Life Is Still Good

     

Tucson Weather Today

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Walking Westward on the sidewalk alongside Speedway Boulevard yesterday I espied at an intersection a gloved and helmeted uniformed member of the Tucson Motorcycle Traffic Police. He was busily wielding his Radar Gun at the oncoming traffic. I noticed that he aimed the instrument at me as I approached him. So when I was within earshot of him I smiled and asked, "How fast was I going?" He grinned back at me and said, "Oh, 'bout three miles an hour." Not to be outdone, I replied, "Oh surely not... I don't think this old body'll even go that fast."

And, as his smile widened, I walked on.


I thought it might be advantageous for me to do more experimenting with my camera, and perhaps to learn more about photography in general. So, after leaving the friendly officer and walking along I paused and took a few shots of a crow perched atop a distant street light. I didn't notice until after loading the pics onto my computer that one of the shots had captured a tiny faded moon up there in the bright daytime sky.

This Is My First Shot

Then I Snapped A Zoomed In Shot

This Is The Crow Cropped From
The Above Zoomed-In Shot

Don't know if I learned anything or not.

Time will tell . . . maybe.

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A few minutes ago I finished watching an hour-long video made back in 2005 wherein Sam Harris discusses his then newly published book, The End of Faith: Religion, Terror, and the Future of Reason. It was quite interesting.

You can view the video HERE

(I really don't expect even one reader to view the talk.)

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Deputy Administrator Lori Garver announced Friday that NASA has received more than 400 responses to its request for information (RFI) on the agency's asteroid initiative. Released June 18, the RFI was the first opportunity for industry and other potential partners, including private individuals, to offer ideas on planning for NASA's mission to redirect an asteroid for exploration by astronauts and the agency's asteroid grand challenge.

Garver, speaking at the Space Frontier Foundation's NewSpace 2013 conference in San Jose, California, said: "The aerospace industry, innovative small businesses and citizen scientists have many creative ideas and strategies for carrying out our asteroid exploration mission and helping us to protect our home planet from dangerous near-Earth objects."

All the responses are being evaluated and rated. NASA will explore the highly rated responses for inclusion in future planning

For more information about NASA's asteroid initiative, you can visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/asteroidinitiative

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TRIVIA

The very first product Motorola developed was a record player for automobiles. At that time the most known player on the market was the Victrola, so they called themselves Motorola.

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HISTORICAL EVENT

On this day, July 27 in 1949, the world's first jet-propelled airliner, the British De Havilland Comet, made its maiden test-flight in England. The jet engine would ultimately revolutionize the airline industry, shrinking air travel time in half by enabling planes to climb faster and fly higher.

After its July 1949 test flight, the Comet underwent three more years of testing and training flights. Then, on May 2, 1952, the British Overseas Aircraft Corporation (BOAC) began the world's first commercial jet service with the 44-seat Comet 1A, flying paying passengers from London to Johannesburg.

Yes, the airline industry has certainly been revolutionized.

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WORD FOR TODAY

revolution [rev-uh-LOO-shun]
noun
1.  an overthrow or repudiation and the thorough replacement of an established government or political system by the people governed.
2.  (Sociology) a radical and pervasive change in society and the social structure, especially one made suddenly and often accompanied by violence.
3.  a sudden, complete or marked change in something: the present revolution in church architecture.
4.  a procedure or course, as if in a circuit, back to a starting point.
5.  a single turn of this kind.

A revolution (from the Latin revolutio, "a turn around") is a fundamental change in power or organizational structures that takes place in a relatively short period of time.

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CELEBRITY BIRTHDAYS

Jerry Van Dyke

(born July 27, 1931)

Jerry Van Dyke is an American comedian and actor, the younger brother of Dick Van Dyke. He made his acting debut on The Dick Van Dyke Show with several guest appearances as Rob Petrie's brother, Stacey. Later in his career from 1989 to 1997, he was one of the supporting stars of Craig T. Nelson's ABC sitcom, Coach. He appeared in the 2000s sitcom Yes, Dear as a recurring character, "Big Jimmy," the father of Jimmy Hughes. He made a guest appearance on a September 2008 episode of My Name Is Earl and in 2010, he made an appearance on the second season episode, "A Simple Christmas" of the television series, The Middle, playing Frankie's father, Tag Spence.

