crikey...

sharks to the northwest, sharks to the southeast, sharks to the southwest and sharks with frickin' lasers to the south.

LET'S GO SURFING, DUDE!!!!




digg

if you still want to go..

making

as I kid, I built model airplanes, so this is cool..

don't get glue on your fingers, now..





I'd especially like to be the guy that tests the landing gear and the flaps.

Neatorama

everyone's a critic

his criticism is succinct and to the point

an homage

One of my favorite movie genres is the Spaghetti Western and one of the best is Il buono, il brutto, il cattivo  better known here as The Good, the Bad and the Ugly.
 A few years ago a twist of the genre was released,  Sukiyaki Western Django*. A Ramen Western ?


and now from South Korea...



I can't wait...

* small part by a big American Director/Screenwriter

tea is brown, the tea party is not..

op-ed from the New York Times

On Thursday, I came here outside Dallas for a Tea Party rally.
At first I thought, “Wow! This is much more diverse than the rallies I’ve seen on television.”
Then I realized that I was looking at stadium workers. I should have figured as much when I approached the gate. The greeter had asked, “Are you working tonight?”
I sat in the front row. But when the emcee asked, “Do we have any infiltrators?” and I almost raised my hand, I realized that sitting there might not be such a good idea.
I had specifically come to this rally because it was supposed to be especially diverse. And, on the stage at least, it was. The speakers included a black doctor who bashed Democrats for crying racism, a Hispanic immigrant who said that she had never received a single government entitlement and a Vietnamese immigrant who said that the Tea Party leader was God. It felt like a bizarre spoof of a 1980s Benetton ad.
The juxtaposition was striking: an abundance of diversity on the stage and a dearth of it in the crowd, with the exception of a few minorities like the young black man who carried a sign that read “Quit calling me a racist.”
They saved the best for last, however: Alfonzo “Zo” Rachel. According to his Web site, Zo, who is black and performs skits as “Zo-bama,” allowed drugs to cost him “his graduation.” Before ripping into the president for unconstitutional behavior, he cautioned, “I don’t have the education that our president has, so if I misinterpret some things in the founding documents I kind of have an excuse.” That was the understatement of the evening.
I found the imagery surreal and a bit sad: the minorities trying desperately to prove that they were “one of the good ones”; the organizers trying desperately to resolve any racial guilt among the crowd. The message was clear: How could we be intolerant if these multicolored faces feel the same way we do?
It was a farce. This Tea Party wanted to project a mainstream image of a group that is anything but. A New York Times/CBS News poll released on Wednesday found that only 1 percent of Tea Party supporters are black and only 1 percent are Hispanic. It’s almost all white.
And even when compared to other whites, their views are extreme and marginal. For instance, white Tea Party supporters are twice as likely as white independents and eight times as likely as white Democrats to believe that Barack Obama was born in another country.
Furthermore, they were more than eight times as likely as white independents and six times as likely as white Democrats to think that the Obama administration favors blacks over whites.
Thursday night I saw a political minstrel show devised for the entertainment of those on the rim of obliviousness and for those engaged in the subterfuge of intolerance. I was not amused.

neither am I ...

The quote Tea Party unquote has rapidly become a gathering place of cranks, right wing nuts,and more dangerously ,militants who may have extreme methods in mind..


On this the anniversary of the Oklahoma City bombing of a federal building that killed 149, 19 of which were children in a day care facility, a line must be drawn.

Recent statements by members of the so called Tea Party have been racist, homophobic and just plain hateful.

Irresponsibly, certain members of Congress have fueled the fire.

This should not stand.

If you cry out fire!! in a crowded theater, you had better be able to back it up.

However, some comments by elected officials seem to only fan the flames of  hate and provide justification to those that wish to divide our country from within.



If left without public scrutiny something similar to the tragic bombing in Oklahoma City will occur again, and we, as Americans will be much the less for it.

ahhhh, nature...

The Eyjafjallajökull volcano

taken on April, 17th, 2010 as on APOD

as far away from the sweet idylls of spring that I can imagine..

and a weird coincidence, I started reading Krakatoa, The Day the World Exploded a few days before the eruption made the news.


BTW, this pic is now my computer background

I hate corks, I really do

I have always been a fan of the Stelvin closure for wine solely for it's ability to prevent cork taint, now it appears that it works well in the case of ageing too.

that's it!! case closed!!

What's it about? All 14 bottles contain identical samples of a Leasingham Estate 1999 Clare Valley Semillon, all cellared together for a decade. The colors tell the tale that 10 years of aging wrote: They range all the way from watery pale to a dank, dead dark brown.

The bottle on the left, perfect in color (and reportedly in taste), was closed with a sturdy Stelvin-brand metal screw cap. All the others are plugged with a variety of natural and processed cork or synthetic stoppers. If this doesn't close the case, it makes a mighty strong argument to the jury.

It is well known that screw cap closures eliminate cork taint (TCA) and premature oxidization, but what this trial reveals is the fact that wine does mature/age in the bottle over time under screw cap. This is the most misunderstood aspect of the closure debate. Australians have been conducting both red and white wine screw cap trials for 20-30 years, so experience tells us this is indeed the case, but this is the first trial on such a grand scale to highlight this little-known fact.
The wine involved was a 1999 Clare Valley Semillon made by Kerri Thompson of Leasingham Estate. Thousands of bottles were sealed with 14 different closures, including multiple natural and synthetic corks as well as one sample under screw cap.

UK wine Journalist Jamie Goode has followed the trial closely while remaining independent and was fortunate enough to taste the Semillon after being in bottle for 10 years and 8 months, saying 'It's a full yellow color, with a minerally, flinty edge to the attractive honeysuckle and citrus fruit nose. The palate has a lovely focused fruit quality to it with pithy citrus fruit and a hint of grapefruit. There are also some subtle toasty notes. Very attractive and amazingly fresh for a 10 year old Clare Semillon.

more at Wine Lovers Page