Laissez les bons temps rouler

Sangiovese - In The Works

2012-02-21T21:23:00.000-08:00

Ahh, the grapes of Italy! Here's hoping that another year of my life is worth babysitting grape guts being eaten by yeast! Come on, why does it take so damn long? As much as I love making wine, I have to admit the massive time commitment is a bit daunting. So, in the interest of diversity, once this lovely batch of wine is racked, I may look at making some Porter or Stout. From my Italian and French roots, right on over to the Irish. Dark beer, the sibling of the nectar of the gods. Anyway, learn something while we all sit and wait for this wine to grow, read about Sangiovese.

Lava Waterfall

2012-02-19T21:57:00.000-08:00

Yosemite National Park Service, the firefall from Glacier Point is shown in Yosemite.
A window of time just opened in Yosemite National Park when nature photographers wait, as if for an eclipse, until the moment when the sun and earth align to create a fleeting phenomenon. This marvel of celestial configuration happens in a flash at sunset in mid-February, if the weather cooperates. On those days the setting sun illuminates one of the park's lesser-known waterfalls so precisely that it resembles molten lava as it flows over the sheer granite face of the imposing El Capitan. Credit: National Park Service

Mardi Gras 2012

2012-02-18T08:42:00.000-08:00

Looking for a Krewe to join? Check out Orpheus

Tokyo Joe's

2012-02-16T19:18:00.001-08:00

Just tried Tokyo Joe's for the first time and LOVED it. Not only can you get fresh sushi or noodle bowls, but you can get the greatest hot additive ever, wasabi!!!! There is nothing like the electric shock when that wasabi hits your nose. You'll laugh, you'll cry, you'll fall in love - its like the feel good movie of the year, in a paste.

Life is not all about joy, but life without joy isn't a life at all

2012-01-23T20:30:00.000-08:00

Joy and pain, sunshine and Rob... Ok, so not exactly what I was thinking about, but once the first three words come out, it's hard not to start singing this Rob Base song. (In fact this particular song has an even more specific meaning to me about friends I haven't seen in over 20 years) Impressive, huh? I digressed from a blog that I had not even started to write yet.

I'll admit, I've taken to lots of rants lately. Even more than you get to see on this lovely website (just ask my family). While I try to avoid deep ponderings in general, I especially try to avoid them on the internet. Of course this would be an exceptionally short post if I just stuck with that philosophy, so we all know that won't happen.

About five months ago I went in to have my heart checked and all the fun blood work done associated with it. All was fine, except the doctor noted my cholesterol was at the high good range or low border range, depending on how you want to look at it (when I tell this story to strangers I always say high good range, because I sound better that way). I suspect normally you get talked to and sent on your merry way. However, in an abundance of caution, to make sure all was well with my heart, he suggested I stop eating. Ok, maybe he just said that I should see the dietitian, who is the one that said I should stop eating. Fine, maybe she said I shouldn't eat so much saturated fat. Understandable since I literally ate liquid fat (aka Qdoba cheese sauce) on a near constant basis. In fact, I can honestly say I don't recall EVER reading the saturated fat content of anything. However, I am not fairly certain that my diet would regularly consist of a "who's who" of saturated fat items, to the point that it could probably take down an elephant. Thus, my journey of eating less than 15 grams of saturated fat a day began. Most days that's really not an issue, but every now and then, when other people are eating pizza or having desert, it becomes very hard. (like waving free brothel tickets to an adolescent boy, or front row Rent tickets if they aren't into that).

Then again today, there was an editorial in our newspaper from some woman complaining about "Cinnamon Roll Day". For those of you not near here, it started by a 10 year old getting interested in something discussed during civics class. As most 10 years do, he likes cinnamon rolls, so putting the two together, he made a petition by himself, got other kids at school to sign the petition, and then sent it along with a letter to the Governor. The Governor responded and declared Cinnamon Roll day. The result was admittedly a day full of cinnamon roll baking, eating and gluttony in general. Even my lovely wife made the greatest cinnamon rolls ever, though I know for a fact the pan had like six cups of butter - no, I'm not exaggerating. I know they were great because I ate one bite and it was awesome. Anyway, the woman wrote an editorial saying that the news stories about Cinnamon Roll Day were inappropriate because of the childhood obesity problem we are facing, blah, blah, blah... As if elementary school children across the city were sitting with the morning paper and a cup of coffee, oblivious to the wonders of cinnamon rolls until "Cinnamon Roll Day" was announced in the local paper, and they promptly ignored all their parents' encouragement to eat well and exercise and ran off to devour roll after roll!

Finally, tonight, I will be brief as I let my skeletons rocket out of the closet, but needless to say I was wrapped up in a poker game, made it to the final two, but then became distracted by my beautiful wife and made horrible play after horrible play - resulting in me being extremely irritated. First let me clarify, "distracted by my beautiful wife" is not some code for her prancing around in a red lace camisole and vanilla perfume. Ok, NOW it means that because I've got that image distracting me from this blog and she's not even here! Anyway, she was on the phone, and of course I was irritated with myself at losing because I decided to answer her call. Yes, over a game. The very person I tell constantly to call me just to say hi, actually does that, and I'm distracted and irritable over a game. Oh, I'm a genius. If only I could identify me being a moron at the moment it is happening, that would be handy.

How do all of these fit together? (Please God, let them all actually make sense together) Simple, life is not all about joy, but life without joy isn't a life at all. If someone else has said this before, I apologize, but after some thought, this really came down to what I felt. We spend so much time focusing on avoiding problems and trying to accomplish goals, that we forget to live. I could spend the next 40 years avoiding every single bad food, and for what purpose? To live extra long without one of the greatest joys of life? I could focus on meaningless accomplishments by not paying as much attention to my wife or children, and then who would care?

It's no secret that for centuries the answer has been floating around. Moderation. Yes, watch what you eat, exercise, be responsible, but when an occasional opportunity arises, have a cinnamon roll, enjoy a steak, live! Play games and go after goals and accomplishments, but realize that these things only mean something if you have people around you to share them with, so stop and listen to them, there will always be things to accomplish, but your loved ones may not always be there.

There are obstacles, hard work, stress, anger, sadness, life is not all about joy, nor should it be as these other things make joy even more enjoyable, but if you work so hard to avoid some simple pleasures because they might be a tiny bit bad for you, that's not a life at all.

Magic Cow and Stupidity Tax

2012-01-17T19:31:00.000-08:00

In the grocery store tonight I walked up to the dairy cooler to grab some milk. It's at that point I saw my two choices sitting side by side. Store milk for $2.80 or organic milk for $5.50. I'm sorry, what? That is literally about 100% more expensive. What in the world is in organic milk (yeah, yeah I know the question is really what's NOT in it)? Is "organic milk" code for "human breast milk" because that's the only way I can think of it being that much more expensive! I mean with my less expensive milk, I even get a dose of human growth hormone! Holy cow! (sorry couldn't help it)

Then on my way out, I stop to grab a Powerball lottery ticket (can't win if you don't play). They are now $2. Again, really? 100% increase? As if I don't feel stupid enough for paying my "math tax" - a tax on people who are horrible at math, as it's more likely you'll get hit by a meteorite than win the lottery. Now I feel twice as stupid! Why exactly does it cost twice as much? Was $40 million not enough? We have to charge twice as much so the jackpot can go up to $80 million? I was happy to pay my $1 and go off for 3 or 4 days and pretend I would win several million dollars. In fact, it was almost a chore to try to even keep $1 handy, now they think I'm going to keep $2 around? Unlikely. In fact, they will likely just end up with people buying fewer tickets, as it's doubtful everyone's "gambling" budget just doubled. Of course, it is gambling, who am I kidding, people will just stop buying freaking organic milk so they can afford their lottery tickets.

Small Jobs Say A Lot

2012-01-17T18:46:00.001-08:00

I think lots of people start to go into auto pilot when they start doing small routine projects at work. Then when the big difficult projects come they focus, stress and hope people notice how great they did. I would like to propose the opposite, that by concentrating on smaller tasks and doing an outstanding job on those, that others start to take notice. For example, let's say I went and got a haircut yesterday. Given my hair is so thin and straight (and parts aren't even there anymore), the difficulty of giving me a haircut on a scale of 1 to 10 is about a -2, I mean seriously rubbing a pair of clippers over my head for 3 minutes is hardly a taxing experience. So, you would think that it could be done without error. Unfortunately, allow me to refer you to my earlier comment about auto pilot. Now I'm sure she did a fantastic job on the bride-to-be earlier in the day, and she was spooky at how technical she got discussing hair color on some guy sitting next to me (who the hell even knew you could use gold as a hair color base?). So my genius of a stylist did great on these other projects, but it's my simple one I'm concerned about! This morning I wake up and drag myself to the bathroom. Now recently I would see my hair sticking up everywhere, looking like a twin of Jim on "Taxi". However, given that I just had all my hair buzzed off, that was not the expected appearance in the mirror this morning. On the plus side, that's not what I saw. Instead I saw Alfalfa from the Little Rascals. That's right a buzz cut with a tuft of hair on the top of my head! Just sticking up in a little tangled mess hovering over the rest of my head. Just think, if she had spent the time to focus for 3 minutes, this simple task could have made her look like a rock star! Instead, she focused on something else and after a day of walking around as a hair unicorn, she is anything but impressive to me.

Amen Craig Ferguson

2012-01-13T11:35:00.000-08:00

I couldn't say it better, so I just posted it...

Chivalry

2012-01-10T20:25:00.001-08:00

Today, well almost every day now, I run into at least one news article about a candidate for political office. The candidates themselves have almost reached the point where they have determined the only way for them to win is to tear down the other candidate. It's not just the candidates either, party sponsored websites, commercials, flyers, etc... It has evolved into a test of who can survive the most mud slinging. So I started looking at all these comments (even those posted by the average reader are pretty nasty), and it dawned on me what is now missing. Chivalry. I can rant about how it's missing in our every day existence later, but for now what about just our politics? Being a leader should include more than who has the best speaking ability on television, who looks the best in a tux, or who degrades their opponent the most. Being an elected official should involve putting your ideas and plans out there and your opponent doing the same. Don't like your opponent's idea, great, politely explain why and then reinforce why you believe in your idea. You don't have a counter idea? Then don't say anything. Courtesy, respect, honor, try using one of these. We won't all like every idea that someone else has, I mean hell I don't even like every idea I have, how can you expect I'll like every idea someone else pops out? The difference is we should show enough courtesy and respect to the other person that we simply listen and then explain why we disagree, not listen and then run ads about their life 30 years ago or radio spots about their past marriage.

I want to know why you are better! I want to know why your plan will work! Telling me your opponent sucks doesn't explain why you don't suck too - maybe that's the point to chivalry, let the other guy ruin it for himself.

Back to Reality

2012-01-10T14:35:00.001-08:00

When exactly is it appropriate to "un-decorate" from Christmas? Is it me or does anyone else start to get a mild panic attack when you pull baby Jesus from the nativity scene, wrap him up in some paper and stick him in a box!! It's like a kidnapping script in Clockwork Orange and I've got Mary and Joseph as witnesses to testify against me! Unless Mother Teresa is willing to flip sides I'm screwed. Seriously, when can I feel ok about this? One week? Two weeks? A month? My issues won't change over time, but my embarrassment of having Christmas stuff out for my neighbors and co-workers to see eventually becomes too over-powering! I'm partially sure this is why Valentine decorations and St. Patrick's paraphernalia are popular, they are like nicotine patches for our Christmas decoration addiction!

2012-01-04T13:33:00.001-08:00

You know you are jealous! Yes it was good!

Anti-Resolutions

2012-01-03T16:12:00.000-08:00

A new year is upon us. How do I know? Easy, every commercial on television and the radio is talking about "your new year's resolution to get in shape/go to school/get some sort of cosmetic surgery/get a job - the list goes on. It's true, every year most people set out to become better people and stop doing the things they are not happy about. A fantastic idea, don't get me wrong, but I always end up with a bad taste in my mouth by the middle of January. For the next two weeks everyone will be talking about "doing better" and how they wish they could stop smoking or drinking or whatever it is... Isn't anyone happy? Holy crap, by the time January 15th hits everyone will have spent two entire weeks fixated on their bad habits and constantly thinking about how much happier they would be if they could just change! These are awesome plans, people should always try to improve themselves, but honestly if all you do it focus on stuff you want to change (which correct if I'm wrong, but it's stuff we haven't been able to fix in ourselves for decades, so the odds of us doing it all of a sudden in two weeks is slim), what will you feel like by the end of January? What will you feel like when all the bad stuff is still there and you have been unsuccessful in changing it? Don't stop trying, by all means, pick up the torch and run! Make a better you! But, don't forget to think about all the things you are happy about! Think about your family and the fun you've had together. Think about your successes at work. Think about the good times you've had with friends. Think about the things you have done to help others. Think about your health. Think about your children's health. Some of these things may have gone poorly this year - or maybe it's been a horrible year and all of these things have gone bad. If so, start small. Think about how quiet it is in the morning when you wake up and that you have an entire new day to either start to climb out of your hole, or spend with your family.

As for me, sure I've got a list of crap to fix. Problem is I've had this list for years. I'll give it another go, who knows maybe one or two of them will stick this time. Realistically I'll still be ornery and rant a lot. I'll likely still think I'm too big for my britches, and will be oblivious to the fact that instead of every other driver being clueless, it may be my issue. For my friends and family's benefit, I pray at least one of my delightful personality traits drifts towards the light. Until that time comes, I'll keep remembering how proud my children make me, how amazed I am to be married to such a beautiful and caring wife who manages to orchestrate our family so well (and for some unknown reason still puts up with me), and just exactly how enjoyable it is to be up before the sun with a cup of coffee wondering what will happen today...

Cereal Snake Oil

2011-12-31T08:42:00.000-08:00

I'm sitting here this morning eating Boo Berry Cereal. It's not great, I'll be honest. Problem is nobody else in my house seems to be willing to eat it. This includes the culinary geniuses who selected this gem of a cereal. Don't get me wrong, I want my children to eat breakfast and enjoy it, so we generally let them pick some cereal out and usually they do a decent job. However, every once in a while they hit upon a dud. And by dud I mean horribly bad cereal that even the stores can't seem to sell and just save them for next year. Yes, I am convinced that Boo Berry was manufactured in 1984 and has been stockpiled in a warehouse in southeast Asia. Originally this cereal probably wasn't even blue, but the storage time has collected SARS, mold, avian flu and other "spices" that give the cereal its delightful shade of blue that does not naturally appear in the color spectrum. Now, it's not even the fact that these cereals are so bad that annoys me (ok, it is, but that's not the main problem). Unfortunately I refuse to throw out food, even bad food. Instead, I'm sitting here in the morning starting my day off by EATING this stuff. I don't blame the rest of my family for shunning these foods, I mean they are nasty, so the only remaining possibility is for me to eat it. So my frustration is actually with the cereal makers who make this crap. Seriously? Blue cereal? Marshmallows with the consistency of chalk from my 5th grade class? Then to have the balls to make the milk turn creamy blue - seriously it's bad enough they ruined the cereal, but now they insist on making my milk look like whale sperm on top of it? Ugh, I wish I could just be wasteful and dump it in the trash, but I can't, plus I've got to finish it to get that stupid box top for the school, right?

It's You, Not Her

2011-12-30T12:59:00.001-08:00

I've stopped laughing just long enough to get this post up. On YouTube today I came across various songs, but they all seemed to have pictures of beautiful women as the "video". I assume to entice men to click on their video. I'm still not sure what the point is to that, but maybe they gain something from higher click volumes. Anyway, I was enjoying these songs and then noticed a common theme to most of the comments left by people. At least 90% of them commented on how attractive the pictures of these women were and then proceeded to explain how willing they would be to have sex with these women. What can I say, I'm starting to laugh again just thinking about it. Let me see if I've got this straight, some complete loser who surfs YouTube seeking random pictures of women would be willing to have sex with some of the most gorgeous women on the planet (well at least the most gorgeous photo shopped women)? Do I have this right? Well no crap. Let's be honest these guys are probably having sex with themselves so adding ANY other person into the equation would be a win for them. Now, for these women, these guys are not so much a win. In fact if they even knew what these guys were saying they would likely throw up a bit, so the idea of actually doing these things would fall somewhere below scratching their own eyes out with toothpicks! Meanwhile these guys continue to glide through cyberspace leaving message upon message of their hormonal desires, blissfully unaware of how rancid their actual presence is to the rest of us, much less the objects of their desire.

