Countdown to the International Year of Astronomy: The Racine Connection

I have mentioned before that 2009 is the International Year of Astronomy to celebrate 400 years since Galileo's Observations. Yesterday, our local NBC station aired a piece on IYA and interviewed a couple of my colleagues (I did the set design...most of the props you see came from my office and I was sitting just off camera as this was filmed). You can watch the piece here.


You see Steve Pompea talk about the Galileoscope. This is where I am going to break a little news about your local Racine connections to this project (I am not revealing any big secrets here since all names are on the web!) One of the people heavily involved in the design is Dr. Arion from Carthage College. Merit Models of Racine is the manufacturing partner in the project. The goal of the Galileoscope is to produce a low cost telescope that would show you everything Galileo saw (and to tell you the truth, the optics are better than what Galileo had to work with). That includes seeing the phases of Venus, craters on the Moon, moons of Jupiter and the rings of Saturn. The telescope will have some tool free assembly required so you can see how it works as you assemble it (I can assemble it in under 2 miutes).

I took the prototype they show off home last week and imaged the Moon. I didn't use a tracking mount, so I just pointed it at the Moon and let the Moon drift across the field of view. You can see the results below.


And I did not use the best camera to take this video...just a cheap webcam. I will post more info as the production ramps up.

I will blog more about IYA as time goes on. Next big event is the US opening ceremony on Tuesday, January 6th the AAS meeting in Long Beach. I will be there live and you can watch the webcast of the event...I will post a link closer to the ceremony.

Music Industry Stops Suing Illegal Downloaders

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122966038836021137.html

According to the Wall Street Journal article above: "The decision represents an abrupt shift of strategy for the industry, which has opened legal proceedings against about 35,000 people since 2003. Critics say the legal offensive ultimately did little to stem the tide of illegally downloaded music. And it created a public-relations disaster for the industry, whose lawsuits targeted, among others, several single mothers, a dead person and a 13-year-old girl."

I assume that the lawyers are still trying to collect from the dead person . . .

World's Largest Gigapixel Photo

This one is really cool. You can pan left, right, up, down and zoom. It may take a moment or two base on you connection speed.



World's Largest Gigapixel Photo

The Physics of Santa

I know we have all seen variations on this over the year...so here is mine (yes, that is me narrating). In addition to the traditional classical physics interpretation of Santa, I go into the implications of applying the theory of quantum mechanics to his journey which just might keep St. Nick from meeting his untimely end on his journey...

JSOnline Weather Webcam

"Check out our traveling road web cam as the latest snowstorm wallops southern Wisconsin."

http://www.jsonline.com/news/milwaukee/35472924.html

Hubble Does it Again: Jupiter and Ganymede

The Hubble Space Telescope has again given us a spectacular video. This time it is a two hour sequence of Jupiter's largest Moon, Ganymede, disappearing behind the giant planet.



Jupiter rotates on its axis about once every 10 hours so you can see significant rotation during this time. Ganymede orbits the planet once every 7 days (as opposed to our Moon's 29 day period). Ganymede is also the largest moon in the solar system with a diameter of about 3200 miles, slightly larger than Mercury. Jupiter is about 88,000 miles in diameter!

That is what struck me about this movie...it gives a good sense of just how large Jupiter is. Ganymede might be considered a planet if it didn't orbit Jupiter. They are both the same distance away, so the difference in sizes is to scale (well, Ganymede it technically a LITTLE farther away, but only a small fraction of a percent...not enough to matter). Ganymede is large and bright enough that it would be visible to the naked eye...if it weren't so close to the much larger, brighter Jupiter.

Reprinted with permission from the Half-Astrophysicst Blog.

More Florida news

RIVIERA BEACH, Fla. - A man who was hit by a stray bullet in the back of the head is back at work _ with the slug still stuck in his skull. E.T. Strickland, 74, a commercial real estate seller, said the bullet hurts, but not enough to keep him from his job. Full story>>

I thought I would beat you guys to it...the real estate brokers down here are a tough lot!

Let's Get a Space Shuttle!

NASA is planning on retiring the Shuttle in 2010 after the ISS is finished. So what to do with them? Well NASA has just put out a request for information to organizations that would be interested in acquiring a Space Shuttle or one of its main engines for display. They are focuses at museums, but other educational institutions are eligible as well...hey, isn't THIS an educational institution? Who has a big backyard?

Of course this could change with the incoming Obama administration. Some people want to see the Shuttle keep flying until our next generation of launch vehicles is ready. Even if that happens, it just gives us a couple more years to plan, right?

