Letter I Received on Facebook. Haha...

To preface this... I am really glad that America is so rich and prosporos, and so stupid that people with too much time on their hands (like in togo) can have a nice time playing us. Solid. 

Guthrie,please your urgent attention is needed
Between You and Isa Sani


Isa Sani
Add as Friend
Today at 11:36am
Report Message


FROM THE DESK OF BARRISTER ISA SANI
(CORPORATE LEGAL PRACTITIONERS)
ARBIRATORS AND PROPERTY CONSULTANTS
No 12 RUE DU DECOMMERCE
OPPOSITE OLD COURT BLOCK 11
ISA & ASSOCIATES CHAMBERS
LOME TOGO
Tel; 00228 9868825
Email ; barrisasani@rediffmail.com

Attn; Guthrie,

I STRONGLY BELIEVE THAT THIS EMAIL WILL COME TO YOU AS A GREAT SHOCK BUT I WANT YOU TO UNDERSTAND IN ALL HONESTY THAT I MEAN NO HARM BUT FOR OUR MUTUAL BENEFIT.

With due regards,

I am BARRISTER ISA SANI,a solicitor at law, personal attorney to late Mr H,B.Weinschenk,a national Of your country, who used to work with Togo electricity here in Lome Togo,as a chief engineer. Here in after shall be referred to as my client. and it happen that the man registered to me as his personal attorney, Unfortunately he died in motor accident with his family wife and two kids,which happened on 31st july,2006. All occupants of the motor unfortunately lost there lives. Since then I have made several enquiries to your embassy here to locate any of my clients extended relatives, this has also proved unsuccessful.


So after these several unsuccessful attempts,I decided to contact you as you are sharing the same surname with my client,hence i contacted you, I have contacted you to assist in repatriating his deposit fund valued at US$16.5 million left behind by my client before it gets confiscate or declared unserviceable by the Ecowas Bank where this huge amount were deposited.The same Ecowas Bank managing director was closed to me through my late client and he have issued me a notice that he will be going for retirement in few moths time that i should provide the next of kin to my late client now that he still with the Ecowas Bank that very soon they will appoint another person to be in his position and he explained things in details to me that if i did not come for the claim now he is in control in the Bank it will be difficult for me after he left Ecowas Bank when they will appoint another person as the bank director.

Since I have been unsuccessful in locating the relatives to my late client, I seek the consent to present you as the next of kin to the deceased since you are sharing the same last name with my late client, so that the proceeds of his account can be paid to you as the next of kin,please we have to put claim over this fund now the present bank director is closed to me,so that he can assist us with his veto power to release the fund to us now he still with the bank.

All i required from you is to stand for me as the next of kin to my late client,so that his deposited fund in Ecowas Bank can be claimed out and transferred to your account as the next of kin,hence every relevant documentaions is down here with me,hoping you understand the points? just to assist me by securing this fund out from Ecowas Bank to your designate bank account to avoid confiscation.

For more understanding we need to see in person to build the trust our selves before we can proceed as i will also need to know you in person,In this case i will like you to appear in person here in Togo,so that we can apply to the bank physically for the claim and release of this fund to your designate bank account as the next of kin hence every vital documents needed to back you up in any breach of law as the beneficiary to the deposited fund is down,what i mean all the relevant documents is down here in my office which will be the must important in this transaction,so indicate your fully intrest by coming over here in Togo to have every thing done psysically

I am a Barrister and I came from a well known and respected family as the Secretary to Togo Bar Association i have a lot of reputation to maintained.You need not to worry of Visa because my country you do not need to come to my country with Visa. All that is needed is my invitation letter.Again, i want to advice you to confide in me, in case you have any question or enquiry or information do let me know first before going to the bank to avoid future misunderstanding/mistakes.

Therefore, on receipt of your positive response, we shall then discuss it the more about this claim and the retransfer. All I require from you is your honest cooperation to enable us see this transaction through. I guarantee that this will be executed under legitimate arrangement that will protect you from any breach of the law. Please get in touch with me through the above email for more details.

Best regard.
Barrister Isa Sani.
Please for security reasons don't contact me from this email box but contact me at my private email
( barrisasani@rediffmail.com )

OPEC and the Fall of CO2 emissions.

Let me preface this that I am a capitalist!

Here is a perfect example of the MARKET doing a great job. Good job consumers! 

So... oil prices have been high. The economic situations in many countries looks grim, and to top it off, there has been a huge surge towards efficiency. Now if you throw all of these factors together you will see a significant drop in consumption. Drivers in America have driven LESS miles (almost 9 billion less miles) in march alone than the year before, and overall, the end of the year may see a 5% REDUCTION in total miles driven -- the first time in nearly two decades that there has been a decrease (http://blog.rollinsfinancial.com/2008/07/gasoline-consumption-miles-driven-drops.html). Now even though places like China, and India are INCREASING consumption overall has decreased on a global scale. Of course supply still has not caught up to demand, but inventories are getting very full (there is great demand for oil in poor remote places for example, but no way to get the oil there, therefore inventories can be full, yet still not hitting demand). This has forced OPEC to cut their global production. 

