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This is the weblog of
Raymond Powers.
Here I will be sharing what I find of import, humor, concern, inspiration and on the transformational edge
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A Quote:
"The purpose of life is a life of purpose." (Robert Byrne)
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Raymond lives in Ojai, where the time now is:
03:59PM
Unique Readers:
Primarily
Public Domain
Everything I've written here, except my copyrighted
essays, poetry, lyrics, and music is hereby placed in the public
domain. The quotes from other people's writings, and the pictures
used might or might not be copyrighted, but are considered fair
use. Thus the license here would best be described as:
Primarily Public
Domain.
Please ask permission if there is any question in
regards to public domain usage.
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| Saturday, February 25, 2006 |  |
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 25 Feb 2006 @ 06:24
And You Thought Balloons Were Harmless
Not when you fill them with explosive Acetylene gas. (Who does that?) On the way to a Super Bowl party, a 46-year-old Wyoming man didn’t count on the forces of static electricity. When the balloon he had filled with welding gas rubbed across his back seats, it ignited and exploded — leaving him and his passenger with shrapnel wounds, broken eardrums, and potentionally two to six years in prison for “possession, use, or removal of explosives of incendiary devices More >
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| Wednesday, February 22, 2006 | |
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22 Feb 2006 @ 08:55
The Cat Piano
Chill out, PETA. The cat piano was the work of a German scholar over 350 years ago. Athanasius Kircher designed the cat piano and documented it in the Musurgia Universalis in 1650. The piano was designed to raise the spirits of an Italian prince who was too stressed out. The musician would select cats whose voices were at different pitches then arrange them in the pens accordingly. The piano delivered sharp pokes into the tails of the cats. Cruel? Definitely. Funny? Yeah, a little bit. More >
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| Tuesday, February 21, 2006 | |
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21 Feb 2006 @ 13:53
Please take action and forward to your contacts.
This has national implications. For the first time ever, we have the
opportunity to subpoena key voting industry witnesses to get them
under oath in front of a senate hearing to investigate what the Sam Hill
they were doing when they created and recommended tamper-friendly
voting systems.
We're sure by now you're aware that Calif. did an about face and
certified Diebold's entire line of products -- hackable touch screens,
hackable optical scanners, and extremely hackable GEMS tabulators
-- despite 100% public opposition and numerous attacks proving the
sytems' fatal flaws and insecurities.
But this isn't just California. Get these people under oath in California,
and you get them questioned for the whole nation.
Everything is at stake.
We are putting some very important phone numbers and emails here
along with simple instructions for what we all need to do.
We have everything to lose if we don't all take a few simple steps
immediately. EVERY STATE is experiencing issues with secret, privatized
voting equipment examined by mysterious private contractors who won't
answer any questions at all about what they do.
Here is the most efficient, easiest strategy to counteract shoving illegal
and insecure systems that we never asked for down our throats. This
action is the culmination of years of hard-core work by Black Box Voting
and others. JUST DO IT.
Here are the simple, painless suggestions. See below for why they are
so important.
WHAT'S DIFFERENT ABOUT THIS CALL TO ACTION:
1) All we need is three out of five senators.
2) All five are interested and willing to listen
3) This is the FIRST time Black Box Voting has issued a call to action.
HERE IS THE CONTACT LIST FOR THE FIVE RULES COMMITTEE MEMBERS:
Urge support for subpoenas of election industry and certification insiders.
(Among those who chickened out of testimony on Feb. 16: Diebold, ES&S,
Sequoia and Hart Intercivic; Ciber labs, Wyle labs, and voting system
examiners).
IT'S ONLY 5 EMAILS/FAXES/CALLS. MAKE THEM ALL.
Senator Don Perata (Chair) D
(916) 651-4009
District office (510) 286-1333
Senator.Perata@sen.ca.gov
Fax (510) 286-3885 Perata
Senator Jim Battin (Vice-Chair) R
(916) 651-4037
Jim.Battin@sen.ca.gov
Fax: (951) 653-9524 Battin
Senator Roy Ashburn R
(916) 651-4018
senator.ashburn@sen.ca.gov
Fax: (661) 323-0446 Ashburn
Senator Debra Bowen D - She is on the rules committee and
is also the chairperson of the Senate Elections Committee.
EMAIL ONLY
Debra@debrabowen.com -
(Ms. Bowen is mounting this case and will be busy preparing,
emails are welcomed-- See below*)
Fax (310) 318-6733 Bowen
Senator Gilbert Cedillo D
(916) 651-4022
Fax (916) 327-8817 Cedillo
This is about volume of calls logged, emails sent.
Make the contacts and make sure this goes out to your list.
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WHAT TO SAY:
Be concise, be polite, be professional. Here's your message:
You want Rules Committee support for subpoenas of election
industry and certification insiders to answer the Elections Committee's
questions about voting machine programming, examination and certification.
A sample letter is provided below in this email.
