It only took an afternoon, and most of the evening, but I now am the proud owner of a dual boot desktop Pentium 4 computer!

I’ve mentioned my HP 864n a few times on the blog, and this past week I did some major hardware upgrades to it, in the process of bringing it back to life. Windows XP died last August, going into a horrible reboot loop, both in regular and safe mode. I used Knoppix Live linux CD to verify the drive was still good, but had no luck in trying several different methods to fix the boot issue.

Fortunately the next day after the system crashed, I won a nifty little door prize here at Central Wyoming College…a brand new Dell Inspiron 6000 laptop…and I’ve been using it since then.

I picked up a new 200 gig hard drive last week, with intentions of using it as an external USB 2.o storage drive, but then thought how I could use it for something else…while improving on things.

So…installed the 200 gig in the 864n, installed the full recover CD set of 9 cds (full recovery of WinXP MCE, as it came out of the box), and a few other tools. Also installed a new Sony DVD-+RW dual layer burner, and another half a gig of RAM at the same time.

System has been running VERY fast all week. A friend from DC surprised me with the original boxed set of SUSE Linux 10.0 this week, and knowing that it was in the mail, I toyed with the idea of DUAL BOOT!

Going from the included manual, it took only 5 hours (mostly software install time, plus downloads of 160 megs of updates automatically by the install procss). A few reboots, and it’s working…Suse linux 10.0 and WinXP MCE on the boot menu…

All hardware works…including the printer and tv card…network system is all hunky dory…and web access is as fast as I want it to be…1000kb download speeds from my wireless internet access via Wyoming.com.

I’ll keep you updated as I begin to play with Suse…and start looking at some linux multimedia tools to learn about.

Yesterday was my birthday…number 46.

Busy day…to the bank, the grocery store, the college bookstore..

Got to work a bit after noon, and got the news and weather done..

Basic stuff…normal day.

Then, starting at 4pm, the excitement built a bit.

Had a special visitor coming to town…not for me, mind you.

Wyoming first lady Nancy Freudenthal was coming to town for her state wide teen anti-drinking initiative….

Just so happens we’ve been doing some video work in this area for the last YEAR. www.yaaaonline.com

Doors opened at 6. We got there at 5. I was part of committee that put together this visit for the Fremont County Coalition of WFLI.

I was in charge of the video presentation hardware, and audio system.

Did I mention that the best steak restaurant in town was catering?

Took just a little time to get the laptop setup with a borrowed computer projector, and ran thru the video’s making sure everything would work as we wanted, when we wanted.

About 5:45, everything was done…so we (me, daughter Laurie, friend Charlie [backup geek], and Bart [Riverton cop and fellow YAAA sponsor] relaxed, and had a seat at our reserved table waiting for our YAAA teens to finish showing up.

Blessings were said at 6, and dinner serving started. REALLY good food..and free for anyone who showed up (about 300 or so folks from around the county).

Then, Wyoming Family Services Coordinator Roger xxxx got up and gave a short introduction speech talking about how prevention was the key to helping teens avoid becoming teen drinking statistics, and later adult drinking statistics.

When he was done, it was our turn…Young Adults Against Addiction. 6 teens, I cop, and one non-traditional college student (me). We were officially announced, and headed up to the stage/podium to do our little presentation.

Bart started first, and gave a very short history of how YAAA came about. (Read the website above). Then tow of the teens, Megan (star of THINK ABOUT IT) and Austin (star of PARTY BOY and TWILIGHT ZONE) each said a few SHORT words…less then 1 minute each. Then it was my turn…

I have spoken in front of a few groups the past couple of years here at college…at most a few dozen folks at a time…and almost always fellow students.

This time it was HUNDREDS.

I spent over an hour today writing several versions a speech, including trimming it and timing it to as close to two minutes as possible. See it below. However, I didn’t even pull the speech out of my pocket…I winged the whole thing..and left out a lot of details.

I think I did OK. Finished my little verbiage, then introduced the videos, and scooted over to start the show. We showed the last five of our 8 finished projects. The audiences laughter at the right places, silence at the right places and applause at the end let us know we did good.

Besides the first lady, attending were the sheriff, chief of police, mayor, most of the city councilman and county commissioners, the native American liaisons to the Arapaho and Eastern Shoshone Nations, the states chief prosecutor, and lots more important folks and regular people just like myself.

The great turnout for something like this means that we ARE making a difference. Locals and state wonks are paying attention. Kids are joining our group more and more, and more people are asking about our projects.

