a journey 30 years in the making
I am excited to see what the future holds and what could possibly be out there.
August 20, 2007
PASADENA, Calif. - NASA's two venerable Voyager spacecraft are celebrating three decades of flight as they head toward interstellar space. Their ongoing odysseys mark an unprecedented and historic accomplishment.
Voyager 2 launched on Aug. 20, 1977, and Voyager 1 launched on Sept. 5, 1977. They continue to return information from distances more than three times farther away than Pluto.
"The Voyager mission is a legend in the annals of space exploration. It opened our eyes to the scientific richness of the outer solar system, and it has pioneered the deepest exploration of the sun's domain ever conducted," said Alan Stern, associate administrator for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. "It's a testament to Voyager's designers, builders and operators that both spacecraft continue to deliver important findings more than 25 years after their primary mission to Jupiter and Saturn concluded."
During their first dozen years of flight, the Voyagers made detailed explorations of Jupiter, Saturn, and their moons, and conducted the first explorations of Uranus and Neptune. The Voyagers returned never-before-seen images and scientific data, making fundamental discoveries about the outer planets and their moons. The spacecraft revealed Jupiter's turbulent atmosphere, which includes dozens of interacting hurricane-like storm systems, and erupting volcanoes on Jupiter's moon Io. They also showed waves and fine structure in Saturn's icy rings from the tugs of nearby moons.
For the past 18 years, the twin Voyagers have been probing the sun's outer heliosphere and its boundary with interstellar space. Both Voyagers remain healthy and are returning scientific data 30 years after their launches.
Voyager 1 currently is the farthest human-made object, traveling at a distance from the sun of about 15.5 billion kilometers (9.7 billion miles). Voyager 2 is about 12.5 billion kilometers (7.8 billion miles) from the sun. Originally designed as a four-year mission to Jupiter and Saturn, the Voyager tours were extended because of their successful achievements and a rare planetary alignment. The two-planet mission eventually became a four-planet grand tour. After completing that extended mission, the two spacecraft began the task of exploring the outer heliosphere.
"The Voyager mission has opened up our solar system in a way not possible before the Space Age," said Edward Stone, Voyager project scientist at the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, Calif. "It revealed our neighbors in the outer solar system and showed us how much there is to learn and how diverse the bodies are that share the solar system with our own planet Earth."
In December 2004, Voyager 1 began crossing the solar system's final frontier. Called the heliosheath, this turbulent area, approximately 14 billion kilometers (8.7 billion miles) from the sun, is where the solar wind slows as it crashes into the thin gas that fills the space between stars. Voyager 2 could reach this boundary later this year, putting both Voyagers on their final leg toward interstellar space.
Each spacecraft carries five fully functioning science instruments that study the solar wind, energetic particles, magnetic fields and radio waves as they cruise through this unexplored region of deep space. The spacecraft are too far from the sun to use solar power. They run on less than 300 watts, the amount of power needed to light up a bright light bulb. Their long-lived radioisotope thermoelectric generators provide the power.
"The continued operation of these spacecraft and the flow of data to the scientists is a testament to the skills and dedication of the small operations team," said Ed Massey, Voyager project manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. Massey oversees a team of nearly a dozen people in the day-to-day Voyager spacecraft operations.
The Voyagers call home via NASA's Deep Space Network, a system of antennas around the world. The spacecraft are so distant that commands from Earth, traveling at light speed, take 14 hours one-way to reach Voyager 1 and 12 hours to reach Voyager 2. Each Voyager logs approximately 1 million miles per day.
Each of the Voyagers carries a golden record that is a time capsule with greetings, images and sounds from Earth. The records also have directions on how to find Earth if the spacecraft is recovered by something or someone.
NASA's latest outer planet exploration mission is New Horizons, which is now well past Jupiter and headed for a historic exploration of the Pluto system in July 2015.
Saturday, August 25, 2007
Friday, August 24, 2007
some of the best news in a long time
Glad to say I did not watch this vomit
LOS ANGELES - Here's news that Fox's series "Anchorwoman" wouldn't want to deliver: It's been canceled after one low-rated airing.
The debut of the reality show about Lauren Jones' attempt to turn herself into a news anchor for a Texas TV station drew an estimated 2.7 million viewers Wednesday, according to preliminary figures from Nielsen Media Research.
That number is about a third of the viewership Fox attracted a week earlier with the finale of its popular "So You Think You Can Dance."
Jones was a Barker Beauty on "The Price Is Right," Miss New York and featured WWE Diva before the series put her into the newsroom of KYTX Channel 19 in Tyler, Texas.
Unaired episodes of "Anchorwoman" will be available on Fox's website through Fox on Demand, the network said Thursday.
It's just too bad that bandwidth will be wasted on the remaining un-aired episodes. Don't watch them, please. It's all about yet another woman trying to get by on just her looks alone. IMO, she is not attractive at all. Looks like another unintelligent, leather-faced, 1/4"-thick make-up wearing, grammatically-challenged, gold-digger. Those women are a dime a dozen. Give me someone with half a brain, who isn't all about being an attention whore, that can read and write correctly, and I will show you a woman of substance and character.
Yet another awful thing about Texas. No wonder Texas has such a bad reputation. This is the 2nd largest state, yet we excel at not only doing things bad, but the degree at which bad things happen here cannot be touched. The magnitude of the mistakes that happen here are the largest. "Anchorwoman" just solidifies this and adds to the list.
LOS ANGELES - Here's news that Fox's series "Anchorwoman" wouldn't want to deliver: It's been canceled after one low-rated airing.
