Ares 1-X, the unmanned prototype of the new Nasa rockets that will take replace the Space Shuttle, is being moved to its launch pad.
By Tom Chivers Published: 9:21AM BST 20 Oct 2009
The Ares 1-X begins its journey to the launch pad from Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Photo: NASA
The Ares 1-X at the Kennedy Space Center in FloridaPhoto: NASA
How the test will unfold.Photo: NASA
US space launchers by height - the Saturn 5, Sapce Shuttle, Ares 1 and Ares VPhoto: NASA
An artist's impression of the Ares 1-X (right) in flightPhoto: NASA
The 100m-tall rocket is to launch at the end of the month for a two-minute flight to 40km (25 miles) above the surface of the Earth, testing the aerodynamics, performance and controls of its first rocket stage.
The upper stage of the rocket will be a dummy, the exact size, weight and shape of the module that the crew will occupy when the final version, the Ares 1, is made.
The two stages will separate after the booster’s fuel runs out, whereupon the first stage will float down on parachutes into the Atlantic Ocean. The dummy module will simply fall into the sea and be destroyed.
Ares 1-X is being moved from its Vehicle Assembly Building at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida to the launch pad, four miles away. The journey is expected to take seven hours.
Trent Smith, the vehicle processing engineer, said: "We have over 700 sensors on this rocket; and the whole point of Ares 1-X is to understand how does a rocket this shape, this weight, this tall actually fly.
"It's a tall rocket; it's been over three decades since anyone has built a rocket this tall. That was the Saturn V."
The Ares rocket, named after the Greek god of war, is part of the Constellation programme, intended to replace the three-decade-old Space Shuttle fleet. The orbital workhorses are to be retired from service next year.
Constellation will consist of Ares 1, a crew launcher, and the massive Ares 5, a heavy lifter capable of carrying large cargo needed for manned missions to the Moon and beyond.
However, the project’s future is hanging in the balance. The US President, Barack Obama, convened a panel of experts to review manned space flight, with the committee expected to report back to the White House this week.
It's the beginning of October, and that means it's the season to stand in line outside a building blasting pulsating, industrial music and then paying to have for some creep come up behind you and scream bloody murder. But enough about downtown St. Louis! It's haunted house season, and a local haunted house has again made the top five this year, according to a group that ranks such emporiums of fake blood and dead babies.
From Hauntworld.com ("The Internet's #1 Haunted House Website") comes this year's rankings, and "The Darkness" in Soulard comes in at No. 4 on the list ("The Beast" in Kansas City comes in at No. 3.)
Haunted houses are big bloody tributes to kitsch horror movies, magnets for fans of Rob Zombie films and those who can rank the sequels in the Saw franchise by the torture scenes. And while the black-lights, foam skeletons and swinging pig carcasses slightly shock the senses, it's usually the dark-robed employee who jumps out from a corner that really wets your pants. That's why, despite all the didn't these people ever grow up!? inner-monologues one has while passing by a haunted house, they still seem to rake in the cash each October.
Here's a rundown of the 13 best, or worst, as it were, haunted houses in the country:
13. Graystone Manor - Killen, Alabama
When visiting this southern haunted house, be sure to stop by Dead Debbie's, which apparently is one of the few haunted houses with a dedicated eatery. If you don't die of fright, the chili cheese fries, deep-fried candy bars and mozzarella sticks will be sure to kill you in a few decades. And yes, Killen, Alabama is a real place.
12. Headless Horseman - Ulster Park, New York This haunted attraction is about 100 miles north of New York City and has fully embraced social media -- check out the dead bird Twitter logo -- as well as traditional methods of reaching customers, like chasing them during haunted hayrides.
11. Dead Acres - Columbus, Ohio
The best haunted house websites show pictures of real people actually shrieking in horror at the plastic monsters. Dead Acres boasts this on its website, which should tell you all you need to know about the confidence these Buckeyes have in their ability to scare you: "What makes dead acres so bad ass? We set out to stand out. Dead Acres is a full sensory assault."
