Ain't Complicated

Got Salicornia?

Mother Jones tells us about The Saline Solution:

In the mid-’80s, an atmospheric physicist named Carl N. Hodges predicted that the key to saving the planet was to make the desert bloom—with a spindly saltwater plant known as salicornia, a.k.a. sea asparagus. The idea languished for years, but now scientists, investors, and even celebrities are lining up behind the 71-year-old’s vision for feeding the planet, fueling our cars, and reversing rising sea levels.

Salicornia, eh?

Well, I’m not an asparagus aficionado, although my wife makes a good asparagus and boiled egg concoction.

But sea asparagus cookies? No, I don’t think so.

Read it all

Two Traveler Tips

Global (SIM Card) Cell Provider

Here’s a great service for anyone wanting to keep in touch while traveling abroad. They provide a Global SIM card that can be used with any GSM Tri or Quad band phone to travel just about anywhere in the world. You will save as much as 90% or more on cellular calls while traveling abroad. Best of all they will assign you a local U.S. number to take with you so that friends and family here in the U.S. can easily keep in touch with you without making an International Long Distance call.

Safe water for Pennies

Here’s absolute bacteria and virus protection in a light weight water purifier-filter. This product reportedly provides 5 gallons of safe water from any source in 42 minutes. Using new technology developed for kidney dialysis, these new .02 micron hollow fiber membrane purifiers give 100% protection against bacteria and viruses and they never need replacement! These inexpensive and lightweight water purifiers-filters will revolutionize safe water procurement for anyone traveling overseas. You can also give the lifesaving gift of safe water for an entire village by leaving one after your missions trip.

Pray for Mauricio Funes

From an email sent by a Mennonite missionary in El Salvador:

On June 1 Mauricio Funes, president-elect is scheduled to take office as the first FMLN president after 20 years of right wing government in El Salvador. The percentages didn’t really change much from what I wrote last night – more than 51% to less than 49%.

The things he said in his victory speech were noble. My summary of what the newspapers say he said is: ‘We will respect the constitution… We will listen to the other political parties… We want a good relationship with the United States… We will work hard to favor everyone, especially the poorest of the poor…’

And that brings me to my prayer request for these next 2½ months before he takes office. During his campaign Mauricio Funes, a TV talk show host for many years, consistently had a more moderate response than the ‘die hard’ left wing of the FMLN. As a new comer to the party he was not tainted with ‘civil war skeletons’ which is one reason that he was chosen. Mauricio has always insisted publicly that he will choose his cabinet based on skill and that the FMLN party will not dictate to him who he chooses to help him run the government. In the past, the FMLN has tended to choose people for key political positions based on their participation in the 12 year civil war rather than being gifted political leaders. We don’t know how free he really is to freely choose.

So that is my request to you… Please pray that the people that are chosen to be a part of this government now in formation would be people who have the best of the El Salvadoran people at heart and that a climate conducive to the growth of the church of Christ would prevail. Thanks again for being our prayer partners.

Peaking at 22

The Hindu reports:

Believe it or not, old age begins at 27, says researchers.

A new study has revealed that many well-known effects of ageing may start decades before the twilight years when old age is often blamed for causing many people to misplace keys, forget a word or lose the train of thought.

In fact, according to the researchers, people’s mental abilities begin to decline from the age of 27 after reaching a peak at 22.

Is that really what the researchers say?

If so, it’s dumb.

If old age begins at 27 and life expectancy is 72 (I picked that number out of my cranial thin air), we spend almost all our adult lives as old people. 😯

Oh hey! Look at that. Old age actually begins at 72, but the researchers were dyslexic! 🙄

Be that as it may, this is a good reminder of what the Creator had recorded in ~~Ecclesiastes~~ Psalm 90:12….

“So teach us to number our days,
that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.”

Life and Freedom Today

The Game of Life

The online version of a popular board game from many Americans’ childhood includes an option for players to choose homosexual marriage and child-rearing as a way of life.

Through the Shockwave.com website, even children can download and play a free trial version of The Game of Life, the first game ever created by Mr. Milton Bradley in 1860.

The player’s first option in the online version is to choose a persona based on pictures that clearly depict men and women. Shortly thereafter, the game invites players to choose a spouse, regardless of the potential spouse’s sex.

So that’s life.

But do they also create the option for skipping marriage altogether and just shacking up with your “significant other” (I despise that expression!)?

And the option to divorce?

Or have an abortion?

For the record, the board version of the game also allows taking a same-sex spouse.

So…add another point to freedom’s score. 🙄

And speaking of freedom….

Freedom in the 50 States

Index of Personal and Economic Freedom

This paper presents the first-ever comprehensive ranking of the American states on their public policies affecting individual freedoms in the economic, social, and personal spheres. We develop and justify our ratings and aggregation procedure on explicitly normative criteria, defining individual freedom as the ability to dispose of one’s own life, liberty, and justly acquired property however one sees fit, so long as one does not coercively infringe on other individuals’ ability to do the same.

[…]

We find that the freest states in the country are New Hampshire, Colorado, and South Dakota, which together achieve a virtual tie for first place. All three states feature low taxes and government spending and middling levels of regulation and paternalism. New York is the least free by a considerable margin, followed by New Jersey, Rhode Island, California and Maryland. On personal freedom alone, Alaska is the clear winner, while Maryland brings up the rear. As for freedom in the different regions of the country, the Mountain and West North Central regions are the freest overall while the Middle Atlantic lags far behind on both economic and personal freedom.

As I recall, Oregon ranks #27 overall.

For perspective, I expect many people in the world would say we don’t have anything to fuss about regarding freedom here in the States. Even if they would have to live in New York or Maryland.

Montenegro: Still LAPD MW?

Los Angeles Police Department: Most Wanted: Fermin Omar Montenegro

Still most wanted by LAPD?

I was surprised to see the LAPD’s page for Fermin Omar Montenegro still unchanged since I first saw it back in early December and posted about it here.

It is my understanding that almost three months ago, Montenegro met in Nicaragua with Detective McKnight. In fact, here is a photo that a reliable witness claims to have taken of them at the end of their meeting:

I don’t know McKnight. I don’t know Montenegro. I’ve never met either of them. But I’m curious about what Montenegro’s official status is with the LAPD.

PS: I went to Interpol’s site but didn’t learn anything there either.

Transparency

Google software bug shared private online documents

Google has confirmed that a software bug exposed documents thought to be privately stored in the Internet giant’s online Docs application service.

The problem was fixed by the weekend and is believed to have affected only .05 percent of the digital documents at a Google Docs service that provides text-handling programs as services on the Internet.

But a bunch of you wouldn’t listen to my earlier warnings (here and here), would you?!

Oh well. 🙄

Ah, yes. Transparency and openness — they’re the new wave. Well, you can surf it all you want. 😆

Oh, sorry me — I forgot — you know it won’t happen to you. Great. I will grant you that the .05% cited above gives you good odds. Still, what about the security lapses they haven’t even discovered yet? 😀

And how much comfort do the owners of the .05% derive from those “long” odds? 😯

Anyway, I’ll continue to store my stuff on CDs and DVDs and secondary PCs and external (almost always disconnected) hard drives.