Happy Humpday Tribbers!
It’s a beautiful day in the Bay Area, and I’ve got the world on a string… no work, just play, and a tiny bit of studying for your host today. So feel free to swing by the Cafe in the park and we’ll toss a frisbee or a baseball or just watch the world go by and ponder how the hell working 10 hours a day ever feels “normal”.
I’ve got some chopped nectarines and what the Abbott-ette dubiously dubbed “pluquats” (which I thought were Indians with a giant casino in southern CT until about 5 minutes ago)… see you all inside!
Did any of you catch the descriptions on all the news outlets on how a space shuttle re-enters the atmosphere and lands? Absolutely insane. It makes landing a 747 look like a piece of cake. I’m pretty sure I can’t land either, but holy hell, that looks like a crazy ride. Kudos to the fine folks who helped land it safely.
What’s on your plate today?
rrrrbbbbiiiittt (Frog for “Thanks SallyCat”)
You all should take the rest of the day off… I’ll write your boss a note excusing you. Don’t worry, I’ve got a lot of pull where you work.
😉
While your at it, can you ask my boss for a small raise for me? I mean, what with your pull and all, it should be a breeze. Ten percent would suffice. Have your people call mine when you find out.
done and done. I also got you a small (re)-signing bonus if that’s ok with you.
Tracy and Bri. My thoughts are with Cindy today. The latest news that she may be sick with a fever is very distressing. Sorry to saunter into the Cafe with my anxieties. Guess I’ll have a little chamomile tea and meditate for a while.
it’s ok, Cafe’s are great places to melt away anxieties… now let me find some tea…
Just got back from brinnainne’s house a little while ago. Tracy’s there – it was so cool to get to meet her! (Not to slight you, brinnainne, but I’d already met you 🙂
They are going to pick someone (I feel really stupid that I can’t tell you who) up tonight at the Austin airport and then head up to Crawford in the morning.
They said they’ll post a diary before they leave. adastra has pics. Will post here or at their diary when I get them (or he will).
So cool you took them stuff!! I’ll bet it was all you could do to keep from hopping into the car with them. Wish we could send them BooCare Packages.
The shuttle is now officially grounded and the shuttle launch system may never fly again. That launch system depends on foam insulation of that fuel tank. What’s worse is all the next-generation NASA space vehicles are all based on using those same launch boosters and tanks system that will probably never fly again, too.
NASA is in a real bind. NASA has a choice of handing all the manned launch over to the Russian launch facility, or NASA may be in a situation in which it has to chuck everything it’s learned in the last 3 decades and go all the way back to the Saturn 5 rocket design to conduct the international space station support missions themselves. There’s no time for a complete re-design. The space station is up there. They have to have something that can get cargo to the ISS now.
They thought foam insulation hitting the shuttle during launch was harmless. It clearly wasn’t. Now they can’t figure out a way to apply the foam without the foam falling off during launch like a Persian cat sheds fur in July.
What genius though they would be able to keep the foam insulation intact at 1000s of miles per hour at up to 9 Gs? They ASSUMED the foam was safe. They never tested it. NEVER ASSUME ANYTHING. It makes an ASS out of U and ME.
Thank God Richard Branson is moving ahead with those commercial space launch plans. Branson may now be the only one that makes any progress in human spaceflight for the next decade thanks to this foam insulation clusterf*ck
why don’t we make one? I’ve got the next couple days off… let’s see what we’ve got to work with…
ok – I’m thinking tupperware. It’s microwave safe, which means it can be heated up to at least a million degrees.
ooh! I also have some leftover bubblewrap from moving, which will make splendid spacesuits.
and the neighbors appear to have satellite cable, so we could definitely put that to good use.
and if we take these WD-40 cans, rig ’em up to spray all the time and light them on fire, that should make some pretty good rocket boosters, eh?
you got anything useful on your end?
from the ground up. The Shuttle design was patched together out of all sorts of compromises when Nixon was terminating all but the first Apollo science mission and cutting funding for next generation space vehicles.
The tiles were always risky, the solid boosters for the tank proved to be dangerous with Challenger, the foam with Columbia, and the entire concept of the Shuttle as a routine space truck as hyped during Reagan was wildly unrealistic. The thing needs to be half rebuilt after every flight. A lot of people think disposable vehicles would have been more sensible in this era and with the budgets at hand.