Newspaper article from House of Shock website.
10. House of Shock - New Orleans, Louisiana
The guys who run House of Shock -- already located in one of the spookiest cities in America -- have been featured on the Travel Channel and Fuse TV for their haunted house. It thankfully includes some bizarre satanic altars in addition the same-ol'-same-ol' grouping of slaughtered innocents and brain-hungry zombies. There's also an impressive multi-media stage show: "Performed 2-3 times nightly, this ornately choreographed performance is highlighted with live actors, stunts, music, video, state of the art lighting, pneumatic effects and more pyrotechnics than a full on rock concert!"
9. Bayville Screampark - Long Island, New York We can't confirm reports that Dee Synder is behind that pig mask, but this New York haunted theme park has a "several-hundred-thousand-dollar" facade, and that's just the outside. It's operated by the same company that owns the Jekyll and Hyde Pub in New York City, and while the latter is a bit of a tourist trap, the theme park comes in at a strong No. 9. And they're hiring.
8. Haunted Schoolhouse - Akron, Ohio Even the Haunted Schoolhouse's website will make you jump -- it still uses that technology trick of yesteryear. This Ohio theme park has been around for 36 years and is likely the only thing scarier than a layoff in this former industrial hub.
7. Bates Motel - Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Another "scream park" here, with multiple haunted houses within its facility. In addition to the pyrotechnics and haunted hayrides, the Bates Motel offers perhaps the scariest thing of all: a contest to win free Peal Jam tickets.
6. Dent Schoolhouse - Cincinnati, Ohio This haunted attraction is new to the top 13 list and has an authenticity that's refreshing. Plus they say it's actually haunted by a real ghost, not just crawling with caffeinated teenagers.
5. House of Torment - Austin, Texas "Keep Austin Weird," can become a tired saying very quickly in this Texan city, but this haunted house is just that. And this haunted attraction gets points for its photo booth where one can pose with, umm, zombified Army vets.
4. The Darkness - St. Louis, Missouri Soulard is likely one of the scariest-looking neighborhoods in St. Louis: the brick houses styled in a way of your great-great grandparents' era and everything feels so creepy -- especially at night. On the north side of this neighborhood is The Darkness, a multi-level haunted attraction we've photographed and recorded on video. It's no surprise to St. Louisans that The Darness is on the list. For more reading, see our RFT feature story on the guys who run the Darkness.
3. The Beast - Kansas City, Missouri Across the state in Kansas City, the Beast lays claim to being one of the "biggest and best indoor haunted attractions in the nation," because it boasts five stories of thrills. Thankfully there are plenty of abandoned buildings in Kansas City to accommodate the kind of fright fests the citizens of that fine city deserve. A crew from the Travel Channel cable network was at The Beast last month and an episode featuring the mammoth haunted attraction should air later this month.
2. Netherworld Haunted House - Atlanta, Georgia Don't you just hate those people at haunted houses who pop out of dark corners to make you jump? Of course, we all do. The Netherworld Haunted House in Atlanta apparently has more of those jumpers than just about any place in the country.
Blood, sweat and tears of joy at being #1.
1. 13th Gate Haunted House - Baton Rouge, Louisiana For the second consecutive year, this haunted house takes top ranking. The company, Midnight Productions, is based out of rural Pollack, Louisiana, where employees work year-round in a 7,000-square foot warehouse, building bizarre props and set-ups that are sure to desensitize them. The company runs haunted houses, hayrides and the Maize, a horrific labyrinth from the corn.
It’s hard to believe now that it’s become such a beloved institution, but when The Simpsons premiered twenty years ago, it was regarded as the furthest thing from a family show. Since then, the reputation of the series has become considerably less controversial (it helps, of course, that The Simpsons is now followed by notably ruder shows like Family Guy), so when it was announced that Marge Simpson would be “posing” for Playboy, I didn’t expect anything scandalous. Maybe some sideboob, or a comic silhouette.
