He said, "Only one kid got a black eye."Awesome birthday!
Wednesday, May 16, 2012
A Buddy of Mine Built This Air Cannon For His Son's 7th Birthday
He said, "Only one kid got a black eye."
Monday, May 14, 2012
In Russian roulette, is it best to go first?
Assume that we are playing a game of Russian roulette (6 chambers). Assume that there is no shuffling after the shot is fired.
I was wondering if you have an advantage in going first?
If so, how big of an advantage?
THESE THINGS HAPPENED.
The morning Lev died we lay in his hospital bed together. I held onto his foot. His dad held his hand. There was nothing I could do to help him or to save him. There can be nothing worse than that feeling. That experience was the worst thing that could ever and will ever happen to me. So what else should I fear? What would you fear?
A Happy Story
A paralysed woman has become the first person to complete a marathon in a bionic suit.
Claire Lomas finished the London Marathon today, crossing the finishing line 16 days after the race began.
The 32-year-old said she was "over the moon" as she completed the 26.2-mile route, which she started on April 22 with 36,000 other participants.
The former chiropractor was in tears as she became the first person to complete any marathon using a bionic ReWalk suit at 12.50pm today.
Hundreds lined the streets as she made her final steps to complete the race.
Three mounted members of the Household Cavalry gave her a guard of honour as she crossed the finishing line on The Mall.
Sunday, May 13, 2012
How Common Is Your Birthday?
The following table shows every day of the year, from Jan. 1 to Dec. 31, along with a ranking based on how many babies were born in the United States on that date between 1973 and 1999. Jan. 1, for example, was the 364th most popular birthday for a baby during those years; only Dec. 25 and Feb. 29 were less popular. Sept. 16 was the most popular birthday.
THe Last Horse Drive
Reuters photographer Jim Urquhart recently captured these scenes from a fading culture, as he followed Montana ranchers on their final horse drive, moving more than 300 horses down from their winter range. Every spring the Mantle family, along with with a group of wranglers, drives the herd north over 35 miles and three days, through the small town of Three Forks to their ranch. After decades of supplying and tending to horses, the Mantles, citing financial challenges, now plan to sell off their herd and shift to raising beef cattle. Take a moment to travel with the Mantle family through big sky country, on a journey once so familiar and iconic, now fading into memory with the rest of cowboy culture.
Wednesday, May 09, 2012
Tuesday, May 08, 2012
Monday, May 07, 2012
Saturday, May 05, 2012
Thursday, May 03, 2012
Talking about Reincarnation Today
REINCARNATION
What is reincarnation? The Cowpoke asked his friend
His pal replied it happens when your life has reached its end
They comb your hair and wash your neck and clean your fingernails
And lay you in a padded box away from life's travails
And the box then goes in a hole that's been dug in the ground
And reincarnation starts in when your're planted neath the mound
Then clods melt down, just like the box, and you who is inside
And then you're just beginning on your transformation ride
Meanwhile the grass will grow upon your rendered mound
And soon upon your lonely grave a single flower is foundAnd then a horse will wonder by and graze upon flower
That once was you and now become your vegetated bower
The posie that the horse done eat along with his other feed
Makes bone and fat and muscle essential to the steed
But some is left that he can't use and so it passes thru
And finally lays upon the ground this thing that once was you
And say by chance I wanders by, and sees this on the ground
And I ponders and wonders at this object that I've found
And I thinks of reincarnation and life and death and such
And I come away concluding you ain't changed all that much.
What is reincarnation? The Cowpoke asked his friend
His pal replied it happens when your life has reached its end
They comb your hair and wash your neck and clean your fingernails
And lay you in a padded box away from life's travails
And the box then goes in a hole that's been dug in the ground
And reincarnation starts in when your're planted neath the mound
Then clods melt down, just like the box, and you who is inside
And then you're just beginning on your transformation ride
Meanwhile the grass will grow upon your rendered mound
And soon upon your lonely grave a single flower is foundAnd then a horse will wonder by and graze upon flower
That once was you and now become your vegetated bower
The posie that the horse done eat along with his other feed
Makes bone and fat and muscle essential to the steed
But some is left that he can't use and so it passes thru
And finally lays upon the ground this thing that once was you
And say by chance I wanders by, and sees this on the ground
And I ponders and wonders at this object that I've found
And I thinks of reincarnation and life and death and such
And I come away concluding you ain't changed all that much.
