3rdApr

to bird view or not to bird view.

Categories: General | 2008 | by mattbob | 2 comments

Live Search MapsThere seems to be a running theme with a couple of my friends as of late, it appears as though they’ve been holding out on me. Usually I’m the one sharing any great internet finds, which, lucky you, I’m getting around to sharing with everyone via this blog, but when something this cool comes along, an email or a IM would most certainly be expected from said friends. So it was a bit of a shocker when I just learned about this site.  The annoying part of this story is that I’ve told a few people about this and their response was something along the lines of “yeah, I know, I’ve been using it for awhile now.”  Lovely, shove it in my face.

For the past few years Google Maps has served my online map needs quite well. I left good ol’ MapQuest because they were not doing a good enough job keeping up-to-date with mapping tech. Now appear that someone has stepped up and over on Google the Great. A neat little site by Microsoft, Live Search Maps (June 2007) has really put to task high quality imaging (3.8 terabytes and counting) by adding a new feature; a 45 degree, multi-angle view they call ‘Bird View.’ This is wicked nice. Unlike the street level view of Google Maps, Bird View is available all over the world. It appears that a satellite can cover a lot more ground than a weird looking Google Van. (DuH!) Is Live Search Maps perfect, no, but it’s a hell of a lot better than anything currently available.. except, perhaps, National Intelligence Imagery, which rumor has it, is really hard to get access to.

3rdApr

Bunny-up!

Categories: General | 2008 | by mattbob | no comments

A few days ago I wrote about the hysterical, GarfieldMinusGarfield site and a number of people have told me how much they enjoy this ‘new’ take on an old classic. So, in order to put a smile on your face, I give you one of my absolute favorite, smart, single panel comic, simply named, ‘Bunny.’ It’s Welsh-based author, Lem (Huw Davies) first started this comic, online August 22, 2004. While viewers can usually enjoy a new strip daily, don’t panic (it’s hard sometimes) Lem is in college and from time to time this lovely institution makes him take tests or something, so he neglects his readers and does his studies. Apparently he’s all over the place with regards to visual arts classes, but now he’s finally gone to a class on Capitalism. ;)

feline cunning and sods law

This artist has created something unlike any I have ever ran across. If you are disconnected from the world (which, c’mon, really isn’t necessarily a bad thing) then don’t feel bad as this comic is rife with pop culture references. It is very topical as well, so, if you miss a couple weeks and you’re not understanding the references, think back to the day it was released. Also, when you are online, hold your curor over the image, the Alt tags sometimes have additional witticisms added. Otherwise, delight in knowing that you have a new outlet for the funny. You’re welcome.

mr dns

While I’d like to say start at today’s comic, it may be a better idea to start from the beginning and work forward. Bunny has matured over the past 3 1/2 years, so, all the lovely characters would need to be introduced in order to understa— what am I talking about, you can try understand. Hell, sometimes I don’t get any of the references so I turn to my Bunny-ites over at the Bunny Forum who discuss the strips. It is here one will become…enlightened.

contains scenes of mild peril

Welcome to World of Bun.

2ndApr

Windsailing goes cargo…

Categories: General | 2008 | by mattbob | no comments

Here’s a facinating story from, The Christian Science Monitor that I think is really compelling. Take a reeally big kite, add an electronic brain and rig it to a container ship and you can save 20% of fuel costs. Wow. Imagine if we’d thought of this earlier!

come sail away, come sail away, come sail away with me..you guys.
come sail away, come sail away, come sail away with me.. you guys.

Check out the story, A Secret to Improving Ship Efficiency: Go Fly A Kite.

stoopd Egyptians.

2ndApr

silly PRC, what have I learned about you lately?

Categories: china | 2008 | by mattbob | no comments

Those silly Chinese (gov’t types) are up to it again.. or should I say, have been up to it for YEARS.  It appears that since the inception of the Tibetan exile radio network some 12 years ago, China has been jamming their airwaves, preventing evening newscasts reaching those still in Tibet.  Not surprisingly, giving the nature of the beast, this is also disrupting those trying to hear broadcasts in India, Nepal and in Europe.

I was kinda shocked about learning that the “Voice of Tibet” (heeyyy, that name sounds awfully familiar!  :P ) broadcasts on internationally registered frequencies which, you’ll never guess.. are allegedly protected by the International Telecommunications Union, an arm of.. the United Nations.  Asleep at the wheel again there, eh boys?  According to a few unconfirmable stories, the ITU has tried to stop the Chinese (probably a ’strongly worded letter’) but I guess, gave up.  No reason given.