In today’s sex-tape-saturated culture, I guess I shouldn’t be thrown by some gauzy cartoon nipples, but I am. That’s Marge Simpson, not some Ralph Bakshi character! Whether the series was originally intended to be or not, it’s now become one of the biggest family shows on TV. Isn’t there something a little queasy-making about seeing the mom from such a show sexualized and objectified to this degree?
Ultimately, though, the thing that bugs me the most about Marge going topless for Playboy is that it feels like the sort of stunt Family Guy would do. The Simpsons is just too good for that. (Or at least it was, ten seasons ago.)
* Update - Just to be clear as I've seen some confusion in the commments, but as far as we know at this time the inPulse watch is not being made by/for BlackBerry (it won't feature a BlackBerry logo), but is being made for use with BlackBerry Smartphones. However, this is in fact "the BlackBerry watch" that has been referred to previously in articles dating back to WES in May. There isn't another RIM-built BlackBerry watch out there. *
Remember that story about a Bluetooth BlackBerry Watch accessory being in the works? In case you were doubting it, today we can say with certainty that it's happening, it's getting announced soon, and what you're looking at above (another image below) are actual renderings of the real deal. Key features we've been told so far about the BlackBerry-connected smartwatch by our source:
it has been designed specifically for use with BlackBerry Smartphones from the ground up - developed by a new BlackBerry-dedicated accessory company
it features an OLED screen that we hear is "big, bright and beautiful" and optimized for displaying text clearly, and thanks to OLED has solid battery life
it's designed to show you notifications and previews of messages arriving on your BlackBerry
judging by the filename of the photos as they were sent in to us, we're thinking it's going to be branded the inPulse smartwatch
The intent of the watch isn't to replace using your BlackBerry to view messages. Rather, it's for those occassions when your BlackBerry is tucked away - while in a meeting, while driving, or while you're out for a bike ride and you feel it vibrating in your camelback. When you get that impulse to stop what you're doing and pull out your BlackBerry, now you can quickly glance over at your inPulse and decide if you need to pull out your BlackBerry to address that message now or if it can wait fifteen minutes you're free.
Definitely a cool accessory. And because this smartwatch is desiged specifically for BlackBerry, we're thinkinghoping that at somepoint the watch APIs will become available to BlackBerry app developers so even notifications from third party apps could be displayed. CrackBerry heaven! We'll bring you the official details on this when they emerge soon.
The man pictured here is 22 year old German arm wrestling champ Matthias Schlitte. Most people shy away from arm wrestling, especially knowing someone can have their arm snapped in 2 (or 3 or 4). If you have an arm like this kid though, I guess there's no need to worry.
This man claims he has been training for 6 years to grow the massive trunk you see on his right arm. I guess you could say this guy is a modern-day Popeye, although at least Popeye was symmetrical. Schlitte's right forearm measures 18 inches around. 18 inches! The man you would think would be embarrassed to be associated with Popeye (I mean its not exactly a flattering comparison) was just that, stating emphatically:
Many people’s first association with arm wrestling is a beer-soaked bar-table and drunken sailors – which is completely wrong.
While its fun to gawk and mock him, what Schlitte has done is actually quite ingenious. If you think about it, by only increasing the size of his one forearm and no other part of his body, he has allowed himself to arm wrestle in lower weight classes, even though his arm is as strong or stronger than much bigger men than him. Like Schlitte himself said, the older and more experienced fighters smiled at him for being so light-weight, but they weren't smiling anymore after he won. Sylvester Stallone didn't have to game the system in Over The Top, but you gotta do what you gotta do.
Some Star Trek fans were upset that J.J. Abrams made crucial edits to his reboot movie. There was no William Shatner. No birth of Spock. And, no hyperkinetic rap songs sung in Klingon.
Fortunately, YouTube exists to solve these problems. The above montage features one of Europe’s lesser-known pop culture phenoms, Klenginem. He evidently travels the Euro-convention circuit performing Eminem songs in the native tongue of the planet Kling.
His website includes albums and several MP3s for the aficionado of crinkle-headed rappers. Sadly, the site’s tour dates page hasn’t been updated in three years, so the recession must’ve crippled the fictional sci-fi language pop music-based economy.
