Renegade's BS

40th Anniversary of the Apollo 11 Landing!

2009-07-20T17:29:00.001-05:00

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - Neil Armstrong moved slowly down the ladder. Getting to the moon had been a long time coming. He was an Ohio pilot who came from the same soil as Orville and Wilbur, who ejected from a crippled jet fighter over Korea just after turning 21, who flew seven test flights in the X-15 rocket, who saved himself and a crewmate in Gemini 8, who ejected from a lunar landing trainer a split second before it crashed.
In the 1950s and '60s, he flew about every propeller, jet, rocket and helicopter built by his country. To say that this Midwestern farmboy was the best test pilot in an emergency ever was an easy argument. That’s why chief astronaut Deke Slayton chose Neil Armstrong to take the first step on a small world that had never been touched by life. A landscape where no leaf had ever drifted, no insect had ever scurried, where no blade of green ever waved, where in the silence of vacuum even the fury of a thermonuclear blast would sound no louder than a falling snowflake.
More than 200,000 miles away, billions of eyes stared at the black-and-white TV picture. They watched Neil’s ghostly figure move like a spacesuited phantom, closer and closer, planting his boots in moondust at 10:56 p.m. ET, July 20, 1969.
All motion stopped. "That's one small step for a man," Neil said slowly, "one giant leap for mankind."
Neil gathered several ounces of rock and soil from the lunar surface and stuffed the invaluable material in a suit pocket. The plan was, after Buzz Aldrin joined him, they would remain outside for two hours, planting experiments and collecting primarily rocks, but if something should go wrong, at least they would have a tiny bit of the moon.
With the contingency sample safely tucked away, he took the time to look around. “The moon has a very stark beauty all its own,” he said, almost whispering. “It’s like much of the high desert areas of the United States. It’s different, but it’s pretty out here.”
What we on Earth did not know at the time was exactly why history’s first moonwalk began when it did. NASA had scheduled a four-hour sleep and rest period for Armstrong and Aldrin in the lunar module, or LM, and we were told to wait.
It turned out that we were hoodwinked.
The truth came out last November. NBC News President Steve Capus was giving me a dinner to celebrate my 50 years at the network. Former astronauts Neil Armstrong, John Glenn and Edgar Mitchell flew in, along with other survivors of the old days. Following dinner and a short ride to one of our favorite watering holes, Neil spilled the beans.
“Of course we wanted to get outside as soon as possible, before an emergency. But we thought we would need several hours to get the LM’s fluids and systems settled,” he explained.
"For several hours you reporters would have been speculating, guessing about possible problems, and we didn’t want one of you inventing stories,” Neil grinned. “That’s why we put in a four-hour sleep and rest period we hoped we would never use.”
We laughed, and Neil laughed, and he added, “Everything went much faster than we expected.”
Most of us were having dinner when the call came that the moonwalk would begin early. We rushed back to our microphones and reported the history-making event of our lives.
Buzz takes his turn
While Neil took his one small step, Buzz Aldrin stayed aboard the lunar module, which they named Eagle, to monitor its systems. That was his duty as lunar module pilot, and that was one reason why he was the second man to walk on the moon. When he and Mission Control were convinced that the Eagle was safe and purring, he joined Neil on the surface.
“Beautiful, beautiful! Magnificent desolation,” Buzz said as he stared at a sky that was the darkest of blacks above a landscape that was many shades of gray, a touch of brown, and utter black where the rocks cast their shadows. No real color, not even the places lit by the unfiltered sun.
Then there was the weak gravity. They weighed only one-sixth of their Earth poundage, and Neil reported, “The surface is fine and powdery. It adheres in fine layers, like powdered charcoal, to the soles and sides of my boots. I only go in a fraction of an inch, maybe an eighth of an inch, but I can see the footprints of my boots and the treads in the fine, sandy particles.”
Was the moonwalk faked? No!
It would be these highly defined footprints that would set some armchair physicists crying the moonwalk was a fake. In the years to come there would be those who would claim Apollo astronauts never went to the moon. They said all of it was done on a movie set in an Arizona.
It occurred to me that if NASA had been so deviously smart to persuade 400,000 Apollo workers to lie, to persuade the Russians to lie, to persuade the people tracking the lunar flights with giant radio antennas around the world to lie ... well, if NASA got away with it once, would the agency be so stupid as to try to get away with this world-class hoax nine times?
The claim is too dumb not to be laughable. It is sad. We as a people would rather think the worst of ourselves than the best.
Nevertheless, scientific investigators investigated.
Myth-believers claimed that Neil and Buzz could have only left such firm, defined bootprints in soil with moisture — and everyone knows there is no water on the moon, right?
Wrong. There’s now evidence there could be water ice at the poles, but that hasn’t a thing to do with the first footprints on the moon.
Close examination of the lunar soil back on earth showed it to be virgin. The grains still had their sharp edges. They had not been rounded off by wind and erosion in an atmosphere. In their vacuum the sharp edges of lunar soil cling together, leaving a smooth surface much as moist sand does on a beach.
"Where were the stars," the myth-believers ask. "Where’s the crater carved out by Eagle's descent rockets during landing?"
The cameras that NASA sent to the moon had to use short-exposure times to take pictures of the bright lunar surface and the moonwalkers' white spacesuits. Stars’ images were too faint and underexposed to be seen, as they are in photographs taken from Earth orbit. And why didn’t the descent rockets carve out a crater? Their thrust was simply too weak to make a huge dent in the lunar surface.
So much to see, so little time
For Neil and Buzz there was so much to see and do and so little time. They moved their television camera 60 feet from Eagle. This would help Earth’s viewers see some of the things they were seeing and let them watch them going about the business of setting up Apollo 11’s experiments.
The two had problems jamming the pole that held the American flag into the lunar surface. Though a metal rod held the flag extended, the subsurface soil was so hard that they had to bang and push on the pole to get it to barely remain erect. Their forcible actions left the flag’s staff rocking back and forth for an unusual length of time.
Ah, said the myth-believers. That’s wind blowing the flag, and everyone knows there’s no wind on the moon. Right?
Right, there’s no wind on the moon. No atmosphere, just vacuum. And everyone knows an object that is forced into repeating motions in vacuum repeats many more times than it does in atmosphere. Atmospheric drag dampens movement. Vacuum is nothing. No resistance.
The flag’s motion was later duplicated in a vacuum chamber at the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama.
No fraud, no conspiracy.
With Old Glory standing, Neil moved off to take more pictures while Buzz set up a seismometer to gather information on quakes and meteorites hitting the moon. An instrument to measure the flow of radiation particles inside the solar wind and a multi-mirror target for returning laser beams fired from Earth were deployed — laser reflectors that have been used by American universities and Russian institutes and other global investigators to determine the distance between Earth and the moon to the inch.
Those laser reflectors could not have been used if Neil and Buzz had not put them there.
Just days ago, NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, launched last month from Cape Canaveral, returned its first images of the Apollo moon landing sites. The pictures show five of the six Apollo descent stages, including Apollo 11's, resting on the moon's surface. The Apollo 14 landing area shows a faint trail of Alan Shepard and Edgar Mitchell's two-mile round-trip march to Cone Crater with their "rickshaw."
Guess we really did go to the moon, huh? So much for the myth-believers and the conspiracy theorists.
In the lunar dust, the two Americans placed mementos for the five astronauts and cosmonauts who had lost their lives, and Neil read the words on a plaque mounted on Eagle's descent stage: “Here men from the planet Earth first set foot upon the moon, July 1969, A.D. We came in peace for all mankind.”
Neil and Buzz gathered about 46 pounds of lunar materials, and once everything was loaded for flight back to Earth, they shut down the first moonwalk.
Was Buzz Aldrin a publicity hog? No!
Because of the primitive state of television at the time, most of us couldn’t wait for Apollo 11 to get back with all the great pictures the crew had shot. That in itself was the beginning of yet another controversy.
When all the film had been developed, there was only one image out of the 121 Hasselblad still-camera photographs that showed Neil on the moon, plus the film from a 16mm movie camera that was set up to peer out one of Eagle's windows. Neil had taken great shots of Buzz moving about, Aldrin took only one rear shot of Neil stowing samples for return to Earth.
Why?
Was Buzz angry?
No.
“I was the one with the camera,” Neil told me. “His job was to set up the experiments. He had much to do. Nothing more than that.”
Two months ago I had the same conversation with Buzz, and got a similar response. “NASA should have trained us in public relations,” he said with passion. “We were just doing our job.”
Simply put, MIT-educated Buzz Aldrin was one of the smartest guys in the astronaut corps.
During Project Gemini, spacewalker after spacewalker had failed. They tired quickly, and Buzz studied their problems. By the time he stepped into space, he had invented the tools and methods needed to walk in a vacuum. For example, he fashioned a pair of golden slippers that could be placed where needed to hold his booted feet. A spacewalker needs that — something to hold his or her feet in place — to keep stable attachment with the spaceship. Otherwise you will thrash about wildly. During Gemini 12, Buzz Aldrin whistled and sang through his spacewalk assignments.
And when he returned from the moon, when one of those moon-conspiracy theorists shoved a Bible in Aldrin’s face and ordered him to swear on it that he walked on the moon, Buzz decked him. Fellow astronaut Wally Schirra, one of the original Mercury 7, renamed him Rocky. That’s my kind of man.
After 51 years on the job, after covering every spaceflight flown by Americans, I can report that Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin — and Michael Collins, who kept stoking the home fires on board the Apollo 11’s command ship Columbia — were the best Earth had to offer.
History, this time we got it right.
Check out the article at MSNBC.

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2009 Blockbusters!

2009-07-11T16:00:00.003-05:00

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

X-Men Origins: Wolverine

Star Trek (XI)

Angels & Demons

Terminator Salvation

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen

Fast & Furious

Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian

Up (Disney/Pixar)

Land of the Lost

Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs

Public Enemies

G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra

Inglourious Basterds

The Final Destination

9 (Tim Burton)

2012

New Moon

There sure are some awesome movies coming out! We've already seen X-Men Origins: Wolverine and Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen... both excellent movies! Next on my list are Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Terminator Salvation, Star Trek, Angels & Demons, and Inglourious Basterds... the rest can wait 'til DVD!

Happy Independence Day 2009!

2009-07-04T10:00:00.001-05:00

With the mercury hovering around 95 degrees, several hundred people gathered on the Mississippi River levee to watch three World War II-era airplanes stage a mock attack on the USS Kidd during the day’s “Star-Spangled Celebration” of Independence Day.
People eagerly scanning the sky for the start of the show saw two F-15 Eagle jets approaching from across the river before roaring above the Navy’s retired destroyer moored on the downtown Baton Rouge waterfront.
Several minutes later, three T-6 trainers, their engines a dull hum compared to the jets, approached the Kidd, which began firing back angrily, causing many of the kids in the audience to clutch at their ears.
“They’re blanks! They’re blanks!” shouted Anthony Antoine, 47, a warning to people in the crowd not to worry. “Smell that gunpowder!”
Cheryl Cummins, of Prairieville, peered up at the unfolding battle, eagerly snapping photos with her digital camera.
This was the first Fourth of July celebration in Baton Rouge for Cummins, 60, and her husband Phil, 61, who moved to the area last month from Midland, Mich.
The couple, originally from Philadelphia, said they decided to stay in the Sheraton downtown, eager to avoid the traffic following Saturday night’s fireworks display.
“We figure we had to do it once and do it right,” Cheryl Cummins said.
Maury Drummond, executive director of the USS Kidd Veterans Memorial & Museum, said the display was made possible by the Louisiana National Guard and Dan Fordyce, of Vicksburg, Miss.
“They’ve been so good to us every year,” Drummond said.
The T-6s were flown down from Mississippi earlier in the day and then waited at Baton Rouge Ryan Airport before taking off to perform in the mock battle, Drummond said.
Quite a few people could be seen milling around inside the museum Saturday, perhaps taking respite in the air conditioning from the day’s intense heat.
“It’s never been this hot,” Drummond said of the weather. “I’ve been producing a Fourth of July event for 24 years and it is absolutely brutal today.”
Drummond said he was grateful for everyone who came out despite the heat.
Earlier in the day, brothers Sean, 7, and Aaron, 10, Jameson munched on snowballs outside of the River Center. The boys and their parents crouched alongside an outside wall of the arena as they sought shelter from the noon sun.
They were among the first people down by the Mississippi river for Baton Rouge’s Star-Spangled Celebration.
As Sean ate his icy treat, a few drops of the blue snowball spilled onto his white T-shirt. Aaron showed off his green-tinged tongue as he laughed at his younger brother.
“The ice is melting before I eat it!” Sean pouted with his blue-stained lips.
The Jameson family, of Shreveport, were in Baton Rouge Saturday visiting relatives.
“We tried to get here early to beat the heat, but that didn’t happen,” said mother Laura Jameson, 39.
The all-day celebration started at 8 a.m. with Freedom Mile, a series of 1-mile races along River Road. The race was followed by tours of the USS Kidd.
As the day went on, more people showed up dressed in red, white and blue. Many of them found shady spots under trees or next to a building. Others laid out lawn chairs in the grassy area next to the USS Kidd and waited for the first live band to take the stage.
Young children found respite from the heat by splashing around in one of the area’s many fountains.
For Jeanie and Mitch Talbot, the celebration has become a Fourth of July tradition.
“We’ve been coming every year for about five years,” Mitch Talbot said. “We stay all day and wait for the fireworks.”
Check out the article at The Advocate.

