JamesSavik

What a dumbass. Copying one of Dom's stories is like whupping out a copy of the Stand by Steven King or Executive Orders by Tom Clancy and claiming it as your own. He might have gotten away with it if he had copied on of my stories.

The family gathered for Thanksgiving in Dallas area at my brothers place in Highland Village. Our family was there, their family was there- all in all, it was a fun, festive feast of turkey, cornbread dressing, pecan pie, football and flatulence. Thankfully my brother and I escaped to explore a part of greater Dallas area that I like a lot: Denton. It's a lot like Mayberry but modern and multi-cultural without a Barney Fife in sight. If you ever make it to Denton, check out Recycled Books! It's an old theater painted purple with used books EVERYWHERE. I got an expensive mathematic handbook that cost $120 retail for 16.50. There's also a lot of rare and hard to find stuff. Yes- I got a fixx for my latest comic addiction. I love the place. It has an eclectic sense of humor about the place with categories of books like "time, time-keeping and time-travel". "Physics, Fusion and Fishing". I was so overwhelmed by the books, I missed the massive CD and DVD holdings. Do you have a favorite book store? No. Borders, Barnes & Nobles and Books-a-million are NOT book stores. They are soulless sterile warehouses that sell knowledge at retail. A REAL bookstore is a dump. The real treasure is in the pages. The REAL bookstores in our country are under great pressure from the big soulless corperate run chains. We must seek out and support these cultural treasures before they are crushed by the Wal-marts of literature. If you've got one of these gems in your community, tell us about it!

