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March 30, 2006
Here's something to make your blood boil. . .
I think if I'd have been a parent of a child who was subjected to THIS, I'd be showing up at Apopka middle school the next day with a rubber tire and a gas can. Then I'd kick down the principal's door (surprising him of course, after all this "experiment" needs surprise), then I'd give the principal his new "necklace", show him the gas can and chase him out of the school.
Of course I'd be arrested, but when they found that my gas can was filled with water, if they still wanted to press charges, I'd just demand a jury trial, then demand that the jury be divided with half getting the little yellow stars and told to stand in the back of the courtroom throughout the trial and of course, no lunch for the jew-jurors.
Yeah, this story pissed me off.
What's wrong with well-educated "educators" sitting children down in their desks, telling them to open their textbooks and learn the course material like we've been doing for well over a hundred years. BOOK LEARNIN works, people!!!!! Stop with the cheap theatrics, especially at MIDDLE SCHOOL.
--Jason
Posted by JasonColeman at 9:40 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
This is fun. . .
--Jason
Posted by JasonColeman at 8:57 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
March 22, 2006
Not that he needs the traffic. . .
But I must say, that the Instapundit has a particularly interesting column this week on Tech Central Station.
Sorry for the lack of blog, over the last week, I've been Spring Breaking with a young friend who gets herself in the strangest predicaments. Events at Camp Jason include:
"Oh, I accidently set the yard on fire"
"Oh, I accidently locked your car keys in the trunk"
and
"Can we sit on the very top row of the movie" Or the converse "Can we sit in the very front row"
Just some samples. Much fun, and confusing, frustrating, just plain goofy all the same.
Oh wait, let's not forget the "Why?" game; which can lead to very detailed discussions of the force of gravity or celestial mechanics while passers-by in a suburban shopping-mall give quizzical looks.
Seriously, the kid's shows have gone to hell, I'm sure there are still a few good examples of children's programming out there, but they seem to be very few and far between.
How does this relate to the Blogfather's post. It doesn't. It just makes me think about Google-zon and the fact that today we're going up to Vulcan, so if anything newsworthy happens there, we'll be on scene with video/photos/reporting.
--Jason
NOTE: The Google-zon link will take some time to load; it's a large flash movie. Check your volume before it starts.
-JC
Posted by JasonColeman at 11:16 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
March 17, 2006
What happened?.?.? Tom Cruise happened. . .
"So, Scientology, you may have won THIS battle, but the million-year war for earth has just begun! Temporarily anozinizing our episode will NOT stop us from keeping Thetans forever trapped in your pitiful man-bodies. Curses and drat! You have obstructed us for now, but your feeble bid to save humanity will fail! Hail Xenu!!!"
-Trey Parker and Matt Stone, Servents of the Dark Lord Xenu
So goes the rather unusual press release by the creators of South Park regarding Comedy Central's decision to yank one of their episodes that criticizes Scientology and specifically, Tom Cruise. The episode, which has aired previously, is causing more of a stir since Isaac Hayes, who voices the character of "Chef" recently decided that he needed to grab some headlines and block for his fellow Scientologist Cruise who's not only dumped little Katie, but has a big budget mega-movie coming out (Mission Impossible 3).
Media control and manipulation is a game in Washington, but it's high art in Hollywood where entertainment reporters and studios/production houses/networks/publicists and actors all work hand in hand to create the "hollyworld" that is Big Entertainment.
Yes, kiddies, just like Big Oil, and Big Pharma, there is a "Big Entertainment", accept this as a truism and your world will become a better place seemingly overnight. Once you realize that BE is merely after those rectangular pieces of paper with green ink smeared all over them which your evil government prints but doesn't guarantee that you have enough of to spend on your every whim or donate to each Sally Struthers appeal for Cheesy Poofs for Africans, you'll be better off, mentally, physically and emotionally.
When I first read that Chef was leaving South Park, I immediately thought it was a practical joke, or a publicity stunt for the rebroadcast of the Scientology episode. The lead-up to the new season is underway and Comedy Central is replaying all the most "controversial" episodes in a heavy rotatation with lots of commericals for the first season. The "Chef leaving" story just seemed to fit with something Parker and Stone might try to pull off, and while it may still be a stunt, I'm going to have to run with the idea that suddenly Chef saw the upcoming re-run of the Scientology episode as a threat to his religion, offensive or some such. Personally, I think it's bollocks, or more appropriately, Chef's Salty Bollocks, but whatever.
South Park, like Carlos Mencia (most excellent comedian by the way, catch him on Comedy Central as well), is an equal opportunity offender. Parker and Stone are two after my own head and heart and I have laughed, cried and even . . . well, lets just say, I was waiting for a commercial, then started laughing and well. . . . new pants. Yeah, their stuff can be that funny. It's also, HIGHLY OFFENSIVE to damn near everyone at one point or another, but that's part of it's genius. It's offensive, but with a message, and 99 times out of 100, that message is overwhelmingly positive.
