Best Laid Plans

Last Saturday, a friend and I were supposed to go out to celebrate my birthday--we always take the other out for dinner in honor of birthdays. At the last minute, she had to cancel because of illness--her own. We have rescheduled for tomorrow and I'm hoping all goes well. We are under a winter storm watch--heavy snow, sleet, ice--for tomorrow evening. Oh, yay. If it was just dinner, things would be fine, as she comes in to town for us to eat--she lives just outside of town. BUT, we are planning on going up the road to a little community to do some looking in the shops to see if there is anything worth buying. I don't get there often enough and I have never been there during the Christmas season, so I am really looking forward to it. I hope it works out.

K is going in to do an overtime shift at 3:00AM--just about four hours from now. He will get home a little after 4:00 tomorrow afternoon and then he will go back at 3:00 on Sunday morning to work 4 hours of overtime before starting his regular day shift. (CORRECTION: He went in to start work at midnight, NOT 4:00AM! He STILL will not be home till after 6:00PM on Sunday.) He will be one tired puppy when he gets home on Sunday! I probably won't even have to make dinner--he'll just pass out as soon as he gets home.

I've been trying to make up a Christmas list of things I want this year. Trouble is, all I can come up with are electronics--and K will not buy them for me. (He says I'm too picky--which I am--and that I would get mad if he got the wrong thing--which I would.) Other than a pair of solitaire diamond earrings, I don't have anything on the list that he might be willing to buy me! Right now I have: a new cell phone (one of two), The Legend of Zelda: The Phantom Hourglass (for the Nintendo DS Lite), a pair of Red Wings coffee mugs (I told him I'd share!), a new Zen music player (don't NEED a new one, but the one I have IS a couple of years old...), the earrings, and a photo printer. He MIGHT get me the game, I KNOW he likes to buy jewelry, and he would get me the coffee mugs if he could find them--I found them on NHL.com--but beyond that, I am having a hard time coming up with ideas. I guess it doesn't help that I told him MANY years ago, that household items ARE NOT Christmas gifts. I don't want a vacuum as a gift, or a set of pots and pans, or... If I told him my problem, he would just say, "Well, isn't it nice to have EVERYTHING you've ever wanted?" I guess I COULD ask for a pair of tickets for a Red Wings game, but then I would have to plan the trip, make the reservations, etc, etc. THAT is something we have to decide TOGETHER.

Today was another banner day for deliveries. We got five packages today and I only have to get another four or so. It'll be nice when all of the things I have ordered finally arrive--then I can actually say "I am DONE!" I really must start wrapping the things I already have, but I'm sure it will be a last minute thing, as usual!

And, Evel Knievel died yesterday in Florida. He was 69.

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Detroit 4, Tampa Bay 2

What do you get when the top point getter--Lecavalier--and the tied-for-second-place point getter--Zetterberg--play against each other? Well, tonight it was ZERO points for either one of them. It was nice to see Datsyuk and Hudler continue with their scoring and it was great that Kopecky was able to score the first game back after an injury. While the game was great, to me, Tampa Bay didn't play well enough for it to qualify as a very good game. Detroit dominated for most of the 60 minutes and Tampa Bay had just momentary flashes of how good they really can be.

The Wings now hold first place in the league with tonight's win and Ottawa's loss. I'm imagining a back-and-forth like this all year long. Detroit probably won't move out of the top three--hopefully--and it will be interesting to see who the third team will be for them to battle with. With injuries, the Wings might be having some difficult games coming up. Hopefully the rest of the team will step up and do what they can do best. There are several players that haven't hit their stride yet, so now would be the time. Ozzie is still remarkable, but Dom HAS to play soon--probably this weekend. HE has to get his head back into the game, and fast.




--DETROIT - NOVEMBER 29: Vincent Lecavalier #4 of the Tampa Bay Lightning battles for the puck with Henrik Zetterberg #40 of the Detroit Red Wings during their NHL game at Joe Louis Arena November 29, 2007 in Detroit, Michigan. (Photo by Dave Sandford/Getty Images)--

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Norwegian? Swedish?

Don't know how many of you have seen this commercial:

Now, I find it quite amusing, but at the same time I get so very frustrated with it! I can't, for the life of me, understand how people don't know their own heritage. I realize that a lot--maybe most--people aren't as in tune with their ancestors as I am, but still...

How do people lose their heritage? Is it from the 'melting pot' syndrome where different nationalities/ethnicities marry? Are we here in UP--where the biggest concentration of Finns are in the US--just that unique and immersed in our own ethnicity that we HAVE to know 'where we came from?' Or is it just the fact that I am 100% pure--as is my husband? I find it very fascinating when people don't know what nationality they are. I don't believe either of my sons-in-law are too sure. So, how about any of you, my readers--am I just an anomaly? I'll be interested to see your responses.

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Campaign 2008 Rundown


The Democrats


Hillary Clinton is a lesbian kitten-killer. Which is it? Either she likes pussy or she doesn't.

John Edwards is cheating on his cancer-stricken wife. Maybe.

Barack Obama is a former druggie. And he may be black.

Dennis Kuchinich is controlled by space aliens. I believe his wife may be a Cylon.

Dennis found his encounter extremely moving. The smell of roses drew him out to my balcony where, when he looked up, he saw a gigantic triangular craft, silent, and observing him. It hovered, soundless, for ten minutes or so, and sped away with a speed he couldn’t comprehend. He said he felt a connection in his heart and heard directions in his mind.”

The Republicans

Rudy Guiliani was behind 911! And, even worse, he's gay.

Mitt Romney is gay. Really gay.

Fred Thompson is gay. Or bisexual.

Michael Hucklee is nuts.

"If you want to believe that you and your family came from apes, that's fine. I'll accept that," he said Friday. "I just don't happen to think that I did."

Tom Tancredo is nuts.

After Tancredo referred to Miami as a "third-world country" in November 2006, President Bush remarked, "What a nut. I'm just disappointed. He's from my own my party. He's a Republican. He doesn't represent my views."

Ron Paul is nuts.

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November 28

People born on this day:

Anna Nicole Smith
Jon Stewart
Judd Nelson
Ed Harris
Alexander Godunov
S. Epatha Merkerson
Paul Schaffer
Randy Newman
Manolo Blahnik

and

CMK!

Yes, Wednesday was my birthday. And, no, I didn't do anything special. K is still on night shift, so that kind of put the crimp into any kind of celebration.