Hope everyone is out enjoying their independence today! It's great to be free!!!

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Also check out 2000's Independence Day Google art:

LSU Takes CWS Final - 2009 National Champions!!!

2009-06-25T08:00:00.000-05:00

OMAHA, Nebraska — Nine years ago, most of the players on LSU’s current roster were still just young boys whose baseball futures were only beginning to take shape on baseball diamonds all over Louisiana as well as in corners as far away as New Jersey, Michigan, California and Florida.
For many of them, watching the mighty Tigers carve out their place as college baseball’s dynasty of the ’90s was central to what they wanted to do someday.
At the heart of their baseball dreams.
Sometimes, dreams come true.
Sometime arrived in style Wednesday night, when LSU surged past Texas 11-4 at Rosenblatt Stadium to win the College World Series.
The championship is the Tigers’ sixth, their first since 2000. A nine-year drought that gave some new aspirations a chance to percolate.
“It’s an unbelievable feeling to be put in a position where in Baton Rouge you’re remembered forever,” LSU right fielder Jared Mitchell said. He and Chad Jones already possess national championship rings in football from the Tigers’ 2007 BCS national championship in football.
“We put LSU baseball back on top where it belongs and for years to come, and to be a part of that is something special.”
To get back to the top, LSU (56-17) got contributions up and down the lineup to knock off Texas (50-16-1) as the Tigers won the best-of-three championship series.
Mitchell, named the CWS Most Outstanding Player, got his college swan song started in rousing fashion with a three-run, two-out, first-inning home run.
Tough-as-nails pitcher Anthony Ranaudo gutted out 51/3 innings on short rest and battled as long as he possibly could to keep LSU in front.
When the Longhorns threatened to snatch momentum away, freshman center fielder Mikie Mahtook came through in the clutch again and then Sean Ochinko stuck a dagger in Texas’ heart with a two-out, two-run single.
And in the most fitting of endings, senior Louis Coleman — LSU’s unquestionable heart-and-soul — struck out the side in the bottom of the ninth inning to ignite a wild celebration in the middle of a Rosenblatt diamond that has been so kind to the Tigers through the years.
Coleman launched his glove in the air and braced for a bear hug from catcher Micah Gibbs as the LSU players converged on the mound. Paul Mainieri shared the moment in a long hug in front of the dugout with sons Nick and Tommy. Then, he found his 80-year-old father and mentor, Demie “Doc” Mainieri, as quickly as he could.
“I’ve dreamt my whole life of having this moment after the game to be able to talk about a national championship, and now it’s here. It’s almost surreal,” said Mainieri, who guided the Tigers to the national crown in his third season.
“I’m filled with so many different emotions right now. But all I could think about during the ninth inning was my father. I’m just so happy he could be here to share it with us. But I’ll tell you, I’m so proud to be the coach at LSU and represent that great state and all the great people in that state and a wonderful university.
“And all I could think about that was these wonderful kids I’ve had a chance to coach. … I’m so happy for these kids — they’ve done everything you ask them to do, and they’re great kids, and they deserve it.”
There was the customary victory lap and the sought-after national championship hardware was distributed, but the celebration was only getting started.
Because after nine years of waiting, the Tigers are back on top — the champions of college baseball again. And a new corps of little boys has a new set of heroes and a new set of dreams to hatch.
“If there’s a better way, you write the story for me,” Mitchell said when asked if the ending to the season was as good as he could’ve expected. “I can’t explain it. It’s been so much fun with these guys who I really care about to really come together the way we did.”
No. 1-ranked LSU danced with destiny all season long and did so with nearly perfect rhythm.
The Tigers began the season ranked No. 1 in two major polls, stayed in the top 10 of every ranking throughout the season, battled through the grinding Southeastern Conference to tie for the regular-season championship and then stormed back to win the league tournament.
LSU then blazed through NCAA regional and super regional play unbeaten and won three games in Omaha to get to the CWS finals without a hiccup.
Texas had the Tigers beat in the championship series opener, but DJ LeMahieu gave LSU life with a two-out, two-run ninth inning double and Mahtook drove in the game-winner two innings later.
The ’Horns finally wobbled the Tigers with a 5-1 victory Tuesday to force the decisive third meeting, but that wasn’t enough to separate LSU from what it wanted to accomplish.
Not even close.
Wednesday’s victory fulfilled destiny’s call by pulling together all the strands of success the Tigers have relied on all season long.
Ranaudo’s grit was at the heart of the triumph. He labored through his stint, at times showing flashes of brilliance that helped him win 12 games, at others reaching down deep to find whatever he could muster.
“I knew he was going to give us a chance,” Ochinko said. “I put my head on my pillow last night knowing that Anthony Ranaudo was going to get it done for us.”
Jones, known more as a football safety, amplified the element he has added since his late-season emergence as a left-handed reliever out of the bullpen with 1 2/3 innings of scoreless relief that bridged the gap to Coleman.
Together, those two capped a magical final series by the bullpen: only three runs allowed in 15 2/3 innings.
Ochinko swung the bat like he did early in the season when he helped carry the offense. He went 4-for-5 Wednesday with a monstrous exclamation-point home run in the ninth inning after he singled three times, none bigger than a two-out, two-run single in the sixth inning.
After the feisty ’Horns drew even at 4-4 in the bottom of the fifth, the Tigers clawed back in front in the top of the sixth by erupting for five runs.
Mitchell continued a memorable championship day by beginning the inning by working Texas reliever Brandon Workman for a full-count walk. That snapped Workman’s streak of nine hitters in a row mowed down and seemed to rattle him.
UT catcher Cameron Rupp got handcuffed on a pitch that got away from him for a passed ball that allowed Mitchell to scamper to second with nobody out. Mahtook delivered his second big hit against Workman in the finals when he rifled a double to right-center to plate Mitchell with the go-ahead run.
As he reached second base, Mahtook pumped both fists.
“I didn’t have great at-bats my first three,” Mahtook said. “He threw me a fastball and I got it in the gap. Like they say, I play with a football mentality, and I just showed my emotions on second base.”
Gibbs laid down a perfect bunt to move Mahtook to third and UT reliever Austin Dicharry’s throw to first base was off the mark, allowing Gibbs to reach safely. Derek Helenihi cranked a deep fly ball to left field to score Mahtook for a 6-4 advantage, but LSU wasn’t finished.
Dicharry got Austin Nola on a groundout but walked LeMahieu on four pitches. Austin Wood took over and couldn’t get the door shut. He hit Ryan Schimpf and Blake Dean with pitches back-to-back to force in a run.
Then, on his first pitch to Ochinko, the first baseman rammed a single to left field to score LeMahieu and Schimpf for a 9-4 LSU lead.
“Got to two outs and we were in pretty good shape and then the wheels fell off the car,” legendary Texas coach Augie Garrido said. “We walked people, hit people and they kept the rally going by capitalizing on our mistakes. And then they added to it.
“Once they smelled the blood in the water, I think they did what they should do and really put us away.”
Things started with a dramatic shot in the arm for LSU when Mitchell wrapped a three-run home run around the right-field foul pole with two outs to give the Tigers an immediate lead and their earliest of the CWS finals.
Though buoyed by the quick advantage, Ranaudo wasn’t sharp like he has been most of the season, and the Longhorns got to him to cut the deficit in half in the third inning.
Travis Tucker laced a leadoff double into the left-field corner and Ranaudo walked Brandon Belt. Those two worked a double steal with one out and Tucker came home on a groundout.
With two outs Ranaudo walked three straight hitters, with Preston Clark forcing in a run when he won a 10-pitch battle with Ranaudo for an RBI walk.
The Longhorns erased LSU’s lead in the fifth inning on Kevin Keyes’ prodigious two-run blast into a section of left-center field bleachers populated by burnt orange-clad Longhorns fans.
That knotted the score 4-4 and allowed Texas to hit the reset button and turn the game into a four-inning battle for the championship.
LSU won that abbreviated showdown by scoring the final seven runs.
“They did the thing they needed to do to beat us twice,” Garrido said. “They are the best team we faced this season. By far.”
Best is what these Tigers will always be known as in 2009. Which means it’s time for new dreams.
Check out the article at The Advocate.

Sweet!!! What an awesome College World Series this has been... and with such a fitting end!

Be sure to check out Return of the Tigers! at LSUSports.net.

Congratulations Tigers!

Texas Longhorns = TIGER BAIT!!!

2009-06-23T16:49:00.001-05:00

OMAHA, Neb. -- After second baseman DJ LeMahieu erased a 6-4 deficit with a two-out RBI double in the ninth, centerfielder Mikie Mahtook laced a two-out RBI single in the 11th to give top-ranked LSU a 7-6 victory over Texas in game 1 of the National Championship series Monday night at Rosenblatt Stadium.
Freshman right-hander Matty Ott (4-2) earned the win for LSU, throwing three shutout innings between the ninth and eleventh, allowing no hits and striking out three.
“That was one of the most courageous, never-say-die, resilient effort out of one of my teams in 27 years of coaching,” LSU head coach Paul Mainieri said. “It was a total team effort tonight...one for the ages.”
The Tigers (55-16) will face Texas (49-15-1) Tuesday night at 6 p.m. CT. An LSU win will clinch a sixth national championship and its first since 2000.
Game 2 will be televised on ESPN-HD and will be aired on the LSU Sports Radio Network (WDGL 98.1 FM in Baton Rouge). Live audio and stats can be accessed in the Geaux Zone at www.lsusports.net.
LSU’s bullpen of Chad Jones, Paul Bertuccini and Ott allowed no hits in the final five innings in relief of starter Louis Coleman.
“Our bullpen has been fantastic the last month of the season,” Mainieri said. “It was great to see the rest of the guys pick up Coleman and rally around him, because he had a pretty tough outing.”
Coleman pitched six innings and allowed six runs on nine hits, including five solo homers, while striking out six.
Offensively, the Tigers were led by a 2-for-4 performance by LeMahieu, who also had three RBI and scored twice. Rightfielder Jared Mitchell also had two hits, including a two-RBI triple.
LSU wasted no time getting on the scoreboard as leftfielder Ryan Schimpf, the second batter of the game, blasted the second pitch from Texas starter Chance Ruffin over the wall in right center to put the Tigers up 1-0. It was Schimpf’s 22nd homer of the season and his third in the College World Series.
After notching only one hit through the first three innings, Texas tied the score in the fourth with a solo home run by second baseman Travis Tucker to tie the score at 1-1.
Two batters later, designated hitter Russell Moldenhauer crushed a ball off one of the flagpoles in centerfield to give the Longhorns a 2-1 advantage. It was only the second homer of the year for Moldenhauer.
Texas right fielder Kevin Keyes belted the Longhorns’ third solo homer in the inning two batters later, giving Texas a 3-1 lead. It was the first time a team has hit three homers in an inning at the College World Series since June 1, 1998, when LSU hit three against Mississippi State.
In the sixth, Ruffin left the game with two outs and Blake Dean on third and Micah Gibbs on first, giving way to left-handed reliever Austin Wood. The next batter, Jared Mitchell, hit a triple to left-center field, scoring Dean and Gibbs, tying the score at 3-3.
Ruffin threw 5.2 innings and allowed three runs on five hits with one walk, while tying a season-high with 10 strikeouts.
The Longhorns responded in the bottom of the frame when Moldenhauer launched his second solo homer of the game off Coleman, putting Texas back on top 4-3.
Texas made the score 5-3 when Keyes crossed the plate on a wild pitch by Coleman. The senior right-hander ended the sixth by striking out leftfielder Preston Clark with a runner on third.
The Tigers pulled the score within one in the seventh when second baseman DJ LeMahieu pounded a solo homer over the wall in center to make the score 5-4.
In the bottom of the frame, Texas blasted their fifth solo homer off the game, this time off the bat of centerfielder Connor Rowe, to put the Longhorns ahead 6-4.
Jones entered the game for Coleman after Rowe’s homer and retired the Longhorns in order, striking out first baseman Brandon Belt to end the inning.
The Tigers erased a 6-4 deficit with two outs in the ninth when LeMahieu laced a double down the left field line scoring Leon Landry and Derek Helenihi, tying the score at 6-6 heading to the bottom of the ninth.
After Ott got out of the ninth unscathed, the Tigers loaded the bases in the tenth, but Texas right-hander Brandon Workman entered the game with one out and struck out Helenihi and Tyler Hanover to end the LSU threat.
In the 11th, Ott struck out shortstop Brandon Loy and Maitland before forcing Rowe to ground out to Hanover at second base to end the game.
Check out the article at LSU Sports.net.

Gotta give them Texas boys props for a great game played... we're just lucky all of their homers were solos! In the end, the Tigers persevered and took one more step in proving to the nation why we deserve the title!!!

Everyone's getting in on the action! Gov. Bobby Jindal bet Texas Gov. Rick Perry a tray of Louisiana seafood against a tray of Texas Bar-B-Que that LSU will win!

Mmmmm.... Longhorn Ribeye!!! Geaux Tigers!!!

