TJ’s and glass pipes March 30, 2006
Posted by dr. gonzo in Crime, DeKalb.2 comments
Alright. I have decided to follow up the Hits From the Bong post. TJ's Accessories was shut down as a public nusiance. The DeKalb County State's Attorney has some decision making ahead of him tomorrow. UPDATE: I hear they’re real busy due to a recent murder in DeKalb, decision delayed. (more…)
A gaggle of planes March 30, 2006
Posted by dr. gonzo in Miscellaneous, Technology.add a comment
The Air Mobility Command museum at Dover AFB. (Credit: Google Earth).
Hating Islam March 29, 2006
Posted by dr. gonzo in Miscellaneous.add a comment
Why are Westerners so anti-Islam?
I think the answer lies in the way Muslim countries are reported on in the media and the way some Muslims react to seemingly inert incidents. (more…)
Nuclear emergencies March 29, 2006
Posted by dr. gonzo in BlogNotes, Nuclear Power.add a comment
The nuclear emergencies page is up. All incidents requiring an emergency classification are cataloged and linked to event reports from the NRC. So far I have covered 2002 through Feb. 20, 2006.
Check it out at the nuclear page on the top nav bar. I should note that I am pro-nuclear power.
Oh, and scroll down, I made a couple of short posts this evening.
And now, the fake news March 29, 2006
Posted by dr. gonzo in Miscellaneous, Space.8 comments
“A total eclipse of the sun . . . ”
A letter to the editor March 29, 2006
Posted by dr. gonzo in DeKalb, Iraq, Politics.22 comments
Another quick note. I responded to a letter from an NIU alum, Jason Briski, that appeared in the Northern Star on Monday, March 27, 2006.
My letter was published today. You can see it here.
In case you don’t click links, the text of Briski’s letter is followed by my letter below. As a former Star editor, I was glad to see them publish my letter. : ) (more…)
Goodbye poems, (not really) March 28, 2006
Posted by dr. gonzo in BlogNotes.3 comments
I dropped the poems page. The poems are just PDFs on the writing page now. The nuclear database is still under construction. I work on it only intermittenly. I have compiled nuclear emergencies from 2002 thru the present. I suppose I could post those, let me know what you think.
COROT and DAWN March 28, 2006
Posted by dr. gonzo in Space.add a comment
Just a couple space notes to post.
First I must say how annoying misinformation is. War. Space. Whatever. Why must people continually be misinformed by not only the media, but those around us. Okay, on with the post.
On March 21 Astronomy Magazine, at astronomy.com, reported that the joint European Space Agency and Centre National d’Etudes Spatiales (CNES-this is the French national space agency) COROT mission was set for a June 2006 launch. The COROT spacecraft will represent the forefront of the search for extrasolar planets. (more…)
VD17, to impact or not to impact March 23, 2006
Posted by dr. gonzo in Asteroids, Space.add a comment
The fickle nature of asteroid hunting is proven time and again, just monitor NASA’s Near Earth Object Program Web site for proof of that.
Since late February the NEO site has listed asteroid 2004 VD17 at the top of Earth impact risk list, Torino Scale 2. While it is still at the top of that list, its chance of impacting Earth has fluctated wildly over the last half month or so.
Yesterday, VD17 stood at a 1 in 1790 chance of impacting Earth. A quick look at the NEO page today shows that the chances have, once again, increased with recent observations. (more…)
1, 2, 3, 4 . . . We don’t want your f*cking war! March 23, 2006
Posted by dr. gonzo in DeKalb, Iraq, Politics.5 comments
Yesterday afternoon I gathered myself and went to an anti-Iraq War protest at Northern Illinois University’s Martin Luther King Commons.
Starting at about noon, the Northern Coalition for Peace and Justice sponsored protest featured live music and about 50 or so participants. The campus isn’t the most politically active one I have seen so the turnout was good considering that. (more…)
Hits from the bong March 21, 2006
Posted by dr. gonzo in Crime, DeKalb.2 comments
Perusing the Northern Star today I came across, Tobacco shops, police at odds with sale of pipes.
Well, I didn’t just come across it, I knew it was coming for a couple weeks, but didn’t really want to usurp the Star, so I waited until they said something.
Essentially, the DeKalb Police Department is trying to eliminate the sale of glass pipes that they traditionally identify as drug paraphernalia using the Illinois Drug Parephenalia Control Act. (more…)
Lawsuit derailed March 16, 2006
Posted by dr. gonzo in Horse Slaughter.add a comment
I posted about Tuesday’s U.S. District Court decision to dismiss the majority of a lawsuit against the USDA which would have stopped the fee-for-service program they established to allow horse slaughter to continue in the United States.
