Nowadays, being rich means you become a celebrity, as if that were a career.

John Jacob Astor, the great-grandson of the famous fur trader and financier of the same name, was one of the wealthiest men on earth, with assets somewhere around $100 million (compared to J.P. Morgan, who had amassed a fortune of only $30 million). Astor was an inventor (of a bicycle brake, a storage battery, an internal combustion engine, a flying machine, a machine for removing surface dirt from roads, and an improved marine turbine engine) and also founder of the Astoria (later the Waldorf Astoria) Hotel in New York City. His pneumatic walkway invention won a prize at the 1893 Chicago WorldÂ’s Fair, and he was one of the first Americans to own a motor car. One of his dreams was to find a way to create rain by pumping warm air from the surface of the earth into the upper atmosphere. His fascination with science led him to begin writing his only novel, A Journey In Other Worlds when he was only 28 years old, and spent over two years writing it. He served in the Spanish-American War, and lost his life in the Titanic disaster, leading his wife to a lifeboat but returning himself to the sinking ship.

I'm almost through his book, and it's pretty fascinating. Besides the extrapolation of then-current science (most of which, understandably, is gotten badly wrong), the most interesting part is the difference in attitude and viewpoint compared to today. Piety vs Pragmatism runs as a theme throughout, and the main characters think and act as if the entire universe is already theirs in the ultimate extension of manifest destiny. Americans still possess that can-do spirit, although it's been softened somewhat over the last hundred years.

AstorÂ’s novel, with descriptions of an antigravity device, aeroplanes, television and space travel was widely read and became a bestseller on publication in 1894. Set in the year 2000, the book is a futuristic novel of three utopias: a Christian heaven on Saturn; an Eden-like new world on Jupiter; and a technologically-oriented, businessman's paradise on Earth.

The writing isn't too terrible, and once in a while he really nails it.

"... they looked up at the sky. The Great Bear and the north star had exactly the same relation to each other as when seen from the earth, while the other constellations and the Milky Way looked identically as when they has so often gazed at them before, and some idea of the immensity of space was conveyed to them. Here was no change; though they had travelled three hundred and eighty million miles, there was no more perceptible difference than if they had not moved a foot."

For all we've accomplished, for all our collective greatness, we're still a humble speck in the grand scheme of things. It's good to be reminded of that once in a while.

Most of this came from here.

Posted by: Ted at 05:26 AM | category: Square Pegs
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1 That sounds like my kind of fiction.I'll have to add it to my to read list.I have to admit i don't read that much fiction though.The next on my list is Rama 2 by Arthur C. Clark.My modus is usually factory service manuals or mechanical text books,books on outdoorsy stuff,machines,rocket mags,car mags,etc.etc......

Posted by: Russ at April 15, 2005 11:02 AM (ObxzR)

2 That last quote really nails it, like you said. Thanks for posting it!

Posted by: Tuning Spork at April 16, 2005 01:54 PM (edXnv)

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To the love of my life.

See ya tomorrow.
Ted

Posted by: Ted at 09:51 AM | category: Square Pegs
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After watching The Incredibles this weekend (and as good as the movie is, the extras on the DVD are just wow), I've been tagged with my new super-hero name. Just call me Lobster Man, in honor of my sunburn.

Posted by: Ted at 05:56 AM | category: Square Pegs
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1 Clever, as always.

Posted by: dawn at April 14, 2005 09:13 PM (Dh1V0)

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Nine out of ten doctors surveyed believed that a daily visit to Rocket Jones was good for stress relief. Doctor Kevorkian suggested a radically different approach.

Posted by: Ted at 05:57 AM | category: Square Pegs
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I heard a commercial where AIDs was described as a "life challenging" condition.

Terminal. The word is "terminal". You get AIDs, you're gonna die from it. Eventually it's going to kill you. Coming up with yet another polite phrase to sugar coat reality isn't doing anyone any favors, it just degrades the message being communicated.

Update: From the comments and email, I've been reminded that more people die "with" than "from" diseases these days. While I understand the point and even agree with it somewhat, I think that our medical arts have advanced enough to prolong life despite whatever the terminal disease is. I'd guess that more HIV positive people die from pneumonia than from the actual AIDs itself, but that doesn't mean the AIDs didn't kill them, just that another complication facilitated by the AIDs was the final step.

