Category: Modern problems

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Lady Gaga offends with innocent comment.

You have to be fucking kidding me!

The Huffington Post carried a story about offended fans of Gaga

Cheeseburger

Lady Gaga said in a tweet she’d just done two spin classes back to back and was eating a salad but dreaming of a cheeseburger.

She hashtagged the tweet with #popsingersdonteat and it looks to me like she was being funny.

Anyone who’s spent any time in a gym knows damn well that we eat the salad because it’s good for us.

But in our heart of hearts after burning a ton of calories our bodies are telling us;

“MEAT!  After all that work I want fucking mammoth meat and I want it NOW!“

Apparently organizations which deal with eating disorders and many fans took offense that Gaga might have said something TRUE about her personal state of mind.

Gaga demonstrated once again that she is a human being with a brain, wants, desires,  a sense of humor,  an understanding of irony, and apparently the ability to integrate it all.

The National Eating Disorder Association seems to have gone way out of the way to make a statement that I personally find moronic. They say in their twitter account;

“Huh? This is the same person who recently implored girls to stop dieting?”

What? Lady Gaga wasn’t making a blanket comment about people with eating disorders or anything else. Since when does not needlessly dieting equate to not getting off your ass and exercising?

Abraham Lincoln once said “You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you cannot fool all of the people all of the time.“

I’m using a modernized variant “You can please some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you cannot please all of the people all of the time.“

Frankly, I’m done with even trying to please anyone anymore. Accept me as I am, because as Gaga says… I WAS BORN THIS WAY!

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BPA, Triclosan and Limp Dicks

BPABottles Post thumb 615x300 68926

Ok not to sound like one of those Environmental Nutjobs that sets SUVs on fire.

There’s an article in the Los Angeles Times this morning that caught my attention. It turns out that the FDA has decided not to ban BPA.

BPA (bisphenol A) is a compound that permeates our environment. In particular it’s used in food packaging. This material is most often used in plastic bottles and often as a component of liners in cans, particularly soda cans. It’s literally everywhere and it’s some bad stuff.

Moobs

Numerous studies have shown links to a number of maladies in mice. These maladies include developmental issues, and precancerous changes in the prostate and breasts. The developmental issues are interesting because in another study BPA levels were tracked in pregnant women. Their children also had BPA in their systems and exhibited hyperactivity, lower emotional control, depression, and anxiety. Given the ever increasing numbers of autistic and ADHD children in this country it’s perhaps not a smoking gun but certainly worth looking at.

This stuff once ingested metabolizes into a compound that looks to the body like the hormone estrogen.

Relaxedpenis

BPA has been used for about 40 years. Estrogen is necessary for the good health of both males and females. However too much estrogen especially in men can cause some unpleasant side effects. Think Prostate problems, man boobs, low libido, impotency, weight gain, heart problems, and low testosterone.

Now think about the corresponding increase over the past 40 years of these problems in industrialized nations.

This is a somewhat unfair comparison because of access to birth control, but ask yourself why do the poorest countries in the world have in some cases triple the birth rates of industrialized nations?

At the same time, here in the industrialized nations of the world we have created whole industries around fertility and the treatment of Erectile Dysfunction?

Triclosan is a commonly used antibacterial agent. It’s used in toothpaste, and antibacterial soaps. It’s probably even in your carpets or underlayment as a fungal preventative. This material became common in the ’70s and now permeates our environment. Under common conditions in wastewater processing it breaks down into dioxins. It’s found in fish, and dolphins. The Canadians and the Swedes either have or are banning the use of Triclosan in consumer products. At least one study states that triclosan reduced the amount of serum testosterone in rats and reduced thyroid hormones too.

Obviously I’m not a scientist. I don’t have access to a lab or all the data. But I wonder about stuff like this.

Why if there is any question at all doesn’t the FDA simply ban these materials? They say further study is needed. Why not remove the materials and THEN do further study?

For gods sake we have to take our shoes off to get on a fucking plane because ONE IDIOT tried to light explosives in his shoe. We have to go through body scanners because ONE MORON tried to use his underwear as a bomb (I simply fly commando so there is no question when the TSA scans me). We can’t take more than an ounce of liquid on a plane because of the FEAR that the material could be a bomb.