That's it. Short and simple. Polite, professional, firm. Short clear message.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
SAMPLE LETTER
Senator ____,
California Senate Election Committee
Dear Senator ____,
I urge you to take a courageous stand to issue port subpeonas to
key representatives and officials from Diebold, ES&S, Sequoia and Hart
Intercivic, as well as Wyle and Ciber Testing Labs and state voting system
examiners who fail to appear for your hearings on this matter.
I also urge you to subpoena documents as needed, including the non-
disclosure agreements signed between examiners and vendors, and
all other documents needed to assess the integrity of the certification
process.
Voters must be able to ensure that voting systems are secure from tampering,
either by outsiders or by insiders. If the citizenry cannot see for itself that
elections are secure, that our votes are being counted as we cast them, it is
only a matter of time before the very fabric of our nation is torn to pieces.
Flawed, hackable systems have been approved that violate FEC guidelines.
Some of these systems are so deeply flawed that they defy common sense.
It is imperative that the elections industry insiders who were party to the design,
examination and recommendation of these systems appear before California's
Senate Election Committee in open hearings under oath to answer questions
and address these serious concerns.
Sincerely,
[name]
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
FROM CALIF. SENATE ELECTIONS COMMITTEE CHAIRPERSON BOWEN:
"We are going to need an enormous amount of people power in the next
couple of weeks. Together we can change this whole pathetic mess.
Let's stand up for our democracy RIGHT NOW."
"Email is great because it is easy for us to log and report -- and we can
actually prove how many emails we've received!"
"Please email me in support of issuing subpoenas rather than calling
you will save my staff a great deal of time logging calls, and you know
what kind work we have to do right now. You can always call and
fax later!"
Debra Bowen
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE More >
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| Monday, February 20, 2006 | |
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 20 Feb 2006 @ 08:09
Kurt Vonnegut on the State of the Union: Custodians of Chaos
Custodians of chaos
In this exclusive extract from his forthcoming memoirs, Kurt
Vonnegut is horrified by the hypocrisy in contemporary US politics
Saturday
January 21, 2006
Guardian
"Do unto others what you would have them do unto you." A lot of people
think Jesus said that, because it is so much the sort of thing Jesus liked
to say. But it was actually said by Confucius, a Chinese philosopher, five
hundred years before there was that greatest and most humane of human
beings, named Jesus Christ.
The Chinese also gave us, via Marco Polo, pasta and the formula for
gunpowder. The Chinese were so dumb they only used gunpowder for fireworks.
And everybody was so dumb back then that nobody in either hemisphere even
knew that there was another one. We've sure come a long way since then.
Sometimes I wish we hadn't. I hate H-bombs and the Jerry Springer Show But
back to people like Confucius and Jesus and my son the doctor, Mark, each of
whom have said in their own way how we could behave more humanely and maybe
make the world a less painful place.
One of my favourite humans is Eugene Debs, from Terre Haute in my native
state of Indiana.
Get a load of this.
Eugene Debs, who died back in 1926, when I was not yet four, ran five times
as the Socialist party candidate for president, winning 900,000 votes,
almost 6 percent of the popular vote, in 1912, if you can imagine such a
ballot. He had this to say while campaigning:
"As long as there is a lower class, I am in it.
"As long as there is a criminal element, I am of it.
"As long as there is a soul in prison, I am not free."
CLicK TO READ His BOOK EXCERPT More >
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| Sunday, February 19, 2006 | |
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19 Feb 2006 @ 00:19
Medite - Recycled MDF
February 12, 2006 07:15 AM - Lloyd Alter, Toronto
Medite looks,feels and works like MDF (Medium Density Fiberboard) , but is made from 100% post-industrial recycled wood fibre combined with wax and resin and absolutely no formaldehyde binders and no outgassing. Not the most exciting material in the world, but MDF is the workhorse of the millwork industry and it is great to be able to source a recycled formaldehyde free one. More >
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19 Feb 2006 @ 00:12
TH Eco-Action: Bridging Cultures Through Design - RISD Students continue Guatemalan Sustainable Design Adventure.
February 11, 2006 05:39 AM - Leonora Oppenheim, Barcelona
After reading about the RISD’s Bridging Cultures Through Design module and hearing about the students’ first impressions of Guatemala we are now interested to know what they’ve been learning from their collaboration with local artisans. Their time in Guatemala has been intensive, inspiring and action packed as they travel to the towns around Lake Atitlan to work with and learn from as many artisans as possible. Three students Chelsea Green, James Minola and Kathryn Maresca have been keeping track of their progress with a daily diary:
READ MORE HERE More >
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 19 Feb 2006 @ 00:04
Its All Our Fault: Natural Gas Running out in Eight Years
February 11, 2006 06:21 AM - Lloyd Alter, Toronto
A comic said "if I opened a funeral parlour, people would stop dying". We feel that way after installing a brand new high efficiency furnace two days ago and then reading that we are going to run out of natural gas in 8.1 years- before the warranty even runs out. Dave Hughes of Natural Resources Canada gave a lecture in Calgary on February 2 called “The Coming Energy Sustainability Crisis: Alternatives to Oil, Implications of Demand Growth and the Way Forward.”
