Author: coastcontact

I am a somewhat cranky but mostly optimistic 65 plus who refuses to give up on this maddening world. The purpose of this BLOG is to express my feelings, thoughts.

Stop Censorship

Join Our Censorship Protest!

by Jane Wells

Have you been paying attention to all the hubbub online about the proposed U.S. legislation (SOPA/PIPA) that threatens internet freedom? I wrote about it last week over on WordPress.org, but the gist is this: there’s a bill in the U.S. Senate that if passed would put publishing freedom severely at risk, and could shut down entire sites at the whim of media companies. Fight for the Future created this nifty video to sum it up better than I can.

http://vimeo.com/31100268

On January 18, 2012, sites all over the internet will be blacking out to protest and try to mobilize more people to speak out against this bill coming up in the Senate next week — S. 968: the Protect IP Act (PIPA) — in an attempt to let U.S. lawmakers know how much opposition there is. WordPress.org, Wikipedia, and even WordPress.com VIP I Can Has Cheezburger? will be participating in the blackout to raise awareness and spur you to action.

Here on WordPress.com, we want to participate as well. Freshly Pressed will be blacked out during the strike. Sorry to take away your daily fix of yummy web content, but this bill threatens to do that on a much wider scale. You don’t want that, do you?

More importantly, we are making it possible for you to participate in the protest. There are two options: a “Stop Censorship” ribbon and a full blackout. The blackout portion will be in effect January 18 from 8am to 8pm EST, while the ribbon will be displayed until January 24. Here’s how to join in:

  • Go to Settings → Protest SOPA/PIPAin your dashboard.
  • Select if you want to join the blackout or show a ribbon.
  • If you choose to join the blackout, you can edit the message that will be shown on your site during the blackout.
  • Preview what your protest will look like.
  • Click “Save Changes” button to activate your protest.

That’s it! Easy-peasy activism right at your fingertips.

The “Stop Censorship” ribbon will display in the upper corner of your site and links to americancensorship.org. It will display until January 24, 2012 (the Senate vote date).

If you choose to do the blackout in addition to the ribbon, then we will black out your site from 8am to 8pm EST along with the official strike. You can customize the message that will appear on your blacked-out site to tell people why this issue is important to you. Your site will return to just displaying the ribbon after the strike is over.

I hope that a significant number of you on WordPress.com will join in this protest. Publishing freedom is a right we must protect.

And one last pitch: whatever you decide to do about your site, please take a few minutes to head over to americancensorship.org and take action. It only takes a few moments of your time to be an agent of change!

The Last Voyage

  

I have seen the movie “Titanic” twice, “The Last Voyage” once, and “The Poseidon Adventure” many times.  They are very suspenseful and entertaining with wonderful casts.  They are one of the reasons I won’t take a cruise.

Three bodies were recovered from the sea and news reports said 69 people were still unaccounted for after the Costa Concordia ran aground off the tiny island of Giglio near the coast of Tuscany late Friday, tearing a 160-foot (50-meter) gash in its hull.  (The final death count is 32 people.)

“Have you seen ‘Titanic?’ That’s exactly what it was,” said Valerie Ananias, 31, a schoolteacher from Los Angeles who was traveling with her sister and parents on the first of two cruises around the Mediterranean. They all had dark red bruises on their knees from the desperate crawl they endured along hallways and stairwells that were nearly vertical, trying to reach rescue boats.

Passengers complained the crew failed to give instructions on how to evacuate and once the emergency became clear, delayed lowering the lifeboats until the ship was listing too heavily for many of them to be released.

By morning Saturday, the ship was lying virtually flat off Giglio’s coast, its starboard side submerged in the water.

Helicopters plucked to safety some 50 people who were trapped on the ship, some survivors were rescued by boats in the area, and an official said some people jumped from the ship.

Three bodies were recovered from the sea and news reports said 69 people were still unaccounted for after the Costa Concordia ran aground off the tiny island of Giglio near the coast of Tuscany late Friday, tearing a 160-foot (50-meter) gash in its hull.

Survivors who escaped a luxury cruise ship that ran aground and tipped over recounted a scene reminiscent of “Titanic” on Saturday, describing a delayed then panicked evacuation, as plates and glasses crashed around them and they crawled along upended hallways trying to reach safety.

Several passengers said crew members for a good 45 minutes told passengers there was a simple “technical problem” that had caused the lights to go off. Seasoned cruisers, however, knew better and went to get their life jackets in their rooms and report to their “muster stations,” the emergency stations each passenger is assigned to, they said.

It wasn’t immediately known if the dead were passengers or crew, nor were the nationalities of the victims immediately known, Paolillo told The Associated Press in Romeby telephone from his command in the Tuscan port city of Livorno. It wasn’t clear how they died.

As dawn neared, a painstaking search of the 290-meter (950-foot) long ship’s interior was being conducted to see if anyone might have been trapped inside.

Say Goodbye to Point & Shoot Cameras

Ladies may carry a camera in their bag or purse but men usually don’t carry those things.  The cell phone is enough baggage for us guys.  Read this report from CES.