Tuesday, May 01, 2012
Monday, April 30, 2012
Saturday, April 28, 2012
Friday, April 27, 2012
Thursday, April 26, 2012
15 Things Real Friends Do Differently
Here are 15 things real friends do differently:
- They face problems together. – A person who truly knows and loves you – a real friend – is someone who sees the pain in your eyes while everyone else still believes the smile on your face. Don’t look for someone who will solve all your problems; look for someone who will face them with you.
- They believe in each other. – Simply believing in another person, and showing it in your words and deeds, can make a huge difference in their life. Studies of people who grew up in dysfunctional homes but who grew up to be happy and successful show that the one thing they had in common was someone who believed in them. Do this for those you care about. Support their dreams and passions and hobbies. Participate with them. Cheer for them. Be nothing but encouraging. Whether they actually accomplish these dreams or not, your belief is of infinite importance to them.
Wednesday, April 25, 2012
Tuesday, April 24, 2012
Went and saw The Gourds on Friday night at the Wilma in Missoula
Awesome show! Wandered around doing drinks and appetizers and got there just in time for this. Then they played for another hour.
Wanna Test a Friendship? Have a Seizure!
Last Thursday, I met an old friend in Hartford for dinner, and then went back to her new place to listen to music, hang out with her cat Momo, and have a seizure on her couch.
Okay, that last bit wasn't actually in the schedule of planned events. The truth is, though, that with multiple sclerosis, I don't really get to write my own schedule, and while it's been over two years since my last seizure, they're always possible.
With MS, all things are possible, my neurologist likes to tell me. I think it's funny, too, but it's also a good reminder: nothing about this disease is actually static.
Chion is a friend from what I always think of as my first life: I met her when I was growing up in Connecticut, before I left for the military. She knew me best when I was very young, very healthy, and for a brief time, we were in love. She knew my body when it was close to its peak of health -- before my disease began making serious inroads.
Between all the travel I've done for the military and afterward, she's missed seeing the largest chunks of my illness, which comes and goes. I live in Baltimore, so I only visit Connecticut when I'm healthy; I can't make the five-hour drive when I'm not feeling well.
She might have seen me once with my cane. I can't really remember, but only once, if then, and even so, if I had made it to Connecticut, I was doing really well on my cane. The point being, she knows I have MS, but she's never actually seen my disease, and there are miles between those two things.
Late last week, I was leaning on Chi's railing in Hartford, and we were talking. She was trying to bring up some episodes of a YouTube show created by Caitlin Doughty, who had been on the radio show Chi works on (did I mention Chion works in public radio? GEEK GIRL SWAGGER).
I suddenly felt cold and shaky, and noticed that all my sensory information was beginning to feel as though it was coming to me through a filter -- like an Instagram photo, slightly askew and faded. This is my aura, the roughly one-or-two-minute warning I get before I have a seizure. I’m grateful to get such a dramatic, if somewhat nauseating warning of what’s ahead.
I made my way to the couch, and sat down. "I almost have this up," she said. "You want to see?"
"Yes," I said, calmly. "First, though, I'm going to have small seizure. It's fine, and I'll be fine, and it'll be over in about a minute, OK?"
What Happened To The Iceberg That Sank The Titanic?
The photo up top was taken by the chief steward of the German ocean liner SS Prinz Adalbert, which on Apr. 15 was sailing through the North Atlantic mere miles away from where the Titanic had sunk the night before. At the time, the chief steward hadn’t yet learned of theTitanic‘s fate, so he wasn’t even on the lookout for icebergs. He simply spotted a streak of red paint along the iceberg’s base, which most likely meant a ship had collided with it in the last 12 hours.
If you were to trace the story of the Titanic to its earliest human origins, you couldn’t really go much further back than 1907, when the White Star Lines first drew up plans to build the three largest ocean liners the world had even seen: Olympic, Titanic, and Gigantic, which was later renamed Britannic and sank in the Mediterranean during World War I. From conception to sinking, the Titanic really only lasted about five years, although obviously its memory has endured far longer.
But by comparison, the iceberg began its slow journey to the North Atlantic over three thousand years ago. Again, we can only guess at the exact details, but the story likely began with snowfall on the western coast of Greenland somewhere around 1,000 BCE. After a few months, this snow has been turned into a more compacted form called firn, which then over subsequent decades is compressed into dense ice by the weight of newer snow on top of it.
Has One State Found A Way To Prevent Domestic Violence?
