We're In The Goldilocks zone

I thought this was an interesting article. I shortened it up for you to read below.

By SETH BORENSTEIN, AP Science Writer – Wed Sep 29, 7:19 pm ET

Astronomers say they have for the first time spotted a planet beyond our own in what is called the Goldilocks zone for life: Not too hot, not too cold. Just right.

"This is the first one I'm truly excited about," said Penn State University's Jim Kasting. He said this planet is a "pretty prime candidate" for harboring life.

But there are still many unanswered questions about this strange planet. It's so close to its version of the sun that it orbits every 37 days. And it doesn't rotate much, so one side is almost always bright, the other dark.

Temperatures can be as hot as 160 degrees or as frigid as 25 degrees below zero, but in between — in the land of constant sunrise — it would be "shirt-sleeve weather".

Co-discoverer Steven Vogt, of the University of California at Santa Cruz, believes "that chances for life on this planet are 100 percent."

The star, Gliese 581, can't be seen without a telescope from Earth, Vogt said. But if you were standing on this new planet, you could easily see our sun.

The low-energy dwarf star will live on for billions of years, much longer than our sun, he said. And that just increases the likelihood of life developing on the planet, the discoverers said.

"It's pretty hard to stop life once you give it the right conditions," Vogt said.

Who Knew? Facebook in the 1500-1700's

I thought this was really funny, to think of the great scientists posting their discoveries on Facebook. And because of the response of the church. You must click the picture to enlarge it to see it more clearly. I insist!!!

Grounded due to weather

I kind of blew off posting yesterday. It was raining. It's still raining, but that excuse is taken.

Really, there is just not much to post about. Woke up this morning, VERY stiff and sore. Took a shower, walked the dogs. Getting ready for my first sip of (Costa Rican) Coffee. . . .

Ahhhhh, very good coffee today, could be just a little better. . . but good.

Yesterday I saw a ship going by our house. I like it when I see ships at sea from the house.

Maximum zoom. (Click to enlarge)

Zoom in on a zoom. The ship is actually below the horizon.
(Click to enlarge).

The Chilean Miners are being trained for their escape, you can read about that here.

The grass in the yard is tall. It needs mowing. It hasn't stopped raining. What do people do if they live somewhere it rains so much they can never mow their yard?

I'm not going to talk about my work situation.

That's all for now. Over and out

World's Smallest Stop-Motion Animation

Shot with a Nokia cell phone camera with a special attachment.
(You will like the ending)

From YouTube

Ramble

Yesterday was very windy, and there were passing rainstorms. Today seems cooler and less breezy so far.
I'm drinking Costa Rican coffee in a Costa Rica cup, the only thing that could have made it better is if an actual Costa Rican had made the coffee, but she's still sleeping.
Last night I turned the alarm off and slept all the way to 6:15 this morning, about.
Next weekend we're going to Cayman Brac for the weekend.
I need to mow the yard. Not gonna happen-today.

Number 1 for One Thing!

I love it 'cause it's true!!!! All I use Explorer for is to download Firefox, before that it was Netscape, remember Netscape?

I'm up

It was hard to get up this morning. The alarm is set for 4:44 AM, and I get up to study. I haven't started studying yet though. I'm having a hard time getting ready.
The windows are closed and the AC is on. I went outside and saw a moonset. You see the sunset all the time, but you hardly ever see the moon set. You actually couldn't see it hit the water, but the light under the clouds was pretty cool.
Yesterday after the wife got home from work we went to Cobalt Coast, she went in the pool and I went in the sea, I took some pics.

Squirrel Fish

Sunset from the water

Sea Fan closeup

Lynyrd Skynyrd teacher who inspired name dies

I always knew that the band Lynyrd Skynyrd named their band after their high school gym teacher, Leonard Skinner, because they hated his guts. They later befriended him. Coach Skinner was 77.

Coach Skinner was known for zero-tolerance approach to long hair on pupils, including founding members of a rock band. One of the band members, believed to be Gary Rossington, was so irked by the suspension notices he received from the headteacher that he returned with his father, who protested that his son needed to have long hair so that he could support the family with his band earnings. The headteacher was unmoved, suggesting that the youngster get a crew cut and a wig instead..

I remember when Lynyrd Skynyrd was in the plane crash in 1977. My Mom told me about it. I think it was the only music at that time that I liked and that she liked too.

