Well I was looking back at the events of 07 today.
The first half of the year was a bit crazy. We were still settling into the new house. We were getting the Clemson house ready for the market and selling it.
We built the new Pennsic trailer which was way more work then I estimated.
I lost another 25 pounds in 2007. (lost 50 and gained 25 back)
There was a big focus in the second half of the year on the home theater! That has been big fun for the whole family. Spent a lot of blog space on it!
We actually had a Family reunion this year too! Friends also came and visited!
--Thanks 2007! I hope 2008 is SLOWER!
Merry Christmas World
Well it has been another wonderful Christmas.
Santa was early and generous! The kids had fun and got lots of goodies under the tree. Gray got an xBox 360 and Cady got a Video iPod. BR and I got a new High Def video projector for the home theater. We also got over 100 new movies on DVD!!
But mostly, singing Silent Night, by candle light on Christmas eve. I would have bought all that "stuff" regardless. It's the feeling you can't buy.
--Merry Christmas, one and all...
Santa was early and generous! The kids had fun and got lots of goodies under the tree. Gray got an xBox 360 and Cady got a Video iPod. BR and I got a new High Def video projector for the home theater. We also got over 100 new movies on DVD!!
But mostly, singing Silent Night, by candle light on Christmas eve. I would have bought all that "stuff" regardless. It's the feeling you can't buy.
--Merry Christmas, one and all...
My Best Birthday Advice
As all the fans and regular readers of this blog know (both of you) December 22 was my birthday once again. It gets lost in the season. It tough to compete with Jesus when it comes to birthdays.
Anyway, here is the best advice I received this year:
"Don't count your years, make your years count."
-- or was it "beers"? Either way, that's pretty good advice
Anyway, here is the best advice I received this year:
"Don't count your years, make your years count."
-- or was it "beers"? Either way, that's pretty good advice
The Hobbit is a GO!!
Peter Jackson and New Line Cinema have reached agreement on J.R.R. Tolkien, "The Hobbit", a planned prequel to the blockbuster trilogy ""The Lord of the Rings.
Jackson, who directed the "Rings" trilogy, will serve as executive producer for "The Hobbit." A director for the prequel films has yet to be named.
Relations between Jackson and New Line had soured after "Rings," despite a collective worldwide box office gross of nearly $3 billion — an enormous success. The two sides nevertheless were able to reconcile, with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios (MGM) splitting "The Hobbit" 50/50, spokesmen for both studios said Tuesday.
"I'm very pleased that we've been able to put our differences behind us, so that we may begin a new chapter with our old friends at New Line," Jackson said in a statement. "We are delighted to continue our journey through Middle Earth."
The Writers Strike
I love the Daily Show. I was kinda surprised to find out that the staff of writers he has was so big! I don't know what I was thinking. I presumed his show would continue. I thought it was all Stewart off the top of his head!
I could be Super-funny with 12 writers!!
--John... Come back soon!
Mr. U-Turn Gets a Little Helper
My Wonderful Wife knows me ever so well.
She got me a B'Day gift that wasn't even on my list that I love!
It is a Mio DigiWalker GPS system.
This cool little thing is small, about the size of a pack of cigarettes (you remember those right?). It not only works driving around in your car, it's designed to be a walking pedometer and personal geolocation device.
--I might need to start Geo-caching!
I finally went
Today's quote from my office:
"For God's sake Marty I can hear you breathing from here! GO TO THE DOCTOR!"
Well, I went.
I was told that I have bronchitis "in all four quadrants" what ever the hell that means. All I do know is that she told me It would be cleared up in about 5 days with the prescriptions she gave me. I even have an inhaler! Man it works. Two hits off that thing and my wheezing stops!
--I can see why people get addicted!
"For God's sake Marty I can hear you breathing from here! GO TO THE DOCTOR!"
Well, I went.
I was told that I have bronchitis "in all four quadrants" what ever the hell that means. All I do know is that she told me It would be cleared up in about 5 days with the prescriptions she gave me. I even have an inhaler! Man it works. Two hits off that thing and my wheezing stops!
--I can see why people get addicted!
The Golden Compass
We saw the Golden Compass today.
It was a beautiful visual experience. The special effects were great. The kids were good actors.
I just wish it had been a whole movie.
It is only half a movie.
--Nothing like stopping the movie in the middle of the story...
TiVo Goodness
We love TiVo in Marty's World.
It makes us happy. We never watch commercials. We Love it so much we have two machines. The problem is that we were early abopters of the technology and both the units are Series 1 TiVos. But they both hold Lifetime subscriptions.
Sadly one of the units began to fail. The Hard disk was getting twitchy.
I was whining about this at work and talked to a guy the purchased a replacement drive with the TiVo OS already loaded! $115 dollars later and 15 minutes to install and we are back up with a new OS and 90 hours of TiVo Goodness. (the old drive was only 30 hours)
We are cooking with gas!!!
--Now to program in all my shows again!
A winter cold is to have and to hold...
I have this rotten cold. It has been YEARS since I have been sick.
It's been keeping me from sleeping. I'm Grumpy too. Which is not good on a weekend when I am working with my daughter on her science project: A Study of Thermal Retention in Various Types of Matter.
After almost getting off on the wrong foot we actually had fun taking reading and building charts from spreadsheets.
--Thank God for 44D, Nightquill and Halls Mentho-Liptus.
I Love this Guys Blog - (Quoted)
why the gun is civilization.
Human beings only have two ways to deal with one another: reason and force. If you want me to do something for you, you have a choice of either convincing me via argument, or force me to do your bidding under threat of force. Every human interaction falls into one of those two categories, without exception. Reason or force, that's it.In a truly moral and civilized society, people exclusively interact through persuasion. Force has no place as a valid method of social interaction, and the only thing that removes force from the menu is the personal firearm, as paradoxical as it may sound to some.
When I carry a gun, you cannot deal with me by force. You have to use reason and try to persuade me, because I have a way to negate your threat or employment of force. The gun is the only personal weapon that puts a 100-pound woman on equal footing with a 220-pound mugger, a 75-year old retiree on equal footing with a 19-year old gangbanger, and a single gay guy on equal footing with a carload of drunk guys with baseball bats. The gun removes the disparity in physical strength, size, or numbers between a potential attacker and a defender.
There are plenty of people who consider the gun as the source of bad force equations. These are the people who think that we'd be more civilized if all guns were removed from society, because a firearm makes it easier for a mugger to do his job. That, of course, is only true if the mugger's potential victims are mostly disarmed either by choice or by legislative fiat--it has no validity when most of a mugger's potential marks are armed. People who argue for the banning of arms ask for automatic rule by the young, the strong, and the many, and that's the exact opposite of a civilized society. A mugger, even an armed one, can only make a successful living in a society where the state has granted him a force monopoly.
Then there's the argument that the gun makes confrontations lethal that otherwise would only result in injury. This argument is fallacious in several ways. Without guns involved, confrontations are won by the physically superior party inflicting overwhelming injury on the loser. People who think that fists, bats, sticks, or stones don't constitute lethal force watch too much TV, where people take beatings and come out of it with a bloody lip at worst. The fact that the gun makes lethal force easier works solely in favor of the weaker defender, not the stronger attacker. If both are armed, the field is level. The gun is the only weapon that's as lethal in the hands of an octogenarian as it is in the hands of a weightlifter. It simply wouldn't work as well as a force equalizer if it wasn't both lethal and easily employable.
When I carry a gun, I don't do so because I am looking for a fight, but because I'm looking to be left alone. The gun at my side means that I cannot be forced, only persuaded. I don't carry it because I'm afraid, but because it enables me to be unafraid. It doesn't limit the actions of those who would interact with me through reason, only the actions of those who would do so by force. It removes force from the equation...and that's why carrying a gun is a civilized act.
On Being Thankful
Another Thanksgiving has found me very happy.
My family, my friends, my home, my health, my work, my world...
For all I am so very thankful.
--Now for more pie!!
My family, my friends, my home, my health, my work, my world...
For all I am so very thankful.
--Now for more pie!!
Went Hunting
I went hunting last Saturday. I love hunting. Even when I don't even see any deer.
I love sitting in the quiet of the woods for hours just watching and listening. Alone with my thoughts and lungs full of fresh air.
-- A bad day in the woods is better than a good day at the office!
I love sitting in the quiet of the woods for hours just watching and listening. Alone with my thoughts and lungs full of fresh air.
-- A bad day in the woods is better than a good day at the office!
I am in Massachusetts currently on business and will be spending the weekend with Bob and Mol in Marblehead! I saw an article in the paper today about the Great Boston Fire!!
