Fox premiered a new show last night after the Simpsons. Very artistic and well written which kinda reminded me of a mix of Daria and Mission Hill.

on 4-19-2009 Family guy does it again. A singing and opera like performance at first promoting marijuana use then taking it away for Brians Oprah book club deal. A very educational look at how hemp and smokable marijuana differ. All in all a classic family guy episode to celebrate 4/20 on 4:20. enjoy

I always thought that using a debit vs. a credit card was the same thing, other than that it takes the funds directly out of your checking account. I mean, the card looks like a credit card, it’s a MasterCard or Visa, has 16 numbers, etc.

Big difference is:

When you use a credit card to make a purchase, if it turns out that you are unsatisfied, or if something goes wrong that makes you feel you got ripped off or that the vendor did not deliver their end of the transaction as promised, you can contest the charges and your credit card company will investigate the dispute. If they find that your evidence supports your allegation, they will reverse the payment from the vendor and return your money.

Ive done this a couple times- once for example, when I bought a plane ticket to meet some musician friends on tour in Europe. They had a tight tour schedule and I was planning on hooking up with them at one of their stops. Well, the flight was canceled for some reason, and the soonest they could put me on another plane was the next day- at which point my friends would be long gone and my flight to that destination was no longer relevant. The airline refused to refund my ticket. I went through my credit card company and they got me my money back.

With a debit/check card, you can’t do this, because it’s the same thing as writing a check. Once that money exchanges hands, any disputes over your purchase would have to be done through small claims or the better business bureau.

Think about this the next time you pay for something like a car repair or a service, or an expensive piece of mail-order merchandise. If you think there’s even a remote chance you could get screwed, or if the vendor is in Iowa or something and too far away for legal action, always use a credit card vs. a Debit/check card.

from Best of Craigslist

The Bible must be either 100% true or 100% false.
The Bible says the Earth is was created by God in 4004 BC.

Ten Commandments of Evolution/Atheism:
Thou shalt have no theories before me, for they are pseudoscience.
Thou shalt be sexy and pass on thy genes to thy species, but not to thine immediate nor extended family.
Thou shalt adapt and overcome problems.
Thou shalt live in harmony with thy fellow beings.
Thou shalt not overproduce.
Thou shalt not genocide other creatures.
Thou shalt be intelligent and not gullible.
Thou shalt live only a short time, and better creatures shall take thy place.
Thou shalt spread throughout the universe.
Thou shalt not make the world inhospitable for other creatures.

“Otzi was frozen 5,300 years ago and he was found in an unprecedented conservation state for its age. Researchers took 150,000 high definition images from 12 different angles, including 3D and UV views.” (icemanphotoscan.eu)

Ötzi the Iceman (pronounced  [ˈœtsi] (help·info)), and Similaun Man are modern names of a well-preserved natural mummy of a man from about 3300 BC (53 centuries ago).[1] The mummy was found in 1991 in the Schnalstal glacier in the Ötztal Alps, near Hauslabjoch on the border between Austria and Italy. The nickname comes from Ötztal (Ötz valley), the region in which he was discovered. He is Europe’s oldest natural human mummy, and has offered an unprecedented view of Chalcolithic (Copper Age) Europeans. The body and his belongings are displayed in the South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology in Bolzano, northern Italy.

So, how quickly would you burn through half a million?

When President Barack Obama last week announced a $500,000 salary cap on pay for top brass at institutions receiving federal bailout funds, a collective shudder went through the corner offices of Manhattan. And the private clubs. And the trading floors.

You see, an estimated 75,000 New Yorkers earn more than $500,000 a year, according to 2007 data compiled by the Manhattan Institute, an economic think tank. Few of them carry the august C-suite titles targeted by the anti-exec crowd in the government bailout debate. Most are simply managing directors, partners and senior vice presidents of something or other.

The Big O vows to change the "culture of excess." In light of the crusade against seven-figure incomes, Crain’s conducted a highly unscientific survey of the typical expenses of a Manhattan banking Brahmin to see how far $500,000 would take him or her. While half a million won’t punt anyone to skid row, the results were not pretty.

