Proved Correct

Apparently, a film was produced that makes someone not appear not in a favorable light so people are killing others and rioting in their countries. Guess the film was correct!

Google Has Screwed Itself

In an effort to strong-arm Adobe into supporting Flash for Android, Google has screwed itself.  August 17 it remove Adobe's Flash Player from its apps store leaving millions of Android users unable to play most web videos. the only videos that will play are YouTube ones.  What Google has not realized is that anyone with a Google phone (all Androids are Google phones) will never buy one again.  When consumers now see Google associated with phones they will run in the other direction!

Olympics!

We are thoroughly enjoying watching the Olympics!  Archery, canoeing/kayaking, rowing, swimming, cycling and shooting. 

We realized that part of the reason we like these in particular is that they are rarely on TV.

What a wonderful World celebration.

9/11

There are people who sat down with the 9/11 terrorist, ate meals with them, knew about what they were going to do and actually chose not to report it to the FBI and stop it.

9/11 was a stupid senseless act where thousands of people were killed and many thousands more who were hurt.  No one anywhere benefited and absolutely no positives came from it   Someone once said that the country pulled together afterwards and wasn't that good?  No, it isn't.  It could have been prevented and cowards did not stop it.  The terrorists think they were doing what they did for a "higher cause" - what junk.  Instead they could have done daily acts of kindness to others and those acts actually would have done something good - something real and positive.  Next time someone imagines (because that is all their "higher cause" was - imagination and nothing more) doing something to hurt others thinking it will result in some benefit, stop and look in the eyes of their own loved ones.  Imagine them dead as a result of their actions.  Maybe then they will stop or at least notify people who can stop senseless acts of violence.

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close is a truly amazing film.  It is a powerful comment on how very personal 9/11 was to so many people.  Written through the eyes of an 11 year old who lost his father, the film has superb acting.  Recommended watching for everyone!

More BBC

We have discovered two more BBC shows that arewonderful:

• Hu$tle = a show about con artist that is delightfully fun and funny
• The Last Detective - Fun show about a detective who is a sweetie pie among a bunch of aggressive cops.  Cute fun show with good mysteries.

Verizon Is Bullying Again....Ho Hum

Earlier today, we got a call informing us that Verizon was forcing us to replace the line we have running up to our house with fiber optic.  When I asked if we had a choice, they said we could stop being a Verizon customer so we contacted Comcast.  We could have saved literally hundreds of dolars if we had switched awhile ago!!   Starting next week, our 3 business lines and 2 DSLs will now be Comcast along with our home phone.  Oh well...so much for Verizon trying to get us to switch to FIOS!!  And they will be out of  $350 of payments each month to their company!!

Maymont Adventure

We took a photographing trip to Maymont and here are some pics!

Benefits to Defoliation

Making lemonade out of lemons, benefits to having your trees defoliated by inchworms:

• Fewer leaves to rake when fall arrives
• Able to plant colorful sun-loving flowers in areas usually in the shade
• If we have hurricanes, there is less chance of trees coming down
• More sunlight to make colorful prism oatterns in all of our rooms (this is usually true only in the winter)
  

Inchworms Everywhere

We have been plagued by inch worms this spring - literally. All over our cars, our house and they have defoliated our trees. No shade this summer for the entire yard!

http://www2.timesdispatch.com/news/2012/apr/03/6/tdmain01-inchworm-infestation-returns-ar-1813814/

Definition of Gossip

In recent discussions, there has been some questions as to what is considered gossip. To clear things up, here is the definition from Wiktionary:

http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/gossip

gossip (plural gossips)

1. Someone who likes to talk about someone else’s private or personal business.
2. Idle talk about someone’s private or personal matters, especially someone not present.
3. A genre in contemporary media, usually focused on the personal affairs of celebrities.

Kindly note the second definition. Thanks.

BBC Shows

Some BBC shows are viewed here in the US via PBS stations or BBC America. Many shows are not shown at all. So we have begun to venture into the world of BBC TV Via our local library. Here is a sampling of the shows we have watched:

• Midsomer Murders - really delightful murder solving show; lots of humor and copious numbers of bloodless murders
• Life on Mars - wonderful show that ran for two seasons; detective transports back to 1973; much humor that makes you appreciate our current existence
• Law and Order UK - British version of the US show; we watched on BBC America
• Rosemary and Thyme - bloodless murder mystery show focused on tow female friends who have a gardening business
• Blue Murder - humorous detective show about a DCI solving crimes and raising a famil

Roasted Beef Tenderloin

The following produced the best beef we have ever had.

After trimming the tenderloin, sear it in olive oil. Place the tenderloin in a lightly oiled (olive oil) roasting pan. Pour oil from the searing pan over the tenderloin. Salt and pepper the beef then turn it over. Drizzle olive oil on the upturned surface and then salt and pepper it.

