except it is like going camping forever. And there's nowhere to resupply

Along that line, even a simple book at "Camping for Dummies" might make the difference between life and death, and those old Boy Scout books are sure good references.

Since we've had language pointing to this fall for such a long period of time, the events that follow could be exceptionally large and life threatening. I've been telling you that for some time now, so it should not come as too much of a shock when events actually happen.

In keeping with the possibility that things will become as dire as the linguistic say they might, here's a list of what I'd be collecting if I were faced with the prospect of 'camping forever" if the world ever really feel apart.

It is also available here in Microsoft Excel run in compatibility mode so it may work with OpenOffice...

Topics:

Water

Food

Shelter

Energy

Communication

Transportation

Finances

Environment

Medical

Arms, Fishing, Hunting

Gear, Clothing

Pioneer Kit

Trading Goods

Water

Sources

Barrels (with 4 tablespoons of pure chlorine bleach per 55 gallons)

Toilet tank

Hot Water Hear drain

(Short hose for above, water will be muddy at first)

Rainwater collections/gutter system

(tarp, barrel, sand for filter for above)

Bleach Chlorine, unscented for every bit of questionable water

Cup(s) of known size

Water purification tablets

Filters

Permanent type or

Replaceable cartridge type

Iodine tabs or other water purification tablets

Collection

Creeks and streams (filter, disinfect, or shock treat with bleach first)

Roofs/gutter collection system

plastic tarp on ground draining downhill to collective vessel, washtub, dishpan, etc.

(stakes or rocks to hold on-ground tarp).

Empty water bottles to fill with purified/boiled water

Funnel

Canteens (2 per person)

Minimal Use

Budget 1 gallon per person per day

Food

Basic Utensils

2,4, 6 qt pans with covers

Large Dutch oven

Sun oven

BBQ with spare fuel

Paring and kitchen knives

Pot holders

Dish soap

Scouring pads and wash clothes

Dish towels

Place setting for twice as many people as are expected

Salt (!!! Iodized regular, waterproof containers for it)

Pepper (corns and grinder)

Basic spices

Corkscrew

Pasta strainer/pasta fork

Many can openers - manual (need you ask?)

Plastic or metal cups/glasses

Metal kabob skewers

Grill cleaners

Spatulas

Pancake turners

Tongs

foil

Paper towels (that won't last long)

Bar towels and bleach

Hand cleaner (goop)

Crisco or other shortening (Crisco is a great hand crème - we don't cook with it, but great for chapped hands)

Dish pan

Dish drainer

Serious camping knives (Bowie, Spyderco, etc style)

Pocket knife

Soup ladle

Silverware

Whisk

Juicer

BBQ fish or meat wire rack (for toast, etc)

Muffin cups

Bread pans (4)(

Pie Pans (Cliff might be over)

Trivets

Folding table

Fire Tripod

Charcoal or wood

White Gas camp stove with fuel

White gas camp light

Tarp for table cloth

100 feet 3/8's nylon line (rope, then lubber)

Clothes pins

Ivory Soap

Laundry Soap

Gallon of bleach (chlorine, unscented)

Wire rack

Pizza pan

Cookie sheets

Rolling pin

Measure cups, measuring spoons

Copy of "The Joy of Cooking"

Book on butchering meat if you plan on fresh game

Outside food prep table (rough food prep)

Popcorn popper for use over fire

Manual wheat grinder

meat grinder

Manual beater

Strainers/colanders

Propane striker

Waterproof matches (1,000 minimum)

Canned

Canned soups (Min 60 cans assorted, many cream of mushroom)

Canned milk

Canned chili

Canned stews

Canned 'hearty' soups

Corned Beef hash

Canned beans (min. 3-dozen cans)

Canned chicken, precooked

Canned Danish hams

Canned fish/shrimp/clams

Cans of spaghetti sauce Minimum 40 cans large

Pie fillings - many, assorted

Canned fruits (apples, etc) to make the canned pie filling more bearable0

Canned potatoes

Lots of canned veggies

Canned tomatoes (many)

Canned tomato paste

Capers

Canned butter

Lime Juice

This & That’s

Dried yeast for breads and pastries

Salt (Iodized) 5 pounds

Sugar (brown, organic)

Molasses (10 bottles0

Baking powder (6 cans)

Sour dough starter, nonfat dry milk, etc

Lemon juice (bottles - many)

White wine for cooking

Red wine for cooking

3 gallons apple cider vinegar

3 gallons soy sauce

Lots of oyster sauce for Chinese food

Sesame oil

5 gallons of olive oil in metal cans

Dried chipped beef (for sos)

Start collecting bacon fat

Chicken broth (canned or bullion)

Canned chicken and fish broths (misso soup base, too)

Genuine maple syrup (2 gallons)

Almond extract

Vanilla extract

Nutmeg

Meats

Beef cut , wrapped and frozen

Chicken, fowl, cut wrapped and frozen

Frozen hams, bacon, yada yada

Pantry - General

Chinese egg noodles (60 lb)

Wheat (whole grain, nitrogen pack, 75 -200 lbs)

Rolled oats 40 pounds

Corn meal (60 pounds)

Soda Crackers (5 pounds)

Cornflakes (6 large boxes (breading and eating)

Rice 50 lbs minimum

Pet food

Couscous

Fancy Italian pastas

40 pounds thin spaghetti noodles

10 pounds wide/flat noodles

Liquids

V-8 juice (a zillion small cans)

Non-fat dry milk

Dozen Kool-Aid packets (trading stock)

