First new post in 3 days

Just writing since there weren't any new posts since Saturday. Nothing really to say. I do need Bill Harlan's email address again though, I prodded him and he agreed to join if we sent him another invite, so we could have yet another soon possibly.

Infinite breakthrough?

Ok, anyone who knows me, knows I like to think about infinities.
You may also recall that I've insisted from time to time that there
are many different sizes of infinities.

Take the set of even numbers out to infinity for example. That's one size.

Another one is the set of odd numbers to infinity.

Those two, the even and the odd, would be one size.

Now, an infinity that is twice the size of either of those would
be the set of all the integers, both even and odd, out to infinity.

An infinity that is only one fifth the size of that would be the set of integers
you get when you count by five all the way out to infinity.

Remember all that?

Well today I discovered a thing that collapses those different sizes and
makes all those infinities the same size.

Before I telly you what it is, I want to get a little feed back from people
on what's been said so far.

What do you think?

I know Bon always says that there's only one infinity, and I kind of think
that's right, but I never had a way to demonstrate it before.

Do any of you?

Where do you think the blog goes on the weekends?

It's a bit chilly for the lake...too early for dinner and a movie...maybe the blog is napping after a hard week's work.

Another Purchase Completed

Hey Folks,
I am just writing to tell you that yet another shirt has been bought. Quite comfortable it is...... AAARGH!! Stupid Yoda speak. I saw Starwars last night, and I can safely say that I don't have to pay any money to see it again. Anyway, here's the shirt.

Bon Bombs Toad!

You should see the link
the Spinster put up
on the Toads blog.

Absolutely hilarious.

Nice one Bon of Zy!

Jeni Fleming Acoustic Trio on iTunes

Its True... you can now buy the trio albums on iTunes. i have waited so long for this day. Congrats!

Spider

EEeeeeKerZ!!!!?????

How were the Epiphanies?

Return of Toad

I went to Toad's site today.
He has posted a list that he says
is what makes blogs suck.
What the hell does he know?
I invited him back and he came.
I told him that there were smarter people
here than he is. I believe that to be true
(even though Toad's pretty damn smart.)
Check Eekerz's post on Starwars
to see his contribution.

So Nate, Was it on purpose?

Jenifleming.com deemed Webby Worthy

To all those who may or may not know, we submitted Jenifleming.com to be entered in the 9th annual Webby Awards. We were disappointed to learn that we had not won any awards, but then again the compition was fierce.

Today I googled Jeni Fleming. (I do this often with clients to see how well the site pulls up) One of the listings simply said "Webby Awards" I thought it was going to be a listing of all of the sites submitted. To my fantastic surprise i got to read this...


It’s going to be a good day!

Al_himonly's Birds

Chop Inspired Poem by Poly & Owl (wip)

Wumbletweed.

Hear the harmonica?

Holy tumbleing crickets!

Click on the cricket cliché
and watch the book weed tumble by.

Then crickets with crickety old knees,
and oh, yea, wumbletweed.

Cricky-legged floor clichés
and harmonica hearsay.

Then (once more) the whisper.

Wumbletweed.

Veelly Interestink

Scientists: Sumatra quake longest ever recorded
Temblor big enough to 'vibrate the whole planet '
By Marsha Walton
CNN
Friday, May 20, 2005 Posted: 11:39 AM EDT (1539 GMT)

(CNN) -- Dramatic new data from the December 26, 2004, Sumatran-Andaman earthquake that generated deadly tsunamis show the event created the longest fault rupture and the longest duration of faulting ever observed, according to three reports by an international group of seismologists published Thursday in the journal "Science."

"Normally, a small earthquake might last less than a second; a moderate sized earthquake might last a few seconds. This earthquake lasted between 500 and 600 seconds," said Charles Ammon, associate professor of geosciences at Penn State University.

The quake released an amount of energy equal to a 100 gigaton bomb, according to Roger Bilham, professor of geological sciences at the University of Colorado.

And that power lasted longer than any quake ever recorded.

The quake, centered in the Indian Ocean, also created the biggest gash in the Earth's seabed ever observed, nearly 800 miles. That's as long as a drive from Los Angeles, California, to Portland, Oregon.

Scientists estimated the average slippage (ground movement up and down) along the entire length of the fault was at least 5 meters (16.5 feet) -- with some places being moved nearly 20 meters (50 feet).

Scientists have also upgraded the magnitude of the quake from 9.0 to between 9.1 and 9.3, a dramatically more powerful event. As a comparison: the ground shook 100 times harder during December's earthquake than what was felt in the 1989 Loma Prieta quake in California. That 6.9 magnitude quake caused extensive damage from Santa Cruz to San Francisco.

