KeMeK

Say NO to Drilling on Boyd Road

2011-03-04T00:09:00.000-05:00

For the record, I am posting as a resident of Monroe County, Myles Samuel Yates, not a member of SavetheWaterTable.org. The opinions below may or may not represent SWTO’s opinions.

Gordy Oil Company Permit Application for drilling a gas well –Wade Lively #1 in the Springfield District near Boyd Road in Monroe County.

KARST + ANIMAL LIFE : I request the application be denied because this well site is surrounded by karst, drains into karst, and may in fact be sitting directly above karst. There are rumors of a sinkhole that has been covered in less than 100 feet from the site. There are nearby streams, waterways, and ponds. The site sits in front of a mountain ridge and the land slopes down from the field the site lives in. Water flows down – and the land down the hill from the site is perforated with sinkholes. Functionally, draining into karst is no different than drilling directly into karst from a vulnerability perspective. Two significant caves are around a mile away, while the legendary Salt Peter Cave, home to the Indiana bat (observed population 2006: 2; 2008: 12; 2010: 7) is just about 2 miles away. THIS IS DANGEROUS. Problems with fracking aside, surface spills in this area could poison the aquifer. The water from that site would drain into a network of creeks that would ultimately drain into Indian Creek – home to wild trout. The DNR keeps a count of the Indiana bat, as it is on the federal endangered species list. Water contamination = dead bats and dead trout. EPA considers karst to be an “environmentally sensitive location,” classified similar to wetlands. BAD DRILL SITE.
GORDY CONSULT WITH USFWS ABOUT BATS : The FWS has requested that Gordy answer 9 questions about the bats. USFWS has stated that the responsibility of these bats is that of the DEP and that Gordy is supposed to comply with this request for information about the bats, the caves, the water, etc. I feel that whether the consult is REQUIRED BY LAW is not relevant – this is the right thing for Gordy to do – and the application seems incomplete without it.
SEDIMENT & EROSION PLAN : The WV Code #22-6-6(d) states that a sediment and erosion plan shall accompany any application. This is an important requirement, especially so in karst. Application seems to be incomplete.
DEEP WELL PERMIT : I do not find the necessary permit from the Oil and Gas Conservation Commission for drilling a deep well.
INSUFFICIENT INSPECTORS : Randy Huffman has publicly stated that there are insufficient inspectors for the wells in WV. Based on 55K active wells and 17 inspectors, there are 0.00030909 inspectors per well. This is a crying, terrible outrage. If we know we cannot monitor/regulate our current activities, how can we embark on new business? Time to take a step back, write some new regulations and hire a couple hundred inspectors.
INACTIVE WELLS UNCAPPED : Recent number I saw suggested that of the 12K inactive wells, some 6K are uncapped and desperately need attention. We have seen many stories of contamination from uncapped wells. Another reason to focus on cleaning up the past before moving on to the future.
ADDITIVES DOCUMENTED : I object to the fact that the additives used in the process are not listed. Quoting from the Gazette-Mail dated November 10, 2010, “DEP wants chemical lists for Marcellus drilling permits.” The “mud company” is not applying for a permit – Gordy is, and they must be accountable for the mud company’s formula.
INSUFFICIENT PERMITTING FEE : I object to this application because current discussions in Charleston include the possibly of a new fee schedule, which could change the fee from less than a grand to $10K or more. With a higher fee, the DEP could have more inspectors.
DYE TESTING : Additional dye testing has been suggested by many – orgs, residents, even USFWS. This is a safety measure that needs to be addressed. Water has been documented in Monroe County to travel up to 13 miles (additional testing may show even farther) – we need to further document the path of water from the well site to better understand what sources are at the most risk.
WASTEWATER : The application mentions that waste water will be put into injection wells. Where are they located? Will trucks be shipping the water to another site?
1000 FOOT IMPACT ZONE : The single biggest joke of the whole thing. Saying that only 1000 feet from the well site is considered the impact zone of a well is like saying that only the 1000 feet from the oil spill in the gulf must be tested and monitored and cleaned up. Water travels miles in karst terrain, and dye testing has proven this scientifically – showing water travelling up to 13 miles. I’d be excited to see that number moved to 5000 feet, but as that is wholly inadequate as well, I request the impact zone, the area in which Gordy must test and monitor water should be a 5 MILE RADIUS from the well site. They must be required to insert their own custom, traceable dye in their utilized frack fluids, and they must monitor for them showing up at relevant hot points within the radius.
TRAFFIC IMPACT STUDY : I request there be a traffic impact study carried out when there are so many large and heavy trucks traveling on secondary roads. I have personally traveled these roads with friends who are truck drivers. There are many turns that will be extremely tight and will not allow traffic to pass while navigating the turn. That is a disruption!
WETZEL COUNTY : I tend to believe that history makes a great teacher. Based on what we have seen in pictures, videos, and first hand – WHAT HAPPENED IN WETZEL CANNOT HAPPEN HERE. I mean the hillbillies (will come out of the mountains, and they will not be happy – it will not be pretty ladies and gentlemen. And this is NOT meant to be threatening in any way – but I feel it is necessary to clarify the situation – MANY of the county’s residents are NOT land rich, have not leased, and frankly, do not care about the royalties they might be able to make – and in most cases these are people who have a deep, long-standing, impenetrable cultural attachment to their land. If things proceed unchecked, and the county produces gas but things do go foul at some point (as they have many, many times many, many other places) – you’ve got a piece of the county who are making money, and you’ve got a piece whose land/water you have just destroyed – and they will be enraged, as you might imagine. If this is done WHERE it can be done safely (which means not in karst), in a WAY that can be done safely on a TIMELINE that is safe with SUFFICIENT RESOURCES and REGULATIONS in place – we can avoid a total fallout in this county.
NOISE POLLUTION : Are there any regulations governing this? I request that drilling should be limited to daylight hours and weekdays. The inherent loss to our way of life should it proceed 24/7 will be immense.
AIR POLLUTION : Didn’t see anything in the application concerning air pollution. There have been many news items linking air pollution to drilling activities. I request this be addressed.
INADEQUATE BOND : I object! The $5K bond is ridiculously inadequate. It seems the damages that could be caused by one slip-up could be worth hundreds of thousands of dollars, easily way more. Therefore I request that before any company embark on this endeavor, they thoroughly demonstrate that they have the resources to fix anything they break. A minimum of $1M bond seems appropriate to that end.
CONTAINMENT PONDS : It seems like one of the most likely ways contamination will occur is due to a containment pond that leaks or floods or meets animal life. Again these surface spills could be catastrophic. Bats and other animals will drink from the pond. I request that containment ponds not be utilized, and all wastewater be carried from the site as it is extracted.
WATER WITHDRAWAL : Our precious tiny little watershed cannot support hydraulic fracture. The rivers and streams have BEEN LOW REGARDLESS – I can only imagine with millions of gallons being pulled from the Greenbrier. I request strongly that stringent guidelines define the water withdrawal practices to insure the system is not maxed out and run dry.
SUBCONTRACTORS : How are subs handled? All sub or independent contractors must meet the same regs as Gordy, and a system of accountability for those subs must be in place. I request that Gordy be held responsible for the actions of its team, both internal staff and subcontractors. Subs should also be responsible for a significant bond so we can insure they are not total fly-by-night operations.
ADDRESSING NEARBY LANDOWNERS : The application fails to list at least two very nearby landowners, the Adkins and the Ramsey families. They are very concerned and have been forgotten. Dale and Terry Ramsey live downhill/stream from the well site. I request that these nearby landowners be addressed professionally, not left out to get their news from the papers.
ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENT : For the reasons listed above a THOROUGH assessment and investigation of the area and how it might respond to natural gas extraction activities is REQUIRED. I request, and I truly hope that you guys at the DEP will leverage your experience and wisdom to not let this proceed unchecked.
LOSS OF LAND VALUE : So wait – this process starts, all of our land values plummet? How will this be addressed in the “reclamation” plan? I request that every landowner who loses assets (the value of their home, their land) due to the marcellus shale drilling activities should be compensated the equivalent of the lost assets, as determined by a third-party, agreed upon assessor. Our tiny little economy WILL NOT BENEFIT in the long term from the Marcellus play if when the drillers leave in a decade – everything is worth jack. Our community’s long-term financial stability DEPENDS on the value of our homes and our land.
DEP CONDITIONS FOR DENIAL OF PERMITS : a) the proposed well work will constitute a hazard to the safety of persons, because b) the proposed well work fails to protect fresh water sources or supplies (how could this be guaranteed?); or c) habitats of rare and endangered flora and fauna or even d) bodies of water…including but not limited to wild trout streams.
FRED ZIEGLER, Geologist
- The karst forming unit in Monroe is the Lower Carboniferous Greenbrier Limestone which covers about 70 square miles centered around Union, Pickaway and Sinks Grove, with smaller patches around Greenville and Wolf Creek.
- A count of 168 large sinkholes was determined from the central zone giving a density of four per square mile.
- No surface streams occur over much of the karst except near the margins where the flow can be shown to be underground during dryer seasons, confirming that underground flow occurs most of the time. This is true of Indian Creek and its tributaries, Laurel Creek and Hans Creek around Greenville.
- The Greenbrier Limestone has low porosity so polluted water entering the cave system would not benefit from the natural filtration effects of the groundwater table, but would pass directly into wells and beyond into the Greenbrier and New Rivers.
- The Greenbrier karst phenomenon is limited to Monroe, and adjacent Greenbrier Counties and to a smaller extent, Pocahontas County. (Caves are present in the folded rocks of the Valley and Ridge Province of the Appalachians but are mostly limited to the much older Cambro-Ordovician formations which are not subject to deep drilling.)
- Surface exposures of the Greenbrier Limestone are riddled with fissures so the general picture is of an anastomosing meshwork of large and small caves which continue to be discovered and mapped but have not been fully tested with die tracers to determine flow patterns.
- The conclusion is that the Greenbrier Limestone poses a major challenge to proposed gas drilling.
- Questions arising are:
  - How could wells be adequately cased in such a formation?
  - How could failures of the highly pressurized “fracking” process be avoided?
  - How will the containment ponds be designed to avoid rupture?
  - How will trucking accidents be avoided on the narrow, switch-back roads typical of Monroe County?

