Orchids

Sorry, lots of flowers but they are beautiful...

Dear Madame Zoltar

Hello, my sonorous songbirds! How are you? I am so glad that spring is officially here, although the plants and animals have known about it for some time now. I love to hear the birds singing and twittering at this time of year. I don’t know if it’s because I haven’t heard them for some time, or if the birds are bursting with energy, but their music and chatter sounds better, sweeter in the spring. It just makes me smile to hear them.

And it also makes me smile to visit with all of my irregular friends. I do so enjoy our Wednesday mornings. A little regularity in our irregular lives is not always a bad thing. I look forward to blogging and reading your comments.

Last week I mentioned the possibility of marketing Zoltar® brand products via home parties. That is one avenue I am exploring. Another possibility, of course, is the internet. Great fortunes have been made online. And it certainly seems like a logical extension of my current activities online. So I spent some time recently researching domain names and other Zoltar related info. And guess what I stumbled upon? http://www.facebook.com/pages/ZOLTAR/70127349754 That’s right; the blooming idiot has a Facebook account. And on it, he has this:

“In a sad but quietly reported event, ZOLTAR has separated from his wife of 20 years. Official court papers claim ‘Irreconcilable Differences,’ but a close family friend spoke under the condition of anonymity that ‘Mrs. ZOLTAR chose the bottle over her long-time companion.’ This never before seen picture confirms that Mrs. ZOLTAR has issues she clearly needs to resolve if there is to be any hope for reconciliation.”

He is blaming ME for ruining our marriage, with alcohol! I hardly touch the stuff. Of all the nerve! I was so outraged, I almost cast a spell. And then to add insult to injury, he posted the picture at right as supposed proof of my boozing problem. I almost choked! That's his own mother. Everyone knows what a lush she is. Everyone, that is, except for the millions of people who visit Facebook.

I left him because he thought he was some sort mechanical bull that had to inseminate every female who walked by. I left with nothing but our child in my arms and his menacing glare at my back. He has never sent a red cent to me in support payments. I am raising Junior alone and built a small but successful business enterprise. And then he posts such rubbish about me. I don’t know if I’m more hurt or angry. Well, it doesn’t matter anyway, because lies always corrode you, and that’s the thing he fears the most. Someday he will seize up like an overheated engine, and it can’t come soon enough for me.

In the meantime, I checked out some possible domain names for an online store. I believe that I posted this one a long time ago: http://www.zoltar.com/. Obviously, that one is occupied, and by a very interesting resident. Here’s another interesting one: http://zoltar.net/. For some reason, I find that attractive. Next is http://zoltar.org/. That’s rather odd. http://www.zoltar.info/ redirects, but http://www.zoltar.biz/ is available. In fact, Zoltar.biz is a perfect fit. Now I just have to find the time, money, and energy to set it up. Oh my!

Thank you so much for reading my blog this week. I predict April showers and May flowers.

Please send your spring greetings to: madamezoltar@jtirregulars.com.

I love each and every one of you. Listen to the birds, because the bird is the word. Sudorific!

The National Speed Trap Exchange

http://www.speedtrap.org/

Oh yeah, Racine is listed, with 20 speed traps. You can add more.

Happy 50th Kitt Peak

Last night I went to a couple of talks commemorating the 50th Anniversary of Kitt Peak National Observatory. This event was the culmination of the 50th anniversary celebrations. There have been a variety of events going on the last couple of years as we celebrated the anniversary Disney style. Of course, what do you celebrate? The selection of the site, the dedication? Well, celebrate a lot!

Last night's talks were by Dr. Aden Meinel, Kitt Peak's first director, and Bernard Siquierios, education curator at the Tohono O'odham Nation's Cultural Center and Musuem.

Meinel is one of those people who make you realize how little you have accomplished. Director of Kitt Peak and Steward Observatory, founder of the U of A College of Optical Sciences, was in World War II and a rocket expert who worked with the V-2, w0rked at the legendary Area 51 and I can't remember what all else, but that is plenty right there (he even claimed that the Hubble was basically a copy of an existing spy satellite, a claim I have heard made before but this is the first time by someone that worked in a position that he might have first hand knowledge).

He primarily talked about the site selection process and the first trips up Kitt Peak. I found it interesting that a requirement was that the facility be below 8000 feet (he jokingly said that it hadn't occurred to anyone to build telescopes at the top of a high mountain and living facilities lower, like they did on Mauna Kea in Hawaii). I always wondered why they choose 6800 foot Kitt Peak...now I have a little more insight on the history. He had some interesting old photos and short movies of the first trip up the mountain.

After a nice traditional song by Bernard's family accompanied with a beautiful slide show (a good combination), he talked about the mountain from the tribe's perspective. There were some traditional stories which I expected, but also a lot of personal anecdotes about the mountain which were entertaining. A fitting end to the 50th Anniversary Celebration.

