Comet Orchid and Darwin

If you ever have seen the movie Adaptation directed by Spike Jonze starring Nicolas Cage, then you will remember them talking about a certain orchid that is pollinated from a moth with a 12 inch tongue. Which leads to this video...

GNU/Linux and Free Software

In this article James Love states:

Today there are enormous pressures to monopolize data formats, control multimedia content delivery to users, introduce deep systems of surveillance into the networks, and other disturbing trends.

Here he is speaking of the restrictions software companies force on their paying customers like Microsoft Windows or Apple OSX.

There are also very powerful examples of the benefits of more openness, freedom, competition and collaboration. There is, I believe, an increasingly important social aspect of personally embracing the use of free software.

Here he is saying that choosing to use a GNU/Linux operating system with Free Software, one is bypassing all the "disturbing trends" mentioned from above. Trends detailed as: forking out money every year for a Anti-Virus subscription, forking out money for tech repair because your system is hosed due to some security hole intentionally left in the operating system (even on a computer you recently paid good money for), being unable to copy and use certain file formats due to the monopoly certain companies have on that format, having to find drivers that work with certain hardware, versions of software that no longer work because they are no longer compatible, etc... the list goes on.

Lastly he says:

Because of the stakes, people should increasingly be thinking of free software as a social movement. It is not only about a small number of programmers and engineers. It is about everyone who cares about the future of knowledge ecosystems.

I couldn't agree more.

McCain's 107 Lies and counting...

On mccainpedia.org they are gathering all the statements McCain has said and checked the records and have found that many are stretches of the actual truth or just flat out lies. One the site, they have reached 107 lies and still counting. To date, independent, nonpartisan fact checkers at factcheck.org have published more than 50 fact checks debunking John McCain's lies and distortions.

Of course I believe they is allot coming from both sides, due to election time, but I don't hesitate to believe that McCain tops the charts of lies. McCain being from a wealthy family upbringing (not unlike Obama coming from poor to middle-class) and working in the White House with Bush, puts the rich elites and oil companies first. Which blows my mind why any poor or middle-class would vote for him. If you make over $250,000 a year, then yes, I can see voting for him for the tax breaks. As for McCain's running mate Palin, I think I'm about sick of hearing how average Joe she is with all her Hockey Mom dribble. Check out this article about her "assault on merit". You can watch a video here where actor Matt Damon says he's "terrified" of Palin becoming President if something was to happen to McCain.

So check out the mccainpedia.org to see which statements he has made that has been debunked. Also check out factcheck which is neither for Obama nor McCain, which checks the facts about both candidates.

As Thomas Jefferson said, "Better to be ruled by the gifted few than by the fortunate rich."