Nothing like a real scandal to cut through the conservative artificial bullshit on Bengazi and the IRS going after conservative tax cheats. That hissing sound of a giant conservative yellow backed scandal rubber duck deflating in the harbor…

Issa Got a Boat With a Hole in it! King Got a Boat With a Hole in it! McCain got a Boat With a Hole in It!

And one of the interesting things abut a real scandal, that has to do with real rights, and the real Constitution, and real laws is…

It doesn’t break 90 Republican 90% Democrat anymore…Now does it?

Now… To be honest – I think this guy has done the country a lot of damage…

But then…So did the Patriot Act.

Wave cloud pattern of a Derecho

Survived two of these things. Once on the water when I saw it coming 10-12 miles away across the river and figured I couldn’t outrun it looking at the movement of the lead cloud. Had just enough time to get the bow into it, drop and set the hook, and get the hatches battened (boater talk for make like a big anchored cork) before getting hit with the first 70 MPH gust, which sustained for a good 10-15 minutes. Because the tide was slack, there were no real waves to fight as the wind was blowing everything flat or into spray. Lots of “knock downs” that day of guys not watching the weather who got caught with their sails up, and guys in the power boats who hadn’t quite figured out that a planing hull, which uses air to lift…

Does some real squirrely things when the air perpendicular to the boat (not the direction the boat happily travels) is moving under the boat faster than you can go.

Why you keep the nose into the waves -

And just in case that “Cruise Ship” is going to save your non-nautical ass in the middle of the ocean -

The second was last year here in the Washington DC area, where it came across the beltway like a freight train making the vegetation look like it went through the world’s largest wood chipper… With the prediction of potential for a Derecho type storm from the Ohio Valley on east… Might be a good day to bunker up.

That was before I told her I wasn’t the owner of Seasons Tickets even.

Sometimes “it is written” when relationships will be unexpectedly (at least to some folks) short.

Now I see Dan Snyder is again courting disaster – pulling failure, yet once again out of a hot hand…

Its in the Bag, Dan!

Top Republican Messaging Firm To Hold Football Focus Group About Whether Redskins Should Change Name

“It’s not what you say, it’s what they hear,” Luntz Global, the premier strategy shop run by Republican messaging guru Frank Luntz, boasts at the top of its web site. And Luntz Global is interested in figuring out what National Football League fans are hearing.

Luntz Global, which has worked on behalf of the NFL and other sports leagues during labor disputes in recent years, is conducting a football focus group in Alexandria, Virginia, on June 13, where it will pay participants $100 to share their opinions about the current state of America’s most popular professional sports league and the Washington Redskins, the NFL franchise embroiled in controversy and a federal trademark lawsuit involving its name.

An email survey meant to judge the interest and eligibility of potential participants includes multiple questions about the NFL generally, including how many games they watch and attend. It also asks about their “overall opinion of the NFL right now,” their “overall opinion of the NFL Commissioner, Roger Goodell,” and what they perceive as the “greatest problem or challenge facing the NFL today.”

Excuse me…But isn’t that like the same folks who told Romney…”Its in the bag?”

The Washington Red Tails is beginning to look like a great fall back position.

The other pic? The new Apple Mac-Pro.

What goes round comes round.

Now don’t get me wrong here, the Apple is no Cray…And the Cray certainly “ain’t” no Apple, as it’s sole function in life was to move massive numbers from Bucket “A” to Bucket “B” after performing whatever mathematical gyrations questing scientists and mathematicians far above this poor boy’s head could come up with…

Back in the day I belonged to a group of rather nondescript guys “of limited notoriety” who usually got the call shortly after the customer plugged one of those things in, taking down the power or a small city…

“Oh, you actually wanted that to work?”

Little round machines…Indeed.

About the only thing that hasn’t changed is the price.

Cray 2 Towers

Apple Mac Pro

]]> http://btx3.wordpress.com/2013/06/12/the-computer-goes-round/feed/ 0 btx3 http://btx3.wordpress.com/2013/06/12/a-liberal-edumencation-indeed/ http://btx3.wordpress.com/2013/06/12/a-liberal-edumencation-indeed/#comments Wed, 12 Jun 2013 14:03:48 +0000 btx3 http://btx3.wordpress.com/?p=12015 ]]>

You know if I was George Zimmerman’s lawyers, I’d be looking for 12 of these EW Jackson freakshows!