The Great Boston Fire of 1872 was Boston's largest urban fire and still one of the most costly fire-related property losses in American history. The conflagration began at 7:20 p.m. on November 9, 1872, in the basement of a commercial warehouse at 83—87 Summer Street in Boston, Massachusetts. The fire was finally contained twelve hours later, after it had consumed about 65 acres (263,000 m²) of Boston's downtown, 776 buildings, and much of the financial district and caused $73.5 million in damage. At least twenty people are known to have died in the fire.
--Never heard of it before today!!
Happiness is a new recliner...
In our house, we kind of have a habit we gently call "collecting".
We define it as when you buy more than three of something you are collecting that thing.
Well yesterday we obtained recliner number EIGHT! Yes folks I said we now have eight recliners. Granted we have six in the Home Theater (ver 1.2).
Yesterdays new recliner is a beautiful, dark red, leather, Lazy boy recliner. It is soft and warm and so comfortable it is a nap waiting to happen. We put it in the great room as my main butt parking zone. The recliner it replaced was moved to the master bedroom so I can put my socks on in super comfort.
-- Man do I love Craigslist!
History Quietly Moves
Paul Tibbets, the first Atomic Bomb mission commander, passed away today at his home in Columbus, Ohio, aged 92.
I have made several haunting visits to the Enola Gay at the Smithsonian.
The five-ton "Little Boy" bomb was dropped on the morning of 6 August 1945, killing about 140,000 Japanese.
On the 60th anniversary of the bombing, the three surviving crew members of the Enola Gay - named after Tibbet's mother - said they had "no regrets".-- Wow. What a life...
Score!!
Brenda scored another deer trophy this week! That brings the collection up to 3 deer, 2 bears, 1 bobcat, a duck and a phesant!!--Man the dust was amazing!
I Love Freecycle
This weekend I set up a Nintendo 64 for my son. We got it for free on Freecycle!
Freecycle.org is an excellent concept. It keeps perfectly useful items out of the landfills and in good use. Today someone is picking up an old telescope we have that is perfect for an 8 year old girl, who is going to get it. BR offered some Barbie's this weekend that will make a kid very happy.
We got a king sized bed frame this weekend also. Totally free. Right in the neighborhood.
--We've met nice neighbors tool!
Freecycle.org is an excellent concept. It keeps perfectly useful items out of the landfills and in good use. Today someone is picking up an old telescope we have that is perfect for an 8 year old girl, who is going to get it. BR offered some Barbie's this weekend that will make a kid very happy.
We got a king sized bed frame this weekend also. Totally free. Right in the neighborhood.
--We've met nice neighbors tool!
Back to school night
I feel old.
I am older than ALL of my daughters teachers.
--Some don't seem old enough to vote!!
I am older than ALL of my daughters teachers.
--Some don't seem old enough to vote!!
War and Peace
I don't normally blog about politics because it is a divider. I have strong opinions on very contentious issues. My opinions vary far and wide and hold something to piss off pretty much everyone.
This week I have found myself thinking about Iraq. I have come to some harsh conclusions.
Let me detail a series of events:
The House and Senate didn't declare war.
They simply voted that the President "Could Act" if he saw fit.
Cowards all
The President "Acts"
Troops roll in, kicking ass and talking names.
Politicians say on Day One that it will be another Vietnam and the War won't be over until Iraq surrenders
Saddam declares Iraq will never surrender.
The Media has a field day broadcasting from tanks
Iraq Surrenders in 17 days
Iraq soldiers surpass the French in the "Quick to Surrender" department
Entire units begin to surrender to recon patrols
Saddam flees on foot having never made any evacuation plans in his hubris
Even though Iraq has surrendered politicians state the War isn't over until Saddam is brought to justice
Saddam is found hiding in a hole
He was tried, convicted and hung by his own people
Politicians say the War isn't over until elections take place
Elections take place (twice now)
Turnout is 3 times better that the last US election
Politicians say the War isn't over until the Iraq leader of al-Qaeda, al-Zarqawi is killed
None of the predicted waves of terror attacks happen in the US
al-Zarqawi is killed
Some are saying the War won't be won until Osama bin Ladin is dead (Reminder: OBL is Saudi Arabian)
Now the War (that wasn't a war) won't be won until ALL our troops are home...
While our politicians are dicking around our generals have had a good time testing all their new weapon systems. As far as they are concerned it's the safest war ever. 700 dead soldiers a year is nothing to them. It will take 78 years to reach the American soldier body count of Vietnam.
--Face it people. This War was won long ago. We are losing the Peace... Because or leaders can't work together.
This week I have found myself thinking about Iraq. I have come to some harsh conclusions.
Let me detail a series of events:
The House and Senate didn't declare war.
The President "Acts"
Iraq Surrenders in 17 days
Saddam is found hiding in a hole
Elections take place (twice now)
al-Zarqawi is killed
While our politicians are dicking around our generals have had a good time testing all their new weapon systems. As far as they are concerned it's the safest war ever. 700 dead soldiers a year is nothing to them. It will take 78 years to reach the American soldier body count of Vietnam.
--Face it people. This War was won long ago. We are losing the Peace... Because or leaders can't work together.
Robert Jordan died
His real name was James Oliver Rigby, jr., suffered from a rare blood disease and died at the medical university of South Carolina.
‘The Eye of the World’ was Jordan's first fantasy novel, and it proved to be a hit. The book was published in 1990 and sold millions of copies. It began the hit series, ‘Wheel of Time.’ He published 11 more books and was working on The last in the series at the time he died.
--Jordan is survived by Harriet McDougal Rigby, his wife.
‘The Eye of the World’ was Jordan's first fantasy novel, and it proved to be a hit. The book was published in 1990 and sold millions of copies. It began the hit series, ‘Wheel of Time.’ He published 11 more books and was working on The last in the series at the time he died.
--Jordan is survived by Harriet McDougal Rigby, his wife.
8 Years Ago Today
On this day, eight years ago, a magnetic anomaly due to a nuclear waste buildup on the Moon hurtled our only natural satellite out of Earth orbit. All hands on Moonbase Alpha were presumed lost.--I remember that future...
It's September 11th again...
It's odd when 9-11 comes around every year. The events of that dark day changed so many things in my life. Some of those changes led to my meeting Brenda. This is the true definition of bitter sweet.
At 8:46AM I found myself looking at the clock.
-- sigh.
At 8:46AM I found myself looking at the clock.
-- sigh.
It's magic... Movie magic!
The Home Theater 1.3 upgrade was installed today: DVD library shelves.The alcove where the shelves are installed is eight feet wide (96 inches) and has nine shelves. I have over 500 DVDs and it fills just over three shelves. My collection looks pitiful! At least they are all in one place and in order!
Plus, plenty of room to grow!!
--Making my Christmas list now!
Summer is Over
So the summer is over already.
Time for the kids to head back to school. Time for the new fall TV seasons to begin. Time to put away my white shoes and belt...
We just got back from an excellent visit to Western NY to see Brenda's parents. We had a great time. We saw old friends, ate way too much and we had a very nice time with the parents. Last night we were just hanging out with them on the porch talking, laughing playing with the dog and making comments on how hot the divorced woman is across the street (her daughter too). Richards eyes are not going bad!!
Brenda didn't know I was watching her.
She catches me sometimes, but not last night. She didn't know how bright she was glowing as she laughed. I am sure her parents could see how happy she was. How beautiful she was as the sun went down behind her.
--I am also sure they have no idea what Mikes Hard Lemonade is!
Time for the kids to head back to school. Time for the new fall TV seasons to begin. Time to put away my white shoes and belt...
We just got back from an excellent visit to Western NY to see Brenda's parents. We had a great time. We saw old friends, ate way too much and we had a very nice time with the parents. Last night we were just hanging out with them on the porch talking, laughing playing with the dog and making comments on how hot the divorced woman is across the street (her daughter too). Richards eyes are not going bad!!
Brenda didn't know I was watching her.
She catches me sometimes, but not last night. She didn't know how bright she was glowing as she laughed. I am sure her parents could see how happy she was. How beautiful she was as the sun went down behind her.
--I am also sure they have no idea what Mikes Hard Lemonade is!
Roadtrip!
We are headed to our hometown this weekend for a visit to the In-Laws!
I am actually looking forward to The trip! I am going to love seeing Brenda's family as well as some old friends from college and even High School! We are having a get together at one of our old haunts on Saturday night! I love visiting the old neighborhood. The trees are getting sooo BIG!!
I love traveling with Brenda, staying in hotels, camping and even driving!
-- And eating at Waffle House!!
Blogging for the long haul
I have several friends that have blogs.
Some have just started, some have had them for years. Some are topic based, some are simple on-line diaries, and some are even fiction.
