The wind tore the ladders off the shed and bent the brackets. Dad probably has some brackets around we can use to replace them (if they can’t be bent back into shape).

The power is working but Mom says the “weather cap” still needs to be replaced. I’ll have to follow up on that.

The power problems (caused by the wind) blew out one of the control modules on her furnace — which they don’t make any more, and we couldn’t find a used/refirb unit anywhere… so she’s got a brand-new 95% efficient furnace and new electronic thermostat.

A young driver took the corner too fast and wiped out Mom’s mailbox. She was nice, left the box and a note on the front porch apologizing for the damage. I found an extra mailbox that Dad had in the lawn shed, but I thought he had a heavy-duty, steel mailbox somewhere. Has anyone seen this recently? The plan is to put up a temporary post (until Spring) and then cement in a post. (The metal one probably won’t work.)

Patti showed up and we covered most of all that… and she wanted me to take her picture…

Let me take this opportunity to go “on the record”, and let you know my side of the story.

At a recent Syracuse City Council Meeting I brought up a concern: it seemed that the City was holding meetings without any “written rules”, as is required by Utah State Code 10-03-606.

The Mayor stated that she had been assured by the City Attorney that they were in compliance with State Law.

• I got the impression that the Mayor was “brushing off” a citizen’s concern that the City was holding their meetings in violation of State Law.
• I got the impression that she felt she was somehow “above the law”.
• I hoped I was wrong.

Later in that meeting a Councilman tried to make a motion. The Mayor replied “… This is my meeting! I’ll run it however I want!”

That action coupled with my impression that the Mayor was “above the law” didn’t sit well with me.

I did what any responsible Citizen should: I dug deeper

The City had a set of rules put together and an agenda item added to adopt those rules at last night’s meeting.

Last night I spoke during the public comment section, exposing what I had found in their proposed set of rules:

• I pointed out that the “rules” they were voting on had some serious problems. I only had 30 minutes to read through them, and in that time came up with 24 problems — though I’m sure there are more problems than what I found.
• I pointed out that one particular rule was even illegal! Vesting the Mayor with unilateral power to remove someone from a public meeting is a clear violation of Utah 10-3-608. (By including that I was setting the stage for what would come later in the meeting.)
• I pointed out that one section in the “rules” redefines the powers and responsibilities of the Mayor to be the “chief legislative officer” and the “chief judicial officer”. Further, this Mayor’s role had recently been changed to empower her to call upon the residents to be her own police force — making her the “chief law enforcement officer”, too.
• I concluded that when a SINGLE PERSON holds all the powers of the legislative, executive, and judicial branches of government, that’s no longer a “Representative” government, that’s a Dictatorship.

Was that what Mayor Jamie Nagle was trying implement? Her own dictatorship in our city? I certainly hoped not — but based on my previous experience and the “above the law” attitude that I had witnessed, I felt compelled dig deeper.

• I was curious why Mayor Nagle had not vocally objected to those powers being vested in her — or her position. Why wouldn’t a Mayor object to being given the power of all three branches of government?
• Even if Mayor Nagle didn’t wield these “dictatorial powers”, a future Mayor could. Wouldn’t a Mayor be concerned that her successor might use those powers to undo everything she had done, and do everything to ensure that didn’t happen?

My five minutes expired before I could finish, and the Mayor asked me to sit down.

What happened next was an act of Civil Disobedience — and it was a test for Mayor Jamie Nagle.

• I had no way of knowing if Mayor Nagle truly felt that she was “above the law”.
• I had no way of knowing if Mayor Nagle supported all three branches of government being consolidated under her position.

So I put her to a test: I didn’t sit down.

I wanted to see if Mayor Nagle would violate State Law by ordering my removal. Such an order would go against Utah 10-3-608. I felt that her resulting actions would be indicative of whether or not she felt State Law applied to her.

• If a Mayor were to openly violate State Law in a public meeting of the legislative body, I felt that my “above the law” impressions would be proven legitimate.
• I hoped she would comply with State Law and call for a motion to have me removed.
• After all, just moments before I had informed her of the legal requirements to have someone removed — so she couldn’t claim ignorance to the Law.

I didn’t sit down.

• She ordered me to sit down. (I asked the City Recorder to include that “verbatim” in the minutes, the Mayor told her not to.)
• The Mayor then ordered the police chief to have me removed.

My jaw dropped. Had Mayor Jamie Nagle just violated the very State Law that I’d hoped she wouldn’t?

• I informed the chief that of the specifics of Utah 10-3-608, that a member of the public can only be removed by a 2/3 vote of the legislative body.
• I then turned to the Mayor and asked if she was making a motion to have me removed. She just stared at me.
• Councilman Ocaña then moved that I be removed from the meeting. No one seconded the motion.

