Got to see Comet Lulin tonight

Comet C/2007 N3, better known as Comet Lulin, is having its apogee (closest approach to the Earth) this evening. Earlier tonight I went out with a good pair of binoculars and found it in the west-southwestern sky, to the right of Saturn (Fox News has more on where to find it). Out in the darkened countryside, with a clear sky and a cold night (meaning less air turbulence), Lulin could easily be picked out with the naked eye and with binoculars, the greenish tint of this very strange comet - it's also traveling backwards from where the tail should be, by the way, and retrograde (opposite) of the direction of the planets - was readily discernible.

So far as comets go, Lulin is certainly the best naked-eye viewing since Hale-Bopp back in 1997. Lulin will still be visible for a few days: catch it if you can, 'cuz it's going way out there and probably won't be back for a million years or so.

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Marshmallow from Hell

Here are some photos that I took in Dad's knife shop from this past weekend.

This first one is of a roller bearing welded to a piece of rebar, heating up in Dad's propane-powered forge. At around 2000 degrees Fahrenheit, you can understand why I dubbed this the "Marshmallow from Hell"...

Another shot of the forge. Dad is on the left and Eric Smith is on the right...

The next couple of pics are of a wood splitter that Dad built years ago, which was later converted into a machine used to press and bend the red-hot steel. It's particularly useful when working with Damascus (multi-layered) steel...

In this photo Dad is using a pneumatic-powered hammer (which he also designed and constructed) to "draw out" the steel into the more general shape of a blade...

Eric Smith holds the "finished" blade blank, after it had cooled-off enough to touch. In his left hand he holds two of the bearings, such as the one that was just forged into shape...

And even though it still has a lot of work ahead of it, here is Dad's current project: a Bowie knife with sheep-horn handle...

I'm looking at posting some video on YouTube in the near future of Dad practicing his art. 'Twould be neat to document how he takes a piece of steel from start to finish.

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Funniest DILBERT cartoon ever

Yesterday's Dilbert cartoon by Scott Adams brought whole new meaning to the term "comic strip" (while also skewering the entire "green" movement). Click to enlarge...

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American newspapers struggling to survive

I've long contended that the most accurate perception of what is going on with the United States comes from looking at it from afar. So it is that I find it hard to disagree with what Rupert Cornwell of The New Zealand Herald has written about the newspaper industry and institution in this country. The age of printed media's supremacy has come to an end, Cornwell declares.

It is very difficult to argue with him. In my own neck of the woods, Media General is furloughing employees for ten days of unpaid leave in an effort to cut costs. It's now being whispered that my hometown's The Reidsville Review may not survive past the year. Meanwhile, there is evidence that The New York Times may finally crash and burn come later this spring. Fully a third of American newspapers might be bankrupt come summer, according to the article in The New Zealand Herald.

Well, can't say we didn't see this coming. Between the general state of the economy and how a considerable portion of the population gets its news from online, it was only a matter of time before traditional newspapers started feeling the blows.

But I'm of the mind that this is really just a period of "realignment" for the newspaper industry. Newspapers won't completely go away, but if they are going to survive they must figure out ways to adapt to the new order of things that is fast arising. I think that also means that the bigger outfits - like The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal and perhaps even regional papers like our own The News & Record - are going to have to scale back, while the smaller community-oriented outfits are going to continue to thrive.

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For those having tech issues playing FALLOUT 3 on a Windows machine...

Two days ago I wrote how I was currently hooked on Fallout 3, Bethesday Softworks' amazing continuation of the classic Fallout video games from the late Nineties.

Well since I wrote that, I had to take my copy of the game back to the Target store that I bought it from. Why? 'Cuz my copy of the Windows version didn't have the white sticker inside the box that had the Windows LIVE Access Key printed on it for that particular DVD. So I uninstalled Fallout 3, exchanged the original copy for one that did have the sticker with the key numeral, and installed the game fresh.

So everything was cool... except that the game "hung" shortly after the birth/character creation scene started, and would go no further.

Some reading on the Intertubes showed that a lot of people have been having this problem also.

Well, this morning I worked at it a bit, and I found a solution. So I thought it'd be a good thing to share it with others who are also going through this...

If you are playing Fallout 3 on Windows Vista or XP, uninstall the game. Make sure that the Bethesda Softworks folder that's within your Program Files folder is deleted also.