Then there’s the problem of the space station, one of the main missions for the Shuttle, which itself has little if any scientific or spaceflight-advancing mission. It was more a political project for advancing relations with the USSR and now Russia.
Branson however is still sub-orbital, somewhere between the X-15 and Mercury-Redstone, and based on the scary instability his first flight experienced on the way up I’ve got to wonder if his basic design might have some serious flaws.
My father was a NASA engineer way back when but I’m in the camp that favors (say) a 10-fold increase in robotic science missions, and I can’t really think of a good mission for humanned flight at this time. Based on NASA’s history, it seems that for humanned flight they should be doing the cutting edge R&D that’s least immediately profitable for industry, and also the nonprofitable basic space based astronomy, so that the Bransons of the world would have the tools to explore the marketable possibilities.
Thanks, Gooserock. I have read previously about how many factors of expense it takes to put in humans vs. robots.
At this point, it’s not practical to keep patching this 70’s-era vehicle, and with our debt load I just don’t see that changing any time soon.
The PC I am using is a direct result of the investments in space made in the 60’s, there are many times the beneficial results for every dollar spent in space. What I guess we just can’t afford are the life support systems and redundancies which add tremendously to the cost.
I used to see this hashed out in USENET forums and while I’m not a student of the subject, a constant complaint was that the space program is consistently oversold as an innovator for the rest of the economy. In other words direct investment in basic science or technological innovation would give a lot more results per dollar, so it was said.
I’m sorry I can’t seem to phrase a productive google search for this at the moment.
I suppose I was most sold by my community college teacher, who had a class (I didn’t take the class) that put together experiments that actually went on the shuttle in the ’80s.
It fit logically in his teachings that we had to go from vacuum tubes (not to mention the air conditioning required) to silicon in order to lift anything into space, and his point was that science advances on earth did not have that requirement (at least not the immediate need like getting to the moon.)
Basic research often yields such vast rewards, I hope we can steer this country back to that direction someday — without corporate patents on taxpayer-funded findings. The middle class is just attacked on so many fronts these days, and engineering (and manufacturing of the engineered products) sure had a great run for this country. China and India aren’t sitting around (oops, there I go spouting off about things I probably don’t know as much as I should, just like the space program.) 🙂
oops, there I go spouting off about things I probably don’t know as much as I should, just like the space program
Oh, that’s ok. Seems to be a trend, tonight.
while I’m not a student of the subject, a constant complaint was that the space program is consistently oversold as an innovator for the rest of the economy. In other words direct investment in basic science or technological innovation would give a lot more results per dollar, so it was said.
OK. Let’s take this one at a time.
while I’m not a student of the subject
Then why do you feel competent to speak about it?
a constant complaint was that the space program is consistently oversold as an innovator for the rest of the economy.
Where did you here this complaint? I consistently hear that it is undersold as an innovator for, not only the economy, but the future of the human race.
I’m sorry I can’t seem to phrase a productive google search for this at the moment.
Me too.
In other words direct investment in basic science or technological innovation would give a lot more results per dollar
I’m for that. So what, exactly would you say, would be a better “direct” investment of our research $?
“while I’m not a student of the subject”
Then why do you feel competent to speak about it?
Well first of all because we’re in a cafe here, where I’m merely speaking and not writing an expository diary, and 2nd because I’ve seen a great deal of discussion on this topic, starting with my father who worked in the private sector on manned space projects at the time we watched the pictures from the first Ranger to hit the moon. He later worked in the NASA manned space program.
Seems adequate for a cafe.
the future of the human race
Well of course there’s no doubt about the importance of space for the long term future. I’ve heard plenty of doubt about the value of X present program for our future.
So what, exactly would you say, would be a better “direct” investment of our research $?
If I get an appetite to lobby and debate on this subject I’ll be sure to put up a diary.
I’m told that I owe you an apology. And I do.
you apologize to Gooserock. He’s a very sweet guy – don’t bite him!
I’m sorry; I did not mean to make a personal attack. My passion for the subject sometimes overwhelms my good sense, what little I have, but that’s no excuse for being churlish at the FBC. I, sincerely, apologize to you and everyone at FBC.
Okay, let’s see if I can piss all you smart cookies off.
The Whole Concept is Buggy from the ground up.
Hmm… “buggy”.