The debut of the reality show about Lauren Jones' attempt to turn herself into a news anchor for a Texas TV station drew an estimated 2.7 million viewers Wednesday, according to preliminary figures from Nielsen Media Research.
That number is about a third of the viewership Fox attracted a week earlier with the finale of its popular "So You Think You Can Dance."
Jones was a Barker Beauty on "The Price Is Right," Miss New York and featured WWE Diva before the series put her into the newsroom of KYTX Channel 19 in Tyler, Texas.
Unaired episodes of "Anchorwoman" will be available on Fox's website through Fox on Demand, the network said Thursday.
It's just too bad that bandwidth will be wasted on the remaining un-aired episodes. Don't watch them, please. It's all about yet another woman trying to get by on just her looks alone. IMO, she is not attractive at all. Looks like another unintelligent, leather-faced, 1/4"-thick make-up wearing, grammatically-challenged, gold-digger. Those women are a dime a dozen. Give me someone with half a brain, who isn't all about being an attention whore, that can read and write correctly, and I will show you a woman of substance and character.
Yet another awful thing about Texas. No wonder Texas has such a bad reputation. This is the 2nd largest state, yet we excel at not only doing things bad, but the degree at which bad things happen here cannot be touched. The magnitude of the mistakes that happen here are the largest. "Anchorwoman" just solidifies this and adds to the list.
Atlanta should also ban
That stupid punk, Michael Vick
ATLANTA - Michael Vick's father said he asked his son to give up dogfighting, or to at least put property used in the venture in the names of others to avoid being implicated, according to a report in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Also Thursday night, a report on ESPN.com cited an unidentified ESPN source saying Vick will not admit to killing dogs or gambling on dogfights when he enters a guilty plea in a Richmond, Va., federal court Monday.
ESPN reported that Vick's defense team met with federal attorneys Thursday afternoon to determine the "summary of facts" to which Vick will plead. But ESPN's source said Vick maintains he never killed dogs and never gambled on a dog fight. The source told ESPN the Atlanta Falcons quarterback will plead guilty to the charge of interstate commerce for the purpose of dogfighting.
On Monday, Vick agreed to plead guilty Monday in the federal dogfighting case in Richmond. He faces up to five years in prison and the possible end of his football career. Three co-defendants already pleaded guilty and were expected to testify against Vick if the case went to trial. In addition, a Virginia prosecutor is considering bringing state charges against Vick.
In The Journal-Constitution report posted on the newspaper's Web site Thursday night, Michael Boddie, who is estranged from Vick and the quarterback's mother, also said some time around 2001 his son staged dogfights in the garage of the family home in Newport News, Va.
Boddie told the newspaper Vick kept fighting dogs in the family's backyard, including dogs that were "bit up, chewed up, exhausted." Boddie claimed to have nursed the dogs back to health.
The indictment against Vick does not mention the parents' former home in Newport News.
In the report, Boddie dismissed the idea that Vick's longtime friends were the main instigators of the dogfighting operation.
"I wish people would stop sugarcoating it," Boddie told The Journal-Constitution. "This is Mike's thing. And he knows it ... likes it, and he has the capital to have a set up like that."
The report said Boddie and the Atlanta Falcons quarterback have had a volatile relationship for years and that his son has refused to speak with him directly for the last 2 1/2 half months.
Boddie, 45, lives in an apartment his son has paid the rent on for the last three years. Vick, who has a $130 million contract with the Falcons, also gives him a couple of hundred dollars every week or two, the father told the newspaper.
In the report, Boddie also said he asked Vick for $1 million, spread out over 12 years, Vick declined, the father said. Recently, Boddie asked Vick, through an assistant, for $700,000 to live on.
ATLANTA - Michael Vick's father said he asked his son to give up dogfighting, or to at least put property used in the venture in the names of others to avoid being implicated, according to a report in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Also Thursday night, a report on ESPN.com cited an unidentified ESPN source saying Vick will not admit to killing dogs or gambling on dogfights when he enters a guilty plea in a Richmond, Va., federal court Monday.
ESPN reported that Vick's defense team met with federal attorneys Thursday afternoon to determine the "summary of facts" to which Vick will plead. But ESPN's source said Vick maintains he never killed dogs and never gambled on a dog fight. The source told ESPN the Atlanta Falcons quarterback will plead guilty to the charge of interstate commerce for the purpose of dogfighting.
On Monday, Vick agreed to plead guilty Monday in the federal dogfighting case in Richmond. He faces up to five years in prison and the possible end of his football career. Three co-defendants already pleaded guilty and were expected to testify against Vick if the case went to trial. In addition, a Virginia prosecutor is considering bringing state charges against Vick.
In The Journal-Constitution report posted on the newspaper's Web site Thursday night, Michael Boddie, who is estranged from Vick and the quarterback's mother, also said some time around 2001 his son staged dogfights in the garage of the family home in Newport News, Va.
Boddie told the newspaper Vick kept fighting dogs in the family's backyard, including dogs that were "bit up, chewed up, exhausted." Boddie claimed to have nursed the dogs back to health.
The indictment against Vick does not mention the parents' former home in Newport News.
In the report, Boddie dismissed the idea that Vick's longtime friends were the main instigators of the dogfighting operation.
"I wish people would stop sugarcoating it," Boddie told The Journal-Constitution. "This is Mike's thing. And he knows it ... likes it, and he has the capital to have a set up like that."
The report said Boddie and the Atlanta Falcons quarterback have had a volatile relationship for years and that his son has refused to speak with him directly for the last 2 1/2 half months.
Boddie, 45, lives in an apartment his son has paid the rent on for the last three years. Vick, who has a $130 million contract with the Falcons, also gives him a couple of hundred dollars every week or two, the father told the newspaper.
