I'm a little short on time so I will have to revisit this topic later but I wanted to write it down before I headed out. I have occasionally contended that Islam is an ideology that is also a religion. The religion part I have no problem with. But the ideology I do.  I believe there is something inherent in the Islamic ideology that promote violence and intolerance. But let's put that aside for a moment and look at Communism. Communism, as an ideology IS peaceful.  The theory ...

There's been a lot of debate this past week over the survey of American Muslims and their views. The left has used the survey to paint American Muslims as being "mainstream" while the right has been using it to present American Muslims as being ready for Jihad? What's the truth? I have linked to the actual 108 page survey below so you can read it for yourself.  But here are the facts of the survey: 47% of American Muslims see themselves as Muslims first and Americans second. 35%...

Just a day after getting into an on-air debate on the day-time TV show, "The View" with co-host Elisabeth Hasselbeck, Rosie has announced she's leaving the view immediately. On the show, Rosie accused American troops in Iraq of being terrorists. "655,000 Iraqi civilians have died. Who are the terrorists?" Rosie, a stranger to reality, fabricated a number that has no backing anywhere to tar our troops.  Hasselbeck, who is the lone conservative on the show, asked her to clarify. In a le...

Worst Modern Presidents in my opinion and why: #1 Johnson. He created the "Great Society" which resulted in a massive entitlement culture that has created multiple generations of dependents and an ever increasing drain on society with little to show for it.  He also got us into Vietnam with a strategy that makes Iraq look like a masterpiece. #2 Carter. Incompetent on so many levels. His handling of the domestic economy showed a complete lack of understanding of economics. His foreign ...

I've been doing a lot of interviewing lately for hiring new people and one thing that has become abundantly clear is how unprepared most people are for job interviews. Here are a few handy tips that may seem like common sense to some but amazingly are not done by 75% of the people I interview (especially recent college graduates): #1 KNOW THE COMPANY.   Get on the website and research the company. Make sure you know as much as you can about the company.  When I interview people,...

So beta 4 of the upcoming new version (v1.6) of Galactic Civilizations II: Dark Avatar has resulted in massively improved performance for most users. Yay.  I can't really explain why we decided to go and do it other than the fact that we have learned so much new stuff in the past several months working on the unnamed fantasy strategy game that we wanted to incorporate some of the techniques into Galactic Civilizations II: Dark Avatar. On the downside, a small % of users have found no speed...

I am not officially a beekeeper. Thanks to pointers from SEMBA and the folks at Turtlebee Farms , I am now up and running with two hives. While I have purchased some equipment and supplies on-line, Turtlebee Farms, which is located near Byron Michigan was able to provide me with basically everything I'd need from queen excluders, to frames, to basically everything else. I'll be writing a series of blogs on my beekeeping experiences. Beekeeping for Beginners The first thing to understan...

This past week my son and I visited Turtlebee Farms . It's an amazing place located just outside of Byron Michigan.  Turtlebee Farms has seasonal classes on caring for honey bees. Alex and I have decided to become hobbiest beekeepers.  We've gotten a lot of equipment and a place for the bees prior to going but we haven't yet actually acquired bees.  We wanted to make sure we were fully prepared for the responsibility and effort involved in taking care of honey bees.  Plus...

So that game you've been waiting for finally comes out.  You've read the previews of it.  You've watched video demos of it. You've lived through the delays and the you now have the box in your hands. You install it and start to play it and then you make the discovery -- your computer isn't fast enough to run it.  You thought you had a good computer but no, no it turns out that you have to lower the display settings way down to play the game. Why is this the case? The answer ...

Below is a list of articles I've written that I think readers would find particularly interesting:   Owens Corning Basement System Experiences Customizing the Windows desktop: A primer CD Copy protection is not the way to stop piracy Custom LASIK experiences The Galactic Civilizations Universe A History of IBM OS/2: 1991 to 1996 Thinking vs. Linking Why freeware nearly always loses in the long run Love, sex, marriage, and relat...

Prologue For thousands of years, our galaxy has been populated by advanced, space-faring civilizations. While we humans were still deciding whether fire was a good thing, advanced alien cultures were uniting their worlds under one rule.  It wasn't until the dawn of the 23rd century on Earth that humans, a relative newcomer on the scene, introduced the galaxy to Hyperdrive. This technology enabled quick and cheap interstellar travel between worlds. The unintended consequence of Hyperdriv...

The Star Wars Episode I trailer is still the best trailer of all time. Check it out below.  

The problem with global warming is that environmentalists are trying to act that its cause is a known fact. It is not.  As a refresher, here is the theory of human induced global warming in short: The molecule CO2 is a green house gas.  More specifically, when the sun's energy passes through our atmosphere and comes into contact with the carbon atoms, it holds some of that energy. As a result, heat is trapped in the atmosphere which increases the surface temperature of the Earth...

Here is a very simple test which will help you figure out where you stand between the two dominant political philosophies of our time: American conservative or American liberal. After each answer is a value, write that value down. 1) Do you believe that the best way to have a safe society is... A] Reduce the number of fire arms floating around in our population [ 1] B] To encourage lawful citizens to possess fire arms [-1]   2) Do you believe the best way to prom...

Tonight my son and I attended the SEMBA bee keeping user group.  We had a good time and met a lot of interesting and very friendly people. I was really impressed and energized by just how helpful and kind the folks at the meeting were to us.  In a single meeting, we got more help and more tips on how to get things going than I'd managed to pick up on the web in the past couple of weeks. The next step is to take some bee keeping classes while the equipment comes in and to start ...