Now here's the messy part that requires a bit of daring: use Regedit (you can run it from the Start button) and do a search in your Windows registry for all entries containing "Bethesda" or "Fallout3". This is what I figured had snagged me: my computer was having an "identity crisis" as to which copy of Fallout 3 it was supposed to be running. So scour your registry and carefully delete anything that refers to Bethesda Softworks or Fallout 3.

When that is done, close out Regedit. Then reboot Windows.

You should now have a fresh, pristine machine on which to re-install Fallout 3, that so far as it's concerned there'll be no evidence that the previous install ever happened. Since going through this procedure I haven't had any further problems with Fallout 3: it's running perfectly, and I also ran the update to version 1.1.0.35, again without any trouble.

Hope this helps some folks out. Now go gird up and get ready to take the Capital Wasteland by storm :-)

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Boy bleeds to death after office chair explosion sends metal shrapnel into rectum

According to a story up on Gizmodo, a 14-year old boy in China is dead following the explosion of a gas cylinder in the base of the office chair that he was sitting in. The cylinder, which is used to adjust the height of the chair, blew up and propelled "chunks of metal into his rectum". The teen subsequently bled to death.

Here's a photo of the culprit chair...

That has to be the most freak accident I've ever heard of involving something as mundane as a chair.

Anyone else thinking of sitting on Kevlar-reinforced seat cushions from now on?

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In Wesley We Trust: Wil Wheaton says WATCHMEN is "(expletive) AWESOME"

Wil Wheaton is one of us: a proud geek who "gets it". And if Wheaton (perhaps best known from his work in the movie Stand By Me and his portrayal of Wesley Crusher on Star Trek: The Next Generation) says that "I can't think of a better, more faithful, graphic novel adaptation, ever" about the film version of Watchmen, then his word is bond.

And if the movie is as good as the early whispers about it already are, then... dare I say it? Yeah I will: it wouldn't surprise me if Watchmen rivaled The Dark Knight for box office gross. And maybe... maybe... even Titanic.

Mash down here for Wil Wheaton's gloriously complete and epically profanity-laden review of Watchmen.

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Santelli is right: Time to show the American government who's boss

It's become "The Rant Heard 'Round the World": CNBC's Rick Santelli on the floor of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange two days ago, blasting President Obama's mortgage bailout plans and calling for a new "tea party"...

Santelli's impromptu screed alarmed the Obama Administration enough that Press Secretary Robert Gibbs attacked Santelli during the daily White House press briefing yesterday.

Most of y'all who read this blog on a regular basis know what I'm gonna say already: that Rick Santelli is absolutely correct. That the American government is rewarding "bad behavior" and consequently is punishing those who are striving to play fairly by the rules.

At every level, government in the United States is out of control. It has "gone rogue". Our government is no longer of the people, by the people and for the people. It is now an entity unto itself, existing for its own sake, and proven willing to do whatever it deems necessary to maintain its tenuous grasp on the status quo.

This can not go on forever. Sooner or later, it will come crashing down. History is replete with examples of ruined empires that buckled and gave in under their own weight. And at this point, I don't know if it can be avoided, that the United States is on the same track.

But that's why I also find Rick Santelli's rage to be so heartening. Santelli demonstrated sincere vigor and rage at what is happening to this country. His sentiments have resonated so strongly across the blogosphere, that it's not hard at all to see a real movement coalescing around this fury at our government.

Heck, if you ask me, Rick Santelli is showing more real leadership than anyone in the Obama Administration right now. That by itself is reason to be of good cheer! :-)

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Listening to Three Dog on Galaxy News Radio while stalking the Capital Wasteland...

The first time I played Fallout 3, my character escaped the bowels of Vault 101 by killing the Overseer before he could do me in. For my heinous act of self-defense his lovely daughter jilted me forever. Tonight I started fresh, and for sparing his life the girl came to my aid and wished me well as I prepared to stride into the nuclear-blasted ruins of Washington D.C.

