Sunday, September 24, 2006

Europe

Leaving for Sandcastle's wedding today. It is not till next Saturday, but the girlfriend and I will be enjoying some time off before that. I have become less and less excited about traveling as I have gotten older. I get settled in my ways and really don't want to change. All I see is the risks associated with traveling and none of the reward. My ways might be boring and unnaturally regular, but I kind of like it that way.

So did you hear about the experimental train accident? It was probably Japanese engineering. Just another thing to add to the list of things to watch out for, while I am over there. So far the list included terrorists, Nazi's, airplane crashes, and lost/stolen luggage. I feel the time of my death is near. The dark horse in the race of things that will kill me, is spinach. I can see myself being the unlucky bastard who eats the only helping of American spinach and dies because I can't get enough fluids while on the plan ride home. Which indirectly, the terrorists caused the fluid scare, so I would have to score another one for the bad guys.

Wish me luck (not like your sentimental thoughts could change the course of my history anyways, but at least you can say you tried.)

cube

Thursday, September 21, 2006

John Titor, CERN, and me

Earlier posts on Titor. I am going to Europe and might visit CERN, so the fox article here caught my eye. Also for the conspirators view point of what is going on at CERN please take a look at this site

On the top towards the left there is a combo box that says posts by date. You can read all of John titor's posts. I will give you one of the FIRST one in November 2000.

"I was just about to give up hope on anyone knowing who Tipler or Kerr was on this worldline. The basics for time travel start at CERN in about a year and end in 2034 with the first "time machine" built by GE. Too bad we can't post pictures or I'd show it to you."

Another one in February 2001

"When I first started posting online a few months ago, I said that major breakthroughs in particle physics were around your corner. Soon, CERN will bring their big machine on line and they will be smashing very fast and high-energy particles together. One of the more odd and potentially dangerous items produced from this increase in energy will be microsingularities a fraction of the size of an electron."

From the fox article, which prompted me to look the above quotes up.

Black holes possible

"The accelerator, known as the Large Hadron Collider, is under construction in an underground circular tunnel nearly 17 miles long at CERN, the world's largest physics laboratory, near Geneva, Switzerland. At its maximum, each particle beam the collider fires will pack as much energy as a 400-ton train traveling at 120 mph. By smashing particles together and investigating the debris, scientists hope to help solve mysteries such as the origin of mass and why there is more matter than antimatter in the universe. If theories about the universe containing extra dimensions other than those of space and time are correct, the accelerator might also generate black holes, Landsberg and his colleague Savas Dimopoulos at Stanford University in California calculated in 2001." (emphasis mine)


Please Play X-Files music.

cube

Sunday, September 17, 2006

On the pope

Link:"In Iraq, the main Sunni party warned the pope's comments could lead to violence between Muslims and Christians. The pope "should not be lured into returning to the Crusades," the Sunni Iraqi Islamic Party said in a statement."

The muslim leaders constantly speak in veiled threats. They use our own political correctness against us, while preaching hate and intolerance. Could lead to violence!?!? From whom would the violence come and to whom would it be directed.

From the same article, "Two churches in the West Bank were hit by firebombs Saturday, and a group claiming responsibility said it was protesting Benedict's words."

If you have been following Dilbert's posts on the middle east (here and here), I think you will understand how serious this problem is and also how fruitless it is to engage religious fanatics.

Do you welcome the coming war or are you afraid?

cube

Saturday, September 16, 2006

1 degree of separation

Romans 1:28 - 32
Furthermore, since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, he gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done. They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; they are senseless, faithless, heartless, ruthless. Although they know God's righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them.

Each of these events happened with one degree of separation between myself and the victim in the last week or so..

A man moved into an apartment and was robbed at gun the very next day. No link.

Jesus "Jesse" Talavera and his mother were killed by a career criminal. Jesse had cerebral palsy.

A 11-year-old boy who was mowing his own yard was killed when he was struck by an overturned vehicle which had been taken out for a joy ride by some teenagers.

cube

Wednesday, September 06, 2006

Steve Irwin

You know I actually saw Steve in person at his zoo in Australia with the United States Track and field in 2000. That was awesome and somthing I will always remember. I feel sorry for his family, though I also realize that he knew the risks he was taking.

Though on a more morbid level, I really would like to see the video. Can you imagine the look on his face? Can you read his lips saying, "Oh Crikey"? You know this would have been a lot funnier if he had just lost a leg, eye, and hand.

I would also like to thank Steve, for making me say, read, and write the word crikey more than I had at any other time in my life.

cube

Saturday, September 02, 2006

Coworkers theory

My boss is not a supporter of hybrids or technologies that reduce the amount of gas that America uses. He wants a complete end to end solution, such has fuel cells, not patches on the current state of things.

His reasoning is that as oil and gas consumption is lessened the price of gas will actually go up because as the oil companies lose money, they will raise the price of gas to make up for the loses. Is there anyway for this to happen, without illegal activity, assuming supply stays at its current level?

I actually think it is possible, if for some reason that alternatives to gas are only sold in some parts of the country and not others. The areas without options, will see the price of gas rise. If the government stays out of it though, it lessens they chance of that happening.

There is also the fact is that oil companies are heavily invested in new forms of energy and probably will still be making money off of you, though not from gas.

Are there any cases of commodities not following the supply demand curve when the market has been allowed to work?

cube

Shooting

In sequence to this post I would like to catch you up on the recent adventures and also throw in a teachable moment that I forgot the first time around.

At the range I shoot at, they have a Springfield 9mm 1911 for rent, that looks like this. I know I am probably going to hell because I shot one, but I guess you could say I was curious and just wanted to have a good time. Well, it shot well and handled great. The girlfriend likes the size, weight, and aesthetics of the 1911, but I will not let her get on in 9mm. I guess you cannot have everything. Ours had adjustable sights which seemed to crowd the top of the slide and make it harder to operate for Stewardess.

This gun really marked a milestone in our gun search. We settled on a caliber and Stewardess also decided that she does not like the plastic guns, after shooting my 40 caliber and holding many others. So we are looking at metal framed 9mms. We have finally made enough progress to start hitting the gun stores. So far we have been to one and the only one she found that she liked was the 9mm Sig 226, in stainless. She has expensive tastes.

In out next shooting session before the gun shop, I got Stewardess to shoot a Smith and Wesson model 64. I really did not think there was a chance Stewardess would like this gun and I was right. Though I felt of I was necessary to at least shoot a revolver once, just to make sure. She shot high with it, but she was more accurate with it than she was with other guns. She also shot it better than me. Revolvers are weird.

As to the teachable moment. Have you ever shot 9mm ammo in a .40 caliber gun? I have. It happened to the Sig we shot first. It was my fault, I should have checked the gun before I loaded it up with 9mm. It could also be related to the fact that I was probably less than clear in the gun I wanted and did not actually see the gun range worker get it. If I was watching more closely, we would not have made it to the range. Make sure you gun matches your ammo. In fact I think that should be the real (as opposed to Jack Bauer's) 5th rule of gun safety, if it is not already. Oh well, it was a rental anyways.

cube