A nice screen background...

This car was years ahead of its time, with an innovative electric gear-shifter mounted on the steering column just below the steering wheel, and yet this was 1937! It's the Pourtout Delage D8-120 S Aero Coupe, and it was made for the luxury car market of the day. Louis Delage had financial problems brought on by the depression, and compounded by marital difficulties, but during the 1920s and early 1930s the brand was heavily involved in both racing and the luxury car market, and its products had several features not uncommon today, including four valves per cylinder, twin overhead cams, and four wheel hydraulic brakes. And I wish I could afford this D8-120. It's beautiful.

On Saturn's largest moon, Titan looking this way

I'm running a little late today.... too much Facebook.

Somehow, today, I let myself get dragged into a discussion about the spending of 1.3 billion US on the problem-plagued F-35 replacement for the F-22, which as I said is the superior aircraft in many ways, but lacks cutting-edge electronics. That whole thing dragged on and on, because Americans hate to lose an argument, or anything else, even when you can prove they are full of shit right up to their eyebrows!

So that whole thing resulted in us having to re-fight the whole Second World War, and then talk about taxes as a means of forcing behavior on the unwashed masses. And I'm exhausted! And that's partly my fault, because I hate to lose an argument myself. It takes a real man to admit when he's wrong or not quite entirely right, and it takes real skill to back away from something or someone when everything in you is saying "Sock it to him!" or "Finish him off!"

This had me thinking that most of us have too much of the "fight or flight" in us, because we get aggressive with one another too easily, especially when there really isn't any need for it. I didn't really dislike the guy - I just thought he was full of shit. He wasn't checking his facts. He was coming from a base of typical American bravado and bullshit, and I can't resist educating the ignorant. Shame on me! I wasted half the afternoon for nothing. He's still stupid, and I'm four hours older. End of story!

И если это заставляет вас улыбаться, я улыбаюсь с вами.

"Do You Know What It Means To Miss Pork And Beans?"

How did the Ancient Egyptian worship his God?

Like This.

 

Those huge and fancy and rich Temples were reserved for royalty and their friends, relatives, and associated government officials, along with a very large and prosperous priesthood. The common ordinary Egyptian set up a shrine in a corner of his home, away from its busiest rooms, where he could quietly  worship his own God in his own way. They believed in eternal life, as this passage from one of the texts indicates: "I am Shu, the god of unformed matter. My soul is God, my soul is eternity." But they didn't believe in any kind of resurrection of the body. Nowhere are we told that man's corruptible body will rise again. Instead, they said, "Soul to heaven, body to earth." And they repeated that in various forms down through the millennia, to the end of the Ptolemaic period. "Your essence is in heaven, your body in earth." and again, "Heaven has your soul, earth has your body."

 

And some of the ideas expressed in those very old hieroglyphic sacred texts are very similar to Biblical passages. For example: "The house of God what it hates is much speaking. Pray you with a loving heart, the petitions of which  all are in secret. He will do your business, he will hear that which you say, and will accept your offerings. In offering to your God, guard you against the things which He abominates." And again: "Give yourself to God; keep you yourself daily for God; and let tomorrow be as today."

 

Reading some of this, I'm struck by the fact that God and worshipping God is much older than most of us conceptualize. It goes back many thousands of years. Those above quotations are about 5,000 years old, and they were not new ideas then.

On Facebook today.....

Before the rains came....

A patch of maple leaves in a mass of evergreens about a block away....

This is the upper terminal of the Grouse Mountain Skyride cablecar system, and it's about three miles away, as the crow flies, from my window. This image is a 50X superzoom with the Fujifilm Finepix SL-1000.

And this is just to remind me that there's more to life than meets the eye.

Crosses these days are always associated with death. This one isn't. This is the ancient Egyptian "Ankh", the hieroglyph for "Life", and back then, it was commonly found as part of the expression "Life, Strength, Health" expressed in hieroglyphs as the Ankh, a candle-flame, and a shepherd's crook, together.

There was a more detailed version, which followed every mention of the King's name in official documents, and it goes: "Life, all prosperity, all stability, all health, and joy of heart" with appropriately more and different hieroglyphs. My point here being that the symbol for "Life" was often part of a very famous phrase of good wishes one offered to another, and it was the very opposite of the common associations of the Cross in today's context. And that's why it was part of the wish or prayer inscribed around the rim of King Tut's calcite Chalice, with the god of Eternity on a reed raft atop budding blue lotus flowers on each side, forming its handles. If taken in the context of the times, it goes like this:-

May you live forever,

Loving enlightenment,

Overcoming adversity,

And enjoying happiness.

