Take Back the Mic - Dont sleep

Wow! I'm SO glad I found this link tonight.
I hopped over to OpenCulture.com when I read a brief description of the video and then watched the youtube video. Fantastic!
So I'm going to shut up now, because "DNA" (Derrick Ashong) can speak so much better than I. What I have done though is gather three of his youtube videos here in this one spot. I recommend that you watch them in order (about 5-7 minutes each). Then Check out the website TakeBackTheMic.com. (I think there is a law against an immigrant becoming a president, but if it were not for that, I'd vote for Derrick.)
Enjoy... oh and one more thing...
Yes We Can...
Sorry - I realized I really should set up this first video... I'm going to copy/paste the words from OpenCulture's site:

Let’s set the scene: A reporter selects a young Barack Obama supporter at a rally and starts peppering him with questions about the candidate. And it all feels like a staged effort to demonstrate that the mobilized youth has no real handle on the issues. He’s just blindly buying the hype. Without wasting time, the reporter leads the young man into a conversation on the complexities of health care. It’s the perfect setup. But then it suddenly becomes clear that the reporter chose the wrong kid (who is a naturalized immigrant, by the way) to play the fool.

>>>

Tech Tags: Derrick+Ashong DNA TakebacktheMic.com Obama Politics

Firefox Chrome

This post is more for me actually - so if none of this makes any sense, feel free to ignore.
Firefox is my browser of choice.
But there is ONE thing about it that really bothers me...
I use my menu bar a lot to keep bookmarks. (I use the book marks too).
But when you try to drag a url icon into a folder on the menubar, a little "tool tip" pops up that blocks the folders that you are trying to read.
Sometime back - I discovered via Lifehacker.com that you can edit a lot of firefox's appearances! And guess what one of those was... yep, to turn that annoying tool tip off. So every time I get a new version of firefox, install it on a new machine etc... I find myself always on google trying to find what that feature is called, and where on lifehacker I saw it. So this post is so that I can now search my own blog for this info at some later time.
Keywords: Firefox chrome tool tips lifehacker gawker tweak about config

how to tweak:
All this "advanced config" talk got you worried? Fear not, my friend. Here's the deal: Firefox's configuration is a long list of keys and values. To view this list, type about:config into the Firefox address bar. Then, enter the name of the key you want to update in the "Filter" field. The list will narrow to only the entries that match your keyword as you type, as shown. (I'm not including the graphic here.)

(The key, of course, is knowing the key. More on that below.) To modify the value of a key, double-click on the value field and update the entry. To see your changes, restart your browser. Easy as pie.

Got it? Good. Let's get to tweaking.
----
here's the change to the tooltips:
All versions: I have an irritating Firefox problem on my Mac. When I try to drag a bookmark into one of my bookmark toolbar folders, the tool tip gets in the way and prevents the drop from working. Argh! Like you, I already know what all the buttons on my browser chrome do, so the tool tips aren't necessary. To turn them off, set the browser.chrome.toolbar_tips key value to false. Bonus is, it solved my Mac's bookmark drag and drop problem.

* Key: browser.chrome.toolbar_tips
* Modified Value: false
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original link to the lifehacker article.
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Now, I hope when I need this info again I can find it :)

Pete Seeger

I'm currently watching (yes, watching, downloading songs from itunes, and bloggin = multitasking) a show on PBS tonight called "American Masters" with the focus on Pete Seeger (wikipedia). Really neat show, Really cool guy. It's funny... If you had asked me just prior to seeing this show, if I could name one Pete Seeger song, I would not have been able to do it. I'd heard his name before, and knew that he was a singer from the 60's/70's but I knew nothing about him. What amazes me is that as the show is playing a LOT of his songs, I know a ton of them! Perhaps because some have been re-recorded, but still. They just played this one song called "Bring 'em home" about the war in Vietnam. It almost gave me the chills because if you just substituted the word Iraq with Vietnam it would be the same song with the same meanings.
In a small way... this show makes me sad though... Where are the "Pete Seegers" of 2008? Why are the songs today so purely pop and bubblegum? Why does it seem like musicians now have no real voice or influence like they did back then? I have to wonder is it because of the singers and songwriters today that may have different frames of mind, or is it because we as consumers of music don't want to listen to that sort of thing anymore.
Anyway... If you can catch a re-run of this show on PBS I encourage you to watch it. If not, here's the link to PBS's website for Pete.