I received cards from the best people in my life and I did get some gifts. A and her husband sent me a book with a collection of Mother Goose & Grimm cartoons in it. That and Far Side are my favorite comic strips. One of my bestest friends brought me a gift last night. I am SOOOO lucky to have her--her sister owns an antique store and puts on estate sales, so my friend gets the neatest gifts. This year, she brought me a Nativity set that is Mexican and looks to be handmade by a local artist. I am continuing my collecting of Nativities and she has added to it for several years. She always finds very unique and intriguing sets. Another bestest friend of mine and I will be going for a day of shopping and then to dinner on Saturday in honor of my birthday. YAY!! Shopping and eating--who could ask for anything more!

I believe K is ecstatic whenever I get a new obsession, as it makes his gift buying so much easier. He, again, got me Red Wing pendants. He said he thought I needed a silver one, so he got that and a new gold one, too. I don't know when he expects me to wear all of the ones he has boughten, but I love them anyway! Here is a picture of my new ones (the silver one is on the right):




AND, here is a picture of the last two he got me--the one I thought I lost is on the left and the replacement he bought me for Christmas last year is the other one:

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Just Stuff

I'm sitting here feeling VERY chilled and couldn't figure out why--then I checked the temp outside and it is only 11 degrees. That MIGHT have something to do with it feeling cool in the house!

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Other than a Christmas tree, my house is all decorated. I finished it on Monday and I'm happy. Now I can look forward to taking all of the decorations down in about a month--I MAY actually wait until a couple of days after Christmas, but probably no longer.

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Here is a question to ponder: Just HOW long must a person NOT bathe in order to smell bad enough for you to smell them two aisles over in a grocery store? I found two people last night that matched this description--and they managed to be EVERYWHERE I was in the store. Frankly, the odor was so bad that it lingered even after they moved on from a section. They were a man and woman in their thirties, I'd say, and didn't LOOK to be exceptionally dirty, but they stunk so bad I thought I might have to leave the store without finishing my shopping.

**********

My husband doesn't have to worry, and never needed to worry, that another man would ever 'woo' me away from him. The only men who hit on/flirt with me seem to be drunks or extremely old. Last night was no exception.

I was at the meat display, trying to decide what to buy for the next few days' meals. Of course, inspiration didn't hit, so I decided on 'ground beast'--again. I ALWAYS put the packages of meat into the plastic bags that the store supplies, so I went to get one. Obviously, the majority of people who shop at this store MUST be 5'5" or more, because I have to stand on tip-toes in order to reach the bags. My struggle was being observed very closely by The Man. The Man was somewhere between the ages of 40 and 160. If he was 40, then the years were not kind to him--if he was 160, then he was pretty well preserved, probably from the booze. He was tall and lanky. To say he was thin doesn't describe it--he leaned more towards the 'heroin chic' look. But, don't get me wrong, NOTHING was 'chic' about this guy. He was bearded--and it was not groomed. I'm not sure what his hair was like because he was wearing a fur-lined bomber hat--with the straps hanging down. I'm not too sure what kind of clothes he was wearing--NOT a tuxedo, I can assure you--but I'm pretty sure he had snowmobile boots on, or some other clunky kind of boot. I do seem to recall the boots were not tied. As I was putting the meat into my cart, The Man came ambling by, leaned towards me and said--in his sexiest voice, I'm sure--"Could they put them any higher?" Then he smiled at me--and I was creeped out. I wonder if this was his best 'go-to' pick-up line? EW. I think I mumbled something and left in a hurry. So, as I said, my husband doesn't have to worry about me, at all. :)

**********

The Wings played a decent game tonight against Calgary. Datsyuk made two amazing goals and had an assist--and he insisted that he didn't have much energy during the game! As Lidstrom said, "I'd like to see what he could do when he's feeling good then." Words cannot describe how he plays--it is pure joy to watch. Z got another assist tonight and is still in the top 5 for assists AND goals scored. The Wings are at the top of the league with the win, but Ottawa is right behind. Osgood is at the top in goals against and Lidstrom is number three on the plus/minus list and Datsyuk is number two for shootout goals, so they ARE doing something right. They just aren't doing well against the Central Division teams. My boy got his fourth goal of the season--YAY!! Unfortunately, Draper sprained his knee during the game and won't be back for a bit. Ellis is still healing from the hit he took a couple of games ago, but Kopecky will probably be back on Thursday. Hudler took a nasty hit from Phanuef, which took him a few seconds to get up from. He finished the game, so I'm hoping nothing shows up later. Phaneuf is about 6'2" and Hudler is only 5'9", so it was not fun to see--and Lilja took exception to such a big guy going after one of the Wings' finesse players, so he went after Phaneuf. Now, it wasn't much of a fight--not many of the Europeans fight and the Swedes fight VERY rarely--but Lilja DID manage to take Phaneuf down, which was a victory. As is the case with most fights these days--unless Downey is involved, of course--it was mostly pushing and wrestling and dancing around the ice. But, it was good to see Lilja stand up for a teammate--something more of the bigger guys on the team need to do.

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Trent Lott, the Faerie Queen?

"The most important rule you can follow when taking people's money in exchange for sex is that—no matter what—their lives stay their own and whatever passes between the two of you remains private. Period."

I understand that Benjamin Nicholas is now denying any relationship with Trent Lott. But then he would, wouldn't he, according to his own "rule."

"I will continue to offer a great sense of confidentiality to the people I see. I have not, nor have I ever seen or had contact with Senator Trent Lott. It's as simple as that. It never happened."

The first sentence here raises the possibility that the rest of it is a lie to protect a client. I admire his professionalism.

Yet another test of Buell's Law: "If a prominent male political figure is accused of some sort of sexual misconduct or indiscretion--HE DID IT."

Update: BigHead DC posts the emails the escort says he never sent.

Update: From Down With Tyranny

I have it from a reliable DC source that "Lott would cruise the area gay bars whilst wearing a different toupée from his usual one. He apparently thought that was enough of a disguise."

I think AmbienteG nails it:

El chapero, temeroso de perder clientela en la capital del reino, escribe en su blog que nunca ha tenido una relación con el recién dimitido político al tiempo que defiende la discreción en su trabajo.

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Tuesday

Thank goodness I have an appointment to get my hair cut and colored. It has been so long since I've had it done that I'm actually getting an idea as to what my real color is! Sad.

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A meeting of the minds

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The Times mentions the Hillary/Huma rumors which is all it takes for Drudge to run with it. This is about as far as this story will go unless some evidence surfaces that it is actually true, which is unlikely.

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Sunday

Not a lot going on around here. K is off today, but goes back on nights tomorrow--this is his 'three-one-three' stretch (three days, one day off, three nights). Then next week Thursday he goes on his week off again. After all these years, you would think it would get easier living the 'shift-work' life, but it doesn't. :)

We still don't have snow on the ground--which doesn't bother me. It is so much easier to get around without the snow--I much prefer driving on clear roads. DUH! Again, the forecast is for snow the middle of the week, so we'll see.

