Since I won't be attending Chelsea Clinton's wedding, I should have time to write my weekly blog entry. I was disappointed that President Obama was not invited, so I decided not to go, even though I had looked forward to seeing those $15,000 Port-A-Potties.
http://refinery29.com/chelsea-clinton-wedding-budget.php
01. Who are you looking at! I went on a tour of NASA's Goddard Space Center with my Men's Club on Friday. Amazing place. I was mainly interested in the Hubble space telescope and it's remarkable pictures which were posted over all the walls.
I probably should have known this, but I didn't. The Hubble will be replaced around 2014 by the JWST (James Webb Space Telescope).
http://www.jwst.nasa.gov/about.html
Hubble takes picture of the universe as it was over 13 billion years ago and is an orbit 350 miles above the earth. JWST will be in orbit one million miles above the earth (4 times as far as the moon) and will take pictures older than Hubble's, if that's possible. . Some of the comments of my fellow men's club members:
"Will they be looking over the edge of the universe.. like Columbus?"
"Suppose they take a picture of a big eye?"
"This whole thing doesn't make sense. Don't they read the Bible?"
I just hope that I can make it to 2014.. for the launch, and then through however long it takes to transmit pictures back to earth from a million miles up.
My great grandson, Cameron, should see a lot of interesting space pictures during his lifetime, if crazy people don't blow us up soon and make us just another burned out rock on the screen of some alien's space telescope.
02. This cracks me up. A Court ruling says that a man lowering his pants and showing underwear is protected by the first amendment and can't be prohibited .. huh? This comes under "freedom of speech?"
(It may be that I have mixed this up with an English ruling a few months ago. I thought it was an American case. Instead of "first amendment".. such a prohibition would instead violate "young {British} men's human rights.")
03. Gives new meaning to "giving one the finger." The petrified middle finger of Galileo is on display in Florence, near the Uffizi Gallery, at the Museo Galileo: Instituto e Museo di Storia della Scienza.
http://www2.jpl.nasa.gov/galileo/finger.html
04. No money-pit? The Carroll County Times (Maryland) reports that Baltimore has recommended no-cost spaying and neutering programs for "Pit Bills".
(Reminds me of President Harding. Some have said that the President rented a row-house in DC, where a deep pit was built so that people wanting favors from his Administration could toss their contributions without fear of disclosure.)
http://www.infoplease.com/biography/var/warrenharding.html
05. Round-up? Some 99 cents stores in the U.S. have changed their prices to $ 0.9999 cents, which I'm told causes the register to record it as $1.00. This, of course, allows them to make one penny on each sale.. and this equates to lots of profit on millions of sales.
(At one point, the Government decided to "round down" the amounts in Social Security checks.. imagine how much money that has made for the Government. I hope it went into the Social Security Trust Fund......)
06. The Great Bell, California uprising of 2010. As I reported in my last entry, city officials in Bell, California were making astronomical wages. Well, as soon as the people in that city learned about these wages (no, not from my blog), they erupted in anger and the officials involved have had to resign. The question is: how did it get to this point? Doesn't the city have open meetings where things like officials' salaries are discussed? Guess not.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100723/ap_on_re_us/us_bell_salaries
07. Birth control? Scientists have discovered that there is a gene found in all creatures in the line from fish to man that controls the generation of sperm. This is called the Boule Gene. Would controling that gene be an acceptable method of birth control? Probably not.
http://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/news/article/3356
08. Hot lawyers? Once, when Abraham Lincoln was staying at a tavern on a very cold night, he noticed that there were a lot of other attorneys hugging the pot-bellied stove. As Lincoln neared the fire, the host addressed him: "Pretty cold tonight."
Lincoln replied: "Colder than hell."
One of the lawyers turned to Abe and said: "You've been there too, have you, Mr. Lincoln?"
