We are a commune of inquiring, skeptical, politically centrist, capitalist, anglophile, traditionalist New England Yankee humans, humanoids, and animals with many interests beyond and above politics. Each of us has had a high-school education (or GED), but all had ADD so didn't pay attention very well, especially the dogs. Each one of us does "try my best to be just like I am," and none of us enjoys working for others, including for Maggie, from whom we receive neither a nickel nor a dime. Freedom from nags, cranks, government, do-gooders, control-freaks and idiots is all that we ask for.
What's to note is that the slider the guy demonstrates was just thrown together for the interview. A real skimmer's piece is smaller and almost seamless.
I would also note that this deals with the kind of credit card slider you find at a gas station. When it comes to banks, the skimmer of choice is the fake keypad; a slick little unit that fits perfectly over the bank's ATM keypad.
It should also be pointed out that there's a difference between a debit card and a credit card. More on the subject here.
A therapy patient of mine recently sat thoughtfully for a few minutes, then exclaimed "Oh my God, I've been acting as if I really had power over all these things, as if I had the power to prevent bad things from happening."
"Yes you have," I said. "That's your good insight for the day."
"I've been doing this all my life. Am I crazy?"
"Not at all," I said. "You just discovered one of your underlying assumptions about things. We call them 'unconscious fantasies' - or we call them that until you become aware of them."
One of the rewards of my work is helping people discern their hitherto unattended-to, unexamined, "unconscious" operating principles. When these are held up to the light, it can be disorienting, humbling, and distressing for many to realize that much of their problematic or ineffective behavior has been determined by following a false map, as it were. To mix metaphors even further, to realize that they were standing on unsolid ground.
My very pleasant businesswoman patient came to the realization that one of her dominant operating principles was to keep everybody in her world, everyone she knew, safe from distress, worry, discomfort, disease, and misfortune. Not only did this principle run her ragged, but it often failed. When it failed, she blamed herself for not having done enough. The unconscious fantasy she uncovered might be called a "fantasy of omnipotence."
Everybody operates, to varying degrees, according to unconscious fantasies about themselves, others, and the world in general. Nobody is 100% in reality. Problems can arise depending on how far the hidden assumptions diverge from reality. Reality is the harshest teacher, and never spares the rod.
What are these things made of? Freud discovered/defined them, although writers and students of human nature have always been interested in the irrational consistencies of personality. Freud said that they are constructed from wishes, fears, hopes, dreams, experiences, temperaments, and especially defenses. I think that is true. During maturation, they become organized like pieces of mental software. Like the beating heart and the digesting bowel, they are part of what and who we are while operating outside our awareness.
Unfortunately, we cannot ask people what their deep operative fantasies are, because they are, by definition, unaware of them. That's where Psychoanalytic skills come in, like soul-surgeons, to try to biopsy and, perhaps, extract the problem software. However, our medical rule is primum non nocere so we try not to let the best become the enemy of the good-enough.
Fortunately, the human mind seems to have a relatively limited repertoire of unconscious fantasies, so we experts are expected to be able to identify them, in time. That's a topic for another post, maybe.
Taco USA - How Mexican food became more American than apple pie.
I do like Mexican, on occasion. I like the real stuff, and have a little joint down the road a piece where we can get it cheap. It's near Home Depot, so that's good. They don't speak English, but that's ok with me. They understand "hot."
"People in the education and political establishments pretend they're not motivated by such "callous" motives as greed and profits. These people "care" about us, but from which areas of our lives do we derive the greatest pleasures and have the fewest complaints, and from which areas do we have the greatest headaches and complaints? We tend to have a high satisfaction level with goods and services like computers, cell phones, movies, clothing and supermarkets. These are areas where the motivations are greed and profits. Our greatest dissatisfaction is in areas of caring and no profit motive such as public education, postal services and politics. Give me greed and profits, and you can keep the caring."
If someone had asked me a few days ago, "Which type of web site is most prone to give your computer a virus?", I would have answered:
1. Porno sites
2. Fake anti-virus sites that offer to check your system — for free!
3. Sites offering cracks and serial numbers to unlock commercial programs
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10. Religious sites
Sound about right?
Well, soo-prise, soo-prise!
