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	<title>Nerdwatch! &#187; serious things</title>
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	<link>http://www.nerdwatch.com</link>
	<description>A place for my things...　私の物のための場所</description>
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		<title>Do Americans want to build the future anymore?</title>
		<link>http://www.nerdwatch.com/2012/01/do-americans-want-to-build-the-future-anymore/</link>
		<comments>http://www.nerdwatch.com/2012/01/do-americans-want-to-build-the-future-anymore/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 27 Jan 2012 02:41:59 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Captain Nerd</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[serious things]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[tech things!]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.nerdwatch.com/?p=334</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[(Saturn 5 liftoff courtesy NASA)
I&#8217;ve read some excerpts and discussions of Newt Gingrich&#8217;s speech about settling the Moon and allowing the colony(s) to become States of the United States.  He&#8217;s gotten a lot of flack from all sides on that, a disturbing amount coming from the conservative blogosphere.  It&#8217;s like so many Americans don&#8217;t want to think about a future that might involve doing something we haven&#8217;t done before, because &#8220;it&#8217;s too crazy&#8221; or &#8220;too dangerous&#8221; or &#8220;too expensive.&#8221;
After reading a lot of &#8220;conservative&#8221; commentary on many blogs, it&#8217;s just depressing to hear coming from them the same Leftist phrases I heard in the 70&#8242;s dismissing the space program, mainly &#8220;it&#8217;s too costly in money and lives&#8221; to go into space, &#8220;we need to solve the problems here on Earth, first.&#8221; We used to dream big, and we used to &#8220;do big,&#8221; often just to spite the naysayers ...]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Gee, I don&#8217;t know why the Post Office is in trouble&#8230;</title>
		<link>http://www.nerdwatch.com/2012/01/gee-i-dont-know-why-the-post-office-is-in-trouble/</link>
		<comments>http://www.nerdwatch.com/2012/01/gee-i-dont-know-why-the-post-office-is-in-trouble/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 04 Jan 2012 13:45:54 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Captain Nerd</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[dumb things!]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[serious things]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.nerdwatch.com/?p=317</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[So, the US Post Office now has a time machine? Sheesh.

]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://www.nerdwatch.com/2012/01/gee-i-dont-know-why-the-post-office-is-in-trouble/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Be prepared to kiss your Internet goodbye&#8230;</title>
		<link>http://www.nerdwatch.com/2011/11/be-prepared-to-kiss-your-internet-goodbye/</link>
		<comments>http://www.nerdwatch.com/2011/11/be-prepared-to-kiss-your-internet-goodbye/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 17 Nov 2011 07:51:36 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Captain Nerd</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[serious things]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[tech things!]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.nerdwatch.com/?p=285</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Our Government is about to take away most of our rights on the Internet, all in the name of preserving the profits of the movie and music industry, two groups that have already made copyright a permanent thing, even though it spits on the memory of the Founders.  The idea of making some money off of a creation is okay, but the Founders understood that society and the US in particular would benefit if that time was limited.
But after Disney and other companies became powerful (by using creations that were freely available) they were able to &#8220;persuade&#8221; (buy off) the Government into making copyright permanent, so that creations never become free to use by the next generation of Disneys. Regular people will lose their rights, all in order to protect another year&#8217;s worth of profit, even though the companies have had 80+ years to make their money.
The Internet has ...]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://www.nerdwatch.com/2011/11/be-prepared-to-kiss-your-internet-goodbye/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>2</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>A mini-rant about my profession&#8230;</title>
		<link>http://www.nerdwatch.com/2011/10/a-mini-rant-about-my-profession/</link>
		<comments>http://www.nerdwatch.com/2011/10/a-mini-rant-about-my-profession/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 28 Oct 2011 01:40:42 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Captain Nerd</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[serious things]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[tech things!]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.nerdwatch.com/2011/10/a-mini-rant-about-my-profession/</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[I&#8217;ve just spent the last two days fighting a software problem at work, one that has kept me from making any progress on the task I was assigned.  It wasn&#8217;t a problem with the program thatI was assigned to fix, it was a problem with the tools I was trying to use to find the problem in the program in the first place.  The fact that the tools are also software, and the fact that the tools also have bugs has been causing far too much stress, mainly because it was so ultimately wasteful of time (and of my limited sanity!).  As I drove home last night, after 10 utterly fruitless hours spent trying variation after variation of settings and configurations and watching them all fail to make any difference at all, I thought of ways of trying to describe to non-programmers why I was getting stressed. ...]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Crowd helps autistic man sing the National Anthem</title>
		<link>http://www.nerdwatch.com/2011/10/crowd-helps-autistic-ma-sing-the-national-anthem/</link>
		<comments>http://www.nerdwatch.com/2011/10/crowd-helps-autistic-ma-sing-the-national-anthem/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 19 Oct 2011 14:21:33 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Captain Nerd</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[cool things!]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[musical things!]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[neat things!]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[serious things]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.nerdwatch.com/?p=245</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[This is an autistic man who&#8217;s been chosen to sing the National Anthem at a ball game in Fenway Park, for &#8220;Disability Awareness Day,&#8221; but partway through he messes up the lyrics.  He&#8217;s completely flustered, but the crowd in the stadium comes to his rescue by singing the right words along with him.  To hear all the people filling the stadium with the Anthem, and to see the man&#8217;s reaction, this is why I can&#8217;t give up on America.  As long as we have people like this crowd, we won&#8217;t fail.

