East Locust street detour

East Locust street is closed between Virginia St. and Pershing Ave. This is due to a sinkhole. There will be detours, but it’s expected to take about a week before this section reopens. If you travel this stretch of East Locust, you may want to add a little extra time, or look for an alternative route. This may be an inconvience, but we’re sure the city will get it repaired as soon as possible.

Spyware

Below is information about spyware from the CyberAngels newsletter.
This information was in the July newsletter and we thought maybe some
of us would need a refresher on the subject.

How to Recognize Spyware

The following tips are not comprehensive, but are common indicators that spyware may be running on your computer:

Your computer receives a large amount of pop-up windows, even when you are not browsing the Internet. You may also receive a lot of unexpected or unusual errors.
When you browse the Internet, you are unable to choose web pages, unable to use certain keys or mouse buttons, or are redirected to different pages.
You see new toolbars in your Internet browser, or unfamiliar icons in your task tray or on your desktop.
The homepage of your browser or your search function have been changed.
Your computer or Internet connection appears to be much slower than usual.

How to Avoid Spyware

Avoid downloading free programs or applications from unfamiliar websites. Download only from trusted sources.
Avoid downloading anything from an e-mail link unless you are certain it is trustworthy; some spammers advertise anti-spyware programs that will in fact install more spyware on your computer.
Never click any links in pop-up windows. Always use the X icon in the title bar rather than clicking “Close” in the window. These pop-ups may indicate spyware.
Ask your network administrator for help in securing your browser. Many newer browsers offer a pop-up blocking option that will help eliminate the inconvenience - and potential threat - of advertisement windows.

Always use a firewall. These programs will alert you when suspicious software is being installed on your computer, and may help prevent spyware.
If you download software, scan it with a current and trusted virus-checker; some newer virus scans include spyware and will alert you if there may be a threat.

Coping with Spyware

If you think your computer may have had spyware installed on it, you should run a legitimate anti-spyware program. Ad-Aware, SpySweeper, PestPatrol, and Spybot Search and Destroy are well-known and trustworthy programs that will search your computer for spyware and eliminate it. Always make sure to use the most current version of these programs available, as spammers continually create new software. Some virus scanners will help you remove spyware as well, although these are often less effective than a dedicated spyware program.

About CyberAngels

As part of its mission of “keeping it safe” The Guardian Angels moved beyond the streets and
responded to citizens’ calls for protection from online threats with the launch of
CyberAngels in 1995. The volunteer-based CyberAngels is one of the oldest and most
respected online safety education programs in the world. Our organization
offers articles, instruction, tips and resources via our website to promote safe Internet use
by children and families, guide parents, and assist victims of cyber crimes.

Comments are welcome.

More helpful hints

We recieve and send a lot of emails. We really don’t mind.
So here’s the deal. In this post, we’ll show you how to
know when your mouse overheats, and clues to help decide
if someone has had one too many.

We’ve sent so many e-mails that our mouse overheated.
Check it out for yourself.
This is what happens when you overuse your mouse:
Click HERE

THINGS THAT ARE DIFFICULT TO SAY WHEN
DRUNK:
1. Innovative
2. Preliminary
3. Proliferation
4. Cinnamon

THINGS THAT ARE VERY DIFFICULT TO SAY WHEN DRUNK:
1. Specificity
2. Anti-constitutionalistically
3. Passive-aggressive disorder
4. Tran substantiate

THINGS THAT ARE DOWNRIGHT IMPOSSIBLE TO SAY WHEN DRUNK
1. No thanks, I’m married.
2. Nope, no more booze for me!
3. Sorry, but you’re not really my type.
4. Taco Bell? No thanks, I’m not hungry.
5. Good evening, officer. Isn’t it lovely out tonight?
6. Oh, I couldn’t! No one wants to hear me sing karaoke.
7. I’m not interested in fighting you.
8. Thank you, but I won’t make any attempt to dance, I
have no coordination. I’d hate to look like a fool!
9. Where is the nearest bathroom? I refuse to pee in
this parking lot or on the side of the road.
10. I must be going home now, as I have to work in the
morning.

