~

Farewell to Geocities. No more Waltzing the Tilde there.

Uh?

I have noticed that the title of each blog post this month, and even going back to the last two posts from September, has been shorter than the previous post. I hope to reverse this trend before this somehow crashes Blogger with negative length titles.

Eats

When I was growing up in the 60's , dining during those long family vacations by automobile could be an adventure. There were few chains (except HoJos) or restaurant guides, so you pretty much had to take your chances. One of Dad's rules was to avoid any place that had the word "EATS" on it's sign.

A.L.I.C.E. Found!

Recently, I posted my interest in seeing images of craters left by the impact of the Saturn S-IVb stages from the Lunar Apollo missions. A few days ago, NASA released this image.

A distinctive crater about 35 meters (115 feet) in diameter was formed when the Apollo 14 Saturn IVB (upper stage) was intentionally impacted into the moon. The energy of the impact created small tremors that were measured by the seismometer placed on the Moon by Apollo 12 astronauts in 1969.

Since NASA did not seem to have a name for this experiment, I came up with Apollo Lunar Impact Crater Experiment (ALICE). Also in honor of Alice Kramden from The Honeymooners.

Where's the Kaboom?

There was supposed to be an Earth shattering KABOOM!

Your Agonizer Please!

Evil Spock is pleased!

Portable pain weapon may end up in police hands

"The Pentagon's efforts to develop a beam weapon that can deter an adversary by causing a burning sensation on their skin has taken a step forward with the development of a small, potentially hand-held, version. The weapon, which is claimed to cause no permanent harm, could also end up being used by police to control civilians."...

"Like all supposedly non-lethal weapons that could be used to control civilians, the Pentagon's new portable weapon is raising concerns. "I'd like to know why they want another advanced pain compliance weapon like this," says Steve Wright, non-lethal weapons analyst at Leeds Metropolitan University in the UK. "Persuading by pain rather than brain - through conversation - has led to push-button torture in the past. If it leaves no mark on the skin how will anyone prove it's been abused?"