In recent decades, one of the great grassroots movements of the twentieth century built a raft of protections designed to help abused women. These included a sprawling network of community shelters, gun restrictions for abusers, protection orders, and the nation’s first federal anti-domestic violence legislation, the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA). Yet, despite this sustained effort—and even as overall homicides have plummeted nationwide—victims of domestic violence like Jo’Anna Bird are today killed in basically the same numbers as they were about 15 years ago. Between 40 and 50 percent of female homicide victims are killed by their husbands, boyfriends, and exes. And, for about half of these victims, police had been alerted to previous incidents of abuse.
There is, however, one exception to this grim trend: Maryland. Since 2007, domestic violence homicides in the state have fallen by a stunning 40 percent. What is Maryland doing that other states are not? The answer appears to lie with a former high school nurse, an ex-Washington, D.C., police lieutenant, and their ground-breaking efforts to protect the most vulnerable victims of abuse.
Monday, April 23, 2012
Soccer ball swept up by Japanese tsunami found in Alaska
A soccer ball that bobbed onto the shore of a remote Alaska island is likely the first salvageable debris from last year's Japanese tsunami that could be returned to its owner, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
The ball, found on Alaska's Middleton Island, bears writing that identifies its place of origin, said Doug Helton, operations coordinator for NOAA's Office of Response and Restoration, which is tracking debris from the tsunami.
According to a translation provided by Tokyo-based journalists, the ball is from the Osabe School in the Iwate Prefecture, an area that was hit by the devastating tidal wave unleashed March 11 by the magnitude 9 earthquake off Japan's northeastern coast, Helton said Sunday.Click here to read more.
Need To Know - Obliterating Animal Carcasses With Explosives
There are times when it is important to remove or obliterate an animal carcass from locations such as recreation areas where a carcass might attract bears, at a popular picnic area where the public might object, or along the side of roads or trails. Large animal carcasses can be particularly difficult to remove, especially if they are located below a steep cut slope or in remote areas.
Explosives have successfully been used by qualified blasters to partially or totally obliterate large animal carcasses (horses, mules, moose, etc.). It is important to consider location, time of year, and size of the carcass when selecting the quantity and type of explosive to accomplish the obliteration task. Consult a qualified blaster when explosives are to be used.
The following examples illustrate partial obliteration (dispersion) for a horse that weighs about 1,100 pounds (453.6 kilograms). In the first example, urgency is not a factor. Perhaps a few days are expected before the public is to visit the area, or perhaps bears will not be attracted to the carcass. In any case, in this example, dispersion is acceptable.
Lotte Time Lapse: Birth to 12 years in 2 min. 45.
Thursday, April 19, 2012
A Joke - Dating As An Adult
Dorothy: ''That nice George Johnson asked me out for a date. I know you went out with him last week, and I wanted to talk with you about him before I give him my answer.''
Edna: ''Well, I'll tell you. He shows up at my apartment punctually at 7 P.M., dressed like such a gentleman in a fine suit, and he brings me such beautiful flowers!
Then he takes me downstairs, and what's there but a luxury car...A limousine, uniformed chauffeur and all.
Then he takes me out for dinner... A marvelous dinner... Lobster,champagne, dessert and after-dinner drinks.Then we go see a show. Let me tell you, Dorothy, I enjoyed it so much I could have just died from pleasure!
So then we are coming back to my apartment and he turns into an ANIMAL. Completely crazy, he tears off my expensive new dress and has his way with me two times!''
Dorothy: ''Goodness gracious!... So are you telling me I shouldn't go out with him?''
Edna: ''No, no, no... I'm just saying, wear an old dress.''
Edna: ''Well, I'll tell you. He shows up at my apartment punctually at 7 P.M., dressed like such a gentleman in a fine suit, and he brings me such beautiful flowers!
Then he takes me downstairs, and what's there but a luxury car...A limousine, uniformed chauffeur and all.
Then he takes me out for dinner... A marvelous dinner... Lobster,champagne, dessert and after-dinner drinks.Then we go see a show. Let me tell you, Dorothy, I enjoyed it so much I could have just died from pleasure!
So then we are coming back to my apartment and he turns into an ANIMAL. Completely crazy, he tears off my expensive new dress and has his way with me two times!''
Dorothy: ''Goodness gracious!... So are you telling me I shouldn't go out with him?''
Edna: ''No, no, no... I'm just saying, wear an old dress.''
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