A report by Symantec, a company that sells computer-security software, rates websites devoted to religion or other ideologies the ones most targeted by malicious hackers.
Infected religious websites averaged 115 threats, most commonly fake anti-virus software, said Symantec. That was three times the rate of hosting and personal hosted websites and four-and-one-half times that of pornographic sites.
Symantec, I note, along with McAfee, is one of the oldest anti-virus businesses in existence, so I figure they know a thing or three.
And it gets worse:
Symantec says it blocked over 5.5 billion malware attacks in 2011, an 81 percent increase over 2010. An average of 82 targeted attacks takes place each day, and you are more likely to be infected by malware placed on a legitimate website than one created by a hacker, the report says.
Nor is this an issue just for Windows users:
Macs are not immune from attack, and spammers are starting to use Quick Response, or QR, codes to trick users into installing Trojans -– benign programs that also conceal another malicious program.
So, what to do?
Symantec recommends passwords that are a mix of letters and numbers and to change them often. Never open or executive an e-mail attachment unless you expect it or trust the sender, and be cautious when clicking on links in e-mails or on social media.
In addition to technology solutions, the report recommends guarding personal data by never disclosing any confidential information without confirming the request is legitimate and monitoring bank and credit-card accounts for irregular activity.
The article, however, was just written by some schlub and he missed a few things — which is why you have me.
— Passwords aren't the problem. The danger isn't from someone logging on the bank's web site and then using your presumably-stolen password to get in. Banks have additional safeguards, like the 'Site key' password that my Bank of America account demands.
The problem lies with sites offering to sell goods (fake or legitimate, then logging your credit card info for later use. The way around this is to have two bank accounts, one solely for online use that doesn't hold much money. I can't speak for other banks, but if you do an online transfer between accounts on the BofA site, it takes place immediately, so all you have to do before purchasing the item is transfer the necessary bucks over.
— In order to avoid getting a virus from an otherwise legitimate site, you should use an anti-malware program that monitors your browsing in real-time. ZoneAlarm, the program I use, popped up a warning on me just a few weeks ago. If you're using a free program, like AVG or Avast, please note that they do not protect your browser in real-time.
— This is also true when it comes to clicking on links in emails, because the virus will send out the malicious email in the name of the person, and if you see a "Check this out!" link in an email from your bestest buddy, it's only natural to trust it.
— Lastly, the ultimate weapon against viruses is backing up your system with an 'image backup' program. This differs from a regular 'file backup' program in that it makes one gigantic file of your entire C Drive. If calamity strikes, you simply copy the latest image file to the C Drive and you're good to go. I prefer True Image, but the built-in Windows Restore program works fine. Straight up, you'd normally just lose whatever email, browser bookmarks or items you've saved to the C Drive since you made the last image file, but you can do a little tweaking and not lose a thing.
...the next time you hear a good story about why the financial recession, or any other economically significant event, was caused by a single collection of bad actors — or how a simple linear narrative “explains” an important event — remember this: Just as we are wired to like a diet rich in fats and sugars, we have an appetite for simple, coherent narratives. Neither habit is good for our long-term health.
June 18th will be the 200th anniversary of the US declaration of war with Britain.
It was an interesting war, including the Star Spangled Banner and the burning of the White House. And, of course, the Battle of New Orleans with Andrew "Old Hickory" Jackson - fought after the peace treaty had been signed.
Central government -- the Central State -- has been in the expansion mode for so long that the process of contracting government is completely alien to the nation, to those who work for the State, and to those who are dependent on the State. Thus we have little recent historical experience of Peak Government and few if any conceptual guideposts to help us understand this contraction.
Peak Government is not a reflection of government services or the millions of individuals who work in government; it is a reflection of four key systemic forces that drove State expansion are now either declining or reversing...
Gaura lindheimeri is a new plant for me. This one is nicknamed "Whirling Butterflies."
These are perennials (depending on winter temperatures), hybrids of a North American wildflower. Drought tolerant, prefers full sun, blooms all summer. Perfect border plant. They come in white or pink.
The only thing in life more charming than a well-structured and well-designed perennial border is a well-structured, well-designed girl.
Businesses lose money every day by making calculated risks. I don't know what the big deal is. All business operates on risks. You win some, lose some. You try to win more than you lose.