You could have heard a pin drop

The following may or may not be true. To be honest we don’t care.
We thank Al for the email and hope you enjoy it as much as we did.
It’s more about a feeling that all veterans get reading a bunch of
words put together like these are. So before you go to Snopes, and
comment that the following post isn’t factual, we don’t care. It is
strickly in the spirit of the holiday.

When in England, at a fairly large conference, Colin Powell was asked
by the Archbishop of Canterbury if our plans for Iraq were just an
example of empire building’ by George Bush.

He answered by saying, ‘Over the years, the United
States has sent many of its fine young men and women
into great peril to fight for freedom beyond our borders.
The only amount of land we have ever asked for in return
is enough to bury those that did not return.’
You could have heard a pin drop.

There was a conference in France where a number of
international engineers were taking part, including French
and American. During a break, one of the French engineers
came back into the room saying ‘Have you heard the latest
dumb stunt Bush has done? He has sent an aircraft
carrier to Indonesia to help the tsunami victims. What
does he intended to do, bomb them?’
A Boeing engineer stood up and replied quietly: ‘Our
carriers have three hospitals on board that can treat several
hundred people; they are nuclear powered and can supply
emergency electrical power to shore facilities; they
have three cafeterias with the capacity to feed 3,000
people three meals a day, they can produce several
thousand gallons of fresh water from sea water each
day, and they carry half a dozen helicopters for use in
transporting victims and injured to and from their flight
deck. We have eleven such ships; how many does
France have?’
You could have heard a pin drop.

A U.S. Navy Admiral was attending a naval conference
that included Admirals from the U.S., English, Canadian,
Australian and French Navies. At a cocktail reception,
he found himself standing with a large group of Officers
that included personnel from most of those countries.
Everyone was chatting away in English as they sipped
their drinks but a French admiral suddenly complained that,
whereas Europeans learn many languages, Americans learn
only English.’ He then asked, ‘Why is it that we always have
to speak English in these conferences rather than speaking
French?’
Without hesitating, the American Admiral replied ‘Maybe
it’s because the Brits, Canadians, Aussies and Americans
arranged it so you wouldn’t have to speak German.’
You could have heard a pin drop.

Robert Whiting, an elderly gentleman of 83, arrived in
Paris by plane. At French Customs, he took a few minutes to locate his passport in his carry on.
You have been to France before, monsieur?’ the customs officer
asked sarcastically.Mr. Whiting admitted that he had been to France
previously Then you should know enough to have your passport ready.’The American said, “‘The last time I was here, I didn’t have to show it.”Impossible. Americans always have to show your passports
on arrival in France!’The American senior gave the Frenchman a long hard look. Then he quietly explained, “‘Well, when I came ashore
at Omaha Beach on D-Day in 1944 to help liberate this country,
I couldn’t find a single Frenchmen to show a passport to.’
You could have heard a pin drop.

So remember, although today we celebrate our independence, our
military people protect our freedoms to do so.
We hope you enjoy the holiday, drive safe, and we thank all fellow veterans out there.

Weeds

Normally on Thursday we like to rant. Due to a few things
going on, that isn’t going to happen today. First we had a
few rants already this week; we are volunteering to work
the Blues Fest, and Keith Meyer sent me an email. Thanks
once again for the thought. Emails to us are like t-shirts,
if somebody goes to the trouble to send us one, we’ll at
least look at it. My first thought was what could I possibly
get out of a seven page article on weeds?

I was surprised. While we still don’t entirely buy
into the global warming hype, we can accept that the co2
levels would have to be higher than in the horse and buggy
days. We’ll add a link to the article at the end of this
post if you care to read it.

An article in the June 29, 2008 issue of the New York Times
magazine is by Tom Christopher entitled “Can weeds help solve
the climate crisis?”

