jo

Martial Arts Therapy Journal

This Journal will help you show your passion and dedication to your martial arts discipline and that it truly is better than therapy - For some there's therapy, for the rest of us there's martial arts. Who needs therapy; when the martial arts are your outlet? There can be several reasons of why you do not need therapy when you use martial arts as therapy. In martial arts, whether it is taekwondo, karate, kung fu or jujutsu, there is a physical and mental level of discipline that is achieved that overflows into every area of your life, helping you to be able to have respect for others, maintain focus to achieve other goals and also to help overcome problems and situations. Then there is the physical release that martial arts bring whether it is working on your forms, during sparing or breaking boards. Another way that martial arts helps bring tension release and peace top the mind and body is the mental preparation and focus bring a single mind to the task at hand creating self-control, self-restraint and a mental readiness to handle potentially stressful situations and diffuse them easily.




jo

Approach With Caution Journal

WARNING: Approach With Caution Journal - Let other people know that you need to be approached with caution with the "WARNING: Approach With Caution" 3D Industrial Metal Looking Sign Mega Cool Shirts, Sweatshirts, Clocks, Stickers, Mugs And More. Makes an excellent gift for those that are slighty tempermental too!




jo

Join My Google Glass Explorers' Army

Now is the third time that Google has asked me to invite friends to be part of the Google Glass Explorers program. And so far my 5 contacts who signed up have been pleased with becoming a part of the...




jo

Covad Appoints New VP and CFO John Trewin




jo

LXer: FFmpeg 7.1 Promises Major Improvements in Video Processing

Published at LXer: FFmpeg 7.1 "Peter" debuts with full Vulkan encoding pipelines, enhanced AAC decoding, MV-HEVC support, and more. Here's what's new! Read More......



  • Syndicated Linux News

jo

How Steve Jobs made me want to "Stay hungry, stay foolish".

The moment Steve Jobs’ and Apple’s work first came into my life was back in 2002. That first brush, I hated it. 

In time, I came to see him for the genius and pioneer that he was, and the work that Apple did - and does - as amongst the most extraordinary in the World today.

First some context:

In 2002, I was at the European BSD conference and Jordan Hubbard, founder of FreeBSD and then newly-employed release engineer at Apple, had secured for the “terminal room” a sponsorship from Apple which meant the room was full of the 2002 iMacs. The 2002 iMac was a little “alien” in that each machine was a dome with a flexible protruding screen. Installed on them was OS X, an operating system I had beta tested before its first release on an ancient iBook, and I had very mixed feelings about.

It was pretty. But was it really a Unix? The other developers of BSD Unix in the room needed very little convincing. The command line was Unix, but the desktop and applications on there were beautiful. It was what they dreamed a Unix should be. Many of them left that conference committed to buying Apple equipment and moving to OS X within the year.

I resented this “attack” on the community, but could see where they were coming from. It was - and remains - a key part of Apple’s renaissance: build great tools for developers and alpha-geeks, and in turn the developers will build an ecosystem that users crave. Instill in the developers an aesthetic and teach them a way to do the things they struggle with (human interface guidelines, for example), and they will reward you with loyalty.

In short: empower your customers, and they’ll empower you.

No technology firm had done this as successfully before as Apple were doing between 2002 and 2004.

By 2004, I had just about had it with the drain away from the community Apple had “caused”. On one mailing list I wrote a very angry email in response to somebody else’s request for configuration advice on their latest Apple laptop:

http://lists.freebsd.org/pipermail/freebsd-chat/2004-October/002684.html

“Yes, of course. My advice is that you sell your over-priced fashion-victim toy with it’s Fisher Price Unix installed, and use the money instead to buy yourself a top of the range Thinkpad. It will outperform it, run FreeBSD, not look out of fashion next season, has been built by a company that is truly committed to the open source movement and whose execs don’t patronise you by assuming you travel to work on a skateboard in cargo pants or worse, pander to your girlfriend’s idea of what a computer should be.”

Ashamed by my petulant anger, about six month later I decided to reconsider, step back and think about what they were doing in a wider scheme of the industry I was in. This was when I started to “get it”. It was when I could see what others lauded about Apple and its founders.

Within 14 months of writing that email I had acquired a 12” iBook. It was all I could afford at the time, and even then it was subsidised by the fact that I was working in a University faculty and so got a discount.

I immediately loved the fact I had a Unix machine with WiFi and Bluetooth that I didn’t need to spend a week configuring. I loved the software I could buy, and that all the open source tools I loved would work too. I loved the thought that had gone into developing that code underlying OS X. I loved the developer tools and Safari. I found myself thinking more and more about aesthetics and craftsmanship as part of what I do as a developer. Suddenly programming wasn’t just a dry science of mathematics and engineering: Steve’s ideas were getting to me through the product of his and Apple’s work.

Two things then happened like thunderbolts. 

First, I had found a copy of Steve’s commencement speech to Stanford in 2005.

Steve’s speech stuck with me. I had studied rhetoric, and was pleased by the simple construct he had used - a structure I would begin to notice he used in product announcements - but the content had hit me somewhere deep.

In it he talked about three things:

  • Follow your intuition, because in hindsight the dots will join up. You can’t plan to be great, you just have to let the intuition guide you.
  • Do what you love, and change things if you find yourself not enjoying life
  • Death is inevitable. It’s coming. Deal with it as an agent of change, and don’t waste your life.

The second thing that happened around then, was that I discovered the Ruby programming language, a language that was designed to be beautiful and enjoyable for programmers to work with.

It astonished me.

I don’t think it would have done if by that point I had not started to “get” aestheticism in software, the Apple way. It’s no secret that the Ruby on Rails framework is developed almost entirely on Apple OS X machines. A Ruby conference is basically a hang-out of Apple fans. The two seem to go hand-in-hand together, just like how in 2002 it was Apple and the BSD guys.

