STEAM POWERED SINCE 1837.

===========================================

I am just running this up the flag pole to see what you think:

Idea for a New Word:

Craporful - Brightly colored crap.  Of course the British would spell it Crapourful.
===========================================
I have four email addresses.  Does this seem strange?  Gmail, Yahoo(2) and Road Runner.  I am thinking of setting up a couple of more just to see what kind of cool names I can come up with. 

Get free email at:
http://gmail.google.com/
http://www.gmx.com/
http://lavabit.com/
http://www.fastmail.fm/
http://www.yahoo.com
http://www.zenbe.com/personal/
http://www.gawab.com/

And this web site will tell you about them and others:
http://email.about.com/od/freeemailreviews/tp/free_email.htm

There are others.  Some of these services will even check your mail on other sites so you can potentially check all your addresses from the same spot (GMX is one).  Go, seek out that special name the other service would not let you have.  Fly like the mail.

===========================================
As I get older I have a certain melancholy feeling that comes from knowing I am closer to the end than the beginning.  But I am warmed by a few things.  I have known some wonderful people, had the opportunity be friends with some of them, fight and argue with some of them and even love a few.  You are my life and you (even those I dislike) have given me all the memories and stories that I tell my new friends.  I can make new friends easily because of all the interesting stories about all the wonderful friends I have had.  When I am not with you, I miss you all (sometimes even those I dislike) but you are in my heart and my stories and you will live on in somebody's head and heart, somebody you may never know.  I think that is as close to immortality that any of can hope for.  A memory or an echo or a whisper.  Don't forget to tell others about me don't cheat them or me of a little immortality.  Feel free to talk about me shamelessly, that would make me smile. 

===========================================
The following is just interesting.

1 x 1 = 1
11 x 11 = 121
111 x 111 = 12321
1111 x 1111 = 1234321
11111 x 11111 = 123454321
111111 x 111111 = 12345654321
1111111 x 1111111 = 1234567654321
11111111 x 11111111 = 123456787654321
111111111 x 111111111 = 12345678987654321

1 + 9 = 10
11 + 99 = 110
111 + 999 = 1110
1111 + 9999 = 11110
11111 + 99999 = 111110
111111 + 999999 = 1111110
1111111 + 9999999 = 11111110
11111111 + 99999999 = 111111110
111111111 + 999999999 = 1111111110
1111111111 + 9999999999 = 11111111110

1 x 9 = 9
11 x 99 = 1089
111 x 999 = 110889
1111 x 9999 = 11108889
11111 x 99999 = 1111088889
111111 x 999999 = 111110888889
1111111 x 9999999 = 11111108888889
11111111 x 99999999 = 1111111088888889
111111111 x 999999999 = 111111110888888889

9 x 9 = 81
99 x 99 = 9801
999 x 999 = 998001
9999 x 9999 = 99980001
99999 x 99999 = 9999800001
999999 x 999999 = 999998000001
9999999 x 9999999 = 99999980000001
99999999 x 99999999 = 9999999800000001
999999999 x 999999999 = 999999998000000001

81 + 9 = 90
9801 + 1089 = 10890
998001 + 110889 = 1108890
99980001 + 11108889 = 111088890
9999800001 + 1111088889 = 11110888890
999998000001 + 111110888889 = 1111108888890
99999980000001 + 11111108888889 = 111111088888890
9999999800000001 + 1111111088888889 = 11111110888888890
999999998000000001 + 111111110888888889 = 1111111108888888890

Numbers amaze me.  Higher Mathematics is closer to magic than anything Harry Potter ever did.  There are numbers that we use with huge degrees of precision but we will never know what those numbers actually are, like PI.  PI goes on forever.  If you calculated a million digits a second there is not enough time left in the life of the Universe to ever get close to the end of PI.  The idea of getting half way there does not even have any meaning.  If God exists (and I have never said yes to that) then maybe he/she is PI, infinite, forever. 
===========================================
Now to the reasons to be happy this week
(or at least civil).
Here goes:

===========================================
monday 23 november
***The Official NoButtonButton*************
***
*** You live longer once you realize that
***
*** any time spent being unhappy is wasted.
*******************************************
birthdays:
1859 – Billy The Kid born Henry McCarty - Outlaw, murderer and bad egg, but not as bad as his legend.  The evidence tends to support the idea that he killed four men, not twenty and although four murders is awful there is evidence that those four were not innocent civilians but equally guilty criminals.  He had charisma and was popular.  He was fun-loving and jolly, he wrote and spoke well.  He spoke fluent Spanish, was a good dancer and was popular with Latina girls.  His many Hispanic friends did not think he was ruthless killer but a defender of the people.  they thought he was forced to kill in self-defense.  Okay so he did occasionally steal horses and cattle, but hey nobody is perfect. 

