ScienceDaily: Bigger Solar System? Astronomers Debate Definition Of ‘Planet’ And ‘Plutons’
MSNBC: Plan boosts solar system to 12 planets
Blog
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ScienceDaily – Climate Change Was Major Factor In Erosion Of Alps 6 Million Years Ago
Climate Change Was Major Factor In Erosion Of Alps 6 Million Years Ago
The Alps, the iconic rugged mountains that cover parts of seven European nations, might have reached their zenith millions of years ago, some scientists believe, and now are a mere shadow of their former selves. New research offers an explanation.
A team led by Sean Willett, a University of Washington geologist, has found that the culprit is likely massive erosion, triggered by a sudden drop in the level of the Mediterranean Sea 6 million years ago and then prolonged by a warmer, wetter climate… -
CNN’s Lou Dobbs – It’s good to be a superpower
It’s good to be a superpower, by Lou Dobbs, CNN
The Soviet Union, Marxist Leninism, the Evil Empire and their ugly metaphor, the Berlin Wall, crumbled and collapsed almost 17 years ago.
At the time, I thought it was strange that the United States didn’t have the inclination to celebrate. There were no victory parades and no fireworks; nor did Congress declare a V-CW Day, as in Victory in the Cold War. There weren’t even any grand speeches about America’s emergence as the World’s Only Superpower.
But a grand smugness did grip most of Washington. And hubris became the foundation of almost every national policy, foreign and domestic. And why not? We were entitled as the World’s Only Superpower… -
Boston Globe Editorial – Engineering a curriculum
Featuring my former Tufts professor, Ioannis Miaoulis. The Museum of Science (http://www.mos.org/) has finally brought the “BODY WORLDS: The Anatomical Exhibition of Real Human Bodies” to town. It’s a morbidly fascinating exhibit that I’ve wanted to see for several years. Finally, something new and interesting from a good museum that had grown a little stale over the years…
Boston Globe Editorial – Engineering a curriculum
THE MUSEUM OF SCIENCE has gone beyond its traditional mission of science instruction and entertainment in Boston to engage young people throughout the United States in the value of engineering. It’s an ambitious agenda, aided greatly by a $20 million gift from Bernard Gordon, an entrepreneur and engineer who wants to get more young people interested in using science to solve real-world problems.
…As shown by its modern facilities and exciting exhibits at Science Park above the Charles, the Museum of Science has come far from its origins as a collection of artifacts. Miaoulis’ engineering initiative is turning a Boston treasure into an asset for the nation.
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Welcome!
Greetings and welcome to my new blog. Don’t expect any deep and insightful political commentaries or anything like that. I’m just online to share info with friends and family, and post links to some articles and other things of interest. So, stop by, browse around a bit and say hello.
Later, Lee…
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You might be a Redneck if…
I think the fun of “You might be a redneck” is in the fact that most of us have some degree of redneck-ness in us. (Is that a word? It should be.)
It’s also funny to note that there are all different kinds of rednecks. The most common stereotype is of the Great Southern Redneck, partly because there are so many of them and they are so entertaining. But there are other types, like the Eastern Redneck, the Vermont Redneck, and the Northeastern Redneck. They’re all affected to some degree by the environment they live in and by their own family heritage.
Take my family, for example. My dear departed Dad was a redneck of sorts – the likes of which I’ve never seen since. He completely defied categorization – Japanese American, New England Redneck? He was a hardworking guy, very blue-collar. He had been dealt some blows in life, and he managed to scrape by and still kept a positive attitude. Some of the things he did were very redneck. He built us kids a jungle gym out of two by fours and plywood… and if you ever saw the car I learned to drive in, oh my God… It was an old Plymouth Volare, rigged up with a giant plywood roof rack to which he strapped all of his extermination equipment. What teenager wants to be seen in something like that?
Grandma has redneck tendencies, too. But that shouldn’t be too surprising considering that she grew up in farm country.
Ah well. I think that’s why the five of us kids tend to want to get away from our background? We haven’t entirely succeeded… I kept my old car for a year, rusting away in the backyard until my new car was totalled and I had to reanimate the clunker. So, I can relate to some of these redneck ways – and laugh at the ones that blow away anything that I or my family ever did…
But enough about us. So, without further ado:
You might be a redneck if…
A little rain doesn’t spoil the fishing…
[Ya gotta give these guys some credit – They saved the truck and they’re makin’ the best of a bad situation…] (more…) -
Photoshopped pics from work in Indianapolis
In 2001 I doctored up an image lampooning my boss for his Diet Coke habit…
This is the office that my boss Scott R. was using in January of 2000. Scott would fly in from St. Louis almost every week, and we’d stop at the convenience store so he could fill up on Diet Coke. It was something of a joke in the office – “Just how thirsty is Scott?’
So after he left one week, I took his three big cups and placed them in different locations, took multiple pictures, and superimposed them into one image.
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Bad Engrish (Have some fried crap)
Somehow, some things just don’t seem to translate right between Asian languages and English. I’ve spent seven weeks in Japan, and in that time I’m sure I’ve mangled some Japanese words and phrases pretty badly myself. On the other hand I saw an assortment of odd signs and translations, including:
“I Feel Coke” on signs and various other places, including on t-shirts on womens’ chests
“Chicken Bugger” for chicken burger
“Romantic Sports” for clothing at a department store
“THE ODOR KING” (Theodor King, spelled out in windows with awkward gaps)
But others have seen much better gaffes during their travels. You can see them online at
http://www.engrish.com/
Attached photos are a sampling for your pure viewing satisfaction. Some of them had me in stitches.
Lost in translation… Signs from Asia
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Tufts Commencement with Lance Armstrong
I haven’t been back to Tufts in several years, but when I heard that they were having Lance Armstrong speak at the Commencement address, I just had to go.
Now I’ve done a moderate amount of biking over the years, at least 14,000 miles that I’ve kept track of.
– I’ve ridden thousands of miles on the unforgiving streets of Cambridge, Somerville, and Boston – the most bike un-friendly city in America
– I’ve ridden the roads of Indiana, like in “Breaking Away”
– I’ve laughed as I passed exotic sports cars stuck in Chicago traffic
– I’ve ridden with the elk and bison in Wyoming
– I’ve gotten yelled at by the Secret Service for locking my bike to the fence at the Denver Mint
– I’ve cruised along the boardwalk in Santa Monica
– I’ve ridden with the multitudes in Japan
– And, I’ve crossed the Golden Gate Bridge and tackled the hills of San Francisco, tires squealing in protest against the bricks of Lombard Street – and gone ballistic off the flats of the hills, like Steve McQueen in “Bullitt”But none of that compares to what Armstrong and the other guys do in the Tour de France. They ride over 2,000 miles in one month, with some stages of over 100 miles in the rugged Alps! It is just an heroic feat, orders of magnitude greater than anything I’ve ever done on a bike. It is just mind-blowing what they accomplish. And he won SEVEN times. Wow! So, anyway, I had to go see him at my alma mater. He was entertaining, amusing, humble and still inspiring. One of my photos is below. You can check out more online at:
