Friday, December 28, 2007

Metal Fridays at work increase my productivity...

Straight up. See we got xm at work cause my boss has no problems with dumpin copious amounts of cash on technology. That is a perk about this small company I work for. So I got this kick ass flat screen monitor with the built in speakers so I can rock out all low volume at my desk. Right now I got Fade to Black from Metallica kickin it. I love it. See all week I am subjected to "The Blend" at work from the xm. Its like all the pop you didn't want. Every now and again something comes on that takes me back to the hinter lands of my mind, but they have an annoying habit of playing Fergie like 6 times a day or that Carrie Underwood song about a cheatin man. Which I can't say is all that bad, it really sounds like a country song cause there is revenge and property destruction and all that. But give me the rock and roll. It helps make Fridays better.

That and a good scan of the internet to keep the mind sharp. So I usually read through the day in history cause I am that guy. I guess it could be worse, I read about this guy who said he was addicted to porn and whacks off like 7 times a day. Dude, get some help. I mean how bad does that hurt? I bet home slice is permanently swollen. I got off track there cause that has nothing to do with what history tells us about today. See in 1981, Elizabeth Carr was born. She was the first test tube baby to be born. I guess people could see how uneventful that is, but I think otherwise. That event should be remembered as the point at which humans decided to take their own fate. It is the start of creating life that otherwise would not be created. What will that ever do to our races karma? How many geniuses will be born that otherwise would never have made it to the show? How many evil people with bad intentions make it to grand stage of life? I guess those are unfair questions. But still we are messing with things that change the course of natural events. Look at this technology way down the road, say like in a movie like The Matrix. Or if you will, like the Cylons in BSG. But that is getting into a conversation about cybernetics and artificial intelligence, which is a little off from test tube babies and cloning. It's all good though. Right now I got some old Tesla comin through the speakers. Hang Tough. This Yahoo Radio finds some stuff I never thought I would hear again, for better or worse. But back to the conversation at hand. Good will come from this technology. And bad. What gets me is the desire for the military to create a super soldier. You all think that is the stuff of science fiction, but we thought cloning was science fiction as recently as the 1970's. The super soldier myth has been around for decades: Captain America, Hitlers superior race, and that incredibly cheese flick with Van Damn and Lundgren, or even Rambo, but he aint genetically enhanced. Dude you are living with your head in the sand if you don't think the government wouldn't love an army with dudes like Wolverine who could heal and keep on fighting. That is the bitty of the situation. If the technology is available to the public, that means the military is basically done with it. Most of our inventions come from R & D of the military or NASA. The microwave, the computer, right down to those crazy shape forming beds which I read were really hot. Is there any truth to that? I would bet the military has been cooking up bodies in test tubes since the 40's. Who knows what they made. You know they got to fuckin around with genetics and tried to make a ape man or some shit like that. That is probably where the Mothman came from. Can't you see the rational? Whats strong? Bugs. Lets make a bug man. It went down something like that. I am sure of it.

That is why I think Ms. Carr's artificial birth canal life cycle should be remembered and celebrated for the turning point in history that it represents. The point where the public was allowed to start creating their own fates, their own deviations from natures course. It was the year that showed us there is no fate.

Thursday, December 27, 2007

Wow! That didn't take long.

Well the general attitude amongst my coworkers is fuck it. It's like Christmas is over and now we can all be mean shits again. I didn't know people were being nice because of Christmas. Here I thought it was holiday cheer or as the uneducated sperm splat in my office likes to spell is "Holiday Cher". That is correct. I watched this dimwit do up some Christmas cards with Holiday Cher on them. I hope she sent some out and signed her name to them. What needed to happen was some photoshop and a picture of Cher to go along with it. Ahh the possibilities when you work with people who think they are done with education and she doesn't need that shit anymore cause high school is over. But I digress from my topic, being nice to each other. Why is it people can be nice to each other for a holiday, but in everyday interactions they could care less about you?

If you wonder about that for a minute and look around the blogoshpere, well you see that inside everyone is some nasty wanting to get out. Am I as foul mouthed and vulgar as I am here? No. I guess that is why we think we can get away with being a shit online. Look at Joe Albero. Here is a big fat piece of shit that can't say anything nice about anything and leave it at that. Will he burn in hell? Probably. Is he wildly popular? According to him he is, but he is also a fake shit like Jerry Springer. Sure we all know who Jerry Springer is and Springer is laughing all the way to the bank, but do you really remember Jerry's serious commentary about life? Hell no, you just remember all those tiny midget trannys beating each other up. And thats Albero. If he ever did any good, it is gone by the many hateful things he has done. I will make a prediction. It is now past the holidays and Joe Albero will think of something to make his ratings spike. That is just the kind of local slutleberty he is. Attention whore is another way to say it.

But why is it so hard to be nice? What is the problem with sticking out your hand and saying hello? Is life that bad? I don't think that is the problem cause some of the poorest people I have met are the happiest. It is rare you meet a happy and satisfied rich person. Still being nice is something that takes effort and all the trimmings that go with the effort of being nice and I guess that is something that most of us just are not willing to put up with. So try it. Smile and say hello to someone today. Be nice and pleasant even if you don't want to. Lets see what kind of happy we can spread.

Friday, December 21, 2007

Gifts and the wrappins.

I love it. This day is going about as smooth as a day with explosive shits. Yeah that is a stark assessment, but its a correct assessment. It doesn't matter. I got a phat 4 day weekend coming up and I get to see so fairly amusing stuff. See my wife has this talent for wrapping presents. Actually it extends to home decor all the way around, but lets focus on the holiday spirit shall we? See she takes plain craft paper and buys a bunch of different ribbons and tiny little decorations like sticky reindeer or snowmen. Then she goes to town. This year we got all the shopping done way before Christmas ever got here on us. Actually we were done before December got here, but I don't want to rub it in your face. Thats one of the presents there. How freaking killa does that look? Anyway the think I like is when we hand these out to people. The reactions are to funny. Some people hold the present for like 10 minutes and look at it. The best are the people who try to cut open the ends and slid the stuff out cause they don't want to hurt the paper. See that is the beauty of it. Its a beautiful present and it will ultimately have to be destroyed to live up to the promise of a gift. What is that old saying that there can't be any change without some destruction? Something about breaking some eggs to make an omelet? So that is my joy these next few days, going to watch people freak out over presents, drink cold beer with friends, and put on one hella Christmas for my daughter. Keep on rockin yall.

Thursday, December 20, 2007

Man cries 'Heil Hitler,' beats American - Yahoo! News

Here you go. Kind of frightening, but not surprising. If you ever lived in Germany, you would understand there is a sizable portion of the population that hate on Americans kind of like whiter southerners hate on black folks. This was going on back in the early 90's when I was there. From what I understand, the extreme right (think Neo Nazis) in Germany has actually expanded their power by winning something like 20% of local elections. There is no doubt this a brewing storm.

Man cries 'Heil Hitler,' beats American - Yahoo! News

Wednesday, December 19, 2007

Observations....

Looking around this holiday season, I see some stress leaking out from people. Why? Remember people, your not a consumer of Christmas, you are a festive member of the holiday spirit. Got it? Stop trying to buy every damn thing you touch. I know this falls on some deaf ears, but you gotta put it out there. You know? Probably not. Thats why you ass is still staking out the Kmart looking for a Wii. Well guess what, you probably will not get that Wii Mr. or Mrs. Poor Planner. BFD! Get over it. Save the Wii for a birthday. Still its a mentality that has crept deep into our collective psyche that we must by the biggest, best, better thing for Christmas. I would normally ask why, but we know why. Most of us are sheep, no lemmings being driven off the cliff. Cause thats what this crazy cycle of shit is. Who the fuck are you to go to blows with me over a fucking video game that your kid doesn't even want. Yes some kids in this country could give two shits about a stupid ass Wii. Frightening isn't it? You built up and put all this pressure on yourself to secure this great trophy of consumerism and it aint even going to be appreciated. And don't think it aint a trophy, cause it is. You buy that Wii and you carry it around like a virgin hunter with a 10 point buck on the hood of your family truckster. You show it to people before you wrap it. It becomes the trump card in conversation. I got so and so a Wii and you didn't. Nice fucking attitude for the holidays you pretentious mother fucker. See its not that anyone cares about you and your family, cause people generally care about other humans. Hell I changed a tire for a woman in distress yesterday. Did I ask for anything? No. Its when you rub it other faces about the material wealth your securing for yours and making others feel like a substandard turd cause they didn't get their kid a Wii. You know you can't buy redemption for all those sins you try to make up for during Christmas. You do know that right? Cause from my observations about the holidays this year it sure doesn't seem that fucking way. What the fuck happened to the other shit that we like about Christmas? The food, the family, the friends? Catching up on OTHERS lives and enjoying some good food? I guess all that shit has been sold down the river with the souls of the damned fools who feel they can buy Christmas. You want a good idea for a gift? Give someone some time and listen to what they got to say. Try it. You will find that people are dying for other people to pay attention to them. Merry Christmas.