Legislating History

2011-12-22T13:57:00.001-08:00

PARIS - French lawmakers easily passed a measure Thursday to make it a crime to deny the mass killings of Armenians in 1915 by Ottoman Turks amounted to genocide. Turkey swiftly retaliated, ordering its ambassador home and halting official contacts, including some military cooperation.

Umm, I'm sorry, but what? Did France really pass a law that makes it a crime to say an alleged event almost 100 years ago didn't happen? If anyone alive at the time of the event is even alive, they had to be small children!

I think my love of Paris is well known, but come on France, legislation history? Even worse to criminalize a statement about history? We have people with massive reality delusions who claim the holocaust didn't happen, and even those people aren't arrested for such stupid ramblings.

No matter how ridiculous a position is about history or events in history, the legislature should not be involved in criminalizing or requiring an agreement about history!

Leave it to the rest of us, thanks to the BCS we don't have college football to debate - ok poor example - but we can at least argue about 1915 history, or maybe the righteousness of the War of 1812 or Franco-Russian War!

Eggnog Drivers

2011-12-21T08:19:00.001-08:00

It's Christmas Time! Snow, trees, presents, lights, music, coats,
children, hot chocolate, singing, etc... Of all of the wonders of Christmas
time, probably the item that needs the most scrutiny is eggnog. Why?
Simple, there must be some magical component to eggnog that shuts down the
part of the brain that allows people to drive well. Yes, eggnog must be
the active ingredient to the Seasonal Inability to
Correctly-drive Syndrome ("SICS"). SICS seems to affect all educational
and socio-economic levels. Whether you are at Wal-mart or Nordstrom's,
SICS is evident in most drivers. The holiday season has a massive increase
in bone-head driving maneuvers, from the woman who drove down the wrong way
on a one-way parking lot aisle and starred at me like I was insane for
taking up the entire one car width lane; or the guy in front of me going 10
mph in a 30 because he assuredly was doing gold bearer-bond transactions on
his cell phone in order to pay for Christmas. Or better yet, the driver
who accelerates to mach 5 in the parking lot to getdown the aisle faster
than me, so he can do a 26 point turn into a diagonal spot going my
direction. SICS seems to be a daily, if not hourly, interference this time
of year. Which brings me to the only logical conclusion, eggnog has some
component that shuts down human reasoning and common sense. Given that the
only other conclusion is people become giant butt-holes due to holiday
stress, I think I prefer to go with the eggnog theory, thus we must all
boycott eggnog in order to eliminate SICS.

Wazz Uupp?

2011-12-19T21:50:00.001-08:00

Like many things in life, my taste for spicy food seems to change over time. At one point Pace was about the most adventurous I'd go. Tobasco is the gateway drug to hot sauce. It's good, don't get me wrong, but after a while you just start looking for that hotter spice or bigger flavor. That's when it gets nasty. Habanero, Serrano, the things you try goes on and on. Currently the love of my spice life is Wasabi. It's a beautiful thing. Not only does it mean I'm probably eating sushi (something I've developed an enjoyment for), but it means I get that massive burn in my nostrils that can only come from wasabi. You know what I mean don't you? It's like temporary syphilis for your nose. Of course the burn ends quickly and the only way to get that joyous wasabi jolt again is to keep eating it. If only they could infuse it with vitamins my life would be complete! Well, at least until I move on to the next burning desire! (sriracha anyone?)

Facebook Killed The Blog

2011-12-17T07:57:00.001-08:00

This morning I saw a link on Facebook to a woman's blog outlining all the reasons she wants to punch mommies in the throat that are overachieving elf on the shelf moms. It was hilarious! This prompted me to read other posts she had and I loved them. In the end I sat there wondering why I seem to have stopped all my ultra-witty, everyone can't stop reading them, posts? The conclusion was Facebook. I'm really starting to hate Facebook. Not only do I have to see various friend recommendations of people I never want to talk to, hell I'm barely a decent enough person to the "friends" I have, but I'm becoming increasingly irritated with the hide and seek game they seem to play with everyone's posts! Facebook is like the U.S.A. Today for online posts. Say it in 2 or 3 lines and move on. Hell no! I ramble on and on, just ask my kids. I can say the same thing 8 different ways and then defend it when you say I'm repeating myself! But I digress. So screw you Facebook, I refuse to continue to fit my thoughts into your word count. Free at last, free at last, thank God Almighty, free at last - I'm sure this is what he was really talking about. Game on.

Welfare vs. Charity

2011-11-14T10:21:00.000-08:00

I've been able to read a few articles recently that go into the philosophical foundations of the purpose of government. I know, a little light reading. It is truly a difficult and gut-wrenching decision when the issue of the government caring for those in need arises. When the federal government raises over a trillion dollars in taxes, it is near impossible to argue that giving $25,000 or $30,000 to someone who is disabled is nothing from our treasury, but would make a world of difference to that person. On a case by case basis, it would seem heartless and without basis to deny this tiny assistance to this disabled person. However, there are two factors that make we wonder if it is the government that should take on this or if it is us, as people that should do it. First, the amount of money necessary to care for one person is insignificant, but what about caring for a million people? It is a principle I teach my children, if you pick up your room every day, it is almost no work at all, but if you just let it build up day after day, eventually it becomes an overwhelming task. One payment is easy, but a million payments is overwhelming. Second, and more importantly, the government was established for limited functions, because when the United States was founded, we placed primary responsibility on our lives and others with ourselves, not the government. The government should collect taxes only sufficient to cover the necessary functions, so really there never should be "excess" funds that could even pay for such benevolent care. Because the Constitution was amended to allow for taxation, but did not include any limitations on what it could be collected for or what it must be spent on, it turned the authority over to the government. The government then functions as a self-serving institution, willing to tax and distribute funds based on the best accumulation of votes, not on the obligations of the government.

Does this mean I oppose charity and caring for those in need? Very much the contrary, but I do oppose the government being the institution that undertakes this function. Consider if the government limited taxation and did not collect more than necessary to fund necessary operations. Decreased taxation would mean each person had more money. Ahhh, now the tricky part. Would people take that additional money and contribute it to charities, to churches and to other institutions designed to help those in need? Hopefully. That is after all how our country was founded - taking responsibility for ourselves and others. Which I believe brings us right back to the fundamental question - what if everyone doesn't take care of others? Who will? Wouldn't it be better to have all of us, through the government, care for those in need? I acknowledge this would remove the issue of whether "everyone" contributed to caring for those in need, but such a system must fail for a variety of reasons. Amongst those reasons, is the fact that morality should never be legislated. Yes, we should all help those in need, but we can not "force" everyone to help those in need. The United States has drawn a proverbial line in the sand between the government caring for all of us and the People taking care of ourselves. That line falls squarely between the welfare system and our system of charity. Freedom includes wonderful things, such as the opportunity for everyone to work hard and earn a good living, the freedom to speak their mind, the freedom to worship as they choose. Such freedom also comes with the price of having to hear things we don't want to, having to take on some responsibility that in other countries the government does tend to, and having to accept that not everyone will be caring or generous.

So, it is after careful consideration that I find it necessary to suggest that government welfare and care of all, while a noble and wonderful thing, is not in keeping with the requirements and foundations of the United States. Instead, it should be an ongoing movement of all People that they contribute to the care and charity of others, and equally important, that they encourage others to do the same. The dependence on government fosters a society unable to care for itself.

Delta II Rocket Lift-off

2011-11-12T19:04:00.001-08:00

No story. No comment. Just like looking in amazement at this picture of a Delta II rocket lifting off on October 28, 2011.

Original photo on CNN

2005 YU55

2011-11-05T08:02:00.000-07:00

Asteroid 2005 YU55 is coming! What does that mean? Well, aside from allowing astronomers to map the surface of an asteroid, not much. Information from NASA says:

NASA scientists will be tracking asteroid 2005 YU55 with antennas of the agency's Deep Space Network at Goldstone, Calif., as the space rock safely flies past Earth slightly closer than the moon's orbit on Nov. 8. Scientists are treating the flyby of the 1,300-foot-wide (400-meter) asteroid as a science target of opportunity - allowing instruments on "spacecraft Earth" to scan it during the close pass.

Tracking of the aircraft carrier-sized asteroid will begin at 9:30 a.m. local time (PDT) on Nov. 4, using the massive 70-meter (230-foot) Deep Space Network antenna, and last for about two hours. The asteroid will continue to be tracked by Goldstone for at least four hours each day from Nov. 6 through Nov. 10. Radar observations from the Arecibo Planetary Radar Facility in Puerto Rico will begin on Nov. 8, the same day the asteroid will make its closest approach to Earth at 3:28 p.m. PST.

The trajectory of asteroid 2005 YU55 is well understood. At the point of closest approach, it will be no closer than 201,700 miles (324,600 kilometers) or 0.85 the distance from the moon to Earth. The gravitational influence of the asteroid will have no detectable effect on anything here on Earth, including our planet's tides or tectonic plates. Although 2005 YU55 is in an orbit that regularly brings it to the vicinity of Earth (and Venus and Mars), the 2011 encounter with Earth is the closest this space rock has come for at least the last 200 years

Either scripts and active content are not permitted to run or Adobe Flash Player version10.0.0 or greater is not installed.

Read more or just see NASA's Asteroid Watch

Most information originally from NASA

Times They Are A Changin'

2011-10-05T21:40:00.000-07:00

Over the past few days I've had the chance to see a variety of pictures, both old and new, that demonstrate how vastly different the same person can be over their life. Tonight I read a few articles about Steve Jobs, who died today, and again saw he changed over time. The part that really amused me about all of it was that I am somewhat convinced I haven't changed at all. Yes, I realize I am wrong in this notion, but the idea persists, everyone else changes and I stay the same. Admit it, you think the same thing too. You see yourself as the same person you were 10, 20 or 30 years ago. Maybe a different job, house, etc... but personality, likes, beliefs, they are the same, right? I will venture a guess that's false, but we just either don't admit it or are for some reason frightened by it.

Some people do not like their parents, so maybe they are worried they are "becoming their parents". Some people were so adamantly liberal or conservative in their youth, maybe they are worried when their views conflict now from those they held so hard in the past. Maybe you were beautiful, exciting and fun and just don't want to believe that has changed. Whatever the reason, it seems most people cling to their own view of themselves and spend the rest of their lives trying to make everything fit back into that mold.

Unfortunately, life doesn't want to play along with our game. Personally I think I've resisted the notion that I've changed. I think for me it was simply the idea that I enjoyed my 20's so much - like more than any person should enjoy them - that the idea of changing worried me that it wouldn't be as good, so you assume nothing has changed, that I'm the same now as I was 20 years ago. In a related idea, it has also dawned on me that the fact I am allowed to raise children may be a massive oversight on the part of... well the planet Earth. Seriously, you want me molding a person? Three of them? Scary. Who actually thinks they are organized and mature enough to raise children? No, really I'm asking because I need them to come over. I mean really, I pick people up from soccer, drop them off at choir, talk to them when they finish their shift at work to make sure they are ok, and then I'm shooting stupid red birds at pigs, or making an ass out of myself at a poker game, or wondering why all beer doesn't come with nitrogen. But I digress.

My humor in the fact I was allowed to breed aside, I really don't see me as different than 20 years ago. Then I see everyone else, and well, they're different. So I must be different too, right? Yup. Honestly, it's not so bad. Yes, I have enormously fond memories of high school (I won't go into detail because one of my kids may actually read this). College, ahhhh, if I could live my entire life in college, well I'd be dead, but for four years it was certainly fantastic and I love every single one of the people that made it so great (those stories are for another post as well). Am I that same person? Yes and no. I see now that I have clearly changed over time and only recently have I realized, thank goodness! Teens and Twenty-somethings have a lot of fun, but good god they make a ton of horrific decisions. I made a ton of horrific decisions, they didn't all turn out bad (the end result doesn't dictate whether it was a poorly made decision), some even turned out great.

The irony is that we see young people and pray they change, then those young people grow up and we don't think we've changed. Truth be told, most of us gain experience (and hopefully some wisdom) as we get older. With that experience you lose some of the excitement that comes with blindly running through life at full speed in your teens and 20's. It's a trade off, one I would gladly make again and again. My teens and 20's were awesome, but they are gone. I won't miss them though. I'm old enough now that I know what to do and young enough to do it. Ahhh, the 40's and 50's look like they are going to be incredible!!!!!

