Saturday, April 12, 2014

Will Secret U.S. Space Shuttle Lead to Manned-Flight in the Future?

maxresdefault Good Day World!

 The X-37B drone is probably testing technologies that might be used in spy satellites of the future according to experts, but the program could evolve into manned-missions.

Today, I’m going to take your on a tour of the origins, progress, and future of the U.S. Air Force’s Orbital Test Vehicle program.

Here’s how the program got started , and now 1,058 volunteers are waiting for their one-way ticket to Mars!

Learn about the advantages of having a reusable vehicle here.

Very few Americans seem aware of the Orbital Test Vehicle Program, and fewer still know what secrets the X-37B drone conceals as it orbits earth. The X-37B has already broken an endurance record for satellites and keeps on ticking!

Is there a chance that a manned version of the secret Space Shuttle is in the works?

Here’s the big question: Will the Pentagon’s Secret Space Plane Ever return to Earth?

Time for me to walk on down the road…

 

Friday, April 11, 2014

How ‘Special K’ Can Make Your Day

istock_000004829776large_wide-4323fc2657c2095bcfd352a8fd49a2ad55e0a5f8

 Good Day World!

 A party drug called "Special K" aka Ketamine, has been illegally used for over a decade, but now a new study shows it can help treat severe depression.

Read on and discover the drug's history, side effects, and why it may become legal someday.

In the latest news from NPR:

 Growing Evidence that a Party Drug Can Help Severe Depression

Learn why researchers are attempting to come up with a new class of drugs:

How Does ‘Special K’ Work?

Learn about the Origin of Ketamine, Aka ‘Special K’

Discover the Long Term Effects of Using ‘Special K’

Read about Addiction to ‘Special K’

Here’s some good Parental Advise on Teenagers Using ‘Special K’

Time for me to walk on down the road…

Wednesday, April 9, 2014

Another Student Goes on School Rampage – Stabs 20 at High School

Family members wait outside Franklin Regional Middle School to take their children home after multiple people were stabbed ..

STORY HERE

Pterosaurs Aren’t Dinosaurs, but They Sure Are Close

Dawndraco kanzai

Good Day World!

Pterosaurs: Flight in the Age of Dinosaurs” recently opened at the American Museum of Natural History today, putting the spotlight on flying creatures that went extinct 66 million years ago.

You have a while to check it out — it runs until January 2015 — but if you don’t make it, here are some facts to tuck away in case you find yourself at a dinner party with a paleontologist.

Pterosaurs Aren’t Dinosaurs

But they are close relatives. The flying reptiles diversified into more than 150 species over their 150-million-year reign over the skies.

Their Bones Are Extremely Rare

Hollow, light-weight bones might have been great for flight, but they don’t keep well over millions of years.

“I have been excavating fossils in the Gobi Desert for 25 years and I have collected thousands and thousands of dinosaur bones,” Mark A. Norell, chair of the museum’s division of paleontology, told NBC news. “I have only collected one pterosaur bone in that entire time.”

Preondactylus

They Probably Took Flight By Leaping Into the Air

While pterosaur fossils are rare, recently, computer models have helped scientists understand how the animal might have moved.

Before, some people theorized that they climbed up trees and took off from there, or ran to gain some momentum and then lifted their wings.

A computer model by Michael Habib, an assistant professor of biology at Chatham University, however, showed that they probably just had some mad hops.

“Habib’s evidence is pretty, pretty good that they were able to take off with an explosive jump into the air,” Norell said. “Then, they put out their wings and could generate enough lift with one downstroke to take off."

They Probably Weren’t Too Graceful on Land

Previously, some scientists thought they might have walked on two legs, like a pigeon. Turns out they probably walked on all fours, kind of like a bat. (More here and video)

Time for me to walk on down the road…

Tuesday, April 8, 2014

Step in the Right Direction: VA Says Okay to Pot Study

20101007_34654

Good Day World!

Reefer Madness is slipping into the insanity of the past.

Marijuana regulations nationwide are easing up and allowing light (facts) to penetrate the dark veil of ignorance about cannabis.

I see signs everywhere.

