Queen Scream - a GNR tale

A nice little excerpt on the Rolling Stone site details exactly how the Guns N' Roses boys created the ecstatic moans heard in the song "Rocket Queen".

You just can't beat bands like GNR for legendary excess and debauchery.

"Axl Rose was lying nude inside a Manhattan recording studio's darkened
vocal booth, working out some unorthodox last-minute overdubs. "

755-ish

Barry Bonds is on the verge of trampling one of sport's most touted records. Juice or no, 756+ is a heap of homers. Hammerin' Hank has a place in the fiber of my sports being, hearkening back to being a youngster learning to play ball back in ATL. I hate to see his record fall, but that is the way of things. Regardless, I will still marvel at what he accomplished and picture the image of Aaron trotting the bases on number 755 and the crush of deeper and more disturbing things than steroids hanging in the air as a black man assumed the Home Run Crown. Nonetheless, I have always considered Barry, with or without the enhancements, to be probably the most talented player out there. I certainly have not seen any better in my days. The one man asshole army, Cobb, was long gone before my arrival on Earth. Arguments to be made for sure, on all sides, and new talent is always rising.

The looming torch passing and all the squabbling gave me pause to consider the greater sporting world.

Let's run down where we stand today:

• Baseball - steroids, racism (talk to Sheffield, he is always good for an uncomfortable take on the world), union headaches, Commissioner refusing to acknowledge Bonds, the death of a minor league coach after being struck by a batted ball
• NFL - new Commissioner trying to take control while criminals run rampant: Vick (dog fighting), Pacman Jones (everything up to and including threatening witnesses), Tank Johnson (guns), Cincy Bungles getting arrested like it's going out of style, League balking at assisting Veteran players
• NBA - amid the usual thug image, general lack of fan interest of late, and USA basketball playing like a second tier team, there is now the issue of a ref getting nailed for influencing games he worked, including mob ties
• Golf - an emerging steroid scandal of their own
• Cycling - dopes doping, most recently another smear to the Tour de France
• College - uncontrolled players, Coaches hopping from gig to gig for millions of dollars while players receive nothing from a billion dollar collegiate sports industry that can't even see fit to make sure they get educated, women's sports inequalities and lack of black coaches still shadow every success for an area holding tight to fan interest
• Boxing - no heavy weight contenders, Don King and a sport that nobody trusts
• Soccer - Belarus player accused of offering cash to players to throw games, Partizan club tossed from UEFA for fighting with Bosnian-Croat fans, Portuguese investigating 20 cases of corruption, 50 Iraqis killed in a celebration of advancing to the Asia Cup final, West Ham and Man U in High Court duster over ownership of a player's rights, Danish fan attacked a ref, former Thai PM (ousted over alleged corruption) is now majority owner of Manchester City soccer club and will delist MC from the London Stock Exchange
• NHL - no fan interest, continuing financial problems and union issues
• Tennis - lack of interest and personalities as nobody pays attention to another great Federer v. Nadal match
• Auto Racing - Dale Junior leaves DEI, July 10th twin engine plane crash kills 5, Hendrick Motorsports cars fail pre-race inspections in June, Formula One's McLaren is not to be punished for possessing confidential info on the design of rival Ferrari's cars, IRL controversies abound as drivers brawl amongst each other (perhaps trying to emulate an image NASCAR is trying to distance itself from)

It's rough out there. At least I can still be amused at the occasional statistical oddity. Yankees slugger, Alex Rodriguez, hit his 499th career home run on Wednesday. However, today (Friday, July 27th) A-Rod will face the Orioles in the resumption of a game that was suspended in the eighth inning on June 28th this year. If A-Rod hits a round tripper in this resumed game, that would be his 493th and the Wednesday shot would become his 500th. A-Rod, coincidentally, turns 32 today and would be the youngest to reach 500 home runs. He would surpass Jimmie Foxx (32 years, 338 days).

MLB rule, 10.23 (d), states: "All performances in the completion of a suspended game shall be considered as occurring on the original date of the game.''

