July 2013 – Scary Yankee Chick

Uhoh

August 25, 2013July 26, 2013 4 Comments by Ruth

The other day I pulled this picture off one of the trail cameras:

Hubby and I looked at each other, and both agreed that that seems awfully early…..either he’s going to have a big rack, or we’re going to have a bad winter……

Then yesterday while brushing down Apollo I noticed that he’s already growing back in his undercoat……..and he’s not the only one, every Tibetan Mastiff owner I’ve talked to has said the same, the dogs had a long extended shed, and now, before they’re even done shedding, they’re growing back in their winter fluff……

This does not give me warm fuzzies for the coming winter…..

Birds, Food, Gardening

Corn and updates

July 19, 2013 2 Comments by Ruth

Ok, the instructions I can find on growing corn state that once the silk dries the corn is ready to be picked. But, can the weather force silk to dry early?

To check on my corn I pulled this one ear:

The visible silk was totally dry. Now obviously I have a fertilization problem, I planted these to closely together and so I will be hand fertilizing the remaining ears, but the kernels don’t look fully developed either? Not that the screwy weather hasn’t helped….

In other garden news I picked my first two zucchini this morning, I forgot to take a picture but they made 3 batches of zucchini bread…..

There’s at least one nice looking baby cantalope, and at least one baby watermelon. Pretty sure there’s a baby pumpkin. Carrots are HAPPY, and there are at least a couple Hot Wax peppers and several Jalapeno’s. So far no sweet peppers, but SOMETHING is eating the leaves, and I think I found the culprit:

I put this camera up in an attempt to watch the Ceder Waxwings that are nesting in that tree, the feeder contains raisens. No luck catching the Waxwings, but look-it what I did see…..headed straight for my garden. Why she’s only munching on the peppers and nothing else I have no idea….

Two of the Waxwings:

Links

July 18, 2013 1 Comment by Ruth

I haven’t done this in forever!

Missing man found in front yard.

Just….EEEEEEEEEEEEWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW

Target practice!

We might be able to turn off Down Syndrome.

She wants to be a paraplegic.

Body paint isn’t considered clothing.

Rants

McAfee SiteAdvisor blackmailing and slandering sites

July 17, 2013July 17, 2013 by Ruth

Yet another reason not to use McAfee. It was bad enough when their SiteAdvisor was flagging sites based on one single review, or for software flagged as good on other sites. Now they’re flagging sites as RED for no reason!

Calibre-ebook.com is the free-ware I recommended back in my post on piracy protection on ebooks.

I took this screenshot of the listing on McAfee’s SiteAdvisor page just a minute ago:

See something, anything, that might be causing that red flag? Yah, me neither. Here’s a screenshot of the comments:

And Calibre is by no means the first this has happened to.

At least one site was blackmailed into paying $32,000 to get their listing fixed! (link may be a bit wonky, I think the Calibre folks have over-loaded it reading it)

Another article.

And another.

More info.

Politics

So how come no-one’s sueing the MDSPD?

July 16, 2013 by Ruth

From Here

Either of those incidents could have put Trayvon Martin into the custody of the juvenile justice system. However, because of Chief Hurley’s attempt to reduce the school crime statistics — according to sworn testimony, officers were “basically told to lie and falsify” reports — Martin was never arrested. And if he had been arrested, he might never have been in Sanford the night of his fatal encounter with Zimmerman.

Something tells me no-one’s gonna either

H/T to Never Yet Melted

Guns, Politics

I did not know this

July 16, 2013 by Ruth

But I find it quite amusing…..

Here

The fact is Florida’s stand-your-ground law is quite common, 33 states are effectively SYG states and have very similar provisions. In fact there is one state that not only lets you to stand your ground,it explicitly allows you to pursue your assailant if necessary for your safety. And that state is California [where the station is located].

(emphasis mine)

I haven’t had a chance to listen to the whole thing, hopefully I’ll have time later today.

H/T to Clark @ Popehat

Politics

I’m mostly staying out of the Zimmerman case discussion

July 14, 2013July 14, 2013 by Ruth

I followed the case enough to see enough of the evidence to realize just how badly the media tried to screw with the evidence. Which basically just confirmed my distrust of the media in general. And then people wonder why I insist on actual facts and data when I get into arguments….

Anyway, my sole real comment on the whole mess:

I sincerely hope that they never release the personal information detailing who the jury was…..

Apollo

Bunny

July 13, 2013 by Ruth

Late yesterday afternoon I went looking for Apollo as he wasn’t in any of his usual spots and I was hoping to sneak out the back door to record some bird song, but first I had to make sure I knew where he was……

Didn’t take long, the house is pretty small, but I found him sitting at the back door, which I’d opened up so that we could get some breeze in through the screen. He was staring intently at something in the back yard, looooong strings of drool headed floor-ward. I followed his gaze out, and found he was staring at a young bunny, who was sitting about 10ft from the back steps.

I didn’t get to record my bird-song, but Apollo didn’t get his bunny either…..

Books, Rants

Why I have a problem with piracy protection on ebooks

July 6, 2013 7 Comments by Ruth

Though it would potentially apply to legally downloaded music or movies too.

When I buy a Dead-Tree book (from here referred to as a DT book), I can read it, my husband can read it, and if I’m so inclined I can hand it off to a friend to read cause they didn’t have the money for the hardcover and are having to wait for the paperback. Its mine.

When I buy a DT book I can store it on my bookshelves, or in a box, or in a storage facility, and, baring bad luck, I can pull it back out again 2, 3, 8, 20 years later and still read it. Its mine.

When I buy a DT book it doesn’t matter where I buy it, whether its the bookstore down the road, a major online retailer, a special order from an out of country online retailer, or from the little bookstore in France while I’m traveling. Its mine.

When I buy a DT book I’m not subject to the whims of the company I bought the ebook from. Amazon has been known to delete both individual books AND whole libraries when they feel someone might have broken the rules. Barnes and Noble requires you to keep a valid credit card on file in order to re-download books.

When I buy a DT book I’m not subject to the technology used to read it. If I buy an ebook to read on the Kindle software, and two years from now I have to buy a new reading device, I still have to download the Kindle software in order to re-read the book. Yes Kindle software is currently availible for pretty much every operating system. Are you willing to bet your entire library on the assumption that it always will be? 20 years from now?

I do buy ebooks. And currently I read them on my iPad. And the first thing I do after buying them? I strip the DRM. The second thing I do is backup the stripped file to a backup that’s not connected to the internet. Its my book, and I’m damn well going to make sure I can still access it in the future, regardless of what happens to the company I bought it from or the device I read it on.