DC bound

I’m taking the next two days off to chaperone my daughter’s 5th grade class on a trip to Washington, DC. I’ve been looking forward to this trip for months and can’t believe it’s finally here.

While I’m gone I’ll be missing a Parks board meeting. I can’t recall if I’ve ever missed one in the 4 years I’ve been on the Board. Maybe one, but no more. This is totally worth it, though. I love helping kids, and the chance to pal around with my daughter for two days is a real gift.

Who knows? Maybe I’ll even get a chance to do some blogging. We’ll see.

Ten years after the Iraq War

Today is the 10th anniversary of the Iraq War. Countless lives lost, countless money thrown away, and what do we have to show for it? A crumbling, corrupt regime hostile to the U.S. and too cozy with Iran. What a colossal waste.

I remember the cheerleading leading up to the war. Local conservative radio outlet WPTF tarted up its web page with rah-rah graphics advertising the war. It was as if war were some kind of street party. I saved a copy of that website somewhere, knowing that one day it would have to be seen to be believed. I hope I can find my copy.

I’m proud to say that ten years ago I wasn’t fooled. I knew what a clusterfuck we were walking into. I didn’t trust Bush any farther than I could throw him. Cheney, well, I respected him when he was my Secretary of Defense, but his unmitigated greed must have turned him into a lunatic. Perhaps he had me fooled.

If there was any justice in the world Bush and Cheney would be rotting in a jail cell somewhere. Perhaps somewhere in Iraq.

Not fast enough

I had to laugh last week when I overheard a conversation in the breakroom between two coworkers. One was at the microwave, complaining that he had to enter the full cook time, rather than hit one button for a preset time.

I laughed when I realized how absurd the thought was. Here was a miraculous invention that could cook food in mere seconds and my friend was griping that he had to wait an additional two seconds. If there ever was a “first world problem” I’m sure this is it.

Gideon v. Wainwright – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Today is the 50th anniversary of the landmark Supreme Court case, Gideon v. Wainwright. This case established the right of everyone to counsel during a criminal trial, regardless of one’s ability to pay.

My Great Uncle Fred was Gideon’s lawyer for his retrial, during which Gideon was acquitted.

Gideon v. Wainwright, 372 U.S. 335 (1963), is a landmark case in United States Supreme Court history. In the case, the Supreme Court unanimously ruled that state courts are required under the Fourteenth Amendment to provide counsel in criminal cases for defendants who are unable to afford to pay their own attorneys, extending the identical requirement made on the federal government under the Sixth Amendment.

via Gideon v. Wainwright – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Britian’s ITV investigates Bosch dishwasher fires

A guest blog reader kindly alerted me to an investigation by Britain’s ITV channel which aired two days ago on Bosch dishwashers catching fire. The report is highly critical of the “voluntary recall” process that Bosch seems to be using, pointing out that nearly half a million potentially faulty Bosch dishwashers are still in use in the UK.

I’m still working my way through the ITV report but I assume this number is based this on the models that have been recalled but not yet fixed. I’d like to know if situations like mine have been considered: models which haven’t been recalled yet still pose a fire hazard?

Here’s the first of the video reports. I’ll see if I can link to the others (though it appears ITV is using some kind of country-specific DRM-cruft to block viewing here in the States).

Hello I Dasha

Just when I thought the love of my life has found me via an unsolicited email, a Google Search says its a scam. Oh, and I’m taken!

