Mexican TV (Canal Once) today reported on an attempt on June 18 to rescue 12 politicians who were being held by the guerillas as hostages.
Eleven of the twelve were killed in the attempt. See the report on my blog, Notes From Bacalar
Tags: Latin America, Kidnapping, Violence, Guerillas
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I have learned — so far without a major loss of data — how important backups are. I have surmised from minor losses and scares how annoying the major loss of data would be. I did my first erase and install on my iBook G3 about a year ago.
After backing everything I could possibly find onto CDs I took the plunge and made the installation of a fresh operating system (OSX 10.3.9). Then some of those CDs had less on them than I thought and some files had been forgotten. I have re-installed the system twice, once it really seemed to need it. Each time some information is lost in the cracks, forgotten or corrupted. Yes, I have learned to double-check each backed up file to make sure the information is there. Still, something always leaks away into the digital void called “erase”.
With two machines some things are now backed up on the G. And I have a Mercury 80GB traveling hard drive that boots my Macbook Pro and has a clone of my system. But that should be kept somewhere else and somewhere safe and locked. I use it too much to do that. Therefore I still have a security hole in my digital life.
Now that I am running all these blogs and considering adding to my sites, the idea of Online Storage begins to make sense. IBackup.com offers a reasonably-priced package with 5 GB of secure storage and software for the Mac (and the other platforms) that looks like the image for Mac’s iDisk and allows drag & drop with methods to manage files suitable for personal storage to large web businesses.
They are promising that their service outperforms competing servers by 30-50% and is secure and running on a 24/7 basis.
The IBackup application is hosted at multiple world-class datacenter locations including El Segundo CA, Fremont CA, Newark NJ, London UK among others. The Data Centers provides the physical environment necessary to keep the servers up and running 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. These world-class facilities are custom designed with raised floors, HVAC temperature control systems with separate cooling zones, and seismically braced racks. They offer the widest range of physical security features, including state-of-the-art smoke detection and fire suppression systems, motion sensors, and 24×7 secured access, as well as video camera surveillance and security breach alarms.
There is, of course, the paper back-ups in those cases where I still get a paper statement and haven’t bothered any longer with the paper. It is green but it is also because mail takes from 2-6 weeks to get to us in Mexico. And there is the problem of procrastination and disorganization. Both are undoubtedly emotional. Neither will soon change. They seem to be inherent. Therefore, the more backup the better. The safer the better.
Note that my policy of full disclosure for subsidized posts is on the Disclosure Page in the Pages menu above and there is a link in the Sidebar.
The German news organization Spiegel reported on a new phenomenon — A deadly TV channel. In Germany this fall a new 24/7 TV channel will join the line-up of food TV, home improvement TV, Sports TV, News TV and, now, Death TV.
The channel will dedicate itself to “aging, dying and mourning.” They believe that there is no end to the fascinating stories of death and tragedy. People will have access to documentaries about cemeteries, nursing care, the culture of funerals — “Death and dying… right in your living room.”
Advertising should not present a problem. Looking for a nursing home or health related facility, need one of those “I’ve fallen and I can’t get up” panic buttons linked to 911? Soon there will be ads for the paraphernalia of aging and dying. Like those who need to show off expensive running shoes and stylishly aerodynamic suits — hundreds of dollars — to go for a run, the ranks of the ostentatious dyers may emerge as the stylishness of the funeral becomes one with the living room.
In terms of a business model there are distinct advantages to bringing death out of the closet and outing it to the living. There is a constant audience. People just keep on dying no matter what. There are the dead ones and the survivors who will soon be able to buy a 30 second obituary for 2400 Euros that will be broadcast 10 times and archived on the channel’s web site.
Check out The Internet Cemetery which will put the name of the dead one on their web site with up to 3 photographs for $15 and allows visitors to “plant flowers” and send flower e-cards to the family. There is still a lot of room in that server in the sky.
I don’t play video games nor look at porno. The Net has been a place for me to read, listen, watch and find things I couldn’t find before. After years without an English newspaper nor enough books the Mexican version of broadband (slow and seldom working but broadband nonetheless) has brought me access to everything from CNN to Reuters, the New York Times to Pravda online in English and access to trading and researching stock transactions.
It was a bit unusual for me to try stumbleupon. The new social networks are interesting but I have not been in a socializing mood and have registered only to find some old friends, to join into the spirit of blogger communities and to make sure someone knows about my weblogs and evolving sites.