Many 5ths of rum, vodka, Jack for disinfecting

4 bottles Everclear (medicinal use)

bitters, lemon juice, lime juice, tomato juice

Shelter

Sheet plastic and duct tape for windows

Sleeping bags

All sheets and towels laundered

2 large blue tarps

6-man tent with ground cloth

build small 'rocket stove' http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rocket_stove

Small boxwood/Franklin type stove

6 sheets exterior plywood 1/2"

30 2X4's

20 3' wide x 8 foot metal roof (flat channeled not corrugated

Roofing nails

5000 nails and hammers (Better: nail gun (air ) with power source)

Misc plumbing supplies

Misc electrical supplies

Lighting

Spare light switches *& outlets

Spare bulbs for everything

LED Flashlights - 2 per person

LED Headlamps

Nightvision with illuminators (2)

Rechargeable 2 mln candlepower light

Some candles

A few kerosene lamps

Spare wicks

Many boxes of match - many and many more

Solar powered security lights

Plumbing

2 spare toilet gaskets

1 toilet repairs kit

2-year supply of septic tank 'food'

6 cans of lye

100 pounds masonry lime

100 pounds Portland cement

250 feet of pvc pipe - all sizes

Fresh pvc glue cans and primers

wide range of pvc fittings

water mains wrench

spare well pump

Manual well pump backup

Energy

Batteries - small

Small calculator and other

AAA

AA

C

D

Lantern batteries

Supplies for perimeter alarm system

More batteries- you can never have too many!

Solar System

Solar Panels

Inverters (main plus backup)

Battery Bank

Charge controller

Heavy wiring (#2 or larger for batteries)

Battery monitor

Distilled water for batteries (3 gallons)

Hydrometer

Voltmeter - analog

Wiring

100' of 12/2 with ground

lots of electrical tape

outlets, weatherproof boxes, plus, etc

Ground rod, ground clamp

Spare breakers

Solar

Panels with spare controller

2 gallons distilled water for battery bank

Generator

Diesel genset

Fuel (preserved for diesel)

Diesel engine spares kit

Diesel tool kit for repairs

Wind Generator

Spare brushes (if used)

Communications

Radiological

Radiation field survey meter - recent calibration

Good stock of new batteries (NOT alkaline for rad detectors)

Visual

Free-to-Air TV receiver, dish, and small lcd TV

Signaling flashlight(s)

Laminated pocket copy of Morse code or personal code

Emergency Library

EMT First Aid book

"Communicable diseases in Man" (Benenson)

"SAS Mental Endurance Handbook" - McNab

"Nuclear War Survival Skills - Kearney"

"SAS Survival Handbook "Lofty" Wiseman

"Fieldbook" - Boy Scouts of America

"Campcraft ABC's" Catherine T. Hammett

"$50 and up Underground House book" http://www.undergroundhousing.com/

Advanced First Aid

Aural

Emergency cranked weather radio with AM/FM shortwave

Good communications receiver

Backup receiver

2-Way

Ham radio handhelds (VX-7R or similar)

FRS radios

Long distance ham radio gear (radio, dc power cable, battery clips, antenna turner, long wire antenna, key, mic

Internet

Current test of dial-up internet connection for all computers

Hughesnet or WildBlue satellite system

Writing

Many legal pads

Many pens

300 envelopes

"First class" stamps (this could be an investment!)

Many pencils

Entertainment

some kind of musical instrument - you may have time to learn it

Transportation

Walking

Good walking shoes

Details area maps out 10-20 miles (county maps)

Compass

GPS with spare batteries, key waypoints pre-entered

Beef jerky

Back pack

Pistol, ammo, cleaning gear, waterproof pouch

2 or more canteens

field kit (cooking basics)

Steel & flint

Serious knives

Basic first aid kit

100' 3/8" line

Small tarp

Water disinfection tabs

Small weather radio

Flashlight

(Nightvision)

one man tent, ground cloth, sleeping bag

Bike

Bike rack

blowout proof' tires

basic wrenches, patch kit, pump

bike trailer (?)

Water bottles

Gear from walking kit

Finances

Cash

Small bills

Gold

A coin or two

Silver

Some rounds

Barter Goods

22 shells (20)

Shotgun shells (bird shot) (5)

Have someone watch your back with pistol

Environmentals

Various

2 years of toilet paper

paper towels galore

grazing animals to keep yard down (sheep, goats)

More ivory soap

Lava soap

Goop

Windex

3-in-1 oil

Mouse traps

Roach traps

anti-snake pellets or sulfur

spider spray

Nytril gloves

Cotton balls

q tips

dust masks

allergy meds

fire extinguishers

garden hoses for fire suppression

plastic sheeting

duct tape

Medical

Complete kick butt first aid kit

allergy meds

antacids

more BandAids

surgical kit if not in FirstAid

Prescription for infections

Silver wire (.999+ and 3 9-volt batteries for colloidal silver generation)

Tincture of Iodine

Everclear (alcohol)

151 rum (anesthetic)

eye wear

Neosporin (3-6)

eye wash

boric acid

Epsom salts

cold packs (6)

hot packs (6)

N-95 dust masks (100 per person)

Aspirin

Ibuprofen

dental floss

Vitamins

Minerals

Arms, Hunting, Fishing

Arms

Long arm (long barrel)

2,000 rounds for it

Cleaning gear

Assault repellant

2,000 rounds

Cleaning gear

Small game gun (.22)

5,000 rounds (barter stock)

cleaning kit

Pistols (9 mm)

500 rounds

cleaning kit

Spare bottles of Hope's #9 solvent & oil

many bags of patches & cotton swabs

WD-40

Air rifle with scope

500-1,000 pellets

Misc

Machetes (2)

Pocket knives (2 ea. 3 1/2 in semi serrated edge, single hand open)

Case type pocket knife, one each

Leatherman tools

Slingshots and shot

Misc. small animal traps for possums, coons, etc

skinning and butchering gear

Kevlar gloves

local topo maps, lake locations for fishing

read game tracking book!

