A novel chainless, folding bicycle

An impressive design from Speed Studio Design, from the quick folding design to the ratcheting drive train.

Similar to the bike by Linearc

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White tea to help rid fat

Apparently white tea helps to burn and keep off fat. Interesting. I tried white tea for the first time this year. It is like a mild green tea. Very nice. In Hogaza Hogaza you can by the white tea by Cha'nte; I think I'll start drinking more!

Possible anti-obesity effects of white tea have been demonstrated in a series of experiments on human fat cells (adipocytes). Researchers writing in BioMed Central's open access journal Nutrition and Metabolism have shown that an extract of the herbal brew effectively inhibits the generation of new adipocytes and stimulates fat mobilization from mature fat cells.

via EurekAlert! photo via SunnyCanuck on Flickr

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Cough in your sleve

I've been coughing in my sleeve since I worked at Magoo's Hamburgers. Not sure why, just seemed smarter.. Well, here is a tacky video about it.. Enjoy

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Macbreak weekly pics site

Finally, there is now a couple of websites that list the pics of the week from one of my favorite podcasts Macbreak Weekly.

They are; MBW Picks of Week and MBW Picks. Thanks for the sites. I usually listen while walking  (or some other activity that lasts an hour) that leavs me without internet connection. And blasted web 2.0 names are creative, but a pain in the bus to remember!

via: targuman

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Pot legal in Mexico?!

Well, not really, but it is less of a crime. This law seems similar to what passed in Canada, where small amounts (personal stash) is not illegal.

Under the bill, it would be legal to have 25 milligrams of heroin, a fifth of an ounce of marijuana or half a gram of cocaine. The bill also makes it legal to possess small amounts of LSD, hallucinogenic mushrooms, amphetamines and peyote.

This way people with large amounts are called dealers, and can be treated more harshly. I like to think that this law as well will allow for the legalization of all drugs where to sell requires a licence. Personally, legalize drugs, charge lots of tax, and force the Mafia either out of business through competition, or make them into mainstream businesses. From a use point of view, this would also allow for open competition of growers, and better control of product; i.e. protecting the citizen better. Only thing left is for the US to change its policy as well, and all of North America will be finally leaving the puritan experiment started in the early 20th century!

via NY times

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1ra paseo ciclista en Ensenada

Around 50 bike enthusiasts gathered at Ensenada's city hall and rode from there to CEARTE yesterday as a show of support for the city's new plan of a bike lane network in the city.

The bikers arrived at CEARTE in time to see an out door jazz concert. The ride, more symbolic then exercise, was well organized and full of smiles. The group will meet every Thursday at 7 and ride to CEARTE to finish by talking drinking coffee and enjoying the state art center has to offer.

Photos of the ride are posted on my flickr account. Take a look, and see you next week!

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UABC Gastronomy presents deserts

This week we were invited to see the presentation of UABC students in the gastronomy program, and their work with deserts. I must admit, that this is study that I can really sink my teeth into.. Check out the pictures on flickr.

Mina; USB input output device

This seems like a useful device for computer control/monitoring. It looks a little simpler than the arduino. I'm thinking it would be good for simple prototypes.

Minia Open HArdware from Servando Barreiro on Vimeo.

Minia is an Usb, plug n play & multiplatform device that allows the computer to comunicate with the external /physical world. Since it´s open hardware, you can customize it and use in many ways with different kind of sensors, with differents softwares and for different applications such Audio, video, measurement of phisical parameters, etc.

Minia comes with 6 analog inputs at 10 bit of resolution (1024 steps) Minia uses the Hid protocol, this is a high speed protocol that runs directly over USB so, no drivers needed for this device in any platform (linux, macosX, windows) and no more pain with ancient protocols like “serial”. Hid has extremely low latency so the sensor response is inmediate.

via Harkopen

Natural Homes

A cool link to many homes made of natural materials (cob, adobe, etc..)

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Fotos de Feria de Taco y Platillo Mexicano

Tengo fotos de la excelente feria que passo la domingo passado. Todo estan en mi quiente de flickr en una set. Algunos de mis favoritos estan aqui.

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Festival de Taco y Platillo Mexicana

This Sunday, starting at 12 pm till 7pm at the Civic Plaza de la Patria (three heads, tres cabezas), there will be some of the best tacos, burritos, mole, gorditas, etc...



With live music and dancing, with Enenada businesses; Corona, Santo Tomas, L.A. Cetto, Tortillaria Renteria, and other local greats showing their best.


The format will be similar to other CANIRAC events (Mushroom festival, Seafood and fish...) with books of tickets that can be exchanged for delicious assortment of local gastronomic delights.


see you there; Hogaza will be bringing Mexican sweet bread, traditional cookies, and specially designed deserts. With us will be Dona Esperanza who prepares our Mole and rustic chocolate.