In Maryland, scientists at the Department of Argriculture’s
research campus have been working on how increased levels of
carbon dioxide will affect how plants grow. They studied the
affect of increased temperatures and co2 in cities and in the
country.

At this point, one statement stuck out to us. It basically
said that carbon dioxide has recieved a lot of attention as
a greenhouse gas. But it is also, along with water, light and
nutrients, one of the four essential resources for plant
growth. The effect of raising this gas’s concentration on
plants is not really understood.

Lewis Ziska, a weed ecologist, found that in Baltimore the
temperature was 3 to 4 degrees warmer than surrounding the
countryside. He also found that the co2 level is well above
the current global average. In fact, it matched a level
that some experts predict as an average for the planet in
30 to 50 years. He set up three test beds, an organic farm
in the western part of the state, one by an inner harbor,
and a park in Baltimore. He took soil from the farm, which
already had seeds from 35 common weeds, to each bed to test
results.

He got a shock when the weed lambs-quarters grew to 6 to 8
feet tall on the farm, but to 10 to 12 feet tall in the city.
He made a lot of interesting discoveries along the way. He
found that restoration that took decades in a woodland, was
nearly completed in 5 years in the co2 rich air of the city.

We also found out that weeds cost U.S. farmers about 12
percent of their harvest, costing an annual loss of $33 million.
We also learned that some weeds we have today were actually
brought here for their beauty or utility.

Weeds mean different things to different people. To gardeners,
a weed is a plant out of place. To farmers, a weed is any
plant that interferes with profit. And to Ralph Waldo Emerson,
a weed is a plant who’s virtues have not yet been discovered.

Plants like red rice or wild oats are some of the most trouble-
some weeds today, but were once a food source. Weeds like
Canada thistle and quack grass are resistant to herbicides. And
cheatgrass in the western U.S. has changed the landscape due
to it’s combustability. When the area was native grassland,
fires occured once every 60 to 100 years, now that cheatgrass
has taken over fires occur every 3 to 5 years. Of course they
talk about the heat moving north also.

One other thing he found interesting, and on the web, is that
marijuana growers have an amazingly detailed knowledge of how
co2 enrichment affects their crop. He doesn’t look for any
scientific papers from this group anytime soon.

There is a lot more in the article
here. We still don’t like weeds, but at least we know more
about them. Comments on just about anything are welcome.

Rough winter

On an earlier post we had some comments about the upcoming winter. Anonymous asked us to provide sources for these comments and we declined to produce most of them. In that vein, here
are some figures, with references that do address the issue.

From the Energy Information Administration
comes the news that crude oil prices will increase 68.9%. At the same
time, gasoline prices will raise by 34.7%, diesel by 50.1%, heating oil
by 45.4%, and natural gas by 14.1%. These figures are from the chart on
the web page.

In the mean time, world consumption is projected to grow by 1
million barrels per day, while U.S. consumption is expected to
fall due to higher petroleum product prices and slower economic
growth.

Natural gas use is also projected to fall, but with smaller
reserves, the price is expected to rise. There’s more information
on the site for those who care to look.

Costs for home heating in the midwest are projected to rise by 37%
according to AARP.

From smartmoney.com,
we quote the following-
Residential heating oil prices are projected to rise 29% to $4.46 per
gallon in the fourth quarter of 2008 from $3.16 per gallon during the
same period last year, according to the Energy Information
Administration. Those who use natural gas to heat their homes (a fair
majority at 48% of U.S. households) shouldn’t expect to fare much
better. The EIA projects the average price of natural gas to rise 27%
year over year (from $12.65 per thousand cubic feet in the fourth
quarter of 2007 to $17.21 per thousand cubic feet in fourth quarter
of 2008).

These projections don’t sound bad compared to the ones mentioned in an
earlier post. But even at the rates mentioned above some elderly people are
going to have to make hard choices this winter. We don’t know about you,
but we are getting awful tired of being told these increases are
necessary. The people who employ us don’t throw extra money our way
every year to cover the extra cost.

