Misc

The Presidents

This was the banner on my website for many years. I finally decided to modernize the site.         Which one of the four men above has never been the President of the United States? From left to right they are: 1) Benjamin Harrison – 23rd President – 1889 to 1893 2) Ruther B Hayes – 19th President ... Read More »

Carl Sagan Lives Again – Via Remix

I remember watching “Cosmos: A Personal Voyage” in 1980 or 81 in Lubbock, Texas while attending Texas Tech.  It was an inspiring 13-part PBS television series, hosted by Carl Sagan, on topics of the universe, science, and nature; probably a true parent of many of the shows we see on Discovery, NatGeo, and History channels today. As of 2009, it ... Read More »

Addicted to Osmos

I bought a ViewSonic GTablet from Woot for about $235, and found these instructions to upgrade GTablet to Honeycomb edition of Android operating system.  For a newbie to this hardware, it was a little like brain surgery, but I got it done in about 2-3 hours; works great except as he warns, the camera doesn’t work.  But it is about ... Read More »

Family Heirloom or Junk?

I have a water pitcher and basin that I find rather ugly, other than the nice skin color “crackling” on the bottom.  A “trader” apparently brought it back from Indonesia when we lived in Australia (about 1966).   It seems to be made in a popular pottery town of Burslem, England, based on the mark on the bottom that says: “The ... Read More »

Modern Renaissance Man

Do you see an uncanny physical resemblance between these two scientists?  The one on the left, is of course, Isaac Newton.  Among other things, he is known for creating calculus (independently along with Liebniz), but not telling anyone about it for 30 years (because no one asked).  He changed modern physics as most of us know it today; his theories ... Read More »

The CF-105 Avro Arrow

In Calgary, Alberta, a group of volunteers gathers every Tuesday night in a private hanger to build a build a 2/3 scale piloted replica of the CF-105 Avro Arrow (within the limits of Canadian recreational aircraft legislation). The original Arrow was one, if not “the”, most advanced aircraft in its day.  However, its cancellation was announced on 20 February 1959. ... Read More »

Sunday Brunch at Thomson’s in the Calgary Hyatt

I had an excellent buffet lunch today at Thomson’s in the Calgary Hyatt.  It was a nice walk from my hotel, on a quiet Easter Sunday. It’s still within the 8 days of Passover, so I was delighted to find several good dishes that were free of leaven, wheat, barley, oats…  They even had a flour-less chocolate tort (makes me ... Read More »

One Degree of Separation to the New Dallas TV Show

I don’t remember who shot JR, but I loved the Dallas TV show back in the 80s (actually 1978-91), and the suspense of the summer until we eventually learned “who shot J.R.”  My home is now in Rockwall, TX, which is actually not too far from Southfork Ranch, located in Parker (East of Plano).  In about 1998, I attended a ... Read More »