Snacking on great Mexcan food while drinking wine and watching live music and dance; sounds like one of the best things to do this Sunday in Ensenada. Should be full of people from the Roserito-Ensenada fun ride too...

Kepler first light

A friend of mine working at NASA just tweeted about the first images from the Kepler space telescope. Orbiting the sun in an earth trailing orbit, the Kepler telescope will be taking constant images with its 95 megapixel CCD camera for the next three and a half years looking for changes in the brightness of stars that signal the presence of an orbiting planet in that system passing between the star and us. This is a cool mission, but I also see the potential to find something new. Science often finds what it is not looking for, and this would be an opportunity to do just that. It would be great if NASA releases the images for outside people to perform their own analysis!. via NASA

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A better place: electric cars-an idea that makes sense!

This is a great way to approach the problem, and done with a sound economic viewpoint! What do I see, the need for small (1 MW) power plants to charge batteries. Home charges, fleets of tow trucks with battery changers, etc... Come on Federal Gov. of Mexico. Start supporting this! Now is your opportunity to make the beautiful country that should be here!!!

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$7 solar oven wins $75000 prize

via Bong Boing

I'll be making this next weekend. I'm surprized that the cardboard doesn't burn...

The Kyto Box is a cardboard box, with an interior that's painted black, aluminum foil-covered top panels, and covered with clear acrylic. It gets hot enough to boil water. Its inventor, Kenyan-based Jon Bohmer, won a £51,000 prize from the Forum for the Future.

The box will be produced in a factory in Nairobi. He told CNN: "This took me about a weekend, and it worked on the first try. It's mind-boggling how simple it is."

Xeriscaping

Its a common feeling of people from northeastern parts of the content, we miss green, and find the dust bowl that is California, a little sad. The San Diego, and well off Ensenada, solution is to plant grass, and irrigate. But this is not only wastefully, but not practical. California (Alta and Baja) have a rich variety of plants that need little water, and are very pleasing to the eye.

Xeriscaping is landscaping with low water consumption plants. There are many links on how and what plants to use. Of course, they are in English, and with English names. Transferring this to Spanish has been difficult, and the people in garden centers and landscaping know very little about this.

In this post I have a list of resources that I have found in the US/world. If you have translations for these plants, or know of a good garden center, please leave a comment, or mail me and I'll make a post in the future.

Drought resistant plant overview from about.com

Arizona Municipal water users association on plants for the Arizona Desert.

A great introduction to California plants from Las Pilitas Nursery; their printable guide to drought resistant planting, and a guide to designing your garden (very useful!)

Drought-Tolerant Gardening: The Cheaper Landscaping Alternative

A simple D.R. landscape plan

A well known plant is the Yucca. Here are articles on Yuccas and their care in the garden.

I would love to make an Ensenada plant guide. If you find this interesting, and have information, or a garden that you wold like to share, write me or leave a comment. I can come take pictures and add links.

Happy gardening

Paseo ciclista este domingo en Ensenada

UNIDOS POR ENSENADA invitan

PASEO FAMILIAR CICLISTA

LUGAR: frente a la VENTANA DEL MAR en ENSENADA B.C.
RECORRIDO: BLVD.COSTERO IDA Y VUELTA.

Asiste con bicicleta,patines,carreola o a pie. TE DIVERTIRAS.

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Pedal Powered Business

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On the list of projects that we have planned for Hogaza Hogaza is to start delivery in Ensenada by bike. I knew a bunch bike couriers back in Toronto, but it is nice to see that other businesses have been taking the idea of bike transportation more seriously.

Jed Lazar doesn't ride an average bike. Then again, he’s not riding it for average reasons. Although many of us don a helmet and mount our cycles in order to get to work, pick up groceries or just spend an afternoon outside, Lazar’s reason for cycling is all business. Co-founder of Soupcycle, Lazar rides his bike around the streets of Portland delivering handmade, organic soup. But because of a multitude of reasons, Lazar’s business isn't the only one that’s harnessing the power of pedaling.

What Ensenada is experiencing in the recent push for a bike lane by groups like Grupo Pro Ciclovía is a trend throughout North America;

“I think the recent explosion in biking is both a return on our communities’ investments in encouragement programs and infrastructure - bike lanes, paths, bike boulevards, etc. - and a sign of increasing concern about economics, health, and the environment. We are seeing a much greater diversity of people out biking and even bike commuting these days,” says Stephanie Noll, Bicycle Transportation Alliance Programs Manager. Noll also points out that the reason for choosing cycles over cars is multi-faceted. “The increasing cost of driving or concern about the environment alone are generally not enough for most of our communities’ members to imagine themselves on a bike.”

