NASA's Kepler Telescope, Very Cool

Here's a quite awesome shot of the sun found on CNN like we've never seen quite live like this before, except in artists' imaginations for the most part and some Astronauts that know .... cool stuff I think. Space is one crazy mystery that's taken for granted by most including myself getting more and more attention thanks to all this 007 like technology we all have available at our beck and call.

Like this new Kepler telescope at NASA that is beaming back some neat shots like the one below.

It's the glow around the planet there that is the new discovery as one would think that planet or moon is cooking it's *** off, I'm surprised it isn't entirely in flames, or melting in the sun's orbit but it is not..

Actually "the planet used in the test is a giant gas planet about the size of Jupiter that orbits a star called HAT P-7." Glad I straightened that out?...lol

CNN.com - "NASA's Kepler space telescope has already made a discovery, and its science operations aren't even officially under way yet. Its ability to detect minute changes in light has enabled scientists to determine that a planet orbiting a distant star has an atmosphere, shows only one side to its sun and is so hot it glows"

Related articles

• Kepler Space Probe: A Shot at Finding New Earths (time.com)
• NASA's Kepler shows early success (cnn.com)

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Here's A Pretty Cool And Collected Dad Catching A Foul Ball (video)

And I thought it was cool when I grabbed a foul ball as a kid at Shea Stadium years ago at a Mets game with my favorite A2000 Wilson mitt.....

This was pretty smooth, and this dad and child have the video and baseball to prove this great catch with kid in tow, which is all over the media this morning, that's very cool.

That is of coarse until the "PC parenting police" knock down his front door with media in tow to cite him for drinking and dangerously dangling the child over a railing while attempting to catch the baseball.....(PC freaks)

(sorry for the bs commercial, youtubes yanked for copyright violations of MLB)

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Asia watches long solar eclipse / Dark Side of The Moon..

These are always pretty cool;

BBC NEWS | Science & Environment | Asia watches long solar eclipse: "People in Asia have seen the longest total solar eclipse this century, with large areas of India and China plunged into darkness.

Amateur stargazers and scientists travelled far to see the eclipse, which lasted six minutes and 39 seconds at its maximum point.

The eclipse could first be seen early on Wednesday in eastern India.

It then moved east across India, Nepal, Burma, Bangladesh, Bhutan, China, Japan and the Pacific.

The eclipse first became total over India at 0053GMT, and was last visible from land at Nikumaroro Island in the South Pacific nation of Kiribati. It ended at 0418GMT.

Elsewhere, a partial eclipse was visible across much of Asia."

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Kent "Toast" French, The World's Fastest Clapper

I saw this guy on Firefox's download page as they are requesting people to send in a video of their "fastest skill" and the only two there included this guy and I said "Instead of posting the Firefox commercial I'll find him on youtube".

Here is the result, the world's fastest clapper according to Guinness, "Kent(Toast), who holds the record for 'Most claps in a minute' at 721. I believe it after seeing this..

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How Cool Is This Video?

Caught this video at fellow blogger Holger Awaken's blog you can check out here after this cool video if you haven't seen it before.

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Alaskan Volcano Simmering, And It's Not Sarah Palin, The Real Thing

Who could blame her for erupting finally seeing now that the country and MSM on the left ripped her to shreds over this obviously under qualified empty suit has shown his true colors and they are Red white and Red.

Seeing that the state of Alaska is being capably run by her with none of the drama surrounding this theater of the absurd starring Obama Bin Biden and their Buddy Turbo Tim Geithner must really anger her because we all knew she and McCain would've brought the change the left was hoping for and would have been ten times more acceptable than what we're stuck with now.

Anyhow there's a real volcano ready to unleash that's starting to show signs of erupting with recordings of 26 events in ten minutes being recorded, so this is something to keep our eyes open for this week along with the implosion occurring on the Potomac each day more and more.

Don't forget there was also an massive underwater eruption in the Pacific ocean last week with the awesome footage of an island being born we blogged about here.