Maybe we could pick it up when we get to Florida!

Christmas Shopping for Teenage GIRLS

I need your help. I have two teenage girls (eeeeek) coming down for Christmas...13 and almost 16. I have arranged for them to havae their hair cut, styled and colored and a manicure as their main gift. I would, however, like to get them a little something extra, like spend about $30/each....any suggestions from the Moms out there. Remember I am the famous Aunt B, so it must be cool.

Part of the problem is I am not too happy with some of the really revealing stuff out there for young girls.....I have been to Hollisters, Aerosphate (or whatever the world that one is) and some other joint that sounds like an ice cream sundae, as well as Dillards, and Macy's, Old Navy.

I guess I must remain
Clueless in Florida.

The "Other" site stirs up the hate... again

The newspaper has been covering the story about the LGBT center that was recently approved. Now, I'm not posting this to talk about right or wrong. But as a former (and now reformed) poster there, the first thing that struck me about their coverage was the BLATANT slant. Covering the story is one thing, posting a second story specifically to name who voted against it was a horrible break in journalistic impartiality. And I can see no reason other than to stir the pot and get... what we see in the comments section.

RACINE JOURNAL TIMES - you cannot expect readers and posters to play nice when you pull this s***. This story could easily have been condensed to two lines in your original story, but you chose to make your opinion known on the front page of your website and probably your paper.

Why don't you just change the headline to read "4 Homophobes Vote to Deny Rights to Gays." I think that's the whole purpose of your story. So much for not passing judgement.

Okay, I'm done venting at the class-less newspaper in Racine. I'll fade back to obscurity now.

"The scent of seduction with a hint of flame broiled meat"

http://www.firemeetsdesire.com/

A gift for someone who has everything: meat perfume.

Dear Madame Zoltar

Hello, my little snowbirds! How nice it is to visit with you again. Even in weather like this, the warmth of friendship radiates through.

Sorry to be posting so late in the day, but my last astral projection crossed paths with that weather system last night and I haven’t been the same since.

First, an email from Mr. Avenging Angel, who writes:

Dear Madame,

What are your predictions for the Irregulars in the year 2009?

Regards,
AA

Dear Mr. AA, what a thoughtful question. You are going to get something extra in your Christmas stocking this year.

I predict that the year 2009 will see the JT Irregulars reaching higher heights while also landing lower blows. If there was a Pulitzer Prize for irregularity, the JTI would win it. Scathing commentary on the local scene will combine with the best music videos online, powerful insights into the world of science, pointed references to national and international foibles, links to games and trivia, mystical online cross-country road trips, and various other assorted flotsam, jetsam and detritus. 2009 will be a banner year for the JT Irregulars. History will be made more than once in Racine, and the JTI will be in the thick of it. Hold onto your hats, ladies and gentlemen, because we’re in for a wild ride.

There were no other messages this week, but I realize that everyone is very busy with the holidays. In that vein, I present a video about Christmas which is very interesting. The logic is inescapable.



Thank you for stopping by this week. Don’t forget to send your questions and comments to: madamezoltar@jtirregulars.com.

Keep each other warm and be of good cheer. Merry Christmas everyone!

OK, people are nuts, or do I just attract them?? Is there some kind of repellant??

I'm having just the weirdest life at work.
Let me say, for those of you that haven't met me yet,
I'm a pretty laid back, happy person, try to be encouraging,
hate confrontation unless a serious line was crossed,
if I can help in any way, I do, been accused of being
TOO Pollyanna-ish...etc...

TODAY...
I held a large, metal ice scoop up to the nose of one of
my maintenance guys and threatened him.
OK, part of it was for the shock value and
to get thru his head I wasn't playing.

Here is how it all began...
Keep in mind we have fun at work, I'm not an ogre!
REALLY!!
We play around and kid each other, the whole crew.

About a week ago, my foot was acting up, and I was going to be
standing still for a couple hours. I asked that maintenance guy to
bring in my bar stool from my car while he was out going thru the lot.
He offered to have me sit on his lap.
His goofy grin verified he was kidding,
and just going for my reaction.
To which I punched his arm...

Yesterday, I told him I needed him to work in an area
he usually isn't, only for an hour.
He said "I love you but I can't, I'm sick" blah blah blah,
wait, WHAT did you say??
Again, his hysterical laughter tells me he's just yanking my chain,
So since he was too sick to do what I needed him too,
he got a couple much worse things to do,
I am manager, hear me roar! GRRR!
I'm too nice, they are not afraid of me :(
Tho, NOBODY likes to get a list from me...(insert evil laugh here..)

