Stray Thoughts

[gotsnowgotslush]

When you were a child-
Did you ever aim a flash light beam up into the dark night sky?
And observe how the light beam traveled farther than you thought it would?
Do you think our cell phone calls are leaking past the satellites?
(Science Fiction always posed the question if our TV programs were leaking into space.)

 

[tinylittlegnat]

Our television signals are beamed far into space at the speed of light. So if there is a civilization with enough technology to receive it and they are 70 light years away they are watching our news broadcasts of WWII

 

[gotsnowgotslush]

I was surprise to see that there was TV around the times of World War II.

April 7, 1927

Bell Telephone Labs and AT&T give a USA public mechanical television demonstration over both wire and radio circuits. The demonstration was directed by Dr. Herbert Ives and Dr. Frank Gray. Pictures and sound were sent by wire from Washington D.C., to New York City. A wireless demonstration also occurred 22 miles away, from Whippany, New Jersey, to New York City.

The main part of the demonstration was a speech by Herbert Hoover, then secretary of commerce, which originated in Washington D.C. The 50-line pictures, transmitted at 18 frames per second, were received on a 2" x 3" screen. It was claimed that there was no difference in quality between the pictures sent by either wire or radio.

I am sure that who ever is listening,
will conclude that the earth has become much louder,
after they start hearing the cell phone messages.

 

[gotsnowgotslush]

Traffic control at the airports are using equipment and navigation methods,
based on stuff from World war II? And are getting around to changing it, this year?

 

[gotsnowgotslush]

To provide support to mortgage lending and housing markets and to improve overall conditions in private credit markets, the Federal Reserve will purchase a total of $1.25 trillion of agency mortgage-backed securities and up to $200 billion of agency debt. The Committee will gradually slow the pace of these purchases in order to promote a smooth transition in markets and anticipates that they will be executed by the end of the first quarter of 2010.

As previously announced, the Federal Reserve’s purchases of $300 billion of Treasury securities will be completed by the end of October 2009. The Committee will continue to evaluate the timing and overall amounts of its purchases of securities in light of the evolving economic outlook and conditions in financial markets. The Federal Reserve is monitoring the size and composition of its balance sheet and will make adjustments to its credit and liquidity programs as warranted.

Voting for this action: Messrs. Bernanke and Dudley, Ms. Duke, Messrs. Evans, Kohn, Lacker, Lockhart, Tarullo, and Warsh, and Ms. Yellen.

Voting against this action: None.

Oh. The usual suspects.

This is not going to help all the people who will be losing their homes this year.

 

[gotsnowgotslush]

And while we are on the subject of foreclosures and mortgages....

Mortgage companies are more likely to foreclose on homeowners than modify their loans because they make more money off foreclosures, argues a new report by a consumer advocacy group.

"Servicers may even make money on a foreclosure," she writes. "And, usually, a loan modification will cost the servicer something. A servicer deciding between a foreclosure and a loan modification faces the prospect of near certain loss if the loan is modified and no penalty, but potential profit, if the home is foreclosed."

"Servicers lose no money from foreclosures because they recover all of their expenses when a loan is foreclosed, before any of the investors get paid. The rules for recovery of expenses in a modification are much less clear and somewhat less generous," she said.

 

[bluemuse]

When you were a child-
Did you ever aim a flash light beam up into the dark night sky?
And observe how the light beam traveled farther than you thought it would?
Do you think our cell phone calls are leaking past the satellites?
(Science Fiction always posed the question if our TV programs were leaking into space.)

No, but I jumped up and down on my etch-a-sketch to see what was inside. Made a horrible mess.

 

[gotsnowgotslush]

What was inside the etch-o-sketch? Was it a liquid? Or was it powder-y?

 

[bluemuse]

What was inside the etch-o-sketch? Was it a liquid? Or was it powder-y?

It was powder-y. And lighter than air. It got everywhere. The goop inside my brothers Stretch Armstrong was even worse. Sticky goopy ick.