Yes I have been posting less cause my ass is buried at work. Plus I am trying to write more quality and not so much volume of non opinionated cyber trash. So look for more harsh language and some not giving a fuck about shit from here on out.

Monday, December 17, 2007

From BBC NEWS, a science break through you can bank on.

Cha Ching! Now thats a break through. See I always think about shit thats way bigger than my brains comprehension. For example, one of my favorite things to imagine is what happens when universes meet? Can we really take the knowledge we know about the galaxy and use it to think about the universe. Most people assume they are one in the same. Hell most people don't give it as much thought as you have already by reading this. I mean two universes touch. Do sparks fly? Is there a collision of mass? Who the hell knows. Maybe someone better than me has the clue. Still I might solve that riddle, I am just stuck at that line of questioning right now. And way off target from my original thoughts. Damn it.

The link is to an article about some science guys who just happened to figure out how to move data from processor to processor by way of light and at a tenth of the power and a lot less heat. That is money baby. I used to wonder what other ways you could get a processor to run more effectively. I never put it to practical use, but liked to think about it. I always thought it would be the melting of water and a processor that would solve the colling issues and the medium of getting rid of copper. Water still has the complications of cooling, but I thought it could be more efficient than copper and air. Wrong element. Light is it baby. Bank on that. Life on the chip is getting small. Things are to close. Don't think I'm right. Read this. And thats from the guys who know.

BBC NEWS | Technology | Light to shrink computer clusters

Wednesday, December 12, 2007

widget

I tried to install this Slate widget and found I had to modify all kinds of shit on my blog so I said the hell with it. But you can feel free to try it...

Thinkins about some history...

Alright there are some interesting points in todays past...in 1800 DC became the nations capital. Thats cool. I mean I like DC and all, but i wouldn't live there. My wife and I were watching House Hunters one night and there was this couple trying to move from the beach in South Carolina to DC because they wanted to be near diversity. WTF? WHY? You were living on the beach in SC baby. You gave that up for the DC suburbs?

Today we got Edvard Munch. Who? The guy that painted this beaut. I love The Scream. Classic. It sucked when this painting was stolen a few years back. I think it was recovered. ANyway I am just shooting off at the keyboard here. This damn thing could still be missing and I wouldn't have a clue.

1899- the wooden golf tee was invented. Big whoop. You can tell I aint no golfer. And I will tell you why. I watched Tin Cup and got all inspired and shit. So I go to my local driving range grab a basket of balls and a 7 iron and start whacking the hell out of balls. Want to know what happened? I damn near threw my back out. That golf shit is for the birds. I will stick to flyfishing.

This is cool, in 1925 the first motel, the Motel Inn, opened in San Luis Obispo, CA. Just think if this didn't happen, where would we be? Would they have made Psycho? Was that a hotel? Its all so confusing....

Shwing shwing...get shopping people...

Monday, December 10, 2007

Fernando Guerrero Got Game.

I watched this kid train when he was 14 and knew he was special then. Dude missed the Olympics but a fight and I am glad he took his time coming up. It would have been a shame to see him flame out. Watch him cause this kid has thump in his punch. In short he will knock you the fuck out. Hell he was fun to watch train let alone fight. Right now, he is the best athlete from the Salisbury, MD area. Big ups on your pro debut Guerrero.


The Daily Times - www.delmarvanow.com - Salisbury, Md.

Saturday, December 8, 2007

Dimebag Darrell

Sadly a twisted fuck jumped on stage and killed one the best damn musicians of my generation, Dimebag Darrell. It happened on this day in 04. 3 years. Fells like a decade has past. Check out these goodies and keep Dimebag in your thoughts today....



here is some back in the day Dimebag, back when he was Diamond...



R.I.P. you badass...

Friday, December 7, 2007

Pearl Harbor

You know the year, you know the time, you know what happened. 2400 snuffed out, 1200 wounded, five of eight battleships, three destroyers, and seven other ships were sunk or severely damaged, and more than 200 aircraft were destroyed. The biggest ass whuppin this country ever had. A moment of silence for those that endured and a lasting memory of those events lest we forget...

Below are some articles I wanted to point out cause they have some unique looks at the event and some good accounts from the memories of those who were there...Enjoy and remember.

Star-Telegram.com: | 12/07/2007 | Pearl Harbor: A witness's account

How the army on Hawaii remembers it...
Star-Telegram.com: | 12/07/2007 | Pearl Harbor: A witness's account

Inland Pearl Harbor survivors to recount harrowing day | San Bernardino County | PE.com | Southern California News | News for Inland Southern Californ

More good accounts from those that were there...

Inland Pearl Harbor survivors to recount harrowing day | San Bernardino County | PE.com | Southern California News | News for Inland Southern California

Pearl Harbor remembered | csmonitor.com

Good 1st person account here...

Pearl Harbor remembered | csmonitor.com

Pearl Harbor vet tells Mesquite students about that infamous day | Dallas Morning News | News for Dallas, Texas | Dallas-Fort Worth News | Dallas Morn

Read the interview part here...

Pearl Harbor vet tells Mesquite students about that infamous day | Dallas Morning News | News for Dallas, Texas | Dallas-Fort Worth News | Dallas Morning News

Never so few veterans as now to remember Pearl Harbor day -- baltimoresun.com

Never so few veterans as now to remember Pearl Harbor day -- baltimoresun.com

Thursday, December 6, 2007

History, revisitied.

So unlike yesterday when a bunch of cool stuff happened, today leaves us with Winona Ryder sentenced to 36 months of probation and 480 hours of community service stemming from her conviction for shoplifting from Saks Fifth Avenue. She was also ordered to pay $10,000 in fines and restitution. And I don't really consider that history cause its about Winona and it was 2002.

But if you want some old school history, in 1884 the Army Corp of Engineers finished work on the Washington Monument. Its pretty cool. I still want to see the obelisk the Hatshepsut built at the Temple of Karnak. Now I aint knockin the Washington Monument, its just a different kind of monument. Those twin beauties that Hatshepsut put up were a real puzzle to figure out. There is still a great debate as to how the Egyptians of yesteryear actually stood the obelisks up with such precision and accuracy. Yes I could talk about obelisks all day and you would get really bored and glaze over like a holiday ham.

ON another historical note, what the hell was Nixon thinking? In 1968 Elvis Presley received one of 66,000 letters that U.S. President Nixon sent out to potential administrative office holders. Now I know everyone loves the king, but do you really want him as a diplomat? Maybe some form of a public relations official, could you see Elvis doing a presser for Nixon? Uh huh.

peace out.

Wednesday, December 5, 2007

Detroit first-grader takes six bullets to save mom | Chron.com - Houston Chronicle

Detroit people are of a hearty type, hell they are downright tough. But this little 7 year old girl is fucking hard core. Selfless. Courageous. No one can say she doesn't love her mama. This TIllie character is gonna get his in jail. Say what you will about the justice system, but it does have a way of working out sometimes. Most cons in the clink dont care to much about dudes like this.

Detroit first-grader takes six bullets to save mom | Chron.com - Houston Chronicle

Tuesday, December 4, 2007

When did people get so damn frantic about the screensaver?

Seriously? There are way better things to freak out over at work other than what the screensaver on your computer looks like. I shit you not I watched a woman have a breakdown today over changing her fall screensaver to the new Christmas theme she found on buyallthisdumbshit.com/idiot. Wouldn't you know it now her computer is running all slow and the corporate norton anitvirus is attacking her computer saying her shit is invaded and infected, so she really is freaking out now. Look at this shit. Are people really that on edge about the freakin holidays? SUre we aint got shit, but we got each other right? I'm pretty freaked out at the situation in this country and how bleak our future looks. hell I just brought a daughter in the world and I worry about what her future holds. SOmetimes I think I aint doin enough right for her and her generation. Then I see this coworker having a Bart Scott / Mike Tyson moment with the computer and I wonder if I did enought to pull people like thats weight too. WTF? So its been a few hours since this all went down and she aint happy with her free mojimby and wants to uninstall it and find something else. Cause there needs to be something to freak out over. Right?

Rare ancient wooden throne found in Herculaneum - Yahoo! News

Rare ancient wooden throne found in Herculaneum - Yahoo! News Pretty cool. 2 minute read, max.

Map that named America is a puzzle for researchers.

Map that named America is a puzzle for researchers. Since there aint much going on is history today other than Washington say peace out bitches to his army, I decided to post up some articles I have been reading. The link above will take you to an interesting article about a map going on display at the LOC permanently here shortly. Even though the map was made in 1507, it leaves some serious questions hanging out there. Check out the article. I bet this sucker shows up in National Treasure III.

