January 29, 2008
Finally: Atlantis STS-122
Will she launch?
Feb. 7 at 2:45 p.m. EST
Let's hope.
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/main/index.html
January 28, 2008
forever energy
forever energy
by RAD
11-13-04
shifting sands of Time
slip through the cracks
of life
offering no solace
as it
stalks us
and ages us
fills our heads with wisdom
with each breath it passes
infinity spreads above and below
far left and far right
spanning eternally
its chaos and darkness
wonders and mysteries
light and matter
containing everything
energy
Time owns us all.
we tread on to conquer it
but it always wins
and claims all things
ceaselessly moving forward
locking the past
carving the future
it’s only a matter of time.
Das Ende
phone writing
I wrote this on my phone in November 2004:
$11.25 to bring small joys to people.
It's amazing what diversity you see at the bus stop. I road the bus into downtown today. There's good people watching on the # 6 East and West bus.
Each person has a story. Each individual has a different lifestyle and circumstances that find him or her on the bus today. I feel comfortable here, as though I'm connected to these people. We're all connected on this Earth.
It's a beautiful Fall Colorado day. The sky is a brilliant blue. A stiff breeze blows the gold, red and orange leaves form the trees. The leaves cover everything and mini cyclones swirl them around sidewalks, lawns and streets, announcing the soon arrival of a weather front from the east. Could the first snow of the season be on its way?
I meet Sug'z on the bus. He's hitting on the gal sitting next to him. He carries a ragged cardboard sign and a canvas bag full of CDs. He looks tired, as though he's seen and experienced a lot in life. SUG'z is a Denver rapper trying to make ends meet by selling his album: "They Call Me SUG'z (shoog'z)". I buy one for 10 bucks and he is gracious and happy. "You just made my day," he said to me, "I haven't sold very many. Thanks for the support." It's funky, edgy and unique.
I like it. It's made entirely in Denver, from production to packaging. There is a din of conversations around me. A woman sings a song to her daughter in Spanish. I think I hear two people speaking in Russian. An unruly child screams and cries for twenty minutes, saying the same word in Spanish between wails the entire time. Another woman finally quiets him by giving him a butterscotch candy. "Gracious," he says, wiping the tears from his eyes.
I pull out my MP3 player and load the U2 play list. I look out the filthy window at city life, each person quickly moving by, not taking time to see what's in front of them. They have a purpose. A destination.
The bus speedily turns the corner; everyone inside is violently thrust to the right. I see an elderly man running, his arms flailing as he hails the bus that's about to pass him by. The driver stops abruptly, again jolting people in the bus. He gets on, panting, and thanks the driver for stopping. He sits next to me with a groan, favoring his back and fishing in his tattered pants pockets for the fare. His silver hair was mussed by the wind and his blue flannel had definitely seen better days. His face was grizzled and he smiled a toothless grin. His smile faded as he pulled a packet of mints and a few coins from his pocket. I was watching him from behind the protection of my sunglasses when he turned to me and spoke, "Son," he said still short of breath, "I'm a little bit short on bus fare. Do you have 50 cents?"
I replied that indeed I did have the spare change. "I'll pay for you," I said, immediately pulling out my wallet and placing the dollar twenty-five in the fare collector at the front of the bus. I asked the bus driver for a transfer just in case the man needed one.
"Thank you and God bless you," he said happily when I returned to my seat. "I've had one hell of a day."
I offered him the transfer but he said he did not need it.
I arrived at my final destination and stepped off the bus. I'm fortunate to have all that I have. Spending $11.25 can bring a little hope and joy into the lives of complete strangers. I felt great. I skipped down the street, the leaves crunching under my feet, listening to U2, absorbing the glory of all creation.
January 26, 2008
Zig Zag #14: Bar Wars , Car Trek
I voice some of the Asian Tourists.
Zig Zag #14: Bar Wars , Car Trek:
Steve Gets harassed by Asian Tourists. Will and Bill are heading to a convention.
