amusing or interesting things that you come across http://www.dregston.com/boards/list.php?13 Wed, 08 Sep 2010 04:35:41 -0600 Phorum 5.2.7 http://www.dregston.com/boards/read.php?13,32789,32789#msg-32789 http://www.dregston.com/boards/read.php?13,32789,32789#msg-32789
Tomorrow (and on Saturday and Sunday), they're coming to Antwerp with the Diver.


It's all a big secret where it's going to happen exactly and what the story is. I can't wait to find out and I'll definitely go and watch.

EDIT:

It's seems there are already signs of it in town. Mysterious water fountain in the middle of the street
]]> Tine Watch Mon, 23 Aug 2010 19:14:48 -0600 http://www.dregston.com/boards/read.php?13,32709,32709#msg-32709 http://www.dregston.com/boards/read.php?13,32709,32709#msg-32709
The spousal unit has suggested a trip to Cairns for the solar eclipse in November 2012 for our 30th wedding anniversary trip. It would be a real trifecta of geekdom: astronomy, birdwatching, and adding a barramundi to our fishing lifelist.

Cheryl]]> Cheryl Watch Sat, 21 Aug 2010 21:36:14 -0600 http://www.dregston.com/boards/read.php?13,32692,32692#msg-32692 http://www.dregston.com/boards/read.php?13,32692,32692#msg-32692
That's all. It just had a nice ring to it. (Emoticonflute2champ.gif)]]> LisaRS Watch Thu, 12 Aug 2010 10:04:12 -0600 http://www.dregston.com/boards/read.php?13,32591,32591#msg-32591 http://www.dregston.com/boards/read.php?13,32591,32591#msg-32591
Cameron our new PM keeps banging on about something he callse "The Big Society" which the cynical suggest means getting people to volunteer to do the things for free that his cuts programme are going to slash.

Nobody is very sure what it actually means and the signs are not at all good that it will mean something positive. But it is a bit early to tell, even for someone as cyincal as me.

Anyway, because I had a drink a while ago with Andrew Brown who edits the CIF Belief section, he suggested they ask me what I think of the Big Society.

But whilst willing I said it was a bit early to tell how much this stuff will affect us. And I suggested doing something else for now and something on the BS later on.

So that is what is happening. I am writing something about our volunteers and the fact that they come from so many countries and cultures.

Well, I am trying to. I am struggling to stop it being worthy and dull because I am using my own name and the name of the scheme so I need to be a bit careful what I say. Which is of course deadly for me.

But I am immensely proud of our international brigade of volunteers, and as asylum seekers and migrants get a relentlessly bad press here I wanted to do something to highlight the fact that some of them are giving up their time to volunteer to help older Londoners.

I am supposed to file by Tuesday. To comment on the blog you have to register but it is pretty quick and painless, if anyone fancies commenting. I will email Barb in case she doesn't see this, as she actually is a foriegner who volunteered for us, even if it was only for one day! [users.guardian.co.uk]]]> Spencer Watch Mon, 16 Aug 2010 09:50:32 -0600 http://www.dregston.com/boards/read.php?13,32571,32571#msg-32571 http://www.dregston.com/boards/read.php?13,32571,32571#msg-32571
Now I have three digital cameras and some ignorant people might suppose that I didn't really need a fourth. But I did. Honestly I did!

It's a replacement. I have a Nikon DSLR which I love even though I don't understand it enough to use more than 5% of its capabilities. And I have a little Olympus that is supposed to be waterproof and capable of withstanding a nuclear blast so long as it is ten meters from the epicenter. And I have a Kodak "bridge" camera which I got for its 10X zoom.

The Nikon is fine for the Heath but it is heavy and delicate and too precious to consider taking whilst trudging up to Scotland. The Olympus is light and tough and would have been perfect for taking pictures in the rain as I ground up Cross Fell last week, had I had it with me. But the picture quality is not really all that.

So the Kodak which I initially hated because the 10x zoom is a bit of a fraud as pictures taken at full zoom are grainy and crap, and for its horrible, horrible, horrible, little plastic wheel which not only changes modes but switches it on and off and is so small and fiddly that I constantly turn it too far one way or the other... is the one I take walking and the one that nearly all the pictures on my blog are from.