Alaska volcano back on eruption watch

CNN.com: "(CNN) -- Researchers have raised the alert status at Mount Redoubt, a volcano in southern Alaska, after another increase in seismic activity.

'Shallow earthquake activity under the volcano has been as high as 26 events per 10-minute period,' officials at the Alaska Volcano Observatory said Sunday in a statement announcing that the alert level was raised to 'watch' status.

Although no eruption has occurred, the scientists said the increase in seismic activity 'likely represents either the upward movement of magma or pressurization of the system.'

'It is possible for unrest at the volcano to change rapidly, and seismic activity or other signs of unrest could escalate culminating in an eruption within days to weeks,' the statement concluded."

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Crazy Underwater Volcano Footage

Pretty cool stuff here if I may say so....

Scientists sailed Thursday to inspect an undersea volcano that has been erupting for days near Tonga - shooting smoke, steam and ash thousands of feet (meters) into the sky above the South Pacific ocean.

If movie doesn't play in IE then here's the link

NUKU'ALOFA, Tonga – Scientists sailed Thursday to inspect an undersea volcano that has been erupting for days near Tonga — shooting smoke, steam and ash thousands of feet (meters) into the sky above the South Pacific ocean.

Authorities said Thursday the eruption does not pose any danger to islanders at this stage, and there have been no reports of fish or other animals being affected.

Spectacular columns are spewing out of the sea about 6 miles (10 kilometers) from the southwest coast off the main island of Tongatapu — an area where up to 36 undersea volcanoes are clustered, geologists said.

Trade winds continued to blow gas and steam away from the island Thursday.

Tonga's police deputy commander Taniela Faletau said coastal villages close to the roiling ocean site were not yet at risk and that no warnings had been issued.

Police were waiting for a government team of officials and scientists to survey the area and report on their observations before taking any action.

Coastal residents said the steam and ash column first appeared on Monday morning, after a series of sharp earthquakes were felt in the capital, Nuku'alofa.

"This is not unusual for this area and we expect this to happen here at any time," said Keleti Mafi, Tonga's geological service head.

The underwater eruption was taking place near the low-lying twin volcanic islands of Hunga Tonga and Hunga Ha'apai, and within sight of the capital, Nuku'alofa.

Large amounts of pumice thrown up by the erupting volcano would likely clog beaches on the southern coast of nearby Fiji islands within a short time, Mafi said.

Tonga, a 170-island archipelago about halfway between Australia and Tahiti, is part of the Pacific "ring of fire" — an arc of earthquake and volcanic zones stretching from Chile in South America through Alaska and down through Vanuatu to Tonga.

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Man Actually Run Over By Truck and Train Survives

New Movie Stunt for the upcoming "TrainMan"?

No but it sure looks like it. What actually happens is this guy gets hit by an empty tractor trailer that was just hit by an oncoming train. Either way, the man survived the brutal hit, and were I him I woulda' headed right for a lottery depot and then the closest casino because this was his lucky day..

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Incredible Artist At Work

This below is from the 970WFL Foxnews radio website, which has an incredible amount of time wasting but fun stuff on it's site, including this artist featured in a 60 picture slideshow that cannot be linked to uses chalk on sidewalks to create the three dimensional optical illusions like the one pictured below, very cool stuff

This is just FREAKY! This is the art of Julian Beever, who is able to create chalk drawings on sidewalks that, from the right angle, appear to be three dimensional. What makes this fun is to try to figure out what is real and what is chalk!

You need to go here to access it if you wish, then look for this pic and link shown below to open the slideshow, it can't be directly linked & opened from here, 2nd from the top on the left hand side.

You won't believe this! The art of Julian Beever, who will make you think you are seeing things!

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It's Been A Long Time Since They Rock and Rolled...

Sorry..that was too easy.

I would have loved to have seen this latest reunion of Led Zeppelin as their last American tour was in 1977 and I was lucky enough to see them on night one of a three night stand in Chicago when I was 12 years old and just starting to enjoy their music as a budding young guitar player. That tour was also the beginning of the end of Led Zeppelin and is well told in this months Rolling Stone article .