My Lobster

2011-10-03T12:25:00.001-07:00

I Should Apologize Now

2011-09-19T22:22:00.000-07:00

Everyone seems to want to lower the deficit and lower the debt. Problem is not seems to agree on how to do it. Let's be honest, almost every expenditure that exists is there because a group of people want it. Politicians don't spend money for nothing. What? That's right, they actually have a reason for spending money and it's to get votes. Expenditures equal votes. Oh, yes you too. In fact, let's be clear, a tax reduction without a corresponding reduction in spending, is... an expenditure. So even if you don't use any government program, but you tell your representatives to lower your taxes (and don't tell them to cut spending at the same time) you are asking for an expenditure. So yes, our current deficit and debt are a direct result of our representatives "buying" our votes. Are they to blame? Absolutely, as representatives are there to make responsible decisions and explain them. Instead, the status quo has become a representatives giving hand outs to everyone and saying "see what I gave you? vote for me!" because they are too scared (or dumb) to explain why they had to say "no". Oh don't worry, the other half of the equation is us - we were just too greedy to question where the hell all this "stuff" came from! Picture this, a husband and wife where their household income is $50,000. One spouse regularly comes home with fun stuff (t.v.'s, computers, cars, vacations, dining out, etc...) and to any obvious onlooker they are spending at least $75,000 a year. Which one is to blame? The spouse that overspent year after year or the other spouse who didn't want to ask how they were affording everything because they enjoyed it so much? That's our lovely marriage between voters and representatives.
Great, so we know we are all to blame, now what? Well, I have to admit, I've been going on a hunt for numbers. Numbers that would prove that millionaires just aren't paying their fair share and should pay higher taxes. Unfortunately, that's not what I found, and I found it on the Congressional Budget Office website. In short, millionaires who pay taxes, pay a higher percentage of their income than anyone else, and their taxes make up a huge percentage of our overall federal budget (as in the top 5% paid 44.3%), assuming I can read massively boring bureaucratic number tables. This is not what I expected and got worried that, well, we're screwed. However, if you notice something in that statement a few sentences back, I said "millionaires who pay taxes". Turns out, they don't all pay a lot of taxes. The last estimate I saw was that the tax code is about 64,000 pages long and is full of loopholes. Apparently, what I was missing in these numbers is that not everyone PAYS taxes. Huh? So, I looked around at ways that might remedy this. Are you ready? It's not new, but really it sort of is - the flat tax. Now, this is not a welcome to 1994 flashback and we can all fall asleep while Steve Forbes does his hard push on the postcard tax return. First of all, that was boring as sin. Second, his version was sort of like the voodoo economics version of flat tax. Anyway, why does this hold some promise? Because it captures everyone. It doesn't increase the tax rate on the richest, it simply captures more people. If there are 300,000 millionaires and 250,000 were paying taxes, well, you see how that helps, right? I'm also not talking about a pure flat tax where everyone pays, say 10% (totally made up number, that may be way too much or way little, so don't use that number in any argument you may have later), I'm talking about a graduated system, with tax rates increasing with income, or standard deductions increasing with income. Yes, this may actually mean some of us pay more. Trust me, I'm actually extremely scared to find the hard math numbers on this, since I personally itemize deductions. The mortgage deduction is my personal best friend on April 15th, but the purpose is not to "raise" taxes on the middle class, instead, the purpose is to simply capture everyone in the same bracket equally. If you make $25,000 you should pay the same as others with your income. If you make $100,000,000 you should pay the same as, well the other guy that makes that much.
So we're all better now, right? Not exactly. While that will increase revenue by hopefully keeping taxes about the same per bracket, but capturing more people, it doesn't undo the United States' version of the Imelda Marcos shoe buying disease. I mean seriously, if I had a $14.3 trillion debt, even increasing my income 10% isn't going to dent that puppy. Well then, why did we even bother talking about this? First, it's fair. Second, it does increase revenue without increasing anyone's tax burden already paying their fair share (yes, including the wealthy who already pay). Third, anything we can do to increase revenue is going to make this next part less painful.
Load up the truck, we've got to take some of this stuff back to the store. Let's face it, we spend a lot. Let's just start with the big ones: Social Security, Medicaid, Defense. Social Security - should I say it? It's hard I know, because the AARP is the single largest voting block in the United States, and those seniors will kick your ass. However, it's got to change. We are down to around 2:1 for our workers:retirees ratio, a ratio that was up to around something like 12:1 when it started. It just can't be sustained. But by saying it can't be sustained, I'm not saying it has to go now. Be realistic, there are massive amounts of people relying on it. So, be clear and realistic. Say in 10 years, the retirement age increases. Limit benefits to people who have paid into the system. Last but not least, disability social security - I'm truly sorry, but I have seen way too many people who are on disability that have absolutely no business being on it (and admittedly I've seen some who can't get it that should be) - is there a reason we can't have random inspections of homes and people on disability? Medicaid - honestly I won't even touch the number of people on it, because that's small compared to the other drain - the cost of medical care. There is no nice way to say it - you either agree that at some point we have to cut off medical care or you think we should pay for medical care regardless. One we can't pay for and the other is heartless (and you seem to dislike it so much more when you are the one not getting the medical treatment). So how do you compromise between these two? Well, being as it's a compromise that may result in death, I'm sure nobody will like it, but set a cap on expenditures per person per year. This should take care of most medical issues that come up, but not all the major ones. Could people die from this policy? Possibly, but my greater hope is that the health care industry, churches, non-profits, neighbors, friends, etc... will come together and address this "uncovered" situations. As heartless as I feel even suggesting the idea, the reality is that the government can not and should not cover every possible expense. We have certainly progressed economically to a point where we can support helping some, but our hearts are bigger than our pocketbooks. We are not the government's responsibility, the government is our responsibility. Our family and friends, well, that's up to us. Defense - we spend twice as much of are GDP on defense than the number 2 country, and we spend around $700,000,000,000 on defense where the next closest spends around $115,000,000,000. I'm not suggesting a wholesale gutting of our defense (trust me, I'd double it if I could - well, maybe 50% and give the rest to NASA), but even a $100,000,000,000 cut keeps us WAY ahead of everyone. As for all the other expenses - yup, they get cut, a little.
I know, most of you went to bed somewhere around flat taxes, but if you made it all the way to here - you really need to get a life. I mean really, I write this crap down because it rattles around in my head until I do, but what's your excuse for reading it? Ok, I'll admit my numbers are rough, but the initial concepts are there. We can do this and we can do this with relatively little pain if we do it now. If we bury our heads and pray the economy improves and that'll fix it, then our kids will suffer an unimaginable horror of a country crushed by debt, an economy stopped in its tracks and a government pointing fingers at everyone else.
Compromise, it's not a four letter word - really.

Let Us Never Forget

2011-09-11T08:00:00.000-07:00

Let Us Never Forget - 9/11 National Memorial

Above is the link to the National Memorial for September 11th, but each year I have also put up the link to the Here Is New York photo gallery, which includes photos from September 11th. There are lots of photos from that day, but in particular, I have looked at the photos taken from different points of view in the city, especially from inside people's apartments.

Here Is New York Gallery

The Little Mermaid

2011-09-01T07:00:00.000-07:00

Yes this was 22 years ago...

Flowing Water on Mars?

2011-08-05T11:58:00.000-07:00

Scientists have found evidence of flowing salt water on steep Martian slopes, which if confirmed would be the first discovery of active liquid water on the red planet, NASA has said.

The data gathered by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has given new focus to the hunt for life forms and scientists hope that in the coming years lab experiments and new space missions may shed more light on what they have seen.

"We have found repeated and predictable evidence suggesting water flowing on Mars," Michael Meyer, lead scientist for the Mars Exploration program, told reporters.

The US space agency said the orbiter circling Mars since 2006 had monitored numerous instances of what appeared to be water flows occurring in several locations during the Martian spring and summer.

Time-sequence imagery of the Newton crater in the southern mid-latitude region showed finger-like markings spreading along several steep slopes and then fading again once colder temperatures move in.

"The best explanation we have for these observations so far is flow of briny water, although this study does not prove that," said Alfred McEwen of the University of Arizona's Lunar and Planetary Laboratory.

"It's a mystery now, but I think it's a solvable mystery with further observations and experiments," said McEwen, lead author of a study explaining the findings in the journal Science.

No liquid water has been found on Mars, though ice has been discovered at the poles. All life forms need water to survive, so the existence of a water source could point to a haven for primitive life.

"I really think this is a very exciting discovery because it is our first chance to see an environment on Mars that might allow for the expression of an active biological process if there is present day life on Mars," said Lisa Pratt, professor of geological sciences at Indiana University.

"The next big question is to try to understand the origin and the source of these flows... (and) whether or not they may provide a conduit or a connectivity to a larger deeper brine pool or if in fact these fluids are just isolated patches or pockets."

McEwen, principal investigator for the orbiter's High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) that captured the images, said the orbiter recorded "thousands" of the flows over the past three years at seven locations.

It had identified 20 other possible sites of similar flows, he said.

McEwen cautioned that the water flows remained "circumstantial," and said scientists "lack that direct confirmation of water" from other instruments studying the planet, but hope it will be confirmed in future missions and lab experiments.

In any case, it does not appear that scientists are seeing anything akin to a gushing river on Mars, but more likely a subterranean movement.

"The flows are not dark because of being wet," McEwen said. "They are dark for some other reason," possibly because the briny water runs below the surface and is altering the land's appearance in a way that makes it look dark.

"By comparison with Earth, it's hard to imagine they are formed by anything other than fluid seeping down slopes," said Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter project scientist Richard Zurek of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

"The question is whether this is happening on Mars and, if so, why just in these particular places."

Frozen water has been detected in some of Mars's higher latitudes, and other evidence has suggested that water interacted with the Martian surface throughout the planet's history.

NASA has placed a renewed focus on Mars, with the 30-year space shuttle program now over and efforts under way to build a spacecraft capable of carrying humans to the red planet by 2030.

The space agency's unmanned Curiosity rover, also known as the Mars Science Laboratory, is due to explore a mountain inside the Gale Crater on Mars that should reveal whether signs of life ever existed on the red planet.

The largest US rover ever, built at a cost of $2.5 billion dollars, it is set to launch later this year and land in August 2012.

However, the area it will explore is far from the briny water slopes, so Curiosity is not expected to be able to confirm the latest findings.

By Kerry Sheridan | AFP

Bucket List

2011-08-03T23:07:00.000-07:00

In a bit of planning, I made a list of places I want to visit before I die. Now before anyone goes off and tells me there are tons of places in the United States to go see, let's be clear, I certainly agree. Only problem is I have been to lots and I mean lots of places in the United States. Sure there are a few I would want to go see with Tiffany, but for now I'll focus on places I've never been. These are in no particular order, so number 20 would be just as exciting as number 1, they got numbers just based on my scan of the globe.

Machu Picchu (do I have to climb?)
Amazaon River (no I'll stay in the boat, thanks)
Rio (party and giant Jesus - what's not to like)
Niagara Falls (no I will not get in that barrel)
Pacific Islands (I'm not picky - Fiji, Tahiti, you name it, I'd like it)
Asian hut (odd, I very specifically want to stay in a hut on the water, but not picky about the country)
Amsterdam (on the canal, yes, on the canal)
Belgium (probably Brussels to see the peeing statue, but anywhere is good)
Safari in Africa (in a tent, in the heat)
Jerusalem (duh)
Great Wall (this one I could consider removing, it's a long wall, I get it, but still a bit curious)
Beijing (just wonder how so many people get along)
Dubai (tallest building, earth islands, palm tree island - this place is like a country addicted to plastic surgery)
Japan/Tokyo (again, so many people...)
Moscow/Kremlin (da comrade, I want to see the evil empire's evil buildings that look like party balloons)
Santorini (visit, hey I'd consider living there, well if their economy didn't suck)
Quebec City (like Paris in Canada)
Montreal (like Quebec City in Canada)
Lighthouse in Maine (crab in a house looking out on the lighthouse, the wood floors creak as you walk to bed with a blanket...)
Pyramids (wouldn't you? I half expect to see the spaceship buried in the sand - millions of tons of stone in perfect alignment, with no tools? Phasers on stun...)

Dawn takes picture of Vesta

2011-08-02T13:11:00.000-07:00

August 1, 2011 - PASADENA, Calif. -- NASA's Dawn spacecraft obtained this image of the giant asteroid Vesta with its framing camera on July 24, 2011. It was taken from a distance of about 3,200 miles (5,200 kilometers). Dawn entered orbit around Vesta on July 15, and will spend a year orbiting the body. After that, the next stop on its itinerary will be an encounter with the dwarf planet Ceres.

The Dawn mission to Vesta and Ceres is managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. It is a project of the Discovery Program, managed by NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Ala. UCLA is responsible for overall Dawn mission science. Orbital Sciences Corporation of Dulles, Va., designed and built the Dawn spacecraft.

The framing cameras have been developed and built under the leadership of the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research, Katlenburg-Lindau, Germany, with significant contributions by the German Aerospace Center (DLR) Institute of Planetary Research, Berlin, and in coordination with the Institute of Computer and Communication Network Engineering, Braunschweig, Germany. The framing camera project is funded by NASA, the Max Planck Society and DLR. More information about Dawn is online athttp://www.nasa.gov/dawn .

Originally posted by NASA

Things Our Kids Won't Know/Do...

2011-07-23T09:11:00.000-07:00

1. Playing music on an audio tape.

2. The number of TV channels being a single digit.

3. Rotary dial televisions with no remote control. You know, the ones where the kids were the remote control.

4. High-speed dubbing.

5. 8-track cartridges.

6. Scanning the radio dial and hearing static between stations.

7. The scream of a modem connecting.

8. The buzz of a dot-matrix printer.

9. 5 and 3 inch floppies

10. DOS

11. Daisy chaining your SCSI devices and making sure they all have a different ID.

12. Counting in kilobytes.

13. Blowing the dust out of a NES cartridge in the hopes that it’ll load this time.

14. Joysticks.

15. Booting your computer off of a floppy disk.

16. Finding out information from an encyclopedia.

17. Phone books and Yellow Pages.

18. Newspapers and magazines made from dead trees.

19. Rotary-dial telephones.

20. Answering machines.

21. Using a stick to point at information on a wallchart.

22. Pay phones.

23. Remembering someone’s phone number.

24. Not knowing who was calling you on the phone.

25. LEGO just being square blocks of various sizes, with the odd wheel, window or door.

26. Relying on the 5-minute sport segment on the nightly news for baseball highlights.

27. Starbuck being a man.

28. Finding books in a card catalog at the library.

29. Hershey bars in silver wrappers.

30. Having to manually unlock a car door.

31. Looking out the window during a long drive.

32. Going to the mall to play arcade games.

Our Nation The Symphony

2011-07-22T21:46:00.000-07:00

Our nation is a symphony, a great symphony. It is unlike any other country in history and because of it's uniqueness it has delivered a beauty unrivaled by any other. By beauty of course I mean lots of things: prosperity, military strength, political freedom, religious diversity, social expression. All of this was possible because Americans are so different, but over time have been able to compromise for the benefit of all. Thomas Jefferson did not believe in the authority of the federal government to create a bank capable of making the Louisiana Purchase, but yet he recognized the importance of it. Compromise made it possible. Our history is filled with situations where our government has compromised among itself in order to secure a greater good. The United States was founded on the idea that all philosophies would be protected, accordingly, doesn't it make sense that our greatest accomplishments have occurred when no one philosophy has dominated, but instead we have achieved our most meaningful decisions when all philosophies have bent to meet in the middle. Bent, not broke. There is a significant distinction, one that apparently is lost on our current elected officials. They appear to be under the impression that if they compromise at all, their philosophy is lost. Ghandi (I know, sit down and have a drink over the fact I'm pulling him out for this) commented, and this is very loosely paraphrased, that principles are an expression of our idea of perfection, but yet we are imperfect beings. Clinging to our ideas of perfection at the expense of reality, destroys both. Ok, the first part was Ghandi, however the idea remains.

I look at the philosophies people in the United States hold as musical instruments. Flutes are light and open. They are fun to listen to... briefly. Trumpets are focused and arrogant. They have a sense of purpose. They are energizing... until they start to annoy me. Tubas are the rock and bass of all ideas. We would have little to build on without them. They are exciting to listen to as they pound away... until I get bored with the same boring thing over and over. Every single instrument brings something new, and while each instrument is fun, unique and good in its own way, honestly a three hour overture with just one instrument, aggghhh what torture. Now, put all of them together and what happens? Well, at first it's horrid. That's right, horrid. All those instruments playing at the same time, awful. When does it really work? When they take turns, when they harmonize, when each instrument is used to its greatest potential.

This is the United States. Philosophies change from person to person, generation to generation, community to community. Regardless of how great a political philosophy is, if that is the only thing we hear, it is not beautiful. Even if we hear all of these philosophies screamed on top of each other, it is not beautiful. Only when we play our philosophies to their greatest potential, sometimes stopping and allowing another philosophy to take over at the right time, or coming together to create something new. This is what has made the United States beautiful, our symphony of philosophies.

Everyone must understand their role and accept what others bring to the table. Compromise is the symphony. We (congress) need to stop tooting our own horns and learn to play in a symphony, otherwise our beauty will be lost.

Solo & Wambach on Letterman

2011-07-21T11:25:00.001-07:00

Soccer Penalty Kick vs. Baseball Pitch

2011-07-18T07:49:00.000-07:00

Ode to the Justice System (aka Anthony Case)

2011-07-06T12:13:00.000-07:00

There seem to be a lot of comments and blog entries flying around about the jury verdict of not guilty in the Casey Anthony trial. Not unexpectedly the topic came up today.

Over time, it seems the media (and therefore lots of the public) have forgotten how the system is meant to work. The blogs and posts all seem to suggest the jury got it "wrong". Apparently the media and some of the public decided she was guilty, so the jury's job was simply to confirm what everyone suspects. I'll admit, hearing the evidence, it sure sounds like she did it, but do I have any reasonable doubts? Well, for one, I'm not on the jury, so I didn't hear everything. Second, from what I did hear (and continue to hear every 15 minutes in a blog somewhere) is the prosecution never explained how Caylee died. That seems important to me. Does mom seem like a mess? Sure. Do I like her? No. Do I even think she's a good parent. Not really. But did she kill Caylee, I guess I don't really know seeing as I don't even know how Caylee died. Did she drown, hit her head, suffocate, shot, poisoned, etc...? Some of those could be caused by an accident, some are murder. Problem is we don't know. So do we convict someone based on the fact that we don't like them and think it's likely they killed her. No. Trust me, I'm completely saddened about the fact this little girl has died, and if truth be known, I do think her mom killed her. Yes, I blame her mom, but I can't know beyond a reasonable doubt that she really did kill her. And that's how the system works.