We've seen the South Park kids tackle Islam, Judasim, Fundamental Christianity and most of the other "Big Religions", we've seen them attack the far left and the far right, the celibate, gays and straights have all been their targets, you name it, they've probably blasted it (TIMMAY!!!!!). If they haven't? Just wait, it's coming in a future episode, don't worry. (TIMMAY!!!)
So is Chef grabbing headlines for himself, blocking for Tom Cruise, playing martyr for L. Ron Hubbard, in on the joke or is he just trying to end his ten year run on South Park in a way that his agent thinks will absolve him in the eyes of Big Entertainment for all the years of slams and digs he was a part of while cavorting with Parker and Stone? Who knows.
I'm more interested in the "over the top" way that Parker and Stone will dispose of Chef's character. I'm certain they won't take this lying down and it'll be painful (in a good way) to see what they do to Chef, and I can't wait. Although apparantly I'll have to wait, as the next season is in the can and we won't see Chef written out until the following season comes. Which on a good note gives some time for the controversy to die down and Isaac Hayes can come back as a Guest Star to voice Chef's demise. That is, of course, assuming that Isaac Hayes does in fact share Chef's Chocolate Salty Balls.
BUT. . . . .
This Comedy Central yanking of the Scientology episode is just STOO-PID. Or genious, who knows, but I do know that Parker and Stone are coming out on top of this one eventually. For any Scientologist to try to "go after" South Park is a HUGE mistake. It's a totally unwinnable fight to defend a religion created as fiction and then hijacked by some actors to set up a perpetual pyramid scheme of "yes people" funneling money back and forth to one another through "religious donations" is not something that can be defended when the light of day is shined upon it.
If any Scientologists decide to pursue this, in even the slighest way, it'll be the "jump the shark" moment for the nutball religion of Travolta and Cruise. Personally I think it's JtS moment was long ago, but it seems to hang on.
It's simple really, Parker and Stone could care less who's offended and who's happy with their work, they love the work and they love the characters just as much as they think their messages are important. They do the work first and put the soapbox second, that's what makes the HONESTY of their positions come through and resonate with the viewers. While the soapbox is integral to what is "South Park", the soapbox never takes over the work and warps the entire production. Parker and Stone have reached a balance point with their viewers between message and amusement, and I, for one, am a better person for it.
Yes, I am a South Park Republican.
--Jason
PS - And now, without further ado, lets have that South Park Scientology episode, shall we???
Click that triangle in the circle above and the episode will play in a few moments.
NOTE: Please drop me a note in the comments if the video quits working so I can take down the player. Currently, as of 9A Monday, it's working. It can take up to a minute to start playing so please be patient.
-JC
Posted by JasonColeman at 9:44 AM | Comments (3) | TrackBack
March 16, 2006
Come on people. . . these are dots . . . you connect them . . . and you get a picture. . .
Much hay is being made about the largest air assault since the invasion going on in Iraq right now. Lefties are saying (WARNING: Link takes you to DU, and those peeps are crazy) that the assault is proof that things are getting worse in Iraq, the media is harping on and on about how this is somehow an "escalation" or a "response to a looming civil war" (hasn't that "civil war" thing been looming for a while now??? where exactly is it again???).
The operation is called SWARMER and yes it's a big deal but lets put it into just a small bit of perspective.
We're supposed to be over there "training up" the Iraq military. We're supposed to teach them tactics and logistics and develop their ability to govern their country in accordance with their Constitution, AND THAT IS EXACTLY WHAT WE ARE DOING.
Back in February, the Iraqi military got their hands back on military helicopters, Mil Mi-17's from Poland to be exact. In February the first 10 of the machines were delivered, and here we are, half a month later, and the Iraqi's are using their new toys in conjunction with the 101st Airborne and other coalitiion partners to move troops around Iraq.
This is NOT the big deal that the media is trying to play up, it's not an escalation in the violence, it's an ESCALATION OF TRAINING AND OPERATIONS on the Iraqi's part.
This is a good thing people!!!!
--Jason
UPDATE: Here's a picture of a Mi-17 in case you're not familiar with the aircraft.
UPDATE 2: Welcome to the Slate readers stopping by, please take a look around and enjoy yourself. I talk about this and that and the other, with some more of this and a bit more of that.
UPDATE 3: This morning everyone was aflutter thinking that operation SWARMER was something that it wasn't. People who didn't know any better (most of the major media I might add) thought that "air assault" meant "aerial bombing". Now that that has been (reluctantly) cleared up by the big media, and relevant corrections issued, the chorus is changing.
Now people are trying to say this is some Wag the Dog operation designed by the administration to divert attention from this or that.
I can't help but point out that this isn't a story that was put out there by the Administration. The MSM picked up on Centcoms briefings this morning and then ran away with it thinking that we were in round 2 of Shock and Awe. They got the entire story wrong from start to finish and rather than report the truth of the event, they have to remake the remade story into something else that they can sell as controversy.