Monday, December 3, 2007

Jeff Masters Weather Blog, you gotta love this guy...

Wunder Blog : Weather Underground

Jeff Masters has a kickin weather blog. I read it all the time. He has a wrap up on the hurricane season over there that is worth reading. Go check it out if you got the time. I was ponderin the season this year and I was glad we got some tropical storms but no hurricanes here. I mean I was pretty well prepared, but I admit I let some shit slide. Life gets busy. Still it was disturbing to see how fast the storms formed this year. Felix and Humberto were flip shit crazy to watch go from toddler storms to freakin 340lb defensive ends dominating the line of scrimmage in like 54 hours. Makes you take notice. Well lets get on with winter. I want to see some snow!

I know I slacked in those waning months of the season, but I am looking for big storms here. I try to stay away from the normal weather updating. Thats what the internet is for. Plus unless its going to cause some emergency, I aint trying to cause a panic here. Sweet. Alright see you bunnies here next hurricane season.

Discovery News : Fast Star found....

Discovery News: Pretty Fast Star Found.

You might get a kick out of this tid bit. That star is moving some 3 million mph. Funny cause it looks like 2 glowing dots to me. Now if it was passing through a planet or exploding into dust, give me call...

History at a half step...

On this day we welcome, Illinois to the union as the 21st state in 1818. Big ups for getting on board with the program. Also big ups for that Rose Bowl bid you got last night. USC aint no push over. I like the D the fightin I got tho- could be a good en of a game....

Andrew Jackson was elected president on this day in 1828. Why is that important? Cause you will never see a person like him as president again. If you don't know what I mean, just read this, "Born in a backwoods settlement in the Carolinas in 1767, he received sporadic education. But in his late teens he read law for about two years, and he became an outstanding young lawyer in Tennessee. Fiercely jealous of his honor, he engaged in brawls, and in a duel killed a man who cast an unjustified slur on his wife Rachel." Straight up gangsta style. Yeah sure he killed a bunch of Indians and Republicans like to hate on him for founding the modern Dem party, but fuck with his girl and he would shoot your ass dead. Word Mr. Jackson, you are for real...

And for all you theater types out there in 1947, the Tennessee Williams play "A Streetcar Named Desire" opened at Broadway's Ethel Barrymore Theater. And things got pretty steamy in American pop culture soon after that....


And last but not least, they lowered the pitchers mound from 15 to 10 inches on this day in 1969. Now that every batter hitting .260 has had a run at the homerun record, can we get that mound back up to 15 inches please? If batters are going to run up there on roids, why not give the pitchers an advantage also? Think of how good Josh Beckett could be then...

Alright I am rollin out and getting some work done. Check back for news clips....


Friday, November 30, 2007

Some words for you to ponder...

That Justice is a blind goddess
Is a thing to which we black are wise:
Her bandage hides two festering sores
That once perhaps were eyes.

by Langston Hughes.

There are a few poets out there that just have it. Hughes has it. Every time I read his stuff I find words that resonate profoundly inside my skull.

Another local starts an amature writing career....

Off The Cuff has entered the Delmarva blogosphere. So far, he is as advertised, a straight shooter, neither good nor bad, just out there calling it like they see it, you know with objectivity and observation. I have also updated my links so if you haven't looked at them in awhile, there is some new stuff over there.

4 meters long ribbon fish captured in eastern China.

4 meters long ribbon fish captured in Zhejiang Yo if you know what an oarfish is, go check out that link to see a 12 footer. Pretty freaky lookin fish. Seeing something like that always makes me wonder what else live in the dark depths of the ocean. Like what will happen when the giant squid decide to come back up to the surface? Or the sharks really get pissed and start eating humans wholesale? Crazy world we live in.

Glancing at history for today...

I always read this day in history at a couple of sites. I don't know why, I guess its just part of my nature. Sometime I write about 3 or 4 things that happened, sometimes just one. Because that one thing is so freakin important that is all you really need to know. Well today I just want to mention one thing that I hold as important. In 1835, Samuel Langhorne Clemens was born. He wrote "Tom Sawyer" and "Huckleberry Finn" under the name Mark Twain. Thats right. Mark freakin Twain. You could make the argument that he was and still is the best American writer so far to fall in to our countries history.

Check out the wiki entry on MT, which aint all bad.

Also here

And I will leave you with this quote from Twain about nations- "Nations do not think, they only feel. They get their feelings at second hand through their temperaments, not their brains." - How good is that. You can find an excellent source for Twain quotes here.

Thursday, November 29, 2007

A Spaceport for Treehuggers.

A Spaceport for Treehuggers | DISCOVER Magazine
This is just phat. As a sci-fi freak, this is the stuff I live for.

Earth's Eighth Continent

Earth's Eighth Continent :: News :: thetyee.ca Read that article and you may flip out. How in the fuck do we let a garbage pile the size of Texas just accumulate in the Pacific? Se for all the good plastic does, there is a lot of bad too. For instance, plastics don't break down and degrade. It become small pellet sized plastic balls that look a lot like fish eggs and guess who eats fish eggs. Thats right fish, shrimp, birds, and just about any other animal in the ocean you can think of. Then guess who eats them? Thats right we do. You know what plastic can do? It has a knack for holding onto toxic chemicals. Lots of toxins. So when those fish eat the eggs that are really plastic and we eat those toxin laden fish we are filling our own selves with toxins. Isn't it fun being human?

Wednesday, November 28, 2007

Scientists restore nerve sensation from amputated limb in chest

Scientists restore nerve sensation from amputated limb in chest I had to post this up. This is just plain freaky. See they took the nerves from missing limbs and reconnected them to muscles in the chest and guess what? Yep after a few months of growin, those folks could feel their long lost hands or arms. Freakin crazy. This is huge tho- think Luke's artificial hand or Darth Vader in general. That really has been the problem with artificial limbs all along. You can't feel them, they are clunky, aesthetics, so forth and so on. But if it looked real and you could use it like real and feel it for real, no one would give a shit if they had a fake leg or not.

Sorry I have been suckin on the post lately, but I am under it at work right now. End of the month shit piling up fast. keep coming back tho- it will get better.

Monday, November 26, 2007

DNA Genetics, Paternity, CSI & General Science » Evidence for a parallel universe?

DNA Genetics, Paternity, CSI & General Science » Evidence for a parallel universe? You know sometimes when I am staring off in space and just thinking, I get to thinking about physics and what the laws of physics can't explain. Like what happens when two universes meet? Are there other universes? If so how is that possible. Which begs the question whats between universes or what is that space out side of space called? Either way the above mentioned article is a very interesting read and the suggestion made by Ms. Mersini-Houghton made a light click in my head. I have to agree that this is another universe poking a hole in ours. We have been breached!

For the love of the History.

Well well, hope you all had a good turkey day. It was pretty good at our house. We had friends, family, countrymen from the past, present, and future with us. We got the Christmas tree up and it looks spiffy and all of our shopping is done for Christmas. ALL OF IT. It isn't all wrapped, but give us another week or two. I hope your jealous....

What a quirky day in history. Kinda anyway. Like for instance in 1716, the first lion to be exhibited in America went on display in Boston, MA. That is pretty cool. That is way before the American Revolution and all that. I guess it goes to show that as a people we are way more preoccupied with entertaining ourselves than governing ourselves. So bring on the lions!

In 1832, public streetcar service began in New York City. Killa huh? And just look at the evolution of it all! Isn't the NY transit system the jewel of the country? I know, I know it could be worse. I rag on the public transportation system in this country because I lived in Germany and used the public transportation for a year. I must say, European public trans is the shinizzle. I never had any issues with any bus or train in any of the countries I went to. User friendly, tourist friendly, easy to read charts and maps, just a good service.

Other than West Va telling Va to take a flying leap for sticking up for slavery, thats about it for the day. Quirky? Maybe not, but its monday people. MONDAY!

Really really big birds still rockin the sky...

MySA.com: KENS 5: I-Team So last night I could not get my sleep on and was surfing the tube when I settled on the mini marathon on the History Channel called Monsterquest. I must say the teo shows I watched really got me involved. The first was about the squid around Baja Peninsula called Humbolts. Ornery little bastards them squid are. But what got me was they managed to catch a brief glimpse of a really big ass squid be attaching a camera to a little one and letting it dive to about 1000 feet. And that shit worked! Plus I have to say, squid are superbad ass. They are really smart. But I digress. The next show was about these big ass birds that are all black and have been spotted in Alaska, Indiana and Texas. Which interested me, but it really is just a giant black bird. Still they had this dude that was almost eaten by one of these giant birds and his story was compelling. Then I get in the office this morning and when I take my first break to see what is happening around the world, I read that story above from San Antonio about a big ass black bird. Just kinda creepy. Enjoy!