Monster quake
The stunning power of Asia's earthquake and tsunamis last December has left even veteran scientists in awe.

"I think it was humbling for everyone that analyzed the earthquake," said Thorne Lay, professor of earth sciences and director of the Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics at the University of California, Santa Cruz.

"We're sitting in our laboratories working on the signals from this earthquake, trying to understand what happened scientifically, and then watching TV at night and seeing the death toll rising for weeks," he said.

The enormous human toll from the natural disasters spurred Lay to organize dozens of scientists from all over the world to share their data and analysis of the quake. The long-term goal is to try to get more, and more accurate tsunami warning systems in place.

Whole planet vibrated
A wide array of instruments were used for the first time to study the earthquake, and its many aftershocks.

Global broadband seismometers recorded the ground in Sri Lanka, a thousand miles from the epicenter, moved up and down by more than 9 centimeters (3.6 inches), according to the report.

But no place on Earth escaped movement.

"Globally, this earthquake was large enough to basically vibrate the whole planet as much as half an inch, or a centimeter. Everywhere we had instruments, we could see motions," Ammon said.

Much of that information came from digital broadband seismometers, a new era of instruments that the National Science Foundation and the U.S. Geological Survey began deploying around the world several years ago.

Lay says the equipment is sensitive enough to pick up the motion of wind blowing through trees, or cows walking in a field, or the massive motions produced by this earthquake.

"We'd never seen signals from an earthquake of this size, and the availability of this instrumentation was a real breakthrough in being able to see the complete rupture process of one of these truly monstrous events," Lay said.

Other tools added to the scientists' understanding. Underwater cameras documented the huge crack in the ocean floor. Tsunami buoys, and sonar from the British Navy helped with the analysis.

And a fortunate bit of timing enabled researchers to get a view of the tsunami they have never seen before.

"Two hours after the earthquake has occurred, the wave is spreading out from the Bay of Bengal," Lay said. "Two satellites went over, with the capability of measuring the elevation of the ocean surface. The satellites saw the south-going wave and the north-going part of the wave. "It was just good luck that the passage of the satellites caught the tsunami in motion," he said.

Crunching numbers, and creating maps and models is taking on a new urgency for some of the scientists involved in this research.

"There will be more earthquakes of this type, and with more humans exposed to the hazard there will be more devastating losses of life. What we hope to do is develop technologies that can minimize that loss," Lay said.

Look What we can do

Neeto Gang (Click here)

Meet Frank and Max

These little guys have spent the last 2 nights in my bath tub. I love them.

I'm saying it because Spin isn't.

So, I'm sitting here and I just noticed for about the 8th time that my sister has a beautiful Om land Sri cure ity shirt.

See Lookie!!!


So they do exist if anyone wants one.

Put the helmut on, already!!!

May the force be with you. May it keep you awake. May it keep you from saying "Oh, there's ANOTHER pretty shot to look at." May it keep you from calling Mr. Lucas and telling him to shove that light saber right up his...

Okay, so I went to the midnight showing (sneak preview) of Star Wars III last night. I know I don't do well at movies that begin after 9PM, and this one started after midnight, so take it all with a grain Tatooine sand. Not only did it leave me wondering where the rest of the five major plots in "Sith" went to...hmmm...cutting room floor?, but why it takes young Skywalker two friggin' hours to become the great Darth we know and love him for? I get it, Death Star Geeks, angst and struggle need to happen...the dark side just doesn't turn on a dime...or does it? Everything leading to the end of episode II already suggests it.

I could go on...but, why bother. Go see it and may the force keep you from strangling the counter help when they don't put enough butter on your popcorn...those kernels are the only gold nuggets in this feature. Enjoy.

Humble suggestion.

Might an enterprising Jazz Trio consider
the "Anna Halo" pix and others by Bonny Fleming
for an upcoming album cover?

There seems to be a certain appropriate ambience...
or is this just a proud father's yammering?

Sure is quiet.

I hear crickets, I saw a tumbleweed go rolling by, and there is a book of cliches on the floor.




Quiet indeed.

I noticed that there were no pictures on the blog any more

Art and Fear part 2

I hope more of you will answer Polyman's questions.
My experience in doing his exercise was that I was
sure I knew the answers until I started writing. Then
I noticed, in the act of writing, I changed my mind
on every single point.!

It is a very soul searching thing to do!

Give it a shot!

Believe me, reading someone elses results is not
nearly as intriguing as finding out how you really think
and feel about these things (although I personally can't
wait to read your answers).

BTW, don't let the number of comments mislead you.
Only two people have responded so far.

p.s. I was super lucky, because Termes (er, uh...Polyman)
was watching my posts and giving me feedback
as I was putting the next answers up.