DALE MCCUTCHEON, Sanitarian, Monroe County Health Department
Since Monroe County does not have streams with the capacity to provide for public water supply sources, almost all residents rely on groundwater for their water consumption needs. The public supplies available, which provide for about half of the county usage, primarily rely on springs or wells for their intake.

Due to the karst topography which underlies much of the county, underground streams, as indicated by numerous dye tracing activities conducted over the years, may travel for several miles. Further, unlike in other subsurface environments such as sandstone wherein natural filtration takes place, karst aquifers do not receive this benefit. This lack of filtration and substantial migration is, in the opinions of most authorities, the primary reason that about half of the water samples taken by the Monroe County Health Department over the last decade have been found unsatisfactory due to bacteriological contamination. Thus a localized contamination event, such as might occur from a drilling error, has the potential to effect a hundred or more wells over a large area.

Although, as mentioned above, a number of dye tests have been undertaken at various locales throughout the county, there is still a substantial lack of information related to our underground aquifer system. Much more testing and cataloging of results into a coordinated framework is needed to establish flow patterns and contamination potentials before we may understand the full potential of a contamination event.
PRECAUTIONARY PRINCIPLE : “The precautionary principle or precautionary approach states that if an action or policy has a suspected risk of causing harm to the public or to the environment, in the absence of scientific consensus that the action or policy is harmful, the burden of proof that it is not harmful falls on those taking the action.” (Wikipedia)

PLEASE, members of the Department of Environmental Protection, DO GOOD.

Fracking in MoCo? No Way!

2010-12-21T01:39:00.004-05:00

An informal poll was posted on Topix and I would like to offer an extended response here. I am writing here as a concerned resident of Monroe County, West Virginia.

#1. Are you for or against? Vehemently against.

#2. How much independent research have you done? I have been involved with studying, discussing, researching, meeting, thinking, watching, listening and independently exploring the topic in some level of detail for the last 6 months.

#3. Your major reason, for or against? Simple. Before: clean water. After natural gas and hydraulic fracturing operations? Contaminated water. No matter how it is presented by the opposition - this is the documented reality. It doesn't matter whether the contamination ultimately stems from the fracking process or an overturned truck, or a leak in a containment pond, or a well exploding, or the well casing cracking, or the wastewater being disposed of improperly, or from misting, or a leak anywhere along the path that begins with drilling into the ground and ends when that product is transmitted out of Monroe County via major transmission lines. The opportunities for an error are immense, and the likelihood of one occurring extremely high. There are known documented risks with hydraulic fracture (and with standard vertical well drilling) - these risks are considered acceptable collateral damage by the corporations and ultimately, by our government.

Monroe County will become a resource colony much like much of our great nation and state has already become. Is there no end to this devouring? Is there a chance we can save our little corner of the planet from this destructive development? There is very little land like it left.

As a matter of fact - our land is incredibly special: for caves, sinkholes, vertical seams, and vast, interconnected underground water systems - our land is known worldwide. This is ground zero for karst. Our cave systems are vast, stretching for miles! The Greenbrier River watershed is considered a notable karst area (Wikipedia).

Water here travels miles in ways that may not be apparent, and this has been shown with dye tests. Liquids from a surface spill could enter a sinkhole and reach a cave or underground waterway and could travel miles underground before emerging in a natural spring, or stream, or drinking water well. Any slip up of any sort with any serious contaminants (of which the process uses MANY) could poison everyone downline.

Folks, this is serious business and I hope those of you with strong but uneducated opinions supporting natural gas development using current techniques will do your own research on the topic and come back and post after you've let it settle in. Try googling "hydraulic fracture disaster" or "natural gas contamination" etc.