National Western Stock Show
The 102nd year of the National Western Stock Show in Denver, Colorado.
photo by PLJ
January 24, 2008
more patch pics
More patch pictures coming in:
photo by firemantaco
Lexi the Three-Legged Dog
photo by JH
www.myspace.com/36772345
EATING THE PATCH!!!!!
RADcast: Ice is a Mineral
RADcast: Ice is a mineral
Ice is a mineral and other neato facts of life. Gladiator combat, rescuing the damsel in distress, grunting and more!
Date / Time: 1/24/2008 8:00 PM Mountain Time (10 PM Eastern!)
Category: Comedy
Call-in Number: (646) 915-9516
January 23, 2008
Zig Zag
Zig Zag #11- THE OLD TESTAMENT
Zig Zag #13: The New Testament
podcasts
So many podcasts ... ... so little time ... ...
12 Byzantine Rulers: The History of The Byzantine Empire
American Environmental and Cultural History
ANTH 379 Indians of North American
Astro 10P: Introduction to General Astronomy
Biology 2120: Lectures on Anatomy and Physiology
Black Folk Tales
Chemistry 221
clip2go German/English
CPR: Colorado Matters
Crossroads of Earth Resources and Society
Earth and Environmental Systems Podcast
Engineering 45: Properties of Materials
European Civilization from the Renaissance to the Present
Garrison Keillor's The Writer's Almanac
General Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
History Podcast
Human Emotion
Introduction to Human Nutrition
Jack Horkheimer: Star Gazer
Military History Podcast
MyGermanClass.com: Lernen Wir Deutsch!
Natural Resources and Population
NPR: Health and Science
NPR: Story of the Day
Open Source Development and Distribution of Digital Information: Technical, Economic, Social, and Legal Perspectives
Origins of the Earth: The Old Age of the Moon
Owenni:io The Good Word
PowWowCast - Native American Pow Wow News
radcast
Real Science
Science & the City
Science and Society
Social Psychology
The PiECast :: Language-learning podcast
The PodTribe (Native American news and commentary)
Thermal and Statistical Physics
This Week in Science
this WEEK in TECH
US History: from Civil War to Present
January 20, 2008
Molly Brown House Museum
Molly Brown House Museum
1340 Pennsylvania Street
Denver, Colorado 80203
303.832.4092
mollybrown.org/
January 18, 2008
Randomness
1.) I love shanties and this fulfills my shanty fix.
2.) Please pass the wall rubbings...
January 17, 2008
January 16, 2008
January 15, 2008
No match
You click on half the keywords on my Match.com profile and there are no matches. Zero. Zip. It seems no single ladies in the whole Denver metro area have the same interests as me.
Yeah I admit I have a Match.com profile. Not for much longer. Seems like a waste of money to me if nobody has the same interests as me.
Human space flight? Monologues? Biography? Gum? Meteorology? Humanity? Wakan? Archeology? Pumpkins? Space? Universe?
Someone please point me to a space flight monologue gum meteorology humanities wakan archeology pumpkin space universe convention. Please show me where to sign up. Thanks.
It goes with the territory as a scientist I suppose, a lover of several natural and social sciences. I am an rocket scientist, chemist, biologist, archeologist, Egyptologist, quantum physicist and geologist. I dabble in many disciplines, dare I brag, I am a cryptologist, astronomer, meteorologist, anthropologist and experimental psychologist.
January 12, 2008
Tagged!
I've been tagged. 5 things about Russ. Tagged by:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wMqoD2eozy4
January 10, 2008
the laughter
I make myself laugh when I say, "Huffed any good sulfer fumaroles lately?"
January 9, 2008
January 8, 2008
Adieu Buckingham Square Mall, Aurora Colorado
The demise of the classic Buckingham Square Mall at Mississippi and Havana in Aurora has begun. The mall, active from 1971 to 2007, has started demolition to make room for a new flavor urban mixture of retail and town homes called “The Gardens on Havana,” a public gathering place.
