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Saturday, December 29, 2007

Microsoft Seeks Patent On Monitoring Employees' Brains

Hey Shaun, check this out!!!!!! I just found it on TechDirt, looks like FabCola is just another way of saying Microsoft!

A just-published Microsoft patent application for Monitoring Group Activities describes how a company or the government can determine if employees are not meeting their project deadlines through the use of detection components comprised of 'one or more physiological or environmental sensors to detect at least one of heart rate, galvanic skin response, EMG, brain signals, respiration rate, body temperature, movement, facial movements, facial expressions, and blood pressure.

Asteroid Impact on Mars: Collision Probability Increased

The chance that asteroid 2007 WD5 will impact Mars on January 30th has increased from 1.3 percent to 3.9 percent. That’s the new estimation from the Near Earth Object Program at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. The impact probability resulting from recent orbital refinement that have increased the chances to a surprising 3.9 percent.

Friday, December 28, 2007

Two Sci-Fi Classics Picked for Preservation

FromMark's Sci-Fi / Fantasy Blog

Two classic sci-fi films, Back to the Future (Robert Zemeckis, 1985) and Close Encounters of the Third Kind (Steven Spielberg, 1977), are among the 25 films selected this year to be preserved by the Library of Congress National Film Registry, with the intent that they are available for future generations to enjoy. The announcement by the Librarian of Congress notes that "culturally, historically or aesthetically" significant films from many eras and genres are selected in the annual effort to choose specific films to be guarded against deterioration. Up to half the films produced in this country before 1950, and as much as 90 percent of those made before 1920, are lost forever. Early film stock was recycled for the silver nitrate content, and any film will break down in mere decades. Previous genre selections include 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), Alien (1979), Blade Runner (1982 [but which version?]), Cat People (1942), The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951), E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982), Flash Gordon serial (1936), Frankenstein (1931), Groundhog Day (1993), Invasion of the Body-Snatchers (1951), Planet of the Apes (1968), Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981), Star Wars (1977), The Thing from Another World (1951), and The Wizard of Oz (1939).

“Love + Sex With Robots”

Cory Doctorow's Boing Boing pointed me towards this interesting, unsettling and I must admit at times, horrifying interview with author David Levy in the blog "I am not even trying" - concerning the psychological, economic and the social implications of using robots as sexual partners, better known as sexbots. Some of the questions addressed are:

What essentially human traits do you envision future sexbots changing forever?

Obviously, not everyone will be able to afford robots for sex straight away and top-of-the-line ones will undoubtedly command top dollar. Do you think there is room for the poor in this vision?

Do you foresee much of a secondhand/refurbished market for sexbots?

Is it ethical for an adult to have sex with a sexbot designed to look like a child but programmed to “perform” like an experienced adult?

Would you personally use one of these robots? Would your wife? Would she mind if you used one?

Check out the complete interview by clicking the article title or clicking here

Thursday, December 27, 2007

Modern Beetles Predate Dinosaurs

From AOL News online

New research hints that modern-day versions of the insects are far older than any tyrannosaur that trod the Earth. The vast amount of beetle species were thought to have arisen 140 million years ago, during the rise of flowering plants. But the new study of beetle DNA and fossils, published in the journal Science, pushes their appearance back to 300 million years ago. To date: 350,000 species of beetles have been cataloged around the world, and millions more are estimated to exist but haven't been discovered — which means they make up more than one-fourth of all known species of life forms. The reason for this tremendous diversity has been debated by scientists for many years but never resolved. However given the new "age" of the species and geological evidence of constantly changing environments, scientists now consider the large number of beetle species existing today could very well be a direct result of early evolutionary success.

Wednesday, December 26, 2007

XKCD spoofs Blade Runner.

This is funny....but come to think of it....I know people like this!
click on the cartoon graphic to see the larger graphic or
here, to go to the cartoon

FBI aims for world's largest biometrics database

Dave T. sends in this tidbit. Shaun Saunders has been warning about this from day one with MallCity and look at Cory Doctorow's Scroogled, both tell tales of one government entity or another amassing personal data to the extreme. Check this out:

The Washington Post reports that: The FBI is embarking on a $1 billion project to build the world's largest computer database of biometrics to give the government more ways to identify people at home and abroad. The agency expects to award a 10-year contract to expand the amount and kinds of biometric information it receives. The system, called Next Generation Identification, will collect the biometric information. This will be added to the digital images of faces, fingerprints and palm patterns, the FBI already has amassed in its system.

(editor note: I plan on reading Cory's story Scroogled on this week's program. That will be #85)

Astronomers discovered the largest diamond of all times in space.

I found this article an interesting intellectual exercise. Why? Well, anyone that has studied even basic astronomy has heard about white dwarf stars and how they are formed, and what their makeup is like in latter stages of their life. Basically what I found interesting is that I understood the sequences of a star like our own or slightly larger going off main sequence. Going through it red giant stage and collapsing back to a white or brown dwarf. The cause is mostly running out of hydrogen and burning helium into carbon. (gross oversimplification, I know. ) Intellectually you know that this carbon has to be under extreme compression....but I just never went to the next logical step. What exactly is this compressed carbon....well in Pravda online (I know.... first time I ever ran across a straight science article never knows) I saw a title that I just had to read. Astronomers discover largest diamond in space! Here are some excerpts, click on the article title to read complete story.

Astronomers discovered the largest diamond of all times in space. The weight is estimated at ten billion trillion trillion carats or five million trillion trillion pounds). The space diamond is virtually an enormous chunk of crystallized carbon, 4,000 kilometers in diameter. The stone is located at a distance of 50 light years from Earth, in the Constellation Centaurus. The "diamond" also known as BPM 37093, is actually a crystallized white dwarf. A white dwarf is the hot core of a star, left over after the star uses up its nuclear fuel and dies. It is made mostly of carbon and is coated by a thin layer of hydrogen and helium gases.

Tuesday, December 25, 2007

Documentary: The Order Electrus

In the weird and oddly disturbing department I give you this... A short film from the warped minds over at Microbia. Called - Documentary: The Order Electrus, it's wonderfully brilliant and twisted all at the same time. Thanks to the folks over at Suicide Bots for the post

The Sci Fi Sounds Quiz: Identify sounds from science fiction movies and TV.

I was going to say this is a bit lame, but you know, I laughed my way through this, and thought it wildly funny at the results I received. So, even though it's goofy, it's also great fun. See how many of the sci-fi movie sounds you can identify!

Take the Sci fi sounds quiz I received 79 credits on
The Sci Fi Sounds Quiz

How much of a Sci-Fi geek are you?
Take the Sci-Fi Movie Quiz canon s5 is

Monday, December 24, 2007

Peter Berg to Direct "Dune" Remake

Hey, did you know there was a remake of Frank Herbert's Dune being bandied about in the blogosphere? No? Well neither did I! Talk of knocking me over with a feather. Here is the info as I read it from SciFi Scanner:

David Lynch's Dune has its goofy charm, but in retrospect, he was clearly the wrong man to direct the big screen adapation of Frank Herbert's novel. Over 20 years later, we still don't have a big budget and truly faithful adaptation of Herbert's book. Hope isn't dead yet. Director Peter Berg—whose impressive resume includes Bad Things, The Rundown, Friday Night Fights, and The Kingdom—has apparently been signed to film a big-screen adaptation.

You know, I really didn't mind the scifi channel's adaptation. I thought it was pretty good matter of fact. But there is no question that it was made on a very limited budget. I am not going to totally bust on Lynch's version. That would mean that I would have to back track and do a Mexican hat dance on Blade Runner. Why, well lets just say that my favorite saying about a science fiction movie is, 'if you need a narrator to tell the audience what the movie is about, while they are watching the move, and if people in the audience are STILL telling their neighbors what the movie is really all about, your in serious trouble". That describes Blade Runner to a t and even more so, Lynch's Dune. I saw more people lean over and explain what the narrator just said while watching the movie. I had to do the same thing in Blade Runner. Most just didn't "get it" and I know, its annoying as all hell having someone explain a movie to you while your watching it, but I really got...."I have no clue what's going on" during both movies. And I loved Blade Runner! So, lets hope they don't find a need for another narrator for Dune.

Ben Rosenbaum announces The Ant King and Other Stories out in August 2008

Benjamin Rosenbaum just sent me a note to let us know that his book of short stories will be out next year. Here is a piece of what he sent:

The big news (if I haven't told you already) is that my first full-length collection of short stories -- "The Ant King and Other Stories" -- is going to be published by Small Beer Press, best small
press EVAR, in August 2008.

I will let you know more as soon as I get anything new.

Saturday, December 22, 2007

Go off the grid with a personal nuclear reactor! REALLY!

Toshiba has developed a new class of micro size Nuclear Reactors that is designed to power individual apartment buildings or city blocks. The new reactor is only 20 feet by 6 feet and is designed to supply 200 kw for 5 cents per kh. Unlike traditional nuclear reactors the new micro reactor uses no control rods to initiate the reaction. The new technology uses reservoirs of liquid lithium-6, an isotope that is effective at absorbing neutrons. The Lithium-6 reservoirs are connected to a vertical tube that fits into the reactor core. The whole whole process is self sustaining and can last for up to 40 years. Toshiba expects to install the first reactor in Japan in 2008 and to begin marketing the new system in Europe and America in 2009.

