You know it’s dumb to put stuff in a ziploc bag and then stick it in the freezer with a bunch of air in the bag, so you squeeze out as much air as you can. Helps slow down freezer burn and saves space.

Do you then have to thaw it out by putting it in hot water? Even a little bit of air slows down the heat transfer… Sooo….

Fill your ziploc bag of chicken thighs with water. Get all the air out. Now, squeeze out the water the same way you would squeeze out the air. Put it in the freezer.

Now, it’s gonna be pretty hard for anything to grow on it with no air. And, since it’s already 100% water, not much freezer burn can happen.

It adds a little bit of thermal mass in case there is a power outage or you decide to thaw it in the fridge. Bonus for both. Plus, if you soak it in hot water, it won’t have any air barrier, so it’ll thaw faster and the heat will actually thaw the meat instead of being lost to the sink surface.

It’s better to can instead of freeze, but if you’re gonna freeze, at least try to get it right…

“I think the sheer lunacy of the housing situation, what you pay versus what you get, will insure that alternative means of construction will prevail in the end. Even if you don’t have the patience to build yourself, you can buy a steel warehouse building, say 30X40, and play with it to your heart’s content–stone facing on the outside, rice hull insulation indoors, clay walls to cover the rice hulls and steel, earth floor, half height earthbag fencing around the house for utility and beauty–and you’ll still only spend $20,000 versus half a million or more with a 50 year mortgage.

I’m in my mid 40′s and it boggled my mind that I’d have been a slave for my entire life, +5 years just to own a plywood & plasterboard shack that requires constant maintenance to not disintegrate, especially in the humid South. The bankers really do want you to become an adult, and then work for them for your entire life until you die, paying them rent, the pharma groups not far behind, with their belief that everyone of us needs to be on lifelong medications just to line their pockets. Ridiculous.

Another reason for pushing these 50 year mortgages, by the way, is that the robo-signing scandal and real estate fraud that took place during the bubble puts them in serious jeopardy of losing during the foreclosure process, in court, if those people have a good lawyer. By getting fresh signatures on new, proper, documents and invalidating the old fraudulent documents, they gain a much stronger position in any future foreclosure process, and as a final bonus, they also turn some non-recourse mortgages into full recourse mortgages, if state law allows this.

Whenever I am in hot debate with the neurologically challenged, I have found this to be a good example: If I were having lunch with you, and in the middle of lunch I were to stand up and announce to everyone in the restaurant that you were buying everyone’s lunch, I am sure you would take issue with that. What about if I agreed to put it up for a vote, would that make it fair? If you agree to accept the result, then you are therefore legitimizing it, and agreeing to the outcome.

On the other hand, if you were to say it is not up for a vote, I am not buying; I don’t care what everyone else thinks, well then you would have every right to complain if I tried to coerce you into paying. By not agreeing to participate in the vote, you have not legitimized it, and therefore have every right to complain, and should. The sheep cannot seem to grasp this concept.

Read full article: http://www.squidoo.com/friends-dont-let-friends-vote

The problem with voting is not who you vote for, but that government is still happening and you’re at fault for it by voting. We need an absence of government, and voting only supports it.

It doesn’t matter if you vote to get robbed by the Left, or vote to get robbed by the Right. You’re still voting to get robbed. Derp. Are you a moderate? You’re even worse! A combination of stupidities is not better than a purified idealist stupidity.

I’m still voting for Ron Paul, but I don’t expect my vote to matter, and I’m not going to complain about the result no matter what it is.

There are only two unlimited resources on Earth: Sunlight and Human Stupidity. Sunlight can’t be sold, and Steve Jobs (RIP) already cornered the market on Stupidity (because you’re reading this on your Android device, and the morons standing around you with iPhones have no idea what the QR code is that led you to this page, or how to use it to get here).

The only useful vote is the one cast from the rooftop at over 500yds. If you’re too civilized to figure it out; you deserve what you tolerate.

