Monthly Archives: September 2009

The Watering Hole: September 14 – Luna 2

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On this date in 1959 Luna 2 became the first man-made object to reach the Moon’s surface. It was unmanned, which was most fortunate, because it was not a soft landing.

The space craft had no on-board propulsion.

It’s prior sister ship, Luna 1, failed to crash into the moon because of a launch malfunction and now orbits the sun between the Earth and Mars. The Soviets, as opportunistic as they were then, immediately dubbed it the first artificial planet, Mechta.

9/11+1=1.818181818…

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Nine-Twelve and white folks by the thousands are protesting government spending by marching on D.C.

They were remarkably silent when Bush ran up the deficit and debt; financing two wars off-budget and giving a massive tax-break to the wealthy. They didn’t care then about the disparity between the wealthiest and the poorest growing to the widest gap since medieval times.

But now that we have a president who suggests that we should provide health care for everyone, including those who don’t work – they take to the streets in droves.

Never mind the fact that due to Bush’s disasterous 8 years our economy tanked and millions of Americans lost their jobs – the bottom line with these folks is:  if you’re not working, you don’t deserve anything.

This author would like to allow every one of these protesters the right to opt out of Social Security and Medicare. They won’t have to pay those taxes, and they won’t be eligible to receive those benefits. If they don’t save enough for their retirement years, they’ll just have to keep on working. And when they’re no longer covered by private insurance, they can pay all their medical bills out of their own pockets.

And, while we’re at it, those who opt out of Medicare and Social Security should also forfeit the right to file bankruptcy. Their debts should be transferred to their heirs until fully paid, with interest. After all, if those of us who benefit from the taxpayer funded system burden our grandchildren with taxes to pay our benefits, so too should those who opt out.

Fair is fair.

The Water Hole: September 12 – Giant Haast’s Eagle

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While lolling around the WWW yesterday, I came across this news item. Being of the scientific persuasion, I decided to persue the issue as a mere 500 years of extinction does not really deliver a safe margin of error. There are too many creatures that were supposed to have been extinct for millions or even billions of years that have shown up in the current biosphere. I had to know what to look for so I could take cover from this immediate threat from a predator survivor. One can never be too cautious when the issue is individual survival or extinction. Here is what one should look for:

Those Moas are about 6 feet tall! For a bit more detail on this beastie please look here. This is a true case of a predator adapting to its prey.  The smaller eagles were at a disadvantage  when preying because they could not bring down their prey and thus were Darwinized® (They starved.)

This is our open thread, please feel free to comment on any subject.

Note: Darwinized®  is a registered trademark of TPZoo and any misuse of this trademark will be pursued in the highest courts in the world, providing that we can find a really inexpensive (free) lawyer.

Friday is music night — especially tonight

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Eight years on, and it’s 9/11 again.  We’re still in Afghanistan, which will likely be President Obama’s Vietnam; we’re still in Iraq, a country we never should have touched in connection with 9/11; New Orleans drowned; teabaggers tea bag; birthers, deathers, tenthers, oh my; and during a presidential address to Congress, Republican members send text messages, wave bits of paper, and shout that the President is a “liar.”

Our society is disorganized and in chaos, but it’s music night DAMMIT, and we need to find a little joy around here.

So feel free to post your favorite songs in the comments section.  Love songs, happy songs, heart-felt songs, or hard-rocking, bring down the house songs.

Let’s get on with it…

102 Minutes That Changed America

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HT: 5thstate

This is a program put together by the History Channel about September 11, 2001.  It’s unusual in that it’s audio and video depicting personal experiences on that day, and though heartbreaking and difficult to watch, it’s how we felt on that day.

This contains graphic and disturbing material.

more about “102 Minutes That Changed America (1/2)“, posted with vodpod

more about “102 Minutes That Changed America (2/2)“, posted with vodpod