Tuesday, August 29, 2006

The Last Days On Earth Part I
No, today is not Doomsday, nor will it be when Part II comes, or Part III, Part IV, Part V. Rather, the above si the title of a two hour ABC special showing tommorrow Wednsday August 30, 2006 at 9/8 centeral. This program will be, shall I say, very 'interesting' to see.

To me, an avid hardcore sci-fi guru, this is a must see, although most of the sci-fi stuff I see/read/hallucinate are far less morbid. They're usually kind of like a hybrid between CSI, Pirates of the Carribean, Dynasty, Sopranos, SWAT, Special Forces, Alias on an inter-galactic scale. Even when things take the wrong turns there is always someone that saves our butts in the nick of time, but I guess that's why it was a book...

Like the title suggests, the program is about the last days on earth, not to be taken literally as today, tomorrow, or a thousand years from now (hopefully). From what can be gathered, it looks like the program will feature an asteroid strike and interview with the renowned phyiscist Stephen Hawkings, At the point it dawned upon me that some part of it will be about the end of humans on earth (well, there has to be someone on earth to be Last Days on Earth) and not the obliteration of earth. For that probably will require a piece of of a decent fraction of the mass of the earth or when the sun goes nova (some billion years from now). I'm sure some sort of life form will emerge after the Last Human Days on Earth, not like I care though...The interview with Stephen Hawkings alone would be worth watching, the man who is the foremost living black hole theorist. On second thoughts that might be a bit too omnious.

That's about all I can get from the previes, for more information please visit ABC.com.

Tune in tommorrow at 9 Eastern and here Thursday for a reflection and Part II!

posted by Stavanger at 7:07 PM | 3 comments

Sunday, August 27, 2006

Comair Crash
After several airline alerts and offshore airplane crash, today in Lexington Kentucky a small ComAir(Delta) flight 5191 carrying 50 people crashed at 6:07 a.m shortly after take off, there are at least one survivor.

Update
From flight data ComAir Flight 5191 mostly like crashed because it went off the wrong runway which was too short for the plane to gain enough momentum to become airbourne. It crashed and erupted into flames.

It has been confirmed that the co-pilot was the sole survivor of this tragedy, victims include former Kentucky baseball player in the Minor Leagues. Most of the victims died in the fire.

posted by Stavanger at 10:16 AM | 1 comments

Wednesday, August 23, 2006

Will You Be My Friend?

Ok, ok everyone here is my friend.

Now, I need a very special FireFox friend who doesn't have FireFox yet. I will share why Firefox is so great with you following up with a download. If you download it it before September 15, like they say, we will be immortalized in Firefox 2.0 and our names appeared on FireFox Friends Wall!!!

Come on, won't you be my FireFox friend? Its a great browser! Just leave your name & email address here please!

Thank you so much!

For more information check out the Firefox link

posted by Stavanger at 9:30 PM | 2 comments

Sunday, August 20, 2006

Hygiene of Tommorrow
Two hundred years ago, if you told someone that you put a stick in your mouth with some paste squeezed out of a metal tube, you would probably pass as a witch and burned at a stke. This just shows how much science and our ways of personal hygiene have came along. Today, in addition to toothbrush and tooth paste, there is an elepantine quantity of mouth products. From the sting alcoholic mouth washes to the prehistoric strings we call floss; pill like mints to all flavors of gum (apple cinnomon!?) that all the cool people chew. The hype doesn't stop there either, there's a whole line of product for the whiteness, shape of your teeth and so on and so on.

So it shouldn't be a surprise if I introduce the tongue cleaner right? Yep there is a tongue cleaner! The new Colgate 360 not only brushes every angle of your crooked teeth but it also has a tongue cleaner attach to the back. Now, don't immediately burn this idea or the TV you saw it on at the stake, considering this might be the general norm in a hundred years and eyeball cleaners in the next hundred :)

posted by Stavanger at 7:11 PM | 0 comments

Thursday, August 17, 2006

Trash Clash

For those of us living at the top of highrises, we are familiar with ow we take out the trash. Usually, tehre is a chute on the side of a wall with a hinge, but every one is unique, so let me describe ours.

