Below from the Eagle's Nest, Sheepy says THANKS!!!

It is with profound sadness in the temporary parting, yet supreme faith in the rejoining, that I confirm the passing of BILL UHOUSE.

Bill passed from this life on May 29.

While Bill was with us in this life, he was another man who worked closely with a J-Rod. His work in craft diagnostics, with the other J-Rod paved the way for Majestic's understanding of the operations of the craft, and allowed for back engineering which has protected the United States of America (and other countries) to this day, and far beyond.

He was a HERO, an honorable Military Officer and I can personally attest for the authenticity of his account with the other 1953 crash occupant.

I can say all this without ever having the honor of personally meeting Bill.

Bill's passing was only announced to me, last night, by Will, his son, and Teri, Will's wife; as we had not spoken for some months during the time of the great changes in Marcia's and my life.

Many of you know that Will, Teri, Marcia, and myself are good friends. We look forward to having a drink in the memory and certain rejoining one day with Will's father!

In the mean time, Eagles Disobey will design a Memorial to be placed on its front page, in honor of Bill, and Angel Eagles will be dedicating next week's run all the way to Roswell, New Mexico, in his name!

With that, I send this song to Bill, a song which means a lot to us from Majestic, we intend it as an expression of the great way we all feel about him!

May God Bless and Keep you, Bill! Meet you soon!

Love,
Dan
(and for Marcia, and the entire Eagles Team)

Eat Your Sprouts!

Neanderthals wouldn't have eaten their sprouts either

August 12th, 2009 by Denholm Barnetson

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Visitors at the Museum for Prehistory in Eyzies-de-Tayac look at a reconstruction of a Neanderthal man. Spanish researchers say they have found that a gene in modern humans that makes some people dislike a bitter chemical called phenylthiocarbamide, or PTC, was also present in Neanderthals hundreds of thousands of years ago.

Spanish researchers say they're a step closer to resolving a "mystery of evolution" -- why some people like Brussels sprouts but others hate them.

They have found that a gene in modern humans that makes some people dislike a bitter chemical called phenylthiocarbamide, or PTC, was also present in Neanderthals hundreds of thousands of years ago.

The scientists made the discovery after recovering and sequencing a fragment of the TAS2R38 gene taken from 48,000-year-old Neanderthal bones found at a site in El Sidron, in northern Spain, they said in a report released Wednesday by the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC).

"This indicates that variation in bitter taste perception predates the divergence of the lineages leading to Neanderthals and modern humans," they said.

Substances similar to PTC give a bitter taste to green vegetables such as Brussels sprouts, broccoli and cabbage as well as some fruits.

But they are also present in some poisonous plants, so having a distaste for it makes evolutionary sense.

"The sense of bitter taste protects us from ingesting toxic substances," the report said.

What intrigued the researchers most is that Neanderthals also possessed a recessive variant of the TAS2R38 gene which made some of them unable to taste PTC -- an inability they share with around one third of modern humans.

"This feature ... is a mystery of evolution," said the report.

"These (bitter) compounds can be toxic if ingested in large quantities and it is therefore difficult to understand the evolutionary existence of individuals who cannot detect them."

The report's lead author, Carles Lalueza Fox of the University of Barcelona, speculated that such people may be "able to detect some other compound not yet identified."

This would have given them some genetic advantage and explain the reason for the continuation of the variant gene.

Neanderthals and modern humans shared a common ancestor from which they diverged about 300,000 years ago.

Excavations since 2000 at the site at El Sidron, in the Asturias region, have so far recovered the skeletal remains of at least 10 Neanderthal individuals.

The squat, low-browed Neanderthals lived in parts of Europe, Central Asia and the Middle East for around 170,000 years but traces of them disappear some 28,000 years ago, their last known refuge being Gibraltar.

Why they died out is a matter of furious debate because they existed alongside modern man.

The CSIS research was published in the British Royal Society's Biology Letters.

FOIA

Mr. Uhouse,

 

               Here is the following link to assist you with a FOIA request: http://www.foia.va.gov/FOIA_NCA.asp

 

V/R,

 

JC

 

JOSHUA C. WHITE

DEPARTMENT OF VETERANS AFFAIRS

WASHINGTON CROSSING NATIONAL CEMETERY

Program Analyst

P: 609-877-5460

F: 609-871-4691

Joshua.White2@va.gov

Proof that language is math.

Love and Tensor Algebra

from "The Cyberiad" by Stanislaw Lem:

Come, let us hasten to a higher plane Where dyads tread the fairy fields of Venn, Their indices bedecked from one to n Commingled in an endless Markov chain!

Come, every frustrum longs to be a cone And every vector dreams of matrices. Hark to the gentle gradient of the breeze: It whispers of a more ergodic zone.

In Riemann, Hilbert or in Banach space Let superscripts and subscripts go their ways. Our asymptotes no longer out of phase, We shall encounter, counting, face to face.

I'll grant thee random access to my heart, Thou'lt tell me all the constants of thy love; And so we two shall all love's lemmas prove, And in our bound partition never part.

For what did Cauchy know, or Christoffel, Or Fourier, or any Bools or Euler, Wielding their compasses, their pens and rulers, Of thy supernal sinusoidal spell?