VLT Image of Starburst Galaxy NGC 1313 ESO Press Release November 23, 2006 Source Link The central parts of the starburst galaxy NGC 1313. The very active state of this galaxy is very evident from the image, showing many star formation regions. A great number of supershell nebulae, that is, cocoon of gas inflated and etched by successive bursts of star formation, are visible. The green nebulosities are region emitting in the ionised oxygen lines and may harbour clusters with very hot stars. This colour-composite is based on images obtained with the FORS1 instrument on one of the 8.2-m Unit Telescope of ESO's Very Large Telescope, located at Cerro Paranal. The data were obtained in the night of 16 December 2003, through different broad- (R, B, and z) and narrow-band filters (H-alpha, OI, and OIII). The data were extracted from the ESO Science Archive and fully processed by Henri Boffin (ESO). The captivating appearance of this image of the starburst galaxy NGC 1313, taken with the FORS instrument at ESO's Very Large Telescope, belies its inner turmoil. The dense clustering of bright stars and gas in its arms, a sign of an ongoing boom of star births, shows a mere glimpse of the rough times it has seen. Probing ever deeper into the heart of the galaxy, astronomers have revealed many enigmas that continue to defy our understanding. This FORS image of the central parts of NGC 1313 shows a stunning natural beauty. The galaxy bears some resemblance to some of the Milky Way's closest neighbours, the Magellanic Clouds. NGC 1313 has a barred spiral shape, with the arms emanating outwards in a loose twist from the ends of the bar. The galaxy lies just 15 million light-years away from the Milky Way - a mere skip on cosmological scales. The spiral arms are a hotbed of star-forming activity, with numerous young clusters of hot stars being born continuously at a staggering rate out of the dense clouds of gas and dust. Their light blasts through the surrounding gas, creating an intricately beautiful pattern of light and dark nebulosity. But NGC 1313 is not just a pretty picture. A mere scratch beneath the elegant surface reveals evidence of some of the most puzzling problems facing astronomers in the science of stars and galaxies. Starburst galaxies are fascinating objects to study in their own right; in neighbouring galaxies, around one quarter of all massive stars are born in these powerful engines, at rates up to a thousand times higher than in our own Milky Way Galaxy. In the majority of starbursts the upsurge in star's births is triggered when two galaxies merge, or come too close to each other. The mutual attraction between the galaxies causes immense turmoil in the gas and dust, causing the sudden 'burst' in star formation. Larger region of the sky around the starburst galaxy NGC 1313 showing the larger scale disturbance of the galaxy. The galaxy shows some large deformations in the lower right part of the image, while diffuse matter is also present at the top of the image. All this signals a very tormented past which could be at the origin of the burst of star formation. The image was made from data from the Digitized Sky Survey, obtained through blue, red and infrared filters. The "Second Epoch Survey" of the southern sky was made by the Anglo-Australian Observatory (AAO) with the UK Schmidt Telescope. Plates from this survey have been digitized and compressed by the ST ScI. The data were extracted and colour-composed by Henri Boffin (ESO). NGC 1313's appearance suggests it has seen troubled times: its spiral arms look lop-sided and gas globules are spread out widely around them. This is more easily seen in ESO 43b/06, showing a larger area of the sky around the galaxy. Moreover, observations with ESO's 3.6-m telescope at La Silla have revealed that its 'real' centre, around which it rotates, does not coincide with the central bar. Its rotation is therefore also off kilter. Strangely enough NGC 1313 seems to be an isolated galaxy. It is not part of a group and has no neighbour, and it is not clear whether it may have swallowed a small companion in its past. So what caused its asymmetry and stellar baby boom? An explanation based on the presence of the central bar also does not hold for NGC 1313: the majority of its star formation is actually taking place not in its bar but in dense gassy regions scattered around the arms. By what mechanism the gas is compressed for stars to form at this staggering rate, astronomers simply aren't sure. Probing further into NGC 1313's insides reveals yet more mysteries. In the midst of the cosmic violence of the starburst regions lie two objects that emit large amounts of highly energetic X-rays - so-called ultra-luminous X-ray sources (ULX). Astronomers suspect that they might be black holes with masses of perhaps a few hundred times the mass of our Sun each, that formed as part of a binary star system. How such objects are created out of ordinary stars cannot be conclusively explained by current models. NGC 1313 is an altogether very intriguing target for astronomy. This image, obtained with ESO's Very Large Telescope, demonstrates once again how the imager FORS is ideally suited to capturing the beauty and stunning complexity of galaxies by observing them in different wavelength filters, combined here to form a stunning colour image. >>A high resolution image (with zoom-in possibilities) and its caption is available on this page. Follow the source link back and you'll find wallpaper images. Technical Information: ESO PR Photo 43a/06 is a colour-composite based on images obtained with the FORS1 instrument on one of the 8.2-m Unit Telescope of ESO's Very Large Telescope, located at Cerro Paranal. The data were obtained in the night of 16 December 2003, through different broad- (R, B, and z) and narrow-band filters (H-alpha, OI, and OIII). The data were extracted from the ESO Science Archive and fully processed by Henri Boffin (ESO). ESO PR Photo 43b/06 is made from images from the Digital Sky Survey, obtained through blue, red and infrared filters. The data was extracted and colour-composed by Henri Boffin (ESO).

Haa! If you read MY blog, you would have seen this article 4 days before Science Daily! Science Daily Scooped by Moi!

Have a great year Colin. 17 is usually a pretty good one.

a very frustrated person who lost his ticket on the gravy train + booze == instant butthead

I don't even like Friends. Sit-coms are so... !

i always hated that show. The one and only star moment of Seinfeld was "the Smelly Cat" song and that was by a supporting actress. Smelly Cat