Well, given the recent uprisings in Tibet, China has now intensified the jamming by using two or three signals.. just to make sure the job gets done.

Go China Go!    Oppress China Oppress!    Sit back and watch China take over the world  whoever-is-reading-my-blog sit  back and watch China take over the world!
Here’s the story on the AP.

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5hXfXmEgP_CEoPo9KkTiMbLPQV5ugD8VPSGF01

and… here’s a link to examples of the jammings.

http://www.diantai.org/jamming.html

and…

here’s a link to some other countries and their jammings.

http://www.radiojamming.puslapiai.lt/

1stApr

New American Treasure, No Foolin’

Categories: General | 2008 | by mattbob | no comments

It would appear that this great nation of our has a new National Treasure, as defined by Brent Glass.

On the January 14th episode, Mr. Glass, director of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History told Steven Colbert that his portrait, ‘Steven Colbert with a portrait of Steven Colbert in a portrait of Steven Colbert,’ which hung in his New York City studio where his Emmy Award winning TV Show, ‘The Colbert Report’ is taped four (4) night a week, was not worthy of being added to the “Treasures of American History” exhibit in the Air and Space Museum. Luckily he was able to convince the lovely folks at the National Portrait Gallery to hang his portrait (SCwapoSCiapoSC) just outside the Hall of Presidents, steps from our first General and President, George Washington.

It’s this author’s opinion that because of the amount of people visiting the portrait, Mr. Glass had a change of heart. Interesting.. a late night tv show can actually get those ‘couch potatoes’ off there butts and visit a museum. So, Steven gets a phoner on the Atone Phone from Brent Glass offering to add his portrait to the “Treasures of American History” exhibit.

So, there you are, our nation has a new American Treasure. Mr. Glass said so. This is all terrific news, however, you only have until April 13th to get to the Air and Space Museum in Washington DC to see his portrait.

Out of town, don’t like cities, can’t make it.. that’s okay, you can enjoy all the pictures from the National Portrait Gallery here. I expect to be able to have my photos of Steven Colbert’s portrait at the Air and Space Museum this Saturday when I’ll be in the city.. stay tuned!

31stMar

Happy Harry Harddrive.

Categories: General | 2008 | by mattbob | no comments

Donn Edwards in Johannesburg, South Africa put up a request on his blog for people to post the best defragging software and he would test it.  Although not scientific in a lab sense of the word, he goes through astounding lengths to make it as fair and concise as possible.  So, for all of those (ahem, almost everyone I know) who do not defrag… ever… please dial your browser over to Insights and Rants and check out “The Great Defrag Shootout

As much as I despise Fox News, I believe I’ve found an even worse ‘news agency,’ Xinhua, aka China View. What they deem as news is pure, utter propaganda. Due to the recent Tibetan unrest, I find myself trolling around the internet, mainly news.google.com and news.yahoo.com getting feeds from all over the world. The articles I ran across as well as linked videos are spellbinding. How in the world are we doing business with these people?

A recent ‘Top Story’ stole a headline that the Bush Administration came up with years ago with the runup to the Iraq War.

“Facts exposing Dalai clique’s masterminding of Lhasa violence”

Seriously? What??? wow. The article starts..

BEIJING, March 30 (Xinhua) — Xinhua was authorized to release a signed article on Sunday to reveal how the Dalai clique plotted and incited the Lhasa violence on March 14, which killed at least 18 civilians and one police officer.

Okay.. a ’signed article’? What the hell does that even MEAN??? Why don’t you produce this ‘article’ for us to see?? because it’s a LIE. duh.

AN INSIDER’S CONFESSION

An unidentified suspect who was connected with the Lhasa violence has confessed to the police that the “security department” of the “Tibetan government-in-exile” asked him to distribute leaflets promoting the so-called “Tibetan people’s uprising” to civilians and monks in Tibet, according to the article.

“The violence on March 14 was related to the instigation of the ’security department’ of the ‘Tibetan government-in-exile’,” the suspect said.

“To protect myself, (the Dalai clique) asked me not to participate in the demonstrations in person, just to take charge of stirring people up,” the suspect said.

“The beating, smashing, looting and burning were by no means peaceful demonstrations and the deeds were inhuman,” the suspect admitted. “If they (the Dalai clique) wanted to follow the non-violent ‘middle way’, such violence should have never happened.”

On the same day that mobs attacked innocent Lhasa civilians, a closed-door meeting was held by the Dalai Lama clique on how to build on the “achievements,” the article said.

wooww.