Wednesday, November 21, 2007

Scientists find fossil of enormous bug - Yahoo! News

Scientists find fossil of enormous bug - Yahoo! News And big it is. Giant in fact. How big? Some are estimating around 8 feet long. Makes sense that they would get that big if predators were still trying to get their act together. Still is is a coincident that this discover was made the same day Tremors gets released in a special box edition with all 4 movies? Coincidence? I think not! By the way, when the hell did they make 3 sequels to that movie? WTF? Where have I been?

And today brings us...

33 days until Christmas. Get on it. My wife and I are done shopping and only have to wrap like 5 more presents. Ha Ha Ha you all.

Hey North Carolina welcome to the party. You signed up on this day in 1789. Now see if you can keep South Carolina straight....

Salvador Dali started to seriously fuck with our collective art heads with his first exhibit in 1929. Thats right 1929. He's been around awhile huh? You thought he was a dirty hippy from the 70's didn't you? Do you even know who the hell I am talking about? You know I wanted to put a picture up of Dali, but google is all screwed this morning. Go here to get a good look at the guy and here for one of the best galleries on the web for him.

And in 1973 we got the 18 1/2 minute gap in the Nixon tapes. And what kills me is that it still surprises people that Cheney is crooked.

And perhaps the biggest cultural moment in TV history next to the Beatles, on this night in 1980, we all wanted to know who shot JR? If you remember that, you are getting old. You better think about what your retirement is doing.

Alright amigos. Have a happy turkey day. I can't wait to start cooking. Going to finish up my grocery shopping tonight and get up with my feet moving fast. I love cooking up a ton of food. I guess you can take the cook out of the kitchen, but not the kitchen out of the cook. Oh and before I forget, all you black friday shoppers, Royal Farms is giving away free coffee from 4 am to 10 am. Any size. Get some!!!!

Tuesday, November 20, 2007

'Sweet Caroline' Was Caroline Kennedy - Entertainment on The Huffington Post

'Sweet Caroline' Was Caroline Kennedy - Entertainment on The Huffington Post Ain't that some shit? All this time Sweet Caroline was a Kennedy. I guess its shocking in some twisted sense of logic, but I was thinkin Caroline was a school girl crush. Then again we are talking about Neil Diamond here. He was probably punching kitty since the 7th grade, it could have been a middle school crush...

Playa! Brazil stikes it rich...

Brazil, the New Oil Superpower

Yep thats right. Brazil just found a big ass oil field and will tap that shit by 2010. Playa on the world stage. I know they kick everyones asses in World Cup, other than that, do they like us and do they want to sell us that sweet light crude they just found? All I can say is don't hate the playa, hate the game.

Monday, November 19, 2007

Gamers use PS3s to do biomedical research

Gamers use PS3s to do biomedical research
I am totally down with this. If I had a PS3, I would sign up yesterday. But alas, I don't so I will stick to the SETI cause. For more on that go here

Short week!

You know it. Short 3 day work week. Which reminds me of another shorty from history, The Gettysburg Address. For something that is so famous, it was only 2 maybe 3 minutes long. Now if only todays politicians could follow suit....

In 1895, we got the paper pencil. Thanks for that Frederick E. Blaisdell. Seriously, where would we be without the pencil?

Shout outs to Meg Ryan and Jodie Foster for birthdays, Larry King too.

One last thing, the ship of death showed up off the coast of Plymouth, MAss in 1620. Ship of death to the native americans that is...

Friday, November 16, 2007

You know what I like about this day?

It was on this day in 1952 that Lucy first held that football for Charlie Brown. That's one of those bits that will hang out in American pop culture for awhile. That joke ran from the 50's to the 80's, so its traveled over some generational divide and then some. who knew? It makes sense though. It's always the image of someone busting their ass that we remember. Its like one of the three best memories we have of our friends and family. Which is wacked if you get down to its nature. Why do we remember the pain and humiliation of the people we like the most? I guess its the same need that makes us compelled to make 4 Saw movies. Either way we are a species that likes to remember the dramatic. I don't know why I put that horror stuff in there. But thats interesting too if you think about it. Why the hell do people like to watch horror films? You know horror films ain't like they were back in the day. That shit is way different. Take a look at Nightmare on Elm Street. Kind of comical, kind of campy, kind of scary, but watchable. Some of that shit today is strait up disgusting. Hostile? Saw? That shit ain't scary as much as visually disturbing. I don't know. I guess its a preference in entertainment values, you know a beauty is in the eye of the beholder type thing. So thanks Lucy. Thanks so much for starting us down the road to tasteless humor and an abundance of B flick horror films Charlie Brown. I hope your satisfied!

Thursday, November 15, 2007

Tropical Cyclone Sidr

Wunder Blog : Weather Underground Man this is a thing of beautiful terror.

Comet 17P/Holmes is largest object in Solar System

Comet 17P/Holmes There is the article with some great photos. Check it out. If you have not see it, there is a post a bit farther down the blog with a star map. The comet is pretty faint now, you might need some nocs to see it well. Beautiful if you caught it.

A little wit goes along way...


It is the birthday of the stock market ticker. I love how the old school tickers look. That thing would be cool as hell sitting on my desk. Even better if it worked. Now its all digital and just runs on screen looking like the espn sports line. I hate that little line at the bottom of the screen. That shit is burning a permanent line in my plasma tv. Then my movies look like crap. Everything moves in cycles right? Let the ticker make a come back. At least you know your broker will actually have to work to read this damn thing....

Other highlights for the day include Pike seeing a peak in Colorado, Brazil chunking a king out on his ass, and the Soviets wants to get into a missile target shooting match with the US. That does sound fun.

The King, Richard Petty drove in his final race in 1992 and ended a 35 year career. There are plenty of records in sports that will be tough to beat: Lou's 56, Favre's yet to be decided touchdown passes, The Great One's 215. But I think all those record will fall eventually. I really don't think any driver will ever pass Petty's 200 victories. No current driver has more than 100.

Big ups to Georgia O'Keeffe for being born today. Here is a good link to a gallery of her art.

Monday, November 12, 2007

World War I Veteran Reflects on Lessons - washingtonpost.com

World War I Veteran Reflects on Lessons - washingtonpost.com

Dude here says it for all of us vets, "I'm no authority, but I'm not in favor of war unless it's an emergency." Read the article. It is worth 3 minutes.

Happy thoughts on the day we observe Veterans Day.

Prehistoric women had passion for fashion - Yahoo! News

Prehistoric women had passion for fashion - Yahoo! News

Yep and this was around 5000 BC. See what we know about human existence gets pushed back by 500 or 1000 years all the time.

Friday, November 9, 2007

From an email I got...The Value of a Drink.

"Sometimes when I reflect back on all the wine I drink
I feel shame . Then I look into the glass and think
about the workers in the vineyards and all of their hopes
and dreams . If I didn't drink this wine, they might be out
of work and their dreams would be shattered.
Then I say to myself, "It is better that I drink this wine and let their
dreams come true than be selfish and worry about my liver."
~ Jack Handy
WARNING: The consumption of alcohol may leave you wondering what the hell
happened to your bra and panties.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"I feel sorry for people who don't drink. When they
wake up in the morning, that's as good as they're
going to feel all day. "
~Frank Sinatra
WARNING: The consumption of alcohol may create the illusion that you are tougher,
smarter, faster and better looking than most people.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"When I read about the evils of drinking, I gave up reading."
~ Henny Youngman
WARNING: The consumption of alcohol may lead you to think people are laughing WITH you.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"24 hours in a day, 24 beers in a case. Coincidence? I think not."
~ Stephen Wright
WARNING: The consumption of alcohol may cause you to think you can sing.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"When we drink, we get drunk. When we get drunk,
we fall aslee p. When we fall asleep, we commit no sin.
When we commit no sin, we go to heaven. So, let's all
get drunk and go to heaven!"
~ Brian O'Rourke
WARNING: The consumption of alcohol may cause pregnancy.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy."
~ Benjamin Franklin
WARNING: The consumption of alcohol is a major factor in dancing like a reject.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Without question, the greatest invention in the
history of mankind is beer. Oh, I grant you that the
wheel was also a fine invention, but the wheel does
not go nearl y as well with pizza."
~ Dave Barry
WARNING: The consumption of alcohol may cause you to tell your friends over and over again that you love them.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
To some it's a six-pack, to me it's a Support Group. Salvation in a can!
~ Dave Howell
WARNING: The consumption of alcohol may make you think you can logically converse with members of the opposite sex without spitting.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
And saving the best for last, as explained by Cliff Clavin, of Cheers.
One afternoon at Cheers, Cliff Clavin was explaining the " Buffalo Theory" to his buddy Norm.
Here's how it went:
"Well ya see, Norm, it's like this... A herd of buffalo can only move as fast as the slowest buffalo. And when the herd is hunted, it is the slowest and weakest ones at the back that are killed first. This natural selection is good for the herd as a whole, because the general speed and health of the whole group keeps improving by the regular killing of the weakest members. In much the same way, the human brain can only operate as fast as the slowest brain cells. Excessive intake of alcohol, as we know, kills brain cells. But naturally, it attacks the slowest and weakest brain cells first. In this way, regular consumption of beer eliminates the weaker brain cells, making the brain a faster and more efficient machine. That's why you always feel smarter after a few beers."

