Author: randyaa

Illegal Alien Costume

~ randyaa ~ Leave a comment

illegal alien costumeSomeone came up with an Illegal Alien Costume that’s pure genius.  Some people seem to be offended by these illegal alien costumes (it IS America, aka the PC nation).  I say who cares!? Who’s offended, Illegal Immigrants? Oh No! What are they gonna do to protest? Crawl back across the border? That’s a shame, yeah we should definitely ban these costumes.  Wait, you’ll leave if we wear these? Sweet!  I’m ordering mine right now…

For the record, nobody is saying you can’t come into our country.  We’re just saying you need to come in legally like everybody else.

Seriously though… I’m really considering the costume.  We do have a couple costume parties to go to.

Religion in the Courtroom

~ randyaa ~ 5 Comments

bibleThe recent story of a Texas jury who consulted the Bible before sentencing a man to death got me thinking.

DISCLAIMER: I AM COMPLETELY FOR SEPARATION OF CHURCH AND STATE

I agree when people complain about the 10 commandments in the courtroom and when they demand ‘in god we trust’ be removed from our money or ‘under god’ be removed from the pledge of allegiance.  All of that stuff creates a direct tie between our government and a specific religion which I don’t agree with, regardless of my political or religious beliefs.  I just don’t think a country founded mostly due to religious discrimination has any right to associate itself with a specific religion when it claims it’s open to all people regardless of belief.  That’s like saying “Sure come on in, but we’re better than you.”  It just doesn’t jive.

Religion is a moral guidance tool.  People lean on it when something happens they don’t understand or if they don’t know what to do about a situation.  Whether it’s the Christian Bible or the Muslim Qur’an, It defines right and wrong and the consequences for those who believe its lessons.

To me, this Jury story is different.  The people in the JURY consulted the bible, not the JUDGE.  They were looking for moral guidance.  I don’t have a problem with this.  A jury should be made up of your peers.  It’s pretty safe to assume that a certain percentage of your peers are going to be Christians or have at least grown up in a Christian household.

The Jury would be leaning on its’ teachings whether they actual read a passage during deliberation or not.

What I'll Miss (about camp)

~ randyaa ~ Leave a comment

In 1989 New York State bought the land the Long Lake Hunting Club had leased for the better part of the century (1200 acres, 8 miles from the nearest road).  They gave us 10 years to get out.  So in 1999 we had to leave the place many of it’s members had grown up in, myself included.  I’m not sure who, but someone wrote this poem and I’ve kept it hidden away in the dark bowels of my computer until now.

What I’ll Miss

As We give this camp a final toast,
I wonder what I’ll miss the most?
My bunk, the couch, that big green chair?
The smell of bacon in the air?

How bout that griddle made of steel?
Mmmm… we never missed a meal.
That big wood stove, it’s sides would glow,
and keep us warm at ten below.

Yes all these things were very nice,
and I’ll think of them once or twice,
But what hurts so much to leave behind
are all the people in my mind.

Harley, Bummer, Bob and Rod…
take care of them almighty God.
Roger, Howard, Loren, Chris;
It’s all you guys I’m gonna miss.

But there’s one thing we’ll always keep,
Within our hearts, way down deep;
Those memories of yesterday,
No one will ever take away.

And even though the camp is gone;
Those memories will linger on.

~Unknown Member of the Long Lake Hunting Club of Harrisville, NY

Every time I read it I feel the heat emanating from the old cast iron stove as we play just ‘one more hand’ of Euchre at the table built for 20 with the giant jar of maraschino cherries in the middle ready for Roger’s Manhatten.

I’ve seen very few of the members since the club folded. Some created a new club a few miles down the road from the old one, and we’ve visited with them a few times. Unfortunately, most moved on to places unknown.

I miss it. A lot.

I miss my uncle Loren (mentioned in the poem) the most.

Protest in Rochester NY Erupts in Violence

~ randyaa ~ 1 Comment

Those who make peaceful revolution protest impossible, make violent revolution protest inevitable ~JFK

I’m not sure how I missed this but it seems last Wednesday October 7th there was a protest by the Students for a Democratic Society in Downtown Rochester NY that ended in a lot of violence and brutality.

If you read section 240.20 of the New York State Penal Code it’s pretty clear that the protesters broke the law. To me it’s also pretty clear that the police overstepped their bounds.

Although it’s pretty hard to tell exactly what happened, it’s pretty easy to see the police were excessively violent.  Two protesters were even sent to the hospital and 12 were arrested by brutal means like throwing them to the ground.  The video clearly shows several officers pushing and shoving, yelling, screaming and pulling out their billy clubs.

Frankly, I don’t see how this type of blatant power trip can be tolerated.  They should all be fired.

The following is a press conference the SDS gave after the protest.  There’s tons more interviews and articles about the SDS protest online if you’re interested in reading more.

http://blip.tv/play/AYGmpAYC

Seattle Wall of Gum

~ randyaa ~ Leave a comment

What?
Seattle has a giant wall covered in so much used gum that it has become famous? You’re kidding me right? I’m disgusted, and yet intrigued kind of like the feeling I get when seeing a glorious Joe dirt style mullet.

I’m completely shocked that we didn’t hear about this while we were in Seattle. Wait, maybe we did and just thought it was so revolting that we repressed it from memory.

gumwall

Now we’ve immortalized it on our website for all to see forever.

New project idea: Start a blog who’s sole purpose is to reunite old pieces of gum with their owners ala Found Camera. I’ve even thought of a great fitting name for it: http://www.wefoundyourgumyoudisgustinglitteringpig.com/rightwhereyouSTUCKit

United States Health Care vs The Swine Flu

~ randyaa ~ 4 Comments

A discussion I had recently with some family and friends about the Flu and the Flu Shot along with Swine Flu prompted me to do a little bit of research.  I learned a few things that might be common knowledge to others, but I had no idea so I thought I’d share.

