FUN: Drink your pickle juice

Wednesday, October 23, 2013

http://www.care2.com/greenliving/yes-you-can-and-should-reuse-pickle-juice.html

Yes, You Can (And Should!) Reuse Pickle Juice
Katie Waldeck
October 19, 2013
3:15 pm

*** begin quote ***

Tossing out pickle juice is always a little sad — all that flavor, all that hard work down the drain! Sure, you can reuse pickle juice for your next pickling project, but there are plenty of other things to do with it, both edible and not! Packed with salt and vinegar, it’s no surprise that the stuff is great for recycling. Here are some ideas:

Cooking:

Flavor salad dressings and sauces. Use the pickle juice in lieu of vinegar in recipes.
Add it to mac and cheese!
Liven up soups.
Flavor bland veggies. Drizzle over some steamed or roasted veggies for a great flavor boost.
Lighter boiled potatoes. Add a generous dash of pickle juice to the the boiling water. The flavor works so well, you can skip all the fattening and unhealthy extras like sour cream, mayo, butter, and added salt.
Pickle-y cheese. Marinate soft white cheese in pickle juice for a great tangy appetizer.
Drink it! Try a pickletini. Seriously, it’s a real thing.

*** end quote ***

I do. Drink it that is. Maybe I like it because, like my LOVE of bacon, it served a need for a nutrient my body requires?

Maybe that’s the reason for my happy smiling disposition?

So many questions; so few answers.

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RANT: Canceling so-called “guaranteed issue” policies

Tuesday, October 22, 2013

http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:http://www.kaiserhealthnews.org/Stories/2013/October/21/cancellation-notices-health-insurance.aspx&strip=1

Thousands Of Consumers Get Insurance Cancellation Notices Due To Health Law Changes
By Anna Gorman and Julie Appleby
KHN Staff Writers
Oct 21, 2013

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Some Policies Targeted

Both Independence and Highmark are cancelling so-called “guaranteed issue” policies, which had been sold to customers who had pre-existing medical conditions when they signed up. Policyholders with regular policies because they did not have health problems will be given an option to extend their coverage through next year.

Consumer advocates say such cancellations raise concerns that companies may be targeting their most costly enrollees.

They may be “doing this as an opportunity to push their populations into the exchange and purge their systems” of policyholders they no longer want, said Jerry Flanagan, an attorney with the advocacy group Consumer Watchdog in California.

Insurers deny that, saying they are encouraging existing customers to re-enroll in their new plans.

“We continue to cover people with all types of health conditions,” saidHighmark spokeswoman Kristin Ash.

She said some policyholders who may have faced limited coverage for their medical conditions will get new plans with “richer benefits” and the policies “in most cases, will be at a lower rate.”

Paula Sunshine, vice president of marketing with Independence, said the insurer hopes the cancelled policyholders will “choose Blue when they decide on a new plan.”

 *** end quote ***

Wow, Big Insurance gets to dump their “losers” on the Taxpayers and get all the healthy youngsters FORCED to buy their over-priced products. What could be wrong with that?

Remind you of Wall Street!

Suckers!!!!

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RANT: google does evil!

Tuesday, October 22, 2013

http://perezhilton.com/2013-10-19-taylor-swift-google-heart-sign-patent-stolen#sthash.Xgu7pUf9.dpbs

Taylor Swift Heart Sign Stolen! Patented By Google!
10/19/2013 6:01 AM ET | Filed under: Legal Matters • Tech Talk • Taylor Swift • GIFs

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Is Taylor Swift going to have to stop using her iconic heart hands?

Taylor has practically trademarked the lovely bit of sign language over the years, but Google decided to do her one better and patent it! For realz!

Google patented the “heart-hand gesture” for use with their new Google Glass technology, allowing people to use the sign to “like” things they see through the lenses.

*** end quote ***

Sorry, but how can Google “patent” something that is “prior art”?

Hope that I’m on the jury for that one!

