I’ve been motivated to fix a lot of the things around the house that have been bothering me for a while. It’s been a very productive day here, with lots of projects completed. Kelly’s folks are visiting, too, which makes it easier for Kelly and me to get things done.

Now Kelly and I are out for a little date, courtesy of Gum and Gup. Perhaps a movie at The Rialto. Its tough leaving Hallie, but she’s in good hands and it’ll be nice to have some grown-up time again.

How come the so-called Great Firewall of China doesn’t block outgoing spam?

Whatever you do, spammers, don’t send spam to vin@advertiserpages.biz. That would just be wrong.

I spent a long day in the office juggling many tasks at once. I’ve had better days, to be sure, though it wasn’t all bad.

Tomorrow promises to be even longer, as I hop an early flight to Baltimore, work all day and arrive back home after dinner. With any luck, I’ll be able to kiss my daughter good night.

Dang. I read a good story yesterday for posting to Mindblogging, but can’t remember now where it was. It was a news story about how studies have shown the mind to be lazy (surprise, surprise). When given a decision to make using reason, the mind will instinctively search for an answer used before and try to make it work, rather than attempt to solve it again.

I’ve looked through all known search engines and can’t find it. If anyone happens upon it, send it to me so I can post it.

Also, if you’ve got any material for Mindblogging, please submit it and share it with others!

Is there anything more depressing than this picture of Ron Francis packing up his hockey stick and leaving town? The Carolina Hurricanes lost their heart and soul today.

Former Libertarian Party Presidential candidate Harry Browne comments on Martha Stewart Verdict and explains why it is flawed. It’s the most lucid analysis I’ve read (though admittedly that’s not much).

Most importantly, Browne points out the flaws in our so-called criminal justice system: a system where prosecutors routinely climb to the top over the shattered lives of innocent people. The Alan Gell case here in North Carolina makes that clear, when the former Attorney General favored withholding evidence from poor defendants.

Move along. Nothing to see here.

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I sat in front of a computer monitor for two hours as part of my appointment. It took me a moment to multiply the monitor in front of my by the total number in the hospital and figure out how wasteful cathode ray tubes (CRTs) really are.

Why are CRTs still being used? I mean, isn’t this 60-year-old technology? LCDs blow them away in almost every respect and we’re still using these huge, heavy boxes for displays.

When I was at my trade show last week, I stared into the beautiful image from a leased HP flat-screen LCD. I stopped for a moment to marvel at the crispness of the image: it was so clear it was amazing. No CRT can compare.

CRTs are big, heavy, hot, prone to failure, suck up outrageous amounts of electricity, and once they’re spent, they drip toxic materials into landfills for decades.

When a CRT is finished, you can’t pay someone to take it from you. The state surplus office is a good example of this. On any given day, you can find bins full of monitors for sale at $5 apiece. No one touches them. Piled on the pavement outside is a pile of 30 old CRTs, relics which are only fit to be buried in a landfill, where they’ll slowly leak their mercury and lead into the groundwater.

At one point, the argument was that LCDs were too expensive, but the gap between the two has lessened significantly. The extra you might pay for an LCD over a CRT could quickly be made up in electricity and cooling costs. Not to mention having a much longer lifetime than a CRT.

The FCC’s decision to make the nation’s older televisions obsolete will have disastrous effects on our groundwater. We need to make sure there are appropriate measures in place so that these dangerous materials are handled properly.

I’m happy to see the CRT go the way of the dinosaur, but only so far: they should be extinct but not buried.