Cancel me not - for what then shall remain? Abscissas some mantissas, modules, modes, A root or two, a torus and a node: The inverse of my verse, a null domain.

Ellipse of bliss, converge, O lips divine! the product o four scalars is defines! Cyberiad draws nigh, and the skew mind Cuts capers like a happy haversine. I see the eigenvalue in thine eye, I hear the tender tensor in thy sigh. Bernoulli would have been content to die, Had he but known such a^2 cos 2 phi!

http://webplaza.pt.lu/laurent3/include/html/poems.html

Amazing plant photographs

The amazing plant photographs which were ten years in the making and are filled with electricity

By Daily Mail Reporter
Last updated at 8:06 AM on 16th July 2009

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These extraordinary images reveal what happens when electrical surges pass through a metal board with a simple plant on top.

Photographer Robert Buelteman sends 80,000 volts through his flowery subjects and then literally paints photographs of the outcome.

In three awe-inspiring series, the 55-year-old uses roses, petunias, and even cannabis in mind-blowing detail to give an extraordinary view of ordinary plant-life.

Artist Robert Buelteman sends 80,000 volts through flowery subjects and then literally paints photographs of the outcome to create these amazing pictures

The process to capture these unique images is so complex it has taken him 10 years - and a gruelling average of 60 hours-per-week - to produce just 80 photos.

Working in complete darkness, he begins by placing his chosen plant onto a metal board which he then passes the electrical surge through.

He can even pinpoint areas where he wants to focus the charge using a wand and a simple car battery.

The artist uses roses, petunias, and even cannabis in his amazing works

As his subject lights up with the current, and emits radiation invisible to the naked eye, Mr Buelteman captures the moments by passing a fibre optic cable back-and-forth over the plant.

The cable emits a beam of white light which is just the size of a human hair and whatever the miniscule torch-beam touches, transfers the image onto film.

The captivating blue haze that surrounds every leaf, petal and stalk is actually gases ionising around them as the plant is electronically shocked.

To explain the baffling process, Buelteman, from Montara, California, USA, uses a trusted analogy.

This picture of Eucalyptus provides an amazing inside into plantlife

Buelteman spends an average of 60 hours-per-week - to produce just 80 photos

'You just have to imagine it like a painter creating a picture on canvass,' he said. 'The plant is the subject just like the painter's bowl of fruit or the person they are capturing.

'The electrified board I place the plants on is the canvass. The fibre optic cable emitting the light-beam is my paintbrush.

'Another way to try and understand it is like a normal photograph on a normal camera, except I am manually controlling the exposure by hand. In the same way the image I capture is simply burned onto film.' 

To give the pictures an added dazzling effect, Mr Buelteman's aluminium canvass actually floats in liquid silicone.

This Geranium image has taken hours to produce

The Californian said his unique technique has been around for decades

And to make sure he doesn't get killed or injured in the process, he erects a protective frame of wood around his easel.

But despite these being the first pictures of their kind in his profession, Mr Buelteman says he has in fact invented nothing and uses a combination of age-old techniques developed decades ago.

Semyon Kirlian - developer of Kirlian photography - accidentally found in 1939 that it was possible to photograph electrical discharges at the edges of objects if that were being shocked on an electrified plate.

The 55-year-old makes ordinary Chrysanthemums look extraordinary

'When people see my work I want them to feel an awakening. The world is an amazing place and evolution has created some breathtaking things for us to look at.

'For me, art is about looking at the world and all it's wonder in a new way, seeing something differently.' 

Mr Buelteman has written about the project and the techniques he uses in his book Signs of Life.

His works are being bought for a phenomenal five figures by art collectors.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1199836/The-amazing-plant-photographs-years-making-filled-electricity.html#ixzz0MHjcwSQ4

Things that go "Pahrump" in the brain! :-)

There are generally two types of science: first, there's the type that makes computers work, allows us to ride around in metal boxes propelled by continuous explosion, and makes it so that milk doesn't taste all gross. Then there's the fringe science, the stuff that shoots up your nose like mathematical horseradish and dances a jig on your brain…or brane, as it were (that's the nerdiest joke in the article, we promise). So kick off your work boots, put on your thought slippers, and prepare for a science course so mind-blowing, it's written almost entirely in italics.

#5.

The Theory: Quantum Entanglement

The Crazy Part:The part where you jiggle an electron on one side of the universe and an invisible force traverses millions of light years and smacks another electron into wiggling instantaneously, which is about a million years faster than is technically possible without time travel.

What It Says: That if two electrons are created together, they are forever "entangled," much like you and your high school sweetheart according to some shitty poems you wrote in tenth grade. And, also like you and your ex-love, regardless of the distance between the two electrons, a change in quantum spin in one electron will immediately cause the other electron to change spin as well. So like, when she has sex with Bob Feeney, the team's QB after the first date, even though you're home alone playing Tetris, your heart will ache with a sudden and unmistakable pain. That's the pain of entanglement, my friend.

