Greg In The Desert

• Why didn’t I use pervious concrete for my driveway? – Fresh Dirt – Sunset.com – Pervious concrete is basically concrete without the sand. And the absence of sand creates a lot of void space. 15-30%. That is enough, according to the Pacific Southwest Concrete Alliance, for 3-8 gallons of water per minute to pass through each square foot. That is equal, says the Alliance, to 6,000 to 17,000 inches of rain per day. Even an El Nino won't produce more than that.
• No right to bear unlicensed machine guns, federal court says / The Christian Science Monitor – CSMonitor.com – “Whatever the individual right to keep and bear arms might entail, it does not authorize an unlicensed individual to possess unregistered machine guns for personal use,” said the three-judge panel of the Sixth US Circuit Court of Appeals.
• No right to bear unlicensed machine guns, federal court says / The Christian Science Monitor – CSMonitor.com – “Whatever the individual right to keep and bear arms might entail, it does not authorize an unlicensed individual to possess unregistered machine guns for personal use,” said the three-judge panel of the Sixth US Circuit Court of Appeals.
• Southwest bags more fliers by not imposing fees – The Denver Post – While the airline cut capacity by 5 percent in 2009, it added service to four new airports — New York LaGuardia, Boston, Minneapolis-St. Paul and Milwaukee. At the same time, he said the airline has gained a 1 percent market share and even has offered all employees raises during one of the worst financial slumps in airline history.
• The President on Preliminary Findings Regarding the Attempted Terrorist Attack | The White House – I wanted to speak to the American people again today because some of this preliminary information that has surfaced in the last 24 hours raises some serious concerns. It's been widely reported that the father of the suspect in the Christmas incident warned U.S. officials in Africa about his son's extremist views. It now appears that weeks ago this information was passed to a component of our intelligence community, but was not effectively distributed so as to get the suspect's name on a no-fly list.
• Retirees Flock to Mexico for the Sun and the Health Care | PBS NewsHour | Dec. 28, 2009 | PBS – Thousands of Americans are coming to places like Puerto Vallarta, not to dip their toes in the warm Pacific, sip a margarita, or browse a crafts fair. No, they are coming for health care, in many cases, care they could never afford to acquire in the United States.
• New equation for comfort – The Denver Post – The Apex boot essentially is a snowboarding boot inserted into a lightweight carbon fiber frame. The external carbon fiber structure provides the lateral stiffness and forward lean required to make skis perform, but can be removed easily for walking.
• Italian town where a White Christmas is a police matter | World news | The Guardian – Some 3,000 people have marched through the town in protest at the operation, which the Vatican called "sad and distressing". But it has been endorsed by Silvio Berlusconi's government. Visiting nearby Brescia, where he announced the opening of a detention camp for suspected illegal immigrants – a so-called centre for identification and expulsion – Berlusconi's interior minister, Roberto Maroni, a leader of the League, complimented Coccaglio's mayor.
• N.M. teacher claims lottery prize 2 hours before it expires – Lottery News – With only two hours to spare, an Albuquerque teacher claimed a $10,000 Powerball prize scheduled to expire today at 4:30 p.m.

