| Trains!!! |
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| 09:18am 01/07/2008 |
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This is one of those email forwards I actually found interesting! --
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Railroad Tracks
The US standard railroad gauge (distance between the rails) is 4 feet, 8.5 inches. That's an exceedingly odd number.
Why was that gauge used? Because that's the way they built them in England , and English expatriates built the US railroads.
Why did the English build them like that? Because the first rail lines were built by the same people who built the pre-railroad tramways, and that's the gauge they used.
Why did "they" use that gauge then? Because the people who built the tramways used the same jigs and tools that they used for building wagons, which used that wheel spacing.
Why did the wagons have that particular odd wheel spacing? Well, if they tried to use any other spacing, the wagon wheels would break on some of the old, long distance roads in England , because that's the spacing of the wheel ruts.
So who built those old rutted roads? Imperial Rome built the first long distance roads in Europe (and England ) for their legions. The roads have been used ever since.
And the ruts in the roads? Roman war chariots formed the initial ruts, which everyone else had to match for fear of destroying their wagon wheels. Since the chariots were made for Imperial Rome, they were all alike in the matter of wheel spacing. Therefore the United States standard railroad gauge of 4 feet, 8.5 inches is derived from the original specifications for an Imperial Roman war chariot. Bureaucracies live forever.
So the next time you are handed a specification/procedure/process and wonder "What horse's behind came up with it?" you may be exactly right. Imperial Roman army chariots were made just wide enough to accommodate the rear ends of two war horses.
Now, the twist to the story:
When you see a space shuttle sitting on its launch pad, there are two big booster rockets attached to the sides of the main fuel tank. These are solid rocket boosters, or SRBs. The SRBs are made by Morton-Thiokol at their factory in Utah . The engineers who designed the SRBs would have preferred to make them a bit fatter, but the SRBs had to be shipped by train from the factory to the launch site. The railroad line from the factory happens to run through a tunnel in the mountains, and the SRBs had to fit through that tunnel. The tunnel is slightly wider than the railroad track, and the railroad track, as you now know, is about as wide as two horses' behinds.
So, a major space shuttle design feature of what is arguably the world's most advanced transportation system was determined over two thousand years ago by the width of a horse's behind. |
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| Slighty below average - Excuses |
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| 10:30am 30/06/2008 |
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I still haven't found my game upon being home. I truly have conversion problems against stronger rated opponents. This weekend, despite being ahead in material, a passed pawn here, even the exchange in one game, I just couldn't convert to the win. I keep letting people catch up, and then I lose or draw. Maybe it's because I kept thinking of all the problems in life, letting my clock run, still having no resolution! Maybe it's because I have to work and I can't find as much time to study. Either way, there are no excuses, ... the worst part about doing average is when you let down yourself.
In the words, of LL Cool J, from the song "Mama Said Knock You Out":
"Don't call it a comeback, I've been here for years!"
It says in the Wikipedia article that LL Cool J spent time in the Boy Scouts, singing in the church choir, and delivering newspapers prior to his success in hip hop. I too had a flat tire upon biking in to work this morning. These two concepts are tangentially related in my mind.
Maybe I need to stop talking and start bein' a playa, as demonstrated by the previous video from Wu Chess. I still maintain it's better to play and lose than not play at all. |
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| Apology |
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| 05:17pm 24/06/2008 |
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I wanted to apologize to Imus for this article I wrote in 2000. Clearly, nothing changes through this kind of rhetoric. In fact, people just get more racist without learning a thing.
Maybe he will take this opportunity to do something positive with his enormous influence.
http://www.wesleyan.edu/argus/sept1900/f9.html |
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| New Band! Come see our first semi-pretend show Sat. Night |
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| 10:05pm 17/06/2008 |
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Just in case anybody in Albuquerque reads this, my new band is playing this Sat. night.. http://www.myspace.com/transfriction
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| Wes We Can! |
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| 01:30pm 27/05/2008 |
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More photos to follow...
I am sooooo tired... but i still have to work this morning.
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| Bachelor's Party - Story 1 |
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| 11:59am 19/05/2008 |
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I am still alive after this weekend's bachelor's party. The groom is still alive too. I cannot tell the whole story because otherwise I might be crucified by the groom's soon-to-be bride. But I can talk about stories that include dirt on myself, because i like making fun of myself...so here it goes...
