Balloon Emergency Communication Systems
http://www.newscientisttech.com/article.ns?id=dn11953&feedId=online-news_rss20
The system consists of a set of ground- and air-based monitoring systems that look for signs of a natural disaster. These include the low atmospheric pressures and high winds that indicate a hurricane, the ground movement that accompanies an earthquake, and the noxious gases produced by a volcano. Balloons fitted with communications transmitters - similar to cellphone base stations - are then launched to ensure that communications channels remain open.

Somehow, I don’t think that a balloon carrying electronic equipment is a good communications plan in a HURRICANE.

Geo-tagging auctions
Buyers can then search for goods that are nearby and limit their bidding to those that seem close enough to pick up.

Um - I’m pretty sure that’s already an option. We’ve searched for items near us before…

It’s funny how things happen. I was just reading this post from Wil Wheaton, where he talks about the burst culture as described by Warren Ellis. Warren is specifically talking about sci-fi writers who publish short works online. I started thinking about Orson Scott Card, one of my favorite authors, who publishes mostly in print but does post some short pieces, excerpts, and opinion pieces online. So I close both those and what do I see on my netvibes page? RSS is telling me OSC has a new post . So, reading something that linked to something else that made me think of something which then actually happened. How cool is that?

Then something else totally different. At the bottom of this new posting from OSC he’s talking about a class he recently taught on the “Contemporary American Novel”. He describes the process he went through to choose the books/authors to highlight, reveals his choices, and follows up with a list of questions from the final. And - I totally geeked out reading them. Here is where I reveal that my geek roots aren’t actually in computing - although that is my income now- my roots are in Lit. I have a Bachelors in English Lit (the one where you have to read Chaucer and Shakespeare), but that’s only because the college I had a scholarship for didn’t offer one in Sci-Fi or Contemporary. But, I had several classes in Contemporary American. Lately I’ve felt that, while I love to read, I didn’t really have the excitement for Lit that I used to have. I do read a variety of novels as well as blogs and magazine pieces. I’m introducing my older son to SciFi, and my youngest is a non-fiction, give me the facts, scientist. I’ve done a little interpretation of lyrics with them, and explained a few concepts from what they’re reading, but that’s about all the exercise that muscle has gotten.

Reading OSC’s final exam questions brought it flooding all back. For some of the questions, answers came flooding into my mind. Well, at least they were partially formulated raw ideas, (which would probalby only get a C, but hey, I didn’t take the class.) For other questions, I just really wanted to KNOW the answer, or at least the material from which to take the answer. But, what do you do with that when you aren’t a student, teacher, critic, editor, or writer?

So, when OSC said “Some of you may wish you had taken my class” , I was nodding my head emphatically. Then he reminded me that he is the one making a living writing, because he ended with ” their answers to one of my questions actually changed my life. But I’ll talk about that next week. “

A collection of quotables from some articles I’ve read recently:

Winners recognize that it doesn’t always matter how the hole got in the boat.  It matters that it gets fixed so that you can get on with the fishing.  However, it DOES matter if you keep running over the same rock day after day, and you are patching the same hole over and over.  It is important to find the SOURCE of the hole and stop allowing it to happen. SOURCE: http://www.ismckenzie.com/category/personal-development/

http://chris-linfoot.net/d6plinks/CWLT-73FB9M

Oh, I just can’t get in the habit of writing here. The sunshine has been too beautiful, the baseball practices too frequent, and life just keeps on going. The septic plans are moving along - we’ve had trees removed, and Alex borrowed Mike D.’s log splitter, and now we have firewood for next year. We’ve got ATVs for everyone for this year now. I’ve got a new Polaris (camo with a matching hat!) The boys got Bermeers (sp?) ordered from California (http://www.rabbitscooters.com) , and THEY put them together when they got here.

Click the Family link in the menu to see new pictures.

Mom is up here at her conference, and joined us for the weekend. We did a little shopping and pampering for Mother’s Day, and I gave her a website. (Finally - we’ve been planning to since 2003. Seriously - I still had the files from 2003!) Her new site is at http://www.heartandhandsforhim.org . I’ve got her all set up where WordPress runs most of the site, and she uses Flickr to upload and blog her pictures, so she can keep all of it up herself without knowing any code. She’s always got a lot going on, so she needs to be able to update it often, so this is a great way to give her that.

Could dinner be any easier? Last night, I dumped a bag of dried 15-bean mix into a bowl and covered them with water. Then, I coursely chopped two onions. (I could have used dried onion pieces, though.) This morning, I drained the beans and put them in the crockpot, added the onions, a big ham butt, and 2 cups of water. When I got home, dinner (a delicious homemade bean-and-ham soup) was ready! No salt or spices needed. I made some cornbread on the side, but you could buy some or just use buttered bread or crackers and cheese.

I take the first 5 Yahoo! Questions and randomly (OK not so randomly) choose spam subject lines as answers.
Why doesn’t my car start?
30 seconds could save you thousands per year. (Maybe they’re suggesting a little general maintenance?)
I’m not sure what I have?( In General - Diseases & Conditions )
Actually turn back the hands of time, its like aging in reverse
How much money should i ask for a dell demension2004 desktop?
Are you paying too much for Cable?
Who the doctors off of the simpsons?
Do you want Xanax?
When i read a dog death question?
Feed Back : dust

A local church has on their placard this week: “A man who has lost his freedom has nothing left to lose”. 

Let me start by saying that I completely support freedom, 100%.  But I take issue with that quote, especially coming from a church. I keep thinking of all the martyrs who endured total loss of freedom - imprisonment. I doubt they would agree with that quote. They did not lose their mission - in fact, many are only known of because of their loss of freedom.  They would argue that they didn’t lose their dignity, their self-respect,their beliefs, their heart. They did not lose their eternal soul. That is a lot more to lose than their freedom.

Is freedom important? Yes. It is irrefutably one of the most important things in the human experience, an absolute treasure, and unquestionably worth fighting for. But only because it makes all those other things easier to share, protect, and enjoy. And those things are more important than the freedom itself.

Sorry I haven’t posted for a few days.  Little League is ramping up, so half the week we’re taking Aidan to games/practices, and the other days we’re trying to catch up on what didn’t get done those nights. (Better meals, laundry, dishes, homework, etc.)
Planning a visit from my mom for Mother’s Day. Working on an Access database project. Getting our septic system replaced by the end of June. Trying to get set back up for ATV season. Selling a motorcycle and possibly selling my car. (We decided we are more payment-averse than we thought. We can afford the payments, but detest them.)