December 2004 Archives

As Mary and I head out for a small gathering just over the ridge from us, I have such a good feeling about the past 52 weeks. I entered into this year, recently retired, starting off as a full-time college student, and beginning a second career. There were a lot of question marks surrounding the future. Now as 2004 draws to a close, I look back at a very hard, yet wonderful two semesters, an outstanding summer journey across the country with Mary, and making many, many new friends, Democrats and Progressives, with the 2004 election cycle. The future is just beginning and I know that 2005 will be even better. To use the words of my favorite character on the A-Team (no smart comments), "I just love it when a plan comes together." Thanks to all who made 2004 a memorable year and wishes of good luck and prosperity in the coming year to everyone. There is a time to study and work, but now is not that time. Now it is time to party hearty! Happy New Year!

I am sitting here, scanning through the cable news outlets who, for the most part are devoting some time to the news year in review. Obviously, the tsunami disaster is the most prevalent story being covered as it will probably be for many days to come. I always find it humorous the stories that some networks consider the most important items of this year. I just scanned through the usual suspects. CNN was covering the tsunami as well as giving a recap of the other major weather events of the year, in particular the hurricane season. MSNBC, again between the South Asia disaster stories, was talking about the increase in participation in the election process during the 2004 presidential races. Then, I flipped over to Faux News and, yes, they were covering what they considered the three most important newsmakers of 2004: Koby, Scott, and Jacko. Hello? Oh, that's right. We report, you decide. Well, I decide to flip them off. So, my new news year wish for all the outlets is cover the news (what a concept). Leave out all the fluff or at least relegate it to the Entertainment News segment, short and sweet. Remember that there are more than just blond-haired, white women murdered, kidnapped, harassed, and beaten in this world. Stop turning what should be a local news item into a sensational international media event. Start covering more news that impacts the majority of people in the country and the world like election fraud (in the US, as well as the Ukraine), the outsourcing of America (thank you, Lou Dobbs), and the loss of our personal liberties as guaranteed by the real Constitution. Report more about how our educational systems are being underfunded and faith-based initiatives are being given blank checks. Let the tabloids report on Janet Jackson's nipples and return to talking about the ripoff and endangering of Americans by the pharmaceutical industry. And, especially to Faux News, if we want to see Victoria's Secret models and sex industry workers, well, we'll find them on the Internet. My vote for the best news shows of 2004: CNN's Lou Dobbs Tonight and MSNBC's Countdown with Keith Olbermann. My vote for the worst news shows: MSNBC's Scarborough Country and the entire evening line-up on Faux News. The only show of note on Faux News is Fox News Watch where they at least attempt to be fair and balanced. Oh, and a special note to the person or persons on CNN who choose the bumper music for news item introductions: you really should watch your competitors more closely. I found it so humorous when you used the same music for the hurricane reports that Faux News used for their ongoing coverage of Laci Peterson. On the same subject, cheers to the MSNBC bumper music crew at Countdown for the outstanding choices that closed every evening's Oddball segment.

According to a report on the Federation of American Scientist's Intelligence Resource Program web site, says that the Iranian Daily is reporting an increase in unidentified flying objects over portions of their country.

The flights of unidentified objects and phenomena in the skies over the country have increased in the recent weeks. These unidentified flying objects have recently been observed in the sky over the Markazi (central), Bushehr and Esfahan Provinces. In this connection, an informed source has told the Fars News Agency: Since sometime ago, light emitting objects, resembling comets, have been observed in the sky over the Karkas region of Natanz, flying from east to west and at an altitude of around 30,000 feet. According to this source, in one of the instances, a light emitting object was blown up in the sky and the explosion produced green, blue and violet spar.

UFOs in the Iranian press? The last paragraph gives an interpretation of the article:

Randals emphasized: Some instances of observation of unidentified flying objects that have been reported so far have proven to be cases of espionage and reconnaissance flights.

Interesting... is our next stop... no, our government wouldn't do that... or would they? (via the FAS Secrecy News Weekly Mailing List - a must read) Additional: If you are interested in following the press in Iran (good for a different point-of-view), an excellent starting point is this media web sites listing. One newspaper in English that I find quite well organized and with an extensive on-line archive is Iran Daily. They give full coverage including science and technology, one area that is lacking on some Middle East news web sites.

Waking up even before the cat today, my mission is to get some software upgrades out of the way before I get disturbed by anyone or anything. We'll see how this goes. First on the agenda is moving up to WP 1.2.2 and some perl modules on the server. School work made me neglect things a bit, but I have my list of things to do, mostly of the non-computer variety. While uploads and such run, I am going to knock a few off that list too! Off on a mission...

