Sunday sciosophy secularism

  Not a Phoenix X99...

Way back when we all built our own desk top computers; those of us who were early adopters of the newest technology shelled out a lot of bucks for the privilege.

Only to watch as the price point dropped in just a few months; but we were first.

These guys shelled out some bucks only to see smoke and fire and the loss of their new gear.

 "Intel's Haswell-E Eight-Core CPU and X99 motherboards just debuted but it looks like there may be some early adoption troubles leading to the new, ultra-expensive X99 motherboards and processors burning up.

 Phoronix first ran a story about their X99 motherboard having a small flame and smoke when powering up for the first time and then Legit Reviews also ran an article about their motherboard going up in smoke for reasons unknown.

 The RAM, X99 motherboards, and power supplies were different in these two cases. Manufacturers are now investigating and in at least the case of LR their Core i7-5960X also fried in the process."

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Flying is not what we thought, safe.

 It has come to light that a Finnair-owned McDonnell Douglas DC-10 passenger jet narrowly avoided being shot down by a missile while en route to Helsinki 27 years ago, claimed the Finnish newspaper Helsingin Sanomat on Sunday. 

The two co-pilots, Esko Kaukiainen and Markku Soininen, describe how the event happened during a routine flight back to Helsinki from Japan in December 1987. 

When the plane was crossing the Arctic Ocean, a missile appeared in the distance. The crew thought it was a Russian weather rocket on its way into space, but the missile began heading straight towards the aircraft. 

Just 20 seconds away from a collision, the missile exploded. The captain, who was resting at the time of the incident, never officially reported the event. 

The question of who fired the missile has never been definitively answered. But the pilots believe it was launched from either the Soviet Union's Kola Peninsula or a submarine in the Barents Sea.

 They speculate that the missile could have been a misfire or that the plane was used as training target.

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 We house painters have been exposed more then anyone. We sprayed the stuff! Most painters, thinking that it was safe because it was water based paint, never wore proper respirators while spraying, only paper mask...

The most comprehensive estimate of mercury released into the environment is putting a new spotlight on the potent neurotoxin. 

By accounting for mercury in consumer products, such as thermostats, and released by industrial processes, the calculations more than double previous tallies of the amount of mercury that has entered the environment since 1850.

 The analysis also reveals a previously unknown spike in mercury emissions during the 1970s, caused largely by the use of mercury in latex paint.

Caulking compounds have no regulation, so there are a lot of toxins in them. And most painters get caulking all over their hands while using them.

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"To do the same thing over and over again and expecting different results is insanity."
Albert Einstein 

 U.S. military involvement in Iraq is heating up again; the sudden rise of the organization known as the Islamic State has put a kink in the gradual, ongoing winding down of U.S. military presence in that country, and today that kink has gotten a little sharper.

 From The New York Times: The United States launched a fresh series of airstrikes against Sunni fighters in Iraq late Saturday in what Defense Department officials described as a mission to stop militants from seizing an important dam on the Euphrates River and prevent the possibility of floodwaters being unleashed toward the capital, Baghdad.

 The attacks were aimed at militant fighters of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria as they were moving toward the Haditha Dam, officials said.

 The operation represented another expansion of the limited goals that President Obama set out when he announced last month that he had authorized airstrikes in Iraq.

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If corporations are people, sometimes they are evil people.

When reporting the recent "knee" incidents on flights the corporate media always frames the incidents in such a way that the spot light is always on the combatants involved (and never the corporations).

Making them out to be such Cretans; how could any decent human being act in such a fashion?

The reality is that corporate greed for profit has thrown out common sense ergonomics's in the passenger flight industry.

The corporations do not actually care about the comfort of air passengers any longer; the bottom line is "Pack em in like sardines" for more profits.

The AP reports that American airplane passengers, squeezed by increasingly tight seating aboard planes, are lashing out, actually getting into in-flight fights over knee room:

 Three U.S. flights have made unscheduled landings in the past eight days after passengers got into fights over the ability to recline their seats.

 Disputes over a tiny bit of personal space might seem petty, but for passengers whose knees are already banging into tray tables, every bit counts. ... 

Southwest and United both took away 1 inch from each row on certain jets to make room for six more seats. 

American is increasing the number of seats on its Boeing 737-800s from 150 to 160. 

Delta installed new, smaller toilets in its 737-900s, enabling it to squeeze in an extra four seats.

 And to make room for a first-class cabin with lie-flat beds on transcontinental flights, JetBlue cut the distance between coach seats by one inch.

The answer to this would be for the flying public to hold off on flying if not necessary. 
Take closer vacations that are with in driving distance for a while.

Send the airlines a message. Take trains, buses. 

Above all do not fly if at all avoidable.