Star Trek Coming Closer to Reality???

Beam me up Scotty... While browsing the web I came across another interesting tidbit.....



According to the Federation of American Scientists (FAS), the US Airforce has been funding research into teleportation! The US$25,000 report was prepared by Warp Drive Metrics of Las Vegas and can be downloaded from the FAS website.



It doesn't look like they have devloped a working model yet, but good to see the military spending money on something that doesn't go bang for a change.



Who knows....one day I may be able to step onto a circle and be to work almost instantly. I dont think I will trade in my Ford Ranger just yet though.

Gobble Gobble-Happy ThanksGiving and a Month till Xmas....

Well it is that time of year again. What time is that?



Time to forget about waistlines, utiltity bills, mowing the grass....(just kidding about the utility bill thing....though I do know people who "forget" to pay those things this time of year). Tommorow is thanksgiving day, the official start of the holiday season.



It is snowing here right now...a perfect start to the holidays. It is also cold and windy outside.

I have had the last three days off from work and alas...have to report back to work tommorow to feed a bunch of people who are forsaking the "traditional family gathering" at someone's home. Why do people go "out to eat" on thanksgiving?? If I had the choice not to work....I would surly try to be with some kind friendly people enjoying the day in a nice warm house.



It is funny how when one grows up, that the holidays loose alot of their "magic" that were remembered so fondly when we were kids. Maybe it is the whole thing about not believing in Santa Clause anymore....but I think there is a little more to it than that.



The things I most remember about Thanksgiving were.....



-Getting up early on thanksgiving day to watch the "Macy's Parade"



-Smelling the turkey and stuffing cooking in our kitchen.....and "stealing" a pickle or an olive from the relish tray "before dinner"



-Watching my mom do a million things at once to get ready to feed all of our mouths and wondering how she did it all (until I had to cook dinner for 100 people when my cook called in sick at a restuarant I managed a few years ago)....



-Taking a nap in the "lazy boy recliner" after dinner while everyone faught over wheather to watch the football game or watch a holiday movie.....



-Hoping for that snow on that day so we could go out and play in it (after the nap of course)



-Scrounging for "leftovers" in the fridge not 4 hours after dinner had been served



-Watching the first holiday shows that evening (dad always won out and got his football game I think)

___________________________________________________________________

(The holiday shows from now until xmas in my area....ya!

http://www.jsonline.com/enter/tvradio/nov04/277948.asp)

___________________________________________________________________

-Falling asleep and knowing that I didnt have to go to school the next day and that I had a whole 3 days to exlplore and have fun....



There were also thanksgivings that we traveled to the farm to have dinner with my grandparents and sometimes a number of the millions of cousins and aunts and uncles I seem to have.

I dont remember alot about those thanksgiving as I was very young but I do recall always looking forward to sitting close to that "woodburning stove" while sitting on my grandpa's lap (as long as he didnt spit his chewing tobacco into that coffee can while I was on his lap) and exploring outside.



The barn where the cows were (and usually my uncle Richard and my great uncle Johnny milking the cows or doing whatever they did in that barn) and all the wild cats scurrying about, and walking among and between all the stalls, hoping not to step into "cow dung" or something else. There were times that I remember sneaking up into the hayloft and falling asleep on a bale of hay...and then continuing my adventures by watching the chickens in their shack (they sure knew they were lucky on that day.....I would think) and just exploring and wondering among all the sheds and outbuildings, sometimes with a cousin or two, sometimes by myself.



There are so many memories of those years...these are just a few.



Happy Thanksgiving Everyone

Xmas is Coming in a little over a month...Time to Decorate

Well it is that time again.



Living alone and working all the time, I don't have many visitors to my little cave. All the same, I figured I would get in the holiday "mood" tonight after visiting the local mall here in Racine (which is actually quite nice....I hadn't been there in years).



So when I got home I went downstairs and grabbed my little "Charlie Brown Tree", and dug out my "Scoobie Xmas ornaments" that my friend Doris gave me a few years ago. It is only about 2 feet high but it is "my tree". So with a string of lights and a few ornaments, I have my tree up in the corner of my dining room which is the area I tend to spend the most time in.



While looking for my ornaments, I came across a bunch of strands of lights and remember seeing a book at Barns and Noble about decorating with xmas tree lights....so.....I decided to try some things that I remembered seeing in the book. One idea which seemed real cool was to take a string of lights and stuff them in a clear glass vase (not too small but not too big..about a foot high)....and I just happened to have one so I stuffed the lights inside...put the vase on the floor...plugged the strand into an outlet and....wallla......it looks pretty neat.

The cool thing is that it can be used as "mood" lighting all year around. Well I then still had 3 more strands so I played around a bit with some items I had laying around and I think I created some pretty nifty lighting arrangements...one is a green glass head that I have had for years ( A Pier One Import "Impulse purchase"....if any one can relate). The other was an alien head and both "final effects" turned out pretty cool...as far as I am concerned at least.



