Don,
Glad to hear the
winter blahs are retreating! I got the same kind of lift just jogging last
weekend. That was cut short by the new snow we had on Monday through Wednesday.
You’d never guess that the snow was knee deep by Monday night. By mid-afternoon
Thursday, it was just ankle deep with beautiful dark green grass and a halo of
yellow showing through the drifts. I do so love spring!
Semantics are
such a troublesome thing. You’re right, billiards is not a sweat producing sport
unless you are losing. And I so agree about the card shark! Are we becoming so
arm-chair bound that poker and mental competitions are the new “sports”?
On to other intriguing
subjects. Every quarter I chose a topic to investigate along with my research
class. This quarter I’m looking into the technological advances made in the
1960s that influence our lives today. I am totally amazed at what came out of
that very tumultuous time. Not only did we land men on the moon, but the
computer went from being warehouse size to calculator size. Did you know that Kevlar was originally designed
to take the place of steel belts in tires? Now Kevlar is in bike tires and in
cell phones! The arpenet is the precursor of the internet, the original game
box was a ping-pong game known as the Brown Box, and the dial tone not only gave speed dialing a new
name, it led the way to the ATM! How in the world could we ever even conceive of life without these things?
Just out of
curiosity, I was flipping through one of the science news streams that are
available and I discovered a couple of things that are building on the 1960s. One
of my favorite Saturday cartoons was the Jetsons. We haven’t developed the
flying cars yet, but Hyundia unveiled the new personal mobility transport for
those who think walking is old hat – the E4U. It goes 20 mph, weighs 176 pounds
and looks like a huge egg. The critics think the required helmet is a bit much,
but the power system has potential: a 24 V battery with a 500 watt electric
motor. I didn’t read about how long it took to recharge or how far you could go
on a single charge. But the fact that it was something that I could move if it
got stuck was amazing to me! (I’m easily amazed these days.) This might be my
answer to a scoter. 
Then the news
got even better! The University of Washington and MSNW, a space propulsion company,
announced that they were close to a break through on a fusion rocket that would
do a round trip to Mars in 30 – 90 days. That sure beats the current 500 day
trip. The engine compresses plasma with a magnetic field which shoots hot ionized
metal out the rocket nozzle. Sounds a bit Star Trekish. If metal becomes
scarce, just pull up to an asteroid and mine a bit!
The news from
Wormhole is all stories for May 3rd publication have been submitted
and edited! Transport 21 is a GO! We’re publishing a new to us
author, and I just got news from O’Ryan that maybe she’ll have something penned
out for us in November.
Don, I’ve come
up with what seem like lame questions to ask authors: How long have you been
writing? What genre of book do you like to write best? How do you get the idea
for your characters? Where do you get your plot ideas? How did you get into
writing ebooks? (That answer should be fairly easy – “I was contacted by this
crazy blonde …) Do you have any writing tips or advise to aspiring authors? Any question suggestions, Don?
To the Riddle
Cave!
My guess to your
newest is: an appeal.
Mine was: venetian blinds but I remember the test
patterns. I used to watch for breaks in them on Sunday afternoons on channel 2
which announced Buck Rogers was about to explode onto the black and white
screen. I’m not sure any of the stations around here go off the air any more –
if they do, it is just a field of snow sizzling on the screen
So here is this week’s:
Looping
curves of color
Silver,
gold, blue, white, black green
Fastener
of paper, files and hems
A definite
show stopper if shredding
It's been a tough week here in the United States: Boston; West, Texas
My hat is off to all the responders - their job is difficult at best. Thank you for caring.
Carolyn
Fig 1 - www.123rf.com
Fig 2 - www.pcgameshardware.com
Fig 3 - quipster.wordpress.com
Fig 4 - cars.sulekka.com
Fig 5 - phys.org
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