Its literal translation goes:- "May you live for millions of millions of years, You who love Thebes, Sitting with your face to the north wind, Your two eyes beholding happiness."

Millions of millions of years means forever. Thebes was then the heart of their culture or enlightenment. The north wind was the cooling wind from the sea; the "red wind" or sandstorms came from the other direction. And the last part explains itself.

L.A. Times Gale Crater Virtual Tour.....

Mars, almost in 3D, and you run the controls, if you like.....

It begins with a short guided tour of the main features, before allowing you to start controlling the movements of the image with your keyboard keys.

Here, I'm familiarizing myself with the controls, and looking more closely at a "river channel" coming down from the highlands below the bottom edge, and flowing out into the central part of the crater. When I get more comfortable with these controls, I will hide that dark panel, and we will see more picture.

I still haven't given up the control panel, but we're now looking at the peak of mountain in the center of the crater, and it's a lot more impressive than it has looked in a lot of NASA's images taken from cameras on Curiosity itself. This is a big mountain!

And here it is, without that control panel blocking the view. I don't think that Curiosity is ever going to be able to make it up this mountain to anywhere near the top, even if it takes a very gradual and roundabout route, because it is simply too steep. The rover's wheels will spin out in the sand and gravel before it can climb very far up. But it doesn't need to climb the whole mountain to tell us what it is made of. We already know quite a lot about that. 

I'd like someone to explain for me why there is that kind of "trail" of lesser peaks in an almost dual track configuration leading off into the distance from the main peak, in a direction toward the upper right and top of the frame here. Did whatever causing that main peak after impact then roll away in that direction? Was it one of Mars' present irregularly-shaped satellites, do you think? I really wish we had a movie of all this, don't you? Maybe one day, we can figure it out well enough to create a simulation. The history of Mars would make a fascinating movie, I'm sure. I can almost picture it already....flying parts and all. 

And before I leave this, here's what you're looking for........

Another contribution to Facebook....

Remember the Un-American Activities Committee? Maybe something like that ought to investigate the NRA for subversive activities endangering the lives and safety of children and others due to irresponsible handling of firearms by its members.

This morning's Top Ten

My Facebook entry......

I really like Bernie, and he has lots of good ideas. But I worry that maybe he's past his "Best Before" date. He's 74, and Hillary isn't far behind at 68, and both of them are now old age pensioners, like it or not. Aren't there any bright-eyed and bushy-tailed younger people interested in kicking those Republicans where it counts? Or would you rather be ruled by some bastard with more dollars than sense?

Your problem comes down to this, as they used to say back in ancient Egypt, "Slaves may come, and slaves may go, but the Pharaoh lives forever!" - and it's up to you to make sure he doesn't.

What's with Windows lately?

Sometimes, I really wonder about Microsoft. Yesterday, starting Windows 7, and checking for Updates, I was offered one of the optional variety. Just for the hell of it, I decided to look up the Knowledge Base article it relates to, and when I got it, I found this update had nothing to do with Windows 7. The Update in question is for KB 3095649. Here are the listed prerequisites for this update:-

Update detail information

Prerequisites

To apply this update, you must have April 2014 update rollup for Windows RT 8.1, Windows 8.1, and Windows Server 2012 R2 (2919355) installed in Windows 8.1 or Windows Server 2012 R2.

Do you see any mention in the above relating to Windows 7? I don't. So why is this update being offered to Windows 7 Home Premium SP1, build 7601? Is Microsoft working on some mysterious hidden agenda? Or have they forgotten there's a difference between Windows 7 and Windows 8.1? This kind of thing is not doing their credibility any good, and it's not making them a lot of friends. If they can't tell one version of Windows from another, how the hell do they expect us to?

Today's Top Ten...

Malware alert !

If you are on Facebook, and suddenly get a pop-up saying "3 people have just unfriended you" don't reply to it or click on it. It's malware!

I have Malwarebytes Anti-malware, and its premium version blocks incoming IP Addresses containing malware code. When that pop-up appeared, it blocked the website and showed me this......

So if you get that pop-up, don't open it. It is not what it seems to be....

"Let's go backward when forward fails..."

The quality of this video is terrible, but it's worth watching, because in it is the guy who wrote one of my favorite songs, and he's doing it here himself, along with The Rockettes, and he's the only guy who ever danced with them, or so they tell us.....