Lincoln replied: "Yes, and the funny thing is that it's much like it is here.. all lawyers are nearest the fire."
http://www.rickwalton.com/lincoln/linc001.htm
009. Star track? I read where Bill Shatner is about to debut an interview show.. where he will interview "notorious personages".. Will our Captain Kirk make this into a "slightly naughty" show like Boston Legal? The first interviewee is slated to be the "Subway Vigilante." Should be interesting.
http://movieactors.com/actors/williamshatner.htm
010. Prison for dummies. An Argentine prison was low on money, so they posted a dummy in a guard tower. Some prisoners were not the dummies that the warden thought they were and escaped.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-10706626
011. Here's your sign. The inhabitants of Shitterton, England, not wanting to change their town's name and tired of constantly replacing their town sign.. chipped in to buy a boulder with the name carved into it. "Let's see those 'low-lifes' steal this one!" (I'm sure that people smart enough to fool the public about crop-circles for years, will have no problem in removing this big stone, at night, by the light of a full moon.)
012. Use your napkin and sit up straight, Fido! Hammacher Schlemmer is selling a "Pet High Chair".. which they say "promotes more refined behavior." (As reported by Consumers Reports.)
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Showing posts with label Hubble. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Hubble. Show all posts
Saturday, July 31, 2010
Thursday, September 10, 2009
Some News for September 10th, 2009
Believe it or not, there was some news today, other than President Obama's speech.
01. A Quebec Canada man was sentenced to life in prison after his 19th conviction for drunken driving. Last year, he ran over a woman in a wheelchair.. on her birthday!
I know a person in New Bedford, Massachusetts who was convicted of drunk driving many times, and each time all it took to get his license back was a small bribe. This was a long time ago, so I hope this type of situation is a thing of the past.
02. The Mint will be issuing another special series of quarters. It will be called "America the Beautiful" and will feature famous National sites throughout the States and Territories. The complete series will consist of 56 coins that will be released about every ten weeks, starting in 2010. That means it will probably take around ten years to get a complete set.
03. If you eat a fast-food fish filet, you are probably now eating a fish called the Hoki, according to William Broad of the New York Times. (I must admit that Mr. Broad may be trying to fool us.. hoki = hoaky? But I'm probably wrong about that.) The hoki is described as a deep Pacific fish, swimming around New Zealand, and is very ugly, but tasty. The fish is supposedly taking the place of the rapidly disappearing Orange Roughy. Orange Roughy lives more than 100 years according to Mr. Broad, and reproduces very slowly. Hoki only lives 25 years and has a quicker rate of reproduction. One of my stocks, Yum Brands, likes the use of this fish.
04. I noticed that American Express is advertising that they have "the card that's ready for the unexpected." Today I was told, unofficially, that they have updated the cost of using their card to $400 a year. That is hard for me to believe... if it is indeed true. I use Visa or Discover and as of yet, they have not charged me a fee. However, I was also warned today to read my monthly statements very carefully. Someone also mentioned that Discover began to charge them a large fee because they had not used their card for some time.
05. A Bolivian man tried to highjack a plane at Mexico City's airport. He threatened to blow up the plane if Mexico's President did not talk to him about a coming disaster.. he said that he had seen the devil in the Mexican flag and knew that bad things were about to happen. Federales overpowered the man and led him off to jail.
06. Speaking of delusional thinking, Sarah Palin has written to the Wall Street Journal that "death panels" are still a concern for the elderly, regardless of what the Administration says.
07. Continuing on that theme, I read where the mayor of Glenn Beck's hometown of Mount Vernon, Washington, is about to give the "keys to the city" to their famous "home town boy." Quite an honor for a guy who has called President Obama a "racist." (Because of his statement, several big time advertisers have canceled commercials on his show, and as I said somewhere before, Ed Schultz says that his radio audience is now greater than Beck's TV show.)
08. The Hubble telescope is working great again and is sending back remarkable pictures. These pictures boggle my mind. I'm trying to remember who made the following statement, I think it was Goethe: "Only two things amaze me. The glorious heavens above and the wondrous earth below." This certainly is a great time to live for people who want to learn about the marvelous universe we live in.
09. Massachusetts lawmakers are struggling to find a way to get a quick replacement for the late Senator Kennedy. (Did I mention that Massachusetts is replete with signs that say "Ted, we love you and will miss you!" and others of a similar nature?)