For those not as familiar with Kitt Peak, the idea of a national observatory was to give astronomers around the U.S. access to world class telescopes. In the '50s, most large telescopes were run by universities or private foundations. That was great if you were at one of those places (like Cal Tech which ran the Palomar Observatory) but not so great if you weren't. The National Observatory was founded to give telescope access to astronomers on a competitive basis, best proposals win time. A second observatory was built in Chile (the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory or CTIO) to obtain access to the southern skies.

Kitt Peak no longer holds the worlds largest telescopes. They have moved on to higher mountains. Kitt Peak is also being effected more and more by light pollution from Tucson and Phoenix (Phoenix has much more lax lighting ordinances). Kitt Peak still does a lot of great research, but its role will inevitably change as time goes on. Here is wishing Kitt Peak many more years of productive research!

Reprinted with permission from the Half-Astrophysicist Blog.

Old relic photos during WWII remastered in High Definition

Old relic photos during WWII remastered in High Definition
>>> Operator building on a B-25 North American in 1942



<<< B-25's final assembly line 1942
>>> B-25 hangar manufacturing in the North American 1942



<<< B-25 hangar manufacturing in the North American 1942
>>> Installation of the engine Douglas Aircraft, Long Beach California, Oct 1942



<<< Engine installed at Douglas Aircraft, Long Beach in June 1942
>>> B-25 ready to go into action North American, Long Beach, June 1942



<<< B25: Preparation for the wind tunnel of North American 1942
>>> Preparing the model of the B-25 for the wind tunnel of Long Beach, 1942



<<< Adjustments in the final B-25, October 1942
>>> Filling a Bomber 1942



<<< Women pilots 1942
>>> Final Inspection 1942



<<< Catalina, August 1942
>>> Inspection of the P-51 Mustang 1942



<<< Inspecting a Catalina
>>> inspection of landing gear on the line.



<<< worker inspecting a machine gun bubble of the nose of the B-25, 1943
>>> Moments of relaxation before takeoff 1943



<<< Worker painting at helm of a P-51 Mustang. August 1943
>>> Air Patrol-- Stinson A-10,June 1943



<<< Inspection of the engines to be mounted on the B-25 October 1942
>>> Fort Knox 1942

RUSD School Safety

Well, it's been quite awhile since I have blogged, but it's never too long to wait for some more good old RUSD crap.

I have noticed some serious security issues with a couple of our schools and I want to get some feedback from everyone.

First off, let's just say I have "ties" to two schools in particular. Fratt Elementary and Knapp Elementary. I have included a scan of a letter I received from the principal at Fratt on March 19th. As you can see, it states that "there may have been a weapon in Fratt one day during this past week." There may have been? Well, I found out today that there was. Not just any weapon either. A loaded handgun. L-O-A-D-E-D. A fifth grader brought a loaded handgun to school to give to a friend. There are so many things to be said about this, but aside from the obvious, I am disgusted at how this was omitted in the letter to the parents.

Another issue at Fratt in particular is that there are still doors to the school being left unlocked during the day and in one instance, the front door actually had a sign on it stating something to the effect of "bell does not work, please come in".

As for Knapp, they like other RUSD schools have a badge swipe type of a system to get in the doors along with a buzzer at the front door. Again, doors are being left unlocked during school hours and one in particular is left unlocked because THE BADGE SWIPE DOES NOT WORK.

As I see it, it is damn time that our leaders in RUSD start to take school security and the safety of the students seriously. We have seen many referendums over the past few years from our "leaders" asking for OUR money. One in particular not so long ago was to upgrade security in our schools. From what I have seen, security has been upgraded to a point, but WHEN THE SYSTEM DOES'T WORK HOW DAMN GOOD IS IT?

I don't know exactly where I am going to go with this, but I can't just let it be anymore. Something has to be done and I am looking for suggestions, opinions and ideas from all of you.

Dark Skies Crusader: Episode I

I thought this would air in a couple of days but it showed up in my podcast feed today. Today's episode of the 365 Days of Astronomy features the premiere of the Dark Skies Crusader. The DSC rides around on his environmentally friendly bike helping citizens beat back the scourge of light pollution.

This episode tells you about Earth Hour, Dark Skies Week, and the International Night in Defense of Starlight. I will do a post on each of these events separately as they come up. In the meantime, enjoy the premiere episode and eagerly anticipate the DSC's next exciting adventure.

Reprinted with permission from the Half-Astrophysicist Blog.

Vietnam Wall

First click on a state. When it opens, scroll down to the city and the names will appear. Then click on their names. It should show you a picture of the person, or at least their bio and medals.

This really is an amazing web site. Someone spent a lot of time and effort to create it.

I hope that everyone who receives this appreciates what those who served in Vietnam sacrificed for our country.

The link below is a virtual wall of all those lost during the Vietnam war with the names, bio's and other information on our lost heroes. Those whore member that timeframe, or perhaps lost friends or family can look them upon this site. Pass the link on to others if you like.

Virtual Vietnam Wall