Larry Miller Explains the Economy...."we'll take the red one..."

It's a good thing this is so funny, because it's sadly true.

Haunting....

Here's the last time Stevie Ray Vaughn played his tribute to Jimi Hendrix's "Voodoo Chile".

Alpine Valley Music Theater East Troy WI, August 26, 1990.

Yes, it's a bootleg, but listen about four minutes in and you will hear the sounds of a guitar player that knows he's playing on borrowed time....

Sweet Music...

For my buds Brad and Erin at Carma Performance Engineering in Nashville-


Once I win that lottery I'm bringing in one of these babies to play with....

Happy 200th Charles Darwin!

Last night my friend Fin and I were discussing the genius that was Charles Darwin, and how utterly amazing it is that he was able to visualize such an advanced theory as evolution and natural selection without the aid of modern technology. What's even better about this is that modern technology has been used to further solidify and validate the theory of evolution in ways that Darwin could only dream about.


First, a birthday salute video from some of Darwins greatest admirers-




And here is the excellent program by NOVA about the final nail in the coffin of "intelligent design" versus the establishment clause of our constitution, Kitzmiller Vs. Dover....




Happy Birthday Charles, and thanks!

Isn't that weird?

That our current president writes an editorial that is exclusively published by one particular newspaper?

Granted it's all hopeychangey and whatnot, but still......I'm half intrigued, because the president should be a guy that wants to duke it out intellectually across a major news media sounding board.


But I don't trust exclusivity to one sounding board. He shouldn't be afraid to defend those viewpoints on each major platform. And it troubles me that this doesn't seem to bother anyone.

Jay Pinkerton takes on Saddam

......this is the internet, right?

And I can just post whatever here on blogger in tribute to the author of said whatever, right?

Like limewire for internet humor right? Or something?

Anyways.......here's an oldie but goodie....

"Husseins Big Day" by Jay Pinkerton

"a significant infringement on individual choice and liberty."

And this is happening in Boston, my hometown, the birthplace of the revolution against taxation without representation?

Technically the last day to sign up for insurance in compliance with that mandate was November 15, though as a practical measure Massachusetts residents actually had until January 1, 2008. Those without insurance as of that date will lose their personal exemption for the state income tax when they file this spring. In 2009, the penalty will increase to 50 percent of the cost of a standard insurance policy.

Such a mandate was, of course, a significant infringement on individual choice and liberty. As the Congressional Budget Office noted, the mandate was "unprecedented," and represented the first time that a state has required that an individual, simply because they live in a state and for no other reason, must purchase a specific government- designated product.

It was also a failure.

There was a moment during the presidential debates when Obama and McCain were asked if healthcare was a "right" as an American whether they consider health care to be a commodity, a right, or something else.

Obama thought it was a right, McCain referred to it as a responsibility.


Your "rights" as an American are clearly detailed in the aptly named "Bill Of Rights". Those rights include things that government can take away such as; speech, guns, legal representation via due process, private property and rights solely vested in each state. And more specifically, the Bill of Rights guarantees what about these precious commodities the government CAN'T TAKE AWAY.

None of them include anything about what a Government should GIVE you. Our current president believes that healthcare is a right, and this is in direct contradiction of what our Bill of Rights clearly lays forward.


And he's the one with the Harvard Law degree.

I ask you, who is interpreting the constitution more accurately: one who agrees that healthcare is a responsibility or the one who thinks it is a right?

Gonna be a rough four years I imagine.

James Randi Is Not Here To Bless You

But at 80 years old, he will give you a mental perspective that will supersede your spiritual desires. Randi discusses the illogical rationalization that some of the survivors of the recent Hudson River place crash describe and then extends the perspective to the dull reality that is our existence.





Humility in existence is an advantage if one wants to appreciate the possibilities.

This Himalayan Salt Rock Is Pretty Damn Cool

So I was on vacation this week and my friends and I went to Gatlinburg and rented a cabin. The cabin itself was also pretty damn cool, and it had an amazing kitchen which made for great tapas-style dinners. You can go here to see the cabin we stayed in -Mountain View Lodge. What appears to have been the highlight from the trip was the Christmas gift I received from my sister, a Himalayan salt rock. We were all blown away how delectable different foods were when seared on the 500 degree rock. The prep for it is easy as ever; throw the rock in the oven at 500 degrees for around 20 minutes, and then put it on the stove while you sear whatever foods you decide to cook.



We tried some flank steak, salmon, mahi-mahi, shrimp, and also seared a full ribeye steak on the rock for flavoring before putting it in the oven. Everything was delicious, and the salt flavor from he rock takes care of the seasoning so you don't need to do much to the food before cooking it. We did use a little roasted garlic rub for the salmon, which turned out great.

