Flannel Shirt

New Xfinity box!!!

The Comcast guy came over today and put in the new cable box. It's called the "X-1 Platform". You can record four programs at the same time while watching a fifth. Really cool.

NSA spied on Obama

When you realize that the CIA (and NSA and FBI) are not under the power of the President or Congress, then you will begin to understand how things work.

Enraged by the lies and spin offered in response to recent disclosures of massive domestic spying, former NSA official Russell Tice blows his whistle again in this exclusive Boiling Frogs interview, co-hosted with Sibel Edmonds.  Please share this podcast widely, and download it to ensure that it doesn’t somehow disappear.Tice makes numerous stunning disclosures in this interview, partly in reaction to the misleading statements from Obama, NSA chief Alexander, FBI boss Mueller and Congressional leaders who defend the programs that were confirmed by the recent leaks from Ed Snowden.

Tice is deeply concerned that his former agency has gone “rogue”, that Gen. Keith Alexander wields the power to blackmail as J. Edgar Hoover once did, and that hundreds of key people in government, the courts, business and political activism have been targeted for wiretapping and other surveillance.  He names names.

He responds to the unsigned FISA Court ruling against Yahoo that dismissed 4th amendment issues and asserted that there have been no abuses.  Tice knows of real abuses, and tells quite a bit.

We talk about cyberwarfare, and the NSA’s ability to originate cyber attacks but make it look like they came from China or Iran.  Tice declines to comment on PRISM, as he considers it a lawful foreign intel program, but has plenty to say about the collection of phone records and the collection and retention of all of our phone calls.

Tice explains in detail how the National Security Agency targets, sucks-in, stores and analyzes illegally obtained content from the masses in the United States. He contradicts officials and the mainstream media on the status of the NSA’s Utah facility, which is already operating and “On-Line.” He reveals the NSA as a Deep State that targets and wiretaps US political candidates for its own purposes.

BBC looks at little cars

A history of small cars.

The Nazi "Sun Gun"

It didn't work.

Mirror, mirror, on the wall, what's the weirdest Nazi concept weapon of them all? The "sun gun."

That seems to be the takeaway from a long-forgotten article in Life magazine's July 23, 1945 issue, titled "The German Space Mirror." The article, which has been making the rounds on the Internet, credits unnamed U.S. Army experts for revealing a Nazi plan to construct the extraordinary device. Consisting of a reflective, slightly concave disk approximately one mile in diameter, the sun gun would focus solar rays onto enemy cities -- and burn them.

An accompanying illustration shows a large mirror, "located 22,300 miles above the equator," focusing massive amounts of solar energy onto a city in America's Northeast.

Read it all. It's fascinating.

Is there a version for adults?

As Elvis Costello once sang, "I used to be disgusted, now I try to be amused..."

For the child who has everything, it could be the ultimate toilet training accessory.

With recent figures showing a huge rise in the number of toddlers being given iPads and other expensive gadgets, the iPotty - a potty with a built in iPad holder, might not be as daft as it first seems.

The firm behind it claims the gadget, revealed at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, can help children feel more comfortable by allowing them to watch videos or play games while answering the call of nature.

The first improvement in boxer shorts in centuries

And there's a place to hide a credit card, too!

Pee guitar

In my neverending search to find important developments in mankind's growth I give you Pee Guitar.

Reminds me of a joke by George Carlin that involved a group of men, a keg of beer and a Kent micronite filter.

 

Ouch!

Another reason why too much media attention is bad. And why the "mistletoe cam" may not be a good idea. And why, like a lawyer in court, you should know the answer before you ask the question.

Grrrh

If you read my old blog you'd know that I've written this before.

I get an electronic device or computer device or an electronic device that has something to do with my computer and spend painful hours battling against a non-intuitive (for me) interface or menu and end up frustrated.

Again.

At least this time I managed to get through the barriers at the website set up to keep me from getting useful information and the person who finally answered my email said that perhaps they included the wrong "quick start instructions". In his email he said he would call me.

He didn't.