Carl Sagan on Astrology:
How could it possibly work? How could the rising of Mars at the moment of my birth affect me, then or now? I was born in a closed room; light from Mars couldn’t get in. The only influence of Mars which could affect me was its gravity. But the gravitational influence of the obstetrician was much larger than the gravitational influence of Mars. Mars is a lot more massive, but the obstetrician… was a lot closer.
Watch Cosmos here, NOW!
So I went to get some gas after work at Meijer’s filling station on Westnedge, I was at the south-end pump closest to the station. I got a full tank ($31.23) and also needed checked my oil level and needed windscreen washer solvent, the usual filling station things one is supposed to do. Whilst filling up a lady pulled up behind me. I noticed that the opposite pump was free, but I understand—not everyone is as good as backing into a spot as I am (it’s not that hard) so I guess she was okay with waiting. I went and bought some solvent and some 10W30, topped off my fluids, and while I was getting back in my car I notice her dirty look and hear:
Lady: You sure took your time!
I look around to notice not only the opposite pump is open, but the one across from that, as well as the opposite pump from there and the outermost, northernmost pump as well
Me: Well, I had gas station stuff to do!
Lady: Didn’t you see I was waiting?
Me: Look lady, there’s holding up fingers FOUR other pumps you could’ve used!
Lady: But I want to use this one!
Me: as I get in my car… I hope it was worth the wait!
Hey, listen folks, don’t bitch when you’re being dumb, picky, or both. KTHx!
somehow some stupid cellphone subscription thing (Cellfish media) got my phone number, subscribed me to their “service” and charged me $9.99 to my wireless bill. This wasn’t acceptable. I finally got my $9.99 back in the mail, after much emailing and on-the-phone-ing. Of course I’d demanded my $9.99 immediately, saying ” If you can somehow shanghai my phone number and charge me instantly you can also refund me instantly.” But that of course never happens. So FU Cellfish, and thanks for the $9.99 back. Assholes.
For the record, I also paid tax on that $9.99, so you fuckers still owe me 60 cents.
But hey, that $9.99 came just in time. It’s the end of the pay period and I could use $9.99. Beer money for Paul!
Here Men From The Planet Earth First Set Foot Upon the Moon, July 1969 A.D. We Came in Peace For All Mankind.
I seriously have to say, out of all the albums I’ve ever bought, I think Snow Patrol’s A Hundred Million Suns has got to be one of (if not my most) favorite albums ever. If I had it on vinyl I would’ve worn it out by now. I want everyone reading this to go check it out. This is some seriously great music.
From start to finish, this is what early 21st century rock and roll should sound like.
Then at 2:17:26 p.m. on the 17th of July, Stafford opened hatch number no. 3, which led into the Soyuz orbital module. With applause from the control centers in the background, Stafford looked into the Soviet craft and, seeing all their umbilicals and communications cables floating about, said, “Looks like they['ve] got a few snakes in there, too.” Then he called out, “Alexey. Our viewers are here. Come over here, please.” High above the French city of Metz, the two commanders shook hands. Their dialogue was broken – part personal, part technical. They appeared to accept their amazing technical accomplishment with the same nonchalance that had characterized their practice sessions in the ground simulators. There were no grand speeches, just a friendly greeting from men who seemed to have done this every day of their lives. In the background was a handlettered sign in English – “Welcome aboard Soyuz.”
The 40th anniversary of Apollo 11 is coming up soon (the 40th anniversary to the launch was yesterday at 11:32) but also it’s the 34th anniversary of the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project. The result of years of planning and cooperation, this historic mission saw the first docking of an American Apollo spacecraft with a Soviet Soyuz spacecraft.
ASTP led the way for the Shuttle-Mir Program and the International Space Station.
Both the American and Soviet crews were seasoned astronauts, with a combination of both ground-based and spaceflight-based experience: American astronaut Deke Slayton had waited 16 years before this flight in 1975-he was the only one of the original Mercury 7 astronauts not to fly in a Mercury capsule. Vance Brand waited 11 years to fly (serving three times as backup) and went on to fly 3 space shuttle missions. Thomas Stafford had flown three previous flights: Gemini 6A, Gemini 9A, and the Apollo 10 mission to lunar orbit. Cosmonaut Alexei Leonov was the first man to walk in space, and his partner Valeri Kubasov has previously flown on Soyuz 6.
Their first meeting in space together, the crews exchanged symbolic gifts, talked to President Ford, and shared a meal together. Although the meeting in space was historic, the cooperation of the two rival space agencies before both launches was also historic. The crews had met and trained together beforehand, so were not strangers to each other, and had specific things to do each day they were together. Their second day consisted of more crew exchange.
Kubasov and Brand conducted a broadcast session from “your Soviet American TV center in space,” as Kubasov called it. In giving his tour of Soyuz, the Soviet flight engineer pointed out what various instruments were for and televised a picture of Brand in “the kitchen” (the food preparation station) warming up lunch. Stafford reciprocated by giving Leonov and the Soviet viewers a Russian language tour of the command module.
Day three consisted of a lengthy orbit-to-ground press conference (detailed here) and day four technical spaceflight operations, including the undocking and docking of the two spacecraft, and science experiments. The two spacecraft separated a final time on July 19.
Scientific and Diplomatic missions aside, what Deke and Alexei really wanted was some time alone to cuddle.