Check it out on the horse page.
Pieces of a comet March 16, 2006
Posted by dr. gonzo in Space.1 comment so far
The NASA Stardust news conference the other day was a pretty interesting watch, if you know anything about comets.
The Stardust mission to collect comet samples and return them to Earth seems to have been a grand success for NASA. Perhaps the most surprising find in the analysis of the comet particles thus far was the discovery of minerals which form in only very high temperatures.
Why is this so surprising?
Comets are the so-called “dirty snowballs” of the solar system. They exist in a realm of the solar system near Pluto, where cold temperatures (extremely cold temperatures which hover just above absolute zero in places) dominate and occassinally pass close to the Sun in their orbits. Thus, scientists were surprised to find such high temperature minerals in such a cold region of our solar system. (more…)
Stardust March 12, 2006
Posted by dr. gonzo in Space.add a comment
Monday, March 13 NASA will hold a news conference regarding the returned samples from the Stardust mission. The conference starts at 2 p.m. here in the Midwest and can be viewed on NASA TV via the Web.
The conference will focus on the results of studies concerning the first analyzed samples returned from the comet.
Stardust is the first U.S. space mission dedicated solely to the exploration of a comet. Launched on Feb. 7, 1999 the probe encountered Comet Wild 2 (pronounced “Vilt 2”) in January of 2004 and returned samples from the comet to Earth early this year.
Related Links:
Fear and Loathing in DeKalb March 12, 2006
Posted by dr. gonzo in DeKalb, Gonzo.4 comments
Wake up. Lose people. Lose friends. In the span of 15 minutes. Drown yourself in Everclear and fresh fruit. Wake up on the floor in a pile of newspaper, perhaps.
Lose another friend, go searching, find nothing.
Find one person who was lost. Surreality. A blur. A person abusing hard drugs in the wee hours of the morning only to scale a wooden wall and be talked down.
Morning comes in a haze of alcohol and sleeplessness. Something attacked in the night, it destroyed almost everything. Nothing was really left. Gaping holes and the remanants of what never was and might have been. And ignorance takes over.
Lies and lies. Piling up beneath. The floor is covered, it is only a matter of time before the joists give out and the basement fills up.
Three eight round magazines ready to load. Fire at will. Blazing rounds of hot ammunition. And they are gone. The haze remains in a cloud of gunsmoke. The smell of powder filling the air and an insane person with Mossberg 500, must think he is a gangsta. The weapon is more Hollywood than Bennifer. And he always carries a pistol, except to church and school and the bar.
This is just DeKalb but it seems not to matter.
But it is all just too strange. Nothing remains and nothing stays the same except for this startling confused look.
The physics of E.T. March 12, 2006
Posted by dr. gonzo in Space.add a comment
This article, The Physics of Extraterrestrial Civilizations, was written a few years back by theoretical physicist Michio Kaku.
It is certainly an interesting read, even if you blindly and ignorantly believe that we are the only civilization in the universe.
Jupiter’s ‘Red Jr.’ March 10, 2006
Posted by dr. gonzo in Space.add a comment
Jupiter, the king of planets, is a fluid and changing world, as recent observations have shown.
A powerful storm, which first developed in 2000, known as Oval BA has taken on an altered appearance recently. An appearance much more akin to a better known storm whirling in the Jovian atmosphere. Once white in color the storm has gained the familiar red hue of the Great Red Spot, a Jovian hurricane capable of swallowing more than two Earths. (more…)
One rich crypt keeper March 9, 2006
Posted by dr. gonzo in Miscellaneous.1 comment so far
I am that radical misanthrope that you always knew was somewhere out there and always prayed you would never encounter.
The lastest thing that has me fuming, latest of many things, and by fuming I mean, well, I don’t know what I mean. It’s not as if I am ranting around my living room breaking things, or even moving really, other than to type this.
Back to the matter at blog. The Woodlawn Cemetary in Detroit, Michigan has seen the burial of Rosa Parks on its grounds as one big capitialistic blessing. (more…)
R.I.P. Kirby March 7, 2006
Posted by dr. gonzo in Sports.add a comment
Tis a sad day for baseball. R.I.P. Kirby Puckett, dead at age 45. =(
From the Gonzo 