The Orlando gay night spot Pulse saw the worst massacre in US history inundated Orlando Regional Medical Center with 44 victims of having high velocity gunshot wounds ... a lot of the victims struck multiple times and the people of the area — and the nation — are still reeling from the tragedy.

Parents were shocked by final communications from children about to be murdered via cell telephony. The impending doom obvious in the SMS messages transmitted. Others with wounds so devastating as to be life threatening and a killer who went down cool and calm in a gunfight with the police after phoning 911 to pledge his allegiance to ISIS.

This home grown terrorist, one Omar Mateen inflicted the worst mass shooting ever in the united States. The incident is being investigated as an act of domestic terrorism.
 

Pulse Nightclub Orlando

Omar Mateen

Now then, the gays are a particular kind of target for the likes of ISIS/ISIL given the scriptural references to abomination. HOWEVER, in the United States we leave that judgement to God and defer our objections to Him.

For example, I am not a proponet of the gay lifestyle but would just as soon keep my gay friends and cohorts safe and well EVEN though I disapprove of their sexual proclivities BECAUSE it's simply none of my business and I have too much else with which to contend to even care.

I suppose young Mr Mateen missed that "Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness" unalienable rights which the Declaration of Independence imparted to the citizens of this nation.

You don't have to approve of any aspect of anothers existence to treat them with respect and dignity.

All joking aside (and I DO joke about homosexuality), I will always avail myself to others in this manner. One of the best friends I ever had was gay in Colorado and I would have done anything to see him one more time before he passed away. You don't get many friends in life; let alone many good friends such as the one I lost when I was 40.

So I've experimented with the last three versions of my operating system of choice in an effort to find that magical mystery configuration which is going to give me that satisfaction of knowing I'm where I should be in the server cluster arena.

Today I arrived at my ORIGINAL configuration ... the one I had grief getting the blog package to operate upon. Be all of this as it may, I've decided that the latest production version of the OS is what I need.

If I fail to get the blog package to work with it I'm just going to have to change blog packages. You see, I simply cannot be held hostage by some content management system which is problematic in my chosen server configuration.

I'm 90% there. I'm going to pose the question to the listserv and see just what the portends are. Should my next attempt at content management system installation fails I will get a different one and go about my business.

I've been through countless different configurations and the earlier versions of the OS don't interoperate well with the new hardware in place.

I decline to tap dance any longer.

I'm glad I can handle any contingency. Lesser techs would have crumbled by now.

I've had a keen interest in the Jordanian city of Petra; the site of ancient archeological digs primarily because of the workmanship, engineering, and hydrodynamics incorporated within the city — which likely began in 312 BC and was undiscovered by westerners until 1812.

The efficiency of the aquaducts and structures carved into solid rock are a wonder of biblical antiquity.

National Geographic reports the discovery of a monument which is the size of two olympic sized swimming pools and has remnants of extensive pavement, a colonade, and gigantic staircase.

It was said to be hidden in plain site close to the center of Petra.

It has been one of my wishes to someday visit Petra. I doubt that I will be around long enough to make it. The sheer fabrication of a city from stone complete with running water is a marvel from where I stand.
 

While I envision this statement to be more a commentary on smartphones than anything else, India has become the worlds second most connected population on the planet.

Thats a purported 277 million users due to a 40% rise over multiple years. However, China remains number one in the number of internet users according to the annual Internet Trends Report from Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers — a silicon valley venture capital organization.

Shucks, that means we're third. However, do not fret. I don't think all those phones are a force with which to take on larger hardware configurations with more memory and mass storage.

Still, the numbers are foreboding from a data protection standpoint given that India is about the biggest purveyor of spam and China the biggest exploit conduit of which I can think.

The report is placing the world wide use around 42% with a count of 3 billion internet users. That's 9 zeros. All I can do is keep those subnets firewalled and cap the domestic incursions by foreign entities as I pursue my target audience and bloody fend off the rest as best I can.

Hate to be this way, but the access logs tell the tale.

I love Lexus drivers. They simply scream uppity.

Like the previously owned Jaguars and gawd help us — BMWs ... those cars that say 'Asshole' driving down the road.