Let's not even get into the permutations of what the Yankee's win streak would be....or not be. It begs the question of what exactly is a streak and what a numerical sequence really represents. I guess it mainly serves to prove that Major League Baseball has power over time itself.

We apologize for any inconvenience

This morning I was greeting by a BUILDING NOTICE placed nicely on my work desk. This is not unusual. What was unusual was the content of the notice. The Office of the Building was kind enough to inform me that Warner Brothers will be co-opting the streets surrounding the building on various days for the purpose of filming something called "Rory's First Kiss".

I am assured that my safety is being taken care of. Fortunately for everyone, WB has all the required permits and supervisors from the City of Chicago, the Chicago Police Department, the Chicago Fire Department and the Chicago Transit Authority. Additionally, helicopters used during filming will be coordinated through the FAA and the Mayor's Office.

No big deal, maybe I can use it as an excuse to leave work early.

How many helicopters does a filming of "Rory's First Kiss" merit?

A quick Googling pointed me over to the cinematical.com website. A January 2007 article informed me that it was common knowledge that "Rory's First Kiss" is the not-so-secret code for the Batman flick. Chicagoans have seen the Dark Knight crew poking about here already (see my earlier post for snaps of the old Chicago Post Office masquerading as the Gotham National Bank). I therefore must ask why the continued facade?

NASA's interactive tour of the ISS

Check out the Interactive Space Station Reference Guide on NASA's website.

Click on the first item on the "In Depth" column on the right side of the page.

Cool 360-degree view.

From the NASA press release:

MEDIA ADVISORY: 07-089

NASA Launches Interactive Online Tour of the Space Station

WASHINGTON -- The International Space Station is now accessible in
cyberspace. On Thursday, NASA launched its Interactive Space Station Reference
Guide, a new tool that features an in-depth look inside and outside of the
orbiting laboratory that has never before been seen.

Researchers Develop Cheaper, Simpler Solar Panel Production Process

According to a July 18, 2007 press release, the folks over at the New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT) have come up with an inexpensive solar cell technology that can be painted or printed on flexible plastic sheets. Lead researcher and acting chair of NJIT's Department of Chemistry and Environmental Sciences, Somenath Mitra, PHD, predicts a scalability that will allow for inexpensive home-based inkjet printers.


The Royal Society of Chemistry's Journal of Materials Chemistry published the process in a June 21, 2007 cover story.


The new process uses carbon nanotubes (molecular configuration of carbon in a cylindar shape). The tiny nontube is estimated at 50,000 times smaller than human hair. The nanotubes are combined with fullerenes (called Buckyballs and which are like the tubes, but carbon in the shape of a sphere). The balls trabe the electrons, but need the sunlight to excite the polymers to create the electron flow through the tubes, which are better conductors than copper.



Current solar cells are made with purified silicon. When sunlight hits the solar cell, positive and negative charges are created. In order to generate a current, the charges must be separated. A traditional solar cell is made up of two types of silicon, postive-type silicon (p-type, which has slightly too few electrons, or free holes) and negative-type silicon (n-type, which has too many electrons, or free electrons). In order to create these two types from the normal pure crystalline structure of silicon (which wouldn't have the free electrons or the required holes) either boron (for p-type) or phosphorous (for n-type) is added to create the desired atmosphere where the mismatched electron scenario occurs.


When the p-type and n-type are combined, the n-type free electrons rush to fill the holes on the p-type side. At the junction, a one way barrier is formed as an equilibrium is reached (electric field), but there remain free electrons and holes.


Light (photons) knock electrons free (and thus create holes), which are driven by the electric field from the lower level to the upper level (n-type) while the holes are now on the lower lever (p-type). The provided circuit allows the lost free electrons a path back to the p-type side to reunite with their long lost holes. The electron flow = current. The electric field = voltage. Combining the two results in power!


Just slap an antireflective coating over the doped silicone (doping was the process we used to add the boron and phosphorous) so the sneaky photons can't get away, then cover the mess with a protective sheet of glass and we are ready to go. Surely the average Joe can do that at home?

