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Written by Karl in: America |

Jan
19
2009

Tomorrow Let Us ALL Welcome Our New President

I know I’ve been one of those who have spoken against Barack Obama. However, tonight I am asking everyone who reads this to stand behind our 44th President starting tomorrow.

Simply, the country has spoken (honestly…better and louder than ever in the history of politics) and now that it’s over we as a people need to stand together and welcome our new President.

To my fellow African Americans, now is the time to stand behind the man and ask “what can we do for you?” This is not the time to expect our President to somehow waive a magic wand and change the face of Black America. On the contrary, we need to show that we can carry ourselves while he leads the country.

As Dr. Martin Luther King said “An individual has not started living until he can rise above the narrow confines of his individualistic concerns to the broader concerns of all humanity.” We need to allow Barack Obama to be a President for the people…not the Black People.

Barack Obama and his administration will be bringing a whopping 1.9 TRILLION dollars to the table in stimulus packages (and for those not keeping up, many countries – such as China – are now sayong no to lending us money for these bailouts). Argueably, more than 65% is inheritance from the Bush administration and that is just the biggest hurdle in the mounting challenges for his presidency.

So starting tomorrow let’s all let the rhetoric, jokes (and many of them are just plain shitty), etc. subside and move forward into a much needed brighter tomorrow for our country.

Let’s all show the world that we accept our new President as an American who we know will be able to lead America.

Good night and good luck (to quote the great Edward R. Murrow).

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Written by Karl in: America |

Jan
19
2009

Remebering Martin Luther King

” I have a dream…

I have a dream that one day little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers

I have a dream today”

Each year on the third Monday of January schools, federal offices, post office and banks across America close as we celebrate the birth, the life and the dream of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

While this is a tme for emmense celebration, it is also a time for the nation to remember and reflect on the injustices that Dr. King fought. A time to remember his fight for the freedom, equality, and dignity of all races and peoples. A time to remember the message of change through nonviolence.

In honor of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, as well as the Inauguration of our new president, Americans are being asked to join in a nationwide call for service on Jan. 19. The day is being promoted by President-elect Barack Obama and his wife as a Day of Service in which all Americans are asked to give some of their time, anyway they can. Learn more at http://usaservice.org/.

Barack Obama on the Inauguration

To learn more about what’s going in in your area, visit: http://www.mlkday.gov/

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Written by Karl in: America |

Jan
18
2009

Looks Like My Theory On BSG Has Some Creedence

So after watching BSG again…where it’s revaled that Ellen Tigh is the last of the final five and that the five were on Earth a couple of millennia ago I was reminded that my original BSG theory from a few years ago might have had some creedence to it!

About halfway through the first season of BattleStar Galactica, when the Cylons mentioned that “all of this has happened before and will happen again” I started thinking about what that meant. So I came up with a theory:

The Human race are the decendents of the original Cylons and that when they reach earth there would be only be two survivors – a man and woman to recreate the race.

Later as the series progressed I developed this theory:

The entire human race will be revealed to be Cylon.

The original human race on earth having been wiped out by the original Cylons long ago forgot what they were. They destroy earth (ravage/war/whatever) and the humans who leave earth to eventually establish the 12 colonies are non self-aware Cylons. They create “new Cylons” and start the cycle from this end of the universe.

As of now, I would like to give my final BGS theory:

The entire human race will be revealed to be Cylon.

The original human race of Earth were wiped out by the original Cylons long ago and the Cylons evolve. The surviving few leave earth and find Kobol. From there they recreate the human race and become the “Lords of Kobol.” They send these new non self-aware Cylons out to the universe and they establish the 12 colonies. As before they create “new Cylons” perpetuating the cycle of death and rebirth from this end of the universe. The cycles goes back & forth.

Kara, is a victim of the vortex, she is from another timeline/universe where she did survive.

So there is my theory, updated with the new information I learned from the BSG premier. We’ll see how close to the truth I am. I am not going to try and revise it since there are only 9 episodes left.

I just hope that they didn’t jump the shark as other people are touting.

Then again, as long as they don’t bring back John the “ships of lights” crap…I can’t honestly say they jumped the shark with this version.

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Written by Karl in: Entertainment |

Jan
16
2009

An Oldie But A Goodie!

A few of us were chatting about next week and I brought up this old video on youtube.

Steve Jobs introduces the iRack!

It was one of MadTV’s best skits and it’s still funny (and sad) now as it was when it aired.

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Written by Karl in: Entertainment,War..Then & Now |

Jan
15
2009

Why There Are No Screens On Jet Engines

Firstly I want to state for the record that I am NOT an aircraft engineer, nor am I a pilot. I am an aviation buff and I love aviation (including military aircraft also known as “air power”). So I do know flight engineers, pilots, aircraft designers and other members of the aviation field.

That being said, since the crash this morning I’ve had people ask why there aren’t screens on jets. Here is the answer that I have learned over the years.

The reason I asked was that in my military career and volunteering for aviation related events such as the Alaska Air Show, one of the big concerns for aviation personel is FOD (Foreign Object Debris) getting out on the flight line and endangering lives and equipment.

So here is the answer as told to me by military and civilian aviation members. There are simple reasons that it will not make any difference:

The thrust would be affected by the screens (imagine a screen door after a big windstorm and all the bugs, etc. that clog it up) during regular flights
The weight of the screens necessary to stop, say, a Canadian Goose would add significant weight to the engines (additional shearing stress)
Icing (simply put if the jets are in a moisture rich strata at the right altitude, ice will form on the screens and cut off air to the engines)
At the typical speed a bird will impact aircraft, the screen would be useless and most likely cause clogging of the intake or damage to the engine as well
The chances of a bird being sucked into an engine is less than someone being struck by lightning so it’s considered a moot point

Migratory birds (like herd animals) are attracted to large open areas. Reason being is the flock can see predators at a good distance…it’s essentially a safety measure.