Fallout 3 is my current drug of choice so far as video and computer gaming goes. Bethesda Softworks' follow-up to the classic series of the late Nineties (and if you still want to play Fallout and Fallout 2 check out my review of GOG.com) maintains all of the elements that made its predecessors such a gripping experience, while also rebuilding the mechanics with the innovations of modern video gaming. The result? Not a "reboot" at all, but a fully-fledged brilliant continuation of the series. And yet Fallout 3 also looks and feels much like modern titles such as Grand Theft Auto IV and BioShock: the "sandbox"-style that lets you roam and explore as freely as you wish. In that regard Fallout 3 may be the standout of the potential that modern video gaming has: the narrative is extremely non-linear, to the point that there is no "right or wrong" way to play the game. You come to discover that much just from the introductory tutorial scenes (perhaps the most clever that I have seen in a game like this).

And did I say how incredibly beautiful Fallout 3 is? I hope and pray that Washington D.C. is never really nuked... but if it ever were, I can't imagine it looking much different than how it is portrayed in Fallout 3.

The game is available on Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and Microsoft Windows machines. I bought the Windows flavor, since I'm of the school which teaches that role-playing games need to be enjoyed on something with a mouse and keyboard. But however it is that you play, give Fallout 3 a looksee.

Just mind the radroaches. And try not to drink the water.

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Witchcraft now fastest growing religion in America

According to a book by two Christian researchers, Wicca - often known as "witchcraft" - is the fastest growing religion in the United States. Marla Alupoaicei and Dillon Burroughs' book Generation Hex estimates that the number of Wicca practitioners is doubling every thirty months. And it's not just in places like the West Coast and Salem, Massachusetts either: Wicca is enjoying just as much tremendous popularity in the American South. It has been calculated that by 2012 Wicca will be second only to Christianity as the most practiced faith in America.

I can believe it. Several years ago when I was a reporter in Asheville, I covered something called the "We Still Pray" rally at a local high school's football stadium. A few days later the pagans of the community said that it wasn't fair for a publicly-funded facility to cater solely to the Christians, and they threatened to sue unless they got equal access. So less than a month later I also got to cover the "We Still Work Magic" rally at the same location, and I was extremely surprised at the large turnout that came. It paled next to the tens of thousands who clogged I-40 and the Blue Ridge Parkway trying to get into the "We Still Pray" rally, but the stands of the place still wound up rather full.

And it pains me to say this, but I think the number of Wiccans who came to their own rally, were more sincere about their beliefs than the multitude of Christians who came for the "We Still Pray" event.

There is a lesson, I believe, that those who profess to follow Christ should consider: that to proclaim ourselves as "Christians" can not be about religion. But that it exactly what we have turned Christianity into: a label, a "brand name" competing with several others. To follow Christ is about real relationship with God: something that should only cause us to change and grow like unto Him. The evidence of Him in our lives should be our love for others and our love for truth. But in the absence of those things - and I will dare say that there is such an absence - then it's only natural that those around us who are without Christ will look elsewhere for spiritual satisfaction. And not all the Bible-thumping and screaming about it that we could do, will change that.

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Atlantis still missing, says Google techs

Late last night this blog joined many other outlets in passing along the word that the Google Earth application had discovered something weird on the floor of the Atlantic Ocean west of Africa. And a lot of people were quick to suggest that perhaps this might be the sunken remains of mythic Atlantis.

Already we have an answer: no, it's not.

According to the eggheads at Google, the odd grid array is a visual artifact from the sonar process that spawned the undersea maps. In this case, the lines are caused by the paths of the boats on the surface as they went back and forth taking sonar measurements of the ocean floor.

So no Atlantis this time. But I'll bet Lemuria and Mu are still out there somewhere :-)

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Finally have a Rorschach action figure!

Ever since the first time I read Watchmen, I've thought it would be neat to have an action figure of Rorschach to decorate my shelf or computer desk with.

It's taken twenty years, but today I finally get my wish...

Found it at Books A Million in Greensboro while out on some business this morning.

Now all we need is for someone to make a big plush Rorschach doll that goes "Hurm" when you pull the string :-P

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Has Google Earth found Atlantis?

The latest version of Google Earth, which has a new oceanographic feature, has found a very odd feature on the Atlantic floor hundreds of miles northwest of the Canary Islands. Here's the screengrab that I took of it, including the coordinates...

It's said to be as large as Wales, and sits beneath three and a half miles of water. Some are saying that Google Earth might have stumbled upon the location of fabled Atlantis. Interestingly, the site does rest in the spot beyond the Strait of Gibraltar where Plato said Atlantis rose and fell.

My hunch is that this is going to turn out to be some natural feature on the eastern flanks of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. But it is plenty intriguing that it looks so regular and organized, almost like the layout of a city.