Luckily, the police chief didn’t forcefully remove me from the meeting — but the Mayor had already issued her order. In a public meeting. In front of witnesses. In what I feel was blatant disregard for, and in violation of Utah State Law.

For me, my concerns were verified and my actions to expose them were justified.

That’s why I did what I did.

• I did it so you’d know — so you wouldn’t have to wonder as I had.
• I did it so you’d know that when push comes to shove, if we don’t have rules — or have disregard for them — what can happen when we don’t hold our elected officials accountable and require they follow the rules.

That said, I hope to work with the City Council, to review their proposed rules and make observations and recommendations where I feel they’re wrong. After my recent activities, I don’t know if that input will fall upon deaf ears.

But now you know the rest of the story.

Tell your friends!

So let’s tax the “rich” — i.e., the businesses, or business owners. What do they do? Well, they started and ran a successful business, right? So they’re a relatively intelligent lot of people. They see taxes as an expense on the balance sheet. What do you do when expenses increase? You either lower other expenses (outsourcing and off-shoring are two popular ways to do this), reduce the quality of the product (which “not-rich” people buy, and have to buy again and again when the cheaper version breaks, making the “not-rich” people poorer), or raise the cost of the item (again, making the “not-rich” people poorer).

So who is really footing the bill for “taxing the rich”? You guessed it. The poor are.

It’s up almost $3 this week, up almost $5 this month, and (hold on to your hat) up $22.50 from a year ago — more than DOUBLE!

Today I think it’s worth mentioning again.

Generally, the start of the week sees a dip in prices, and the rest of the week posts gains. That’s just sorta how things work. This type of pattern usually is explained by people putting in sell orders over the weekend that are filled on Monday, which drives the price down. The following days generally see that initial dip bought back by the end of the week.

Of course, that’s over-simplifying, and it doesn’t happen that way all the time. But it’s interesting not only to see a jump in prices on a Monday, but a HUGE jump! 76 cents is a substantial amount when looking at something valued at $38/ounce!

If you own 1,000 ounce silver bars, today’s movement would have netted you $760 per bar.

• Friday by Rebecca Black Original Video
• Friday by Rebecca Black Parodies
• What day is it Rebecca Black? Android App

Now there’s even an orchestral, instrumental version, and it’s awesome!

And, Hitler’s reaction after he hears the original for the first time: (potty-words alert!)

Thanks: Mike Dopp

We are all like Tea bags- We don’t know our own strength until we’re in hot water.

– Unknown

The doctor, when doing his initial assessment, asked Dad to raise his right arm. Dad raised his left arm.

The doctor smiled and looked at us, then said “okay, now can you raise your other arm?”

Realizing that he’d raised the wrong arm the first time Dad said “okay, but only if we can call it the left one.”

The doctor, Mom, and I laughed. The Doctor said “sure, works for me”.

Last night (after having taken his first dose of the medications) Mom called me around 11pm, telling me that Dad wasn’t doing so well and wanted to go to the emergency room.

For those of you familiar with my Dad you know this is bad — really bad. Dad hates doctors and he hates hospitals even more. The last time he was in the ER was when he cut his arm with a chainsaw 20-some years ago. He’s been very vocal about wanting to “die at home”, not in some hospital surrounded by strangers. For him to be asking to go to the ER is almost beyond comprehension.

Dad has always avoided imposing on anyone for anything — and he doesn’t like people to see him when he’s sick. For Dad to have Mom call me — 20+ minutes away — and ask for my help to take him to the hospital… well, yeah, you can see what I mean.

When I arrived he wasn’t breathing well, was dizzy, nauseated, and had been vomiting. He couldn’t stand by himself, let alone walk anywhere, not even to the restroom.

Mom and I helped him get his coat on and to his feet, then had him hold on to me, piggy-back style to provide balance and support while we walked down the stairs and to the car. He threw up twice in that short trip — not a lot, but it was still concerning.

We got him and Mom in the car and made it to the ER. Once there we were triaged and admitted quickly. The ER doctor that helped us Dr. Bass, a Southern Gentleman originally from Louisiana.

They gave him a shot for the nausea, then a pill for the dizziness. They took some blood work, ran an EKG, and listened to his heart and found an abnormal heartbeat (aortal fibrillation). This could be contributing to the dizziness and possibly to the water build-up. A referral to a cardiologist was provided.

They ran a CT scan and found no blockages, stroke, or bleeds — all good. Dad commented that he didn’t think they’d find any “cats with they scanned” him. His dry humor returning was a good sign.