I managed to save a few brain cells, let's put it that way. We saw three baseball games at Coors field ... Rockies v. Twins ... and sampled beer from almost every single downtown Denver brewery. We also played lots and lots of pool, played poker, and did things I cannot write about. I have never felt so hung over on a Monday morning in a long time. ( Read more... )
The funny thing is...I voted for his opponent..Michelle Lujan Grisham. Don't tell anyone. But somehow I still randomly appear in this commercial! Still, I like Mr. Heinrich's other commercial on the Patriot Act. |
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| Thoughts on Gay Marriage - Republicans - CA |
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| 10:48am 16/05/2008 |
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Yesterday's ruling on gay marriage in California was interesting for a few reasons: It took a Republican - Dominated state Supreme Court to do what should have been done all along. The same phenomenon occured here in New Mexico, when marriage licenses were issued in 2004. They were struck down as illegal by Patricia Madrid (Democrat!!), then Attorney General, as being somehow illegal, even though the law did not articulate anything either way. And then we wonder why Democrats lose?
Very few of us have any courage when the real test comes. Most people would rather work or vote for a Republican who sees them as an equal human being than a Democrat who sees them as a political tool. It's sad but true.
Perhaps it goes back to that old idea, that we are all created equal, but some of us are more equal than others. During the holocaust, this was the purpose of branding people with pink triangles, to make examples of them. You can reclaim anything ... but dignity is sometimes the hardest. To define the word 'civil union' automatically connotes some kind of inferior, less-than-sacred status. Ours is a marriage but yours is just a civil union, because you are a second class citizen. Politics plays strange games like that. You may or may not get to see your partner in the hospital, depending on how people, who don't even know you, regard the word attached to your relationship.
As has been said by comedians of past, we should all be equally miserable together!! Marriage couldn't be that bad, right?
Well .. those are my thoughts for now. I'm off to celebrate my good friend from high school's bachelor's party for his upcoming straight wedding!!! Woo hoo! |
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| This Just In ---- BEARS!! |
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| 03:35pm 15/05/2008 |
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Somebody call the news! There are Bears in Santa Fe!! Oh yeah, and something else happened in CA, according to the front page of the Front Page Online Edition of the New Mexican:
http://www.santafenewmexican.com/News/Bear-sighting-reported-near-Santa-Fe-High-School
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Julie Ann Grimm | The New Mexican
5/15/2008 - 5/15/08
Keep an eye on your picnic basket, Boo Boo. Hungry bears descended on Santa Fe today. State officials captured one near the State Penitentiary this morning and continue a search for a second spotted near Santa Fe High School.
Searchers from state Game and Fish Department as well as the city Police Department and Animal Control Division are combing the Arroyo Chamiso on the southeast side of town following reports from students who saw a bear on the high school campus this morning.
One student used his cell phone to capture video of the creature as it scaled a wall near the school’s teen parenting center, according to Dan Williams, Game and Fish spokesman.
“I imagine that bear was probably pretty scared and got in the arroyo and ran off,” said Williams. “We have not had any more reports.” ( Read more... ) |
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| Mudder's Day |
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| 12:57pm 12/05/2008 |
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....Was spent in the small town of Pinos Altos, NM, where there MIGHT be 200 people on the weekends ... This is about 6 miles north of Silver City, where I haven't been in a very long time. We rented a cottage and went to go see the Gila Cliff Dwellings . I wanted to stay in the cliffs, having picked out my bedroom. Why would the Mogollon leave after only like 30 years? Nobody knows. Maybe it's for the same reason i originally left New Mexico. They sealed up the doors, perhaps planning on coming back. They didn't want the spirits to escape.
Anyway, Mother's Day was nice. We spent some Bush economic stimulous and stimulated our personal economies. I didn't get one, having been unable to work last year, and then working an internship over summer, but we still bought a sand kokopelli from the good people in the Grant County Art Guild, at the Hearst Church nearby. You should check out the art there if you ever get to go down.
There was this old man named Joe who wandered the streets looking for gold! He was really nice and showed me his dime from 1860-something that he found, as well as the gold he found out of the river. He lives in his truck down the street. Robberies in the town have been down ever since he moved in, because Joe knows everyboy and patrols the streets.
Then, the town puts on this play ... At the Pinos Altos Opera House. Everyone is required to throw popcorn at the characters. It was awesome. There were evil villains and cowboys. Somebody was recruited as Sheriff of the town but didn't quite live up to the job. In fact, people had much too high expectations for him and he was very clumbsy. He was actually a bumbling idiot with no self-confidence, but everything worked itself out! It was a happy ending.
Diane's restuarant in Silver City is good! Mmmmm..
Hope you had a good mother's day too! |
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| Zia - Community |
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| 02:18pm 07/05/2008 |
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The Zia really know what they are talking about. For the soul of the nation, this is a matter of sacred urgency. We've lost the compass, ...time to get back on track. I suppose our sense of community must be completely lost before it can be found.
