UN-INSPIRED

Last week someone gave one of my co-workers a free sample of a product called “Inspire” which was a card-like object designed to be inserted into a cigarette pack. It was claimed that this would, over a period of time, make the tobacco less “harmful” by chemically altering it.

These claims seemed rather dubious, but having gotten this item free, my co-worker tried it out. A short time later, she noticed what appeared to be a cold sore on her lip. While it’s possible it was coincidental, she could think of no other cause.

I did a bit of reserch on this product. It comes from China, and lists its ingredients:

“blend of 13 powders pressed within the plastic covers of the card. The powders include infrared powder, magnetic powder, hemoglobin powder, anion exchange resin, diethyl carbonate, fat and other polymers refined and purified from HDNA factor. “

What “infrared” powder is was not at all clear.

“Hemoglobin powder is freeze-dried hemoglobin for use in preparing microbiological culture media.
Hemoglobin Powder is obtained from desiccated beef blood”

anion-exchange resin:
“An insoluble organic polymer containing cation groups that attract and hold anions present in a surrounding solution in exchange for anions previously held.” (An anion is a negatively charged ion.)

diethyl carbonate: ” Stable. Flammable. Incompatible with strong acids, strong bases, reducing agents, oxidizing agents. Protect from moisture.
Toxicology: May be harmful by inhalation, ingestion or through skin contact. Eye, skin and respiratory irritant. May be a reproductive hazard. “

None of these ingredients “inspired” a lot of confidence, especially the last one.

As for the HDNA factor, the company says “High definition is in our DNA”.
Does this mean they are genetically predisposed to own expensive televisions?

They give this explanation of their product:
“Upon opening the seal and placing the card in the cigarette pack, heat absorption causes slow release of the contents of the powders that infiltrate the cigarettes and alter the molecular and physical properties of tobacco. The powders bind to nicotine, tar and other chemical in the cigarette altering the combustion process. The tobacco burns at a reduced temperature, leading to modification in the combustion products. Consequently, nicotine, tar, formaldehyde, hydrogen cyanide, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (carcinogens), and other harmful substances are retained in the ashes and less get emitted in the smoke that enters the lungs and the body.”

Exactly how this is accomplished, they don’t say. Also unsaid is what sort of research was done to assure that this chemical mix does not make the cigarette MORE harmful.

If anone has the knowledge to evaluate this invention, feel free to enlighten me. Until then, I suggest keeping your tobacco unadulterated.

-cosmic rat 8/5/2011

If You Can’t Read My Question, You Probably Won’t Answer

I’ve been interacting with computers since the mid-80′s, not counting a FORTRAN course in 1965. I’ve gotten to know them pretty well. Computers seem to sense this; often they’ll talk to me so I can help them get over their problems.

Just as with people, communication is important. A computer won’t answer if it can’t hear the question.

A friend tried to install a wireless keyboard and mouse to his computer running Vista. He used the installation CD. The wireless keyboard and mouse both failed to work, so he replaced them with the original keyboard and mouse, which used the PS2 ports. They didn’t work either.

This presented a frustrating situation, both for my friend and for the computer. It had a tragic condition even worse than that of Helen Keller.

When I examined the situation, I noticed that the installation disk specified XP, but not Vista. This may have been the cause, and if it was it indicates some careless programming by Microsoft.

I rebooted it and accessed the bios, noting that the PS2 keyboard worked just fine there, since Vista was not yet running the show. Then I tried “safe mode”. No keyboard; no mouse. It seems odd that even in safe mode there is no failsafe keyboard or mouse driver.

Normally, at least in XP, you can plug in a USB mouse along with a PS2 mouse and they’ll both work. You could have a mouse for each hand to multi-task with both sides of your brain if you wanted to.

Next I booted the computer with a Puppy Linux CD, and of course the keyboard and mouse worked perfectly. I could read and edit any file on the hard drive. Unfortunately it is no longer as simple, even in XP, as editing win.in or system.ini. With enough time I could probably devise a script that would make the proper change in the registry at boot-up.

The easier fix should be to system-restore at a point before the attempt to install the Kensington mouse and keyboard, and to allow choosing that point with at least a working keyboard, a Vista emergency boot disk would be needed. I have downloaded and burned one for my friend, and hope, when he tries it, that this will work.

–cosmic rat June 10 2011

China’s Help with North Korea

China Addresses Rising Korean Tensions

-NY Times, 11/27/2010

If you read and understood that, you will see that China has given us exactly the help we needed to de-fuse the Korean situation that we created.