Within 30 minutes he was feeling much better. No longer nauseated and dizziness returning to his “normal” levels. Blood work came back clear. It was actually better than the tests they’d run the day (or so) prior.

As soon as a urine sample could be provided and tested it came back okay, too.

Dad started complaining of a pain in his right ear. The doctor looked and didn’t find any problems, but looking with the scope caused Dad significant pain. Turns out it was the joint where the jaw connects to right by the ear — probably caused by “sleeping on it wrong”. Another half-hour after he changed positions to lay on his back the pain in the ear was all but gone.

After having researched the three medications Dad had just started taking, a couple of them have side-effects that include dizziness, tiredness, shortness of breath, even feinting. With no other obvious culprits showing up in the tests, that was the most likely cause. Any change we can get the pharmaceutical company to pay for the ER visit because of the side-effects of their medication?

During the adventure Dad’s mood improved, he smiled at jokes, and he even found time to sing some of those sappy old country-western songs like he’s been known to do.

Almost ready to discharge him, the doctor wanted to check his blood pressure first. 85/59. Too low.

They hooked him up to a saline IV and tried again. Same thing.

They hooked him up to another saline IV and tried again. Same thing.

The doctor tried to get a second opinion from the hospital’s admitting doctor to see if he should be admitted, or sent home.

Finally, they took a manual pressure reading, this time it was 90-something over 60-something. Still low, but no longer in the danger zone. The doctor asked what we wanted to do. I recapped:

• No longer vomiting
• No longer nauseated
• Able to stand on his own
• Ear-ache is all but gone
• Dizziness has returned to “normal” levels
• Blood-pressure has been stable for the last several hours — though lower than we’d like
• Tests all came back clear
• Medication that had been started the day before the onset of symptoms included side-effects including the presenting symptoms

Dad piped up: “I think I can go home”. Good enough.

They prepped the discharge papers and Dad was back home, in bed around 6:30am. Mom said he slept until 10 or 11am — which is really good for Dad. He was doing pretty well this morning when I talked to him.

I advised them to call the Doctor that prescribed the 3 medications to see if they should adjust the dosage, change it, or stop taking one or more of them.

So, there you have it. Now I won’t have to tell the story every time someone in the family asks.

Orb over Dome of the Rock

This is one of the most compelling “UFO’s” I’ve ever seen. So far four videos have surfaced that cover the event, all taken from different locations and different people. In the videos an orb of light hangs high over the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem, descends until it’s immediately over the Dome, moves slightly, flashes a few times lighting the area beneath with a bright light, then rapidly ascends.

Here’s the first video:

And here are three videos composited and time matched so you can see it from different angles all at once:

Horseman of the Apocalypse in Egypt?

In this video, summing up what’s been going on in Egypt, at about 1:15 in you’ll see a ghostly green object that some say looks like a rider on a horse. The “horse and rider” travel with the camera with 4 or 5 other greenish orbs (indicating it might be something caused on or in the camera). It is, however, pretty spooky looking.

What do you think?

Are these videos fakes? Are they just anomalies in the videographic process? Or are they signs spoken of in religious texts?

If they are signs, what other signs have you seen recently?

If you’d like to donate, too, you can use these links:

• Donate $5
• Donate $10
• Donate $50
• Donate $100
• Donate $500
• Donate $1,000
• Donate $5,000
• Donate $10,000
• Donate $12,000
• Donate any amount you choose, just fill in the amount you want and click “update amount”

(Hat tip to Mike Dopp for showing me the video.)

Anyhow, I got a few people who donated. And by “a few” I mean “less than 3″. So, either the social experiment failed, or all you who use social networks like Facebook, LinkedIn, MySpace, and Twitter failed.

That’s right. You failed — miserably. You couldn’t even pay off my mortgage. What a bunch of losers.

Why do I say that? Take a look at this guy. He gets on the innerwebs and begs for a million dollars. Guess what, he gets it! Well, he’s getting it the beginning of next month at some gala event, but that’s just little details.

But you, may alleged “friends” (most of whom I’ve never met) can’t band together to pay off a measly mortgage? For shame.

I guess you could try to redeem yourselves… but here’s what you’ve got to do:

1. Donate any amount that you’d like to help pay off my mortgage
2. Tell all your friends on your social network of choice that you donated, and that if they don’t donate they’re not really your friend

(Hat tip to Mike Dopp for showing me the video… but he still hasn’t donated. Loser.)

