let's keep the focus

so .... a radical u.s. muslim group obliquely threatens to murder a couple of tv producers for making religious references the group doesn't like and the network backs off? cuts the 'offensive' material?

what country are we in, again? did they change something recently, like, you can have free speech as long as you don't insult muslims?

i don't watch this show and have always felt i would be offended by it. but a group saying the show should not say what it's going to say or they will come to a bad end? nah -- i can't go along with that. and the network caving in just gives them power. bad precedent.

a temper-tantrum is one thing, but threats of murder is terrorism. terrorism is unacceptable and if these people don't like the way we do things in this country, guess what.

just don't breathe ...

there seems to be a really bad fungus on the loose in oregon. in this section of the world, it appears to have started on vancouver island, then spread to washington and oregon. the recent strain has killed 25% of its victims. there's no vaccine for it and it can take years of treatment to cure you once you get it. people can get it as well as animals. the supposition is that global warming has contributed to its appearance. just yuck!

yes!!

oh. my. god. THIS is so cool! i'd like to have one or two or six, and the view i'd like to see is the northern lights!

we can't really know

mel gibson. i mean i've always enjoyed his films -- i haven't seen his recent ones though. but, really, what is he doing? he's catholic and had a sturdy relationship with his wife of x-years and they had seven kids, then he splits and holes up with a pianist and they have a child. you just have to wonder what people are thinking sometimes. and this picture, which makes him look tired and worn out, was taken when he was 54, i believe. i know, i know, a person shouldn't be judgemental, so okay, i won't say anymore.

surely the sky is falling ...

we're going to have ads on our cell phones? oh gees, tell me that's not true.

apparently we are going to be able to sign up for ads (ohmygod, how times have changed). and one of the tricks is to make the ads in such a way that they don't appear to be ads (clever bastards).

currently, the evil perpetrator of this scheme is alcatel lucent. their marketing director says, "On a global scale, our research showed that end users were interested in a service like this -- especially if it is based around their interests and they can edit their profiles, then they are willing to participate."

they've been successful in europe with this plan. but i just have to shake my head and wonder what the world is coming to. it's just sick. i mean, i can remember in the past there have been some cute ads, like ..... well, no i can't remember any, but i think there were some. but gees, to ask to voluntarily have ads come at you. makes me wonder if, at some point, we will become people incapable of original thought.

uh, oh ....

and speaking of tornadoes .... i had a dream a number of nights ago about tornadoes.

i was in the living room of a house against a hill, with a couple of people, and we heard a loud, long-lasting siren going off outside. i asked what it was and someone casually said it was a tornado alert. no one seemed concerned and i asked if we shouldn't take cover. they talked about going into various closets and i said i was probably going to go down in the basement. i decided to look outside and saw a HUGE rotating cloud, on the ground, just a little ways away. it was like a gigantic round barn and had to have been two miles across. i was fascinated and wondered where my camera was. then i remembered i could take a picture with my cell phone, even if i could never get the picture off the phone. so i opened the glass door of the glassed-in porch i was standing in and leaned out with my phone to take the pix. right about that time a house came flying out of the sky and slammed to the ground, sliding right down the street. i thought maybe it was time for me to take cover, so as i turned to close the glass door and get back into the room-with-three-walls-of-glass (which was standing by itself in a flat, quasi-business area), i saw a second tornado about 2 blocks away headed straight in my direction. fortunately for me, the fourth wall of the room had a closet with sliding doors, so i got in the closet, stopping only to pull the dresser against my side of the closet, and closed the door. then i scrunched down and woke up.

tornadoes

i read a little blurb about storm chasers, a subject i thought was entertainingly done in Twister. this blurb was entertaining, too, the paragraphs being entitled 'get in its path', 'unpimp your ride', and 'try not to die'. :)

heading on out ...

life just keeps bouncing right along. the grandson is four months old now. the grandaughter is two and a half years old. MYS is probably going to defend his thesis in july and we will be going to observe and cheer.MOS is going to start flying again, one of these days, for a job they're certifying. i just can't remember what state it's in. the husband keeps coming up with innovative and helpful ideas at his volunteer job (is he excellent or what). and my job continues to be challenging and full of new things.

no stasis here. and sometimes there's not much down-time. but keeping busy and active keeps your brain dusted and that's always a good thing.