The impact of the great earthquake this past week is thought to of made a definite change to the earth's rotation and tilt. An article on CNN reports what the chairman of JPL's International Earth Rotation Service's Special Bureau for the Oceans, theorizes are the effects of the earthquake's force.

Richard Gross, a geophysicist with NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California, theorized that a shift of mass toward the Earth's center during the quake Sunday caused the planet to spin 3 microseconds, or millionths of a second, faster and to tilt about an inch on its axis.

He goes on to say that there are probably no long-term effects from this slight variation. This further shows how dynamic a planet that we live on. (via Coast-to-Coast AM)

Sounds a bit contradictory in today's world, but that's the fact. On Mike Malloy's show tonight on AirAmerica Radio, he interviewed Marc Perkel, the First One (I kid you not) of the Church of Reality, a church/religion based upon reality. Stop over to his web site for their dogmatic pronouncements. No, it is not a joke or a parody like the Landover Baptist Church. It is for real, no pun intended.

The Church of Reality is a religion based on the practice of Realism, believing in everything that is real. Our motto is, "If it's real, we believe in it." Since no one knows all of reality, the Church of Reality is about the pursuit of reality the way it really is. We commit to being intellectually honest with ourselves and with others so that we can cut through the mythology. We want to know about the way things really are in the real world.

Also, note the new category of As Heard On which I will use to file items of interest heard on my favorite radio (you know, the box with knobs and no screen) talk shows.

Oh well, cancel the order for that 10-foot hoagie from Wawa for the asteroid party. It looks like we will not get a visit from Asteroid 2004 MN4 in 2029. I knew that it was just too coincidental that an asteroid would hit us on a Friday the Thirteenth. The way they determined that this would not happen is to put a call out to observatories worldwide to look through their archived sky data and look at it again to see if this asteroid was on any of it. They did, they found, they re-calculated and they canceled the asteroid's date with Earth.

Over the past week, several independent efforts were made to search for pre-discovery observations of 2004 MN4. These efforts proved successful today when Jeff Larsen and Anne Descour of the Spacewatch Observatory near Tucson, Arizona, were able to detect and measure very faint images of asteroid 2004 MN4 on archival images dating to 15 March 2004. These observations extended the observed time interval for this asteroid by three months allowing an improvement in its orbit so that an Earth impact on 13 April 2029 can now be ruled out.

While changing the design, I am adding and subtracting in the bells and whistles department, too. Just added to the sidebar is a nice plug-in, Dates to Remember, part of a very nice collection of hacks by Owen.

I am tired of coding a new perl interface for a web site I am working on and feel like playing. So, while Mary works on yet another web site (really super looking, too - link coming soon), I think I will pull out the virtual crayons and construction paper and work not only on the blog layout, but the whole domain. Also, I have a new section that I have been working on, a sort of pet project related to the listening to... widget at the top of the page. So, the usual warning goes out to any and all visitors: if the page looks askew, it is because I am tinkering with the bits and bytes and codes. It will only get better! Update! Gone back to basics with a few enhancements. OK, go ahead and be critical...

Semester break is wonderful for one major reason: sleeping late. What is it, 11:30 AM? Marvelous. For years, I woke up the rooster, having to commute into the city for work. The past two semesters I had a 9 AM class. Trust me, I liked the classes or I would not have scheduled them. In fact, they were both electives. But, there is truly something decadent about enjoying the warmth of the covers for those few extra hours, letting the world get started without the benefit of me being awake. The better part is staying up late. Well, I do stay up late most night, the curse of enjoying late night radio talk shows, like Mike Malloy and Coast To Coast AM with George Noory and Art Bell. With the school break, I get to listen longer, not worrying about having to get up early. Without homework to do, I also find myself doing more web and programming work and I seem to code best in the wee hours of the morning. So, it all works perfectly. Now, I must get back to working on this and a few other web sites that I have been neglecting for Petrology, Mineralogy, and other classes.