• KOB.com – Albuquerque non-profit provides protection for women – Imagine having your own personal bodyguard outside your home all day and all night at no cost. That’s what an Albuquerque non-profit group is providing, specifically for abused women.
• The Official Site of Rio Rancho, NM – Outdoor Lighting Task Force – The task force will provide the Governing Body solutions to address existing outdoor lighting concerns, feedback regarding existing outdoor lighting ordinances, and recommendations to regulate outdoor lighting in future development areas while taking into consideration safety, reduction of light pollution, aesthetics and energy conservation.
• 300 competing in Lego championship at ASU – Arizona State University is hosting the First Lego League robotics championship this Saturday where 300 students ages 9 to 14 statewide will be vying for a chance to compete in the national finals in Atlanta.
• Man dies after sitting in recliner for eight months – KSN TV – In March, Webb's 550-pound husband, Tillmon, sat down in a recliner inside their trailer in Greenwood. Wearing nothing but a blanket, the 33-year-old didn't move from that recliner for the next eight months.
• Supreme Court dismisses challenge to Illinois forfeiture law | csmonitor.com – The US Supreme Court on Tuesday handed a victory to the Cook County State's Attorney and the Chicago Police Department when the justices unanimously dismissed as moot a challenge to Illinois' controversial forfeiture law.
• Andy Ihnatko’s Celestial Waste of Bandwidth (BETA) » The Seven Words You Can’t Say In A Dragon iPhone App – Friends, this screenshot represents my g*ddamned best effort to get the Dragon app to properly parse the spotlight lines from George Carlin’s “Seven Words” routine. The seven naughty words appear twice in this passage. In the final sentence, I simply read them naturally. But when I spoke them in the second sentence, I spoke with the measured tones and eloquent baritone of Frasier Crane, enunciating carefully and confidently, over and over again, one word at a time, coaxing the Dragon to do the right thing and giving the software the best chance possible. What you see there in the second sentence is the very best I could do to get Dragon Dictation to correctly transcribe some extremely naughty dictation.
• Intel scraps graphics chip based on Larrabee| Reuters – Intel decided to scrap plans for the graphics card because Larrabee's silicon and software development are behind where it had hoped they would be at this point in the project, spokesman Nick Knupffer said.
• Pearl Harbor Day 2009: three enduring mysteries | csmonitor.com – A better explanation for the enormity of the US defeat might be that the attack was a so-called black swan event: something so far outside the realm of expectations that Americans could not conceive of it occurring.
• Intel: Initial Larrabee graphics chip canceled | Nanotech – The Circuits Blog – CNET News – Intel said Friday that its Larrabee graphics processor will initially appear as a software development platform only.
  This is a blow to the world's largest chipmaker, which was looking to launch its first discrete (standalone) graphics chip in more than a decade. "Larrabee silicon and software development are behind where we hoped to be at this point in the project," Intel spokesman Nick Knupffer said Friday. "As a result, our first Larrabee product will not be launched as a standalone discrete graphics product," he said.

• The TWiT Netcast Network with Leo Laporte – Wouldn't it be great if customers could determine how a much company's chief executive is paid? Well I can't speak for AT&T or Apple, but at TWiT that's exactly what we're going to do. Up to now I've been taking my pay from TWiT's general fund (along with all the other employees). Not any more. From now on you'll pay me directly with your contributions. I won't take a penny out of the operating funds.Think of your contributions as a tip jar. If you like what I'm doing with TWiT I hope you'll contribute $2 a month (or more or less depending on what TWiT is worth to you). If you are unhappy with our direction, you can cancel your contribution completely. Believe me, I'll notice. Your contributions will have a direct impact on how TWiT is run – because they'll have a direct impact on my personal bottom line.
• Southwest plane lands at DIA after in-flight birth – The Denver Post – A baby boy was born on a commercial airline flight this morning about 100 miles north of Denver. The sky-high delivery happened on Southwest Airlines Flight 441 at about 10:45 a.m., said Chris Mainz, an airlines spokesman.
• The Nasty Bits: Frankenstein’s Frog, Stir-Fried | Serious Eats : Recipes – Upon contact with the salt, the appendages began to move. I recoiled in shock. Was it normal, that even after the frogs had been stunned, skinned, and eviscerated, for their appendages to be quivering? After 20 seconds or so the quivering turned into a restless jig. The legs twitched violently, pumping up and down as if they were getting ready for one last hop. Then the forelegs began to pump too, with their spindly fingers grasping upwards towards me. The chests, which had been exhumed of their innards, heaved up and down as if gasping for air.
• Forcibly adopted American Indians torn between cultures – The Denver Post – Harness was among the 395 or so American Indian children forcibly adopted into white families as part of a national social experiment conducted from 1958 through 1967.
• JROTC, APS, and a Culture of Violence – Duke City Fix – For four years, I was the lone JROTC parent pulling up to drill meets in a vehicle plastered with peace and justice slogans. I was the mom with the trilingual peace button on my tote bag (salaam, peace, shalom), plus a few other buttons that were, shall we say, not exactly supportive of the decisions made by the administration in Washington. In 4 years, no one ever questioned me about my political views at a JROTC event, though I was ready with a well-honed First Amendment rebuttal. (Maybe they knew that.) After all, they do teach the Constitution in JROTC.
• Patrick Stewart: the legacy of domestic violence | Society | The Guardian – In civilian life it was a different story. He was an angry, unhappy and frustrated man who was not able to control his emotions or his hands. As a child I witnessed his repeated violence against my mother, and the terror and misery he caused was such that, if I felt I could have succeeded, I would have killed him. If my mother had attempted it, I would have held him down.
• Big blasts create tiny, tough diamonds | KRQE News 13 – Scientists from the Energetic Materials Research and Testing Center (EMRTC) at New Mexico Tech are using massive explosions to create diamonds in a remote piece of desert at Playas.
• Hikers rescued for free in Arizona – These cases and others like them may be sending the wrong message to hikers nationwide, but Arizona search-and-rescue teams have a more important message: They do not charge for rescues. Most states don't.
• ABQJournal.com: Disinterest and Denial – Readers criticize the site’s cluttered design and say they can never find what they seek. They say ABQJournal.com is difficult and confusing to navigate and complain that the search engine is not much help. They also hit ABQJournal.com for its lack of interactivity. Have any of you tried to post a comment on a story? Have you ever read one?

