I once had the honor of being the narrator for this ceremony in remembrance of American POW/MIA's. It's incredibly moving and if you ever get the opportunity to see it, I highly recommend it.

Another wonderful one to see is a formal Flag Disposal.

Contact your local VFW or American Legion for information about patriotic events and ceremony's in your area.

Posted by: Ted at 07:37 AM | category: Square Pegs
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Bill sucks 18% more now that's he's shovelled a year's worth of crapola at the unwary.

Posted by: Ted at 05:35 AM | category: Square Pegs
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I missed this when I put together Rocketing Around the Blogosphere last night, but that's ok, because it's worth a post all to itself.

This is so freaking awesome.

Thanks to Mark of Not Quite Tea and Crumpets for pointing this out, and thanks to One Hand Clapping for originally posting it.

Posted by: Ted at 05:25 AM | category: Links
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In the October issue of ComputerUser there are several articles about wireless computing and WiFi (wireless fidelity). I didn't know anything about the subject, but learned a lot.

It looks like some very creative uses are being implemented for this technology, and often a niche segment of the market leads the way.

This is a perfect example, a small group of wargame enthusiasts travelling around Europe on a historic battlefield tour. From the tour website:
We have assembled a unique tour designed by a wargamer for wargamers. This is NOT an ordinary plain-jane tour with 52 people stopping at gift shops to buy porcelain souvenirs (if that is what you want, call I have hundreds of tours like that). And not a Veterans tour that spends half its time in cemeteries. We see many major battlefields, have the opportunity to play games en-route & enjoy it all without all the hassle of planning and travel details. We are limited in how many travelers we can take because our custom-redesigned motorcoach will have tables installed for wargaming while driving.

The tour coach also has an installed WiFi hotspot as well for online LAN games while travelling. There are planned stops at Agincourt, Waterloo, the Maginot Line, Ypres, Sword and Utah beaches, and more. They've got room left on the tour. I did say 'niche'.

In other WiFi news (this caught my eye this morning), parents are suing a school district that has installed a wireless network because they're afraid that the invisible computer beams are going to harm their children. Uh huh.

We haven't gone wireless with our home network. I'm not in any hurry to do so, partly because of my ignorance of the technology and lazyness about learning it. My main concern is security, it bothers me that important personal information would just be 'out there' floating around and could be intercepted and read by unintended people. Maybe that's not a problem (remember, I'm ignorant), but I remember picking up my neighbors cordless phone calls on our baby monitor back in the day.

Posted by: Ted at 05:03 AM | category: SciTech
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Welcome back Kin. YouÂ’ve been missed. Special thanks to Jennifer for letting me know.

Welcome also to the newest Munuvians: Heather, Don, Jim, and the Lady H. Stop by and say hello.

Interestingly enough (and this has nothing whatsoever to do with the new Munuvians), I saw on the referral list that someone visited Rocket Jones from a porn site. Possibly the one I wound up on today at work. DoesnÂ’t matter, because the lesson to learn is: surf porn, increase hits!

Daniel points to a funny test to see if youÂ’re a leftist. HereÂ’s my favorite quote: "You believe President Bush is too dumb to be President and Arnold Schwarzenegger is too dumb to be Governor of California, but the Dixie Chicks, Martin Sheen, Alec Baldwin, Barbra Streisand, Eddie Vedder and Jeanine Garofalo are qualified to discourse at length on foreign policy."

Hockey lovinÂ’ blogger buddies! If you have to ask, you wouldnÂ’t understand. Go Sharks!

I love these “xxx things about me/my car/whatever” lists that bloggers do. Really I do. Compile more of them, because I’ll read ‘em.

Serenity has reached her 6 month anniversary as a blogger.

Wind Rider pulls a fast one on Bill. ItÂ’s mean and funny as hell, but a little sad too. Like teasing the slow kid at school, ya know?

Starhawk has been posting regularly about WiFi hotspots and all. I have a WiFi story IÂ’ll talk about tomorrow.

I donÂ’t agree with most of what Norbi says, but I donÂ’t have to. ThatÂ’s the beauty of friends and laughter.

Glenn is... Glenn. He’s got a viewpoint that’s all his own, as well as weird fetishes for fish and Ivan Drago. He also posts near-naked women pictures and dedicates ‘em to me. Panderer. Works every time.