FOLLOW-UP PLOTS

The meeting finally decided to mobilize all of the monasteries in Tibet, each with more than 100 lamas, especially those of the Yellow Sect of Tibetan Buddhism, and ask the monks to take to the street and involve common Tibetans in the demonstrations. The meeting also plotted to launch ongoing protests, in stages, in Tibetan-inhabited areas.

Samdhong, the “prime minister” of the “Tibetan government-in-exile,” said at the meeting that they should seize the very rare opportunity provided by the Beijing Olympics to make breakthroughs in the “Tibet cause”, to pave the way for the Dalai Lama to “return” to Tibet and to achieve a high level of autonomy in “Greater Tibet”, as well as the goal of “abolishing” the existing management method on the reincarnation of Tibetan living Buddhas.

The Dalai clique also entrusted the “ministry of finance” under the “government-in-exile” to “financially support the decisive battle against the Chinese government,” the article said.

A day after the violence began on March 14, the “Tibetan Youth Congress (TYC)”, a hardline organization under the Dalai Lama’s supporters that openly preaches violence, decided to “set up guerillas to infiltrate Tibet and start armed struggles” at a meeting in Dharamsala, where the “Tibetan government-in-exile” was located, the article said.

They also drafted recruitment plans and plans to purchase weapons and planned to steal into Tibet through the China-Nepal border.

The “TYC” leaders said that they were ready to “sacrifice another 100 Tibetans at least” to achieve their goal.

Besides the “TYC”, other organizations that were among the Dalai Lama’s supporters also sent people to Tibetan communities in India and Nepal, urging residents there to contact people in Tibet and other Tibetan-inhabited areas in China by telephone or e-mail and incite them, “in the name of the Dalai Lama”, to hold demonstrations following the Lhasa violence.

Cewang Rigzin, the “TYC” president, said at a meeting on March 20 that violence has “achieved its goal” to “awaken resistance among people in Tibet and attract high-profile international attention to the Tibet issue” but the struggle “will not stop and this incident is just the prelude of this year’s fight.”

Where do they get this?? Just like every other technology, this is all stolen articles reworked from some extremist site. wow.

Since I am actually finding myself thinking unhappy thoughts, I’ll just post the rest of the article, without permission or care.

INSTIGATION OF LHASA RIOT

The article detailed how the Dalai Lama’s backers masterminded a so-called “Tibetan people’s uprising” that led to the violence in Lhasa.

Five organizations under the “Tibetan government-in-exile”, the “TYC”, the “Tibetan Women’s Association (TWA),” “Students for a Free Tibet (SFT),” the “National Democratic Party of Tibet (NDPT)”and the “Gu-Chu-Sum Movement of Tibet (GCSMT)” announced the formal start of the “Tibetan people’s uprising” on Jan. 4 this year and founded a temporary preparation office in charge of coordination and financing, headed by Cewang Rigzin, according to the report.

They claimed that the movement would be a “turning point in the history of Tibetans’ struggle for freedom,” the article said.

“They divided the movement into four stages,” it said. The first was to recruit participants and promote the ideas of the movement. The second stage, or the action step, started on March 10, followed by the third, which was to organize demonstrations across the world. The last one was to launch actions in the regions inhabited by Tibetan people inside China.

FOREIGN ASSISTANCE

From Feb. 15 to 17, the five organizations launched training programs for people in charge of the movement activities in Dharamsala in northwest India, where the “Tibetan government-in-exile” was located.

Four days later, in the same place, they started a six-day campaign to recruit participants.

The “GCSMT” obtained financial assistance from the U.S.-based National Endowment for Democracy (NED) on Feb. 27 from a fund “for activists to deal with danger.”

According to an NED report, the foundation granted 1.36 million U.S. dollars to the Dalai Lama’s backers between 2002 and 2006. In 2006 alone, it gave 85,000 U.S. dollars to organizations such as the “TWA” and “GCSMT.”

The Dalai clique questioned about 300 Tibetans who were smuggled across the border from China during February in a bid to collect information for planned attacks on border points or infiltration into China, the article said.

On March 10, after careful selection, 101 hard-core members setoff from Dharamsala to unleash the movement.

HISTORY REPEATS ITSELF

March 10 is the anniversary of the so-called “Tibet uprising” in 1959. On that date, 49 years ago, Lhasa saw a bloody riot initiated by the Dalai Lama’s backers. Rioters killed Pagbalha Soinam Gyamco, a senior lama and a member of the preparation committee of the Tibet Autonomous Region, tied his body to a horse and dragged it for two kilometers.