Wow, all I need now is a flux capacitor.......

Friday, December 21, 2007

'Active glacier found' on Mars

Shaun Saunders send in this article from BBC News online.

We have seen evidence that water in liquid form was once common on Mar's surface. Today, evidence shows that a significant amount of the Martian polar regions are composed of water ice. However up to this point this was considered ancient ice, many millions of years old. Recent overflights of the Deuteronilus Mensae region between Mars' rugged southern highlands and the flat northern lowlands by the European Space Agency's Mars Express spacecraft have shown an icy feature may only be several thousand years old. This could be significant in not only finding active water underground on Mars but also these areas might be uniquely positive sites for discovering microbial life on the red planet. The reasoning being that as the water peculates to the surface it would carry along any microbes living in the or around the liquid.

For the complete article, click here or the article title

How to talk to aliens or mom Herb just made a bad smell at me!

Over at the SciFi Scanner blog, John Brownlee posted an interesting article that has facinated and bothered me equally for years. Science fiction tv shows and movies have, to varying degrees, show that aliens may well not look like us, but for the most part, they all seem to sound like us. In John's words:

The problem of communicating with extraterrestrials has been a fascinating intellectual exercise for scientists and philosophers for most of the 20th century. Although Star Trek and Star Wars are rather optimistic that aliens will speak English with a perfectly recognizable American accent, it's possible that they will, in fact, communicate in an unintelligible cacophony of blurps and farting noises.

And there's the rub: We may communicate visually and aurally, but what if aliens communicate chemically? How do you convince them you are an intelligent life form when your body can only squirt out the smell of methane from time to time?

With that in mind, I might come across as verbose and loud.....but that's another subject....

Well, John came across a really fascinating article in the December 1947 Popular Mechanix which he calls clear and charming, Called "How will we talk to Martians, dealing with just such a problem. Check it out.

Wednesday, December 19, 2007

Review of A War Of Gifts - An Ender Story by Orson Scott Card

Anyone that has listened to me long enough will know that I am a proponent of audio book, hell audio anything. Beam Me Up has from the start supported the audio format. I really believe that some stories just seem to come alive with someone else reading them to you. Not always...but sometimes. I think I have found just such an example. A few weeks ago Ron and I tag team slammed OSC's newest Ender book. For me at least the story was clumsy and felt like another pen was being used. Ron was no less gentle. Now however Jesse Willis at SFFAudio has come across the audio recording of Scott's "A War of Gifts' and has given it a good review. In Jesse's words

A War Of Gifts will not set a new high standard for Card or for Science Fiction, but it wasn’t intended to either. It is a modest story, well written and like all of the recent “Ender tales” about the Ender’s Game primarily about the minor characters. What card does is take a complex person and decode them into psychologically understandability. He does it with a humane and unjaded eye. If you come at it without a lot of preconceptions I think you can quite enjoy it - as I most certainly did.

So that being said...the audio version may very well have more legs than the printed. Jesse has a great deal more to say on the subject, points that I can not disagree with. Its well worth taking a trip over to SFFAudio and reading Jesse's review.

Review: Wastelands, Stories of the Apocalypse

Title: Wastelands: Stories of the Apocalypse
Editor: John Joseph Adams
Trade Paperback
ISBN : 1-59780-105-4
Pages: 350 Price: $15.95
Publisher: Night Shade Books

I know if your like me you view "theme" books with a bit of skepticism. Assembling a collection of any size with only one "type" of story can be daunting. I have often found many of these types of books containing one or a few really top notch stories and the rest relegated to filler. Collections like Ellison's Dangerous Visions is a shining example of how to do it right. Is Wastelands in that league? Not quite, but DAMN close. The stories are not as "dangerous" as DV and it's no where near the size of DVs. However, don't take me wrong, the tales in Wastelands are the crème de la crème of this genre and for that matter science fiction as a whole. Often the editors choice of covers is their attempt to put their best foot forward, so by looking at just the cover of Wastelands, one might suspect that the author is attempting to snare you on name recognition alone. Believe me, this is not the case. Yes, notable names all, however the tales between those names are every bit as strong. A good example is one of my favorites in this book and appearances elsewhere - The People of Sand and Slag, by Paolo Bacigalupi, or better called a boy and his dog and an appetizer. An absolutely stunning story of the far future and an equal to any of the "names" on the front. The whole book is like this. One retina blasting mind numbing yarn after another. King's story alone is worth the price of the book. (a kind of sideways retelling of Flowers for Algernon) The only suggestion is that you read each story straight through and put the book down and walk away for a time. Each story deserves to be considered on it's own merit. The subject matter and the tales themselves are often so strong and different that you very well could miss the high point of one while recovering from the blast received from the previous reading. Wastelands is well worth the cost. The author has done his job in exemplary manner. Wastelands would make an excellent gift for the jaded science fiction fan.

Tuesday, December 18, 2007

Shatner meets Miss Piggy on a plane...

Ok, so maybe I am clipin in too many videos....but this clip was funny and it has special meaning to me. Do you remember Terror at 20 thousand feet, no not that one, the REAL one, black and white Twilight Zone episode with Bill Shatner over acting right out of his ever lovin mind? Yeah that one. I saw it when I was like 7 and it scared the bejesus out of me. Couldn't look through windows with curtains on them for years...jesus who am I kidding, still gives me the willies to pull a shade up to look out! Well I was scanning down through SF Signal's blog and what do I come across? None other than William S. himself and Miss Piggy of Muppet fame lampooning this very special moment in tv history...for me at least.... Oh and it funny only in a way that Frank Oz can do it! Enjoy!

Real Life Cylon Raiders closer than we think!

Over at the SciFi scanner blog I found a story concerning advancements in cybernetic that are enough to raise goosebumps. Any fan of the new BSG knows of the Cylon Raiders. Espcially when we saw Starbuck slide inside one and began pulling and pushing on the bio gunk inside. We are made very aware that inside the shinny exterior is a living thing. All in all a pretty disturbing image.

From the SciFi Scanner article: It's far-fetched sci-fi at its finest. But is it really so far-fetched? Scientists at the University of Florida have grown a brain in a petri dish and taught it to pilot an F-22 jet simulator; a task that the non-sentient dollop of cerebral goo accomplished quite ably, even keeping the F-22 on its flight path in a virtual hurricane.

I can see that the pundits of science fiction are right, but only so far. Up to this point it was easy to tell the players. Robotic, robots, androids, cyborgs, human. The truth is that the future may well be a blending of all of the above.

Black Hole Fires At Neighboring Galaxy

Remember Shaun Saunders short story Last Light (episode 39 of BMU) which told the tale of a dying civilization's last gasp effort for immortality? I won't ruin the ending for you, but it is one of my favorite short stories hands down. Well here is an article from science daily about the very same cosmic event that was highlighted in Saunders' story. As frightening as the event was to read in a story, imagine knowing that not only could it happen, but scienctists have found evidence that it HAS happened!

Click the article title or here for more

Last light can be found in the Beam Me Up archive at

This composite image shows the jet from a black hole at the center of a galaxy striking the edge of another galaxy, the first time such an interaction has been found. Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/CfA/D.Evans

Intergalactic Explosion Shocks Astronomers

Astronomers have discovered a cosmic explosion that seems to have come from the middle of nowhere -- thousands of light-years from the nearest galaxy-sized collection of stars, gas, and dust. This "shot in the dark" is surprising because the type of explosion, a long-duration gamma-ray burst, is thought to be powered by the death of a massive star.

Complete article

(hummmmm so it was an explosion big enough to indicate a supermassive star but there never was any star there.... I hear the trekkies now.... the antimatter containment field collapsed in one of the nacelles of a FTL cruiser. hey, works for me!)

in the photo A recent galaxy collision produced the long tail in the Tadpole Galaxy. If GRB 070125 exploded in a similar tail, only Hubble could detect the tail. (Credit: Credit: NASA)

Monday, December 17, 2007

New billboard puts voices in your head

Well we have read about billboard that can track you, computer programs that can tell who you are even if you have a disguise on and we all know how insidious online marketing is in targeting specific product to you. Shaun has shown us a world where all this is just around the corner with his mallcity and infoscreens. Well as scary as that sounds, advertisers have stepped up and gone one better. There's a new add in Soho in Manhattan that uses a speaker beaming down an "audio spotlight" that only you can hear, making it sound like it's coming from inside your own head.
So it is now possible to not only aim an exact product at you, but as you move, it moves with you and now they can target sound for such an ad, just for you, beamed right AT you.

complete article

10 Sad DIY Geek Gifts You Should Never Buy

Ok, so I was reading through the SciFi Dvice blog and came across this. Is it cutting edge science? nope, is it material for the podcast? NOOOOOOOOPE. Then WTF!? exactly! It was funny, it was geekie, it has some sci fi stuff and its seasonal! Here is the copy from Dvice:

Etsy is an amazingly useful site that gives people a chance to sell DIY crafts that you often can't find anywhere. There are some truly great things to buy on Etsy, but you won't find any of them on this list — because sometimes when people are allowed to make and sell whatever they want, things go bad. Very bad. Click Continue to see just how ugly it can get.