If anyone was wagging anything, it was the MSM trying to make a sensational story about events that they didn't know anything about.
So, what is this whole thing???? It's great news for both sides of the aisle. On one right hand side it's taking the fight to the enemy, going after him quickly, in sufficient force, using the tools of the trade available and giving the enemy no ground to go to and also showing that the Iraqis have a new trick up their sleeve, airborne assault. For those on the left, they should be cheering the Iraqis for being able to pull this off. It's their intel, they're flying their helicopters and they are leading their mission with U.S. support.
This is a shining example that REAL and CONCRETE progress is being made in training the Iraqis and getting them to a point where they can wield real power and then project that power into any region of their country. This is what the left has been screaming for since day one for the new Iraqi army. Training, progress and operational independence. We've been working on the training, we're seeing progress, now we just have to continue to work on that operational independence.
Pulling off a heliborne assault is a difficult task for any military. It's not the most difficult task, but it's a complicated undertaking nonetheless. Everyone should be happy about this. It's a good thing people. It's a sign of progress.
It's CERTAINLY a helluva lot more progress than Germany or Japan or even Korea had made two and half years after their militaries were beat down.
I for one, give props to Iraqi military for coming this far, this fast.
--JC
Posted by JasonColeman at 9:57 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
March 15, 2006
Why? I'm not sure. . . but it's brilliant in a sense. . .
Lorie Byrd of Polipundit (on the blogroll and pretty much a daily read) asks WHY? In reference to this posting by Drudge.
At first I was asking the "why" myself. Then it dawned on me, it's just brilliant. Sit Jessica next to Boehner and for days you've got comedic fodder. Will Jay Leno or Dave Letterman be the first to use the "bone" joke.
So what's the brilliance? Someone in there (the Republican party) is playing out their own little joke and turning the liberal establishment on it's head. They (the left) have no choice to make the joke, it's just too obvious. However, with each passing of the joke from one to the next and with each decent into cruder and cruder commentary, the shrillness comes out, the anger comes out and the parody that the left makes of itself becomes more and more apparant to the average john and jane doe.
They'll belittle Jessica Simpson at the same time that they hold up a Madonna or Susan Sarandon. It'll be fun to see this one play out and watch the left get smug, all the while knowing that they're being played like a cheap fiddle.
--Jason
UPDATE: Welcome PoliPundit readers, thanks for stopping by, please take a look around enjoy your stay.
Posted by JasonColeman at 5:07 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
March 14, 2006
Today's Cup O' Coffee Post #???
You'll find "Real Clear Politics" in the blogroll and if you're in the mood to get lost for a few hours, it's your place. For now though, I want to point you to a first-hand account of the situation in Baghdad from a retired U.S. Army officer. After all, if the MSM isn't going to do the job, it's going to have to be independent first-hand histories that tell the real story of this war.
While you're going that direction, I also want to plug Iraq the Model as a place to get lost for a while.
--Jason
Posted by JasonColeman at 8:29 PM | Comments (2)
March 13, 2006
It's the little things that say so much. . .
So here I was, just minding my own business and about to call it a night when I decided to just check Drudge to see if there were any headlines just screaming for a quick read before slumber and decided to click on "Sen. Feingold Draws Little Support for Bush Censure... " (Go ahead, read the article and then come back.)
Ok, so there's not much to this article on the surface. Feingold's maneuver is a parlor trick of politics at this point, only designed to further polarize the electorate and show where he stands when it comes to running for President. ***CLUE FOR FEINGOLD --- You won't be facing Bush in '08, so you're really wasting your ammo here and only ingratiating yourself to that fringe, which worked wonders for Dean.***
But here's some things I want to point out in the article:
"The president has . . ."
". . . by Congress is . . ."
". . . when the president . . . "
". . . Congress has the . . ."
Now those on the left are going to immediately "knee-jerk" and say that I'm nitpicking, or attacking grammar instead of looking at context and substance. I'll suggest however that if, now, after I've pointed it out, if you have half-a-brain, the article takes on a whole different meaning. Notice even the extreme examples, like:
". . . George W. Bush, president of the United States . . ."
I'll suggest that the mainstream media has given up the ghost of objectivity, while they claim to have checks and balances on their content to achieve certain journalistic standards, it's the little things like this make the bias stand out so strongly. This piece has seen a number of editors along it's path to the web. It's been written, re-written, edited, checked, edited and then sent to the wire, and the issue that I'm pointing out made it through that process for a distinct reason. The groupthink or the agenda of the media put it there.
If you have no idea what I'm talking about, well, let's just say, you're not my audience then.
If you're still struggling, go back and read it again, look for things like:
". . . only president ever censured by the Senate . . . "
" Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid. . . "
But of course we've got ". . . what President Clinton was . . ." instead of Bill Clinton, Former president of the United States.
The media's objectivity and journalistic integrity are merely Charades.
--Jason
P.S. - If you want commentary on the stunt mentioned in the article, I'll leave that to Dan.