Anyone who is disappointed that the Chinese didn’t publically criticize North Korea is not thinking realistically. To take the US side against their ally in their own back yard would be seen as weak and a betrayal. Whatever advice they have for North Korea will be kept private.

So why haven’t we heard that our State Department has responded “Yes, now that you mention it, perhaps we should postpone those maneuvers.”, or something to that effect?

We should be grateful that China has given us a valid reason for that change in plans; that now we can say we are doing so out of respect for the wishes of the Chinese, in the interest of continued good relations…and not because North Korea has made threats.

It should not take much deep thought to realize that when it is desirable to calm a situation that could get out of control, running around making loud noises and extending the middle finger is probably not the best plan.

That is essentially what we have been doing with periodic war games activities with South Korea’s military, intended as an intimidating reminder of our presence and interests, and gestures of disapproval of North Korea’s nuclear weapons development. Since the end of the Cold War we have worked to maintain tension between the Koreas enough to justify maintaining our base and troops there.

It is the sort of international power game better left unplayed, or at least done much more carefully, since it we are placing the lives of South Koreans at risk when we go too far.

President Clinton took a much more intelligent approach to North Korea in the effort to divert their nuclear weaponization program. A major problem in that country is an energy shortage. The light-water reactor they just completed was originally to be done with US assistance as part of a deal to dismantle their reactor being used to produce weapons-grade plutonium.

The advantage of being a helpful and cooperative nation in the development of peaceful nuclear energy is that it facilitates monitoring their use and inspection and forms the basis of a friendly relationship, rather than attempting to intimidate and economically punish the other country for pursuing its own. The hostility of that tactic increases incentive to develop weaponry, and reduces trust.

For the immediate situation, the best course should be absolutely clear. Listen to the helpful request from China: suspend the war games.

–cosmic rat  11/27/2010

Restoring American Justice

American justice is alive and well and has once again triumphantly asserted itself today:
November 17, 2010: “A federal jury convicted Ahmed Ghailani of one count of conspiracy to destroy U.S. property and acquitted him on more than 280 other counts, including one murder count for each of the 224 people killed in the embassy bombings. The anonymous jurors deliberated over seven days.”
Whether Ghallani might have been guilty of more, or not guilty of anything is not the question I am considering here.  The jury has decided, and no one but the jury had the right to decide.
Naturally there are complaints from those who already felt that the American system of justice is much too fair; those who believe that an accused terrorist must be a guilty terrorist, and anyone who questions that must be one too.
Those are the kinds of people who join lynch mobs, or favor dictatorships who dispense verdicts arbitrarily regardless of the law.
Justice does not begin with the trial in court.  It depends on the correct procedures being followed for arrest, gathering and handling of evidence, and the rights to an attorney and to avoid self-incrimination being assured.

It should go without saying that justice cannot include torturing a suspect.  Confessions made in order to get the pain to stop are not credible evidence of anything.
“In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial…”  Thus begins the Sixth Amendment.   “Speedy” may be subject to some interpretation, but 9 years certainly isn’t it.
The decision to imprison terror suspects in Guantanamo without  indictment, trial, or legal counsel for many years; the decision to torture some of them; the decision to declare some evidence secret and therefore unusable– these are what make the truth harder to determine when the trial finally happens.
Yet even with these handicaps, a fair trial can and has been conducted.  Finally, for one of the accused detainees, we can say that justice has been done.  To say that a jury of New Yorkers would let a terrorist off easy is absurd.  Yet they took their job seriously and convicted him only on what the prosecutor was able to prove.The rest of those who are still imprisoned without trial cannot be presumed guilty of anything.  They are still only accused suspects.  We will not know whether they are guilty or innocent until their trials are held.
Some of those suspects in future trials may be found innocent.  We may find it embarrassing that we have imprisoned some innocent persons for many years, and we should.  A lesson must be learned.
Each trial, regardless of the outcome, will serve to remind us how important how important justice is to our country.  We were manipulated into abandoning our some of the most important protections of our Constitution by authoritarians.Now, justice is back.  Let’s make sure it stays.

-cosmic rat  11/17/2010

A Word to the Unmotivated Progressives

Democrats, liberals, and progressives:

We elected Barack Obama enthusiastically, not just as the only alternative to the disaster waiting to happen that John McCain and Sarah Palin would have been.  Our enthusiasm was based on a strong hope of a serious and long-needed alteration of the way America related to the rest of the world, and a hope for laws and policies that would protect all Americans from the greed and influence of corporate power.