 

[TurdFergeson]

It was powder-y. And lighter than air. It got everywhere. The goop inside my brothers Stretch Armstrong was even worse. Sticky goopy ick.

Magic 8-ball liquid is non toxic, but still doesn't taste magical.

 

[bluemuse]

Magic 8-ball liquid is non toxic, but still doesn't taste magical.

Dude, you must have been very, very thirsty.

 

[TurdFergeson]

Dude, you must have been very, very thirsty.

No, I just wanted the power to tell the future.

 

[gotsnowgotslush]

2009 and the USA is in Afghanistan.

Persia was there.
The Mongols were there.
Great Britain was there.
The USSR was there.

 

[gotsnowgotslush]

Yes. In the past, my Ogre has put off taking a shower for too long.
He was really into riding his mountain bike every where, at the time.
And he developed a scent, that was worse than a wet dog's. Ughhh!

 

[gotsnowgotslush]

Yesterday's still waters were a preview. When they are frozen over, they will have that same subtle ripple.
But the frozen waves will not carry such a colorful reflection. The future will be a will be a misty rainbow
reflected onto a plain of parched salt.

 

[gotsnowgotslush]

Last year we had Alan Cumming as host for the episodes of Mystery on Masterpiece Theatre. (PBS)
This year we have David Ten-nant as host for Mystery Contemporary.
(he has this delicious wolf-ish quality)
They both have this "edge", that American actors do not have.
Not even the ones who take part in independent projects.

 

[Johnny_Ray_Wilson]

Traffic control at the airports are using equipment and navigation methods,
based on stuff from World war II? And are getting around to changing it, this year?

That is how humans are. We are quick to point out mistakes and antiquated methods; yet extremely reluctant to deploy remedies. The first moon landing was in 1969. Why did we stop there?

 

[atmas]

On long drives when i was a kid I would watch the trees fly by and on a whim catch hold of one with my sight, seek to find one individual leaf on it, and focus clearly on that leaf. I would satisfy myself with the fact that I may be the only person ever to fully see that one leaf,
Only now, years later, do I realize that this fact alone means nothing to that leaf.

 

[gotsnowgotslush]

Two Peanuts cartoons in one night! I am happy, because I saw my favorite part.
Snoopy gets all kinds of emotional while listening to piano songs.
He is so cute when he gets weepy. He forgets himself and howls a little.

 

[crazycatt]

They say apples are better than coffee in the morning for waking you up, but I like coffee too much to actually confirm that for myself.

 

[gotsnowgotslush]

La cucaracha, la cucaracha ya no puede caminar (ah,ah)
porque le falta porque le falta(ah,ah)
marijuana que fumar
last turn(marijuana que fumar,marijuana que fumar,marijuana que fumarr)
(la cucaracha!)

It was about smoking stuff?
Those are not the lyrics we sang, as children!

I just have seen a sample plant on PBS.
I had to turn away from the Tv.
It was so trippy I thought I might start hallucinating.

 

[gotsnowgotslush]

It has been a long time since I have visited the Smithsonian.
It is nice to be up close to legendary things.
Even if they were legendary for other reasons,
than being the best of something.

 

[gotsnowgotslush]

People's portraits end up in the strangest places.
A video portrait at a national gallery? Understandable.

http://www.independent.co.uk/multimedia/archive/00159/pg-14-sleep-ap_159865s.jpg

But this?
http://www.chitramala.com/news/david-beckham-to-be-in-condom-ad-116031.html

 

[gotsnowgotslush]

It is a wild and windy day. A wild and windy night will make the decorations dance and thrash.
It will be a little frightening when the sheet ghost and the pretend skeleton bones hanging
from the from the tree, move by themselves.

 

[Le Jacquelope]

When you were a child-
Did you ever aim a flash light beam up into the dark night sky?
And observe how the light beam traveled farther than you thought it would?

I always wondered why my flashlight would never light up the ceiling at night when I went outside. Then when I got older I started writing messages in the sky hoping that the Vulcans would see it and drop by.

They should be getting those messages right about now.