TODAY... he was in an overly punchy mood.
The day was rather calm and 'normal'. I went back into our grill,
and hear him trying to tell my grill girls that WE have a thing going,
for quite a while now...
OK, you can yank my chain only so far,
and this is not something I kid about.
I yelled at him after getting my face
back into it's original shape...
and I walk away, totally thrown for a loop.

10 minutes later, I was getting ice with said big ice scoop.
He comes around the corner where I am and I put the scoop up
to his nose and tell him in a tone I rarely use,
"If you keep up this nonsense,
I will call your wife and tell her we DO have something going"
to which he disappeared faster than Houdini, not to be seen again by me.
I think I got my point across. We'll see how he behaves tomorrow :)

If I were a lizard, that would have been an AWESOME
posturing and head bobbing show!

Am I the only one having one of THOSE weeks??

I know this was not sexual harrassment,
just his being stupid, to which he does quite well...

"Journal Times refines rules for online commenting and blogging"

The story: http://www.journaltimes.com/articles/2008/12/12/local_news/doc4942f60812532593818137.txt

The rules: http://www.journaltimes.com/about/rulesroad.php

I wonder what, if anything, will happen? I assume the hammer will come down, but will it stay down? What will the bloggers' reaction be? Stay tuned folks.

Bumped to top with updates; comments and new link added -- (kk)

Bumped again due to popularity, and the Journal Times story and comments on the LGBT Center. It will be interesting to see how they moderate this one. (Orbs)

Twin Wolves

Which one are you?

This is as good as I have ever heard it explained!

One evening an old Cherokee told his grandson about a battle that goes on inside all people.

He said, 'My son, the battle is between two 'wolves' inside us all.

One is Evil. It is anger, envy, jealousy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego.

The other is Good. It is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion and faith.'

The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather, 'Which wolf wins?'

The old Cherokee simply replied, 'The one you feed.'

Star Wars Episode 4.5: A Very Wookie Christms

One of the most atrocious television specials of all time aired exactly once in 1978: The Star Wars Holiday Special. Starring most of the cast of Star Wars (except for Alec Guiness who wisely dodged it), this unmitigated disaster has guest stars such as Bea Arthur, Art Carney, Harvey Korman, and a special guest appearance by Jefferson Starship.

The plot is simple: Han and Chewie are trying to get back to Chewie's home for Life Day, pursued by the Empire all the way. Chewie's family is hounded by stormtroopers while trying to get the meal together and the father watching what appears to be Wookie porn and his son watches cartoons starring Bobba Fett.

In the end, everyone gets home for the holidays and Princess Leia sings the Life Day song before Chewie and Hand go back to battle to get stranded on Hoth.

I remember watching it on televsion and I was in the prime young boy target audience at the time...and I thought it sucked. With my relatively undiscerning taste at the time, I still had no idea how much it REALLY sucked! Some things are so bad they are good...this went past that and back to being bad again.

For those with strong constitutions, the entire show is available on Google video.

Another Cool Christmas Tune

The latest from U2.I Believe in Father Christmas. Enjoy!

Beejay, Florida is NUTS!

Police : Armed burglars demand man's eggbeater.

TAMPA, Fla. - It really must have been a special item. According to the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office, two men entered a man's home early Sunday and demanded his eggbeater. One suspect was holding a pistol while the other brandished a knife to the resident's neck.

Police caught the men outside the home and they are being held in Orient Road jail. One suspect also faces a charge of aggravated assault.

Police found the eggbeater in the man's left pocket.

Information from : The Tampa Tribune

OK, I get that is high cookie baking season, did this guy break his wife's prized eggbeater or what??? An armed robbery for AN EGGBEATER?? Use a whisk and be done with it, honestly!
Beejay, no wonder you like to come up and visit us!! Being irregular sure seems quite 'normal' compared to these fine Floridian specimens, yikes!

Burglar Subdued by Ghost

Yeah, I know it sounds like a joke, but a story out of Malaysia says a man who broke into a house was repeatedly pushed down every time he tried to flee...for three days until the owners of the house came home to a hungry, dehydrated man (no word on if the ghost allowed him to use the bathroom).

Guess I can quit paying for that security monitoring service and just put up signs, "Warning: This House Protected By Ghost".

