Seecamps!
Friday, January 31, 2014
Da Komrade!
When a young illustrator from Moscow, Andrei Tarusov, decided to picture how the Winter Olympics might have looked in the old USSR if the erstwhile Soviet government hadn't been so zealous in suppressing the sexuality of its citizens, he let his imagination run wild.
The result was an off-the-wall calendar that creatively combined Soviet propaganda poster art with vintage American pin-ups: scantily clad retro-babes in classic pin-up poses but with Soviet enthusiastic fire in their eyes, engaging in winter sports with athletic equipment from the 1940s and 1950s. The pictures were accompanied by rhymed slogans, written by the artist's friend in the traditional propagandistic style with a new, ironic twist.
As bad as things are, we have come a long way
And it makes one wonder what life will be like in another twenty years.
Buffalo (NY) journalist and historian Steve Cichon has an article on the Trending Buffalo website (“Everything from 1991 Radio Shack ad I now do with my phone“) featuring a full-page Radio Shack ad from the Buffalo News on February 16, 1991 (see graphic above). Of the 15 electronics products featured in the Radio Shack ad, 13 of them can now be replaced with a $200 iPhone according to Steve’s analysis. The 13 Radio Shack items in the ad (all-weather personal stereo, AM/FM clock radio, headphones, calculator, computer, camcorder, cell phone, regular phone, CD player, CB radio, scanner, phone answering machine, and cassette recorder) would have cost a total of $3,055 in 1991, which is equivalent in today’s dollars to $5,225. Versus only $200 for an iPhone 5S.
In hours worked at the average wage, the 13 electronics items in 1991 would have had a “time cost” of 290.4 hours of work at the average hourly wage then of $10.52 (or 7.25 weeks or 36.3 days). Today, the $200 iPhone would have a “time cost” of fewer than 10 hours (9.82) of work at the average hourly wage today of $20.35, and just one day of work, plus a few extra hours.
MP: When you consider that an iPhone can fit in your pocket and has many apps and features that were either not available in 1991 (GPS, text messaging, Internet access, mobile access to movies, more than 900,000 apps, iCloud access, etc.) or not listed in the 1991 Radio Shack ad (camera, photo-editing), it’s amazing how much progress we’ve made in just several decades, and how affordable electronic productions have become.
Meanwhile, more prejudice in schools.
Apparently the gifted class was too white, and that bothered the school administrators. They just couldn't face the reality that there are differences, and the gifted students, of all races, have to pay the price for their political correctness run amok. I sometimes despair for our country that cretins like this are in charge of our kids.
Before long it will be illegal to get an "A" if the stupid kids don't get one too.
From the article:
Before long it will be illegal to get an "A" if the stupid kids don't get one too.
From the article:
“Our Kindergarten classes will be heterogeneously grouped to reflect the diversity of our student
body and the community we live in,” Miss McDonald said in the letter posted on Flickr.com.
body and the community we live in,” Miss McDonald said in the letter posted on Flickr.com.
At least one parent described SOAR as largely white, while others disagreed, the report said.
One mother conceded the program did have a lot of white students, but worried gifted students now won’t be challenged enough.
Thursday, January 30, 2014
This isn't good news.
The GOP releases it's Standards for Immigration Reform, otherwise known as the Democratic Voter Importation Act, or the Create a Permanent Minority of Americans In Their Own Country Act, or the Act To Cause The Socialists Otherwise Known As The Democratic Party To Laugh Maniacally And Point At Stupid, Stupid Republicans.
Boehner's number: (202) 225-0600. Press 2 after it picks up. Maybe a human will answer, but do leave a message. They
Need to know the shitstorm they are creating in their own
base.
Boehner's number: (202) 225-0600. Press 2 after it picks up. Maybe a human will answer, but do leave a message. They
Need to know the shitstorm they are creating in their own
base.
Could this be some good news for a change?
"With Democrats’ grasp on the Senate increasingly tenuous — and the House all but beyond reach — some top party donors and strategists are moving to do something in the midterm election as painful as it is coldblooded: Admit the House can’t be won and go all in to save the Senate.
Their calculation is uncomplicated. With only so much money to go around in an election year that is tilting the GOP’s way, Democrats need to concentrate resources on preserving the chamber they have now. Losing the Senate, they know, could doom whatever hopes Barack Obama has of salvaging the final years of his presidency.
Infinite arrogance, infinite incompetence
Constitutional government. Gone. Some of us remember it, as a trembling octogenarian remembers ardor in the back seat of his ’53 Chevy. The young will know it only as an exotic idea. Bush II began the serious bleeding. Obama, the first African-American president and much more African than American, opens the larger veins.
Unfettered surveillance of absolutely everything, militarized police, the military as private presidential army, searches without probable or indeed any cause, photo ID required to buy train tickets, on and on.