Roast tenderloin in 325 degree oven for 22 minutes per pound. Hand slice thin and enjoy!

Wallander

BBC and PBS have had three seasons of a mystery show, "Wallander". We have found the cinematography suberb, the plots intriguing, and the acting top-notch. Excellent TV show.

Waldorf Salad Time ansd Space Family Way

This is an adaptation of the Joy of Cooking version of Waldorf Salad which calls for grapes and walnuts.

2 red delicious apples, cored and diced
2 green apples, cored and diced
1 celery heart, cut into bite size pieces
1 c raisins
1/4 c chopped pecans or pecan bits
3/4 c mayonnaise

In a large container or serving bowl, mix apples, raisins, celery and pecans. Add mayonnaise and stir until completely blended.

11/24/11

Sausage biscuits are all made
The Christmas tree is up
A fire in the hearth
Now for Turkey and the stuff

Portal 2

Wow. "Portal 2" is an amazing game. Incredible brain work is required to solve the puzzles. We are playing the XBox 360 version and am enjoying it night after night. It has even occurred to us that designing the game would have been fun. Highly recommended to anyone.

Sausage Biscuits

A favorite of mine since I was a kid was the creation of Sausage Biscuits for Thanksgiving and Christmas mornings. This is a tradition I carry on. Not that sausage biscuits are hard but I have made them a bit easier.

Buy 2 tubes of Pillsbury Grands Flaky Original biscuits.

Buy a 1 lb of Jimmy Deans regular premium pork sausage.

Take out the biscuits and mash them together into one lump. Roll out the biscuit dough on a cutting board or something making it relatively flat and square. Take sausage and using chunks, spread it over the big square biscuit. Roll the dough with your hands from the bottom up into a sausage swirled tube. Cut the dough roll into 1/2 inch sections and place on a greased cookie sheet.

Heat oven to 350 degrees.

Cook 14-17 minutes.

Makes about 16 sausage biscuits!

Richmond times Dispatch Article

Nice article on my SMV show. http://www2.timesdispatch.com/entertainment/rtd-entertainment/2011/nov/17/tdweek13-the-art-of-math-and-science-at-the-scienc-ar-1464265/

The art of math and science at the Science Museum

"Fractal 1" by Melissa Holly is part of an exhibit at the Science Museum of Virginia.

By: Times-Dispatch Staff
Published: November 17, 2011

» 0 Comments | Post a Comment

The Science Museum of Virginia is exhibiting "The Beauty of Math and Science," a series of paintings by Richmond artist Melissa Holly. The artist has studied math and science for most of her life in tandem with art. She notes that the endeavors may seem contradictory but aren't because they share the study of patterns — a subject she finds fascinating.

"The beauty of math and science is everywhere!" she noted in her artist's statement. "When I look at a verdant landscape, I not only see all the wonderful combinations of patterns and colors in the leaves and plants, but also the beauty of the science behind the scene."

The exhibition runs through Dec. 30 at 2500 W. Broad St. Hours are Tuesday through Saturday from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sunday from 11:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.

For details, call (804) 864-1400 or visit www.smv.org.

Jo Lord

Dissertation on Google

From 24 years ago, it is now out on Google books!

http://books.google.com/books/about/Differentiability_of_Lipschitz_continuou.html?id=-jyHNwAACAAJ

Alias

We have gotten 2 seasons so far from the library of the older TV show by JJ Abrams called "Alias". What a treat! Great acting, fun music, and spy actionmixed with fringe science! Hard to beat!

L.A. Noire

We have begun to play LA Noire. It is fun and the programming is amazing. The game is programmed to have many scenarios. In fact, we have discovered one that is not in any of the game walkthroughs.

In "A Marriage Made In Heaven" towards the end, you can go after Sheldon for the hit and run but you can also go directly from the morgue to the Patterson's house and arrest them. This avoids a long, difficult (for us) car chase and closes the case. We found this a better way to end the case.

Response from the Fed

The Federal reserve web site stated that responses usually take 2 weeks.  we heard back within 2 hours.  They are reporting the situation to the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency for further investigation.

Our local branch manager told us the same thing was realized by another customer too.  It was also obvious that she sees what is being done by Wells Fargo as "not quite right".

Wells Fargo's Hidden Money

After the Depression when people did "runs" on banks, withdrawing all of their funds only to find that the banks had loaned out all of the money, the US government made banks keep a percentage of their account balances in the Federal Reserve.  Originally, the banks actually had to keep a percentage of their account balances at the fed.  Now banks are allowed to do temporary barrow funds from the Fed (at the Fed rate).  This is all based on banks accurately reporting their funds.  Wells Fargo has found a way to hide money.

