Why 2014 might NOT be like 1984

As a followup to my previous post, it seems that the governor of Montana sent out a letter to 17 other states regarding REAL ID.

In the letter, he writes: "We recognized that REAL ID was a major threat to the privacy, constitutional rights, and pocketbooks of ordinary Montanans."  The state now has a law that prohibits them from adopting the federal requirements.  He adds that the head of the Department of Homeland Security (if any agency's named sounded 1984, this is it) continues to "disrespect" the states.  

The governor of Montana is clearly a hero for states' rights and for the Constitution.  More states should follow his lead and give the Feds the bird.

Ready for another war?

Maybe you aren't, but the CIA seems to be ready for another war.  Today the director of the CIA declared that Al-Qaeda was behind the attack on Benazir Bhutto and threatens to destabilize the country, the only Muslim country known to have nukes.  Look for us to have troops on the ground within 6-8 months, 5,000 casualties by 2010 and an extra trillion added on to our debt by 2011.  

As Ron Paul said: "We continue to borrow money from China to finance this empire we can't afford... we need to borrow $10 billion from China and then we give it to Musharaff who is a military dictator who overthrew an elected government and then we go to war and lose all these lives promoting democracy in Iraq.  What's going on here?"

Eminent Domain Abuse

Eminent domain abuse: read here.

 

It's already been demonstrated that this fence is a complete waste of money, since it takes less than 2 minutes to either climb over, dig under, or cut through the fence.

More crime ahead?

Abortion rates have fallen to the lowest number in years.  This drop may be due to a more prevalent use of birth control pills, despite George Bush's attempts to not allow schools to teach their students about their options.  

This news may not be all good.  Steven Levitt was able to link more abortions to less crime, so we may be facing a crime wave in 15 or so years, when the children who "could have / should have" been aborted reach the age in which they can commit crimes.  If you are unfamiliar with this study, I highly recommend reading Freakonomics.  

A waste of my money

As a Virginia Citizen, I'm extremely angry that one of the delegates is wasting their time proposing that they ban fake testicles from trucks.  On a state that is part in the North part in the South, there are lots of people who want to say that their truck "has balls."  These balls are not going to hurt anyone.  If someone is embarrassed when they see them, that is no reason to ban something.

How's that for accuracy

I guess I read the right rumors.  Apple did indeed introduce a Macbook Air today.  It is available with a solid state hard drive for an extra $1,000.  Its price ranges from around $1800-3000 depending on configuration.  It is the world's thinnest notebook.  It does NOT include a DVD player, as predicted.  It does include most of the other standard ports, but not ethernet, so its wireless only.

Macworld: My predictions and the death of the CD/DVD

Since Macworld is tomorrow and everyone in the blogosphere has predictions on what Steve Jobs will debut, I must join the fray.

I think that Apple will introduce a very small notebook, the Macbook Air, which will have a 12-13" and connect "differently."  By that, I mean it will either have no ports or be designed as a second computer, not like a primary computer/notebook as the Macbook I am currently typing on is.  It might not even have a power plug, charging by induction to a docking station.  Hopefully my Mac won't be obsolete in 24 hours...

Another prediction: Throw out your DVD player, its obsolete.  That's right, you read it first here.  Toss it.  Within 2 years, DVD's will go the way of the VHS.  Apple is most likely going to introduce movie rentals on iTunes.  What this means is that for $3-4 you can rent a movie via your computer for 24-48 hours "on-demand."  

Why do we still need optical media (CD and DVDs?).  Any music can be downloaded without problem on iTunes or illegally.  Same for movies.  It is now possible to upload music to a car.  As for backing up data, a CD only holds 750MB, while you can get an external hard drive with 1,000 times as much storage for only $500 or so.  

Here's a long term prediction: Apple's will not have optical drives within 3 years.

Apple is the front runner.  Always has been and should be for the foreseeable future.  

Getting Productive

Many of you, my readers, may have noticed that my posts have become more frequent (as promised).  While part of it is my excitement from getting the domain registered, I have also been busy the past 10 days implementing a new productivity system known as GTD (Getting Things Done).  This system is taught in many fortune 500 companies and I find it to be very useful for making sure I get everything done that needs to be done while leaving me time for other activities, such as this blog.  In the coming weeks I will explain more about my specific implementation of GTD and help you understand if it might be beneficial for you as well.

2007 Darwin Awards

The 2007 Darwin Awards have been posted here.  Pretty good ones this time; amazing that most of them are true stories.