Discover, Learn, Apply, Repeat

Hi Everyone,

Today was a good day. I worked at Starbucks (my store won't be closing). Had fate been otherwise and I got the transfer to the other Bangor store a few months back, I would not have been so lucky. They're closing.

I met and chatted with a customer today who was wearing a "friendfeed" tee-shirt. So I asked him what's that all about. He told me he got the shirt from a friend who works there. Good advertising, I went to the site and signed up tonight. Basically its a web site where a lot of my activities from various web sites across the web are gathered all together for my friends to visit one site to get a snap shot of what I'm up to. I'm going to give it a try.

Maggiebeth & Lauren have both passed through their half birthdays which mean, single layer cakes, the singing of: Hap.. Bir..... to Y.. (we sing half all the way through) get it? and no presents, but good Starbucks fare and gathered family. June 28th & 4th of July so the celebrations end with Fireworks.




For example, on the Fourth we started the day with a community pancake breakfast, followed by marching in the Bangor/Brewer 4th parade. The girls decorated their scooters with red white & blue streamers and Obama posters. We walked with the Obama Democrat's (thrilling see'ns how I consider my self a conservative Republician). Then a break for cake at SBUX. Next, off to the movie theater to see WALL-E, was good time by all accounts. A couple hours to regroup, then off to find not only a good parking space to park for the fireworks but one that would allow a fast escape once they were over. Success.




Once home sleep came easy for us all.

Other quick highlights; Took the girls outside one evening to watch the International Space Station (ISS) fly over after a couple cloudy nights. They were WOWed for +/- 15 seconds then "can we go in now?" little did I know, they were wearing flip-flops and the grass was wet and cold, but they liked it.

A few weeks back was the AAS (American Astronomical Society) convention in the midwest. There was streaming video of various events provided by the folks at Astronomycast (my favorite podcast) One event was a talk and overview by the founder of Galaxy Zoo. It's cool because along with the video is a chat page where I can chat with others who join in and we could ask questions of the presenters. (or talk with the guy pointing the camera and holding the laptop that was streaming the video) One such guy was Chris from Galaxy Zoo. I told him of my 8yr. old daughter (MB) joining Galaxy Zoo and learning how to classify galaxies and that she had classified over 100. The next day was his talk that I mentioned above. During his presentation, explaining what Galaxy Zoo was and that there are over 130,000 volunteers world over who took the tutorial and are helping the project, He mentioned that an eight year old took the tutorial and passed but, two professional astronomers took the tutorial and failed. When he said that I was floored, I told Maggiebeth and she beamed a smile from ear to ear.

We have a season pass to the local community pool, so off we go most days, and they go roller skating fairly regularly. They are kept active.

Keep yer "non-skid puncture-proof" dry and we'll chat again.

Flying Tips & Observations

Though I Fly Through the Valley of Death ... I Shall Fear No Evil. For I am at 80,000 Feet and Climbing!
(Sign over the entrance to the SR-71 operating location Kadena AFB, Japan.)

You've never been lost until you've been lost at Mach 3.
(Paul F. Crickmore - test pilot)

The only time you have too much fuel is when you're on fire.

From an old carrier sailor -
Blue water Navy truism: There are more planes in the ocean than submarines in the sky.

If the wings are traveling faster than the fuselage, it's probably a helicopter -- and therefore, unsafe.

When one engine fails on a twin-engine airplane you always have enough power left to get you to the scene of the crash.

Without ammunition, the USAF would be just another expensive flying club.

What is the similarity between air traffic controllers and pilots? If a pilot screws up, the pilot dies; If ATC screws up, the pilot dies.

Never trade luck for skill.

The three most common expressions (or famous last words) in aviation are: "Why is it doing that?", "Where are we?" and "Oh Shit!"

Weather forecasts are horoscopes with numbers.

Progress in airline flying; now a flight attendant can get a pilot pregnant.

Airspeed, altitude and brains. Two are always needed to successfully complete the flight.

A smooth landing is mostly luck; two in a row is all luck; three in a row is prevarication.

I remember when sex was safe and flying was dangerous.

Mankind has a perfect record in aviation; we never left one up there!

Flashlights are tubular metal containers kept in a flight bag for the purpose of storing dead batteries

Flying the airplane is more important than radioing your plight to a person on the ground incapable of understanding or doing anything about it.

When a flight is proceeding incredibly well, something was forgotten.

Just remember, if you crash because of weather, your funeral will be held on a sunny day.

Advice given to RAF pilots during WWII: When a prang (crash) seems inevitable, endeavor to strike the softest, cheapest object in the vicinity as slowly and gently as possible.

The Piper Cub is the safest airplane in the world; it can just barely kill you.
(Attributed to Max Stanley, Northrop test pilot)

A pilot who doesn't have any fear probably isn't flying his plane to its maximum.
(Jon McBride, astronaut)

If you're faced with a forced landing, fly the thing as far into the crash as possible.
(Bob Hoover - renowned aerobatic and test pilot)

If an airplane is still in one piece, don't cheat on it; ride the bastard down.
(Ernest K. Gann, author & aviator)

Never fly in the same cockpit with someone braver than you.

There is no reason to fly through a thunderstorm in peacetime.
(Sign over squadron operations desk at Davis-Monthan AFB, AZ, 1970.)

The three best things in life are a good landing, a good orgasm, and, a good bowel movement. The night carrier landing is one of the few opportunities in life where you get to experience all three at the same time.
(Author unknown, but someone who's been there)

If something hasn't broken on your helicopter, it's about to.

Basic Flying Rules Try to stay in the middle of the air. Do not go near the edges of it. The edges of the air can be recognized by the appearance of ground, buildings, sea, trees and interstellar space. It is much more difficult to fly there.

You know that your landing gear is up and locked when it takes full power to taxi to the terminal.

New Earthrise and Earthset Movies from Kaguya: "

Ian reported yesterday on the high definition topographical maps recently released by the Japanese SELENE mission, also known as Kaguya, which will provide exact locations of essential minerals to future lunar explorers. And now, via Emily Lakdawalla at the Planetary Society comes more from Kaguya — movies of an Earthrise and Earthset from the moon. While the movies don't provide much as far as scientific data, they are off the charts as far being aesthetically pleasing and just tremendously magnificent. Emily grabbed individual frames from the longer, but smoother high-definition movies that the Japanese Space Agency JAXA created from the HD Camera on board the moon-orbiting Kaguya to create quick little movies. Above is the Earthrise quick movie.

Read the rest of New Earthrise and Earthset Movies from Kaguya (117 words)

What was Before the Big Bang? An Identical, Reversed Universe: "

So what did exist before the Big Bang? This question would normally belong in the realms of deep philosophical thinking; the laws of physics have no right to probe beyond the Big Bang barrier. There can be no understanding of what was there before. We have no experience, no observational capability and no way of travelling back through it (we can't even calculate it), so how can physicists even begin to think they can answer this question? Well, a new study of Loop Quantum Gravity (LQG) is challenging this view, perhaps there is a way of looking into the pre-Big Bang 'universe'. And the conclusion? The Big Bang was more of a 'Big Bounce', and the pre-bounce universe had the same physics as our universe… just backwards… Confused? I am…

Read the rest of What was Before the Big Bang? An Identical, Reversed Universe (704 words)