Fishing

1 rod per person

small tackle box each

Flies, lures, spare line

300 fishing hooks and line as trading stock

Gear, Clothing

Clothing
Cammo clothing

Pants

jackets

T shirts

shorts

socks (many, many pairs)

ear muffs

work gloves

shooting gloves

Hiking shoes (two pair, steel toe)

sneakers

Loud whistle

Gear
Sleeping Bag

Nail clippers (2)

Tooth brush (3 each)

Deodorant (2)

Aftershave

Old spice (chigger areas)

Backpack

rucksack

Hiking stick

Los of spare shoe laces

Double & single edged razors (20-30)

shaving cream (bar and cup)

shaving brush

shaving towel

Vaseline or Crisco

small scissors

Sewing kit

carabineers (4)

hand warmers (depends on area)

Body warmers (depends on area)

mosquito net

off or deet

sun hat

sun glasses/clip-on's

bandanas (3 per person)

sleeping bag

ground cloth

cammo (burnt cork, whatever)

flint and steel (each person)

roll of toilet paper each

sanitary napkins

anti-bacterial soaps

portable hammock

50 feet of line

Space blankets (3 per person)

Pioneer Kit

1,000 gallon water mount for gravity feed system

2 seed kits - sealed - heritage seeds

garden spades (2)

rakes (2)

hoes (2)

scythe

grass clippers

organic fertilizer

buck saw

fencing material

25 lbs 16 penny gal nails

pry bar

large roll of sheet plastic/visqueen

ax

hatchet

100' each 2/8, 1/2 and 5/8

Chain saw, spare chain, 2 cycle gas mix (stabilized), bar oil

Hammer

Saws crosscut and rip 8 or 10 point)

lot and lots of nails, fasteners

some glass sheets

tin roofing (not corrugated, flat panel

good assortment of misc lumber

tons of screws, screwdrivers (manual)

Misc hardware: hinges, more hinges

Deer fencing for garden

Fencing staples

posts

posthole digger

picks (2)

shovels (assorted)

large tarps - 3

50 lbs of rock salt (preservation of various things)

Canning jars, lids, rings, and gear (large pot for boiling/sealing)

Mosquito netting

Fish netting

Plastic garbage bags

Barbed wire for fencing

Sharpening Stone

Wire ties

Trading Goods

Chewing gum

Candy bars

Cigarettes

cooking oil in cans

Coffee

Tea bags

Booze (pints and fifths only)

Toilet paper

Soap

.22 ammo

Seeds

And, of course, it goes without saying (or does it?) that this list is only my personal dream list and what I've been working toward for several years. Done all at once, the task is daunting, but if you chi9p away at things, it can be done, although we're not up to strength in all areas yet.

Planning to go "Camping Forever" may sound extreme/overboard/just plain nuts on the surface. But thousands of people who prepared for Y2K found when they were laid off as the Internet Bubble burst that they were able to eat and even prosper as they suddenly found that instead of working 12-hours, or more, per day, they could actually craft a life that was less work-paper-buy oriented. Instead they could take the alternative study-do-harvest which didn't involve nearly so much paper money.

Linguistically, 2009 is what Cliff calls the "year of Transformation". In order to best be able to cope with it, a person needs to be able to think of Life as one big camping trip.

I'm constantly reminded of this when I'm chatting on the 2-meter ham radio, as I was last night on the way back from town with Elaine. One of my friends spends about every other weekend out camping or doing outdoors activities with Boy Scouts. Last night's report from their camp site was that the corned beef hash was excellent (Libby's) and that the camp dishes were being done and the Scout Master was taking a break (sneaking in a good cigar, but we won't tell).

There were centuries of human history when such things as Scouting didn't really matter - everyone was in effect camping, most of the time. Wars, floods, famines, all these push people around a fair bit, killing no small number in the process. As the industrial Age unfolded, however, Scouting groups came to the fore - and in a strange way, they serve as a counter-balance to the economic excesses of the recent past. They remind me that it's still possible to head out into the woods with decent gear, a good knowledgebase, with a steel, flint, and knife, and do just fine.

The skills that go with scouting have been evolved over all of human history - if you can't remember at least a half dozen kinds of camp fires you can build, you've essentially isolated yourself from a glorious past.

Contrast this rich history (without which you wouldn't be here) with the recent gyrations in the financial markets and this sudden "Hurry up!" rush to cobble together $700 billion of our taxpayer money.

It just screams that we might all be about to go camping shortly because a lot of people in positions of so-called leadership forgot the Scout's motto.

Be prepared.

One Follow Up Item

I put the following on the free site (UrbanSurvival.com) earlier in the week:

"We'll just watch Google's news search engine. This morning, "bailout" has 129,656 hits (you can check it yourself, as results may vary by which Google server you hit possibly, while "rescue plan" had 34,174 hits. That's a total of 163,830 'hits'. My back-of-the-envelope theory suggests the Google News Search engine can be used as a "truth detector" for some things. "

Updating the numbers Sunday morning: Bailout: 156,343 hits. Rescue Plan 84,884 - that's 241,227 total. It means that "rescue plan" is now 35.188% of use.

