Our high school is just no longer acceptable. It needs to go and we have a golden opportunity to get it replaced with 2/3 of the cost coming from the government. Our need is that great. However, we (the town) still need to pay for the other 1/3 and we have two votes coming up that will let the deal go through.

Not everybody in our town thinks it is a good idea, I think mostly because their taxes will go up. Even though the new high school would pretty much ensure that they recouped what these taxes would be just in the increased property values of their homes, not to mention the myriad other benefits a new facility would bring and the overall strengthening of the community as a whole, they are still against it. I am at a loss as to how best to explain the benefits so I had a friend of mine comment on his blog about what it really means to a community (economically) to get a new school, please check it out;

Shade Tree Economist

Please watch this video from Intellectual Ventures Lab. This group is working on ways of combating malaria in developing countries. Every 43 seconds a child dies of malaria in Africa and while spraying and nets are somewhat effective a lot still needs to be done to protect people. One of their ideas is to install mosquito defense systems around villages and clinics that would use lasers to shoot down malaria carrying mosquitoes as soon as they came in to a certain range.

DID YOU HEAR WHAT I SAID? Use lasers to shoot down mosquitoes!

As you can see by the video they already have a working model. The most amazing thing about this is that they made this, they did not invent it. They purchased all of the components for this device off of ebay. Think about that. All of the components to make a FRICKIN LASER ARMED MOSQUITO DEFENSE SYSTEM are OFF THE SHELF! From the blue laser taken out of a Blu-Ray player to a fast moving mirror from a laser printer. Also, computing power has become so cheap and abundant that the system could be made so that it would measure the wingbeat frequency and size of the flying object before deciding to shoot it down. This way the system would shoot only the disease ridden mosquitoes and avoid any friendly fire situations like shooting down a local honey bee on its way to pollinate some flowers.

Now, a lot of you will read this and say that this is pretty cool and then forget about it. As a society, we have become indoctrinated to expect and accept the wondrous as almost mundane. The idea of a mosquito laser defense system is an idea right out of science fiction. An idea that would be far fetched to even the most forward thinking sci-fi writers from 30 years ago. Yet, not only does it really exist now, but there is so much abundant technology out there that nothing new even had to be invented for it to work. Someone just needed to take existing tech and put it together in a novel way.

Our technology is becoming pervasive and invisible to most people. So many of you out there, right now, have no real concept that the device they carry around and use everyday to send texts and pictures and check reservation and movie times on, which they laughably call a phone, is actually a miniature computer with a million times more computing power than the lunar lander, Eagle, the first vehicle to land on another world. Most people don't know and they don't care. All they care about is that their stupid "phone" doesn't have enough bars for them to talk with their friend 600 miles away while checking their flight schedule to see if there are any delays ... "No bars! This thing sucks!" The wondrous has become commonplace.

I will give you an example. If people woke up tomorrow and saw a news story about scientists successfully cloning a herd of woolly mammoths that would soon be heading to their local zoos they would not even bat an eye. Cloned, prehistoric creatures. Are you kidding me? This is a classic sci-fi concept. Except, now it's not. Now it is just a concept, because people know that not only is cloning prehistoric wooly mammoths feasible, they fully expect that it is inevitable.

Even as they ignore the technology around them people have come to fully expect the amazing revelations that science will bring them. "Oh, we received radio contact from an alien civilization at Tau Ceti? Well, it's about time. We have been waiting for that one for years." There really isn't very much out there that could surprise a person living in our society. Things that would astonish and dumbfound people 50 years ago have become what a lot of people feel they are entitled to and are pissed off that it is taking so long for them to get, i.e. The Flying Car. "C'mon people! It's 2010! What is taking so long? I want my flying car!"

So, the next time you go to text your friend or check your exact geographic location on your "phone" take a second and smell the wonder. Reflect on the miracle that is in your hand and remember that old beat up calculator that was once used to pilot a ship to another world.

Link: http://okgo.forumsunlimited.com/index.php?showtopic=4169

OK Go - This Too Shall Pass from OK Go on Vimeo.

I came across this open letter from the band OK Go about the changing nature of the music industry and the unexpected issues that arise from these changes.
Open Letter from OK Go

This is a very cool video of an Italian singer performing a song whose lyrics are complete and utter gibberish meant to sound like American English. The intent of the video is to illustrate which English phonemes and syllables carry into the foreign ear.
Even though I know the song is complete gibberish it sounds just like English to me, with a kind of James Brown feel to it. I keep wanting to relisten to it because I swear I can almost make out what he is saying. It is very weird. The Italian Singer is Adriano Celantano and this was written in 1972.

It is easy to forget all of the ripples that occur and how many people are affected when a loved one is gone. Not just gone, but gone to a place that is far from safe. And to know that they volunteered to go there when they joined our armed services so that we can continue to live in the comfort and safety that is a product of our amazing country. I am humbled by their sacrifice. Thank you for that.

Also, anyone who tries to tell you that animals can't feel need to watch this and these other videos. Go get yourself a rescue dog. You'll never regret it.