Forget the "Obesity Crisis." That's a crock. Abundant, good food is a blessing and a rarity in human history so it is a great privilege and luxury to be overweight. It certainly is true that, when tasty food is cheap, people will eat a lot of it and their bodies will kindly store what they don't need to survive today, to the detriment of our knees, hips, appearance, comfort, and general vigor. Trouble is, we won't need that storage tomorrow - or ever. It's like hoarding.
We can all be as fat or fit as we wish to be. It's a free country, and being fat (but not obese) isn't terrible for your health unless you are diabetic or want to be able to get around energetically. But don't listen to the Dieticians and Nutritionists. They will want you to get in shape slowly and in a "sustainable" way. In your heart, you know that will never happen. If you are bothering to read this, you just want to get in shape as quickly as you can without liposuction or use of the vomitorium.
This can be a one- to three-month program as desired. Maintenance is another topic.
1. Our basic exercise plan is simple. Assuming you do not do physical labor 8-10 hours/day, our minimum is simply 30-50 minutes of any form of vigorous aerobics per day. Intensity to maximum tolerated, whatever that may be for your fitness level. Have to get the body wakened and moving. Ordinary mall-walking doesn't count, nor do sexual encounters regardless of how athletic they may be.
2. Here's the simple diet plan: Almost Zero Carbs:
- Go easy on the volume. 2 meals/day, plus a small lunchtime snack if you cannot tolerate midday deprivation (eg two shrimp, or one slice of meat, or a hard-boiled egg, a pickle, and salad at the most). If you feel hungry between meals, do somethinginteresting or useful instead and the craving will pass in a few minutes. - Any sort of grilled, stewed, or baked meat you want. Steak, shellfish, lobster, anything. Fatty fish (salmon, tuna, Bluefish, etc) are fine. Sauces for them are fine, too. Your dinner will be meat and low-carb vegetables or salad. - Eggs are good, and so are bacon and sausage in small doses - All the vegetables and greens you want (but no beans of any sort, no peas, no corn, and no root vegetables at all - including no carrots or beets. No winter squash. Summer squash is fine. Tofu is fine too.) - Oil and vinegar dressing is fine. Butter is fine. - No cereals or grains in any form - No nuts - No milk or dairy (including no yoghurt), beer, or sugared soft drinks. Coffee and tea, wine and cocktails are ok. - Essentially no fruit. Fruit is just flavored sugar, warm popsicles. Three strawberries, or 1/4 of an apple, or a handful of blueberries daily. No more than that. - Obviously, no rice, pasta, potato, bread, grits, polenta, pastry, sweets, sugar, or desserts - a sugar-free Gatorade or two if you sweat a lot
If you cheat once on the diet, you will reset the program back by several days or a week. It's really not worth it for a momentary pleasure. You are training your body to make the extra effort required to burn your fat, not carbs, so why un-train it? Your body thinks of your body fat as precious money in the bank, but for you it's just a load of unpleasant lard and as useless and burdensome as gold ingots on a desert island.
In a few weeks, your stomach itself will shrink and you will be more easily satisfied by a modest meal. Once you have gotten close to your target and raised the level or duration of your aerobics, you can add 1/2 cup of oatmeal (no milk) daily and 5 or 6 almonds or walnuts per day.
You will lose 1/2 to 1 lb per day on this plan if you make no exceptions - or your money back.
This might be of interest to those of you with 64-bit Windows systems.
AutoSizer is a terrific little tool. It's basic function is to open programs in full-screen mode, getting around annoyances like the way Internet Explorer opens in half-screen mode when clicking on an email link or Desktop shortcut. It also opens small programs, like Calculator — which seem to have a will of their own when it comes to where on the screen they'll open — in the center of the screen. Home site is here.
The problem is that it doesn't work with Internet Explorer on 64-bit systems.
To set it up, download the free file, install, then open the Options/Configuration panel. Select 'Show IE windows while being maximized' but nothing else.
Every now and then I like to run this post up the flagpole. I can't guarantee all of these will work on every Windows operating system, but most should. If I know it's only for one OS, I'll point it out.
Programs
AutoSizer — This has two great uses. It'll pop open the browser (or any program) in full-screen mode every time it opens, and for small programs that tend to open wherever they want (like Calculator), it will make them open right in the center of the screen. Won't work with Internet Explorer and 64-bit systems.