National polls show a majority of Americans are for legalization of the controversial herb. Annual national polls on the subject conducted by organizations like Gallup -  show an increasing tolerance for it’s use, both medically and recreationally.

For example, this one from January of this year:

Majority wants marijuana legalized

and last year:

For First Time, Americans Favor Legalizing Marijuana

Perhaps one of the biggest surprises, at least to me, is that the Veterans Administration has given the green light to a study using marijuana to treat PTSD. Being a federal agency, that’s a big thing because it’s the feds who are stopping marijuana from becoming legal.

Here’s a story about that VA study:

“The federal government has signed off on a long-delayed study looking at marijuana as a treatment for veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder, a development that drug researchers are hailing as a major shift in U.S. policy.

The Department of Health and Human Services' decision surprised marijuana advocates who have struggled for decades to secure federal approval for research into the drug's medical uses.

The proposal from the University of Arizona was long ago cleared by the Food and Drug Administration, but researchers had been unable to purchase marijuana from the National Institute on Drug Abuse. The agency's Mississippi research farm is the only federally-sanctioned source of the drug.

In a letter last week, HHS cleared the purchase of medical marijuana by the studies' chief financial backer, the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies, which supports medical research and legalization of marijuana and other drugs.” (The rest of the story here)

Time for me to walk on down the road…

Saturday, April 5, 2014

There Will Be a Sunday and Monday Blog Break…

4714aerocar-eaa Good Day World!

 I’ll be too far away from my computer to post anything on Sunday April 6th and Monday April 7th…by design.

Speaking of design…

 Molt Taylor is revered as a kind of patron saint of the flying car. His design was so good Ford was interested in buying it.

Despite building the first practical car that could fly, he was unable to get it mass produced however. Find out why in this board.

See you Tuesday.

Time for me to walk on down the road…

Friday, April 4, 2014

Essay: What Vietnam Was like in 1970 for a 19-Year Old Soldier

Good Day World!

Forty-four years ago this month, I was a combat engineer serving in the Republic of Vietnam.

One year earlier, I was a high school student without a care in the world and eager to graduate so that I could get on with life. Be my own boss. You remember what that was like, don’t you?

My squad’s mission was to sweep for mines on a two-lane dirt road laughingly referred to as Highway 22. We would get up at first light and haul our heavy mine-detection equipment out and take a stroll down that reddish dirt road until we finished, usually at noon.

The VC, who watched our every move from hidey holes, enjoyed putting “Bouncing Betty’s” beneath piles of buffalo shit as they knew the odor offended our Western sensibilities. The hoped we’d pass over the putrid piles rather than bother disturbing them. I never saw the trick work, but heard it did somewhere else from guys in other units.

I can tell you that it was no fun probing for live bombs with a bayonet in a stinky mess. I got use to it however, as I got use to everything in that alien world somewhere in the Central Highlands that spring. How I managed remains a mystery to me today.

Army units were assigned to provide us security and walked along both sides of the road bristling with weapons as we did our job swinging those heavy bulky mine detectors. We always had close ground-to-air-support. We could call in “Puff” the Magic Dragon, Spooky, Golf Ball, or Spectre, which were a bunch of assorted gunships made from AC-47s, C-123s, and C-130s.

 Our security radioman could call those death-dealers in for a strike in a heartbeat. Charlie knew this and made it a habit not to wander around during the day. He just burrowed down into the ground and waited for darkness. Hoping that the mines he set during the night would kill some invaders during the day. Sometimes I imagined the enemy’s eyes following me. Patiently watching. Hoping to see me become a causality.

It was a feeling we all had to get use to. We were on constant alert for the many signs that could mean life or death. I found an old French anti-tank mine one day. Took off my earphones and handed my mine detector to my sergeant. I found it and that meant it was mine.

The earth stopped as I carefully probed the spot and slowly traced around the perimeter of the pressure plate. Time was meaningless. Sweat poured off my brow as I strained to recognize what kind of mine I’d uncovered.