This is not about one little well. If the drillers come in here unchecked, we will be part of a massive network of natural gas development - a proposed some 30 thousands wells in Marcellus Shale in the next 20 years. The risks associated with one well must be considered multiplied by this massive volume - and I think we can all do the math. There is little chance we will escape unscathed.

And guys - there are no stringent regulations restricting the operations of oil & gas companies - due to special exemptions from the Clean Water Act and other restrictions that apply to all other industries, the government, in an effort to solve our energy crisis has essentially legalized harm. Get the gas at all costs! Everyone from Obama, to the EPA, Congress, the DEP, down to our local County Commissioners and Planning Commission have acknowledged that special ordinances are required to protect our people.

NOT ONE ORDINANCE HAS BEEN WRITTEN BY OUR PLANNING COMMISSION.

The DEP is conducting a comprehensive program review to revise their regulations - it could takes months or longer for it to be complete and the revised policies activated. The EPA is conducting thorough studies on hydraulic fracturing as more and more evidence that it is connected with water and air contamination emerges - results might be ready in 2012.

Any permits given to drill right now would mean the company has 24 months to operate under current law, which has been admitted to be inadequate by the government and its agencies. That would make us one of the last guinea pigs that later in history might be considered the "charter members" of the got-fracked club. Wetzel County and others should be demonstrative enough to convince any thinking man, woman or child that this will change life here irreparably and forever.

And you think its going to bring economic gain to the area? Ha. The workers will be primarily from out of state. Only a few residents will actually benefit from royalty checks. The businesses that are likely to experience increased sales while the operations are active, or even the new businesses that might emerge? The situation will be shortlived. Once they have sucked the County dry of its gas and quite possibly a good bit of its water - they will leave. And when they do, so will their investment into our economy - and the businesses will slowly die and sales for the businesses that make it will return to their previous levels. I'm sure most of you knows of a town that once bustled with commerce and now is a ghost town with dilapidated storefronts and empty buildings.

Only difference is property values will have plummeted, and of course don't forget the existing leases will expire and those checks will stop coming. The few who have profited from the endeavor are likely to be living in their second homes, and we will be left to pick up the pieces, likely dealing with the after-effects of the disturbances to animal and human life for years to come. This may all sound very post-apocalyptic. It isn't - it is very real and could happen in our lifetimes.

If we do not act now to stop this from coming to MoCo, we'll be just another glorious community ravaged by industry and transformed into a resource colony. It will be with great displeasure a few years down the road to say, "I told you so."

Wake up. It's our only chance.

Find out more at SavetheWaterTable.org.

RTTT - One for the Books

2010-11-13T12:10:00.002-05:00

Well, ladies and gentlemen, I have made it through the first round of fights, going the distance and winning my bout with a unanimous decision.

Hooray! I have accomplished all that I dreamed to do as part of the Road to the Toughman. I signed up. I got in the gym. I trained. I followed through, showed up on fight night - was cleared to fight and did so - emerging with a victory.

I am wholly and wonderfully appreciative of all the support I had there - seeing familiar faces in the crowd and hearing cheers and chants from the stands is an overwhelming and wonderful experience - and I thank all of you that participated, including those of you who couldn't make it but offered thoughts via Facebook, etc.

The loop has been completed. I set out to do something, and I did it - I feel great about it, and those who care seem to feel good about it too.

Alas, now I find myself in a conundrum of sorts. I advance to tonight's fights, where the winner will need to win 3 or maybe even 4 fights TONIGHT to win the event.

Testament to my opponent (Clint Caruthers, great fight buddy) I've awoken today with a variety of ailments, including a jaw that feels wired on a little loose and a head that just won't stop banging - but none of my ailments are serious. Which considering the circumstances, is surprising.

This is not a situation that will continue - fighting the winners from last night in a multi-fight format will not be pretty.

My cardio was wholly insufficient for one 3-round fight, and those who were there know that I got a couple unintentional rests when my headgear came off (three different times). I could not speak for 10 minutes after the fight - my fitness is right on the edge of the envelope of barely acceptable for one fight - and it is irresponsible and potentially dangerous to consider a multi-match endeavor in the same night.

Inherent in my personality is pride, and for those of you ringside last night know that after a slip and taking some damage in the first round, I began to panic slightly. The moment of truth during the break before the second round produced the realization that I could not let this guy beat me no matter what - which led to more aggression and resolve in the second and third rounds.

So if/when I start taking damage tonight, I'm not going to roll over, I'm going to push, I'm going to try and stand, and I'm going to take just as much damage as possible.

There is a difference between stubborn and stupid - and endeavoring to fight tonight, I'm afraid, would be stupid. There is no chance of victory for me. For those of you that think this is a fantasy world, and want to say you can do anything - you can do it! You can win! - guys, to win the Toughman, you need skill, experience, and stamina. I have a little, they have a lot - and I would have to make it through 3 or 4 fights against increasingly powerful opponents to get the win. Ladies and gents, it is not feasible, not currently.

Guys, this may be hard for some of you to understand, but for this reason and others, I am forfeiting my spot in tonight's fights.

I was never in it for the money, and was never in it to win it. The fight doctor cleared me to fight (I view this alone a success), and I'm undefeated in my semi-pro career, 1-0. A young lady asked to take a picture with me while I was leaving the building - my first fan photo!

And most importantly, I've got a membership to the gym that I use and have lost nearly 60 pounds since setting out on this journey.

I do not need to prove anything else to myself, and you my friends and family, I hope I have nothing more to prove to you.

There is an outside possibility that in 12 months, having continued my workout regime, I will re-consider my candidacy for the Toughman and give it another shot.

Thank you again all of you, you are appreciated. And finally, a big thank you to Jerry Thomas and the Toughman producers for putting on a first-class show.

Road to the Toughman - Fight Night

2010-11-12T01:38:00.001-05:00

Ladies and gents, for those of you whom have followed the Road to the Toughman even if only slightly and from afar, I owe you this brief discussion on the topic.

Tomorrow night is fight night, and I'm excited and have butterflies and want to get it over with - and have all kinds of complex feelings about it.

On one hand, I'm taking the whole thing very simply and quite lightly - it's a bucket list item, and will be exciting (even if a little painful).

On the other hand, I was once an athlete and a competitor - and I am from the "play to win" camp - not to be confused with the "everyone's a winner" camp.

What is important? - I'm doing the Toughman because it was the thing that motivated me to get a gym membership and start going. This fight tomorrow is the logical end of the Road to the Toughman, and a ultimately a necessary evil to complete the loop. The Road to the Toughman wouldn't be interesting if it never reached its destination.

So - the fight is on, and I am psyched. And I am thrilled that some of you will come and join me in support!

Since I do not take your support lightly, I want to clarify an important point - contrary to ruminations you may or may not have heard - I am not the favorite and I am not going to win the Toughman.

That has never been my intention or expectation, so my hopes are that you too will not even consider the thought.

