ShowMeBlog

Tornado–more on the way

“…The nightmare may not be over for Joplin or other parts of the United States, with the weather service predicting another tornado outbreak Tuesday.

The National Weather Service warned there was a 45% chance of another tornado outbreak -- with the peak time between 4 p.m. and midnight Tuesday -- over a wide swath, including parts of Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Missouri and Nebraska. The Storm Prediction Center placed several large cities in the most high-risk area, along with other cities including Kansas City, Missouri; Dallas, Texas; Topeka and Wichita, Kansas; and Oklahoma City and Tulsa, Oklahoma…”   CNN

 

  I think the weather people are getting better at all of this …. It does not seem to me that years ago they could tell you that tomorrow there is a 45% chance of a tornado outbreak but I could be wrong.

  This week I am going to get $102.00 from Goggle AdSense and I wanted to spend it on some computer stuff but I have decided it is time for me to get around to buying that ham radio that I been planning on buying.
  If I got the ham radio I will not only have a better idea of what is going on but I could help out on reporting and if needed I could help out if we get hit with a tornado.
 
 

Stuff on my walls

  I need shelf space in my bedroom.  I had some built in shelf space at the old apartment.  I also need something on the walls.  I am bare in my room and my walls are bare.
  Some movie posters with be nice.  A “Flashdance” poster would be nice.  I was a welder for about ten years and I NEVER worked with a welder like her.  In fact none of the welders were women.  Times have changed I am sure. 
  A Clockwork Orange poster would be nice. 
  

  I would like to have some plants in my room.  In fact I love plants and would like to have some big plants in the room. 
  I do not know if I am ready for another fish tank.   Remember the 29 gallon I had when I llived in Carrollton (TX)?
  I just know the room needs something on the walls.
  I wish I had all my old QSL cards.  I collected them from about 1955 to 1967 or so and then when I got married my wife objected to me spending time listening to shortwave radio and she did not like the “noise.”  She was pissed at me one time over something and she said all my QSL cards fell on the floor of the laundry room at got all wet.  Well she did not tell me I found them all on the floor.   

Sky filled with Blue Angels

                                                 

  What is it about aviation and airplanes?  Yesterday I was walking to get some fast food and it was right at the time that the Blue Angels were in the air during their show at Air Power Expo at the NAS Fort Worth JRB.
  I was looking up in the sky and I almost walked in front of a car.
 

 

  “…A Blue Angels flight demonstration exhibits choreographed refinements of skills possessed by all naval aviators. The Blue Angels’ C-130, affectionately known as Fat Albert, begins each demonstration by exhibiting its maximum performance capabilities during a ten-minute performance. Shortly thereafter, you will see the graceful aerobatic maneuvers of the four-jet Diamond Formation, in concert with the fast-paced, high-performance maneuvers of its two Solo pilots. Finally, the team illustrates the pinnacle of precision flying, performing maneuvers locked as a unit in the renowned, six-jet Delta Formation…”

  That was going on over my head yesterday as I walked to Braum’s to get food.  No wonder I was looking up in the sky. 
  They will be doing it again today.  I will go out today and see if I can just watch it, from here, without walking in front of a car.
 

 

“Part of the Blue Angels performance at Navy Fort Worth, TX. The left channel is from a radio tuned to the Angel's frequency. You will hear Boss (lead pilot) most of the time. The solos are also heard on their passes. This is done for several reasons. One is letting the other pilots and the safety officer gauge the alertness of Boss during high G's.”

  2005 Blue Angels at NAS Fort Worth part 1 of 3

  Here is 1080p Video from Their show in 2009 at Alliance – Fort Worth, TX

Google Latitude

  I told you about Google Latitude.  I been using it.  You will see the map on my blogs; ShowMeBlog, Howard’s Notebook and Show Me Fort Worth. 
  If I go someplace my location will change on the map.  I think it is pretty neat.  I guess that shows that there is something wrong with me or that I do not have much of a life. 

  How does Google Latitude know were I am?  I have the Google Latitude android app installed on my cell phone. 