But it does take some good pictures. So my detestation has mellowed over the years. However it has been getting slowly madder over the years as its little electronic brain slowly succumbs to digital dementia.

First signs were that it won't format new memory cards so I am stuck with the 2G one I put in years ago. Oh, and a while ago it decided that I had to reset the date and time every time I recharged the battery.

But on the last leg of my walk, after a very wet day in the Eden valley followed by a horribly wet and windy day across Cross Fell, the highest mountain in England outside of the Lake District. It decided it had had enough and shut down altogether.

It did start working again a bit later, after it had dried out somewhat. But the next day it started spontaneously turning itself on and off again.

So... as neither of my other cameras are substitutes for blog pic provision - unless I am prepared to accept quite a big drop in quality. I needed a new camera.

But when I went to look at the options I was astonished. In the five years or so since I bought the Kodak "super-telephoto" bridge cameras have hurtled into the future. The one I got (mostly because it was the cheapest) has the smallest zoom but that is 18X.

So I went to work today and it had arrived! It was a bit awkward actually because I had two volunteers in, one who "helps" me with admin and a new one who was coming to phone round members. In such a situation it is obviously better if I have my mind on the job to help my sometimes struggling admin assistant and the brand new person faced with cold calling people she has never met.

You can imagine how it went.

"Spencer, I don't understand what you want me to do with this spreadsheet."

"Yeah, yeah, just look at it for a bit... wow! The video features on this are amazing!"

"Ah...! I just phoned this person and they think they might be having a stroke..."

"Yeah, yeah, tell them to have cup of tea and stop being hysterical...Look! I took this photo of the tree tops and I couldn't even see that there were hawthorn berries with my naked eye, this zoom is amazing."

"Spencer, I don't know what I am looking for..."

"Er.. mistakes! Just look for mistakes. Look its got a lens hood!"

And so on.

Anyway. It does seem pretty amazing. very light so perfect for my walking and blogging (well, it might be a bit delicate) and the pictures I have taken at 18X are less grainy than the Kodak ones were at 10X. They are so good that they are slightly scary considering that it only cost me just over £200. Which is the same amount as three cameras going back for 15 years ago.


The first was a film camera with a then amazing 3x zoom for an automatic which I go bought for me when I was editing Fetish Times. Now it would seem astonishingly primitive.

The second was my first digital, a little Nikon which took fantastic photos and I still mourn after managing to break it through years of horrible, horrible, abuse (one of the first time I used it was in winter in the Cairngorms and I managed to freeze the lens protecter open). The third was the Kodak which overeached itself in the zoom stakes but has paid back the investment despite a lot of swearing at THE STUPID FUCKING FIDDLY LITTLE PLASTIC WHEEL ON THE BACK! over the years.

And now this which is leaps and bounds beyond even the digital cameras of five and eight years or so ago, let alone the film camera of fifteen. But the same sort of price not even allowing for inflation.

So, I have a new toy and have been playing with it intermittently all day. I would play with it all weekend but I have to go to see some football tomorrow (I can't remember who exactly, just little local teams like Arsenal, Inter Milan and Celtic).

And then I have to write an article for the Guardian Website!

Anyway, here is the camera I just bought. [www.cameralabs.com]]]> Spencer Watch Tue, 10 Aug 2010 16:58:27 -0600 http://www.dregston.com/boards/read.php?13,32565,32565#msg-32565 http://www.dregston.com/boards/read.php?13,32565,32565#msg-32565 Diane Margaret Watch Sun, 01 Aug 2010 03:06:01 -0600 http://www.dregston.com/boards/read.php?13,32513,32513#msg-32513 http://www.dregston.com/boards/read.php?13,32513,32513#msg-32513
Since my insurance already covers preventative care, I guess I will be looking for a new doctor as I can't see how this makes any sense at all. I guess if my insurance didn't cover preventative medicine, it could be cost-effective, but in this economy I can't imagine many people will opt to go this route.

