WOW!!

She blasted Democractic rival Barack Obama, saying he “wants to forfeit” while victory is “finally in sight.”

“It’s easy to forget that this is a man who has authored two memoirs but not a single major law or reform — not even in the state Senate,” she said of Obama at the Republican National Convention.

The crowd erupted with chants of “Zero!” and some delegates made zeroes with their fingers.

Palin continued, “This is a man who can give an entire speech about the wars America is fighting and never use the word ‘victory’ except when he’s talking about his own campaign.

“What exactly is our opponent’s plan? What does he actually seek to accomplish after he’s done turning back the waters and healing the planet? The answer is to make the government bigger and take more of your money.”

She told the jubilant crowd earlier in the speech that she accepts the Republican Party’s nomination for vice president following a lengthy standing ovation. It marked the first time in history that a woman has taken the stage as the GOP vice president pick.

“I accept the challenge of a tough fight,” she said.

She praised McCain as a “true profile in courage.”

“In politics, there are some candidates who use change to promote their careers. And then there are those, like John McCain, who use their careers to promote change,” she said.

Palin, whose youngest child has Down syndrome, also promised families of special needs children will have “a friend and advocate in the White House.”

As she took the stage, the crowd waved banners reading “Hockey moms for Palin” and shouted, “We love you, Sarah.”

“I love those hockey moms,” she said.

Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani warmed up the crowd by continuing the barrage on Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama on Wednesday night, calling him a “celebrity senator” with no leadership experience.

“He’s never had to lead people in crisis,” Giuliani told the Republican National Convention. “This is not a personal attack; it’s a statement of fact. Barack Obama has never led anything. Nothing. Nada.

“The choice in this election comes down to substance over style. John McCain has been tested. Barack Obama has not. Tough times require strong leadership, and this is no time for on-the-job training.”

His speech was the third of the evening by former GOP presidential candidates who pumped up the Republican faithful ahead of the evening’s much-anticipated speech by McCain’s vice presidential pick, Sarah Palin.

Many in attendance chanted “USA! USA!” during key passages.

Earlier, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee got the crowd cheering when he ripped Obama for looking to Europe for ways to change America.

“Barack Obama’s excellent adventure to Europe took his campaign for change to hundreds of thousands of people who don’t even vote or pay taxes here,” he said.

“The fact is, most Americans don’t want more government; they want a lot less.”

Actor and former Sen. Fred Thompson led the charge, berating “Washington pundits and media big shots” who have questioned her experience as a first-term governor and former mayor of Wasilla, Alaska.

“Let’s be clear. … The selection of Gov. Palin has the other side and their friends in the media in a state of panic. She is a courageous, successful reformer who is not afraid to take on the establishment.”

“She’s taken on the special interests and the political power brokers in Alaska and reached across party lines to get things done,” Lieberman said.

Energized!

As I type this, the news media begins it’s all-out assault on Sen. McCain’s pick for VP, Gov. Sarah Palin. The argument that has moved swiftly to the forefront has been the issue of Palin’s experience. Failing mention in their assault is the proper focus on the fact that she IS the Governor of a state, commands the Alaskan guard, has reformed her own party of corruption, denied money from the federal govt. for silly projects, and is an ENERGY EXPERT! Without the slightest question, she has more experience than the Democratic nominee for President.

They chastise her now for her experience yet she has MORE EXPERIENCE THAN BARACK OBAMA in every aspect of government. I like Obama, I really do, but the day he arrived to his Senate office, he began campaigning for the Presidency. He’s been absent from senate office more than he’s been present. In all fairness to Gov. Palin, exactly what experience does Barack have? Foreign Affairs? None. A national economy? None. So, let’s understand that her nomination has reaffirmed John McCain’s status as ‘maverick.’ This is the John McCain that we all liked before he drifted so far right.

Also, the selection of Sarah Palin as McCain’s running mate has electrified conservative activists, providing a boost of energy to the GOP nominee. By tapping the anti-abortion and pro-gun Alaska governor, McCain hasn’t just won over the skeptical Republican base, he’s ignited a wave of emotion that has led some grass-roots activists ‘to weep with joy.’

“I woke up and my e-mail was just going crazy,” said Charmaine Yoest, head of the legislative arm of Americans United for Life and a former top official in Mike Huckabee’s presidential campaign. “And then when it was announced — it was like you couldn’t breathe.” The media elite — as well as elite members of the GOP consulting community — have all but mocked Palin as a former small-town mayor with zero Washington experience. But that view of her totally misses what she brings to the Republican power centers and leaves out the jubilation felt among true believers that one of their own is on the ticket. Palin, say conservative activists, has instantly changed how they feel about McCain’s campaign and spurred them to go to work for the Republican ticket.

First, though, they’re expressing their newfound fondness for McCain with their checkbooks - the campaign has raised nearly $7 million online. Republicans say the primary source for the passion can be found in Palin’s example and authenticity.

Not only is the 44-year-old governor opposed to abortion rights — but she carried and gave birth to a child with Down syndrome earlier this year, a profound and powerful motivating force to both opponents of abortion rights and the parents and relatives of special needs children.

And not only is she a supporter of the right to bear arms — but she’s a lifetime member of the NRA and an avid hunter and fisherman whose gubernatorial office couch is adorned with a massive grizzly bear pelt.

“She’s lived it!” exulted Yoest. “It’s so satisfying as a conservative woman. When she walked out on that stage there was just this moment. It was really emotional for a lot of us.”

After hearing the news, Yoest, who was in St. Paul preparing for the convention, said she and other Republican women here “were grabbing each other and jumping up and down.” Steve Duprey, a former New Hampshire GOP chairman and top McCain backer who hails from the moderate wing of the party, was also in the Twin Cities when the news broke.

“I was in the Rules Committee with about 150 people in the room. They had TVs set up and we took a break to watch the announcement. For a second after she came out, it was silent. Then there was a gasp and everybody stood up and started cheering and clapping. We stayed standing the whole speech.”

After Palin finished, he said, the emotion set in.

“There were 10 or 12 women, party stalwarts, in tears, using napkins and handkerchiefs.”

“There is an electricity going through the social conservative crowd right now; it’s unbelievable,” said James Muffett, head of Michigan’s Citizens for Traditional Values, who had met with McCain in the weeks leading up to his selection of a running mate. “Especially given all the set-ups and head fakes — it’s amazing. A lot of people were sure he was going to show his more moderate colors.”

Muffett said the effect on his conservative comrades in arms has been immediate and visceral.

“My wife and I watched an MSNBC special on her last night,” he said. “My wife knew nothing about this woman. But she was in tears listening to her articulate the views she had.” Since the pick, Muffett said, he’s gotten “dozens of e-mails and the phones have been ringing off the hook” from other social conservatives who had assumed McCain would spurn them.

“They were taunting me, saying ‘McCain’s going to disappoint you,’” he said of the sentiment before the pick.

Sportsmen are also overjoyed at the addition of one of their own, and can’t get enough of video and pictures showing Palin firing a weapon.

“She’s one of us,” wrote Michael Bane, a prominent Colorado-based gun enthusiast who has a show on the Outdoor Channel, on his blog. “FINALLY, we can get 100 percent behind the Republican ticket … change we can believe in!”

“You know I’ve had my problems with McCain, but he has reached out a hand to us both at the NRA Annual Meeting [earlier this year] and with the amazing selection of Sarah Palin as his running mate,” Bane added.