With one person reportedly paying six figures for a pair of seats this review from last night's show is about as close as I will get to seeing them ever in this lifetime at least for now.

Possibly after the reception they received they may decide to embark on a tour to cash in like everyone else has and why not as they deserve it as much as anyone out there for their historic body of works to the annals of Rock and Roll history.

Led Zeppelin | Rock Gods | Attitude at their reunion gig |

The Sun |HomePage|Showbiz|Bizarre: "LED ZEPPELIN returned to the stage last night with their first full set in 19 years — and younger members of the crowd had heard nothing like it. Manufactured pop is ruling the charts and young music fans are an impatient sort. Maybe that’s why the bars at the O2 Arena in Greenwich filled during some of the band’s winding rock epics. But their classics proved music doesn’t rock like it used to. Tracks like Whole Lotta Love and Stairway to Heaven had every one of the fans — who included LIAM GALLAGHER and SIR PAUL McCARTNEY — on their feet and shaking their fists." continued

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Lambo Driver Goes 219 mph Wild on Open Arizona Streets

Pretty crazy driving which appears to be authentic in the video for an open street or even highway at 219 miles and hour as this guy and his passenger did. Looks as if the local police are interested in finding the driver understandably and may do so as how many people own these things out there in the first place? Not many.

ABC News: Max Speed on Lamborghini Sets New Record: "Authorities have confirmed they are investigating a viral Internet video that shows a driver in a Lamborghini who claims to be driving at 219 mph on an Arizona highway. Video 219 MPH in a Lamborghini 'This is still an ongoing investigation,' Lt. James W. Warriner, a spokesman for the Airzona Department of Public Safety, told ABC News. 'We will not be commenting until the investigation is complete.'

The video, originally posted on YouTube, runs more than four minutes long and appears to be professionally produced. In the nighttime footage, an unidentified thrill seeker in a gold Lamborghini Murcielago LP640 appears to be pushing the vehicle to within 1 mph of the its 220 mph maximum. At the tail end of the clip, an unseen man is heard claiming the achievement as a new record." continued

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Quite A Story Behind This Man

I rarely watch 60 Minutes Since Dan Rather and his vendetta against George Bush and the failed discredited National Guard "fake but accurate report" turned career ending scandal, but I was on the channel inadvertently after watching the closing minutes of one heckuva week 9 NFL football game between the undefeated News England Patriots and the Indianapolis Colts, also undefeated 'til the end of that action charged game of the AFC powerhouses.

A story of a man named Tom Perkins, hyper successful venture capitalist caught my eye and was quite an interesting tale at that, worth delving into here if you have a few minutes to spare in doing so.

The first 7 minutes are footage about his 150-300 million dollar unbelievable and beautiful yacht called the Maltese Falcon.

Tom Perkins Regrets Quitting HP Board,
Also Tells Lesley Stahl Cost Of His Mega-Yacht Embarrasses Him

CBS News:"(CBS) If there were a hall of fame for business tycoons, Tom Perkins would be a first ballot shoo-in. His hands-on engineering skills, combined with his nose for profit, made him the captain of venture capitalism and helped transform Silicon Valley into the money machine of the West. As correspondent Lesley Stahl reports, the firm he co-founded, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, provided start-up capital for companies like AOL, Amazon.com, Netscape, and Google; the list goes on and on." continued

His Yacht the Maltese Falcon's website

The footage during the interview of this unbelievable schooner was absolutely breathtaking and really emphasized to me I have to say that the huge partition between the filthy wealthy of the world and and the truly destitute and defeated amongst us that need their help.

I myself am a conservative and capitalist (although not a wealthy one) and this man earned every dime he has in order to have such pleasures of wealth like this phenomenal boat, along with other toys and possessions most only dream of, so what he chooses to do with his wealth is his business and only his and in no way am I acting liberal and ridiculing him when asking this question, but human logic also begs the question of just how much wealth is enough. And this guy is about as ostentatious as they come you better believe.