Here's the website of the parent org: [www.mdvip.com]

Have other Americans encountered this scheme? Is this the shape of things to come?]]> JaneGS Watch Fri, 23 Jul 2010 07:08:16 -0600 http://www.dregston.com/boards/read.php?13,32492,32492#msg-32492 http://www.dregston.com/boards/read.php?13,32492,32492#msg-32492
[www.theatlantic.com]]]> LisaRS Watch Fri, 30 Jul 2010 06:05:12 -0600 http://www.dregston.com/boards/read.php?13,32475,32475#msg-32475 http://www.dregston.com/boards/read.php?13,32475,32475#msg-32475
[www.huffingtonpost.com]]]> Patti Watch Fri, 23 Jul 2010 04:03:43 -0600 http://www.dregston.com/boards/read.php?13,32373,32373#msg-32373 http://www.dregston.com/boards/read.php?13,32373,32373#msg-32373
Tineke said:

> I don't think that's Bruce's claim at all. I think
> his claim is that you're at a greater risk to be
> killed by your own gun, not necessarily
> accidental, than that you'll prevent an attack
> with it.

If that's Bruce's claim, it's a pure act of faith, for there is no reliable way to determine how many attacks are deterred by ownership of a gun. If X hasn't attacked Y, how can one possibly determine that the reason was X's suspicion what Y was armed?

Moreover, there are strong externalities associated with gun ownership that are independent of whether a particular Y is in fact armed. For example, in many parts of the US burglaries are relatively rare, simply because gun ownership is common and a burglar must presume that if a person happens to be present in a burglarized building, armed defense is likely to follow. By contrast, in areas in which the law disarms law-abiding citizens, burglary rates commonly soar (see the UK in recent decades).

Of course this means that many people in the US get the benefit of high gun ownership rates without having to own a gun. These free riders can afford to take a lofty view of gun ownership by others, without understanding how they benefit from it.

The statistics game is part of the calculus. Another part of the calculus is the value one places on human dignity. Maximizing one's probability of survival isn't everything. There are many women (for instance) who would prefer the increased power that a gun gives them of deterring or, in the last resort, fending off, violent assault from a stranger, to the fractionally increased likelihood that hubby will go berserk and use the gun to kill her. Bruce chooses to call the mind-set that values the individual dignity associated with the power to defend oneself (under the assumption that gun ownership by the law-abiding causes a net increase in innocent casualties) "cowardly". I would call the mind set that surrenders self-defense and relies on whatever protection the state chooses to afford "slavish". Cowards please line up in this corner, slaves in that corner.

I don't own a firearm myself, incidentally, nor have I ever. But I am willing to admit that I'm a lazy free-rider who benefits from social norms established by previous generations that were more heavily armed than today's generation, and that those norms are eroding. I advised both my sons to take a course in firearm use and safety. Neither has done so. Of course I haven't either, but on the other hand I'm more expendable.]]> Warren Watch Wed, 14 Jul 2010 12:35:49 -0600 http://www.dregston.com/boards/read.php?13,32333,32333#msg-32333 http://www.dregston.com/boards/read.php?13,32333,32333#msg-32333
The Kyran Horman story is about a 7-year-old boy who went missing a month ago. Just recently a landscaper came forward and said the boy’s stepmother (who was the last person to see the boy) had offered him a large sum of money to kill her husband (Kyran’s father).

You may well wonder why someone would try to hire a random landscaper as a hitman (as do I) – but that’s the story. My theory – something is fishy about the stepmother – but the landscaper’s story is fishy, too. You hire a landscaper to bury a body, not to create one. I spent the 4th of July weekend in Portland, sleuthing for leads.

[www.oregonlive.com]

[www.oregonlive.com]]]> Bruce Watch Mon, 12 Jul 2010 17:35:55 -0600 http://www.dregston.com/boards/read.php?13,32330,32330#msg-32330 http://www.dregston.com/boards/read.php?13,32330,32330#msg-32330
- a kid I just overheard outside of my window probably talking about Facebook]]> Margaret S Watch Sat, 10 Jul 2010 15:46:45 -0600 http://www.dregston.com/boards/read.php?13,32323,32323#msg-32323 http://www.dregston.com/boards/read.php?13,32323,32323#msg-32323
Does this make more or less sense than, say, climbing the north face of the Eiger?