“AT&T will also sell Sony’s Xperia ion 4G LTE smartphone as the first smartphone to be sold under the Sony brand in the United   States. Launching in the second quarter, the Xperia ion is based on Gingerbread, and has a 4.6-inch HD display and a 12-megapixel camera.”  The source for this item is http://www.cioinsight.com/c/a/Latest-News/CES-ATT-Verizon-Sprint-Tout-Android-Smartphones-638610/?kc=CIOMINUTE01112012STR1TOC

Buying a New Car

I was a purchasing agent before retiring.  I held that position for seven years.  I like negotiating a “deal.”  So it was great fun shopping for a new car.  Unlike the previous two cars, that were used and bought from car rental companies that refuse to negotiate a price, I was now in the driver’s seat on pricing.  Translation: if you don’t want to negotiate I am going elsewhere.

However, car shopping is also a passion buy.  You see a car that is just what you want and suddenly that desire takes over your sense of reason.  That OMG moment hit both the lovely wife and me.  There was the car that was almost perfect.

The consequence was that I did not pin the salesman to the wall demanding the very lowest price.  That would be a price I may not have obtained.  However, I made an offer of 18% off the sticker price and he countered (after conferring with his boss) with a 13% off the sticker price.

XM radio and a Bose sound system makes my wife very happy.  Making your wife happy is more than half the battle!

Jobs Should Be Job One!

Neither the president nor the ambitious GOP candidates know how to fix the American economy.

Happily the total unemployment number improved in December bringing down the percentage of those still looking to 8.5%

The BLS summary included this statement. “The number of long-term unemployed (those jobless for 27 weeks or more) was little changed at 5.6 million and accounted for 42.5 percent of the unemployed. (See table A-12.)”

There is the crux of the problem.  Not one politician talks about this issue.  No wonder.  No one knows how to solve this problem.

Imagine you are 50 years or older and now are part of that 5.6 million people.  Your career is probably over.  If you have not found an alternate career that takes advantage of your prior experience you are most likely looking at low paying jobs in a new profession.  Who is likely to hire you when you are part of the older workers group?

I have been through all of this and understand the pain.  Fortunately I was able to utilize some of my prior experience.  For those who cannot there is no solution.

Hoping that the government will show the way is foolish.  Politics have ground the government to a near stop.

The next national election will be between “the audacity of hope” that failed and a list of GOP candidates that are focused on cultural issues.

Goodbye to America’s Middle Class!

The GOP Iowa Caucuses

Thanks to CNN, MSNBC, and Fox News we have all had an extreme over dose of Iowa.  It’s a small state of just over 3 million residence with over 88% non-Hispanic White people and a Black population of less than 3%.  Hardly a representation of America.  Of that 3 million people a little over 100,000 have voted in the GOP caucuses.  I wonder what the cost per vote was for each candidate.  Does anyone really care about the results in Iowa?  The cable networks care.

Four years ago Mike Huchabee won the primary.  That led no where so this year’s caucus has as much impact.  WOW!!

If nothing else the cable networks had lots of viewers and that earned them more advertising revenue.  Money was spent by all the news media and that is good for the economy.

Edging Towards War

Iran threatens Strait of Hormuz

US warns Iran against closing Hormuz oil route

Oil price falls as Saudis trump Iran threat

Is it saber rattling or is Iran and the United States moving towards war?  All of this is the consequence of American opposition to nuclear weapons development in Iran.  American politics is also pushing the Obama administration towards more assertive behavior when Republican candidates say that Brack Obama is too timid and apologetic when addressing the Iranian threat.

This is not the only place in the world where the United States has become more militarily assertive.  This past November at an economic Asian conference President Obama announced that “ About  250 U.S. Marines will begin a rotation in northern Australia starting next year, with a full force of 2,500 military personnel staffing up over the next several years.”  This is confrontation with China.  “Defense Secretary Leon Panetta has said that the goal of the new security pact is to signal that the U.S. and Australia will stick together in face of any threats.”  What threats have there been?

America’s military-industrial complex couldn’t be happier.  More war means more weapons.  The factories that hire thousands or people will be humming.  What a great way to boost our economy.

It was a Very Bad Year

Sadly, it was an ugly year.

Nature showed her worst side with an earthquake followed by a tsunami in Japan.  Meanwhile there were an extraordinary number tornadoes and earthquakes that occurred in the eastern United  States.

Dictators fell thanks to the Arab Spring but lives were lost and the Middle East is still in turmoil.  The dictator (president) of Syria is still killing his people.

America has left Iraq but the outcome of the effort is still in doubt.  Bombings and turbulence are rocking that country.

Iran and North Korea are on the same paths that strike fear into their neighbors.

The United States government has declared the recession is over but those that lost their jobs and significant home value have not recovered.

A debt crisis is impacting both Europe and the United States.  The U.S.had its own debt struggles. In August, Standard & Poor’s lowered the country’s long-term sovereign debt rating to AA+ from AAA. These are situations brought on by incompetent politicians.

America’s political system is deadlocked.

So what was the good news?

The one wonderful event was the marriage of Kate Middleton to Prince William.

Unemployment is down and American car sales are up.

The movie, “It’s A Wonderful Life” is a message of hope.