Offline, Not Out of Pocket

With the exception of my weekly countdown, a long time between posts. What can it mean?

Not one thing, really.

I had one to many proposals due this week in my non-exam classes (i.e. the ones with a paper and no exam). Blogging had to take a backseat somewhere behind cleaning the garage and scheduling a teeth cleaning.

I'm working up a draft outline for a legal analysis of the San Juan River Basin and its various inter-governmental structures, as well as a paper/project on the Navajo Nation's ongoing water settlement and related adjudication activities.

Cool huh? I always feel that in the absence of actual work product, being able to rattle off a string sentences regarding what I propose to do will always suffice.

I’m also a strong believer in whitening strips.

That Downward Slide...

Slippery slope, whatever... we head'n home to the finish line.

Week ten comes to an end with a midterm exam in estate and gift tax, and a great visit with guests from way out-of-town.

Definition of exceptional house guests:

"What do you guys want to do… today… for lunch… this afternoon… for dinner… etc.?"

"Whatever."

My kind of people; i.e. no hassles and no agenda. They had only a simple need for spicy, New Mexican food. Uh, yeah, I can dig it.

Oh and they picked up the check!

Totally Rad Science Weekend

After the Trinity Site, we needed a pick me up.

Suddenly it dawned on us that we’re in New Mexico and you know what that means? Yep. There is no better place to feel like humanity is making progress on that evolutionary scale than the Very Large Telescope Array.


Or, to consider that while we might not make it into the galactic club of civilizations with all the nuclear weapons we have lying around, at least we're trying to find some other civilizations out there in the galaxy to talk with. (Uh... but, I guess they better talk nice or we'll drop the big one on 'em won’t we?)

Anyway.


Jodie Foster got to get up and close to these big dishes and so apparently did we!

Week Seven Ends with a Bang

Well.. a sixty-odd year old bang anyway.

Twice a year the Army opens up the otherwise restricted White Sands Missile Range (motto: "Let us see how much we can really beat the shit out of your invention, before you drop it on somebody!"), to the general public for only six hours.

Every first Saturday in October and April, intrepid tourists have an opportunity to drive into the middle of pretty much nowhere, to visit the original ground zero, i.e. the site of the world's first nuclear detonation.


On July 16, 1945, on top of a 100-foot steel tower, an atomic bomb was detonated. The shockwave was felt over 200 miles away, windows were broken 100 miles away, and the entire tower was vaporized (with the exception of one footing). An eight-foot crater was formed in its place and the immediate rock and dirt turned into the world's first trinitite deposit.

There's not much in the way of destruction to see today. The crater has been filled and the radioactive material buried. After sixty years, the landscape on the surface looks pretty much like the surrounding desert. But, a rock monument now sits in the center of where the tower stood. And a fence keeps us tourists from getting too much additional radiation from the surrounding area. Half-life? Oh, about 10,000 years.


I came, I saw, I took the requisite pictures. I didn’t find myself reflecting on the horrific potential for death and destruction that nuclear weapons represent. However, driving the 15 miles into the missile range was pretty interesting from a popular culture perspective. I mean, there were quite a few turn-offs to a number of what can only be qualified as X-Files type buildings.

I thought about making a run for one of them but then realized that if the truth really is out there, I don't want to know.

Another Member in the Page Cookie Jar

I occurs to me that while Mark Foley can check himself into all the rehab and emotional sancuaries he wants to, that won’t stop either the FBI investigation or the Florida state prosecutor’s office from charging him.

Emotionally unbalanced? Yep.


Aware he was enticing a minor? Yep.

But, oh what a flashy website. This is real "member" of Congress, who really knows how to leverage the power of uh, technology.

Pity he resigned.

Now we need to find a new Chairman of the Congressional Missing and Exploited Children’s Caucus. I went looking to see who was next in line but apparently House staffers are busy reworking the website today and it’s down for maintenance. Ironic huh?

Now where is Gary Studds when you need him?