Indiana Rose Evans

(born 27 July 1990)

Indiana Evans is an Australian actress and singer best known for her roles on Home and Away, H2O: Just Add Water and Blue Lagoon: The Awakening.

William Ray "Bill" Engvall, Jr.

(born July 27, 1957)

Bill Engvall is an American comedian and actor best known for his work as a stand-up comic, his signature "Here's Your Sign" bit, and as a member of the Blue Collar Comedy group.

Peggy Gail Fleming

(born July 27, 1948)

Peggy Fleming is an American figure skater. She is the 1968 Olympic Champion in Ladies' singles and a three-time World Champion (1966–1968). Fleming has been a television commentator on figure skating for over 20 years, including several Winter Olympic Games.

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Every revolution evaporates and leaves behind only the slime of a new bureaucracy.
--Franz Kafka

NASA TV
   

2/27/13

     

Tucson Weather Today


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HISTORICAL CLIP


On this day, February 27, 1860, President Abraham Lincoln posed for the first of several portraits by noted Civil War-era photographer Mathew Brady. Days later, the photograph was published on the cover of Harper's Bazaar with the caption, Hon. Abram Lincoln, of Illinois, Republican Candidate for President.

A relatively new art form, the photograph (or daguerreotype) showed an unusually beardless Lincoln just moments before he delivered an address at Cooper Union that day. The address, in which he articulated his reasons for opposing slavery in the new territories, received wild applause and garnered strong support for his candidacy among New Yorkers.

Brady went on to photograph Lincoln several more times before Lincoln's death in 1865.

Lincoln was not the first presidential candidate, or president, to be photographed -- that honor went to John Quincy Adams in 1843.

John Quincy Adams

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WORD FOR TODAY

canon
noun
-  A general law, rule, principle, or criterion by which something is judged.
-  A member of the clergy on the staff of a cathedral, esp. a member of the chapter.

A piece of work - usually in reference to literature - that was written by the original author. Spin-offs, fan fiction, and any work not written by the original author of that fictional universe is considered non-canon.

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BORN ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY


Joanne Woodward

 

 Born Feb 27, 1930
Age:  82 years old

Joanne Gignilliat Trimmier Woodward is an American actress and producer of television and theater. She is perhaps best known for her Academy Award-winning role in The Three Faces of Eve (1957). Woodward was married to Paul Newman from 1958 until his death in 2008.

She appeared with husband Paul Newman in ten featured films: The Long, Hot Summer (1958) Rally 'Round the Flag, Boys! (1958) From the Terrace (1960) Paris Blues (1961) A New Kind of Love (1963) Winning (1969) WUSA (1970) The Drowning Pool (1975) Harry & Son (1984)—(directed by Newman) and Mr. and Mrs. Bridge (1990)

Ralph Nader

 

 Born Feb 27, 1934
Age:  78 years old

Ralph Nader is an American political activist, as well as an author, lecturer, and attorney. Areas of particular concern to Nader include consumer protection, humanitarianism, environmentalism, and democratic government.

Nader came to prominence in 1965 with the publication of his book Unsafe at Any Speed, a critique of the safety record of American automobile manufacturers in general, and most famously the Chevrolet Corvair. In 1999, an New York University panel of journalists ranked Unsafe at Any Speed 38th among the top 100 pieces of journalism of the 20th century.

Nader is a five-time candidate for President of the United States, having run as a write-in candidate in the 1992 New Hampshire Democratic primary, as the Green Party nominee in 1996 and 2000, and as an independent candidate in 2004 and 2008.

Elizabeth Taylor

 

 Born Feb. 27, 1932
Died Mar. 23, 2011

Elizabeth Rosemond "Liz" Taylor was a British-American actress. From her early years as a child star with MGM, she became one of the great screen actresses of Hollywood's Golden Age. As one of the world's most famous film stars, Taylor was recognized for her acting ability and for her glamorous lifestyle, beauty, and distinctive violet eyes.