Last night as I watched the speech again on YouTube (on my iPhone, natch), I realised I was connecting dots back, and in hindsight the impact this speech and this discovery had on me was immense.

Coupled with the discovery of Ruby, what happened next was perhaps inevitable, but still surprised me.

I went and started my own business.

I had always wanted to, but right there and then, something clicked, and I got rid of all the fear and doubt and realised that when I looked back on my life I wanted to be able to say that for a while at least I had been an “entrepreneur”.

I made the decision that I would not work on projects in that business I did not enjoy. I would only work on things that brought me joy: that is to say, I would only write code in Ruby. A brave choice in early 2006 when Rails had yet to reach v1.0 and Ruby was still considered a “toy” language by many.

I had no money, no client roster, and survived the first six months coding away on that tiny, slow little 12” iBook for friends who had piece work for me. I had never been happier.

I ate noodles and beans on toast, drank donated Guinness and chose to love my work. Working from home I would love waking late on a Monday morning, but I could never lie-in: I always wanted to just get started.

I spent the next few years helping other businesses, talking about development as a craft, not just a science.

I went into schools and told kids that learning how to write beautiful software was the most powerful skill you could cheaply acquire in this generation. Like me, they could come up with an idea and with a laptop and internet connection share it with the World in a weekend.

In the years since, I have helped dozens of start-ups, spoken to thousands of teenage children (and hopefully inspired a few to give programming with an artistic flair a go), and changed my life substantially.

I am not the same man I was in 2005. The depression and anxiety I had suffered prior to then have more or less gone. I have a brilliant relationship with an amazing girl who I consider to be my best friend, and I do work that makes me excited almost every day.

The decisions I made in those few months in 2005 and early 2006, looking back, are what made me who I am today.

I had to call time on my main business in 2010 partly because I was finding myself looking in the mirror and not looking forward to the day ahead any more - just like Steve had said, I decided I needed to change something. As sales had dried up I realised I was doing something I no longer enjoyed.

I then turned down one job offer for another on a quarter of the salary because it felt right, it felt like more interesting work and ultimately I knew it might lead to an exciting adventure I had dreamed about.

Today I work on an amazing product with brilliant people and finding myself learning new things every day.

Looking back I realise I have developed a new sense of intense curiosity. I will wander in my work, inquisitively poking whole areas I know little about. I read more, listen more and learn more. I teach where I can, I play, and I explore.

I realise that my time on this little rock is limited, and I try and make sure every day I do something that makes me smile.

In hindsight then, Steve’s words and work have had a substantial impact on who I am today professionally. Because that impact made my work more joyful, pleasant and fulfilling, in turn, his words and work have made my life better than it would have been without his impact.

“This was a very typical time. I was single. All you needed was a cup of tea, a light, and your stereo, you know, and that’s what I had.”

It’s all the more impressive because according to “the rules” society is meant to work by, he should have been another liberal arts wash-up. As I said on Facebook earlier:

“I don’t think the economically right-wing anywhere - US, UK, Eurozone, China, anywhere - would be able to deal with the idea that the largest company on the planet was founded by a Buddhist counter-culturalist of complex family origins who made decisions based on intuition, aestheticism, love and curiosity.

Yet, it makes perfect sense to me.”

I never met him, never got close to knowing him the way that his friends and family did, or even his colleagues, but in my own way I learned to love him. His impact will be with me for the rest of my life, and late last night as the news broke here in the UK, despite it being on the cards for a while, the news came as a shock and I had to hold back the tears.

His critics’ words (and there are many!), sound very much like my own before I “got it”. Right now - today - though, it is petulant, angry, juvenile scribbling, and unworthy of any mature grown-up, given it is less than 24 hours since his dying.

Some call him a fascist, others a megalomaniac. In essence all he was trying to do was produce the best - and most human-friendly - technological products humanity was capable of producing right now. He did so within the rules shareholders gave him along with their money, because after being fired once, he didn’t want to mess up and be fired again. As ever, he exceeded their expectations and produced a company larger than any other on earth in terms of market capitalisation.

When you have a vision, as long as nobody gets hurt along the way, there’s no harm in following it ruthlessly. That’s what he did.

Some point to the fact that he didn’t donate much to charity in his life time, but I’m quietly confident that is because he didn’t want the ego stroking whilst he was still alive, and in coming years and months his wealth will quietly reach parts of the World that need it. He felt that shareholders’ money was their, and he shouldn’t give it away. He felt the best way he could help the World was by empowering as many people as possible. There’s no real shame in that. And in that, he was immensely successful.

He was also a subversive, and this is a point that his critics miss - or point to - the most. Biologically he was a half-Syrian Muslim, which when acknowledged in the last decade caused the conservative right in the US a huge problem: was the leader of the hottest thing on Wall Street one of them? They needn’t have worried - he’d discovered Buddhism many years ago. Adoptively he grew up to be a counter-culture Bay Area “hippie” and counter-culture type that worried some in the establishment even more.

His critics point to the consumerist message of Apple, without realising its founding principle was to go against the grain and to help people push further than the establishment wanted them to. The fact that he was able to make a living - a good living - as reward for that vision should not be seen as a fault or flaw.

Those unfamiliar with this background with questions to ask might want to start here. It might change your mind about him.

He wasn’t perfect. Nobody is. But regardless, he was an inspiration to millions who right now are working at building the next generation of technology. He showed us what we were capable of when we tried, and his death some 20-30 years “before his time” shows what a great leveller pancreatic cancer can be. So, if you are a critic: please shut the hell up and let us deal with paying tribute to him in our own way. You’ll reap the benefits as we march forward, inspired by his vision, into giving you the technology you deserve to make the World a better place.