The Zia's belief that with life comes four sacred obligations one must develop (a strong body, a clear mind, a pure spirit, and a devotion to the welfare of others). ... Very interesting wikipedia article...
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| New Band - Transfriction - Atari 2600 |
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| 08:58pm 03/05/2008 |
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Today's band practice sounded awesome. Marq, our lead singer, just got back from his tribe's pow wow in Minnesota. Now we are totally ready to make some serious music. Despite the fact that we had never played together before, it sounded like we had been playing together for years, or maybe in another lifetime. We already have seven songs we are thinking of busting out at a live show probably sometime in June.
Our myspace is here (if you would like to friend us or read lyrics, but they all have to old bassist and drummer, so it's not official. (Also, the page is REALLY BUSY, and under construction, so be careful if you don't like complicated things)):
www.myspace.com/transfriction
-Friend Us!! Please. All the music posted there currently is with a drum machine and with the guitarist playing bass. We will update it with new music and all four of us soon.
I didn't make the name of this band - there's an interesting story on the website about how that came to be. The amazing part is they are all cool people and the chemistry seems to be good without ego issues, which is the most important aspect. It has something to do with the transmutation of energy or something, i think.
Everything has fallen in to place so incredibly with this band. It's like something is smiling down (or up) at us. We needed a drummer, and then a drummer, Lonnie, practically falls out of the sky, and he's amazing. Then, we needed a practice space, and a PA, and everything just falls into place within a matter of hours. We all have our own stories to tell. Me, after getting chased out of MA (I'm still surprised I survived the great state of Mass.) .. and Marq, after his cousin (who was supposed to play bass for this band), just died last month in Michigan at a young age. Marq was also the unfortunate victim of some anti-Native police brutality upon first visiting New Mexico, so I had to apologize for my state. My new philosophy is: The State Loves You!! I just made a T-shirt with a Zia symbol with words to that effect. It's a very positive message. It's gonna be awesome. Jeff, who works as a volunteer fire fighter, and may some day actually be a professional fire fighter. And Lonnie, ...not sure Lonnie's story yet, but his girlfriend has an awesome dog named Rio. We just titled a song called "Rio's revenge" ... named after Yars' Revenge .. because it sounds like the old Atari 2600 game. Except, Rio the dog was there at practice howling at us, so we named it Rio's Revenge instead.
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| Chess Tournament |
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| 03:45pm 29/04/2008 |
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Well, my first standard, rated game since I was a high schooler (in 1999) went pretty well. I won 2.5 games out 4, which makes me slightly above average. These were all against higher rated opponents, since I was playing in the U1800 section. So I felt pretty good. I should have won the first game because I was up by a knight, but then I made an amateur miscalculation and my entire position was destroyed in one move. I then proceeded to beat myself up a great deal internally, but recovered in time to beat 2 more players and draw a gentleman rated just under 1700.
I have now decided to win the Albuquerque Open in June... once I decide something and announce it I probably have to actually do it. Scott is directing the tournament so it should be interesting.
Being slighty above average at ANYTHING is harder than being wayyyy above average and wayyy below average at anything. People both simultaneously expect you to perform well, but then you don't have the natural talent to actually back that up. Then again, you can't just say you're not good at that one thing and not actually do it, because then you get labeled as wasting potential talent.
Being slightly above average means you have to actually work for what you get, which sux. :)
Full results are posted here:
http://www.nmchess.org/PirMaleki08.pdf |
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| Black offers A Way Out |
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| 05:30pm 24/04/2008 |
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From the movie, "Searching for Bobby Fischer"
Judit Polgar shows the world how it's done. |
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| Vassalage |
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| 12:08pm 23/04/2008 |
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A vassal, in the terminology that both preceded and accompanied the feudalism of medieval Europe, is one who enters into mutual obligations with a monarch, usually of military support and mutual protection, in exchange for certain guarantees, which came to include the terrain held as a fief.[1] By analogy it is applied to similar systems in other feudal societies. It was always distinct from fidelitas, sworn loyalty of subject to king,[2] and the honor, the respect and consideration that accrued to the vassal, unlike the delegated power of a comes or count, was not expressed in expectations of related public duty.[3]
See the wikipedia article for more information:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vassal |
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| Theme Park - $$ |
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| 02:02pm 10/04/2008 |
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mood:  giddy
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I can't believe anybody thinks this would be a violation of Article IX Section 14 !!!
Clearly, they never delved into early New Mexican railroad finance and the original intent of the clause. Somebody ought to write a memo to explain how much $$ this would bring into Roswell's tourism industry, and how this would actually fulfill a clear public good, like giving people in Roswell something to do besides cow-tipping and drinking (just kidding Roswell). I wish Albuquerque were up for consideration.