• HGTV Looks To Put Santa Fe Family On TV – Albuquerque News Story – KOAT Albuquerque – Popular cable channel HGTV is looking for a Santa Fe family to put on television. They are looking for outgoing people between the ages of 25 and 50 who would like help with a small home improvement project
• SRP to build 20-megawatt solar facility in Phoenix area – Phoenix Business Journal: – Salt River Project will build a 20-megawatt photovoltaic facility southeast of Phoenix that will come online in 2011. The solar power station, to be built by Iberdrola Renewables, will be capable of powering about 4,500 homes.
• Global study of salmon shows: ‘Sustainable’ food isn’t so sustainable | Science Blog – Fish should swim, not fly. Air-freighting salmon, and any food, results in substantial increases in environmental impacts. If more frozen food were consumed, more container ships would be used to ship food. Container ships are by far the most efficient and carbon-friendly way to transport food. Globally, the majority of salmon fillets are currently consumed fresh and never frozen. In fish-loving Japan, which gets much of its fish by air, switching to 75 percent frozen salmon would have more benefit than all of Europe eating locally farmed salmon.
• Mexico City mayor on quest to increase quality of life – "When you throw your gum on the ground, you're saying, 'I don't care about my quality of life,' " said Ebrard, 50. "The idea . . . is to change our civic culture."
• 5-day delivery no sure cure for postal woes, economist says | Science Blog – Seung-Hyun Hong says projected savings from weekday-only delivery could wither if the move chases away lucrative business customers who count on the mail to blanket homes with coupons, fliers and other advertisements.
• Gil’s Thrilling (And Filling) Blog » Davido’s Pizza & More – Rio Rancho, New Mexico – Add Davido’s Pizza & More to the list of Rio Rancho pizzerias with a claim to the New York pizza heritage. The family patriarch (not named Davido) is indeed a transplanted New Yorker though it is his daughter and son-in-law who own and manage the restaurant. The restaurant opened in April, 2008. Davido’s is situated just about as far north as you can go in Rio Rancho before you’re on Santa Ana Pueblo. Heretofore, the good citizens of this outpost had to drive several miles to placate their pizza fixes with the good stuff–or they could have “pizza” delivered by nearby chains Pizza Hut, Little Caesar’s and Domino’s. Pizza pundits now have a real choice–a good one.
• Moab man embraces simple life living in cave – The Denver Post – The 48-year-old kneels in front of the desert cave he calls home, sips cedar tea from a chipped mug and explains, again, why he has intentionally lived the past nine years without using money.
• News : City focuses its vision on the future – Rio Rancho Observer – Unlike Albuquerque, Rio Rancho has plenty of room to grow. Of the city’s 106 square miles, only 34.5 percent is developed. “This is allowing us to build a city from scratch,” Colley said. “The challenge is having to balance the wants and needs of different populations.” The city is updating the plan to better manage and guide development. In 20 years, Rio Rancho could look very different. The Mid-Region Council of Governments projects the city’s population to double to 160,000 by 2030.