Posted by JasonColeman at 11:11 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
I feel like I've graduated. . .
Just scanning through the logs/lists and other paraphenalia that go along with running a blog and I noticed this little gem of a comment from someone who fancies themselves as "Your Nightmare" (I'm guessing that means a nightmare to the proprietor of the blog, namely me):
I'm sorry to see such a pathetic race of people such as yourself. The civil war is coming to America and your on the hit list. I do support the troops only in as far as bringing every last one home. But anyone who thinks this war in Iraq was justified or necessary should be tortured and killed.
The comment was in response to this post, which is ironically titled "If this pisses you off, go away. . .", the post is a video taken of a Marine in Iraq singing a parody song based in part on a theme presented by Matt Parker and Trey Stone, of South Park fame, in their great movie, Team America: World Police.
The irony just abounds, and I feel so priviledged to get great commenters like "Nightmare" above. I wonder, should I be nervous? Is this finally the "jihad on me" that I've been so anxiously awaiting????
Does this mean I've grown up a bit and now I'm an adolescent blogger instead of just a baby blogger???? Who knows.
I'm doubting that this "Nightmare" will cause me to lose much sleep.
--Jason
Posted by JasonColeman at 7:54 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack
March 9, 2006
Ah, New Orleans gets the shaft again. . .
Now I bet you'll think that I'm talking about the storm system that's bearing down on Lousisiana threatening tornados. Well, I'm not.
I'm talking about the "Dubai Ports Deal". Are you looking at your screen like a dog does when he hears a high pitched whistle???
How can the two be connected? I'll tell ya.
Dubai Ports World knows ports. I mean they REALLY know ports, of all the companies in the world, DPW is probably the most efficient and effective managers of seaports there is. They've built some of the most sophisticated and efficient cargo handling operations on the planet, from Dubai, to Hong Kong, wherever you found large concentrations of ships and cargo containers you found DPW. They found their niche and became the worlds best player at the game of shuffling cargo containers on and off ships.
DPW is the world leader in automated handling of cargo containers. Whereever they've gone they've installed automated cranes, robotic trucks and computerized container storage yards and dramatically increased the efficiency of the port facilities they operate.
Now it seems they're about to be cut out of a market that desperately needs their expertise, and more importantly, their money and investement.
One of the port facilities . . . . OK, I'm going to stop here for a second and point out a few things.
PORT SECURITY - Port Security WAS NOT, I repeat WAS NOT being turned over to DPW. The deal was this: DPW would lease some land within a designated "port area" and offload and onload ships into a yard where US Customs would inspect and oversee the "border" within the ports. Security would have remained a U.S. responsibility.
It should also be pointed out that in MOST of our ports, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Israel, Venezeula, Great Britain, France, Germany, China, Taiwan, South Korea and many more nations have entities like DPW that are CURRENTLY operating facilities within U.S. ports.
This ridiculous and false debate is NOTHING MORE THAN partisan politics, racism and ignorance combining to conspire against Dubai and Arabs in general. It's sickening in that sense alone, but wait. . . .there's more.
The port of New Orleans was devastated by Katrina, container yards, loading facilities and critical port infrastructure was largely destroyed by the storm, flooding and inattention after the storm as the companies that operated the facilities largely disappeared when their employees left town.
One of the most attractive portions of the DPW deal was the acquisition of leases for property in the Port of New Orleans. Making it more attractive was the need to completely rebuild the port facilities and making it even more attractive was that now there's actually an opportunity to expand port operations in New Orleans as the city is rebuilt in a more sensible and practical way. The Port of New Orleans was hemmed in, slums, housing projects and lower to middle class neighborhoods cramped any efforts to expand the port, sending business AND MONEY out of the city into St. Bernard parish, Baton Rouge and east and west along the intracoastal canal.
Katrina opened up whole new possibilities for New Orleans to become a MODERN PORT FACILITY. In fact, the possibility that the Port of New Orleans could be completely reworked was perhaps the one shining light in the entirety of the Katrina disaster.
Mardi Gras won't save New Orleans, tourism is only icing on the cake that is New Orleans. New Orleans is a port, it's always been a port as it will always be a port. New Orleans is the primary gateway for all those within the Mississippi, Missouri, Ohio and Red River watersheds to get their products to the open sea via water, the most cost efficient way to ship products long distances. New Oreleans was also the primary gateway for products coming into those markets. Take a look at a map of the nation and look at those three watersheds and the smaller ones that feed into them, New Orelans in many ways is the beginning and the end of domestic shipping for a large portion of the nation.
Katrina has given us the opportunity to expand, upgrade and enhance the Port of New Orleans. It was (and may still be be) our opportunity to create a seaport that was the rival of the world, unconstrained by zoning and neighborhoods preventing an efficient layout of the port. This was the opportunity to FIX so so so many problems with the Port of N.O. It was the opportunity to develop an automated system to handle cargo by offloading, scanning, monitoring, inspecting, TAXING and loading shipments in the most effective way possible.