Friday Wit

I guess I have to say I am sorry for the lack of posting this week. I have had a lot of work to do, at work and home, but I am back to a normal pace of hecktisy. Your right, that is not really a word, but it should be.

Well lets look at history for a bit, the most tragic event of today was in 1938. Nazis burned and looted temples and Jewish-owned stores and houses in Germany and Austria in what became known as Kristallnacht (Crystal Night—referring to broken glass on streets). As with history, that is whitewashing the facts. It was a freakin riot fill with hate. There were over 7000 business destroyed and over 250 synagogues burned. If that shit went down today, we would send in the Marines. Still it is a sad chapter in human history that a population can be incited to be this hateful. Memo to American citizens of today, keep your wits about you.

On this day in 1989, the east and west met in a big old happy love fest in Germany. Sha. While this will go down as a triumph for democracy for defeating communism, there was a lot of WTF going on when it happened. I was stationed in Germany when I was in the Army in '90 and I can tell you there were many west Germans who didn't want jack shit to do with their eastern brethren. See the west had a good life with money then you turn loose a population that was pretty much a bunch of broke ass poor folks on them, well they were shocked for lack of better words. Shocked at what they saw, shocked at how much the easterners were stealing their shit. But everyone eventually got over it and Germany is a pretty happy place today. Of course, not all is hunky dory in Germany. There is still a good amount of hate and contempt for us Americans. I can't count how many old ass Germans gave me the finger when I was there. And for no other reason than I was an American.

I would like to point out that my brother in astronomy, Giovanni D Cassini died today in 1712. If you have not visited the Cassini-Huygens Home page, you are depriving yourself of some of the most spectacular pictures of the Solar System ever taken, specifically Saturn, but it took some nice pics on its way to Saturn. Yeah I have been watching that project for awhile.

Plus lets take a minute to remember John Ritter. He passed on 2003. I still watch 3's Company reruns....

But lets not check out on a sad note, Carl Sagan, Tom Fogerty, and Nick Lachey were all born today. Ha ha ha ha ha

Have a good weekend.

Wednesday, November 7, 2007

Wednesday Wit

Sure sure the big news today is that Magic Johnson announced he has HIV. Way to man up Magic. But I don't think that is the biggest event that happened today.

Let's look at 1973, U.S. Congress over-rode President Nixon's veto of the War Powers Act, which limits a chief executive's power to wage war without congressional approval. Now who did this piss off? A few conservatives to be sure, but the two that stand out in my head are Dick Cheney and Don Rumsfeld. It was a slap in the face of those who held ol tricky Dick up as one of their version of all that is good in the world. Those who believed in absolute power wanted an executive branch back them that could do what it wanted. That was the only thing holding them back from winning the war in Vietnam and being keepers of the democratic way of life. The ends would justify the means and as long as it was in the name and spirit of democracy, it was ok. So they swallowed that defeat and let it fester for years and years. Until one day W comes along and another Dick sees his chance to get in the White House and make it right. Cheney saw Bush for what he was, a puppet, a coattail, the next rung to climb on the latter. Long before 911, Cheney started to create an executive branch that would have all the power of a king and could do whatever it wanted with the military without the approval of Congress. After 7 years, he has done it. The most secretive, militaristic, myopic administration in history. The unified executive theory in all its glory according to Cheney. Revenge is his. At some point today, the Veep will hold his glass of single malt scotch above his head and shed a tear that his friend, his hero, his former boss Richard Nixon couldn't be here today to see all the great things Cheney has done. This will be one of those bitter sweet victory celebrations that you always read about.

Tuesday, November 6, 2007

Sorry I have been off kilter that last few days, but this is the reason why.

Comet P17/Holmes. This little jem is visible to the naked eye and if you have some good nocs, its a great treat to look at. This sky map is pretty big, so click on it and print it out. Take it outside with your kids and check it out. This is a once in a life time deal. You don't see exploding comets everyday. They started to call it the Jellyfish Comet and you can see why with the picture below.

Monday, November 5, 2007

Children of Men...a brief movie review.


Okay where do I start. First I waited to watch this film for sometime because some critic somewhere said it was Blade Runner of the 21st century. Well that pissed me off cause BR is one of the movies that sci fi was built on. Has there been a movie that ripped off by other sci fi films? I don't know. But that is an argument for another day. I guess I am glad for watching Children of Men. At first I was not impressed with the story and where it was going. The cinimatography was what kept me involved for awhile, but the story go rolling after about 45 minutes. When you think about it, the plot is terrifying. It's 2027 and its been 18 years since a child was born, then comes a girl who is pregnant. The dude in the poster, Clive Owen is the character that is thrust into the roll of saving her and delivering her and her baby to the smart people. Like most thrillers, this story is set at the point hope begins, which means the movie is pretty damn depressing. If your looking for killa special effects, this aint it. But it is a pretty realistic look in the future. Scary political terrorist fighting scary political governments. The story ends in this concentration camp type setting that produces some of the best action put to film. A lot of hand held camera shots. There is even this one point where the camera has some blood smack the lens and they keep it rolling for a couple of minutes. Puts you right there. I found myself all tense. And if a movie does that, its done its job. Would I watch it again, sure. That is about as good a compliment you can give a flick. So go rent it or catch in on HBO. You will be affected...in some manner.

Friday, November 2, 2007

Fall Haiku

leaves of color fall,
golden, red, and yellow leaf
plants give next years seed.

Rock and Roll motherbitches!!!!! Friday Wit is here.

Greetings my timid and humble misfits. Welcome to November, there are 20 days left until Thanksgiving, 52 until X-mas. Get it in gear people.

Hey daddy o, back in the day, 1957 to be precise, Elvis was rockin the country with his number one hit Jailhouse Rock. I mean that was 50 years ago and Elvis is still the number one dead earning celebrity out there. Sure there has been some comp, Kurt Cobain jumped up the list last year, but that was because Cortney need money to fix that fucked up tummy tuck she had. That is some scary stuff. But it is a testament to how freakin cool Elvis was man. Dude made $49 million from the grave last year. Plus its not like he is falling off the list, dude is always in the top 3. And he has been dead and gone for a few decades now. Seriously, we got teenagers running around who never heard of Elvis Costello or Ronald Reagan, but they know a few things about Elvis. Doesn't that just seem a little whacked?

On other historical fronts, in 1889, North Dakota and South Dakota were admitted into the union as the 39th and 40th states. People who aren't smarter than a 5th grader still can't find them on a map. Better yet, if more US Americans looked at maps they could figure out what the hell Miss South Carolina was talking about. Maybe, could be, such as....

In 1947 one of my favorite characters from Hollywood and history, Howard Hughes flew his "Spruce Goose," a huge wooden airplane, for eight minutes in California. It was the plane's first and only flight. The "Spruce Goose," nicknamed because of the white-gray color of the spruce used to build it, never when into production. Now this was a big ass plane. Even by today's standards, this was a big ass plane. This betty was supposed to carry 700 troops on its 320 foot wingspan. Yeah 320 foot, end zone to end zone baby. The Goose never hit production, but that doesn't mean anything. Hughes kept his baby preserved in a personal hanger at the cost of a million a year. He did this up until he died in 1976 then the Spruce Goose went to live at the Evergreen Aviation Museum in McMinnville, Oregon. She is still there to the day, so if you get the chance stop in and say hi. Oh and don't watch that Leo flick about Hughes, that shit is unwatchable.

Hey Ronald Reagan wasn't all bad, in 1983 he signed a bill establishing a federal holiday on the third Monday of January in honor of civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Rock on MLK!

