More Of This And That . . .

At 11:10 yesterday morning I suddenly felt the whole house shake and heard something that sounded like a dynamite blast. It happened three (maybe 4) times, in descending order of magnitude. Eve was asleep on the carpet in the front parlor and she jumped up and looked all around the room. After thinking about it, I wondered if perhaps it had been a distant earthquake.

On the news later I discovered that there had been an underground explosion a few miles away. No further details were given at that time.

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A former classmate sent me some images of advertisements from earlier times:











Those ads would certainly not be used in today's politically correct and timid, super-cautious society.


Also, I viewed some old time pictures of my hometown, Rensselaer, IN. While I realize that they will be of interest to only those who are familiar with that town, I am providing links to those photos, and here they are:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?id=114057651989020&aid=16702

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?id=114057651989020&aid=26630

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A few minutes ago I asked myself: "What's the difference between a buzzard and a vulture?" And then, after doing a bit of research (Google, etc.) I concluded that there is no difference at all.

Wikipedia gave me:

In the New World Buzzard can mean:

1. A vulture, particularly the American Black Vulture and Turkey Vulture, or as a general term for vultures.
2. In parts of the United States where they are considered pest, particularly in rural areas, a derogatory term for certain birds of prey, such as the Chicken hawk (a common colloquial name referring to either the Cooper's Hawk, the Sharp-shinned Hawk or the Red-tailed Hawk), or the Duck hawk (known elsewhere as the Peregrine Falcon).

So, I guess that I can call the big birds of prey I see flying above the mountains here in Tucson anything I want to call them.

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NASA Announcement

The launch of NASA's Glory spacecraft from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California has been postponed at least 24 hours. The next launch attempt is no earlier than Thursday, Feb. 24, at 5:09 a.m. EST.

Data to be collected by Glory will help scientists improve our ability to predict Earth's future environment and to distinguish human-induced climate change from natural climate variability.

Hm... now all we have to worry about is whether or not the actual results (if detrimental to man-made global warning doctrine) will be made available (via the media) to the public.

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"A professor is someone who talks in someone else's sleep."
--W.H. Auden