Just talked to C and she is doing as well as can be expected. She heard that her OB is booked solid through the month of December for surgeries, so she can't even ask him to take the baby a bit early. Right now, she is scheduled JUST after 40 weeks--possibly the longest she has ever held on to a pregnancy. If she didn't have to worry about the baby's health, she would want to have things start happening NOW--she isn't the happiest of people when she's pregnant. I wonder WHY she keeps getting pregnant, then?

The Wings lost again last night. While they didn't play well until the third, they DID come back and tie up the game with two goals only 5 seconds apart! THAT was exciting, to say the least. Ozzy did a wonderful job--until the shoot-out. Don't know why he fell apart like he did. The next game is on Tuesday and it hasn't been announced as to who will be in net--I KNOW Dom has to get his game back, but he has lost three in a row since coming back from his injury, so it is scary to see him start. They just haven't done well, at all, since they had the long break after the last west coast trip. I hope they didn't peak too early--October was a great month for them. Oh, well, there still is 3/4 of the season to go--anything can still happen. And probably will.

Only two weeks of classes and then a week of exams left and The Nephew will be gone. Again I will say, he is not hard to be around, but it will be nice to have my house back! The time is going too slowly. :)

Well, I've farted around long enough. I have to get going and do some more towards decorating this house. Again, oh, yay.

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The Earliest Yet

I must say I surprised myself tonight--I had my first meltdown of the season! I think this is the earliest this has EVER happened. I always know it is going to come--usually more than once--but I definitely wasn't expecting to go off the day after Thanksgiving!

For anyone who has read this blog for a while, this isn't news to you. To the rest, here it is: I. HATE. CHRISTMAS! While I love the meaning behind it, I have rarely had a wonderful Christmas--and a lot of the reason is The Mother. She lost her mother as an infant and was abandoned by her father. Every year he promised her he would see her at Christmas and every year he didn't show up. This, of course, stayed with her as an adult and she would be very depressed during the season. Even though she tried to keep her feelings from me--at least when I was very young--she wasn't quite able to pull it off. The fact that we weren't very well off meant I couldn't have the things other kids did, so, combined with The Mother's depression and my not getting what I wanted, I developed a loathing for Christmas, as well.

When I got my own family, I tried desperately to make the 'perfect' Christmas. Every year I worked myself to the point of exhaustion and every year I failed in some way to have a 'Norman Rockwell' Christmas. I began my Christmas baking at least a month ahead of time--I always felt as if I didn't do enough if there were less than 20 dozen cookies in the freezer. I would make at least 6 loaves of nisu--a Finnish cardamom sweet bread--caramel corn, peanut brittle, fudge, Chex mix, and 6 loaves of cranberry bread. (I could have done more, I just have forgotten.) I also went through an extended period of making most of the gifts we gave to the families--I made so many crocheted snowflakes that I can't even come close to estimating the dozens I have done over the years. And I decorated our house to within an inch of its life--I always called the decor 'tacky Christmas boutique!' Every place a decoration could be placed, there was one. All of the windows and doorways had lights and garland--we had two decorated trees. I have a wall of bookshelves in the dining room and I would remove all of the items from those, just so I would have a place to display some of my Christmas collections. I literally went crazy at Christmas.

Maybe things would have been okay if The Mother wouldn't have been the way she is. When the girls were very young, we would 'go home' for Christmas. I would usually be there for a few days before Christmas and K would follow on his days off. We did this every year until a few years after our youngest was born. It just got to be too difficult to haul all of the gifts up there and then haul them back here every year, so we stopped doing it. Besides, I felt we needed to start our own traditions. This didn't go over too well with The Mother. She felt as if we had a tradition by going there for the holidays. (Funny thing is, WE always had to go to them--The Family has never made the effort to come here to our house!) Not only did I want our own family to be together, but I needed to break away from The Mother's possessiveness. Our time there wasn't pleasant for me at all.

When we would be 'back home' for Christmas, the time went like this: on Christmas Eve we would go to K's parent's house where we had a meal and then all of the kids opened their non-Santa gifts. Considering there were at least ten grandchildren, this took a bit of time. BUT, we were always trying to rush our way through things because MY family expected us to be at Christmas Eve church services with them and THEN open gifts at The Parent's house afterward. The Mother never was satisfied with the amount of time we spent with them--she always thought any amount of time we spent with my in-laws was too much. This always put me under tremendous amounts of stress. And she was always so jealous of the time I was away from her that I had to downplay any good I felt while with my in-laws. It just got to be so much easier to stay at home--and my stress level wasn't nearly as high.

So, there is the background of my Christmas depression. Add to this my tendency toward SAD and the fact that I have nothing to do with my family and you can see where my dislike for the holidays comes from. Still, despite all of what I went through in years past, I find myself getting very nostalgic, sentimental, and weepy at this time of year. (My doctor offered to give me a prescription--he thinks it is mostly SAD--but I know I will be much better on January 2nd, so I declined.) There definitely are times when I wish we were still part of a family and able to celebrate together, but that ship has sailed. I have had to--for my health--distance myself from The Family and I can't go back anymore. So, I will continue to cry at Folger's commercials and know that this, too, shall pass.

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Former Secret Service Agent Abraham Bolden on the Chicago Assassination Plot

Right-wing radical and Kennedy denouncer Thomas Vallee, had arranged to be off work for JFK's visit, Vallee, an expert marksman, was arrested with an M1 rifle, a handgun and 3,000 rounds of ammo. But then there was the phone call to federal agents from a motel manager concerning what was she saw in a room rented by two Cuban nationals.

"Had seen lying on the bed several automatic rifles with telescopic sights, with an outline of the route that President Kennedy was supposed to take in Chicago that would bring him past that building," said former Secret Service agent Abraham Bolden.

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Popular Science - 2007 Innovation Of The Year

Nanosolar's approach combines the advantages of thin films with the power of electrically matched cells, resulting in better panel efficiency distribution and yield. Image Credit: Nanosolar

Popular Science - 2007 Innovation Of The Year

PowerSheet is “green”, aluminum silver, and inked all over and comes in as Popular Science’s 2007 Innovation Of The Year.

The PowerSheet represents a new way capturing energy from the sun. What makes the PowerSheet a real innovation is that the manufacturing process does not use the expensive and limiting method of using silicon on which to generate electricity. Basically, Nanosolar, a Silicon Valley based company, was able to sandwich thin layers of paint that has the property to convert light to electricity, in aluminum sheets and deliver solar conversion at a fraction of the cost of traditional solar panels.
Image Credit: Nanosolar

PowerSheet says it all in its name. The new “sandwiched sheet” material can be made into roofing materials, window coatings, and other exterior wraps that will have the ability to grab power from the sun. The technology breakthrough moves the cost from about $3 per watt of energy for traditional silicon solar cells, $1 per watt for coal, to as little as 30 cents a watt for the Nanosolar PowerSheet.

