The balance of the universe was restored

Canada won the gold medal hockey match in the Olympics today, therefore restoring the balance to the universe needed since the US defeated Canada some days ago.

Now we can go on with the rest of our lives. I’m glad that’s fixed.

Too good not to post!

I don’t know the source…somebody’s Twitter page. Dang clever.

Then of course there was this, back in 1998:

Matchstick Minas Tirith!

Three years of work…this thing is impressive! See more of it here. There is a certain level of obsession, maybe, but a good one, I think!

More reuse of technology that helps get us into space

The DreamChaser on an Atlas V

Sierra Nevada Corp., through its subsidiary SpaceDev, is designing a spaceplane based on the HL-20 design planned by NASA as a lifeboat for the ISS. The company can leverage all the design studies, including 1400 wind tunnel tests, and jump-start a design.

We need more of this. There is so much information out there, starting with the X-20 data, that can be used to build a new generation of spaceplanes. I’m glad they were allowed access to the data. That’s by no means a certainty.

The DreamChaser orbiter

Stuff

I’ve been too busy to post since I returned after my brother’s funeral.

Still, there are little things that can make you smile.

A sad Demoncrat.

An episode of “Burn Notice” where Sam gets to do his Horatio Caine impression.

And, of course, a new Autotune the News…

Too Late To Apologize

If you’ve not seen this…

Clever use of the tune. And spot-on. Especially with King Barak.

Tribute

My brother passed away yesterday. He was a fighter all his life. Saddled with an immune system problem from a very young age, Greg was determined to not let it beat him. He survived supposedly unsurvivable medical problems time and time again. It finally took several, piled one on top another, to bring him down.
I never got to tell him what an inspiration he was. He would have shrugged it off. It wasn’t exactly humility; more a sense that this was just what you did – never give in to illness.
I’m going to miss him a hell of a lot more than I thought I would.

“24” – Starbuck is a sissy!

Katee Sackhoff, “Starbuck” to you BSG fans, is playing an entirely different part in “24.” Unfortunately, as of the last episode I saw, 8-9 PM, she’s kind of a sissy. This is NOT our Katee, guys, the girl who kicks ass and lets underlings take names.

I blame Brannon Braga. But then, I blame him for lots of stuff, including the 12 inches of snow we got this week and the fact that Sibelius runs slow lately on my home iMac…and that the America’s cup races have been scrubbed both of the first two race days. And maybe that asparagus tastes nasty, too.

Twenty-five-year-old bad sports rap becomes marketing tool!

Maybe that was unkind…but nobody says that the “Super Bowl Shuffle” was great art. When the Bears did it in 1986 it was a curiosity. I don’t know how much anyone thought of it outside of Chicago. We had just moved here that year. I don’t know how much anyone outside of got a kick out of it. I was on a plane coming back from LA that January and they played it on the plane to great cheers and applause, but the plane was coming back to Chicago, and was a couple of weeks before the Super Bowl.

It’s just surprising to me that a cell phone company would consider that video to be well-known enough in pop culture to bring those guys back, and then spend that much money on a Super Bowl commercial.

Here’s the original:

More cowbell!

Chilling, even after all these years…

This video of the Challenger explosion was recently brought to light. The info can be found on the link. It was absolutely chilling to watch, and a large part of that is because of the commentary by the guy doing the video.

I missed the actual explosion. I remember that day like people remember Pearl Harbor or 9/11. I heard about it on the radio after it happened, then saw the video of the explosion that evening. I think in many ways it was more of a history-defining moment than the loss of Columbia because there was no good video of Columbia’s breakup.

Still, it’s heartbreaking to watch, twenty-four years later.