w00t!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

from Nasa.gov:

NASA's Mars Phoenix Lander can be seen parachuting down to Mars, in this image captured by the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. This is the first time that a spacecraft has imaged the final descent of another spacecraft onto a planetary body.

From a distance of about 310 kilometers (193 miles) above the surface of the Red Planet, Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter pointed its HiRISE obliquely toward Phoenix shortly after it opened its parachute while descending through the Martian atmosphere. The image reveals an apparent 10-meter-wide (30-foot-wide) parachute fully inflated. The bright pixels below the parachute show a dangling Phoenix. The image faintly detects the chords attaching the backshell and parachute. The surroundings look dark, but corresponds to the fully illuminated Martian surface, which is much darker than the parachute and backshell.

Phoenix released its parachute at an altitude of about 12.6 kilometers (7.8 miles) and a velocity of 1.7 times the speed of sound.

The HiRISE, acquired this image on May 25, 2008, at 4:36 p.m. Pacific Time (7:36 p.m. Eastern Time). It is a highly oblique view of the Martian surface, 26 degrees above the horizon, or 64 degrees from the normal straight-down imaging of Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. The image has a scale of 0.76 meters per pixel.

This image has been brightened to show the patterned surface of Mars in the background.


HFS!!!!!  what a picture..... Now if John Carter would just ride by,,,,,,,,

Cheer up!

I know.

Everywhere you look. Lying jack shit politicians. Global warming deniers. Looming food shortages. Natural disasters. Peak oil.

The news is so badly reported you can't even watch it.

What to do? Listen to handrummer's super black cloud clearing mix. It's what I use when it's all just a pile of crap and the check is in the mail for more. Most of all, don't forget to dance until you collapse..at least then maybe you can sleep.

Memorial Day, 2008

Memorial Day reminds us to support the troops in the best way possible by BRINGING THEM HOME NOW!!!

Do not be misled.

This war is about oil.

It is about once again having the poor die to grow the wealth of the rich.

The powerful have cynically chosen to kill the weak to gather a few dollars more.

We need to stand tall and not back down.

The troops are being misused, mistreated and mislaid by those in power.

We must not forget their sacrifice and we must honor their service.

Bring them Home Now!

Support the New GI Bill.

And never forget the fools who chose money over their precious lives.


(I found this poem on a public poetry site. It expresses its truth so much better than I can.)

______________________________________________


The Patriot Game by kendall thomas

~I am the grass that covers all
And sucks summer through their teeth~


I come to his grave beneath its bright pennon,
but I do not wonder why he went. I know.
It is because he was young and didn’t believe that old men lie.
That’s why young men die.

I stand by his grave and want to hold his hand once more,
as I did when he was a child, to stare into his eyes and to see his
smile.
But that can never be, for the game is done.

I do not wonder why he went. I know.
Because he heard the siren call and believed it was Liberty that called.
And being young and naive, he wanted to fight for Victory and Glory-
but only the mountebanks have won.

I cannot speak to him; for he no longer hears; so I whisper to the grass
which covers all young men and sucks summer through their teeth:
It is not your fault for having gone.
It is ours who kept silent and let you go for fear of drawing attention
to ourselves.
It is to parents who would not say “No more; not this one, you evil
bastards! ”

But all are cowards when ‘Liberty’ raises her flaming sword,
and the wealthy, like jaded whores, get richer off the blood that young
men pour.
And we pretend on Memorial Day that some great deed was done.
But I stand above this grave and know that nothing’s won.

One smile again from my dead son would cancel out all the bombs
that madmen have ever flung. But the game is done.

Ah,
how little I must have valued those trusting arms around my neck when
he was young.

No more kisses for your daddy now.
No more my warm, soft son.

Who knew?

from our site stats

The Daily Blatt
(s19blatt)

-- Site Summary ---

Visits

Total ....................... 25,320
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gotta do something about that visit length tho...lol

Gas Prices Send Surge of Riders to Mass Transit

From NYTimes: 
 
By CLIFFORD KRAUSS
Published: May 10, 2008

DENVER — With the price of gas approaching $4 a gallon, more commuters are abandoning their cars and taking the train or bus instead.

Mass transit ridership was up 8 percent in Denver in the first three months of the year compared with last year, despite a fare increase in January and a slowing economy.

Mass transit systems around the country are seeing standing-room-only crowds on bus lines where seats were once easy to come by. Parking lots at many bus and light rail stations are suddenly overflowing, with commuters in some towns risking a ticket or tow by parking on nearby grassy areas and in vacant lots.

“In almost every transit system I talk to, we’re seeing very high rates of growth the last few months,” said William W. Millar, president of the American Public Transportation Association.

“It’s very clear that a significant portion of the increase in transit use is directly caused by people who are looking for alternatives to paying $3.50 a gallon for gas.”

Some cities with long-established public transit systems, like New York and Boston, have seen increases in ridership of 5 percent or more so far this year. But the biggest surges — of 10 to 15 percent or more over last year — are occurring in many metropolitan areas in the South and West where the driving culture is strongest and bus and rail lines are more limited.

Here in Denver, for example, ridership was up 8 percent in the first three months of the year compared with last year, despite a fare increase in January and a slowing economy, which usually means fewer commuters. Several routes on the system have reached capacity, particularly at rush hour, for the first time.

“We are at a tipping point,” said Clarence W. Marsella, chief executive of the Denver Regional Transportation District, referring to gasoline prices.

Transit systems in metropolitan areas like Minneapolis, Seattle, Dallas-Fort Worth and San Francisco reported similar jumps. In cities like Houston, Nashville, Salt Lake City, and Charlotte, N.C., commuters in growing numbers are taking advantage of new bus and train lines built or expanded in the last few years. The American Public Transportation Association reports that localities with fewer than 100,000 people have also experienced large increases in bus ridership.

(more)