In the report, Boddie also said he asked Vick for $1 million, spread out over 12 years, Vick declined, the father said. Recently, Boddie asked Vick, through an assistant, for $700,000 to live on.
Atlanta considers???
Atlanta considers banning baggy pants
ATLANTA - Baggy pants that show boxer shorts or thongs would be illegal under a proposed amendment to Atlanta's indecency laws. The amendment, sponsored by city councilman C.T. Martin, states that sagging pants are an "epidemic" that is becoming a "major concern" around the country.
"Little children see it and want to adopt it, thinking it's the in thing," Martin said Wednesday. "I don't want young people thinking that half-dressing is the way to go. I want them to think about their future."
The proposed ordinance would also bar women from showing the strap of a thong beneath their pants. They would also be prohibited from wearing jogging bras in public or show a bra strap, said Debbie Seagraves, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Georgia.
The proposed ordinance states that "the indecent exposure of his or her undergarments" would be unlawful in a public place. It would go in the same portion of the city code that outlaws sex in public and the exposure or fondling of genitals.
The penalty would be a fine in an amount to be determined, Martin said.
But Seagraves said any legislation that creates a dress code would not survive a court challenge. She said the law could not be enforced in a nondiscriminatory way because it targets something that came out of the black youth culture.
"This is a racial profiling bill that promotes and establishes a framework for an additional type of racial profiling," Seagraves said.
Martin, who is black, said he plans to hold public hearings and vet the proposal through churches, civil rights groups and neighborhood organizations. The proposal will get its first public airing next Tuesday in the City Council's Public Safety Committee.
"The purpose of the paper is to generate some conversation to see if we can find a solution," Martin said. "It will be like all the discussions we've had around the value of the hip-hop culture. We know there are First Amendment issues ... and some will say I'm just trying to put young black men in jail, but it's going to be fines."
Makeda Johnson, an Atlanta mother of a 14-year-old girl, said she is glad Martin introduced the proposal. She does not want to see a law against clothing, but said she thinks teenagers are sending a message with a way of dressing that is based in jailhouse behavior.
Atlanta would not be the first city to take on sagging pants.
Earlier this year, the town council in Delcambre, La., passed an ordinance that carries a fine of up to $500 or six months in jail for exposing underwear in public. Several other municipalities and parish governments in Louisiana have enacted similar laws in recent months.
ATLANTA - Baggy pants that show boxer shorts or thongs would be illegal under a proposed amendment to Atlanta's indecency laws. The amendment, sponsored by city councilman C.T. Martin, states that sagging pants are an "epidemic" that is becoming a "major concern" around the country.
"Little children see it and want to adopt it, thinking it's the in thing," Martin said Wednesday. "I don't want young people thinking that half-dressing is the way to go. I want them to think about their future."
The proposed ordinance would also bar women from showing the strap of a thong beneath their pants. They would also be prohibited from wearing jogging bras in public or show a bra strap, said Debbie Seagraves, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Georgia.
The proposed ordinance states that "the indecent exposure of his or her undergarments" would be unlawful in a public place. It would go in the same portion of the city code that outlaws sex in public and the exposure or fondling of genitals.
The penalty would be a fine in an amount to be determined, Martin said.
But Seagraves said any legislation that creates a dress code would not survive a court challenge. She said the law could not be enforced in a nondiscriminatory way because it targets something that came out of the black youth culture.
"This is a racial profiling bill that promotes and establishes a framework for an additional type of racial profiling," Seagraves said.
Martin, who is black, said he plans to hold public hearings and vet the proposal through churches, civil rights groups and neighborhood organizations. The proposal will get its first public airing next Tuesday in the City Council's Public Safety Committee.
"The purpose of the paper is to generate some conversation to see if we can find a solution," Martin said. "It will be like all the discussions we've had around the value of the hip-hop culture. We know there are First Amendment issues ... and some will say I'm just trying to put young black men in jail, but it's going to be fines."
Makeda Johnson, an Atlanta mother of a 14-year-old girl, said she is glad Martin introduced the proposal. She does not want to see a law against clothing, but said she thinks teenagers are sending a message with a way of dressing that is based in jailhouse behavior.
Atlanta would not be the first city to take on sagging pants.
Earlier this year, the town council in Delcambre, La., passed an ordinance that carries a fine of up to $500 or six months in jail for exposing underwear in public. Several other municipalities and parish governments in Louisiana have enacted similar laws in recent months.
Friday, August 17, 2007
more parents who hate their baby
What can you name your child?
A New Zealand couple blocked from naming their baby 4Real have instead settled on Superman. So what are the rules on naming children in the UK?
Apple, Brooklyn, Zowie, Fifi Trixibelle... celebrity offspring have often ended up with more colourful entries on their birth certificates than us mere mortals.
But British parents hoping to bestow elaborate, unusual or just plain bizarre names to their children may find it easier than those in other countries.
The UK's rules on baby names are among the most liberal in the world. A spokesman for the General Register Office says there are no restrictions on parents - except for exceptional cases, such as a name which could be deemed offensive, when an official could refuse to register it. He refused to divulge if there had been any such cases.
But there have been two children named Superman in the UK since 1984, along with six boys named Gandalf and 29 Gazzas, according to figures released last year by the genealogy website findmypast.com. There are even 36 Arsenals of both sexes.
Nor is there anything to stop an adult exchanging his or her given name for something more subversive - hence Professor Perri 6, of Nottingham Trent University.
New Zealand, like the UK, has few controls on the names parents can choose, but Pat and Sheena Wheaton were banned from registering their son as 4Real as names beginning with numbers are forbidden. He's now Superman instead.
