Category: Current Events

The last shuttle launch is today, at 2:50PM. I really wanted to go see one of these launch in person, and was thinking about going to the last one. But it is not to be, and given they are expecting up to half a million people to attend the last launch, I don’t think I’d get anywhere near it without camping out.

Every generation has one of those “where were you” moments. For my parents, it was the assassination of President Kennedy. For mine, it’s where you were when the Challenger exploded. I regularly watched launches when I was a kid, but I’ve paid scant attention to launches since. I suppose it’s only fitting the last one almost got by without me thinking about it.

I don’t mourn the end of the shuttle program. It’s been a boondoggle, and I think NASA’s current policy of encouraging private carriers is the only way we’re going to become a spacefaring civilization. People will go to space when there’s money in it, and will figure out how to do it cheaply. Our manned space program has wasted decades since the end of Apollo. When I was a kid, I thought I’d see men walking on Mars in my lifetime. I think that’s unlikely, and it’s a bit sad that if I do see it, that man will likely be Chinese.

This guy set the record for world’s fastest guitar player this past April. Start out at 170 beats per minute, and works up to 600. By that time you can’t even really pick out individual notes:

That’s pretty fast, for sure.

I know that my alma mater is safe from today’s tornado in Western Massachusetts, but I wonder how the Smith & Wesson facilities are doing. I learned to shoot on their range. We got home late, so I am not completely up-to-speed on what happened and where. If anyone has any reports from up there, I’d love to hear them.

I decided to ring in Armageddon with a pitcher of margaritas. Why? Because bad tequila can be had pretty cheaply, and when you combine it with equally cheap triple sec and lime juice, it makes for a pitcher that costs less than 6 bucks.

Despite my spendthrift ways, I am fairly confident that the world will indeed end, especially since, as Dave Hardy is pointing out, President Obama has pardoned someone for violating the NFA, and the CDC is openly discussing the Zombie Apocalypse.

More disturbing is this guy, who apparently spent his life’s savings buying billboard to announce the rapture. He’s still convinced he’ll be vindicated in the next ten minutes. It’s this kind of thing that makes me think how awfully correct P.T. Barnum really was.

In the mean time, I have to go fire up the grill. We’re having a cookout tonight, since there’s been a break in the constant rain this week. Fortunately, the weather for the next week is really looking up. Particularly, I’m looking forward to the plague of locusts. Those are good eats! And Kosher too.

UPDATE: Still here. The cookout was nice.

Someone took an hour and thirty minutes of heavy traffic at Boston Logan International Airport, and compressed it down to two and a half minutes:

I was aware of the predictions of a fringe religious group claiming that the world will end tomorrow. I was not aware they had it down to an exact time. Who knew the four horsemen were so punctual. Apparently time zone is not an issue, since it will be sweeping rapture. Those must be some fast horses.

Believers still have until 6:00 tomorrow to demonstrate the solidity of their faith by signing all their worldly possessions over to me. I am also available, for a price, to take care of pets after the rapture, though, I will need to be paid up front for the service.

UPDATE: SayUncle has similar thoughts.

Big question: what drink for ringing in the apocalypse? Something I can make with cheap booze, because I’m through buying the good shit until the job situation is improved.

This article on the analysis of the Bin Laden files is interesting reading. But this does not compute:

The Associated Press reported tonight that some of bin Laden’s writings show him musing over how many Americans he would have to kill to force the U.S. to withdraw from the Arab world and concluding that the body count would have to be in the thousands.

Wasn’t 9/11 in the thousands? And I seem to recall that lead to a justification for invading and toppling one Islamist regime, and one Arab dictator. I’m not sure the math on that one works out too well for you beardy. Plus, there’s only so much you can jack the American body count before we’re getting out of the Arab world because we need to wait for the radiation levels to come down a bit before we move in to pump out the rest of the oil.

From the auto blog:

Teams of analysts are combing through a mountain of data recovered from bin Laden’s compound, and one nugget of information they’ve found is a bit surprising; bin Laden was against a proposed plan for U.S.-based Al Qaeda operatives to weld blades to the grilles of pickup trucks and run down pedestrians.

Because, you know, the only way you can kill a lot of people, obviously, is to get a gun at a gun show.