The biggest shock to me was that H1N1 has no direct correlation to the so called Swine Flu.  H1N1 is just a sub type of Influenza named Influenza A (H1N1).  H1N1 is the most common form of the Flu and in fact the Flu Vaccine usually contains a variation of H1N1 and a variation of H3N2 as well as a B type virus.

Mainstream Media Fail.

The World Health Organization keeps track of all sorts of information regarding outbreaks and diseases and the Swine Flu is no exception.  They’ve been tracking it from the beginning and have a ton of data on the spread and what climates it’s most active in.

I’ve heard the media claim this is going to be horrible and it will kill tons of people etc etc.  I’ve also heard others mention it’s fatality rate is no worse than a typical Flu virus.  Unfortunately everywhere I look I get different numbers on what a typical Flu Virus fatality rate is.  Usually it’s somewhere in the ball park of .5% to 1% so we’ll use .75% as a baseline.

Everything I read said the fatality rate will likely rise over time.  Through my analysis of the WHO numbers I found this to be true, to a point.

What became quite apparent is there may be a plateau.  That is, the system might be flooded with enough people now that we may have reached the point at which the system always contains a constant percentage of the number of people who are sick, and therefor a relatively constant percentage of those will be fatalities.  The Good thing is that constant seems to be somewhere around only 1.2%.

This number is roughly 60% larger than our assumed baseline standard seasonal flu fatality rate of .75%.  What does this mean?

Well, figuring 10,000 people are infected with the Swine flu and 10,000 people are affected with a standard seasonal flu.  Keep in mind though, that this IS a variation of the standard seasonal flu.  Of those infected with Swine Flu approximately 120 people would die.  Of those affected with the seasonal flu approximately 75 would die.  A difference of 45 people or only .45% of the population.

Simply put, the Swine Flu is only .45% more riskier than the Standard Seasonal Flu.  Still Worried?

ALL of the information I used can be obtained on the World Health Organization website which has a detailed archive of the Swine Flu Pandemic of 2009

What I DID find extremely interesting and alarming is that the Rate in the Americas (The United States is located within the Americas) is much higher.  Over 2.2%, essentially doubling the rate of the rest of the world.  Assuming our baseline is accurate that puts the risk for Americans at somewhere like 1.5% more than the standard seasonal flu.

Perhaps this is a good time for the health care discussion?  Just saying…

I’ve made it public so you can look at the Healthcare and Flu Statistics spreadsheet I used to make these (and a few other) charts.

http://www.who.int/csr/disease/swineflu/updates/en/index.html

2 Amazing Time-Lapse Videos from Ben Wiggins

~ randyaa ~ Leave a comment

Ben Wiggins has created two of the most stunning Time-Lapse videos I’ve ever seen.  Take a look.

Summer in San Francisco:

http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=6601409&server=vimeo.com&show_title=1&show_byline=1&show_portrait=0&color=&fullscreen=1

Another Cloud Reel… from Delrious on Vimeo.

Burning Man 2009:

http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=6636389&server=vimeo.com&show_title=1&show_byline=1&show_portrait=0&color=&fullscreen=1

Evolution (Burning Man time lapses) from Delrious on Vimeo.

Genealogy and the Power of Social Media

~ randyaa ~ 2 Comments

It’s (semi) official. I share a bloodline with George W Bush. He’s my 19th cousin once removed. So. Very. Strange.

I’ve been using Geni for quite a while now after becoming slightly interested in Genealogy. I’m not sure what piked my interest to begin with, but I know what solidified it and it’s probably no news to you. Seems I might be descendant of royalty (ie: King Edward II aka LongShanks). I still haven’t found the direct link (just some woman named Mary listed as a ‘Descendent of’) to King Edward II but although unproven as of yet, I can trace back to the Aldrich Immigrant George Aldrich with a certain level of certainty.

Geni has been running a promotion recently for a 14 day free Pro account trial. About 2 weeks ago I figured what the heck, why not? I went for it and HOLY COW! The power of social media has truly been revealed to me.

family-statsOne of the key features of a Pro account is the ability to find similar profiles to those in your tree. I figured the best way to go about this is to go back as far as I can and see if there are any matches. Naturally I used the immigrant George Aldrich (born 1605) whom I also happened to recently find the last will and testament of. Wow did I find matches. Over 20 of them in fact, and after requesting merges with those that appeared to be identical matches, my tree began to grow at an astounding rate. You see, once you merge with someone else who is active, they begin requesting merges with others, who request merges with others and eventually you’ll likely know how you’re connected to everyone. Geni‘s own slogan is after all “Everyone’s Related”.

After two weeks of this (I’m now lacking a Pro account since the trial is up) my tree is ginormous. To be specific I’m now connected to over 26 million people (living and deceased) with over 5 thousand direct ancestors alone. It’s insane and the number keeps going up and up and up.

Sometimes all this connectedness and user driven content does have its downsides though. I just found out that George W Bush is my 19th Cousin Once Removed. We share blood. ugh. Unfortunately now that I lost my Pro Account I can no longer view the ‘path’ between us since he’s too distant and not a direct ancestor. They usually look a little something like this though:

william-raby

This is all very cool and I’ve learned a ton about my family’s history. What’s really neat is you find other people out there that are more interested and have more information than you do. This is certainly one area that Social Media excels at.

If you even have a tiny interest in this stuff at all I highly recommend using Geni.com to get started, even if it’s just to get your immediate family into the site so others can find you. You never know, you might just inherit England.