1864 – Henry Bourne Joy, American automobile executive - In 1913, Joy and Carl Graham Fisher were driving forces as principal organizers of the Lincoln Highway Association, a group dedicated to building a concrete road from New York to San Francisco.  They succeeded at the highway went coast to coast through 13 states.  Carl got side tracked into other projects like the Dixie Highway and the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

1902 – Aaron Bank, American Office of Strategic Services officer and founder of the US Army Special Forces.  In 1952 a group put together from troops from the "The Devil's Brigade" (a name given them by the Germans), from the Rangers, the OSS and Airborne units was formed and called the 10th Special Forces.  We wanted the Russians to think there were 9 other similar units.  They were the first Green Berets and Aaron Bank was their commander.

1908 – Nelson S. Bond, US science fiction writer.  He wrote a few novels and a lot of short stories and tons of Radio and TV shows.  Most were SciFi but he also did Westerns.

events:
1644 – Areopagitica, a pamphlet decrying censorship, and written by John Milton is published.  And we still have censorship.  Cable TV bleeps out words on reruns that ran uncut on Broadcast TV and the Edited broadcast version of some Gangsta Rap songs are full of special effect sounds.  Schools censor what books are purchased.  Companies censor what you can and can not say to fellow workers.  We sensor our own words continually.  We really don't seem to be interested in what others really think.

1869 – In Dumbarton, Scotland, the clipper Cutty Sark is launched – one of the last clippers ever to be built, and the only one still surviving to this day.  I think it is the only one with a Scotch named after it.

1889 – The first jukebox goes into operation at the Palais Royale Saloon in San Francisco.

1914 – The last of U.S. forces withdraw from Veracruz, occupied seven months earlier in response to the Tampico Affair.  We do so love to invade other countries.

1936 – The first edition of Life is published.

1958 – Johnston McCulley dies in Los Angeles, California in his home after a series of operations. He was the author of hundreds of stories, fifty novels, numerous screenplays for film and TV, and the creator of the character Zorro. 

McCulley created many pulp characters, including Black Star, The Mongoose, and Thubway Tham. Many of McCulley's characters — the Green Ghost, the Thunderbolt, and the Crimson Clown — were inspirations for the masked heroes that have appeared in popular culture from McCulley's time to the present day.

1963 – The BBC broadcast the first ever episode of Doctor Who, starring William Hartnell, which would become the world's longest science fiction drama to date.  There have been Eleven different Doctors and there is a fan saying "You always remember your first Doctor".  The series has spawned 6 TV spin-offs, 2 movies and proposals for several more, a magazine, almost 200 books and more merchandise than you can shake an sonic screwdriver at.  The program is listed in Guinness World Records as the longest-running science fiction television show in the world, and as the "most successful" science fiction series of all time, in terms of its overall broadcast ratings, DVD sales, book sales and iTunes traffic, as well as "illegal downloads."  There have been over 750 episodes Broadcast.  To put that into perspective StarGate SG-1 only had 214 episodes.  Doctor Who's time machine (that looks like an English Police call box) is called the 'Tardis' is included in the Oxford English Dictionary

1995 - Grant Morrison asks readers of his comic book series "The Invisibles" to participate in a worldwide "wank-off" to give power to a sigil (a magic symbol) intended to keep the series in circulation.  So just being horny isn't enough any more?  Besides with what I know about the demographics of the people who buy and read comix they are probably wanking at full capacity already.  If the comic book can't survive on that I think it is real trouble.  Besides these guys would probably hurt themselves if they tried to add a special occasion to schedule. 

holidays:
National Cashew Day - Random Seed (not a nut) Day.

Great Tinker Toy Extravaganza - You can model molecules with them.  Yeah!

===========================================
tuesday 24 november
***The Official NoButtonButton*************
***
*** Plan like you have forever. 
***
*** Live like you only have today.
*******************************************
birthdays:
1806 – William Webb Ellis, credited with the invention of Rugby.  Thereby increasing the consumption of alcohol significantly.

1815 – Grace Darling, 22-year-old English heroine.  At great personal risk, she and her father rescued 5 people from a wrecked ship.  She was hailed as a hero through out England and today there is still a Rescue Boat named for her.  There have been other young women that have demonstrated most gallant bravery, pulling people from the sea.  The phrase "At great personal risk" is part of each of these rescues.  Bad, stormy seas are part of all of these stories.

Grace Bussell, a 16-year-old Australian girl who rescued 50 people from the SS Georgette when it foundered off the West Australian coast in 1876. She is regarded as Australia’s national heroine.  Called the Grace Darling of Australia.

Ann Harvey, a Newfoundland 17-year-old who in 1828, with her father, brother and dog, rescued 163 shipwrecked people stranded on a small rocky outcrop.  Unable to get closer than 100 feet they had to send the dog out (with a rope attached) to swim to the island and then tow a person back.  It took three days.  And in 1838 she saved 25 more ship wreck victims by herself.  Called the Grace Darling of Newfoundland.

