Wit, Wisdom, and Whimsy. (your mileage may vary)
August 4, 2010
Gay, News Gay rights, prop 8, Prop H8, Proposition 8 overturned, same sex marriage Leave a comment
The United States Court for the Northern District of California has ruled Proposition 8 unconstitutional, and has declared it invalid. A stay was issued, so same-sex marriages will not begin again, while the opposition appeals.
Read the ruling here.
August 2, 2010
commentary, geek, News ISS, NASA robots, R2, Robonaut, Space Station 35 Comments
I’m a bit abashed… NASA snuck this guy right past me, and I never even knew about him! The next Shuttle mission to the International Space Station, set for September, will include R2, a robot! Well… half a robot, for now, anyway. He doesn’t have any legs, and he’ll be bolted down, but he’s going to become a permanent part of ISS. Eventually, they’ll take him outside on spacewalks, to assist astronauts and cosmonauts. Here’s a video where the designers talk a bit about him. You can follow him on Twitter, too!
He even gets his own mission patch!
This is sooo cool!
Of course, in every bad science fiction story where the robots take over or destroy the world, the first robots are innocuous. We will have to keep an eye on this guy, and any compatriots that get built.
I offer some suggestions for their design:
#1. An easy to reach off switch!
#2. An equivalent to the Three Laws of Robotics.
#3. Don’t ever give them a personality, no matter how much they beg for one!
July 2, 2010
Gay, News, Personal Leave a comment
We’re growing steadily across California, and now the country. Who knows where we’ll pop up next?
via Queer Networks
June 27, 2010
News, Personal American Radio Relay League, ARRL, Field Day, TCARC, Tulare County Amateur Radio Club, Zumwalt Park Leave a comment
Field Day, held on the last weekend in June each year, is the ARRL’s annual test of emergency preparedness for radio amateurs. From Saturday morning till Sunday morning, operators set up temporary stations and operate radios in an attempt to contact as many other stations as possible. HAM radio operators and clubs set up stations in remote locations in rehearsal for emergency situations where they would provide communications for local civil and emergency organizations. Using their own equipment, HAM radio operators contact other stations around the country to practice their communication skills.
The Tulare County Amateur Radio Club held it’s event at Tulare’s Zumwalt park, setting up a tent and operating 4 different stations. Running on emergency power, operators used voice and morse code to contact other stations throughout the USA. Computers, networked through a wireless router, keep track of contacts, logging contacted stations for contest score purposes.
After the jump, some pictures from the event in Tulare.
June 25, 2010
commentary, Gay, geek, Humor, News, Personal beer with the President, Carlos Bocanegra, President Clinton, Soccer, World Cup 2 Comments
June 22, 2010
commentary, News barrels of oil, BP, gallons of oil, Gulf oil spill 2 Comments
One barrel of oil = 42 US gallons
100,000 x 42 = 4,200,000 gallons per day flowing from the blowout “preventer”.
4,200,000 x 63 days = 264,600,000 (two hundred sixty four million, six hundred thousand) gallons of oil. And counting.
Possible plug date: August 2010. Maybe. If they’re lucky.
June 21, 2010
commentary, News divine intervention, Gulf spill, Sarah Palin Leave a comment
Uh, Sarah… I don’t think he gives a flying flip about the situation. He’s had several opportunities to “help”, but he’s passed on the opportunity. Looks like we’re on our own.
Hey, Wingnuts… how can ANY of you think this woman is Presidential material? Are you all… wait, yes, you are. Never mind.
June 21, 2010
commentary, News, Pictures BP, Gulf of Mexico, oil spill, pictures from space Leave a comment
Taken June 19,2010 by NASA’s Terra satellite. NASA page here, and a large JPEG image, 10 MB, here.
I think this gives a much better view of the damage that’s been done, and will be done, in the Gulf. Images from the ground, as terrible as they are sometimes, never allow you to see the scope of the disaster. We’ve killed half the Gulf of Mexico, and more to come.
June 5, 2010
commentary, News Miller Valley, mural controversy, Prescott Arizona, Steve Blair Leave a comment
Photo Credit AZCentral.com
Prescott, Arizona
“Lighten the faces of the children”.
Miller Valley Elementary School Principle Jeff Lane claims the directive to the artists was to make the children’s faces appear happier and brighter.
R.E. Wall, director of Prescott’s Downtown Mural Project, said he and other artists were subjected to slurs from motorists as they worked on the painting at one of the town’s most prominent intersections.
“We consistently, for two months, had people shouting racial slander from their cars,” Wall said. “We had children painting with us, and here come these yells of (epithet for Blacks) and (epithet for Hispanics).”
“It is being lightened because of the controversy,” Wall said, adding that “they want it to look like the children are coming into light.”
A Prescott City Councilman, Steve Blair, who has a radio program on KYCA-AM 1490 has been agitating to have the mural removed completely.
The images of the children depicted on the mural are taken from photographs of actual children enrolled in the school. Miller Valley is the most ethnically diverse school in the Prescott district. The most prominent child in the mural is Hispanic, but Blair, on his radio program, described the image as that of a black child.
The nut cases and the wingnuts are gaining ground in Arizona. Is there any way to contain the idiocy, so that it doesn’t spread, or is it too late already?
JimmieJoe / KC6YRU 
He Hates Your Dog, and Your iPod
August 3, 2010
Jim Reeves commentary, News Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, iPod, Iran, music fatwa, puppies Leave a comment
Yep, someone has wound this guy’s turban WAY too tight…
Props to Joe.My.God, and The Guardian UK.
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