This will probably level out the collapsing oil prices, and therefore gasoline will be more expensive, but the overall outcome will be a win for people worried about CO2 emissions. 

Think of it this way. And lets run some numbers. 

http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/opec-cut-production-15-million/story.aspx?guid=%7B6F142BD4-9B32-449E-A948-DD31F5D9E622%7D&dist=msr_17

OPEC will cut 1.5 Million barrels of oil a day. Thanks to our good friends at

http://numero57.net/?p=255

They have done some simple calculations to figure out the minimum emissions of a barrel of oil (not all oil is created equal, in fact there is a large discrepancy as to the quality, and type of oil), and the MINIMUM emissions are 317 kg of CO2 per barrel (check out the site to get the full rundown). 

Now, there will be 1.5 million barrels less that are "produced" aka, sucked outta' the ground. 

That means that 317 * 1.5 million = 475 million kg of CO2 

365 days a year * 475 million kg = 173,557 million kg, or 173 BILLION kg of CO2 that will not be in atmosphere. 

So, atta' boy capitalism for helping ease global warming. The power is in the hands of the consumer, especially the American consumer. So good job you. Lets get some wind turbines up.

Thanks,

Guthrie

Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death!

Let me preface this by stating that I am fairly "left" leaning. However, I recently heard a great argument.

It goes as follows.

Here -- are pictures of hurricane Ike, and the recent train crash in LA. 

Now, both of these calamities occurred simply due to bad luck. A hurricane (which, I suppose one could blame on global warming heating the oceans, making stronger hurricanes, fine, but thats still a stretch), and someone texting while driving a train. Both were tragic, and claimed lives, and caused a vast amount of damage. The nation was sad for a few days (in the case of the LA train), while hurricane Ike is long forgotten.  Now look at those pictures... and imagine if I had told you those were terrorist attacks. All of a sudden the situation changes. If that kind of calamity happened here in the US... a quazi breakdown of the constiution (which already has been weakened since 9/11), and broad authority towards the police systems and military would be granted. Habius Corpus was already taken away under the bush administration... can you imagine what would happen in the name of national security after another terrorist attack?

And here is the point. If there was a terrorist attack in the United States when our founding fathers were still around, it would STRENGTHEN their resolve to keep the rights of the citizens. Obviously some common sense safety procedures can be put in place... like making sure people don't have guns on airplanes. Ok, that makes sense. Or making sources of U 235, plutonium, other highly radioactive metals hard to obtain. We don't want anyone getting their hands on weapons grade material. Yes. But to take away the FREEDOM of american citizens, and remove their rights is about the most unamerican thing I can think of. 

When Britain was experiencing terrorism in the 1970's and 1980's (especially in Ireland), they didn't rip up their "constitution" (I say so with quotes because they don't have a document document, but a bunch of laws that make up the majority of -- just never mind), they held the rights of their citizens in a higher light. 

The "illusion" of security is one of the silliest, yet dangerous, forces in the United States at the moment. Every year 40,000 people die in car accidents. We don't have a "war on cars". We don't invade GM and Ford. We understand that shit happens, but we really can't do anything about it except to discourage drunk driving, and improve auto safety. You cannot AVOID a car accident if you drive all the time. Sometimes shit happens. And America accepts that even faced with the daunting evidence that 40,000 die every year. Yet, almost 4000 American's died on 9/11. Tragic. Horrible. I'm not diminishing the horror of it... yet while the death of 40,000 Americans in cars causes not so much as a blink... the death of 4000 allows for wiretapping US citizens, no habius corpus, broad executive powers, 2 trillion dollars in security spending... ect. ect... What would happen if we spent 2 trillion in making a safer car? We'd save a lot more lives. 

So. There is a clear choice. The great phrase comes to mind... which is Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death. Famous words. And they make a LOT of sense here today. I'd rather have my risk of death increase by .000001% than have my rights taken away. Safety is an illusion, rights are not. Keep that in mind, and next time a calamity occurs, because everyone knows that one day it will... i hope that we understand what is really important in this world.

Thanks,

Guthrie

I'm famous! It blows my mind.

Let me Preface this by stating that I don't make videos to put on Youtube.... I use it as a "cloud computing" backup.

BUT, that being said... I think I should start putting videos on youtube, and see if I can't get a following. Let me tell you my story...

So throughout the last few years, I have found it nice to record video from my Canon SD 700 Camera. Sometimes pictures just don't cut it, for example, when we taped some teachers to a wall... I could have just taken some pictures, but a video truly captures the essence of the moment. Another prime example are concerts. The lighting is too dark for a good picture, and who wants to be the dude who just sits around and takes pictures... not me... So I like taking video footage of concerts. 

