State Board of Education — Revisionist History in Progress

Posted on 02/08/2010 by Gil Jones

An interesting piece from Liberty Counsel. (Note 1)  I saw a portion of the Mike Huckabee show last night and a LC spokesman was talking about this problem.  Pay attention:  The SBOE — which approves standard curriculum textbooks — is in the process of making changes that you should know about.  America has a rich past, indeed its beginning, founded on Judeo-Christian values and the continued assault from many sources to obliterate this history is both disturbing and fraudulent. That our own State Board of Education might be participating is a horrifying indictment of the “government school system.”  Awaken, silent majority, awaken to this threat and do something about it.

Some of the suggestions that have come forward at various times include:

* Removing references to Daniel Boone, General George Patton, Nathan Hale, Columbus Day, and Christmas.

* Including the cultural impact of hip hop music, ACLU lawyer Clarence Darrow, and the Hindu holiday of Diwali.

* Replacing the term “American” with “Global Citizen”– stating that students need to be shaped “for responsible citizenship in a global society” without any mention of citizenship in American society.

* Replacing expansionism and free enterprise with imperialism and capitalism.

The Board’s next meeting is in March and the final reading and adoption of the social studies guidelines will be in May.

Make your voice heard now, before the next meeting. Please call the board members at 512-463-9734 and encourage them to promote traditional, pro-American language in their guidelines, or you may email them at sboeteks@tea.state.tx.us.

via Liberty Counsel. (http://lc.org/index.cfm?PID=14102&AlertID=1094 accessed on 2/8/2010)

The ability of the Texas SBOE to, essentially, set the social studies/history textbooks for the nation is a huge issue this year.  As was pointed out on the Liberty Counsel site,

As Texas is a leader in textbooks, most other states purchase the same educational materials. The textbook controversy in Texas affects every American because, to have a bright future, we must know our past. America has a rich past founded on Judeo-Christian values and to forget them, or worse, to distort them, will doom our future. Those who want to reshape America begin by rewriting our past. We repeat the mistakes of the past when we are ignorant of them.

You can see the members of the SBOE on their site.

I am looking for the resources to see the actual process and the specific current proposals … if anyone has links, let me know.

Notes:

(1) Liberty Counsel’s “About” page states

Liberty Counsel is a nonprofit litigation, education and policy organization dedicated to advancing religious freedom, the sanctity of human life and the family. Established in 1989, Liberty Counsel is a nationwide organization with offices in Florida, Virginia, and Washington, D.C., and hundreds of affiliate attorneys across the Nation.

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Favorite productivity computer programs

Posted on 02/07/2010 by Gil Jones

Yes, productive, really. While much surrounding a computer can become a huge waste of time, there are some programs that are truly productivity enhancers. Here are a few that I rely on every day. Disclaimer: no pecuniary interest, just a happy customer.

Caution: large article. If you see this on Facebook you’ll want to go to my blog to read and see the screen shots better.

Keybreeze:  As their site says, “Perform any task in a second” thus

Start the process from the hotkey

Once you press the hotkey, type entries to …

  • Open files, folders, and websites.
  • Search your computer.
  • Search websites.
  • Perform system tasks.
  • Control windows on your screen.
  • Paste custom text into a text field.
  • Automate actions.
  • Create notes; set reminders.
  • Launch plug-ins.

    Example of the window of commands

and just tap the semicolon twice to insert
a semicolon in a text field.

There is a free version for personal use that is quite good, and for $19.95 you get a commercial license with more features. Right now you get TWO licenses for $20 (as of 2/7/2010 anyway) so that’s a really good deal.

I use it to start up ALL of my programs, common websites, and more.

Ever have problems remembering things? Tired of making notes on your computer screen with a magic marker only to have to use whiteout to make changes?   :-)   Like to jot down or somehow remember stuff, either from a phone call or conversation, or something off of the internet?

Then try Evernote.

Depicting the types of media capable of being stored in Evernote


Again, there is a very adequate free version (Jen says I’m the king of free software) but I’ve opted for the $45/year “Pro” version because it does a lot of things very well. And I believe in supporting good software.  From their website:

Chances are, if you can see it or think of it, Evernote can help you remember it. Type a text note. Clip a web page. Snap a photo. Grab a screenshot. Evernote will keep it all safe.

Everything you capture is automatically processed, indexed, and made searchable. If you like, you can add tags or organize notes into different notebooks.