Be sure to check out LSU Baseball at LSUSports.net.

Also check out Line Drives: LSU Baseball with Randy Rosetta.

LSU Rocking College World Series 2009!

2009-06-16T13:00:00.001-05:00

OMAHA, Neb. — It’s really not meant to look this easy.
So far, though, LSU’s journey back to the top of the college baseball world hasn’t required much heavy lifting.
The No. 1-ranked Tigers blazed past Arkansas 9-1 Monday at Rosenblatt Stadium, seizing one of the cherished catbird seats at the College World Series.
The Tigers (53-16) get three days off and can sit back and watch as the Razorbacks (40-23) and Virginia battle to determine who gets the next shot at LSU at 1 p.m. Friday.
If the Tigers win that game, they punch a ticket to the best-of-three national championship series, which starts Monday.
To arrive at that enviable position, LSU jumped on Arkansas quickly to give senior pitcher Louis Coleman some immediate breathing room.
Freshman Mikie Mahtook launched a three-run first-inning home run to kick-start the Tigers and Coleman worked through a rocky beginning to discover a comfort zone.
By the time Coleman exited after six innings on the way to his 14th victory, LSU had erupted for a five-run sixth inning, anchored by home runs from Austin Nola and Blake Dean.
That was all the Tigers needed to cruise for their 12th win in a row, and the most important of Coleman’s career and coach Paul Mainieri’s three-year tenure.
How important? Now the Tigers get some extra time, which Coleman really wanted.
To make sure he and his teammates get to tour the world-famous Henry Doorly Zoo next door to Rosenblatt.
“Knowing that it could be a three-game swing,” Coleman said at first when asked about his frame of mind before the game.
“We talked about it a little bit before the game started, saying if we win (Monday), it makes it a whole lot easier. If we lose, then we’ve got to win two or maybe three to get to the end. That was really what my mentality was.”
Then after a brief pause: “And we get to go the zoo.”
Baffled earlier this season when Coleman twirled a two-hit, complete-game shutout against them, the Razorbacks couldn’t do much more with him Monday, even though he wasn’t nearly as dominant.
“When you give ball to Louis, you know he’s going to compete with everything that he’s got for his team,” Mainieri said. “Even though maybe he wasn’t electric early, I thought he became electric in the middle innings and his stuff got better as the game went on.”
Mahtook made calming down much easier for Coleman and everybody else.
With hard-throwing right-hander Brett Eibner on the mound, leadoff hitter DJ LeMahieu lashed a single to right-center field to begin the game and stole second base with Ryan Schimpf at the plate.
Schimpf fell behind Eibner 1-and-2, fouled off four pitches, took a second ball and fouled off four more pitches before finally drawing a walk to end a 13-pitch battle.
Eibner nearly got off the hook when he got Blake Dean on a fly ball to left field and struck out cleanup hitter Micah Gibbs.
But Mahtook worked the count full, fouling off a 2-and-2 offering, and then blasted a bomb toward the left-field foul pole that just cleared the top of the fence for three runs.
“He threw me a slider on the first pitch and I chased it in the dirt,” Mahtook said. “After that, I pretty much saw every pitch he threw pretty well. He tried to sneak a fastball by me, and I fouled it off. Then I was looking for the slider, because he’d thrown it a couple of times. He threw the slider and left it up a little bit. I put a good swing on it and was able to get enough of it to get it out.”
Added Mainieri, “I thought Mikie Mahtook really gave us the big lift in the first inning. We had first and second and nobody out, we did nothing in the next two at-bats. And then Mikie, with two outs, hits a three-run homer, and it’s off to the races for us.”
Arkansas took a small bite out of the lead with a run in the first when Ben Tschepikow laced a one-out opposite-field double to left, Scott Lyons singled and Andy Wilkins knocked home a run on a fly ball to left field.
That was all the Hogs mustered, though. Arkansas threatened in the second and third as well, but Coleman evaded trouble both times.
In the third, he magnified the Razorbacks’ frustration by striking out pinch-hitter Jacob House with the bases loaded with no damage done.
Arkansas never mounted another serious threat on the way to its first loss of the NCAA tournament. Starting with House’s strikeout, Coleman clicked into a groove and retired 10 of the final 12 batters he faced.
“You have to give credit to Louis Coleman,” Hogs coach Dave Van Horn said. “He was outstanding.
“We were getting runners on, just not driving them in. … We were down 4-1 with the bases loaded, and we didn’t get the hit. We didn’t even hit the ball hard. If we get the hit, we’re right there.”
LSU, meanwhile, kept pummeling the baseball.
In the second, Schimpf doubled home LeMahieu for a 4-1 lead.
Arkansas reliever TJ Forrest — a former LSU pitcher — quieted the Tigers bats for a while with 3 1/3 scoreless frames.
But Nola, the nine-hole hitter, injected some new life when he cranked out a 2-and-0 pitch for a solo home run in the sixth. Schimpf walked with two outs and Dean unloaded a two-run bomb to right that stretched the lead to 7-1.
Two more runs came home after Gibbs singled, Mahtook walked and both scored on Jared Mitchell’s base hit to left field — Mahtook when House’s throw to third base was wide left.
As meaningful as the final five-run assault was, Dean credited Mahtook’s early blow for LSU’s offensive prowess.
“Mahtook brings a lot of fire to the team,” Dean said. “The older guys tend to go with the flow. When he hits a home run, he almost takes your arm off. As veterans, we try to calm them down and the young guys bring the fire.”
As does Coleman, who pitched in a fifth consecutive CWS game Monday and responded with another gritty performance, this time with a lot of help from his friends.
“When you get Louis nine runs, it’s going to be hard to lose the ballgame,” Dean said.
Added Mainieri, “Every time you give him the ball you expect him to keep you in the game and give you a chance to win.”
Check out the article at The Advocate.

The Tigers are on fire at #1! The 2009 College World Series is theirs for the taking!

Be sure to check out LSU Baseball at LSUSports.net.

Also check out Line Drives: LSU Baseball with Randy Rosetta.

Geaux Tigers!

D-DAY: June 6, 1944

2009-06-06T01:00:00.001-05:00

LA CAMBE, France — American and German World War II veterans paid respects to their fallen comrades at a cemetery near a D-Day landing site Friday before an international commemoration of the 65th anniversary of the Allied invasion of Normandy.
During the ceremony, military bands played anthems of the United States, Germany, Britain and France and German visitors piled wreaths of flowers at the foot of a mound at the center of the cemetery at La Cambe. Some 22,000 German soldiers are buried beneath clusters of rounded brown crosses in a grassy meadow not far from Omaha Beach.
After the ceremony, most visitors headed out, but a few dozen stayed on in a corner of the cemetery, where a German priest and a few soldiers buried the remains of a German soldier discovered last year. A Frenchman conducting construction work near the German battery at Grand Camp Maisy, a dozen miles away, came across first a gun and then the remains, which have yet to be identified.
"It's a great feeling ... to come here," said Austin Cox of Crisfield, Maryland, a sergeant with the 29th Division of the U.S. 115th infantry regiment who landed on Omaha Beach at 9 a.m. on the epic day that turned the tide of World War II.
"My comrades though are buried over at Omaha," said Cox, 90.
Flags from nations on both sides of World War II flew in the spring breeze.
A low, granite entrance leads into the cemetery containing the graves of the German soldiers, each marked with a small, flat stone. The main American cemetery at nearby Colleville-Sur-Mer has about 9,300 graves. Most U.S. war dead were repatriated.
Earlier Friday, British paratroopers swooped down on Ranville as part of the commemorations. Later in the day, a fireworks display was planned up and down the shore where Allied troops launched the Battle of Normandy that helped turn the tide of the war.
The big event is Saturday, when President Barack Obama, French President Nicolas Sarkozy, the Canadian and British prime ministers and Prince Charles gather for a ceremony amid the rows of white crosses and Stars of David at the American cemetery, which is U.S. territory.
Check out the article at Fox News.

A brief history...

D-Day - June 6, 1944
The Battle of Normandy was fought in 1944 between Nazi Germany in Western Europe and the invading Allied forces as part of the larger conflict of World War II. Operation Overlord was the codename for the Allied invasion of northwest Europe, which began on June 6, 1944, and ended on August 19, 1944, when the Allies crossed the River Seine. Over sixty years later, the Normandy Invasion still remains the largest seaborne invasion in history, involving almost three million troops crossing the English Channel from England to Normandy. Operation Neptune was the codename given to the initial assault phase of Operation Overlord; its mission, to gain a foothold on the continent, started on June 6, 1944 (most commonly known by the name D-Day) and ended on June 30, 1944.
The primary Allied formations that saw combat in Normandy came from the United States of America, United Kingdom and Canada. Substantial Free French and Polish forces also participated in the battle after the assault phase, and there were also contingents from Belgium, Czechoslovakia, Greece, the Netherlands, and Norway.
The Normandy invasion began with overnight parachute and glider landings, massive air attacks, naval bombardments, and an early morning amphibious phase began on June 6, 1944. The “D-Day” forces deployed from bases along the south coast of England, the most important of these being Portsmouth. The battle for Normandy continued for more than two months, with campaigns to establish, expand, and eventually break out of the Allied beachheads, and concluded with the liberation of Paris and the fall of the Falaise pocket in late August 1944.
The Battle of Normandy was described thus by Adolf Hitler: “In the East, the vastness of space will... permit a loss of territory... without suffering a mortal blow to Germany’s chance for survival. Not so in the West! If the enemy here succeeds… consequences of staggering proportions will follow within a short time.”
Check out the article at Wikipedia.

Be sure to visit the National World War II Museum in New Orleans, Louisiana for some exciting events going on today!

If you are interested in accurate D-Day and WWII history, I highly recommend the following books by Stephen Ambrose. He has written other WWII books, but those four are by far the most notable and my favorites:

Band of Brothers: E Company, 506th Regiment, 101st Airborne from Normandy to Hitler's Eagle's Nest

D Day: June 6, 1944: The Climactic Battle of World War II

Citizen Soldiers: The U. S. Army from the Normandy Beaches to the Bulge to the Surrender of Germany

Pegasus Bridge

The HBO miniseries Band of Brothers, inspired by Stephen Ambrose's book by the same title, is a must-see for any WWII history buff. I have found the series to be one of the most historically accurate movies made on the topic... I highly recommend checking it out!

There are MANY movies made in the WWII setting, check out World War II on Film at www.worldwar-2.net and the Wikipedia List of WWII Films.

Tiananmen Square - 20 Years Later

2009-06-04T17:36:00.001-05:00

BEIJING — Chinese police aggressively deterred dissent on Thursday's 20th anniversary of the crackdown on democracy activists in Tiananmen Square, ignoring calls from Hillary Rodham Clinton and even Taiwan's China-friendly president for Beijing to face up to the 1989 violence.
Foreign journalists were barred from the vast square as uniformed and plainclothes police stood guard across the area which was the epicenter of the student-led movement that was crushed by the military on the night of June 3-4, 1989.
Security officials checking passports also blocked foreign TV camera operators and photographers from entering the square to cover the raising of China's national flag, which happens at dawn every day. Plain clothes officers aggressively confronted journalists on the streets surrounding the square, cursing and threatening violence against them.
The extraordinary security moves come after government censors shut down social networking and image-sharing Web sites such as Twitter and Flickr, and blacked out CNN and other foreign news channels each time they aired stories about Tiananmen.
Dissidents and families of crackdown victims were confined to their homes or forced to leave Beijing, part of sweeping efforts to prevent online debate or organized commemorations of the anniversary.
"We've been under 24-hour surveillance for a week and aren't able to leave home to mourn. It's totally inhuman," said Xu Jue, whose son was 22 when he was shot in the chest by soldiers and bled to death on June 4, 1989.
Officers and police cars were also stationed outside the home of Wang Yannan, the daughter of Zhao Ziyang, the Communist Party leader deposed for sympathizing with the pro-democracy protesters, according to the Hong Kong-based Information Center for Human Rights and Democracy. Wang heads an auction firm and has never been politically active.
In a further sign of the government's intransigence, the second most-wanted student leader from 1989 was forced to return to Taiwan on Thursday after flying to the Chinese territory of Macau the day before in an attempt to return home.
Wu'er Kaixi, in exile since fleeing China after the crackdown, told The Associated Press by phone he was held overnight at the Macau airport's detention center and that being denied entry on the Tiananmen anniversary was a "tragedy."
The student leader who topped the most-wanted list, Wang Dan, was jailed for seven years before being expelled to the United States in 1998.
In Washington, U.S. Secretary of State Clinton said in a statement Wednesday that China, as an emerging global power, "should examine openly the darker events of its past and provide a public accounting of those killed, detained or missing, both to learn and to heal."
Taiwanese President Ma Ying-jeou urged China to lift the taboo on discussing the crackdown.
"This painful chapter in history must be faced. Pretending it never happened is not an option," Ma said in a statement issued Thursday.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman attacked Clinton's comments as a "gross interference in China's internal affairs."
"We urge the U.S. to put aside its political prejudice and correct its wrongdoing and refrain from disrupting or undermining bilateral relations," Qin said in response to a question at a regularly scheduled news briefing.
Qin refused to comment on the security measures — or even acknowledge they were in place.
"Today is like any other day, stable," he said.
Beijing has never allowed an independent investigation into the military's crushing of the protests, in which possibly thousands of students, activists and ordinary citizens were killed. Young Chinese know little about the events, having grown up in a generation that has largely eschewed politics in favor of raw nationalism, wealth acquisition, and individual pursuits.
Authorities have been tightening surveillance of China's dissident community ahead of the anniversary, with some leading writers under close watch or house arrest for months.
Ding Zilin, a retired professor and advocate for Tiananmen victims, said by telephone that a dozen officers have been blocking her and her husband from leaving their Beijing apartment.
In contrast to the repression on the mainland, tens of thousands of people were expected to attend an annual candlelight vigil in the former British colony of Hong Kong, which has maintained its own legal system and open society since reverting to Chinese rule in 1997.
Check out article at Fox News.