 And if you're thinking, "I wish there were better visuals of all that...." then maybe I ought to post this one....

Until this, in 1981, Peter Allen was the only guy to ever dance with The Rockettes. I just love watching a good manic entertainer enjoying himself, don't you? I wish I'd been one. I would have loved it, I'm sure. 

And here's where Peter's "Everything Old..." eventually got plenty of exposure. 

 

There's a new version of Stellarium = 0.14.0

So, let's try it out, looking at Mars............

This morning, Phobos is out in front of the planet, and Deimos is around behind, so let's visit those, shall we? First, we'll go to Phobos, for a close view....

And then, we will have a look at the dark side, from its other moon, Deimos....

And we've just done something "The Martian" didn't. Cool, huh? So where's Mars? Barely visible, near the center of the screen, with just a little of its outline on the edge nearest the sun, because, after all, we are almost directly behind it looking at its dark side.

And this about as close as I can get without it being too big for the frame. There isn't much detail here, because most of the interesting stuff in on the other side of it just now.

In those "Roaring Twenties"...

Short Flu Update...

Recovering...and last night was the best sleep I've had in many months, thanks to the nice little lady Pharmacist at the supermarket. The other day, picking up other refills for my prescriptions, I asked if she had anything for a cough that feels like I'm trying to turn inside out. She looked at the computer for my list of prescriptions, then reached under the counter, and handed me a little bottle of only 100 ml, containing a raspberry-flavored cough syrup developed in Germany, called Calmylin. She said, "Don't go over the recommended dose, because...." And I said, "Bless your heart, Darling!" - And I'm here to tell you it really works! One shot in the morning, and your Flugelhorn can be heard all the way to Switzerland.

Sometimes..... I get Misty.....

Music, the way it should be.....

The bumpy road to...... Love?

That bumpy road called "Memory Lane"....

This and that... or Ceci et cela, si tu préfères...

A neighbor over in the next block is still enjoying these lovely flowers, and so am I.

I was supposed to visit one of those expensive specialists of internal medicine today, for a routine report on some recent tests, but I'm too sick. And something about that strikes me as amusing. I called his girl yesterday, explaining that I'm recovering from the "flu" and I don't want to spread it around. She gave me a new appointment, and thanked me for calling.

Then this morning, a call from my Optometrist's about my eye test next Monday. She asked, "Can we reschedule for next Friday instead? The doctor has to attend a funeral on Monday." I said, "I'm recovering from the "flu", so that will be much better, and thanks for calling, Dear." Seems everyone's caught the bug. And it appears to be making us more polite. And that's not a bad thing.

Après l'élection de Trudeau Le Jeune

This feels like a new beginning. I'm repeating myself, hopefully for effect and not from senility. Having experienced the original 'Trudeaumania' while a civil servant in Ottawa in the Sixties, I'm sensing that same kind of youthful enthusiasm. 

Quebec this time seems to have embraced its native son with appropriate enthusiasm, and I fervently hope we can convey to them our sincere desire for them to put aside nationalistic efforts, and join with us in being at home in the whole of Canada.

Years ago, while talk of separation was rampant, a young francophone couple came to the gate where I was working security at the waterfront one night, and asked if they might come in to view the city from our docks. Usually, I would have refused, for security reasons. But we got talking, and I asked if they had seen much of the country yet outside Quebec. The girl responded that this was their first trip, and they had not been encouraged to make it.

I asked, "Why limit yourselves to one province when the whole country is already yours?" They looked at me strangely for a moment, and I said, "Please come in, and drive down to the second set of docks where there's a nice view of downtown. And let me say 'Welcome to Vancouver'....". They came back a few minutes later, and stopped to thank me on their way out, saying "We will remember what you said about the whole country." I think more people from la belle province should visit Beautiful British Columbia.

Early reactions from American 'know-it-alls' on our Election.

American politics is nothing if not a hotbed of political intrigue, lies, distortions, and misrepresentations of facts, and so it was natural for some of those under-employed busybodies (read: 'Shit-disturbers') to pounce on our Canadian election and our new leader, with insulting, uncalled-for and untrue remarks. One of those shit-disturbers is someone named Pamela Geller, who used Justin Trudeau's picture as a header for a nasty article about him and us on Facebook.