Search for notes by keywords, titles, and tags. Evernote magically makes printed and handwritten text inside your images searchable, too.

Just a few of the potential uses of Evernote ...

Only your imagination (or lack thereof) will hinder what you can do with Evernote for capturing thoughts and information.

I captured this screen shot using Evernote and it went immediately into a note. I then right-clicked on it in Evernote and saved it as a jpeg file so that I could upload it here.

You can store almost any kind of file or graphic.

And my favorite productivity-machine software is yet to come. It’s not free, but there is a free trial that gives you a great preview. I’ve written about it before, called “The Brain.” It now is not simply “The Brain” but rather “THE” brain, i.e. mine. Proceeding with all due speed I am dumping everything I know into it.  As the website says,

Simply type in your ideas. Drag and drop files and web pages. Any idea can be linked to anything else. Using your digital Brain is like cruising through a Web of your thinking. See new relationships. Discover connections. Go from the big picture of everything to a specific detail in seconds. Accelerate your mind.“

Any type of document, a web link or a whole page, photos, free-form text, anything … literally … can be stored in, linked to/from, commented upon, searched, and otherwise used and referenced, very quickly. You have to go to the site to get even a moderate appreciation of the power, but here’s a preview.

One use I make is to document complex cases to keep track of the parties, lawyers, pleadings, deadlines, pending motions, research, and literally everything I want to recall from hearing to hearing. Here is the top level of the hierarchy of a case, actual screen shots from my Brain:

You see typical areas of info for a case.

Everything is organized in a hierarchy (which you choose) of parent (above), child (below) or sibling (side) relationship. Any item can have multiple parents, multiple children and/or multiple siblings.

When an item is selected, it becomes the central item and its parents, children and siblings are arranged around it, thusly:

Here you see something about the parties and lawyers

If you can see it, there is a small icon to the left of the Plaintiffs box, it’s actually a small photograph. Documents create their own identifiable icon (like the Word “W” of the Excel mini-sheet), but you can affix an icon of your choice as well. In this one, here is what I created for it:

Here's how to remember the lawyers not seen often.

I can easily remember all the lawyers. Although my cell phone shot (taken with their permission) is blurry, it serves its purpose.

I really can’t easily articulate in this space how powerful The Brain is. Here is a link to a page that will blow your mind if you’ll just watch the videos.

And be absolutely certain to click on the links in the box to the right and view the recorded webcast. Here is the graphic, click on it to view an amazing process, and some fascinating history lessons to boot:

Click on the graphic and sit back to enjoy ....

This concludes my brief review of but three (of hundreds) of productivity/organizing software that I’ve found to be especially useful and frankly, at least in my way of thinking and doing, important parts of my personal and professional digital life.

Enjoy.

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FOXNews.com – Millions in Stimulus Spending Being Doled Out for Questionable Jobs

Posted on 02/04/2010 by Gil Jones

You’ll love this. Be sure to read the rest of the article (link below). Then thank your Congresspersons for the additional debt ceiling authorized today which amounts to $45,000 for every man, woman and child in the country!

Federal agencies are spending stimulus money at the rate of $196 million an hour. And they will do so every hour for the next eight months until a September 30, 2010, deadline.”When you put that kind of money out the door that fast, there’s a possibility of $55 billion dollars of waste, fraud and abuse connected with it,” Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, said Thursday before a Senate Finance Committee hearing examining the lack of oversight in the $878 billion dollar economic stimulus bill passed a year ago.Grassley said he fears much of the money is going to some individuals and businesses that don’t qualify for it and projects that do not serve taxpayers best interests. Judge for yourself:

– $233,000 to the University of California at San Diego to study why Africans vote. Jobs created: 12, but seven of those are Africans in Africa.

– In Nevada, $2 million in stimulus money built a new fire station, but because of budget cuts, the county can’t afford to hire firefighters to work there.

via FOXNews.com – Millions in Stimulus Spending Being Doled Out for Questionable Jobs.

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Hams worldwide attempting EmComms in Haiti — one team fired upon

Posted on 01/17/2010 by Gil Jones

This from the IARU-R1 site:

Haiti Earthquake – Update No. 4. PDF Print E-mail
Sunday, 17 January 2010 12:59
The eight amateurs from Radio Club Dominicano (RCD) who were operating under the callsign HI8RCD/HH have had to abort their operations after the convoy they were travelling in was fired on. News is also being received of two new stations which it is hoped will become active soon.

