Event Horizon

Bewitched by the kitch of the slow pitch twitch in the drainage ditch...

2007-10-25T09:23:00.000-05:00

The Orbiter Discovery docked with the ISS this morning. STS-120 was stowing more than just the Harmony node. The prop used as Luke Skywalker's lightsaber, in the original Star Wars movies also flew aboard this mission. It's supposed to remain safe, sound and unopened in cargo and given back to George Lucas after returning to Earth. Comemorates the 30 anniversary of Star Wars. I can only recall a few things about my younger childhood. I do remember seeing Star Wars in 1977, at the impressionable age of 6, then seeing the sequels repeated as they were released over the next 6 years. The first movies I bought, way back when BetaMax was in fashion and tapes cost like $40 a pop, was the Star Wars trilogy. I suppose that and a healthy obsession with Star Trek (then and now) is what honed me to be fascinated with outer space.

A press release this week mentions that astronomers using the Chandra X-ray space telescope have found a very heavy black hole in Messier object 33. The black hole is part of a binary system which also includes a gigantic star. The two are orbiting around each other at a very high velocity. The system as been titled M33 X-7. The importance if this is that scientists need to re-evalute models of black holes. Why would one massive star so close in proximity to another massive star collapse before the other? The star of this binary system is huge, about 70 times larger than our Sun, so the star that created the black hole must have been massively huge. The parent star's radius must have been larger than the distance between the two stars, so when the star collapsed into a singularity, it must have pulled the other star closer. The rapid orbit of the star and singularity cause the star to eclipse...this is the first recorded instance of a blackhole eclipse. M33 is a galaxy that is three million lightyears away from Earth, so this event is happening fairly close on a cosmological scale.

-A

Shooting from the hip with a well aimed quip...

2007-10-23T11:24:00.002-05:00

The Space Shuttle Discovery launched into orbit this morning. STS-120, the 120th shuttle mission had a successful lift-off at about 10:38 CST, on her way to the ISS to deliver the Harmony section and bring Nebraskan astronaut Clay Anderson back to Earth. I never get tired of watching those lift-offs. Amazing that a vehicle carrying humans can ignite and 9 minutes later is in orbit with engines roaring at over 6000 mph. Then once in orbit, over 200 statute miles in space the Orbiter is doing 17,500 mph, watching 16 sunrises and sunsets every 24 hours...now that's fast.

-A

Long curls and swirls and twirls from the girls tongue song flung on the wrong wrung...

2007-10-16T10:33:00.000-05:00

Here's a pic from the Hubble telescope of a galaxy called I Zwicky 18. This galaxy was found about 40 years ago and thought to be young by cosmic standards. Now scientists have found data pointing at older stars in the galaxy, so the galaxy could be youthful in appearance but up to 10 billion years old. See scientists have open minds and are willing to change them when research shows new evidence...nothing at all fundamental about that.

The mindset of a grand creator being, blinking all of this into existance in six days, and being so gracious as to will it all to humans to steward and have control over, seems not just a tad, but hugely preposterous. If this is were the case each human on earth would own, have complete dominion and be responsible for at least sixteen galaxies. Delusions of grandeur. On this planet alone humans cannot even agree on one god figure...which you would think would not be a difficult task at all if a creator were so. Now imagine at least one planet in each of the millions of galaxies, that might have developed lifeforms that are appearently conscious of their own indiviuality. So conscious of themselves that they think they have an immortal soul and a greater purpose than just being born and taking care of themsleves and loved ones before dying. A greater purpose meaning...what happens to them after death? What? If all of these galaxies worshiped that one god, and were indeed on the proper path to a blissful afterlife...imagine the logistics of heaven and hell. Heaven/Hell would be so incredibly overpopulated. Maybe souls do not take up time and space? But what about saving all of those pro-life embyros so that the unborn souls have a fleshy vehicle waiting for them. So souls do take up space? Imagine all of the souls in the universe taking up space? With only two possible places to go, that would make for one crowded eternity. There seems to be an endless supply of souls in limbo just waiting to be injected into a mommy's tummy...where are those kept? In Heaven? Hell? A staging area? That would meean there are three possible places for an immortal soul to be kept. Even if Earth were the only planet with animals bearing souls, the eternal logistics of where to store them are simply nightmarish to contemplate.

Humans are the only animals that have the appearent brain malfunction, that when recognizing (unexplainable to them) patterns in nature put a supernatural explanation to them. Do bees worship a bee god that brings them fresh flowers anually? Do salmon dance around a maypole or fashion fertility idols? No, they swim upstream.

I am continually impressed and awestruck by these deep space Hubble photos. Look at all the galaxies that are in just this one view of the universe. Hundreds of evolving galaxies can be seen just from the Hubble Telescope concentrating on one postage stamp sized camera field of the universe. Amazes me for sure.

-A

PS: Here is a movie I have been meaning to watch...so I finally watched it. If you can get past the electronic music and trippy computer effects, it is very informative IMHO. In the vein of Aaron Russo's AFTF movie. Russo sound bites are even in this one too. Done in three parts...paraphrasing here...Religion=Astrology, 9/11=Fear, International Banking=One world government...a'la GW Bush's NAU. Zeitgeist.

A motion for potion that washes the gollashes and shines the equine...

2007-10-12T14:01:00.000-05:00

Very eye-opening documentary...America: Freedom to Facism.

If I was ever to vote for a republican...can't believe I'm even entertaining that notion...Ron Paul has some platforms I sort of agree with, mainly dismantling the IRS.

-A

Black hole blues in the lack of soul in your boogie shoes...

2007-10-11T12:29:00.000-05:00

I am by no means a great fisher, but I enjoy doing it. Catch and release is extremely fun to me. I also like spending time outside by the lake water, listening to birds, frogs, insects and fish flop...and I'm obsessive when I do something I enjoy. I have a few rods and reels, nothing really spectacular as fishing gear can get really expensive really quick. I have a two light set-ups - a BPS jigger and BPS baitcaster for panfish/crappie/etc. A couple medium set-ups for bass/trout/etc. - a Shimano spinner and Abu Garcia spincaster. And a couple set-ups for catfish - a Shakespeare Tiger and Zebco 808. I even keep all of my tackle segregated depending on what I'm going after. That way I can travel light and be mobile since I only shore and dock fish.

I've been lusting after either an Abu Garcia Ambassodore or one of the Quantum casters, but the prices are steep compared to what I normally fish with, paying for the brand and the better quality. Well I found a deal on a Quantum 1310 I could not pass up...but I did pass it up since I had to save up. In my quest to find that deal again, I stumbled upon a deal for a Quantum 1420mg with an Affinity rod for the same price as the 1310. So I snagged it this time around. My first foray into upper scale gear. Of course the sky is the limit when bass fishing, if you can afford it, but a dependible Quantum will suit me and my budget just fine. Pic of a 1420mg above. I also have some new mono-line and salt injected tubes, I'm ready to go.

Found a neat fishing weight estimater...

Fish Calculator

Looks like the 27 inch long catfish I caught, was around 11 lbs.

-A

The ballyhooed lude and rude and their half-brewed feud over crude...

2007-10-09T13:05:00.000-05:00

I found this small session very interesting. Richard Dawkins, Johnathan Miller and Norman McCleod.

Part One...

Part Two...

-A

Being polite, upright and contrite to fight the spite of fright and blight...

2007-10-05T11:06:00.000-05:00

I was trying to think of something to write about today as I drove in to the office. My mind was wandering since it was a very pleasant morning, the window was down and left arm out. I had Grateful Dead music cranked as I rolled through the farmlands. Thanks to road construction going on all but one route for me, I have to take the scenic way in to the urban sprawl. Which is quite nice but a longer drive, more miles and time. The morning was dewey, so the farm grass smelled nice...amazing how sometimes even equine and bovine piss doesn't stench off all that bad. High clouds with the Sun's intrepid photons busting through whispy gaps. Inspiring on a totally natural basis. The night skies have been big for the last few days, autumnal atmosphere seems to give a good showing of stars...again a sense of awe even with trace surface light pollution.

These types of circumstances just drive home in my rationing that nature is absolutely wonderful. A sense of inspiration and awe does not need to stem from an imaginary consoling father figure...as a matter of lack of evidence it surely does not. No need to close your eyes and wish really hard, that talking to yourself makes things turn out better. Not even finger crossing or tossing salt over your shoulder can change anything. Humanity can change, can indeed make things better. If not, then nature moves on regardless. There is so much beauty that most take for granted. The cosmos is nearly incomprehensively fantastic, a mystery that defies and requires no supernatural explanation. Music, night sky, sunlight, clouds, a painting, a hug, smell of grass and rain, might sound like a wishy-washy-hippy to admittedly fully appreciate such things, but they are there to be experienced, and are tangibly real.

-A

The general anesthetic purgury of diuretic parthenogenetic prophetic bugulary...

2007-10-02T16:55:00.000-05:00

Not too much to say today...so I thought I'd post Richard Dawkin's latest documentary. This aired a few weeks ago on BBC. He tackles all of the hullaballoo, supernatural, new age, horromojo-stuff in this one...

Enemies of Reason - Part 1

Enemies of Reason - Part 2

If you like these films look up the God Delusion on Google Video...or better yet just buy them from his website. I have it linked in my link-o-rama section. However...the vids can be downloaded on Google Video and ripped to DVD-R. Enjoy.

-A

Coordinated prison rules for newly arisen insubordinate preschool fools...

2007-10-01T09:56:00.000-05:00

Race weekend is over...

What an interesting NNCS race...lots of weather, cautions and controversial finale. As much as I ridicule team Hendricks drivers, when I talk out loud with other race fans, I must admit yesterday they showed some class. Being at the race without a scanner, means you are not getting the whole story. I watch scannerless, so I was in the dark, like the track was, at the finish. After the speakers announced Biffle won under caution without a green/white restart, what spectators that stuck it out during the three hours of rain delay, flooded the stands in a mass exit...before Biffle even crossed the stripe. So I had assumed NASCAR ended the race before cars crossed the stripe. Which I thought, that's odd, what a let down. Kansas is a track without lighting, so the sunset cut the race short...no normal restart. Once I got home and kicked off my mud covered shoes, I watched the race recaps. I indeed left my seat too soon...Biffle ran out of gas, and Bowyer (my driver) crossed the stripe first! This happened under caution, Biffle could not keep pace with the safety car, and diverted his machine to the logo painted lawn...the cars behind him kept paced and crossed first! However, NASCAR made another judgement call which allowed Biffle to keep the victory. Johson and Gordon showed some class, and have my respect, they both congratulated Bowyer on the victory. Bowyer, showed calm and a lot of confusement on the cameras. He and his team thought he had won too. After watching the replays, I agree, Bowyer won his hometrack race, it is obvious, look at the picture above. The Black Jack wins!

The understanding of the rule has been, under caution the running order is frozen. Keep pace with pace car, no passing. Then earlier this year at the Montreal NBS race, Robby Gordon was caught up in a NASACR rules snafu. Which led teams to understand that he did not fall in line and did not keep pace and was penalized for that. The confusement is over pace. Some teams appearently albeit wrongly thought that keeping pace was the key. I wish that NASCAR did not keep the rules so open ended and secret from the fans...then again, if a race team can't keep them straight and NASCAR keeps editing them, maybe they are better left unknown by the general public.

-A

Scholastic youth bit the iconoclastic sleuth with an uncouth sarcastic tooth...

2007-09-27T09:13:00.000-05:00

A little less than three hours ago, NASA's Dawn Mission launched into space via a Delta II Heavy Lifter and is on it's way to the asteroid belt. The Dawn spacecraft is NASA's newest deep space explorer on the first interplentary mission in history. Dawn will slingshot around Mars, testing it's framing cameras, measuring x-rays, gamma rays and infra-red imagers as it leaves the red planet's orbit...and zooms on to Vesta, the first of two asteroid belt objects to study.

Dawn is also the first spacecraft to use Ion engines. Dawn has three Ion engines, which is one more than a George Lucas imagined TIE Fighter. Each Ion engine weighs about 20 pounds, has the diameter of a basketball and only functions in the vaccum of space, running very swiftly and thriftly on Xenon fuel. Xenon is a gas that is four times heavier than air. The Ion engines are designed for at least 5.5 years of functioning. Dawn's power source are the solar panel arms, fully extended at 54 feet, these panels will collect energizing solar rays as the space craft jets further and further from the sun. The asteroid belt objects Dawn will explore are about 3AU distant, give or take a couple thousand miles...these solar panels are NASA/JPL cutting edge tech.

Dawn has 112 levels of incremental throttle, over the next few days it's throttle will increase to level 28 as it rights itself from the launch spin and gains velocity. Slowly and deliberately Dawn will gently increase it's speed, over the next four days it will go from 0-60 mph...the follwing days 60 more mph...after 12 days in it will cruising at 180 mph. This puts less stress on the ion engines and conserves xenon. as the 2,600 lb spacecraft rockets through the solar system. After about a year in space Dawn will reach 5,500 mph...at 5 years in it's speed will reach 23,000 mph.

Absolutely interesting stuff. Space history was made today.

-A

PS: It's NASCAR weekend here in Kansas! I will be out at speedway for majority of the next three days watching my favorite drivers blow the quarterpanels off the competition. Won't be writing on here during that time.

The population's inspiration and elation with lactation is a fascination and creation of frustration...

2007-09-26T09:03:00.000-05:00

The e-news must be slow today...Yahoo has a story about satellite imaging being able to find downed planes or lost hikers in remote areas...so why not look for bigfoot populations and sea monsters. I'm not exactly sure how I feel about cryptozoology. I do think that the mind can play tricks on a person, as the synaptic sparks in the brain try to make sense of shadows and peripheral vision. The mass effect of delusional folklore, superstition and hysteria still tuns rampant through society. I also know that thanks to evolution there seem to be new species, however large or small discovered on a regular basis. Humans even make new breeds or domesticated animals through artifical selection. Just look at all of the funky-less-than-natural dogs that are available for people to sink money in to. I am however skeptical of everything, yet one can have "faith" without having belief in the supernatural, new age, hollistic, paranormal. One can be scientific and natural and still have to take things on what can be termed faith. I have never seen an atom or it's nucleus. I have never stepped foot on the moon but know it is more than just a flat paper disk rising and setting in a pin pricked sky. Due to the lifespan of the human animal, I could never know 100% for sure that the universe over 13 billion years old. However, many respected sources with many scientific models have variably tested and proven these things to be the best of factual knowledge a human can understand. So without the means to actually look for yourself, it could be termed a faith of a sort. However you could also switch the word to trust...which I like better, since it cannot be misconstrued to have and alternate magical meaning. Nothing should be taking on faith, when it cannot be imperically measured, meaning that when science has reached it's boundry, that improbable supernatural answers are the only possible explanation. That cannot be without proof, and the absence of proof does not make it real. The scientific mind can change, can evolve, can adapt to new information.

So now using satellite imaging could it be possible to find fantastical creatures lurking just out of reach of human contact. Will there be dragons found? Unicorns? Merfolk? Bigfeet? A plesiosaur swimming deep in a European lake? Creatures that have evolved or survived through minimal breeding habits? There must be more than one of such creatures. Why else would they be so engrained in folklore? How difficult would an image be to authenticate? I myself can make very convincing bogus images using Adobe Photoshop. Scientists have yet to establish concrete evidence and serious study of such things. Yes there are socities that devote time to searching for cryptozoological animals, but nothing conclusive as of yet. The back-from-extinction coelacanth has somehow survived and remained fairly elusive to humans. Could a missing link between the human ape and the primate ape be sustaining it's population deep in a dense forest somewhere?

-A

An electroshocked and mocked pickpocket flocked to the retrorocket's flippity-flopped windsock...

2007-09-25T11:18:00.000-05:00

Samuel Langhorne Clemens. Born in Missouri- November 30, 1835 and died - April 21, 1910 of a heart attack. Clemens became one of the first and one of the most prolific American writers under the name Mark Twain. Samuel Clemens is one of my all time favorite authors. I am far from close to have reading his entire cannon of material, however its is a goal of mine to read as much of it as I can while I'm here. I have read his mainstream classics, as well as a few not so mainstream, I have also read just about all of his short stories. My fascination with Mark Twain does not end there...he was born in the time of United States history that particularly interests me, and he was fairly local to where I myself have lived my life one hundred years later. Clemens was an extremely accute critical thinker and his philisophical and political opinions and ideas were very cutting edge for his time and his esteamed place in society. Later in life after gaining life experiences through world travel, Clemens could even be labeled a revolutionary. He was a supportor of the labor-movement. He was anti-imperialism, which in and of itself was an un-Amercian way of thought for a turn-of-the-century individual, with political aquaintances. He even became VP of the American Anti-Imperialism League. Clemens was a very vocal social critic, that gave lectures on his opinions. He was an abolitionist and an opponent of racism. He was for the ethical treatment of animals and himself a vegitarian. One of the most controversial aspects of Clemens criticism was how he felt about orginized religion. His opinions and writings on that subject matter was kept in the closet, so to speak, by the surviving members of his estate, these publications were not truly marketed by publishers and kept from the mainstream until the early 1960's. Those are still not the Mark Twain books you will find readliy available for purchase when shopping your average local bookshop. There is a quite sizable collection of works published posthumously.

I do share many of the same opinions that Samuel Clemens held. That is why he is one of my, if not my favorite author of the late 19th and early 20th century. I am continually impressed by his personal views on life and the cosmos and his way of inventing fictional characters that seem incredibly lifelike.

-A

None of the one nun's sons had a ton of fun with a stun gun hunting water moccasin...

2007-09-20T09:59:00.000-05:00

I am currently reading Martin Rees book "Before the Beginning: Our Universe and Others". He makes mention of an interesting illustration of the span of our Sun's main sequence age. If you started a cross country walk on a beach New York (Sun turns on) with the destination being a beach in L.A. (Sun goes red giant), taking just one step every 2000 years, in comparisome with the current age of The Sun, your hike would have you placed somewhere in Kansas right now. The sun being just a bit under middle age...4.5 billion out of a 10 billion year main sequence. Rees' book so far is quite enjoyable, sort of in the vein of Hawkin's "Brief History of Time", as cosmos theory for the common person. What I like about Rees is that he chooses to leave all supernatural references out, yet still however reluctantly includes mention of unproven hypotheticials for information purposes. Difficult not to mention both books together, since Hawkins and Rees are colleagues with similar educational background...yet each ended up having a different approach.

Scientists have discovered that Neptune has a huge temperature differential. Being that it is furthest planet from the Sun, it only recieves 1000th of the sunlight that the Earth basks in. Neptune is a gas giant and composed primarily of helium and hydrogen, yet the methane in it's atmosphere makes it reflect blue. Neptunes year is 165x that of Earth, so it's seasons last quite long. The southern pole is currently pointed at the sun, and has heated up during this 40 years of summer. The average temperature on Neptune is -392F, but at the south pole it heats up to around 18F degress. There is more on this on the Nasa.gov site.

