Angola em Fotos é um fotoblog, até onde pude descobrir, de um jornalista, não sei se brasileiro ou não, chamado Iraldo e sediado em Luanda. O blog é unicamente de fotos e mostra um pouco a faceta da África “emergente”.

Para quem, como eu, se interessa pela África, eis um prato cheio:

Zungueira angolana

Bons Ares&Condutor conduz: http://angolaemfotos.blogspot.com/ e http://twitter.com/iraldo

Angola em Fotos é um fotoblog, até onde pude descobrir, de um jornalista, não sei se brasileiro ou não, chamado Iraldo e sediado em Luanda. O blog é unicamente de fotos e mostra um pouco a faceta da África “emergente”.

Para quem, como eu, se interessa pela África, eis um prato cheio:

Zungueira angolana

O Condutor conduz: http://angolaemfotos.blogspot.com/ e http://twitter.com/iraldo

I sort of hate to write a post about this (I’m feeling like maybe I’m a little too prolific), but my comments on wordpress.com blogs seem to get automatically flagged as spam for some reason (even, in some cases, on this very blog; maybe I am too prolific after all). So writing a post is an end-run around that and a way to weigh in via trackback on a post over at A Supposedly Fun Blog that sucked my comment into a spam black hole.

The post in question makes note of the misspelling of “roulants” as “rollents”  in references to the Assassins des Fauteuils Rollents. It turns out that there are all sorts of French language errors in the book. In the post, Matthew speculates that this error is another attempt to disorient the reader. I don’t know how charitable it is to suggest that Wallace wanted to disorient anybody. Lay a bunch of information on them to force active reading, sure. But disorientation seems like such a malicious thing, and I don’t think there’s malice in Wallace’s work.

My vanished reply to his post went as follows:

Some suggest that the bad French is intentional, chalked up in some cases to the fact that much of it comes to us via term papers, etc., written by teenagers with dubious French language acumen. In long note 304 (in which we read about the origins of the AFR), we’re also led to question the authority or lucidity of the person who has written the paper Struck is cribbing from. So it could be a mistake, but given how squishy authority and lucidity in that note are, it could also very well be intentional.

Al Filo de la Realidad: Revista por email y Podcast gratuitos.

Si estás leyendo blogs, escuchando podcasts y probando nuevas distribuciones o programas probablemente sea porque tenés criterio amplio, o a lo mejor lo estés consiguiendo gracias a que sos curioso y te tomás un tiempo para saber sobre otras cosas.

Seguramente alguna vez te habrás hecho la pregunta:

¿Qué demora el contacto con extraterrestres?

Pues bien, allí tenés la respuesta, en la web de la revista “Al Filo de la Realidad” de la que soy Editor y dirige el investigador, escritor y conferencista argentino Gustavo Fernández.

AFR es una revista para pensar, que se publica por correo electrónico y te podés suscribir gratuitamente. Los números anteriores, al igual que otro material, están en la web disponibles para todo público.

No solamente publicamos sobre OVNIs, sino también sobre Parapsicología, Ciencias Ocultas y los grandes misterios del Hombre y el Universo.

Hay muuuchos temas raros y lo interesante es que no están separados en otra Realidad, sino que están interactuando con nosotros todos los días, aunque no lo veamos (o creamos).

Ah, no te olvides de suscribirte también al podcast (audio mp3). Podés escuchar o descargar todos los episodios.

Si tenés criterio amplio, Al Filo de la Realidad te va a gustar: http://www.alfilodelarealidad.com.ar .

Marketers face the challenge of keeping track of a myriad of measures that are applied directly to their performance, often as key performance indicators (KPI).

Marketers must understand the underlying data, forms of measurement and calculations of these measures to stay ahead.

Measurement is important at any time but particularly in the current economic climate, when solid data can make a significant difference to future budget allocation.

More: http://www.afrboss.com/marketingdirections.aspx

I very much enjoy Victor Reppert’s Christian blog, “Dangerous Idea,” although obviously I disagree with his conclusions. Reppert’s favorite argument is a modern version of C.S. Lewis’s “Argument from Reason” (AfR); he posts a brief summary of its claims here.

In a recent post, Reppert also commends an article in the Calgary Herald that supposedly sets forth an application of the AfR.

Here’s the problem. The author, Hugo Maynell, summarizes the AfR as follows:

C. S. Lewis argued that scientific materialism is ruined by one fundamental inconsistency. Its proponents asked him to believe, in the name of science, that reason had arisen in the universe as a result of particles of matter moving randomly about over an enormous lapse of time. This is scientism, not science. Science, as Lewis said, depends on the assumption that reason is an absolute; furthermore, that matter in the remotest galaxies conforms to thought-laws excogitated by scientists in their laboratories here on Earth. (emphasis added)

If that’s what C.S. Lewis said, then C.S. Lewis is just flat wrong, and the AfR need not be taken seriously. I don’t want to straw-man a serious argument if it exists, but this claim is nonsense. No serious atheist I know — not the most dedicated, hardcore materialist — claims that reason is “an absolute.” Rather, we look to science as a way of discovering facts about the world because it’s been inductively reliable so far.

Now a fair response to the atheist would be to cite the problem of induction, for example. But it straw-mans the atheist to insist that the he must prove that reason is an “absolute.” We know that reason misleads us all the time. It just so happens it’s the best tool we’ve got.