EB9GF, who is integrated in the Spanish Red Cross contingent, was able to contact the colleagues from the Radio Club Dominicano (RCD). The RCD has currently two VHF repeaters in use for operations:

- 146.970 (-600), CTCSS 100 Hz. Placed in the Dominican Republic. Please note that the old frequency 147.970 seems to be wrong.
- 145.350 (-600), CTCSS 100 Hz. New repeater active near the border with Haiti.

RCD initially reported that their team crossed the Haitian border at 10:50 hours Haitian time arriving at the Dominican Embassy in Haiti at 14:29 hours when they started installing and testing their equipment.

Within a few hours though, reports via the RCD Facebook page confirmed by a long telephone conversation between Hugo Ramón HI8VRS and Ramon Sanyoyo V, XE1KK reported that the HI8RCD team of eight amateurs, were back in the border town of Jimani (Dominican Republic). Their convoy, which included other non related Dominicans, was assaulted and one person reported dead.

The Radio Amateurs were uninjured but decided to leave the capital for safety and return to the border unescorted. They report the situation as extremely unsafe and scary.

The repeaters they have installed remain in service linking the Haitian and Dominican capitals,  and are being used by the Red Cross and Civil Defense since there is no other way to communicate. The station at the Embassy in Haiti could not be activated though.

To confirm, all members of the HCD team are safe and have returned to Jimanji in the Dominican Republic.

In other reports, John Henault HH6JH who is engaged in Missionary work with homeless children in Port au Prince continues to make contacts on 20m using power from a neighbour’s generator and very pleased that amateur radio enabled him to let his friends in the USA know he was alive.

Another radio amateur in the country, Pierre Petry HH2/HB9AMO who works for the UN food program is also safe. However nothing is known at this stage of about another ten hams in Haiti.

HK3L is due to start operating on 7.085MHz as part of a Colombian relief effort. This frequency has been chosen because of the QRM which continues to operations on 7.045MHz.

It is also believed that S57CQ/ST2T Dane Novrlic of the UN-WFP is in Haiti but there is no information about whether he is active.

Thanks to Ismael EA4FSI, Cesar HR2P, Magdi ST2M and Jim VK3PC for their reports.

Source: http://www.iaru-r1.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=508:haiti-earthquake-update-no-4&catid=48:emcom&Itemid=99 (accessed 1/17/2010)

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Haiti becoming dangerous for amateur radio

Posted on 01/17/2010 by Gil Jones

I have been blogging what I observe about the possibility of amateur radio (ham) backup communication support in light of the earthquake disaster in Haiti. The worldwide ham community has been standing by ready to receive message traffic from Haiti, only to sadly learn that not only are there few hams there, but the disaster is so pervasive that the few there have not been able to be on the air much. And now it gets worse.

A ham radio club group from the Dominican Republic was attempting to get repeater stations into Haiti to support the communication needs when their convoy carrying the equipment was attacked by thugs, driving them back to the DR, and killing one of the porters helping to transport the equipment. All of the amateur radio operators were reported to be safe, but they have apparently retreated to the DR.

The amateur radio repeater system was to be an essential communication tool for both officials and the NGO’s in carrying out the recovery and relief effort.  I heard this report just now on the Echolink(1) conference conducted by the International Radio Emergency Support Coalition (IRESC) relaying a report that was shortly to be published by the International Amateur Radio Union, Region 1 (IARU).

It is a sad commentary indeed when in the face of one of the worst natural disasters of all time, volunteers are attacked and their lives are put at risk. Of course, it happens in every disaster that thugs loot and pillage. It’s just worse, in my perception, when a simple public service hobby turns deadly.

Notes:

(1) Echolink is a system that connects radio amateurs worldwide through a network of radios and the internet. From the Echolink home page we learn:

EchoLink® software allows licensed Amateur Radio stations to communicate with one another over the Internet, using voice-over-IP (VoIP) technology.  The program allows worldwide connections to be made between stations, or from computer to station, greatly enhancing Amateur Radio’s communications capabilities.  There are more than 200,000 validated users worldwide — in 162 of the world’s 193 nations — with about 4,000 online at any given time.

