Reality Me

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  • For what odds will you give up freedom?

    The current administration likes to scare the public. We enact The Patriot Act and other such measures that damage our Constitution and deprive the people of freedoms previously assumed guaranteed. Are our fears displaced?

    For those of you who wonder just how safe you will be once you’ve given up all of your Constitutional freedoms and rights, it may be a valuable exercise to see what the odds are that you, personally, will die in one of these terrorist attacks… [Source]

    Now, I have searched the CDC’s website but been unsuccessful in finding the source that anotherperspective.org cites and their figures are slightly differen than the National Geographic Ways to Go chart (used as the background of this post) as linked to by the National Safety Council. I think the numbers are close enough to make their point. I have also searched Snopes and did not find anything discrediting anotherperspective.org. Odds of dying (100% if course!):

    • 1 in 88,000 of a terrorist attack
    • 1 in 1,500,000 of a terrorist-caused shopping mall disaster assuming one such incident a week and you shop two hours a week
    • 1 in 55,000,000 in a terrorist-caused plane disaster assuming one such incident a month and you fly once a month
    • 1 in 55,928 of death by lightening
    • 1 in 20,605 in your clothes igniting
    • 1 in 10,455 of dying in your bathtub
    • 1 in 10,010 by falling from a ladder or scaffolding
    • 1 in 9,396 due to excessive heat
    • 1 in 8,389 due to excessive cold
    • 1 in 7,972 in a drowning accident
    • 1 in 6,842 in a railway accident
    • 1 in 197 of dying in a homicide
    • 1 in 299 of dying in an assault from a firearm
    • 1 in 5,330 of dying in an assault by hanging or strangulation
    • 1 in 207,261 in operations of war

    Now, the question that every American must ask themselves is this; am I willing to give up my Constitutional freedoms in hopes of avoiding death by lightening, which is 983 times more likely than dying because a terrorists crashes an airplane? Are you willing to live in a Republican/Nazi police state in hopes that you don’t die from your clothes catching fire (2669 times more likely) or falling in your bathtub (5261 times more likely)? Are you seriously asking this regime to protect you from being strangled or hanged when the odds of that happening is 10318 times more probable than dying in a terrorist-caused attack? Are you, at your very core, comfortable with the idea of leaving to your children a world in which Republicans/Nazis/fascists control all American’s everyday life? [Source]

    Let me restate one thing from above "death by lightening … is 983 times more likely than dying because a terrorists crashes an airplane"

    As an aside, the CDC has podcasts! The Center for Disease Control has an impressive amount of useful content. If you are a parent, you should definitely look in on the CDC from time to time.

  • Impeach Bush

    So, is the new trend going to be to try to impeach the president every four years?

    9% of US Congress now supports the impeachment review, including 18% of Democrats, 100% of Independents (1 out of 1), and 0% of Republicans.

    The best represented states on H. Res 635 are California (9), New York (6), Illinois (3), Massachusetts (3), Minnesota (3), Georgia (2), New Jersey (2), and Wisconsin (2).
    [Source]

  • What’s up with Cannibas?

    Like every other blogger, I knew that in no time at all I would be pulling in thousands of dollars from Adsense thus you see a couple of ads on the Reality Me. Apparently I talk about pot more than I thought because Adsense, being context sensitive, has consistently shown a banner ad for Cannibas and Medical Marijuana since I posted Top 10 Pot Studies Government Regrets Funding. Of course, this post contributes to Adsense wanting to put marijuana ads on Reality Me. I find the ads distracting and non-profitable so eventually I will get around to removing them. In the meantime, if the arrest of the Wests has put a damper on your supply, I suppose you can click the banner for a new source.

  • Pictures after the Oak Ridge incident

    If we messed up in Oak Ridge, these pictures show what Knoxville would look like 20 years later.

    On the 26th of April 1986 shortly after midnight, to be precise, at 1:23 GMT, there occurred near the Ukrainian town of Chornobyl a tremendous explosion at a huge nuclear power plant, followed by a gradual meltdown of the reactor No. 4.
    …
    Nowadays there guided tours are being conducted to this area. These photos are made by George Borman (Pikul) while participating in such a trip.
    [Source]

    In America, you can tour the Nevada Test Sites.

    See also.

  • Pellissippi parkway is a parking lot

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  • Blingo Sends Me to the Movies!

    Blingo

    I just won another movie ticket from Blingo! This time someone that signed up as a referral from me won so I won also. Now, I signed up under Cathy so when I win she wins which presents a slight problem in that Blingo limits each household to two prizes per month. On 9/4 I won a ticket and having referred me to Blingo Cathy received a prize also. She claimed an iTunes gift certificate. So technically, that is our two prizes this month. I wonder if I will actually receive this movie ticket. I think 2 prizes per month is far too limiting particularly if you have referred many people.

    Since November of 2005, I have won 5 movie tickets from Blingo!

