Greg In The Desert

• Percentages are the Way You Think | Bad Money Advice – Imagine that you have decided to buy the latest, totally cool and sexy, iPod. It retails for $200. You are about to pick it up at a shop near your home when you hear that all the way across town a store is running a one-day special promotion, selling this iPod for only $100. It is a 90 minute round-trip drive, but you gleefully head off to score your bargain iPod. Unfortunately, after a while you realize that the iPod is not attracting nearly the number of members of the opposite sex that you expected. So you hatch Plan B, an even more totally cool and sexy convertible. The dealership near your house will let you drive it off the lot for $50,000. But then you find out that another dealership, coincidentally next to the place where you got the bargain on the iPod, will sell it to you for only $49,900. Do you make the same trek across town to save $100 on the car? Most people would not, even though they would to save the same $100 on the iPod. Because people are idiots.
• "Dr. Brown" – USCIS conducted a special naturalization ceremony last week for a man we’re referring to as Dr. Brown. Why was the ceremony so special, and why aren’t we using his real name? Well, Dr. Brown is the first nonimmigrant to become a citizen of the United States under the pilot Military Accessions Vital to the National Interest (MAVNI) program. MAVNI allows nonimmigrants to enlist in the Army and apply for citizenship even though they do not hold permanent resident status. So, Dr. Brown was the first, and his story is pretty incredible.
• Heavy metal cure for constipation – Around the World – Austrian Times – Dr Cristina Bontescu, spokeswoman for the local hospital where he turned up at the emergency unit, said: "He was a bit drunk and said he had been eating cherries that had left him badly constipated. He said he had a few drinks to dull the pain and then came up with the idea of poking a hammerhead up his backside in the hope of sorting out the constipation. "But the hammerhead got stuck and then he came up with the idea of using a second hammerhead in order to try and get out the first – but then he lost the second one as well."
• WikiLeaks victorious over corruption report gag order – Wikileaks – According to statements made to the London Times earlier this month, the UK intends to suspend the Islands' constitution and take direct rule–with the support of British Navy–something that has the press of other British colonies in the Caribbean and Atlantic, such as Bermuda, aghast.
• Male cats are lefties – Like their human owners, cats also use a preferred hand to complete complex task. But unlike humans, who are mostly right-handed, felines are split right down the middle, with females preferring the right paw and males favoring the left.
• Bosch DareDevil Spade Bits – Review | Tool Snob – ToolSnob.com – The primary difference between the DareDevil Spade bits and your standard spades bits is this little threaded nub up at the centering point. Once these threads catch (which they can't not do), the bit is actually pulled into the wood. This happens with so much aggressiveness that we practically felt in danger of dislocating our shoulder while drilling holes. The body of the spade is also contoured so that the shaved wood doesn't clog up the hole and bog down the bit. The pointed spurs are additionally designed to minimize blow-out (which is better than most spade bits, but still considerable). There's a lot going on with these little bits.
• ABQJOURNAL NEWS/METRO: The High Price of Driving and Talking – In addition to a fine of at least $100, people cited for using the phone while driving get hit with the same fees and court costs as with every other traffic citation that involves the court — about $85. Last week, Albuquerque police wrote more than 300 cell phone citations during an eight-hour crackdown and have written thousands since the ordinance took effect.
• Strange! Humans Glow in Visible Light | LiveScience – The human body literally glows, emitting a visible light in extremely small quantities at levels that rise and fall with the day, scientists now reveal. Past research has shown that the body emits visible light, 1,000 times less intense than the levels to which our naked eyes are sensitive. In fact, virtually all living creatures emit very weak light, which is thought to be a byproduct of biochemical reactions involving free radicals.
• Review: Navigon MobileNavigator North America | iLounge – The good news: in tech industry parlance, MobileNavigator “doesn’t suck” as turn-by-turn driving direction software, at least when it’s used under the right conditions. First, you need to have your iPhone 3G or 3GS mounted or held continuously near a window in your car, or be lucky enough to have a vehicle with a roof that doesn’t impede the device’s access to GPS satellites. Second, you’ll probably want to connect the device up to a car charger of some sort, because running the app and the GPS will eat up your iPhone 3G or 3GS battery. And third, you’ll want to make sure you can locate the physical address of the place you’re planning to visit, just in case. More on that in a moment.
• FBI captures Top 10 fugitive in Wyoming – The Denver Post – One of the FBI's "Top 10" fugitives was captured in the southern portion of the Big Horn Mountains of Wyoming today, after nearly 15 years on the run, according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation office in Denver. Edward Eugene Harper, also known as Ed Harmon, was wanted in the alleged sexual assaults of two girls, ages 3 and 8, in Hernando, Miss., in 1994.