I'm a lover not a fighter after all. There will be real fighters that actually DO this in the competition. And finally, let's be very clear about my condition - I've shaved 50-some pounds and have been hitting the gym - but I am still over 380, more than 120 pounds heavier than the next heaviest heavyweight - and no one has ever been in boxing shape at 380. I have worked on cardio hard, but it is still way too weak to excel in the Toughman format - I WILL get tired.

And I will lose, eventually - even if I win a round or a match - and may even lose embarrassingly. Please all of you be prepared for that, and feel free to point and laugh and take pictures when it happens.

That being said, I am amped to get in the ring and for the experience and promise to throw a punch or nine.

Thank all of you that have offered thoughts and words of support throughout the process - it is significant and I appreciate it.

I can tell you that while the Toughman may end for me this weekend, my commitment to eating better and getting to the gym and having a healthier, more active lifestyle will live on. All the best to each of you - and hope to see many of you tomorrow night.

An Additional Perspective on Suicide

2010-10-03T03:02:00.005-04:00

This is tragic, and my heart goes out to the families and friends of the recent suicide victims.

I would like to offer an additional perspective - teasing/bullying has been around since bigger neanderthals picked on smaller ones, and while we have become more intelligent, our teasing has only become more brutal and organized - and it is unfortunately a part of growing up in the world as we know it.

I wouldn't spend a lot of time hoping or thinking that this is something that will change. It's like hoping that thieves will stop stealing or the concept of war would evaporate.

Our focus needs to be on boosting the personal strength of the individual - building characters that can cope with adversity at school, or in the workplace, etc. A strong, well-developed sense of self, even if lacking complete confidence - will not turn to suicide as a response to torment.

Rise up people - BE STRONG! Be who you are and move past the idiots who don't like it. It is your right to have this life as much (or more, some might say) as the morons who are teasing you - your one obligation is to keep moving forward, and under no circumstances, check out of the journey.

Princeton.edu says a victim is "an unfortunate person who suffers from some adverse circumstance" - but suicide "victims" self-impose their victimhood.

Suicide is SELFISH. Suicides leave children without parents and parents without children, wives without husbands, etc.

Finally, if it seems as if there is no other option, it may be that you are seeing it from the wrong angle - and you need to reach out for help (friends, family, professional).

If that help doesn't arrive, then guess what? - you march on anyway and figure out a way to grow from it - because the alternative is unacceptable.

This is your life to live. Live it.

No Peace Without Hope

2010-03-25T14:39:00.001-04:00

...how hard it must be to live only with what one knows and what one remembers, cut off from what one hopes for! There can be no peace without hope.

~ Albert Camus

Knowing & Being Opposites

2010-03-22T14:20:00.007-04:00

It is absolutely impossible for a subject to see or have insight into something while leaving itself out of the picture, so impossible that knowing and being are the most opposite of all spheres.

~ Friedrich Nietzsche

The Stars Make Me Dream

2009-09-17T10:49:00.003-04:00

“For my part I know nothing with any certainty, but the sight of the stars makes me dream.”

~ Vincent van Gogh

2009-07-25T23:54:00.002-04:00

All roads are blocked to a philosophy which reduces everything to the word “no.” To “no” there is only one answer and that is “yes.” Nihilism has no substance. There is no such thing as nothingness, and zero does not exist. Everything is something. Nothing is nothing. Man lives more by affirmation than by bread.

~ Victor Hugo

Death is One of Two Things

2008-09-04T21:46:00.000-04:00

Death is one of two things. Either it is annihilation, and the dead have no consciousness of anything; or, as we are told, it is really a change: a migration of the soul from one place to another.

~ Socrates

Death and the Sun

2008-09-04T21:32:00.000-04:00

Death and the sun are not to be looked at steadily.

~ La Rochefoucald

Death a Dreary Affair

2008-09-04T21:27:00.002-04:00

Death is a very dull, dreary affair, and my advice to you is to have nothing whatever to do with it.

~ W. Somerset Maugham

kVadrum.

2008-04-14T02:11:00.001-04:00

kVadrum.

Nader 2008

2008-02-24T22:22:00.007-05:00

OK - so here's a debacle. The super-smart, super-educated, really rich, somewhat old, incredibly confident Nader has just declared his candidacy.

This is complicated. Some point blame to him for Gore's loss in Florida (Bush won by a couple hundred votes, Nader gathered almost 100K votes). Some analysts have attempted to show that his presence on the ballot increased voter turnout, and actually increased net votes to the other candidates, and by such ratio that the results would have gone the same way had he not been on the ballot.

He's got a lot of good, very liberal ideas, and he clearly gets right into the thick of things - why not tax Wall Street instead of clothing and dish washers?

But a nation under his leadership is probably simply not in question. Moderate and Conservative Repubs will not vote for him. The Rebub outsiders that lean way left by party standards may cast him a look; for the Dems, the radical leftists make up a much more substantial % of the party - and seemingly, this creates a potential disproportionate impact on the campaigns of each party - Democrats risk far more of its masses going the way of Nader.

Assuming that is the case - and entertaining that he has literally just shy of absolutely NO chance of winning - his candidacy means good for Repubs, bad for Dems.

So Nader, step down.

Right?

OR - is his candidacy a prime example of the electoral system working as it should - Independents weilding a heavy sword late in the game - with the ability to shave votes from one party or the other and sway the pendulum?

(Or is this even what it's about?)

Maybe Nader is secretly supporting McCain.

Joking.

No, seriously.

No, no, just joking.

But seriously.

YES WE CAN

2008-02-18T18:33:00.002-05:00

Orange Julio

2007-12-08T21:27:00.000-05:00

Smoothies rock.

Remember the Orange Julius? Mercer Mall in Princeton - the best Orange Julius. Hmmm.

This is the recipe, sorta, along with some minor spin-off alternations:

1 cup - Water
1/2 cup - Frozen Concentrated Orange Juice
2 cups - Milk
1/2 cup - Sugar
1 tsp. - Vanilla Extract
8-9 - Ice Cubes

Of course, the REAL recipe is locked underground somewhere (or maybe this is it?), and experimenting to get your own version just right is more fun than precicesly replicating someone else's smoothie anyway (and sometimes, will taste better too). Variations are infinite.

Some Common Variations and Alternatives:

- Experiment with the ratio of milk to water. More milk makes it creamier and heavier.

- Using more or less sugar - include experimenting with no sugar at all

- Add ice cream, vanilla is a good place to start

- Add plain, vanilla, or fruit-infused yogurt

- Add frozen yogurt

- Add sorbet

- Use simple syrup instead of vanilla syrup

- Add a teaspoon or two of lemon and/or lime juice

- Add 1-2 raw eggs

- Use less/more ice cubes

- Include a teaspoon of salt

- Use fresh squeezed orange juice instead of frozen concentrate

- Use 1-2 whole, peeled & seeded oranges instead of juice

- Add apples, berries of any genre, pears, bananas or any other fruit you like

- Add anywhere from 1 teaspoon to 1 full package of vanilla pudding mix

- Add a drizzle up to 1/2 cup of cream of coconut

- Add 1/2 - 1 teaspoon of orange-flavored extract (or even orange liqueur)

- Add a pinch of grated orange, lemon, or lime peel

- Add a pinch of ground cardamon seed

- Add a teaspoon of honey, or substitute greater quantities by replacing sugar

- Try using crushed instead of cubed ice

- Try freezing ice-cubes made from orange (or other) juice - and use in place of regular cubes

- Anything else you can think of...