Lesson: Linguistically, the spin is in and the folks in Washington who received an overwhelming response from the general public of "No Bailout Bill!" have just steamrolled over the Will of the People -- again.

Makes my case for "No incumbents" pretty strong, eh?

What's the Outlook?

If October 7th (or close to that) is right in the linguistics, what are the three top possibilities as far as "What doing to happen?"

1. The first possibility to be considered it that of a major terrorist attack on American soil. Recall that al Qaida has a desire to 'beat America' and one way to do that would certainly be to attempt a major disruption when the economy is seen as being weakened from a banking crisis, be only a month out from election, and what have you. Although the true cause of a terrorist attack may not be visible - and could be stated as 'caused by extremists' there's a whole series of layers that connect all power with all instruments of power, including terrorism, so no telling who in the New World Order/Corporate Reality could be pulling the strings.

In this scenario, there would be a terrorist attack, including something of an NBC panic, which would in turn cause the U.S. government to go with something approaching martial law and a lockdown on finance until the situation can be rectified. Since panic would accompany such an event, and due to the frailty of the American/Global economy, an attack in this timeframe could be more devastating by orders of magnitude more than 9/11. The terrorist bombing prior to the Spanish elections comes to mind.

This would be the "exogenous" (outside the market) kind of event to be looking for - as would an attack on Iran, a sudden brushfire war (like Georgia) or perhaps a showdown between the Russians and Chinese (with Muslim interests on one side of the equation with corporate globalism on the other on the issue of "money" China, for example, declaring that any bailout plan that involves printing up more money would be a declaration of economic warfare against the People's Republic - well, that kind of cascading failure would have enormous potential impact. Again, exogenous.

2, My favored course of future developments right now is what I'd call the "failure to perform" scenario - because we've gotten so good at that -- which is where the world's financial markets have been led to expect that America will come up with a solution to the bailout (which appears to have happened now, hence an early week rise in the market seems possible) but then toward the end of next week for there to appear "difficult issues" which could then warp into irreconcilable issues, and there goes the bailout and along comes market lockup.

This would be an 'endogenous' (internal to the markets) response. Right now, the markets ought to be in the crapper, but the prospect of 'free money' in the form of bailouts is keeping them well bid up. That would go by the wayside under this scenario, and rational pricing would return, which would argue for a Dow Industrial average about half (or less) of its present value just based on yields that are appearing in the fixed income markets.

Yuck.

Cliff favor's the "butterfly wings" scenario (see Butterfly Effect).

"Imagine that every morning a fellow shows up to unlock the offices of the LIBOR (London Inter-Bank Overnight Rate) clearinghouse and his key breaks off in the lock.

For the next several hours, there's frantic calls to security while the lock is replaced and the place finally opens for business. BUT, because there has been such a global dependence built on LIBOT that even a failure of a few hours might be all that's required to induce panic in the marketplace. And the conditions within the market, being drawn up so tightly that no standard 'noise' issues can be tolerated, the market goes into Panic Mode and that's the end of civilized economic life as we knew it; arguably, 36% interest is not civilized, but we've tilled that ground previously.

Something as simple as a broken key could do it "For want of a nail, the Kingdom failed" kind of thing.

3. Left field events could pop up. What if Russia and China got together and demanded money backed by gold? What if OPEC announced a 'gold standard for oil'? Or any of a thousand and one other things we don't even have language for at the moment. With a major turn of events like the one that seems about a week-10 days out, there's always the chance that a whole new word - or word use - will arise to describe events and it could be something we haven't considered because there are several hundred thousand words in Cliff's lexicon, but how much can one guy do "blinking between this view of model space and that" to see what's moved and then do 'reverse lookups of hex number series to figure out what words and concepts were shifting"?

So the left field is always full of surprises (and trash thrown in from the third base area). It could just be a lot bigger

Our HOPE is that none of this will be right and we will simply have gotten well ahead on our home self sufficiency plans - which would be fine.

While it would be splendid if the 'emotional release' period that starts in a week plus 2-days turned out to be the kind of emotional release that comes from the tensions of modern life melting away - like might accompany a major elevation of millions to a state of spiritual enlightenment, I'm not putting a lot of money on that outcome. Might fit linguistically but doesn't seem too likely.

So, just as there are some people who 'require a religion' in order to place themselves in a certain context within Universe, that may be fine for them, but until that 'rumored' spaceship-comes-to-save-us appears over Alabama for three days around September 15th actually happens, I'll just keep my money on more terrestrially oriented outcomes.

The way I have it figured is this: If there are space aliens, they wouldn't be coming here for our colleges and universities - I assume if they have space/dimensional travel, they've got us whipped there. Moreover, if they were coming here to look for humanitarians and "good souls" this is not exactly the highlight of that area of humanness. Nor would they be coming here for resources like dilithium crystals. Those ought to be plentiful given the size of Universe.

Nor would they likely be coming to "save us" although a lot of sites go to that - a bit far fetched don't you think?

Nope, if they're real, I figure they're coming for dinner. And expecting 'salvation' from space? I'd put as much faith in that as opening a petting zoo for scorpions.

Pink Floyd's 'Echoes' = 2001 Space Baby?

2008-09-18T17:31:00.002-04:00

The passing of Pink Floyd's Richard Wright still remains a painful subject at Listening Post. But coupled with the earlier and still saddening loss of sci-fi titan Arthur C. Clarke, it is nearly unbearable.

And eerie, considering that Pink Floyd's mind-blowing "Echoes," written by all of the band members long before petty divisions tore them apart, was a perfect soundtrack to Clarke and Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey.

