Monkeyfister

Click Here.

Explanation

Conficker (aka Downadup, Kido) is known to block access to over 100 anti-virus and security websites.

If you are blocked from loading the remote images in the first row of the top table above (AV/security sites) but not blocked from loading the remote images in the second row (websites of alternative operating systems) then your Windows PC may be infected by Conficker (or some other malicious software).

If you can see all six images in both rows of the top table -- or at least the top ones, as the bottom ones seem to be DDoSed at the time -- you are either not infected by Conficker, or you may be using a proxy server, in which case you will not be able to use this test to make an accurate determination, since Conficker will be unable to block you from viewing the AV/security sites.

Worth a quick click.


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Labels: Useful Stuff

Rain kept me from Turkey hunting, today, but it cleared off by mid-morning, and Neighbor Kid and I planted a LOT of Sweet Corn, today. I haven't hurt like this in quite a while. We still have six rows to plant. 2880 plants. Each should produce at least two ears. That will be a lot of Sweet Corn!

We are planting three types of Sweet Corn, and we don't mind the cross-pollination, as they all are basically from the same strains.

Each row fit 120 plants (10"-12" apart). We laid them out in seed beds ~3-feet wide, with ~an 18-inch walkway between them. So far, we have six of these beds groomed and planted, three rows per bed. Two more to go tomorrow.

We planted the seeds so that the tallest of the plants are in the "back" of the plot.

Silver Queen in the back (8' plants).
Kandy Corn in the middle (8' plants).
Peaches and Cream in the front (5' plants).

Using twine and stakes, we laid out the beds, and then took our trusty rakes, and started the process of grooming the larger clods of soil up onto the walkways, so that the beds are a bit lower to collect and hold rain water. I live at the top of a hill, so drainage is not a problem. Then we fine-groomed the beds, and then hoed-in the three furrows, planted two seeds roughly 10-12 inches apart by hand, covered and tamped them and started the next bed.

Two beds of Peaches and Cream left to lay in, but my ruined back just couldn't take the abuse from moving wet clods of soil around any more, and I had to call it quits.

I'll tell you what, though, come this time in June, it will all be worth it-- weather permitting! We'll both have all the Sweet Corn we'll need to get through the winter, and the Kid will have plenty of corn to sell as a cash crop.


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Labels: Gardening

YeeeeHeeHee!





"Who wouldn't want to teabag John McCain?"

squick!


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Labels: Rachel Maddow, Wingnuts On Parade

If the results were coming out well, I would think that they would be crowing happily about them. But, they "don't want to start a panic," so they are issuing a gag order.

Because nothing stifles a panic like a gag order.

We wouldn't want the truth to affect those gamed end-of-quarter earnings reports, now would we?

via Bloomberg

April 10 (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. Federal Reserve has told Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Citigroup Inc. and other banks to keep mum on the results of “stress tests” that will gauge their ability to weather the recession, people familiar with the matter said.

The Fed wants to ensure that the report cards don’t leak during earnings conference calls scheduled for this month. Such a scenario might push stock prices lower for banks perceived as weak and interfere with the government’s plan to release the results in an orderly fashion later this month.

“If you allow banks to talk about it, people are just going to assume that the ones that don’t comment about it failed,” said Paul Miller, an analyst at FBR Capital Markets in Arlington, Virginia.

Regulators are using the tests to determine whether the 19 biggest banks have enough capital to cover loan losses during the next two years if the economy shrinks, unemployment surges and housing prices keep declining. The tests are a linchpin of the plan Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner announced in February to bolster confidence in the nation’s banks and restore financial-market stability.

Geithner has likened the stress tests to those used by doctors to evaluate a patient’s health. They’re designed to mesh with the administration’s effort to remove distressed mortgage assets from banks’ balance sheets. The Fed is overseeing the administration of the tests, people briefed on the matter say.

Progress Report

President Barack Obama is scheduled to get a progress report on the tests today during a meeting with his economic team. Geithner will attend, along with Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke and Sheila Bair, chairman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.

Goldman Sachs plans to report first-quarter earnings April 14, followed by JPMorgan Chase & Co. on April 16. Citigroup reports April 17, and Morgan Stanley announces April 21. All four banks are based in New York.

