reset kindle 2 that won't charge

so my girlfriend's kindle 2 was stuck with the screen "critical battery ... your battery i empty'. it wouldn't take a charge from the wall or a computer usb and most important the little yellow charging light did not light up. i tried the reset where you button for 20 seconds and nothing happened either. so i figured i'd open it and see if i could pull the battery or something. problem was i couldn't find directions on how to open it and it had no obvious points to unclip or screw. so here's how you do it. stuck something thin like a knife edge between the plastic and the metal sections on the back near the top. wedge in on both side and the clips wiil release and you can slide the top part off. then there are 2 small screws holding on the metal backing. take those out and it slides off. then remove the 2 screw holding on the battery and it pops out. i did that, then just put the same battery back and now the charging light is on and it made the USB device recognition beep on the computer so it should be working once it charges for a bit.

update: yep, that worked.

1 corinthians 13:11 - alternate translation

When I was a child I drank like a child. When I became a man I put childish non-whiskey drinks behind me.

And now that I'm old, its vodka clubs because i can't deal with the jamesons hangovers anymore. i think jesus did something similar, changing water into smirnoff after the resurrection.

Newt's Appeal?

So the latest explanation I've heard for Newt's appeal amongst the republican base is via Kevin Drum - basically they all still think Obama's a drooling imbecil who can't string together a coherent sentence without a telepromter. Its all just affirmative action that got him to harvard, the law review, senate and the presidency. Beside the absurdity of that opinion after 3 years of his presidency in which he's demonstrated clear oratorical skill and policy expertise, it brings to my mind another question. If Obama can become president due solely to "affirmative action", how is it that our entire public and private power structure is not filled with, even dominated by, a bunch of black and brown men and women? Surely if affirmative action could raise the likes of Obama to the presidency, then the senate and housewould be overflowing with affirmative action picks. Yet somehow congress remains 84% white and 82% male . Wierd. And of course we've had a grand total of 1 black president in our nation's history.

I wonder how the republicans screaming about affirmative action would explain this. I can only imagine many think (if they were to think about it) that all black and brown people are so damn lazy and stupid that Obama is still the best of the bunch, with just enough brain power to read a teleprompter. And now they all think Newt, with his towering intellect, is going to prove just how much of an empty suit Obama really is. Well, all I can say is, good luck with that. Newt can get some good applause lines out at republican debates and right-wing events, but I doubt abolishing child labor laws will play quite so well with the rest of the country.

Too bad our leaders don't know how to bluff

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/28/world/europe/europe-in-accord-on-basics-of-plan-to-save-the-euro.html?_r=1&hp

In the end, it was Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany and President Nicolas Sarkozy of France against the European banking establishment — and the bankers blinked......
For hours, negotiators had been trying to persuade the banks to accede to a “voluntary” 50 percent loss in the face value of their Greek bond holdings. The banks, which had already agreed to a 21 percent write-down, had dug in their heels.

They knew how badly the European leaders needed a deal, and how much financial experts feared a disorderly, involuntary default. That could set off a “credit event,” throwing world financial markets into turmoil, much as the collapse of Lehman Brothers did in the fall of 2008.

But Mrs. Merkel called the bankers’ bluff, said officials present at the discussions. Accept the 50 percent write-down, she told the bankers, or bear the consequences of default. In effect, she was willing to risk a credit event, and to place the blame for any fallout on them.

Pretty much the opposite of what happened here, during the 2008 financial crisis. Instead, US banks and financial institutions got massive bailouts and paid almost no price for their excessive risk taking and idiotic decisions. And taxpayers paid the price while the financial industry booms. But god forbid we have writdowns on underwater mortgages, student debt forgivemness or expanded social services support for the poor and unemployed. That's socialism/moral hazard/class warfare. All hail the JOB CREATORS!

The future is now, and its wierd

So 3-d printers are getting more and more affordable and user friendly it seems, to the point where lots of unexpected projects are popping up. The latest interesting one I've seen (via slashdot) is a campaign to make thousands of hermit crab shells because:

Hermit crabs don’t make their own shells. They scavenge their homes. And now,
hermit crabs are facing a housing shortage as the worldwide shell supply is
decreasing. With a shell shortage, hermit crabs around the world are being
forced to stick their butts into bottles, shotgun shells, and anything else they
can find. This is not acceptable. As a community, we can reach out to this
vulnerable species and offer our digital design skills and 3D printing
capabilities and give hermit crabs another option: 3D printed shells.

http://www.shareable.net/blog/3d-printing-community-crowdsource-saving-species

It will be interesting to see if this works.

on a barney frank kick today

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You shouldn't go on Tilt AFTER you win 140k

http://wickedchopspoker.com/what-would-you-do-if-you-won-a-million-dollars/

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