Federal, state and city taxes cut that $500K nearly in half. The remainder is all but gone before groceries touch the granite countertop in the Park Avenue apartment or back-to-school clothes arrive for the two kids attending Brearley and Harvard. Never mind medical bills, holiday presents or the therapy sessions needed to adjust to the new regime.

"No doubt: If you were the guy who was making $20 million, and starting a month from now you’ll only be making $500,000 for the rest of the year, that is a huge, huge adjustment," says Nicole Gelinas, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute.

It’s an adjustment some top brass may be unwilling to make. Within a day of the president’s announcement, Goldman Sachs announced intentions to opt out of the government’s Troubled Asset Relief Program and repay its $10 billion federal loan in short order. The salary caps are not retroactive, but Goldman nonetheless cited a desire to limit government "scrutiny and pressure."

Plenty of other executives may have reason to be wary. "If the person has no capital to withstand this financial ‘limitation,’ then he’s in deep trouble," says Neil Berkow, a CPA whose New York area practice mostly serves high-net-worth individuals. "He’s going to have to move out, sell things, especially someone who works in the $1 million range. He’s using that money just to live."

Some may wonder what part of their lives must change. Will the weekend home in Connecticut get the ax? (Good luck dumping it in today’s market.) Perhaps the membership at the Westchester Country Club? A recent survey of the Metropolitan Golf Association’s 200 clubs showed that 75% of respondents expect a big spike in leave-of-absence requests from members this year. Birdies and eagles won’t be the only endangered species in New York.

LIFE ON A FERRAGAMO SHOESTRING BUDGET

INCOME: $500,000

TAXES: $201,070
You’re the top—tax bracket, that is. Washington, Albany and City Hall together
gobble up about 40% of your paycheck.

REMAINING: $298,930

HOUSING: $75,000
Figure $4,000 a month maintenance fees for the Park Avenue co-op and $15,000 a year in property taxes for the second home. Garage: $12,000.

REMAINING: $223,930

CHILDREN: $106,275
Includes tuition at Brearley ($33,025) and a year at Harvard ($52,650). Music lessons, sports teams and tutors quickly add up to another $8,000.

REMAINING: $117,655

CHARITIES: $25,000
Civic involvement is typically part of a top executive’s job description. A common charitable benchmark is 5% of your gross income.

REMAINING: $92,655

SOCIAL: $33,000
Harvard Club dues are $2,000 a year per couple, and Westchester County golf clubs typically charge $16,000; food and entertaining tabs are another $15,000.

REMAINING: $59,655

VACATIONS: $36,000
Three weeks at $12K a week for a family of four.

REMAINING: $23,655

FOOD: $15,000
Groceries for four ($10,000 a year), plus meals out (fancy and kidfriendly) two to three times a week.

REMAINING AMOUNT: $8,655

CLOTHING: $16,700
Total includes two new men’s suits per year at $3,000 a pop.

FINAL: $-8,045

Figures are rounded and assume that tax deductions have offset any investment income.

Sources: NYS Dept. of Tax and Finance, school Web sites, Manhattan Institute, National Retail Federation, U.S. Census Bureau, Zagat, Metropolitan Golf Association

from Crains New York

What makes this video amazing is that not only does it address what was once a taboo subject at NASA (embracing innovation) but in a bold step towards transparency NASA is making this video public and putting it on YouTube for the entire world to see. I applaud this as the agency has been facing criticism of being too bureaucratic, and this video shows the right stuff to having the correct mindset to change.

The video was produced by astronaut Andrew Thomas for an agency retreat last month and it follows an engineer who gets hit at every turn when trying to suggest something better. The script is based on existing accounts from NASA employees and contractors, and in some cases events that Thomas witnessed himself. Speaking for myself I hope NASA does more of this — it would help build political support for the organization when it needs it the most.

