From the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) website is a pdf copy, published January 6, 2011, which includes the sites and keywords being watched by the Office of Operations Coordination and Planning (OPS) and National Operations Center (NOC) in cooperation with the DHS.
Appendix A lists the “Social Media Web Sites Monitored by the NOC” and starts on page 14.
Appendix B lists the “Terms Used by the NOC When Monitoring Social Media Sites” and starts on page 19. More…
There were approximately 40,000 laws passed in 2011 which will take effect on January 1, 2012. I’m not going to read through all of them… are you? But here are a few, with link available to take you to the site listing all laws passed at the bottom of this post. More…
This both makes me angry and happy at the same time. Angry because of the “Breed Specific Legislation (BSL)” erupting all over the states now took this man’s trained service dog simply because the dog is a Pit Bull, but happy that this man was reunited with his best friend. More…
According to 24/7 Wall Street website, here are the worst new product releases of 2011. Since I am not a fan of shopping as I do not feel the need to always have the latest and greatest of everything in the world, I don’t keep up on all the new releases, so I will take their word for it. They all sound like they were pretty much the product FAIL’s of 2011. More…
During the summer of 2011, which happens to be one of the worst droughts on record for those of us here in the United States Southwest, fires erupted all over causing mass destruction in many states. I reside in Albuquerque NM, and we were very fortunate here in the city. No large fires. A few small ones sprang up in the Rio Grande Bosque, but were quickly put out with little damage. However, Albuquerque, as well as a large part of the state, were victims from the mass amount of smoke and ash from the Arizona Wallow fires in June 2011. The first picture below is one I took from my back yard late one afternoon. No, it is not a setting sun… it is pink due to the thick smoke in the air. Ash covered everything for several days, choked our swamp coolers, and caused a large increase of asthma related problems in the hospitals. Below that are three photos I took from the north side of Albuquerque of the smoke pouring from the fires in Los Alamos (the Las Conchas fire), which threatened the nuclear lab facility there (home of the A-Bomb.) Los Alamos NM is approximately 70 miles how the crow flies. More…
Although the photo was taken in 2010, on the morning of February 11, 2011, the international jury of the 54th World Press Photo Contest named a photo by South African photographer Jodi Bieber, World Press Photo of the Year 2010. The image is a portrait of Bibi Aisha, disfigured as punishment for fleeing her husband’s house, taken in Kabul, Afghanistan. Over 5,691 photographers entered 108,059 images in the 2011 World Press Photo Contest and after the two-week judging period, 56 were named winners in nine categories. It is a prestigious contest and an honor to be named a winner. More…
What a year 2011 was when it came to weather. Blizzards, tornadoes, flooding, droughts and hurricanes. Here is a photo journal through the extreme weather of 2011 shown in chronological order. Geologic disasters (tsunami, earthquakes, etc) will be posted in a separate article, as well as the fires in the US Southwest (in which I live.) More…
The island of Utøya
This one was a tough one to decide. There was, as in any given year, so much tragedy throughout the world. I debated on whether or not to post a tragic remembrance for 2011, but decided I should – if anything, as a remembrance to the victims. The most tragic event I chose was the Utøya massacre in Norway.
The 2011 Norway attacks were two sequential terrorist attacks against the government, the civilian population and a summer camp in Norway on 22 July 2011. More…
THE WINNER!Okay, I have to admit, my guilty sinful pleasure is that I LOVE “America’s Got Talent.” The ONLY reality show I watch. And it is because I hope and adore when people like Landau Eugene Murphy, Jr. come on. Here is a man from West Virginia whose trade is washing cars. Has never sang professionally other than at charities. Not even in a smoke-filled bar in the back hills of West Virginia. He has also never done an audition… until AGT. In the shows audition, Landau walks out on the stage, is chided by Piers Morgan for chewing gum, then he starts singing… and a rare voice flows forth like only one other before him. More…
The Manila North Cemetery (or Cementerio del Norte formerly known also as “Paang Bundok”), which measures 54 hectares, is considered the biggest and one of the oldest cemeteries in Metro Manila. There are typically anywhere between 70 to 80 funerals a day here. The cemetery is owned by the Manila city government and has initiated an expansion program to build more “apartment tombs” and a crematorium. More…
Here we have a Jack Russell Terrier flying down the street on a Dogati Motorcycle! No, not a Ducati… a DOGati!!!
Phew… this one took some work. More…
Okay, it is time to set aside all seriousness in the news and world now. Here are a few humorous dog (and cat) photos with funny sayings.
There are plenty more on my Motley Dogs site, so feel free to go here to see more. More…
Just last week, GoDaddy was on the list of supporters for SOPA. After they started seeing their profits falling due to the large volume of clients transferring their domains and services, GoDaddy then rescinded their support. However, the damage has been done, and their true colors are showing.