I replied as follows:-

Ray Sutton Pamela Geller and her American Freedom Defense Initiative (AFDI) is a far-right American organization widely described as Islamophobic. That from its definition on Google. Translation: Pamela's 'ADFI' is a vehicle for political shit-disturbing by someone who doesn't understand democratic processes employed anywhere else but within her own bastardized, distorted and disfunctional American version.

Unlike Americans, we Canadians are trying very hard to unify our country, and ensure that Canada remains a land for all Canadians to enjoy, no matter our ethnicity, or location within it. Because we Canadians are Canada, wherever we are, and whoever we are. Canada is us.

A little more Al Cherny.....

Today's "Top Ten"

Tom, over in New York, asks: "Do you have relatives or friends in Russia?" and I have to say, "No, Tom, I do not have relatives in Russia."  Obviously, it looks like I have a few friends, but that's probably because I have a Translating Tool in the right-hand margin here, which I hope is translating this page correctly.

 Если это не делает смысл для вас, пожалуйста, оставьте мне комментарий ниже.
(If it does not make sense to you, please leave me a comment below.)

This Google Translate gadget is very useful, when it works correctly, and I hope that it does. The world is a lot more fun when we can speak to each other in our own language, and be understood by others who speak a different one.

Russia and Canada share a very similar climate, and when our western prairies were first being settled, many of the pioneering farmers were from Russia and its nearby states. So we have a lot in common in addition to our climate.  

                             

Canada 2015: Election Results, Final....

This is how to have an election. Choose a leader who really wants to win, and then get behind him, and help to make it happen. And if everything comes together as it should, you finish with more than enough seats for a majority government which doesn't have to make deals with others in order to get things done.

Thank You to everyone who voted Liberal yesterday across Canada.

As I've said elsewhere, on Facebook, this happened in part because Justin's Liberals cared enough about your vote and mine to send a real person around to our doors, to ask for our vote. None of the others did that. The others were satisfied to annoy us with repeated recorded messages, which have no personal feeling at all. I do not vote for a recorded message. I want to vote for a real person. A person who really wants my support. That's why I supported the Liberals. We need to put real people back into the process. And we did it.

Our side is winning - like I hoped....

Prime Minister Trudeau. It has a nice ring to it. And I know how it happened.  It happened because the Liberals were the only party to show enough personal interest and enough desire to win to send a real live human being around to my door, to ask if I would please vote for them. Others bombarded me with those canned, prerecorded messages giving me the impression they didn't give a damn really whether I voted or not, or else I got pestered by those polling firms trying to see which way the wind was blowing.

Only the Liberals sent a volunteer to my door to ask me personally for my vote. That's why I did a blog the other day saying that I think it's Justin's turn and I would like to see what he can do. And now I will. Justin is our Prime Minister. Wishes do come true. And to everyone who voted Liberal, Thank You!

Today's Top Ten .......

Linux and Windows - and other stuff.

First, some "other stuff". I've got the "flu" or whatever is going around, and in the past few days have had a very sick stomach, and then nose and eyes watery, and yesterday a nose-bleed. It did not want to stop. I had to adjust my heart medicine to lower the blood pressure to get the nose-bleed to stop. I am slowly feeling better, but not near well yet.

Next, for a minute or so, let's talk Windows and Linux Mint. I had a hell of a time trying to get these to dual boot, because Linux doesn't always see a Windows system already on a drive. If you can get beyond that, then you have it "made".

The recommended way is to install a Windows system first, then the Linux, and when choosing your Linux, make sure to choose one that will install on a system using either UEFI or BIOS booting systems. If it can do both of those, it will install on both older and newer hardware without problems.

Install the Windows first, then install the Linux. After you have both in a dual-boot arrangement, you can upgrade the Windows to a newer version without problems, and you can also upgrade the Linux, I think, but I have not tried yet.

Windows 10: Insider Preview build 10565....

This installs alongside Linux Mint 17.2 and it does run gadgets....

But 8Gadgetpack tells us that not all previously available ones are able to run in this version of Windows, and it may be a month or so before that is fixed.

Our Canadian election on Monday

This is a partial reprint of something I put on Facebook today in response to a news item there telling of polls lately indicating the Liberals are looking like the winners in our upcoming election. As mentioned there, I've been into the American political scene lately, so perhaps should say something about our own. So this is about the Liberals and their leader, Justin Trudeau. And me.

I was a "Snivel Servant" with a good job in Ottawa when Justin's father Pierre first got elected in that wave of "Trudeaumania" that swept the country in 1968. One of his first acts was to order all of us civil servants to become functionally bilingual as soon as possible, and to give us a little incentive, our earnings were "red-circled" (i.e. frozen) until such time as we could show ourselves to be bilingual.