What happened in Tiananmen Square 20 years ago should serve as a grande example why government control is not the answer to a people's problems. As was graphically illustrated: "It is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong!"

For more info on the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989, check out the Wiki!

Happy 25th Birthday Tetris!

2009-06-03T17:10:00.002-05:00

NEW YORK — With its scratches and sticky brown beer stains, the "Tetris" arcade machine near the back of a Brooklyn bar called Barcade has seen better days. Which makes sense, given that the machine was made in the 1980s.
Even today, though, it's not hard to find 20- and 30-somethings plucking away at its ancient controls, flipping shapes made up of four connected squares and fitting them into orderly patterns as they descend, faster and faster as the game goes on.
"You could just play infinitely," said Michael Pierce, 28, who was playing against Dan Rothfarb, also 28. Both have been fans since they — and the game — were young. "Tetris" has its 25th birthday this week.
Completed by a Soviet programmer in 1984, "Tetris" has come a long way from its square roots. It's played by millions, not just on computers and gaming consoles but now on Facebook and the iPhone as well.
"Tetris" stands out as one of the rare cultural products to come West from the Soviet Union during the Cold War. And the addictive rhythm of its task-by-task race against time was an early sign of our inbox-clearing, Twitter-updating, BlackBerry-thumbing world to come.
In her book "Hamlet on the Holodeck," Georgia Tech professor Janet Murray called "Tetris" the "perfect enactment of the overtasked lives of Americans."
The game, she wrote, shows the "constant bombardment of tasks that demand our attention and that we must somehow fit into our overcrowded schedules and clear off our desks in order to make room for the next onslaught."
Many people who grew up with "Tetris" haven't stopped playing.
"Tetris" is easy to pick up. Rotate the falling shapes so that you form full lines at the bottom of the screen. Fit the shapes so there are as few open spaces left as possible. Aim for a Tetris: four lines completed in one swoop. Repeat. Watch your score zoom.
But Tetris is hard to master. Because the shapes — technically known as tetrominoes — come in a random order, it is hard to predict the best way to organize them so that they can form neat rows.
In fact, in 2002, Massachusetts Institute of Technology researchers determined that the potential combinations are so numerous that it would be impossible even for a computer to calculate the best place to put each falling shape.
Erik Demaine, an associate professor of computer science, praised the game's "mathematical elegance," which perhaps stems from the background of its developer.
Alexey Pajitnov was 29 and working for the Moscow Academy of Sciences when he completed "Tetris" on June 6, 1984, for a Soviet computer system called the Elektronika.
A computer programmer by day who researched artificial intelligence and automatic speech recognition, Pajitnov worked on the game in his spare time.
"All my life I liked puzzles, mathematical riddles and diversion," Pajitnov said in a recent interview from Moscow. "Tetris," he said, was just one of the games he made back then. The others are mostly long forgotten.
Pajitnov's creation spread in Moscow through the small community of people who had access to computers. Word filtered through computer circles to the West, where the game drew the interest of entrepreneurs.
A company called Spectrum HoloByte managed to obtain PC rights, but another, Mirrorsoft, also released a version.
Years of legal wrangling followed, with several companies claiming pieces of the "Tetris" pie — for handheld systems, computers and arcades.
Complicating matters, the Soviet Union did not allow privately held businesses. The Soviet state held the "Tetris" licensing rights and Pajitnov had no claim to the profits. He didn't fight it.
"Basically, at the moment I realized I wanted this game to be published, I understood that Soviet power will either help me or never let it happen," he said.
It wasn't until 1996 that Pajitnov got licensing rights. Asked whether he made enough money off the game to live comfortably, he says yes, but offers no more details.
Today, he is part owner of Tetris Co., which manages the game's licenses worldwide.
Nintendo Co. was an early and big beneficiary of the game, which stood out from its mid-'80s peers because it had no characters and no shooting.
When Nintendo was preparing to release its Game Boy device in 1989, the company planned to include with it one of the games that are also classics today: "Super Mario," "Donkey Kong" and "Zelda."
But Nintendo wanted something everyone would play — a "perfect killer game" that would sell the Game Boy, said Minoru Arakawa, the president of Nintendo of America from 1980 to 2002.
The solution was "Tetris" — though Nintendo needed help from Henk Rogers, a U.S. entrepreneur.
Rogers had spotted "Tetris" at the International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas and bought the rights to a PC version of the game in Japan from Spectrum HoloByte.
In February 1989, he went to Moscow on a tourist visa to try to get the rights for Nintendo. He spent his first day in a taxi with a driver who didn't speak English, communicating by gestures and trying in vain to find the ministry of software and hardware export.
The next morning, he hired an interpreter and things went more smoothly, and "Tetris" got bundled into the first Game Boy.
Since then, "Tetris" has expanded to all kinds of devices and inspired a generation of knockoffs. Tetris Co. says 125 million copies have been sold in various incarnations.
Pajitnov says "Tetris" could stick around another quarter-century.
"I hope so, why not?" he said. "Technology changes a lot, but I can't say people change a lot."
Check out article at Fox News.

From playing against my brother via wire on long car trips... to hooking up my grandpa's Super-Gameboy on his TV so he could play Tetris without having to squint at the little screen... to competing against many family members for bragging rights on highest score... to downloading Tetris Party for the Wii and introducing it to my kids... I have many fond memories of this classic game! Congrats on 25 great years!!!

For more info, check out the Tetris Wiki!

Memorial Day 2009

2009-05-25T09:43:00.003-05:00

RIVERSIDE, Calif. — Abts, Richard. Adamski, Walter. Ahlman, Enoch.
The names are whisked away by the hot, gusting wind as soon as they are spoken, forgotten in the stream of the next name and the next name and the next name.
Fuller, Addison. Fuller, Mary. Furlong, John.
The story of America could be told through these names, tales of bravery and hesitation, of dreams achieved or deferred and of battles won and lost.
Taken alone, they are just words, identities stripped of place and time, stripped of rank and deeds and meaning.
But they are not taken alone. They are taken together — 148,000 names, representing the entire veteran population of Riverside National Cemetery, a roll call of the dead read aloud over 10 days by more than 300 volunteers.
They read in pairs, rotating through 15-minute shifts in the beating sun, in the chilly desert night and in the pre-dawn hours thick with mosquitoes.
Some time on Memorial Day, they will read the last name on the 2,465th page.
Some read for their country.
Others read for a father lost in battle or a beloved son cut down in his prime.
And one man reads for no one in particular — except, maybe, for himself.
Richard Blackaby was just 18 and fresh out of high school in 1966 when he was drafted for Vietnam. His father had served as a Seabee in the U.S. Navy during World War II and Blackaby was desperate to follow in his path.
But the Army said no: Blackaby had epilepsy and asthma and was unfit for service.
Twelve years later, Blackaby — now married with three children — reapplied to the Army and was accepted to the 4th Infantry Division as a forward observer.
But Vietnam was over and the eager recruit spent the next six years waiting for a war that never came. When he was honorably discharged in 1984, he was a sergeant but had never experienced combat, had never called in a real air strike or fired at a real target.
Nearly 25 years later, Blackaby's missed opportunity weighs on him as he patrols his self-selected battleground: Riverside, the nation's busiest national cemetery. While others gave their lives, Blackaby gives his time — and a lot of it, nearly 30 hours a week.
Over the years, Blackaby has made his specialty here not among the remembered and the honored, but among the lost, the abandoned and the forgotten. The work seems to fit his story of missed chances and dashed dreams, his yearning to belong to something greater than himself.
Every day, the 60-year-old grandfather with the crinkly, blue-gray eyes slips on the black leather vest that's his personal uniform and stands at attention as the cemetery honors the cremated remains of dozens of abandoned or forgotten veterans.
Every day, he salutes as the National Guard reads the names off the simple wooden boxes filled with ashes.
Every day, he accepts the folded flag for soldiers he will never know — and then gives it back for the next day's dead.
Dog tags engraved with the names of 145 forgotten veterans dangle from a thick key chain that never leaves his side, a different color for each branch of service. He knows the story behind almost every name.
"If I didn't do it, who would do it?" he says. "I mean, they have friends, they HAVE to have friends. They don't go through a whole lifetime and not have somebody that cares about them."
And, true to form, Blackaby reads names — hundreds of them — for the roll call project.
He reads for hours on overnight shifts in the cemetery's eerie gloom, the podium illuminated only by a floodlight. He reads during the weekend afternoons and late into a Saturday night to cover gaps in the schedule.
"Every one that we read off, I feel like I am probably doing their family a favor because they can't be here," he said.
"I'm reading off a whole litany of history. It kind of makes you wonder what's behind each name, what their life was like, what they did."
Lamborn, Richard. Lamphear, Everett. Landaker, Jared.
A gust of wind springs up and snatches the last name away.
No one notices it and later, even the volunteer readers won't recall the name of the young Marine or which one of them read it.
All they know is he was a 1st lieutenant, fifth from the bottom on page seven of 2,465.
Joe Landaker was the first person to touch his son, Jared, as he slipped into the world on his parents' bed on May 3, 1981, after 36 hours of labor.
From the beginning, Jared was special — but not in the way most parents would want. His skull was compressed during birth and doctors warned that he might be mentally challenged.
During childhood, he kept falling off the growth chart. He barely topped out at 5-foot-8.
But Jared, who went by the nickname J-Rod, surprised everyone.
He took calculus in high school, knuckled down in college and got a degree in physics. He signed up for the Marines his sophomore year and graduated from officer training school in Quantico, Va., among the top five in his platoon of 80 men.
By fall of 2003, he was in flight school and on Aug. 18, 2006, Jared shipped out for Iraq as a Marine helicopter pilot flying a CH-46 Sea Knight with the famed HMM-364 Purple Foxes.
"He overcame so many adversities in his life, time after time," said his father, Joe.
On Feb. 7, 2007, a week before Jared was expected home in Big Bear City, his father was watching CNN at 5:30 a.m., getting ready to go to work, when he saw that a CH-46 chopper had been shot down near while on a medical mission.
Two months before, when two Marines died in a CH-46 crash, Jared had e-mailed his parents within two hours to let him know he was OK.
But this time, hours passed with no word.
"They said there were seven people on board, so I waited. I didn't go to work, waited and waited all day long, waited again for his e-mail or a phone call that he was all right," said Landaker, choking back tears. "It never did come."
At 4:15 p.m., a Marine captain, a chaplain and a 1st sergeant came to tell Landaker his son had died on his last mission before coming home.
Since that day, Landaker has been consumed with keeping his son's memory alive. He shares his story with anyone who will listen. He has memorized every detail of his son's life and death. He now knows that the boy who called him "Pops" took 58 seconds to lower his stricken chopper from 1,500 feet to 200 feet; seven seconds faster, and he might be alive today.
"The last thing I want to do is forget about Jared. He comes to my mind all the time, songs, things that you see," said Landaker. "When he was a baby, I'd give him a shower and I'd hold him up and those kind of memories come to mind all the time."
"He's so special to me," he said. "Those Iraqis have no idea who they killed."
The rows of grave markers are cool and smooth in the heat, their numbers obscured by tufts of grass that have crept around the edges of the stone.
Landaker walks, head bowed, along the rows of plots in Section 49B.
"3438. It should be right around here," he says, bending low.
Then Landaker falls to his knees, weeping.
The stories, the details don't matter now: There is no way to unbury the dead, to bring the CH-46 from 200 feet back to 1,500 feet, to reset the clock with seven extra seconds.
"Well, all right son," he says. "Take care, son."
And so he volunteers to help call the roll at Riverside. He will not have an opportunity to read his own son's name, but at least he can ensure that the sons of others are not forgotten.
The heat beats down on the volunteers. A dozen spectators press themselves into any sliver of shade — a tree, the thin shadow of the flagpole, an awning.
In the shade near the sign-in booth, Richard Blackaby and Joe Landaker stand ready to take the podium, two strangers awkwardly chatting before their shared 15 minutes of service.
Landaker wears a white T-shirt printed with Jared's photo; Blackaby, for once, has shed his black leather vest for a dark suit adorned with military ribbons and an American flag pin.
They discover a bittersweet bond: Blackaby escorted Jared's coffin to his military funeral at the cemetery two years before. The two men embrace, then step to the podium.
The names pass between them like fragile treasures.
White, Clark. White, Mary. Whito, Russell.
Their 15 minutes pass, and they step down. Landaker, eyes red with tears, has another piece of his puzzle, another connection — another story to cling to.
But Blackaby is not finished. He steps forward again, ready to read for those who will never have the love of a father like Jared's. He will be there until 2:30 a.m. on this muggy Sunday and back again the next day and the next day and the next.
He is patrolling the boundaries of the past, filling gaps in this American story and in his own life — one name at a time.
Check out article at Fox News.