Very exciting experience!

Open Air Art Show, Official Information

Wow, I leave the blog for a weekend, and I can't catch up. Nice work all.

• We have officially set the date for the art show at my house to be on the 26th of June.


• The time will be from 2:00 to 8:00.


• The entry fee will be a dish or wine for the patrons.


• Everyone showing art will be totally responsible for all their work and sales.


• Anyone interested in showing there work must have contacted us by the June 17th.


• There will be a live entertainment schedule so anyone interested in playing music for an hour or two should contact me as well.



• I am in the process of making a website with all this information on it, and I also plan on putting an ad in the Arts Anchor.



• Asio Studio has graciously offered to sponsor the event.

That is all I know at this point. Any input would be very welcome.

But most importantly we want to extend the invitation to the talented people of this spave first. Please let me know if any of you are interested.

I'm Very Excited! LOTS of work to do!

Today an amazing thing happened
It was unexpected, my reaction to the parade for the 109th Engineering Co. who had returned from Afghanistan, where they had been for almost a year. Chop called me at the office a bit past 5:00 pm, “Check out West Main”, he said, “Tell me what is going on.” I did, since it is only ¼ a block from our office front door.

Spin: Anna was at day care… about 4:00 pm Jayne Thompson (Anna’s other grandma) called me. She said, just a heads up, all the soldiers from the bla,bla,bla something or other have come back and wanted a parade.

* I thought to myself, whatever they want is cool, they did a good thing, I guess… She proceeded to tell me that they all wanted, was to drive through the parade in their own convertibles. I thought instantly, “how cool” “I want to go” but then I realized that she was telling me, just as a warning… “getting to day care might be a chore.” Ok… and alternate rout might be in order.


Thunk: It was a parade, a special parade. Boys and girls who made it home from the carnage of a foreign land waved, riding in the very best and newest convertibles, they glowed with gratitude, accomplishment and relief. Traffic stopped. Both the eastbound and westbound lanes of traffic just stopped. Friday commuters, anxious for a weekend after the Rapid City week-from-hell stopped their suvs, jeeps, jalopies. Even the heavy-metal-base pumping too-cool-for-school-cars stopped. High fives, waves, pride passed between the fly boys and girls, their families and us, the common men and women. It was exhilarating.

I didn't’t mean to but in a flash I was in the back-time. Viet Nam—that was our war…and watching the boys in the shiny convertibles, I found war time again, Viet Nam. I remembered our boys coming home to egg-throwings, vile slurs, screams that they were ‘baby-killers’. I remembered their shame at coming home. I remembered a whole lot more that I won’t go into, and I started to cry. There I was watching the boys in the convertibles and I was crying almost uncontrollably. Strange how the present ties us to the past.


Spin: I went home after work. I went to check out the state of change of my house. (you never know what to expect) I was about to leave, I was getting in my car, when I heard the honking. I heard the cheers. I heard the support. I couldn't’t help myself from walking to the edge of my property, looking down at the gap, I saw convertible after convertible, one after another driving past, every one of them had a solder riding high on the back seat of the car, waving to the citizens of rapid, and ever one of them receiving praise every 100 feet the car drove. I could hear phrases of praise being thrown from my neighbors yards, including my upstairs neighbor,… which could have only come from my mothers house. I exchanged a holler of salute with my brother only yards away. What a glorious moment indeed!


I do not support war of any kind. I never have. I didn't’t support Viet Nam, Afghanistan Iraq or any of the dirty little wars in between. If we, as a nation are going to put our precious young men and women at risk however, I do support them. I always have. And today, when I saw the grass routes support for the troupes returning from Afghanistan (believe me it was across the board), I felt like we had come a couple paces down the evolutionary path.


Bon: as we watched the solders go by, my heart swelled for them. I too, can not support this war, the war in Afghanistan, or any other war we may or may not be a part of. But want I can do is send my love, and support to those who are there because they are fighting for use, and because they have no choice in the matter. They made a choice with their lives they signed on the dotted line. They are there because the feel some sort of obligation, an obligation I will never understand…. But they stand by it, they mean it, and they will give their lives for it, and for that reason I support the hell out of them, and I salute them as an fellow American. And by god, that's saying a lot!

Ellsworth on the ropes.

Early news from Sioux Falls
is that EAFB is on the base closure list.

Attaboy John Thune.

Way to take care of West River SD,
the people who got you elected!

Polyman et al, heads up!

Great article this month in Discover mag.

Roger Penrose strikes again. (June 2005).

Why we can't (unlike electrons)
be in 2 places at once!