Senatorial Qualifications

Ok, I'm sure Caroline is a nice person and is from a political family, but should she be given a Senate seat based solely on her last name? Yes, it's up to the people of New York State, but, c'mon, is she qualified, really?

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2008/12/15/report-caroline-kennedy-seek-clintons-senate-seat/

"Hedge fund body wants help for Madoff victims"

http://www.reuters.com/article/governmentFilingsNews/idUSLF6597520081215

Bernard Madoff is the hedge fund manager who was arrested last week for running a $50 billion Ponzi scheme that defrauded some of the world's savviest investors. Hedge fund managers are the guys who took the worthless mortgages issued by Freddie and Fannie, repackaged them, then resold them as secure investments. They made billions of dollars in "profits" doing this. Of course, the whole thing collapsed into the smoldering heap that is currently our economy.

So now the Alternative Investment Management Association, a hedge fund trade association, is calling for "restitution" to Madoff's victims: mostly wealthy individuals, institutions, and banks. NOTE: they are not calling upon their own membership to make that restitution. I assume they expect taxpayers to pick up the tab for this fiasco, too.

Personally, I think that maybe taking someone like Madoff out into a public arena and putting a bullet into his brain would send the proper message to the rest of these weasels. Of course, we are civilized, so that won't happen. Instead, working people will be forced to pick up the tab for greedy, selfish pigs. Families struggling to make ends meet for their children will pay for these and other crimes. Inflicting economic violence upon the lowest class of performers in our economy is the "civilized" way to do it. Only in the USA can you become an envied multimillionaire by screwing thousands out of their savings, and then making thousands others pay for it.

Iraqi reporter throws shoes at Bush, becomes instant celebrity

http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSTRE4BE28Q20081215

"Zaidi shouted 'this is a goodbye kiss from the Iraqi people, dog,' at Bush in a news conference he held with Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki during a farewell visit to Baghdad on Sunday.

"The journalist then flung one shoe at Bush, forcing him to duck, followed by another, which sailed over Bush's head and slammed into the wall behind him. Throwing shoes at someone is the worst possible insult in the Arab world.

"Zaidi was dragged struggling and screaming from the room by security guards and could be heard shouting outside while the news conference continued after momentary mayhem."

Wtf? Where was the Secret Service while the president was ducking shoes? Maybe our troops there should be shooting shoes at the enemy instead of bullets.

THIS IS A NO POST........

Tonight I received seven text messages...jokes. They where sooooo naughty I just couldn't bring myself to posting any.

So, this is a no post, post!

Not a hitching post, or post magazine, fence post or mail box post, or even a box of post toasties. Just a plain no post......so I won't even have to take this to the post office.

Are there anyother types of posts??

Is There a Lull in the "War on Christmas?"

They always say to open with a joke, so I present Toby Keith's "The War on Christmas" from Stephen Colbert's Christmas special.

The Colbert ReportMon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c

A Colbert Christmas: Toby Keith Sings

Colbert at Christmas
Colbert Christmas DVD

Green Screen
Bill O'Reilly Interview

I just have not noticed the same level of "War on Christmas" rhetoric this year as the last couple and was curious about that. I am sure the little skirmishes the O'Reilly and his fellow commentators like exploiting are still occurring, but they just aren't getting the same coverage this year.

There are a few possible explanations, but I honestly don't know which it is. I don't listen to or watch conservative talk shows, so maybe they are still railing as much as always but the MSM is not picking it up as much. Another possibility is that the economic mess and the incoming Obama administration has given them something else to complain about this year.

So what' the status? Am I just missing it or has the country moved on to different fights this year?

Lost Video That Should Have Stayed Lost*: Frotsy the Coalman: Wrong on Many Levels

Witness the desecration of a cherished childhood song by the coal industry.




*With apologies to Stu, who actually posts good videos.

Scientists extract images directly from brain

http://www.pinktentacle.com/2008/12/scientists-extract-images-directly-from-brain/

Soon they will making movies of our dreams. Mine will be shown only on the B-movie circuit.

Were You On Any of These Flights?

The Zurich School of Applied Sciences has been playing with airplane flights and mapping them. The resulting animation below shows every flight in the world over 24 hours...condensed to 72 seconds.




The patterns are interesting. You can see flight frequency decrease at night...the eastbound red eye flights. Many of the international routes are also clearly visible.

Not very practical, but pretty cool I thought.

Do You Enjoy The Holidays?