Oh and be forewarned.....its very ugly....funny and ugly

Issue 115 of AntipodeanSF is now available

Hi all,

Just a short note to wish you all the top o' the season, and to remind you that Issue 115 of AntipodeanSF is now available for your enjoyment on the web. You'll find us at our usual address with our usual mix of flash fiction and reviews:

This month's flash stories are:

"The 32 Paths" by Nathan Burrage

"Close Encounter" by Richard Pitaniello

"Just Your Type" by Joan Malpass

"The Favour" by Lynton Haggett

"CRT" by Shaun A. Saunders

"The Barbeque Stopper" by Simon P. King

"Entropy" by David Kernot

"The Boardriders and Windsurfers" by Des Rogers

"Good Home Wanted" by Matthew Wallace

"Back Memory" by Theutes

Meanwhile, in "E-Scapes" Sue Clennell joins Liz Williams in "Bloodmind" and ponders the difference between good killers and bad killers, while in "Vide" Nuke undergoes a shocking experience with Charlaine Harris in "Grave Surprise", and lets Adam Roberts parody the good Doctor in "Dr Whom".

Finally, if you ever wanted to get involved in SETI, visit Ionospherics to find out how...

Ooroo for now,

Nuke (editor).

Sunday, December 16, 2007

Antarctic sub to test waters for Jupiter moon mission

A robotic submarine named Endurance, is set to survey Antarctica's West Lake Bonney in October 2008. Test runs like these are designed to test proof of concept for a version of Endurance to explore the oceans thought to lie beneath the icy crust on Jupiter's moon Europa. Parts to be tested on the sub will be it's ability to operate up to 8 hours unattended which is a must because radio signals take too long to reach the moon for a controller to react in time. Earlier probs to the Jupiter system have reported some very interesting findings. Data from NASA's Galileo spacecraft has revealed hints of carbon – a building block of life – in the moon's purported seas. Both carbon dioxide and sulphur dioxide, a potential signal of volcanism, are leaking from discrete areas on the moon's surface. It will be some time before the Endurance mission can take place though. Future preliminary mission need to take place, plus At present, Endurance is too massive to send on interplanetary travel. Scientists must also devise a means to drill through Europa's icy crust and lower the sub safely through the ice. And because radio waves travel poorly through water, a docking station anchored in or around the ice will need to relay data from the submersible to Earth.

(Illustration: Michael Carroll/NASA/JPL

Friday, December 14, 2007

Get Terminated!!!!

To promote their only original sci-fi series, Fox has put up a nifty little site based on Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles - premiering on Sunday, January 13th at 9 p.m.

The site allows you to upload an image that will then be turned into a Terminator robot and inserted in some of the show's action scenes.

Very cool....

here is the site

(hint, make your photo a head shot, no background, no white either, dpi of 72 and 3x5 inches will make integrating the picture much easier. )

I know...its horrible....but I just had to do it! lmfao!

In Sci-fi news.....

Some interesting and disturbing news I came across while pursing the SciFi Scanner Blog

Our favorite Bajoran is set to do a recurring role on BSG when it resumes in 08 or gasp 09, Nana Visitor or better known to DS9 fans as Major Kira Nerys will play a fellow cancer patient. Now unless you have been in a coma TRUE fans of Nana know where here digs have been lately. She has been doing equally heavy spy duty on CBS' NCIS. Here is a link to the article

In the really distressing news department: Terry Pratchett (the beloved fantasy and sci-fi author behind the Discworld series) has written an open letter to his fans, and it's pretty awful stuff: Pratchett has Alzheimer's. Click here for Pratchett's comments and more of the article

Sad news for Journeyman fans: It looks like the time-traveling adventures of Kevin McKidd, the San Francisco journalist sliding madly through time, have been put on permanent hiatus by NBC. No big surprise, I have been hearing this stuff for a couple of weeks....was hoping that more would warm to the show....not the case I suspect. Complete article

'Twilight zones' on scorched planets could support life

Shaun sends this in from NewScientist

How many times have we all read the stories about the tidal locked planet that is broiling hot on bright side and arctic cold on the dark side? But in between the hot and cold, the dark and the light exists a "twilight zone" area where the conditions are just right to maintain life. I know I have lost count of the times I have seen this plot device used. Well it seems that some of the newest planets discovered might fit into this niche. Not only do they inhabit the "life zone" but may also possess the very perturbations that would allow life to exist.

Here is the compete story or click the article title

Thursday, December 13, 2007

The Dragonriders of Pern is going to the movies

Slice of SciFi has some interesting Pern news:

Anne McCaffrey’s Dragonriders of Pern novels have been optioned by Steve Hoban of the Oscar winning Canadian film production company Copperheart Entertainment. Mz. McCaffrey said “I decided that Pern had to be done right and I wouldn’t let it go to someone unless I was certain that they were committed to excellence,” says Anne McCaffrey. “Steve brings not only his proven talent but his very great enthusiasm to the endeavor. I’m thrilled to be working with an Academy Award® winning Producer. Pern is in excellent hands!”

This being said....not everyone is all grins and excitement. The folks over at SciFi Scanner feel that Anne has let things run on a bit. The only saving grace in their minds was that she hadn't sold out...and now.... click here for their thoughts

Humans Evolving Faster, Becoming More Different.

Researchers discovered genetic evidence that human evolution is speeding up – and has not halted or proceeded at a constant rate, as had been thought – indicating that humans on different continents are becoming increasingly different.

“We used a new genomic technology to show that humans are evolving rapidly, and that the pace of change has accelerated a lot in the last 40,000 years, especially since the end of the Ice Age roughly 10,000 years ago,” says research team leader Henry Harpending, a distinguished professor of anthropology at the University of Utah.

The study was published online Monday, Dec. 10 in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

“We aren’t the same as people even 1,000 or 2,000 years ago,” Harpending says, which may explain, for example, part of the difference between Viking invaders and their peaceful Swedish descendants. “The dogma has been these are cultural fluctuations, but almost any temperament trait you look at is under strong genetic influence.”

“Human races are evolving away from each other,” he says. “Genes are evolving fast in Europe, Asia and Africa, but almost all of these are unique to their continent of origin. We are getting less alike, not merging into a single, mixed humanity.” (Full story)

Mars rover finds signs of microbial life

Shaun Saunders send in this article from the UK Telegraph:

Nasa says its Mars rover Spirit has discovered "the best evidence yet" of a past habitable environment on the planet's surface. Spirit has been exploring a plateau called Home Plate, where it discovered silica-rich soil in May. Researchers are now trying to determine what produced the patch of nearly pure silica - the main ingredient of window glass. They believe the deposits came from an ancient hot-spring environment or an environment called a fumarole, in which acidic steam rises through cracks. On Earth, both of these types of settings teem with microbial life. Whichever of those conditions produced it, this concentration of silica is probably the most significant discovery by Spirit for revealing a habitable niche that existed on Mars in the past.

click for complete article

Mammoths were blasted from outer space

Evidence has been found which shows mammoth and other great beasts from the last ice age were blasted with material that came from space. Tusks dating to some 35,000 years ago all show signs of having being peppered with meteorite fragments. The ancient remains come from Alaska and Siberian bison skull with the same pockmarks. The evidence suggests hat there was probably an impact which exploded in the air that sent these particles flying into the animals some of which show evidence of surviving the incident, possibly blinding or severely injuring the animals. The discovery follows previous research which claimed a more recent space collision - some 13,000 years ago. Researchers reported the discovery of sediment at more than 20 sites across North America that contained exotic materials: tiny spheres of glass and carbon, ultra-small specks of diamond and amounts of the rare element iridium that were too high to be terrestrial.

Complete article here

Wednesday, December 12, 2007

Space tug offered for NASA’s orbital use

In this artist's conception, the LEO Express is the white-and-gold craft that is docked to the international space station with a Russian Progress cargo craft hooked beneath it.

Space Systems/Loral, a major manufacturer of large, commercial communications satellites, hopes to convince NASA to take a chance on its novel idea for delivering cargo to the international space station. The Palo Alto, Calif.-based company was one of at least seven companies to submit proposals Nov. 21 for $175 million in Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) demonstration money that is back up for grabs, following NASA's decision to withdraw support from Rocketplane Kistler's stalled K-1 reusable launcher program.

complete article here

Monday, December 10, 2007

Happy 90th, Arthur C Clarke!

Sixty-two years ago Arthur C. Clarke sent a letter to the editor titled - Peacetime Uses for V2 - which was published in the 1945 February issue of the Wireless World magazine suggesting the use of Geostationary Satellites for the instant global communications. Quoting,

“I would like to close by mentioning a possibility of the more remote future--perhaps half a century ahead. An ``artificial satellite'' at the correct distance from the earth would make one revolution every 24 hours; i.e., it would remain stationary above the same spot and would be within optical range of nearly half the earth's surface. Three repeater stations, 120 degrees apart in the correct orbit, could give television and microwave coverage to the entire planet.”