  • New iPod shuffle now smallest MP3 player

    Engadget has a picture of the new iPod shuffle. Nice! And only $79!

  • Bush’s grandfather finanaced Hilter

    Thought I’d post this just because this link will spread like wildfire. Looks like the Bush family fortune may have been established by an American company profitting by backing Nazi Germany.

    The Guardian has obtained confirmation from newly discovered files in the US National Archives that a firm of which Prescott Bush was a director was involved with the financial architects of Nazism.

    His business dealings, which continued until his company’s assets were seized in 1942 under the Trading with the Enemy Act, has led more than 60 years later to a civil action for damages being brought in Germany against the Bush family by two former slave labourers at Auschwitz…

    …new documents, many of which were only declassified last year, show that even after America had entered the war and when there was already significant information about the Nazis’ plans and policies, he worked for and profited from companies closely involved with the very German businesses that financed Hitler’s rise to power. It has also been suggested that the money he made from these dealings helped to establish the Bush family fortune and set up its political dynasty.

    More than 60 years after Prescott Bush came briefly under scrutiny at the time of a faraway war, his grandson is facing a different kind of scrutiny but one underpinned by the same perception that, for some people, war can be a profitable business.
    [Source]

  • From the mouths of babes

    Amy: " I don’t like being small." giggle, smile "when you’re small you’re" pause, grin, quieter "aaangry."

    My God! My daughter is Jack Nicholson!

  • Crack Withdrawal

    Popurls appears to be down! I don’t know what to do with myself.

  • Remembering 9/11/2001

    twintowers

    I was late to work and Cathy said, "The Twin Towers are on fire." We watched the news together as the second plane hit. I remember the awe at what was happening before my eyes but not being overly concerned as I knew our firefighters would take care of the flames and that our engineers would restore the buildings; then the tower dropped. I stared at the tv in disbelief. That couldn’t happen!

    I grabbed a portable television and went into work. We all sat around watching the news … more when evan lets me type

  • Reading Is Fundamental

    Tonight I finished Chaim Potok’s The Chosen“>The Chosen. Good read. It leaves me asking many questions about Jewry. The story is very moving.

  • LOST Spoiler

    Dharma Exposed. Namaste.

    See also and also.

  • My next business venture! Microwaved people.

    capsuleinn

    Anyone want to help me put a Capsule Inn near every major airport?

    A typical Capsule Hotel is composed of two major sections; a public lounge space including bathing, and the other is a private space where the sleeping rooms (capsules) are arranged. The actual sleeping room is a capsule unit made of reinforced plastic and designed in the image of a jet airplane’s cockpit. In the capsule unit, all the required amenities are provided; TV, radio, alarm clock, adjustable lighting… almost everything is provided! Every device is within your reach and you can control everything in a sleeping position.

    Unfortunately, men and women sleep on separate floors. Looks like intimacy is out in this intimate environment anyway. I think it would be like having sex in an MRI (yes, there are pictures available). "Sleep at Capsule Inn! It’s like the morgue, just with windows."

  • Bring Me A Rock!

    In the Quality Assurance world, we sometimes talk about rocks. Putting aside the middle managers, the product team, customer service, the project manager, the end user and so forth, a product ultimately falls to 2 people or groups: the client and the vendor. The client describes what they want; the vendor fulfills the client’s needs. The industry does not matter; could be software, could be construction, industrial supplies, whatever. And the problems begin with the first conversation. See, the client and the vendor speak the same language but in different dialects. The customer speaks and the vendor thinks they understand and drawing upon their experiences in their industry moves on to make the product for the client.

    Here is how it works:

    Client: "Bring me a rock!"
    Vendor, eager to satisfy: Rushes out and finds the perfect rock. Cleans the dirt from the rock. Polishes it and returns it to the client.
    Client: "Not that rock! Weren’t you listening? I said, ‘Bring me a rock!’"
    Vendor, thinking he understands better: Goes out, spends twice as long, finds the perfect rock. Cleans it, polishes it, checks with some managers who agree it is the perfect rock. And returns to the client.
    Client: "Not that rock! I want flatter rock. That rock is too round. Bring me a rock!"
    Vendor, slightly dejected but still enthused: Goes out, kicks around some rocks. Notices all rocks are round here. Travels to another location. Finds a nice flat rock. Returns to client.
    Pattern continues…
    Eventually…
    Client: "Now that’s a rock! Why didn’t you bring me that one in the first place? Could I have two for the price of one?"

    The subtle differences in the dialect and the assumptions made on both the client’s part and the vendor’s part often result in a frustrated vendor and a dissatisfied client. Unfortunately client’s often get frustrated when the vendor asks too many questions about the rock in the beginning. The client doesn’t understand why the vendor is so dense. When the client buys into the need to clearly define a specification at the beginning of the project, time, money and aggrivation is saved!

    Really, Bring Me A Rock applies to all walks of life. We do this to our children too. "Clean your room." "I’m done. Room’s clean." "That room is a mess!" See the problem?