I was watching a doc on the Soviet program sending landers to Venus. A very tough planet to explore, it is shrouded in a nasty, dense atmosphere of nearly all carbon dioxide, making visuals impossible. Eventually, radars helped map out the surface. Trying to get a vehicle on the surface is just as hard-surface temps average nearly 900° F and the atmospheric pressure is roughly equivalent to that found at 3,000 feet underwater on Earth. Basically, if the vehicle doesn't melt first, it's crushed. The Soviets learned from their failures and built landers to somewhat survive for a bit of time. In 1982, Venera 13 managed to hang on for 127 minutes, long enough to send back color photographs of the Venusian surface.
There was a section featuring the first recording of sound from another planet. At that precise moment, the doc was interrupted by a Taco Bell commercial! You bastards! What one heard after recovering from the overly loud exhortations to eat lousy "mexican" food, was a slight whisper of wind. Kinda ruined the moment.
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Since 2013 when it landed, American Mars Rover Curiosity has been exploring the three mile high Mt. Sharp, located within the 96 mile wide Gale Crater. Such dogged devotion to the task at hand-10 years climbing the same mountain!
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| Curiosity selfie courtesy NASA |
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Objects in our solar system shown in size comparison:
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A show on Prime offered a chance to buy an entire season. I clicked on buy and was met with this message:
PURCHASE SUCCESSFUL
Your will shall decide your destiny
Hmm I thought this is weird. Are the Prime AIs getting philosophical or does it have to do with what I just purchased?
So, I googled the phrase. What I bought was the newer version of Anne of Green Gables titled Anne with an E. Turns out that phrase is a tagline for the series AND a quote from Jane Eyre, another famous orphan. Natch. Still, curiously clever of the programmers to do this.
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Bud snoozing in his blue basket in the closet in my study. He will often come and hang out when I am working on the blog, reading the newspapers or after Mom shagged him off her lap because her legs had numbed. The basket used to be Molls' and evidently, her faint scent did not deter Buddy. It's about a size too small for him-he really has to curl up to fit. Typical of cats, he needs the door open to keep his eye on things to feel secure plus the added bonus of being amongst Dad's clothes containing his scent.
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Buddy has been a real LuvBud this past week with both of us. Perhaps when he saw the tree, it marked some passage of time, reminding him of his first days with us last year. Counting his blessings, these affectionate displays of being close to us are his way of saying thanks.
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| Simon Tofield |
When you said you were going to be busy for a bit but would feed me, I didn't expect that feeding me came after rinsing out the soup tins.
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Title misread: How to survive a tornado in shorts.
Huh? Oh, that's #shorts! Gotcha!
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Talking Heads from 1988-ironic, witty and in some ways, a cautionary flip side of Joni Mitchell's Big Yellow Taxi. Be careful for what you ask for, warns the narrator-there can be unexpected consequences. He is pretty bummed, it turns out-happy (I guess) that the environment is healthier yet sick of eating nuts and berries, yearning for a Big Mac meal.
Here we stand
Like an Adam and an Eve
Waterfalls
The Garden of Eden
Two fools in love
So beautiful and strong
The birds in the trees
Are smiling upon them
From the age of the dinosaurs
Cars have run on gasoline
Where, where have they gone?
Now, it's nothing but flowers
There was a factory
Now there are mountains and rivers
You got it, you got it
We caught a rattlesnake
Now we got something for dinner
We got it, we got it
There was a shopping mall
Now it's all covered with flowers
You've got it, you've got it
If this is paradise
I wish I had a lawnmower
You've got it, you've got it
Years ago
I was an angry young man
And I'd pretend
That I was a billboard
Standing tall
By the side of the road
I fell in love
With a beautiful highway
This used to be real estate
Now it's only fields and trees
Where, where is the town
Now, it's nothing but flowers
The highways and cars
Were sacrificed for agriculture
I thought that we'd start over
But I guess I was wrong
Once there were parking lots
Now it's a peaceful oasis
You've got it, you've got it
This was a Pizza Hut
Now it's all covered with daisies
You got it, you got it
I miss the honky tonks,
Dairy Queens, and 7-Elevens
You got it, you got it
And as things fell apart
Nobody paid much attention
You got it, you got it
I dream of cherry pies,
Candy bars, and chocolate chip cookies
You got it, you got it
We used to microwave
Now we just eat nuts and berries
You got it, you got it
This was a discount store,
Now it's turned into a cornfield
You've got it, you've got it
Don't leave me stranded here
I can't get used to this lifestyle
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| Still from The Specials vid Ghost Town 1981 |
Buzzed, driving around town late at night with yur buds. One has his head out the window.
Ah, youth.
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