Check out this video with the “i Disks – 1.8 seconds of video on an LP”. Very cool, done in a vintage style and a great commentary on our new i world.
Category: Our Changing World
Liberal Boulder harasses like it’s in the Bible Belt
Boulder Colorado, A city known for two things. Wacky liberal people and CU.
Today liberal Boulder turned Redneck. City officials are ‘scrutinizing’ a new Perl Street Strip club on the grounds that it’s violating zoning laws.
This sounds like a tactic that would be more appropriate for Buford T. Justice than Gandhi.
Of course, not all residents are against the Nitro Club, some bloggers actually recognize that Boulder should stand by it’s convictions.
Just goes to show all that tree hugging, drug taking, civil rights loving rhetoric goes right out the window the first time something they disagree with comes up. So much for “diversity”.
Bath Lifts
My grandparents are getting up in years. Both their late 80s now, and they live alone ( but within a mile of my parents ). While they are both in reasonably good health, they do have some difficulty getting around. My grandfather broke his ankle many years ago, and it’s never been quite right since. He got along OK when he was younger, but not it’s catching up with him. As a result for compensating for a bad ankle, he now has bad knees to go with it. Unfortunately, when you are pushing 90, knee replacement isn’t much of an option.
While they normally don’t have too much trouble, one challenge is getting in and out of the bath tub. My grandfather has difficulty with this, and has had to be rescued from the tub at least once. At Christmas, my grandmother asked me to do a little research into bath lifts.
I did some looking, and there are a number of very cool products on the market. Transfer benches, mechanical lifts, hydro lifts and battery powered electric lifts are all available. Problem is I can’t find one product review for any of them. Personally I think this is one of the great downfalls of the internet as we know it. There are zillions of products out there, and if you are looking for the latest gadget, phone, TV or game console, there are tons of reviews. On the downside, if you are looking for something that’s not a techy item, reviews are much more difficult to come by. I suppose 90 year old people aren’t much for writing reviews, and physical therapists are afraid putting this kind of information on line will probably devalue their overall expertise, but it’s still a problem.
I’m not sure what the solution is, but I would encourage everyone out there, if you purchase a product, not matter what it is, write a review and post it somewhere. Oh, and if you know anything about bath lifts be sure to leave a comment. I would be interested to hear what you have to say.
Lesson of the day – be good or Santa won’t bring presents
This Dad is helping Santa out with that whole good/bad thing by selling his kid’s present on eBay.
Awesome – wish I had some kids of my own so I could do this kind of stuff. Discipline at it’s best.
Holiday Display Task Force
Appearantly there has been some controversy in the last few years about a Menorah being allowed in Christmas decorations. To solve this ‘complicated’ problem, the city of Fort Collins has created a Holiday Display Task Force. The Task Force has announced that the city can’t put up any decorations that might have religious meaning, including Red Bows, Stars and Christmas Trees.
Seems like many are up in arms about this nonsense. One of these is Sherriff Alderden who has thrown down the gauntlet!
Most of the members of the Larimer County Sheriff’s Office are Christians and celebrate Christmas. We pray for the continued safety of our brothers and sisters in blue, and recognize that the laws we are sworn to uphold have their very foundation in the laws laid down by God through Moses. Our criminal codes are based on Judaic Christian doctrine. To deny that by restricting symbols of Christian faith on public property is beyond the pale. In recognition and celebration of Christmas, members of the LCSO will be ing a Christmas tree – not a holiday tree – on our front lawn at 2501 Midpoint Drive. We will be decorating the tree on December 1 at 10:00 a.m. and invite members of the public who share our faith or object to government intrusion into our religious freedoms to join us.
Good for him, finally time we had someone stand up to these Scrooges!
Beware the Lady Ninjas
Wow, who would have ever thought this would happen, especially in Pennsylvania.
Insufficient Postage
As far as I’m concerned, the United States Postal Service serves two purposes.
The first is to deliver my monthly water bill to the city of Greeley.
The second is as a secondary delivery service for online vendors and ebay shippers that don’t use Fed-Ex or UPS.
As a result I don’t buy many stamps. With the postal rate CONSTANTLY changing, this sometimes is a problem.
Recently I had to send a personal letter, payment for some candles I ordered from my good friend Marti Jo (I know, candles aren’t very manly, but thats another story).
When I sent this letter I used some stamps I had that were clearly marked “First Class’. A few days later I recieved my letter back marked “Additional Postage Required”.