Many fond youth memories do I have at Buckingham, one of them being the 2 green tube waterslides placed upon the roof of the old Safeway store. They were the HydroTubes! I spent countless hours climbing up the yellow metal stairs listening to “Drive” by The Cars before sliding in a loop-de-loop whilst banging my head on the sides of the tubes and plummeting semi-conscious into the pool below, a childhood adventure. The waterslide stayed open for less than a year. There was Mile High Comics also. Sweet Mile High Comics… And God Fathers Pizza if I recall.
There are a lot of Pumpkin Lord James’ images in the official memory book of the mall. He’s a dead mall historian. Here are his pics:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/76967529@N00/sets/72157594364548505/
The demolition ceremony/celebration was fun. The Aurora Sentinel newspaper interviewed Pumpkin Lord James. The media scrum was there. As was I, a reprehensive of radhole. The Overland High School choir performed. The mayor of Aurora, Ed Tauer, was there.
Buckingham Square Mall Demolition Celebration
Tuesday, January 8, 2008
1306 South Havana
Aurora, Colorado 80012
January 5, 2008
January 4, 2008
patch mission
I send out mission patches with a mission: photograph the patch in unique and interesting ways.
Submissions are coming in for the STS-13L mission mission:
I am late in sending out patches this year. Who wants one? Email me your address radhole (at) gmail.com and I will send you one. Free!
January 2, 2008
Wheel
Life is a circle. We see the circle in all things around us: the turning of the seasons, the phases of the Moon, the circle of the horizon. For this reason our ends are close to our beginnings: death and birth are found next to each other, a sacred hoop.
January 1, 2008
Whitney J. Bailey
My great grandfather on my mom's side was Whitney J. Bailey, Birth: 5 Jun 1872 in Jefferson Township, Knox County, Ohio.
Whitney was a wheat farmer in Pratt, Kansas where the family lived. In 1900, they were living in McPherson Township and in the 1920's, in Saratoga Township, Pratt County, where Whitney was a farmer.
Death: 11 January 1947 in Pratt, Kansas. Burial: Greenlawn Cemetery, Pratt Co., Kansas
“Mrs. Rolin Mcguire recalls that one of the big social events of the year was the time of butchering when several families helped each other as they worked first at one farm and then at another. Pioneer settlers had a way of making play out of hard work. In the coldest part of the winter, neighbors came and several hogs were butchered, enough to supply the year’s meat. Many were specialist in some phase of the work but she says that Whit Bailey was one of the best butchers in these parts and much in demand.” PRATT PAPER
Charles Bailey, son of Whit, who was born in 1911, told the following story to the Pratt Paper on November 23, 1990:
“The name ‘combine’ was derived from the combining of the cutting and the threshing machine into one machine, the combine, which soon replaced all headers, header barges, binders and threshing machines.
Combines had only been out a few years when Whit Bailey bought an International Harvester from Burt Dodson in 1924. Charles Bailey says that the combine was assembled on a vacant lot just west of the Courthouse and that his dad, Whit, had Dodson to deliver it to him on the east side of town because he didn’t want to drive his tractor with lugs down the brick streets of Pratt. Whit Bailey rented a farm 2 miles east and 1 ¾ miles north of Pratt. Charles remembers going to town from the farm northeast of Pratt with his dad on a little 1921 Fordson tractor to pick up their new combine. Mr. Dodson delivered it to them on a hill east of town about where Don’s Servateria is located and they hooked it on to it and headed back down the Cannon ball towards the east to home. The Cannon Ball, now Highway 54, was just a dirt and gravel road. Whit Bailey drove the tractor and Charles rode on the combine seat to handle the brake when going down hills.
This combine came from the factory as a horse drawn machine, equipped with two small pony wheels in front and a tongue. It also had a brake on the bull wheel to hold it back when going down a hill. The first year in the harvest fields, Whit hitched 2 head of horses on the combine and put the Fordson tractor ahead of the horses. A log chain ran from the tractor back between the horses and hooked to the combine to catch the wheat. These wagons would hold about 60 bushels of wheat and it took 4 or 5 wagon loads to keep the grain hailed away.