Pink Floyd's seminal Meddle was the first release in what was to be the band's storied run at the record books, and "Echoes" commanded the entire second half of the album. It is an epic without peer in rock, which hordes of resourceful fans would eventually mash in near-perfect synchronization with 2001's storied finale "Jupiter and Beyond the Infinite."

http://blog.wired.com/music/2008/09/in-memoriam-pin.html

From Suzanne - Dolphin Bubble Play

2008-09-17T10:49:00.001-04:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TMCf7SNUb-Q

Video of dolphins playing with silver colored rings which they have the ability to make under water to play with. It isn't known how they learn this, or if it's an inbred ability.

The dolphin does a quick flip of its head and a silver ring appears in front of its pointed beak. The ring is a solid, donut shaped bubble about 2-ft across, yet it doesn't rise to the surface, but stands upright in the water. The dolphin then pulls a small silver donut from the larger one. Looking at the twisting ring for one last time a bite is taken from it, causing the small ring to collapse into a thousands of tiny bubbles which head upward towards the water's surface. After a few moments the dolphin creates another ring to play with.

An explanation of how dolphins make these silver rings is that they are "air-core vortex rings". Invisible, spinning vortices in the water are generated from the tip of a dolphin's dorsal fin when it is moving rapidly and turning. When dolphins break the line, the ends are drawn together into a closed ring. The higher velocity fluid around the core of the vortex is at a lower pressure than the fluid circulating farther away. Air is injected into the rings via bubbles released from the dolphin's blowhole. The energy of the water vortex is enough to keep the bubbles from rising for a reasonably few seconds of play time.

102 Minutes That Changed America

2008-09-11T14:27:00.003-04:00

http://www.history.com/genericContent.do?id=60326

* * *

From Sean:

2008-09-03T09:29:00.001-04:00

Typewriters Morph Into Creepy Sci-Fi Creatures
http://www.wired.com/culture/art/multimedia/2008/09/gallery_typewriter

Net New Music

2008-08-23T12:13:00.001-04:00

Composer Jeff Harrington's Website - Our page:
http://netnewmusic.ning.com/profile/JohnnyFaith

New Podcast

2008-08-20T09:08:00.001-04:00

Here:
http://shoodbworkin.podomatic.com/

From Sean

2008-08-06T08:13:00.001-04:00

I learned something I thought was quite fascinating today, about pencil lead of all things...

Some time prior to 1665 (some sources say as early as 1600), an enormous deposit of graphite was discovered at the site of Seathwaite Fell near Borrowdale, Cumbria, England. The locals found that it was very useful for marking sheep. This particular deposit of graphite was extremely pure and solid, and it could easily be sawn into sticks. This was and remains the only large scale deposit of graphite ever found in this solid form

2008-07-26T08:50:00.007-04:00

FROM SEAN

Holy Crap:
http://technology.newscientist.com/article/dn14250-microwave-ray-gun-controls-crowds-with-noise.html

More Holy Crap:
http://idle.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/07/08/1513259&from=rss

* * *

FREE PET TREATS!
http://www.freepettreats.com/form/?p=subscribe&id=1

* * *

SPIRITUAL EFFECTS OF MUSHROOMS PERSIST
http://www.physorg.com/news134110402.html

* * *

Back To The Sixties

2008-07-15T08:41:00.000-04:00

Boomer Nostalgia with music:
http://cruzintheavenue.com/TakeMeBackToTheSixties.htm

Faugh, but . . .

2008-07-04T10:08:00.004-04:00

Awright, so the "Amazing Ball Girl Catch" below is a fake, shot for an unreleased Gatorade commercial. I still love it, and not just for the impossible catch. You watch this thing and your mind is so boggled by what it just saw that it fails to process what it sees next: Namely, a shot of the catcher, who started out a righty, but is now a lefty. My fave spot of 2008 anyhoo.

What Nevada Tried

2008-07-01T08:01:00.000-04:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bknGz9TtEHE

Why We Love YouTube, Moreso

2008-06-23T16:45:00.000-04:00

From Sean: Badass Scientists & Presidents

2008-06-20T11:51:00.002-04:00

The Six Most BadAss Stunts Ever Pulled In The Name Of Science (Example:
" . . . In 1954 he decelerated from 120 miles per hour to 0 in 1.4 seconds, and
gained two huge black eyes from the force of his own slammed-forward
eyeballs punching him on the inside of the face. The impact blinded him for
two days . . . "

http://www.cracked.com/article_16301_6-most-badass-stunts-ever-pulled-in-name-science.html

&

The Five Most BadAss Presidents Of All Time
http://www.cracked.com/article_15895_5-most-badass-presidents-all-time.html

From Stevie B

2008-06-20T09:36:00.001-04:00

Hi Johnny,

Check this out....

If you don't already have ReBirth (from the makers of Reason) go get it. It's totally freeware and is wicked fun. I highly recommend it for your next party. Put it on a laptop and hook it up to your stereo. It's instant techno. Anyone can do it. Kids, stoners and over medicated old foggies alike. And everybody gets a kick out of it. It's totally addicting. It can do some of the freakiest stuff. Think of it as "Techno Karaoke".

hehehe...

Go here:

http://www.rebirthmuseum.com/

... and click on the downloads link. The complete ISO is available via bittorrent. Full install. With extras. 200MB. I got my copy in less than 15mins. Lots of seeders. Super fast, super clean install.

You have to sign up/create an account. But it's just for legal purposes. You know... the ol' you swear on your grandmother's grave not to sell the software for profit... blah, blah, blah... that sort of thing....