It's interesting that as time goes on there seems to be a community consensus that all criminals should be punished, 100% of them. Sounds logical, doesn't it? And frankly I would love it if we could, if only we had some magical way to only punish criminals and never an innocent person, that would be fantastic. Unfortunately we don't. Meanwhile, we send prosecutors are off to accomplish this, but tell them, oh and if you convict someone wrongly (we'll limit it to "accidentally" not "intentionally"), then we want fire and brimstone to rain down upon the prosecutors.

"Better that ten guilty persons escape than that one innocent suffer," said English jurist William Blackstone. Oh, but he's English, right? Written in the 1760's does it really apply to the American Justice System?

Abraham drew near, and said, "Will you consume the righteous with the wicked? What if there are fifty righteous within the city? Will you consume and not spare the place for the fifty righteous who are in it? ...What if ten are found there?" He [The Lord] said, "I will not destroy it for the ten's sake." Genesis 18:23
Ok, maybe Blackstone's idea isn't all that new and maybe it's not just some English notion.

There is no magic wand or crystal ball that perfectly answers, "did they do it?" What we are left with is a system of evidence and everyday people we force to sit there and decide. Realistically our only two choices are, 1) we convict every criminal, but take a few innocent people with them, or 2) we ensure that innocent people are not convicted but we let a few criminals go free. Which do you want?

You Think You're Cooler Than Me

2011-07-05T20:14:00.000-07:00

One bright and sunny Tuesday, much like today, David walks into Petco.

Store Clerk: "Hi, can I help you find something?"

David: "Please, I'm looking for a wireless pet fence."

Store Clerk: "Oh, we don't have any."

David: "What? I called earlier and you said you had some here in stock!"

Store Clerk: "No, we don't carry those."

David: "No, I called and asked about them. I gave them the SKU number and they looked it up, there were some here."

Store Clerk: "Let me check" (she turns to the Store Manager who is engaged in another conversation), "Do we have wireless, (looking at David), what were you looking for?"

David: "Wireless dog or pet fences. I called earlier and were told you had them."

Store Manager: "No, we don't have any. Oh, but check next door at Petco."

David: "uuhhh, Petco? Oh, ok. Thanks." (David leaves Big 5 Sporting Goods)

Remember Our Troops - Everyday

2011-07-01T09:11:00.001-07:00

Diet Soda Anyone?

2011-06-30T11:29:00.000-07:00

Think you're making a healthier choicewhen you reach for diet soda instead of a sugary soft drink? Think again.

Diet soft drinks may have minimal calories, but they can still have a major impact on your waistline, according to two studies presented at a meeting of the American Diabetes Association in San Diego.

Researchers at the Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio tracked 474 people, all 65 to 74 years old, for nearly a decade, measuring the subjects' height, weight, waist circumference, and diet soft drink intake every 3.6 years. The waists of those who drank diet soft drinks grew 70 percent more than those who avoided the artificially sweetened stuff; people who drank two or more servings a day had waist-circumference increases that were five times larger than non-diet-soda consumers.

The findings are in line with those of a 2005 study, also conducted by researchers at the Texas Health Science Center, in which the chance of becoming overweight or obese increased with every diet soda consumed.

“On average, for each diet soft drink our participants drank per day, they were 65 percent more likely to become overweight during the next seven to eight years, and 41 percent more likely to become obese,” said Sharon Fowler, who was a faculty associate in the division of clinical epidemiology in the Health Science Center’s department of medicine at the time.

But how does something with no calories cause weight gain? Turns out that even if our taste buds can't tell the difference between real and fake sugar, our brains can. Another study, also presented at the American Diabetes Association meeting on Sunday, found that after three months of eating food laced with aspartame (which is also found in many diet soft drinks), mice had higher blood sugar levels than rodents who ate regular food. According to Fowler, who worked on all three studies and is now a researcher at UT Health Science Center at San Diego, the aspartame could trigger the appetite but do nothing to satisfy it. That could interfere with your body's ability to tell when you're full—and could lead you to eat more in general.

It happens in humans, too. A 2008 study found that women who drank water sweetened with sugar and water sweetened with Splenda couldn't taste a difference, but functional MRI scans showed that their brains' reward center responded to real sugar "more completely" than it did to the artificial sweetener.

"Your senses tell you there's something sweet that you're tasting, but your brain tells you, 'actually, it's not as much of a reward as I expected,'" Dr. Martin P. Paulus, a professor of psychiatry at the University of California San Diego and one of the authors of the study, told the Huffington Post. So you chase that no-calorie soda with something more caloric, like a salty snack. The sweet taste could also trigger your body to produce insulin, which blocks your ability to burn fat.

Aside from the health problems that go along with a widening waistline, diet soft drinks have also been linked to an increase in diabetes, heart attack, and stroke. One study of more than 2,500 people found that those "who drank diet soda daily had a 61 percent increased risk of cardiovascular events compared to those who drank no soda, even when accounting for smoking, physical activity, alcohol consumption and calories consumed per day," ABC News reported in February. And a 2008 University of Minnesota study of nearly 10,000 adults ages 45 to 64 found that drinking a single can of diet soda a day led to a 34 percent higher risk of developing metabolic syndrome, a collection of health problems that includes high blood sugar, high cholesterol, and high levels of belly fat.

"Drinking a reasonable amount of diet soda a day, such as a can or two, isn't likely to hurt you," writes Katherine Zeratsky, a nutritionist at the Mayo Clinic. "The artificial sweeteners and other chemicals currently used in diet soda are safe for most people, and there's no credible evidence that these ingredients cause cancer."

"It’s hard to make a blanket statement on whether or not you should drink diet soda," Brierley Wright, M.S., R.D., the nutrition editor for EatingWell Magazine, says. "At the end of the day what I think it comes down to is how are you using diet soda—is it truly a substitute for a higher calorie beverage or is it just an excuse to order the fries with your burger or a cookie for dessert? If it’s the former, go ahead. If it’s the latter, perhaps think twice."

But no matter how the soda is sweetened, it is an empty calorie food, Wright points out. "It delivers no nutritional value whatsoever and so should only be consumed in moderation."

Originally posted here

2011-06-08T20:14:00.003-07:00

Napa 2011

2011-05-28T17:53:00.000-07:00

Galactic Empire State of Mind

2011-05-26T22:41:00.001-07:00

Check out this video on YouTube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YNyE2xExktA&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Did I Just Agree With Clinton?

2011-05-25T21:59:00.000-07:00

Either scripts and active content are not permitted to run or Adobe Flash Player version10.0.0 or greater is not installed.

Osama bin Laden Details of Plan

2011-05-17T15:02:00.000-07:00

WASHINGTON (AP) — Those who planned the secret mission to get Osama bin Laden in Pakistan knew it was a one-shot deal, and it nearly went terribly wrong.

The U.S. deliberately hid the operation from Pakistan, and predicted that national outrage over the breach of Pakistani sovereignty would make it impossible to try again if the raid on bin Laden's suspected redoubt came up dry.

Once the raiders reached their target, things started to go awry almost immediately, officials briefed on the operation said. Adding exclusive new details to the account of the assault on bin Laden's hideout, officials described just how the SEAL raiders loudly ditched a foundering helicopter right outside bin Laden's door, ruining the plan for a surprise assault. That forced them to abandon plans to run a squeeze play on bin Laden — simultaneously entering the house stealthily from the roof and the ground floor.

Instead, they busted into the ground floor and began a floor-by-floor storming of the house, working up to the top level where they had assumed bin Laden — if he was in the house — would be.

They were right.

READ MORE

Dear 16-year-old Me

2011-05-15T22:24:00.001-07:00

Check out this video on YouTube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_4jgUcxMezM&feature=youtube_gdata_player

2011-05-12T06:00:00.000-07:00

2011 White House Correspondents Dinner

2011-05-02T12:23:00.000-07:00

The Hangover 2 - Official Trailer (HD)

2011-04-30T22:27:00.001-07:00

Check out this video on YouTube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RYL_T7f59o8&feature=youtube_gdata_player

The Mountain

2011-04-20T06:00:00.000-07:00

Can't see the video? Go to: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rk6_hdRtJOE

Lose Weight By Eating

2011-04-19T17:44:00.000-07:00

I thought this was interesting. I had heard it before and I'll admit it makes sense, but there is always that danger of over eating if you "eat all day"

"I eat healthy, and I don't snack between meals; why can't I lose any weight?"

A colleague—I'll call her Mary—was in my office recently, complaining about her body with just those words. I listened, nodding sympathetically, because I couldn't speak—I had a mouth full of almonds and was washing them down with chocolate milk. Mary stared at me as though I'd just backed over her dachshund. "You eat all the time, and you never gain weight!" she exclaimed. "What, is there a picture in your attic that gets fatter while you stay thin?"

"I never gain weight because I eat all the time," I explained, reaching for a napkin. "Not snacking is exactly the wrong thing to do!"

Our bodies evolved to graze; when food gets scarce, we start to retain fat as a way of protecting ourselves from famine. "That's exactly what happens when you don't snack between meals," I told her. "Your body doesn't know where its next meal is coming from, so it's afraid to shed the extra pounds." Worse, you wind up eating more than you need at every meal.

Read more...

Date of Easter Determined?

2011-04-18T12:32:00.000-07:00

Christians have long celebrated Jesus Christ's Last Supper on Maundy Thursday but new research released Monday claims to show it took place on the Wednesday before the crucifixion.

Professor Colin Humphreys, a scientist at the University of Cambridge, believes it is all due to a calendar mix-up -- and asserts his findings strengthen the case for finally introducing a fixed date for Easter.

Humphreys uses a combination of biblical, historical and astronomical research to try to pinpoint the precise nature and timing of Jesus's final meal with his disciples before his death.

Researchers have long been puzzled by an apparent inconsistency in the Bible.

While Matthew, Mark and Luke all say the Last Supper coincided with the start of the Jewish festival of Passover, John claims it took place before Passover.

Humphreys has concluded in a new book, "The Mystery Of The Last Supper", that Jesus -- along with Matthew, Mark and Luke -- may have been using a different calendar to John.

"Whatever you think about the Bible, the fact is that Jewish people would never mistake the Passover meal for another meal, so for the Gospels to contradict themselves in this regard is really hard to understand," Humphreys said.

"Many biblical scholars say that, for this reason, you can't trust the Gospels at all. But if we use science and the Gospels hand in hand, we can actually prove that there was no contradiction."

In Humphreys' theory, Jesus went by an old-fashioned Jewish calendar rather than the official lunar calendar which was in widespread use at the time of his death and is still in use today.

This would put the Passover meal -- and the Last Supper -- on the Wednesday, explaining how such a large number of events took place between the meal and the crucifixion.

It would follow that Jesus' arrest, interrogation and separate trials did not all take place in the space of one night but in fact occurred over a longer period.

Humphreys believes a date could therefore be ascribed to Easter in our modern solar calendar, and working on the basis that the crucifixion took place on April 3, Easter Day would be on April 5.

Originally posted on yahoo - author unnamed

2011-04-15T08:58:00.000-07:00

Chris Yakopcic

2011-04-13T10:21:00.000-07:00

A Roadmap for America's Future

2011-04-05T18:41:00.000-07:00

So it hit the fan today, huh? The general tone of both the Democrats and Republicans was about what you would expect. Little on substance, but high on fear. If I call Congress political terrorists on this blog, how long till I'm visited by some friendly fact-finding agencies? Let's be clear, I'm not saying that, just wondering. Anyway, my disdain for relying on someone else's interpretation of the facts has lead me to the Budget Committee Chairman's website (no, not an official Congressional website). However, it does have both the budget proposal and the outline to the plan. Yes, it might be a good idea to read it. I'll admit, I'm about 75% to 80% on board. The initial start is good, but then it seems to go a bit tea-bag party on me at the end with the federal budget decreasing over time. Now, I'm not a fan of government spending, but I certainly don't plan on having our governments become ineffective because we've decided to cut their funding off. Reduce the deficit, absolutely. Curtail spending, positively. Throw the United States back into the early 1900's, not so much. So, I like the plan, I like most of the budget cuts/changes, but ultimately the ship needs to steer a bit more center of the stream. Read the plan.

Tsunami Dog

2011-04-01T16:32:00.000-07:00

CIA last week, New arms this week - How ever does that happen?

2011-04-01T07:17:00.000-07:00

BENGHAZI, Libya – Libya's rebels will agree to a cease-fire if Moammar Gadhafi pulls his military forces out of cities and allows peaceful protests against his regime, an opposition leader said Friday as rebels showed signs that their front-line organization is improving.

Mustafa Abdul-Jalil, head of the opposition's interim governing council based in Benghazi, spoke during a joint press conference with U.N. envoy Abdelilah Al-Khatib. After meeting government officials in Thursday, Al-Khatib was visiting the rebels' de facto stronghold of Benghazi in hopes of reaching a political solution to the crisis embroiling the North African nation.

Abdul-Jalil said the rebels' condition for a cease-fire is "that the Gadhafi brigades and forces withdraw from inside and outside Libyan cities to give freedom to the Libyan people to choose and the world will see that they will choose freedom."

The U.N. resolution that authorized international airstrikes against Libya called for Gadhafi and the rebels to end hostilities. Gadhafi announced a cease-fire immediately but has shown no sign of heeding it. His forces continue to attack rebels in the east, where the opposition in strongest, and have besieged the only major rebel-held city in the west, Misrata.

The city has been shelled by tanks and artillery for days, said a doctor in a Misrata hospital who spoke on condition of anonymity out of fear of reprisals. Many people have been killed, including eight since Thursday, he said. He said Gadhafi brigades control the port and a main street, but rebels control the heart of the city.

Abdul-Jalil said the regime must withdraw its forces and lift all sieges.

He stressed the ultimate goal was Gadhafi's ouster.

"Our aim is to liberate and have sovereignty over all of Libya with its capital in Tripoli," he said.

The U.N. said Al-Khatib arrived Thursday in Tripoli.

Forces loyal to Libya's leader of nearly 42 years spent much of this week pushing the rebels back about 100 miles (160 kilometers) along the coast. On Friday, the opposition showed signs of gaining discipline on what has often been a disorganized battlefield.

Fighters said fresh forces were coming in, mostly ex-military, but also volunteers with not quite a month of training. The rebels also appeared to have more communication equipment such as radios and satellite phones, and were working in more organized units, in which military defectors were each leading six or seven volunteers.

The untrained masses who have rushed in and out of the fight for weeks with no apparent organization were barred from the front line. They stayed to the rear, to hold the line temporarily in case Gadhafi's forces attempt to flank the rebels.

"The problem with the young untrained guys is they'll weaken us at the front, so we're trying to use them as a backup force," said Mohammed Majah, 33, a former sergeant. "They have great enthusiasm, but that's not enough now."

Majah said the only people at the front now are former soldiers, "experienced guys who have been in reserves, and about 20 percent are young revolutionaries who have been in training and are in organized units."

The rebels also had mortars Friday, weapons they previously appeared to have lacked, and on Thursday night they drove in a convoy with at least eight rocket launchers — more artillery than usual.

The rebels' losses this week, and others before airstrikes began March 19, underlined that their equipment, training and organization were far inferior to those of Gadhafi's forces. The recent changes appear to be an attempt to correct, or at least ease, the imbalance.

It was not immediately clear where the front line was on Friday. On Thursday, the opposition had moved into Brega, about 50 miles (80 kilometers) east of Ajdabiya, before Gadhafi's forces pushed them out.

Gadhafi's greatest losses this week were not military but political. Two members of his inner circle, including his foreign minister, abandoned him Wednesday and Thursday, setting off speculation about other officials who may be next. The defections could sway people who have stuck with Gadhafi despite the uprising that began Feb. 15 and the international airstrikes aimed at keeping the autocrat from attacking his own people.

Libyan state TV aired a phone interview with intelligence chief Bouzeid Dorda to knock down rumors that he also left Gadhafi.