Well, since the US is saying to the affected countries "call our embassies for help" (like the embassies aren't under water too), my buddy Elizabeth is circulating a list of agencies that are accepting donations for those affected by the tsunamis in the Indian Ocean. Oh, I just realized! There's no oil in any of the affected countries. Say it isn't so... Anyway, avoid the middleman (uh, Halliburton?) and give direct! ACTION AGAINST HUNGER 247 West 37th Street, Suite 1201 New York, N.Y. 10018 212-967-7800 x108 www.actionagainsthunger.org AMERICAN JEWISH WORLD SERVICE 45 West 36th Street, 10th Floor New York, N.Y. 10018 800-889-7146 www.ajws.org AMERICAN FRIENDS SERVICE COMMITTEE AFSC Crisis Fund 1501 Cherry Street Philadelphia, Pa. 19102 215-241-7000 www.afsc.org AMERICAN RED CROSS International Response Fund P.O. Box 37243 Washington, D.C. 20013 800-HELP NOW www.redcross.org CATHOLIC RELIEF SERVICES Tsunami Emergency P.O. Box 17090 Baltimore, Md. 21203-7090 800-736-3467 www.catholicrelief.org DIRECT RELIEF INTERNATIONAL 27 South La Patera Lane Santa Barbara, Calif. 93117 805-964-4767 www.directrelief.org DOCTORS WITHOUT BORDERS P.O. Box 1856 Merrifield, Va. 22116-8056 888-392-0392 www.doctorswithoutborders.org INTERNATIONAL MEDICAL CORPS Earthquake/Tsunami Relief 1919 Santa Monica Boulevard, Suite 300 Santa Monica, Calif. 90404 800-481-4462 www.imcworldwide.org AMERICAN JEWISH JOINT DISTRIBUTION COMMITTEE South Asia Tsunami Relief Box 321 847A Second Avenue New York, N.Y. 10017 212-687-6200 ext. 851 www.jdc.org MERCY CORPS Southeast Asia Earthquake Response Dept. W P.O. Box 2669 Portland, Ore. 97208 800-852-2100 www.mercycorps.org OPERATION USA 8320 Melrose Avenue Suite 200 Los Angles, Calif. 90069 800-678-7255 www.opusa.org SAVE THE CHILDREN Asia Earthquake/Tidal Wave Relief Fund 54 Wilton Road Westport, Conn. 06880 800-728-3843 www.savethechildren.org ISLAMIC RELIEF USA Southeast Asia Earthquake Emergency P.O. Box 6098 Burbank, Calif. 91510 888-479-4968. www.irw.org/asiaquak

Did you miss giving a neo-con you love (or hate) that special gift this holiday season? Then I think the book pictured here is just for that special someone who thinks that all is well in America. Believe it or not, you can actually buy this book and contribute to the destruction of what little is left of the economy at (you guessed it!) Wal-Mart! Click that link! Click it again! That is the only thing you will every get for free from Wal-Mart other than freedom from employment, freedom from quality goods made in America, and freedom from unions. Wal-Mart is working hard (just like someone else we know) to take away your livelihood! If you do buy the book, please buy it somewhere other than Wal-Mart. You know, I wonder if it is on the shelf next to Sam Walton's book on how he started the destruction of America... (via our Left Coast Correspondent)

The Middle East Media Research Institute is reporting on an article in the Saudi government daily that accuses our military forces of procuring human organs for use in the US.

"Secret European military intelligence reports indicate the transformation of the American humanitarian mission in Iraq into a profitable trade in the American markets through the practice of American physicians extracting human organs from the dead and wounded, before they are put to death, for sale to medical centers in America. A secret team of American physicians follow the troops during their attacks on Iraqi armed men to ensure quick [medical] operations for extracting some organs and transferring them to private operations rooms before they are transferred to America for sale."

(via my LeftCoast Correspondent)

George Noory has a very interesting program tonight on Coast-to-Coast AM all related to the recent earthquake and tsunamis. The discussion is ranging from earthquake prediction to Chandler's Wobble. I am busy listening right now, but will relate some links and info later today. If you are in Philadelphia, you can listen to it on WPHT-AM 1210. It is also on XM Radio Channel 165 (replay at 5 AM Eastern). Outside Philly, go to the web site and click the Affiliates link to find a station near you. If you have never heard of Coast-to-Coast AM, George Noory, or Art Bell (the creator of the show), stop over to their web site. It is truly bizarre late night talk radio.