Blend on high until frothy. Drink up.

Tip for achieving ideal consistency - add all ingredients, and then begin blending in ice little-by-little, cube-by-cube, etc until it is your desire thickness.

Enjoy!

Don't Lose Your Data!

2007-08-09T01:06:00.000-04:00

Ancient technology proverb (at least 10 years old): "It's not a matter of if your hard drive will crash, but when."

Friendly reminder! Don't forget to back-up your data. Burn CDs/DVDs, copy to external drives, use an online storage service, etc. Don't let yourself be exposed to risk.

If your laptop was stolen today, would you be covered?

Back-up.

The Joker by Heath Ledger

2007-08-08T18:44:00.000-04:00

Philosophy into Folly.

2007-08-08T02:01:00.000-04:00

A fool's brain digests philosophy into folly, science into superstition, and art into pedantry. Hence University education.

~ George Bernard Shaw

Meaninglessness - all the better?

2007-08-07T02:10:00.000-04:00

It was previously a question of finding out whether or not life had to have a meaning to be lived. It now becomes clear, on the contrary, that it will be lived all the better if it has no meaning.

~ Albert Camus

USC Strength Coach Chuck Berry

2007-08-07T01:30:00.000-04:00

Will Ferrell is USC strength coach Chuck Berry

Plane Crashes into New York City!

2006-10-11T22:25:00.000-04:00

You have GOT to be kidding me...

I am seriously stumped, shocked, bumfazzled.

Let's just get this out of the way - who cares that the pilot was Cory Lidle from the Yankees? With all due respect, and my condolences to his family for their loss - but that we are discussing the Yanks, and the rider in Lidle's contract which would allow the Yanks to not fulfill the financial obligations of his contract should he die while piloting an airplane!

(He finished the season, btw, so was paid fully anyway.)

But why are we talking about it? Who cares who it was? It could have been Barney the purple dinosaur.

What is provocative is that an AIRPLANE flew into a BUILDING in NEW YORK CITY.

Let's not divert our attention too far from that fact alone, eh?

Let's explore just for a moment. A plane takes off from an area airport - happens to be in Jersey, west of the city. Flies east, hits NYC, starts following the East River north, and after about 15 minutes (total) in the air, smashes into a building on the Upper East Side.

So an AIRPLANE "attacked" NYC successfully, again. Whether it was driven by terrorists or not is IRRELEVANT - I hope everyone sees that. It COULD have been driven by terrorists - why shouldn't it have been? The fact that the pilot was a Yanks pitcher who sat the bullpen during the short-lived playoffs is no more or less important to the story than if the pilot had been a hardened "evildoer" trained in terrorist camps. An AIRPLANE flew into a BUILDING in NYC. These are the key points, period.

I ask - how is it possible? I mean - a private plane, flying near Manhattan. Does that seem like a good idea at all? A private plane flying REALLY LOW near Manhattan. Does this sound like an even better idea? The plane impacted at the 30th floor of a 50-story building - that means the plane was just 250-300 feet off the ground.

(Try to resist asking why, assuming as the news sources are noting, that technical failure is the cause of the crash, the pilot did not go for the abundant water beneath him but rather banked TOWARDS the buildings. It is hard to uinderstand - but for our discussion here, ultimately, irrelevant.)

So a little private plane ripping up the East River, just feet from the east side of Manhattan, flying 300 feet above the water - this didn't fire some alarms? After all the boisterous chat about amping up our resources, technology, manpower, the creation of Homeland Security, the billions of dollars justified by increasing our ability to protect our nation - I wouldn't have been surprised if Transformers rose out of the river, or the Metlife building starting firing missiles, or a synthetic net sprung from Central Park, covering all of Manhattan in a protective sheathe. I mean - let's see those billions at work! Show me robots, show me invisible fences - whatever you got! But don't, please don't you dare let another airplane fly casually into the city in the middle of the day and crash into a building.

Did you know the Empire State Building suffered a blow from a military plane back in 1945?

Listen - maybe airplanes flying over and around New York City (and other cities) is just not a good idea.

How disruptive would it really be to world travel if the city and surrounding areas became a no-fly zone. I mean come on - La Guardia can go north of the city, JFK can go south of the city. Jersey airports can take their pick - just no one fly over or around (within a certain distance).

What? It adds 75 seconds to a flight? 240 seconds? For what? Peace of mind that an airplane is not going to fly into your apartment building. Hmmmm...

Or maybe you Homeland Security / FAA / NSA / etc dudes just need some new ideas.

You know when you go into the tunnel - it takes over your radio? Why not hijack every radio within a certain range of no-fly or limited fly-zones with specific instruction on where and how to fly away.

Obviously, for planes that are not lost but are instead on a purposed mission, a friendly radio message may not do the trick - how about extending the idea - figure out a way to hijack the controls for remote control - planes within a certain distance from a no-fly, get their system hijacked - maybe it leads them to a specific location, maybe it just increases their altitude. Come on - with the mobile technology of today, most planes being armed with autopilot systems - don't tell me we can't figure out how to hijack a plane's controls...

Speaking of altitude - why aren't there minimum altitude requirements? (are if there are requirements - why aren't they higher? Or if they are higher, why aren't they enforcerd?) Flying at 300 feet over the East River sounds like lighting a cigarette while fueling your car.

All planes should have to be a minimum of X feet off the ground if they are within the "zone." And what is X? Well, let's see - maybe we should derive it from something practical - I dunno - X should be an altitude at which, if said plane dropped into a dead-dive right for midtown, the number of seconds or minutes it would take to reach it would be greater than our response time to prevent the attack. So if it's going to take 60 seconds to get from X to Ground Zero, pun intended, it better take us 59 seconds or less to realize what is going on and act to resolve the crisis.

So - I are a college student but probably a little absent with the physics of a diving aircraft - but let's rough it. Let's say there was a 10000 foot "floor" in the city zone - all planes must fly at 10K or above. If one hit a deep dive, they could not travel faster than terminal velocity or let's say around 1700 feet per minute - so it would take them more than five minutes to crash a plane into the ground from that altitude.

A satellite projected laser trip-wire indicates an alarm when any aircraft breaks the 10000 foot floor. The alarm is handled by individuals who identify the aircraft via radar, and contact it via radio. Let's say hijacking the plane's controls remotely is not a possibility. OK. The plane is diving and we know where it is, what it is doing, and we are telling it to "pull up," "change your course," "whatever." No response.