                                                             
   If you click on the “google.com/latitude” link at the bottom of my map it takes you to a big map with more details. Plus you can zoom in and do all the normal Google Map stuff.

 

                                                                                                               

  If you are the one running Google Latitude then you have other options.  You can see your history and edit the history and even play a video of your history.  Pretty neat.
  I can see a lot of good uses for this.  I can see a lot of people using it for evil.  I think it is neat but I fear we are going to hear that some bad guys use it for the wrong reason.

  One of my grown children travels all over the United States all the time.  That person could turn it on and I could track them.  It could be a big safety thing.
  The problem I see with Google Latitude is the battery drain.  It sucks the life right out of your battery.  Because if you run it when you are out and moving around it is running plus it has GPS running all the time.
  I was running it 24/7.  But today I set it so that I have to turn it on.  Now I have to remember to turn it on when I leave the house.  And I have to remember to turn it off when I get back home.  I heard there was a android app that you can get that you can tell it to do such and such when such and such happens.  So I could set it to turn on Google Launch whenever I am not using WiFi.  Because I use WiFi for my phone when I am at home.  Anyone know the name of that app?

  You know me.. I just got to remind you that before there was android or an iPhone I played with this map and location thing right here.  I was using Amateur (Ham) radio.  There was a map on my site and  used my ham radio and APRS and you could see me moving on the map. 
  You guys broke my heart.    Because you did not care one little bit.  No one said how cool or how neat or said anything.
  I still think this entire thing is neat.

  Yes, I do know about FoursSquare and I like it a great deal.
  My FourSquare page is:  www.foursquare.com/n0uwy

Take a look at my new android Samsung Intercept

  In this video from YouTube I tell you about my new android cell phone.  I also show you some of the apps on the Samsung Intercept.
  If you sign up ANY phone with Virgin Mobile please use my kickback code and we will both get 60 extra minutes of voice minutes:  eJ7W7Tnn

Stubborn nano-satellite finally pops out

“A reluctant mini-satellite finally sprang from its mother ship this week, and NASA used amateur radio operators to help find it and check on its status.

The NanoSail-D was supposed to deploy from the Fast Affordable Scientific and Technology Satellite, or FASTSAT, on December 6, but it just sat there for more than six weeks, refusing to come out of the barn.

Mission operators at the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, kept the door open, hoping the NanoSatellite – about the size of a loaf of bread –would eventually emerge on its own, which it finally did on Wednesday.

"We knew that the door opened and it was possible that NanoSail-D could eject on its own," Mark Boudreaux, FASTSAT project manager at the Marshall Center, said in a press release. "What a pleasant surprise this morning when our flight operations team confirmed that NanoSail-D is now a free flyer."

That event triggered a three-day countdown until four doors are supposed to open like the blades on a ceiling fan, allowing a large polymer sail to pop out.

NASA had asked ham radio operators to listen for NanoSail-D's signal at 437.270 megahertz and report their findings to the NanoSail-D dashboard.

By midday Thursday a signal had been detected, and the team in Huntsville determined the craft was operating normally, NASA reported…”    CNN

    I am a amateur radio operator but without a radio right now.   I been saying I am going to buy an android cell phone in about seven days…  Right now I do not have a ham radio.  Then this story appears…  Now I am thinking I should buy a ham radio.  I can not afford both.  I would use the cell phone more.  
    But a story like the above..  makes me want to get a ham radio again.
    Ham radios cost a lot of money or did cost a lot.  Now you can get some very good radios at great prices.  They are from China.  I could get a very good hand held dual band ham radio for just a little bit over $100.00 and the cell phone is going to cost me $219.00 for it.
   Dam that NanoSail-D satellite.  It could not wait to pop out for another week.
     73, Jim Howard NØUWY 

University of New Mexico Hospital Shooter

  Reports of a shooter on the campus of the University of New Mexico Hospital. 

The Audio via RadioRefference

“A male suspect with a small silver handgun is at the University of New Mexico Hospital in Albuquerque, the university said on its website Tuesday. It described the event as "an active shooter situation."

CNN was not immediately able to contact area police for comment.