I recognized it even as the sergeant said “French make.” That meant it would take at least 500 pounds on the pressure plate to set it off. Excellent for mangling vehicles like American trucks. Once I disabled it I sat down and drank some water from my canteen. I felt like throwing up, but the sensation passed.

 Highway 22 overlooked the Song Ba River. To be more accurate, the Ba River as Song means river in Vietnamese. We called it the Song Ba River because that’s what someone wrote down on the maps we used. Maybe that someone liked the sound of “Song” and modified the real local name as Americans did so often during the war. Who cares right?

We had allies out in the jungle too. We were staying in the An Khe area along the West bank where some Montagnards lived. They hated the NVA and the VC, so we became allies. The tribe that we had the most contact with was the Jarair. They were tough little nuts who were fierce fighters and who considered the Vietnamese their enemy from ancient times.

They also knew how to live off the land. They picked wild green onions, chopped bamboo shoots, and captured red ant nests using battery bags discarded by Americans. They’d take some of the rice they always carried with them and throw it into boiling hot water along with the green onions, bamboo shoots, and the red ants.

The concoction wasn’t bad at all. Kind of a minty tasting. Much better than the fish head stew I once had in a Montagnard village. While we’re on the subject of local cuisine, I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the Vietnamese Centipede, an orange-legged terror that runs from four inches to eight inches long and has an attitude.

 A nearby South Korean unit, we called them ROKS, liked to eat those centipedes. They put them in with their foul-smelling kim che (which already smelled bad enough to gag a maggot). They also ate monkey brains, but I’m not going any further with this.

There was a certain lizard there, about three feet long, that also figured into the local cuisine. I don’t know what it’s real name was, but we called them “Fuck You” lizards. They hung around trees and in the night you could hear them go: “Tik, tik, tik, phuk yu!” They really sounded like someone saying fuck you. If you listened long enough.

We’d tell new guys that it was Charlie out there taunting us, and that got their attention. Saw a Fuck You lizard with a flashlight one night. It looked like a miniature dinosaur and hissed at me! The next day I saw that lizard’s double draped across the back of a young Montagnard boy. He may have been Vietnamese. It’s hard to remember some details. It’s limp body spanned his shoulders and he smiled when I pointed at it. “Numba one chop chop” he said.

 One night I got drunk drinking Tiger Beer with some buddies and somehow ended up walking towards the Song Ba River. Heck I don’t know why I did. Maybe to relieve myself. I was drunk. I don’t think I was going there for a swim. I clearly remember a young boy coming out of nowhere. He stopped me from getting any closer to the river by pulling on my arm urgently.

I tried to shake him off and fell down on the muddy ground. That was the last thing I recalled when I woke up the next morning with a splitting headache still on the ground. It was early but the sun was rising when a couple of my buddies came looking for me. After giving me a ration for being outside the camp perimeter I told them about the kid.

“One of them, Crow, shook his head in wonder and pointed out to the river. “If you would have gone any further down that bank you would have slide right into rolls of razor sharp barbwire just beneath the waters edge!”

 There was nothing I could say that would explain that feeling of having dodged danger like that. I might have drown if I got tangled up in it while drunk. I didn’t because some nameless little boy took pity on one stupid grunt that night. It was one of the strangest things to happen to me in my time in country.

This incident happened during the last week of April 1970. We got orders the same week that we were going to Cambodia! But that’s another story that may, or may not, be told another day.

I hope this essay helps you understand what it was like 44 years ago for a 19-year-old boy who had to become a man fast in a foreign land. It helps me to share this part of my history and hopefully help people understand war is hell.

For some soldiers like me with PTSD, the war never ended. I live with tortured memories that still come unbidden. Yet, I manage to lead a somewhat normal life (what’s that anyway?) and I don’t fight my battles every day. Most of the time I’m diverted by my daily routines.

It’s the nights that sometimes get really bad, when the nightmares come in terrifying clarity. But medications have lessened their terrors, and I only seem to have trouble certain times of the year…like now. Counselors call it an “anniversary date” and attribute it to extremely bad times in a person‘s life.

I’m not sure about that. If it were the case, then why not the whole year? At least that’s the way it seems to me. I guess it really doesn’t matter what anyone calls it; this isn’t my best time of the year and that usually extends through June.