For the rest of you, feast your eyes on this:

T-Mobile’s latest “anti-iPhone” commercial takes aim at both Verizon and AT&T. Since the iPhone 4 is a 3G phone on both AT&T (HSPA+) and Verizon (CDMA/LTE), T-Mobile concludes that the iPhone is slow regardless of what network you’re on. In the past they’ve taken shots at FaceTime, touting the ability to make video calls anywhere, not just when under a Wi-Fi umbrella. The commercial goes on to advertise T-Mobile data plans starting at just US$10/month. T-Mobile isn’t holding any punches!

Will we see an upcoming commercial advertising the fact that Verizon’s iPhone isn’t able to access the Internet while on a call?

Via: Mike Dopp

Financial Guru Dave Ramsey is quick to point out that debt is cancer.

It enslaves us to jobs that we don’t like, places that we’d rather not live, and things that are worth less now than we acquired for them.

Whether or not you subscribe to Dave’s philosophy is up to you. I bring it up because I’ve personally implemented several of his philosophies and cannot explain how liberating it is to not only have significantly less debt, but also significantly more cash available to do stuff.

That having been said, unless you apply 100% of your salary against your debt, it’s going to take longer than just one year to get out of debt. Since you probably can’t go without food, water, clothing, toiletries, and the like for that long, you’re going to have to start taking small bites — just like eating an elephant.

I’m not going into all the details of how to do this, but the steps are fairly basic:

1. Live within your means: don’t spend more than you make
2. Pay off what you owe: minimum payments aren’t going to cut it
3. Once you’ve found you’ve dug yourself into a hole, stop digging: stop using those credit cards right now

For complete details, grab a copy of The Total Money Makeover: A Proven Plan for Financial Fitness and get started.

As for me, my financial goals this year are to pay off:

1. my Discover Card
2. my car
3. a line of credit
4. and get a good start on another credit card

Doing so will represent around $25,000 in debt that I’ll no longer owe — and will free up around $900/month that would have gone toward feeding the debt-monster. But that money won’t be squandered — it’ll be put right back into the snowball to pay off more debt… stay tuned for my 2012 resolutions…

• What is a .MENC file?
• Recovering data from your .MENC file

Apparently, some people (you know who you are) don’t particularly like what I have to say, so let’s do a little recap.

.MENC is a file-extension that denotes “mobile encryption” by Windows Mobile devices (not Windows Phone 7). Windows Mobile gives you (or whoever is responsible for administrating the device) the ability to remotely wipe the phone. The problem with this was the sdcard, which was untouched. So any proprietary information stored on the sdcard would still be accessible, even after a remote wipe of the phone.

Another scenario is if you have a password set up to access your device. If you misplace your phone, it would take a significant amount of time and effort to break into the phone. Unfortunately, it’s very easy to open the phone, take out the sdcard, and read its contents using another computer.

To address both of these problems, Microsoft let users (or administrators) encrypt the contents of the sdcard on a file-by-file basis. It was completely transparent to the user, and let the device access the files easily and quickly, but when the sdcard was removed, the files weren’t accessible because they’re encrypted. Pop the card back into the phone that created them, and they were accessible again.

My instructions for being able to recover the date within the .MENC files was simple: turn off sdcard encryption, then copy/move the encrypted files to another location on the card, and the encryption would be removed from the files.

The requires that you have access to the device on which the .MENC files were created, are able to access it (unlock it with a password, if present), and that it hasn’t been reset (because if it has, the encryption keys are regenerated, and the files made with the old keys are inaccessible).

That’s what some people haven’t liked. To them I say, tough beans. It’s doing exactly what it was designed to do. If you want to try breaking into the files via a brute-force attack, feel free. But just as I wouldn’t tell you how to break in to and hotwire a car, I’m not going to tell you how to break into a .MENC file. (I don’t know how to do either.)

S0, lesson learned, move on. If the files were that important you’d have backed them up somewhere else, right? Exactly.

Microsoft has you covered with Windows Phone 7 though… you can’t even remove the sdcard without voiding your warranty. So there.

Source: JayForde.com

Watch the video below:

Warning: Potty-mouth train-driver

“During this time, there will be view-only access to the Developer Console at http://market.android.com/publish. You will be able to view your list of applications and error reports; however, you will not be able to upload new apps or make updates to existing apps. The publish status of your applications and use of the Android Market app on phones should not be impacted.”

It also:

• will do NOTHING to make the food supply “safer”
• will further encumber small business
• will open the floodgates for tyrannical federal bureaucrats to crush local producers of healthy food
• will EXPAND government to the tune of nearly $1 billion to grow the government’s reach, and calls for over 17,000 new bureaucrats to be hired through fiscal year 2014

If you’re opposed to the GIANT power-grab by the Federal Government like I am, you probably would be interested to know that Senator Hatch not only SUPPORTS it, he’s a fracking co-sponsor!

