Build the Enterprise May 23, 2012
Posted by truthspew in Uncategorized.add a comment
I like this idea very much. They are actively planning out building out a fully functional starship of sorts.
The impulse engines are actually Ion Propulsion. In case you weren’t aware there are already unmanned spacecraft hurtling around the solar system called Dawn. Ion propulsion is interesting too. It’s not that it can do fantastic speeds, it’s that the accleration is constant. So she’s hurtling around out there are a pretty good clip.
I’d like to see the Enterprise proposal come to fruition in say a decade. That would be so totally cool.
May/June reading list May 22, 2012
Posted by truthspew in Uncategorized.add a comment
So I’ve got a few books I want to read between now and the end of June.
They are as follows:
A Queer History of the United States by Michael Bronski – a a nice romp through 500 years of gay history in the U.S. I’m only about 1/3 in right now but it’s fascinating.
9 Algorithms That Changed the Future by John MacCormick. Self explanatory but it covers things Search Engine Indexing, PageRank, PKE, Error Correcting Code, Pattern Recognition, Data Compression, Databases, and Digital Signatures. Fun!
Ghost in the Wires by Kevin Mitnick – a social engineering pro Mitnick always provides a good read of his exploits.
Minnesota Marriage Minutes Two Minutes of Boving Effluent May 22, 2012
Posted by truthspew in Uncategorized.Tags: Animus, Anti-gay, bigotry, Kalley Yanta, Minnesota for Marriage, Minnesota Marriage Minute
1 comment so far
I’ve been watching these inane Minnesota Marriage Minutes for some time and I always find it interesting that the bigots don’t allow you to comment on their YouTube videos. They even disable ratings. It is akin to someone holding their hands over their ears and shouting ‘La la la la la’ in order to not hear something that would cause cognitive dissonance.
But in this case I’ve decided that I will make my comments in the most logical place, my blog. And I know I’ve been lax on tagging posts but you can bet your ass I’ll be certain to tag these appropriately. I want them to be very easy to search out on Google and other engines.
I’ll take it point by point with my responses:
1) First of all they use stock photography : Family with kids, couple no kids, couple no kids, and then just a bunch of kids. You can read a lot into this. First of all they try to make it appear that those are the norm. Of all of the photos, the last one of just kids is the most normal of all without any baggage.
2) Calling Judge Walker’s judgment ‘preposterous’ is interesting. It wasn’t that traditional marriage violates the Federal Constitution, oh no. It was that law violated the constitution, more specifically the BAN of same-sex marriage in California’s Prop 8. And calling into question Walker’s alleged homosexuality is a false flag tactic. I say that because any jurists try and balance a case against the Constitution. And the arguments made against Prop 8 which btw, have been confirmed at the Appellate level, were solid. That’s the thing about law, you have to PROVE you case with facts, not superstition and personal feelings, something our opponents cannot do.Yanta saying it “… may have colored…” is interesting. She’s essentially telling us that this is her OPINION.
3) Yanta tries to bring up a 1972 court case in Minnesota. That it was 40 years ago says it all. 1972 saw the country still being Neanderthal in it’s thinking about gay rights even then. You didn’t have any preponderance of people that were living out and productive lives. For us to live openly took time. As we have done so many people, in fact more than half the average sample population in surveys on marriage equality, have been supportive. She says that no other Federal court has ever reached such a ‘radical’ conclusion. Well yes peaches, that’s because in 1972 you didn’t know a whole lot of gay people. Now you do.
4) She calls Minnesota’s law ‘defining marriage as a man and a woman’ is not only rational but profoundly in the common good’ – that may be so however changing marriage law to be gender free would only ENHANCE marriage not destroy it. She continues to say ‘It is motivated by a sincere and well placed to ensure that children born are known by and cared for by their natural parents. Children need a mother and father” and she goes on to quote the ideal environment for children. This is the standard falsehood spread by the likes of NOM. It is false because what about the unwanted children out there? Would Yanta want them to languish in an orphanage or in state care, rather than let a gay couple adopt and rasise those kids? That right there is the epitome of animus.