Daughter Laurie shot video of our presentation this evening, and I’ll try to get it digitized and online this weekend for you all to see what we do.

It may not be much…we’re just a little town WAY off the beaten path, a few hours from the nearest interstate. We don’t have any money to put into this project, so the kids, Bart, and I..we do it for free.

But, when someone at the highest office in the state (yes, Governor Dave DOES listen to his wife) takes the time to come to town, and makes a special point to see our work, and then asks to share it with the rest of the state….and THANKS us for doing it…well, I think we’re doing just fine.

If you haven’t yet, take the time to visit the YAAA site above, and watch each of the videos. Share them with YOUR local school district, police department, and any youth groups in your area.

If you have any questions about the videos, future work, or learning how to do this yourself, just ask.

Have a great weekend…(I’m going to enjoy my last full weekend before school OFFICIALLY starts next Tuesday)

Take care,
Rich

ps… here’s that speech I worked so hard on, and didn’t completely cover while winging it. It should make it a little bit more clear about why I spend so much of my time on THIS very unique project.

Now this is something I can REALLY get behind…about damn time, too, it you ask me…

We NEED every adult in every city, town and village to actually take an active part in keeping our nation and families safe.

Rich

Source from National Defense Magazine

January 2006
With an Overstretched Military, U.S. Should Create ‘Home Guard’
By David Abshire and Jonah Czerwinski

The United States holds an enormous stake in Iraq. Although initiated to counter a perceived terrorist threat, the U.S. presence in Iraq has in many ways made near-term gains in the war on terror more difficult and thrown America’s homeland security into question. But a creative solution with roots reaching far back into American history may be the answer.

Today, the presence of coalition troops in Iraq provides terrorists with a virtually constant training ground to develop battleground experience. As when Mujahedeen battled the Soviets in Afghanistan 20 years ago, which spawned Al Qaeda’s evolvement through the 1990s, Iraq today has itself become a “cause for Jihad.”

In fact, Iraq has eclipsed Afghanistan as a terrorist seedbed. A recent CIA report suggests that the urban nature of the war in Iraq affords assailants opportunity to learn how to carry out assassinations, kidnappings, car bombings and other kinds of attacks that were never a staple of the fighting in Afghanistan during anti-Soviet campaigns.

Today, insurgents in Iraq average 90 attacks daily — the highest amount since Saddam Hussein was overthrown.

The length of engagement and nature of daily conflict provide rich propaganda for terrorist recruiters — especially al-Qaeda and its associates — to use in the all-important battle for hearts and minds among the youth of the Middle East, Africa, Asia, and Europe.

The advent of the Internet ignited terrorist communications. The CIA’s National Intelligence Council finds that terrorists are enabled to converse, train, and recruit through the Internet, and their threat will become “an eclectic array of groups, cells and individuals that do not need a stationary headquarters.” According to a study by Gabriel Weimann, a professor at Israel’s University of Haifa, terrorist websites have increased from around a dozen to 4,500 in the last four years.

The July bombings in London further bolster the notoriety of terrorist organizations. British engagement in Iraq was among several reasons cited by those claiming responsibility. This sort of propaganda upends the notion that by fighting terrorists in Iraq, we avoid facing them in the streets of New York, Atlanta or Los Angeles.

The stresses are internal, too. While America’s military in Iraq struggles in this context, it is composed largely by an overstretched National Guard and Reserve Force. Repeat call-ups, extended tours, low recruitment and re-up rates, and poor supply reflect a massive crack in the system. The Army National Guard recruitment for 2005 missed its goal by more than 12,000 and the Army Reserve recruitment was off by more than 5,000. Moreover, troops at home are not fully equipped for homeland security scenarios because the inventories from non-deployed units are being sent overseas.

The original purpose of the Guard has transformed — so should its organization, supply, and support. If the military draft was the Achilles’ heel to the Johnson war effort, the overextension of Reserves and National Guard may become ours today.

A home-front strategy is perhaps the most important aspect in a layered defense, regardless of how Iraq fares. President Bush should convene a group of bipartisan best minds to increase credibility with the public and Congress about the looming crisis in our military. Recognizing that we never anticipated and prepared for the new kind of warfare that came with 9/11, this bipartisan group will review home-front capabilities, mobilization, tactics and strategy. This bipartisan group should collaborate with the Commission on National Guard and Reserves, recently established by Congress.

Without waiting for the commission, however, the president should dramatically reinforce the National Guard.