-A

Behold the head cold is instead conjolled in the rolled gold of a bread mold...

2007-09-17T13:18:00.000-05:00

This evening at Glenwood Arts Theatre in Metcalf South Mall (Overland Park) at 7:40pm there will be a screening of a film called "Kansas Vs. Darwin", which is a documentray of the evolution hearings in Kansas that happened back in 2005. A couple years back the Kansas state school board was neck deep in the intelligent design legal debate which would have allowed creationism taught along side evolution in biology classes...infringing on the constitutional law that seperaes state and church. The ID supporters wanted to promote christian biblical creationism while reducing Charles Darwin's in depth science of evolution and natural selection to a mere whistful theory. More here...

http://www.kansasvdarwin.com/default.asp

I really wish I could attend this screening...however I am preoccupied.

-A

YES! Clint Bowyer won his very first cup race at Louden this weekend! Leaping four places upwards in the chase for the cup championship. That black and white JD car looked fantastic in victory lane. Bowyer did such a hard set of burnouts that he killed the car and it had to be pushed onto the checkered floor in front of the stage. One down nine to go for team RCR.

The sour cream color scheme of the meteor stream made the theme team scream...

2007-09-13T10:50:00.000-05:00

Is there life on other planets? With the notion that the Earth is just one planet attached to the Sun, a star. That the Sun is a star among a hundred billion stars in our galaxy, and that there are quite possiblly a hundred billion galaxies in the universe. The likelihood of life elsewhere would seem very probable. The fact that our solar system is a third of the age of the universe, means that lifeforms and species on non-earth planets, even quite possibly in our very own solar system, may have come and gone. Species have come and gone even on the Earth, just within the current 4.5 billion years, a fraction of time since the big bang of 13+ billion years ago.

NASA and SETI are constantly searching for signs of life. Scientists are studying extreme environments here on Earth hoping to understand life that could posssibly exist on other planets or their moons. Water, seen as ice on extra-terrestrial surfaces could house ancient microbial life. That life too could be in the process of constant evolution to adapt with an ever changing environment and weather system.

Jupiter's moon Europa is extremely bright when viewed through a telescope, due to the icy surface. The theory is that surface is constantly fed with fresh ice due to the pull of Jupiter's gravity which constanty opens and closes fissures in the ice which brings new liquid water to the surface...so there is liquid water hidden below. Water is the great diluder of building block elements that put evolution in motion. Could there be microbial or other aquatic life under Europa's crust?

Saturn's moon Titan is covered in a thick atmosphere of nitrogen and methane. The conclusion drawn by an atmosphere such as this, is that Titan could have hydrocarbon lakes...hydrocarbons being a staple component of life. Titan could be home to lifeforms than would even defy the wildest imagination here on Earth.

On Earth we have thousands of creatures than have evolved and adapted to the harshest environments. Aquatic life that never sees sunlight. Life that exists in small microbial scale buried under ice. Tube worms that thrive on elements in boiling water being ejected into the ocean by vents that extend into the depths of the Earth. NASA astrobiologist Dr. Richard Hoover discovered bacteria and fungi that have lived under the icy Alaskan tundra for 32,000 years. Carnobacterium pleistocenium has thrived where no other species could in subfreezing temperatures and in total darkness.

So the likelihood of eventually finding or being found by off-planet life seems probable, but still has yet to happen.

-A

The Persian cat and a Norway rat had an eschat chat with a faithless fruit bat...

2007-09-12T09:06:00.000-05:00

NASA's Dawn mission has finally made it to the launch pad. The mission was originally scheduled to take off in July but was postponed so NASA could give 100% attention to the recently completed STS-118 mission to the ISS. A Delta II 7925-H (heavy lifter) has made it to launch pad 17-B and the Dawn payload is atop of it. The mission's launch window starts September 26th and closes October 15th...the next Shuttle missioon STS-120 is slated for an October launch. The Dawn spacecraft will zoom off to the asteroid belt to study two of the largest objects orbiting there, Ceres and Vesta.

Ceres has a spherical body about the size of Texas and was recently dubbed a dwarf planet, in the same recatagorizing that eliminated Pluto from the classification as an outer planet. Vesta was the fourth object discovered in the belt and is about the size of Arizona. Scientists estimate Ceres could be composed of up to 25% water, which takes form as ice buried under a surface of space dust, and could quite possibly have polar ice caps...on the other side of the spectrum Vesta appears to be composed of basalt rock, frozen lava which would indicate resurfacing and an early history of volcanism. Vesta is nearly spheroid in shape except for a huge impact crater at it's south pole. It is estimated that about 5% of the meteorites found on Earth originate from a massive impact in the asteroid belt, much like the one that ejected debris out of Vesta's crater.

The Asteroid Belt orbits the Sun in between the orbital paths of Mars and Jupiter. The four largest objects in the belt, including the two listed above and Pallas and Hygiea comprise almost half of the overall mass of the main belt. The rest of the objects range in sizes from a grain of sand to a mountain.

The Dawn spacecraft is scheduled to reach Vesta in September 2011 and study the asteroid until April 2012...at that point it will make it's way to Ceres by February 2015, with the primary mission coming to an end in July 2015. I would assume that like most successful NASA exploration missions, Dawn will continue on much longer than the projected timeframe.

-A

The demeritted ferret inheritted the parrot in the beret's carrot...

2007-09-11T15:51:00.000-05:00

One the most difficult to digest and highly unlikely things that people of christian faith tend to believe in is a second coming. At some point in the last 2000 or so years someone with a vivid imagination included "revelations" into an edition of the book. These revelations tell of prophetic occurances supposedly yet to happen. Now being that I was forced to go to a fundementalist AoG church as a child, I was warned on several occasions about the soon-to-come-to-pass rapture. What I thought was most strange was that I was also told as a child that if anyone claimed to have supernatural powers, like fortune telling or predicting the future, that they must be of the devil or a witch or satanist of some sort.. Then of course the bible has a whole chapter of Nostradamusian predictions, and the very fact that they claim Jesus to have had magickal powers seemed strange to me that they held a prejudice against modern people claiming to have a supernatural touch. The church I attended thought astrology and horoscopes were devilish. How hypocritical to have a "my superstitions are holy but your's are not" attitude? Anyways...for hundreds of years those of christian faith have used the "end times" routine into scaring heathens into worshiping their god. The dispensationalists of 190 years ago even plotted out a chart of what they think will happen. They even invented a person called the "Antichrist" as someone to point the prophetic finger at. Far as I can tell the Antichrist person isn't even mentioned in the revelations chapter. It all never set well with me. As a young child it scared the shit out of me, just like it was supposed to...but it never made sense. However a whole bunch of people all over the world actually believe in a coming apacolypse. Like a nuclear war, which could indeed happen, but not by a supernatural cause unless you count that the switch was thrown by a faith-head. These people even welcome it. They believe that it will be the grand finale when Jesus flies down from outer space and lands in a cloud to collect all of the buried skeletons, rotting corpses and cremated remains (good luck gathering up all of the dust JC), up into the clouds with him. Then all of those true believers will vanish and instantly fly up, up, up and away into outer space or wherever they think the afterlife is staged.

Several other religions have their own version...

1)The jewish think that they will finally strike all of their enemies down (get revenge), then ressurect the dead, then the messiah will come down to Earth and be crowned king.

2) The mormons think that Jesus will come back to the planet and land in Missouri. They will have his landing pad clearly marked as a yet to be constructed temple, relax, they have plenty of time. The mormons think that people on Earth only have 7000 years to exist, being that we live in the 6000th year, they have another 1000 or so to build a couple temples. The mormons then think that all wicked non-mormons will perish in fire. After that all that will be left are those that believe in mormon ideology.

3a) Suni Muslims think that Jesus will come back but will fool everyone since he is a false messiah (anitchrist figure)...only the true muslims will know the difference. Then a true muslim will gather an army to fight the fake-jesus. The "real" Jesus will only come back after they start fighting the fake-jesus. The second-second-coming Jesus will general an army to stomp out the bad guys...but that's not all, the sun will then rise up in the west and kill anyone that's left...then it's judgment day.

3b) The Shia muslims predict a whole bunch of political actions, a fake messiah and quite a few of them dying in Iraq. Then someone will rise up make a speach, raise an army and kill off the bad guys...then there will be peace, once everyone is using true islam as their religion...then after a while the dead will pop back up and be judged.

4) Zoroastrians think that there will be a great final battle, where the bad guys lose. Then for just three days leftover sinners will be punished, then forgiven as judgement day goes into full swing.

5) The norse think that all of the gods will fight it out, and rip the Earth and Universe apart, whatever is left of the planet will be ruled over by two gods and a ressurected one.

6) Heaven's gate followers thought that their two leaders arrived from heaven in a UFO in these end times...and that they would follow them back up to heaven in a UFO hidden in a comet's tail...most of them killed themselves trying to catch up with that comet.

7) Branch-davidians thought that David Koresh was a prophet and that he would be able to impregnate a girl to bring forth the "Chosen One". Koresh claimed to be the voice of god, so the ATF raided his compound and burned it. Have faith though, branch-davidians think that Koresh will return (second coming) 1,335 days after his death...well that second coming was supposed to happen in August or October of 2000, since it did not the davidians now think Koresh will come back to life in March 2012.

Of course I'm paraphrasing and abridging all of this, all religions have tried and proven source material to base the facts on.

In case you are a sinner and the christian god or Jesus leaves you behind, I found a survial manual that explains all of the horrible things that are going or about to go down, for the full effect don't watch this until Jesus comes back....

-A

Part time mime without a dime commits prime time crime for key lime slime...

2007-09-10T10:17:00.000-05:00

Decent weekend was had. Harvick made the championship chase. I was really sweating that. Didn't like seeing him and Dale Earnhardt Jr. on the fence like that...but if I had my drethers, which it turned out I did...Happy made it. Matter of fact just about all of my favorite drivers made it in this year. I cannot wait for the Kansas Speedway race weekend.

The Spitzer and Hubble space telescopes have detected nine very small galaxies, very far away. Gazing deep into space and back into time, scientists in the USA and China have discovered snapshots of these young galaxies that are forming just a mere billion years of the Big Bang. These nine galaxies have stars that are only a few million years old and are still using Big Bang elements in formation. The galaxies are quite small in relation to the Milky Way since they are not fully grown.

-A

"There’s flies in the kitchen I can hear ’em there buzzing
And I ain’t done nothing since I woke up today.
How the hell can a person go to work in the morning
And come home in the evening and have nothing to say."

-John Prine - "Angel From Montgomery"

The ironic shift of tectonic plates is the chronic gift that every masonic debates...

2007-09-07T11:47:00.000-05:00

I recently found a copy of a quite revealing BBC Two documnetary on google. Being that I was born and have lived in Kansas all but one year of my life, I am quite familiar with the disgusting shenannagins that the Phelps church puts on. I have actually witnessed one of their picket lines in Lawrence Kansas around the univeristy campus. As horrible as I thought the congregation of the Westboro Baptist Church of Topeka Kansas are, the reality exposed in this documentary still amazed me. How can a religion be interpreted, twised and corrrupted in this fashion? Then again, maybe they do have the ulitmate interpretation of the bible, afterall the bible does chronicle an extremely wrathful "worship me or else" god. The church members honestly believe that everyone but the 70 or so members of the church are going to spend an eternity burning in hell. They laugh out loud at the notion of god's vengence. They are not only the most hated family in America, but also the most hateful...

-A

A riddle of noncommittal whittle of a tasty tittle of peanut brittle...

2007-09-06T10:01:00.000-05:00

The History Channel's broadcast of The Universe has come to an end with an excellent program on The Big Bang, or rather beyond it. This episode was two hours long and focused on several theories and where the ideas of the theories come from. In the end the concept of the Universe actually having a starting point, as an incredibly compact atomic sized cosmic egg was proven to be the scientific theory of choice, once scientists could record and measure the leftover heat signature from the incredibly high velocity expansion that happened about 13.5 billion years ago.

The episode showcased several theories of the cosmos and also how a certain religion has been trying it's best to stiffle "heretic" scientists for the last 400 years. The conflict between supernatural improbable faith and natural fact driven science is definately not a modern issue. Once Galileo Galilei decided to aim his spyglass upward instead of out to sea started the ball rolling. Though Galileo was a practicing catholic, he could not ignore his discoveries even though they went against his personal faith based convictions. The church sort of took his scientic revelations in stride until he tried to make sense of scripture by reinterpreting it to fit his science...hmm...seminal intelligent design...maybe. Well the church could not tolerate a scientist trying to rationalize the bible, so they labeled him a heretic and sentenced him to house arrest for the remainder of his life. Too late to silence him for his emperical work was already opening the eyes of the public...paving the way to a factual scientific pursuit of the cosmos. Galileo's telescope proved Copernicus' heliocentrism model...the church did not like to ponder the fact that the Earth is not center of the universe.

The concept of geological time is often times difficult for someone to grasp, let alone cosmological time. The Earth is over four billion years old...think about one billion years...now mulitply that by four and then add a several more million years. Wow, staggering. Humans and their trackable primate ancestry only go back about 85 million years. Mountain ranges have come and gone. Oceans have come and gone. Species have come and gone....billions of years. Now think of The Universe, it is estimated to be at least three times older than our solar system. So in that time stars have come and gone, planets have come and gone. Ancient stars and planets are being destroyed by gravity and new ones forming by gravity even as I type this.

To even try to wrap your mind around the age of the cosmos look at the cosmic walkway illustrated at the Hayden Planetarium. The downward spiral walkway is as long as a football field. The era of dinosaurs spans about a foot of that distance...the era of Humans is no wider than the the width of a strand of hair in that cosmological display. I'd wager that is likely a generous assumption, after all the timeline needed to fit into a building.

-A

An unpatriotic despotic found the robotic aquatic neurotic quite exotic...

2007-09-04T14:07:00.000-05:00

1) Back from a long weekend. Actually had four days off in a row, very nice....four days on / four days off / four days on...I could get used to that schedule. Didn't do much of anything, except watch the races and watch some of the Universe marathon. Also rented The Aqua Teen Hunger Force Movie...funny without the censor bleeps, but the format works better as 10 or so minute long segments IMHO.

2) Been a year already since naturalist Steve Irwin died. He is/was one of my heroes. He was one of the greatest animals to walk the planet. A tragic loss to the Earth indeed. He did so much to bring the wonders of wildlife and reveal the mysteries of the natural world into public awareness. I was truly saddened this day last year. Too bad his existance was cut short, but he seemed to have lived a life worth living. Steve-O left a well-placed footprint in history. I miss him.

3) Scientists have discovered a huge hole in The Universe, in the constellation Eridanus there is a "cold spot" where the concentration of detectable galaxies severly decreases. This is not a black hole by any means, but a void that stretches almost a billion light years across. NASA's Wilkinson Microwave Anisotopy Probe satellite measures the Cosmic Microwave Background that is an imprint left by The Big Bang...and it shows an expansive void, that does not even contain dark matter or cosmic dust or stars...just space. Could this be empty shell of the first three minutes?

-A

A guerrilla flotilla sails by the villa of the killa gorilla and vanilla chinchilla...

2007-08-30T10:39:00.000-05:00

It is scientific theory that our star, The Sun only has about 5 billion more years of main sequence left in it. So within that timeframe life on planet Earth either has to find more hospitable environs or face comsic demise...but time on this planet could be even more short. The Milky Way galaxy and the Andromeda galaxy are on a collision course. Scientists say that our closest local spiral galaxy neighbor Andromeda (Messier object 31) at 2.5-2.9 million light years away is headed straight for the MIlky Way galaxy at 62-87 miles per second. The exact velocity is difficult to pin down but the galaxies will collide in possibly 3 billion years, to form a giant eliptical galaxy. At that time the stars and gasses of Andromeda will be highly visible and likely very beautiful in the Earth's night sky. Simulations reveal that once the colliosion occurs, the two large galaxies will make several passes at each other, likely increasing velocity as the super massive black holes at the center of each spiral play tug of war with each other...finally coming to together in a giant formation once of the stronger of the two singularities wins the match.

It is a possiblity that our Solar system will feel little effects of this. If our system is ejected out onto one of the cosmic tidal tails during the joining. The result would be a spectacular view, billions of more stars in the sky. However stars can and do collide with other stars, if our solar system just happens to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. Keep in mind space is extremely vast and there is ample elbow room for wiggling and spreading out, even with the influence of extreme gravity.

Our local group of galaxies consists of about 33 galaxies, the two largest ones listed above, one more large one called The Triangulum galaxy and roughly 30 other smaller galaxies make up our cluster.

-A

PS: Sometimes I just can't get a song out of my head...more often than not it's a Zappa tune. Been mentally and audibly obsessing with this one for a couple days now...Enjoy some Napi and an incredible Zappa solo!

Jack Krack attacked the black yak's plaque with a sack full of knick-knacks...

2007-08-29T08:46:00.000-05:00

1) Alternative fuel source news...Abengoa Bioenergy, an energy company from Sevilla, Spain has chosen a Kansas town to be the site of a new ethenol plant. Hugoton, Kansas will be the place for the $400 million biorefinery that will convert lucious Kansan cornstalks and switchgrass into fuel. The US Dept. of Defense has underwritten $76 million on the project, that will be the first of several such biorefineries, other plants are planned to be built in Florida, Georgia, Iowa, Idaho and California. Good news for Kansas and the environment. I even heard Dave DeSpain of Speed Channel doing a soapboxing of sorts for Nascar to move towards more environmental conscious fuel sources. Which I am totally behind. I do like the roar of the combustion engines, but I realize that's a lot of emmisions. It's not just Nascar though, there are several racing circuits, and you also have to consider sporting events that converge on a more regular basis than racing. They draw more fans that drive more cars. So you can't blame it all on the sport of racing stock cars.

2) There was a total lunar eclipse yesterday morning...but the midwest USA did not get full vantage of it. The best place for the viewing was on the west coast, which literally lives in the past...different timezone. The east coast could have seen it too had it not been that they live in the furture...eclipse happened after after sunrise. I will paraphrase Charles Shultz now, "Don't worry about the world ending today, it is already tomorrow in Austrailia"...what a peanut.

