Friday, March 26, 2010

Kick Ass


So my current blogging philosophy is to go for quality not quantity. My plan to do this is to post happy thoughts. If you want outrage, for now, you’ll have to go to The Huffington Post, MSNBC, or Fox News. Today’s happiness comes in the form of a movie.




I already know that I’m going to go see Kick Ass (pictured above). Yes I know it’s going to be Superbad but I’ve accept this and I’m going to see it anyway because that’s what I do


The good news is that there’s another movie coming out that looks equally as campy but since its done by the same geniuses that brought us Hot Fuzz and Shaun of the Dead (the greatest horror spoof ever), I am instantly in.


The trailer has been describes as having “Epic Awesomeness”. I couldn’t agree more. Here’s your clip of the week!


Tuesday, March 9, 2010

I Could Have Picked Brittany Spears



I'm working really hard (conciously) to get back into the blogging groove. I have to go to Cali for work this weekend which should lend itself to stupid after work drinking blogging (always an entertaining deal).

But for the moment...here's your Clip O' The Week(?)


Tuesday, March 2, 2010

Magellan Discovers The Earth Really Is Flat

I once worked with a bunch of rocket scientists so I can attest to the fact that most of them believe that they are so smart they’ll never learn anything new. The problem is that they’ve also forgotten simple basic principles.

For example…the length of a day is determined by the Earths rotation not the degree of the axis. So unless an earthquake can slow down or speed up the rotation…

Ah hell read it for yourself.


Chile Earthquake May Have Shortened Days on Earth
By SPACE.com Staff

posted: 02 March 2010
10:02 am ET


The massive 8.8 earthquake that struck Chile may have changed the entire Earth's rotation and shortened the length of days on our planet, a NASA scientist said Monday.

The quake, the seventh strongest earthquake in recorded history, hit Chile Saturday and should have shortened the length of an Earth day by 1.26 milliseconds, according to research scientist Richard Gross at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif.

"Perhaps more impressive is how much the quake shifted Earth's axis," NASA officials said in a Monday update.

The computer model used by Gross and his colleagues to determine the effects of the Chile earthquake effect also found that it should have moved Earth's figure axis by about 3 inches (8 cm or 27 milliarcseconds).

The Earth's figure axis is not the same as its north-south axis, which it spins around once every day at a speed of about 1,000 mph (1,604 kph).

The figure axis is the axis around which the Earth's mass is balanced. It is offset from the Earth's north-south axis by about 33 feet (10 meters).

Strong earthquakes have altered Earth's days and its axis in the past. The 9.1 Sumatran earthquake in 2004, which set off a deadly tsunami, should have shortened Earth's days by 6.8 microseconds and shifted its axis by about 2.76 inches (7 cm, or 2.32 milliarcseconds).

One Earth day is about 24 hours long. Over the course of a year, the length of a day normally changes gradually by one millisecond. It increases in the winter, when the Earth rotates more slowly, and decreases in the summer, Gross has said in the past.

The Chile earthquake was much smaller than the Sumatran temblor, but its effects on the Earth are larger because of its location. Its epicenter was located in the Earth's mid-latitudes rather than near the equator like the Sumatran event.

The fault responsible for the 2010 Chile quake also slices through Earth at a steeper angle than the Sumatran quake's fault, NASA scientists said.

"This makes the Chile fault more effective in moving Earth's mass vertically and hence more effective in shifting Earth's figure axis," NASA officials said.

Gross said his findings are based on early data available on the Chile earthquake. As more information about its characteristics are revealed, his prediction of its effects will likely change.

The Chile earthquake has killed more than 700 people and caused widespread devastation in the South American country.

Several major telescopes in Chile's Atacama Desert have escaped damage, according to the European Southern Observatory managing them.

A salt-measuring NASA satellite instrument destined to be installed on an Argentinean satellite was also undamaged in the earthquake, JPL officials said.

The Aquarius instrument was in the city of Bariloche, Argentina, where it is being installed in the Satelite de Aplicaciones Cientificas (SAC-D) satellite. The satellite integration facility is about 365 miles (588 km) from the Chile quake's epicenter.

The Aquarius instrument is designed to provide monthly global maps of the ocean's salt concentration in order to track current circulation and its role in climate change.