It is very sad to think of the countless families who are effected by the loss of their family member in the service of our country. It is important that we all remember their sacrifices and the freedom we enjoy because of them.

Be sure to check out the Memorial Day Wiki

YOU ARE NOT FORGOTTEN!

Soldier Defends Post in Pink Boxers!!!

2009-05-22T14:55:00.001-05:00

Defense Secretary Robert Gates on Thursday praised an Army soldier in eastern Afghanistan who drew media attention this month after rushing to defend his post from attack while wearing pink boxer shorts and flip-flops, Reuters reported.
Gates said in prepared remarks that he wants to meet the soldier and shake his hand the next time he visits Afghanistan.
"Any soldier who goes into battle against the Taliban in pink boxers and flip-flops has a special kind of courage," Gates said in a speech to be delivered in New York.
"I can only wonder about the impact on the Taliban. Just imagine seeing that: a guy in pink boxers and flip-flops has you in his cross-hairs. What an incredible innovation in psychological warfare," he said.
Army Specialist Zachary Boyd, 19, of Fort Worth, Texas, rushed from his sleeping quarters on May 11 to join fellow platoon members at a base in Afghanistan's Kunar Province after the unit came under fire from Taliban positions.
A news photographer was on hand to record the image of Boyd standing at a makeshift rampart in helmet, body armor, red T-shirt and boxers emblazoned with the message: "I love NY."
When the image wound up on the front page of the New York Times, Boyd told his parents he might lose his job if President Obama saw him out of uniform.
"I can assure you that Specialist Boyd's job is very safe indeed," Gates said in the speech.
The U.S. defense chief was scheduled to deliver the speech at New York's annual Salute to Freedom dinner in Manhattan.
Check out article at Fox News.

Now that's what I call some serious dedication! Hats off to Spc. Boyd!!!

Indianapolis Motor Speedway Turns 100!!!

2009-05-05T15:28:00.001-05:00

INDIANAPOLIS — Indianapolis Motor Speedway has made the reputation of racing greats: A.J. Foyt, Rick Mears, the Unser family.
It's been a testing ground for safety features such as rearview mirrors and seat belts, well before they became commonplace in Americans' everyday lives. It's been a movie set, and the place where Janet Guthrie struck a blow for female athletes by becoming the first woman racer at the Indy 500 in 1977.
And, as of this year, Indy has been part of American driving and racing for a century.
"Not only is this the same joint, the (first) surface is still there ... the crushed rock and tar is still there," speedway historian Donald Davidson said.
The common perception that bricks were used first as the first track surface is as untrue as the speedway's reputation for being a race car-only facility - that was never the intent.
When Carl Fisher and three other partners bought four large plots of farmland for $72,000 in 1908, they wanted to make the speedway a showcase for what was then a major automobile-producing city.
Early cars reached maximum speeds of about 10 mph on the city's dirt roads, so Fisher surmised automakers needed a place to demonstrate whose stripped-down cars were the best.
By 1911, with Indy automakers going out of business, track owners switched gears and started the Indianapolis 500 International Sweepstakes, which gave the speedway and generations of drivers their signature event.
It worked.
Seventy-five thousand out-of-towners from as far away as New York came to Indy and saw Ray Harroun drive a locally built Marmon Wasp to victory in the first Indy 500. The influx of fans never stopped. Tuesday's rookie orientation kicks off practice for the 93rd Indianapolis 500, a race that likely will draw 300,000 people on May 24. The race was shut down during the two world wars.
"The early testing was 'Can we drive this thing from Indianapolis to Greenfield (Indiana) and back,' and then it was 'How can we push these things to the max?'" Davidson said. "The thinking was 'We need a track so we can push them to the limits at all times.' How did you find the weak link? You just stood on it till it broke and then you took it back to the factory to find out how it broke."
Fisher had bigger plans, though, and over the decades the speedway has often transcended auto racing alone.
The first event at the speedway, in fact, was a helium balloon competition. In June 1910, Orville Wright was flying planes over the facility at the United States' first aviation meet. During World War I, the track served as an Army aviation depot to repair planes, and then-owner Eddie Rickenbacker, a World War I flying ace, offered it up for the same purpose during World War II.
By the end of that war, the track nearly ended up on history's scrap heap..
It was nearly destroyed by overgrown foliage and rotting wood, prompting some to contend it should be torn down and converted into a subdivision to help ease the nation's housing crisis - a move that would have forced all those familiar names to attain fame somewhere other than Indianapolis.
Then, in 1945, Terre Huate businessman Tony Hulman Jr. saved it. He bought the track from Rickenbacker and started a major renovation project.
"The infield was just a jungle, and everybody thought the thing was pretty much done for," Davidson said. "The locals said it was falling apart and the wood was rotting and falling down."
Not for long. Throughout the '50s and '60s, the track played an integral role in the city's image. The ABA (and now NBA) franchise that first took the floor in 1967 called itself the Pacers partly because of the Indianapolis' racing reputation. Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward filmed the movie "Winning" at Indy. Afterward, Newman got involved in the sport himself.
Despite the complaints of some, the races have gone beyond traditional Indy cars: NASCAR, Formula One and even motorcyles have or do compete here. To kick off this month's centennial celebration, the speedway held hot-air balloon races.
But to those who grew up around the track, the history and future of the track gets back to the 500.
"The 500 is something that will endure a long time after I'm gone," said Tony George, grandson of Hulman, whose family still owns the track. "You know when I was young, I enjoyed coming out and going to the cafeteria under the old terrace tower and having a Coke or a chocolate malt. That's why I wanted to come to the track."
What will the next century bring?
George, who turns 50 later this year, isn't sure. After spending millions of dollars to build the road course for F1, a road course Fisher lobbied for as part of his grand plan, he wants F1 to return to America. The track also has been involved in a redevelopment plan for the city of the speedway.
Yet George insists his family will fulfill the track's purpose - putting on good races and being a community partner with the city and its businesses.
"I learned about the commitment to be a steward of the institution," George said. "That's how my grandparents did it, and the generations that followed have tried to do the same thing."
Check out article at Fox News.

Very interesting info on how the Brickyard came to be!

For more info, check out the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Wiki.

Be sure to check out the Official Indianapolis Motor Speedway Website.

Happy Birthday Samuel Morse!

2009-04-27T14:21:00.002-05:00

Morse code is a type of character encoding that transmits telegraphic information using rhythm. Morse code uses a standardized sequence of short and long elements to represent the letters, numerals, punctuation and special characters of a given message. The short and long elements can be formed by sounds, marks, or pulses, in on off keying and are commonly known as "dots" and "dashes" or "dits" and "dahs". The speed of Morse code is measured in words per minute (WPM) or characters per minute, while fixed-length data forms of telecommunication transmission are usually measured in baud or bps.
Originally created for Samuel F. B. Morse's electric telegraph in the early 1840s, Morse code was also extensively used for early radio communication beginning in the 1890s. For the first half of the twentieth century, the majority of high-speed international communication was conducted in Morse code, using telegraph lines, undersea cables, and radio circuits. However, the variable length of the Morse characters made it hard to adapt to automated circuits, so for most electronic communication it has been replaced by machine readable formats, such as Baudot code and ASCII.
The most popular current use of Morse code is by amateur radio operators, although it is no longer a requirement for amateur licensing in many countries. In the professional field, pilots and air traffic controllers are usually familiar with Morse code and require a basic understanding. Navigational aids in the field of aviation, such as VORs and NDBs, constantly transmit their identity in Morse code. Morse code is designed to be read by humans without a decoding device, making it useful for sending automated digital data in voice channels. For emergency signaling, Morse code can be sent by way of improvised sources that can be easily "keyed" on and off, making Morse code one of the most versatile methods of telecommunication in existence.
Check out article at Wikipedia.

I checked out the Development and History section of the Morse Code article and I must say that I learned something new! Having not known much about the history of Morse Code, I had always assumed that it was originally invented for the same reasons that it has been used for the last 150+ years. Surprisingly enough, the technology evolved through some interesting methods... history never ceases to amaze!

On another note, if the world and all of it's technology were to be turned upside down one day, one could depend on basic technologies such as Morse Code for communication. Those possessing this knowledge would be indispensable! Unfortunately, like many old-school technologies and skills, they are falling by the wayside as digital technologies take over. But one day, it will all blink off and we'll need to know how to do things old-school again... one can only hope the library has some good info in print. But, I digress...

Check out today's Google art:

Earth Day 2009

2009-04-22T15:21:00.003-05:00

From not-so-humble beginnings in 1970, when 20 million participated across the U.S., Earth Day has grown into a global tradition, with a billion expected to take part in 2009. Find out when it is, how it started, how it's evolved, and what you can do.
When Is Earth Day?
Every day, the saying goes, is Earth Day. But it's popularly celebrated on April 22. Why?
One persistent rumor holds that April 22 was chosen because it's the birthday of Vladimir Lenin, the founder of the Soviet Union.
"Lenin's goal was to destroy private property and this goal is obviously shared by environmentalists," the Capitalism Magazine Web site noted in a 2004 article perpetuating the theory.
Kathleen Rogers, president of Washington, D.C.-based Earth Day Network, which was founded by the original organizers of Earth Day, scoffs at the rumored communist connection.
She said April 22, 1970, was chosen for the first Earth Day in part because it fell on a Wednesday, the best part of the week to encourage a large turnout for the environmental rallies held across the country.
"It worked out perfectly, because everybody was at work and they all left," she said.
In fact, more than 20 million people across the U.S. are estimated to have participated in that first Earth Day.
Earth Day is now celebrated every year by more than a billion people in 180 nations around the world, according to Rogers.
Mad People and a Frustrated Politician
Earth Day's history is rooted in 1960s activism. The environment was in visible ruins and people were mad, according to Rogers.
"It wasn't uncommon in some cities during rush hour to be standing on a street corner and not be able to see across the street" because of pollution, she said.
Despite the anger, green issues were absent from the U.S. political agenda, which frustrated U.S. Senator Gaylord Nelson of Wisconsin, whose campaigns for the environment through much of the 1960s had fallen flat.
First Earth Day "Took off Like Gangbusters"
In 1969 Nelson hit on the idea of an environmental protest modeled after anti-Vietnam War demonstrations called teach-ins.
"It took off like gangbusters. Telegrams, letters, and telephone inquiries poured in from all across the country," Nelson recounted in an essay shortly before he died in July 2005 at 89.
"The American people finally had a forum to express its concern about what was happening to the land, rivers, lakes, and air—and they did so with spectacular exuberance."
Nelson recruited activist Denis Hayes to organize the April 22, 1970, teach-in, which today is sometimes credited for launching the modern environmental movement.
By the end of 1970, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency had been born, and efforts to improve air and water quality were gaining political traction.
"It was truly amazing what happened," Rogers said. "Blocks just tumbled."
Earth Day Evolves
Amy Cassara is a senior associate at the World Resources Institute in Washington, D.C., who analyzes global environmental trends.
She noted that, since Earth Day started, environmentalism has moved from a fringe issue to a mainstream concern. "As many as 80 percent of Americans describe themselves as environmentalists," Cassara said.
Environmental issues today, however, are less immediate than dirty air, toxic water, and a hole in the ozone layer, she added.
For example, the impacts of global climate change are largely abstract and difficult to explain "without coming off as a doomsday prognosticator," Cassara said.
"As we become more industrialized and our supply chains become less transparent, it can be more difficult to understand the environmental consequences of our actions," she noted.
Earth Day Network is pushing the Earth Day movement from single-day actions—such as park cleanups and tree-planting parties—to long-term commitments.
"Planting a tree, morally and poetically, requires taking care of it for a really long time, not just sticking it in the ground," Earth Day Network's Rogers said.
To help make the transition, the organization is aligned with a hundred thousand schools around the world, integrating projects with an environmental component into the year-round curriculum.
"They announce the results on Earth Day, so Earth Day becomes a moment in time," Rogers said.
Cassara, of the World Resources Institute, said her organization uses Earth Day to convene with leaders in the movement and assess progress in their campaigns.
"[Earth Day] doesn't raise awareness among the general public in the same way that it used to. But it still provides a benchmark for reflection among those of us in the environmental community," she said.
What to Do on Earth Day?
For those whose inner environmentalist speaks loudest on April 22, Earth Day Network's Rogers encourages them to make a public commitment to take an environmental action.
"We are headed for a billion commitments to do something green," Rogers said. "And that doesn't mean think about it—it means do something."
Commitment ideas promoted by the Earth Day Network include pledging to educate friends and family on global warming or buy green products such as energy-saving compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFLs).
The commitments are part of a yearlong initiative called the Green Generation, which leads up to the 40th anniversary of Earth Day in 2010.
According to Rogers, everyone is part of this generation, which marks the transition from the industrial revolution to the green revolution.
"It is also about the green generation of energy and the generation of green jobs. ... The name [Green Generation], whenever I say it to people, they have their own idea of what it means, which is exactly what we want."
Check out article at National Geographic News.

