Lauren Boebert @laurenboebert
·
Joe Biden will be flying out to California next week to meet with Xi Jinping.

Even Joe gets an annual performance review from his boss.
9:43 AM · Nov 10, 2023

Why MuseScore?

• Professional music notation software
• Completely free, no limitations
• Easy to use, yet powerful
• Open source
• Input via MIDI keyboard
• Transfer to and from other programs via MusicXML, MIDI and more

USB 20x4 LCD PC modding - black cover (black characters yellow backlight)

My server uses a internal lcd screen i had ordered some time ago from here: http://www.lcdmodkit.com/lcd.html ~ $40USD //

Here is what i have used on the page Services > LCDproc
LCDproc
Driver: hd44780
Port: 13666
Wait Time: 12
Title Speed: 5
Driver Parameter:
#USB connected HD44780 based LCD
ConnectionType=lcd2usb
Contrast=900
Brightness=5
OffBrightness=5
Keypad=yes
Backlight=yes
Size=20x4
#KeyDirect_1=Enter
#KeyDirect_2=Down
#KeyDirect_3=Escape
KeepAliveDisplay=1
ReportLevel = 5

Lcdmod Kit is a HongKong based on-line retailer of PC cases, HTPC cases, PC modding parts, USB LCD, LCD modules, electronics components, SMT chip components, kit, module and accessories. We provide economic prices and low shipping charges to the world. ///

USB LCD display works with XigmaNAS

Press Broadcast Center, USS Lake Champlain
Paul D. Ortlip
Flight Deck, USS Lake Champlain
Paul D. Ortlip
Communications, Apollo 17 Recovery
Paul D. Ortlip
With Sarah Reciever
Paul D. Ortlip
Space Craft in Hanger Bay
Paul D. Ortlip
Surface Lookout
Paul D. Ortlip

Space Exploration
1957 - Present

Lt Jon Smart UDT 11 Recovery Team
Paul D. Ortlip
Lt Tim Keeney UDT 11 Recovery Team
Paul D. Ortlip
Ltjg David Walker UDT Swim Team
Paul D. Ortlip
Navy Band Rehearsing Aboard USS Hornet
Paul D. Ortlip
Night Repairs in Hangar Deck
Paul D. Ortlip
Physical Training Aboard USS Hornet
Paul D. Ortlip

etba_ss
10 hours ago
I do not understand all the pearl clutching over hateful speech, "misinformation", etc. The solution to bad speech is more speech, not less. Regulating, stifling and controlling speech is always a bad idea. Expose the bad ideas and expose the lies.

If you try to ban them, whoever has the power to ban them gets to be the one who tells you what is true and what is not. I don't trust anyone or any organization to do that. Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.

Yes the result of free speech will be people saying really bad, nasty things and lying. That has always been true and is the price paid for liberty. If something is really egregious and violates actual laws, there are methods that can be employed to track and trace the origin. Platforms can suspend accounts, etc. There are some controls already in place and frankly, many of us have been arguing the controls are already too restrictive with social media companies censoring what they don't want to be heard and viewpoints they don't like. If anonymity is removed, this will only get worse, not better. Do we want the government controlling the algorithms? Is that better than big tech doing it? I don't like either, but the government has a lot more power over my life than big tech.

Weminuche45 etba_ss
9 hours ago edited
Theae people control the populace and overthrow foreign governments by way of speech, so they are acutely aware of its power. Not surprisingly, they assume other are trying to do the same thing they do, so they want to make sure they are they only ones who can win at that game.

They do it for your own good and they know what's best for everyone else.

etba_ss Weminuche45
7 hours ago
I was making this argument earlier in a discussion about just how bad her instinct is. The government controlling speech, which is what her proposal does, is just as bad as the government controlling who has and doesn't have firearms. In order to keep a government in check or correct a tyrannical one you have to have the ability to organize in secret, speak out anonymously and have weapons to fight back. Free speech and the right to bear arms are equally important in keeping the government of the people, by the people and for the people.

Speech without guns makes you of little threat because you can be killed and beaten down. Guns without speech prevents your ability to join with like minded individuals, thus also making you of little threat more than a nuisance.

Having the government know who every social media account belongs to is the equivalent of having the government register every firearm in this country. We've argued for years how bad that it because it allows the government to take them one day. The same is true for speech. If they know who everyone is, silencing them becomes much easier. //

anon-csn0
10 hours ago edited
Big Mommy government is likely worse than Big Daddy government.

etba_ss anon-csn0
7 hours ago
Steve Deace often says the only thing worse than the patriarchy is a matriarchy.