Return-Path: info@SYNONYM.com
X-Original-To: markt
Delivered-To: markt
From: “Darya” info@SYNONYM.com
To: [redacted]
Subject: Hello I Dasha.
Date: Tue, 12 Mar 2013 22:50:37 +0400
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain;
format=flowed;
charset=”koi8-r”;
reply-type=original
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
X-Priority: 3
X-MSMail-Priority: Normal
Importance: Normal
X-Mailer: Microsoft Windows Live Mail 15.4.3555.308
X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V15.4.3555.308
X-Spam: Not detected
X-Mras: Ok

Hello I Dasha. My friend I looked your structure. It has very much liked me. I want To correspond with you letters. I wish to inform directly on myself: My name is Anna. I was born in the city of Samara, Russia. I here live since a birth. I was born in 1985. To me of 28 years. At me Brown eyes (beautiful.) I the blonde. I have no children, but I very much I wish to have the girl and the boy. I think, that children in live-this most Happy. I love various cultures. I like to study history, it to me Very much it is pleasant. I work as the bookkeeper in firm. Mine Work very much is pleasant to me. At leisure I like to visit Library to go to cinema, to watch TV, go in sports Hall. Most my hobby is fitness. I very much like to go in for sports, I Much I run in the mornings. I The formed woman, has left school on 4 and 5. Has then acted in University. Has finished it too well. Then I have gone to work. I studied as the bookkeeper. I know English language well enough. I think, that problems at us with dialogue will not be. I hope, that our dialogue will make sense. It would be fine, If I and you could do Friendship or more than simply friendship. I search Serious attitudes, and I shall be happy To study you more close. Will be It is fine, if we can exchange some letters and photos. Write to me what your purposes and plans during the future? That you search in To the woman? Inform more on a place Where do you live. I shall look forward to hearing from You.
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Ask any questions which interest you. Write to me back, and I I shall inform more on me, my life. Also send my photos.
Kiss from Russia, Dariya

Google Reader and the danger of walled gardens

Sadly, I learned today that Google is pulling the plug on Google Reader, it’s RSS aggregation service. No explanation was given for the move.

Over on the Google Reader forums, I posted this question:

So, with Google’s shutdown of Google Reader, do the “walled gardens” of Facebook and Google Plus win? Is this the end of the easily-searchable, anyone-can-set-up-shop-on-the-Internet days?

Why would Google intentionally make it HARDER for its users to follow their interests online? How could Reader possibly be sapping enough resources to justify its end?

Continue reading →

Reports of Bosch dishwasher fires pour in

I did a search of the CPSC website, SaferProducts.gov, to see if my Bosch dishwasher report had been posted yet. What I found was a shocking number of similar reports, many of them of full-fledged fires that started in Bosch’s defective control board. Many of these reports are for the recalled models, but not all of them! It seems my problem is not unique.

Over just the past 12 months there have been 26 reports filed on Bosch dishwashers.
Continue reading →

Bosch dishwasher update

A Bosch dishwasher control board that caught fire. From CPSC website.

So as I posted earlier I discovered that Bosch had a voluntary recall on its dishwashers to fix the defective control board. I felt so sure this was my issue that I told all my neighbors. The homes in our neighborhood were all built by the same builder so our dishwashers are likely to all be Boschs.

Then I got home, punched in my model’s serial number and was surprised to see it wasn’t included in the recall. How could this be? My dishwasher’s control board clearly malfunctioned, with the heater relay melting itself off the board, yet it wasn’t recalled?
Continue reading →

Solar Roadways

Remember last year when I wondered when someone would start building roads made of solar panels that generated electricity? I found out today that someone actually is doing this. Pretty cool!

Years ago, when the phrase “Global Warming” began gaining popularity, we started batting around the idea of replacing asphalt and concrete surfaces with solar panels that could be driven upon. We thought of the “black box” on airplanes: We didn’t know what material that black box was made of, but it seemed to be able to protect sensitive electronics from the worst of airline crashes.

Suppose we made a section of road out of this material and housed solar cells to collect energy, which could pay for the cost of the panel, thereby creating a road that would pay for itself over time. What if we added LEDs to “paint” the road lines from beneath, lighting up the road for safer night time driving? What if we added a heating element in the surface (like the defrosting wire in the rear window of our cars) to prevent snow/ice accumulation in northern climates? The ideas and possibilities just continued to roll in and the Solar Roadway project was born.

via Solar Roadways – Introduction.