I genuinely believe those who hate him haven’t given him - specifically what lay beneath his vision - a chance, in the same way I hadn’t.

The moment I did though and started to use the tools he and his company produced the way they were designed, my life got better and my attitude to what I wanted to do with my life improved.

I can’t think of another businessman I could say that about. I can’t think of another businessman anybody will be able to say that about when they die.

As I watched that commencement speech another time, the words were as fresh and as poignant as ever. His final few words seem particularly appropriate to me today, and so I will leave you with them. You may love him, you may hate him, but you can’t disagree that his vision was sharp, and worth sharing.

My thoughts and condolences today are of course with his family, his friends and colleagues, and all who were impacted by Steve from a distance the way I was. Steve was an amazing man, who inspired so many and has changed the World for the better, forever.

No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don’t want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life’s change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it is quite true.

Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.

When I was young, there was an amazing publication called The Whole Earth Catalog, which was one of the bibles of my generation. It was created by a fellow named Stewart Brand not far from here in Menlo Park, and he brought it to life with his poetic touch. This was in the late 1960’s, before personal computers and desktop publishing, so it was all made with typewriters, scissors, and polaroid cameras. It was sort of like Google in paperback form, 35 years before Google came along: it was idealistic, and overflowing with neat tools and great notions.

Stewart and his team put out several issues of The Whole Earth Catalog, and then when it had run its course, they put out a final issue. It was the mid-1970s, and I was your age. On the back cover of their final issue was a photograph of an early morning country road, the kind you might find yourself hitchhiking on if you were so adventurous. Beneath it were the words: “Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.” It was their farewell message as they signed off. Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish. And I have always wished that for myself. And now, as you graduate to begin anew, I wish that for you.

Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.

Thank you all very much.




jo

How I delayed at least 25,000 people's journey to work this morning

This is not an exciting story, despite the title. But it’s true. And it happens to dozens of people every day, and is the reason why getting to work in London can sometimes take so long.

First, let me explain that this is not a story of me causing a fire alarm to go off, for anti-terrorist police to close a station for half an hour, or some dramatic incident that has left TfL seeking an ASBO against me.

This is a story that starts with a strap of a backpack. This strap, in fact:

This morning I caught a tube from Baron’s Court on the District Line heading East. Normally I change at South Kensington for a Circle Line to Moorgate, or hop off at Mansion House and walk up to the office through the City. This morning I had decided to stay on the District line until Blackfriars, and change there for a Circle line. It’s a man’s perogative, etc.

The tube this morning was very busy. During the Olympics it has on the whole been very quiet, but this morning it was the normal 8:15-8:45am peak time crush. I was stood right next to the door at the very front of the train, crushed in by about 20 other souls attempting to share the exact same square foot I was stood on.

At Victoria, as is often the way for the District Line, a lot of hustling and bustling went on as people fought their way out to the platform, and others tried to struggle onto the train. After around a minute, the doors closed.

Except for the one next to me. Looking down, it was jammed on my bag strap.

Swearing, I attempted to free it. It was jammed solid because the hydraulic pressure of the door was pushing against it, but not with sufficient force for the door to close. The guy next to me tried to help. The guy on the platform waiting for the next train also tried to help. Neither of us could free it. Moving it simply led to the door moving along a bit, keeping the strap jammed.

Then the sound of hydraulics releasing was heard, all the doors on the train went to open, and the driver climbed out of the cab. The release of pressure had allowed me to unjam the strap, and recover it into the train. The driver confirmed we were all fine, climbed back into the cab, closed the doors, and off we went.

I apologised to those around me for delaying their journey, even though the total delay was perhaps 60-90 seconds.

Then realised everybody else on the train was delayed, too.

Then a thought about queuing theory and a little knowledge about how loaded that line is with train traffic at that time of the morning hit me: I had delayed tens of thousands of people.

Let me explain how I worked this out.

The District Line is composed of rather large gauge trains. I estimate that conservatively, each train is capable of shifting 2,000 people during peak times. There were certainly at least 2,000 people on my train this morning. Yes, they are only 6 carriages each, but each is certainly capable of holding nearly 350 people, and frequently does. I’m prepared to revise my numbers down if shown evidence.

In addition, the District Line platforms are not just used by the District Line. They’re also used by the Circle line between Gloucester Road and Tower Hill.

A glance at any “passenger information display” on a platform along this part of the network during rush hour will tell you the mean time between trains is 1 minute. There are close to 60 trains an hour going along that piece of track during rush hour.

Because my train was delayed for over a minute, this must have caused the train behind it to be given a red signal. This in turn would have caused the train behind that to be given a red signal, and so on. This buffer effect would be dampened beyond Gloucester Road going West, because the Circle and District lines diverge, giving more time for the red signals to switch to green, meaning scheduled trains would not have to stop in an unscheduled manner.

However, there would have been at least - I think - 5 trains affected by this delay in addition to my own. So we’re now up to 12,000 people in total delayed by my bag strap jamming a door.

It gets worse.

I changed at Blackfriars to a Circle line train. I got off the train I had delayed, waited 60 seconds on the platform and got on the Circle line train immediately following it, obviously now delayed. Cautiously making sure my bag was far from any doors, I boarded aware this train was now at least 2 minutes late against schedule.

Satisfied at the figure I had come up with of around 12,000 delayed passengers, I had assumed I had done no more damage, until we got to Aldgate.

The tube system has a tendency to expect passengers always want to be moving all of the time. Any delay of more than a minute or two at a station is always explained via an announcement. As we sat at Aldgate, the driver announced we were being “regulated” by a red signal. Looking out of the window, I could see an East-bound Metropolitan line train crossing our tracks to head across to East London.

That’s when it hit me. We were “out of position”. The train was a couple of minutes late, and so the guys running the switching had decided to give priority to the Metropolitan Line train, and we were held for approximately 4-5 minutes.