So thanks again to my sis for a neat present, and try this thing out when you get a chance, you won't be disappointed.

This one hurts.

It's been a great season to be a Titans fan and I thank Coach Fisher and the Team for putting together a great team that had the makings of a legitimate Super Bowl contender. This loss will sting for a while because we didn't get beat in any category but turnovers, and that was the difference in the game.

I have zero doubt that next year this team will be right back in the thick of things ready to compete for another shot at the title. Until then, we salute the Titans for a great year and look forward to next.....

Explorer | Moment of Death | National Geographic Channel

Last night I watched a show on the National Geographic Channel that was by far one of the most fascinating examinations of the mysteries behind death itself. Probably the most interesting aspect of the show is the way they examined the aspects of mortality that cannot be explained in a scientific hypothesis, particularly the testimonies of people who have out-of-body experiences during their coma/death/near-death episodes.



Dr. Lance Becker of the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania is trying to help cardiac arrest patients cheat death by using hypothermia, or cooling of the body, to slow down the process of cell death.

Explorer | Moment of Death | National Geographic Channel

""

Explorer opens your eyes to riveting, untold adventures with host Lisa Ling.

View >>

One might say morbidly fascinating?

The B612 Foundation Works With JPL To Answer The Question:

Can we stop an asteroid from causing irreparable damage to planet earth using a Gravity Tractor?




The folks at the B612 Foundation have hired the Jet Propulsion Laboratory to use their advanced computer simulations to determine if a gravity tractor can significantly alter the course of a medium size asteroid enough so that it misses the "keyhole" -the "small region slightly further from the Earth than the resonance line per se, which would, should the asteroid pass through it result in an impact at the time of the resonant return."

Take it away B612:

B612 Foundation
760 Fifth Street East
Sonoma, CA 95476
707-343-1627
24 September, 2008
Summary Statement by B612 Foundation regarding its contract with JPL to conduct a detailed performance analysis of a transponder equipped Gravity Tractor spacecraft.
A successful NEO deflection campaign will involve several key functional elements, including the ability to, in situ, precisely determine the orbit of a threatening NEO prior to and post deflection, and to precisely adjust the NEO’s orbit to assure its successful passage between return keyholes at the time of its closest approach to Earth. B612’s contract with JPL called on it to quantify these two critical capabilities. The analysis verified the viability of the transponder-Gravity Tractor (t-GT) spacecraft to perform these critical deflection functions. A full report of this work is now available on the B612 website at http://www.b612foundation.org/press/press.html, #18.

The full report from JPL is available here, and here are some highlights from their conclusions:

1.5 Study Conclusions

1. This study has shown that a relatively simple and robust thrust control law can keep a gravity tractor spacecraft in close proximity to the station-keeping location required to effectively tow an irregularly shaped, rotating near-Earth asteroid. For our test case, the spacecraft could be kept within a 20 x 50 x 50 meter box at a nominal distance of 155 meters from the asteroid’s center-of-mass for a total translational ΔV monthly cost of 40 - 45 m/s with a corresponding monthly fuel consumption of only ~ 1.4 kg.
16. A gravity tractor could be useful for the possible case in which a primary deflection technique such as a kinetic impactor happens to move the asteroid trajectory into a keyhole; the gravity tractor could shift the asteroid’s trajectory enough to miss a secondary impact keyhole. At the same time, tracking of the gravity tractor spacecraft could provide precision orbit information for the asteroid before and after the primary deflection attempt and after the gravity tractor trim maneuver.
17. While the gravity tractor in our simulation example was a viable method for towing the asteroid away from the 2049 keyhole, and hence avoiding a 2054 Earth collision, there might be other impacting scenarios for which it would not be viable. Each threat scenario would have to be analyzed individually to determine whether a gravity tractor could be used to move an asteroid trajectory away from a keyhole.

Additional general study conclusions include the following:

• The most threatening NEAs are those on Earth similar orbits.
• Simulations show that most actual Earth impactor discoveries surpass 99% impact probability very early in the second optical apparition – or after optical and radar data are obtained during the discovery apparition.
• The primary deflection techniques (e.g., kinetic energy impactor) provide relatively uncertain amounts of deflection (e.g., the momentum multiplier β is unknown)
• Secondary impact possibilities (keyholes) must be carefully examined for each specific case.
• Determining potential keyholes during Earth encounters and determining optimal times for tractoring to avoid a keyhole passage requires fully perturbed, non-linear numerical analysis (two-body analyses do not suffice).
• The combination of radiometric tracking of a nearby spacecraft with optical imaging of the asteroid from the spacecraft is sufficient to significantly improve knowledge of an asteroid’s orbit. It is not necessary to place a transponder on the surface of the asteroid to achieve precise asteroid tracking.
• The asteroid orbit accuracy improvements provided by the spacecraft range from factors of 2 to 5 over the knowledge which can be obtained using only Earth-based observations of the asteroid. The size of the improvement is dependent on the relative viewing geometry and hence the time period over which the spacecraft is tracked.
• The amount of time it takes to realize these improvements in the knowledge of the asteroid’s ephemeris is measured in days to weeks. A spacecraft need not be in place for months or years for the improvements to take place.
• A close flyby, such as the one that occurs in 2046 for this scenario can magnify the asteroid’s position uncertainty for subsequent flybys by a large factor.

