July 2012

There were 84 posts published in July 2012 (this is page 2 of 9).

Letters to Grandma: 21 January 1991

[Note: Read this post first for an introduction.]

This letter was written while my ship was in the midst of a three-month overhaul in San Diego’s NASSCO shipyards. My Desert Storm experience consists largely of me watching it on TV and supplementing that knowledge with the secret knowledge shared on the intelligence wires. I did return to the Gulf to serve in the combat zone but only after hostilities had largely ceased.

During this time my uncle Jimmy passed away suddenly from a heart attack. Many more heart attacks would come to afflict the Turner clan (though I intend to take good care of my ticker – and have so far).

C.J. was my parents’ Golden Retriever, still a puppy at the time of this writing.

My dad did end up visiting that March. We spent a few days and nights sightseeing around my ship and around San Diego. It was a weekend spent with my dad that I will never forget.

21 January 1991 (my 22nd Bday!!) [age:22, duh]

Dear Grandma,

Sorry it’s been sooo long since I’ve written – I’m just taking the bandages off my writing hand, so to speak. As you know there has been a whole lot going on since you last heard from me.
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Lonely front porch

Jupiter the cat


I’ve been fighting this sense of dread ever since Kelly and I returned from our weekend at Hanging Rock. You see, Saturday morning I left out a bowl of food and water for Jupiter, the feral cat who adopted our front porch as his home. Upon returning Sunday evening the food was still there, completely untouched.

I haven’t seen the little orange fuzzbucket since Friday and now I’m seriously wondering if we’ll ever see him again. Though he’s always been a wild cat and only adopted us late last fall, the cat has become part of the family. The enthusiasm he always shows when he comes tearing across the yard to see me really brightens my day.
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Confused 911 caller outs NYPD spying in NJ

This is quite alarming. The NYPD was caught spying … in New Jersey! Be sure to listen to the 911 call for yourself.

A building superintendent at an apartment complex just off the Rutgers University campus called the New Brunswick Police 911 line in June 2009. He said his staff had been conducting a routine inspection and came across something suspicious.

“What’s suspicious?” the dispatcher asked.

“Suspicious in the sense that the apartment has about — has no furniture except two beds, has no clothing, has New York City Police Department radios.”

“Really?” the dispatcher asked, her voice rising with surprise.

The caller, Salil Sheth, had stumbled upon one of the NYPD’s biggest secrets: a safe house, a place where undercover officers working well outside the department’s jurisdiction could lie low and coordinate surveillance. Since the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks, the NYPD, with training and guidance from the CIA, has monitored the activities of Muslims in New York and far beyond. Detectives infiltrated mosques, eavesdropped in cafes and kept tabs on Muslim student groups, including at Rutgers.

via “What?” Confused 911 caller outs NYPD spying in NJ :: WRAL.com.

Lightning and nuclear reactions

We had a few close bolts of lightning during last evening’s thunderstorm. One of the bolts caught fire to a neighbor’s backyard shed. It was one of the scarier lightning storms I’ve experienced.

I decided to look up some info on lightning today and came across this PBS page written by a lighting expert. Dr. David Dwyer, Associate Professor of Physics and Space Sciences at Florida Institute of Technology, answers questions about lightning. I found this Q&A particularly intriguging.

Q: Within the NOVA Web site I read that lightning heats the surrounding air of a lightning bolt to ~50,000°F, or hotter than the sun. The sun, as I understand it, generates heat through fusion reactions. So why don’t we see fusion reactions taking place within the surrounding air of a bolt of lightning? Casey, La Jolla, California

The surface of the sun is about 10,000°F, which is much cooler than the hottest part of lightning. However, the nuclear fusion that powers the sun occurs only near the center where the temperatures are much higher (30 million°F) and the pressures are very large. In comparison, lightning is downright chilly. As a result, no nuclear reactions are expected to take place during lightning. Having said all this, several independent research groups have recently measured nuclear by-products associated with lightning, which according to our standard picture doesn’t seem possible. If these results are correct, then something very unusual is happening with lightning—so stay tuned.

I did more poking around and found some articles of studies that seem to show that lightning can produce gamma rays. Those bolts may also be hurling antimatter into space! Fascinating!

via NOVA | Lightning: Expert Q&A.

Twitter Updates for 2012-07-24

  • Two weeks past the election and @tonygurley still has signs everywhere. Pick them up, please. #ncpol #ncgop #keepamericabeautiful #
  • Cx 1 wk, but still RT @mtdotnet One week past the election and @tonygurley still has signs everywhere. Pick them up, please. #ncpol #ncgop #
  • Yikes! A HUGE bolt of lightning just landed within a few hundred yards of our home. #
  • Lightning sparks shed fire in Woodcrest neighborhood of East Raleigh. #ncwx http://t.co/n3E0kvyd #

Twitter Updates for 2012-07-24

  • Two weeks past the election and @tonygurley still has signs everywhere. Pick them up, please. #ncpol #ncgop #keepamericabeautiful #
  • Cx 1 wk, but still RT @mtdotnet One week past the election and @tonygurley still has signs everywhere. Pick them up, please. #ncpol #ncgop #
  • Yikes! A HUGE bolt of lightning just landed within a few hundred yards of our home. #
  • Lightning sparks shed fire in Woodcrest neighborhood of East Raleigh. #ncwx http://t.co/n3E0kvyd #

In getting it wrong the NCAA might have actually found their voice

The NCAA slapped Penn State with a massive $60 million fine, vacated a decade of victories, and took away scholarships for four years as punishment for the Jerry Sandusky scandal. While I don’t know how Joe Paterno slept at night knowing the evil that Sandusky was committing, I’m not sure sanctions are right for this case. Paterno’s actions may have been cowardly and cold-hearted but the athletes and alumni aren’t at fault. Punishing them seems misguided.

Meanwhile, over in Chapel Hill it’s beginning to stink to high heaven with the allegations of egregious academic fraud, yet those in Baby Blue get off with a slap on the wrist. Go figure.

To me, as heinous as this matter is — and it is undeniable that it is far worse than impermissible benefits or academic fraud — it was still a matter for law enforcement as opposed to the fellow member institutions that make up the NCAA. The people responsible for what occurred are either in jail for life, headed there, or dead. What has happened today, with the announced penalties, severely punishes hundreds of people who had exactly nothing to do with the past culture of football isolationism.

via In getting it wrong the NCAA might have actually found their voice – WRALSportsFan.com.