This is an OUTRAGE! Has he forgotten his numerous promises to make government SMALLER? Has he forgotten the tea party activists and State Delegates that FIRED his colleague, Senator Robert F. Bennett?

I, for one, won’t stand for it and am calling him on the carpet!

I have  a letter all ready to drop in the mail to his Washington DC office:

Senator Orrin Hatch
104 Hart Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20510

I called his Washington office (202-224-5251), his Ogden office (801-625-5672), and his Salt Lake City office (801-524-4380).

I sent him an email via his web form (http://hatch.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=Offices.Contact) and even sent faxes to him.

I’ve sent number Tweets to @orrinhatch on Twitter with the simple message:

@orrinhatch I OPPOSE S.510, you should too! #utpol #tcot #teaparty

What have you done?

You have to act fast, tomorrow (11/17/2010) they’re voting on it. TELL SENATOR HATCH TO OPPOSE S.510! Do it now, before it’s too late!

Via:

• http://syracuse08.com/2010/11/urgent-tell-senator-hatch-to-oppose-s-510/
• http://syracuse08.com/2010/11/my-fax-to-senator-hatch-asking-him-to-oppose-s-510/

You can re-tweet these to help drive the point home:

• http://twitter.com/#!/joelevi/status/4689909642170370
• http://twitter.com/#!/joelevi/status/4689145775521792
• http://twitter.com/#!/joelevi/status/4687589332226048
• http://twitter.com/#!/joelevi/status/4666960084213760

It’s not an endlessly expanding list of rights — the “right” to an education; the “right” to health care; the “right” to food and hosting. That is not freedom. That is dependency. Those are not rights. Those are rations of slavery — hay and a barn for human cattle.

– Alexis de Tocqueville

The fact that colossal stimulus spending, zero interest rates, the purchase of over a trillion in toxic assets by the Fed, and the loosest monetary policy in history have done absolutely nothing to revitalize the economy, has proven that Keynesian policies have been a wretched failure.

Small businesses, which are the backbone of America (these are the folks who will create a recovery if there is to be one), are now being vilified by the president and portrayed as the evil empire (millionaire and billionaire Bogey men) and any wealth they have created and accumulated is ill gotten. No — their wealth comes from hard work, saving, successful risk taking and delivering products and services for which people want to pay. Something Obama and his congressional Marxist supporters only punish today.

– James Quinn, Newsletter Editor

As we have described for several years, the U.S.  economy is virtually locked into a long arc of decline. There are no politically palatable solutions to the quandary. Until Americans are ready to take their lumps and accept a steep drop in their standard of living, the U.S. government will have no leverage with the creditor nations and no ability to keep its promises. Therefore we should celebrate when China even gives our Treasury Secretary an audience.

If China does manage to topple the U.S. dollar from its perch as the international reserve currency, our economy will very likely move into free fall as decades of inflation come pouring back into the country. We will be forced to live within our means or face hyperinflation.

– John Browne, Senior Market Strategist

For those of you who don’t know, GOOG411 was a replacement for “411″. Instead of dialing 411 on your phone to get information and find a phone number, you could dial 1-800-GOOG-411 and get the same service from Google. It worked so well that my wife even recommended it to friends and family members (which is saying a lot!).

Today that service is scheduled to go away.

Your options now? Other than going back to paying for 411, you could try:

• 1-800-FREE-411
• 1-800-BING-411

• (801) 663-7181
• 1 (801) 663-7181
• +1 (801) 663-7181
• 801-663-7181
• 8016637181

I have. I’ve been getting phone calls from them for the last week or more. They never leave a message, and when I call them back I’m met with a recorded voice that says:

Thank you for calling Discover Card. We recently tried to contact you in regard to a product or service we were offering.

If you’d like to speak with an Account Manager regarding that product or service, please press 1 now.

Otherwise, we appreciate your business and hope that you will continue to use your Discover Card for all of your everyday purchases.

The times when I’ve answered the call I’ve listened to their offer and politely declined it. Each time they’ve persisted, maybe I didn’t hear them right, and I’d be a fool to pass it up. Each time I say no, and ask that they not call me again.

Some days I’ve gotten 6-8 calls from this number.

My number is on the “do-not-call” registry. People who signed up originally are starting to get calls because their request is only good for a specific number of years. My request is up-to-date.

But that doesn’t help, not if I do business with the company in question, or — and here’s the rub — if I do business with the company that has “partnered” with a third-party. Another way to look at a “third party partner” is someone to whom Discover has sold my information.