An update on my earlier note about the slip of the tongue by Defense Secretary Rumsfeld, you can read it for yourself from the CNN transcript. Do a find on that page for shot down the plane. [thanks to Lani and company for digging it out]

I remember that in my first journey through college three centuries (read: decades) ago, winter break was a time to catch up with friends who were also home from school. Along with that, we used to pay the compulsory visit back to our high school to flash the new college look (long hair! torn jeans! protest buttons! beards!) at the younger generation. When we used to hang out there, the kids looked up to us with envy and the teachers looked down upon us with disgust. Well, that wasn't 100% true - my high school teachers were a major contributing factor toward my political (flaming liberal) and social (long-haired hippie freak) position. A thank you to each and every one of them! Now, pay attention! Here come the parallels. My first sojourn through the collegiate life (c. 1969 - 1973), I had long hair (the beard wouldn't cooperate), wore torn jeans (bell-bottoms, of course), wore protest buttons (Mobe, the mobilization against the war in Vietnam), and participated actively in anti-war and draft resistance efforts. The president was Richard "I Am Not a Crook" Nixon. His is chief of staff was H. R. "erase the tapes" Haldeman. America was engaged in the war (it was a conflict, yeah, right) in Vietnam. After the Watergate Conspiracy was investigated, Nixon was forced to resign during his second term of office and his band of crooks was convicted and sent off to prison. Now, thirty years later, I am back in college. Yes, I still have long hair (the beard works now!), wear torn jeans (bell-bottoms don't go well with hiking boots), wear protest buttons (my favorite: One Nation Under Surveillance), and participate actively in anti-war efforts including fighting the reinstatement of the draft. The president is George "Working Hard" Bush. His chief of staff is Karl "Boy Genius" Rove. Now, can we make history repeat itself? I do not want the college kids today to have to look back in 30 years like I am and see how they and us failed. Oh, by the way, no, I am not going back to my old high school and physically walk around as the proud collegian. I can do it virtually on the web site that I created for my high school's alumni association. Strange how things never change...

This is totally unconfirmed at the moment - I am looking around to see if I can find a reference to it - but it is too juicy to let sit. If you have a reference, please post it in a comment. Apparently on Sunday, in an interview on NPR, he made a slip up:

DONALD RUMSFELD, SECRETARY OF DEFENSE: And to change that way of living, would strike at the very essence of our country. And I think all of us have a sense if we imagine the kind of world we would face if the people who bombed the mess hall in Mosul, or the people who did the bombing in Spain, or the people who attacked the United States in New York, shot down the plane over Pennsylvania and attacked the Pentagon, the people who cut off peoples' heads on television to intimidate, to frighten -- indeed the word "terrorized" is just that. Its purpose is to terrorize, to alter behavior, to make people be something other than that which they want to be.

Shot down the plane over Pennsylvania? Strange, I thought it crashed...

The US scientific community is talking today about the widespread death and destruction caused by the tsunamis triggered by the Sunday's great earthquake (see below) off Sumatra. They are talking about how the senseless loss of life could have been prevented. The problem lies not in the fact that there is no warning system. On the contrary, an international system of sensors and warning systems was established after the 1964 Alaska earthquake. The system, which is administered by National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, includes most of the major nations that are affected by the Ring of Fire which is the area of the Pacific Ocean and surrounding bodies of water where many earthquakes and volcanic eruptions occur. Without going into minute detail, the ocean floor in this are has many large trenches and underwater volcanoes. As a result of plate movement and eruptions, earthquakes occur frequently and, with earthquakes, come tsunamis. (large map of the Ring of Fire, courtesy of the USGS) The problem is that not all nations that could be potentially affected by tsunamis are members of the warning system. Which countries are missing? Most notably, the countries of India and Sri Lanka are not members. The director of NOAA's Pacific Tsunami Warning Center, Charles McCreary, told the Associated Press "that's because tsunamis are much less frequent in the Indian Ocean." The AP article also noted that "although Thailand belongs to the international tsunami warning network, its west coast does not have the system's wave sensors mounted on ocean buoys." Thailand's west coast resort of Phuket sustained loss of life and property as well from tsunamis. What will happen because of this? Let us hope that the nations affected will consider installing the necessary scientific equipment - ocean buoys and tide sensors - and become a part of the international network to share information and save lives the next time a tsunami occurs. Editor's Note - Seismic events are of great interest to me as an earth scientist. It is truly sad that these countries did not take the simple scientific steps necessary to help save all of the lives lost. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. Unfortunately, you cannot cure a dead person. Also, I was not saying that it was a great earthquake as in I thought it was wonderful that there was an earthquake but rather that it was a great earthquake, a geologic term for an earthquake having a magnitude of 8 or greater on the open-ended Richter scale. Sorry for any misunderstanding.