John cracked me up with this one. And just below that, another list! IÂ’m doing the happy dance.

Kelley did not do the Cul-de-Sac last week, but promises one on Sunday. ThatÂ’s ok though, because sheÂ’s headed to Hawaii to visit with Kate of Electric Venom. I look terrible in green.

Tiger points the way to the Hokey Pokey as done by Shakespeare. Good one Cherry.

Meet Al. AlÂ’s in the Air Force. AlÂ’s learning to fly AWACS. He already knows how to fly. Not fly by himself. Fly airplanes. The AWACS is an airplane. Why canÂ’t he fly that then? If I knew that, IÂ’d still be in the Air Force.

IÂ’m going to finish up with one of the best posts IÂ’ve read in a long time. If you havenÂ’t already read about the Indepundit (aka LT Smash) having to fire someone, you should now. Seriously.

Posted by: Ted at 07:44 PM | category: Links
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It's about time, eh?

This is a special all-Stevie edition of the Google Junket, courtesy of a whole list of words submitted by our good friend Daun. These words tell a lot more about her than she's comfortable with, I'm sure. You'll see what I mean.

Let's jump right into it, eh?

gastropod + heifer
Interestingly enough, the number one hit on this combination of words is yours truly. The second is an alphabetical list of words from MIT. You canÂ’t trust those guys, IÂ’ve seen the movie Real Genius.

gastropod + heifer + naked
At this point, the plan was to add 'naked' or 'nekkid' to every combination and see what happened. First hit is still Rocket Jones, second is a different list of words, this time from the UK. Finally we hit paydirt! Well, not quite. I was redirected to a porn site, which I immediately backed out of, and then had to call the IT department to let them know that I wasnÂ’t surfing for porn on company time (IÂ’m on my lunch break). Darn it, the link looked promising too, hereÂ’s the description:

Cheech and chong action figure, pictures of animals of all overÂ…
... boys adult naked photos. ... pictures of the sun; frog cow wolf cartoon heifer, cartoon pictures ... gastropod known for its Voyeur five letters.: msn 8.5 known issues ... www.theii.net/ precious-gems-that-are-mined-in-western-australia.html

Oops, I didnÂ’t notice the boys adult naked photos (honest!), gotta be more careful. No more adding 'naked', that's for sure.

fistula + hedonism
Stevie dear, what the hell is wrong with you? This combo brings up a medical dictionary, a political rant site that looks suspiciously like a porn-redirect, and then four no-bones-about-it porn sites. A little further down the list (I need links, fer cryinÂ’ out loud) is a glossary of US Naval Code Words. Now this is something that appeals to the history loving geek in me. Ignore what I said, this is neat.

A quick skim through the extensive Code Name list shows that VICTOR I, II, III, IV and V were all WWII Allied invasion landings in the south pacific, and that GLENN stood for 'domestic'. I'm assuming you're housebroken guy, although all girlfriends/wives/partners automatically assume the opposite.

custard + algebra
Now we’re getting somewhere. First up is a bookstore where you can get cookbooks (containing recipes for custard) and algebra books (containing recipes for headaches). Next is a page of education related Teachers Notes for a television program called Keep Your Balance. Neat. Everything, the Math Project. Hey, they use the word Blather. And I know what Boolean logic is. If you don’t, then look it up! Ok, I did for you. An explanation is here. Finally – for this pair of words – we find the staff listing for New Bloomfield High School in New Bloomfield, Missouri. Besides having Algebra teachers (imagine that), their attendance clerk is named Marita Custard.

zymurgy + protean
Hey, IÂ’m number one again! ThatÂ’s great news, because IÂ’m sure gazillions of internet users search on this combination while looking for barely-legal babes. Next up though, is a site hosted on a French server, talking about a role playing game about Vampires. Third up is the same information, looks like a ghosted version on a different server. Fourth through whatever seem to be those darned alphabetized lists again.

Mainly because IÂ’m afraid to see what naked + redneck will bring up, we'll just move right along past this one and go straight to:

mohair + redneck
Crap, this page is dismantled, and it looked good too. Redneck Miniature Bears, only 2 ½” tall, named Kilroy. Awwwww. Too bad we can't see 'em. (redneck named Kilroy?)

Now for some reason, we get into the musical portion of our entertainment.