I called Discover today and spoke with Deb in Arizona. She apologized and told me if it was from Discover, the phone calls would stop immediately. However, if it’s a “partner” calling me, my request could take two weeks or more. Two weeks of 6-8 calls a day? Not good enough. I told Deb as much, but she said it was outside of her power to do any better. No problemo, Deb, let me talk with someone that has the power.

Enter Joyce, Deb’s manager in Arizona. Joyce can’t help either, but was quick to point out that I had agreed to have “partners” call me because I didn’t opt-out when Discover sent out their revised Privacy Policy recently. Except that I did.

In any event, she can’t do anything to help either.

Hey, you know what, I’m a credentialed journalist, I wonder what their Discover’s Public Relations department has to say about this. I was referred to Leslie and Laura who, based on their area code, are out of Illinois.

Unfortunately — or conveniently? — neither is currently available… but I left a message, and may get a call back.

Before I go into what I can do to combat the calls, I’ll give Discover Media Relations a chance to chime in… but if I don’t hear back, I’ll go ahead and let you in on some sneaky and clever ways to keep from being harassed yourself…

Stay tuned!

What do you think? Do you have another scenario?

Why do I think it might have been China? Well, we just went through another round of “quantitative easing” which is another way to say that the U.S. Dollar just became worth less than it was before. China holds a lot of U.S. Dollars. They’d be justifiably upset with us by making their investment worth less, and maybe take military action, providing us with a show of power. China is, of course, our neighbor to the West, across the Pacific Ocean, and that’s where the missile was fired from.

But the missile came from within “archipelagic waters”, and therefore within the territory of the United States of America, which means it would be more than just saber rattling. If they’d have done it half way between LA and Hawaii, THAT would be an impressive show… but this was within our territorial waters… and by definition an act of war.

So, what if they laid down an ultimatum while President Obama is “in their neck of the woods” demanding payment of our debt in “pre-inflated dollars”, basically, calling the loan due now, and we  diplomatically said “up yours”. Would that be enough for China to dispatch a secret sub into U.S. waters, launch a missile capable of destroying Los Angeles, and then scuttle it?

That would sure get our attention, wouldn’t it? They would basically be saying, “you can’t push us around, see what we could have done? Meet our demands or we’ll launch another one.”

Were that the case the President would definitely need more time to evaluate the situation, get our defenses in order (quietly), and prepare to respond to the threat (quietly). How much time would he need? I don’t know, a day or so perhaps?

Parallels

Does anyone else see the parallels of what may have happened yesterday off the coast of California with the Cuban Missile Crisis? Are we preparing to go to war against an foreign country (not just a “terror organization”)?

Are we at war?

Are we at war? Well, other than a war on terror, a war on drugs, and a war on tax evaders, are we at war with another government? Not that I know of.

Will we be shortly? I sincerely hope not!

Am I prepping for the worst, just in case? Are you?

Who’s left? A civilian or non-civilian (read: terrorist), or a foreign government.

Since launching an ICBM from a submarine (we don’t know of any boats in the area) would require an actual submarine, we have to assume that a terror organization somehow got a hold of a pretty high-end submarine with ICBM’s on board. But no governments are reporting having lost a submarine, so that’s likely not the case.

You can, however, launch a missile from a mobile, submerged platform. Doing so requires the missile and platform loaded on a fairly large boat (or towed behind a fairly powerful boat), pulled into place, and dropped off, floating below the surface until the launch order was given. Some conspiracy theorists believe this is how the “airplane” that hit the Pentagon on 9/11 was launched… if you want to believe that it was a missile, not a plane… but I digress.

No terror organizations have come forward claiming responsibility for the launch. Since they would be all over freaking us out by having accomplished either the hijacking of a foreign sub, or with the successful deployment of a remotely launched ICBM, and have not, we can likely rule out this scenario.

If the target had been a ship or submarine, it’s more likely a torpedo would have been used, so we can rule out defense of an air or sea attack or “provocation”.

The only reasons we’d fire an ICMB/SLBM (other than a training or testing exercise) would be to destroy a land-based enemy target, and that would likely be in response to a foreign government having launched first — or threatened to launch first where we felt launch was imminent.

The latter could explain why the missile may have been scuttled — and why we’re not currently at war with, well, whoever the “bad guy” is in this scenario. They threatened to launch, we fired a missile, they backed down, so we scuttled the missile.

Were this the case, there would likely be a delay in reporting “what really happened” because the President himself would need to be involved in, and would likely make the announcement to nation himself. He’s overseas right now, so a delay of even 12-20 hours would be “reasonable”. Since it’s been almost a full day since the event, and we haven’t gotten word from the White House or Pentagon, we can likely rule out this scenario.

