29 September 2008

That Sarah Palin interview

Couric. Katie Couric? Is that her name? I haven't watched network news in years, but since using a TV antennae here in La Nouvelle Orleans I have happened to tune in. So she spoke with Governor Palin. Missed it. I saw part of the earlier interview by some guy. He did seem rude and supercilious to me. I have been a political junkie for years and couldn't tell you what the Bush Doctrine is.

But I guess this last interview is unnerving some self described conservatives who are now calling for her to resign from the Republican ticket. There are people who vocally supported Gov Palin who now call for her to quit? How can people like this take themselves seriously? If they didn't know anything about the creationist governor how could they have said anything in public in support?

28 September 2008

New Orleans swimming pool

Saturday we found a swimming pool finally. The New Orleans Recreation District has a dysfunctional web site with pdf links instead of web pages. I cannot find directions to any swimming pools there. I did read a newspaper article about pools opening this summer but no one I knew could tell me where one was. On friday Roxie and I had a teacher parent conference at Lusher School. She is having reading problems. Was first grade so demanding when I was six? So I asked Miz Fitz if she knew of a swimming pool. There is one by Audubon Zoo. (Audubon was born in Jeremie, Hayti). By the Audubon Tea House actually. So we drove by late friday after checking out trailer storage in Belle Chase. Yup, it is there. Saturday we went to the pool: Emile et Roxy and myself. It is free! And they let kids use those buoyant noodles. The Arcata pool does not allow them, only Coast Guard approved vests. Had a good time. There was swimming class practicing. The director of the pool was working his youngest, a not yet three year old who was swimming by himself! Kul.

25 September 2008

Go Wm Tecumsah Sherman

on 24 Sept Cramer took a caller from Louisiana chanting "go Tigers". I guess that is the team name. Yup, Fightin Tigers is the official team name, from the War of Southern Slavery.

So, Cramer said to the caller "LSU, started by William Tecumsah Sherman". I guess his Lenin portrait did him some good, he knows Sherman.

22 September 2008

Capitalism leads to Communism

Wall Street Journals Marketwatch:
As free-market-loving Americans, we all know overregulating an economy amounts to socialism. We're now discovering what happens when you underregulate -- communism.

18 September 2008

Brave New World

The New Deal returns. Last nite the Kaesars of finance hinted that they may do a 'bad bank' solution for all of the Enron style 'creative finance' mortgage backed bonds which seem to be bringing the worlds capital system to its knees. Traders swooned in ecstasy.

I'm from the government, and I'm here to help.

September weather

Since the second hurricane left the weather has been nice. Cooled down, in the 70's and the humidity is lower. July and August are the hot, wet months?

13 September 2008

OS X live planet

Live planet as a desktop background.

12 September 2008

trying out blogspot

So I just switched this thing over to blogspot. I have been hosting on my own server at www.lyalls.net. Hosted by webmasters.com. But customizing the layout is much more difficult that way.

Now, I wanted 'http://devoid.blogspot.com/' but it is taken. And had one post years ago, never used since. Titled Audible Silence, a nice name, but I want that name back!

non-Hindi Hurricanes

Gurricanes? We evacuated to Meridian, Miss for six days to celebrate Hurricane Gustav. Returned last Friday, 05 Sept. Meridian was friendly to all the refugees and the trailer court we stayed at, Bonita Lakes RV Park put on crews to wire a bunch of extra plug-ins for all us extras to use. They parked in driveways, in between existing spaces, by bath houses.

So, I'd like to thank them for their hospitality.

Now we have Hurricane Ike hundreds of miles away from New Orleans, heading to Galveston and the water is rising here. It looks like half of the Gulf of Mexico is being affected by this huge storm. The satellite pictures show it is almost as big as Texas itself.

Galveston was destroyed in 190(?) by a hurricane. They raised up the entire city afterwards. Then it was the major port. Now Houston has taken that role away with the dredging of the sloughs. Will they raise it up again? New Orleans needs to be raised. Or have all the houses raised.

हुर्रिकानेस ऑफ़ २००८

Why am I writing in hindi?

23 August 2008

amusing racist rants on usenet

Usenet, the newgroups came along long before the WWW thing; the web browsers that you are using now. Usenet was for civilized discussions by interested people.

It has become polluted with strange spam and lots of racist rants. For some reason many people in the USA are possessed with passionate fear and loathing of dark skinned people. Like, folks descended from Africans within the past few millenia.

So here is a Usenet post which started off as a hate screed towards Les Negre and ends slamming the Scotch Irish. that's me

My kids, btw, are Scots-Haytian

************************
>>> >>> Blue state urban nigger...
>>> >>>
>>> >>> We need to face the reality that these creatures aren't quite human.
>>> >>> They have been inbreeding for decades and are now a sub-human
>>> >>> indigenous population genetically different from normal humans.
>>> >>>
>> >>
>> >>perfect description of the hillbilly sub-human sub-culture,
>> >>
>> >>don't try to project it onto others
> >
> > RE: Hillbilles; the lowest economic class of White students score
> > higher on the SAT tests then the Blacks in the highest economic
> > level. Check that Bell curve!
> >
> > ted
first off that's bullshit, but it is bullshit intended for simple and feeble
minded hillbillies, so you did good

but, damn gomer, you're a world class dumb ass aren't you ?

