Monthly Archives: October 2010

The Certainty of Death and Taxes.

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Because Congress is letting Federal inheritance taxes take up to 55% of the worth of a family estate. some folks are considering their own early demise to keep the family farm in the  family.

CHEYENNE — U.S. Rep. Cynthia Lummis says some of her Wyoming constituents are so worried about the reinstatement of federal estate taxes that they plan to discontinue dialysis and other life-extending medical treatments so they can die before Dec. 31.

Lummis, a Republican who holds her state’s lone seat in the House, declined to name any of the people who have made the comments.

But she said many ranchers and farmers in the state would rather pass along their businesses — “their life’s work” — to their children and grandchildren than see the federal government take a large chunk.

The Congress creatures don’t have a clue why the church going,  gun clingers are angry.

Rasmussen Moves On

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Lars Rasmussen has left the building.  Lars is one of Googles leading project engineers, and is the father of both Google Maps and the ill fated  Wave.

He has been living in Australia for the past few years. He founded Where 2 Technologies along with his brother Jens Rasmussen. The startup was later acquired by Google and morphed into Google Maps.

His next big project was the hyped Google Wave. Announced last year, the product promised to revolutionize real-time communication and collaboration. However, it proved complex and confusing, a great piece of technology in search of an actual use.

The rumor mill has Lars moving over to Facebook,

Rasmussen confirmed his departure on his Facebook page. Yesterday was his last day of work at Google. He didn’t give any indication where he’ll be heading next, other than he’d be “a whole big ocean closer” (he was living in Australia where the Wave team was based). But the fact that he put all this info on Facebook is telling. From what we’re hearing, he will be joining Facebook.

Neither Facebook nor Google has returned our request for comment yet.

Google killed Wave just a few weeks after making it publicly available. Wave will live on as an open-source project, but Google has no plans to fund or develop Wave anymore.

If Rasmussen does move to Facebook it could mean some exciting things for Facebook and her users.   Rasmussen isn’t only a skilled programmer but very imaginative.

A Billboard in Baytown, TX

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BaytownBilboard

Saw this billboard yesterday on Garth Rd. In Baytown. I got to wondering “Who would pay for such a thing?” Most of us have a lot of opinions about a lot of different things. Some things are important enough, that we will donate some of our hard earned cash. Sometimes it might be just a little, sometimes a lot.  For most people though, we have to have some motivation before we depart with our hard earned cash.   I just wonder what kind of person is paying to post these billboards. I suspect it is someone who tends to blame all their failings in life on their mothers.  who will be the first to pick up the cause, The Republicans or Democrats? Maybe the Libertarians, they aren’t afraid to take a stand hardly anyone is voting for them anyway. 

Chinese Unveil the Fastest Super Computer

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The Chinese unveiled their new Super Computer that is 40% faster than the best we have to offer.

But Nvidia says the new system in Tianjin—which is being formally announced Thursday at an event in China—was able to reach 2.5 petaflops. That is a measure of calculating speed ordinarily translated into a thousand trillion operations per second. It is more than 40% higher than the mark set last June by a system called Jaguar at Oak Ridge National Laboratory that previously stood at No. 1 on a twice-yearly ranking of the 500 fastest supercomputers.

“I don’t know of another system that is going to be anywhere near the performance and the power of this machine” in China, said Jack Dongarra, a supercomputer expert on the Oak Ridge research staff who is a professor at the University of Tennessee and recently inspected the system in Tianjin last week. “It is quite impressive.”

In the race for technological and economical superiority we are rapidly falling behind. It might be easy to blame the leftist, but the so called conservatives have played a large part in handing over our superiority to the Red Chinese.  Our response today is to scale back our Space Program,   and sell out our economy with huge deficits which the Communist nation owns.

In the Mailbox

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Found in my in my mailbox:

One 82-year-old lady loves Obama and she may have a very good point. She says that Obama is amazing, and is rebuilding the American dream! She gives us an entirely new slant on the “amazing” job Obama is doing, and she says that she will thank God for the President. Keep reading for her additional comments and an explanation.
When discussing Obama, she says:

1. Obama destroyed the Clinton Political Machine, driving a stake through the heart of Hillary’s presidential aspirations – something no Republican was ever able to do.

2. Obama killed off the Kennedy Dynasty – no more Kennedys trolling Washington looking for booze and women wanting rides home.

3. Obama is destroying the Democratic Party before our eyes! Dennis Moore had never lost a race. Evan Bayh had never lost a race. Byron Dorgan had never lost a race. Harry Reid – soon to be GONE! These are just a handful of the Democrats whose political careers Obama has destroyed. By the end of 2010, dozens more will be gone. Just think, in December of 2008 the Democrats were on the rise.
In the last two election cycles, they had picked up 14 Senate seats and 52 House seats. The press was touting the death of the Conservative Movement and the Republican Party. However, in just one year, Obama put a stop to all of this and will probably give the House – if not the Senate – back to the Republicans.

4. Obama has completely exposed liberals and progressives for what they are. Sadly, every generation seems to need to re-learn the lesson on why they should never actually put liberals in charge. Obama is bringing home the lesson very well: Liberals tax, borrow and spend. Liberals won’t bring themselves to protect America. Liberals want to take over the economy. Liberals think they know what is best for everyone. Liberals are not happy until they are running YOUR life.

5. Obama has brought more Americans back to conservatism than anyone since Reagan. In one year, he has rejuvenated the Conservative Movement and brought out to the streets millions of freedom loving Americans. Name one other time when you saw your friends and neighbors this interested in taking back America!

6. Obama, with his “amazing leadership,” has sparked the greatest period of sales of firearms and ammunition this country has seen. Law abiding citizens have rallied and have provided a “stimulus” to the sporting goods field while other industries have failed, faded, or moved off-shore.

7. In all honesty, one year ago I was more afraid than I have been in my life. Not afraid of the economy, but afraid of the direction our country was going. I thought Americans have forgotten what this country is all about. My neighbors and friends, even strangers, have proved to me that my lack of confidence in the greatness and wisdom of the American people has been flat wrong.

8. When the American people wake up, no smooth talking teleprompter reader can fool them! Barack Obama has served to wake up these great Americans!

Again, I want to say: “Thank you, Barack Obama!” After all, this is exactly the kind of hope and change we desperately needed!! 4. Obama has completely exposed liberals and progressives for what they are. Sadly, every generation seems to need to re-learn the lesson on why they should never actually put liberals in charge. Obama is bringing home the lesson very well: Liberals tax, borrow and spend. Liberals won’t bring themselves to protect America. Liberals want to take over the economy. Liberals think they know what is best for everyone. Liberals are not happy until they are running YOUR life.

I don’t know if this 82 year old lady really exist, but it makes for fun reading anyway.

Thanks Alan

Being Mainstream Is More Important Than Being Right

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I think what Lisa Murkowski is trying to say is that it isn’t so important to be right as it is to be mainstream.

“That somehow or other these are unconstitutional because they’re not enumerated within the powers of the constitution, that somehow or other we should just be eliminating these, I think that is out of the mainstream,” Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) said on MSNBC.

What she seems to be saying is, ” That it is more important to be mainstream than than constitutional.”  Both major political parties are guilty of this mindset, even though most Senators wouldn’t be silly enough to admit it on an MSNBC interview.  Coyote Blog thinks there needs to be some fundamental changes to fix this.

No campaign rules or financing “reform”, or even a wholesale change in Congressional makeup from the Pepsi to the Coke party, is going to change anything unless the fundamental problem of the expansion of government power is addressed.

The fundamental change has to be attitude, those in power will not change because ignoring the principles of the constitution, is what has gained them power. The fundamental change has to be a change in personnel  Congress will figure it out when those who ignore the Constitution get ousted because their replacements understand the Constitution is their framework.

She’s Just Happy to See Us

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We in Texas won’t have the only pistol packing governor if the vote goes as expected to our Neighbors to the West.

Alamogordo, New Mexico (CNN) – When CNN interviewed Susana Martinez, New Mexico’s Republican candidate for Governor, we got a surprise. Our cameraman John Torigoe was trying to clip the microphone pack to the candidate’s belt when she pulled away and said “Be careful, that’s a gun back there.” Martinez tells CNN she has a permit to carry a concealed weapon.

She was packing heat when she addressed a gathering in Alamogordo, New Mexico on Monday. She warned them not to get too confident because “as Republicans we’re outnumbered.”

Perhaps someday Martinez might have a gun made in her honor.

Harris County Pulling it Off

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After the fire that destroyed all the voting Machines in August, Harris County looks like they are going to pull it off with early elections.

There are still four more days of early voting — but we’ve exceeded the early voting totals for any previous gubernatorial election. The numbers here don’t include Monday’s vote totals — just the first week of early voting.

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I hope it does, especially with the voting machine fire in August. Indeed, I’d be happy to see so many folks turn out before election day that we have a very quiet day on November 2, when the polling place where I’m election judge will be short an eSlate machine or two.

Rhode Island Joins the ATM Club

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This election cycle seems to involve a lot of snubs,  Some Democrats distancing themselves from Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi others are Shying away from President Obama, but Obama pissed of gubernatorial candidate Frank Caprio when he found out that Obama wouldn’t endorse him.

“He can take his endorsement and really shove it”, Caprio told John Depetro and the WPRO morning news. Caprio told WPRO he did not seek the President’s endorsement and calls the snub Washington politics.

“We had one of the worst floods in the history of the United States a few months back and President Obama didn’t even do a fly over of Rhode Island. He ignored us and now he’s coming into Rhode Island and treating us like an ATM machine”, said Caprio.

Interesting Choice of words. Senator Cornyn  said the same thing about Obama’s last visit to Texas.

“I think the president is just using Texas as an ATM,” Cornyn said.

While Obama’s third visit to Texas as president will bring in truckloads of cash for the Democratic National Committee and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, it will not bring in some leading Texas Democrats.

Obama probably thinks less of Texas , But the feeling is mutual.

Bees, Out Calculate Computers.

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Using a brain smaller than a Grass seed bees can solve a math problem on the fly, that would take a power computer days to solve.

Bees can solve complex mathematical problems which keep computers busy for days, research has shown.

The insects learn to fly the shortest route between flowers discovered in random order, effectively solving the “travelling salesman problem” , said scientists at Royal Holloway, University of London.

The conundrum involves finding the shortest route that allows a travelling salesman to call at all the locations he has to visit. Computers solve the problem by comparing the length of all possible routes and choosing the one that is shortest.

The Bees close the deal almost every time.