Cheers

Originally uploaded by jlmoyni at 16 Aug '09, 5.23pm EDT PST.

Summer is over and the kids are back in school. Our weeks and weekends are now filled with homework, practices and soccer games while our days are filled with work.

I miss the Vineyard. We had a great summer vacation there this year that was full of the four F's; Fun, Family, Frolicking, and Feeding our faces with gigantic, yummy, lobster rolls.

I can't wait to go back. Until then i will have to make do with some pics;
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jlmoyni/sets/72157621926299737/

Cheers,
John

Cheers

From the recent TED Conference;

A word of warning to everyone out there. If you are at work tomorrow and are having problems with your email or you can't print something or you are having trouble uploading pictures of your cat to your FaceBook profile I am just here to tell you that you may be waiting for quite a while for any kind of IT support. Why? Because tomorrow is the geek equivalent of a snow day. All over the country geeks, nerds, techies, and fanboys will be silently wrapping things up early, signing out their pagers, and putting their cell phones on vibrate so that they can all go out and see the earliest possible screening of the new Star Trek movie.

Why the earliest possible screening? It's all about your Geek Cred (kind of like street cred but you don't have to shoot anyone for it). The first one to see the latest and greatest thing in Geekdom wins. It's as simple as that. And Star Trek is about as close as you can get to being the Holy Grail of Geekdom.

So if you're having technical issues tomorrow you may have better luck talking with your help desk friends over in India because the local guys may be "busy". In fact, I will go so far as to predict that there will be a lot of convenient server related emergencies that will absolutely require your local IT guy's undivided attention in the data center (which, of course, no one but your IT guy knows the location of). These emergencies will probably last for a block of, oh, let's say 3 hours in the early afternoon. After which things will miraculously be fixed and your local IT guy will have averted certain disaster.

Also, if you are heading to the movies tomorrow or anytime this weekend, you may run into some klingons, vulcans, and romulans, plus the occasional jawa (not all geeks are smart. We do occasionally have a confused one). So expect theaters to be packed but if you are going to see "Ghosts of Girlfriends past" or "The Soloist" you should be OK.

Where will I be tomorrow? I will be at work tending to my duties. You see, us older, more seasoned geeks no longer have the need to see the latest and greatest as soon as it comes out. Even if it is Star Trek ... I'll probably wait until Monday.

Cheers

Here is a short video starring Maeve and Ella that was shot by Maeve. As you can see, she went to the Blair Witch Project School of Filmmaking.

Cheers

Link: http://shade-treeeconomist.blogspot.com

I would like to invite all of my readers to check out The Shade Tree Economist. This is a blog that my friend Mike has just started that is concerned with all things economic and businessy. For example, I don't know if any of you out there have heard this, but apparently, the country is in some kind of recession ... who knew? Well, Mike writes about that stuff. He has a great way of making a very complicated subject even more complicated and harder to understand but he is funny when he does it. For example, here is an excerpt from a post he wrote where he compares Socialism and Capitalism;

Allow me to expand on Hayek’s premise by invoking one of the foremost examples of Socialism America has ever produced: Gilligan’s Island. If you think Cuba is the only place that could successfully combine palm trees, pristine beaches, and the triumph of the proletariat I beg you to flip on Nick at Nite and behold a Marxist paradise.

In all seriousness (yeah right, but work with me here) the seven castaways serve as perfect examples of why Socialism cannot scale beyond a handful of people. Each castaway uses his/her talents to produce something that is shared among the group. The Skipper and Gilligan provide manual labor like in the episode where the Skipper shoves a bit in Gilligan’s mouth so his ‘little buddy’ can serve as a 98 pound oxen and plow a field. The Professor provides the intellectual firepower to develop technologies like coconut phones and an amazing array of transistor radio based applications that can do everything but send a radio signal. Mary Ann cooks and cleans in a perky half-shirt and short-shorts combo (yummy). The Howells did nothing, representing the 15 – 20% of every society who feel entitled to leach off the work of others. And Ginger did everybody.

See. Told ya. Makes perfect sense.

For those of you who are interested, Mike and I were actually roommates in college. He was the straight-laced business major and I was the care-free science major, think Odd Couple but with more booze and pharmaceuticals thrown in. I have always enjoyed talking with Mike and reading his stuff mostly because disagreeing with him is a lot of fun. I like to watch as he turns beet red and the little vein on his forehead pulses as I spout off my liberal musings. When we talk our goal is to see who can make the other go apoplectic first.

Whoa, Whoa! Calm down people! It's OK. I know it is hard to believe, but it is possible to have dissenting opinions with someone and remain friends. I know that, officially, the art of conversation died out in 1978 with the release of Three's Company on television, but I can assure you, Mike and I are proof that you can have an intelligent discourse about a subject without resorting to calling someone the mutated spawn of Joseph McCarthy and Adolf Hitler or referring to someone as a commie tree-hugging ankle-biter. We rarely do that, and then, only when tequila shots are imbibed sometime during the conversation. Anyway, check out what he has to say, I think you will find him both entertaining and enlightening.

