Spring into a better Planet - on Earth Day 2009 · Wednesday April 22, 2009 by colin newell
Originally conceived in the Fall of 1969 at an event in Seattle, Washington – it was declared that the first Earth Day would be in April of 1970 and every year after that.
Personally, I do not think I was aware of Earth Day til the eighties – Here are some random thoughts from yours truly from Earth day’s past… of how I would have thought about those days if I was actually paying attention to anything…
- April 1970 Are the Beatles really breaking up? How will this effect the Planet?
- April 1971 TV show Dark Shadows goes off the air – the Planet has been saved from Barnabas Collins. You really need to be older than 35 to get this.
- April 1972 Rolling Stones release Exile on Main Street – dang these Stones are old and they look old doing what they are doing. They should have retired when the Beatles retired.
- April 1973 Skylab is launched releasing tons of shit into the atmosphere… not so good.
- April 1974 148 tornadoes affecting 13 states and 1 Canadian province in 18 hours, the biggest tornado outbreak in recorded history – The death toll is 315, with nearly 5,500 injured. Earth angry
- April 1976 Apple Computer Company is formed by Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak. Earth is soon to be turned to plastic and silicon.
- April 1981 Space Shuttle Columbia passes flight tests dumping millions of pounds of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.
There are an estimated 6.7 billion humans on the Planet. That is 4 times the number a mere 100 years ago. This is serious. For this reason (and other reasons) I will not be having children – and I encourage as many people as possible to, at least, limit their number of offspring to 1… if that. Better yet: Get a dog or a cat. They are less messy.
Happy Earth Day!
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Give ticketmaster a break already · Sunday March 8, 2009 by colin newell
A Winnipeg woman has launched a class action lawsuit against concert ticket giant Ticketmaster for overcharging.
According to the woman’s lawyer, her daughter bought tickets through a Ticketmaster subsidiary for around $200 each when the original ticket price was just $57.
Oh boo-hoo.
I went on line over a year ago to get some Police tickets for the Vancouver show – and much to my surprise, I was redirected to an “associate” auction site to pay exorbitant prices to see the Stingster and his aged colleagues.
Did I buy a ticket? No. I am not paying $500 to see 3 old farts trot out hits from my heyday – music that was much better then thank you very much.
Oddly, I did get a call from the London Times rock editor to talk about it. The rock editor no less.
And I told this wanker the same thing. It is business. It is commerce. If there are some sweet smelling rich people out there that are willing to pay top dollar to ticketmaster for some has been band from the 70’s or 80’s… Well so what!? It is business after all.
London times editor thought, even then, that there outta be a law!
Right.
Here’s the deal.
Ticketmaster is a business, yea?
And they are in the business to make money, yea?
Well let them do it.
If there is some sour grape sap out there that is crying into their happy meal because they cannot afford a ticket to some washed up celebrity show – well, suck it up soldier. This is a free market after all.
On behalf of big corporate media, I say…
Sock it to me.
Hawaii vacation blogging - memories are made of this · Monday January 19, 2009 by colin newell
My sister, Toni, just asked me…
“What were some of the best memories of your Hawaii vacation?”
Good question.
For starters…
-eating a simple birthday dinner on the lanai watching the
Sun go down… Hale Kona Kai condo – Kona, Hawaii
-making breakfast every morning; granola, fresh papaya, and an omelette
-snorkeling with brilliant tropical fish
-sitting on a patio surrounded by coffee plants… while drinking the
coffee from the plants – Blue Horse Kona Farm near Captain Cook, Hawaii
-drinking beer at the Kona Brewing Company and eating pizza while
a mongoose mooches the table
-self guided tour at Greenwell Farms, surrounded by Avocado, Grapefruit, lemon
and breadfruit trees…
-drinking coffee at Island Lava Java on Alii Drive, Kona
-Eating shave ice at the North Shore of Oahu
-Eating at a Shrimp cart in Oahu
-Enjoying a plate lunch at a dodgy Honolulu bar and grill
-Eating a plate of nachos at Charters Marina pub next to the Illikai Marina, Waikiki
-Standing in line waiting to get into the Wailana Coffee House – a “Denny’s” on steroids,
4 times the size of our Denny’s talking to Canadian snow birds from Swift Current, Saskatchewan
-Watching a tropical thunderstorm
-Flashing the shaka hand gesture at a complete stranger
-Waikiki trolley tour… pretty much any part of it.
-Walking Bishop’s museum, Honolulu
and my favorite…
-Finding Andrea 13 minutes after getting lost in downtown Waikiki…
Moderately terrifying, but a satisfying reunion.
Summer food fun and drink - black hole swallow internet · Tuesday September 9, 2008 by colin newell
Scientists at the European Centre for Nuclear Research (CERN) plan to smash particle beams together at close to the speed of light to create mini-versions of the explosion believed to have triggered the birth of the cosmos.
Not quite like cloning Dolly the sheep… but curious none the less.
So. Tomorrow. The World might end with a giant Moob
Moob. That is the opposite of… well, you know.
A black hole, in theory, has such intense gravity that matter can move into it approaching the speed of light.
Such things actually exist in the Universe. At a great distance from us, thank heavens.
Mini-Moobs, like White Dwarves exist within 10 light years. 8.6 Light years actually.
While not as crazy as Black Holes, the White Dwarf is pretty intense from a physics point of view – a couple of square inches of material from a W.D. weighs in at over a ton. A couple of square inches of a black hole weighs in at… well, actually… pretty close to infinite weight. Help me Jenny Craig, help me!
So. Cosmologists think an explosion of an object the size of a Canadian nickel occurred about 13.7 billion years ago and led to the formation of all matter. Stockwell Day would argue 3000 years ago – but that is another matter. Get it? Matter?
Never mind.
Some critics say the experiment will create “black holes” of intense gravity that could implode the Earth, or that it will open the way for beings from another universe to invade through a “worm hole” in space-time. Cool. When they come through the gate, I will be waiting with my phaser…
And that bad boy won’t be set to stun I promise you.
Anyway. Have a nice day.
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