The Kiwi authorities are more relaxed than their counterparts in Sweden, where in 2003 a couple were prevented from naming their son Staalman, the Swedish title for the comic book Man of Steel.
Banned names
And the likes of Denmark, Spain, Germany and Argentina all publish lists of acceptable names from which new mothers and fathers must choose.
In Portugal, the Ministry of Justice's website includes 39 pages of officially-sanctioned names and 41 pages of those which are banned. Included in the latter group are Lolita, Maradona and Mona Lisa. But Portugal is being lobbied to repeal its controls, and four years ago, Norway replaced its own list with a ban on swear and sex words, illnesses and negative names.
But not everyone is convinced that the trend for non-traditional nomenclature is good for children.
Professor Helen Petrie, from the University of York, has studied the psychological effects of having an unusual name.
"I found that people with unusual names had a really hard time, particularly when they were children," she says.
"They described getting teased and how traumatic it could be - because all children want to fit in. But when they became adults, they are often glad that they have something to help them stand out from the crowd.
"People with very common names sometimes feel that they aren't unique enough. So I think there's a happy medium to be struck."
A New Zealand couple blocked from naming their baby 4Real have instead settled on Superman. So what are the rules on naming children in the UK?
Apple, Brooklyn, Zowie, Fifi Trixibelle... celebrity offspring have often ended up with more colourful entries on their birth certificates than us mere mortals.
But British parents hoping to bestow elaborate, unusual or just plain bizarre names to their children may find it easier than those in other countries.
The UK's rules on baby names are among the most liberal in the world. A spokesman for the General Register Office says there are no restrictions on parents - except for exceptional cases, such as a name which could be deemed offensive, when an official could refuse to register it. He refused to divulge if there had been any such cases.
But there have been two children named Superman in the UK since 1984, along with six boys named Gandalf and 29 Gazzas, according to figures released last year by the genealogy website findmypast.com. There are even 36 Arsenals of both sexes.
Nor is there anything to stop an adult exchanging his or her given name for something more subversive - hence Professor Perri 6, of Nottingham Trent University.
New Zealand, like the UK, has few controls on the names parents can choose, but Pat and Sheena Wheaton were banned from registering their son as 4Real as names beginning with numbers are forbidden. He's now Superman instead.
The Kiwi authorities are more relaxed than their counterparts in Sweden, where in 2003 a couple were prevented from naming their son Staalman, the Swedish title for the comic book Man of Steel.
Banned names
And the likes of Denmark, Spain, Germany and Argentina all publish lists of acceptable names from which new mothers and fathers must choose.
In Portugal, the Ministry of Justice's website includes 39 pages of officially-sanctioned names and 41 pages of those which are banned. Included in the latter group are Lolita, Maradona and Mona Lisa. But Portugal is being lobbied to repeal its controls, and four years ago, Norway replaced its own list with a ban on swear and sex words, illnesses and negative names.
But not everyone is convinced that the trend for non-traditional nomenclature is good for children.
Professor Helen Petrie, from the University of York, has studied the psychological effects of having an unusual name.
"I found that people with unusual names had a really hard time, particularly when they were children," she says.
"They described getting teased and how traumatic it could be - because all children want to fit in. But when they became adults, they are often glad that they have something to help them stand out from the crowd.
"People with very common names sometimes feel that they aren't unique enough. So I think there's a happy medium to be struck."
why do parents hate their children?
Chinese couple tried to name baby "@"
BEIJING (Reuters) - A Chinese couple tried to name their baby "@", claiming the character used in e-mail addresses echoed their love for the child, an official trying to whip the national language into line said on Thursday.
The unusual name stands out especially in Chinese, which has no alphabet and instead uses tens of thousands of multi-stroke characters to represent words.
"The whole world uses it to write e-mail, and translated into Chinese it means 'love him'," the father explained, according to the deputy chief of the State Language Commission Li Yuming.
While the "@" simple is familiar to Chinese e-mail users, they often use the English word "at" to sound it out -- which with a drawn out "T" sounds something like "ai ta", or "love him", to Mandarin speakers.
Li told a news conference on the state of the language that the name was an extreme example of people's increasingly adventurous approach to Chinese, as commercialisation and the Internet break down conventions.
Another couple tried to give their child a name that rendered into English sounds like "King Osrina."
Li did not say if officials accepted the "@" name. But earlier this year the government announced a ban on names using Arabic numerals, foreign languages and symbols that do not belong to Chinese minority languages.
Sixty million Chinese faced the problem that their names use ancient characters so obscure that computers cannot recognise them and even fluent speakers were left scratching their heads, said Li, according to a transcript of the briefing on the government Web site (www.gov.cn).
One of them was the former Premier Zhu Rongji, whose name had a rare "rong" character that gave newspaper editors headaches.
BEIJING (Reuters) - A Chinese couple tried to name their baby "@", claiming the character used in e-mail addresses echoed their love for the child, an official trying to whip the national language into line said on Thursday.
The unusual name stands out especially in Chinese, which has no alphabet and instead uses tens of thousands of multi-stroke characters to represent words.
"The whole world uses it to write e-mail, and translated into Chinese it means 'love him'," the father explained, according to the deputy chief of the State Language Commission Li Yuming.
While the "@" simple is familiar to Chinese e-mail users, they often use the English word "at" to sound it out -- which with a drawn out "T" sounds something like "ai ta", or "love him", to Mandarin speakers.
Li told a news conference on the state of the language that the name was an extreme example of people's increasingly adventurous approach to Chinese, as commercialisation and the Internet break down conventions.
Another couple tried to give their child a name that rendered into English sounds like "King Osrina."