In case you're wondering how you can do your part to preserve our beautiful planet, visit the Leave No Trace website.

Be sure to check out the Earth Day Network website.

Check out today's Google art:

Scientists Race to Prevent 'Catastrophic Disaster' in Space!

2009-04-07T09:45:00.001-05:00

In 1970, Marshall Kaplan, then an aerospace engineering professor at Penn State, had a peculiar dream — he wanted to retrieve Sputnik, the world's first orbiting satellite, from space.
Sputnik had been launched by the Russians in 1957, and by 1970 it was no longer operational. Kaplan wanted to go get it.
NASA had never considered space retrieval before, but it thought it was a good idea. Kaplan got the job, but it didn't work out — because the time frame was too short. Sputnik, nearing the end of its life cycle, was already about to deorbit — the technical term for what happens when an object circling the Earth gets close enough to be caught in gravity and burned to cinders in the atmosphere.
But that didn't mean Kaplan needed a new line of work. In fact, his work was just beginning.
For the next 40 years, Kaplan, now a senior researcher in the space department at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Md., has been figuring out how to bring down objects from space.
That makes him one of a few dozen scientists feverishly trying to prevent what he calls a "coming catastrophic disaster" — a collision between a manned spacecraft and orbital debris, or space junk, thousands of pieces of which are zooming at thousands of miles per hour 300 to 800 miles above the Earth, ready to take out anything in their paths.
Space junk is anything that's lost or discarded in orbit — everything from the spare glove astronaut Ed White lost on the first American spacewalk in 1965, to the garbage bags jettisoned by cosmonauts stationed on the Mir space station in the '80s and '90s, to the dangerous remnants of a old weather satellite blasted into smithereens by a Chinese missile in 2007.
The probability of a disastrous orbital collision has been on front pages lately. On Feb. 12, a Russian-made satellite smashed into a commercial U.S. telecommunications satellite, creating the second worst mess (after the deliberate Chinese incident) ever in space.
Fortunately, the telecom satellite was quickly replaced, and the Russian "bird" had long been out of commission.
But a month later, on March 13, the two astronauts and one cosmonaut aboard the International Space Station had to scramble into an escape capsule after they got less than 20 minutes' warning that a piece of speeding junk was heading straight for them.
There wasn't time to reposition the ISS, which could have suffered a fatal loss of pressure had the five-inch piece of an old rocket punctured the walls of a living area. Fortunately, the debris missed.
"This is just a taste of what's to come. Experts are saying we could expect a crash every couple of years, but this is an educated guess," says Michael Krepon, co-founder of The Henry L. Stimson Center, a Washington-based think tank that focuses on security concerns.
"We really don't know the scale of the problem — we just know that we've already done serious damage to a zone of space that's essential to our security."
Our fast-paced, hyperlinked world could not exist without orbital relays; everything from phone calls to GPS devices to banking transfers needs satellites to work.
Even more damaging to satellites, and the enormous potential of the commercial development of space overall, could be a ground-based threat — crippling lawsuits over orbital-debris collisions.
"Liability claims killed the private aviation industry," says Peter Diamandis, founder and chairman of the X Prize Foundation, which sponsors contests and awards for private space ventures and innovation. "In space, we're going to be dealing with 'Your satellite killed my satellite' claims. It's going to be a mess."
No ... it's a mess already.
"We're currently tracking 18,000 objects floating through space," says Kaplan. "But that's only objects larger than 4 inches. At 10,000 mph, even a nut or a bolt could do serious damage."
In the microscopic range, there are literally billions of micro-particles around — too small to puncture a spacecraft's exterior, but enough to have already pitted windows on a space shuttle and destroyed a lens on an orbiting telescope.
It's Kaplan's job to figure out how to get all of this down, and it's a big job.
"This clean-up will cost tens of billions of dollars," he says. "It's going to require a whole new space program to pull off. But we don't have a choice. This is just a cost-benefit analysis. If we don't clean this mess up in the next 20 years, we're going to lose our access to space."
Nations are beginning to act. On Feb. 13, the United Nations endorsed seven "Space Debris Guidelines to Curtail Space Debris in the Future."
The guidelines include adding more shielding to spacecraft and giving satellites extra fuel so they can either deorbit themselves quickly (it normally takes decades) or put themselves into higher, less crowded orbits at the ends of their life cycles.
The Colorado-based Secure World Foundation, a space think tank, is calling for a Civil Space Situational Awareness System — essentially a global air-traffic controller that would track everything in orbit so collisions could be avoided.
That sounds like a no-brainer, but it's something of a problem for the Air Force, to use only one example of a governmental authority that naturally has serious concerns about telling anyone where its surveillance satellites are at any given time.
A Stanford study released in late March suggests that future space junk can be minimized by simply forcing nations to "take out their own garbage" by deorbiting anything after it's done its job.
Most experts feel the U.N. recommendations will be ratified by international treaty, or a similar mechanism for good-conduct rules will be enacted soon.
But while all of these ideas are good planning, they don't get rid of the junk that's already up there.
That's what Kaplan spends most of his time working on.
Recently, he conducted a global survey of orbital waste-management ideas. He got over 100 — some pipe dreams, some crack-pipe dreams, but 30 or 40 of them with merit.
One concept that's gotten attention is the "space broom," a ground-based laser that will use quick pulses to singe orbital debris, changing each piece's trajectory so that it deorbits faster. The idea has considerable merit, and considerable problems — how to hit each piece, for one.
"We don't really know where this junk is with any real sense of accuracy," says Kaplan. "We can get within a few meters, perhaps, but that's not enough for a laser."
You could get a lot closer by putting the lasers on a spacescraft, but that would be a space-based weapon, and those are banned by several international treaties.
"Collection by collision" is another possibility Kaplan is earnestly examining.
The idea is simple — coat a spaceship in something sticky and put it into orbit. Think of it as a giant lint roller — debris will naturally collide with the craft, but instead of bouncing off or tearing through it, the junk will simply adhere. The added mass will lower the ship until it deorbits on its own.
And then there are a bevy of independent thinkers eager to jump into the mix.
Retired aerospace engineer Jim Hollopeter was profiled in a recent Wall Street Journal article, which reported that he wants to load aging rockets with water and bring down debris with what would essentially be the world's largest fire hose.
Meanwhile, the folks at Tether Unlimited, a Washington-based aerospace company funded by the Air Force, have created the "terminator tape," basically a pizza-sized box that can be clamped on to to a defunct satellite.
Once attached, the box opens, several hundred meters of electro-dynamic wire unspool and atmospheric drag does the rest to bring the bird down.
There are also nets, and magnets, and a science-fiction treasure trove of tantalization. The bad news is that none of them, even something as low-tech as the terminator tether, comes cheap.
The good news is that many could be "bootstrap"-financing technologies. There's a fortune to be made in space-mining operations, for example in harvesting nickel from the moon.
Diamandis himself believes this future industry will produce the world's first trillionaire, and if the fortunes of the 19th-century "robber barons" are anything to go by, he may not be wrong.
The point is that cleaning debris out of space means learning how to tow objects around space — a fundamental component of any mining operation.
"You don't even have to go that far out," says Diamandis. "Whatever 'waste management' organization gets the contract for space is looking at heaps of valuable material already floating around above us. You have to remember — one man's waste is another's treasure."
Check out article at Fox News.

It seems that wherever we go, humans somehow manage to pollute and litter the environment. When will we ever learn... LEAVE NO TRACE!!!

Be sure to check out NASA Orbital Debris Program Office

Cosmic Hand Reaches for the Light!

2009-04-06T15:00:00.000-05:00

Tiny and dying but still-powerful stars called pulsars spin like crazy and light up their surroundings, often with ghostly glows.
So it is with PSR B1509-58, which long ago collapsed into a sphere just 12 miles in diameter after running out of fuel.
And what a strange scene this one has created.
In a new image from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory, high-energy X-rays emanating from the nebula around PSR B1509-58 have been colored blue to reveal a structure resembling a hand reaching for some eternal red cosmic light.
The star now spins around at the dizzying pace of seven times every second — as pulsars do — spewing energy into space that creates the scene.
Strong magnetic fields, 15 trillion times stronger than the Earth's magnetic field, are thought to be involved, too. The combination drives an energetic wind of electrons and ions away from the dying star. As the electrons move through the magnetized nebula, they radiate away their energy as X-rays.
The red light actually a neighboring gas cloud, RCW 89, energized into glowing by the fingers of the PSR B1509-58 nebula, astronomers believe.
The scene, which spans 150 light-years, is about 17,000 light years away, so what we see now is how it actually looked 17,000 years ago, and that light is just arriving here.
A light-year is the distance light travels in a year, about 6 trillion miles (10 trillion kilometers).
Check out article at Fox News.

Whoa... awesome photo!!! Let's just hope it stays out there and doesn't head this way, as is predicted in Nine Inch Nail's The Warning, from Year Zero!!!

Check out my Nine Inch Nails: Year Zero post!

The Science of the Spring Equinox

2009-03-20T17:21:00.000-05:00

The first day of spring is no guarantee of spring-like weather, but officially the season's start comes around at the same time each year nonetheless.
Well, sort of.
The first day of spring arrives on varying dates (from March 19-21) in different years for two reasons: Our year is not exactly an even number of days; and Earth's slightly noncircular orbit, plus the gravitational tug of the other planets, constantly changes our planet's orientation to the sun from year to year.
And weather-wise, Earth's seasons have shifted in the past 150 years or so, according to a study that came out last month.
The hottest and coldest days of the years now are occurring almost two days earlier.
This year, spring starts Friday, March 20, because that is when the so-called vernal equinox occurs. Equinoxes (which mark the onset of spring and autumn) and solstices (which mark when summer and winter begin) are points in time and space that mark a transition in our planet's annual trip around the sun.
At each equinox, the sun crosses the Earth's equator, making night and day of approximately equal length on most of the planet. At the equator, the sun is directly overhead at noon on either equinox.
How it works
Earth's multiple motions — spinning on its axis and orbiting the sun — are behind everything from day and night to the changing seasons.
The sun comes up each day because Earth rotates once on its axis every 24 hours or so. Seasons are a result of Earth being tilted 23.5 degrees on its spin axis coupled with the planet's 365-day orbit around the sun.
(At the North Pole, the sun rises only once a year — at the start of spring. It gets higher in the sky each day until the summer solstice, then sinks but does not truly set until late September, at the autumn equinox.)
Imagine Earth as an apple sitting on one side of a table, with the stem being the North Pole. Tilt the apple 23.5 degrees so the stem points toward a candle (the sun) at the center of the table. That's summer for the top half of the apple.
Keep the stem pointing in the same direction but move the apple to the other side of the table: Now the stem points away from the candle, and it's winter on the top half of the fruit.
The very top of the apple, representing the north polar region, is in total darkness 24 hours a day, during that season.
At winter solstice, the sun arcs low across the Northern Hemisphere sky for those of us below the Arctic Circle, and the stretch of daylight is at its shortest. By the time of the spring equinox, days have grown noticeably longer.
At the summer solstice, the sun gets as high in our sky as it can go, yielding the longest day of the year in the Northern Hemisphere.
As long ago as the fourth century B.C., ancient peoples in the Americas understood enough of this that they could create giant calendars to interact with the cycle of sunlight. They built observatories of stone to mark the solstices and other times important for planting or harvesting crops. Shrines and even tombs were also designed with the sun in mind.
More seasonal facts
As we orbit the sun, the part of the night sky that's in our view changes. A given star sets about 4 minutes earlier each night. Over a month, this amounts to two hours.
In winter, this means that we're looking at stars that during the summer were in our daytime sky, overwhelmed of course by the glare of the sun. Since we complete a circle around the sun every year, the stars of summer, such as those in the Big Dipper, are always the stars of summer.
During summer on the top half of Earth, our planet is actually farther from the sun than during winter, a fact owing to our non-circular orbit around the sun. The difference is about 3 million miles (5 million kilometers), and it makes a difference in radiant heat received by the entire Earth of nearly 7 percent.
But the difference is more than made up for by the longer days in the Northern Hemisphere summer with the sun higher in the sky.
Which brings up a common question: If the summer solstice is the longest day of the year, why are the dog days of August typically hotter?
Because it takes a while for the oceans to warm up, and a lot of weather on land is driven by the heat of the oceans.
Check out article at Fox News.

Interesting facts about the equinox... I'm just ready for the nice weather!!!

