tvashtarkatena

If you two were kewl enough you'd KNOW what I'm talkin' 'bout. I'd give you a one word hint, but there isn't one that wouldn't give it away, so here's a letter: "I"

Now back to arguing about who funded Robo Squirrel.

You don't send your New Down back to be re CO2 injected and vacuum sealed. You have your factotum do it.

I seem to have particularly spiritual but not religious friends in that sense.

Remember when you could be dumb and proud of it? Damn libruls!

Let's roll!

Golden calcite. Should look OK on stainless (!!!) or bronze. According to the website, it's also supposed to connect me to my higher self.

I just ordered the sun from China. 2, actually - always helps to have a backup.

Oh, I have no problem with the current system or any other - just takin the piss. Guide on! Every 3 years or so I take a fresh crop of noobs up - friends, family, neighbors, 1st Ave bums, etc. Our number one nemesis: REI's Blue Boots of Pain.

Thanks, OW. I am serious - mos def gonna happen on my end, but Proxima Centauri would up the WOAH factor quite a bit. Shoot me his contact info if you will so we can discuss the preliminaries of how it might work in his end. No hardware yet on my end - still designing it. The footprint's really small...a few square feet or so plus viewing area is all I'd need for the Grand Junction end. Of course, now Colorado could have their own Proxima/Alpha Centauri solar system with Kepler rockin the exoplanets.

I'm going this project in concert with a buddy up the street and his 12 year old son Alex - the kid who made a Rainier attempt with us last year. That's what stuck me, too - the reach of gravity. Maybe someday we'll figure what it is. The sun is dense - its specific gravity averages 1.4. It also contains 99.9% of the solar system's mass. But it's not all that big, relatively speaking. VY Canis Majoris would engulf the solar system far beyond the orbit of Jupiter - well over a 100 foot radius (relative to 1 inch) on my scale.

Meh. Uranus is relatively calm. Calmer than you are.

I could have that information for you by 3 o'clock, but you don't want to know.

Did you know that the moon around Uranus has methane geysers?

Not enough time to spread the word on 911, but I do what I can. Figuring this stuff out isn't too time consuming with a spreadsheet and a little grey matter. Neither is making a few bronze medallions with the appropriate symbology.

The sun and planets out to Jupiter will be on my property, so don't piss me off. As far as I know there are no solar system models than include other star systems out there. They're all too large (public art and all that). This will give me an excuse to head out to Colorado one of these days (with Proxima Centauri in the glove box). Perhaps I'll even have the city's permission to install it.

GGK: the GOP's next PR Czar. Tact, commitment to the cause, and a honey tongue, all in one height/weight proportional package.

Seems like if many would love the see the current system changed, there might be at least one reason to circumvent it. Just sayin.

I'm planning a scale model of the solar system to be installed on our (Seattle) street this year. It will be scaled such that the sun is 2 inches in diameter. At that scale: A highly motivated snail would travel at one quarter the speed of light. Earth would be 18 feet away. Neptune, the furthest major planet, would be a city block away. Interstellar space would begin about 2 blocks away. Proxima Centauri, our closest stellar neighbor (1/4 inch in diameter at that scale) would be as far away as Grand Junction, CO. The Milky Way would still be 21 million miles across. The Andromeda Galaxy would still be well beyond the orbit of Jupiter. The furthest galaxies we can image would still be over 300 times the radius of our solar system away.

Mitt also falls into that category. Huntsman was the only modern hominid in the GOP line up, but he never made it off the bench. You can only spin bullshit so fast before it winds up all over you. And yes, that is a T-Vash original.

3 words: People Hate Pricks.

I also put in a letter to VA gov McDonnell urging him to sign their drone bill - which will be the first in the nation if passed (it sailed through the legislature, but the gov loves his toys): VA drone bill first in nation It's all about raising the kind of public awareness that can focus lawmakers on the issue. It's inevitable that Robocop is on the horizon (you can buy your own video and auto hovering 4 rotor drone for about $600 these days), so it's best that we regulate robot law enforcement and surveillance earlier than later. If not, I'm going to market Ivan-style helmet graphics on the top of round-the-town hoodies. After Skynet becomes self aware, of course, all this will be moot.

The bills dead this time around. Boeing's lobbyists prevailed this round. We'll get there. Public awareness on the use of drones withing the US has just started to accelerate.

The first lesson to know about big wall climbing is this: Your asshole isn't where you think it is. Once you've fully grokked that you can poo anywhere with impunity.

Dan Helmsadter: quietly awesome.