3) History Channel's The Universe focused on the search for extra-terrestrial life. Lots of thought provoking ideas about ET life, of course nothing backed with hard science, since as far as we know now we are alone. Concepts were based on speculative "best guess" science. There are at least a couple of places even in our solar system that have enough likeness to Earth, that it is posssible at some point to have sustained life...maybe still do on a microbial level. The Sun is expanding, growing larger and hotter, at some point billions of years ago, it is quite possible that other planets and moons surfaces and atmsopheres were different due to a the star being smaller and possibly cooler. Even in it's infancy stage Earth likely was not ideal for the human animal as it is today...we (all life) existed as simple cells and microbes in statically charged goo. The evolution of the cosmos has taken quite a long span of time, yet our Solar System is less than half as old as the greater Universe. Life forms that have sprung up elsewhere could be more highly evolved coming from planets/moons that developed before the Earth. No reason to presume that out of a billion galaxies each with a billion stars that life is unique to our planet. It is completely obvious that the Universe was not created just so humans could have something to look at, it is in and of itself a life form of sorts, evolving and expanding all on it's own. Okay not biological like Earthlings catagorize life, but it's out there working on itself with gravity and cosmic geology whether humans exists or not. The Universe has been a great progam, next week is the final episode...The Big Bang.

-A

The commissioned magician's exhibition caused a thermal emmision from the mathematician...

2007-08-28T09:00:00.000-05:00

I'm having a real quandry here...I do know what I want to do about it but I'm thinking that I need to be delicate.

My daughter recently tried out for a softball team in Olathe. It is an ASA sanctioned league as far as they use ASA umps. The team is geared to teach young girls the proper techniques to play softball, and works with them towards honing their skills at a young age with aims to play at the collegiate level. There is another issue...I don't think that colleges should give full rides for sports...I think since the USA is a society that has to pay huge amounts of money for furthering education, then scholarships should be given to students based on academics alone. But since the USA puts a far higher premium on entertainment than intelligence, the system is flawed in my opinion. University tutions are bound to skyrocket in the next ten years, so I guess trying to use the flawed capitalist system for collegiate sports scholarships is an avenue to pursue...but that is not the moral issue at hand.

For some audacious reason her new coach has supposed that my daughter is a christian. Without talking to me or my wife to ask permission, the coach requires that 8 and 9 year old girls bend a knee and pray before and after practice. Being that I am an Atheist, I have a huge problem with this. The thing is my wife is not an Atheist. So we are conflicted on this. I am not raising my daughter to believe in one certain thing. I think it is flat wrong to pass religion on to little kids. Religion should be a personal choice made when someone can truly contemplate it. A parent forcing their supernatural dogma onto a young child is not fair. Sure my daughter was given a couple little kids bibles as baby shower gifts, and she likes to read them just like she likes reading Harry Potter, but I have also informed her that is just one way that some people believe. I have told her about other world religions. She even tends to think reincarnation is the neatest of the options...which it certainly is most compelling, but that does not make it so.

My daughter still acts like she believes in the tooth fairy, santa claus and the easter bunny...so I've figured it's okay at her age for her to be exposed to the grandest fairy tale of them all...god. So it has not been that big of a deal. I've bascially told her where I stand on it, and that I have just one of many opinions on the issue. But now I have a softball coach forcing my kid to pray to an imaginary cultist thing. For now I'm simmering on the issue, due to the fact that my wife is on the fence and we are both parents. Plus I also don't feel it's right to force my rational perspective on my child. My child has her own mind.

I just keep reminding her that there are thousands of religions and that no matter what anyone says evolution DID happen and is still happening. I am doing my best to keep the wonder of science and naturalism instilled in her. I do not want her to fall into a cult, but if she does I want it to be her own informed choice, not because her parents or a softball coach wants her to. I guess the quandry is should I step in and confront the coach on his unethical supposition, as I fear that my daughter will immediately get kicked off the team. The coach proclaims on the team's website that one of the prerequisits to be on the team is to give [his] god glory. The problem is my daughter loves to play softball, and there are very few "serious" team openings...damn that flying spaghetti monster.

-A

See...

Tossed and lost in criss-cross of the embossed permafrost gloss...

2007-08-27T10:03:00.000-05:00

Took a little hiatus from posting...sometimes I just run out of things to write about.

My wife brought up that crazy god warrior woman from that realty tv show Wife Swap over the weekend, so I thought just for giggles I would look her up on google video. Well I found her in her full-on-flipping-out-in- jesus-name-I-pray glory...Enjoy!

Yikes, she is frightening. A true sample of how fundamentalist dogma can twist the weak minded.

-A

The gaze of the meandering gander raised the dander of the dazed commander...

2007-08-16T08:49:00.000-05:00

This week's The Universe was an excellent show. The episode focused on the outer planets, gas giants and dwarfs. Once again the illustrations and animations were spectacular. Very informative. I cannot wait until 2015, it should be a very interesting year...not only will NASA have the Constellation program geared up for the moon, the New Horizons space craft will finally reach Pluto. The New Horizons spacecraft has been jetting through space for 573 days at 45,000 mph. Rocketing towards the Kuiper belt. The craft is planned to reach Pluto in it's closest orbit in 2888 days. The craft has already sent back highly valuable information about Jupiter and it's moons, even capturing pictures of volcanic plumes on the moon Io. The craft is currently 7.10 AU away from the sun and continues it's intercept course. Earlier this year scientists using The Hubble detected two addtional (yet smaller than Charon) moons around Pluto. New Horizons has it's work cut out for it.

I was particularly interested in the episode's coverage of Uranus. In December of 2005 NASA's Hubble Space Telescope discovered two additional rings and two additonal moons. That brought the ring total up to 13, but the 2 newest rings are far enough away from the planet and thicker than the other known rings, so they are considered a second ring system. Uranus has 14 moons, the newest moons are "Mab" and "Cupid". Mab shares it's orbit with the outer most ring. Which would make for an violant life on Mab, sharing orbit with millions of other smaller orbiting objects. However the impacts on Mab keep the ring well fed. Larger objects or possibly another moon could collide with Mab and make the outter ring thicker more pronounced.

Above this message is a picture of the red giant Mira A. NASA's Galaxy Evolution Explorer recently captured this detailed picture of the star as it speeds through space at 291,000 mph, which is consdierably faster than other stars moving within the galaxy's arms. Mira A is leaving a trail of ejected surface matter in it's wake. Mira's tail which is 13 light years long is spreading gas and dust that can create new planets. Mira A ejects enough matter to produce a planet the size of Earth every 10 years. Over the past 30,000 years the star has ejected enough starstuff to produce nine Jupiter sized planets. Mira A is 350 light years away from Earth, traveling with it's white dwarf companion Mira B. Mira A is pulsating which means it's luminosity is a variable, the next time Mira A will be visible to the naked eye is in mid November 2007.

-A

Magellan's watermelon rind was on the unkind mind of the slaughtered felon...

2007-08-15T11:37:00.000-05:00

Whether of not a believer wants to believe it, all religions are cults. Early humans formed into collective tribes. Tribal mentality brought forth several things, survival, protection, sense of belonging, governing rules, ethics and morals, and a collective inquiry of how to explain things that are not understood. Why the sun rises and sets, how rain falls, why the ground shakes during an earthquake. Puzzles that scientific research eventually explained. But the primitive tribal mind did not have the means to explain such things, so they turned to the supernatural. Worshiping nature and/or gods. Cults were founded, ideologies and dogmas put in place. Religions blossomed from ignorance. Religions were not formed with vicious intent, but as a way of explaining things the primitive mind could not grasp. However cults have fine-tuned their beliefs over thousands of years to adapt with new scientific research and some cults have twisted their dogma into horrible forms of extremism. Yes. Religions have evolved.

The American Heritage Dictionary definition of Religion:

1) Belief in and reverence for a supernatural power or powers regarded as creator and governor of the universe.
2) A personal or institutionalized system grounded in such belief and worship.
3) A set of beliefs, values, and practices based on the teachings of a spiritual leader.
4) A cause, principle, or activity pursued with zeal or conscientious devotion.

The American Heritage Dictionary definition of Cult:

1) A religion or religious sect generally considered to be extremist or false, with its followers often living in an unconventional manner under the guidance of an authoritarian, charismatic leader.
2) Obsessive, especially faddish, devotion to or veneration for a person, principle, or thing.
3) A system or community of religious worship and ritual.
4) The formal means of expressing religious reverence; religious ceremony and ritual.
5) A usually nonscientific method or regimen claimed by its originator to have exclusive or exceptional power in curing a particular disease.
6) An exclusive group of persons sharing an esoteric, usually artistic or intellectual interest.

There are estimated to be 10,000 distinct religious cults on the planet Earth. Within Christianity there are 33,830 differing sects. 150 of these 10,000 different religions have over one million or more followers. (1) The majority of those practicing within these cults believe their religion is the only true religion. Due to the fact that most of these cults believe their sect is the only true sect, in particular those of Christianity, refuse to accept that their religion is a cult.

Personally I cannot see the difference between a cult mindset and a religious mindset, even with individual definitions. I guess one depends on the other in a chicken and egg abstract. Both are driven by the supernatural, both are fanatical and both can have the unfortunate side effect of extremism. Both a cult and a religion rely on the faith of their followers, to follow without question and believe something without tangible proof or evidence. Religious cults abandon proper reason and critical thinking and replace that with faith and mind control. If one does choose to give away their ability to think for themselves and put trust in a religious leader or prophet, this form of mindlessness can be easily manipulated by what appears to be a guiding light in the darkness. Ignorance.

How else could one explain the extremism that followers can go to? Some religions are death cults. Some religions divide and conquer. Some religions are used as profitable schemes. Some manipulate a political agenda. Not that all of the world’s cults are for mortal-coil materialistic gain. Religions are founded on the belief of some sort of afterlife, in which the mind survives death, so it is possible to use the hope of post-life gain to take advantage of the non-freethinking individual. All cults think they are on the straight and narrow path to everlasting immortality. So in a round about way all religions are death cults, as the followers abjectly resign themselves under an improbable supernatural all-seeing power in hopes that they are granted true bliss after death. Which appeases the need to feel a part of a greater purpose, instead of simply accepting the proven fact that if an animal is born it shall one day die. Self centered devotion that claims there is a grander purpose to life than to merely live it with full appreciation of it. The cult mindset seems to not fully appreciate life, they serve a god until death then spend an eternity serving a god after they expire.

Life is full of wonder. Humanity is full of beauty. Appreciate it while you have it.

There are more than a couple things that remain unsolved for science. What was before the big bang? What is consciousness and what happens to it after the brain expires? Those yet to be answered questions are what keeps cults adhering to their beliefs.

The absolutely brilliant writer Mark Twain once said...

"Man is a Religious Animal. Man is the only Religious Animal. He is the only animal that has the True Religion, several of them. He is the only animal that loves his neighbor as himself and cuts his throat if his theology isn't straight. He has made a graveyard of the globe in trying his honest best to smooth his brother's path to happiness and heaven.... The higher animals have no religion. And we are told that they are going to be left out in the Hereafter. I wonder why? It seems questionable taste."

To wrap this up I will also add Mark Twain’s answer to the notion of an afterlife...

"I do not fear death, in view of the fact that I had been dead for billions and billions of years before I was born, and had not suffered the slightest inconvenience from it."

Footnote:
(1) Figures estimated by David Barrett, a researcher of world beliefs.

-A

An alliance of science in compliance with the supergiant's clients kitchen appliance...

2007-08-14T09:42:00.000-05:00

The Space Shuttle Orbiter Endeavor has a fist sized chunk of foam and tile missing from it's heat shield. Since this has been detected I am sure that NASA will do everything they can to repair it and see the Endeavor Orbiter home safely. NASA has taken many safety precautions since the two Shuttle mishaps to keep the crew safe and craft in good order, it makes those early Shuttle missions seem daredevilish. It speaks volumes on the level of safety advancement of the Shuttle program, just to know in advance that there is breach in the heatshield and they can trouble shoot this potential hazard. It is highly importanat to correct this problem since the Orbiter heats up to over 1,500 °C during re-entry. The heatshield is what takes the full brunt of this blast as it re-enters the atmsophere.

Consider how sturdy the craft is, an Orbiter is able to withstand 2.8 million pounds of thrust while lifting off fully loaded at 230,000 lbs. The Shuttle system stack weighs 4.5 million lbs setting loaded on the launch pad...amazes me to no end that the human animal has figured out how to thrust something that heavy into the sky.

Also realise how masive of an accomplishment that the USA/NASA has attained with the Space Transportation System (STS). The Shuttles have advanced our knowledge of the Earth and cosmos further than ever could be imagined. Spaceflight in the 60's seemed so cutting edge at the time, again those astronauts look mighty cavalier to be riding on the tip of rockets, when compared to the advanced Shuttle system.

The Russian's Buran Shuttle program never even made a crewed spaceflight, while the craft looks very similar to the NASA Orbiters, the Russian's program was decomissioned before fruition. Modern Comsonauts are still going into space using the same system they used in the 60's, The Soyouz capsule. The Buran shuttle 1.01 made one and only lift into space in 1988, where it orbited for 3 hours before being landed by the on-board computer. Shuttle 1.01 was parked in a hanger and eventually destroyed when the hangar collapsed in 2002. The nearly complete Buran 1.02 " Ptichka" sits in a museum Kazakhstan...the program was officially cancelled in 1993 by Yeltsin before the shuttle could be completed. Russian space exploration fell victim to the Cold War and political strife within the U.S.S.R.

Nowadays Cosmonauts and Astronauts from across the globe work together, joined in a quest for the greater good...knowledge. So here in the USA we should fully appreciate NASA and the STS program. In a time when billions upon billions of federal dollars are spent on invading the middle-east, the STS seems even more so like money well spent. Sure it's estimated 1.3 billion with every launch, but look where the STS has taken us. It has advanced us scientifically in ways unimagined...and there is still vast, endless outer space to explore. Imagine the most wondersous thing you can think of...what we will find out in the cosmos is more awesome than that.

-A

Molecular astrobiologists in the rectangular ring swinging spectacular fists...

2007-08-13T12:44:00.000-05:00

What a great weekend of racing. The NBS and Cup were at Watkins Glen. Whatever your stance on the Montreal NBS race is, personally I think Robby Gordon won, but the miscalled side effect of Harvick taking the V was okay by me, could have been worse. Harvick won The Glen with clear-cut precission. Harvick in the #21 is a recipe for victory. This is Harvick's third win in three starts in the NBS. 31 wins ties him for second most wins in the series. Harvick was defending champion of the Cup race at The Glen, but this year did not pan out so well for him. The poolball chain reaction that collected him and teammate Jeff Burton was horrible but made for an interesting race. Harvick parked in front of and blocked Montoya's Big Red #42. Kevin then decides to get out of the car and confront Juan right on the track. A pushing and yelling match ensued. Harvick ended the day by stating he was talking to Montoya about "kicking his ass". I'm not real sure what caused the wreck, it looked like Montoya squeezed into a corner too tight while letting off the throttle, causing Truex Jr. to run over the #42...then the big bang! Prime example of physics at work! It looks like Montoya's personality is to not give an inch, even to faster cars. Well it wrecked two RCR cars this time around. As of this morning NASCAR has decided not to fine either driver and since the FCC is okay with the word "ass", Harvick gets by. Harvick dropped another spot in the points. I'm hoping he can chock up a couple more wins this season.

Above I uploaded some artwork I've put togther for Harvick's very first Winston Cup car. Harvick was slated to drive the #30 along side Dale's #3 in 2002. The unfortunate wreck that took Dale's life thrust Harvick into the Cup races sooner than later. So instead the #3 team became the #29. The black numbered "reverse" paintshceme illustrated above, was run for the 2 races after Earnhardt's accident. Kevin's car then went to the white with red numbers paintsheme for the remainder of the season. Kevin scored his first victory in the first race using the red/white colors. Yes, his third start, barely beating Jeff Gordon to the line! Kevin held 3 fingers high out of his window as he did the first of his now famous Cup burnouts. The #29 team still continues to carry Dale's #3 decal on the side of the car for every race. I've always loved the black numbered tribute car. I'm actually working on a 1:24th scale model of it in my free time. Click on it for a larger preview.

-A

Three slamdunks into the free funk behind the tree trunks...

2007-08-10T11:21:00.000-05:00

The girlies went out to the county fair again last evening, and I chose to remain at home since I had little desire to spend another night out in the 100 degree heat among the entoxicating stench of deep fried corndogs, swine and bovine poochips. I spent a good portion of the evening watching STS-118 downlinks and mission coverage from NASA. All of the misssions are exciting to me, but this one seems to be bringing some sort of closure. The Endeavour is the shuttle that NASA built to replace the Challenger. Barbara Morgan was Christa McAuliffe's replacement in case she could not launch with STS-51L. Full circle. I find Barbara Morgan a person a high ethics. There were several roads she could gave chose after the Challenger disaster. She could have tried to capitalize on the tragedy, by writing a telling book, which would have been a best seller. She could have used her fifteen minutes of fame in 1986 to make quick money. She could have chose another career path, but she did not. She made the most of her opportunity with NASA, actually becoming an astronaut in 1998. This entire time she has continued the Teacher In Space program in her way. She will even teach classrooms across the USA from orbit...just as McAuliffe planned to do, even though the Teacher In Space program really isn't NASA's PR agenda as it was in 1985-1986.

Ronald Reagan once mentioned that the Teacher In Space program was the first step in using the Shuttle system to put civilians in space. Hoping that at some point NASA would be able to use the shuttles as a form of commercial travel. It looks as if those intentions will not come to fruition. The current president has set a tight schedule for the Shuttle program to be decommissioned by September 2010. The ISS needs to be completed by that time as the Shuttle's massive cargo holds are the way the large segments of the ISS get into orbit to be assembled. It is estimated that there needs to be at least ten more missions to the ISS to complete the job. The two shuttle tragedies aside, NASA has averaged four shuttle missions per year, so ten more trips does indeed pack the shedule and leave very little wiggle room.

Keep in mind that The Constellation program is not set for launch until 2015. Under the current plans the USA will be without a way to get into space for nearly five years, if the Shuttle program is discontinued when planned. The Russians have one Soyouz craft...which as of October 2010 will be the only ship able to get into orbit. Keep this in mind as well...The ISS will still be staffed during those 5 years. Someone did not think this through. It is so obvious that this is a bad plan. Hopefully the next president will change the schedule and NASA can maintain the Shuttles until Orion is ready to go to the moon.

At about 1:02 CDT pm today the Orbiter docked to the ISS.

-A

First glance of the dire liar's pants catching fire on the entrance of electric wire...

2007-08-09T09:43:00.000-05:00

This week's The Universe episode deals with the life and death of stars. Extremely interesting IMHO. Lots of great info on the evolution of stars, with fantastic animations. I had been waiting on this episode. I'm fascinated by what determines if a star will collapse into a black hole singularity or burn on for billions of years past it's prime as a white dwarf. Here's a glazing of information on stars.