National Velvet (1944) was Taylor's first success, and she starred in Father of the Bride (1950), A Place in the Sun (1951), Giant (1956), Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958), and Suddenly, Last Summer (1959). She won the Academy Award for Best Actress for Butterfield 8 (1960), played the title role in Cleopatra (1963), and married her co-star Richard Burton. They appeared together in 11 films, including Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966), for which Taylor won a second Academy Award. From the mid-1970s, she appeared less frequently in film, and made occasional appearances in television and theater.

Howard Hesseman

 

 Born Feb 27, 1940
Age: 72 years old

Howard Hesseman is an American actor best known for playing disc jockey Johnny Fever on WKRP in Cincinnati and schoolteacher Charlie Moore on Head of the Class.


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A man's face is his autobiography. A woman's face is her work of fiction.
--Oscar Wilde
    

A Bit Of A Hotchy-Potchy

Tucson Weather Today

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In The Writer's Almanac I read that Robert Goddard received a grant from the Smithsonian Institution that enabled him to do research and publish a paper on "A Method for Reaching Extreme Altitudes" in 1920. In the paper, he speculated that rockets could be used to reach the moon. The New York Times heard about his paper and ridiculed him. He went from being a relative nobody to a laughingstock literally overnight. But he persisted, and on this date, March 16, 1926, he completed the first successful launch of his liquid-fueled rocket in Auburn, Massachusetts.

Perseverance sometimes conquers all sorts of interference from outside forces, or so it seems to me. But persistence in the ever-sneering face of self-deprecation is surely the most difficult of obstacles to overcome.

God! I am such a weakling. Such a whining, shiftless, incompetent, wastrel. A quitter. Gutless.

A writer? Me? Hah!

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Word For Today

execrable [ek-si-kruh-buhl]
Adjective
Extremely bad or unpleasant.
Synonyms:
abominable - odious - loathsome - abhorrent - detestable

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BORN ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

Henny Youngman

Born March 16, 1906
Died on Feb 24, 1998

One evening back in the 1960s (I think it was) while strolling through the coffee shop at Las Vegas's The Mint casino, I spied Henny Youngman seated at a large table filled with drinks, surrounded of course by a bevy of beautiful female casino employees. I paused and eavesdropped on the conversation (monologue) for a minute or so. Sure enough he was easily as funny as he always had been on TV. And all of his jokes were snappy repetitions of the old reliables, such as "Take my wife... please!"

Note: I deleted the word "babes" and inserted "female casino employees" so as not to ruffle the feathers of overly sensitive feminists. As if I had any feminist (or any female) readers.

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George Will's latest Washington Post column reveals a possible halt to taxpayer funding of union salaries. Of course, if you do not care for the Washington Post or for George Will's opinions, you can just ignore it. But it is somewhat informative, in my questionably humble opinion.

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While admiring some of Dmitrii Lezine's beautiful photography I ran across the following phrase, "...because I thought it was cool and unique in its own way."

Since the maddeningly ubiquitous misuse of the word unique (which means one of a kind) is such a fiercely long-held obsession of mine, especially when adding a modifier of degree such as very unique (how can something be very one of a kind?) I was immediately driven to question the expression unique in its own way. So I hastened to get the opinions of others I trust for the question: Is unique in its own way grammatically correct?

Here is the most convincing response I received:

"Consider a stack of brand new one dollar bills. They all differ, but only by serial number. They are all unique in the same way.

"Now let Hanna von Goeler have one of the bills to work her magic on, converting the banal slip of linen into a bespoke art piece.

"Is this bill more unique than before? No, unique is unique... but in contrast to the rest of the stack, it is now unique in its own way."

That response was from the owner of Quarkscrew and in light of that clear and lucid explanation, I now believe unique in its own way is grammatically correct.

So, 'nuff said.


By the way, one of Dmitrii's many compelling photos caught me eye.

Seattle At Night

Photo by Dmitrii Lezine http://sillymonkeyphoto.com

(Click photo for larger view)

A truly magnificent sight to see is that striking photograph.

Don't you agree?

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For NASA, space is still a high priority.
--Dan Quayle
Note:
The quote was originally meant as ridicule.
But it's not so ludicrous these days - right?