Hillbilly Goblets

Hillbilly goblets--pint Mason jars on stems. Goblets come with lids so you never have to recork the "wine." And it looks like it has chalkboard paint on the top of the lids, so you can write your name or your sister/cousin's name.

Magpul T-Shirts

I really like the new Magpul t-shirt. I greatly prefer a subtle logo that requires you be in the know instead of something that is screaming my politics and hobbies. Although I go like my Galt/Taggart 2012 shirt. I guess that is still a bit of an inside joke to most.

No Guarantee

The Dwindling Power of a College Degree - it was never a guarantee. The last line strikes me as something we should always do: prepare for the worst and hope for the best.

"The increasingly vicious battle between left and right is, at the most basic level, a dispute over how to respond to these new rules. Republicans largely claim that the new rules will make the country richer and, in the long run, will be beneficial to everyone willing to put in the hard work. Few Democrats call for a return to record high taxes and trade barriers — after all, the free flow of cheap goods has helped many, particularly the poor. But many do want a return to the spirit of the old rules, when the government sought to make life more equal, more stable and, for some, less rewarding. The rest of us, meanwhile, should go to school, learn some skills and prepare for a rocky road."

And I'm not sure that I think it is a problem that the best nurse, plumber, or truck driver make a lot more money than the worst nurse, plumber, or truck driver.

Via:

andrewchen The Dwindling Power of a College Degree - NYTimes.com nyti.ms/vNsgnFWed, Nov 30 15:49:07 from Timely by Demandforce

FG-01 Antenna Analyzer

I like to see TEN-TEC getting into different stuff. A little diversity may be important to their long term existence in the ham radio business.

"TEN-TEC is proud to announce that we are the exclusive distributor in the US for YouKits brand products.

The first product we are introducing from YouKits is the FG-01 a 1 to 60 MHZ Antenna Analyzer. This is not a kit but a fully assembled unit ready for use. The FG-01 utilizes the latest in SMT technology to provide a compact unit with lots of value."

And when did TEN-TEC do a makeover on their website? It looks good. I've mentioned that I like sellers that have an RSS feed, so I am glad to see that TEN-TEC has one.

Tea Party vs. Occupy Wall Street

Video: The competing worldviews of the Tea Party and OWS:

"When it comes to The Tea Party and OWS, though, the more the surface differences become obvious, the more the transparent truth of what underlies those differences becomes obscured. It becomes easy to focus on the way the groups look and act differently — and harder to remember the way the groups think differently."

I don't have a problem making the distinction.

Via ExUrbanLeague

Bye Bye Game Consoles

First, they came for our dead tree books and I did nothing. Now they are coming for our gaming consoles.

That's okay. I only use my Wii to stream NetFlix. Oh wait, we canceled NetFlix. (Not really because of the pricing change, but rather we just watch so little TV now.)

In God We Trust, All Others We Nuke

Lingo has some MHI Fan Fiction - plenty of local flavoring.

Advanced Persistent Threat (APT)

Bruce Schneier on the Advanced Persistent Threat (APT) concept in his Crypto-Gram Newsletter:

"It highlights an important characteristic of a particular sort of Internet attacker.

A conventional hacker or criminal isn't interested in any particular target. He wants a thousand credit card numbers for fraud, or to break into an account and turn it into a zombie, or whatever. Security against this sort of attacker is relative; as long as you're more secure than almost everyone else, the attackers will go after other people, not you. An APT is different; it's an attacker who -- for whatever reason -- wants to attack you. Against this sort of attacker, the absolute level of your security is what's important. It doesn't matter how secure you are compared to your peers; all that matters is whether you're secure enough to keep him out.

APT attackers are more highly motivated. They're likely to be better skilled, better funded, and more patient. They're likely to try several different avenues of attack. And they're much more likely to succeed."  

How the World Works: Occupy Wallstreet

Soldier, Farmer, Poet

kasthomas "I was a soldier so that my son could be a farmer, so that his son could be a poet" -- Thomas Jefferson.Wed, Nov 23 18:17:40 from web retweeted by msuster

But be careful that the soldier, farmer, poet doesn't become:

"A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largesse from the public treasury. From that moment on the majority always votes for the candidate promising the most from the public treasury with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy, always followed by dictatorship.

The average age of the world's greatest civilizations has been 200 years. These nations have progressed through the following sequence

From bondage to spiritual faith

From spiritual faith to great courage

From courage to liberty

From liberty to abundance

From abundance to selfishness

From selfishness to complacency

From complacency to apathy

From apathy to dependency

From dependency back again into bondage"

Via The Smallest Minority