If the shoe bomber and the underwear bomber had succeeded and blown up the planes they were on, They would have killed or injured maybe 1000 people altogether. That would have been tragic.

Yet we have enough circumstantial evidence to suggest that BPA & Triclosan are poisoning millions of men everyday and our government refuses to take action.

Thaxdad

Why? Because it would be too expensive for the makers of bottles, and cans to remove BPA from their product lines. It would be costly for consumer product divisions to remove Triclosan from their products.

And all the while, our testosterone levels fall, infertility rises, and we lament the health crisis caused by obesity.

Tell me again that industry doesn’t control our government…

There is another solution

Men, go through your homes. Toss everything that contains either of these two compounds. Do it for yourself and do it for your sons.

If we stop buying containers and household products that contain this stuff then they’ll stop putting it in everything. Don’t let your kids handle or touch receipts. Believe it or not BPA is in cash register receipts, there might also be traces of arsenic and cyanide in those receipts too so keep that stuff out of the reach of your kids.

Most of all, make sure that this stuff isn’t in your baby’s bottles.

After all you want to be a grand daddy don’t you?

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Another computer related Heads-Up

I dont’ mean to be a Mr techie in this blog but I can’t really help myself.

Especially when I know there are readers of the blog that are not technical and who might get hurt by nefarious people using computers to do bad shit.

This morning I got two bits of email that caught my attention.

Your Order Page 1 copy

This first one appeared to be from Dominos.

It looks pretty good except for a couple of mistakes.

The most obvious is that the time is wrong. I received the email at 8 am according to my email program but the order says it’s 11 am. This is a time zone issue.

The second problem is that that email they sent it to was never used for anything that might result in being added to a mailing list. And I don’t use that email address at all anymore.

The real sting for this one is that all the links that you’d click on to find out why you were being sent a pizza that you didn’t order, actually go to a web page that appears to be hosted in Thailand.

I can’t imagine why dominos would outsource their automated pizza order clearing to a server in Thailand.

The easiest way to check stuff like this is to put your mouse pointer over a button (HOVER) but DO NOT CLICK.

Often, your email program will display what the link address is. In this case hovering over the Click Here to Track displayed nnsg.osea2.go.th

Giving credit where credit is due, this is clever…

Think about it.

You didn’t order a pizza, so you think oops this is a mistake and you click to find out if the pizza is on the way or if you can cancel it.

Every single link on the page tracks back to the nnsg.osea2.go.th address.

I’m not listing the exact page, the image here is just a jpeg it’s not going to take you anywhere bad.

Email1 copy

The next email this morning is old school!

This one comes from an address that I don’t recognize, it’s got no subject line, and contains an RTF Word document.

Need I say DON’T Ever open email that looks like this. And NEVER open the attachment!

Without getting into the dirty underbelly of email headers and all that stuff that would probably make the average non, to moderately technical person bleed from their eyes. Let me just say this;

This email is wrong on a number of levels.

When I look at the header information I’m pretty sure this is a spoof. What that means is this.

The XXXXXXX@bellsouth.net email address has been grabbed by some evil fuck and is being used as a disguise.

XXXXXXX@bellsouth.net is probably a real email address. It’s probably someone who at this moment is getting a ton of angry emails from people that they don’t know. This is probably some person like you who’s just trying to get through their day without a lot of drama.

The RTF file looks like it’s got some suspicious code in it. I haven’t done an in depth analysis and don’t plan to.

It looks like the real point of origin is an old style yahoo email server. But I’m not even sure of that.

What I’m pretty sure of is that the originating server is somewhere in Asia I’m guessing Thailand.

I say this because BOTH of these emails track back to the same place.

Asia Pacific Network Information Centre

This center is actually located in Australia but would handle traffic for lots of places in Asia.

I’m betting that someone in the Australian center did some maintenance over the weekend or installed a new server and it’s security isn’t fully online. The Aussies are pretty good about minimizing spam and other nuisance email from passing through their servers. I’ll be sending examples of the emails to them so that they can track the culprits down.

The point of my rambling here is to just remind folks to be careful online.

Be circumspect when you’re opening your emails, things are not always as they seem even emails that appear to be from someone you know might be tainted with something nasty.

And for goodness sake make sure your anti-virus software is up to date and functioning.