Today, the Clarke Orbit has over 330 satellites. And even more amazing is that envisioned geo-sync, 2001, Rendezvous with Rama, Childhood's End and more, celebrates his 90th birthday 12/16/07. A fellow fan has put together a blog that allows fans like ourselves to log in and leave a birthday greeting for Sir Arthur. If you would like to, click on the link below or the article title, to be taken to the site.

Sir Arthur C Clarke’s 90th birthday wish blog

picture credit- Shahidul Alam

The Running Man Goes Reality

From SciFi Scanner I read about one of the more unusual fallouts from the WGA strike. As a sci-fi fan, you might think that you, at least, will be spared from the monotony of reality shows.
Well you might have thought that, but it seems that you very well might be wrong! Not knowing how much longer the strike might go on and a real need to fill programming slots, has led the sci-fi channel to consider the inconceivable - a reality show. Matter of fact the world's first sci-fi themed reality show: Run For The Money. Yep, it's The Running Man, without all those inconvenient fatalities. Here are the detail:

Based on a successful Japanese format from Fuji Television, the action takes place over 60 minutes of real time in various landmark locations. As the clock winds down, the competition gets harder as more hunters appear on the streets, the game perimeter gets smaller, and tasks are assigned that test fraying nerves. Contestants earn money for every second they 'stay alive' and may opt out at their choosing. If they keep playing and are overrun by a hunter, they lose everything. The last person standing takes the prize.

Well, lets see - I thought "the Running Man, was a cartoonish joke......I can't say a spin off reality show does much for me.

Sunday, December 09, 2007

Should there be a lifetime chievement Hugo award

We have read recently of concerns about the plethora in recent world cons of Hugo awards. With some of these awards going to non science fiction categories. There has been strong arguments made to reduce the amount of awards and award categories. So it comes with a bit of a surprise that the editors over at Science Fiction Awards Watch are making a point for expanding the award categories, and in a very important area. That of "Lifetime Achievement Award". Which I have to admit I find decidedly odd. There are awards for excellence in non science fictional fields but no lifetime achievement? What's even odder is that comments on their article some would not care to add the category at all! Stranger still. The editors at SFAW make a good argument. If your interested in reading their ideas - select the article title or click here to be taken to the article

Saturday, December 08, 2007

Zahn's Third Lynx doesn't pussyfoot around

Timothy Zahn's The Third Lynx
published by Tim Doherty Associates

Another rollicking space detective story by Timothy Zahn. Here, private eye Frank Compton and sidekick Bayta make their way through the crowded universe recently visited in Zahn's Night Train to Rigel.

Once again... all abooooaard!

The Quadrail Express is on the move, and in first class compartmented splendor, Zahn's sleuth Frank Compton, a banished government intelligence agent turned freelance gumshoe, hired by the secretive owners of the Express and its farflung stations to aid them in their struggle with the Modrhi, an aggressive colonial alien species that threatens to homogenize the presently very heterogenous mix of Galactic cultures, is settling down to "a sizzling plate of artistically arranged Shorshic pili tentacles", when....

And that when is the moment in all good detective tales, nay in ALL good tales, when the Hero is hurled from mundane toil into a new all engulfing, world-changing Task, and must use his/her/its wits, vigor and savoir-faire to save a largely indifferent universe.

Here in that when moment, private eye Compton crossly lowers his forkfull of tentacles to his plate and, bidding his lovely company-supplied girl friday Bayta follow in his wake, leads us from the dining car on a romp though the busy Galactic railway bazaar (so does Paul Thoreau term in his travelogues the heady, ever changing combinations of commerce, culture, and class distinction yet democracy, aboard the isolated, confined yet motile spaces of a long distance passenger train) in quest of purloined treasure.

A few dying-words-from-a-bit-part-player later, and we are elbowing our way through the teeming scaled, furred and feathered multitudes that inhabit Zahn Space in splendid Dickensian variety, all solemnly minding their own business enroute to their destinations among the bustling twelve galactic empires serviced by the Quadrail Express in tightly controlled neutrality. Gunslinger aliens, for example, must check their weapons into the cargo holds for the journey, but the culture-respecting train authorities, for appearances sake, allow them to pack nonfunctional plastic replica pistols in their holsters while aboard, to let them maintain their internal class distinctions.

Not one, not two but TWELVE empires rub shoulders in Zahn's galaxy. Most writers, one would think, would despair of keeping the characters from more than two empires straight enough to maintain coherence in their tale, let alone we hapless readers, who must consult lengthy, absurd Dramatis Personae to keep track of precisely who Lord Haw-haw or the Baroness Trotter is. Come now, Zahn! Twelve? How dare you?

But he succeeds! Civilization after civilization rises before our eyes and, in the span of a few words dashed upon the page, unfolds resplendent, absurd, colorful, then vanishes into the background roar while another hoves into view. Bellidosh in their well-armed rodentian earnestness. Lumbering Halkavisti, dolphin-snouted Shorshins and hawk-beaked Juriani. Fibibibs and Cimmaheem, too, rise to the fore, then subside into the general din. Homshil, Nemuti and goose-feathered Pirks, too, are among the galaxy's citizens in lawful transit aboard the Express.

Then there are the villains, for what detective tale would dare lack them? Zahn lavishes but a few on us, but they are suitably dreadful: the terrible yet vanquished Shonkla-raa, whose fell creation, the Modrhi, an intelligent, telepathic and aggressively invasive colonial coral-being, lives on, burrowing like malevolent Babel Fish into the brains or alien-correlates-thereof of unsuspecting galactic citizens, turning them into puppets, obedient-on-demand to the central Modrhi consciousness, yet otherwise going about their lives, unaware of the bit of alien protoplasm embedded in their brains guiding their decisions at need.

For various reasons, the Modrhi have issues with the proprietors of the Express, who have created their own cyborgs, the nonviolent, ego-free Spiders, to carry out maintenance and servicing and other necessary railroad tasks. Their creators, the Chahwyn, who have hired Detective Compton to suss out their schemes, are a shy species that prefers being the invisible hand of the galactic marketplace. Not a timid one, for they were instrumental in the overthrow of the Shankla Ra from galactic hegemony, but not eager for the limelight either.

Thus the Chahwyn have put Frank Compton on their payroll. He's been recently fired from service in the intelligence service of the Western Alliance, aka the 'Human Empire' or as Campton calls it "Earth and four pathetic little colony systems"; a reasonable statement when that "empire" is contrasted, for example, with the thousands of planets under "Shorshonian" sway. The universe is a busy place, and Earth is quite insignificant in the shuffling, flapping, skittering crowd of Big Empires: the Nemuti FarReach, the Greesovra System, the Filiaelian Territory, the Ghonsilya system.

Zahn bids us peep into the lives of these civilized peoples, all linked by the Express. It is in these voyeuristic snapshots of them, these miniatures, sometimes impressionistic, sometimes clear as cut crystal, always interesting, that Zahn's book charms.

Will Compton save the day? Will he get the girl? Will he ever get to finish a plateful of Shorshic pili tentacles? Of course he will and can, the devil. How could he not, for he of such heroic (even if pleasantly flawed) parts that even the galaxy-engulfing Modrhi must treat him with grudging but unbreakable honor? And yet.....

There is something absurd even while enobling, about joining Compton's tete a tetes with shoulder-holstered chipmunks, in sharing his first class dining car with "goose-feathered Pirks" noshing on "the horrible things they liked to eat"; in watching him exchange bows and blows, salutations and insults with the great galactic bestiary.

In all of these acts, these beings, we see the same mixture of cupidity, joy, fear, pleasure, suspicion, trust, dogmatism, tolerance and finally common sense we look for and find in each other and must admit to of ourselves.

In Zahn's created universe, unlike some, one can actually love one's enemy. Even when kicking its alien hindquarters across the dining car. In our time, with fundamentalism-fired hate setting mercy on the backburner, he has a message for us, if we will listen.

Friday, December 07, 2007

Exercise pill hope for depression

One of Beam Me Up's cadre, Dave, sent in a very interesting article from BBC World New online. He also added an interesting comment on the subject as well: Hi Paul, I found an article that may be interest for Beam Me Up. "The natural "high" produced by exercise could one day be available in a pill that targets a gene in our brains." It seems to me that something like this, contentment in a pill, could easily be abused in a near future dystopia setting - not only is life bad but here's the medicine to make you happy with your bad life.

Exercise pill hope for depression E he natural "high" produced by exercise could one day be available in a pill that targets a gene in our brains. The Yale University experts say that experiments on mice could show why regular exercise can help people suffering from depression. Mental Health charities in the UK already back exercise programmes as a way of lifting depression. While the link between exercise and improved mood is well known, the reasons behind it are not fully understood. The latest research focuses on an area of the brain called the hippocampus, which is already established as a target for antidepressant drugs. The team developed a test to see which genes in this region were made more active during exercise, and highlighted one called VGF. This gene is linked to a "growth factor" chemical involved in the development of nerve cells. This fitted with their theory that, for depression to lift, changes in the actual structure and links between brain cells are needed, not just changes in the chemicals surrounding the cells. The next step was to make a version of that chemical, and to test it on mice, where it showed an effect on their behaviour that roughly equated to antidepressant effects in humans. The researchers believe that a drug based on VGF could offer "possibly even superior efficacy" to current antidepressants.