In review, it appears that we have the technology available to prevent a catastrophic impact provided we have the time to track and analyze the threat years before potential impact. What this should emphasize more is the reality that the kinetic energy that will be necessary to prevent an immediate impact -say, a threat that will hit in a year or less- is not available or even being considered at the present time. And more disturbing is the fact that this is not a bigger part of the budget at NASA.

I'm afraid that when this does become an issue, the time we've lost engineering a solution to this problem will become insurmountable. JPL and the B612 Foundation make me a little less concerned, but we still need to be aware of our shortcomings.

"Stupidity Is Not Necessarily Unconstitutional"

So says Judge John E. Jones III, the George W. Bush appointee who presided over the 2005 Intelligent design trial, Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District in Dover, Pennsylvania. This was the trial that essentially sunk any chance of allowing creationism to be taught as an alternative to evolution in public school science classes from a constitutional standpoint.

Via Charles Johnson at LGF, here's a neat video of a presentation and Q & A session with Judge Jones at Case Western University. His main point throughout is the sorry state of civics education in the public realm, and that he hopes trials like this will remind people about the elegant genius that is our US Constitution.

Also, be careful who you elect to your school board.

The Tennessee Titans Meet Their First Goal of the 2008 Season

Jeff Fisher, in his usual no nonsense manner, explained what that was at yesterdays postgame press conference after the Titans waxing of the Cleveland Browns to clinch the AFC South title:

"It's a rewarding feeling; our goal was to -when we left the playoff game in San Diego [last season] the day we came back was to have a home playoff game here, this year. That was our first goal, first and foremost. We have now guaranteed that. So now we move on to the next step."

One of the things I like about this Titans team this year is that they have the mentality of the underdog, the disrespected, the backwoods nobodies, the chip on the shoulder that many championship teams have taken all the way to the top. Take the NY Giants last year. They were given zero chance to beat the 18-0 (at the time) Patriots in the super bowl, but they pulled it out. The Red Sox and Patriot teams from the last few years have changed from that scrappy underdog in to the team people are tired of seeing win all the time.


I've watched the Titans since they arrived in Nashville, and I was recently reviewing an old preview post from the year they finally blew up the Super Bowl team cap space and the resulting damage was a 4-12 season.

Titans still look to make another run next year. McNair appears to be ready to rock- his annual off season surgery appears to have gone well. I can't imagine why he would appear in the NFL "Annie-Tomorrow" commercial if he didn't plan on returning. And we still have some young guns upcoming in Chris Brown, Tory Fleming and Ben Troupe. Add in the offensive genius of one Norm Chow, former offensive coordinator for the USC Trojans, as well as Ray Sherman as the new Wide Receivers coach, and all certainly does not appear lost. On the defensive side, check out this interview with Jim Schwartz, the defensive co-ordinator who after a 5-11 season last year seems pretty fired up about the upcoming one.

Yep. My enthusiasm that year was not exactly justified. The 4-12 year, that was rock bottom. Consider the price paid. Minus about three guys from that squad we give you your 2008 Titans. It's pretty much an entirely rebuilt team around franchise guys like Haynesworth and Bulluck.

Despite being second in scoring in the AFC, this Titans team won't exactly light up the highlight real. There are however, several very good reasons they have only lost ONE GAME ALL SEASON. And I believe that we will continue to see more reasons as they progress. But for now, I'll take 12-1 and the AFC South title for a guaranteed home playoff game.


TITANS!!!!

Fireball Meteor Caught On Tape

Edmonton had a nice fireworks show courtesy of the Universe on Thursday night-







The remains of the fireball are currently being searched for around Edmonton. They have estimated that this weighed about one to seven tons before it entered the Earth's atmosphere, and was five times as bright as a full moon. And after all of that there are only going to be softball sized pieces left of the rock itself.

And of course, now is the time when I link to The B612 PROJECT FOUNDATION.

Thanks To Those Who Served

Yes, I realize this isn't official by any means, but today there are a bunch of us like-minded bloggers who want to take this opportunity thank those who served in the US Military for their service in Iraq and the success they have achieved.

