My Blog

long absence

artistftw — Sat, 10 Nov 2007 01:45:38 GMT

it has been along time since i was able to post here due to my health,getting old is not for pussies!

Home made enchiladas

artistftw — Thu, 10 May 2007 00:30:32 GMT

Beans,cheese,onion corn,pace picante sauce ,or whatever your tastebuds like,I use flour tortillas.375 oven for 20 minutes top with cheese..

Snakes in the House !

artistftw — Tue, 08 May 2007 18:36:54 GMT

This year has started out almost like last year,Gidget was flipping out at another snake in the house,she is really funny to watch when she sees a snake,Hershey still goofy as hell sticks his nose down to check them out..

Eastern Screech-Owl

artistftw — Tue, 01 May 2007 22:57:10 GMT

http://www.birds.cornell.edu/AllAboutBirds/BirdGuide/Eastern_Screech-Owl.html#sound I heard one a couple of nites ago and now I am getting ready for toniite to see if I get any to respond to the calls have set up ,after dark I will start playing the sounds.

The World's Biggest Land Vehicle

artistftw — Mon, 30 Apr 2007 17:05:50 GMT

http://coalaggprepshow.com/e-Informer/land/index.html Built by Krupp (now ThyssenKrupp) of Germany, the Bagger 288 excavator is the world's largest land vehicle. It is now owned and operated by RWE AG, a large utility company. If you want to get the dirt out, or move a mountain, this is absolutely the right machine. The RWE Bagger 288 earth digger stands 311 feet tall, is 705 feet long and weighs 45,500 tons (the weight of the Titanic was 46,328 tons) and by its scale alone is quite intimidating. Technically it is a bucket wheel excavator. In appearance it seems to be a giant's version of an Erector Set project that got out of hand. And when it comes to moving mountains, it has no peers. Indeed, moving mountains is exactly what may happen in Rosio Montana in Romania. The plan is to use similar machines to get at a wealth of gold. The Canadian company Rosio Montana Gold intends to accomplish this. In Pictures: World's Biggest Land Vehicle "All five mountains will simply be mined out," says Andrej Grubacic, a historian from the region. After all as Stuart L. Udall once said, "Mining is like a search and destroy mission." The RWE Bagger 288 excavator was designed to work in open-pit coal mines in Germany. That's where it is now digging in and loading up. However, for all its mass, it may have a short life. The German Republic has mandated a shutdown of all German coal mining by 2018. Clearly this mandate is open to some modification in the interim. Being big, the Bagger 288 can only go one-third of a mile an hour on three rows of caterpillar track assembles. If it crosses a highway, as it has done on rare occasions, the roadway must be fully rebuilt as the sheer weight crushes the cement and anything else in its path. It has also crossed rivers, after careful preparation. Any move requires at least 70 men to prepare the way and the last time cost some $10 million to complete. The machines does not need the kind of mobility provided by treads while it is mining, but it was considered less expensive to move the vehicle on caterpillar treads rather than disassembling it and reassembling it at its destination. It cost $100 million to build, took five years to design and manufacture, and five years to assemble. When it was completed, the Bagger 288 passed NASA's Crawler-Transporter, used to move the space shuttle and Apollo space craft as the world's largest land vehicle. It takes five people to operate it, and little wonder, as it has a 70-foot diameter bucket wheel. Each of its 20 huge buckets can scoop up over 530 cubic feet of material. It moves on 12 crawlers with tank-like treads. After all it is German. One of the buckets once picked up a large bulldozer by mistake. The machine can process 100,000 cubic yards of material, hopefully coal, and that amounts to up to 2,500 truck loads a day that can make for a good deal of wear and tear on the local environment. That's the equivalent of a football field dug to 100 feet deep each day.

Cookies!

artistftw — Sun, 22 Apr 2007 00:04:40 GMT

The first batch was so good I had to make another...

Damn 2 days of jury selelection...

artistftw — Tue, 10 Apr 2007 19:55:00 GMT

Glad that is over with,I did not get picked it was a sexual assault case..