"They confirm one person was in the hospital and shot his gun inside the hallway, but no one was injured," said Cindy Foster, a spokeswoman for the UNM Health Sciences Center.

The university advised all personnel in the central and northern portions of the campus to go on lockdown.

Foster said it "sounds as if the situation is about to end," but declined further comment.

CNN affiliate KRQE reported that the incident began shortly after 3 p.m.”

FULL STORY

   Hospital gunman eludes cops: UNMH opens

U.S. aims to regulate mobile "bill shock"

(CNN) -- "Kerfye Pierre had recently returned from volunteering in the aftermath of January's Haiti earthquake when she got the most outrageous mobile phone bill of her life.

The tab? Nearly $35,000.

"I was like, 'That cannot be possible,' " the 27-year-old Washington woman said of the moment she saw that staggering monthly statement from T-Mobile. "And I called them and they were like, 'Yeah, that's your bill.' "

To make matters worse, Pierre said, T-Mobile had agreed to grant her and other people in Haiti a temporary free voice plan. As she understood it, the plan would let her use her mobile phone for free while she was working in the country, setting up day camps for kids and distributing water to victims of the quake…"

 

"…Stories such as Pierre's are part of the reason the U.S. Federal Communications Commission this week plans to propose rules to prevent mobile phone "bill shock," a term that refers to bills that are higher than usual because of unanticipated fees and overage charges…"

  This is such an easy fix.. It is something that should be done and it should have real teeth in it.  The FCC should nail the cell phone corporations and Congress should back up the FCC.
  The cell phone people been fucking us all since the start.
  This new proposed rule makes so much sense.
  I think it should be something like…if you have a $50.00 plan and you all of a sudden run up a $100.00 bill the cell phone company should have to start sending notice to you.  If your $50.00 plan hits $150.00 then the cell phone company should know that they will NOT get paid for any charges above that amount and that they will have to eat it.  So they should have to get a OK from you for the additional costs and it should be clear that you understand and have a good reason for the additional costs. 
  Plus no one should ever get a cell phone bill for $35K or even $5K.  Not when you are a private person with a $50.00 a month plan.  If the cell phone company even sends a bill for $5K the FCC with the FBI should visit the cell phone company and do an audit and full review and investigation of the cell phone company. 

  My guess is that Republicans will object to the FCC having any rules or doing anything that is real in a matter like this… Just as they do with banks and credit card corporations.
  The problem is that the majority of the FCC commissioners are appointed by the current President.  When the current President is a Republican well we get fucked.  It should not be political.  It is like you have a police department run by a commission and on the regulating commission you allow the Mafia or street gangs to control it for four or eight years.  

CNN says Blogs are like a bathroom wall!

  I have been saying here for years that there are things wrong with the Internet.  I was saying it before the invention of the world wide web.  The web was invented in 1995.  I was saying in Howard's Notebook that there were problems with the Internet back before the web was invented and on the Internet.
  Back then my main objection was IRC chat rooms.  
  Recently I been saying that Blogs are not the news media and people should not be reading blogs thinking that they are getting their news from a news media source.
  I know and agree that parts of the Internet are the wild wild west and there are problems with it.

  But there are MAJOR fucking problems with the "News Media."  One problem is that you have Fox "news" which people think is "news media."  CNN would say that Fox News is "News Media."
  If Fox News is news media then .. well then there is no standard and you can not trust "news media."  If CNN holds up Fox News as a news media service then fuck them all. 

  Now CNN just had a report on TV attacking all Blogs.  They said that all blogs were like a bathroom wall. 
  I been blogging since 1982!  I been online blogging 24/7 since 1982!  Yes,  I was blogging before the invention of the world wild web! 
 
  My name is Jim Howard and I say Fuck CNN News.  I was doing a weekly radio program back in the 60s!  It was broadcast three times a week to the world over international radio station WRUL.
  I put out a monthly printed publication for years in the 60s.  It was called "SWL" and I covered shortwave radio, space, space communications and other subjects.  I wrote it and there were other people that wrote monthly columns.  I had to use a mimeograph machine to get it printed.   It took me an entire month just to get it out since I was using a mimeograph machine.

