Ray Manzarek of The Doors Dies at 74

Monday, May 20, 2013

Though Jim Morrison was the driving force of The Doors when they first formed it was Ray Manzarek that was the critical cohesive element of the band that kept the brilliant sum of its parts together and helped them be greater than the whole.  The prototypical AOR FM band in the 70's and 80's were an icon of the time that marched to a different drum with Morrison leading the way.  Most Doors songs had a catalogue of tunes with lyrics that did not follow the thematic doggeral lyrics of the day about drugs, sex and rock n' roll.  They were a deeper examination of the psyche that explored struggles with the human condition on several levels.  When Morrison died they went on to produce two more efforts:  'Other Voices' and 'Full Circle' with Manzarek singing the lead.  Though not commercially successful 'Ships With Sails' from 'Other Voices' has the classic doors sound with Manzarek voicing lyrics that still had that Doors/Morrison feel and flavor.  Manzarek died in Germany of cancer at 74. 

 

Ford C-Max Hybrid Under The Microscope After Lawsuits Over EPA Ratings

Friday, May 17, 2013

Ford Motor Co. is getting hit by a handful of lawsuits going back to April over the EPA ratings for its C-Max Hybrid model.  Two California law firms along with federal courthouse filings out of Massachusettes and Pennsylvania are making claims against Ford stating that the EPA mpg ratings of 47 mpg are over inflated and that more realistic outcomes are somewhere between 30 and 40 mpg.  I'd like to share my theory on where I think the problem lies here:  buyers either can't read, have selective hearing, or suffers from a combination of both.

 

My wife and I purchased our 2013 Ford C-Max back on December of 2012.  So far the lifetime mpg rating on the car since date of purchase is right at 39 mpg.  The dealer salesperson who sold us the car not only emphasized that the EPA rating was based on driving habits being utilized to take advantage of the hybrid system design, it was critical that one followed the outlined driving skills needed to obtain the advertised mpg ratings.  I might add the manual is fairly clear about this as well.  If you are an agressive driver with somewhat of a lead foot you are going to get around 30 to 40 mpg between fill-ups.  My wife tends to be somewhat of an agressive driver, hence the 39 mpg lifetime rating since date of purchase.  As she is the main driver of the car being a Realtor always on the go I only drive the car as a secondary vehicle on occasion.  On the other hand, I have developed the driving habits and skills for driving the C-Max thereby taking advantage of the hybrid design features and I've obtained mpg outings exceeding the 47 mpg rating by the EPA.  It's that simple.  If you have a lead foot, forget it.  It's like that with any car.  As someone who has utilized hypermiling techniques pulling great mileage on our 2006 Freestar Mini-Van I know how critical it is to pay attention to your driving habits.

 

So my advice to these people filing these lawsuits may I suggest a refresher from you local Ford Dealer or just simply read your car user manual.  You may learn a few things or two about your vehicle the dealershp left out.

 

Our 2013 Ford C-Max with state of the art technology that makes it a delight to drive.

Proposed Mars Flyby in 2018

Tuesday, May 14, 2013

Former space tourist and astronaut Dennis Tito called for a 501 day Mars flyby mission by January, 2018 when Mars will be at its closest approach to Earth.  Tito was a guest speaker at the Humans To Mars summit in Washington, D.C. last week when he called for the 2018 flyby mission with two astronauts in a short sprint to demonstrate capabilities and possiblities with current technology available for human spaceflight.  Other guest speakers at the summit included current NASA administrator Charles Bolden and former NASA astronaut and moon walker from Apollo 11 Buzz Aldren.  According to the organizations web site the Human2Mars Summit's goal is two fold:

H2M is a comprehensive Mars exploration conference, organized by Explore Mars, Inc. to address the major challenges that need to be overcome to send humans to Mars by 2030.

Tito emphasized that a flyby was essential to maintain enthusiasm for a "boots on the ground" misson envisioned by NASA's current timeline as a first step toward the colonization of Mars.  To read the entire article covering Tito's presentation click here.

Florida Gators Add Chris Leak To Coaching Staff For 2013

Nice to see Chris Leak back in the Swamp.  One of three Florida Gator Football quarterbacks to lead them to an NCAA national champitonship in 2006, he was hired to compliment the current coaching staff for Will Muschamp.  As Leak is looking to step into a career in coaching, Gatorsports' Robbie Andreu is reporing that Muschamp added him as a quality control coach.  His post college career included stints with the NFL's Chicago Bears where he was signed undrafted in the 2007 season and trained under former Gator Rex Grossman, the CFL [Hamilton Tigercats & Saskatchewan Roughriders], an aborted AAFL career [Team Florida], and finally the Arena Football League where he briefly played for the Jacksonville Sharks.  He was released and finished his playing career after signing with the Orlando Predators.

