oh SNAP

Red Bull Air Races

They're racing this Sunday in Detroit.
I'm not going, but I was influenced by all the hype.
Check this out.

Can you imagine being in the cockpit?

Miracle, possession, or ... other?!

This is a shattered pot lid. I didn't cause it. My girlfriend didn't cause it. We can't imagine what caused it.

I was sitting on the other side of the room, putting together some furniture. She was washing some dishes. We heard a 'pop' like a champagne bottle, and both thought to ourselves "...we don't have any champagne, what was that?" We opened the cupboard and saw this, with a fine spray of glass dust covering things. For the next hour, we could still hear it cracking constantly!

The lid was put in the cupboard about five minutes earlier, in this exact same position. It did not move at all. Previous to that, it was sitting in the drying rack for about a day. That rules out thermal causes. It didn't move, so it didn't drop on anything (or vice versa).

Any other scientific minds out there care to take some guesses?

Animated wall art

Sound waves

I will derive...

Ron Paul in Louisville May 17th

To my delight Ron Paul made a stop in Louisville to hold a book signing at Boarders and attend a freedom rally at Freedom Palace (what a perfect venue name). The timing of the visit coincided with the Kentucky Primary held on May 20th.

Here is a picture of Ron signing my book.
The book signing was one of boarders biggest events (just behind Jimmy Carter). I was able to shake Ron's hand and say hello, but had to move on fairly quick because he was only signing books for 2 hours and there were over 600 people who wanted to see him. He was very kind and pleasant.

The rally was very interesting. 90% of the attendees were very intense supporters, shouting and yelling after each statement made by Ron. There was an NRA convention in Louisville that week and prior to the speech they had some pictures projected in the hall. They were showing pictures of guys with huge high power rifles and whenever one of those pictures were shown most of the crowd erupted in shouting and clapping. It was a bit redneck. All political groups from 911 Truthers to Constitution Party members to Republicans were there. The content of his speech was very consistent with what you would find on YouTube. There was a call to supporters to travel to the Republican convention to hold a massive rally (10,000 people) to pull media attention toward the revolution because it's likely that he will not be invited into convention.

Overall, for being the first political rally I've attended, the event was very interesting. Hopefully Ron will be back in the mix next election cycle or someone else with his views will be in the race.

I may be sold....

Found out that GE is taking a look at selling the Appliance business... which I am a part of.
I hear that sometimes they do this kind of thing to see what people would pay for the business, but don't actually sell.

I find the weirdest things...

I've bought a pile of LPs in the last month or two. And look what I found... the soundtrack to Hoser's namesake. Recognize the other name? 'Where the Sidewalk Ends'? The author of that (also 'The Giving Tree') was a singer as well, and I found an album of his. His voice reminds me of what my uncle sounds like when he sings.

Did You Know?

Sometimes it's nice to see some numbers for facts that we already know intuitively.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pMcfrLYDm2U

i wrote my congressmen today

i wrote about REAL ID, passed in 2005. i consider it an assault on liberty and the groundwork for terrible abuses of power.

---

We know Congress rejected REAL ID twice before it was passed, lumped into the "Emergency Supplemental Appropriations Act for Defense, the Global War on Terror, and Tsunami Relief, 2005." i understand that it would be extremely difficult to vote against a measure with such a name, and have a measure of sympathy for such a vote.

Now, however, is the time to repeal REAL ID, which is an affront to the liberty and privacy of citizens, and gravely inflates the powers of unelected officials in the Executive Branch.

When i look at the Constitution, i think Hitler himself could be President and the people would be protected if the Congress and Courts played their Constitutional roles. i believe that principle should be applied when considering legislation. The Founders didn't count on the benevolence of this nation's leaders, rather they built measures to restrict the powers of government in order to prevent abuses of power.

REAL ID flies in the face of that wisdom and creates a mechanism that could be used for terrible ends at some point in the future.

Let me also remind you of my support for the "One Subject at a Time Act (OSTA)", that would have prevented REAL ID from being injected into that bill. Please support the OSTA by introducing it in Congress. More information on the bill is available here:

http://www.downsizedc.org/osta-legislation.shtml

Why would Sprint expect me to ever have a phone bill totalling MILLIONS of dollars?

Music with a purpose?

I heard a new song on the radio today. At first listen, I didn't give it much thought. But it was catchy, so I figured I would look it up, and I found this video (Handlebars by Flobots).
It's one of those songs/videos that has you thinking (and a bit uncomfortable) by the end. I think that's good for people, so I'm sharing. Give it a watch, if you get a minute.

Note: The first link is the radio edit, the second is the video I liked.

So now the US is officially supporting terrorists?

Great. According to this Andrew Cockburn op-ed,

"Six weeks ago, President Bush signed a secret finding authorizing a covert offensive against the Iranian regime that, according to those familiar with its contents, 'unprecedented in its scope.'"

Kicker is, some of the groups we're supporting (such as Mujahedin-e Khalq and Jundullah) are on our own State Department's list of terrorist groups.

How's that for moral high ground? If this is true, now we're "aiding and abetting" terrorist groups, which has been the very charge leveled at Afghanistan and Iraq preceding our invasion.

In any case, this certainly lends itself to conjecture that the US may pursue more aggressive action against Iran for the same reasons, which in my opinion, would be even more of a disaster, not to mention ironic, given this latest news.

As Cockburn mentioned, Centcom commander Admiral Fallon recently left his post and will be replaced by Gen Petraeus. i was alarmed when Fallon left, and have been keeping my ear to the ground with issues involving Iran ever more so carefully since.

Surely a piece like Cockburn's has to be taken with a grain of salt (or in my case, a few grains) but i think we can all sift through the alarmism and find the important warnings we won't be getting elsewhere.

Look, they made a robotic version of Jason

Robot Drummer Has Planty of Rhythm