The Shuttle design was patched together out of all sorts of compromises
Yes, indeed. How, if you had been in charge, if you had the power to ‘make it so’, would you have changed things?
Troublemaker 🙂
My first instinct is to apologize. But yes, no matter how much I want to deny it (not very much), I am a trouble maker. And an egotist, I suppose. I just want to… slap you up the side of the head and say, “How the fuck can you not see this?
Somebody please tell me how much more dense the insulating foam is than a bird. The shuttle hits and gets hit by birds on nearly every launch. Isn’t that potentially hazardous? How’s NASA gonna prevent that?
I’m in a tickle-me-Elmo sorta mood. Guess I’ll go lie down on one of these cafe cots over here and eat Red Hots.
The bird is more dense than foam. But the bird is only going to get hit by the shuttle at the very beginning of the climb (birds don’t fly all that high), at relatively low speeds. Birds don’t hit the vehicle “nearly every launch” (where did you get that factoid) but even when they do – they’re moving slowly and the shuttle is moving relatively slowly. Think about the difference between a slap in the face by your angry lover and a 2×4 wielded by crack maniac. That piece of foam that doomed Columbia, less dense than a bird, was whipped off and struck the wing at a very high velocity. The foam was less dense but hit at a much higher energy level, because of the velocity. Sorry, but this is common sense, not ‘rocket science’.
Quirky humor doesn’t translate over the Internet. But thanks for your clear explication.
Hey, thanks! I don’t want to seem snarky, and I appreciate you taking the trouble to not be offended. This whole subject is, for me,… a very passionate… embrace.
Oh, my. What a mixture in this thread of… smart and informed and not so smart and not so informed. Sometimes in the same comment.
The last shuttle landing? AFS, do you really think so or are speaking for effect, for shock value? There will be between 15 and 22 more launches. And landings. They do know how to stop the foam from shedding big chunks like “a Persian cat sheds fur in July”. They just didn’t fix that small area, an area applied by hand instead of machine, around the PAL ramp because they thought it wasn’t necessary and might even be counterproductive. A mistake? You bet, in hindsight, but not a show stopper.
The next generation of human rated launch vehicles will go back, not to “unlearning everything NASA has learned in the past three decades”, but to one important lesson – put the crew vehicle on top of the stack and who cares how much foam is shed.
And the argument about human vs. robotic exploration just totally misses the !@#$% point. We should not be making a big effort (we should be making a HUGE effort) to put humans into space, because of prestige, or glory, or because humans do things robots can’t, but because humans living off this planet is the one and only future of the human race. If we don’t learn to fly, we are going to die in the nest. Anyone who believes that a closed ecological system, be it as big as a planet, is sustainable over the long term, is imagination impaired.
The short-sighted might agree but say, “Oh, there’s plenty of time”. There might be, but there are many plausible scenarios where we’re on a very thin cusp. This might be the golden age of possibilities. A global economic collapse, or even partial economic/cultural collapse, due to political or environmental causes, is a distinct possibility. Or we could get hit by an asteroid next year that totally wipes out our civilization. Not likely but possible.
We’re like a turtle in the middle of a seldom traveled highway. A truck, or even a car, might not be coming along for a long time. But I’m for heading for the side of the road.
Sorry, I guess this kind of rant is not appropriate for FBC. BUT HE STARTED IT! Sorry, sorry. A pet peeve (picture a large, hairy, ugly animal on a very short leash).
What was the first word in the title of my post?
“MIGHT”
“Auxiliary verb
might
1. past tense of the verb may; used to indicate conditional or possible actions”
http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/might
And I’m not the one who used the word “grounded” in relation to the whole shuttle program. NASA is.
<guffaw>
What was the first word in the title of my post?
“MIGHT”
Oh, Jaysus. I asked you if you thought that “might” actually be a possibility.
1. past tense of the verb may; used to indicate conditional or possible actions
You didn’t answer the question. I’m saying, without equivocation, that it isn’t a possibility. Well, I guess the sun could come up in the west tomorrow, but…
And I’m not the one who used the word “grounded” in relation to the whole shuttle program. NASA is
Can you see a difference in “grounded” as in “forever”, and grounded as in until we fix this? What are you implying and why?
It’s not my opinion. It’s the opinion of those smart guys that do understand rocket science…
It was not one piece of foam in one problem area. It was huge failures (plural) in multiple places (plural) on the tank even though those specific areas had been focused on for re-design. The redesigns were done in those places. The re-designs failed.