• Kid hides in dryer as thugs invade home | KRQE News 13 New Mexico – When armed men invaded the Uecker home Wednesday 10-year-old Chris took refuge in a place that would usually worry parents: the clothes dryer.
• Vampire flick to shoot in New Mexico – New Mexico Business Weekly: – “Let Me In” is based on the cult hit, “Let the Right One In,” made in Sweden. It’s a contemporary vampire tale about a bullied young boy who befriends a girl new to his neighborhood.
• Handcuffed soldier escapes custody at DIA – The Denver Post – Authorities say a soldier suspected of being AWOL is at large after escaping from a federal escort at the Denver airport. Denver police say the handcuffed man was being transferred from Salt Lake City to Colorado Springs via Denver on Wednesday when he ran from his escort on Concourse B at Denver International Airp
• Anti-war protesters target McCain’s office – About 50 people gathered outside Sen. John McCain's Phoenix office on Wednesday to protest the war in Afghanistan. Protesters stood on the sidewalk near 16th Street and Missouri Avenue as they chanted, "Eight years of war, not one more."
• Steve Stucker’s Blog: Why Balloon Fiesta is In October – It's a great question, and has been asked MANY times. Those in charge say they have studied the long term weather patterns, and that on average, the first days in October are as good as any, offering conditioons that are nearly perfect for ballooning. It is also the period most likely to feature the famous n wind pattern known as the Albuquerque Box.
• Road rage incident turns to gunfight | KRQE News 13 New Mexico – Investigators said that two 15-year-olds were in one car and officer Early Nagy and his wife were in another car when someone cut the other car off. Officers said the teens got out of their car and fired at the off-duty officer, and then he returned fire.
• Owner of Pike’s Peak llama located – The Denver Post – The mystery behind a baby llama roaming the rocky slopes of Pikes Peak for more than a month has been solved.
• Lawyer sues to end Dallas group’s ‘threat’ prayers | News for Dallas, Texas | Dallas Morning News | Latest News – Weinstein, 54, said his family has received death threats, had a swastika emblazoned on their home in New Mexico, animal carcasses left on their doorstep and feces thrown at the house. Weinstein, who is Jewish, said the harassment started several years ago when he began protesting Christian proselytizing at his alma mater, the Air Force Academy. Weinstein started his foundation shortly after that to battle the influence of extremist evangelical Christians in the armed forces.
• Prayer Effort Seeks ‘Right Thinking’ From Liberals : NPR – "We believe in the power of God. We are commanded to pray for our leaders, even those we disagree with," says Mat Staver, who, as head of Liberty Counsel, spends most of his time fighting for Christian causes in court. "And so we are asking people to pray so that our leaders are restored to right thinking."

Wordpress can sure be a bitch sometimes. If you visit the site directly you may have noticed it has been down about 20% of the time due to an “500 Internal Server Error”. I contacted Dreamhost support and they told me it was due to too much memory usage.

I’ve checked into why you’ve been receiving these internal server errors, and it seems your scripts have been getting automatically killed by our Process Watcher script due to your sites going over Memory limits on the shared server. To keep the site from overloading and crashing the server, certain functions on your site are “timing out”.

With my old host, I was cut off suddenly and without notice for excessive CPU usage on a shared host. I was forced to switch to DreamHost and I have to give them credit, at least they didn’t cut me off and tell me to get lost.

Conveniently, DreamHost was offering a discounted personal server plan which gives me control over memory usage. The great part of this service is DreamHost cranks up the memory capacity to 2300 MB for free so an average load calculation could me made. In my case it was calculated to 150 MB with a 300 MB burst capability.