For more info, check out the Equinox Wikipedia Entry

Check out today's Google art:

St. Patrick's Day Facts

2009-03-17T10:27:00.001-05:00

On St. Patrick's Day—Tuesday, March 17—millions of people will don green and celebrate the Irish in, and around, them with parades, good cheer, and perhaps a pint of beer.
But few St. Patrick's Day revelers have a clue about St. Patrick, the man, according to the author of St. Patrick of Ireland: A Biography.
"The modern celebration of St. Patrick's Day really has almost nothing to do with the real man," said classics professor Philip Freeman of Luther College in Iowa.
Who Was the Man Behind St. Patrick's Day?
The real St. Patrick wasn't even Irish.
He was born in Britain around the A.D. 390 to an aristocratic Christian family with a townhouse, a country villa, and plenty of slaves.
What's more, Patrick professed no interest in Christianity as a young boy, Freeman noted.
At 16, Patrick's world turned.
He was kidnapped and sent overseas to tend sheep as a slave in the chilly, mountainous countryside of Ireland for seven years.
"It was just horrible for him," Freeman said. "But he got a religious conversion while he was there and became a very deeply believing Christian."
Hearing Voices
According to folklore, a voice came to Patrick in his dreams, telling him to escape. He found passage on a pirate ship back to Britain, where he was reunited with his family.
The voice then told him to go back to Ireland.
"He gets ordained as a priest from a bishop and goes back and spends the rest of his life trying to convert the Irish to Christianity," Freeman said.
Patrick's work in Ireland was tough—he was constantly beaten by thugs, harassed by the Irish royalty, and admonished by his British superiors.
After he died on March 17, 461, Patrick was largely forgotten.
But slowly, mythology grew up around Patrick. Centuries later he was honored as the patron saint of Ireland, Freeman noted.
No Snakes in Ireland
The St. Patrick mythology includes the claim that he banished snakes from Ireland.
It's true no snakes exist on the island today, Freeman said. But they never did.
Ireland, after all, is surrounded by icy ocean waters—much too cold to allow snakes to migrate from Britain or anywhere else.
But since snakes often represent evil in literature, "when Patrick drives the snakes out of Ireland, it is symbolically saying he drove the old, evil, pagan ways out of Ireland [and] brought in a new age," Freeman said.
The snakes myth and others—such as Patrick using three-leafed shamrocks to explain the Holy Trinity (Father, Son, and Holy Ghost)—were likely spread by well-meaning monks centuries after St. Patrick's death, Freeman said.
St. Patrick's Day: Made in America?
Until the 1970s, St. Patrick's Day in Ireland was a minor religious holiday. A priest would acknowledge the feast day, and families would celebrate with a big meal, but that was about it.
"St. Patrick's Day was basically invented in America by Irish-Americans," Freeman said.
Timothy Meagher is an expert on Irish-American history at Catholic University in Washington, D.C.
He said Irish charitable organizations originally celebrated St. Patrick's Day with banquets in places such as Boston, Massachusetts; Savannah, Georgia; and Charleston, South Carolina.
Eighteenth-century Irish soldiers fighting with the British in the U.S. Revolutionary War held the first St. Patrick's Day parades. Some soldiers, for example, marched through New York City in 1762 to reconnect with their Irish roots.
Others parades followed in the years and decades after, including well-known celebrations in Boston, Philadelphia, and Chicago, primarily for flourishing Irish immigrant communities.
"It becomes a way to honor the saint but also to confirm ethnic identity and to create bonds of solidarity," Meagher said.
Wearing Green Clothes, Dyeing River Green
Sometime in the 19th century, as St. Patrick's Day parades were flourishing, wearing the color green became a show of commitment to Ireland, Meagher said.
In 1962 the show of solidarity took a spectacular turn in Chicago when the city decided to dye a portion of the Chicago River green.
The tradition started when parade organizer Steve Bailey, head of a plumbers' union, noticed how a dye used to detect river pollution had stained a colleague's overalls a brilliant green, according to greenchicagoriver.com.
Why not, Bailey thought, turn the river green on St. Patrick's Day? So began the tradition.
The environmental impact of the dye is minimal compared with sources of pollution such as bacteria from sewage-treatment plants, said Margaret Frisbie, the executive director of the advocacy group Friends of the Chicago River.
Her group focuses instead on turning the Chicago River into a well-known habitat full of fish, herons, turtles, and beavers.
If the river becomes a wildlife haven, the thinking goes, Chicagoans won't want to dye their river green.
"Our hope is that, as the river continues to improve, ultimately people can get excited about celebrating St. Patrick's Day different ways," she said.
Pint of Guinness
On any given day 5.5 million pints of Guinness, the famous Irish stout, are consumed around the world.
On St. Patrick's Day, that number more than doubles to 13 million pints, said Beth Davies Ryan, global corporate relations director of Guinness.
"Historically speaking, a lot of Irish immigrants came to the United States and brought with them lots of customs and traditions, one of them being Guinness," she said.
Today, the U.S. tradition of St. Patrick's Day parades, packed pubs, and green silliness has invaded Ireland with full force, noted Freeman, the classics professor.
The country, he noted, figured out the popularity of St. Patrick's Day was a good way to boost spring tourism.
"Like anybody else," he said, "they can take advantage of a good opportunity."
Check out article at National Geographic News.

Interesting history on St. Patrick's Day! You learn something new each day! Are you wearing green today? The green in my camo counts, right?

Check out today's Google art:

Famous Blue Angel Crash Artifacts Found!

2009-03-04T13:11:00.003-06:00

PENSACOLA, Fla. — Debbie Harris knew the military dog tag and small metal emblem of a Navy fighter squadron she recently found in the sand near her home on an Alabama beach belonged to a Blue Angels pilot who was killed when his jet crashed there a half-century ago.
But she wanted to find out more about Cmdr. Robert Nicholls Glasgow and what happened , so she turned to her aunt and uncle, who live in Pensacola, home of the National Museum of Naval Aviation. Their search led them to the museum's director, Bob Rasmussen, a retired Navy captain and once a member of the famed flight demonstration team.
"I said to myself, 'Isn't that a coincidence,' " Rasmussen mused. "Of all the people that they might have brought this to, it happened to be the person who was flying with him the morning he was killed in that crash."
That's not the only coincidence, Harris said Friday, when she went to the museum to show Rasmussen what she had found.
Harris, 56, of Fort Morgan, Ala., said she came upon the fire-scorched emblem from Fighter Squadron 191, one of Glasgow's previous units, in mid-October. It was nearly 50 years to the day after the Oct. 14, 1958 crash.
The emblem probably had been on a Zippo cigarette lighter, Rasmussen said. She also found a small piece of metal shaped like a W, but Rasmussen couldn't identify it.
Harris then found the dog tag, bent but with the pilot's name clearly visible, on Feb. 17 — Glasgow's birthday. He was born on that date in 1922.
"It's like he's — I don't know," Harris said. "It's spooky."
Harris thinks hurricanes that swept through the area in recent years may have uncovered the items.
She wants to give them to Glasgow's family, but she's been unable to find any relatives through her research on the Internet. An Oct. 15, 1958, article on the crash in the Pensacola News Journal indicated Glasgow had a wife and four children and that his parents lived in El Monte, Calif.
Rasmussen said he'll try to help her search, although he hardly knew Glasgow. Glasgow had reported for duty at Pensacola Naval Air Station as the Blue Angels new leader just a few days before his first flight in one of the team's F-11 Tigers ended in tragedy.
The outgoing Blue Angels commander, Ed Holley, had asked Rasmussen, one of the team's most experienced air show pilots, to take Glasgow on an orientation flight. They took off in separate jets on a clear, cloudless day and headed for the Blue Angels' practice area over the Gulf of Mexico just off the Alabama coast.
Rasmussen's No. 4 jet had just had its radio identification device replaced and he needed to fly to a higher altitude over Mobile, Ala., to test it, something Glasgow had been briefed on before they took off. Holley also told Rasmussen they could try some maneuvers at high altitude but nothing low.
"I dropped him off at the site and said, 'Just orbit here until I get back. I'll be back in three or four minutes,'" Rasmussen recalled.
It was their last communication.
"I went up there, checked out the equipment, came back on the radio, called him and he was already gone," Rasmussen said.
Rasmussen didn't see Glasgow's jet crash into a vacant house at Fort Morgan and then explode — only the aftermath.
"I could see the smoke and a big black mark on the beach," Rasmussen said. "Flying lower I could see some blue pieces of metal and it was pretty obvious what had happened."
Witnesses on the ground said the jet crashed while attempting a loop.
"I'm always looking for things there," said Harris, a retired aircraft company employee who works the night shift at a Wal-Mart. "I grew up knowing about the crash."
She said she found the squadron emblem no more than 200 feet from the crash site, now covered with sand and sea oats. She then did some research and found out the pilot's name before seeing it on the dog tag she spotted along a path between her house and the water.
"I was walking along there and looked down and I saw this and went, 'Um, oh my gosh,' " Harris said, her voice dropping to a whisper.
"It was like one of those magical moments," she said. "I stood there and the sun was setting and I held this in my hand and I said, 'No one has touched this since it was around his neck, and I'm touching it.' It was real emotional."
Check out the article at Fox News.

What an interesting piece of history! To think that on the same beach I've walked numerous times would be found artifacts such as these boggles the mind! Good find, Debbie!

Be sure the check out the Official Blue Angels website and the Blue Angels Wiki.

Recession Raining on Mardi Gras? Fat chance!!!

2009-02-24T17:38:00.002-06:00

NEW ORLEANS (AP) -- The economic downturn could not overshadow the revelry of Mardi Gras on Tuesday as partiers jostled for beads on parade routes and the French Quarter swelled with boozy fun and masked crowds.
In fact, many revelers poked the recession in the eye, dressing in costumes riffing on the bailouts, the stimulus package and busted budgets.
Suzanne Gravener dressed as the Statue of Liberty - but without a crown. That, she joked, had to be sold for cash because of the hard times. Her husband lost his job as a dairy salesman, she said.
"I still have my torch, though," the 59-year-old New Orleans school teacher said.
Carnival was one luxury the family could afford, she said. "This is the greatest free show on earth."
The day opened with clarinetist Pete Fountain leading his Half-Fast Walking Club out onto Uptown streets and headed for the French Quarter in a trolley car. The marching club marks the unofficial opening of Mardi Gras, or Fat Tuesday, the last day of celebration before the solemnity of Lent.
By dawn, spectators crammed parade routes in anticipation of the day's biggest parades and costumed revelers mingled with all-night partiers in the French Quarter's narrow streets.
"It was cold, but nobody minded," said Delores Johnson, 53, of Slidell, La., who staked out a place on St. Charles Avenue with a group of friends dressed in matching green and gold shirts. They arrived on the oak-lined historic parade route just after midnight Monday.
The first parade of the day was Zulu, the traditional African-American parade, followed by Rex, the king of Carnival, and hundreds of truck floats.
At 4 a.m., Zulu members got into costume, which for them means blackface, huge afro wigs and grass skirts. Zulu marks its centennial this year.
"Oh, my God, if my family could see me now, the only good news is that they wouldn't recognize me," said Zulu member John Rice after his face was painted. "This is the only city in the world where you can get away with this."
In the company of Zulu rode Mayor Ray Nagin on horseback. The mayor was outfitted as a gladiator, or as he called himself a "recovery gladiator," in honor of a city's rebuilding from Hurricane Katrina.
Katrina was on the mind of Cherry Gilbert, a 42-year-old Seattle bus driver who helped organize a family reunion for about 80 members of the Gilbert clan, many displaced to cities like Dallas and Atlanta by the 2005 storm.
"This is the first time since Katrina we've all gathered here and it's a beautiful thing. There's nothing like New Orleans ... and family," Gilbert said, camping out on St. Charles.
It was the 49th time Fountain, 78, has made the journey from Commander's Palace, one of the city's most famous restaurants. Costume-clad revelers snapped photographs of Fountain and his entourage of men dressed as toy soldiers in reds, greens and aqua blues. Fountain has had health problems since Hurricane Katrina, but still plays his clarinet during the parade.
Along for the walk for the 43rd time was Jim Ponseti, 74, of Gretna, La. "We don't play, we just play around," Ponseti said of himself and his fellow nonmusical marchers.
The weather was expected to be mild, with temperatures in the 60s and the skies sunny.
Big crowds over the weekend and nearly full hotels bode well for a busy Mardi Gras. Visitors bureau spokeswoman Mary Beth Romig said officials were cautiously optimistic because of the slumping national economy.
Tourism officials hope to match last year's crowd of about 750,000. Before Katrina, Fat Tuesday typically brought in about 1 million people.
There was a shooting after Friday's parades and police said there was another shooting about 6 a.m. Tuesday near Bourbon Street. Still, police said the celebration was mostly peaceful.
"Everyone seems to be enjoying themselves and not making trouble for anyone else," spokesman Bob Young said.
Many visitors gather in the French Quarter area, where Carnival's more ribald side takes place.
"I just keep calling my friends at work and telling them what they're missing," said Bud Weaver, 31, of Philadelphia. "It's 40 degrees colder there and none of them had beer for breakfast."
Mardi Gras officially ends at midnight Tuesday. Police, followed by street sweepers, move down Bourbon Street announcing the event is officially over and Lent has begun.
In heavily Catholic New Orleans, many revelers will be in church Wednesday to have ashes daubed on their foreheads as they begin 40 days of prayer, penitence and self-denial leading up to Easter.
Check out the article at The Advocate.

The Spanish Town parade was awesome, as usual!!! Unfortunately, we can't make it to NOLA this year.

Have a Safe and Happy Mardi Gras!!!

