Cheese Weasel Day - April 3rd, bring bread!

Each April 3rd, the Cheese Weasel -- and I'm not making this up -- visits every IT person on the planet and leaves a slice of cheese under his or her mouse. I suggest checking under yours...

"Who brings the cheese on April 3rd?
The Cheese Weasel
He's not a silly bunny or a raindeer or a bird,
He's the Cheese Weasel
He's got a cute black tail
And tiny buck teeth
He doesn't bring fish, and he
Doesn't bring beef
So you'd better be good if you wanna get some cheese
From the Cheese Weasel."

Comcast compresses three HD television channels into two - FiOS and Comcast comparisons

It appears Comcast is working black magic on HD television media.  If you thought you were receiving true HD, think again, as Comcast is compressing three HD channels into two HD streams.  Bandwidth and television quality examples are shown after this post in relation to Comcast's delivered services:

"A public FCC hearing was held to discuss the accusations that Comcast was limiting bandwidth to file sharing peer to peer networks such as Bittorrent.

Documentation has arisen that Comcast has been sending reset packets to peers using these types of services.

It is claimed null personalities were paid to fill the seats of the FCC hearing, shutting out other interested parties and to applaud Comcast's positive remarks.

As recorded, one person admitted to this claim, and the response was: needed room for company executives.

Even National Public Radio (NPR) was having difficulty attending the hearing, amongst many other concerned citizens outside the walls of the room.

At the bottom of this post is audio with interviews of random attendees of the Comcast FCC hearing.  The source for this audio minutes:  http://www.freepress.net/node/35906" 

"The greatest differences are seen with movement. With slow movement on Comcast, the first thing you notice is added noise and a softer image, as fine detail is filtered from the picture signal. The greater the rate of movement, the more detail you lose and the more noise you see. With intense movement, you see more blocking and skipped frames. In VideoRedo, I noticed that a number of frames in the FiOS signal simply did not exist in the Comcast signal during motion intensive scenes. This may be responsible for the stutter and excessive motion blur seen with some video sequences on Comcast.

To Comcast's credit, I saw little to no difference on movie channels such as HBO, Cinemax, and Starz. I did see some blurring and reduced detail during fast movement on Starz, but the recordings from Cinemax and HBO were virtually identical, even on action movies such as 300 and Gladiator. When there was blocking on the Comcast feed of Cinemax, that blocking was also on the FiOS feed." -- [user on AVSforum]

 

Sage essential oil as an alternative to Wormwood, clinical properties of Thuja, Absinthe and y-aminobutyric acid receptors

In relation to (sage essential oil as an alternative to wormwood), I have a couple resources you may find in interest related to Wormwood - Absinthe, following my Blog post text about Thujone displayed here:

"Wormwood essential oil is hard to come by.  Most often you have to import the oil from another country and hope the FDA doesn't take it has a digestible substance.  The reason for this, or the feature is absinthe.

This word meaning 'undrinkable' in Greek is an elixir containing the chemical thujone.  Thujone is known as a psychoactive drug causing hallucinations and addiction.  Current research concludes that thujone is a GABA antagonist.  Although it was banned in the united states by the FDA, (I am uncertain about DEA regulations) with no evidence to conclude such, thujone can be found in many other readily available essential oils.

Sage essential oil can contain as much as 50% thujone, however the FDA considers this a safe additive to food products and cosmetics.  Anis and Florence fennel also contain thujone and readily available to US consumers.

Sage essential oil is used as a food additive in Vermouth for flavoring.  Sage, as used by an aromatherapist can help treat stress related symptoms and act as a cerebral sedative.  Sage should be used with care however, because of the large amount of thujone it contains.  Thujone in large quantities is toxic, (causing renal failure and death) and any oil that contains thujone should be used with care.

Sage in conjunction with niacin, ginko biloba, or other herbs that improve circulation through vasodilation is known to help treat symptoms of Schizophrenia and other mental disorders.  Sage, and other camphor chemotypes can also have strong adverse reactions with those prown to epileptic seizures." -- My Blog post dated March the 2nd of 2007

"..thujone is found in plants of the Thuja genus, which is arborvitae and cedar.  They are in the conifer family Cupressa-cae, which also includes Juniperus (the source of gin), and nutmeg; the related Tsuga genus is hemlock (a well-known poison).

The newly noted connection with GABAA receptor channel antagonism should not be surprising in light of previous observations..."

-- Absinthe and y-aminobutyric acid receptors Richard W. Olsen* Department of Molecular and Medical Pharmacology, University of California School of Medicine, Los Angeles, CA 90095-1735: This is a link to the PDF file.

"Arbor vitae (Thuja occidentalis L.) is a native European tree widely used in homeopathy and evidence-based phytotherapy. Many reviews and monographs have been published on the herbal substance’s descrip- tion, mode of action and clinical use. However, no comprehensive evidence-based review is available. Therefore, our aim was to search MEDLINE databases and survey manufacturers for further details or unpublished data. This review presents the botany, ethnobotany and phytochemistry, especially the different contents of essential oil (Thujone) in relation to different extraction procedures of this medic- inal plant. Thuja’s antiviral action and immunopharmacological potential, such as stimulatory and co-stimulatory effects on cytokine and antibody production and activation of macrophages and other immunocompetent cells, have been evaluated in numerous in vitro and in vivo investigations. Although no controlled trials have been conducted on Thuja occ alone, many clinical studies have been performed with a herbal medicinal product containing a special extract of Thuja occ and other immunostimulants, demonstrating its therapeutic efficacy and safety in respiratory tract infections."

-- Thuja occidentalis (Arbor vitae): A Review of its Pharmaceutical, Pharmacological and Clinical Properties, Belal Naser, Cornelia Bodinet, Martin Tegtmeier and Ulrike Lindequist: This is a link to the PDF file.

I often use Wormwood essential oil, which I was once afraid of, to ease stomach pains, muscle tension, and anxiety.  If it is not an Absinthe drink, their are a lot of safe uses that responsible, medically uneducated, yet aware people can take advantage of.

Internet Services Business Meeting Mock-up - hilarious video

Internet Services Business Meeting Mock up - hilarious video of off the wall, over the top employee personalities, in which the attendees are at a business meeting with all sorts of surprise technology humor involved:

dealing with a mess of wires / plugs of all different sizes, not enough room on your surge protector? - here is a solution

Most surge protectors have 4 to 6 power slots making it hard to deal with large bulky power adapters taking up two power outlets at a time.  You will be lucky to get 4 power outlets available to you.

Here is a nice solution and fix:

"The ezSpace UFO...You have never seen anything like it. The ezSpace UFO is more than just a plug expander. It is the most versatile power extender in the world. With its PATENTED design (internal and external), there are things that you can do with the UFO that can’t be done with any other expander. The UFO allows you to fit a power transformer on every plug in the most compact configuration. The inverse slanted design allows you to use the least amount of space to plug in large power transformers. The UFO comes in a host of specialized configurations. UFOs can be plugged into the wall or be configured as an extension cord. You can get one with surge protection or as just a plug extender."

via [Gizmodo]