The problems are not being fixed. They have focused extreme attention on those specific problems, and despite extreme levels of scrutiny, the proposed solutions failed.
And it’s not some guy on the net or some newspaper editorial writer saying the shuttle should not fly again. It’s one of the most brilliant engineers to ever work for NASA that saying ground the shuttle permanently.
Yes, you make some good points, and cite some good POVs. Excellent research, AFS.
I still think it highly unlikely that the shuttle will not fly again, and I think it will do so without another accident. And I’m looking forward to a new, better design.
I just hate to see, what I perceive as, such a generally negative attitude toward space exploration. Can we do better? God, I hope so. Should we give up? God, I hope not.
… but we’ve got to do the engineering right, or more catastrophic failures are going to continue to happen. Many more of those, and the political pressure to stop human space exploration will be unbearable.
From both the political and technical point of view, the best idea right now is to junk that entire shuttle launch system now while NASA has a win and a save under it’s belt. There’s enough political support to get a completely new human space exploration vehicle program started now. If another shuttle doesn’t come home, the whole human spaceflight program could be shelved for decades.
I’m a complete space geek. I was 5 when Neil Armstrong walked on the moon. I worshipped the Apollo astronauts. I’ve got Battlestar Galactica wallpaper on my monitor. There aren’t many bigger supporters of NASA and human spaceflight out there. That said, it’s got to be done right. There’s too many pressures to kill it, and it’s too likely it will be killed the next time there is a disaster.
Evening rainstorm over the East Face, Rocky Mountain National Park, viewed from descent of Trail Ridge Road.
Looks like my grandmother my linger for awhile – she’s communicative again, but doesn’t open her eyes or move her left side. Has again turned down a feeding tube herself, but can’t really eat. We’ll take what we get I guess – rollercoaster of emotions and conflicting desires.
Also – Still soliciting funds for Muscular Dystrophy Association, would appreciate any help you wonderful Tribbers can offer – and many thanks to those who have already donated.
I’m so sorry about your grandmother.
If you want, you could tell the happiest story you can think of about her. I’d like to hear it if your up for it… =)
She’s a very special lady – I could keep you all here quite awhile….
Favorite memory – being sick as a kid and getting to go to grandma’s, sleeping on her couch, her rubbing my back – then when I was feeling better, watching TV, reading a storybook, or playing a game of aggrevation or chinese checkers.
after my parents divorce – getting in a big fight with my stepmother and storming off – having her come into the room I’d gone to – hold me and say “it’s hard, I know. I love you” Then telling me I’d been wrong 🙂 and then telling me “I love you” again…
Going to preschool at her house – marching around the hallways with toy instruments and listening to her read. Then – because I was a grandkid and not just a preschooler – getting to stay after and eat lunch there before going home – she’d make sandwiches and make windmills or sailboat shapes out of them.
When each of her son’s got divorced – her maintaining a relationship with the ex-wife so close that they all still call her mom. An earlier episode when she was in the hospital – I ran by, with my mother, wife and sons to see her – and found the other two ex-es and a cousin in the room already. The fun of explaining who everybody was to the nurse on duty (all 3 sons live out of town and do visit) – but how special is a lady when her 3 ex-daughters in law will all visit?
Watching her watch my children playing with the same old marble game I did as a kid. hearing her tell them “when Daddy was little” stories…
Lot of happy memories. 2 days ago we thought she was almost gone – had denied feeding tube, she wasn’t responsive, just snored – I stayed up until 3am writting a memorial piece and the family started making plans to clean out her apt – yesterday she starts talking again….
I want her to be happy, to be comfortable, to be able to enjoy herself…
She sounds lke an incredible person, and my heart goes out to your family.
Sorry for the difficulties with your grandmother, it is too bad that we are not living 20 years from now when I am confident that most if not all disease will be eliminated (not only plusses with that equation, but I think it’s going to happen anyways.)
I’ve lost all four of my grandparents, the most recent passing was about 10 years ago. I miss them.
Hugs and love and peace to you and your family
At laaast, so glad you are here. Can’t start the day right without the Froggy Bottom Cafe, it seems, I have done 50 refreshes to catch the new entry…lol so now all’s right with the world, the cafe is here. LOL a lot!!