Tyranny is tyranny, but it is also a scientific fact that on the average women think and react more emotionally and relationally and men think and act more rationally and instinctively. Therefore, there is a lot of truth to that statement.

Nikki Haley made a huge unforced error Tuesday in the 2024 Republican presidential primary when she said that one of the first things she'd do as President of the United States is require that social media companies ban anonymous accounts and that they verify all of their users by name. Haley was roundly criticized over this likely unconstitutional plan, which is so tone-deaf that one could easily believe that she just spoke without thinking and would surely issue a statement walking it back a bit.

Nope. Apparently this is a plan she'd been thinking about and developing talking points about for awhile, because in addition to her initial comments on Fox News Channel, Haley said basically the same thing on the Ruthless podcast - only worse. //

Any time there's an attempted paradigm shift in the public discourse, those leading the way are generally vilified by those who benefit from the current system. It's not easy and can be personally and professionally dangerous to express views that aren't politically correct, or to expose corruption or malfeasance. That's why three of our founding fathers wrote the Federalist Papers under the pen name "Publius." It's why Benjamin Franklin wrote letters to the editor under the name "Silence Dogood." During the Constitutional debates, dozens of people on both sides of the issue (Federalists and Anti-Federalists) used pen names to publish tracts aimed at persuading the public. Sure, it's easier these days for foreign governments to employ this type of information warfare, but it's ignorant to think it didn't happen before. We know that foreign saboteurs have plied their trade here for centuries, and we've done the same.

That Haley either doesn't know all of this, or that she pushes for such government overreach despite that knowledge, is, in my opinion, disqualifying in a Republican candidate for President of the United States.

You'll note, of course, the extremely awkward phrasing there, especially when it comes to "targeting Arab-speakers." That's pure Hamas propaganda playing up the "genocide" angle that's so popular in the West right now. There is no evidence that the Israel Defense Force is doing that. In fact, the IDF itself said they were going to specifically target Hamas operatives to try and avoid civilian casualties.

The network had to offer a retraction and an apology because it's extremely clear there were no editors on duty or, just as likely (if not more likely), the editors on duty also think Israel is both evil enough to do such a thing and dumb enough to announce it. //

The problem for the BBC, as the tweet above explains, is that this is all too common for the news outlet these days. //

Yuval Weinreb 于威
@yuval_weinreb
·
Follow
A common practice by now:

The BBC spreads fake news, causes riots - and then apologizes for the false reporting after the damage is done, when it's too late.

Somehow, miraculously - these errors are always supporting the same side...

Chris Rose @ArchRose90
·
A satire show in Israel deservedly mocks the BBC again and the disingenuous calls for ceasefire. Wait until the end, it’s worth it. 😂
3:23 / 3:23
4:29 PM · Nov 14, 2023

This score is based on
Behold Our God
by Sovereign Grace Music

Visegrád 24
@visegrad24
·
Follow
Al-Jazeera interviews a wounded elderly man at a Gaza hospital about how he got hurt

His answer?

“Why is Hamas hiding among us civilians? Why don’t they go to hell & hide there instead?"

The reporters ends the interview.

Via @YaariCohen
0:06 / 0:06
4:31 AM · Nov 15, 2023

MAN: And as for the resistance, they come and hide among the people. Why are they hiding among the people? They can go to hell and hide there.

The moment the man disparages Hamas the "reporter" turns to walk away, abruptly ending the interview. Whether that's because Al Jazeera is hopelessly a biased network or because there is legitimate fear in reporting anything negative about Hamas while on the ground in Gaza doesn't really matter. The point is that the man is right.

It was much different than a pro-Hamas rally, as New York Sun publisher Dovid Efune noted:

1. Nobody was assaulted.

2. There were many American flags.

3. There was no racism or bigotry.

4. Nobody was hiding behind a face mask.

5. Concern was expressed for innocents on the other side.

6. It was bipartisan.

7. It was much, much larger! //

rally organizers had three goals:

The biggest pro-Israel rally since the October 7 terrorist attack by Hamas is expected to take place Tuesday on the National Mall in Washington, DC. Organized by the Jewish Federations of North America and the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, the rally has three main goals:

MARCH for Israel

MARCH to Free Hostages

MARCH Against Antisemitism //

President Isaac Herzog of Israel spoke to the cheering crowd by video feed from the Western Wall in Jerusalem, telling them, “There is no greater and more just cause than this... Today we come together as a family, one big mishpachah, to march for Israel.”

