Ok all – stuff I owe all of you and that I’m thinking about (in part due to your reminders/requests:)

- Article on death / euthanasia
- Celebrity sightings (for you Hollywood-worshipping slut cultists out there)
- Trip statistics (almost done)
- Hot babe analysis across the trip
- Favorite ’small cities’

Watch this space; pieces will move soon, I swear. Maybe even a couple this weekend.

While I thoroughly enjoyed my evening with Chris and Monique, I should have spent the night there in Bethesda.
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Over the past couple years, I’ve tended to opt for quality (while I understand that is debatable) over quantity when it came to posting. I’d stew for a couple weeks over what to post, and finally put something up that I judged “postworthy.” But, since the next couple months is going to be a lot of travel and random adventuring, it is likely that I’ll be posting shorter pieces of less consequence. Hope they are somewhat interesting – and please, if they aren’t already low enough, lower your expectations.

I learned something new today. As one fascinated with the politics of the Middle East and with the US space program, you’d think that among the useless trivia in my head might be the little tidbit that President Reagan dedicated a shuttle launch to the Afghan Mujahideen. There’s more weirdness and irony where that came from … check it.

“We must go beyond public condemnation of the Soviet puppet regime in Kabul…”

Oh, who’d have thunk it? Oh, I know who.

Five years after 9-11, Americans seem to have learned nothing – although I guess we’ve learned to suck up the politics of fear that now permeates our so-called system of governance. And, as I allude to above, we now face many heads of a beast we helped create.

(h/t, Chris, for sending me down this rathole.)

My friend Christine tipped me off about Armor of God PJs, which reminded me of a couple things needin’ discussion.
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Oozing with the perpetual ear candy thrust upon us by greedy record companies who think the Internet is for gamerz, if you’re like me, you’re always on the hunt for a unique new sound that excites you and makes you believe in the power of music once again. Well, I have wonderful news. I invite you to spend some time with New Zealand-based Wing.

You know, I always loved those old ABBA tunes. We had an ABBA 8-track when I was a kid. I listened to it a lot. Wing did too.

(Thanks: Xeni)

A story from the Washington Times about the skirmish yesterday between the US Secret Service and Chilean security forces. Ultimately the tension between the two services resulted in the cancellation of tonight’s 200-guest formal dinner. The video’s kinda funny, if you can dig it up…. “tell ya what, we’re a little short on the staff plates, so why don’t you boys stay outside and we’ll watch the President for you, is that cool?”

Why are carnivals so freaking creepy? Discuss.

Saletan wrote a good post-debate piece about some of the hot air and the issue of Iraq.

I’m still sniffing around online and trying to figure out what the deal is on this person. As the producer of the Guard Memo story, I’m surprised we have not heard more about her. CBS stalled for too long, and only partially did the right thing tonight. I wonder how long Mapes will be able to hang on at CBS? I am very curious for more information on the vetting process and how much of it was politically motivated. Word is she was a fairly active liberal in the northwest. Let us see..

My trip rocked. Unbelievable – a truly amazing weekend. New friends, lovely people, and a wonderful intersection of ideas and relationships… I felt very recharged by it (despite not sleeping..)

“This is the nightmare scenario that we’ve been talking about for years,” hurricane center director Max Mayfield said of storm surges that ranged from 10 to 15 feet.

There’s a dangerous intersection outside my apartment – several components of the area surrounding the intersection just beg for trouble. There are lots of accidents, it seems to average about one fatality a year.

I’m not positive, but fairly certain the guy who dumped his motorbike out in front of my apartment tonight died doing so. First I heard this sound – almost like a snowplow grinding along the pavement – then I see this light twirling around and it’s his motorcycle (and him, not too far behind) sliding down the street quite rapidly and then they each hit the guardrail in separate spots. I went out to help the dude .. but he really smacked his head and neck up on the guardrail. It was not a good situation.

Well, I hope the guy is OK, but based on what I saw I don’t think he is. RIP bro.