“Innocent! That Kneegrow was armed and dangerous with that candy bar, suh!”

The question though becomes – in an American Constellation, containing the stars of accomplished black Republicans of greater and lesser lights and brilliant stars like Condoleeza Rice, and General Colin Powell, and to a somewhat lesser extent ex-Congressman J.C. Watts…

Which now includes the shiny-new minted Senator-ex Congressman from South Carolina Tim Scott (and no – I don’t agree with Mr Scott politically, but I respect the way the guys is actually trying to do his job representing the people of his state unlike former Congressman, former felon, Alan West’s constant posturing for the recruiting poster for Lawn Jockeys)…

WTF would anyone be running a Jockey Suited Buckdancer like mis-Action Jackson?

I mean – it sure as hell isn’t to attract Minority voters.

And,if this is for the benefit of “de Republican white folks in the Old Dominion” – isn’t there a whole generation of kids who paid for that little mistake in “Intelligent Design” when those same folks shut down all the schools in one of the counties for 5 years so they couldn’t integrate?

And besides the fact that the guy (supposedly a Harvard Law School Graduate) is too stupid to hire and editor (I’m a blogger – can’t afford no editor!) for his book to get rid of the misspellings…

There is this video with the Space Fairy…Miss Cleo where are you?

Ouch!

Seems the Tea Bagger types didn’t get much of a warm welcome

How exactly did the Boston Marathon terrorists get their explosive material to make a bomb?

I took a bit of artistic liberty with Michael Ramirez’s excellent and poignant cartoon commentary to add a bit of truth.  The “cowards” in this case sit in the US Congress.

You see – the explosive material for the bombs constructed by the Tsamaev brothers  is commonly available in just about every gun store, and gun show in America.

Now in an America where Homeland Defense is busily putting cameras in just about every spot except up your ass – although if some Republican Senators have their way they will be able to shove them up women’s vaginas… Why is it harder to buy a joint of Marijuana than the tools to kill and maim dozens of your neighbors? (Speaking of – what the heck is the deal with the pot heads in Denver shooting up- instead of smoking –  the joint?)

Don’t get me wrong, I haven’t turned into an advocate for drug use – but guns in America are now paraphernalia for addicts and drug dealers…. And mass killers.

And no sportsman, we aren’t talking about your trusty Remington shotgun here.

This is what I am talking about …

This is a one pound container of “gunpowder” (It’s not really “gunpowder” anymore, but it is the fuel which goes bang when you pull the trigger). It also comes in 8 lb packages.  You see – there is a group of, in vast majority law abiding, shooters who like to make their own bullets. (And no – I don’t mean to pick on NORMA, as far as I know they are a perfectly law abiding company with no criminal connection, and there is no published evidence that their product was used in the Boston bombings). However – I can buy this “explosive” in many states he same way I can buy ammunition which already has been assembled containing it – cash and carry. Which apparently is exactly what the Boston Marathon terrorists did.

No – this isn’t C4 or SEMTEX or any of the vastly more powerful Military explosives used by international terrorists. Nor is it Ammonium Nitrate, previously featured in the Oklahoma City Bombing, currently starring in the leveling of an entire Texas town. But you walk into your local store and ask for a block of SEMTEX or C4, and there is a very good chance you will be invited to visit at your local Federal Law Enforcement Office, and get to met some swell FBI or ATF guys with a very limited sense of humor. Indeed – to purchase Ammonium Nitrate which is a common ingredient in many fertilizers requires a background check to make sure you are going to fertilize the fields instead of blow up a buildings.

Ergo in the NRA’s version of America (and 46 Senators), it’s easier to buy “gunpowder” than fertilizer.

So… The 46 azzwipes who voted down watered-down gun legislation are not only guilty of enabling the Newtown killer… But international terrorism via the Boston Marathon terrorists.

Do you really want to live in an America where you have to have armed guards so the kiddies can go to the playground and swing on the swing set?

