The competition heats up? Beyonce might beat Lada Gaga into space.
And in related news, TV actor Ashton Kutcher had some serious stomach issues during a zero-G practice flight on the vomit comet.
Works of art: Thirty-six incredible landscapes from video games.
I’ve played none of these games and probably never will, but I can agree without hesitation that the artists who created these visions created something beautiful and epic.
These are very cool Easter eggs. If you use “Find as you type” in Firefox or Seamonkey, disable it to do this. I am also sure there are more of them, as yet unknown.
An evening pause: This particular Muppet sketch is especially apropos considering the title of the op-ed that I have written that will appear tomorrow, Wednesday, August 14, in the Wall Street Journal.
Update: As it turns out, the Journal changed my original title, which was “Pigs in Space”, to “No Liftoff for These Space Flights of Fancy”. I liked my title better, but no matter.
We have returned from inside the Grand Canyon. We hiked out on Tuesday, doing the climb up in what is for us record time, arriving at the rim at 12:30 pm after 7 hours of hiking. We were down at Phantom Ranch for two full days and three nights, doing some really spectacular day hikes each day. I will post some further details, with pictures, once I get home.
We are still touring about here in northern Arizona and will be until Sunday. Right now I am sitting in the patio of the motel at Grand Canyon Caverns, about two hours west of the national park. This morning we drove down to the Colorado on the Hualapai Reservation, using the only road on the south rim that reaches the river. This weekend I will be participating in a long term cave dig project here at this somewhat famous commercial cave. The dig has been going on for years in cooperation with the cave’s owners. This will be the first time that I will contribute to the project.
After a 5.5 hour drive we arrived at the south rim of the Grand Canyon and checked into our hotel. You can see the view from the window on the right. Not very spectacular, but then, you don’t spend much time in a hotel room on trips like this.
Tomorrow we take the shuttle bus to the North Rim, where will spend another night in the lodge there. On Saturday, we hike down on North Bright Angel trail, and will stay in a cabin at Phantom Ranch for the next three nights, doing day hikes from the bottom of the canyon on Sunday and Monday. We will hike then up on Tuesday, coming up Bright Angel trail to the south rim, completing our first rim to rim hike. Once we check out of our hotel tomorrow, we will be out of contact with the internet until we return to the south rim. I hope the world doesn’t fall apart in the interim.
This will be Diane’s third trip to the bottom, and my fifth. I can’t express how happy I am to be back. This is truly one of the grandest spots on Earth.
We are off to the Grand Canyon. Though I will probably have a chance to post tonight and tomorrow, expect posting to be light, especially the first half of next week when we are at Phantom Ranch.
An evening pause: The British take on America and many American pop songs about our fair country.
I say, they still haven’t gotten over their defeat at Yorktown.
Six images that ruined the lives of the individuals they made famous.
Except for the last (which isn’t a photo), every one one of these images is iconic. That an innocent person was destroyed by each says a great deal about the decline of our culture in the past half century.
An evening pause: Hat tip to commenter Frank for this gem.
An evening pause: The third movement of Richard Harvey’s Concerto Antico, guitar played by John Williams.
I think that few who listen will only listen once.
An evening pause: As this is June 6, the anniversary of D-Day in World War II, let’s watch John Wayne show us how Americans once did it. From the 1962 film, The Longest Day.
Richard Branson has revealed that Justin Bieber has signed on to fly on SpaceShipTwo.
The competition is now really heating up. Bieber probably doesn’t want to be left behind, considering the publicity Sarah Brightman has been getting for her planned space flight to ISS.
News you can use: Wednesday is National Hug Your Cat Day!
An evening pause: A lot of the jokes only gun owners will understand, but nonetheless, this is funny.
The world’s highest traffic jam — at Mt. Everest.
An evening pause: A song about dreams.
These dreams
Go on when I close my eyes.
Every second of the night
I live another life.
These dreams
That sleep when it’s cold outside.
Every moment I’m awake
the further I’m away
Some of the Earth’s creepiest places.
Most of these aren’t natural places, but weird human ruins or artifacts of some kind.
