This Old Blog

The Fermi Paradox asks, essentially, if the Universe is as vast as it is, and has been in existence for as long as it appears to have been, with all chances for life to appear then statistically speaking why haven't we crossed paths with at least one alien culture? Where are they? That question, asked by Enrico Fermi  while at lunch with his friends Emil Konopinski, Edward Teller and Herbert York at Los Alamos National Laboratory in the early 1950s, has never been adequately answered since. In spite of how we wish to believe, we've yet to discover any concrete evidence either in the universe or closer to home on any of the planets and moons we've explored. A number of theories have been advanced as to why we haven't found them yet (conspiracy theorists not withstanding). One of those theories is the it's dangerous to contact us. After reading today's news, and after watching the government shutdown and the idiots who have participated in it, I can see why...

bin Laden is physically dead. After a raid on a million dollar luxury compound he'd lived in for five years, within walking distance of the Pakistani Kakul Military Academy, Pakistan’s premier military academy. And the Pakistani's claim they never suspected. And so life goes on all around the world. I went out on my daily lunch walk, enjoying the wonderful Orlando weather this time of year. I listened to the people I passed, listening for any indication that bin Laden's death meant anything to them. I heard nothing out of the ordinary. I stopped by the local Chick-fil-a and ordered a chicken sandwich. While I ate I listened again for any kind of chatter or conversations about bin Laden's death. Again I heard nothing out of the ordinary. I went to a local gas station to check the paper stand at the store. I would have shown a photo of a rack of papers screaming about bin Laden's death, except there were none to photograph. There was all sorts of other new...

My older posts on this subject: Angels of mercy in America The horrors of Iraq Youssif arrived in America Tuesday, 9/11, to begin treatment for burns he suffered in his home country of Iraq at the hands of adult, masked Islamic 'heroes'. I'll let the CNN quote from the mother speak for itself: For a family whose lives were tortured by the random and brutal violence of Iraq, the sheer magnitude of stepping onto American soil was surreal. His parents were rendered speechless. Quite simply they grinned from ear to ear. They didn't need to speak. The joy on their faces was palpable. They had traveled more than 7,500 miles to get help for their son, from war-torn central Baghdad to coastal Los Angeles. It marked the first time the family had ever left their homeland, let alone ride on a plane. "Oh my God, it's so green. Am I in heaven? " Youssif's mother, Zainab, said after arriving in Chicago before the family flew on to Los Angeles where Youssif will be ...

It was another Tuesday six years ago when I stood in dumb horror, watching the twin towers of the World Trade Center burn and collapse on a TV monitor at the Lockheed/Martin plant where I was working. At the time I was an SAIC employee and SAIC was a subcontractor to LM-STS on the WARSIM program. The LM-STS facility on the east side of Orlando has large TVs scattered around the plant and around the office areas to keep everyone informed and to help in general communications. On that day I was upstairs in building E1 in my cube, working on some sort of WARSIM issue (what I can't recall). A co-worker by the name of Rich Fuchs called my attention to one of the monitors in the area, and asked "Have you seen this?" Once it sunk in what was unfolding I couldn't take my eyes off the TV for the next few hours, and neither could Rich. In fact (as I walked around during that time) nearly everyone was sitting or standing around the TVs or talking about what was happening. Nobody...

When you go googling for your blog to see how popular it is, you find out interesting facts. Like the fact that my blog is pretty poor with regards to hit returns (running between 600 and 800 results depending on which the wind blows, which just shows how much it sucks). And then there are the links to other rating tools, such as Kinja . Kinja is interesting in that it also includes results from Technorati and Alexa . Clicking on Alexa's link opens up a traffic details page, and at the bottom of the page are some of the most interesting facts of all. Most interesting fact: I'm popular in the United Kingdom. According to Alexa, between 40% and 50% of my blog's traffic comes from the UK. I don't know why, but I've actually broken below 100,000 in the UK (if you believe Alexa), sitting at around 73,000 to 75,000 in page rank. Compare that to the US; I only draw 3% and my page rank sits around 1.6 million. Oh. And second to the UK is Canada (10%). So over 50% of my traf...

In an earlier post (" The horrors of Iraq ") I raged against the monsters who burned a five year old boy. A CNN story now reports that he's coming to America to be treated for his burns, and hopefully, to be given his life back. In a nutshell: Shortly after Youssif's story aired Wednesday, the Children's Burn Foundation -- a nonprofit organization based in Sherman Oaks, California, that provides support for burn victims locally, nationally and internationally -- agreed to pay for the transportation for Youssif and his family to come to the United States and to set up a fund for donations. You can make a donation at the foundation's site by clicking here. There's a drop-down menu under the "general donation" area that is marked "Youssif's fund." The foundation says it will cover all medical costs -- from surgeries for Youssif to housing costs to any social rehabilitation that might be needed for him. Surgeries will be performed by ...

There are stories so horrific in nature that they rivet you to the spot in shock for seemingly timeless moments until the shock begins to wear off. One of those moments occurred today when reading a CNN.com story about a five year old Baghdad boy who was doused in gasoline and then set on fire . And then seeing the pictures . An atrocity committed by adults. I'm a Florida Democrat. Make no mistake; I despise the current administration. I despise the presidents smart-alec smirks, his choice of political chronies that help him dilute the powers of a Constitution he swore to uphold, his choice of staff members who help twist science to support a political agenda, to Karl Rove, one of the dirtiest political operatives to ply his trade in Washington for quite some time. And come 2008 I will work to sweep the trash of the Bush administration from Washington, to replace it with someone more qualified, regardless of political party. But I have never doubted the need to invade Afghanistan ...