Li did not say if officials accepted the "@" name. But earlier this year the government announced a ban on names using Arabic numerals, foreign languages and symbols that do not belong to Chinese minority languages.
Sixty million Chinese faced the problem that their names use ancient characters so obscure that computers cannot recognise them and even fluent speakers were left scratching their heads, said Li, according to a transcript of the briefing on the government Web site (www.gov.cn).
One of them was the former Premier Zhu Rongji, whose name had a rare "rong" character that gave newspaper editors headaches.
Saturday, August 11, 2007
H-D 2008 VRSCDX Night Rod Special
Yes, if I owned a motorcycle, if I was man enough, this is what I would get. Oh yeah, and if I had the money...
Race-inspired detailing meets shades of black metal that would make night herself jealous. Orange pinstripes around the slotted disc wheels; 240-millimeters worth of rubber in the rear. Mesh screen covers foreshadow the kind of performance that keeps the faint of heart behind locked doors. The liquid-cooled Revolution® engine gets an upgrade to 1,250-cubic-centimeters for 2008. That's 125 horses beneath your seat, harnessed via a new slipper clutch. Also new this year on all VRSC™ models: optional ABS brakes to supplement the standard Brembo® brake setup. You've got a five-gallon fuel tank and a perimeter frame like nothing else on two wheels.
Manufacturer: Harley-Davidson®
Year: 2008
Model: VRSCDX Night Rod® Special
Vehicle Type: VRSC™
Price: $16,695
Color: Two-tone Vivid Black / Mirage Orange Pearl
Miles: 3
Engine: Liquid-cooled, Revolution®, 60° V-twin
Displacement: 76.3 ci (1,250 cc)
Bore x Stroke: 4.13 x 2.83 in. (105 x 72 mm)
Compression Ratio: 11.5:1
Torque: 85 ft. lbs. (115.3 Nm) @ 7,000 rpm
Fuel System: Electronic Sequential Port Fuel Injection (ESPFI)
Exhaust: Brushed, straight-shot exhaust with dual mufflers, black end caps, shield
Horsepower: 125 hp @ 8,250 rpm
Transmission: 5-speed
Clutch: Multi-plate with diaphragm spring in oil bath
Final Drive: Carbon-fiber belt
Length: 94.4 in. (2,460 mm)
Wheelbase: 67.2 in. (1,706.9 mm)
Seat Height: Laden: 25.2 in. (640.1 mm)
Unladen: 26.3 in. (668 mm)
Ground Clearance: 4.2 in. (106.7 mm)
Dry Weight: 643 lbs. (291.7 kg)
Fuel Capacity: 5 gal. (18.9 l)
Brakes: 4-piston front and rear
Tires: Front: 120/70ZR-19 60W
Rear: 240/40R-18 79V
Rake: 34°
Trail: 4.5 in. (114.3 mm)
Race-inspired detailing meets shades of black metal that would make night herself jealous. Orange pinstripes around the slotted disc wheels; 240-millimeters worth of rubber in the rear. Mesh screen covers foreshadow the kind of performance that keeps the faint of heart behind locked doors. The liquid-cooled Revolution® engine gets an upgrade to 1,250-cubic-centimeters for 2008. That's 125 horses beneath your seat, harnessed via a new slipper clutch. Also new this year on all VRSC™ models: optional ABS brakes to supplement the standard Brembo® brake setup. You've got a five-gallon fuel tank and a perimeter frame like nothing else on two wheels.
Manufacturer: Harley-Davidson®
Year: 2008
Model: VRSCDX Night Rod® Special
Vehicle Type: VRSC™
Price: $16,695
Color: Two-tone Vivid Black / Mirage Orange Pearl
Miles: 3
Engine: Liquid-cooled, Revolution®, 60° V-twin
Displacement: 76.3 ci (1,250 cc)
Bore x Stroke: 4.13 x 2.83 in. (105 x 72 mm)
Compression Ratio: 11.5:1
Torque: 85 ft. lbs. (115.3 Nm) @ 7,000 rpm
Fuel System: Electronic Sequential Port Fuel Injection (ESPFI)
Exhaust: Brushed, straight-shot exhaust with dual mufflers, black end caps, shield
Horsepower: 125 hp @ 8,250 rpm
Transmission: 5-speed
Clutch: Multi-plate with diaphragm spring in oil bath
Final Drive: Carbon-fiber belt
Length: 94.4 in. (2,460 mm)
Wheelbase: 67.2 in. (1,706.9 mm)
Seat Height: Laden: 25.2 in. (640.1 mm)
Unladen: 26.3 in. (668 mm)
Ground Clearance: 4.2 in. (106.7 mm)
Dry Weight: 643 lbs. (291.7 kg)
Fuel Capacity: 5 gal. (18.9 l)
Brakes: 4-piston front and rear
Tires: Front: 120/70ZR-19 60W
Rear: 240/40R-18 79V
Rake: 34°
Trail: 4.5 in. (114.3 mm)
2008 H-D VRSCDX Night Rod Special
Yes, if I owned a motorcycle, if I was man enough, this is what I would get. Oh yeah, that and if I had the money...
Friday, August 10, 2007
is this really news worthy?
Seriously. Who gives a flip about some worthless actress's estranged parents getting a divorce.
Then, it makes news that some guy signed on to do a movie of one of the most worthless TV shows ever created. Really? Are you kidding me? When will crap like this cease to exist? Oh, that's right- never. As long as there is an inkling of an audience out there who has such poor taste in shows that promote being a whore (two, actually) and sleeping with more than their fare share of men in some city, there will always be vomit that is regurgitated upon society. Hey Matthew, how many years did you have to watch many guys do your wife? And now, you get to watch it all happen in a movie theater. Where's Max Dugan when you need his old ass?