DPW realized this opportunity and like any good business who's business was ports would, they struck a deal to get in on this exceptional opportunity.
There aren't many players in the port game at this level. In the United States we have Haliburton, in Israel they have Zim, in Dubai, they have DPW, the Brits have P&O, et cetera, et cetera. All of these players work together wherever you find large concentrations of ships and containers. All of these players come together wherever a nation puts its ports of entry.
Now, at the time we need international cooperation on international shipping the most, we've told one of our allies, both in business and in the GWOT to essentially go away, that we dont' want them to do business with us anymore. The players in this game (and that's what it's become, a game) are effectively stiff-arming New Orleans once again, and I'll suggest that their motives are far from honest and sincere once they step in front of the cameras.
On one front you have the President and the Administration, who approved the deal because it MET ALL OF THE REQUIREMENTS THAT CONGRESS LAID OUT. That's right, the Administration, through it's bureaucracy that transcends President Bush or any individual, put the DPW deal through the mill and checked it off against all the requirements that Congress had set forth. The DPW deal is a good deal. It's a deal we've done time and time again within our ports, it's a deal we make with numerous nations, Arab, Caucasian, Black, Asian, it's a deal that before now was blind to race, but GUESS WHAT? The Democrats (through Reid and Schumer) led the racist charge to bring this deal down and they convinced a number of Republicans to come along for this hate-fest through misinformation, fear and spin.
No one talked about New Orleans and the need to rebuild the port operations there from scratch, but BOY O BOY were they ready to LIE about "turning over security". No one talked about automated efficient cargo handling like they have in Hong Kong, Taiwan, Dubai or some of the major ports of Europe, but BOY O BOY were they ready to destroy the reputation and goodwill of one of our allies in the GWOT. No one talked about the reality of the deal, they only gave out the false soundbites, the false claims that security was at risk, and misleading assertions that the "port" would be taken over.
When I talk to people about the ports deal, they believe that it means the entire port would be taken over in various U.S. cities. Why do they think this? Because the media tells them so, even though the media knows it's untrue. It's easier and more effective to their purposes to scare and mislead than it is to tell the truth and explain what it means. People are also under the impression that there is a security threat, when exactly the opposite is true.
How can the opposite be true??? Well lets see there for a second. With more efficiency comes more time, with more time you can do more. Makes sense doesn't it???
So here's the kicker. DPW wanted to install automated loading, offloading and handling systems in their port facilities much like what they have installed in other places. By automating many of these processes you gain time, and time is what port security needs most. The reason that only 5% of containers coming into this country are inspected is because the offloading of ships is so inefficient. Every available shortcut is taken by companies to get cargo off ships and onto trucks because port facilities are generally too small and cramped. Containers now in many places come straight off a ship and are dropped onto a truck which passes through an inspection station and then moves out into the city. A majority of cargo coming into the country comes in just this way. It's rarely inspected in our ports other than a quick glance at the manifest, maybe someone walks around the truck with a radiation detector and maybe a dog sniffs the back end of the truck, but that's it, mostly cargo just sails on through.
DPW offered a partial solution in their automated cargo handling systems. By using automated cranes to transfer containers to automated shuttles you gained time. The actual unloading of the ships is dramatically increased and the congestion and chaos of the yard is replaced with the quiet hum of electric motors as automated shuttles ferry containers through a radiation detector, place suspect containers aside for customs inspection and move the bulky cargo away from the docks into holding yards where there is time (and in the case of New Orleans, ROOM) to actually undertake systematic inspections of containers on a grand scale. When you're paying people by the hour to sit in the cab of a truck and wait for inspectors to look at the cargo, money gets wasted and people get sloppy. No one cares about a robotic shuttle sitting still or going in circles back and forth to inspection stations, the computers won't complain about wasted time and not enough mileage. Robots don't argue with customs agents that they need to get on the road so they can get home early for their kids recital.
DPW wanted into the U.S. market in a greater capacity then they already had been. Yes, Dubai already has operations in the U.S., they bring in oil and natural gas to numerous terminals, and have shipping and receiving terminals in many ports across the U.S. The facilities that P&O operated were much sought after leases within the 6 ports in question, but the jewel of the deal, make no bones about it was the Port of New Orleans and the opportunity to create a world class port facility in New Orleans and turn the tragedy of Katrina into a godsend for a city that so desperately needed it.
But yes, fear, racism and partisan politics once again conspire to keep New Orleans down. Just like the idiocy of the reports of mass murders and rapes and lies about the events dominated coverage of Katrina, and continue to do so today, lies and misinformation dash hopes for a truely world class port facility to be developed in New Orleans.
I probably won't revisit this topic again, I'm pretty sick of spineless Republicans and fear-mongering Democrats and their treatment of this issue. I'll close by saying that when all is said and done, I'll tell you who's going to be controlling these port facilities now that the deal is killed. I'm sure we'll hear cries of foul and evil Bushhitler dirty tricks when it's said and done.