That question is asked brilliantly by Charlie Sheen playing Bud Fox in Oliver Stone's1986 movie Wall Street to Michael Douglas as Gordon Gecko , a favorite movie of mine and both favorite actors of mine as well....until Charlie turned 9-11 conspiracy nut that is not too long ago.....

Bud Fox: Tell me, Gordon, when does it all end, huh? How many yachts can you water-ski behind, how much is enough?

Gordon Gecko: It’s not a question of enough, Pal. It’s a zero-sum game. Somebody wins, somebody loses. Money itself isn’t lost or made, it’s simply transferred from one perception to another. Like magic. We make the rules, Pal…the news, war, peace, famine, upheaval, the price of paper clips. We pick that rabbit out of the hat and everybody sits out there wondering how the hell we did it.

There are a lot of real life Gordon Gecko's out there in the world today, more than ever, and they sure are living it up. I must confess I do wish I could become one of them and work hard to maybe one day in my dreams become one when I see stuff like that boat above and the obvious pleasure that can be derived from obscene wealth. But there is also a limit to what one human being actually needs and this man has certainly surpassed that without a doubt but it's his and that's the way it is. Good for him.

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Musical History On This Day Forty Long Years Ago

Boy does this make me feel old, something that took place when I was just two:

40th anniversary celebration of last Beatles concert:

WhatGoesOn.com - "San Francisco, CA - August 26-27, 2006 - Bay Area Film Events (BAFE) and the Castro Theatre present a 40th anniversary appreciation of those FAB days of Beatlemania for two days of Beatles films, guests, memorabilia and music!

Forty years ago, on August 29, 1966, the Beatles came to the Bay Area on the last day of their 1966 concert tour. Though it was in their minds, no one knew that this concert would be a historic occasion. It was after this concert that The Beatles announced that they would quit touring and concentrate on studio recordings, starting a period in their careers which would forever shape the landscape of popular music for generations to come."

And so, August 29, 1966 would be the final public concert for the most popular band in the history of music.

This Picture is from the Press conference prior to the show

Here's some more trivia about that final show and some other Beatles "last things" etc courtesy TriviaLibrary.com...

About the famous last Beatles' performance history and information about the show in Candlestick Park.

THE BEATLES' LAST PERFORMANCE

The farewell concert was at Candlestick Park, San Francisco, on Aug. 29, 1966. There were no tears--except those of hysterical fans--since only Brian Epstein, their manager, realized it was the end of the road. He seemed very depressed but cheered up once the music started.

The Beatles--John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr--are the biggest-selling recording artists of all time. Every single and every LP of theirs has sold over a million copies. Lennon and McCartney wrote and recorded 105 songs together--as well as writing an additional 16 for other artists.

The Beatles also recorded 11 songs written by George Harrison.

Their last public appearance in England was at Wembley on May 1, 1965.

Their last single in Britain was "Let It Be"/"You Know My Name," released in February, 1970.

Their last American release was "The Long and Winding Road"/"For You Blue," released May 7, 1970.

Their last LP was "Let It Be," released in Britain on May 8, 1970, and in America seven days later.

Their last concert, in Candlestick Park, was on the eighth anniversary of the day George Harrison first appeared with "the Quarrymen," led by John Lennon and Paul McCartney.

In August, 1977, The People's Almanac asked Ringo what his feelings were at that last concert. He replied, "It was such a big time in my life, I don't remember it."

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Awesome Photo Of An Awesome Landmark

Big Ben temporarily silenced on Yahoo! News Photos: "Workmen clean the clock face of St Stephens Tower which houses Big Ben in London Saturday Aug. 11, 2007. Big Ben is losing its bongs — temporarily. The famous bell that sounds the hour at Britain's Houses of Parliament is to fall silent for scheduled repairs for only the fourth time in a century and a half. Officials said the distinctive bongs would strike for the last time at 8 a.m. (0700 GMT) Saturday before four to six weeks of maintenance work on the clock. (AP Photo/Lewis Whyld/PA Wire)"

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Shift Happens

Assuming all the statements and claims within this 6 minute video are accurate, it will be the most informative 6 minutes of your day most likely, it was mine. Give it a watch or two and arm yourself with some pretty interesting statistics on technology shift and expansion to throw around to your friends and family.