So What Does This Do For Me? Teleportation, holmes. Only really tiny. In theory, you could separate two electrons by as much space as you wanted (say, the breadth of the universe), and they'd still be linked in such a way that actions taken on one would affect the other instantaneously. Meaning information is being transmitted at speeds faster than light. Meaning, if you want to really go nuts, time travel. And though the party pooping scientists have been busy coming up with limitations on the kind of information that could be transmitted (it seems super-fast computers that allow you to play Gears of War against people in parallel dimensions may be a ways off), no one has yet been able to disprove the theory that there is an invisible force in the universe capable of affecting matter millions of light-years away…instantly.

Wait, It Gets Worse: If you subscribe to the whole "Big Bang" thing, then there was a point in the past in which every atom in the universe was condensed into a singularity. Which means everything, even you and that bastard Bob Feeney, are quantumly entangled. Some scientists have even gone so far as to claim that quantum entanglement shows that there is no such thing as space, and that everything in the universe is still touching. Space is just an illusion created by our flawed perceptions, and we're all one. The hippies were right after all.

The Theory:Evolution

The Crazy Part: The part where the family tree of every living creature on Earth collides at a single point on a single day in the past, making you related to Hitler as well as every insect you've ever killed..

What It Says: We're all familiar with the basics of evolution: that a munificent monkey-goddess birthed us all from Her banana-scented womb. But there are some lesser-discussed implications of natural selection that are just plain weird. For one, scientists have concluded that around 140,000 years ago in Kenya, there lived a woman called Mitochondrial Eve (cavemen had weird names), so named because today, every living human on Earth has her mitochondrial DNA in their body (cavemen were also prescient). And only 3,000 years ago lived a person known as the Most Recent Common Ancestor, who, through exponential growth of the family tree, is the ancestor of every single person on Earth. And did you know that, based on the same principles (and a lot of rape), Genghis Kahn has over 16 million descendants? Who's your Daddy now?!

So What Does This Do For Me? Well, for one, you can rest assured than anyone you ever have sex with in your entire life is at least your distant, distant cousin. So that's nice. And if you're really a nut for genealogy, why not trace your heritage back to the Last Universal Ancestor, the single-celled organism who, about 4 billion years ago, decided to go ahead and give rise to every living creature that will ever exist on the face of the Earth? Talk about a pimp. In essence, the whole of life on the planet can be considered one long, unbroken chemical reaction that is still resolving itself, like the foam flowing out of a science fair volcano.

Wait, It Gets Worse: The genetic chaos continues. The Endosymbiotic Theory says that the mitochondria in our bodies, without which we couldn't live, let alone write snide humor articles, was at one point a separate organism that invaded our cells and set up camp. They formed a symbiotic relationship so beneficial that we've never booted them out. Furthermore, large chunks of the human genome are thought to be ancient retroviruses that managed to transcribe themselves into our DNA and have spent the remainder of their days happily clambering up and down our nucleotides like the McDuck children on a mansion banister. Basically your cells are millions of individual organisms, all huddled together in a you-shaped beehive. Now see how long you can go before wanting to shower.

And lastly, a thought for the right-wingers out there: At some point half of you was an egg in your Mother's womb. That egg existed in her body from the day she was born. And a long, long time ago, she too was an egg in her Mother's womb, who had that egg ready for use from the moment she squirmed out of your Great Grandma's nethers. The point being, technically speaking, there's no break in the chain of existence, no time when you are not a life form of at least the most rudimentary sort. Your family, at least on your Mother's side, could theoretically be considered an immortal, constantly-regenerating organism. Of course that would make men, whose sperm has to be created years after the moment of birth, just disposable donors here to fuel the everlasting fire of womanhood. You go girls!

The Theory: The Copenhagen Interpretation

The Crazy Part: The part where the furniture in your house behaves differently when you're not around.

What It Says: Besides sounding like the subtitle of The Da Vinci Code II, The Copenhagen Interpretation is probably the most widely accepted explanation for the observations made through quantum mechanics. It came about in part to explain the infamous "Double Slit Experiment," which is the one your physics professor probably made you do. The Double Slit Experiment shows that an electron, fired at a wall with two slits in it, will sometimes go through sometimes go through one, sometimes through the other, and sometimes it will go through both slits simultaneously (meaning, a single thing will be in two places at once). In short, it goes batshit fucking insane. The twist is, if you try and observe the electron at the moment it passes through the slits—you know, to figure out what the hell is wrong with it—the electron goes back to behaving like a normal electron, and innocently shoots through one of the slits while giving you, and reality, the finger. The details of why this happens are sort of technical, but this simple diagram should explain it:

So What Does This Do For Me? The Copenhagen Interpretation is the result of a lot of smart people trying to figure out what the fuck was going on with these damn electrons. What they came up with is that all particles exist as waves of probability. From the observer's perspective, there's only a certain chance that a given electron will go through the left slit or right slit. When you don't watch, it remains a cloud of probability and sort of does a little of everything. When you watch, the act of observing it somehow causes the cloud to pick a side. So the next time you observe a particle, be warned: they know you're watching, and as soon as you stop, they're going to start a party.

