Month: May 2007

Missionary Talks 26: David Livingstone (part 2)

The second half of the David Livingstone biography was put on line last night. In a few days I will have both parts re-mixed and smashed together into one audio file. Keep checking the Missionary Talks website for further details. I will not be putting it into the podcast feed. You will need to go to the website and download it directly.

I actually was not overly pleased with the way this second half turned out. I am probably going to re-record the whole thing (for the third time) and see if I can fix a few audio issues with it. Boy I wished my Giant-Squid mics had arrived. I spent good money on those mics and now have trouble justifying a re-purchase. My $2.50 mics are OK for most things, but I am disappointed with the way they handled this recording.

Maybe I will buy a new mic with my PayPerPost money first, then I will work on getting me some new shoes. I also have Google ads going on here. We will see if I get enough clicks to buy a really nice mic.

Tux crashed

The car carrying Tux the penguin crashed in turn 1 yesterday at the Indianapolis 500 on lap 37. The driver was injured and taken to the hospital.

It was not a waste of money for Linux. There was significant media coverage of the fact that Tux was featured on a car. This news release from Tux500.com has some good comments in it as well as some details about the media coverage garnered for Linux.

I am sorry that the car crashed and the driver was injured. But it seems to have been a successful event for Tux. Since he was placed 31 out of 33 cars, there was not much thinking that he would win. Just being there was an honor.

Podcast falling off my radar

Yesterday I was listening to a podcast that has health and fitness tips. The hostess was talking about the affects of extra strength acetaminophen (Tylenol) on the liver. She cited an article that said studies showed that 14-20 Extra Strength Tylenol in a 24 hour period has been shown to cause severe liver damage. But, if you have been drinking alcohol severe damage could occur with as few as 4 of these pills.

Her suggested solution? “It is thought that switching to ibuprofen can eliminate that risk.” What? To eliminate the risk of liver damage, this health tips podcasts suggested that “you might be able to lessen your chances of killing yourself by destroying your liver if you will continue to drink alcohol (which is a known liver destroyer) but switch to a different drug interaction possibility.”

I have heard this type of thinking way too often. People don’t want to actually say that drinking is bad for you. They would rather not offend you by telling you that alcohol is destructive, and instead give you alternatives that don’t fix the problem.

I know that this is could be done in an effort to not offend listeners and loose subscribers to her show. In actuality though, she may not even be thinking that way. It could simply be a way for her to justify that drinking is not the problem, but the medicine is the problem. I don’t really know why she would say things like this if she is supposed to be all about health and fitness. With the exception to the health benefits touted for red wine (which you can get from purple grapes) there is nothing good or healthy about alcohol.

Anyway, I am no longer recommending Fitness Attack like I have in the past. I will unsubscribe from her feed and will be writing her an email with my thoughts.

I have one other podcast (done by a medical doctor) that has made similar comments. I have been listening to him closely on this issue as well.

It just boggles my mind that alcohol is such a sacred cow. You would think it was an endangered animal. In reality, it is an all too common monster.

I have always held to this position even though it has gotten me ridiculed on many Internet forums. But my position is strengthened at this time because I have friends whose family is going through emotional turmoil while they watch their father/grandfather slowly die due to alcoholic cirrhosis of the liver. Try telling them that it is OK to drink, just be sure to take ibuprofen instead of acetaminophen.

HotelReservations.com

Here is a site that offers hotel reservations and discounts. You can put in your destination and dates along with how many people will be staying at the hotel, or how many rooms you need. Then the search results give you two different lists. The first list are the hotels that have discounts available through HotelReservations.com for your stay and the second list gives you the hotels in the area who don’t have special rates, but which you might be interested in knowing.

The interface is straightforward and I was able to easily find hotels in my home town. They also give you information on hotels in the surrounding area.

A short list of amenities can be seen at the results page. Some hotels will have Internet access or complimentary meals. It is easy to see what is available from that initial results screen. When you choose a hotel to get further information, you are presented with more photos of the property as well as extended information about the services available. Area attractions are listed as well along with their distance from the hotel. There is a “5 Star” system that the patrons can use rate a hotel based on their experiences.

Their advertised rates are very reasonable. There is a local hotel with which I have negotiated prices before. HotelReservations.com advertises an even greater rate than I was able to secure when booking 25 rooms! They guarantee that you will not find a lower rate. If you do, they will either refund you the difference or cancel your reservations without charge so that you can book at the lower rate.

One of the great features that I enjoyed about the site is their Destination Guide. You can select the area of the world to which you are traveling and then choose the country. Within the country section you will find information about travel requirements, i.e., whether you need shots or need to apply for a visa prior to your trip. There is a ton of valuable information available within the Destination Guide.

You can book car rentals and complete vacation packages at the site as well.

Don’t want to book on-line? They have toll free numbers in the US, Canada, Australia and several European countries.

Make a Hotel Reservation with them the next time you need to book a hotel.

[This is a sponsored post]

Tux is racing in the Indianapolis 500

Tux the penguin is on the nose of an Indianapolis 500 car. Tux the Penguin at IndianapolisTux is the mascot for the computer operating system Linux. As a Linux user, I am very thrilled to see this. Unfortunately it did not come to my attention until this morning. It is too late to promote for donations.

The original goal of the guys at Tux500 was to raise $350,000, enough to fully sponsor a car in the race. Instead, they were able to pull together $18,300 and got a nice prominent spot on the nosecone of the Chastain Motorsports’ No. 77 car.

News.com has some nice photos you can see of the car and logo.

At their website you can also see a nice video that the Tux500 crew put together about the event. I just wished I knew about it sooner so that I could have helped with the promotion. Maybe they will do it again next year.

Here is their news release from yesterday afternoon.

The End of a Campaign, the Beginning of a Movement

Saturday, May 26 2007 @ 10:20 AM MDT
Contributed by: bob
Views: 677

At Noon EDT, the Tux 500 campaign came to an end. The final donation came in, the final piece of merchandise was purchased. We have tallied all of the donations, and what was earned from t-shirts, mugs, bumper stickers, and the like. The final amount raised by the Tux500 project is….

* drumroll *

$18,308.90!

Thank you to everyone in the Linux community that made this happen! Tux is going to look sweet tomorrow on the nosecone of the #77 Chastain Motorsport’s car, as Roberto Moreno guides him (yes, a guided penguin missle!) around the speedway at speeds of 220 mph!

One very interesting thing to note is that over the last few days, on our statistics page, a new distro has been jumping up the charts. Due to the effort of fans of the Linux From Scratch project, it is now the #2 distro in terms of contributions! An additional thanks to you, for the final push over $18000!

Next week, we’ll talk about the project, and where we go from here. Today and tomorrow, we’ll bask in what we all have accomplished… what this community has done is truly historic. And I believe this is only the beginning!

Don’t miss the race tomorrow… it starts at 1pm EDT (UTC-4) and pre-race coverage begins 1 hour before the race in most markets. Enjoy this people… we’ve all earned it!

GO TUX!