Roberta Boyd, a New Brunswick 20-year-old rescued rescued two men in 1882.  Called the Grace Darling of New Brunswick.

They were more than just a pretty face, however when those people were pulled into those boats and their lives were handed back, those women were probably the most beautiful angels they ever saw.


events:
1642 – Abel Tasman becomes the first European to discover the island Van Diemen's Land (later renamed Tasmania in honor of Abel).

1859 – Charles Darwin publishes On the Origin of Species.  The man sure knew how to start a fight.  The Religious Fundamentalists and Scientists have been going at it ever since.  I think part of the problem is Ego.  Many people don't like the idea that they are related to apes where I see the incredible difference that a small (one tenth of one percent) change in DNA can cause.  Someday every genetic flaw will be cured.  Oh course at this point I need to point out that there will be the temptation to 'Engineer' humans for special purposes.  Probably the first will be Super Soldiers because we do so love our fighting.  People with gills or night vision, super hearing all that stuff.  Then we can have a new bunch of people to discriminate against.  X-Men Forever.

1932 – In Washington D.C., the FBI Scientific Crime Detection Laboratory (better known as the FBI Crime Lab) officially opens.  They inspired other Crime labs and eventually those other labs inspired TV shows.  CSI, CSI Miami, CSI NY and Bones all celebrate the children of this first Crime Lab.

1966 – New York City experiences the smoggiest day in the city's history. 

1971 – During a severe thunderstorm over Washington state, a hijacker calling himself Dan Cooper (AKA D.B.Cooper) parachutes from a Northwest Orient Airlines plane with $200,000 in ransom money – neither he nor the money have ever been found.  That last statement may not be true at all.  $5,880 of the money was found, all in one place, in the woods tied up with a rubber band.  Also Richard McCoy, Jr., under the alias "James Johnson," boarded United Airlines Flight 855 and demanded money and parachutes.  He got $500,000 and ran down the rear steps while the plane was on the ground.  Several days later he was busted, convicted, then escaped prison.  It took the FBI three months to find him and he was killed in the attempt to re-arrest him.  The FBI agents that chased him were convinced he was D.B.Cooper.

holidays:
Sinkie Day (celebrate by eating over the sink)(You know sink sandwiches)

National Espresso Day - Wash down your sink sandwich with a nice Espresso.

===========================================
wednesday 25 november
***The Official NoButtonButton*************
***
*** Most of the things you really regret
***
*** are the things you didn't do.
*******************************************
birthdays:
1562 – Félix Lope de Vega, Spanish playwright, poet, Opera composer.  Next to Cervantes (Don Quixote) he is one of the most respected Spanish language men of literature.  He just does not get translated into English much and we really don't have access to his works.  I am going to go out on a limb and say they are right.  He was prolific and produced a ton of works.  I have been toying with the idea of learning Spanish so if I ever read anything of his I will give you a full report.

1714 - Arima Yoriyuki was a Japanese mathematician. He approximated the value of π (PI). In 1766, he found the following approximation of pi, correct to 29 digits:

(428224593349304)/(136308121570117) = 3.14159265358979323846264338327(569...)

Pretty amazing and the best approximation up to that time (that I know of).

1844 - Karl Friedrich Benz, was a German engine designer and automobile engineer, generally regarded as the inventor of the gas-powered automobile and pioneering founder of the automobile manufacturer, Mercedes-Benz.  Mercedes was his daughter.

1846 – Carrie Nation, American temperance advocate.  She greeted bartenders with pointed remarks like "Good morning, destroyer of men's souls".  Yeah she took an axe and chopped up legally owned and operated bars, more than 30 times.  She helped support her violent tendencies by selling miniature souvenir axes.  Seems to me that is like Charles Manson selling "Dead Pregnant Movie Star" dolls to finance his operation. 

Alcohol is dangerous and in a perfect world nobody would drink to excess but people are are not perfect and there are reasons why people drink.  Depression is one.  It has only been 25 years that good anti-depressants have been available.  They do not work for everyone and they do have side effects.  I know about the side effects.  I took Zoloft for about three years and I had night sweats that would soak the bed, I mean wringing wet.  There were other effects as well but I would rather not talk about them.  At least Zoloft worked for me.  It took away my depression I got better then stopped using it.   I got better but what about the guy that Zoloft does not work for?  Or any of the other mood elevators?  Believe me those people are out there.  If they want to shut down their brain with alcohol to prevent the pain of depression that medicine can't cure or which they may not even have access to.  Should they be denied?  Or even more powerful drugs? 