Pre-main sequence:
When stars explode or galaxies colide they leave huge molecular clouds of debris. Over millions of years young protostars are formed within the unstable gravitational force in these clouds...the beginning of a star's life. Stars are predominately made up of the most common elements in the universe, hydrogen and helium. Stars become unique not only due to size but by their trace elements, elements that are heaver than their common gasses that are pulled into the core by their massive force of gravity. These elements are gathered by gravity's pull from the protoplanetary disk disks that form around a birthing star. Once the star's core is dense enough the hyrdogen atoms start moving at a great speed and smashing into each other, producing helium which causes nuclear fusion. The outward fusion and inward gravity cause stellar winds which give the star it's shape and makes it radiate. After the star's gravity has had it's fill what's left over in the dusty disk forms planets.

Main sequence:
Stars spend the majority of their active lifetime in this sequence. These stars are called dwarf stars. Dwarf stars are color coded. Small Red Dwarfs are dimmer and burn their fuel slowly and can last hundreds of billions of years, as they age they glow dimmer and dimmer until retiring as Black Dwarfs. The universe is only about 14 billion years old so Black Dwarfs hypothetically don't exist yet. Yellow Dwarfs are larger and burn out faster than Red Dwarfs. The sun is a Yellow Dwarf and almost half way through it's 10 billion year long main squence. The hotter and larger a star becomes the faster it burns it's resources, a blue star burns out relatively quickly in comparisome to it's counterparts.

Post-main sequence:
As a star outgrows itself, it starts to cool down becoming a Red Giant. The helium is burned out of the core and the surface begins to harden as the majority of it's gasses are ejected out into space as a shell like nebula. Then star then shrinks to the size of it's core and becomes a white dwarf. When the Sun grows to be a Red Giant, it's mass will consume the inner planets of the Solar System and push planet Earth into a wider orbit, yet much closer to the giant star. Earth will be stripped bare of all surface life at that time...approx. 5 billion years in the furture. Stars with much greater mass than the Sun become Red Supergiants...as they collapse they explode as supernova, to begin the process all over again. What's left of the star after a supernova becomes a neutron star, a small extremely heavy mass that spins rapidly. Some neutron stars are burstling with x-rays, these are called pulsars. If a star remnant ends up with mass four times or greater than that of it's main sequence body, it will become a black hole. A mass that is so small and infinately heavy that not even light rays can escape it's gravitational force.

-A

PS: Yesterday the Space Shuttle Endeavour returned to orbit. The launch was flawless and spectacular. I really like the post launch replays, especially the external fuel tank camera...seeing the SRBs seperate and fall. The land gets smaller and smaller then the atmosphere breaks and you can see the planet's curvature. Then the Orbiter rolls and lifts off the EFT and the tank falls back to Earth. Then the Orbiter's crew use handheld cameras to keep track of the EFT as it deminishes in the distance. Hard to believe that the Shuttle program is in it's twilight years.

Wiping the atmospheric vapor off the cosmic scraper with cellophane paper...

2007-08-08T08:49:00.000-05:00

My wife says I don't write enough about family things in my web log...This week is 4-H Fair time here in Johnson County. My daughter entered a couple baked items and a couple pieces of art. She did very well in all catagories, her PB&J drop cookies scored a blue, her decorated cupcakes scored a purple, her pencil drawing of flowers scored a blue, and her acrylic still life of fruit scored a purple and reserved grand champion...very proud of her. She was given guidence, then set loose to do her projects, so she did very well.

I can't help but realise that as a family, we don't exactly fit in with 4-H. We joined just to have something to do together, and to meet other local families that have children the age of our daughter. Yet, our family is not into agriculture, we don't hunt (which seeems to go along with being ag) and we're not church goers. We have met some really nice people through 4-H, but there is always the underlying differences. Then there is the "altruistic" side of 4-H...community service. I think helping out others in your community is a wonderful thing to do. It is something that one should do. 4-H does promote this well, but there is also the expectance of reward. Parents and kids keep tally of every single award, project and community service that they do in their 4-H permanent record. This way 4-H'ers have a slight chance of getting college scholarships, if they wish to go to Kansas State, the school that sponsors 4-H...so it all seems a little off to me. First off I think education should be available to students free, tax paid, like "university" in other countries. Secondly, I think if you are going to be altruistic, then don't keep track of it. The self-serving feeling that results in doing selfless acts should be payment enough. Life should help life, that is the greater good. Help is needed regardless of how it gets done, so I suppose tallies or not, the end result works out.

There are a couple "booths" at the Fair that I find disgusting. The Fair has a wide gamut of vendors, from insurance companies selling peace of mind to local bee farms selling honey. There are also several churches fishing for wayward souls. Then there's the hatemongering pro-lifers. The church advertisements I suppose I can tolerate, live and let live, but my disgust is for the mormons and scientologists. They are doing their best to deceive and take advantage of the weak-minded. Every year The Later Day Saints set up a booth, manned by two well dressed clean cut boys that look like door to door salesmen, which they are. To the passerby the mormon booth gives no sign that it is a "religion". They pass off of their dogma as "geneology", attempting to lure the unsuspecting into their cult. The scientologists have an even larger tent, they set the bait for their trap with personality and "stress tests". However, the scientologists don't make any attempt to hide their bible. There are mountains of Hubbard's book stacked everywhere. Yet, their bible looks nothing like a normal bible, it looks like a paperback novel with enticing cover art...which it is. The book's appearance is deceiving. I have never seen anyone talking to the mormons, I think the public is on to them, but those scientologists always have a line of people waiting to take a stress test. Maybe the mormons need to get some marketing pointers from the Hubbardites. The cult mindset is fascinating yet frightening.

-A

An umbrella shields below the vanilla glow of Capella's field halo...

2007-08-07T09:11:00.000-05:00

In an article published on Sciencenews.org a study of orangutans has given strong evidence of how humans eventually evolved into bipedal creatures. Unlike the knuckle walking that most apes do, ie. gorillas and chimps, orangutans often walk upright in an erect posture. Susannah K.S. Thorpe of the University of Birmingham in England has been conducting an extensive study of these majestic red apes in Sumatra, Indonesia. Her study shows that upright walking has evolved in a common ancestor of all current species of apes more than 20 million years ago. Most scientists have assumed that walking upright is a unique trait of homonids (human ancestors), which seperates humans from apes. This study gives evidence that walking upright has also evolved in tree dwelling apes.

I shall pull one of my favorite quotes from the great mind of Richard Dawkins here..."We admit that we are like apes, but we seldom realise that we are apes."

Read the article here. http://www.sciencenews.org/articles/20070804/bob9.asp

Isn't it wonderous to think that life as we know it began three or four billion years ago as prokaryotes on a brand new planet. For the next couple of billion years life slowly perculated and eventually morphed into eukaryotes, engulfing primal bacteria and forming mitochondria and hydrogenosomes...then in the next 10 million years boom! The cambrian explosion produced multicelled organisms that eventually through a gradual climb gave way to thousands and thousands of lifeforms.

-A

The shrill thrill of nimble will is a pneumatic drill on the external gill...

2007-08-06T08:43:00.000-05:00

Monday is fun day (pause pause) not.

This past Saturday I played in a couple 19th century baseball exhibition games...and I am stiff. The local historic site that I volunteer at Mahaffie Stagecoach Stop and Farmstead, has yearly baseball games hosting other area 19th century teams. There are several baseball "reenactor" teams in the midwest, that dress the part and use "gentlemanly" rules of the nation's past time. In the past I have played Rounders, which is one of the stick and ball games attributed to spawning cricket and modern day baseball, but this weekend was my first time participating in 19th century baseball. We played by the 1858 rule set. Mahaffie has their own overshirts and trousers, so all I needed to bring from my living history kit was a hat, shoes, socks and belt. Very fun and the farmstead team "The Coachdrivers" won both games. It was very tiring playing in heavy clothes with long sleeves in Kansas' August heat...but well worth the discomfort, extremely fun.

The rules are a bit different during this seminal time in baseball. The batter is known as "the Striker". The pitcher is known as "the Hurler". The cather is known as "the Behind". The spectators are known as "cranks". The baseline is 45 feet, and very difficult to run in period correct shoes I might add. The hurler hurls the ball underhand, lobbing it to where the striker can connect with the soft sewn leather ball. The wooden bats were period correct. The balls were period correct weight and dark leather, which is somewhat difficult to see in mid-air. There is not a batter box, but a line. The striker stands with the line between their feet, with the bat resting on their shoulders and hands must be serperated on the grip. Fielders must stand on their base until the hurler releases the pitch. Foul "ticks" are not strikes. Balls can be caught or fielded on one bounce for an out. The umpire is called "the Blind Tom". Players may dispute any play they feel ungentlemanly with the Blind Tom. This includes a ball that is struck too high and too far away, that is considered "showing up" and any player found guilty of showing up is fined. Cranks are used as witnesses to plays that the Blind Tom cannot judge. A player may hold onto the ball as long as they wish to keep the play live, in such case the hurler must ask politely for the ball back. To keep the sport gentlemanly, all players must congratulate all good plays, even on the opposing team. When a runner crosses home, they must ask kind permission of the score keeper to tally their point, and ring a bell. If the bell is not rang, then the point is not tallied.

The game of baseball has indeed changed in the past 150 years. I am looking forward to playing more historic games.

-A

PS: What an exciting weekend of NBS racing. The Montreal track is awesome. The racing was agressive. Harvick came out on top! Harvick is incredible in that #21.

Fixing the rocket's broken sprocket with the socket wrench in my pocket...

2007-08-03T10:19:00.000-05:00

I have been sorely missing new episodes of History Channel's The Universe...not that I've actually been missing them but that they have been repeating episodes lately. I do watch the repeats. I make it a point to watch all episodes at least twice. I love this series. This week it was nice to have two news ones, at least new to me. The first being on "Alien Galaxies", which I have now watched. The second being on Saturn "Lord of the Rings", which I will watch this evening. What a coincedence, that I have written on both these topics in the last week or so. The galaxy episode reports on black holes and AGN (active galactic nuculi) as seen through the Hubble, Chandra and Spitzer space telescopes. Absolutely astounding to see the deep space pics of hundreds of galaxies, that are so far away they fit into a telescopic focal point about the size of a postage stamp. The visual of hockey pucks in the ice rink, illustrating the proximity and interaction of local galaxies was simple and profound.

I have a rotation of desktop pictures that consist of space telescope images. Very nice, high resolution images can be found on the internet. The details of recent deep space pictures are incredible. So many stars. I have always thought nebulas are the most beautiful objects anywhere...thanks to the space telescopes I can look at them all day long.

Tomorrow, August 4th are the next of opportune launch times for NASA next Mars misssion, Phoenix. A Delta II rocket is set for launch at either 5:26 am or 6:02 am. weather permitting, to carry the Phoenix craft into space and towards the red planet. The rocket was supposed to lift off this morning but was postponed 24 hours due to threatening weather. The Phoenix misssion is to land in the artic region of Mars, and dig through the icey soil to collect sample and data. There is still the chance of finding evidence of microbial life (existing or existed) in the rocks, soil and ice. All of the data collected throughout the years is leading up to a plan that one day humans can terraform and live on Mars.

-A

Medical prognosis is a misdiagnosis of hysterical neurosis from chemical hypnosis...

2007-08-02T08:42:00.000-05:00

Dinosuars were the rulers of planet Earth for over 160 million years, giant prehistoric thunder lizards that roamed the planet, some in herds, some in packs, some alone. The first recorded fossils are estimated to be about 230 million years old, estimate is a lose term considering the massive amounts of data collected from tests and carbon clocks, but all evidence points to the age give or take a 100 years or so. About 65 million years ago something drastic happened to the planet Earth. A cataclysm that most scientists agree must have rained down from space...in one massive chunk, crashing into the Yucatan penisula in Mexico making an impact crater wide enough to eject dust and debris into the atmosphere that blackened the sky for years. Those dinos not desintergrated at ground zero, were fried to a crisp in close proximity...and those who were no where near the impact site eventually froze and/or starved to death...save for a few little critters that lived through it somehow to evolve into animal life as we know it today. And yes! People are indeed animals.

There are some scientists that the single impact theory does not set well with. Professor Gerta Keller of Princeton and Professor Wolfgang Stinnesbeck of the University of Karlsruhe spearhead a new theory. There were at least two impacts that caused global devastation. The "KT" boundary in the earth's crust dates back to a sudden global event, then a lack of dinosaurs fossils moving forward in time. Around this boundary is an iridium layer that is prime evidence for asteroid impact...yet these scientist say that the crater in Yucatan is too old to have killed off all of the dinos. The sandstone layer is too thick, there is at least 300,000 years between that and the iridium layer from the impact. Many scientists argue that the sandstone layer was deposited by massive tsunami, an aftermath of the impact. The new theory states that the layers have beeen interupted several times, and there is at least one addition global event, that happened during the age of the dinosaur.

There are other scientists that discredit both global wipeout theories, by arguing that somehow frogs survived to evolve. These scientitst do not argue against massive impacts happening, because the eveidence is too strong that they have occured in Earth's carbon dated history, but that the dinosaurs had long died off due to tectonic plate shitfing and climate changes, before a final massive grand scale impact, that drove the Earth into one of it's ice ages.

Now for a digression on the subject...

For an opposing viewpoint, those creation scientists and young-earthers really make themselves look official. They even have their own website set up, full of mock science that totally undermines and outright tells lies about proper scientific study. Rest assured though true-believers, the folks at the IRC always end their articles with a bible verse. I make mention of this at this time because the IRC claims that "dinosaur mania" is a tool used by the secular media and public school system to teach children about evolution and that takes their minds off the bible. Well yes indeed, interest in dinosaurs in fact does acomplish that, I'm thankful that it did for me. The kicker is the IRC thinks dinosaurs are propaganda for the opposing side, and exposing children to non-theist science is wrong.

Firstly calling dinosaurs a "mania" and a "craze", implies there is an irrational ideology about it. The IRC then goes on to claim it is a "fad". How can scientific research that has been going on for a hundred and fifty years or so be fadist? I should take great offense to those presumptions, but I do not. I actually pity someone who falls for creation science. The IRC are scrambling to adapt their religious text and supernatural worship memes to explain what science has figured out. Lying to themselves and others so they can keep their faith in tact. Keep in mind these are people who do not need evidence to believe something. So they are doing their best to appeal to those who are on the fence, by using big words and sweeping factual science under the rug.

Just to illustrate further how rediculous these fools are, the IRC also claim that evolution is the backbone of Nazism and Communism. Which of course promotes an intolerance in their ranks for secular people, atheists and agnostics...but their god is a god of love, not old testament cruelty. If you ever want to villianize an opponent, a sure-fire way is to compare them to a Nazi.

I shudder to even include the URL, but I'll do it anyhows.

http://www.icr.org/

-A

Thrive of a no-jive-high-five to the business end of a killer beehive...

2007-08-01T13:42:00.000-05:00

"This one's for every one of those fans in the stands who pull for me every week and take all the bullshit from everybody else,"

- Tony Stewart after his 2nd Brickyard win 7/29/07

Well that little expletive costed Smoke 25 cup points and $25,000 in fines. Smoke is still sitting strong in 5th place points after his follow up performance from Chicagoland. I'm not exactly crazy about the way ESPN covers my beloved NASCAR races. With the ticker tape at the bottom announcing other sports scores. it makes the screen all that much more crowded. I figure this, if I wanted to know sports scores I'd check up on them, I don't. I want to see my race. That being said it appears that ESPN doesn't like Tony Stewart too much...after his Chicagoland victory, in a post race interview Smoke stated that he was going to spend the following weekend drinking a case of Schlitz, whether or not he had help he was going to get to the botttom of the case...well that is paraphrased, but close. EPSN did not like that remark at all. The network execs do not think that shows Smoke as a positive role model for kids. Yet he's definately a role model for Schiltz drinkers.

However, Dale Earnhardt Jr. stated something similar to that just two minutes before Smoke did. Dale said he was going to kick back on his porch with an ice cold beer...so why is ESPN calling out Smoke on this. To me NASCAR already appears too wholesome, as each event is kicked off with a prayer. No amount of lilly-white tamed down rock music is going to make a sport edgey, as long as each event starts with a preacher thanking the father son and holy ghost for stock car racing. So what that Dale and Smoke slip up and say shit or something else. They are human, those are just words. I thought Tony's comment about the Schlitz was hilarious and well put...don't say beer say bull. I had no clue people still drank that stuff. In a sport that has no problem advertising adult beverages, beers and hard stuff, I think ESPN needs to spend a little time pulling their panties out of their cheekmeat crack.

I am with Biffle on the meaning of Smoke's comment after the Indy race. I didn't get it. I did not realize that fans put up with B.S. for being a fan of his. I know exactly why people are Stewart fans. He speaks his mind, acts out, and fans know where Tony stands...and not to mention he's arguably the best stock car driver on the planet at the moment. I don't catagorically list him as one of my favorites, but I can totally see why people chose to wear the orange and black Home Depot gear.

I thoroughly enjoyed watching Smoke and Harvick duke it out at the brickyard, too bad that Harvick came out of the scuff worse for wear. Harvick is another driver that is not shy about being contraversial, maybe that's why Stewart calls him a friend...or maybe it's because Stewart sometimes draws a paycheck from Kevin's wife.

-A

As the asymetric android creeps to avoid Bo Peep and her annoyed electric sheep...

2007-07-31T09:16:00.000-05:00

Scientists in the USA and Japan have discovered hidden black holes. Many galaxies have active galactic nuculi that glow brightly as the black hole in the center consumes gasses and ejects brilliant flumes of space matter and dust out of both sides. These bright AGN feed as the particles of it's accretion disk fall into the center with massive gravity, disappearing past it's schwarzchild radius (event horizon) and the gaseous fusion form extragalactic jets through vast distances in space. The recently discovered hidden black holes have no evidence of this. It is theorized that the hidden AGN have a thick dark cloud of gas and dust forming a shell that conceals it. The way scientists have discovered this new phenomena is with x-ray telescopes, the same tools that keep an eye on the black hole at the center of the Milky Way galaxy (which is a repetitive term BTW, since the word galaxy is actualy translated as milky way). The hidden black holes emit x-rays past the dark shell and could be responsible for the heavy x-ray glow that exists in charted space. By studying black holes and AGN scientists are discovering the keys to unlocking the mysteries of evolution in the cosmos.

-A

Here is a great episode of Charlie Rose, featuring Bill Maher and Christopher Hitchens. Both men that I enjoy listening to or reading respectively. If you are intrepid, you can find a clip of Hitchens on Maher's show...but for now enjoy this if you want...

Spoiled findings that the coil binding is unwinding in the grinding soil...

2007-07-30T12:55:00.000-05:00

As the gears of time grind slowly toward my demise...it is monday again. Same monday, different week. Weekends are never long enough. If only there were a quantifiable way to increase the hours of the weekend. We could go to an eight day week...just to have an extra day free of habitual mindless drives through rush hour traffic. I'm sure it's not like that for everyone, some enjoy what they do, glean some sort of satisfaction out of it. Some don't like time off, feel they lack purpose when not working constantly. Some like me have time to write in a daily web log...underwhelmed, unfulfilled, underpaid...stuck firmly in an employed rut, which is better than the alternative, an unemployed rut. So stick with it and go with the flow. In the USA time off is middle natured. We don't work ourselves unil death, like some do in Asian countries, yet our employers don't set enough mental health time aside for their employees like some progressive European countries do. There is a huge difference between two weeks USA vacation time and five weeks of French holiday time. Maybe it's time to call one of those numbers I see on signs plastered across roadside telephone poles...work from home make $4000 a week with a computer! Or maybe I should cave into some multi-tiered pyramid scam and sell magnetic shoe inserts or foreclosed real estate. Work 30 hours a week and make $30,00 a month...hogwash and tripe. They sure make it look easy in those infernal info-mercials. There is more to a job than just money. Just can't start over in a more apealing yet lower paying entry level position when you have a family to feed. Onward!

Eight more days until the next Shuttle launch. STS-118 is set for launch on August 8, 7:02 EDT. This will be the 22nd Shuttle mission to the International Space Station. I will be glued to the NASA channel...which I often am anyhows.

Really good NASCAR races last wekeend. Looked like for awhile Harvick was going to win the Brickyard again, until Smoke and he started a friendly nudging match. Even the ORP NBS race had a lot of rubbing this weekend. Entertaining to me as always.

-A

The wild dog dragged the flogged blog through the foggy bog and tripped over a frog's log...

2007-07-27T08:56:00.000-05:00

Here's a little treat, AC/DC uncut at VH1 studios. They perform one of my all time favorite Bon-era tunes "Gone Shootin'". There is even a bit of a practice/false start thing on that number (at 12:40 in). I would love to have an audio copy of this gig. I have never heard Gone Shootin' live, the guitars aren't as elegant and soulful as they are on the "Powerage" album, but the groove is still there.

This T.V. appearance happened on 07/05/96, and is brought to us kindly by www.hellsgamers.com.

-A

The rusty whisk stirring up lusty risk in the dusty disk...

2007-07-26T10:28:00.000-05:00

The universe is continually expanding. After billions of years a star bloats, growing past it's own massive weight until it explodes...supernova. Spreading beautiful nebula and whispy gas clouds across lightyears of space. These clouds filled with matter, particles, and elements that give birth to new stars and planets...a stellar nursary. Do a quick search for the latest Hubble pictures and see this in action within the constellation Serpens. Messier object 16 is the Eagle Nebula, and within that the "Pillars of Creation", stars continually being "born". The first stars to sprout from this nebula happened approx. 13 millions years ago and the peak of star formation in this region was one million years ago. That is relatively young in comparisome to stars like the sun...which at approx. 4.5 billions years old has reached middle age. Earlier this year the aftermath of a supernova was pictorially recorded by Spitzer Space Telescope. This supernova blew apart one of the pillars of galactic dust. This blast happened sometime around 6000-9000 years ago, but just this year became evident. Above is a pic of one of the nebula's spires, as seen through the Hubble. I have repositioned it sideways to fit better, but in space there is no up or down so sideways is irrelevant.

Long, long story short, evolution continues.

-A

Aware of the blank stares of millionaire polar bears in leisure wear...

2007-07-25T10:03:00.000-05:00

I have been a vegetarian for a decade. I used to be able to have a "see, that's why" attitude towards contaminated foods, that was until the recall of some leafy things like spinach within the last year. It took me quite a while to become vegetarian, several failed attempts. That was until I met my wife, who at that time in our relationship was a vegetarian. She has since went back to being an omnivore. While pregnant with our daughter she craved meat. I continued down the non-meat path. Something about consuming flesh didn't jive with my metabolism, and I didn't even realise it until I gave it up. I continue to feel healthier than ever, but I also eat very low fat. Fattening and fried food also have an extreme effect on my body, almost immediately I feel sick after eating them. I have swayed off course here, back to the moment of reason...

Castleberry’s Food Company has recalled 77 can good items that have a high health risk, due to clostridium botulinum. Bad cans of chili, hash and stew. The USDA has published a list of these items to watch out for on their website, I will post URL below. Exposure to botulinum toxin is life threatening, so far 2 people in Texas and two in Indiana have been stricken ill after eating Castleberry's Hot Dog Chili Sauce. Here are some symptoms as posted on the Environment News Service site...

"Symptoms of botulism poisoning in humans can begin from six hours to two weeks after eating food that contains the toxin.
Symptoms may include double vision, blurred vision, drooping eyelids, slurred speech, difficulty swallowing, and muscle weakness that moves progressively down the body, affecting the shoulders first then descending to the upper arms, lower arms, thighs, calves, etc. Botulism poisoning can also cause paralysis of the breathing muscles which can result in death unless mechanical ventilation is provided. People who show these symptoms and who may have recently eaten one of the Castleberry's products currently under recall should seek immediate medical attention."

http://www.fsis.usda.gov/News_&_Events/Recall_033_2007_expanded/index.asp

Glad I am vegetarian.

-A

That strange feller on the moon is really a stellar free range baboon...

2007-07-24T08:48:00.000-05:00

1) A joint venture of NASA and ESA. the Cassini-Huygens mission was launched back in 1997, 10 years later the Cassini spacecraft is flying around Saturn. In 1997 scientists were aware of only 18 moons orbiting around the ringed gas planet, as of the 19th day of this month the Cassini craft has discovered Saturn's 60th moon. Jokingly scientists have dubbed this new moon "Frank". Which of course is a working title, considering the other moons have names ripped right out of antiquated mythology...but I would be good with leaving Frank as the name. For those keeping count, that brings the solar system's moon sum to around 165 so far. It's absolutely wonderous that space missions are continuing to find new features in our celestial neighborhood. A middle aged albeit a bit big for a yellow dwarf, with 8 planets, 3 dwarf planets, many moons as mentioned, an asteroid belt, the kuiper belt, and the Oort cloud, all the while comets and meteoroids weaving and shooting across the planets' planar ecliptical paths. One of the solar system's planets is extremely unique.

2) NASA and ESA misions have also been cooperating around Venus for the better part of this month. NASA's Messenger craft and ESA's Venus Express have been taking pictures of cloud formations while orbiting around Venus. The was not the sole purpose of Messenger, but a side mission while on it's way to study the planet Mercury.

3) Watched the democratic candidates debate last evening. I am unsure how I feel about the YouTube video questions. I do find the questions asked very interesting but the manner in which some were asked were silly to me. I suppose that was a feature to make the coverage more entertaining. To me it made some of the questions seem light-hearted where they should not have been. I am by no means a republican, NEVER will I be. Also I do not subscribe to being a democrat, admittedly I tend to side more with them. Some of the answers I heard last night were appealing, but that is what politicans do while running for an elected office. I was most interested in seeing what responses were to church and state questions. This republican theocracy has got to come to an end, so that the USA can join the modernity the rest of the western world is embracing. I did not find what I was fully looking for from the democratic candidates. No religion should have anything to do with politics, or the currancy of a country. I did however find the talk of universal health care plans comforting. I also liked hearing about plans to end Bush's invasion, hopefully that will soon end. We just need more than a two party system in the USA. One should not have to vote against someone...but for someone.

-A

Stunned grunion bumps bunion on trunion of onion gun...

2007-07-23T08:56:00.000-05:00

Fairly mild weekend. The weather was good. It was Hairspray weekend so I had a little bit of time to myself while the girls went to see it. Sarah seen it twice. She likened it to the fact that I seen the Lord of the Rings movies several times while in theaters. We watched the NBS race with some friends, that's always fun. Carl Edwards put on a good show. All that and yardwork occupied me. Now it's an overcast monday, hope it's not a long week.

Stopped into a bookstore last friday on the way home from work and picked up a couple more Richard Dawkins books for my collection. Started reading "River Out of Eden". As far as his scientific writings on biology go sometimes I can understand them, sometimes I just act like I do. But that's the reason I am not a scientist, mathematics and computations comfound me. However, Dawkins does tend to write in a language that I can often comprehend. "River Out of Eden" in one of those books I can totally grasp. The "creation scientistists" claim that the complexity of life on the planet, let alone the planet itself containing life is far to wonderous to have had happen by accident, so since they cannot explain how it happened then it must be the work of a god that made it...so they now call that intelligent design. In lectures Dawkins often emphasizes the fact that Darwinian theory is anything but too complex. It's actually elegant and simple at it's base, that's what makes it so fascinating. River Out of Eden goes about explaining this, putting Darwinism in a light that the non-evolutionary biologist can understand. I have read Darwins's "Origin of Species", and Richard Leakey's "Origins", as well as other a couple other books by Sagan and Gould that have touched on or tackled evolution. Dawkins (ROoE) uses explanations of DNA likeness and mitochondria trees to explain how the human mammal all sprouted from one place. Since mitochondria are never mixed and are only passed on only through females in a family tree, they can be used for quite specific tracing of ancestory through sampling. DNA is sifted and mixed up from both parents, grandparents, great grandparents and so on, it is difficult to trace ancestory due to at some point most everyone has become a cousin to one another which makes tracing biological roots backwards into antiquity by DNA nearly impossible as the tree can branch in just about any direction. However DNA is used to calculate how similar species are. Humans and apekind are so similar that biologically there is only one digit difference...where as there are say 40+ digits that seperate a horse from fungus. The long and the short of it, every human is related at some point in history, all coming from that one special amphibian that first popped it's head on a water. It is a very interesting book, I would recommend it if you are looking for a straightforward explanation of Darwinism. I really enjoy listening to Dawkins lectures and watching his documentaries so I can always hear his voice in my head while reading his writings.

No matter which point of view, we are all related at some point. Either through stardust, an ancient chimp or Noah's incestuous family. So why is there war? Isn't there still enough room on the planet for your family?

-A

A glob of molten lava on the revolting fob of Rob's balaclava...

2007-07-20T08:41:00.000-05:00

The Cup drivers have vacation time this weekend, so that they can rest up for the Brickyard next weekend. However the NBS drivers have a race at Gateway. I really wanted to drive out this weekend to see this race, but it just wasn't possible for me this year. Gateway is a neat track. Most of the cup drivers that do double duty in the NBS are taking advantage of the time off. There will be three Wallaces (walli'?) at Gateway, since it is their hometurf. Kenny is driving for RCR, taking the wheel of Bowyer's #2...and of course Mike in the #7 and Steven in the #66. KHI has Hornaday in the #77 and Cale Gale in the #33. The other RCR drivers for the race are Wimmer in the #29 and Tim McCreedie in the #21. I think Wimmer is doing a real good job for RCR. When I first heard the news of Scott being signed (last season). I thought cool...RCR is bring a fourth car (#33) to the Cup field. Turned out he was just signed on for the NBS series, but that's fine, he is a solid driver. Cale Gale is my guy in the truck series, since he drives the KHI #2 truck...he's young and lacks experience, but Harvick would not have signed him if there wasn't raw talent. All of that being said, my pick for this NBS weekend is Carl Edwards. I know that is a no brainer...but he's a Missourian, he's dominant in the Roush/Fenway #60, and I want to see him get a bigger points spread...I know, I know that is flat out heresy for a Harvick fan to want. But I really like Carl too. He's a my third favorite cup driver, if I have to get empirical about it.

-A

PS: I have updated and designed a few more items for my Cafepress store, there is no mark-up on these. Items are supplied at cost. http://www.cafepress.com/quantrill Also linked in my link-o-rama section on this page.

Kicking sasquatch up a notch with a bowl of yeti spaghetti...

2007-07-19T08:39:00.000-05:00

I've got little mind to speak today so here are some Earth facts...

Earth's average distance from sun - 92,955,820 miles
Earth's perihelion - 91,400,000 miles
Earth's aphelion - 94,500,000 miles
Earth's equatorial radius - 3,963.19 miles
Earth's equatorial circumfrence - 24,901 miles
Earth's surface area - 196,937,500 square miles
Earth's escape velocity - 25,009 mph
Earth's surface gravity - 32.041 ft/s2
Earth's orbital mean velocity - 66,629 mph

And now the Sun...

Sun's equatorial radius - 432,200 miles
Sun's surface area - 2,347,000,000,000 square miles
Sun's surface gravity - 899.0 ft/s2
Sun's escape velocity - 1,381,760 mph
Sun's surface temperature - 9939 °F
Sun's composition - 92.1% Hydrogen, 7.8% Helium
Sun's mass - 4,385,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 lbs
Sun's age - 4.6 Billion Years

-A

BTW: I found a video lecture from someone claiming to be a creation-scientist. He goes about trying to disprove what scientists have gathered about the origin of the solar system. It is very one sided, as the fellow scoffs and ho-hums quite a bit when explaining the scientific theories...calling some data jibber-jabber. I will add this, he uses out of date theories for the majority of his "contradictory evidence". Citing theories spanning from 1600 to 1970...data collection and scietific theories have evolved quite a lot in the past 36.5 years, through new telescopic imaging tech and space missions...Hubble, Chandra, Space Shuttles, Space Stations...

His answer for every problem is a bible verse, no evidence, no data, just a bible verse. He states that when science can't explain something, then scientists resort to the same old answer...an asteroid did it. For some reason this continually ignites laughter in his christian audience. Which seems so "pot calling the kettle black" since christians don't even try to explain anything, they just say god did it. So the chance of multiple asteroid impacts over billions of years turns into a comedic punchline...while the opposing viewpoint is an unprovable supernatural magic being poofed us into existance?

Blows my mind...

The harm of a swarm on the farm's warm corn alarm...

2007-07-18T09:12:00.000-05:00

As a young inquizative kid being forced to go to an Assembly of God church, I had several questions about the bible. Keep in mind the AoG denomination is one of glossolalia, hellfire, brimstone, tribulations and second coming sorts...real fury of god stuff. You were taught to fear god, if you backslid and sinned your were damned for enternity without Jesus in your heart. The AoG version of god is a mean one. Unless you swore total and complete fality you were eventually struck down and sent to hell. There was always that special month of the year where the sermons were centered around dispensationalist theories. Jesus is coming back soon, get right or get left...and if you are left behind you are shit outta luck, unless you refused the beast's barcode and had your head chopped off. Real nightmarish items to pipe into a little kid's brain. Thanks to those hellfire preachers of the 19th century the end of times seems to be endless. Some say Jesus is coming back in the year 2009...so put that in your planner. Anyways I have gone off track a bit...back to the questions. I was always intrigued by two bible quandaries as a kid...Noah's ark and dinosaurs. I mean that had to be one huge boat. Once I looked at a wildlife encyclopdeia and realized just how many animals, insects, birds there were, how did two of each fit on the boat? How did Noah gather them? Additionally there are animals that existed then that don't exist anymore. I was told by my sunday school teacher that god made it work. Not really a good enough answer for me but I let it slide. The kicker happened when I asked my sunday school teacher about dinosaurs. I understood that dinosaurs walked the earth for millions of years and predated humans. I had seen pictures and fossils of dinos and like most kids loved reading about them...well when I asked him where the dinosaurs were in the bible? Because Adam and Eve were first, right? What of Dinos? Well, my sunday school teacher, not knowing what to say, told me that dinosaurs did not exist, never existed. Right then my love of dinos increased hundredfold and what little faith I could have had vanished. My first real notion that the bible was full of b.s. What was I supposed to do? I kept waiting for a trumpet to sound and take my family to heaven and leave me, one of the faithless behind...that is some messed up stuff for a young child to be thinking.

Well nowadays creation scientists have thought up all sorts of answers to questions like I had...afterall it's a fact that dinosaurs walked the Earth at some point. So now they claim that dinos walked along side mankind, basically due to the fact that somewhere in Texas preserved dinosaur footprints have been found in a river bed, and there are some prints that may look like big long human feet there as well...that is if you look at them in a certian light, metaphorically and literally. The age old question of why dinos are part of the fossil record is that they were all killed by god's big flood....you know 4,400 years ago. The reason for the big ol' human feet in the riverbed, Noah could have been an eleven foot tall 900 year old giant...also bringing up the notion of a bigger ark built due to the increased cubit scale due to giantism.

Here's what Kirk Cameron has to say about that...

"Noah lived for 950 years. Many Bible scholars believe the pre-Flood people were much larger than modern man. Skeletons over 11 feet tall have been found. If Noah were taller, his cubit (elbow to fingertip) would have been much larger also. This would make the ark larger by the same ratio"

"God told Noah to bring two of each kind (seven of some), not of each species or variety. Noah had only two of the dog kind, which would include the wolves, coyotes, foxes, mutts, etc. The "kind" grouping is probably closer to our modern family division in taxonomy, and would greatly reduce the number of animals on the ark. Animals have diversified into many varieties in the last 4,400 years since the Flood. This diversification is not anything similar to great claims that the evolutionists teach."

(And furthermore before the flood every living creature was vegetarian...wow.) Kirk continues....

"All animals (and people) were vegetarian before and during the Flood according to Genesis 1:20–30 with Genesis 9:3."

Well, the everything is a plant eater thing is totally new to me. Which brings up a whole other issue. A flood of global porportions even with a flatter, pangea style planet would totally destroy all vegatation and wipe the earth clean of anything green for a few years following...maybe that's why after the flood species became carnivorous. Not only did Noah have an estimated 15764 animals on board he also had to supply 40 days worth of green-leafy things for the animals, him and his family to eat. Oh and one more thing, that number of critters does not inlcude any dinosaurs, some Dinos were land animals, shouldn't have they got on the boat too? A vegetarian Tyrannosaurus...yeah right.

-A

A shakey horizontal probe to the flakey frontal lobe...

2007-07-17T08:39:00.000-05:00

1) After a two week hiatus my daughter finally has a makeup softball game this evening. The team actually has two rain-outs to account for, not sure if this is the final game or not. The wrench in the machine is, it is supposed to be 90+ degrees while the game is going on. Here's to hoping that a couple of teams of 8-9 year olds can stay focused and upright in that kind of weather.

2) Save the Whales! The speed limit for cargo ships along the Atlantic coast (10 knots per hour) set by NOAA to protect the endangered North Atlantic Right Whales migration may be lifted to instead protect foreign shipping interests. Bush and the White House have blocked the request to maintain the speed limit, while investigating what actually causes Right Whale deaths. Keep in mind that this data has already been collected by a panel of marine experts to back up NOAA's reasoning for the speed limit. The whales are in danger of being struck by cargo ships or possibly entangled in fishing nets, while migrating. Last year there were six right whales killed by being struck by fast moving ships. What's more important? An endangered sea-mammal or getting your imported gadget slightly more quickly?

