Homosexuality

Hmmmmmm...................

Well...............................

Difficult...........................

Okay, firstly I will say that I am a happily married straight guy with absolutely no homosexual tendencies.

So, what about gays? Well, we usually don't want to know about them but when the subject arises or we see them we are generally very opinionated. We straights generally talk or think about homosexuality as being an un-natural thing. I've been wrestling with the rights and/or wrongs in my mind for a long time and I experienced something that I had seen many times before, but it just did not sink in, that firmed up my views.

I was sitting on the verandah one afternoon a few weeks ago at my parents place having a few beers with my father. He has a grand total of two fully grown chickens that lay an egg each almost every day. Every afternoon they come past the verandah to scatch around in the garden but on the way one of them, and always the same one, agressively tries to ride the other, just as if she was a rooster, and it is always the same one doing the "riding". She is gay!!!!!!! No, her little brain is telling her that she's a rooster.

Conclusion: That chicken has never read a news paper or seen a pornographic movie or even gone to an all girls boarding school in her life. So, for that chicken homosexuality is a very natural thing. Homosexuality can be normal for those that are homosexual without being influenced by others.

Gay marriage? Well, I'll have to think about that one just a bit longer.

RSS Readers

I've been using RSS more and more as a form of receiving the information that I want to read about directly to my computer rather than wading through "Bookmarks" (Firefox and Opera) or "Favorites" (dear old IE).

I've played with quite a few ranging from the Online types, for example Yahoo and Google, to the Desktop varieties such as Thunderbird, principally an e-mail client, and Opera, a Browser that tries to do it all and then SharpReader and FeedDemon which are just readers. Oh, I also tried Firefoxes "Live Bookmarks". For one reason or another I just got fed up with them all.

The best was Thunderbird but it was buggy and also quite bandwidth hungry.

Then I discovered GreatNews. All I can say is that it is impressive even if it is still in Beta and still free!!!!

Bottom line is that an e-mail client is an e-mail client, a browser is a browser and a reader is a reader.

If you use Firefox then you need to get the extension Feed You Reader to make subscribing a breeze.

P.S. This is the first blog entry using Performancing so lets see how it goes.

P.P.S. Performancing is lovely..................... worked a treat. This is the future of blogging.

Nuclear Power - The Future?

What the hell is the fossil fuel alternative?

I've been thinking about this for some time and I believe that Nuclear Power is the way to go but there are some serious issues. I believe that they are not so serious anymore.

I've been running this by a few friends lately and they agree.

What are the issues?

1. Another Chernobyl. Technology has come a long way since then and, lets face it, the old Russian technology and methodology was never really up to sratch. There are many sucessful power plants around the world.

2. Nuclear waste. That is just soooo easy to solve. Firstly realize that the amount of waste per year per power plant is just so small. I have read figures of one plant producing less than a shoe box of waste per year. Let's say we have 10 x 200 litre drums of waste per year in the world. Why can't we just put it put it all into a rocket and point it to the sun. It will simply burn out long before it gets anywhere near it's destination and dissipate at tiny concentration levels into the universe.

3. Terrorists. Sure the plants are a target but put them out of harms way. Bury them into the ground or a hillside. Bombs don't penetrate very deep at all if they just hit the surface of the ground. They really need something serious like a nuclear bomb to penetrate much more than 6 metres deep. If they have a nuclear bomb then why waste it on a nuclear power station, better to just go straight for down town New York.

Am I wrong? What am I missing? Please comment.

Below is an article from a recent "The Bulletin with Newsweek". It seems that Australia is getting keen on the idea also.

Windows Update..........

Well, I'm back in Broadband land (Brazil) and out of the Indonesian jungles. I just completed my Windows Update that I started some weeks ago in Sumatera.

I did it through Firefox and not Internet Explorer using IE Tab which is, I think, just so cool!!!

Here's a screen shot!!

Aussie Gold!!