"I am in Libya and will remain here steadfast in the same camp of the revolution despite everything," Dorda said. "I never thought to cross the borders or violate commitment to the people, the revolution and the leader."

Gadhafi struck a defiant stance in a statement Thursday, saying he's not the one who should go — it's the Western leaders who attacking his military with airstrikes who should resign immediately. Gadhafi's message was undercut by its delivery — a scroll across the bottom of state TV as he remained out of sight.

The White House said the strongman's inner circle was clearly crumbling with the loss of Foreign Minister Moussa Koussa, who flew from Tunisia to England on Wednesday. Koussa is privy to all the inner workings of the regime, so his departure could open the door for some hard intelligence, though Britain refused to offer him immunity from prosecution.

Ali Abdessalam Treki, a former foreign minister and U.N. General Assembly president, announced his departure on several opposition websites the next day, saying "It is our nation's right to live in freedom and democracy and enjoy a good life."

Gadhafi accused the leaders of the countries attacking his forces of being "affected by power madness."

"The solution for this problem is that they resign immediately and their peoples find alternatives to them," the Libya state news agency quoted him as saying.

original authors: Ben Hubbard and Ryan Lucas

2011-03-27T11:10:00.000-07:00

Why We Have Seasons (and Equinoxes & Solstices)

2011-03-20T22:13:00.000-07:00

Today is the first day of spring in the Northern Hemisphere. Though no guarantee of gorgeous weather that's not too hot and not too cold, the Earth's position relative to the sun says it's officially time for the birds to start chirping.

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.

This year, spring starts Sunday, March 20, at 7:21 p.m. EDT (23:21 UTC). That's 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 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. However, day and night are not exactly equal on the date of the equinoxes. For instance, at higher latitudes in the Northern Hemisphere, the "equal day and night" occurs a few days before the spring equinox, while in the Southern Hemisphere that date comes after the March equinox, according to the National Weather Service.

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.

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.

Originally posted www.livescience.com

Climbing Back

2011-03-14T08:04:00.000-07:00

Climbing Back

When double amputee Neil Duncan summited Mount Kilimanjaro, he did more than conquer Africa’s highest peak. The climb marked the end of his recovery and the beginning of the rest of his life.

When Neil Duncan reached the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro on Aug. 7, 2010, he called his sister from the top. He told her simply, “I’m here.”

Those two little words said a lot.

Just a few years earlier, Duncan — now a University of Denver undergraduate — had nearly died on a battlefield in Afghanistan. He had to learn to walk again and to start life over without legs.

And then climb a mountain.

Sponsored by Disabled Sports USA, the Challenged Athletes Foundation and Health Net Federal Services, Duncan made the Kilimanjaro trek with Kirk Bauer and Dan Nevins. Their Missing Parts in Action team — three wounded veterans with just one leg between them — made international headlines.

Conquering Kilimanjaro’s 19,340-foot summit was something he needed to do, Duncan says — a test of the limits of his new prosthetic limbs, and a test of his will.

Will is something he has plenty of. It’s what kept him alive in Afghanistan. It’s what powered his recovery. It’s what fueled his training for the trek — climbing 14,000-foot peaks in Colorado and logging 25 miles a week on elliptical machines. And will is what drove him up Kilimanjaro for up to 12 hours a day with a 30-pound pack on his back, sometimes walking, sometimes crawling over boulders and scree on the mountain’s upper reaches.

Standing on the top of Africa’s highest peak, Duncan proved to himself, and the rest of the world, that he’d left the limitations of his disability far behind.

Fighting to survive

Although the climb up Kilimanjaro had started just a week earlier, the journey began in 2002, when Duncan joined the U.S. Army.

He was 18 and had been taking classes at a community college in his hometown of Maple Grove, Minn.

“I was bored,” Duncan recalls. “I was re-evaluating my priorities and what I wanted to do. Military service was always on my radar.

“College would always be there [later],” he adds. “I wanted to train and see the world. I got every bit of that and more.”

Duncan spent his 19th birthday at Fort Benning, Ga., where he went through infantry training and paratrooper school. March 2003 found him stationed in Italy. A few months later, he was in Iraq.

In March 2005, Duncan — by then a 21-year-old sergeant in the 2nd Battalion of the 503rd Infantry (Airborne) — was leading a team at Forward Operating Base Wolverine in the remote and sparsely populated Zabul province of Afghanistan. Zabul’s 40-mile border with Pakistan is a conduit for Taliban fighters.

“We were rolling all over our little province rooting out insurgent activity,” says Duncan, who spent the night of Dec. 4, 2005, parked in the cold on a mountaintop, watching for Taliban movement.

His team rose with the sun the morning of Dec. 5 and headed back to Wolverine along a dry riverbed. That’s when the Taliban struck.

Their attack came in the form of an improvised explosive device buried in the dirt track. The homemade bomb — with a makeshift pressure plate of tire tubing, pieces of chicken crate and old hacksaw blades — detonated directly under Duncan, who was sitting in the passenger seat of a Humvee.

The blast sheared off the truck’s front end. “The explosion was so fierce it launched a 100-pound Humvee wheel about 100 yards. It blew the radiator right out of the truck another 75 yards,” Duncan says.

The vehicle’s gunner was ejected and the driver’s head slammed into the steering wheel hard enough to leave a dent; both escaped with minor injuries.

But the explosion drove the engine through the Humvee’s firewall, crushing Duncan’s legs.

His right arm and hand were shattered, and he had third-degree burns on his left arm. His bottom lip was nearly severed, his jaw was shattered and 10 of his teeth were blown out, taking bone and skin with them.

“My legs were mangled, wrapped in metal,” he says quietly. “I just sat there, bleeding out.

“It’s not what you would know as pain — it’s beyond pain. It’s the worst nightmare you’ve ever had, and you can’t wake up.”

Twenty minutes ticked by.

Duncan stopped moving. By the time medics arrived, most of his blood had pumped out into the dust of that gulley.

The road to recovery

Medics left the chopper running as they gave Duncan all the blood they had at Forward Operating Base Lagman in Zabul. From there, he flew to a field hospital in Kandahar, where doctors amputated his mangled legs.

Duncan does not remember those early days, but his family can’t forget.Three days later he was at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany. Still in critical condition, he was placed in a medically induced coma. A ventilator breathed for him. Vacuums inside his open amputation wounds kept them from festering; the wounds were scrubbed out at least once a day. On Dec. 11, 2005, he arrived at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C.

The Army informed them within hours of his injury. “That day is very vivid. I’ll never forget that day,” says his only sibling, older sister Katy Davenport. “The pain, the sadness, the hurt — nothing has come close to that day.”

The family met Duncan at Walter Reed, where Davenport stayed with her brother for the next three months.

“He was unconscious when we saw him. He was swollen. His legs were always covered — we could only see where they ended.

“At that point, we knew he would live, but we didn’t know his brain function, or if he had PTSD.”

Duncan’s teammates e-mailed a picture of his Humvee. “It was a shock,” Davenport says. “I thought, ‘How are you still alive?’”

Duncan finally woke to find his legs gone — the right was amputated above the knee, the left below. He was in a neck brace and his right arm — held together with plates and screws — was in a cast to the armpit. He breathed through a tracheotomy tube, his jaw was wired shut, and an external frame was screwed into his face to hold the fragments of his jaw in place.

“He was as bad as you can be and still be alive,” recalls climbing partner Bauer, executive director of Disabled Sports USA and the Wounded Warrior Disabled Sports Project. He met Duncan while visiting with severely injured soldiers at Walter Reed and “trying to give them a little hope.”

Duncan had surgery every day, sometimes twice a day, for weeks, lapsing in and out of consciousness.

Still, he says, he got lucky. He didn’t have internal injuries or a brain injury. He didn’t have post-traumatic stress disorder. He survived.

Duncan’s most vivid memory from that time is a nightmare — one he still can’t quite shake.

“I dreamed that my plane into Kandahar had crashed and ground my legs off,” he says, looking away. “I couldn’t wake up.” It was the worst night of his life.

As he fought to escape the nightmare, he says, “They had to chain me to the bed.”

“It was a couple of weeks in before I really started to deal with [the injury],” Duncan recalls. “I couldn’t move, couldn’t bathe. All of the hair on the back of my head fell out. It was just disgusting.”

He couldn’t focus on the future. “It was one hour at a time, there was so much pain.”

But he started to see progress. His legs were stitched up. He was able to drink through a straw. The stabilizer was cut off his face. He could speak again. He started physical therapy. He began to eat solid food. Eventually, he was fitted for prosthetics.

That’s when Duncan’s battle back really began.

He had blast marks on his face — black tattooing that had to be removed by laser. He required extensive dental work, including skin grafts and tooth implants.

He also had to learn to walk with prosthetics — the biggest challenge yet. “Initially, it’s like trying to walk on stilts, but there’s no sensation,” he explains. “You don’t know where things are. It’s like trying to walk on stilts and in a tremendous amount of pain.

“My first time standing was the most painful thing I’ve ever felt in my life,” he adds. “And it was the most disappointed I’ve ever been in my life. I foolishly thought I would muscle through it, but I could only stand for a few seconds.”

He practiced using his new legs for hours every day and set a goal of running again.

“He would put on his legs and run down the dorm hallways, and he would fall on the hard floor until he got it,” his sister recalls.

Duncan’s new mission was to end his dependency on others, and by May of 2006 he was living independently at a Walter Reed facility for severely injured soldiers. “There was no one around, and I liked it that way,” he says. “It made me deal with things, made me get up in the morning. It made me learn to do things and become independent.”

Eight months after his injury, Duncan took his first running steps on a track.

“It was 20 months before the legs became part of my life and I reached my full potential,” he says.

He retired from the Army, and in September 2007, not quite two years after he was injured, Duncan had the last of some 40 surgeries.

Climbing Kilimanjaro

The Kilimanjaro climb “changed people’s perception of what disabled people can do,” says Bauer, 62, a retired Army sergeant who lost his left leg to a hand grenade in Vietnam.

Neil Duncan describes the Kilimanjaro descent as a "controlled fall." Photo: Reed Hoffmann

As Duncan, Bauer and Nevins worked their way up the mountain, other climbers greeted the group of amputees with disbelief. Local children made robot noises as they passed.

“There are a lot of assumptions about what [disabled] people can do,” Duncan says. “I’d love to be the first person to break any of those.”

But breaking assumptions isn’t easy, especially on Africa’s highest mountain.

Duncan had attempted Kilimanjaro a year earlier but had to turn back. “[The guides] put me on a route that would require an acclimated climber to go for seven hours a day for seven days,” Duncan explains. “I was doing 14-hour days, shimmying across rock faces by headlamp. I turned around at 16,000 feet — I wasn’t sure I could get down.”

From that experience, Duncan told The Washington Post, “I learned that if you take a bunch of amputees and you want to put them on top of a mountain, there are a lot of things you need to think about.”

Things like allowing extra time for the trek up Kilimanjaro’s Rongai route and securing permits that would allow them to camp anywhere on the mountain — critical accommodations for disabled climbers. Duncan packed solar panels to power the microprocessor in his above-knee prosthetic and brought along extra legs as well.

“[The descent] was a huge, controlled fall,” Duncan says. “We’d go 100 yards and then tumble.”

On the way down, the microprocessor that controls resistance in Duncan’s artificial knee overheated and shorted out. Bauer’s prosthetic leg locked up and then fell off entirely. Nevins, 39, a retired Army staff sergeant who lost both his legs in Iraq, developed a pressure wound and high fever and had to be evacuated from the mountain after summiting.

On Aug. 8, 2010, Nevins greeted an exhausted Duncan and Bauer at the trail’s end.

Duncan doesn’t crow about the accomplishment, and he doesn’t dwell on his injury. “I really have a hard time remembering myself before,” he says. “You just get used to it — there’s no going back.”

“I’ve heard him tell people that it’s ‘better that it happened to me,’ Davenport says. “I never heard him do the whole whiny ‘Why did this happen?’ deal.

“His true core characteristics are the same. If he hadn’t had the determination and motivation, he wouldn’t have the same results,” Davenport says emphatically. “The injury enhanced them. It gave him a new appreciation for life.”

The injury certainly hasn’t slowed Duncan down. He skis, he bikes, he runs. He even jogged around the White House grounds with President George W. Bush in 2007.

In September 2010, Duncan enrolled as a full-time student in DU’s Burns School of Real Estate and Construction Management with scholarships from the Veterans Administration and the Daniels College of Business. He’s one of 289 veterans currently enrolled at DU.

In October he completed the Army Ten-Miler—his farthest run yet on prosthetics. In November, he completed the New York City Marathon on a hand bike. In December, he headed off to New Zealand for an interterm course. And though he spends about 12 hours on the DU campus most days, he still makes time for at least an hour in the gym every day and jogs 4–6 miles at least twice a week.

Today, his only medical issues are sports injuries.

Duncan’s goals are to finish college and establish a career. And he intends to remain involved in raising awareness about wounded veterans and supporting all people with disabilities. “He really has been one of the warriors who has changed the paradigm for what disabled people can do,” Bauer says. “He’s really been a leader — a shining example of someone who has confronted their disability and moved beyond it.”

The road to recovery hasn’t been easy, Duncan admits. “I’ve done a lot of falling, that’s for sure,” he says with a laugh.

And getting back up.

Original post University of Denver Magazine
By: Chelsey Baker-Hauck

7-year itch is now the 3-year glitch

2011-03-09T11:41:00.000-08:00

LONDON (Reuters) – The "three-year glitch" has replaced the "seven-year itch" as the tipping point where couples start to take each other for granted, according to a new survey.

Weight gain, stinginess, toe-nail clippings on the bathroom floor and snoring are a few of the passion-killers that have led to a swifter decline in relationships in the fast-paced 21st century, said the study commissioned by Warner Brothers to promote the release of comedy film "Hall Pass" in UK cinemas.

The survey of 2,000 British adults in steady relationships pinpointed the 36-month mark as the time when relationship stress levels peak and points to a new trend of "pink passes" and "solo" holidays away from partners and spouses that many Britons resort to in order to keep romance alive.

"Longer working hours combined with money worries are clearly taking their toll on modern relationships and we are seeing an increasing trend for solo holidays and weekends away from marriages and relationships in order to revive the romantic spark," said pollster Judi James who oversaw the survey.

The poll compared feedback from those in short-term relationships (defined as less than three years) and people who were married or in longer-term partnerships.

The findings showed that 67 percent of all of those surveyed said that small irritations which are seemingly harmless and often endearing during the first flushes of love often expand into major irritations around 36 months.

More than half of the Brits surveyed (52 percent) who were in younger relationships said they enjoyed sexual relations at least three times a week, compared to just 16 percent of those in relationships older than three years.

This suggests that as we get older together, romance gives way to day to day practicalities, supported by the fact that 55 percent of busy people in longer-term relationships admit that they now have to "schedule" their romantic time.

The report also said that those in the first flush of love can look forward to an average of three compliments a week from their partners - a figure which falls to an average of a single weekly compliment at the three-year high tide mark.

The prognosis gets worse the longer we stay in relationships, three in 10 of those surveyed that have been in a relationship for five years or more said that they never receive any compliments from their partners.

The findings also showed that more than three quarters (76 percent) of all people surveyed responded that "individual space was important" within a relationship and pointed to a rise of individual activities.

A third (34%) of those who have been seeing their partners for longer than three years have at least two evenings a month defined as a "pass" or a "ticket" where it is accepted that they can pursue their own interests and 58 percent of the same sample group enjoy regular holidays without their partners.

The top 10 everyday niggles and passion-killers: 1. Weight gain/lack of exercise, 13 percent; 2. Money & Spend thriftiness, 11 percent; 3. Anti-social working hours, 10 percent; 4. Hygiene issues (personal cleanliness), 9 percent; 5. In-Laws/extended family - too much/too little, 9 percent; 6. Lack of romance (sex, treats etc.), 8 percent; 7. Alcohol - drinking too much, 7 percent; 8. Snoring & anti social bedtime habits, 6 percent; 9. Lapsed fashion-Same old underwear/clothes, 4 percent; 10. Bathroom habits - Stray nail cuttings etc., 4 percent.