• News : Master Gardeners win national honor – Rio Rancho Observer – The garden has received the International Master Gardener Search for Excellence Award, which is a cooperative effort of the Sandoval County Master Gardeners through New Mexico State University’s Cooperative Extension program and several City of Rio Rancho departments, partnering with the Rio Grande Basin Initiative, local businesses and community volunteers.

  The award was presented on March 23 to Master Gardener Linda Poe, project coordinator, at the International Master Gardener Conference in Las Vegas, Nev.

• The Consumerist Hive Helps You Buy A Diamond [Jewelry] – What are the things you should know when going diamond shopping? Our reader Justin needs to buy one.
• Realtors: Existing-home sales in West up 19% in March from last year – New Mexico Business Weekly: – The West, including New Mexico, was the only part of the country to see sales of existing homes increase in March from the same month of 2008, according to data released Thursday by the National Association of Realtors.
• Electronista | EU steps toward fining Intel in antitrust case – The European Union has prepared a draft decision in an ongoing antitrust case against Intel that appears to be approaching completion, according to the Wall Street Journal. Unnamed sources familiar with the matter claim the EU will seek a fine against the company, although the draft can be modified as it continues through the process.
• Thirteen year-old revealed as winner of Apple’s billion app contest | Software | Macworld – Apple on Friday revealed the name of the winner of its billion app countdown contest. It’s Connor Mulcahey, a 13 year-old who hails from Weston, Conn.
• The Simple Dollar » Thoughts on Work, Personal Life, and Frugality – If you hate your job, today’s the day to start going frugal. Don’t go home tonight and follow the same old routine. Your future doesn’t have to be like this. Here are 100 ways to get started. Most important: when you’re tempted to spend on something unnecessary, think twice about it. Make the choice not to spend until it becomes familiar and comfortable – then use that money you’re saving to get out of debt and build yourself a future you can be happy with.
• The GOP: divorced from reality – Los Angeles Times – By Bill Maher

  If conservatives don't want to be seen as bitter people who cling to their guns and religion and anti-immigrant sentiments, they should stop being bitter and clinging to their guns, religion and anti-immigrant sentiments.

• Advanced Composite Structures: Flying high – New Mexico Business Weekly: – The Rio Rancho company, which makes thermoplastic air cargo boxes, reorganized operations through a Chapter 11 bankruptcy over the past two years.

  Now, it has emerged from the process with $16 million in new capital from a New York-based investment firm and a $6 million contract with Northwest Airlines.

• Spider "Resurrections" Take Scientists by Surprise – rs in a lab twitched back to life hours after "drowning"—and the scientists were as surprised as anyone.

  The bugs, it seems, enter comas to survive for hours underwater, according to a new study.

• Chrysler unveils new electric minivan for U.S. Postal Service duty – Chrysler is celebrating Earth Day today by unveiling the first four of what will be a fleet of 250 battery powered minivans for the US Postal Service. The U.S.P.S. will be using the vans for variety of duties at locations around the country – including daily home delivery.

