After the restaurant, Jim took us on a windy route near Mt. Curve drive and Lake of the Isles followed by a grim ride against the wind on the Greenway. After I peeled of from the rest of the lads, I crossed the lake street bridge and rode the east river road to the railroad overpass. I was tired of pedaling, so I climbed up the hill there, pretty much using my bike as an ice pick and struggled, grabbing branches and roots, to the rail bed, where I rode along a road next to the rails, where melt water had pooled and then froze. This was better than humps and oatmeal. My legs are still thawing. Even after a hot shower, there are still cold spots on my thighs.

some pics of the ride at the Hiawatha Cyclery site.

In my absence, they had replaced all their old computers with Windows PCs. And were they working? Nope!

via b3ta.com

We had all this cash from Amtrak. I threw a huge handful of it over the band at the hotel and pumped my arm a few times and they kicked up a fast number and everyone started swinging. Or, maybe we just turned on the cable TV. The next morning, we were still in Chicago for some reason. I was all for avoiding this problem altogether and watching the Bourne Supremacy on HBO. Kate first tried to arrange a rental car and then a flight. I kept trying to tell her it was all useless but she eventually got a flight that afternoon… at LESS than the price of what the tickets were when we looked early this fall. I was sure it was another hoax and that we would be spending Christmas at the airport instead of the train station. Thankfully, the flight took off on time and we made it to Mass. earlier than initially planned. Amtrak refunded our tickets. So, we were left generally happy with how Amtrak took care of us with the exception of not actually getting any train service.

The trip was great. Got to spend time with my dad, Ellen, Bevin, Molly and Scott, as well as my cousins. All the little cousins really enjoyed each other: Joe, Ted, Mabel, Mo, Charlotte, Elizabeth, Justin, Frank, Maggie, Jack, Kyle, Jared, and of course, the Mama-Toto. My legs are stiff from playing soccer with all those kids.

A sample of their awesomeness:

BlackLight Power Inc., is the pioneer of technology based on the patented process of releasing chemical energy from hydrogen called the “BlackLight Process.” More specifically, energy is released as the electrons of hydrogen atoms are induced by a catalyst to transition to lower-energy levels (i.e. drop to lower base orbits around each atom’s nucleus) corresponding to fractional quantum numbers. The lower-energy atomic hydrogen product called “hydrino” reacts with another reactant supplied to the reaction cell to form a hydride ion bound to the other reactant to constitute a novel proprietary compound, or two hydrinos react to form a very stable hydrogen-type molecule called a dihydrino molecule. As hydrogen atoms and catalyst atoms are normally found bound together as molecules or are bound in other compositions of matter, BlackLight has invented a solid fuel that uses conventional chemical reactions to generate the catalyst and atomic hydrogen at high reactant densities that in turn controllably achieves very high power densities. The catalyst causes the hydrogen atoms to transition to lower-energy states by allowing their electrons to fall to smaller radii around the nucleus with a release of energy that is intermediate between chemical and nuclear energies. BlackLight’s experimental results on its process and compositions of matter are published widely and have been replicated by independent groups.

This company has been around for a few years and wouldn’t really be notable, except for the fact that they have attracted $60 million in funding…. for extra tiny hydrogen molecules called “Hydrinos”!

Bob Parks is a physicist that likes to debunk mad scientists on his “What’s New” newsletter.

2. PATENT NONSENSE: COURT DENIES BLACKLIGHT POWER APPEAL.
The status of BlackLight Power’s intellectual property is fuzzier than ever. BLP was awarded Patent 6,024,935 for “Lower-Energy Hydrogen Methods and Structures,” a process for getting hydrogen atoms into a “state below the ground state” You might expect these shrunken hydrogen atoms, called “hydrinos,” to have a pretty special chemistry. Do they ever! Indeed, a second patent application titled “Hydride Compounds” had been assigned a number and BLP had paid the fee. Several other patents were in the works. That’s when things started heading South. Prompted by an outside inquiry (who would do such a thing?), the patent director became concerned that this hydrino stuff required the orbital electron to behave “contrary to the known laws of physics and chemistry.” The Hydride Compounds application was withdrawn for further review and the other patent applications were rejected. Since the one patent already issued involves the same violations of basic laws of physics, there is a cloud over its status as well. BLP filed suit in federal court arguing that it was too late for the Patent Office to change its mind. The court was not impressed, so BLP appealed the decision. In denying the appeal, the court said the Patent Office has a responsibility to take “extraordinary action” to withdraw a questionable patent. The long-awaited IPO may have to wait a little longer.

How do his backers have money for things like this? Shouldn’t they have been fleeced long ago?

The Mardas Gap was coined by Sam Jacobs to refer to the gap between an inventor’s promises and what is actually produced. “Mardas” refers to Magic Alex, the fascinating T.V. repairman who sold an invisible sonic force field to the Beatles.

Ellis started out as a psychoanalyst, in 1947, but soon decided that exploring his patients’ childhood traumas had “nothing to do with the price of spinach.” By the mid-fifties, he had devised his own method, based on the premise, set forth by the Stoic philosopher Epictetus, that people are disturbed not by what happens to them but by their view of what happens to them, and also on his personal observation that, as he said the other day, “all humans are out of their fucking minds—every single one of them.”

“people are disturbed not by what happens to them but by their view of what happens to them” That sums up Buddhism quite succinctly.

Link To New Yorker article

via arbroath.

When you have a hammer, everything starts to look like a nail. Even Norman Mailer’s head.

I set it up to start 90 seconds into it. Here is a page with all kinds of parameters you can use when embedding videos.