 

In his senior year in 2006 he led the Florida Gators to a National Chapionship with Tim Teabow as a freshman back up in an astounding 41-14 victory over the Ohio State Buckeyes under Urban Meyer.  He managed to snag the game MVP honors after completing 25 passes in 36 attempts with 213 yards and 1 touchdown.  This after starting the game with nine straight passes.

 

On top of a great career with the Gators on the field he did pretty well of the field as well.  Each year he played he was named to the SEC's Academic Honor Roll.  This resuted in him being named a finalist for the 2006 Draddy Award which is considered the Academic Heisman trophy for college football.  He was also well know for his off the field charity work with the Goodwill Gators program.  It will be nice to see Leak back on the sidelines again where he left as a champion in more ways than one.

 

ISS Expedition 35 Touches Down After 61 Days

Monday, May 13, 2013

ISS Expedition 35 with animated NASA Commander Mike Hadfield just made a soft touchdown in lower Mongolia after a 61 day mission.  Expedition 36 arrived today to keep the ISS crew compliment at 6 commanded by Pavel Vinogradov of the Russian Space Agency.  There is no doubt the Russians have their Soyuz flight program working like clockwork.  The image below is of Soyuz 35 in an upright position in the landing zone located on the Mongolian steppes awaiting to be picked up by the Russian Space Agency after the return crew extraction:  Mike Hadfield [NASA], Thomas Mashburn [NASA], and Roman Romanenko [RSA]. 

 

International Space Station Leak May Be Fixed

Saturday, May 11, 2013

Looks like they may have fixed that leak on the International Space Station.  Even though it may take months to find out how successful at least the space walk seems to have gone off without a hitch.

Danny Wuerffel Finally In College Football Hall Of Fame

Wednesday, May 8, 2013

Well, Its about time.  Tim Tebow's star, celebrity and athletic prowess most certainly got all the press.  But when it came right down to it Danny's record as a starter is 45-6-1.  Tim Tebow's is 35-6-0.  I don't like to compare Danny or Tim because they were two very different QB's.  But for field presence and an uncanny ability to read defenses Danny will always be my favorite because he always seemed so cool and collected in critical games and downs.  On top of that he is the only quarterback to start for four conference championship teams.  There is no doubt the Gators have had their share of great quarterbacks:  Stever Spurrier, Kerwin Bell, Shane Matthews, Chris Leaf, and Tim Tebow.  But for me Danny stands out alone.  For him to be overlooked he first year of eligibility is a disservice to his record.  But still, its better late than never.

NASA's Mars Curiosity Rover Back In Action

Monday, May 6, 2013

Nice to see NASA's Mars Rover Curiosity back on the job after Mars slipped behind the sun for a month.  It has been operating on the surface of Mars since November 26th, 2011.  As Mars solar conjunctions happen every 26 months these 'blackouts' are planned and expected.  From what I can tell this is the most advanced Martian rover to date.  As it is the size of a small car the engineering feat landing it is something to marvel at.  You can follow Curiosity's exploits here and keep up to date on any new discoveries and possibilites future exploration.  The images being sent back are really jaw dropping.  I hope this rover lasts as long as the Mars rover Opportunity which has been operating since January 25th, 2004.  That's over nine years now.  It's twin Spirit stopped working in 2009.

iPhone App "Night Sky" Is A Wonder

Monday, March 26, 2012

This is the second night I have had the Night Sky app for my iPhone loaded and its a wonder.  An added feature I had not anticipated is the kewl new age music that accompanies it while you are using it.  I paid $.99 for the app and just in the past two night it's fantastic.  I am able to observe the constellations and the planets in our solar system in transition through each constellation they appear in.  I am truly facinated by the dual feature that allows you to observe the sky as it looks from your POV on earth.  I love the fact I can change the sky view settings from horizon to non-horizon.  It shows each constellation with the major stars named and the location of each observable planet. 

I was able to observe the locations for Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Neptune and Pluto and note the contellations they were crossing at 02:20 UTC, March 26th, 2012.  Its a very kewl way to learn the constellations and it will make it easy to teach my six year old daughter how to identify each one by sight.  All I need to do now is find Uranus to complete the circuit of ol' Sol's heavenly bodies.