Additional Postage Required???? I sent first class letter, the stamp was clearly marked “First Class”, why didn’t they honor this stamp???
I know, I know, they raised the rates here recently, but as a none postal employee I’m not really up on the postage rates.
OK, fine, so I go to the post office to buy some 1 cent (2 cent, whatever) stamps so I can use my previous stamps, that I am assuming are the 39 cent variety. Of course, their automated machine that sells stamps doesn’t show anything small denomination.
So, I have to either go to the post office, stand in line, and buy a dollar’s worth of 1 cent stamps, or just use some old 34 centers I already have.
Bottom line, it cost me 63 cents to send that letter to Iowa, all because the post office wouldn’t deliver the letter with my First Class stamp…
Show your underwear
I’m all for decency, but there’s something wrong when authorities want to create a dress code.
The city of Atlanta is considering banning baggy pants, thongs, sports bras and bra straps. Anyone showing underwear in public could be fined.
The proposed ordinance would also bar women from showing the strap of a thong beneath their pants. They would also be prohibited from wearing jogging bras in public or show a bra strap, said Debbie Seagraves, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Georgia.
The proposed ordinance states that “the indecent exposure of his or her undergarments” would be unlawful in a public place. It would go in the same portion of the city code that outlaws sex in public and the exposure or fondling of genitals.
YouTube sued by ‘indie’ music publisher?
Read this article today about YouTube’s defense of the lawsuit brought by Viacom and other copyright holders.
One thing that caught my eye was
…lawsuits brought against YouTube by Viacom International Inc., England’s top soccer league — The Football Association Premier League Ltd. — and indie music publisher Bourne Co.
I thought to myself, “Wow, an Indie music publisher is suing YouTube?”. So I decided to do some research.
First, for those of you not really acquainted with the indie music and film scene, there is a certain connotation that goes along with the term indie (short for independant).
Wikipedia defines indie like this:
The term indie is short for “independent” and refers to artistic creations outside the commercial mainstream, without the support of a major record label, major movie studio, or other source of a large budget.
So, I did some research on this so called indie music publisher, Bourne Co.
BOURNE CO., one of the largest independent international music publishers, has since its founding in 1919, never lost its passion for the art of song writing or its deep respect for the creative processes involved in that art
So, they are one of the largest publishers of sheet music in the world. In this context, independant means ‘privately owned’, not ‘outside the commercial mainstream’. It really sounds to me like either the author of the article, Viacom or the AP is trying to spin this and make it sound like indie musicians are against YouTube, and that is just not the case. In reality it’s just a bunch of large companies (Viacom, Bourne Co., Football Association Premier League) angry because YouTube is making money off content they ‘own’. In reality, these publishers should be suing the individuals that actually post the copyrighted content to YouTube, but as the RIAA has shown us, that’s not a great PR move.
Why do TV execs hate me?
I have to admit, I am a sucker for serial dramas, especially those with a supernatural/sci-fi slant, post-apocalyptic environments, strange islands, nuclear bombs or hot young college coeds. I guess that’s OK, I know people that like reality shows too… I guess we all have our guilty pleasures.
Today I was dealt a double blow by learning about the demise of both Veronica Mars and Jericho. Sure, Veronica slipped a little this year with the changing of the theme song and the absorption of the WB into the CW. It seems the show had lost some steam and ‘Mars – the College Years’ wasn’t going so great, especially after the amazing bus crash story line last year. I’m still sorry to see it go.
Jericho, on the other hand, was just starting to get interesting. Hawkins was turning out to be a hero. Heather and Emily were about to be in a catfight, and Jake was going to avenge his father. The only downside was the untimely (and a bit cheesy) death of Gerald McRaney’s (Simon & Simon, Major Dad) character – Johnston Green.
The real problem with networks cancelling serialized drama is the lack of closure. The Mars writers typically do a good job of making the story lines wrap up at the end of the season. Jericho didn’t give us that at all. In fact, we will never learn who the evil homeland security guy is, why he set off the nukes, what will happen to the town, the story is just over – right in the middle.
I think there should be a law. Networks are not allowed to cancel shows without finishing the story. If this means that they have to buy a whole new season, so be it. The FCC needs to quit worrying so much about wardrobe malfunctions and start protecting all of us invest time in stories, just to be dissappointed. Come on, think of the children!