Wait, It Gets Worse: If you apply the Copenhagen Interpretation to bigger objects, it gets even weirder. The infamous Schrodinger's Cat thought experiment, the one your physics professor probably got fired for doing, said that if you put a cat in a box and press a button that has a fifty percent chance of filling the box with poison gas, then until you go and look in the box, the cat exists as a cat-cloud which is simultaneously both alive and dead. And there's more: if everything exists as a probability wave, then that means that technically, anything possible could happen at any time. There's nothing stopping a big floppy dick from sprouting out of your forehead right now; it's just highly unlikely. You feel lucky, punk?

The Theory: The Many Worlds Theory

The Crazy Part: The part where you realize that somewhere in some parallel universe you just died while reading this sentence.

What It Says: The Many Worlds Theory rejects The Copenhagen Interpretation's crazy idea that particles can change their behavior seemingly at will, and replaces it with the much crazier idea that the only reason we think particles are changing their behavior is that we're only seeing that particle's action in one universe, rather than the infinite number of universes that actually exist. So an observed particle with two options—say, to pound beers at a Van Halen tribute show or drop E and storm a techno club—actually does both, even though we may only observe the techno club, in some other universe, parallel to our own, that particle is rocking out to "Eruption" instead of rubbing itself ferociously on anything with a body temperature.

So What Does This Do For Me? If you buy into the Many Worlds Theory, the implications are infinite. And let's be clear about what "infinite" means here. For every action you've ever taken, every movement you've ever made, even down to the atomic level, there's a parallel universe out there where you did something else instead. Anything else. Instead of learning guitar, you burst into flames. Instead of opening the fridge, you freebased black tar heroin. Instead of nude rock climbing, you went nude bungee jumping. Instead of reading this article, you worked productively and got a handsome raise. Think about it: in some parallel universe out there, you and your high school sweetheart are making hot, reconciliatory love atop Bob Feeney's smoldering corpse after you killed a laser-breathing velociraptor with your bare hands. If that thought doesn't make you feel better about how mundane your actual life is, we don't know what will.

Wait, It Gets Worse: If you think The Many Worlds Theory is a tad too far fetched an explanation for some electrons behaving weirdly, you're not alone. In an effort to simplify things, scientists have come up with The Many Minds Theory, which says your brain splits up at the instant you make an observation, and then your many brains observe every possible outcome. Yes, that's right, an infinite number of parallel brains, existing without universes (let alone skulls) to house them in. Awesome. Much simpler.

Level Of Mind Blowing-ness: A TNT-tipped jackhammer to the eye socket.

#1.

The Theory: The Universe Is Big

The Crazy Part: The part where the Universe isn't just bigger than you can possibly comprehend, but according to recent evidence, billions of times larger than that.

What It Says: That the universe is big. So big, that just that fact, just it's mere bigness, is enough to blow your tiny ant mind. And it just keeps getting bigger. Let's examine the famous Hubble Ultra Deep Field image, the most massive photo ever taken:

Right now, on your computer screen, are approximately 10,000 galaxies.

Each of those galaxies contains anywhere from ten million to one trillion stars.

The average star is roughly a million times the size of Earth.

And yet, with all that junk, the Universe is more than 90 percent empty space.

All of that, in this tiny photo. A photo that took 400 orbits and 800 exposures to take.

And the kicker? The photo covers one thirteen-millionth of the entire night sky.

So What Does This Do For Me? If you're like us, it leaves you alternately awash with spiritual wonder and horrified feelings of utter insignificance. Actually imagining just how infinitesimal you are in the scope of the universe is like autoerotic asphyxiation: it's not as pleasant as you'd think, and if you do it wrong you can end up a vegetable. And without getting too Douglas Adams on you, can you possibly imagine that much space and that many planets and stars and atoms smashing together without intelligent life forming? Now it's just a matter of getting around that pesky general relativity and we'll be chilling with aliens in no time. Or, like, a million years.

Wait, It Gets Worse: So all that shit we just said about how big the universe is (at least 90 billion light years)? Forget it. That's small beans. The Cosmological Horizon is here to make your day a whole lot more complicated. Since we can only observe stellar bodies that have had some effect on us (usually bombarding us with light), there is an outer limit to what we can see of the universe. Hence, the "observable universe." What about the rest? The parts of the universe beyond our Starcraft-style fog of war? Well, according to some math we have no interest in going into, the size of the "actual" universe is so large that if the universe we just described (the impossibly, mind-bogglingly large one) were the size of a quarter, the actual universe would be the size of the Earth. Daaaaaaaamn.

Level Of Mind Blowing-ness: The sound of one hand clapping for a tree falling in the woods while no one's around except a guy whose skull is wired with C4.

In case you've still got some bits of gray matter clinging to the shards of your fractured skull, here are some links to information about further scientific theories conceived to make neural cortex dribble out your nostrils.

String Theory: Including the idea that there are seven spatial dimensions that are "hiding" in the three we're familiar with.

The Double Slit Experiment: A CG Mr. Wizard-type guides you through the ridiculousness of the Double-slit experiment.

The Hubble Ultra Deep Field Image: In full-resolution glory. Perfect for those stoned out of their minds.

The Supervolcano: Probably the most plausible doomsday scenario currently on the market.

The Large Hadron Collider: The Scientific Institute that some scientists claim will create a tiny black hole (although apparently that's fine).