Had a great hike today with buddy Ian. About 6+ miles; approx. 5 hours. I’d characterize the trail as moderate to rugged – a teeny bit of actual climbing here and there but mostly just the graded woody terrain you’d expect in the White Mountains.

We were in the general vicinity of Mount Chocorua. Made our way up (if memory serves me..) the Piper Trail to Carter Ledge Trail and hung around on Carter Ledge for a while. What a gorgeous area – wish I’d been able to take some photos – we had basically a 360-degree view of several mountains (including the “Three Sisters” which looked more like six). Breathtaking, all. And plenty of fresh blueberries!

The hike was medium difficulty, but made much harder by the oppressive heat and humidity. Under the tree cover it was like a sauna – we were soaked. Luckily we’d each brought unbelievably generous supplies of water (a whopping 20 oz each) so we were feeling a bit dumb by the time we arrived on Carter Ledge.

Aside from breathtaking views, we saw the usual incredible variety of life one would expect – from frogs the size of acorns to horse flies the size of footballs. I miss hiking and really wish there were some great trails closer to where I live.

Am very glad I did it – serves as another reminder of the beauty of our planet and the magic of life.

“90 percent of all answers are contained in the Symantec Knowledge Base.”

Wow. I finally have someone to turn to.

Few things surprise me these days, but this AP report that Sandy Berger is under investigation for allegedly ripping off some classified documents from the 9-11 commission’s reading room.. well, that’s a weird one.

“Berger and his lawyer said Monday night he knowingly removed handwritten notes he had made while reading classified anti-terror documents at the archives by sticking them in his jacket and pants.”

Smart, dude. Smart.

An old Maine buddy of mine, David Leavy, was his press secretary. I’ll bet David is pleased not to have that duty tonight.

Yesterday I had a sudden change of plans (read: cancelled) so decided to wander around Minuteman National Park, a site that can rightly be called the birthplace of America. I was bummed I didn’t bring my old digital camera along, but I always forget the thing (hopefully once I buy that D70 I’ll at least keep it in my car.)

Anyway, in what seemed like a coincidence (as neither of these was planned), I’d also bought Senator Robert Byrd’s new book earlier in the day. First, seeing the bridge over which the colonists first fired their rebellious shots against the British; standing over the walls they hid behind along the old roadway – it was all very moving and a reminder about important innate things like the drive to control one’s own destiny and the power of human courage. It was on this bridge that Colonel James Barrett’s Middlesex militia took shots from British troops, causing them to hesitate briefly as they’d not expected it to come to shots – when Barrett commanded, “Fire! For God’s sake, fire!!” And thus began the American Revolution on April 19, 1775. Thousands of brave colonists who’d had enough had taken up arms to demand freedom from an oppressive crown that offered them no right to self-determination and governance.

Second, reading Senator Byrd’s words on the loss of the American spirit moved me as well. You can quibble with Byrd’s history and politics, but you cannot quibble with his intelligence, oratory skill, and his tremendous respect for the soul of the world’s greatest constitutional republic. I’ve written here in the past that in my darker moments I wonder if we’ve brought the great American Experiment to its end due to our own apathy and ignorance. That is, our own willingness to shop and watch TV (as Mr. Bush suggested we do in the aftermath of 9/11 if we wanted to ‘help’) and let “them” take care of things for us. We now live in a society where civic ignorance is socially acceptable – no longer something to be embarassed or ashamed of – and even the mildest types of civic involvement are considered radical activism. Byrd writes that he offers this book (the implied assumption being it may be a parting offer) as “my attempt to awaken us all before it is too late.” The terrifying irony about America is that we are the nation with the most individual power to affect change, yet we may be the populous who uses it the least.

So, I ask you – read this book and “for God’s sake, fire!”

Well I can’t believe it’s taken me a week to get to this… OK. Last weekend I had dinner at Club Passim with the sole purpose of seeing Kate Klim perform. I had raved about her a while back after my ears happened upon her voice while I was wandering Harvard Square, but until now hadn’t had a chance to see her.