We the People need to figure out that we’re on the same team. Hang together, or we’ll hang separately. Join or die.

Ron Paul will be labeled as a divider, but if we all use our brains and vote for him, we can break the system. Liberals and Neo-cons both know he’s the right guy. Both parties hate him and tell lies about him to keep their factions in line. The voters need to stop falling for the faction propaganda.

The only wasted vote is the one wasted on the lesser evil, instead of what you actually want. Screw the party system. Vote for Nobody. Ron Paul is Nobody. He knows as well as we do, if he gets elected he’ll be assassinated immediately… Vote for Ron Paul, vote for Nobody! He’s old. He’s lived his life. He knows it. He is not Republican. He is no Democrat. He is no Moderate. He is the only one who isn’t leading us to the slaughterhouse. He doesn’t really want to lead. He just knows we need a choice that isn’t a lie. He’s willing to die to give it to us. He knows we’re not smart enough to stop voting. So, he offers himself as Nobody, the only choice that won’t screw us.

Voting against instead of voting for is merely another step in the wrong direction.

We need Nobody.

Excerpt:

Moreover, whether because of myopia or a drinking problem, Sam would often fire upon black sheep of the herd, as if confusing them with the jackals. When the sheep complained, the herder would look puzzled and go home to enjoy fine mutton.

Read full article: http://www.a-human-right.com/fable.shtml

Stop being sheep. Stop being stupid. The worst kind of lazy is the person who will work hard and follow rules/orders, but cannot be bothered to think. Myrmidons.

“Citizens may resist unlawful arrest to the point of taking an arresting officer’s life if necessary.” Plummer v. State, 136 Ind. 306. This premise was upheld by the Supreme Court of the United States in the case: John Bad Elk v. U.S., 177 U.S. 529. The Court stated: “Where the officer is killed in the course of the disorder which naturally accompanies an attempted arrest that is resisted, the law looks with very different eyes upon the transaction, when the officer had the right to make the arrest, from what it does if the officer had no right. What may be murder in the first case might be nothing more than manslaughter in the other, or the facts might show that no offense had been committed.”

and:

“One may come to the aid of another being unlawfully arrested, just as he may where one is being assaulted, molested, raped or kidnapped. Thus it is not an offense to liberate one from the unlawful custody of an officer, even though he may have submitted to such custody, without resistance.” (Adams v. State, 121 Ga. 16, 48 S.E. 910).

especially:

“Story affirmed the right of self-defense by persons held illegally. In his own writings, he had admitted that ‘a situation could arise in which the checks-and-balances principle ceased to work and the various branches of government concurred in a gross usurpation.’ There would be no usual remedy by changing the law or passing an amendment to the Constitution, should the oppressed party be a minority. Story concluded, ‘If there be any remedy at all … it is a remedy never provided for by human institutions.’ That was the ‘ultimate right of all human beings in extreme cases to resist oppression, and to apply force against ruinous injustice.’” (From Mutiny on the Amistad by Howard Jones, Oxford University Press, 1987, an account of the reading of the decision in the case by Justice Joseph Story of the Supreme Court.

Just read all of it: http://constitution.org/uslaw/defunlaw.htm

There is no such thing as a greater authority than the Individual.

I’ve been writing about the problems with building codes for a while now. Just for the record, I’m not 100% against codes. Limited codes can be beneficial, but the current situation is way over the top. This fact is well illustrated by comparing trailer houses (also called mobile homes) to buildings made of earthbags. A trailer house like the one in the photo above is — how can I put it politely — a piece of junk. They are not built to any reasonable level of strength or durability. For instance, it would be easy to kick your foot through the flimsy 2×2 stick frame walls. Just look what happens to trailer houses in tornadoes and hurricanes. Most of have watched scenes of trailer parks on TV that have been completely wiped out (flattened) after natural disasters. The same scenes are repeated over and over, year after year, because building officials say trailer houses meet current building standards.