Then Stumbleupon served up a page on the Web that totally entranced me and the night was lost to this single blank page. It is an homage to the painter, Jackson Pollock, where you enter a blank, white screen and quickly realize that your mouse is trailing a color around the screen. It is a thin trail or a drip unless you slow the mouse and each time you click it the color changes and soon the night is gone and you have made your own ersatz Pollock. I am not Pollock whose work is, like Paul Klee’s, deceptively complex and his genius hardly related to the popular stereotype of a madman dripping house paint on a cloth. He may have been a bit mad and the paint was house paint but the medium doesn’t define the artist. The artist manipulates and defines the medium. It is a reason for the comparison of Klee and Pollock both of whom used what they had available. They made what they had work successfully when successful it was.
Pollock used the materials at hand to carve a door through to the essence of things. Klee used board and wood and “mixed media” to find his way through to the essences.
Beginning soon I will plan for an upcoming trip back to the US. It is time for another cataract surgery since the ophthalmologist in Miami, Dr. Mario Sabates, would only cut one at a time — against which I could hardly argue.
I am also planning a trip back to New York to visit family and, perhaps, visit the old Alma Mater.
There will also be the treat of visiting the City again for the first time in about 10 years, visit museums and galleries and revel in the existence of art, architecture, photography and culture not solely found on my computer screen. The New York Times recently published a travel piece by Seth Kugel (”33 Architectural Favorites in New York” from 27 May). It seems that the American Institute of Architects celebrated its 150th anniversary by choosing a list of 248 of their favorite buildings. Using the polling group Harris Interactive they had a survey taken and chose 150 from respondent preferences. Mr. Kugel avowed that a tour of 25 by foot in Manhattan was a possibility (for him, perhaps). He began his tour with, surprise, The New York Times building still under construction at 40th Street and 8th Avenue. The new building was designed by Renzo Piano. Then off the tour walks to the Hearst Tower and then Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, the Dakota and worked his way down to the Flatiron Building at 23d Street. Finally he admits that the rest of the tour should be done on a second day. He is obviously young and healthy but may not stay that way since he offers a cheeseburger and shake at the Shake Shack in Madison Square Park as the reward for getting to all these sites.
(Photo of cruise ship atrium ©Howard Dratch)
The trip to Miami (for me, at least, since I am unable to fly) will be long. I will travel by cruise ship to Miami where I can begin preparations for the cataract removal, visit my cardiologist, rest up and then I am planning a roomette on the Silver Meteor of Amtrak to New York. I did it once before without the roomette and the coach seat for 27-30 hours can get old. In reverse, however, the dining car surprised me with good food and pleasant service. I met people to chat with and we all watched the Savannah River pass with its alligator sunning himself on a small island in sight of the trestle. With a bit more privacy and a place to stretch out I think the trip will be far more tempting.
In Miami I end up looking for hotels and it can be frustrating. The last trip included a big football game that overpowered Miami and was, to me, totally unexpected. Then I sub-let a condo for 2 weeks which was not cheap — due to the big game, the season, the Boat Show — I found only a 2 bedroom, 2 bath in a decent complex off Kendall Drive. Expensive but had a fully equipped kitchen, nice pool area and a washer-dryer in the apartment. Then I had been confused over the day my ship was to leave and found I only had the condo until 2 days before. Back to the hotel lists. The one I found was O.K. and had the unexpected pleasure of being next door to a shopping center where some non-profit group had a Sunday book sale. Nice people, good books, great prices — bibliophile heaven.
The past 6 weeks have been filled with designing this new web site, 7 Color Lagoon, and learning how to mount and run a site. Something that I cannot say I have mastered. Far from it. Today this blog is up as are some photography galleries. My other blogs remain on Blogger — Notes From Bacalar, Lizard Stew, and The Mayan World.
One positive note for me has been that they are now producing a small “income stream” — which is to say that they make a little money rather than just costing money for computer, web host, and my time and energies.
It has paid for my Macbook Pro rather than allowing the guilt over the price ruin my pleasure in it.
I have joined Pay Per Post and will be adding a link to their services. This will put a badge on the blog allowing advertisers to deal directly with me. They do allow the blogger to pick and choose among advertisers. Therefore questionable offers or links can be avoided. That pleased me.