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Interesting web links to natural disaster, ham radio news, weather

Posted on 01/16/2010 by Gil Jones

Lifted from the International Radio Emergency Support Coalition pages:

DISASTER NEWS AND MANAGEMENT

Reuters AlertNet Alerting humanitarians to emergencies http://www.alertnet.org/
Reuters AlertNet Interactive Map http://www.alertnet.org/map/index.htm
ReliefWeb Information for Humanitarian Relief http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/dbc.nsf/doc100?OpenForm
Disaster Map World Disasters News Atlas http://www.mapreport.com/disasters.html
The Disaster Center Information for the USA http://www.disastercenter.com/
USGS Natural Hazards Support System http://nhss.cr.usgs.gov/#
GDACS Global Disaster Alert & Coordination http://www.gdacs.org/
Emergency Management UK Emergency Management http://www.emergencymanagement.org.uk/
IFRC International Federation Red Cross http://www.ifrc.org/

AMATEUR RADIO NEWS SERVICES

ARRL News Amateur Radio Relay League (USA) http://www.arrl.org/
RSGB News Radio Society of Great Britain (UK) http://www.rsgb.org/news/
CQ News CQ News Service http://newsvc.cq-amateur-radio.com/
QRZ New News Service from QRZ.COM http://www.qrz.com/
eHam News News service from eHam.net http://www.eham.net/articles/?type=news
Google News Google News search for amateur (ham) radio emergency http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&q=amateur+ham+radio+emergency
Raynet News Radio Amateurs’ Emergency Network news
 http://www.raynet-uk.net/news/
EmComm Emergency Communications Forum http://www.emcommforum.org/forum/viewforum.php?f=2

WEATHER and NATURAL HAZARDS

Stormpulse Current Atlantic activity http://www.stormpulse.com/
Flooding FFWC Bangladesh http://www.ffwc.gov.bd/
Earthquake Iris Seismic Monitor http://www.iris.edu/seismon/
Earthquake ASL DCC Telemetry http://aslwww.cr.usgs.gov/Seismic_Data/telemetry_data/map_sta_eq.shtml
Earthquake Global Report http://tsunami.geo.ed.ac.uk/local-bin/quakes/mapscript/demo_run.pl
Hurricane National Hurricane Center advisories http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/
Hurricane NOAA Floaters http://www.ssd.noaa.gov/PS/TROP/floaters.html
Hurricane Mid-Atlantic Weather Station http://home.comcast.net/~herbwx/hurrican.html
Typhoon Tropical Storm Risk http://www.tropicalstormrisk.com/
Typhoon Tropical Cyclones summary http://tropicalcyclones.blogspot.com/
Warnings World WMO http://severe.worldweather.org/
Warnings Europe MeteoAlarm http://www.meteoalarm.eu/

ONLINE WORLD RADIO AND TELEVISION

vTuner Radio & TV stations on the Internet http://www.vtuner.com/vtunerweb/static/staticTalk-Weatheroverall1.html
Global Tuners Online ham radio receivers http://www.globaltuners.com/home

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Haiti: A sampling of the real news from humanity

Posted on 01/16/2010 by Gil Jones

Caution — some of this is explicit and sad. These are excerpts of actual pleas from help gleaned from an amateur radio database (cleaned up for privacy), all since 6pm CDT Jan 15.  Some of these calls came via facebook pages.  This will tell you how grave it really is. It’ll make you want to click and donate.

Just spoke with ***** by phone. There are now 100 people at his location. Approx. 50 injured personel. They are requesting Food,water, blankets and firstaid supplies.

I have just got a DIRECT_satellite rapport from the Swedish TV-team at TV-News. The reporter said that the help-work is near to collapse. Almost NOTHING is done for the common poor people. The rescue stuff seems to prior the work in the rich areas

There is a 60-bed medical hospital there and they have treated many patients so far but are running out of supplies, especially medical supplies.

