August 6, 2008

There were 4 posts published on August 6, 2008 (this is page 1 of 1).

Ivins and anthrax, continued

I’ve still been following the unfolding of the FBI’s claims that Dr. Bruce Ivans was responsible for the anthrax attacks. So far I’m not seeing the compelling evidence I’d hoped. Fortunately, the blogosphere includes an anthrax expert. In her Anthrax Vaccine blog, Meryl Nass, M.D. takes apart the FBI’s weak case piece by piece.

This one item on Dr. Nass’s is pretty convincing:

10. Mental health. If Ivins was so out of control, so scary, why was he allowed to keep working in a high containment lab with access to some of the world’s deadliest pathogens for so long?

I can’t help but think Ivins is the fall guy, pressured to the point where he couldn’t take it anymore. I think its shameful how these press leaks are framing the man – one who will not get his day in court.

Dead or alive, the man is still innocent until proven guilty. If Dr. Ivins is the anthrax killer, show us evidence worthy of a conviction. Put up or shut up, because right now it looks like the FBI is desperately grabbing at straws.

How dry I am

I wish it would rain again. I’m down to my last 220 gallons of rainwater!

All kidding aside, the rain tank has been nicely supplying water for our landscaping and vegetable garden. I’ve been taking 5 gallon buckets of water around to the various plants around the yard. While carting buckets does the job, what I’ve really needed is a pump to distribute the water.

This afternoon I got what I needed. My pump arrived from Northern Tool and Equipment, a Wayne Stainless Steel Sprinkler Pump. Its got a full horsepower for running sprinkler heads or for watering through long stretches of hose. I can probably run more than one sprinkler on it if I wanted to.

I also wanted a continuous-duty pump. Many I had seen were rated to cool for 30 minutes for every 15 minutes they ran. That might be good for some uses but I wanted something a little sturdier. Supposing I get a bigger tank someday, like a 1200 gallon tank, I want a pump that can drain it dry without missing a beat. This pump might be the one.

Of course, even a 330 gallon rain tank is not enough to water the yard with on a regular basis. This pump can push 720 gallons each hour, so it will drain my tank in short order. What I hope to do, though, is give the grass an occasional sip during dry spells. And if things work out I can add a bigger tank later.

Now all I need is for the suction hose to arrive and I’ll be able to run the sprinklers or wash my car with water from my tank.

VoIP and 911

A lot of people thinking of switching their phone service over to voice-over-IP (VoIP) are nervous about losing their ability to dial 911. While that used to be an issue it is not anymore, now that Enhanced 911 service is offered by most VoIP companies.

Our new home doesn’t have any landline service, so we’ve been relying on our mobile phones for dialing 911, simply because I hadn’t gotten around to configuring 911 service for our Asterisk-based home phone system. Well, I did that Monday night. It took a few clicks on the Vitelity webpage, some Asterisk-Fu to get the dialplan set up, and then we were in business. It costs an extra $1.49 per month but that all goes to support the 911 system. Which is a good cause, I think.
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The Forgetting

Flipped on PBS last night and got sucked into watching The Forgetting: A Portrait of Alzheimer’s. Scary stuff.

There is Alzheimer’s in my family as well as Kelly’s. I figure I’d rather get hooked up to a suicide machine than become a burden on my family. Kelly says the same. That’s the only time I’d be willing to pull the plug on myself, I think.

In the words of Dan Quayle, “What a terrible thing to have lost one’s mind. Or not to have a mind is very wasteful. How true that is.”