SETIcon

Sunday, August 8, 2010

You know you've made it when your institution has its first "con." Such as it is with the S.E.T.I Institute in Mountain View, CA. SETIcon, as it is called, will be taking place in Santa Clara, CA on August 13-15 with a great line-up of speakers. I'm just hoping they will have a way to make a video record of the speakers available to those of us who are unable to attend. Just a few of the speakers on the agenda include former astronaut Rusty Schweickart, Jill Tarter the SETI Institute's director and inspiration for Jodie Foster's character in the film Contact, Isaac Asimov's daughter Robyn Asimov, and SETI Radio host Seth Shostak.

Though I knew of its existence in its early stages I didn't became acutely aware of S.E.T.I. and its work until I read Carl Sagan's first and only novel Contact. Once the movie premiered I was stunned at its profoundness and how it put our thinking on the possibility of extraterrestrial life in a context I had not considered: that of the vast distances involved in our stellar neighborhood and our isolated position relative to the rest of the stellar population in the Milky Way.

Now with the Internet community such as it is I am a devout follower of S.E.T.I.'s work and am able to stay up to date on the various projects and work taking place there. It will be fun to post about S.E.T.I. events and their work whenever something interesting comes along.

Let's hope one of those "events" will be the one that tells us we have a galactic "neighbor."

Ridley Scott's Space Jockey Get's A Ride

Saturday, August 7, 2010

The news about Ridley Scott planning a prequel to his original movie Alien as a reboot to the franchise was like manna from heaven for this aficionado of sci-fi cinema. When it premired in 1979 my visceral reaction to the opening shot of the Nostromo silently filling the screen as it crawled back to its home base of Earth after a mining mission on the planet Theda was so strong it still seems like I only just saw it a few hours ago. I think I must have sat slack jawed for the first twenty minutes of Scott's opus as I tried to visually digest the new benchmark of expectations being set for future movies about space and space travel. One of the most haunting scenes or images of that film was when Hurt's character was standing in awe before an alien traveller's body who had obviously not survived a violent explosion from within still strapped to his flight deck chair. That image was so strong and intense anyone who re-watched this movie would wonder about the story of this "space jockey" and the circumstances that brought him there:

Now it looks as though the days of wondering are over. Scott is going to tell his story. According to the evocative director in an interview the film will take place 50 years before the Nostomo stumbles upon the space jockey's body. Early speculation is a target release date set sometime in 2011.

Yummy.

A Stellar Image From A Steller Obervatory

Friday, August 6, 2010

Its builders claim the European Southern Observatory houses the world's most advanced optical instrument. The photo they posted today certainly makes it hard to argue with their claim. That "instrument" is an 8.2 meter diameter main mirror coupled with four movable 1.8m diameter Auxiliary Telescopes. We are told that when they work together, in groups of two or three, to form a giant 'interferometer' this "allows astronomers to see details up to 25 times finer than with the individual telescopes." This enabled the ESO to be the first Earth bound observatory/telescope to capture the first image of an extrasolar planet [eso0842]. One of the 'very kewl' things about this observatory, which is based in southern Chile, is each of the four auxiliary telescopes have names that originate from the indigenous peoples of the area: The Mapuche. The names of each of the auxiliary units in the Mapuche language have very specific meanings: (1) Antu -which means The Sun [UT1]; (2) Kueyen -which means The Moon [UT2]; (3) Melipal - which means The Southern Cross [UT3]: and finally (4) Yepun - which means Venus.

The ESO web site also tells us this region of Chile on a moonless night is so dark and low in light pollution you can see your shadow from the stars in the Milky Way. Anyone, even those with a mild or fleeting interest in astronomy, would surely love to visit this area and experience an evening with a telescope. The image in question, Super Nova 1987A, is quite an impressive event where the star's material has been ejected by the explosion at 100 million kilometers per hour. We further learn from Astronomy Now Online the image shows the star's ejecta that took 10 years to catch the previous ring exhaled by the dying star:

How impressive is that? I'm sure the cache of future images of the ESO VLT won't rival Hubble or the new James Webb Space Telescope to be launched in 2014. But if the image of Supernova 1987A above is any indication I'm sure we won't be disappointed.

One last little factoid about the ESO facilities. The wing that houses the denizens of this community of researchers was featured in the last James Bond movie Quantum of Solace. Now that's worth a martini shaken, and not stirred to know.

