Here is a studio-quality shot of the scooter under my neighbor’s yellow flower tree, as it is known by non-botanists. Still in great condition. With the muffler almost every piece of the motor and running gear has been replaced. The oversize tote box was my idea. Those rinky-dink models were about as useful as a glove compartment. This baby will haul three large pizzas, or two loads of laundry, or six bags of groceries. It makes the scooter tilt back when I put it on the back kickstand, but I can live with that.Dear Kim Il Sung, could you delay the threats and rhetoric until I get back from holidays. Not that you stand a chance or haven’t noticed that people don’t like you, but I need a little peace and quiet. Note that peace comes before quiet, being that I do intend to find a good Karaoke bar. How much is DC paying you to get the American public’s mind off this recession, anyway? And forget Hawaii. If you want to hurt DC, nuke the IRS.
Let’s have a show of hands who likes spyware. That’s what I thought. Microsoft Atlas has been trying to tap into my email usage files since the day Outlook force-installed itself onto my account. If I didn’t say, my traditional methods of uninstalling Outlook don’t work. This new version of Outlook is meant to invade your computer and stay put. I may have to invest in commercial software to remove it. Up yours, MicroSoft. All I can say to you people is, “Why?”
As JP and I are emptying out the garage in S. Miami, we find one of those sonic jewelry cleaners. Brand new in the box, so I’m going to presume it works as it should. First thing, we plop a bar of heavily tarnished silver in there, see what gives. Nothing, it gives nothing. Up the concentration of the cleaning solution. This contraption does not clean tarnish. It might take surface dirt off jewelry, though neither JP nor I own any to test it with, point taken. Instead, we now have some clean and sparkly tarnish. Conclusion? Home jewelry cleaners are a waste of money.
Have you heard of the Shield Act? It is designed to cut down on patent trolls. These are patent owners who sue others for infringement knowing that the victim will likely settle out of court. The key issue here is whether the patent owner is actually using the right conferred. If he has no means to produce, distribute, or sell, but is just suing, that makes him a troll. After nearly $30 billion paid last year of record (2011), it became evident corporations were buying patents at bankruptcy auctions just to institute these lawsuits.
The way Shield works is if the party doing the suing loses, the court could (maybe) require them to pay the Defendant’s legal fees. That will make them think twice where right now they have nothing to lose—their counsel is working on contingency. My position? I think the act needs fine tuning. If I write a song and decide not to play or record, the song should still be my property. The copyright (a form of patent) law does not require I produce the song as a condition of ownership. The answer needs a better legal mind than I’ve got.
Later, I purchased a trunk for the sidecar. You know, a real trunk, the kind you put clothes in. As well pack my shaving gear and lots of clean stuff. Where to? Don’t know yet, but it won’t be any POI (point of interest) that shows up on MapQuest or Google. The tourist industry hates people like me, but there is a good reason for that. It’s not me that puts fences around things I didn’t build and charges people $35 to see it.Unless JP shows up before 8:00 AM tomorrow, every deadline is passed. Unfortunately, the $90 special order batteries for the eBike did not show up two weeks ago, as promised. Normally, I’d slap the eBike on the back of the sidecar, but this time, I’m walking. When that happens I buy a used bicycle and sell or abandon it later. Isn’t that trunk snazzy? Faux alligator. Snazzy? I knew that adjective hit you in a moment.
Speaking of alligator, there is a shop downtown that specializes in alligator hides. I didn’t walk in but from the window it seems they’ll build anything. Boots, piano stools, motorcycle seats. Chances permitting, I’ll see what I can get you on that. I used to wonder how the Chinese ever based an economy upon selling each other powdered goat, address books, and tiger balm. Now I know it could be because they lacked alligator skins.
Silver. Look at the Kitco (a price chart). Despite repeated recent efforts by Hunt Brother wannabes, nobody seems able to really spike the market. Every few days a lull, then a sharp climb, followed by a pullback to about where things started. Are we dealing with a pack of rich amateurs here? Bidding each other’s prices up, hoping to seed a panic? If so, that’s too many times in a row over the past few months.
Trivia. Internet dating, my eye. Research Now (no link, for reasons) reports that 61% of singles still cruise the bars looking for their future mates. World’s fastest growing domain is Greenland. Reason: lack of government intervention. Few people can be as short-sighted as governments trying to control the Internet. The system was designed from the ground up to survive nuclear attack, but some fat-head politician thinks shutting down servers is a clever tactic. Pound for pound, politicians are the worst educated management category known to mankind.
For no particular reason, here is a Florida baby shrink hole. Not all of them collapse into caverns, this one is in a parking lot three blocks away, It has not grown in six or seven years.