5) Yes Ms. Yanta, it is about hatred and animus. You can try to mask it any way you wish but you have animus towar the LGBT community.
So if you don’t want to have yourself called out on your shit, maybe you shouldn’t even make the videos in the first place.
A burning question: Should we demonstrate against anti-gay politicians? May 19, 2012
Posted by truthspew in Uncategorized.4 comments
When a politician tries to yank away my rights as a gay person, I get rather peeved. And as someone good with databases I post bigoted politicians home and business info, phone numbers, email addresses, etc.
I want them to PAY for their idiotic attempts to repeal our rights.
In the latest case is is one Senator Frank Ciccone of Providence. He slipped in a resolution to negate Governor Chafee’s executive order regarding recognizing LGBT marriages performed out of the state of RI.
The reason I post their info is I want them to think really hard before they say such stupid shit. And if demonstrating in front of their homes scares them, too fucking bad.
So it is with this I ask, is it appropriate and part of our first amendment rights to march and demonstrate in front of bigots homes and businesses? My answer on the subject is in the affirmative.
Lincoln High School in Walla Walla, WA, tries new approach to school discipline — suspensions drop 85% May 19, 2012
Posted by truthspew in Uncategorized.2 comments
The above is what I’ve long known. I was fortunate, I came up through schools that had teachers who cared about their students. I suppose that’s the difference when your parent(s) are paying for it.
But what I found most abhorrent over the past few years was the use of Zero Tolerance policies. That struck me as being extremely ill thought out, path of least resistance type thinking. And I’ve heard more first person anecdotes over time to make the determination that Zero Tolerance does not, and never has, worked to the betterment of those kids in the schools.
From ignorance of IEP and behavioral plans, to teachers who don’t care enough about their students to challenge them. And in the latter case, it isn’t because the teachers couldn’t do it, but because the structure of their school doesn’t permit such action.
I remember my participation in one of several program reviews at high schools around the state. I met two different teachers, one of them a younger teacher who was enthusiastic about the subject he was teaching. The other was basically teaching MS Office skills. She had the kids doing a payroll spreadsheet and manually calculating the deductions.
So I stopped and asked her if perhaps the kids might be better prepared for life if they knew some VBA (Visual Basic for Applications). VBA lets you add conditional and branching logic. So for example, you could do lookup tables for tax rates, or correct malformed zip codes, all sorts of utilities to transform data.
The teachers response was you needed advanced math for that. I gave her a quizzical look and said that it really was the BASIC programming language, that you didn’t need much more than beginners algebra and I noted on my review sheet that it should be incorporated into the class.
But above you have two examples of teachers. One enthusiastic and dynamic, one apathetic and lackadaisical.
But they all need to go that further step. And I’d also like to suggest that we need to better train our teachers. Incorporate the ACE recognition into the curriculum. That way it gets into EVERY school over time.
Wow – a rich man understands that the consumer is key May 18, 2012
Posted by truthspew in Uncategorized.Tags: Consumer, Job Creator, Nick Hanaeur, Suggestions for Improving the Economy
3 comments
This is really interesting. Capitalist Nick Hanaeur did a TED presentation where he makes the case that the rich are NOT job creators and that instead it is a feedback loop, that more consumption drives job creation.
Watch for yourself:
I cannot believe TED didn’t have the gall to post this on their site. They’ve had some fairly radical speakers in the past, things that would rock the political sphere, so why would they suppress a rich man explaining that and those like him are not job creators, that a healthy and robust middle class creates more jobs.
Instead our politicians over the years have given all sorts of tax breaks and incentives to the rich, while cutting the social benefits for the people. I’m sure you’re aware that right at this moment congress is proposing ever more tax breaks for the rich while at the same time threatening to cut safety net programs like food stamps, unemployment benefits, etc.