• OmniVision lands CIS orders for next-generation iPhone – OmniVision has received 3.2-megapixel CMOS image sensor (CIS) orders for Apple's next-generation iPhone, according to market sources. The company is also said to have secured 5-megapixel CIS orders for another Apple product expected to be launched later in the year

  [I would like to point out that 3.2 megapixels is approximately HD video resolution]

• Former California Homeowners Lash Out at Builder – NYTimes.com – [KB Homes} A state lawmaker from Southern California, where home values have plummeted and foreclosures have skyrocketed, has introduced a bill that would prohibit builders from lending money to homebuyers.

  “Builder-originated loans create an inherent conflict of interest,” the lawmaker, Assemblyman V. Manuel Pérez, a Democrat, said in an e-mail message.

  No state has such a law, said Sue Johnson, the executive director of the Real Estate Services Providers Council, a trade group.

  “It would be disruptive to the home-building industry,” Ms. Johnson said, adding that most home builders had loan arrangements with financial institutions.

• Human Evolution and Frameshift Mutations | gmilburn.ca – How did humans evolve from early primates? How did “human like” traits such as a smaller jaw relative to apes and hairlessness pop up when they don’t appear in the wild in any real frequency? The typical explanation for why humans have smaller jaws than early primates is that our diets changed, and so we didn’t “need” bigger jaws. The only issue with this is that there is no real selection pressure for a smaller jaw – a large jaw works too! My appendix is unnecessary, and can even be a liability due to infection – but it’s still there. There are more factors in play. The old-school view of evolution as tiny little changes over a ridiculously long period of time is turning out to be not quite exactly true.
• How they make bi-metallic coins – Core77 – If you've ever wondered how they make bimetallic coins, here's the process. They start by punching a hole through a coin blank, or planchet. The core will be remelted for another batch, and the remaining part becomes the "ring," or outer, planchet.
• Time Warner rationale for bandwidth caps doesn’t add up – Ars Technica – Britt's rationale for the change—infrastructure is expensive—is tough to understand. Cable's physical plant has been in the ground for years; even hybrid fiber-coax systems have been widely deployed for some time. Internet access simply runs across the existing network, and one of cable's big advantages over DSL is that speeds can be upgraded cheaply by swapping in new DOCSIS headend gear, with DOCSIS 3.0 the current standard. Compared to what Verizon is doing with fiber and AT&T with its quasi-fiber U-Verse, cable Internet is a bargain (well, for the operators).
• Cats’ nervous systems able to repair themselves | Science Blog – Knowing that the central nervous system retains the ability to forge new myelin sheaths anywhere the nerves themselves are preserved provides strong support for the idea that if myelin can be restored in diseases such as multiple sclerosis, it may be possible for patients to regain lost or impaired functions: "The key thing is that it absolutely confirms the notion that remyelinating strategies are clinically important," Duncan says.
• Luxury resort bargain shopping | The Movable Buffet | Los Angeles Times – But consider the price difference in the basic Web rate for Mandalay Bay on a weeknight compared with a weekend. For $110 you can have a room on Thursday, April 23. But if you want the same room on Saturday, two days later, you will have to pay $350. And, that isn't the final twist. Saturday, April 25, is marked as a "No Arrival" day for Mandalay Bay. That means you would have to arrive at least a day before — that extra Friday night will cost you an additional $210.
• Geithner On Ousting CEOs, Reviving Economy | – CBS News – Days after GM's CEO Rick Wagoner was forced out by the Obama administration, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner left open the possibility that such moves could happen again.

  In an interview with CBS Evening News anchor Katie Couric, Geithner acknowledged the government has had to do "exceptional things" – citing AIG as well as Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

• Joseph Stiglitz: "It’s going to be bad, very bad" | Salon News – In an interview, the Nobel Prize-winner and former chief economist at the World Bank talks about the Great Depression, Obama's stimulus package and today's financial crisis.

  Many people are comparing the financial crisis to the Great Depression. Will it really be that bad?

  It's going to be bad, very bad. We're experiencing the worst downturn since the Great Depression, and we haven't reached the bottom yet. I'm very pessimistic.

• Teen Commits Suicide Due to Bullying: Parents Sue School for Son’s Death – ABC News – Eric Mohat, 17, was harassed so mercilessly in high school that when one bully said publicly in class, "Why don't you go home and shoot yourself, no one will miss you," he did.