Two supernovae (circled) on either side of galaxy NGC 1316's bright core resemble eyes and a nose in this visible-light image from NASA's Swift satellite. Another bright spot at far left is a star in our own galaxy (Image: NASA/Swift/S Immler) Supernovae explode in rare double-whammy November 20, 2006 NewScientist.com news service A portrait of two supernovae that exploded just five months apart in the same galaxy has been made by NASA's Swift telescope. The galaxy, called NGC 1316, has now produced four supernovae in 26 years, the highest rate ever measured. All four supernovae were of type Ia, which are thought to occur when a stellar ember called a white dwarf collects too much matter from a companion star, igniting a runaway nuclear reaction that tears the white dwarf apart. The supernovae were both initially detected from the ground by an amateur astronomer in South Africa named Berto Monard. Swift was then called upon to make observations at ultraviolet and X-ray wavelengths. The first event was detected on 19 June 2006 and appears as a yellowish spot on the right. The second event was detected on 5 November, and appears as another spot at mid-left. Delayed reaction The white patch between the two supernovae is the galaxy's bright core. The spot at far left is a star in our own galaxy that happens to lie in the same direction as NGC 1316. The two supernovae add to two previous ones in the same galaxy, also of type Ia, that appeared in 1980 and 1981. This is the highest rate of supernovae of any kind ever recorded for a single galaxy. A typical large galaxy has around three supernovae per century. The host for these supernovae is a massive elliptical galaxy about 80 million light years away that appears to have merged with a spiral galaxy within the past 2 billion years. It is possible that the high rate of supernovae is a sort of delayed reaction to the merger, says Peter Brown of Pennsylvania State University in State College, US, a member of the team that made the Swift observations. Stellar baby boom Mergers tend to trigger high rates of star formation, and after a couple of billion years of stellar evolution, this could lead to higher rates of type Ia supernovae, he says. "If you have more stars being born, then you will have more that will die," he told New Scientist. But he says that it could also be a statistical fluke. A large number of galaxies are being monitored for supernovae, and every once in a while one would expect to observe a series like this in a single galaxy just by chance, he says. In addition to monitoring the sky for gamma-ray bursts

Have fun- recharge your batteries. Take care of bidness. We'll save you a spot.

LOL- beast-iality. I might get laid.

Here is NASA's press release describing the Leonids meteor shower. It has a nice podcast that discusses the science and tells you where to look. This is wiki's entry for Leo where this meteor shower usually occures. Leo is surrounded by Ursa Major, Leo Minor, Virgo, Cancer, Hydra and Sextans. Leo is fairly easy to spot because of the curl of the lion's head and Regulus is one of the brightest stars in the sky. This is wiki's entry on the Leonids. Leo: Regulus = alpha Leo. Chart courtesy of SEDS.org

I guess all that sauerkraut before the battle was a bad idea... Oops This is why I hate to leave my cat Boo at the vet. Rawrrrr! Who says that cats don't swing? Let's Dance

Ghost- If you are like me, you would rather sweat the details than release something before it is ready. KK is one of the great stories here and deserves just the right ending. JS

I have already voted for it. Sadly, it remids me of one of my old schools: you get the crap kicked out of you and you are called the troublemaker. That fat @ss-sistant principal looks out of place. He would look more at home on a prison work detail.

After a year and a half of service as a moderator, I have decided to "retire" and devote more time to writing. Being a moderator is stressful. It is NOT a symbol of power or prestige but rather a badge of trust and masochism: the site's powers that be must trust you and you must be a glutton for punishment. Trying to read every post on a site full of authors, potential authors, editors, poets and miscellaneous unusually bright people is exhausting. :wacko: I think that it is a good idea for a sites moderators to change from time to time. No personality should dominate and a constant flow of new blood insures against stagnation. Burned out moderators can turn cynical, crabby and mean and these are not traits that anyone wants to deal with- and something that I don't want to be or worse, become. This site is blessed with an outstanding team of administrators and moderators and it has been a great pleasure to serve with them. Myr is an outstanding individual that has built the premier site of its kind on the net. Kitty has helped drive GA to new heights and has presided over a period of unprecedented growth. CJ, Joey, Matthew, AFriendFace and all of the others each bring unique skills, outlook and voice to the team. As for me, I'm not going far: Just from the Admin forums to my blog. Expect to see more articles, blogs and writing from me- and new projects. Oh and I'll get to read more. See ya next time: same blog time, same blog channel, JS

Risk-taking behavior is a hallmark of most guys teen years. Add drugs to already questionable judgment and it's not a good match. Whenever we look at a phenomenon, we've got to look at what is going on around it. Adolescents with criminal records are surrounded by a host of factors that put them at all sorts of risk: parental neglect, violence, abuse, chemical dependency, homelessness, etc. It is a grim formula that seldom adds up with a positive result.