In my building, the gabage chute is right next to the elevator, probably the most visited spot on the floor. But to conceal it, there is a tiny room with a door. So when you take out the garbage, you close the door behind you and step into a place perfect for claustrophobia with sticky floors, but otherwise very clean and bright lit room. Then you send the trash down the chute that is perfect for spies like Sydney Bristol to spy through since its like the only two square feet that's open in the entire building. At the bottom of the chute is probably a huge paper shredder like machine that chews up all the trash.

Now you have an idea of how I take out the trash, lets start my story. It was a normal day, I stepped into the claustrophobic room and open the hinge, prepared to say farewell to my trash when a torrent of someone else's trash flew right out. It must came from at least five floors above judging from my whole armful of garbage, at least half a dozen crushed beer cans, leftover pizza, chinese takeout, paper towel and other stuff I don't recognize. From teh beer can & pizza I can tell its the drunk several floors above who doesn't recycle. Promptly, his voice was carried down the chute, he must ahve heard the noise in the echoy small room. "You 'lright man?"

"Just a bit of trash man, I'm good."

"You wanna come up for a drink?" %#$#^...jeez, why can it be the girl upstairs? "No, don't drink man, thanks anyways and gotta take a shower first.

"Yeah, you do that and if you feel like coming up, do so, always welcome." He closed the door with a bang and left. Well, that's that. From this I learned to open what I now call the "trapdoor" with caution because when open it creates a perfet ledge for other people's trash to fly throught and of course, I'll add this to my list of pranks.....muwhahah ;)

posted by Stavanger at 3:26 PM | 0 comments

Monday, August 14, 2006

Never Go Swimming On A Cloudy Day!!!
I have been very busy lately and haven't got a chance to take a dip in the pool for a long time. So today, I decided to do so despite the lukewarm weather. I thought it was gonna be alright since I swam before when it was couple of degrees lower than today and the water was pretty warm...... but what I didn't realize was the sun was shining that day. A difference of few degrees in the air does not matter much to the temperature in the water. However, if the sun is shining on it, the difference maybe drastic.

I should ahve known its too cold right after I went down to the pool. Around this time the pool is usually pretty busy, but today, those who I call the sun-soakers have either went home or sat under the terrace. They traded swim suits and bikinis for t-shirts and tanktops. I saw one life guard sitting in a lounge chair with a couple of other people and the other saw me and came to his post.

"Don't worry, Dmetri, I won't drown on you, promise." I joked and dived into the pool. Once in the water, how cold it was hit me like a brick wall. As I did my laps, I felt so much like one of those bolar bear people who swims in frozen lakes in the middle of the winer. And it wasn't that much different either. When you stand in the shallow parts of the pool the breeze feels like midwinter snow blast. I logged some twenty laps until raindrops start to come down and the lifeguards begin to lockup.

Upstairs in the bathroom, I started to chain sneeze in a scorching shower. Damnit...this maybe my very last entry...tommorrow, I might die of hypothermia...

posted by Stavanger at 5:47 PM | 3 comments

Saturday, August 12, 2006

Moral II

Once upon a time, there was a kng of a very small kingdom, however his army was by no means small even if it is comprised mostly of mercenary soldiers. The king often likes to inspect his army and ask any soldier he see three questions.

1. How old are you?
2. How long have you been in my army?
3. Are your parents alive and well?

Of course, most of the soldiers are mercenaries and does not understand the king at all, so, the general made all the soldiers memorize their three answers to the question.

One day during a parade the king walked up to a mercenary. This man memorized his answers very well. He knows them like he knows he one hundred and one most profane curses in his own tongue, so he was supremely confidant and not a bit nervous.

The king ask his soldier warmly, "how long have you been in my elite army?" The soldier didn't understand a tad of what the king said. He had no idea the king asked the second question instead of the first and answered "almost twenty eight years!"

His Royal Majesty was a bit puzzles and not only by the strange accent. He thought funny, this runt only look twenty something and he's in the army for twenty eight years? The king continued with the second question which is suppose to be his first "how old are you?" The soldier thought this is the question and answered "only six month!"

This time the king was mad, he used an extremely low voice and asked, "What? Only six month? What are you trying to say? You think I'm crazy like you?" The soldier thought this was the third question, asking if his parents are well and answered confidantly "Yes!"

posted by Stavanger at 5:21 PM | 0 comments

Friday, August 11, 2006

The Eleventh Hour

In the last twenty-four hour a terrorist plot to repeat the tragedies of the past having been unveil. As usual a deluge of information became available. As I sift through all the information a particular article title Ingredients for a Bomb Are Not Hard to Find from Washington Post especially caught my eye.

