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For many years I have lived in the Los Angeles basin and I had to learn that the song with the line “it never rains in California” is not quite true. I have been drenched, in fact, rather solidly.

So done with that myth. But at least I don’t have to deal with snow and scraping windows and shoveling the driveway.

Let’s dispense with those myth as well.

First, there is no snow in (Southern) California…

Yes, that’s icicles in the foreground – nice, huh? But “no snow”-  that’s debunked.

Next one is scraping windows. I did when that above happened, but I have to admit that it was not really necessary, as there was no way to get out of that drive way even with a 4×4 and I had still enough food and water so there was no need to get out.

No scraping windows – kind-of debunked.

Then shoveling your drive way. See, there California is different. I did not shovel my drive way when I had to get out eventually – I called somebody to do that for me. That myth is not debunked but confirmed.

That snow, and here Southern California is different, did not stay very long. Initially it was just too deep to do anything useful with it, except maybe sit inside next to the roaring fireplace and enjoy the view. But when it got a bit more slippery and wet it became great to exercise the sledge and practice some death defying jumps…

At the last New Years party I overheard a conversation about Morgan Freeman and this independent movie he was involved in and that this movie was well worth seeing.

As I generally liked the characters Mr. Freeman played it was a given that I would have to watch this movie – I had made noted down the title on my smart phone – 10 Items or Less.

Today I finally managed to see it.

Turned out to be absolutely worth seeing, Not only does it tell a great story of a friendship between two very unlikely people, it also brings to the screen beautiful Paz Vega, whom I had just seen in the movie Spanglish.

As I got this great favor from the person whom I don’t remember any more I guess I have to pass that favor on to the world and recommend this movie to the world at large. This film is a few years old so you will not,  most likely, catch it at the movies, but watching it on DVD is actually better. The DVD includes a great documentary about the making of the movie – which took only and incredible short 15 days of shooting – which is an enjoyable experience in itself.

So, put it on your Netflix queue or look for it at Blockbuster. Here is a trailer to water your appetite…

Miles O’Brian reports on the likely cancellation of the constellation program after the Prez’s state of the union address.

Space buffs might be disappointed because now we will not go to Moon and Mars, but to put it into perspective let’s watch what Burt Rutan, the designer of Space Ship One, the first privately funded vehicle to reach space, had to say at his TED talk…

So, with this in mind, here is my comment I just had to leave at the above referenced article/vblog by Mr. O’Brian…

I have been lucky enough to witness the making of the first non-governmental astronaut. I reported about it a few years back in the post ‘From Mohave to Aldebaran‘. With this experience I can not say that I am too sad about the probable cancellation of the constellation program.

Yes, it was cool to get to the moon and have that ISS up there right now, but let’s be a bit more realistic when we look at things only a government can do – looking – looking – hmm, nothing really! The only thing governments really do is extract money from the population (by force, I may add) and give it to the real people who actually do the job. Not to forget to first skim off a bigger portion to feed a bunch of in efficient bureaucrats.

I wonder why, on the one hand, we make fun of all these bureaucrats, and then suddenly turn around and believe that they are the only ones who can handle things – like building roads and keeping order after Catrina.

The only thing worth considering is really how to get them out of our lives altogether, not allowing them to regulate things they have no knowledge and competence in. I am nearly sure that we would have colonies at least on the moon if the government would have stayed out of the space business. Yes, we might have had some more accidents because private enterprises tend to take more risks than governments (as they don’t have to be re-elected,) but isn’t that the price we pay for fast progress?

I have to admit that I had been deeply disappointed by this constellation program which was a step back from a real space ship, and a design that one day might reach Aldebaran. Back to a capsule that splashes into the ocean after we had the orbiter that could land on a runway? Give me a break!

I am actually sure that Bush, with his vision of going to the moon and beyond, was just trying to get into the league of real visionaries like Kennedy with this “Before this decade is up.”

I had heard of Lord Monckton only in passing and that Al Gore had chickened out of a debate with him the last minute, but after watching the following video, I have to say I want to know more about him.

Usually you consider a title of nobility with the ruling class, so I have to shed this preconception now and have to admit that you can find friends in the most unlikely places – and obviously enemies in places where you would not expect them, like in the people you vote in to represent you. Ok, ok, you got me there – I have given up the idea a long time ago that somebody who bums my vote does not do it for my benefit.

But now, without further ado, pure logic taking apart Greenpeace-faith…

So, where can I find out more about Lord Monckton?

A good place to start is his Wikipedia entry, and then – there is Google…

What a difference the music makes!

It is a well known fact in the film industry that the right sound track for a movie can be essential for the success. Just look at the Star Wars Saga – the music, that today so many people know and connect with these movies, is just necessary for the movie, it would not be what it is without that sound track – even though we might not consciously notice it.

The music slides in under the radar, so to speak, and communicates emotions directly.

We all might have seen one, or a few, or many launches of real-world rockets, from the Saturns that brought some dudes to the moon to all the shuttle launches ferrying components into orbit to construct the International Space Station.

Now Mike Interbartolo has posted a video of the ascent of Shuttle Mission STS 129, compiled by the SE&I imagery team at Johnson Space Center from all of the ground, air, ET and SRB assets – and in good Hollywood tradition, has laid a dramatic sound track under the video footage.

That made me get real emotional!

I have this thing for space and reaching new frontiers, so SciFi was always the one genre that got me going. With this video it became real to me that we are actually doing it – right at this time!

If now we could only get the government out of this business to slow things down, then we would be really going. I am sure that without the bureaucrat’s involvement we would not have taken 40 years to get – perhaps – back to the moon, and then beyond. My son might actually realistically consider prospecting on the moon to make a fortune.

