Raffi Khatchadourian’s in-depth account of the BP DeepWater Horizon oil spill cleanup effort provides an interesting perspective on one of the largest responses ever mounted to a man-made environmental disaster. He uses many war analogies and the whole story has a bit of an “embedded reporter” feel to it. It’s a very sincere account of […]
I am taking welding lessons Wednesday nights at the local Community College, and so I spent three hours last night welding with a stick welder. At 2 AM, I woke up and I felt like my eyes had burning sand in them. That condition is called flash burn, or arc eye, and it is essentially […]
Spring is here – and so is the Doughman! 9 days ago we had snow, but for the last few days the weather has been warm and spring-ish. And on Sunday I got my team registered for the Doughman race! So it’s definitely time for spring. Sunday I managed to guess correctly the restaurants involved […]
This winter has been really mild here in North Carolina, but last night we did get a 1/2 inch of snow. The ground was pretty warm after a mid-50s day, and so this morning there is no snow on the roads. Even so, there were some accidents and schools are on a 2-hr delay. We […]
Schönen Valentinstag, liebes Deutschland! Reporter: Sie haben doch bestimmt eine Liebste Zuhause … oder ‘nen Liebsten? Passant: Ich weise diese Unterstellungen zurück!! Unterstellungen sind ein journalistischer Trick … Ich könnte schwören dass ich bei dem Alten mal Untermieter war! “Der Globus dreht sich!” Fantastisch!
Is this what the natives do in Norway during those long winters? They drink and swim in the frozen fjords? This guy is nuts! And his videos are really entertaining and well crafted. By far the best storytelling I have seen on YT in a while. Was machen die Norweger während der langen Winter dort? […]
Today is Dain’s Birthday and the 5th anniversary of his bar, Dain’s Place! I went there for lunch today and gave Dain a bottle of last year’s barrel-aged Sexual Chocolate stout. Happy birthday, oh Bearded One!
The Great Beer Quest of 2012 was a smashing success! Just look at these four beauties! Last night at 11PM, I met Oz, Derek and Dan in Hillsborough, they piled into the Beast and we roared over to W/S to Foothills Brewery. We hung out at the release party for the Sexual Chocolate Stout and […]
Michael Glawogger’s film “Ghosts” on AlJazeera is a fascinating portrait of the sulfur miners at Kawah Ijen – an active volcano in East Java, Indonesia. It’s a quiet film with authentic voices and eerie, haunting images of men scraping sulfur from the smoking mouth of the volcano and carrying their heavy baskets out of the […]
(Blackout template by Zachary Johnson) Today’s unprecedented Internet protest against SOPA/PIPA censorship laws was a huge success. Thousands of websites observed a “blackout” and even Google displayed solidarity and has forms posted for contacting lawmakers. So far 13 Senators – mostly Republicans – have withdrawn their support for PIPA. This is not a partisan issue. […]
Wednesday, Jan. 18, some significant parts of the Internet will go on strike. The websites will only show one page related to the protest against the SOPA legislation the US Congress is considering. This law would allow the US government to shut down any site if there is any suspicion of copyright infringement. If the […]
… and no end in sight. Despite his promises, President Obama has not closed the beacon of injustice that is the prison at Guantánamo bay. Arond this week’s 10th anniversary of the opening of this facility, the story of one of its former inmates, Lakhdar Boumediene, has been making the rounds: In 2001, Lakhdar Boumediene […]
Auf Deutsch … 2011 was a rough year. I’m trying to come up with some good stuff that happened this year, and it’s not easy. One personal highlight was participating in the Doughman race with the 11-foot-8 team. We raised $340 and came in 8th place (out of 75 teams). Besides the race, I ran […]
Dear Santa. I was a good boy. Please, can I have one?!
The best blended Scotch in the history of the world – which was also the favourite drink of the Iraqi Baath Party, as it still is of the Palestinian Authority and the Libyan dictatorship and large branches of the Saudi Arabian royal family – is Johnnie Walker Black. Breakfast of champions, accept no substitute. — […]
Fight PIPA and SOPA today! The Stop Online Piracy Act (H.R. 3261), known as “SOPA,” is scheduled for consideration at a hearing before the House Judiciary Committee [today]. The bill is aimed at taking down sites that allow Internet users to acquire pirated versions of original artistic content online. At a recent hearing, the ACLU expressed opposition […]
Cute!
Today we loaded our horses into our new trailer and went horseback riding at Cedarrock Park near Burlington. Saturday, I spent several hours fixing the electrical on the trailer. The wires in the hookup were connected in weird places, one of the brakes wasn’t working, and one of the taillights was connected in reverse. The […]
Today we drove to Roxboro and bought this horse trailer. Finally we’re properly mobile with the horses and can take them places. There are a number of parks in the area that have horse trails. Also some of the stables around here have trails that are open to the public for a small fee. We’re […]
Today I rode my mountain bike properly for the first time in a year or two, and I had a real blast! The weather was nice, but I did not feel like running, so I hopped on my bike and rode out to the powerline easement. For several months we have been exploring the powerline […]