I was really grateful for the sales we received last week for liverGARD.  A good percentage of them were from listeners of Armed Forces Radio and sports fans who were listening to a friend of mine who does our commercials.  Shipping to  an APO is no problem and I’m glad that folks were listening and willing to see what we’re all about.  Both of the founders of NBPI are ex USAF and many of our team members are former USARMY.  The web guy is  former USN so you can see that we have tremendous respect for the sacrifices you all make on our behalf.   We know that liverGARD will serve you well on your tours in places that put a strain on your detox system.  Too many airborne pollutants get in your bloodstream and must be metabolized when passing through the liver.  Using liverGARD daily will help your body deal with all of that.  When you do get downtime, you can use liverGARD to support your evening fun without losing the next day due to a hangover.  Keep up the solid work that you do and recognize that a significant majority of us know that regardless of politics, the job you do is the price of freedom and we’re grateful.

NBPI March 12, 2009

Access to the Australian Financial Review is available via the library catalogue at http://www.afr.com/search

Just wanted to write a quick post saying “thanks!” to everyone who has helped me in my professional life this year, I’ve had a great one — writing articles for Fairfax Business Media and then switching halfway through the year to being the News Editor at ZDNet.com.au. It’s been a blast, and you, my colleagues and friends, have helped me all the way. Here’s looking forward to a great 2009 — in the meantime, let’s all enjoy a welcome break

Merry Christmas!

Renai

Ok, so!

After I posted yesterday, I spoke with the dealer yet again.  I then called Harley Davidson directly.  The number for their corporate office (customer service line) is (414) 343-4056.  I spoke with a gal named Roxxanne.  Awesome!

I told her the whole story. She said she wouldn’t give me anything in writing, but that she codified our conversation and gave me a reference number to give to any dealer that didn’t believe me.  Here’s the story:

If you get a Stage I kit, you may not use a Screamin Eagle Super [Race] Tuner (“SEST”).  If you get a Stage II kit and do not change the exhaust, you may not use a SEST.  If you get a Stage II kit and you do change the pipes, then you are **REQUIRED** to get a SEST in order to balance the different loads on the engine and to keep the AFR (air-to-fuel ratio) ideal for reliable long-term operation.

Interesting, right?

The “catch” is that the SEST will not be covered under warranty.  The warranty will not be voided by ANY of this.  If you disobey the MoCo and use a SEST in either of the two forbidden cases above, there may be warranty “impact” such as the dealership refusing warranty service on damage they can prove was caused by your use of the SEST.  9 times out of 10, if you know what you’re doing and you aren’t abusing anything, the SEST will just help the bike run right.  Don’t ride like an asshole and you won’t blow anything up, pretty much.  But other than the SEST not being covered itself, I was completely relieved to hear all this.

So I called the dealer and told them.  “Get me a SEST, please!” I said.  Well, not really, I asked and asked politely.  But then the dealer wanted to confirm everything (Big Chris actually, who is really on the ball and hands-down the most reliable person there – he actually calls back!), so I passed on the reference # and he got it confirmed.

He called me back and said he’d verified all of it.  But then he gave me the great news:  I didn’t need a SEST anyway because the SuperTrapp pipes were the exact pipes the Stage II ECM download was made for!  SuperTrapp used to manufacture the screamin eagle pipes for Harley Davidson, and it didn’t count as “different exhaust” for the ECM’s purposes!  Wahoo!  He said to ride it and judge for myself if it seemed hot.

I can still do the SEST, but can keep my options open.  The PCV has that history of failures that the other tuners don’t have. Maybe it’s the PCIII that had failures and they’re imputed to the PCV, but whatever.  I want to look into the MasterTuner as well.

My next three-bills purchase will probably be a custom seat.  And that’ll be a while coming.

And some snowmobile mittens to go with the hand deflectors will get me on the road longer this winter than any winter prior.

I confirmed with Big Chris he’d be there at 9am on Saturday.  Eddy too.  Hoping the signing on the dotted line doesn’t take too long.

If you don’t see any posts tomorrow or Sunday, you’ll know why.

^_^

235cc SBC Eliminator Head

NEW PRODUCT –  AFR is proud to release its highest flowing 23° SBC Eliminator head, the largest offering in our all new very popular Eliminator series. The new 235cc design is a bolt on piece with standard port locations that flow more air than most of our competitors more expensive raised runner castings. Once again AFR sets the bar a wrung higher in affordable, extremely efficient, high flowing 23° aftermarket performance cylinder heads. The intake port of this head will flirt with 340 CFM’s thru it’s 2.125 valve at .750 lift, a number previously unheard of in an out of the box bolt on piece. Aimed squarely at the growing popularity of large displacement small blocks, 750 HP should be within reach for a well thought out high compression engine. Even a well engineered pump gas combination could achieve the magical and very elusive 700 HP mark. The new 235 has the exact same valve train geometry and stud location as our current 227, and will readily accept all the same hardware. Affordable offset studmount rockers are required or step up to a full shaftmount set-up for the ultimate in valvetrain reliability. The all new port designs also have explosive low and mid-lift flow that helps to better fill the cylinder with more average airflow on every intake and exhaust stroke. The intake port reaches 270+ CFM as early as .400 lift, cresting 300 CFM’s (the former peak flow yardstick for a good 23° head) before the valve even reaches a half inch of net lift (305 CFM @ .500). This will enable the end user to make big power without relying on extremely high lift cams that stress the valvetrain and the wallet with high maintenance costs. The exhaust port also doesn’t disappoint with 235 CFM’s at .500 lift (more than most of our competitors peak flow) and will flirt with 260 CFM by .750 lift. You don’t need to spend a fortune on a complete 14° or 18° set-up head to make big power now! For more detailed information view our product page: AFR’s 235cc Performance Cylinder Head.

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