wheeee

personal rapid transit -- that sounds like a great concept! and, in fact, it's an actuality in morgantown west virginia! and, in fact, it was put together in the 70's! that is so cool!

doesn't disneyland have this kind of thing, too? but not too many other places in the u.s. have put something like this together.

i wonder if seattle looked into it at any point along the way of spending millions of dollars on their transit woes.

indianapolis has an overhead rail system which goes from the medical center downtown at Purdue and connects to a hospital a mile or so away. i wanted to check it out when i was there last year, but i was sick the whole time. (!) if you look on google maps you can see there are a huge bunch of hospitals, cancer facilities, and medical centers within an eight square block area of the university. gees, if i get really sick, take me there!

but back to transit, this is the concept i really like -- small and personal. let's do it!!

blast-off! sometime.

i knew there was going to be a space port built down in southern new mexico, but i hadn't heard about the one by el paso. the Blue Origin people seem to want to keep everything a secret, too.

they have their home base in kent wa, but the space port is in texas. kinda far away, but then, it's not all that flat around seattle. i wonder why they didn't try to put something together in the middle of the state -- central and eastern wa is pretty darned flat.

maybe it's cheaper in texas. at any rate, it will be interesting to see things develop since nasa is having to downsize its dreams.

the people in kent are looking for young, enthusiastic, talented people, so if you feel the urge to look to the skies, send in your resume.

blast-off! sort of.

going to mars sound way cool, but it's not easy. it would take more than a year and a half to fly to mars, spend a month, then fly back.

could you do it? live in a tiny space without going outside for a walk, unable to open a window, not really able to get away from everyone else?

when you think about it, i'm not sure i could do it. i mean, i've always imagined myself the big adventurer, come on, let's find some aliens and take a ride, but .... if you have to be practical, i'm not sure i've got the right stuff.

six people are going to simulate that trip, to see what kinds of hardships show up. and americans don't seem to be invited. it will be russians, chinese, and europeans.

oh well. i guess my thought is they need to hang lots of mirrors to make the space seem expanded.

to be in nature...

doesn't this look like the northern black hills? that's what we thought too, but it's the jemez mountains in northern new mexico. i was shocked. it's pretty high altitude down there -- around 7,000 to 10,000 feet.

i found the picture on WunderPhotos and it was taken by srlee who does a nice job of taking pix.

the bad guys

*ahem* just in case there's the possibility you have not invested in computer protection, you may want to read this. we've had norton for x-years and have been real happy with the protection. renewing the yearly contract has been interesting at times, but i don't know any reason to discard norton for another.

the bad guys are getting more creative every day, so suit up and stay ahead of things the best you can.

i want one, but

have you seen the info about nissan's land glider? it's pretty interesting. check out both videos on that page. i was all set to see about ordering one when i read they aren't in production. and might never be. but they may be farther along than nissan's pivo 2 which i would order without hesitation.

and then there's the smart fort wo which is already ... what? oh. there's the smart for two which is already out. one of the guy's at work has one and i think they're totally cool.

still, that pivo 2 would be majorly cool. and the land glider? awwwwesome!

gongkk ... uhnook .... mmmiperff !

don't you always wonder about people from long ago? if i see a pretty sunset or if the weather is terrible or if there's something going on to trigger it, i start thinking about what the people were like back 5,000 years ago. and 10,000. and 30,000.

i don't have enough imagination to come up with any thoughts about life back then. were the people just as jolly, hateful, loving, greedy, curious, jealous, artistic, worrying, clever, or superstitious as they can be today? did they work together better? were old people taken care of? and how old was 'old'?

we have to assume from the findings we make, but all too often our suppositions need to be corrected or updated at a point on down the road, as this article shows. boy oh boy, i just wish i had that invisible bubble .....

the world at your fingertips

this study, that study .... it seems there's always some tidbit out there on the internet.

it's adviseable to eat a little bit of dark chocolate every day. we knew that.

it's adviseable to not kiss your kids on the mouth so you won't give them cavities. oh, the horror...

i've never been quite happy with facebook and i keep reading where they keep tweaking their stuff. i don't have time to check in again and again to make sure i've got my info safe-guarded, so i'm this close *ll* to just closing up shop. yes, it has allowed me to get e-mails from relatives and friends, but, no. i'm just not impressed with facebook. must be an age-related thing. and their options if you die? good grief!

i left my heart ....

this is amazing. it took years for this guy to make this toothpick sculpture. it is very cool!