Trick or Treat

Kyung and I just bought a house and it is in no shape to host Halloween visitors, so we will have to wait until next year to participate in the Trick or Treat parade.
If any of you played dress up this year, or have cute pictures of your kids in costume, please put them on the site.
I know some of us are less techno-savvy than others, but it is really easy to put pictures on this site. Go to www.blogger.com and look for the FAQ section and the first question is How Do I Post Pictures on The Site?
Follow the instructions, download the Hello program (which takes about 5 seconds), then pull any photos that are already in your computer files and it will send them straight to the site.
Send 'em if you got 'em.

Pigskins and Politics

Here's an interesting trend that you may or may not have heard of:
In every election since the Washington Redskins entered the NFL in 1940, the incumbent candidate or party has won every time the Redskins win on the Sunday before the election. When the Redskins lose on the Sunday before the election, the incumbent candidate or party loses.
That's 60 years of history with no variation. A record of 15- 0.
The Redskins play the Packers today so now you know who to root for depending on whether you are GOP or Democrat.

I'm Osama bin Laden... and I Approve This Message 

Osama's October Surprise

Political pundits have been speculating for months that the October Surprise would be the sudden capture of Osama Bin Laden.
Turns out Osama had his own October Surprise in mind.
In a videotaped speech that could have been written by Michael Moore, Bin Laden sent a message to the American people saying:

---The idea to attack America first came to him in 1982 when Israel invaded Lebanon with U.S. help
---The 9/11 attack would have been less severe if the Bush Administration had been more "alert"
---Bush can't protect you (to be fair, he said Kerry can't protect you either)
---The security of America is in the American people's hands and who they choose to lead them
---"Despite entering the fourth year after Sept. 11, Bush is
still deceiving you and hiding the truth from you and therefore
the reasons are still there to repeat what happened,"
---"It never occurred to us that the commander in chief of the
country (Bush) would leave 50,000 citizens in the two towers to
face those horrors alone ... because he thought listening to a
child discussing her goats was more important"

That last line is straight out of Fahrenheit 9/11.

State Department says this tape is real and recent.
So does this affect anybody's opinions about the Bush Administration and its ability to "make America safer"? Does this tape make the stakes of the election even higher and make you "afraid" of voting for Kerry? Does it have any affect on your vote at all?
I'm sure die-hard Republicans and die-hard Democrats will have diametrically opposite takes on this tape, but try and look it at with a non-partisan view and see what you think.

Goooooal!

FIFA has announced that Germany will kickoff the 2006 World Cup by hosting the first game on June 9, 2006 in Munich. The final match will by played July 9, 2006 in Berlin.
Why am I bringing this up now?
Because you have to start planning now if you're going to get tickets and travel arrangements for the World Cup.
If you haven't been to a World Cup, it's hands-down the greatest sporting event in the world, and it's fun even if you don't go to any of the games.
Russell, Lark and Jimmie went to the 1990 World Cup in Italy.
Lark, Deline, Kyung and I went to the 1998 World Cup in France.
Lark and Deline went to South Korea in 2002 and Lark made a every entertaining documentary about it.
Are you thinking about going?
Lark can probably add a comment on how to go about getting tickets and making travel plans.
I highly recommend it.

Only in L.A.

Here's an Only in L.A. kind of story.
I'm in the elevator this morning going to my floor at the NBC bureau in Burbank, and a woman steps into the elevator with a cage with a tablecloth over it. It looks like something's moving in the cage, so I say "Is that a cat in that cage?"
"No, it's a rat," she says.
"That's a big-ass rat," I say.
"It's a sewer rat."
"Okay."
"It's for Fear Factor's 100th Episode. We're going to put it in a front of a green screen and do some effects with it, then we're going to put it in a blender and make the contestants drink it."
There's an uncomfortable silence in the elevator as I and the other 3 people wait to see if the woman is going to crack a smile - hoping that she's kidding.
She's not.
"I saw the taping of the rehearsal, and I almost dry heaved when they stuck that rat in the blender."
The woman next to me in the elevator looks like she's about to dry heave right now.
"Who comes up with this sick stuff?" asks one of the other men in the elevator.
"Actually I do", says the 3rd man in the elevator. You have to be careful about criticizing movies and TV in L.A. because you never know who is standing next to you.
Another uncomfortable silence in the elevator.
Elevator dings and the door opens - the woman with the rat and the producer with the sick ideas step out of the elevator.
"I wasn't about to apologize for my comment," says the 2nd guy in the elevator.
Elevator dings and the door opens on the next floor and as the other woman gets out she says, "I'm gonna go throw up."
Sewer Rat Shakes - just another day in L.A.

