Joining an internet meme

October 10, 2012

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So full fledged Internet meme participation…  “I love living in the future!”  This image is a screenshot off my laptop computer, of video on NASA TV, beamed to Earth from the International Space Station.  Here the Dragon spacecraft has been grappled by the robotic arm, getting lined up to be berthed to the bottom side of the orbiting complex.  (“bottom side of the orbiting complex” was just now stolen by me from the NASA TV audio feed!)

12 year old Space Cadet JimmieJoe is green with envy over all the cool stuff in grown-up JimmieJoe’s life.  While all the computers are neat, I think he’s most impressed by the iPhone, which lets me watch things from outer space live on a hand held device, even in the basement dispatch center that was built to be an atom bomb/fallout shelter.  Most of the stuff grown-up JimmieJoe takes for granted these days has Space Cadet JimmieJoe beside himself, barely able to contain the giddy joy of life in the future.

He does give me a strange look now and then, though…

I know what he’s thinking.  (of course I do.  He’s me.)

It’s that whole flying car thing.

You’d think we could let that go, but…  no.  We were promised, dammit!

Blogs, Stephen King, and 666

October 9, 2012

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Sometimes the universe is just too nice to me.

My previous post on this blog was my 666th post.  WordPress lets you know how many posts you’ve made so far, and provides a pithy little quote to keep you motivated. My cheery little saying was from Stephen King! Talk about juxtaposing!

Mother Nature, or somebody (or something), knows my sense of humor, and sent me a little zinger.

Then, just to really play with me, as I’m in the middle of writing this, my cursor suddenly starts running down the page, as if I was holding down the ‘return’ key.  I thought I was going to have to do a forced shut-down to regain control, but after a second of ever-increasing blank page, I was able to regain control.

Bwwaahahahahaaha!!  And Halloween’s just a few weeks away.  This could be fun!

Noticing things right under your… feet

October 4, 2012

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I’ve been stepping on or over this for more than 18 years. I just noticed it had a face. I wonder if it’s quantum locked, and if it’s safe to blink.

20121004-195941.jpg

Why is the sky dark at night? It’s not what you think…

October 1, 2012

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Give me four minutes, and you’ll learn something really neat.

To summarize, it’s dark at night because the Universe is expanding.

B&W Abe: Historical figure. Color Abe: A real man.

September 17, 2012

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Buzzfeed has a series of black and white photos that have been altered to show how they would appear if they had been taken in color.  There are several that are more powerful to me in color than in the original black and white, but there are also a few who seem to lose some of their effect when translated into a color picture.  Follow the link to see them.  This one of President Abraham Lincoln is the most powerful to me.  Seeing him in color makes him less a historical figure, and more a real man.

What Dreams May Come

September 12, 2012

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I seldom remember my dreams.  Unless I wake up during or immediately after, I just have no clue what they were about.  I might recall that I had a dream, but not the details.  I sometimes have a strange, fading image of something, and I feel like I knew everything about it just a moment before, but then it drops away, despite my attempts to remember, and is gone.

Last night I had a weird one, that speaks to how things that occur around us, even in our sleep, can be integrated into the dream, even as it is interrupted.

I don’t know the details of the dream before this moment, but here’s what I do recall:

I’m in a motor home, and near water.  The water level is rising, and I’ve decided I need to move to higher ground.

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I just saw a UFO. No, really, I did. Right over there…

September 3, 2012

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<<< That’s not what it looked like.

8:05 pm, I was getting in my car to go to the store, when I glanced up at the sky to the north of my home.  That’s when I saw it.  A red light, moving (apparently) slowly.  Not the blinking red light of an aircraft, but a solid, bright red light.  It seemed to hover above, and far beyond, the church across the street, and then seemed to be moving up and away from me, growing dimmer as it did so.  It quickly winked out, and after a moment I got into my car and continued on my errand to the store.

When nearing the store, I saw it again, in the northern sky.  When I found a place to park, and was able to look again, it was gone.  I’ve seen it (or something very much like it) there before.

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I’m a headliner! (not the kind in your car)

September 1, 2012

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Queerlandia.com puts me on the masthead banner.  I’ll try to keep it from going to my head.

Why does Curiosity have it’s own laser? The truth behind an armed rover.

August 20, 2012

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The official story is one of a modest laser device, used to blast tiny holes in rocks, and analyze the resulting dust and debris with a spectrometer.  This, according to the briefs, will allow scientists to determine the chemical structure of the rocks.  NASA/JPL just released a picture of their first test firing.

From the looks of the images, you’d think “no big deal. A little tiny hole in a rock.”  The truth, however, is much more sinister.

We all know the government never tells you the complete story about these things.  Remember when spy satellites were all the “top-secret” rage, and they “could read the license plate number on your car”?  Of course, the capabilities were far more than was admitted.  The same thing applies to Curiosity.

A nuclear reactor?  To power a golf cart and a laser pointer? Not bloody likely…

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Mars isn’t the only place we’ve landed out there!

August 19, 2012

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The surface of Titan, a satellite of Saturn

Space Cadet JimmieJoe is taking me to task right now.  This is a big thing, and I missed it!

On January 14, 2005, NASA and ESA landed a probe on Titan, one of the moons of Saturn!

I don’t recall being aware of this, at all.  I don’t even know if I’ve seen this picture before, but if I have, I’m fairly certain I would think it was of Mars.  Instead, this is the surface of a satellite orbiting a planet 794 million miles away from us (at it’s closest approach).

I’m thinking, right now, of all the hoopla surrounding the recent landing of the Curiosity on Mars, and marveling that there was not something similar back in 2005.  Yes, the Huygens probe, part of the Cassini mission, only parachuted to the “ground”, and Curiosity did the whole ‘heat shield – parachute – retro rocket – sky crane’ deal, but still…

I missed it!  (hanging head in shame, avoiding the glare of 12 year old Space Cadet JimmieJoe)

Mars, and Titan.  But did you know, they’re not the only two places we’ve set down on.

We’ve landed on another planet, too.

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