The Shade Tree Economist

What kind of person feels guilty about spending too much time with other online social networking tools at the expense of their own personal blog?

This kind, apparently. Sorry, LastDitch. I'll do better, I promise.

I have not been paying too much attention to this blog lately because a couple of weeks ago I decided that I needed to update my presence on the web. I already had this blog and I was using Twitter fairly frequently but other than that I was pretty anonymous. So I went and updated my LinkedIn and Plaxo accounts (both primarily business networking sites) and, with much anxiety and trepidation, I jumped headlong into FaceBook.

My reasons for doing this were varied, some professional, some personal. However, one of the main ones was simple curiosity. One of the biggest problems with social networking tools is that they only work well if you keep them up to date. And if you choose to participate in a lot of these sites then the time requirements to keep them updated really start to add up. I just wanted to see if I could find a way to belong to all of these useful services without having to tell my kids that the next time I would see them was when they graduate high school.

FaceBook was the one that really concerned me. I had heard real horror stories about this time vampire. Twenty, thirty, and forty year olds sitting in dark rooms staring at a screen waiting for their wall to update them with a gift or a survey or a quiz on which Jonas Brother they are most like. Just waiting. Like some crystal meth addict staring at a case of Sudafed. Let's just say that it took some convincing for me to join. In the end my sister Kathy convinced me that it wasn't that bad and could be a good way to keep in touch and network (she was right).

So after I went ahead and joined, updated, friended, and what have you I needed a good way to mash everything together. It actually ended up being surprisingly easy(I think they all learned a lesson from MySpace's horrible exclusivity policies). All of these sites have great integration tools that are very easy to set up and once up it is very easy to keep everything updated.

For example, you people out there who have friended me on FaceBook may have noticed that I update my status fairly frequently. The truth is, I have NEVER updated my status on FaceBook. I have responded to posts on my wall and brought in a few pictures but all of my FaceBook status updates are actually Twitter posts. Even the majority of my photos on there were not uploaded but instead come from my linked Flickr account.

I have found Twitter to be an extremely powerful tool that I began using at work as a way to keep my team updated and then started branching out and using for fun and now have come full circle and started using it professionally in different ways. For those who don't know, Twitter is a micro blogging tool that lets you send out blog posts of up to 140 characters at a time. The people who choose to follow you will receive these posts. In turn, you can follow as many Twitterers as you like. I use it for both work and fun, sometimes both at the same time. I follow people like Neil Gaiman and John Hodgman, I also follow CNN, HealthCare Mobile, and the American Heart Association. I have had interesting conversations with it (not one to one, but sometimes, one to thousands) and as I said, I have recently started using it more professionally. My use of Twitter has actually resulted in phone meetings with CEO's of companies around the country that are in my field of telemedicine. Using tools like TweetDeck allows you to filter tweets (Twitter posts) by key words so that I can find people who are tweeting about telemedice or healthcare or the Red Sox or whatever. Since I have started using it I have found that it has many more uses besides just letting people know when I land at the airport.

So, if it seems like I am updating my status on FaceBook a lot, I apologize but I am really not. Those are either twitter posts or posts from this blog (yes, I have linked this blog to show up on my other sites as well). My Twitter and LastDitch posts show up not only on FaceBook but on LinkedIn and Plaxo as well. As some of you have already seen, my twitter posts also show up here on this blog. If it is too much for some of you then feel free to unfriend me or block me. Hell, I won't blame you, half the time the twitter posts won't make any sense to you anyway (if you see an @name in a post it means I am replying to someone else's tweet, which you obviously will not have seen so it will make no sense to you). If, however, you don't care, then feel free to follow along with some of the shenanigans, hi-jinks, and minutia that is my life and feel free to comment on it if you like. Either way, it's all good.

By the way, I am enjoying FaceBook. It has allowed me to reconnect with a lot of people I have not seen in forever. The other day I got a message from my all time favorite grade school teacher that I have not heard from in almost 30 years. Now that is cool.

Since I have gotten everything linked together what I am finding difficult is finding a balance to what I post and put out there. Do my friends on FaceBook really care that I am on the panel of an upcoming Telemedicine Webinar? Probably not, nor should they. However that one post also went to my LinkedIn and Plaxo accounts and the contacts I have there do care. Conversely, do the members of the CIO/CTO Leadership Council that I belong to on LinkedIn care that we have a new puppy in our house? I doubt it. But they are going to see that post along with my FaceBook friends who might.

So for the time being I think I will just mix things up a bit. I may actually post some topics related to my work here on LastDitch just so that I don't inundate my professional contacts with puppy pictures. We'll see.

I do plan on posting more here just cause I miss it. I know I only have like 3 readers out there who follow me regularly (shout out to Mike P!) but I actually find the writing therapeutic. By the way, if you do read this, feel free to let me know because, while I do enjoy writing here, sometimes it feels a lot like mental masturbation and, well, you know, its funner when more people join in. Remember, Feedback/Comments = Love. Anyway, enough babbling on, I need to go get my new shipment of plexiglass siding to help hasten my transformation into the boy in the bubble.