Creative expression goes through filters (theirs and ours) before it jumps inside and connects with us. Some of the filters are yours, some theirs, etc. With some artists, it seems like there are fewer filters, that you’re getting a more direct view of who they are when they perform. Kate’s one of those, and it’s evident when she’s up there doing her muse thing. So, simply put, she was great. We didn’t stick around for Edie Carey and felt guilty.

So, what you should do is listen up, then buy her albums and see her perform when you get the chance. She also was brand-conscious enough to point out that her last name was “milk spelled backwards” but forgot to tell folks that Kate is “etak” spelled backwards. Chatted with her briefly and she’s as delightful offstage as on.

We also saw the Dresden Dolls the evening prior and I thought they were very good. The crowd was as interesting as the Dolls. For example, I saw a real, actual pirate. The Dolls are highly recommended – very high-energy music in a delivered in a soulful goth-cabaret-narrative style.

Here it is – finally unveiled. The new E60, fourth-generation BMW M5 for model year 2006. A V10, a seven-speed sequential tranny with over 500 horsepower and a thousand other examples of engineering excellence and lustful features I’m too flustered to talk about at the moment.. wow. Will hit US streets in January. Cheap, too! Only 95,000 Euros or so – so I’m going to order one when I get paid next week. Oh, wait .. 95,000 EUROS? Aw, shit, nevermind then. I always get those mixed up with Pesos.. *sigh*

Tattoo Decision Support Matrix courtesy of the US Army.

I was going to link to JD Lasica’s report from the Supernova conference, then decided also to link to his blurb about the post 9-11 Saudi flight that the Bush administration lied about – information that was out there all along. I read about it a while back in House Of Saud, House Of Bush but this info never really seemed to bubble up into the mainstream press until Michael Moore’s film. It seems to me, although I haven’t yet seen it, that Moore did a lot of shit wrong with this movie, but I think he’s brought some very important issues to the forefront of the American conversation.

This month’s High Times cover shows one of our fighting men with a lovely plant he wanted to confiscate. He even made the Post!

The Spirit Rover has stumbled across something interesting today – a rock that is “uniquely martian” that appears to be mostly made of hematite. Opportunity found a lot of this mineral as well – continuing to solidify the case for rivers and oceans of water that seems-now-certainly existed on Mars eons ago. The reason I find this particularly interesting is when I first started paying attention to astronomy, I remember that the whole discussion about astrobiology and extraterrestrial intelligence was focused on liquid water (which requires – basically needs to live between – both a solid surface and a gaseous atmosphere, excluding it from >99.99% of the space in the universe) as a basis for life and therefore intelligence. It was looked at as extra-cool magic life juice (which it is) that was very rare – yet it is one of the very few molecules that you’ll find completely permeating Gaia’s biomass. So, I guess, I’m curious why intelligent life is so rare, seemingly literally confined to one little fleck of rock in the universe. Plus, we’re seeing water everywhere.

Over just the last 5-10 years, the common view on this has shifted dramatically (along with the view about the conditions needed for life to exist). Every extraterrestrial thing we’ve come into contact with over the past few years (Mars, that weird halite meteorite that crashed into a Texas yard a few years ago, Europa (and soon, Titan)) shows hints of liquid water that may age to the earliest days of the solar system.

However, sentient extraterrestrials do not seem to exist. So, perhaps the rarity is in the leap from liquid water to liquid life? If liquid water isn’t rare, perhaps the next step is exceedingly uncommon – like the leap from hot water to extremophile bacteria?

These are the states I have visited, compliments of World66 – they’ll also let you do a global one.

Welp I’m off to Bangor, Maine in the morning to accompany Mom (whom I’ll pick up in Cape Elizabeth on the way) to a funeral for my cousin Robin Langley, who died unexpectedly late last week. I did not know Robin very well, but what I do remember was that she was much like the rest of her family – and they are all very warm and friendly people with more than enough love to go around. She and I shared an interest in genealogy, and despite our efforts to connect about our common heritage, we never got the chance to do so.

I especially feel for her parents, my dear uncle Pat and aunt Rella, who spent Father’s Day weekend grieving over the unexpected loss of their child.