"North America peaked in terms of conventional natural gas production in 2001–2002. Notable examples of the effects of this peak are the dramatic increase in prices for natural gas and natural gas-dependent products, such as fertilizers and plastics. Consumption trends and patterns were also explored. In every case, the phenomenal growth rates in our economy show a complete disconnect with the reality of the resources currently supporting them. Canada, for example, has 8.1 years left in natural gas reserves."
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 19 Feb 2006 @ 00:01
Tiger Droppings To Help Control Ferals
February 18, 2006 01:30 AM - Warren McLaren, Sydney
Finally a story about tiger bits being highly coveted for unusual activities, that doesn't harm the poor harried creatures. Seems feral goats, which are a national pest in Australia, are spooked by aromas in tiger scat. Obviously a response deepily embedded in the goats genes ‘coz Tigers are bit few and far between down here. Anyhow, a PhD student, at the University of Queensland, has been extracting the essence from tiger poo, and creating pellets that can be sprinkled around to form a fenceless boundary that goats apparently won’t cross. A boon for farmers, this novel form of biological control could also mean a heap less wire and timber consumed to make fencing. Investigations will begin to see if it has the same effect on feral pigs and rabbits. Strangely they are going to try it on kangaroos too. Wonder when a kangaroo was last threatened by a tiger? More >
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| Saturday, February 18, 2006 | |
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 18 Feb 2006 @ 13:21
Okay. I'm a self admitted audiophile geek dreamer. It's been about 15 years since I've owned any "high end" audio, though it's all about matching components not price, I have this awestruck love of audio design.
My last sytem, for those of you that may know branding was a pair of ADS M-20 speakers bi amped with a PS Audio250 (?) on the bottom and Sunfire amp on top, PS Audio Pre-amp, PS audio D/A, Nakamichi CD transport, Tara Lab TFA Return speaker wire (the only thing I have left) and Monster/Tara Lab interconnects. Some would say this was a midfi system, in price , yes, however it rivaled the clarity and imaging of systems many times the price. I used to work at a hifi store, thus I had a lot of opportunity to try out gear at home.
Here's something that may only appeal to the die hard vinyl crowd, yet it's sure purty.
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Clear Audio Master Reference Turntable
For those well-heeled folks who just can’t seem to shake off the idea of using an analog turntable, Clear Audio offers its Master Reference Turntable, a $19,000 precision instrument handmade in Germany. Let’s face it: If it doesn’t sound good on this turntable, it doesn’t sound good anywhere.
The unit has three separate motors that are synchronized by a special Accurate Power Generator (APG) motor control system, and it sits on six legs that keep it perfectly resonance-free. This baby is called the best turntable on the market by those in the know, and had it been released 30 years ago, that might have actually been saying something.
At $19K, most DJs won’t be doing a lot of scratching on this table. But as a piece of precision engineering and mechanical perfection, it’s second to none. Just as a design exercise, you can’t help but be impressed.
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| Thursday, February 16, 2006 | |
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16 Feb 2006 @ 16:41
[link]
By Andrew Gumbel, AlterNet. Posted February 15, 2006.
Americans cling to an idealized image of our political integrity, but a look at how we run our elections tells a very different tale. [Editor's Note: This is an edited excerpt from Steal This Vote by Andrew Gumbel, published by Nation Books.]
If you do everything, you'll win. -- Lyndon Johnson
A few days before the November 2004 election, Jimmy Carter was asked what would happen if, instead of flying to Zambia or Venezuela or East Timor, his widely respected international election monitoring team was invited to turn its attention to the United States. His answer was stunningly blunt. Not only would the voting system be regarded as a failure, he said, but the shortcomings were so egregious the Carter Center would never agree to monitor an election there in the first place. "We wouldn't think of it," the former president told a radio interviewer. "The American political system wouldn't measure up to any sort of international standards, for several reasons."
What, after all, was to be done with a country whose newest voting machines, unlike Venezuela's, couldn't even perform recounts? A country where candidates, in contrast to the more promising emerging democracies of the Caucasus or the Balkans, were denied equal, unpaid access to the media? There were a number of reasons, in the sharply partisan atmosphere surrounding the Bush-Kerry race, to wonder whether campaign conditions didn't smack more of the Third World than the First. Every day, newspapers recounted stories of registration forms being found in garbage cans, or of voter rolls padded with the names of noncitizens, fictional characters, household pets, and the dearly departed. The Chicago Tribune, a paper that knows its voter fraud, having won a Pulitzer for its work on the infamous Daley machine, found 181,000 dead people on the registration lists of six key battleground states.
READ MORE HERE
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