Take Back the Tap

Posted on February 18, 2008 · Leave a Comment

Have you got love for tap water? Food & Water Watch is challenging college students from around the US to declare their love for tap water –– and get it on film. Breaking the bottled water habit means not only recognizing the health, environmental and economic costs of bottled water but also building renewed confidence in tap water that is safe and affordable. Show your love for tap water by participating in the I Heart Tap Water Video Contest!

So if you are, or if you have a kid in college, tell ‘em about it, and they just might walk away with the $1500 top prize.

(h/t to Sustainable Table)

Filed Under: Contest

Things that make you go, “WTF?”

Posted on February 18, 2008 · 2 Comments

OK, so unless you don’t read or watch the news, like ever, you know that there is a “dead” spy satellite that is coming down to earth.  You probably have even heard that the U.S. Government is planning on shooting it down.  But that is not the end of the story apparently.

First of all, can we talk about money for a second?  It is reportedly going to cost between $40 – $60 million dollars to shoot down this satellite!  Many people joke about the conversion rate of the U.S. Dollar to the Yen or the Peso, but it seems that we are quickly approaching a similar status, where the value of the U.S. Dollar is a joke.    Any undertaking, seems to now require millions and sometimes billions of dollars.

And speaking of a joke, thanks to the “Wild West President” that we currently have in office, other nations, most notably Russia and China are not happy about this.  Russia is claiming that these manuevers are part of a space arms race program, and China while not actually insinuating that this is a cover, has warned the U.S. against the plan to use the missle.  We could really do without another cold war right now, don’t you think?

Filed Under: Rantings, WTF Moments

Exert a little control

Posted on February 15, 2008 · 3 Comments

We all know it is dificult to exert control over your kids.  But there are certainly places where, regardless of what you or they want, you have to maintain some control.  And one of those places is certainly controlling how, where, and how long then spend on the Internet.  Yes, some obvious rules apply such as keeping computers that you allow the kids to use to be in common areas where it is easier to keep an eye on them.  But let us be honest for a moment.  Can you really keep an eye on them every second?  Do you really want to?

There are already of course some worthwhile programs out there like NetNanny, and they are even built in to some Anti-Virus packages these days (I know Symantec has it in their Suite, and I am pretty sure McAfee does as well).  But they all have costs.

For those either economically challenged, or just don’t need another expense (or just want another, possibly better) program, Crawler Parental Control software just might be worth taking a look at.  It does what the other programs do, prevents your children from visiting sites they should not be looking at, and prevents them from installing software (as an option) so that they can’t inadvertently install a virus.

What made me look at this originally was the other additional features that the package had, including ability to schedule time.  You can create pre-set periods of time that the computer can be used, both online and offline.  So, say if you want to limit you child to 1 hour of Web Surfing, but don’t mind if they are on the computer for 2 hours doing homework, you can set that up.  When time expires, they can not access anything any longer (without you entering a password to override it to allow more time).

This program is probably useless for teenagers and older that can find ways to circumvent the application, and there are some bugs and few things that are quirky, but for free it is worth checking out.  I put this on LatteGirl’s computer, and so far have been quite satisfied with the results.

You can see a more complete review of the product at Confessions of a freeware junkie.

Filed Under: Geek Speak, Kids Stuff

“Speed” Skating

Posted on February 14, 2008 · 1 Comment

From the first time she put on ice skates, LatteGirl has had a certain romance with it.  It has run hot and cold at times, but she has always returned to it.  For example, tt really picked up when she say the movie Ice Princess, but then faded for a while when she got into Soccer, but through each and everything else she has picked up, she has returned to ice skating.

Finally we agreed to get her some lessons and see how she does.  She missed the first couple of lessons due to a trip, and going to see the Hannah Montana movie.  So, this past Sunday when she went for the first time, we were concerned that she would be behind, and figured if she was having trouble keeping up that we would just withdraw her from the class and start her up with the next class.

Imagine our surprise, when at the end of the first class, she was asked along with several older girls to remain behind for a “test.”  This test is to determine if you are ready to leave the Stage 1 group and move on to specialized lessons with a “coach.”  Imagine the even bigger suprise when she passed, received her certificate for completing the class, and was assigned her coach.

Both LatteGirl and TheWife were both beaming with joy when they came home to tell me the news.  On the back of her certificate was the name of her coach, “Svetlana.”  At first I didn’t understand, but she was absolutely thrilled that despite having not met her that this person would be her instructor.  When I asked her why it was so great that this particular person was to be her coach, she reminded me of the movie Go Figure, and how  champions are always trained by Russian coaches.  I was going to point out that it was only a movie, and that there are certainly good and bad coaches in all nationalities, but I figured for one day, let her enjoy it and keep her focus.  She was so proud of the fact that she did “good enough” that not only did she “graduate” but that they saw fit to give her a Russian coach.  I just didn’t have the heart to tell her it was probably more of the luck of the draw.  (And then again, who knows, maybe I am wrong. )  Anyway, she is loving it, and isn’t that the point?

Filed Under: Kid Quotes, My Princess

Break the law, buy a Senator, get immunity

Posted on February 13, 2008 · Leave a Comment

Yesterday the U.S. Senate voted on a measure that would have stripped out immunity for the telcos that illegally assisted the government in spying on United States citizens.  It seems that in today’s day and age, you can break the law all you want, so long as you own enough politicians, becuase then they can say you do not have to face any penalties for commiting those crimes. 

The White House’s argument has been that the 40 some odd law suits currently pending in the courts could cause finanacial hardship for the telcos.  Well gee, how does the old saying go?  Don’t do the crime if you can’t pay the fine?  (yea I know, I am paraphrasing).  Perhaps they should have thought of this before they went ahead and broke the law.

So what Senators do the telcos own?  (And if your Senator is on this list, you may wish to contact him/her and ask Why they are supporting and providing immunity for criminals!)

Alexander (R-TN)
Allard (R-CO)
Barrasso (R-WY)
Bayh (D-IN)
Bennett (R-UT)
Bond (R-MO)
Brownback (R-KS)
Bunning (R-KY)
Burr (R-NC)
Carper (D-DE)
Chambliss (R-GA)
Coburn (R-OK)
Cochran (R-MS)
Coleman (R-MN)
Collins (R-ME)
Conrad (D-ND)
Corker (R-TN)
Cornyn (R-TX)
Craig (R-ID)
Crapo (R-ID)
DeMint (R-SC)
Dole (R-NC)
Domenici (R-NM)
Ensign (R-NV)
Enzi (R-WY)
Feinstein (D-CA)
Grassley (R-IA)
Gregg (R-NH)
Hagel (R-NE)
Hatch (R-UT)
Hutchison (R-TX)
Inhofe (R-OK)
Inouye (D-HI)
Isakson (R-GA)
Johnson (D-SD)
Kohl (D-WI)
Kyl (R-AZ)
Landrieu (D-LA)
Lieberman (ID-CT)
Lincoln (D-AR)
Lugar (R-IN)
Martinez (R-FL)
McCain (R-AZ)
McCaskill (D-MO)
McConnell (R-KY)
Mikulski (D-MD)

P.S.  Regardless of what your political leaning are… YES!  The Telcos are criminals.  If they weren’t, they would not need the cover of being given immunity.

Filed Under: Corporate sneaks, Political Parenting, Rantings
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