Also note his new book,
"The Emporer's New Mind:
Concerning Computers, Minds,
and the laws of
Physics."

Which of us will give
the first book report?

the official report

Snow closes schools cuts power to thousands in Rapid City

today

Just a short little post--It rained, sleeted, hailed, snowed, lightened and thundered today. Day must have been a democrat-chant for moisture (chant, om, sri...whoops we forgot to organize). But it was exciting., and beautiful, the photo-ops were endless (got some).

It has begun!

All right, the store is up, there is some stuff up there, but I would like to expand a little bit. Thing is: it requires about 5 bucks a month to have a premium store, I am getting a 1 dollar profit per item currently, so if we can spread the word around about these great products, I would be able to offer a little bit more. Currently, I can only have one type of a certain item up at a time, a premium shop would be able to have as many of a certain type of item as we needed. Second, I have discovered that I would be able to have items that are not currently available. If we would be able to make up the $5 a month, I would gladly upgrade to a premium store, all it requires is that everyone needs to convince other folks to buy stuff. So, give me your thoughts..... Oh and here is the link.
Click Here

A friend of mine had an idea!

Hi all,
A mutual acquaintance of Dylan’s and mine came to my house with a great idea. She has been going to college in Brookings and has developed quite an art portfolio. She came to me and wanted to put together an art show. For a while now I have wanted to sell some of my photos, but I haven’t had a place to do it. I also want to sell them cheap so the idea of paying someone commission is not really and option. Her idea really struck me as a good idea. Together we schemed and here is what we came up with.

The idea is:
We want to open my house up for one day as an art gallery. She wants to hang her art and I will hang my photos, and then we will extend the invite to anyone else who wants to display their work. If it is nice out side we could even have work set on easels outside. We also wanted to invite people to play music and have a good time. I think it would be a lot of work but it would sure make for a fun day.

Of course the invitation is extended to anyone on this blog. Any thoughts?

Workin on it

Just posting to tell all that Spin and I are acting on the request from the Flick to make some "Om land Sri cure ity" merchandise. I would also like to note that any other things that we would like to see on a bumper sticker or tee shirt could also be submitted. As soon as I have something to display, I will put the store up online. If anyone is curious, the method I'm using is going through an online store called www.cafepress.com. They are pretty decent to work with, your stuff takes a while to get to you, but it's good stuff. Some of you might recall, there was a Good Ol' Slice shop up there. Anyway, just an update

new photos

Hi, I made this this morning for your viewing pleasure...enjoy

Hurray for Mom's

Happy Mommie to all the wonderful moms
who blog (or follow blogs) in this spave.
You have made the world a better plave
by bringing beautiful children into it, and I
am most grateful to all of you for it. Thanks!

Looking at the Lake

2 Days in the Art institute. 30 or so Monets,
a handfull of DiChricos, Van Goghs and Manets,
2 Jasper Jonzez and as many Lichtensteins,
DeKooning and Pollack on the side. And this
morning sunrise over the river and the lake.
The Owl likes Chi-town, but loves his nestmates
in the blackwoods more. Home soon.

This is worth your time!

Click here

PSP

Hey there,
I'm blogging from my new game system, a Sony PSP. If you don't know about these little machines yet, check it out, they are pretty amazing.

I was called away from work to go stand on the porch. I had heard the season’s first crack of thunder and saw the drops of rain earlier from my desk. I knew why I was being called outside. The air was till warm from the day. I stepped outside and filled my lungs with the smell of the rain.

There are a few things that really mark the arrival of spring; the sound of birds chirping though your open window in the morning, the smell of cutting that new spring grass, and the smell of the springtime thunderstorm rain. All of these things I experienced today.

The sun is out now, and the birds are splashing in the newly made puddles. Everything is clean and refreshed.

Happy Spring Everyone!

Mostly for Eeks...

...but pretty funny for anyone else who wants to take a look.
Click Here

Look at this

Today, in our very own Rapid City Journal... who knew

Kamala's D Hive

Ms. Monk says:

"I wish Mr. Skleeve would stop asking me to pull his finger!"

now you go!

The monkey for Owl

Go to sweetnoodle.com/blog/monkey.jpg

another Chop, By Sri Owl

Termes, it's 2.5 D.

Using the zoom keys you can seem to be flying
around through space in Dick's painting
(see Ethunk's post below), but there
is a catch! Anyone noticed what it is?

I can't figure out how Flick the Fly did that.

My name keeps showing up doesn't it?
How did he get his not to?

No sig?

I just noticed that when you choose to "allow no comments"
when you create a post, you don't get a signature. I know
Flick posted his, but you could put up an anonymous message.