Happy Mardi Gras!!!!!

2011-03-08T20:48:00.000-08:00

A few pictures from today's festivities in New Orleans - I'm there in spirit!

Aliens Are Among Us... sort of

2011-03-06T09:01:00.000-08:00

Riccardo Guerrero / Richard B. Hoover / Journal of Cosmology

A photograph taken through a scanning electron microscope of a CI1 meteorite (right) is similar in size and overall structure to the giant bacterium Titanospirillum velox (left), an organism found here on planet Earth, a NASA scientist said.

We are not alone in the universe -- and alien life forms may have a lot more in common with life on Earth than we had previously thought.

That's the stunning conclusion one NASA scientist has come to, releasing his groundbreaking revelations in a new study in the March edition of the Journal of Cosmology.

Dr. Richard B. Hoover, an astrobiologist with NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center, has traveled to remote areas in Antarctica, Siberia, and Alaska, amongst others, for over ten years now, collecting and studying meteorites. He gave FoxNews.com early access to the out-of-this-world research, published late Friday evening in the March edition of the Journal of Cosmology. In it, Hoover describes the latest findings in his study of an extremely rare class of meteorites, called CI1 carbonaceous chondrites -- only nine such meteorites are known to exist on Earth.

Though it may be hard to swallow, Hoover is convinced that his findings reveal fossil evidence of bacterial life within such meteorites, the remains of living organisms from their parent bodies -- comets, moons and other astral bodies. By extension, the findings suggest we are not alone in the universe, he said.

“I interpret it as indicating that life is more broadly distributed than restricted strictly to the planet earth,” Hoover told FoxNews.com. “This field of study has just barely been touched -- because quite frankly, a great many scientist would say that this is impossible.”

Read more...
originally written by Garrett Tenney
Foxnews.com

World's Most Typical Person

2011-03-04T05:55:00.000-08:00

National Geographic Video

Creole-infused burrito

2011-03-02T05:57:00.001-08:00

As Mardi Gras approaches, I thought I'd share a recipe in our local newspaper. This particular version is vegetarian, though I would suggest adding some seafood...

One of the many appealing things about a burrito is that an often surprising range of ingredients can be rolled into a complete meal in a single package.

But other less desirable surprises also can lurk inside burritos, especially extra fat and calories you may not have bargained for.

These Creole-style burritos are inspired by the flavors of the Gulf coast, take only about 35 minutes to make, and are built with ingredients that will make your Mardi Gras celebration, which is Tuesday, a little less fattening.

First off, they're vegetarian, eliminating one of the chief culprits behind gut-busting burritos - fatty meat fillings like ground beef or pork. (Though may I suggest adding shrimp!)

Here, red beans and rice, a Louisiana favorite, bring the heft and some protein to the party. The recipe calls for a convenient boxed rice and beans mix, but you can use homemade, especially if you’re looking to cut down on the sodium (though you may want to use a bit more Cajun seasoning to keep the flavors popping).
Here are some other Mardi Gras recipes to try:

CREOLE-STYLE BURRITOS

Recipe talk: An 8-ounce box of red beans and rice mix will make about double the amount needed to fill these burritos. You can either make half the box (you will need to adjust the package cooking times and reduce the amount of broth used) or serve the excess on the side.

Start to finish: 35 minutes (15 minutes active)

Servings: 6

Ingredients

8-ounce package red beans and rice mix

3 cups low-sodium chicken broth

1 cup grated pepper jack cheese

1 cup grated reduced-fat cheddar cheese

16-ounce package frozen pepper and onion stir-fry mix, thawed

1/2 teaspoon Cajun seasoning

6 burrito-size whole-grain tortillas

2 cups fresh baby spinach

3/4 cup salsa

Instructions

Heat the oven to 350 degrees

Cook beans and rice according to package directions, substituting the broth for the water called for.

Meanwhile, in a small bowl, toss together both cheeses. Set aside.

In a large skillet over medium-high, combine the pepper and onion mix with the Cajun seasoning. Cook, stirring often, until the vegetables are dry, about 5 minutes. Set aside.

Sprinkle 1/4 cup of the cheese blend over each tortilla; there will be about 1/2 cup remaining.

Spoon about 1/3 cup of the rice and beans over the bottom two thirds of each tortilla. Spread about 1/3 cup of the pepper-onion mix over the rice. Pile some of the baby spinach on top of the peppers. Fold in 2 sides of each tortilla and roll-up. Arrange the burritos, seam-side down, in a baking dish. Top each with salsa and some of the remaining cheese.

Bake the burritos for about 15 to 20 minutes, or until heated through and the cheese is melted.

Nutrition information per serving: 313 calories; 98 calories from fat (31 percent of total calories); 11 g fat (4 g saturated; 0 g trans fats); 21 mg cholesterol; 36 g carbohydrate; 16 g protein; 4 g fiber; 721 mg sodium.

originally posted Coloradoan by Jim Romanoff

Earth 2050

2011-02-21T20:10:00.000-08:00

This was one of the more entertaining news casts I saw on this issue. In reality, what prompted me to even look at it was the statement by Dr. Jason Clay (the "expert" they don't name in this report), that says due to the increase in human population we will need to produce as much food in the next 40 years as we have in the past 8,000 years. Could it be an exaggeration? Certainly, but even if they have over estimated by 10 times - that is still as much food in 40 years at in the past 800 years and frankly I doubt they are that wrong. So what's that say about us? Family Planning!!!!!! Come on, why in the hell are we having so many freaking babies? What throws me even more is that the countries with the largest population growth are the poorest! Seriously? No money or economy to support yourself, so let's have a ton of children? Sure, sure, I get the mortality rate is high, but clearly if the population is growing so fast they aren't just "beating" the mortality rate, they are sky rocketing past it. So, maybe our greatest issue in the next 40 years isn't how to make enough food, maybe it's how to teach people to plan out having children. Personally we've about reached the point where humans need a zero growth policy, two babies per couple.

End of the World as We Know It

2011-02-20T19:45:00.000-08:00

I don't really deny the fact that I love a good beer or glass of wine or whiskey. However, there is one thing that I love more than all other beverages on the planet - coffee. By coffee I don't just mean the standard american drip, which I do love, but I love all coffee creations. The nearest and dearest to my heart being the Americano, because let's face it, while I love espresso, I don't like "shots" of coffee. I want to sit and enjoy it, which requires there to be a larger amount of liquid.

That being said, I know that one of the signs of the Apocalypse is when coffee costs more than alcohol. Well, start saying your goodbyes... I grabbed a menu from a local coffee and wine bar in the hopes to planning a night out in the near future. To my grave concern I noticed that imported and local beer is $3.75 and a large Mocha is $4.20. A large latte, cappuccino and hot chocolate are $3.70. I'm sorry, but none of these should be remotely similar in price. Starbucks, which I love, must drop down several pegs as I blame them 100% for the rapid inflation in coffee drinks.

New Photo of "English Nessie"

2011-02-19T11:20:00.000-08:00

Pictures of a mysterious creature surfacing from Lake Windermere have been hailed as the best ever sighting of the English Loch Ness Monster, or "Bownessie".

It was taken on a camera phone by Tom Pickles, 24, while kayaking on the lake as part of a team building exercise with his IT company, CapGemini, last Friday. Mr Pickles said he saw an animal the size of three cars speed past him on the lake and watched it for about 20 seconds. He said: “It was petrifying and we paddled back to the shore straight away. At first I thought it was a dog and then saw it was much bigger and moving really quickly at about 10mph. “Each hump was moving in a rippling motion and it was swimming fast. “Its skin was like a seal’s but it’s shape was completely abnormal – it’s not like any animal I’ve ever seen before."

This is believed to be the eighth sighting of a long humpbacked creature – known by local residents as "Bownessie" – in the past last five years. Mr Pickles’ companion Sarah Harrington, 23, said: “It was like an enormous snake. “I only saw it for a few seconds but all I could think about was that I had to get off the lake.” The pair were on the last day of a team building residential training course at Fallbarrow Hall, Bowness, Cumbria. They said they had kayaked 300m out into the lake near Belle Isle when they spotted the beast to the south. Mr Pickles's picture perfectly matches the description of an earlier sighting from the shores of Wray Castle in 2006 by journalism lecturer Steve Burnip. He said: “I’m really pleased that someone has finally got a really good picture of it. “I know what I saw and it shocked me, it had three humps and it’s uncanny the likeness between this and what I saw five years ago.”

Photo expert David Farnell of Farnell’s photographic laboratory in Lancaster said: “It does look like a real photo but because it’s been taken on a phone the file size is too small to really tell whether it has been altered on Photoshop or not.” Sceptics remain unconvinced that something so large could exist in the 11 mile long lake. Dr Ian Winfield, a lake ecologist at the University of Lancaster, said: “It’s possible that it’s a catfish from Eastern Europe and people are misjudging the size but there is no known fish as large as the descriptions we’re hearing that could be living in Windermere. “We run echo sounding surveys every month and have never found anything new.”

Original article by Nick Collins in Telegraph

The Fiction of Civility

2011-02-17T20:38:00.000-08:00

We are a nation of surprised people. We see people assault one another at political rallies. We have people we've never met scream and yell at us because our car is parked on the wrong side of the street. We post obscenities on local newspaper sites deriding the intelligence and proclaiming corruption of local city council members all because they support a law about bicycle usage. These are three recent examples from where I live and I know similar situations arise daily across this country.

We hear these events and proclaim that people lack civility and the country must heal. The problem is we think OTHER people are the problem. We can't fathom that our own precious ideals and reactions are to blame. Instead we demand a move towards bipartisan cooperation and civil discourse. Then we scream about what an asshole the guy who disagreed with our thoughts on immigration is.

America has become the most free and prosperous country in history by requiring our citizens to be more self sufficient than any other people in history. This is fantastic and should be encouraged to continue. Unfortunately, the counterbalance to this is our lack of dependence on others has resulted in our intolerance of other views. We have survived with our views so why should I consider someone else's view, especially if I disagree.

Combine this with our saturation of media dealing with violence. Television is overwhelmingly populated with crime shows and prime time soap operas, where most shows some dies, is assaulted, raped, etc... Movies have seen a resurgence of horror films. Video games' top sellers are war games and crime. Yes, our most sorrowful events (wars) are our greatest source of childhood and young adult entertainment.

So what do we expect when we combine intolerance of views and a culture that is entertained by violence?

Our belief that we are a civil nation is a fiction. We have numerous positive qualities, I certainly don't want to imply that I think our nation is sub-par or inadequate. To the contrary I believe America is the greatest nation in history. But greatness does not mean perfection. We have issues and our lack of civility is one of them.

As we move forward, we must draw on our ancestors' civilizations. Greek, English, Japanese, Roman, etc... These old civilizations raised their children with an understanding of discourse, honor and respect. We must all learn that simply because an idea is different doesn't mean it is wrong. We as parents and a school system must include lessons on respect and honor in our daily expectations.

Intelligence and self-sufficiency without honor and respect for others results in a country that is fragmented into as many pieces as we have people. Hopefully we learn that demanding civility, without changing the pieces of our culture (and ourselves) that conflict with civility is a fiction.

Map of Metal

2011-02-16T12:07:00.000-08:00

Web designer Patrick Galbraith has built the Map Of Metal – an interactive tool for exploring the world of metal. The map shows how the various subgenres of metal are connected, provides descriptions of the various subgenres (culled from Wikipedia) and plays full track examples of each type of music (drawn from Youtube). The map has a funky design sense that adds to the fun. Patrick uses denim, patches of leather, chains, threads , band-aids, buttons, pins and a whole lot of skulls to knit the whole visualization together.

There’s lots of information crammed into this hand made visualization. There are about a hundred metal genres represented, (South American death Metal anyone?), era, connections, influences, and lots of music. Each genre is represented by a dozen or so representative artists and tracks.

text originally from www.musicmachinery.com
Thanks to Aaron Hall for pointing this out

Party in the Middle East

2011-02-15T19:16:00.000-08:00

Tunisia
Egypt
Yemen
Iran
Algeria
Bahrain
Jordan
Libya

Throw in Iraq and Afghanistan and we've got ourselves a world class cluster. If stability was one of our primary concerns for the Middle East (which I just lump North Africa into) then let's just call this a temporary massive failure. Granted, if the pro-democracy movements are successful then this will be a fantastic move towards peace and well-being for the world. However, given that this has not happened yet, all I can do right now is call in the referee and see what the immediate call is... Fumble!!! Oh and let's not forget there apparently was no CIA intelligence suggesting this. Sure, they may have guessed there would be protests, but MULTIPLE governmental collapses? Seriously, in a week and a half, a third of the freaking region has gone ballistic and all I see are CIA reports on China's military capabilities. Screw China, when was the last time you got an "Oriental Trading Company" catalog and pondered ordering something in order to obtain a quality heirloom for your grandchildren (in quantities of 1,000 or more). Meanwhile, our intelligence agencies are literally on the ground, crawling across the Middle East and North Africa like ants on a spilled Pixie Stick, and we miss this? Go Democracy, but holy crap what a colossal mess!

Oh, and while we're at it, can I ask CBS about Lara Logan? Before I go off on this, let me say I am fully behind women doing any job they desire and this has absolutely nothing to do with her ability, as I have seen her report numerous times and agree she is world class. That being said, WTF? The country was collapsing, there were a quarter of a million angry mob protesters and it was clear they were slowing being successful in their demands, which included SUSPENDING THE CONSTITUTION AND REPEALING ALL LAWS. Uhh, so the idea was to throw Lara Logan into all of this cause nothing should go wrong? No, they shouldn't have touched her, no even anarchy doesn't negate basic human rights, and as a top reporter she has the right to go into any dangerous situation she wants. But let's say there is a prison riot with 1,000 male inmates who have all been incarcerated for 30 years, as they tear the place apart, I decide to send in my top negotiator, what could possibly go wrong? Oh and no I don't want to hear, but Lara was a top professional and all I did was find some pretty red head, because that red head is a Russian Spy. Really. All I'm saying is someone did not think this through. Then again, maybe the CIA said everything was safe...

I pray Lara is improving.

Can't Spell "Texas" without HEB

2011-02-07T15:24:00.000-08:00

Ok, yes it's a commercial. Still, I like it and really if you aren't from Texas it may not even make sense...

Link for those of you on Facebook

Obama & Reagan

2011-02-01T20:04:00.000-08:00

It arrived today. You had no doubt it would end up here did you?

In May 2010, Barack Obama invited a small group of presidential historians to the White House for a working supper in the Family Dining Room. It was the second time he'd had the group in since taking office, and as he sat down across the table from his wife Michelle, the President pressed his guests for lessons from his predecessors. But as the conversation progressed, it became clear to several in the room that Obama seemed less interested in talking about Lincoln's team of rivals or Kennedy's Camelot than the accomplishments of an amiable conservative named Ronald Reagan, who had sparked a revolution three decades earlier when he arrived in the Oval Office. Obama and Reagan share a number of gifts but virtually no priorities. And yet Obama was clearly impressed by the way Reagan had transformed Americans' attitude about government. The 44th President regarded the 40th, said one participant, as a vital "point of reference." Douglas Brinkley, who edited Reagan's diaries and attended the May dinner, left with a clear impression that Obama had found a role model. "There are policies, and there is persona, and a lot can be told by persona," he says. "Obama is approaching the job in a Reaganesque fashion."

When Obama stood before Congress, the Cabinet and the American people to deliver his second State of the Union address, both the Reagan persona and policies put in appearances. He proposed a freeze in discretionary spending and federal salaries, a push to simplify the tax code and billions in cuts to the defense budget, and he made new calls for a bipartisan effort to repair Social Security. Each of these had been proposed before by another third-year President coming off a midterm defeat in a period of high unemployment. "Let us, in these next two years — men and women of both parties, every political shade — concentrate on the long-range, bipartisan responsibilities of government," Reagan said in his 1983 State of the Union, "not the short-range or short-term temptations of partisan politics."