This trend can be in all types of business;

Another Portland based company, Q19, operates its sustainable cleaning service (they use 100% ecological and petrochemical-free cleaning agents) with the help of bikes for the same reason. “Q19 came about out of a local property management firm’s need for an accountable, high quality, consistent service provider… Utilizing Bakfiets, or Dutch work bikes, became a vital way to achieve all of our objectives- creating happy, healthy, empowered work environments, limiting our impact on the environment, and building a financial viable company,” says Hannah Sandmeyer, Q19’s Managing Director.

In an eco-conscious era, both Q19 and Soupcycle have seen a positive customer response; running operations with bikes proves the companies’ commitments to responsible business plans. “People are drawn to Q19 because we provide a high quality sustainable service in addition to representing change they can believe in,” says Sandmeyer

But it is important to note that all these businesses have come about thanks to infrastructure that exists in Portland. I hope that the Ensenada city hall can see the economic benefits to the city by bicycle based infrastructure.

story via Boing Boing and Wend Magazine;

Pedaling to Profit: The Upswing of Bike Powered Business

Learning HTML and CSS

I've been meaning for year to learn how to make my own web pages, but it has just not been that important yet. When I first made the Hogaza Hogaza web page I did it with iWeb. This was... ok.. but not very powerful, and when iWeb 2 came out, I could not modify the old web page. So I got my hands on Dreamweaver, but never really understood what was going on. I also started playing with flash, but did not get too far (I wanted to make presentations and cartoons).

Finally I have some time and I was shown a great trick on how to use photoshop to export to Dreamweaver. Hopefully I'll combine that with a sliding effect done through jQuery, but this is all done in the code, so I needed to at least learn the basics.

I found a great tutorial on HTML. I feel much more confident, and also finally understand what CSS is!

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Idea Lab and Makani

I remember when I was just entering grad school and I thought that the coolest job would be to work in a company that was think tank that used creativity, and science to approach current challenges. Like all great ideas, many people have similar ones, so when I saw the TED talk by Bill Gross I was excited to see what they were working on.

The talk focuses on a solar thermal power generator, using a sterling engine combined with a small heliostat array. They used evolutionary algorithms to help in the design (something that I've been interested in for while as well, but never tried).

His company, Idea Lab, is full of great work, and seem to have produced a lot of good technologies; well worth a few minuets to go through their projects.

Another great talk is given by Saul Griffith, who started one of my favorite sites Instructables. He talks about kites and their use as a renewable resource; there is an earlier talk on self replication, also well worth the watch. He has some interesting companies that are also worth a look; Makani Power, SQUID Labs;

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Confusing tyranny with losing

I try to stay out of US politics (at least formally) by there were a couple of good jokes in this one.. tyranny definition. Really, did these people not go to school? Sure, complain all you want, but please try not to change the meanings of words.

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	M - Th 11p / 10c
Baracknophobia - Obey
thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Economic Crisis Political Humor

Periodismo ambiental en Mexico

This seems like a well done blog on enviormental concerns. Written in spanish; there are not many of these. I'll keep posting interesting stories here.

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CANIRAC national assembly in Ensenada

After a great year, increasing the amount of restaurants in the local chapter from 27 to 150, and extremely successful food fairs (Mushroom festival, Ensenada se viste de vino, and Feria de Pescado y Mariscos), the CANIRAC (restaurant association) National meeting is set to be held here later this year right after this year seafood festival.

La intención del evento, comentó, es vincular al sector restaurantero nacional con los productores pecuarios, acuícolas y vitivinícolas de la región, por lo que el domingo 19 de septiembre se llevará a cabo la Feria del Pescado y el Marisco, y la asamblea será el lunes 20 y martes 21.

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CANIRAC national assembly in Ensenada

After a great year, increasing the amount of restaurants in the local chapter from 27 to 150, and extremely successful food fairs (Mushroom festival, Ensenada se viste de vino, and Feria de Pescado y Mariscos), the National meeting is set to be held here later this year right after this year seafood festival.

La intención del evento, comentó, es vincular al sector restaurantero nacional con los productores pecuarios, acuícolas y vitivinícolas de la región, por lo que el domingo 19 de septiembre se llevará a cabo la Feria del Pescado y el Marisco, y la asamblea será el lunes 20 y martes 21.

from ensenadahoy.com

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Ensenada Cruisers

In Ensenada I've gotten to know the science community, the wine makers and drinkers, the restaurateurs, the bike riders, and the hippy surfers. But thanks to being at Le Petit every night I've gotten to know the sailors (not the type that first comes to mind!) People that live, or travel extensively on their ships. A very interesting subculture in this exciting city!

For anyone interested, they have a website with listings that seem quite useful; Ensenada Cruisers.