The grand prize winner of last year's CBS reality show "Big Brother," arrested Saturday in Massachusetts on an oxycodone distribution charge, allegedly told federal investigators that he used his winnings to purchase large amounts of the drug.
Adam Jasinski of Delray Beach, Fla., was arrested at a North Reading strip mall and faces a charge of possession with intent to distribute oxycodone.
Jasinski allegedly agreed with a cooperating government witness to sell the witness 2,000 oxycodone pills. Jasinski flew from his home in Florida to Massachusetts on Saturday to deliver the drugs, according to an affidavit filed Monday in federal court by a Drug Enforcement Administration agent in support of the charges.
The agent wrote that Jasinski and the witness met at Logan International Airport. On the drive to North Reading, Jasinski allegedly removed a sock from his "pelvic area" containing two plastic bags full of small blue pills.
When the two men stopped at the strip mall, agents approached the car. Jasinski allegedly struggled with agents and threw the sock under an adjacent parked car.
But after waiving his Miranda rights, the affidavit said, "Jasinski stated that for the past several months he had been obtaining thousands of pills of oxycodone and reselling them to customers all along the east coast."
"Jasinski was able to purchase large quantities of pills because he had received $500,000 as the grand prize winner of the CBS reality television show 'Big Brother Season 9,'" the affidavit said.
Jasinski made an initial appearance in court Monday. Jasinski is in the custody of the US Marshals until a detention hearing before US Magistrate Judge Leo T. Sorokin on Thursday.
Jasinski's defense attorney, Valerie S. Carter, didn't immediately return a message seeking comment.
Does your email address reveal something about your credit score? According to Credit Karma, an online credit checking service, it might.
The company has taken data from its users and split it up by email address, finding that Yahoo Mail users have the lowest credit scores of all. Bellsouth and Comcast users have the highest credit ratings, while GMail () users rank third. MSN, Hotmail and AOL users take 4th, 5th and 6th position respectively.
Assuming the data is accurate (and the sample size is large enough – 20,000 credit scores), the more interesting question is why. Could it be because AOL, MSN and Yahoo email addresses are often linked to IM accounts, where the demographics skew younger? Do those who use their ISP-provided email address skew older? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.
Oakland International Airport may be the nation's only airport with a specific policy letting users of medical marijuana travel with the drug.
The policy is spelled out in a three-page document quietly enacted last year by the Alameda County Sheriff's Office. It states that if deputies determine someone is a qualified patient or primary caregiver as defined by California law and has eight ounces or less of the drug, he or she can keep it and board the plane.
Deputies warn the pot-carrying passengers that they may be committing a felony upon arrival when they set foot in a jurisdiction where medical marijuana is not recognized. But they say they don't call ahead to alert authorities on the other end.
"We never have. We're certainly within our right to, but we never have," said Sgt. J.D. Nelson, a spokesman for the sheriff's office. "Our notification of the passengers is for their own safety and well-being."
California voters approved medical marijuana use in 1996, while federal law still bans all possession and use.
But Oakland attorney Robert Raich notes the Code of Federal Regulations says a prohibition on operating a civil aircraft with knowledge that there is marijuana aboard doesn't apply to carrying marijuana that's "authorized by or under any Federal or State statute."
The federal Transportation Security Administration does the screening and when marijuana — or any suspected contraband — is found, thes heriff's deputies are summoned.
Low profile
Oakland's airport policy was enacted in February 2008, but Raich said he didn't want to publicize it until recently lest the Bush administration change federal regulations, or lest it become an issue in Obama administration drug officials' confirmation hearings.
"All other airports in medical cannabis states should have similar policies but they don't," he said, adding that he hears San Francisco International and Los Angeles International airports are relatively kind to medical marijuana users while airports in Burbank, Ontario and San Diego are not.