  CNN uses communications satellites in earth orbit.  I was telling people about space communications before their were communications satellites.  I was telling people on the radio and in my little printed publication about communications satellites like ECHO 1 and others before the people on CNN were even born.
  I headed up a MIT research group C on satellite scatter back before there were communications satellites and we were trying to bounce radio signals off the ionized trails of meteors. 

  So CNN do not be so high and mighty with me. 

  My name is Jim Howard and I say to CNN -  KISS MY ASS.

People to People

"Hey there Jim -
You just successfully created a Project on Crowdrise. That means you're now a part of a long tradition of great Project creators like John Jay, Amelia Earhart and my Uncle Les. Once you're done posting compelling photos and a personal story
to your Project Page, you should take these two really important steps to get your campaign off to an amazing start...
First, you should donate to your own Project right now. Your friends and family will see that you donated and it will make them much more likely to donate.
Second, click on the big orange SHARE PROJECT button on your Project Page and ask everyone you know to donate. We make it super easy to get the message out via email, Twitter, Facebook or all three. If you ask people to support you,
they'll do it. Ask twice if you have to. Be relentless. It's for a good cause.
Here's a link back to your Project Page:

http://www.crowdrise.com/helpthepeopletopeopl "

  Crowdrise looks like a good idea.  I set up this organizing project for the People-to-People organization.  I was one of the signers of the paper work to get it started and it was the first People-to-People organization.  God, that was a long long time ago.  I was just a teen if I remember correct.  It would be great if I could come up with a photo of that signing for the project. 
  All the other people were older adults in suits.  I was there signing for hobby people like pen paling, shortwave listening, amateur radio and stuff like that. 

  The People to People International site says that they started in 1956!  My God, I was even younger than I remember.  That would have made me about 15 years of age.  If I remember correct the signing took place at the Muehlebach Hotel in Kansas City, Missouri.  All the other people signing had walked over from their CEO offices or came by limo.  I took a city bus to get to the event.
  Note:  From the information below it appears I signed in 1961! That would have made me 20 years of age.

People to People International was established on September 11, 1956 by President Dwight D. Eisenhower. At the time, the first people to travel as a part of the program were professionals from varying fields. PTPI's most widely-known humanitarian program is Operation International Children, which was co-founded by author Laura Hillenbrand and actor Gary Sinise.

People to People International was privatized in 1961 and moved the World Headquarters to Kansas City, MO; today it is registered as a non-profit organization. The current President and Chief Executive Officer of People to People International is Mary Jean Eisenhower, granddaughter of former President Dwight D. Eisenhower. On June 22, 2006, People to People was the first organization awarded the Cavaliere per la Pace (Knight of Peace Award).  Prior to People to People, recipients of this award had always been individuals. Previous honorees include Mother Teresa, Mikhail Gorbachev and Pope John Paul II. Since its inception, eight presidents have served as the honorary chairman of People to People International, with George W. Bush acting as the current honorary chairman.

Another very popular program is the Global Youth Forum (GYF). Participants have to be between the ages of 13 to 18. The 2005 GYF was held in Washington D.C., the 2006 was held in Kansas City, and the 2007 GYF was held in Chicago. The 2008 GYF was held in Denver. The 2010 GYF will take place in Atlanta, Georgia.

Other People to People International programs include: Educational and Humanitarian Initiatives (adult travel programs), the Experience program (an annual student travel program incorporating service work), Peace Camp (free, international travel program for students with an emphasis on peace education), the Global Landmine Initiative (working with the HALO Trust), the School and Classroom Program (an international classroom-based pen pal program), & also Community, University, and Student Chapters all over the world.

PTPI is a proud partner of Global Youth Service Day,.

People to People International has extension offices in Berlin, Germany and Cairo, Egypt.

Today, this organization shows continuing support for the People to People Student Ambassador Program, the Sports Ambassador Program, and Ambassador Programs for adults. People to People International has a relationship with the Student Ambassador Program. Participants in this program travel to countries throughout the world with the maxim "to promote peace through understanding."    Information from Wikipedia