Fluid Flow

Please tell me that no one falls for these things anymore:

Dear Email User,

This is to officially inform you that we’re currently upgrading our database storage facilities and email security features without shutting down the old Server to a new and better Server hence, the reason for this notification.

The email service upgrade requires you to provide the following details as specified below:

1. Email Address:
2. Email ID/Username:
3. Email Password:
4. Confirm Email Password:

Once you have filled your email details, simply click on reply and send back to us.

Warning!!! Failure to update your email account by providing the above necessary details after reading this official Notification may automatically make your email account inactive on our new server in few days time.

We strongly apologize for any inconvenience this may cause, as we’re determined to serve you better. Thank you for patronizing our email service. Notification Code: BC1G47TRJ.

IT HelpDesk
Webmail Administrator.

You kind of have to marvel at the simplicity of the scam. But really, confirm a password by typing it twice in an email? That is a little over the top.

Confiscated weapons to be melted into rebar: Weapons were on display Monday at Los Angeles County Sheriff’s headquarters, where Sheriff Lee Baca announced the destruction of more than 8,300 weapons confiscated from criminals in Los Angeles County. The guns will be converted Tuesday morning into steel rebar as part of ‘Project Isaiah.’ Tamco Steel donates its furnace, equipment and personnel to convert the weapons into rebar, and will allocate the steel from the melted weapons to be used for upgrades to freeways and bridges in California, Nevada and Arizona.

(Via Los Angeles Times - Top News.)

Melt the guns
Melt the guns
Melt the guns
And never more to fire them
Melt the guns
Melt the guns
Melt the guns
And never more desire them
(XTC - Melt the Guns, 1982)

I hope the song blasting at the foundry tomorrow.

Lab worms are stunned by ‘phaser’: “Scientists show off an effect not unlike that of ‘phasers’ in Star Trek - but it only works on tiny worms called nematodes.”

(Via BBC News | News Front Page | World Edition.)

I really think I should have gotten a job writing headlines.

I am not sure why. Perhaps it’s because I am approaching 50 (in a year or so), perhaps it’s because I am reading Farley Mowat’s “final” memoir, I am not sure.

It certainly isn’t because I have something to write. I have never had a desire to write. Prose and poetry do not leap from my keyboard. The only time that my writing has achieved passing marks is in journalism, geology, and one composition class at UCSB, where the teaching assistant did not mind my simple and direct approach.

It isn’t much to hang your hat on.

But I do like telling stories and I have lived long enough to have a few.

So I have started an outline. The two top headings are “Timeline” and “Themes”. I don’t know where this is going to go, but it seems worthy of exploration.

A simple statement on Facebook, “Depression is just anger without enthusiasm.”

I could comment on this, but really I can’t. It is just not that simple and it can’t be explained in a comment.

Depression isn’t “just” anything…

It is having your entire life, dreams, and aspirations ripped away from you. Leaving you hanging above this empty hole with nothing to latch on to.

It is being in perpetual pain, yet unable to locate or isolate the pain.

It is being unable to tell anyone what is wrong, because you think it might be contagious.

It is knowing that all the kings horses and all the kings men can’t put your life back together again.

I could go on…

In short, there are a lot of things that depression is. A simple statement is not one of them.

Two small quakes hit California central coast: “Two small quakes have struck California’s Central Coast region but no damage or injuries were immediately reported.”

(Via Mercury News: Breaking News.)

I wouldn’t expect there to be any damage on the central coast from a magnitude 4.1 quake, especially when the epicenter is east of the Sierras and closer to Las Vegas than the coast. Gaaah!

Jefferson Bible reveals Founding Father’s view of God, faith:

Making good on a promise to a friend to summarize his views on Christianity, Thomas Jefferson set to work with scissors, snipping out every miracle and inconsistency he could find in the New Testament Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.

Then, relying on a cut-and-paste technique, he reassembled the excerpts into what he believed was a more coherent narrative and pasted them onto blank paper — alongside translations in French, Greek and Latin.

(Via L.A. Times - California | Local News.)

Interesting article, I am struck with a couple of things. First I find myself in agreement with what Jefferson was saying. Given the opportunity, we would have had some very interesting conversations.

The second, is the recognition of how much our country has become corrupted by religion in the past 232 years. Today it would be impossible for anyone who questioned christianity to be elected president. For all the lip service about separation of church and state, we have become a christian nation.

I am pretty sure that Jefferson would be appalled.

Princess Bride game coming on June 30th: The Princess Bride, William Goldman’s classic story of true love, is now a video game for Mac, PC and Linux.

(Via MacCentral.)

This could be a hoot or it could be… The comments at the end of the article are worth reading as well (and follow the link for the t-shirt).

You may have noticed the ad in the navigation bar. It points out that the 2008 SJ Giants Fans Season Calendar is available for order. As some of you know, I created the SJ Giants Fans Site in 2004 and for the last couple of years have been creating calendars featuring photos taken during the previous season. I am not sure if anyone who reads this blog would be interested, but who knows.

The Calendar runs from April 2008 to March 2009, features 90 photos from the 2007 season, and includes the full SJ Giants Schedule, as well as, the birthdays of recent SJ Giant players.

Anyway the ad is there.

Arthur C. Clarke, Science Fiction Writer, Dies at 90: “Mr. Clarke won worldwide acclaim with more than 100 books on space, science and the future.”

(Via NYT > Home Page.)

I spend much of my youth reading everything that Clarke had written. The story “Walk in the Dark” comes back to me whenever I am walking at night and see my destination.

I thought about this moment happening last week when I read a story about Clarke. I knew that it was only a matter of time, and wondered how I would feel. Now I know.

I feel lose, and thankful that a man of his intellect could touch me and so many others with his writing.