And then there is the contrast: “While [Barack Obama] wants to ban AR-15s, Palin shoots AR-15s, and apparently pretty well.”

“Every shooter, every hunter, every gun owner, every competitor needs to understand that it is time to, in the words of Bruce Willis, ‘cowboy the ‘f…’ up.’ ”

Chris Cox, the top political aide at the NRA, suggested that his job just got a whole lot easier, not just with a pro-gun Republican vice presidential nominee but a Democratic number two — Delaware Sen. Joe Biden — who is anathema to the Second Amendment community

“We’ll be able to have some fun contrasting not just McCain and Obama, but Biden and Palin,” said Cox, whose organization is giving “I’m a Bitter Gun Owner and I Vote!” signs and T-shirts to its members. “She’s great on our issues and [Biden’s] been terrible for 35 years.”

Her image as a pistol-packin’ mama could prove especially key in the hunter-filled Rust Belt, said Paul Erhardt, a longtime political strategist who specializes on gun issues.

“Palin could play strong in the sporting states like Michigan, Ohio and Pennsylvania, depending on how they use her,” he said. “Most pundits will underestimate her appeal in these key areas because they don’t know her and they are unfamiliar with the sporting scene. But among sportsmen, authenticity counts and Palin’s got that and then some.”

The sense of rejuvenation is not just limited to party activists, though. Conservative elites, among the most disdainful of McCain, are also coming around.

James Dobson, long a McCain skeptic, said after the announcement Friday that he’d support Palin.

And he’s not alone.

“I’ve talked to two prominent social conservative leaders in the past 24 hours who told me they had previously not planned to attend the convention, but were now coming to Minneapolis after the Palin pick,” wrote Ralph Reed, a Christian conservative leader who has tangled with McCain, in an e-mail. “One scrambled to find a hotel room and is coming tomorrow; the other rearranged his schedule and is flying in Wednesday. I got a call this afternoon from an evangelical business leader who told me he was contacting the McCain campaign and offering to host a fundraiser with his friends for McCain (sans the candidate) before the Thursday deadline [when McCain shifts to the public financing system]. I don’t know if I’ve ever seen a veep pick energize the grass roots like this.”

“Palin=Guns, Babies, Jesus,” he wrote in an e-mail. “Contrast that to Obama’s bitter clingers. Obama just lost blue-collar, white Democratic voters in Pennsylvania and other states.” And, he said, the line that the pick was aimed at picking off Democratic women who backed Hillary Rodham Clinton doesn’t get it right.

“[The] choice is to shore up the conservative, pro-drilling base,” he said. “This is an aggressive, on-offense pick, not a defensive pick.”

Rush Limbaugh, who exulted on the air this week, summed up the response he’s gotten from his loyal listeners: “Home f***ing run.”

A Baby’s Best Friend

Dog Protected Newborn Baby, Doctors say.

(CNN) – A dog sheltered a newborn baby abandoned by its 14-year-old mother in a field in rural Argentina until the boy was rescued, a doctor said Friday.

The abandoned infant was found in a field with this dog and her newborn puppies. A resident of a rural area outside La Plata called police late Wednesday night to say that he had heard the baby crying in a field behind his house. The man went outside and found the infant lying beside the dog and its six newborn puppies, Daniel Salcedo, chief of police of the Province of Buenos Aires, told CNN. The temperature was a chilly 37 degrees, Salcedo said. The dog had apparently carried the baby some 50 meters from where his mother had abandoned him to where the puppies were huddled, police said.

“She took it like a puppy and rescued it,” Salcedo said. “The doctors told us if she hadn’t done this, he would have died.”

“The dog is a hero to us.”

Dr. Egidio Melia, director of the Melchor Romero Hospital in La Plata, told CNN that police showed up at the hospital at 11:30 p.m. Wednesday with the baby who doctors say was only a few hours old. Though the infant had superficial scratches and bruises and was bleeding from his mouth, he was in good shape, Melia said. The next morning, the child’s mother was driven by a neighbor to the hospital and told authorities the 8 pound, 13 ounce infant is hers, Melia said.

The teenager was immediately given psychological treatment and was hospitalized, he said. She has said little about the incident. The child has been transferred to a children’s hospital in La Plata, 37 miles from Buenos Aires.

So Long, Joe!

My friend - R.I.P.

Joe Foy
JOE FOY, born June 1, 1937, passed away August 11, 2008. Services will be held Saturday, August 16, 2008, @ Willing Workers Baptist Church- 6900 Weaver Rd. Visitation will be held from 11:30 - 1:30p.m. Funeral Service will begin @ 1:30p.m. Interment-Cemetery Beautiful. Www.legacy.com

The Child of the Child King?

DNA tests to study mummy fetuses in King Tut tomb

Egyptian scientists are carrying out DNA tests on two mummified fetuses found in the tomb of King Tutankhamun to determine whether they are the young pharaoh’s offspring, the antiquities authority said Wednesday.

The two tiny female fetuses, between five to seven months in gestational age, were found in King Tut’s tomb in Luxor when it was dissevered in 1922. DNA samples from the fetuses “will be compared to each other, along with those of the mummy of King Tutankhamun,” the head of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, Zahi Hawass, said in a statement.

The testing is part of a wider program to check the DNA of hundreds of mummies to determine their identities and family relations. Hawass said the program could help determine Tutankhamun’s family lineage, which has long been a source of mystery among Egyptologists. The identity of Tut’s parents is not firmly known. Many experts believe he is the son of Akhenaten, the 18th Dynasty pharaoh who tried to introduce monotheism to ancient Egypt, and one of Akhenaten’s queens, Kiya. But others have suggested he was the son of a lesser known pharaoh who followed Akhenaten.

Scholars believe that at age 12, Tutankhamun married Ankhesenamun — a daughter of Akhenaten by his better known wife Nefertiti — but the couple had no surviving children. There has been no archaeological evidence that Tut, who died around the age of 19 under mysterious circumstances over 3,000 years ago, left any offspring. The council said that if the tiny mummies are unrelated to Tut, they may have been placed in his tomb to allow him to “live as a newborn in the afterlife.” Ashraf Selim, a radiologist and member of the Egyptian team, said the tests could take several months. So far, the team has carried out CT scans on the two fetuses and taken samples for DNA tests.

“We want to find out the truth and facts relevant to the history of these kings,” Selim told The Associated Press. Since they were found in King Tut’s tomb, the mummified fetuses were kept in storage at the Cairo School of Medicine and were never publicly displayed or studied, Selim said. One of his top goals is to find the mummy of Nefertiti, the queen legendary for her beauty. Abdel-Halim Nour el-Deen, a former head of the council and a leading Egyptologist said DNA testing on mummies thousands of years old is very difficult.

“It is doubtful that it could produce a scientific result to determine such important issues such as the lineage of pharaohs,” Nour el-Deen told the AP. Nour el-Deen also criticized the antiquities authority for not making public the results of the tests already carried out.

Houston Rockets Slogan - The Final Frontier

This season BEGINS the Final Frontier.
These are voyages of the Big 3 at Toyota Center.
It’s a 5 year window
To explore strange, new players
To seek out new playoff rounds and new championships.
To boldly go where Yao and Tracy have never gone….BEFORE!!!!

‘The Last Lecture’

PITTSBURGH - Randy Pausch, the Carnegie Mellon University computer scientist whose “last lecture” about facing terminal cancer became an Internet sensation and a best-selling book, died Friday. He was 47.

