With permission from the author who is a student at South- Doyle High School in Knoxville, TN. This was a class writing assignment. Content has not been altered in any way. These are his words. What are your thoughts?

Peace of Nations

What does it take to bring forth peace of nations? Loyalty from the people and from one nation to another is a necessity. Confidence, a nation needs confidence and pride in itself, to not back down to a stronger nation, for peace of nations to work, one nation can not push another around. Humanism, people must remember that though we may look different and sound different, everyone is a human, all the same.

A following of the people is necessary in order to maintain a stable nation and a healthy time of peace.

People who are loyal to their nation not only strengthen it, but also provide a safe melting pot for other nations. Loyalty is not only a thing for followers to show to the nation, it shows an allied nation that it can be trusted as well as supported in future efforts. A collaborated effort united by loyalty is one of the most influential groups of people around the globe. This virtue is one of the most important for any man or nation, having this virtue is a most for global peace.

Faith in a nation’s power or people is needed for a sense of belonging among other things. As a nation progresses forward to make itself more predominant in a growing world. Confidence brings forth a feeling of strength and power, yet for a smaller country of the world give it a sense of pride to project to a larger country that may be trying to break a world peace of sorts.

Without the confidence to stand up for a nation you believe in it may secretly fall from the inside. A virtue that many aspire to have, confidence is that which would prove difficult to a nation.

Humans, all humans are just that, humans, yet many wish to believe that all humans are different. In a world without violence, a peace among nations, there would, above all no racism. A world without racism, in itself would make all peaceful. Racism is the heart of all violence in humans, but at heart a human is just the same as another human. As a nation without racism all things violent would become shut out, from the nation.

Peace within nations is possible, but only with a few select qualities. Virtues such as confidence and loyalty make a nation strong, yet compassionate. Without racism, the world itself, all the world, would be free from the grip that is violence. Peace among the nations of the world is a possible feat, yet only at the will of the people throughout the world.

Note: I am proud to be a part of this young leaders life. He inspires me daily. The gene pool doesn't fall from the tree. Thank you for the forum to express young American's thoughts and dreams.

Short review: This thing rocks!

I'm setting up a new notebook PC (more on that later) and thought I'd try out some of the remote home/office computer access services. I tried WebEx PCNow and GoToMyPC. My report follows...

Check out our review of the Hum-Dinger Drive-In in Maryville.

Putting together my "backpack journalism" kit for Denver, I figured I ought to have some kind of video camera. I don't care much for video, but I expect there will be some "YouTube moments" at the convention so I thought I should be prepared. I ended up getting a Sanyo Xacti VPC-CG9 pocket digi-camcorder. My initial review after the jump...

I'm putting together my traveling "backpack journalism" kit for the Denver convention. I'm not quite sure what to expect or what I'll need, but I'm taking a lot of junk so I'll be ready.

I was looking at a combination backpack/rolling laptop/camera case from Lowepro when I ran across this Pelican PCS247 that costs half as much.

Lots of geeky scientific details.... (Link...)

Some initial notes:

1. 1997 standard not adequate to protect public health, based on > 1700 studies. Clinical studies show evidence of adverse respiratory response in HEALTHY adults at old standard (80 ppb).
2. First evidence linking high ozone to mortality (deaths) in sensitive popultions
3. High ozone also reduces crop yields and increases susceptibility to disease and insects (e.g., threatens our food production)

I can! Our old Toastmaster toaster oven died after only four years (or more accurately it's computer got brain damaged or possessed or something) and I needed to replace it.

Link...

A story about an Iraqi veteran who is missing. Last seen in Georgia. He graduated from UT in 1998.

pgs

We went to Ruth's Chris for our anniversary celebration. Even though I didn't think we'd need one on a Wednesday night, I made a reservation. (You can make them online.) It's a good thing we did. They were packed. The bar was full, there were guests at every table, a banquet room in the back and the one downstairs both had parties.

The restaurant was slammed. Amid the controlled chaos, the staff stayed remarkably composed, but tensions were showing. It affected the service and the food, and not in a good way.

