It’s 5:30 AM, and I’m about to head out the door for our vacation. Today it’s just a 9.5 hour drive to Kansas City to meet up with the rest of my family. Then tomorrow we will be off to my Mom’s timeshare in Branson. I will be pretty quiet here and on Twitter. I will have internet access, but I’ll be busy, so I will mostly be offline. I might post a few pictures. They’re with 1000 words anyway right?

Growing up I was a huge Beastie Boys fan. In fact Licensed to Ill was the first album I bought with my own money. Over the weekend I wrote a long post about the Beastie Boys and Adam Yauch, but I couldn’t get the words our how I wanted them, so I scrapped it. This is a nice little video with MCA’s opening lines from every Beastie Boys song. It sucks seeing part of my childhood die, especially since Adam was so young.

via Xeni at Boingboing

A week from today I will be on vacation. Is it sad that I’m not really looking forward to it? We are heading down to Branson, and meeting up with the rest of my family. Branson is my Mom’s most favorite place on earth, and we are staying at her timeshare. I’ve been there before, and while there are lots of things to do, none of them excite me too much. My Sister-in-law has actually planned the week out, so I guess that’s good. All i know is that We have one day in an amusement park, and another at a water park. Not my idea of fun, but I’m just a party pooper I guess.

I’m going through Internet withdrawals already. We will have Internet access, but I won’t get my usual 12 to 14 hour fix. Some people like to unplug for vacations — not me. I’m dreading the backlog of rss feeds and podcasts I will have when I get home. I should learn that it’s ok if I miss some, but I can’t. I’m actually looking forward to the 13 hour drive home the most. It will be 13 hours of podcast listening heaven for me.

It also looks like it’s really hot down there already. I’m from North Dakota — I don’t like it much warmer than 70°. Oh well, I will try to have fun. I guess many people don’t have the luxury to be able to take a vacation every year, so I should be thankful for that.

So there is some anti-choice* group in town trying to spread their message. I’m all for people’s freedom of speech and their ability to spread whatever message they want. Speech that you don’t agree with is probably the hardest to defend, but it should be defended notheless. As long as your not hurting anyone, or interfering with anybody else’s rights.

This group was holding large, 4′x6′, pictures of dead babies. I tried not to look, but it was impossible not to. They situated themselves right where you had to look to make a turn at the intersection. The pictures were obviously not aborted babies. They were more like mutilated six-month-olds. Pretty disturbing stuff. There were reports of school children having problems in school after seeing the images. I think that is going to far. There are limits to free speech, and I think disturbing kids crosses that line. Does this kind of behavior really change people’s opinion on topics? I think being offensive just for the sake of being offensive makes you look ignorant and stupid, but maybe that’s just me.

I will never understand people that are hellbent on taking away the rights of others. If you don’t like gay marriage, don’t get one. If you don’t like abortion, don’t get one. If you don’t like broccoli, don’t eat it. Let people live their own lives, and don’t worry about their business. Isn’t this suppose to be the land of the free?

*I call them anti-choise because many pro-choice people like myself are against abortion too.

I wish I would have ran across this version of Jonathan Coulton’s “First of May” yesterday. Oh well.

via Cory at Boingboing

How cool is this clock? It looks like there is a person in it drawing the minute hand every minute, but it’s really just a video.

via reddit

I got solar filters for my binoculars today, and was able to see sunspots. It was pretty damn cool. You can read more about it, and my other ventures into amateur astronomy on my amateur astronomy blog at amateurstargazer.com.

I ran across this video the other day. It claims to be Nirvana’s first ever performance of “Smells Like Teen Spirit”, and I believe it. Kurt would often make up the lyrics has he went along, and this version obviously has different lyrics. It kills me that I never got the chance to see Nirvana live.

So this image has been popping up on Facebook.

My conservative family is always looking for things to attack Obama on. They are all outraged over this — obviously photoshopped — picture of Obama using is left hand. As if using your left hand means anything different — but anyway. I noticed right away that Obama’s ring looks wrong, and then I noticed the Marine in the background. It’s so obvious that the image was reversed. I didn’t need Snopes to sniff this one out, but they did have the original image.

