SpectreWriter

Plenty of speculation… a habit, it seems.  Even though it is now announced, people STILL can’t get the facts right.  So here it is:

I pity the fool who doesn't get an iPad!

1) bluetooth means keyboard, and wireless at that.

2) iPod cord to USB means you CAN use USB to get in and out of it.

3) AT&T deal is for $15 a month or $30 a month for unlimited data — which should include VoIP, so you can use your Bluetooth headset to make calls or listen to music too — and unlike last time, no contract required.

4) Great resolution in native mode.  Could be a bit icky when running iPhone apps til they make resolutions for the bigger screen, since it runs those thousands of apps already.

In short, the iPad can do most everything one needs a portable device for, and will make map services a LOT easier to see and read.

5) Camera is a $30 external option.

Overall, you’ll find that things work out just fine.  What isn’t available from Apple will be gotten aftermarket… and then there’s always V2.  For my part, I’ll probably wait to get one second-hand or after the prices drop, but I will want one some day soon!

“You, you, you… Us… We.” — Michael Jackson

We have this one planet, and we inhabit it at this one time, right now, today and maybe tomorrow.  Though this world we live upon has had many many days, for us, this is the only time.  Though the earth may continue to exist in whatever form, what we do, today and maybe tomorrow, matters.  What we do today and tomorrow will determine what that world becomes.

Will it be rich, vibrant, green and vital?  Will tremendous prisine waters flow and fall, or will they be toxic and spread that poison across land and sea?  Will the verdant, vivid colors of spring replenish the landscape time and time again as it has thusfar, or will the land turn bleak, dark and gloomy?  What we to today and tomorrow will determine whether the incredible, awesome and breathtaking beauty that is our earth continues or if it all becomes part of a memory, a history, of what once was.

Michael Jackson said that it falls upon us, each and every one of us, to decide what will be, to have a part in shaping and forming the today and tomorrow of this, our one and only chance, our one and only planet.  He said it was “up to you,” and pointed to each of us in turn,  ”and you,” and pointing again, “and you … us… we.”

This planet, the entirety of is, is Us.  It’s up to We.  Come together. Put aside the petty, insignificant differences between us and recognize our fraternity,  and all that we have in common.  Come together for a peaceful tomorrow that is rich and vivid, full of ongoing love, freedom, opportunity and prosperity for us all.

I recall hearing of several Baluga whales at the St. Lawrence Seaway with skin sloughing off of their bodies some years ago. It was attributed to toxins being put into the waterway from the manufacturing of PVC.  In the film, “The Cove”, the annual slaughter of tens of thousands of dolphins at the shores of Japan is exposed.  The brave crew of Sea Shepherd’s vessels are out  there putting themselves in harm’s way on the oceans of the world, intervening on the behalf of cetaceans (dolphins, porpoises and other larger whales.)  Surfers, divers and others are all getting involved, lending our marine brothers and sisters a human voice… and still, it’s just a drop in the bucket.

We have decades of history, proof that we’re messing up their environment and ours. All the time, there have been people expressing dismay and claiming to have been unaware… and still it continues — on and on, more and different ways of abusing every day.  Casino boats still dump their filthy toxic wastes into the ocean with impunity.  Large corporations continue to “dispose” of their toxic and radioactive waste  by using the oceans of the world as their trash cans.  The North Pacific Gyre (AKA Garbage Patch) is now twice the size of Texas — and still growing — filled with insidious photo-degrading plastics that are spreading their noxious make-up into ever smaller parts, eaten by fish and shorebirds alike.  Coral reefs, the miner’s canary of the oceans, are dead and dying all over the planet.  What more proof do we need?  What will it take for these facts to overcome our greed?

Do you still buy “dolphin-safe” tuna? The ONLY tuna that is truly safe is Albacore, but the same companies sell the other types as well. Even salmon (tastes almost the same when prepared with mayo and is better for you) is often sold and packaged by the same folks who put out so-called “dolphin-safe” tuna. It’s inexcusable to kill thousands of self-aware creatures every year for the sake of a cheaper can of tuna.

What will you do? Will you stop buying canned and packaged tuna?  Will you stop eating tuna sushi?  Will you stop going to parks that keep dolphins in captivity?  Will you bring your own shopping bags with you?  Will you share this with your friends?  Will you tell others the ugly truth about all of this?

Most people think that it doesnt’ matter to them because we live our lives and have our problems on land…but our planet is all one huge organism. Legitimate scientific predictions suggest a global collapse of the ocean within about 40 years… fisheries, everything. That’s 3/4 of our planet in terminal distress. Such a tremendous threat to our existence is not to be ignored or taken lightly.

Please, do whatever you can.  Do all you can… and don’t stop. What is slowly happening is a change in our collective consciousness.  Gradually, people are becoming aware of the horrors behind these parks and commodities.  When there are no people going to those parks, the billions of dollars will go away and the dolphins will be released, never to be captured and kept captive again. When we stop buying cheap tuna, they will stop sending out the boats after it. Isn’t paying a dollar or so for a can of Albacore instead of 60 cents for “light” tuna worth so many hundreds of thousands of dolphins’ lives?