Read full article: http://earthbagbuilding.wordpress.com/2012/01/06/trailer-houses-versus-earthbag-building/

Why not build something vastly superior for a fraction of the cost? Oh, yeah, because it’s illegal. Politicians are up to their eyeballs in the Construction and Insurance businesses. If your house doesn’t get destroyed, how will they bill you for more Insurance? How will they build you a new pile of crap if your house is still there? Your Family is being put at risk for their profits.

Maybe I’m like that guy with the hammer, to whom everything looks like a nail, but I can’t help noticing that once again Microsoft seems to be following Apple’s lead

Read full article: http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/window-on-windows/microsoft-is-pulling-out-of-ces-and-its-not-a-good-thing/5517?tag=nl.e064

But, they’re really bad at it.

People don’t want to be screwed and controlled. Microsoft lost touch with it’s customers with Vista. XP was the best thing they ever managed to produce, and dozens of Linux Distributions are simpler, faster, more secure, and more reliable.

Microsoft is losing the middleground. Let me explain.

There were 3 kinds of OSes.

1) The OS for total idiots who are such incredible idiots that they don’t realize their OS is damn near useless. They can’t understand more complex ideas, so they prefer an OS that doesn’t allow them. MacOS. iPhone. Those people… They don’t understand what they are missing, because they’re too stupid to understand anything more complex. They have a pile of money to burn on looking cool. Stupidity is expensive.

2) The OS for people who want to get shit done, but don’t want to hand-build every tool they use from scratch. They want a reliable tool they can go to the store, buy, take home, and it just works. They can get shit done now.

3) The OS of smart nerds with lots of time on their hands. It is flawless and perfect. Every detail exactly as wanted, because the owner caused it to be so. A lot of work that most people don’t have the time or smarts to involve themselves with. Linux.

Microsoft owned the number 2 spot. But, their products encouraged people to get dumber. They created too many crutches that got in the way of actually learning how the Computer works. You can’t get a straight answer to a question, because there isn’t one anymore. The crutches have muddied the water so badly, you can’t learn.

Their customers became MacOS customers. Their product became far too focused on the crutches, and it became unsuitable for the people who wanted to get shit done with the least hassle, because the crutches don’t help, they hinder. It slows down productivity, which is bad for business. In their effort to steal the marginal market share of Stupid People, they alienated a much larger market they already had. They threw away dollars to pick up dimes. They pushed the bottom end of their market to Apple. Apple is already doing “Strip out the things stupid people can’t figure out to make it appear ‘easy’ by being useless” much better than Microsoft is. Linux has evolved by leaps and bounds. Linux Mint is light-years easier to install and “just use” than any Microsoft product. Linux Gets shit done faster, with fewer resources, and next to zero headaches. Linux has achieved both the Ease of Use and the It Never Breaks goals that neither Apple nor Microsoft has accomplished. Linux has become 1, 2 and 3. If you wanna be a hardcore nerd, run a powerful, efficient server, etc, get Gentoo or Arch. If you want to get shit done with a minimum of headaches and tech support, Ubuntu, Mint, or a dozen other similar spin-off Distributions. If you want to turn your computer into an appliance with few features, but easy to use: Buy a Mac. Macs are for the Democrat Mind. No choices, everything brutally controlled, you have no say in it.

Microsoft has lost it’s mind. It has failed to improve the Driver and Networking experience. In fact, with networking, it has made things much worse since XP. A brutal headache. It’s bad for the individual, it’s REALLY bad for business. Mac goes to the extreme in dumbing things down, but it’s the only consumer option available, so the lower end of Microsoft’s former customer base is flocking to it. Because Linux costs nothing, and is now superior in every way, it is slowly being adopted across all tiers in this bad economy. No one can afford to waste their money on empty promises anymore. Mac users are satisfied because they don’t know any better. This was Steve’s genius. He knew that there were only two unlimited resources on this Planet. Sunlight, and Stupidity. You can’t sell sunlight, so there was only one other option.

