New Tech

Remeber the movie Aliens where they set up the automatic machine guns to kill the aliens creepign down the corridors?
Well Samsung has given us one.

Click Here

This device has it's flaws but the idea and the implementation are certainly valid. Read the massive amount of commentary after the article and vid for numerous varying opinions on the morality, effectivness, and flaws of the system.

Personally, I like it. but they need to have humans backing them up so that when they start shooting people show up quickly to see what is going on.

Here is a link to some kids who have a home made version. How is that for a scary idea?

Searching and stuff

People periodically ask me if I think the Google Ads are worth it. The answer to that is of course yes. Why? Well, because it is really free money. I mean I spent 5 minutes something over a year ago copying some code from one website to another and since then the money has been, well rolling in isn’t the right description. Trickling might do it. Oozing is probably more accurate. Although since they don’t cut you a check till you have $100 of revenue it seems more like a surge. I have received on such check and the last time I checked was something beyond halfway to another. So I really made $100 for 5 minutes work. It just takes awhile to add up. So if you are wondering if you should do the Google Ads, it certainly doesn’t hurt. Speaking of Google and similar search engines, I am rather amazed by the number of hits I get through them. Seriously, I think I have about 8 fairly regular readers of whom three are family and three others are close enough friends to nearly be family. (there may be more out there but I kind of doubt it, feel free to correct me) I used to have more but considering my irregular posting I am lucky for the readers I have. Now, despite the rarity of regular readers, my blog is actually on an upswing in readership. I get a lot of one time hits from the search engines and I am rather surprised at the things people are searching for when they come in. Lately, no big surprise I am sad to say, I have been getting a lot of hits on the word “Transvestites”. As a regular hit generator I get a few each month on “Sweetzal’s Spiced Wafers” which I used in a few recipes. I get hits on “Camp Udairi”, “Kuwaiti Lizards”, and “Iron Beer” with fair regularity. I get a lot of random hits from searches containing the word “someone” and have come across a few where people are searching for “exmi”. (There is surprisingly enough another “exmi” out there but he posts in Russian so I have very little idea what he is about). My political posts rarely seem to draw much search engine fire. I have been at this long enough though and with enough variety in topics that I can come up in a variety of places. This blog certainly hasn’t gone in the direction I really expected it to when I started it but hey, it is still a going concern which is more than I can say for many of the blogs I came across when I was starting. So I must be doing something right.

Zero tolerance?

Once again the absolute stupidity of school's "zero tolerance" policies is rearing it's ugly head. Usually this come up when some kid is suspended or expelled for taking an aspirin, or worse, giving one to a friend. This case is a bit different. A school in Rhode Island is refusing to use this Photo, submitted by a student for his yearbook picture.

This picture violates the schools "zero tolerance" policy on weapons. Yeah, the boy is posing with a big ass sword there. But not because he is promoting violence, no he like medieval history and is a member of The Society for Creative Anachronism. Now I know SCA folks and they are often a bit strange but promoting violence is not a big thing.

I might cut the school some slack on the grounds that "These are the rules and the students know and should obey them." grounds but the school violates it's own policy. The mascot of the school is "The Patriots" and said Patriot is often displayed with a rifle in his hands. In addition, on the schools webpage, there are pictures of students carrying toy weapons and miming acts of violence. To top off the hypocrisy of this policy, they told the student that he could buy an ad and run the picture there. So it is zero tolerance unless you pay us.

More food......

Ok, so I had one reasonably relevant post and now I am back to food. Good food too.

Apple Cranberry Crisp. I found this recipe at the home of the High Desert Diva. It is a nice place to look around.
Here is the recipe,

4 cups Granny Smith apples, sliced & tossed with lemon (to prevent browning)
1 cup fresh cranberries
3 Tablespoons flour
2 Tablespoons sugar
1 Tablespoon honey
1/8 teaspoon ginger
1/2 cup rolled oats
1/2 cup brown sugar packed
1/4 cup flour
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 cup margarine
1/4 cup chopped almonds, pecans or walnuts
Preheat oven to 375F. Combine fruit, 3T flour, sugar, honey and ginger to make filling. Spread filling in baking dish. Combine oats, brown sugar, 1/4c flour and nutmeg. Cut in margarine until mixture resembles large crumbs. Stir in nuts. Sprinkle topping over filling. Bake for about 30 minutes or until fruit is tender and the topping is golden brown.