OK, so this is not an accident - this is a purposed attack. Or even if it is not purposed - it doesn't matter - at some point, a highly calculated point-of-no-return, the plane crashing into the ground (the City, in this case) is imminent. And the primary goal of our systems are to protect our people, to protect our land, protect our towns and cities. That's when the missile silos that are (or should be) embedded in the East and Hudson Rivers release missiles into the air, destroying the plane and saving the day.

If we don't have a missile that will sufficiently shred the plane into particles small enough to not still render damage to the people below? So then create one.

(Maybe those calculations are completely wrong - but you get the point.)

Sound a little sci-fi? Come on. This all exists - or it nearly exists. I mean, just watch any of the Technology and/or Military shows on the Discovery channel for a couple hours - and that's the stuff we're showing off on public TV, presumably our most top secret projects are under slightly tighter wraps.

I recently conversed with a friend who was nonetheless shocked by the event, but seemingly justified the lack of action by referencing risk-analysis ratios, etc - what is the likelihood of an event ocurring and what is the possible damage that will be caused? The powers-that-be are not focusing energy and resources on little private planes - because it is the big commerical airlines that can really do the damage.

Well, I don't know if that's true - but if it is, it's a fundamentally flawed approach. Do not treat small aircraft and big aircraft as separate threats. Treat aircraft, PERIOD, as a single, unfied threat - and create protocols, systems, and responses that deal with all aircraft equally. That plane crashed into a building maybe a half-mile from the UN Headquarters. If perchance a backpack of C4 explosives had made it on-board, and it was Barney the purple terrorist instead of a baseball player flying it - that little plane could have made a reckoning.

We know there are no absolutes - and we know there is no such thing as "perfect" safe. So long as kamikazes (intentional or otherwise) exist, we, like everyone else in the world, will be vulnerable. But we don't want to hear excuses. We want to see a clear image - supporting the now years of promises - you have made America safer?

Today would still be a tragedy - a pilot and his companion would have died under unfortunate circumstances - and their loved ones (and in this case, Yankee fans alike) would mourn. But if Transformers and Go-Bots came out of the East River when that plane got too close to the City and diverted it, or if the plane came under remote control and was flown to safety, or albeit brazen, even if missiles had blown it to shreds - the nation would have stood at its feet and applauded, and it would have felt just a little bit better, a little more understanding - after all the Code Orange smoke Homeland Security has blown up all our rears.

So, really - see if you can prevent an AIRPLANE from flying into a BUILDING in NEW YORK CITY. We're not talking about hidden bio-chemical-molecular-agents floating through the air secretly and invisibly in a town of 400 somewhere up a mountain off the grid.

No, no.

AIRPLANES. Don't let them fly into BUILDINGS in NEW YORK CITY.

2006-09-18T18:00:00.000-04:00

Bjork explains, in somewhat great technical terms - just how a TV works.

The Best and Worst of Times

2006-07-03T23:12:00.000-04:00

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness...it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair...in short, the period was so far like the present period....

~ Charles Dickens

A Wise Tidbit from the Metal Box

2006-02-25T00:10:00.000-05:00

Fondly nicknamed "The Box," on 40th Street and 7th Avenue sits a 10x5 foot mobile station whose purpose is to distribute insanely flavorful chicken and lamb along with basmati rice, salad, yogurt sauce, and pita - for $4.

The smiling Yemenites who run the show are there 5-6 days a week, 8-10 hours a day, in the sweltering heat, in the freezing cold, serving up hot, cheap food to all brave enough to try it. To those that do, it becomes a staple of their diet - to those who don't, well, they miss out.

Sometimes, I smell The Box when I am no where near it. (And yes, I just said "sometimes, I smell The Box.")

There's a revolving cast who man the ship - that's because these guys work 7 or 8 months, working and sleeping and repeating - all the while saving their cash.

Then they return to their homelands, and families and live for 4 or 5 months "like kings."

What do you do?

Whatever. Nothing. Whatever. Relax. Drink tea. Read. Spend time with family.

One of the gents just returned from his trip back home.

He said to me with somewhat stark wisdom, "If you work like animal, up, work, down, up, work, down, you will never come to know how you are at life."

You will never come to know how you are at life.

Wow.

The Eternal Hanging On

2006-02-01T04:18:00.000-05:00

Nothing is so fatiguing as the eternal hanging on of an uncompleted task.

~ William James

One Must Learn to Love.

2006-01-10T15:45:00.000-05:00

This is what happens to us in music: First one has to learn to hear a figure and melody at all, to detect and distinquish it, to isolate it and delimit it as a separate life. Then it requires some exertion and good will to tolerate it in spite of its strangeness, to be patient with its appearance and expression, and kindhearted about its oddity. Finally there comes a moment when we are used to it, when we wait for it, when we sense that we should miss it if it were missing; and now it continues to compel and enchant us relentlessly until we have become its humble and enraptured lovers who desire nothing better from the world than it and only it.

~ Friedrich Nietzsche

The Mysteries of Reality.

2006-01-08T22:39:00.000-05:00

The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing. One cannot help but be in awe when he contemplates the mysteries of eternity, of life, of the marvelous structure of reality.

~ Albert Einstein

Get and Give.

2006-01-08T14:10:00.000-05:00

We make a living by what we get. We make a life by what we give.

~ Winston Churchill

Fidelity. Vulnerability.

2006-01-04T03:02:00.000-05:00

FIDELITY, n. A virtue peculiar to those who are about to be betrayed.

~ Ambrose Bierce

Not Quite the Same Thoughts.

2006-01-02T23:23:00.000-05:00

New Year's Eve is like every other night; there is no pause in the march of the universe, no breathless moment of silence among created things that the passage of another twelve months may be noted; and yet no man has quite the same thoughts this evening that come with the coming of darkness on other nights.

~ Hamilton Wright Mabie

Prosper at Home.

2006-01-02T22:25:00.000-05:00

A man's homeland is wherever he prospers.

~ Aristophanes

Time Waits for No Thing.

2006-01-02T22:21:00.000-05:00

Throughout Time's relentless and inevitable pursuit of tomorrow, it waits for no individual, for no thing; within the recognition of this undeniable procession lives the fabric to weave perceptions spanning an expansive spectrum - from unconditional hope to casual indifference to bitter despair.

~ myles samuel iezzi

Go on to the Useless Presents.

2005-12-27T01:33:00.000-05:00

Bags of moist and many-colored jelly babies and a folded flag and a false nose and a tram-conductor's cap and a machine that punched tickets and rang a bell; never a catapult; once, by mistake that no one could explain, a little hatchet; and a celluloid duck that made, when you pressed it, a most unducklike sound, a mewing moo that an ambitious cat might make who wished to be a cow; and a painting book in which I could make the grass, the trees, the sea and the animals any colour I pleased, and still the dazzling sky-blue sheep are grazing in the red field under the rainbow-billed and pea-green birds.