Raich, who has seen two of his medical marijuana cases argued before the U.S. Supreme Court and has taught Oakland Police cadets about medical marijuana issues, said medical marijuana users generally didn't have much trouble when Oakland Police used to patrol inside the airport terminals. But that changed when the Alameda County Sheriff's Office took over in mid-2007. That summer TSA screeners referred to deputies a traveling medical-marijuana user from Washington state.
"The sheriff's deputies so harassed this person, it was heart-wrenching," Raich said. "They took his medicine, they broke his bong, they took his edibles. They were threatening him."
'Pinball machine'
Raich said he found that the sheriff's office was unwilling to change its policy. So he consulted various officials including those at the Port of Oakland, which owns and operates the airport.
"I felt like a ball in a pinball machine," he said. "I felt like I'd talked to every single employee at the port and they all seemed sympathetic but they all told me the same thing: 'That's not our policy "... that's the sheriff doing that on his own.' "
Raich eventually went to the Alameda County counsel's office.
That office "finally told (Sheriff Greg Ahern) he had to comply with California law whether he liked it or not, and only then did he adopt a policy," Raich said.
"Greg Ahern is out of touch with the people of California who voted for Prop. 215 and medical cannabis in 1996 and have continued to support it by wide margins ever since," Raich said. Sheriff's spokesman Nelson said the sheriff "neither supports nor opposes the medical marijuana law.
"He's had no position on that," Nelson said. "He's just trying to do the best he can when a state law conflicts with a federal law."
Mary Anne Berndt ... a female RFS member has joined a chorus of complaints regarding their yellow uniform shirt top which is see-through when wet. Pic: Adam Ward Source: The Daily Telegraph
A WET T-shirt controversy has broken out among female firefighters who have complained their new Rural Fire Service shirts become see-through when wet.
More than 600 volunteers joined a Facebook petition to object to the issuing of the bright yellow shirts to replace existing navy blue ones.
Women complained that when they sweat, handle leaking hoses, wash or fill their trucks and even when it rains, their male colleagues can see through their new shirts.
"Most women aren't too happy about it. We're not doing the job to be glamorous. We're not sex objects," Sydney volunteer Maryann Berndt, 34, said yesterday.
"You can get quite wet on the fire ground, you always get wet from leaking hoses or filling up the trucks."
In an email forwarded to Opposition emergency services spokeswoman Melinda Pavey, another female firefighter wrote: "I do not like the yellow long sleeved T-shirts for the fact that after you have rolled a few wet hoses or ended up with water all over you they become completely see-through.
"This isn't much of an issue for the guys but not so flattering for the girlies."
Ms Pavey said the shirts were issued to firefighters without consultation.
"It is demeaning there is no thought for women volunteers and what may happen if the shirts get wet. It shows a lack of respect for what women do in the RFS," Ms Pavey said.
There were dozens of posts on the Facebook petition site to save the blue drill shirts, including firefighters comparing the new all yellow look to the yellow member of the The Wiggles.
"RFS Wiggles," one member wrote.
Another wrote: "Hope this [petition] works. The yellow life saver shirts are bloody ugly."
An RFS spokesman said the shirts would be issued to volunteers free, unlike the navy ones which members have to pay for and which will remain for sale.
He added that while first yellow shirts issued were of thinner fabric, the next ones due to be issued would have pockets over the chest and would not be see through when wet.
"The colour yellow has been used due to its high visibility. Also, during independent testing in Alberta, Canada, it has been identified that the blue coloured clothing absorbs more heat," he said.
Dolphins have been filmed playing an impromptu game of football... using a jellyfish as an improvised ball.
A team of marine biologists were astonished to see a dolphin swim under a jellyfish and with a quick flick of its tail shoot it out of the water.
The bottlenose dolphins were caught on video performing the strange activity off the Welsh coastline. One dolphin was able to flip the jellyfish six feet up in the air.
The dolphins swim underneath the jellyfish in Cardigan Bay and then flick them upwards with their tails
Scientists believe their game of flipball goes back hundreds of thousands of years. But it may go some way to explaining why dolphins in captivity are so skilful with balls at sealife parks around the world.
