Journal Entries
Balloonist Proves It - Once Again, North Carolina Is First in Flight
Posted May 29, 2010
North Carolina, where I currently live, is fond of boasting that the state is 'first in flight'.
This is because the first-ever manned flight of a powered heavier-than-air craft took place at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, in 1903. This is where you find Kitty Hawk:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:NCMap-doton-KittyHawk.PNG
This is what somebody looks like who grows up to do something crazy, such as get in a kite like that:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/df/Young_Orville_Wright.jpg
That flight was all the more remarkable considering the terrible weather in North Carolina - Elektra is calling it a micro-climate, especially after the tv people kept interrupting the shows last night with dire warnings of weather emergencies. They've got this computer software, you see, and they are determined to use it.
We said, 'Yeah, yeah, it's raining cats and dogs out there, and there's thunder. Loud thunder. So what? Can we get back to Alison's adventures in precognition, pretty, please?'
They said, 'No. There's nickel-sized hail in Climax, North Carolina. Mrs Buncombe is going to send us pictures from her cell phone. You gotta see this. Oh, and if you pay us $8 a year to put you on the phone list, we'll call you up in the middle of the night, so you can worry about the weather some more.'
I was more concerned with the fact that it not only was raining in nearby Apex, but that there turned out to be a town in North Carolina called Climax - where it was also raining. And maybe hailing. Maybe the size of a nickel, though some said a quarter.
Here are nickels and quarters for comparison. The nickel is the third row down, the quarter is the fourth:
http://www.leslie2k.com/images/CoinsQuiz.jpg
For the curious foreigner, a quarter is worth 25 cents, a nickel 5 cents. Now back to flying.
The reason I mention our glorious flying heritage here in the Tar Heel State is that a brave soul from Raleigh has done it again - and wowed our own BBC in the process, as well as disturbing some French cabbages and annoying some French policemen, always a laudable undertaking.
What has he done, you ask? And well you may.
Apparently, Jonathan Trappe of Raleigh has taken advantage of the long weekend here to become the first cluster balloonist to cross the English Channel. (He probably craved something to do that was at least as dangerous as navigating the traffic in Raleigh.) He was declared champ when he landed in a cabbage patch in France at 9 am today (your time, Brits).
He flew low over the Cliffs of Dover and overflew Dunkirk before annoying the farmers and the cops, who weren't happy with this form of evading customs until he dumped a lot of paper on them.
Apparently, Mr Trappe is a licenced pilot, and unlike his predecessor in cluster-balloon adventure, the infamous Lawnchair Larry, Trappe files real flight plans and gets all his papers stamped. He also used a radio to keep in touch with his ground crew, who raced through the Channel Tunnel to meet him on the other side.
They got there first - the traffic must have been light.
Trappe is a trooper - he's boldly gone where no one had gone before, and done it colourfully. I hope Raleigh gives him a tickertape parade.
I won't go, though, unless somebody gives me a ride. I'm afraid to drive over there.
If you want to see pretty pictures of Mr Trappe and his cluster balloons, here's a link:
http://www.whatsonxiamen.com/news12456.html
Discuss this Journal entry [18]
Latest reply: May 29, 2010
How to Increase the h2g2 Web Presence - and Win Friends and Influence the Internet
Posted May 21, 2010
Guys, I've figured something out. This insight of mine may be so blindingly obvious, such an 'oh, lord, Dmitri, where have you been, wake up and smell the Starbucks' sort of moment, that I may be carrying coals to Newcastle, here...in which case, sigh and move on.
Just in case it is useful, here's what I figured out.
We at h2g2 know we have a Mission: to share informative, insightful information, prose, poetry, essay-type ponderings, and etcetera, with the planet at large. To accomplish this worthy goal, we write entries for the Edited Guide, articles for 
, fiction for the AWW, and etcetera. Right?
We also communicate among ourselves in ways that help the community - advice, empathy, virtual hand-holding for our friends stuck in airports and on the ferry from Stranraer to Belfast...and etcetera.
I suspect, from my experience in this pages, that sometimes we want the world to read - and sometimes we don't. (Witness the phenomenon of high dudgeon at interlopers in 'private threads'.) I also suspect that some of us use our journals in a private sense, to express our mood of the moment, while others may regard journal-writing as blogging - in other words, the more readers, the merrier.
So here's what I found.
If you have something noteworthy to say, do this:
- Give your journal post a title rich in keywords - relevant ones, please, no fair putting in 'DNA hot nude pics, no, just kidding'.
- Write at least 200 words.
Et voila, your journal post is a blog, and will be picked up by Barney Google.
This is a good reason why our delightful hosts are particular that our journals obey the House Rules - unlike some websites we could mention, we care about our factoids, don't cuss (okay, except the Irish and Yorkshire bunch), and never, ever plagiarise. This is not a cut-and-paste outfit. Only fresh mental product from us.
Now, if you DON'T want your journal all over the web, because this information is just for your friends:
- Keep it short.
- Use a cryptic, Hootoo-type title, such as 'Lost My 
Again'.
That should do it. Barney google will ignore short journals.
But if you've got something to share, be aware: Not everything h2g2 on the web comes from the EG. If you write for , or put up a substantial journal entry, you're adding value to the web.
Which, er, was the point...if I had one...
I shall go away now, and repair that hole in my tinfoil hat.
Discuss this Journal entry [24]
Latest reply: May 21, 2010
Ghostbusters Fight Against the Spectre of Library Budget Cuts
Posted May 19, 2010
Elektra was excited today. She stumbled across a story on the web that tickled her funnybone AND raised awareness of the budget needs of a grand institution - the New York Public Library.
The video proves that librarians are way cool and totally web savvy - they probably even know what 'viral advertising' means.