What needs to be done at airports is to let hunters (specifically falconers) hunt the birds. Birds naturally avoid areas where predators roam and warn others of the danger so that most areas stay empty to avoid the predator. Natural predators such as dogs and birds of prey have been more successful than horns and remote aircraft in dispersing bird populations at airports.

When the FAA did a study they stated it was too cost prohibitive to manage birds of prey and dogs at airports, however they forget that there are hunters that use birds of prey and dogs and would probably love to allow their animal companions to be able to train not hunt in the open fields at airports.

Sorry…I’m digressing. The simple answer is that it’s a rare occurrence and that the engineering needed to place some kind of screen on a plane is just not there yet.

At least not anything that is cost effective.

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Written by Karl in: Information,Science & Technology |

Jan
15
2009

Sorry If You Were Using Firefox To View My Blog Recently…

Seems that the temporary theme I loaded (Areos from http://thebuckmaker.com/) had an issue in Firefox (and only Firefox – well maybe BlackBird as well since it used Firefox as it’s engine). Now I don’t want to blame the theme’s developer for my mistake. I made the change in the header so this was someting I did…his them works fine out of the box.

As I switched over to Google Chrome from Firefox I didn’t think I had to check Firefox for issues with my blog theme changes. I mean it’s normally Internet Explorer that has issues so like most web designers I know we use our normal browser (Firefox, Safari, Chrome) and rune a check in IE for problems.

This time nowever it was Firefox that had the issue. Everything worked fine in Chrome, Safari, IE & Opera (I view my designs on my iTouch).

The issue was that the Aeros them has a comment counter and since I screen my comments heavily I rarely have comments to my posts. So I commented out the code (normal php commenting code of < !– and — > – of course the spaces would be removed so the comment would work…this is to illustrate) and everything looked fine in Chrome and IE so I thought nothing of it.

Then one of my readers let’s me know the site is screwed up.

I figure he’s on, say, IE 6 or something like that but in talking to him he is on Firefox!

Firefox is having issues? Firefox. FIREFOX?!?!?

He was correct…Firefox did not recognize the commenting out of the comments counter. It wasn’t until I actually deleted the code that the site showed up right.

So to anyone trying to view the site in Firex, I humbly apologize.

Guess it’s time to get serious on the new theme and look…as well as checking the site in ALL browsers from now on.

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Written by Karl in: AAARRRGGGHHH!!!,Admin Says! |

Jan
15
2009

Something As Bad As Kwanzaa!

How does Internet Explorer, Safari, Firefor or Google Chrome put the Black Man down?!?!?

Adding more fuel to the fire of racial ridiculousness comes Blackbird - the web browser designed for the African American community (sorry, I am not going to give this application a link…if you want to find out more search google and find it yourself).

I want to personally thank the developers for setting Blacks back twenty years.

This “tool” provides such features as:

Black Search – which moves important information from African American sites higher in your search results!
Black News Ticker - African American specific news items.
Black Bookmarks - African American community links.

Maybe I’m the crazed guy in the room, but this pretty mush states that Black people can’t use a normal browser so one had to be made for us. Are you saying that the internet is somehow making it hard to find “African American” sites and content? That the MAN is somehow hiding stuff.

We dont need to sweat it as of January 20th since we become the MAN!

I can’t even begin to tell you how much this makes my blood boil!

Right now we already have enough trouble with all the jokes coming out of Barack Obama’s successful election to President (such delightful jokes about how his face will be on the new food stamps, etc.) that we now show our respective ass about the internet.

This sits right up there with the “Christian Operating System” and the 777 (after all…777 is better than 666) Safe Browser.

Why didn’t you guys just call it BlackIE (pronounced “blackie”) or Negro – The HUNG Browser for pete’s sake.

I wonder how long before we see BeanerBird, PolishSafari, or AsianChrome browsers?

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Written by Karl in: AAARRRGGGHHH!!! |

Jan
07
2009

It’s -22 This Morning And I Hope My Car Will Start!

It figures that this is the morning that we drop to deep negative temperatures when I decide that since I have an early meeting, I’ll bring the company vehicle home to a) use in the morning and b) let it thaw as it’s normally outside in this weather.

I think that when I get to the office (around 9:30 or so), I’ll drop the car home for the morning and let it get some warmth.

I’d love to say that my car is plugged in, however, with our office being remodeled we do not have any plugins on the outside right now.

I’ll be keeping my fingers crossed!

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Written by Karl in: Work, work, work |

Jan
05
2009

It’s Nostalgia Night!

As I work for an IT company, we have all kinds of unusual tools. Many because of our client’s needs…and the variety of systems we encounter.

I never thought I’d be using any of these specialty tools personally, but here I am.

I am using our USB floppy reader to retrieve information from some old floppy disks I found.

Now normally, I wouldn’t care about floppies I come across as I clean up the garage. My motto has been “If I didn’t move it to another medium, I obviously didn’t want it” and it has been my mainstay till tonight when I found my old Dungeon & Dragons, Traveller and Shadowrun disks.

I can tell you, back in the day I was a VERY SERIOUS role player: Dungeon & Dragons, Traveller, Shadowrun, Paranoia, Arduin, Vampire the Masquerade, you name it!

So seeing these disks made me want to look them over…providing they were still readable.

Now I’m not going to pat myself on the back, but they were still readable in the USB floppy which is either a testimate to the lognevity of the floppies or that they were well stored (or fogotten depending upon on how you look at it).

Either way, I now have some old word documents to read over and reminisce.

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