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Oscar the Palliative Care Cat?

To me at least. Many others it appears this morning tend to think the cat is a more grim reaperish creature than comforting. I look at the good side of this cat's behavior myself I explain below..

In my opinion this is an interesting and touching story about a special cat in Rhode Island that like many animals seems to have an inexplicable ability to understand human behavior better than even trained medical personnel and other humans do.

In his case he has an ability to predict terminal nursing home patients last few precious hours of life, acting as a "canary in the coal mine of sorts" allowing the families of these patients final moments with their loved ones based on his unfailing predictions allowing nurses to contact these families when he visits the patient on his rounds, no joke. His record now is 25-0.

Read more about this cool cat below.

Oscar the Cat Predicts Patient Deaths Accurately

Yahoo! News: "PROVIDENCE, R.I. - Oscar the cat seems to have an uncanny knack for predicting when nursing home patients are going to die, by curling up next to them during their final hours. His accuracy, observed in 25 cases, has led the staff to call family members once he has chosen someone. It usually means they have less than four hours to live.

'He doesn't make too many mistakes. He seems to understand when patients are about to die,' said Dr. David Dosa in an interview. He describes the phenomenon in a poignant essay in Thursday's issue of the New England Journal of Medicine."

"Many family members take some solace from it. They appreciate the companionship that the cat provides for their dying loved one," said Dosa, a geriatrician and assistant professor of medicine at Brown University.

The 2-year-old feline was adopted as a kitten and grew up in a third-floor dementia unit at the Steere House Nursing and Rehabilitation Center. The facility treats people with Alzheimer's, Parkinson's disease and other illnesses.

After about six months, the staff noticed Oscar would make his own rounds, just like the doctors and nurses. He'd sniff and observe patients, then sit beside people who would wind up dying in a few hours.

Dosa said Oscar seems to take his work seriously and is generally aloof. "This is not a cat that's friendly to people," he said. continued

R.I.,... Slideshow: Hospice cat seems to predict death

I suppose others could look at the "grim reaper is coming" aspect of Oscars final hours visits as the loony and ditsy eye candy co-host of "Fox and Friends pre-edition" does this morning while running the I admit clever banner headline "Don't Fur the Reaper"

But aside from her so far the consensus seems to be positive from the nursing home pt's families the only ones that really matter, and there are no plans to stop Oscar's little rounds at the hospice and nursing home anytime soon.

Tech Tags: oscar the cat, cat predicts death, rhode island, nursing home, hospice, cool kool kat,smart,interesting, intelligent

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A Quite Interesting Video Today

Associated Press - (APTN)

Click for Raw Video: Plane Lands on Wisconsin Highway(new window)

Jul. 23, 2007. 03:06 PM EST

An Ohio man flying a World War II-era plane made an emergency landing on a Wisconsin highway after experiencing engine trouble Sunday. No injuries were reported. (July 23)

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I Find This Trend To Be Kinda' Cool

Back in the groove: young music fans ditch downloads and spark vinyl revival

The Guardian | Guardian Unlimited: "The format was supposed to have been badly wounded by the introduction of CDs and killed off completely by the ipod-generation that bought music online.

But in a rare case of cheerful news for the record labels, the latest phenomenon in a notoriously fickle industry is one nobody dared predict: a vinyl revival. Latest figures show a big jump in vinyl sales in the first half of this year, confirming the anecdotal evidence from specialist shops throughout the UK."It comes as sales of CD singles continue to slide - and it is not being driven by technophobic middle-aged consumers. Teenagers and students are developing a taste for records and are turning away from the clinical method of downloading music on to an MP3 player.

The data, released by the UK's industry group BPI, shows that 7in vinyl sales were up 13% in the first half, with the White Stripes' Icky Thump the best seller.

Two-thirds of all singles in the UK now come out on in the 7in format, with sales topping 1m. Though still a far cry from vinyl's heyday in 1979, when Art Garfunkel's Bright Eyes alone sold that number and the total vinyl singles market was 89m, the latest sales are still up more than fivefold in five years.