I run hot and cold on this. There are aspects that I like. And there are aspects that I dread. I more or less walked away from religion as a young man. My family was small, but I married into a larger one that had strong Christmas traditions concerning family gatherings. I’m not very social, but they drank pretty heavily, so I didn’t mind as long as I could get drunk. After my marriage was kaput and I finally sobered up, the holidays were a kind of hollow time. At some point, I made a decision to “take back” Christmas and get into the spirit of it. Admittedly, it appears to be only the secular spirit, but I may be a little more spiritual than you think.

Magazine Ads from the 30's thru the 60"s

I'm sure the medical profession agrees with most of these today....ya right!

I'm falling apart!! Can I hibernate now??? Please???

Gee, it just keeps getting better!
1st the eyes went thanks to many years on high dose prednisone.
Double cataract surgery by age 36.
Eyes go bonkers again, under care of Froedtert and
wear a contact besides my glasses...
OK, I can see, this isn't so bad.

Then I got the boot. Remember the boot?
Heel spur surgery in October. That's all better now :)
Today, I got a new foot brace, for the OTHER foot...
I am part of a 10% 'elite' group of oddballs that have
a spare, small bone in the side of my foot.
I made mine mad and it's causing the tendon to be really ticked off.
I'm hobbling again. My asthma, thanks to the cold, is bad again...
and my mind is turning to mush with the early hours I get up...

Calgon take me away!!

(or at least somebody shoot me with a strong
tranquilizer dart and wake me in the spring!!)

Here is a new kind of open blog,
vent, whine, do whatever it takes
to make yourself feel better to end the week well!!

(I know, unconventional way to get ready for the weekend -
quite IRREGULAR I do believe!!)

Prop 8: The Musical

Can't resist posting this one...

"Prop 8 - The Musical" starring Jack Black, John C. Reilly, and many more... by Jack Black

My, What a Big Moon We Have

Friday the 12th not only marks the last full Moon of 2008, but also the largest and brightest. The Moon's orbit around the Earth isn't a perfect circle, but rather an ellipse. It's distance from the Earth varies by about 30,000 miles from its closest approach to farthest point in its orbit. That's about 14%, so the Moon does look a little bit larger when it is closer to the Earth. The image below from the NASA press release illustrates this nicely.
The two images were taken with the same camera and same magnification. Therefore, the difference in sizes is due to the Moon's distance!

In reality, it is kind of hard to see the difference without a camera. The problem is that there just isn't much in the sky to compare the size of the Moon to. And even though the Moon appears larger in the sky than almost any other object, it still is only about half the size of your pinky at arms length (try it if you don't believe me!) Seeing a 14% change in an object that size is not easy to do with the naked eye.

However, you can do it with many off the shelf digital cameras. Take a picture of the full Moon tomorrow night. Take another picture in a few months and compare them (be sure to use the same zoom setting!) and you should be able to see the difference.

Reprinted with permission from the Half-Astrophysicist Blog.

Obama Nominates a NOBEL PRIZE WINNING SCIENTIST for the Secreatry of Energy

Reports are the Obama will nominate Nobel Prize Winning physicist Steven Chu to be Secretary of Energy. Chu is currently the director of Lawrence Berkeley National Labs, a large Department of Energy lab that is a leader in alternative energy.

I mean, wow! What a change from the indifference (at best) to the hostility (at worst) toward sciecne we have had for the last 8 years. His scientific creds are impeccable...he won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1997 which is about as high of a science award as they get. He also knows his energy from solar to wind to clean coal to nuclear and yes, even oil, and has written about the advantages and disadvantages of each.

Some are criticizing his lack of political experience. Running a huge lab with thousands of international collaborators definitely involves managing politics! In his position, he works with national governments around the world coordinating research projects. It may not be the traditional Washington experience, but he definitely knows something about politics (and I find it odd that the same people who criticized Obama for naming too many people who served with Clinton also criticize the first time he names a true Washington outsider, but that's another story!)

I am sure he has to learn a little about Washington politics and hope he gets a couple of seaoned assistants to help him out. At least no one will need to talk down to him when explaining the science!

Reprinted with permission from the Half-Astrophysicst Blog.

Bailout of Detroit

While congress is debating the bailout of Detroit, consider this video!


I couldn't resist adding this "Ad".................

It's hard to read, this is what the caption on the bottom says........

You probably thought it was smart to buy a foreign import of superior quality, with better mileage and resale value. Maybe you even thought that years of market share loss might prod us into rethinking our process and redesigning our products with better quality in mind. But you forgot one thing; We spend a shitload of money on lobbyist. So now you’re out $25 billion, plus the cost of your Subaru. Maybe nest time you’ll buy American like a real man. Either way, we’re cool.