Quantum Tunneling: The theory that when a particle is slammed against a barrier that it's physically impossible for it to penetrate, sometimes it does anyway.

Laser Time Travel: Time travel available within a decade? I can go back and warn myself about Mama Mia!

And, for those whose brains need a quick escape before they implode…

Godel's Incompleteness Theorems: A German mathematician proves that all of this is just bullshit anyway.

Last 5 posts by Michael Swaim

• The Funniest Comedic Failure in the History of YouTube - May 27th, 2009
• Hollywood Gives Up: Keanu Reeves to Play Dr. Jeckyl/Mr. Hyde - May 23rd, 2009
• The Six Flags Mascot: Like Being Kicked in the Eyes By AIDS - May 14th, 2009
• The 5 Most Likely Ways Humans Will Become Obsolete - May 4th, 2009
• 12 Abu Ghraib Torture Photos (Made Fun!) - May 2nd, 2009

This entry was posted on Thursday, August 7th, 2008 at 6:00 am and is filed under Einstein, Feynman, Physics, Quantum Theory, Science, Space, Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

How To Protect Your Online Reputation

Amanda Berlin, 07.01.09, 09:00 PM EDT

The Web is a viral breeding ground of rumor and scandal. Here's how to keep your own place on it untarnished.

In Pictures: How To Protect Your Online Reputation

The good, the bad, the ugly ... anything that's posted about you on the Web will likely come up in an online search or with a little digging. And that can mean trouble.

Erik Kopelman, a business development professional for a New York City Internet company, was haunted by an accusation that appeared on the Web in 1997, when he was on the board of the student association at the State University of New York at Binghamton. "It was an accusation printed in the student paper about the misuse of funds," he says. "I knew I could explain it away if it ever came up, and nothing ever came of it, but for the first two years I was job-hunting, I was worried."

In Pictures: How To Protect Your Online Reputation

Kopelman says over time he fretted less about the blip. "Today, my resume speaks for itself, and in the intervening years, no one has ever mentioned it."

Twelve years later, the post doesn't rise above the second page of search results when Kopelman is Googled. He didn't actively do anything to get rid of it, but there are ways you can build a positive reputation for yourself online and crowd out negative search results that potential employers might find off-putting.

The best way to manage your online reputation is by generating positive search results that will rank as highly as possible in a Google ( GOOG - news - people ) search and edge out anything negative on the list of search results.

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Some of the top hits for Erik Kopelman now include his LinkedIn profile and items connected to his involvement with charities including the American Cancer Society and American Liver Foundation.

According to Andy Beal, co-author of Radically Transparent: Monitoring and Managing Reputations Online, personal pages on sites like Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter all rank highly in Google searches. LinkedIn especially sends a positive message to potential employers, since it's widely viewed as a highly professional network. Beal says that 78% of recruiters use search engines in their research when they screen new candidates.

Jason Fleischer, an executive recruiter with the Abacus Group, says he finds networking sites like Facebook and, to a larger degree, LinkedIn useful in some of the searches he handles. "Your resume is usually your first impression, but Facebook can help turn a cold search into a warmer lead, if you have a shared interest or a mutual friend. And LinkedIn offers even more specific professional information," he says.

In addition to signing up for social networking sites, Beal advises a series of actions that will help you protect your personal brand and online reputation. Much as you would protect your credit, check for activity connected to your name. Set up a news feed for your name so you can monitor when and if you pop up on blogs or in news stories. He says you should do that even if it's the only thing you do.

But it shouldn't be. Also register your name as a domain name, and sign up for every social network that you can think of. Those moves will ensure you have a presence and won't be mistaken for someone else.

Then, take seriously what you post on the Web. Often enough, the negative item about you can be something you published yourself. "Just because you can tell the world what you're doing doesn't mean you should," Beal says. He adds that a startling 35% of recruiters say they have eliminated a candidate because of something they found on the Web. Fleischer says he hasn't seen anything on LinkedIn or Facebook to disqualify a candidate, except when they've clearly not taken networking seriously and have been sarcastic about their jobs and experience. Still, some people use the Web more effectively than others.

Once you've established yourself online, use buzzwords that appear in job postings to describe what you do. Fleischer says, "Always check the boxes on LinkedIn that say you are open for opportunities. And be as specific as possible, using words that show up in job descriptions, especially if you work in a niche industry. Don't shy away from being upfront about who you are and what you're looking for."

Even if you make all the right moves to create a positive online reputation, some things will remain beyond your control. Newspaper or magazine articles that document or even just allege a transgression--like the report that surfaced about Kopelman--can tarnish your reputation online. In Kopelman's case, the article was written by student journalists who, he says, were sensationalistic in their reporting. "The Web is so much more powerful now than it was then," he says. "I am really careful about what I do in a social networking context and what people post about me."

Beal advises you to take it very seriously if something untrue is posted about you. He says that 90% of bloggers will correct something they've posted that's not factual. He recommends requesting that the error be removed entirely or corrected in the context of the original post, rather than just mentioned elsewhere as a correction. The offending material will still surface if it's still out there.