I don’t care where you stand politically, as long as your beliefs are based on facts. Conservatives seem to be controlled by fear, and a simple Photoshop job gets them all worked up.

I never thought there would be a time when I WISHED Auto-Tune was used. And no, I didn’t make it through the entire video. Props if you can.

If you’ve been anywhere on the internet lately you probably have heard people in an uproar about “pink slime”, and it being added to our foods. You have more than likely seen this picture.

I have seen this picture many times. Sometimes they call it beef, other times it chicken, but I doubt it’s either. I’ve done a little research, and couldn’t find the source of this picture. Just the fact that they are putting it in an unlined box make me think that it’s not even a food product. I also doubt beef or chicken would hold together in that shape.

The “pink slime” is otherwise known as mechanically separated meat, and I’m probably one of the few people that don’t have a problem with it. I’m all for using every part of the animal that you can. Sure the parts of the animal that they put through the machines don’t sound too appetizing —trimmings, tallow, connective tissue, intestinal linings — but I’m willing to bet the rest of the butchering process isn’t too appetizing either.

People also think it’s bad that it’s treated with ammonia. I don’t know why people think having bacteria in there meat is better than small amounts of ammonia. It’s not like the stuff is soaking in ammonia. I’m sure they use as little as needed to remove the bacteria, any more would be a waste of money. I work at a water treatment plant. We add ammonia to the public water system. It combines with the chlorine and helps prevent disinfection byproducts that could be harmful. It’s all about the dosage amount. Just because ammonia is used in the process doesn’t make it bad for you at all. In fact it makes the meat safer for you.

What do people think hamburger is anyway? Ground up filet mignon? I’ve always assumed hamburger was ground up parts of the cow that aren’t good enough for steaks. A small percentage of mechanically separated meat wouldn’t bother me at all.

Boingboing writer Maggie Koerth-Baker has a nice article on Boingboing, and I agree with her 100%. Over there they have this picture:

This is what the beef “pink slime” really looks like. Not like that first picture that everybody feared to believe.

Here is a video of chicken mechanically separating machine:

While none of this is that appetizing, it is in no way bad for you. Why not use a little of this stuff in hamburgers, hotdogs, or chicken nuggets? If an animal has to die for use to eat, I’m all for using as much of that animal a possible.

I will end my year of Flashback Fridays with NOFX. They are one of my all time favorite bands. They have sold over 6 million records without a major record label, and with very little video or air play. In fact “Bob” was the only video that I know of that they made in the 90s, and they were together the whole 90s. They formed in the late 80s and released 5 albums in the 90s.

I’ve had fun sharing some of my favorite 90s music with you all. My plan was to do it for a year, and that is what I did. I hope I didn’t bore you too bad.

via PoliticalCompass

I guess I am closest to Obama? It makes me wonder why the current presidential candidates disagree so much. Could they just be making shit up? No, that can’t be.

Adam Savage had a beautiful speech this past Saturday at the Reason Rally. I agree with him 1000%.

Marvelous 3 weren’t a band all that long, but they introduced us to Butch Walker, who went on as solo artist and record producer.

Just in case anybody cares, my amateur astronomy blog can be found at AmateurStargazer.com. From now on all my astronomy posts will be over there. I just happened to launch it on one of my favorite authors, Douglas Adams’ birthday. So I had to put a fitting Douglas Adams quote at the top. Don’t Panic!

I was never much of a Live fan, but I did love their Throwing Copper album. That album was pretty much the soundtrack to my first year in college.

I love math and numbers. I am also intrigued by how little humans understand large numbers. Most people probably don’t know what comes after Trillion, and really, that’s so large that nobody really needs a number much larger than that. I knew my number system up to decillion. I had to turn to Wikipedia to see what was next. Growing up as a kid without Wikipedia I thought a googolplex was the largest number. I knew a googol was a 1 followed by 100 zeros. I didn’t really know what a googolplex was. Now that I got Wikipedia I know we have numbers way bigger than googol and even bigger than a googolplex. There is such a thing as a googolplexplex. And actually, the googol named numbers are just special named numbers. A googol is really 10 duotrigintillion. A duotrigintillion is 10⁹⁹, so 10 of them would be 10¹⁰⁰, or a googol.