A page about an interview with a stoner-rock group named On Trial, whose slogan appears to be “where there’s smoke, there’s smoke”. That probably sounded really profound at the time. Next is a British music company specializing in American Country albums. My favorite title is by Barbara Carr – Bone Me Like You Own Me. The Derailers sing about Mohair Sam, and Charlie Daniels chips in with the title track of Redneck Fiddlin’ Man. Music galore! An Elton John lyrics page, which for our purposes could have been shortened to two songs, because Bennie and the Jets contains mohair and Honky Cat has the redneck.

Stevie + nekkid
So sue me. Besides, we got hits. Nekkid Radio has Stevie Nicks songs on their playlist. No link because IÂ’m at work and I donÂ’t want to have to call IT again today. Killoggs is smart enough NOT to wave at Stevie Wonder, and proud of it. It looks like a group hive mind sorta thing. Interesting. And then Acid Man checks in, again with Stevie Nicks, but he wants to see her nekkid. Better than Stevie Wonder.

ItÂ’s become traditional to end with a truly disturbing link (well, twice in a row now), and this is one of those that might not be universally popular. Here is a review of Justin TimberlakeÂ’s release Justified. I could care less about him, but this reviewer compares him favorably to Stevie Wonder. Really? Oh yeah, he also dwells on JustinÂ’s confession of performing oral sex on then-girlfriend Britney Spears. Sorry, IÂ’m not impressed.

Lotta sex stuff in this go-round. Way to go Stevie!

Next time, we get:
Vaseline from Tuning Spork, who apparently didn’t learn a thing from his last word ‘saliva’.
Vainglory from Susie.
Hysterisis from Pixy Misa.
Strop from Victor, who owns two of them. HeÂ’s a perv.
Supernumerary from Jennifer.
Aberrant from Serenity (and thank you for the compliment, m'lady).

As always, leave your suggested words in the comments and we'll see where Google takes us.

Posted by: Ted at 01:08 PM | category: Google Junket
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I've been promising previews of the decals and logos for our community-inspired rocket. The description and main decal pages are in draft form, and should be ready to post today or tomorrow, and I think I've got a surprise or three for you.

In the meantime, here's the Logo that will run up the side of the rocket. I hope you like it. more...

Posted by: Ted at 07:49 AM | category: Munuvian Daily Tattler
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No, not Arnold. Not me either. I'm talking about that very first exposure to practical and organized politics: Student Council. Hall monitor and roll call runner were small potatoes, and the playground pecking order paled in comparison to the enormity of this decision unceremoniously thrust upon thousands of unprepared freshmen.

Composed of the popularity contest winners, the brainiacs who needed it to pad their college resume's, and the pie-in-the-sky dreamers who actually thought they would be able to make changes in an adult-dominated system, the Student Council never interested me. I just couldn't see the import of whether we should have both coke and pepsi machines in the school and other such trivial crapola.

What got me started thinking about this is that Mookie* has been approached to run for Student Council, and apparently has some rather wide-spread support. She acknowleges that it would look good on college applications, but doesn't seem all fired up at the prospect. She's too cynical and sarcastic to take it seriously, and despite what I said above, it should be taken seriously precisely because it's the first exposure to real-world politics. Ignore the results and study the process in action.

Why Mookie? It seems that there are some subtle things at work here, beyond the generalizations I made earlier about who runs and why. She's not cliquish, so she doesn't automatically get the popularity vote, but that group knows her from her work with Homecoming and Drama projects. Even the groups she doesn't hang around with (or can't stand) are at least on nodding terms in the hallway because she makes it a point to be civil to everyone. Her attitude is that she doesn't have to like someone to work with them on school projects, and I like to think she learned that from me.

She does have that snotty and sly sense of humor though, which apparently is part of her appeal. She apologizes to people who have no idea that she insulted them just a few minutes before, because they didn't get the joke. It's kind of like Dennis Miller running for President under the "I'm OK, You're Romulus or Remus (not that it matters)" slogan.

She really has no time or interest in this right now, but if she did, I'd suggest making her campaign slogan "I Am Not A Crook." Once elected, find out who voted for her, round them up and shoot them. Because nothing is more dangerous than the arrogant intelligentsia.

Oui.

* Mookie is my teenaged daughter and blogger-at-large. She's the last one at home, her older brother and sister already having escaped the asylum flown the coop left the nest.