We're the Big Three. We don't need to compete.

For Cyndi

For Cyndi, my in-kind deadhead sister (you and I most likely passed each other at AV in the 80's and at the reunion in 2003): Fire on the Mountain, Radio City, 10/31/80. My 2nd favorite Fire after Dick Picks 18, disk three. Have you ever checked out the GD archive? Tons of uploaded taped shows, some you can even download, all free and legal and stuff. http://www.archive.org/details/GratefulDead

Dear Madame Zoltar

Hello, my turtle doves! Sneezin’s Greetings. May the spirit of Christmas warm the cockles of your hearts.

This week’s column starts with an email from the splendiferous kkdither, who writes:

Best wishes Mme...

I have recently run into some slimy charlatans with highly questionable (criminal) business practices. Do you ever dabble on the dark side? Can you share some incantations or recipes for a brew to counter or retaliate their evil assaults?

Your humble follower,
kkdither

Dear Ms. kk, it would be indelicate of me to admit publicly to such shenanigans, but I can assure you that I am not completely unfamiliar with the less savory aspects of my calling. I am emailing you a current price list of the curses, hexes, and jinxes that I offer. Please note my holiday special: buy 2 curses, or 2 hexes, or one of each, and receive a free jinx. Limit one free jinx per customer, please.

For those of you more inclined toward traditional methods of retaliation, I can suggest a few websites. Try ThePayback.com for all sorts of ideas. There is a RevengeLady.com and a RevengeGuy.com, too. And for the absolute bottom of the barrel, there is RevengeCrabs.com. Ewww!

Our second message today comes from Avenging Angel, who writes:

Dear Madame,

What's on your Christmas wish list this season?

Regards,
AA

Dear Mr. AA, thank you so much for inquiring. How thoughtful of you. Just for that, I’m going to have a little chat with my friend Mr. Claus about you.

Like everyone else, I can think of more than a few things that I would like to have, but the fact is that I lack none of the necessities of life. With the hard economic times that have befallen us, though, there are others who can no longer make that claim. My Christmas wish this year is for blessings upon all those who have lost their livelihoods through no fault of their own. May the spirit of the season carry them into a new year filled with opportunity and hope.

Finally, my ex landed a spot in a commercial. Of course, he gives the wrong advice, just like in real life...



Don't forget to keep those cards and letters coming to: madamezoltar@jtirregulars.com.

See you next week, sweethearts. Esperanto!

Im in a jam band kind of mood

One thing I am looking forward to in 2009 is the reunion of Phish. Us dead heads think of Phish as the little brother to the Grateful Dead, and I for one will be heading to "the Valley" to see this show. If only I could go back to the 82-89 Dead shows at Alpine and do them again... Less beer and mother nature and more surroundings and people watching. Ahhh to be young again...


Anyway, please enjoy for your mellowing, jamming, spin dancing late night pleasure: Slave To the Traffic Light, by Phish.

Friday Nights Lost Video - Tuesday Christmas Song Edition

IF you guys dont mind, I would like to pull out some "different" Christmas songs in the veins of the Friday Video segment, starting with this one.

The Waitresses - Christmas Wrapping

The song is as much about a harried lifestyle and trying to make connections as it is about Christmas.

As talk-sung - almost rapped - by late lead singer Patty Donahue, this song depicts a hard-working single girl who resolves to sit Christmas out one year. This, as she laments her repeated and unsuccessful attempts to reconnect with a guy she met by chance the previous winter. But just as in A Christmas Carol and It's a Wonderful Life, a twist of fate and a little magical intervention restore our heroine's belief in the Christmas spirit, after all.


There is not an official video for this 1981 classic, but someone more savy than me pieced this together with some anime, and made it pretty cool. Enjoy!

Blago's song

I just thought of this, sung to the tune of that old song "King of the Road":

Senate seat: Sale or Rent
How about you, Fifty Cent?
No, it goes to Jackson Jr.
Gimme the dough!

Got to get my monee
It is worth it, Don't you see?
Don't you want to be in Congress?
Gimme the dough!

I'm the Gov of Illinois
Let me tell ya what's in store
I'll be gone for quite a long time
I took the dough!

I know I've been absent, but I have a real good reason

Even though Im not posting as much (And yes, the Friday video's are coming back this week!) There is a good reason:
__________________________________________________________________
Press Release

Sturtevant resident Chris Larsen, is running to be your voice on the Sturtevant village board.