• Review: NeatReceipts for Mac Review | Scanners | Macworld – NeatReceipts ships with a small portable scanner that you use to scan documents into the NeatWorks application. (NeatWorks works with several other scanners and is available for purchase separately from the NeatReceipts package. The Neat Company has a list of scanners that work with the program.) When a scan is complete, NeatWorks begins performing optical character recognition (OCR) on your documents; depending on the size of and amount of information on your document, this can take anywhere from a few seconds to just under a minute to complete. When the OCR is done, NeatWorks does two things: it tries to determine the type of document you’ve scanned (text document, receipt, or business card), and then populates data fields with information it finds on your document based on the document type it has selected.
• New gel is stronger than steel – Latest News – MSN Tech – Scientists have created a gel that acts like muscle when charged with electricity but is far more powerful.
  The "aerogel" is almost as light as air, as stretchy as rubber, and stiffer than steel by weight.
  Made with ribbons of carbon "nanotubes" – tiny hollow tubes of carbon – the material can expand to 220% of its original length or width in milliseconds when electrically charged.
• Apartment Therapy The Kitchn | How To Make Finger-Licking Fried Chicken It’s Not As Scary As It Seems – After getting married, one of the first things we learned to make was fried chicken. With a husband whose Grandmother had award-winning chicken frying skills, it was a quick realization that we too would soon be learning the trade. Even though a fryer lives in our pantry, we don't bother. With techniques that are simple and are sure to produce perfect results each time…just make sure to lock the front door so you don't have neighbors following their noses into your kitchen!

  There is a fear of frying. We know… and it's ok, we're here to help you overcome just in time for picnic season!

• Identity Theft and the Economy – After four years of steady declines in identity theft cases, the new report found a 22% increase in the past 12 months. This adds up to 1.8 million more victims in 2008 than 2007. Identity theft is making a comeback.
• News : Rio Rancho trying to get share of federal stimulus money – Rio Rancho Observer – Rio Rancho officials are making sure their city gets its piece of the pie.

  Earlier this month, the city got news from the Mid Region Council of Governments that it would receive $14 million from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to extend Paseo del Volcan from Iris Road to US 550.

• News : Presbyterian still on hold – Rio Rancho Observer – The construction of Presbyterian Hospital in Rio Rancho is still on hold, but Elizabeth Brophy, a spokesperson for Presbyterian Healthcare Services, said the company is still committed to building a hospital in Rio Rancho.

  “We are very committed to Rio Rancho and the residents of Rio Rancho,” Brophy said. “We want to be able to provide services needed in that community and we will continue to focus very hard on that.”

  The construction of the $230 million hospital is on hold because of the bad economy. Presbyterian Health Services’ board of directors decided last year to hold off on issuing $200 million in bonds until the economy improves and there’s more clarity in the economy.

  “It’s frustrating for all of us on every level,” Brophy said. “We want to fulfill our promise but we are still coming to Rio Rancho, it’s just frustrating.”

• News : Secret bases and UFOs on Rio Rancho man’s mind – Rio Rancho Observer – The Northern New Mexico town of Dulce has long been associated with rumors of UFO sightings and an alleged secret military base underneath a mesa, but Rio Rancho resident Norio Hayakawa is hoping to provide the town’s residents with an opportunity to dispel those rumors, or perpetuate them.

  For a one-day conference, Hayakawa is bringing together residents, former police officers and Jicarilla Apache (Dulce is on a reservation) officials to discuss the rumors and to give people an opportunity to come forward with new information

• Mexico’s woes draw renewed focus now by the United States – A maelstrom of drug-related violence. A brewing trade war. A wheezing economy.

  The United States has sometimes treated its southern neighbor like an afterthought, but Mexico's growing problems are taking center stage now as a parade of U.S. Cabinet members descends on Mexico City ahead of an April 16-17 visit by President Barack Obama.

  This week, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will visit, trying to find common ground on contentious issues such as border violence and trade rules before Obama's trip.