Pausch died at his home in Chesapeake, Va., said Jeffrey Zaslow, a Wall Street Journal writer who co-wrote Pausch’s book. Pausch and his family had moved there last fall to be closer to his wife’s relatives. Pausch was diagnosed with incurable pancreatic cancer in September 2006. His popular last lecture at Carnegie Mellon in September 2007 garnered international attention and was viewed by millions on the Internet. In it, Pausch celebrated living the life he had always dreamed of instead of concentrating on impending death.

“The lecture was for my kids, but if others are finding value in it, that is wonderful,” Pausch wrote on his Web site. “But rest assured; I’m hardly unique.”

The book “The Last Lecture” leaped to the top of the nonfiction best-seller lists after its publication in April and remains there this week. The book deal was reported to be worth more than $6 million. Pausch said he dictated the book to Zaslow by cell phone, and Zaslow recalled Friday that he was “strong and funny” during their collaboration.

“It was the most fun 53 days of my life because it was like a performance,” Zaslow told The Associated Press. “It was like getting 53 extra lectures.” He recalled that Pausch became emotional when they worked on the last chapter, though, because that to him was the “end of the lecture, the book, his life.”

At Carnegie Mellon, Pausch was a professor of computer science, human-computer interaction and design, and was recognized as a pioneer of virtual reality research. On campus, he became known for his flamboyance and showmanship as a teacher and mentor. The speech last fall was part of a series Carnegie Mellon called “The Last Lecture,” where professors were asked to think about what matters to them most and give a hypothetical final talk. The name of the lecture series was changed to “Journeys” before Pausch spoke, something he joked about in his lecture.

“I thought, damn, I finally nailed the venue and they renamed it,” he said.

He told the packed auditorium he fulfilled almost all his childhood dreams — being in zero gravity, writing an article in the World Book Encyclopedia and working with the Walt Disney Co. The one that eluded him? Playing in the National Football League.

“If I don’t seem as depressed or morose as I should be, sorry to disappoint you,” Pausch said.

He then joked about his quirky hobby of winning stuffed animals at amusement parks — another of his childhood dreams — and how his mother introduced him to people to keep him humble: “This is my son. He’s a doctor, but not the kind that helps people.” Pausch said he was embarrassed and flattered by the popularity of his message. Millions viewed the complete or abridged version of the lecture, titled “Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams,” online.

“I don’t know how to not have fun,” he said in the lecture. “I’m dying and I’m having fun. And I’m going to keep having fun every day I have left. Because there’s no other way to play it.”

Pausch lobbied Congress for more federal funding for pancreatic cancer research and appeared on “Oprah” and other TV shows. In what he called “a truly magical experience,” he was even invited to appear as an extra in the upcoming “Star Trek” movie. He had one line of dialogue, got to keep his costume and donated his $217.06 paycheck to charity.

Pausch blogged regularly about his medical treatment. On Feb. 15, exactly six months after he was told he had three to six months of healthy living left, Pausch posted a photo of himself to show he was “still alive & healthy.”

“We don’t beat the reaper by living longer, we beat the reaper by living well and living fully,” he said.

___

Associated Press writer Ramesh Santanam contributed to this report.

Why So Serious?

Well, the reviews are in and the label has been set: Epic. The new Batman movie-The Dark Knight begins at midnight tonight, most likely showing on 47 screens PER theater for the next few months. The new release has been called ‘chilling,’ ‘dark,’ ‘not for kids,’ and ‘mysterious and brooding.’ Even The History Channel got in on the action but from a different perspective: they aired a serious documentary which featured top writers and psychologists all of whom ‘psycho-analyzed’ the Batman and the Joker and the symbiotic relationship that has existed between these two characters throughout the years. If there was never a Joker, there couldn’t be a Batman.

Right vs. Wrong, the individual vs. society, action vs. reaction, the Joker vs. Batman. I wonder, could there be a ‘two-faced’ reason for me to go see “The Dark Knight?” Personally, I’ve always been a big fan of ‘The Batman.’ Maybe it’s his dark side, his moody temperment, his time spent in solitary, figuring things out or maybe because he teeters back and forth on what’s right and wrong, or at least what he perceives to be right and wrong. I’ve always wanted to be Superman but methinks there’s no escaping the Batman DNA.

Anyway, I’m considering seeing the midnight showing tonight just for fun. I mean, it is summer and I don’t really HAVE to get up tomorrow morning.  It’s really supposed to be great!

“Christopher Nolan and his collaborators have delivered an elegant, urgent epic that doesn’t just extend the franchise, but deepens it into a film noir morality tale. Even as it upholds ideals of law and order it shrewdly questions the queasy morality of vigilantism, the mob mentality of a society facing terrorist anarchy, and the fine line between idealism and madness.” Me loves the way that sounds - idealism and madness? Hmm…you mean there IS a difference?

Here’s to, what I hope is, a helluva movie and another medium, another installment, another something that validates that deep pocket in the soul: the dark mood.

 

Obama IS Black, Right?

And Jessie is a racist, right?

The often-idiotic, rhyming-reverend Jesse Jackson apologized for some “regretfully crude” comments he made about Barack Obama’s speeches in black churches during what he thought was a private conversation. Do you wonder if Jackson is sorry that he said them or if he’s just sorry that he got caught? He says that the black community has more problems than just moral problems: housing, jobs, prison, etc… and that Obama is speaking down to the black community by emphasizing the lack of a black father. It’s actually funny but it’s THIS type of rhetoric that is the most racist of all: blacks chastising blacks because they’re acting TOO white. Being white implies some sort of birthright to intelligence? It’s this intelligence, genetically isolated to the country-club socialites that should be avoided by blacks? Wait…wait…wait - it’s not because they’d be ’sell-outs’ is it? That really is quite the 1980’s!

If I were black, all of this would be completely offensive to me. But it’s typical of this kind of leadership, or lack thereof, that has dominated the black community for far too long. White people have for years seen this but for years have been unable to say it. Why? The public out crying of “RACIST!! RACIST!!” can be a little much at times. Whites don’t like to talk about blacks. It makes them uncomfortable. Could they help the black community in some ways? Sure. Will they? No. Why? Leaders like Jackson and Sharpton don’t want white people’s help. They need the black community to look to them, the REV’s, for guidance. Yeah, well, there’s this new kid named Obama. Yeaaaahhhhhhh uh…he just might be the President. Yeaaaahhhhhh…..

You know, Jessie, you’re not the ONLY black leader that’s out there these days. They’re closing in on you Jessie, they’re closing! They’re the new and improved, younger blacks who ***GASP*** think for themselves. They don’t follow your cracked up ‘If there wasn’t racism, blacks would rule the world’ philosophy. These are the new speakers - the new leaders - with new ideals. There are now plenty of leaders in the black community that would have no problem listening to another point of view, maybe even from a white, Hispanic or Jewish perspective and these idealists aren’t quite so closed-minded as the dear REV. In time, they’re going to achieve what the good REV. never did: fundamental change within a community as opposed to the diamond-laced crutches they’ve been given (Fake diamonds, yes, but they look real and that’s what’s important!).