Scheduled Tasks — How to use Scheduled Tasks to pop open Notepad to remind you of some upcoming event
Snipping Tool — A very slick tool that allows you to use the mouse to snip out part of the screen and either save it as a pic or email it directly to someone.
Thunderbird — The best 'multiple identities' email program
Alternate Characters — How to insert 'alternate characters' (á,é,ñ,ö,¼,¿,²,°,™, etc) into an editor using the keyboard or a program
Backup Time — Backing up files has become a lot easier of late
Capturing Screen Images — This is the traditional way to capture what's on the screen. Snipping Tool just captures it as an image to be saved or sent, whereas this method pops it into a graphics studio for further processing.
Minimizing Stubborn Programs — Every now and then you'll run into a program that won't minimize while it's running. Here are two ways to take care of the rascal.
Customized 'New' Projects — This is how to set up 'templates' so a program will always open with certain settings already in place, like a certain font in a word processing program, or starting up your graphics studio with a blank picture, ready to have a screen capture pasted into it.
Dust, the common enemy — You'll hear about viruses, lightning strikes and nuclear-bomb electromagnetic impulses, but this is the real bad boy of the bunch.
Security Software — A general rundown on computer security and some program recommendations
The 'Send To' Feature — This is how to easily load files into programs they aren't normally associated with. Got a Notepad file you want to spell-check? 'Send' it to a word processing program, run the spell-checker and save.
Virtual Drives — If you have a program or game that requires a disc to be in the ROM drive, this is how to get around it
Double Your Browsing Speed? — Windows XP only. All XP users should install this thing. It won't do any harm if you're already getting your max rates, but it could make a big difference if you're not. It flat-out doubled my Verizon Wireless browsing rate. (Vista and Win7 do this by default)
Saving & Playing Web Videos — This will show you how to both save web videos and convert them to a proper computer format for your own use.
Tweaking Vista — Perhaps the biggest fallacy in the computer world over the past few years is that Windows Vista is "bloated" and "slow". This is just silly. Yes, it has some big programs running in the background, but turning them off is just a mouse click away. Do everything on this page and your Vista system will be quick, stable and solid.
Until we manage to uncouple higher education from the job market, we are going to persist in misunderstanding education’s true end. It may well be that in the past—i.e., in a debt-based economy incapable of imagining how top-heavy things eventually fall over—a college degree has been a stepping stone to the middle class, but those days are over. An economy that can’t help a college graduate retire an enormous debt is not going to look upon a college degree as a stepping stone to the middle class. Colleges, obviously, will continue to look thus upon the degree (how they will wield the mighty frame of education, how build, unbuild, contrive to save tuition costs), but this is just one more thing among many about which they will be wrong.
And although it is true that we shouldn’t make higher education a luxury, it is truer still that we shouldn’t make it a commodity. When it once again becomes difficult, it will be neither a luxury nor a commodity. Making it so “every American should be able to afford it” is no different from making it so every American can do it, which is the same thing as rendering it meaningless.
This year's Coming Attractions will include massive and distorted attacks on Mitt Romney's successful business career.
Promising young businesses need funding, and frail tired businesses must be re-built or sold for salvage. Is there a way to talk, politically, about venture capital and business competition in a way that people can relate to? I suppose buggy-whip companies and blacksmiths are a place to start.
The 2012 presidential race will be, in part, a showdown between two different models of economic growth. President Barack Obama and his Democratic administration will defend the once-discredited and now-resurgent theory that government must act as the economy’s “tutor” and use public funds to stimulate it. The Republican nominee, presumably Mitt Romney, will advance the free-market argument that the main source of new growth is the innovative energy of American entrepreneurs and that government needs to get out of the way.
The warblers are on the move up from South and Central America, and pass through hearabouts in May, on their way north to breed as soon as the buds begin to pop on the trees and the bugs wake up. Girls might like diamonds but the warblers are God's real living jewels.
The Yellow is the yellowest, and maybe most abundant warbler, with a distinctive "sweet sweeet sweet" call. Found throughout the US during migration. They like to be near wet areas - willows, etc., but they will be everywhere soon.
In my view, this whole DSM enterprise is one big Obsessional Disorder driven, in considerable part, by insurance requirements and by pharmaceutical companies.