One of the first sites I checked out is for a new company producing simple, inexpensive, no-frills bicycles starting at $95 that look servicable, fun and not so expensive that you would have to worry about it unduly. A $1200 racing bike might look great under you on Miami Beach but not-so-great when you come out of the restaurant to not find it waiting for you. Here in Mexico that is a continual decision. A snazzy car is good for the ego but sad when you are car-jacked because you had showed off your wealth. The cruiser bikes look like a great compromise for the beach or the city.
The bicycle appears more and more to be a viable alternative, as it is in Europe and Latin America, to the gas-eating car. One way to fight the forces of the Middle-East who continue to have a strangle-hold over the West is to avoid the necessity of supporting their oil production. We have had at least since the 1973 oil crisis to develop fuel-efficiency in transport and to invent alternatives. We have not used those 30-plus years well.
XYZ also has a complementary blog that includes news of new designs on their way (how about a low-rider, chopped-looking model?) and assembly instructions for all the models they have made.
Speaking of fully disclosing any links to commercial activities, please view my disclosure policy on the Disclosure Page for this and the external blogs.
Earth has been hit and is constantly at risk of attack by interlopers from space. These are called “near earth objects” (NEOs). Major players are asteroids. Most burn harmlessly during their trip through the atmosphere. However, just as in the intensely mediocre films, Armageddon and Deep Impact, there is more than a zero chance that a large one will threaten earth in the near future.
Quietly in the background of our already nervous world, scientists have been making plans for how to prevent a catastrophe whether or not Bruce Willis is available. NASA recently presented its report to Congress. More recently Rusty (Russell) Schweickart, lashed out at NASA for a recent study on the threat from NEOs (Near Earth Objects) impacting our planet. Schweickart was the lunar module pilot for Apollo 9. He is now Chairman of the B612 Foundation and a member of the Association of Space Explorers (ASE) where he is on the Committee on Near Earth Objects.
B612 is a group of astronomers, astronauts and scientific specialists who have dedicated time to working on methods to deflect the orbit of asteroids in order to prevent another catastrophic “event” like the 1908 Tunguska explosion which has been shown to have been caused by a 45-50 meter diameter asteroid exploding in Siberia. It destroyed 2000 square kilometers of Siberian forest “… and maybe a few reindeer.” Schweickart noted that, “Had it hit a couple of hours later it might have wiped out London or Moscow…”
Both groups call for early warning detection systems, “deflection capability”, and an ability to coordinate the responses internationally. The possibilities of such an impact are becoming less as time goes on. Partly because we are now cataloging the objects that present possibly dangerous trajectories.
By 2019, he said, there will be more than 10,000 objects “…with a non-zero probability of impacting Earth.” “A non-zero probability.” What great euphemisms scientists can invent!
At this time, we were warned, there is no one and no agency of the U.S. government or of any other on the planet that is responsible for dealing with the potential threat nor for developing “Mission Rules” for the deflection of NEOs.
In true astronaut-geek speak Schweickart warned that there is “… the possibility-in an evolutionary sense-of a Control-Alt-Delete; a reboot of the evolutionary system that has already occurred many times on Earth.”
“If we do our homework right, never again should an asteroid that can do damage on the ground and impact the Earth,” Schweickart suggested. “We’re living at a time — with our technology — we have the capability to eliminate this major shaper of evolution - the evolution of life on this planet.”
The “Tunguska Event” was the catastrophe in Siberia that is now accepted as the explosion of an asteroid above Tunguska in deserted Siberia in June, 1908. The 100th anniversary is next year. Start planning your Chicken Little parties early.
It was early morning 30 June, 1908. Witnesses, of which there were few, recalled in recently translated testimony that they saw a fireball falling from the sky as far as 110 miles away. Seismic recordings were made 600 miles away and 40 miles from the event people were knocked down or knocked into unconsciousness. The closest witnesses were “reindeer herders” about 20 miles away who were blown out of their tents into the air. “Everything around was shrouded in smoke and fog from the burning fallen trees,” said one witness. Another man was blown into a tree and died later according to a report by the Planetary Science Institute. Russian scientists interviewed people from the Vanavara Trading Post. One translated account included, “I saw the sky in the north open to the ground and fire poured out. The fire was brighter than the sun. We were terrified, but the sky closed again and immediately afterward, bangs like gunshots were heard. We thought stones were falling… I ran with my head down and covered, because I was afraid stones may fall on it.”