One man would be Harold Ford, Jr. Here is an absolutely brilliant man with fantastic insight into realm of good ol’ common sense. He’s articulate and well-spoken, and not in the bad, racist way of ‘talking white.’ He’d listen, I’m sure of it and he’s black, Reverend. I would propose a dare for you to say about Mr. Ford that he talks white just because he’s a professor of public policy at Vanderbilt University teaching American political leadership. Or, because he joined Merrill Lynch financial as a vice chairman and senior policy advisor and in 2007, was appointed the inaugural Barbara Jordan Visiting Professor at the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas at Austin. He’s also light-skinned. Be VERY careful here, Mr. Jackson when determining whether or not he’s black enough for you. I mean, he is, isn’t he? Even with all of these credentials, even though he does ’speak white’ and actually look a little white, please tell me that he IS black enough?

Perhaps Condy? She’s a little darker skinned. But at how many parties have you bashed the talented, genius-walking, former National Security Advisor, current Sec. of State, and future President? Is she too white because she balanced an entire university’s budget? If I told you that Dr. Rice (That’s DR. not REV.) is an accomplished pianist and at 15, she played Mozart with the Denver Symphony, would this be her ‘acting white’ or just being an accomplished black? Let’s see, she’s performed at diplomatic events, at embassies and has performed in public with cellist Yo-Yo Ma, who is Chinese (If you want to criticize Yo-Yo Ma for being born in Paris, well, I’m actually ok with that!) She has stated that her favorite composer is Johannes Brahms, not because he was German and white, which you most assuredly could find cause to accuse her, but because she thinks Brahms’s music is “passionate but not sentimental.”

She’s not listening to Snoop - she must be ‘listening down’ to black people. AND OFF GOES MR. JACKSON TO FIND THE NEAREST CNN TELEVISION CAMERA!!

Jackson is the old school, racist, ‘keep blacks in their place’ type of spiritual leader that actually offers no spiritual leadership whatsoever. If I were black (Actually, my genealogy found that Booker T. Washington is a not so distant cousin of mine so, I guess I am black!) …ok, if I were MORE black than I am, I would jettison these type of idiots faster than Rosa Parks could sit down on a bus seat (Rosa Parks grandfather was Irish. See? She was a fighter!).

But seriously with these clowns, when was the last time you heard REV. Jesse Jackson, or REV. Al Sharpton, for that matter, utter the name Jesus Christ in a public setting? You probably haven’t. You know who has said it and does say it? Sen. Barack Obama! Remember REV -

“The stone the builders rejected has become the capstone,” 1 Peter 2:7

Maybe those two, old, tired men are actually jealous of Barack Obama. I mean, he’s done something those two never did - ever: he’s put himself in a position to be President of the United States of America. Who knows? Maybe I’m wrong and am giving these men too much grief. Perhaps they are just envious because Obama ACTUALLY IS African-American.

Riding the coat tails of the great MLK, Jr. can only last for so long. Would Dr. King ever utter such vile sentiment? Methinks not. Can you see Dr. King doing this? No. In 1984, Jackson called New York City “Hymietown,” referring to the city’s large Jewish population. I’m sure Dr. King would’ve been proud then just as he is now! Nice job, Jess!

Jackson’s opinions and rhetoric are stale. He no religious leader, he’s no political player. In fact, he’s laid no groundwork to support any recent political commentary at all. Here’s the best thing I can say about Jackson: you are a freak show and side-show act…and no, I’m not talking about Michael Jackson. You’re getting to be more and more irrelevant and that has got to hurt more than anything. You so desperately want to be relevant, but you’re just not. The 60’s have come and gone, my friend.
He said Wednesday that Obama’s speeches “come off as speaking down to black people” and that there were other important issues to be addressed in the black community, such as unemployment, the mortgage crisis and the number of blacks in prison. The black community has MANY issues that it needs to fix - MANY. But if you were to pick one issue to fix, one which could be the foundation by which all other issues would be built upon, that issue would be the absence the black father. Period!
Look, Obama panders to his base just like everyone else. It’s just politics. He’s a politician. You vote for the guy who’s the best looking on television. We all know that - we’re Americans! But Obama is dead on the money here.

Jessie Jackson just accused a black presidential candidate of ‘talking down to black people.’

Hmm…that’s just weird and actually, pretty funny!

Lord of the ‘Postcard?’ Tolkien sells fireplace? Huh?

A demolition man stripping a fireplace from the former home of “The Lord of the Rings” author J.R.R. Tolkien stumbled across a postcard to the writer dated 1968, and hopes to sell it for a small fortune.

Stephen Malton, who runs Prodem Demolition in Bournemouth on the south English coast, was working in the house in the nearby town of Poole before it was bulldozed to make way for a new construction project.

“Before we demolish a house we do an internal strip out,” Malton said Tuesday.

“One of the main features was a fireplace, and upon removing that we came across three postcards. The third one was a postcard dated 1968 and addressed to J.R.R. Tolkien.”

Malton said research on the Internet suggested that the carved wooden fireplace with marble inlay, a feature of the house when Tolkien lived there from 1968 to 1972, was already worth up to $250,000.

“To tie in both the fireplace and the postcard, we are talking about a price of around $500,000 for the combined pair,” the 42-year-old told Reuters by telephone.

He contacted the Tolkien Estate, which manages the author’s copyrights, and said that they had given him the all clear to sell the fireplace and postcard. The estate could not immediately be reached for comment.

Malton said he would probably sell the items at auction, although according to local newspaper the Dorset Echo, he has already had an offer from a Tolkien enthusiast in Belgium.

The postcard was addressed to Tolkien at the Miramar Hotel in Bournemouth, where he and his wife Edith often stayed.

It is from “Lin,” which Malton believed could be fellow fantasy author Lin Carter who wrote “Tolkien: A Look Behind ‘The Lord of the Rings,’” published in 1969.

Depicting a scene from Ireland, it reads: “I have been thinking of you a lot and hope everything has gone as well as could be expected in the most difficult circumstances.”

Malton was not sure what the “difficult circumstances” might be.

Tolkien had achieved fame by the time he moved to Poole in 1968. His epic “The Lord of the Rings” trilogy, already popular before the hugely successful film adaptations appeared, was published in 1954-55.

He remained in Poole until his wife’s death, when he moved back to Oxford. Tolkien died in 1973, aged 81.

By Mike Collett-White

Tim Russert - R.I.P.

It’s very weird. I’ve been talking about Tim Russert for the past several weeks to friends and family alike. I’ve spoken of how much I like Russert and his being the main reason I watch ‘Meet The Press.”  After hearing about Russert’s death, my stomach dropped and I felt a wave of nausia come over me. It was like that with Princess Diana too, to some degree. But I watched Russert each and every Sunday, taped it every week, and never missed watching an episode, even re-watching some from time to time. Russert gave an interview to Charlie Rose a while back stating how he wanted to mold his show into one where the average man could sit down on Sunday, grab a cup of coffee, relax and watch great political news happen. That was exactly what I did - I sat down every Sunday and watched ‘Meet The Press’ with Tim Russert. It didn’t matter who he was interviewing; it would be relevant, he would ask the hard questions, and he would do it with genuine interest. They say he worked harder than anyone else and was more prepared than anyone else. I never met Tim Russert but he seemed to be a loving and compassionate man who cared a great deal for his father and his son. I’ll truly miss having coffee with Russert on Sunday’s. He’ll be greatly missed!

Picture Gallery

 

Tim Russert, ‘Meet the Press’ Host, Dies

The popular NBC television journalist passed away Friday of a heart attack at age 58

(FROM MSNBC) — Tim Russert, the anchor of NBC’s venerable Sunday morning public affairs program Meet the Press since 1991 and one of the most recognizable personalities on television, died Friday at the age of 58, NBC News announced. He suffered a heart attack while working at NBC’s bureau in Washington, D.C.

