Cap'n Bob & the Damsel

Close Encounter of the Hoax Kind

Somebody out there is circulating a three-year-old tip about a close encounter between Mars and Earth. The tip is about the 2003 Mars-Earth encounter. This August, Mars will be a long, long way away, at about seven times the 2003 distance.

From SpaceWeather.com

BEWARE THE MARS HOAX: Just when you thought it was safe to read your email, a new Mars Hoax is spreading. The widely-circulated message tells us “the Red Planet is about to be spectacular. On August 27th, Mars … will look as large as the full Moon.” Not!

Fact: On August 27, 2006, Mars will be on the other side of the solar system, 385 million km from Earth and very dim. So forget about Mars. If you want to see something truly astronomical on August 27th, look east before dawn for a pretty conjunction of Venus and Saturn.

More information from NASA (from about a year ago).

27 Jul 2006 by Astronomy Cyberspace Degenerates

Marine Hovercraft Ferry Firefighters

UPDATE: (May 11, 2007) Catalina Fire Pictures Here.

Firefighters responding to a brush fire on Catalina Island get a lift from the US Marine Corps:

Firefighters struggle with Catalina Island brush fire

A stubborn lightning-sparked brush fire that has charred hundreds of acres since Saturday night on Catalina Island was 50 percent contained Monday, but authorities said full containment will not come today as crews had hoped.

Full containment is now expected sometime Thursday, said Los Angeles County Fire Department Inspector Sam Padilla.

Lightning ignited two fires in the central part of the 76-square-mile island shortly after 8 p.m. Saturday, Padilla said. One of those fires was contained a short time later at about 130 acres.

[. . .]

Marines from Camp Pendleton ferried Los Angeles County firefighters to the island in four hovercraft Sunday to assist the Avalon Fire Department, Los Angeles County Fire Department Supervisor Ed Pickett said.

The hovercraft were used because severe lightning made helicopter travel dangerous.

This is another example of how versatile and vital our military is to our nation.

26 Jul 2006 by California Current Events Military

The Evil Glance of ALGOR

I see that I’m not the only person that thinks ALGOR is a weirdo. I discovered this article on Ken Jennings‘ blog (remember Ken, the all time Jeopardy Champ?)

ALGOR, you’re creeping us out!

Looook into my eyes!

I’m a little late on this, since it took a few days for my copy to get forwarded from my old address, but what the @#$% is up with the cover of the new Entertainment Weekly?

The cover story is a profile of The New Cool Al Gore, and no matter what you personally think about Gore, there’s no getting around one fact: he looks creepy!

Most people gain weight and look friendlier. Jolly, even. But in this photo, Gore looks like Satan! Yeah, no wonder the icecaps are melting. It’s the heat from the swirling hellfire of His Satanic Majesty here.

[more]

26 Jul 2006 by Blogosphere Degenerates Global Warming

Summer Tuberoses

These are blooming in the back yard now. Tomorrow, I’ll harvest some of the stems and put them in a vase with with my Sunflowers. They will add both beauty and fragrance to my bouquet.

From Wikipedia

The tuberose (Polianthes tuberosa) is a plant of the agave family Agavaceae. It appears as a rosette of thin leaves up to 45 cm (18 in) long, and puts out a spike of fragrant tubular white flowers in summer.

The common name is the source of some confusion; it derives from Latin tuberosa, meaning swollen or tuberous in reference to its root system, but it has come to be thought of as derived from “tube + rose”.

25 Jul 2006 by California Home & Garden Photography

Faux Brass

Faux Brass: a class of former military officers who have shed the honor and pride of their commissions in favor of retreatist and defeatist policies.

In recent times, a few former military officers have rendered negative opinions on the War on Terror which includes ongoing skirmishes in Iraq and the current trouble in Gaza and Southern Lebanon. Now, let’s be clear that most current and former military “brass” support efforts worldwide in the certain-to-be-lengthy War on Terror. The major media, however, fail to show the overwhelming support for the effort among military brass.

Jack Murtha comes to mind as a former military-turned-politician who gets it wrong — redeploy, he says, to Okinawa(?!). Murtha also shamefully convicts our military prior to any charges being made.

It’s the same with John Kerry who offers that he could have done better if he were president — the trouble is, he offers no ideas, but only the same retreat and concede policy that has been his lifelong pursuit. Thank God that America caused him to concede the last election.

Another ex-military general-turned-presidential-candidate-turned-pundit, Wesley Clark, always portrays the administration in the anti-internationalization light. This from a former NATO Commander — not actually a U.S. Military function. Clark will always defer to the “international community” for policy answers.

Murtha, Kerry and Clark fail to put America first. American interests must first be served before worrying how the “international community” views things. After all, has the UN ever succeeded with anything they attempt, other than stealing from children’s programs and Iraqi oil profits? Nope.

These three examples of Faux Brass, Murtha, Kerry and Clark, each remind me of a certain loudmouth cartoon chicken trying to look like an eagle.

24 Jul 2006 by Degenerates Islamic Terrorism Military United Nations

Tuzigoot

Tuzigoot is the Apache word meaning “crooked river.” This was the name arbitrarily given the Sinagua Native American ruins above a big bend in the Verde River near Cottonwood, AZ. This was an interesting stop that we made during our brief but fun vacation. Cap’n Bob also took a 3D picture of this ruin (you will need a pair of red/blue 3D glasses).

From the National Parks page on Tuzigoot National Monument

Crowning a desert hilltop is an ancient pueblo. From a roof top a child scans the desert landscape for the arrival of traders, who are due any day now. What riches will they bring? What stories will they tell? Will all of them return? From the top of the Tuzigoot Pueblo it is easy to imagine such an important moment. Tuzigoot is an ancient village or pueblo built by a culture known as the Sinagua. The pueblo consisted of 110 rooms including second and third story structures. The first buildings were built around A.D. 1000. The Sinagua were agriculturalists with trade connections that spanned hundreds of miles. The people left the area around 1400. The site is currently comprised of 42 acres.

23 Jul 2006 by Culture Photography Travel

Historic Route 66

Today, we drove part of Historic Route 66 from Kingman, Arizona through Oatman, Arizona. Wild but tame burros wander the streets of Oatman accepting handouts from tourists. I snapped a picture of this nice white burro walking up the street.

Oatman began about 90 years ago as a mining tent camp and quickly became a flourishing gold-mining center. In 1915, two miners struck a $10 million gold find, and within a year, the town’s population grew to more than 3,500.

Oatman was named in honor of Olive Oatman, who was kidnapped as a young girl by Mojave Indians and later rescued in 1857 near the current site of the town. Oatman was served by a narrow gauge rail line between 1903 and 1905 that ran 17 miles to the Colorado river near Needles, California.

But both the population and mining booms were short-lived. In 1921, a fire burned down many of the smaller shacks in town, and three years later, the main mining company, United Eastern Mines, shut down operations for good. Oatman survived by catering to travelers on old U.S. Route 66. But in the 1960s, when the route became what is now Interstate 40, Oatman almost died.

22 Jul 2006 by Culture Photography Travel

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