Interview with an Astrophysicist

I just interviewed Neil deGrasse Tyson for a story on the Cassini probe. He is the director of New York City's Hayden Planetarium and the author of several books including the recent one called Origins.
Besides the fact that he reminded me of Tom in his speech patterns and rhythms and the way that he was trying to explain things to me, I also wanted to share with you an amusing memo he wrote to his staff today. Here it is:


On Wednesday evening, for the first time in the known history of the
universe, a total lunar eclipse will take place during a game of the
World Series. Visible to all those in attendance, and anybody else in
the hemisphere, this alignment of cosmic objects - the Sun, the Earth,
and the Moon may be the sign from above that the Boston Red Sox have
been looking for to ensure defeat of the St. Louis Cardinals.
This would not be the first time that a cosmic phenomenon is credited
with somebody else's demise. As portrayed on the Bayeux tapestry, a
visit from a cosmic object, later known as Halley's Comet, portended
the 1066 fall of Harold, Earl of Wessex to the invading hordes of
William the Conqueror.
Problem is, this sort of analysis works for whoever wins, because for
all battles, one side falls while the other side rises--had William the
Conquerer lost, the Harold would surely have invoked the comet as a
sign of that fact. And, of course, there's nothing to stop the
Cardinals from seeing the eclipse as their sign. It will, after all,
take place during their three-game home stand in St. Louis.
People like think of comets and eclipses as rare phenomena, and thus
imbued with deep meaning or significance. But we've had three lunar
eclipses in the last two years, and bright comets come around at least
once per decade. So these phenomena are hardly unusual or special
enough to portend something even more rare, such as an opposing team
losing to the Boston Red Sox in the World Series.
Yes, if the Red Sox win the World Series, having not won it since 1918,
that event would make the eclipse special, and not the other way
around.

As always, keep looking up.
Neil deGrasse Tyson

Star Trekking

One of the coolest parts of my new job is that I get to attend or witness seminal events that most ordinary citizens would not get to see. In the past few months, I have been able to cover several space-related stories that make me wonder about the future of space travel.

First, I got to see the launch of SpaceShipOne in the Mojave Desert and it became the first-ever commercial spaceflight when Mike Melvill took it into sub-orbit. I was also at the first X Prize flight a month later during which the vehicle went into a wild spin as it clmbed into space. It was scary for those of us on the ground at first, but it was cool to be there when he landed safely.

On the flip side, I was also in Utah when the Genesis spacecraft came crashing down to Earth. That was carried live on all of the 24-hour news networks so millions of people were watching when it slammed into the ground. I had talked to all of the NASA people involved in the project and the 2 stunt pilots who were supposed to grab it in mid-air. It was the worst scenario that they could have imagined, except for the fact that alot of the samples actually survived the crash. Unfortunately, that part of the story hasn't gotten near as much coverage as the initial crash.

My question is - in the light of these two developments - Are we seeing a permanent shift in space travel from public to private interests? Will research and possible resource recovery shift completely into the private sector as well? Or is space tourism going to be the only niche that will be taken over by commercial interests?

Frustrated keeping up with old threads

So far, the only way I can keep track of comments posted to old threads is to start at one end or the other of the list of all posts, then one-by-one examine all the comments to see if any are new. Can I suggest that we start a new post, rather than comment on an old one, once the thread gets more than, say 3 days old?

Church and State

Since most of our political threads have turned into discussions of religion and faith-based voting, I thought y'all might be interested in reading this op-ed piece about the presidential candidates.

http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/opinion/la-op-gumbel24oct24,1,195799.story

You might not agree with the writer's views, but you can't deny its implications on this election and how people are going to vote.

World Series Predictions

Okay, Astros fans. I know you're still getting over the hangover of having your World Series dreams crushed by the Cardinals, but try to clear your head for a moment and give us a prediction for the World Series.
I'm not a fan of either the Red Sox or the Cardinals, but I think it will be a great Series to watch because the teams are very evenly matched.
Tell us who's going to win and in how many games.

Got Books?