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Installed a new DSL Modem last night

So last night I did a modemectomy perhaps it’s a more accurate to say modem transplant.

Gotta say it’s nice being able to surf the web without incessant hangs.

Dm111p

Things had gotten to the point that three out of five web pages would refuse to open for no apparent reason. After the page would  time out and I got the ever so helpful Verizon “That page doesn’t exist” (Excuse me, Google doesn’t exist? I was just looking at the page!)

I’d hit the retry and boom there’s the page I asked for in al it’s glory. Obviously something was seriously wrong but it wasn’t obvious, the logs from the old modem didn’t say anything, it was as if for a few moments the modem was on a coffee break and not processing any requests. Then everything would resume as if there’d never been a problem.

I really started getting suspicious of the DSL Modem when I started seeing DNS errors. I found it highly unlikely that I’d see a DNS error on sites like Google, or Microsoft. I was convinced that the modem was failing when the streaming porn sites started reporting DNS errors.

The major companies might screw up their DNS entries and take themselves offline, BUT Porn sites? NO WAY not when their income is generated by charges billed per minute.

So there’s a nice shiny new Netgear DSL modem in the wiring closet.

I’ve got to give credit where credit is due. The folks at Netgear did a very nice job with this machine.

The set up was smooth. The one little glitch I encountered was solved by their built in troubleshooting. (I’m always amazed when the machine makes a suggestion that is helpful.) Someone put some thought into the software and I’m impressed.

As an aside, this is the second Netgear device I’ve installed recently.

A few months back I replaced a Cisco 5 port switch in the livingroom because it was creating so much Radio Interference that I couldn’t talk on my Ham Radio. Replacing the Cisco with a Netgear solved the problem. Since then I’ve removed all the Cisco switches I’ve been able to and the RFI problems have been greatly reduced.

As an aside, my cellphone has a lot less dropped calls here at the house. I can only surmise that the interference was confusing the cell phone too.

Sorry to the non-techies reading this I know posts like this are dry as dust to you. On the other hand my technical friends might appreciate knowing about my experiences with this brand.

I’ll see if I can’t come up with a steamy sexual post in the next few days. That’s something that ALL my friends can enjoy.

 

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Did it again… I’m in the doghouse – Updated

Ok I’m a bastard.

I’m working on some stuff and I get this call…

“My computer isn’t working. it was plugged in, it was connected to a network cable the sky is blue I stumbled, the computer fell, it landed on my shoes so that doesn’t really count as it falling, water is blue, the wind is blowing, I have on shoes. On and on and on and on….”

Images

I finally interrupt because NONE of the above is telling me anything important and the randomness is annoying as hell.

“WHAT THE FUCK IS YOUR COMPUTER DOING? DOES IT POWER ON? CAN YOU TELL?“

Yeah I’m harsh… I really had my mind completely someplace else and just listening to that insanity has completely destroyed my train of thought.

I should be more patient…

Most people do freak out a bit when they’ve dropped their machines… I’d freak out but I’d be PISSED as hell at myself for doing something soooo stupid.

99% of the time I need the basic facts and nothing more, let me ask the questions and just answer the question I asked, no extras no other oration.

This conversation would have gone so much better if it went something like

“Hey, I dropped my computer and now it will come on briefly then shutdown again. Do you have any ideas or should I just bring it to you?”

Unfortunately, that’s not the way it went. In fact, that’s NEVER the way it goes.

So today… I’ve been mean and heartless. My train of thought has completely been derailed.

Why is it that people can’t OR won’t organize their thoughts before they call technical support?

Sigh… I guess I should be prepared to make nice for the next few hours…

————— UPDATE ——————–

Hey, when you drop your computer while it’s running… (Even on your feet) ya got a better than even chance of damaging your hard drive.

So far, I’ve told the drive to map out the damaged sectors, Installed a new operating system and now a 13 hour restore of the last known good backup. I hope that backup has been allowed to run as I originally set it up… or else this is not going to go well.

————— UPDATE —-UPDATE—————

Whoo Hooo! OS Updated, Restore complete, Software and files are apparently all where they’re supposed to be. Now it’s just a matter of stumbling over the bits & pieces that need to have their license numbers re-entered. My work is done!

I can move on with the SHIT that I want to do… Thank you gods of the computer!