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Wishful Thinking

Steven Hawking says humans close to finding answers to origin of universe

The 64-year-old also said his unfulfilled ambitions, among many, were to find out what happens inside black holes, how the universe began and how the human race can survive in the next 100 years.

Florida Life

Sinkhole Suspected In Disappearing Lake

Residents say the private lake dropped several feet this week. Late Wednesday, it receded at least 20-feet from the shoreline, destroying docks and gazebos and breaking apart one home. The South Florida Water Management District believes a sinkhole opened up at the south end of the lake.

Hey, it happens down here. I remember as a kid reading a fishing magazine that described Lake Jackson in northern Florida. The fishing was fantastic but the lake would go through cycles and once in a while sinkholes would open up and swallow the lake (and everything in it). Here's a description:

Lake Jackson is known nationally as a premiere bass fishing lake. And over the years, aquatic weed and water quality concerns in the lake have been the subject of countless homeowners' meetings and of primary interest to lake management personnel. However, its bass reputation and aquatic weed problems became much less consequential on September 16, 1999 when a sink hole suddenly drained more than half the lake of every last gallon of water, not to mention every last fish and alligator. It is now possible to walk from shore to shore--but steer clear of the sink hole.

Jess Van Dyke, long-time regional biologist with the Bureau of Invasive Plant Management (Florida Department of Environmental Protection) was there when it happened. "It was spectacular: animals trying to scramble out; a whirlpool of gators, birds and bass went down the hole," said Van Dyke. Lake Jackson is one of Florida's disappearing lakes, lakes with sinkholes that are known to drain periodically. Lake Jackson, for example, has drained 4 times previously in the 20th century, in 1907, 1933, 1957, 1982 and now in 1999.

There are some incredible photos on that page of the sinkhole.

Unwanted Pets

Florida's Python Problem

Reading this reminded me of something that happened recently and it's the very reason Florida has this problem.

I took James to a pet shop a few days ago and they were remodeling. It recently changed hands and they were changing things around. They had a huge tank with about 10 large fish, mostly Oscars, but a couple of Red Devils and some other large Cichlids.

The guy kept trying to get me to take some off his hands, he was letting them go very cheap. I have a large tank and I want to get an oscar but it is empty now and I am refinishing the stand/cabinet. I could not take any fish right now. I wish I could have because he said if he didn't sell them that day he was going to put them in the lake. I don't know how serious he was or if he did it, I never went back.

I don't think oscars can survive the winter here in central Florida, but I know they do in Miami and you can actually catch them down there in the canals. And you can catch a Burmese Python in the Everglades. That is not cool.

I never did understand the attraction of the giant constrictors as pets. As the articles states:

But they don't stay young for long, and they don't stay small. In time, they become too much to handle as pets.

"You have to regularly kill large animals, like rabbits, to feed it, and it can grow to 200 pounds, and it defecates like a horse," Mazzotti says.

I have a Red-Tailed Boa (Boa Constrictor) and that is not a giant snake despite it's reputation but it is larger than I wish. There are so many small and awesome pythons and boas that don't get larger than 6 feet. Do a little homework before purchasing a monster.

And whatever you do, please don't just let it go when you don't want it anymore. I don't care what it is.

Watch Out For That Motel

Car Crashes Into Motel In Osceola County

Again. Just a couple of weeks ago or so a car demolished a brick wall in front of the same motel. I've posted at least twice before about cars hitting that motel.

The last accident at the intersection of SR-535 and US-192 was just two weeks ago. It took out part of a decorative wall.

And in January of this year, three people were killed when a driver lost control at the same intersection slamming right into the Golden Link Motel. Troopers said speed was a factor in that crash.

The wreck also prompted DOT to conduct a study of the intersection and already the department had some thoughts on how to make the end of SR-535 more obvious to drivers.

DOT believes more pavement markings and a sign in front of the motel pointing drivers left off of SR-535 may help responsible drivers. As for impaired or reckless drivers DOT is less confident.