It's a blast... believe me..!!!

Read more about the history here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ReBirth_RB-338

L8R

"Logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere." - Albert Einstein

Free Stream Grabber

2008-06-16T11:43:00.007-04:00

Very simple, no bells & whistles, grabs anything on the way to your speakers. Find it here:

http://www.download.com/MP3-Recorder-Guitartab-co-uk/3000-2170_4-10425037.html?cdlPid=10451027

It looks like this when you open it:
Just point "Your Audio Device" at the bottom to 'Rear Input' and hit record. Anything playing will get saved in whatever format you've selected, in whichever directory you specify. You'll have to re-name the tracks of course, the default names are 'Recording One', Recording Two, etc.

From Steve: Fiction Liberation Front

2008-06-16T11:30:00.007-04:00

Free Novels by cyberpunk author Lewis Shiner:
http://www.lewisshiner.com/liberation/index.htm

It's hardly news that the Internet Revolution has toppled the traditional short story markets. If you look through the periodical racks at one of the big chain bookstores (what passes for a newsstand in most of the US these days), you'll be hard pressed to find a magazine devoted to fiction. It's been a slow decline since the heyday of the pulps, true, but the last few years have seen even the remaining SF and mystery digests falling back to a subscription model.

What we don't know is what comes next. Some magazines, like Subterranean, have moved online; many have just gone under. Even the idea of a magazine may cease to be relevant. The only thing that seems likely is that whatever future the short story has, the Internet will be involved in it. The thing that's least clear is how--or whether--artists will be compensated for their efforts.

There's been no living to be made from short stories in my lifetime. But short fiction endures because it provides a way of introducing writers to new readers, and because there are stories that need to be told at that length.

For all these reasons I've decided to open myself to this uncertain future. Starting now, I plan to make all my short fiction and articles available on the web, both in HTML for easy browsing and in typeset PDFs for those who might want to print them. The process of conversion will take a while, but I hope to get to everything eventually, including a number of previously unpublished pieces and even some unsold screenplays.

I'll also be adding new short fiction, music reviews, and articles from time to time, though I won't guarantee that I won't also publish short pieces elsewhere. I'm launching the site with three previously unpublished stories ("Straws," "Fear Itself," and "Golfing Vietnam") plus a major story from 2004 ("Perfidia") that's had only limited circulation. As a special launch bonus, I'm also putting up my previously unpublished screenplay, THE NEXT.

Everything on the FLF website, regardless of original copyright, carries a Creative Commons license. That license says, essentially, that you can do whatever you want with the material as long as you don't change it and republish it, or charge money for it.

So please feel free to download anything on this site, print it, make up your own custom Shiner collections and hand them out--all I ask is that you give me credit for my work.

Fave Reads

2008-06-16T11:00:00.003-04:00

So far this season: Breakfast At Tiffany's - a miracle of a story by Truman Capote.
Lonesome Dove - I always take it off the shelf this time of year and spend some time sipping whiskey with old Gus.
Anything By Faulkner - 'nuff said

From Michele: Fly Swatter

2008-06-16T10:55:00.001-04:00

http://majman.net/fly_loader.html

From Sean: Free Sci-Fi Novel Download

2008-06-11T06:21:00.002-04:00

Fallen Angels
http://www.baen.com/library/067172052X/067172052X.htm

From Steve: Introducing The Moog Guitar

2008-06-06T08:26:00.000-04:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b3SsYQrgcyA

Five Gigapixel Image Of The Milky Way

2008-06-04T14:29:00.002-04:00

180 Foot Long Mosaic Of Our Galaxy
http://blog.wired.com/wiredscience/2008/06/astronomers-mak.html

2008-06-04T09:13:00.007-04:00

Our Podcasts
http://shoodbworkin.podomatic.com/

* * *

Nobetty's Business
Stream
Download

This is a remix of the Token Wonder track "A Visit From The Doctor" - a censored version of this track can be found here:

http://www.artistserver.com/tokenwonder

An uncensored version is available on request.

Head-Twisting Physics Topics - from Gideon's Forum

2008-05-29T15:12:00.001-04:00

http://forums.artistserver.com/messages.cfm?messageid=35ADD2D5-1143-DBB3-C634F031A8774579#last">http://forums.artistserver.com/messages.cfm?messageid=35ADD2D5-1143-DBB3-C634F031A8774579#last

Will The Nano Car Make It To The US?

2008-05-26T19:07:00.001-04:00

http://www.product-reviews.net/2008/01/12/will-the-tata-nano-car-reach-the-us-or-europe/

Snopes Says 'POSTCARD' Virus Real

2008-05-22T16:09:00.001-04:00

Beware
http://www.snopes.com/computer/virus/postcard.asp

ACM AWARDS!

2008-05-19T09:39:00.007-04:00

"Hey, Suits! How about this year we rip off Taylor Swift's clothes and then DUMP WATER on her! Now THAT'S Country!"

