Libertarians release top 10 disasters of 2009 Obama administration and the top 10 of the previous administration...

There's NOT a great deal of difference.

Libertarians release top 10 disasters of 2009 Obama administration

Though it's doubtful that Mark Twain actually said this...

"Everybody talks about the weather, but nobody does anything about it."

-Often likely misattributed to Mark Twain

I'll continue the tradition right here. This is really only of much interest for those of you in North Alabama. For those who had any doubt, August really was hot. See? FWIW, while you're at it, check out the Fall edition of Rocket City Weather...

Although it appears to now be a moot point...

since Terry Jones has called off this weekend's libricide, the whole uproar that has accompanied this set of events brings many interesting issues to light...

What are the limits of free speech?

Would the government be able to abridge a freedom of speech issue concerning the free exercise of a group's religious beliefs?

Do folks around the world (and I mainly mean Muslims in other countries) really understand how our government often has its hands tied when it comes to controlling the forms of self-expression that Americans can choose to engage in?

Why do many of the folks who were protesting the planned event chanting "Death to America" or "Death to the Christians"? The folks who were going to burn the Koran are an insanely small group of people compared to Americans and/or Christians.

Had violent retribution taken place, could it be attributed in part to Jones or only to the perpetrators?

As I've said before, although I totally thought the action would have been foolish, I fully supported the rights of Jones and his supporters to do what they were going to do. I'm just happy that he came up with an excuse to end the furor. I support those who would burn any book or flag or effigy even though such actions are pointless and silly. I have my own (partial at least) answers to the above questions. What do you think?

Islamophobes я Us....

Someone I know recently received an e-mail that discussed a "boycott" of "the new Muslim Eid stamp". I'm sure that all of the folks who continue to propagate these BS chain e-mails love their country and "their religion", but there are so many holes in this e-mail that it needs to quickly sink to a watery grave. Besides, this stamp has been around since 2001.

http://www.snopes.com/politics/stamps/eidstamp.asp
https://supplies.usps.gov/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?catalogId=10001&storeId=10052&productId=10006182&langId=-1

To borrow a favorite line from a twisted book...

Don't Panic!!!

In closing, with religiophobic myths like this continuing and idiots like the Dove World Outreach Center and their little event planned for 9/11/10 (I think these folks are so idiotic that I won't even link to them), we are entirely too close to a point where the 9/11 attackers have achieved what I believe was their true goal: fomenting that "war between the civilizations"...

I was just browsing around here....

and I stumbled across this document. Very interesting reading! I'm sure there's much more interesting stuff on the MERLN site, but the section on the left side of the page titled "Quick Links to U.S. Policy Statements - MiPALs" is a good start.

So there I was...

I had a few PDFs on-hand that I wanted to back up but save on my local machine as text files. There are a number of ways to do this, but the easiest (and cheapest) way was to get Xpdf from here. One utility program included with Xpdf is pdftotext. I then had to figure out a way to use pdftotext to convert my files in one big batch. Here's what I did. First, I dragged all 575 of the desired files to the directory where pdftotext.exe was located. Next, I used the command prompt (under Vista, Start->Run->cmd) dir to make a list of all the PDF files in the directory (dir *.pdf /b > list). As for batching the file conversion, I then used the FOR command included with the cmd program. Here's the applicable syntax:

for /F %i in (list) DO pdftotext %i

Worked like a champ! The files I converted were mostly text, so they were fairly conducive to conversion. Besides, this freed up about 60 MB on my hard drive. Not a lot by today's standards, but I can keep a few more pictures or MP3s now...

Seasonal produce tips from Kraft for ya...

Last Tuesday run of the summer....

http://www.huntsvilletrackclub.org/HTC_Races/SUMMER%20CROSS%20COUNTRY%20RUNS%202010.pdf

in reference to: Huntsville Track Club Events (view on Google Sidewiki)

How to See the Best Meteor Showers of the Year: Tools, Tips and 'Save the Dates' - NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory

How to See the Best Meteor Showers of the Year: Tools, Tips and 'Save the Dates' - NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory

I'd heard about the public meeting at Calhoun the other night regarding Browns Ferry burning MOX fuel....

But I didn't readily find a great deal of supporting information. This is the beginning of a fairly long process. None of the media I read or heard said anything about where to gather information on the whole issue. If this is of interest to you, check out http://www.spdsupplementaleis.com/...

I was slightly surprised that there was no information (that I readily discovered) via TVA or the NRC. That's partially because of where we are in the process. The public comment period for the supplemental EIS ends September 17, so if you've got something to say, this pdf has information...

We sadly had to euthanize Isabella, our pet kitty for the last 10 years, this morning...

Early in July, she was diagnosed with renal failure. She declined steadily throughout the month. Here are a couple of nice snapshots from the last few hours she was among us:



Goodbye kitty!!!

Although it was blazing hot today...

I felt like knocking out several miles on some of the trails up on Monte Sano Mountain. It's nice and quiet and secluded and shady. It's also a good way to work up a little sweat and free up your mind for thought...

I've already put up a link elsewhere for the Alabama Virtual Library (AVL), but it's a fairly valuable resource, so I'll put it up here as well. The old (current) site requires a card for home access. The beta site uses IP geolocation, so if your IP resolves to Alabama, you don't even need a card. Pretty cool!

One thing I just recently discovered (from AVL) is the Encyclopedia of Alabama. I've only given the site the most cursory glance, but it looks like it might have promise. Plus, there's always the Alabama portal on Wikipedia...

On this July 4th, let me wish everyone...

Just figured that I'd say....

Happy Father's Day!!!

This made the rounds a while ago (in some circles at least)....

But I am still highly impressed each time I see/hear it:

One of the Wikimedia Foundation's projects is Wikimedia Commons...

The site has a lot of cool media that can be used for various purposes. One nifty page linked from the site shows the latest files and updates in real time (http://toolserver.org/%7Epara/Commons:Special:NewFiles):

Fun 18 miles...

View 5-23-10 ride in a larger map

To all you moms out there...

Happy Mother's Day!!!

Nice day for one of the Land Trust trails...

 

http://landtrust-hsv.org/

Followed, of course, by a 30 minute hacky session...

It was such a beautiful day!!!

A little run on 4-21-10...

Unfortunately, I got about halfway through my original planned route and discovered that a local bridge was out. I ended up doubling back and adding about 1-1/2 miles to what I was initially going to run....