A different Andy this time. It was Andy Warhol who once said that in the future everyone will be famous for fifteen minutes. Looks like my 15 minutes (or more like 10,800 minutes) of fame are starting. Thanks to Karl, I have been dubbed as this week's featured blogger at Philly Future. I appreciate his noting that sediments is "personal bits" journal because that is my aim. No, I don't post what I had for breakfast (although I have posted some of my breakfast recipes) or how many bags of trash I take out on Monday evenings (although I am quite proud when I remember to do it). My hope is that all my readers take away a little tidbit of knowledge that may help them. So, welcome to all the new readers coming from Philly Future. Your comments and suggestions are expected! I hope that you'll keep stopping by after 10,800 minutes as well. Be sure to stop by the Philly Future aggregator and get a taste of all of the outstanding Philly Bloggers!

I have always considered our lone Democratic County Commissioner Andy Dinniman to be somewhat of a unique person. Now, the Daily Local News makes note of the fact that Andy, now in his fourth term, has become the longest serving commissioner in the 232 year history of the board. This is an achievement for Andy and the Democrats in Chester County. Andy has worked both sides, representing nor only the Democratic, but the Progressive point of view, unifying members of all parties who feel that the county should leave the 18th Century far behind and prepare for the needs of its citizens in the 21st Century and beyond. Congratulations, Dr. Dinniman on this achievement and we are all looking forward to supporting you for a fifth term if you so choose to run for re-election. We hope you will!

The one (and only) thing I missed when I moved to WordPress from that other blogging package was the lack of a glimpse shot about the current state of my blog like recent posts and comments. I have been considering moving up to the 1.3 alpha version of WP, but I don't have time to deal with potential bugs, so I am staying with the more stable releases. Now, courtesy of a hack by Dan Hersam, I now have added his dashboard for WP 1.2.x and it works like a champ. Thanks Dan!

I just heard on CNN and confirmed on the Eagles web site that the former Eagles great, Reggie White passed away today at the age of 43.

Former Eagles great Reggie White has died after suffering a massive heart attack Sunday morning at his home near Huntersville, N.C. He was 43. "Today our beloved husband, father and friend passed away," White's wife, Sara, said through a family pastor. "His family appreciates your thoughts and prayers as we mourn the loss of Reggie White. We want to thank you in advance for honoring our privacy." White registered 124 sacks during his eight years (1985-92) in Philadelphia, but departed for Green Bay via free agency. In Green Bay, he helped lead the Packers to two consecutive Super Bowl appearances, including a championship in 1996. Said the Eagles in a statement: "We are deeply saddened by the passing of one of the greatest men ever to play the game of football. On behalf of the entire Eagles family, our condolences go out to his wife, Sara, to his children, and to all those who have been touched by Reggie throughout his life. His legacy on and off the football field will never be forgotten."

It just pisses me off when someone hot links a graphic. It just completely frosts me because, in most cases, it is for some juvenile community web site where they encourage this practice since they offer no image hosting. So, people use the image scrounging search engines to see what they can link to on their oh my gawd pages. I usually just delete the file, but in some cases, I'll change it to a tacky image. Nasty? Damn straight. My other pet peeve are the comment spammers. Remember, no matter how many blockers you put in, they still rob you of bytes from your bandwidth. I am working on a little trick to pay them back for their efforts. More on that later.

Words like that are being used to describe the magnitude 8.9 earthquake off the West Coast of Northern Sumatra that occurred just before 8 PM (EST) last evening. The effects of the quake and the accompanying tsunamis has devastated thousands of people across the Asian sub-continent. The USGS Earthquake Center reports:

At least 2,200 people killed in Sri Lanka, 1,600 in India, 700 in Indonesia, 220 in Thailand, 29 in Malaysia and 2 in Bangladesh by tsunamis. Tsunamis also occurred on the coasts of Maldives, Cocos Island and Somalia. At least 200 people killed, buildings destroyed or damaged in the Banda Aceh area, Sumatra. Felt widely in Sumatra. Also felt in Bangladesh, India, Malaysia, Myanmar, Singapore and Thailand. This is the fifth largest earthquake in the world since 1900 and is the largest since the 1964 Prince William Sound, Alaska earthquake.

News is coming in about the tsunamis, death tolls, and the aftermath of the earthquake. This also makes one think about the possible severity of Near Earth Object 2004 MN4. This quake was like 10,000 A-Bombs; 2004 MN4 is estimated at 10 times greater! Scary thought - let me revise my possible observing position for that one: make it the moon!

