Author: chris

Does anyone in the US Senate have a brain?

I already know the answer to that one. But they really need to get their act together, they’re US Senators for cryin’ out loud! It looks like they just passed an amendment to the yearly bloat called the farm bill to stop felons from receiving food stamps. Now, at first glance it sounds like a fantastic idea! Lets stop convicted felons from taking government aid! But if you stop for a bit longer and think about it you realize that it will likely just throw them back in prison. You see, if you’re eligible for food stamps you’re pretty down on your luck and if you’re a felon its nearly impossible to get a job. So you’re basically punishing someone for LIFE for something they already served time for. It really seems like a backward idea to make sure felons are stuck in prison forever. Let’s not forget as well that some prisons in the United States are run by profit-seeking entities.

I’m sure you’ve heard some variation of these:

“It is said that no one truly knows a nation until one has been inside its jails. A nation should not be judged by how it treats its highest citizens, but its lowest ones.” — Nelson Mandela

“Any society, any nation, is judged on the basis of how it treats its weakest members ; the last, the least, the littlest.” — Cardinal Roger Mahoney

“…the moral test of government is how that government treats those who are in the dawn of life, the children; those who are in the twilight of life, the elderly; those who are in the shadows of life; the sick, the needy and the handicapped. ” — Hubert H. Humphrey

 

One Way Trip to Mars for a Reality-Show?

It appears that we may finally have plans to go to the red planet in our near future. But not because we want to explore a new planet or push ourselves and our technology to do great things. The simple reason is that we want to have some reality TV show based upon people basically stuck on the red planet. I’m not so sure about this one and I wish we’d get our act together as a planet and start trying to reverse the damage we’ve done to it and be smart with our resources and also venture out into the great beyond to find new planets and resources to use to grow. In any event, the article is below, along with some detail about Chinese overfishing for fun and light reading.

Want to visit mars? Applications being taken.

China understating foreign catches and overestimating local catches. And basically selling the worlds fish back to the countries they were caught for while destroying populations for unknown damage to the local environments.


Howdy

I made nearly everything from 2010 and before private while I figure out what I want to talk about here. I haven’t posted anything in a while here so I’m thinking it may be time to shut this down and change the personal blog over to something different, I’d love to be able to write more about technology and some life adventures versus some of the topics I’ve broached in the past.

Windows 8 and Netflix

2013-01-24 Update: I’ve been informed from a commenter that it may do DD5.1 and 1080p streaming if your ISP has signed up for Super HD. The best way it seems to get 5.1 and 1080p streaming will always be the PS3 or some set top box. But it looks like Netflix can always surprise and keeps looking forward, so I have to commend them on their efforts.

I was excited to hear that Netflix had an app for Windows 8 that did some native decoding. What this made me think was that we might have 1080p video and 5.1 surround from Windows 8, similar to what the PS3 does. I did some searching to try to find the answer to this question but couldn’t find anything. I’m not sure on the 1080p streaming but I know from trying a couple of movies on both the PS3 and my Windows 8 PC that the new Netflix app on Windows 8 does not do 5.1 surround sound. Hopefully this will answer some others’ questions on this topic.

Back to XenonHD

I tried Cyanogenmod for a week on my Galaxy Nexus from Verizon after being on XenonHD for some time. The main reason for the switch was the ability to have different profiles for driving, home, and out and about. I was enjoying it for about a week but something just seemed to be missing. Maybe it was the battery circle mod I missed or the breakneck speed. I also appeared to have some data loss issues that always seem to appear at the wrong time, I really don’t know. But now I’m back with my lovely XenonHD rom. I don’t know but it really just seems more fluid to me.

Weight loss

I’ve been tracking my weight with Google Docs for some time and I thought I’d share a graph. Nothing is better than seeing data visualized in a usable way. Also someone can use the underlying document as well to track their own weight if they’d like.

I’m now a fan of Bill Moyers

I wish there were more sources that are as honest and straightforward as Bill Moyers is. This is the type of journalism we need, this is the type of news that people need to listen to and watch. Its not just because it appears to be honest, which some might call a liberal-bias, but talking with experts and asking hard questions. And taking the time to explain the complex world we live in. Here are two important episodes about the democracy in the United States being bought by special interests both at the federal and state levels. If you have some time please check it out or at least listen to a podcast while you do something:

Also, my two other favorite Journalists to read: