31 January 07 - 21:45A View on Space
I have a friend, lets call her Sandra, who sends me links periodically to different interesting sites. This is one of them. Each day a different image of the universe is featured by this web along with a brief explanation. The site is provided by NASA and the explanation is written by a professional astronomer.
I have always had an interest in photography as well as with astronomy. After growing up in the sixties with the race to the moon I was immersed in nearly daily discussions of space travel, satellites, and what lays beyond the boundaries of earth.
The original "Star Trek" television series began at that time and there was even a silly television comedy called "Lost in Space."
Rockets were being made at NASA by rocket scientists literally stolen from Germany after the war. They had a lot of practice making all manner of innovative jet and rocket engines and they quickly went to work making missiles for the United States. In fact, the early space flights of the Mercury era were basically done on guided missiles of the period. We have come a long, long way since that time.
It was a forward looking time, and quite frankly, I expected we would have colonies on the moon and a couple of trips to trips to Mars under our belts by now. No matter. Every day I can see another picture of where we may some day travel at the following site.
I even went to the bother of putting the web address in an anchor tag so you can just "click" on it instead of cutting and pasting.
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html
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30 January 07 - 14:14To Sleep Perchance to Dream
A few days ago I was doing my usual bunch of different things. I was helping Marla with painting while watching the History Channel. During the same day I was noting a draft in one of the rooms near my foot, as well as a spot on the wall that Rugby Dog was scruffing at. to top it off, I watched a poor hapless carpenter sink dollar after dollar into a house he wanted to flip on "Flip This House."
I have this belief that our minds reset every night. I believe this nightly reset is a standard procedure and that our memories are "boiled down" and sorted out to make room for more "stuff" the next day. The culmination of this process, I believe, can be dreaming if we happen to carry out some of our data management in our lighter sleeping moments before we wake or when we daydream as we are waking up.
With this in mind, I will describe my dream which started with me sitting down and noticing a draft on my right foot. I looked at the wall and was surprised to see a bright orange dog scratching his way through the wall. Once through he ran off and was shortly chasing a rabbit who had followed. As I started out of the room I noticed a cat also came running in, but the cat quickly hid behind my bathroom sink.
This was not good and I apparently knew it because I was soon peering into the hole in the wall with a contractor I had contracted to fix the problem. It was worse than I thought. The contractor pointed out to me that the hole was actually a result of the fact thay my house had been a World War II prison camp and this was the tunnel that was used by the prisoners to escape. That answered the question about the hole in the wall, but the shocker was yet to come.
My house, it seems, was not only a former prison camp, but it was also a disguised double wide trailer house. The frame was plainly visible within the tunnel.
The only other explanation for this might be the pizza I had for dinner, but I think it was actually a fractured summation of my day's activities.
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29 January 07 - 21:36The Colorado Cannibal in the Wild West
I have been reading a new different book, a book of murder trials in the old west. It seems strange to a person who grew up in the days of endless cowboy movies and television programs to think of murder trials in the old west. I just thought they threw the bodies aside and forgot about it.
Of course, I did visit Tombstone, Arizona more than a few times and I knew from those visits that they tried the Earps and Doc Holliday after the gunfight near the OK Corral. I guess I shouldn't have been surprised, but I was. The book? "Great Murder Trials of the Old West." It's another of my "Half Price Books" buys. It was a real half price book, not a used book (but I digress).
The book contains several self contained stories, each unique in some way. The story I read today was about Alferd Packer. The guy was a really bad liar, but seemed to convince at least a smattering of people along the way that he was telling the truth at one time or another.
Seems after a long series of mishaps on the way to gold prospecting that Alferd ate the five fellows he was traveling with. Not only did he eat them, he dined on them for a couple of months before bothering to wander back to civilization. Once back he delivered stories (I hardly agree that they were confessions) regarding how the fellows he was with died.
Story number 1 was that they sort of died one at a time and he was the last man standing. Unfortunately when the bodies were found, they were all together, had been hacked with a hatchet, and had "parts missing."
Time for a new story. Yup, Alferd was out scouting around and when he came back he shot the second to the last man standing in self defense (he was the last) and then barely made it out alive. As his story went he needed to fend off an attack with a hatchet by using a rifle. Then he claimed to need to finish the job with a hatchet whack. (Commonly called "overkill.")