This is not just a matter of changing policy and practices. The National Guard touches every community in the nation, their small businesses and families. A strengthening of the National Guard and Reserves should include their support groups, families, small businesses, the wounded, and the children and spouses left behind. An emergency grant from Congress matched with a review of existing laws and programs should provide better support structures, such as medical services to those most affected by deployed National Guard units.

The president also needs to make a call for national service. Doing so requires creating a voluntary, well equipped, well organized, congressionally funded and locally based corps. A non-expeditionary “Home Guard” is a strategic solution rooted in American history. Today’s application should be composed of citizens from the community, who wear uniforms, train on weekends, and help prevent the chaos from a natural disaster or a weapon of mass effect. In the case of a terrorist attack or natural disaster, there would be an immediately deployable group of trained citizens from each community under control of the state governors ready to share the burden with the Red Cross, police, FEMA, local fire departments and National Guard.

A Home Guard would help mobilize the nation as we did during the Second World War. In some communities, where a percentage of first responders are in Iraq, such a trained force would help manage the shock following a terrorist attack or major natural disaster. Trained in the elements of security, engineering, civil affairs, and basic medicine, the Home Guard would recruit citizens already possessing these critical skills as well as individuals retiring out of the National Guard, active military and the Reserves. For the shorter term, enlistments in the National Guard could be followed by extended duty in the Home Guard. Citizens would have the opportunity to shift experience while retaining earned rank. Even more efficient would be the use of medically discharged or disabled veterans, who can still offer knowledge, skill and low-intensity service.

The untapped talent in the Civil Air Patrol and Coast Guard Auxiliary could serve as a starting point for building the Home Guard. Along our border, it would become a constructive outlet in place of ad hoc voluntary militia attempting to provide border protection in some states. Leaders drawn from their local communities would be trained in crisis communications and crowd control.

Hurricane Katrina proved the lynchpin role played by the National Guard and Reserve. The poor federal response underlines the need for a Home Guard. The aftermath also gives America some idea of the necessary preparation to react following an attack with a weapon of mass effect. This Home Guard would connect the first responders with the very people they serve. In fact, the Home Guard would become a highly organized group of newly recruited first responders

David Abshire is president of the Center for the Study of the Presidency in Washington, D.C. Jonah J. Czerwinski is senior research associate and director of homeland security projects at the Center for the Study of the Presidency.

Gee…a lot of folks think the USA is gonna nuke Iran…soon.

Really!

Need proof? Here ya go…some scallywag at GlobalResearch.ca claims to Know It All…pictures of nuke clouds and EVERTHING! Scary…

Mr. Scallywag’s real name is Chossudovsky…sounds like a relocated Russian diplomat to me…he even uses big words like Shock and Awe, F117, and Stealth to make his point.

Read for yourself…

Personally, I seriously DOUBT it. I think when it happens, ISRAEL will be floating the balloons…

Rich

The launching of an outright war using nuclear warheads against Iran is now in the final planning stages.

Coalition partners, which include the US, Israel and Turkey are in “an advanced stage of readiness”.

Various military exercises have been conducted, starting in early 2005. In turn, the Iranian Armed Forces have also conducted large scale military maneuvers in the Persian Gulf in December in anticipation of a US sponsored attack.

Since early 2005, there has been intense shuttle diplomacy between Washington, Tel Aviv, Ankara and NATO headquarters in Brussels.

In recent developments, CIA Director Porter Goss on a mission to Ankara, requested Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan “to provide political and logistic support for air strikes against Iranian nuclear and military targets.” Goss reportedly asked ” for special cooperation from Turkish intelligence to help prepare and monitor the operation.” (DDP, 30 December 2005).

read the rest here….

The bird flu/avian flu/flu pandemic uproar that has been climbing the Charts o’Doom is still a fairly significant threat to the citizens of the world. And yes, the threat is real. How to react to that threat is the topic at hand here, and knowing alternatives, possible action, and a good bit of REAL prepping should see most anyone through a realized actuality of AVIAN FLU hitting our shores. Below is one of the better articles on just that subject. Read and learn…

Rich

Source from the Fredericksburg.com

Don’t squawk in panic, use common sense to prepare for bird flu
Preparing for bird flu requires common sense, not panic
Date published: 1/6/2006

THE NOV. 3 ARTICLE in The Free Lance-Star, “Ready, if bird flu strikes,” represented a poor editorial choice. It pandered to the fear element in a complicated story, and brought back memories of Y2K.

The story contributed to the anxiety that many people feel when confronted with infectious diseases without providing any concrete help or hope. Even human interest stories should strive to encourage us to do what’s right, not build on fear and create mistrust between neighbors.