Found via Space.com. via fanboy.com

Humans have ventured into space over the last 50 years, and all manner of junk has been left behind. From tiny bolts to whole space stations, people have discarded lots of stuff up there. Much of it eventually dies a fiery death as it falls through Earth’s atmosphere, but some larger debris poses risks for astronauts and spacecraft that could collide with it. Here are some of the quirkier items left in space:

1. Spatula
While spreading some goo as a test of heat-shield repair materials, spacewalking astronaut Piers Sellers accidentally lost a spatula he had been using. The mishap took place during the space shuttle Discovery’s 2006 STS-121 flight to the International Space Station, on a mission to test new safety techniques after the 2003 Columbia disaster. "That was my favorite spatch," Sellers reportedly said. "Don’t tell the other spatulas."

2. Tool bag
Astronaut Heide Stefanyshyn-Piper lost her grip on a tool bag while doing a spacewalk in November 2008 to try to repair a jammed gear on a space-station solar panel. The 30-pound bag, filled with grease guns, a scraper tool and a couple of bags for debris, cost about $100,000. Amateur astronomers spotted subsequently spotted the bag in orbit, and North Americans can check to see if the tool bag is in their slice of the sky with Spaceweather.com’s satellite tracker.

3. Glove
Starting out the long trend of astronauts losing stuff in space, the very first American spacewalker, Ed White, let go of a glove during his first extra-vehicular activity on the 1965 Gemini 4 flight. The glove stayed in orbit for about a month before burning up in Earth’s atmosphere.

4. Tank of ammonia
This one was lost on purpose. In July 2007, NASA instructed astronauts to throw an unneeded 1,400-pound tank full of ammonia overboard. The device used to be part of the space station’s cooling system, but when the A/C was upgraded, it became obsolete. Deeming that it would take up too much cargo room to carry it back to Earth, mission managers decided to have it trashed. More than a year later, the tank burned up over the South Pacific Ocean as it hit the atmosphere.

5. Gene Roddenberry’s ashes
A portion of the ashes of Gene Roddenberry, creator of the Star Trek series, were delivered to space in 1992 by the space shuttle Columbia on its STS-52 mission. The lipstick-sized capsule containing his ashes orbited the Earth before eventually disintegrating in the atmosphere. The rest of Roddenberry’s ashes, along with those of his wife Majel who died in December 2008, will be shipped into space along with digitized fan letters in 2010.

6. Pee
Over the years, most of the urine produced by astronauts has been simply dumped overboard. Once pee hits the cold vacuum of space, it quickly freezes into tiny crystals which then float around as debris. (Astronauts have described watching urine being released into space as one of the most beautiful sights in orbit). Recently, however, a new pee-recycling system was brought up to the International Space Station to turn urine into drinking water, cutting down on the pee debris.

7. Pliers
While repairing a damaged solar array during a November 2007 spacewalk, astronaut Scott Parazynski accidentally lost a set of needle-nose pliers, which were spotted floating away below the station.

8. Camera
Astronaut Suni Williams was tussling with a stuck solar array on the space station in June 2007 when her camera came untethered and drifted away. Rather than astronaut error, this incident may have been caused when the button holding down the camera broke. 

Watch videos and the complete article of these mishaps at Wired.Com

"History of the internet" is an animated documentary explaining the inventions from time-sharing to filesharing, from Arpanet to Internet.
The history is told using the PICOL icons on picol.org , which are available for download soon. On blog.picol.org you can get news about this project.
Voice-over by Steve Taylor http://voice-pool.com

You can get more information on this movie on my website
http://www.lonja.de/motion/mo_history…
or on the PICOL-Project site where you can download a pre-release of the icons.
http://blog.picol.org/

Credits for subtitles:
(The correctness of the subtiles depends on the people listed down here)
English: Stefan Badragan | youtube.com/StevXtreme
Italian: Stefan Badragan
German: me
French: Arnaud ‘dehy’ DE MOUHY
Bulgarian: Andrian Georgiev
Chinese: Terry Lee
Portuguese (Brazilian): Guilherme Euler
Also thanks to: Frederico Goncalves Guimaraes