I'll tell you though, this new entity, when you look at who they really are, will be shown simply to be the company I mentioned in this post three weeks ago.
New Orleans gets screwed again. Of course people will say that it's all Bush's fault again. To be honest, it seems like the entire federal government on both sides of the aisle and in every agency is against New Orleans, add to that the mayor and governor too. It seems like the only one who is actually on the side of New Orleans, is the President. Go figure.
--Jason
Posted by JasonColeman at 2:03 PM
Meet Enceladus. . .
I would like to introduce you all to Enceladus, a small icy moon of Saturn and, apart from the Sun, one of the "brightest" objects in our solar system (Enceladus has an albedo of >0.9, in contrast the Earth has an albedo of about 0.3.)
Enceladus is making news today because NASA's Cassini spacecraft is making it's closest approach yet to Saturn's satellite, and Cassini has made some remarkable discoveries in the small (approx. 500 km across) moon. Volcanic forces are present on Enceladus, forces which are warming the interior of the small moon and in turn warming the liquid under the sheet of ice which encapsulates the moon. Further, all the evidence indicates that this liquid is actually water. That's right kiddies, liquid water, not ice, not liquid methane, not liquid sulphur, but actual liquid water is believed to have been found and confirmed, not just theorized, on another body in our very own solar system.
Astronomically speaking, this is the equivalent of man's discovery of fire. This is the big one, a discovery that may forever change how we look at the night sky and a discovery which brings the possibility of life exterestrial life out of the realm of science fiction and closer to the realm of science fact.
Since it's discovery by Herschel in 1789, it was tought that Enceladus was just another rocky, icy orb out in the "middle part" of our solar system. Enceladus was too small for radioactive decay to heat the little planet's core and it was though to be just another rock with an icy crust.
Enter Dione, another of Saturn's moons and one which is locked in resonance with Enceladus. Dione's close proximity to Enceladus has caused perturbations in it's partners orbit and gravitational forces have been tugging away at the moons inards and in turn producing heat, heat which causes volcanism, volcanism which keeps the subsurface sea of Enceladus warm enough to keep liquid water stable.
This is truely a remarkable event, and I'll be updating more today as this story develops.
--Jason
UPDATE: The story of Enceladus has all the earmarks of a great detective thriller. Late last year, scientists began to notice that Enceladus was geologically active. As mentioned above, this was curious because of Enceladus' small size, but it was the interference of Dione which turned out to be the culprit.
Next we find that there's fresh snow on Encelaus' surface, as the liquid beneath the ice caps escapes as vapor only to be frozen solid in the cold of space and fall back onto the tiny world. When scientists turned their attention to this bizarre little world, more and more startling discoveries awaited.
The Saturn system was awash in Oxygen molecules, a very strange occurance to find so far out into the solar system. Turns out, Enceladus was outgassing water vapor which breaks down into, of course, hydrogen (very common out in the ether) and oxygen (very unusual to find out in the inky black). Following the oxygen back to it's source led to the discovery of liquid water on Enceladus.
Images: Enceladus via Voyager - "false-color" enhance image from Cassini
Solarviews.com page on Enceladus.
NASA's Cassini-Huygens page on Enceladus.
In Janurary 2002, Enceladus hit the APOD with the headline "Ski Enceladus".
-JC
Posted by JasonColeman at 12:52 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
March 8, 2006
If this pisses you off, go away. . .
Because I think it's absolutely hilarious.
The audio is a bit hot, so be ready to turn it down, and you may not understand all the lyrics at first, but give it a little bit and I promise it gets better. About half way through, you'll be tempted to turn it off because you'll feel like it's run it's course, but I encourage you to stay with it for the entire video.
If you don't find it funny, well, let's just say that if you don't, then, you're not really my target demographic, OK?
If the embedded player isn't working for you, you can click here.
A small bit of commentary below the fold. . .
Now I know SOME people are going to find this offensive, but I'd suggest that anyone who doesn't realize the stress and the activitiy levels of our troops in harms way, also won't recognize that humor is their way of coping with being far from home, doing a tough job and most importantly, battling the feelings that people at home aren't behind them.
I post this because A) I find it hilarious, B) I like poking those who would find it offensive and C) I really support the boys and girls in harm's way and can empathize with their desire to lash back a little by using humor.
So before you fire off that 10 page hate mail missive to me, just realize that if this offends you, and you bitch at me about it, I'm just going to laugh at you.
Also, lets just say that if you snipe at me or have a problem with me, that's cool, take a swipe at the troops or my "target demographic" in comments and I'll delete ya. Got it?
--Jason
UPDATE: Comments are closed due to spambots.
-JC
Posted by JasonColeman at 11:30 AM | Comments (5)
March 7, 2006
Behold, the Dhimmitude of Europe continues. . .
Somedays I just look at my inbox and shake my head slowly. I can't believe where the world is going sometimes.