Dreaming and Creativity

artistftw — Tue, 10 Apr 2007 00:16:56 GMT

http://www.chemistry.org There are two areas where dreams are sometimes better than waking thought at solving problems, says Barrett, and Kekulé’s benzene dream exemplifies both. “Dreams are a state where our visual imagery is more vivid than it normally is [when] awake, so if holding a vivid visual image and manipulating it is part of the solution, that is likelier to happen in dreams,” she explains, adding that Kekulé’s highly visual approach to chemistry is not surprising in light of the fact that he had studied architecture in college. Dreams also can have an edge over waking thought if the solution is way outside the conventional wisdom. “Dreams are often better than waking thought in thinking outside the box,” she notes. According to Barrett, dreams that shed light on scientific problems, such as Kekulé’s, also are more likely to come from hypnagogic sleep, which occurs immediately upon falling asleep or just before awakening. In terms of brain-wave patterns, hypnagogic dreams are the next closest state to waking. In the hypnagogic state, the brain appears to be “setting the agenda for the night,” says Cartwright. “It is a very rich period for imaging. It’s not REM, but it sure is visual.” In the hypnagogic state—unlike REM sleep, with its often bizarre and illogical content—“the visual, intuitive, emotional mode of thinking, which contributes to creativity, coexists with the logical, linear, and focused mode of thinking,” Barrett noted in The Committee of Sleep. “The dreamer can critically evaluate images while they’re still before the eyes.” What helps determine which issues make it to the night’s agenda? Mastering a new skill or processing new information seem to be high on the list. Studies by Stickgold and colleagues have found that when they had students play the computer game Tetris or a downhill skiing simulator and then woke these subjects just after they fell asleep, the students reported images and sensations from the respective games. In some cases, people who have mastered a technique called lucid dreaming realize they are dreaming as the dream is taking place and may be able to play a role in directing the action or prospect for information to solve a problem. Whether lucid dreaming is a rare talent or something that can be taught is unclear. However, some experts say the ability may be nurtured by asking yourself during waking hours whether you are dreaming, then regularly assessing whether the environment is featuring bizarre notions, such as violations of the laws of physics. Eventually, they say, the habit will begin to carry over into sleep. Dream content is also determined by whether the dreamer has some emotional stake in a given topic, says Cartwright. “You have to be invested in an issue, have an emotional tie to it, before it really persists from waking into dreaming in a recognizable way.” A whole day involves enormous amounts of data, so an individual has to be selective about what is designated for the next seven or eight hours of processing. “What you pick up is of emotional concern to you,” she explains. Finding creative solutions to problems that have emotional resonance for the dreamer isn’t confined to gaining insight into solving problems in the lab. For example, Evelyn N. Drake (ACS ’71), a chemist with nearly three decades of experience in the oil industry, says a dream early in her career had a pivotal role in helping her establish herself as a chemical professional in a male-dominated arena. As she was talking with the secretary she shared with her supervisor, the man came up and, without acknowledging Drake, started giving the secretary instructions. “It was as if I wasn't there,” recalls Drake. She made no comment at the rude manner in which the man had cut her off, but that night Drake, who says she dreams vividly, had a shocking dream that someone had attempted to chop off her mother’s head and only made it halfway through. To Drake, the image’s connection to the attack on her professional status was clear. “I looked at her and saw pain on her face and acceptance of the situation, a graphic image of how I responded initially to the work situation,” says Drake. “It was so startling and clear that I had responded inappropriately, that I addressed it the next day. I didn't want to be a woman who willingly lets her head get chopped partially off!” Drake’s dream, like many others including Kekulé’s, demonstrates that connections and insights arising in dreams may be veiled rather than explicit. Dreams often serve as metaphors for our emotional concerns, noted Hartmann in his book, Dreams and Nightmares. Stanford psychologist William C. Dement also demonstrated that the brain may offer cryptic solutions to problems that don’t carry any obvious emotional weight. He presented 500 college students with three brainteasers to solve over three consecutive class meetings. In one of these problems, for example, they were told the clue related to the letters H, I, J, K, L, M, N, O, and that the solution was one word. The solution, of course, is water, with the letters H-to-O indicating H2O. But although dreams may have suggested the solution to the problem, subjects didn’t necessarily see it until they were awake—if then. One student had several dreams, noting that all of them had water everywhere, but guessed (incorrectly) on the first night that the solution to the problem was the word “alphabet.” Why is the brain, which seems to possess the solution, being so cryptic in providing the answer? “Dreams present most solutions visually; verbal ones may employ puns or charades,” noted Barrett in The Committee of Sleep. “Neurologists often say it is because the biochemical state of the brain in sleep favors visual imagery or that visual and motor areas are more active during REM.” Such a division of abilities for brain regions is not unlike that seen in studies of patients who have had the two hemispheres of the brain surgically separated, where the verbal left hemisphere can supply the person with the name of an object but the right hemisphere can only provide nonverbal clues. Cryptic or not, experts in the field say that it makes sense not to ignore what’s happening in our brains for a significant chunk of the day.

