Here, Chief! Good Dog! Now: Arrest!

The small town of Vaghn, New Mexico, has an unusual problem:  The Police Department is now run by Nikka, the town's drug-sniffing dog.  That's right, since the Police Chief stepped down, the only certified police officer in the entire town is Nikka.

It's a small town, with only 737 people living in it.  There's no crime to speak of.  It's probably one of those backwater communities where people really don't bother locking their doors at night.  Even so, they do have a police department, and they try to keep one officer (the Police Chief) hired on.  The problem with this police chief is that he used to be married - in Texas - and owes thousands in delinquent child support payments.  Having failed to keep up with his child support, he's techically a criminal, and isn't allowed to carry a firearm in his duties.  Ex-chief Armijo is also under investigation for the sale of a town-owned rifle and pocketing the cash - a felony, if convicted.  He feels confident he can clear up this felony case.  Once cleared of all criminal charges, Mr. Armijo plans to run for Chief again, if nobody else has taken the job.

The only other member of the Police force in Vaughn pleaded guilty to an assault and battery case last year; he's not certified, which means he cannot carry a gun, nor place people under arrest.

Helping out in Vaughn's time of need, the local Sherrif's department helps make sure to patrol the area, but itself being short-staffed, is barely able to show a presence.

Perhaps they should just let the dog out of the kennel, equip it with a strap-on taser gun on it's head, set to go off when the dog barks loud enough.  Instead of dolphins with lasers, it's a police dog with tasers.  We've got you now, you Bond Villains!

The Internet's Cloud of... What?!

Gone are the days when a business could pack all of it's computing needs into one room.  Or even one building.  Today, the big boys have turned to farming as an answer:  Data Farming.  This basically entails buying up some farmland in an area with cheap electricity, getting some great tax breaks from the local small community, and putting in one or more large warehouse-type buildings packed with computer servers connected to the internet.

In one sense, this is the cloud - warehouses full of servers.

In another sense, this is the cloud: great billowing clouds of deisel smoke that go up whenever the warehouse decides to run on their own generators, instead of the power supply they bargained for so eagerly.  Once in a while, there's good reason for the data farm to switch over to generator power; the local substation will be undergoing maintenance, for example.  The rest of the time, for some unknown reason, the data farm will simply decide to run on it's own power, instead of locally supplied power.

Microsoft is one of the biggest troublemakers, when it comes to using deisel power instead of local power.  In Washington state, a small farming community thought they'd hit the jackpot when Microsoft decided to put in a huge data farm.  Overall, they did come out ahead.  Unfortunately, Microsoft isn't the best friend to the area - instead, Microsoft is one of the areas biggest bullies.

 

When they decided to move into the neighborhood with their "cloud" factory, they made deals for cheap electricity from the local provider.  Part of this deal is to make a serious estimate on how many kilowatt hours the server farm will need.  This way, the electric company is able to reserve that much power across the year for Microsoft's use, when otherwise that power might be sold to the overall power grid.  Microsoft has, at times, run their own deisel generators excessively, sending clouds of smoke over the nearby elementary school, even though the local power grid was fully capable of serving their needs.  Near the end of the year, Microsoft was going to have to pay a very large fine for not using power that was reserved for their use.  What does MS do?  They threatened to run large, electric heaters full-out during the last few weeks of the period, in order to waste electricity and bring their usage up to near the estimated levels.  Having shoved with their strong arm, the electric company fell, and reduced the fine. 

There are many other data centers around the nation that also rely on deisel backup generators.  Yahoo, practically right next door to the Microsoft facility.  Facebook and many others, as well.  These data centers typically run at 100%, 24 hours a day, no matter what the demand actually is.  The New York Times found that these data centers can waste 90% or more of the power the pull off the grid.

It's been said that if manufacturing plants were as wasteful as these server farms, they'd be out of business right away.  So... how are these data centers managing to remain so profitable, under their clouds of deisel exhaust, with such massive waste of resources?

Profits are that good?

So... is it a cloud of data, cloud of smoke, or cloud of money?  One thing is for sure:  there's a big cloud of wasted energy.


For more info, check out The New York Times' articles on the Cloud.

One Nation, Under Obama, for Which He Stands...?!?!



I don't know if it was Obama's idea, or someone in his political campaign, but he's really screwing up in a big way. I don't know if you've seen this, but his campaign is selling t-shirts and limited edition prints of new version of the American Flag. It comprises a combination of a poorly painted set of pale red lines (as opposed to the bold, straight lines of the flag) with the field of stars replaced with the pale blue insignia of the Obama campaign.

