Category Archives: General

Geek Stuff, General, Preparing for the worst

Hybrid Solar House

Dave Pogue, at the NY Times, wrote about an interesting technology. A solar house that heats and cools itself by having an atmosphere.

It seems that it would work well in our region, with 300+ days of sunshine. They are basically kit houses, some assembly required. Unfortunately, they ship the house parts from NC and I am in CO. I think the freight charges will be significant.
I like the look of the Aquarius design with the optional garage (gotta have a garage in CO). My one concern is how sound travels from the basement through the double interior walls.

Maybe if we ever sell our current place and move…

General, Preparing for the worst

Arrrgh! They Got Me…

I like to buy books from QPB on occasion. They have an interesting assortment of some good quality (physically) books. I have been getting books from them for decades. Initially, it was all mail-order, but now they have a web site. And so I went to buy a couple of books online last month.

I think I was successful: the order was entered, I received acknowledgment, I even got a notice that they were shipped. Still waiting for them, but shipping books takes time. But that’s not where they got me.

Continue reading Arrrgh! They Got Me… →

General, Politics

It’s just (a) fine

I heard about the $100M ITT fine for passing along assembly specs for night goggles to foreign countries.

Is there any reason ITT should ever get another government contract for anything?

The way I heard it described:

1) ITT was attempting to subcontract the production of the night goggles. And, of course, you subcontract to off-shore facilities to do the actual work and to keep your profits up. And, of course, the off-shore facilities are located in countries that are not the best of friends with US.
2) ITT considers our export controls laws to be a minor nuisance in conducting international business and that it is probably cheaper to ignore the laws and see if they get caught rather abide by them.

If ITT is an American corporation then they are guilty of treason and they shouldn’t be getting US government contracts; if they aren’t an American corporation they shouldn’t be getting US contracts in the first place.

It’s time to write the congressman again. Although I’m sure that because of ITT’s support of the US in 1973,he will give them a free ride this time.

General

What The World Hears Now?

Americans don’t hear a lot of news from the rest of the world, or what the rest of the world thinks is newsworthy. Our NPR station actually does broadcast some BBC news programming at hours I am not available to listen to it, so I know bits are available.

I was thinking that the station should take the five minute top of the hour news summary from radio stations from around the world and insert them into our top-of-the-hour broadcasts. I think it might be very informative. Select a particular hour, say 6 PM, and broadcast that country’s news roundup at the same time every day.

I have a list of candidate countries. These are countries I think will have English-language news broadcasts and countries that use the English language on a regular basis. (Maybe)

Washington, DC
Denver
Canada
Mexico
Australia
Japan
China
India
Russia
Iran
Saudi Arabia
Israel
Egypt
Zimbabwe
South Africa
Morocco
France
Holland
Sweden
UK
Ireland
Bermuda/Jamaica/Belize (Caribbean)
Brazil
Venezuela

There is a heavy concentration of Mideastern countries on the list, but there is a bit of news being generated today. If things ever quiet down there, we can look for other candidates in Eastern Europe and Central Asia. (I have two US cities listed because this is for the US and sometimes the news from the center of the country doesn’t mirror the headlines out of the capital. )

General, Liberating Thoughts, Politics

Congress wants to monitor all emails, IMs, etc.

The Seminal :: Independent Media and Politics � Action: Congress wants to monitor all emails, IMs, etc.

Is there something about Texas that makes Texans anti-American? I don’t know. I saw this link at Making Light. It sounds fairly disgusting and quite similar to other sentiments coming out of Washington for the past 6-7 years.

Continue reading Congress wants to monitor all emails, IMs, etc. →