Greenies

Go find the Greenies Home sim and take a walk around. An exceedingly cool build with some really nice texture work. Find all the little green aliens mucking about in this home. Be sure to poke under and behind things and don't forget to find your way up to the mother ship, where you can test out a ufo or buy yourself some gear, including a variety of greenies avatars.

The scale of the place is amazing and I couldn't help chuckling at how small everyone seemed when viewed from across the sim.



Smokin' a little, then doing the nasty (what? aliens do it weird) and wallowing in some sugar.




Family cat is not pleased.

Mother ship!

I'm off into the sunset.

August Perseids

With a new moon on August 12, this year's Perseid Meteor Shower is predicted to be a good viewing opportunity.

Peak viewing should be Aug 12-13 of this year.

Images from Space.com

George Varros shot this amazing photo during the Perseid
Meteor shower, in Mount Airy, Maryland, on Aug. 12, 2006.

Chris Peterson photographed approximately100 Perseid meteors over three evenings, August 10-12, 2006, over Guffey, Colorado. Click to enlarge.

Oxtail

I found some oxtail at the butcher and snapped it up without a thought as to what I would do with it. It seemed like an interesting adventure. A man that calls himself Taco was gracious enough to lead me to a recipe on a Brazilian food site. I had mulled something along the lines of an African stewish type recipe, but the man called Taco assured me this recipe would work well. He was correct.

In the most typical of events, the timing unit on my stove died the day following my purchase of the oxtail. This was a minor irritation and I managed to pull out a slow cooker that I had never used before. I may use it again, however. I did the first bit of softening the onions and getting the meat started for a few minutes on a skillet directly on some coals in the grill. I then immediately transferred to the slow cooker for the long haul. The results were a success.

I managed to gulp some chianti, cut my finger while screwing around with a sharp knife (apparently not the best tool for removing a small hangnail) and watched Blood and Chocolate. The movie was not bad, particularly given my exceptionally low expectations. Why do I watch these things? I just do.

Ready?

Prep

Shiny new, old slow cooker

Slow Cookin'....

Dramatic finish.

Chiparus

I found myself wandering an urban blight zone in SL. Not one of the true metaverse slums replete with neon, spinning cubes belching particle sputum into the aether. Rather, a detailed representation of an urban landscape with colorful wall taggings and dark, gritty textures applied to ground, walls and structures. The owner, Tomarus Lednev, has displayed some excellent photography of the Amsterdam metro network (more of the artist's work can be seen on this website). Take a gander at the beautifully grungy subway car (outter and inner vews) and the broken husk of an airliner backed by a graffiti-covered brick wall.

A single manhole, venting a fetid steam, led down into a maze of sewers.

What could await an avatar at the end of such a jaunt? The singularly most entertaining part of the evening stroll......an underwater living quarters on the neighboring parcel. The relatively staid decor of the bubble-like underwater home belied the most outstanding upper chamber. A private den with a suitably large bed and walls plastered with $100 bills. Life is grand (possibly more, I didn't tally it up).

The Virtual Reality Room

Last night, a friend took me to see the VRR Shop in SL. It has some fairly interesting "virtual reality" cubes being sold by Stephane Zugzwang. We discussed at length some of the environments that could be created using these. I'm going to play around with one when I get a free moment. Follow the title link for more details as provided by Stephane on SLExchange.

Check out the video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wFYXqpwM3DE

Dorito What?

Yeah, it's old, it's tired, you saw this back in beta, and you hate whacky asian stuff. Well, it still makes me laugh, so fuck off.

Tentacle Tongue

I saw this over in the forums and had to check it out.

Devil Made Me Do It introduces the scripted Tectacle Tongue. A long tongue attachement that flicks in and out of your avatar's mouth. How could you not want one?

7 colors for individual sale or as a pack.

Buddha!

A human-shaped shadow in the middle of a rainbow halo appears on Zushan Mountain after a heavy rainfall in Qinhuangdao, North China's Heibei Province, July 1, 2007. The vision, which many tourists believed to be the Buddha, stayed for more than an hour.

OK, it's not really Buddha. It's still a cool pic.


"every existence or phenomenon arises from the functions of the mind"