Solar Power Goodness

I have notice a growing trend in solar power devices. Portable radios are no exception. I borrowed this from a friend.

It is solar-powered, hand cranked, has AM/FM radio, along with a headphone jack. It is a good size, and easy to store. It cost about $18 USD.







I have a couple more pictures of this, but I covered the important parts. When I get one, I shall let you all know how good it works.

Cliff

Really how far is this going to go?

Right now there is talk about regulations and taxes put on sugar products (such as soda) and on tobacco products.

I am not a smoker. I do not consume high qualities of sugar, either. (I like to keep an eye on my health. I see it as a long term investment, and beneficial to surviving longer.)

I do not care if people smoke, as they long do not blow it in my face. I expect to smell smoke at a bar, if I go to one. Don't go to a bar, if you are so offended by it. It is not anyone's place to say what you can or cannot put into your body.

The argument is that sugar and tobacco both cause health problems, therefore causing health costs to increase, and costing too much to upkeep health programs, ergo the necessity for taxes on these products. But, no matter what it stamped out, there is always some type of health problems around. One can say that eating too much meat is bad, so that must regulated as well; or fat is bad, so that should be regulated. It keeps growing.

People know the dangers of all this, just like people know that cliff diving is dangerous and people die, but if they want to, that is their business. Want to charge them for that, too?

If it starts with sugar,it will become like gas and tobacco, where the actual cost of the product is only a small percent of the price. What's next?

Language Love

I found this article on yahoo. It amuses me that that we got people so dedicated to the English language.

Web 2.0 crowned one millionth English word Posted on - Wed Jun 10, 2009 2:15AM EDT
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) -

A U.S.-based language monitoring group crowned Web 2.0 as the one millionth word or phrase in the English language on Wednesday, although other linguists slammed it as nonsense and a stunt.

The Global Language Monitor, which uses a math formula to track the frequency of words and phrases in print and electronic media, said Web 2.0 appeared over 25,000 times in searches and was widely accepted, making it the legitimate, one millionth word.

It said Web 2.0 started out as a technical term meaning the next generation of World Wide Web products and services but had crossed into far wider circulation in the last six months.

Other linguists, however, denounced the list as pure publicity and unscientific, saying it was impossible to count English words in use or to agree on how many times a word must be used before it is officially accepted.

There are no set rules for such a count as there is no certified arbiter of what constitutes a legitimate English word and classifying the language is complicated by the number of compound words, verbs and obsolete terms.

"I think it's pure fraud ... It's not bad science. It's nonsense," Geoffrey Nunberg, a linguistics professor at the University of California at Berkeley, told reporters.

Paul JJ Payack, president of the Global Language Monitor, brushed off the criticism, saying his method was technically sound.

"If you want to count the stars in the sky, you have to define what a star is first and then count. Our criteria is quite plain and if you follow those criteria you can count words. Most academics say what we are doing is very valuable," said Payack.

He has calculated that about 14.7 new English words or phrases are generated daily and said the five words leading up to the millionth highlighted how English was changing along with current social trends.

This list included "Jai Ho!" an Indian exclamation signifying victory or accomplishment, and "slumdog," a derisive term for children living in the slums of India that became popular with the Oscar-winning movie "Slumdog Millionaire."

The list also included "cloud computing," meaning services delivered via the cloud or Internet, "carbon neutral," a widely used term in the climate change debate, and "N00b," a derogatory term from the gaming community for a newcomer.

"Some 400 years after the death of the Bard, the words and phrases were coined far from Stratford-Upon-Avon, emerging instead from Silicon Valley, India, China, and Poland, as well as Australia, Canada, the U.S. and the UK," said Texas-based Payack.

(Writing by Belinda Goldsmith, Editing by Miral Fahmy)

http://tech.yahoo.com/news/nm/20090610/tc_nm/us_word_millionth_life_tech

25 Things... You Find Out When You Have Young Children...

I found this, and it made me laugh. Maybe you all will enjoy it, too!

25 things you find out when you have young children

1.) A king size waterbed holds enough water to fill a 2000 sq. ft. house 4 inches deep.

2.) If you spray hair spray on dust bunnies and run over them with roller blades, they can ignite.

3.) A 3-year old boy's voice is louder than 200 adults in a crowded restaurant.

4.) If you hook a dog leash over a ceiling fan, the motor is not strong enough to rotate a 42 pound Boy wearing Batman underwear and a Superman cape. It is strong enough, however, if tied to a paint can, to spread paint on all four walls of a 20x20 ft. room.

5.) You should not throw baseballs up when the ceiling fan is on. When using a ceiling fan as a bat, you have to throw the ball up a few times before you get a hit. A ceiling fan can hit a baseball a long way.

6.) The glass in windows (even double-pane) doesn't stop a baseball hit by a ceiling fan.

7.) When you hear the toilet flush and the words "uh oh", it's already too late.

8.) Brake fluid mixed with WhiteKing makes smoke, and lots of it.

9.) A 6-year old Boy can start a fire with a flint rock even though a 36-year old Man says they can only do it in the movies.

10.) Certain Legos will pass through the digestive tract of a 4- year old boy.

11.) 'Play Dough' and 'microwave' should not be used in the same sentence.

12.) Super Glue is forever.

13.) No matter how much Jelly you put in a swimming pool you still can't walk on water.

14.) Pool filters do not like Jelly.

15.) VCR's do not eject Peanut Butter & Jam sandwiches even though TV commercials show they do.

16.) Garbage bags do not make good parachutes.

17.) Marbles in gas tanks make lots of noise when driving.

18.) You probably DO NOT want to know what that odour is.

19.) Always look in the oven before you turn it on; plastic toys do not like ovens.

20.) The fire department in East Melbourne has a 3-minute response time.

21.) The spin cycle on the washing machine does not make earthworms dizzy.

22.) It will, however, make cats dizzy.

23.) Cats throw up twice their body weight when dizzy.

24.) 80% of Women will pass this on to almost all of their friends, with or without kids.

25.) 80% of Men who read this will try mixing the WhiteKing and brake fluid.

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=Ao1rLdDAFpUB5BkJDi8vAW8jzKIX;_ylv=3?qid=20071013024121AA6MoTb

Watch Your Change

When the economy get bad, people tend to dig into their coin/change jars. Which means all the change that is usually just sitting a jar is circulated, and a lot rarer coins are used. So, watch your change, because you may find some rare and valuable coins.

I know coin collecting seems like such a dull and worthless thing to do, but there is so much history and even economic implications (like how much copper is actually put into a penny)about when a coin is made. Also, it a great way to spend sometime with your kids teaching about things like that.

I do make it a point that with collecting, it is best not too seek out coins, because it costs a lot of money, but just to watch your change and see what you get lucky finding.

Times Keep on Rolling

While my presence this year has been nearly hit or miss, I am around. I truly have very little to say that is not redundant to others.

I will be posting my telling time with moon post up soon. I been preoccupied with reorganizing the things in my life and working through my education.

I know the swine flu has been on the news and such. I have no comments.

Hurricane Season is coming, so to my fellow Texans, start preparing.

Lastly, the best advice I have gotten all week is from a fellow blogger.
The advice was simply "Live, Da** it"

My comment upon that is that you should plan for tomorrow, but still enjoy today.
This way you don't miss anything, but you are always ready for anything that comes.

Opossum

Yes.. opossum... is spelled with a O..
Found this little bugger when I went out to take the trash out.
He wasn't too camera flash shy.
The first two are with flash, and the last is with natural lighting.