So now I can sit in almost complete darkness with no overhead lighting and the apt is illuminated rather warmly for the winter along with the candles I have burning in various areas of my place. I will turn on more lights (promise) if any of my friends decide to visit this holiday season.



I just hope Scrappy doesn't destroy my tree...She is already over there, sniffing around and looking mighty curious. Oh well.



Now I just have to buy some "pine scented candles" to make the place smell like there is a real pine tree in here. I miss that smell. Growing up, my mom always had the most pretty "real" tree that she was always so proud of. Her ornaments were very eclectic and ranged from very antique to things us kids had made through the years at school. I think my brother Jim still has most of them, though I am not 100% for sure. I know I didn't get any of them after mom passed away. I may just have to ask him next time I go up to the Rapids if he still has them and if there is the chance of me having some of them. I really don't have anything of hers. Keepsakes can be very cool.



Time to get ready for bed.....

A Tribute to the Best President I Remember in my Life

Some may think me crazy (shhh...dont tell anyone...I really am psyco) but I feel that President Clinton was the best president this nation has had in a long time. And now there is his presidential museum which I will have to visit. My next long vacation maybe.......



http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/C/CLINTON_LIBRARY?SITE=WIMIL&SECTION=HOME



The above link will take you to an article and there is also a link to a video of the ceremony with Bush and Carter by Clinton's side.



I think it is kind of cool that some people are praising him as a good man....cuz you know what?? I think he really is a good man. None of us are perfect and if the "Monica thing" has all the conservative "Repubies.." chompin at the bit..then so be it. They are just jelous that they couldnt get their "Wang" sucked by someone other than their wife!!!



Having a nice rainy night sitting here at the Barns and Noble in Racine playing with the Wireless Internet that they just recently hooked up. So cool...coffee, books, internet, people watching....What more could one want.....



Happy Thursday

Barns and Noble Wireless and "GMAIL"! How much Better can Life Get???

Today is a good day.



Not only did my favorite "off day haunt", Barns and Noble Bookstore, finally get their "WIFI" up and running (WIFI=Wireless High Speed Internet).....I also got an invitation to join Google's "GMAIL service" which is an online email service run by Google that gives one 1 GBT of space and is completely free (and the newest cool thing on the net)!!



More info on both:



Barns and Noble WIFI:



For 19.95 a month (or a single 2 hour block for 2 hours) one can connect their laptop to the internet at broadband speeds in any of the Barns and Noblle Bookstores plus almost all McDonalds restaurants and other hotspots. I just signed up for the 19.95 a month membership.



Info:

Stay connected and save money with an SBC membership for the FreedomLinkSM network (via FreedomLink wireless connection from SBC Internet Services). With an SBC Membership, you'll get unlimited high-speed access to the Internet, e-mail, and your company's network at FreedomLink hot spots.

Basic Membership: $19.95 per month, with a one-year agreement.



Premier Membership: $39.95 per month for expanded connectivity, with a one-year agreement.







Gmail:

If you haven't already heard about Gmail, it's a new search-based webmail service that offers:- 1,000 megabytes (one gigabyte) of free storage- Built-in Google search that instantly finds any message you want- Automatic arrangement of messages and related replies into "conversations"- Text ads and related pages that are relevant to the content of your messagesGmail is still in an early stage of development. But If you set up an account, you'll be able to keep it even after we make Gmail more widely available. We might also ask for your comments and suggestions periodically and we appreciate your help in making Gmail even better.Thanks,The Gmail Team



To learn more about Gmail before registering, visit:http://gmail.google.com/gmail/help/benefits.html



My day is good. What about everyone else???



Thanskgiving is coming up shortly. I have to work on that day and it looks like the restaurant will be very busy. I do have the three days prior to the holiday off and I may just take a road trip up to my hometown (Wisconsin Rapids) to visit my brothers and sisters and stop at my mom's gravesite. It has been way too long since I have been up there.



Time to head out to the Barns and Noble and test out this WIFI that I just paid for.



Happy Thursday to all.

Another Way to Help the World

For the longest time I have been using the SETI@HOME screensaver application to help this institution "scan" the skies for signs of "intelligent life in the universe".



http://setiathome.ssl.berkeley.edu/





Though I still feel this is a very important cause and that we all owe it to ourselves to to whatever we can to further our knowledge of the universe...I have come upon a new organization called the "World Community Grid organization" sponsored by IBM, which will also harness unused computer cycles to help find answers to help mankind eradicate diseases and other things affecting our world. So as of today, I have installed and begun using this application:



http://www.worldcommunitygrid.org/index.html



The application works as a screensaver, just like the SETI@HOME application and does NOT interfere with regular computing tasks. It only activates when one is not using their computer.



I hope by doing this, I can at least help in a cure for some disease in the future.



Time for work.

A good Wed to all.

This Day in History-November 9th, 1965

I was reading the paper today and noticed in the ever popular "This day in History Section", a blurb about the "Great 1965 Power Outage" that happened on the East Coast.



I remember reading about this in various different books and magazines through the years and that a lot of people suposeddly saw and reported numerous sightings of UFOs.