As an example, let's say you deposit $5000 into your Wells Fargo account.  The deposit consisted of a $5000 check drawn on another Wells Fargo account. What Wells Fargo is doing is immediately removing the $5000 from the account upon which the check was written but not giving credit for the deposit until 24 hours later.  The $5000 becomes "hidden" money as it is no longer in the original account but it has not been deposited into the other account.  For 24 hours, this money is in neither account.  Now imagine this across billions of accounts.  This huge amount of money becomes "hidden" and will not be reported to the fed as part of Wells Fargo account structure requiring a matching reserve at the Fed.

If banks are allowed to get way with practices such as this, the US economy is in much greater trouble than billions of dollars in national debt.

Wachovia vs Wells Fargo

Overall the transition has been smooth. However, today, we discovered a methodology used by Wells Fargo's Float Management department that is very questionable from a legal standpoint. Wells Fargo is falsifying their reporting data to the Fed on their balances. Later, I will explain this further.

EARTHQUAKE

We are okay but WOW. We were at home when the quake hit. Our first and holy $%$#! I wonder if we will have aftershocks...

Programming a Comcast DVR

Here are some things you can do with your Comcast DVR box that few people know about.

First, all of these techniques are done with your DVR OFF and your TV ON. This is extremely important.

Take your remote and point it at the box. Locate, on the lower right, the small button that says "HD/Zoom". Hold this button down until a blue screen shows up on your TV. the screen will give you instruction concerning the buttons the in the upper central part of your remote. There are three buttons labeled A, B and C. The A button is in a yellow triangle, the B button is in a blue square and the C button is in a red circle. Follow the instructions on the screen to set up or reprogram your DVR. It also might be useful to have your TV manual with you when you do the set up so you can make the TV's specs. This same menu system can be found by holding down the "Guide" button down simultaneously with the "Info" button on the front of the DVR (again with the box off).

Another way to program your DVR (again with DVR off and TV on) is to hold down the "guide button". A screen will be displayed that has a black background and highlighted information. If you press the down directional button (down button is one of four surrounding the OK button) you can then go to the various changeable areas and make alterations. This is a much more technical set of instructions, but these can make a bigger difference. As an example, we lost power a couple of days ago. When we got it back, the TV image seemed fuzzy. i hit the zoom button to see the setting and noticed that the settings were at 480 i when our TV is 1080i. Following the above instructions, I was able to reset the DVR to recognize our TV!

Tour de France Ends

What an exciting race this year! During the last few stages of the race there were several switch ups. The first Australian ever to win, Cadel Evans, was the final winner with the yellow jersey. Mark Cavendish was the winner of the green jersey. We have had so much fun watching this race over the last several weeks!

Tour de France Weather

France had a severe drought so the rain is thrilling the French. However, the cyclists in Tour de France are tired of it. This year, there has been more rain than sun. Also many more accidents (several due to back wheels locking on turns - one rider ended up in bushes) than typical.

We watch it and then watch it again. Love the shots of France and adore the announcers!

New Game

Here is a link to a new game: http://lifesspacestation.com

Check it out!

What Romans and Beethoven Had In Common

In the previous post, the analysis of Beethoven's hair (553 strands!) was discussed. Well, he had much in common with the Romans. We now know that the Romans used lead to make eating utensils. Glazes on pottery also contained lead; their plumbing was almost entirely lead based. They also enjoyed a sweetener made from boiling grape juice in lead-lined vessels producing a sweet liquid called "sugar of lead". Could this have led to the demise of their culture?

Beethoven's Problems

Recent analysis of Beethoven's hair explained why his life was fraught with illness, including deafness - he suffered from lead poisoning. Researchers think he got the lead poisoning from his frequent visits to spas. In fact, Beethoven had 100 times the normal levels of lead in his system!

Tour de France

Watching the Tour de France is a wonderful travel log. The cameras are mounted on motorcycles so the close ups of the riders can be discerning. But the aerial shots are incredible. Yesterday included a shell of a gray stone cadtle. Absolutely beautiful!

Summer Sports

This family is not the typical sports watching American family. We watch Superbowl, typically while we do other things, pretty much every year but that is it for the usual spectator sports. Instead, every summer we watch Wimbledon and then Tour de France! And we adore watching Tour de France. We love the aerial shots of French countryside while the cyclists zoom by. Great stuff!

Wimbledon

As we all work here in our heme office, we are thoroughly enjoying Wimbledon in the background. Surprises today with both of the Williams sisters losing. Nadal and Federer are now playing. What a delightful sport!

Simple Yummy Chicken Spinach Salad

Chicken Spinach and Blueberry Salad with Cashews

• Boneless, skinless chicken breast - cut into chunks
• Young spinach leaves washed
  
• Blueberries washed
  
• Cashews, salted or unsalted
• Poppy seed dressing

Brown lightly in oil or boil the chicken. Mix chicken with spinach, blueberries, and cashews. Add poppy seed dressing to taste.