I know we all have very busy lives, especially those of you with children, but I'm hoping you're still able to get in a couple of good reads every once in awhile.
I'd be curious to know what everyone has been reading lately.
How about you share:
What Book You're Currently Reading
Your Favorite Fiction Book you've read recently
Your Favorite Non-Fiction Book you've read recently
I'll make my list in the 1st comment

Why, John, Why? 

Hunting for Votes

What was John Kerry thinking?
First, he goes into a gun shop on Wednesday and asks the clerk, "Where can I get ME a huntin' license?" as though he just lost his grasp of the English language. Then, he buys a camouflage outfit because he obviously doesn't have a hunting costume even though he supposedly "hunts" all the time. Then, he goes out "huntin'" and comes back with 4 dead Canadian Geese being held by their broken necks.
What the ?!@?!@?&!?
Why does he think he can win the votes of gun-totin', beer-drinkin', NASCAR-lovin', (fill in your adjective here) Americans? It's not gonna happen.
This has got to be the worst campaign photo-op decision since Michael Dukakis jumped into that tank and drove around in the little G.I. outfit in the '88 election.

Breaking Science News

This just came across the Reuters wire:

Einstein was right -- again.
Satellites that have been pulled slightly off their orbits show
that the Earth is indeed twisting the fabric of space-time as
it rotates, scientists said Thursday.
They said their findings are the first to directly measure
and prove an important aspect of Albert Einstein's General
Theory of Relativity -- that a rotating body warps and twists
the "fabric" that combines the three dimensions of space and
the fourth dimension of time.
"As the Earth turns, it is actually twisting space-time
with it. Near Earth, the twisting is greater," said Michael
Salamon, a physicist at NASA in Washington.
"This twisting of space-time, which is also referred to as
frame-dragging, has never been directly observed before,"
Salamon told reporters in a telephone briefing.
"This is the first real, solid, direct evidence we have for
the twisting of space-time caused by the spinning of a rotating
body."

Blog versus Mailing List

Does this blogspot/blogger facility hold any real advantage over a standard mailing-list server?

At least from my point of view, the blogger Web interface is often excruciatingly slow.

Perhaps there is a way easily to see if someone made a new post to an old thread, but such is not apparently enabled by default. This wouldn't be an issue if we used a mailing list.

Is there any show-stopping disadvantage to using a mailing list?

I might be willing to set one up if there is any interest in moving to something better.

Game 7 Predictions

Hopefully the NLCS Game 7 will be a little more competitive than the ALCS finale - what a rout by the Red Sox.
Let's here everyone's predictions for Thursday night's Astros-Cardinals game.

Red Sox

Forget the Astros. What about those Sox?

Hello

I don't have much to say at the moment, but you might check out my StumbleUpon (SU) blog. Perhaps it will stimulate some conversation. I don't actually write much in my SU blog (though I do on the rare occasion rant about something). Usually, I just make an entry for each URL that I find interesting, and I include in the entry a summary quotation and/or an in-line link to an image on the page.

Captain Kirk... Unplugged 

Geek Alert!

William Shatner is proving once again that he, not Howard Stern, is the King of All Media. He just won an Emmy for his portrayal of attorney Denny Crain in the new ABC show, Boston Legal. He is the voice and spokesperson for priceline dot com on TV and radio. He has written several fiction and non-fiction books. Now, he is back in the music industry with his new CD called Has Been.
It's gotten pretty good reviews from major magazines and newspapers who have called it "sharp, smart, poignant and very funny." It's basically him singing... like... this... doing spoken word to songs composed and arranged by Ben Folds (formerly of Ben Folds Five).
Here's the kicker - he's performing live in Los Angeles on Thursday night at the El Rey Theater. He's opening for Ben Folds.
The concert is sold out but I am going to try to get a scalped ticket outside, so I can say that I saw Shatner sing.
Jealous?

Astros

Well they won a tight one today, didn't they? I'm getting myself psyched for a repeat of Game 6 of the '86 NLCS. If memory serves, the Astros had Mike Scott who the Mets couldn't hit for shit waiting to start Game 7. I think this was the last home game (was it 2-2-1-1-1 in those days?), and they manage to carry a lead into the 9th where the Mets tie it. I think it was the 13th that the Mets went up by one, but the 'stros came back to tie, and it went to the 16th, where the Mets went up by several (3?) runs. Bottom of the 16th, Astros get back within one, but (with men on?) can't push one more across. At this point, the game has been on all afternoon, and we have missed both lunch and dinner at the Jester cafeteria, so we have to go to Dobie mall, and be confronted by Steve Eff-ing Triestman the Mets fan (from Houston!!) quietly gloating over our sullen supper.