I have seen many blogs go though an interesting lifecycle. Excited and prolific at first and then eventually they blog about what they had for dinner.
--Blog away blogmeisters!!
Some have just started, some have had them for years. Some are topic based, some are simple on-line diaries, and some are even fiction.
I have seen many blogs go though an interesting lifecycle. Excited and prolific at first and then eventually they blog about what they had for dinner.
--Blog away blogmeisters!!
Going Shooting This Weekend
A friend of mine is coming out this weekend to join me for a monthly run to the shooting range at Clark Brothers. I think it is going to be shotguns and .22s this weekend for me. We need to be ready for the Zombies when they come!
I will need to buy another case of clay pigeons!!
--Brenda kinda dropped the last case...
Amazing
It is a Music packed Sunday in Marty's World! I saw this video on YouTube and was VERY impressed.
Imogen Heap sings "Just For Now" live and alone. A beautiful juggling act with an advanced audio sampler.
--I will be buying some new CDs.
Imogen Heap sings "Just For Now" live and alone. A beautiful juggling act with an advanced audio sampler.
--I will be buying some new CDs.
Marty's MCR Adventure
Today I am going to see My Chemical Romance and Linkin Park as part of the Projekt Revolution tour. I am excited about going to the concert with my son Gray (11 years old). He is getting his mohawk died purple as I type this!The tour is focusing on the suburban genres of emo, goth and metal. There is no hip hop in this tour (thankfully).
--Let's hope it doesn't get rained out!
Marty's World Movie Habits!!
Now that Home Theater 1.0 is on line our movie watching habits are going to change.
It is going to take a special event to get us out of our recliners to the movie theater only to suffer 16 year old spoiled brats, talking to their "BBF Jill", during the movie, while snapping gum and eating over priced popcorn.
For the 4 of us to go to the movies, tickets and snacks cost so much, I could buy the DVD and a DVD PLAYER!!
Recently we have watched: 300, Hot Fuzz, The Fountain, and many others I skipped in the theater!! Right now I am makin a list of DVDs to buy! The latest additions:
--So if you want to make sure you plugged in to Marty's Movie Night Madness, Email me!!
It is going to take a special event to get us out of our recliners to the movie theater only to suffer 16 year old spoiled brats, talking to their "BBF Jill", during the movie, while snapping gum and eating over priced popcorn.
For the 4 of us to go to the movies, tickets and snacks cost so much, I could buy the DVD and a DVD PLAYER!!
Recently we have watched: 300, Hot Fuzz, The Fountain, and many others I skipped in the theater!! Right now I am makin a list of DVDs to buy! The latest additions:
- Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
- The Bourne Ultimatum
- Heroes - Season 1
- Stardust
- Spiderman 3
- Oceans 13
- Fantastic 4: Rise of the Silver Surfer
- Ratatouille
- Live Free or Die Hard
- 28 Weeks Later
- Shrek the Third
- Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End
- Grindhouse
- Peaceful Warrior
- Golden Compass
--So if you want to make sure you plugged in to Marty's Movie Night Madness, Email me!!
Home Theater 1.0
My Home Theater is up and running!!!
Version 1.0 includes a SONY surround sound system, six recliners, a 10 foot screen, and an analog projector. The room itself has a projection booth in the back so we don't even hear the projector fans!
Version 2.0 will include a new HD projector, a new screen, DVD shelving and a snack counter!
Version 3.0 will have custom tiered seating, wall covering, art deco lighting, movie posters and a velvet rope!
--"Awesome" is the word most often used to describe it.
Version 1.0 includes a SONY surround sound system, six recliners, a 10 foot screen, and an analog projector. The room itself has a projection booth in the back so we don't even hear the projector fans!
Version 2.0 will include a new HD projector, a new screen, DVD shelving and a snack counter!
Version 3.0 will have custom tiered seating, wall covering, art deco lighting, movie posters and a velvet rope!
--"Awesome" is the word most often used to describe it.
Happy Father Day!!
In the United States, the first modern Father's Day celebration was held on July 5, 1908, in Fairmont, West Virginia. It was first celebrated as a church service at Williams Memorial Methodist Episcopal Church South, now known as Central United Methodist Church. Grace Golden Clayton, who is believed to have suggested the service to the pastor, is believed to have been inspired to celebrate fathers after the deadly mine explosion in nearby Monongah the prior December. This explosion killed 361 men, many of them fathers and recent immigrants to the United States from Italy. Another possible inspiration for the service was Mother's Day, which had recently been celebrated for the first time in Grafton, West Virginia, a town about 15 miles away.
Another driving force behind the establishment of the integration of Father's Day was Mrs. Sonora Smart Dodd, born in Creston, Washington. Her father, the Civil War veteran William Jackson Smart, as a single parent reared his six children in Spokane, Washington. She was inspired by Anna Jarvis's efforts to establish Mother's Day. Although she initially suggested June 5, the anniversary of her father's death, she did not provide the organizers with enough time to make arrangements, and the celebration was deferred to the third Sunday of June. The first June Father's Day was celebrated on June 19, 1910, in Spokane, WA.
Unofficial support from such figures as William Jennings Bryan was immediate and widespread. President Woodrow Wilson was personally feted by his family in 1916. President Calvin Coolidge recommended it as a national holiday in 1924. In 1966, President Lyndon Johnson made Father's Day a holiday to be celebrated on the third Sunday of June. The holiday was not officially recognized until 1972, during the presidency of Richard Nixon.
In recent years, retailers have adapted to the holiday by promoting male-oriented gifts such as electronics, tools and greeting cards. Schools and other children's programs commonly have activities to make Father's Day gifts.
--I am a proud Father. A lucky Father. Lucky to have the Father I did. Lucky to be the Father I am.
Movie Night!!
It's been a while since we have done a Marty McMansion Movie Night! It's back this week with The Fountian. Spanning over one thousand years, and three parallel stories, The Fountain is a story of love, death, spirituality, and the fragility of our existence in this world.What: Th Fountian
Where: Marty and Brendas
When: Thursday, June 9th, 6pm
Why: Movies, Summer, Friends and Fun!
Who: You and people like you.
RSVP, dammit! We'll grill or something! See you there!!
Marty "The Summer Moviemeister" Wilsey
Diet Update
I am finally back on track.
Starting weight: 285
Current weight: 225
Total loss so far: 60 pounds
Total left to goal: 40 pounds
Goal: 185
I am feeling so good now I can hardly believe it. My knee pain is gone. My pants have gone from a 44 inch to 38 inch.
I am going to begin ramping up my activity!
--Spring has sprung!!
Baseball and Bones
My silly wife was playing soft ball on Sunday and broke a finger. Two "hairline" fractures. Swollen and sore and feeling a bit feverish today she finally went to get it x-rayed.
Now she is sporting an ever so fashionable metal finger splint thing!
--Well done wife.
Now she is sporting an ever so fashionable metal finger splint thing!
--Well done wife.
Baby Jessica, NOT a Baby any More!
Has it really been 20 years already?I remember watching this whole drama unfold on TV. I was sure my good vibes were partially responsible for the rescue.
Now she will come of age and get the trust fund cash we all donated for her...
---Jessica and the well.
Califia's Daughters by "Leigh Richards" aka Laurie R. King
Califia's Daughters by "Leigh Richards" aka Laurie R. King"A near-future California where women outnumber men by a dozen or more to one and technology levels are sliding backward is the setting for Califia's Daughters. A post-apocalyptic novel by Leigh Richards, it is the story of one remarkable woman, Dian, and a journey she undertakes to discover information that may be vital to the well-being of her home, a 300-soul community known simply as the Valley.... Califia's Daughters is pure sociological SF. Technology is a vital consideration in the book, certainly—each little group of humans is somewhat defined by how much knowledge it has preserved. But Richards is more interested in how societies form and people get along. In Dian she creates a perfect guide to tour readers through her fragmented world, a heroine who is perfectly adapted to her uncertain times and circumstances."
--This was the best book I have read this year!
Happy Earth Day
I found out that Earth Day has a guilty secret...Trees are a major contributor to global warming.
We have become so good at fighting forest fires that the USA has more trees now than ever in history. The Everglades is being completely destroyed by trees because the area is denied the annual burning of millions of acres that once occurred annually.
Millions of square miles once burned annually in North America. No longer. All this was thought of as wonderful by environmentalists once because trees were thought to be the planets savior because they eat the evil CO2 and make Oxygen. It turns out they also produce a massive amount of methane, as well as, transmit moisture to the atmosphere creating significant increase in greenhouse effects.
I'm not saying that we shouldn't burn less fossil fuels. I believe we should find better, cleaner ways to make power for the modern world.
--I'm saying the Global Warming is more complicated than we think.