Since the object, now believed to have been a meteorite of about 30 meters (98 feet) traveling at 15 km per second (9.3 miles per second), exploded before impact; there is no crater. A scientific group in 1993 studied the records and were later corroborated when Russian scientists found rocks of the same composition as “common stone meteorites” blasted into trees at the site. It was the kind of Earth-altering event that is thought to happen relatively often in planetary time.
In the 1990s a military satellite detected an explosion in the Pacific. In 1972 a 1000-ton rock skimmed the atmosphere over the Grand Tetons and was thrown back into space. It was visible enough to be photographed by tourists (and recorded by satellites). Had it struck it would have caused an explosion in Canada roughly the force of Hiroshima.
About 20,000 years ago a 100 meter object hit in Arizona causing the “Arizona Meteor Crater” (open to tourists) and the famous dinosaur-killer of 65 million years ago is thought to have been 10 kilometers across (6.2 miles). It hit in the Gulf of Mexico and Yucatan Peninsula according to geological studies.
After more than a month of fighting to learn to deal with a web host and WordPress, the blogging software for this blog; I continue to struggle with it. Today was one of those frustrating days where all my energies went into fixing things rather than writing something.
Today I replaced the gallery called “Recent Scans”. Our friend the lion from below is one plus some shots from Bacalar.
It is time to write an article on the perils and pitfalls of leaping into the abyss of one’s own “domain”. A domain in Geek is owning a web name — www.apple.com, for instance. I am now the proud possessor of 7 Color Lagoon.com. Choosing the blogging software, WordPress, was like getting married (The significant other takes some getting used to and has some nasty habits.) Buying a domain was much like the first house. The decision of whether to birth any sub-domains will be taken slowly as such things should be taken.
Visit Recent Scans .
Stay tuned for more additions to the site.
UPDATE: Another Gallery, Bacalar, has been added with 17 pictures for the moment. It is, like the others, a work in progress. Visit Gallery: Bacalar.
There is a new campaign to bring canines to the depressive front. The “Support Partners: Canine Companions” is a new program trying to form networks that would include dogs into the recovery process for the depressed. It is sponsored by the Psychiatric Service Dog Society. “Woof. Cheer up,” said the psychiatric dog and licked his master’s face. “Woof.” Move over, Freud and Jung.
According to this group and Dr. Rakesh Jain of the Clinical Research Center in Lake Jackson, Texas, “While a doctor, family and friends should form the basis of any support network, dogs can play an important role by being a constant companion. They can help reduce these emotional symptoms, while possibly helping other symptoms, like fatigue or lack of energy, with daily walks.”
The benefits of having a dog, according to some health-care professionals, is that pet owners overwhelmingly thing that their pets are “extremely important” to them when they are feeling sadness, loneliness and depression. Dogs are much like the clichè that comes to mind, a “best friend” — empathetic, receptive and demonstrative in their affection.
Half of pet lovers think that their pets make a difference in their lives in a positive and healthy manner — exercise and companionship were mentioned most often. “Talking to dogs” is part of achieving greater physical and mental health in their lives, they thought.
“Support Partners: Canine Companions is the newest component of the Support Partners program, a national educational campaign dedicated to people with depression and to those who care about them. Co-sponsored by the National Women’s Health Resource Center (NWHRC), the Support Partners program aims to open the lines of communication about the illness and encourages a support- team approach to overcoming depression. Support Partners offers three guidebooks that provide tips for people with depression, and those who care about them, on how to form a support network. Copies of the guidebooks can be obtained by visiting 
Support Partners Program .”
My body- and house- guard has been pushing me to get a dog for some time to help with the guarding of the grounds. He suggests Pit Bulls which, being wary to terrified of large or mean dogs, is not to be my choice. I might need two dogs. One to guard and rip out the throats of bad guys and another to lick my face and listen to my rants. Of course the first person whose throat will be ripped out by a guard dog is me. I might go for a large cat like this one I was behind in Chetumal.
Cats are nice. This one could give a fine purr and would probably be overjoyed to live somewhere homey. This one might not only protect the house from bad guys but even gobble up what was left of them and clean itself. Chase pests and lizards, too. (Click on the thumbnail to enlarge the photo.)
Do also note my post on my blog, Lizard Stew, linking to a study on how impotence in otherwise healthy men can predict arterial and cardiac problems to come.
She did it.
Atlantis lifted-off at 7:38:04PM on 8 June as scheduled and docked with the International Space Station.
Visit NASA for more information, NASA-TV and other stories of interest to space and technology enthusiasts.
