Archive for the ‘General’ Category
I have mentioned the OLPC (One Laptop Per Child) program in the past. Here In South Carolina some 500 laptops are going to distributed to children in Marion County according to South Carolina Superintendent of Education Jim Rex. South Carolina is the first in the nation to use the privately funded program. Funding for the laptops going to Marion County schools comes from Greenville executive Erwin Maddrey and Charleston business woman Linda Ketner. This is so generous of them and can make a huge difference in the lives of the children who receive the laptops. The laptops are easy to use and have features such as a small keyboard designed to fit small hands, built in camera, stereo speakers and a microphone. These laptops are virtually indestructible being mostly water proof and kid proof. Students in 4k to the fifth grade are eligible to receive one. I would like to personally thank both Mr Maddrey and Ms Ketner for their generosity. Hopefully others or the state legislators will step up and get started on getting these computers into the hands of all the students in the state that can not afford one of their own.
I know that today they are going to the polls in my neighboring state of North Carolina and in Indiana as well but what has really gotten my attention is a Judge in Ohio. He has ruled that medical examiners autopsies be overturned when they had ruled that tasers contributed to their death. How can a judge know more than a trained medical examiner? What it is, is the fact that Taser International is trying to intimidate medical examiners across the country from telling the truth as they see it. They [Taser International] have done absolutely no medical research into the 50,000 volt devices yet have the arrogance to force a change in autopsy reports. This is just a ploy for them to keep selling them to police across the country and say they are safe. They may be safer than a bullet but they can still kill some people. Police must know this and not have cases decided by Taser International or a judge who sees things in a favorable light to them. The U.N. of which we are a charter member has denounced the use of tasers as torture but we go right on using them without a thought to the safety of those on the receiving end of one. From the numerous videos across the web you can see police officers reaching for a taster first thing rather than trying any other method of subduing a suspect, even those that are not violent routinely get tasered as some officers seem to enjoy see a suspect getting 50,000 volt jolts of electricity coursing through their body. This case is going to be appealed. Lets hope that this time they get a judge with some common sense.
Cuba makes another step into the modern world this week as President Raul Castro lifted the ban on personal computers. The desktop computers cost almost $800 in a country that the average wage is under $20 a month. Some Cubans have plenty of extra spending money as their relatives send it to them. Right now they are restricted to certain workplaces schools and universities. It is unable to connect to giant fiber-optic undersea cables due to the U.S. trade embargo. However Venezuela’s President Hugo Chavez, Cuba’s ally and a critic of the US, is laying a new cable under the Caribbean. It remains to be seen once they are connected if they will have uncensored internet or not.
Cubans have recently been allowed such items as cell phones and DVD players. How much longer are we going to maintain our embargo on Cuba? Doesn’t it seem to have gone on long enough? I know it does to me.
Ninety six years ago today the Titanic slipped beneath the waves of the north Atlantic carrying one thousand five hundred and seventeen souls to their demise. It still ranks today as one of the worst peacetime maritime disasters of all time and is by far the most famous. During her maiden voyage on the fourteenth of April she struck an iceberg and sank on the fifteenth, a little over two and one half hours later. At the time the Titanic with its advanced design was thought to be unsinkable. It came as a great shock to those who believed that the advanced technology and experienced crew could save her from any disaster. It has since been proven that there was a design flaw along with steel and rivets that were inadequate even by the time led to the sinking. The Titanic was discovered after over seventy years beneath the waves by a team led by Robert Ballard. That coupled with the legends and the movie have kept it famous in the years since.
I thought by now that I would be up and running with all my links and sources readily available to me by now. But alas the parts to rebuild my computer finally came in on Tuesday at which time I discovered I would need a new power supply for 24 pin ATX style. Well after a trip to town and obtaining the new power supply the motherboard would not boot up much to my disappointment. So it means that I have to survive without my computer and the ability to span my desktop across two monitors for a minimum of a week or more. What really stinks about the deal is they held me up for an additional 20 bucks for prompt RMA service. Otherwise it could take up to 21 days according to the information they sent me. So you can imagine that I am not very pleased with Bzboyz.com and am not recommending them to anyone.
I have had problems with my fibro acting up at the same time as this but am not going to blame me not posting all these days on it. My routine has been broken and I was reluctant to do it any other way. What I would normally do was to write my posts in Nvu and then paste the results in here. That allowed me to more easily insert links and text changes to my posts. I am going to try and insure that I post more regularly even though my computer is not working still and not let you, my readers, down.
