Not for the first time in my life, I look out upon a nation filled with people who believe that our democratic system failed us, big time, in the most recent presidential election. But can we really say that it did, even assuming the vote was fairly counted? No, but I think that determining the legitimacy of an election based on a fair counting of numbers is rather missing the point…
Robin Hood, Green Arrow, Katniss Everdeen, Legolas of Mirkwood, Abigail Whistler, and Hawkeye. Fans of archery “superheroes” everywhere will recognize those names. Well my friends, meet real-life archery superstar Lars Andersen, and watch how he blows all those comic book and Hollywood myths away!
I know I’m getting older, and I know that my “mental issues” can confuse my sense of time, but I swear that we’ve celebrated Veterans Day at least once already this year – just as I did last year and the year before. The thing is however, if it’s just my mind going bad, then why does it just affect my memories of Veterans Day? I mean, it’s not like I remember a previous Thanksgiving or Christmas holiday this year…
So I decided to do a “more than one veterans day?” search and found only references to the one that happens today. Maybe I phrased the question wrong. Or perhaps there are celebrations specific to my location that Google didn’t pick up on. Hell, I don’t know, maybe I’m just freaking crazy. At any rate, that search did produce a link to a History Channel page that opened with this cool video:
A friend of mine shared the following video on Facebook, which does a fairly good job of outlining the history behind the Israeli / Palestinian conflict. The problem with this video is that the history it outlines only goes back to the conclusion of World War II, and thus, I think, paints a picture that is not entirely accurate…
Salt. A most common, and darned near ubiquitous mineral that barely deserves notice, right? Well, as cheap and accessible as salt appears to be, it is actually one of the most important substances known to man. In fact, it could be argued that human civilization as we know it owes its very existence to this seemingly unimportant substance!
I’ve wanted to do a post on salt for some time now, after seeing several television documentaries on the uses and production of it a while back. But I held off, frankly, because the subject is just so damned big! Well, I was feeling energized enough when I woke up this morning (which most definitely has NOT lasted) to finally give it a go.
Found this fascinating “alternate” version of Pink Floyd’s “Wish You Were Here” – featuring a solo from French violinist Stéphane Grappelli – over on Open Culture…
I saw this video on PBS last month, not long after I published my 28 Years Ago Today… post in remembrance of the Challenger disaster. I meant to go searching for it to post but somehow managed to forget. 😳 I am so grateful to George Takei for bringing it back to my attention by posting the Upworthy.com link containing it on his Facebook page! 😀
I’d almost forgotten, but an article from Huff-Post Science reminded me that today is the 28th anniversary of the Challenger Disaster. I’ve provided a link to that article below, but here’s a couple of short videos I found while searching YouTube for the one in that article…
I wonder if I’ll ever be able to watch that without crying? I don’t know. Perhaps that’s why my mind is trying to forget…
At any rate, I recommend that you read Huff-Post’s Challenger Disaster Home Video Surfaces After 28 Years (EXCLUSIVE) to follow up…
Many of you will recall this excited bit of writing from my Cosmos – A Spacetime Odyssey! post of last July:
If you’re as big a fan of Carl Sagan’s Cosmos: A Personal Voyage mini-series as I am, which is only the most widely watched PBS series in the world, then you’re probably well aware of the fact that an all new version, Cosmos – A Spacetime Odyssey, hosted by renowned astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson, has been in the works.
Well, while I haven’t been able to find an exact premiere date for the new show, they have released its first official trailer – an awesome spectacle in its own right!
Well my friends, after reading the Rebooting ‘Cosmos’: Neil DeGrasse Tyson Explains Why Iconic TV Series Returns in 2014 article on Space.com yesterday, and then following that with a little searching around, I am as pleased as punch to bring you this update to my previous post! 😀
The title to this post is, of course, in reference to Abbott & Costello’s famous Who’s On First comedy sketch – something, oddly enough, I think of whenever I hear the term Third World. I mean, who is it, exactly, that’s arrogant enough to think they can decide who lives in what world?
Oh wait… I think I know… Well, we do love a little whine with our cheese, don’t we? 😳
I Want Ice Water! 