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Bike Week; Day one; build a bike

Building your own form of transportation seems very Mad Maxian, and I'm sure what little I've seen of the Baja Mil has effected my point of view, if not a little.

There are large groups interested in human powered vehicles such as the International Human Powered Vehicle Association. I wont go to into this, but a search on HPV in del.icio.us gives good results (also known as velomobile). Shown is the Go-One.

An open engineering design for a simple recumbent bike where the steering is controlled by shifting your center of gravity called the python has a good following of makers and builders (a great read is their Python Wiki.) There are other designs like the build your own recumbent trike designs. But I want to avoid excessive wheels, again it comes to portability, and a big trike is more to lock up ect... Here are some good videos of pythons in action; vid1, vid2. (right click and hit 'save linked file'.)

To make a bike truly care free it needs to be portable. This needs some bicycle origami like that used to make the Brompton Bike or the Dahon Bikes Flo folding mountain bike (the best of the folding bikes that I could find; the Brompton just doesn't look cool good, sorry.) I have a couple of ideas of what I'd like to try. Part of my problem is that the bike needs to be able to ride off-road, and do it comfortably.

Also I'd like to address the drive train. Ideally the gearing is very important. I would like some type of continuous gearing. Designs exist like the NuVinci, aimed at geriatrics. I've also been thinking about the need to use a chain drive, and if something different could be tried.

As well I would like to add in a type of regenerative braking and motor assistance. I've been thinking a great deal about compressed air propulsion, and paying attention to compressed air powered cars; MDI. The use of pistons does seem antiquated and the tesla turbine seems to be an interesting type of turbine for a DIY project; youtube is full of interesting videos presented by gyroscope.com (see video below.) Here is a great video with a tesla pump as well; the fun starts at about 6min in.

Untill I have a work space to make some prototypes I'll be in the planning stage, here is to hoping for a lab soon!

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Knight rider striptease

Gotta love sexy geek...

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Writing tips for scientists

Most scientists and science institutes have a general lacking of literature and communication skills. Personally I group all this into design. I well done experiment needs to be designed in a way that not only is information about nature observed and described, but that this knowledge is successfully coupled into the culture in general.

If a scientist discovers something in the woods, but no one hears about it, was it really found? From the point of view of the society and culture, no. Science is by definition a culture phenomenon. What one person can discover is almost irrelevant, but when the work of a group is combined, then science becomes powerful. In my thesis there are a great number of equations, most of which I would take a lifetime to derive and test myself, but because the work was performed and successfully shared, I could use that work to support my own.

Here is a list of 10 writing tips for scientists. There are many more words of wisdom on the inter-web. But this list covers some of the most important aspects.

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Go debaptise yourself!

Really.. I really don't care enough to bother. But, if you feel the need to make a statement, then place into public record your lack of belief. I'm of the state of mind that ignoring something is the true way to make it go away. But if religion tries to reestablish itself in government, then that is a different story.

Sciencebase; collection of science tweets

This is a list of scientist, science minded people who are on twitter. I think the idea of maintaining a list like this is great. I like the idea of hearing what other scientists around the world are talking about. I think this is a great idea!

Maybe we should do something similar for Ensenada? renewable energy? Canadian living in Mexico?.. ScienceBase; collection of science tweets.

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Cyclovia en Ensenada

There has been much talk over the past 10 years about creating a bike route system in Ensenada (ciclovia.) This is really overdue! It is hard to come up with a good city that has not invested in some form of trails for walking/biking/skating.

A bike lane on to Sauzal, combined with the lack of parking in many of the schools (CICESE, UABC, UNAM ) at the entrance to Ensenada could give a recreation lane and allow student to commute by bicycle.

The newest group that is actively pursuing the government to build the bike lane, Groupo pro ciclovia, has several people giving radio interviews:

Viernes 27 marzo - 8:00am - radio 1010AM


Martes 1 abril - 9:20am - radio 1590AM

The group has also started a yahoo group. If you know people who would be interested, pass the web page around. You can send the organizeres a email if you want to be on the mailing list.

Next week is bike week on this blog, I'll be posting the interesting projects that I've found on line, and some new ideas to try.

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Gapminder; stats display

I remember seeing this TED talk a few years back, and I even tried to use an amimation in a talk on sustainable water production that I gave in CICESE a few weeks back. I recommend stopping by gapminder and checking it out.

**I'm going to try and start publishing in english and spanish. I'm looking for a good dictionary (free ideally) to help my grammer.. So today is baddly written.. sorry about this.**

Recuerdo que vi este platica de TED algunos años passado. Entente a usar una animacion en una platica que hago en CICESE hasta dos semanas sobre el producion sustenible de agua potable. Te recomienden a passar gapminder y ver la.