There’s a more tamer version of our earlier post. So this is a rosier
picture of what some are projecting our costs to be for what it’s
worth. We say with everything else raising in price, this is the last
news we need. Comments on just about anything are welcome.

Racism guest post

This is a guest post. It was posted on MySpace by a young
man who just graduated high school. It may be offensive to
some, but we think the young man gets his point accross.
That being said, feel free to label us as racist, or sexist,
or whatever the current label is for those who don’t cruise
with the main pack. It wasn’t posted by our son, but our
son does know the poster. And now, the guest post-

You call me: redneck, hillbilly, slaker, cracker, honkey,
whitey, sage, white girl/boy, and you think it’s ok.

But when I call you: jungle bunny, spear chunker, coon,
wet back, jiggaboo, porch monkey, rag head, towelhead,
camel jockey, gook, spook, kike, slant eyes, or chink,
you call me a racist.

You have the United Negro College Fund. You have Martin
Luther King Day. You have Black History Month. You have
Cesar Chavez Day. You have Yom Hashoah. You have Ma’uled
Al-Nabi. You have the NAACP. You have the BET.

If we had WET (white entertainment television)…we’d be
racist. If we had white pride day…you’d call us racist.
If we had white history month…we’d be racist. If we had
an organization for only whites to “advance” our lives…
we’d be racist. If we had a college fund that only gave
white students scholarships…you know we’d be racist. In
the Million Man March, you believed that you were marching
for your race and rights. If we marched for our race and
rights…you would call us racist.

Did you know that some high school students decided to make
a club for only white students because the other ethnicities
had them. They all got sent to court for being racist but the
african-american, Latino, and Asia clubs were not even
questioned!

You are proud to be black, brown, yellow and orange, and
you’re not afraid to announce it. But when we announce our
white pride, you call us racist.

I am white. And I am proud.
Now watch, I’ll be racist for reposting this.
—————————-

That’s a young mans take, he’s seventeen and a graduate. As
you may have guessed, he’s also proud of his heritage. We
didn’t change any spelling or punctuation. As is always the
case, comments on the guest post, or just about anything else
are welcome.

Bend over and grab your ankles rant

America is a country that was built on transportation.
Nobody can expect to change that overnight. But we have a
problem and people better seriously pay attention. If you
are on a fixed income, and aren’t we all, get ready for
heating bills this winter over $800 a month, if you paid
$200 last year.

Experts say there are numerous reasons for this. One is
the devaluation of our dollar. Another is that Congress
blatently refuses to admit there is a problem, and clings
to the belief that ethanol is the cure-all to our gas
problems. It is neither a solution to, nor stopgap for
our rising gas prices.

We believe these experts are dead-on when they say the
most important issue of this election will be who has the
answer for our energy problem among the Presidential
candidates.

Also if members of Congress, or the House are running
for re-election, please research how they voted on these
issues before voting. America doesn’t need another great
depression.

You can blame whatever branch of government you want, but
everybody needs to be aware that this whole energy shortage
could have averted as far back as the late 1970’s. Congress
has not allowed a single refinery to be built. It didn’t
sanction exploration into other sources of energy. While
the windmills are fine for electricity, the problem lies
more with transportation and heating. Both are petroleum
problems.

We don’t need universal health care. We don’t need the
government taking over the airlines. We need less govenment
and more choices. We say, we’d rather have gas at $2 a
gallon, and be able to heat our home for $200 a month; than
government run health care and airlines with gas at $10 a
gallon and $800 to heat our homes.

If heating costs go up a much as some project, unemployment
will be at a high we haven’t seen in decades. And when the
unemployment rate gets that high, the crime rate goes through
the roof. But will that make any real difference if you’re
paying $800 a month to heat a four room house, and just as
much to keep gas in your car to go to work? That is if you
still have a job.

Open Alaska for drilling, allow us to drill in the Gulf of
Mexico; start producing coal oil, and shale oil now. Unless
the next House, Congress, and President want to be known
throughout history as the administration that drove this
Country into a depression, somebody had better get moving.

