John P.

One Man’s Blog

Specialization is for Insects.

Very interesting… This video (which is less than a week old and has been viewed almost 1.5 million times) was produced by a reporter for the English version of Al Jazeera, and was taken from interviews at a McCain / Palin conference in “a small town in” Ohio.

I say that right up front because some people are going to claim that this is not a reputable news source, and that perhaps this footage is even fake.

On the other hand, it seems pretty legitimate to me, and echos what I’ve been saying all along. Namely, that like it or not - Barack Obama is the next President of the United States… unless he get shot.
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Things You Should Never Have to See!

Fat Woman ExercisingYou know how sometimes you’re walking through the mall or down the street and you see someone who is about 100 pounds overweight wearing Britney Spear’s clothing? And you turn to the person beside you and go, “I did not need to see that!”

Yeah, well you might as well just move along and not read this article now, because I’m gonna show you one of those things. If you continue at your own peril, don’t say you haven’t been warned!
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Barack Obama Speaks to 100,000

Wow. This is impressive no matter your political persuasion. When was the last time a politician… ANY politician… drew a crowd of over 100,000 people to hear him speak. Well, apparently it was just a few hours ago, and it was Barak Obama in St. Louis!

According to this Wall Street Journal blog:

Barack Obama attracted 100,000 people at a Saturday rally here, his biggest crowd ever at a U.S. event.

The crowd assembled under the Gateway Arch on a sunny Saturday afternoon to hear Obama speak about taxes and slam the Republicans on economic issues.

Lt. Samuel Dotson of the St. Louis Police Department confirmed the number of attendees piled into the grassy lawn by the Mississippi River.

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Warren BuffettWow! The New York Times hit a home run today with this editorial column from Warren Buffett. So, for all of you guys who are feeling scared and wondering what to do with the economy in the toilet right now, you might want to listen to one of the richest men ever to walk the planet.

Buy American. I Am.

By WARREN E. BUFFETT

THE financial world is a mess, both in the United States and abroad. Its problems, moreover, have been leaking into the general economy, and the leaks are now turning into a gusher. In the near term, unemployment will rise, business activity will falter and headlines will continue to be scary.

So … I’ve been buying American stocks. This is my personal account I’m talking about, in which I previously owned nothing but United States government bonds. (This description leaves aside my Berkshire Hathaway holdings, which are all committed to philanthropy.) If prices keep looking attractive, my non-Berkshire net worth will soon be 100 percent in United States equities.

Why?

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FREE PORN!!! FREE PORN!!! FREE PORN!!!

Censored!!!Yeah. That’s how they get you, isn’t it? The spammers… they suck you in with these headlines like “Free Porn!”, “Free Viagra”, “Free Men’s Enhancements” and more. They litter our inboxes with this crap and put banner ads in places they don’t even belong. Well, I’m pleased to tell you that one of the biggest spammers in the universe was shut down yesterday.

The iEEE Spectrum most accurately reported:

The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) was able to persuade a federal court in Chicago to freeze the assets and order the shut down of HerbalKing, reputed to be one of the largest spam e-mailers, for violating the Can-Spam Act of 2003, the New York Times reports this week.

The Times story reported that SpamHaus, a nonprofit antispam research group, estimated that HerbalKing was responsible for sending out one-third of all spam at one point, which included everything from replica watches to (naturally) herbal pills.

The FTC said that HerbalKing was able to send out billions of spam e-mails through the use of botnets. One botnet was made up of 35,000 computers and was able to send 10 billion e-mail messages a day.

The story quotes a senior technology consultant at Sophos, a spam-fighting security firm as saying, “It wouldn’t be a surprise if people don’t notice any difference in their in-box tomorrow morning.”

But the Times of London wrote a much spicier version… even if they did get the facts off a bit:
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puppets-business-cardI’ve long been a fan of the business card. I think it is a serious art form because you try and say so much about a person or organization with so little room to work with. It takes a creative genius to really make a fantastic impression with a business card, and after all… that’s what they’re all about!

Since I’ve been collecting these in a directory for years, i decided to upload the entire gallery right here. If I ever come across more, I’ll add them. But until then, have fun wasting your entire afternoon on these!

Now, I’ve never uploaded this many images to a single post (in fact, this may be a world record!!!), and I’m sure this article is going to put some serious load on the server because so many images have to be downloaded by each visitor. Hopefully no one Diggs this thing, cause the server is going to die for sure!

Seriously! 250+ thumbnails on every single page load… well, let’s just say I’m glad I work at a hosting company! Cause I may be needing a whole lotta bandwidth real soon… Thank you Layered Tech!
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Freelance JobsSo, you need a Web site developed, you’re looking for a new logo, or you’ve got a business application you need created. OR, you would like to be developing Websites, logos and apps for other people! But you don’t have a clue how to go about matching yourself up with someone who can fulfill your needs?