Read More: Time Magazine

Originally posted Time Magazine, written by Michael Scherer and Michael Duffy

China's Just Really Sad

2011-01-31T11:46:00.000-08:00

What else can I say...

2011-01-31T09:49:00.000-08:00

A few months late, but here is a brief showing of our New York trip with Micauley!

Obama's Package

2011-01-30T09:36:00.000-08:00

I saw this posted by someone else and had to go find it. Someone at the newspaper clearly was asleep at the editing wheel...

Jay Cutler: Misunderstood or Big Baby?

2011-01-26T08:24:00.000-08:00

Jay Cutler is a good quarterback, as in he can throw the ball well. Other than that he has some severe personality issues. Being a Denver Broncos fan, I'm constantly amused by Chicago's "issues" with him since the trade...

This breaking news courtesy the Chicago Tribune:

Jay Cutler and girlfriend Kristin Cavallari dined at Mastro's Steakhouse on Sunday after the Bears' 21-14 loss to the Packers in the NFC championship game.
Cutler, who left the game in the third quarter with a knee injury, was not on crutches but "he limped a tiny bit," according to a source. The couple was joined by 11 other people in Mastro's private upstairs dining room, and our spies tell us that he took the stairs rather than the elevator.

That's some hard-hitting investigative reporting. Now I know what it was like to live through Watergate. (Actually, what's most surprising about that story is that Cutler has 11 friends. Judging by all the scorn thrown his way by his NFL peers, you'd have figured the guy was a social leper.)

The Cutler story isn't even 48 hours old and everyone already seems to be firmly on one side or the other. I doubt the stairs story is going to change anyone's mind, and in fact it has already sparked a Twitter frenzy of backlash. Either you think Cutler was seriously hurt, couldn't have come back in the game and is getting a bad rap or you think he's a wimp who didn't man up. I lean toward the former but don't rule out the latter. (The "we don't know" tack works both ways. Riding a bike and climbing stairs are things I try to avoid when my knee is healthy.)

Whether Cutler took the stairs or not could be explained in many ways. Maybe he's claustrophobic. Maybe the elevator was out for maintenance. Maybe it was one of the really slow elevators that restaurants always seem to have and he didn't want to wait. Or maybe the whole MCL tear story is an elaborate ruse to divert attention from the fact that Jay Cutler started the O'Leary fire, helped throw the 1919 World Series and actually is Steve Bartman.

Original article by Chris Chase

State of the Union 2011

2011-01-26T05:57:00.000-08:00

The State of the Union Address, did you watch it? Why not? It's important.

I'll admit that I did not disagree with most of what he said. I've made no secret that I have always been a Republican and have generally voted Republican (except this last election, where oddly I seem to be about the only one that didn't vote Republican). So the fact I agree with President Obama makes me wonder exactly what the Republican Party disagrees with in his speech. Granted, large parts were vague, so maybe they don't disagree with much, but maybe they do given that Speaker of the House John Boehner did not seem to agree with much (someone please talk to him about his body language). Here's to a hopeful future and year! Oh and one more thing, please Speaker Boehner, lighten up a bit. I know it was your first major television appearance, so I'll cut you some slack, but really, if they remake the show "Dallas" you seem to have a lock on the part of J.R.

In case the video doesn't display, try this link to the State of the Union Address 2011

Not About Love

2011-01-25T06:59:00.000-08:00

Love Fiona Apple. What are you going to do, it's my blog. This video was actually like 5 years ago, which I think is funny as most people then would be saying who's the guy with the beard with Fiona Apple? Now you'll get lots of people saying who's the chick with Zach Galifianakis.

Judy Clarke

2011-01-24T09:27:00.000-08:00

99% of lawyers give the rest of us a bad name... I laugh every time I hear it. The public image of Defense Attorneys doesn't help either, probably because in my experience the stereotype of a media loving, fame hunting defense attorney is, well, accurate. However, every once in a while I meet or hear about a defense attorney who is not in it for fame or money, but simply believes in defending constitutional rights. This minority collection of attorneys, in my opinion, is the greatest group of protectors of our freedom and rights. This from someone who sits across from them each day. This is just one story of such a person...

By nearly all accounts, Judy C. Clarke is a human contradiction.

The lawyer for Tucson-area massacre suspect Jared Loughner has dedicated her career to saving the lives of people who kill. She shuns media coverage yet takes on some of America's most-publicized criminal cases. She honors the U.S. Constitution by ardently defending the legal rights of terrorists, rapists, pedophiles and drug dealers.

Clarke's list of clients includes Theodore Kaczynski, known as the Unabomber; Eric Rudolph, the 1996 Olympics bomber in Atlanta; Susan Smith, the South Carolina woman who drowned her children; and Zacarias Moussaoui, a conspirator in the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

In each of those cases, Clarke's mission was not to win acquittal but to stave off a death sentence for a client who was despised by the public. In each case, she and her fellow lawyers succeeded.

USA Today recently dubbed the 58-year-old "the patron saint of criminal defense attorneys." The New York Times identified her as "perhaps the best known federal public defender in the country."

Colleagues, family members and legal foes describe Clarke as a workhorse with an encyclopedic knowledge of the law and uncanny litigation skills. Her forte, they say, is gaining the trust of clients who may be mentally ill, then helping jurors understand why they committed seemingly inexplicable crimes.

Those talents are expected to be tested in the case of Loughner, a 22-year-old accused of killing six people, including U.S. District Judge John Roll, and wounding 13 others, including U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, in a Jan. 8 rampage near Tucson.

Loughner was captured at the scene, and prosecutors have videotapes, boxes of evidence and scores of witnesses. They also have records suggesting that he suffers from mental-health problems.

Jon Sands, the chief federal public defender in Arizona who recruited Clarke as Loughner's counsel, said courthouse drama will not hinge on what happened but on whether the defendant is competent and whether he gets sentenced to death.

"The whole case is going to revolve around the mental issue. I mean, it's not a whodunit," said Sands, who has known Clarke for years and taught legal seminars with her. "Judy is extremely well-respected. . . . She's made a career of defending high-profile cases. She's the one you would want to represent you if you committed a crime."

Background in law

Clarke was born in Asheville, N.C., one of four children raised in a conservative home. Her father was a consultant for companies trying to prevent unionization. Her mother was a homemaker who performed in community theaters.

Candy Clarke, an older sister, said family meals often turned into debates.

"Our parents were staunch Republicans," she said. "But they raised us to know we could have our own opinions, and we could disagree - even with adults."

In a rare interview with the San Antonio Express-News, Judy Clarke said she wanted to be a lawyer from the time she was 12 years old, explaining, "I thought it would be neat to be Perry Mason and win all the time."

Candy Clarke has a different memory, dating to when her sister became student-body president at Asheville's T.C. Roberson High School and got into a disagreement with Principal Charles "Tommy" Koontz.

"He started telling her, 'You should be a lawyer because you can argue for or against anything,' " Candy Clarke recalled.

Judy Clarke followed her sister to Furman University in South Carolina. After graduating, she went to the University of South Carolina School of Law.

Clarke has worked most of the past three decades as a public defender at offices in San Diego and in Spokane, Wash. She is also a law professor, the former president of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers and a expert who advises other lawyers on capital cases.

Almost every news profile contains the same sentence: Judy Clarke did not respond to interview requests. That was the case for this story, as well.

Friends and family say she is not motivated by publicity or money but is driven by a devotion to the law. As chief federal defender in San Diego, she was renowned for working 80-hour weeks and requiring staffers to put in at least 60.

She has appeared before the U.S. Supreme Court at least twice, assailed mandatory federal sentences imposed by Congress and mentored other death-penalty lawyers nationwide.

Today, Clarke and her husband, Thomas H. "Speedy" Rice, have a private firm in San Diego and teach law at William and Lee University in Virginia. Those who know her say Clarke is a loyal and humorous friend who enjoys running on the beach, visiting family and looking after her blind, deaf pug named Jack. Still, she pours most of her time and energy into law.

"If you ask 25 lawyers across the U.S. who would be the best attorney for Jared, every single one would say Judy Clarke," said Laurie Shanks, a New York friend and attorney who has taught with Clarke for two decades at the National Criminal Defense College.

"She is extremely empathetic, zealous to the point of obsessiveness, dedicated to her client, to the Constitution, to the criminal-justice system and the highest ideals of our country."

Shanks said Clarke gets inside clients' heads, learning what makes them tick - and what made them explode in violence. Having solved that riddle, she excels at making jurors understand.

"By the end of the case, she will probably know more about Jared than his parents - perhaps even more about him than he does," Shanks said.

Susan Smith's trial

Acquaintances point to the case of Susan Smith as an example of Clarke's legal prowess.

In defending the mother who drove her two children into a lake and blamed a fictitious Black man for their murders, Clarke offered explanations for what seemed inexplicable. She described Smith's abusive childhood, depression and failures, then said: "This is not a case about evil. This is a case about despair and sadness. We're not trying to gain your sympathy. We're trying to gain your understanding."

Candy Clarke, who attended the closing arguments, recalled being overwhelmed. "I would have let (Smith) go after listening to my sister," she said. "I have never seen anybody in my whole life so dedicated, so passionate."

Tommy Pope, who prosecuted Smith, said Clarke persuaded jurors and a TV audience to change their view of a defendant who was reviled. "She was diligent and hard-working," Pope said of Clarke. "Where the defense was really effective was in turning the image from Susan the monster to Susan the victim."

Colleagues stress that Clarke seems almost egoless. They say her zeal is not just courtroom posturing but honest care for clients and disdain for executions. After the Smith case, Clarke donated her fee of nearly $83,000 to a fund for capital cases. Later, she paid a Christmas visit to Smith in prison.

"She doesn't go looking for these high-profile cases; they go looking for her," said David Bruck, a law-school friend who enlisted Clarke's help in defending Smith. "She's just naturally driven to stick up for the underdog. . . . And she doesn't have blinders about the tragedy and the suffering. She sees and feels what everybody's experiencing."

Originally posted/written by by Dennis Wagner - Jan. 24, 2011 12:00 AM
The Arizona Republic
link to original article

Bear Down - Happy 125th U of A

2011-01-18T21:20:00.000-08:00

Link to Video on Youtube

Some People Get It Right

2011-01-17T14:17:00.000-08:00

The most important trips aren't about getting somewhere. They're about getting to someone.

But in an age of mounting airline fees, reduced in-flight services, uncomfortable security pat-downs and multi-day delays caused by erupting volcanoes, it's easy to forget that.

Amid the cries of "I've already paid for my hotel!" and "You need to get me to Atlanta!" anger and inconvenience frequently blind us to the fact that travel is ultimately about people. We also forget that airline employees—bound by big company rules and regulations—get frustrated, too.

Enter Nancy, whose travel triumph, tempered by a great deal of sadness, has turned an unnamed Southwest Airlines pilot into an online hero.

Nancy reads a blog by Christopher Elliott, a consumer advocate and journalist, and wrote to him about her husband's recent ordeal traveling on flights from Los Angeles to Tucson to Denver. Their situation makes complaints about leg room look downright petty.

"Last night, my husband and I got the tragic news that our three-year-old grandson in Denver had been murdered by our daughter's live-in boyfriend," she wrote. "He is being taken off life support tonight at 9 o'clock and his parents have opted for organ donation, which will take place immediately. Over 25 people will receive his gift tonight and many lives will be saved."

So early in the morning, after what must have been a torturous night's sleep, Nancy and her husband arranged for him to fly from Los Angeles, where he was traveling for work, to Tuscon, where he would step off one plane and immediately onto another one headed to Denver. "The ticketing agent was holding back tears throughout the call," Nancy wrote. "I'm actually her step-mother and it's much more important for my husband to be there than for me to be there."

Mourning the loss of his child's child, and no doubt worrying about his grieving daughter, he was likely in no state to travel. Airport stress only compounded his despair. He arrived at LAX two hours before his scheduled flight time, but quickly realized that delays at baggage check and security would keep him from making the flight.

According to Nancy, he struggled to hold back tears as he pleaded with TSA and Southwest Airlines staff to fast-track him through the lines that were moving like molasses. Even though missing his flight could mean missing a final chance to see his grandson, no one seemed to care.

Too much was at stake to simply roll over and cry. When he finally cleared security—several minutes after his flight's planned departure—he grabbed his computer bag, shoes and belt, and ran to his terminal wearing only his socks. The pilot and the gate agent were waiting for him.

“Are you Mark? We held the plane for you and we're so sorry about the loss of your grandson,” the pilot reportedly said. “They can't go anywhere without me and I wasn't going anywhere without you. Now relax. We'll get you there. And again, I'm so sorry.”

It's hard to underestimate the courage of the pilot's decision. The flight, which ultimately departed 12 minutes late, likely had hundreds of passengers rolling their eyes in contempt. And given that any delay has knock-on effects for passengers at the destination airport, his decision placed Southwest at risk of facing the wrath of travelers, and more than a few demands for compensation.

Elliott, who brought the story to the blogosphere's attention, approached Southwest about the story, half expecting the airline to be outraged by a pilot's refusal to push the on-time departure.

Instead, they told him they were "proud" of their pilot, a man who clearly understands that taking a child off life support has consequences that run deeper than a flight taking off late. As Nancy wrote: "My husband was able to take his first deep breath of the day." Hopefully, over time, his daughter can do the same.

Original posting Elliot.org via Time Magazine

2011 Movies

2011-01-05T12:15:00.000-08:00

By pure chance I happened to come across a new movie trailer today, which prompted me to watch a few more. For the most part I really was not impressed with most of the movies that are preparing to come out, however there were a few I really have to say have some potential.

Green Lantern - I would not say I am a Green Lantern fan, as I barely know the premise. However, I like Ryan Reynolds and I like how the character is portrayed. In fact after watching the trailer a couple of times I am actually excited about the movie, probably the one I am anticipating the most at this point.

Transformers 3 - Now at first I actually dreaded watching this trailer. First movie, good. Second one, marginal. Third one? Really I was anticipating a really bad movie. Don't get me wrong it really could be bad, but whomever came up with the concept about the moon landing (watch the trailer) is a genius. I'm mainly interested in seeing this movie just to see this concept play out. In all honestly if this was NOT a Transformers movie, I would likely be running around, jumping up and down waiting for it. But, it's got morphing robots - for that it drops significantly.

Pirates of the Caribbean 4 - Again, I was half anticipating a bad movie, and yet again it really could be bad. That being said, let's face it, if Johnny Depp is Jack Sparrow, we'll probably watch it and enjoy it. These movies have become simply vehicles for us to enjoy The Captain.

Source Code - If you haven't seen the trailer, take a look. I'm hesitant to say anything good or bad about the movie, but I really like the concept. It's new, it's creative and it has potential. That's enough to get me there.

Tunak Tunak Tun

2011-01-04T21:29:00.000-08:00

I'd love to tell you why I love this video, but I can't. It's just fun.

Worst of 2010

2010-12-31T22:35:00.000-08:00

Lots of lists are out about the "best" or "top" of 2010, so why would I repeat the thousands of lists already out there? Here is my own twisted view of 2010, the WORST:

* New Artist - Kesha: she is just horrible

* Politician - Christine O'Donnell: there was huge competition this year, but really if you are running for Senate and used to be a witch and didn't know separation of church and state is in the Constitution, you win.

* Movie - Last Airbender: now there could be worse movies, but this category is limited by those that I actually saw, which admittedly was limited.

* Internet site - Facebook: that's right the almighty Facebook. While about 1 1/2 years after I thought, I've seen a number of people delete their Facebook accounts - go figure, personal contact is still the best...

* Advertisement Campaign - "Enjoy the Go": Seriously Charmin, yes it's a highlight of the day, but we absolutely do not need an ad telling us we can use less toilet paper so we can go more.