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CHILDREN OF EDEN at The Sanctuary in Greensboro starting this weekend!

Longtime readers of this blog know that my favorite musical is Children of Eden. This past summer I was extremely blessed to have taken part in a production of it by the Theatre Guild of Rockingham County. Well, if you've never had the pleasure of beholding this amazing show and you live near Greensboro, North Carolina you're in luck this weekend and the next. Jay Smith, who played Cain in our production, is directing Children of Eden at The Sanctuary, located at 900 Sixteenth Street in Greensboro. The show begins Friday, February 20th at 7:30 p.m., and runs through February 28th. Many of the same faces from Theatre Guild of Rockingham County's production will be in this new show, including Neil Shepherd returning as Father. Click here for more information, and hope you can come check it out! :-)

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Descendants of Geronimo sue to get his remains from Skull and Bones

Family members of Geronimo, the great Apache warrior, are suing the Skull and Bones secret society at Yale University. The purpose of the lawsuit: to compel Skull and Bones to hand over the skull and other remains of Geronimo that were allegedly stolen from his grave in Oklahoma in 1918. Supposedly, Skull and Bones (the membership of which includes many business leaders and politicians, including both presidents Bush) has been using Geronimo's noggin for weird sexual rituals deep within its headquarters known as "The Tomb". It has long been alleged that Geronimo's remains were in Skull and Bones' possession, but a letter unearthed a few years ago that detailed the grave robbery has lent new credence to the claim.

All I gotta say is: any "fraternity" that makes its initiates masturbate inside a coffin, cannot possibly be of much good.

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WATCHMEN coming in 3 crazy flavors of DVD and Blu-ray!

Collider.com is reporting that director Zack Snyder has confirmed that there are three cuts of Watchmen. The first will be the theatrical release that will come out two weeks from tomorrow, and will run for 2 hours 36 minutes.

The theatrical cut will be coming out on DVD probably "around Comic-Con of this year" (mid-July or thereabouts) and at the same time there will also be Snyder's "director's cut" clocking in at 3 hours and 10 minutes!

But that's still not all. Later this fall will be the "ultimate" cut of Watchmen coming to DVD and Blu-ray. That version will incorporate the animated Tales of the Black Freighter footage that is coming out as a separate home release next month. This version will be 3 hours 25 minutes long.

I must say: that is gonna be one strange day two weeks from now when Watchmen comes out. I've been writing about the attempts to make this movie for as long as this blog has been running. The thought had crossed my mind that maybe after writing the Watchmen review that I should just retire The Knight Shift blog. I mean, in its own way... how will I ever top this?

But I'm sure something else will come along :-)

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Post #3000 is reaction to tonight's LOST episode "316"!

Wow... three thousand articles (and other stuff) for this blog to date! Thatsa lotta writing over the past five years :-)

And "316", tonight's episode of Lost, had a lot of everything that makes this show, so unprecedented for the television medium.

That was probably more new mythology that got introduced - or revealed, however you wanna say it - in just the first few minutes of this week's installment than there has been in many entire stretches of episodes. There's a real sense of evolving story here. And "316" makes one appreciate that there is just more than a season and a half left of Lost: this is one show that knows where it's going, and is giving us one heckuva thrill ride along the way.

(So does anyone wanna build a big Focault pendulum so that we can really find where the Island is? :-P)

Loved the scene in the church where Ben talked about the apostle Thomas. Anyone else think that showed a new, spiritual side to Ben that we haven't seen before? It served to highlight one of the best running themes of the show: Jack, the "man of science", and his struggle with faith.

Great to see Frank Lapidus again. I loved his line: "We're not going to Guam, are we?" I just hope he and the rest of the plane are okay. Frank was one of my favorite new people from last season. 'Twould be great if he winds up on the Island again somehow.

All in all, this was more of a character-driven episode than one really rife with action (except for that startling final scene)... but that's what makes Lost so powerful anyway: the characters, and how they cope and change and grow over time. I'll chalk "316" up, along with everything else we've seen of Season 5 thus far, as one of the best of the show to date.

And next week's episode has a title that outta have every Lost-aholic tuning in: "The Life and Death of Jeremy Bentham". What happened to Locke between the time he left the Island and his winding up in a coffin in a butcher shop's 'fridge? We'll find out in seven days! Until then... "Namaste".

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