28 Days

In Steve McQueen's classic racing movie "Le Mans" he explains to the wife of a racing colleague who died the previous year in a fiery accident why he still races in a sport so fraught with danger, "For us there is only racing. The time in between...is just waiting." For Gator alumnus and fans alike its no different. There is Gator football season and all the time in between is just waiting. That's why hearing the news that Gator football practice started yesterday is like mainlining adrenaline. Being jacked for a new season and salivating at the prospect of another run at an SEC championship, revenge at Tuscaloosa for last years SEC Championship game loss, the debut of John Brantley as the new on the field leader of the offense, and the return of Urban Meyer makes the rush even greater.

That loss to Alabama last year in Atlanta still hangs in my throat along with a bad taste in my mouth that simply will not go away. I don't know if Brantley is the guy to make things right but the anticipation is almost unbearable. There is a lot to sort out. Will Andre DuBose be the guy we think he is capable of being? There's that issue of depth at linebacker. What's Meyer's plans for a possible appearance of Trey Burton with some wildcat time at QB. What can we expect from the Freshmen? And finally, the QB position. Will Brantley be the QB we think he can be? The time to sort all this out is almost upon us.

Yep. For us there is football season. All the time between is just waiting. That wait is almost over. In 28 days / 20 hours/ and 36 minutes its going to be game time at the swamp.

I'm already there.

Spooky

When I recently saw the news about the incident in China recently on my BBC World News wire where the government shut down a regional airport because of a fiery ufo overhead I stumbled across something I didn't even know existed: a National UFO Reporting Center. As a raging skeptic when it comes to reports of extraterrestrial life visiting earth I still found this sight to be utterly fascinating. Wikipeida tells us the National UFO Reporting Center was founded in 1974. Curiously enough and coincidentally when you visit the actual site you will quickly discover that this past month of July had a record breaking number of reported sightings since its founding: 658. This beat their September, 2009 record by 63 sightings. It has a pretty extensive data base and several ways to contact the center (i.e. phone, e-mail, web site, etc) from anyone in the general public to report an unidentified flying object.

For me the world of Ufology is fascinating in itself because of the interest I have in spaceflight and NASA. Its just that I find the possibility of earth being visited by life outside the confines of our solar system unable to overcome the realities of the physics involved to overcome the vast distances in question. Despite my healthy skepticism I find the MUFON and attendant UFO community organizations around it fun to follow as an indulgent guilty pleasure. Having said that I want to make it clear these communities are filled with respectable members of society and professionals from a variety of scientific fields which is why it so fun to follow and fascinating. Still, I guess its sort of like those individuals who read the gossip rags and follow the Internet celebrity gossip sites as guilty pleasures but are loath to admit it to anyone. All I know is its fun to follow and write about and I'm admitting it!

Ageless

Thursday, August 5, 2010

I've finally accepted the fact that for years Hollywood's dearth of good scripts for women has been par for the course in a world where under 30 female "leads" fulfilling their role as screen ornaments for the male star is the norm. About the only "leading" actress left that can carry a film by herself anymore is Angelina Jolie amid a swirling montage of speeding cars and disposable emasculated male characters whose ass she has or will kick in the linear timeline of the plot. So imagine my surprise to discover that the highest paid actress in 2009 wasn't the scene chewing Ms. Jolie but none other than the 46 year old Sandra Bullock who is her senior by eleven years. No doubt Ms. Bullock is still renowned for being filmdom's sexiest bus driver but 2009 saw her carrying a leading role by herself in two smart crisp roles that only she could have pulled off: The Blindside & The Proposal.

For many years my favorite actress has been the 75 year old Dame Judi Dench whose formidable acting skills make any role, no matter the size, the one thing you remember about the film when the credits roll. The best example of this is her turn as Queen Elizabeth in Shakespeare In Love. Despite Gwyneth Paltrow getting Oscar's nod that year for best actress it is Judi Dench who actually steals the movie with her paltry 8 minutes of screen time. Trust me, after watching this film its her you remember and not the waif-like and pouting Ms. Paltrow long after the credits have rolled.

My "how kewl is that" sensibilities are in fine working order this morning as it finally dawned on me that Hollywood's cache of female stars are being led by these two ageless women over 45 whose sexiness transcends age through their talents and self awareness of who and what they are. Watching Ms. Bullock and Ms. Dench wield their power in a male dominated industry has been fun and refreshing for me over the past decade or two. And the best thing about this is they aren't showing any signs of even being done yet.

Now how kewl is that?