SOS SOS GOC UNIVERSITY PEOPLE ARE STILL ALIVE THERE> PLEASE SEND RESCUE TO THEM RIGHT AWAY> PLEASE HURRY! GOD BLESS ALL THE RESCUERS

S.O.S.-PLEASE,PLEASE PLEASE IF ANYBODY CAN GET IN TOUCH WITH
THE RELEIF ORGANIZATIONSIN HAITI AND TELL THEM ********  DESPERATELY
NEEDS FOOD, WATER ANDMEDICINES. SHE HAS 110 VICTIMS AT HER HOUSE.
PLEASE HURRY

few people actually are still at ****** School
under rubble need help ASAP …..he just called from cell

***** IS STRANDED INSIDE CARIBBEAN MARKET. TEXT MESSAGE HAS BEEN RECEIVED FROM HIM CONFIRMING THAT HE IS ALIVE. PLEASE SEND A RESCUE TEAM OVER THERE ASAP

vocational school close to ****** that has had about 200 students trapped. They are getting some aid, but need more

my uncle is still at ******  School under rubble need tractor ASAP

somebody from ***** just confirm that there are people still alive and trap under
the rubble and theres nobody to help them out… people are crying and
screaming day and night for someone to help them out….. please pass
this on so ******* could receive some help

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EmComms – some reality from the Haiti experience

Posted on 01/15/2010 by Gil Jones

If you have a disaster in an area where there are few hams and those can’t operate (themselves victims, no generators or no gas for generators, batteries dying), then it doesn’t matter how many well-intended hams there are across the rest of the world. Ham radio is usually the first responder communications mode when the commercial means have failed in the initial stages of the disaster. Now, well into day three, there are many commercial facilities getting in place including mass media with satellite stations.

It may turn out that ham radio emergency communications don’t have much to do for Haiti after all, but you would think that the welfare inquiries are still yet to come. With a capitol city of 2 million in ruins with many foreigners there, the inquiries are bound to flow.

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Haiti earthquake related links

Posted on 01/15/2010 by Gil Jones

International interest in the earthquake in Haiti is great. Information is coming from many sources. Here are some web links to places I’ve found including some live coverage. Comments with additional links are welcome.  This page will be updated as I find more sites …

Health & welfare inquiry sites

Salvation Army health & welfare request form — fill out to make an inquiry

International Red Cross “Family Links” page — also use to find people

U.S. Dept. of State Haiti website

News and information

A WordPress blog with many good links

Salvation Army in Haiti — includes a donation link

Fox News “How to Help” story — links to many organizations

Milcom Monitoring Post — an interesting blog that includes military news info on the Haiti situation

Twitter search for Haiti related Twits or Another search on Twitter Here is a combo search of those two

Satellite Photos of Haiti Before and After Earthquake: Google and GeoEye have released new satellite photos of Haiti

Live info and listening

Internet streaming broadcast from Haiti

Live amateur radio emergency net monitoring — listen to the SATERN EmComm frequency that is active at the moment (frequencies vary with propagation changes during the day/night and over time).

Salvation Army Team Emergency Radio Network — includes many links

International Amateur Radio Union (IARU) — Emergency communications page with situation reports

International Radio Emergency Support Coalition — sometimes has streaming on the web of live communications.

Texas Department of Emergency Management “SitRep” page — includes Haiti-related reports

(for hams only) Echolink home page


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EmComms – early lessons from the Haiti event

Posted on 01/14/2010 by Gil Jones

Emergency Communications via amateur radio to/from Haiti have been interestingly a non-event.  This is due to the lack of operable ham stations in Haiti in the first days of the disaster.  The first ham heard from was Father John Henault (note 1), amateur callsign HH6JH and he was on battery power!  When hams can’t get on the air (and there aren’t many in Haiti anyway), that tells you the extent of the disaster.

My interest in following this situation is, in addition to wanting to be ready to help where I can, that I recently became the Burnet County Emergency Coordinator for the Amateur Radio Emergency Service (ARES) of the ARRL(note 2).  There are lessons to be learned by observing what happens with the Haiti disaster and amateur radio.

What early lessons are learned?  Many nets both on various HF frequencies and on Echolink have been activated with 24/7 operations. Net control stations are making periodic announcements just waiting to hear signals coming out of Haiti. The amount of health and welfare reports to come OUT of Haiti are bound to be many, in time. But right now it’s time to listen and, unfortunately, many well-meaning operators are attempting to check into those nets when check-ins are not asked for.  That zeal is, nevertheless, a tribute to the selflessness of hams worldwide who are standing by to help and ready at a moment’s notice.  While a huge majority of the stations heard are from the U.S., there are many from the Caribbean and South America. I’ve also heard French Canadians and one Israeli. The international ham radio community is an amazing group.

KA5GIL

NOTES:

(1) Rev John Henault OMI, is from the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate and works in Haiti helping to provide care for homeless and orphaned children.

(2) ARRL, the national association for amateur radio a/k/a the American Radio Relay League.

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