Ping-pong balls are useful. Historic evidence: A Japanese freighter had been torpedoed during WWII and it’s at the bottom of Tokyo Harbor with a large hole in her hull. A team of engineers was called together to solve the problem of raising the wounded vessel to the surface. One of the engineers tackling this puzzle […]
Looks like the Australian Paul Larsen broke the 50-knots-per-hour speed sailing record, and then he broke his boat. So far only a couple of kite surfers broke 50 knots. Larsen claims that in his latest attempt at setting a new speed record his sailboat reached a peak speed of 52.22 knots (60.09 MpH – 96.71KMpH) […]
One of Africa’s great voices was lost last night. Miriam Makeba died in Italy, shortly after a concert. Makeba gave a powerful voice to her people during the struggle against apartheid in South Africa. The South African government revoked her citizenship in 1963, but in the following years she was given honorary citizenship by 10 […]
There is a direct trajectory from Dr. Martin Luther King’s “I have a Dream” speach 45 years ago to President (elect) Barack Obama’s victory speech in Chicago. Maybe this is Dr. King’s dream realized? Obama’s campaign has already transformed this country. I have noticed how frequently the white middle class Obama supporters expressed their surprise […]
This map shows the US states sized proportional to their populations. Blue states voted for Obama, red states for McCain. In some of the blue states Obama only got a few thousand votes more than McCain (like in NC) but all the electoral votes of those states go towards the candidate who carries the state. […]
This is sweet! Today I am especially proud to be a Tar Heel! North Carolina turned blue for Obama. It looks like the Democrat won by a few thousand votes in NC. This is the first time since President Carter that a Democrat won this state. The map above shows results county by county and […]
Last May, Jacob and I started taking Karate lessons. Jacob met our sensei Kevin Gurganus during recess at Little River School, where Kevin teaches special ed classes. Due to his work in the public schools, sensei Kevin reaches many children who can really benefit from the Karate lessons. With his hard work and his talent […]
Oh boy – there’s nothing like catching up on the news after a few days at the beach. As the credit crisis is in the process of turning the global economy into a lump of coal, the divisive language of the election here is stoking emotions in each political camp. This is a dangerous brew, […]
Right now I am in Atlantic Beach, on the North Carolina coast. I am sitting on the deck of a friend’s beach house with a drink, waiting for the last load of laundry and the dish washer to get done, so I can pack our stuff and head back to Durham. I can hear the […]
My current batch of biodiesel is my greenest yet because I used homemade, bio-electricity to cook it (instead of Duke Power’s dirty coal-based electricity). A couple of weeks ago I bought a little 5KW diesel generator at Costco, plus a 10-circuit power switch. Last weekend I wired the generator to the circuits. Now I have […]
There are a variety of conspiracy theories circulating about how the Bushistas will try to create a situation to declare martial law and suspend the Nov. 4 election, if it looks like Obama is going to win it. I am skeptical about these theories, but this story did give me pause: The US Army has […]
Today I finally bit the bullet and moved my blog to a new hosting service. Looks like everything works fine now. Since I did not change the domain name, moving the blog was just a question of installing the new blog, dropping all the tables, restoring the database to the new server, uploading some extra […]
something is wrong with the scripts for posting new entries. Hopefully I can figure this out soon …
For quite a while the biodieselers in our area have been wondering what will happen to our cosy little niche when diesel and biodiesel hit price parity at $3.50. Well, here we are – for well over a week now the price of diesel has been well over $3.50 per gallon and since last weekend […]
Like most sports, mountain biking has its risks. I’ve had a few accidents, falling off the bike, hitting low branches, etc, but so far (knock on wood) no serious injuries. I am pretty careful and I wear a very good helmet and eye protection. Last Sunday I was biking the single-track at Little River Park […]
German Vice-chancellor and foreign minister Steinmeier is in Togo for talks with Faure Gnassingbe. He appears to be following the new EU strategy of engagement with Gnassingbe, whereby they hope to win concessions on the development of a more functional democracy in Togo. Good luck with that. Also, I cannot stand these idiotic descriptions of […]
Congratulations to the team from Egypt for defending the title in the Cup of African Nations against the team from Cameroon (1-0). The host Ghana came in third place on Saturday, defeating Ivory Coast 0-1.
The Beluga Skysails, a container ship powered in part by a 500sqm towing kite, has “set sail” from the German North Sea port Bremerhaven across the Atlantic. This is reportedly the first commercial trip of a Skysail powered ship. Spiegel Online has a video (in German). As I have said previously, this is a brilliant […]
The Africa Cup of Nations began today with close 2-1 win for host Ghana over Guinea. Congratulations to the Black Stars! This Africa Cup is considered a dress rehearsal for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, where several African teams are hoping to showcase world class African Football. In any case, the Africa Cup […]
