Last night, Janet, Eleanor, and I went to see a performance of The Kids from Wisconsin at Kaukauna High School. (For those of you from around here, that isn't the old Kaukauna High School down in the flats; it's the new Kaukauna High School out east of town with a brand new theater and all.  I'm glad we went there early because I had to get directions from a lady at a gas station.  No, I didn't use Google Maps this time, silly ... Read More »

• a "live" transmission of all radio traffic between Mission Control and the Apollo 11 spacecraft
• a Facebook widget for tracking mission progress until July 20th
• the classic diagram showing where Apollo 11 is located
• multiple ways to view the spacecraft in space looking towards the moon or back to earth
• A mission clock
• Constantly updating stats

On the evening of July 20th, 1969, I was lying on the floor of a good friend's bedroom watching Walter Cronkite watching the pictures broadcast across space from our moon.  We had built a cardboard model of the Lunar Excursion Module and set it on the floor as we watched the agonizingly slow descent of Neil Armstrong down the external ladder to the moon's surface.

We heard Armstrong's famous quote, but we weren't at all concerned about whether he said "...for man" or "...for a man" ... we were too awestruck by the event.  We could not grasp the enormity of what had happened, but we were still struck speechless, rolling on the floor laughing with delight.

40 years on, it's time for some decent commentary on that event.  Here are three with the first paragraph or so of each:

Read More »

What do you think of the state budget process this year?

(On time? Too quick? Too many policy items? Finally plugging up the record $6.6 billion shortfall? Other thoughts?)

(published 6-Jul-2009, Appleton Post-Crescent)

I must say that I like the California budgeting process (as opposed to Wisconsin's) for one key reason: the budget cannot pass without a two-thirds majority vote of the legislature.  An attempt was made in 2004 with Proposition 56 to change that two-thirds majority requirement to a 55% majority.  Interestingly enough, two-thirds of California's voters were opposed to the change.  I think that requiring a two-thirds majority to pass a budget is a good idea.  Recent headlines proove that California still gets itself into budget trouble, super-majority or no.  Government and budget trouble go together like pain and suffering; like we ... Read More »

If you could see President Obama and ask him one question, what would it be?

(published 8-Jun-2009, Appleton Post-Crescent)

Mr. President, I'm just a regular guy who was down-sized from a job I enjoyed.  I don't blame you nor do I blame the previous administration.  However, the enormous effort that you and Congress have expended on economic issues will be ultimately wasted. We'll be left with an incredibly huge national debt coupled with rampant deficit spending far into the future -- perhaps as long as the United States survives as an independent nation.  That's what I'm concerned about: our survival.  I'm afraid that the suffering of future generations of Americans will be great because of what we've done today to try to save our bacon.  The economy will recover; it always has, even after the Great Depression.  But my question is, haven't you learned that ... Read More »

You've probably seen at least one of the "De-motivation" posters published by Despair, Inc. You can see a load of them here.

I'm not a fan of their stuff, but entering a contest for the best caption for a new poster seemed like a fun idea.  So I went to http://site.despair.com/captions/ and tried my hand at sloganeering. Here's the contest photo:

A fellow from one of the email groups to which I belong posted this story yesterday late afternoon.  I've known Dickford Cohn for 15 years, one of the original curmudgeons:

Hawker dragged from trailer fire

Tuesday, May 19, 2009

On Friday night while enjoying the chance to ask any question of WolframAlpha that popped into my head, I was reminded of Robert Heinlein's "Friday".

I had asked WolframAlpha the question, "What is the circumference of the Milky Way galaxy in centimeters?"  A completely absurd question, I know; but I asked the same question of Google and had gotten, as usual, a list of web sites where I might find the diameter of the Milky Way galaxy in light-years ... Read More »

Wolfram|Alpha is like having a roomful of reference librarians helping you do research. One of them is devoted to displaying beautiful geometric shapes:

Nothing earth-shaking; just a beautiful diagram.

The kind of astronomical photo you don't see every day: the space shuttle, Atlantis, against the sun, apparently the first of its kind.  From the story in the UK Sun.

The aging members of "the world's loudest band" have gotten together for a tour to perform the "hits" from the movie.  Here's the full story .

Stuff that doesn't make headline news: the deaths of 10 young people in College Park, GA, prevented because one sensible young man carried a handgun and knew how to use it.

The story [at the WBSTV.com web site] describes the scene:

Two men wearing masks and brandishing firearms came through the patio door into Charles Bailey's apartment where a birthday party was in progress.  The armed men separated the men from the women into different rooms and demanded their cell phones and wallets.

Jerry Bader of WTAQ-AM, Green Bay, this morning continued the story like this: The gunmen raped the women and then methodically killed each of the 10 college students.

He then asked if anyone ha ... Read More »

How worried are you about the swine flu?

(published 11-May-2009, Appleton Post-Crescent)

I can't seem to shake a Chicken Little feeling. All the media appearances by politicians and government officials making somber pronouncements give people the false idea that the government is actually able to do something. What have we heard over and over and over? "Wash your hands often" and "Stay home if you're sick". That's it! Are those things that the government can enforce? No. Is there a vaccine? No. Do they know how serious it is compared to your garden variety influenza? No. Then what good are they except at stirring up panic about a pandemic? Yes, the disease has caused deaths. So do the other flus -- tens of thousands a year in the United States alone. Hong Kong flu, Avian flu, SARS, Ebola, and now Swine flu. Excuse me, H1N1. Sorry, all you pork producers! I just eviscerated your sales of ham ... Read More »

Reason magazine published a piece written by Canadian Ezra Levant about his struggle against his government after his magazine re-published those anti-Muslim cartoons.  Very interesting and chilling reading.  Here's the first part:

The Internet Saved My Tongue

How I beat Canada's 'human rights' censors

Ezra Levant | June 2009 Print Edition

No, not in UFOs, but in the human-caused scourge of global warming.

I read a fair number of stories about global warming every month. I have my own views based on what I've read. Personally, I think that really selling the idea to the voters that cutting back on human carbon emissions would be worth the cost will cause pretty much nothing of substance to be done by our shadowy puppet masters (SPMs) in the government. This is a gridlock I'm wholeheartedly in favor of.

What caught my attention today was a National Geographic story by Anne Minard about the lull in solar activity (sunspots) on the sun.

National Geographic is without a doubt invested in the idea that human-caused global warming is a massive threat. to the existence of life on our planet. The story by Ms. Minard contains ... Read More »

...that England actually bars non-criminals from coming to its shores. Besides "murderer and Hezbollah terrorist Samir Al Quntar and Kashmiri terror group leader Nasr Javed," the UK -- personified by Home Secretary Jacqui Smith -- has barred American radio talk show host, Michael Savage. From The Independent story:

"This is someone who has fallen into the category of fomenting hatred, of such extreme views and expressing them in such a way that it is actually likely to cause inter-community tension or even violence if that person were allowed into the country," Ms Smith told BBC Breakfast.

Whether you agree with her or not, it actually astonishes me that it would be official government policy to refuse entry to someone wh ... Read More »