Spokesman for the banks declined to comment.

“No matter what the result, the stress tests are going to move markets,” Camden Fine, president of the Independent Community Bankers of America, said in an interview yesterday. “That’s the tricky part. If they don’t give out enough information or the information is presented in the wrong way, that could cause markets to plunge.”

I recommend panicking now and avoiding the rush.




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Labels: Banksters, Collapse, Tim Fucking Geithner

There is a lot of excellent potential, here:

via h+ Magazine

* Cyberdyne Corporation of Japan, in conjunction with Daiwa House, has begun mass production of a cybernetic bodysuit that augments body movement and increases user strength by up to tenfold.

The HAL (Hybrid Assistive Limb) suit works by detecting faint bioelectrical signals using pads placed on specific areas of the body. The pads move the HAL suit accordingly. The Cyberdyne website explains: “When a person attempts to move, nerve signals are sent from the brain to the muscles via motoneuron, moving the musculoskeletal system as a consequence. At this moment, very weak biosignals can be detected on the surface of the skin. HAL catches these signals through a sensor attached on the skin of the wearer. Based on the signals obtained, the power unit is controlled to wearer’s daily activities.”

Among the potential applications, Cyberdyne is emphasizing helping people with movement disabilities, augmenting strength for difficult industrial tasks, disaster rescue, and entertainment.

This could be a boon to recovering stroke and brain/spinal chord injury victims. If I had extra bucks right now, I'd put a few bucks into Cyberdyne or Daiwa. This can't lose.


* Japanese man sold separately.



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Labels: Wow.

Weather permitting (we're expecting heavy rains this weekend), I'm going to go out and try to bag one of these blue-headed Gobblers Friday morning.

I was out last Saturday with the usual cast of hunting freaks, and saw many, many turkey in the field. We only had shots at two. Earl took a shot at one with his bow, and missed by mere inches. My turn for a shot, and there I was, shotgun shouldered, safety off, finger on the trigger and ready to fire, when a Hen and a gaggle of last year's brood ran up along my Gobbler. Couldn't take the shot, and they all ran off, with the Gobbler surrounded by the Hen and kids. The farmer came out that afternoon, and sprayed fertilizer on the field, and pretty-much wrecked hunting for Sunday. I took a retiring Senior Chief friend of mine out to the field on Sunday, and we heard at least six different Gobblers responding to our calls, but none of them wanted to come out onto the stinky field. We'll try tomorrow, and/or Saturday morning.

Turkeys are very clever birds, and have incredible eyesight, which they rely on for survival. Getting one in close enough to shoot with #4 shot is a real challenge. #4 shot is four BB's, (mine are two ounces each) in the shell. One needs to get one of those four scattered BB's to the head of the bird. It is not easy at all, especially in the Springtime, when they are using all of their senses, and wit.

It is like night and day between Fall and Spring with Turkeys. In the Fall, they are as stupid as a stump, and will walk right on up to a hunter. Unfortunately, most hunters are carrying rifles in the Fall for Deer, and if they have a shotgun, they have it loaded with slug, which is illegal to use on a turkey, as are center-fired rifle bullets of any kind (at least here, in Tennessee) for good reason. So, Spring is the time to hunt Gobblers and Jakes, and here's to hopin'.

Actually, I am hoping that Senior Chief gets a bird to put on his family (it's hard, I know), and then I need to get home to start planting Sweet Corn in that 1/4 acre plot that we've torn up in my back meadow. Weather permitting, of course. If I don't plant tomorrow, then Saturday will be the day, as it is supposed to be clearer and drier. We'll see. It needs to get in the ground either this weekend or next weekend for proper timing and good growth. The rest of the garden and seedlings are just waiting for good weather to get planted.

For the garden, last night I ordered up a "Three Amigos" patch, with which I am going to inoculate the Asparagus/Strawberry bed. That bed is going to be solid GOLD by next year.