3) Using the Keck II telescope with gravitational imaging, astronomers have found six galaxies that are the most distant than any other galaxy found to date. Factoring in the speed of light, the photons collected from these galaxies are estimated to be 13 billion years old. So these galaxies are seen as they were when the universe was just 500 million years young. So far this is the closest evidence scientists have found pointing to time in universal history known as the dark age. It is theorized that when The Universe was 300,000 years old, no stars were shining, at some pioint between then and 500 million years, the hydrogen and helium in stars ignited under their massive gravitational pressure. Then over aeons of time starts expanding, exploding, forming singularities, formimg galaxies, forming newer stars, forming planets and other orbiting objects around the stars...in turn star systems rotating around black holes. The evolution of The Universe.

4) Priest or proctologist? Larry King interviewed adults who were repeatedly molested (and digitally penatrated...what a phrase) by catholic priests in L.A. The arch-diasis of L.A. was paying out $660 million to those who have been violated by priests. What sick perverse bastards these men of the cloth are. This will possibly cause the catholic church to go into debt, close churches and other ramifications...well duh? What would the catholic church be doing with a spare $660 million laying around? Pay-off sex crimes? Larry King is taking a poll on his website as to the public opinion of the catholic church. Your guys are not looking too good there mother Mary...as of this morning 79% are tallied to the unfavorable. The frightening thing is there are 21% that seem fine and dandy with it.

Here's what Kirk Cameron's "Way of the Master" Evidence Bible has to say about the temptations of the flesh...

"The next time temptation comes, do fifty push-ups, then fifty sit-ups. If you are still burning, repeat the process (see 1 Corinthians 9:27, and 1 Corinthians 7:9). This is not just a random "get your mind off it" exercise. This produces a physical reaction that is the equivalent of what is often called a "cold shower."

That should make for some fairly ripped and toned priests.

-A

Seven layered malaria carrier sideways into the safer barrier...

2007-07-16T08:37:00.000-05:00

Monday once more...

I started reading Daniel Dennett's "Freedom Evolves" over the weekend. (Sidenote) I consider myself lucky to have found this book. I scoured the bookstore for over an hour looking for the subject matter...alas one single title, and it just happened to be a Dennett book, tucked into the very last spot on the very last shelf, in the multi-gondola religion section (huh?). The book deals with the comparisome of ideology between those that believe in determinism and those that are aware of freewill. I will now admit that I'm only three chapters into it, but the book has already sparked some forward thought with me.

I am one that has always understood that I am in control of my actions. If something goes wrong or right on my watch, I am to blame or aclaim for. No outside force is controlling me. No higher power, no puppet master. If someone does control me, for instance a boss, it is because I allow them to so that I may bring home a paycheck. So in a sense I allow the "system" to control me so that I may pay bills and provide...that is capitalistic chains clamped onto ever United States citizens ankle. However I fully realize that at any moment I choose I could drop out, become a bum, and live transient style. That is freewill. I am guided by a sense of ethics that are learned behavior, not done out of sense of fear of what will happen to me after I expire. Right is right. Some would call freewill and not subscribing to a supernatural purpose, nihilism...where nothing matters. I disagree with that, what's more noble than doing good for the sake of doing good. Being moral and ethical without desire of acknowledgement or a pat on the back after one dies. Exercising all of this under freewill, choosing proper actions through trial and error. I say that makes everything matter.

In turn, how bleek an existance to wake up everyday and feel that one has no options. That what happens in supposed to happen. That their life is under control of a supernatural being. That does make for a good cop out when something goes foul...blame someone or something else for it. If a child dies it's because it is meant to be...it's tiny soul called "home". This person has no responisbility to take. In this scenario, nothing matters. everything is already determined. There is no luck, there is no accident, everything happens regardless of choice. This person thinks freewill is an illusion. In that mindset, from my point of view, nothing matters.

Tony Stewart ended up winning at Chicagoland. I had no preminition of this. Statistically it was highly probable that he would eventually win, the stats pointed favorable for this style of track. However I did hear Zippy say at the end, "we did what we could in the pits after that it was in god's hands". How insulting to Smoke and the pit crew? Their actions are what won the race...not a higher power. Tony was in the right place at the right time, flawless victory.

-A

Tangled in the tingle of the quantum singularity's mingle...

2007-07-13T09:04:00.001-05:00

The NBS and Cup drivers are at Chicagoland this weekend. A mile and a half of madness, high speed rail racing at it's finest, rip roaring thunder inducing mayhem as the drivers chance 205 mph catastrophe...Scratch that, cookie cutter, intermediate tri-oval, but it's still NASCAR, it will be fun. I am not a big Tony Stewart fan, I like him okay, my attitude about him seems to change from season to season. Once Harvick hired him for the #33 NBS car, I thought he can't be that bad. I do like the fact that he speaks his mind, and I tend to agree with a lot of what he says...most notably that NASCAR needs more short tracks on the circuit. I'd rather see racing on different tracks than a spring and autumn race at the same track. Look at all the love Florida gets, the first race and the last race of the season. Daytona has speed week...a full week of racing fun, the shootouts, the 500, and then in the summer a 400. I'd much rather see the Cup series spread out a bit more, especially with short tracks. The tracks already exist...the NBS, NCTS and Arca series hits more shorties than the Cup. Like Smoke said, If he had a billion dollars to blow he'd build a couple more Bristols. I wouldn't mind one more road course as well. The NBS hits Mexico and Canada...spread the Cup races out a bit too.

Well my picks for this weekend...Tony Stewart is way overdue for a win. He's almost there every week. Four out of his six starts at Chicago he's finished in the top 5, winning one in 2004. He's good everywhere, but a killer on intermediates with 16 wins and 74 top 5's. I will also mention my main man here...Harvick! Happy has 2 wins at Chicagoland and 4 top 10's. Not to mention that five of the six races at Chicoland have been won by Chevrolets...both of those drivers sport that brand. Like I said, my picks so I am certainly not picking a Hendrick chevy to win.

-A

The intent of an accidental dent in the sedimentary cement...

2007-07-12T10:57:00.000-05:00

Not much to say today, so I thought I'd post some quotes...

------------------------------

"Creationists make it sound as though a 'theory' is something you dreamt up after being drunk all night." - Isaac Asimov

"Science has proof without any certainty. Creationists have certainty without any proof." - Ashley Montagu

"If we are going to teach 'creation science' as an alternative to evolution, then we should also teach the stork theory as an alternative to biological reproduction." - Judith Hayes

"Creationism was created. Evolution evolves." - John Nicholson

"The more you understand the significance of evolution, the more you are pushed away from the agnostic position and towards atheism. Complex, statistically improbable things are by their nature more difficult to explain than simple, statistically probable things." - Richard Dawkins

"I would defend the liberty of concenting adult creationists to practice whatever intellectual perversions they like in the privacy of their own homes; but it is also necessary to protect the young and innocent." - Arthur C. Clarke

"Creation science is an oxymoron." - Prof. Stephen Jay Gould

"All the ills from which America suffers can be traced to the teaching of evolution." - William Jennings Bryan

" Evolution is a bankrupt speculative philosophy, not a scientific fact. Only a spiritually bankrupt society could ever believe it. Only atheists could accept this Satanic theory." - Rev. Jimmy Swaggart

"I believe God did create the world. And I think we're finding out more and more and more as to how it actually happened...
After all, religion has been around a lot longer than Darwinism." - Pres. George W. Bush

'We're going to bring back God and the Bible and drive the gods of secular humanism right out of the public schools of America." - Pat Buchanan

------------------------------

-A

Admission of an itch condition on the ingnition switch...

2007-07-11T08:55:00.000-05:00

The Space Shuttle Endevour is back on launch pad 39A, it was hard down at 3 am this morning. STS-118 will deliver the S5 truss, SPACEHAB module and external stowage platform 3 to the ISS. This flight will also include Mission Specialist Barbara Morgan, on her first journey into space. Morgan was the backup teacher-astronaut for Christa McAuliffe on the STS-51 crew. STS-51 was the mission of the January 28, 1986 Challenger disaster. Twenty one years later Morgan finally gets her chance to experience spaceflight as a member of the Teachers In Space program. Endevour was the orbiter built to replace the Challenger. Endevour was the 5th and final orbiter built and has not been in space since 2002. Endevour is scheduled for launch August 7th, this will be it's 20th mission into space.

All three Space Shuttles are to be decommissioned in 2010. Endevour is scheduled to make the very last shuttle flight into space on STS-133, which will deliver the final two components of the ISS. NASA will have the Constellation Program with the reusuable crewed Orion spacecraft in place by the year 2014. Check out the NASA link on this page for pdf downloads on the STS-118 mission details.

-A

Sporadic mathematics and automatic tactics for charismatic democratics...

2007-07-10T09:50:00.000-05:00

1) There seems to be a pill for everything...if you are not happy with your life - take a pill. If you have problems getting a boner - take a pill, if you want to lose weight - take a pill, if you have trouble going to sleep - take a pill. Pills can be extremely addictive and even if they don't work, the habitual "placebo" of taking medication can possibly give results. The drug makers have commercials plastered all over the media...TV, magazines, and internet. Just ask your doctor, who happenes to be a broker for the drugs. Now there is a pill to fight addiction, if you are addicted to drinks and smokes...take a drug instead. The fine folk at Pfizer have come up with a new pill to push on the public. To validate the importance of this new drug, Pfizer also claims that it might treat Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease. You know what is almost guaranteed to cure those conditions and countless others? Stem cell research...but that's a no-no...the christian right are too busy making sure there are enough embryos for souls. Oh well...take a pill, it will make it better...Pfizer says so.

2) NASA's Dawn Mission was postponed. It was slated to be launched 7/7/07 but has been moved into September. NASA was concerned with the limited launch opportunities, and the fact that attention to Dawn might interfere with the attention that is needed for the forthcomng Phoenix Mission to Mars. Dawn is a mission to explore the solor system's asteroid belt's two largest objects Vesta and Ceres. Ceres being recently classified by the IAU large enough to be a dwarf planet.

3) The New Seven Wonders of the World have been announced...Chichen Itza (Mexico), Christ The Redeemer (Brazil), Great Wall (China), Machu Pichu (Peru), Petra (Jordan), Roman Colosseum (Italy), Taj Mahal (India), and of course The Giza Pyramid (Egypt) make it eight world wonders. The pyramid being the only surviving structure of the original seven wonders. Sorry Kimberly Locke, you will need to change your song unles you want to sing it to that big old pyramid.

-A

Speaking of the drug issues...Michael Moore let CNN have a couple pieces of his mind yesterday, the follow up uncut interview will be aired this evening.

A one man band playing hard in Wotan's backyard...

2007-07-09T08:48:00.000-05:00

It's monday...back from a weekend of camping. Spent the last couple of days at Tanglewood Lake outside of LaCygne. Family friends have a lake lot down there, so we were invited to participate in the end of their Independence week lake trip. We were treated to a couple outings on their pontoon boat. My daughter and her friend swam in the lake and rode an intertube behind a souped up ski boat, as it jetted around the open water. We fished for a little while...again everyone caught (and released) fish except me. Which is fine, I'm more enomored by the gear and interacting with nature than the result of hooking fish. I did get to cast with my new Shimano spinner reel though, very smooth. The days were extremely hot but the nights were very pleasent. Both nights I took my dog for a walk after all the lights were out...the sky was massive, stars everywhere. I was able to see three meteors. On the last starlit walk I was witness to fireworks display. Fireworks look totally different outside the city light polution...very beautiful. I felt fortunate that my dog had bayed for a walk at just the right moment.

Being away from the house I missed out on a lot of Nascar this weekend. The NBS race was rained out and rescheduled for saturday morning, so my TiVo unknowingly missed recording it. I don't feel as bad about missing them when a Hendrick driver wins. I did see the Cup race. Looks like I have finally formed an opinion about Montoya. Harvick said kind words on his behalf after the Sonoma race, Juan ends up taking Harvick out at Daytona...not good...bad form Mr. 42. Appearantly there was also some altercations between them during the NBS race this weeknd. The Cup series will be renamed "Nascar Sprint Cup Series" in 2008. Crazy phone companies.

I started reading an interesting book this weekend..."Stardust; Supernovae and Life - The Cosmic Connection", by John and Mary Gribbon. (Yale Univesirty Press). This book expounds on the theory of all life being of stellar material origin. Exploded stars spreading the basic building components of life across the galaxy.

I had a very nice surprise in my mailbox when I arrived home from camping. I had requested a free copy of "New Humanist" magazine at the beginning of last week. Hoping to be able to enjoy it, but would understand if I could not since it was coming all the way from The United Kingdom. Within 5 days I had my complimentary copy in my hands. Excellent read. I will have to save up my nickles and dimes for an overseas subscription.

-A

Taking a chance with circumstance in my wardance pants...

2007-07-06T09:06:00.000-05:00

1) The US minimum wage is set to finally increase. The standard minimum of $5.15 an hour has not increased since 1997. Later this month the minimum will be $5.85 an hour, over the next two years it will increase to $7.25 an hour. How generous?(!) Still not enough for a low-paid worker to get by. Working for one hour does not even buy 2 gallons of gasoline...can you imagine what the cost of living will be in two years? I for one make less money than I did 6 years ago. I have not had a salary increase since April of 2001, (initally blamed on Sept. 11th, but now it's become standard) The cost of living has severely spiked upwards across the board, same pay less money. I am making considerably less than the average salary for someone working in my city with my experience. I know, I know...change jobs. I cannnot. There just aren't any jobs for me to switch to, unless I want to start over at an entry level position and lower pay. I seem to be over qualified for other companies who are looking for fresh-fish right out of college that will work $25,000 per year. So I'm stuck. It is often times very difficult for my family to make ends meet. I'm 2 years out of bankruptcy and foreclosure and paying a huge amount of interest on a new mortgage on a tiny house in a small town...and I have a college degree which I'm still paying on after 12 years...8 more years to go on it. Enough of my story, the point is my salary won't go up with a minimum wage increase. Those making minimum wage will still be tangled in the poverty line. Furthering education does not guarantee financial success. The minimum wage increase is just a political nibblet thrown to the public, who will devour it and still go to bed hungry. This is another issue touched on in the Michael Moore film Sicko. This capitalist system has the average person right where the upper-class-cats want them.

2) There is a huge dust storm on the southern hemisphere of Mars going on at the moment. This storm has blocked out 99% of the the sunlight. The NASA solar powered rovers Spirit and Opportunity are exploring opposite sides of the planet in the proximity of this storm, with a second smaller storm on the way. The rovers have already worked well above and beyond expectations. The robots have supplied crucial data about Martian soil, water history and atmosphere. This information is of premium value to scientists figuring out how to establish a human pressence on Mars. This magnificent dust storm could bring an end to these intrepid robotic crtitters. Dust covering solar panels has always been a major concern. A dust storm is an almost certain shut down. Even if the panels don't become caked with dust, 1% sunlight is not enough to keep the batteries charged...the robots will freeze.

-A

Here is some Sam Harris from BookTV a couple years ago...

Explore the floor in the boudoir at the galactic central core...

2007-07-05T08:57:00.000-05:00

Post 4th of July...

Had yesterday off...tried to sleep in a bit, except that the neighbor decided to start his lawn work at 7:45 am. Difficult to sleep with loud gas powered mechanations outside the bedroom window. It's also difficult to sleep with their ever-barking-yip-yip dogs being let out in the middle of the night as well. May need to invest in some ear plugs for those leisurely mornings. So I slept in for 45 minutes. For the last few years we've been going to my sister's house for the 4th. She and family live on a large chunk of land over in Wyandotte County about a couple miles away from the speedway. In WyCo you can still celebrate the 4th of July. So we ate food and blew some stuff up. For some reason I did not outgrow playing with firecrackers. I still enjoy bang-bang-boom. My brother-in-law always buys way too many night time artillery shells, so we have our own display.

Yesterday (7/4/07) NASA found evidence of hydrocarbons in one of Saturn's moons. The Cassini spacecraft discovered this while surveying the moon Hyperion. Hydrocarbons are the basic building blocks of life...water and carbon. Hyperion is estimated to be 4.5 billion years old. Water and carbon dioxides are also found in comets and meteorites, it's in the cosmic dust that coats much of our solar system. All of it remnents of exploded stars. Some star gas gathers around strong gravity, forming an eccretion disc, makes a new planet or star...some gather into smaller chunks and eliptically skate around as comets.

This is exciting to realize. Like Carl Sagan once said, "we are star stuff"...or as Neil deGrasse Tyson adds, "we are stardust"

One popular theory on how water came to Earth is by comets. As the Earth cooled down, and the layers around the rotating iron core started to harden, comets full of ice and carbon smashed into the surface of the planet...breaking apart and melting. Leaving oceans full of the basic life building components...carbon, oygen and amino acids for proteins...just the proper mix to establish an atmosphere and to set lifeforms in motion millions of years ago. Or there's the other theory...7 days...6000 years ago.

-A

Lower rank individuals in the septic tank residuals...

2007-07-03T08:40:00.000-05:00

Watched a special on the History Channel last evening, showcasing the history of Star Trek. Several interviews with cast members, with short clips of the TV show thrown in as witty quips. The special centered around Paramount Studios cleaning out their warehouse of Star Trek props. These rare items were being auctioned off by Christies, unsure of where the proceeds were going afterwards, but it is a damned shame that someone just didn't think to build a Star Trek museum. Could you imagine that? A museum dedicated to Star Trek...that would be the holyland of sorts for people like me. Well...instead most of the notable items went into the hands of private collectors, to be showcased in their homes. Most of the items went for tons more money than the auction catalog was suggesting....

Resikan Flute - $40,000
Klingon Bird of Prey - $160,000
USS Reliant - $24,000
Picard's Uniform (one of them) - $9,000
USS Enterpise D (8 ft long) - $500,000

Oh to have a spare million dollars laying around for an event like that. I was daydreaming about it I would have loved to be wealthy enough to afford a few items. I would have added these to my home...Enterprise D, USS Defiant, Delta Flyer, Worf's Battleth, a Type II Phaser Rifle, and Picard's Off-duty uniform. Listen at me though...it all should be in museum...I'm being selfish.

-A

Flung egg fu yung plasma on the asthma lung...

2007-07-02T08:57:00.000-05:00

Monday again...

1) Nascar racing was good this weekend. Harvick won the NBS race, just dominated it. Denny Hamlin won the Cup race, racing against Wonderboy and Truex Jr. Out of the three I was pulling for Truex Jr. more. I'm starting to really like him. He's been running well so he's had a lot of facetime, and I'm liking his on and off-track persona. I wasn't really too big of a fan during his NBS years, and he dominated those, two time champ. However, Hamlin took the trophy...and earned it. Edwards ran all the way to the front from mid-field just to have a pitbox mishap. Unbelievable! Edwards' car looked awesome too, I really liked the Red Sox paint scheme, must have a die-cast of it. Harvick also had pitbox issues, but he still finished decently.