If the Navy “accidentally” launched the missile during an “exercise” it stands to reason that there would not be a NOTAM filed. However, were this the case, the Navy (or some other military entity) would likely have come forward with this information.  But they have not… so we can likely rule out this scenario.

If we trust that there wasn’t an exercise which involved the launch, and that it wasn’t an accident, was it a defensive launch?

Findings of Fact as of this Writing:

• The video came from a legitimate source
• The video has been reviewed by experts and has been deemed authentic
• The experts not only believe what was seen to be a missile, but a “very large missile” such as an ICBM or SLBM
• The location of the launch was approximately 35 miles off the coast of Los Angeles, California
• Even though the location of the launch was more than 12 miles off the coast, it was within “archipelagic waters”, and therefore within the territory of the United States of America
• The U.S. Navy and all other branches of the U.S. military are denying their involvement in the launch of the missle
• There have been no NOTAMs filed; a NOTAM is a “notification to airmen”, basically a prerequisite to a practice firing of a missile or the detonating of large explosives, to avoid accidentally hitting a commercial or civilian aircraft
• No foreign government has taken responsibility for the launch
• President Obama is currently in Asia
• In the past, former presidents have “demonstrated military capabilities” with similar missile launches (which are then scuttled — detonated harmlessly in the air) when they have been abroad
• There have been no impact reports — no one had reported knowing “where the missile went”

Questions:

• Since “no one knows” where the missile went, was it scuttled?
• Since President Obama is in Asia currently, and the missile was launched from within the Pacific Ocean, was this a showing of military capabilities to an Asian government? If so which one? And if so, why is the Navy denying involvement in the launch, and why wasn’t a NOTAM filed?
• Was this missile fired by the United States?
• Was the launch accidental?

Deduction and Speculation to come…

Silver and Gold have been marching up for the last several weeks, hitting 30-year record highs day after day… but today they jumped substantially. Gold was up $7.25, and silver up $1.58 from yesterday’s close.

Silver is up over $11 per ounce from this time last year; that’s over a 60% gain in one year. How are you CDs, bonds, and 401(k) doing?

Why did precious metals prices jump so much today? I’m sure the Fed’s latest round of “quantitative easing” had something to do with it, but I’ve got to wonder if the mystery missile that was caught on film by a news helicopter, launched some 35 miles off the coast of Los Angeles, California yesterday evening has something to do with it.

Spot Prices as of the close of trading in New York as of Tuesday November 09, 2010, according to CMI-Gold-Silver.com:

Unfortunately, I don’t have a flag pole in my yard (yet!). I do, however, have a flag holder on my front porch, from which I’ve flown a flag that I’ve had for years.

This year, however, I had a problem. The flag holder was plastic and the height adjustment “gears” had stripped out, so it was no longer able to hold my flag securely. I looked and looked, but couldn’t find a suitable holder to replace my old plastic one. Luckily, with the help of an associate at a local big-box home improvement store I was able to find a suitable, all-metal flag holder.

While I was there I browsed their selection of United States Flags, impressed that they were all Made in the U.S.A, and opted to get the largest flag they had available.

I would have liked to pick up a flag for the State of Utah, but this location didn’t have any state flags, or even any of the insanely popular Gadsden flags (thank goodness for stores on the internet!).

I got home at dusk and stayed up well after dark removing my old flag holder and replacing it with my new, metal holder. The next morning I flew my new American flag, just in time for election day!

The Navy says it wasn’t theirs, and no boats were in the area… so who’s was it? Is the Navy covering it up, or did we have a foreign submarine just off the coast of LA that fired a “very large” missile? No other governments are stepping up to claim the launch… and no one knows where the missile went.

Developers are scrambling to fill this gap. The latest, and most promising music player I’ve seen to date is called PowerAMP, and it’s so new that it’s not even in the Market yet.

Pros:
+ Very nice looking
+ Supports MP3, MP4/M4A, loseless ALAC, FLAC, OGG, WAV, TTA, WMA
+ Includes widget
+ Choose music from SD card
+ Tags, lyrics
+ Skins, 2 in beta version
+ Quickly scans files
+ Graphic EQ with presets
+ HUGE volume knob

Cons:
- Android 2.0+ only
- No Genre support (yet?)
- Not in Market (yet?)

If you’d like to grab a copy, head over to the thread at XDA-Developers and download it from one of the mirrors.

Let me know what you think!

