Taking a stroll through New City! A black bear was spotted in the area of Woodland and Little Tor Rd at 2:00 PM today. We remind everyone to stay away from bears. We have listed some safety tips:Black bears by nature tend to be wary of people. However, if you encounter a black bear in your neighborhood or outdoors while hiking or camping, follow these common-sense safety tips. Do not feed bears!•Never feed or approach a bear! •Remain calm if you encounter a bear. Do not run from it. •Make the bear aware of your presence by speaking in an assertive voice, singing, clapping your hands, or making other noises. •Make sure the bear has an escape route. •If a bear enters your home, provide it with an escape route by propping all doors open. •Avoid direct eye contact, which may be perceived by a bear as a challenge. Never run from a bear. Instead, slowly back away. •To scare the bear away, make loud noises by yelling, banging pots and pans or using an airhorn. Make yourself look as big as possible by waving your arms. If you are with someone else, stand close together with your arms raised above your head. •The bear may utter a series of huffs, make popping jaw sounds by snapping its jaws and swat the ground. These are warning signs that you are too close. Slowly back away, avoid direct eye contact and do not run. •If a bear stands on its hind legs or moves closer, it may be trying to get a better view or detect scents in the air. It is usually not a threatening behavior. •Black bears will sometimes "bluff charge" when cornered, threatened or attempting to steal food. Stand your ground, avoid direct eye contact, then slowly back away and do not run. •If the bear does not leave, move to a secure area. •Families who live in areas frequented by black bears should have a "Bear Plan" in place for children, with an escape route and planned use of whistles and air horns. •Black bear attacks are extremely rare. If a black bear does attack, fight back!
Posted by Clarkstown Police Department on Friday, May 29, 2015
This very impressive YouTube video shows the crowds protesting in Hong Kong. The people are angry because the candidates for office are chosen by the party and don’t include people that are truly representative of the people’s wishes. Watch the video and get an idea of the size of the crowd, but pay attention to the power of the technology.
You will be seeing much more of this in the near future.
]]>One thing that I need is a massive peer based network for all communications. There used to be a BBS system in the 80s called FIDO where you cold connect to another FIDO node that connected to another in a huge mesh so that with only local calls you could communicate to people all around the world. Imagine that FIDO has come to cell phones and you get cell phones that communicate with each other rather than cell towers. No more paying the phone companies, just join the network and you can talk for free with cell phones through this vast peer to peer cell phone network.
Today I saw an article in Technology Review about a FIDO-like network that some larger companies are working on.
In addition to that I saw in Microsoft Prediction Lab that is right out of John Brunner’s Shockwave Rider. Brunner’s work describes the internet in great detail long before it existed and thought that it would be used to unite people by gathering their opinions. Brunner’s protagonist manipulates the results of the opinions using a “Worm” (long before internet worms or viruses). I want to have the attackers manipulate a similar consensual reality of the local networks using the peer to peer network.
]]>Here is Erica and I cutting down a Christmas tree last year. I put up the video, but these are the stills that I took.
]]>I have been getting rid of the domains that don’t pay for themselves a few at a time. I just went through them again and I will be dropping a couple of more.
I am dropping:
AstoundingScienceFiction.com (Love the name, but I can’t keep them all).
kpgraham.com (I still will have KeithGraham.com)
blogseyeview.com
gthread.com – used to be my idea testing site
jt-30.com – not jt30.com which makes money
harpamp.com – not harpampS.com with an s, which makes a little money
I am thinking about dropping
audiocd.com – cool name that makes no money
freenameastar.com – used to make some small change, but no more.
These last two are sentimental. AudioCD was the first domain I registered, and FreeNameAStar was just starting to catch on before International Star Registry threatened me with a law suit and I had to close it down.
This will save me about $100 a year.
I am not getting out of the domain business. I put in two bids on domains that are expiring. One is a microphone company that was big in the 40s and 50s, but is out of business. Its domain name is expiring, but I think the name recognition might fit in to my harmonica sites. Another domain is for a small time book seller site that had a very cool name and a loyal following. I would like to move my “promotional” kindle book search to the site and make it so authors and publishers can add their own books to the site – and I want to make it so the original owners can add books if they want.
I will know if I get the new domains around the end of September.
Another issue is that I need to get rid of CCBlues.com. I don’t want to host the site anymore, but the group running it now are non-technical and couldn’t manage the transfer.
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Someone at the Tate Galleries in Britain had the same idea. They have four robots that you can control to explore the museum. The Tate in Washington D.C. is my favorite art museum, and I would love to explore the British Tate. Here is the link:
http://afterdark.tate.org.uk/
How to Use Your Cat to Hack Your Neighbor’s Wi-Fi
I have a bunch of cats but they are all pretty lazy and most don’t go more than 20 feet from the house.
]]>My chicken Sadie has always known that she was descended from vicious predators.
]]>http://www.space.com/26615-milky-way-moon-lighthouse-skywatcher-photo.html
]]>I get Google alerts on my name to see what people might be saying about me. Nobody cares much about me, but there are lots of Keith Grahams out there. These Keiths are from all walks of life, saint and sinner and everything in between. I hope that they don’t mind that when they Google their names, they get me.
I found this reference to a Keith Graham in Texas and it sounds like an episode of Breaking Bad. It is my namesake’s appeal for a conviction on possession of a controlled substance (methamphetamine).
Upon further investigation, Detective Clark located Nieves’ residence at a motel in Manvel, Texas. On April 20, 2004, in an attempt to find appellant, Detective Clark followed Nieves from the motel to a travel trailer located behind a concrete plant near Highway 6 in Manvel. Detective Clark spotted appellant’s truck outside the trailer and contacted Sergeant Floyd Goodwin of the Texas Department of Public Safety and Deputy Tony Pena of the Brazoria County Sheriff’s Department. Sergeant Goodwin and Deputy Pena immediately joined Detective Clark at the scene to conduct a felony arrest. Sergeant Goodwin and Detective Clark approached the trailer and announced, “Police, arrest warrant, open the door.” There was no response, but the door was partially open and Detective Clark called out, stating, “Mr. Graham, open the door. Ronald Graham, open the door.” Detective Clark saw a head rise from a bed adjacent to the door, and he immediately recognized appellant from the parole photograph. Upon identifying appellant, Detective Clark and Sergeant Goodwin pushed the front door open and entered the residence to make the arrest. The officers conducted a protective sweep of the trailer, and during this time, saw what appeared to be a clandestine methamphetamine laboratory.
After arresting and handcuffing appellant, the officers escorted him back to the patrol car to request consent from appellant to search the trailer. Sergeant Goodwin advised appellant of his rights. When asked, appellant indicated he knew how to read and Sergeant Goodwin read to him from a consent-to-search-form, and also removed the handcuffs from appellant so that appellant could read the document himself. Sergeant Goodwin then asked appellant if the officers could search the trailer, and appellant responded, “Why not? When you’re done, you’re done.” After reading the consent-to-search form, appellant stated that he understood his rights and signed the document. The officers then searched the trailer and its contents, discovering several containers that they suspected contained methamphetamine or were chemicals that were precursors in the production of methamphetamine.
Appellant was charged in a two-count indictment with the first-degree felony of possession of a controlled substance, and with the second-degree felony of possession of chemicals with the intent to manufacture methamphetamine.