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DIY solar thermal with fridge radiator

a simple DIY solar thermal project.

Here is an idea that I was thinking of as well, using the drip-irrigation tubing in thier pond heater.

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New scientist attacks Darwin, again..

I've been getting New Scientist emails for a few years now, but something has always bothered me. While any given article has its ups and downs, there seems to be a very opinionated editorial slant. I've noticed this with a slew of anti-marijuana reporting where studies a chemical imbalance caused by smoking pot led to schizophrenia. But the results, when the original text is read, is not even close to conclusive even thought the article proclaims a strong relation.

The attack on Darwin's theories seem to be more of the same slanted editorial content.

What science rag is good to read? Leave in the comments.. (Dawkins suggests Discover and SEED.)

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Chinese acrobat show

The lines outside the CEARTE open-air theatre shows how the city has and activly supports a diverse culture. Images can be found on flickr.

The night was made better yet with a thermus full of gormet hot chocolate (a Hogaza work in progress, more to come.)

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Chinese art in CEARTE

Last night the CEARTE in Ensenada presented an exibition of Chinese art. all photos on flickr

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Nomadness; reencountering Steve Roberts and the BEHEMOTH

For one year when I was in gradeschool I had a subscription to Bicycle Magazine. One story that cought my attention was of the human/solar powered BEHEMOTH bicycle. Almost a nomadic office on wheels, the bike had heads-up display, touch-typing through keys in the hand grips, wireless connection, and electric asist for the bike. This idea was given a sci-fi twist in the short story near-futur world in Metatrapolis.

While surfing a form for arduino projects, I ran across a post by Steve Roberts who continues in his quest for "playing NASA" which can be followed on  his blog where he has moved to a salling ship for his nomadic funness.

I was there looking for an opensource datalogger. Something that can be placed outside and take temperature, RH, dew point for several weeks and be easily plotted on computer. I'm considering combining with a small stepper motor controlled heliostat with potovotalic to both measure solar intensity and keep the system charged.

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Condensation traps in India

a youtube video of condensation traps in India. The troughs linned with plastic seems like a good idea; make it facing the wind for greater exposure and cleaning of sand?

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UABC gastronomia (culinary arts)

UABC gastronomia (culinary arts), originally uploaded by SunnyCanuck.

Science is back

Obama reinstates stemcell reasearch.. good to hear!!

see video here

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Bakeries list

I've been working on the Hogaza Hogaza web page and collected a list of good bakeries that have been inspiration to us.

In Quebec there are La Patisserie Belge, Premier Moisson, LA FOURNÉE BIO, and Piallard. In Quebec city there is also a great chocolate shop called Choco Musee.

Other places; in San Francisco there is Boudin. In San Diego there is Bread and Cie (but with a web page that is 2 years under construction.)

here is a well known french bakery. The site is pretty, but clunky.. Poilane

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Hydrodynamics videos from 1960's

An excellent set of videos from Imperial college in the 1960's about fluid dynamics

here

and here

Vendimia 2008

I'm moving to a shorter blog style. If I can figure out how to add in my "share" links from google reader I will.

We're in the middle of Vendimia 2008 in Ensenada. The offical site is here. Last night was TauroVinoMaquina in Santo Tomas (their 120 year anniversary.) Good event, I really dislike bull fights, there is something truly cowardice about 4 men with swords teasing and stabbing a bull until it is exhausted, and then killing it, while a crowd cheers. Santo Tomas has a beautiful ranch, and the drive (after the city ends) is very nice.

Today is "Ensenada Viste de Vino" on Ruiz. This is a CANIRAC event (same group that does the mushroom festival) so it should be well run, and great food! Hogza Hogaza will be there with sweets and fresh bread!

The Graphing Calculator

A story about geeks and their unending quest to make something great. I was very impressed by this.. and just purchased the grapher.. now that may not seem big, but it is.. Cash is very tight (infact non-existant) so this is all on borrowed money. Bought software on my machine is a total of about .. 3.. mathematica, DevonThink, GraphingCalculator.. The rest is open source or hacked (I'm trying to move to more open source.) I really like the idea behind this software.. why didn't I know about it when I was in University.. erggg.. See the video in

googleVideo

and

get the software.

A view of Windows Vista! Installing in the lab

Windows vista log

Day 1: after 20 min of "first time load" and another 20 min of I don't know what I finally see the pretty graphics of windows vista.. hmm.. nice. I don't feel the poppy-ness that i was hoping for.

Translation stage controllers seem to work, it took me a while to get all new drivers, but they are now recognized. Keyspan USB to serial port looks good.