The "Three Amigos" Garden Pack
For species successionism of friendly fungi in the garden, we recommend using these three garden allies: in concert, the Garden Oyster (Hypsizygus ulmarius), the Garden Giant (Stropharia rugoso-annulata) and the Shaggy Mane (Coprinus comatus). They can be placed in the garden for the benefit of vegetables and for improving soil quality. And, gourmet mushrooms flourish throughout the seasons to create the best of edible landscapes!

It really is a good deal at $65.00 plus shipping. A lifetime of reliable mushroom harvest makes for a great overall amortized value. I particularly like these three mushroom varieties, and at today's packaged mushroom prices, that $65-bucks is chump change considering the returns. 20-odd dollars per species, typical package price is ~$5.00 for just a few, and this inoculation should last forever... and spread.



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Labels: Gardening, Hunting, Mushrooms, Turkey

David Deutsch talks about Mankind's place in the Universe. Sort of humbling, and Deutsch is really quite funny in his English delivery. Well, here's the TED blurb:

Legendary scientist David Deutsch puts theoretical physics on the back burner to discuss a more urgent matter: the survival of our species. The first step toward solving global warming, he says, is to admit that we have a problem.

Really wild ride with Dr. Deutsch, Run time ~21min.:



And here is the Sir Martin Rees TED Talk, which Deutsch references. "Is This Our Final Century?" Worth discussing! Run Time ~17min.:




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Labels: Cosmology, Science, TED Talks, Universe

Paul Stamets is the guy from whom I get my mushroom kits: fungi.com

I am double extra-happy to know that I am, in my little way, supporting some really cool stuff. Paul Stamets is one good, and brilliant old hippie. I'm going to double-down on this mushroom thing. The second, larger, flush of Shitaaki's, and the first, surprisingly large, flush of Oyster mushrooms are coming on. It looks like I am going to have to get more large jars. A really good deal for the price. I get to support Stamets' work, and I get tasty mushrooms for several months, and then I can inoculate the garden beds and tree stands for ever. What's not to like?



Gotta buy a Life Box for my back acre.


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Labels: Mushrooms, Paul Stamets

Scout Prime posted my very thoughts, and wrote the post that I was mulling over. I see it following the Kunstler article, below. I also have read Michelle Malkin screech twice last week, that the Left is unfairly blaming Right Wing(nut) Media for the big shootings in New York and Pennsylvania. So did Rush, Savage, and Hannity. Anyone who is familiar with David Neiwert (now at Crooks and Liars dot com) or the Southern Poverty Law Center has known, already, the potential for the Right Wingnuts to opt for violence at the first chance. Well, Scout documents the recent atrocities-- the ones that only made the Local news.

I think Mr. Kunstler is seeing the big picture, but, as always, America never ceases to surprise. I can only imagine the desperation and induced psychoses involved in all of these stories. They are mind-bogglingly horrible, and yet, terrifically, and obviously, Human acts of extreme desperation. How tragic and mal-directed. I'm terrified knowing that this is the way that my fellow Americans are taking out their fears, frustrations and failings. Perhaps failings is, perhaps, a wrong (and seemingly accusative) word to use, but I think that these people are rationalizing their various situations in that way.

Anyway. Here's something to consider. I am wondering, dear readers, if these acts do fit in the Kunstler context, or are they simply sidebar events that might have happened in any other time? Scout follows her post with a fine cleanser (below).

I generally don't fall into reading a few news stories and conclude the world has gone to hell. But last night as I was clicking through my bookmarks of various press and media sites, I have to admit that I'm questioning...is it getting weirder out there?

We have the man trying to commit suicide by fighter jet. He flew over my city and that prompted the evacuation of our state capitol.

There is what appears to be a suicide by cop in St. Paul MN. During a confrontation with police a man shot a police dog, K9 Boomer, resulting in officers returning fire and killing him. He left a message:

A MySpace page of a Robert Jeske in St. Paul was last updated Monday with a mood status of "done" and a message stating, "I love you all…goodbye…I'm sorry."

But then, there is this:


As long as we still have this sort of Beauty, I believe that we'll make it through.

Hat tip to Andrew Sullivan for this loverly find. Nice to see Andrew coming back around.


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Labels: Collapse, Ummmmm...

Susie at Suburban Guerrilla posted this today, and I thought it was superb.