For record stores, the resurgence has meant a move from racks of vintage Rolling Stones and Beatles releases to brand new singles and younger buyers. "The student population seem to be loving the 7in," says Stuart Smith, who runs Seismic Records in Leamington Spa, Warwickshire. He sells 300-600 records a week and is preparing to launch an online store. continued

We'll have to see if this always fun nostalgia trend catches on to the US teens, as there sure is a lot of great music attached to those days of the vinyl that they could be listening to instead of the sh** we're hearing produced today en mass.

I along with many others my age still have my old collection of 60's, 70's, and 80's albums- 45's that just have a different kind of attractiveness to them when played, that is of if coarse they are still playable.

It's just that good old fashioned, unpolished and raw work of the music pioneers of rock and roll, just burning the old hot wax recollecting what sure were great times in this country and in Britain as well that today's teens would enjoy I sure revisiting.

Just as we (35-45 year olds now) did when Happy Days and Laverne and Shirley along with American Graffiti and American Hot Wax were the thing of the day reviving our parents heydays gone by. Lotsa Money to be made there.

I'm truly not one of those "wax poetic of the olden' days" kinda guys, and I love and embrace new musical technology both for listening, physical playing and recording, but the oldies and goodies of Rock and Roll are to me the best years of this genre and I love playing the music myself as well as hearing it.

Plus, resurgence of this music's popularity would mean side work and money for us oldies cover musicians and garage bands that know those oldies and goodies up and down...lol.

Tech Tags: rock and roll, allen freed, laverne shirley, happy days, american graffiti, oldies,goodies, 45's, lp's, vinyl records,nostalgic, nostalgia

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Tin Foil Hat Alert : More Propaganda of Reason

This time from a left wing college of all places comes a very high tech animated 3d model report concurring that in fact that, get this: Jumbo jetliners doing 700 miles an hour loaded with 10,000 gallons of jet fuel can sure cause a helluva lotta' damage when they collide while somewhat vulnerable 110 story narrowly built buildings.

And yes Rosie and Charlie, fire melts steel! Check this.

Purdue creates scientifically based animation of 9/11 attack:

- Fire inside WTC caused by exploding fuel

"WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind Although most Americans believe they know what brought down the World Trade Center twin towers on Sept. 11, 2001, civil engineers are still seeking answers to questions that could save lives in the future.

Structural engineers need to know from a scientific perspective what happened to the buildings during the terrorist attacks in order to prevent future failures. The search for answers continues with the help of a state-of-the-art animated visualization created by researchers at Purdue University."

pics open to cool full screen sized animations open in new windows when clicked

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Who Knew?

I consider myself a pretty educated man when it comes to music both playing it and general knowledge of the field as a 25 year semi professional guitar player and singer, however I never knew that Mick Jagger had a brother named Chris who is also a musician in his own right.

A few weeks ago Mick stepped onstage in front of 40 or so people to accompany his bro in an old Stones staple Dead Flowers. Here's a YouTube cell phone video of the off the cuff performance that's pretty good.

This brought back fond memories of a Stones impromptu performance here in Chicago I was fortunate enough to win tickets to on a radio show before work the very day of the secret appearance. This took place at a well known Chicago club called the Double Door as they were similarly preparing in town for an upcoming concert back in September of '97 with just a few hundred lucky Chicagoans. This was during their Bridges to Babylon Tour.

I just now found out looking at the Double Door website for the post that it was turned into a very popular but hard to get DVD. Most definitely one of the highlights of this garage band man's life indeed.

Jagger joins brother on pub stage

LONDON, England (AP) -- Little known musician Chris Jagger had been saying for years that his famous brother Mick would one day join him on stage. When it finally happened, the audience numbered about 40.

Grainy footage of the gig late last month at the Bull's Head, a riverside pub in southwest London, was available on YouTube, posted by someone who captured the event on a cell phone.

The Rolling Stones kicked off a European tour in Belgium this week and will be headlining at the Isle of Wight music festival on Sunday. read more

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