A great demonstration of low level “on the deck” flying from Michael D. The aircraft is a French Air Force Mirage F1. There’s some debate over where and why, but we can all agree it’s a fun ride! The music is “The Champions,” by Era, on the album “The Mass.” Works well with this video… Not available on iTunes.

YEE HAW! Have a great weekend, all!

Not sure if anyone not in marketing will get this, but I liked the irony.

If you didn’t catch Monday’s CNN YouTube Debate, you missed a pretty good “show”. The questions were far more poignant than the usual stale queries posed by the media, and the format allowed the person asking the question to decide whether the responding candidate had adequately answered. I hope Wolf Blitzer was watching!

I’m saddened by such a “Hollywood entertainment” approach to extracting more direct answers from candidates. We’ll see if the format pans out in the long run. But for now, it seems to be a step, albeit an odd one, in the right direction. Here’s an answer to one question I found particularly telling. Once a class action trial lawyer, always a class action trial lawyer.

Here’s a video link to all the questions and the candidates’ responses. If you watched, did you learn anything meaningful about the Democrat candidates? Will you watch the forthcoming CNN YouTube Republican debate? What do you think of this format?

Every once in a while I stumble upon a really well done video on YouTube. They’re usually made by amateur videographers or film makers, some more amateurish than others and some, as in this case, by budding film makers.This is the first professional short film by Lucas Crandles of Blackheart Productions. It was made for $200 and shot on the stage of their old grammar school in Melbourne, Australia. Fortunately, professional actor Robert Grubb agreed to act in it for free after reading the script. The film took nearly a year to put together, working on it in stages and creating the ‘white’ effect on a home PC. Note that Hayden Grubb, the younger actor, unlike Robert Grubb, has had no formal acting training.

My Aunt Nancy sent these photos some time ago of an orphaned squirrel that was “adopted” by a litter of Papillons and I’m just getting around to posting them. Of course, being dubious of these sort of pictorials, I checked the story out on snopes and found it to be one of the real and beautiful ones that make us say, “Awwww.”

Turns out it isn’t unusual for an orphaned infant of one species to be adopted by the litter of a completely different species. Dogs, cats, squirrels and even tigers are among a variety of mammals whose females will often raise another’s offspring when it’s introduced into their own litter - nursing, washing, protecting and playing with the newcomer as if it were one of her own.

Such was the case with Finnegan the squirrel who was found injured and malnourished in the Seattle area in September 2005 when he was but a few days old. He was brought to Debby Cantlon, an area resident with a reputation for taking in sick and injured animals and nursing them back to health.

What happened next was a bit unexpected. Ms. Cantlon’s  black and white Papillon dog, Mademoiselle Gisselle, having just given birth to a litter of pups, adopted Finnegan as shown in this series of photos.

After about eight weeks, when Finnegan was able to forage for food on his own, Ms. Cantlon released him back into the wild. She says he’s doing fine on his own, hiding nuts in all the usual places for next winter.

Click each thumbnail to view the full image.

Nestled between Yosemite and Lake Tahoe in the Sierra foothills of California lies Angels Camp, historically notable for its part in the California Gold Rush and, every spring since 1928, host of the much-storied annual Calaveras County Frog-Jumping Contest inspired by Mark Twain’s humorous short story. If you’re ever in the area during the jubilee, it’s worth stopping by as thousands converge upon “Frogtown” to see whose frog will jump the farthest.

Justin Bookey made Jump, a “frogumentary” that follows three dedicated frog teams and a solo jockey as they prepare for their annual quest to be the County’s top jumper. The following short clip is apparently taken from the frogumentary. (I can’t help myself… It’s just a fun word to say!)

For those begging the question, the current world record holder at 21 feet 5 3/4 inches is “Rosie the Ribiter” set in 1986.

Are we still mad at France? I can’t speak for the rest of the United States, but the Fairmount neighborhood of Philadelphia wasn’t holding a grudge earlier this month as they continued a unique tradition of celebrating Bastille Day in front of Eastern State Penitentiary, a historic and ominous-looking prison.

