dballance
dballance's JournalBrowser Speed on Ubuntu/Firefox (V 20 for Ubuntu) SO MUCH FASTER than Win or Mac
I had an old Mac Mini - circa mid 2007 - lying around that I could no longer update to the latest version of Mac OS X. So I thought, what the heck. I'll load Ubuntu on it. I haven't had a LINUX machine in a while so it'd be good to have one and get my skills back in shape. Also, I thought I'd just let it run some BOINC projects like SETI@home and climateprediction.net pretty much non-stop when I wasn't using it.
I am an IT guy and I guess it must be like being a gun person. I have 4 computers. A MacBook Pro, two Mac Minis, and a Win 7 machine. Yes, I do work in IT but I don't wear the propeller hat 
The Mac Mini I put Ubuntu on has the oldest processor and the least memory of any of the machines. Yet, when I'm running Firefox on it it's noticeably faster than on OSx or Win 7.
Since the Ubuntu install is pretty pristine I'm not reviewing all the plug-ins and stuff on Firefox on the other OSes. I know I have some anti-virus software on those that is scanning content and downloads. I need to see what kind of sluggishness I set up for myself on the other machines.
Just wanted to share and to see if others had similar experiences.
Direct Link to Jason Richwine's Dissertation
I scanned the first few pages of GD and didn't see this. I did see it in replies to threads but thought it might be helpful as a thread of it's own.
You can read it online at Scribd. To download it you need to sign up - which is free.
http://www.scribd.com/doc/140239668/IQ-and-Immigration-Policy-Jason-Richwine
Pics of My Fair City: Portland, OR
I've never posted pics here but wanted to try it out. So here are some I took of Portland.
Waiting for the Train
Me and My Shadow
A Benson Bubbler. Public Water Fountains Found Around Downtown
Don't Go
Foggy Morning
I Just Came from the Opening Session of Move to Amend's Portland Convergence - This is Important.
Move to Amend (MTA) is an organization that formed to add a 28th amendment to the constitution to undo some of the damage the courts have done by treating corporations as if they were human beings. The goal is to build grass-roots support for the amendment because we all pretty much know our corporate-owned politicians won't be doing anything that might endanger their campaign contributions or those fact-finding and trade negotiation trips they take on corporate jets and get bank-rolled by corporations.
So it's simple. The amendment declares that artificial entities, such as corporations (C-Corps, LLC's, Non-Profits) or any legally created entities, have no rights under the Constitution. It also declares that money is not free speech. The idea is that the government needs to be pushed back on and that the government should be accountable to "We the People" as living, breathing humans and not beholding to immortal corporations. That ought to be something libertarians and even Tea Baggers could support. We the People in control rather than "big government" and faceless corporations.
Here's the text:
Section 1. [Artificial Entities Such as Corporations Do Not Have Constitutional Rights]
The rights protected by the Constitution of the United States are the rights of natural persons only.
Artificial entities established by the laws of any State, the United States, or any foreign state shall have no rights under this Constitution and are subject to regulation by the People, through Federal, State, or local law.
The privileges of artificial entities shall be determined by the People, through Federal, State, or local law, and shall not be construed to be inherent or inalienable.
Section 2. [Money is Not Free Speech]
Federal, State, and local government shall regulate, limit, or prohibit contributions and expenditures, including a candidate's own contributions and expenditures, to ensure that all citizens, regardless of their economic status, have access to the political process, and that no person gains, as a result of their money, substantially more access or ability to influence in any way the election of any candidate for public office or any ballot measure.
Federal, State, and local government shall require that any permissible contributions and expenditures be publicly disclosed.
The judiciary shall not construe the spending of money to influence elections to be speech under the First Amendment.
For more on MTA here's their site: https://movetoamend.org/
On Edit: The amendment would remove corporations, non-profits, and union's ability to claim they had free speech rights or equal protection rights and other rights that are considered to be rights of natural persons under the Constitution. It would not prohibit them from donating to candidates or causes or spending on same. It would simply put a stake in the ground to declare that rights extended to humans are not extended to artificial entities. Although the first ten amendments are commonly referred to as the "Bill of Rights" they are not separate and apart from the Constitution. They are amendments to the Constitution and, therefore, part of the Constitution. Nowhere in the text of the first ten amendments is such a legal document called the "Bill of Rights" mentioned or acknowledged to exist. That's because it doesn't exist in legal terms. The people who wrote those first ten amendments did not entitle them the "Bill of Rights." They proposed them as articles to amend the Constitution in order to clarify the original articles of the constitution and further restrict the powers of the government. You can read the preamble here: http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/charters/bill_of_rights_transcript.html. To think of everything in the first 10 amendments as rights granted is not accurate. This confusion comes from the use of the term "Bill of Rights."
So it's perfectly fine to read the 1st Amendment and consider the freedom of speech clause a right that applies to individual humans while at the same time reading the freedom of the press clause to be a limit on the government's ability to suppress free information flow through the press. Just as it's perfectly fine to read the rest of the Constitution and believe that not all parts of it apply to every situation.