let's see now,

it wasn't you ignorant, retarded, deranged, gutless yellow hillbilly
cocksuckers, but blacks who got us :

$4.40 gas

a professional ass kicking at the hands of goat herding, dung burning, rag
headed freedom fighting girls, at a cost
of $521 million a day for 7 years

how many drowned children in New Orleans, or don't they count because
they're black

1 million murdered, innocent civilians in iraq

a failed economy

25 million illegal immigrants

outrageous food prices

low paying wal mart jobs

good jobs exported to china and india to help wal mart make more $$$

a destroyed and demoralized, non fighting ability military

the russians bitch slapping nato and that bush cocksucker, and there is
nothing they can do about it

tax cuts for the rich and super rich

the destruction of the American auto industry among countless other
industries

the trans America , mexico to canada highway, to let mexicans take american
trucking jobs and keep the
companies costs down

old people dying from lack of nutrition and health care

57 million people without health care

a high percentage of homeless veterans

wounded and disabled veterans on subsistence payments if they get anything
at all

3rd world medical care for wounded soldiers

etc.,etc.,etc.,

yeah, you hillbillies are some bright boys allright,

keep up the good work brownie

you retarded asshole

22 August 2008

NOLA cycle

Nolacycle has a bike mapping project. Kul.

18 July 2008

7.3 powerstroke diesel cam position sensor replacment diagram

This site has pictures! Pictures of the steps to replace the cam sensor in the 7.3 liter powerstroke diesel. In Fords and Internationals? Like?

16 July 2008

interesting political .sig

On the Democratic side, you have a bytch who is a lawyer, married to a lawyer, trying to defeat a lawyer who is married to a bytch who is a
lawyer.

On the other side, you have a true war hero married to an extremely wealthy woman with large breasts who owns a beer distributorship.

Is there a contest here?

Biofuels not cost effective

This OECD report criticizes subsidy of biofuels. Considering the earlier link about the USA subsidizing the export of biodiesel instead of using it domestically, this is good news. Maybe some congressman could look into it? I think my congressmember is Wm Jefferson, soon going to trial.

14 July 2008

What does Microsoft want from Yahoo?

The link is to a great article about a patent that Yahoo owns, called the 361 patent. Yahoo bought Overture paid search and got a patent covering the whole nasty business of paying for search result placement.

28 June 2008

Louisiana's science revolution?

Djes, Louisiana has passed a law allowing school boards to provide supplemental materials for science classes. "including, but not limited to, evolution, the origins of life, global warming, and human cloning."

The inspiration seems to be some intelligent design wackos. May I suggest that Biblical mathematics be taught in math classes? Like, pi is equal to 3, not the egyptian/greek 22/7 or that decimal horror, 3.14159....

Or possibly evidence that the sun orbits the earth? There is ample testimony to this fact in the ancient testaments. Let's get supplementing!

16 June 2008

Exporting american bio-diesel?

I'd seen mention of this before, but now it really gets my attention. American bio-diesel producers are exporting. To Europe. With USA tax subsidies. Why aren't they selling it here? Blending it here? Diesel is almost $5 a gallon in Louisiana and we are exporting subsidized bio diesel to Europe? This is pretty outragous and a trade violation. And we don't allow Brazilian ethanol to be imported to compete with our corn/maize ethanol. Brazilian sugar cane ethanol is the worlds cheapest. Comparative advantage. We don't believe in capitalism unless it means subjecting other countries to our dominance.

Here is another post on re-exporting south american biodiesel with a USA subsidy added. Incredible.

14 May 2008

how many freewheelin' roads?

Today's Fresh Air was the story of the cover art for Freewheelin' Bob Dylan. The wonderful woman on the cover with Dylan, that is. Suze Rotolo. I'd never heard who she was before. It has been 45 years and I'd never heard her name. We used to talk about her and no one knew if her identity was public knowledge. Was she an actual friend? Or just a cover shoot model?

So, she has written a book. A Freewheelin' Time: A Memoir of Greenwich Village in the Sixties. Good. I guess it is time to read such a memoir. That cover sure looked romantic to me in the 60's. Lesse, I was a sophomore in Provo High School when I bought that album. We put things on layaway back then. Pay for part of it, come back later when you could afford to pay the rest. A record album was a layaway item. It had been out a while when I bought it. I think I listened to Highway 61 Revisited in the booth of the record store in Provo.

Bob Dylan was a comfort to a misfit in a place like Provo, Utah.

27 April 2008

Pascha, Pak, Paska

Otherwise known in English as Oester/Easter. Today is celebrated 'he is risen. Indeed he is risen'. We went to the Greek Orthodox Cathedral in New Orleans this morning. Last night was the Pascha Liturgy, but it was raining hard and the kids and I are sick. So we didn't go. The midnight Liturgy is very Kul.

The link above is not to Pascha, but to a Buddhist blog about Christianity in Tibet. Thomas the Apostle was sent to India by the risen Christ, and the Nestorian church was all throughout central asia and china. The Malankara church of India, founded by Thomas brother of Christ, was not Nestorian, but what is today called Oriental Orthodox, along with the Copts of Egypt and Ethiopia.