How It Works

This excerpted and edited from Popular Science Magazine -

The New Dawn of Solar
By MICHAEL MOYER – Popular Science - 11-22-2007

Imagine a solar panel without the panel. Just a coating, thin as a layer of paint, that takes light and converts it to electricity.
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Consider solar-powered buildings stretching not just across sunny Southern California, but through China and India and Kenya as well, because even in those countries, going solar will be cheaper than burning coal. That’s the promise of thin-film solar cells: solar power that’s ubiquitous because it’s cheap. The basic technology has been around for decades, but this year, Silicon Valley–based Nanosolar created the manufacturing technology that could make that promise a reality.

Accelerated lifetime testing is possible through specialized equipment that performs many –40°C to +85°C heat cycles per day, that exposes solar cells to intense UV light, and that exposes them to intense humidity. This has made it possible for us to study potential degradation mechanisms at accelerated time scale during product development. Image Credit: Nanosolar

The company produces its PowerSheet solar cells with printing-press-style machines that set down a layer of solar-absorbing nano-ink onto metal sheets as thin as aluminum foil, so the panels can be made for about a tenth of what current panels cost and at a rate of several hundred feet per minute.
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Cost has always been one of solar’s biggest problems. Traditional solar cells require silicon, and silicon is an expensive commodity (exacerbated currently by a global silicon shortage). What’s more, says Peter Harrop, chairman of electronics consulting firm IDTechEx, “it has to be put on glass, so it’s heavy, dangerous, expensive to ship and expensive to install because it has to be mounted.” And up to 70 percent of the silicon gets wasted in the manufacturing process. That means even the cheapest solar panels cost about $3 per watt of energy they go on to produce. To compete with coal, that figure has to shrink to just $1 per watt.

Printing is by far the simplest, highest-yield, and most capital-efficient technique for depositing thin films. Printing is extremely fast; the equipment involved is easy to use and maintain; and it works in plain air (no vacuum chamber required). Another key advantage of a printable CIGS ink is that one can print it just where one wants it to be, achieving high materials utilization of the semiconductor material. Image Credit: Nanosolar

Nanosolar’s cells use no silicon, and the company’s manufacturing process allows it to create cells that are as efficient as most commercial cells for as little as 30 cents a watt. “You’re talking about printing rolls of the stuff—printing it on the roofs of 18-wheeler trailers, printing it on garages, printing it wherever you want it,” says Dan Kammen, founding director of the Renewable and Appropriate Energy Laboratory at the University of California at Berkeley. “It really is quite a big deal in terms of altering the way we think about solar and in inherently altering the economics of solar.”

Highlight 2007: Parallel construction of factories in California and Germany commences. The product specification is finalized in close collaboration with leading customers. Image Credit: Nanosolar

In San Jose, Nanosolar has built what will soon be the world’s largest solar-panel manufacturing facility.
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Right now, the biggest question for Nanosolar is not if its products can work, but rather if it can make enough of them. California, for instance, recently launched the Million Solar Roofs initiative, which will provide tax breaks and rebates to encourage the installation of 100,000 solar roofs per year, every year, for 10 consecutive years (the state currently has 30,000 solar roofs). The company is ready for the solar boom. “Most important,” Harrop says, “Nanosolar is putting down factories instead of blathering to the press and doing endless experiments. These guys are getting on with it, and that is impressive.”
Reference Here>>

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Not A Bad Day

Altogether, my Thanksgiving wasn't bad.

--I got to sleep late--thanks to K, for peeling the potatoes and rutabagas.

--I watched The Blues Brothers for the Nth time--one of my all-time favorite movies. I'm sad that John Belushi died so young.

--I ate till I was sick--isn't that what you're SUPPOSED to do on Thanksgiving?

--And I got to watch the Red Wings play--they lost, to NASHVILLE!, but I got to see a game, nonetheless.

I think the only thing that kept the day from being pretty near perfect was the Wings' loss!

Tomorrow is Black Friday and everyone knows where I will be: in my bed sleeping! I'm almost done with my shopping, so I don't need to do anything as foolish as going out on Black Friday. Instead, I will begin my Christmas decorating. Oh, yay.

So, how many of you are brave enough to face the crowds on Black Friday? I've done it twice in my life--once I went by myself and once I went with my youngest. I must admit, the day I went with A was one of my most favorite memories. She got into the spirit very well--the moment we hit the open doors of a store, she would SPRINT to whatever we were there to buy. It was a lot of fun seeing her in action--she would take a runner's stance and she'd be off, long, blond hair flying behind her as she raced down the aisles. I only wish I had had a video camera to capture the moments. It was fun.

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Happy Thanksgiving

We are going to have a quiet day on Thanksgiving--just K and me. And I am perfectly okay with that. K took the day off, so we will just cook and eat. He will watch football and I will get to see the Wings play tomorrow night, so all is right with the world. (They play tonight, too, so I really am happy.) The turkey is in the oven--I decided to do it and the gravy today--and the rest of the meal will be cooked tomorrow. It will be nice to have the turkey carcass stripped and thrown out before we have the main meal. Tonight I will make my stock for turkey-vegetable soup, to be made at a later date. I may even cheat a little and partially abandon the South Beach diet tomorrow--I MUST have a little bit of mashed potatoes and stuffing!

So, I want to wish a Happy Thanksgiving to one and all--I hope you have a day to be thankful for!

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Washington Post reporter Jefferson Morley has a new Kennedy assassination article in Playboy: The Man Who Didn't Talk

Jeff also has a new book coming out: Our Man in Mexico: Winston Scott and the Hidden History of the CIA

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Hillary and Huma on video together

Not the rumored sex video, however. (Rumors have to start somewhere.) Huma attacked by American flags. May be some symbolism there. About half-way down the page.

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8 Foot Long Scorpion Found To Live In The Sea

This image is a combination of a computer generated image issued by the University of Bristol in England released on Tuesday Nov. 20, 2007 showing a size comparison between a human an ancient sea scorpion (on the left). A claw fossil found (on the right) in Germany indicates the ancient sea scorpion was once 2.5 metres (8 feet) long, making it the biggest bug ever known to have existed. Image Credit: University of Bristol - Oblate Spheroid (combined images found at The Royal Society website)

8 Foot Long Scorpion Found To Live In The Sea

BUGS, BUGS, BUGS! Ancient life here on the Oblate Spheroid was quite a different proposition.

In a press release from The Royal Society, London, scientists excavating a site in Germany have uncovered a fossil that comes from a scorpion that lived in the oceans.

