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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:
You can't solve a problem with the same kind of thinking that created it. (A.Einstein)
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Raymond lives in Ojai, where the time now is:
09:50AM
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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| Sunday, February 19, 2006 |  |
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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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| Monday, February 13, 2006 | |
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13 Feb 2006 @ 11:00
EZTradein Electronics under eBay’s ReThink
February 13, 2006 12:15 AM - Warren McLaren, Sydney
We’ve mentioned eBay’s ReThink program for salvaging computer stuff on one or two occasions in the past. Now Tipster Alex D. alerts us to the fact they have a newish scheme, whereby you can get PayPal money by sending in any old electronics goodies that you no longer require. The program is quite broad, it includes the following categories; Desktops-PC, Desktops-Apple, Notebooks-PC, Notebooks-Apple, Camcorders, Digital Cameras, Servers, Multimedia Projectors, Home Audio Receivers, Mobile Phones, Car Audio, Monitors, Game Systems, PDAs and Apple iPods. And is pretty simple. Fill in the online form, it gives you an estimate, if you think the $$$$’s sound half decent, just make a booking, print off the prepaid mailer, and ship the goods to their warehouse. A week later you’ll receive your dough via PayPal. The quoted prices won’t make you rich, but if you’ve run out of friends and family to donate your old computers and hi-fi to, then at least you get something back this way. What exactly happens to the goods at this point isn’t made clear, but given that they've just paid you for them, we doubt they are landfill bound.
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 13 Feb 2006 @ 10:43
Relax, wipe the drool off your mouth, and gaze your eyes at this beauty. This is a “Wolfenstein Radio Station” PC mod. The specs are mediocre with an AMD Athlon 2200+ processor, and an ATI Radeon 9600 graphics card, but who cares how it performs when it is this sexy. The Wolfenstein PC has a custom paint job, a built on receiver and antenna, gauges and meters, and authentic-looking decals. Sorry folks, not for sale. More >
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 13 Feb 2006 @ 10:33
This is all from Gizmodo
MIT Working on Nanotube Batteries, Could Be a Breakthrough
In the search for that holy grail, the everlasting battery, not much has been accomplished over the 200 years since old man Volta rolled out the first crude battery back in the dark ages. Now those whiz kids at MIT are using nanotube structures to create new super batteries by using energy storage doodads called ultracapacitors. These devices do their magic by storing electrical fields at the atomic level. Bear in mind that ultracapacitors are nothing new, but what is new is making them small enough to put into regular-sized batteries. Best of all, the MIT researchers are saying these nanotube batteries can be made using ordinary manufacturing methods. No word on how much more energy storage capacity these whiz-bang batteries will have than the conventional ones we know and love to hate. If these scientists can pull this off, standby world—you’re about to be changed forever.
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You’ve Been Slimed. Now Get Back on the Road
The company that should consider a new name for itself, Slime, is offering Mini Smart Spair, a palm-sized microcompressor that can pump up your tire after you’ve sealed it with Slime, a special substance that the company says is made of “environmentally friendly fibers, binders, polymers and proprietary congealing agents that inter-twine and clot to seal punctures up to 1/4 of an inch.”
The micro-compressor plugs into your 12-volt car battery. Once you perform that roadside repair, then you can make your way to a place where you can fix that tire properly. The kit includes eight ounces of the legendary Slime, ready to seal up anything
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| Wednesday, February 8, 2006 | |
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8 Feb 2006 @ 08:30
Break the Chains of Toxic Pesticides and Farm Worker Exploitation
Valentines Day marks the biggest shopping day of the year, when it comes to chocolate and flowers. But did you know that by purchasing organic and Fair Trade chocolate and flowers your consumer dollars will no longer be going towards toxic pesticides, child slavery, and farm worker exploitation?
Over 40 percent of the world’s conventional chocolate (i.e. non-organic and non-Fair Trade) comes from Côte d’Ivoire (Ivory Coast), where the International Labor Organization (ILO) and US State Department have reported widespread instances of child slavery. Exploitation of cacao farmers and farm workers is the global norm in the chocolate industry, rather than the exception.
Meanwhile organizations such as the Pesticide Action Network point out that commercial flowers, produced in countries such as Colombia, are the most toxic and heavily sprayed agricultural crops on Earth, The high profits of the transnational flower exporters are derived from poisoning the land and farmers, while forcing workers in the flower industry, often young women, to work 18 hour days for poverty wages during peak flower buying times such as Valentine’s Day.
This Valentine’s Day, join with the Organic Consumers Association and our allies around the world to put your money where your values lie and to show your loved ones that you truly care. Please break the chains of industrial agriculture and corporate globalization by choosing Fair Trade and organic flowers and chocolate for your Valentine’s Day gifts.
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| Tuesday, February 7, 2006 | |
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7 Feb 2006 @ 21:19
SELK’BAG Sleeping Bag
The SELK’BAG is a sleeping bag you wear. The entire bag, covered in straps and belts for maximum snugness, fits like a glove and makes you look like a plush Transformer. Confusingly, there’s no mention of the any way to remove the bottom portion for midnight walks to the latrine.
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7 Feb 2006 @ 07:43
India: Police Investigate Death of Coca-Cola Bottling Plant Opponent
CHENNAI, India, February 2, 2006 (ENS) - A Coca-Cola franchise company in India is the subject of a police inquiry into the death of a community leader who had publicly objected to a planned Coca-Cola bottling plant in the village where he chaired the local council.
On January 30, Justice P. Murgesen of the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court directed the Superintendent of Police to register a case into the suspicious death of V. Kamsan. The judge further directed the Crime Branch Criminal Investigation Department to conduct an investigation into Kamsan's death August 30, 2005.