Posted by: Ted at 05:23 AM | category: Square Pegs
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I don't remember where I first heard it, but the name Art Frahm always stuck in my mind, so I suspect it was in some sleazy True Detective magazine or some such nonsense I used to read as a kid. In truth it was his illustrations more than the name that caught my attention. Looking at it now, his work seems pointed directly at every young man raging through puberty. It's the stuff of adolescent (wet) dreams. It also helped that his name seems absurdly contrived to match his occupation.

Several years ago, I did an internet search for Art Frahm and found this site. This was long before I'd heard of James Lileks the writer or blogging.

You can find more of Art Frahm's work here, along with a little more history. It's still cheesy and crappy and wonderful all at once, just like I remembered. Have fun.

Posted by: Ted at 10:10 PM | category: Links
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On October 2, 2003, Ahmad Chalabi, Head of the Iraqi Delegation to the 58th U.N. General Assembly, gave a speech.

Go read, and feel vindicated that we did the right thing.

Thanks to C.D. Hall for this wonderful link. Gotta love a guy who measures time in fortnights.

Posted by: Ted at 06:34 PM | category: Politics
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Jeopardy answer: what penguins get from sitting on the ice.

Using satellites in orbit, scientists are studying ice-locked oases called polynyas and their thriving populations of penguins.

The researchers used data from two satellites: NASA's Sea-viewing Wide Field-of-view Sensor and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer. See images here.

It's enough to make a tree-hugger cry. Imagine using evil technology to non-invasively study some of God's happy creatures.

Posted by: Ted at 05:37 PM | category: Space Program
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The mother of an employee who killed several co-workers before taking his own life is filing for workers' compensation because her son lost his life in the workplace.

Isn't that like the boy on trial for murdering his parents, and asking for clemency because he's an orphan?

Posted by: Ted at 05:27 PM | category: Square Pegs
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I haven't done the promised 'Stevie' special edition of the Google Junket, and I haven't done a 'Rocketing Around' in a while, but I did warn y'all that things get hectic for me around the start of Uncle Sam's fiscal year.

Not an excuse, just the reason.

Posted by: Ted at 12:45 PM | category: Square Pegs
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Victor left the following comment on my post about spacecraft propulsion concepts.

Ted, pick up a copy of the Nov 2003 issue of Discover magazine (cover story: "How Long Can The Human Body Last?"). It has an inteview with Dr. Sagan's widow, Ann Druyan, which discusses the Cosmos 1 solar sail spacecraft. BTW, at the end of the interview, it says an extended version of the interview is on discover.com but I can't find it to save my life.

Discover certainly doesn't make it easy to find, that's for sure. Then I realized that they don't have the November issue online yet. But I did find a related article from August 2003. They don't allow direct links, but here's how you can get to it. From Discover's main page, click the Recent Issues button on the left. Scroll down to the August 2003 issue and click the very first article, titled Star Trek.

Why bother? Because reading the article, you'll find passages like these:

About 10 years from now, NASA plans to launch a mission called Terrestrial Planet Finder, a space telescope specifically designed to detect another Earth. The odds are good that a survey of 150 or so nearby stars will reveal at least one small, Earth-like planet.

You know we're already working towards getting there once we find it. It's early in the development process, but we are working on it.

The physics is not out of reach," says Robert Frisbee, an engineer who directs advanced propulsion concepts studies at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. His job, and his lifelong dream, is to find a way to master interstellar travel. He is studying five distinct propulsion technologies that could get an astronaut from here to Alpha Centauri in less than 50 years.

The article goes on to talk about the five technologies, which include the aforementioned light sail, referred to as a laser sail. This is a comprehensive overview of the challenges involved in going to another solar system. Food, water, air, gravity, psychology, and more. There are a number of good links at the end of the article too.

"What we're talking about here is not fantasy," Frisbee says. "It's only science fiction until someone does it"."

The meek may inherit the earth, my great-grandkids are going to the stars.

Posted by: Ted at 11:28 AM | category: Space Program
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Dave Barry has inconvenienced the Telemarketers yet again. The whole story is a riot, but here's the most important bit.

Call the American Telemarketing Association at the number above and try to sell them on the idea that calling us to sell us stuff isn't such a great idea.