So afterwards... I've been posting my videos on youtube. Well... As it turns out, the buyout of youtube.com by Google Co. has provided some good news for us -- the end consumer. Google has combined the stastical systems already in place to each user. This service is called YouTube "Insight" gives hosters the ability to track their popularity, view count, and most interesting to me, the geographical locations that are watching their videos (or just one video) the most. For example... I never would have guessed, but a decent portion of my views (perhaps 5%) come from Sweden. Also interestingly enough, about all of those views come from a few of my Obama videos. Sure enough... with some handy google searching I discovered the answer -- a Swedish website that hosts videos has my videos uploaded to it, and embedded into the HTML. SWEET!

What is equally interesting is the global spread. Sure the Middle East doesn't have very many views... but there have been three views from Saudi Arabia of my videos, which, while small, still boggles my mind. There are actually few countries in the world that DON'T have at least one view. Moldovia happens to be lacking, as well as Turkmenistan. Oh well... I'll survive. 

Even within the United States, my viewership is quite spread. Of course I do poll heavily in Wisconsin, but the second largest state is California, which, at one point, posted over 30 views of my video's in one day. That kind of RAW power excites me. The ability to connect to so many people -- without even trying to -- amazes and bewilders me. Of course my blog hasn't been as lucky. While, yes, the counter did get reset, and therefore I probably am at 2000 views, I doubt many are "fans" and even less "read" what I write. Still... blogging and posting videos on youtube fulfill a higher purpose -- the storage of human events, and experiences. The simple fact that for the rest of time (or at least until shit really hits the fan), my goofyish expression as I flip on a megaphone in the library can be seen by anthropologists 200 years from now as evidence of a free and open culture, unlike that which the oppressive robot regime opparates under. 

So when I grow old... my children can go and watch me do stupid stuff. It'll be fun! 

Also... best of luck to Dylan, I just learned of what happened today, and its really sad. Really sad. You've got my heart buddy. Good luck! Make sure you let who you love know it. You never know what can happen.

Thanks,

Guthrie

Trombone Shorty and the Kickass Show

Let me preface this by stating that I saw Trombone Shorty last year, and it was great then.

It was just as good this year. 

The first show I ever went to on the terrace was on Sept. 3, a few of us from my dorm, geeks as we were, decided to go to a movie at the Memorial Union. Well, being stupid, we couldn't find the theater (The movie was probably at Union South or Something...) but there was this band just getting on stage. So we went down and stood in front. Well, all of a sudden, it was three hours later, and we are all sweating from dancing so hard. About 300 people were basically moshing on the terrace, and it was the perfect mix of jazz, rock, and kickassness. They play an amazing show.

Trombone Shorty hails from New Orleans, and packs a killer punch of a band. TS on himself plays trumpet and trombone, and raps, and dances, and basically runs the show. He can circular breathe. 'Nough Said. Amazing horn player.

So unfortunatly it wasn't put on the by the WUD music committee so it was geared in the same mode of shows that are not for students as much as the general public. AKA, tickets aren't free. Sadly, the crowd was most mostly people over 30, so the chance for a "kickazz rave" probably wasn't as high as I would have hoped. The other problem was that there wasn't really room for a mosh pit up front. I was seriously worried that they would do more of a "toned down show". Which I suppose it was because he didn't rap to much. THAT SAID... they walk on stage and he goes --"everybody on yo' feet!" and then there was just a wall of sound via the horns and guitar, and it was go time -- all those old foggies got on their feet! 

It was a great show. They people are all amazingly talented. The solo's were perfect, because they all had the jazz background, so they can be rocking out playing 'basket case' by green day, and yet slip into a modal thing, and then play outside for a cool sound. Plus... they all know New Orleans, so their syncipation was just killer. It always "popped". Only thing that was kinda missing were some keys, but I can't blame them, their guitarist was laying down some sick funky guitar. The best touch I felt was the conga player. You couldn't hear him as much, but it made the percussion section sound fresh all of the time. The bari sax player was also a nice addition. Being able to lay down that "duh bap beeuuuwww" was just what the doctor ordered. The bass player played a 12 string, and provided what turned out to be an amazing rythum section. 

So I danced along with this couple that had seen them in New Orleans! Apparently after that show TS told the guy that he had "Never seen anyone so sweaty". So they were having a great time -- and so was I.

The last song they played was "When the Saints come marching in", and boy, did they ever kick it up. So, the couple start dancing around through the isles, and I go right along with them. TS tells us to all come up on stage, so we do, we climb up, and start dancing the fuck off! About 3o or 40 people follow us, and for the last five minutes we all got to dance and dance and dance on stage. It was crazy!

Youtube videos will be forthcoming asap!!

Thanks,

Guthrie