The fossil was of a claw that is believed to have once belonged to a scorpion that measured approximately eight feet long. The scientists believe that given the oxygen levels that were prevalent here on Earth 390 million years ago, all insects were much larger.

If human life had been here at this time, bugs would think that WE were the pests and that they needed to control us. Terminix would have a decidedly different mission statement.

This item from The Royal Society, London – Science News -

Giant scorpion claw discovered
Press Release - The Royal Society, London - 21 Nov 2007

Nowadays arthropods such as spiders and crabs are considered to be small animals but the discovery of a 390 million year old giant fossil claw, published today in the Royal Society journal Biology Letters, shows that they were much bigger than previously thought.

The claw - found in Germany from a sea scorpion (eurypterid) Jaekelopterus rhananine - is 46cm long. This would mean that the scorpion's body was 2.5 metres long making it the largest arthropod ever to have evolved.

Dr Simon Braddy, University of Bristol said, "This is an amazing discovery. We have known for some time that the fossil record yields monster millipedes, super-sized scorpions, colossal cockroaches, and jumbo dragonflies, but we never realised, until now, just how big some of these ancient creepy-crawlies were.

Arthropods have segmented bodies, jointed limbs and a hard external skeleton for example insects, spiders and crabs. Gigantism normally occurs because of high oxygen levels in the atmosphere but it can also result from other factors such as responses to predators, courtship behaviours and competition.

Dr Braddy continues: "There is no simple single explanation. It is more likely that some ancient arthropods were big because there was little competition from the vertebrates, as we see today. If the amount of oxygen in the atmosphere suddenly increased, it doesn't mean all the bugs would get bigger."
Reference Here>>

This excerpted and edited from Associated Press via Yahoo! –

Scientists find fossil of enormous bug
By THOMAS WAGNER, London, Associated Press Writer – 11-21-2007 – 5:00 AM PT

The study, published online Tuesday in the Royal Society's journal Biology Letters, means that before this sea scorpion became extinct it was much longer than today's average man is tall.

Prof. Jeorg W. Schneider, a paleontologist at Freiberg Mining Academy in southeastern Germany, said the study provides valuable new information about "the last of the giant scorpions."

Schneider, who was not involved in the study, said these scorpions "were dominant for millions of years because they didn't have natural enemies. Eventually they were wiped out by large fish with jaws and teeth."

Braddy's partner paleontologist Markus Poschmann found the claw fossil several years ago in a quarry near Prum, Germany, that probably had once been an ancient estuary or swamp.

"I was loosening pieces of rock with a hammer and chisel when I suddenly realized there was a dark patch of organic matter on a freshly removed slab. After some cleaning I could identify this as a small part of a large claw," said Poschmann, another author of the study.

"Although I did not know if it was more complete or not, I decided to try and get it out. The pieces had to be cleaned separately, dried, and then glued back together. It was then put into a white plaster jacket to stabilize it," he said.

Eurypterids, or ancient sea scorpions, are believed to be the extinct aquatic ancestors of today's scorpions and possibly all arachnids, a class of joint-legged, invertebrate animals, including spiders, scorpions, mites and ticks.
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Braddy said the sea scorpions also were cannibals that fought and ate one other, so it helped to be as big as they could be.

"The competition between this scorpion and its prey was probably like a nuclear standoff, an effort to have the biggest weapon," he said. "Hundreds of millions of years ago, these sea scorpions had the upper hand over vertebrates — backboned animals like ourselves."
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But the next time you swat a fly, or squish a spider at home, Braddy said, try to "think about the insects that lived long ago. You wouldn't want to swat one of those."
Reference Here>>

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Moorman photo for sale

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Photo of the day (via Rising Hegemon)

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Two bird brains

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I cannot talk about Pavel Datsyuk enough! He is spectacular to watch!
Although at first he might not of been on his game? At the end though he pulled it off.
Tying the game 4-4 Datsyuk made a shot top shelf past Leclaire.
Then he scored his shootout goal with a shot, rather than a move, but just by him changing it up did the trick.
He also had an assist to Lidstrom earlier in the game.
Great game for the Red Wings, after losing a few...
Final 5-4 The Red Wings win.

The losses against the Chicago worry me though?

Why Chicago...?

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Hmmm!

I remember reading/hearing a long time ago, that if you stood with your arms straight out from the sides of your body and measured from the tip of your middle finger on the right hand to the tip of your middle finger on your left hand, the number would equal your height. My number falls short by several inches. Do you think this could, in ANY way, be part of the reason I can't reach things on the second shelf of my kitchen cupboards?

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Sunday Religion Corner: Djinn Energy

A leading Pakistani nuclear scientist who was questioned by the Pakistani government last week concerning his ties to the Taliban is known as a proponent of "Islamic science," a weird hybrid of scientific terminology and Islamic lore.

Sultan Bashiruddin Mehmood is a pioneer in the development of nuclear technology in Pakistan. But in 1980, as a senior director of the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission, he "recommended that djinns [or genies], being fiery creatures, ought to be tapped as a free source of energy. By this means, a final solution to Pakistan's energy problems would be found."

This episode was recounted by Pakistani physicist Pervez Hoodbhoy in his enlightening book "Islam and Science: Religious Orthodoxy and the Battle for Rationality" (Zed Books, 1991).

In a Wall Street Journal article on Islamic science (13 September 1988), Dr. Mehmood noted that King Solomon had harnessed energy from djinns. "I think that if we develop our souls we can develop communications with them," he said.

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The person who is certain, and who claims divine warrant for his certainty, belongs now to the infancy of our species. It may be a long farewell, but it has begun and, like all farewells, should not be protracted.

--Christopher Hitchens

A religion is never "nobler" than when it has come to the point of taking itself for a superstition and witnessing its own eclipse with detachment.

--E.M Cioran

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Robert Novak:

Agents of Sen. Hillary Clinton are spreading the word in Democratic circles that she has scandalous information about her principal opponent for the party's presidential nomination, Sen. Barack Obama, but has decided not to use it. The nature of the alleged scandal was not disclosed.

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Suck It Up! – Nigersaurus taqueti Breaks The Rules

Sculptor Tyler Keillor reconstructed a flesh head and neck of Nigersaurus under the direction of paleontologists Paul Sereno and Jeff Wilson. Image Credit: Tyler Keillor - Project Exploration

Suck It Up! – Nigersaurus taqueti Breaks The Rules

Life forms here, found on the Oblate Spheroid, at times, become really baffling.