People who succumb to cancer don't get that kind of consideration. And in the end, does it really matter?

Still, maybe "terminal" isn't the correct term to use. My objection (badly put it seems) was to the politically correct term "life challenging". The attempt to not offend anyone is vague enough to encompass everything after conception (or birth, depending on your viewpoint). I commuted to work this morning in the fog and rain on an interstate highway, that also fits the definition of life challenging.

Posted by: Ted at 11:35 AM | category: Square Pegs
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1 I respectfully beg to differ. You are going to die with it (for now), but not necessarily from it. It was a goal, back in the days when I worked on the clinical trials, to make HIV/AIDS a manageable condition like asthma or diabetes (albeit an infectious one, adding more levels of education and support to the management).

Posted by: nic at April 07, 2005 12:10 PM (etHvD)

2 I don't know - I have good friends now who have been living with AIDS for 10, 15 years now. It seems to me to be a completely changed landscape than it was in the 80s and 90s, when it was most definitely a death sentence (and one that would come relatively quickly). I agree with the diabetes analogy above.

Posted by: red at April 07, 2005 12:16 PM (qxKkx)

3 I have to agree with Nic, and not just because I live with her She's pretty much nailed it: with proper management, it seems as if HIV/AIDS is no more fatal than diabetes is. I concede she and I may be dreamers, but as Red said, people are living longer now with HIV/AIDS than they were expected to twenty years ago.

In fact, nowadays there are, IMO, very few truly terminal "common" diseases, save one: Life--No one has gotten out of it alive.

Posted by: Victor at April 07, 2005 06:32 PM (etHvD)

4 Hmmm.
I volunteer at what used to be an AIDS service organization, but in the last couple of years they have expanded their services to include clients who have "other live challeging conditions," I believe is how they phrase it. That includes cancer, ALS, anything where the clients are unable to shop for their own food and prepare their own meals because of their condition. Some clients need the services for a specific period...e.g., right after a round of chemo until they regain strength...others until they end up in institutional care or, well, die.
I don't see the phrase as politically correct B.S., I see it as a shorthand way to describe the situation.
And when I said that people may die with AIDS and not from it, I wasn't talking about pneumonia or another opportunistic infection that was fatal because of the HIV-compromised immune system...I'm talking about someone having a heart attack at 80.

Posted by: nic at April 08, 2005 08:30 AM (JijW0)

5 I want to aplogize if my last comment is too troll-like. I admit this is a hotbutton issue for me; and I probably hit "post" a little too fast there. Sorry, Ted.

Posted by: nic at April 08, 2005 08:58 AM (JijW0)

6 Nic, we've disagreed before and we both know that's ok. Your experience in this area is obviously greater than mine. I'm learning a lot from your comments, so fire away.

Posted by: Ted at April 08, 2005 09:34 AM (blNMI)

7 This reminds me of one of my favorite moments in radio.

Bob Edwards was interviewing a doctor on Morning Edition, who was describing some sort of long-term survey the details of which I forget. The doctor said (this is from memory, but close), "Four percent of the test subjects underwent the mortality experience."

There was a sound from Edwards that was probably a spit-take. He interrupted the good doctor. "Excuse me. They 'underwent the mortality experience?' Do you mean that they died?"

"Well, yes," said the doctor. "They underwent the mortality experience."

Edwards made it through the rest of the interview; he's a pro. But you could tell it was one of the most absurd things he'd ever heard from a guest.

Posted by: Doug Pratt at April 12, 2005 12:30 PM (D6ZyB)

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It's been so bad the last couple of days, that Spork posted on it too.

Here's a relavant quote from the Tagline Archives:

Imagine standing at a street corner and spitting on people to get their attention, then trying to sell them something. Spamming is a better marketing method than that only in that you get punched less often. -- Esa A. Peuha

So true.

Posted by: Ted at 06:11 AM | category: Square Pegs
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I heard a commercial on the radio advertising half-off plastic surgery.

That's like "buy one tit, get the second tit free".

Posted by: Ted at 08:33 PM | category: Square Pegs
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1 How does this apply to nose jobs or breast reduction surgery?