1900 Predictions of the Year 2000
Predictions of the Year 2000
from The Ladies Home Journal of December 1900
The Ladies Home Journal from December 1900, which contained a fascinating article by John Elfreth Watkins, Jr. “What May Happen in the Next Hundred Years”.
Mr. Watkins wrote: “These prophecies will seem strange, almost impossible. Yet, they have come from the most learned and conservative minds in America. To the wisest and most careful men in our greatest institutions of science and learning I have gone, asking each in his turn to forecast for me what, in his opinion, will have been wrought in his own field of investigation before the dawn of 2001 - a century from now. These opinions I have carefully transcribed.”
During the Year 2000, we included Mr. Watkins research in our feature articles. We invite you to comment on these predictions, whether they have been realized in some way or how they can never be accomplished! In any event, we know you’ll enjoy these entries.
Prediction #1: There will probably be from 350,000,000 to 500,000,000 people in America and its possessions by the lapse of another century. Nicaragua will ask for admission to our Union after the completion of the great canal. Mexico will be next. Europe, seeking more territory to the south of us, will cause many of the South and Central American republics to be voted into the Union by their own people.”
Prediction #2: The American will be taller by from one to two inches. His increase of stature will result from better health, due to vast reforms in medicine, sanitation, food and athletics. He will live fifty years instead of thirty-five as at present – for he will reside in the suburbs. The city house will practically be no more. Building in blocks will be illegal. The trip from suburban home to office will require a few minutes only. A penny will pay the fare.
Prediction #3: Gymnastics will begin in the nursery, where toys and games will be designed to strengthen the muscles. Exercise will be compulsory in the schools. Every school, college and community will have a complete gymnasium. All cities will have public gymnasiums. A man or woman unable to walk ten miles at a stretch will be regarded as a weakling.
Prediction #4: There Will Be No Street Cars in Our Large Cities. All hurry traffic will be below or high above ground when brought within city limits. In most cities it will be confined to broad subways or tunnels, well lighted and well ventilated, or to high trestles with “moving-sidewalk” stairways leading to the top. These underground or overhead streets will teem with capacious automobile passenger coaches and freight with cushioned wheels. Subways or trestles will be reserved for express trains. Cities, therefore, will be free from all noises.
Prediction #5: Trains will run two miles a minute, normally; express trains one hundred and fifty miles an hour. To go from New York to San Francisco will take a day and a night by fast express. There will be cigar-shaped electric locomotives hauling long trains of cars. Cars will, like houses, be artificially cooled. Along the railroads there will be no smoke, no cinders, because coal will neither be carried nor burned. There will be no stops for water. Passengers will travel through hot or dusty country regions with windows down.
Prediction #6: Automobiles will be cheaper than horses are today. Farmers will own automobile hay-wagons, automobile truck-wagons, plows, harrows and hay-rakes. A one-pound motor in one of these vehicles will do the work of a pair of horses or more. Children will ride in automobile sleighs in winter. Automobiles will have been substituted for every horse vehicle now known. There will be, as already exist today, automobile hearses, automobile police patrols, automobile ambulances, automobile street sweepers. The horse in harness will be as scarce, if, indeed, not even scarcer, then as the yoked ox is today.
Prediction #7: There will be air-ships, but they will not successfully compete with surface cars and water vessels for passenger or freight traffic. They will be maintained as deadly war-vessels by all military nations. Some will transport men and goods. Others will be used by scientists making observations at great heights above the earth.
Prediction #8: Aerial War-Ships and Forts on Wheels. Giant guns will shoot twenty-five miles or more, and will hurl anywhere within such a radius shells exploding and destroying whole cities. Such guns will be armed by aid of compasses when used on land or sea, and telescopes when directed from great heights. Fleets of air-ships, hiding themselves with dense, smoky mists, thrown off by themselves as they move, will float over cities, fortifications, camps or fleets. They will surprise foes below by hurling upon them deadly thunderbolts. These aerial war-ships will necessitate bomb-proof forts, protected by great steel plates over their tops as well as at their sides. Huge forts on wheels will dash across open spaces at the speed of express trains of to-day. They will make what are now known as cavalry charges. Great automobile plows will dig deep entrenchments as fast as soldiers can occupy them. Rifles will use silent cartridges. Submarine boats submerged for days will be capable of wiping a whole navy off the face of the deep. Balloons and flying machines will carry telescopes of one-hundred-mile vision with camera attachments, photographing an enemy within that radius. These photographs as distinct and large as if taken from across the street, will be lowered to the commanding officer in charge of troops below.
Prediction #9: Photographs will be telegraphed from any distance. If there be a battle in China a hundred years hence snapshots of its most striking events will be published in the newspapers an hour later. Even to-day photographs are being telegraphed over short distances. Photographs will reproduce all of Nature’s colors.
Prediction #10: Man will See Around the World. Persons and things of all kinds will be brought within focus of cameras connected electrically with screens at opposite ends of circuits, thousands of miles at a span. American audiences in their theatres will view upon huge curtains before them the coronations of kings in Europe or the progress of battles in the Orient. The instrument bringing these distant scenes to the very doors of people will be connected with a giant telephone apparatus transmitting each incidental sound in its appropriate place. Thus the guns of a distant battle will be heard to boom when seen to blaze, and thus the lips of a remote actor or singer will be heard to utter words or music when seen to move.
Prediction #11: No Mosquitoes nor Flies. Insect screens will be unnecessary. Mosquitoes, house-flies and roaches will have been practically exterminated. Boards of health will have destroyed all mosquito haunts and breeding-grounds, drained all stagnant pools, filled in all swamp-lands, and chemically treated all still-water streams. The extermination of the horse and its stable will reduce the house-fly.
Prediction #12: Peas as Large as Beets. Peas and beans will be as large as beets are to-day. Sugar cane will produce twice as much sugar as the sugar beet now does. Cane will once more be the chief source of our sugar supply. The milkweed will have been developed into a rubber plant. Cheap native rubber will be harvested by machinery all over this country. Plants will be made proof against disease microbes just as readily as man is to-day against smallpox. The soil will be kept enriched by plants which take their nutrition from the air and give fertility to the earth.
Prediction #13: Strawberries as Large as Apples will be eaten by our great-great-grandchildren for their Christmas dinners a hundred years hence. Raspberries and blackberries will be as large. One will suffice for the fruit course of each person. Strawberries and cranberries will be grown upon tall bushes. Cranberries, gooseberries and currants will be as large as oranges. One cantaloupe will supply an entire family. Melons, cherries, grapes, plums, apples, pears, peaches and all berries will be seedless. Figs will be cultivated over the entire United States.
Prediction #14: Black, Blue and Green Roses. Roses will be as large as cabbage heads. Violets will grow to the size of orchids. A pansy will be as large in diameter as a sunflower. A century ago the pansy measured but half an inch across its face. There will be black, blue and green roses. It will be possible to grow any flower in any color and to transfer the perfume of a scented flower to another which is odorless. Then may the pansy be given the perfume of the violet.
Prediction #15: No Foods will be Exposed. Storekeepers who expose food to air breathed out by patrons or to the atmosphere of the busy streets will be arrested with those who sell stale or adulterated produce. Liquid-air refrigerators will keep great quantities of food fresh for long intervals.
Prediction #16: There will be No C, X or Q in our every-day alphabet. They will be abandoned because unnecessary. Spelling by sound will have been adopted, first by the newspapers. English will be a language of condensed words expressing condensed ideas, and will be more extensively spoken than any other. Russian will rank second.
Prediction #17: How Children will be Taught. A university education will be free to every man and woman. Several great national universities will have been established. Children will study a simple English grammar adapted to simplified English, and not copied after the Latin. Time will be saved by grouping like studies. Poor students will be given free board, free clothing and free books if ambitious and actually unable to meet their school and college expenses. Medical inspectors regularly visiting the public schools will furnish poor children free eyeglasses, free dentistry and free medical attention of every kind. The very poor will, when necessary, get free rides to and from school and free lunches between sessions. In vacation time poor children will be taken on trips to various parts of the world. Etiquette and housekeeping will be important studies in the public schools.
Prediction #18: Telephones Around the World. Wireless telephone and telegraph circuits will span the world. A husband in the middle of the Atlantic will be able to converse with his wife sitting in her boudoir in Chicago. We will be able to telephone to China quite as readily as we now talk from New York to Brooklyn. By an automatic signal they will connect with any circuit in their locality without the intervention of a “hello girl”.
