In an article from today’s New Zealand Herald, we see that the “War on Moisture” has claimed at least one casualty. A diabetic man fell into a coma because he wasn’t allowed to bring his insulin aboard the plane. Mr. Tui Peter Russell started feeling ill on the flight, and when he spoke to the [...]
Well, scientists are stating the obvious again. In a recent NYT article, they publish the results of a study, which concludes that listening to music at too loud a volume will lead to hearing damage. Umm…this is news?
Today’s quote of the day was from Kahlil Gibran. Kahlil Gibran wrote: “Out of suffering have emerged the strongest souls; the most massive characters are seared with scars.” Some days I wonder about that. There are days, when I look back at what I’ve been through and wonder what effect it has had on who [...]
Paris Parfait has an excellent entry for today. It truly expresses the difference between being an American and the American government—which has abused the tragedy of this day to hold on to political and economic power for itself. My thanks to Erin for the link. From Paris Parfait’s post: No words adequate to describe the [...]
I got up this morning at about 5:00 a.m. I had an 8:10 flight to catch back up to Beantown. After getting dressed and packed, I walked down to the hotel lobby. I asked the front desk to call a cab for me, to take me to the Newport News airport. A few minutes later, [...]
This weekend, I headed down to Newport News, Virginia. Getting to Newport News was a challenge, but not all that bad, except the nine-and-a-half hour day spent in Logan International Airport. Flying down to Virginia, while tropical storm Ernesto is sitting over the state is not really my idea of fun, but I had made [...]
Today, I’m writing this post from my hotel room, down in Newport News, Virginia. I flew down this evening for a wedding tomorrow. I’m due to fly back on Sunday morning. The problem with air travel, aside from the security issues, is that trying to do so during the hurricane season can be challenging. Yesterday, [...]
Over on Dear Elena, there is a post titled “Blame”. It is about whether Daniel or Kim is responsible for their daughter’s death. Elena died from a bacterial infection about six months ago. I can understand this behavior. I went through much the same thing after my twin brother, David, was killed. I also went [...]
A year or so ago, I started watching the Showtime TV series, Dead Like Me. I recently got the DVD set of the series. It is about Georgia, an eighteen year-old woman, who is killed by a falling piece of the Mir Space Station, and then becomes a grim reaper. In the TV show, the [...]
Define: Terrorism This is the definition according to Wikipedia. Terrorism is the systematic use or threatened use of violence to intimidate a population or government and thereby effect political, religious, or ideological change.[1][2] Terrorist attacks are designed to influence the broader society to which those killed, injured, or taken hostage belong. The dramatic focus of [...]
I recently was referred to Arvel Gentry’s website to read about sails and how sails generate lift. Tillerman, has had a series of posts on this very same topic, and I’ve generally been one of the people involved in the discussions that followed. So I thought I’d write this post to see what Tillerman thinks [...]
I’ve been going over all the things I’ve bought, used, or have planned on buying for the Pretty Gee. I’ve found a few things essential for sailing and maintenance. The list of indispensable things for sailing so far are: My Boye’s Rigging Knife with Marlinspike. The knife blade is made of cobalt carbide and doesn’t [...]
There’s a post on a blog I read called Fear of Death. The post is about the fear of death, and of dying that was caused by her friend’s diagnosis with a particularly nasty form of non-Hodgkins lymphoma. The author writes: “And it was only then, maybe ten minutes before they arrived, that I finally [...]
Patti Digh has a wonderful post on her blog about appearances, and not judging people by appearances. I’d invite my readers to go visit Patti’s blog and read the story. As a child, I learned to judge people based on their actions towards me and my friends, rather than on what others say about them [...]
Grief and love are funny things. Losing someone you love so completely is something some people handle it well, and others not so well. I guess I probably fall in to the not-so-well end of the spectrum. Not quite seven years ago I first spoke to the woman I was destined to marry. I knew [...]
I recently got one of the Dixie Chicks albums from a friend. Apparently, this is a follow-up album to the one that was boycotted during the start of the Iraq invasion. Lead singer Natalie Maines, apparently had the integrity and courage to say what she believed about the war in Iraq. From the CNN article [...]
This post mixes two of my favorite topics: computer security and sailing. On one of the many sailing boards I visit, there was a posting for crew positions on the Team Compass Point boat for the 2006 Sydney-Hobart and Gosford-Lord Howe Island Races. I was curious about this, so I requested the information—sending them an [...]
Why did you pick your marina? Was is the security, the amenities, the location, the price, the people, or something else? I’ve been thinking about this a lot recently, especially as I spend more and more time at the marina where I keep Pretty Gee. Moby Dick Marina is a private, gated facility with video [...]
Late last night, I drove down to Cape Cod. I had picked up two friends, who are visiting for the weekend, and we all went down to my sister’s condo on the Cape. It’s a pretty good ways out to where the condo is—if you look at Cape Cod as an arm, the condo is [...]
Not all Americans believe that what the American government has done is right. Some Americans are very much against the War in Iraq. Many are against the actions of the Bush regme, and believe that what the Bush regime has done in the name of national security has very little to do with actual security [...]
I was reading this story over at Dear Elena. It reminded me of how truly precious some of the memories can be. For me, there are three stories, the first involves Gee, the second involves my twin, David, and the last involves my nephew Max. Gee A few months after Gee moved in with me, [...]
Over at the Irregular Times, they’ve got an article called What is the Threat? It is a good question, and I’ve actually mentioned this idea previously on my blog. You can see the two stories here, and here. It really depends on how you define Security. From the Oxford Dictionary: security |siˈkyoŏritē| noun ( pl. [...]
Well, April is finally here, but apparently no one told winter to leave yet. I think I hear the weather goddess laughing—saying that winter should have one last fling before the glorious arrival of spring. I asked for good weather for sailing, and this definitely does qualify—its pretty windy—but I have almost an inch of [...]
In a recent Security Focus article, there is a discussion about Blizzard, the DMCA, and the use of lawyerbots to prevent copyright infringement. Unfortunately, this is corporate bullying at its worst—the book they’re preventing from publishing isn’t a matter of copyright infringement, but of lost corporate profits and licensing fees. Quoting from Mark Rasch’s article: [...]
Over at Dear Elena, there is an article on identification, and it set me to thinking about who I am. As my life has progressed, who I am has changed. During my life, I’ve had two identities which have really defined who I am. The first is when I was a child, I was always [...]
A reader recently asked me about what are the real price differences between the Telstar and Corsair F28 and F31. So I repeated the exercise I did last year, and I’ve just gone to the Lavida Starships website to use the Corsair price calculator and this is what I’ve come up with. The boats are [...]
With the sailing season quickly coming up, and the boat about to come up from Annapolis—I’ve been thinking about places I want to sail to this year. Where do you want to sail?
I’ve been thinking about the different kind of sailors I know. There are racing sailors, lake sailors, day sailors, coastal cruisers, and bluewater sailors. There are the new sailors, casual sailors, and life-long sailors. There are dinghy sailors, keelboat sailors and multihull sailors. I think Tillerman is a dinghy sailor, who loves Lasers. Carol Anne [...]
Recently, a friend of mine asked me what were the differences between bluewater sailing and coastal cruising, and which was safer. I thought about it for a while, and this is what I told him. Bluewater sailing is very different from coastal cruising. Here are some of my thoughts on some of those differences. Communications: [...]
I recently received an e-mail which states that the Bush regime is spending money at the rate of $1 billion every eight hours and twenty minutes. This means that Bu$hco is spending a little over $33,000 per second. This is over twice the $16,090 poverty-level income for a family of three—per second. This wouldn’t be [...]