Given the choice of either painfully enduring sitting through that movie or getting an ingrown toenail removed, I will gladly take the medical procedure of having an ingrown toenail removed than sit through the sheer agony of that movie. I'd rather watch 'The Village' than sit through that city-sex movie. Heck, since I have healthy toenails, I'd rather have the same medical procedure done to remove one of my good toenails than sit through that big screen fecal matter.
Everyone's got an opinion and this is mine, and this is my blog. Don't like it? Too bad. Don't flatter yourself. Deal with it. Get over it. Go do your own damn blog, ass.
Dang. I kinda went off on a tangent there, so I edited some stuff out that was unnecessary to the post. Sorry about that. Must. Stay. Focused.
Then, it makes news that some guy signed on to do a movie of one of the most worthless TV shows ever created. Really? Are you kidding me? When will crap like this cease to exist? Oh, that's right- never. As long as there is an inkling of an audience out there who has such poor taste in shows that promote being a whore (two, actually) and sleeping with more than their fare share of men in some city, there will always be vomit that is regurgitated upon society. Hey Matthew, how many years did you have to watch many guys do your wife? And now, you get to watch it all happen in a movie theater. Where's Max Dugan when you need his old ass?
Given the choice of either painfully enduring sitting through that movie or getting an ingrown toenail removed, I will gladly take the medical procedure of having an ingrown toenail removed than sit through the sheer agony of that movie. I'd rather watch 'The Village' than sit through that city-sex movie. Heck, since I have healthy toenails, I'd rather have the same medical procedure done to remove one of my good toenails than sit through that big screen fecal matter.
Everyone's got an opinion and this is mine, and this is my blog. Don't like it? Too bad. Don't flatter yourself. Deal with it. Get over it. Go do your own damn blog, ass.
Dang. I kinda went off on a tangent there, so I edited some stuff out that was unnecessary to the post. Sorry about that. Must. Stay. Focused.
say it isn't so
India may have just 1,500 tigers, say wildlife experts
NEW DELHI (AFP) - India may have just 1,300 to 1,500 tigers left -- less than half of the number believed to exist five years ago -- conservationists say.
The final results of a state-by-state census are expected in December but at a conservation meeting during the week, a noted Indian tiger expert put the number of the cats left in the country at 1,500 or fewer.
"The indications are that the present tiger population in India is between 1,300 and 1,500," said conservationist Valmik Thapar in New Delhi on Friday.
Thapar said both wildlife experts and government officials were in agreement on the figure, a sharp drop from the 3,700 tigers believed to live in India in 2002.
An Indian government official at the meeting would only call the number an "indication."
"It's a preliminary indication," Ravindra B. Lal, a senior wildlife official, told AFP on Saturday.
"It cannot be called an official figure. The population estimation is still going on."
Other wildlife experts, however, said the final figure from the new tally, which uses technology such as camera traps rather than relying on pug marks (paw prints) as past surveys did, was likely to be close to the one given by Thapar.
"I'd give you the same figure," Ravi Singh, head of WWF India, told AFP on Saturday. "These are based on the government's estimates. You can attach a fair value to them. They are reasonably accurate."
Experts have warned that because of the changes in methodology it is not possible to make a direct comparison between the old and new estimates but said it was still possible to note a sharp decline in the tiger population.
"What is important to understand is that the tiger is decreasing in particular areas," said Samir Sinha, head of the India branch of wildlife trade monitoring group TRAFFIC.
"Tigers are largely now being consigned only to protected areas. They are being hit in a big way. It is a huge cause of alarm."
A partial survey released in May after more than half of India's 28 sanctuaries had been studied by the Wildlife Institute of India, which is conducting the census, estimated there were only about 500 tigers in those areas.
The sanctuary tiger population was about 1,500 in 2002, according to official figures. The rest were in the wild.
Poaching has decimated the population of the big cat but urbanisation and lost of forest cover are also to blame.
Tiger parts are used in traditional Chinese medicines, although international trade has been banned since 1993.
Conservationists have long complained that many Indian forestry posts lie vacant, while the staff that do exist have little in the way of funds, making them no match for poachers.
"People are prepared to risk their lives to kill tigers and we still haven't filled vacancies in our forestry department," said Thapar.
India's Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Friday called on states to hire more "frontline" forest staff to protect the big cat.
Indian official Lal said India was setting up regional offices for a new wildlife crime control bureau but cautioned conservationists not to get their hopes up.
"We are doing it at the fastest speed," he said at the meeting.
"But we should not be too optimistic that once we have a wildlife crime bureau wildlife crime will stop."
NEW DELHI (AFP) - India may have just 1,300 to 1,500 tigers left -- less than half of the number believed to exist five years ago -- conservationists say.
The final results of a state-by-state census are expected in December but at a conservation meeting during the week, a noted Indian tiger expert put the number of the cats left in the country at 1,500 or fewer.
"The indications are that the present tiger population in India is between 1,300 and 1,500," said conservationist Valmik Thapar in New Delhi on Friday.
Thapar said both wildlife experts and government officials were in agreement on the figure, a sharp drop from the 3,700 tigers believed to live in India in 2002.
An Indian government official at the meeting would only call the number an "indication."
"It's a preliminary indication," Ravindra B. Lal, a senior wildlife official, told AFP on Saturday.
"It cannot be called an official figure. The population estimation is still going on."
Other wildlife experts, however, said the final figure from the new tally, which uses technology such as camera traps rather than relying on pug marks (paw prints) as past surveys did, was likely to be close to the one given by Thapar.