Now…For the work of finding out who is responsible for this. It is impossible to say at this time whether this is an act of Foreign or Domestic Terrorism. At least to reports at this time, the bombs appear to have been relatively crude devices made from either home made or cobbled together explosives wrapped in nails and screws to function as shrapnel, which suggests they were made with off-the-shelf materials purchased here in the United States. There is still confusion on whether there were more bombs.

Yet another tragedy.

Well…They have finally come up with a Hoodie for malcontent white folks…I guess it beats the Wayne Pierre “solution” of everyone carrying a concealed Anti-Aircraft Missile…

The anti-drone hoodie that helps you beat Big Brother’s spy in the sky

The newest fashion statement for the far right and domestic terrorist set

I am wearing a silver hoodie that stops just below the nipples. Or, if you prefer, a baggy crop-top with a hood. The piece – this is fashion, so it has to be a ”piece” – is one of a kind, a prototype. It has wide square shoulders and an overzealous zip that does up right to the tip of my nose.

It does not, it’s fair to say, make its wearer look especially cool. But that’s not really what this hoodie is about. It has been designed to hide me from the thermal imaging systems of unmanned aerial surveillance vehicles –drones. And, as far as I can tell, it’s working well.

“It’s what I call anti-drone,” explains designer Adam Harvey. “That’s the sentiment. The material in the anti-drone clothing is made of silver, which is reflective to heat and makes the wearer invisible to thermal imaging.”

The “anti-drone hoodie” was the central attraction of Harvey’s Stealth Wear exhibition, which opened in central London in January, billed as a showcase for “counter-surveillance fashions”. It is a field Harvey has been pioneering for three years now, making headlines in the tech community along the way.

It began in 2010 with Camoflash, an anti-paparazzi handbag that responds to the unwanted camera flashes with a counter-flash of its own, replacing the photograph’s intended subject with a fuzzy orb of bright white light.

Ewwwwe…Wait a minute! Do you think I can get that camera flashie thingie mounted on my car tight above the license plate? Now THAT’s a million dollar idea!

Back to the Wing-Dizzies…

There is, I point out, no obvious target audience for anti-drone fashion. He’s unfazed. “The kind of person who would wear it really depends on what drones end up being used for. You can imagine everything, from general domestic spying by a government, or more commercial reconnaissance of individuals.” I suggest perhaps political protesters. “Yeah, sure. Maybe that’s the actual market.”

Harvey is well aware his work can seem a little before its time. “I wouldn’t say many people have a problem being imaged by drones yet,” he deadpans. “But it imagines that this is a problem and then presents a functional solution.”

Reality, to be fair, is not so far behind. Over the next 15 years the US Federal Aviation Administration anticipates more than 20,000 new drones will appear in American skies, owned not just by law enforcement agencies and the military, but also public health bodies and private companies.

In the UK, several police forces are already experimenting with drones, and not just for thermal imaging. “They can be equipped with things called IMSI-catchers that will work out the mobile phone numbers of any people in a certain area,” explains Richard Tynan, research officer at campaign group Privacy International.

“If police deploy these things for crowd control there’s no issue with them figuring out every single person who’s in there – and their mobile phone numbers. They can also intercept calls and send out false messages. It’s not just the police either. Cybercriminals can use these, or even business opponents. This technology already exists.”

Tynan is sceptical about the power of inventions such as the hoodie to protect us from such technology. “The growth in [civilian counter-surveillance] will be dependent on the kind of work we do here to uncover what surveillance is being used. They will always lag behind in the battle.”

Not least because many of the people making counter-surveillance equipment are keen to keep it out of civilian hands. “The only people who really don’t need to be seen,” says military camouflage designer Guy Cramer, “are the ones who are doing something wrong out there.”

Cramer is, in a sense, Harvey’s military equivalent: another pioneer in the art of vanishing. Last year, Cramer’s delightfully shady-sounding company HyperStealth Biotechnology Corp made headlines worldwide with its claim to have built a functioning “invisibility cloak”, using light-bending optical camouflage to make a soldier simply disappear. So far, only various members of military top brass have been permitted to see the cloak in action – for fear, he says, that the technology will fall into the wrong hands.