Just a note of thanks and a free plug for our web hosting service provider, Hosting Matters.

Because of the growth of this site and the complexity of the software, we were outgrowing our shared hosting account with them and decided to move our web empire to our own dedicated server.

It's that time again for KnoxViews readers to recommend your favorite restaurants, shopping, entertainment, and more. Go here to view the categories and click the "Add Listing" button on each category page to add your own recommendations.

KnoxViews readers recommend their favorites in the categories of dining, entertainment, shopping, and more to create a dynamic and growing local guide by locals for locals and visitors to the area. View the listings and add your own by clicking the "Add Listing" button on each page.

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A friend had one of these at a party, and it actually looked useful so we got one recently. After using it several times, I can recommend the Magic Bullet.

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"It was really more like some sort of Sea Monkey holocaust than a drunken shrimp party."

(From this review at MetroBlogging Nashville.)

Finally made it over to the new Tomato Head in Maryville yesterday. Our review is here. Bonus feature: Free Parking!

Is anyone using Adobe Lightroom 1.1? What do you think? I have the 30-day free trial installed, and I'm really liking it. If, like me, you tried one of the early beta versions and weren't convinced, you might want to take another look.

Lightroom combines the workflow features of Bridge, the developing/adjustment features of Adobe Camera Raw (both much improved in Photoshop CS3) and the nicer cataloging/organizing features of the consumer oriented Photoshop Elements 5 Organizer into a single application that does it all and does it faster and better in most cases.

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We finally made it back over to the Foothills Milling Company last night to see if it is still as good as we remember from the first review.

It is.

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We had been talking about getting a portable GPS for a while (we get lost a lot!). On long road trips we've used notebook PC based systems that you can get for around $100 with a GPS antenna and software (e.g. Microsoft Streets or DeLorme Street Atlas). They're OK (and great for trip planning) but not very convenient to use in the car.

Some friends who travel a lot got a portable touchscreen GPS a year or so ago, and it was pretty neat but I wasn't yet convinced.

Factory installed navigation systems were options on the last couple of cars we bought, but cost anywhere from $1500 on up and aren't portable. Plus in one vehicle you had to buy a package that included a backseat DVD player that we would never use and that I would never buy just on principle (look out the window or read a book if you're bored!).

After getting lost a couple of times recently (and saying "maybe we should have gotten the GPS navigator option"), even the Mrs. was enthusiastic about the idea. So I got to looking at the latest crop of handheld portable GPS systems.

The Garmin nüvi looks to be a breakthrough consumer GPS product, and fits the bill nicely for us.

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One of the advantages of having your CD library all ripped to a digital library is playing with cool toys like The Filter.

It works with Windows Media Player to analyze your library and create automatic playlists based on selected songs. (There are also Mac/iTunes and Nokia versions.) You launch The Filter, highlight a song or two you like in Windows Media Player, send them to The Filter, and it automagically creates a playlist of similar/related songs from your library.

It's like your own personal DJ bot and a whole new way to listen to your music in a "smarter" way than just putting your player on random play. The playlists it creates are pretty interesting and entertaining.

It also connects to their website and pops up a window with info about your selected artist and suggestions for other similar albums you might like, which of course you can purchase and download from the eMusic store. I'm not clear on what all it uploads to their site from your PC other than a list of songs in your library, but it looks mostly harmless.

It's a little confusing to get it all setup and working, but it's a fun toy to play with and helps you "rediscover" forgotten stuff in your music library.

(You can see some examples of what it generated for me after the jump. The first song on each is the one selected to generate the playlist. I have it set to put 99 songs on each playlist, the first 25 are shown. No snarky remarks on what an old geezer I am, please!)

We decided to dump our Charter Moxi HD DVR and go back to the familiar, user-friendly world of TiVo (which we grew to know and love by way of our previous DirecTV TiVo DVR.)

Read all about it after the jump...

Some fat Welshman heaps big praise on Budweiser.

His case appears earnest, but I suspect it's really an anti-American manifesto in disguise. But he'd deny that, of course. I hope it earns the crafty bugger a spot on the no-fly list.

