~MEETING NATIVES~

Ali (that's her on the left) and Pat have managed to find their way to Turkey, camping on the Bosporous. Pat likes to take bus rides to take a break from the boat and get out to see some of the local Hittites. An all day trip to Istanbul. Whee. The family behind them consisted of a couple and their two children crammed into two seats behind my friends. Ali does not seem to be enjoying the ride. Neither does the kid. Here's the link. They're about half way done with their circumnavigation. I just love this internet stuff.

Bob

~STRING THEORY IN FLORENCE~

Well, there we were walking the streets of Florence and she says... OK, gravitational mathematics makes sense to me, and quantum mechanics makes sense too, but the two together makes no sense at all... and I say, run back and forth in the alley but don't hit the jambs of the alley doors. And don't hit the branes or you'll fall in the Arno.

And she says... daddy, sometimes I think you're a little crazy. And I say, now you're beginning to catch on.

Bob

~MATHIESSEN~

I have a friend, Pete Mathiessen. Interesting guy. I met him first when he was on his way to South America, hanging out with friends in a group of missionaries from Sanford. Mathiessen's not a missionary, he's a writer and naturalist. He's the guy who wrote The Snow Leopard and a whole bunch of books about that kind of stuff. Very interesting guy.... a Zen master, a truly complete guy. Somebody who touches people. His connection with the missionaries resulted in a successful book... At Play in the Fields of the Lord, which won all kinds of awards and was made into a successful movie. Good stuff. We were chatting about a mutual friend who has been reading Paul Theroux, who is a good friend of Matheissen's. She's a pediatric surgeon, who cuts on kids there at Arnold Palmer Hospital where she is resident, and is involved in a lot of voluntarism. A girl with both talent and money. Good looker too... in one of those Rebecca West sort of ways.

Anyhow, he wandered through the area last week and has got me thinking about adding an audio podcast to the blog. I'm not as cool as Anne Althouse or that Reynolds guy at Instapundit, but it does look like fun. This is really one of those friend of a friend deals. I have a good friend that I share with Pete who is a doctor with Doctors Without Borders who Matheissen visited a few months ago. She recently was doing trauma surgery in Israel. Cutting on kids who have been blown up in the badness that has been happening over there. Well, because of Matheissen, who is an older "grand master" sort of guru these days, she also gives money to one of the Missionary people in Sanford who are involved with translating religious texts into Urdu, and Bantu, and South American languages. This is how an American Zen Master can wind up encouraging a nice Jewish girl to do God's work thru a bunch of Baptist missionaries ... these are the same guys that Mathiessen went with to visit the South American Indians... and found that one of their translators had accidentally transliterated "Jesus" and "Satan" from a phonetic similarity into a direct translation. Oops... and they only caught the error when they were putting the text onto audio tape... after losing several missionaries to Indians who were reluctant to allow living Satans to live in their village compounds. One of the results of that synergy was Matheissen encouraging Paul Theroux, the travel writer who created the African Coast book twenty years later, that lead to a similar set of miscommunications that lead to another good book.... and lead to us talking about how different it is to talk and write. I know, I know... circular at best. But the practical missionaries know the power of putting the sermons and the bible stuff on tape rather than just writing the text down and assuming that the job is done. The spoken word is much more powerful.

At any rate, I'm thinking about podcasting. Got any suggestions?

Bob

~YOUR TAX DOLLARS AT WORK~

This guy was arrested for wearing a dress while he rode his bike around Vero Beach. The cops took him in for not having on underwear. Can you imagine? Crack police work, eh? Here's the link.

Bob

~POST PAID~

The Brits used to write that in chalk on artillery shells used in WWI because it was a capital offense to tamper with the British mails. Isn't that a kick? Imagine what it must be like to fire that gun. OoohWhee!