I've seen two versions of this flag. One, in the shape of the flag, and the other, in the general shape of the United States - minus Alaska, Hawaii, and possessions. Sorry, guys. You'd think he'd want to include Hawaii, since he's selling mugs and other goodies on the campaign website that have photocopies of his birth certificate: "Made in the USA." That's quite a slogan. Unfortunately, I doubt the slogan has anything at all to do with keeping manufacturing inside the United States. 

Interestingly, since this story jumped into the news just the other day, the Obama campaign has removed these parodies of the flag from their website, and taken the merchandise down, as well.  It's good to see the offending flag taken down, but for many Americans, the Obama flag will be a flag of warning.  After all, what sort of person goes around changing the flag of his country?  Historically... not good.

The Capable Politician

In this world, we see all kinds of people getting involved in politics. Husbands, Fathers, Activists, and so many more. Yes, also Wives, Mothers, and Daughters. We see all sorts of people becoming involved, but really... what marks the true capability of a politician?

We see people aiming for the top political offices in our country all of the time. Sometimes, the candidate makes it as high as Congress simply because nobody else in his district had the time or inclination to try. Other times, we see the candidate stand strong, holding fiercely to his beliefs, a pillar of strength. And then, we see politicians vie for public office just because “I can do it better!”

 

“I can do it better!” seems to be the main battle cry, lately. After all, if a politician tries to stand firmly on an issue, the other politician will dig for something negative within that issue. Abortion vs Pro-Life. Religious Freedoms vs Separation of Church and State. Taxes vs... well, other Taxes. Reduction of taxes is seldom promised, and even more seldom something anyone can follow through with. Bush number 1 did a pretty good job, lasting as long as he did on that issue.

 

“I can do it better!”

 

Sure. I'll stand up there, and repeal the laws that clog the system, shovel out the glut of Government Employment and Agencies that basically either don't do anything, or are just there to back-up and duplicate other agencies. At the same time, I'll push laws through that limit the government's ability to spy on our citizen's private lives. I'll push legal guarantees through Congress so that we can protect our citizen's privacy for generations to come. I'll make sure you can go to the bathroom without a federal agency watching.

 

Yeah. I can do it better. If I didn't have to attempt all of those things with the full might of the American Government standing against me. If I didn't have to turn into a Politician, first.

 

Weirdly, we have “I can do it better” people who actually are politicians. People who want to enter our nation's highest office, standing on a soapbox of “I can do it better.” This is a pretty small soapbox, people. When the opposition is standing on a soapbox of “I've been doing it already, and I'm going to protect what I've done no matter how bad it is,” the soapbox of “I can do it better!” is pretty small, indeed.

 

So, what is it that marks a truly capable politician, then?

 

Taking a stance. Taking a stance on something. Anything. Doing This, or Undoing That. Fixing what's broken. Only... don't fix, and don't undo. Instead, you're implementing a plan to improve the efficiency of the legal process and lower the overall cost of your government. You're taking a stance on personal freedoms. You'll stand between all comers, and protect the citizen's Constitutional Rights. You're the Champion of Civil Liberties. The Protector of Privacy.

 

And maybe you take a stand on something even more incendiary than that. But these days, taking a stand on something as basic as privacy, or civil liberties, or even our constitutional rights is pretty incendiary.

 

Good luck, out there.

Obesity?! Fat Kids?! Sugary Drinks?! Who to Blame?!

   It's back.  Obesity has returned to the spotlight.  Honestly, it's so big, it's hard for it to get out of the spotlight; in the USA, obesity is at near epidemic levels.  It's epidemic not only among adults, but it's causing our children to swell like little ticks, too.  In the news, now:  Sugary Drinks Linked to Obesity.

   I think we've all always known that too much sugar leads to getting fat.  Too much sugar, too many sweets, just too much food, along with too little exercise, and the end result is getting fat.  It's strange, though, how so many of the current articles online are blasting "sugary sodas" as the reason for getting fat, when diet sodas are also to blame, as well as the ubiquitous juice box.

   That's right, I went there:  The juice box.  Parents try to keep their children away from drinking sodas by giving them something healthier - juice boxes.  Unfortunately, they're still giving their children a bunch of sugar.  Sugar habits begin early in life, and by midlife, are very difficult to give up.  Why give a juice box?  Tap water, or if you're scared of city water, bottled water, is perfectly safe, does an excellent job of hydrating playing children, and won't make them get fat.  Actually, drinking a lot of water is one of the ways to help flush fat out of the system, too.