A googol is so large that there are less atoms in the observable universe. The estimated number of atoms in the observable universe is 10⁸² (or 10 sesvigintillion if you care), much less that a googol. Now onto a googolplex. A googolplex is 10^googol. It has more zeros than there are atoms in the universe making it impossible to even write out long hand, and yeah, a googolplexplex is even larger.

Yesterday I got a new pair of Binoculars. Amazon has a great deal on a pair of Celestron SkyMaster 15x70s for $62! They are normally over $100. I couldn’t resist.

These things are huge, and give you a great view. The 70mm objective lenses brings in so much light, it make them hard to use during the day, but great for night viewing. I didn’t spend a ton of time viewing last night, but I had to check out Venus and Jupiter. The pair are a beautiful site in the west, and will be closest together on Thursday.

With my new Binoculars I was able to make out one moon of Jupiter. I checked out the current location of Jupiter’s moons on Stellarium, and all four Galilean moon were on the same side. My guess is the moon I saw was Ganymede since Stellarium said it was the brightest. It also happens to be the largest moon in the Solar System.

15×70 binoculars are great, but they are kind of heavy, and hard to hold steady. You really do need a tripod for them. I had to rest my arms on the deck railing to get a steady look. After I knew what I was looking at I took out my 10×50 Celestron Binoculars, probably the perfect size for hand use, and I was able to see Ganymede with them too. I’m pretty sure that was the moon I was seeing through my scope on Saturday night. It just proves that with more experience I will be able to see more things, even with my 10×50 binoculars.

Last night was our first warm (38ºF) night with clear skies that I have been able to get my telescope out. Our yard is still full of snow, so I was limited to what I could see from the deck. I think I’m going to start an astronomy blog to share my astronomy experiences, but for now I am posting it here.

Equipment

• Meade 60mm refractor 25mm and 9mm EPs (Not the best scope, will be upgrading soon)
• 10×50 Celestron binoculars

What I saw

• Jupiter
• Venus
• Mars
• M42 (Orion Nebula)
• M45 (Pleiades)
• Mizar and Alcor (double star in the Big Dipper)

Venus
The first think I observed was Venus. Venus is small, and has a thick atmosphere, so you can’t see much detail. Because Venus is an interior planet, it goes through phases like the Moon does. I was hoping to make out what phase it’s in, but I couldn’t.

Jupiter
I spent most of my night viewing Jupiter. I was able to make out one band and I think one of the Moons. I could only find one Moon, so I couldn’t tell you which one it was. With more experience, and a better telescope, I’m sure I’ll be getting better views of Jupiter in the future.

Mars
I was hoping to see it’s icecap, but I was unable to see much detail in Mars. Again, with more experience, and another night, maybe I will be able to see Mars’ icecap.

M42 (Orion Nebula)
I’m really not sure what kind of view of the Orion Nebula my telescope will give me. I wasn’t able to reach it with my telescope from my deck. I viewed it through my 10×50 binoculars. It’s just a fussy little blip through binoculars, but still fun to look at.

M45 (Pleiades)
Pleiades is probably my favorite binocular object so far. To the naked eye it’s just a faint fussy blip, but through binoculars, you can see the seven or so bright blue stars. I have tried to view it in the past with my telescope, but I couldn’t find it through my crappy finder scope. I didn’t even try last night.

Mizar and Alcor (double star in the Big Dipper)
My northern sky is pretty light polluted. About all I could see in that direction was the Big Dipper. Double stars are always fun to look at through binoculars because what looks like one star, becomes two. In actuality, Mizar is a quadruple star system and Alcor is a binary system, but all you see through binoculars is Mizar and Alcor.

Conclusion
I spent about an hour outside viewing, and had a great time. I can’t wait until I can get out it my yard to get better views. I was hoping to stay up later and see the Moon and Saturn, but I was just too tired and have a cold. My telescope gets really good views on the Moon. The Moon is pretty close to full now though, which isn’t the best time to view it anyway. I can’t wait until Saturn starts rising earlier. Everybody says that’s the one that gets them hooked on this hobby. I think I’m already hooked.