Prediction #19: Grand Opera will be telephoned to private homes, and will sound as harmonious as though enjoyed from a theatre box. Automatic instruments reproducing original airs exactly will bring the best music to the families of the untalented. Great musicians gathered in one enclosure in New York will, by manipulating electric keys, produce at the same time music from instruments arranged in theatres or halls in San Francisco or New Orleans, for instance. Thus will great bands and orchestras give long-distance concerts. In great cities there will be public opera-houses whose singers and musicians are paid from funds endowed by philanthropists and by the government. The piano will be capable of changing its tone from cheerful to sad. Many devises will add to the emotional effect of music.
Prediction #20: Coal will not be used for heating or cooking. It will be scarce, but not entirely exhausted. The earth’s hard coal will last until the year 2050 or 2100; its soft-coal mines until 2200 or 2300. Meanwhile both kinds of coal will have become more and more expensive. Man will have found electricity manufactured by waterpower to be much cheaper. Every river or creek with any suitable fall will be equipped with water-motors, turning dynamos, making electricity. Along the seacoast will be numerous reservoirs continually filled by waves and tides washing in. Out of these the water will be constantly falling over revolving wheels. All of our restless waters, fresh and salt, will thus be harnessed to do the work which Niagara is doing today: making electricity for heat, light and fuel.
Prediction #21: Hot and Cold Air from Spigots. Hot or cold air will be turned on from spigots to regulate the temperature of a house as we now turn on hot or cold water from spigots to regulate the temperature of the bath. Central plants will supply this cool air and heat to city houses in the same way as now our gas or electricity is furnished. Rising early to build the furnace fire will be a task of the olden times. Homes will have no chimneys, because no smoke will be created within their walls.
Prediction #22: Store Purchases by Tube. Pneumatic tubes, instead of store wagons, will deliver packages and bundles. These tubes will collect, deliver and transport mail over certain distances, perhaps for hundreds of miles. They will at first connect with the private houses of the wealthy; then with all homes. Great business establishments will extend them to stations, similar to our branch post-offices of today, whence fast automobile vehicles will distribute purchases from house to house.
Prediction #23: Ready-cooked meals will be bought from establishments similar to our bakeries of today. They will purchase materials in tremendous wholesale quantities and sell the cooked foods at a price much lower than the cost of individual cooking. Food will be served hot or cold to private houses in pneumatic tubes or automobile wagons. The meal being over, the dishes used will be packed and returned to the cooking establishments where they will be washed. Such wholesale cookery will be done in electric laboratories rather than in kitchens. These laboratories will be equipped with electric stoves, and all sorts of electric devices, such as coffee-grinders, egg-beaters, stirrers, shakers, parers, meat-choppers, meat-saws, potato-mashers, lemon-squeezers, dish-washers, dish-dryers and the like. All such utensils will be washed in chemicals fatal to disease microbes. Having one’s own cook and purchasing one’s own food will be an extravagance.
Prediction #24: Vegetables Grown by Electricity. Winter will be turned into summer and night into day by the farmer. In cold weather he will place heat-conducting electric wires under the soil of his garden and thus warm his growing plants. He will also grow large gardens under glass. At night his vegetables will be bathed in powerful electric light, serving, like sunlight, to hasten their growth. Electric currents applied to the soil will make valuable plants grow larger and faster, and will kill troublesome weeds. Rays of colored light will hasten the growth of many plants. Electricity applied to garden seeds will make them sprout and develop unusually early.
Prediction #25: Oranges will grow in Philadelphia. Fast-flying refrigerators on land and sea will bring delicious fruits from the tropics and southern temperate zone within a few days. The farmers of South America, South Africa, Australia and the South Sea Islands, whose seasons are directly opposite to ours, will thus supply us in winter with fresh summer foods, which cannot be grown here. Scientist will have discovered how to raise here many fruits now confined to much hotter or colder climates. Delicious oranges will be grown in the suburbs of Philadelphia. Cantaloupes and other summer fruits will be of such a hardy nature that they can be stored through the winter as potatoes are now.
Prediction #26: Strawberries as large as apples will be eaten by our great great grandchildren for their Christmas dinners a hundred years hence. Raspberries and blackberries will be as large. One will suffice for the fruit course of each person. Strawberries and cranberries will be grown upon tall bushes. Cranberries, gooseberries and currants will be as large as oranges. One cantaloupe will supply an entire family. Melons, cherries, grapes, plums, apples, pears, peaches and all berries will be seedless. Figs will be cultivated over the entire United States.
Prediction #27: Few drugs will be swallowed or taken into the stomach unless needed for the direct treatment of that organ itself. Drugs needed by the lungs, for instance, will be applied directly to those organs through the skin and flesh. They will be carried with the electric current applied without pain to the outside skin of the body. Microscopes will lay bare the vital organs, through the living flesh, of men and animals. The living body will to all medical purposes be transparent. Not only will it be possible for a physician to actually see a living, throbbing heart inside the chest, but he will be able to magnify and photograph any part of it. This work will be done with rays of invisible light.
Prediction #28: There will be no wild animals except in menageries. Rats and mice will have been exterminated. The horse will have become practically extinct. A few of high breed will be kept by the rich for racing, hunting and exercise. The automobile will have driven out the horse. Cattle and sheep will have no horns. They will be unable to run faster than the fattened hog of today. A century ago the wild hog could outrun a horse. Food animals will be bred to expend practically all of their life energy in producing meat, milk, wool and other by-products. Horns, bones, muscles and lungs will have been neglected.
Prediction #29: To England in Two Days. Fast electric ships, crossing the ocean at more than a mile a minute, will go from New York to Liverpool in two days. The bodies of these ships will be built above the waves. They will be supported upon runners, somewhat like those of the sleigh. These runners will be very buoyant. Upon their under sides will be apertures expelling jets of air. In this way a film of air will be kept between them and the water’s surface. This film, together with the small surface of the runners, will reduce friction against the waves to the smallest possible degree. Propellers turned by electricity will screw themselves through both the water beneath and the air above. Ships with cabins artificially cooled will be entirely fireproof. In storm they will dive below the water and there await fair weather.
--Some of these crack me up!!
from The Ladies Home Journal of December 1900
The Ladies Home Journal from December 1900, which contained a fascinating article by John Elfreth Watkins, Jr. “What May Happen in the Next Hundred Years”.
Mr. Watkins wrote: “These prophecies will seem strange, almost impossible. Yet, they have come from the most learned and conservative minds in America. To the wisest and most careful men in our greatest institutions of science and learning I have gone, asking each in his turn to forecast for me what, in his opinion, will have been wrought in his own field of investigation before the dawn of 2001 - a century from now. These opinions I have carefully transcribed.”
During the Year 2000, we included Mr. Watkins research in our feature articles. We invite you to comment on these predictions, whether they have been realized in some way or how they can never be accomplished! In any event, we know you’ll enjoy these entries.
Prediction #1: There will probably be from 350,000,000 to 500,000,000 people in America and its possessions by the lapse of another century. Nicaragua will ask for admission to our Union after the completion of the great canal. Mexico will be next. Europe, seeking more territory to the south of us, will cause many of the South and Central American republics to be voted into the Union by their own people.”
Prediction #2: The American will be taller by from one to two inches. His increase of stature will result from better health, due to vast reforms in medicine, sanitation, food and athletics. He will live fifty years instead of thirty-five as at present – for he will reside in the suburbs. The city house will practically be no more. Building in blocks will be illegal. The trip from suburban home to office will require a few minutes only. A penny will pay the fare.
Prediction #3: Gymnastics will begin in the nursery, where toys and games will be designed to strengthen the muscles. Exercise will be compulsory in the schools. Every school, college and community will have a complete gymnasium. All cities will have public gymnasiums. A man or woman unable to walk ten miles at a stretch will be regarded as a weakling.
Prediction #4: There Will Be No Street Cars in Our Large Cities. All hurry traffic will be below or high above ground when brought within city limits. In most cities it will be confined to broad subways or tunnels, well lighted and well ventilated, or to high trestles with “moving-sidewalk” stairways leading to the top. These underground or overhead streets will teem with capacious automobile passenger coaches and freight with cushioned wheels. Subways or trestles will be reserved for express trains. Cities, therefore, will be free from all noises.
Prediction #5: Trains will run two miles a minute, normally; express trains one hundred and fifty miles an hour. To go from New York to San Francisco will take a day and a night by fast express. There will be cigar-shaped electric locomotives hauling long trains of cars. Cars will, like houses, be artificially cooled. Along the railroads there will be no smoke, no cinders, because coal will neither be carried nor burned. There will be no stops for water. Passengers will travel through hot or dusty country regions with windows down.
Prediction #6: Automobiles will be cheaper than horses are today. Farmers will own automobile hay-wagons, automobile truck-wagons, plows, harrows and hay-rakes. A one-pound motor in one of these vehicles will do the work of a pair of horses or more. Children will ride in automobile sleighs in winter. Automobiles will have been substituted for every horse vehicle now known. There will be, as already exist today, automobile hearses, automobile police patrols, automobile ambulances, automobile street sweepers. The horse in harness will be as scarce, if, indeed, not even scarcer, then as the yoked ox is today.