You can crowd out damaging or embarrassing search results, pushing them farther down in your search list results, by generating positive content with a personal blog, Web site and networking profiles. Also, Google recently launched a tool that lets you create profiles and direct what appears first when someone conducts a search. It lets you put your best foot forward by linking your name with URLs and photos, contact information and employment information. It's at google.com/profiles.

Fleischer says not to worry if there is a photo on Facebook showing you, say, drinking a beer at a wedding: "It's also important in the professional world to show you have a personality. You can always add security to your profile if you're nervous, but just because you like to have fun doesn't mean you don't work hard."

Erik Kopelman says that as an Internet advertising professional and with his past experience, he's extremely aware the power of the Web. "I'm always telling people that their name is their brand, and they must be careful what they post."

Amanda Berlin is a writer in New York City.

In Pictures: How To Protect Your Online Reputation

How ya doing? "Up to my ass in hungry alligators"

Thursday, June 18, 2009
ANOTHER ALABAMA ALLIGATOR
One of the things about the Fortean omniverse I have always found
entertaining is the way that stuff always happens in batches. On the
same day that I received this story
about alligators in Alabama, I also received this series of
photographs and what purports to be a news story:

"The picture to the left was taken by a KTBS helicopter flying over
Lake Wiess about 90 miles north of Birmingham, Alabama. The helicopter
pilot and the game warden were in communication via radios; following
is a transcript of their conversation:

"Air1, have you a visual on the 'gator? Over. "
"Approaching inlet now; over."
"Roger, Air1."
"'Gator sighted. Looks like it has a small animal in its mouth. Moving
in; over."
"Roger, Air1."
"It's a deer!"
"Confirm, Air1! Did you say 'deer'? Over."
"Roger. A deer, in its mouth. Looks like a full-sized buck . That's a
BIG 'gator! We're gonna need more men. Over."
"Roger, Air1. Can you give me a idea on size of animal? Over."
"It's big... 25 feet long...at least! Please advise; 'gator is heading
to inlet... Do I pursue? Over."

That has to be a HUGE 'gator to have a whole deer in its mouth! The
deer was later found to be a mature stag and was measured at 11 feet!
Are you ready to go skiing on Lake Wiess ?! If you ski at the west end
of the lake, try not to fall!

This alligator was found between Centre and Leesburg, Alabama, near a
house! Game wardens were forced to shoot the alligator... guess he
wouldn't cooperate.

Anita and Charlie Rogers could hear the bellowing in the night. Their
neighbors had been telling them that they had seen a mammoth alligator
in the waterway that runs behind the Rogers' house but they dismissed
the stories as exaggerations. "I didn't believe it," Charles Rogers
said; however, they later realized the stories were, if anything,
understated. Alabama Parks and Wildlife game wardens had to shoot the
beast. Joe Goff, a 6'5" tall game warden, walks past the 28-foot,
1-inch alligator (8.5 metres) he shot and killed in the Rogers' back
yard.

We sent the pictures to our resident herpdude Richard Freeman who wrote back:

"The Alligator with deer in its mouth was real. The 28 foot 'gator was
bad photoshop. The biggest 'gator ever recorded was 19 feet 6 inches
and shot in Louisiana in 1890. The biggest in recent years was about
15 feet.
The only crocodilian reliably measured at over 28 feet was a 28 foot 4
inch Indo-pacific croc."

I would like someone with a knowledge of North American deer to take a
look at the first two alligator pictures and try to give us a more
reliable size estimate.

Chex Links! Credit "Make Use of.com"

Microsoft has a nifty utility in it's Windows Server 2003 Resource Kit. It is called ChkLnks.exe and it not only works on Windows Server 2003 but on Windows XP and Vista as well. I have not tried it on my Windows 7 installation just yet but I am pretty sure it work there too. If you've tried it out on 7, let us know how it went for you.

What is ChkLnks.exe? Well, it is a simple application that will scour your computer for non-functional shortcuts. And every system I tried this on had a few of them, no matter how clean I thought they were!

If you do not want to grab the entire resource kit you can download the 364KB ChkLnks.exe file, zipped up on its own from here http://www.computerperformance.co.uk/ScriptsGuy/chklnks.zip.

Now, let's see how ChkLnks.exe works.

You start the program there is no installation required. You will see the screen below, dubbed the "Link Check Wizard"

Hit the Next button to start scanning. The program will start and display results as it discovers them. Each line has a check box next to the title of the broken link. Broken links can come from uninstalling program, deleting applications or files and any number of other ways.

Simply check the box next to each link which you want to permanently remove. Or, just hit the select all button like I did. These are broken links and will not effect your machine.

It will take a few seconds for ChkLnks.exe to do its magic but when it is complete, you will get a dialogue box stating it did what it had to do. And you are one step closer to a lean, clean computing machine!

I decided to run it on another machine which I use for testing freeware and wound up with a huge list of orphaned links as you can see below:

I hit Finish and in a few seconds all my non-functional links were no longer on my machine. Not too shabby! Thanks for helping me out with my spring cleaning Microsoft!

Did you have lots of dead shortcuts on your computer? Surprised? Have you tried ChkLnks.exe on Windows 7? Let us know how it went.

Need more ideas on spring cleaning your computer? Check out Tina's post Last Minute Spring Cleaning of your Windows XP System.