They lose. (As well as all of the other stupid stuff that gets “patented”!!!)

Argh!

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CLOUD: Yahoo Mail Plus

Monday, October 21, 2013

Thanks for being a loyal Yahoo Mail Plus user!

We wanted to inform you about a few changes to Yahoo Mail and Yahoo Mail Plus.

Mail Plus will continue being ad free
Continue enjoying a clean inbox, without any graphical ads! All Yahoo Mail users will now be offered offline access with POP, mail forwarding, disposable address and extra filters for free.

Your rate won’t change
As a loyal user, you are locked in at your rate of $19.99 per year until you cancel the service. New users will pay $49.99 for Ad Free Mail. If you choose, you can cancel your Mail Plus service anytime at http://wallet.yahoo.com.

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Argh! Now I can struggle with keep it active or drop it.

I am getting a “bargain”!

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TINFOILHAT: The Girl in the stairs

Sunday, October 20, 2013

http://www.wnd.com/2013/10/girl-on-the-stairs-refutes-p-c-jfk-narrative/

WND EXCLUSIVE
‘Girl on the stairs’ refutes ‘P.C.’ JFK narrative
Remarkable testimony dismissed by Warren Commission, Bill O’Reilly

Read more at http://www.wnd.com/2013/10/girl-on-the-stairs-refutes-p-c-jfk-narrative/#ukdycVmq3xK96TzM.99

*** begin quote ***

The Girl in the stairs

Victoria Elizabeth Adams, a 22-year-old employee of textbook publisher Scott Foresman watched the JFK motorcade from the fourth floor of the Texas School Book Depository as it passed by.

After seeing the fatal head shot, Adams and co-worker Sandra Styles ran to the stairwell and raced down the stairs to the first floor, determined to get out the back of the building to see what they could find in the railroad yard behind the fence on the grassy knoll.

The key aspect of her testimony was that the stairway Adams took was the same stairway Lee Harvey Oswald would have had to have taken to get from the sixth floor to the lunchroom, where he was found by Baker and Truly.

Yet, Adams testified she saw and heard nobody else on the stairs at that time. She estimated the time between hearing the shots and leaving the window to head for the stairway was between 15 and 20 seconds. She estimated it took less than a minute to run down the stairs from the fourth floor to the first floor.

The problem was that Adams did not see Oswald passing her on the stairs; see testified she did not hear anyone else on the stairs when she was running down.

Investigative reporter Barry Ernest describes in his book “The Girl on the Stairs” his 35-year search to find and interview Victoria Adams.

When he finally found her in 2002, Adams repeated for him her story in person. She explained how various government officials, including the Dallas Police Department, had harassed her over her testimony.

She produced for Ernest a 1964 letter her attorney had written to L. Lee Rankin, the chief counsel for the Warren Commission, complaining that someone had made changes in her deposition, altering her meaning.

She explained to Ernest that she left Dallas after the assassination because she was seeking to disappear.

“Remember, though, I was a very young woman at the time (22 years old) and believed in my government,” she told Ernest. “Because of the strange circumstances and discounting of my statements, my multiple questioning by various government agencies and the Warren Commission’s conclusions, I lost my starry-eyed beliefs in the integrity of our government. And I was scared, too. I was a young lady alone with no family or friend support at the time.”

Reviewing with Ernest her testimony as published in the Warren Commission volumes, Adams insisted her testimony had been altered.

“The freight elevator had not moved, and I did not see anyone on the stairs,” she insisted to Ernest.

When Ernest asked her why the Warren Commission never called Sandra Styles to testify, Adams speculated, “Looking backwards I think they didn’t want to corroborate any evidence.”

Yet, the record is clear. There is no photograph showing Lee Harvey Oswald on the sixth floor during the JFK shooting, and there is no testimony from anyone who worked in the building to suggest that he was there either.

The Warren Commission dismissed Victoria Adams, saying she must have come down the stairs later than she estimated – enough later that Oswald had already passed by.