Out on the Saharan desert landscape in Niger, Paleontologist, Dr. Paul Sereno and his colleagues dug up bones that, at first blush, did not seem to make any sense. The teeth were lined up in a straight row at the very front of the jaw. The jaw itself, had a very unusual shape, in that it was the opposite of most jaw shapes (most shapes are narrow at the front and widen toward the back to provide chewing leverage).

Inside the bizarre jaws of Nigersaurus. Image Credit: M. Hettwer - Project Exploration

The broad front part of the jawbone structure along with the unique structure and placement of the teeth, it was deduced, were perfectly suited for sucking, straining, and grinding potential food substances (ie. vacuum-like) before having the digestible material hit the stomach.

The Nigersaurus taqueti went on display November 15, 2007 at the National Geographic Society headquarters in Washington D.C. and will remain there until March 2008.

DESERT WASTELAND - The discovery site is located in the sandy Ténéré Desert in the Sahara; 110 million years ago, it was a lush environment with broad rivers. Image Credit: M. Hettwer - Project Exploration

This excerpted from AP via YAHOO! -

Dinosaur found with vacuum-cleaner mouth
By RANDOLPH E. SCHMID, AP Science Writer – Washington, D.C. – 11-16-2007

A dinosaur with a strange jaw designed to hoover-up food grazed in what is now the Sahara Desert 110 million years ago. Remains of the creature that "flabbergasted" paleontologist Paul Sereno went on display Thursday at the headquarters of the National Geographic Society.
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"The biggest eureka moment was when I was sitting at the desk with this jaw," he [Sereno] said. "I was sitting down just looking at it and saw a groove and ... realized that all the teeth were up front."

It's not normally a good idea to have all the teeth in the front of the jaw — hundreds in this case.

Sure, "it's great for nipping," Sereno said, "but that's not where you want do your food processing."

"That was an amazing moment, we knew we had something no one had ever seen before," Sereno recalled.
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While Nigersaurus' mouth is shaped like the wide intake slot of a vacuum, it has something lacking in most cleaners — hundreds of tiny, sharp teeth to grind up its food.

The 30-foot-long Nigersaurus had a feather-light skull held close to the ground to graze like an ancient cow. Sereno described it as a younger cousin of the North American dinosaur Diplodicus.

Its broad muzzle contained more than 50 columns of teeth lined up tightly along the front edge of its jaw. Behind each tooth more were lined up as replacements when one broke off.

A computer-generated endocast of Nigersaurus' brain was created by CT scanning the well-preserved brain case. Image Credit: Project Exploration

Using CT scans the researchers were able study the inside of the animal's skull where the orientation of canals in the organ that helps keep balance disclosed the habitual low pose of the head, they reported.
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The dinosaur's anatomy and lifestyle were to be detailed in the Nov. 21 issue of PLoS ONE, the online journal from the Public Library of Science, and in the December issue of National Geographic magazine.
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The research was partly funded by National Geographic where, Sereno said, "you can see the hideous jaw elements in person."
Reference Here>>

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Just A Few Words

--K is working night shift for the next few days. It always is kind of nice to have the place to myself--I get to do what I have to in the time I want. It looks as if he will be working overtime the first week in December--always nice to have that little extra boost to the paycheck just before Christmas!

--Haven't mentioned C's pregnancy very much because she hasn't kept me too well informed. I'm not sure if she is trying to shield me or if she is just too busy, but we haven't talked all that much this month. I DO know she had contractions sometime in October and had to go to the hospital. She was there for a few hours and they got them to stop. She was sent home with the instructions to 'stay off her feet.' HAH!!! She has five children at home--three of which are 4 and under--so HOW is she supposed to do bed rest? That was the most ridiculous thing I ever heard. Her OB has given her different instructions and she seems to be doing okay. She has started to get one injection of progesterone per week with the hopes that she doesn't go into labor or have her water break. All she wants is to keep this baby in for four more weeks--if it comes any sooner, she has to be sent here for the NICU. Not a great time of year to be away from your family, for sure.

--Deer hunting season started on Thursday and I survived--by NOT going to the grocery store on Tuesday or Wednesday. There weren't all that many hunters in the store last weekend, but there were enough. You can always tell the guys shopping for deer camp. First, they have lost looks on their faces. Next, they have an abundance of beef, beer, and chips in their shopping carts. Every deer hunter has a list he is reading from--well, the ones that have done this for years, anyway--and he studies it intensely to make sure he doesn't forget anything. (I STILL think most of them probably forget the toilet paper.) It is strange, but when you find a hunter shopping by himself, there is more of a tendency for a shopping list--when you find a group of four or more, they usually DON'T have one. They probably think that what one doesn't remember, the others will. It is truly an experience watching them, though.

--We have had snow again this week, but not nearly as much as last week. Again, it has pretty much melted and we should be getting more next week. It definitely is feeling like winter, though--the temps are in the upper 20s and lower 30s at night.

--It has taken me this long since Tuesday night to actually realize I DID see the game the way it happened. The Wings were ahead 2-0 after the first period--then they let 4 unanswered goals go in during the second period. Hasek was pulled from the game and Ozzy finished the night. While baby boy scored a goal in the third, Z's point streak ended on Tuesday. The final score was 4-3 in favor of St Louis. It was the first time this season that they lost two games in a row--and they deserved to lose with the way they played the second and third periods. I certainly hope they do better tomorrow night, but I'm not going to hold my breath--they are playing Chicago. Again. Heaven help the Wings.

--To add insult to injury, the Wings couldn't even get home from St Louis on Tuesday. While making a turn on the runway, their plane--Red Bird One--ran off the tarmac and got stuck in mud. They weren't going anywhere. The team had to leave the plane and catch a charter the following day while the plane was looked after. This was a first for me--never heard of a plane--especially a big one like that--getting stuck in mud before.

--And finally, a few of the more interesting reports from the police log:

\Door making banging sounds. Why would you call the police for that? This one I don't understand.
\Drunken person sleeping in resident's bed. I think the thing that should be of concern is HOW did the drunken person get into the house in order TO sleep in the resident's bed? And to top it all off, this happened at 5:45 PM. HMMMMM.
\Health and safety complaint--person walking around in shorts. Now, nothing says that the person was ONLY wearing shorts, so isn't it up to the individual if he/she wants to freeze their noogies off and wear shorts in freezing weather? I guess my response to this one is: MIND YOUR OWN F*CKING BUSINESS!
\Unwanted disorderly person. As opposed to a WANTED disorderly person?
\Roommate locked out of house. Quite a fight there, hey?
\Coyote sighting. Okay, maybe I can understand this, but still... We live in a rural area--I have more wildlife in my yard in one year than the majority of Americans see in their entire lifetime, so WHY call the cops about seeing a coyote? Maybe it's just me, but I don't understand this.
\Larceny of a bow. I am REALLY hoping this pertains to archery and NOT gift package ribbons. :)

So, that concludes the most interesting items from the police log for the past few days. We really DO live in quite an unexciting area of the world--and we like it like that! :D

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Pictures

Yesterday when I posted, I was too tired to look for the pictures to go along with the post, so here they are.