Marine experts Jonathan Easter, 23, who saw the dolphins at play, said: 'One thing is for sure, they were having fun. There were floating blobs of jelly and the dolphins were flipping them about.
ALL ABOARD: A proposed light rail system would bisect New York's Times Square. (Photo: Vision 42)
More than 356,000 people walk through the heart of New York City each day, but imagine how many more could traipse through if Times Square was closed to cars?
Advocates of a radical new plan want to close 42nd Street to car traffic and create a light rail system to run across the island of Manhattan, from the Hudson River on the west to the East River on the east. Such redevelopment would boost the local economy and improve transportation, according to Vision 42, a citizens’ group formed in 1999 by the Institute for Rational Urban Mobility. It would also offer a less polluting travel option than the exhaust-belching buses that currently take New Yorkers across town at a snail’s pace, TheNew York Timesreported.
At a cost of $500 million, the light rail would stop at every avenue and run from one side of the city to the other in about 20 minutes, about half the time it currently takes to ride a bus across town.
So far, property owners along 42nd Street support the proposal — but the city isn’t so sure. But even though city officials aren’t rushing to embrace Vision 42’s idea, they have launched “Green Light for Midtown,” a project to alleviate congestion in Times Square, where traffic moves an average of 4.2 miles per hour. The city has created several pedestrian malls in midtown, and over Memorial Day weekend officials closed several blocks around Times Square to cars.
But proponents of Vision 42’s plan say the city needs a permanent solution.
Vision 42 advocates pointed out that light rail lines have stimulated economic growth and development in other cities, such as Dallas, Portland, Ore., and Phoenix. According to a study by the consulting firm Urbanomics of New York, closing 42nd Street to cars and adding a light rail line would boost the economy in Manhattan: Pedestrian volume would increase by 35, translating to some $380 million more in sales among the street’s 126 stores.
Indeed, proposals to expedite cross-town traffic in Manhattan have been kicked around for years. An older proposal, which lost steam in the 1990s, would have created a trolley line along the south side of 42nd Street, with the north side open to vehicular traffic. But New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg favors extending an existing subway line – the No. 7 – to reach farther west.
“The real gain here is you could handle three times as many people with roughly the same cost,” said George Haikalis, an engineer and a co-chairman of Vision 42. “A lot of people have expressed interest in this, but have not signed on, because they’re awaiting interest from Mayor Bloomberg.”
A town's entire police force has quit in Hungary after winning more than £10 million in the lottery.
The 15-strong squad in Budaors scooped the jackpot with their ticket on Tuesday and all resigned on the spot.
Police chiefs have scrambled back-up units to the region until more full-time officers can be recruited.
It was the sixth biggest win in Hungarian lottery history, reports the Daily Telegraph.
Meanwhile, a woman in Ohio sparked a riot in a clothing store after falsely claiming she'd won the lottery and would pay for everyone's purchases.
The woman arrived at the Burlington Coat Factory in Columbus by limousine and by the time police got there 500 people were inside with another 1,000 queueing.
The woman was arrested after staff discovered she had no money and the whole stunt was a hoax.
Angry customers threw merchandise around as they looted the store. Police said it looked as though a hurricane passed through it.
Linda Brown, 45, was arrested over the incident. No charges have yet been filed, pending a mental evaluation.
Anything is possible, even with dull old sushi. At least that seems to be the mindset of Japanese sushi chef Ken Kawasumi, who has created an Obama dish consisting of Obama sushi rolls, the American flag tuna pieces and an eggy ‘V’ (for victory) slogan.
The flag, adorned with the words ‘Yes You Can’, forms the center of the sushi platter. Obama rolls flank a ‘V’ sign at the top and the word ‘USA’ lines the bottom of the flag.
The rest of the platter, consisting of various sushi assortments like ’smiley’ rolls and car rolls, form an attention-grabbing border around this main piece.
As for the individual pieces themselves, chef Kawasumi used various ingredients creatively in order to attain the best effect.
Thus, in the Obama rolls, the skin is made of shrimp and the hair bits are made of black sesame. As for the teeth, nothing beats good old fish paste!
