March 2008 Archives

30 March 2008

What they need to produce is an anti-strangelet

Asking a Judge to Save the World, and Maybe a Whole Lot More (Dennis Overbye, NY Times)

More fighting in Iraq. Somalia in chaos. People in this country can’t afford their mortgages and in some places now they can’t even afford rice.

None of this nor the rest of the grimness on the front page today will matter a bit, though, if two men pursuing a lawsuit in federal court in Hawaii turn out to be right. They think a giant particle accelerator that will begin smashing protons together outside Geneva this summer might produce a black hole or something else that will spell the end of the Earth — and maybe the universe.

Scientists say that is very unlikely — though they have done some checking just to make sure.

The world’s physicists have spent 14 years and $8 billion building the Large Hadron Collider, in which the colliding protons will recreate energies and conditions last seen a trillionth of a second after the Big Bang. Researchers will sift the debris from these primordial recreations for clues to the nature of mass and new forces and symmetries of nature.

But Walter L. Wagner and Luis Sancho contend that scientists at the European Center for Nuclear Research, or CERN, have played down the chances that the collider could produce, among other horrors, a tiny black hole, which, they say, could eat the Earth. Or it could spit out something called a “strangelet” that would convert our planet to a shrunken dense dead lump of something called “strange matter.”

I think many places in the country are already suffering from the spread of "strangelets."

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 03/30/08 07:55 | Other | Technorati | Comments (2)

25 March 2008

A big blunder for a Texas pol

Noriega goofs words to “Deep in the Heart…” (W. Gardner Selby, Austin American Statesman)

A video taped March 13-15 by the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, promoting Rick Noriega for the U.S. Senate, yields two memorable factoids, and a singing gaffe.

Noriega, a Houston state representative, is the first Democrat to win his party’s Senate nomination in a multi-candidate primary without a runoff since 1976. And he eats his barbecue (brisket and ribs) with a napkin tucked in his shirt.

In seriousness, Noriega tells a group: “Are we going to have the resources to compete?” With whom? With Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, it goes unsaid. “I’m telling you, it’s getting ready to get tough.”

The video opens with Noriega singing what seems to be a verse of “Deep in the Heart of Texas,” though I was alerted by Cornyn’s camp that he gets the words wrong. Noriega sings: “The stars are bright and big at night.” The actual lyrics? “The stars at night are big and bright…”

Nicely done.

You'd think they might have budgeted some money to FIX the gaffe in the video. That they did not is probably reflective of just how little money the national party intends to spend on a race it's unlikely to win.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 03/25/08 23:31 | Texas | Technorati | Comments (3)

Endorsing Rev. Wright

First, irritation (Letters, Houston Chronicle)

All of the hoopla about the comments of Pastor Jeremiah Wright recalls the old adage that the truth will set you free — but it will first piss you off.

STATE REP. HAROLD V. DUTTON JR.
Houston

It's surprising to see any pol endorsing "Reverend" Wright's extremism as "truth." Wow.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 03/25/08 23:06 | Texas | Technorati | Comments (2)

23 March 2008

Back!

We're back, after a fun weekend of hiking the Ouachitas.

It was a leisurely weekend, and our cabin was lovely (as were the steaks that were grilled and the wine that was consumed).

Although the area had received some pretty good rain, the Ouachitas drain well, and the trails were in good shape. Unfortunately, Callie experienced a wardrobe malfunction -- her REI hiking boots literally fell apart. That would have been a killer on a backpacking trip, but wasn't the end of the world for our day hiking (although it did force a trip to a nearby Wal Mart).

I should note that my Asolo 520s are still holding up fine. Indeed, they feel pretty good after a decade+ of breaking in. :)

On the return trip, we were happy to see that some people were already gambling at roughly 11 AM on Easter Sunday. Priorities.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 03/23/08 21:26 | Outdoors | Technorati | Comments (6)

20 March 2008

Getting a long weekend underway (a few hours early)

So, I finished up a task a bit early at work today, and the long weekend has officially begun....

Well, almost.

We're off later to the Ouachitas for a three-day cabin-camping weekend of hiking and grilling and wine and such. But it would help if I actually went home and did some packing....

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 03/20/08 14:01 | Outdoors | Technorati | Comments (2)

17 March 2008

Ouch

Abba drummer found dead in Spain (BBC News)

A former session drummer with Swedish pop band Abba has been found dead in the garden of his Spanish home with cuts to his throat, police say.

A spokeswoman said the man was 62-year-old Ola Brunkert, and said his death appeared to be accidental.

Police believe Brunkert hit his head on a window and shattered the glass which cut him. A post-mortem is taking place.

What an awful way to go.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 03/17/08 13:44 | Other | Technorati | Comments (1)

12 March 2008

Blog billboard

Driving through Skiatook, Oklahoma earlier, I noticed a crude billboard advertising SkiatookBlog.com

I checked it a while ago, but it seems to have shut down at the end of 2007.

Maybe the crude billboard ad wasn't effective?

Maybe they should have gone with car magnet advertising, like Dan Patrick promised for Lone Star Times once upon a time. :)

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 03/12/08 19:51 | Other | Technorati | Comments (0)

10 March 2008

Restless leg syndrome?

Driver injured after slamming into tree (KTRK-13 News)

A driver says restless leg syndrome caused him to smash his pick-up truck into a tree.

Last night, the man was travelling on the beltway in northeast Harris County. He told investigators his legs went numb as he went around a curve. His pick-up truck went off the roadway and into a tree.

"He pulled himself out of the vehicle, after the vehicle caught fire," said Deputy Paul Begley with the Harris County Sheriff's Office. "It was later determined has some form of leg disease. He says his legs went numb on him which caused the accident."

Or, he could have deficient-brain syndrome.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 03/10/08 21:57 | Houston | Technorati | Comments (0)

Idiot driver taunts Danger Train

Here's a fun photo I snapped earlier with my cameraphone:

I'm in the Jeep, headed east on Elgin at Main.

The pickup driver is making an illegal left turn headed southbound on Main. He is sitting on TWO Danger Train tracks as he waits for traffic to clear (in the rain) so that he can make his illegal turn.

Sadly, the Danger Train was nowhere to be found. I was all set to document the collision!

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 03/10/08 20:19 | Danger Train | Technorati | Comments (2)

08 March 2008

Campaign videos

This is pretty good:

This is not:

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 03/08/08 23:41 | American Politics | Technorati | Comments (3)

04 March 2008

Texas helps make history

It's fun that Texas helped make history tonight, as John McCain clinched the Republican nomination after wins in the Lone Star State and elsewhere.

What a crazy ride McCain's had, after losing all those Summer 2007 primaries and being written off by pundits. Oh wait, there weren't any primaries in the summer, were there? But there were some setbacks, to be sure, although his campaign probably benefited from the setbacks as opposed to a coronation.

It looks like Ohio will go to Clinton tonight, and she may well win the popular vote in Texas (although it appears that Obama will claim more Texas delegates, thanks to the Texas Dems making a complete mess of their primary system in our great state).

Fun stuff! I've been turned off by national politics for quite a few years now, but I'm actually enjoying it this time around. Hell, it's almost as good as The West Wing.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 03/04/08 22:14 | American Politics | Technorati | Comments (6)

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