Twist

We're certainly living in exciting times, with cat and mouse games being played across the technology industry. If you're ripping DVDs you surely have heard about on Lech Johansen (aka DVD Jon) who pioneered the first crack for the CSS (content scrambling system), the software which was intended to protect against this type of unauthorized use. Jon's latest project is a universal media application with social networking features: doubleTwist - which recently had a facelift.

A rather interesting justification for developing this project is available on the website and for the first time in a long time, I can actually relate to what they're talking about:

We feel that just like you don't use a different browser for every web site you visit (Firefox to read the NY Times, IE to stream Hulu, Chrome to browse YouTube, etc) you shouldn't have to use iTunes for Apple products, Nokia software for Nokia phones, Sony software for Sony products, etc. The typical household today has many such devices and there is a need for a simple and powerful software that connects them.

Indeed, everything these days comes with some sort of social networking features – but doubleTwist actually puts them to good use. After you invite friends to install doubleTwist on their computer, they will appear on the left side sidebar.

After that, sending files to them is just a click away. They instantly receive the file in their doubleTwist feed and it's downloaded to the computer.

doubleTwist plays all the major audio formats (AAC, MP3 and WMA) as long as the files aren't digitally protected by DRM (Digital Rights Management). If you have a large library of media files bought from iTunes Store using the old protected format, you're out of luck – the same goes for Rhapsody or Napster fans. (Thous you may try reading MakeUseOf article on how to remove DRM protcetion from music files.)

The music player is not as developed as iTunes – no EQ, no Sound Check, only two viewing modes. They will surely add more features like this in future releases – after all it's in beta.

It also plays videos – with upload support for Flickr and YouTube – as well as integrating a barebones photo viewer.

doubleTwists' strength isn't in the integrated playback functions, yet. It vastly compensates with the ability to sync with all the iPods, a large number of Blackberry devices, the Sony PSP, Nokia phones and the list goes on. They estimate that the application is compatible with hundreds of devices. I invite you to watch this short video explaining most of the functionality offered by doubleTwist, then grab the beta while it's fresh from here.

Don't forget to come back and post your comments and thoughts about the product. You can also check out some other posts related to music here.

Windows 7 overview, from "Make Use of"

You can install Windows 7 on a virtual machine like what Guy did (Parts 1 & 2) and that's a very valid and safe option. However, the odds are that eventually, you'll need to install it on an actual computer if you want to use it on a daily basis. I did. Take advantage of that to make your own installation simpler and faster. I'll show you what and what not to do.

A word of warning: Windows 7 is not free. It's not even close. But this is the Release Candidate we're talking about. Windows 7 RC may be used for free until June 1, 2010. Just keep in mind that at some stage you're likely to have to go through this again, either to install a final copy of Windows 7 (after you purchase it) or to downgrade back to Vista or XP.

Editor's note: Windows 7 RC will operate normally until March 1, 2010 then it will shut down every 2 hours.

Once more, this is a Release Candidate. A piece of beta software. It's good and seems stable. It's not necessarily ready for your use. There may be things that don't work for you. Don't go doing this if you are unprepared to accept that fact.

Before we start

Varun has done the hard yards to determine if your machine can actually run Windows 7. Check that out first. This is not for you if your computer cannot support the latest and greatest from Microsoft.

Decide whether you plan to upgrade your existing system (if you are running Vista already) or will be starting from scratch. Microsoft's recommendations used to be to always start again, but this time around they seem a little more mellow. Nonetheless, I chose to lose all my settings and installation, and start clean on an empty hard disk.

Backups, backups

Make sure that you have backups of all your important stuff. Okay, that's hardly a new recommendation but definitely worth remembering. If you are blowing away an existing Windows installation, a number of things go with it. Most of your data is hopefully on another drive but I have a few hints for some apps you might be using. Think it through. Here are some examples.

• Firefox bookmarks need to be exported, and the resulting file put somewhere safe. Any add-ins will need to be reinstalled. Take a note of the ones you have. Here's how to backup your Firefox preferences.
• Trillian. Copy Program filesTrillian and everything underneath it.
• iTunes. Careful here. Use the Apple instructions or many of the other how-tos on the web to ensure you have a valid copy of your music and the database files. Remember to deauthorise your machine if necessary for iTunes Store purchases. Jackson wrote a short manual on how to migrate iTunes from Windows to Mac, but that article can also be used in terms of backing up your iTunes library.
• Office configuration. This is easy for Office 2003 but the Office 2007 tool (Windows Easy Transfer) never seems to work for me. Take notes so you can reinstate files. Make sure any .pst files are somewhere safe.
• Digsby. This one is easy. Nothing to do. Reinstall and set up. Log in, and everything reappears. Careful with the install though. Digsby has a habit of installing things you don't want if you don't watch closely.
• Logins. It's easy to forget your logins if you've set up applications or websites to remember them on your behalf. Make sure you have backed them up before you wave goodbye. We have had several great articles about password managers: KeePass, LockCrypt and MashedLife.

If you have multiple partitions or hard drives, make sure you take note of the drive mappings so that you can recreate them later. Some of those configs you saved will benefit. Don't leave your notes on the computer, especially not in the C: drive. Yes, of course I've done that myself. But not lately. Write them down on good old paper.

