The StratoPress

Mayflower: A Story of Courage, Community, and War (Paperback) traces the history of the first English colonies in New England, starting with the arrival of the Mayflower and the founding of Plymouth. Since most of the action occurs in my home turf, it’s fascinating to see how deep the roots of some of the towns in the area reach into American history.

Even if you aren’t a New Englander, you’ll appreciate how the seeds of what made American history such a unique mix of European and Native American culture first sprouted here in the tenuous first encounters between two groups of people who couldn’t have more different backgrounds, yet shared so many common interests. Perhaps that’s why they ended up fighting one of the most destructive wars in written American history, King Philip’s War.

This book is a very specific and focused follow up to the period of American history covered in 1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus

1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus (Paperback), by Charles C. Mann, describes the history of the Americas before the European’s arrival dramatically altered the population and environment. This book explores in detail how the Americas were not virgin wilderness, untrammeled by all but a handful of nomadic primitive tribes, but a teeming land filled with advanced civilizations that had imposed significant alterations on the ecosystem to support their sophisticated societies

Greg, Todd and I got an early start this morning and fished at the mouth of the Essex River and then behind Crane’s Beach. Although we picked up fish on the sonar, only Todd was able to pull one out of the water, a small striped bass that was too small to keep, though. See photos of the trip on Flickr.

From today’s paper: Space station to get giant robot. The Onion?No, AP News. The astronauts involved in the mission were not reassuring:

“But I’ll tell you something. . . . He’s enormous, and to see him with his giant arms, it is a little scary. It’s a little monstrous, it is.”

— astronaut Garrett Reisman

Of course, the robot is named “Dextre.” The NASA web site has photos of the space station.

ET finally arrives? But no photos. More on Texas UFOs - Google News. Either this is one amazing media hack, or something is … out there.

Are they high? Texas UFO Sightings Blamed on DEA, says AXcess News. From more mainstream sources: Was It a UFO in Stephenville? An Offbeat Poll in the Washington Post, but relegated to the “Offbeat” section. There’s MSNBC Video from the Today Show, which includes very convincing testimonials from the county constable, a local reporter, some local dude in the woods.

More video, with many of the same clips: YouTube - CNN covers Stephenville Texas U.F.O. Sighting, or here’s The Raw Story | Witnesses claim F-16s chased flying saucer across Texas skies.

The Mutual UFO Network - MUFON - Dedicated to Scientific Study of UFOs is on the case.

Digg: Search for “texas ufo, dugg here by me (w/ comment): Digg - Large U.F.O. spotted in Texas
Diggs are low.

Norman Mailer’s last book, The Castle in the Forest, released before his death this year, is a portrait of the young Adolf Hitler and his family, told from a most unusual perspective: the demon who is assigned to cultivate Hitler as a “client.” Lots to think about in this book: the battle of good and evil, religion, and the scary parallels between modern events and the horrible conflicts of the last century.

The Pros and Cons of Coffee Drinking - Dumb Little Man

I think I should move to filtered Joe and supplement with calcium antacids, to max the bennies of the fiendish bean of caffeine. I do like the flava! I don’t think it’s hurt my recent weight loss, either.

December 14, 2007 12:43 AM

I fired up WordPress and busted out a blog about my son’s school, a private blog which requires a free WordPress account for members to read & post comments (or administer?). I invited family only, about 5 members. Let’s see what the activity level is like for such a small, but involved audience.

WordPress was having some CSS issues a little while ago, but these display issues seem to be fixed. Also, I was only posting to the Stratopress. Now, I have another blog, which I should keep an eye on … can I send emails to notify when I’ve posted? Or an RSS feed from a private blog? That’s interesting…

So, I’m liking WordPress. Interestingly, I composed this post in MacJournal, offline. But MJ has fullscreen, and I can be truly offline. It works with Blogger.com, too … in both cases, I have to finish my formatting in the blog posting form.

In the book The Savage Wars Of Peace: Small Wars And The Rise Of American Power , Max Boot traces the US use of small expiditionary forces to influence foreign policy, starting from the Barbary Pirate wars to current activities in the middle east. Although he is an unabashed champion of the application of American imperial power, he does note the many ways that we’ve forgotten the value of small-unit counterinsurgency warfare — and this was written before Iraq turned into a quagmire. Of interest to Cpt. JM, perhaps.

Posted on December 14, 2007 1:03 AM

Today in Montréal we visited the Biosphère, the geodesic dome designed by Buckminster Fuller and built in 1967 for the Montréal Expo. We started on the top of the museum in the Planet Bucky room, and took the water tour (Exhibits and activities) and learned about their water treatment system and wind turbines. After the water tour, we went to the Parc Jean-Drapeau Aquatic Center for a swim. There’s a nice long outdoor lap pool, with a kiddie pool on the other side. Julie and I learned some French from a loquacious little girl named Gaelle while Max and Blake played with the water toys.

We came back to the Biosphère and checked out the Water Wonders exhibit, which the kids loved. We finished our day there (and closed the place) with the hilarious “Brain Shaker” video, where you rest your chin on a little rack and your face is digitally inserted in an animated video and projected onto a big screen for the audience.