This is People's cover declaring Matt Damon as 'The Sexiest Man Alive.' (Believe me, they could have found a much better picture of him!)




Wentworth Miller has to be seen in action--as in Prison Break. While he does photograph well, his brooding persona in the show is what gives him the sexy factor.




Nothing more to say about Hugh Laurie--just going to post the pic. :)




As I said, Jensen Ackles is nummy! Granted, he's a little young, but oh so nice to look at. :)




And we can't forget Alex O'Loughlin. I think part of his appeal, too, is the broodiness of the character he plays on Moonlight. Very easy on the eyes.

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Sexiest Man

So, Matt Damon was named People magazine's 'Sexist Man Alive' for 2007. Eh. While I think he is very cute and have enjoyed many of his movies, I don't see him as 'sexiest man' material. But then, I cannot for the life of me understand Ben Affleck, George Clooney, or Brad Pitt being given the title, either. (Oh, I REALLY want to know what kind of drugs the voters were on the year Justin Timberlake was picked 'sexiest'--I really want to avoid THOSE drugs at all costs!!!!)

Okay, now that I have said who I DON'T think is sexiest, who would I pick? Don't have a clue. I do have a few pieces of eye-candy that I like watching, but as for which one is the best? No one comes to mind. But, nice nonetheless are:

--Wentworth Miller. He is one of the reasons I keep watching Prison Break--and this season, there are very few other reasons, believe me.

--Hugh Laurie. Okay, he isn't classically good-looking, but he is quite fine. Add to it his acting ability AND his sense of humor--LOVE him on talk shows--he's not hard to take.

--Jensen Ackles. This is one mighty fine looking guy! Quite nummy, actually. I certainly hope to see much more of him when Supernatural is done, but for now I will get my fill of him on Thursday nights.

--Alex O'Loughlin. I think he is the only reason I continue to watch Moonlight--well, Jason Dohring is okay, too. :) What is it about Australians, hmmm? Yes, another nummy.

These are just some who I think could be called sexier than Damon, but I still have yet to find THE sexiest. (And I only included ones who are in shows I currently watch. There are others, but they don't come to mind right now.)

I am thinking my whole problem right now is age--most of the eye candy is so young that I feel like a dirty old woman if I think "Yum. NICE." I do have the tendency to look at young guys and think more along the line of 'cute' instead of 'GORGEOUS.' It just feels like lusting after a daughter's boyfriend, or something. {shudder}

A lot of women find athletes do it for them. Unfortunately, I am not finding anyone on the Red Wings that get more than a passing 'cute' from me. (Of course, most of THEM are young enough to be my kid, so...) Also, too many hockey players have faces 'only a mother could love'--comes from too many sticks and pucks hitting them. (Come on now, just how many times can you get 20 stitches to the face and still be considered 'pretty?') Oh, well. And with all the padding hockey players wear, well you can't even tell if they have nice bods! (I'm always amazed at how SMALL many players look in regular street clothes!) I have to hand it to football--they sure know how to dress players in a way to keep women interested.

Now I will ask my readers: Just who would YOU pick for 'Sexiest Man Alive?' (And, NO, you cannot choose your significant other--this is just celebrities, thank you! :)

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SPACE CHICKEN - Revisited One Year Later

Image Credit: KFC

SPACE CHICKEN - Revisited One Year Later

Kentucky Fried Chicken in a PR inspired marketing effort, decided that it was time to lay down a "first" that no other company can claim. KFC fashioned a company logo on the desert floor outside of Las Vegas, Nevada. A full color logo (made with tiles) that is large enough to be seen from space.

Image Credit: KFC

World's largest logo here on the Oblate Spheroid!

This from Reuters -

KFC targets extraterrestrials with huge logo
Reuters - Tue Nov 14, 2006 2:48pm ET

NEW YORK (Reuters) - From space, extraterrestrials and astronauts can look back to earth and see The Great Wall of China -- and KFC's Colonel Sanders.

The KFC Corp. on Tuesday launched a rebranding campaign with an 87,500 square-foot image of Colonel Sanders in the Nevada desert which the company says makes Kentucky Fried Chicken the world's first brand visible from space.

"If there are extraterrestrials in outer space, KFC wants to become their restaurant of choice," KFC President Gregg Dedrick said in a statement.

The logo consists of 65,000 one-foot by one-foot painted tile pieces that were assembled like a giant jigsaw puzzle.

"If we hear back from a life form in space today - whether NASA astronauts or a signal from some life form on Mars - we'll send up some Original Recipe Chicken," said Dedrick.

The logo also depicts an updated version of KFC icon Colonel Sanders who wears his signature string tie but with a red apron instead of his classic white double-breasted suit.

The logo was built at the remote Area 51 desert near Rachel, Nevada, which KFC said was known as the UFO capital of the world and famous for its association with UFO conspiracy theories.
Reference Here>>

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Letter by Oswald Is Found With Late Senator’s Papers

The box had sat untouched in the attic of a Washington house until recently, when the sale of the house forced some cleaning out, some poking around in long-overlooked places.

Inside the box was a manila file folder headed: “Lee Harvey Oswald.”

Inside the folder was a handwritten letter that Oswald had sent from Russia, complaining that the Soviet Union would not grant him an exit visa to the United States. It was addressed to Senator John Tower of Texas, who had lived in the house with his second wife in the 1980s.

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Photo of the Day

(since yesterday's photo was so gruesome)

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Photo of the Day

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Back Again

We did our day run yesterday and I shopped until my little feet about fell off. As of today, I am almost done with my Christmas shopping. And for someone who hates the season as much as I do, that's saying a lot. At this rate, I will be done with everything before Thanksgiving--a first for me!

Other than the gift buying, we did our usual running around--pet store, William-Sonoma, Sam's Club, DSW, etc. I am going to have to cut myself off of DSW, however--I don't seem to be able to go into that place without buying something! Yesterday I was a woman on a mission, however--I decided that I needed to get a REAL pair of winter boots. Now, for someone who lives in the land of snow and cold, it is ridiculous for me not to have a good pair of winter boots. But, all of these years I just figured since I don't NEED to leave the house most days, my hiking boots were good enough for when I needed boots. Not the best thinking on my part. So anyway, I went on the hunt for a good pair of boots. My first thought was to get a pair of UGGS--I figured they were SO out of fashion after this many years, that I could get them. They are made well and are very warm, so... But, of course, the one pair that was in the store didn't quite float my boat, so I passed. After wandering and pondering, I decided on a pair of Rocket Dogs. Kind of cute, but the selling point was the warmth and the comfort level--so comfortable that I won't even need to break them in! (And with MY feet, that is a miracle!) So, what do you think--here is a pic:



Nothing big-time going on here. The Nephew will be leaving back early this week because hunting season starts on Thursday. His professor says he will excuse anyone that doesn't show up for class, even though the opening day of deer season is NOT an official holiday here. I don't know why they don't just close everything down for the day--the amount of absenteeism on the first day is astounding!