Of interest to me today is a report coming from Islam Online that says that the top rock act in Germany will be prohibited from appearing at Berlin's ECHO Music Festival after a television station announced they would not broadcast the performance because to do so would be an "irresponsible act".
Read the article and decide for yourself if the organizers are doing the right thing by banning the top rock band in Germany (named Oomph!, by the way) from the festival to appease potential religious troublemakers.
For my part I'm going to do something "irresponsible" and post a sample of the "offending song" entitled "Gott ist ein Popstar (God is a pop star)." Click the title for a sample.
I hope all those who would be offended by such music are profoundly offended. I'm still waiting for that Fatwah folks, I keep checking, but I don't think anyone has decared a jihad on me yet.
More musical interludes later tonight folks, and I promise that this next one will be a howler!!!! You're gonna have to wait for it though, cause I'm like that.
--Jason
Posted by JasonColeman at 3:48 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
March 6, 2006
Bobsled vs. Rally Car. . . .who wins????
I'm not telling, so you'll just have to watch.
--Jason
Posted by JasonColeman at 8:26 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
March 4, 2006
VICTORY!!!!!!
Once again the blogosphere has undone (in part) some of the damage the MSM created.
The Associated Press has now "clarified" the story about the video I discuss HERE.
Clarification: Katrina-Video storyASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON (AP) _ In a March 1 story, The Associated Press reported that federal disaster officials warned President Bush and his homeland security chief before Hurricane Katrina struck that the storm could breach levees in New Orleans, citing confidential video footage of an Aug. 28 briefing among U.S. officials.
The Army Corps of Engineers considers a breach a hole developing in a levee rather than an overrun. The story should have made clear that Bush was warned about floodwaters overrunning the levees, rather than the levees breaking.
The day before the storm hit, Bush was told there were grave concerns that the levees could be overrun. It wasn't until the next morning, as the storm was hitting, that Michael Brown, then head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, said Bush had inquired about reports of breaches. Bush did not participate in that briefing.
It's a shame that the AP won't give this "clarification" as much play as they did to their misrepresentations.
I so wish I could take credit for it, but I'm just a baby blogger, I do this because it makes me feel better to rant and rave a bit about what I see going on in the world. It does make me feel good though. Just like it did when I was one of the first to bust the faulty reporting of the Taliban Bodies story (start toward the bottom of the page).
Thanks to Powerline for pointing me to the AP clarifcation.
--Jason
Posted by JasonColeman at 11:34 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
March 2, 2006
Hey, MSM, topping and breaching are two different things. . . .
People are talking about the video now being passed around of a videoconference between President Bush, FEMA officials, and Max Mayfield at the National Hurricane Center.
Click here for AP's exclusive coverage of the video.
Now alot of people are trying to make political hay about the bit at the end. They're getting up in arms, again, about Bush's comment:
"I don't think anyone anticipated the breach of the levees."
They start frothing at the mouth because in the video Max Mayfield says:
"I don't think anyone will tell you with any confidence or not whether the levees will be topped."
Now critics of the administration are going to scream their heads off about these two comments. They'll try to say that Max Mayfield is there on tape warning of levee failure, when in TRUTH, he is doing no such thing.
Mayfield is talking about water coming over the top of the levees, that's TOPPING. He is speaking to the issue of the storm surge and how high it will be. Mayfield is NOT, I repeat NOT talking about a levee BREACH.
The topping of a levee is one thing. A levee is "topped" when water levels on one side of a levee rise to a point where they spill over. Think of a bathtub filling with water, eventually the water will run over the side and onto the bathroom floor. This is what Mayfield is talking about, because it's a somewhat serious event normally associated with storm surge.
Now when Bush speaks four days after Katrina that "no one anticipated the breach of the levees" he is NOT talking about the topping of the levees, he's talking about total levee failure, a breach, an actual HOLE IN THE LEVEE. He's talking about what happened at the 17th St. and London Ave. Canals. President Bush is saying that no one anticipated that whole sections of the levee system would simply crumble and disappear.
While levee "topping" is certainly serious, it's a completely different event than a levee breach. When a levee is topped, water enters the protected area and collects in canals where, hopefully, the water can be pumped out by the city's pumping stations. When a levee is "breached" this is a whole different order of magnitude of serious. When a levee is breached, you can't pump the water out because it comes right back in through the hole in the levee. Pumping after a levee breach is useless. A levee breach is effectively a complete collapse of the system and it cannot be immediately remedied.
People are going to get worked up over this and the mainstream media is already mouthing off and saying that Mayfield warned of levee breach when he most certainly did not. Mayfield was warning about levee topping, not breaching. Until someone can come out and say that there was a clear indication given to the President that the levees would crumble under the storms assault, the President is correct when he says:
"I don't think anybody anticipated the breach of the levees."
