Posts Made By: James Brown

David Illig said:

The Apple Macintosh Forum. How can I un-hide it!?

Thanks,

David

Hi David:

1. Click on "Display all Forums" at the top.
2. Uncheck the hidden Mac forum.
3. Click on "Hide Forums" at the top.

Jim

Darian Rachal said:

A thread in the 'Complain' Forum got me thinking about this. It seems I frequently look at where items I purchase are made and am surprised at which items are made in the USA; sometimes it is really some "odd" stuff. I bought something recently(but can not recall what) that was made in the US. It was just a small inexpensive item, but it surprised me somewhat.

This post is just for whoever wishes to participate. If you buy something that you notice is made in the US(regardless of how big or small), just add it to the list. This is just somehing I am curious about.

I did order a wooden bed from LLBean earlier this month that was made in Maine. It is solid wood and very good quality.

Thanks in advance to anyone that wishes to participate.

Hi Darian:

It's tricky sometimes to decide. My favorite telescope and mount are 100% made in the USA in my view, but TEC buys the critical optical glass from Japan and Astro-Physics buys the critical motors from Switzerland. These products would still qualify as "Made in the USA" under anyones view I think.

I would not necessarily consider my TeleVue eyepieces to be "made in the USA" but all of the innovation and hopefully a lot of the profit end up in New York. Where do you draw the line between TEC and TeleVue? I like buying from both of these US companies.

One of my cars was made in Indiana and the other in Ohio, but they are Subaru and Accura vehicles! Are they "Made in USA?" I'm not sure.

A lot of my hobby stuff is marked as Made in the USA. My fly rod and reel for example, but I'm not sure if the component parts were actually fabricated here.

Other than really small craft or specialty items, it seems that everything has some "world economy" aspects to it.

Jim

Eric Margolies said:

Does this actually surprise anyone? Was this ever anything more than a circus sideshow, ego trip, TV ratings grab, all of the above?

http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_theticket/20110516/ts_yblog_theticket/trump-announces-he-will-not-run-for-president

Rick (edited to add news link)

This does not surprise me too much. It does please me a bunch.

Jim

David Cotterell said:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/ezra-klein/post/the-past-present-and-future-of-the-deficit/2011/05/19/AF2GsB7G_blog.html

Of course, there will be those who say the article is biased. But the shown graphs/charts are from three independent sources. But, of course, there will be those who say the graphs' authors are biased.

Dave

David:

Even if the data is not overtly biased, why would you say that 98% is "other factors"? Obama was elected to deal with the economic downturn but apparently has not if 48% of the projected 2012 deficit is laid at the feet of "economic downturn." Also, I'm not sure who thinks that blaming the deficit on "economic downturn" absolves Obama of anything. Don't we all have to play the cards we are dealt? Obama authorized the deficit generating portion of the recovery spending - cited as 16%. Obama did not pull out of the wars, thereby stabbing his base in the back and running up 15%. Obama extended the "Bush" tax cuts (19%).

The bottom line is that a hyper-partisan could easily blame Obama for the whole deficit based upon this graph! That would admittedly be over that top stupid but it is about the same as Klein suggesting that Obama is on the hook for only 2%. Obama and his supporter's meme of "Not my fault!" is getting really pathetic as time passes. If he and his keep beating that drum, he actually could lose in '12.

(Also, I don't think that the costs for Obamacare come home to roost by 2012, I could be wrong about that. I wonder what the pie chart will look like in 2018 if Obama wins?)

Jim

David Cotterell said:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/ezra-klein/post/the-past-present-and-future-of-the-deficit/2011/05/19/AF2GsB7G_blog.html

Of course, there will be those who say the article is biased. But the shown graphs/charts are from three independent sources. But, of course, there will be those who say the graphs' authors are biased.

Dave

p.s.

I was familiar with Klein in a vague sort of way, but I did read about him on Wiki just to refresh memory.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ezra_Klein

I'm not prepared to say that the data in the graph is biased, and my own spin on this data is posted above.

I do however think it is fair to note that it would be a real challenge, possibly an impossible challenge, to find a more completely biased commentator than Ezra Klein.

[SIZE="Small"][COLOR="Blue"]"More to the point, I think that the creation of a media environment that can sustain and propel progressivism is more important than any single elected official. I'd trade a liberal O'Reilly (or Limbaugh!) for 5, 10 congressmen. The media is as effective and important an agent for change as the legislative bodies, and I think it's where I'm happiest and most effective."

Ezra Klein[/COLOR][/SIZE]


Jim

Jim Thommes said:

I had recently posted a visible spectrum image of the cluster M41. Now that WISE IR data is available, I wanted to see the M41 region in 4.6 and 12 micrometer IR. It is somewhat interesting to see the otherwise invisible but IR emitting dust and gas around the cluster. I merged the IR data with the visible light image here:

http://www.jthommes.com/Astro/M41.htm#M41-WISE

I made a blink comparison of the straight visible and the visible / IR blend here:

http://www.jthommes.com/Astro/images/M41_IR_Blink.gif

I'm kind of looking forward to the summertime imaging and combining some of this IR data with the visible data I collect.

That's really cool Jim. Is the IR ring that looks a lot like the ring nebula (most of the way from the center to lower left part of your image) a planetary that is only visible in IR?

Jim

That was a pretty darned enjoyable article Russ. Thanks for posting it.

Jim

Eric Margolies said:

Man, a guy goes out for a few hours of exercise and comes back to this? Yeesh! Already took a shower after tennis and I feel like I need another. Who is this guy? Been a member since 20003, but I don't really remember him... certainly nothing like this. The "my ticket is punched" talk is just the same ol' same ol' that Doug and Robin used to harp on and thankfully seem to have lightened up a bit (at least in volume of posts), but the outright bigotry? Well, there's still plenty of bigotry on the forums, but this makes me think I'm in Taliban country.... or Uganda.. or as Eric pointed out, Laramie.

Not much else to say. It's sad and disappointing.

Rick

Rick, Eric, Chris, Steve, Mike, John, Clyde, Rich, Robert and all the other good souls:

I'm Mr. Continuity you know. I've never been banned and I read most everything posted in these forums. I have never seen a post as outrageous and despicable as Tom's "him-her-it" thing. This is an entirely new level of low. I'm literally shocked and embarrassed for the community.

Herb must have missed it - he deleted all of Doug's posts a few months ago for alleged gay bashing and Doug's post was entirely innocuous compared to this:

http://www.astromart.com/forums/viewpost.asp?forum_post_id=756910&poll_id=&news_id=&page=

I can all but guarantee what happens next. Herb shows up and the innocent get whacked along with Tom the troll. Eric is taking the high road as he should. Let's all ignore Tom's hate filled and terribly un-Christian gender baiting. We all know a bigot when we see one. Nothing good can come out of us reemphasizing the obvious truths about Tom.

I'm not sure I'll be back at a computer tomorrow - I've a very busy day. Hope you all have a great Memorial Day weekend with your loved ones.

Jim

This is Brown's Canyon near Salida Colorado by the way; no relation.

The water is "up" this time of the year...