The story is worth a read, The whole thing plays out like a movie including the story, the confessions, a prison break, a murder conviction and death sentence, release on a technicality, retrial on another technicality, and an eventual conditional parole. Again, this guy was an amazing liar. He even lied about his age, date of military service, and real name at the time of sentencing. Perhaps he is one of those who is only loosely tuned to reality.The site of the trial, Lake City, is a small town today and a tourist site. The site of the meal of human flesh, presumably still a mass grave, is well marked. The jail Alferd stayed in is a museum. This would be a nice stop along the way to riding on the Colorado narrow line railroads I like so much.
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25 January 07 - 20:58If you can't stand the heat....
I have been reading about the Kevin Federline commercial that will apparently be running for Nationwide during the Superbowl. In the commercial Kevin is dreaming that he is surrounded by fast cars and beautiful women. Then he snaps out of it to discover he is really a fast food cook being commanded back to work by an angry boss.
"We hope ... Nationwide will not be airing an ad that would give the impression that working in a restaurant is demeaning and unpleasant," writes restaurant association CEO Steven C. Anderson to Nationwide.
Last time I checked out reality I found that being a "rap star" was a lot more glamorous than being a french fry cook. Perhaps Mr. Anderson needs to get out of his CEO office and help himself recall that this is a fact of life. But then, it seems Mr. Anderson realizes that people like me have it all wrong and, just like the restaurant workers I probably just need to have his reality pointed out to me.
Anderson states that if the ad runs during the Super Bowl, the association will make sure its members "know the negative implications of the ad." I guess they are not smart enough to figure it out for themselves without his help.
Same problem here.... I still would rather be making it with hot babes than making hot fries. I can't really see what his point is.by the way, my hot babe is "my honey." And doing things with my honey are also more fun than making french fries. Heck, that guy is nuts.I give Nationwide the green light on this one. Reality TV is in. Run the ad.
http://charlotte.bizjournals.com/columbus/stories/2007/01/22/daily21.html
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24 January 07 - 21:07Motivational Posters
I have two friends who were very into "cynical" takeoffs on motivational posters. Another friend of mine forwarded an email with a bunch of this type of motivational poster satire.
In the typical motivational poster, a low key picture, usually simple and from everyday life is depicted with a slogan meant to inspire. The slogan and the poster are matched, but in a loose manner which causes the person viewing the poster to think.
Be sure to "click" on each of these to see the miniature motivational poster. I thought they were funny, but I have a very sick sense of humor. Make sure to enable popups. These are worth it!
Welcome to my world!
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24 January 07 - 09:09Hitting the old head against the wall
Today we were talking about flying a private plane into Canada to look at some equipment that is for sale. None of us had ever flown into Canada in a private plane and we wanted to know what the procedure was. Why not call the local Canadian consulate? Good idea.
For a while I thought everyone answering the phone was named Dawn Jewer. I kept asking the phone answerers to repeat their name. Then I realized they are required by law to answer in both English and French. They were saying "Bonjour," a greeting, not a name. Anyway the first call got me referred to a phone number for Canookadin customs.
After dinking around with the automated phone information system I pressed "O" for a real person. This was a very weird experience. Apparently the customs officials from Canada feel the need to sound and be very solemn and exude a rigid nearly military attitude over the phone.
It finally became a grueling experience of figuring out what questions to ask as the Canook Customs folks also seemed unable to string together enough information to explain the process all at once.
Example:
Me: What is the procedure I would need to follow in order to fly a privale plan to a Canadian airport on business.
Canook Customs: What do you mean?
Me: Are there steps that I need to take to be able to fly to a Canadian airport from the United States?
Canook Customs: You just pick the airport you want and fly to it.
Me: O.K., let me clarify. I can just hop in a plane and fly anywhere I want into Canada from the United States.
Canook Customs: No, you would need to go through customs when you get here.
Me: OK, do I need to do anything special to let you know or just start flying into Canadian airspace.
Canook Customs: No, we have a phone number to call to give us at least 2 hours notice of your arrival.
Me: Can you give me the number?
Etc. etc. etc......
This was grueling.... Sort of like hitting the old melon against a brick wall, for fun.
For your sake I left the next 35 questions out.
Later.
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23 January 07 - 22:38Thinking of Britney's Yacht
I always have wanted to build my own houseboat. From time to time I think about getting a real mobile home and building a barge to fit underneath it. I worry, however, that the houseboat I make in this manner will be tacky and look like it is somehow "bottom of the barrel."
This picture makes me, once again, think of that project. Whoever built this houseboat has lowered the bar so much, that I cannot possibly have the trashiest houseboat around. Look at this puppy, it has everything. I wish I had this thing when I was younger. I'll bet it is a regular "chick magnet."