And since we are rockin to some Elvis today, here is the quote of the day:
"I didn't like the '50s, you know. I appreciate Elvis, but I'm not a big fan. I'm not a rockabilly fan. And the '60s and early '70s were, to me, the greatest times to live."
- Brett Hull
True that Mr. Hull. I have to agree. I was a teenage nightmare in the 80's and I know I got away with shit that these kids would never get away with today. Hell I am the reason there are noise ordinance laws out there. Play it louder, drive it faster, and drink it harder than all those around you. Sure I can't hear shit, my insurance is through the roof and I have ulcers, but it was fun. Sometimes when I am laying on the couch and I laugh for no reason, its just those dumbass moments in teenage time that make me laugh. I mean who the hell cruises the strip anymore? I still think I am the last guy to cut perfect figure 8 donuts on the high school lawn. And don't even get me talking about the damage I used to inflict on the soccer field. Plus where the hell did those Matilda Bay Wine coolers go? I used to put a shot of grain alcohol in them and they would put in turn put me on the floor. Ahhh the good ol days.

Have a good weekend folks. Remember its hunting season, so wear orange if your walking around in the woods. You never know when or where Dick Cheney could be hunting...

Wednesday, October 31, 2007

Thursday Wit

Welcome to November. I don't know where you are at, but it ain't to bad here. So far we had some cold mornings and comfortable days. Goods stuff. Well lets get into it....

207 years ago John Adams was the first president to move into the White House. Good stuff. I am sure he partied it up and all that jazz. Yeah and pink elephants would fly out of my butt. The place was barely finished and in some places not complete at all. The was little heat and it was a damp, musty place. Adams wrote this in a letter to his wife, "Before I end my letter, I pray Heaven to bestow the best of Blessings on this House and all that shall hereafter inhabit it. May none but honest and wise Men ever rule under this roof." I guess he had no clue about the Bushies, Clintons, Nixon, or Harding. Side note, interesting how he capitalized the word Men.

I am trying to cut down on the pictures I post, so this was made available for public consumption in 1512. Beautiful. If your into art that is. Some people look at that and could care less. But those people usually refer to porn as art. Which is an argument for another day. I said another day. Just look at the paintings.

ahhh, the time was 1936 - Benito Mussolini made a speech in Milan, Italy, in which he described the alliance between Italy and Nazi Germany as an "axis" running between Berlin and Rome. I bet he had no idea he just made up the name for his team. You know Hitler held that shit against him. No matter how on time the trains were. Look when your trying to take over the world and one of your minions trumps you by casting your teams name into history, you may hold a grudge. Thats all I'm sayin here...

Man o War passed on in 1947 and became Can o Glue. But seriously, that damn horse won just about everything it ran in. The only race he lost was when the race started and he wasn't even facing the start line. Hell he almost won that too, only lost by half a length. Won over a quarter mil in 1920's. Thats a lot of cash people. Then got put out to stud and sired a whole string of champs. Everyone likes a sexy winner. And for us Marylanders, in 1918 Man o' War was sold for $5,000 to Samuel D. Riddle, who brought the horse to his Glen Riddle Farm near Berlin, Maryland.
As a sire, Man o' War was impressive as well, producing more than 64 stakes winners and 200 various champions. Though many complain that Mr. Riddle did not breed him to good enough mares after the first five seasons, Man o'War still sired many greats, including American Flag and Crusader, who won back-to-back runnings of the Belmont Stakes in 1925 and 1926. Both colts earned U.S. Champion 3-Yr-Old Colt honors, and Crusader was also voted U.S. Horse of the Year. Among Man o' War's other famous offspring were Battleship, who won the 1938 English Grand National steeplechase, and War Admiral, the 1937 Triple Crown winner. Another of his offspring, Hard Tack, sired Seabiscuit. His son War Relic was his most successful sire. Tiznow, Honour and Glory, and Bertrando are all sire-line descendants of Man o' War. Many great horses, if you look long into their pedigrees, are related in some way to Man O' War.
Don't you love it when history reaches out and touches you? Stop lying you know you do. I love the fact the greatest race horse in history trotted around my neighborhood. Love it. And he was a stud too. Good stuff. Alright lets move on...

If your into music, Wham had the number 1 hit back in 1984, they were singing about Freedom. Sorry for that, also this is the day we all had to carry our sad asses to the movies to see Titanic. Who knew? Its not like we, the public, can be left alone to like things that have taste, in 2001 the number one song was "I'm Real" by J Lo. WTF? J Lo sucks. That wench spends like $8000 a day on makeup and let me say that it aint working. But its all good cause if you born today, you share a birthday with Jenny McCarthy. And thats sexy. Plus she is more than a blond with boobs. If you haven't read anything about the struggles she had with her autistic son, go look it up. That is a strong woman. Plus I watched her brief comedy on TV and I laughed a couple of times. I liked it.

Alright, get out there and convince someone else that the GOP sucks.

Wednesday Wit

Greetings amigos. Today was a pretty busy day in history. The big headline is the 95 Theses Martin Luther pounded on the door of the Wittenberg Palace Church. This kicked off the Protestant Reformation in Germany. Hey this was a good thing, but I would suggest a reformation of most churches every few years cause it looks like they could use it.

Ahhh the Battle of Britain was won by the Brits today. This held the Germans from completely rolling all of Europe at the start of WWII. Thank goodness for the Spitfire. That is a beautiful plane. She couldn't take the beating of a Messerschmitt 109, but she could hang with em. Hey it can't be understated the use of radar to figure out where the Germans were coming from. This helped get those Spitfires in the right place at the right time. Germans still bombed London, but giving up on Britain was the first mistake Hitler made. I love The Battle of Britain. It was like the best of reality TV. See the population watched this play out in the skies above them. The consequences were real. When they saw a plane go down in flames, they knew a fellow countrymen just gave it up for them. And these cats fought like it was more than there lives on the line, they knew it was family, homes, friends on the line. All they had to do was look down at the earth to see what they were fighting for. And people from this generation wonder why WWII still sticks to people the way it does. Anyway big ups for the Brits for not getting rolled.

After 14 years of chipping, sculpting, and other artistry, we got Mount Rushmore. There it is. This big old monument was completed in 1941 and it still scares the hell out of kids on a daily basis. Nothing like a 60 foot tall Teddy R to put you in your place.


And in 1993 we lost a good actor known as River Phoenix. Home slice made it to the age of 23. I place the blame on Johnny Depp.
Only because it was outside The Viper Room, Depp's club. But what they hey, Johnny didn't make River do the drugs. Look kids, if it doesn't come straight out of the ground, don't do it. Straight up. Who needs a heroin addiction anyway? That shit takes up to much of your time.

And speaking of other stupid celeb moments, does anyone remember when Debbie Gibson held that seance to get up with the spirit of Sid Vicious on this day back in 87? What would have been awesome is if Sid showed up and flung her around the room and threw up green goo on her friends. It may have extended her career more than the 14 seconds it lasted.

Alright peace out peeps.

Tuesday, October 30, 2007

Todays historical fit of wit.

On this day in 1938 Orson Welles decided he was going to scare the hell out of the American public. Sure sure he had no idea he was going to cause people to lose their freaking minds, but he knew that H.G. Wells' War of the Worlds would be a great retread for the media of radio. I mean look at that guy, you know it would have been good for TV too. Welles is an intense scary looking guy. Just look at that mug. That ain't a face for radio. But all kidding aside, Welles pulled off his hysteria with killer sound effects and some really good acting from his crew he had playing announcers and other characters. Hell he even had one lady in the mid west bust up in a church screaming it was the end of the world and New York had been destroyed. Good stuff. Fear is always there, in the public mind, eating at the backs of our skulls, working on our nerves. Look at 1938, 20 years removed from WWI when the newspaper industry laid the framework for driving a nation into a reactionary fear of destruction. The oncoming fear of Nazi Germany staring the world in the face, its no wonder that the population was driven like herd of spooked cattle from this great piece of entertainment. In the end Welles thought this may end his career, but it really got him noticed by Hollywood, and that gave us Citizen Kane in 1941. Which is a great flick, I recommend it. Although with todays generation, the straight acting and dialogue may render it unwatchable to many. You actually have to pay attention to speech! ahhhhhhhh.

But going a little farther back in our history today in 1735 we get the birthday of John Adams, the second President of the United States, was born in Braintree, MA. His son became the sixth President of the U.S. The first political family dynasty in the US. Somewhere you think we would have taken notice of this and tried to prevent other sons from being president if their pops ever held the office. But I guess it came down to the fact the Adams kicked some ass and we thought nepotism was a good thing. Lesson learned right? Anyway, happy birthday John Adams.

In 1945 the U.S. government announced the end of shoe rationing. I know your like what? Why the hell would you ration shoes? But see this is from another time, another war when people actually had to do without to support the army in the field. It wasn't as simple as throwing money at the situation. Aside from the fact that American soldiers are dying, WWII doesn't draw any comparison to the Iraq war. Now your could draw some comparisons between the American Revolution and the Iraq war, but you wouldn't like the fact the Continental Army was playing the role of insurgents.

Alright ladies and gents, you have a good day.

Monday, October 29, 2007

Now I have some good drinking stories but.....

nothing like this...The Great Beer-nami of 1814.