But of course, Hootooers know how cool librarians are. We elected one president.
Over chez Gheorgheni, we are big fans of the 'Ghostbusters' guys. Just hearing the first notes of the theme song takes us wa-a-y back to when we first saw the film, and how hard we laughed. The concept that a bunch of tinfoil-hat nutcases could actually save the world without doing any worse collateral damage than covering Manhattan in marshmallow creme is just plain dear to my heart.
And the jokes are not only funny, but innocent enough to amuse small children with.
An early 'Ghostbusters' scene, you will no doubt recall, was shot in the New York Public Library, a beautiful old place. The fellas abandon their Zehner cards long enough to go chase a nasty library ghost. They don't mess the library up as badly as they do that hotel dining room later. A few falling bookshelves can be righted.
The library is facing hard times. No surprise there. Everybody is. But those librarians came up with a great idea to publicise their plight and remind New Yorkers how important the library is. They called...
An improv group.
Dressed as...you guessed it. Here's the action:
http://movies.yahoo.com/feature/movie-talk-ghostbusters-scene-sort-of-reenacted-at-new-york-landmark.html
It looks like a fun time was had by all in the Big Apple. I hope the stunt works big-time - why do you think I'm writing this? After all, the point of 'Ghostbusters' was that an ad-hoc Committee of the Gormless could succeed by sheer good will in defeating supernatural evil and saving the city. In this case, to paraphrase the Apostle, they wrestle not against ectoplasmic vandals, but against budget cuts, against powerpoints, against fiscal wickedness in high places...
Whenever we see a spiritual victory in this world, Elektra and I look at each other and say, 'Yay, Ghostbusters'. This time, they came in costume.
Oh, and don't those guys look precious running around in sheets?
Discuss this Journal entry [27]
Latest reply: May 19, 2010
Thirty Years Ago I Said This Would Happen...
Posted May 7, 2010
...well, I did. 
Back when I was a young and innocent cub, I went to my American dentist for a checkup before venturing overseas. This excellent man, whose ancestors came from the Yiddish-speaking part of Romania, advised me, 'You've got wisdom teeth coming in. They'll be okay if they don't crowd your mouth.' Fatal remark.
I then emigrated to Germany, where, a year later, I was sitting in a chair having my impacted wisdom tooth yanked by an insane Münchner armed with a pair of pliers and - I regret to say, as he was of a certain age - ideas influenced by Darwin's regrettable cousin Francis Galton.
He broke the tooth (the dentist, not Francis Galton). Why will become apparent shortly. Holding out the offending pieces, he demanded: 'What was this doing in your mouth?'
In other words, I interpreted through the blinding pain, 'None of MY ancestors was sleeping around with other species.'
I had a fused molar.
Now, the only people I had ever heard of with fused molars were Neanderthals. I therefore assumed I had Neanderthal ancestor - and so did my dentist, who as I said, probably harboured Unfortunate Ideas. I, on the other hand, thought it was Cool.
Painful, but definitely cool.
Now, I'm always ahead of my time with such notions, and for 30 years people have been telling me I'm nuts. Okay, I am, but that doesn't mean we don't have Neanderthal genes. Some of us, at least.
Now take a look at this:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100506/ap_on_sc/us_sci_neanderthal_genes;_ylt=AlLmkDKW_sy0MPzFPh3nmxgPLBIF;_ylu=X3oDMTJwM3Rscm40BGFzc2V0A2FwLzIwMTAwNTA2L3VzX3NjaV9uZWFuZGVydGhhbF9nZW5lcwRjcG9zAzEEcG9zAzIEc2VjA3luX3RvcF9zdG9yeQRzbGsDeW91cmVhbmVhbmRl
Aha. Told you so!!!
Isaac Asimov once said, 'The nice thing about advances in scientific knowledge is that they make people stop saying, "There goes Asimov, the nut," and start saying, "There goes Asimov, the clear-eyed seeker of truth."'
Yeah. Like that. It's called vindication.
We should notice that so far, it looks like only Europeans and Asians are related to Neanderthals. And that somebody's already figured out that somebody, somewhere, will try to make a Big Deal out of that. Phooey. I've read William Golding's 'The Inheritors', and I believe those Neanderthals were lovely people I'm proud to be related to. Besides, I'm Scotch Irish. We're not proud.
Oh, and I love the Wash U prof's remark about how people now have something better to worry about than who was sleeping with whom in the Pleistocene.
That München dentist ruined more than my evening. The damage he did aggravated my TMJ (temporal mandibular joint syndrome), causing back pain, skeletal misalignment, etc, and is probably responsible for my going from 'hey, you have strong teeth' to 'Aieee!' (the favourite remark of my excellent Philly dentist, who came from around Bombay). I have crowns now. I blame bad dentistry.
But I don't blame the Neanderthals.
Discuss this Journal entry [72]
Latest reply: May 7, 2010
Look Out, Humans!
Posted May 6, 2010
I love this.
Canadians are getting attention from space.
Canadian beavers, that is. The Castor canadensis has been busy up there, building a dam so large it can be seen by NASA:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100505/sc_afp/canadascienceenvironmentanimalbeaver
I am proud of them. Apparently, the dam has been worked on by several generations of beavers. There is even vegetation growing on it.
Determined little guys. Here in North Carolina, one man was so frustrated by finding his backyard under water *every single morning* that he finally relocated the furry engineers 100 miles away.
They came back. From West Virginia.
Persistence like that must be admired. And we can be glad they are smaller than their ancestors:
http://my.execpc.com/~coken2/exhibita.jpg
The Canadian lot give new meaning to the expression 'busy as a beaver'.
Discuss this Journal entry [7]
Latest reply: May 6, 2010
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