Not only were these internal server errors making difficult for people to access the site, it was making it difficult to post to the site. Assuming no more technical issues, posting should pick up.

• Why Neoconservative Pundits Love Jon Stewart — Daily Intel — New York News Blog — New York Magazine – "There is genuine intellectual curiosity," May told New York. "He's a staunch liberal, but he's a thoughtful liberal, and I respect that." May isn't the only conservative gushing about Stewart. While the movement professes a disdain for the "liberal media elite," it has made an exception for the true-blue 46-year-old comedian. "He always gives you a chance to answer, which some people don't do," says John Bolton, President Bush's ambassador to the United Nations and a Fox News contributor, who went on the show last month. "He's got his perspective, but he's been fair." Says Bolton: "In general, a lot of the media, especially on the left, has lost interest in debate and analysis. It has been much more ad hominem. Stewart fundamentally wants to talk about the issues. That's what I want to do."
• Autopsy: Bear killed woman near Ouray – The Denver Post – An autopsy has determined that a 74- year-old woman was killed by a bear, just the third such documented fatal attack in Colorado. Wildlife officials say they think Donna Munson was killed as the result of years of feeding bears that visited her log cabin north of Ouray.
• Apple Shoots Ad For New Product in California Diner | Cult of Mac – Amid tight security, Apple shot a TV advert for an unreleased product at Jax Truckee Diner on Tuesday afternoon. Unfortunately, there are no pictures or even a description of the mystery product. Because of the security, no photographers or reporters were allowed on set. Filming took place on Tuesday afternoon.
• Is public healthcare in the UK as sick as rightwing America claims? | Society | The Guardian – The NHS has become the unexpected target of those opposed to Barack Obama's healthcare reform proposals. Republicans and rightwing commentators in the US have made strong allegations about the failings of Britain's health system. Denis Campbell and Girish Gupta put those claims to professionals in the health sector
• Warner builds pic with Lego – Entertainment News, Los Angeles, Media – Variety – Now count Warner Bros. as one of those studios: WB is toying with plans to develop a movie around Lego and its popular building blocks. Scribes Dan and Kevin Hageman are penning the script for the family comedy that will mix live action and animation. Warners is keeping the plot tightly under wraps, but it's described as an action adventure set in a Lego world.
• www.KOB.com – Simpsons documentary films at Isotopes Park – Director Morgan Spurlock (Super Size Me, 2004) is working on a documentary of The Simpsons, the cartoon series from which the Isotopes got their name.
• EC criticized for conduct during Intel investigation – Ars Technica – Did the European Commission overlook some evidence during its antitrust investigation of Intel that might have influenced the outcome of the decision, which went against the chipmaker? The European Union ombudsman believes that may have been the case, saying that EC investigators failed to include details of a meeting that presented one PC mantufacturer's decision to choose Intel CPUs as being purely performance based.
• Phoenix – Valley Fever – Customer Allegedly Bumps KFC Employee With Car After Condiments Dispute – Monique Aguet, 26, zipped through the drive-through at a Kentucky Fried Chicken near Bell and Reems roads about 7 p.m., Surprise police say. When she dipped her hand in her bag of food and found there were no condiments, Aguet allegedly went off the deep end.
• www.KOB.com – Many unemployed turning to truck driving – The rough economy may be responsible for a dramatic increase in enrollment at the CNM truck driving school. Many of New Mexico's unemployed are going to school so they can hit the open road and switch gears to a more stable industry.