David Johnson traveled around the world with some recording gear, and recorded street musicians performing "Stand By Me." He provided them a headset with the basic mix, and built an incredible version of the song. As each musician is introduced, their instrument or voice is added in. I just love the way it builds.


Stand By Me from David Johnson on Vimeo.


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Labels: Hot-Ass Music

It's Monday, and time for the weekly Kunstler. This week, Mr. Kunstler looks at the Civil Unrest growing in America, and how the President might ease hat anger before it gets fully out of control.

via Kunstler.com

Even while a wave of reflex nausea washed over America last week, and the unemployment rolls swelled by much more than another half million, the greatest stock market suckers' rally in seventy years pulled in the last of the credulous. These are strange days. The earth is heaving and the buds swelling again -- at least north of the equator, where most of the action is -- and the global economy, which was supposed to be a permanent new add-on to the human condition, is sloughing away in big horrid gobs. But no one in charge of anything can believe it. The banking fiasco has introduced so much noise into the system that world leadership can't think straight.
What they're missing is real simple: peak oil means no more ability to service debt at all levels, personal, corporate, and government. End of story. All the other exertions being performed in opposition to this basic fact-of-life amount to a spastic soft-shoe performed before a smokescreen concealing a world of hurt. If the "quantitative easing" (money creation) and fiscal legerdemain (TARPs, TARFs, et cetera) happen to jack up the "velocity" of the new funny-money, and the world resumes its previous level of oil use, the price of oil would rise again -- this time astronomically because the previous crash of oil prices crushed the development of new oil projects to offset depletion -- and the global economy will crash again. Only the next phase of the disease is liable to move beyond the financial and into the social and political realms. Disorder of various kinds will rule -- toppled governments, civil unrest, international tension and conflict.
The US is doing everything possible to avoid these awful realities, but probably the worst self-deception is the idea that everything would be okay if we could just "re-start lending." That's just not going to happen. There is no more capacity to service the debt we've already piled on. Americans borrowed too much, and the bankers who made obscene fortunes in fees and bonuses in fraudulent lending managed to leverage this unpayable debt into the greatest collective swindle the world has ever known. The swindle has sent poison into every cell of the macro socio-economic organism, and further swindles are unlikely to revive it.
The rally in stocks, the financials in particular, could go on for another month or two. In the meantime, banks are striving desperately to avoid calling in more bad loans -- especially in commercial real estate, malls, strip malls, Big Box power centers -- because they don't want any more losses on their balance sheets. That can only go on for so long, too. Sooner or later the daisy chain of credibility in the fundamental transactions of business lose legitimacy and something's got to give.
My guess is it will first take the form, sometime after Memorial Day (but maybe sooner) of wholesale liquidations of everything under the North American sun: companies, households, chattels, US Treasury paper of all kinds, and, of course, the S & P 500. We'll soon find out whether an organism the size of the United States can run an economy based on one family selling the contents of its garage to the family next door. My guess is that this type of economy won't support the standards of living previously enjoyed in places like Dallas and Minneapolis.
The socio-political fallout from the inherent anger and disappointment in all this is liable to be severe. The public is already warming up for it, with cheerleaders such as Glen Beck on Fox TV News calling for the formation of militias, and gun sales moving out-of-sight. One mistake that the banking elite and their lawyer paladins made the past decade was their show of conspicuous acquisition -- of houses especially -- in easy-to-get-to places where anyone can see them, for instance an angry mob in Fairfield County, Connecticut, or Easthampton, New York. Unlike the beleaguered elites of South Africa (where I visited recently), who live behind layers of fortification, the executives of Citibank, Goldman Sachs, J.P. Morgan, and a long list of hedge funds, will be found cringing in their wine-lockers behind a measly layer of privet hedge when the tattooed minions of Glen Beck come a'calling.

More at the link.


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Labels: Civil Unrest, James Kunstler

I was googling for information on the root structure of the Sweet Gum Tree, to see if the bunch I have in my back yard would pose a problem for the septic lines, and found this.



Clearly a "hold my beer and watch this," moment.

Or-- some Southern rituals are best left unexplained.


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Labels: Ummmmm...