Prediction #7: There will be air-ships, but they will not successfully compete with surface cars and water vessels for passenger or freight traffic. They will be maintained as deadly war-vessels by all military nations. Some will transport men and goods. Others will be used by scientists making observations at great heights above the earth.
Prediction #8: Aerial War-Ships and Forts on Wheels. Giant guns will shoot twenty-five miles or more, and will hurl anywhere within such a radius shells exploding and destroying whole cities. Such guns will be armed by aid of compasses when used on land or sea, and telescopes when directed from great heights. Fleets of air-ships, hiding themselves with dense, smoky mists, thrown off by themselves as they move, will float over cities, fortifications, camps or fleets. They will surprise foes below by hurling upon them deadly thunderbolts. These aerial war-ships will necessitate bomb-proof forts, protected by great steel plates over their tops as well as at their sides. Huge forts on wheels will dash across open spaces at the speed of express trains of to-day. They will make what are now known as cavalry charges. Great automobile plows will dig deep entrenchments as fast as soldiers can occupy them. Rifles will use silent cartridges. Submarine boats submerged for days will be capable of wiping a whole navy off the face of the deep. Balloons and flying machines will carry telescopes of one-hundred-mile vision with camera attachments, photographing an enemy within that radius. These photographs as distinct and large as if taken from across the street, will be lowered to the commanding officer in charge of troops below.
Prediction #9: Photographs will be telegraphed from any distance. If there be a battle in China a hundred years hence snapshots of its most striking events will be published in the newspapers an hour later. Even to-day photographs are being telegraphed over short distances. Photographs will reproduce all of Nature’s colors.
Prediction #10: Man will See Around the World. Persons and things of all kinds will be brought within focus of cameras connected electrically with screens at opposite ends of circuits, thousands of miles at a span. American audiences in their theatres will view upon huge curtains before them the coronations of kings in Europe or the progress of battles in the Orient. The instrument bringing these distant scenes to the very doors of people will be connected with a giant telephone apparatus transmitting each incidental sound in its appropriate place. Thus the guns of a distant battle will be heard to boom when seen to blaze, and thus the lips of a remote actor or singer will be heard to utter words or music when seen to move.
Prediction #11: No Mosquitoes nor Flies. Insect screens will be unnecessary. Mosquitoes, house-flies and roaches will have been practically exterminated. Boards of health will have destroyed all mosquito haunts and breeding-grounds, drained all stagnant pools, filled in all swamp-lands, and chemically treated all still-water streams. The extermination of the horse and its stable will reduce the house-fly.
Prediction #12: Peas as Large as Beets. Peas and beans will be as large as beets are to-day. Sugar cane will produce twice as much sugar as the sugar beet now does. Cane will once more be the chief source of our sugar supply. The milkweed will have been developed into a rubber plant. Cheap native rubber will be harvested by machinery all over this country. Plants will be made proof against disease microbes just as readily as man is to-day against smallpox. The soil will be kept enriched by plants which take their nutrition from the air and give fertility to the earth.
Prediction #13: Strawberries as Large as Apples will be eaten by our great-great-grandchildren for their Christmas dinners a hundred years hence. Raspberries and blackberries will be as large. One will suffice for the fruit course of each person. Strawberries and cranberries will be grown upon tall bushes. Cranberries, gooseberries and currants will be as large as oranges. One cantaloupe will supply an entire family. Melons, cherries, grapes, plums, apples, pears, peaches and all berries will be seedless. Figs will be cultivated over the entire United States.
Prediction #14: Black, Blue and Green Roses. Roses will be as large as cabbage heads. Violets will grow to the size of orchids. A pansy will be as large in diameter as a sunflower. A century ago the pansy measured but half an inch across its face. There will be black, blue and green roses. It will be possible to grow any flower in any color and to transfer the perfume of a scented flower to another which is odorless. Then may the pansy be given the perfume of the violet.
Prediction #15: No Foods will be Exposed. Storekeepers who expose food to air breathed out by patrons or to the atmosphere of the busy streets will be arrested with those who sell stale or adulterated produce. Liquid-air refrigerators will keep great quantities of food fresh for long intervals.
Prediction #16: There will be No C, X or Q in our every-day alphabet. They will be abandoned because unnecessary. Spelling by sound will have been adopted, first by the newspapers. English will be a language of condensed words expressing condensed ideas, and will be more extensively spoken than any other. Russian will rank second.
Prediction #17: How Children will be Taught. A university education will be free to every man and woman. Several great national universities will have been established. Children will study a simple English grammar adapted to simplified English, and not copied after the Latin. Time will be saved by grouping like studies. Poor students will be given free board, free clothing and free books if ambitious and actually unable to meet their school and college expenses. Medical inspectors regularly visiting the public schools will furnish poor children free eyeglasses, free dentistry and free medical attention of every kind. The very poor will, when necessary, get free rides to and from school and free lunches between sessions. In vacation time poor children will be taken on trips to various parts of the world. Etiquette and housekeeping will be important studies in the public schools.
Prediction #18: Telephones Around the World. Wireless telephone and telegraph circuits will span the world. A husband in the middle of the Atlantic will be able to converse with his wife sitting in her boudoir in Chicago. We will be able to telephone to China quite as readily as we now talk from New York to Brooklyn. By an automatic signal they will connect with any circuit in their locality without the intervention of a “hello girl”.
Prediction #19: Grand Opera will be telephoned to private homes, and will sound as harmonious as though enjoyed from a theatre box. Automatic instruments reproducing original airs exactly will bring the best music to the families of the untalented. Great musicians gathered in one enclosure in New York will, by manipulating electric keys, produce at the same time music from instruments arranged in theatres or halls in San Francisco or New Orleans, for instance. Thus will great bands and orchestras give long-distance concerts. In great cities there will be public opera-houses whose singers and musicians are paid from funds endowed by philanthropists and by the government. The piano will be capable of changing its tone from cheerful to sad. Many devises will add to the emotional effect of music.
Prediction #20: Coal will not be used for heating or cooking. It will be scarce, but not entirely exhausted. The earth’s hard coal will last until the year 2050 or 2100; its soft-coal mines until 2200 or 2300. Meanwhile both kinds of coal will have become more and more expensive. Man will have found electricity manufactured by waterpower to be much cheaper. Every river or creek with any suitable fall will be equipped with water-motors, turning dynamos, making electricity. Along the seacoast will be numerous reservoirs continually filled by waves and tides washing in. Out of these the water will be constantly falling over revolving wheels. All of our restless waters, fresh and salt, will thus be harnessed to do the work which Niagara is doing today: making electricity for heat, light and fuel.
Prediction #21: Hot and Cold Air from Spigots. Hot or cold air will be turned on from spigots to regulate the temperature of a house as we now turn on hot or cold water from spigots to regulate the temperature of the bath. Central plants will supply this cool air and heat to city houses in the same way as now our gas or electricity is furnished. Rising early to build the furnace fire will be a task of the olden times. Homes will have no chimneys, because no smoke will be created within their walls.
Prediction #22: Store Purchases by Tube. Pneumatic tubes, instead of store wagons, will deliver packages and bundles. These tubes will collect, deliver and transport mail over certain distances, perhaps for hundreds of miles. They will at first connect with the private houses of the wealthy; then with all homes. Great business establishments will extend them to stations, similar to our branch post-offices of today, whence fast automobile vehicles will distribute purchases from house to house.
Prediction #23: Ready-cooked meals will be bought from establishments similar to our bakeries of today. They will purchase materials in tremendous wholesale quantities and sell the cooked foods at a price much lower than the cost of individual cooking. Food will be served hot or cold to private houses in pneumatic tubes or automobile wagons. The meal being over, the dishes used will be packed and returned to the cooking establishments where they will be washed. Such wholesale cookery will be done in electric laboratories rather than in kitchens. These laboratories will be equipped with electric stoves, and all sorts of electric devices, such as coffee-grinders, egg-beaters, stirrers, shakers, parers, meat-choppers, meat-saws, potato-mashers, lemon-squeezers, dish-washers, dish-dryers and the like. All such utensils will be washed in chemicals fatal to disease microbes. Having one’s own cook and purchasing one’s own food will be an extravagance.
Prediction #24: Vegetables Grown by Electricity. Winter will be turned into summer and night into day by the farmer. In cold weather he will place heat-conducting electric wires under the soil of his garden and thus warm his growing plants. He will also grow large gardens under glass. At night his vegetables will be bathed in powerful electric light, serving, like sunlight, to hasten their growth. Electric currents applied to the soil will make valuable plants grow larger and faster, and will kill troublesome weeds. Rays of colored light will hasten the growth of many plants. Electricity applied to garden seeds will make them sprout and develop unusually early.