There's an article about Mr Skinner here.

Chilean Miners Trapped since Aug 5

I think about this every day.

Imagine what it would be like.

Right now there are two drills trying to reach the miners, Called Plan A and Plan B. The plan B drill already reached them, with a 12 inch hole. This needs to be widened to at least 28 inches to get the miners out.

Both these drills can drill about 30 to 40 meters a day. The miners are trapped at about 630 meters, over 2000 feet.

Now, they've started drilling with a drill used for oil well drilling, which surprisingly, they've named Plan C. This drill could drill 1000 meters a day, but the problem with this drill is accuracy, it's a lot easier to hit a giant pocket of oil than it is to hit a 4 meter wide mine shaft. And the material in Chile is harder to drill though.

The Plan C Drill

It will be a great day when they bring those miners out alive and OK. Hope nothing goes wrong.

The 33 Trapped Miners

Camera fun

Normal
replace brown with green

replace green with brown

Replace blue with purple (from the plant on the left)

Replace sky blue with black (from the black pot)

Brane Ded

Last night was one of the worst can't sleep nights ever. I was up from about 1:30 till almost 5. I was waiting for it to get light, last I remember. Now I'm hurtin' fer certain.

I made a startling discovery about dreams. If you dream you order food in a restaurant, you will wake up before it arrives. Think about, have you ever eaten in a dream? I'm thinking, and nothing is happening, I've only had one small sip of coffee, but I don't remember ever eating in a dream.

I was in a restaurant, they didn't have beef, so I ordered a big turkey dinner, which the waiter recommended. Then I woke up.

Do you ever remember eating in a dream?

Lack of preparation

Again, I must say that I don't have anything to post about. Lack of preparation. Blogging is hard work, something you gotta do 24/7/365. If you think you can just plop down in front of the computer for five minutes in the morning and cough up these brilliant, witty posts like I do each and every freakin day then you have just got it all WRONG! You gotta go out, all day, every day, and search for the shot, beat the woodwork, climb sheer cliff faces, jump from moving cars, get dirt under your fingernails and kick ass! And if you don't, you'll end up just like me. Sitting here with nothing to post. Dammit!!

Yesterday was my wife and my 5 year anniversary, not our wedding anniversary, but the date we met.

Yesterday I was hanging window blinds. I am sure the wife will post pics tomorrow. She read the instructions to me over the phone and said each bracket needs one screw. But each bracket needs two screws, so I didn't get enough wall anchors. I'll be getting more today and finishing the job.

And that's it. Till tomorrow Or Monday.

Not only the Austrailian Humans, the Aussie Bats too!

Australian scientists find bats have regional accents

SYDNEY (Reuters) – It's not just people who have different accents but bats as well develop dialects depending on where they live which can help identify and protect different species, according to Australian scientists.

Researcher Brad Law of the Forest Science Center found that bats living in the forests along the east coast of the state of New South Wales had different calls.

He said scientists had long suspected bats had distinctive regional calls -- as studies have shown with some other animals -- but this was the first time it had been proven in the field.

(Reporting by Belinda Goldsmith; Editing by Steve Addison)

Wednesday Mindblank

ll, I can't think of anything to post about today. Last night I was wondering about posting today.
We had that storm, Invest 92, well, it passed us and became tropical storm Karl. We had some rain. I was hoping for more than we got..

I've completed two lessons on my A+ Computer Course, which doesn't seem like much. And it's not. I already know most of the stuff, and am wondering if I should have skipped this class and jumped to the next class I have planned.

I have been fixing up (cleaning up) my downstairs "No Girls Room" so I can use it to repair electronics as well as just store our scuba gear. I'm actually going to give it a real test today!

You know, Bloggers color palette has 70 colors, but there's no where near 70 that you can use for text.

Old Rock Stars Songs

I thought this was pretty funny for a Tuesday. From comedian Tim Hawkins. My cousin sent it to me.

You Tube

What do you like better? Important opinion poll!

Green or Red? Triangle pointing up or down?

A bug and the moon

The Moon, last night.

A bug that was walking around the house, I picked him up and put him on the Tiki Torch cover.

