kahunaburger

I mentioned this in passing more than a year ago (look at the bullet list towards the end of the post) and now it really seems to happen: Bionade is coming to the US and they even want to create a factory in Iowa.

Bionade is a non-alcoholic refreshment drink made from “all natural materials of organic quality” (I’m quoting their site here). It’s been an amazing hit since it got introduced in Germany a few years ago. In those few years it catapulted itself to the third most popular soft drink with the Germans.

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Remember how I told you more than two weeks ago that a huge armada was on the way to the Persian Gulf? Serhii just sent word that things are heating up in the Gulf. Read the following story and ask yourself what this amazing number of American vessels is doing in those waters: Media Blackout - The Armada in the Gulf.

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Hmm, strange things are happening on the internets again.

Via email I received a link to an online petition at moveon.org (http://pol.moveon.org/contraception/), claiming that the Bush Administration is trying to redefine contraception as a form of abortion. On the moveon-page it says:

It seems unbelievable, but the Bush Administration is quietly trying to redefine “abortion” to include birth control. The Houston Chronicle says this could wipe out dozens of state laws that protect women’s reproductive freedom and protect rape victims. This “rule change” doesn’t need congressional approval.

I want to find the source of the article and search for “Houston Chronicle abortion” on google. Sure enough, top search result seems to link to an article from Aug 10th 2008 on the chron.com (Houston Chronicle) site.

I click on the link to attempt to go to the source and, boom, a 404 screams at me. “No such article” it says. I search for “abortion” on chron.com and there’s no article from Aug 10th. Fake? Propaganda? Google poisoning?

Back to Google and a click on “Cached” reveals that Google stills has a cached copy of said editorial:

I capture it to a handy PDF-file to make sure it’s preserved even after it disappears from Google’s Cache (500k PDF document here).

And on the cached page at the bottom, there’s a link to the comments on the article. Funny enough that link on chron.com is still active, so people are commenting on an article that does not exist on the site itself? Interesting! The internets are really acting up these days. You can see the live comments page here: http://www.chron.com/disp/discuss.mpl/editorial/5935532.html (I suspect it’ll also self-destruct soon).

And now, go read the article (local PDF) and scratch your head …

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Since a few weeks ago I’m carrying my life around with me. My life is worth roughly 4GB and it’s on my key chain.

Corsair 8GB USB drive

The 4GB consist of documents, photos and videos which are stored on a very rugged USB Corsair “Survivor” 8GB thumb drive. The thumb drive fits into the USB port of most computers out there and is recognized as a “disk”. Plug it in and a second later you’ll find a new drive on the PC or a new disk on your Mac desktop (Unix is supported as well).
The actual content is stored encrypted on the USB drive using TrueCrypt. Only if I supply the big monster master password will TrueCrypt reveal the real data stored on the drive. The encryption software uses AES 256, which is some of the highest encryption technology that you can get your hands on these days. The password to unlock the content is so long that I had to put it on a piece of paper and store it inside the USB thumb drive to make sure I don’t forget about it (yes, I’m kidding).
I left an extra 4GB unencrypted to be able to use the drive as an easy solution to transport files.

What did I put on it? Scans of important documents: drivers license, social security card, green card, passport, mortgage documentation, car/motorcycle titles, etc. - Photos: I walked around the house/garage and took photos of anything and everything I have in here - Videos: a walk through video where I walk through the whole house.

Why did I put it there? For disaster recovery reasons. If my home burnt down tomorrow I would have a very hard time assembling all that information above from scratch. Some of those documents above only exist in one place and I thought it was time to make sure that they exist in a number of places. All the data above is also copied (encrypted) to few other places on the net whenever I connect the thumb drive. You may also want to call it peace of mind for an aging mind …

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Now there’s a novel “game” idea: Sony’s EyePet. Using the PS Eye you interact with a virtual pet in your own home environment. Cute.

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Lesson 1: Don’t make yourself look like a fool by sending a “Free Botox!” advert to a 4-year old (see scan below)! I just called them to make her appointment. They seemed to be surprised when I asked them if they had comic books and toys in the waiting area.

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The Washington Post shows an easy to digest chart that compares the two proposals. Raise your hand if you are in the top 1.1%.

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Abiquiu Lake

Friday one week ago during Pia’s week off, we also headed to the North to visit the Lake Abiquiu area.

When we headed out from Santa Fe, the city was under a thick cloud cover and there was a coldish wind blowing. I was afraid that we would not be able to swim in the lake or at least put our footsies into the cold water.

Luckily the weather cleared up more and more as I was driving up North. Pia took the easy way out and just took a nap for almost the whole drive.

Just as I was going across the dam, she woke up and a minute later we were at one of the vista points overlooking the lake (photo above). She’s normally a bit cranky right after waking up, but the nearby water and the prospect of jumping into it made her forget her crankiness.

The dad was silly enough to forget the cooler with the lunch/drinks at home, so we decided to head back to the town of Abiquiu, get some food and then go back to the lake for the rest of the afternoon.

Once she was in her bikini and her belly was filled with some lunch there was no holding back and she had to run down to the water.

Abiquiu Lake and mermaid

There was NOBODY there. A few surfers, jet-skiers and two boats, but nobody else was on the rocky shore. I had my doubts that the water would be warm enough for a swim and it turned out to be true: Pia usually does not have any problems when it comes to cold water (unlike her dad), but even for her it was a bit too chilly. She dipped into the pools on the lake’s shoreline, but quickly pulled herself out of the water. I think the dark water (Lake Abiquiu is DEEP) was a psychological factor that made things appear colder than they really were.

Abiquiu Lake and mermaid

Even without being able to go for a swim, we had plenty of things to do: rock-skipping exercises, rock-splashing exercises, trying-to-make-each-wet contests, etc. We stayed for about 2 hrs and then continued to drive North towards Ghost Ranch.

Abiquiu: Near Ghost Ranch

I distinctly remember that on one of the earlier trips up to Abiquiu the weather was not cooperating and that clouds and rain hid most of the beautiful landscape. This time it was different and we had perfect weather and picture-perfect skies.

Abiquiu: Near Ghost Ranch

It was almost 4pm when we turned off the road towards Ghost Ranch and I decided it was too late to visit the place for the day. Soon after the turn-off we flipped the Dodge around and drove back to Santa Fe.

Abiquiu: Near Ghost Ranch

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Oh, this is cute and interesting at the same time: dearadobe.com (Garret - no more than 10 additions - ok? )

And it’s nicer (and more relevant) than dearmicrosoft.com

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He has just way too many bloopers that get brushed off as honest mistakes.

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