More pavement markings and a bigger sign ain't gonna cut it. I don't know what they are called but I've been on some roads that have little slots cut into the road that make a loud noise when you go over them to warn you to slow down or stay on the road. When you come to the end of a road they have 3 or 4 sections of this, closer together as you come nearer to the end and it seems to me this would help a lot at that intersection.

Why it takes the DOT so long come up with their thoughts, I don't know. Since January they "already" had some thoughts. It's their job, they should already know what works and what doesn't. Maybe they should assign a committee to research the idea, spread a little more of that taxpayer money around.

Gitmo Suicides

Rusty Humphries has some things to say about what happened down there and why. I've listened to his radio show when he's been to Gitmo and reported from there. He has had almost free rein on his visits, they let him go where ever he wanted with very few restrictions - for his safety. Some facts about Gitmo suicides

Let me clear some things up.

I have been to Guantanamo Bay on numerous occasions. According to press and attorney reports, the three men who committed suicide had been cut off from their families and "driven to despair." What a load of garbage! These men were not "driven by despair." These were crazies who believed a dream by a Muslim leader living at Gitmo. He claimed that in his dream, three "brothers" (Muslims) would have to die before the U.S. would shut the camp down. Since then, the "brothers" have been lining up to martyr themselves. I have reported on this "dream" for over two years. The media has known this as well and have chosen not to report it, even now after the prisoners have achieved the first part of their goal.

This was an act of an al-Qaida operative, a terrorist recruiter and a front-line Taliban fighter - in other word... terrorists. They are seeking to manipulate the weak-minded.

And the weak-minded are eating it up.

People Are Funny

Woman Cited For Exposing Herself In Store

The woman was riding a motorized cart inside Lin's Market Place on Thursday with her pants around her ankles and not wearing underwear.

Customers didn't notice the woman until she would stand up from the cart and bend over to look at items on the shelf, exposing her buttocks.

The woman told police she arrived in Cedar City with a circus but was left behind.

Falling Star

Record meteorite hit Norway

"This is simply exceptional. I cannot imagine that we have had such a powerful meteorite impact in Norway in modern times. If the meteorite was as large as it seems to have been, we can compare it to the Hiroshima bomb. Of course the meteorite is not radioactive, but in explosive force we may be able to compare it to the (atomic) bomb,"

This is not the first time this has happened. Besides the huge impact in Tunguska, Russia in 1908, there were at least two large impacts (smaller than Tunguska) said to have happened. I posted about them here but I can't find them now.

The odd thing though is that these events don't make it into any major news source. You would think this would be big news. You would think scientists would make a beeline for the area and pictures would be taken, studies done. Let's see what happens with this one.

"Little pig, little pig, let me come in,"

Guess who's coming to dinner?

A 6-foot-long alligator pounded on the front door of their Penny Creek Drive home at around 7:45 p.m. and started scaling the wall at the entryway -- its front left claw inches from the doorbell.

It's cool that they got a picture of it.

Like Keeping Tigers?

Keeping palm trees is like keeping tigers? Have they gone completely mad?

Palm tree ahead danger

The headline doesn't even make sense.

"What if one of those leaves caught a child in the eye, for example? It is a little bit like keeping tigers: they are beautiful to look at but you wouldn't want them wandering the streets.

Yes, I suppose palm trees wandering the streets would be a bit much. Are they sure this wasn't just a Monty Python skit?

"Tiger brand coffee
It's a real treat
Even tigers prefer coffee
to real meat."
-- M. Python

"... the nanny state has gone absolutely mad."

Defending Ann

Why Ann Coulter is right

Matt Lauer, Hillary Clinton and Alan Colmes have been laughable in the trumped-up outrage that they share for the statements Coulter makes in "Godless" in reference to the "Jersey Girls." The Jersey Girls are four wives who lost their husbands on 9-11. They jumped into the 2004 election debate early on, cutting commercials for John Kerry, and they are on record for saying some rather hideous remarks about Condoleezza Rice and Karl Rove, not to mention President Bush.

She wasn't talking about 911 widows in general, which you would never know by listening to or reading most news reports. She was talking about four widows specifically, the Jersey Girls, who have been very outspoken in criticism towards George Bush and his administration.