"I'd give you the same figure," Ravi Singh, head of WWF India, told AFP on Saturday. "These are based on the government's estimates. You can attach a fair value to them. They are reasonably accurate."
Experts have warned that because of the changes in methodology it is not possible to make a direct comparison between the old and new estimates but said it was still possible to note a sharp decline in the tiger population.
"What is important to understand is that the tiger is decreasing in particular areas," said Samir Sinha, head of the India branch of wildlife trade monitoring group TRAFFIC.
"Tigers are largely now being consigned only to protected areas. They are being hit in a big way. It is a huge cause of alarm."
A partial survey released in May after more than half of India's 28 sanctuaries had been studied by the Wildlife Institute of India, which is conducting the census, estimated there were only about 500 tigers in those areas.
The sanctuary tiger population was about 1,500 in 2002, according to official figures. The rest were in the wild.
Poaching has decimated the population of the big cat but urbanisation and lost of forest cover are also to blame.
Tiger parts are used in traditional Chinese medicines, although international trade has been banned since 1993.
Conservationists have long complained that many Indian forestry posts lie vacant, while the staff that do exist have little in the way of funds, making them no match for poachers.
"People are prepared to risk their lives to kill tigers and we still haven't filled vacancies in our forestry department," said Thapar.
India's Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Friday called on states to hire more "frontline" forest staff to protect the big cat.
Indian official Lal said India was setting up regional offices for a new wildlife crime control bureau but cautioned conservationists not to get their hopes up.
"We are doing it at the fastest speed," he said at the meeting.
"But we should not be too optimistic that once we have a wildlife crime bureau wildlife crime will stop."
some good news
New species of bat, frogs found in Congo forests
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Six new species, including a bat and two frogs, have been discovered in Democratic Republic of the Congo in an eastern area off limits to scientists for decades because of violence, a wildlife group said on Tuesday.
The New York-based Wildlife Conservation Society said researchers conducted a survey of a remote forested region just west of Lake Tanganyika between January and March.
"If we can find six new species in such a short period it makes you wonder what else is out there," said researcher Andrew Plumptre.
The new species discovered were a bat, a rodent, two shrews and two frogs.
Aid agencies estimate around 4 million Congolese have been killed in fighting or by related hunger and disease since the outbreak of the country's 1998-2003 war, in which six foreign armies joined in fighting over its huge mineral riches.
Despite a 2003 peace deal and the country's first free elections in more than 40 years being held last year, militia fighting continues in parts of the east.
"In spite of the conflict and related degradation in the area, the survey team found that some 1,000 square kilometers have remained intact, from the shores of Lake Tanganyika up to elevations of 2,725 meters above sea level," a statement said.
It said the area had been off limits to scientists since 1960 because of instability. The team also included researchers from the Field Museum in Chicago, the National Centre of Research and Science in Lwiro and the World Wildlife Fund.
The statement said the forest was extremely rich in biodiversity, containing a large number of chimpanzees, buffalo, elephants, leopards and monkeys.
Around 10 percent of the plant samples collected have yet to be identified.
"Given the findings with the vertebrates, it is likely that some of the plants will represent new species as well," said Ben Kirunda of the group's botanical team.
The researchers said they met village leaders who were mostly supportive of making the region a protected area.
"Since few people live there, it would be relatively easy to create a park while supporting the livelihoods of people who live in the landscape," said James Deutsch, director of the Wildlife Conservation Society's Africa Program.
Democratic Republic of the Congo's wildlife, particularly mountain gorillas in the Virunga National Park, was a significant tourist attraction before the 1998-2003 war.
The conflict devastated the east of the vast central African country, triggering a humanitarian disaster that has displaced millions of people.
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Six new species, including a bat and two frogs, have been discovered in Democratic Republic of the Congo in an eastern area off limits to scientists for decades because of violence, a wildlife group said on Tuesday.
The New York-based Wildlife Conservation Society said researchers conducted a survey of a remote forested region just west of Lake Tanganyika between January and March.
"If we can find six new species in such a short period it makes you wonder what else is out there," said researcher Andrew Plumptre.
The new species discovered were a bat, a rodent, two shrews and two frogs.
Aid agencies estimate around 4 million Congolese have been killed in fighting or by related hunger and disease since the outbreak of the country's 1998-2003 war, in which six foreign armies joined in fighting over its huge mineral riches.
Despite a 2003 peace deal and the country's first free elections in more than 40 years being held last year, militia fighting continues in parts of the east.
"In spite of the conflict and related degradation in the area, the survey team found that some 1,000 square kilometers have remained intact, from the shores of Lake Tanganyika up to elevations of 2,725 meters above sea level," a statement said.
It said the area had been off limits to scientists since 1960 because of instability. The team also included researchers from the Field Museum in Chicago, the National Centre of Research and Science in Lwiro and the World Wildlife Fund.
The statement said the forest was extremely rich in biodiversity, containing a large number of chimpanzees, buffalo, elephants, leopards and monkeys.
Around 10 percent of the plant samples collected have yet to be identified.
"Given the findings with the vertebrates, it is likely that some of the plants will represent new species as well," said Ben Kirunda of the group's botanical team.
The researchers said they met village leaders who were mostly supportive of making the region a protected area.
"Since few people live there, it would be relatively easy to create a park while supporting the livelihoods of people who live in the landscape," said James Deutsch, director of the Wildlife Conservation Society's Africa Program.
Democratic Republic of the Congo's wildlife, particularly mountain gorillas in the Virunga National Park, was a significant tourist attraction before the 1998-2003 war.