As Microsoft no longer offers a product suitable for Nerds or Businesses, Linux is taking away their market share. People only use it because they are afraid to learn. Business only uses it because they have other software that requires the Microsoft environment to unction. They painted themselves into a corner, and only use Microsoft’s products grudgingly. They are desperate to get out from under the profit-crushing TCO of Microsoft’s newest “technologies.” This has driven Web Apps. Which allows for any old OS to do the job with the easy of a Web Browser. Businesses have found a platform-independent way to escape the TCO of Microsoft products. This was why Microsoft pushed so hard for web-presence and IE’s deliberate incompatibilities and prevalence. “It only works with Microsoft, so you have to buy our stuff or you’re screwed.” But that didn’t work. Not because anybody was smart, but because they just cannot afford to pay the Microsoft Tax anymore. Hardware, Infrastructure, Maintenance; these cost next to nothing in IT when compared to paying the Microsoft Software Licensing Fees. And for what? Software that barely works and keeps slowing down Employee Productivity? How many hours of pay to a building full of employees while “The computers are down” or “Staring at the Hourglass” or “The drivers don’t work?” That is the true cost of Microsoft’s failures, and it is immeasurable.

Linux is now the best choice for anyone who:

1) Cannot afford the high price of being stupid (MacOS), and are willing to start applying themselves.

2) Are not so afraid of change that they refuse to try something new.

3) Are businesses which combine the interests of 1 and 2 (cannot afford the Microsoft Tax, can pay a fraction of that price to have Employees re-write software).

Microsoft owned the number 2 spot. But, their products encouraged people to get dumber. They created too many crutches that got in the way of actually learning how the Computer works, and this stifles productivity and makes using the computer a painful experience. You can’t get a straight answer to a question, because there isn’t one anymore. The crutches have muddied the water so badly, you can’t learn. The terminology falsified in an effort to dumb it down. I think you’re smarter than that.

There are a myriad of other reasons, but this is the root driving force that nobody talks about. Microsoft has failed to realize that Dimes are not worth as much as Dollars. They are trying to emulate Apple in something that Apple is much better at doing. They neglected the top of the market that simply cannot function with garbage products. Microsoft is the reason for Linux, and it’s not as hard and scary as Microsoft wants you to think it is. Fear, it’s the only thing keeping you stuck where you are. Microsoft doesn’t want you to figure out how much easier and more pleasant using a computer is without them. You’re being treated like a mushroom, stop falling for it!

Why pay Microsoft to give you headaches, when you can save your money and your sanity at the same time? Microsoft made themselves irrelevant. Scare tactics and holding 3rd-tier business software hostage is all they’ve got left. They have become adversarial in their own customers. It’s like the IRS. We only pay them because of what they threaten to do to us if we don’t…

While Bitcoin isn’t a very good currency, it has the potential to serve as a “metacurrency”: a medium of exchange among the world’s currencies.

Read full article: http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2011/12/bitcoins-comeback/

The human race, specifically those who think with minds trained to be limited, still don’t fully grasp what bitcoin is, how it works, and what it can do. That is why it is volatile; too many people are too stupid to understand it.

Until Bitcoin, there were 2.5 kinds of Currency known to humanity. Invented by humanity. I say 2.5 because the 3rd is just a combination of the first two. You have Gold Standard, Fiat Government Issued Paper, and a blend of the two. Much like the Soviet States collapsed when the Iron Curtain fell, so do those who labored under the previous 3 money types. It’s too much freedom and they don’t know what to do without someone guiding them and holding their hands every step.

Bitcoin is a 4th sort of currency that has never existed before. We’ve been taught to believe that a central authority must regulate, or it won’t work. But this is the opposite of the truth. Centrally regulated currency only assures that the regulator is wealthy, and you work for him your whole life to get nothing. Stability has nothing to do with regulation. The most heavily regulated economies are destitute. Open your eyes and look around.

