Musings, Commentaries, Photos and Reviews

 This story really upset me. Especially since it occurred so close to Veterans Day. I only hope that the thieves will get a clue what their action meant to this grieving family: Family Angry After Thieves Target Fallen Soldier's Grave - News Archive Story - WMUR Manchester I was dismayed to see this news item but after seeing what the horrid   Westboro Baptist Church members are willing to do to families, I suppose I should not be surprised

It’s always sad to hear about an air disaster. One way to advance air safety is to review data recovered from the onboard flight and voice recorders. Unfortunately in this crash these devices may never be recovered. I was wondering if anyone has considered uploading a stream of data of each flight to a terrestrial server? Storage and bandwidth are cheap these days and current speeds should be sufficient to move significant data.  The idea would be to get a recording of each flight for analysis.  The data could even be analyzed for fuel efficiency and predicting component failure. My model is some of the more sophisticated servers that keep data of disk errors, temperature spikes and CPU utilization. When something goes or failure seems imminent they issue an alert that is sent to a monitoring program. Perhaps each flight can be “recorded”. If an event or accident occurs the “tapes” can be reviewed. Just my idea.

As some of you know, Google places sponsored advertisement links based upon the text of search strings and email text. I usually give it a glance to see if the links are relevant or unintentionally funny. I got an email from someone who is following me on twitter. Apparently Google thinks I’m in great physical pain for the ad links are for: Comprehensive eye care Painless Bunion Surgery (I hope so!) Avoid Hip Replacement Now! (hope forever!) Kugel Hernia Mesh Lawsuit (I will look this up) Adhesions Causing Pain? (They are now) Rotator Cuff Surgery (I really want to avoid this)

This is the type of scientific musings that captures my interest, however I can’t comprehend it. I was listening to a podcast which mentioned that gravity is a lot weaker than the electromagnetic forces. The physicist postulated that the perhaps the majority of gravitational force was being expressed in the 5th dimension. If we were 2 dimensional beings (flatlanders) then something moving along the third dimension would only appear to us when it intersected our x and y axis. We would see it as a flash. But I can’t get my head around a force that exists partly in our 4 dimension space (including time) and partly in the 5th dimension. If someone can help me out with this, add a comment. PS – I think the dimension count is about 13 so we can cover UFO’s as inter-dimensional space in another posting.

I'll admit that I'm intrigued with twitter . It might be a childlike fantasy that we can have super powers and read other peoples thoughts. Apparently people are only too willing to post their thoughts online as long as the thoughts are less than 140 characters. As a result I no longer have that fantasy. Most messages demonstrate that the majority of us live very mundane lives. I find this vaguely reassuring, being ordinary. One bright spot in this world of under 140 characters is the opportunity to write Haiku and Poems (at least short poems). It's quite satisfying to conceive an idea and as you type it, watch a character counter tick to zero. It changes color just as it passes 10. Hit return and your pithy observation is born to the world (or as it is known the twitterverse). One person observed that many of the Haiku are written about cats. If you have a cat I don't need to explain this. I don't see many poems or novels coming through, but it is just a matter ...

Let’s face it, we don’t build stuff anymore. Our economy is in free fall but we are really only good at finding ways to be distracted. I’m as open to distractions as anyone else so I’m onboard with all the micro-blogging tools (as well as traditional blogs and forums). I tweet, blog, set facebook status, chat, GTalk, Communicate with Communicator, but I no longer Jabber. I’m LinkdIn, connected to my Facebook friends, EONS bound, but no Classmates for me… they ask for $$ So how does one deal with all this? Obviously you need a social aggregator program. I’m using Digsby . The CEO of Twitter was on CSpan last night. He did not inspire awe. The audience looked comatose. I bet they were twittering each other. He mentioned that Twitter has a good search function but it is difficult to find. Can’t search for the search, amusing isn’t it? So what does a techno-geek do? Add more software of course. I now have TweetDeck running besides Digsby and Skype. Tweetdeck has search, TwitPic a...

I spend a lot of time looking at photographs. The Times Magazine featured a series of photographs of "Obama's people" done by Nadav Kander who they described as "one of the more original and highly regarded portraitists at work just now". I guess I'm missing something, but I want to add my own unflattering captions to each mugshot photo. I miss Richard Avedon . Maybe I'm wrong, you be the judge: 2009 Inaugaration Gallery

I thought of a song by Lou and Peter Berryman yesterday. I finally tackled my broken attic stairs chore which I have been avoiding for weeks. I chose Saturday because the weather prediction was for heavy rains. Once this task was underway with the help of my friend and I found myself in the attic, the sun broke through the clouds, the temperature soared and spring made it's appearance. In the confines of the attic I could hear the birds singing, flowers blooming and somewhere a bluegrass band playing along a bay. Here is segment of the lyrics. "...Holes in the ozone the size of Brazil Barges of trash in the chewable breeze Pools of industrial wasteland paté Sulfur dioxide dissolving the trees Pretty soon it will all end with a boom Why am I painting the living room? I have the whole day off Cause it's a Saturday There is a bluegrass band Somewhere along the bay Look at the lilacs ...

I attended a nice party of a former co-worker last saturday. The party was located about an hour and half from home. I brought along my reading glasses in case in needed to read anything. I always bring along to be prepared. It was a wise decision because the hostess had hired a piano player and we had a sing along. All the time I made a conscious effort to NOT put the glasses down on a table or counter with the full realization that I would leave without them (are glasses plural or singular?). Early this morning back at home I have no idea where they are. An isolated incident? NOPE! I 'm always losing track of car keys, my wallet and all the accouterments of modern life. I follow routines, try to put items in the same place so I can find them. It is hopeless. I have bought so many tape measures because I can't find the 3 I already own. I only can find phillips head screwdrives when I have a slotted screw and vice-versa. I think I'm a bit mad. Thankfully my sister had spent...