Back from the Dead

So last night Albert Pujols saved the Cardinals. If he hadn't hit that 2-out, 3-run home run in the bottom of the eighth, the Birds would probably be dead. But he did hit the homer, so they live on. The guy is in a class by himself.

Then this morning, I'm greeted with the news that WOXY is coming back. Great news.

The Empress

I learned something on PBS last night which amazed me. The show was a biopic about Marie Antoinette, and it said that her mother, Maria Teresa, was the long-time empress of Austria. Which isn't a big deal, except for the fact that Maria Teresa had sixteen children while she was empress. Apparently she would even read reports and policy papers while she was in labor.

Marie Antoinette was the second-youngest. She got married off to Louis XVI to create an alliance between Austria and France. And apparently she never actually said the "cake" thing.

Way to Go, Opportunity!

For the past 18 months, the rover Opportunity has been trundling across the plains of Mars, in an attempt to reach the Victoria Crater.

Tomorrow, it will finally arrive. It's going to peek over the edge of the crater, which is about 200 feet deep.

A note on the article: I like the way the scientists refer to Opportunity and Spirit as females. The only reason I didn't here is that I don't feel I know them personally. :)

Hard to Believe

The World Wide Web is only 15 years old. The BBC did a nice brief history of the web.

I'm amazed by how fast the development has happened, and how much of this history I can remember. I remember hearing about Internet services as far back as 1992 and 1993. (CompuServe, anyone?)

I also got online relatively early: 1997. Makes me feel cool, even though I'm not.

Today Is Music Day

September 23 is the birthday of:

• Bruce Springsteen
• John Coltrane
• Ray Charles
  

How Do I Look?

Got a chuckle out of this. Some photographer for Getty Images has been taking classes in "How to Make a Politician Look Good."

Good Fishies!

Pretty cool story: A number of cities are using bluegill to detect contaminants in their municipal water supplies. Apparently they're pretty sensitive to nasties in the water.

Good fishies!

Remember!

Talk like a pirate today!

Arrrrrrrr!!!

WOXY, You Will Be Missed

As I wrote a couple of weeks ago, one of the best radio stations anywhere, WOXY in Cincinnati, is going off the air on Sept. 15. I found these folks just a few months ago but quickly became a regular listener.

Why will I miss them? They play stuff no one else does. This afternoon they went back-to-back-to-back with:

1. Guillemots, "Go Away"
2. The Jam, "That's Entertainment"
3. The Walkmen, "The Rat"

It ain't every radio station in the world would play that particular set of songs in that particular order.

Update: And then about an hour later, they went B2B with:

1. Badly Drawn Boy, "Born in the UK"
   
2. The Police, "Born in the 50s."

Okay, yes, it's hokey. But cut them slack - it's their last day on air. And when was the last time you heard that Police song on the radio?

Fantasy Beats Reality

My friend Bill sent me an e-mail this morning, which was a response to a chain joke about "how the Internet was created." Bill took issue with the long-standing dig against Al Gore that he claimed to "invent the Internet." Bill said he wanted to "lay this to rest once and for all."

Bill brought with him a preponderance of evidence - a wealth of well-documented facts that demonstrate that, while Gore did not invent the Internet, he also never claimed to have invented the Internet, and he did sponsor legislation that speeded the the Internet's development. So, yes, Al should get some credit, even though he probably tried to give himself more credit than he deserves. (Isn't it shocking that a politician would try to do this?)

But Bill's argument, no matter how well researched or documented, doesn't even begin to lay the issue to rest. I'd say it hardly even matters, because it ignores one simple truth (an inconvenient one, if you will):

When given the choice between believing a simple fantasy and a complicated truth, most people will believe the fantasy every time.

Or, as Mark Twain more famously said, "A lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes."

Just refer to my previous post for further evidence of this. Why in the world are people going to accept the truth about Al Gore and the Internet - a truth that is older, more arcane, and technologically complicated - if they won't understand the comparatively much simpler truth about who's responsible for 9/11?

In both cases, fantasy overwhelmingly trumps truth. It always was so, and I'm afraid always will be.

Still, I hold out a slim, if fading, hope that people will someday realize the ultimate truth: that everything on Earth is controlled by a massive supercomputer run by aliens on a small planet near Betelgeuse.

We're Incompetent!

I've read some interesting numbers in the wake of the 9/11 anniversary.

Recent polling indicates that 46% of Americans believe that Saddam Hussein had a part in 9/11. This is down from 70% in 2003...but still.

At the same time, 16% of Americans believe that the World Trade Center towers were demolished by preset explosive charges. In other words, that the U.S. government destroyed the buildings and almost 3,000 people inside.

Put the two together, and you've got 62% of Americans who don't have even a basic comprehension of who's responsible for 9/11.

We're incompetent!

It's Not Happening...It's Not Happening

Call me crazy. I tend to think that this whole "global warming" thing is more than just a scare tactic for liberals to try to win elections.

There's you know, some science behind it. Just a bit.

But not much in Australia, apparently. Al Gore is in Aussieland promoting the release of "An Inconvenient Truth" there, and according to Australian officials, Al's just doing a traveling medicine show! Check this out:

Australia's Resources Minister Ian Macfarlane dismissed the documentary's dire predictions about the consequences of global warming as entertainment.

"Al Gore's here to sell tickets to a movie and no one can begrudge him that. It's just entertainment," Macfarlane told Australian Broadcasting Corp. radio Monday.

PS: Please note the obscure "Erik the Viking" reference in the title of this post.

Haunting and Amazing

Just heard one of the most amazing songs I've heard in a while: Bob Marley's "Redemption Song," sung and played as a duet between Johnny Cash and Joe Strummer.

I've always loved that song anyway, but it is a great and haunting rendition. It had to be one of the last recordings ever for both Cash and Strummer.

It sort of hit me like Warren Zevon's "Knockin' on Heaven's Door," which he recorded when everyone knew he was dying.

Life can end too fast.

Decemberists

The new Decemberists album, "The Crane Wife," will be in stores Oct. 30.

Love that band. Very clever lyrics and lots of references to seafaring. Arrrrr!

The Land of Obvion

Your quote for the day:

"The way to win the struggle is to win it."

That's U.S. Senator Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., referring to the war.

This Blows My Mind

Did you know that in 1965, Braniff Airlines ran a campaign called "Air Strip" which called for its stewardesses to do a fake striptease in the aisle?

Yep, they did. NPR mentioned it in a story yesterday. For full effect, be sure to click the image of Braniff's promo poster on the NPR page.

The mind boggles to imagine such a thing today, but in the days when airplanes were mostly full of businessmen downing drinks, it was - umm - acceptable?