Now, my variations. I used butter instead of margarine. MY apples were about 1/4 dehydrated. Not because of any grand scheme but because they were the last of the apples I picked off my sister's tree and that is what happens to apples left sitting in a bag for a month and a half. I also did not add the nuts because I just prefer food without nuts.

Pictures:


This is the apple cranberry mix before the crust stuff is put on. It looks good enough to just eat by itself.



And here is a serving with vanilla ice cream right before consumption. It is very good.

Hate Crimes

Hate crimes. I know we have all heard of hate crimes and may even know people who have been affected by them I am hereby casting myself with a (probable) minority that think Hate Crime Legislation is BAD. Now, I am not saying that it is okay to go out and attack blacks, or gays, or whites, or anyone else. No, that kind of behavior is criminal and should be treated as such. But I have a real problem with laws that punish people for what they think. Have you heard the term “thought police”? This is what hates crime legislation creates. The state will seek you out and punish you, not necessarily for what you do, but for what you were supposedly thinking while you did it.
I can think of a few examples that I have read about on different blogs in the past year. (No, I am not going to go and find the blog and link it. Some of these posts are quite old and all of them are examples of many similar actions) In the most recent example a quiet soft spoken Hispanic gentleman saw some “rednecks” standing around his car in front of his house. He went out and told them to move on. When they reacted to his orders with the bellicosity and verbal abuse one can expect when dealing with groups of drunk young rednecks he, being non violent and outnumbered decided to beat a precipitous retreat and ran for the house. He tripped; they caught him, and proceeded to beat the tar out of him. (Injuring him quite badly in the process) Now they were arrested for assault as is correct and to be encouraged. But because they used some form of racial slur when yelling at him they are also being charged with a hate crime. Now I SERIOUSLY doubt these people set out to find a Hispanic person’s car, hang out at it and lure him in so they could pound on him. They would have done the same thing if he had been a quite soft spoken white guy who had confronted them and then turned and ran. But because the victim was a minority, it becomes a “Hate Crime” and they face much more serious prison time. So, the same crime could be committed, and one insult changes the punishment? I do not think this is right.
In another recent case a group of black teenage girls, attacked several white women, throwing pumpkins at them and hitting them with skateboards, and stealing their clothes and jewelry. These girls also used racial slurs while attacking. Now, one would think that given the precedent of the previous case and others like it, they would clearly be charged with a hate crime, they may be in the end but there is great debate on that issue because they are “an oppressed minority”. Believe it or not, there are many people who seriously believe that racism can ONLY occur with the majority against the minority. So, in their mind, these girls could not have committed a “Hate Crime” because, as an oppressed minority, they cannot be racist so it doesn’t apply. Now, I don’t think that they should be charged with a hate crime. I don’t think ANYONE should be charged with a hate crime. I think people should be charged, arrested, tried, and punished, if found guilty, for WHAT THEY DO, not what they may or may not think. In this country we have freedom of speech. The last time I read the Constitution of the United States there wasn’t any reference to a right not to be offended. If a person is a racist, sexist, homophobic, asshole you may shun him, you may scorn him, you may choose not to do business with him and encourage others not to do business with him either. You may write letters to the editor about him, comment on him in your blog, (but be careful you get into slander and libel while doing it) you may tell your children not to play with his children and make funny faces at him when he walks down the street. You can even get an injunction against him to keep him away from your house. But you may not have him arrested because it is his right to be a racist, sexist, homophobic, asshole. As long as he doesn’t hit you while he is doing it or otherwise infringe on your actual rights or your physical safety. And he calling you a name does not infringe on any of those. Even if he does it while hitting you. The hitting should be a crime, the name calling shouldn’t. And do please note, the “he” referenced above may be a she, and the homophobe maybe a hetrophobe (and yes, I have met a few of those), the racist may be of any race of mixture.
The thought police exist in this country; you can find them on university campuses, in malls, in the schools (public and private), in your churches, and on the radio. Some of them are liberals, some of them are conservatives. Anyone who tries to use the police powers of the state to tell the people how to THINK is just wrong. At least in my not so humble opinion. If you think otherwise, feel free to let me know.