The value of BitCoin is in the fact that no one can regulate it. Look at the War on Drugs. How’s that working out? Make Bitcoin illegal and guess what… Derp.

Bitcoin is Capitalism. It has never existed before. It is money that Banks and Governments cannot manipulate, cannot tax, cannot steal, cannot devalue for their own purposes, cannot seize, cannot confiscate, cannot freeze, cannot prove who has it or where it is, etc. It cannot be faked or counterfeited. It cannot be x-rayed or earmarked. It is untouchable by all those we wish would stop touching our money. That is it’s value. It is the only form of currency that cannot be screwed with.

Much like Gold is the only Element that won’t oxidize, thus it has value. But you can still steal gold… Your Government can back it’s currency with Gold, but then print more paper, or remove the backing… You can’t stop them from doing it. Nothing can EVER eliminate the value of money that no one can screw with. Everyone who has money wants to keep their money, and wants it to retain it’s value. Just like Gold, it’s natural properties are what make it valuable. Tying currency to Gold was the best we could do to achieve that, until now. Now, we have Bitcoin; money who’s natural properties make it valuable on it’s own. No other form of currency, not even Gold, is untouchable by unwelcome hands. No one even knows it’s there, unless you tell them.

It doesn’t need backing of another object or institution to give it value. We have been trained to believe this is required for a few reasons. The first reason being, that is how it has been since the beginning of time. There hasn’t been a better way. We had no choice but to cede control of our money’s value to a central authority. There hasn’t been any other way until now. But, now that we don’t need those manipulators anymore, they desperately preach how much we need them, attempt to sabotage the new currency model, etc… Control of our money by others was something we had to accept, because they created the currency. We don’t have to allow that anymore, and those losing their grip on our money, are not happy about it.

If you delve into the technical aspects of how Bitcoin works, you’ll learn it was designed to bubble. More than once. This is by design. It will function as a meta-currency before it becomes a more broad currency. It will be unstable due to natural human stupidity and helplessness, until people get smarter… And that is it’s only real flaw; it is valued exclusively by the market itself. The market is humans. Humans are dumb as shit. Humans cry out to be dominated and controlled. The weak want centralized, pretend currencies.

Some people have learned that money really does grow on trees; Marijuana, Poppies, Mushrooms. The more illegal it is, the more valuable it is. Supply and Demand. The Free Market, people who hate being taxed and robbed and thrown in jail, demands a Free Currency above all else. Bitcoin cannot fail; it is the most valuable thing on Earth next to life itself. …as long as there are enough people around who are intelligent enough to figure it out. Capitalism IS the Black Market.

The Dollar only has value because you desperately need your paycheck to be more than just a piece of paper with numbers on it. Same with the guy in the cubicle next to you. It only has value because you need it to have value, and a group has been taught to put their eggs in that basket. That is the only thing that gives a Dollar value; desperation. You can keep that game going for so long… Most Fiat Money started as Fiat Money. It never had value, but the people born into it had nothing else to use. The Dollar used to be backed by Gold, now it is Fiat money, the backing was removed. It is rapidly becoming just as worthless as any other Fiat Money.

Americans should be the most aware and interested. But are they? Are they too stupid to figure it out?

When the Wealthy intentionally devalue their own money, the true purpose of money becomes clear. It’s not about what the wealthy have; it’s about taking what little you’ve got. It’s not about them having much, it’s about making sure you have nothing. If it was really about the money, they wouldn’t sabotage their own. They have the most money, why would they want to devalue it? You have been lied to about what centrally regulated currency is and how it is used. It is a weapon, nothing else. It took the creation of BitBoin to expose this. Regulation was a necessary evil. Now that it is no longer necessary, it’s just evil. If only humans weren’t so stupid…