Spanish Town Mardi Gras 2009

2009-02-20T12:47:00.000-06:00

Spanish Town, the quirky, yet charming section of Baton Rouge that is inundated with multitudes of pink flamingoes year round, is the inspiration behind one of Baton Rouge’s most famous parades – The Spanish Town Mardi Gras Parade.
“Buy Yeaux Bailout” is the politically charged theme of this year’s Spanish Town Mardi Gras parade, which runs in the heart of downtown Baton Rouge, and it is like no other. It is hysterically insulting to all it pokes fun at, and it is done so in the worst taste possible – all in good fun of course.
Many are familiar with the parade, but lack knowledge on the way that it is coordinated, which is very fitting to its fun-filled theme.
“The board meets 10 to 12 times each year mostly from August to March,” said Jim Work, Society for the Preservation of Lagniappe in Louisiana (SPLL) Board Member. “We have a few drinks then go into a communal trance. When the trance is broken, voila, we have a theme – maybe.”
In keeping up with the socio-politic trends, SPLL works to find a fitting theme each year, drawing crowds of 100,000 to 200,000 spectators who can’t wait to participate in this event.
“You cannot describe the STMG [Spanish Town Mardi Gras] parade without visual aides,” said Work. “It is un-quantifiably the best political satire event since the ’64 Democratic Convention. Spectators are mostly from here, but thousands come from other planets to catch this extravaganza.”
Those who attend can look forward to seeing this parade’s 75 floats, which is the maximum amount of floats the city will allow, explains Work. This parade brings out so many spectators that you can’t park for miles around downtown. It is custom to get out there early, spending the day eating, drinking and hanging out with friends up until the time of the parade. Think of it as Mardi Gras tailgating.
When preparing for the parade, many hours of, let’s call it “work” – are put into SPLL’s parade planning.
“Decorating a float for the parade requires countless hours of drinking, thinking and planning – and decorating a couple of hours, I guess,” said Work.
With this kind of planning, who wouldn’t be interested in joining the fun? Spanish Town Parade entices many, encouraging their involvement in what is certainly an entertaining time.
“Fun-a-holics have found a way to reach the towering heights that are necessary to slide into the inner circles of STMG mosh-pit,” said Work.
Although Spanish Town has residents that vary in socio-economic status, they are unified as one, symbolizing this with their treasured pink flamingoes regardless of whether the home is extravagantly large or whether it small and rented by a poor college student, trying to make a place in this world. This heart of Baton Rouge is inhabited by lawyers, doctors, artists, writers, and many others who may not see eye to eye on all issues, but they do agree on one – the pink flamingo that is the inspiration for all who live there, characteristically representing unification – if you will. This simple, tacky lawn ornament represents so much to this town, and they are placed in the lakes downtown prior to each Spanish Town Mardi Gras Parade, as a reminder to all, that Spanish Town is one of a kind.
“Why Spanish Town?” said Work. “Because they worshipped the humble pink, plastic lawn ornament from which we all draw strength and wisdom,” Work said. “Enthusiasm of all the fruit-cakes that have made this parade what it is today,” continues to spike Work’s interest in the Mardi Gras mayhem.
Check out the article at Tiger Weekly.

It's that time again... I love PINK, it's my favorite color!!! ;-) We'll be out there all day!!!

Be sure to check out the Official Spanish Town Mardi Gras website!

Happy 200th Birthday Lincoln!

2009-02-12T17:30:00.000-06:00

HODGENVILLE, Kentucky — The first of four new pennies chronicling Abraham Lincoln's rise from a small Kentucky cabin are being put into circulation to honor the 16th U.S. president's 200th birthday.
The coin's front is unchanged but the reverse depicts a tiny log cabin, representing the one-room dwelling where Lincoln was born near Hodgenville, Kentucky.
The one-cent piece is being unveiled by the U.S. Mint as part of Lincoln's bicentennial celebration Thursday near his birthplace.
The remaining coins will be released later this year and show other phases of Lincoln's life: a young man reading while sitting on a log during his formative years in Indiana; Lincoln the state legislator speaking at the Illinois capitol; and the unfinished dome of the U.S. Capitol.
Check out the article at Fox News.

The new penny designs are really cool! However, I'm not sure where they will be much use other than as a collectors item (pennies ARE the most collected US coin). I mean, let's be realistic - in this economic climate, even $1 bills aren't very useful. I dunno, it just seems like a big waste of money to me.

LSU Bash 2009 = Top Recruiting Class!!!

2009-02-06T10:29:00.003-06:00

BATON ROUGE -- LSU coach Les Miles and his coaching staff hauled in one of the best recruiting classes in college football on Wednesday as the Tigers signed 25 players in what could be considered one of the strongest groups in school history.
Of LSU’s 25 signees, five were named to the prestigious Parade Magazine All-America squad, while six were named All-Americans by USA Today. The class also included 10 members of the EPSNU 150, eight members of the Scout.com 100, and six members of the Rivals.com 100.
LSU’s class was rated No. 1 in the nation by ESPN and No. 2 by Rivals.com.
“I think that this class answered our needs,” Miles said. “It’s nice to be complimented by being ranked number one in the country. Certainly we see this class as a class that we must develop; that we must improve; that we must challenge; we must make it bigger, faster, stronger and more technically competent.
“I’m probably most excited about the character of these men. I don’t really look at how the rankings fare because I feel like the old cliché is two or three years from now you’ll find out how good they were or were not. I see them as guys that will do very well in the classroom and guys that will represent this school very well off the field. Potentially, this is the style of class that competes for championships year after year and people will be attracted to the style of men that we recruited this year.”
Six members of the 2009 signing class have already enrolled at LSU, a group that includes all-everything quarterback Russell Shepard. Shepard is concerned the top dual-threat quarterback prospect in this year’s class. He finished his high school career with more than 8,000 yards of total offense and 98 touchdowns. He accounted for nearly 4,000 yards and 48 TDs as a senior.
Other early enrollees for the Tigers include running back Drayton Calhoun, quarterback Chris Garrett, linebacker Kevin Minter, defensive back Rockey Duplessis and junior college punter Derek Helton.
Other highlights of the class include Bastrop High School wide receiver Rueben Randle, who is widely considered the nation’s top prospect at his position. Randle, who played quarterback as a senior in 2008, recorded 2,461 yards and 20 touchdowns through the air, while rushing for 683 yards and 12 scores. He is considered the top prospect in Louisiana.
Michael Ford, a running back from Leesville, La., comes to LSU after rushing for 2,953 yards and 29 TDs as senior. Ford, who earned both Parade and USA Today All-America honors in 2008, had nine games of 200-yards or better in 2008, including a career-high 443 yards and six TDs in a win over Tioga.
On defense, safety Craig Loston, defensive end Sam Montgomery and defensive tackle Chris Davenport highlighted that group. Loston is considered the nation’s No. 1 safety prospect. He was named to the Parade and USA Today All-America teams.
Montgomery, rated as the No. 2 defensive end prospect by ESPNU, had 11 sacks as a senior for Greenwood High School. Davenport earned USA Today All-America honors despite playing in just four games as a senior due to an injury. In four games, Davenport still recorded 45 tackles and nine sacks for Mansfield High School.
LSU’s class included 13 players from the state of Louisiana, four from Texas, two from Georgia and one each from Alabama, California, Kansas, Mississippi, South Carolina and Tennessee.
“We do what we can to control this state and we’ve done so very effectively during our tenure here,” Miles said of recruiting Louisiana. “It’s always been our view that ‘in-state first’, but we offer national credentials with our academics; our school is well respected throughout the country, so we have great attraction to those surrounding states and those people that have proximity.”
LSU will now turn its attention to spring practice, which starts on March 12. The annual LSU Spring Game is scheduled for April 18 in Tiger Stadium.
Check out the article at LSU Sports.

Looks like another top-ranked recruiting class for the Tigers! Geaux!

Cheney Warns of New Terror Attacks!

2009-02-04T09:58:00.001-06:00

Former Vice President Dick Cheney warned that there is a “high probability” that terrorists will attempt a catastrophic nuclear or biological attack in coming years, and said he fears the Obama administration’s policies will make it more likely the attempt will succeed.
In an interview Tuesday with Politico, Cheney unyieldingly defended the Bush administration’s support for the Guantanamo Bay prison and coercive interrogation of terrorism suspects.
And he asserted that President Obama will either backtrack on his stated intentions to end those policies or put the country at risk in ways more severe than most Americans — and, he charged, many members of Obama’s own team — understand.
“When we get people who are more concerned about reading the rights to an Al Qaeda terrorist than they are with protecting the United States against people who are absolutely committed to do anything they can to kill Americans, then I worry,” Cheney said.
Protecting the country’s security is “a tough, mean, dirty, nasty business,” he said. “These are evil people. And we’re not going to win this fight by turning the other cheek.”
Citing intelligence reports, Cheney said at least 61 of the inmates who were released from Guantanamo during the Bush administration — “that’s about 11 or 12 percent” — have “gone back into the business of being terrorists.”
The 200 or so inmates still there, he claimed, are “the hard core” whose “recidivism rate would be much higher.” (Lawyers for Guantanamo detainees have strongly disputed the recidivism figures, asserting that the Pentagon data have inconsistencies and omissions.) Cheney called Guantanamo a “first-class program,” and “a necessary facility” that is operated legally and with better food and treatment than the jails in inmates' native countries.
But he said he worried that “instead of sitting down and carefully evaluating the policies,” Obama officials are unwisely following “campaign rhetoric” and preparing to release terrorism suspects or afford them legal protections granted to more conventional defendants in crime cases.
The choice, he alleged, reflects a naive mindset among the new team in Washington: “The United States needs to be not so much loved as it needs to be respected. Sometimes, that requires us to take actions that generate controversy. I’m not at all sure that that’s what the Obama administration believes.”
The dire portrait Cheney painted of the country’s security situation was made even grimmer by his comments agreeing with analysts who believe this recession may be a once-in-a-century disaster.
“It’s unlike anything I’ve ever seen,” Cheney said. “The combination of the financial crisis that started last year, coupled now with, obviously, a major recession, I think we’re a long way from having solved these problems.”
The interview, less than two weeks after the Bush administration ceded power to Obama, found the man who is arguably the most controversial — and almost surely the most influential — vice president in U.S. history in a self-vindicating mood.
He expressed confidence that files will some day be publicly accessible offering specific evidence that waterboarding and other policies he promoted — over sharp internal dissent from colleagues and harsh public criticism — were directly responsible for averting new Sept. 11-style attacks.
Not content to wait for a historical verdict, Cheney said he is set to plunge into his own memoirs, feeling liberated to describe behind-the-scenes roles over several decades in government now that the “statute of limitations has expired” on many of the most sensitive episodes.
His comments made unmistakable that Cheney — likely more than former President Bush, who has not yet given post-White House interviews — is willing and even eager to spar with the new administration and its supporters over the issues he cares most about.
His standing in this public debate is beset by contradictions. Cheney for years has had intimate access to the sort of highly classified national security intelligence that Obama and his teams are only recently seeing.
But many of the top Democratic legal and national security players have long viewed Cheney as a man who became unhinged by his fears, responsible for major misjudgments in Iraq and Afghanistan, willing to bend or break legal precedents and constitutional principles to advance his aims. Polls show he is one of the most unpopular people in national life.
In the interview, Cheney revealed no doubts about his own course — and many about the new administration’s.
“If it hadn’t been for what we did — with respect to the terrorist surveillance program, or enhanced interrogation techniques for high-value detainees, the Patriot Act, and so forth — then we would have been attacked again,” he said. “Those policies we put in place, in my opinion, were absolutely crucial to getting us through the last seven-plus years without a major-casualty attack on the U.S.”
Cheney said “the ultimate threat to the country” is “a 9/11-type event where the terrorists are armed with something much more dangerous than an airline ticket and a box cutter – a nuclear weapon or a biological agent of some kind” that is deployed in the middle of an American city.
“That’s the one that would involve the deaths of perhaps hundreds of thousands of people, and the one you have to spend a hell of a lot of time guarding against,” he said.
“I think there’s a high probability of such an attempt. Whether or not they can pull it off depends whether or not we keep in place policies that have allowed us to defeat all further attempts, since 9/11, to launch mass-casualty attacks against the United States.”
Check out the article at Fox News.

I sure hope that Cheney's prediction doesn't come to fruition... and that Obama has the presence of mind to take the necessary actions to prevent it!

Engineering Breakthrough = Space Elevator Tech?

2009-01-22T09:28:00.002-06:00

Ever since it was first popularized by Arthur C. Clarke, the idea of a "space elevator" has languished in the realms of science fiction. But now a team of British scientists has taken the first step on what could be a high-tech stairway to heaven.
Spurred on by a $4 million research prize from NASA, a team at Cambridge University has created the world's strongest ribbon: a cylindrical strand of carbon that combines lightweight flexibility with incredible strength and has the potential to stretch vast distances.
The development has been seized upon by the space scientists, who believe the technology could allow astronauts to travel into space via a cable thousands of miles long — a space elevator.
They predict the breakthrough will revolutionize space travel. Such an elevator could potentially offer limitless and cheap space travel.
At a stroke, it would make everything from tourism to more ambitious expeditions to Mars commercially viable. The idea couldn't come too soon for NASA, which spends an estimated $500 million every time the shuttle blasts off, not to mention burning about 900 tons of polluting rocket fuel.
Check out the article at Fox News.

Can you imagine the view from up there? Whenever they build it, I'm taking a ride up to the space elevator resort! =)