Then he flew away

Almost time

Its almost time to almost time to start worrying. . . . The one in the circle.

projected paths

What will they think of next?

airline seats pack fliers into 23 inches of space

The new airplane seat, to be unveiled next week at the Aircraft Interiors Expo Americas conference in Long Beach, would give passengers an experience akin to riding horseback.

They'd sit at an angle with no more than 23 inches between their perch and the seat in front of them — a design that could appeal to low-cost airlines that have floated the idea of offering passengers standing-room tickets on short flights.

"For flights anywhere from one to possibly even up to three hours ... this would be comfortable seating," The seat ... is like a saddle. Cowboys ride eight hours on their horses during the day and still feel comfortable in the saddle."

This is from USA Today

Not me! My airplane seat is too small already! What happens if you get on a plane, and you assume you will have a normal seat, and then you see these seats. Can you get off the plane? What if you get on a plane, and for any reason find the plane unacceptable, can you get off the plane? I don't think you could but you should be able to.

Take My Button!

Special thanks to The Bipolar Diva who gave me the information I needed to put a "Take My Button" code on my sidebar. I saw it on her blog, and made a button linking to My Wife's blog from mine, but couldn't get the text scroll down thing to work. So I emailed her and she replied and gave me the info!

Thanks Bipolar Diva!

Late Post

I had a fairly early appointment this morning. Couldn't find my wallet. Looked everywhere.
Running late. I called The Wife, "have you seen my wallet?" She said "Did you look in your backpack?"
"Dammit!" I said, "Why would it be in my backpack!? I never put it in my backpack!!!"

It was in my backpack. First time I ever put it there, really.

Time is going slow

It seems like time has slowed down lately. Seems like I've been off work for a long time, but tomorrow makes one week.
Last night we went to a housewarming party for my Brother and Sister in law. It was really nice.
In the US, today is labor day, everyone has the day off, here it's not labor day, and everyone has to work. To me that is just backwards!

Corned Beef Hash

This morning I'm making Corned Beef Hash and eggs for the wife. She's never had it before.

If she ever wakes up.It's hard to find a pic on the web where the Corned Beef Hash and Eggs actually looks good.

Anger and The Teacup Theory

My brain is floating in a teacup. The teacup is so full that if you put a drop of tea in, a drop spills over the side into the saucer. From the saucer, back to the top if the cup, is a tiny pump and a tiny filter. It pumps the liquid from the saucer, back into the cup. The water flows constantly, spilling over the top of the teacup down into the saucer, then getting filtered and pumped back into the cup, causing more to spill over. When I'm in a good mood, the water in the teacup is nice and clear. When I get angry, it's like someone puts a teabag in my brain water and the water turns brown. Even after the source of the anger is gone (Someone took the teabag out) The water is still brown and I stay angry until the tiny filter filters the water and it gets clear again.

Yesterday I bought a new light fixture for our closet. I got it home, and two of the four screws were missing. So I'm running back and forth, up and downstairs, looking for screws to fit. What should have been about a 10 minute easy job took about two hours, just looking for two damn screws. I ended up putting two sheet metal screws in instead of the two machine screws that were supposed to be provided. It was very frustrating. Plus they had this stupid fiberglass disk that goes between the fixture and the ceiling, I had to align the screws through the fiberglass. I hate fiberglass.

Even after the light was hooked and the light was working, I was still angry about the bastards shorting me two screws. What kind of person works at that place, who can't get four screws in a bag, and only puts two?
Anyway, I slowly got better, and my Wife knew what was going on. She looked amused... I said to her "I think my teacup theory is pretty accurate". She agreed.

Multiple things

I have been working on a business plan that is coming out surprisingly well. Last night I think i figured out the way over my last obstacle.
I'm not sure if I should enter a formal complaint about having my job illegally taken away. No, that isn't the strong use of words, it is an accurate assessment, for several reasons. The only thing making me hesitate about filing paperwork is the fact that I didn't want to keep that job any more. From what I hear, the new guy is doing pretty well though.
Today is Friday, everything is looking good for the day. I'm one-day-at-a-time ing it.

Cool new weather website

MY Wife showed me a cool new website, Stormpulse.com. I like the way it looks and the way you can scroll around the map. I also like the way you can click on a storm to get the info. Check it out!

deleted post

I put a post up here, but I didn't like the content, so I deleted it. It was an audio post, I recorded it and uploaded it to Podbean.com then embedded it here. But it works well, and I will try again later.