Click here for more

Thursday, December 06, 2007

Much of universe may be made up of 'Turkish Taffy'

Alberta Physicists Report Major Breakthrough in Understanding New State of Matter:
The Supersolid
Helium, like all other matter, exists in one of several states of matter: solid, liquid, gas, plasma, depending on the circumstances and the element . Physicists at the University of Alberta however, have confirmed a fifth state of matter.

It is only a matter of time before this state of matter finds its way into speculative/science fiction. Or has it already?

What one might usefully call the Turkish Taffy State, for Super Solids are solids with fluid properties. Matter that flows yet may be torn, sheared, snapped.

Silliness aside, we can thank Quantum fluids and solids researcher, Prof. John Beamish, chair of the UA's Department of Physics, and PhD student James Day, for reporting their findings in a paper published in the science journal Nature on Wednesday, Dec. 6, 2007.

They cooled helium to a solid state and then manipulated the material by shearing it elastically. In doing so, they found that the solid unexpectedly became much stiffer at the lowest temperatures.

Like...turkish taffy?

Their work follows on the heels of a 2004 discovery by Penn State University team led by Dr. Moses Chan, which electrified the physics world when it announced that it discovered that when they cooled solid helium to an extremely low temperature, and oscillated the material at different speeds, the particles behaved in a way not seen before, suggesting the “perpetual flow” seen in superfluids like liquid helium.

Leave a bar of taffy on your dashboard in the summer, however, and that perpetual flow kicks right in.

What Professor Beamish and his student James Day found was that the shear modulus of solid helium increases by 20% when it is cooled below 0.25K. Shear modulus is the quantification of a solid material's response to "shearing strains", i.e. being cut or torn; as contrasted with "bulk modulus": a solid material's response to uniform pressure.

Chan of Penn State praised their efforts as significantly adding to the body of knowledge about the fundamental states of matter allowed by nature. “This is an important breakthrough since the original discovery,” he said.

What may come as science fiction writers adopt this state of matter into their stories?

Someday sci-fi historians may someday point to Douglas Adams' "intelligent paint' in Hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy' as an early harbinger of this new found state of matter.

Image from film Raggedy Anne and Andy 1977

? kind of geek R U

Scott Johnson of the Webcomic Extra Life has created this poster depicting 56 distinct species of geek, allowing you to quickly identify which best describes you by process of visual association. I have at times fallen into several categories, including:

Photo geek, Bargin Bin Geek, Trek Geek, Portable Geek, Robot Geek, Rock Geek, Podcast Geek, Fitness Geek, Gadget Geek, Book Geek, Electronics Geek, Anime Geek, Ham Radio Geek, Tv Geek

And most of the time I am an a amalgam of several at the same that makes me either a Geek Geek or a Super Geek? but I am not a geek about super....soooooo....

lol ok...see which one you are!

click on graphic for larger viewing

IBM researchers build supercomputer-on-a-chip

From Infoworld online:

I know that most of you are familiar with Moore's Law which concerns the size of computer chips or tech in general. To simplify it : Moore basically said that every 2 years the amount of transistors that can be placed on a chip will double and do it for half the cost. Now with the research going on at IBM that very formula could happen to super computer tech.

The technology, called silicon nanophotonics, replaces some of the wires on a chip with pulses of light on tiny optical fibers for quicker and more power-efficient data transfers between cores on a chip. The technology, which can transfers data up to a distance of a few centimeters, is about 100 times faster than wires and consumes one-tenth as much power. The improved data bandwidth and power efficiency of silicon nanophotonics will bring massive computing power to desks. We'll be able to have hundreds or thousands of cores on a chip.

Now this tech is designed to bring down the total amount of "wire" inside a chip. Each chip contains millions and in the near future, billions of transistors. Now to function, each transistor needs some wire to allow it to function. So in the short term, wire will not be completely replaced. On the horizon though is a transistor or light valve if you would that will store digital information as light instead of electrical energy. This may further shrink the size of a super computer to the size of today's cell phone.

Nanophotonics is still a decade away and storing data as light is only theory and even further in the future. However it is conceivable that within a lifetime it may be possible to carry the computing power now reserved governments and thousands of square feet of space, in one's pocket. Does that sound familiar or what?

Wednesday, December 05, 2007

NCC-1701 for ST - XI

Wow, check out the NCC - 1701 that is purported to be in J.J. Abram's ST-XI

There were rumors that some "detail" work would be done on the old work horse, but by the look of things to come, the embellishments have be very well restrained. I like what I see.

Astronomers find evidence of another Universe....

Nelson sends in this startling article from New Scientist Space online -

IN AUGUST, radio astronomers announced that they had found an enormous hole in the universe. Nearly a billion light years across. The void has far fewer stars, gas and galaxies than usual. It is bigger than anyone imagined possible and is beyond the present understanding of cosmology. Physicists from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, have a breathtaking explanation: "It is the unmistakable imprint of another universe beyond the edge of our own!" It is a staggering claim. If right, the giant void is the first experimental evidence for another universe.

Monday, December 03, 2007

Mike Resnick on the Hugo Awards in Baen's Universe

Is Mike Resnick mad? No..... but is he bemused and concerned? Oh most certainly. Over what you might ask. Well in his how words:

.....1957,.... only three Hugos were handed out.....You know how many Hugos were awarded this year? Fourteen. And of those fourteen, you know how many were given out for written science fiction, which is the basis for this entire field? Four. That’s right. Less than 30% of the Hugos now go to written works of science fiction.

In the newest issue of Jim Baen's Universe, Mike goes on to describe the relative dysfunction that has come to embody the Hugo categories. I really have to agree that there is something amiss about an awards system that give an award to the best non-fiction book......That's right, in 1980 they gave a science fiction award to a book about well certainly not science fiction.... Isn't that like getting a Nobel for painting a house? Very off center for sure.

Click here for the newest issue of Jim Baen's Universe

or click the article title to go to Mike's article.

Katee Sarkoff walks away from Bionic Woman

Oh the rumor mill is off and running with the goings on with the cast of NBC's The Bionic Woman.

Seems the bad bionic bitch Katee Sarkoff had a meeting with the producers and rumor has it that she will not be returning to the set when the writer's strike ends. Now I know, she was never meant to be a steady on the show, but truth be told, I think Katee really brought the show up! Now considering the dismal ratings that TBW has been netting, I can understand Sarkoff's concern. But I have to say that Sarkoff may be the only saving grace that TBW really can field. The rest of the cast really is plain vanilla, Sarkoff's character at least had some depth. Wonder how long it will take the other rats to scurry off......

China says moon pictures not faked from NASA

Wow, you got to love this! As most of you know, China launched its first lunar probe, the Chang'e 1, in October. After a sucessful launch, the Chinese space agency released a photo featuring a patch of grey moon surface with the requisite amount of craters.....or so it would seem. Astute Chinese internet users soon cried foul though. It seems the photo that was released is almost a carbon copy of a photo released by NASA years ago! What makes this even weirder is that the Chinese photo has what appears to be photoshopped craters added in. (no I am not making this up! LOL)
The Chinese scientist insist that the photo is genuine and that the reason that the photos are alike is that the probe's camera was pointed in the same area on the Moon. As for the extra crater well, China says that The American photo was not of significant resolution to resolve the smaller structures.

Youngest Solar Systems Detected by Astronomers

Astronomers at the University of Michigan have found what are believed to be some of the youngest solar systems yet detected.

The systems are around the young stars UX Tau A and LkCa 15, located in the Taurus star formation region just 450 light years away. Using a telescope that measures levels of infrared radiation, the researchers noticed gaps in the protoplanetary disks of gas and dust surrounding these stars. They say those gaps are most likely caused by infant planets sweeping those areas clear of debris.

A paper on the findings by astronomy doctoral student Catherine Espaillat, professor Nuria Calvet, and their colleagues is published in the Dec. 1 issue of Astrophysical Journal Letters.

Sunday, December 02, 2007

Intelligent Software Helps Build Perfect Robotic Hand

Another step closer to when robotic equipment will be able to do anything a human can in manufacture and service. From Science Daily online:

Scientists in Portsmouth and Shanghai are working on intelligent software that will take them a step closer to building the perfect robotic hand. Using artificial intelligence, they are creating software which will learn and copy human hand movements. They hope to replicate this in a robotic device which will be able to perform the dexterous actions only capable today by the human hand.

