Oh Mars, what have you bestowed on us?
Category Archives: Reblog
Russian Banya
My first experience in Russian banya was December 1989 in Nadym Western Siberia in the final days of the old Soviet Union.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nadym
American and Russian oil men and geologists. Much vodka. Very similar to this story, except this banya did have a shower. The Americans ran naked into the subzero night to cool off in the snow then went back to the banya. The water in my beard froze solid. I experienced many more Russian banya in the following years. One of my fondest memories of Russia.
Friendship
You’re the Problem
Yep yep yep …
Love, Lust or Infatuation?
Reblogging this for the photo alone …
Homeless Guests Welcome At Tabrizi’s Restaurant For One Week
Now that’s what I’m talkin’ ’bout …
Last week, Michael Tabrizi, the owner of Tabrizi’s, a catering venue and restaurant in the Harborview residences, asked for volunteers to help him organize a “Homeless Restaurant Week.”
Tabrizi hopes to serve anywhere from 900 to 1,000 homeless guests at his restaurant during the week of July 20. And now, Tabrizi says, he has more volunteers than he needs, and his staff is “refusing to get paid” for that week.
“I don’t want to turn volunteers away,” Tabrizi said. Instead of helping to prepare or serve meals, volunteers will be invited to sit down with homeless guests over a dinner of chicken Cordon Bleu in sage cream sauce, spring salad, sparking apple cider and ice-cream waffle cone.
Tabrizi said his homeless restaurant week came after a brief encounter with a homeless person, to whom he gave his a few dollars and his business card, with an invitation to come see him…
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CAN YOU SPARE A DOLLAR
There but for the grace of God go I
Walking the streets with really no place to be,
Day to day survival, not such an easy game to play.
Within the heat or rain i travel and take cover,
As i look all around, there is not much care.
To take a bath or shower would be a treat,
Something to eat a much appreciated gift for me.
Conversation not a lot as i’m locked in my own world,
They try not to see me, pretending i’m not there.
I don’t wish to offend them as i’m not often clean,
My blame for my own circumstance is not put upon them.
I have a name, i am a human being, i grew up like most of you,
So many are one step away from where i sleep and stay.
So as i am embarrassed i would like to ask, please!
Can you spare a dollar.?
Keith Garrett
Treaty of Love, Art, Imagination
Cat Philosopher
Hmmmm … are you food?
Landing on the Moon 101
Whoa … this is a seriously cool blog
Floundering in Boyfriendville
Sea Captain Date, eh?
What genetic engineering and organic farming have in common
If you can excuse the pun … food for thought …
We live in the future. Come join us.
I am unapologetically pro-science and pro-technology. I am also a futurist as my blog postings show.
However science, technology, and futurism should not and must not equate to the destruction of culture and tradition of any peoples. The current wave of protests against the construction of the Thirty Meter Telescope on the summit of Mauna Kea, while news to me, is an ongoing clash between the culture and traditions of native peoples and the interests of outsiders.
I have no opinions on the current protests, but this post is a good starting place to learn more.
Additional sources of information
http://www.civilbeat.com/2015/04/peter-apo-mauna-kea-under-siege
Adapted from NASA [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons
We Live in the Future. Come Join Us.
“Hawaiians need to stop living in the past.” We’ve all heard this before, and we’re probably going to hear it a lot in the coming days. Brave people are getting arrested up on our sacred mountain right now in frigid temperatures (there was even a blizzard there a couple of weeks back), continuing a years-long fight and engaging in a blockade to prevent the further cultural and environmental desecration of the very piko, the umbilicus, the center of our islands by the Thirty Meter Telescope. I attended an overnight vigil a few nights ago on our island to show support for these koa on theirs, and we got an update via phone from Kahoʻokahi Kanuha and Lanakila Mangauil, two of the humble young leaders of the blockade. I…
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Mexican Spicy Crickets
The Summer of Reblogs
This one possible recipe for the roasted crickets that are a favorite food of the Martian Colonists in my sci-fi short story Rocket Man.
- lots of crickets
- lime juice
- crushed garlic
- chilli flakes
- olive oil
- salt
See the rest of the recipe at Mad Dog TV Dinners
Rocket Man
The Summer of Reblogs Series
Rocket Man – a short story
Copyright © 2014 by Christian Bergman, All rights reserved.
All people, places, and events are fictional … except when they aren’t.
Mars ain’t the kind of place to raise your kids. In fact, it’s cold as hell. – Elton John, Bernie Taupin (1972)
“Rocket Man, burning out his fuse, out here alone.” I recall the lyrics of the ancient Elton John song that has become the anthem of our profession, as I prepare for our deorbit burn. “Pressurizing the primary fuel loop … now,” I call out to my copilot.
“Roger that. Pressures coming up nicely,” Sam replies. “Prepping the igniters. I have New Masdar on the com. They have us in the flyway.”
“Roger that. Double-check the voltage on main B bus. I don’t like what I’m seeing.”
“It’s on the low-end of nominal, but within tolerance. It should get us home.”
“Okay, bringing reserve batteries online. Request NAV fix.”
“Patching in NAV from New Masdar”
“Got it. Ten minutes to ignition,” I confirm. “Better notify our passengers.”
How Much is Enough
Today on the Summer of Reblogs … a double-reblog treat. A reblog of a reblog. I originally reblogged this back in January of this year. It is a short tale of the American Dream … work hard, grow rich, retire to a life of leisure … but with a twist.
It is a parable we should all keep in mind as we chase the dream.
The American investment banker was at the pier of a small coastal Mexican village when a small boat with just one fisherman docked. Inside the small boat were several large fin tuna. The American complimented the Mexican on the quality of his fish and asked how long it took to catch them.
See the rest of the story at
https://contrafactual.com/2015/01/05/how-much-is-enough-a-story-from-jimmy-johns/
PS one of the commenters observed that the story is a variation of http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anekdote_zur_Senkung_der_Arbeitsmoral another that it was the basis of a Kenney Chesney song, The Life.
Little Red Haired Girl
Excerpt from The Nudist War | TNW – Day 46
Eddy opened the door to the drug store and looked right and left to make sure he was alone. Satisfied, he walked slowly in, closing and locking the door behind him. He felt as if he were looking through a fog and moving through molasses. The place looked like it had been raided once or twice already. It was a shambles. “Why did I agree to go on this fool’s errand?” he swore under his breath. “I told her that all of the easy sites had already been raided.” He stopped and listened for any sign of movement. Nothing stirred. “So far, so good,” he thought.
Unzipping the large duffle-bag, he went from aisle to aisle shoving anything of value into it. Eddy stopped and listened again. Nothing. Slowly he made his way back to the pharmacy counter and assessed the situation. The security bars had been cut through with bolt cutters by a previous raiding party, so getting in would be much easier than he expected. Too easy. He jumped over the counter into the back.
Once again; stop, listen, wait. Eddy made a mental inventory of the shelves. Most of the pain killers and antibiotics had been taken. What was left were sundry salves and ointments, pseudoephedrine-containing antihistamines, birth control pills, erectile dysfunction meds, and prescription hemorrhoid treatments. “Oh great,” he swore to himself. “I’m sure that we’ll run into someone with a bad rash, who has allergies, who doesn’t want to get pregnant, or can’t get a boner, or can’t take a dump because of the pain. I’m sure we can trade this crap for something useful,” Eddy thought sarcastically as he shoveled what he could into the duffle-bag.
CRASH … Eddy froze, listening carefully. CRASH … TINKLE … TINKLE … “Uh oh,” He silently mouthed. He was not alone. Eddy looked for a back door, but there was none. The closest thing to an escape route was the drive-thru pharmacy window. He crept slowly toward it dragging the duffle-bag with him. Several Zs had come into the drugstore through the open front door. “Damn it,” Eddy searched his memory, “I’m sure I closed and locked it behind me.” The Zs were now moving his way, sniffing the air as they came. “What to do? What to do?” Eddy asked over and over in his brain. “Got to get out of here. Only one way out.” Slowly he aimed the 12 gauge at the drive-thru window and fired. BOOM. This got the Zs’ attention.
Eddy pushed the broken glass out of the way, climbed through the window and fell out onto the pavement. “Unh,” he muttered as he hit the pavement, landing harder than he had expected. The duffle-bag was nowhere to be found. “Get back to the car. Get back to the car,” was the mantra he chanted in his mind as he crept along the pavement to the edge of the wall. He looked around the corner of the drugstore wall toward his car. Half a dozen Zs were trying to get into it. They had already smashed out the driver side window and were trying to open the door. Eddy looked behind him to see the remaining Zs climbing out of the drive-thru window. “That’s not good,” he thought.
Across the parking lot was an abandoned hotel. “If I can just get to that, maybe I can wait them out,” he thought. Taking the shotgun, Eddy took off across the parking lot toward the hotel. No matter how fast he tried to run, it never seemed to get any closer. Finally, finally he reached the courtyard. Eddy looked over his shoulder, the Zs were gaining on him. He turned and fired; once, twice. Click. Out of ammo. “Oh shit,” he yelled. He started running again, but another group of Zs had outflanked him. He was surrounded; the only way out was up. He jumped up as high as he could and grabbed on to the ledge of a second floor balcony. As he tried to pull himself up, the nearest Z grabbed his ankle with both its hands and sank its teeth into Eddy’s foot. Eddy kicked at it with his other foot, but lost his grip and fell in slow-motion down, down, down onto the Zs. Now they were on top of him; biting and clawing. Eddy punched and clawed and bit them back – anything to escape.
Suddenly he was alone on the ground, lying on his back. A beautiful naked woman with firm perky breasts and hard erect nipples began to climb on top of him. He stared in awe at her exotic animal beauty. Her skin was smooth and slightly freckled, bronzed with a healthy tan. She had long red hair that hung down, encircling his face. Her deep green eyes studied him intently. They were like pools in an oasis in the middle of a parched, arid desert. Eddy felt as if he could swim forever in those eyes. She ripped his shirt open, buttons scattering on the pavement, and she begin to nuzzle his chest. “So beautiful,” he thought, “so beautiful.” She moved her face directly in front of his. Her lips brushed sensuously across his. He found himself wishing she would linger there a bit longer. She moved her lips further up his face and gently kissed his nose … then bit it off. A bit of blood dripped out of her mouth as she chewed, crunching the nasal cartilage.
Eddy screamed.
• • •
Eddy sat bolt upright on his cot, trying to figure out where he was. He was drenched in sweat and shaking noticeably. “Damn! Damn these dreams!” Eddy swore out loud as he turned to look at the time. “5:00 AM on the dot.” It took a minute or two for him to gain some semblance of composure. “Better take a shower before anyone else gets up. It’s going to be a long day.”
Copyright © 2014 by Christian Bergman, All rights reserved.
The Summer of Reblogs 🙂
2001
Originally posted August 19, 2013
I’d have given anything to have my own PacMan game at home.
I used to have to get a ride down to the arcade. Now I’ve got it on my phone.
Brad Paisley, “Welcome to the Future”To paraphrase Brad Paisley:
I’d have given anything to have 2001 A Space Odyssey at home.
I used to have to get a ride down to the theater. Now I’ve got it on my phone. 🙂“The Summer of Reblogs”
I started this essay a while ago, but I never finished it.
If you haven’t read Welcome to the Future, I suggest that you start >> HERE <<
Excerpted from Welcome to the Future
In 1968, a year before Neil and Buzz first frolicked on the Moon, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer released Stanley Kubrick’s epic 2001 A Space Odyssey. I begged and pleaded with my dad to take me to the Miami showing which debuted in 70mm ultra-widescreen Cinerama – the IMAX of its day. The 142 minute long movie was unique in its realistic depiction of space flight, with ground breaking special effects and a powerful musical score. It was equally unique in its use of long periods of silence to portray the vast distances and length of time required to travel to Jupiter. The original showing even had an intermission. 2001 opened to mixed reviews. My dad and I…
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ATF
One of my favorite posts. I especially like the embedded video.
The Nudist War serialized novel has got me thinking about supplies one might want to stock up on in the event of SHTF or TEOTWAWKI scenarios. There are plenty of survival and doomsday prepper sites on the web, I won’t attempt to address everything. One thing is almost certain, in a truly catastrophic situation money will become worthless. Even gold may loose its luster – you can’t eat gold. Enter Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms.
Alcohol
If you drink, stocking up on a good supply of your favorite spirits only makes sense. For one, it won’t go bad. For another, you can always drink it even if the world doesn’t go to hell in a hand basket. If you stock a variety, you will always have a selection at home without the need to go to the store if unexpected guests stop by. If you stock a good…
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182 Days
It is now 402 days since I posted the last installment of The Nudist War on May 31st of last year.
No more excuses. I will get back to work on TNW – Day 57 soon, very soon.
Meanwhile, enjoy the summer of reblogs.
3:09 AM on November 29th and I just calculated (using one of those web calculators) that it has been 182 Days since I last published anything onThe Nudist War (TNW).
What can I say? What excuse can I give? Writer’s block? Too busy at work? Too busy at home? Lack of interest?
The truth is most likely all of the above. Writing The Nudist Warwas an escape from reality, an escape from life. Now I am in the thick of both. Too tired or busy to write after work at night. Otherwise occupied on the weekends.
Sure I blog (or re-blog) the odd bit of news that interests me. The cats continue to be somehow more photogenic everyday. I even continue to get new followers. But I am not writing. Not writing.
I closely follow the stock market, nursing my 401k along. Buying low, selling high, developing…
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Happy Aniversary
To me …
Curiosity
Originally posted December 27th, 2013
Curiosity – a short story
Copyright © 2013 by Christian Bergman, All rights reserved.
All people, places, and events are fictional … except when they aren’t.
The traffic on the Foothill Freeway is particularly light today, due to the fact that almost everyone is taking the week of Christmas off. I am approaching an old pickup truck poking along what must be 45 to 50 mph in the far left-hand lane. At 80 mph, I am closing the gap quickly. Deftly sliding over one lane to the right, I punch the accelerator of my 12 year old ‘pre-owned’ Tesla Roadster, passing the pickup with ease. Inside the pickup truck an old Latino couple are arguing away, oblivious to the traffic hazard they present. I check my rearview mirrors left and right and realize that we are the only two vehicles on the road. My exit is coming up fast, so…
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DEADLY TEAM OF ASSASSINS
THEY KNEW JACK REACHER
MARRIED INTO THE WRONG FAMILY
Summer Reruns
Or should I say “reblogs” …
The previous two posts are reblogs of earlier posts. Since I have many new followers, I have decided to reblog some of my earlier posts as the spirit moves me. I decided to do this when I saw a toddler leaving the restaurant in which I was eating dinner. The little girl was holding an iPhone.
Kids growing up today have never known life without Google.
I grew up in the 60’s. For those of you younger than 40, try to imagine the following:
- No HD television, no color television; I grew up with black & white TV
- No satellite, cable, or digital television; just the standard analog network VHF channels 2 – 13 and the occasional independent UHF channel
- No on-demand, no Roku, no Apple TV, no Netflix, no Hulu, no DVR, no DVD, no VHS; you watched what was on at the time or you waited for what you wanted to see to come on
- No cell phone cameras, no digital cameras, no webcams, no camcorders; both still and movie cameras used film that needed to be developed before you could see the results
- No Internet, satellite, or digital radio, no FM radio; only AM radio
- No iTunes, no iPods, no MP3 players, no play lists, no CD players, no cassette decks; I had a record player that played vinyl 33 1/3 RPM Long Play albums or 45 RPM singles
- No FaceTime, no Skype, no video conferencing, no iMessage, no instant messaging, no email; you talked on the phone, met in person, or wrote and mailed paper letters
- No Facebook, no LinkedIn, no Twitter, no blogs; “networking” involved cocktail parties, golf games, business lunches, and other actual “face time”
- No Meeting Place, no WebEx, no GoToMeeting, no Live Meeting; meetings required a physical presence somewhere
- No smart phones, no cell phones, no satellite phones, no pagers, no texting, no answering machines; only land-line phones at home and if you needed to make a call away from home there were coin-operated “pay phones”
- No Google/Bing/Apple/MapQuest Maps, no Google Earth, no Google Street View, no Waze, no turn-by-turn directions, no car navigation systems, no GPS; we had paper maps
- No Google, no Bing, no Yahoo, no YouTube, no Yelp, no Siri; if you wanted to find out about something or how to do something or where something was located, you went to the library to look it up in an encyclopedia, dictionary, atlas, almanac, or other reference book
- No Internet, no iPads, no laptop computers, no desktop computers, no graphing calculators, no scientific calculators, no business calculators, no basic “+ – x ÷” four-function calculators; only mechanical adding machines, slide rules, and pencil & paper
NONE OF THIS EXISTED WHEN I WAS GROWING UP. Yet all of this is here now and we all take it for granted. I am still amazed that I was alive and able to watch as it all happened.
Anyway … this is the summer of … reblogs. 🙂
Goody Goodelle
Did I mention that my mother was a compulsive worrier? (see previous reblog https://contrafactual.com/2015/07/06/welcome-to-the-future)
So Ye Olde Kid Sister (YOKS) calls me up this morning to wish me Happy Birthday and informs me that they renamed the street in front of the Cocoanut Grove Nightclub from Shawmut Street Extension to Cocoanut Grove Lane.
In my mind I thought yeah that’s right, I am going to post a blog entry on … November 28 … oh ‘sh1+’. Well with the Mrs in hospital the week before Thanksgiving and the Thanksgiving holiday (where I did all the cooking), I suppose you can forgive me for not getting this out on time.
– – –
From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cocoanut_Grove_fire
The Cocoanut Grove was Boston’s premier nightclub during the post-Prohibition 1930s and 1940s. On November 28, 1942, this club was the scene of the deadliest nightclub fire in history, killing 492 people (which was 32 more than the building’s authorized capacity) and injuring hundreds more. The enormity of…
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Welcome to the Future
Kids growing up today have never known life without Google.
[Author’s note: This is the first post of a multi-part essay.]
Growing up in the Space Age
I was born at the dawn of the Space Age. In the span of time from kindergarten to high school, I had a front row seat to mankind’s first steps to the stars. In elementary school we listened to live coverage of Project Mercury – America’s fledgling steps of putting a one-man capsule into space. In junior high we listened as two-man Gemini capsules practiced the rendezvous and docking maneuvers critical to the upcoming Moon missions. In high school, after class, I sat glued to our television as the Apollo astronauts walked on the Moon. Despite the fact that all of these events were televised, we mostly listened to the events as they unfolded, because it wasn’t until the Apollo flights that TV cameras became small enough to carry into space. We didn’t…
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Gas Station Coffee Vs Starbucks Coffee
Went out of my way to get gas station coffee this morning. OK, that was a lie. I needed gas … running on fumes. But I went out of my way to go inside the min-mart and choose dark roast from the half dozen or so options. “ROASTED BEAN coffee company” damn fine coffee!
The stage is set: It’s 7:00 AM, you’re running five minutes late and you need the elixir of American life, coffee. You careen to a halt as the green light has unexpectedly turned red. Your annoyance slowly rises. Contemplating life you notice a ray of sunlight shattering through the gray clouds. A gas station sits to your left and a Starbucks to your right. It’s as if there’s an Angel and Devil standing on either shoulder. Judgment sinks it’s fangs into your neck. Your next decision about where to go for coffee will either gain my wrath or my sincere appreciation. In full disclosure when given the choice between the two I always choose gas station coffee over Starbucks. At this point I see it as an inkling of pride. Pour yourself a cup of mud, sit back and enjoy my plea for Gas Station Coffee.
Gas Station…
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Social Media and the State of Fucks.
To give or not to give a fuck? That is the question the modern day Shakespeare tweets. We live in a world where the population actively participates in the half pissing contest, half rocket ship-to-riches dance that is social media. In this world coolness, confidence and relevancy is established not by the quality of life lived but rather by the exchange of fucks: given and not given.
The Social Media bank stocks fucks and the bank teller is a cat meme. We simultaneously love, loathe, judge, defend, and roll our eyeballs based on fucks and let me tell you, there’s a whole mess of fucks out there that get people going. Social media is the gateway to the world of “Fucks” and I am your tour guide. I will now proceed to examine the almighty fuck, given and not given respectively.
To Give A Fuck
Take 60 seconds, open any…
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Islay and malt
Despite the name of the BBC Travel article below, it is actually mostly a review of my favorite peated single malts from Islay.
Islay (Ī – la)
Bruichladdich (Broo – ik – laddie)
Laphroaig (La – frō – āg)
Lagavulin (La – ga – vū – in)
(True Scotsmen, please correct my pronunciation as needed. I hope I am close.)
http://www.bbc.com/travel/story/20150511-why-you-should-never-drink-whisky-on-the-rocks
Volcán de Colima 28 de marzo de 2015
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZPkA19JaHRM
Sergio Tapiro Velasco
Published on Apr 3, 2015
El Volcán de Colima, a lo largo de los primeros meses de 2015 ha dado muestra de actividad, por algo se le considera el Volcán más activo de México. Este video corresponde al 28 de marzo de 2015 a las 22:28 horas. Espero que lo disfruten. Fue una noche increible. Aun tengo mis dudas sobre si era un meteorito o un satélite.
The Worst Things For Sale (.com)
MS-DOS Mobile
18 companies driving the new space age
Excellent article on the future of space travel. Includes companies I’ve never heard of as well as my old favorites.
How Much is Enough: A Story from Jimmy John’s
I had been meaning to blog this for a while, but David Cummings saved me the trouble … and beat me to it (by a year or more). 🙂
Note that ‘lfrank’ comments:
This is a Kenny Chesney song called “The Life”
Two weeks ago I was at Jimmy John’s in Buckhead near my house and there was a sign on the wall with a parable (see photo I took from iPhone to the right). Here is the story titled How Much is Enough:
The American investment banker was at the pier of a small coastal Mexican village when a small boat with just one fisherman docked. Inside the small boat were several large fin tuna. The American complimented the Mexican on the quality of his fish and asked how long it took to catch them.
The Mexican replied, “only a little while.”
The American then asked why he didn’t stay out longer and catch more fish?
The Mexican said he had enough to support his family’s immediate needs.
The American then asked, “but what do you do with the rest of your time?”
The Mexican fisherman said, “I sleep late…
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Stay and Change It
In college I had no interest in joining a fraternity. I was a “rugged individualist” who could and would make it on my own.
Now some 40 years later, I sometimes ponder the implications of paths not taken.The lesson of this story applies to every aspect of personal, social, and business relationships.
A passenger on the bus this morning finished a phone call as he sat down beside me.
“Nope. All I got in my fraternity was hung over.” he said.
I remembered a hangover from my fraternity days, but that wasn’t all I got. I also got an excellent piece of advice.
I didn’t want to join a fraternity. The last thing I needed was to squeeze frat parties into a busy class schedule. However, a friend whose reverse idea was to squeeze classes into a busy party schedule somehow convinced me.
The next thing I knew, I was wearing a toga.
Prior to that were weeks of pledging. I’ve never enjoyed being told what to do, when, how often, and where – all while being criticized – and requests from the brothers were constant. Check in at the frat house, go on scavenger hunts, paint a room, make posters for…
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USDA
A hint
101010 is not the answer to THIS puzzle
And you call yourself a geek …
10
11
101
111
1011
1101
10001
10011
10111
11101
11111
100101
101001
101011
101111
110101
110111
111101
1000111
1001001
1010011
1011001
1100001
1100101
1100111
1101011
1101101
1110001
1111111
What is the next number in the series?
21st Century I.P.
RANT
Hey Googstapos … To paraphrase Arlo Guthrie, “You’ve got at lot of damn gall to come after folks who include copyrighted music in their YouTube videos when you collect and store FOREVER every damn bit of personal information you can about us to be used against us to try to sell us crap we don’t need!”
OK … That about sums up the rest of this post. This is an incoherent rant. Deal with it.
Weggieboy’s comments on my JOSIV5 post hit a nerve.
Now I am not a lawyer and I don’t even play one on TV, so I have no legal insight here. But consider the following: let’s say
-
I invite you to my house to listen to my LP record of C. W. McCall’s Convoy
I invite you to my house to listen to my 8-track of C. W. McCall’s Convoy
I invite you to my…
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Various Short Stories – Christian Bergman
Woo Hoo .. My first review
Thank you Angela!
I had the pleasure of reading some short stories written by Christian Bergman, and they were great fun! You have some sci-fi going on, and get a Twilight Zone feel with some of these stories. The first story, “Curiosity” gives you a behind-the-scenes look at a team watching a planet rover, still checking and manning it daily even though a newer rover seems to be getting all of the attention, funding, and support. You follow along with them as they try to determine what they could have seen when a glint of light is reflected in one of the images.
I was anxious as I read through this first story to see exactly what they may have discovered. Sorry friends, but as is my norm, there will be no spoilers here! You will have to read it to find out for yourself what exactly they may have seen.
There were…
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Happy Hmong New Year!
This is a Hmong one of the best Hmong websites. 🙂
I’m sorry, I can’t help myself.
Very cute art.
Occupy Mars
http://shop.spacex.com/featured/occupy-mars.html
Elon Musk wants to put a million people on Mars.
http://aeon.co/magazine/technology/the-elon-musk-interview-on-mars/
Automattic
“We are passionate about making the web a better place.”
Discovered this via the iOS app
Me > Settings > About
by touching the www.automattic.com
I did not realize just how much Automattic was into:
WordPress.com
Jetpack
Simplenote
Synchronization
Cloudup
VaultPress
Akismet
Polldaddy
Gravatar
Simperium
Code Poet
WordPress.com VIP
Longreads
WordPress.org
WP for iOS
WP for Android
P2 Theme
BuddyPress
bbPress
WordCamp SF
You are already familiar with some of these products if you blog on WordPress, but there is so much more.
Find out more at www.automattic.com
On the Moon
FREE FOR FIVE – The Dystopian Nation of City-State: An Anthology
Free through Critmas (Dec 2)
Get your free copy now!
Get your FREE copy of our first publication for a limited time only via Kindle and the Kindle app!
The Dystopian Nation of City-State: An Anthology – Origin, Corruption, and Rebellion is available free of charge from November 28 through December 2nd – FIVE days to grab a FREE copy of this intriguing anthology!
Follow the link:
Or search The Dystopian Nation of City-State on amazon.com.
And again, James and I are in the final stages of proofing and editing the print version of the anthology. The hard copy should be available within a week or two.
This collection of short stories highlights a futuristic world when the cruel government controls its innocent, yet gullible citizens. However, some residents defy the vile bureaucracy, and form a new, peaceful society – a society to one day overthrow the corrupt government. This only makes tensions high within the…
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A Little Like, Please?
As I am currently re-reading 1984, reblogging this seemed fitting.
Hello! As novice writers, James and I need a love – love in the form of likes.
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Batman
The Glass Age
I discovered this over at the
Cool high-speed video!
Part 1
Part 2
Punny Skeleton
Punishingly bad 🙂
Apollo Retroreflectors
Yet more proof that man really did walk on the moon.
Left on the moon by Apollo missions 11, 14, and 15 the three retroreflectors continue to provide an ultra-precise means of determining Earth-Moon distance.
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lunar_Laser_Ranging_experiment
Retroreflectors provide surveyors a precise way of measuring point-to-point distance by timing the two-way time of a laser pulse. The optical design is such that reflected light is returned in the exact direction from which it was sent with very little scatter.
These methods are faster, safer, and infinitely more accurate than measuring distance by stretching a long steel tape (called a chain for historical reasons) as I did in college surveying camp over 30 years ago. Laser range finders and retroreflectors are the mainstay of modern surveying. This technology did not become commercially available until the 1980s, yet NASA used it in 70s to accurately measure Earth-Moon distance.
With the right equipment anyone can measure the precise distance to the Moon and simultaneously confirm that MEN FROM THE PLANET EARTH
FIRST SET FOOT UPON THE MOON
JULY 1969 A.D.
Contrafactual 