10. Over 30 years ago, I read about a massive Manhattan, New York City, apartment complex. It was hard for me to imagine such a huge development. Three years ago, that complex of 110 (yes thats one hundred and ten) red-brick apartment buildings at Peter Cooper Village and Stuyvesant Town, was sold for $5.4 billion dollars. However, during this recession, the buyers are losing money.. more than half of its value. Sad. I hope they will get back to normal during 2010, when I feel sure this damnable problem time will end. A lot of people live in that complex and it would be a disaster if they had to move somewhere else.
..............................................
01. A Quebec Canada man was sentenced to life in prison after his 19th conviction for drunken driving. Last year, he ran over a woman in a wheelchair.. on her birthday!
I know a person in New Bedford, Massachusetts who was convicted of drunk driving many times, and each time all it took to get his license back was a small bribe. This was a long time ago, so I hope this type of situation is a thing of the past.
02. The Mint will be issuing another special series of quarters. It will be called "America the Beautiful" and will feature famous National sites throughout the States and Territories. The complete series will consist of 56 coins that will be released about every ten weeks, starting in 2010. That means it will probably take around ten years to get a complete set.
03. If you eat a fast-food fish filet, you are probably now eating a fish called the Hoki, according to William Broad of the New York Times. (I must admit that Mr. Broad may be trying to fool us.. hoki = hoaky? But I'm probably wrong about that.) The hoki is described as a deep Pacific fish, swimming around New Zealand, and is very ugly, but tasty. The fish is supposedly taking the place of the rapidly disappearing Orange Roughy. Orange Roughy lives more than 100 years according to Mr. Broad, and reproduces very slowly. Hoki only lives 25 years and has a quicker rate of reproduction. One of my stocks, Yum Brands, likes the use of this fish.
04. I noticed that American Express is advertising that they have "the card that's ready for the unexpected." Today I was told, unofficially, that they have updated the cost of using their card to $400 a year. That is hard for me to believe... if it is indeed true. I use Visa or Discover and as of yet, they have not charged me a fee. However, I was also warned today to read my monthly statements very carefully. Someone also mentioned that Discover began to charge them a large fee because they had not used their card for some time.
05. A Bolivian man tried to highjack a plane at Mexico City's airport. He threatened to blow up the plane if Mexico's President did not talk to him about a coming disaster.. he said that he had seen the devil in the Mexican flag and knew that bad things were about to happen. Federales overpowered the man and led him off to jail.
06. Speaking of delusional thinking, Sarah Palin has written to the Wall Street Journal that "death panels" are still a concern for the elderly, regardless of what the Administration says.
07. Continuing on that theme, I read where the mayor of Glenn Beck's hometown of Mount Vernon, Washington, is about to give the "keys to the city" to their famous "home town boy." Quite an honor for a guy who has called President Obama a "racist." (Because of his statement, several big time advertisers have canceled commercials on his show, and as I said somewhere before, Ed Schultz says that his radio audience is now greater than Beck's TV show.)
08. The Hubble telescope is working great again and is sending back remarkable pictures. These pictures boggle my mind. I'm trying to remember who made the following statement, I think it was Goethe: "Only two things amaze me. The glorious heavens above and the wondrous earth below." This certainly is a great time to live for people who want to learn about the marvelous universe we live in.
09. Massachusetts lawmakers are struggling to find a way to get a quick replacement for the late Senator Kennedy. (Did I mention that Massachusetts is replete with signs that say "Ted, we love you and will miss you!" and others of a similar nature?)
10. Over 30 years ago, I read about a massive Manhattan, New York City, apartment complex. It was hard for me to imagine such a huge development. Three years ago, that complex of 110 (yes thats one hundred and ten) red-brick apartment buildings at Peter Cooper Village and Stuyvesant Town, was sold for $5.4 billion dollars. However, during this recession, the buyers are losing money.. more than half of its value. Sad. I hope they will get back to normal during 2010, when I feel sure this damnable problem time will end. A lot of people live in that complex and it would be a disaster if they had to move somewhere else.
..............................................
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