A towering figure in TV news, Russert was a native of Buffalo, N.Y., and arrived at NBC in 1984 after stints as a lawyer and staffer for New York Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan and New York Gov. Mario Cuomo. As NBC’s Washington Bureau Chief and the moderator of Meet the Press, the Emmy winner turned the 60-year-old show into a ratings powerhouse, a must-see for people both inside the Beltway and beyond. He was the longest-serving anchor in the history of that program. Perhaps the highest-profile contributor to NBC News’ political and election coverage, he also appeared frequently on MSNBC and hosted a weekly interview show, Tim Russert, on CNBC.

Russert’s 2004 memoir of his childhood and his father, Big Russ and Me, was a No. 1 best seller. The overwhelming success of that book led to the publication of a best-selling follow-up, Wisdom of Our Fathers, which included many of the letters he received from people paying tribute to their own parents. He is survived by his son, Luke, his wife, Maureen Orth, a Vanity Fair writer, and ”Big Russ,” his father. (MSNBC)y Don Aucoin, Globe Staff  |  June 13, 2008

Tim Russert, a powerhouse of broadcast journalism who made interviewing both an art form and a contact sport on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” died today at age 58 of a heart attack after collapsing at the network’s Washington bureau.

Russert’s death reverberated through the worlds of journalism and politics, two arenas where his passion matched his expertise. His preparation and tenacity on “Meet the Press” made that show must-viewing inside the Beltway and beyond, and “the Russert Primary” was considered a test that presidential candidates had to pass to be considered serious contenders.

Yet however rugged the exchanges, Russert invariably ended with the same gentlemanly refrain: “Thank you for sharing your views.” Paradoxical though it seemed, Russert was both feared and liked in Washington, where he was NBC’s bureau chief. That was reflected in the bipartisan tributes that poured forth today after Russert’s death.

President Bush called Russert a “tough and hardworking newsman,” who was “as gregarious off the set as he was prepared on it.” Presumptive Republican presidential nominee John McCain called Russert “the preeminent political journalist of his generation” and “a terrific guy,” while presumptive Democratic nominee Barack Obama called Russert “irreplaceable” and “one of the finest men I knew.”

UNBELIEVABLE & IMPOSSIBLE: A Great Discovery at Antique Mall!

This is pretty strange but actually a pretty neat story when ya think about it.

Quote:

Originally Posted by killer instinct5 Gulf Coast Antiquities Chat Room What IN THE HELL have I found???    Dawn Elliot - 42 - Clairmont, PA I’m going to try and get right to the point on this one, guys. Earlier this year, I think it was mid January or so, my two sisters and I went to the Antique emporium in Beaver Falls. We usually go once a month or so. My entire family lives in Clairton, PA, a small town outside of Pittsburgh so we all hang out with each other and do stuff. I’m the youngest sister in a family of six. Denise and Tanya, my two older sisters, are big antiquers. I like antiques too but I love old books and have been a collector since I was about 10. Those of you who know me know I didn’t play with dolls. I read stories and played football with the boys. Anyway, the very moment we drove up, I saw the warehouse guys bringing in a whole bunch of books in off the truck. I was excited, which was tough for anyone really seeing as how it was 18 degrees outside. I hate our weather by the way! So, I asked one of the guys (Who was real cute, BTW–YES, I am single!) why so many books were coming in. The manager came up from behind me and said that they were from the Boston/ New England area and didn’t get auctioned off and that the mall was ‘awarded them’ through some kind of grant. I didn’t really care -just wanted to see the books and get some coffee. Here’s where it gets weird! I bought 12 books that day for $250 or so, some just because they were SO old and in such GOOD shape. So get this—I come home the other day and started looking through this book of Longfellow to try and find a street price to sell it. It had 1888 as the year published. Anyway, I was just going to put it up and let it sit there for ‘looks’ unless it sold on Ebay but it was so thick. I found that a little odd. As I looked through the book, the light from my ceiling showed what I thought were little word indentions on the 2nd page to the end. THESE WERE NOT INDENTIONS. I was like a crazed schoolgirl. There was a physical letter - a double sided letter (2 pages!!) within the binding of the actual book. However, the only way to see if I was right would be to rip the book apart. $59 down the drain, right? Don’t think so. This has been one of the most remarkable things that I’ve ever seen or been involved with. This took place two days ago - I have stared at this letter for hours upon hours just wondering. I decided to post it here in the hopes of finding the other letters. Here it is– the letter - will post pictures when I get my new scanner. My father is mailing it to some guy he knows. (Yes, it’s being tracked and insured!! This has got to be a gimmick, I know, but it is so damn odd to read. I don’t even understand it. Check it out. It took HOURS to copy it but here it is word for word:

 

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May 1888 - B.L. writes:I write this entry in a dark and private room behind a thick desk using a gold pen that does not belong to me. My notebook is bent and wrinkled with torn edges from the thick binding rubber band that has held it together since my awakening within those murderous walls. A strange man, bald and grossly overweight lies in the hallway dead just beyond the door’s entrance. This very well could be his pen. My breathing has come under control; my heartbeat has found a calm way now. Though I am largely disoriented, I will simply begin to pen my thoughts, for what reason, I’m not entirely sure. All written words, my words, that have been tirelessly spread across these once empty pages read so differently now, and thus I am asking whoever finds this and reads along to disregard all other entries prior to this day: Thursday, May 31st, 1888. Let there be no misunderstanding - I am not insane. I write this under the accepted standard definition of what constitutes a sound mind. Though I disagree with the definition of ’sound’ as well as the current psychological parameters applied to it, guidelines by which most institutions blindly follow with religous fervor, I will adhere to them for this day and thus, my mind is to be regarded as sound.

I have been held against my will by men of no conscience in a place or a time that I can’t define. I say to myself that I have ‘awoke from sleep’ but that would be inaccurate. I do know for a fact that I have witnessed firsthand, lastly at sun up on this very day, the devastating destruction that can fall upon a man who elects to use whatever internal fortitude that could be mustered to resist these captors and their hideous, torturous probing machines, devices which pierce the very inner workings of our human minds. These people of captivity, many of whom I now call friend, are living life as nothing more than simple test subjects and exotic play toys for scientists gone mad. My friends have endured such wretched punishment, much moreso than even the most monstrous and dispicable of child rapists. My friends have persevered for some time, fighting against their limits end, clinging to their life’s last breath, holding on to a hope that promised long life, though each would ultimately succumb to the final ringing of the bell. Many were unable to withstand the herding from room to room, the table to table prodding of blunt, bloody instruments time and again. I was there with them on the edge facing the impending doom of my own life…for the second time in a lifetime. I watched, crying like a child as they yelled their way into eternity. I was there…until today. These demon men drilled into our skulls and redesigned us. I’m telling you that I was dead before today - DEAD!

How do atrocities such as this happen? Has my soul lost its place of reservation amongst the cities of gold? Why has my God forsaken so many? Surely, our violent screams were loud enough to disturb any angel that housed even the slightest of conscience…and yet, the dead remain back there on the floor, still and quiet and our begging produced nary a blink from the devils that stood over us cutting into our skulls. My sadness knows no bounds for these people, my friends. Their lives, as well as my own, were recorded as ended in normal fashion many a century ago but an indescribable resurrection has enveloped both our mind and soul thus trapping us in a some twisted sort of dimensional container for future generations to enjoy a giant belly laugh. They have laughed at us as entertainment. But now I stand in the corner of a cold room in a building so tall, the structure makes no sense; I am in a time that I don’t believe can exist.