]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://www.nerdwatch.com/2011/10/crowd-helps-autistic-ma-sing-the-national-anthem/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Innocent couple about to lose their motel and future to law enforcement abuse</title>
		<link>http://www.nerdwatch.com/2011/10/innocent-couple-about-to-lose-their-motel/</link>
		<comments>http://www.nerdwatch.com/2011/10/innocent-couple-about-to-lose-their-motel/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 07 Oct 2011 02:13:33 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Captain Nerd</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[serious things]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.nerdwatch.com/?p=209</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[This is an unspeakable horror. A man and his family, who have never committed a crime and who own a motel are about to lose it all, because US Federal law enforcement is going to seize it and give the proceeds of its sale to local police.
 Russ Casswell and his family have owned and operated their motel for two generations in Tewksbury Massachusetts. No one in the family has committed any crimes, but because there were a few arrests on the premises in the past 20 years, the US Justice Department is going to seize the property using Federal &#8220;civil asset forfeiture&#8221; laws, which allow law enforcement to seize &#8220;guilty&#8221; property without due process for the owners. The &#8220;Justice&#8221; Department then sells the seized assets and gives part of the proceeds to local law enforcement where the property was seized. This is a perfect way for local officials to ...]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://www.nerdwatch.com/2011/10/innocent-couple-about-to-lose-their-motel/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>1</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>A Jobs Agenda</title>
		<link>http://www.nerdwatch.com/2011/10/a-jobs-agenda/</link>
		<comments>http://www.nerdwatch.com/2011/10/a-jobs-agenda/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 06 Oct 2011 05:05:46 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Captain Nerd</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[serious things]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[tech things!]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.nerdwatch.com/?p=207</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[No, not the White House one, the Steve Jobs Agenda. This article spells it out better than most of the tributes I&#8217;ve seen.

The money quote: &#8220;I don’t know what Steve Jobs’s politics were, I don’t much care, and in any case they are beside the point. The late Mr. Jobs stood for something considerably better than politics. He stood for the model of the world that works. &#8220;
If anything shows what&#8217;s lacking in the US today, it&#8217;s the missing attitude of &#8220;make it work, and make it work well.&#8221; We seem to have been slipping away from that lately, at least from the latter half of that attitude. We used to face problems and solve them, lately we just want someone to make the problems go away. For all Steve Jobs&#8217; shortcomings in dealing with his people, he wanted to make things work, and solve problems people didn&#8217;t even realize ...]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://www.nerdwatch.com/2011/10/a-jobs-agenda/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>CATDAT-41 latest report on the Great East Japan Quake</title>
		<link>http://www.nerdwatch.com/2011/10/catdat-41-latest-report-on-the-great-east-japan-quake/</link>
		<comments>http://www.nerdwatch.com/2011/10/catdat-41-latest-report-on-the-great-east-japan-quake/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 04 Oct 2011 03:18:11 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Captain Nerd</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Japan things!]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[serious things]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.nerdwatch.com/?p=172</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Nearly 20,000 dead or missing, 60,000 still living in &#8220;temporary&#8221; shelters, and over 1500 children who lost parents or guardians.
The CATDAT-41 report by the Earthquake Report website spells out many details about the dead, the missing, the costs in money of the destruction, and the effects on Japan.
]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://www.nerdwatch.com/2011/10/catdat-41-latest-report-on-the-great-east-japan-quake/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Letter from Pastor Yusef Nadarkhani</title>
		<link>http://www.nerdwatch.com/2011/09/letter-from-pastor-yusef-nadarkhani/</link>
		<comments>http://www.nerdwatch.com/2011/09/letter-from-pastor-yusef-nadarkhani/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 30 Sep 2011 05:59:14 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Captain Nerd</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[serious things]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.nerdwatch.com/?p=170</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Since October 2009 Yusef Nadarkhani has been in Rasht prison in Iran.  He is sentenced to die for his crime: holding house-worship Christian services.  Even though he was never Muslim, had never made Islamic confession, he has been convicted of &#8220;apostasy&#8221;.  The Obama Administration wrote about as strong a letter as possible condemning the Iranian actions.  In this article is a translated copy of a letter from Nadarkhani to fellow Christians around the world.
http://senseofevents.blogspot.com/2011/09/well-done-president-obama.html
Pray for him and his family.
]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://www.nerdwatch.com/2011/09/letter-from-pastor-yusef-nadarkhani/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Boy&#8217;s love for Morning Glories lives on long after his passing&#8230;</title>
		<link>http://www.nerdwatch.com/2011/09/boys-love-for-morning-glories-lives-on-long-after-his-passing/</link>
		<comments>http://www.nerdwatch.com/2011/09/boys-love-for-morning-glories-lives-on-long-after-his-passing/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 27 Sep 2011 14:07:12 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Captain Nerd</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[cool things!]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Japan things!]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[serious things]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.nerdwatch.com/?p=162</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[This is a nice story about a boy&#8217;s love of Morning Glories, and his mother&#8217;s love for him, which she spreads to the tsunami survivors through seeds from the flowers he grew just before he died, and which he never lived to see bloom.
http://ajw.asahi.com/article/0311disaster/life_and_death/AJ2011092612223
]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://www.nerdwatch.com/2011/09/boys-love-for-morning-glories-lives-on-long-after-his-passing/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
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