Cheers

P.S. feel free to follow any of these, or not ... whatever
http://twitter.com/jmoynihan
http://www.linkedin.com/in/jlmoynihan
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=635238364&ref=profile
http://www.flickr.com/people/jlmoyni/

As a counterpoint to my previous post I came across this hilarious yet accurate diatribe on the current generation from comedian Louis CK on Conan.
It is scary how many people you come across that because they already have pretty much everything, they think that they somehow deserve it as their right as opposed to considering it a privilege or thinking that they have to earn it.

Enjoy

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LoGYx35ypus

Originally uploaded by jlmoyni at 18 Feb '09, 8.31pm EST PST.

I can remember when I was a kid I had a pen pal. Well, more of a pen acquaintance really. In truth, it was really just this kid I wrote a letter to once. I think it might have been a school thing or something but somehow I got a name and address of this kid and was asked to write a letter to him. I think he was from Ottowa or Ohio or some other place I didn't care about and I can remember wracking my brains trying to come up with questions to ask him;

"I heard you have lots of corn where you are. What's that like? I like corn"
"I live near the ocean. Do you know what an ocean is? It's like a lake only way bigger and better. It must really stink not living near the ocean."

I think it was probably three months later that I came home from school and there was a letter waiting for me. This kid had responded to all of my in depth questions. The problem was that I had written the letter 3 months before and I couldn't remember what the hell I had asked . It was like I had received a letter from a deranged mental patient;

"Our lakes are fine thanks, besides I don't like seafood and I can have corn anytime I want."

Huh? I had no idea what he was talking about. Needless to say I did not write back to this crackpot thus ending my first and last foray into the world of pen palsmanship (marksmanship, stewardship ... shut up it's a word).

For some reason I thought about this after I had just been hanging out with my kids. They were home in Massachusetts and I was in a hotel room an entire continent away in San Diego and we were talking through a high definition video conferencing system that I had set up in my room. With this I was able to see them everyday and say goodnight. They could call me on it anytime as well if they wanted to talk with Dad. It just struck me how much things have changed just in the short time from when I was a kid. Our kids are living in a world completely different from the one I grew up in. It used to be if you had a friend who went away for the summer that was it, you didn't get to see them or talk with them for three months. These days, kids are in constant contact with their friends no matter where in the world they are. We now have the ability to provide as much information about our lives to as many people as we want. For example,I just got back from a vacation where I was sending updates and pictures from Disney World as they were happening in real time for friends and family to follow on the web. I email, text, video, and phone people all over the country on a daily basis. Hell, I even send out Twitter updates so that complete strangers can know what I am doing or thinking whenever I choose to update them, and I'm not even sure why I do it (by the way feel free to follow me at http://twitter.com/jmoynihan ).

Granted, I am an IT guy so it makes sense that I do all of these things but now everyone is doing it and not just the geeks. I'm lucky in that I have access to high end video conferencing equipment because of my job but anybody with a computer can use Skype or OoVoo or iChat and I know some extremely technophobic people who routinely text and send pictures using their phones.

I know what you are all thinking and I agree that there are downsides to all of this information being available but in my opinion they do not come close to offsetting the advantages. The botom line is that I just spent a week 2500 miles, two mountain ranges, and countless rivers and other obstacles away from my family and yet every day I sat and talked with them as if we were in the same room with each other, and that, to me, is priceless.

It's a wonderful time to be living in. I can only imagine what my kids will be thinking in thirty years with their children;

"Do you remember when all we could do was talk via high def video? How did we live like that?

Cheers

Originally uploaded by jlmoyni at 8 Feb '09, 12.37pm EST PST.

As you can see, Ella has settled in well at our house. She is all tuckered out from showing off her fashionable, pink, "it's a girl" t-shirt (no we did not buy this for her, it was a gift, but she is really cute in it).

As you can also see, we are sticking to our guns on the whole "no dog on the couch" rule. House training is going pretty well and we are down to about one accident a day, which is good.

Here are some more pics if you are interested;
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jlmoyni/sets/72157613511286286/

Cheers!

Originally uploaded by jlmoyni at 2 Feb '09, 9.14pm EST PST.

Hi all. I wanted to introduce everyone to the newest addition to the family, Ellabelle. We brought Ella home on Saturday and she has quickly made herself at home and has us all jumping to her tune. It's worth it though as she has already showered us with her love, as well as showering the rugs, floors, furniture, shoes, and whatever else she can reach. She also enjoys leaving us little aromatic presents to find because she is so thoughtful (Oh well, it's a good thing she is cute). If you would like to see more pics of her please click on the following link; http://www.flickr.com/photos/jlmoyni/sets/72157613175017183/

Cheers!