Where I am going with this is I think Carrie Nation was a habitual criminal that should have been put in jail or an asylum.  And I think that most of the people that oppose drugs (yes alcohol is a drug) because they destroy lives should ask themselves how many lives have been destroyed not by the drugs but by the legal consequences of using the drugs. 

All drugs should be legalized and treatment on demand should be available all over the country.  We keep between 200,000 to 300,000 people in jail every year for simple drug possession.  It costs about $35,000 to jail someone for a year.  That is 7 to 10.5 Billion dollars a year.  That would buy a lot of rehab.  But that only scratches the surface.  There is the lost taxes that these people would have paid, the reduced taxes they will pay when they get out because of the crappy jobs they will get.  What about the cost of the trials and the huge number of police and military that enforce the laws?  Tens of Billions of dollars.  Now consider that half the crime against individuals is committed to get money for drugs that are dirt cheap to produce.  Their major expense  is smuggling, hiding and distribution.  The unnaturally high profits made from their sale is what finances all the gangs and gangster that are becoming such an epidemic, just like illegal alcohol financed the Mafia 70 years ago.  They made enough money to expand into other businesses.  They were on the endangered species list until the Marijuana boom of the 70s.  Pot, coke, heroin and speed sales have financed an entirely new more violent criminal element that is enslaving entire neighborhoods, in our cities.  Stop the madness.

Drugs should be cheap and legal and sold by the Government, hell I would give Heroin away at hospitals. It worked in England.  We need to quit thinking of ways of destroying people lives by making them criminals and think of ways to include them, make them part of the whole society.  The more marginalized a person is the more at risk they are. 

Okay I have some issues.  Sorry to take them out on you.  Before you ask, I am not in trouble but I do know someone who is.  I bothers me a lot.  They had problems before their brush with the law, now they still have those problems and they have one foot in a bucket.  You solve all society's problems by creating more problems for those that all ready have too many problems?  Does anybody think their actions through?

events:
1758 – French and Indian War: British forces capture Fort Duquesne from French control. Fort Pitt is built nearby and it grows into modern Pittsburgh. 

1783 – The last British troops leave New York City three months after the signing of the Treaty of Paris. 

1867 – Alfred Nobel patents dynamite.  Boom Boom, Out Go The Lights.

1940 – First flight of the de Havilland Mosquito and Martin B-26 Marauder.  They are WWII era aircraft.  They are both medium sized bombers.  The B-26 had a crew of 7 including 3 gunners.  The Mosquito was a single pilot, fighter-bomber, night fighter and photo reconnaissance aircraft.  Following the Mosquito's lead a single seat variant of the B-26 was designed named A-26 Invader.  Restored B-26s served in Indo-China in the 60s and 70s.  They lived on several years after that, as forest fire fighting, water bombers.

1952 – Agatha Christie's murder-mystery play 'The Mousetrap' opens at the Ambassadors Theatre in London and eventually becomes the longest continuously-running play in history.  It currently has been performed over 24,000 times and it is still going.  A Canadian performance did not do so well, it only ran for 9,000 shows over 26 years.

holidays:
National Parfait Day - Random Dessert Day. 

Saint Catherine of Alexandria Feast Day - She is one of the more revered Catholic Saint.  She is the patron Saint of craftsmen who work with a wheel (potters, spinners), dying people, knife sharpeners, jurists and lawyers, librarians and libraries, maidens and girls, mechanics, millers, milliners, hat-makers, nurses, philosophers, preachers and theologians, scholars, teachers and students, scribes, secretaries and stenographers, spinsters, tanners, haberdashers and wheelwrights. 

She does some of the heavy lifting in the Catholic Faith.  Tradition holds that she was arrested and a series of philosophers were sent to argue her into rejecting her faith.  She converted them, so she was sentenced to be put to death by being broken on the wheel (slow and incredibly painful).  When she touched the wheel, it broke so they beheaded her (at least it was fast) before she could convert anybody else.  Tradition also says she appeared to Joan of Arc some 11 centurys later.


===========================================
thursday 26 november
***The Official NoButtonButton*************
***
*** Life is but day and then nothing,
***
*** But it will never stop kissing & loving.
*******************************************
birthdays: Out to lunch for the holidays.

events: Out to lunch for the holidays.

holidays: 
Thanksgiving - Dead turkeys everywhere and later in the day the Detroit Lions will lose a football game to somebody.  Thanksgiving is to turkeys what Columbus Day is to Native Americans.

===========================================
friday 27 november
***The Official NoButtonButton*************
***
*** May you live all the days of your life.
***
*** LAUGH & LOVE every chance you get.
*******************************************
birthdays: Out to lunch for the holidays.

events: Out to lunch for the holidays.

holidays:
Black Friday - One of the most intense shopping days of the year.  People actually die.

Black Hat Day - This is the day I start wearing my Black Santa Hat.  Santa Goth rides again.

===========================================

****joe722****