People have devoted their lives to stopping these atrocities.  Corporations that profit from these things have KILLED people to keep the truth from getting out.  Don’t let their deaths have been in vain.

Time is always running out, for those dolphins in captivity now, and those who will be caught up in the days and months and years to come.   The ocean’s reefs are living ecosystems, taking hundreds of years to form.  They cannot be rebuilt quickly, and they spawn a third of all the marine fish on the planet.  We can’t afford to put these matters off until later, next week, or after the holidays.  Don’t wait. Make the changes within yourself, and talk to others as well.

I look forward to a day when dolphin-dangerous products are looked upon with scorn and trying to buy them is met with disgust. WE are the only ones who can make this happen.  There are billions of dollars on the line each year. Those corporations aren’t going to give up that money without a fight.  But they can’t make you buy their soiled goods.  When we stop buying their wares, and only then, will the atrocities will go away.

Do what you can. Do all you can. Please, do it now! Keep on doing it until no dolphin on this planet is held captive, and we learn to coexist harmoniously with the rest of the sentients and other life-forms on this planet. No act or gesture is too small.  Everything helps.   Thank you!

JT

Yesterday, a Nigerian performed an epic fail that has been called an Attempt At Terrorism.  No, sensationalizing pundits, it was an attempted mass murder.  Or was it?  If you’re a suicide bomber, why wait til you’re in the U.S. (all the way from economically poor Nigeria, via Amsterdam) to set the stuff off?  Wouldn’t it have been more likely to cause the loss at 30,000 feet — especially since it was described as more apt to cause flames than an explosion?  Or maybe the guy was just another dull-tool Nigerian trying to build himself a place of importance in the world?

Regardless, this is sure to mount another wave of ineffective and pointless procedures from the equally ineffective and pointless TSA.  When Richard the Shoe Bomber did his schtick, he got life, and we all got to take our shoes off for the rest of OUR lives.  When gel was used in Europe, we all got to have our toiletries confiscated… or the great joy of buying new toothpaste in every town.  These make perfect sense.  After all, the only ways to blow up a plane are gels and shoes, right?  Besides, its working.  There hasn’t been another “Terrorist” attack since the World Trade Center, so we must be on the right path, right?  Or not.  Consider that we hadn’t had one before either.  Regardless, if a shoe bomb ends up with us all taking our shoes off, and gel ends up with us all having our toiletries limited or confiscated, it’s a sure bet that this is going to have similar fall-out.  Since he had the powder taped to his leg, I’m guessing we’ll all have to take our pants off now.  Aren’t you glad he didn’t hide the stuff up his rectum?

For all intents and purposes, the only Terrorism going on these days is performed by us — on other nations and upon ourselves.  We’re all sick of it, so when are we going to take a stand, declare ourselves patriots and freedom fighters, and demand that these inane antics and stupid human tricks stop?  All of those shoe checks?  For nothing.  All of that confiscated hair gel?  Like urinating in grey flannel pants, it may have given us a warm feeling, but Al Queda apparently failed to notice.  You can be they see us terrorizing ourselves, though.

Enough is enough, and this is way past that state.  Europe isn’t inundated by bombings, even though they don’t employ such tactics on trains, etc.  Then again, they’re also not invading Afghanistan.  Perhaps its time we dispensed of the pointless “Simon Says” exercises and started trying some bonhomie instead.  A bit of good will would likely go a lot farther than these after-the-fact acts of terrorism we perpetuate upon ourselves.  Speak out.  Tell them you’re fed up of being forced to act like we’re living in fear.  Tell them you’re sick and tired of us giving them reason to mess with us, sick of us terrorizing ourselves, and that it’s time for the Wag The Dog tactics to stop.  Please, do it now.  The next one may very well use something “private” to conceal the goods, and then this nonsense will really get out of hand!

Just last week I posted on the notion that the price of Liberty is affording that same inalienable right to others around you.  This week, I got to experience personal tyranny in a way that I haven’t seen in a few years.  Someone who owns a domain and forum pushing his weight around, banning people for disagreeing with him, or objecting to his questionable business tactics.  It became a lesson in the concept of Public.  If he owns a place where people are invited to gather and talk, share ideas, etc., does he have the ethical right to expel them from that online society if he doesn’t like the person?

At first glance, it may seem like a “My house, my rules” situation.  On further inspection, though, one finds that it isn’t his house.  By inviting the general public into the forum, he made it a public place.  As such, speech which poses no threat or actual libel should be free.  That you don’t LIKE someone isn’t cause to ban that person.  If he starts trashing you there on your own forum, that may be seen as tacky, but even then, the libertarian option is that the opposing view gets a voice as well; you can disagree with him and present your side, but it’s still not okay to just toss someone out for disagreeing or thinking poorly of you. More »