Tech Tags: Pete+Seeger PBS American+Masters Music Folk

Most Amazing Radio Control Helicopter

Source: hackedgadgets.com

Tech Tags: helicopter Remote+Control RC+Helicopter Alan+Szabo youtube

misunderstanding

Can someone help me out here?
To quote a famous movie line "Do you understand the words comin' outta my mouth?"
I don't usually like to get too personal here with my blog but today I'm gonna break that a little.
I had a bad day.
Not for what most people would claim as legit reasons for having a bad day (losing something important, something broke, job stress, family problems, etc...) No, my bad day was caused by a combination of my thoughts and other people's thoughts.
3 times today - I've been completely misunderstood. I'm not really talking about like someone mis-hears something I said, or misinterprets a statement. What I'm talking about are people not understanding my point of view. My logic.
I consider myself a logical person. I like to play chess (the epitome of logic if you ask me).
A few days ago, I got into a debate online on a message board with someone regarding copyright issues and Creative Commons. I thought (mistakenly) that if I just pointed out their mistake (nicely) that they would correct the mistake. I believe someone misused some photographs by posting them to a blog and not giving the photographer any credit.
To me, it seemed just "common sense" that perhaps the blogger just overlooked.
(yes, one of the photos was mine, but I never brought that fact up, I didn't want to seem petty... at the same time, I wanted to get my due recognition for taking the photo).
I also have not taken the position of making a demand either ie: Either you give me credit, or take my photo off your website. I admire this particular blog.
But I still felt I was "right".
So I made an "anonymous" post suggesting that "perhaps" you may have violated the license agreements...
Well, rather than admit to his mistake, he proceeded to debate the issue with me. Fine... I always enjoy a good debate. Plus, I thought, if I could just clearly lay out my logic, he would understand. Not so. Instead he argued his logic (which to me seemed borderline crazy).
I've pretty much just dropped the debate, because I realized no matter what I say, he won't listen. He believes he's right, and won't give the photographers credit. I'm not willing to take it to the next step by getting nasty.
Then this morning, my good friend emails me some more anti-global warming arguments. He and I have had a GOOD LONG debate on this issue via email. Again... it seems so clear to me... If I just present him with the "facts" then he'll understand. No so. For every fact I present, he presents an opposite one (usually from a person who works for the big oil company).
Then the last issue was something that came up at work. Again, I presented my points, and did not make one bit of headway.
So tonight... I'm just wondering... is it me?
Do my blogposts make any sense to anyone? Am I going a little crazy here?
Perhaps I don't know how to debate with people... I don't believe in raising my voice to get my point across (I do though sometimes if I get heated, but I try not to). Maybe I don't know how to communicate well?
So PLEASE - I'm beggin here...
If you find this post on the intertubes... leave me a comment to tell me I'm not crazy.
That some (even if it's a small piece) of what I say actually makes sense to you. A simple "your not crazy" will suffice.
Thanks...
Now I think I'm gonna go wrap myself in a blanket and go rock in the corner now.

Why I love the Internet

So the other day, I sign onto my flickr account (I check usually once a day sometimes more). I see in my list of contacts that my sister has posted some family photos of a museum they visited. Cool right? (yes).
So I wondered, "how far is the museum from their house?"
Onto Google maps to check.
I enter the address, and then "Get driving directions".
Not too far, about an hour or so.
So then I switch to "satellite view" on the google map... mainly just because it's a cool feature.
Nothing really jumps out at me as being unusual, it's just your typical suburban sprawl scene.
So I start to scroll out and take in a larger view.
I get to the point where I can see all of the San Francisco Bay Area (and more).
When I happen to see two little white specks out in the ocean off the coast of San Franciso.
Hmm... what's that?
So I start to zoom in.
Sure enough... they are small islands.
Huh, I never knew they were there.
So google maps tells me they are called the Farallon Islands, and it looks like there is one or two man made objects on the island.
So I go back to google search, and type in Farallon Islands to see what info I can find out.
Wikipedia to the rescue!
I learn a bit of the history about them. They were one time a HUGE industry for people sailing out and collecting eggs, then coming back to SF to sell them. There was actually a violent "battle" between the "egg collecting companies" and the "lighthouse companies" where two people lost their life. (Who knew that egg collectors and lighthouse people were so violent?)
And then I see something about Nuclear dumping site... Wait, What?!
Yep... and LOTS of it.
Approx - 47,500 of those 55 gallon drums were just dumped there!
WOW! Why have I not heard of this before?
So less that 30 miles away from SF is a huge nuclear dump site!
wow.
So... not that I'm happy to learn about this nuclear dump, but this is a great example of how I love the intertubes. That "train of thought" or rather "Train of links" would have never come about had it not been for the internet. That's really awesome when you stop and think about it for a minute.

Tech Tags: flickr internet intertubes San+Francisco Farallon+Islands Google wikipedia google+maps nuclear+dump

I HATE Bill Moyers...

Did that headline get your attention? :)
No... I don't really hate Bill Moyers. In fact, I admire his dedication and in the few short weeks that I've been watching his show on PBS I've learned a lot (Bill Moyers Journal). The reason for my over-the-top headline above is that after the show is over, I'm ready to punch a hole in the wall. I forget what the other shows name that is also like this (60 minutes, or 20/20, something like that) it has a similar effect. They produce a show about how something is really bad and needs to be fixed, but offer not one solution as to how to go about doing that. So after the show is over, you've learned how something needs to be done, but just feel angry and frustrated that you don't know how to fix it. Usually it's a topic that's so broad too as to make a clear path even more confusing (such as world hunger).
So last nights show was about Earmarks. I'll post this link which will take you to his main page that deals with "this week's" show but depending on when you read this post it may not be talking about earmarks (ie: There is no "permalink" to the show topic until it hits the archives page - you should fix this pbs.). Oops, I might have spoken too soon... this might be the permalink here to the show about earmarks called "Mr Heath goes to Washington".
I'll warn you though, if you watch it, you too will want to punch a wall after seeing how our government system works in regards to wasteful spending and borderline corruption. Mr. Heath points out that basically these government officials are doing nothing illegal but that it's just the way the system works - (which in my opinion - SHOULD be Illegal!).
The second half of his show was an interview with Sarah Chayes (permalink here). Her story was interesting as well (and still frustrating) talking about the failed policy of our government's involvement in Afghanistan. I'll nutshell it for you... our government has put a corrupt leadership in place in Afghanistan, with NO checks to see where our MILLIONS (Billions?) of dollars are going (straight into their pockets).
The thing this Show (Bill Moyer's Journal) has taught me... if you want to become rich... get into politics. But the only way I can see it... you've got to have no morals, or conscience to do this though.
Lastly - one sidenote: I realize this is the sort of show that borders on propaganda. It is presented in a "news format" but clearly only provides one side of the story.

Ok, I'm off to learn more about: http://sunlightfoundation.com/
Oh and this renews my support for Larry Lessig in his new Change Congress campaign. (once it actually starts that is).

Tech Tags: bill+moyers bill+moyers+journal pbs earmarks politics sunlight+foundation