2) Since the ground was saturated, I could not do yardwork so did some more fishing instead. I should not complain about the water level in Spring Hill considering just a short skip 20 miles south of us Osawatomie is under water. Much of the town is destroyed. Osawatomie has the destinction of being the only town in the USA that bears it's name. Maybe even the world. Osawatomie was one of the stronghold towns of John Brown and his abolistionists before the American Civil War...matter of fact this region was fighting the Civil War 5 years before the rest of the USA/CSA. Osawatomie is also home to the Kansas State mental hosiptal. A historic town flooded with major damage.

3) My wife and I went to see the new Michael Moore film this weekend. We always make a point to see his films in the theaters. Moore makes films that I think everyone should see, they should be required viewing. "Sicko" tackles the issue of health care in the USA...and hits abit on college. Moore does a great job showing just how greedy the insurance companies and the overall system are...they truly do not give two shits about human life, just profit. It does not take the movie to make this appearant. These are issues that indeed effect people in need of medical help. While the rest of the "western world" is granted socialized health care and college for the betterment off the society...the US suffers from capitalist greed. If you feel strongly either way about the issue you need to see the movie...don't give me that republican argument about how the insurances, pharmaceuticals and HMOs don't get their voice. They all flood the airwaves with advertisements..."ask your doctor about our new drug".

-A

In closing: Here's a very enlightening and entertaining talk on the dangers of intelligent design by Neil deGrasse Tyson...or should I say stupid design. Remember, "Republicans don't want to die poor".

Sneeze debris on the bourgeoisie sleeve of the Marquis...

2007-06-29T08:52:00.000-05:00

It's friday and it's still raining. My frontyard is squishy. My backyard has little ponds. My car's interior has been wetted and smells funny, like jazz. I suppose it's good for agriculture, but it's rained so much that my gravel driveway and stone patio have sprouted large wilderness-like weeds. So damp that mushrooms are popping up like uncontrolable boners in the tall grass. I'd just like it to quit long enough to fit a couple softball games in.

Had some time so I went out last night with the intent to pick up the paperback version of the new Richard Dawkins book. His website said that it's available at Borders, so that's where I went. Well Border's computer system shown that it's not to be published until 2008 (???) Yet The Dawkins website states that it's out and available now at Borders (???). Borders did carry a couple of his evolution books. What I found interesting was the books on atheism are tucked away in the religion section. The religion section consists of three 8 foot tall walls of books, yet the books on atheism fill only a tiny two foot section towards the end, near the bottom...maybe about ten titles. If anything I'd store them in the philosophy section. Where the thinking people go to look for answers to the unanswerable questions. However, it is an accomplishment that they have an atheism section at all, considering the local demographic. I was also looking for Neil degrasse Tyson's books, which again the handy-dandy-in-store computer system was stating they were not in stock. Yet way back in the rear of the store, there is a section of Astronomy books. Low and behold...there was the two Tyson books I wanted. Now I used to work for Border's, back in the days when the employees actually interacted with customers. The inventory system was almost always accurate. The self guided computer system is appearently fallible. At least in Olathe.

Speaking of Neil degrasse Tyson, I found several interesting interviews and lecture type things on google/video. He is someone I could listen to all day long. He has a great way of making universal wonders attainable to us non-astrophysicist types.

http://research.amnh.org/~tyson/

-A

Next Chapter: The Captor is after the Velociraptor's adapter...

2007-06-28T08:50:00.000-05:00

1) Seems like the rains will never end...another of my daughter's softball games was rained out last night. That makes three so far this season. This lates pring's/early summer's storms have beeen fast and violent. Devastating tornadoes in parts. Flash floods happening well...in a flash. I work in a building that's in on one of the higher elevations in Overland Park area, yet the rain water still runs deep as it drains down the hills and into the surrounding creeks. And where I live...Spring Hill, don't let the Hill portion fool you...that's a misnomer. It was named after a town located in Alabama by initial settlers back in 1857. The Kansas variant is rather flat, so flooding can occur.

2) This weekend is gearing up for a good weekend of NASCAR. Both the Cup and NBS are in the same place this weekend, so the competition will be stiff in both series. The teams are at New Hampshire International Speedway. Great flat track racing will happen.

3) The launchtime for the next NASA mission is approaching. A Delta II rocket is scheduled for take off on July 7th, carrying the payload of the Dawn spacecraft. This spacecraft will journey to the asteroid belt and study the asteroids Ceres and Vesta. The asteroid belt is located in between the orbit of Mars and Jupiter. Ceres is the largest object in the asteroid belt and has recently been classified a dwarf planet...the same classification that ousted Pluto from the planetary line up. Pluto is the largest object in the Kuiper belt. Yet Pluto is not the furthest dwarf planet in our system, out even further than the Kuiper belt is the scattered disk, or Oort Cloud, wherein resides thousands of icy objects, among them the little planet Eris, which possibly larger than Pluto. There are 800 known Kuiper belt objects, including Quaoar, which was found in 2002. The Kuiper belt is possibly the birthplace of comets that make their way into the solar system. NASA launched a mission spacecraft called New Horizons over 524 days ago (01/19/06), that will eventually make it's way to the Kuiper belt in about 2850+ days around April - July 2015. New Horizon's will study Pluto and possibly other KBO.

4) Found even more George Carlin on the net...This URL opens one of my favorite HBO specials of his, "Back In Town". I'm supplying the URL rather than embedding it since there are 9 other full length specials in the side bar. 10 hours of Carlin...enjoy.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4267856870762913584

-A

Swatting at mosquitoes with photon torpedoes...

2007-06-27T09:42:00.000-05:00

1) My talented wife has officially started up her very own photography business. She has spent the last few years honing her skills in graphic design and paper mechanics working as a product designer for the scrapbooking industry. In that, she has gained a nice touch with digital photo editing, and a great eye for composition. She has set up a website with samples...

http://www.sugarpopphotography.com/

2) Check out one of my friend's website...Andrew Sloan. He has a couple gallery showings coming up soon. He does excellent mixed media artwork, and has a very nice website layout...

http://www.andrewsloan.com/

3) Last night's Universe episode was about Luna, the Earth's moon. The Moon is not the overall largest satellite orbiting a planet in our solar system, but it is the largest in relation to the planet it orbits around. So much so that some astronomers have referred to the relationship as a dual planet system. The Moon's gravitaional pull is in charge of the Earth's tidal elements, as it orbit's the ocean's waters are elongated with centrifugal force, causing two high tide's on opposite's sides on the planet. The Moon's dark spots, referred to as Mares, french for seas, are actually extremely large impact craters from rogue asteroids and meteorites. The Moon does not have an atmosphere at all, so there is no protective burn to skate space rocks along, so the rocks just smash into the surface, ejecting large plumes of dust into space, and creating lunar mountains. Large rocks can hit hard enough to rupture the Moon's surface causing molten lava to rise through the cracks and turn black in the extreme environment, giving the appearance of "water" from the Earth's surface...thus they are coined Mares. The Moon does not revolve, so there is always a constant facing towards Earth...thus a day on the Moon is about 28 Earth days long...the lunar month. Another interesting thing is since the Moon has no atmosphere, sound waves cannot travel...truly in space no one can hear you scream. The only way to communicate is by radio waves, in space suits and spacecraft. Lots of obstacles and hurdles to overcome if humans are to populate the Moon. A lunar space base is scheduled to be constructed within the next few years, NASA will launch missions that can reach further into the solar system from the lunar base. We are truly moving in the direction of Roddenberry's vision. I cannot wait to visit Tycho City!

-A

Poking fun at low orbiting nuns...

2007-06-26T08:51:00.000-05:00

Here are a few thought inducing articles on Humanism.

Amsterdam Declaration 2002

Humanism is the outcome of a long tradition of free thought that has inspired many of the world's great thinkers and creative artists and gave rise to science itself.

The fundamentals of modern Humanism are as follows:

1) Humanism is ethical. It affirms the worth, dignity and autonomy of the individual and the right of every human being to the greatest possible freedom compatible with the rights of others. Humanists have a duty of care to all of humanity including future generations. Humanists believe that morality is an intrinsic part of human nature based on understanding and a concern for others, needing no external sanction.

2) Humanism is rational. It seeks to use science creatively, not destructively. Humanists believe that the solutions to the world's problems lie in human thought and action rather than divine intervention. Humanism advocates the application of the methods of science and free inquiry to the problems of human welfare. But Humanists also believe that the application of science and technology must be tempered by human values. Science gives us the means but human values must propose the ends.

3) Humanism supports democracy and human rights. Humanism aims at the fullest possible development of every human being. It holds that democracy and human development are matters of right. The principles of democracy and human rights can be applied to many human relationships and are not restricted to methods of government.

4) Humanism insists that personal liberty must be combined with social responsibility. Humanism ventures to build a world on the idea of the free person responsible to society, and recognises our dependence on and responsibility for the natural world. Humanism is undogmatic, imposing no creed upon its adherents. It is thus committed to education free from indoctrination.

5) Humanism is a response to the widespread demand for an alternative to dogmatic religion. The world's major religions claim to be based on revelations fixed for all time, and many seek to impose their world-views on all of humanity. Humanism recognises that reliable knowledge of the world and ourselves arises through a continuing process. of observation, evaluation and revision.

6) Humanism values artistic creativity and imagination and recognises the transforming power of art. Humanism affirms the importance of literature, music, and the visual and performing arts for personal development and fulfilment.

7) Humanism is a lifestance aiming at the maximum possible fulfilment through the cultivation of ethical and creative living and offers an ethical and rational means of addressing the challenges of our times. Humanism can be a way of life for everyone everywhere.

More below...

Amsterdam Declaration...
http://www.iheu.org/amsterdamdeclaration

Humanist Manifesto I - 1933
http://www.americanhumanist.org/about/manifesto1.html

Humanist Manifesto II - 1973
http://www.americanhumanist.org/about/manifesto2.html

Humanist Manifesto III - 2003
http://www.americanhumanist.org/3/HumandItsAspirations.php

Stinking sushi for the thinking bushi...

2007-06-25T08:35:00.000-05:00

1) Sonoma:Infineon was an excellent race this year. Too bad that Juan Pablo was so good at conserving fuel...well, I say that from the perspective of a Harvick fan. Montoya actually raced very well and deserved the win IMHO. It was great to see him beating up on the #48, trading licks fender to door. Harvick was sitting like the cat bird, just waiting for the fumes to run out of the #26 and #42, that yellow and red Pennzoil machine was looking good this week. Alas the #42 made it with enough gas to even drive to victory circle. It was awesome to see team RCR finish 2-3-4 though! They really showed the others how to play the milage game. How about that Milwaukee Mile NBS race? Edwards and Denny Hamlin pushing time, flying back and forth from Sonoma...and 1800+ mile trip to compete in both races. Edwards getting strapped into the #60 with under a minute to go. Hamlin getting caught in the air, hovering over the track as driver intros were being conducted. Almirola should not have been taken out of the car...but at least Denny gave him a win for his great set-up. It was so obvious that Denny did not want to replace Almirola, yet was very disappointed about not making the green flag. Ah well...NASCAR controversy at it's finest.

2) My family has recently gained interest in fishing. I used to go fishing every once in awhile as a young kid. Yet in my adult years, I lost interest. Mainly to do with being a vegetarian for the last decade. I figured if I'm not going to eat them I'm not going to kill them. I am a firm believer in eat what you kill...fishing or hunting. My wife and daughter both enjoy fresh fish, so now we are fishing. Anything to get outside and enjoy nature. I look at playing golf the same way, I'll never be great at it but at least I'm outside. I love the outdoors. In Spring Hill there are two fishing venues within 5 minutes of my house. So it is very easy to just pick up at the last minute and go catch fish. Last night I caught one little catfish, which I released. My wife caught a slightly bigger catfish a she took it home and ate it. I will provide but I will not clean and cook them...cause dang they smell up the house. I enjoy fishing because I get to spend quality time with my family. That's worth everything.

3) I really wish my house and all of it's amenities were solar powered. It's amazing that "we" living on this planet, have the greatest resource at our figertips to power us and it is not taken advantage of. Everything that runs on electricity could be solar powered. Then the electric company would not make money...so what! Harness the sun's radiation, it's not going anywhere in our lifetime. We still have a couple billion years of it left. I love solar power.

4) Accordiong to a survey called the "Greenest City Challenge", Topeka-Kansas ranked 5th and Lawrence-Kansas ranked 8th as the nation's Earth-friendliest place to be. Other Kansas towns that ranked...Derby at #63 and Manhattan at #162. The "greenest" city is Hastings-Nebraska...at the very bottom of the 300 cities that ranked is Bristol, CT.

5) Album of the moment: Savatage: The Dungeons Are Calling. Savatage was one of my favorite metal bands of 1980's. For some reason I've really been in the mood to revisit this album. Dungeons along with the album Sirens, were constantly in my old tape deck as a teenager. Imaginative riffs and well-written melodies to sing along with...if you can stop banging your head. Truthfully I lost interest in the band as the years passed, After "Hall of the Mountain King" I thought the band went soft, I can barely stand to listen to "Streets", which tends to be the band's swan song. Most fans give high acclaim to that rock opera. Concept albums are so diffficult to pull off in a metal style, Queensryche and King Diamond are good at it...IMHO Savatage was not. Those early Savatage albums though are blisteringly good. For Dungeons, I love the title track, By The Grace of The Witch and City Beneath the Surface. I cannot get enough of those. Criss Oliva was an awesome guitarist.

-A

Here's a little Dungeons...

Marmalade grenade in the biscuit basket...

2007-06-22T09:41:00.000-05:00

1) The Space Shuttle Orbiter Atlantis STS-117 did not land yesterday as scheduled, due to rainstorms at KSC. There are more possible landing windows this afternoon as the spacecraft orbits into proper deorbit burn possition. The first window happens at 1:18 CDT...if the weather does not permit they will remian in orbit until tomorrow. Pesky weather.

2) Today is The Bionic Woman's birthday...Lindsay Wagner.

3) If you weigh 100 pounds on Earth, you would weigh 38 pounds on Mercury. If you weigh 100 pounds on Earth, you would weigh 88 pounds on Venus. If you weigh 100 pounds on Earth, you would weigh 38 pounds on Mars. If you weigh 100 pounds on Earth, you would weigh 265 pounds on Jupiter. If you weigh 100 pounds on Earth, you would weigh 107 pounds on Saturn. Uranus has 27 satellites and 11 rings. Neptune revolution around the sun is once every 165 Earth years. A little Pluto fact...during each revolution around the sun, Pluto passes inside Neptune's orbit for 20 years, making Neptune the outermost planet for that time...well nowadays Neptune is the outermost "planet".

4) The Nascar cup drivers are in Sonoma this weekend at Infineon Raceway...road courses are always interesting. The NBS and NTS are in Milwaukee at the Mile...another fine race track.

5) At the current rate of growth in followers, by the year 2012 it is predicted that Wicca will be the world's 3rd largest religion. Good for them! It's time for people to start respecting the Earth. If it takes religion to do it so be it.

Ahhh....friday.

-A

Romantic Romans roaming the river road reservoir...

2007-06-21T08:50:00.000-05:00

1) Last night my daughter chocked up another home run...yeah! She's doing so well in softball this seeason. I am proud.

2) The Space Shuttle Orbiter Atlantis is scheduled to land today...at 12:55 CDT. Tune into NASA Channel on your T.V. or computer. The site has a nice download for tuning into the station right on your deskstop. I quite often tune in while at work so as not to miss anything important.

3) Around the world, the ozone layer averages about 3 millimeters (1/8 inch) thick, approximately the same as two pennies stacked one on top of the other...and that's what protects us from the sun's harmful radiation. Thin and precious.

4) I have now found and watched several full length George Carlin specials on Google. Just go to the Google video section and search for them...Carlin on Campus / Doing It Again / You're All Diseased / Life Is Worth Losing / Jammin' In New York / What Am I doing In New Jersey? / There are a couple others that have been split up and uploaded to YouTube, but I prefer the full length specials myself.

5) Japan has officially changed the name of Iwo Jima back to it's pre-WWII name. Appearantly the inhabitants of the island did not appreciate Clint Eastwood making the locale of one of WWII's bloodiest battles, so high profile and Hollywood...so it is now once again known as Iwo To.

-A

The cleansing swoosh of an anti-matter douche...

2007-06-20T08:28:00.000-05:00

To paraphrase a Bottle Rockets tune...I gotta get up and I gotta go to work, Then I gotta go home and I gotta go to bed, then get up and do it all again...repeat ad nauseum. That is the point of the song. The habitual rut of steady work can turn days into weeks...weeks into months, and months into years really quick. If you have a fulfilling job, where you feel like you make a difference be thankful....I'd guess even at low-pay that feeling of doing something good makes it worth it. It's amazing to me that there is such a huge discrepancy in paychecks in the greater KC area. A CEO sets in the comfort of his or her climate controlled office, all day long talking on the phone, bullshitting, rubbing elbows, greasing palms over the www...thinking about what golf course to shoot next, 60 foot yachting, stocks and season tickets...while a have-less worker mows the lawn outside that office, or risks his life swinging from a plank of wood 50 feet in the air with an oversized squeegee in hand, cleaning that CEO's office window. All that so that they can maybe make end's meet and feed their kid's unhealthy McDonald's® food because it's affordable. Then the public servants...protecting the streets, putting out fires, teaching children...make a fraction of what that CEO does just sitting on his fat-cat-ass all day long reading the sports page and trading his stocks on a flat screen wired contraption. Like George Carlin once said, It's called the American Dream because you have to be asleep to believe it.

Last night's episode of Universe focused on Jupiter. Amazing to think of the possibility that Jupiter is a failed star. The proper gasses are there, a massive force of gravity is there, holding the gas in a sphere shape...but just not quite enough force to cause fusion and ignite that gas. Jupiter is like a mini solor system within our solar system. Jupiter has 60 moons, orbiting around it. Jupiter is so large that it takes up 70% of the total mass of the solar system. The gas giant has such gravitational force that it can catch errant comets and fling them back into space like a frisbee©. Yet it has no surface, so a spacecraft cannot land on it. Even if it did the craft would be crushed under the pressure of it's gravity. The gasses are so volitile that the only current metal that would protect from it's radiation is lead...and a manned spaceship made of of lead would likely not be able to break Earth's orbit let alone carry enough fuel to make a 400 million mile trip. Again what a grand accident. It is possible that Jupiter has saved Earth and the other inner planets from comets and floataway asteroids, by it's cosmic slingshot...but if it had fusion, our sytem would have been binary and the Earth would be too hot...the outer planets are too far away, and also gas giants so life would have not happened here. Much like Earth, Jupiter turned out just right. This is the kind of stuff that just doesn't happen in seven days...billions of years.