I love to see that pretentiousness those sixteen thousand dollar used vehicles instill in the polyester attired would have beens that drive them.

"Yeah, I drive a Lexus."

What they neglect to tell you is it's used and was depreciated long before they acquired it.

Me, I drive a truck. My personal preference is as analog as they can be manufactured; but I have been kowtowing to the technological tidbits included in it as well.

I was reading in the Christian Science Monitor regarding software glitches in some Lexus vehicles sold in the US.

It seems that buggy software messed up their information and entertainment systems.

The piece goes on to pose the relevant question:

What if this happened in a self driving car?

Lexus struggles with software bug: What this means for automakers
Christina Beck
Christain Science Monitor
June 8, 2016

So would we want a company whose technology is largely dependent on embedded systems of the computer variety rising to their level of incompetence and inadvertently creating an easily hackable or virus attackable personal conveyance to be exploited at the most inopportune times while we're traveling hither, thither, or yon ?

It is my personal observation that the wonder which is the evolving "self driving" automobile may well use a bit of extended development and testing.

I keep having these visions of the high speed crashes going down totally beyond the control of the occupants at the hands of some hacker or inept programmer imparting their funk into the mix.

Don't get me wrong, I'm all for technology. Just make sure it's "ready for prime time" before you spring it on a populace wanting the latest in self driving rides.

1950s era driverless car concept

Here's one I'm taking with a grain of salt.

SimilarWeb, formerly called "SimilarGroup", an IT marketing research concern founded in 2007 engages as a provider of business and market intelligence, web analytics, and data mining for the international business arena.

Remind me to firewall them and all of their colocations immediately.

They are propagating a study which proposes a decline in the use of social media apps such as facebook, snapchat, instagram, and twitter between January through March 2016 in comparison to that quarter in 2015.
 

They also pointed out the censorship issues immersing facebook and twitter of late causing them to have a significant drop in usage.

Facebook is said to be down by 8%. Twitter is said to be down by 23.4%. The app instagram, owned by facebook is also said to be down 23.7% and snapchat use is allegedly down by 15.7%.

This data is derived from android clients and therfore covers phones, phablets, tablets, and other droid based configurations.

Now then, I personally don't view this as any "death knell" for social media inasmuch as android is not the entirety of the internet.

I still know many others using microsoft and linux based clients and in my purview the linux clients are steadily rising and my logs are rife with these as well.

The bottom line IMHO is that you can think what you like but the android population has not inherited the world and I personally will be getting an iphone to replace my droid due to personal issues regarding how google handles site availability when you bar them in the robots.txt file.

Be all of this as it may I really can't see stock prices dropping over diminishing use anytime soon. I know entirely too many lemmings for this to be something I could ever worry about or for which I could ever hope.

Lonnie David Franklin Jr, The Grim Sleeper

There's a lot of things which go into the making of a serial killer. It's a spectrum of behaviors where some do not suspect pathological behavior whereas others get the full impact of depravity driving a person to multiple murders.

Just last night I was watching an HBO special on the "Grim Sleeper" — that name applied to one Lonnie David Franklin Jr, convicted serial killer who is responsible for at least ten murders, one attempted murder, and is suspected of killing many more innocent victims in the area of South Central Los Angeles.

His moniker "Grim Sleeper" came about because he appeared to take a 14 year break from 1988 to 2002.

Arrested in July of 2010 as a suspect his trial began in February of this year.

Day before yesterday, he was convicted by a jury for the killing of nine women and one teenage girl. Yesterday the jury returned the death sentence.

Given the sluggish state of death sentence executions in the state of California, it remains to be seen if the "Grim Sleeper" will keep his appointment with the Grim Reaper ...

or if he will simply languish in prison until he dies otherwise or is released upon appeal.

Grim Reaper by GrimShady on deviantart

I've been reading a few items in the news threads bemoaning the increased death rate for persons living in the United States. The pieces say that increased age adjusted death rates are exceedingly rare and the indication was somewhat "alarm" in the verbiage.

Having reached that pinnicle of "age adjustment" myself I can tell you that death comes to us all and sooner or later we all must pay the piper ... grim reaper — or whatever other euphemism floats your boat.