Don’t worry, I hear this a lot. My recommendation is to create a simple description of the type of work you are looking for, and post it on one of the many freelance developer sites that have sprung up online. I’ve actually used a couple of these myself, and have been impressed with the quality of work that I’ve managed to get done.

So whether you’re looking to get hired or hire someone else, here are 8 sites you should definitely check out:

  • Elance.com - One of the largest freelance sites around. Membership accounts range from FREE to $39.95/month for large businesses. Elance charges a service fee of between 6.75 % - 8.75 % for paid jobs.
  • RentACoder.com - Claims to have over 200,000 registered members, and over 2,500 active jobs (as of the day I published this).
  • GetACoder.com - Large list of jobs available with commissions comparable to the other services listed here.
  • GetAFreelancer.com - Most projects seem to range from $500-$1,000, with the company charging a commission for paid jobs.
  • Guru.com - Claims to be the largest freelance site out there. Guru offers FREE, as well as paid, memberships that range from $29.95 to $99.95 per quarter. Guru takes 5 % - 10 % commission.
  • ScriptLance.com - ScriptLance is FREE but charges 5% commission.
  • iFreelance - Membership levels vary between $4 - $7/month but that is all you pay. iFreelance doesn’t charge a commission.
  • ProBlogger’s Job Board - pretty much nothing but jobs for writers or bloggers.

Minneapolis Panorama
If you ever get a chance to spend some time in Minneapolis (hopefully not during the cold, cold winter) you owe it to yourself to go downtown to the Riverfront District and check out the sites in and around the old Mill City Museum. (Hours and Directions.)

The name Minneapolis is actually derived from “mni”, the Dakota word for water, and “polis”, the Greek word for city. Minneapolis is nicknamed the “City of Lakes” and the “Mill City” - hence the necessity of seeing the historic riverfront area.

Minneapolis Historic Stone Arch Bridge
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Monty Python’s 12 Ways to Irritate People

John Cleese from Monty PythonJust in case you want to mess with that special someone in your life, our good friends over at the Monty Python factory have cranked out a whole series of videos designed to

a) Make you wet yourself.
b) Teach you how to annoy, irritate and otherwise drive people crazy.

So, here now, in all of it’s splendor and glory, with nigh a second of further hesitation, and without any more ado, with Godspeed, in due course, and with best wishes, I present to you the finest, most amazing, stupendously hilarious, comically genius, episodes ever assembled by the kings of British comedy, the sirens of stand-up, the dukes of delivery, the mavens of mad-hattery - the crew of Monty Python.
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Obama / McCain Coffee CupsThe boys and girls over in the marketing department at 7-Eleven have been working overtime and came up with an absolutely awesome election gimmick. You can stop by the convenience store and pick up your coffee in the morning, and when you do, just fill er’ up in either an Obama or a McCain cup to cast your vote!

7-Election Campaign PosterI found this out this weekend when I was forced to make an emergency pit-stop at 7-Eleven for a large cherry Slurpee. And by forced I mean I was compelled. And by compelled I mean it was necessary. Ok already… I just wanted one!

Anyway, as I was walking in, I noticed this sign hanging in the window and snapped it for all of you, my dear readers.

So, for all of those who have voted with their coffee selection, the following are the results of the Coffee Poll up to this point in time. Keep in mind that this may not be the most scientific methodology available. It’s possible that Obama supporters just happen to frequent 7-Eleven’s more than McCain supporters. Perhaps they are all at Starbucks?

Head on over to 7-Election.com for the latest results.

Obama is winning the Coffee Poll!

Seth Petruzzi vs. Kimbo SliceOk. Regular readers know that I LOVE MMA fights. And when Jimbeau told me that Kimbo got “knocked-the-f” out in 18 seconds I couldn’t believe it! In fact, I think my exact response was, “Show me.”

Well, Jimbeau proceeded to produce the following video, which I must have watched 5 times in disbelief.


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The 2008 Global Financial Crisis

A lot of people keep asking me what I think about the current state of the financial markets. Well, I think they suck. Having said that, I have given people the same advice as I’ve taken myself lately - which is, hold what you’ve got.

I don’t really have time to go completely into all the various points I’ve been considering lately, but here are a few key resources that I believe will help to give you a good idea of what all is going on:

  1. World’s central banks cut rates to rescue economy
  2. Angel Investor Ron Conway Emails His Portfolio Companies Over Financial Meltdown
  3. Worst stock market crash since 1937
  4. Stock Market Plunge Spreads Worldwide
  5. VIX Jumps to Record, Topping 56, on `Mad Rush’ to Sell Assets
  6. Asian Markets Plunge as Fears of Global Recession Looms
  7. Causes of Great Depression
  8. Stock Market, History,Causes and Affects
  9. Thoughts on the Global Financial Mess: Gimme Shelter (and some transparency, please)

Feel free to drop questions or comments below and I’ll answer them for a few days as I have the ability to check on them.
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