I know many of you may have missed me not posting anything since Saturday but we had torrential rain and severe lightning. Lightning hit our place here in South Carolina. I was away but according to my brother we got a direct hit. What I do know is that even with a surge protector power strip it still fried my mother board to my computer. At the same time it also got my sister in laws laptop. Double whammy here on the hill. Not sure if or when she will be able to get hers fixed but the good Lord willing I will have mine back up and running with a newer faster board and processor. I ordered a combo off of Ebay. I have ordered a Athlon X2 4200+ CPU. With motherboard and 2 gigabytes of DDR2 PC 4200 ram. That should have me moving again. It has onboard video but still has pci express slot so I can use my radeon video card and maintain my twin monitor set up. It is killing me to go back to a single monitor like I am doing right now. Hopefully I can keep this old junker running long enough to post tomorrow and the next days. I should be up and running for real again by the end of the week or first of next week depending upon the speed of the U.S Mail.
??? A new color comes out today. It is the new U.S. 5 dollar bill. The Treasury Department has updated the look of our $5 bills. You should see the bills with their touches of color added within a few days or weeks. They are in banks today and the trickle down effect will have you getting one in your change sometime very soon. The Treasury Department continues with it’s ongoing fight against counterfeiters with this newly designed bill. The design and added effects will make it very difficult to counterfeit five dollar bills any more. Lincoln remains on the front and the Lincoln Memorial remains on the back. To the naked eye, the most notable difference is color – splashes of light purple at the center of the bill that blend into gray near the edges. Small yellow “05″ numerals are printed to the left of Lincoln on the front and to the right of the memorial on the back. The Great Seal of the United States, which features an eagle and shield, will appear in purple to the right of the president’s portrait. Arcs of purple stars border Lincoln and the seal. The note also will feature an enlarged “5″ printed in high-contrast purple ink in the lower right corner of the back of the bill that will make it easier to read for vision challenged individuals. It also will have two separate watermarks (A large number “5″ watermark is located to the right of the portrait, replacing the previous watermark portrait of President Lincoln found on older design $5 bills. Its location is highlighted by a blank window incorporated into the background design. A second watermark ? a column of three smaller “5″s ? has been added to the new $5 bill design and is positioned to the left of the portrait) and a number of other high-tech changes to make it harder for counterfeiters to knock off.
??? The old $5 bills will continue to be accepted and recirculated until they wear out. Any U.S. currency issued from 1861 to present is still good for the complete face value.
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??? First off I am apologizing to my regular readers who have grown to expect new material by me daily. As you may know I have fibromyalgia? and it has really been digging its spurs into me these past few days. It is hard to deal with a disease that causes chronic fatigue and pain and there is no cure for it. These past few days have been especially rough on me. With me barely even feeling up to getting out of bed. Plus it is an invisible illness so people will look at you and say there is nothing wrong with you short of laziness.
??? It has now been 9 weeks without smoking for me. This week has been one of the worst since the first days though. With me feeling bad and so sore you barely can stand wearing clothes that you begin to feel sorry for yourself and start to reach for that cigarette. I have weathered the storm so far with the smoking. It was tough though especially with smokers all around me. I have had maintain my will power. I hope that those of you that are also quiting smoking with me are able to maintain and not start back to smoking. I know how hard it is not to fall back into that trap.
I am a Charter Communications customer and very happy with them. They give me great service for my Internet with it constantly speeding along with my connections. I connect to web pages with my charter connection with blazing speed. Well right now they have great opportunity coming up with an auction with no reserve for Charter High-Speed Internet for Life. Imagine how cool that would be. You would have Charters great high-speed Internet for the rest of your life without another bill for it – ever. This will be a no reserve auction starting at just ten dollars. All you need to do is register and bid and you could be the winner of this fabulous package. I don’t know how much it will go for but I intend to attempt to win it for myself if possible. All you need to do is to register with Charter so you can become a bidder. All you need to do is fill out their online form. If you preregister now you even have a chance to win a Nintendo? Wii?. The winner will receive a Nintendo Wii Console, Wii Stand, 5 Sports games ( Boxing, Baseball, Tennis, Golf and bowling), 1 Remote Controller, 1 Nunchuk Controller, 1 Sensor Bar, 1 Wii AC Adapter, 1 Wii AV Cable. Click Here for a Chance to Win a Nintendo? Wii?! Visitors will have the chance to bid on Charter High-Speed? Internet for Life. To register you must be in a Charter serviceable area and qualify by zip code. Only visitors able to receive Charter High-Speed? Internet services at their residence will qualify to bid. Bids start at $10. For complete Auction and Sweepstakes Rules follow this link.
Back when my daughter and son were were young I had an accident at work falling and blowing out my shoulder when I landed on it. The insurance company fought it all the way. Denying everything, trying to get out of not only paying me but my doctor bills as well. Finally I had to get a lawyer to sue them into doing the right thing. It sure would have been nice to have found someone doing litigation funding. If we had not of had savings we would have lost everything waiting on a settlement and still not able to work. Law Max can help you survive the time it takes to settle without taking the first offer because you are in dire financial need. Scared of losing your home or being evicted. I sure wish they had been around all those years ago as we could have used them.