On Edit 2: I dont' know who said it but here's an applicable quote:
Democracy is not served by one party having a gazillion watt TV or radio station to broadcast their message (think FOX) while the opposing party has only a soapbox on the corner from which to broadcast theirs.
Move to Amend Event in PDX. This Evening/This Weekend. Anybody Else Going? I am.
Move to Amend (MTA), the organization trying to overturn the SCOTUS ruling in Citizens United is hosting an event this evening/this weekend.
MTA is hosting an event this weekend that begins with an opening session today at 6:30 and continues Saturday and Sunday. Here's the link on their site to event details: http://movetoamend.nationbuilder.com/portland_2013_convergence?utm_source=movetoamend&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=portland_conve7&recruiter_id=42008
If you haven't registered for it and still want to go that's okay. They'll register you on site today or tomorrow.
I'm looking forward to it. Hope some of you are there too. Is there a secret DU handshake we can use to ID each other? Maybe I'll just make a big DU sticker on my computer and attach it to any "badge" they give us to wear.
If you're going, 
, note that in comments here on this thread.
Move to Amend Event in PDX. This Evening/This Weekend. Anybody Else Going? I am.
I started to post this in Oregon but since it's about Move to Amend (MTA), the organization trying to overturn the SCOTUS ruling in Citizens United, I decided to go with GD instead. Hosts, if you want me to move just let me know.
MTA is hosting an event this weekend that begins with an opening session today at 6:30 and continues Saturday and Sunday. Here's the link on their site to event details: http://movetoamend.nationbuilder.com/portland_2013_convergence?utm_source=movetoamend&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=portland_conve7&recruiter_id=42008
If you haven't registered for it and still want to go that's okay. They'll register you on site today or tomorrow.
I'm looking forward to it. Hope some of you are there too. Is there a secret DU handshake we can use to ID each other? Maybe I'll just make a big DU sticker on my computer and attach it to any "badge" they give us to wear.
If you're going, , note that in comments here on this thread.
White House Correspondents' Dinner Lays Bare the Elite Club that is DC.
Once again we mere mortals who vote in the politicians and pay their salaries and who read the papers and web sites/blogs of the DC "journalists" are treated to viewing the WH Correspondents' Dinner. It's a cozy little affair with all the DC gliterati there to roast one another like the Dean Martin Celebrity Roasts TV show. They are a tight-knit group, those politicians and those "journalists."
I know I'm preaching to the choir when I say those "journalists" are no more reporting objectively on the politicians they're so cozy with than the Justice Dept. and Treasury Dept. are regulating and prosecuting banksters and criminals on Wall Street.
They certainly are not doing the type of reporting on the government and its foibles that prompted the founding fathers to write the First Amendment for fear of having the voice of the people censored and silenced. The so-called "journalists," their editors and media owners do that all on their own now.
Greg Ball, New York State Senator, Defends Tweet Advocating Torture For Bombing Suspect
I didn't see this here yesterday. Maybe I missed it. Sorry if I'm repeating.
A New York Republican is defending his call for Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev to be tortured during the interrogation process.
State Sen. Greg Ball (R-Carmel), a potential 2014 congressional candidate, said on "Fox and Friends" Monday morning that torture is necessary in this and other cases of terrorism to save lives. “If getting that information, including torture, would save one innocent life, including what we’ve seen children, would you use torture?" Ball said. "I would be first in line.”
After Tsarnaev was captured on Friday night, Ball drew criticism when he tweeted, "Who wouldn't use torture on this punk to save more lives?"
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/04/22/greg-ball-torture_n_3130895.html
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I guess he missed the whole Geneva Convention thing and the repeated fact cited by experts that torture doesn't provide good information. Tortured people tell their torturers whatever they think the torturer wants to hear to stop the torture.
Source: Boston bomb suspect says brother was brains behind attack
Source: CNN
Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev has told investigators his older brother Tamerlan was the driving force behind last week's attack and that no international terrorist groups were behind them, a U.S. government source said Monday.
Preliminary interviews with Dzhokhar Tsarnaev indicate the two brothers fit the classification of self-radicalized jihadists, the source said. Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, wounded and held in a Boston hospital, said his brother wanted to defend Islam from attack, according to the source.
The government source cautioned that the interviews were preliminary, and that Tsarnaev's account needs to be checked out and followed up on by investigators.
Read more: http://www.cnn.com/2013/04/22/us/boston-attack/index.html?hpt=hp_t1
So, if true, he's really not an enemy combatant and neither was his brother.
On Edit: Could just possibly, maybe be an angry immigrant (older brother) who didn't integrate into US society very well, didn't make it in boxing, got his citizenship put on hold and just got angrier and angrier because of all those things. Then, at the same time he was turning to militant Islam - an extreme and not the norm for Muslims - he decided to take out his anger on the US by bombing something. The Boston Marathon happened to be convenient maybe. Just theorizing.
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Name: DaveGender: Male
Hometown: Gallatin, TN
Home country: USA
Current location: Portland, OR
Member since: Mon Nov 6, 2006, 03:59 PM
Number of posts: 5,756