Take note of your hardware specifics, especially if you are running a machine with parts from multiple suppliers. Video cards, CPUs, network cards, monitors, printers, wireless mice and keyboards. You can also backup each driver (restoration might not work in Windows 7).

Commitment

So you have backups, details, configs and exports. It's time to cross the line and make something happen.

You can get hold of a copy of Windows 7 RC here. Remember to get a key for the product. You're going to need that to activate it.

Download Windows, and burn the .iso to a DVD.

Time for some more decisions. If you intend on performing an upgrade from Vista, then insert the DVD while Windows Vista is running. The rest of these instructions assume a fresh install instead. Therefore, shut down Windows XP or Vista, checking once more that you have everything you need.

Boot from the DVD. Most machines will display a message during boot up indicating which keys to press to change the boot device. The PC will display a 'Press any key to boot from DVD…' message. Best to follow that advice. Welcome aboard.

Choose an appropriate language and location.

Accept the terms. Choose the Custom install.

Carefully, choose the partition you wish to install to. Normally that's the one that just had Vista or XP on it, and is marked System. To keep this as clean as possible, choose Advanced and delete the existing partition. Needless to say, you are now committed to the cause.

Create a new partition in the empty space. Note that Windows 7 may create an additional system partition as well.

Let the installer do what it's paid for. Files will be copied, expanded and installed. Restarts will happen. Just go along for the ride.

Choose a user name and password.

Remember that product key I reminded you to pick up? Now, is its moment of fame. Best to choose Automatically Activate.

Choose your poison with regard to updates. I just left it on Recommended.

Set your Timezone, and your Location. I sincerely hope most of you are doing this at home, rather than in the office. Let everything finish and reboot some more if necessary.

Well done! Welcome to the newest game in town!

Have a wander around, and play with things. I'll be back soon with a follow-up post.

So tell me, how did it go? Where did you get to? What did you forget? Tell me in the comments.

First off, hear this. Most things are the same. Whether you were using XP or Vista, you'll generally find things in the same places, and find that they work in a similar way… Generally.

And while some things are thoroughly different under the hood, I'm concentrating on everyday functionality here. Sending emails, or writing blog posts.

What's Changed?

The XP and Vista Task Bars were pretty similar to each other.

System tray on the right, active applications in the middle, and perhaps a toolbar or two on the left.

Windows 7 has a TaskBar too, but this one is a completely different beast.

The System Tray, on the right, works much the same as the old one, though it's visually quite different…

…but there is no longer a simple distinction on the left between shortcut icons for applications you might want to run, and those for applications already running. The two sets are mixed together, but are differentiated visually.

Icons with borders around them (such as the Firefox one above) are running. The others are just shortcuts for now.

One thing that caught me out for a while was that you can't run the same thing multiple times the same way as you did in earlier versions of Windows. It's logical enough though. Hold the shift key down when you click on the icon, and it will start another copy of the program for you.

For instance, in this case there are multiple copies of Windows Explorer running, one each of Firefox and Outlook, and the others are not running at all. It's different, but it's good.

The menus have had a design makeover as well, but the functionality is largely the same.

Windows Explorer have additional functionality, but work much the way you might expect.

Windows 7 uses the concept of Libraries to group together multiple sets of folders in handy ways, but you don't need to understand that to get going.

What did I install on top?

You know, there are some things I just can't manage without, and even though some of them might not be necessary in Windows 7, I just couldn't help myself. Among the freeware candidates:

I have it on good authority that IE8 is a wonderful product, and I'm sure I'll be using it at work, but I have too much time and familiarity invested in the combination of Firefox and Greasemonkey to leave them behind just yet.

I used to be a big Trillian fan, but Digsby stole my heart. I'm keeping it.

I mentioned this in my previous post, but take care installing Digsby, or you'll get more than you bargained for.

You need music for blog posts.

Trust me.

And iTunes works well for me.

I love this. Phrase Express saves me a LOT of time.

What's no longer needed?

Taskbar Shuffle is great in XP and Vista, but Windows 7 simply doesn't need it. You can drag icons around all by yourself. I'm undecided about whether I need IrfanView and Copernic Desktop Search. Ask me in a few more weeks.

What's broken?

Well, basically… nothing.

I'm not kidding. My requirements aren't extreme, and I don't play games, but for my day, it all just works.

I did have an issue with the VMWare player in that it refused to resume an XP VM, but it turns out that I was stupid enough not to shut it down before I shifted to Windows 7. (It's easily fixed. Delete the .lck files)

I've had a recurring issue with my NVIDIA GeForce 8500GT. Every few days, the driver crashes for a moment, and then recovers. That's much better than the behavior I have with my laptop running Vista, so I'm not complaining.

More to come?

Could be. I haven't played with the Virtual XP functionality yet, haven't hammered IE8, and haven't done anything to really stress the graphics card other than photo processing. I'll let you know.

In the meantime, Did you take the leap? If so, how did it go? If not, is there anything else you need to know? Fill me in via the comments.

More about: backup, guide, upgrade, Windows, Windows 7, Windows Vista