I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain.
Bene Gesserit Litany Against Fear – From Frank Herbert’s Dune (h/t Classical Values)
In retrospect, it was an insanely stupid idea to begin with.
Hindsight is always 20/20.
The original concept was noble in its intent; a new fighter jet that would satisfy the needs of the Air Force, Navy and Marines. Better to develop one all-purpose fighter than have each branch go through the trouble and expense of manufacturing their own, right? And if one branch had a specific requirement, like the Navy needing stronger landing gear because of the stress put on the aircraft by carrier landings, then that could be taken care of after the fact.
Then they screwed the whole idea with the moronic notion that the newest, fastest, most brilliant state-of-the-art fighter in the world also had to serve as a helicopter.
Yes, you read that right.
For the first half of the story, watch this engaging Nova documentary on the battle between Boeing and Lockheed Martin over who would claim the prize. Both teams ran into serious delays, both teams overcame enormous hurdles, and both teams put together a truly awesome plane.
Both teams also deserve the Dunce of the Decade award for even considering such a preposterous notion that the fastest fighter jet in the world also had to serve as a friggin' chopper. If they had put their collective foot down and simply told the brass back in Washington "This is the stupidest idea we've ever heard of", maybe it would have dawned on someone that trying to make the fastest fighter jet in the world hover was the very definition of oxymoronic.
...it is striking how many phenomena attributed to the Internet age have their historical echo in the telephone. Identity theft and Internet predators? The early years of the telephone brought concerns over the unwanted entry—via telephone line—of unsavory characters into the home, and some people called for laws to regulate criminal use of the phone. Or consider the contemporary argument that automated high-frequency Internet trading increases the volatility of financial markets. As Aronson noted, “The widespread use of the telephone probably added to the short-run instability of such markets.” Before unwanted spam e-mails there were unwanted sales calls. The phrase “information superhighway” was preceded by a century in an AT&T ad announcing “a highway of communication.” Computer hacking grew out of the culture of “phone phreaks”—those early-1970s technological obsessives (Steve Jobs among them) who figured out how to manipulate the phone system to place free phone calls.The list of parallels goes on.
Perhaps the telephone, despite its seemingly transformative nature—the annihilation of time and space—didn’t change us much after all...
Few politicians have had the cojones to push back against the government unions who seem to believe that they own the government.
Walker did. Government unions nationwide are pouring so much money into his recall election that Obama's team is complaining that there isn't enough left for him.
After yesterday's post on the British magic show Penn & Teller: Fool Us, I noted in the comments that, alas, poor Teller was dead. He had drowned during the last act at the end of the last show, immersed in a tank of water, relying on Penn to solve the trick in time to save him. The poor fool.
A commenter asked what his last words were.
I believe they were "glub-glub".
Herewith, I present those last few shocking moments. But brace yourself.
During the last week, we have seen the president support three political positions: gay marriage, a raise in the minimum wage, and a cut in the interest rate on loans to college students. These issues have one thing in common: The president’s supporters claim that those who oppose gay marriage, oppose a high minimum wage, and oppose the lowering of interest rates on college student loans must really hate gays, hate the poor, and oppose education. If you don’t favor President Obama’s programs, you hate the groups targeted by the programs. Thus, we have no serious debate on the merits of either side of these issues, and that is unhealthy.
15:9 As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you; abide in my love.
15:10 If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in his love.
15:11 I have said these things to you so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete.
15:12 "This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.
15:13 No one has greater love than this, to lay down one's life for one's friends.
15:14 You are my friends if you do what I command you.
15:15 I do not call you servants any longer, because the servant does not know what the master is doing; but I have called you friends, because I have made known to you everything that I have heard from my Father.
15:16 You did not choose me but I chose you. And I appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask him in my name.
15:17 I am giving you these commands so that you may love one another.
The world is full of people who cannot or will not negotiate life very well, or with any pride or honor. Every sort of culture has them; the people who cost you money or detract from your life in some unpleasant way. Often, they have either had misguided or negligent upbringings, terrible karma, or have significant character flaws resulting in poor judgement, poor functioning, or antisocial or dependent traits. Often their families expect them to rely on government for survival or help, as so many do with the frail elderly these days. (That's the Julia story.)