Hardboileds, toffee, fudge and allsorts, crunches, cracknels, humbugs, glaciers, marzipan, and butterwelsh for the Welsh. And troops of bright tin soldiers who, if they could not fight, could always run. And Snakes-and-Families and Happy Ladders. And Easy Hobbi-Games for Little Engineers, complete with instructions.

Oh, easy for Leonardo! And a whistle to make the dogs bark to wake up the old man next door to make him beat on the wall with his stick to shake our picture off the wall.

And a packet of cigarettes: you put one in your mouth and you stood at the corner of the street and you waited for hours, in vain, for an old lady to scold you for smoking a cigarette, and then with a smirk you ate it. And then it was breakfast under the balloons.

~ Dylan Thomas

Watch Out for the Wall.

2005-12-26T12:03:00.000-05:00

In the old days, it was not called the Holiday Season; the Christians called it "Christmas" and went to Church; the Jews called it "Hanukka" and went to Synagogue; the atheists went to parties and drank. People passing each other on the street would say "Merry Christmas!" or "Happy Hanukka!" or (to the atheists) "Look out for the wall!"

~ Dave Barry

Get Going or Get Out of the Way.

2005-12-26T11:49:00.000-05:00

The world is moving so fast these days that the one who says it can't be done is generally interrupted by someone doing it.

~ Harry Emerson Fosdick

At Your Doorstep?

2005-12-22T20:07:00.000-05:00

A man travels the world in search of what he needs and returns home to find it.

~ George Moore

Gain Perspective.

2005-12-22T20:01:00.000-05:00

As the traveler who has once been from home is wiser than he who has never left his own doorstep, so a knowledge of one other culture should sharpen our ability to scrutinize more steadily, to appreciate more lovingly, our own.

~ Margaret Mead

Founded in Feeling.

2005-12-21T14:44:00.000-05:00

Individuality is founded in feeling; and the recesses of feeling, the darker, blinder strata of character, are the only places in the world in which we catch real fact in the making, and directly perceive how events happen, and how work is actually done.

~ William James

The Strike is Real Deal.

2005-12-20T03:29:00.000-05:00

At around 3am, the MTA and other news sources announced the full transit strike of New York City.

Bloomberg projects costs of $400M per DAY.

CNN tells us "The last citywide bus and subway strike in New York was in 1980. The walkout lasted 11 days."

I think I read somewhere Bloomberg had worked the NYC economy up to a projected year-end surplus of some 2.5 billion dollars.

Well that'll be gone in five or six days.

Really impossible to take sides - of course I instinctively want to side with the worker, but I understand the limitations of the employer too. I'm not even attempting to respond in any kind of intelligent way to the details of the breakdown.

From a perspective somewhat farther back, it seems fantastically unbelievable that it ever got to this point.

Seeing NYC crippled right now, from its own inner workings, is quite disheartening.

Pandora's Music Box.

2005-12-19T22:05:00.000-05:00

Pandora, a newly launched music service, presents what I've found to be the most intelligent, and accurate "relativity" engine for creating a custom online radio station.

Some time ago, I was equally positive about Yahoo! Music's Launchcast. And I must say, I am still quite enthusiastic about it. It has widened my musical horizon significantly, and indeed, I have been introduced to a bunch of great new bands by using Launchcast.

However, the two services do differ greatly in the methods they utilize to make selections.

Of course, the exact "special sauce" is only actually known by the mutants living in the bottom of the cave, wearing tennis-ball green spandex, half-asleep in the pool of bubbling pink water. The exact algorithms are not publicly known (or at least not known to me).

But basically, here's the deal.

Launchcast pulls music from its own database, noted at more than a million songs, and asks you to rate music as you listen. You rate artists, albums, songs, and even genres. The machine produces an increasingly intelligent mix of music as you rate more and more. If you are a serious listener and you clearly know what you like and dislike, and you go through and rate every genre, track down and rate a ton of your favorite artists, and rate religiously, you can custom create a really solid station pretty quickly.

It infers from your ratings (either 1-5 stars or 1-100) other songs you may like, by playing songs from an artist or album you have rated highly - and they play songs from similar artists, and the similarity of those artists are presumably defined by editors who manually assign the affinities.

To the extent you and another user on their network have ranked the same song highly (which happens constantly of course), another song they have ranked highly may play on your station. It's a real-time user cross-promotion - if you both like the same song, you may also both like other songs from each other's playlists.

Yahoo! fills in the cracks with songs simply from genres you have ranked highly (and in the event they don't have any more music in that genre, they'll start playing pop-schlop). It does appear they lend some weight to the real-radio commercial anthems. For example, if you rank Nine Inch Nails highly, you're gonna hear The Hand That Feeds from with Teeth three times before you hear Terrible Lie from Pretty Hate Machine once.

Pandora, in its most essential form, is quite similar, but it requires drastically less input to get started. You give it a single artist name, then you rate songs (thumbs up or thumbs down), and can add more artists to further customize the station.

Here is the fundamental difference, and in practice, it is somewhat magical. Pandora (once named Savage Beast) uses the Music Genome Project as its algorithm (and apparently iTunes or a subset thereof as its database). It is the result of years of work by musicians, musical technologists, and aficionados, most of whom have studied music theory, most of whom are musicians themselves, and all of whom have passed a thorough examination and rigorous training in the Project ways.

This team has been cataloging more than 60 years of music across many genres - with approximately 30 minutes of analysis per song, the Genome Project records up to 400 attributes to describe a song.

The Pandora "Music Box" then takes your inputted selection, and plays songs that share similar attributes. The granularity and specificity of this level of intelligence produces an algorithm that is all but magical.

I inputted Radiohead. And this is not the place to start exploring music categorization, but let's face it, we don't even really know what genre Radiohead is - I mean, each of the albums is so different, there's a couple genres on each. There are really no bands that are truly "similar" to Radiohead. I mean sure, they fit into the hierarchy of musical evolution somewhere, so there are those bands that have influenced them, there are a slew of bands influenced by them - so we're not lost - but this is a hard one. It's certainly a more challenging task than asking the machine to find similar artists for a standard 5-piece boom bot boomboom bot rock band.

The machine went on to play songs from many of my favorite bands, and a slew of completely new music, almost all of which I have liked. I am in shock. First, I'm critical and discerning - I've also been listening to music, I mean REALLY listening to it, for years. To produce so much music that I like is incredible - to dig up so much NEW music that I like is profound.

To be fair - in a couple days - maybe 10 hours of play, I have heard some dupes - so the extensiveness of the station (within the strict parameters I have so far set) is yet to be proven. Of course, by adding another 10 bands, and widening the scope, presumably that would be resolved.

They both offer free and paid versions, the free versions being supported by advertisements. However, Pandora hasn't quite got their ad team in place it appears - I haven't heard any ads yet. For Yahoo!, you also get a better quality stream with the paid version.

For both, you can create additional stations to play a subset of your favorite music - in Pandora, you just create a new station with new bands and groups to influence the choices, in Launchcast, you create a Mood, limited by a certain set of genres.