Posted by: Ted at 07:37 AM | category: Square Pegs
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Spork, you work in a printing plant. Something else Collins could probably use is a stack of 'Get Out Of Jail Free' cards. Maybe you can put that adhesive along one edge and make a whole pad of them, so he can just pull one off whenever he's arrested.

Good idea checking the police blotters, but I bet it was a bitch finding the right John Collins.

Seriously though, good job Bill, Michele, Stevie, Paul, Susie, Jen, and everyone else who helped track him down. My apologies if I've forgotten anyone.

Posted by: Ted at 07:30 AM | category: Munuvian Daily Tattler
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In June of this year, a team consisting of professionals and students from California State University, Long Beach successfully conducted a static test firing of their aerospike rocket engine design.

This was followed up last month by an in-flight test.

"Several seconds later [after liftoff] it abruptly pitched ninety degrees and demonstrated unstable operation until finally transitioning into a ballistic terminal descent."

That's geek-speak for "Lawn-dart."

"The subsequent impact with the desert floor destroyed student payloads provided by a USC/JPL team and another from Cerritos High School, but the aft section with the aerospike survived relatively intact. Preliminary analysis indicates that the most probable cause for the observed flight behavior is that part of the engine's graphite exit outer ring experienced excessive and asymmetric erosion, which in turn created a side thrust component."

There are a couple of key points here. First, notice that one of the payloads riding this rocket was designed and developed by a high school. I'll do a post in the near future on the CanSat program, it's pretty cool. Second, there's absolutely nothing wrong with this kind of failure because that's how you learn. They'll analyze the remains (the important bits survived relatively intact) and figure out what improvements need to be made. Then they'll try again. And again, as often as needed. This is solid scientific method in action, with a viable application waiting at the end of the development cycle.

Follow this link for more information about the concept behind aerospike engines and how they differ from standard rocket engines.

Posted by: Ted at 08:05 PM | category: Space Program
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1 So, how come on this rocket they have a little spiky doohicky on the back of the thruster thingo?

Posted by: Victor at October 08, 2003 08:52 AM (L3qPK)

2 I'll ask Peter.

(beavis) heh heh, heh heh. he said 'embiggens'. heh heh. (/beavis)

Posted by: Ted at October 08, 2003 11:18 AM (ULW3r)

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"Why can't this team just lose? Why do they have to write the greatest chapters in the history books of other teams? Stupid Angels. I mean, Marlins."

It's a San Fransisco Giants blog, but it's fun to read if you're a baseball fan.

Posted by: Ted at 03:09 PM | category: Links
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A British scientist has calculated the optimum thickness for a slice of cheese to make the perfect cheese sandwich.

Being the mildly lecherous soul that I am, I'd further suggest that the perfect cheese sandwich would be served by LeeAnn in a french maid outfit with an ice-cold beer and a napkin containing one of her weird and wonderful little artwork discoveries.

It is cheese ya know.

Posted by: Ted at 12:21 PM | category: Square Pegs
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All right, the draft is done and I got a chance to see what my team looks like. I'll just start off listing a few names I recognize. I'll have to do some digging for some player info, because the roster is deep and I've never been in a fantasy hockey league before.

Centers: Mats Sundin (Totonto) and Olie Jokinen (Florida) are my main guns here. I've heard of three of the four other centers on the roster. Not too shabby.

Wingers: Brendan Shanahan (Detroit), Miroslav Satan (Buffalo), Anson Carter (NY Rangers) and Tie Domi (Toronto) up front. I also have former Cap Chris Simon, when did he join the Rangers? The rest of my wingers are a mystery to me.

Defense: This doesn't look good. Local boy Jason Doig (Capitals) is the only name I know except for Radek Martinek (NY Islanders) and Nolan Baumgartner (Pittsburgh), and both those teams were horrible last year.

Goal: A good goalie can make all the difference. Unfortunately the closest I have to a good goalie is Robert Esche (Philadelphia). I'm going to have to do some homework on the backups, because I don't know anything about either of them. Other than that they aren't named Nabokov or Hasek or Joseph or Kolzig or...

Interestingly, Doig is the only member of the Caps on my team, and I have zero Sharks. It looks like I have more Phoenix Coyotes than anything else, so maybe some Gretsky magic will rub off on the team.

I won't obsess about this, but I'll occasionally mention when I accidentally do something right or something comically stupid. Advice gladly accepted.

Posted by: Ted at 12:01 PM | category: Square Pegs
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