Moon

I quit smoking for two weeks. It made me such a mean SOB, the office chipped in and bought me a carton.

Oh dear! My editor has arrived. I'm going to have to behave myself now.

NJ- Sometimes you just need to recharge your batteries. See a movie, play BB, play krazy-cat & laser pointer, etc. Burn out is a serious danger to all kind of writers. Even Steven King turns off the PC every now and then. JS

The Democrats have gained a majority in the House and possibly the Senate! CNN: Democrats Take Control of House Yahoo: The Senate is Within the Democrats Grasp

You don't always die from tobacco...in bed. <Sometimes you wrap your car around a tree because you are distracted fooling with a smoke.>

Push them all off a cliff because they ain't X-men. Besides, the Punisher would be a better match for me. OK Dom fans: Jude Aiden Luke Optional for fans of Comicality's Billy Chase: Billy Brandon Jamie Cross BTW- Dom and Cosmie

Remember, remember the fifth of November, The gunpowder, treason and plot, I see of no reason why gunpowder treason Should ever be forgot. In 1604 a group of disaffected Catholics decided that they had a belly full of Protestant King James. One Guy Fawkes tried to blow up Parliament and King James with many kegs of gunpowder. It didn't work out and Fawkes was executed but November fifth has been an unofficial holiday in Great Britain and many countries in the Commonwealth ever since. Although the Gunpowder Plot didn't work out, it did serve as a wake up call to an arrogant king that the people wouldn't put up with his shit forever. Fawkes ghost was recently resurrected by a graphic novel and movie called V for Vendetta. I shan't waste your time by giving up the plot. That is a joy that you should discover yourself. The story does raise questions about what some people would do to be free. This is a question that many Americans couldn't be bothered with but we had better start. Dictatorships don't arrive escorted by marching bands. Dictatorships creep in quietly like a fog, with whispered conspiracies, labeling dissidents unpatriotic and making scapegoats of unpopular minorities. Does this sound at all familiar or have you been too busy watching MTV to notice? Valarie's Story I was born in a rainy burg in Nottingham in 1975. I passed my eleven plus and went to girl's grammar. I met my first girlfriend at school. Her name was Sara. Her wrists. Her wrists were beautiful. I sat in biology class staring at the pickled rabbit fetus while Mr. Our teacher said it was an adolescent phase that people outgrew. Sara did. I didn't. In 1994, I stopped pretending and took a girl called Christine home to meet my parents. A week later I moved to London to go to college and study drama. My mother said I broke her heart. But it was my integrity that was important. Is that so selfish? It sells for so little but it's all we have left in this place... It is the very last inch of us... But within that inch we are free. London. I was happy in London. I played Dandini in Cinderella. The world was strange and rustling with invisible crowds behind the hot lights and all that breathless glamour. Work improved. I got small film roles, then bigger ones. In 2006, I starred in "The Salt Flats." That's where I met Ruth. We fell in love. Every Valentine's Day she sent me roses and, oh god, we had so much. Those were the best three years of my life. In 2010, they came. And after that there were no more roses... Not for anybody. After the takeover, they started rounding up the gays. They took Ruth while she was out looking for food. Why are they so frightened of us? They burned her face with cigarettes and made her give them my name. She signed a statement saying I'd seduced her. I didn't blame her. God, I loved her but I didn't blame her. But she did. She killed herself in her cell. She couldn't live with betraying me, with giving up that last inch. Oh, Ruth. They came for me. They shaved off my hair. They held my head down a toilet and told lesbian jokes. They brought me here and pumped me full of chemicals. I can't feel my tongue. I can't speak. It is strange that my life should end in such a terrible place but for three years I had roses and apologized to no one. I shall die here. Every inch of me shall perish... Except one. An inch. It is small and fragile and it's the only thing in the world that's worth having. We must never lose it or sell it or give it away. We must never let them take it from us. I don't know who you are but I hope you escape this place. I hope that the world turns and things get better and that one day people have roses again. I don't know who you are but I love you. I love you. Valerie. Excerpt from V for Vendetta by Alan Moore and David Lloyd.