You can find out now. GetGrandpasFBIFile.com is a website that will help you fill out the FOIA (Freedom of Information Act) forms to send to the FBI to request the files they might have on your (deceased) grandparent. (Or other relative I suppose.)
Kind of interesting. I might just have to do this for my grandparents.
For my camera…
Liz called me today saying that the camera was failing to recognize the CF card and displaying an error 02 on the screen.
Then she discovered that there were two bent pins down in the CF card reader. That can’t be good.
So when I got home, I took the camera all apart following this very useful guide by Gary Honis.
But when I tried to straighten the first pin, it broke off. So I figured I was all done.
Google only showed me one place to buy the circuit board with the CF reader on it and they wanted $275 for it! So I called my good friend Charles who knows all about cameras.
He told me to join the DP Review forums and ask what to do there. I did a little searching in the forums and came across a mention that the CF card has redundant pins for some features and it looked like the pin that broke off may have been an extra ground pin.
So I took the camera apart again (I had just finished putting it back together so I wouldn’t lose any of the pieces) and did my best to straighten the second bent pin. I got it mostly straight, and put the camera all back together.
Miracle of miracles, it works!
I fear that I am living on borrowed time though, as the pin is pretty mangled. But as long as I’m gentle when inserting the CF card I think I can limp it along for a bit.
But I know more than Sam Brownback. And so does Jerry Coyne. Go read his column about Sam Brownback.
As science becomes more and more important in dealing with the world’s problems, Americans are falling farther and farther behind in scientific literacy. Among citizens of industrialized nations, Americans rank near the bottom in their understanding of math and science. Over half of all Americans don’t know that the Earth orbits the Sun once a year, and nearly half think that humans once lived, Flintstone-like, alongside dinosaurs.
Now maybe evolutionary biology isn’t going to propel America into the forefront of world science, but creationism (and its gussied-up descendant “Intelligent Design”) is not just a campaign against evolution—it’s a campaign against science itself and the scientific method. By pretending that evolution is on shaky ground, and asserting that religion can contribute to our understanding of nature, creationists confuse people about the very form and character of scientific evidence. This confusion can only hurt our ability to make rational judgments about important social issues, like global warming, that involve science.
I fear for the future of America.
Well, maybe “just” isn’t the right word. But Bush appears to be trying to start it back up.
President Bush and the Czech Republic’s leaders on Tuesday defended plans to base part of a U.S. missile shield here despite fierce opposition from Russia.
…Bush, in the Czech Republic as part of an eight-day trip to Europe, spoke as Russia’s opposition to the proposed defense system mounts. Russia believes the shield in Eastern Europe is meant for it, and says it has no choice to boost its own military potential in response.
Bush dismissed those concerns. He said he will make his case directly to Russian President Vladimir Putin later this week on the sidelines of the Group of Eight summit.
Shakesville has the full story.
And me? I’m getting scared again.
On Monday night’s “Countdown” Keith Olbermann updates his disturbing timeline of how the Bush Administration has strategically used terrorism and fear to counter bad publicity, starting in 2002 all the way up to the most recent terrorist plot to blow up JFK airport.
…from the mind-bending idea that four guys dressed as Pizza Delivery men were going to out-gun all the soldiers at Fort Dix…to the not-too-thought-out plan to blow-up J-F-K Airport… here we go again. Time for an update of our segment “The Nexus of Politics and Terror”.
Crooks and Liars has the video. I highly recommend you watch it.
Well with five motorcycles (one with a sidecar on it) the garage is pretty darned full.
Left to right: ’90 Yamaha FJ1200, ’93 BMW K1100RS, ’83 Yamaha Seca 750 with Velourex sidecar.
In the back on the right you can barely make out the ’83 Kawasaki GPz305 (it’s red) and stuffed in the corner against the wall is the ’81 BMW R100RS.
The shell game is this:
Anyway, that’s the plan today.
On Saturday I got a new motorcycle. Yes, another one. This makes five currently.
It’s a 1990 Yamaha FJ1200 with 93,000 miles on it. And it was free. Free motorcycles are the best.
There is a story about this motorcycle.
About two weeks ago I was at a poker party with some friends. (No I didn’t win it in a poker game, but that would have been a good story.)
At one point, Al asked if anyone wanted his FJ1200 for free, as he hasn’t been riding it at all since he bought his BMW K1200LT. Of course I stuck my hand up and indicated that I would love to have it. Then I mentioned that I might want to use it for my Electric Motorcycle project.
Then Charles and I made a deal where he would take Al’s FJ (which is a 1989, but only has 30,000 miles on it and looks brand new) and I would take Charles’ FJ (which has 93,000 miles on it and doesn’t look so new) since I was thinking about ripping the motor out anyway.
On Saturday Charles was done transferring his Givi bags and other stuff from his FJ to Al’s old bike so I got to take Charles’ FJ home.
Charles had even cleaned the carburettors for me. What a guy. Unfortunately, the carbs still need some work, all four of them have holes in the diaphragms. And the diaphragms only come mounted to the slides and cost about $110 each. Ouch. That’s going to have to wait for a while.
It also is leaking oil from the valve cover. This is fortunately easier and cheaper to fix. It needs the valve clearances checked so I’m going to get the gaskets and do that right away. That’s only about $30.
I have to say the FJ1200 is a pretty nice bike. It’s got a hellofa motor. I’m going to like riding this thing around.
Now begins the shell game to get all the bikes fixed up and sorted out. But that’s for another post.
Steampunk Magazine just put out their second issue.
How did I miss the first one? This is pretty fun stuff. And you can download the issues for free!