Whilst this part of the Circle line between Aldgate and Tower Hill was not as busy as the District/Circle line Tower Hill back West, a 4 minute delay was enough to ensure that the train behind us was going to be red signalled waiting for us to clear the platform.

That would be enough for the train behind that to be stopped.

And that would be enough for the train behind that to be stopped, which would probably be on the shared part of the network. That would be enough to cascade across the whole part of that line back to Gloucester Road, causing delays to perhaps 12 trains in total.

By now the numbers per carriage were down a little as we were close to the end of peak, but there was probably at least 1,000 people per train out there. Rounding up for the few more probably still around the Victoria area, and we’re up to 25,000 people.

There’s obviously some fudging here - people boarding trains at the “correct time” for them, did not realise the train they were getting was in fact the one after the one they had expected, and they did not suffer any delay. But I also suspect that this effect wasn’t dampened until after the peak ended at around 9:30am, and there were people who boarded their trains at 8:30am or before still out there (it can take 60 minutes easily to get from the “end” of a line into central London), whose journey had taken at least a few minutes longer than normal.

I doubt many noticed. I doubt anybody cares.

But it did make me think about how queueing theory applies to real world problems, and how when TfL moan about people keeping coats, bags and belongings clear of the doors, or jamming the doors to squeeze on rather than wait 6 more minutes for the next train, that they might have a point.

If you cause a train to be delayed, you are not simply inconveniencing the dozen or so people glaring at you in your vicinity. Or the people on the rest of the train who would glare at you if they could. But in fact, you have a cascade effect down the rest of the network. Tens of thousands of people delayed, because you didn’t want to wait 5 minutes. Or because you didn’t keep an eye on your belongings near the door.

I’ll certainly be more careful in future.

The next time I’m sat waiting for a signal to clear or am told that we are “being regulated”, I’ll wonder about whose bag or foot was to blame, and how the numbers of people flowing through London make butterflies flapping their wings on the network capable of huge cascading effects on transport infrastructure.




jo

Penalizaciones de los Buscadores al mal trabajo de Posicionamiento

El trabajo SEO en los primeros años de su desarrollo se caracterizó por el uso de diversas técnicas dirigidas a "engañar" a los robots de búsqueda. Esas técnicas fueron dejando de funcionar a partir del desarrollo de los robots de búsquedas que cada día son mas sofisticados y son capaces de detectar desde textos invisibles para el usuario hasta la existencia de textos no legibles por personas ...




jo

El trabajo del Profesional SEO y la relación con los clientes

Muchas empresas se dedican a ofrecer posicionamiento, pero gran parte se caracteriza por la falta de sinceridad hacia el cliente, al prometer cosas que no están en sus manos por el afán de ganar clientes. Pecan también algunas de estas en abuso de herramientas automáticas que no son capaces de sustituir la inteligencia humana, y de la falta de actualización en el tema o abuso de métodos que llevan a los robots de búsqueda a penalizar el sitio...




jo

Manejo de errores 404 - Implementación

¿Como logramos el manejo de los errores 404 ? Para no depender de acciones por parte de los administradores del servidor donde tengamos nuestra Web, o de las posibilidades que ofrezca el panel de control del servidor de hosting, podemos nosotros mismos colocar la siguiente línea en el fichero .htaccess en el caso del Server Web Apache...




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El manejo de los errores 404 ante los buscadores

Como realizar el manejo de los pedidos a páginas inexistentes en nuestra Web ¿? Esos pedidos usualmente responderían con un error 404 con lo que se pierde una visita al sitio, e igualmente en el caso de un robot de búsqueda, lo cual podría ser síntoma incluso de una pagina que existía anteriormente que eliminamos y esta estaba indexada por un buscador. ¿Perder una visita al sitio? De ninguna manera...




jo

Landlords and Property Managers Rejoice!

The Supreme Court’s recent decision to strike down the “Chevron decision” heralds what could be the end of the absurd Emotional Support Animal (ESA) scams that have plagued landlords and property managers since HUD administratively stretched Fair Housing laws to include anyone claiming “anxiety” or “whatever”. This administrative rule—not a law—created a loophole that tenants have widely exploited. By purchasing a bogus $50 “doctor’s note” online, tenants can present themselves as “disabled” applicants and scare landlords and Property Managers into granting their “request for reasonable accommodation” for their 100-pound pit bull, under threat of a HUD lawsuit for “discrimination.” We are not talking about legitimate Service Animals, such as seeing-eye dogs for the blind or extensively trained PTSD alert dogs for combat veterans. Those are 100% legitimate disabilities and those specially trained animals should never be declined by any landlord, under actual law. Instead, we’re addressing self-proclaimed “disabled” tenants who ... Read more



  • Austin Real Estate

jo

Decline in US Oil & Gas Jobs Amid Record Production

The US oil and gas industry is experiencing a paradoxical trend: record-breaking production levels coupled with a significant decline in employment. Despite the United States achieving unprecedented oil and gas output, the number of jobs in the sector has been steadily decreasing. This decline is not driven by climate policies or the rise of clean energy but rather by the industry’s relentless push for efficiency and the cyclical nature of the market. According to recent data, oil production in the US has increased by 5% since 2019, reaching an average of 13.4 million barrels per day. However, employment in the oilfield sector has dropped nearly 20% from pre-pandemic levels. The oil and gas extraction industry employed approximately 112,000 people in 2022, a significant decrease from previous years. The COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated this trend, leading to a loss of nearly 200,000 jobs in the sector, a 20% reduction in the total workforce. Although there are signs of recovery, with projections suggesting a rebound in employment levels by 2027, the current job market remains challenging for many workers. The industry’s focus on efficiency means that fewer workers are needed to produce more oil. This shift has resulted in job losses across various...