Your line….”I’ve ‘god’ the world” is interesting..tiny typo I suspect…but fitting nonetheless…
Happy Wednesday everyone!!!!
crud. so many typos this morning. and I couldn’t find the coffee filters in the remaining unpacked boxes either. Coincidence? I think not.
Also, I could start the Cafe before I go to bed Tuesday night, but I kinda like doing it first thing and watching it all morning… but it sucks for the non-west coasters if it doesn’t start till 8:30 PT. I figure there are people from all over reading, so its always breakfast time somewhere.
I know the probs. I have started some of my FBC cafe’s at night, but I like to be there too…And there was the relief diary last night.
Here’s something to listen to while you enjoy your visit to the cafe
Lenore Rafael
Live stream @ 11 pm mdt on KUVO
Also, check out these festival sites if you’re in or heading to Co in the next month or so:
This weekend: Jazz in the Sangres
Sep 16 – 18 Telluride Blues & Brews Fest.
Sep 8 – 11 Longs Peak Scottish-Irish Highland Fest
Gotta go…later
Peace
(sigh) So many jazz festivals, so little time and money…
(Warning – unabashed future diary whoring below)
You might want to post these Friday night when we have another FBC Jazz Jam up.
This week’s opening act – live from the planet Saturn – is… Sun Ra. Then we get a little less “out there,” so don’t worry too much. 😉
Sun Ra, Rahsaan Roland Kirk, Ornette Coleman, James Blood Ulmer, E#, Miles, etc. etc…there’s only 2 kinds of music: good and bad – (not country and western) :{)
Rahsaan Roland Kirk: Bright Moments
Peace
Found this picture for the cafe hosts…off to work some more…big deadlines this week…
Butterfly on our Butterfly Bush (from Sat)
My Special Butterfly at Tilden Park (on Sunday) with the C&J Cafe folks and the Tin Foil Hat contest.
My prayers and good vibes out to Brinniane and Tracy and to It’s So Simple’s mother. (been holding my breath with my own mother)
Oh my! What a beautiful butterfly :O) The one with the excellant hat of course. She and I share a love for tinfoil hats ;O)
One day I’d like to post pictures of my own butterflys. Soon….
My prayers and good thoughts are also with Brinnainne and Tracy, as well as It’s Simple’s grandmother. I went through the same thing last year with my Grandma.
One more thing. It looks like I have tickets to Austin for Friday night to get out and support Cindy Sheehan. Yeah :O) Keeping my fingers crossed, and hoping to meet up with Tracy and Brinnainne somehow. This feels so good to actually get out and use my feet and my voice.
Peace
Thanks 🙂
So glad you are able to go and protest!!!!! Hooray!!!! You are carrying all of us with you.
Here’s CodePink’s addy – http://www.codepink4peace.org/
http://www.codepinkalert.org/article.php?id=449%20 – travel info
Hope that helps.
GO SUPERSOLING GO!!!! 🙂
Hi Janet. I’m anxiously checking email for a reply from Code Pink about a ride. Wish I could be there tomorrow but……Brin said she would help if she could. That’s cool of her, but I figure it will work out one way or another. Hey, if I ride with the Code Pink crew, does that require me to wear a pink t-shirt and carry a pink umbrella? That kind of thing could get me in some serious trouble in Texas ya know!
Thanks for the help Janet :O)
I don’t know if you thought of this or not, but you can email brinnaine, and she has a cell phone she is taking with her…plus a laptop, so she can get emails.
Thanks Diane. Already done and waiting for a reply. From her new diary, it sounds like Brinnainne and Tracy are seriously busy. It’s really an awesome thing you know? All these people rolling in from all over the country :O) Cindy Sheehan is just an awesome force. One single Mother is causing the pResident to look like (easy for him) a blackhearted, chickenshit loser in front of the world. Mmm Hmm :O)
We caught this duo a couple of weeks ago. The kids are in their teens now, spots gone, and the neighborhood young bucks are sporting velveted headsets.
On my plate today is a lot of shop production, explaining to some clients why I’m behind in some shop production, and continuing to defend truth, justice, and the harmlessly ridiculous.
about 10:00 PM I was standing on our driveway, just petting the cat when a deer appeared at the foot of the driveway, sillouetted by a streetlight. When it saw me it froze, looked at me for a long time, decided I was not a threat and then began to happily munch the leaves on a low hanging oak tree. It was a very peaceful moment.
