dogscatskidslife: University Bounty Hunters… Earn $100/head.

TJ has a very informative post about the general atmosphere on a large number of our college campuses.

My own sons tell me that there are some “social science” courses in which you will only get a decent grade if you parrot the PC correctness (or liberal bent) behind the intructor’s views …

And you know, I don’t think it starts in college, either … that’s one of the reasons why I homeschooled my own kids for a large part of their education.

First the bane: In the last post, I said that we were expecting a bit of wind, and that I thought we might lose power for a while … well … the “while” turned out to be 9 hours and 40 minutes. You should see what it’s like up here when have some serious weather problems.

And now the boon: Had a happy coincidence … unexpected checks from my student loans have made it possible for me to order a nice new lap top. I’m still shaking my head in amazement. When I got up this morning, there was an envelope from college - with a check in it. I was so stunned, I even forgot to drink my coffee!!! I set one of my sons to doing some research for the best lap top I could get for that amount … and he promptly found me several very nice options. For all of my fellow computer nerds, here’s the one he chose for me … and from which I’ll be doing my schoolwork (and blogging! :) …

Specifications

Model
Brand Acer
Series Aspire
Model AS5003WLMi
Part# LX.A5106.004

General
Operating System Windows XP Professional
CPU Type AMD MT-32(1.8GHz)
Screen 15.4″ WXGA TFT
Memory Size 1GB DDR
Hard Disk 100GB
Optical Drive DVD±R/RW
Graphics Card SiS Mirage 2
Communication Modem, LAN and WLAN
Card slot one Type II card
Battery Life 3.0 hours
Dimensions 14.3″ x 11.0″ x 1.5″
Weight 6.2 lbs
Tech Turion64 Mobile Technology

CPU
CPU Type AMD Turion 64
CPU Speed MT-32(1.8GHz)
CPU FSB up to 1600MHz system bus
CPU L2 Cache 512Kb

Operating Systems
Operating System Windows XP Professional

Chipset
Chipset SiSM760GX

Display
Screen Size 15.4″
LCD Features CrystalBrite Technology
Display Type Wide XGA
Resolution 1280 × 800

Graphics
GPU/VPU SiS Mirage 2
Graphic Type Integrated Card

Hard Drive
HD Capacity 100GB

Memory
Memory Slots 2x DIMM
Memory Speed DDR333
Memory Size 1GB
Max Memory Supported 2GB

Optical Drive
Optical Drive Type DVD±R/RW
Optical Drive Interface Integrated

Communications
Modem V.92 56K
LAN 10/100Mbps
WLAN 802.11b/g Wireless LAN, BlueTooth

Ports
Card Slot one Type II card
Video Port 1 x VGA
Audio Ports Microphone/line-in jack
Headphones/speaker/line-out port

Input Device
Touchpad Yes
Keyboard 88 keys

Power
Battery 8-cell lithium ion
Battery Life up to 3.0 hours life depending on configuration and usage

Physical spec
Dimensions 14.3″ x 11.0″ x 1.5″
Weight 6.2 lbs

Morning greetings from the frozen wastes of Maine!

Actually, things are warming up, and we’re supposed to get some rain. Well, more than “some” rain. We’re supposed to get a lot of rain. Actually … 2 inches or more! Since 1 inch of rain roughly translates into 1 foot of snow, I’m relieved that it’s going to be rain! We’re also supposed to get high winds, and I expect we’ll lose power today - at least for a while. That seems to happen quite often here now.

I wanted to take a minute to post, because my poor little lap top is booting up harder and harder every day, and often leaves me in mid-sentence staring at the blue screen of death once it does come up, so I could end up taking an extended “vacation” from my blog. My Linux partition still seems to work - the problems seem to eating away at my Windows system. The bad feature there is that I need my Windows system in order to attend my online classes … so those of you who are praying types, whisper one for my poor little ‘puter, eh? It needs to hold out for a while longer …

Here is an article that struck a nerve this morning:

Abdallah of Jordan: Don’t empty Jerusalem of its Christian population

I have Christian friends in Jerusalem who haven’t worked in over three years … I don’t know if people realize what the lack of tourists to the Holy Land has done to the Christians there. They are an extremely tiny percent of the population, and have been caught in the middle of the ongoing violence and political mayhem between the Israelis and the Palestinians.

The Cheerful Oncologist :: The Good Outcome - An Allegory :: January :: 2006

The Cheerful Oncologist is at it again with a beautiful allegory which is almost guaranteed to bring tears to your eyes.

Take a minute or two to go over there and read it through.

Rosalind Peterson — Experimental Weather Modification Bill on Fast Track

All of those who have so far looked down their noses at “that silly sci-fi” stuff are in for quite a ride in our actual future … which may get every bit as interesting as even the most surreal sci-fi’s.

This weather experimentation could be worthwhile in the long run, but I predict that if they really do go ahead with it, we’re going to have a seriously bumpy ride in the interim.

Katrina? You ain’t seen nothing yet!

As the “age of discovery” accelerates, we’re going to experience a concurrent “age of oopsies!” Our discoveries are often achieved after a long string of “trial and error” failures …

The downside of that is: we need to survive the process in order to reap the benefits of our research.

I’ll have to research the bill and see if it really entails what the article is implying …