• Astronauts Spot Mysterious Ice Circles in World’s Deepest Lake | Wired Science | Wired.com – Astronauts aboard the International Space Station noticed two mysterious dark circles in the ice of Russia’s Lake Baikal in April. Though the cause is more likely aqueous than alien, some aspects of the odd blemishes defy explanation.
• Groceries for iPhone Review | Software | iPhone Central | Macworld – I don’t really get excited about single-purpose utilities for the iPhone and iPod touch. But Sophiestication Software’s Groceries app merits the excitement. It makes grocery lists easy to create, manage, and—dare I say—a little fun.
• Pro AV Products and Providers – Lectrosonics, Inc. BUCKCHERRY ROCKS OUT WITH LECTROSONICS – Rio Rancho, NM – May 2009… Buckcherry, the Los Angeles, California-based hard rock band that achieved critical acclaim with the 2006 RIAA platinum, Grammy-nominated album 15, is back with a vengeance and touring once again in support of their latest album Black Butterfly. Consisting of Josh Todd (vocals),Xavier Muriel (drums),Jimmy Ashhurst (bass),Keith Nelson (guitar), andStevie D. (guitar), Buckcherry is in the midst of an extensive tour that has them travelling both domestically as well in Europe. No matter where the tour takes them, guitarist Stevie D. and his guitar technician Dean Mitchell rely on a wireless setup to deliver Stevie’s signature guitar sound while providing the mobility to roam freely about the stage—and for this, they count on Lectrosonics.
• New Mac clone maker to open retail store in Calif. | Apple – CNET News – "It's exciting. We are trying to stay as close to Apple as we can with our products," Rashantha De Silva, Quo founder, told CNET News. "We are trying to mimic things as much as we can. I'm hoping that Apple sees the value in what we are doing."
• Patients On Hookworm Therapy Swear By Treatment – cbs5.com – Musician Scott Richards and artist Debora Wade are two Bay Area patients on the hookworm treatment. Richards and Wade both suffer from an inflammatory bowel disease called Crohn's. When faced with using a parasite as therapy, both patients felt they had nothing to lose.
• How To Tell If You Have Religious Food [Get Rich Quick] – Over the weekend, I picked through a bag of Cheetos—or "my retirement chips" as I was calling them—looking for any recognizable icons I could sell. My theory was that any average bag of Cheetos should contain at least one auction-worthy chip. I had mixed success—out of one bag, I found four recognizable icons, but only one of them was definitely religious in nature. I have emailed Frito Lay to inquire about a buy-back program, but have yet to hear from them. I'd really rather not bring eBay or PayPal into this.
• Atlantis, crew land in Calif. after Hubble mission : NPR – Space shuttle Atlantis and its seven astronauts returned safely to Earth on Sunday, detouring from stormy Florida to sunsplashed California to end a 13-day mission that repaired and enhanced the Hubble Space Telescope.
• News : Officials consider raising speeding fines – Rio Rancho Observer – Speeding over 35 miles per hour over the posted limit could net you a $459 fine, that’s more than double of the $225 fine levied now.

  Drivers going 10 miles per hour or less than the speed limit will be fined $159, opposed to $50 it now costs.

• www.KOB.com – 4 Investigates: Swimming pool drain covers – It was a horrific accident for a 6-year-old Minnesota girl named Abagail Taylor that drew the nation's attention to pool drains.
  In 2007, the girl had 21 feet of her small intestine sucked out of her body when she sat on a kiddy pool drain.
  "You don't think about your child being disemboweled in 18 inches of water," her father, Scott Taylor, said.

Last night around 11 pm MST greginthedesert.net went into a “500 Internal Server Error” state. The main Wordpress page or admin pages were unresponsive. My first real issue since going with real web hosting about 3 weeks ago. Even though I hadn’t messed with Wordpress since the morning, I assumed it was something I did or it was a plugin that failed.

I logged in via FTP and copied everything from the plugin folder to my hard drive then deleted them from the server. Still no response. Determining it was late and I needed to work in the morning, and that my blog was not mission critical, I sent a note to support about the problem and went to bed.

MacHighway support responded about 2 am with the following:

Greg,

Your site should work now. It looks like a glitched PHP binary (part of the PHP scripting system) was causing a problem. I recompiled PHP and things are working now.

That’s a quick turn around and a great response in my opinion.

Wordpress ran since 2 am this morning without plugins. Once I copied them back over via FTP they started working again without issue. Only 1 spam managed to make it through without the Akismet anti-spam plugin running.