I was 36 that year, and that's not the age one should begin studying a second language, and the branch of government I worked in was one providing the electrical facilities in the far north, where the bulk of our customers and some of our employees were aboriginals, not people speaking French. So I said "Adieu" to Ottawa, and moved to the West Coast, to work for B.C. Hydro instead.

But in fairness to Justin's father, he did do a lot of good for the country, and it wasn't his fault that I didn't want to learn French while speaking to my faithful Eskimo companions up north. And I would really like to see if Justin can follow in his dad's footsteps, and once more restore "The Just Society". So I'm voting Liberal because, as President Obama said before his own first election, "It's time for a change!" I want to see what Justin can do. I think it's his turn. And I'm tired of "Hairspray" Harper.

More fun with Linux Mint....

After I started Linux this morning, I decided to add a second browser, because it's always nice to have more than one, for looking up things while using the first.

So I looked in the Software Manager for browsers, and chose a light-weight, simplified one called "Midori" and installed it. As soon as I opened it, up came an error message saying a certain file from Ubuntu couldn't be opened, because it wasn't installed. "That's odd!" I thought. Then the "homework" began.

Checking a couple of sites with information on such problems, I learned that there's a cure, involving searching for and finding that missing file, which seemed rather involved. Then, I found more information which said that the missing file was actually the default opening page for the browser, and someone had apparently forgot to include it in the package. Reading more, I learned that the simple cure for this was to just select another home page, such as Google. And after about an hour of such research, I got it fixed very nicely. I wondered why we weren't told about the "change your home page" idea right up front. Perhaps an hour's search sharpens the mind, and helps us remember the cure.

Other pictures from yesterday

These cranes are working on construction of more additions to the north portion of Park Royal Mall in West Vancouver, where additional retail space is being added along with an extensive complex of residential condos, being built up the hillside immediately behind (north of) the north section of the retail space.

And this is a view of sunset on the hills north of town last evening.

My Guard Dog

Today is Thanksgiving in Canada...

And our "Question Everything" today is: "Why does a roast turkey look like it was shot in the ass to save the hide?"

Where those tracking cookies are coming from.....

Again, I owe Microsoft an apology. The culprit appears to be Google, not Microsoft.....

Just look at the cache for Google here in CCleaner before I dumped all that. It's by far the biggest offender. And now I can find out for sure! And I do apologize to Microsoft. I should have done more homework before running off at the mouth about this. I'm sorry. I'll try harder to do my homework from now on....
 

The old red plane, Bahia Feliz, Gran Canaria, Spain

First, let me show you the neighborhood. We're on the island of Gran Canaria, part of the Canary Islands of Spain, off the coast of Africa, and this is near a little village along the south-eastern coastline, Bahia Feliz....

If you look above the combination airport and racecourse, near that light-colored rectangular spot, but slightly above and to the left of that, you'll notice a tiny red spot in this aerial photo view...... and that's the old red plane!

And it looks like this. They describe it for the photo as a "DC7", but if you'll notice the length of pipe hanging down from the tip of the tail, and the distance between the main landing gear and that tip of the tail, this is more likely a DC6B and I say that because the DC6B had that pipe hanging from the tail for a reason. The reason being that on take-offs, and sometimes landings, it was too easy to drag that tail on the runway. So they hung about six feet of 2-inch pipe from the end of it, and when that began to drag on the ground, the pilot knew it was time to adjust the attitude to level it out a bit more, before damaging the aircraft. And it worked, because  as you see, it still has its complete tail.

This plane was first pointed out to me by "Monsieur Beep" who visits the island quite often, and has taken pictures of it himself. And if you're reading this, Monsieur Beep, please say 'hello'..... it's been quite a while now since we chatted. And that's the story of the old red plane. And it's still there.

 

The Pentangle - Sunday Morning Blues

Simone Pirola & The Black Phoenix SUNDAY MORNING BLUES

Falling in Love Again - Linda Ronstadt with Nelson Riddle and his orches...

Louis Armstrong - Aunt Hagar's Blues (High Quality - Remastered)

Today's Top Ten

Dawn creeps in, on little cat's feet...

Compact digital cameras have come a long way in the last few years.

More peaceful Processor...