Other politicians joined as well, including House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) and Sen. Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY). //

Andrew Solender @AndrewSolender
·
Source passes along this photo of Sen. John Fetterman at the March for Israel with an Israeli flag draped around him:
2:55 PM · Nov 14, 2023 //

houdini1984
13 hours ago
mishpachah

Extended family, which captures the feelings of most Christians when we think about our Jewish brethren. Well-chosen words by Herzog.

Sadly, this is the thing that most of this nation's antisemites don't grasp. They look at Israel with their Marxist eyes and see an oppressor. They see a few million Jews surrounded by 400 million Arabs and actually believe that the tiny nation of survivors is the literal heir to the Third Reich. We look at tiny Israel and see the people who gave us our Christ. We see the people who God chose thousands of years ago, and has promised to redeem in His good time. We see plucky little survivors who've overcome the worst evils time and time again.

Our extended family indeed. God bless Israel, and God bless the United States of America. Lord knows we both need it.

Ali has come to the realization there can be no liberalism apart from the Christian faith from which it emerged. She’s right. //

Over the weekend, Ayaan Hirsi Ali revealed in an essay at Unherd that she has become a Christian. For Christians, this is welcome and joyous news. But it’s also instructive. A former Muslim who very publicly rejected Islam and became an avowed atheist in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks, Ali has been speaking and writing in defense of Western civilization and liberal values for decades.

Now she has come to the conclusion that there is no way to maintain Western civilization and no way to preserve its liberal values apart from Christianity. Just as she came to discover the fundamentalist Islam of her youth was a dead end, she has also discovered the atheism she adopted in response to it is also a dead end. //

She’s also right about that but wrong to think Christianity is primarily about countering those forces or preserving a particular civilizational or political project. As great as Western civilization is, it arose as a byproduct of the Christian faith, the sole object of which is communion with Almighty God by means of salvation through Jesus Christ. Things like freedom of speech, rule of law, and human rights are fruits of the Christian faith, but they are not what Christianity is about. '//

There was a lot of discussion after 9/11 about how Islam needed its own Reformation to tame and secularize it, as Christianity had supposedly been tamed and pacified by the Protestant Reformation (never mind the century of continental war that it triggered). What the atheists promised Ali and other disillusioned Muslims was rationalism, freedom of inquiry and expression, and scientific objectivity — all of which would flourish in Muslim societies just as it had in the West, if only Muslims would set aside their backward religion and embrace the secular humanism of Western elites.

According to this theory, Christianity itself had served its purpose in the West, bestowed all its gifts, and could safely be discarded. We could live forever, drawing on its capital, which we assumed would never run out. The Islamic world needed to do likewise, and all would be well.

But something very different happened instead. It turns out, the capital was gradually spent and never replenished. Liberalism always depended for its vitality on something it cannot itself supply: the Christian faith, active and alive among the people. As the French philosopher Rémi Brague wrote back in the 1990s, “Faith produces its effects only so long as it remains faith and not calculation. We owe European civilization to people who believed in Christ, not to people who believed in Christianity.”

Ali’s conversion, which is laudable on its own (even if she doesn’t quite yet grasp the true object of her new faith), is a stark reminder that the liberal, secular West cannot survive without the Christian faith from which it emerged. Indeed, the secular elites who once promised apostate Muslims like Ali that they could have all the benefits of Christianity without Christianity itself are now abandoning the principles they once espoused.

In recent weeks, we have seen this abandonment most potently in the Red-Green alliance between the global left and the pro-Hamas crowd, who have been marching through the streets of Western cities in a show of force reminiscent of the Black Lives Matter riots of 2020. The naked antisemitism of the Hamas people, together with the deafening silence of the elites of the global left, tells you everything you need to know about the durability of secular humanism.

There is no room anymore for freedom of speech, open inquiry, or rational debate among the people and institutions that once espoused these ideals. There is only the brute force of the mob. It’s easy to see this at work throughout Western society, not just on the Israel-Hamas issue.

Instead of carefully crafting a framework that identifies bad actors, describes their discriminatory actions, and outlines solutions to them, the FCC just assumes everyone is guilty. The regulators will treat any entity that tries to build up the next generation of internet access as purveyors of systemic injustice. The agency’s order does not give tangible examples of violations but operates under the premise that it should punish all broadband internet companies.

The regime applies to every company in the broadband internet space. It even applies to the small business contractors who build and maintain the infrastructure. These operators and technicians simply build where governments have permitted them to construct cell towers or lay fiber. But if the FCC deems that their work promotes discrimination, then bureaucrats will investigate and punish the workers on the frontlines.