"From available commercial material, and with the right basic knowledge, it doesn't take too much expertise," said Tal Hanan, a security expert at Demoman International Ltd. in Israel. "Any second-year chemical engineering student, probably with the right guidance and some handbook they pull off the Internet, could probably compose such an explosive."

Alas, this is not anything new... I doubt even a second-year chemical engineering background is needed; for that of course, the key is the information available over the internet. Long before this millennium and September 11, before internet became widely used, I have seen random 'journal' and 'cookbooks' of amateur pyrotechnicians with detail instruction of how assemble home-brewn explosives, abtaining ingredients from local drug store, even social engineering involved. And to this day, these information have probably multiplied yet remains easily accessible to anyone who has a second to search for them or simply stumble upon them.

This is very wide spread and not confined to explosives, the instructions for making methanfedimine and various other drugs, hate groups etc etc are all available across the world wide web. Alas, such is the problem of instanteous communication and freedom of information. Without a doubt freedom and sharing of information is essential absolutely essential, but the question is what you do when these information fall into the wrong hands?

posted by Stavanger at 5:02 PM | 1 comments

Tuesday, August 08, 2006

Moral
Once upon a time there was a man whose son was named Nigel. One day the man took his son to see his grandma. On the train Nigel was very restless and kept stucking his hands and legs out of the window.

"Nigel, quiet," said the man to his son, "and keep yourself inside the train or you'll be blown straight out of the window."

However, Nigel did not listen to his dad......so when Nigel wasn't looking, the man took Nigel's hat and hid it behind his back. "Look" said the man "your hat's gone!"

Nigel was very scared and upset. He begins to cry and tries to find his hat. Seeing this, the man comforted his son, "Don't worry about it kid, your hat will come back, just try to whistle."

Nigel climb to the window and whistled for so long that he didn't even feel his dad quickly putting the hat back on his head.

"See, its back!" exclaimed the man.

"Wow, cool!" Nigel smiled and quickly grabbed his dad's hat and threw it out of the window. "Dad, its your turn to whistle!"

posted by Stavanger at 5:34 PM | 3 comments

Saturday, August 05, 2006

Pringles
Everyone has probably seen the Pringles commercials where a guy like me with Lays or some other brand of potatoe chips gets told by a little girl with Pringles. Its true, Lays come out of the bag broken and greasy while Pringles come out of the tube in perfect stacks, whole, and a lot more crunchy. Its just then, looking at the perfect stacks, a thought came to me. Unless Pringles have top secret conspiracy plant where they grow perfect tube potatoes they must waste a whole lot of potatoes. Anyone who has bought a sack of potatoes knows that taters comes in all sizes, shapes and mutations with werid bumps. SO to cut these oddball potatoes into the perfect Pringles chips they must thrw away a lot of scraps. And its not like you can melt potatoes together like chocolate or butter.

Well, just a thought, don't have anything against Pringles and this certainly won't stop me from eating Pringles just like P. Anderson won't persuade me to stop eating Kentuky Fried Chicken (she won't persuade me into anything) or the con woman into stopping me eating Wendy's Chili.

posted by Stavanger at 8:16 PM | 8 comments

Tuesday, August 01, 2006

Heat Wave!!

For the past weeks there have been reports of record heat wave sweeping the nation, however I was pretty much oblivious to the fact until today. Boy, walking out of the AC today and the heat just blasted straight against me. I could literally feel the sweat coming out like mass flood. Technically its not even that bad today, 91 degrees, but as people say, its not the heat, its the humidity. I never imagine a place that is covered by several feet of snow during the winter could be so hot. Or perhaps I have become less tolerant to heat considering that Chicago, where I lived a year ago, experienced weeks of 100+ temperature.

I guess global warming has finally caught up with me. I'm not sure which is worse, the gruelsome heat or the aftermath in The Day After Tomorrow. An ice age later in the century or not, this condition is unbearable to be in. So for right now, I think I might take a dip in the pool :)

posted by Stavanger at 4:36 PM | 2 comments

---