The current trend is said to be somewhat of a mystery but the improvements in modern medicine are supposed to work inversely in the big picture of statistical death records whereas the proportion is more of a direct nature.

Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, chronic lower respiratory disease, stroke, hypertension, and septicemia are all said to be higher in the death rate picture.

The seat belt law morons not withstanding I personally view the issue to be more of a lifestyle catching up with us in the form of poor fast food nutrition, creature comforts like tobacco, alcohol, and the wide spread recreational drugs which pervade the country ...

not to mention the other stupidity like falls and accidents, suicide, murder, and other sequela of crime given the exceedingly poorer economy of late.

The statistics indicate a preponderance of white women, blue collar men and individuals who are less educated, according to research.

Regardless of the trends, those underlying problems are going to continue as we pursue those same avenues expecting different results on the health front.

I think the problems begin with the physician or lack thereof. To complicate the tragedy of subspecialty careers where nobody wants to do primary care anymore; I've encountered way too many stupid medical doctors of late and that simply cannot be a good omen.

The little stupid osteopath bitch working emergency medicine at Palmetto Richland hospital for one. DUH !

The professional boxer Muhammad Ali passed day before yesterday at 9:10 Mountain Time in Phoenix surrounded by his family.

Having a rather 'alpha male tumultuous start' his was a polarizing personality and the subject of controversy over the years.

However you felt, his persistence over the years pretty much left you impressed with his sheer tenacity and I for one admired his accomplishments both in and out of the ring.

Sitting over at my late friend Dewitt's house in Red Bank one day we saw him being interviewed by Howard Cosell some time after he began to show the tremor of Parkinsonism. Mr Cosell said something to the effect of "Muhammad why are you shaking so much" to which he got in his face and yelled "Do I look like I'm shaking?" in full flexing exaggerated tremor.

I knew then that this man could be funny in the presence of devastating adversity and he had me from that moment on.

So he endured the injury borne of numerous blows to the head with both stoicism and acceptance and he won the world over with the person that he was when all the theatrics associated with those many upcoming events were over.

Rest in peace.
 

Muhammad Ali Professional Boxer January 17, 1942 - June 3, 2016

I was reading an interesting tidbit in the LA Times regarding the financing of Bernie Sanders campaign and noticed not suprisingly that a fair amount of contributors are the unemployed and retired.
 

Bernie Sanders is being funded by persons who want a socialist governenment regardless of the solid history of it's failure. Twenty five percent of those dontating to Sander's campaign are the unemployed or retired. My locality has contributions above the national average.

These individuals are grasping at that straw which is his 'something for nothing' ideology which manifests itself in a so-called platform which is said will 'lift up the have-nots and allegedly improve the system of government we have so that no one will ever be left behind' ...

The only problem with the scenario is his stated methodology is based on a failed math model whereby his source of funding is the top tier of wealthy which simply cannot fund the remainder of those with outstretched hands seeking to palm the booty from those topmost rich persons from whom he would glean said fundage for the 'tired, ... poor, ... huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched (socialist) refuse of your teeming shore ...

When the utopia never materializes just what would all the disappointment entitlement seekers have to say about Bernie then?

Aw ... no something for nothing. Really ?

Do you actually think the illumanati and the leadership of the military industrial complex is going to stand for this impunity of giving up all they have so it may be distributed among the socialist hand out seekers supporting Bernie Sanders ?

Hate to disappoint you, but I think not.

On this day in 1888 a famous piece of poetry was published in the Daily Examiner, now known as the "San Francisco Examiner". It was "Casey at the Bat: A Ballad of the Republic Sung in the Year 1888" a baseball poem written in 1888 by Ernest Thayer.

Now then, I would like to think that my level of literacy was such that I am so well acquainted with this particular piece that I know everything about it ... but that is not the case at all.

You see, my only experience with this poem aside from a very few brief lessons in junior high — and possibly elementary — school is primarily a function of the Rocky and Bullwinkle show which was contemporaneous of that time in my life.

In my formative years baseball was once of those things which precluded my father spending time with me and I hated it from the first grade onward for that reason. He thought a wonderful aspect of entertainment during that era was televised baseball and that was his focus during his premium off time instead of me.