Picture is
The 'cyberglove' used to capture data about how the human hand moves. (Credit: Image courtesy of University Of Portsmouth)

The Death Star help desk

Ahhhhhh yes, what would a week be without a funny vid or 2 huh? Ok, well..... anyway, this one is a hoot. Its what life must be like to be on:

Indian science fiction -- past and present

From Tehelka Magazine, Vol 4, Issue 47, Dated Dec 08 , 2007 Cory Doctorow in Boing Boing is a link to a facinating article about the roots of Science fiction writing science fiction writing in Indian languages.

From the article:

DNA-ALTERING experiments, moody robots, strange mutations from failed cloning projects, wonder machines and nano-gadgetry, and, of course, aliens playing peek-a-boo with humans — science fiction writing in Indian languages has this all and more.

Click here for the complete article


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It Gets Better

Have you ever felt like you were going to break? If someone blew softly you would fall over.
Well if you have I can come in agreement with you and let you know I’ve been where you are and I know exactly how you feel.

To tell you a little about my struggle; this semester I’ve dealt with a lot. I worked 3 jobs, two dealing with photography and 1 in retail as a cashier at Food Lion. Along with that I took up 21 credit hours in school and I still had time to be lazy…sometimes…just kidding no I didn’t. But my major is Graphic Design and I’m taking up…well just completed my minor in Communications. My professor that taught me everything that I know besides with the help of YouTube left for better endeavors and the replacement was someone who degraded your work and designs because he didn’t agree style and opinion.

This is a blog right? So I can vent.

I tried and tried but my best wasn’t good enough…for him. I brought in examples to class and this professor critiqued their work and these were companies!!!

There was nothing left for me to do but pray. I was out of options and I had no where to turn.
I began to pray and I began to ask God DAILY not to deal with him but help me to deal with him.
My prayers were answered and I was given the patience to endure through that class and be prepared for my presentation.

On the presentation day I worked my butt off with only 3 hours of sleep and I ended up with a B.
I was shocked myself but you know a quote came to my mind, “Know Your VALUE or someone else will tell you what you’re worth.”
Even though that’s the grade I received I know I’m worth so much more than a B.

So whomever is reading this and needs encouraging don’t let someone tell you you can’t. Because you can, the only person in your way is you. SO JUMP! There’s something down there, you never know it could be a bigger door for you and your dreams to enter.
Stay humbled, stay positive, and stay focused God will answer your prayers Don’t give up.

“And if our God is for us, then who could ever stop us.
And if our God is with us, then what could stand against.”

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Saturday, March 7, 2015

2015 Cubs Schedules

I've picked up a couple 2015 Cubs schedules for my collection.

This is one that was put out just as the 2014 season ended.  The cover is almost identical to last year's version and is pretty boring.  Once it was announced that the Cubs were going to be playing on Opening Night, a sticker was added to the front.  I wonder which office people got stuck with that job?

This one was given away at the Cubs Convention in January.  It's got a cover that's a little more exciting than the one on the previous schedule.

Most year there would still be two or three more schedules to collect.  The Cubs should be putting out another one soon that would replace the convention schedule.  Those I usually get by calling or emailing the Cubs directly.

The there usuals would be from WGN TV and radio.  There will be no WGN radio schedule since the games have moved to WBBM.  Will they put out a schedule?  WGN TV has a limited number of games this year, only 45 games, and none on the cable version, WGN America.  I doubt they'll put out a schedule with so few games on their station.

1 comment:

  1. Very nice schedules. This post reminded me to make a visit to the Yankees clubhouse store or the Stadium (I live about ten minutes away by subway) and grab some schedules myself. Thanks :)


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Monday, October 25, 2010

Writers'Fall Festival

The first annual Writers' Fall Festival will be taking place one year from now on Saturday, October 22, 2011.  Throughout the day from 9 a. m. to 5 p.m. the Elliot Lake Civic Centre will be humming with workshops, writing competitions with prizes, book readings, book displays, sales and signings.

There will be exciting guest workshop facilitators and in the lobby where the displays & signings take place we will enjoy the music of talented local musicians.

At 6 p.m. that evening we will enjoy a Gala Dinner and we will be enraptured by well known guest speaker(s).

I'll have lots more to say about this exciting event as time goes by.

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Friday, April 19, 2013

HoCo Losing Corporate HQ

On Tuesday shareholders of Columbia based Arbitron voted overwhelming in favor of being acquired by New York based Nielsen, combining the dominant radio rating service with the dominant television rating service. If the deal passes muster with the antitrust cops, the television guys will win and HoCo will lose a major corporate headquarters. According to this story by Gary Haber in the Baltimore Business Journal the radio ratings company “is one of the largest employers in Howard County. It employs about 860 people in the Baltimore area, out of a U.S. workforce of about 1,000.”

The ratings business is struggling to keep up with tech savvy consumers. In an article entitled “The Nielsen Family is Dead” in Wired, Tom Vanderbilt writes that “Nielsen and others have been scrambling to generate a new kind of TV rating, one that takes into account all of the activity that occurs on screens other than a television.”

“Since the 1970s, television has been ruled by the Nielsen Family—25,000 households whose TV habits collectively provide a statistical snapshot of a nation’s viewing behavior. Over the years, the Nielsen rating has been tweaked, but it still serves one fundamental purpose: to gauge how many people are watching a given show on a conventional television set. But that’s not how we watch any more. Hulu, Netflix, Apple TV, Amazon Prime, Roku, iTunes, smartphone, tablet—none of these platforms or devices are reflected in the Nielsen rating. (In February Nielsen announced that this fall it would finally begin including Internet streaming to TV sets in its ratings.)”

Arbitron has been trying to keep up as well. In 2005 they began rolling out the Portable People Meter which was meant to phase out its dependence on diaries. Four years later they encountered some unanticipated regulatory blow back.

Change may be constant but it can also be unpredictable.
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On Air

Hot Wax
Tune in: High Low

Everything Is Broken playlist for 03/04/2014

Fillin today with Habanero, presenting Everything (in Healthcare) Is Broken. Thanks to Jim Lynch for the timeslot this week and next. Jim will be back on 3/18.

The discussion today is the Affordable Care Act (aka ObamaCare). My guest is Jason Samel from LongIslandObamaCare.com.

Here is the official New York State of Health website for signing up. https://nystateofhealth.ny.gov/

Jason cautions that sometimes you don't get the correct information, and you may not be connected with the plan that is best for you and your family. Seek out either a knowledgeable Navigator or broker who is familiar with all the nuances of the coverage, plans and options to make sure you find the best plan and rates.

To reach Habanero/Sue Montana, you can send an email to habanero@wusb.fm, or call 631.244.5661 or check out www.habaneroinc.com. I welcome your ideas for future programming, any questions you have about the programs presented, or any other healthcare business related questions.


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Thursday, April 30, 2009

Thankful Thursday

Today I'm thankful to/for/about:

  • Antibiotics, which are helping all sorts of nasty stuff go away ;-)
  • Family recipes -- in this particular case, Clapper burgers (tonight's entree) and "Buddy's icing." Mmm, mmm, good! I made the mistake, though, in using a boxed spice cake mix (tisk, tisk!) There is a reason that Buddy didn't take a short cut on her raisin spice cake. Her cake is dense enough to hold the icing on the layer cake -- without splitting the top layer into thirds - having some of the icing and the top layer sliding off of the bottom layer. It's not so pretty at the moment, but satisfied my craving for a little trip down memory lane! (I have no idea how my tiny Buddy made this icing! It nearly overheated my Kitchen-Aid mixer whipping the stiff egg whites and the brown sugar syrup for over 25 minutes!) Amazing. Yummy! I could eat this stuff spread on anything -- seriously!
  • Good friends who bring good beer -- thanks for the Yuengling, EJ! Delish! (Oh how I do love some of "America's Oldest Beer!")
  • Elizabeth -- who has a conversation with me that goes like this: Elizabeth - "I love you, Mommy." Me - "I love you, too." Elizabeth - "I love you seven!" (Which, even by my calculation is greater than to...too...or two!)
  • Reid - because he's needing a little lovin' right now. But as of this weekend, West Liberty will no longer be a college, but West Liberty University! Yea!!! We're so proud of all he has done for WLU in such a short period of time - not to mention that his other job, Small College Sports Web is broadcasting the WVIAC baseball and softball tournaments this weekend...and he's soon on his way to Glade Springs for the regional golf tourney as a member of the NCAA DII National Golf Committee. I'm getting worn out just typing about that...

Tuesday, April 28, 2009

A hearty congratulations to Kristin (Hinrichs) & William Perry on the arrival of their baby girl, Greer Auguste Perry!

Greer was goboren am ("born on" for those of you who don't speak German) April 24, 2009. Geburtszeit ("time") 12:04 PM...Kristin is likely still enjoying her national health care stay in the hospital and not yet able to confirm the time of birth...but that is for another day for yours truly to get on a soap Berlin, Germany.

Greer weighed in at 3650 gramms (just over 8 pounds for those of us not on the metric system!) and is 51 cm (roughly 20").

What a cutie! I can't wait to meet her!!! (And isn't the little stuffed Strudel too adorable???)

Congratulations Chicken Noodle, Sweet William, & (Kennedy's LLBFF) Strudel!!! We ♥ & miss you guys!!! Looking forward to spending some quality time together soon!!!