Prediction #25: Oranges will grow in Philadelphia. Fast-flying refrigerators on land and sea will bring delicious fruits from the tropics and southern temperate zone within a few days. The farmers of South America, South Africa, Australia and the South Sea Islands, whose seasons are directly opposite to ours, will thus supply us in winter with fresh summer foods, which cannot be grown here. Scientist will have discovered how to raise here many fruits now confined to much hotter or colder climates. Delicious oranges will be grown in the suburbs of Philadelphia. Cantaloupes and other summer fruits will be of such a hardy nature that they can be stored through the winter as potatoes are now.
Prediction #26: Strawberries as large as apples will be eaten by our great great grandchildren for their Christmas dinners a hundred years hence. Raspberries and blackberries will be as large. One will suffice for the fruit course of each person. Strawberries and cranberries will be grown upon tall bushes. Cranberries, gooseberries and currants will be as large as oranges. One cantaloupe will supply an entire family. Melons, cherries, grapes, plums, apples, pears, peaches and all berries will be seedless. Figs will be cultivated over the entire United States.
Prediction #27: Few drugs will be swallowed or taken into the stomach unless needed for the direct treatment of that organ itself. Drugs needed by the lungs, for instance, will be applied directly to those organs through the skin and flesh. They will be carried with the electric current applied without pain to the outside skin of the body. Microscopes will lay bare the vital organs, through the living flesh, of men and animals. The living body will to all medical purposes be transparent. Not only will it be possible for a physician to actually see a living, throbbing heart inside the chest, but he will be able to magnify and photograph any part of it. This work will be done with rays of invisible light.
Prediction #28: There will be no wild animals except in menageries. Rats and mice will have been exterminated. The horse will have become practically extinct. A few of high breed will be kept by the rich for racing, hunting and exercise. The automobile will have driven out the horse. Cattle and sheep will have no horns. They will be unable to run faster than the fattened hog of today. A century ago the wild hog could outrun a horse. Food animals will be bred to expend practically all of their life energy in producing meat, milk, wool and other by-products. Horns, bones, muscles and lungs will have been neglected.
Prediction #29: To England in Two Days. Fast electric ships, crossing the ocean at more than a mile a minute, will go from New York to Liverpool in two days. The bodies of these ships will be built above the waves. They will be supported upon runners, somewhat like those of the sleigh. These runners will be very buoyant. Upon their under sides will be apertures expelling jets of air. In this way a film of air will be kept between them and the water’s surface. This film, together with the small surface of the runners, will reduce friction against the waves to the smallest possible degree. Propellers turned by electricity will screw themselves through both the water beneath and the air above. Ships with cabins artificially cooled will be entirely fireproof. In storm they will dive below the water and there await fair weather.
--Some of these crack me up!!
Virginia Tech Shootings
I long for the old days when guys would snap and kill a bunch of people with a Buick or poison in Cool-aid or trucks of fertilizer.
--Because then the people were at fault, not the Buick.
True Story
Back in September of 2005, on the first day of school, Martha Cothren, a social studies school teacher at Robinson High School in Little Rock, did something not to be forgotten. On the first day of school, with permission of the school superintendent, the principal and the building supervisor, she took all of the desks out of the classroom.
The kids came into first period, they walked in, there were no desks. They obviously looked around and said, "Ms. Cothren, where's our desk?" And she said, "You can't have a desk until you tell me how you earn them."
They thought, "Well, maybe it's our grades."
"No," she said.
"Maybe it's our behavior."
And she told them, "No, it's not even your behavior."
And so they came and went in the first period, still no desks in the classroom. Second period, same thing. Third period. By early afternoon television news crews had gathered in Ms. Cothren's class to find out about this crazy teacher who had taken all the desks out of the classroom. The last period of theday, Martha Cothren gathered her class. They were at this time sitting on the floor around the sides of the room. And she says, "Throughout the day no one has really understood how you earn the desks that sit in this classroom ordinarily." She said, "Now I'm going to tell you."
Martha Cothren went over to the door of her classroom and opened it, and as she did 27 U.S. veterans, wearing their uniforms, walked into that classroom, each one carrying a school desk. And they placed those school desks in rows, and then they stood along the wall. And by the time they had finished placing those desks, those kids for the first time I think perhaps in their lives understood how they earned those desks.
Martha said, "You don't have to earn those desks. These guys did it for you. They put them out there for you, but it's up to you to sit here responsibly to learn, to be good students and good citizens, because they paid a price for you to have that desk, and don't ever forget it."
--Good lesson.
The kids came into first period, they walked in, there were no desks. They obviously looked around and said, "Ms. Cothren, where's our desk?" And she said, "You can't have a desk until you tell me how you earn them."
They thought, "Well, maybe it's our grades."
"No," she said.
"Maybe it's our behavior."
And she told them, "No, it's not even your behavior."
And so they came and went in the first period, still no desks in the classroom. Second period, same thing. Third period. By early afternoon television news crews had gathered in Ms. Cothren's class to find out about this crazy teacher who had taken all the desks out of the classroom. The last period of theday, Martha Cothren gathered her class. They were at this time sitting on the floor around the sides of the room. And she says, "Throughout the day no one has really understood how you earn the desks that sit in this classroom ordinarily." She said, "Now I'm going to tell you."
Martha Cothren went over to the door of her classroom and opened it, and as she did 27 U.S. veterans, wearing their uniforms, walked into that classroom, each one carrying a school desk. And they placed those school desks in rows, and then they stood along the wall. And by the time they had finished placing those desks, those kids for the first time I think perhaps in their lives understood how they earned those desks.
Martha said, "You don't have to earn those desks. These guys did it for you. They put them out there for you, but it's up to you to sit here responsibly to learn, to be good students and good citizens, because they paid a price for you to have that desk, and don't ever forget it."
--Good lesson.
Allergy Hell
Spring has sprung and is kicking my ass.
Not only is the tree right in front on my house dropping poison all over my yard. Not only are we being forced to keep the windows closed during beautiful weather. Not only is it impossible to spend any time in my new yard. Not only can I not enjoy my new, freshly hung hammocs...
I just discovered I am suffering side effects from my allergy meds!
Oh the Humanity!
--Seeing the doc at 3:45 tomorrow, dammit. Suffy nose tonight.
The Heads are watching...
The wife came home today with two huge deer head trophies. She picked the spots to hang them in the front hall and says, "When guests arrive they will know... Meat is eaten here!"--It's good to have a wife from the top of the food chain!
Mysteries a plenty
A breach of promise by Anne Perry
The twisted root by Anne Perry
Resurrection row by Martha Grimes
The Old Wine Shades by Martha Grimes
Morality for beautiful girls by Alexander McCall Smith
The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith
The twisted root by Anne Perry
Resurrection row by Martha Grimes
The Old Wine Shades by Martha Grimes
Morality for beautiful girls by Alexander McCall Smith
The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith
SCORE!!
I love my new roll to desk!
This thing is so big I could crawl onto it and close the top! I have in the my three 19" monitors and still keep the Felling I want in the den!
We also got a King Sized Bed!
--It was total three stooges action getting all that in the house!
More Reading This week - CDs are good
A breach of promise by Perry, Anne.
The Winds of Change: a Richard Jury mystery by Grimes, Martha
Resurrection row by Perry, Anne.
The Lamorna Wink: a Richard Jury mystery by Grimes, Martha.
The Blue Last: a Richard Jury mystery by Grimes, Martha.
The Winds of Change: a Richard Jury mystery by Grimes, Martha
Resurrection row by Perry, Anne.
The Lamorna Wink: a Richard Jury mystery by Grimes, Martha.
The Blue Last: a Richard Jury mystery by Grimes, Martha.
Diet Update
This weeks weigh-in was 231 pounds. That makes the net loss so far 54 pounds.
I also am now comfy in size 38 pants. I started at (tight) size 44s. I even tried on a pair of 36s! Snug but doable!
It is odd that I actually "feel" thinner this week. I know that I have been getting thinner every week, but this week I can actually feel it.
I realized today that my knees don't hurt ALL the time.
--My hottub addiction seems to be broken...
I also am now comfy in size 38 pants. I started at (tight) size 44s. I even tried on a pair of 36s! Snug but doable!
It is odd that I actually "feel" thinner this week. I know that I have been getting thinner every week, but this week I can actually feel it.
I realized today that my knees don't hurt ALL the time.
--My hottub addiction seems to be broken...