Bob

~LEBANON IS ON FIRE~

The cowards of the media have controlled what Americans think for so long that little gutless weasel pissant governments like Lebanon, Syria, and Iran, have felt that the only people they have to listen to or follow are the shits running the New York Times, and BBC, and NPR... all the pinhead liberal shits who have never learned any of the lessons of history because they have never had to fight their way out of trouble in a school yard. But now the Jews, who have strong memories of WWII in the background, have again heard the whisper of hate spoken to them.... "It could happen again you know. Keep your powder dry, Abe." It's a fact that the Arabs have been begging for a fight for some time, comfortable that America would listen to the liberal press and reign in the Israeli military. The Jews are a well disciplined army, as is our own. And like all real fighters any where and at any time... if you screw around with them they will come after you. Then the bill will have to be paid. And paid in full. Then these asshole Islamofascist shitwits will wish they had left the rest of the decent world alone. They actually think that they can make another try at world domination and they won't come up against the gates of Vienna like they did back in the 12th century. What they don't realize is that those Knights Templar who kicked their shitty goat humping asses back then are armed with nuclear weapons these days. And when they are called to pay the bill for their shitty behavior they will find out what Westerners think of the kind of men who will strap bombs to their own children.

I say... we may have to kill all of the mother fuckers. Don't they realize how easy it would be to nuke their fucking assholes back into the stone age? I wouldn't bother me at all to just give them an offer they can't refuse. If nothing else we wouldn't have to listen to any more whining from the losers at NPR.

Like Conrad said in The Heart of Darkness... Kill them all. I'm tired of fucking with them.

Bob

~DEMISTIFYING IMMIGRATION~

The arguments concerning immigration continue and the usual arguments, like the usual suspects, emerge. We're all immigrants.... we need the influx of cheap labor... who will cut the grass?... my parents came from Poland and... bla bla bla.

City Journal put up an excellent journal article about the modern situation and there are several surprising observations, as well as several similarities. Good read. Here's the link.

Bob

~NELSON~

I woke up this morning in the middle of a dream about Trafalgar. I'm sure that Lady Hamilton figured in there somehow, but my dreams were filled with the sound of fighting, especially that sound of fighting with swords and black powder that left the great Lord Nelson bleeding to death on the quarterdeck of the HMS Victory. I don't know where the dream came from but it was real enough to my mind that I was panting, out of breath, filled with adrenalin, my feet tingling with flight reflex, reaching for my handgun. I swear I could feel the air vibrating with the passage of those 20 pounders as they shuddered by overhead... the cry of grapeshot as it scithed through masses of bodies on deck.

I made the tourist trip a few years ago when my daughter drug me to see Victory when we sailed up to the #2 berth housing Victory in Portsmouth at the Navy Yards storage docks on the Thames. Nelson's flagship remains as the oldest active service ship commissioned in the British Navy. We both stood at the sight where Nelson fell. There's a brass plate commemorating the event.

They dug the 50 cal. rifle soft lead round shot bullet that killed Nelson out of his chest and put it up in a morbid memorial at the Navy Museum there at Greenwich. Just a ittle reminder for guys like me who wake up soaked in sweat from dreaming of fighting in a shower of oak splinters shot out by the passage of a 20 lb. cannon ball passing by on the deck of a war ship. Then thinking of Lady Hamilton, I suppose. Sex and gunfire. What a life.

Bob

~ANOTHER COOL FLASH PIC~

Cool photo of a lightning strike. Makes you want to wear a hat, eh?

Bob

~OH OH OH MY GOD~

You've just got o go give this a peek.