New Free Game Design Courses

MIT has some new free game design courses on their MIT Open Courseware site.

http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/comparative-media-studies/

Wow! Lost is Amazing.

"Lost" is a truly amazing TV show. We now understand why it won so many awards. TV at its best.

New Spielberg TV Show

Spielberg is starting a new TV show: Falling Skies. Looks good. Comcast has several trailers, etc. and we are going to watch them tonight.

Accepting Mental Illness

Carrie Fisher has done much to try to break down the barriers and negative attitudes surrounding mental illness. She openly discusses her bipolar condition and the cures she has found. Her desire is to help the public along with those who are mentally il, tol view this illness as an illness with the main point being:

• Mental illness is an illness. People are not to blame as they are born with the chemical imbalance that creates the illness. The mentally ill person needs to fully accept their condition; and as with other illnesses, it needs treatment for both the person's sake who has the disease, and also for those in the person's life. They deserve better.
  

People who state "it is just the way I am" are not fully accepting their condition. They are in denial. Chances are, if they are adults, they have been given feedback from those around them who love them, that their behavior is not acceptable. The feedback could be in the form of direct statements such as "stop trying to control everything" or indirect statements. The mentally ill need to trust the feedback and seek help. They need to accept their condition, and understand they were born with a chemical imbalance that creates the mental illness. It is nothing to be ashamed of. They deserve best from themselves. They deserve lower levels of anxiety, less of need to control what they can not control, fewer mood swings, etc. They need to give themselves the gift of professional help.

Fight on Carrie Fisher and thank you for the work you are doing!

Richmond Greek Festival

Throngs of people show up every year to the Richmond Greek Festival. The festival includes dancing, music, a tour of the amazing church, and a bizarre where all sorts of items are sold. We go for the food! Gyros, baklava, yahni, spanakopita, dolmades and tiropita are among our favorites!! All of the food is prepared by parishioners so it is hand made and totally yummy!! What a treat on a hot summer night.

Not Lost in Lost

Years ago, we watched the TV show "Lost" and couldn't follow it at all because it was the show's second season. So we decided to get it from the library starting with the first show. Wow. we now understand why it got so many Emmy awards. JJ Abrams definitely knows how to weave a great story! We will get "Alias" next!

American Idol Finale 2011

This is the first year we have watched American Idol. in previous years, we just could not get past the hyper-critical criticism of the judges. This year, the comments were made in a constructive and positive manner that made all the world of difference - we could literally see the contestants grow and develop as artists as the show progressed.

Last night's finale was stupendous. There were musical acts from Tony Bennett to Judas Priest. Beyonce performed along with Lady Gaga. Jennifer Lopez danced while her husband, Marc Anthony, sang in Spanish. Tom Jones performed; the list goes on and on. Truly wonderful fun!

Where Is Obama or Biden?

While America's Heartland suffers devastating loss and is experiencing such incredible suffering, where is our President? Or even the VP? Obama may be doing important things in Europe but our people need his assurance that FEMA will be there for them. he could at least have Biden show up. Another disappointment...

Summa Cum Laude Grad

Summa Cum Laude graduate here! 4.0 out of 4.0 GPA!

Tomb Raider Anniversary is Finished

We finished Tomb Raider's Anniversary game for the 360. Good game!

We are now moving on to another 360 game called "Singularity". So far we like it. However, as a older couple (almost 50 and almost 60) we feel like complete spazzes as it is first person! In fact, we just time traveled which was great fun!

Crossoku 1

A puzzle of our own invention: Crossoku 1

First fill in the blanks using the word clues. Then complete the puzzle as a Sudoku!

Click to enlarge the puzzle.

Remeber hintsare at Time and Space Puzzle Hints.

First Tick

Last night we had the first tick of the season so on with the Top Spot and bug spray. We usually only find about 4 to 6 ticks per year due to keeping the dogs groomed and clean.

Mental Illness

A recent episode of the TV show "Glee" contained a really good message in it about the need to treat mental illness. In a conversation between an OCD woman and her new therapist, the therapist suggest to the woman that she needs help. The woman says that she was born the way she was and that is is okay. The therapist states that the mental illness is keeping her from being the person she could be; as an example, she points out that diabetics are born that way but in would not occur to anyone not to give them insulin. The therapist also points out that in this country being mentally ill is something people are ashamed of; yet, they are born with the chemical imbalance that creates the mental illness. Being mentally ill is not bad, it is simply a fact.

Mental illness is a disease like any other disease. It needs to be treated as such. People who are mentally ill need to get therapy and medication. They owe this to themselves and the people in their lives. With help, they can then be the people they were actually born to be.

Bin Laden Confusion

We are confused as to why people want to see photos of Bin Laden's body. We are sure he is alive in Saudi Arabia being tortured for information....