Posted by: Brian J. at April 06, 2005 10:01 PM (V04ml)

2 A woman in my neighborhood had breast enhancement. While in there, the doc told her if she wanted her eyes done, he'd give her a discount if she got everything done together.

I said to my husband, "What is this? Get one set of eyes done, get the other at 1/2 off?"

The guy was a quack and botched up her eyes... the ones on her face. Too bad. She was all of 36.

Posted by: Boudicca at April 07, 2005 12:00 AM (z7nbM)

3 Perhaps Tom Green can finally get himself a pair of stunt doubles!
Or,if I get an extension do they have to be parallel or in series?HAHAHA!!!!

Posted by: Russ at April 07, 2005 12:04 AM (ObxzR)

4 At a meeting today, someone mentioned getting "a hummer for a whole weekend." Imagine the men's dismay when the speaker was talking about the car as an item in a silent auction.

Posted by: dawn at April 08, 2005 03:57 PM (jFpDX)

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I heard on the radio that 5,000 people are attending Johnny Cochran's funeral. That's impressive.

Then I heard that an estimated one million people have stood in line to view Pope John Paul II's body in state.

Posted by: Ted at 04:10 PM | category: Square Pegs
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MuNu and Rocket Jones got hammered last night by a flood of spam comments. What a pain.

Update: It's still going on.

Update 2: I finally remembered that I could block the IP. Doh! Oh well, mess cleaned up.

Posted by: Ted at 06:00 AM | category: Square Pegs
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Around here, bus systems like to use the word "link" in their name. We've got OmniLink and MetroLink and who knows what else. Just south of here is the oldest continuously chartered town in Virginia, Dumfries.

What einstein thought Dumflink would be a good name for their bus service?

Posted by: Ted at 04:39 AM | category: Square Pegs
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Tomorrow we dip into savings for a new washing machine. I ran a load this evening and when I went down to the basement to swap it into the dryer I found our entire bottom level a shallow puddle.

Judging from the black ooze that came out from under the washer and the fact that the agitator is frozen in place, I think the clutch or motor seized early on and the beastie just kept chugging through the wash/rinse/spin cycles, turning belts and bearings into so much sludge.

It took Mookie, Mom and I about a half hour to get the water up (thank goodness for heavy-duty carpet cleaners!) and reasonably dried out. Of course, our son managed to leave every blanket and sheet on his bed dangling onto the floor, save one. Oh frickin' well, looks like he'll be cold for a few nights. Maybe it'll teach him to pick his crap up like he's supposed to.

Probably what annoys me most is that it didn't start to smell like burning or make any odd sounds, so it had plenty of time to dump that entire cycle of water out onto the floor. Bah.

Posted by: Ted at 09:26 PM | category: Square Pegs
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This morning on the way to work I heard that song Short Skirt, Long Jacket by the group Cake. It's been quite a while since I've heard it, and this time, what came to mind was that photo of Condoleeza Rice in her duster and knee boots.

Oh, this explains it.

Posted by: Ted at 06:10 AM | category: Square Pegs
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1 OK, WTF is this supposed to mean? I recognize it as an astrological chart but I've never seen any more reason to study that nonsense than who slept with whom in a soap opera. I consider astrology to be "a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing".

So, just what does this chart say?

Posted by: Jim Gwyn at April 04, 2005 09:12 AM (6iy97)

2 Hell if I know. It was just something weird and stupid I found when googling images of Condi.

Posted by: Ted at April 04, 2005 09:55 AM (blNMI)

3 I was confused too until I read this...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natal_chart

And now I'm even more confused.

Posted by: Oorgo at April 04, 2005 01:32 PM (lM0qs)

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If you've visited Rocket Jones more than a couple of times you've noticed that the banner at the top of the page changes every week or so. It's nothing automatic, I just switch it when I think of it.

I also add new banners every once in a while, and they all go into my queue and make their way back to the top in time. Derek said it best, "you can never have too many banners." He's an artist, so consider that expert testimony.

Here's your chance to be creative. Design a banner for Rocket Jones. Drawing, painting, photography, simple, complex, I don't care. Enter as many as you'd like. Even if all you can do is stick figures, as long as it's done with charm, it's fine with me.

Sometime in the near future I'll put 'em all up and we'll have a vote on the favorite and I'll come up with some sort of actual prize, but probably all of them will make it into the banner rotation.