We also elected as many Democrats as possible to help get this done.  Those of us who were realistic knew that none of this would be easy, and that the new President and Congress faced unprecedented problems, most of ithem the direct result of the incompetence and malfeasance of George W. Bush and Dick Cheney, though some of the economic disaster was the culmination of the policies begun by Ronald Reagan.

Nevertheless, some of us were disappointed at the continuation of the Afghan war, a conflict just as pointless as the one in Iraq.  We are disappointed that Guantanamo is not yet closed, and that too few war crimes have been prosecuted.

Still, despite an extreme and heavily corporate-funded full-scale attack by the right wing, the record of achievement of Obama and Congress has been impressive.  Not everything; not perfect, but better than any other President has done in so short a time.

Now that right-wing attack threatens to cripple further progress.  Under normal conditions, the extremists running as Republicans wouldn’t stand a chance, but 10 percent unemployment is not normal conditions.
That figure, last seen during the Reagan administration, makes enough people nervous and unhappy that they listen to any opposition, no matter how untruthful that opposition may be.

We know that unemployment can’t be fixed overnight.  We know it is the result of a Republican caused recession.  And we know that Democratic policies will improve the economy sooner than Republicans would.

But because the economy isn’t fixed yet, more people will believe lies because they are looking for someone new to blame.

Regardless of any disappointment we may have, this is no time to abandon the cause of progress.  The alternative is not just lack of progress, it is regression: going backward.  Backward into the bigotry of yesteryear, the authoritarian control over our private lives; the cold disregard for the needy; the loyal service to corporate wealth.

Two years is not nearly enough time on which to base a judgment of a President and a Congress, especially not in the middle of a recession, and not when we are being attacked with ever dollar and every lie the Republicans can muster.

We still have the structure of a government of and by the people.  The extent to which the people are not in control is exactly as much as we fail to care, fail to act; fail to vote.

They have the hate, the money, and the greed, but we have the numbers to save our dream; to save our country.

Let’s do it.

-cosmic rat, October 27, 2010

I’m a Migrant

A migrant blogger, I am. A refugee from the doomed Live Spaces that was MSN’s.  Why they’re closing it, I do not know.  I doubt that Microsoft is running short of funds or server drive space.  Perhaps they experienced constant problems because they tried to run it on Windows.

So, like a migrant field worker I must cross the border from the empty Spaces, wordily pressing on, driven to assure the survival of ideas.

My metaphor is not meant to make light of the plight of a real migrant worker.  On the contrary, I support their cause.  No human being should ever be called “illegal” just for being where he or she is and needs to be in order to work for a living.

Those who speak of securing borders are barbaric mongers of xenophobia, which they usually exploit for political gain.  Arizona, my state of residence, contains more than its share of  such politicians, like Jan Brewer

–cosmic rat, 10/22/2010

 

IS THE PEN OR THE SWORD MIGHTIER?

No statement is absolutely true, including this one.

That’s something to keep in mind when asking, and answering, questions.
What is your definition of "mighty"?  Obviously you can kill more people with a sword, and with pen you write the words that start the swords, and the words that stop them.  You can dip a blade in blood and write with it, if that appeals.  It is not the instrument you use, but the hand and mind that control it.

Essentially, we, the human race, must recognize when we are being stupid, and find the determination to use our intelligence to avoid the stupidity.  It is a human paradox that we can be stupid and intelligent at the same time, even using our intelligence to create bigger and more disastrous tools to be stupid with.

Did it TAKE war to result in an outcome, or is that simply what we used?

We Americans had a war for independence.  Canada didn’t.

We had a bloody war that ended slavery.  Slavery ended almost everywhere else without a war.

Though there was no way to stop Hitler’s aggression without war, his was a movement resulting from an unnecessary world war before him, which was worsened by US involvement.

War leads to more war.  So does injustice– imposing unfair conditions by means of military or economic dominance.

Ironically, our worst weapon may have resulted in more peace, by forcing us to THINK, finally, of the intolerable consequences of using it in war.  Perhaps it would be wisest for us to insist that all capable nations possess nuclear weapons.

Of course our clever stupidity enabled smaller and equally unjustifiable wars in Vietnam, Afghanistan, and Iraq (twice), and use of dominance many times to impose injustice, humiliation, and hardship in several places.  It is easier to have war when you have enemies, and we’ve created plenty of motivated potential enemies.

To answer the original question, the pen, guided by true intelligence and rational thought, can inspire the same in others, teaching the values and advantages of harmonious cooperation rather than conflict, of thinking of the whole rather than only one part, of equality and tolerance.

The sword can end the lives of men, women, and children, and bring misery and sorrow to the survivors.  And anger; more swordplay…and so it goes.

My answer should be clear.  Yours is up to you.