Bloodstar

I admit it. I am a complete junkie for the snowboard half-pipe during the Olympics.  Tonight I watched as Shaun White claimed his second gold medal is as many Olympics. Holding my breath I saw the entire run and didn’t exhale until it was over. The run was not even necessary as his lead at the time was insurmountable at 46.8. This run put him over his own impressive score clocking in at 48.4 out of a possible 50.

The Double McTwist was the feature that I think put him over the top when he made his second run. The Double McTwist, which I had never seen before was more than impressive with the amount of air and number of twists and turns in the air. Overall it was a work of artistry.

It was bold, high and technical. I couldn’t have asked for more.

Tags: Olympics, Sports, sabradell by Sabradell
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Just a few thoughts….

Face it, we are considered a Christian nation and football is one of the national sports. Combine the two in a public school and we have controversy.

In a move by the school board of Catoosa County, bible verses have been banned on the banners of the football team as made by the cheerleaders as being unconstitutional, violating the prohibition of church and state.

As this is a public school, therefore secular, the use of bible verses is wrong. This is not a gray area of being in a secular school. We are a melting pot of all religions, creeds and races and none should be excluded, or feel excluded by being accosted by religious paraphernalia at tax payers schools. I do not wish to be confronted with which I do not believe in at any public function that is not exclusively for Christians. By displaying the signs the cheerleaders of Fort Oglethorpe High School were excluding people of different faiths.

This is not a quash on religion as practiced by the students of the school, as they are permitted to bring their own signs into the stands, it is by the cheerleaders placing the signs on the field that they are introducing religion as part of the schools fabric. Nothing can stop the students individually or in groups from bringing their faith with them but when it is imposed upon all the line between personal and public freedoms come into play and those shall not be infringed upon.

Let students bring what they will into the stands, but do not expect me to accept your religion when you bring it onto the field.

Tags: Football, Political, rant, sabradell by Sabradell
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According to the New Scientist, Mars Rovers may have been ‘toasting’ the identifying chemicals that would be tell-tale signs of life on the red planet.

“NASA’s Phoenix lander, which also failed to detect organics on Mars, stumbled on something in the Martian soil that may have, in effect, been hiding the organics: a class of chemicals called perchlorates.”

With that in mind how many possible life form samples could have been eradicated from the lack of foresight on the part of NASA and other agencies about the burning of soil samples for chemical analysis.

“The Phoenix and Viking landers looked for organic molecules by heating soil samples to similarly high temperatures to evaporate them and analyse them in gas form. When Douglas Ming of NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas, and colleagues tried heating organics and perchlorates like this on Earth, the resulting combustion left no trace of organics behind”

Very interesting but I half expect faux pas from NASA when it comes to the Mars missions after seeing that they cannot seem to convert metric to U.S. units of measure.

Tags: Science, sabradell by Sabradell
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We all know that the economy is bad, losing almost 3.5 million jobs in the past year and many of those coming from the last quarter. We hear about the companies in trouble and how they are going to slash jobs for the sake of keeping the doors open.

What about those people that are let go for the sake of keeping the doors open? What do they do? For many the collect their unemployment as they search in vain for another job only to find that there is little to nothing they can do in finding more employment. So, they have to sit and wait and hope for something to come along or that their former employer will call them back with some miracle of economics.

People are doing what they can when they can. The disabled are looking for part time work to aid with the bills that continue to grow, knowing that they put themselves in jeopardy for attempting to try. Even then it is strange that they cannot find an employer willing to take them on for such a reduced rate of pay. Others leave for greener pastures wanting to support their families and themselves with going to places that just may have another job for them.

While the little people are doing this, bank CEO’s have to be capped to a half million dollars salary if their company received a bailout and they scream like they will live like paupers with the cut.

“That is pretty draconian — $500,000 is not a lot of money, particularly if there is no bonus,” said James F. Reda, founder and managing director of James F. Reda & Associates, a compensation consulting firm. “And you know these companies that are in trouble are not going to pay much of an annual dividend.” (http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/04/business/04pay.html?_r=1&hp)

It is not a matter of living like a pauper on a mere half million dollar salary that bothers the companies the most it is the matter of recruiting other executives that are looking for the golden parachute should they fail in making more of a farce the companies have already done. We have spent $700 billion, with a B, dollars in bailing out financial institutions only to see the credit market stagnant and the over compensation of executives that feel entitled by their title to extravagance.

Yet, the little man has no choice but to sing for his supper.

Tags: rant, sabradell by Sabradell
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Pete Sessions (R-TX) has just about lost his mind with the Democratic controlled legislature in calling for an understanding of insurgency. In an hour long interview he stated:

“And that is that they went about systematically understanding how to disrupt and change a person’s entire processes. And these Taliban — I’m not trying to say the Republican Party is the Taliban. No, that’s not what we’re saying. I’m saying an example of how you go about [sic] is to change a person from their messaging to their operations to their frontline message. And we need to understand that insurgency may be required when the other side, the House leadership, does not follow the same commands, which we entered the game with.”

Now, don’t get me wrong but did we not go into Afghanistan to 1) fight Al-Queda and 2) to take the Taliban out of power because of their horrendous restrictions they placed upon their own people. I can take the whining of Rep. Sessions with a grain of salt as they are dealing with a brand new President that is not of the Republican Party and losing the majority to the Democratic Party. But to insinuate that they need to take on the role of insurgents is disgusting.

“I simply said one can see that there’s a model out there for insurgency,” Sessions said before being interrupted by an aide.

This aide went on to say that the statement is that the now minority party can change its ways to develop a strategy for the upcoming 2010 elections.

Instead of looking to insurgency as a way to change the face of government why don’t Sessions take a good look at what has worked before and use those same tactics instead of bringing up a bad vibe from the use of strong-arm tactics?

Tags: Political, sabradell by Sabradell
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In Virginia some parents are upset over the changes in the schools that demand that an “A” be at least a 94%. Most schools count the “A” as being an achievement over 90%. But with the Fairfax County School System they wanted to raise the bar on students so that the standard for an “A” was higher.

This places many students at risk for losing good driver discounts, merit scholarships and other programs that depend on GPA standards. Colleges now are starting to place less emphasis on SAT scores in lieu of better GPA’s. So, in this one community students would face harsher standards than other school districts.

One can only wonder if this new grading scale will become more widespread over the course of colleges and universities where GPA is the end all for scholarships or getting into Masters Degree Programs.

As a student, one worries about past accomplishments being dumped in favor of the new system and seeing their GPA stagger from a 4.0 to something lower with a half point increase for the illustrious “A”.

Tags: Misc, sabradell by Sabradell
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The Child Online Protection Act (COPA) that started in 1998 can now rest in peace. On January 21, 2009 the Supreme Court refused to hear the government’s appeal of the Act that would have punished website operators and publishers of sexually explicit material for not asking for authentication of age through a credit card or other electronic means.

This ends the legacy of the Communications Decency Act (CDA) that was struck down by the courts as well for being unconstitutional. COPA was its child and suffers the same fate.

What does this mean?

The CDA and COPA were blatant acts to restrict free speech online through the ideals that children must be protected at all times from the perverts that produce pornography. But taking this into account the slide could have went further into political speech, stifling the free flow of ideals between political adversaries in favor of the party that was in power at the time.

It is through the efforts of the people that have risen up against CDA and COPA that the Supreme Court did not bow to the government’s intrusion onto our computers. The Supreme Court recognized that free speech is also distasteful to some but not all and the majority must bow to the minorities rights.

Tags: Political, sabradell by Sabradell
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