But what if they're wrong? What if, even in as much pain as they have endured at the hands of terrorists, the substance of what they argue for is as loony as the day is long? Even if Cindy Sheehan lost her heroic son in the War on Terror, does that now mean that everything Cindy Sheehan says is correct?

Which is Ann's point.

Ann's criticism is legitimate. If liberals in America wish truly to have a debate on the issues that we all have strong emotions about, then stand and make the point, but don't hide behind those who are ineffective, unskilled and often wrong in their views, simply because they're victims.

Precisely.

Another Alligator Attack

Man Bitten On Head By Alligator At Rock Springs In Apopka

Rock Springs is very popular for swimming and snorkling. I almost went there once, it was so busy we couldn't get in.

Zarqawi Dead

Zarqawi killed in Iraq air raid

They got Zarqawi finally, with an airstrike in Iraq. Identified and confirmed.

Godless

You can read the first chapter of Ann Coulter's new book, Godless, here.

She's not pulling any punches, does she ever?

Prager On Marriage Amendment

Good stuff here: Liberal reactions to the marriage amendment are not deep

That most liberals cannot understand conservatives' views about marriage as anything but bigotry and/or pandering is part of a narcissism that characterizes much of the Left. The very definition of narcissism is an inability to see the world through the eyes of another. Whatever conservatives' flaws, far more conservatives understand liberals' views on same-sex marriage. Most opponents of same-sex marriage appreciate that liberals feel bad about gays' inability to marry a person of the same sex. In fact, as a proponent of a marriage amendment, I not only understand the liberal desire to enable people to marry someone of the same sex, I feel genuine compassion for gays on this matter.

But such empathy for ideological foes is all but absent from the narcissistic world of the Left. To virtually every liberal writer and spokesman, only liberals mean well, only they are sincere, only they are compassionate, and only they are intellectual, rational and tolerant.

Psycho-Economics

Another thing about liberals I can't begin to figure out is their abiding devotion to failed economic theories. The fact that communism hasn't worked anywhere in the world doesn't cool their ardor in the slightest. The fact that Marx's brainstorm invariably metastasizes into a despotic tyranny-be it in the Soviet Union, China, Cuba, Cambodia or Venezuela-doesn't make the slightest impression on them. Neither does the fact that socialism has brought much of Europe to the brink of moral and financial bankruptcy faze them in the least.

In our own country, the most obvious failure of socialism is social security, the single largest pyramid scheme ever conceived by the mind of man. When Ponzi did it he went to jail for fraud; when Roosevelt pulled it off he was hailed as a savior. As someone or other once observed, if you're going to steal, steal big.

From Psychoanalyzing the loony left -- Burt Prelutsky

Twenty-Six and Counting

Orlando police are a step closer to finding the teenager who committed the city's 26th murder this year.

It's insane how often I have been hearing of murders, carjackings, robberies, beatings and every other form of violence in the Orlando area lately. It seems like every day there is something major.

apparently, there are a record number of people in Orlando right now willing to use a gun over just a few bucks.

Smokin'

The '94 Cadillac Seville smokes badly when it sits idling for a few minutes or starting while hot. The problem is fuel leaking into the intake manifold from the fuel pressure regulator or a leaking injector. In this case there is gas sitting on the bottom of the manifold. It gets sucked up through those black intake pipes - of which most have been removed for the picture. The square holes are the air intake and the small round holes above them are where the fuel injectors go. The fuel pressure regulator is at the top of the picture.

FairTax Please

GE's 24,000 page tax return

But he says G-E will save "many (m) millions" by shifting from paper.

Imagine how much they will save if we abolish the IRS for the FairTax. Corporations pass every penny they pay on to the consumer - we pay for it.

I Wonder Who The Baby Will Look Like?

Charmed woman marries cobra in India

Earlier this year, a tribal girl was married off to a dog on the outskirts of Bhubaneswar.

You have to be careful getting kissed by a cobra, you never know when it will be your last.