Hard Drive Disaster Averted

Today I spent about five hours foxing up my grandmother's computer. Recently it has been acting worse and worse. The wireless connection was sporadic, and overall it was just getting slow.

Well, while I was attempting to fix the wireless issue, I restarted the computer. After the usual BIOS screen and such it went on to the next step, loading the OS... but it was nowhere to be found. The hard drive, a Maxtor drive that was about a decade old, had died!

This, of course, is not a good thing. She's an architect, and all her drawing were on that drive. She has backups, but they could be weeks old by now. Well, after alot of muddling about with it, I got the idea to turn the computer on its side and boot it up again.

It worked! Booted just fine, and got every last bit of important data off of it. Then, just for fun I put the computer upright again. Within just a few seconds it started locking up, and nearly crashed. The screen wasn't redrawing properly or anything. I put it back down on its side; The hard drive spun up again perfectly.

So, if you have a hard drive failure, what do you have to lose? Turn it on its side, and try again. Maybe it'll work! Perhaps you can get back your data. What do you have to lose?

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Religion as Akin to Music

In my many ways, the religions of the world are rather like music. Be it Buddhism, Islam, Christianity, or even Mormonism, they all have things about them that some people like. Their religion grooves with them, in a sense.

Of course, just like people like their types of music, they can't stand others', some so much so that they will go as far as attacking that sort of music; Even going as far as berating them for listening to such a horrible song. One cannot force a new kind of music on anyone, that person would just get annoyed and think of it noise, even though others might think it to be the song in the world.

I would think, for instance, that a white "gangsta" (I hate that word) would hear the Beatles and recoil in horror, while a grandmother might prefer listening to a classical symphony. It's all about what works for a given person.

What I'm trying to get at is different musics, like different religions, work for various people. There's no way you'll find me bowing my head in prayer, but some people swear on their life by it.

With that, I leave you with the eye opening thoughts of
Alan Watts. The video is titled "A conversation with myself." I do hope you'll give it some time to watch. Links to some other thoughts by him below.

Music and Life
The Art of Meditation
The Middle Way

Re: Alban

Alban, Teacher of God said:

I really liked this guy. There is nothing more compelling than simple reason.

Thanks,
Alban

However, there is always a higher reason. We can wake up from this nightmare of egotistical self-will and separation. We just say, the hell with it. Let's go home.

I could little agree more with that. People need to wake up and realize that this little blue ball that we call home is it. Right now this is all we have. We can make short ventures into the vast emptiness of space, but not very well. Not yet.

I can scarcely think of a better way to put it than this, Carl Sagan's presentation of the Pale Blue Dot.


This video moves me to tears.
We must come to terms with the fact that this little world must not be fought over, but instead shared. Somehow people need to realize that we must come together for the greater good of all of us, and move past stupid, ancient hatreds and feuds.


Also, I've been looking over your blog, and it has me thinking. While it feels as though your method [to any end] and message is not one that will work for me, it does look to be one that will work for many. To this end, I say thank you, and urge you to continue.

With that, I leave you with this. A Conversation with Myself by Alan Watts.

Suddenly Fox News Stopped Being Funny

For a while now, whenever I happened across the latest stupid thing being aired on Fox "News" I would merely chuckle. I chuckled because I knew that intelligent people don't actually take these idiots seriously.

With personalities such as Billo and such, the channel almost seems like it would fit best in the realm of comedy. But suddenly it's stopped being funny.

On their morning show Fox and Friends Brian Kilmeade openly called for US sponsored acts of terror in the city of Tehran, Iran.

"One thing could we do. Could we start arming the anti-government groups inside Ira Could their cars start blowing up, like our hum-Vs are blowing up? Maybe in Tehran, so maybe they won't be doing it in Baghdad?"

The Case of Global Warming

Unfortunately global warming isn't a very good description of what's happening on our planet. A better way of putting it is more along the lines of "Global climate destabilization."

Sure, the temperature has gone up only a little bit in the last century, and sure it's only likely to go up a couple degrees more in the next few decades... but wait.

It's not the change in temperature that's going to get us, it's how fast the change happens. All life on the planet is highly adaptable; It can be a new predator in the area, a lack of sunlight for a long time, new diseases, or what have you. The issue is, life can only adapt so fast.
If conditions change too rapidly for species to adapt to, they simply go extinct. Natural events, like massive volcanos going off, huge meteors hitting the Earth, and such have caused this a number of times in the past. Scientists have titled these "Extinction Level Events."

In the case of global warming the temperature on the planet is likely to rise rather sharply within our lifetime. This sudden spike will have a very sharp, and sudden impact on our ecosystem; An ecosystem that is already just barely staying balanced in the wake of the human population explosion.

So, what should we do?
Well, I agree with wonderingmind42 in the video above. Total inaction is too much of a risk, we have to move to do something about it; Not just as individual nations, but as the only species on the planet that could actually do anything to change what is coming... before it's too late to do so.