Molecular Visualization of DNA

Endothelium-Nitric Oxide-L-Arginine

This video turns into a sales pitch, but it does contain very good info.

Con Artist

Parody on film "The Artist" which won Best Picture last night. Wow, it sure doesn't take long.

Lifestyle Upgrades

I'm a big fan of personal finance blogs, and below is a post from Wise Bread that you'll enjoy:

Every noticed how upgrading one thing means you have to upgrade another? There's a name for that — the Diderot Effect. (See also: Have Style, Not a Lifestyle)

We've just lived through an example of the phenomenon, because our apartment manager has just installed a bunch of upgrades in our apartment. It happened like this:

The very old kitchen faucet started leaking, requiring a new fixture. But the new fixture wouldn't fit into the hole in the old sink, so we needed a new sink. The new sink wouldn't fit into the hole in the old countertop, so we needed a new countertop.

for more

Abundance--The Book

From the Wall Street Journal:

If every image made and every word written from the earliest stirring of civilization to the year 2003 were converted to digital information, the total would come to five exabytes. An exabyte is one quintillion bytes, or one billion gigabytes—or just think of it as the number one followed by 18 zeros. That's a lot of digital data, but it's nothing compared with what happened from 2003 through 2010: We created five exabytes of digital information every two days. Get ready for what's coming: By next year, we'll be producing five exabytes every 10 minutes. How much information is that? The total for 2010 of 912 exabytes is the equivalent of 18 times the amount of information contained in all the books ever written. The world is not just changing, and the change is not just accelerating; the rate of the acceleration of change is itself accelerating.

The exabyte story and many other examples of accelerating returns are chronicled in "Abundance: The Future Is Better Than You Think" by Peter H. Diamandis and Steven Kotler. Mr. Diamandis is the chairman and chief executive of the X Prize Foundation and the founder of more than a dozen high-tech companies. With his journalist co-author, he has produced a manifesto for the future that is grounded in practical solutions addressing the world's most pressing concerns: overpopulation, food, water, energy, education, health care and freedom. The authors suggest that "humanity is now entering a period of radical transformation where technology has the potential to significantly raise the basic standard of living for every man, woman, and child on the planet."

For more:

I got the book downloaded to my Kindle for a much lower price.

EUROPEAN LIFE DIED IN AUSCHWITZ

IT WAS IN A SPANISH PAPER
Date: Tue. 15 January 2008 14:30

EUROPEAN LIFE DIED IN AUSCHWITZ

By Sebastian Vilar Rodrigez

I walked down the street in Barcelona , and suddenly discovered a terrible truth - Europe died in Auschwitz ... We killed six million Jews and replaced them with 20 million Muslims. In Auschwitz we burned a culture, thought, creativity, talent. We destroyed the chosen people, truly chosen, because they produced great and wonderful people who changed the world.

The contribution of this people is felt in all areas of life: science, art, international trade, and above all, as the conscience of the world.
These are the people we burned.

And under the pretense of tolerance, and because we wanted to prove to ourselves that we were cured of the disease of racism, we opened our gates to 20 million Muslims, who brought us stupidity and ignorance, religious extremism and lack of tolerance, crime and poverty, due to an unwillingness to work and support their families with pride.

They have blown up our trains and turned our beautiful Spanish cities into the third world, drowning in filth and crime.

Shut up in the apartments they receive free from the government, they plan the murder and destruction of their naive hosts.

And thus, in our misery, we have exchanged culture for fanatical hatred, creative skill for destructive skill, intelligence for backwardness and superstition.

We have exchanged the pursuit of peace of the Jews of Europe and their talent for a better future for their children, their determined clinging to life because life is holy, for those who pursue death, for people consumed by the desire for death for themselves and others, for our children and theirs.

What a terrible mistake was made by miserable Europe ..

A lot of Americans have become so insulated from reality that they imagine America can suffer defeat without any inconvenience to themselves.

Recently, the UK debated whether to remove The Holocaust from its school curriculum because it 'offends' the Muslim population which claims it never occurred. It is not removed as yet. However, this is a frightening portent of the fear that is gripping the world and how easily each country is giving into it.

It is now more than 60 years after the Second World War in Europe ended.
This e-mail is being sent as a memorial chain, in memory of the, 6 million Jews, 20 million Russians, 10 million Christians, and 1,900 Catholic priests who were 'murdered, raped, burned, starved, beaten, experimented on and humiliated' Now, more than ever, with Iran, among others, claiming the Holocaust to be 'a myth,' it is imperative to make sure the world never forgets.

This e-mail is intended to reach 400 million people. Be a link in the memorial chain and help distribute this around the world.

How many years will it be before the attack on the World Trade Center 'NEVER HAPPENED' because it offends some Muslim in the United States ?

Eating Healthy--Losing Weight

By eating healthy, gaining back one's health and desired weight is a natural by-product. It would be terrible if eating healthy foods caused obesity, heart disease and cancer. But it does the opposite.

When we go on diets, we constantly look at the scale to see how much or if we've lost weight. The scale is our barometer.

Looking at studies around the world, those who eat a vegan, low caloric density diet experience excellent health and proper body weight.

If one were to decide to eat a healthy diet and exercise, there is no need to be preoccupied with the bathroom scale. In fact, never weigh yourself again. The body would acclimate to what would be a normal weight for you.