ASTP was the final flight of the Saturn rocket family, the final flight of the Apollo CSM, and NASA’s last flight for six years until STS-1. It would also be the last flight of an American on an expendable launch system for anothertwenty years.
What kinda mickey-mouse operation is this?
While international cooperation in space is now commonplace (and arguably necessary, given the 157 billion dollar price tag of the ISS) without the efforts of these five men and the scores of people who worked behind the scenes none of our current efforts in space would be possible.
Thanks, guys.
KSC Apollo-Soyuz Test Project page
The Partnership: A History of the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project
NASA History Page for ASTP
“IF I am going to be drowned–if I am going to be drowned–if I am going to be drowned, why, in the name of the seven mad gods, who rule the sea, was I allowed to come thus far and contemplate sand and trees?”
Every now and then something happens & I like to think it’s a good thing. But it seems like… it gets ruined somehow or just plain doesn’t work out. And then I kind of rail against it and wonder why I could possibly let myself be so tempted by what seems like a good thing when I ought to know better. In the end it’s like.. why’d I bother? Why’d I let this happen?
Who’d I take you for??
And also:
When it occurs to a man that nature does not regard him as important, and that she feels she would not maim the universe by disposing of him, he at first wishes to throw bricks at the temple, and he hates deeply the fact that there are no bricks and no temples.
[thank you, stephen crane]
So here’s a song, because I like songs and music and stuff, and it says how I feel right now.
And it’s sad.
Damien Rice :: O :: Delicate
we might kiss
when we are alone
when nobody’s watchin’
we might take it home
we might make out
when nobody’s there
it’s not that we’re scared
it’s just that it’s delicate
so why d’ya fill my sorrows
with the words you’ve borrowed
from the only place you’ve known
& why d’ya sing hallelujah
if it means nothin’ to ya
why d’ya sing with me at all
we might live
like never before
when there’s nothin’ to give
well how can we ask for more
we might make love
in some sacred place
that look on your face
is delicate
so why d’ya fill my sorrow
with the words you’ve borrowed
from the only place you’ve known
why d’ya sing hallelujah
if it means nothin’ to ya
why d’ya sing with me at all
why d’ya fill my sorrow
with the words you’ve borrowed
from the only place you’ve known
why d’ya sing hallelujah
if it means nothin’ to ya
why d’ya sing with me at all
How would you feel if someone put your marriage to a vote?
did you know that the original declaration of independence has a misspelling in it? the handwritten copy by clerk Timothy Matlack (the one signed by the continental congress & preserved by the national archives) included the sentence ” Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our Brittish brethren”— a clear misspelling of “British” which occurs elsewhere in the text. so the next time you spell something silly wrong, think of our founding document & don’t feel too bad.
The original text, as written: [wikisource]
In CONGRESS, July 4, 1776
The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America,
When in the Course of human events, it becomes neceſsary for one people to diſsolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to aſsume among the powers of the earth, the ſeparate and equal ſtation to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they ſhould declare the cauſes which impel them to the separation. __________ We hold these truths to be ſelf-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happineſs.__ That to ſecure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, _ That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happineſs. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established ſhould not be changed for light and transient cauſes; and accordingly all experience hath ſhewn, that mankind are more disposed to ſuffer, while evils are ſufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and uſurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future ſecurity. __ Such has been the patient ſufferance of these Colonies; and ſuch is now the neceſsity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and uſurpations, all having in direct object the eſtablishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be ſubmitted to a candid world. ________ He has refused his Aſsent to Laws, the most wholesome and neceſsary for the public good. ______ He has forbidden his Governors to paſs Laws of immediate and preſsing importance, unleſs ſuspended in their operation till his Aſsent should be obtained; and when so ſuspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.______ He has refused to paſs other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unleſs those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right ineſtimable to them and formidable to tyrants only. ____ He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his meaſures. _____ He has diſsolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmneſs his invaſions on the rights of the people. ____ He has refused for a long time, after such diſsolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within. ____ He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to paſs others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands. _____ He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Aſsent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers. _____ He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries. ___ He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither ſwarms of Officers to harraſs our people, and eat out their ſubstance.___ He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures. ___ He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to Civil power. ___ He has combined with others to ſubject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Aſsent to their Acts of pretended Legislation: _ For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us: _ For protecting them, by mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States: _ For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world: _ For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent: _ For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury: _ For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offenses: __ For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit inſtrument for introducing the same absolute rule in these Colonies: ___ For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments: _ For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever. _ He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us. ____ He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the Lives of our people. ___ He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy ſcarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation. ___ He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands. ___ He has excited domestic inſurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the mercileſs Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is undistinguished destruction of all ages, ſexes and conditions. In every ſtage of these Oppreſsions We have Petitioned for Redreſs in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people. Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our Brittish brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and ſettlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these uſurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of, consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the neceſsity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends. ____
We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congreſs, Aſsembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by authority of the good People of these Colonies, ſolemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally diſsolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. ____ And for the ſupport of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our ſacred Honor.
finally upgraded wordpress to 2.8, figured out what was triggering a google malware alert (but still not sure how it got there) and added some twitter/facebook stuff to this site, especially since it seems like I use twitter & facebook a lot more often than I do this blog. Still has its uses, of course, but I wanted to get the twitter & facebook functionality on here.