The graph for the Processor has been more peaceful since I wrote about the huge number of tracking cookies on here. Maybe someone doesn't want that kind of publicity, do you suppose?

Moving along here, let's take a look at the offer of a "free upgrade" to Windows 10, from Windows 7 or 8/8.1 - If you're like most of us, then you had to pay for your Windows 7, or your Windows 8, so your upgrade to Windows 10 is costing you whatever you spent on those, and therefore "free" it isn't. You're losing a purchased operating system in exchange for this new version, which you may or may not find as useful or as user-friendly. And when it comes to "user-friendly" nothing since has been able to beat Windows 7. These newer ones have introduced more devious methods of doing simpler things, and calling it progress. 

And the gang at Microsoft have been doing their thing long enough already that they certainly ought to have this down to a smoother system by now. I keep wondering how they can keep on making the same blunders over and over. It's like they're starting off with a whole crew of greenhorns for each new incarnation of Windows, and that might explain all the "teething problems".

Yes, after my "housecleaning" Linux Mint is still OK.

And I'm quite pleased to be able to report this, because sometimes - rarely - but sometimes, not everything goes according to plan. But I am getting better....

Windows 10: New theme: Leaves

These are on a tree 16 floors below my window, beside the driveway, and with a little tweaking with Irfanview these came out quite nicely. The camera is a Nikon Coolpix P510, and it does a nice job.

Would you like to free up about 12 Gb (Yes, "Gb") of space on your hard-drive? Of course you would. So use the built-in Disc Cleanup, and set it to "Clean up System files", and wait for it to find them all. Then when it has, just click "Yes" when it asks if you'd like to dump them. Then, use Disk Defrag to defragment what's left. But while you're downloading it, be careful to uncheck the bloatware or you'll end up with more than you bargained for. The good news is, as I noticed while watching it in action just now, it also defrags anything else on the drive in addition to Windows - like your Linux installation, for example. Cool. 

Interesting comparision, two computers...

I have two computers, as I'm sure I've mentioned before, and both are dual-booting, one with Windows 10 and Linux Mint 17.2, and the other with Windows 7 SP1 and Linux Mint 17.2. This is a screen of the spyware results for the computer with Win-7-Linux on it. The significant thing about this is that during that same period in which there were 589 tracking cookies planted in the Windows 10/Linux PC, there were none planted in this one.

From that, you may draw your own conclusions. The conclusions I'm drawing are that Microsoft's passing around Windows 10 as a free upgrade apparently is assumed by them to give them the right to plant as much spyware in it as they like, along with spyware from all their official and unofficial contributors and contractors. And if you took exception to anything about "freedom" I wrote in the previous post here, perhaps you ought to re-think that.


And it goes without saying that if you're running Windows 10, you'd better have a damned good spyware detector and use it, and check it frequently, and keep its database up to date.

And this is something else you should have. If you buy the Premium version, it has a couple of "extras" including the ability to block incoming malware and show you its IP Address, which you can add to a "blocked" list of sites if you wish. It also has a special scanning feature you can activate which can find things not easily detected by other security programs, and remove those even from an infected machine. And you don't get these things in other programs.

Another handy program to run periodically is Norton Power Eraser. It's a freebie from Symantec and it scans for rootkits and other hidden nasty stuff, and can send whatever it finds back to home base for complete identification, as well as removing it. And it also can repair your Registry if it finds errors there. And it works.

589 tracking cookies! In 5 days....

This is a new record for me. 589 threats detected on an operating system that I haven't been using for almost five days! A machine that has two other reputable security programs on it, both up to date and functioning normally. These 589 were all reported as being tracking cookies. So someone's very interested in what I'm doing on this computer. And I think I know who. But 589 cookies in just a little less than five full days? That's absolutely insane! Nobody needs that many cookies placed on anything for any reason whatever. This is the kind of spying that's going to turn people right off the Internet when they realize it is actually happening.

Sadly, the vast majority of today's thumb-typers are not aware of it - they're too busy Facebooking or Tweeting or babbling mindlessly to one another, totally oblivious to the fact that "Big Brother" is tracking their every move on these cute little toys, figuring out how to make bigger and better profits from all that, mostly without our knowledge, and certainly without our approval. People like those "armed to the teeth" gun-lovers among our American cousins love to rant endlessly about their precious "Freedoms" yet they don't even realize that freedom today is largely a myth. It's a noisy distraction while somebody we've never met picks through our filing systems for fun and profit, while pretending to be as honest as the day is long.

Thought for the Day