Dan Rather Speaks Out Against Corporate Meida
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Our New President
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[caption id=”attachment_206” align=”alignnone” width=”300” caption=”Yea Brother!”]
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Big Ride Weekend
&& [ Bizzare ] && 0 comments
School starts on Monday, so Im doing as much riding as possible this weekend. Thanks to Bill and Ashland Mountain Adventures I dont have to ride to the top under my own power (I did that all this week, tired of it now)
Lets hope nothing like this happens.
How to use mintUpload on your own FTP server.
&& [ Technology ] && 0 comments
I installed Linux Mint yesterday because my Ubuntu installtion was starting to get a little messed up from all the costant configuration, reconfiguration, and installation of new (and often not stable) packages. Nothing like a fresh start right?
Mint Linux has some cool custom applications, one of them being mintUpload. It allows you to upload a file in 2 clicks to a FTP server and gives you the URL. Unfortuneatly, Mint doesnt make it easy to confugre the tool to use any service other than its own crappy one. But it is possible.
If you have your own server you want to use with mintUpload, just follow these steps.
1) Create a writeable directory on your webserver where you want the uplaods to go, ex. /httpdocs/uploads
2) Create a file in that directory named “space.html” and put a single line in it: 100000000/100000000 This will tell mintUpload how much space you have, but since its your own server and we dont really care to keep track how much space is left, it will be static.
3) Go to /usr/lib/linuxmint/mintUpload/services and create a file with the name of your server.
4) Put this in your file:
name=<YourName> host=<YourHost> user=<FTP Username> pass=<FTP Password> path=<Path to upload folder, ex httpdocs/uploads/> space=<Path to space.html> url=<URL to upload directory>/<TIMESTAMP/<FILE> maxsize=1000000000 persistance=365
Note that <TIMESTAMP> and <FILE> are variables used by mintUpload and you should leave them as they are.
Save the file, and you should now have a working service in mintUpload! This works great, but there was one thing that still annoyed me. mintUpload places the files in subdirectories named from timestamps of the main upload folder. This is great if you are hosting a service that thousands of people will be using and the files will be deleted every so often. But I’m the only one using this service so it would be better if the files went directly into the uploads folder without and subdirectories so they can be easily viewed. To fix that:
1) change url=<path to upload directory>/<TIMESTAMP/<FILE> to url=<path to upload directory>/<FILE>
2) Open /usr/lib/linuxmint/mintUpload/mintUpload.py and comment out lines 155, 156, 157 and 162. To comment out a line, simply put a # in front of it. ex: #ftp.cwd(directory)
Save the file, now all uploads will go directly into the upload directory without any subdirectories. Cheers!
Amazing Geological Oddities Part II
&& [ Science ] && 7 comments
Ever since Amazing Geological Oddities was published, it has attracted quite a few comments. Most of them are useless Internet flame that you would expect to find anywhere, but several good people posted some great stuff. In this post, I will be collecting the best of the suggestions that people left on the original post. Enjoy!
Link to original Post: http://www.fingel.com/2008/04/amazing-geological-oddities/
David Keech thoguht the Wave Rock in Hyden, Western Australia was pretty cool.
This incredible rock formation, named obviously because of its wave like shape, is approximately 15 meters (about 50 feet) tall and 110 meters (360 feet) long. The shape was caused by subsurface erosion of the granite rock. After the rock was exposed, algae began to grow on its face, causing the darker streaks that add to the look of this rock.
Dave recommended the Hell Gate in Uzbekistan.
This site is truly amazing, with an incredible back story as well. 35 years ago, geologists were drilling for gas outside the small town of Darvaz. The drilling equipment unexpectedly broke through a cavern and the entire thing caved in. The gas that the geologists were looking for began to seep through the ground, and to make sure that nobody was harmed by the potentially poisonous gas, they lit it on fire. It has been burning ever since with no end in sight.
Martin told us about the Bay of Fundy in Nova Scotia.
The Bay of Fundy is not so much a marvel of geology as it a total coincidence. That doesnt mean its easy to understand how it works. Oceanographers say that the huge tidal range, which can fluctuate an entire 17 merers (thats about 55 feet) is a result of the perfect timing of normal tides, and the amount of time a wave takes to move from the opening of the bay to the end. One thing I find funny about the Bay of Fundy is that although it has these huge tides, people still have docks with boats on them, even though half way through the day any boat will be grounded!
[caption id=”” align=”alignnone” width=”300” caption=”Bay of fundy at high tide.”]
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[caption id=”” align=”alignnone” width=”300” caption=”Same place at low tide!”]
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The bay of fundy really gets its justice with a video:
Todd gave us one of my favorite reccomendations, the Devils Tower in Wyoming.
This huge rock, as there is no other way to describe it, stands tall in comparison to its surroundings. Although still disputed, the prevailing (and this writers favorite) theory is that the formation is a volcanic plug of a long extinct volcano. Magma moved up the inside of the volcano, but before it could erupt, the volcano died and the magma was left sitting inside. The hard igneous rock that the magma formed is more resiliant to erosion that the surroundig volcano which has long ago been washed away. The Devils Tower hexagonal pattern is the result of the cooling of magma. When magma cools, it shrinks, causing the cracks and pattern. This is called Jointing. The volacano that the Devils Tower was originally formed in would have been massive.
There is a similar formation in Southern Oregon called Pilot rock that was formed the same way:
Daithi was the first, but not the last, to recommended the Giants Causeway in Northern Ireland.