  It astounds me, on a regular basis, the way people tend to grab onto one of society's problems and then point their fingers of blame at a specific food, drink, or business, as the cause of that problem.  Obesity?  Let's blame soda, now.  Last time, we blamed fast food.  Before that?  Fried foods.  Honestly, people have pointed the finger of blame all over the place, and even gone to court to sue corporations for "making them fat."  Thinks like this astound me!  Who chose to eat fast food?  Who chose to drink sodas?  Who chose to buy foods that were deep fried in fat?  The person pointing the finger, that's who!

   Food alone isn't the culprit, nor are sugary drinks.  The activity level of the person matters a lot, too.  When you go to the grocery store, there are easily twice as many handicapped spaces as there were 20 or 30 years ago.  Are there twice as many people who are so badly injured they cannot walk even 20 extra feet to the building?  Or is it all of those people who got so fat they have to send someone into the building to get an electric scooter "mart cart" before they can start shopping? 

   Children eat what their parents give them to eat.  Adults eat what they choose to eat.  Children who play outside, drink water, and eat reasonably are healthy.  Adults who spend a lot of time on outside activities, drink water, and eat reasonably are healthy, too!  There's no reason for obesity to be such a problem, but it is.  Medical sources say that by 2030, 13 of the states will have obesity rates over 60%.  Let's do something about that.  Let's go outside and play.

This (tiny) House

Every few months, I find myself looking on youtube, searching the web, and basically dreaming of building a tiny, preferably mobile, house.  It's that time, again:  I've spent much of today looking at all the interesting things people can do with recyclables and building tiny houses.

   Today's search began as an offshoot of something I saw at the store, yesterday: A Conestoga-style camper in the back of a pickup truck.  This was super-cool.  I tried hanging around for a few minutes, just in case the owner showed up, but I had to do some quick shopping.  By the time I came out, the vehicle was gone.  I did, at least, snag a few pictures before I went inside.  I just wish I could have seen the inside, and how it's constructed.  I suppose I can find that on youtube, too.

 

   The next step in checking out today's search was when I saw a picture link on Facebook.  I do kind of hate Facebook, for the way it creates the expectation that we're all willing to give up our personal privacy, but as long as we're vigilant, we can still manage to maintain the semblance of privacy while pretending to share every detail.  Right?  To continue, I saw a picture linked on Facebook: an over-long tricycle with a shortened, narrow camper built on it - basically it looked like a small over-cab camper such as sits in your neighbor's pickup.  I'd love to see the inside of this little work of art!  I continued hunting around Youtube and online for a bit, trying to find more examples of this very-cool little RV, but there were too few examples of anything similar, and the links quickly degenerated to links for camper or tiny house videos.  I did watch a couple of camper videos, since they are a sort of tiny house, if a lot less sturdy, then my attention landed fully back on tiny houses.

 

   There's a young man, still in High School, who has been building his own tiny house on a flatbed trailer part-time for nearly a year.  He plans to take it with him when he goes off to college, and possibly even continue living in it after college.  The plans he came up with, and the overall design, seem very well thought out. 

   A pair of architects showed some examples of small and tiny houses built out of pallets and wooden shipping skids.  Once complete, these little houses appear to have a real rustic charm, and best of all, are nearly free.  The pallet houses were conceived of as part of a project they had joined to design an easily built, low-cost housing solution for areas hard-hit with refugees and otherwise displaced people.  If I knew someplace local where I could get a hundred or so pallets, I might try building something deep in the woods here on the farm.

 

  What some people have built as part of this tiny-house movement is really amazing.  From gypsy wagons, shepherds huts, and modernized conestoga trailers, up to fully framed little houses (mostly on trailers, for building-code reasons), the kinds of things people will build to live in, for short or for long-term, can be really inspirational.

 

   It could be very nice to have a tiny house on wheels to set up by the lake or river on a weekend as beautiful as this one. 

 

For more on Tiny Houses, and living in small spaces, Faircompanies has a number of youtube videos.  Enjoy this one about a 320 sq ft shotgun shack and the family of 3 who love it.

Space? Spending, and Where the Profits Are

I was reading the other day about how they used a toothbrush to clean the threads for a bolt on the Space Station. Then I saw the comments section below it, bashing space spending.