• Land use may have been responsible for the 1930s dust bowl – Ars Technica – The dust bowl can be attributed in part to natural climatic patterns such as the El Niño-Southern Oscillation; however, a recent paper in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science suggests that the agricultural expansion of the 1920s my have played an important role in amplifying the drought.
• 10 business lessons from ‘Battlestar Galactica’ | Topics | Macworld – You think your business has it rough? The people of Battlestar Galactica have lived through a recession you wouldn't believe. With dwindling resources, a skeleton crew, enemies constantly lurking out of view, and a pervasive threat of annihilation, Admiral Adama navigates the vast unknown. Like any leader, he makes his share of mistakes–sometimes with devastating consequences. But regardless of the fate of that ragtag fleet, the tale of Galactica is rife with lessons that can benefit any business leader.

• Reading the Tea Leaves, Snapple Refreshes Itself – City Room Blog – NYTimes.com – The popular iced teas are losing the high-fructose corn syrup and the dated font. The bottles are becoming more svelte (to better fit into cup holders, which became a force after Snapple iced teas were originally introduced). The labels will also emphasize the green and black tea leaves used to make the drink. The changes are rolling out over the first few months of the year, and they are expected to hit New York in early March, according to Dr Pepper Snapple Group, which is now the owner of the brand.

  Real sugar is replacing the corn syrup. (Sugar vs. corn syrup, by the way, is the difference between Mexican and American Coca-Cola.) In some cases, that has actually resulted in a decrease in calories.

• U.S. Bancorp CEO Davis rips TARP – TwinCities.com – There is no "A, R or P" in the government's Troubled Asset Relief Program, quipped U.S. Bancorp Chief Executive Richard Davis Tuesday morning in front of about 300 business people in Minneapolis.

  "It's just troubled," the 50-year-old CEO said at the Thrivent Financial for Lutherans' Business Leaders Forum. The forum invites executives to discuss how business and their principles intersect."We were told to take it so that we could help Darwin synthesize the weaker banks and acquire those and put them under different leadership," he said. "We are not even allowed to mention that. … We were supposed to say the TARP money was used for lending."

• First Arizona jaguar captured, collared, released – Arizona Game and Fish Department officials captured, collared and released the first jaguar found in Arizona borders Wednesday.

  The 118-pound male cat was found in a lug hold snare set out by department officials and fitted with a satellite-tracking collar and released.

  Terry Johnson, Endangered Species Specialist at the Arizona Game and Fish Department, said the jaguar was confirmed by his spotted pattern to be Macho B, a jaguar that has been photographed by trail cameras for about 13 years.

• Green Chile Chatter: SOS audit finds "severe mismanagement" – State auditor Hector Balderas has just released an audit of the Secretary of State's Office for the time period of July 1, 2006 to June 30, 2007. According to the office, the auditors were "unable to express an opinion on the financial condition of the SOS due to questionable payments of $6,308,350 in federal voter education funds made to a contractor by the former Secretary of State Rebecca Vigil-Giron’s administration."
• Apartment Therapy The Kitchn | Ingredient Spotlight: New Mexico Green Chiles – I visited Albuquerque last week and although I wasn't in town at the right time for farmers' markets or the annual chile harvest, I did get to experience some of the local cuisine. Just about every other meal I was served contained the famous New Mexico green chiles. These deliciously hot peppers made their way into everything from omelettes to biscuits to enchiladas.
• Young man paralyzed in crash after underage drinking party settles lawsuit against Lake Forest homeowner — chicagotribune.com – A Lake Forest woman's homeowners insurance will pay $2.5 million to settle a lawsuit brought by a young man who was paralyzed in a crash that occurred after an underage drinking party in her home.

  Unlike other lawsuits alleging that adults played a role in teenage drinking parties, Pfeifer did not buy the alcohol for the teens or know they were drinking in her home. Pfeifer did not admit any wrongdoing in the settlement, said Michael Borders, her lawyer.

