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Forced Child Labor

I know they rather be playing video games or watching tv. Today I wrangled Noah into helping me. He won one of those new Playstation2s that are thin and sleek. The old, bulky Playstation2 will become a communal gaming system in the living room. Noah would much rather be playing his new system but I forced him to come downstairs. and showed him how to pull wire through the ceiling. Then we fished it up through the wall to his bedroom where I showed him how to connect the wire to a RJ45 in the same face plate as his cable jack. We talked about wiring then came downstairs to learn how to crimple a plug onto the other end of the wire. Then we learned what a switch is used for and where the Internet connection comes into our house. Although Noah was good company, it didn’t really peak his interest until I showed him how we could plug the a wire from his jack into the back of his new Playstation so that he could play online. See, the old style Playstations did not have a network jack built-in and we never purchased the newwork adapter. Noah lit up! (And can say he wired his own room for the Internet)

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Because I’m a man

There comes a time everyday in a man’s life where he has to stop and ask himself, "Have I done anything to aggrivate my wife today? Should I?" Mine came a few minutes ago as I snickered and revelled at how fun a little demolition would be today. I wised up quickly and decided that I should stay focused on the project at hand which happens to be some cleaning so that I can actually get to the project at hand. However, something had to be done with the stupid energy that was built-up in preparation to do some demolition. As we know, energy must conserved so when stupid energy is generated, stupid energy must be used. So, as I ask outloud, "What’s this switch do?" I quickly remember that most of my home computer network profoundly sits on a single circuit that is connected to a light switch beside the garage door. I guess the tape keeping the switch in the on position should have been a clue. Doh.

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Why do we need a moonbase?

Nasa claims we need a moonbase to launch missions to Mars. This makes sense and would be a good staging place to initiate long range space travel. The tourist possibilities are great also.

Slate says we do not have a need for a moonbase and are going to build it then decide what to do with it.

Coming under a presidency whose slogan might be “No Price Too High To Accomplish Nothing,” the idea of a permanent, crewed moon base nevertheless takes the cake for preposterousness. [Source]

Frankly I think the real reason for the moonbase is military. No one will say that because the public would cry foul. With China planning to orbit the moon…er, in 2006 and India planning on landing on the moon by 2020, it becomes self-evident that one of the countries is going to lay a claim to the moon. Whichever country establishes a base on the moon first will control the moon because nothing else will be able to be built on the moon after that without the first country’s consent. Just imagine you have built a base on the moon, learned your lessons about decompression, managing gravity, fueling, supplying and so forth. You have a presence and a small contingent of armed soldiers. Now someone else tries to build a base from scratch. They could not possibly defend their efforts from a well trained group of soldiers intent on demolition and learn the lessons to successfully build their base. Also, current military based satellites can easily be disabled or destroyed. A moonbase would be more difficult to attack and would make a far more stable launching platform for earthbound missiles.

In 1968, Stanley Kubrick had the right vision for a moonbase.