Sturtevant is a growing and vibrant community that is trying to maintain it’s small town feel while competing in the 21st century. My goal is to make sure that happens. We need to ensure that Sturtevant will remain a destination for business and job growth while preserving the neighborhood feel one gets walking the village, or attending a festival.

People here have strong feelings and long planted roots. In talking to people around the village, they expressed that the village needs to keep taxes as low as possible while providing the services they have come to expect. They also expressed that Sturtevant needs to remain an independent village. They don’t want us to become Racine west, or an extension of Mt. Pleasant.

While I have only been a village resident since 2005, I have fully immersed myself in the history of our village, and will use that history to shape the future of Sturtevant.

There are challenges forthcoming in the next two years and I pledge to listen to the people of Sturtevant and make decisions based on what is best for the future of the village. I want to offer new ideas for addressing the issues Sturtevant faces. My vision for Sturtevant is to be a place where you would want to raise a family and a place that is attractive to new business of all sizes. I am very excited about the opportunity to serve the citizens, residents, taxpayers, businesses, and employees of our community. I would appreciate your support on April 7, 2009 and am asking for your vote.

Please stay tuned to http://larsenforsturtevant.wordpress.com for campaign updates.
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So I figured it's time to be part of the solution (or is it part of the problem?!?) and serve. This should be interesting! Im open to any ideas (or donations!) you guys have.

It's About Time!

From Chicago today:



http://www.chicagobreakingnews.com/2008/12/us-attorney-fitzgerald-press-conference-blagojevich.html



All I can say is, "About damn time!" It's too bad businesses in Illinois have had to put up with this weasel at all. As someone close to me said today, "Dude is more corrupt than Tom Delay, Ted Stevens, William Jefferson, and Michael Mcgee combined." I don't know that anyone could be MORE corrupt than McGee alone, but I do know that what Blago has done with his "powers" are sickening. It's a real shame when an elected official represents his people in this manner.



I can hardly wait until the day that the headlines in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel read, "Doyle Dumped".

*This just in, looks like Mrs. Blago may not be too far behind her hubby.

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2008/12/09/illinois-lady-prominent-fbi-affidavit-charging-governor/

Remembering John Lennon

Twenty-Eight years ago today passed away one of the greatest musicians the world has ever known,John Lennon. We all know John for being an accomplished singer,songwriter,and musician. He also tried to bring peace into this world. I loved his music with the Beatles as well as his solo career. He may be gone,but his words and music are not forgotten. Here's one of my favorites...Imagine. Enjoy!

This is Your Brain...The is Your Brain on "Brain Steroids"

We all know about well know sports figures being busted for taking performance enhancing drugs. But what about the college kid who scores some Ritalin to help him do better on a big test?

Right now it is illegal, of course. You are not (legally) allowed to take these drugs without a doctor's prescription. Some substances, such as caffeine are legal and we know that students routinely have very high blood caffeine content!

Yesterday in the journal Nature, a team led by Henry Greely of the Stanford Law School published a piece titled, "Towards responsible use of cognitive-enhancing drugs by the healthy". Their thesis is that we can and should responsibly use drugs with low risks to side effects to improve our mental abilities.

"The drugs just reviewed, along with newer technologies such as brain stimulation and prosthetic brain chips, should be viewed in the same general category as education, good health habits, and information technology — ways that our uniquely innovative species tries to improve itself."

You can read all their arguments. They reject arguments against congnitive enhancement as long as the drugs pass muster on the safety side.

I have mixed feelings on this one. We are looking at using drugs in normal healthy people. Frequently drugs can obtain FDA approval and end up having undesirable long term side effects that don't show up in the approval process. If the drugs are used to treat a debilitating disease, the risk of the side effects may justify the use of the drugs. Can the same be said in healthy individuals looking for a little extra advantage?


Reprinted with permission from the Half-Astrophysicist Blog.

"Train death triggered insensitive comments"

From the Journal Times:

"Earlier this week The Journal Times covered the tragic suicide death of Benjamin Scharding, a Prairie School sophomore who was hit by a train near his home. The story was posted to our web site and over the next three days drew several dozen comments. Some of the comments offered condolences to the family and friends and had kind words to say about Ben and his talents. But many comments were insensitive to Ben’s memory, his family and his classmates. Our editors deleted several comments from the web site, but comments in that vein continued and we began reviewing whether the story and comments should remain up on our web site.