Happy Valentines Day Brenda
Thanks for making me a super happy guy! Flowers and candy and cards and blogs will never be able to tell you how much you truly mean to me.
--Thanks for existing!
Welcome to the Jungle!
Todd and Karen announce the birth of their son:BRODY BEARY PARENT
Birthday: February 10, 2007
Time: 1:31 p.m.
Weight: 7 lbs. 9 oz.
Length: 20 inches
--Congrats Parents!! HA!!
It's about time, dammit!
I am pleased to announce Marty's Magic Martini Movie Night!
Who: You and People Like You
What: Pizza, Martinis at the Bar, Movies, Mayhem!
When: Saturday February 10th, Bar opens at 5pm!
Where: The New Massive Money Pit!
Why: Marty's Bar is open, Stocked, Ready and Rockin
I have a pile of new movies we can watch. The population can select when they arrive! If alone I will watch A Scanner Darkly...
Drinks, snacks, pizza, snacks, movies, coffee, repeat!
Feel free to drink too much and stay the night!!
--RSVP, Dammit!
Who: You and People Like You
What: Pizza, Martinis at the Bar, Movies, Mayhem!
When: Saturday February 10th, Bar opens at 5pm!
Where: The New Massive Money Pit!
Why: Marty's Bar is open, Stocked, Ready and Rockin
I have a pile of new movies we can watch. The population can select when they arrive! If alone I will watch A Scanner Darkly...
Drinks, snacks, pizza, snacks, movies, coffee, repeat!
Feel free to drink too much and stay the night!!
--RSVP, Dammit!
Major Diet Milestone!
This week I reached a major Milestone in my weight loss goals!
I started on Sept 4th, 2006 at 285 pounds. On January 26th, 2007 I weighed in at 235 pounds. This is a net loss of 50 pounds!
This is officially half way to my ultimate goal of 185.
--Time to step up my exercise program!!
I started on Sept 4th, 2006 at 285 pounds. On January 26th, 2007 I weighed in at 235 pounds. This is a net loss of 50 pounds!
This is officially half way to my ultimate goal of 185.
--Time to step up my exercise program!!
Hang 'em High
I am watching classics westerns a lot lately.
Today it is Hang 'em High, with Clint Eastwood. Great stuff, espicially un-edited without commercials.
The color is just amazing.
Gotta get this one on DVD.
--Clint is the man!!
Diet Update
As of this morning I weigh 237 pounds. That makes 48 pounds lost so far. My best fitting jeans are 40x30's down from tight 44x30's. I am wearing XL shirts comfortably down from XXL+!
I am going to crush the next 2 pounds and spike them in the endzone!
Maybe this time next week I will be celebrating 50 pounds.
--I gotta start working up a victory dance!
I am going to crush the next 2 pounds and spike them in the endzone!
Maybe this time next week I will be celebrating 50 pounds.
--I gotta start working up a victory dance!
Trial set to start for PETA workers caught euthanizing, dumping cats and dogs
By Harriet Ryan of Court TVThe dog carcasses always appeared late on Wednesday nights, wrapped in black trash bags and stuffed in the Dumpster behind the Piggly Wiggly supermarket.
Over a period of three weeks in the summer of 2005, police officers in the small town of Ahoskie, N.C., pulled the bodies of 80 animals from the trash bin. Some were puppies, some were full-grown. Most were mutts.
On the fourth week, officers set up a stakeout, and when a white van pulled up to the dumpster, they pounced.
If the van's cargo — 10 dead dogs and three dead cats in black bags — was to be expected, its occupants were not. The driver and the passenger were employees of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) and the vehicle was registered to the organization.
The workers, Adria Hinkle, 28, and Andrew Cook, 25, were arrested and later indicted on 24 felony charges, including 21 counts of animal cruelty, for injecting lethal doses of an anesthetic into strays they had just collected from county shelters and a veterinarian's office. (Click here for whole story)
--PETA are complete hypocrites!
Kissing Hemmingway
My very excellent friend Kim gave us a gift of this nicely framed, black and white, photo of BR and Me.
I took the picture myself, while on a cruise with BR, in Key West, on a day so beautiful and happy every time I look at it I am happier instantly. Like a Pavlovian Dog, I have an instant association with joy.
A few weeks ago we hung this picture in a perfect place. It just happens that every time I get up to pee I walk by it to get to the bathroom on the main level of the house!
-- Will I begin to associate Joy with a full bladder?
Solar Science Project!
Brenda had to work yesterday so I had the day to myself. So as expected I turned my eyes on SCIENCE!!
I now have deployed my first solar panel. It powers a light in my utility room that is directly over my breaker panel in the server room. I can't believe how well it works!
But now I have a taste... and I like it.
I wonder how big I can go with the solar panel before my HOA will notice?
--She blinded me with SCIENCE!!
What can make Sunday mornings better you ask?
Letting the wife sleep in while I watch SciFi on TiVo?
Pancakes and Charles Osgood you say?
The joy of warm feet and comfy slippers?
A cat in your lap?
Perfectly made coffee?
All these items make Sundays very excellent. But What makes it even better?
--Knowing you also have tomorrow off from work!!
Yet another one of those copy and paste Lists
1. Elaborate on your default icon. Me in 1978, taken at GCC.
2. What's your current relationship status? Very happily married.
3. Ever have a near-death experience? Yes. Almost killed, not the walk into the light thing.
4. Name an obvious quality you have. Bad knees.
5. What's the name of the song that's stuck in your head right now? World, Five for Fighting
6. Name a celebrity you would marry. Michelle Pfeiffer
7. Who will cut and paste this first? Kim
8. Has anyone ever said you look like a celebrity? Yes.
9. Do you wear a watch? What kind? No.
10. Do you have anything pierced? No.
11. Do you have any tattoos? No. Lots of scars though...
12. Do you like pain? Nope.
13. Do you like to shop? No.
14. What was the last thing you paid for with cash? Soda. From a machine.
15. What was the last thing you paid for with your credit card? Pizza
16. Who was the last person you spoke to on the phone? Becky
17. What is on your desktop background? A beautiful series of trees.
18. What is the background on your cell phone? A tree lined lane.
19. What was the last movie you watched? The Ice Harvest
20. What was the last book you read? Biting the Moon by Martha Grimes
2. What's your current relationship status? Very happily married.
3. Ever have a near-death experience? Yes. Almost killed, not the walk into the light thing.
4. Name an obvious quality you have. Bad knees.
5. What's the name of the song that's stuck in your head right now? World, Five for Fighting
6. Name a celebrity you would marry. Michelle Pfeiffer
7. Who will cut and paste this first? Kim
8. Has anyone ever said you look like a celebrity? Yes.
9. Do you wear a watch? What kind? No.
10. Do you have anything pierced? No.
11. Do you have any tattoos? No. Lots of scars though...
12. Do you like pain? Nope.
13. Do you like to shop? No.
14. What was the last thing you paid for with cash? Soda. From a machine.
15. What was the last thing you paid for with your credit card? Pizza
16. Who was the last person you spoke to on the phone? Becky
17. What is on your desktop background? A beautiful series of trees.
18. What is the background on your cell phone? A tree lined lane.
19. What was the last movie you watched? The Ice Harvest
20. What was the last book you read? Biting the Moon by Martha Grimes
Diet Update
I stepped on the scale this morning and was back to 239 pounds. Over the holidays, starting on Dec 22nd, I ate way more than usual. It was celebrations with tons of food and drink and deserts and candy and cookies. There were parties at work, parties at friends as well as multiple birthdays!
It feels good to be back on plan.
I am sleeping better. I am "regular". I am never hungry.
--54 pounds to go!
It feels good to be back on plan.
I am sleeping better. I am "regular". I am never hungry.
--54 pounds to go!
RIP Lilly Munster
Yvonne de Carlo Goes to the big Haunted House in the Sky.LOS ANGELES - Yvonne De Carlo, the beautiful star who played Moses' wife in "The Ten Commandments" but achieved her greatest popularity on TV's slapstick comedy "The Munsters," has died. She was 84.
De Carlo died of natural causes Monday at the Motion Picture & Television facility in suburban Los Angeles, longtime friend and television producer Kevin Burns said Wednesday.
De Carlo, whose shapely figure helped launch her career in B-movie desert adventures and Westerns, rose to more important roles in the 1950s. Later, she had a key role in a landmark Broadway musical, Stephen Sondheim's "Follies."
But for TV viewers, she will always be known as Lily Munster in the 1964-1966 horror-movie spoof "The Munsters." The series (the name allegedly derived from "fun-monsters") offered a gallery of Universal Pictures grotesques, including Dracula and Frankenstein's monster, in a cobwebbed gothic setting.
--Lilly will live forever. Say Hi to Fred for us.
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