The flag was the painstaking effort of lining tuna bits with squid and the car pieces consist, in part, of cucumber and mountain burdock.
The USA lettering was thanks to generous helping of cooked egg blended with rice.
This is not the first time that Kawasumi has been in the news for this sushi-making skills. In fact, he has been dazzling the crowds with decorative sushi platters for a while now.
For instance, his latest piece, created last year, was a sushi version of Vincent van Gogh’s popular Sunflowers portrait.
He is also famous for his cookbooks like Fun and Fancy Sushi which elaborate on the art of decorative sushi.
His extensive knowledge and skill is hardly surprising since Ken Kawasumi is also the principal of the well-known Tokyo Sushi Academy.
An illustrative (and illustrated) guide to the way we talk now. Navigate the euphemisms, the idioms, the quotations, and the curses that represent us with the tabs below.
A garden of original, soon-to-be popular metaphors, from "town halling" to "joining the Vikings" and even "emailing the goumad"
Photo credit: MR. BINGO
Donning the fedora 1. Adorning your head with an old-fashioned hat. 2. Stepping out of your fashion comfort zone, at great risk to your image.
Wrapping khakis 1. The act of a retail-store cashier wrapping your clothing purchases with tissue paper and then adhering a sticker to the resulting parcel and then placing it carefully in a gigantic shopping bag so that you can then go home and rip off all the unnecessary accoutrement.
2. Engaging in any time-consuming and meaningless preparation.
(Like a) fat guy with a goatee 1. A large gentleman with a small beard. 2. Applying any modest adornment meant not to hide something large and unwieldy but simply to interrupt the landscape.
Cloning the mammoth 1. Attempting to replicate the woolly mammoth through DNA manipulation.
2. Taking action that, though technically feasible, is ultimately ill-advised for reasons ethical or otherwise.
Town-halling 1. Attending a public meeting between a politician and his constituents.
2. Politely asking for a forum and then rolling out the crazy. Happens frequently on second dates.
Peering over the cube 1. To look over your cube partition at work.
2. To meekly seek out the reason for a disturbance.
Gnawing the wing 1. To denude a chicken wing with your teeth.
2. To enthusiastically engage in a mundane activity to a point just beyond normal involvement.
Hiring a Russian 1. Employing a Russian national.
2. Looking to someone else to immediately and mysteriously solve a problem.
Sharing a blintz 1. Consuming a crepelike pastry filled with cheese or fruit with a companion.
2. Sharing a mutually meaningful and enjoyable activity.
Stimulus package 1. Any large-scale attempt to revive an economy.
2. Any attempt to kick-start a stagnant process, relationship, or mechanism.
Tugging the buttons 1. Pulling on shirt buttons to test for solid construction.
2. Testing the quality of anything — another person, maybe.
E-mailing the goumad 1. To communicate with your mistress via e-mail.
2. To stupidly undermine an elaborate surreptitiousness by leaving behind obvious evidence.
Skate to the box 1. In hockey, to commit a penalty and immediately and without protest move across the ice to the penalty box.
2. In life, to immediately take full responsibility for an offensive action. Useful when accidentally insulting your boss. Or not noticing your girlfriend's new haircut. Or overcooking a steak. Etc.
Stayin' on the tractor 1. Remaining seated on farm equipment.
2. When a man stays put (retired, for instance), even though he has an inclination to get back in there and see how he can mix it up one more time.
Conjugal visit 1. Means of rewarding a well-behaved prisoner by which he or she is granted privacy to engage in romantic activity.
2. Sex granted by a wife or girlfriend to a man who at the moment is undeserving of such charity.
Hand over the coals 1. Determining the readiness of a grill by holding your palm near the surface and counting the seconds before discomfort forces you to retract your hand.
2. To wait until you feel pain before deciding to act. As seen in instances of hunger, infection, love.
Splashing the vessel 1. Cocktail-making technique whereby a small amount of liquor is swirled around the inside of a cocktail glass and then removed. Also referred to as "rinsing."