Yes, I said April 13th 2029. That date is 8,875 days from now and it may just be the end of the earth as we know it. Why, you ask? I have always been interested in NEO's. No, not Neo, the character from the Matrix movies, but Near Earth Objects, those comets and asteroids that come far too close to our orbit and have the potential of impacting. NASA's Near Earth Object program is charged with gathering data about these objects, some small, some very large. Well, one of these pesky critters, called 2004 MN4, has now reached the highest hazard score to date. NASA issued a press release on Thursday saying that the odds of hitting Earth was 1:300. They updated this on Friday to 1:60! I do like how optimistic NASA is:

December 24 Update: 2004 MN4 is now being tracked very carefully by many astronomers around the world, and we continue to update our risk analysis for this object. Today's impact monitoring results indicate that the impact probability for April 13, 2029 has risen to about 1.6%, which for an object of this size corresponds to a rating of 4 on the ten-point Torino Scale. Nevertheless, the odds against impact are still high, about 60 to 1, meaning that there is a better than 98% chance that new data in the coming days, weeks, and months will rule out any possibility of impact in 2029.

The usual scientific optimism! What if it does impact? 2004 NM4 is about 0.39 km in diameter (about 1/4 mile for the metrically challenged) and weighs 83,000,000,000 kg or 182.6 trillion pounds With these dimensions and moving at us at 12.59 km/s or almost 100,000 miles per hour, it is estimated to have an impact energy of 1570 megatons of TNT. The atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima in WWII had an estimated energy of 15,000 tons or 0.015 megatons of TNT. Do the math - we are talking the equivalent of over 104,666 Hiroshima-size bombs. With good reason, NASA has assigned it a Torino Impact Hazard Scale rating of 4 which is described as "a close encounter, with 1% or greater chance of a collision capable of causing regional devastation." Regional? Like let's devastate North America? This is the highest rating in the yellow range of the scale (orange and red are higher). This little space rock warrants watching! I'd be 77 and if I am still on this blue marble, I want to go see it hit. Well, maybe I'll watch it on TV. Maybe I'll watch it on TV from the bunker. With this entry, I am inaugurating the first category on the blog, Astronomy. More on this one as additional observations come in from observatories around the world. And, oh, did I mention? April 13 2029 just happens to fall on a Friday. Friday the Thirteenth. (from Slashdot with a very long and interesting thread following it) via Findory)

Findory is another news/blog aggregator with a twist. It adapts to what you read without annoying check box forms. I just started using it, so I am curious as to how it will adapt. They also have the usual JavaScript-inserted RSS-feed display including two (one for news, one for blogs) tailored to your reading habits. I am included them below and may work them into the layout soon. Keep watch to see where my reading habits roam.

With the variety of holiday celebrations either just past or still to come, I want to pause for a moment from all of the political discourse and the problems of the world. I always find this time of year special because it really is all about the children. I remember when I got my first bicycle for Christmas, how I was at a total loss for words and just so overwhelmingly happy. Whether you celebrate Christmas, Chanukah, Kwanzaa, Eid al Fitr (the end of the holy month of Ramadan), or just the coming of ski season, remember what it was like to be a child, filled with awe and wonder by the celebrations of the season. Remember that when it comes to this special season, we are indeed all child-like, enjoying the festivities with friends and family. So, set aside the keyboard, the rhetoric, and the weblogs, and share some very special quality time with those who are important to you. The problems of the world can wait. From all of us to all of you, we wish you and yours a wonderful holiday season. Mary, Dan, and Jim

The grades are in for the Fall Semester. I did quite well, though not up to my own personal high goals. But Mary reminded me that the aim is not to gain the grade, but the knowledge that is gained. I knew going into the Fall Semester I was crazy to take five upper-division classes in my major. I have never worked so hard and learned so much in four months. Many, many thanks to my professors for the knowledge they shared. Especially in Mineralogy and Petrology, I went in with a yeoman's knowledge of rocks and minerals. Now, I have gained confidence in my skills and feel much more comfortable with the identification end of the science. Much of that feeling is because of my professor for those two classes. She ranks as one of the best teachers I have ever had. When (not if) I teach college some day, I hope to have her same teaching skills and the patience with students that she had with me. I survived and proved that I could do it this semester and in the next semester, my schedule is just as hard (I am crazy, yes I am) with not just 15, but 18 semester hours! Here's the lineup as of right now: Structural Geology Paleontology Geomorphology Geographic Computer Graphics Independent Study Humans and the Environment Add to this the potential of a paid internship program with the Pennsylvania Geological Survey, I think I will sleep between 2 and 5 AM on Saturdays. With this schedule, I have Mondays and Fridays off. Off? Well, off from classes, on to do research. For now, time to snooze so I can catch the stores at 7AM for those last minute gifts! I swore I'd never shop ever again on Christmas Eve. Oh well, I also swore I'd never go back to college. You can see where that got me.