The court action came as a result of a petition filed by Kamsan's wife, Mrs. Santhanamary.
Kamsan was chairman of the village council in Gangaikondan, southern Tamil Nadu where the South India Bottling Company Private Limited - a Coca-Cola franchisee - plans to locate a bottling plant.
The drinks plant, planned for the government owned Gangaikondan SIPCOT Industrial Estate, would withdraw about five lakh (500,000) liters of water from the Thamirabarani River, drawing opposition from political leaders, community members and activists.
Residents of Gangaikondan, a village near India's southern tip, go for water at the river. (Photo by Nityanand Jayaraman courtesy India Resource Center)
They fear that withdrawal of water from the Thamirabarani River would be harmful to farming activities in the Tirunelveli and Tuticorin districts, which are already suffering a water crisis.
On August 23, 2005, Kamsan convened a meeting of the Gangaikondan village council which passed a resolution against the proposed Coca-Cola plant, saying, "As the unit will cause environmental and health hazards besides triggering acute drinking water scarcity, the government should immediately cancel the permission given to the company, which is planning to prepare a range of soft drinks here."
But less than 12 hours after the village council meeting, Kamsan issued a prepared statement to "The Hindu" newspaper, one of India's leading English newspapers, contradicting the resolution passed earlier in the day.
When asked by "The Hindu" about issuing the conflicting statement, Kamsan said, "I am under immense pressure from the public, the police and some other quarters. So I have issued this statement."
On that same evening, according to Mrs. Santhanamary's petition, Coca-Cola company officials "coerced" her husband into accompanying them to a hotel in Tirunelveli, detained him for days and forced him to drink alcohol, even though he was suffering from jaundice.
Kamsan was brought back home by Coca-Cola company officials on August 28 in very serious condition, and according to the petition, he said that the Coca-Cola company officials had forced him to drink liquor and drop the village council resolution.
Kamsan was admitted to the Tirunelveli hospital where he died on August 30, 2005.
There is strong community opposition to the proposed Coca-Cola bottling plant in Gangaikondan, as there is to several other such bottling plants in locations across India where water is scarce. Foul play is suspected by many community members in Kamsan's sudden disappearance and death, as well as the timing between his public opposition to the plant and his death.
Last Friday, the Gangaikondan village council passed another resolution asking the state government to cancel the license of the proposed facility "as the effluents discharged from the plant will pollute the environment, groundwater and soil."
"The Coca-Cola company in India talks a lot about having good community relations, rainwater harvesting, transparency and accountability but the ground reality is that the company is engaged in all sorts of dubious activities in an attempt to intimidate local communities, particularly where there is significant local opposition to its operations," said T. Fatimson of the Campaign for Right to Livelihood and Food Security, one of the active groups working in Gangaikondan to oppose the bottling plant.
"No company, however large, is above the law, and we expect a thorough police investigation into the suspicious circumstances surrounding Mr. Kamsan's death," said Amit Srivastava of the India Resource Center, an international campaigning organization based in San Francisco. "The investigation must ensure that there is no interference from Coca-Cola company authorities."
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 7 Feb 2006 @ 00:18
Robots race camels in Kuwait
Monday, February 6, 2006 Posted: 0346 GMT (1146 HKT)
A robotic jockey crosses the finish line Sunday at the Kuwait camel race championship.
KUWAIT (Reuters) -- Kuwait on Sunday held the first regional camel race using robots as riders after child jockeys were banned from the lucrative sport following criticism by human rights groups.
Teams from the six Gulf Arab states participated in the race held on the dusty tracks of a racing club outside the capital Kuwait City.
"We hope this sport, which is part of our cultural heritage, will be spared from suspicion," said Kuwait's Energy Minister Sheikh Ahmad al-Fahd al-Sabah who opened the five-day championship.
The remote-operated robots are shaped like small boys.
Rights groups said thousands of boys, some as young as four, worked as jockeys in the wealthy Gulf Arab region where camel racing is a lucrative and popular sport. Last year, Kuwait, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates banned child jockeys.
Kuwait held an experimental race with robot jockeys last October, along with similar trials by other Gulf states. More >
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| Monday, February 6, 2006 | |
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 6 Feb 2006 @ 17:34
LAPD’s Real Life Homing Beacon
The Los Angeles Police Department plans to install “dart-like” GPS devices from Starchase, LLC, that will be propelled from officers’ cars and attach to fleeing vehicles. Once attached, a GPS sensor kicks, from which officers can monitor the vehicle’s movements via a secure website, as the homing beacon transmits all pertinent data via a wireless transmitter.
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 6 Feb 2006 @ 17:31
Teeny Tiny Hitachi RFID Chip:
Smaller than a grain of salt, Hitachi’s newest RFID chip measures .005 x .005 inches and is 7.5 micrometers thin. Using Silicon-on-Insulator (SOI) technology, it uses an external antenna to receive radio waves (2.45 GHz), and transforms it to energy to wirelessly transmit a 128 bit unique ID number for a high level of authenticity. But most importantly for Hitachi, it can make more of these chips on one single wafer, increasing production by 4 times.
Most importantly for you, expect to see more and more embedded RFID in nearly every product you purchase.
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Sounding Circle implies the cycles, spirals and symbols of our thought, our culture, our lineage and our imagination.
A place to share ideas, create community, and give voice to our muse.
"Giving more than we take, taking just what we need."
"The universe is music connecting 10th dimensional hyperspace".
Prof. Michio Kaku, Phd. |
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