The Industrial Revolution wasn't all steam engines and textile mills. Beer production increased exponentially, as well. Fortunately, the good people of England were up to the challenge and drained kegs as fast as they were made. Brewery owners became known as "beer barons," and they spent their newfound wealth in an age-old manner -- by trying to party more than the next guy.

Case in point: In 1814, Meux's Horse Shoe Brewery in London constructed a brewing vat that was 22 feet tall and 60 feet in diameter, with an interior big enough to seat 200 for dinner -- which is exactly how its completion was celebrated. (Why 200? Because a rival had built a vat that seated 100, of course.)

After the dinner, the vat was filled to its 4,000-barrel capacity. Pretty impressive, given the grand scale of the project, but pretty unfortunate given that they overlooked a faulty supporting hoop. Yup, the vat ruptured, causing other vats to break, and the resulting commotion was heard up to 5 miles away.

A wall of 1.3 million gallons of dark beer washed down the street, caving in two buildings and killing nine people by means of "drowning, injury, poisoning by the porter fumes, or drunkenness."

The story gets even more unbelievable, though. Rescue attempts were blocked and delayed by the thousands who flocked to the area to drink directly off the road. And when survivors were finally brought to the hospital, the other patients became convinced from the smell that the hospital was serving beer to every ward except theirs. A riot broke out, and even more people were left injured.

Sadly, this incident was not deemed tragic enough at the time to merit an annual memorial service and/or reenactment.

Morning Wit on a frosty Monday...

Man I love watching the walking dead on a Monday. I was getting my shit together in my cubicle this morning and the woman who works across from me was going about her business of getting her act together. Then the horror, the horror. She was out on Friday, supposedly sick, but I know she has a new boyfriend, so who really knows? Anyway that is gossipy and I try to stay away from that. So last Thursday, in the morning she got a large tea from a fast food joint and that has been marinating on her desk since then. She comes in this morning with another large drink from the same joint and damn if she didn't get all confused and drink out of that old ass nasty drink. She is outside the back door now gaging and trying to puck that nasty shit out. Yeah it's disgusting, but it is freaking entertaining. I love a Monday like this...

From a historical standpoint, we got some cool events. Joseph Pulitzer died in 1911 which was ashame cause it would have been noteworthy to see what he would have said about how the press got involved in promoting WWI. It's a sad lesson we still haven't learned. You don't use newspaper reporters to sell a war.

Muhammad Ali (Cassius Clay) won his first professional fight in 1960. Freaking 1960. Hey I love the guy and I have watched many of his fights on the espn classics channel. The best is Richard Pryor talking about Ali in his stand ups. And if you ass isn't listening to Richard Pryor, you need to be slapped. Dude is the shinizzle. One of the best ever at saying it like he saw it. Some real wit there...

1993 - A group of U.S. athletes were attacked by skinheads in Germany. Why is this important? I can tell you this, Americans get attacked all the time by skinheads over there. It's like the south and the north in this country. Some people in German have not gotten over that WWII thing yet. Believe it. No one likes it when you walk up in their country and take their shit. No matter how right it was.

1998 - The space shuttle Discovery blasted off with John Glenn on board. Glenn was 77 years old. In 1962 he became the first American to orbit the Earth. I bet they will not do this shit again. Can you imagine if Glenn was on the shuttle when that shit fell apart in the atmosphere? How freaking stupid would NASA look then? And why they hell are they launching geriatrics in space anyway? Do we really need to know what effects space has on the 65 and above crowd? I mean how many more are we going to put up there? Seriously isn't this something that we could figure out when the situation up there is a little more commercial? You know when people are constantly heading up for martini's on the moon? And you know that shits coming. It is the only way for space to get on that fast track to exploration.

Alright, let's all remember Joe Albero Licks Balls and smile cause the week is what it is.

Friday, October 26, 2007

It's Friday bee-otches!!!!

Oh the joy! What a freaky ass week at work. I will be glad to wash my hands of this place for 48 or so hours.

SO what to say about the day? We got a patented for the rotary washing machine. I know that aint much new to you, but rest assured when that patented was filed, it wasn't big news either...the First Continental Congress of the U.S. adjourned in Philadelphia. Hear ye hear ye! Let's kick some British ass!...in 1955 the first "The Village Voice" was published in NY. I read this paper online and enjoy it a lot. You would too. Check that shit out, especially the Savage Love column. That shit is funny. And kind of scary at time. Entertaining non the less. ITMFA!!!!....Remember Baby Fae? To sad to write about, wikipedia that shit. But I would do what ever it takes to spend as much time on earth with my child. Even if its only 21 days. Crazy how stories like that really fuck with your emotions when you have kids...Yea Yea Gretzky may have been the first player to 2000 points, but Mario Lemieux (Pittsburgh Penguins) scored his 500th National Hockey League (NHL) career goal against the New York Islanders in his 605th game. He became the second-fastest player to attain the plateau. Wayne Gretzky had reached 600 goals by his 575th NHL game.

Alright folks, keep comin back today. I got the feeling some haiku is in order.

Oceanshaman...enjoy your new found freedom.

Thursday, October 25, 2007

Morning Wit

Greetings on this wet and rainy day! Well here it is wet and rainy, but we need it after the last 5 months of drought. But on with the show, guess who that fellow is. Come on, you know him, or better yet you know of him. That is Pablo Picasso. He was born on this day in 1881. The argument could be made that he is the most influential artist of the 20th century. Now I could agree with that, but my heart lies with the impressionists. So I will always put the work of Monet ahead of him, but that is just personal preference. Everyone likes something different, thats why we say "beauty is in the eye of the beholder." There is over 50,000 works of art out there by Picasso. They span all kinds of periods: WWI, WWII, Cubism, the 50's, the 60's. Dude lived till 1973. SO if your in college and need to write a paper, here is a subject for you, Picasso's blue period. Here is one of my favorite Picasso paintings. The Old Guitarist. I love this period of his work, of course there are plenty of other paintings he did I love, sculptures too, but I don't have that much time to show you all that jazz. Just enjoy this and drink your coffee.

Here are some other points of interests for the day. In 2137 B.C., Chinese Royal astronomers, Ho and Hsi, were executed after not predicting a solar eclipse that caused panic in the streets of China. Now thats how they handled their shit back in the day. You fail, you die. So take it easy on yourself, the human race is more understanding now than its ever been.

In 1955, the microwave oven, for home use, was introduced by The Tappan Company. Because god wanted people to cook a turkey in 12 seconds. I still hate how a microwave will cook that out rim of my soup and I have to mix that cooked skin in with the soup. Call me petty, but you think they could have solved that problem by now. WTF? It's been like 50 years since this technology was made available to the public, you should be able to heat your soup with out some weird skin forming around the edge.

And for a bit of music knowledge, on this day in 1960, Mick Jagger and Keith Richards accidentally met on a train. They had known each other previously from school. In 4 years The Rolling Stones would appear on the Ed Sullivan Show. Who knew?

Tuesday, October 23, 2007

Human socials, way earlier than expected...

Apparently humans have been throwing clambakes for thousands of years. Well for over 164,000 years ago to be precise. Now why is this significant? First, this sort of behavior, partying down on the beach and eating seafood, was thought to have happened about 120,000 years ago, so that leads one to believe that we either evolved earlier than thought, or small clusters of humans developed faster than others. But wait on that cause its a whole other discussion. See I have been saying this all along, its way easier to live by the sea and eat from its bounty than hunting or be hunted on the plains of Africa. Now some of us still get down with the hunt, buts thats only for the use of firearms or other weapons. Hey seafood is way better for you. Plus its a party folks. Lets get some food, paint ourselves up and party down. Now here is where the imagination comes in. So there is the scene, people celebrating the seafood harvest, eating and what not, what else did they do? Dance? Did they have music or at a minimum a beat to dance to? Were there other rituals? Marriages? Celebrations? Or was it just a great social gathering? All very interesting questions. Does it sound like those folks were dumbass cavemen with very limited social interaction? Not to me. The clambake is a complicated social event. Still to this day.

Believe me when I say, we know nothing of our past.

Morning Wit

Man this is a boring ass day in history. Brutus killed himself, which wasn't a bad thing cause if your eyes ever wondered to the back of Newman's Cesar Dressing, the "Don't dilute us Brutus!" saying is fucking hilarious. It does make for some good salad though...NBC managed to broadcast a videotape today in 56. See what I mean? Who really cares about this crap aside from tech junkies?

There was that whole Russian school massacre back in 02. That is still to close to talk about. Scary stuff. Terrorism flexing it self. Funny how this generation thinks we are the only ones to experience terror. Any of you remember Carlos the Jackal?