While browsing the robot logs, I noticed a new one tonight called TurnitinBot. I love it! They are crawling my blog to use as evidence against plagiarism! Well, seems harmless enough. It obeys the robot rules and does its crawl nice and slow though what it is looking for. You will live another day, TurnItIn bot.

Chances are that you are reading this because you found a reference to this web page from your web server logs. This reference was left by Turnitin.com's web crawling robot, also known as TurnitinBot. This robot collects content from the Internet for the sole purpose of helping educational institutions prevent plagiarism. In particular, we compare student papers against the content we find on the Internet to see if we can find similarities.

I feel at times that I chat more via AOL Instant Messenger that I do by using my voice. Actually, I usually mouth the words as I type (I know, weird). I also like to know when my favorite (and not so favorite) reads changes. Instead of having to check Bloglines or be bogged down by an aggregator (tried a number, not pleased totally with any), I like Blog Change Bot. Within a few minutes of a blog changing, it lets me know by IM. It has a number of functions that you can use to maintain your list, all by chatting with the bot. The best way to see if it suits your needs is to give it a try with my blog (shameless ploy). Just click the graphic above - you must have AIM or AOL open - wait for the IM to come in, usually within seconds.Chat back with the command help for a list of commands. Piece of cake!

Over the past week, we have been so busy finishing up the Fall Semester and getting ready for the holidays. It is good to be completed yet another five classes and I can honestly say it was a challenge absorbing so much material. I can add, though, that I know more about rocks and minerals than I ever thought possible thanks totally to one of the finest professors I have ever had. With Christmas approaching rapidly, it is time to set aside the work and let the festivities begin!

Just a momentary rant about politics today in America. A message to those progressive democrats who feel like losers after the 2004 elections: you must and will survive. How will you do this? By showing the powers to be that business as usual has never worked whenever change is needed. If Thomas Jefferson thought business as usual, we'd be calling an elevator a lift and paying homage to Elizabeth II. If Martin Luther King thought business as usual, people of color would still be discriminated against as less than human. If John Kennedy thought business as usual, we would never have advanced in space and technology. If you think business as usual, you will be doomed to living in a society where free speech and thought will be forbidden, your jobs will be stolen from you and sent to a foreign country, your children and grandchildren will bear a national debt of enormous proportion, your educational systems will be further driven into extinction, and the age of your Earth will be declared at 6000 years by constitutional amendment. Take charge! It is your Democratic Party and you will be a part of the victory for all Americans!

I couldn't resist using the title from the song by Dead or Alive for this entry. How many times have you wished that you could watch the sunset through you living room window and on the next day, watch the sun rise through the same window? Sounds crazy, but a builder in Brazil has solved that problem by creating revolving apartments. What a concept! The article says that the whole-floor apartments are prices at $200,000 (pretty damn cheap in US terms). I'd like one, please, but a little closer to here.

Spinning in the high-tech building is activated by voice commands. It takes an hour for each 3,000-square-foot apartment to complete one rotation. You can't have it spin any faster because you need the turning to be subtle, Peters said.

(via Social Design Notes)

It was so nice just to sit on the couch this afternoon and doze off, not worrying about papers or exams. Another semester is over, one that at times I did not think I would survive. Today's final in Mineralogy was a unique one. As our final course requirement, the class put the finishing touches on our exhibits for the soon to be reopened Geology Museum. It had been vacant during building renovations and our professor decided that it would be an improvement to not just return the mineral and rock specimens to the cases but rather put up theme-based exhibits. The main goal of the museum is to provide a place for K-12 and other education groups to get a taste of the Earth Sciences. Our exhibits are oriented towards that with emphasis on a particular geologic process or topics of local interest. My exhibit is on Chester County Serpentine, a mineral group that was actively mined just south of campus until the late 19th century. One of its major uses is as a decorative exterior stone. In fact, the major foundation buildings on our campus are dressed in this distinctive green stone. Over the break, I am going to get photos of the museum and the exhibits on the web. The plan is to have studemts staff the museum starting in the spring on a regular basis - I'll post info here about that, too. So now I move into my next phase of the academic calendar: worrying about grades... I hate the waiting game. I have a good idea what I am getting (you only get what you earn) but am never sure until I see them on the screen. I think I'll just sit back and relax a while more.