Detroit--Progressive Public Policy

Detroit has been dubbed "the most liberal city in America" and each of these "progressive" policies is alive and well there. How have they worked out?

In 1950, Detroit was the wealthiest city in America on a per capita income basis. Today, the Census Bureau reports that it is the nation's 2nd poorest major city, just "edging out" Cleveland.

Could it be pure coincidence that the decline occurred over the same period in which union power, the city government bureaucracy, taxes and business regulations all multiplied? While correlation is not causation, it is striking that the decline in per capita income is exactly what classical economists predict would occur when wage controls are imposed and taxes are increased.

For more

Dr John Kelly

"Though no one can go back and make a brand new start, my friend, anyone can start from now and make a brand new end." --Carl Bard

If you can spend an hour of your life to watch this video, I promise you, you won't regret it.

Whitney H. Star Spangled Banner

Meryl Streep

If Slaughterhouses Had Glass Walls

If we could only live up to that Trust


Dear friends, I don't blame you if you choose not to watch this video. But I post this, asking that you take the time and watch. It's not entertaining. It's not fun. But this is the terribly sad reality.

And here's another part of that sad reality. By eating meat, we condone this conduct, even though it's against ever fiber of our being.

The video is overwhelming, just try to watch a few seconds at a time.

JBS--Overview of America

Who's The Biggest Special Interest Group?

How apropos/succinct is this quote?

“A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largesse from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most benefits from the public treasury with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy, always followed by a dictatorship. The average age of the world's greatest civilizations has been 200 years.”

― Alexis de Tocqueville

The Real Political Spectrum

Why I Like Facebook

I've been a member of Facebook for a number of years. And its just recently that I've been using FB on a daily basis.

At first I did not think I had any use for FB. My wife would post a picture of us eating or sitting at some bar. I thought that was the extent of FB, and that it was a girlie thing.

Now FB has come to mean much more. I don't use FB to connect with my real friends (Let's call them analogue friends), but I've made a bunch of digital friends. My passion is veganism, so through that, I've become friends with many.

Also, there's this thing called "I grew up in (name of your town)" on FB. By doing that I've connected with people I'd completely forgotten about. That part has been the most fun of FB. I just wish my family weren't Luddites, I'd love to connect with all of them.

The other thing I'm doing is my business FB page. And that's what I'm most excited about. It's my goal to build up my business FB page, so that I will do no advertising with traditional media. I've been in business for 25 years, and 99% of my customers lose contact with me. Via FB, I am able to give valuable info, and stay in touch with my customers. Truly a win-win.

Another thing I like about FB is "Liking" famous people, restaurants, you name it. FB is much more than communicating with your analogue friends, you get to visit with your digital friends too. I'd love for some of these digital friends to become my analogue friends eventually.

Trophy Hunting Africa--For Shame

Humor of Ronald Reagan

Bacon Milkshake, Yumm

Bacon Milkshake: Jack In The Box Adds Absurd Indulgence To Menu

Longing For Herman Cain

It seems so long ago Mr Cain was in the presidential race. In fact, wasn't he leading the polls in Florida at one time?

But it also appears, like a lot of men, Mr Cain had one big problem--keeping his dick in his pants. And because of that, we lost the greatest hope going for conservative Americans.

BTAIM, many many millions of conservatives are again led to vote while holding their noses. I know I, as a conservative, am getting damned pissed off about it. I really liked Herman Cain, and I was excited about his presidency. A dear friend of mine, a Jewish woman, was equally excited.

Now I believe most conservatives hold the view of ABO, anybody but Obama. But it's not going to be easy. Take away the Looney Liberals, majority of minorities, people sucking from the government teat, unions, and Main Steam Media, there may not be enough clear thinking Americans to stem this tide.

And woe is us if Barack Obama is president of these United States another 4 years.

Bill Whittle--Coin of the Realm

Orange County Goodwill

Click here to go to Orange County Goodwill's website.

As we all know, Goodwill is a national thrift store chain with all their monies going to help others.

One thing you may not know if you live in Orange County. They have different tag sales. For instance, whenever they have a yellow tag sale, anything with the yellow tag is 50% off. If you are a senior, 55 or over, on Tuesday's and Sunday's (in the OC) it's another 10% off. Also, I assume because it's a charity, you don't pay tax, that's another 10%.

So while the clothes and such are already deeply discounted, if you're a senior you could get another 60% off. Not too shabby. (Pun intended;-)

How much "Enough"?

When asked, "How much would be enough?" J.D. Rockefeller replied, "Just a little bit more".

Could have the world's richest man at the time been serious? It was noted one of his favorite pastimes when retired was playing the stock market. It reminds me of the super wealthy coming to Las Vegas to gamble. Why? They'll have more money than they'll ever be able to spend the rest of their lives.

Here's a post about the great John Bogle, who gave a commencement address about "Enough".

Money at its basest of levels is about buying things. But once those things are bought, money means much more. Money is security, opportunity, and freedom. All far more valuable than things.

Change our focus from scarcity, to one of enough. Not only do we have enough, we're rich beyond our wildest dreams. Language, eyesight, health, warmth, friends, my wonderful dogs, the internet--we're incredibly rich.

Many who wonder about retirement ask how much I need. Perhaps the greater question is how little do I need.

Exploring Underbelly of City

Crack The Surface - Episode II from SilentUK on Vimeo.