Quickcam, I really don't like Logitech. Their recommendation for everything is for you to buy a newer camera.. well. What if I don't want to tear apart a brand new camera and then make all new optics!; support the old please. Well, I installed the program for a newer camera, but there is no camera found. No worries, a restart, and letting windows find my driver fixed that problem. But I don't have the time lapse any more. grrr..

Now for the real trial. Pixelink camera. Their web site is down, and the software wont run (wrong OS, warning) so going home..

Day 2 : Something is a little off.. the computer is telling me that it is blocking a startup item.. but I can't seem to see what that is.. hmmm..

Pixelink is back up and I got some new software.. but alas, it does not see the camera. I've tried installing a 3rd party driver uniBrain.. or something.. iFire is their product.. well. Nothing works...

The computer gave me the blue screen of death and then restarted.. that is a record.. less then 5 hours since new and a blue screen!!

The computer has now frozen and forced a restart.. Deleted all fire wire programs that I've installed.. trying to get the uniBrain one froze the computer.. (three forced restarts today.. good thing I brought my mac to work on.. )

restarted.. I'm still being told there is something in the startup that is being blocked, but I can't seem to find what it is, or be able to do anything about it..

Stupid norton anti-virus just can't understand I don't want it (another startup item I want to delete.. stupid 60 day free trial.. screw you Norton.. !

Here is a little pic that I think shows the mentality behind Windows and Mac...



AHHHHh.. what the hell is this windows defender.. ??! more like windows don't let me do what the crap I want to do... ergg..

And the stupid interface.. after startup I am using 45% of 2GB of RAM!!!! and nothing is running!!... and it feels slow and unresponsive.. (I remember now why I had switched to Linux.. )

killing Aero (in the Display settings) takes the RAM from 45% to 38%. Going to pure classic doesn't seem to help. Moving windows still is choppy.. odd.. should be better...

Tomorrow.. installing XP.. screw vista.. in the end.. runs slow. Doesn't work with CCD, or spectrometer, and is a pretty bad copy of the mac.. and I'm getting sick of the faded screen and asking me to permit every type of install program that is trying to pass.. way too much reading, and just a generally ugly thing.. Come on Bill.. you can do better the this?

The Web is us

this is fantastic.

WonderLand

just messed up!!

OK.. last one for today.. too depressing.. !

what the muslims do to their kids for religon..

CNN

The sin that keeps on sinning

A quick note about the blasphomy challenge..

see the report

NightLine report

see the challenge...

Blasphemy Challenge

I'll have mine up soon, but I want to take the oppertunits to try iMovie, so I may take a while.. hehe

Parents vs children

An interesting question, but not hard to answer. Is a child subject to their parents beliefs. When a child enters society, do they have rights? I would say yes! A parent is there to raise the child and they have the obligation to provide a child with the what it needs to grow and flourish. But a child is not a possession. It is a member of the society.

In Vancouver two Jehovah's Witness parents had sextuplets and didn't want the doctors to give blood transfusions (the children were born very premature to which two died.) The government stepped in and took custody of three of the babies, gave them transfusions and returned them to the parents, who are now filling a law suit because their religious beliefs where violated.

But their beliefs were not violated, because their children do not have these beliefs! It is a baby, and cannot hold such complex thoughts! A person can do what they wish to themselves, but do not have the right to inflect harm onto anyone else based on their own beliefs. Good for the government for stepping in and protecting its citizens!

Here is the link to the story:

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/british-columbia/story/2007/02/01/sextuplet-transfusion-070201.html

Paying a bribe, again..

This is an old story, happened on the 2nd of Jan. But it is worth adding in. I drunk ran infront of me on the high-way and I hit him. Lucky I was going slowly (about 40-50km/h) and hit the braks before, so no broken bones, but it was still an adventure. I ended up at the police station waiting for the hospital to say in what shape the guy was in. When they called the supervisor on the station came in to tell the cop on my case that he was very bad off. And that he could be in the hospital for more then 15 days or lose his life. If this were that case I would have to be in Jail over night until the majestrait was in the next day. But if I gave him 1000 pesos (about $100, more then a weeks wage for him) then I could go. Long story short, the guy was let go that night, but the hospital was also dishonest and wouldn't give proof of a paid bill (that could be changed to the insurance) so we paid the bribe and went home.



Its not that they want cash, but it is the abuse of athority and general scare tactics that gets me. I do belive that it will come back around on them. Socity can not progress if the enforcers of the law do not lead by example. The picture above has in the center the supervisor who came in and started talking shit. (with teh baseball hat.)

one more reply to my mother

Hi Mom

I do not get mad at those little pieces, I just feel that I would be doing a diservice if I let it go with outbeing challenged. The problem is that the way of speaking presented makes everything seem so simple and eaisly understood if not challenged. It is cruel to say that a woman who challenged prayer in school was killed because god stoped protecting her. It is a complete misuse of blame to say that the people died in New Orleans because it was a sinful city and not that their government had left them to die becuse of their lack of wealth and colour of their skin.