Hi all. Here is a video of me with Shea and Maeve riding the Tea Cups at Magic Kingdom. I have finished loading all of the pictures and videos up to Flickr so please feel free to check them out. We basically had 3 cameras going during our trip (mine, my Dad's, and my Mother-in -Law's), plus the camera on my Blackberry that I was using to send Twitpic Twitter updates. Both my Dad's camera and mine have a rapid shoot feature that we used extensively. The end result was that we took 1970 pictures on our trip. I have winnowed those down to about 1400 which I have uploaded to Flickr. Have fun checking them out. For those of you with jobs, I made a special Highlights Set with less than 300 pictures that you can enjoy without giving up a weekend. The link for that is right here; http://www.flickr.com/photos/jlmoyni/sets/72157612932738899/
Once there click on the little slideshow icon on the upper right of the page.

Cheers!

We saw this guy in Animal Kingdom and I gave him some quick info about Jen while she wasn't looking and he then came and sang this song to her (I didn't get the beginning of it but you get the idea).

Originally uploaded by jlmoyni at 18 Jan '09, 11.22pm EST PST.

Sometimes it is just the principle of the thing. It may only be in the 50's down it here but this is Florida and we are going swimming, gosh darn it. Besides, could be worse, we could be home in a blizzard right now. Phone is charging so I should be updating tomorrow at Animal Kingdom.

Cheers.

Originally uploaded by jlmoyni at 17 Jan '09, 10.05pm EST PST.

We finished day 2 of our vacation and everyone is having a blast. I will continue to try to keep you posted.

Cheers!

Originally uploaded by jlmoyni at 15 Jan '09, 5.51pm EST PST.

Well, we have begun our journey. We are currently at the gate waiting for our plane (we were 2 hours early. First!). I will be trying to update as much as possible but more than likely it will be in the form of Tweets. Unfortunately, while these tweets will show up on my little Twitter gadget at the right, it only shows one at a time and you can't click in there when I send a twitpic. So it would be better for you to follow me at http://twitter.com/jmoynihan where you will be able to see the whole stream and click on the twitpic links.

Cheers!

Originally uploaded by jlmoyni at 27 Dec '08, 6.21pm EST PST.

Here is my nine year old. I was going to post the picture she took of herself with oodles of makeup applied but it is just to painful for me. Where did my little girl go?

Originally uploaded by jlmoyni at 27 Dec '08, 6.30pm EST PST.

Here is my four year old. Time goes by so fast. I can't believe how big he is getting.

Chapter 1:
In which I embarrass myself and torture my kids so that I can sing a goofy song for my Dad. It's one of his favorites.

Yesterday, while at the gym doing my 35 minute of cardio (hey,it takes work to get in the shape I am) I was fortunate enough to have 3 seperate TV's in front of me, all turned to CNN. During that time I was exposed to 35 minutes of non-stop, hard-hitting, shoe-throwing reporting. The story of an irate Iraqi TV reporter throwing his shoes at President Bush was pretty much the only story. I did have my mp3 player but not to worry, the tv's all had closed captioning so that I wouldn't miss a single shoe-throwing minute of this story. I am not going to put the video up here but here is a link for the three of you who may have missed it; shoe throwing. I was exposed to another hour or so last night as this story was on every channel repeatedly.

I don't have any problem with this being a newsworthy story. Someone attacking a head of state should definitely be reported on. My problem is with the way the brain trust at CNN and the other networks keep harping on about how serious an insult it is to throw a shoe at someone's head in the Muslim world.

"Really? Throwing shoes is bad?"
"How about two shoes? Can I throw two shoes?"
"No? That's bad too?"
"Huh. All these years I've been chucking shoes ... I never realized."
"Thanks, CNN."

That's some good reporting there, Lou.

Now, it may indeed be the case that there is some special cultural significance to throwing shoes in the Muslim world that is different than for us in the West, just as I am sure that mooning someone probably has more meaning to an American than it does to your average Muslim. That doesn't mean that when Achmed drops trow in Abdul's direction that Abdul isn't going to be able to figure out the general meaning of the gesture.

My favorite quote was from some genius CNN reporter;

"You know Tom, had this occurred in a public street between two Muslim men events would have quickly escalated to violence."

Nice insight there, fella!

I don't know about you, but if I was walking down Beacon Street in Boston and someone started chucking shoes at my head I am pretty sure that events would soon escalate toward violence, and I have never even seen a Koran.

I think the bigger story here is where was the secret service? Aren't they supposed to be throwing their bodies in front of the president when projectiles come his way? Shouldn't one of them have put his body in between the president and the shoe? Or at least, the second shoe? I mean, come on, the guy threw a shoe, missed, and then had time to take the second shoe off of his foot before he threw it.

"Excuse me, agent Smith, how come you didn't put youself between the president and the shoes?"
"What? Are you kidding? We train to throw ourselves in front of bullets. Shoes? Forget it. We're completely helpless."

I will have to say this though, president Bush has got some moves for a 62 year old man. He was like a ninja up there. I guess that comes from being so well rested.

Cheers,

John

Maeve, Conor, and Shea had a very special day last week with their Auntie Kathy, Uncle Scott, and cousins, Kelli, Joe, and Jack. They all went in to town and saw How The Grinch Stole Christmas, The Musical. They took the Whoville Express in and all the Who's in Whoville had a great time. Thanks!