“From the top of the Bastille, Marie Antoinette looks down at the crowd and tells them that eating bread violates the South Beach diet. When onlookers insist on beautiful, beautiful carbohydrates, she rolls her eyes and says, ‘Let them eat cake.’ After that famous line, Marie’s faithful minions fire up the catapults and shoot Twinkies* to the people below.

Alas, Twinkies do not appease the crowd, so they storm the Bastille, capture Marie Antoinette and sacrifice an innocent watermelon in the guillotine. Then all sing and drink more beer.”

And that’s how they celebrated Bastille Day in Philadelphia.

*In recent years, the cheap bastards have substituted Twinkies for Tastykake Butterscotch Krimpets, a tragedy of dramatic proportion.

Yesterday marked the anniversary of the unexpected passing last year of our friend, John Renn. So I’m re-posting what I wrote exactly a year ago as a tribute to Big John. And I’m remembering fine wine, Cuban cigars and the continuing friendship that should have been. John, you are missed.

Godspeed, my friend

We lost a good friend yesterday, suddenly and unexpectedly, and we’re unable to get our heads around it.

Most of us take a new day for granted. We expect the dawn and the rising sun. Today, though, for John Renn, there is no sunrise. And for those of us that knew him, there is a heavy, almost overwhelming sense of emptiness.

Dawn and I hadn’t known John for very long, yet he was already becoming an important part of our lives. He was big, warm, and he was someone who made us laugh, someone who shared some of life’s experiences with us. In a busy world, he always had time for people, their problems and their ideas. Everyone who knew him loved his quick wit and sense of humor. He enjoyed a joke and always had a new one to tell. He was always interested in new ideas, new discoveries. He had an open mind and a loving heart. Perhaps that’s why people enjoyed his company so much.

No one, I suppose, knows when it will be their time, but we can be grateful that John was able to spend his last day surrounded by those he loved and who loved him. We all got to say our goodbyes. And even during this difficult time, John’s sense of humor never waned. “This blows!” he told me at the hospital. Yes, John, it most surely does.

We’ll miss you, John, and we’re glad that we had the privilege of knowing you even for a short, short time.

Regular readers know of my interest in unusual art forms. This French site features “orange art,” a form I’ve not seen before and found quite fascinating. I suppose it could be classified as “fruit art,” but I think it would more accurately be described as “peel art.”

As someone who feels truly accomplished when I’m able to peel an orange in one continuous spiral, my hat’s off to anyone with the skill, dexterity and vision (not to mention free time) to create such interesting works as the one’s shown on these pages.

Since I don’t read French (who am I kidding; I don’t speak it either) I was unable to tell just how the, uh, orange artist creates his work. Does he manage to carve them as he peels, or does he peel in one large piece and then create? I suspect the latter but… If anyone can read French, let me know.

Go ahead and explore the site. Of course, it’s in French, so navigating may pose some difficulty, but with a little perseverance you’ll get the hang of it. And who knows, it may reignite some long repressed flame of creative desire and have you reaching, knife in hand, for the fruit bowl…

Those who become exhausted just thinking about the myriad features offered on Apple’s new iPhone (internet devise, iPod, video player and more) might want to consider the Media Skin. Conceived by young Japanese designer Tokujin Yoshioka, the minimalist mobile phone sports the same svelte proportions as the iPhone but with few type-A add-ons, making it a welcome technological regression for the technologically challenged.

Although the Media Skin was recently featured in Departures Magazine, it’s actually been around for a couple years. Maybe it’s enjoying a renewed marketing push in response to the success of Apple’s iPhone…

According to my good friend and local cigar aficionado, Michael D, this little freeware program, called Wirenote, sits in the notification area (bottom right) of your desktop and allows you to create to-do lists, notes, reminders and messages and more. Reminders can make sounds, shake the screen, even turn off your computer. If you still can’t remember your anniversary, you need counseling!

There’s a learning curve, Michael says, but it isn’t too bad. This is apparently a Russian program, so the English instructions are a little awkward. (Well, how good is your Russian?) Check it out. You need never forget anything again!