Well that's just GREAT

2008-05-18T10:14:00.004-04:00

Shyamalan's 'The Happening' May Be Worst Movie Of All Time. ("Even Worse Than 'Lady In The Water'?")
http://www.collider.com/entertainment/reviews/article.asp/aid/7903/tcid/1

Valerie Allain

2008-05-15T07:34:00.051-04:00

Yup, the nubile coquette from the PBS series 'French In Action' is all over the internet. Here you can find a short clip of Valérie in the role of Stéphanie, a flirty teen in the movie “A Nous Les Garçons”, roughly translating as “The Boys Are Ours!”, courtesy her Scribble Village fansite:
http://www.scribblevillage.com/?tag=valerie-allain

Two Rons Make A Right

2008-05-09T12:50:00.001-04:00

The Timeline Of LOST

2008-05-09T06:51:00.000-04:00

Time Loop Theory:
http://www.timelooptheory.com/the_timeline.htm

The Game That Changed Everything

2008-05-05T07:56:00.002-04:00

May 5, 1992: Wolfenstein 3-D Shoots the First-Person Shooter Into Stardom

http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/news/2008/05/dayintech_0505

Ron Paul supporters not lining up behind McCain

2008-05-02T08:33:00.000-04:00

from the L.A. Times

As far as John McCain is concerned, the Republican presidential nomination is a done deal and the party is united behind him. But thousands of Republicans -- particularly supporters of Texas Rep. Ron Paul -- aren't buying that.

In the Pennsylvania primary, more than 215,000 Republicans cast ballots for Paul or former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, who together captured 27% of the vote.

And that was tame compared with the uproar last weekend at Nevada's Republican Party Convention.

About 600 well-organized Paul supporters overwhelmed McCain's forces and engineered a rule change that permitted national convention delegates to be nominated from the floor, wresting the task from party leaders.

That evening, party leaders unexpectedly adjourned the session, saying the proceedings would take too long to finish that night.

But tongues were set wagging about whether the adjournment was a maneuver to save McCain from the embarrassment of being swamped by Paul delegates.

Eric Herzik, a political scientist at the University of Nevada, Reno, said the fracas reflected, among other things, that McCain had "yet to capture the hearts and minds of Nevada Republicans."

All of which suggests there might be some drama at the GOP's national convention in September after all.

2008-05-01T08:23:00.000-04:00

. . . (I liked the activists apologising to the "fence mother" as they cut the chain link too.)

Just So Good

2008-04-28T08:58:00.003-04:00

So last night Bart joins the 4H club and has to pick a cow to 'raise' and he does and he wins, but the winner is bound for the slaughterhouse. (Homer's view out the truck as they approach blocks the 'S' so he misreads it: "OOO! The LAUGHTER HOUSE!")

Anyhoo, Bart gets all upset and Lisa takes the opportunity to enlighten Bart about vegetarianism. During this conversation, she said, ' . . . but your body IS going to miss the protein, so you're going to have to take these pills' and pulls out a bottle of "Dr Hippie's Fungus Yums".

This causes me to experience one of those inexplicable bouts of tear-streaming, gut wrenching laughter. These chiming moments of mirth occur only rarely but when they do there's no stopping. I laughed til I cried and tried to explain this phenomenon to Kooker with little success. So this morning during yoga I remember the bit and try to analyze what exactly what caused the uncontrollable mirth. Instead I start laughing again . . . no help there

So a moment ago out of curiosity or in a bid for assistance I googled "Dr. Hippie's Fungus Yums" and the phrase actually came up, once, here:

http://www.postpunkkitchen.com/forum/viewtopic.php?pid=1150903

:)

Run Your Car On Water?

2008-04-23T01:29:00.001-04:00

http://www.runyourcarwithwater.com/?hop=cyprusmete

Music Has Its Own Geometry, Researchers Find

2008-04-21T21:42:00.001-04:00

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/04/080417142454.htm

Composers, Producers: TONS of free samples here:

2008-04-17T05:51:00.000-04:00

http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Sound_samples

From Stevie B

2008-04-11T14:11:00.000-04:00

Go here:
http://codeaudio.googlepages.com/beatburner
And get BeatBurner. What this VSTi is capable of doing to WAV files is wickedly amazing. Load it up in your favorite host, open it and it will automatically sync to the host tempo. The "randomize" button is hella fun.

Moog Music

2008-04-03T14:27:00.004-04:00

Tons of free Moog downloads here, including ALL the Walter/Wendy Carlos stuff:
http://36-15-moog.blogspot.com/. The tracks require unpacking but you can get a free unpacker here:
http://www.softslist.com/download-11-7-23886.html

Yep. Good Old Escape Some More

2008-03-28T18:40:00.002-04:00

http://members.iinet.net.au/~pontipak/redsquare.html

My personal best 21.266 seconds

Awesome Domino Pool Trick

2008-03-24T08:57:00.001-04:00

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=677a5ac98e

Free Screen Cleaner

2008-03-16T08:20:00.000-04:00

http://cache.valleywag.com/assets/resources/screenclean.swf

Newbie FYI About Ron Paul

2008-03-14T15:38:00.001-04:00

http://bulletins.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=bulletin.read&messageID=5524370415&MyToken=1dcd2d6f-f896-4773-ae0f-da364cf5c979&hash=MIG3BgorBgEEAYI3WAPwoIGoMIGlBgorBgEEAYI3WAMBoIGWMIGTAgMCAAECAmYDAgIAwAQISAv4CAuXQkQEECzfrAjuJ%2fAGwhWsRXcDMqcEaPU9lI2g9GaSpKJt%2baPV8A2Z5CyINPSz28b6QUToonH23b9opMUc220k6BuqnxzSV6chpFAymMe0BubV56b79YtLlGlQNZ%2fbsOG9ohiWlxFQCVML40beBxUfLB03Ppqr5nrIrQUwtDeW

Musicians & Producers: Meet The Coolest Toy Of The Year

2008-03-13T09:25:00.002-04:00

Direct Note Access
http://www.celemony.com/cms/index.php?id=dna

The Encyclopedia Of Life

2008-03-12T21:40:00.000-04:00

http://www.eol.org/index

2008-03-11T21:09:00.001-04:00

2008-03-11T14:57:00.002-04:00

Review
Barry M. Goldwater, Jr., former member of Congress : "The real truth about Liberty. This book takes a wrecking ball to the political establishment. Senator Goldwater would have loved it -- it's The Conscience of a Conservative for the 21st century."