I have questioned my sanity, yes. But my awareness becomes more acute with each passing minute. I apologize for not having the words nor the vocabulary to describe what I am seeing or have seen. It is a hideous, hideous world in which I find myself. The people appear hollow and do not speak. The sky is gray and there are no birds to speak of. I feel the clutches of my own desperation and I believe it will eventually overwhelm me.

I’m being pursued and chased by the most evil of people. However, thanks be to the Lord that ‘chased’ is the operative word. They have not found me. They do not have me, yet. I am outside their scope and running as the wind blows with no pattern to speak of. I am simply running for my life. I do not know for how long I can withstand this though. I can not yell, I can not confide in another, and I can not become known to anyone for any period. My skin glows differently than the people outside of these walls. I can not mingle amongst them. They all wear one piece tunics of some type. I am finding this all to be so very odd. However, I reflect on my youth. HE was as strange a person as there was or could be. Perhaps the people who walk aimlessly through the evening are not as bad as the devils in that room. And they can not be as bad as him, the one I’ve known.

Forgive my rambling - Now, I will be blunt, quick and to the point for I do not know if this escape will pass or linger for an any extended duration. With all truthfulness, I am not precisely sure where I am but I know that I have indeed escaped the confines of where I was. The building that held me, held others like me. Perhaps a mental ward, of some sort. Dazed people were everywhere, a lifeless drudge of humans with faces of mucus and saliva falling from their faces. I do not know how I became awake but I did. There was a door and I found my way through it during the night.

As of now, I seem to be just outside the perimeter of an enormous town. Metal and smoke are in every direction. Few people walk the street and none do so alone. The air tastes like a wet cigar, and not a fine, store-bought one, mind you. The smell of mildew and rot is in the air, as it was in the building that housed me. I am confused by what my eyes are seeing: square cubes of light and words, small viles of liquid just down the corridor that easily numbers into the thousands. I have only experienced these conditions for a single day and I am utterly perplexed. Everything is simply beyond me. My set of senses returned yesterday, the day that would’ve been Wednesday, May 30th, 1888.

Today, however, trumps all; it has been unlike anything I’ve known in my short thirty-two years on this earth. I can not relay that sentiment with any more simplicity than as I just have. I’m a religous man by nature, trusting in the Lord Jesus Christ to guide and protect me through out my life, one which He hath bestowed upon me so many gracious and wonderous things. I am honest man and have made every effort at an honest living, despite myself, and thus this written request should be considered exactly as it is.

What is written on these pages before you is true. I ask for a momentary suspension in general belief. I do this now hopeful that you find me in time. Somewhere.

Yesterday, according to the traditional Gregorian calendar of the anno Domini era, officially adopted by the British empire in the year 1752, normal perception by a modern day human being would attest to the fact that yesterday was without question, Wednesday, May 30th, 1888 . It was simply Wednesday to a normal man. I tell you I am petrified by even the littlest movement of this very pen. I hurriedly write these words to best of my ability with as much haste as my fingers will allow. I tell you now that the yesterday I remember, Wednesday, May 30th, 1888 was nothing of the sort but rather Wednesday, June 23rd, 2088. I have no understanding of this other than my instincts.

If nothing I write here is to be believed then I am dead and dust and worth no mention. Throw this journal out with the nearest trash and buy a pint and tell a fantastic story of a crazed man. However, if any of my words fall within the truth then know that I may stand moments away from being recaptured and returned to hell itself; my second escape would be as far-fetched a notion as well, sadly to say, the suggestion to which I’ve been writing here.

But, if I’m correct and the year is indeed 2088, then the love of my life, the young girl whom I once kissed so delicately in the early mornings, has either been dead and buried for over 150 years or she is here, somewhere in this time under the same impression as I. She was caught with both of us, he and I, in his doomsday-type, electricity web that killed us all. If I am alive, and that is quite the ‘if’ then she may be alive, as well. If I am truly writing this, there’s hope.

Her name is Kathryn Listori and it is imperative that she be located. She’s the only one who can help for she is the only one who could know his location. I must deduce that if I am actually here then my lovely Kathryn may be here, as well. If I was housed in the building of slaughter, so, too, would she be. If she’s here in this time, then in all likelihood, he’s here, too.

Make no mistake of who this man is or of my contempt for his being alive. He is my sworn enemy to the death, an event I was somewhat certain had occurred some century and half earlier. However, he is the only one who can save us all now. Find her and she’ll find him. Then, after learning that I, too am alive, just as he is alive, he will let nothing on earth stop him from getting to me. Ironically, his touch, that of a failed experiment by his father’s hand, one which now produces a framework for lightning itself, is my only chance to maintain my mind from the leeches who have preyed on my intellect for an undistinguishable period of time. My hope rests in the magentic hands of my own hatred - him.

two hours po8t  8rptm– (I can’t really read what this says…)

My body is so cold. I can see the chills crawling up my legs just as they did this morning. I miss Kathryn so. I beg that they have not yet already destroyed her delicate mind. She is so much like a flower, undisturbed in every way. I ask to the Lord that my dearest Kathryn be found well and in good spirits, and though I do not believe this will become truth, I pray for enough health for her to locate his whereabouts. Selfish? Yes. But I will not return to that place. I have since devised a theory regarding my previously written words on these pages but am unable to provide sufficient proof or enough attributable knowledge to support my hypothesis, which is what it is - an educated guess. I hate my sould for allowing my fate to rest within that odd magic of his. If I’m correct in my guess, even if only in the smallest of parts, then these vile people, whoever they are, will or have already come to understand that no contraption of which they’ve conceived can harm him; no effect can fall over him. He most likely walks the streets of this time, undisturbed by any one single thing. He’s repulsive and arrogant and I do wish a hateful death upon him and his soul, though admittedly, I fear him and dare not utter his name perchance he may hear me even in this time. Lord forgive my vengefulness.

Most likely, my captors, the ones who search for me, fixated on my return, are in fear of him already, searching for a way to combat him and that may be the sole reason I’ve been afforded this amount of freedom. In the smallest compartment of my mind, I do laugh on his behalf against these maggots who hide behind the veil of playfulness and gamesmenship. This is a foundational element of my theory: we are a game from the past; fodder for the future, if you must know. I laugh at them infinitely more than I will ever laugh with him. If the three of us are reunited then some amount of amusement will come our way. For me, though, it will be short-lived. But at the very least, I will see their faces when they see his and when they realize their doom is imminent. Their mistake was and will be unable to be corrected. They knew not what soul they had brought back in him. History will not reveal who this man is. But I tell you as sure as this pen touches this paper, he was.

He, like a virus, has certainly infected them as everything that he has ever touched would profess. He took all I had from me. He infected her against me.

If ultimately re-captured, with no hope of seeing my precious Kate again, I would gladly give of myself to destroy him as my swan song to the universe.

If Satan himself still exists in this wretched future timeland, which I suppose he does, then he still controls the reigns of that boy’s mind. But I hope he finds me, he the only hope any of us have; though I pray the Lord damns him to hell in the process.

Footsteps on the street…I will return. B.L.

 

 

Weird….

Michio Kaku talks Time Travel

“I would like to see . . . when we have a theory of everything.”