Thank you for reading this. It helps to share.
Time for me to walk on down the road…

Thursday, April 3, 2014

Supreme Court Gives Republicans Something to Cheer About, Again

Good Day World!

Our conservative, Republican-loving Supreme Court once again gave the Republican Party something to cheer about.

A 5-4 decision striking down aggregate campaign-finance limits has Republicans dancing in the aisles.

And why not? The plaintiff in the case, Shaun McCutcheon of Alabama, is a Republican, and the Republican National Committee even filed a brief in support of him.

Here’s the upshot of this biased decision: NBC's Pete Williams reports it invalidated the limit on how much any individual can contribute to all federal candidates ($48,600) and political parties ($74,600).

A Republican mega-donor like Sheldon Adelson - or a Democratic mega-donor like George Soros –can now donate to an unlimited number of candidates and party organizations, as long as the contributions remain within the caps.

Combined with this latest decision and the Supreme Court's 2010 Citizens United decision, which led to an explosion of spending from outside political groups, it’s going to be easier than ever to buy votes.

The Republican Party typically has a wider base of these mega-donors. According to the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics, six of the 10 biggest donors to outside groups in 2012 were Republicans - including Adelson at No. 1, who spent a whopping $93 million that election cycle.

But guess what folks?

All that money didn’t buy the last election. The thing the Republican Party doesn’t seem to understand is until they have a broader appeal – bringing more minorities into the fold – no amount of money is going to buy the presidential election. There’s only so many angry white guys, and their numbers don’t come near the rest of the population.

Time for me to walk on down the road…

 

Wednesday, April 2, 2014

Duke Kahanamoku: Let’s Go Surfing Now with the ‘Father of Surfing’

Good Day World!

Surf’s up today!

It’s time for a people feature. Don’t you love reading about interesting people?

Take this guy:

“Duke Paoa Kahinu Mokoe Hulikohola Kahanamoku was a Hawaiian competition swimmer who was also known as an actor, lawman, early beach volleyball player and businessman credited with spreading the sport of surfing.

"Duke" was not a title or a nickname, but a given name. He was named after his father, Duke Halapu Kahanamoku, who was christened by Princess Bernice Pauahi Bishop in honor of Prince Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh, who was visiting Hawaii at the time.

The younger Duke, as eldest son, inherited the name. His father was a policeman. His mother Julia Paʻakonia Lonokahikina Paoa was a deeply religious woman with a strong sense of family ancestry.

When Duke became a household name due to his swimming feats, many people thought he was of Hawaiian royalty. It was assumed by many that he was a duke and that it was his title. He was a very modest and unassuming man who got a chuckle of being thought of as royalty and never hesitated to set the record straight about his lineage.” (via Wikipedia)

I’ve assembled this learn board featuring longboard legend Duke. It shares a video of him in action (1939 and in color!) and a lot of other interesting things about this fascinating man. Enjoy!

Time for me to walk on down the road…

 

Tuesday, April 1, 2014

Something tricky this way has come!

I know it’s April Fool’s Day.

Any fool knows that right?

The internet is full of pranks right now.

News editors, advertisers and search engine operators around the world are letting their hair down and trying to see what they can sneak past the general public.

It can be a challenge to spot the fake among the genuine news.

Here’s an interesting round-up of 2014 April Fool’s pranks.

If that’s not enough for you check out these April Fool’s Day jokes.

I’m seriously wondering if Google or someone else is playing a prank on my blog today! I average over 12,000 views daily, but today they’ve just dropped through the floor!

Yesterday I could look at my stat counter continuously moving – recording views. Today the stat monitor is changing so slowly it’s unreal. Only about a sixth of the normal views thus far. I don’t know what’s happening.

Possibilities: Malware attack; Google prank; some hacker who doesn’t like me screwing with stats; or simply a SLOW DAY for views! I guess I won’t know for sure until tomorrow.

 

 

 

Confused and Abused: Average Americans Don't Know What or Who to Believe In

The last decade has been a turning point in American society where traditional norms and truth have fallen alongside the wayside and chaos ...