Guidelines are simple:

• keep the width to about 500 pixels maximum


• keep the height to about 300 - 325 pixels maximum


• naughty is ok, vulgar is not

Other than that, well, wow me.

I've displayed several of the current Rocket Jones banners in the extended entry to give you an idea about what's already been done. I'd love to see entries unlike anything ever seen on b-b-b-broadway!*

*Reference for the hardcore Zappa fan. more...

Posted by: Ted at 04:56 AM | category: Square Pegs
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A couple of months ago I had this killer idea for completely redesigning Rocket Jones for one day only - April Fools day. Apparently several others did too.

Fortunately, I got too busy to even make a start on it, so I don't look like some kind of predictable lemming.

Posted by: Ted at 09:56 AM | category: Square Pegs
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1 Bah! I knew you wouldn't do it.

Posted by: Tuning Spork at April 03, 2005 01:12 PM (QSR+D)

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Mookie came downstairs the other night while I was at my computer and said that my monitor was *really* blurry.

I hadn't noticed, but she's right. I think it's getting worse too.

Posted by: Ted at 08:07 PM | category: Square Pegs
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Our local minor league baseball team is the Prince William Cannons recently renamed Potomac Nationals (Carolina League - A level). My wife and I are planning on attending several evening games this season.

Would anyone be interested in attending a game as a group? They have Saturday night games with fireworks afterwards, and I believe we can get discounts and/or set up a picnic for groups of 20 or more.

If this sounds like something you'd like to do, leave a comment and/or drop me an email. If you'd just like to hook up for a game some evening, that'd be cool too.

Potomac Nationals home page
Map showing directions to the ballpark

Posted by: Ted at 09:36 AM | category: Square Pegs
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1 Yeah! Particularly for a Saturday game...in rush hour it would probably take four hours. But quite doable on a Saturday!

Posted by: nic at April 03, 2005 07:08 PM (etHvD)

2 ...four hours for us to drive to Dale City in rush hour, that is. But you can read my mind and knew what I meant, right?

Posted by: nic at April 03, 2005 07:10 PM (etHvD)

3 I'm always up for an adventure -- and lord knows I need to get out of the house once in awhile. Count me in! Can I bring my own booze?

Posted by: dawn at April 03, 2005 11:24 PM (Dh1V0)

4 The Big Hair and I could be persuaded.

My suggestion would be box seating, which is only $10.

Posted by: Rob@L&R at April 04, 2005 10:49 AM (hOncZ)

5 The mrs. and I would definitely be interested. I haven't been to a minor leagu game since I used to go see the Akron Aeros when I used to live in Ohio. And junior has yet to see a real baseball game. We're already in Mt. Vernon, that wouldn't be much of a drive at all.

Posted by: Buckethead at April 05, 2005 04:53 PM (r8pWR)

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I know that I had a Hockey Whoopass Jamboree game yesterday, yet the AHL website comes up "not found". Guess I'll have to Google the results...

Ah yes, my Cleveland Barons whupped all over the Rochester Americans. This was the Barons' first win in seven tries this season against the Amercs.

Posted by: Ted at 09:20 AM | category: Square Pegs
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Those crazy Buffalo Sabres are at it again, trying to save hockey by being all innovative. This time, they're proposing a rounded net that increases the target area by 13%.

It's odd looking, and I'm not sure what I think of it. I like the idea of making it harder for a goalie to completely shut down the angle by hugging the post. But still, to my mind, why not just make the goalie pads smaller?

An observation about that picture: the goalie is an employee of the Sabres organization and to me appears to be a rather smallish man. Modern goalies are big tall guys who absolutely fill the net, so that illustration looks to be a little overstated about the effect of the change.

Posted by: Ted at 09:05 AM | category: Square Pegs
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The bread machine has been getting a workout lately. I made my first loaf of rye the other day and everyone agrees that it's good but a tad too subtle. The next loaf will have more rye flour in the mix. Not that it seemed to matter, there was only one slice left this morning, and we're not a big bread-eatin' family.

Last night the house smelled of cinammon as some raisin bread baked. A thick slab of that toasted and slathered with butter made for a fine breakfast.

Bread machines. Another easy way to appreciate the simple things that make you happy.

Posted by: Ted at 06:10 AM | category: Square Pegs
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