jo

The Art of John Dyer 1.0

Widget Exhibition - The Art of John Dyer
An exciting new Widget, developed by Andrew Hedges, for the acclaimed artist John Dyer. Now you can have 40 of John Dyer's amazing paintings on your dashboard. Arrange them across your screen to hang your very own exhibition. The Widget contains paintings of Alan Titchmarsh's and Kim Wilde's gardens, many from the iconic Eden Project in the UK, including John's latest painting for Live 8, as well as paintings from Costa Rica, the Philippines, France, Italy and the UK. The widget can be flipped over to reveal links to the fascinating ethno-botanical stories behind John's work.




jo

The John McCain Spin

Well, well, well......the politicos are rolling and as usual, the people take back seat. Fred and Rudy have withdrawn and John McCain seems to be the Republican frontrunner. John McCain, the alcohol industry's best friend and avoider of anything resembling a Vietnam Vet is trying to convince us he is the man!!!

Those of us in Arizona realize McCain came to this state as a carpetbagger merely to be elected to the House of Representatives. He quickly became best friends with Charles Keating Jr., CEO, American Continental Corporation, until he was convicted of fraud, et.al., and then John backtracked very fast; discounting all those free vacations, et. al. Much effort was exerted sanitizing McCain from the Keating Five affair, but there were more serious issues.

McCain ignored Vietnam Veterans and their numerous plights to a degree many VietVets came to wonder what he was frightened of. Speaking from my own experience, the erstwhile now Senator almost preferred to steer clear of Vietnam Veteran issues as much as he did Vietnam Vets themselves. It was not uncommon to enter his Tucson office, find no one to greet us and even if so, end up waiting awhile to see a staff member. Forget about seeing McCain himself as broken appointments were his mainstay. He liked the hero mantle, but living up to it was difficult indeed since many of us saw through it; and came to openly question his sincerity and honesty. The conclusion was arrived that John McCain had been given things too easily as a result of his Silver Spoon status and was terrified of questioning Vietnam Vets destroying his self conceived legend. Symbolic of McCain was his Tucson Office Veterans Rep attending a community homeless meeting and openly discussing which country club had the better golf course. So much for caring about your brother and sister....I was there when it occurred. By the way, McCain has voted against Veterans bills 27 times indicating he is no friend much less advocate for those who serve.

John McCain's father was a Navy Admiral and of course, John enjoyed the privileges commensurate with being the offspring. In fact, he crashed aircraft during Navy flight training (2) who normally meant being hacked (cut) from the program. He wasn't (surprise!!) and even after being taken prisoner by the North Vietnamese, still enjoyed privileges. John was injured and while other Americans suffered, accepted a surgeon flown in from Moscow to operate on him and him alone. His operation and recuperation was in a Hanoi Officers Hospital....not the run of the mill enlisted shack. Never mind about the obvious violation of the Code of Conduct and the Uniform Code of Military Justice. Apparently, he is afraid of those instances of him volunteering for propaganda radio broadcasts to the south (copies are available on the web) and narrating similar movies. Major, major violations of conduct, but he was an Admiral's son. There are other stories emanating from Hanoi Hilton inmates about McCain, but John avoids discussion. He is definitely afraid some of those former Prisoners of War may open up and sink the legend in his own mind war saga. In fact, he even went so far as to introduce a bill signed into law forbidding public access into prisoner of war records. By the way, McCain admits in his autobiography to giving the enemy military information, but no investigation much less an indictment followed.

McCain zealously denies the existence of any living prisoners of war following the end of hostilities. Again, he went so far as to attack POW advocates including being publicly rude and abrasive to Eleanor Apodaca, sister of a MIA-POW, during her testimony to a senate hearing in which he wasn't even invited. He went to Hanoi several times espousing the No POW line and the only memorable moment was hugging his former North Vietnamese captor.

John divorced one wife while she was ill and married the Beer King of Phoenix's daughter, Cindy Hensley. All his talk about not adhering to PACs seems rather transparent when one examines his record with the alcohol industry. Meanwhile, Cindy became addicted to prescription narcotics while head of a nonprofit, The American Voluntary Medical Team, which supplied these meds to needy children. She ended up in dire trouble with the law for not only pilfering narcotics out of the AVMT's coffers, but also for forging prescriptions in her employees' names. John soft-soaped the entire issue knowing very few would probably remember it in the future. A deal was made with the US Attorney to limit punishment to financial restitution and drug rehab entry. Meanwhile, those less fortunate would have been chastised and then served jail time. By the way, there is no evidence Cyndy ever went to rehab. It pays to be the Son of An Admiral's spouse.


What better example of McCain flip-flopping than the trashing he took during the 2000 South Carolina primaries by George W. Bush and Turdblossom. Instead of standing up to those leveling accusations about his military career and adopted daughter, McCain caved in. He learned to love his President and hoped everyone would be charmed by his outward show of affection. John McCain is not tough minded; he is confused.

John McCain is captivated by his demons and has earned the discomfort of Arizona voters by forsaking his senatorial duties during the recent presidential bid. His voting record is atrocious due to absences and flip-flopping seems to be his notoriety. Undoubtedly, he wants to be president to avoid the possibility of being voted out of office this next election. Its that serious!!

Should he be President? Judge the record for yourself, but demand full accountability for his past actions. Scrutinize his personal and professional life carefully.....beneath that veneer is another spoiled silver spoon boy whose father resurrected him continually after career demise....sound familiar?





jo

Contrived Hero Myth-John McCain

Objective analysis points to a simple fact: John McCain is not a hero. A close examination of his history indicates a parallel to George W. Bush Jr. and not in a flattering manner. Both had fathers who continually bailed them out from trouble and these sons took ready advantage of their fathers’ reputations to achieve unearned status.