The two horses hitched to the combine with the tractor ahead didn’t work too well. When the tractor turned a corner, the log chain rubbed the horse’s legs and also the horses had to breathe the fumes from the exhaust of the tractor. The two horses that pulled the grain wagon along side the combine didn’t like the noise of the machinery so close to them. The inside horse next to the combine was pretty spooked.
Changes were made before the 1925 harvest in the horse power hook up. The tongue was removed from the combine and a tractor hitch was installed where the tongue had been. The tractor was then hooked directly to the combine and the horses were put in the lead. The combine pulled the grain wagon along side with a special hook up for that purpose which required 6 horses then to help pull the tractor. This worked better but sill the horses were a little spooked with all that noise behind them.
Horses, tractors and this early combine were quite a colorful combination, but not the best operation in getting the wheat cut and threshed so more changes were needed to make this operation better. One of the changes made was a bin that was installed on the top of this combine to hold the grain. This did away with the grain wagon that was pulled alongside. Then a big change was made in 1927 before harvest when Whit bought a new John Deere tractor that completely took over the job of pulling the combine, and also semi-retired the little Fordson and put 6 head of horses out to grass.”
PRATT UNION PAPER, about October of 1907
“Whit Bailey killed a large rattlesnake near his home northeast of Pratt Monday. It had six rattles and a button. Mr. Bailey was lucky to discover his snakeship before he struck.” They were not uncommon during this country’s early existence but in 1907, were becoming rare enough that an encounter with one rated mention in the county papers.
PRATT UNION PAPER, September 1933
“There were 200 persons in attendance at the Pratt County Old Settlers picnic at the Fish Hatchery. Some who attended and the year that they arrived:
1884 Mrs. A.W. Bailey
1887 Whit Bailey
1887 Wal C. Banbury
1894 Mrs. C.G. Bergner
1892 Samuel Bloxom
Whitney John Bailey Obituary, January 1947, Pratt, Kansas
Whitney John Bailey, son of Wm. R. and Lucy E. Bailey, was born June 5th, 1872 near Danville, Ohio, and departed this life January 10th, 1947 in Pratt, Kansas. On Mat 5th, 1897 he was married to Miss Dora Culbertson. To this union nine children were born, four sons, Charles and Howard of Pratt, and Orace and Leroy of Wichita. Five daughters, Mrs. Lester (Elsie) Bloxom, Mrs. Wythe (Edna) Martin, Mrs. Billie (Bessie) Munch, all of Pratt, Mrs. George (Nellie) Martin of Byers, and Helen of the home. Fourteen grandchildren and one great grandchild also survive. He was a devoted husband, a loving father and grandfather and a sincere friend and neighbor. He will be greatly missed by his family and by the community in which he lived.
Funeral services were conducted by the Reverend E.M. Fly of the Pratt Methodist church assisted by the Reverend Robert Yeagy of Glendale. He was laid to rest in the Greenlawn Cemetery on January 13.
Blossom
--
Blossom
by RADale
before I met you
I was a tunnel dweller
covered in grime in a sunless world
feeling not seeing
those diamond cluttered walls
with water just beyond reach
static charge came rumbling
so bright to dim eyes
traveling since creation
it flared that flash
and broke the light into a spectrum
its shards penetrating deep
to the core of a man it infused
with a breeze supreme
opening up the sky beyond time
illumination to the West it started
energizing good ground
teased by the horizon
and it grew to an ever-expanding day
deploying further to the mystery beyond
a nova encompassing
standing elevated
absorbing it all
trumpets sounded
with traverse a skip in step
bold movements to the future road
hardhatless
Das Ende
New Year's Eve Power Outage
Power Outage. 2-degree wind chill.
As I sat alone, drinking cheap champagne in the quazi-darkness surrounded by scented votive and tealight candles whilst ushering in the 2008, I was surprisingly at peace.
Calmness and meditative techniques were my solace. All my mental powers were harnessed. All my sanity heightened. I could sense what was going on next door. I heard the revelry 25 miles away. I saw through the eyes of City Fox. I was everywhere and nowhere.