What gorgeous babe wouldn't want to sit up top on the red sofa and drink a beer or two and go "fishing." In fact, I just now thought of another reason this is a great idea. I was up in Minnesota on business for the past couple of weeks and they are just now getting fishing shacks or ice fishing houses out on the lakes.
Those of you who do not know what an ice fishing house is can picture any shacky building of outhouse size or up to the size of this Britney Spears houseboat. In fact, this boat could simply be left in the lake and used all year round for fishing. The only problem would be filling the fishing hole in the spring so it wouldn't sink, but that is just an engineering problem.
Later.
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23 January 07 - 08:08Britney Spears
I have been reading up on several celebrities lately. I usually never have anything to do with celebrity gossip other than to read the Enquirer while standing in line at the store. This Britney thing is different. I always wondered how she would burn out, because I couldn't see her being a cute little girl forever. That little girl image actually disappeared when she got married in Vegas (the first time).
Then she married Kevin Federline and dropped out of site. Occasionally we would see her driving around with her youngster strapped to her shoulders instead of the carseat or other odds and ends, but she really pretty much dropped out of site. The divorce was simply a matter of time. She is so full of herself that she could never last in a relationship.
And speaking of relationships. i read an article where is said that Britney was moving in and out of affairs quickly since her seperation. I always thought when you bedded a different guy every week on a whim it was called something else.
Right now I am working on composite pictures of Britney to make one complete naked picture. I think I can find most of the parts in some of the latest beaver shots, plus a few others that have been in the news over the last few months.
I'll let you know when I get the picture completed. Let's see, leg bone connected to the thigh bone, the thigh bone connected to.... Oh my!
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22 January 07 - 20:44String Theory, Sudoku, and Dimensions
Polish mathematician Theodor Kaluza proposed the existence of a fourth spatial dimension in 1919. The idea was expanded by Oskar Klein, a Swedish mathematician who proposed there were the three dimensions that we're familiar with, and an additional "curled-up dimension."
Occasionally I read things about the theory of "everything" and lately I have started working puzzles which are (more or less) three dimensions on a two dimensional page. The puzzles are called Sudoku and they are most commonly a grid of squares 9 by 9 in size. The 9 by 9 grid is divided into 9 internal (curled up) columns. The idea is to get rows, columns, and "curled up" columns to contain 9 elements, usually the numbers 1 through 9.
It doesn't have to be numbers, but numbers are easier to work with. Next up are sets of letters that spell things.
Don't know what makes Sudoku interesting, but it is. To see for yourself go to http://www.websudoku.com and take a look. I can solve the easy ones in about 10 minutes. My best time is just between 8 and 9 minutes.
Later.
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21 January 07 - 21:43Linux Makes the News
Linux is finally making its move. It is my understanding that the Mac OS X is Linux based and I have currently been test using SUSE 10.2. Linux costs $0.00 (Zero Dollars) to buy and is becoming very stable and there are a pot full of programs that will satisfy most user's needs. The only thing that I can't really do on Linux is be a gamer or use a SPECIFIC software package.
There is open office to do spreadsheets, documents, and what have you. Along with numerous other applications. But the good news is in the making.
Yes, Linux (the free operating system) is going mainstream with support of companies like I.B.M., Intel and Hewlett-Packard. The SUSE version I use is supported by Novell. The software is essentially free. I purchased a version in the store for $40 which entitled me to support. Currently I have downloaded version 10.2 of SUSE from the community supported side.
Read about it here http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/22/technology/22linux.html?ref=business.
Later.
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18 January 07 - 21:33Greetings from Minnesota
Hello, all. I am writing to you from Fairmont, Minnesota. The area I am in is a wonderful, although cold, place. I have not been doing a very good job keeping up the blog and I will rectify that. I have been helter skelter lately with work and am finally at a reasonable level of chaos and it is time to restart regular daily entries.
As you know I am working on ethanol related things. This has lead to meeting new people (I like people) and new things (I like things as well). Tomorrow will mean meeting with several groups of people from surveyors to potential business partners.
My latest computer toy, Linux, is turning out well and I can tell you the effects of E85 ethanol on my car. All of these things plus the Marla evacuation should be showing up on the blog in days to come.
Although I never say it, life is good no matter what happens, and I love keeping in touch with all of you. I promise to get the blog filled with more information, more often.
Later!!
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