Another conspiracy coverup?? Why would the "President's personal Bomb Bunker" be put on high alert for a "power blackout"???



A few links of interest that talk about this incident:



http://www.mt.net/~watcher/UFOapril1968niagaraarticle.html



http://www.mt.net/~watcher/UFOsandpoweroutages.html



One version of the events:

_____________________________________________________________________



The Great Northeast Blackout:



On November 9, 1965, the largest blackout in history occurred. The northeast power system broke up 4 seconds after the initial disturbance, and 30 million people were without electricity for as long as 13 hours. The cause of the event is obviously of some interest.



THE EVENTS:

The Great Northeast Blackout of November 9, 1965 began at 5:16 p.m., near the end of an otherwise typical work day. The event started at the Ontario - New York border, near Niagara Falls. A single transmission line from the Niagara generating station tripped (opened).



Within 2.5 seconds, five other transmission lines became overloaded and tripped, isolating 1,800 MW of generation at Niagara Station. After their isolation, the generators became unstable and tripped off-line. The northeast power system became unstable and separated into isolated power systems (islands) within 4 seconds.



Outages and islanding occurred throughout New York, Ontario, most of New England, and parts of New Jersey and Pennsylvania. Most islands went black within 5 minutes, due to imbalances between generation and load (generator overspeed/underspeed tripping). The massive blackout left 30 million people without electricity for as long as 13 hours.





WHAT REALLY HAPPENED:

Eight states - Connecticut, Massachusetts, Maine, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania and Vermont - lost power in this power failure.



Although a faulty automatic relay device at a plant near Niagara Falls is blamed, there is evidence that UFOs can cause power failures in the national electricity grid systems, although this may only be a side effect rather than an intentional act.



In December of the same year, the grid systems failed in New Mexico and Texas following UFO sightings in those areas.



MCDONALD'S STATEMENT ON UNIDENTIFIED FLYING OBJECTS:



As submitted to the House Committee on Science and Astronautics at July 29, 1968, Symposium on Unidentified Flying Objects, Rayburn Bldg., Washington, D.C., by James E. McDonald.



"Then there are scattered instances in which substantial power distribution systems have failed at or very near the time of observation of aerial phenomena similar, broadly speaking, to one or another UFO phenomenon. I have personally checked on several such instances and am satisfied that the coincidence of UFO observation and power outage did at least occur. Whether there is a causal connection here, and in which direction it may run, remains quite uncertain.



Even during the large Northeast blackout, November 9, 1965, there were many UFO observations, several of which I have personally checked. I have inquired at the Federal Power Commission to secure data that might illuminate the basic question of whether these are merely fortuitous, but the data available are inadequate to permit any definite conclusions.

In other parts of the world, there have also been reports of system outages coincident with UFO sightings. Again, the evidence is quite unclear as to causal relations.



"The largest wave of UFO sightings occurred in 1965. From coast to coast strange low flying objects were reported almost nightly by people of all ages and walks of life. These sketches compiled by a NICAP researcher represent a small sample of hundreds of investigated cases in which truly unknown objects were judged to have been involved. As the year progressed the number of reports rose dramatically.



On the night of August 2 thousands of people in 4 midwestern states witnessed spectacular aerial displays by large formations of UFOs. That same night a multicolored disc was photographed in Tulsa Oklahoma while several persons watched it perform low altitude maneuvers. This picture was extensively analyzed, pronounced authentic, and later published by Life magazine and many newspapers.



But the year's most incredible development was yet to come. On the evening of November 9 hundreds of UFO sightings were reported throughout the northeast. In New York State luminous objects were seen hovering over 3 very significant locations.

A Niagara Falls power plant

A [Syracuse] relay station

and the heart of New York City



Within moments of the Syracuse sighting 9 northeastern states and parts of Canada experienced the largest power failure in history. Media accounts including those by NBC news, The Associated Press, and some local papers openly reported the UFO sightings and in a few cases suggested that they be investigated as a possible cause of the blackout. However, before this speculation could gain much momentum the Federal Power Commission announced that the problem had been caused by a broken relay in a Canadian power plant. This answer was accepted by the press and public and the UFO angle was quickly forgotten. But, the official explanation was untrue.



Major Keyhoe reports that a private investigation by the utilities industry later concluded that the relay had NOT broken, but had been tripped by a huge, unexplainable surge of power. The only major paper which attempted to follow up on a possible UFO connection with the outage was the Boston Record America. But the paper's editors told a NICAP investigator that shortly after publishing this account of the Niagara Falls sighting they had been called by an Air Force officer at the Pentagon and severely reprimanded for printing the story. In any event, the public at large remained unaware of the presence of UFOs during the great northeast blackout.



CONCLUSION:

There is a high number of reliable witness reported ufos. Pilots did. Pictures were taken.

Was there any physical effect caused by a ufo? We have to conclude that to cut 30 million people off from electrical power over 8 states is a sufficient physical evidence.

Reporters, technicians, ufologists and scientists who investigated the black-out understood its true cause. But a massive concerted cover-up to discard the ufo as a cause of this physical evidence of the ufos.