Source: XDA-Developers
Images: Android-Owner.ru

This is pretty high-altitude event, and not likely something consumers like you and I would be interested in attending, but if you’re in the lighting industry you owe it to yourself to check it out. What’s on the horizon for LED lighting? What are your competitors up to? What cool and innovative new lighting mechanisms or methods are going to be on display? Check out their website for more information: http://ledlight.osram-os.com/events/led-light-for-you-workshop-north-america/

I’ve been doing a substantial amount of home improvements of late in preparation to sell our house. You’d be amazed how many squeaks and stuck “stuff” there is in a house that’s over ten years old!

If something’s stuck (a bolt, hinge, etc.) I typically use WD-40. Please note, WD-40 is NOT a lubricant. It’s a solvent and a water-displacement substance. DO NOT use WD-40 to lubricate anything. That having been said, have you looked at the ingredients in WD-40? As with most industrial solvents, it’s not that clean. So I went looking for a biodegradable lubricant spray. I found a company called Evergreen America that carries just that sort of thing!

What’s more, being a “gun guy” I was surprised to see that they even carry gun lubricants! Off to greening my gun box!

Rest assured, that wasn’t by design. I think I’ve found the culprit… so, Joel, did this fix it?

Anyhow. The new one just wasn’t doing well. We had a white film on our glasses, and eventually the “white gunk” started to build up and cause us problems. Eventually we had to call out a repairman. It turns out we’re not alone.

Video Courtesy of KSL.com

The repair guy pulled apart the whole thing and removed half a popsicle stick from our impeller. That got things flowing again, but the white gunk was still all over the place. What to do?

It turns out that someone (:: cough :: me :: cough ::) had been slacking in his duties to refill the water softener’s brine tank with salt. That shouldn’t be a problem. Hard water deposits take a long time to build up, and a few months without salt wouldn’t cause THAT much build-up, would it?

Well, yes and no.

You see, the build-up wasn’t hard-water deposits, but they could have been avoided by proper upkeep of the brine tank. But we’re back to the fact that we didn’t have the “white gunk” problem before we installed the water softener, so what gives?

It turns out right before we got our new dishwasher the State of Utah banned the use of Phosphates in detergent. Phosphates are a cleaning agent — pretty heavy duty ones at that. Unfortunately, they also feed algae once it ends up downstream. That robs the water of oxygen, and chokes off the fish… in short, too much isn’t good for the environment.

But what about my dishes and my dishwasher?

Some people have said that adding ½ cup vinegar to each load does the job. Others haven’t had much luck. It’s worth running a few loads to see if this solves your problem.

Still no luck? Well, you could always go back to the dishwasher detergent that has phosphate in it. If you’re in Utah, that means you’ll have to go out-of-state to find it. Unfortunately, more and more states are banning phosphates in residential detergents.

Ah ha! A loophole! Notice how I said “residential” detergents? Commercial-grade detergents may not be subject to the ban! So head over to your commercial supply and pick up some of their commercial strength detergent.

Or, say you’ve got a bunch of the post-ban detergent on-hand, you can pick up some cleaner that has phosphate in it and add a small amount (a teaspoon or tablespoon per load).

Of course, the other option is just to keep your water softener filled with salt… and add some phosphate to boost your detergent’s cleaning power when needed.

Spot Prices as of the close of trading in New York as of Wednesday September 22, 2010

Well, TAT’s done it again, this time with “tilt-triggered dimensions”. That’s a fancy term that doesn’t do justice to the concept they are pioneering. Using the phone’s built-in tilt sensors they’ve put together a couple demos of some 2D apps, and what they could potentially do when tilted to emulate the third dimension.

The first demo shows an ordinary list of your contacts when the phone is held flat. When tilted the flat list turns into a 3D stack of those same contacts and displays their most recent social network updates. When you tilt back the card stack smoothly animates back to a flat list.

The second demo blew me away (something that’s not easily accomplished). Picture yourself looking at a flat map, when you tilt your phone up the view changes from flat to 3D and buildings literally grow out of the map, offering up location-based information about each of those buildings, basically bridging the gap between map-based information and augmented reality. Again, my description doesn’t do it justice, you’ll have to watch the video to see for yourself.

Unfortunately, neither of these two interfaces is in any current product, but both are entirely possible given today’s hardware.

I, for one, can’t wait to see this sort of GUI incorporated into Android. What about you, what 2D/3D app would you like to see this type of interface applied to?

At that point the profit-takers could have sold more, but they didn’t. Instead the price rebounded and today closed at $20.16.

I’m hopeful that $19.75 will be the new floor and we’ll start pushing the ceiling up.

Precious Metals Spot Prices as of the close of trading in New York as of Monday September 13, 2010: