Just another WordPress site
An article by Technology Review submits that although everyone remembers the Wright Brothers as the Fathers of Flight, Glenn Curtiss’ achievements and innovations in aviation arguably had a larger impact on the history of manned flight. Discuss amongst yourselves.
Check out the The Bad Fads Museum for “fun and fascinating fashion, collectible, activity and event fads of the last 100 years.”
Chindogu is the Japanese word for a “weird tool” or a “(nearly) useless” invention. You really need to take a look at some of these wacky inventions; I think the cat duster slippers are my favorite. And because you just can’t get enough weird Japanese inventions, check out the International Chindogu Society’s page or buy 101 Unuseless Japanese Inventions: The Art of Chindogu at amazon.com.
India’s Supreme Court is trying to find out why Coke and Pepsi have painted advertisements on the side of the Himalaya Mountains. I know this sounds like a joke from The Onion misreported by Beijing, but I assure you that this story is a reliable one from the BBC. Apparently this is not a case of just one piece of graffiti, but a series of advertisements along a 56-km stretch of mountain side that is supposed to be “protected by environmental laws.” This is just corporate marketing arrogance gone out of control; do they really think that the Himalayan monk demographic is going to be the site of the next Cola Wars?
Update: As some of you may have noticed, I’ve made this into a “team” blog. My best friend (and best man) Matt (Shaft) will now be adding his rants, raves, and interesting links to the mix, all the while realizing that since I have admin control I can change and manipulate his posts according to my exacting standards and frivolous whims. Just kidding. I’ll probably just insert a random spelling error every now and then and make fun of it later. 😉
But seriously, I’d like to officially welcome Matt to the site and know that he will enrich it with his contributions. I realize that the commenting system on the site is still pretty flaky, but please feel free to let us know what you think about our entries and the site in general. I think I speak for us both when I say that we really appreciate any and all feedback.
It is not often that you have an experience that sounds like a story that your grandparents would tell you. You know the stories that start with “One winter it was so cold…” or “During the flood of ‘33 we had to…”. By no means is my tale one of great hardship or survival, but it’s something that is unique in my lifetime. My story to my grandchildren (many years from now), will start something like this: “In the summer drought of ought-two in Maryland it was so dry that the trees turned brown and lost their leaves in early August. We had to rake the leaves from the streets and lawns while it was over 95 degrees.” I realize that this is not the 1930’s dust bowl, the Labor Day Hurricane, or the Knickerbocker Snowstorm but it is bizarre and memorable. In truth we have not had rain in a long time, and it is very noticeable everywhere you look in central Maryland. The broadleaf trees are taking it especially hard.
It looks like NASA lost another spacecraft. Reuters reports, “NASA’s Comet-Hunting Spaceship May Have Broken Up”. NASA has had a hard time getting things right lately, as the trail of missing and broken spacecraft shows. I think that space exploration is very important, but it is hard to imagine that this is the same NASA which put men on the moon. Hopefully they can get things together and do something extraordinary (besides the Hubble Telescope) in my lifetime.
Let me introduce myself. I am a long time friend of Andrew (Driko), and I will be guest posting here every so often. Here is a picture of Driko and I in Rocky Mountain National Park a few years ago.
That’s me on the left. With the intro out of the way it is now time for some blogging.
CNN reported today that “American bans aggressive dogs after chomping rampage”. It seems our little Cujo got a little excited and decided to find out how the avionics in the cargo hold tasted. NOT THE RED WIRE FLUFFY! Kind of scary actually. The airline hopes to elicit the same action in humans by using small planes, reducing leg room, increasing layover times, and laying off employees. See this CNN story for the details: “American Air to fly leaner”
I’m glad that the LMDC is soliciting more bids for a design commemorating the World Trade Center site, because the original six designs were pretty uninspiring. CNN has a feature allowing people to submit their own design ideas; some of them are pretty cool, but others should have stayed on the refrigerator door.
In addition to some awesome pictures from the Hubble Space Telescope, this page discusses some interesting theories on the creation (and possible end) of our universe.