• Books reject Wyatt Earp as hero at OK Corral gunfight – But not everyone agrees that Earp was preserving law and order when he led his band against the Clanton and McLaury gang, killing Billy Clanton, Frank McLaury and Tom McLaury.

  A recent book and one that's soon to be published contend that the gunfight actually was a murderous ambush led by Earp, continuing a debate that has echoed since the incident.

• Hewlett Packard disappoints in so many ways – Top Stocks Blog – MSN Money – Although many corporate communication plans may be designed to confound and confuse, it is important that you as an investor understand how to read between the lines. The truth is that companies use differing tactics in an attempt to put a positive spin on the corporate outlook. Unfortunately though, that does not provide investors any real benefit since guidance is suppose to help investors understand more about a company's outlook, not to put an additional layer of lipstick on the pig…so to speak.

  With that as a backdrop, let's have a look at the most recent earnings releases and guidance announcements from HP.

• Google Earth’s ‘Atlantis’ Just A Data Glitch — Google Earth — InformationWeek – The addition of sea-floor topography to Google Earth earlier this month revealed what some claim could be the lost city of Atlantis.

  But Google says the undersea grid lines spotted by aeronautical engineer Bernie Bamford while browsing Google Earth's ocean maps are data artifacts rather than sunken streets.

• Let’s put it to the tourists, or how to bite the hand that feeds you. – I got a notice today from TANM (Tourism Association of NM) via the NM Bed & Breakfast Association. Apparently there is a freshman Senator from Corrales who thinks it would be a good idea to add a statewide lodge tax of 10% on all lodging across the board – statewide. Let me tell you something about this.

  John Sapien

  NM State Senator – District 9 "

  What a crock of shit. He is sponsoring the bill, FGS.

  Here is what he told an innkeeper in Corrales:

  "He was not at all sympathetic to any of my arguments why SB595 is not a good bill, especially in the current economic times. He said “no one looks at taxes when they are booking rooms- they just ask for the room rate and then may be surprised (and may be temporarily annoyed) when they check out and see what the ultimate price of the room was”. Nothing I said- based on our experience with potential guests would dissuade him."

According the Inauguration events website, the following items are prohibited. It’s too bad one cannot take structures and/or explosives to the event. (note to secret service: I’m kidding. I’m not going anywhere near Washington DC if I were I would never take explosives with me).

Restricted Items for the Lincoln Memorial grounds for the Inaugural Opening Ceremonies:

• Firearms
• Ammunition
• Explosives
• Weapons of any kind
• Aerosols
• Supports for signs
• Packages
• Coolers
• Thermal or Glass containers
• Backpacks
• Bags and signs exceeding the size restrictions of 6" X4"X8"
• Laser Pointers
• Animals other than helper/guide dogs
• Structures
• Bicycles
• Any other items determined to be a potential safety hazard

Technorati has come out with a new feature that allows you to “tag” your entries, then find other entries that are similarity taged and also find photos from Flickr. Really, a tag is a category and guess what, one already categories posts in iBlog so lets incorportate this feature.

You can see on my main blog page I have a “Related” link next to the category page. When you click it, it will take you to the technorati tag page. The code is pretty simple:

< a href="http://technorati.com/tag/<$>" rel="Tag">Related</a>

You use this code on both the BlogPage.txt and EntryPage.txt template files. Due to the high level of consistency in iBlog, you will need to use slighlty different code for CategoryPage.txt file:

< a href="http://technorati.com/tag/<$>" rel="Tag">Related</a>

note: There’s an extra space just before the “a href” that you will need to remove.

I don’t know if “Related” is the best way to describe it, it should be easy enough that any vistor should be able to figure out what it means. That may need some work still. But I think it works pretty good.

Here’s 3 photos from skiing in Santa Fe this last Monday. Why only 3? Because the batteries on my Powershot S100 apparently don’t hold much of a charge any more.

Santa Fe Ski Basin Looking North

Santa Fe Ski Basin "Adventure Land"

Santa Fe Ski Basin Up Lift #1