Sunday, April 26, 2009

Big Papi

So Reid, Elizabeth, and I are watching game 3 of the Red Sox vs. Yankees this evening when Big Papi comes up to the plate in the bottom of the 5th. (Yes, sports fans that would be shortly before Jacoby Ellsbury stole home -- first time a Red Sox player straight stole home since 1994...a beautiful sight! But I digress...) so Big Papi comes up to the plate, and Reid and I are telling Elizabeth to watch because Big Papi is at bat.

Then she starts with the questions, "What is Papi (as in my Daddy) doing at the baseball game? What's he got in his hand? Why's he swinging that bat?"

I don't know about you, but I don't really see a resemblance between Big Papi & my Daddy:

Then they show a close up of Big Papi.

Elizabeth says, "That's not my Papi - that's Baseball Papi!"

And Ortiz smacks a double line drive with an RBI...and Elizabeth cheered - gave me a high five (I need to wash the plague off of my hand.) Then when J.D. Drew hit his ground rule double scoring Big Papi...E wasn't too happy. "Where did Baseball Papi go? I want to see him!"

Let's Go Red Sox!!!!!

Recycling love

Anne, Sean, & Alex got me the maroon & white diamond patterned eye glasses case from Kim White as part of my birthday gift. I love it! It is not only recycled and vintage, but just plain cool! (That pattern is Diamond Lane 1975 AMC. Awe-some!
Kim White makes & sells handbags, too...

Saturday, April 25, 2009

Poor Baby

So Elizabeth is practically a pink-eye diagnosis away from the plague.

It started Thursday afternoon with a high fever followed by the chills. Thursday evening Elizabeth was quite lethargic -- until around the time that I got home at which time she perked up and started cooking like a miniature Martha Stewart (she's quite in control in her own kitchen!) She was on the rebound, or so we thought, so we sent her back to daycare on Friday. Again with the high fever (103 on both Thursday & Friday afternoons)...and a bit of a red bumpy rash (most noticed on her cheeks and hands, but she has it on her legs, arms, and torso as well.) She complained a little bit on Thursday of her ear hurting, but complaints on Friday. So this morning we got her into the pediatrician.

According to the pediatrician, she has "generous" tonsils, which are inflamed -- as well as her adenoids. (Those suckers are HUGE -- it is amazing that she can swallow on any given day, but today they are really, really big!) Infections in both ears -- the right ear being much worse than the left. (Of course when she complained to me of her ear hurting, it was the left ear that she complained about.) She has strep throat. And the rash is scarlatina -- which according to WebMD, is another name for "scarlet fever" which is strep throat with a rash.

Great! That doesn't sound like a bloodletting with some leeches, I don't want to know what does!

In other words -- stay away from our house for the next 48 hours -- maybe more if, God forbid, Reid or I should contract strep throat...

Thursday, April 23, 2009

Thankful Thursday

Today I'm thankful to/for/about:

  • A sweet sleeping girl next to me -- yes, even if she is cramping my style here in the recliner. (She started running a fever last night -- and it has continued throughout the day. We think it is yet another ear infection, but hope not...have a call into the pediatrician for tomorrow morning, in case she still has the fever and complains about her ears hurting.)
  • My faboo hubby -- I'm quite the lucky girl!
  • Early cheers for West Liberty as they celebrate University Week next week!
  • My sweet baby girl, Kennedy, who doesn't even whimper when she gets moved around in the bed every night...and usually never fails to be my foot warmer!
  • Photoshop -- just love playing around on Photoshop...currently working on Alex's 2nd birthday party invites (in addition to various stuff for work...)
Funny Elizabeth story from yesterday evening. Reid had a Board of Governor's meeting last night, so I took Elizabeth out to eat. She enjoys getting to go to a restaurant - especially when it is one-on-one. On the drive out to The Highlands (that would be the area with Cabella's for those of you who are only a little bit familiar with Wheeling) Elizabeth started singing. At one point she went into singing one of her favorite Sesame Street songs:

"A firefighter wears a hat
And drives a fire engine
A special coat that's water-proof
A ladder to climb up to the roof
A hose that sprays the water around
We are heroes in your town."

When she was done singing I asked her who she knows that is a firefighter. She thought about my question for a second and proudly exclaimed, "Papi's a firefighter!"

"Right!" I said.

"And Big Bird..." replied Elizabeth.

Sorry to burst your philanthropic bubble, Papi, but Big Bird is yellow...and that is Elizabeth's favorite!!!

Friday, April 10, 2009

Cake Carrier

I have been eying some retro cake carriers on eBay for some time now. When I make a cake for my office or whatever, I don't have a good means for transporting it.

Quite often the kinds that I have liked on eBay the most have been going for $30 + S&H. Not that I've been opposed to the amount, just figured I could find a score of my own by frequenting an antique-type shops that we have a few of in Wheeling.

I was mentioning my quest for a vintage cake carrier to Mom when I was home a couple of weekends ago. She suggested we go into her basement to look for one that might have been Buddy's (my grandmother, Daddy's mom) or Aunt Maple's (my great aunt, Daddy's aunt.)

SCORE! It needed some TLC, but I was in business!

Daddy doesn't remember this, so we're guessing that it was Aunt Maple's.

Here's what I started out with (after it was washed and I took a Brillo pad to it):

I liked the retro chef with his wood-stoked grill, so I wanted to preserve it as best as I could. (From this picture you can see how yucky the inside of the carrier was.)

Finding a paint that wasn't a blindingly bright yellow was nearly impossible (most likely because I have the patience of a gnat and wanted the instant gratification...wasn't willing to shop all over the place for spray paint.) Anyway, I ended up going with an almond color that had a satin finish.

I wanted the bottom and the carrier part to be black to match the knobs and the chef.

Here's the finished product! I love it...and can't wait to make a yummy cake that I need to transport somewhere! (The top is for either a cake server or cookies, I guess.)

Hopefully this will make for more pleasant thoughts of my Great Aunt Maple than the couple of memories that I have. I'm sure she was a fine lady and all, but about all I can remember of her is visiting her in a nursing home when I was maybe grade school age...and random "old people" that I didn't know that would try to grab my hand and thought I was there to see them. In my head, it seems that we went to visit with her every weekend, but I'm sure Mom and Daddy will correct me upon reading this. Quite traumatic for a small child.

Thursday, April 9, 2009

Thankful Thursday

Today I am thankful to/for/about:

  • My family! This evening Elizabeth colored Easter eggs with Nana & Papa - after spending a great day with them. Sweetness arrived after a hard day's work looking all dapper in his US Open shirt from Oakmont...and we're scheduled to go to Webster Springs for some quality time with my fam. We love just getting to spend time with our families! We're quite blessed! (You can see the THREE dippers at E's disposal in this pic, yet she is using her hands!)
  • Good conversation with Kristin! A surprise call last Saturday evening, when one would guess a preggo in Berlin would be fast asleep made my day! I love our chats...and hate that we live so far apart, but am so fortunate to have made a LLBFF (Kennedy feels the same way about Strudel!) Spanks girlfriend! Looking forward to what these next few weeks have in store for you...and I'm soooo looking forward to getting to virtually meet (before the actual meeting) of Sweet Baby Jennie Marie Cunningham Hinrichs's not too late -- there's some Scottish in my blood (even if not in thy name!)
  • Baseball season being underway. I love the sign of spring...Go Sox!!!
  • Masters weekend. LOVE IT! ♥
  • Easter eggs. E was quite intense this year coloring eggs here with Nana & Papa. Now if I can only get her to consistently use the dipper so as not to have her hands permanently dyed with the egg coloring.
  • Giggles. There is nothing sweeter than the sound of a child, especially Elizabeth, giggling. Reid is currently giving her zerberts and she is giggling away. Pure joy.
  • The color YELLOW. Elizabeth has declared over the last two weeks that it is her favorite color. She knows that purple is Grandma's favorite, green is Mommy & Daddy's favorite, and that blue is Nana's favorite. E says, "Yellow is my favorite!"

Wednesday, April 8, 2009

Easter Party Pooper!

Well...this morning Reid was taking Elizabeth to daycare with her adorable treats and cookies when he got stopped - by one of the administrators at the daycare. Apparently, there was a memo that neither of us got -- we can't bring anything homemade! :-|

The treats will be acceptable, once I bring the box that the crackers came in. The cookies, however, will be consumed by the staff - as the kids are not allowed to have them.

This is not the first time I've made cookies for the kids: pumpkin sugar cookies for Halloween, popcorn balls for Thanksgiving, chocolate chip cookies for Christmas, snowballs for January, Panda bear sugar cookies (that were the cat's meow) in February, green Rice Crispy treats for St. Patrick's Day, and TODAY we get stopped!

So, it will be off to the store for me to BUY crappy-ugly-store-bought-no-good cookies for Elizabeth's party. That's a party pooper!

