I was reading a golf article about Davis Love appreciating his 20th tour victory, which he picked up at the end of last year. Once you get the 20th victory and have 15 years on the tour, you get a lifetime exemption from qualifying and that really does take a lot of stress off a player. Only two players under fifty qualify for the lifetime exemption along with Love, Vijay Singh and Phil Mickelson, both with 34 career wins. A pretty elite group. Tiger Woods, with his 65 career victories, doesn’t qualify to join this group for another two years.
All posts by Jack
Health Care Costs
Just heard that 2007 Healthcare costs were 2.2 Trillion $. Let’s see. 300 Million People. That’s $2200000/300 = $22000/3 = $7,333.33 per person.
You know, I think this is a manageable amount to provide a national HMO-type health plan.
Time Warp
I decided to try cataloging my home library on the PC. I really like Readerware, I first looked at them about 8 years ago, but didn’t have the energy to do a serious inventory. One of the neat things with Readerware is that you can use a bar-code scanner to read in the ISBN from a book and the app will go out into the internet and get all the relevant details for you. I downloaded their latest version for Linux and tried it out. It has promise.
But, Elaine has convinced me to use Alexandria, an open-source Linux app available through Ubuntu, so I have been spending the weekend getting started entering books. Being able to enter an ISBN number and then get all the title, author info entered automatically is certainly helpful. Still slow going. Alexandria also can use a bar code scanner, I just wish I could find that CueCat I got eight years ago when I first contemplated a catalog.
I need to see how the system works under load. I have entered a couple of hundred books so far and Alexandria seems to bog down a bit at startup but runs OK once the database is all loaded.
Readerware seemed to work well under a load, I got about 160 books into Readerware before copying the ISBNs to Alexandria. I did notice that Readerware accessed better source databases than Alexandria. RW uses the Library of Congress and Powell’s, which Alexandria doesn’t. They both use Amazon and B&N
It is nice to get the cover art downloaded as well
I did download one ISBN for “Time Future” by Maxine McArthur. The publishing date was 1954, the author was born in 1962. I doublechecked the frontpiece and found it was published in 1999. I just thought it was interesting the the dates were so off for the time story.
Onward
Reporting from Israel
The extramost dangerous animal – ever.
Beware, be very ware…
And then the super computer starts smoking…
I remember taking an oath when I enlisted in the Navy Reserve many years ago.
Federal law requires everyone who enlists or re-enlists in the Armed Forces of the United States to take the enlistment oath. The oath of enlistment into the United States Armed Forces is administered by any commissioned officer to any person enlisting or re-enlisting for a term of service into any branch of the military. The officer asks the person, or persons, to raise their right hand and repeat the oath after him. The oath is traditionally performed in front of the United States Flag and other flags, such as the state flag, military branch flag, and unit guidon may be present.
In the Armed Forces EXCEPT the National Guard (Army or Air)
I, (NAME), do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; and that I will obey the orders of the President of the United States and the orders of the officers appointed over me, according to regulations and the Uniform Code of Military Justice. So help me God.
In the National Guard (Army or Air)
I, (NAME), do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States and the State of (STATE NAME) against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; and that I will obey the orders of the President of the United States and the Governor of (STATE NAME) and the orders of the officers appointed over me, according to law and regulations. So help me God.
Guide Note: There has been some controversy about whether the phrase “So help me God” is mandatory. I have seen officers allow enlistees to omit these words, if they choose, according to their religious preference and beliefs. However, federal law does not appear to make any part of the oath optional. See 10 United States Code, Section 502.
Now, what happens if the first part, defending the Constitution, is under attack from the second part, the president and the appointed officers? The third part, the UCMJ, clarifies it all with reference to obeying Lawful Orders. Of course, how is a simple enlisted service member supposed to know the difference? They are just following orders from the educated officers. Pity they don’t make acing the civics course a prerequisite for enlistment.
Happy, Merry Solstice
Best wishes to all as the cycle renews for another year.
Preserve, Protect and Defend
“I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.”
Preserve, protect and defend… The Constitution… But then Lying Under Oath isn’t a high crime or misdemeanor, so that let’s out impeachment. Oh, but wait, didn’t Congress say, about ten years ago, that lying under oath was an impeachable offense. Fancy that. We still have a month left.
Oh drat, it says “to the best of my ability”
Isn’t he cute?
A few days ago, Elaine selected her present and we brought him home.
Of course, trying to see a three pound all black dog in the dark, underfoot, is difficult and leads to an interesting walk/shuffle. He’s hard to see even if it isn’t dark. Is it him? or his shadow?
Follow more of Orion’s growing experiences in Elaine’s blog.
Does this mean I have to pay attention now?
Disturbing news from boingboing:
An Australian court has ruled that a posting on someone’s Facebook page can serve as legal notice.
You know, I don’t think Facebook has reached the status of local paper yet. And in my brief experience with it (I joined last month) I don’t think it ever will.
I find it disturbing that the courts would start looking at the Internet, and an Internet based service, as a non-ephemeral institution. The Internet has only been a commercial entity for, what, 15 years? It has so many gaping security holes in it that I have a hard time conceiving why a judge would consider any non-encrypted Internet transaction to have legal standing. And it would have to be encrypted in a particularly onerous method (physically meet to pass keys). Given that the major hack found recently had the ability to strip all secured transactions of their security and that it has been in the Internet DNS code from the beginning gives one pause about trusting anything on the ‘net in our lifetimes. And 10% of the servers out there haven’t implemented the patch.
What else is hiding in the basement code, waiting to be exploited?
It’s sort of like thinking all those AAA rated bonds based on mortgages are actually worth something.