Ahhh... The Scent of a (bunch of) Women.

artistftw — Mon, 09 Apr 2007 20:15:05 GMT

Today in the jury pool (there are 60 of us in this pool) I became aware of about 10 different perfumes in the room....my sense of smell almost seemed to be enhanced....Effect of the perfume...?

Link for Optical Illusions..

artistftw — Sun, 08 Apr 2007 18:59:50 GMT

http://www.grand-illusions.com/opticalillusions/pinwheel/

Scams..I just had to share this one....

artistftw — Wed, 28 Mar 2007 14:17:53 GMT

Dearest James, Thanks for your mail ,I know this mail will not come to you as a suprise since we have not had a previous correspondance, please bear with me.i will realy like to have a good relationship with you, and i have a special reason why i decided to contact you, I decided to contact you because of the urgency of my situation here and after reading your profile . am Alicia Harry F. Moniba 25 years old girl from Liberia,the daughter of Late Dr. Harry F. Moniba the former vice president of the Republic of Liberia and standard bearer of the Liberian National Union ,My father was died by car crash on Wendsday night, November 24,2004 while he was traveling from Jackson, Michigan to Ohio (USA). . I am constrained to contact you because of the maltreatment I, m receiving from my step mother. She planned to take away all my late father's treasury and properties from me since the unexpected death of my beloved Father.Meanwhile I wanted to escape to the Europe but she hide away my international passport and other valuable travelling documents. Luckily she did not discover where I kept my fathers File which contains important documents. So I decided to run to the refegee camp where I am presently seeking asylum under the United Nations High Commission for the Refegee herein Dakar , Republic of Senegal . I wish to contact you personally for a long term business relationship and investment assistance in your Country. My father of blessed memory deposited the sum of US$5, 700, 000.00 in Bank with my name as the next of kin. However, I shall forward you with the necessay documents on confirmation of your acceptance to assist me for the transfer and investment of the fund.As you will help me in an invsetment, and i will like to complete my studies, as i was in my ist year in th university, when the crisis started. It is my intention to compensate you with 10% of the total money for your services and the balance shall be my investment capital. This is the reason why I decided to contact you. Please all communications should be through this email address only for confidential purposes.As soon as I receive your positive response showing your interest I will put things into action immediately. In the light of the above, I shall appreciate an urgent message indicating your ability and willingness to handle this transaction sincerely. i am staying at the female hostel.Awaiting your urgent and positive response. Please do keep this only to your self please i begg you not to disclose it till i come over once the fund has been transfered. Yours Sincerely,

Lighting Strike!

artistftw — Wed, 28 Mar 2007 00:00:58 GMT

I had a lightening strike really close to the house last nite and wiped out me telephine service I had to replace the plug in for the telephone lines in the house ,I had to wait pretty much all day for Mr Telephone to show up and tell me if it was inside or outside...Bummer it was inside...

Whats for supper tonite?

artistftw — Fri, 23 Mar 2007 23:06:20 GMT

Sharing some recipes.. Mexican Corn Bread 1/2 cup of cornmeal..your choice I am partial to white cornmeal 1/2 tsp salt 1/2 tsp baking soda 1 bell pepper(small to medium size) 2 hot peppers (your choice)..jalapenos,habaneros..etc..etc...dried peppers work just as well 1 onion 1 or 2 stalks of celery chop ingredients into 1/4 inch or smaller pieces. 2 eggs 1 cup of buttermilk...you can substitute soy milk here if you like 1 can 12 oz. mexican corn with pimentos 1/4 lb of grated cheese..your choice.,cheddar is a little heavy though 1 lb of your favorite meat (or vegie choice for substitute) cooked until crumbles mix all ingredients and bake for 45 minutes at 400. I cooked this in a 14 inch cast iron skillet ..yummy!!!!! Dessert Milk Chocolate Dipped Pretzels 1 pkg.(111/2 ozs.2 cups) milk chocolate morsels..you can substitute the chocolate with Carob.. 1 cup of vegetable shortening about 50 3 inch twisted pretzels. 1.Combine over hot (Not boiling ) water, ..chocolate/carob vegie shortening stir until mixture is smooth. Dip pretzels coat evenly shake off excess and place on wax paper/cookie sheets to cool. Chill in fridge..enjoy..!!

