Happy New Year!!

Well, it's been six months since I last posted.  I must say, I've thought about posting, although not that frequently.  I'm doing less in the electronic and media worlds and preferring instead to actually talk to people.  In real life.  

Anyway, 2012 was pretty awesome.  Here's to a fantastic 2013 folks!!!

Now room for "honest mistakes"

USA Women's Soccer goalie Hope Solo tested positive for a banned substance and received only a warning from the US Anti-Doping Agency.  I understand that WADA tweaked the rules a little bit in 2009 to allow for "honest mistakes," or those cases where athletes take some sort of medication for a legitimate, non-performance-enhancing purpose and the medication contains a banned substance.  Considering suspension too harsh for these "honest mistakes," the USADA can now give warnings.  But I just wonder what kind of slippery slope that will create for honest mistake doping??  We'll see!

The Slap Heard 'Round the World

Greece.  Yikes. 

The Pacific Garbage Patch - still there; still ruining everything

I remember about 5-6 years ago hearing about the Pacific Garbage Patch.  Some floating plastic debris the size of Texas in the Pacific Ocean.  I remember hearing also that the sand in some parts of Hawaii was actually colored a color other than "sand" color - dotted with tiny plastic particles of various colors.  I also vaguely remember at some point joining some sort of group on Facebook related to outrage at the Pacific Garbage Patch.

Well, now in 2012, the Pacific Garbage Patch is, wait for it, changing the environment and impacting sea life!  SURPRISE!  Who would have thought a huge floating plastic island the size of Texas (or bigger now) could change the environment???

Anyway, the report says that not only do fish ingest the plastic, but water skimming insects lay their eggs on it instead of on natural wood or other flotsam.  This patch keeps getting bigger and bigger.  Maybe someday someone will create a theme park on it and make some money off of it.

Second

What is wrong with this lady!?!??!?!  And who knew that it was illegal in NJ to tan in a tanning bed if you're under 14?  NJ - continues to surprise me.

First

Why is this layout sooooooooo different from the old one?  Was anybody unhappy with the old set up?  Why is there CONSTANT and seemingly useless change to everything social media?  What happened to the old adage "if it's not broken, don't fix it"?

These are not rhetorical questions.

Sudden Victory?

It was recently brought to my attention that Penn State won the NCAA wrestling national team title (back to back titles!), and that 5 of the Penn State wrestlers are in the individual finals.

So I decided to tune in for a second on ESPN to take a gander and caught a Penn State wrestler go through the three rounds with a Cornell wrestler and end in a tie. What happened next was called "sudden victory." I looked at it written across the bottom there and thought, that doesn't look right. Then I realized that every other sport I know calls it "sudden death." But sudden victory sounds so much better!

I did some digging and found this on wikipedia under "sudden victory:"

"Sudden death may instead be called sudden victory to avoid the mention of death, particularly in sports with a high risk of physical injury."

I could think of riskier sports, but I guess the term is appropriate for wrestling.

Armageddon 2040!

Just heard about this the other day on the local news (always so helpful) - an asteroid is going to come dangerously close to earth in 2040!!

The asteroid has a name - 2011 AG5 (how original) - and in exactly 28 years, it could collide with earth. Unless we send a team of actors onto the asteroid to blow it up and shift it's trajectory. All of this hoopla for an asteroid for which scientists have only studied HALF its orbit around the sun.

I'm not entirely convinced this is something to worry about. But you know, the last time an asteroid actually collided with earth was ~65 million years ago, so we're due for another pop sometime soon, right!??!!

Phil saw his rodent shadow!!!

Well everybody, once again, Punxsutawney Phil saw his little rodent shadow this year, meaning 6 more weeks of winter. I'll say though, if what we've been experiencing lately with the weather constitutes "winter," I'll gladly take 6 more weeks of it!!! Read the article. What bothers me about this is not that we hang our hats on the word of a groundhog (using "word" liberally here), but that apparently Phil's decision is determined before he even has a chance to see his shadow!!!

"Phil's prediction is determined ahead of time by the Inner Circle, a group which dons top hats and tuxedos and decides in advance what the groundhog will predict."

Sounds suspicious... Haha!

State of the Union?

i'm confused as to why there is a response (regardless of political party) to the state of the union. That suggests that the state of the union is debatable, which i don't necessarily agree with. we're either doing well, or not doing well. if there's a debate about it, then it's arguably not the real state of our union, right?

Coin count

Well, I have nothing to report here, for the first time in years! I can't say I've found too much money on the ground in 2011, and the stuff I did find was in about a dozen different currencies! So we'll see what 2012 has in store for the coin count!!