This bureaucracy will hamstring the entire internet ecosystem. The rules will hinder industry leaders from developing and deploying new technologies that could transform internet access. Companies might fear that the FCC will interpret their best efforts as discrimination if all communities do not have an “equitable” opportunity to adopt the innovations. //

For example, in Pennsylvania, the population of Amish residents in Lancaster County is more than 39,000. As we learned from last month’s emergency alert test, there are quite a few Amish individuals who enjoy digital connectivity. If the FCC does not think enough Amish people subscribe to cell phone plans or use Wi-Fi in their barns, then the agency has granted itself the authority to investigate the supposed shortcoming as a violation of the digital discrimination order. Think of the absurdity: The FCC could actually punish a provider for not selling cellphones to enough Amish people. With this new regime, it is clear there are no limits to what the FCC will consider a breach. //

Instead of an arbitrary and undefined regime, the FCC would better serve the nation by establishing a framework that encourages cities and municipalities to promote the deployment of next-generation internet access. Too many communities, such as New York City, are dragging their feet. Others, like San Jose, are delaying deployment by charging internet providers exorbitant fees to build out these transformative networks.

It is clear the FCC’s rules are not concerned with improving internet access and upward mobility. Instead, they’re intended to dramatically expand the federal government’s power. There are real challenges to closing the digital divide, but the new order will not help that effort.

Now is the time to empower creators and innovators who are bringing new ideas to life. The FCC should work to promote new opportunities and technologies that will enable upward mobility rather than create a regime that punishes entrepreneurs who dare to take chances.

Helsinki prosecutor Anu Mantila argued Finnish courts should ban from the internet the booklet, Rasanen’s tweet, and an audio recording of Rasanen defending Christian views. Mantila also seeks punitive fines. “Male and Female He Created Them” was published in 2004, several years before Finland adopted the antiterrorism laws now being used to prosecute the two Christians for “hate speech.”

“With the right police and prosecutor, we could expect to see similar cases crop up across Europe and in fact around the world,” noted Alliance Defending Freedom International lawyer Paul Coleman, who is assisting the Christians’ legal defense. Hate crimes laws like Finland’s are on the books in many European nations and American states and cities.

Rasanen said the most difficult part of her prosecution has been the prosecutor’s false accusations against her, including that Rasanen considers homosexuals inferior. She said that is “against my conviction” as a Christian. Christianity teaches that every human is made in God’s image and so beloved by God that He sacrificed His own Son to wash away every sin ever committed.

“We represent the common traditional classical understanding of family and sexual ethics, and now this has been labeled widely in our society and also in the established Lutheran church as something which is … not only offending and extremist but it’s also criminal,” Pohjola said.

Pohjola is the bishop of a small non-state church body that adheres to the Bible’s teachings, which Finland’s state church has in large part abandoned. The Federalist interviewed Pohjola in person in 2021, and Rasanen in person in 2022.

Since the analemma is considered one of the most difficult and demanding astronomical phenomena to image, I immediately set out on such a marathon during the summer of 2001 by pursuing a complete set of analemmas from 08:00:00 to 17:00:00 UT+2 (hourly intervals) as well as the special case of the perfectly vertical analemma on the meridian (12:28:16 UT+2). For complete details and analysis concerning the analemma on the southern meridian, the interested reader is referred to my article in Coelum Astronomia (Vol 60: 71-74, Feb/2003). The project's successful completion provided various firsts including the first analemma ever imaged in Greece; the first image ever of the perfectly vertical analemma; the first analemma(s) ever imaged during a single calendar year; the first to ever image more than one analemma; and the first to ever capture two analemmas on a single piece of 35mm film.

If you took a picture of the Sun at the same time each day, would it remain in the same position? The answer is no, and the shape traced out by the Sun over the course of a year is called an analemma. The Sun's apparent shift is caused by the Earth's motion around the Sun when combined with the tilt of the Earth's rotation axis. The Sun will appear at its highest point of the analemma during summer and at its lowest during winter. Today, the Winter Solstice day in Earth's northern hemisphere, the Sun is at the bottom of the analemma. Analemmas created from different latitudes would appear at least slightly different, as well as analemmas created at a different time each day. This particular analemma was built up by 46 separate Sun photographs taken during 2003 in Athens, Greece. Pictured in the foreground of this composite image are pillars called the Porch of Maidens, part of the ancient Erechtheum which was completed in 407 BC.