You've Lost that Lovin Ceiling

One of the biggest things in the news these days is the hubbub the U.S. politicians are making over the debt ceiling. It's absurd. There's not much I can say about it, but I suppose people are talking about it and maybe might want to talk about it around here, which is fine.

The Republicans are hypocrates and the Democrats are Democrats. Both want to take your money and flush it down the Potomac. Actually, they want to pocket it and re-invest it in the greater D.C. area. Did you know that the majority of the top 10 richest counties are right outside Washington D.C. (the others are all right outside of Wall St.'s backyard).

Money continues to pour into our nation's capital, despite the fact that no elected official would send their kids to any of the local public schools, and we are supposed to concern ourselves with a debt ceiling?

There are some reports that the credit rating of the U.S. federal government will be downgraded regardless. There are reports that if we don't raise the ceiling a disaster beyond imagination will occur. There are reports that foreigners are buying up American homes. There are reports that Republicans are fiscal conservatives. Sorry, now is no time for jokes.

I have been thinking for awhile about writing a post about large numbers and trying to break down the scale of the deficits and debts and budgets to try to make them understandable. If there's enough interest, maybe.

Otherwise, does anyone think Obama, Reid or Boehner has the best interest of the American people at heart? This is why I, a patriot and life long Republican voter, have not voted in a federal election since I voted for Bush the second time. What difference does it make?

But I still read a lot and stay informed. I thought this was an interesting interview, and that this was a very informative article.

Debate on...

Hump Day Wednesday

In spite of being a "computer guy", I've never given much thought to hackers. I always thought that they were both glamorized in movies but over looked in real security matters (like when Congress gets hacked and the IP addresses are always from China).

But this group seems to wield a good bit of power. LulzSec. Never heard of them before, but the story is pretty interesting. Gotta admit it's probably a lot more exciting than whatever their day jobs are.

I've always been a big fan of looking for more thorough ways to utilize the energy that I think of as just laying around. Gravity is a big one for me, wind, and now I guess sun. This guy designed a machine that does some pretty cool stuff just with sun power, and that's not just what you think of as "solar power" but also the amplified, direct light of the sun.

Forgive me for linking to a NYT article (I believe they're just a step slower than the average paper, or else they would be up on phone hacking charges now too). But this was an interesting observation and something I've been thinking about in general. Are we making childhood too safe for our children to turn into decent human beings? Not sure this article is making any grand claims like that, but it does make some good points.

OK, and so these videos are cool. The skydiving from plane to plane is sort of wild and hair-brained. But the flying squirrel suits this couple dons create some pretty beautiful situations.

Every time a 26-year-old girl in America quotes 'The Bachelorette', a 13-year-old girl in China graduates from college.
--from Twitter, @NotKennyRogers