No, I'm not talking about the Olympics. I'm talking about GOLD, the real meaning of the word.

I was cleaning up my e-mails and found a mail from back in September of 2003 from my mate Pete. He had been out "west" earlier that year on a quest.

And this was his most significant "one hit" find.


So, a bit closer and it looks like this


220 grams or about Euro 2,500. A nice find to say the least!!!

Edit:
Woops that's not €2,500 but €3,337 based on yesterdays prices (or for our part of the world AUD 5,352).

Classic Rumsfeld

I was doing a bit of archive housekeeping on my PC today and found an article that I saved back in 2003.

Have a go at this:

Rumsfeld Ramble Wins 'Foot in Mouth' Award
Mon December 1, 2003 09:09 AM ET

LONDON (Reuters) - Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's curious statement at a press briefing was named on Monday as the year's most baffling comment by a public figure.

Rumsfeld, usually renowned for his uncompromising tough talking, was awarded the "Foot in Mouth" award for a confusing message which probably left his audience in the dark as to its meaning, Britain's Plain English Campaign said.

"Reports that say something hasn't happened are interesting to me, because as we know, there are known unknowns; there things we know we know," Rumsfeld told the briefing.

"We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns -- the ones we don't know we don't know."

John Lister, spokesman for the campaign which strives to have public information delivered in clear, straightforward English, said: "We think we know what he means. But we don't know if we really know."

Rumsfeld, whose boss President Bush is often singled out by language critics for his sometimes unusual use of English, took the booby prize ahead of a bizarre effort from actor-turned politician Arnold Schwarzenegger.

"I think that gay marriage is something that should be between a man and a woman," was the odd statement from the new California Governor.

Previous holders of the award include U.S. actress Alicia Silverstone and British chancellor Gordon Brown. Last year's winner was actor Richard Gere.

Internet Explorer Never More :)

If you've spent any time here at my blog you will already realize that I am not an Internet Explorer, or for that matter, a Micro$oft fan.

So far I have not used a better browser than Firefox by Mozilla and it just got heaps better (see the numerous links elsewhere in this blog).

IE Tab

This is a small extension that you can add to Firefox so that you can open a "non-compatible" Firefox site inside Firefox but using the Internet Explorer rendering "engine".

I just did a Windows Update from within Firefox.

Never again do you need to open Internet Explorer as a window.......... no matter what!!

Excellent!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Nice Burger!!

I was a bit hung over today after watching firstly the Wallabies get totally outplayed by England and then the All Blacks trounce the Irish. Stupid me I thought I'd try the local Indonesian Vodka, Manison.

Well going down was OK but the head later was not good.

So! I've laid up in the Hotel room all day and ordered a Hamburger with Cheese and Fries. I've had it before and it'd been quite a nice, hearty meal.

This is what turned up.





A Micro Burger!!!

Click on the photos for a larger view of a very small burger.

By the way, no cheese.............. I'm also holding that burger with the bread running left-right so it is appearing much larger than it really is.

The Meaning Of "Switchroom"

We stumbled across something during my latest "experience" that I thought was worth sharing.

Where I come from the meaning of the word switchroom is the room where inside all switchgear is installed.

Here in Indonesia we have found a new meaning of this word. It can also mean where switchgear is installed outside the room.

Maybe it was the On/Off switch for the plant or something, we haven't worked that out yet!!!!

And..............here it is:

I know it's a bit small but that is a 3 phase circuit breaker on the OUTSIDE of the switchroom door. So click on it to see a larger image.

World Series Baseball

I've been watching ESPN, Houston and Chicago, and I don't get it!

How is "World Series" defined?

Is the whole world of baseball defined as The United States of America or am I missing something?

I thought the Japanese and Cubans were pertty good.

Can someone me help here?

And how about the Chicago "White Sox". Does "sox" translate into "socks". If so then why do they play in "Black Sox"?

Looks like beards and spitting are "In" too.