In reality, the “bird flu” that the Noonans are so prepared for is not now and may never become a pandemic. Should a pandemic strain of influenza emerge, it is impossible to predict its severity or the effect it will have on various elements in society.

The most likely disruption everyday citizens might face is disruption in health services. News of a pandemic could drive individuals to seek medical attention for minor illnesses, such as colds, possibly overwhelming private physicians and hospitals also treating the seriously ill. These same health workers will feel responsible for caring for any sick individuals in their own families and will face the possibility of infection with the new strain themselves.

This does not, however, mean that medical care will come to a grinding halt, or that the average citizen should learn how to set up and run a field clinic–only that in times of emergency, common sense and community bonds will be your greatest allies.

Stories encouraging a survivalist approach to a pandemic serve only to make the jobs of those tasked with planning for one more difficult. For instance, physicians in the area are concerned with the number of patients requesting prescriptions for Tamiflu, an antiviral medication believed to be effective against the circulating bird flu strain, for individual stockpiles. This creates serious difficulties for physicians who want to honor their patient’s wishes but also want to do what’s in the best interests of health.

Is a Tamiflu stockpile your best defense against bird flu? Probably not. Stocks of Tamiflu are limited throughout the world, and the best use of the medication initially is to limit the spread of a pandemic strain, hoping that it never reaches U.S. soil. If a strain does reach the U.S., the next best use of Tamiflu is to help those at highest risk of contracting or having serious complications from disease, including health care workers and persons with immune deficiencies.

There are also complications to the use of Tamiflu by private individuals without a doctor’s guidance. Tamiflu has a limited shelf life, so stockpiles could expire before they are ever needed for a pandemic. Tamiflu can be used to both treat and prevent the flu; however, studies of treatment indicate that it reduces the length of illness only by a single day.

Use of Tamiflu to prevent the flu is complicated, since the drug must be used every day, possibly for months, while a flu strain is present in the community. How would you know it was time to start taking Tamiflu? How would you know when to stop? What about proper dosing for everyone in your family?

At nearly $5 per dose, Tamiflu is an expensive and uncertain prevention measure. And if Tamiflu is used incorrectly, the flu virus may develop resistance to its effects, eliminating one weapon in our health arsenal.

The ideal prevention against a pandemic strain of flu is a vaccine. The World Health Organization is leading the effort to develop a vaccine for humans against the bird flu in Asia, in the event that it begins to spread. This vaccine will be available in limited supply, and probably won’t offer the highest protection, but it will buy us time to develop a better version.

One of the criticisms in the article, that the U.S. vaccine industry was crippled by fear of uncapped liability lawsuits, has some truth. The vaccine manufacturing infrastructure in the U.S. could use some work. There is fear in the industry that a new vaccine, administered to millions of patients, could cause harm to some small fraction and lead to large settlements payable by the company. However, the reality of our lack of vaccine capacity is much more complex than a single issue. Change won’t happen without the commitment of citizens to a lengthy improvement process, and without that commitment translating into pressure for companies and government to improve our nation’s vaccine manufacturing capabilities.

In order to prepare in the community, leaders in healthcare, public health, emergency response, and local government need to come together to seriously address the issue of pandemic preparedness. Clear plans outlining the duties and responsibilities of local agencies, how to coordinate with state and federal officials, and how to provide medical care to large numbers of patients in a short period of time are necessary. Resources need to be devoted to developing influenza surveillance systems, designed to detect a surge in cases of illness with influenzalike symptoms and respond early to delay the spread of disease.

Public education messages need to be widely distributed in such a way that people will see, hear, and respond to them. Knowledge will be our best defense against panic and fear. When we understand why difficult things are being asked of us, such as restricting travel plans, not visiting sick relatives, or quarantining ourselves at home after exposure to an illness, we are much more likely to cooperate.

One of the best defenses we will have against any infectious disease is cultivating our sense of community. When we care for our neighbor as much as ourselves, we will respect that minor illnesses do not require a trip to the emergency room, though they do require that we stay home and not spread it to others.

We will practice good hygiene, understanding the value it has for saving our neighbors from potentially life-threatening illnesses. We will trust physicians and public health officials to determine where medications are most needed and by whom. We will be prepared with a reasonable supply of food, water, and batteries, and we will be ready to share it in the event of a pandemic, or even a snowstorm, with our less fortunate neighbors.

ELIZABETH LOWERY is the epidemiologist for the Rappahannock Area Health District.

Date published: 1/6/2006