Legend has it that the Giants Causeway was built by an Irish giant as a bridge to Scotland so he could fight his rival giant there. But really, the Giants Causeway was formed in much the same way as the Devils Tower and Pilot Rock. The rock is from an ancient volcanic eruption, and the cooling of the magma formed the hexagonal pillars, a phenomena called “jointing”. The Giants Causeway covers a huge area that contains about 40,000 almost perfect hexagonal columns.
Tim wanted us to know about the incredible blue holes:
Blue holes are another result of Karst topography. That is, formation by massive amounts of erosion. Blue holes are named because of the contrast between their dark, deep inner waters and the light blue water surrounding them. Many of them are hundreds of feet deep, the deepest one is 663 feet deep! The water inside is extremely anoxic (without oxegen) so they don’t support much life other than certain types of bacteria.
[caption id=”” align=”alignnone” width=”500” caption=”The Belize blue hole, close up.”]
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[caption id=”” align=”alignnone” width=”500” caption=”The same blue hole, but from a distance. “]
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[caption id=”” align=”alignnone” width=”400” caption=”Good for swimming?”]
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Moving Rocks?
There seemed to be some controversy over how those moving rocks really move. Here is a great video that might help clear things up. Thanks Henry!
Tony left a brilliant comment that should be quoted:
"Enjoy the awesomeness of this world; you have only one chance at life to do so as the odds of experiencing life is immeasurably billions against. Don't waste it on negativity"
Thanks to all that enjoyed and left feedback on the original post! Hope everyone enjoys round 2!
This Guy Makes Longboarding Look Cool.
&& [ Bizzare ] && 0 comments
Seriously, this gut puts all those posers on longboards skating around SOU to shame.
Rad Sequel in the Making???
&& [ Entertainment, News ] && 5 comments
[caption id=”attachment_184” align=”aligncenter” width=”406” caption=”Rad BMX Movie Cover”]
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Could it really be true? Is there a sequel to the totally kick ass 80’s BMX movie RAD in the making? I know there are lots of us out there that would hope so. I can remember my friend Jesse and I must have spent at least $100 renting RAD repeatedly from El Granada Booze and Video.
RAD is basically impossibe to find in rentals or stores these days, and as far as I know there has never been an official release on DVD. So for those of you that were somehow unfortuneate enough to not see the movie a decade ago, you will have to find a copy on the internet.
But back to talk about the sequel, according to this myspace page, put together by members of the cast of RAD, they are working on making it happen. But they need our support! Please give the page a visit and add them to your friends.
http://www.myspace.com/theradmovie
Stupid Internet Video of the Day
&& [ Entertainment ] && 0 comments
Depression hurts? You betcha.
What's the worst thing you've been caught by the cops doing, on your bike?
&& [ Entertainment ] && 0 comments
“What’s the worst thing you’ve been caught by the cops doing, on your bike?”
This is the opening post of a thread on pinkbike.com, a mountain bike community site. This thread is EPIC! There are some really great stories to be found within. I’ll pull out a few good ones for you, but there are over 30 pages so I wont make it through them all.
"dhrider47 - I was building snow jumps on the sidewalk...haha they really loved that. Then I was riding on a fountain in the middle of town and a cop with short shorts, a terrible police bike helmet, and the biggest P.O.S. of a bike, started screaming at me telling him I make him look bad. In a way I felt bad for him." "pstreethucker - building dirt jumps in the middle of a city park and jumping them, the the police pulled up so we stopped but they got out and told us to keep jumping them, they were bike cops they just wanted to watch.. they called all the other bike cops so about 4 cop cars pulled up and they were all watching us. they didnt even care that we made dirt jumps in the middle of the park" "bikingrules18 - in canada we dont get it trouble from police, its just like environmentalist retards that tear down everything you build" "cletus44 - Yeah well most park rangers treat you like like you just slept with their wife. (or gay husband) I once fell on a path (don't ask me how) and as I lay bleeding (a bit) on the path a park ranger drives around me and looks pissed because I'm in his way." "berspitze - there is a hill just out of town from my house where they always put one of those speed signs so that if you are speeding it starts flashing. So I decided to ride home and get my road bike, go back to the hill and go as fast as I could. Being that there were no cars in any direction i went for it. I ended up hitting the 41mph mark, in a 25 zone. Once I saw the speed I decided to slow down, but too late. There was a unit parked on a little side road. HE pulled me over and said that I shouldn't be going so fast on my Bicycle and that if he ever caught me doing that again he wouldn't be so rational. The ticked that he wanted to give if I did it again was reckless endangerment."
Here is the full thread: http://www.pinkbike.com/forum/listcomments/?threadid=27486&pagenum=1
Save Money on Milk
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Lets start off this post by saying that I LOVE milk. And I especially love good, hearty, 2% milk. I cant stand drinking low fat milk, and I feel that non fat milk is a crime against nature. So I propose a solution lowfat milk drinkers and myself both will like. Next time, instead of buying a lesser form of milk, get the good stuff - the 2%. The sane people can drink the milk right out of the carton unspoiled. If someone were for some reason want low or non fat milk, simply add water. A cup or too a presto! You have 1% milk. Add another 3 or 4 and you have nonfat milk, at least thats what it tastes like anyways.
Besides making everyone happy, you also save a lot of money on milk!
[caption id=”attachment_174” align=”aligncenter” width=”389” caption=”Superman Only Drinks 2% milk. Lesser milk is for lesser men. “]
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