Bob

~A JOKE FROM TOM~

The Pope took a couple of days off to visit the mountains of Alaska for some sight-seeing. He was cruising along the campground in the Pope Mobile when there was a frantic commotion just at the edge of the woods. A helpless Democrat, wearing sandals, shorts, a "Save the Whales" hat, and a "To Hell with Bush" T-shirt, was screaming while struggling frantically, thrashing around trying to free himself from the grasp of a 10 foot grizzly.As the Pope watched horrified, a group of Republican loggers came racing up. One quickly fired a 44 magnum into the bear's chest... The other two reached up and pulled the bleeding, semiconscious Democrat from the bear's grasp. Then using long clubs, the three loggers finished off the bear and two of them threw it onto the bed of their truck while the other tenderly placed the injured Democrat in the ba ck seat.As they prepared to leave, the Pope summoned them to come over. "I give you my blessing for your brave actions!" He told them. "I heard there was a bitter hatred between Republican loggers and Democratic Environmental activists but now I've seen with my own eyes that this is not true."
As the Pope drove off, one of the loggers asked his buddies "Who was that guy?" "It was the Pope," another replied. "He's in direct contact with heaven and has access to all wisdom.""Well," the logger said, "he may have access to all wisdom but he sure doesn't know anything about bear hunting! By the way, is the bait holding up, or do we need to go back to Massachusetts and snatch another one?"

Tom

~LOOKIE HERE~

I've got a fairly good picture of this woman from the same age. My god... it seems like yesterday.

Bob

~DANDRUFF?~

This Indian guy suffers from something that caused the bone of his skull to die back and be sluffed off as new bone was growing in under the old dead tissue. Yes.. that's a bloody handkerchief on his head. And that's his skull in his hand. Here's the link.

Bob

~NOW WHAT~

Look at this guy: ex- PFC. Steven Green, US Army. The pride of the 101st Army Airborne. Recently returned from service in Iraq and honorably discharged because he was nuts, or something like that. He is charged with raping a civilian and murdering her and her whole family and getting the rest of his squad to back him up. Jeez.

I read the murder affidavit (PDF link here) that the FBI special agent submitted to the magistrate in N.C. in order to get him arrested where he is now residing in the Charlotte NC county jail. If they can prove this in court this guy is headed for a cuddle fest with the needle.

This is really what we do not need. Damned Airborne Army. And... he got his buddies to go along with him. Good grief. Here's the FOX link.

Bob

~FOR ERIC~

How 'bout it Marine? This makes two lawnmower pics in a week. This is better than fighting with Kos or being hateful to Lady Althouse, right?

Bob

~WHAT THE~

I stole this link from Lilek, so it can't be declasse'... right? right? Here's the link.

Bob

~NASA BIRD POOP~

Apparently they would have been better off if they had used bird crap to stick the tiles on the shuttle. The survey of the wings for damage showed some dropping that were noted several weeks ago that made it into space. Hmmm. Here's the link.

Bob

~ZOOM ZOOM~

This guy was at Bonneville trying to get the speed record for his stock car and decided while he was there to try for a record on his lawnmower. And got it. Lordie... eighty miles an hour on a lawnmower! No helmet. What a hoot!

Here's the link.

Bob

~CLANG~

That's a pic taken in downtown Shanghai last week. Just think about what it must have been like if you found yourself on the top of that building. Yow!

Bob

~iPOD~

I've learned this much about the relationship between bandwidth and my new iPod: they are integrally tied. Want to go over your bandwidth limit? Just get yourself an iPod. Jeez... I have to admit... those Apple jerkioids have the power because you just have to have lots and lots of budget room to play with those dudes.

I mean... I have maxed out the bandwidth budget loading podcast after podcast, and I think everything... ever recorded by Mozart... and Phillip Glass... and Warren Zevon.

And that's not to mention the stuff I find in the iTune music store. I've discovered The Pink Martinis. I just love those guys. Latin Salsa mixed up with high class sort of Fosse/Fosse All that Jazz kind of sound. I love it.

But damn... you gotta get out the big checkbook to play with these bigdogs.

Bob

~FLYBY~

Tomorrow is the date for the second flyby past Saturn. The stuff they got from Titan from the last pass was amazing... the pictures make it look like another earth, only this one has methane instead of air. All those features hidden under those Saturnian clouds. Amazing. We really do live in interesting times. I'm thinking that this may be what good ole Earth looked like at the beginning. Makes me want to go make a visit. Wouldn't that be a hoot.

Anyhow, here's the link.

Bob