At times like that, I feel connected to a whole secret world out there populated by racoons, possums, skunks, deer, and rabbits (a neighbor has two, which he lets hop all around the neighborhood). If my cats could talk, oh what stories they could tell, though they probably wouldn’t …
We live out in the woods where deer are plentiful and chasing them is one of our dogs’ favorite activities. One time when we were out walking, we heard a deer huffing a short distance away — which is generally a sign that a doe is try to distract attention from a fawn.
One of our dogs (an 80 pound malamutt) took off before we could stop her (we got hold of the other two). Just a minute or so later she was back with a newly born fawn in her mouth. We were about to get after her and to feel really awful about the fawn when she put it down at our feet. The fawn didn’t have so much as a single toothmark on it. And the dog was looking at us with an expression that said “hey, look at the neat thing I found!”
We put the fawn back in the brush where she had been and took the dogs away.
I was walking our two totos down a wooded, bushy rural driveway when they spied a mid sized deer and charged. But the deer didn’t run–it attacked, began kicking, and I instantly had two shrieking dogs on the ground being stomped.
I was right behind, and shooed the deer off with some difficulty, swatting it forcibly a few times. One dog went yelping back toward the house. I picked up the other, who was lying quiet and slimy with what I feared were his guts spilling out of a wound.
First thing I noticed he wasn’t torn open–he’d just utterly crapped himself in abject terror, but one eye looked hurt. As I carried him quickly back to the house to get the car, I spotted in the bushes–not two fee from where we’d been standing–a very tiny spotted fawn.
So they’d charged a mom. They just hadn’t seen the fawn.
In the end, our little guy who is now the one-eyed toto was not hurt at all. The other dog, who died last year, had a scratched cornea from one glancing hoof blow, but getting to the vet within 20 minutes he recovered fine.
But they learned their lesson about deer. At the first sight of one they’d take the long way around.
Except when safe inside the car. Then they were once again their old classic terrier chickenhawk selves.
I’m reading it to our beagle-mix right now since he always refuses to answer my question about what he is going to do if he ever actually catches one of the deer he chases.
When we were living on the border of Fairmount Park in Philly, my Aussie came upon a deer in the back yard and began to bark and charge…and just like in your story, that deer turned right around on her and chased her into an alley between the houses. I think it was lucky that there were steps going down there that slowed the deer up, or she would’ve been hurt.
Scared us good, and made me a little more apprehensive of deer after that.
May I please have a G&T with LIME which will be my contribution to the Fruit Discussion.
I am going “on assignment” for a matter of days or weeks, depending on how disorganized they can make it for me on the other end…. and am trying to think of it as Leonard Cohen’s 6 year removal to a Zen monastary to study with his master Roshi.
There is no internet where I am going… and not even a typewriter… if you can believe it. There is a computer running 97 software, but I can’t get it to turn on…. So, with no access to news, and no means of transmitting.. how will I carry on?
My basic software/hardware problem is with my own brain… I used to know lots of stuff… but now I know next to nothing… I remember very badly… I have rewritten all of history in my mushy mind… and the recollections get a lot hazier after, say, 1968-1975.
So what book shall I take with me? A 1,200 history of the Middle East? A book called, From Stone Age to Christianity… something like “From Moses to Monotheism..”?
I think I’ll print a lot of stuff from Henry Miller, and bring that…. Henry Miller, Kenneth Patchen, and Leonard Cohen are my current heroes and role models….. And Rumi… I think I have some Rumi kicking about….
Anyways Abbott, a G&T please.
merci mille fois
Yo suskind
If you just want to read for relaxation here’s a couple I recommend;
Tom Robbins Villa Incognito. Also highly recommend Skinny Legs and All…they’ll make you laugh out loud.
A more ponderous tome is The Historian about Dracula/vampires. I’m @ 1/2 way thru it and it’s a good, albeit slow, read.
Safe travels…keep in touch
Peace
Alligator turns up in Indiana retention pond
FRANKLIN, Ind., Aug. 10 ( UPI)- Animal control officers in Johnson County, Ind., shot an alligator with tranquilizer to end a five-hour capture reminiscent of ” The Crocodile Hunter”.