[www.nytimes.com]]]> Warren Watch Fri, 09 Jul 2010 05:49:20 -0600 http://www.dregston.com/boards/read.php?13,32316,32316#msg-32316 http://www.dregston.com/boards/read.php?13,32316,32316#msg-32316 [www.youtube.com]]]> Linden Watch Fri, 09 Jul 2010 02:27:26 -0600 http://www.dregston.com/boards/read.php?13,32209,32209#msg-32209 http://www.dregston.com/boards/read.php?13,32209,32209#msg-32209 non toxic personal defense shotgun shells. Yes folks, if someone breaks into your home and tries to take the keys to your Prius rest assured that you can stick your fist through the holes in the corpse without worrying about exposure to lead! Or maybe they're for teething babies, I just don't know. It's freaking insane.

Cheryl

*Can't walk to the gun store, have to mosey or amble, it's state law.]]> Cheryl Watch Mon, 12 Jul 2010 18:19:49 -0600 http://www.dregston.com/boards/read.php?13,32188,32188#msg-32188 http://www.dregston.com/boards/read.php?13,32188,32188#msg-32188
[news.bbc.co.uk]]]> Caroline Watch Wed, 23 Jun 2010 09:49:57 -0600 http://www.dregston.com/boards/read.php?13,32135,32135#msg-32135 http://www.dregston.com/boards/read.php?13,32135,32135#msg-32135
I just came across this news item from the US:
[www.woai.com]
"A government probe reveals some credit card companies have been tracking purchases in bargain stores to determine if customers may be hurting financially and pose a credit risk. "

Is it true that buying at charity shops is a sign of someone being in financial difficulties in the US? It certainly isn't in Australia – people from all levels of income do it.

I have noticed, however, that whether one is embarrassed about it may vary according to one’s political persuasion, judging from responses to the question: “That’s a very nice coat (or whatever): where did you get it?” In the Greens, of course, people feel rather smug about replying that they got it in an op shop (as we call them in Oz), since it combines environmental virtue with financial self-interest. But when I was working at a polling booth and admired a conservative party worker’s gorgeous red coat, she was definitely embarrassed about admitting it was an op shop purchase: “I don’t usually shop there, but I just happened to see this in the window as I was passing …”

There was also a recent letter to the paper saying that well-off people shouldn’t buy in op shops so as to leave the stuff for the less well off, but, judging from the responses, this was a minority view – and the op shop proprietors certainly don’t want to discourage anyone.]]> Linden Watch Sun, 27 Jun 2010 10:32:03 -0600 http://www.dregston.com/boards/read.php?13,32115,32115#msg-32115 http://www.dregston.com/boards/read.php?13,32115,32115#msg-32115 www.cnn.com]



He singled out this sentence from Obama as unfortunate: "That is why just after the rig sank, I assembled a team of our nation's best scientists and engineers to tackle this challenge -- a team led by Dr. Steven Chu, a Nobel Prize-winning physicist and our nation's secretary of energy."


I wonder how Paul J.J. Payack thinks he should have said it.]]> Diane Margaret Watch Fri, 18 Jun 2010 06:22:06 -0600 http://www.dregston.com/boards/read.php?13,32105,32105#msg-32105 http://www.dregston.com/boards/read.php?13,32105,32105#msg-32105
"Bullfighter flees ring. A young bullfighter in Mexico City leapt
head first out of the ring at the beginning of a fight after seeing
the bull charge - and was arrested for it."

[www.guardian.co.uk]

The film clip says that he was "arrested for breach of contract" and shows him being loaded into a police squad car. I wonder if Yiyi, who practices law not all that far from the Mexican border, knows enough about Mexican law to explain this, or failing that can pass the question along to someone who does know. Mexico traditionally was known as a land of peonage, but there have been several revolutions along the way. How does it happen that one can be arrested for breach of contract under Mexican law, and in what circumstances?