Not everybody is born to be a real, self-sufficient, family-centered American-type. It's not easy. However, we are all fully aware of the grieveous moral and spiritual effects of moral hazard in government benefits, and of the temptation of freebies.
What's the answer? Or is it just the price of civilization that some people just don't or won't get it, and must be paid regardless of moral hazard? In other words, just write them off and absorb the losses. Let them rip you off or live off your labor, even though they are not your relatives.
That's my theory. Ignore moral hazard and people working the system, write them off as losses, give them some money and let them go away. Nothing anybody can do about it. With half of the country on the dole in one way or another, parasitism is becoming acceptable anyway.
When most people farmed, it was not thus. Even today, I think anybody can make themselves useful, and lead a positive existence, if they want to.
Here are four clips from a British show called 'Penn & Teller: Fool Us', where amateur magicians try to fool the masters. If they do, they get a free trip to Vegas and get to open Penn & Teller's show at the Rio. There's only one season, eight episodes, watchable on YouTube. And yes, the boys occasionally get snookered.
Here's the first act in the series. He didn't fool them, but it was a great way to open the season.
While Penn does his level best not to give away the trick, he does have to let a few clues out to let the magician know they're onto him. If he'd conveyed it secretly, like whispering in the guy's ear, I never would have figured it out in a million years. But in this case Penn used one little word that gave it away.
They're puppets.
Or maybe the better word would be automatons. Watch it again and you'll agree those are the most goddamn realistic fake animals you've ever seen. The first one he unveils even nibbles on his sleeve briefly when he first lifts off the lid, and then there's the flailing feet and the way the duck responds to her petting as in the above pic. And look at the way the, uh, chickeduck fluffs its wings slightly when the lid is lifted off. Absolutely amazing.
But, as amazing as that last trick was, he didn't fool our two super-sleuths.
The campaign contour is pretty clear: The Obama reelection team will not make the case for the advantages and popularity of Obamacare, for the Chuian advantages of $4-a-gallon gas, for the dynamism of a 1.7 percent GDP growth rate, for the stimulatory effects of adding $5 trillion in new debt, or for why 8 percent unemployment does not qualify under the old rubric of a “jobless recovery.” Instead we are going to see a) mostly the spike-the-football sloganeering about Osama bin Laden and adherence to the Bush-Petraeus timetable in leaving Iraq, b) the supposed racism (Trayvon Martin–style), sexism (“war on women”) and homophobia of the Right, and c) personal attacks on Romney’s past.
Clora come view my Soul, and tell Whether I have contriv'd it well. Now all its several lodgings lye Compos'd into one Gallery; And the great Arras-hangings, made Of various Faces, by are laid; That, for all furniture, you'l find Only your Picture in my Mind.
Here Thou art painted in the Dress Of an Inhumane Murtheress; Examining upon our Hearts Thy fertile Shop of cruel Arts: Engines more keen than ever yet Adorned Tyrants Cabinet; Of which the most tormenting are Black Eyes, red Lips, and curled Hair.
But, on the other side, th' art drawn Like to Aurora in the Dawn; When in the East she slumb'ring lyes, And stretches out her milky Thighs; While all the morning Quire does sing, And Mamma falls, and Roses spring; And, at thy Feet, the wooing Doves Sit perfecting their harmless Loves.
Like an Enchantress here thou show'st, Vexing thy restless Lover's Ghost; And, by a Light obscure, dost rave Over his Entrails, in the Cave; Divining thence, with horrid Care, How long thou shalt continue fair; And (when inform'd) them throw'st away, To be the greedy Vultur's prey.
But, against that, thou sit'st a float Like Venus in her pearly Boat. The Halcyons, calming all that's nigh, Betwixt the Air and Water fly. Or, if some rowling Wave appears, A Mass of Ambergris it bears. Nor blows more Wind than what may well Convoy the Perfume to the Smell.
These Pictures and a thousand more, Of Thee, my Gallery dost store; In all the Forms thou can'st invent Either to please me, or torment: For thou alone to people me, Art grown a num'rous Colony; And a Collection choicer far Then or White-hall's, or Mantua's were.