So here’s my proposal:
1) Expand the food stamp benefit – double the amount you get per month. When you even have the woman whose dissertation was used as the template for food stamps saying that the amount wasn’t meant to be fixed you know something needs to be done. Maybe fix food stamps to the consumer price index. What it means is that the benefit would go from an average of $175 a month to $500 to $600 a month.
2) Expand unemployment benefits, instead of 1/3 of salary, make it 2/3′s or 3/4′s. And unemployment benefits should NOT be taxable.
3) Enhance the federal minimum wage by doubling it. If we did that today it would go from $7.20 per hour to $14.40 per hour. A person working 40 hours a week would go from a gross of $288 per week, net $190.08, to $566 gross, net $380.16 per week.
That last part would add $190.08 per week, $832.05 a month, $9,876.55 per year. What do you think people would do with the extra money? They’d buy things like televisions, cars, homes, computers, food, appliances, all sorts of bigger ticket items.
And the higher demand for the above items would mean a ramp-up in production and higher employment.
Now you may ask, how do we pay for those enhanced benefits that I outlined above. Mr. Nanaeuer touches on it in his video when he mentions that the tax rate for capital gains is 15% while income tax is about 35%.
Just invert the rates. Make the rate on capital gains 35%, and the rate on income 15%. Or maybe do 45% on capital gains, 10% on income.
And of course I have to touch on the fact that infinite growth is not possible. We live with finite resources. However technology is increasing at the point where we are actively considering mining asteroids. But we need to set limits, where demand may not match supply. Because if we don’t we end up with BNL in the movie Wall-E.
But if we refuse to act, we end up returning to the dark ages, to fiefdom to life where as Hobbes put, is nasty, brutish and short.
We need to get our politicians heads out of their asses and start helping out the middle class. Because if the middle class disappears, this country returns to an era we haven’t ever seen because we never had Fiefdom here. If the people have no money, business collapses.
So get in touch with your legislators, at both the state and federal level. Let them know we’re not going to take it anymore. Call, email, even send a paper letter. If you’re not sure who your elected representatives are I can only tell you to seek out your Secretary of State’s web site in your state and start there. Most have an elections section that will tell you who you representatives are just using your address.
And for the sake of a non-existent deity, register to vote. Even with the Voter ID bullshit out there most states have the capability to issue Voter ID’s. I know that is the case here in RI, just head over to the Sec of State’s office and present your health club ID card, and you get a voter ID.
Get out there, don’t just vote but talk to your legislators. They are people just like us. Tell them we aren’t going to take it sitting still anymore. That we’re going to get active. Because our lives depend on that political activism.
RIP Queen of Disco: Donna Summer dead at 63 May 17, 2012
Posted by truthspew in Uncategorized.Tags: Donna Summer
1 comment so far
I was rather shocked to learn that the Queen of Disco, the Diva herself, Donna Summer succumbed to lung cancer today.
I was too young to hit the clubs when she had her heyday but I had a radio, I had money and was buying her LP’s at a Tower Records and Strawberries. A distant memory – splashing around in the pool, I was 14 years old and this song blasting away and the year was 1979:
Now one of notable things about Summer was that most of her music was done by the King of Disco himself, Giorgio Moroder, here he is with Chase:
Notice the similarities, it’s most evident in this Donna Summer song from 1977:
From 1975 here’s Love to Love You Baby, to me this is classic U.S. disco, and I was 11 years old when this one hit the airwaves.
I’ll end the video retro look with her 1978 hit, Last Dance:
And it’s been a sad month or so, first Whitney Houston, now Donna Summer. We’re losing all our greats! Believe me, Donna Summers music, it resonated with this gay teen back in the late 1970′s.