Personally, I expected topping of the levees, I expected water to run up I-10 into New Orleans East, I expected some of the inner city canal levees to be topped and some of the St. Bernard and Jefferson parish levees to be overtopped by the storm surge. I expected flooding, you always expect flooding in New Orleans during a hurricane, but then I expected the pumps to take over and pump the water out of the city. That was the defense plan for New Orleans. That's always been the plan. If water comes into the perimeter protected by levees, collect it in the canals and pump it out. A levee failure, like that experienced during Katrina, can't be "anticipated" because it's a catastrophic total failure of the levee. If you "anticipate" the breach of the levee, why even rely on the levee system at all, a breached levee might as well be no levee at all. For centuries New Orleans has relied on the levees to protect it, and for centuries, a levee breach was not "anticipated".
Levee "topping" however is a completely different story, and NO ONE has ever talked about not anticipating the levees being topped. In fact, almost everyone talked about them being topped.
I don't expect the mainstream media to notice or even accept this distinction between what Mayfield is saying, Bush is saying and what the media WANTS to say. I've pretty much given up on the mainstream media reporting the honest facts and making those important little distinctions that separate real truth from fantasy. I only hope that the blogosphere can get out in front of this and point out that Mayfield is talking about one type of event and Bush is talking about another. Most Americans aren't familiar with levees in as intimate a way as New Orleans residents are, but anyone who's lived in New Orleans and had an actual levee standing between them and water over their heads can certainly attest to knowing the difference between topping and breaching. Hopefully the blogosphere can make that explanation and demonstrate the difference between the two for people.
--Jason
PS - All of my Hurricane Katrina blogging can be found here.
UPDATE: Dabgummit, Powerline and Big Lizards beat me to the punch on this one (and of course did a better job), that's what I get for having Gumbo and watching local boy Taylor Hicks on Idol with the family before thinking about bloggin. I guess I just need to chain myself to the desk more. Patterico also weighs in.
-JC
Posted by JasonColeman at 12:15 AM | Comments (24) | TrackBack
March 1, 2006
A 33 minute "mystery" explosion. . .
Ok, I'll be the first to admit that space is big, I mean really really big, so mind boggling BIG. . . . OK OK, I know, Douglas Adams admitted it first, and probably someone before him, but I'm just saying here that "space is big".
Being that space is so big, there's alot, and by alot, I almost all, that we DON'T know about space and what's out there in the inky black.
So it's no surprise that there are "mysteries" out there that Earthly science can't explain, but this little tid bit made me sit up and take a minute to say. . . "Uh oh, this can't be good."
Now you can dismiss this as paranoia, or whatever, but I'll be frank. The first thing I thought about when I read this article was that some civilization 440 million light years from us decided that they REALLY REALLY REALLY had had enough with those guys over there on the other side of their planet and decided to nuke them into oblivion. This resulted in a counterstrike by the other guys which effectively obliterated the civilization.
What did it for me was the time, 33 minutes. Just about the amount of warning you get when you fire a ballistic missile from one hemisphere of the planet at the opposite hemisphere. So one side popped off, the other side saw it coming, and they popped off, the result???? 33 minutes of gamma rays bursting out into the universe.
I'm comforted in a way. Comforted by the thought that there's one less civiliation out there ahead of us looking for other civilizations (like ours) to enslave. I, for one, DO NOT welcome any new Intergalactic Imperial Overlords, thank you.
In another way I'm deeply disturbed. If in fact, this was an alien civilization blowing itself away 440 million years ago, that means that 440 million years ago, there was a civilization out there playing with nuclear weapons. That definately doesn't make me feel good on any level. It only means we're WAY BEHIND in the galactic arms race and for every civilization out there blowing itself away, there's probably one, two, ten or 600 million that figured out that there were little green blue orbs (like ours) out there pumping out reruns of I Love Lucy and the phrase "Lucy! I'm home!" in their language actually means "Hey you, come kick our ass!" The thought of Andy Griffith being a beacon for little green men with nasty dispositions has kept me up at night more than once.
Yes, my dear readers, when I look up in the night sky I don't see pretty stars and friendly constellations, I see big interplanetary battle cruisers manned by really pissed off aliens from some star like 51 Pegasi looking for semi-intelligent bipedal ape-like creatures to enslave.
Ok Ok, I'm half kidding, but I'm also half serious. I'm in no way shape or form under the impression that we're alone out there in the inky black. I'm actually quite certain that we're not alone. I'm also not one of those that subscribes to a theory that any intelligent alien civilization would be friendly to us. In fact, I think that the odds are much better that they'd just want our rock and we'd just be cockroaches to them until we master some form of faster than light travel and can build our own interstellar battle cruisers. Until then, I feel comfortable embracing my fear of aliens coming to waste us.
That's why I'm smiling just a little bit at the thought of some alien civilization blowing itself to smithereens. It just means the odds of us making it went up just a tiny bit. Of course then I think about the insects that survived nuclear armageddon on that rock 440 million light years ago/away and I wonder how far along the Army is in developing the Starship Trooper's Powered Armor.
--Jason
**Comments for this entry are now closed. If you'd like to add something, please email me.**
Posted by JasonColeman at 12:15 AM | Comments (3)