But without further ado, here is this great piece from NASA’s JSC…

http://www.vimeo.com/7852885

Synchronicities are always surprising and can, at times, be outright scary. Here is one that is somewhat in the middle.

Sometime last week I talked to somebody and the subject of Washington came up. The drives or walks along the impressive buildings oozing history, statesmanship and greatness of this nation. Did not really think much more about it and actually had the thought that I should take my son there and show him the sights that document how great this nation is.

This thought did not fit quite in with my latest subjects of study, my journey into the philosophy and realization of anarchy (*) but then again, I just had a chat with a friend who told me how she took her daughter to DC to show her the sights.

But the universe, or whoever that might have been, could not just let that sit there, no, it had to rub my nose into my glibness regarding this display of of state power, built in a way so that the people who actually build these temples for their masters, were even proud of their accomplishment.

So what did the universe (et al) do? – It threw this video into my general direction , so that I could not look past the facts any more…

Germania would have been bombastic, I’m sure, probably similar to how Washington, DC feels today to all the school children visiting the cradle of this greatest nation of the world, looking at the wonders and temples build to honor our politicians. I guess, as Hitler was not really a politician and lawyer, he was a lot more honest at what he was doing – Heil, Hitler! – for helping me to see a bit better what is going on and confirming the words of my two favorite anarchists (yes, I have two now!) – Larken Rose and Stefan Molyneux.

(*) anarchy: this word has two main meanings, one, that is often used in emotionally charged arguments, is a synonym for chaos and lawlessness, but the other one is the more objective definition of

1. a state of society without government or law
2. a theory that regards the absence of all direct or coercive government as a political ideal and that proposes the cooperative and voluntary association of individuals and groups as the principal mode of organized society.

The Onion Network brings the breaking news story that the first Chinese astronaut to go willingly has been launched into space and that -  should something goes wrong – he has been equipped with tools to fix whatever needs to be fixed, he has a hammer and some nails.

China Launches First Willing Manned Mission Into Space

For the first eight summers we have been following what modern parents do – send kids to camps and have them entertained, offer them programs and generally take away from them the opportunity to create their own summer.

That is so different to the way I grew up. OK, it might have been once or twice that the whole family went on some vacation trip, but that was for maybe two weeks while the summer vacation from school was at least six weeks. So I did have the need and opportunity to invent my own summer, and I don’t remember ever being bored.

I had kept some of my sanity when I became a parent myself to a degree and did not cover all corners with padding, and my general idea about child safety was that if the damage was not permanent then it was OK. But we did make the mistake of not giving the kid time  to explore on his own, there was always a class to go to and a program to be in.

Lately there are more and more things coming into my life that indicate that the situation is being restored to proper working. One of them is Lenore Skenazy’s Free Range Kids. Ms. Skenazy gained notoriety by letting her son take the subway all by himself to get home – and talk about it. Her blog has become a center for parents, who want to let their kids gain confidence by doing things themselves,  to congregate and share their experiences. There is also Ms. Skenazy’s book Free Range Kids available at Amazon, but I have to admit that I did not read it yet myself.

Today I ran into a TED talk by the founder of the Tinkering School, Gever Tulley, demonstrating that it is OK to have kids work with power tools. This talk was just the last drop that made me think about writing this all up.

Yes, it is a camp, but I believe it is different enough to set a good example of not over protecting our children.

Now, what do I do about all this? This year, at the age of nearly ten, we did not sign our son up for any summer camp. Instead we are up there in the mountains in a little cabin and the junior has to find something to do while I work. Fortunately I do work from the house, otherwise I don’t think it would be possible without going straight to jail.

What is the experience so far? There were a few upsets and mis-emotions, and we are not quite there yet where junior uses his time wisely (by my irrelevant standards), but he has gone beyond the initial mostly playing computer games to learning how to get videos of those game plays onto YouTube, and just today, probably in response to my teasing that after the summer he will be the proud owner of a big butt, he started to exercise without any prompting.

So, yeah, I think we are going in the right direction here. Any other experiences with summers without camps that I can learn from?

Here is a little presentation that explains in detail how you can become happy. There are not too many steps necessary reach this goal but all of them are essential and you can’t leave out a single one – so you better watch this little piece of wisdom carefully…

Please enable Javascript and Flash to view this Flash video.

Thanks, Kathie, for sending me the story of this Wise Old Man.

During my first semesters at the University of Dortmund a break-through in album sales happened. While at the regular record store you had to shell out over DM 20 (that’s Deutsch Marks for all you young kids, the currency they had in Germany before the Euro) for a 30cm album, some entrepreneurial students started to sell those same albums for DM 14.95 or less in the entry hall of the cafeteria (mensa in latin-german).

This is where I got pretty much the whole collection of my albums I still have after so many years. Some of the early and important items in this collection are records from the Doors. Sure, we knew Jim Morrison by name but the other members of the band were more or less face and name-less.

Until today, when I found the great video site called L-Studio. L must be standing for Lexus as this site is hosted on a subdomain of Lexus.com. And why not – BMW sponsors TED, why should Lexus not have it’s own video site with – I have to say – excellent video.

Some of these videos are with and about Ray Manzarek, the creator of the Door’s characteristic keyboard sound. Hear him tell about the Door’s beginnings …

… and then look through the other video for more Ray Manzarek and try not to miss the series of Web Therapie with Lisa Kudrow.

UPDATE: just ran into the new video of Weird Al Yankovic – ‘Craigs List’ – were he pays homage to the doors – in his own special way. And the great thing is that Ray Manzarek actually plays the keyboards in this spoof of the doors! No wonder that Yankovic version sounds so authentic…

keep looking »