"On Friday morning We removed the comments from our web site and we are sorry that we did not do it sooner. We apologize to Ben’s family and classmates for allowing some of the coarse and insensitive comments."

http://www.journaltimes.com/articles/2008/12/08/opinion/doc493d63a771707187213821.txt


The above was in yesterday's print edition of the Journal Times, but I didn't see it until this morning. I saw the story on the suicide last week and read it, but didn't read the comments. I mean, what's there to say?

After reading the above, I checked the Journal Times blog section (it has changed) to see if anything was posted on the subject. I found the following, apparently posted by another reader/commenter: http://my.journaltimes.com/post/GinaB/blog/warning_this_blog_is_about_the_events_surrounding_the_recen.html. What I still don't see, though, is any attempt by the Journal Times to communicate with its bloggers. Why don't they just ask people why they leave rude and insensitive comments? They just might learn something. Instead, they continue with the wizard-behind-the-curtain act, issuing proclamations and denunciations like they exist in some sort of bubble above the fray of day-to-day life in Racine. Indeed, that's been their problem all along.

I'm not making excuses for cowardly comments left on a story about a tragedy. But if the Journal Times is going to continue to allow comments on their website, they are going to have to deal with the web's fundamental and fierce democracy - some might even call it anarchy. I know it's not pretty; reality often isn't. However, I'd much rather deal with reality than fog my brain with a dream world of the Journal Times' making. I live and breathe in the real Racine, Wisconsin, not Lee Enterprises' version of it.

Are Your Kids "Hacking" Google?

If you have a child under 18, the answer almost certainly is yes from a legal standpoint.

Okay, let me back up for a minute. Longtime readers know that I am an NPR junkie. I was listening to the NPR show On the Media today. They covered the recent Lori Drew trial. Lori Drew is better known at the Myspace Mom who created a fake profile, communicated with a 13 year old girl, sent a nasty break up message leading the girl to commit suicide. Drew was recently convicted of three counts...of illegally accessing a computer...i.e. hacking. The prosecution's case rested on the fact that she violated Myspace's terms of service, therefore, she "hacked" the system.

How many people read terms of service? Google's terms of service state that you may not use the service if you are not of legal age to enter into a contract (18 in most states....see section 2.3). So if you want to play it safe, better keep your kids from using Google and we had better block it from schools since almost all students (save some seniors) are under 18.

Just for giggles, I decided to check out the JT's terms of service. Go ahead and read them to see how well they are enforced. Oh, and did you know that they claim intellectual property rights over everything posted there? They also prohibit reposting of copyrighted works (also known as the great cut and paste of articles) and you also may not "Use the Site to upload, post, email, transmit or otherwise make available content that is harmful to minors in any way, or that is harassing, harmful , threatening, abusive, vulgar, obscene, defamatory, libelous, hateful , or racially, ethnically or otherwise objectionable. "

In other words, a zealous prosecutor could have a field day going into those forums and charging people left and right with hacking! This strategy is becoming more common and could very easily be abused. I could put all kinds of ridiculous items in terms of service and then go after anyone I didn't like who violated them!

This is not a defense of Lori Drew at all...but I bet the legal theory she was convicted with could be used against virtually ANY internet user on the planet.

Rockin' Christmas Song

Who wouldv'e thunk Lynyrd Skynyrd made Christmas music? This song rocks! Enjoy!

Dizz Knee Land

This song has been in my head for last few days. The song,it seems,the sign of the times. Big companys getting bailed out by the goverment,people who are not taking responsibility for their actions, and then putting the blame on others.

This song is done by the band called da da. It can be found on their 1992 release,Puzzle. This is their website.

"I'm getting bailed out again,I'm going to Dizz Knee Land" Enjoy!

Beware the Ugandan Boobie Trap

According to the Telegraph, police in Uganada are warning men to be aware of women in skimpy outfits. Men have been waking up with all the possessions stolen, even their clothes The story goes that women are putting a chemical believed to be chloroform on their chests. When men go in for a good motorboat, they get knocked out. That's when the criminals do their dirty work.

And I cannot possibly add any funny comment to this...

"The most beautifully decorated tree in Racine"

http://news.racinepost.com/2008/12/most-beautifully-decorated-tree-in.html

A friend of mine, John Nowicki, decorated this tree. He is an exceptional artist. His watercolors are stunning. You can see some of his work on display at Salute Italian Restaurant in downtown Racine.

Grrrr.......!

Even girls can beat me.

:(