Economic policy. If any. Washington drives the country bankrupt, colludes with Wall Street, to the extent that there is a distinction between Washington and Wall Street, and brings on the subprime crash. The swine tell us that we are the greatest economic powerhouse known to creation, while unemployment is ghastly, college grads have to live with their parents, food stamps spread, and the middle class lives paycheck to paycheck. Oh thank you, thank you.
Race relations. Another charred ruin. Better than a half century into the Great Society, huge numbers of blacks live trapped in urban Bantustans, Newark, Detroit, Birmingham, Philadelphia, barely literate if at all, unemployed and unemployable, bastardy almost universal, utterly dependent on federal charity, without the slightest hope that any of this will change. If Washington had deliberately tried to make a greater mess, it couldn’t have.
Wednesday, January 29, 2014
Borderline retard Joe Biden decides to yuck it up while his boss delivers the SOTU.
I don't know why Boehner didn't reach over and slap the fool upside the head.
The government takes the first step towards 401k/IRA confiscation
Or so it is argued here.
"The government is flat broke. Even by their own assessment, the US government’s “net worth” is NEGATIVE 16 trillion. That’s as of the end of 2012 (the 2013 numbers aren’t out yet). But the trend is actually worsening.
In 2009, the government’s net worth was negative $11.45 trillion. By 2010, it had dropped to minus $13.47 trillion. By 2011, minus $14.78 trillion. And by 2012, minus $16.1 trillion.
Here’s the thing: according to the IRS, there is well over $5 trillion in US individual retirement accounts. For a government as bankrupt as Uncle Sam is, $5 trillion is irresistible.
They need that money. They need YOUR money. And this MyRA program is the critical first step to corralling your hard earned retirement funds."
Therefore keep a close eye on the boys from Washington, because they and their banker buddies are keeping a close eye on your money. Remember, Social Security was supposed to be funded with money collected and invested from working Americans, but eventually our own government spent that money, and relies on current collections to pay their obligations. If they didn't flinch from stealing that retirement pile, they certainly won't flinch from stealing your 401k.
Icelanders drill into magma, find a new source of cheap geothermal power
Can enormous heat deep in the earth be harnessed to provide energy for us on the surface? A promising report from a geothermal borehole project that accidentally struck magma – the same fiery, molten rock that spews from volcanoes – suggests it could.
The Icelandic Deep Drilling Project, IDDP, has been drilling shafts up to 5km deep in an attempt to harness the heat in the volcanic bedrock far below the surface of Iceland.
But in 2009 their borehole at Krafla, northeast Iceland, reached only 2,100m deep before unexpectedly striking a pocket of magma intruding into the Earth’s upper crust from below, at searing temperatures of 900-1000°C.
Elders said that the success of the drilling was “amazing, to say the least”, adding: “This could lead to a revolution in the energy efficiency of high-temperature geothermal projects in the future.”
The well funnelled superheated, high-pressure steam for months at temperatures of over 450°C – a world record. In comparison, geothermal resources in the UK rarely reach higher than around 60-80°C.
The magma-heated steam was measured to be capable of generating 36MW of electrical power. While relatively modest compared to a typical 660MW coal-fired power station, this is considerably more than the 1-3MW of an average wind turbine
Rachel Mad Cow gets her ass handed to her
We need more Republicans who will call out the media for the shills they are.
Tuesday, January 28, 2014
Monday, January 27, 2014
A majority of U.S technology professionals would welcome being paid in bitcoin
How far the dollar has fallen, but can you blame them? Honestly, if I could swing it, I'd want at least some of my pay in Bitcoin.
From the article:
From the article:
"Out of 847 responses to a questionnaire sent to Tech in Motion's 18,000 members, 51.12% answered "yes, absolutely," to the question "Would you be interested in being paid for your work in cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin?" A further 18.06% ticked "Maybe, let's see where Bitcoin is in a year or two," with the remainder saying that they would prefer to be paid in traditional currency. Just 9.92% rejected the option because they "do not think Bitcoin will last," and 1.18% said they didn't know what bitcoin was.
The results will be encouraging to bitcoin payment processor firms, which are trying to convince U.S. payroll processors to offer crypto-currency options to their clients' employees. Bitpay is developing such a service in the U.S. and, according to Chief Executive Anthony Gallippi, is talking to various payroll processors about the prospect of signing them on to it. In Canada, payroll management firm Wagepoint already has partnered with Canadian virtual exchange VirtEx to integrate bitcoin options into its services."
Microscopic ladybug feet.
Adhesive pad of a ladybug
While they may look fragile, ladybugs are armored with adhesive pads at the ends of their appendages. These pads allow ladybugs to stick to and run along vertical surfaces like plants, and they are incredibly strong: When each bristle is fully engaged into a surface, some insects can withstand forces up to 150-times their body weight, thwarting assaults made by attacking predators.
Image by Dr. Jan Michels, Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel.
Sunday, January 26, 2014
Amazing images from the Ukraine
Orthodox priests place themselves between the police and the protesters to try to calm the situation, in spite of threats from the government.
These men have courage.
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