The force was strong with this one.
Actor Harrison Ford walked away from a crash landing on a golf course in Los Angeles due to engine power failure.
He suffered no major injuries.
He would have never crashed the Millennium Falcon, I could see that “bucket of bolts” having some power failures.
Did you know that you could request your photos and information obtained from all trips where you enter the US?
Let me explain, when you enter the US you are required to go through biometric screening. You will divulge such information as name, date of birth, gender, and travel document information that will all be stored with the govt.
This is all part of the US-VISIT program.
Each entry includes your personal Fingerscan Identification Number, a unique Encounter ID, name, date of birth, gender, nationality, travel document type and number, and information about when, where and for what reason your fingerprints were scanned. A few entries may also contain height, weight, eye color, and hair color.
You can request this information through a Freedom of Information Act request.
State that you are seeking a copy of the photograph that was taken as part of the US-VISIT biometric procedure when you arrived in (destination) on (date), (flight details – to and from).
It would be quite amazing to see some of my photos. I’m sure I looked groggy in some of them.
I could not have said it better about the new “Net Neutrality” regulations so I will just reblog.
What it was packaged as and what it does are two entirely different things. What we had before the FCC’s ruling WAS Net Neutrality by definition.
What we have now is a govt intrusion… again. I’m sure the NSA will keep its collective fingers out of all regulatory measures, right? They are a highly trustworthy agency after all.
Follow this link to understand the view of the new Net Neutrality from former FCC chair, Michael Powell.
Yes I am day late and a dollar short, but I had to pay my respects to one of the most iconic actors of our time, Mr. Leonard Nimoy.
Mr. Nimoy, as most of you know, played pointy-eared Spock on Star Trek from 1966-69.
It was a great pleasure watching him on-screen especially as he came back as Spock on the movie Star Trek (2009) where he mentors… himself.
He was also an accomplished poet, musician and photographer.
Mr. Nimoy died of chronic obstructive pulmonary pulmonary.
Rest well my friend. You have lived long and prospered.
UPDATE: The Pirate Bay is back online. No word yet on the cause of the outage.
It is with a heavy heart that I must inform you all that The Pirate Bay is yet again down. We do not know how long it will be down or what caused the outage this time around.
I will keep you updated as I learn more.
About a month ago I posted an article about Silk Road owner/operator Ross Ulbricht who went by the name Dread Pirate Roberts.
In a sad turn of events, Ross Ulbricht has been convicted on ALL seven counts levied against him.
“30-year-old Ulbricht was convicted of all seven crimes he was charged with, including narcotics and money laundering conspiracies and a “kingpin” charge usually reserved for mafia dons and drug cartel leaders….” from Greenberg’s Wired report.
Ulbricht’s legal team said they are filing an appeal.
What this does is makes any and ALL webmasters responsible for the content of their site regardless of who uploads it. To some extent this may may a bit of sense… on the other hand it is impossible to monitor millions of users’ uploads and goings on. Of course, that may be the intent of the govt with their proposed “Net Neutrality” bill.
This case makes me a criminal if anything posted to my site is illegal. Think on that a while.
http://reason.com/blog/2015/02/21/vid-silk-road-online-freedom-and-why-the
I support frugal and intelligent ways to save money especially for those that have a very difficult time doing so.
Digit is a comprehensive tool for saving money for problem savers. It analyzes your expenditures and calculates how much you should contribute each month. At first glance I was quite impressed.
However, with the advent of Digit, saving money has now become a way to steal money from people and sell their personal information.
I came across an article on Yahoo! News and Digit was being explained. What was more revealing was the information it left out.
First, the stealing. How Digit works is you give Digit a certain dollar amount per month (or however you set it up) and it makes a deposit for you at one of their bank affiliates like Wells Fargo. The interest is paid to Digit NOT you. But you saved money that you would have otherwise spent, goes the logic.
Second, the selling of personal information. To maximize profits Digit (will most likely) sell your personal information to credit and advertising companies. Google’s interest in Digit sort of seals the deal with that as once Google starts investing in such a company it is only a matter of time until they acquire them entirely.
We are all too familiar with how Google makes money off of selling personal information to advertisers and their use of Carrier IQ to spy on you by logging all of your keystrokes on ALL devices as mentioned in one of my previous blogs.
It makes more sense to me to be more dedicated to saving by setting up a separate account and automatically depositing $50-$100 each month and not touching it. This is what we call DISCIPLINE.
I have done this off and on for a long while now, though, being married it is a little more difficult to do, but still I manage.
My primary check is bi-weekly. I deposit $50 every check for a total savings of $100 per month. At the end of the year I have a nice chunk of change that can either be applied to a family vacation or annual outstanding debt.
Do not misread, I am NOT debt-free…yet. It is something I continually work towards.
This method allows me to observe my bills and pay them according to either highest interest rate or easiest bill to pay off first.
Like Dave Ramsey, I prefer the snowball method…which would only work if my wife would stop charging the cards.
I take a payment to a small value card I paid off and apply it to the next larger value card and so on until I am left with the largest of cards. I’d like to pay that card off in the next three years.
The argument that you are paying more in interest over the long run is true. It does cost more, but it makes all of your debt manageable and that large card at the end of it acts sort of like a debt consolidation loan, if you will, in that all of your debt is now owed to a single creditor with one (very) large monthly payment that would otherwise have taken twice the number of years to pay off than what you are at with only the one card.
One day I will put this into a diagram. Until then Dave Ramsey has a few you can peruse.
The key is learning to do without. If you do not absolutely NEED something, don’t buy it.
The difference between needs and wants is not that hard to decipher. There is that gray area that an item could/would strongly improve your life or fiscal situation. Good! Keep that in mind…for when you can afford it.
Nobody is going to discipline you, but you, and only you.
First, don’t be a fool, wrap your tool
Second, don’t ignore anything from the courts.
Third, yes the US justice system is seriously this flawed.
http://reason.com/blog/2015/02/19/judge-outraged-at-innocent-man-orders-hi
Mark Cuban isn’t wrong. The implications of the govt regulating the Internet is highly troubling.
Freely shared and expressed information is what is needed and required by the Constitution.
Businesses have the right to conduct business as they see fit and as consumers allow according to the free and open market.
Private persons and businesses are freely able to enter into contracts and have them binding and legal.
The govt need not have interference with personal dealings of this kind.
http://reason.com/blog/2015/02/19/mark-cuban-fccs-net-neutrality-title-ii
The extreme govt over reach never ends.
The federal govt is pushing for the general use of VPNs and the TOR browser to be considered probable cause for search warrants effectively labeling said users as criminals.
You can have your voice heard by writing your representatives.
The deadline is TODAY!
The govt does not want competition nor do the powers that be want you to have any form of digital privacy. They want the transparency this administration has shows it’s citizens…wait…
Visit this site to be heard.
Special thanks to Ladar Levison for bringing this to my attention.
http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2014/oct/29/fbi-powers-hacking-computers-surveillance
Clayton: Your Virtual Assistant 