Originally uploaded by jlmoyni at 11 Dec '08, 1.41pm EST PST.

I love our new President-Elect. Obama has announced Steven Chu as his pick for Energy Secretary. Dr. Chu is a nobel prize winning physicist who currently runs Lawrence Berkely National Laboratory.

Chu is a believer in Science (note the capital S), which means that he understands that scientific results are not subject to change based upon either politics or whether certain powerful lobbyist groups (ahem, oil industry) happen to agree with certain findings.

Another reason to be excited about Chu is that he accepts that climate change is real and he is already focused on finding viable solutions. If anyone is going to come up with workable ways for us as a nation to reduce our dependence on foreign oil, it's this guy.

I would like to thank the talented film maker, Noelle, and the Lastditch Players for taking time out of their busy schedules to make this very important public service announcement (I heard Shea actually cancelled an appearance in Caanes to help out).

My niece Tara has written an article for the fNewsMagazine, which is the main student publication at her school, SAIC.

Check it out;
Tara's article.

I'm going to be listening this guy in the future. He was spot on despite being ridiculed for saying what he thought.

A most excellent video. This guy, Matt, quit his job to go dance around the world and he got a company to pay for it as well (Stride Gum). To make full screen click on the 4 arrows to the left of the word Vimeo on the bottom toolbar.

Where the Hell is Matt? (2008) from Matthew Harding on Vimeo.

Here is a cool little widget for you. Create, to-do lists, post to twitter or a blog, send emails all using your phone. Jott uses voice recognition to create reminders, messages and notes that show up where you want them. It is pretty cool and usefull. It is easy to use and free.

Jott!

Found this little gem out there on the old interwebs and thought you might enjoy it.

This site was launched the day after the election. Change.gov is a website desgned by the Obama team's Presidential Transition Project which documents the transition of power and solicits ideas from the public. This is a great way to make the phrase "Government By The People" a little closer to the truth and to make government a more participatory process.

This is one of the reason's why Obama is the right man for the job. He understands how rapidly technology is changing the world and comes up with productive ways to use it. I have a lot of respect for John McCain, but he freely admits that he doesn't use or "get" email. I'm glad we have someone who understands the importance and impact of our technology on the way people think and behave.

Change.gov

I watched the proceedings tonight and it was pretty amazing, historic even. I want to point out a couple of observations;

1. That was an unbeleivably gracious concession speech that McCain gave. He is a pretty amazing guy. If he wasn't representing the party that has been trying to put our country into the crapper the last 8 years I might have voted for him.

2. Holy crap, did you hear Obama's speech?! That is what a president is supposed to sound like. Having a president that can actually talk intelligently is going to take some getting used to. It's like we've been eating Saltine crackers for the past 8 years and someone just fed us Filet Mignon made from the finest Kobe beef. I could get used to this.

John

I try not to talk about politics too often. I usually limit it to certain family members and my wife. This is mostly because there is usually no good that will come from it, "never talk about politics or religion" and all of that. However, I feel a need to explain how I am thinking and feeling about this upcoming election. I don't know why, I just think it is important.
For most of my life politics just did not interest me all that much. I was and am a closet science geek. this meant that the only times I would pay any attention to an election would be when they were talking about the manned space program or science research or medicine and health care. I was upset when Bush was elected the first time, mostly because he and the GOP are no friends to science, or to the general search for knowledge and truth in general.
After 4 years and the tragedy of 9/11 I was much more in tune with the issues, especially those pertaining to civil liberties and freedom. When Bush was put in office a second time, I was horrified. Mostly because the party that put him in the office used fear and ignorance as their main tools for getting him elected, and over the next four years they fostered the idea that ignorance was a good thing and that questioning authority was unpatriotic and should be silenced.
Unfortunately, this is not the same country it was 8 years ago. I used to be able to say that free speech was inviolate in this country. I can't say that anymore. I used to be able to say that my country is not a country that would torture people, that we have due process in this country and, in fact, we would fight countries that would practice such evil. I can't say those things anymore either. I used to think that despite its flaws, our government had the best interests of its people at heart, all of it's people, not just the wealthiest 1%. I don't think that anymore. It is sad how far away from what people used to think America stood for that we have come.
Face it, most people would agree that anyone, and I mean literally anyone, would be better as president than what we have had to put up with for the last 8 years. I also know that McCain is an experienced politician who has a lot of good qualities. Yet, there is no way in the world I could vote for someone who is supported by a party that actually fosters the notion in its followers that ignorance is a good thing. A party that teaches its followers that questioning authority is somehow unamerican. Ignorance should not be considered a badge of honor. Silence should not be considered patriotic. I've got news for those people who would try to keep us from knowing and stop us from speaking. This nation was founded on dissent and the questioning of authority. Washington, Adams, Jefferson, Franklin, Paine, and the rest of the architects of the American Revolution told their sovereign king, the man they swore a solemn oath to obey, the man they swore to die for if necessary, to piss off. These men weren't part of the United States, it hadn't been invented yet. These men were British citizens actively committing treason. Do you know why they chose to commit treason against their own country? Because these men of genius had rediscovered an often forgotten truth; Loyalty is a wonderful thing, but it is a road that runs both ways. The king, or the government, must be worthy and work hard for the loyalty of their people and not just expect that loyalty as their right. Our leaders should not be dictating to us, we should be dictating to them, and if they try to silence us, then we should get rid of them. To paraphrase one of my heroes from the American revolution, Thomas Paine, "If your government won't give you your basic rights, it's time to get another government." (Thanks, School House Rock!)
This is why I consider the leaders of the GOP to be the ones who have broken faith with the ideals of America. Because they know this truth as well as anyone and yet they still foster this idea amongst their followers that they are somehow being bad when they question their policies and ideas. This tells me that they are fully aware that what they are doing is wrong and that they would prefer their followers to not watch them too closely and just keep their mouths shut. This is about as low a thing they could do to American citizens as I can imagine. There is nothing more American and patriotic than to question authority. Don't ever forget that.
That is why I will be voting for Obama. He seems to know and understand that knowledge and the quest for knowledge has value, and that hiding our heads in the sand and claiming things are true despite all evidence to the contrary is both stupid and dangerous. If we can get him elected I will have hope still for the country that I so dearly love. Because I know that even though our system of government has a few flaws (two party system, the electoral college, etc) it is still far and away the best system on this planet and has been crucial in providing those of us fortunate enough to live here the best and greatest country in the world.