Tuesday, April 7, 2009

Elizabeth's Easter Party

So it's another party at Elizabeth's daycare tomorrow. Lots of the parents in Elizabeth's class do some kind of treat for the kids to take home, in addition to making or bringing what we've signed up to bring. Mainly it's junk...more crap that we don't need in our house -- certainly not in Elizabeth's stash of over-flowing toys. So, I try to do things that are more on the consumable side.

I think these little carrots turned out pretty cute. They were really easy to make, too!

I used disposable cake decorating bags. Filled each with some of the chick whole wheat cheddar cheese crackers (Target's knock-off of Goldfish...figured the chicks were more Eastery). Then I cut sheets of green tissue paper into squares. Stuffed the tops of the carrots with the tissue and tied them off with green curling ribbon. I cut out egg-shaped tags and wrote "Happy Easter ♥ Elizabeth" on each of those. Elizabeth colored the backs of the tags and put spring stickers on most of them (she got bored, I put stickers on the ones she didn't.)

For some reason on party sign-up days, Reid is the one that does the signing up. No complaints, though, as he signs me up for cookies. Elizabeth & I typically make the cookies and decorate them together -- a process that usually takes a couple of evenings to complete. Not so much today and it was a one day project - and E wasn't in much of a mood to do anything other than eat cookie dough. (She ate enough cookie dough that Reid told her that he belly was as big as Alex's - and it nearly was!)

I think these turned out pretty cute, too!

By the way, the jelly beans are yummy! They are Sweet Tart jelly beans! (I don't like jelly beans, so was pleased that these are ones I can munch on!)

Funny little ditty on E from this evening. While taking the first batch of cookies out of the oven, I burned the heck out of my thumb. Burned it badly enough that I had to keep ice on it for several hours to keep it from throbbing. When I was getting her ready for her bath I was asking her to please cooperate with me since my thumb was really hurting. About that time Reid came into the bathroom and was able to actually do the bathing duty, which saved my thumb being in warm water (thankyouverymuch, Sweetness!)

Reid asked Elizabeth, "Are you going to cooperate with Mommy, Elizabeth?"

Elizabeth replied, "Nope."

I know, I know...she's only 3. She doesn't know what cooperate means. It was still pretty funny to us, though!

Monday, April 6, 2009

The Good Zoo at Oglebay

Wheeling has so many great things for kids! On Saturday morning, we met Jason, Sarah, Campbell, and Will Koegler and Kristin, Claire, and Max Seibert at Oglebay's Good Zoo.

Claire will be 4 in August, Campbell is nearly a month older than Elizabeth (the two of them are 3), Max is 2, and Will is 19 months. Reid was quite ecstatic that Elizabeth was the tallest in the bunch!

I find it much easier to keep up with just Elizabeth when I take her out shopping or the like than to help 2 other moms keep track of 5 kids in all. Plus Max is fast and has no issues with running away from a poor pregnant Kristin. (Kristin's husband, Justin, was working, so that must have been additionally stressful for her!)

The Good Zoo is really nifty! We started out with the kids playing in the room with the nasty looking mole rats. Actually, we kind of sped past the meerkats as they are pretty stinky before getting to the room with the turtles, mole rats, etc. Elizabeth and Claire especially enjoyed playing veterinarian to the stuffed animals! Too cute!!!

Somewhat surprisingly, Elizabeth was excited about the train ride. (This was the beginning of the end of the fun at the Boo at the Zoo in October. People were dressed in costumes and jumped out of the woods in a couple of places during the Boo at the Zoo...E spent the rest of the time with her eyes closed!) It was a bit chilly for my liking, but the kids all had fun on the train ride. Toot-Toooooot!

We spent quite a bit of time at the playground. I think the kids would have been happy if that is all that we would have done for the day. Then we were off to the lorikeet cage, which was pretty nifty. Only a few seconds after we stepped into the cage both Reid and Sarah had attracted a few of the lorikeets. Fortunately none of the birds landed on the kids, although Campbell did have one on his arm for a brief bit.

Then it was off to the kangaroo enclosure. There were at least 5 kangaroos in the enclosure, and you can get surprisingly close to the animals. There are a few signs that tell the people to stay on the sidewalks. I can only assume that the roos stay in the grass area...but Will, more than any of the other kids, would throw that rope over his head and off he'd go to chase after the kangaroos. Pretty funny!

Then we had lunch. The Seiberts departed for home. The Amoses and Koeglers took the kids to the model train exhibit. Campbell and E would run along side of some of the trains, which was pretty cute. The Koeglers went home and Reid and I took Elizabeth back into the room where she could doctor the puppy a bit to help it feel better. She also needed to show the turtle, who was eating his "salad" that she was wearing a shirt with a turtle on it before we went home.

We had a great time...and Elizabeth is ready to go back to the zoo with her friends!

Friday, April 3, 2009

Who Knew?

I'm in preparation mode for the Masters next week/weekend.

If your house is anything like mine, you get a warm and fuzzy feeling inside the first time you hear CBS promo the Masters...and that music. The Masters is how I know its spring - and I get can get excited for all things that spring brings (like warmer weather!)

In our house, pretty much everything comes to a roaring halt for the Masters. We watch nothing but golf for a week straight. Replays of the day...replays of prior years...just the Golf's a little slice of golfers' heaven!

It's too early for me to find out what Trevor Immelman will be serving for his Champions' Dinner for me to make my full preparations for our annual Champions' Dinner. But that doesn't mean that I'm not starting to worry that I won't be able to find certain ingredients...or what I need to do to make an appropriate substitution.

But my search for the 2009 Champions' Dinner menu lead me to this discovery: There are lyrics to the music we hear on CBS!

I have overlooked this is the past of my quest for knowledge of all things related to the Masters. (Wonder if Joe Sengelwalt is aware of this???)

Here is what the Masters website says:

16.Q. What is the name of the music that CBS uses during Masters Tournament coverage?
A. Dave Loggins wrote the original score for CBS's coverage of the Masters in 1981. It was re-released by Leeds Music/Patchwork Music ASCAP in 1996 by Don Cherry.

The song is called, "Augusta" -- go figure.

Who is Dave Loggins? (Not to be confused with Kenny Loggins...) You're likely familiar with Dave Loggins for "Please Come to Boston."

AND, here are the lyrics:

by Dave Loggins

Well, it's springtime in the valley on Magnolia Lane
It's the Augusta National and the master of the game
Who'll wear that green coat on Sunday afternoon?
Who'll walk the 18th fairway singing this tune?
Augusta, your dogwoods and pines
They play on my mind like a song
Augusta, it's you that I love
And it's you that I'll miss when I'm gone.
It's Watson, Byron Nelson, Demaret, Player and Snead
It's Amen Corner and it's Hogan's perfect swing
It's Sarazen's double eagle at the 15 in '35
And the spirit of Clifford Roberts that keeps it alive
Augusta, your dogwoods and pines
They play on my mind like a song
Augusta, it's you that I love
And it's you that I miss when I'm gone.
It's the legions of Arnie's Army and the Golden Bear's throngs
And the wooden-shafted legend of Bobby Jones.

Click here to listen to the theme music.

Now...back to focusing on the Champions Dinner because who knows what a South African will serve! (Just wish Masters Week didn't coincide with Easter...that's a bummer!)

Won't Easter Be Fun???

I just got Rose Marie Robinson's recipe for "Red Rooster" drinks from Marra...

"1 and 1/2 quarts of cranberry juice, one 6 once can of frozen orange juice concentrate (non-diluted and thawed), and 2 cups of vodka. Stir and pour in a 9x12 baking dish with cover. Refrigerate overnight and scoop out like italian ice... YUM.."

Guess what the Mortons will be having next weekend ??? But we'll likely need to at least double this...I can't imagine that this would be enough to satisfy our clan!


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Many tennis players are always working on improving their tennis game.  However, once you are in a routine you may be overlooking key things that could improve your tennis game a lot if you changed your focus on these things in your practice.  Here are five tennis improvements you should look carefully at.

1. Depth – It is not enough to hit the ball hard.  Can you land it deep in the court consistently?  Greater depth takes away a lot of opportunities from your opponent.

2. Net Play – Even if you are a hard hitting base liner, you should still develop net skills that are dependable in case people draw you in or so that you can take advantage of those short shots and hold your ground.

3. Put Aways – When  someone drops that short ball right in the middle of the court, how confident are you at moving up and putting it away?  Do not let those opportunities pass you by when you could be passing your opponent by.

4. Intensity – There is always people playing at another level, and those a level up from you are most likely playing with a greater intensity and energy.  To address this issue, practice with more intensity so your tennis game will have the energy and attacking mentality you need to win matches against advanced players.

5. Second Serves – Having a good second serve is critical to winning against better players.  If you are just tapping that second serve over, you are probably winning very few second serves with a player that is good at attacking.  Develop a dependable kick serve for your second serve to at least make it a bit harder for your opponent.

The important thing is to remember that your routine may be keeping your skills at one level, but by exploring other areas to improve in, you can improve your game and start winning more at a higher level.

About The Author

Ron has started several businesses around technology and communications. He founded the WorldWide Tennis Association to use his technical skills to improve tennis players ability globally to compete, get ranking and have fun without unnecessary barriers.


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