This is what a bad riding day looks like

Also known as 'When NOT to go to Arkansas'

A Good Day for a Ride

A Good Day for a Ride
Originally uploaded by kcsporttour

Sunny, cool, nice day for a lap around Truman Lake. Nothing unusual or interesting to report - just good riding. I did find the intersection of C, U and ZZ roads - CUZZ! Down deep in the hills of Central MO.

Learning The Wrong Lessons

Learning The Wrong Lessons from Sandra Cantu’s Death-- FreeRangeKids:

"The chances of being abducted and killed by a stranger stand at 1,500,000 to one, according to the Crimes Against Children Research Center. This is a number that does not go up or down a lot year to year. To keep your children inside or guarded at all times because of chances like that would make sense only if you also vowed never to take your children in a car, considering the odds of them dying in an accident are 40 times greater.
And yet, even though five child passengers are killed each day, you never see parents vowing, “I used to let my kids come with me in the car. But after this, there will be no more driving. This is a long-term change.”"

It has frozen over!

Satan rejoins Penguins for Hockey playoffs - Kansas City Star

Sorry - just caught me funny. :-)

Change?

In Warrantless Wiretapping Case, Obama DOJ's New Arguments Are Worse Than Bush's | Electronic Frontier Foundation:

"the gulf between Candidate Obama and President Obama is striking. As a candidate, Obama ran promising a new era of government transparency and accountability, an end to the Bush DOJ's radical theories of executive power, and reform of the PATRIOT Act. But, this week, Obama's own Department Of Justice has argued that, under the PATRIOT Act, the government shall be entirely unaccountable for surveilling Americans in violation of its own laws.

This isn't change we can believe in. This is change for the worse."

For what it's worth, this is from the left-wing group Electronic Freedom Frontier - not some NeoCon right wing team.

US Economic Crisis - Perspective from the IMF

The Atlantic Online | May 2009 | The Quiet Coup | Simon Johnson:

"In its depth and suddenness, the U.S. economic and financial crisis is shockingly reminiscent of moments we have recently seen in emerging markets (and only in emerging markets): South Korea (1997), Malaysia (1998), Russia and Argentina (time and again)."

How to change 1990 Ducati ST2 Fuel Filter

This PDF file shows how to change 1990 Ducati ST2 Fuel Filter -- also known as 'call the dealer'

Sheesh. They don't make things easy do they? The more I learn about my Ducati, the more I miss my Honda ST1100. You could nearly change that fuel filter while riding.

Who Is Arming the Mexican Drug Cartels? by Michael Gaddy

Who Is Arming the Mexican Drug Cartels? by Michael Gaddy:

"This week, Secretary of Homeland Defense, Janet Napolitano, announced a new plan to curb the alleged flow of weapons from the US into Mexico. This program, which will cost the overwhelmed US Taxpayer another 700 million dollars plus, includes machines that employ what is referred to as 'virtual strip search.' This plan will supposedly slow down the number of guns traveling south from the US to the drug cartels in Mexico. If this program has the same success rate as the government’s efforts at stopping the flow of contraband north into the US, the Mexican drug cartels will have nuclear weapons by the end of April!"

Airport Extreme error (-5) after firmware upgrade

I upgraded my Airport Extreme to 7.4.1 (74100.25) firmware and immediately after the upgrade Airport Utility reported "An error occurred while reading the configuration. Make sure your Apple wireless device is plugged in and in range of your computer or connected via Ethernet and try again. (-5)"

Additionally the wireless would not assign a valid IP address to my MacBook Pro.

I resolved this by connecting to the Airport Extreme via ethernet. Then I launched Airport Utility and chose File - Configure Other. I entered the IP address (10.0.1.1) of the device and my password. This brought up the configuration options. I chose from the menu "Base Station", Upload Firmware. This presented a list of firmware choices and I chose 7.3.2. The downgrade completed and I was able to use the wireless again as well as normally configure the Airport Extreme via wireless or ethernet. No more Error -5.

I found this information in the Apple Discussions forum.

True Colors

British government environmental ministers are showing their true colors, aping the Earth First line that people are a parasite on the planet, and the population must be reduced. (link to google search; work firewall won't let me view their site)

How much? 30,000,000 people in Britain alone - about 50% of the population. Assuming you extrapolate that out, that's around 3,000,000,000 'excess population' that needs to be removed to match the planets carrying capacity.

Stalin would be proud.

Oh - sorry - we can't "treat the world’s population as a homogenous unit, as deep ecologists so often do." Only the industrially developed nations need to be de-populated, in order to match the carrying capacity of the planet.

Any volunteers for depopulation?

---

OK, this really isn't news, it's been bandied about by Malthusian and growth sides, as well as the NWO tinfoil hat crowd for years. The interesting bit is that it's an official government position statement, rather than tweedy academics or gun-toting art-bell-listening tweakers bringing it up.

EPA takes first step

EPA Takes first step toward outlawing deadly carbon dioxide dumping; setting it's sites on even more dangerous Dihydrogen Monoxide.

Land Hurricaine?

No, just a wicked low pressure front. But wow - what a cool radar image! Snagged at 7:15 PM from weather.gov

Er, make that under the bed

Er, make that under the bed
Originally uploaded by kcsporttour

Sam the Dog, sleeping and hiding from the wind

Sleepy day

Sleepy day
Originally uploaded by kcsporttour

Alec is off school today, i am working from home. Alec is sleeping on the bed in the office, Random the Cat is under his arm, and Sam the Dog is asleep on the floor.

The Big Takeover : Rolling Stone

Matt Taibbi writes this excellent article clearly explaining the basics of what the hell just happened: The Big Takeover : Rolling Stone

Twheel

Fancy. Getting closer to the crazy AI powered wheels from Heavy Weather

Tiny microphone for iPod Touch

Switcheasy announces thumbtack-size iPod mic | Accessories | Playlist | Macworld: "The microphone plugs directly into the headphone jack of compatible iPods, letting you record audio using either the iPod’s built-in voice-recording feature or, in the case of the iPod touch, third-party software."

Yeah, but will it work for using the Touch as a VOIP phone?

National Pi Day

National Pi Day? Congress makes it official | Politics and Law - CNET News

: "Washington politicians took time from bailouts and earmark-laden spending packages on Wednesday for what might seem like an unusual act: officially designating a National Pi Day.
That's Pi as in ratio-of-a-circle's-circumference-to-diameter, better known as the mathematical constant beginning with 3.14159.
The U.S. House of Representatives on Wednesday approved a resolution introduced two days earlier that designates March 14, 2009 (3/14, get it?) as National Pi Day. It urges schools to take the opportunity to teach their students about Pi and 'engage them about the study of mathematics.'"

Sam and Snowball

Sam and Snowball
Originally uploaded by kcsporttour

Yaesu VX-8R and Motorcycles

At first glance, the new Yaesu VX-8R Ham radio looks like it's perfect for motorcycle use. Waterproof, receives DC to light (530khz to 999mhz) APRS built in, etc. But one problem - in order to use the APRS, you have to either plug the GPS puck into the microphone jack, or use an external speaker mic with a slot for the GPS puck. In order to use the HT with external mic and speakers (like hooked to an Autocom) you have to hook an adapter dongle to the microphone jack.

The adapter dongle doesn't have a provision for the GPS puck - so no dice running APRS and using it with your Autocom.

Now it does have a Bluetooth option coming out, so it may be possible to use Bluetooth for audio and transmit, while having the GPS puck attached to the radio. We'll see . . .