The conflict devastated the east of the vast central African country, triggering a humanitarian disaster that has displaced millions of people.
way to go, jerk-asses
China's white dolphin likely extinct
SHANGHAI (AFP) - China's rapid industrialisation has likely made extinct a species of fresh water dolphin that had been on Earth for over 20 million years, Chinese and British biologists said Wednesday.
Scientists from China, Japan, Britain and the United States failed to find the white dolphin, known as the baiji, during a six-week search of its natural habitat in the Yangtze river last year.
"This result means the baiji is likely extinct," Wang Ding, co-author of the survey and one of the world's leading experts on the species, told AFP.
The dolphin was a victim of devastating pollution, illegal fishing and heavy cargo traffic on the Yangtze, Wang said.
The findings mean the baiji is likely the first mammal to become extinct in more than 50 years. It is the cousin of the bottlenose dolphin, which is also on the critically endangered list.
Wang, from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, emphasised that not all hope was lost for the dolphin, which had made its home along the lower reaches of China's now heavily polluted Yangtze River for more than 20 million years.
"We are not saying the baiji is already gone," he said.
But he lamented that further searches this year had failed to find any sign of the dolphin.
Wang said that a letter written by the survey team had been published in the latest issue of the Royal Society Biology Letters journal in Britain to confirm the dolphin was believed to be extinct.
The baiji, identifiable by its long, teeth-filled snout and low dorsal fin, was last officially sighted more than two years ago.
The last confirmed count by a research team was conducted in 1997, when just 13 were recorded.
Up to 5,000 baiji were believed to have lived in the Yangtze less than a century ago, according to the baiji.org website, which was established by a range of international conservation groups.
"The decline in the baiji population has been caused by extreme human pressure on its freshwater habitat," the website said, blaming illegal fishing and massive discharges of industrial and agricultural waste into the river.
Other rare species that live in the Yangtze, such as the Chinese sturgeon and the finless porpoise, are also in danger of extinction.
The British-based zoologist who also worked on the six-week search meanwhile said the loss of the Yangste dolphin was a huge blow.
"The loss of such a unique and charismatic species is a shocking tragedy," said co-author Sam Turvey of the Zoological Society of London.
"The Yangtze River dolphin was a remarkable mammal that separated from all other species over 20 million years ago."
International environmental group WWF has warned that river dolphins are key indicators of a river's health and of the availability of clean water for people living on its banks.
"River dolphins are the watchdogs of the water," said Jamie Pittock, head of WWF's Global Freshwater Programme in a recent alert over their fate.
"The high levels of toxic pollutants accumulating in their bodies are a stark warning of poor water quality. This is a problem for both dolphins and the people dependent on these rivers," he added.
Turvey added: "This extinction represents the disappearance of a complete branch of the evolutionary tree of life and emphasises that we have yet to take full responsibility in our role as guardians of the planet."
SHANGHAI (AFP) - China's rapid industrialisation has likely made extinct a species of fresh water dolphin that had been on Earth for over 20 million years, Chinese and British biologists said Wednesday.
Scientists from China, Japan, Britain and the United States failed to find the white dolphin, known as the baiji, during a six-week search of its natural habitat in the Yangtze river last year.
"This result means the baiji is likely extinct," Wang Ding, co-author of the survey and one of the world's leading experts on the species, told AFP.
The dolphin was a victim of devastating pollution, illegal fishing and heavy cargo traffic on the Yangtze, Wang said.
The findings mean the baiji is likely the first mammal to become extinct in more than 50 years. It is the cousin of the bottlenose dolphin, which is also on the critically endangered list.
Wang, from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, emphasised that not all hope was lost for the dolphin, which had made its home along the lower reaches of China's now heavily polluted Yangtze River for more than 20 million years.
"We are not saying the baiji is already gone," he said.
But he lamented that further searches this year had failed to find any sign of the dolphin.
Wang said that a letter written by the survey team had been published in the latest issue of the Royal Society Biology Letters journal in Britain to confirm the dolphin was believed to be extinct.
The baiji, identifiable by its long, teeth-filled snout and low dorsal fin, was last officially sighted more than two years ago.
The last confirmed count by a research team was conducted in 1997, when just 13 were recorded.
Up to 5,000 baiji were believed to have lived in the Yangtze less than a century ago, according to the baiji.org website, which was established by a range of international conservation groups.
"The decline in the baiji population has been caused by extreme human pressure on its freshwater habitat," the website said, blaming illegal fishing and massive discharges of industrial and agricultural waste into the river.
Other rare species that live in the Yangtze, such as the Chinese sturgeon and the finless porpoise, are also in danger of extinction.
The British-based zoologist who also worked on the six-week search meanwhile said the loss of the Yangste dolphin was a huge blow.
"The loss of such a unique and charismatic species is a shocking tragedy," said co-author Sam Turvey of the Zoological Society of London.
"The Yangtze River dolphin was a remarkable mammal that separated from all other species over 20 million years ago."
International environmental group WWF has warned that river dolphins are key indicators of a river's health and of the availability of clean water for people living on its banks.
"River dolphins are the watchdogs of the water," said Jamie Pittock, head of WWF's Global Freshwater Programme in a recent alert over their fate.
"The high levels of toxic pollutants accumulating in their bodies are a stark warning of poor water quality. This is a problem for both dolphins and the people dependent on these rivers," he added.
Turvey added: "This extinction represents the disappearance of a complete branch of the evolutionary tree of life and emphasises that we have yet to take full responsibility in our role as guardians of the planet."
Saturday, August 04, 2007
more blade runner info
confirmed with Warner that both the Blu-ray Disc and HD-DVD editions will feature ALL FIVE VERSIONS of the film in actual 1080p video, but the extras (the documentary, deleted scenes, etc) will all be in standard definition.
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