38 Studios: A study of government incompetence May 16, 2012
Posted by truthspew in Uncategorized.Tags: 38 Studios, Curt Schilling, incompetence, State of Rhode Island
3 comments
So in recent news it’s been talked about ad nauseum about Curt Schilling’s 38 Studios. Schilling was a Boston Red Sox player but here I will explain why the state government in RI is incompetent when it comes to economic stimulus measures.
38 Studios was given $75 Million dollars in state guaranteed money. Now I have a fair amount of experience with finance and accounting and the systems needed to accomplish accepted practices. Here I will lay out why $75 Million was a money grab and that the state should have known better than to give it to a sports figure.
1) Schilling wouldn’t know what it takes to develop a game if it bit him in the ass.
2) Schilling’s core competency is as a ball player, not as a business leader.
3) Game development houses can crank out a new game in 90 to 180 days.
Therefore it appears that the state made a major screw up backing Schilling’s 38 Studios.
Let’s do a little pro forma here.
Some assumptions first:
A development team of 20 individuals comprised of software, graphic and story development members.
Average yearly salary of $100,000 when benefits are included per employee.
Each employee will require a one time equipment and I.T. gear expenditure of $5000.
Month to month I.T. infrastructure including broadband connectivity will be set at $500 per month.
2000 square feet of space, at $20 per square foot for a total of $40,000 a month rental expense for Class A office space. This is low end but there’s a glut of commercial office space in Providence that I believe it is a fair estimate. And in most cases, utilities are included in the cost per square foot.
So doing the math we get:
20 employees at $100,000 = $2,000,000 per year.
12 months rental at $40,000 per month = $480,000
20 employees at $5,000 flat for gear = $100,000
12 months of Broadband net connectivity at $500 per month = $6,000
Lets be generous and include breakfast and lunch for each employee at a cost of $20 per day. $208,000!
And lets say legal, patent and copyright is $1,000,000 a year.
The total comes out to $3,794,000 per year.
So tell me how the hell did the state back loans for this guy of $75,000,000? In essence, with what I’ve laid out above they could operate 20 employees for 20 years at that rate.
So the question remains – where did the remaining $71,206,000 go?
I’d like to ask the Governor, the Director of Economic Development and all those involved why they thought that backing a $75 million loan for a baseball player was a good idea.
Here is what I think happened to the money. Schilling transferred it out of the company to his own benefit. And since the money is gone, and the state is the guarantor guess who’s on the hook for the $75 million? Yes, we the taxpayers.
Governor Chafee Signs Executive Order Recognizing gay marriage performed outside Rhode Island May 14, 2012
Posted by truthspew in Uncategorized.3 comments
I applaud the Governor for taking such a bold move. Of course I knew he was in our camp when he was running for Governor a couple of years ago.
That said, I’m majorly irked by this. Why? Because I did a pro forma analysis of tax revenue using estimates of the number of same sex couples in RI.
The state, by recognizing same sex marriages performed out of state will stand to lose $2.1 Million dollars a year in tax revenues.
That is a significant chunk of change. So to Speaker Fox, and Senate President Paiva-Weed I say the following:
GET YOUR FUCKING HEADS OUT OF YOUR ASSES AND PASS MARRIAGE EQUALITY IN RI!”
A Special Kind of Anti-Gay Craziness May 11, 2012
Posted by truthspew in Uncategorized.5 comments
Go and watch this one:
From what I’m to gather the woman’s name is Jane Skrovota. A Googling confirms.
Lets just pull out a few.
Gay people don’t live past 40. Now this is one where I feel qualified to debunk. I’m of an advanced age 7 years longer than that and still kicking.
The rimming quote is priceless. If you don’t get antibiotics within 30 minutes you get sepsis and die? Oh honey, if you haven’t had the joy you of doing it you just can’t speak with any authority on it.
There were so many egregious things uttered by this woman that I just couldn’t stop laughing. And the guy sitting behind here, you can tell he find her just as odious.
People of Lincoln, Nebraska – don’t worry. The bigots are trying but we have one thing on our side, time. They’re going to die off sooner than later.