He also recommends WinDirStat, a disk usage statistics viewer and cleanup tool for Microsoft Windows (all current variants) that shows your hard drive’s files graphically, making it easier to find the space hogs crowding your hard drive. Each file is shown as a box with its relative size corresponding to the size of the file. The boxes are even color-coded.

So, if you find yourself wondering which files are consuming the most hard drive space, this freeware gem might be just the ticket for some summer house cleaning.

An order of  friars was behind on their belfry payments, so they opened up a small florist shop to raise funds. Since everyone liked to buy flowers from the men of God, a rival florist across town thought the competition was unfair and asked the good fathers to close down. Naturally, they politely refused.

He returned the following week and begged the friars to close but they again politely declined.

So the rival florist hired Hugh MacTaggart, the roughest and most vicious thug in town to “persuade” them to close. Hugh beat up the friars and trashed their store, saying he’d be back if they didn’t close up shop for good. Terrified, they did so, thereby proving that: Hugh, and only Hugh, can prevent florist friars.

Oh, go ahead, groan. I did.

In 1984, President Ronald Reagan declared the month of July as National Ice Cream Month. In the proclamation, he called for all people of the United States to observe these events with “appropriate ceremonies and activities.” So, by presidential order, pass the scoop and dig in!

But before you head over to your favorite ice cream emporium, you might be interested in knowing  that, according to the International Dairy Foods Association in Washington, D.C., the five most popular ice cream flavors are vanilla (26%), chocolate (12.9%), Neapolitan (4.8%), strawberry (4.3%), and cookies ‘n’ cream (4%). If you’re doing the math, that’s 52%, so I’d assume the remaining 48% includes “Chunky Monkey”, “Cherry Garcia” and all other hybrid flavors.

You might also be surprised to learn that Sacramento rates 10th in a Yahoo survey of U.S. regions that most love ice cream! Top honors go to Los Angeles, New York, Houston, Philadelphia, the San Francisco Bay Area, Chicago, Dallas-Fort Worth, Washington, D.C. and Atlanta. I’m not sure what correlations, if any, can be drawn from that factoid, but hey, you’ll at least be able to impress your kids or your honey over a double chocolate sundae.

So, do as President Reagan asked. Be a good American. Eat ice cream! Think of it as your civic duty. And for a little more fun (Is that possible?), find out what your favorite ice cream flavor says about you.

Think helicopters can’t perform aerobatics? Think again! This BO-105 helicopter piloted by Charles Aaron performs maneuvers impossible by any other aircraft (except maybe the F-22.) Aaron is one of only four helicopter specific aerobatic pilots in the United States. Watch as this machine does backflips, half cuban 8s, rolls and pedal turns. Amazing!

Have a great weekend!

… that have impressed me and why, and determined that, while I enjoy a wide variety of literature, the works I remember, that leave an indelible mark, have one thing in common, a single ingredient that, at least for me, makes reading them pure joy. It’s an almost melodic play with words, the unique turn of a phrase, that makes me want to stop and bask in the magic, often rereading a passage and marveling that anyone could so eloquently string words.

The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold comes to mind. If you’re looking for a delightful read, beautifully crafted from a unique perspective, I highly recommend it. I won’t go into the story line but you can read it here if you’re interested.

I read an recent article in which Sebold discusses faith as it relates to her ability to get past occasional writer’s block and maintain the discipline required to be a successful writer. Somewhere near the middle I found another example of her “way with words” and wrote it down for periodic inspiration:

“…A difficult lesson, which I fought at every turn, is that what often must substitute for faith is discipline. Faith has a lovely ease about it, an ethereal ring. Discipline is the rod, the staff, your insecurities internalized and spouting rules and limits on your life. Why can’t I just have faith that books will be completed? Why isn’t faith enough? I hear my southern roots respond. Faith doesn’t dig ditches, they say; faith doesn’t scrape the burn from the bottom of the pot. Ultimately, faith gives freedom, and discipline, its sister, makes sure the job gets done. …”

I particularly like the last two sentences.

Her new novel, The Almost Moon, will be published in October. I ‘m looking  forward to another good read.