Jury Duty ..Damn..!

artistftw — Fri, 23 Mar 2007 16:23:28 GMT

I got a summons for jury duty again guess they like me for that civic duty ..oh well at least now the county pays more than it did last time.... last tme I was on a jury for a murder trial,guy killed his grandmother threw her in the trunk and drove around for 3 days till they caught him...yes he was found guilty and is serving a life sentence down in Huntsville...

Slide Show

artistftw — Fri, 16 Mar 2007 20:07:11 GMT

http://ledog.slide.com/...I had to speed it up a couple of clicks to get the desired effects,the default setting is to slow..

The Great Snowstom of 2007

artistftw — Wed, 17 Jan 2007 14:15:55 GMT

D/FW area is so screwed when it come to snow. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3083637

Watch Comet McNaught

artistftw — Mon, 08 Jan 2007 00:04:13 GMT

http://www.space.com/spacewatch/soho_lasco_c3_live.html

The Art Insurgency

artistftw — Sat, 06 Jan 2007 21:50:43 GMT

http://artins.cf.huffingtonpost.com/

Websites I like...

artistftw — Sat, 06 Jan 2007 17:46:31 GMT

http://mindprod.com/religion/biblestudy.html http://www.atheists.org/christianity/guide.html http://www.atheists.org/ http://www.skepdic.com/ http://www.infidels.org/library/modern/mathew/arguments.html

Weird Science

artistftw — Sun, 31 Dec 2006 14:59:32 GMT

from the Green Flourescent Protien website... the eyes have been modified.

Places to Google when you have nothing else to do...

artistftw — Fri, 29 Dec 2006 23:41:21 GMT

North Portal of Yucca Mountain Complex..36.8526,-116.4290 Mystery Airbase..37.79,-116.78 Mystery Airstrip..36.92730,-116.0070 China Lake,the Navy's Geothermal unit..36.00260,-117.7890 Tunnel Exit @ top of mountain China Lake...35.96500,-117.6440 Tunnel Entrance/exit China Lake...35.85729,-117.3815 Tunnel entrance/exit...37.60400,-116.69500 Another tunnel possible connected to the previous listing...37.42500,-116.7500 Radar Complex..37.71432,-116.4320 chose the satellite view and not the map view...have fun!!

Atheism: What Does It Really Mean?