In both cases you can pause and skip, and in neither case can you simply select a song to play, or to go back and play a recently played song again. It's custom radio, not a personal music library.

And listen, they are both awesome, and they both will help you discover new music.

But I rest the difference in the following example, noting "why" they have played a particular song.

Yahoo: [Song is played] "...because it matches your genre preferences."

Pandora: [Song is played] "because it features mild rhythmic syncopation, a twelve-eight time signature, mixed acoustic and electronic instrumentation, minor key tonality and string section beds."

Um, yeah. Exactly.

The Poet Names the Gods.

2005-12-19T13:36:00.000-05:00

The poet names the gods, and names all the things in that which they are.

This naming does not consist merely in something already known being supplied with a name; it is rather that when the poet speaks the essential word, the existent is by this naming nominated as what it is. So it becomes known as existent. Poetry is the establishing of being by means of the word.

Only and for the first time in this Between is it decided, who man is and where he is settling his existence.

~ Martin Heidegger

It's All About You, Baby.

2005-12-16T17:27:00.000-05:00

Man can will nothing unless he has first understood that he must count on no one but himself; that he is alone, abandoned on earth in the midst of his infinite responsibilities, without help, with no other aim than the one he sets himself, with no other destiny than the one he forges for himself on this earth.

~ Jean-Paul Sartre

Creating Your Reality.

2005-12-16T16:29:00.000-05:00

Be careful how you interpret the world: It is like that.

~ Erich Heller

A Problem for Every Solution.

2005-12-16T16:25:00.000-05:00

Being a philosopher, I have a problem for every solution.

~ Robert Zend

drumatic : SPACE.

2005-12-15T16:12:00.000-05:00

Various extraordinary space images : earth, the moon and moon landing shots, distant galaxies and stars captured with the Hubble telescope, space station / satellite shots, and more. 34 images.

Space Gallery.

Propelled by Discomfort.

2005-12-15T13:26:00.000-05:00

The truth is that our finest moments are most likely to occur when we are feeling deeply uncomfortable, unhappy, or unfulfilled. For it is only in such moments, propelled by our discomfort, that we are likely to step out of our ruts and start searching for different ways or truer answers.

~ M. Scott Peck

The Earth, According to Google.

2005-12-14T20:11:00.000-05:00

Google Earth.

OK - so this is not exactly new news.

Google picked up the technology from Keyhole, which has been around, in one form or another, since 2001.

And a somewhat more scientifcally oriented application (as opposed to consumer/commercial) has been available for a couple years - NASA's WorldWind.

WorldWind also renders USGS data, so it actually offers more detail in more remote places - I tracked a winding road up a deserted mountain in WV from a couple hundred feet above ground.

Google Earth (at present) cannot produce that level of detail in remote locations - replicating the same view on the same desterted mountain in WV, the image loses any functional clarity at maybe 5000 feet above ground.

However, who cares about deserted mountains in WV? Well, I do, but that's not representative of anything.

WorldWind is phenomenal - it has a powerful 3D engine, and uses hybrid imagery captured from various satellites to present a breathtaking view of the earth from any angle.

Google, on the other hand, is brining it to the CONSUMER, and that's what makes their application so powerful (aside from the fact that Google's penetration is exponentially greater - tens of millions use Google every day, and only a tiny little portion of the masses have ever visited NASA's site).

What Google Earth has done is take Keyhole's awesome utilization of technology, improved the interface, and merged geographical data with search to provide a map of the world, complete with everything from ATMs, to restaurants, nightclubs, golf courses and grocery stores all superimposed in layers on top of the map (all based on your selections, of course). Additionally the Google Earth Community posts information snippets about a great expanse of important and notable locations.

Finally, for major metropolitan areas, they've created 3D computer-generated representations of buildings, true to shape and scale. They also have done such a job replicating depth and height - you can actually cruise through the Grand Canyon, surrounded on both sides by rock walls.

And seriously, this is just the tip of the iceberg - there is so much more to explore: crime stats, census information, earthquakes and volcanoes, and on and on.

Here's a couple screenshots to whet your appetite:

The great Grand Canyon from about 12 miles up.

And from just above the Colorado River, surrounded by the walls of the Grand Canyon.

Manhattan Island, New York City, from over 17K feet.

Up a bit closer on Manhattan, with Google's 3D Buildings enabled.

Get it, get it installed. Take the tour. If you've never seen anything like it before, you are in for a somewhat amazing experience. Visit the Eiffel Tower in Paris and the Red Square in Moscow and the Google Campus in California all in a matter of moments. If you live in a city - it's likely you'll be able to zoom into your bedroom window. From space. Oh, and you need to find the nearest gas station, and you need directions? That's just a click away.

Politics and War : A Means to an End.

2005-12-14T12:37:00.000-05:00

I must study politics and war that my sons may have liberty to study mathematics and philosophy. My sons ought to study mathematics and philosophy, geography, natural history, naval architecture, navigation, commerce and agriculture in order to give their children a right to study painting, poetry, music, architecture, statuary, tapestry, and porcelain.

~ John Adams

Someone Will Say Anything.

2005-12-13T23:25:00.000-05:00

There is no statement so absurd that no philosopher will make it.

~ Cicero

You're Both Right.

2005-12-13T17:22:00.000-05:00

Genuine tragedies in the world are not conflicts between right and wrong. They are conflicts between two rights.

~ Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel

Good-Bye, Mr. Pryor.

2005-12-12T16:19:00.000-05:00

Richard Pryor, age 65, passed on last Saturday.

Ironically enough, the DVD most prominently featured on his website is I Ain't Dead Yet M*therF@ck%r!

Sure enough, most of us will at some point attempt to both qualitatively and quantitatively apply some metric to the net sum of our lives. What will we leave behind?

(More on this topic later):

Immortality, even for those of us who don't buy into afterlives, heavens and hells, and reincarnations, does still exist. Oh yes.

Of course, as with all things - some to a greater, and some to a lesser extent.

And in the case of Richard Pryor, we see an undeniable and profound social immortality, and an equally far-reaching and successful familial one.

Pragmatically, Pryor leaves behind him no less than seven children to walk the earth in his wake - insuring his legacy (in its most basic biological terms) will live far into the future.

Socially, he fearlessly shattered doors that had been locked and left alone - he approached race and rage and culture and hate and pain - and extracted a confessional brand of comedy that was as entertaining as it was searing. He leaves behind him a truly expansive and important body of work, that literally was so charged and so biting and so impossible to ignore, it changed the very fabric of contemporary social perception.

He ain't dead, m*otherf@ck%r.

Party to Insanity.

2005-12-12T12:57:00.000-05:00

Insanity in individuals is something rare - but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule.

~ Friedrich Nietzsche

Welcome to the KeMeK BLOG.

2005-12-12T12:18:00.000-05:00

Come one, come all.

Thoughts, perceptions, quotes; interesting people, places, and things; websites, technology tools, poker; exploration of relevant topics and disobservance of irrelevant ones, and vice versa.

A place for substance of all shades.