On a more personal note, my wife, who is one of the smartest people I know, especially in terms of common sense, pointed this out to me;
Ten years ago we lived in a country without a deficit. It was a country that most foreigners loved and respected. Ten years ago we bought our first house and sold it a couple years later for a substantial profit that allowed us to buy our current 4 bedroom colonial. We were saving quite a bit of money into our bank account and our young family was doing very well.
Now fast forward eight years to 2008 ... the country's deficit is the highest it has ever been and most foreigners hold us in contempt. My wife and I as a couple make almost twice what we made eight years ago yet we aren't saving any money because of rising mortgage and living costs, our house is worth less than it did 8 years ago and we can't even get a simple construction loan to put a playroom on to our house for our growing children. Despite all of this, I know that we are some of the lucky ones. I can't imagine what some people are having to go through right now just to survive. No, the past 8 years have not been good for this country. For myself, I am hoping and praying for a change. Good luck to all of us tomorrow.

Originally uploaded by jlmoyni at 11 Oct '08, 6.18pm EDT PST.

Happiness with fur
Shining black and smiling tail
We’ll miss you, Bailey

Our Bailey Boy passed away at his home this past Friday. He was a loving member of our family and he will be sorely missed. We had twelve and a half wonderful years with him and he was the best dog we could ever hope for.

Bailey was our first child and we doted on him when he was younger. When we had children he became the older brother to our kids and we could not have asked for a more gentle and caring playmate for them. Our children have known Bailey since birth and their lives have been enriched because of this. Dogs are one of this world’s true miracles. For the simple cost of food, shelter and affection you get a creature who will love you, unconditionally, for its entire life. A soul who is always happy to see you and will never get mad at you, a soul who wants nothing more than to be around you and make you happy. Bailey did all that for us and more, right until the very end.
Friday was Conor’s birthday and started like any other day. Bailey followed Jen around as usual and laid down on Conor’s new Pokemon card game because he wanted to join the game. He went in and out a bunch of times and ate and drank like usual. He was fine until just before 5PM. Jen called me then to let me know that Bailey was suddenly not doing very well. He had just gotten sick from eating grass and we think this caused the mass on his spleen to start bleeding. We have known that our time with Bailey was limited ever since we found out about the tumor last November. We considered surgery for him at the time but because of his age we did not think that surgery was worth it for him since he was still happy and eating and there was a good chance he would not have recovered from it.

Jen called me a second time to let me know that she thought Bailey was really sick and wanted to know if she should tell Maeve. We decided that Maeve needed to say goodbye. By the time I got home Bailey was laying down and Maeve was with him. Jen was trying to handle all of this as well as trying to wrap up an abbreviated 6 year old’s birthday party. She brought Bailey’s soft bed down to the garage and I carried him in and put him on it. Maeve and I sat with him for a while but he was agitated. He struggled to stand up and acted like he wanted to go out. I thought he might be perking up so we let him out and he walked into his back yard and laid down in one of his favorite spots on the grass. He loved his yard and that was where he wanted to be. He did not get up again.
We were getting ready to bring him to the vet when he made his move to the back yard. As soon as he lay down I knew that it was almost time. Jen brought down Conor and Shea and we all sat around him on the lawn. He was barely breathing at this point but when his family sat around him he wagged his tail. It wasn’t much, just two small wags but they were there. He took maybe two or three more breathes and then he was gone. We sat around him then as a family and cried. We also prayed and sang while we petted him for the last time. Jen went and got some paint and paper and we took a paw print from him and a clipping of his fur and then she took the kids inside so that I could take Bailey for his last car ride.