The day, annually commemorated by the Dalai Lama’s backers, has been a reminder of violence. And history seems to have repeated itself.

On the same date this year, a ceremony was held in Dharamsala to mark the event. The 14th Dalai Lama said in a critical statement that the Chinese government had imposed “more severe repression upon Tibetans in Tibet” and “trampled on human rights and limited religious freedom”.

He also expressed appreciation for the “Tibetan people’s sincerity, courage and resolution.”

Immediately after the ceremony, about 300 monks from the Zhaibung Monastery tried to march into central Lhasa. In the following days, monks from other temples in Lhasa also tried to demonstrate but were restrained by police.

When the monks’ efforts to spread unrest failed, rioters came. They torched shops and vehicles, attacked innocent passers-by on the streets and even attacked ambulances on March 14.

TRYING TO ESCAPE RESPONSIBILITY

After the Lhasa riot on March 14, which is so far known to have claimed at least 18 civilian lives and caused 382 injuries, unrest erupted in other Tibetan-inhabited regions in the southern part of Gansu Province and the northern part of Sichuan Province.

Mobs, some shouting slogans for “Tibet independence” and bearing flags of the so-called “Tibetan government-in-exile”, stormed into and attacked government offices, police stations, hospitals, schools and banks.

Moreover, the backers of the Dalai Lama spread violence even further by organizing rioters to attack Chinese embassies and consulates in the United States, Canada, India, Britain, France, Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands, Switzerland and Australia, the article said.

The Dalai Lama released a statement via his personal secretariat on March 14, in which violent actions were described as “peaceful protests”. On the same day, the “Tibetan government-in-exile” defined the riots in another statement as peaceful demonstrations by Tibetans to protest Chinese policies.

In commenting to the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) on March 16, the Dalai Lama said, when prompted, that he would not ask the rioters to stop.

The Chinese government later released film and photographs showing the violent attacks that took place during the riot in Lhasa, which have been regarded as a contradiction to the vaunted “peaceful image” of the Dalai Lama.

On the advice of his supporters, the Dalai Lama changed his tune at a press conference on March 18, when he said that he should not have created an anti-Chinese mood in the international arena. The only option would be his retirement if the situation got out of control, the Dalai Lama said.

His comments were soon seen by the international community as an admission that he had a responsibility for the riots in Lhasa.

BEIJING OLYMPICS

After Beijing won a bid for hosting the 29th Summer Olympic Games in 2008, Dalai clique claimed that it would be a “decisive battle” to seek for “Tibet Independence” by interfering the Olympics.

Chairman of the working department of “2008 Free Tibet Movement” Lordain said in December 2004, “People around the world will pay close attention to China (for Olympics) and that gives us a unique opportunity to bring political pressure to Chinese government.”

On February 7 of this year, Gama Qoinpe, “Speaker of the Assembly of Tibetan People’s Deputies” said that they should make use of the opportunity to compel Chinese government to resolve the Tibet issue in 2008 or within future two years.

In recent two years, the Dalai Lama and his followers have launched a series of Olympics-related actions for the above-mentioned purpose:

— Members of “Students for a Free Tibet (SFT)” raised banners of “Tibet Independence” to boycott Beijing Olympics at the base camp of the Mount Qomolangma in April 2007.

— In May, Dalai clique declared that it will hold “Tibetan Olympics” in Dharamsala and established a “organizing committee” for it.

— Dalai clique’s “Network of International Support to Tibet” also built an athlete “delegation” consisting of Tibetans living outside China and requested International Olympic Committee to allow them to “participate in the Beijing Olympics on behalf of Tibet”.

— The “TYC” decided to launch a “Death Torch” relay in April from Dharamsala to New Delhi, India’s Capital.

— Head of Dalai clique’s “Tibet Independence Movement” has said that The Beijing Olympics is an important timing for international communities to press Chinese government to improve human rights, continue dialogs with the Dalai Lama and peacefully resolve the Tibet issue. Tibetans living everywhere should participate in the fighting, he said.

China (PRC gov’t) SUCKS!

29thMar

I’m positive too.. we’re becoming irrelevant.

Categories: General | 2008 | by mattbob | no comments

Bouncing around news sites.. actually, I believe it was Fark.com, an article caught my eye that reflects how completely irrelevant we as a nation are really becoming.  There are so many problems in the world and we’re still fighting people at the border for shit that doesn’t matter anymore.  unbelievable.  Check out the article from Canada’s, The Globe and Mail website.

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