artistftw — Sun, 20 Aug 2006 15:30:55 GMT

"Atheist" is a dirty word in American society. In the minds of many, it conjures images of Communism, immorality, Satanism, and the like. Rather than encouraging accurate definitions and working to correct misconceptions, far too many atheists avoid the term altogether, referring to themselves as "non-believers," "brights," "freethinkers,", or "agnostics." As an atheist, I believe that this is a neglect of our responsibility and argue that providing an accurate definition of atheism is important. Definining Atheism; To understand the meaning of atheism, we need to start by defining theism. Theism refers to belief in a god or gods of some sort. Thus, a theist is one who believes in a god or gods. If I tell you that I am a theist, all I am telling you is that I believe in a god or gods. We can add the prefix "mono" to limit ourselves to one god or "poly" to specify belief in multiple gods. Christianity is a subcategory of monotheism. All Christians are monotheists because the Christian doctrine posits one god. However, not all monotheists are Christian because Judaism and Islam are also monotheistic religions. So what am I saying if I tell you that I am an atheist? Atheism, from the Greek atheos, is the lack of theistic belief (a- "without" + theos "God"). Thus, an atheist is one who does not believe in a god or gods. Note that "one who lacks belief in a god or gods" is not quite the same thing as "one who believes that there are no god or gods." This distinction may be subtle, but it is important for reasons I will review below. As I have stated elsewhere, "Atheism is not a religion, a philosophy, a worldview, or anything similar. It is not the conviction that there are no gods, ghosts, angels, etc." Rather, atheism simply refers to the lack of theistic belief. A young child or person living in an isolated community who has never heard of any gods is an atheist. In fact, we are all born atheists because we have not encountered any theistic concepts before birth. Misunderstanding Atheism There are at least two reasons why most Americans misunderstand the meaning of atheism. The first is the long history of religious propaganda to which we have all been exposed. Historically, the Christian church needed to go on the offensive to maintain its hold on society. Since atheists did not accept the core foundation on which the church rested, we were an obvious target. Through systematic and widespread propaganda, we were turned into haters of the Christian god or victims of demonic forces. In short, our lack of belief in Christian dogma was interpreted as a threat to Christians. A second reason for the common misunderstanding of atheism is that many atheists do hold some of the other beliefs often attributed to atheism. Many are politically liberal, hold a naturalistic worldview in which the existence of a supernatural realm is denied, base their sense of right and wrong on a non-religious system such as secular humanism, etc. Thus, the perception that atheism includes these attributes is an understandable stereotype. However, anyone who spends any time with atheists will discover that it is inaccurate. I have met socially conservative Republican atheists, radical libertarian/anarchist atheists, atheists who believe in a spirit world, and a host of other examples which shatter this mistaken view of atheism. In other words, because many (even most) atheists are secular humanists does not mean that secular humanism is part of the definition of atheism. To hold such a view would be every bit as absurd as claiming that all theists were Christian. Implications of How We Define Atheism; How we define atheism has several important implications. First, we must have an accurate definition of atheism if we are to have a serious discussion about religion and the nature of religious belief. Atheism is the default state which is the starting point for all humans. We enter the world as atheists, and many of us subsequently acquire religious beliefs through cultural immersion and indoctrination. Understanding this allows us to explore the nature of religious belief, how it is acquired, and what it means for believers. Second, it is critical to recognize that atheism does not involve the assertion of any belief claim. An atheist is simply an individual who do not hold the theistic belief claim (i.e., that god or gods exist). In Atheism: The Case Against God, George Smith argues that such a definition reminds us that the burden of proof lies with the theist because this is the person making the belief claim. When the theist says, "God exists," we are correct to expect evidence in support of this claim. Without such evidence, the claim cannot be accepted on rational grounds. The atheist is saying, "I don't accept this claim," and this rejection requires no evidence precisely because it is the default position where no positive assertion is being made. Nobody believes x until someone articulates a claim regarding x. We then expect evidence for x if our belief is to be rational. As I stated in a previous post, "Nobody expects you to prove that you do not have a fairy godmother, but if you claim that you do, we all (including Christians) expect evidence." If we make the mistake of defining atheism as hatred of god (as many Christians do), we end up with a meaningless emotional reaction which can neither be supported nor refuted. Such a definition presupposes the existence of the subject of our hatred, and this cannot be presupposed. Alternatively, if we make the mistake of defining atheism as the conviction that there are no gods (as many atheists do), we are now guilty of making the same type of truth claim as the theist, namely one for which we are able to offer no evidence. Besides, it is highly doubtful that proving the non-existence of something is logically possible. Summary I have proposed here that we use an accurate definition in which "atheism" is defined as "the lack of belief in a god or gods" and "atheist" is defined as "one who lacks belief in a god or gods." If we refuse to educate the public about this, we must share in the blame for the social stigma surrounding atheism.

I'm pumping my product

artistftw — Sat, 19 Aug 2006 01:24:27 GMT

my art can be found here ...http://www.cafepress.com/jabougidget ,let me know what you think...

World Christian Encyclopedia Findings

artistftw — Thu, 20 Jul 2006 13:41:10 GMT

World Christian Encyclopedia Findings This encyclopedia looks at the 10,000 religions and 33,830 Christian denominations in the world. Wow. 10,000 different Gods and over 33,830 different Christian ones. Next time I'm asked if I believe, I am going to say: "I don't have enough time in this short life to pick the right one. If yours is right, please explain in 5,000 words or less and leave in my inbox. Thanks." I still doubt I'll ever have the time to read 10,000 different 5,000 word treaties on why this God is better than some other one. My favorite finding from this encyclopedia: 5. Emboldened by lax procedures, trusted church treasurers are embezzling each year $16 billion out of church funds, but only 5% ever get found out. Can you imagine what secularists could do with just the money Christians embezzle from themselves? And this is a Christian missionary school's own research.

http://ciclops.org/view_event.php?id=53

artistftw — Wed, 28 Jun 2006 02:32:52 GMT