Let’s hear a candidate who has a clearcut plan on how to
get out of this mess. We should also put Congress on notice
that if they don’t quit bickering along party lines, and do
the job they were elected for, we will replace them with
people who can. Think about it.

Comments on this or any other subject are welcome.

A bigger fish

We’d been working on a post for about a week and still
felt it wasn’t right. Imagine our surprise when we got
the latest edition of Street Thunder magazine, and the
editorial was on the subject of our post. The following
is the editorial by Mark Simpson, Editor and Executive
Director of the National Street Machine Club magazine-

“So when are you going to finish it?” My father’s
voice rang out as he entered the garage. I believe I’ve
heard those words as often as “So, what color are you
going to paint it?” and from far too many people to
recall.

Certainly dad could remember the many times I drove the
old Chevy over to visit, but the simple fact that the old
car was all apart again seemed to cloud his memory of it.
I paused for a moment, in the same manner I had for the
countless others who asked the same question.

I explained, “Dad, it’s not a race to get it done quickly;
it’s a hobby.”

I could tell by the look on his face, as he scratched his
head and made his way to the refrigerator for a cold soda,
the thought of working on an old car simply for enjoyment
was something he never considered. I went on to explain,
“Just because it’s done, doesn’t mean I can’t take it
apart and make it better.” He mumbled something, before
coming to rest on the stool next to the workbench.

I grabbed the new driveshaft to mate the 4L60 transmission
to the new nine-inch Ford rear axle and slid beneath the
old Chevy. As I snaked the driveshaft around the rear axle
and through the driveshaft loop, I couldn’t help but think
how our hobby compares to others. I suspect no one has ever
questioned a golfer as to why they have played the course
more than once because it’s assumed they want to improve
their skills and achieve a better score. Nor does anyone
question the fisherman who returns to the same lake, and
often the spot, in pursuit of a bigger fish.

As I slid the U-bolts into the rear axle yoke and called
out for a half-inch wrench, it occured to me that maybe the
difference lies in the simple fact that so many consider car
repairs to be “work”, and certainly nothing about the task
that is seen as work could be enjoyable unless it is completed.
While the prospect of clubbing plastic balls around someone
else’s lawn, then chasing after them, only to club them again
seems more like work to me, the biggest difference may be how
others perceive our chosen hobby.

The distictive ring of a half-inch Craftsman wrench sliding
accross the concrete toward my head returned my attention to
the task at hand. Dad soon called out again, “I gotta go!”
As he turned the knob on the garage door, he stopped to ask,
“So when are you going to finish it?”
————————————-

Amen! It’s a matter of, if we have to explain it, you
wouldn’t understand. We thank Mr. Mark Simpson for his
insightful look at our crazy hobby. Comments on this, or
anything else, are welcome.

Helpful Hints

We feel another public service piece is in order, so we’ll offer
the following thoughts. A few were sent to us, the rest we just
think make sense. These are common sense solutions to everyday
problems, and are free or cheap.

1. If you can’t fix it with a hammer, it’s an electrical problem.

2. If it works use it, if it doens’t work, paint it gray.

3. A mouse trap placed on top of the alarm clock will stop you
from hitting the snooze button, rolling over, and being late
for work.

4. In the kitchen, to avoid cutting yourself when you chop up
vegetables, have someone else hold the vegetable while you cut.

5. For marital happiness; you can avoid arguements with the wife
about leaving the seat up by just using the sink.

6. For when you’re sick; if you have a really bad cough, take a
lot of laxitives and you’ll be too scared to cough.

7. When in doubt, keep quiet. It’s better to have people think
you’re a idiot than open your mouth and remove all doubt.

8. To make someone’s day when they have a flat on their car just
reassure them it’s only flat on the bottom.

We’ll end with a thought for the day-
Some people are like slinkies- not really good for anything, but
they bring a smile to your face when pushed down the stairs.

We can’t be sure all these will work, but the few we’ve tried
do. Comments on just about anything are welcome.