If anyone else had sent me that letter I would have deleated it before the end of the second pharagraph, but since it was from you, I read it, and tried to understand what it had to say. And then I wanted you to see my reaction to it. I think you are a thoughtful person and are interested in seeing the different aspects of life.

I do see why people feel the need for religion, but I also want to share the danger in this train of thought. I dislike religion and think it is dangerious. I want to present chanllenges to this apperently good way of thinking.I am a scientist, and I will believe what I see, and can prove. This is in contradicitionto what I want to see and want to have happen. This is a very difficult thing to do, and it makes the world a much less understood place. But I will then be in step with all other people who want to see the 'matter of fact' truth.

I see the world on an edge where science is answering more and more questions. Evolution, nueral science, physics, they are putting to rest most of the religious docturne. The first world is moving away from the need of religion. The religions are making all the strides they can to recapture the populace, even at the determent of the people. With wars, famine and hatred rapent. I hope the with my generation we can help to move to a more enlightned society, but I belive that the understanding of science, and the questioning nature of the mind must be preserved and encouraged.

Ben Stien, wow, a little dense eh?

Here is a letter forwarded to me by my well intentioned mother. Below is my reply to this letter..


This guy is known as a financial expert, TV game show host and comedian....but he also writes very well. Ben Stein wrote this.

The following was written by Ben Stein and recited by him on CBS Sunday Morning Commentary, Sunday, 12/18/05 .

Here at this happy time of year, a few confessions from my beating heart: I have no freaking clue who Nick and Jessica are. I see them on the cover of People and Us constantly when I am buying my dog biscuits and kitty litter. I often ask the checkers at the grocery stores. They never know who Nick and Jessica are either. Who are they? Will it change my life if I know who they are and why they have broken up? Why are they so important? I don't know who Lindsay Lohan is either, and I do not care at all about Tom Cruise's wife.

Am I going to be called before a Senate committee and asked if I am a subversive? Maybe, but I just have no clue who Nick and Jessica are. If this is what it means to be no longer young. It's not so bad.



Next confession:
I am a Jew, and every single one of my ancestors was Jewish. And it does not bother me even a little bit when people call those beautiful lit up, bejeweled trees Christmas trees. I don't feel threatened. I don't feel discriminated against. That's what they are: Christmas trees. It doesn't bother me a bit when people say, "Merry Christmas" to me. I don't think they are slighting me or getting ready to put me in a ghetto. In fact, I
kind of like it. It shows that we are all brothers and sisters celebrating this happy time of year. It doesn't bother me at all that there is a manger scene on display at a key intersection near my beach house in Malibu . If people want a cr�che, it's just as fine with me as is the Menorah a few hundred yards away.

I don't like getting pushed around for being a Jew, and I don't think Christians like getting pushed around for being Christians. I think people who believe in God are sick and tired of getting pushed around, period. I have no idea where the concept came from that America is an explicitly atheist country. I can't find it in the Constitution, and I don't like it being shoved down my throat.

Or maybe I can put it another way: where did the idea come from that we should worship Nick and Jessica and we aren't allowed to worship God as we understand Him?

I guess that's a sign that I'm getting old, too.

But there are a lot of us who are wondering where Nick and Jessica came from and where the America we knew went to.

In light of the many jokes we send to one another for a laugh, this is a little different: This is not intended to be a joke, it's not funny, it's intended to get you thinking.

Billy Graham's daughter was interviewed on the Early Show and Jane Clayson asked her "How could God let something like this Happen?" (regarding Katrina)

Anne Graham gave an extremely profound and insightful response. She said, "I believe God is deeply saddened by this, just as we are, but for years we've been telling God to get out of our schools, to get out of our government and to get out of our lives.

And being the gentleman He is, I believe He has calmly backed out. How can we expect God to give us His blessing and His protection if we demand He leave us alone?"

In light of recent events...terrorists attack, school shootings, etc. I think it started when Madeleine Murray O'Hare (she was murdered, her body found recently) complained she didn't want prayer in our schools, and we said OK.

Then someone said you better not read the Bible in school the Bible says thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not steal, and love your neighbor as yourself. And we said OK.

Then Dr. Benjamin Spock said we shouldn't spank our children when they misbehave because their little personalities would be warped and we might damage their self-esteem (Dr. Spock's son committed suicide). We said an expert should know what he's talking about. And we said OK.

Now we're asking ourselves why our children have no conscience, why they don't know right from wrong, and why it doesn't bother them to kill strangers, their classmates, and themselves.