But, of these Pictures and the rest, That at the Entrance likes me best: Where the same Posture, and the Look Remains, with which I first was took. A tender Shepherdess, whose Hair Hangs loosely playing in the Air, Transplanting Flow'rs from the green Hill, To crown her Head, and Bosome fill.
A perfect poem? Marvell is grouped with the English metaphysical poets, along with John Donne, George Herbert, and others. A politician and diplomat, Marvell was a close associate of Milton and the Cromwell family.
Governments suffer from grandiosity. They think that they can fix everything. Worse they believe that they should fix everything. It never occurs to them to fix themselves except around election time. When they do recognize their own brokenness they treat it as a symptom of the brokenness of the real world.
They conclude that the problem is not that their national health care plans are unworkable, but that there are too many fat people in the country. Bring down the number of fat people and there will be plenty of money left over for everything else. Get everyone to stop smoking, get them to eat their vegetables, floss twice a day and take the best possible care of themselves and the cost of health care will go down.
The Soviet Union similarly concluded that the problem was not with their collective farm system, it was with the people working on them. It didn't matter that wheat had been grown much more plentifully and efficiently before the rise of the red flag. It didn't matter that regions which had once been wheat exporters were now forced to import wheat from capitalist countries. The system was perfect, which meant that the people had to be made perfect enough to allow it to fulfill its potential.
Always enjoyed that Berthold Brecht quote about when a government is displeased with the people, the government should elect a new people.
This is my third attempt at posting this video. It's composed of two 'flashback' scenes from the great TV series, 'NCIS'.
I first posted it a few days ago, thinking the younger look of the four agents was due to some snazzy computer software. It just seemed slightly beyond the reach of mere make-up. As one of the crew in the second video notes, it's real easy to make people look older. Making them look 25 years younger, however, is a whole different ball game.
So I re-posted it this morning, asking the opinion of the Maggie's Valued Readership™ (that would be you guys) whether you thought it was done with digital magic or pounds of make-up, masking tape and baling wire. Within minutes, Steddie left a comment noting that there was a special vid on the DVD that explained the marvelous effects. I hadn't noticed it the first time around. I've now ripped, rendered and uploaded it for your viewing pleasure. Thanks, Steds!
First, here's the original clip:
Actually, it was the Tony scene that particularly impressed me. While I could see the first scenario being accomplished with the aforementioned make-up and baling wire, DiNozzo just looks incredibly young in his scene. And they capped it off by altering his voice to sound younger. If you listen carefully, it doesn't have the depth his older voice has. A superb job on everyone's part.
Here's Director Vance getting prepped:
So, mystery solved.
If you're a fan of 'NCIS', I have some posts on it here.
Learned helplessness was what my wife and I observed then, and still do today, in social-democratic Spain. The recession, rigid labor markets, and excessive welfare spending have pushed unemployment to 24.4%, with youth joblessness over 50%. Nearly half of adults under 35 live with their parents. Unable to earn their success, Spaniards fight to keep unearned government benefits.
Meanwhile, their collective happiness—already relatively low—has withered. According to the nonprofit World Values Survey, 20% of Spaniards said they were "very happy" about their lives in 1981. This fell to 14% by 2007, even before the economic downturn.
That trajectory should be a cautionary tale to Americans who are watching the U.S. government careen toward a system that is every bit as socially democratic as Spain's.
Humans are very responsive to incentives, even to their own detriment (eg addiction).
It's not a polygraph, and complicated by left-handed and ambidextrous people and left-eyed people.
Do you know how to determine whether you are left- or right-eyed? Roll up a sheet of paper like a telescope, and see which eye you put it to. Most people have a dominant eye. Shooters care about this.
Given that so many of my posts are parody, I guess I should point out that this actually is a public service announcement. As referred to, well, 
Image via
A therapy patient of mine recently sat thoughtfully for a few minutes, then exclaimed "Oh my God, I've been acting as if I really had power over all these things, as if I had the power to prevent bad things from happening." 
Taco USA
If someone had asked me a few days ago, "Which type of web site is most prone to give your computer a virus?", I would have answered:
Teaching Doctors the ‘End of Life Conversation’
This might be of interest to those of you with 64-bit Windows systems.
Are jeans 
In retrospect, it was an insanely stupid idea to begin with.
Today we worry about the social effects of the Internet. 
Fighter plane from World War II found
The Gallery
