My personal glimpse into the first half of the 21st Century for some yet to be known future
Sunday, February 07, 2021
Public Service Announcement from SNL
Saturday, February 06, 2021
3DEXPERIENCE World 2021 (Virtual Event)
February 6 to February 11 with Kendra Wardlow, Todd Blacksher, Kristen Wilson Syrek, Christopher Saller, Chinloo Lama, Alice Caspari, Daniel Ferrucci-Herzberg, Casey Gorman, Ed Gebo, Rachel Diane York, Eric Beatty, Mark Johnson, Kirby Downey, Dan Riffell, Robert Jost, Jonny Harrison, Karen Daley, Luke Daley, Mike Buchli, Cami Florence-Fredock, Rachael Naoum, Betty Baker, Jim Holtz, Will Gill, Matt Schmotzer, Mike Puckett and many others.
Due to the 2020 pandemic, 3DEXPERIENCE World 2021 was a Virtual Event. Fortunately, it garnered virtual attendance of over 35,000!
Friday, January 29, 2021
How to find your US representatives and tweet them
Twitter is a fact of life in politics these days in USA. Fortunately, that gives us an opportunity to contact our representatives on an open platform in a manner that is sorta like an open letter, with a limit of 240 characters. Contacting your representatives at both the state and federal level is fairly easy, and can even be grouped together into one tweet. The information below is meant for both experienced users (who can skip over comments on how to tweet) and new users.
All you need is a Twitter account and the Twitter handles of your representatives.
Once you have a Twitter account, get the names of your representatives.
- For your representative in the US House of Representatives, goto the Find Your Representative website.
- For your representatives in the US Senate, goto the Senate state map and click on your state.
- For your representatives within your state, do a Google search for "find my legislator [your state here]", without the quotes and replacing "[you state here]" with the state in which you live. One of the first two links in the search results should get you to the websites to find both your local state Representative and Senator. Although this step is optional, it is still important to let the political parties know at all levels where the people stand.
Tuesday, January 19, 2021
Bitcoin (cryptocurrency) Mining in Iran causes blackouts and smog?
2021, things will get better, right? Well...
In a strange dystopian twist last week, a story has been developing in Iran. Massive power disruptions have been sweeping across Iran. Apparently this has been an issue since January 13. At the time, the cause was unclear, as reported by GardWorld.
The dystopia is worse. Due to the demand on power over the past month, power plants in Iran have been forced to switch over to burning low-grade fuels oil, causing massive "toxic" smog around the capital city, as reported by Bloomberg. Other reports about increased smog go back to January 3.
Here's what makes the whole thing even more surreal. According to Iranian officials, a major contributing factor (in addition to the unusually cold winter) is apparently illegal cryptocurrency mining operations, as reported by the Washington Post. However, this is may not be a major cause, as cryptocurrency miners state their operations have nothing to do with the current power crisis.Iran reportedly cracked down on cryptocurrency mining operations on Sunday by confiscating 45K machines. Supposedly, these machines were consuming 95 megawatts per hour, while paying a reduced rate on the electricity. However, the crackdown may not be about power consumption, as other reports suggest power consumed in cryptocurrency mining has only a minor role in Iran's current power crisis, as reported by coindesk. In July 2020, "Iran penned a registration directive forcing [cryptocurrency] miners to disclose their identities" and "the size of their mining farms".
Sunday, January 17, 2021
Saturday, January 16, 2021
Friday, January 15, 2021
Deadly Decoy in CSGO
Sometimes, just sometimes, it's a bad idea to ignore a decoy in CounterStrike: Global Offensive (CSGO)
Saturday, January 09, 2021
G8 SF Bay Area Meet Jan 10th 2009, 12 years ago
The road you didn't take because of a lie
I thought of writing about Robert Frost's poem The Road Not Taken because many (most?) people misinterpret it. Well, Today I Found Out covered the topic so well, there's no sense in my writing about the poem's meaning. Please enjoy their video:
The Road Not Taken
Friday, December 25, 2020
Do And Die, not Do or Die - common misquote
The Charge of the Light Brigade
Tuesday, December 22, 2020
Robust cream of mushroom and sauteed chicken sausage soup to warm my soul
Thursday, December 17, 2020
Saturday, December 05, 2020
Just saw yet another shooting star
In a strange coincidence, I've seen another shooting start last night as I walked out to my backyard. I looked up, and there it was. This one was different than the previous sighting a couple of weeks ago. The sky was perfectly clear. This shooting star was just a point of light that streaked across the sky, but with no tail. I noticed it just as it lit up. It got brighter as it moved Westward until it dimmed a second or so later. Similar to the previous shooting star, it moved East in a Westerly direction.
The Geminid meteor showers will happen in a week or so. Maybe these early shooting stars are their vanguard.