Mary's Song

2010-12-13T08:44:00.001-08:00

Happy Holidays, It's a @%# in a Box!

2010-12-13T07:53:00.000-08:00

30 Rock on ASU

2010-12-04T17:30:00.000-08:00

I Really Don't Hate Christmas

2010-12-04T08:45:00.001-08:00

Word Games

2010-12-02T16:59:00.000-08:00

Representative Rangel was officially "censured" today. He could have been reprimanded but the more serious discipline of a censure was given. I alternate between laughing and crying. Not because he received a "discipline" but because Congress literally thinks they are did something. They made him stand there and listen to their findings. That's right, like a four year old. Then they made a huge deal out of the fact they called it something different. Reprimand - same thing, they just call it something else. Congress simply looks foolish, but then again, what's new?

Christmas Flash Mob - at the Food Court

2010-12-02T09:06:00.000-08:00

Is God to Blame?

2010-11-29T12:13:00.000-08:00

The image on the left is actually a posting Steve Johnson of the Buffalo Bills posted after he dropped a potentially game winning pass in overtime. Now there have been lots of fun blog postings about thanking God when things go well, so they jokingly think it makes sense to blame God when they don't. Of course they are generally making fun of Steve Johnson for doing this.

I found them amusing, but then thought about it. God isn't interested in a sporting event. Not even the Super Bowl (well, maybe the Super Bowl). So when a player "thanks God" they really aren't thanking him for taking a vast interest in that particular game or even that specific play. Really they are thanking him for giving them the athletic ability to make that play. Ok, makes sense. So, then if you are not athletic enough to make the play, doesn't it make equal sense that you can be upset with God for not giving you the ability to make the play? See, logic doesn't always make sense...

It makes about as much sense to blame God as it would to tell your Boss he is an idiot (and then of course the next day ask for a raise). I guess what Steve Johnson hasn't learned is that as athletes and more importantly as people, we have certain abilities, but are always trying to learn to be better. When things go well, we thank God for having the ability to do it. When they don't go well, we don't blame the one who gave us the ability to do it, we blame ourselves for either not utilizing that ability or having not worked hard enough to use that ability. There are many people who don't have even the ability to walk down the street, so should Steve Johnson blame God that his athletic ability, which based on the current World population, only .000046% of the population has NFL level athleticism (.000546% if you want to just use the U.S.) wasn't good enough on that catch? No, just be happy you can make the rest of them and keep practicing. Unless of course Steve Johnson wants to trade places with the guy in Section 103, Row JJ who can't even walk up the stairs, then we'll see how thankful he is for the rest of those catches...

2010-11-18T19:27:00.001-08:00

Just read an article that Congressman Rangels may be disciplined. So I looked up the possible punishments. 1) House officially deplores his conduct, 2) House issues a reprimand, 3) House Censures him, 4) Expulsion. Oh, oh, oh, call on me Mr. Kotter!! Please pick me! Ok, what the hell is this difference between the first three? That's right, nothing! We deplore what you did, now here is your paycheck go back and vote. We're really mad so we are going to call it a reprimand, bad boy, now here is your paycheck go back and vote. Ok, ok we really mean it now, you are censured... here is your paycheck go back and vote. Word games. Expulsion? Only 4 times in history has the House expelled someone and 3 of them were during the civil war. The end result? Congress tells members they must be ethical and if they are not, they tell them again.

Broccoli, Walnut, Mushroom

2010-11-18T14:22:00.001-08:00

23 vs. 39

2010-11-17T17:39:00.001-08:00

Pork Barreling

2010-11-15T18:06:00.000-08:00

Yes, it's time to start the posturing. In a news article today Mitch McConnell the Republican Senate leader said today he supports banning earmarks. You would think I would be happy about this, and in fact I am. What is slightly annoying is this has been said by voters for years and years. In fact it was one of the big issues for McCain when he ran against Obama and the Republican leadership has fought against him and the idea of banning earmarks the entire time. Now all of a sudden voters start kicking ass and taking names and they pay attention. So, yes slightly irritated it took so long. However, it is fantastic to see voters actually getting out and using their vote to get a message across. Whether or not I even agree with them, I hope voters continue to exercise their power to move legislators around and do their job! Voters rock.

New York

2010-11-15T18:00:00.000-08:00

Well, probably too much to say in one post. I downloaded all the pictures last night, so I will see if I can get them uploaded tonight. One highlight, amongst many, was going to the Golden Unicorn for dim sum on Sunday for lunch. We ran into a surprising crowd and after 40 minutes were seated. We were happily eating away when a Chinese man turned to us from the table next to us and asked how we heard about this place. He said the restaurant was well-known among locals, but rarely gets anyone else. It's at that time we looked around and realized that there were maybe four non-chinese people there and they were each at a table with numerous Chinese friends. However, our table was the ONLY table of "non-chinese". Yes, that's the best I can explain it, "non-chinese", we were after all in Chinatown. Everyone was Chinese and spoke Chinese, but yet here we were eating away with our chop sticks and just pointing at dim sum, some times not even knowing what were were going to get! It was awesome.

Frambozen Brown Ale

2010-11-10T21:35:00.000-08:00

Frambozen begins with the aroma of fresh red raspberries, followed by the ripe seductiveness of a fruity brown ale with depth and delicate malt notes. It is deep ruby in color, with flavors just as rich. www.newbelgium.com
Frambozen is actually Flemish for "raspberry" (says so right on the side of the bottle). Yes, it has a slight fruity flavor, but it is a brown ale, so it pulls you right back into its moderate heft. However, one of the main reasons I love Frambozen is it screams winter to me! That's right, WINTER! It's night, snow is falling and the moon is reflecting light up from a blanket of new powder covering the city. Soft music is playing, a fireplace is crackling, there is laughter as a group of friends celebrate into the night, and you taste the dark brown ale with a quick hint of raspberry. I love the winter.

(did I mention it came out today?)

35 Secrets Your Pilot Won't Tell You

2010-11-10T17:38:00.000-08:00

In honor of our brief trip to New York this weekend I thought some flying tips might be a good idea! So here is a list of travel/flight tips from pilots on Yahoo!'s "35 Secrets Your Pilot Won't Tell You" (which I think is a ridiculous title, since they're telling you...)

Allen and Violet Large

2010-11-05T05:55:00.000-07:00

No fancy title with a double meaning. No election day whining. No rant about... well anything. Instead, I want everyone to know about Allen and Violet Large.

A retired Canadian couple who won $11.3 million in the lottery in July have already given it (almost) all away.

"What you've never had, you never miss," 78-year-old Violet Large explained to a local reporter.

She was undergoing chemotherapy treatment for cancer when the couple realized they'd won the jackpot in July.

"That money that we won was nothing," her tearful husband, Allen, told Patricia Brooks Arenburg of the Nova Scotia Chronicle Herald. "We have each other."

The money was a "headache," they told the paper--mainly, it brought anxiety over the prospect that "crooked people" might take advantage of them. Several people called them out of the blue to ask for money when the news first broke they'd won the jackpot. So they began an $11 million donation spree to get rid of it and help others, the Chronicle Herald reports:

They took care of family first and then began delivering donations to the two pages' worth of groups they had decided on, including the local fire department, churches, cemeteries, the Red Cross, the Salvation Army, hospitals in Truro and Halifax, where Violet underwent her cancer treatment, and organizations that fight cancer, Alzheimer's and diabetes. The list goes on and on.

Violet told Canadian Press that they retained about 2 percent of the money for a rainy day.

"It made us feel good," Violet told the Chronicle Herald. "And there's so much good being done with that money."

The Nova Scotia couple have been married more than 35 years and quietly saved up the money that Allen made as a welder and Violet made in retail before retiring.

"We haven't spent one cent on ourselves because we've been too busy getting everything looked after and with my health, I have to wait to get my health back to get the energy to do anything," Violet told the National Post. "We're not travelers anyway. We live in the country and we're proud of it. Money can't buy you health or happiness."

Now their neighborhood is abuzz over their good deeds.

"People who know them just know that's the type of people they are—they're just happy to have each other," local restaurant owner Lori Hingley told the Canadian Press.

The prize was in Canada dollars (roughly equal to U.S. dollars at current exchange rates).

Original story on yahoo.com by Liz Goodwin

Major vs. Minor

2010-11-03T09:25:00.000-07:00

Looking at our current election results I see two things that have no relation, but over the next several years may be extremely interconnected. First, if you live up in northern Colorado you may recall that the Democratic candidate for the U.S. House of Representatives refused to participate in a debate unless all the candidates were invited. Our local newspaper initially refused because their policy was to only invite the "major political parties", which by law is defined as all parties who receive at least 10% of the vote in the Governor's race. C.R.S. 1-1-104(18) This would have limited the debate to only the Republican and Democrat. Ultimately the newspaper backed down and did the debate and invited all the candidates, including those from the "minor political parties".

Now, let's fast forward to today. Currently in the Colorado race for Governor the Democrats have 51% of the vote, the American Constitution Party has 36% and the Republicans have 10%. If you don't live in Colorado it's a long story, but in short the Republican's campaign imploded and a well-known Republican switched to the American Constitution Party in an effort to challenge the Democrat. This is with 88% of the votes counted. Now, based on my pure speculation and uninformed guess, there is a chance that the remaining votes will be from much more rural areas, which stereotypically would be more conservative and may be more likely to vote for the American Constitution candidate. Really, it doesn't even have to be that significant, but even enough to push the Republican down less than 1% may cause the final total to be less than 10%.

Jump back to the first issue. See a problem here? Yes, it is a distinct possibility that the Republican Party will be listed as a "minor political party" in Colorado for at least the next 4 years. In northern Colorado that may not be as much of an issue since the Democrats already insisted minor parties be included in debates and the local newspaper agreed. However, what about other areas of the State? What about the next Governor's race? If the Republicans are a minor party, how can media outlets in good-faith make an exception for the Republicans and deny all other minor parties? One of two things will likely happen. Either the Democrats will try very hard to keep the Republicans out of all debates, which while amusing to picture them trying this, it's virtually impossible; or media outlets will have to change their stance on "minor parties", which potentially will open the door for more candidates to be heard and maybe greater focus on voters instead of parties (see yesterday's rant).

Regardless of your political affiliation, I hope everyone is respectful of the results, everyone prays and encourages our representatives to make decisions in the best interests of the voters, and that you continue to voice your opinions in a calm and thoughtful manner.

Red vs. Blue vs. Me vs. You

2010-11-02T13:42:00.000-07:00

Have you seen this ad:

My Candidate is the grassroots choice, not a career politician like yours. I believe in common sense approaches, not self-serving deals passed on the backs of honest taxpayers. Your candidate supports wall street welfare, but I'm against the bailout. We need to address our economy and jobs and stop punishing those who pursue the American Dream, and/or the middle class, and/or hard workers. Please join us in supporting the only candidate who is one of us...

The content of this ad is paid for by some organization you've never heard of but got a ton of money from people you probably don't like.

Yup, that's about where we are at. Buzz words, stances on vague notions and arguments for things that can't happen. Let's see if I get this right, grassroots means someone lots of individuals have come together to support instead of large organizations or parties, but yet none of these people can really run a campaign without large doses of money, which in case we didn't realize it, comes from these large organizations or parties. Regardless, let's be honest the winner of each election ALWAYS has the most "individual" support - oddly that's how you get votes. Career Politician? Sounds nasty, but then again if you haven't held a political office before, the first thing out of your opponent's mouth is "inexperience". So that's my choice? Career Politician or no experience. Ummm, I'm gonna go with experience, oh sorry, I mean career politician.

The rest of it is the same. Nobody likes taxes and especially doesn't like to think they are paying more than their fair share. Everybody likes to think the person they elect will understand what's going on in their life. Yes, "fixing" the economy would be great, but guess what, most of what the government does is a minor band-aid or more likely a distraction to get us to focus on something else in the hopes that the economy will turn around and they can say, "hey, look what we did". The economy grows generally, but if a poor practice bubbles up beyond what it should have (i.e. dot.coms, sub-prime lending, insert the bonehead economic idea here), then the economy adjusts, and usually it adjusts quickly. Think great depression, energy crisis, 1980's real estate, 1990's dot.coms, great recession, etc... Whomever is President when it stops adjusting, they look great, but really, it's the Economy Stupid. Just don't mess it up more and stop doing more bonehead things.

But I digress. Instead, I really want to know when it changed from the States and Districts to the Republicans and Democrats? On all the major news sites there are charts and graphs showing how many seats in the House, Senate and Governors' Offices belong to which party. Really? No, I mean REALLY? These offices do not belong to parties, they belong to us. The votes they have to make should not be made based on what the party wants, but what the people want and need. There should not be major coverage on who these parties elect for their "internal leadership" - because it shouldn't matter. The State of Nevada's Representative should not be telling over half of the representatives how to vote. Nor should a guy from South Dakota (or Mississippi or Tennessee). I don't want my Representative (regardless of whether I actually voted for them) showing up and having someone from another State or even another District in my own State, telling them how they need to vote. I want Senators and Representatives to be accountable to the people that elected them. It's impossible for that to be a party, because no party has a majority of the population enrolled.

People are upset and I don't think the media is clearly understanding. It's not a mandate against or for one political party, it's people trying to get parties to realize they aren't in control. Unfortunately the parties and the candidates don't seem to understand this, and frankly I'm not convinced the people do either... Stop yelling, stop crying, stop interrupting, stop and think. It's your vote, not somebody else's. It's their vote, not yours. It's our vote. Discuss, analyze, think, then vote.

It's Not What You Do, It's How You Do It

2010-10-29T07:45:00.000-07:00

I recently read an article about Sterling High School's football coach, who after 17 straight loses finally won a game. After such a long losing streak, who could possibly deserve the honor of receiving the game ball? The answer was the opposing team. The reason? Both teams had been on losing streaks and as the coaches put it, one of them had to be on the short end. Sterling won 17-10 and with time expiring, the opposing team's defense held, they got the ball and marched it down to the red zone, they simply did not have enough time to score the wining points, but they earned the respect of the other team. So when the game was over, Jarod Claybourn, the coach of Sterling, knew exactly how the other team felt. After 17 straight loses, some bitterly close, he knew the other team (who were now at 17 loses themselves with that lose) would go back and look for something positive to build on. Coach Claybourn knew how they felt and needed them to know how much they respected the other team and that he knew they could have easily won that game as well, it just didn't work out that time.

"It was very emotional for me" Claybourn said. "I looked at him, and I knew exactly where he was. I know exactly what it's like to be right there and have an opportunity to win a game and have it taken away from you."

The response from the other team - "Classiest thing I've ever seen on a football field."

Yes, it's football. Yes, it's a game. But it's a start. Our lives seem to be filled with this competitive spirit, which is fantastic, but somewhere along the way we seem to have lost most of the class and respect that went with it. The idea of aggression and focus seems to have morphed into the concept that class and respect are not compatible. We see it daily, especially during the election season, with children at school, with politicians on t.v., with celebrities in public, with co-workers in the office, and between competing businesses. Being better has narrowed down to being louder or more forceful or maybe just making the opponent look worse. Now for some reason we are realizing that "winning" by itself isn't making us happy. The answer? Well, we seem to currently be focused on just winning more, thinking for some reason that maybe we just haven't won enough and that's why we aren't happy yet. Will losing make us happy? Maybe, maybe not. It seems that having respect and class may be the answer. These are things that can be obtained while winning or losing. Granted, it may be a bit more fun to do it when you win, but winning and awards are forgotten, class isn't. Don't believe me? Let's look outside of sports - Johnny Carson and Tom Brokaw are considered two of the classiest television personalities to have been on air. How many Emmy Awards did they win? How much did they earn? How many years were they even the host of their shows? Odds are you said you don't know and you don't care, but I bet you still like them - why? Class and respect. As with most things in life, apparently it's not what you do, it's how you do it.