But absent the strained explanation, the evidence points to the conclusion that Oswald was in the lunchroom of the Texas School Book Depository when JFK was assassinated, not on the sixth floor in the “sniper’s nest” where the Warren Commission insisted he had to have been.

*** end quote ***

Sorry, but repeating the Warren Commission fabrication, is not what I would expect from O’Reilly.

This is a national disgrace.

I wonder if short of the Pearly Gates will we ever know the truth.

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HARDWARE: Crony Capitalist Microsoft subtly restrains trade

Saturday, October 19, 2013

http://www.tomshardware.com/news/nvidia-linux-basemosaic-ubuntu-parity,24519.html

Nvidia Removed Linux Driver Feature Due to Windows
By Kevin ParrishOCTOBER 3, 2013 1:28 PM – Source: Softpedia 
The reason seems a little contradictory.

*** begin quote ***

Softpedia points to a Nvidia Developer Zone forum post revealing that the company has removed a specific Linux feature as of the v310 drivers due to the Windows platform. A BaseMosaic user on Ubuntu 12.04 noticed a change in the number of displays that can be used simultaneously after upgrading from the v295 drivers to v310.

*** and ***

Yet in v295, the Ubuntu user was able to get four monitors up and running. So why was BaseMosaic altered to support only three monitors instead? Nvidia explains. “For feature parity between Windows and Linux we set BaseMosaic to 3 screens,” said “Sandpit” of Nvidia’s Linux team.

What’s interesting here is that Nvidia’s proprietary Windows driver has features not found in the Linux drivers, but the company will remove specific Linux-only features for “parity.” The comment indicates that the three-screen limit has nothing to do with a degradation of quality when using four screens, but a possible Microsoft request/demand.

Nvidia’s driver documentation states that BaseMosaic can be used to extend a single X screen transparently across all of the available display outputs on each GPU.

“This is like SLI Mosaic mode except that it does not require a video bridge connected to the graphics cards,” the notes read. “Due to this Base Mosaic does not guarantee there will be no tearing between the display boundaries. Base Mosaic is supported on all the configurations supported by SLI Mosaic Mode. It is also supported on Quadro FX 380, Quadro FX 580 and all G80 or higher non-mobile NVS cards.”

It will be interesting to see if Nvidia returns four-monitor support back to its Linux drivers, given that the reason for removing the feature seems a little contradictory.

*** end quote ***

Yeah, dumbing down the free market competitor is fair. But don’t do the something equivalent to the big guy.

Nvidia is taking a gamble.

Hope they pay for that decision.

Personally, I have placed them on my “Toshiba” list. Technology I will never buy. (Toshiba sold the US Navy sub quiet propeller design to Red China.) 

Like my “Jane Fonda” list, I have a very LONG memory.

Hope you all do too!

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POLITICAL: Sarvis for VA guv

Friday, October 18, 2013

NewImage

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RANT: “Phony” ceremonies

Friday, October 18, 2013

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2013/10/11/pentagons-stunning-admission-govt-has-held-phony-ceremonies-to-honor-fallen-u-s-soldiers-for-years/

GOVERNMENT
PENTAGON’S STUNNING ADMISSION: GOV’T HAS HELD ‘PHONY’ CEREMONIES TO HONOR FALLEN U.S. SOLDIERS FOR YEARS
Oct. 11, 2013 11:03am Billy Hallowell

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The Pentagon has admitted that dramatic repatriation ceremonies held at a Hawaii base have been fabricated to make it appear as though flag-draped coffins holding the remains of fallen U.S. soldiers were arriving that very day from old battlefields, NBC News reported.

In reality, the remains had already been sitting in American labs for months. The planes were also defunct and non-operational, so the notion that they carried the bodies back to the U.S. is an impossibility.

*** end quote ***

they sure fooled me. And I am <past tense synonym for urine output> off!

sorry, but I think the Congressman from the district, the Senator, and the President should be there when the remains return.

if that means “no golf” that day, then “tough <synonym for excrement>”!