Book Description
This Much Is True: You Have Been Lied To.

* The government is expanding.
* Taxes are increasing.
* More senseless wars are being planned.
* Inflation is ballooning.
* Our basic freedoms are disappearing.

The Founding Fathers didn't want any of this. In fact, they said so quite clearly in the Constitution of the United States of America. Unfortunately, that beautiful, ingenious, and revolutionary document is being ignored more and more in Washington. If we are to enjoy peace, freedom, and prosperity once again, we absolutely must return to the principles upon which America was founded. But finally, there is hope . . .

In THE REVOLUTION,Texas congressman and presidential candidate Ron Paul has exposed the core truths behind everything threatening America, from the real reasons behind the collapse of the dollar and the looming financial crisis, to terrorism and the loss of our precious civil liberties. In this book, Ron Paul provides answers to questions that few even dare to ask.

Despite a media blackout, this septuagenarian physician-turned-congressman sparked a movement that has attracted a legion of young, dedicated, enthusiastic supporters . . . a phenomenon that has amazed veteran political observers and made more than one political rival envious. Candidates across America are already running as "Ron Paul Republicans."

"Dr. Paul cured my apathy," says a popular campaign sign. THE REVOLUTION may cure yours as well.

* * *

"There is an alternative to national bankruptcy, a bigger police state, trillion-dollar wars, and a government that draws ever more parasitically on the productive energies of the American people. It's called freedom. But as we've learned through hard experience, we are not going to hear a word in its favor if our political and media establishments have anything to say about it.

If we want to live in a free society, we need to break free from these artificial limitations on free debate and start asking serious questions once again. I am happy that my campaign for the presidency has finally raised some of them. But this is a long-term project that will persist far into the future. These ideas cannot be allowed to die, buried beneath the mind-numbing chorus of empty slogans and inanities that constitute official political discourse in America.

That is why I wrote this book."

~ Ron Paul

http://www.amazon.com/Revolution-Manifesto-Ron-Paul/dp/0446537519/ref=si3_rdr_bb_product

The Earth And Moon As Seen From Mars

2008-03-11T09:15:00.000-04:00

http://hirise.lpl.arizona.edu/earthmoon.php

Astronomers Capture Rare Meteor Footage

2008-03-11T09:13:00.000-04:00

http://www.redorbit.com/news/space/1286048/astronomers_capture_rare_meteor_footage/index.html

The 15 Most Bizarre Animal Mating Rituals

2008-03-11T09:07:00.001-04:00

http://www.cracked.com/article_15926_15-most-bizarre-animal-mating-rituals.html

"200 Documentaries You Must See Before You Die" by Kevin Kelly

2008-03-09T10:37:00.003-04:00

http://underthedog.com/mirror/tf3.2-registered.pdf
(Thanks to the blog Cool Tools).

Strange Eon Drive

2008-03-09T10:16:00.001-04:00

The deepspace headphone excursion from LoveCraft's Adjectives, newly remixed & re-mastered, available now:
http://strangeeondrive.blogspot.com/

Studying Improvisation & Creativity

2008-03-08T07:59:00.002-05:00

http://www.intelegant.org/2008/03/03/neurology-and-improv-jazz-using-fmri-scans-to-study-spontaneity-and-creativity/

Imagine . . .

2008-03-07T09:03:00.002-05:00

Imagine a tunnel more than ten storeys underground, a hundred years old, bricklined, wet, and completely inaccessible save by descending through a narrow slit in its ceiling thirty feet above the floor, and then returning up the same rope you came down.
Now imagine that this tunnel flows into Niagara Falls, emerging behind the pummeling curtain of water that nearly everyone in North America journeys to see at some point in their lives

http://www.vanishingpoint.ca/tailrace.html

Translating Images Out Of Brain Waves

2008-03-07T06:33:00.000-05:00

In a step toward one day perhaps deciphering visions and dreams, new research unveils an algorithm that can translate the activity in the minds of humans.

http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=translating-images-from-brain-waves&sc=rss

Black Hole Made From Light

2008-03-07T06:27:00.001-05:00

A black hole has been made in the laboratory. It’s not, needless to say, a collapsed star with super-strong gravity, like the black holes thought to exist in deep space. Rather it’s a kind of toy black hole made from light — and “completely harmless”, its creators say.

http://www.nature.com/news/2008/080306/full/news.2008.651.html

StarshipSofa Audio Podcasts

2008-03-04T15:11:00.001-05:00

Take a voyage on the Science Fiction podcast StarShipSofa if you dare? Travel into the deepest realms of the classic Sci-fi and science fiction world. Calling at such science fiction destinations as Philip K Dick, Alfred Bester, John Brunner and all the other great Sci Fi writers out there. Then, from science fiction and Sci Fi we travel anywhere our imagination and our podcast take us. All wrapped up and inspired by the great Ronnie Corbett. Intrigued? Want to find out more about our science fiction podcast?. Then travel on the greatest science fiction and Sci Fi ride of your life, the StarShipSofa podcast.... If it's classic science fiction... or sci fi trivia listen no further - science fiction never listened so good!

http://www.starshipsofa.com/audios

From Stevie B - Take Me Back To The Sixties

2008-03-04T14:31:00.001-05:00

http://objflicks.com/TakeMeBackToTheSixties.htm