If Time Were Really on His Side, Michio Kaku Would Go From the Big Bang to the Big Picture

Michio Kaku is the co-founder of 11-dimensional “string theory,” which is either a Nobel-worthy “theory of everything” or unverifiable poppycock, depending on whom you talk to. His latest best-selling work is “Physics of the Impossible.”

– Joel Garreau

You describe time travel as a “Class II Impossibility” — at the very edge of our understanding of the physical world. But then you mention that physicists are unable to find any physical law that makes time travel impossible. What are the top three times you’d want to go to and why?

I think every physicist would like to witness the instant of creation. The Big Bang. Normally we’d like to do this from a safe distance.

But there isn’t one.

That’s a problem, right. Because the universe was quite small back then, and if we were inside the universe, we too would be quite small. And we too would be bathed by an enormous flux of radiation. But assume for a moment that it is possible to look at it from another dimension. That would give us a bonanza of information about the nature of the universe. Now if I had a second choice, I would like to meet Isaac Newton at the height of his creative powers.

Did the apple tree exist?

We do think that when he was 23 years old he saw an apple fall, and then he asked the key question — if an apple falls, does the moon also fall? And he came to the conclusion yes — the moon is in free-fall. And then you could calculate the motion of the moon using his new law of gravity. That’s what he did when he was in his 40s. In about 18 months, in one of the greatest outpourings of intellectual genius the world has ever seen, he wrote down “Principia” — basically the laws of the planets.

Now, a third thing, if I could, I would like to see beyond my years, maybe like 100 years in the future, when we have a theory of everything. This is my life’s work, right?

What you basically want to know is whether you’re Einstein.

Well, we want to know whether we wasted some of the best years of our life, okay?

Mayor McMannes & Congressman Ted Poe

A couple of pictures of my dad and Ted Poe at the ceremonial opening of the new courthouse in downtown Humble. The photo of the ribbon cutting includes (From L. to R) Councilman Merle Aaron, Allen Lee, Dad, Allan Steagall, Charles Curry, and Bill Conner. Also, City Manager, Darrell Boeske presents Rep. Poe with a handpainted picture of the courthouse.

Congressman Ted Poe is in his second term as the United States Representative for Southeast Texas’ 2^nd Congressional District. Congressman Poe has a distinguished career of public service to the Lone Star state.

Congressman Poe first made a name for himself in Texas as a straight-talking, no-nonsense chief felony prosecutor. As an assistant district attorney for eight years, Poe tried hundreds of cases, even those seeking the death penalty, and never lost a jury trial. When Poe became a judge in 1981 he continued his dedication to justice and became one of the youngest judges in the State of Texas, serving as a Harris County felony court judge for 22 years.

more…

Archaeologists discover statues of Cleopatra, Aphrodite

CAIRO (AFP) - An alabaster head of Cleopatra and a mask thought to belong to her lover Mark Antony have been found near Egypt’s Mediterranean city of Alexandria, antiquities chief Zahi Hawass said on Monday.

The two treasures, a bronze statue of Goddess Aphrodite and a headless royal statue from the Ptolemaic dynasty, which ruled Egypt between 323 and 30 BC, were discovered by a joint Egyptian-Dominican Republic team of archeologists in the Tapsiris Magna temple, Hawass said.

Some 20 bronze coins stamped with Cleopatra’s face were found in underground tunnels 50 metres (164 feet) deep in the archeological site, Hawass said.

The teams had originally been searching for Cleopatra’s tomb but Hawass “categorically denied” that they were any closer to finding the queen’s burial place.

“We have found nothing that indicates the presence of the tomb,” he said, adding that the search for the tombs will restart in November. The discovery of Cleopatra’s tomb would be the biggest archaeological discovery in Egypt since Britain’s Howard Carter found the tomb of boy king Tutankhamen in 1922.

Cleopatra and Mark Anthony are one of the most famous couples in history. They committed suicide after their defeat at the battle of Actium, which consolidated Octavian’s rule of Rome.

 

NASA’s Phoenix Spacecraft Lands At Martian Arctic Site

A NASA spacecraft has sent pictures showing itself in good condition after making the first successful landing in a polar region of Mars.

The spacecraft Phoenix landed in the northern polar region today to begin three months of examining a site chosen for its likelihood of having frozen water within reach of the lander’s robotic arm. Radio signals received at 6:53:44 p.m. (Texas/ Central Standard Time) confirmed the Phoenix Mars Lander had survived its difficult final descent and touchdown 15 minutes earlier.

The signals took that long to travel from Mars to Earth at the speed of light.  Mission team members at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.; Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Denver; and the University of Arizona, Tucson, cheered confirmation of the landing and eagerly awaited further information from Phoenix later tonight. From the initial information sent from Phoenix, the site appears to be what exactly what they thought. Now, it’s time to go find the ice.

“We see the lack of rocks that we expected, we see the polygons that we saw from space, we don’t see ice on the surface, but we think we will see it beneath the surface. It looks great to me,” said Peter Smith of the University of Arizona, Tucson, principal investigator for the Phoenix mission.

“Phoenix is an amazing machine, and it was built and flown by an amazing team. Through the entire entry, descent and landing phase, it performed flawlessly,” said Ed Sedivy, Phoenix program manager at Lockheed Martin Space Systems Company. “The spacecraft stayed in contact with Earth during that critical period, and we received a lot of data about its health and performance. I’m happy to report it’s in great shape.”

Phoenix uses hardware from a spacecraft built for a 2001 launch that was canceled in response to the loss of a similar Mars spacecraft during a 1999 landing attempt. Researchers who proposed the Phoenix mission in 2002 saw the unused spacecraft as a resource for pursuing a new science opportunity. A few months earlier, NASA’s Mars Odyssey orbiter discovered that plentiful water ice lies just beneath the surface throughout much of high-latitude Mars. NASA chose the Phoenix proposal over 24 other proposals to become the first endeavor in the Mars Scout program of competitively selected missions.

First Photo - Phoenix opens her eyes!

For more about Phoenix, visit http://www.nasa.gov/phoenix .

Self-repairing Aircraft Could Revolutionize…

Back in 1993, I lived in LA with my friends. We were acting, taking classes, drinking, taking classes, living the ‘Swingers’ beautiful-babies’ lifestyle and taking more classes. Wait - yeah, and we were taking classes. During one of those trips to class, a lecture of craft presented by the all-knowing, all-wonderful, ‘who’s bigger than Madonna? Michael Jackson! Shut up, Mike’ class of Arlene Golonka, I remember my roommate telling me the story of a puported self-healing aircraft. His friend’s dad, who lived in Simi Valley, worked for one of the big aircraft designers. I think it was McDonnell-Douglass but am not positive. His friend said that his dad told him specifically that his company was “…designing an aircraft that would be able to heal itself after being attacked.”

15 years later and that story breaks. Basically, it’s analogous with the timeline of the stealth technology: 1970’s technology, developed in high-secrecy, revealed publicy in the late 1980’s, and now common place. I ALWAYS knew this story would break one day and here it is. However, since the story has now been ‘pandorized from it’s box,’ it must be old news. Interesting stuff, though - a plane that takes two aspirin and calls you in the morning! WOW!

ScienceDaily (2008-05-19) – A new technique that mimics healing processes found in nature could enable damaged aircraft to mend themselves automatically, even during a flight. br />
read full article

As well as the obvious safety benefits, this breakthrough could make it possible to design lighter airplanes in future. This would lead to fuel savings, cutting costs for airlines and passengers and reducing carbon emissions too…<

Jackson loan deal sparks Vegas show rumors!