*McCain earned an extraordinary amount of demerits at the Naval Academy, but was allowed to graduate 5th from the bottom of his class.

*He crashed an aircraft in Naval flight training which mandated expulsion, but McCain was allowed to complete the course.

*McCain ran into power lines on the Iberian Peninsula while deployed to the Mediterranean causing a second crash without repercussion.

*Oddly enough, he was made an Instructor Pilot upon return to Pensacola, Florida, and proceeded to lose another aircraft while flying to the Army-Navy football game. The Navy rewarded him by assigning to the carrier, USS Forrestal.

*McCain lost his fourth jet on July 29, 1967, when a rocket slammed into his fully loaded jet killing 134 sailors. He escaped injury, according to some by immediately going below while others battled the flames. Oddly enough, McCain took it upon himself to simply leave the Forrestal without notifying his superiors to party in Tokyo. The Benevolent Navy took no action against him and transferred the erring pilot to the USS Oriskany.


*He lost his fifth jet after being shot down over North Vietnam and captured on October 26, 1967.

*According to an article written by him for the U.S. News and World Report, May 14, 1973, ...”After being periodically slapped around for “three or four days” by his captors who wanted military information from him, McCain called for an officer on his fourth day of captivity. He told the officer, “O.K., I’ll give you military information if you will take me to the hospital.” Not only was this a violation of the Uniform Code of Military Justice and the Code of Conduct, but can be viewed as collaboration with the enemy.

A surgeon was flown in from Moscow and McCain accepted preferential medical treatment at a hospital near Gia Lam airport reserved for Vietnamese officers. No other POW received the same which again violated the UCMJ and Code of Conduct.

*According to sources and McCain in his autobiography, specific military information was given such as the carrier he flew from, number of pilots lost, specific flight information and rescue units currently available. Apparently, he did this to gain medical attention.

*Retired Army Colonel Earl Hopper states McCain told his captors "highly classified information, the most important of which was the package routes, which were routes used to bomb North Vietnam. He gave in detail the altitude they were flying, the direction, if they made a turn...he gave them what primary targets the United States was interested in." Hopper further contends this information allowed the North Vietnamese to adjust their air defenses and subsequently the US lost sixty percent more aircraft resulting in the curtailment of North Vietnam bombing. All this was due, Hopper states, because of the information McCain divulged.

*McCain participated in propaganda films and radio broadcasts aimed at American troops. According to the Saigon UPI, June 4, 1969: “Reds say POW Songbird is Pilot Son of Admiral...Hanoi has aired a broadcast in which the pilot son of United States Commander in the Pacific Adm. John McCain purportedly admits to having bombed civilian targets in North Vietnam and praises medical treatment he has received since being taken prisoner.” He had earned the nickname “Songbird” from his captors.

*He talks often of torture, but did not transfer to the Hanoi Hilton until December, 1969. According to the Phoenix New Times, March 25, 1999, Two former POWs, Air Force Colonels Ted Guy and George “Swede” Larson, said in a feature article they could not guarantee that McCain was not physically harmed, (but) they doubted it. Both Guy and Larson were senior ranking officers (SROs) in McCain’s POW camp at a time he claims he was in solitary confinement and being tortured.

*Larson told the New Times, “Between the two of us, it’s our belief, and to the best of our knowledge, that no prisoner was beaten or harmed physically in that camp (known as ‘The Plantation’). My only contention the the McCain deal is that while he was at the Plantation, to the best of my knowledge and Ted’s knowledge, he was not physically abused in any way. No one was in that camp. It was the camp that people were released from.”

*McCain bases his hero myth on the contention he refused to be released unless everyone was. Sources state this was not a big deal since McCain was ordered by Senior Officers to state this. Secondly, former Rep. Bob Dornan (CA) states transcripts exist from former POWs reacting to McCain’s collaboration negatively. According to Dornan, McCain has always been afraid these transcripts would turn up particularly during a presidential campaign. Dornan offered another reason why McCain refused release by the North Vietnamese. He said those released first were collaborators, which McCain was one, and this would have ended not only his military career and hurt the Navy, but would impact his father also.

*McCain has actively opposed the efforts of MIA/POW activists and according to witnesses, physically attacked at least one. He has rudely interrupted hearings to berate MIA/POW family members and has worked religiously to curtail any POW information being released either from the government, any POWs or their family members. It seems rather odd he would take these positions, but he has been no friend of Veterans as well. McCain voted against 27 Veterans bills indicated by his record, but falsely states support for Veterans. He simply does not consider Veterans a priority much less MIA/POWs, but brags of his support.

*He returned from captivity to his wife, Carol, who was in a wheel chair from a car accident. He desired a coveted Admiral slot and the Navy assisted by reinstating him to flight duty in lieu of his disabilities. McCain assumed an Executive Officer, Replacement Air Group 174 position, which trained pilots and crews for deployment. While Executive Officer and later Commander, McCain authorized flights allowing him to mingle with subordinates and engage in extra-marital affairs again violating the Uniform Code of Military Justice regarding adultery and fraternizing with subordinates. The Navy, however, continued the tradition of excusing McCain from penalties and he got away with it.

*Robert Timbert, author of The Nightingale’s Song, wrote: “Off duty, usually on routine cross-country flights to Yuma and El Centro, John (McCain) started carousing and running around with women. To make matters worse, some of the women with whom he was linked by rumor were subordinates...At the time the rumors were so widespread that, true or not, they became part of McCain’s persona, impossible not to take note of.” The Navy overlooked his behavior and excused him from any discipline.