Another feature of interest is the admirable candor of the bullfighter, who makes no excuses but says frankly that he didn't have the balls to stand up to that charging bull. No money or glory on earth would induce me to dance with a charging bull, even though, unlike this fellow, I have never been gored by one.]]> Warren Watch Wed, 16 Jun 2010 20:08:04 -0600 http://www.dregston.com/boards/read.php?13,31997,31997#msg-31997 http://www.dregston.com/boards/read.php?13,31997,31997#msg-31997 www.huffingtonpost.com]

In your opinion does this article explain the situation accurately?]]> Patti Watch Wed, 23 Jun 2010 07:06:19 -0600 http://www.dregston.com/boards/read.php?13,31989,31989#msg-31989 http://www.dregston.com/boards/read.php?13,31989,31989#msg-31989
[uncyclopedia.wikia.com]

Mind you, I always had my doubts about tellytubbies.]]> Spencer Watch Thu, 10 Jun 2010 00:09:51 -0600 http://www.dregston.com/boards/read.php?13,31923,31923#msg-31923 http://www.dregston.com/boards/read.php?13,31923,31923#msg-31923 www.newscientist.com]

"Two potential signatures of life on Saturn's moon Titan have been found by the Cassini spacecraft. But scientists are quick to point out that non-biological chemical reactions could also be behind the observations."]]> Linden Watch Tue, 08 Jun 2010 06:08:50 -0600 http://www.dregston.com/boards/read.php?13,31802,31802#msg-31802 http://www.dregston.com/boards/read.php?13,31802,31802#msg-31802
I've been using duplicate checks and keeping the total on the checks--without a registry--so this isn't going to work with a debit card.

Lisa, late to the latest trends, as usual]]> LisaRS Watch Sat, 26 Jun 2010 20:59:38 -0600 http://www.dregston.com/boards/read.php?13,31784,31784#msg-31784 http://www.dregston.com/boards/read.php?13,31784,31784#msg-31784
One of the young girls as work the other day was talking to me about her concerns about the oil spill. I happened to say, "too bad there was no one to put their thumb in the dike". She had no understanding of my remark so I told her the fable as i remembered it.

I decided to google the phrase and was amused to find such different, and sometimes opposing, interpretations of the point of the story.

[sg.answers.yahoo.com]]]> Diane Margaret Watch Sat, 26 Jun 2010 21:07:53 -0600 http://www.dregston.com/boards/read.php?13,31762,31762#msg-31762 http://www.dregston.com/boards/read.php?13,31762,31762#msg-31762 We don't know when or if this item will be back in stock."

It worked great for keeping the gnats away from my ears and eyes.

Same thing happened with a hair color (yes, to hide those grey hairs) I finally found one I liked. Next time I went looking for it it was no where to be found. i found a different brand that I liked and now as the time approaches I am just waiting to find THAT one is no longer on the shelves. And I really, really hate shopping.]]> Diane Margaret Watch Mon, 31 May 2010 13:46:51 -0600 http://www.dregston.com/boards/read.php?13,31696,31696#msg-31696 http://www.dregston.com/boards/read.php?13,31696,31696#msg-31696
[www.msnbc.msn.com]]]> Gina Watch Mon, 24 May 2010 10:41:44 -0600 http://www.dregston.com/boards/read.php?13,31640,31640#msg-31640 http://www.dregston.com/boards/read.php?13,31640,31640#msg-31640 [www.informationisbeautiful.net]

Norway has most coffee drinkers, Australia has most car thefts, and maybe we should be calling them Bolivia nuts.]]> Linden Watch Mon, 24 May 2010 16:03:26 -0600 http://www.dregston.com/boards/read.php?13,31633,31633#msg-31633 http://www.dregston.com/boards/read.php?13,31633,31633#msg-31633
kk]]> Snarkhunter Watch Sun, 23 May 2010 06:13:46 -0600 http://www.dregston.com/boards/read.php?13,31606,31606#msg-31606 http://www.dregston.com/boards/read.php?13,31606,31606#msg-31606
Picture gallery:

[www.tri-cityherald.com]

And a collection of new and old news stories from the local paper:

[www.tri-cityherald.com]

Years later my father in law sent us several bags of ash he'd gathered from his driveway (it's supposed to be good for killing cockroaches).

Cheryl]]> Cheryl Watch Wed, 19 May 2010 05:42:32 -0600 http://www.dregston.com/boards/read.php?13,31550,31550#msg-31550 http://www.dregston.com/boards/read.php?13,31550,31550#msg-31550
[www.nytimes.com]

The only thing that surprises me is that this surprises anyone.]]> Diane Margaret Watch Sat, 22 May 2010 02:14:44 -0600