Probably, if we think about it long and hard enough, we can figure it out. I think it has a great deal to do with "WE REAP WHAT WE SOW."

Funny how simple it is for people to trash God and then wonder why the world's going to hell. Funny how we believe what the newspapers say, but question what the Bible says!

Funny how you can send 'jokes' through e-mail and they spread like wildfire but when you start sending messages regarding the Lord, people think twice about sharing.

Funny how lewd, crude, vulgar and obscene articles pass freely through cyberspace, but public discussion of God is suppressed in the school and workplace.

Are you laughing?

Funny how when you forward this message, you will not send it to many on your address list because you're not sure what they believe, or what they WILL think of you for sending it. Funny how we can be more worried about what other people think of us than what God thinks of us.




Pass it on if you think it has merit. If not then just discard it... no one will know you did. But, if you discard this thought process, don't sit back and complain about what bad shape the world is in.





And my reply



Hi Mom:

I'm never sure if you like comments on these, but I assume that by sending, or forwarding an email you are opening a communication line, so I feel that it is only appropriate that I reply.

I always thought Ben Stien was an intelligent, thoughtful man, but I was surprised at his level of ignorance in that letter!

I agree that I have know idea who Nick and Jesisca are.. I don't really care either. That is pop media hooking onto something that really is not important. And he does make a point, that people look at it instead of religion. Really, in a country where wealth and the possibility of striking it rich is the dream of everyone, then why would they look to religion. Especially a christian one which says that to have nothing is better!

But aside from that, he says that no where does it state that the US (or I guess Canada can be included as well) is an atheist country, yes, true, but it does state that religion and state are separate!. Why? Well, for a very good reason. What is good for the people is not always in line with the religion. Example: Africa. Millions with AIDS. Possible solution, education on condoms and their use to stop the spread. Problem, that is not a christian thing. So What do you do. Let millions die (including the children of these people, who had no say in what their parents did,) to force everyone to be christian and abstain (that really worked well in medieval europe.. spanish inquisition.. witch trials etc..) or educate the people in a non-christian way to save them selves..?

I was shocked to hear from my friend Mimi that when she was in a public school (humber vally) that she was made to say "Our Father" every morning. I would be in that school the very next day to either stop them from doing that, or better yet, they would have to also say a muslim payer, a jewish preyer, read a chapter from a science text, and as many other religions that I can think of.

But, back to Ben. He started saying that the hurricane that caused so much death and damage in New Orleans was because of a lack of prayer!!! Wow.. !! Ya.. lack of God in schools.. sure. I'm sure right after that they hopped in their big SUV's and drove home. Not even thinking that a raising global temperature caused by pollution creates a warming of the tropical waters, which is the driving force of the hurricane. It is because people don't pray enough that a group of pissed off muslims from a war torn country flew into the twin towers; the twenty years of horrible violence and the US's abuse of the middle east had nothing to do with that!

Why do I dislike religion so much. As a scientist, it, without any proof, is used in direct opposition to millions of hours of work and hundreds of thousands of human minds that have been used to tweeze out an understanding of ourselves and the universe. Because we can't all be right. That is, that if I am christian, I am not jewish, nor muslim, nor any other religion. In fact, we are all atheists, at least for all but one way of thinking. What happened to the Greek gods.. well, everyone is an "greek good atheist". And all religions say that if I am not part of them, then I am not a good person, or at least dammed to hell. So a jew is going to christian hell, muslim hell, Greek god hell, all the hells for the african tribes, as well as all the hells that will be thought of in the future, since the soul is eternal.

Morals are not given by religion. If that was true, then a priest or holy person would have really strong morals. And not be killing in wars, blowing up planes, and molesting young children. Morals are given by society, by human nature. Gorillas have their own moral structure, as do any other social animal. Ours are just a little more complicated. When society changes over time. What do you see, that religion says "no that is not a good thing to do" and everyone changes back, or does the pope say, aww.. ok. "You can do that now." It is the latter. Why, because religion can only affirm what society dictates as good! A child learns to share because they are shown that it is the best thing to do. If you share with your friends, then they will do the same to you.. not "Jesus shared, so you need to do the same!"

People want to be good, and they want to survive. But they also have a good deal of problems. The best thing we can do is teach people to see the outcome of their actions. To be conscious of what they are doing, and why they are doing it. To listen, and to think.

If there is a god, I think the best thing to do is think what god would want to see. Put yourself in god's shoes. You make children. What do you want to see.. Them all saying that god wants this, or that god wants that and to break up into groups of people that think the different ways. To fight and kill each other because of the different interpretations .. or, to see everyone looking after each other. Helping and living together. Teaching and sharing what they have learn but not mentioning god at all. The answer seems simple.

Rodger