In particular, I also want to thank afew friends of mine personally Hagan, Erin, and Dave. You guys are the real deal and you deserve a day of honor for your service.

Thanks to all who served, and may this day mark a new direction for the hopes of Iraqi's and the rest of the world!

Yes, It Needs To Be Said.......

Victory In Iraq Day will be November 22, 2008.


The US Armed Forces ONCE AGAIN proved to be the single most liberating military force known to human history. In a little over five years the US and Coalition forces removed this scumbag from power:




So he could no longer do this:





And so he could no longer support Islamic terrorists who do things like this:

Kurdish Paper: Cooperation Between Saddam Regime, Al-Qaeda

The Kurdish daily Kurdistani Nwe has published a 2002 letter from the Iraqi presidency that it says proves that there was cooperation between the regime of Saddam Hussein and Al-Qaeda.

The letter, which appeared on the paper's front page, was published by the intelligence apparatus of the Iraqi presidency and discussed an intention to meet with Ayman Al-Zawahiri in order to examine a plan drawn up by the Iraqi presidency to carry out a "revenge operation" in Saudi Arabia.

Delroy Murdock explains it the best in my opinion at the Hussein and Terror page:

Thus, there is abundant and undeniable evidence that Saddam Hussein provided money, diplomatic services, shelter, medical care, and training to terrorists of every stripe, including those complicit in the 1993 WTC bombing and — according to a Clinton-appointed federal judge — the September 11 attacks. The Iraqi dictator aided al-Qaeda and other global terrorists who murdered Americans, both at home and abroad.

Saddam Hussein was a living threat to American national security and the safety of the civilized world. Earth is a safer place with him now where he belonged all along:

HANGED BY THE NECK UNTIL DEAD.

VI Day, November 22nd. Mark your calendars.

The Latest from Despair.com

And it couldn't be more apt than it is today....

Congrats To Our New President-elect.

Barack Obama has attained the highest office in our land and deserves every bit of praise and support for his accomplishment. I don't agree with the majority of his policies, but Obama made history in the US tonight and he is surely who this country wanted to lead us the next four years.

When Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. gave his most famous "I have a dream" speech, he wished for the day when "my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character."

This is a momentous occasion in the history of the US, but I'm not convinced that Obama was elected sorely on the content of his character.

What I am convinced of is that this country will not deny someone the highest job in the land because of the color of their skin. This is what Dr. King dream t of and this is something very much worth celebrating.

Congrats and good luck President Obama.

Here's To Hoping McCain Pulls It Out, and Saluting America No Matter Who She Chooses

The best comment I've read concerning my Country's quad-annual reshuffling was from the following commenter El Mondo at pajamas media from this satirical post about Roger Simon moving to France if McCain loses...

61. ElMondo:

Of course I understand that all this talk of leaving the country is a joke at previous crying celebrities responses. But in spite of that, the sentiment has an undertone that’s mildly worrying. So to speak towards that, this Asian Catholic proffers a phrase from Jewish wisdom that seems particularly applicable here:

“gam zeh yaavor”… “This, too, shall pass”

No need to leave the country. It’s a big, strong, vital one, despite the economic downturn and recent cynicism. The fundamentals of what makes America strong haven’t changed; it’s just that those fundamentals reputation has taken a bruising, slightly deserved, but not totally so. Anyway, I believe it’ll take more than a bad president to really screw up this country. I may not like the direction it would head in for 4 years of an Obama presidency, but even he couldn’t undermine the heart and soul of what makes this country great.

I guess you have to be an immigrant to appreciate what a truly screwed up government is. Trust me, despite my distaste for an Obama administration, it won’t be anything remotely resembling a genuinely broken government. It’ll just have the potential to be a bad one. And who knows? Sometimes when put to the test, people rise above themselves.

Call me Pollyannaish, but it’ll take more than Obama/Biden to screw this nation up.

Jimmy Carter, despite being better than Nixon, failed to run this country in to the ground. So I have faith that even if Obama is worse than Carter, which is entirely possible, this country is too fundamentally sound to screw up.



People talk a lot about racism in the US, and how this election can "redeem" the reputation of America in the world, for a variety of reasons. But I always find it telling that the most vociferous defense of the values of America come from recent immigrants. Every country in the world has their own fair share of ignorance and racists, but the US is one of few places that is based on fundamental values that negates this type of ignorance. Some of these values usually mentioned are a combination of the good traditions from our ancestors -hard work, personal and family responsiblity- mixed with a common theme- LIBERTY. Freedom is an overused cliché to Americans, but it's almost a dirty word in other countries.

I now realize why people move here. This is the country where people are least afraid of their own government.



Now about those asteroids.............