2. The first stage of any romantic preparation.
Joining the Vikings 1. Signing with the Minnesota Vikings football team.
2. Making one last push in your career. One. Last. Push.
Planting roses 1. Affixing in soil any species of the genus Rosa. 2. Engaging in any home improvement that involves the installation of something specifically appealing to women, such as a painting or curtains. Or roses.
Throning 1. Sitting on a throne.
2. Hanging out in the bathroom stall a little longer than is necessary (and often with a handheld communication device) simply because you've finally found a little peace and quiet.
Wetting the sugar 1. Engaging in an exotic cocktail preparation whereby a sugar cube is dissolved in a drink.
2. Laying any kind of exotic groundwork.
A squirrel in the tomatoes 1. An otherwise adorable rodent that helps himself to the bounty of your garden.
2. Anyone whom you allow to quietly rob you of something that means more to them than it does to you.
This three grew from 1334-1513. (Credit: Terje Thun, NTNU)
ScienceDaily (Oct. 18, 2009) — Norwegian scientists have found “mummified” pine trees, dead for nearly 500 years yet without decomposition.
Norway’s wet climate seems perfect for encouraging organic matter to rot – particularly in Sogndal, located on Norway’s southwestern coastline, in one of the most humid, mild areas of the country. In fact, with an average of 1541 millimetres of rain yearly and relatively mild winters, Sogndal should be an environment where decomposition happens fast. Not so.
“We were gathering samples of dead trees to reconstruct summer temperatures in western Norway, when our dendrochronological dating showed the wood to be much older than expected”, says Terje Thun, an associate professor at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology’s (NTNU) Museum of Natural History and Archaeology. Thun conducted the work with his colleague Helene Løvstrand Svarva.
From a time before the Black Death
“We were astounded to find fresh wood in trees that started to grow in the late 1200s and had died almost 500 years ago, which is much older than we originally expected. Somehow they have kept from decomposing for several centuries in this humid climate”, Thun says. “This is quite extraordinary - I would go as far as to call it sensational.”
Thun says that when a pine tree dies, it secretes a great deal of resin, which deters the microorganisms needed for decomposition. “Nevertheless, preventing the natural breakdown of the wood for centuries is quite a feat”, he says. Thun is one on Norway’s leading dendrochronology experts. Dendrochronology is the dating of trees.
Used in mummification
Resin was one of the ingredients used in Ancient Egypt for mummification, so its conservation abilities have been known for millennia. However, that trees could “self-mummify” in such a humid climate for centuries was new to the NTNU scientists.
“Many of the trunks we dated turned out to have seeded in the early 1200s, and had lived for more than 100 years at the time of the Black Death around 1350”, Thun says. “That means that the dead wood has ‘survived’ in nature for more 800 years without breaking down.”
It seems there truly is something good about Norwegian wood.
This is Mel Gibson's first big movie since 2002's "Signs," (he also appeared in 2003's "The Singing Detective," which his company produced), and your first reaction seeing this could be, "He is looking kinda old."
But then this puppy kicks in, and you're seeing the intense, dark Mel you used to love — and before you know it, you're on board. This is another entry in this age's long line of revenge movies, a trend started with "Taken," (revenge, rescue, whatever, it's still individuals meting out their own brand of justice), and this one looks like a worthy entry: well-crafted, taut, filled with emotion and action.
And how great is that line "You better decide whether you're hanging on the cross or banging in the nails." It's fresh lines like that could catch on to make this a hit, the way Liam Neeson's speech about his skill set got people talking about "Taken." (And it's a nice little allusion, intentional or not, to Mel's "The Passion of the Christ.")
.
All you art collectors out there. Here is a chance to get a Giclee copy of some of Ian M Sherwin work. Ian is planning on doing a whole series of Marblehead, Massachusetts paintings. His work is amazing.
ALL ABOARD: A proposed light rail system would bisect New York's Times Square. (Photo: Vision 42) 
Photo credit: MR. BINGO 
.
Posts