To this day I still refuse to sit and watch a baseball (or other ball) game for this reason. Not that I blame him, though. Having spent time in the Navy I understand his need for a preferred escape.

Casey at the Bat

The outlook wasn't brilliant for the Mudville Nine that day;
the score stood four to two, with but one inning more to play.
And then when Cooney died at first, and Barrows did the same,
a sickly silence fell upon the patrons of the game.

A straggling few got up to go in deep despair. The rest
clung to that hope which springs eternal in the human breast;
they thought, if only Casey could get but a whack at that –
they'd put up even money, now, with Casey at the bat.

But Flynn preceded Casey, as did also Jimmy Blake,
and the former was a lulu and the latter was a fake,
so upon that stricken multitude grim melancholy sat,
for there seemed but little chance of Casey's getting to the bat.

But Flynn let drive a single, to the wonderment of all,
and Blake, the much despised, tore the cover off the ball;
and when the dust had lifted, and the men saw what had occurred,
there was Jimmy safe at second and Flynn a-hugging third.

Then from five thousand throats and more there rose a lusty yell;
it rumbled through the valley, it rattled in the dell;
it knocked upon the mountain and recoiled upon the flat,
for Casey, mighty Casey, was advancing to the bat.

There was ease in Casey's manner as he stepped into his place;
there was pride in Casey's bearing and a smile on Casey's face.
And when, responding to the cheers, he lightly doffed his hat,
no stranger in the crowd could doubt 'twas Casey at the bat.

Ten thousand eyes were on him as he rubbed his hands with dirt;
five thousand tongues applauded when he wiped them on his shirt.
Then while the writhing pitcher ground the ball into his hip,
defiance gleamed in Casey's eye, a sneer curled Casey's lip.

And now the leather-covered sphere came hurtling through the air,
and Casey stood a-watching it in haughty grandeur there.
Close by the sturdy batsman the ball unheeded sped--
"That ain't my style," said Casey. "Strike one," the umpire said.

From the benches, black with people, there went up a muffled roar,
like the beating of the storm-waves on a stern and distant shore.
"Kill him! Kill the umpire!" shouted someone on the stand;
and it's likely they'd have killed him had not Casey raised his hand.

With a smile of Christian charity great Casey's visage shone;
he stilled the rising tumult; he bade the game go on;
he signaled to the pitcher, and once more the spheroid flew;
but Casey still ignored it, and the umpire said: "Strike two."

"Fraud!" cried the maddened thousands, and echo answered fraud;
but one scornful look from Casey and the audience was awed.
They saw his face grow stern and cold, they saw his muscles strain,
and they knew that Casey wouldn't let that ball go by again.

The sneer is gone from Casey's lip, his teeth are clenched in hate;
he pounds with cruel violence his bat upon the plate.
And now the pitcher holds the ball, and now he lets it go,
and now the air is shattered by the force of Casey's blow.

Oh, somewhere in this favored land the sun is shining bright;
the band is playing somewhere, and somewhere hearts are light,
and somewhere men are laughing, and somewhere children shout;
but there is no joy in Mudville — mighty Casey has struck out.

by Ernest Thayer

Woman In Chains

You better love loving and you better behave
You better love loving and you better behave
Woman in Chains
Woman in Chains
Calls her man the Great White Hope
Says she's fine, she'll always cope
Woman in Chains
Woman in Chains
Well I feel lying and waiting is a poor man's deal
And I feel hopelessly weighed down by your eyes of steel
It's a world gone crazy
Keeps Woman in Chains
Trades her soul as skin and bones
Sells the only thing she owns
Woman in Chains
Woman in Chains
Men of Stone
Men of Stone
Well I feel deep in your heart there are wounds Time can't heals
And I feel somebody somewhere is trying to breathe
Well you know what I mean
It's a world gone crazy
Keeps Woman in Chains
It's under my skin but out of my hands
I'll tear it apart but I won't understand
I will not accept the Greatness of Man
It's a world gone crazy
Keeps Woman in Chains
So Free Her
So Free Her

Performed by Tears for Fears featuring Oleta Adams
BMG Rights Management US, LLC
Copyright: Roland Orzabal