It seems apparent John McCain has contrived his own history and should be viewed as lacking sufficient character to hold the office of the Presidency or the Senate. His POW and Naval records need to be scrutinized for collaboration and other accountable acts. The truth needs to be ascertained prior to this man ascending to any higher office for to do otherwise would be looking the other way. This is exactly what caused the current problems with John McCain.




jo

July 07 2009 Samoan Radio Journey

We turned a corner on the Cross Island Road, and there sat a stumpy little radio tower, almost hidden in the misty rain. High in the hills behind Apia, the Afiamalu Pass is the location used by 2AP for many years...




jo

Neil Diamond concert stage in Johannesburg

On sunday April 2. 2011 the American singer Neil Diamond gave a concert at FNB Stadium in Johannesburg.
In this image the set being built up.

http://lee-reinhardt.blogspot.dk/2011/04/neil-diamond-concert-fnb-stadium.html





jo

Jehovahs Witness meeting in Johannesburg

On 18. December 2011 79 000 Jehovah’s Witnesses gather at FNB Stadium for instruction.

http://www.timeslive.co.za/ilive/2011/12/18/79-000-jehovahs-witnesses-gather-at-soccer-city-for-instruction-ilive





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WrestleMania 31 in San Jose before start

WrestleMania 31 was the thirty-first annual WrestleMania professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event produced by WWE. It took place on March 29, 2015, at Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, California.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WrestleMania_31





jo

Je baise et jouis

Je suis chaude et luxurieuse comme Messaline et peut-être plus amoureuse encore, s’il est possible, que cette célèbre Romaine. Je baise et jouis jusqu’à extinction de force et, de même encore que Messaline, lorsque trente ou quarante hommes m’ont passé sur le corps, je suis exténuée, sans[...]



  • Eros - essais érotiques

jo

Quelques Jours en septembre


1er septembre 2001. Elliot, agent secret américain possèdent une information capitale pour l'avenir du monde... Il a disparu. Sa fille Orlando, qu'il a abandonnée dix ans auparavant, Irène, un agent secret français avec qui il a travaillé, et David, son fils adoptif, vont tout faire pour le[...]



  • Films and zik !!

jo

Development land tax would prove to be a major disincentive

The spectre of a Development Land Tax returning to haunt the whole process is a very real threat to development, especially if proposed works are financially marginal...




jo

Greenbelt - major review to go ahead

All greenbelt land will be examined to see if it should be developed or protected.




jo

Search Journal Open Access Policies: "Sherpa Services Combined Into New User-Friendly Platform: Open Policy Finder"

The new platform will allow users to: Check if compliance with funder open access policies can be achieved with a particular journal Get a summary of publishers’ open access archiving conditions for individual journals and books To see funders’ conditions for open access publication https://tinyurl.com/tzjpnu46 Search Polices | Artificial Intelligence | | Research Data Curation … Continue reading "Search Journal Open Access Policies: "Sherpa Services Combined Into New User-Friendly Platform: Open Policy Finder""




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"Daily Life in the Open Biologist’s Second Job, as a Data Curator"

Background Data reusability is the driving force of the research data life cycle. However, implementing strategies to generate reusable data from the data creation to the sharing stages is still a significant challenge. Even when datasets supporting a study are publicly shared, the outputs are often incomplete and/or not reusable. The FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, … Continue reading ""Daily Life in the Open Biologist’s Second Job, as a Data Curator""




jo

JONSBO TH, du watercooling AIO avec écran et ventilateur mono-cadre

Un peu de monitoring chez JONSBO, qui place un petit écran avec un affichage très simple sur le top de la pompe de sa nouvelle série TH. Un affichage qui va à l'essentiel, tout comme le logiciel en arrière-plan, et ça peut être une bonne chose à l'heure où les écrans proposent toujours plus de possibilités. De quoi donner plus de choix au consommateur donc, mais JONSBO ne s'arrête pas là et mise également sur le chainage des ventilateurs en optant pour un cadre unique. Le hic ? Les pales semblent assez réduites sur le diamètre ; mais le rendu avec l'éclairage RGB semble très réussi. […]

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jo

Une nouvelle vidéo pour le jeu Indiana Jones et le Cercle Ancien avec du gameplay !

Cette nuit se tenait le Developer_Direct 2024, et le studio MachineGames en a profité pour présenter une première vidéo pour son jeu Indiana Jones et le Cercle Ancien. Et quelle vidéo ! Se déroulant en 1937, l'histoire place le héro entre Les Aventuriers de l'Arche Perdue et La Dernière Croisade, ce qui promet donc de jolis combats contre des nazis. Des énigmes ? Il y en aura forcément, avec des pièges à éviter... A coups de fouet ? […]

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jo

NVIDIA annonce un bundle Indiana Jones et le Cercle Ancien !

NVIDIA nous annonce un nouveau bundle pour ses cartes graphiques RTX 4000. Ainsi, vous obtiendrez l'édition numérique premium d' Indiana Jones et le Cercle Ancien™ pour l'achat d'une carte graphique éligible NVIDIA GeForce RTX™ 4090, RTX 4080 SUPER, RTX 4080, RTX 4070 Ti SUPER, RTX 4070 Ti, RTX 4070 SUPER, RTX 4070 (ou d'un PC de bureau doté de l'un de ces modèles) ou d'un PC portable éligible doté d'un GPU RTX™ 4090, RTX 4080 ou RTX 4070. Tous les détails se trouvent dans la page dédiée à ce nouveau bundle. […]

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jo

JONSBO FR-606, du ventilateur au style unique

Ne le nions pas, il devient assez difficile de se démarquer par le style sur les ventilateurs. Le RGB est partout et travailler le cadre peut impliquer une réduction du diamètre des pales, et donc des performances. Ce qui ne semble pas poser de problème pour certaines marques, comme JONSBO avec ses nouveaux modèles FR-606 en 120 mm, également proposés avec des pales en reverse. Un effet miroir infini très classique au centre, mais aussi sur les côtés avec un cadre arrondi qui vient suivre les pales, voilà un peu de neuf pour un rendu qui semble original même s'il faudra confirmer. Tout comme pour les performances, puisque la vitesse de rotation est bien diminuée avec un maximum à 1500 rpm. […]

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jo

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl met à jour ses recommandations hardware

On prend son plus beau calendrier de chatons acheté auprès d'un service communal le mois dernier et on entoure une date : 20 novembre 2024, sortie de S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl ! Connaissons-nous l'histoire ? Non. Les configurations requises ? Non plus. Mais nous avons une date, et c'est déjà pas mal ! Enfin, si, les configurations sont notées sur Steam, mais nous attendrons confirmation avant la sortie. […]

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jo

Citizen-journalism, watch out happy snapper!