Bailey was a good boy and he went the way we had hoped he would. He played up until the day he died and when he did take a turn for the worse he did not last much more than a couple of hours before going to sleep for the last time. In the end, we did not have to make any hard decisions. He saved us from that.
The one regret we have is that he died on Conor’s birthday. It is a hard thing for a parent to hear their child crying, saying that Bailey died on his birthday, but we can’t change what happened, so this is what we told him;

"Since he was first sick last November every extra day we have had with Bailey has been a gift. We got to watch him open his Christmas presents one more time and that was a gift. We celebrated his birthday in March one more time and that was a gift. Every kiss, lick and snuggle with him have been gifts and the very last gift he gave was to you, Conor, because we got to spend one more day with him on your birthday. So, please don’t be sad, because Bailey would not want his boy to be sad. Bailey would want his boy to wag his tail and be happy on his birthday because he loved you."
We miss you, Bailey, and we will love you always.

Click here for a video of Bailey Boy

Hi everyone. It has now been a week since we participated in the 50 mile MS Challenge Walk and everyone is nicely recovered. I did have some blisters this year but I believe this was because the percentage of combed cotton in the socks I wore was only 82% when what I really needed was 85% combed cotton ...

What?

It had absolutely nothing to do with the fact that I weigh 260 lbs ...

Shut up ...

It was the socks!

Anyway, both Mom and I had trouble the 2nd day, me because I had some kind of bug and my Mom because she had a sugar issue but we finished stong on Sunday. (click more to continue)

Read more »

Well,tomorrow starts the 50 mile MS Challenge on Cape Cod. I will be down there with my Mom who will be walking and my Dad and Brother who will be crewing for the walk. I am hoping that the rain will hold off until after we finish on Sunday but we shall see. I will be heading down tonight (as usual I am still at work) as soon as I go home and pack.
For anyone who is interested I will try to update this blog during the weekend. If I don't, I will at least be sending twitter updates from the walk. So if you twitter, feel free to follow me, or you can come to Last Ditch to see my twitter updates in the first right hand side bar.
Thanks everone!

Last Ditch Entertaiment is pleased to present The Viper!, a film by Noelle, starring Maeve, Conor, Shea, and Michelle.

Regretably, my grandmother, Irene Murphy, passed away last week at the age of 97.

While this was a sad event for us as a family there was a very pleasant side effect. We were all able to recconect with family that a lot of us haven't seen in 20 years as Irene's children, grandchildren, and greatchildren all came from across the country, including Washington, Texas, Florida, Virginia, Connecticut, and Massachusetts. It was wonderful seeing all of them and hopefully it won't be another 20 years before we get a chance to be together again. Please check out these pictures; http://www.flickr.com/photos/jlmoyni/sets/72157606703630770/
(click the slide show icon near the upper right)

Time to get your science nerd freak on with this rap about the LHC (Large Hadron Collider).

This past Saturday we went to go see Walking With Dinosaurs. This was a BBC production that was playing at the Bank North Garden. This was a show that is something I had dreamed of seeing when I was a kid but never in a million years thought I would. It was just plain cool ... check it out;

Just a video from our last couple of days at Smuggler's Notch.

Originally uploaded by jlmoyni at 24 Jun '08, 7.02pm EDT PST.

So getting to the Ben and Jerry's Factory was the easy part. It was leaving that was difficult. I am pretty sure Jen was looking to see if they were renting apartments on the premises, or a room, or a closet, or maybe just an unused corner somewhere that she could stand in and monitor for any spare icecream. Click the Read More below

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Hi All, we are having fun up here. We will see you soon. Check out the short video.

Cheers

Hi everyone. It's our first day here on vacation at lovely Smuggler's Notch in Vermont (Psst! For those of you new to this whole interweb thingy, click on the "Read more" link just below this to read the rest of this post).

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Welcome to the debut episode of our new show, The Moynihan Movie Review.

This is our first episode so there are still some kinks to work out. For example, after this episode I had to wash my 3 year old's mouth out with soap.
Enjoy

Originally uploaded by jlmoyni at 16 Jun '08, 11.57am EDT PST.

I hope everyone had a great Father's Day. Mine was fantastic. Jen was working so the kids decided they would let me sleep in and make me breakfast. Around 8AM they made me a breakfast of cinnamon toast (Maeve had some troubles with the toaster oven and didn't want to burn anything so let's just say the toast was rare). There was also a side of garlic and herb wheat thins and a big glass of milk. They then didn't get me up for it until around 10:30AM at which time the "toast" was a little cold and the milk was a little warm and the garlic wheat thins were a little garlicy.

It didn't matter. Breakfast was delicious and I ate every bite (well, Bailey might have gotten a few of the wheat thins). We just hung out for most of the day and then we went to the movies. It was a good day and I am a lucky man because I have great kids.

I also have a great Dad so I am twice as lucky.

Happy Father's Day

By the way, the picture of my kids is from Bailey's 12th birthday party back in March.