According to Namecheap (also promoting a “Move Your Domain Day“), a very popular domain and hosting company where a lot of “GoDaddy’ers” are transferring to, posted this just today: More…
Someone sent me the link for the first part of a five part upload of this episode. I watched it and couldn’t stop until I had finished them all. Imagine a world where everything you do either deducts or adds merits. A bit of toothpaste needed to brush your teeth once deducts merits. Riding a stationary bike, which is a job to provide power to all the TV screens, adds merits. And to skip a pornographic commercial is a major deduction of merits. You are not even allowed to close your eyes during the commercial else face a horrific piercing sound and red lights until you re-open your eyes. More…
If you are not familiar with private prisons, they are prisons built and owned by private companies, stockholders, shareholders, etc. Each investor makes a profit for each inmate housed in their private prison company.
Why should you be concerned about criminals and prisons? Because the vast majority of those held in these prisons should NOT be there! The laws and courts are sentencing an ever increasing number of citizens, and illegal immigrants, to prison purely for profit. Take note of the correlation of the rise of the prison population is equal to the origination of these prisons in the early 1980′s. Now with the passing of NDAA FY2012, and the threat of SOPA, this makes any normal, law-abiding citizen a potential candidate to reside in a private prison. More…
Here is a real-time site which shows the US Debt numbers as they are actually occurring. I am unable to embed this clock, so click here to view it.
If you hover above any of the items, a brief description will show up at the top where it says “US Debt Clock.org”. Includes such figures as: More…
After
Well, today was a quiet, peaceful Christmas day, which is exactly what I needed. Spent some time with someone very dear to me, and also managed to get quite a bit done computer-wise. Reinstalled Ubuntu on one of my laptops, set up Filezilla, installed a new router, started researching other hosting companies to move to and get off of GoDaddy, and… cleaned my computer. I live in New Mexico and, well, this is the desert and there is a LOT of dust here. Especially after the drought we’ve been in for a year now. So thought I would share some before and after pictures. This is only after five months as my system was cleaned out just last July. More…
One awesome (and anonymous) person decided to put together a short but sweet Google Doc called “SOPA For Dummies” to help explain this bill is simplistic terms.
Here is the G Doc in it’s entirety: More…
A picture does say a thousand words. This photo from the Lee Country Jail clearly shows an Ohio man restrained, mouth bound (to prevent spitting), and body covered with pepper spray. More…
Okay, fellow internet cohorts… it is time to start wrapping up 2011, and what a year this has been! For my first post of “2011 in Review,” I am sharing my favorite video which came out… The Ultimate Dog Tease. Naturally since I am a huge dog-lover, having trained dogs since I was 12 years old, run agility, and work with dog rescue, it makes complete sense that this is my fav. However, this video is SO creative, that even the non-dog-lover in life has to admit that it’s damn funny and well-made. More…
Absolutely amazing encounter of a troop of wild gorillas which wandered into this camp. On Dec. 11, King was in a private safari camp near Bwindi National Park, in Uganda, to see mountain gorillas. Apparently, they wanted to see him, too. He was sitting beside a trail when a family of wild gorillas joined him. Curious about their fellow primate, at least two of the gorillas touched King’s head and neck, smelled him and tasted him on their fingers. I can only imagine how his heart was racing during this whole time. Although typically not agressive, a male Silverback does have the strength to tear apart a man limb by limb in only a few mere seconds should he feel his family is being threatened. More…
Father Monk (with a birthname of “Monk,” it was destiny) speaks some very powerful and truthful words at a recent City Council meeting in Pensacola FL. His demeanor is nothing but passive, yet passionate. Apparently, the words he spoke were offensive to some on the council (damn, the truth hurts sometimes), and he was asked to leave. Here is the description of the incident from the video: More…
Should SOPA pass, my fellow-internet cohorts… our world will change. Take this image I created… a scene from Pirates of the Caribbean where I masked in a Vaio and an HP laptop. Should H.R. 3261 pass, then this would no longer be “legal.” Even though I make NO monies from this little creation, my site could potentially be banned. In fact, what I have created is in all actuality, free advertising! Think about it…. All the product placement going on in movies and in TV shows… the thousands into millions of dollars spent by companies simply to have their logo or product shown at some point in time. In fact, I think Disney, Vaio and HP should pay ME for the image I created just for this post. More…
For the past few weeks, I have been saving the better, more humorous Santa and Christmas related funnies, photos, fails and videos. Well, the time has come to post these before it’s too late. So grab your milk and cookies, or spiked Eggnog, and enjoy! More…
Having some more fun with my graphics tablet in Photoshop. Here is a dog piloting a Sopwith Camel, which was a British First World War single-seat biplane fighter introduced on the Western Front in 1917.
I started out with just the dog. Added the goggles and scarf, then tucked him? her? away in the plane all ready for take-off! More…