Watched Eddie Murphy's Delerious again last night. It had been years since I'd seen it (mid '80s)...so I bought it. Amazing how many of the joke's I still remembered. Funny enough to leave a lasting impression on me, which most modern comics do not. I'm so glad Eddie walked for a while not in, but behind Richard Pryor's footsteps. Nobody can walk in Richard Pryor's footsteps.

-A

Heavy into the levee with a 1970 Chevy...

2007-06-19T08:51:00.000-05:00

Watched the special features section of Pan's Labyrinth director's edition last evening...Guillermo del Toro is brilliant. He pointed out quite a bit of the film that went unnoticed by me, yet claims that there is more that he won't make obvious so that the viewer will walk away with something different with each viewing. Quite honestly up until I watched El Laberinto del fauno, the only Del Toro films I had seen were Mimic, Blade II and Hellboy. Which all three of those were enjoyable IMHO...especially Blade II, I used to read that comic book...but none of those really stand out as artform to me. Those are more just action movies with a horror bend. Pan's Labyrinth though is a perfect film...it is art...it is great storytelling...seeded in folklore and myth...fantastical...all of which is said in my best James Lipton impression...imagine that. Since seeing the Fauno in the theaters I am really wanting to track down copies of Cronos and The Devil's Backbone. I have not seen either film in stores or for rent. Eventually I will likely own these.

I've read that Del Toro has had something to do with the Hellboy Animated series and is making a Hellboy II. I also thought that the Hellboy comic was entertaining. The thing that stood out for me when I went to see Hellboy, was that Ahmet Zappa was a consultant on the film, that's where he met his future ex-wife Selma Blair. Ahmet is a comic book reader. I really need to rewatch those three other Del Toro flicks I have seen with a new eye...I'm sure I will appreciate them more. Well if anything I need to own the Blade trilogy...Del Toro or not, I dig those movies.

The Space Shuttle Orbiter Atlantis is schedule to disembark the ISS today and head home. The STS-117 mission was potted with obstacles but a success and complete save for the trip back to the planet's surface. Matter of fact it undocks the ISS in about 30 minutes. Expedition 14 & 15 Astronaut Sunita Williams comes home on the return trip. Flight Specialist Astronaut Clayton Anderson will stay aboard the ISS as the USA presence. At 194 days in space, Williams has broken and set a record for a woman in space set 11 years ago by astronaut Shannon Lucid (188 days) on the Mir station. Williams has also logged over a full day's worth of EVA time (29+ hours). Atlantis is scheduled to land in KSC at around 1 pm CDT this coming thursday.

-A

Here's a full clip of an 1977 AC/DC show...BBC aired it as one of the Crown Jewels specials...

The peculiar stench on the socket wrench...

2007-06-18T08:35:00.000-05:00

Yep...monday.

On the way to work this morning I interupted a kansas buzzard feasting upon his roadkill breakfast. Big old baldheaded bird right in the middle of the road chomping down on a pile of fur and icor. Not sure what that bowl of cornflakes was before it was splattered but the vulture found it yummy and worth risk taking. The road is frequented by oversized emmissions burping constuction vehicles. The bird waited until the last second to take flight, and as it did my meager little plum-colored-four-door saturn rolled right under it's wings. It's wingspan was wider than my car. I slowed down for safety and to keep pace with it. It flew directly over my windshield for a few seconds before lifting. Something I don't see everyday.

Our family went camping over the weekend at Perry Lake. It took us a while to find our ideal spot, but we did...even though it was situated a few hundred feet from the terlets. Great weather and campfire cooking. The wind ended up being rough, making the fishing my daughter and wife wanted to do nigh impossible in the shallow-rocky-twigged shoreline. My wife and daughter taught me a neat girlscout trick, how to find spiders at night. If you hold the ass end of a flashlight up to your forehead just above your eyes...and flick it on...and look around the ground...you'll see spider's eyes glowing. I was skeptical but sure enough the second I tried it out I thought I saw the flicker of a piece of glass or something...yes, something...it was a huge brown spider. I was blown away by this. The trick actually works. I kept looking around and ended finding our camp was basically infested...well actually my family was the infestation, after all we were on the spider's turf. So many spiders around us that the ground looked like it was covered in tiny stars. Those beedy little eyes glow bright bluish-green.

I took a walk sometime between 3:30 and 4 in the morning, and was amazed by the stars. There was some light polution coming from Lawrence...but with the camp lanterns and fires out, the sky was huge. I was even able to see the galaxy's arm...which is nearly impossible considering the amount of surface lights even in Spring Hill.

Tenting is fun.

-A

Here's some early EODM for you...

Ejecting the warp core at the door of the grocery store...

2007-06-15T08:35:00.000-05:00

Continuing to watch the History Channel special "Universe"...this week's episode was all about how the planet Earth will end. Whether it be swallowed in a black hole, ripped apart by dark matter, pummeled by comets, bursted by universal expansion, toasted in an unfortune yet well aimed gamma ray burst matters not. Even though there is only a one percent chance most of this will happen, save for being kicked in the biscuits by an errant comet, which would be a 1/5000 chance in the year 2036...the fact is the Earth will die. In a few billion years The Sun will eventually cool and expand...The Sun is a yellow dwarf, as it cools it will grow to be a red giant...Expanding to over one hundred times it's current size. The Sun will envelop the inner 2 planets and the Earth will boil and change it's orbit...all life will end. After it's inevitible expansion the Sun will continue to cool and eventually shrink to a sphere the size of Earth. What we're counting on by then is the discovery of warp technology...so that the human race can leave the neighborhood...al'a Star Trek. Too bad I won't be around for that.

Also watched a bit of the ISS coverage last night...seems that Expedition 15 has a few bumps in it. Computer problems and array problems...I am sure the brilliant astronauts and cosmonauts will remedy this. I cannot wait for comercial space flight. I really hope this happens within my life time and that I'm financially able to afford it. Right now I can barely afford to fill my car's fuel tank...let alone buy a plane ticket...but as soon as I can travel to the moon...I'm on it. I'd also like to drive a stock car around a paved oval track...but that's also out of my league.

Last night my eight year old daughter said, "I know what E equals"...I replied....then she contiued, "M C squared." Yes! This week's science camp and our recent Kansas Cosmophere trip is sinking in.

Going out camping this weekend with the family. Looking forward to that.

Comedy of the day...Eddie Murphy's Raw is on Google in it's entirity...so put on your Twister® suit and kick someone in the ding ding.

-A

Cracked gasket on an Alaskan casket...

2007-06-14T08:36:00.001-05:00

Had one of those mornings so far...all the lights turn yellow right as I'm driving through the intersection. Just missing huge chunks of traffic clumps before I turn left...close calls can bring a smile to your face. And I was not stopped by a crossing train this morning...that's a good thing. Spring Hill, Kansas seems to be at the mercy of extremely long freight trains. The town does not even have traffic lights in the city proper...but those blinking red guards at the RR crossing can ruin your whole friggin day. A couple trains parked just right could isolate Spring Hill...no going north out of town and no coming in.

Spring Hill is a nice town...I like living there. However, it's growing pangs scream out once in awhile. The town has a mix of lifelong residents wondering what has happened now that its is becoming a suburb...and the city people that want a little small town atmosphere. It gets choked up sometimes. My family has been there since 2001...Like I said...I like living there. It's better than any other place in the Kansas City sprawl that I've lived. It's just that right now the town is held hostage by road construction...train tracks...and the alternate route...Olathe. I've lived in Olathe a couple different times in my life. I don't plan on going back. I really hope Olathe doesn't end up swallowing Spring Hill...Olathe, the Sarlacc of Johson County Kansas.

I've been watching George Carlin stand up on Google video. Google has full complete videos of stand specials in it's archives. George Carlin is one of my personal favorites. He always has a way of shooting straight and pointing out how ridiculous everything really is. A couple times he has broke out into bits about driving in New York/New Jersey...I can relate even with the somewhat lighter traffic in KC.

I've been listening to the brand new Queens of the Stone Age album "Era Vulgaris" non-stop for the last couple of days now. The more I listen the more I dig it. It's hitting me like the other QOTSA releases...There is always 3 or 4 songs I really like right off, then the rest have to grow on me. Josh Homme always puts so many layers and sounds into the music you have to listen to the songs on several devices to fully appreciate them...music sounds different in my car, through headphones on my computer and at home played out loud. I'm really digging "Turning on the Screw" / "3's & 7's" / "I'm Designer" / "Misfit Love"...but grrr...the free exclusive song download that Best Buy is giving away with the album only works on Windows OS...no love for us Mac users.

-A

Solar powered sucker punch to the soul patch...

2007-06-13T08:45:00.000-05:00

Today is my wife's birthday...so stop by the Primitive Bunnies link in my link-e-list section and give her a ping....even though I think she is currently the only one reading in on me...but just in case someone else is tuning in.

We went out to the Olathe Softball complex last night. My daughter smacked a few dozen balls at the batting cages. My wife and I also tried out our swings there as well. I moved up to the fast pitch cage last night, it's more difficult than it looks hitting a 60+ mph softball. Aftre 60 swings my shoulders and sides were burning. My cage-batting average is no where near as good as my daughter's...but I did manage to connect with a dozen or so.

I watched "Ali G Indahouse" last night. I will go on record right now as saying Sacha Baron Cohen is probably my favorite comedian. The Ali G interview segments he has done in the past are fantastic, but this movie did not quite illustrate that very well. Maybe that is why when it was time to make Borat, Sacha stuck mostly to the interview/unsuspecting reaction formula. "Ali G Indahouse" was funny in parts, but no where close to the brilliance of the Borat movie IMHO. I have heard that he is planning on a Bruno movie in the future...well, Bruno is my least favorite of the three characters...but I will still see it. It was awesome to see Borat make an appearance in the Ali G movie. Dzienkuje....Boooyakasha!

Oh yeah and above meet Mr. Handface's right hand man...Mr. Facehand

Post lunch edit:::Dale Earnhardt Jr. signed a 5 year contract with Hendrick Motorsports starting 2008...Kyle Busch got he boot from HMS. Wow. I'm beside myself. I didn't think that was going to happen. HMS really is the NY Yankees of NASCAR...if I may use an overused sports metaphor. I was really hoping RCR could snag Dale Jr. I have grown sick of a Hendrick car being in Victory Circle so often this year...10 out of the 14 points races is too dominate. Oh well...I'll just keep eating sour apples.

-A

Theoretical cosmetics make diabetics pathetic...

2007-06-12T09:29:00.000-05:00

Last week my computer at work bit the big one. It just decided it had had enough of me and the trivial-goofy little things I get paid to design. So it took it's last mechanically wheezing breath and shut it's blinking power-button-on eye and left it's mortal coil. Backstory...I have had two iMacs at home in the past...one flat out kicked the bucket, and the other sufffered internal self-amputations and limped into obsoleteness. Well my fancy work flatscreen iMac doohickey, gave me nothing but problems from week one...then eventually it too took the plunge. So I must not have any kind of fortune winds blowing on my shoulder for these low-end Macs. Anyways my work decided to purchase another iMac for me to unleash my gypsy-curse on. This new one is supposed to have all the kinks worked out of it...even though Mac seems to be having buggies continue to infect their new operating system upgrades. This new machine is supposed to be the charm. It does feature a neat little thing which I have never had access to before, a built in camera that has several effect filters. So I have been goofing around with it a bit...add a little sprinkling of Photoshop CS into the mixture and I can come up with all sorts of horrific self portraits...like Mr. HandFace grinning above this message....and the Guillermo Del Toro inspired portrait from yesterday's message.

-A

Careening limousines and nectarine jellybeans...

2007-06-11T10:11:00.000-05:00

My daughter had another softball game last friday evening. She hit her first home run. Which actually happened after the coach's daughter had hit a grand slam...but had those bases been loaded when my kid was at bat, that grand slam would have been hers. I was proud.

Pocono...what a let down. After a 3 hour rain delay...the race was shortened by more rain and eventual impending darkness. The race made it just past half way before the rain only to have Jeff Gordon win again. Crapples! At least Carl won at Nashville, and collected another guitar. However I'm torn when two of my drivers are racing one another...I would have rather seen Bowyer win that guitar.

So here I am at work...danged weekends are never long enough.

-A

Thermal nuclear reactor for the soap opera actor...

2007-06-08T08:48:00.000-05:00

I) Today is the day. Shuttle launch from Kennedy. STS-117 is carrying a truss and 2 more sets of solar arrays up to the ISS. The new arrays will provide battery power for upcoming ISS components. The Shuttle will take off this evening at 7:38 EDT...thats 6:38 CDT. So be sure to tune into to NASA channel for that. I'd love to eventually see one of these in person. You can download the mission specifics at the site...all nice printable pdfs for eaase of reading.

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/main/index.html

II) In American Civil War news...A handwritten letter that was sent to Federal generals after the battle of Gettysburg has been found in the nations war archives. Read more about it here...

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070608/ap_on_re_us/archives_lincoln

III) In racing news...Carl Edwards won the "Prelude to a Dream" dirt track race held at Eldora...Tony Stewart's track. Carl held off Jeff Gordon and Kyle Busch for the win! Yes! Arca and The Cup drivers will be at Long Pond, PA this weekend racing around the 2.5 mile triangle that is Pocono Raceway. Always a cool race at this truly unique track. The NBS race will be in Nashville...which makes qualifying and competing interesting for double duty drivers like Carl Edwards. Carl is flat out dominating NBS this season. However Harvick has a solid second place standing...and hasn't even drove in every race this year. It's goodtimes to have all of your drivers doing well. Harvick, Bowyer, Edwards, Kenseth...even Mark Martin and Jeff Burton are shining this season. I know as soon as HMS lets it guard down, either Team RCR or my Roush Hit Man will jump further up that Cup ladder.

-A

The neglection of Coronal Mass Ejection protection...

2007-06-06T11:47:00.000-05:00

With Heroes being in between seasons I have now run out of episodal things to watch on TV (or computer). Thanks to my good friend TiVo...I have now seeen every episode of Star Trek Next Generation, Star Trek Voyager, Star Trek Deep Space Nine, excluding Voyager which I only originally watched a couple seasons of when airing new, I was dang close on the whole series on the other two anyhow...but by the grace of almighty Spike TV, I was able to get my daily injection of 3-4 hours of Trek for awhile...now I'm complete on that. I am contemplating setting Enterprise for taping but I have really no desire to watch it.

With that and 10 hours average of Nascar coverage on the weekends I spend a good deal of time in front of the TV...I'm just gald I can fast forward through commercials. I've read that the powers at be are attempting to fix that though...Them networks want me to be influenced by advertisements whether I want it or not. Isn't it enough I get to look at all of those stock cars?

I spend a lot of time watching cable stations anyhows. Speed (for Race Day), NASA (for ISS, STS coverage), CSTV (for college baseball/softball). About all I ever stop for on local networks is morning news, South Park reruns and Jimmie Kimmel Live. I stlll sometimes watch syndicated sit-coms...like Cosby, Fresh Prince, King of Queens...but I don't dedicate TiVo time to them.

I'm currently TiVo'ing an excellent series on the History Channel called "Universe". They're each an hour long documentary about specific features in the Solar System. I've watched the Sun and Mars episdoes so far. Well worth watching. Might even have to look into a box set if it becomes available.

I do watch too much TV. I always have. The TV was my babysitter when I was a kid, it's what I know. I do other things as well since I have to have something to do while all of those Dawson Creek reruns and The Views my wife watches are on. The View isn't even worth it without Rosie on it...Holy Crap! Did I just type that. =)

-A

Squirrel wrestling in the salad dressing...

2007-06-05T09:59:00.000-05:00

I) Last night my daughter had the first of three softball games for the week. We've been working with her outside of the games. Taking her to batting cages, playing catch, working on her batting stance etc. She's really showing improvement this year. Even though the rec league does not keep score at her age level, I do. Her team won 19-7 last night. She was on base at every at bat, ran across home twice as well has chocking up 2 RBIs. She is doing very well. I am hoping she sticks with it. Not totally altruistic on my part as I like baseball and softball myself.

II) The Dover race is now over. Harvick was not able to shake off and recover from car problems. It was exciting to see Clint Bowyer and Carl Edward run up front so much. After Carl blew the doors off everyone during the NBS race I was hoping he'd do well in Cup. Nice to see HMS not totally dominating a COT race this time. It had become totally apparent to me tha drivers really need to be aware of where the Brothers Busch are at all times. Those suckers are like sweaty dynamite. Statistically speaking it was Smoke's race to win, but that Penske #2 had other plans for him. Speaking of Penske...Newman ran fantatsic. So far that was the most exciting COT race of the seaon to me. Worth the wait.

III) Continuing the Lightnin' Hopkins groove from yesterday. If you do a search on YouTube for him, there is vintage footage of him performing. He is an amzing guitarist. It is so difficult to wrap my brain around the feat of plucking a thumb rhythm, while jangling the rest of the strings with a couple fingertips. Whatever you choose to call it, that country or delta blues style is tough as hell to master, it's like playing two songs at once...while singing. Lightnin' did it masterfully.

IV) There are more than 326 million trillion gallons of water on Earth.

V) Make it so Mr. Data...There is a robot in Japan named "Kansei" that has been built to show facial expression. It is programmed to respond to certain words that trigger gears under it's face to show emotions. Including being digusted with President Bush....more here. http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070605/tc_nm/japan_robot_tech_dc

I added some more links to this page...NASA, Nascar, Star Trek reference and a couple neato-keen on-line communities of Frank Zappa fans. I am known as Ya Hozna, or YH in those particular FZ gathering places.

-A

Pavlov's dogs love egg nog...

2007-06-04T12:24:00.000-05:00

Added some content, and made a header.

You'll now find links to my other on-line loggy-type-things. Primitive Bunnies is my wife's blogger site, and T&IOADM belongs to my work buddy.

Now to meander in some other directions...

Listening to some Lightin' Sam Hopkins on the way into work this morning. He's awlays been one of my favorite bluesmen. A few years back I picked up a copy of his Complete Aladdin Recordings, so I shook the dust off of it today. An excellent collection of music. If you enjoy the blues guitar go on and find it.

In 4 days... STS-117 Atlantis will take off into space. June 8th. 7:38 EDT to hook up with the ISS in orbit. Keep your eyes peeled for the launch. Check the NASA website and/or NASA channel.

Yesterday's NASCAR Cup race at Dover, Deleware was rained out...that is becoming a trend this season. Rescheduled for today at noon. Here's to not having another HMS victory in the COT. Come on Harvick.

-A

Insensitive nonsense for the common dense...

2007-05-31T14:47:00.000-05:00

I decided I'd go ahead and make myself a little writing spot over here. Might see some use of it. I usually write over on Yahoo 360, when I find the gumption, nerve or time to. I also have a MySpace account that hardly ever sees the light of day. I'm also over on Infield Parking, but never post much to the weblog portion. Now I have one of these cantankerous things here too.

-A