Perhaps they don't get the meaning of "general implementing legislation" in section D.
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Thursday, April 10, 2008
UFO Park Plans Stall
By Tim Korte
The Associated Press
For now, plans for a proposed UFO-themed amusement park in Roswell have been sucked into a black hole. ( Read more... ) |
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| Church / Mass |
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| 08:25pm 06/04/2008 |
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Church on Friday afternoon was great. About 40 people showed up for Critical Mass early. It was a nice sunny day, except since we were operating on hippy time, it didn't actually start till about 1 hr after the posted time. This was very advantageous, because it allowed a friend or two who had to work until 5:00 enough time to catch up and join us. I went and got a slice of green chile pizza instead, and came back... 50 people is a lot of people for ABQ critical mass. Like 200 showed up in Boston on a regular basis in the freezing cold, but 50 is actually an accomplishment for here.
We made circles in the uptown Q and cruised down Central at 15 mph like ganstas with a boombox, except listening to Stereolab? Generally there were mostly supportive honks and a few joiners. This could be because riders were in the mood for actually following traffic laws for a change / stopping at red lights, etc. Also, people decided only to take up 1 lane instead, so everyone was happy, lo-riders included. Seems like there are always 1 or 2 people trying to ruin things for the rest of everyone though.
Today was spent riding about 38 to 40 miles along the Bosque and back. Now I'm sunburned. I have to return to work, and the real world, tomorrow.
Why would I ever voluntarily stop riding a bike though? Like, if I could find a way to eat, work, play bass, and sleep on a bike, I would spend 24 hours per day going to Church. Why exist in the real world when you don't have to? |
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| Global Climate Change |
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| 12:44pm 25/03/2008 |
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What color is global warming? How much money will we have underwater?! Dear James Carville: It's not just the economy, stupid.
Shiver me timbers, an ice chunk the size of Northern Ireland is about to break off!!
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Andrea Thompson
LiveScience Staff Writer
LiveScience.com
1 hour, 1 minute ago
A vast ice shelf hanging on by a thin strip looks to be the next chunk to break off from the Antarctic Peninsula, the latest sign of global warming's impact on Earth's southernmost continent.
Scientists are shocked by the rapid change of events.
Glaciologist Ted Scambos of the University of Colorado was monitoring satellite images of the Wilkins Ice Shelf and spotted a huge iceberg measuring 25 miles by 1.5 miles (41 kilometers by 2.5 kilometers - about 10 times the area of Manhattan) that appeared to have broken away from the shelf. ( Read more... ) |
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| More about yesterday ... :) |
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| 02:15pm 24/03/2008 |
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Today is the greatest
Day I ’ve ever kown
Can’t live for tomorrow
Tomorrow’s much too long
I burn my eyes out
Before I get out
I wanted more
Than life could ever grant
Bored by the chore
Of saving face
Today is the greatest
Day I have ever known
Can’t wait for tomorrow
I might not have that long
I’ll tear my heart out
Before I get out ( Read more... )
Has anybody heard the new Smashing Pumpkins album? i totally missed it when it was new, .. it all makes me look back to the early 90s. |
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| Easter Sunday |
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| 01:14pm 24/03/2008 |
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music: "Today," - The Smashing Pumpkins
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... was spent riding for Roy Sekreta, a bicyclist struck by a motor vehicle near Commanche while crossing the diversion channel, on a bike trail. The 25-year-old driver at first fled the scene, but returned after 1/2 an hour. i still haven't heard how he is being charged for the vehicular homicide ... one more case i would never want to be the DA on.... never, ever... couldn't pay me enough, thank you.
Roy's family organized a ride for Easter Sunday. I didn't really know Roy, but i still went to church (Montgomery Park) at around 1:00, and the pilgrimage continued from there to UNM. It was a brilliant, sunny day with hundreds of riders ... we never broke 10 miles / hour, but that was cool. it was nice to be escorted by the police for a change ...and there were many courteous thank-yous in various directions.
the new bike trail on the diversion channel is nearly complete! i took that route home for a sneak preview.
The remainder of the day was spent eating food at my Aunts and hearing my father rant about how he has been recently discriminated against because he is too old and was turned down for a job in reitirement. I think it's the first time I've ever heard my dad use the word, 'discrimination,' ... he wants to know if i know any lawyers that handle age discrimination. i told him to file with the EEOC and get in line with everybody else... :)
i wish i had pictures but my battery charger is one of numerous former possessions scattered about the globe, waiting to be found.
preparing for bachelor parties and straight weddings now...gotta get back to work now.
also ... This is a really cool page where people can mark memorials in specific locations. In other words, you can attach stories to places! there are new ones going up to mark 4000. |
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