Exam week is coming to a close and I am so body and mind weary. I feel relieved that the end is in sight, but it is a long day's journey into night for me today. The final piece of work I need to complete is my portfolio for Igneous and Metamorphic Petrology (read: hard rocks). I finished my final report on metapelites in the Wissahickon Formation and now I have to assemble all of my work for the semester in a cohesive format. Earlier in the week, I did this for Mineralogy. This one is going to be much bigger. So, it is off to dinner, a semester-almost-over treat for the three of us, and then back to the keyboard to finish all my work. Rest is coming soon to the weary...

The Presidential Medal of Freedom was established by Harry Truman to recognize notable service in war while JFK re-established it as the highest honor for service in peacetime. It has been awarded to a diverse group of people from Gregory Peck to Arnold Palmer to Julia Child to James Farmer to Thurgood Marshall. All of these people served America and the world, excelling in their lives. But today, the Bush Regime is changing that - Dubya will be awarding the medal to Paul "I Gave the Iraqis a Tax Cut" Bremer, General Tommy "We Don't Count Civilian Bodies" Franks, and George "But I Thought There Were WMVs" Tenet. Hello? Service in peacetime? These three were the facilitators for taking away our peace! Don't start with the 9-11 crap - Iraq is vengeance (Saaaaaadam tried to kill my daddy) and take add capital to the coffers of the war machine. Sad, Dubya, that you have to award the medal to these three and embarrass all of the other recipients. (via Unfiltered on AirAmerica)

If you are reading me (somebody must be...), make sure that you read other bloggers from the Philadelphia area at PhillyFuture. Thanks to Karl for adding me to the aggregator!

I have had enough of studying for Oceanography! So, to take a break, I wrote a little perl code to tweak the output from AMIP, a nifty little currently playing plugin for WinAmp (works fine with version 5). The results can be seen at the top of this page. Back to studying wave action!

I have to take a break from studying for exams to just add my $0.02 worth to the only news story that seems to being covered tonight. I will not mention it by name, but if you are a fan of Faux News, you probably can recite the number of pimples on every juror's (and alternate's) butt. Yes, that case is finally over and the jury decided to stick the guilty party at some unforeseen date in the future with an IV line filled with all sorts of nasty stuff. Done. Now, can the media get back to reporting news? Hello? We are talking a murder case in California! Why is it banner headline news all over the world? Why don't we give the same coverage to every murder? Strange how Faux News picks the juiciest crime stories about white, usually blond females... Not reporting on the crimes against people in the ghettos (unless some suburbanite gets caught in the crossfire). Not reporting about white-collar crime (they might be involved?) or the high number of executions of people of color in Texas? Funny, if all the news outlets wanted to report about some serious crime, how about the number of innocent people slayed by drunk drivers every year? Found an interesting factoid on the web...

The damage caused by alcohol impaired drivers is the same as if a Boeing 747 with over 500 passengers crashed every eight days killing everyone.

I guess we can't report on that! Might involve some rich white folks who might be offended, so we'll just keep talking about those dead white girls in between the Victoria's Secret runway shows. Thank god for Keith Olbermann - they made him lead with the story, get it over with in a few minutes, and move on. I guess that's why I like Bloggerman so much. Back to studying! Oh, listening to tunes on my new favorite streaming media station, DayGloRadio, 80s with Attitude. I even know most of the words to the songs from groups like Depeche Mode, Talk Talk, The Smiths, and The Talking Heads.

Are you a student, staff, faculty member, or alum of West Chester University in West Chester, Pennsylvania? Are you a blogger, journal-keeper, or diarist (don't want to leave anyone out)? I'd like to start a blogroll, ring, or similar aggregation. If you are too, please drop me a note at wcublogs [at] metzger [dot] ws and let me know! Even if you don't want to be on a list, I'd like to know so I can add you to my list of daily reads!

Yes, praise the deities that WordPress is around to free us from the drudgery of some other blogging products. Just converted my last blog using another now pay-for-play product that is such a pain in the derriere. And now to get back to catching up, moving servers, and, yes, studying for finals! And yes, the layout is plain and it will stay that way until a week or so from today. Far to f-ing busy to think about colors of anything other than metamorphic rocks.

Seven things to do over the next seven days...

1. Study Oceanography (exam: Tuesday)
2. Study Meteorology (exam: Wednesday) and finish lab report
3. Finish Environmental Geology take-home
4. Finish Petrology portfolio
5. Finish Metamorphic Petrology write-ups (due: Thursday)
6. Finish exhibit for Geology Museum
7. S-U-R-V-I-V-E!