Mustache Discrimination Must End!

     Having been the victim of mustache discrimination, I understand the plight of my fellow persecuted mustachioed brethren. I once had a full length horseshoe mustache that had a lovely reddish hue when rays of sunlight filtered through the fall foliage. Alas, I was eventually told by my boss that I must shave most of it off because it "did not look professional". After briefly considering ending my career, I did as I was told. I have often missed my mustache and take advantage of any significant leave of absence to reacquaint myself with my long lost friend. Recently, I was glad to discover the American Mustache Institute; an organization dedicated to fighting for the rights of those downtrodden, mislabeled and just plain misunderstood mustachioed men who want nothing more than to live in peace with those who lack the courage or - sadly - sometimes the ability to grown their very own bristly lip sweater. So if you have dreamed about growing a mustache but never thought you could, or never wanted to admit it, visit the expert fellows at the AMI.

The American Mustache Institute

Asteroid Harvesting

     There are many companies trying to get in on the - yet to be profitable - private space industry. One I particularly like is Planetary Resources. I first read about the company in January on Space.com. They have a fairly practical approach to getting their feet wet, or in the vacuum, by sending small satellites to investigate and, eventually, lasso and harvest asteroids. Their theory is that by providing ready to use natural resources, such as fuel, to communications satellites and eventually water and metals to astronauts and construction projects, they will not only be the first to potentially make money on their venture, but will also enable other companies to step up their own timetables.
     Harvesting resources on site is key to keeping costs low in the space industry; it is simply too expensive to send all the materials humans need to explore into orbit. I am glad there are private citizens and companies (Google is backing PR) taking the initiative to expand the reach of humanity into the stars. History teaches us many lessons, not the least of them being: people go where there is money to be made. I for one hope there is a lot of money to be made in space!

Here is their latest article on Space.com

Christmas List

It's a little late in the season for me to be compiling a Christmas wish list, but hey, it's a WISH list. Besides, for the benefit of all the other guys out there who like to be prepared for anything, and who may have trouble putting their hearts desire into words, here are some helpful suggestions to pass on to your significant other; or if all else fails Santa:

1. Stargate SG1 fans, and anyone else with a penchant for great firearms, will love the FN P90 Rifle.

2. You will be ready for the zombie apocalypse, alien invasion or chaos in general with the Gerber Apocalypse Kit and Benelli M2 Shotgun.
3. In the event all of our wonderful technology is wiped out by an EMP attack and we are sent back to the iron age I recommend a purchase from Albion Swords...Just in case you run out of ammo for your P90. I recommend a curved blade if lopping off zombie heads is what the situation requires.

4. The LifeStraw can filter just about anything out of up to 1,000 liters of nasty amoebic dysentery filled water; making it a necessary addition to any survival kit.
5. There are several choices for emergency rations from MREs to freeze dried hiking fare but for the minimalist don't forget Mainstay or (the tastiest) Datrex bar.
6. Until then the Razer Blade gaming laptop: 6.6lbs, 17" monitor, 8GB DDR3 Ram, Nvidia GEForce GPU and 'Switchblade UI' (an on board auxiliary display and touch screen interface) from Razer Gaming Gear should keep you adequately entertained.


Merry Christmas To All

J.A.S.

Movie Review: Captain America

I don't have much time today but I wanted to at least drop a note about the Captain America movie. It's been a long time since I've seen a movie that had any semblance of patriotism and this one gave me a good dose. It has WWII Nazi's bent on world domination working for an arch villain, played by 'Agent Smith', who also wants to rule the world. The story line leaves few noticeable gaps, does a good job building Captain America's character and explaining the origins of his, over the top, outfit. Captain America is a good movie; I give an 8 out of 10.

Apocalyptic News - House Fortress

I saw this a few weeks ago and thought it was pretty cool; one might even go so far as to say it's nifty. A great house for the inevitable zombie apocalypse:

http://www.modernman.com/the-best-house-to-own-when-zombies-attack/

Tonight, Europa becomes the subject of speculation ... again.

Question:  Why is it that we're still talking about something that "happened" over 30 years ago?  Answer:  because NASA hasn't done much since.  And to that end, I'm about to pitch myself on the floor and throw a real tantrum.  "Is our space vision shortsighted?"  Is the sky blue? Is the grass green?

One more reason to head out WAY out there ... one of Saturn's moons, Titan, may also have something close to water beneath a formidable shell.

Are we alone in the universe?  Better question, are we alone in our own solar system?  And lookie here!  The New York Times wants to know too.  And so does the University of Central Florida.

Thank you for tuning in to tonight's news about EUROPA.

Book Festivals and Fairs

I'm not sure how other small-time authors feel about book festivals but I don't like 'em.  I'm sure the bigger ones have better traffic but since I haven't been to those, I don't know for sure.  The book festival that I went to recently (look, there I am) had MAYBE 20 people walk through the doors as paying customers ALL DAY. 

From what I understand, the registration fee pays for some of the general expenses.  In my humble opinion, a large part of the fee should go to advertising.  Now, they have a website so I know there was some advertisement. Or maybe they made just enough to pay for the space but then why would you go through all that trouble of organizing and planning for what amounted to 20 people?  I don't know.  I had a similar experience with a book fair in Georgetown last year.  Very little traffic.  I appreciate the goal of a book festival/fair but if you truly want your message to get out there (and presumably that is that books = good and these authors = good), you need to advertise in the right places (schools? book stores? a visible sign on the building?). 

The bottom line:  please don't have a book festival/fair just to say you are having one.  I think potentially you could be burning bridges with authors and they may start telling their author friends and publishers and then no one will participate in your festival or fair in the future.  Quality over quantity.  That's my opinion.

10 years living 300 km above the earth ...

Happy Birthday ISS!

I think this feat is significant and sad at the same time.  Significant because NASA, in cooperation with the science and technology of other countries, including Russia, has learned, and will continue to learn, a great deal about living in zero gravity, among other probably more amazing break-throughs.  And I can imagine that there are many, many more discoveries to be made in the International Space Station (ISS) that will take decades to both find and see into fruition.  However, I'm not a little sad about how we seem to have stalled at a relatively short distance away from Earth.  Perhaps it's the overall lack of cooperation and thus funding.  Perhaps it's the lack of vision of the popular vote (no offense).  Perhaps it's that we're happy to have gone this far and are fine with this achievement.  And while I'm not disputing that this achievement IS significant, I want to see us reach higher than this and start measuring in thousands of kilometers instead of hundreds.