The Roomba by iRobot is a way cool vacuuming robot that actually works. See a full review after the jump.

We recently purchased the HP Color LaserJet 2605dn for a print job. So far, I'm pretty happy with it.

For $499 list ($374 on sale right now at HP), you get a four-color laser printer rated for 12ppm black and 10ppm color that includes USB and Ethernet connections, Postscript and PCL support, plus duplex (two-sided) printing. The print quality is pretty good, making this printer a great value.

Read more for a full review...

If you'd like to know how it was in 1968, in the Vietnam era, prior to a different "surge" and the carpet-bombing of Cambodia and plans for "pacification" of villages and the "Vietnamization" of American occupying forces (should any of that sound familiar to you or not), check out the movie Bobby.

We had a most enjoyable evening downtown last night. Great to see Steve of Whitescreek and his lovely wife and their friends. And a special thanks to the Socialist with a Gold Card who whipped out his Gold Card to pick up the tab for the Mrs. and me. That was totally not necessary but sincerely appreciated. We also ran into Don Williams at the show and it was nice to see him again.

The show was great as expected. Opener Carrie Rodriguez was a pleasant surprise. Powerful voice, great singer songwriter, with some good pickers in her band. First time I think I've seen an electric mandolin. I thought she would be a tough act to follow, although her set might have been a little long for some folks.

Lucinda Williams has been down some rough roads since we saw her last, but she can still lift you up and smack you down and make you laugh while breaking your heart. She has some problems with lyrics apparently, referring frequently to a songbook (and a mighty fat song book it is, to her credit). She gave up on one song, a sort of country/Americana rap number, after two false starts. She brought it home at the end, though, with some loud electric rockers. It probably helped that we had moved down to some abandoned seats in the second row orchestra pit.

The big disappointment was the drunk and rowdy crowd. Drunks hollering out song demands and inappropriate "wooo-hooos" ruin the mood of a beautiful venue and beautiful singer/songwriter voices. I guess they think they're the main attraction that everyone including Lucinda came to see, the way they kept hollering over her any time she tried to talk to the crowd.

Lucinda Williams must be used to it, but she reacted at one point after introducing a song and getting more song demands from the drunks, saying "I guess y'all are getting anxious. Maybe we'll just skip this one." A song or two later, she delivered a rather enthusiastic rendition of "Come On", which seemed appropriate:

Dude, I'm so over you
You don't even have a clue
All you did was make me blue
You didn't even make me, come on!

You're so self involved
You're in some kind of fog
You're hung on on your hog
You didn't even make me, come on!

[..]

You weren't even worth it
I'm sorry I ever flirted
The effort wasn't even concerted
You didn't even make me, come on!

UPDATE: Another review.

It's possible that the best restaurant in Knoxville isn't in Knoxville. It may be in Maryville. In fact, it may be one of Blount County's best kept secrets.

Don't waste your money. There's some amazing race footage and a couple of scenes that are almost funny, and Sacha Baron Cohen (a/k/a Borat, Ali G, et. al.) as the gay French Formula One turned existentialist NASCAR driver, but otherwise it's a complete waste of time. Even the fake scripted "outtakes" are embarrassingly bad. Jane Lynch (Best in Show, Mighty Wind) is pretty good, but I feel sorry for her for getting mixed up in this mess.

I don't get the appeal of Will Farrell at all. He plays "Ricky Bobby". The movie explains that he's got two first names, in case you didn't get the hilarious irony of that. Or maybe pointing it out is supposed to be hip self-referential parody? This is is only one of many scenes where the movie explains obvious "jokes", making them even more not-funny.

My general policy had been that I wouldn't waste time on a Will Farrell movie, but I made an exception this time because of the enormous potential for hilarity that might ensue from poking fun at NASCAR and other Southern culture stereotypes. I guess you have to understand something to make proper fun of it. This movie reminds me why I had a No Will Ferrell policy in the first place.

If y'all are over in the Rockford/Alcoa/East Maryville area, check out Patty's Place Cafe for breakfast or lunch. But make sure you're hungry.

We stopped by for a late breakfast. I had...