Non-Angsty News Roundup

So, a lazy Monday morning, I'm browsin' the news, couple things of interest, and while I know nobody cares (like SH said not too long ago, ya'all come here to vicariously experience my angsty divorce hell, I know...) I'm gonna post 'em anyway, 'cuz I always told myself this is the kinda blog I'd have someday.

BTW I'm getting ever closer towards edging over to the new blog. Probably another week or two, once I get my work-life up to speed once and for all and have a little more free time to waste...

Anyway...

This, we need. Bad. It's not sci-fi anymore. Interestingly what they don't mention is that this technology ALSO has the potential to generate gigawatts of electricity that would obviously be a secondary - but major - benefit...

Space Elevator Man: Bradley Edwards Reaches for the Heights

Bradley C. Edwards, president and founder of Carbon Designs Inc., is the driving force behind the space elevator, a purportedly safer and cheaper form of transporting explorers and payloads into space.

Then we have this, which I just find cool. I love submarines. LOL. Sounds funny eh? But I mean, y'know, all kids go thru some military phase where they get into fighter airplanes, or battleships, or tanks, or whatever...for me it was submarines. Not that I DON'T also love military aircraft of course - one of the first "movie quotes" The Boy was taught to say was, "P-51 Mustang! The Cadillac of the Sky!" (Bonus points for whoever names the movie...) since he has one that flies around his room...

But anyway, submarines. Thanks to the computer game Silent Service which I played on my Commie in, I dunno, 1984 or so, I really got into 'em. WWII Fleet boats were amazing. For sucha tiny little undermanned boat - too small to even be called a "ship" in Navy terminology back then - they pretty much held back the Japanese single-handedly after Pearl Harbor and did such a number on the Japanese economy they never recovered. Anyway, they didn't even have a doctor, let alone a surgeon on board, so stuff like this happened:


Navy Honors Sailor for Emergency Surgery

More than 60 years ago, Wheeler Lipes performed a successful emergency appendectomy in a submarine 120 feet below the Pacific Ocean — an act that has finally earned him a medal from the Navy.

About time the guy got recognition for that one! Amazing stories in those WWII boats. Really they're all "unsung heroes" the poor submariners never really - even today - get much attention for what they have to deal with. You know a modern sub will cruise for 90 days and may not surface AT ALL during that entire time? Claustrophobics need not apply...



This, of course, comes as absolutely no suprise to anyone who's been following...well...anything in terms of Bush policy on the environment, the sciences, research, education (that doesn't focus on improving standardized test scores for feel-good but useless results, that is) or medical science issues...

Panelists Decry Bush Science Policies

The voice of science is being stifled in the Bush administration, with fewer scientists heard in policy discussions and money for research and advanced training being cut, according to panelists at a national science meeting.

And finally, we have this. Sad, but really, not all that unexpected, is it?

Writer Hunter S. Thompson Kills Himself

Hunter S. Thompson, the hard-living writer who inserted himself into his accounts of America's underbelly and popularized a first-person form of journalism in books such as "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas," has committed suicide.

Really no angsty issues at all today with the whole EL story. She called AGAIN last night to talk to The Boy, obviously she is really missing him, and combined with the whole OG-dumping-her thing, I'm concerned her "moral high ground" on custody/divorce property might start to waver soon, so I'm calling my lawyer tomorrow and willing to spend more money to get this shit done, FAST.