Rumours about a possible Michael Jackson Las Vegas spectacular have hit fever pitch after revelations the loan on the pop superstar’s Neverland Ranch home has been bought by a Vegas mogul.

Jackson prevented a foreclosure sale on his sprawling Santa Barbara ranch earlier this month when New York-based private equity group Colony Capital agreed to take over his debt on the property.

However, Michael Politz, the editor of website TheVegasEye.com, suggests there may be more to the deal than meets the eye, after revealing Colony Capital’s founder, Tom Barrack Jr., also owns the Las Vegas Hilton hotel.

Vegas insider Politz said: “Connect the dots… An affiliate of the company that owns the Hilton agreed to hold the $23.5m (€15m) loan it acquired from Fortress Investment Group while it negotiates payment terms (with Jackson).

“And Jackson confirmed he is in discussions with Colony and its founder, Tom Barrack Jr., with regard to the ranch and other matters. I wonder what they’re negotiating about. Could it be a show?

“Are we correct in saying that Michael Jackson will sing and dance in the showroom of his former father-in-law, Elvis Presley?”

Here comes Solar — Corn going back to Fritos?

ScienceDaily (2008-05-17) — Scientists have improved the efficiency of an important type of solar cell from 21.9 to 23.2 percent (a relative improvement of 6 per cent). The efficiency improvement is achieved by the use of an ultra-thin aluminum oxide layer at the front of the cell, and it brings a breakthrough in the use of solar energy a step closer. The costs of applying the thin layer of aluminum oxide are expected to be relatively low.

Promising
Solar cells have for years looked like a highly promising way to partly solve the energy problem. The sun rises day after day, and solar cells can conveniently be installed on surfaces with no other useful purpose. Solar energy also offers opportunities for use in developing countries, many of which have high levels of sunshine. Within ten to fifteen years the price of electricity generated by solar cells is expected to be comparable to that of ‘conventional’ electricity from fossil fuels.

This technology breakthrough now brings the industrial application of this type of high-efficiency solar cell closer.

Read the whole story–http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/05/080514154702.htm

Eight Belles - R.I.P. May 3, 2008

She was right there with the boys…the whole time, untouched and in full gallop digging all the way! Eight Belles was the first filly to run in the Kentucky Derby in nine years. That alone was an accomplishment for the owner and trainer but didn’t appear to be enough for the young girl. She was obviously looking for more and as the most experienced horse at the Derby, she probably expected more. She didn’t just run the race — she ran THE race of her life — and her last race. She didn’t win; she placed behind Big Brown, the one who would dominate everyone, and in a 20-horse field filled with the finest ’stallions’ around, that’s something in and of itself.

It was a great run for the filly, until she crossed the finish line, and her jockey heard a sound.

As noted on the internet, some idiots are already making a big deal about the symbolism of this, trying to tie it to the presidential campaign and the fact that Hillary suggested people bet on the filly — Eight Belles — and she didn’t win.

The horse died on the track. If someone thinks that this is a joke worth pursuing, well, that’s between you, your soul, and God. Let go the desire to be cute about this.

Eight Belles - R.I.P. May 3, 2008

A first for Saudis: Mozart performed for both genders

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia - It’s probably as revolutionary and groundbreaking as Mozart gets these days. A German-based quartet staged Saudi Arabia’s first-ever performance of European classical music in a public venue before a mixed gender audience.The concert, held at a government-run cultural center, broke many taboos in a country where public music is banned and the sexes are segregated even in lines at fast food outlets.The Friday night performance could be yet another indication that this strict Muslim kingdom is looking to open up to the rest of the world. more

Mayor McMannes and hospital honors local hero!

By ROYCELYN BASTIANrbastian@hcnonline.com
Martha Martinez, blue scrubs, was honored at work for her heroic actions when she pulled a man out of a burning vehicle and saved his life. Martinez is a surgical technician at Memorial Hermann Northeast. Off duty at 5 a.m. April 6, the first thing Martha Martinez wanted to do was go home and go back to sleep. Instead, she saved a man’s life. As Martinez, a surgical technician at Memorial Hermann Northeast, was driving home from work, she saw a car on fire on Aldine Bender.
“I was on my way home and I thought it was too dark to take the Hardy Toll Road, but something told me to go that route anyway,” she said.

While driving, Martinez noticed black smoke but thought it was someone burning trash. It wasn’t until she was on Aldine Bender that she realized a car was on fire.

“I called 911 and made a U-turn into the Napa Auto Parts parking lot and walked towards the car,” Martinez said. “I honestly didn’t think anyone was in the vehicle.”

As she opened the door, she noticed the victim was unconscious with his head laying on the steering wheel. She instinctively grabbed him by the shoulders and pulled him out of the car to safety. Once she pulled him away, the car ignited into a full blaze.
Noticing that his sleeve was still smoking, she took off her scrub top and proceeded to pat his sleeve to put out the fire. She grabbed a bottle of water from her car and poured it on his face and turned him on his side.

According to the paramedics who arrived on the scene, her quick actions saved the man’s life.
Now known as a modern-day heroine, Martinez was honored for her brave actions by Memorial Hermann Northeast CEO Louis Smith, city of Humble Mayor Donnie McMannes, Partners in Caring and her co-workers.
“The city of Humble commends her for her heroic life-saving act and recognizes her service to our community as she performs her work at Memorial Hermann Northeast each day,” McMannes read in a proclamation, declaring April 21 as Martha Martinez Day.

Martinez has been a surgical technician for Memorial Hermann Northeast for two years. She and her husband of five years, Bruce, live in the Houston area.
“If something like this happens again, I feel that I would do what it took to save that person. That is how I was raised,” she said. “I would hope that if something ever happened to me that someone would stop and render aide like I did for him.”
The victim was taken to LBJ Hospital. There is no word on his identity or condition.

Science has seen the future…and it’s invisible!

In the early 1990s, George Bush Senior led the U.S. into war with Iraq’s Saddam Hussein. “Operation Desert Storm” became the first war to be televised “live.” Amid the images of explosions and soldiers and tanks covered in desert camouflage, the war also shed light on the Stealth jet fighter. Though it had been in use by the military since the early 1970s, for the first time it registered in the popular consciousness that this sleek jet fighter was virtually invisible to radar. At the time, being invisible to radar was a concept that seemed to come straight from the movies, rather than an evening news report.

Fast forward to 2008, with American forces embedded in a much different Iraq and the talk about invisibility circulating at the Pentagon has gone beyond radar, and into the realm of sight. Or out of sight, quite literally. Invisibility, once thought to be scientifically impossible and an outlandish concept promoted only in science fiction, is back, so to speak, on the radar.

In fact, one of the world’s foremost physicists, Michio Kaku, has put his academic mind to some of science fiction’s other concepts, such as teleportation and force fields, and is convinced that they, too, can become reality. At Duke University, Kaku explains, researchers funded by the military were able in 2006 to render a microscopic object invisible to microwave radiation. Then, a few months ago, researchers at Cal Tech and in Germany achieved the same result with visible light.

“They were able to achieve invisibility to red and green light. Single colours of light can be bent in a way consistent with invisibility on a microscopic scale using nanotechnology,” Kaku says. This has huge potential on the battlefield. Imagine a tank being invisible to e