…Johnson County Animal Control Warden Shawn Donovan said it took about five hours to catch the 50-pound reptile, an effort that ended late Monday when workers shot the gator with tranquilizer darts, the Indianapolis Star reported.
I’ll have one for me, and one for the gator… I hope he/she is enjoying the tranquilizer as much as I am.
and she has already been taken by an animal rescue refuge — where she will join 11 other alligators, indicating, I guess, that the either the alligators down the toilet myth is alive and well in Indiana or that the fishing in Hoosier retention ponds is good enough to attract a healthy tourist business.
heh heh heh,,,I’m slipp’n them into the system there ; )
figured I might as well break dem yankees in propuh…(evil laugh)…for the come down heah and see the big-uns …..
Took me forever to get here — had to get the spouse to give up the computer and get himself moving. (Well, he gave up the computer — the moving part is debatable…) We need that second computer VERY soon…I’m trying to hold off till after the vacation, but it’s tough…
At least I’ve accomplished a few things today; I worked out (yay!), had breakfast (yogurt, English muffin with light cream cheese, and a glass of juice), made the bed, and showered/dressed. The spouse is just having breakfast now; I’m just a little ticked off at him, and worrying that he’s enjoying his time off work a bit too much…
Blessings, peace, prayers and hugs go out to those who are hurting (It’s etc.), those who are fighting (Tracy, Bri), those who are working (Infidelpig, Suskind), those who are searching (SJCT) and anyone else who needs them…
Hope everyone’s day is relatively painfree (whether it’s physical, mental, emotional or spiritual pain that you’re dealing with…).
I’m just goofin’ off today and… pissing off a news station… but they broke the last straw for me.
I’m fasting for Code Pink today… does coffee count???
When you’re working out, especially if you’ve been a couch spud for a while, it’s important to get plenty of fuel to keep the body going. And trying to change bad eating habits means getting back on a regular schedule — I would love to try the six “mini-meals” plan, but it might be problematic with the spouse’s schedule; I’ll have to see what I can work out.
I know I shouldn’t be self-righteous…aaah, what the hell! I’ve been doing waaaaay better than the spouse on the exercise front! 🙂
which station? Did you hear that KNBR canned Larry Krueger and two other guys?
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/08/10/SPG9OE5KV71.DTL
I diaried about it.
Yup heard about that. Oddly, they didn’t do the story just once… 🙂
I think it’s fantastic you are taking your health by the reins and taking control over it. I wish my mother could. 🙂
just changed doctors — I was feeling dissatisfied with the treatment from our previous doctor, so we decided to switch. Our new doctor is outstanding; I absolutely adore her! And even though my parents were both heavy smokers, the fact that they both had heart attacks at a relatively young age (Dad 47, Mom 59) puts me in a high-risk category for heart disease; fortunately the cholesterol is looking good except for the triglyceride issue. Thank goodness I’m a non-smoker, as is the spouse; probably the only bad habit we don’t have to break. 🙂
My mom actually did a pretty good job of taking control of her health after her first heart attack — went to cardiac therapy classes, revamped her diet, started walking every evening with one of the neighbors (my brother called them “The Palo Alto Streetwalkers”, which my mother did not exactly appreciate). But 40 years of smoking does take a toll — I think it hastened the “planned obsolescence” that all of us will have to face eventually.
I’ll have to look for the diary on KTVU…
Anyone know if catnip is on vacation or something? She’s not been around since the first of the month. Hope she’s not having health problems again…
You read my mind, I will shoot her an email to check in.
I sent one a day or two ago and haven’t heard back, which is why I thought I better ask you all…
I thought she and one of her roommates were getting a new place — could be she’s temporarily without Internet access.
Keeping good thoughts for her…
Paul Hackett called Rush a FAT ASS DRUG ADDICT on the Ed Schultz show, I posted the transcript. It is great and I posted the URL for the audio
Why, you hussy…(goes to read and listen)
Gotta love a proud Marine, calling a Marine a soldier is like sticking your finger into the mouth of a water moccasin, not a good idea and really dumb.
LMAO…yeah, we will bite ; )
Semper Fi
Wado ghostdancer
I only get to use this because I was attached to a Marine Company as a Corpsman. That is until I started using my own medicines, Damn early 70’s was not a good time for a Corpsman with a drug problem.
Link…
http://www.boomantribune.com/?op=displaystory;sid=2005/8/10/22313/4788