Emily Bell, editor-in-chief of Guardian Unlimited, writes in the Media Guardian today about the dangers of encouraging reader-reporters. It’s an issue which has been causing friction between big-media who are trying to encourage new contributors and some of the press...




jo

Citizen Journalists make your own TV news

Channel 4 and ITN have joined together to offer viewers the chance to develop their own ‘citizen journalism’. Breaking the News – developed by indie producer Illumina Digital - enables viewers to produce their own news stories through an online...




jo

Broadcasters give citizen journalists tools to report

The BBC is expanding the number of reports available for UK viewers to download online. Over 80 online news reports covering iconic events from the past 50 years have been made available this week by the BBC. It follows a...




jo

Mar 26, Love and Sex to Enjoy Reading about Hot Sentimental and Sexual Topics!

Love and sex are so different, although they are sometimes connected with each other. What we always need is to differentiate between them and care about whom we love more then ourselves.




jo

Apr 10, Arabic Poems to Enjoy Reading on Posters on Your Walls at Home!

Couplets of Arabic poems in some artworks to enjoy reading poetry in Arabic language online. Get my poetry books, or get some poetry in Arabic language in posters to hang on your walls at home.




jo

Llewellyn Journal: Divination




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Llewellyn Journal: UFOs




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Llewellyn Journal: Health




jo

Alan Tuback Joins PageLightPrime as President

PageLightPrime, a leading provider of innovative legal practice management software, is thrilled to announce the appointment of Alan Tuback as their new President. Tuback brings a wealth of experience and industry expertise to PageLightPrime, having previously founded and led Soluno. With a proven track record of success in the legal technology space, Tuback is poised to lead PageLightPrime to even greater heights. As [PR.com]




jo

Friscopromos.com Kicks Off "Merry & Meaningful" Campaign, Giving Joy Through Memorable, Meaningful Customized Gifts

Friscopromos.com holiday campaign promotes giving memorable & meaningful custom products to valued employees, friends, and customers. [PR.com]




jo

Data Integration Company Dataddo Joins LinkedIn Marketing Partner Program for Reporting & ROI

Customers can use Dataddo’s optimized LinkedIn connectors to reliably and securely bring LinkedIn performance data into analytics tools and databases. [PR.com]




jo

Law Scholar Alfred E Piombino Joins New York Notaries to Commemorate Notary Public Day on November 7, 2024

Law Scholar Alfred E. Piombino joins the 258,254 State of New York Notary Public commission holders out of the four and a half million Notaries in the United States to mark the annual commemoration of “Notary Public Day” on November 7*, 2024. “On October 25*, 1639, Thomas Fugill (1577-1655) is recognized as the duly appointed (deputy) magistrate and “publique notary” for New Haven Colony in [PR.com]




jo

NAFA Honors Passionate Industry Champion Rod Mims with 2024 Bo Johnson Spirit Award

NAFA, the National Association for Fixed Annuities, presented revered distribution leader Rod Mims with the 2024 Bo Johnson Spirit Award for Lifetime Achievement for his unwavering commitment to the financial services industry. [PR.com]




jo

Indiana Jones et le Cercle des Anciens : animations rigides, IA aux fraises, faut-il s'inquiéter ?

Parmi les gros jeux de cette fin d'année, il y en a un qui va sortir un peu plus tard que les autres, c'est Indiana Jones et le Cercle des Anciens. C'est le prochain jeu de Be...




jo

Indiana Jones et le Cercle des Anciens : 14 nouvelles minutes de gameplay pour rassurer les joueurs

Il fera partie des derniers jeux à arriver sur les étals et les boutiques en ligne, Indiana Jones et le Cercle des Anciens a fait l'objet d'une présentation en ce lundi férié....




jo

AVOWED : on y a joué, le prochain Skyrim, c'est lui ?

Quatre ans après son annonce et un développement qui n'a pas été de tout repos, voici que Avowed est prêt à braver l'avis de la presse avant celui du public. Nous avons pu y j...




jo

Johnson's Coupon

Print a coupon for $0.75 off one Johnson's or Desitin product




jo

Wall Street Journal Article on Rising Cost of Collision Repair Features ASA Leaders 

ASA Board Chairman Scott Benavidez and Incoming Chair Dan Stander provided insight on the causes behind the rising costs of collision repairs in a November 7 article in the Wall Street Journal. Benavidez, owner of Mr. B’s Paint and Body Shop in Albuquerque, N.M. and Stander, owner of FIX Auto Highlands Ranch in Littleton, Colo., […]

The post Wall Street Journal Article on Rising Cost of Collision Repair Features ASA Leaders  appeared first on CollisionWeek.




jo

Another Vintage Bondage Blowjob

Here’s another vintage bondage blowjob photo that’s been circulating ever since the era of shovelware porn CDs. It probably comes originally from one of those roughie bondage magazines that came out in the 1970s and early 1980s: Elsewhere on Bondage Blog: Amateur Bondage Blowjob "Bad Bondage" Blowjob Bandana Blindfold And A Bondage Blowjob Very Vintage […]