Melançon Enterprises • a multidivision multinational since 1980

Berkely and San Francisco are beautiful, i'm meeting many interesting people and learning many things, and here are notes about none of that.

the Apple store being open for some special appointments at 8:30am today but not for a mere battery-buyer like myself has made me unreasonably aggrieved and determined not to give Apple corp any money again.

Words from the weekend:
"You don't know yet, but we're connected on LinkedIn."

Silly thoughts:

Do you lie awake at night wondering how much market research went into naming Bing?

If i were to do any kind of body modification, i would sew in a pocket.

I knew tubeless tires were possible on a bike.
http://www.greenspeed.us/hanebrink_all-terrain_bike.html

tip: http://twitter.com/chx1975

There is no "international community". There are governments, there are people who give a damn, and there are people in Haiti fighting to survive. We need to get resources directly to people in Haiti, not let our government try to maintain its control over Haiti's destiny that has been so disastrous for Haiti. Bill Clinton and George W.

http://shakespearessister.blogspot.com/2010/10/holy-shit.html

I think the current powers-that-be have read this list (tip for the link: Brian Corbin).

If I ever talk to the hero on the phone, I will not taunt him. Instead I will say this his dogged perseverance has given me new insight on the futility of my evil ways and that if he leaves me alone for a few months of quiet contemplation I will likely return to the path of righteousness. (Heroes are incredibly gullible in this regard.)

The world media and the British press in particular (plenty of articles if you search for Jenin massacre myth) did a terrible job demonizing Israel for things that mostly did not happen, with all the newspapers seeming to interview the same guy somehow, during the attack on Jenin that was part of the re-occupation of the West Bank.

In short, education reform is a good cause. Experimentation is good -- and some of the best charter schools today have experimented in what could be valuable ways. But the push, coming from Wall Street and the extremely wealthy, for this specific form of charter schools, for this specific way of funding them [a thirty-nine percent New Markets tax credit from the federal government], is part of both short-term and long-term drives for profit that will accrue to the wealthiest while weakening the middle class.

Climate Justice Can Help End Poverty

History teaches us that when decent people take risks and engage in struggle for principles, peacefully and courageously, pursuing civil disobedience where necessary, then those who occupy the instruments of power, whether in government or in the financial sectors, will listen and understand.

Andrea telling me:

Cornucopia Institute

monitor places that claim they are organic
released their findings
haven't read it, heard it on FSRN, but it doesn't look pretty - the big chains claiming organic stuff

Michael Pollan was saying another tactic they use, and then for the last two weeks, they open up the barn– and at that point the chickens don't leave

Robert Jensen: Economics: Doing Business As If People Mattered
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2010/10/06-6

http://thirdcoastworkers.coop/2010/08/tcwc-and-yo-mamas-attend-national-...

Bangpound has noted that there's no evidence tying teen suicides to national legislation, as LGBT rights organizations jump on the recent string of suicides by homosexual teen boys. This is true, and focus should be on things that actually help kids (which are likely to be things that would help all minority, bullied, disadvantaged, different youth).

Our mediocre and bankrupt elite is desperately trying to save a system that cannot be saved. More importantly, they are trying to save themselves. All attempts to work within this decayed system and this class of power brokers will prove useless. And resistance must respond to the harsh new reality of a global, capitalist order that will cling to power through ever-mounting forms of brutal and overt repression.

We need to wage war strategically against the institutions at war with our rights to justice and liberty. An obvious case study for interests sharply and actively at odds with our common interest, that is getting some ink recently, is the brothers who currently own Koch Industries. (To be fair, the Koches are much more on the attack against economic and environmental justice than the more common perceptions of liberty; in the foundations they fund, at least, there's some internally coherent commitment to libertarian principles.)

Why Guatemalans Don’t Pay Taxes
http://www.newmaya.org/team-guate/why-guatemalans-dont-pay-taxes/

Summary:
The government has less revenue per GDP than even Haiti.

The government provides few services (has no money to do so in any case) and is known to be corrupt.

The unenlightened self-interested rich and big business of course just don't want to pay any taxes period.

The fundamental problem is no trust.

the big expensive false reports tend to be generated and propagated by big moneyed interests. Ideally, skepticism should be applied accordingly. It’s not even that this science is more likely to be wrong (though that may be). It’s that the consequences may be more expensive. Here, as elsewhere, the smell of money should sharpen your bullshit filter

http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/10/how-to-set-the-bullshit-filter...

A friend was just talking about hating when she lived in San Francisco, with the named reason being the number of beggars. The implication that it's all right if we keep them out of site bothered me; she said she figured services were better in New York. Anyhow, i've grabbed these tweets and very slightly cleaned up for typos, because they are very relevant to that and another discussion about prisons here.

Nick Lewis
https://twitter.com/nicklewisatx

Equal parts vinegar and water, and dry right away.
OR: spray vinegar.

Most seem to say apple cider vinegar.

And tea tree oil.

Eat probiotics like keifer and yogurt, and also try to have Bragg's organic apple cider vinegar.

Using 25% Undecylenic acid (fungi-cure)

Good article(s): http://toenailfungustreatments.com/
- also use a cream if any Athlete's foot
- use the tea trea oil
- vinegar & beer...

RSA Animate - The Empathic Civilisation
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l7AWnfFRc7g

Also:

RSA Animate - Drive: The surprising truth about what motivates us
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6XAPnuFjJc

"From independence in 1821, an event led by the country's elite, an authoritarian state was created that excluded the majority of Guatemalans; it was racist in theory and practice and served to protect the interests of a small, privileged elite.... State violence has been fundamentally aimed against the excluded, the poor, and the Maya, as well as those who struggled in favor of a just and more equitable society....