The Wings play in St. Louis tonight--hopefully they can make up for the embarrassment of Sunday night's loss to Chicago! I just don't understand WHAT the problem is, but Detroit almost looks like a deer caught in headlights this year against the Blackhawks--makes no sense whatsoever. And I would like to know who lit a fire under Lang. When he was with the Wings, he couldn't do anything--now that he is with Chicago, he can't be stopped when they play Detroit! Unbelievable. As I said, hopefully they will redeem themselves tonight.

Even though the Wings' winning streak was stopped--once again--at 9 games, Z continues on his streak: 17 games with at least one point in each game. He still is the leader in the league. I will hate to see this end, which it will, of course.

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IBM Blue Gene Times Three – On The Road To “Petaflop”

Technicians at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California install the world's most powerful computer, an IBM Blue Gene/L supercomputer. The machine is 50,000 times more powerful than a home PC. Image Credit: Livermore National Laboratory

IBM Blue Gene Times Three – On The Road To “Petaflop”

Yesterday, IBM announced that its experimental high-speed computer located at the Livermore Labs in northern California just passed by the world’s fastest calculation processing mark. IBM was able to clobber the speed of processing mark, not by just a little margin … but by three times faster than any other manufactures computer.

Blue Gene Logo - Image Credit: IBM Corporation

The current speed of calculation measurement is called a “teraflop” and this is defined as - (tera FLoating point OPerations per second) One trillion floating point operations per second. To visualize what this means is a little like … well, one can’t! IBM was able to calculate at a speed of teraflop times 478 or 478 trillion calculations per second.

What is probably more amazing, engineers at IBM feel that they will be able to more than double the speed of calculation and processing mark announced today sometime next year. That speed milestone will be measured as a “petaflop” which is defined as - One Quadrillion Floating Point Operations Per Second.

To be honest, we at Oblate Spheroid don’t even know how many zeros a “QUADRILLION” has but we know it has to be way fast.

This announcement and materials were found through The News Market -

IBM Blue Gene Shatters Record as World's Fastest Computer
IBM Corporation Press Release – 12-NOV-2007

IBM’s Blue Gene/L supercomputer is once again the fastest computer in the world, a record it has held for the past four years. The official TOP 500 Supercomputers list, released Nov. 12, reports the machine is now three times faster than its competitors with 478 trillion calculations per second, or 478 “teraflops.”

The Blue Gene/L is housed at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California. IBM has a record 232 supercomputers on the TOP 500 list, the vast majority built with commodity style, PC microprocessors.

The computer maker also outlined its plans to next year achieve a computing milestone known as a “petaflop” – the ability to process 1,000 trillion calculations per second.

Blue Gene is an IBM Research project dedicated to exploring the frontiers in supercomputing: in computer architecture, in the software required to program and control massively parallel systems, and in the use of computation to advance our understanding of important biological processes such as protein folding.

And this from IBM –

Blue Gene – About This Project
Last updated 27 Jun 2007

The full Blue Gene/L machine was designed and built in collaboration with the Department of Energy's NNSA/Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California, and has a peak speed of 360 Teraflops.

Blue Gene systems occupy the #1 (Blue Gene/L) and #4 (Blue Gene Watson) positions in the TOP500 supercomputer list announced in June 2007 and a total of 4 of the top 10. IBM now offers a Blue Gene Solution.

IBM and its collaborators are currently exploring a growing list of applications including hydrodynamics, quantum chemistry, molecular dynamics, climate modeling and financial modeling.
Additional Photo And Information Materials

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Robert Maheu on How the CIA Enlisted the Chicago Mob to Put a Hit on Castro

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At this time the Red Wings are looking good with a 9 game winning streak. But could not break the record total of 10 wins in a row.
Chicago beats the Red Wings for the third time. The only team that has beat them in this season so far.
Pavel Datsyuk gets honered by his first major interview.
I was hoping they would show more of Pavels take aways.
But it was still a good half hour portraying him, some of them think (including me) that he is the best player in the NHL...

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Noted Researcher George Michael Evica Dies

After fighting with brave determination against lung and brain cancer, George Michael Evica has left this life to begin the journey into the next. He died on Saturday, November 10, 2007. His loving wife Alycia held his hand.

George Michael devoted his professional life to maintaining a harmonious balance between learning and teaching. He earned his B.A. at Case Western Reserve and his M.A. at Columbia University. Before serving as an Associate Professor of English at the University of Hartford from 1964 to 1992, he taught at Brooklyn College, Wagner College, Columbia University, and San Francisco State University.

History will remember George Michael as one of the most honored and important of the so-called second generation of scholars devoted to discovering the truth about the assassination of John Fitzgerald Kennedy and effecting justice in the wake of the president’s passing. He authored two books: And We Are All Mortal (1975) stands as an invaluable reference for Kennedy researchers; A Certain Arrogance (2006) expands upon that groundbreaking work by exploring the manipulation by United States intelligence agencies and other entities of religious groups for political ends.

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Sunday Religion Corner

Pray, v. To ask that the laws of the universe be annulled in behalf of a single petitioner confessedly unworthy. ~Ambrose Bierce, The Devil’s Dictionary, 1911

"God answers all prayers, it's just that sometimes the answer is "fuck you." --Gary Buell

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Almost Didn't

While I know how fast goals can be scored in a hockey game, five minutes before last night's game ended, I found myself 'knowing' that Z's consecutive point streak was about to be over. And wouldn't you know it, he waited until there were only one and a half minutes left to the game before he scored. He now has extended his franchise-record by getting a point in 16 consecutive games, starting at the first game of the season. He is in second place, league-wide, with goals at 13. He tops the league with 26 points. Hopefully, when his streak ends he won't go into a slump and will go on to being one of the top 5 at the end of the year. It would be nice if he actually got the 'atta-boys' he so richly deserves.

Z's goal wasn't needed for the win--the Wings beat Columbus 4-1. They now are at a franchise-tying 9 win streak. Tomorrow they play Chicago. Chicago beat them twice already this year, so the streak very possibly will come to an end. Maybe they will have figured out what they did wrong the last two times they played and fix it. Anyway, I will be watching and cursing and cheering, as usual.

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