Anyway, here is a quote I found for the day-
"From the moment I picked your book up until I laid it down I was convulsed with laughter. Some day I intend reading it."
- Groucho Marx

Alright, there will be light posting today, maybe, I got to attend a meeting this afternoon.

Monday, October 22, 2007

Fall Haiku

cold dew streaks windows
the willow leaves shade to brown
sunlight warms my face

Morning Wit

Greetings and welcome to the work week! Some ballsy shinizzle went down today back in 1797, the first parachute jump was made. Think of that for a hot minute. Would you jump out of a balloon around 3000 feet with 1700's technology? HELL NO!

ANd this gentleman here on the right is Pretty Boy Floyd. So my question to my female readers is he a pretty boy? To me he looks kinda boyish, but I would not consider him pretty. I guess its all gangsta innuendo. Anyway the feds killed his pretty ass on this day in '34.

And back in the day, 1939 to be precise, the first pro football game was played. Brooklyn beat Philly. Philly better get used to it.

But here's the kicker for the day, 1975 - Air Force Technical Sergeant Leonard Matlovich was discharged after publicly declaring his homosexuality. His tombstone reads " "A gay Vietnam Veteran. When I was in the military they gave me a medal for killing two men and a discharge for loving one." I always get a kick out of telling upstanding red ass America they there are gays all through out the military. Watching them shudder and deny deny deny. Well they guys are there, they do the job as well as anyone, and former soldiers like me who served with gay soldiers could give a two shits less about the whole deal. Hell 2 of my best drinking buddies were gay. Life in the military would have been a complete drag with out them. One girl is still in. 15 years and counting. It is a strange dynamic though, hard core christian bible thumpers and gays standing next to each other in ranks.

Have a nice day!

Friday, October 19, 2007

Fall Haiku

bay grass tassels burst
wet stones shine in the driveway
soft rain comes and goes

Morning Wit


Greetings amigos. This is a small footnote in history, but today marks the first battle of Ypres in WWI. This, in my opinion, is one of the bloodiest, harshest, and bearing battles ever fought in any war. The men who fought for the Allies got the short end of the stick here. See this here map? On the right side of that bubble was the Germans, on the left side Allied forces. Notice how that bubble curves into German ground? This meant that those men who were entrenched there got shells and bullets rained on them from 3 sides. To make matters worse, Germans retreated to the high ground and left the swampy mess to the Allies. Everyone dug trenches and settle into what is now called "mutual siege". Nice if your feet are dry. This little bulge became known as "The Bloody Salient" and with good reason. Bullets and trenchfoot killed equally. And the artillery. Look at this shot from the air. They rained shell after shell down. The troops spent most of their time in holes in the ground. There has been numerous books written about this part of WWI, documentaries have been made, hell even the science channel is getting in on the action these days. Pure hell. WWI took millions and millions of lives. I don't think people in this day and age understand that. The size of the sacrifice.

And the last thing I want to bring up is today is Evander Holyfield's birthday. Dude is 55 and looks great. All I got to say is you got to stop fighting. It really is gonna hurt you. You should want to ride out these last few decades of your life with the ability to recall your glorious past. Dude you were one of the best ever. A warrior in the ring, but please, for your own sake, give it up.

Thursday, October 18, 2007

The Art of War

Sun Tzu says
"Poverty of the State exchequer causes an army to be maintained by contributions from a distance. Contributing to maintain an army at a distance causes the people to be impoverished."


Now this makes sense. We you have an army in the field for an extended period of time, it will tax the nation that supports it into poverty. This Iraq war is doing a fine job of destroying the middle class in this country. All I got to say is less than 1% of the population has over 21% of the money.

I have been tagged!!!

Alright, I got the tag from Oceanshaman the other day and I am finally getting round to posting this up. Below is the task...

5 things you want to be when you grow up. Big dreams that seem like folly, but in your heart of hearts are very real and dear to you. Things that maybe you have forgotten about in the ebb and flow and toil of the everyday, but that never really leave your soul. What you would do if anything at all at all was possible. Spend some time day dreaming…and then post them on your blog, passing the idea along to 5 others..because sometimes we need to pause and remember our dreams, hey? Maybe just saying it out loud will help you discover even little ways you can make them happen. You can write about that, too.

1. I want to write something memorable. You know something like "I think therefore I am." or "Transformers: more than meets the eye." Hell I would settle for that. Does this mean I want to be a celebrated author, not really. I guess a professor would be the right choice of words. I guess the ultimate end goal here is I want a phd. You know, Dr. Historical Wit.

2. Learn the art of flyfishing. All of it. Always had a thing for flyfishing. Always will. So I been on the path to fishing enlightenment since I was a kid.

3. Another dream I have had since I was about 12 was to own 10% of IBM stock. I know that sounds pretty lame, but I heard that once when I was 12 and it stuck. If I owned 10% of IBM stock, I could do what I wanted.

4. I want to be a pilot. Not any of that 747 crap either. I am talking P-51 mustangs. Piston driven power. If I was of age in WWI, I would have tried to get into that, even WWII, Korea, but after that probably not. Today, if I could be a cropduster, I'd do it. But I read that is a dying industry, so not much incentive to pursue that, but if money wasn't an issue....

5. This is something I always wanted to do and am on my way to accomplishing that. I wanted to start a family and grow it up right. Something that my pops couldn't do. Twice, maybe three times. It will take time, but I got that in spades.

So those are my goals, my aspirations. The things I wish I could do and the things I am trying to do.

Unfortunately, I know not of 5 people to pass this onto, so this is what it is.

Morning Wit

Greetings all my peeps out there. Hope you are doing well. Today we hold witness to the greatest bargain in the history of this country. We bought Alaska from the Russians for about 2 cents an acre. All those resources, all that pristine wilderness, all that salmon. I thought the Lousiana purchase was a big deal, but Napolean was strapped for cash. The Russians pretty much didn't want to defend it so they unloaded it. Good for us eh? Either way the Russians are not hurting for remote wilderness, they do cross 8 time zones after all. See Americans at the time actually didn't want Alaska and ragged on Mr. William Henry Seward for making the deal, but people quickly ate that crow when they found gold up there. Funny how a little money changes everything. So instead of "Seward Folly" we got the Klondike gold rush, which in someway has to be connected to the Klondike Bar. Which is good for all of us, cause what wouldn't you do for a Klondike?

Other spots in history today include this: Mason and Dixon drew a line. Who knew where that would go?

And back on this day in 1969, artificial sweetners were banned because it was discovered they caused cancer. Seriously. So why in the hell are you still using them. I know I know, there is a report you once read that said blah blah blah. What? You gonna stake your life on the faith you have in a report. Remember the definition of faith, belief without proof. Now that might be all good with religion, but just buy that organic sugar ok? It's good stuff. Or have you tried sugar in the raw? Good stuff also.

And here is your Prince quote of the day:

In France, a skinny man died of a BIG disease
With a little name
By chance his girlfriend came across a needle
And soon she did the same
At home there are 17-year-old boys
And their idea of fun
Is being in a gang called The Disciples
High on crack and totin' a machine gun
- Prince, Sign 'O' The Times

Prince is the closest thing we got to Elvis, so enjoy while you can. And if you haven't seen his show, you need to go. Make it a pilgramige. Dig?

Wednesday, October 17, 2007

Morning Wit

Well folks sorry for the lack of writing, but I have been ill the last few days. Just some mild flu and body ache stuff. Still getting the hot flashes but good enough to work.

Alright kiddies lets take a gander at the past and see what's interesting out there today. Well I would have to say the biggest event of the day is Al Capone was sent to the clink for tax evasion. Ain't that some crap? I mean this guy has been the image of what it means to be a gangster for a few generations and all they could get him on was tax evasion? Either way it ultimately landed his ass in Alcatraz because they said he manipulated the system and was living the cushy life in the ATL. In the end we got a great movie by that other guy named Al and that eventually lead us to the fabulous ring tone "Say hello to my little friend!" If any of you actually bought that shit, shame on you.

Ahh on this day in in 1918 we got the fabulous Rita Hayworth. Pop icon, sex symbol, WWII super pinup girl. What more could you ask for? And then there was Gilda, still a great flick. If you want to watch what a movie is supposed to be all about, rent it. Most kiddies this day and age couldn't follow it cause its all dialogue. But thats not the most impressive thing about her, it was the dancing. Most people have this perception that Fred Astaire was the shinizzle when it comes to dancing, and while the man was good, Rita and Ginger Rogers were way better. Why some of you may gasp? Cause they did everything he did, but backwards and in heels. Why do you think he wanted to stop working with both of them? People started to figure that shinizzle out. Props to Ginger, but Rita was the full package. Out of that era of actresses, Rita and later Audrey Hepburn were timeless.

Alright, you all have a good day. Watch out for the flu bug, its out there.