It's weird, how many people bash spending on space, when we have so many things today that were only invented because of space. People wonder where all the money goes: it goes to making things that work. Innovations and inventions, many of which eventually become a part of our daily lives. Let's see if you've ever used one of these items:

Cordless tools.
Ear thermometer.
"Invisible Braces" - Even Tom Cruise wore those!
Enriched Baby Foods.
Satellite TV Dishes - invented by NASA.
Sneaker Insoles - copied from a NASA product to protect astronauts during blastoff.
Recycled Pavement.
Medical Imaging.
Fire Fighter Equipment – Fire fighters wear suits made of fire resistant fabric developed for use in space suits.
Better Pacemakers.
Smoke Detector – First used in the Earth orbiting space station called Skylab to help detect toxic vapors.
Scratch resistant lenses.
Memory Foam.
Long-Distance Telecommunications.
Safety Grooving - These indentions in the concrete divert excess water from the surface to reduce the amount of water between tires and the runway or road. This increases the friction between wheels and concrete, improving vehicle safety.
Water Filters - such as Brita, etc.

And there are many, many more devices in everyday use, that we never even think about as having to do with space... even though they only exist because of space. If you were to add up all of the benefits of these items, and how much money they've made in the private sector... from the sales price on the shelf, through all the many people who were paid to help produce the item... wouldn't it easily add up to more than space flight has cost this country, in total?

What I'm trying to say, here, is that space flight is a Profitable enterprise. Not necessarily for the Government that runs it, but for the private enterprises of the country that has it.  That makes it a little sad that we, in the USA, no longer have direct access to space flight, now that our own Space Program has been reduced to an empty shell.  I suppose the majority of profitable innovations will go to the countries that still have their space programs.

VZW the Bully!?

What are we, as the customers, going to do about this? When will Verizon stop bullying and pressuring other companies into throttling our data? I had a real problem crop up recently: While watching Hulu Plus on my Rezound, the High Resolution option disappeared, but only when connected through Verizon's network. When connected through my (lower quality) home wifi, the high resolution option was returned. I contacted Hulu about this problem, and even though it took several e-mails before my support person reached high enough into the chain of command to get a real, and true answer, I did get that answer. Hulu Plus on Android has been specifically modified to remove the High Resolution option when connecting through Verizon's network, while continuing to allow High Resolution viewing when connected through other networks. This is something that Verizon required Hulu to do, in order to continue being able to send data through the Verizon networks. In other words, Verizon bullied Hulu into throttling the video, since Verizon doesn't always have enough reason to throttle OUR bandwidth. I have the copy of the email, here:

Hey ++++++, Thanks for getting back to me with more information. I apologize for the delayed response, as I've been researching this issue. I'd love to share some insight into what I've found. It appears this disappearance of the "High Resolution" option while using 3G is the intended behavior of the app, to remain in accordance with the streaming requirements established by the carrier -in this case, Verizon. I believe it's meant to help users from going over their data limits, but Verizon might have other reasons behind this mandate. I apologize for any frustration this causes, as your G3 network seems to be more reliable than your expensive Wifi network, but at this time there is no workaround for the issue, since it's in place to comply with Veriozon's requests. I hope this helps. If you run into any further issues or questions, please write back. Best, +++++ Hulu Support

Since I've got unlimited data, it's obvious this isn't to protect me from going over my data limits. For anyone who does have data limits, they're completely nuts if they watch much video over Verizon's network. The only other reason for the throttling of my Hulu data is simply because Verizon is being a bully. I'm trapped in my current contract for another year and a half. If things don't improve on a massive level, well in advance of that time, I'll dump Verizon. I won't use any carriers. Already, you can access WiFi at a large number of locations. In this town, there's the coffee shop, McDonald's, Burger King, Lowes, and many others. In another year an a half, WiFi will probably be available at WalMart, other grocery stores, and basically anyplace you could think of going. I'll end up going network free, and use Skype. If you do the math, just buying a brand new phone outright, paying for a phone number through Skype, and paying Skype's per-minute usage is still CHEAPER over a two year period than it is to be stuck in a two year contract with Verizon! Bonuses of sticking to WiFi and Skype? NO phone calls while driving. NO texts while driving. NO alerts of any sort while driving! If you want to watch video content while camping? Just download a copy of the content onto your device before going, and then be able to stay truly disconnected on your camping trip. Verizon is really getting on my nerves. If it's getting on your nerves, too, just pass this message on. Also, check out http://http://www.facebook.com/VzwTheBully