Argh!

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RANT: My “concerns related to Syria” were to have the USA myob

Thursday, October 17, 2013

Dear Mr. Reinke,

 

Thank you for taking the time to contact me with your concerns related to Syria.

 

Since the April 2011 start of the Syrian conflict, more than 100,000 people have died, at least two million Syrians have become refugees according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), and approximately five million Syrians are internally displaced. Based on the evidence that I have seen as a member of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence and the evidence presented in the UN Chemical Weapons Report on Syria, I believe that there were chemical attacks in Syria, and that the Syrian regime used chemical weapons against its own people. The evidence clearly points to the Syrian government being responsible for the attacks, which is part of a pattern of chemical weapons use by the regime. The use of chemical weapons clearly violates international norms and rejects international agreements banning the use of chemical weapons.

 

This grave attack, which United Nations (UN) Secretary General Ban Ki Moon has called “a crime against humanity,” requires a strong international response. We need to send a clear message that this kind of atrocity cannot be repeated, and those who perpetrated these crimes must be held accountable. I support efforts undertaken by the United States and other countries to reinforce the prohibition on the use of chemical weapons.

 

On September 14, 2013, the United States and Russia agreed to a “Framework for Elimination of Syrian Chemical Weapons,” which creates a series of conditions for Syria to meet its stated obligation to give up its chemical weapons. It takes into account the Syrian government’s decision to apply to join the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC), which bans the development, production, stockpiling and use of these weapons. Syria is one of only five countries that has neither signed nor acceded to the CWC, and a specific condition of the U.S.-Russia framework is that Syria will accede to the CWC and commit to provisionally apply the Convention prior to its entry into force. Under the framework, international inspectors must be on the ground no later than November with an initial on-site inspection complete by the end of November. The Framework targets the complete elimination of chemical weapons material and equipment for the first half of 2014, and provides that if Assad fails to comply, this issue is referred to the United Nations Security Council (UNSC).

 

The adoption on September 27, 2013, by the full UNSC of a resolution that will ensure the Syrian regime’s compliance with its pledge to give up and destroy its chemical weapons is the most significant action by the Security Council since the start of the conflict in Syria, and I support this positive step. We should give this diplomatic route a chance to succeed as long as it is backed up with a credible use of force for non-compliance. Despite this positive trajectory, key issues remain. Implementation will be a challenge, and the Syrian government must meet tight deadlines. The international community, and the U.S. in particular, will need to verify Syria’s commitments, and inspectors must have unfettered and safe access to all chemical weapons sites. As past experience in Iraq has shown, this is not guaranteed, and we should continue to support longer term international efforts to resolve the crisis in Syria by political means.

 

As a member of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, I have closely watched the crisis in Syria unfold over several years. I will continue to work to support international resolution of the Syria conflict that respects U.S. interests and the challenges we face at home and abroad today.

 

Again, thank you for contacting me. For further information or to sign up for my newsletter please visit my website at http://warner.senate.gov.

 

Sincerely,
MARK R. WARNER
United States Senator

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A fat lot of good it did?

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INSPIRATIONAL: The second arrow

Thursday, October 17, 2013

http://feeds.feedburner.com/TheAtlantic

Earlier that day, our meditation teacher had suggested we avoid what she called the “Second Arrow.” In a classic sutra, the Buddha had said that if someone shoots you in the foot, don’t pick up the bow and shoot yourself in the foot again. Don’t make your suffering worse, in other words, by arguing with what’s so. That’s a Second Arrow. Accept pain. Don’t criticize yourself, or others, for feeling pain: that is a Second Arrow. Don’t regret what cannot be changed, or try to predict what cannot be known. By throwing their complex machinery into the path of death, my father’s doctors had shot my parents with a Second Arrow. And by trying too hard to shield my parents from suffering, I might be shooting myself—and them—with a Second Arrow as well.

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