Jon Stewart on Crossfire

Did anybody see Jon Stewart on Crossfire on Friday?
He tore into the media for not doing their jobs during this election season, and bashed Tucker Carlson and Paul Begala for being political hacks who merely serve as puppets for the spin doctors of both parties.
It was classic.
If you want to watch it, go to http://mediamatters.org/items/200410160003
Click on the Windows Media Clip and watch the whole thing.
Great television!

America! Fuck Yeah! - Theme Song from "Team America - World Police"

Puppet Sex!

I just saw Team America in a matinee today. Even though I enjoy South Park and the South Park movie, I wasn't expecting much because of the trailer and the mediocre reviews I had seen.
It was crass, rude, over-the-top, vulgar, foul-mouthed and I LOVED every minute of it. It was fucking brilliant.
It basically makes fun of all of those Jerry Bruckheimer formula action movies like The Rock, Con Air and Pearl Harbor but the plotline incorporates real people like Kim Jong Il and George Clooney in it to take swipes at both the Right and the Left in their handling of the post-9/11 world.
And did I mention the hot puppet sex?
This movie is not for everyone, but if you enjoy South Park, you will like this movie. I laughed more than I have in a long time.
And Kyung felt the same way, so it's not just a guy thing either

NFL Films

There is a beer commercial out now that plays the music from the old NFL films that we used to watch on ESPN. Do you know if they show these anymore?

Preoccupied by war, no one is following this...

A friend sent me this link which is one reporter's view on why there was no plan for after the invasion of Iraq:

http://www.commondreams.org/views04/0924-13.htm

If you get or read Harper's you may have seen this in the September issue. I was kinda surprised that I hadn't seen very much of this in the press.

Hangin' With Republicans

If you live in a blue state like I do, or simply hang out with mostly liberals or at the very least - moderate Democrats - it's easy to believe that John Kerry has a shot to win this election. Then, reality hits when you actually spend time behind enemy lines.
I attended my first President Bush rally in Colorado Springs last week for a story I am doing on the Colorado Senate Race. 10,000 people showed up in World Arena at 7am - 3 hours before a scheduled 10am speech by President Bush. For those of you who don't know, Colorado Springs is home of the Air Force Academy, Focus on the Family and lots of churches - in other words, prime Republican territory.
The energy and enthusiasm in the arena was electric, and that was before President Bush came on stage. When he appeared in the corner of arena, it was as though Elvis had just entered the building. People were shaking and crying as they shook hands with the President like he was Paul, John, George or even Ringo.
They laughed at all of his jokes. They cheered every time he paused for effect. They even booed every time he mentioned the United Nations. When they weren't busy giving me and my media colleagues the "evil eye", they were chanting "4 more years" without being prompted. It was very impressive in a scary, fascist kind of way.
I doubt you would see the same energy and enthusiasm at a Kerry rally. I just don't sense that anyone is embracing him. Most Democrats are just happy to have a choice other than President Bush.
Is a dislike of President Bush enough to draw non-Republicans to the polls on election day? I'd love to hear what some of you think, especially anyone in a swing state.

Joining the 21st Century

Welcome to the Brahma Blogs - a place where some like-minded people who once lived within a 10-mile radius of each other in the 80's can now share thoughts, opinions and even feelings with each other even though everyone is scattered across the country now.
Haven't you ever heard a great CD, seen a good movie, read a good book, experienced a life-changing moment, screamed at the TV screen during a presidential debate, and thought to yourself - gee, I wish I could share this with all of my old friends?
Now you can!
Just sign up (it's free) to blogger.com with the e-mail invitation that I sent out to all of you.The only way this will work is if at least one of us makes an entry (also known as "post" to the uninitiated) every day and there are some healthy responses (also known as "comments" to the uninitiated).
We'll see how it goes and if everybody likes it, we'll keep it going.I figure it might be the only way to preserve the slim thread of familiarity that we have somehow been able to maintain over the last 20 years.
Please log on to this site every day, and participate in the discussions when you can.